Drunk in Bonn

I've just sent myself an email.  I blame Stefan. Too many vodkas.  He's Polish.  I think that we were discussing milking horses.  Probably I'd better go to bed.

La Pomme d'Amour with ...

He still looks happy!

We ended up with about 4 wine glasses per person

... Patrick. Not sure why he wanted to take me to La Pomme d'Amour, Creperie - Saladerie, but it was very nice.  That was for lunch yesterday. Today Patrick was even more crazy.  Apparently he has been dreaming of eating a falafel in a particular cafe in Paris.  So we went to find his falafel by walking from the conference.  It was in the Jewish section of town.  Patrick was accosted by a rather serious Jewish man who spent the next 20 minutes trying to get him to wear tefillin. Anyway L'As Du Fallafel, Ste Rosiers Alimentation was very good.  The cafe was packed.  Then I walked back to my hotel and got completely soaked in a huge downpour. I'm now trying to dry off.

Yesterday we had the conference dinner. That was in a spectacular restaurant.  I was on the table with the group from Shanghai observatory and got myself an invitation to visit them sometime next year.

The next journees conference is in St Petersburg.  That's tempting!

Definitely in France

The train to Moscow

Breakfast near the Gare Du Nord

I only popped out to have a brochette de poulet.  It was huge and so I decided to head around to the Gare de l'est in order to walk it off.  The train from Moscow was about to arrive.  I'm so tempted to ignore the rest of the conference and go and buy a ticket to get on it.  It only takes 1.5 days. It seems to cost about USD600.  hmmm.

I shouldn't complain.  Paris is great. Caterina came up from Italy yesterday to work on her project.  We worked in a large number of cafes before ending up at the Paris observatory to register for the conference.  In the evening we met up with Patrick and walked up to the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.  The Eiffel tower was very sparkly.

I'm finding everyone in Paris to be very friendly.  Every shop-keeper, the ticket man on the train, various people walking past, have been friendly.  They all seem also to want to try out their English.

My talk is tomorrow :(

I'm next to a market

Working very hard!

Le Verrier

Working even harder

Dubai

There's a lot of sand down there

Dubai airport has changed an awful lot since I was last here about 10 years ago.  It's huge.  It certainly has been built to make you think that you're not in the middle of a desert. This place is so exotic - lots of people walking around in white robes, the mosque for women, the mosque for men, the spectacular views over the desert and mountains as we flew in ... but the airport is full of burger bars, shops to buy posh alcohol and perfume.  I tried to find a book about the UAE, but couldn't find one (apart from one that seemed to be mainly about cricket).

hmmm

Perth airport was the opposite.  I slept on a bench that was clearly designed to stop people sleeping.  Actually, I didn't sleep, but tried to.  Then I had a coffee.  Then a tea. Then another coffee.  Then I felt sick.  Then I got on the flight and spent the first couple of hours trying to choose one of the millions of movies to watch.  I ended up watching Top Gear and some cricket.  I sat next to someone famous.  I have no idea who he was, but the aircraft staff kept coming up to say how excited they were to have him on board.  I was ignored.    He had long hair.

Now I'm reading the Weekend Gulf News.  The second page describes how to build a "novel flatpack refugee tent".  Apparently Tom Jones will be live in Abu Dhabi.

Okay ... time to get on the next flight -- A380 to Paris.  Next time I'd like to stay longer and go for a drive in the desert.

Stuck in Geraldton airport

Shaun getting excited about a rack of electronics

"Delay due to mechanical problem". Doesn't sound good.  There's also a big black cloud in the direction of Perth.  Oh well, I need to be there before 3am tomorrow morning as I stupidly am on the Emirates flight that leaves at 6am (and I therefore need to be there at 4am to check in).  The PULSE@Parkes session went extremely well today.  We only had about 10 students, but they were very enthusiastic.

Rob took the photos on this page!

Trying to get the students to look in all directions at once!

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!