A hike in the local area

We (Sha, Yu Meng, Jonathan, Mike and I) went hiking in the Lane Cove park today. The weather was perfect. It was a wonderful, clear, crisp day. We simply walked to Epping (and unfortunately, Mel and Faith, didn't spot any echidnas), but we did see the whale rock and a huge number of cockatoos. I got wet carrying Sha across a stream. We then enjoyed teasing Jonathan at lunch as we have a bet (for $20) - he has to eat only vegetarian food for two weeks.

The evening Yu Meng came around to our house and Sha and I cooked a Chinese dish each. Yu Meng then beat me at Chinese chess :(

Seeing the Du Gongs and an impossible challenge

I had a day off yesterday. I have another day off today. Yesterday, I woke up late and then headed into the city. I played around with the cockatoos in the botanical gardens and then spent much of the rest of the day staring at the dugongs in the aquarium. In the evening Sha and I met up for the largest Korean hotpot that I've ever seen. It seemed to be never-ending, but it was very good. We also ate rice balls.

I've also been given an impossible challenge by Sha ... to teach her to like and understand Classical Western music. Okay ... there's a good challenge. Any ideas? We started off with Cage's 4'33'' which I've only just realised was inspired by Buddhism. I've been listening a bit to some traditional Chinese music and can't understand it at all.

My final paper from my PhD work was published today in Science!!

Becoming an Aussie

I am now officially an Aussie. I have a certificate to prove it. The minister has given notice that the abovenamed is an Australia citizen! I also have a daisy. Well, actually some seeds that I have to grow myself. The box containing the seeds provides me with some words that I may wish to say every-now-and-then: "As an Australian citizen, I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I uphold and obey." It also tells me to add water to pellet to allow it to expand and to keep moist until my daisy is starting to sprout.

The ceremony was in Blacktown, which is a long way away, and Sha and I had to leave very early whilst lugging the entire Sydney street atlas with us in case we got lost. I wore a tie. Sha and I were not allowed to sit together. I had to sit on the front row on the left hand side of the hall. Sha had to sit at the back. We then sat for about an hour whilst the hall filled up, but nothing much else happened. "Luckily" we got to hear some inspiring country music: "twang, twang, oh, there's nothing better than a billy of tea ....". We then had a complete rendition of the Man from Snowy River about the man dodging the wombat holes as he comes down the mountain on his horse.

Finally, the ceremony started. It took about 10 minutes. First all the people with a red dot on their pledge card had to stand up. Out of the ~500 people in the room about 450 people got up. These were the people wishing to use the word "God" in their pledge. The few of us sitting at the front, left corner of the room had yellow dots on our pledge cards and were frowned upon. Finally, our corner of the room got to stand up, plus one poor man who was obviously sitting in the wrong spot and was surrounded by people that probably spent the rest of the ceremony trying to save his soul. We then all sang the national anthem and then it was all over!!

Sha and I celebrated by checking out the pet shop and then going into the city for some Japanese noodles. We also checked up on her permanent visa application. Finally, we went to Burwood for some amazing Sichuan hotpot. Oh, we bought a tiny laptop which Sha is trying to install at the moment.

Sha has told me that I have to say how happy I am to be an Australian because it will make mum pleased! So, I'm very happy to be an Australian!! Although I don't think that I'll support our(!) football team.

Oh, when we were checking issues with Sha's visa I got to say that I was an Australian citizen! I was very proud. I didn't mention that I wasn't a few hours before!

Ah ... I apparently have to mention my dad in this blog otherwise "he'll be upset". Hi dad!

Eating Zongzi

Happy Chinese Dragon Boat festival day. Apparently a famous officer that wasn't satisfied with the emperor .... okay you're not allowed to say that Sha doesn't know the story. As stated here "The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings." We have been trying to make dragon boats without much success, but we have been successful in eating Zonzi or tzungtzu. I've also just been introduced to "Ancient Early Taste Mochi" for dessert. A study of the ingredients tells me that it contains red bean, brown sugar, glutinous rice and sorbic acid. It's odd. The Zongzi we ate apparently was a red bean rice dumpling.

I came home yesterday from giving a public talk where the average age of the audience was about 110. At home I discovered Sha playing with a big, fluffy white cat with another cat getting very jealous and the two guinea pigs looking rather worried. Anyway, Halo, the new cat is definitely very pretty!

Not very good at relaxing

We were meant to be relaxing this weekend, but we don't seem very good at that. Instead we got up early and drove to Port Stephens and back. We went dolphin watching, saw heaps of dolphins and Sha was sick. errr ... I admit that the waves were rather large. Apart from the bottlenose dolphins, we spotted herons, a sea eagle and a few camels.

The reason that we wanted to relax was because I'd been in a conference in Kiama all last week. It was wonderful!! Kiama was great and the meeting was really inspirational. I've discovered that, on average, cows line up facing magnetic North or South and that people sleep better if their bed is oriented along this line. I also discovered what a superchron is.

Sha and I have been doing well at arriving by accident in various music festivals. I had convinced my boss that we needed a trip to Kiama the week before the conference for me to check out the hotel etc. It also just happened to be the Kiama jazz festival. Today, we hit Port Stephens during the Country Music festival. I can definitely say that I prefer the jazz. I also enjoyed Sha singing strange Chinese versions of Twinkle Twinkle little star and Beethoven's 9th symphony to me in the car today.
Yesterday Sha and I drove to the Featherdale wildlife park in Sydney. Neither of us had been there. It was great. We got to pat a tawny frogmouth on its head! Tomorrow is a holiday (apparently the Queen is having a birthday), but we plan to relax!