Geraldton

Just outside the hotel

.... and here is the hotel

Geraldton is a strange place.  I've just had a quick walk around.  It's 9pm and the place is empty except for 16 year old kids who seem to be drunk and a few old Aboriginal guys in tattered jeans.  However, Geraldton is currently hosting the "annual Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival which allow us to "Come on a journey to bask in the sunlight, take refuge in the shadows and reflect on the ideas and opinions which lie waiting to be discovered." My talk on pulsars and gravitational waves attracted about 35 people.  I got heaps of questions. Some of which were even related to my talk. Rob and I then found our way to the Thai restaurant that served prawn crackers to start and was so full that it took us over an hour to be served.  Tomorrow we're running a PULSE@Parkes session for some of the local schools in Geraldton.

Everyone says that a trip to the Abrolhos is a must.  One day! :)

Peak-hour traffic in Geraldton

You can't go to Western Australia and not take a picture of the flowers

Here are some more

Let's all celebrate Mullewa and the wreath flowers!

Evening in Geraldton

Booroola gene gives big fertility boost

Perth airport

Flying out from Perth

Whoops ... I haven't written in this blog since arriving in Krabi.  That seems a long time ago. I'm going to try and keep this blog updated throughout my journey to Western Australia, France, Germany, England and Wales.  I'm now in Geraldton reading a magazine called "Prime Lamb".  Apparently someone is trying to encourage ewes to take up cycling.  I think that I'm missing some of the terminology, but it is enjoyable reading.  Apparently if you have your cycling ewes then "we have that ideal ewe, then we will decide on what terminal sire to put over her so we can keep that hybrid vigour", he said.

The flight to Perth from Sydney was great.  I finally got some work done and started to reduce the number of emails in my inbox.  Then, Rob and I spend a couple of hours in Perth airport watching the rain and rainbows before a lovely flight in a dash 8 to Geraldton along the coast line.

"Suffolk sheep are set to make an impact on the burgeoning sheep industry in China"

This evening we met up with Shaun who took us to a great Indian restaurant.  I'm now back in my hotel and the bar is closed.  In fact, everything in Geraldton is now closed.  I assume that everyone is back at home reading their copy of "Prime Lamb".

sunset over the Indian ocean on final approach into Geraldton

Getting close to Geraldton

At least you know that the wheels are down on a dash 8!

Got to Krabi

Looking over the Bangkok Air check-in desks

Another bumpy flight, but the discovery of a good airline -- Bangkok Air was very comfortable.  It's good catching up with everyone and the hotel is spectacular.  I only need to walk for about 2 minutes (past the pool) to get to wade in the Andaman Sea (which is very warm).

Landing in Krabi

The plants outside my hotel room

A two minute walk from my hotel room

That picture doesn't leave much to the imagination

My seat after I've given my talk

Even the birds are very hot!

Oh that sauce!

Unfortunately I wasn't on an A380

I was told that the sauce was just green chillies with red chillies with salt and garlic, but there must have been some oil in there as well.  Poured onto fried rice it was not only wonderful, but it knocked the back of my head off. Just as well they seemed to have an infinite supply of Chang beer.  The main course was a pork red curry, but it didn't taste like any red curry that I've had in Australia.  It was amazing.  I had another beer.

The train from Bangkok airport to the city is very safe.
All balloons are banned.

I'm not actually sure where I was.  I'm not even sure that it was a restaurant.  I discovered that jumping on a train in Bangkok and getting off in the middle of nowhere sort of leaves you in the middle of nowhere.  In the humidity I randomly walked down a main road and saw a hospital and a gas station.  Both had shrines outside.  I was hungry.  I then spotted what seemed to be a restaurant, but when I went in the lady was putting the children to bed and the dog came to say hello to me.  Anyway, they gave me the wonderful meal described about and charged me ~$10 for it.

I then caught the train back to the hotel.

The day started in a rather rainy Sydney.  The flight was enjoyably bumpy, but I didn't get any sleep.  Instead I managed to get some work done and watch countless episodes of Top Gear.  The lady next to me was very chatty.

I'm sure that this isn't the main tourist area of Bangkok

Plenty of nice views of places to buy cars

Here it is!! The sauce is in that little pot on the right!

Old MacDonald only has one duck

Unless Sha has forgotten the rest, it seems that Old MacDonald only has one duck in China.  It does make the song rather short.  The duck also doesn't say "quack".  Apparently the ya zi says "ja ja ja".  I ate a wonderful Thai roast duck last night.  I treated myself after driving back and forth to pick up Sha's mum.

Sha's mum and Sha seem to be finding Australian hospitals very strange.  In China, a lady must not touch anything cold for at least one month after giving birth.  The hospital gave Sha ice-cream for her first dinner.  They have also told her where to get ice.  In China the mother would basically stay in bed for up to a month after the birth.  Here they were getting Sha to walk around after a day.

I'm a dad

I'm a dad.  I've just changed a nappy.  Sha is looking at our baby with a big grin on her face.  Edward oscillates between feeding, sleeping and crying.  He was born by Caesarian section.  I've just discovered from wikipedia that Caeser wasn't. Being present at a birth here is rather a full on experience.  I was told to wear a heap of gowns, feet covers and a mask and then went in to the operating theatre.  I got to take photos of the baby coming out and then cut the cord -- it's very tough.   In a few minutes I'm going to demonstrate my skills at bathing a baby to Sha and her mum.  I went on a 10 minute course this morning and so there's a small chance that I'll know what I'm doing.  The course tomorrow is on breast feeding.  I probably won't take such an active role in that.

The HTML5 widget wasn't added because it doesn't define a main HTML file

So annoying. I've been playing around with iBooks Author and trying to make a "widget".  I followed all the instructions for making a Default.png file, Info.plist and main.html.  It kept complaining that my widget doesn't define a main HTML file.  The solution?  Quit and start again.  Then it works fine.