...and rest!

I've had a busy couple of weeks working hard taking physics to the public. You can see a great photo of me engaging with some policemen on the IOP blog. The days haven't been especially long (we were out on the South Bank from noon until 5pm) but they were very tiring. The weather was great for us - sunshine and around 28 degrees every day - but it made it difficult to sleep at night. Especially when it was still 27 degrees in my flat when I got home at 8pm!

I went to Ireland for the weekend, we took Physics in the Field to Spraoi in the Park. It was a great event - in a sunny park in the middle of Waterford. Unfortunately our kit didn't turn up, the courier who assured us overnight delivery just didn't deliver. I'm glad that we use common house-hold object for our tricks, it meant that Alex and I could just head to the Tesco supermarket and buy everything for the weekend. We didn't have any logos or giveaways and our stand looked a bit haphazard but people still enjoyed learning about our tricks and often came back to our table again and again. :-)

Today I'm at home, waiting for a parcel delivery. I've realised that I have been writing my address wrong - Willesden Green in the tube station and the suburb is Willesden. But it's easier to write the address as follows (and I've updated the Contacts page too):

The Annex
24 Aylestone Avenue
London
NW6 7AA
UK

Please update your address books and tell Nana too.

Time for someone else to update the Bandwagon. :-)
p.s. Glenn, when you're back can you update the buddy icons?

Early mornings

Technically I've been in my flat for two weeks now.. admittedly it doesn't really feel like it - but that's probably because I've been too busy to just hang around.

You may have read on FB that I was working last weekend - three long but fun days. Friday I drove four of us to Wales, after hassles getting the hire car that we'd ordered.. apparently the previous rentee had been in a bingle (you guys know what I mean here, right? everyone I've spoken to has no idea what I'm talking about and I'm beginning to think I'm making up words..). Anyway, apparently they didn't have any car for us (and it was not their problem?!) but eventually it was sorted out and we  headed off, two hours late, in a 9-seater VW shuttle. Not the easiest thing to drive through peak hour traffic, but I managed!

We spent the weekend showing people physics tricks, like how to stick a kebab stick through a balloon, making straw oboes (like I did for Manchester Science Festival Speedy Science), growing marshmallows (and shrinking them again) and tipping cups of water over people's heads without them getting wet.

Drove back to London on Sunday night (more used to driving the van by then).. and got home around midnight. I didn't have to go to work on Monday (that's the rules - work the weekend, have Monday off) and I'm having this Monday off too. :-)

I'm slowly settling in to the flat. The full window makes it difficult to sleep later than 7.30am.. which is good and bad. A few days I've got up early, started putting things away / organising stuff and was late for work because I wasn't watching the time. Oops.


What's everyone else been up to?

Moving moving

I didn't take much of a lunch-break, so I've got time to write an update here. :-)  You all know that Glenn and Dee are moving back to Australia at the end of the month (via a long and interesting travel route). So, I have to move out on my own (again *grin*). I was a bit worried about finding a place that I can afford, is easy transport from work and has all of life's little luxuries (like non-shared toilets, your own kitchen and maybe even a washing machine). I'm happy to say that after spending hours looking at potential places on the internet and viewing one in real life, I've got a place to move in to!

Unfortunately, the photos were taken down before I could steal them to put up here, so you'll have to wait for me to take my own to see what it's like. It's a self-contained studio with a grown-up bunk bed (ie. my bed is above the bathroom and there's a ladder to get to it..hehe). It's got a kitchen area (with two gas hotplates, a convection microwave, a small fridge/freezer and a table and chairs!), a lounge area (with sofa bed - in case of visitors) and my very own outside courtyard (probably less than 2m squared). It's compact, but good. Although it's all one big room, the raised bed makes it feel more like a multi-room flat. :-)

Anyway, I pick up the keys tomorrow and then have two and a bit weeks to move everything! How exciting.

*hugz*

Question!

Does anyone know where you can download the android software for nokia??

What we've been doing

Time for an update from the Adelaide family :)

Firstly Oscar. Poor little thing has been trying to get over tonsillitis this week. It started with a fever last Wednesday that kept on coming and going. By Monday he was quite miserable so we took him to a GP and got some antibiotics. He's been enjoying his special little drinks of medicine. He sucks it out of the syringe! :) Yesterday his fever went down and he slept for about 6 hours and was feeling much better. Today we went to our GP and she has also prescribed some drops for his eye which is a bit infected (probably due to him spreading his infection when he rubs his face). Os and I stayed home yesterday and will be home tomorrow again instead of our usual work & childcare routine. The doctor thinks that he should be better by the end of this weekend.

As well as childcare & work, Os and I have been busy with a few other things. We attend a nutrition class every second Monday as part of a study on childhood obesity through one of the universities. I've learnt a lot from the classes, plus they provide free childcare during the class and a fruit platter to share ;) We also usually attend playgroup on a Thursday morning and catch up with Os' little friends and do some craft activities.

Damien will be teaching his second class tonight. He got another call last night from someone interested in joining, so the class is steadily growing. When Oscar is well enough we'll come along to a class and take some photos :)

And finally, it was our 6-year anniversary last weekend. We didn't end up doing too much because Oscar was unwell, but we did have a nice dinner at home.

Oh yeah, I've also put some photos and a video of Oscar walking up onto Facebook!

Update on Life

Ok...well looks like I can't do work experience through school but can do it privetly. They won't let me because I don't live on the boarder and the duty of care to me and they need to do a workplace visit. I'm still having trouble with CISCO but it's getting better and the teacher is starting to help me but i need to like be louder or else i don't get help...stupid i know. Will and I have been going out for 11 months now and everyone is surprised we're still together because he is trying to download a virus to make another virus, I don't know why but he is. If anyone knows where to download it that would be much appreciated. Well I think thats all.

Finally a Madhouse update.

Of course I mean the French-Roberts Madhouse. Where do I start?

Our youngest perhaps. Last Wednesday afternoon we decided to head to the marketplace for a look around. I was carrying Daria through a little shop and a large pottery vase with plastic leafy decorative stems fell from the top shelf as we passed. Luckily the vase missed us both (I'm not sure what brushed my wrist on the way down, but that and the noise made me step back and cuddle Daria in to me) Something lighter hit Daria, probably the stems as it would've scratched her head and made it bleed a little, and as we stood there with her crying hysterically a bump appeared on her forehead. The other side to where she had to have glued (I don't think I posted about that, hope everyone caught up with it over the Easter holidays) The guy that approached us didn't seem to know what to do, Adam joined us and asked what should be done in this situation and the guy said "What do you want me to do". So we left and went looking for Centre Management - do you think they are in the same area? No, after 2 shop owners had no idea we went to Big W and finally got some helpful advice. It was almost 5.30pm, Centre Man would be shut anyway, but it's down the road. Instead we could find a security guard and report it, if we found a cleaner first they can call security. That's what we did, headed to the food court where we knew we'd find a cleaner, and had a guard come to us. He was really helpful and took down an incident report, he tried to see the shop but it had closed.

The next day we got a call from the shop owner. She was really apologetic and said when she'd been told what had happened she asked about a report and didn't know we'd given one until security started work at 12.30pm and had called her to say we'd spoken to the guard. She told us to drop in next time we were there. We made a trip out on Saturday, especially since we hadn't made it in to Big W Wednesday night. She thought I said "Azaria" when I said "Daria", so there was a card and a bag of goodies with a misspelled name, but a nice thought all the same. Daria got a fairy outfit which Trinity fell in love with and wore all Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

Daria's fine anyway. We just wanted to make sure the proper procedure had been followed with the incident report and checking that the shop was safe. They still have similar displays, but perhaps the one that fell wasn't as secure on the corner of the shelf - it didn't look very stable in my opinion.

On to Trinity - she's enjoying pre-school. They're doing dinosaurs at the moment, and she often breaks in to song "I LIKE DINOSAURS"... it's very cute. Her favourite sentence seems to be "What are we doing tomorrow?" and "What are we doing the other tomorrow?"

Jared's doing fairly well at ESC. Needs to work on his maths, but his mid year report was good. At least he's not getting in to trouble. One of his friends was suspended Friday for fighting with another student - Damien, remember the "good" kid at the pool?

Carolynn is struggling a little with Cisco lately, but doing well in her other subjects. She's trying to see if she can do work experience in SA but it looks like she needs special permission because it's interstate. The careers teacher is doing what she can but we will let Damien know more when we do. I've taken her out once to drive, it's so hard to find the time. We drove around the carpark at the Schweppes Centre for a bit then on some quiet roads near our house.

I applied for a job last week, waiting to hear if anything comes of it. Other than that there's nothing new with Adam and I. So some photos -

Carolynn was under the dragon Ping at the Easter Parade.

Had to take a photo of Dayna and Bruce waiting for the Parade to start. We sat just outside the Chinese Gardens.

Daria in the Chinese Garden with my umbrella.

Trinity in the Garden. I dressed both little girls in their Chinese outfits for the occasion - or their PJ's as Trinity called them LOL

And finally a photo of Jared. This was actually Easter Sunday in our messy backyard - Jared juggling eggs.

ANZAC

Happy ANZAC day, everybody: may we never go to war.

I haven't made it to the dawn service in Hyde Park, but I'm going to attempt Anzac bikkies ... then tease the London Marathon runners with them as they run over Tower Bridge. :-)

Tees, Teeth and Tsuka

Dayna said we need to get the old bandwagon a-rolling along again, so I thought I'd give a quick update on what I've been doing for the last few weeks.

Last Saturday I had a tee up on TeeFury. My previous tee, Oh The Humanity, had sold just over 500.. of which I get a dollar for each.. so I was hoping for something similar. This time around it was my Flight of the Conchords tee, and I sold over 1100! It was quite a shock.

As it turns out, I wont be splurging on some awesome holiday just yet.. Last week a tooth that has been going downhill for a while started really hurting. On the other side I had another tooth that had a chip out of it.. which meant for a week I was unable to eat on either side of my mouth. On Tuesday I had the bad tooth out, and having seen it I can say it's better to be gone. Then on Saturday I finally got the other one filled. Dental work is sadly quite expensive, so that was the end of my big profits.. the rest is going to stay in the bank for a while.

Today I had my Iaido grading (if you haven't seen the site, go and check it out - I built it over about 4 months). The grade was "San Dan Ho" or provisional third dan.. basically each dan grade takes two years to achieve, so next year I'll have my third dan grading. It was pretty hard, but I think I've passed.

Also on the topic of Iaido, I'm opening a dojo in Reynella. I'll be borrowing equipment from the Honbu, and the hall hire is cheap enough that I just need two ongoing students to pay the rent. It will be interesting to see how it goes, anyway, and see if there's an interest for it in the southern suburbs. It'll open at the end of April, after school holidays.

That's about it from me. Maybe if we can get updates from Lisa or Glenn I can write one about the Adelaide Mason you're all really interested in, my man Oscar :)

So much rain...

I've been here for nearly a week and we've only had a few days without some kind of precipitation. Fortunately there have been none of the giant hailstones that battered Melbourne, but there's been almost 140mm rain in the last three days! And I thought that this was a country of drought!! Good thing I know how to swim. :-)

Speaking of swimming, tomorrow Mum and I plan to start our "get fit" regime with a trip to the indoor pool for aqua-robics (or something).. luckily I'd left my swimmers here from last trip - and goggles too - so I'll be able to do some laps. It'll be good to get started doing some kind of fitness stuff.. I really need to work out a routine or something (like synchronised swimming? ..that would be funny!)

I'm afraid all of my photos are on the other computer and my phone isn't roaming well, so this post will be text only for now.

Someone else's turn to write now! Time to get this going again.

*grin*
*hugz*

Living in slow-time (Bendigo)

In Bendigo, and everything is running in slow-time.

Right now I sit at the dinner table, quietly digesting a roast chicken sandwich and drinking a Foster's Light Ice while I think about how to describe my time here so far, and "slow-time" is, I think, most appropriate. Whether it is due to the long daylight hours, the wide-open sky or the natural pace of country Victoria, each day has seemed to last an age: long days with little to do (and that's alright with me, Jack) and nowhere much to go in a hurry.

The contrast to working-life in London couldn't be more striking, and I'm revelling in the "late" mornings (8am) and brightly lit days, where the sun melts into pastel pinks then burnt reds at around 9 o'clock at night. The nights, too, are warm, balmy rather than the oppressive muggy heat of the northern states. I help Mum when (and how) I can, but really, walking down to the supermarket for groceries is more a pleasant stroll than an onerous chore; indeed, it gave me a chance to get a snag in bread from the sausage-sizzle outside the market in the name of supporting the Eaglehawk tennis club. Even yesterday's task -- giving Dad a nice, peaceful day at home -- resulted in a trip to the local pool with Lisa and the kids. We splashed, we played, Jared jumped off the diving boards and I got sunburnt. There are worse ways to spend your day.

I miss Dee, of course, but I can't say I miss London, nor that I miss work. We talk on Skype each morning, evening for her, but this is already the longest we've been apart in over eight years. No doubt it's good for us in some way.

I want to come back to Australia permanently now.

One long day (London to Bendigo)

We arrive at London Bridge Station to find a crowd amassing in front of the Jubilee Line gates -- closed for "crowd control" on the platforms -- and quickly decide to find another way. We struggle through the ever-growing hordes out onto the street, hail a black cab and speed our way towards Wellington tube. Next stop, the Houses of Parliment (and of course Big Ben)! From there it is a short ride to Heathrow followed by a long walk to Terminal 3. We check my bag in and say our tearful goodbyes at Security.

Once through to Heathrow's inner sanctum I check the departure board and head straight to my gate. There is already a line forming; I join it anxiously, all too aware that airlines routinely overbook flights, but soon the line is as long behind me as in front. Eventually the gate opens and we file down a long corridor, across a "sky bridge" and in to the 'plane to stow our carry-on and find our seats.

It's an uneventful flight. I watch five movies, play a little Nintendo DS and try to sleep. By the time we get to Hong Kong I've been fed three times, I'm mostly awake and halfway home. We descend, skipping across the white cloud peaks like a stone across water; as we dip below the clouds we see a calm ocean, dotted with islands and wrapped in fog. I press my face to the cold window and we zoom over small fishing boats and trawlers, lower and lower until I think we're going to ditch into the sea. At the last possible moment the coastline rushes by beneath us and our landing gear kiss tarmac.

It's a two-hour stop-over, which turns out to be just enough time to get through the security checks, decide I don't need $500 HKD ('though I'm tempted, just to see what the currency looks like) and find my terminal. There is free wifi Internet here, so I shoot off a quick email to Dee, then one to work to let them both know I'm alright. As our departure time approaches I'm up and stretching my legs, which means I'm close to the front of the line when the gates open -- lucky, as I'm in the final row once on board. This next leg of the journey, Hong Kong to Melbourne, is much the same: movies, games, a nap or three, then it's seatbelts on for the descent into Tullamarine (now rechristened Melbourne Airport). Our Aussie pilot tells us it's 29 degrees Celsius and I wonder at the logic of keeping the internal temperature of the aeroplane at a chilly 18.

The hideously coloured (but well-appointed) red-pink shuttle-bus drops us as Southern Cross Station on Spencer Street. Nothing remains of the old Spencer Street Station except, perhaps, the tracks: the wide, clean boarding platforms now point towards soaring glass walls, escalators shuffle you mechanically towards cafes, gift-shops, restaurants, the entire commercial microcosm -- asleep, for now -- safe under the multimillion-dollar frozen-wave folly of a roof. In short, an international train station. I wonder at the homogenisation of our cultural history -- the old Spencer Street, with dirty walls, worn floors and broken roof, nevertheless had a certain quality about it, perhaps not "charm" but at least a personality which Southern Cross lacks -- but on balance I think we've gained more than we've lost.

I wander the near-empty station looking for a way to get to Bendigo tonight. The departure board lists only two outward journeys, both to Geelong but no further, but I dutifully follow the signs towards "Information" hoping for a timetable or, God-forbid, a human being to speak to, but all I find is a replica of the same departure board that greeted me upon arrival. I step through the great glass curtains which, sensing my approach, draw back and admit the heat and smells of the city's streets.

Smells: petrol, bitumen, sunscreen, the wholesome decay of vegetation, the ocean and much more, blending expertly into that unique bouquet of "place". I recognise the smell, and begin snorting huge nostril-fills of it, attempting to trigger and strengthen the latent connections between odor and memory as I walk down a likely-looking street for little more reason than it is slightly downhill. Ah yes: King Street. King, William, Queen, Elizabeth. Collins Street, Bourke Street. Little arches under the raised trainline. Flinders Lane, with restaurants and trendy bars. A bare-chested young man in tan cargo-shorts -- backpacker's uniform -- sleeps away the balmy night on a great stone plinth outside an impressive office block. Not willing to emulate him, I walk into the second backpacker's I see, not having built up enough courage by the time I see the first.

I ask for a single room, but there aren't any. I ask for a bed, anywhere, but the unshaven youth at the steel-caged reception desk tells me they are fully booked. I wonder if a balding, slightly overweight 30-year old just isn't the look they are going for. Maybe if I had more wrinkles, the prematurely-old face of an itinerant wanderer, a career traveller.

So. What to do? I could return to the scene of my earlier cowardice and hope they have beds but I'm at the steps of Flinders Street Station now, standing under the familar screens and archaic-looking clock of the main entrance. The heat makes me sweat, and the sweat makes me stink. I feed a couple of tiny gold coins into a ticket machine and its issue to Platform 3 to await the Lilydale line train to Camberwell -- Grant will put me up, he's a good chap. Provided I can remember where he lives. And that he still lives there.

Perhaps forty minutes later -- forty minutes in which I find that the trains are clean, the drunk teenagers polite (in comparison) and that having a fancy Android-based smart-phone with Google Maps does you no good at all if you don't have a 3G Internet connection -- I'm standing at the door I hope is Grant's listening intently for any sound of response to my ever-less timid door knocks and wondering if I should step up the assault to doorbell-level. I do, and Grant answers, to his credit (and my secret disappointment), with little visible surprise at my presence.

I spend a blissfully stretched-legged night on the couch, and the next day Grant drives me to Southern Cross Station on Spencer Street. The drive unveils the parts of the city that were hidden by darkness and I remember loving this little city. As we take our leave I promise myself to get him something to say thank you for answering the door at half-past midnight to a dishevelled, smelly foreigner then inwardly laugh at the prospect of picking him up a nice souvenir in Bendigo. I make it on the 7:15am train to Bendigo. I'm not sleepy at all.

Update from Adelaide in the form of an epic novel

Hey all,

I thought it's about time we did an update from us. Let me start with childcare..

Friday a week ago was to be Oscar's first day of childcare, and Cheryl's first day of work. We were totally psyched for it, I was going to take lunch off and we would both drop Os in and ease him into it. Unfortunately, best laid plans and all that, Os got a fever Thursday night which continued throughout the day. We decided it was better for Chez to have her first day, so (with big thanks to my boss) I took a half day, dropped Cheryl at work and took Os home. Unfortunately his temp continued to rise, and once it got to 39.6 I took him to emergency. 3 hours, much poking and prodding and a very unhappy Os later we were able to take him home, Cheryl having left work early to catch the bus. The doctor's final report was along the lines of "probably a virus, we can never be sure with kids, no other problems so he'll be okay in a day or two".

It wasn't an ideal first day.

Over the weekend his temp sorted itself back out and he was looking fine for his Wednesday childcare when on Tuesday arvo he picked up a fever again. Thankfully while generally these things are 48 hours or so he was fine on Wednesday and was able to have his first day.

Once we got him there, he was fine. I suspect if you surround him with toys and girls who smile at him he'd be happy anywhere (and who wouldn't?). Apparently it took a little while to get him to sleep, but once they found out the tricks (rubbing his blue bear against his face, patting his leg) they got there and he was asleep when I arrived to pick him up.

Oh, that's the other thing. On his childcare days I leave the house before 6am, walk 4.5kms to the train station then train into the city and bus to work, to be there by 8am. Then I leave at 4pm, bus to the childcare and pick him up.. although the plan is for me to stay there with him for a while, to help him get comfortable until around 5:30 when Cheryl finishes. There's probably a bus I could catch later in the morning, but I need a couple of big walks in the week. Plus when Os is older I can say "back in my day I had to HIKE for 45 minutes through the SNOW etc etc".

On Friday he stayed home with Nanna and Granddad who by all accounts doted on him and carried him everywhere like a little prince :) So he's only had the one day.

Sunday (today!) we had his birthday party. We had something like 25 adults and 10 kids, but somehow we didn't run out of food or seats.. Certainly not something we could have done at any of the units we lived in ;) It was a really great day.. Os had a sleep from around 10:30 until 12:30, so he was in a really good mood for his party. He even got to eat some cake, although I'm sure he didn't realise it was a treat. Babies played with Os' toys, kids played the Wii and ran around outside, and adults ate, drank and generally made merry. Just as a first birthday should be. I'll post photos up to flickr later, and I'm sure Cheryl will post some to facebook too.

I might get Cheryl to jump on now and tell you how her first few days of work are going..

Cheryl here :) Work is going well. My first shift back my supervisor got me to do most of the sales to help me get back into the swing of things. Nothing like being thrown into the deep end to refresh your memory! Apart from wondering how Os was doing, it all went well. I'm enjoying being back at work, and Os & I are slowly working out our new routine. And I'm enjoying not having to worry about all the supervisor stuff I used to do! It's also great just being around my work friends and students :)

Okay, that's it from us.

Happy birthday Oscar

Imagine three voices:

Happy birthday to you ...
happppy birthday tooo yooou..
haaaappy birthdaaay deear Ozzieee...
haappy birrthdaay tooo yoou!!

Lots of love from London.
xxxooo

Elementary, my dear Watson!

We "Northerners" (well, temporary) had a sunny, if cold, day today, the first in weeks if not months. Perfect weather, in fact, for an early morning walk 'round Regent's Park, so I was up and out the door shortly after breakfast. I must admit, I felt bad for the birds swimming in the near-frozen lake but they didn't seem to mind.

Dee and I have put together a list of 101 things to do in London before we leave, and so yesterday (Saturday) we had a "Sherlock Holmes"-themed day out. We tubed to Baker Street from London Bridge, then walked along the street until we found number 221b - Sherlock's address, although apparently when (Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the mystery stories Baker Street only went up to 100! These days it is a tiny museum (and gift shop) to the fictional detective; I even had a chance to sit with Dr. Watson himself!

Afterwards we headed to an "indy" cinema on Baker Street for the new Sherlock Holmes movie (starring the inimitable Robert Downey Jr., who I'm quite sure I saw shopping in a little specialist food market in North London last year). Not the greatest cinema, as it turned out, but appropriately located nevertheless - and they served wine and popcorn, so by the time the movie was over I was feeling rather jolly indeed. We stopped briefly at The Globe - the pub rather than the Shakespearean theatre, because I've been past it a bunch of times but never entered - before walking through Soho to meet Dayna and Bruce for dinner at Wagamama.

After some so-so Japanese food (not bad, but not something to write home about - oh, sorry, guess I shouldn't have mentioned it then) we went searching for London's last and only street lamp that is powered by burning sewer gas. We eventually found the "poppy lamp" in a little laneway off The Strand, and were disappointed to find that it had been converted to electricity after a hapless motorist knocked the original over with his car!

So disappointed by this were we that we had to retire to the local "Coal House" for commiserations over a glass of bubbly. Our spirit suitably lightened, we walked along The Strand, over Waterloo Bridge, and towards home.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you all again soon!