I'm an Australian permanent resident!

Very excited!! It all seems a bit complicated - lots of pieces of paper trying to explain what a "resident return Visa" is, compared with something else and how I get social security payments and how to apply for citizenship.

We had a wonderful pulse at Parkes run today where the high school students managed to make a discovery. They observed a pulsar - saw a bright profile - observed a different pulsars and then went back to the first pulsar. The pulsar had gone! It had switched off within a few minutes!

I've decided that Elgar's "Sea Pictures" are wonderful!

New experience

I've just given a talk at the University of Manchester --- by skype!!! Everyone had very strong English accents!!

Another bad choice

I was just feeling rather bored and lonely sitting in the Parkes control room. The instrumentation is working okay now, my computer is processing and I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I thought that I'd cheer myself and watch a Tom and Jerry cartoon on YouTube. That was a mistake - I never realised that there was a sad ending!! See this page

Wonderful music

Wow! They can sing! We (Anna, Alice and I) have just had a wonderful evening singing (at least they were singing and I was playing the piano) a whole heap of songs (including both solos - such as attempting various arias from Don Giovanni - and duets - such as the Stabat Mater). I'm off to bed now, but will have to catch up on this blog at sometime. I've missed mentioning my flight to Canberra and back to be interviewed for a movie, playing the Brahms sextets!, orchestra concerts, playing squash, watching some amazing films, having a guitar lesson, submitting a paper, booking a trip to Tasmania ....

Time for bed.

Totally crazy

Well .... those were two mistakes. Last night, I upset myself by watching the wonderful, but rather sad "Monsieur Verdoux" (a late Charlie Chaplin film) and tonight was rather silly and, instead of watching something funny, decided to watch the magnificent "The Painted Veil" whilst drinking some strong red wine that I'd bought in Albury (from a local winery). I saw "The Painted Veil" first on a flight to China and have never forgotten the wonderful scenery and story. Very emotional.

Talking about emotion - I'm not sure how to describe the excellent (and very modern) Don Giovanni that Anna and I went to see on Friday. Basically, the whole end sequence was done as a drug overdose with the "statue" a bright light at the back of the stage - that went rather psychedelic at one point. The singing was terrific - especially Donna Anna whose arias were outstanding.

To calm down, I'm going to watch a very silly YouTube video.

A strange hotel and a strange hike

Hello from a hotel in Albury. I removed the big, black cat from my room before sleeping last night (although it was quite friendly). The hotel guide doesn't mention cats, but it does state that "each bed is fitted with an egg-shell for your comfort" ... "for the concideration [sic] of all - please keep the noise to a minimum prior to 8:30am (Children being dragged to cars in particular)". However, I get a poem for the new day:

"Don't allow your dreams to fade,
they are the key to your happiness.

Find that lost fire within,
the one that lit your way in
troubled times past."

Maybe I need to remember that before dealing with 45, year 3 students later today. I'm also going on a winery tour just before my evening talk tomorrow - that may not be the best idea!

Anyway, Tessa, Alice and I went hiking on Saturday from Berwowa. We intended to end up in Cowan, but I got us lost and we ended up hiking, and hiking, and hiking .... mainly up steep hills for hours on end. However, the scenery was absolutely stunning! And I saw a waratah!!! In the evening I cooked up kangaroo and chicken curries and, with Anna, we worked our way through lots of songs, violin pieces and cello music!

A slight problem

Oh dear! I was organising the return of M's belongings that have been sitting in my garage for the last year. Yesterday (between writing lots of talks and going to orchestra and panicking about getting everything done), I discovered a rather sweet-looking possum asleep in one of the boxes. I'm guessing that M. doesn't particularly want the possum (and I'm not sure that it would enjoy the boat ride anyway), but I'm not sure how to remove it. Any advice?

A damsel in distress

I walked into work this morning to find a damsel in distress sitting outside her office. My good deed for the day was removing the funnel web spider that was sitting under her desk (I actually think that it might have been a mouse spider, but I didn't look too carefully)!