The Jodrell Bank area

Just a few photos to show:

1. My old flat in Goostrey still exists!
2. The Jodrell Bank telescope is now very white
3. It doesn't always rain in England, and
4. I've discovered how to make a list in "blogger"
   
   
   

"There's some really pretty sheep out there ..."

I've just been to the pub in Goostrey. I eavesdropped on a very interesting conversation that started off by an elderly man with a very strong Northern English accent describing the sheep in the local area. He particularly liked the sheep in the Peak District (they did, however, make some disparaging comments about Welsh sheep). Two nights ago I went to a different pub and listened to a man with the strongest, poshest English accent that I've ever heard describing how he rescued the natives from some steamy jungle somewhere.

I came here to get some papers written, but I seem to be fitting lots in. I gave a talk in Manchester yesterday (in the lecture room where I used to be an undergraduate - quite a few of my old lecturers were in the audience!). I then met up with Maryam, gave an interview for a podcast, had a lovely evening dinner, got a tour around Maryam's work and then crashed into bed around 2am after I'd been swearing at the washing machine for about 2 hours. The night before I got to sleep around 2am as well after taking part in a meeting in Australia by skype.

What else? I've had two papers accepted in the last couple of days so I'm feeling pretty happy about that. Also, we've made a breakthrough on the research that we're carrying out here that should lead to at least three papers!

Before coming up here I spent a great weekend with Emma, Peter and Alex. I'll attach a few photos.

Frog in trousers

I must learn not to dump my clothes on the floor when I'm at an observatory. First I had a mouse making a nest in my trousers at Parkes. This morning I had the shock of discovering a frog. Not knowing that the object moving around was reasonably inoffensive I removed my trousers extremely fast (luckily I hadn't left my bedroom!). The frog hopped off under the bed. There are also lots of geckos all over the walls and I jumped over a huge spider last night.

Observing is going well. We even made an image yesterday. There are splodges in it that may, or may not, be our source.

I'm looking forward to a few more relaxing days at Narrabri before flying back to Sydney and then almost immediately on to the UK.