Cowan to Brooklyn

Dominic, Anna and I walked the next stretch of the Great North Walk yesterday - from Cowan to Brooklyn. I like this section. We first jumped between rocks down into a dark, damp gully (full of rainforest plants) before heading back into the sunshine and along the large rivers near the Hawkesbury. The water was so clear that we could watch shoals of fish swimming about. We also stopped for a while to watch a black cockatoo. Then Anna decided to go wading around in the water!

The hike then went rather steeply upwards, we had lunch in an amazing cave, continued to the top of the ridge and then got our first views of the river and the Pacific ocean. It was a relaxing walk down into Brooklyn where we had some oysters and a beer before heading back home. Beautiful!

Now I'm back at the place on the Great North Walk which Maryam, Kate and I got to about 3 years ago. Hopefully I continue this time - I have about 173km left to go before reaching Newcastle. The next section is meant to be full of leeches!

Lots to catch up on ...

My blog hasn't properly been updated for a while. Vikram stayed at my house for a week or so (and got some great work done) before we all (Vikram, myself, Jonathan and David) drove to Parkes for the open weekend. It was amazing. Apparently over 3000 people had tours around the telescope and we shared giving talks on the control room and what we were observing. David and I also gave talks in a big marquee to a huge crowd of people.

Last night Anna came around to sing lots of songs and eat some macaroni cheese. BTW ... has anyone ever had macaroni cheese with corn beef and tomato soup? Apparently this is common in Germany (it's actually very tasty!).

I'm celebrating because my paper on timing noise has finally been submitted. I started the paper sometime during my PhD (around 7 or so years ago) and so I'm quite glad to get it finally done. Our PULSE at pks paper also came back from the referee with very positive remarks and so that should be accepted for publication in the next couple of days.

What else? I've been having great fun chatting with Sha and trying to organise my trip to China. Apparently I have managed to challenge her dad to a game of ping-pong. This is probably a silly idea! Tomorrow, Anna, Dominic and I are doing the next stage of the Great North Walk. This should get us from Cowan to Brooklyn (hopefully in time for some fish and chips!).

Oh, I've also been discovering how to buy a house. Apparently the rule is that you can borrow 4X where X = amount of money that you earn in a year. But you must have 0.05X in a deposit and, if possible, 0.2X (otherwise you pay a lot on insurance). I've discovered that houses are very expensive in Sydney.

Some interesting links ...

I've discovered/had pointed out the following web pages relating to pulsar people ...

George Hobbs do also look at this page
David Champion the famous psychic
It gets worse ... the old director of the ATNF? Bryan Boyle

and for my family

Chris Hobbs
my mum?? - hopefully not

hmmm ... I think that this is all very worrying

A wonderful hike

Just a few photos of the great north walk hike with Dominic, Minnie and Vikram. I damaged my knee ... The views were spectacular. It was very hilly!

A religious day

Today was unexpected in many ways. I got on the flight from Sydney to Melbourne and sat down next to a lovely old-ish lady. She told me that she was God. This made the conversation flow well for the entire flight! I learnt about her third eye, my electricity and lots about energy (which most people can't see and happens to be blue). I told God about pulsars and black holes. She was really friendly and told me my future by looking at my hands. I can't remember all the predictions, but 1) I was going to spend a lot of time in hospital, but I'm not going to die, 2) a lot of money will pass through my hands (but I won't get rich) and (as a post-prediction) I have been living a complicated life. She also told me that I was head-strong and liked things to go my way. She was very excited that I was called "George" because her father and brothers were all called the same!

I then realised that I'd flown to the wrong airport in Melbourne and so had to take a very long and expensive taxi ride to Geelong where the conference took place. My taxi driver also got very excited that I was called "George". His son is a George. He then told me all about the Catholics. He was very religious and we discussed science and religion for the entire journey. He did tell me some funny religious jokes.

The taxi dropped me at the conference centre and my talk seemed to go well. I got some interesting questions. Then I took the train back to Melbourne. The girls in the seats opposite me spent most of the journey discussing whether they'd change religion because of their boyfriend (the answer seemed to be yes, but it did depend on how sexy the boyfriend was).

Then I walked to my hostel. It's an old convent! I don't think that my room has changed since the nuns were here. It has a bible, two hard beds and ... err ... nothing else. I forgot to bring a book so I started reading the bible. I opened it at Deuteronomy 25-11: "If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts our her hand and seizes him by the genitals. Then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her ..."

Lovely! Good night.