A general update

Not much to say today. Work has been going well, but there's plenty of it. I'm trying to finish off my third paper on the tempo2 software. This paper provides the framework for simulating the induced pulsar timing residuals due to gravitational waves. The code seems to work fine and the mathematics in the paper is complete. The main problem is getting some science into the paper!

I hope to get a trip out to China sometime later this year. I also plan a longish holiday somewhere around Australia around May or June this year. Amazingly, there is a chance that Emma S. (an old school friend) may be visiting me around that time. The place that I really want to go is Longreach in Queensland. This is 1100km North of Brisbane, 1800km SouthWest of Cairns and 1854km East of Alice Springs. As their website says they have: "A 360 degree view of the horizon, b-i-g blue sky which is filled at night with countless glittering stars (Milky Way looks pretty good, and there's lots of it), the ubiquitous flies (practise the Great Aussie Wave), miles of green grass after it has rained...miles of brown grass if it hasn't for a while (either way the fauna isn't too hard to spot), most mod cons (we have Net access!), clean air, clean water and genuine Outback hospitality."

What else? I've just had a fun guitar lesson and am looking at another Italian course. Unfortunately, I simply haven't been getting around to practicing my Italian recently. Actually, I might stop writing this blog and go and see if I can still remember some nouns!