Australia day and ballet dancers

This morning I was "flat out like a lizard drinking" after spending yesterday evening in the city. Of course, yesterday was "Strayla Day". This meant walking around Sydney on a perfect summer day watching almost everybody draped in an Australian flag and generally looking very cheerful. In the evening, I went to a my boss' house (next to the harbour) to watch the fireworks.

I had a ballet dancer around tonight! We listened and played quite a lot of music and her responses were incredibly interesting. She seems to be always picturing "movement" whilst listening to a piece. I played a few cello pieces (with Vikram playing the piano part), before we went through a rather large selection of my CDs. The most interesting comment she made was that there was no "movement" during the ending of Don Giovanni (I put on the part from where the statue turns up)! Unfortunately, I don't have a great version of Don Giovanni on DVD and so we could only hear the music.

Anyway, I'm having about 20 people around tomorrow for a BBQ.

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!

Drive to Parkes

A fun drive to Parkes. I was being filmed all the way for the student remote observing project. The plan is to give the students a feel for where Parkes is etc. i.e. a long, long way from Sydney! The filming has gone well, but I'm exhausted after a very long drive and lots of turning around etc. to retake the scene. Tomorrow, I have to be awake for an important meeting in the morning, then we'll continue filming and then I have to drive all the way back to Sydney.

Weekend

I don't know why I look so fat in this photo (I don't think that I put on that much in Canada)! The photo was taken on a lovely walk today around the harbour with Kate and Joris. The weekend was fun. On Saturday, I got my eyes tested (no change) and ordered a trendy pair of sunglasses. Joris and I then did a bit of shopping (which included buying a cricket bat, wicket and ball). We then met a bunch of friends at work and played cricket in the rain (very English) for an hour or so. We then played ping-pong. In the evening everyone came around to my house for an indoor BBQ. Today, we went on the hike.

Tomorrow, Joris, Rob, Matt and I are driving to Parkes. I'm going to be filmed driving for the student remote observing project!

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Landing in Ottawa!

Jonathan and I went on the Cessna simulator (at Rockcliffe airport) today with dad as instructor. We both managed to land successfully although Jonathan did put us in a spiral dive at one point. Anyway, it was great fun, but extremely intense! I certainly was feeling tense all the way through my flight.

I've also put together a DVD containing movies, sound and images of our time in Canada. Would anybody like a copy?

Tomorrow is our last day in Ottawa. Even though we've had a great holiday, I am looking forward to getting back home, sorting out my house and finishing off some work. I'm feeling much more relaxed now than I did a few weeks ago.

"The Kite Runner"

Well I'm rather in a state of shock after watching "The Kite Runner" with mum and Jonathan. Jonathan and I went out afterwards to discuss life, the Universe and everything. It was amazing (and difficult) watching a film that had some many memories for me (both about M. and from the areas that I've been to in Western Asia). Overall, I think that I preferred the book, but the film was impressive and I'd recommend it!

It's been raining a lot in Ottawa. We've been looking around the art gallery and just ambling around the city centre. I've also just discovered that you can turn GOOGLE Earth into a flight simulator!!!!

A relaxing day

After all the excitement of the last few days we were rather more relaxed today. I managed to get a little work done, played heaps of duets for violin and 'cello. We also went to visit some friends of my parents and did a bit of snow-shoeing before watching the Canada v.s. Sweden hockey match.

I also attach a few more photos from our dramatic flight. The views of Ottawa have been stunning!

More excitement

We're back in Ottawa now. Jonathan, Dad and I planned a trip to Kingston in his Cessna today. However, about 15 minutes after taking off we quickly returned to Ottawa as the engine was making a rather funny noise. Anyway, we had a very dramatic landing! Dad perhaps should not have used the phrase "we're not going to make it" as he side-slipped us towards the runway. We were coming in on the wrong runway, but the air traffic control had cleared the area for us!

The photo today is of us "tubing". We sat on these large inner-tubes and went hurtling down a steep hill. I've been following Tendulkar getting his 100 in the test, but will now head off to sleep. Good night ..

errr ... a visitor in Quebec

An Australian in Quebec ...

The end of 2007

I'm glad that 2007 has ended. It's been an interesting (and educational) year. During the year, I was lucky enough to travel to Western Australia (to work with the Indigenous population), to Thailand (where I met a baby elephant), Kuala Lumpur (an Amazing city), took the train across Malaysia to Singapore (with Joris), various towns and cities on Canada (including Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver), Shanghai and Huangshang in China (where I travelled on the World's fastest train and hiked on the Yellow Mountain) and travelled through England and Wales. I've also started to learn Italian and how to sail. The sailing was wonderful. I met a whole heap of new people including my good friends Jonathan, Nicole, David etc. etc. Played heaps of music and got an indefinite research position at the ATNF - my dream job!

It sounds amazing, but I'm still rather down. M. went for a "holiday" to England and never returned. I certainly don't blame her at all, but it was a difficult new year. Yesterday in Maniwaki, when all the couples toasted each other with the "Ice Wine" and I really felt that M. was missing. Oh well, I beat Jonathan four times at table football! Also, I've just been lounging around in an outdoor "hot tub" with the snow falling on my head!