MaccaMusings

so ...

2010-08-10T21:09:00.006+10:00

So its been a while (nearly two years actually) since I last posted. I feel a bit awkward. A couple of things have happened in that time - the sort of things you typically tell people when they happen, not a year later. I now have a son. That happened 19 months ago. It is no coincidence that Max's arrival was not long after my last blog post. Life changed that day. I now have a PhD. That officially only happened 1 day ago, but I submitted it about 11 months ago. Life also changed that day.

So life is different now, with many new priorities, and less room for superficiality. Strangely, Max has unknowingly become something of a life teacher for me. His curiosity, and unbounded enthusiasm for the simplest things like a book, a balloon, or a box that looks like a plane, fascinates me. I don't feel the excitement he feels about these things, but I can remember feeling it - and I want it back. His energy is also something I have had to adjust to. You don't sit down with Max in the room. He doesn't allow it. You can argue with him about the merits of a good couch veg, but it'll fall on deaf ears, or perhaps more accurately, he'll just chuck a wobbly. Ironically though, Max is also up for spontaneous naps, as announced by him via the simple statement "Max bed". I laugh at this because for most of Max's life, sleep has been the single most problematic issue we've had to deal with. Now he just tells us.

Anyway, this is a rambling post in an attempt to restart my blogger within. I'll leave it at this, and hope to post again sooner rather than later.

Lit Review

2008-11-06T18:13:00.004+11:00

It always strikes me how difficult writing a literature review can be. Sometimes it feels like walking through a maze of tunnels, with nothing more than a laser pointer to find your way out. And when you get out, you're not even sure whether you're at the right exit. So you just keep on walking, flashing your pointer around, trusting that this seemingly inefficient process will eventually find the right way forward.

It might all sound a bit dramatic, but as I sit here at my desk with a mountain of papers in front of me to potentially include in my literature review, its the closest analogy I can come up with. Its a funny mix of feelings though. My time frame is pretty tight for getting things done, so I am definitely feeling the pressure to read less and write more. On the hand, I am reading these papers with a significantly heightened sense of context and purpose. Frankly, this stuff has never seemed so interesting as it does now. In some respects, and perhaps a bit embarrassing to admit, I am only just beginning to understand what my PhD is really all about, and where it fits. Problem is, I don't have the time for this sort of academic indulgence. I just need to get this thesis written, and so long as the reviewers are convinced I know what I'm on about, then that's all that really matters for the moment.

bringing it to the people

2008-10-31T10:21:00.005+11:00

It's been a hectic couple of days, but very rewarding. Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at the 2008 ACT Intergenerational Forum, an annual community-based forum (ie not a an academic conference) organised and run by PhD students in the general field of ageing research. You'd be forgiven for wondering how the hell my research in computer vision relates to ageing. In a sense, I would like to think my research relates to many things, however, my recent focus has been on how I might be able to adapt my work with insect-inspired vision techniques for navigation to the task of assisting with hazard perception in older drivers. The research out there suggests we do lose some ability to perceive potential hazards as we get older. The forum was a great chance to talk directly with people who might be consumers of such technology, so I got quite a lively array of questions after my talk.

The other consequence of my talk was a little bit of media attention, including a story in ABC News online: Researcher designs insect-inspired navigation system, and a couple of radio interviews, including this one with
ABC News Radio (mp3)

So it has been quite a busy , indeed all-consuming, couple of days. Suddenly thesis writing feels like a bit of an oasis from the madness ... nice to have these distractions occasionally though .. particularly ones that remind you why you're doing this research in the first place.

28 weeks and counting

2008-10-15T12:10:00.002+11:00

28 weeks and counting, but who's counting ? well, I certainly am. We are well and truly into the third trimester, and bub is starting to make himself known. For one, Aff's huge! For two, a fair bit of seismic activity on the surface has become apparent, suggesting the little tacker is developing a keen interest in judo. Early on in the pregnancy, the thought of us actually being pregnant was fairly incomprehensible given the lack of any obvious indicators. Things are a little different now. Do I feel ready ? Hell no! Can I comprehend what's about to happen ? I think so. There is no doubt evolution knew what it was doing when it gave us 9 month pregnancy terms. I suspect many mothers who have gone through particularly rough pregnancies will disagree. For me however, 9 months seems to be about the right amount of time to get my head right (and my thesis). No question, I am really looking forward to being a Dad, and all that it brings. For now though, I am really glad to have the time I have to get things in order, and to take a moment to enjoy being without such a daunting responsibility as raising children.

rate cuts

2008-10-08T09:36:00.003+11:00

So the RBA has slashed interest rates by 1 percent. Only months ago we were being told that no such thing would happen until downward pressure was being applied to inflation. Now the view appears to be that a dramatic slow down in the economy will do that job for us, and so we say "fair thee well" to that little political hot potato. Surely recent events highlight the emptiness of the political debate surrounding "inflationary pressures", and the effect the Australian government has on interest rates. In a globalised economy, and conditions as they are, it is fairly safe to say that the government can neither help nor hinder such things .. at least within the marginal issues in which the debate gets bogged in. We should keep this in mind next time we hear Wayne Swan taking credit for an interest cut, or Turnbull blaming the government for an interest rise.

the way of the thesis

2008-10-01T08:45:00.005+10:00

Indirectly, I've been writing this thesis for years. Every word added to an article or note scrawled out on paper, does contribute towards the final product. That's what you tell yourself anyway, and what you put on your application for extension form. I have to say though, nothing truly feels like thesis writing, except .. well ... writing a thesis.

There was no ceremony or event to mark the start of official thesis writing. It was simple really. I opened a blank file, and named it 'thesis.tex'. I then proceeded to copy and paste every digitised word I have ever written on the subject of computer vision. An hour later, I had added 120 pages of the most incomprehensible mish-mash to my empty thesis document, and so it began.

It is somewhat disconcerting that a month or so later, the number of pages hasn't really increased. On the other hand though, a hell of a lot more has gone into it. The process of adding new content, and then refining the words to say the most you can with as little use of the English language as possible is the way of the thesis. I know I will begin to hate this process, particularly when I realise there is nothing else left to do except write, but for the moment, it actually feels kind of good to be at this stage. Actually seeing it take shape, ever so slowly, and forming into something that represents the four years of work I have put into this is quite a motivator. Of course, having a baby due in three months, and desperately wanting to end student life and get a real income is another.

blogging again

2008-09-26T11:04:00.004+10:00

OK, so it's been a little while. I wish I could point to some noble reasons for why like saving whales in the Southern Ocean, feeding the hungry in Africa, or installing Linux on my desktop, but basically, I got tired of writing. To be honest, I am not feeling particularly in the mood right now, and with my thesis writing ramping up a couple of gears, I do not expect to be writing a lot. On the other hand, these be interesting times in my life, so some sort of record of events, thoughts and activities seems like a good thing to do, even if infrequently.

So, since last post, what's been happening ? Well, for one, Aff and I have gone and made ourselves a baby. He (yes, he is a he) is not born yet, but we expect him to arrive sometime around late December. We're about 26 weeks in now, so over half way there. Aff is looking the part too! No more awkard "I think she's pregnant" looks. Now she just looks pregnant.

In other news, I am now in my last 6 months of my PhD. While I would love to have the thesis out the door by the time mini-macca arrives, this just ain't gonna happen. A full draft, however, is looking like a pretty reasonable goal. From my experience, and talking to others, one month is typically the time it takes to submit after completing a draft. Based on this, and assuming a couple of weeks off when the baby arrives, I have February marked as my thesis deadline. I actually have until the end of March, but I am not allowing myself the luxury of thinking I have this time. I need this thesis out of my life ASAP.

And then what ? well, that's another aspect of my life that has become a little interesting in recent times. I have started looking around, and have even turned down a non-academic position that was offered to me, a decision that wasn't easy as it forced me, perhaps for the first time, to really decide what I want to do when this PhD craziness is over. Basically, I have decided to continue with research, and pursue a post doctoral position. Hopefully there will be more to say about this in the coming weeks. For now, I can say that I am quite confident that I will have something - a feeling that can't be understated.

I could say a lot more about a lot of things. In the interest of "sustainable blogging" however, I'll leave at this, and hopefully add more soon.

It is good to be blogging again!

Three years

2008-02-01T15:20:00.000+11:00

Ah yes, and so it has come, the email. When you embark on a PhD there is an initial flurry of interest on the part of the university, mainly to ensure you have paid all your fees, filled out your scholarship forms, and been told how to sit correctly in your office chair. They spend a bit of time explaining how this whole PhD thing works, drag in some senior students to tell you all about it, and then, nothing. You're on your own. Apart from the fortnightly bank statement telling you your scholarship payment has arrived, and an annual letter informing you that according to the university's records, you are indeed still a university student, that's about it. No "hi, how's it goin'?", or "what have you been up to?" emails. Not even a Christmas card. Nothing. Then, three years down the track, after all the trials and tribulations, journal club meetings, conferences, lab visits, seminars, pub sessions and introductory yoga classes, an email arrives.

Dear Chris,
remember us. We're the Australian National University and your time is nearly up! If you're a slack arse student who won't be finished in time, fill out this form to beg for our mercy.

yours,
ANU
ps. merry Christmas

You see, in theory, a PhD is supposed to take three years. There is a legend often told at the Uni house pub on Friday's, and in the tea rooms of many a research lab, that once upon a time, somewhere, a PhD thesis was submitted in three years. No one knows his or her name, or what the topic was, but I suspect they studied at The University of Fairy Land, where supervisors have inifinite time to talk with you, trained monkeys run your experiments, and ready to submit PhD theses grow on trees. The fact is, despite the university's admirable attempts to put some curry in the PhD sauce, and get students to complete quickly, very few achieve this. Why is this you ask ?

Well, for those not familiar with the wonderous world of the PhD degree, let me explain. A PhD in its classical form, has little to do with lectures, exams, lab classes, semesters, prescribed text books and to be honest, anything else you probably attribute with a university undergrad degree. It is a student, a desk, and the none too small task of coming up with something that prior to your work, was not known, designed, created or explained before. You do get some help though. A supervisor for one, who can be quite useful, although less effective as you progress and realise after a couple of years that you know more about your topic than they do (this is expected by the way). You also have hundreds of papers, articles and other forms of media that provide a seemingly endless supply of material that may or may not be related to what you're doing. Of course, the relevance and accuracy of this material varies, and so a significant amount of time is spent trying to sift through and find papers of use to you, while at the same time hoping not to find something so useful as to render your own work obsolete. It can be as frightening as it is enlightening.

The summary of all of this is that tangible outcomes can be few and far between, and in general, the structureless nature of the degree means much of the motivation to get work done, work that is often highly brain intensive and not particularly enticing on a Friday afternoon (or any afternoon for that matter), must come from within. Of course, choosing an interesting topic to begin with definitely helps this. Although, this is also akin to choosing a song you really like, and playing it over, and over, and over again ... for four years. Sometimes you just wish you could skip to the next track.

This probably all sounds very negative, but it is somewhat ironic that the one thing that causes much of the stress and pain associated with a PhD, is also the one huge motivator to keep going with it ... intellectual freedom. An academic once told me that he really envied his PhD students, and yearned for the time he spent as a PhD student (admittedly it had probably been at least twenty years since he completed his, giving him ample time to forget the pain). What he missed most was the opportunity a PhD offered to emerse himself so thoroughly, and without obstruction, in an intellectual interest. To spend day upon day researching a topic that genuinely excited him, with a real purpose, was a luxury he had not experienced to the same degree since. I remember telling myself I should talk to this guy more often - I hadn't felt this motivated since getting my pen license.

So three years in, and I am happy to say that I am still pretty excited about the work I am doing. Equally though, I have never been more motivated to get on with things, and get this thesis out the door. Like the vast majority of those before me, I will be applying for an extension, otherwise I would have to pull out the most productive February on record. I'm motivated, but not that motivated.

In any case, it's nice to hear from the University after all these years. I look forward to hearing from them again. Probably in 6 months time.

Words a PhD student never wants to hear

2008-01-17T12:12:00.000+11:00

interesting work .. I used to work with someone who I think looked at a very similar problem to this.

Oh really .. When was that?

1983

A new perspective for a new year

2008-01-08T13:55:00.000+11:00

For probably the first time since arriving back from Italy, things are starting to feel a little 'normal'. It's hard to pin point why things are now starting to feel more normal. It could be the recent acquisition of some desperately needed furniture. It could be that both Aff and I are back at work with a routine somewhat resembling the one we had before leaving Canberra. It could be that we are able to share the cooking again (circumstances in Italy meant that Aff had to take on most of the cooking), or, it could be the very welcome return of our cat after nearly 12 months spent in Kerang. Probably a little of all these things I guess. However, I say things are "a little normal" quite deliberately. There is much of our lives thatis not yet as it was. Upon thinking about this over the last few days, I realise that we are at an interesting cross-roads, and with a great opportunity to examine the things that make us satsified, content and most importantly, happy.

It has been sometime since I last found myself in a situation where I had virtually no commitments. Prior to leaving Canberra last year for Italy, finding a night or weekend free was like discovering gold in a long forgotten river. It was very precious indeed. Once discovered, however, it had to be kept very quiet, or stoutly defended. This period was a strange mix of high satisfaction and deep felt tiredness and stress. I involved myself in a range of activities and groups, and explored different areas of interest I would not have thought to explore before coming to Canberra. Being involved in all these things brought me a great sense of self worth, which served as a great motivator, as did making new friends, and finding a sense of place and purpose here in Canberra. On the other hand, these noble pursuits also caused significant strain on myself, and my home life through the all consuming nature in which I often take things on. I was constantly filling gaps of time with things to do, and events, social or otherwise, to attend. Feeling self worth is obviously a very positive mind state to have. Feeling tired, strung out and resentful at the same time suggests the way I was going about things was probably not quite right.

And so here I am, 10 months later, with a rare opportunity to re-examine my priorities. A few things are different now. For one, this should be my last year as a PhD student, and so the Mt Everest like task of writing a thesis looms large. This alone is enough reason to slow things down in other aspects of my life. Secondly, I am married now, and as I wrote when in Italy, this has, somewhat surprisingly, re-jigged some of my priorities. Thirdly, a new appreciation for home (or at least, the realisation that its ok to do so). Seven roller coaster months in Italy, and two months of reflection since has brought about a new perspective on what makes me truly happy and content. Nothing more so, it seems, than sitting in my own backyard with a coffee, and the newspaper. This change of mindset is the most recently realised since arriving back in Canberra (unsurprisingly coinciding with finding a nice new place to live). I have always considered myself a bit of a home-body in denial, constantly trying to fight off this perceived reclusive, anti-social desire, or at least trying to justify time spent at home by filling the days around it with activities to balance the equation. This, I now realise, does not really work for me, and more importantly, is not really necessary.

This new perspective first came out during the house hunting phase. My usual determination to find a place "close to the action" was being strongly out weighed by the desire to find a place with lots of space, and a backyard worthy of sitting in (with coffee/beer and newspaper). The possibility of having a decent veggie patch was also secretly high on the assessment scale. The place we chose most certainly reflects the latter considerations than it does the former. After nearly four weeks living here, there are no regrets about our slightly more outer suburban existence.

While I have realised a desire for more "home time", I have also identified that my need to "get out of the house" does not simply stem from me wanting to fight my natural state. Quite the contrary in fact, which I am relieved to say. Upon thinking about the the motivations behind the things I do, I realise that I have a very strong desire to connect with people. I used to fear that if I gave into my natural desires, I would become a recluse, and not want to talk to anyone. This, I now know is not true at all, and in fact, if I allow myself the time to myself I need, I soon crave connectedness. I now realise that craving connectedness is a far healthier state than living in constant fear of its non-existence. It's not really rocket science, but it's always an eye-opener to examine the underlying motivators, and assumptions behind the things we choose to do with our lives.

With all this in mind, I am very much looking forward to what I hope will be a significantly more balanced, and ultimately more relaxed and measured approach to life in 2008. As for what I do with my spare time, not really sure, a couple of things I'm sure ... but then again, what's the rush?

One minute

2008-01-04T09:05:00.000+11:00

A minute is probably the smallest unit of time for which something can change significantly in day to day life. The total running time of an Olympic sprinter over 100 metres, from the first heat through to the final takes less time. A thunderstorm can give way to a bright sunny day in a matter of seconds. A slice of bread in the toaster can go from white to charcoal without notice. A lot can happen in one minute.

Sitting contently in the sun at a campsite near Dargo, my only concern was how I was going to fit hours of blissful nothingness into a day already devoted to completing a larger than usual crossword. Two of my fellow campers, with two young children, had decided they were going to spend the day going for a drive up the river that passed through our campsite. With my schedule already full, I was quite happy to pass on the offer to join them. My thoughts seemed to be shared by Aff, and Mick and Mel, who like me, were lounging lazily in the sun with no apparent desire to change the situation. Then came a suggestion:

"If you want, I can take you guys up river and you can lilo back?"

A minute later, our tranquil state of idleness transformed to a flurry of activity as bathers were put on, suncream applied, and lilos blown up. Within another minute the campsite was deserted, as we all piled in the back of the 4WD and headed off up the river. With 6 adults, two children and two lilos in the car, conditions seemed more akin to images of crowded bus journeys in India (minus the chickens) than to a pleasant drive though the Australian bush. After 20 minutes, we stopped at a point deemed to be fit for launching our lilo crusade.

With two lilos between four of us, it was two to a lilo. Aff and I took possession of our trusty ship, ignored the obligatory warning stating that this sturdy air-filled floatation device, is in a fact not a flotation device at all, and launched ourselves into the river. After some discussion, we opted for a two person abreast configuration, with the lilo's longest side perpendicular to our direction of motion, and our mid sections draped across the width of the lilo. This meant our arms and legs were submerged on either side of the lilo, allowing us to manoeuvre (or so we hoped). Mick and Mel were already in the water, and had adopted a similar configuration, and so we began our pleasant, relaxing float down river.

A minute passed by, and the speed of the current began to increase. In the distance, the sound of rushing water could be heard. It was clear that our pleasant river meandering was about to go up a gear or two. The sudden increase in speed was disconcerting enough, but the sudden appearance of rocks just under the surface of the water was what truly concerned me. While the lilo provided buoyancy, it did not keep my "big-boned" body mass above water. This was confirmed when the first of many rocks passed underneath me, threatening to end the family line then and there. In a vein attempt to protect my interests, I tried to push my body further up onto the lilo. This also allowed me to reach further into the water with my arms, which I hoped could be used as a buffer against incoming rocks. This was proving to be somewhat effective, although as I looked forward, I could see there was worse to come. Several large boulders lay waiting in the middle, and to the right of the river. This caused the water to rush to the left, and then down a gradual drop of about a metre. The drop was not large, but the combined forces of gravity, and the increased water pressure from the bottleneck created by the boulders, made for quite a rush of water. Adding to my concern was the further shallowing of the water due to a large collection of smaller rocks underneath the surface as the river dropped. With only moments to decide what to do, some quiet negotiations between Aff and I resulted in a decision to take it on, but to stop if things got a bit too intense.

I started paddling to position the lilo, largely to no avail. I soon realised that the strong river current had its own ideas about where to position us, and the only way to have any impact on our trajectory was to try and use the rocks underneath the water. With this in mind, I stopped paddling and instead extended my arms out in front of us. As I raised my hands to just above water level, I noticed a silvery gold flicker of light from my left hand. Sitting perilously close to the tip of my ring finger was my wedding ring. I was concerned how easily this usually snug fitting ring had made its way to the tip of my finger. I was equally concerned about how easily I was able to push it back down to its usual position (marked clearly by the 9 month old tan line it had created). My skin had clearly shrivelled up in the water, allowing the ring to move more freely. Unfortunately, with no where to put the ring, I was forced to continue with the ring on my finger. Thinking myself fortunate to have discovered this risk early enough to prevent it, I told myself to make sure I kept a constant check on it. Just as this thought registered, our lilo began the pass through the rapids to the left of the boulders. I could see ahead that Mick and Mel had already managed to negotiate this section, although it was clear from their bobbing heads that the pass was not a smooth one.

I extended my arms out, just under the surface of water with the palms of my hands facing forwards. Instantly I began to feel rocks crashing into my hands, and while I tried to push off the rocks to avoid them passing underneath us, my off centred position meant this only served to rotate the lilo. After a couple of big hits, the lilo had rotated a full 180 degrees, and so we were now travelling feet first and backwards into the unknown. With anxiety levels high, Aff and my only thoughts were to try and stop ourselves. I desperately tried to grab onto rocks in an attempt to anchor ourselves, but this would cause the lilo to dip into the water, allowing the strong current to push against it's surface. With the awkward position of the lilo, Aff began to lose grip. Seeing the futility of trying to stop, I ceased attempting to hold on to the rocks, and simply let the current take us. Aff and I both raised our legs and feet as high as we could in the water, so as to avoid the rocks below. While this probably helped, it didn't stop a number of rocks grazing our knees and thighs as we passed over the remainder of the rapid section. Within a minute of entering the rapids, we were through, and back in significantly calmer, though quite fast flowing water.

After a moment silently recollecting ourselves, Aff raised her left hand from the water. Whether she intended to check her ring or not, the flickering light from the two rings forming her wedding ring quickly caught her attention. Like my ring earlier, she noticed that they had crept up her finger.

"Ooh, almost lost my rings", she said with some surprise, having not noticed how close I had come to losing mine a couple of minutes earlier.

I looked at her rings, and agreed, thinking to myself how lucky I was to have discovered this risk before the rapids. With that thought, I raised my left hand to inspect my own treasured possession. Few emotions I have experienced could compare to that which I felt at this moment. As I stared at my left ring finger, all I could see was a band of pale white skin surrounded by the tanned exposed skin of my ring finger. Within a minute of consciously telling myself to not lose my wedding ring, I had gone and lost my wedding ring.

After a couple of seconds of shock, followed by a couple more seconds of expletives, I desperately began to paddle to the river's left bank. Aff joined the paddle, and soon we were out of the strong current, and into an eddy that had formed just after the rapid section. Placing our lilo on the river bank, we then began to force our bodies against the current, back towards the section where I had almost certainly lost the ring. This had to be where I was trying to grab hold of the rocks. Unfortunately, this was also where the water was fastest, and conditions were most dangerous. It took some minutes to get there as the current began to intensify. During the struggle, it was becoming increasingly clear that there was next to no chance of finding the ring. While I ignored this thought for a while, the inevitability of the situation began to sink in. We were soon joined by Mick and Mel, who had both returned to the scene after finding out what had happened. Being in company, I tried my best to keep my emotions in check, something I almost certainly wouldn't have done had it just been Aff and me. I was sad, I was angry, I was shocked, confused, and embarrassed. I was devastated. One minute I had a ring, the next I did not.

We did attempt to find the ring, but the fast moving water, and slippery rocks made it next to impossible. After a token ten minutes of searching, we gave up, and after some recuperation time, resumed our float down the river. As it turned out, numerous rapid sections lay waiting for us in the 2 hours of river cruising that remained, a couple even more intense than the first. Truth be told, my ring probably didn't stand a chance of making it to the end. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and clearly I should never have worn my ring to start with. Maybe, but I doubt many would have done differently. The fact is, it was a random event, and despite all my attention to the risk I had identified only seconds before, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. One minute I had a ring, the next minute I did not. A lot can happen in one minute.

I love a Dim Sim country

2007-12-11T16:29:00.000+11:00

It has been a mystery to me for sometime, just how the Dim Sim made it's way into the mainstream Australian fish'n'chip menu. You may think this a little odd, but have you ever taken the time to consider just how, amongst all the fish, scallops and potato, this pork and cabbage filled dumpling managed to squeeze itself in. I have always thought that the dim Sim was introduced by the Chinese, perhaps during the gold rush era when they first came to our shores. You could imagine my surprise then, when I happened upon this Wikipedia article, which has completely reversed my thinking.

In summary, the Dim Sim is Australian. Wikipedia states that the Dim Sim was developed around 1945, in Melbourne, by Chinese chef William Wing Young for his restaurant "Wing Lee".

This, I must say, is big news to me. It turns out that Dim Sims in Australian Chinese restaurants are in fact unique to Australia. Of course, they are closely related to other dumpling dishes that originate from China, but the Dim Sim as we know and love, is our very own.

We may not have a bloody idea what's really in them, but at least we know there ours!

Goodbye and good riddance!

2007-11-29T09:00:00.000+11:00

As usual, the frequency of blog posting has skidded to a virtual halt these last few weeks. And as usual, my excuse is the same, so I won't bore you all with the detail. I could not, however, allow this post election week to pass by without some mention of this momentous occassion.

I don't think there is any doubt that I am pretty satisfied with last Saturday's result. It is important to make clear, however, that my joy does not come through any great support for Rudd, but like so many, for my deep disdain of the Howard government. I also take great comfort in the knowledge that the Australian electorate is concerned about more than just their wallets, that they do in fact give a stuff about other things. I don't mean to say that economic management is not a big factor, nor am I oblivious to how important such an issue is to young families with mouths to feed, and minds to educate, and 30 years of mortgage repayments ahead of them. This, however, is not the only issue that holds importance for families, or for Australians in general, and I am most comforted to know that this has prevailed.

While I fully support Rudd's promises to roll back work choices, sign Kyoto, and issue a formal apology to indigenous Australians for the stolen generation, the promise I really want to see realised is the restoration of proper parliamentary processes, and a return to ministerial responsibility. No more passing the buck down the chain to the public service, or private companies doing outsourced work on the governments behalf. Our system relies on ministerial responsibility, and ensuring proper accountability within government ranks is paramount. This, I suspect will be one of the most difficult promises to keep, particularly if the Rudd government enjoys a long stint in office like the previous government. Mistakes will inevitably happen, and ministers will be asked to take responsibility. How Rudd deals with these situations will be most interesting .. particularly if/when his own support as leader is in doubt.

I think Paul Keating summed up my feelings about Saturday's result best. When asked on ABC radio if he felt happy upon hearing of Rudd's win on Saturday, he sternly answered, " .. no, I was just so relieved that the toxicity of this government had gone".

Couldn't sum it up any better. I don't fear a new direction for this country John, I've been hoping and waiting for it for a very long time!

G'day Australia

2007-11-15T10:14:00.000+11:00

25 degrees ... perfect blue sky. In Healesville. Sitting on a veranda. Cracking open the third VB of the arvo. Eating a sausage in bread. Smelling burning gum leaves from the burn off. Listening to the Melbourne cup. A dog humping my leg. As first days back in Australia go, this one wasn't bad!

It is now been just over a week since we arrived back, and I must say, it's very good to be home. Leaving Italy was a bit sad, and felt just a little premature as we sat on the train heading for the airport. To be honest though, since coming back and embarking on the "Aff'n'Chris magical tour of South East Australia" as we say hello to family and friends, it's really good to be home. The two most common questions Aff and I have been asked by people are: 1. How was Italy ? 2. What's it like to be home ? Question 1 is difficult to give anything like a genuinely correct answer to, at least in the time frame that the person asking the question would probably want. Aff and I seem to be giving different answers every time we get asked it, so clearly we are not quite sure "how Italy was" either. Our short answer at the moment is: Italy was good. The second question though, is my favourite. The answer to it also gives some hints to our answer to the first question as well.

"So what is it like to be back?" I hear you ask. The wannabe worldly traveller in me wants to say how much I miss Italy, how much I miss the culture, the travelling, the food, the language, and of course, the people. To be honest though, the prevailing emotion at the moment is one of relief and comfort. To be back in my own culture, speaking my own language, driving my own car on roads I know, through the familiar dry Australian country-side almost feels like a luxury. In many ways for me, coming home is one of the best parts of the travelling experience. Of course the novelty factor will wear off soon enough, and my daily routine will resume. I expect it will be sometime after this that my thoughts will drift back to Italy, and start to really miss some of the things we got familiar with over there. I will certainly miss the good people we met over there (I already do), the food, the ability to travel so freely. I think Aff and I will both miss the language as well. We both made progress with it, and I felt like I had discovered a whole new part of my brain I had never tapped into before. All these things I expect we will miss more and more as time goes on, and when the memories of all the difficulties we also had to face fade.

So, for the moment at least, it feels good to be home .. very good in fact. As for Italy, to say "it was good" is a gross understatement .. it was a lot more than good ... it was amazing, and I am so lucky to have had the chance to live there, if only briefly.

Arrivederci Italia! Ci vediamo a presto!

2007-11-01T19:55:00.001+11:00

What a week! Sitting here at an "internet point" in Rome, being charged €3 an hour for the priveledge, doesn't really provide the ideal time (or environment) to post a summary of all the events that have taken place. The short story is that Aff and I have successfully managed to extract ourselves from our Genovese life, and are now in Rome with three days left in Italy before we head back to Melbourne. As expected, the days leading up to yesterday's departure were as hectic as ever.

We have sent a shipping container of crap (well, maybe not all crap ... my €5 leaning tower mug from Pisa is pretty precious) back to Oz, and packed the rest of our humble belongings into 5 of the most unsuitable bags for travelling (we ditched the suitcase because it weighs too much). No doubt we are still over the weight limit, but there is not much else we can do.

Certainly, the highlight of the last week in Genova has been the goodbye celebrations with friends we have made here. Saturday night was a pizza dinner, followed by drinks at our favourite bar in Genova, Le Lepre. It really felt a bit like an episode of "This is your life (in Genova)", with so many of the people we have met here in Genova, there to celebrate with us. Needless to say, I had a bit of a biggy (I don't know what was in that last cocktail you bought me Richard, but it was the killer punch!).

Sunday was an understandably quieter day, although Aff and I, along with some friends, did manage to finally get to the soccer to watch Genoa fight bravely against the much stronger Fiorentina (from Tuscany) in Italy's Series A. No goals were scored by either teams, but I am very glad we managed to get to a game before leaving. It truly is an Italian experience worth making time for (photos to come) .... and completely safe by the way !

Finally, on Tuesday night, after a somewhat exhausting day spent saying my goodbyes to people at work, and finalising the hand over of my work, we had one final goodbye drinks session at Le Lepre. I must admit, after rushing home from work to pack, and after Aff's exhasting day of organising the mailing of our belongings home, and the cleaning of our apartment (I think I had the better deal to be honest) , both of us were thinking we may have been a tad ambitious organising one last drinks session. After arriving at Le Lepre however, I instantly felt like it was a very good decision. There is nothing like a few beers (in my case, about 6 pints from memory), to get over the awkward goodbyes, and just let the emotions run free. There was hugging, and kissing (on bith cheaks of course), and at one point a rather unexpected grope (not even sure who from). It was the kind of goodbye that truly made me feel like we have connections in this town, and some friends that we will really want to keep in touch with.

This, in fact, has been a realisation I have had over the last two weeks leading up to our departure. As the day got closer, my keeness to get back to Australia seemed to diminish substantially. Of course, Aff and I are both very much looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone... but with unfinished PhD's, and house hunting awaiting us, it's not exactly an enticing prospect. Once the initial excitement of being home fades (probably sometime after our 2 week whirl wind tour of SE Australia, when we arrive back in Canberra), I expect a significant slump in our moods to occur. There is a lot to miss here (but equally, a lot to gain back in Australia). So yes, I expect we will miss this place a lot, but I equally expect (hope) that as we get settled back in Canberra, life will start to feel normal again. Who knows? ... it's all part of the adventure I guess, and if there is anything I have learnt from my time in Italy, it is to expect nothing, and be ready for anything!

Arrivederci Italia!! Ci vediamo a presto!!

l'ultima settimana a Genova

2007-10-24T20:20:00.000+10:00

And so begins the last week in Genova. This time next week, we will most likely be on a train, heading south to Rome. Well, actually, it's equally likely that we will be standing on a platform, waiting for our train to Rome, which will undoubtedly be running an hour late .. but that's all part of the adventure. To be honest, with no pressing schedule in Rome, I wouldn't mind if the train were late. More time to soak up this place.

With 7 days left, so begins the week of "lasts". Today, for example, is my last "Mercoledi`" (Wednesday) here at work. Ahh Mercoledi`, I'll miss you! I'll miss the evening Italian lessons you gave me, and the volleyball.

Far more significant than last goodbyes to days of the week, however, is last goodbyes to friends I have made here. Last night was the first, where I said goodbye to Ryo, a Japanese researcher who has just embarked on a two week trip to Taiwan. Today I say goodbye to another good friend, Enrico, who is off to the States for a month or so.

I don't pretend to have made a whole lot of life long mates here in Genova. For a quiet guy like me, these sorts of friendships usually take at least 6 months to develop. Having said this, I have met a few people (like the above mentioned people), who I know I will keep up with, and most importantly, I will see again at some point. It makes me feel good to know I am going home with these genuine connections to Genova. It makes me feel like I actually did live here, if only briefly.

I can't say I am one for goodbyes. Quite frankly, I find them a little awkward and tiring. If it were socially acceptable to just leave a note, and jump on a train, I probably would. Not because I don't want to say goodbye, just because that would be easier, and less awkward. I never know what to say, and anything I do say makes me cringe when I think about it later. Of course, we won't just leave a note and leave! Aff and I will do something, probably smallish. Whatever we do, I am sure it will be a nice send off, and a great way to finish our time here in Genova.

Ridiculous!

2007-10-19T19:31:00.000+10:00

Like most people, I have made some pretty ridiculous decisions in my life. Perhaps none more so than yesterday's decision to play soccer with a bunch of Italians. It was, in fact, my third time playing, although it had been some months since I last played. I am not quite sure what improvement I expected to magically appear in my game after three months, but whatever ability I thought I had, was instantly nullified in the first 2 minutes. There are few sweeping generalisations one can make about Italians (or any culture for that matter), but it would be fair to say that Italian men are generally pretty good at soccer ... and a fair percentage of them are really good. It would also be fair to say that 9 out of the 10 blokes from my workplace here in Genova, who played soccer last night .. were really good. The other bloke, me, filled the role of the awkward Aussie, introducing his own unique brand of football - randomness. After the first 10 minutes, I realised that my best tactic was simply to let the ball bounce off my legs, rather than to try and kick it.

There was noticeable frustration from my four team mates, who prior to my late arrival, were up, 6 : 3. We lost the game 7 : 9. And no, the 7th goal had nothing to do with me (unless you count the fact that I stayed well away from the ball when the goal was kicked).

It truly was a ridiculous idea .. but another "must" on my list of Italian experiences.

leaving and returning

2007-10-17T18:09:00.000+10:00

It is always a bit of a strange feeling in the weeks before leaving a place you have spent a significant amount of time in. That is certainly how it feels at the moment. The "mixed feelings" cliche` seems to fit pretty well. I am as comfortable and familiar with my environment as I have been since arriving, which is not so surprising. On the other hand, my head is already half back in Australia, and ticking over the many tasks, challenges and choices that await Aff and I when we get back. I, of course, am trying to keep my mind in Italy as much as I can. I want to soak up as much of this fascinating place as possible. Since arriving, not a single day has gone by that I haven't looked around and just wondered how the hell my life managed to rock up here. Craziness! This daydreaming is usually interrupted abruptly by the sound of a scooter passing me within a couple of inches, forcing me to suddenly side step into three day old dog shit which, next to discovering 13th century gothic churches down dingy alleyways, is another common "experience" in Genova. Maybe not a particularly nice one, but all part of the experience nonetheless.

Of course, while trying to take these things in, the realities of going home are hard to ignore. Practical issues such as packing and sending things home, not to mention the million dollar/euro question of "where the hell are we gonna live ?", can quickly overwhelm. Inevitably Aff and I talk a lot about these issues in the evening, which always feels a bit strange and foreign after a day spent in such a different place as Genova. On the other hand, these same thoughts are a source of excitment as well. Aff and I are looking forward to coming home. Our existence in Italy has been an exciting one, but also a temporary one, and the desire to "get on with things" (whatever that means?) has grown over the course of our time here. In someways I see this as the most significant change in me over the course of my time here. I don't really know why. It could equally be attributed to being married. I suspect it's a little of both.

It's difficult to express these thoughts because there is always the risk of exagerating the importance, and significance of such experiences. In the end, we've spent 7 months in Italy, seen a lot of different things, met a lot of good people, eaten a lot of pizza, and drank a lot of vino ... not so different to home really! but it sure feels like it is.

from Verona to Venice

2007-10-15T18:08:00.001+10:00

With three weeks left, Aff and I have become tourist machines. In the last month we have taken in Lucca ( a beautiful little Tuscan town, near Pisa), the Vale d'Aosta (Italian alpine country, up in the North West corner), and we have just returned from a 4 day trip that took in Verona and Venice. Trying to keep up with all this on the blog has been quite simply impossible. So, for the moment at least, I pick and choose.

Our trip to Venice was quite deliberately timed to be one of our last hoorahs in the North of Italy before we head south, and home. With Terry flying in from London, this was also the last chance to see my best mate before heading back home. The trip was an absolute highlight of my time here.

Verona was beautifully tranquil, although not without it's fair share of tourists. Verona's two biggest claims to fame are it's famous Roman ampitheatre (the Arena), which plays host to a much anticipated out door Opera season every year, and Shakespear's choice of Verona as the city in which Romeo and Juliet was set. I'm sure it has plenty of other claims to fame as well, but for the travel weary (which I must admit, I am a little), much of these details get missed.

And then Venice. Nothing I can say can do it justice. The photos are coming, I assure you. It is quite simply stunning. You pay for it of course, particularly if you stay on the Island as we did. Even so, to have had three uninterrupted days of playing in this maze of canals and lane ways felt like a luxury worth paying for. Don't believe anyone who suggests you can do Venice in a day. Two days at least!

Venice is like a medievil playground. You just wander around, get lost, eat, drink wine, and take a sh%@ load of photos while you're at it. Sure, you can do the whole Gondala thing, if you have 70 euro to burn, but just watching these boys do their stuff from the side lines is impressive, and satisfying enough (though I must admit, I was a little tempted).

And on top of all this, the company. Venice is best enjoyed with your partner, or good friends. I therefore had the best of both world's, with my wife, and my best mate to play with. It was a great trip, and a fanastic way to start the count down to our final three weeks here in Italy.

Take a stroll from casa Aff'n'Chris

2007-09-22T02:19:00.000+10:00

Casa Aff'n'Chris - our apartment is on the ground floor (the windows behind Aff are ours)

walking on our street, in the opposite direction to the last photo.

and so begins the descent (much better leaving home than coming back!)

still walking on our "street" (more like a stair case really), towards Via Garibaldi (at the bottom of the stairs)

and onto Via Garibaldi, and into Genova's "centro storico".

I never get sick of walking out our front door!

Bravo Rabbitohs !

2007-09-20T18:36:00.000+10:00

Don't ask me how they are going this season. All I know about the South Sydney Rabbitohs is that they play Rugby League, they come from South Sydney, and they are planning to remove all "Pokie" machines from their club rooms.

There are few things I hate more than Pokie machines. As Tim Costello explains, they exploit those who are most vulnerable in the community, to fill the wallets of the gaming industry. Sure, a lot of this money comes back to the public through taxes, but who wants to live in a society that exploits, and feeds off the misfortunes of their fellow citizens. In any case, it is public money that will inevitably be used to support those families who cannot afford to eat because of money lost on these machines.

Pokie machines have no place in a civilised society, and I hope the Rabbitoh's decision is the start of something bigger.

Notte Bianco - un'altra bella festa

2007-09-19T20:37:00.000+10:00

The festivals just keep on coming, each relentlessly offering more opportunities to sample new food, drink more wine, and soak up more cultural experiences. Last Saturday Genova had it's night of nights, the "Notte Bianco" (white night). There is no deep historical story, patron saint, or crop harvesting that motivates the Notte Bianco, it's just a big street party - and big it was. At midnight, over 700,000 people were apparently packed into the streets of Genova. That, in itself is impressive enough, but it's even more impressive when you consider that Genova's population is only 600,000. Of course, mention this to a Roman, or a Milanese, and they will waste no time in telling you how small and pathetic this is in comparison with their own notti bianci. In any case, Genova's capacity was well and truly exceeded, to the point of rediculousness at times, so 700,000 pathetic attendees seemed like more than enough for me.

Aff and I met up with a few other friends from my work, and spent the night wandering the streets. Many of Genova's most significant piazzas played host to all kinds of entertainment, from medievil reenactments, to the all too familiar sounds of cheesy Italian pop (thank God Italy doesn't enter eurovision .. it just wouldn't be a fair contest). We watched fire works down at the port, danced in the streets, all the while keeping ourselves well and truly at cruising level with molta birre, e rum con red bull. The idea, after all, was to party all night.

One of the more interesting, and unique opportunities of the night, was the possibility of visiting one of Genova's main tourist attractions, The "Acquario di Genova" (the Aquarium). Open until 5.30am, and offering half price entry, and a free breakfast at the end of the night, this was very high on my priority list. Aff and I had not visited the Aquarium, much to the disgust of locals we dare admit this to (though we attempt to disperse this disapointment by explaining that we haven't even visited Melbourne's aquarium). As such, a half price, 5am visit to a major Genovese attraction seemed like a perfectly good idea. Leaving ourselves a questionable 45 minutes before official closing time, Aff and I said our "buona notte's" to our friends (who didn't seem to be as keen on a late night aquarium visit), and joined the back of a queue of around 20 or so others. The line was moving steadily, and all seemed perfectly in place for us to cap off a great night among the fish - that is, until 5am, when we had reached the front of the queue, only to watch the shutters of the ticket window close before us. And there we stood, along with our fellow queue dwellers, staring in bemusement at the closed window.

There are many things I admire about the "Italian way". None more so than there complete self assurity and belief that there is always a way to achieve something, despite all evidence to the contrary. Sure, the ticket window was closed, and there was not sign of an aquarium employee to be found, but this did not stop them (and by association, Aff and I) from walking from the ticket booth, to the stairs leading up to the aquarium. A security guard awaited us. It was pretty clear that the security guard was under strict instructions to not allow anyone in. It was equally clear that the security guard had no clout with the establishment, and was not going to be able to fight on our behalf. This, however, did not stop some of the more vocal Italians in our group (about 18 of the 20 of us) from explaining at length, and with full Italian hand gestures at work, what injustice this was to shut us all out. Interestingly, the security guard did seem to be quite happy to engage in the dialogue. Aff and I watched, waiting to see if we were about to witness some great insight into the way Italian society works. Would the people have there way ? Would we walk gloriously into the aquarium, see our fish, and devour our well deserved free breakfast ?

About 10 mninutes later, the police turned up, and we were asked to leave, and so we all did.

After a sneaky kebab from our favourite late night out kebab shop, and a 10 minute walk home, Aff and I were nicely tucked up in bed by 5:45am.

Un'altra bella festa in Italia!

Now for some photos. You may get a sense that the evening had two distinct phases...

Swiss Alps I - Aletsch Glacier and Bettmeralp

2007-09-11T18:06:00.000+10:00

Mia Genova

2007-09-11T03:09:00.001+10:00

Cost of ticket on Funicula to top of surrounding hills: $1.20 (euro)

Cost of picnic lunch: $10.25 (euro)

Finding a quiet place to eat lunch while looking over Genova:

.... about $11.45 (euro) actually ..... but worth every cent.

(photo taken by Andrew Dankers)

"Festival delle Sagre" in Asti

2007-09-10T20:07:00.000+10:00

Italians do like a festival or two, and will seemingly organise one for just about any excuse under the sun. On Sunday, Aff and I decided to make the journey to Asti (pop 80,000, about 90 minutes train ride from Genova (on the way to Turin). We had originally planned to make the trip to Turin, but after reading that the second Sunday of September is Asti's day of days, The "Festa della Sagre" (basically means the festival of the town), we thought this might be worth a visit.

Asti didn't dissapoint!

Having just caught the 8am Intercity train from Genova, we managed to arrive just in time for the start of what must surely be the world's longest parade. Asti is a regional centre to a whole bunch of villages in the area, most of which have strong connections with the local wine industry (they mostly produce "Spumante", that sickly sweet sparkling wine so many of us became aquainted with early in our drinking careers), as well as corn growing (for polenta). As a result, most of the parade consisted of elaborate floats, paying tribute to the production, and consumption of food and wine (which I guess doesn't really distinguish it so much from other Italian festivals). There were other floats, dedicated to landmarks, and historical events from the region, but it didn't take long for another float to go past, depicting a bunch of old Italian blokes drinking vast amounts of vino rosso .... they played the part quite well ... if indeed they were playing the part at all.

After the parade, which took no less than 2.5 hours, including no less than 40 different represented regions, the real fun began in an adjacent car park lot, where around 40 food stalls lay waiting with many different local foods, and wines to taste. Without a moment to lose, thousands of Italians, and two not so well informed Australians, made their way on mass to the food. This event really did sum up everything I love, and hate, about life in Italy. The food on offer was amazing, and the prices next to nothing. The wine also it's usual high standard, and was virtually free once you purchased your 50c glass. Italians know, probably better than most, how to put on a town festival. These festivals seem to embody the pride of the region, particularly with respect to their food and produce. Nothing is expensive, and everything is top notch. On the downside, at least for us Australians used to a little more space, and order, is the enormity of the crowds, and the crushing "queues" one must endure to obtain the popular dishes. "Festival queueing" in Italy is an art form in itself, and requires a special kind of assertiveness, tolerance and endurance ... and that's just to get your food and wine tickets, then you have to line up seperately for each item you wish to take. Of course, none of this is helped by the constant defending of your place, and the hot north Italian sun baking the bituman surface below. To be fair, things did get consderably easier as the day went on, and the length of the queues lessened. Aff and I managed to visit a number of stalls, and sample a reasonable amount of the local wine (well, perhaps I sampled a little more than Aff did ). Like I said, they virtually give their wine away at these festivals. I can't imagine what kind of a mess such an event would end up being in Australia ... the Italians, to their credit, generally keep their consumption of alcohol to moderate amounts, which allows events like this to remain enjoyable for all.

Now for some photos. First, the parade, for which I unfortunately cannot add much of an explanation. There was an announcer, but my Italian wasn't quite up to understanding what the hell these floats were all about.

Yes, it's a cow!

Now for the food....

yes .... it's a little fried fish
(I thought they were chips)

yes .... the wine was plentiful!

yes ... that's a dog at the dinner table.

and yes ... I may have had a few.

It was a great day!

Parisian girl

2007-09-04T22:35:00.000+10:00

An eye-full of Eiffel

2007-09-04T22:26:00.000+10:00

On the "Free love Freeway" ..... to Slough

2007-08-31T22:39:00.000+10:00

Case, these pics are for you ... but first let me set the mood:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Free love on the free love freeway, the
Love is free and the freeway's long, I got some
Hot love on the hot love highway, ain't
Going home 'cause my baby's gone (she's gone)
-----------------------------------------------------------
-- David Brent
(and people say he's just a big pair of tits)

What's this all about ?

Pics of London

2007-08-31T00:45:00.000+10:00

London to Genova (via Paris and the Swiss Alps)

2007-08-30T22:35:00.000+10:00

Aff and I have just returned from two weeks "in vacanza", starting from London, then Paris, and finally Switzerland. It truly has been one of the most memorable and exciting trips I have done.

From catching up with good friends in London (thanks again to the good folk at Balham Castle for putting us up for 4 nights!), to strolling the streets of Paris, before hiking in the most stunning alpine country I have ever seen in Switzerland, this holiday truly had it all. Of course, all the way, Aff and I were stuffing ourselves silly with beer, wine, cheese, bread, roasts of the day, cheese fondue .. not to mention Terry's "fabuloso" Indian feast on our last night in London. Basically, I made it my mission to eat anything that wasn't pasta, or pesto. Never has a cornish pasty purchased at a dodgy London railway station kiosk tasted so good.

Now we are back in Genova, with two months left before we head home. It was a strange sensation coming back to Genova after two weeks away from the place. I don't think Aff or I have reached the point of saying we feel like Genova is home, but there was certainly a nice sense of familialarity about the place when we got off the train and walked back to our apartment. While Genova is probably not a place I would want to live long term for a variety of reasons, it does feel significantly more comfortable than it did.

I plan on posting a lot of photos over the next few weeks, as we extract those worthy of showing. I also have a serious back log of photos to post .. so don't expect any order to things (which to be honest, is perfectly representative of what life has been like since we got here).

Summer in Genova

2007-08-10T18:18:00.000+10:00

As usual, the frequency of posting on my blog is inversely proportional to the busy-ness of life at the moment. With internet access only at work, and a growing need to actually do work, while at work, it has been difficult to find time to post much. The short summary of life at the moment is, things are good. It's summer time, and even better, it's vacanza time! It's an interesting time because Italian cities really do seem to just empty out. In Genova, the traffic conjestion normally associated with Genovese people trying to get to work, is replaced by traffic conjestion in the opposite directio, normally due to those "f%&^ing" Milanese", as one friend told me, who come to Genova in their thousands to catch ferries to Corsica, Sardegna, Tunisia, Spain, France ... probably Australia for all I know.

It's a good time to be in Genova. With so many people on vacation, things feel calmer and more comfortable for people like Aff and me, who generally crave the quieter life. It's also good because I think Genova enjoys the best weather of any Italian city in summer. I was told that Genovese summer's can be quite brutal - particularly because of the humidity, which was described to me as stiffling. Things might be a little muggy here, but I really have not experienced anywhere near the discomfort that people told me to expect .. but then again, having spent some time in Singapore, I may have a slightly broader scale on which to assess humidity. In truth, Genova's weather is close to perfect. While the rest the country swelter's in 35+ temperatures, Genova seems to stick to the high 20's. At night it dips down to the low 20's - just cool enough to get some sleep.

As for travel, Aff and I have chalked up quite a few destinations over the last month. Lake Como, Cinque Terre (yes, again -- our 4th visit I think, but it is only an hour away), and Florence. All deserve there own report, or at least some photos (to come, I promise).

Aff is currently away in Sardegna on her own adventures until next week. After that, both of us take off for 2 weeks to London, Paris and Switzerland. Perhaps not typical summer locations, but with half the population of these places heading our way, they seem like good places to go.

Parked in Prague

2007-07-19T17:02:00.001+10:00

"Parked in Prague"
(Prague, Czeck Republic)

No, we didn't spend our entire weekend in Prague sleeping on the grass, but I must admit, lazy days like this were very much the theme. Terry, Taryn, Nadja (from Munich), Jen (Terry's flatmate), Travis (an Australian living in London), Aff and I spent a fantastic weekend exploring this beautiful city. It truly is a remarkable place, and nothing at all like I expected. My general impression of Prague before going, was of an Eastern European city slowly openning itself up to the world. What I found was a surprisingly modern, yet impressively well preserved city .... and yes, with beer at genuine 1972 prices!

I do think Prague suffers a little bit from exagerated descriptions of it's beauty, but then again, I don't think I ever laid eyes on anything I would regard as particularly ugly (except perhaps the regular spotting of drunk English blokes on stag weekends). What truly made this trip enjoyable though, was the great bunch of people we were with. Very laid back and relaxed - just the way I like it.

I will hopefully get time to fill in more detail later .. for now, just some photos:

living or visiting ?

2007-07-10T18:49:00.000+10:00

Life is pretty frantic at the moment. In fact, the last four weeks have been down right exhausting. Things are good, but much like Italian drivers, Aff and I could probably do with a slight easing of the foot off the accelerator. It's difficult though. We have 6 months (well, 4 months now) in this city. Since the moment we arrived here, I have realised that this is really quite an awkward time period. Is 6 months in a city considered "living" in it ? or is it just an extended visit. I think Aff and I both believed we were coming to Genova to live for 6 months, rather than just visit. I still think this is true, but I have since come to realise that with only 6 months here, perhaps the "visiting" mentality isn't such a bad thing either.

The biggest challenge I have faced is of course the language. It is difficult to live in Italy without the language, and if you are living here, then it is difficult to not feel obliged to learn it - and fair enough I guess. If you are visiting though, I don't think too many Italians would expect this, beyond perhaps a few basic phrases to buy milk, and get an all day bus ticket. So which category are Aff and I in ? When I arrived, my thoughts were, "I must learn the language if I am going to make friends with people here". When I mention this to Italians I have met, their first response is usually, "why? you are only here for 6 months". After hearing that response a few times, I realise that in the eyes of those who actually live here, I am very much a visitor.

While this might sound like something to be disappointed about, I have actually found releasing myself from this need to feel like I am living in Genova quite a weight off my shoulder. Much of the franticness of the last few weeks has been motivated mostly by my personal need to be meeting people and making as many friends as I can. In my mind, to say no, or not attend something is to risk missing an opportunity to get to know people better. Of course, this might be true, but why do I care so much if I am only here for 6 months anyway. Why do I need to be best mates with every single person I meet ? why do I feel like I need a best mate at all ... particularly if I am just visiting ? Even if I was living here, I doubt I would easily find this in my first 6 months.

This doesn't mean I shut up shop, and not talk to anyone. Nor does it mean I quit my language lessons. Both these things have been the most rewarding parts of my experience in Genova so far .. but also the most stressful. Perhaps viewing these things not so much as ends in themselves, but rather as bonuses along the way is the better way to go. Aff and I have many priorities to balance while we are here, and while our time here has been good so far, I think we have both probably sacrificed a few things in favour of learning the language, and constantly trying to make new friends .. the worst of these probably being spending time with each other, and just taking in where we are.

With four months to go, I am happy that I am starting to work these priority conflicts out now. I suspect life will always feel a bit frantic while we are here. Genova is a pretty frantic place. At least with some realistic perspectives on what it means to spend 6 months in a foreign city, I am starting to work out what I am actually here to do, and what really matters .. something that will probably also be useful to me when I get home as well.

The Italian Stallions

2007-06-21T19:07:00.000+10:00

"another satisfied guest at casa Aff'n'Chris"

T and C at Spianata Castelleto (Belvedere Montaldo), the obligatory first stop for all guests of casa Aff'n'Chris

taken 09/06/2007

Three Aussies and a Russian walk into a bar ..

2007-06-18T18:59:00.001+10:00

"and that's the way we all became the brady bunch"

A night out with T (and our new Russian amico Tim) at Porto Antico, Genoa
(taken 08/06/2007)

Dees win first game of season - Genova goes wild!

2007-06-11T18:29:00.000+10:00

"after nine rounds of dissapointment, Genovese fans errupt at the news of Melbourne's first win"

Piazza De Ferrari, Centro Genoa (taken 10/06/07)

As I stood watching this spontaneous street party errupt in Piazza Deferrari last night, I couldn't help but think that this may in fact be the closest I'll ever get to seeing the Melbourne colours, red and blue, being marched triumphantly down the main drag of my home town. Of course, the red and blue colours had nothing to do with the Melbourne Football Club, but rather, the triumphant promotion of the Genoa Football (i.e soccer) Club to Serie A in Italy's Lega Calcio.

No less than 5,000 people (according to this morning's paper) crowded into Piazza De Ferrari (more or less the city centre) to celebrate the fact that Genoa, after 12 years in "Serie B" (second division), have just been promoted to Serie A after a nill all draw with Napoli. This may not seem like a big deal, but in soccer mad Italia, if your not competing in the top division, your not really competing. Clearly the loyal Genovese fans were pretty happy to hear that next season, they will be competing again.

I must admit, I was quite oblivious to this event at the start of the day, although I did note a little more red and blue being worn around town than usual. It wasn't until the late afternoon, when I heard a sudden burst of beeping horns, and cheering, that I realised there was something going on. In a flash, I grabbed the camera, and went on the hunt. This is what I found:

Aff and I stuck around for almost 2 hours, and the party never really looked like stopping. We decided to leave when someone shot a firework rocket through the window of one of the adjacent buildings. The fire brigade arrived not long after, just as smoke started to pour out of the window. I truly haven't seen anything quite like it, and I can only imagine what it was like when Italy won the world cup.

Interestingly, the similiarity between the Genoa and Melbourne football clubs go further than their choice of colours. The full name of the Genovese soccer club is "The Genoa Cricket and Football Club", which was first established in 1893 by a bunch of poms living in Genoa at the time. Of course, the Melbourne football club also orginated from the MCC (Melbourne Cricket Club), and still holds close ties. It is also interesting to note that the Genoa Football Club uses the English spelling of Genova (i.e without the 'v'), again as a result of it's English roots.

Needless to say, with the red and blue colours, and now a place in the top division of one of the world's best soccer competitions, I have well and truly jumped aboard the good ship Genoa C.F.C. Of course, you can never really call yourself a fan until you buy a team flag, which I did:

A weekend with the windmills

2007-06-08T19:50:00.000+10:00

Not a lot of time to write at the moment, so I am relying on pictures to tell most of the story.

Aff and I ventured to Holland last weekend (as you do), to see Claire and Alec's home in Dordrecht (just east of Rotterdam). There was some urgency for this trip, as Claire and Alec only have another week or so before they move to Bristol.We were very keen to see where they have been living for the last 10 months before they left, so wasted no time booking our flights (from Milan to Amsterdam). Claire's orchestra also had a concert on the Friday night, which we just managed to get to, arriving in Dordrecht no less than 20 minutes before kick off.

I can't say Holland was ever high on my list of places to visit, but I am very glad I got the chance to see it. It really is quite different to anything I have seen. The stories are true, the country really is as flat as a table top. They keep the place pretty tidy as well. Everything looked so sparklingly clean - an observation that was probably somewhat enhanced by its contrast with Italy, and in particular, Genova, which has more of an "order in the chaos" feel to it (kind of like Queanbeyan is to Canberra - both have their charm).

We spent Saturday riding bikes around Dordrecht, and some nearby windmills, and sampling some Dutch beer afterwards in town square. Sunday we spent in Amsterdam (only 1 hour train ride away), where we managed to fit in a visit to the Vincent Van Gogh museum (very good), and a 75 minute canal tour, and yes, more sampling of Dutch beer (and yes, we did take a sneaky peak at the infamous red light district - again, the stories are true).

Enough writing. Time for some pictures.

First, the obligatory picture of windmills (just north of Dordrecht):

... and, of course, the obligatory picture of us with our Dutch bikes:

and finally, the obligatory photo of beautiful women, with sun flowers, standing on a bridge over an Amsterdam canal:

A great weekend, with great company, in a very interesting country.

Thanks for having as guys!

Tiramisu for Sabine!

2007-06-07T18:47:00.000+10:00

Hi Sabine - this one's for you.

"Tiramisu alla Affrica - molto buorno!"
taken 30/05/07

It's a tough life ...

2007-06-05T22:19:00.000+10:00

...but someone's gotta do it!

Nervi beach, 7km East of Genoa (taken 27/05/07)

Winless Dees ??

2007-05-29T23:09:00.000+10:00

Can someone please explain to me how the AFL season can be 9 rounds in, and my beloved Dees are yet to win a game ?

It is, however, comforting to know that while I'm OS, my team won't be going and doing anything silly like winning a premiership without me.

Via Garibaldi

2007-05-29T21:51:00.000+10:00

"Sure .. Nice palaces, but can someone tell me where I can buy milk in this neighbourhood ?"
Via Garibaldi, Genova (taken 30/04/07)

aye aye captain!

2007-05-28T17:14:00.000+10:00

It is often said that Italy is the centre of style and fashion. In fact, if there was one repeatedly given piece of advice I can remember before coming here, it was get ready to feel very under dressed. With this message well and truly engraved in my mind, I rid myself of almost half my tired, warn out wardrobe, in anticipation of a whole new world of fashion.

Now I'll admit, Italy does have style, and yes, fashion - but as Jeff from Lismore, a guy I met at the pub the other night pointed out to me, "yeah, there's a fair bit of fashion, but don't you think the blokes here look a bit puncy?"

He had a point. If Italy is where men's fashion is heading, then God help the humble, true blue, she'll be right, Aussie bloke. I can't say I could picture either Jeff, or myself, in a figure hugging, blue and white v-neck sailor shirt with tight 3/4 length jeans, designer mullet and "Thorpy" stubble.

As an observer, this look is quite fascinating, and can even start to rub off on you .. that is, until you go into a clothes store and try on something. The are few things more disturbing than seeing yourself in a horizontally striped, figure hugging, v-neck sailor shirt. Like a contour map of the Alpine National Park, the stripes provide an unforgiving portrayal of ones mid section. Thankfully, more conventional clothing does exist, and with some searching, I have discovered clothing more to my taste.

Who knows what I look like to the locals. Who knows what I will look like to Australia when I return. The problem with taste is that it changes unconsciously, and without objectivity. Having said this,the day I look in the shop window at a blue and white stripy v-neck sailor shirt, and think "that might just work", must surely be the day I book my ticket home.

Our new home ..

2007-05-24T19:16:00.000+10:00

"Italian Mumma ... on speed"

Our apartment, Genova (taken 02/05/07)

Ciao Genoa!

2007-05-17T18:08:00.000+10:00

"medievil sprawl "

Centro Storico - downtown Genoa (2 mins walk from our appartment)
taken 30/04/07

Musing in Manarola

2007-05-16T18:42:00.000+10:00

"macca musing in Manarola"

Manarola, Cinque Terre (taken 22/04/07)

but what is she looking at ?

2007-05-15T17:35:00.000+10:00

"sorry .. these damn Italian fishing villages keep getting in the way!"

Venazza, Cinque Terre (taken 23/04/07)

bricks are boring

2007-05-14T20:40:00.000+10:00

who needs bricks anyway !

Cinque Terre, near Venazza (taken 23/04/2007)

Villa with a view

2007-05-11T17:59:00.000+10:00

nice view ... now where's the remote?

Tuscano, Italia (near Lucca) - 15/04/2007

You know you're not at home when (I) ..

2007-05-10T17:42:00.000+10:00

It's 11am at the Stazione Principe bus station.

I am standing at an espresso bar, having my second caffe` macchiato of the day.

A car pulls up to a screeching halt.

A large, tall and muscular security guard, complete with pistol and army crew cut, gets out.

The engine is still running.

He approaches the bar.

"Probably an espresso down-the-hatch kind of guy", I think.

He orders a glass of Champagne.

"You can't sell what doesn't exist"

2007-05-09T23:19:00.000+10:00

If there was ever a "why didn't I think of that!" idea, then surely this one is it. On ebay last week was something you would struggle to buy in a shop, borrow from a library, or indeed, stumble upon at a trash and treasure. In fact, this item is so hard to locate, that ebay itself deemed it not to exist at all, and promptly removed it from their site.

On offer, was something quite special:

The Prime Minister of Australia, Mr John Howard's integrity (pictured right).

Seller’s Item Description:

You are bidding on an original 1950’s mind set. Genuine period flaws make this a truly unique item. While the internal mechanism (not in photo) is damaged it still spins at full speed. The veneer is in splendid condition. You will be disappointed or your money back.

Bidding reached $US51.00 before ebay removed it from the site. Ebay, of course, does not allow the selling of things that do not really exist.

If, like me, you think this is brilliant, vote for it on: ScoopIt

More coverage:

http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2007/05/invisible_assets_not_for_sale.html
http://www.defamer.com.au/2007/05/bid_for_john_howards_integrity.html

Volleyball anyone ?

2007-05-09T18:00:00.000+10:00

They dream of one day playing on centre court.
Collaseum, Roma (Taken 8/4/07)

Ciao! workplace

2007-05-04T21:58:00.000+10:00

"Ciao!" from the left, "Ciao!" from the right. "Ciao!", at least once a minute. Welcome to the Italian work place. As I sit and work in a room of no less than 30 people, it's not hard to understand why. People come and go like bees in a hive, and every time this happens, there is an apparent need to signify the occasion with a communal ciao from all. As the newest of new in this strange new workplace, it is both comforting and intimidating to be immersed in this quite different work environment.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of people are friendly, if a little stand-off-ish at first. With the language barrier as it is, much of the this feels somewhat impenetrable to me at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I receive my fair share of ciao's as well. I think there is a gradual warming to me happening, which makes me feel significantly more comfortable.

The impression I get is that this lab is pretty close, particularly the largish group of PhD students I find myself with. Almost all of them from somewhere else in Italy, many of them share houses together, and obviously socialise a lot together. They also seem to be about 5 years younger than me as well, which is no great problem, but there is no doubt that something happens in your late twenties that changes the focus from the "where will we go clubbing this Saturday" to, "this weekend I think I will purchase a basil plant for the window sill". I didn't say this of course.

The other major hurdle to jump in my early days of being in this strange new work place, is working out what the hell I am meant to be doing here. I have not had a chance as yet to talk to those who will be "mentoring" me while I am here. For now I feel fine with the lack of workload, but there is a growing anxiousness inside to work out some of these details, and get some of my many questions answered. I can ask those around me, and I do, but I would prefer to have someone actually show me what's what, rather than me have to annoy the person next to me with yet another mundane question, in English. Having a significant proportion of the eyes in the room on me when I ask it makes it feel all the more awkward.

Bare in mind, this is day three. In a week's time, I expect to have a significantly different impression of things, as I adjust, and have my many questions answered. Going with the flow looks like being the single greatest skill I will have to develop over these next 6 months. It's certainly been the case so far .. and so far .. so good.

Two years and still blogg'n

2007-05-03T22:15:00.000+10:00

Just realised maccamusings has chalked up it's second year of existence today. To think I began this blog as a procrastinating student, in a new city, and in a new lab. Oh how far I have come as I sit here now, a procrastinating student, in another new city, and yes, in another new lab. I'll admit that posting has been more difficult these last 12 months due to time pressures, and at times, a lack of inspiration/motivation. Like most interests I indulge myself in, the motivation to write comes and goes. I must say, with all that is happening at the moment, motivation is high (and with no idea what I am working on as yet, my work load is low), so expect some more regular posting. I appreciate those who continue to check in on me from time to time, despite how ad hoc, un-polished and irregular my posts can be.

Pronto!

2007-05-03T19:13:00.000+10:00

So life in Genoa has begun. The honeymoon, as they say, is over .. but of course, with everything new and exciting around us, there is no returning to normal programming. Aff and I are finding our feet, slowly but surely. The usual fluctuations of homesickness are always present, in the form of a very predictable routine. Having experienced this feeling a number of times in past adventures, I take some comfort in its highly predictable nature.

Mornings I wake up, and always feel down. I don't crave home more than at 7am when I wake up. Fortunately this feeling immediately subsides after I get out of bed and begin my usual morning rituals. Getting on with things is the best cure for homesickness. Simply doing those things I do, regardless of where I am, is normally all it takes to snap out of these morning blues. Leaving the apartment, and seeing the cobble stone streets, the rambling old medieval buildings, the packed coffee bars, Italians doing what they do (which, to be honest, is remarkably similar to us) and realising I live here is like an injection of adrenalin, bringing my focus right into the present. "I live here!"

When in Rome ...

2007-04-18T03:30:00.000+10:00

... you don't have time to post on blogs, nor do you when you are living it up in a Tuscan Villa. In fact, the only reason I have any time (or means) in which to post at this time, is because Aff and my honeymoon has been somewhat rudely interrupted by another not so attractive feature of Italy - Italian beauracracy. This has unfortuantely meant we have had to come up to Genova for a couple of days to sort out our residential pass, which we have almost done. We head back to Tuscany tomorrrow to continue this chaotic honeymoon (last week was also somewhat interrupted by a major robotics conference). Next week is the Cinque Terre, Surely nothing can come between us and the ocean.

Anyway .. much much more to post - and I will, in about two weeks.

Thanks for all the well wishes too!

Married, and ready to go

2007-04-06T07:48:00.000+10:00

Clearly there hasn't been much blogging of late, and unfortunately this post won't make up for it. So many things have happened, and so many emotions felt, it is difficult to know where to start ... so i won't .. just yet. All I will say is that it has indeed been the biggest week of my life, and Aff and I couldn't be happier about how our wedding went. It was the wedding we wanted, and we are pretty damn proud of ourselves for pulling it off .. with a lot of help of course.

Aff and I fly off to Italy tomorrow, and so my next post, most likely, will come from Rome, where our adventure begins. Rest assured the blog will live on, though it may take some weeks for me to return to regular posting.

Ciao!

A sleeping mat, an omelette and The Streets

2007-03-12T20:12:00.000+11:00

The title really says it all. With all my earthly belongings somewhere else, and Aff, somewhere else, I am left sitting on a sleeping mat, eating an omelette made up of what food is left, listening to The Streets. Sometimes that's all one needs.

Keep on Truck'n

2007-03-10T21:05:00.000+11:00

If I had any lingering thoughts of one day becoming a truck driver, they were well and truly quashed after last Saturday. Aff and I faced up to what was arguably the biggest pre-marital task of them all - moving out of our house. Well, strictly speaking, we didn't move out, we just re-distributed all our belongings for 8 months. This is the 6th time I have moved. It doesn't get any easier. Every time you think it will be easier, because you convince yourself that this time you are all the wiser, and know what to do. For the first couple of hours, you may even still believe this to be true... then it happens .. the wall hits,. This is usually marked by some irrational argument with one's partner about the quality of box they chose to pack your beloved PlayStation ..not this time however. This time it was marked by my complete inability to drive the truck we had hired to do the move.

Nothing quite gets the blood flowing like realising your truck has no hand brake. Equally, nothing quite gets the blood flowing like trying to reverse a truck on a steep drive way with no more than two metres between the front of the truck, and a parked car, and no ability to perform a handbrake start. Any inkling of thought about me one day ditching my research career and becoming a Truckee was instantly lost in that moment. Never have I longed to be in front of a computer as much as I did on that steep drive way. You will be pleased to know that I did manage to reverse the truck without incident .. though not without a very impressive string of expletives.

The other interesting phase of the move was our tip run. Aff and I were as brutal as ever about throwing out stuff. When we moved to Canberra, we did what I thought at the time to be a pretty comprehensive clean house. Well, that was nothing on this one. To be honest, I suspect I will regret a few decisions made in my tip frenzy. To make decisions in the days leading up to a big move is always a dangerous thing, because most decisions are clouded by the fact that you really don't want to lug around more than you have to. On the other hand, it really is incredible how much crap one can accumulate in a couple of years, and how hard it can be to throw some of this stuff out, despite how inconsequential some of this stuff is to your life.

As Aff and I cleared the back of the truck into the pit area at the tip, ready for the crusher, I did have a moment of doubt as I looked out at all the stuff we had decided to rid ourselves of. Old shelves, books, a computer .. a lot of stuff that did hold some value, and probably still had some use. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a moments doubt as I stared at all this stuff piled up. Almost perfectly on cue, however, the tip bulldozer entered from stage right, and quite literally, in the blink of an eye, all our belongings were swept away. It really was the rubbish tip equivalent of ripping off the band aid. There was nothing left behind ... including any doubt about what we had chucked out. The fact that I can barely remember what we threw out probably adds further support to the reason why we threw the stuff out.

So here we are, with nothing more than our sleeping mats, some clothes, and an esky. Suddenly everything is starting to feel a lot more real.

Burning up the Bowlo

2007-03-06T09:14:00.000+11:00

The marital count down has officially begun, and what better way to mark the occasion than with the ceremonial burning of the BBQ. To say this was not an entirely planned event would be an understatement. Aff and I did plan on having a BBQ to celebrate our wedding, and our OS trip with all our Canberra mates (most of which we couldn't invite to the the wedding), however, we did not expect to provide quite the floor show we did. Apparently the Turner Bowls club doesn't have too many BBQs. Or, perhaps they have too many. In any case, what they certainly don't do often enough is clean the fat tray at the bottom of the BBQ. If you've ever wondered what happens if you don't clean the fat tray, wonder no more .. it combusts.

Despite a few lost sausages, we still managed to salvage most of the meat, and had a great night. The only other mishap of the day happened a few hours earlier when I managed to cut myself quite badly on a piece of glass in the Bowls club Car park. I was wearing thongs, but that wasn't enough to stop a fragment a broken bottle finding its way through, causing quite a bloody scene. My immediate reaction was to pull the piece of glass out and ignore it (believing it wasn't that bad). It didn't take more than a few more steps for me to realise that the cut may be a little deeper than first thought. Not wanting to let people see the mess below my foot, I made a bee-line for the bar and asked for a first aid kit. I have to say, what the Turner Bowls club lacks in BBQ preparedness, and car park safety, they more than make up for with their extensive range of first aid products. With some very knowledgeable friends on hand to help, I was quickly bandaged up, and even had a beer in hand while the first aid was applied.

Unfortunately the freak storm that took out my office, also caused significant damage to the Turner Bowls club greens, so we were unable to bowl. This was a bit disappointing as Aff and I had originally planned to do the whole bowls thing. Perhaps on our return in 8 months time ... which should hopefully give the bowls club plenty of time to clean out the fat tray in the BBQ.

must have a word with the cleaner

2007-02-28T11:53:00.000+11:00

It would be fair to say that I probably won't be working at my desk for a while. My entire workspace has been demolished after last night's freak hail storm that hit most of central Canberra. The picture doesn't really do it justice. The entire area was flooded last night, along with most of my floor, including our labs. Everything on my desk was saturated through (including the computer, which I suspect is nothing more than a box on a desk now). If you're wondering what all the white stuff on the ground is, that's the sun roof, which apparently didn't cope so well with golf ball sized hail stones.

While this might all look and seem a bit like the worst case scenario for a PhD student, thankfully almost everything of value to me was taken home last night. I have my laptop, my fancy camera, and most of the hardware I use with me here at home. Quite amazingly, in what can only be described as the greatest decision of my PhD, I decided last night that I would work at home today, and so took all the equipment I needed with me. A truly inspired decision after seeing my desk this morning.

Of course, it's not just my building that was trashed. The entire ANU campus is officially closed today, which gives you some indication of just haw hard the campus was hit. Certainly by the looks of things though, my building (RSISE) was among the worst hit.

When I get a chance, I will try and include some more pictures. It really was quite an amazing sight this morning. Hail stones piled up like snow all around campus.

"For your vote tonight Bennelong, I thankyou"

2007-02-26T11:33:00.000+11:00

I'm no political expert, but as strategies go for the federal Labor party, I think this one is pretty darn good. Maxine Mckew, former ABC journalist, is going to run for pre-selection to contest the seat of Bennelong at the next federal election. That's Johny's seat, and with 13 consecutive election victories to date, he has made quite an arse imprint on that seat as well. The thing is, his grip on this seat has been steadily declining over the last few elections, and with retirement looming, it is quite feasible that the good voting people of Bennelong may look else where.

There is no doubt that McKew has universal appeal and has earned herself much respect from her 30 years with the ABC. What I like about this contest is that it places John Howard in the unusual position of being genuinely threatened by a fresh new option, while also denying him any means of claiming some sort of underdog status. The other aspect I like about this is that it makes what would normally be viewed as a shoe in for the coalition, a genuine contest. Now John Howard has to contend not just with a very real threat from Rudd, but also in his own backyard from McKew.

The real value of all of this as I see it, is that regardless of the outcome for McKew at the next election, their is great value in the symbolism of this contest. To see Howard being threatened like this, while also struggling to tackle Rudd as the alternative Prime Minister, gives one a sense that their is a real alternative to consider at the next election. It also puts the focus squarely on Howard, which is probably a good thing with his retirement looming. Labor will be wanting to de-stabilise Howard as much as possible, and keep the attention on the old bloke who's time is coming to an end.

Labor most certainly have the momentum, and I think it goes a little further than the simple "breath of fresh air" honeymoon period after a leadership change. There seems to be a growing mood change, and one that is very much against the government. Whether this means anything when the real vote comes around is, of course, a complete unknown. It will be a very interesting election indeed. Whatever happens, I just hope that if Maxine wins in Bennelong, she invokes her trademark end-of-interview pleasantry: "for your vote tonight Bennelong, I thankyou"

Time flies when you're out of your depth

2007-02-19T19:55:00.000+11:00

I have just finished what I think I can safely say has been my hardest PhD day to date. I'll admit, I didn't necessarily start the day in the right frame of mind, courtesy of last night's A-League soccer final viewing at All Bar Nun transforming from an intended 2 pint, home by 8pm evening to a 6 pint, home by 1am affair. It was a good night though. Today, unfortunately, needed every brain cell I could muster.

It's not like anything disastrous happened, or even anything particularly bad. It was just one of those days where I felt completely out of my depth. This is perhaps something that those of you who dabble in the fine art of mathematics every now and then may relate to. You have a problem to solve, and you know there is a nice solution, but you realise that the required knowledge for obtaining that solution goes well beyond your own expertise.

At first you think, ok, wikepedia time, as you try to cram a semester's worth of differential geometry into a couple of hours. Of course you soon realise that this is not working, and you are more confused than ever, which leads you to the next natural step - ask the supervisor. I did this at approximately 2pm this afternoon. I have just returned to my desk - it's 7.40pm! The scary thing is that I thought it was about 5pm! I was supposed to play netball at 6.50pm.

Unfortunately, despite all the time spent on my problem, I am still feeling well out of my depth. This is compounded by the fact that I only have a few weeks left to write the paper that this work will be included in, and so have little time to get my head around some pretty advanced topics. I actually feel a bit sick when I think about what needs to be done.

In any case, today is very much over, and I am thankfully off home. All of this research bullshit is very much tomorrow's problem now.

Feb Fun - yeah right

2007-02-17T11:26:00.000+11:00

It would be reasonable to say that my lack of blogging has had something to do with things being a tad busy of late. Very much as predicted, February is turning out to be every bit the right royal pain in the arse I thought it would be. Having said this, things are progressing on most fronts, albeit slowly. What I find funny is that most people ask Aff and I about our wedding plans, and how they are going, when in truth, the wedding is probably the least stressful task of them all (well, that is to say, it is the least stressful task at the moment). Italian visas, work contracts, finding accommodation in Italy, learning Italian, conference presentations, annual research reports, moving out of our place and storing our stuff are all things occupying our time at the moment. So yes, the blog posts have been a little few and far between of late.

I will actually try and not let this happen from now on, as I suspect these next few weeks are probably going to feel like a bit of a blur. As such, a reasonable account of this interesting time might actually be worth reading in years to come.

This last week just gone has probably been the most interesting since my last post. It started in fine style, with a Sunday arvo pub crawl with the Fuzzy Logic crew. This was organised to farewell Tim and myself, as we are both leaving Canberra. Of course, I will be back, and will certainly rejoin the Fuzzy crew on my return. There was some discussion about me being the Europe science correspondent while I'm away in Italy, which would be kind of fun to do, if the technology will allow it . It's been fun!

Perhaps my biggest news of the week was my resignation from the ANU Postgraduate Student Association (PARSA). This, unfortunately, was always going to be a little more complicated that just a simple goodbye, by virtue of the current low numbers on the council. With myself as Vice-President, and Grant as president both resigning, it was in both our interests to ensure that we at least recuited enough people to replace us. I am very happy to say that we achieved far better than this. At our final council meeting yesterday, six new PRC members were co-opted, as well as a couple of new social team members. This was the result of a pretty intensive week long recruitment drive (it was O'week this week, so there were plenty of new postgrad students around) which Grant and I were most involved with. It was great to see it pay off, and to leave PARSA on a bit of a high. A lot more students are needed for the council to truly regain it's strength, but the quality of the new recruits seemed to be pretty high, so I think the future looks good.

I have said plenty about PARSA over the last 22 months that I have been involved, so won't go into it all again here, except to say that it has been a very rewarding experience. Even so, there was no understating my immense relief after yesterday's meeting. I was going to resign, regardless of the success of this week's recruitment drive, but knowing there are more people after my resignation than before it is a much nicer way to go. The council is overwhelmingly made up of genuinely good people, who seek only to to do good things. It has been a privilege to work with such people (past and present).

So now I am free of almost all extra curricula activities (except sport, which I keep as a means of staying sane) , leaving me to focus on that one other elephant in the room .. research. My goals - nay - deadlines for the next four weeks are quite brutal, and in all honesty, I am not sure how I will go achieving them. The major one is a paper submission, which my supervisor and I have targeted. In truth, my ambition to make this deadline is not so much driven by the desire for a publication, but rather, to ensure the work I will be extending on in Italy, is in fact, in a state to be extended upon. Basically, how much I get done in the next four weeks will have everything to do with what I end up working on in Italy, so I do feel a reasonable amount of pressure to produce. With everything else happening at the moment, this feels like a very big mountain to climb indeed. Of course, the thing the drives people to climb big mountains is the rewarding view at the summit. I cannot think of a better motivator than this to get what needs doing, done.

Conspiracy theory gains momentum

2007-01-30T09:54:00.000+11:00

Regular readers (hi Mum) might recall a bit of a rant I posted just prior to my trip to Beijing late last year for a conference. My complaint, in essence, was that my presentations at robotics conferences are always scheduled in the last session of the last day. This has occurred three times previously.

Well, good people of the blogosphere, I present you now with what is surely damming evidence that there is indeed a plot to ensure that I will never present my work to an audience that cares. In the biggest conference of them all, where no less than 700 papers are presented, over three days, in 14 parallel sessions, this early career researcher has yet again earned himself the esteemed time slot on the technical programme, of dead f$%king last!

Yes, that's right. At approximately 6:45pm, Friday April 13 (yes, Friday the 13th!), I will be delivering the most pointless talk of the conference. I am thinking of just renaming my paper "conspiracy theories from a jaded PhD student"

It might sound a bit petty to complain about, but as anyone who attends conferences regularly knows, the best way to meet people at these things is to give a talk. This works really well when your talk is early in the piece (so I've heard), but is next to useless when your talk is last. I can't say I'd be rushing to see a talk in the last session, on the last day of a three day conference.

The only saving grace this time is that at least they have put me in a session with other similar talks. That is a first for me, so I guess I should be happy with that! and, of course, I am not so spoilt a brat as to ignore the fact that the conference is in Rome, and for the first time, I will have Aff to keep me company during the conference. In that light, having the last talk of the conference is a small price to pay .... I just wonder why I am always the one to pay it!

The home stretch .. or perhaps the runway

2007-01-29T12:23:00.000+11:00

For whatever reason, I view the long weekend just gone as the official start of the marital/Italy home stretch. It was a fantastic long weekend spent bbq-ing, cricketing, tennis-ing and community radio-ing with friends, including some friends visiting from Melbourne. It was one of those weekends you know you will appreciate in a couple of weeks time, when the almighty todo list begins to dominate your every waking hour.

I am happy to say that Monday morning has seen both Aff and I hit the ground running. First stop was the Italian Embassy, where I began what is likely to be one of the most stressful activities for February - obtaining an Italian Visa. This will be no trivial exercise as the Italians are pretty hung up on a foreigners ability to cover their own expenses. Fair enough I suppose, although it would be nice if I could just sign a piece of paper saying "she'll be right mate!"

Another thing that will start happening from now on in, is the winding up of my involvement in various things. Sunday morning was my last Fuzzy Logic show for the year. I do enjoy my radio contributions, but without adequate time to prepare, my contributions end up being a little less polished than I would like. Hopefully when I return at the end of the year, I will have more time to give it.

The postgrad association is another commitment that will be coming to an end in a couple of weeks time. Unlike the radio, this one will most likely be for good. In truth, I have only stuck around for as long as I have because numbers are so low, and there is very little experience on the council. With some new recruits hopefully on the way, this situation will hopefully ease. PARSA has undoubtedly been a roller coaster ride. In many respects, it has been the most rewarding thing I have done since arriving in Canberra, but by the same token, it has been one of the most draining. When I come back, I do not plan to get involved again. It needs new energy, and new ideas, but most of all, more student support.

So it's a busy time, but also an exciting time. While we will be coming back to Canberra when we return from Italy, it does feel like life as we have known it these last two years is coming to an end. Whether this is really true is not clear, as we will be back here for sometime after, and will probably slip back into Canberra life fairly easily .. who knows.

Life is certainly not dull.

Flag's days must surely be numbered

2007-01-24T09:13:00.000+11:00

(posted originally as a comment at Benambra (Rob's blog)

I can't say I agree with the stance the BDO has taken about discouraging the aussie flag at the Sydney festival this Friday, but I do think they have highlighted a very real problem with our flag that I don't think we're going to resolve without some serious change. Surely our national flag's days are numbered . I find it funny that a flag that is supposed to unite us all as one nation, appears to divide us along so many different racial, cultural and political lines. I for one have no affinity with the flag whatsoever, and long for the day when we realise we are a mature nation, and deserve a flag that reflects who we are, not who we were. We need a flag that truly unites us, and perhaps most importantly, one that doesn't get confused with New Zealand's.

Taking the piss

2007-01-22T12:21:00.000+11:00

Nothing quite says "productive Monday morning" like handing a urine sample over the desk at the ANU Health clinic as your first act of the day. An awkward interaction with the receptionist was inevitable, as I approached the desk, reached into my back pack to produce my morning's achievement. Thankfully, the reception desk has a nice little blue esky to put it in, so both the receptionist, and myself were saved the ungraceful act of handing one's piss jar over the desk.

Nothing to fear by the way, just a regular check-up (well, by regular I mean, the first of what should from now on be regular check-ups). I was convinced by an unnamed person rather close to me that being 30 years old, I should start getting in the habit of getting check-ups. Fair enough I suppose, but this whole health check thing is quite a process. If I keep it up, hopefully over time, I will master the fine art of providing one's own urine sample.

Dispensing advice can be exhausting

2007-01-10T09:23:00.000+11:00

Aff and I attended a dinner last night, hosted by the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF). I scored two tickets to the dinner after presenting a show to some of the kids last week, on insect-inspired robotics and computer vision.

The NYSF is a strange beast. Each year, during the summer holidays, some of Australia's brightest year 12 entrants gather in Canberra for what is essentially a 2 week science boot camp. They get up at 7am, and do all manner of science throughout the day, then participate in various social events each night. It is obviously designed at attracting these kids to science and engineering fields, but also seems to have a large emphasis on building networks. Given Rotary Australia is largely responsible for the selection of the kids who attend this event, the latter is not entirely surprising.

The students are certainly bright and enthusiastic - and not short on confidence either (or in some cases, ego). I don't think I have ever been asked so many deep and philosophical questions about my field, and about science in general, as I was at last night's dinner. Both Aff and I were dispensing career, and university selection advice, like machine gun fire. This can be a slightly daunting prospect because they hang onto every word you say. Some of these kids were working the room like machines, moving from one researcher to the next, introducing themselves, and then proceeding to drill the person with deep questions about the role of science in society, or the difference between instinct and emotion (well answered Aff), and my favourite question of the night, "what do you do when you run out of research ideas?".

After four hours of this, and a three course meal, and a guest speaker (who by coincidence, just so happened to be my supervisor Srini), the night was over. Afterwards, Aff and I headed straight home and flopped on the couch, completely exhausted. I found it hard to sleep last night, trying to recollect all the advice I had dispensed, and whether I had given these very attentive, impressionable kids the right advice. I think I did, but it's hard to know. The fact is, I was not like these kids when I was their age, so I don't know how relevant my advice is. Then again, one of the most important skills to learn in life is to never take advice blindly, so either way, they have probably learnt something from me.

So it was a good night, and a very enlightening one. I do have some reservations about the selection process for this event, and the accessibility of this event for students from less priveledged backgrounds (this is only an observation from last night). Given the rigorous interview process conducted by the Rotaty, I fear that a lot of the brightest students are being missed because they lack the public speaking confidence (and perhaps, the charisma) to make the cut - but I can be a cynical bastard at the best of times. The event itself is a great initiative, and clearly of benefit to the kids that do attend. They were obviously enjoying themselves when I asked them about it last night.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering what I told the student who asked me what I did when I ran out of reseach ideas ...

simple .... I blog.

"Belco" kitchen goes live

2007-01-04T09:16:00.000+11:00

It must surely be a good sign for the year ahead when the very first email I read on January 1, in a hung over state in Carlton, was a message informing me that a paper I submitted back in September, has been accepted for publication and presentation at this years ICRA(International Conference on Robotics and Automation). This conference is the biggest robot geeks gathering of them all, and attracts a fair bit of interest, so I am pretty happy about making the cut.

Apart from the obvious research benefits of getting more runs on the board, this particular achievement is made more significant in that the conference is in Rome this year. Having a paper to present while in Italy is very good for me (and avoids any possibility of my travel funding being suddenly taken away, not that I really feared that would happen). One slightly tricky thing is that the conference is about a week after Aff and I get married, so the honeymoon will happen straight after I give my talk (which will undoubtedly be in the last session of the last day, as per usual).

Another interesting fact about this paper is that this will be the first to feature Aff and my kitchen (referred to in the paper as the "belco" kitchen sequence). While working at home one day, with my fancy wide-angle lens camera, I walked it around our kitchen to construct an image sequence for one of my major results (though I wasn't really thinking I'd use it at the time). As it turns out, our kitchen is perfect for feature and motion detection, which is really just a nice (and slightly geeky) way of saying it's a bit of a mess.

So for your viewing pleasure (sorry Aff), I present ... the "belco" kitchen sequence.

The nitty gritty
The line you see moving around like a compass is actually indicating the estimated direction of forward motion. I use the visual motion of the scene as the camera moves along, to try and estimate which direction I am moving in. This is tricky because you can only extract this sort of information from the visual motion due to the camera's straight line motion, and so I first have to remove any motion due to the camera's rotation. Of course, I have no information other than what I see in these images to work with, so I can't just say "I know I rotated by this much, so deduct that from the visual motion". I have to estimate everything.

The blue and yellow dots around the circle indicate the direction in which the visual motion is going at that point in the image (blue is clock-wise, yellow is anti-clockwise). This information helps me "de-rotate" the visual motion.

Being a world-wide accessible blog, I should make it clear that much of what I have described above is based on some theoretical work that was done in the late eighties by Nelson and Aloimonos. As far as I know, the belco kicthen sequence is the first demonstration of this technique being used in real-time, on real image sequences. I am amazed this technique wasn't taken further a lot earlier than this.

Once I know which direction I am going, and I have removed the rotation, I can then build what are known as depth maps from the remaining visual motion. This is essentially a map showing what space is free and what is obstructed around the camera (which has a 190 degree field of view). I do this by exploiting the fact that things that are closer appear to move faster than things further way (just like bees). This is obviously pretty useful for navigating around unknown environments.

The paper's details:
"Real time biologically-inspired depth maps from spherical flow", by C. McCarthy, N. Barnes and M.V. Srinivasan. To appear in proceedings of IEEE ICRA 2007. Rome, Italy, April 10-13, 2007.

what about Hicks?

2007-01-03T10:04:00.000+11:00

From this article about the Americans' release of Saddam to the Iraqis prior to his hanging:

"The Americans said that 'We have no issue in handing him over, but we need everything to be in accordance with the law'," the Iraqi official said, adding that they did not wish to break the law.

It's a shame the Americans cannot afford this same basic right to David Hicks, who unlike Saddam, has killed no one.

10 Things I won't achieve in 2007

2007-01-02T10:58:00.000+11:00

Happy new year to all maccamusings readers.

Just arrived back from a hectic week in Ye Olde Melbourne town. The car sat noticeably lower on our return journey up the Hume , not so much because of the presents we received, or the unexpected return of our cat, but because I managed, somehow, to put on a whopping three kg's in 10 days. I'll admit, I didn't hold back. There was plenty of Christmas Turkey, and copious quantities of beer, wine and Champagne drank throughout the week. All these warm up activities came beautifully together in one final hurrah on New year's Eve - and what better event than a karaoke party at Chateau De Carlton (thanks Lisa and Mikey B!). Needless to say, New year's morning was a bit of a struggle, forcing the delay of Aff and my departure time to the early afternoon. We still arrived back in Canberra in day light (I love day light savings).

Of course, the new year brings with it, that unexplainable need to list off goals for the new year. Quite frankly, I rarely achieve these, and so decided this year that rather than set myself up for an inevitable defeat, I would instead list 10 things I will in no way achieve in 2007 (in no particular order).

So here they are:

I will not complete my PhD
Though try I might, it is entirely unlikely that I will reduce my beer (or coffee) consumption
I will not develop a love for classical music.
I will not ride my bike from Canberra to Melbourne.
I will not progress beyond the snow plough when skiing.
I will not fulfill my life long goal of nudy running over the grassy hill on Parliament House.
I will not vote Liberal.
I won't return from Italy speaking fluent Italian.
I will remain feeling anxious when faced with large social occasions.
And lets be honest ... I probably won't finish the South Coast Tassie hike report.

I'll admit, they are lofty anti-goals, but I have a good feeling about this year.

Oh, OK .. here are a couple of things I will achieve in 2007:

I'll marry the girl I love
I'll spend 6 months swanning around Italy
and yes ... I'll keep posting gratuitously self serving blog posts like this one

Happy new year to all!

Hazy memories of a night to remember,

2006-12-21T09:55:00.000+11:00

NICTA had it's end of year Christmas bash yesterday afternoon. While the food was good, the party itself was nothing to write home about (yet here I am, writing about it). Most people left soon after the formalities, in most cases, back to the office - quite disappointing really. Not to stand by and see our much anticipated Christmas party cut short, Phil and I decided to kick on, thus beginning an 8 hour, 2 man pub crawl of inner north Canberra.

I have never seen time fly by so fast. The Christmas party ended at about 3pm, and I swear, in the blink of an eye, it was 11pm. It was my concern about getting work done the day after that ultimately brought proceedings to a close (and the call of last drinks at the Wig'n'Pen). T'was a night to remember, though unfortunately, a night largely forgotten as I nurse myself through the after effects this morning.

Interestingly, it was not just my head that hurt this morning. One memory of my previous night's escapades came flooding back in an instant as I sat up in bed, only to be forced to lie back down by a sudden throbbing pain in the upper part of my backside. It took only a moment for the memories of my rather bumpy bike ride home to come to the fore. Given my intoxicated state, I wisely chose to stay off the roads as I rode home from the pub, instead opting for the bike paths. The problem with bike paths is that they are quite dark, and while I do have a light, it would be fair to say that in my blissfully and drunkenly unaware state, I wasn't exactly paying full attention to the threat of any potential impedance on the track ahead. It is therefore no surprise, as I came racing down a hill towards an intersection, trying to make the green light, that I made the unfortunate mistake of assuming the transition from the bike path to the road I was crossing included a ramp allowing me to simply roll onto the road. In truth, there was a ramp, but it was about 3 metres to the left of where I thought it was, and so rather than the smooth road crossing I was hoping for, I experienced a rather abrupt drop in altitude as my bike rolled (rather fast), over the gutter.

This may not sound that bad, but taken unawares, a gutter drop can really do some damage, particularly when your body's momentum moves forward as the bike drops, and your arse bounces off the nice cushy bit at the back of the seat, and lands on the narrow, and significantly less cushy bit at the front. My entire body shuddered as I found myself quite literally wedged by my own bike seat. Ironically, while my alcohol consumption was clearly to blame, it was also what saved me from the harsh reality of just how painful this was. In the murky haze of this morning's hangover, as I sit in my chair with a slight forward lean, and with a cushion, I am all too aware of the pain now, and have more than enough evidence to remind me of what was clearly a night to remember .... I think.

A special time .. with a special guy

2006-12-20T09:13:00.000+11:00

Hume Hwy alert - Canberra driver and terrified cat

2006-12-15T11:03:00.000+11:00

Just sent Aff, and the cat, off on their merry way to Melbourne. If anyone sees a white Lancer with Victorian plates and a terriffied cat catepolting down the Hume towards Melbourne (at 70km/hr), give the driver a wave (and plenty of space). If anyone sees a car of the same description heading towards Sydney, let me know.

So now I am left to my own devices for a week, before I myself make the journey down south next Saturday. With some pretty serious deadlines and milestones to achieve in the next three months, I decided I really can not afford any more time off than the minimal Christmas break. Of course, with a couple of Christmas parties looming, including the much anticipated NICTA party next Wednesday (another drunk geeks alert is likely to be issued for residents of the inner north of Canberra), Christmas shopping, and my annual Christmas grooming (haircut, and maybe a shave), it will be a difficult week for work productivity, but a necessary one I'm afraid.

BTW - Melburnian's - any NYE plans that may allow two outer-towners to crash ? We're not entirely sure whether we will be in Melbourne for NYE (although it's looking more and more like we will be), but if we are, we'd love to know what people are doing (email me if you'd prefer not to post a world-wide advertisement).

Sick of being sick

2006-12-12T11:57:00.000+11:00

For about the third time in the last 6 months, I am sick with the Flu.

My story of woe so far:

Saturday morning- I started the day early - 6.30am to be precise, and with my health in tact. By 9am I was working up a sweat in the garden, digging holes aimlessly (an activity that seems to make me feel a little more manly). Despite starting to feel a little run down by mid afernoon, Aff and I decided to head off to the coast for a night of camping. Much like the drive from Canberra to Batemans Bay, this was when things started to go down hill. By Saturday night, my head was all over the shop with mild fever symptoms setting in, and the obligatory cough that undoubtedly startled a few unsuspecting possums (not to mention campers). After a sleepless night, I was unable to drive home on the Sunday, instead relinquishing the responsibility to Aff while sat quietly and motionless in the passengers seat. I was quite keen to get home and lie on the couch.

Monday morning- after initially feeling ok, I soon started feeling worse as I trudged myseld to uni for the final performance of my teams' High school outreach show. Being team leader, and the only person with a car, it was pretty important that I made it, so staying home was not really an option. Thankfully, I survived the performance, although this did not come without consequences. I spent the rest of the day lying in a daze on the couch at home, watching some crappy info-mercial about zit cream (and perhaps most alarmingly, finding it interesting).

And now Tuesday- I am home again, although things have improved considerably. While I am still coughing and sneezing with impressive frequency, and volume, I am pleased to say that my temperature has come down, and I am at least able to do work at home. Being less than two weeks until Christmas, I am pretty anxious to get a fair bit of work done, which I must admit, has been largely ignored these last few weeks (such is the way of the PhD student).

It is a little alarming when I consider how many times I have been sick this year, although perhaps not entirely a mystery. Much like bushfires are often described as nature's way of restoring balance to an ecosystem, perhaps the flu is nature's way of doing the same for me. It does make sense, because I do have a history of getting quite ill when times are tough. The most notable case in point being in 1998, while doing my honours year at Melb Uni, when after 3 months of getting no more than about 3 or 4 hours sleep a night, I was forced to withdraw for 6 months after being diagnosed with glandular fever. Not much fun, I can tell you, although the Panadeine Forte tablets weren't so bad.

So yes, perhaps it's time I start taking things a little easier. For some known and some unknown reasons, this is a little easier said than done for me, but clearly necessary.

Victoria on fire

2006-12-08T09:22:00.000+11:00

.. And I don't mean we're going well in the cricket. The state is quite literally on fire. In Canberra this morning, I noticed a light haze. Could be from something else, but given the light southerly breeze (I base this judgment on the head wind I had to endure as I rode in this morning), and the location of Victoria's largest fires in the Alpine areas to the east of the state, I think it is entirely plausible that this haze has something to do with the fires down south.

The predictions for the weekend are strikingly bad for Victoria, and it pains me to think that some of Victoria's most beautiful Alpine regions are likely to go up in smoke this weekend. For anyone who hasn't seen exactly what the experts are predicting, check out this flash presentation from The Age. Scary stuff, particularly if these fires come together. You know things are bad when fire fighters start talking about the coast line being the ultimate limit to these fires. We're talking about almost an entire piece of the Victorian tourism puzzle being burnt out, not to mention a few major towns under severe threat.

Good luck to all the fire fighters, and those with homes at risk. Lets hope the weather isn't as severe as predicted.

Seven on the trot

2006-12-07T09:18:00.000+11:00

It is somewhat ironic that wedding planning was probably the main reason Aff and I both forgot our seven year anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Yes, seven years and two weeks ago, Aff and I decided our share house living arrangements weren't nearly complicated enough, choosing instead to throw the proverbial hand grenade into the mix by becoming a couple. It was a pretty big decision for two good friends, and housemates, to get together, though I don't remember there being too much parliamentary debate on the issue at the time. And here we are now, seven years and two weeks later.

Neither of us seem particularly phased about missing the date this year. Ordinarily, we use this as our annual excuse to pull out the credit card, and undo a year's worth of saving - always a good way to start the festive season. This year, however, no such pomp and ceremony.

Like I said, we both seem comfortable with this. With all our exciting plans for next year, it's very much a case of "eye on the prize" at the moment. This morning, however, I found myself giving this some extra thought. Is it just me, or does seven years seem an awful lot more than six years ? Seven always seems to hold extra significance for the human mind. We have seven days in a week, seven deadly sins .. ... Seven players in a netball team.... Ok, so maybe there aren't that many examples, but for what ever reason, the jump to seven does seem more significant than that from five to six ?

In any case, I decided this morning that seven years should be marked in some way, and should not simply fall victim to planning for future endeavors. This mentality has a nasty way of becoming habitual, and goes against the most fundamental doctrine I live by - living in the now (with an eye on the future of course).

So Aff, get the good frock on! It's Hungry Jacks on the Lake this weekend baby!

Rudd wins

2006-12-04T10:30:00.000+11:00

There it is again .. the sound of a collective sigh of relief.

Now let's get on with it.

About Ruddy time!

2006-12-01T16:25:00.000+11:00

Not sure if anyone else noticed it today. The sound of a collective sigh of relief as Labor supporters like myself heard news of Rudd and Gillard's intention to challenge for the party leadership. Quite frankly, this should have happened two years ago. I have always believed that Rudd is Labors best chance at winning the next election, and notwithstanding a big upset next week when the party votes, I will be most relieved to see the best man for the job, finally in the job.

My question, assuming Rudd wins, is what will become of big bad bomber Beazley ? My intuition tells me nothing. What happens to a twice ex-leader of a major party ? Beazley clearly isn't willing to just give up the leadership, hence the need for a vote, so Beazley certainly still has the fire in the belly. Having said this, perhaps it's the sniff of prime ministership that keeps the big guy going. If Beazley loses next week, it won't just be the leadership that he will be waving goodbye to, but one would have to think, any chance of being prime minister, which must be hard to cop after so many years spent aspiring for this very position.

Sorry Kim. Your time was and should have been in 2001 .. but unfortunately it wasn't. The electorate needs new faces to believe in, not old faces carrying all the baggage of the past. Bring on Rudd, and lets get Howard the hell out!

Shining some new light on cricket

2006-11-28T15:41:00.000+11:00

I have decided that this year's winner of the "I never thought we needed it until I saw it" award must surely be the Infra-red "hot spot" camera introduced for the first time in channel 9's coverage of the Ashes last week. Using heat-sensitive light, the camera can be used to show exactly where the ball hit the bat (or pad) by highlighting the surface "hot spot" where contact was made. After contact, the hotspot remains for some number of seconds after, allowing cameras to show the contact point after the event. In a game where there is never a shortage of things to talk about, this certainly adds an extra dimension to the ball-by-ball analysis.

Of course, this technology is by no means new. The military have been playing with infra-red cameras for years. There is also considerable interest in the use of hyperspectral cameras in areas as diverse as sports medicine (particularly for tracking muscle usage, and blood flow), to structure integrity testing in buildings where certain non-visible wave lengths of light can provide useful clues as to the make up of materials, as well as stress points in the structure. When this sort of technology makes it to the cricket pitch however, you know it has reached the masses.

Interestingly, Channel 9 seem somewhat reluctant to pull out the camera all that often, opting instead to tease us every now and then. I am not sure whether this is due to not always having a clear enough image, or whether it is simply a matter of them trying to extend some of the mystique and intrigue by holding back their latest toy. In any case, it certainly adds value to the coverage (and almost makes up for my complete lack of interest in the channel 9 commentary team).

Outreach begins

2006-11-23T12:11:00.000+11:00

We had our first school visit this morning. Pete, Dave, Sheryn and myself met at 9am, and headed out in my car (now known as the nerd mobile), where we entertained about 30 or so year 10's for just over an hour. I must admit, the nerves were a little shaky as we entered the school. It really is quite a different world when you step inside a school. My flash backs began almost immediately. Not sure what it was that provoked the flash backs - the smell of lino floors perhaps ? or maybe the sound of students referring to teachers as sir and miss ? Whatever it was, I wasn't completely ready for it, and it took me a little time to settle down.

The school had the classic look. Kind of like a prison, but with brighter colours. We were lead through a maze of corridors to the science lab where we were to perform. Thankfully we had about 20 minutes to setup everything, so we were well and truly ready to go when the students arrived. Thankfully we scored a very friendly, slightly cheeky but well behaved bunch, and the show went without a hitch.

Having done two full dress rehearsals prior to this in front of expert science communicators, I thought we were pretty well prepared, and in general, I think we were. It was, however, quite an eye opener to see just how random some students can be with their questions. I got asked everything from "do you think a low resolution image that gradually increases to high res would help resolve the distance ambiguity" to "do you think robots will rule the world" .. to which I respectively answered "no" and "probably".

So we managed to survive our season opener, and certainly learnt a lot more from this than any rehearsal prior (which adds to my growing skepticism about the worth of "expert advice" dished out by science communication specialists sometimes - but that's a rant for another day).

We have five more shows scheduled in the next three weeks. The next one is Monday

Official leave is good leave

2006-11-22T10:33:00.000+11:00

Back from a fantastic two weeks in Melbourne. For what was very much a relaxed, nicely paced break, I did amazingly well at catching up with family and friends, thanks mainly to the organisational skills of others. Amongst all of this, I also managed to get some wedding planning stuff done. The suits are ordered, the venue is booked, and the bucks party preparations are underway.

So I had a good two weeks. To anyone battling through a PhD like myself, wondering why you should bother taking official leave when you can pretty well just stay away when ever you want anyway, I urge you to consider filling out the official form every now and then. There is something about "official leave" that takes away that uneasy feeling that comes from the much more common "not so official" leave that many of us take (otherwise known as mental health days). In my two weeks of official leave, I felt it my duty to not even mention the word research, let alone do anything, or read anything. Bloody brilliant!

Of course, the problem is, now I'm used to the good life. I cannot say I have come back to my PhD with all guns blazing. With the sun out, and summer well and truly upon us (not withstanding the occasional random snow fall), the last place I feel like being is at my desk. This is, of course, not exclusive to research, but any line of work that restricts ones access to their happy place. In general, however, things are good, and I am all the better for my "official leave".

I'm outa here

2006-11-03T10:15:00.000+11:00

For the most part, my work load is back to manageable levels, although I am very aware that I am still feeling quite flat after a pretty tough three months. Almost perfectly on cue, however, I was approached by our department administrator a few days ago, enquiring about my current annual leave balance (yes, PhD students get annual leave), which is currently something close to 40 days. At the end of the year I receive another 20 days, but the ANU does not allow you to accumulate more than 40 days, and doesn't pay out unused leave. As such, the proposition that I take leave immediately was put to me. I find it funny, and a little disturbing, how reluctant I can be to take leave sometimes. My immediate reaction was to find reasons why I could not possibly take it. After a few minutes thought however, I realised that right now was indeed as good a time as I could possibly hope for to take leave. What I have come to realise is that the only way to find two weeks free enough to take leave, is to take leave and free yourself up! So I have two weeks leave, which I will be spending entirely in Melbourne.

Extracting myself from the daily grind hasn't been a simple task. An hour after I put my leave form in, an email brought to my attention the fact that I was rostered on to do science radio this Sunday. I am not exactly sure how that came to be, as I have no recollection of saying I would do it, but it was also apparent that no one else was going to be available to cover the shift. In the end, it was easy enough for me to delay my travel plans until Sunday arvo (after the show), and in many respects, it works better than the Friday evening departure I originally planned.

My plan is to take things pretty easy in Melbourne, and avoid the usual rush to see everyone. My main reason for being in Melbourne at all is because my good mate Kev is celebrating his 30th, and my other good mate Terry is back home from the UK for three weeks. This two guys also happen to be my groomsmen, so this is a rare opprtunity indeed to get team macca together in one city. I have plans to catch up with some other good friends I haven't seen for a while as well. I am hoping for a few quality daylight saving assisted pub sessions for this. In the past I have tried to organise largish pub nights to catch up with everyone at once, which are fun, but rarely provide a satisfactory means in which to catch up with everyone.

Whatever day I end up heading down to Melbourne (I'm driving), there is no question that as of 5pm this afternoon, I'm on leave, and that can only be a good thing!

A wedding, a party, bloody anything !

2006-11-02T09:29:00.000+11:00

Yep, wedding planning is always happening in the background, and yep, it has it's stresses. The "I told you so's" can be heard all around, from those who have been through it all before. The thing is, it could be fun, it really could, but for that underlying sense that whatever you choose to do that breaks from the standard wedding formula, brings with it substantial complication. This is our choice of course, although I do remember thinking I want this wedding to be casual and simple, hoping this desire would equate to a reasonably stress free preparation. The problem of course is that it doesn't matter whether you say "I want simple", or "I want everything", the real issue comes from wanting anything at all. Saying "I want a small wedding" for example, means having to cut out many good friends and family from the list. Conversely, saying "I want all my friends and family there" requires a venue large enough, and a budget. One of the best moves we have made in recent times is allowing Aff's Mum to take control of the reception affairs for us. She very generously offered to do this. This, quite simply, has been a God send, and while many decisions still need to be made, Aff and I have never felt so informed as we do now. Thanks Mary!

Deeper and deeper

2006-11-01T11:40:00.000+11:00

Quieter days are upon me, and not before time, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to provide a general update on life in our nations capital over the next few days.

The ANU Postgrad Association (PARSA) continues to survive, despite current low numbers on the council. The executive officer positions have seen quite a shake up, with the resignation of our president/treasurer and vice-president in the space of a few weeks. This created quite a stressful situation for me, because with these resignations, it became immediately apparent that I am now the longest serving council member. While this realisation came with a sense of pride, it also came with a far greater sense of pressure as I realised I was being targeted for the presidency. I have toyed with this idea for sometime, foreseeing such a situation may arise where I would need to make a choice. The issue for me is timing. With a wedding to plan, a 6 month trip to Italy looming, plus my current list of extra-curricula activities, taking on the mammoth task of leading the Postgrad Association was just not an option. Thankfully another active member, Grant, eventually accepted a nomination for him to take on the role. As a compromise, I accepted a nomination to be Vice-President. So now I'm the VP of PARSA. As Pietro, the previous VP put it - no one ever wants to be President or Vice-President. For some reason I find that a heartening thought, because apart from timing, my other concern with taking these sorts of roles on is that I may not have the passion and energy to put in the time and effort required.

So far I have not experienced any great influx of responsibility. I attended a meeting a university committee meeting on information strategy last week, but I have been on this committee for months already. In some respects, the VP position might be an easier job to manage than chairing the social team, where organising people and putting on very public events really did require a lot of time and effort. Time will tell.

A good weekend of Aussie music

2006-10-30T09:38:00.000+11:00

After attending Canberra's biggest live music festival over the weekend, Stonefest, and then watching the ARIA awards last night, I am comforted to see that Aussie music is as diverse and interesting as ever. In truth, Stonefest wasn't much to write home about, but did have it's interesting moments. The festival is a Friday night, Saturday day event at The University of Canberra. The line up this year included Regurgitator, The Herd, The Avalanches (just a DJ set), Cog, Urge Overkill, Mark of Cain, Sarah Blasko and the Hoodoo Gurus. Unfortunately due to other commitments, I was unable to check out Sarah Blasko, or the Hoodoo Gurus. While not particularly phased about missing reunited 80's bands like the Gurus, I was keen to see Sarah Blasko, but unfortunately this was not to be.

Regurgitator took out best set for mine, although they did keep to a very tried and tested playlist, opting not to play much of their new stuff. They clearly knew their crowd though, and I think they made the right choice (although they didn't play my favourite song, "Bubber Boy", which is guaranteed to get the mosh pit going. Hip-hop act, "The Herd", probably would have been my favourite but for some pretty ordinary sound checking of their voice mics prior to their set. I was pretty close to the front for these guys, but could hardly make out a word they were saying, which is a pretty fundamental problem for a music genre relying on spoken word. It was pretty disappointing because I do like my Aussie hip-hop, and The Herd are one of the best.

The other acts on the Friday night were all DJ sets, which did not appeal to me so much. On the Saturday, after a couple of local acts, Cog took the stage in fine style. These guys are pretty loud and heavy, and not really my thing, but I have no doubt they did keep their fans happy with a very tight set. Sometimes the visual alone is enough for me to enjoy sets like this, the crowd was definitely into them.

Another stand out performance, despite not really being my thing, was Mark of Cain. These guys have been around for years, although not much has been heard from them for a while. They are, like Cog, loud and heavy, but you sense an air of experience about these guys, which adds further to their on stage presence. They took command of the crowd almost instantly with their trademark song "I could have been a contender", and then continued to rip through a great set. Due to a party on Saturday night, I had to leave after these guys.

Despite not being overwhelmed by excitement with any of the acts, I did enjoy the diversity of music on show. In the same vein, the ARIA awards last night seemed to also satisfy this criteria. I didn't catch the whole show, but what I did watch was pretty interesting. The choice of bands and artists for some of the big categories was really very encouraging. Seeing bands like Augie March, Eskimo Joe, Wolfmother, The Audreys, The Hilltop Hoods and TV rock taking out awards, and putting on good performances really brought home the diversity of this years awards. At least some of the superficiality and blandness of previous years was avoided last night. And good on Midnight Oil for taking their moment in the spotlight to make some very interesting points, particularly their none to subtle dig at shows like Australian Idol, which was met with considerable crowd support. They are, were and always will be a class act.

It was a good night for Aussie music.

Swoop 2006!

2006-10-27T11:39:00.000+10:00

The season has officially begun. For weeks I have been cautiously eyeing the sky, looking for sudden movements in the trees, listening for that all too familiar sound of fluttering feathers as these black and white dive bombers make their approach. In four days of cycling, I can report three strikes, all within a 2km radius of the ANU. The worst of these, as always, was the first of the season, which took me completely by surprise. This magpie, for whatever reason, has decided the best place to setup shop for the spring time egg hatching season is in a tree right next to the ANU's main entrance gate. I don't have the stats, but on any given day I would expect a few hundred cyclists probably pass through this gate. This magpie has decided to take on the formidable task of swooping just about every cyclist passing through this entrance. It must surely be the most strung out magpie in Canberra, and if I were the magpie, I'd be having a very serious chat with my real estate agent.

This morning I received my third swooping of the week, this time from a different bird preferring the quieter surrounds of Black Mountain - though not quiet enough apparently. The interesting thing about this magpie is that I have been observing it for weeks, sitting on a power line above the road, watching the traffic below with great skepticism. It has always had that look - that look of being on edge, and very trigger ready, that look that at any moment, it might just snap, and decide "that's it!". Well, I am not sure what happened over night, but clearly magpie central radioed in some sort of "fire at will" command, because I received a pretty comprehensive swooping this morning, and a clear message that Black Mountain is no longer a viable cycling option.

Of course, these magpies do not really inflict any injuries, so long as you are wearing a helmet. My real fear is not the magpie itself, but my reaction to the magpie, which normally involves my bike fish-tailing uncontrollably as I apply the brakes suddenly, and attempt to make eye contact with the bird (because this is somehow supposed to act as a deterrent). Riding along a busy three lane road makes this quite a stressful affair, and it has become abundantly clear that I should stick to the bike paths for the remainder of the magpie season.

So be warned Canberran cyclists - swoop 2006 has begun!

Goodbye Zone 3 - Hello affordable public transport

2006-10-27T10:50:00.000+10:00

I can't say I am following the Victorian election with any great passion, but certainly keep an eye in when I can. It's heartening to see that public transport is taking a prominent place in both major party's campaigns, with some pretty significant promises being made.

If elected, the Libs promise to make public transport free for students, which sounds great, but Labor cannot see how this can be afforded, opting not to match this promise. It is interesting to note, however, that both parties have promised to abolish Zone 3 from the Melbourne metropolitan ticket zoning. Zone 3 is the outer-most ticket zone for Melbourne's public transport system, covering all the outer-eastern suburbs (where I grew up). An adult daily ticket into the city from zone 3 currently costs $12.60, which I think is quite an incredible amount, making the car option all the more attractive. Of course, maintaining Melbourne's public transport system cannot be cheap, by virtue of the suburban sprawl that seems to be forever consuming farmland in the West, the North, and the South East. Even so, if the State government is happy to allow Melbourne to expand like this, then it must be prepared to foot the costs of maintaining affordable, reliable public transport. The problem for Zone 3 dwellers has always been that public transport offers very few advantages over the car. The only incentive I currently see for catching a train rather than driving from somewhere like The Basin (where I grew up) is that you don't have to worry about parking. In my undergrad days before I moved out of home, I worked out that the optimal solution was to drive into North Carlton, park the car, and catch a tram (or walk) to uni. On most metrics, the car seems to win (probably even on travel time), and with big new freeways being built as we speak, this gap is only going to widen unless some significant changes are made. So it's good to see this issue taking the spotlight. I just hope this is backed up with action when the voting is finished.

Taking it to the streets

2006-10-20T09:06:00.000+10:00

I mentioned a few months ago that I was leading an outreach "task force" to put together a 50 minute show about engineering for secondary schools in the ACT (and possibly further afield). Well, we are now approaching the end of the preperation time, and the start of the live performances, which is a little scary to say the least. We did our first live performance (in front of science communication experts) about 2 weeks ago (the day before I flew off to China), and much to my relief, we received some very possitive feedback. We are a team of three PhD students, and one undergrad, which is quite small compared with the other two teams. We are also the only team completely comprising of students, so I am pretty happy with what we have produced so far.

Our "show" is centred around robot vision, or in other words, how do we get robots to see, and then act. This made the most sense because all three of us PhD students are involved in robot vision projects. I have also managed to sneek a fair bit of honeybee content in as well, because the videos are too cool to leave out.

We hit the road in about 4 weeks, and do a whole bunch of school appearances up until School finishes in December. It may well continue on next year as well, although I probably won't be around to do much.

I am pretty happy with how things have turned out with this, because it has not been without stress. Trying to come up with an entertaining 50 minute show with genuine content (i.e not just a show and tell of robot videos), as well as interactive activities has really been quite difficult, and has undergone many iterations over the last 3 months. Ultimately, I just hope the kids don't boo us off stage.

Great Wall in Pictures

2006-10-17T15:59:00.000+10:00

It was such a great way to spend my last day in China, I figure it deserves a blog post of its own. Heading out North East of Beijing with some people I met the day before, we spent four hours walking a 10.5km stretch of the wall. Put simply, this was an awesome day. It was also one hell of a walk, as you will see in the photos below. It's well worth clicking on the photos to blow them up to full resolution. The enormity of this wall really needs to be seen to be believed

First, a picture of the all conquoring Ghengis Macca ..

the wall that lay ahead ..

the wall already conquored ..

My army - Jinelle, Eric and his name-forgotten wife (making for some awkward interactions). Jinelle's partner Scott is not pictured...

heading down into the valley where our walk finished ...

a storage building (where they probably kept the grog) ..

this photo is for my t-shirt idea to compete with the "I climbed the great wall" t-shirts on sale all over China - the "I got drunk on the great wall and fell off" t-shirt.

and one more photo of me on the wall for good measure ...

Bee guru wins Prime Minister's award for Science

2006-10-17T11:44:00.000+10:00

One of my supervisors, Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, just won the Prime Minister's award for science, for his work with honeybees and robotics. Johnny even gave him a cheque for $300,000.

Srini is one of the primary reasons I came to the ANU. He has achieved some pretty amazing things, and is definitely a media (and grant money) magnet. He is also one hell of a nice bloke. Personally, I find him one of the easiest academics to talk to about a half baked idea, which is quite a luxury I can tell you.

For anyone in Canberra, he is giving a public lecture at the Finkel Lecture Theatre of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, on Wednsday Oct 18 at 12 noon.

Beijing in Pictures I

2006-10-16T14:24:00.000+10:00

Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched (Tian'anmen)

Why I put on 2kg in one week (Wangfujing food market).

And I thought Rembrandts ran a tight ship (somewhere just East of Tian'anmen Square)...

The city moat makes for a very welcome escape from the chaos (north of the city)...

100 metres back in space, 50 years back in time ...

To enter the forbidden city without invitation once cost you your life. Now it costs 60 Yuan (and an extra 40 for a dodgy audio guide) ...

.. and oh what treasures lay waiting within...

Blogging in transit

2006-10-15T10:02:00.000+10:00

Free internet access is perhaps the single greatest thing Changi airport offers its travel weary patrons, seeking to fill in the three or four hours between flights. If I had another hour, I would even consider heading into Singapore to check in on some old haunts. Being 7.30am on a Sunday morning however, this is probably not worth the effort. So I blog instead.

I left Beijing at midnight after a day spent walking on the Great Wall. It was quite an experience. I joined a few other people I met at the conference I attended and after 3 hours travelling in a mini bus North East of Beijing, we found ourselves a very impressive stretch of the great wall to walk on. 10km of it in fact. This is where most of those postcard pictures of the wall are taken. I, of course, have plenty of photos to post, but this will have to wait until I get back home. What I will say is that it was well worth the long journey out to see it. It reminded me of how I felt when I first set eyes on the temples of Angkor in Cambodia - it's just impossible to comprehend the history, and how such structures could possibly have been built.

The one downside to my day spent at the wall was that I then had to rush almost straight to the airport afterwards. So I am still in the clothes I wore while tramping along the wall. I really do feel quite disgusting, and I still have another 8 or 9 hours of flying left. Singapore airlines is good, but cattle class is cattle class. I am pretty tired as well, having been up now for about 28 hours straight.

Anyway, my time is running out, so I had better post this and find myself a coffee fix. More Beijing reports (and photos) to come.

Never trust air you can't see

2006-10-12T19:41:00.000+10:00

Ah, beautiful Beijing. It is said that October in Beijing is when the air is clear and crisp, which I guess is the reason I am able to see the other side of the street from my hotel window (see photo). The polution here is almost a tourist attraction in itself. When I flew in bright and early on Monday morning, I thought, hmm, some morning fog. Well, I can now report that it ain't fog ! It's Beijing's answer to sun screen - smog. Ironically, smog makes for quite picturesque sunsets, when the light bounces off the small carbon-monoxide particles.

So here I am in Beijing. This trip certainly needs more blog coverage than my non-complimentary hotel internet access will allow me now, but I thought I'd put a few ramblings down while I'm here, or else it will undoubtedly become another unfinished "Tassie hike" report.

I have to be honest, my first impressions of Beijing were not fantastic, but I am very concious of the fact that I was not exactly fired up for this trip like I have been for OS trips in the past. Do I sound like a spoiled brat ? Probably. The thing is, you need energy to get around places like this. Not just the physical "get up and go" energy, but the mental energy to try and work out where the hell you are going, and how the hell you are going to find your way back (and cross the 8 lane road with no traffic lights in front of you). Getting simple things done has been difficult, due mainly to the language barrier. I needed to get a network cable for my laptop, so gestured my need to a taxi driver by pretending to type a computer keyboard in the hope that he would take me to a computer store. Ten minutes later I arrive at Beijing's premier piano store. I had to laugh when I got out and realised what he thought I meant. I have since managed to "borrow" a cable from the conference tech support crew :)

My second day in Beijing was much better than my first. I ticked off the forbidden city (which is quite amazing), Tiananmen Square and Behei Park (which is really quite beautiful). I guess I realised after seeing these things, just how diverse and extraordinarily large Beijing is. So my initial impressions have quickly improved, and I am enjoying getting out and about a lot more than at first.

The conference has helped this too. To put it bluntly, the conference is pretty uninteresting. Being the only person from ANU, and not knowing anyone else in attendance makes it difficult. I am not a natural shmoozer, particularly when faced with 1200 other attendees. What also hasn't helped is that I am currently trying to pep myself up after the disastrous realisation that I did not purchase a conference banquet ticket when I registered many months ago (or more precisely, ANU admin didn't). It was assumed that it was included in the registration fee, but for students, apparently not. It's more than a little dissapointing, because in addition to missing out on the chance to get sloshed with the robotics heirarchy, I also miss out on going to the venue, "The Great Hall of the People", which is pretty much the equivalent of Parliament house (or as equivalent as such a building can be in a communist country). So I am now left to my own devices, hence the blogging (oh how sad I am). I am going to head downtown after this to acquire what should be my fourth Peking Duck dinner this week (and I thought deep fried shrimp in New Orleans was going to kill me).

Beijing is certainly different to other Asian cities I have been to. Parts of it remind me of Hanoi, particularly the leafy back streets where it feels like you have gone back about 50 years. Other less pretty areas remind me of Bangkok. Unlike Vietnam and Thailand though, you are not hassled nearly as much by people trying to sell you things. As a Westerner, you do get a fair bit of attention though. People do try and sell things, but seem to take the second or third "no thanks" as being serious, and leave you alone. The roads are pretty hectic, and driving is pretty disorderly, but it is again, no where near as hectic as places like Saigon. One thing I find interesting is that despite the fact that drivers in beijing appear to cut people off without a moments thought, they do use their indicators when they do it. For some reason I find this comforting.

Beijing is not as built up as places like Hong Kong, or Tokyo. It is, however, one hell of a sprawl, and it is pretty obvious that a week in Beijing barely scratches the surface of what there is to see.

Anyway, I am running out of time, so I thought I'd just put some photos to give you some impression of what I've seen. Can't seem to upload them now (conspiracy perhaps?) so will post them soon.

Marvelous Melbourne

2006-10-03T10:29:00.000+10:00

In the weeks leading up, it was probably the most loathed trip to Melbourne yet. Another miss-spent long weekend running around the big smoke like a headless chook. That was my feeling as I awoke on Friday morning last week, ready for the oh so familiar seven hour drive to the city by the bay. This is, of course, no reflection on the quality of company we keep when we arrive in Melbourne, just the harsh reality that on Friday morning last week, a trip to Melbourne was not exactly in line with my long weekend wish to lie under a gum tree and forget the world for a few days.

Sometimes though, you don't know what you really need until you've done it.

I rate this weekend's trip to Melbourne among the best yet. Sure, it was hectic and a little disorganised in places, but overall, very much what the doctor ordered for mine. This was a classic "get out of the rut" weekend, and also an excellent opportunity to catch up with some good mates. I also got to meet and spend lots of time with my new niece Chloe, who is now 11 days old. Nothing like a baby to make you stop everything, and remind you a little about what really matters.

Aff and I drove back to Canberra yesterday, very proud of ourselves for having successfully navigated the weekend. The stats are pretty telling

Total friend/family events: 9
Birthdays: 2 (Mick's and Dad's)
New babies: 1 (Chloe)
New house tours: 2 (Tony's, and Shelley and Ben's)
Grand Finals watched: 2 (AFL and NRL)
Wedding related activities: 4 (Aff's hair, bridesmaids dresses, meet celebrant, wedding ring decisions
Dodgy 3am pizzas consumed: 1 (Friday night Intersection Cafe Carlton)

Of course, with every great trip back home to Melbourne, there is the double edge sword of realising you no longer live there, and having to leave it. I like Canberra, and am happy to be in Canberra, but I love Melbourne, and cannot deny that I do look forward to coming back to live there again. Much like when I worked in Singapore, I am finding myself noticing more and more things I miss about Melbourne when I am away from it. I don't think these are artificial products of home sickness either. I do not regard myself as homesick. When I am in Canberra, I like being in Canberra, and appreciate a lot of things about Canberra. I think very little about the things I miss in Melbourne. It is only when I go home and spend a couple of days walking the streets (and not just the trendy one's) and seeing the diverse range of people, that I realise these things.

It's not like my life would be that different if I were still in Melbourne, but being part of the Melbourne landscape, and hanging out with old friends is something I look forward to re-joining again. Of course, when Aff and I eventually move back to Melbourne, I will no doubt blog about all the things I miss about Canberra. Canberra has plenty going for it, and in many respects, is exactly what suits me at this time in my life. The only thing I really lack in Canberra is an emotional attachment with it. This, I guess, comes with time.

Count down to China

2006-09-25T12:30:00.000+10:00

I think I have done the "I'm busy, over-worked and tired" thing to death of late, so here is the other side of the story. In less than a week's time, I'm off to China! The one thing that has caused me the most stress these last few weeks is also the one thing I am looking forward to most. I barely gave the trip any thought until a few days ago when I organised my Visa and purchased a Beijing guide book. Of course, this is not supposed to be a holiday. I am their to attend a robotics conference, and present a paper, but lets be honest, there are better ways to spend a week in Beijing than hearing and talking about bloody robots.

As part of my planning for the trip, I thought I would throw this question to my well traveled readers ?

What should I NOT miss given a week in Beijing ?

So far I have the following:

Great Wall
The forbidden city
Beijing (Peking) duck
Tiananmen Square
My conference talk

Any more suggestions and/or tips ?

Postgrad Ball - Bling it on!

2006-09-22T09:02:00.000+10:00

I realised this morning, that I have posted next to nothing about the ANU postgrad association this year. I am still pretty heavily involved, although I find myself keeping it at arm's length at certain times, while at other times I seem to immerse myself in it. This seems to suit me best. While I have played around with various roles within the association, my main involvement is still with the social team.

One thing I have let myself get quite involved in of late, is our latest event, happening tonight

The postgrad ball.

This has been a bit of a pet project of mine since I first got involved with PARSA's social team, having seen how successful such an event can be at Melbourne Uni (which attracted over a thousand students, though admittedly from Monash as well).

Last year at ANU, PARSA attempted something like this, which I rated as a moderate success. Based on this, I pushed hard at the start of this year to give it another go - and so we are - tonight!

In all respects, we are in a better position to run this event than last year. We have a better venue, more hands on deck (including some very enthusiastic people), and have done a better job of advertising it, with posters plastered across campus. We have lined up a fantastic funk/Jazz band, a DJ, and put on a three course meal - all for $25 a ticket.

Oh, and of course, like all self-respecting balls, we have a theme:

"Bling" - ie. Gold medallions, chains, big arse knuckle rings - a brilliant idea (not mine) I thought.

So everything, as far as I am concerned, is in place - well, all except one thing:

ticket sales!

As of this morning, we have sold 75 tickets. This may go up today, but it is a tad disappointing I must say, given the 4000 plus postgrads at this university. Perhaps even more disappointing though, is the underlying negativity and animosity some people seem to hold about the event. I don't really mind if only 75 people rock up. What really amazes me is how some people who choose not to come, feel a need to dismiss the notion of a ball completely. The most common reasons I have heard for not coming are: "the theme is stupid", and "balls aren't my thing". Of course, other reasons also exist such as "too expensive", and "I have nothing to wear".

Lets take a look at these:

"The theme is stupid" - if that isn't the lamest excuse for not going to a ball then I don't know what is. For starters, "bling" only requires some sort of gold necklace or medallion. It's hardly the same as dressing up as a banana in pajamas, or a 70's porn star (done and done!). I cannot think of a single ball or party I have been invited to where my reason for not attending was the theme.

"Too expensive" - I have to be careful with this one, as I do understand for some it might be a bit pricey. I should say, I haven't heard too many people say this. Given most balls I have ever been to cost $50, I think we are putting on a very reasonably priced event (although PARSA's precedent for setting events at or below $15 a head is a difficult mould to break, but a necessary one if you want to do something largish like a ball).

"balls aren't my thing" - again, no worries, each to their own of course. It is quite amazing though, how many postgrads at ANU hold this view - and how quickly this reason is pulled out, without even finding out what the event really entails. If the opinions I have received are indicative of the masses, then the ANU may in fact be the centre of the anti-ball universe. More likely it is perhaps a refuge for those who had a lot of bad undergrad ball experiences.

"I have nothing to wear" - either do I ? semi-formal dress does seem to be a bit of a sticking point for many, which I guess I can understand. In many respects, this is supposed to give the night an air of classiness, which we in the committee thought would attract many postgrads. Apparently not, which is interesting.

Like I said, I respect people's choices, even if I can't completely understand them myself. It does inevitably, however, put a very wet blanket on the enthusiasm and willingness of those people who, like me, wanted to put on something big, just for postgrads (other than BBQs and trivia nights). What is frustrating about this is that those of us in the organising committee will feel a need to ask ourselves what we did wrong. Thankfully, after helping organise this and many other postgrad events over the last 18 months, and having pondered this question at great length, I think I finally have the answer -

absolutely nothing!

Quite frankly, having seen more than enough postgrad events with low attendance here at ANU, I have come to the conclusion that ANU postgrads just aren't particularly interested. End of story. The people most interested seem to be those who just arrive. Over time, for whatever reason, postgrads appear to be less interested in it. Perhaps its the PhD blues, or a less pressing need to meet new people. Personally, I see a ball as the perfect chance to get a group of existing friends together for a big night out, and a chance to break the routine. Thankfully, I managed to get a few friends together to do just this, and I plan on having a biggy :)

As for next year, and what we do, I don't know. I guess its back to free lunch time BBQs, which sadly (IMHO), attract more students than any other event we organise. I probably won't be in the country to do much myself next year, which is probably a good thing given the slight hint of bitterness you might have picked up in this post :)

I do hope tonight is a great night - I expect it will be. It's just a shame that so few ANU postgrads will be there to see it.

Bling it on!

Introducing Chloe (and dodgy Uncle Macca)

2006-09-22T08:48:00.000+10:00

As of 6.52pm last night, I became an uncle. My sister Shelley gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Chloe. The mother and father are apparently well, the grand parents clearly ecstatic, and Chloe, very confused and annoyed I imagine, having been woken up a couple of weeks earlier than scheduled. She may also be wondering where the hell her eyebrows are. I am sure Mum will explain to Chloe that these will probably turn up in three years time.

The timing couldn't be better. Aff and I are heading down to Melbourne next weekend. I'm looking forward to meeting Chloe, and kicking off a new stage in my life, as dodgy Uncle Macca.

Death by Simulation (or, what the hell has Macca been doing for the last two weeks)

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000+10:00

It works. I know it works. I see it working. It's right bloody there .. Working. Look at it! Oh, okay, you don't trust what you see ? Well, what if I show you this graph .. See, it's working ? No, not good enough ? What about if I change the conditions of the experiment ? voila ? Look, see, still working!

Still don't believe me, hey ? Well, what do you need me to do to show you this is working ?

A simulation ?

What the bloody hell do you need that for?

Here it is, in the real world, working, and pretty bloody well if I do say so myself. You can see it for yourself, right here. Why then do you need a simulation. Why do you need me to construct some artificial world in a computer program, model the dynamics of the system, and plot loads of data saying what you can see with your own two eyes, right here in the real world .. That it works!

No, I don't have anything against simulations .. They are really quite good at showing how something should work, particularly when it doesn't. But look, this does work !

Yes yes. I know everyone has a simulation result. I know all this .. But the thing is, simulations are really really hard! They take forever to get right, and if they spit out things different to what actually happens, you have to try and come up with some damn reason for why! I don't know ... It's a simulation! That's why it's different. Everyone knows simulations have got buckley's hope of truly reflecting the real world, because the real world is really really complicated, and a simulation is just a human-built program.

But okay, I'll give you your damn simulation. I'll fill in that blank space in section 3 with mindless crap about what I think will happen in the real-world, which I ALREADY KNOW, just to make you feel comfortable. I'll just have you know, this will cost me time .. Lots of time, because everyone who has ever done a simulation knows they never bloody work first time, or the second time... In fact, you'd be hard pressed to get them to work properly at all. Basically, lots of pain and suffering, for very little value at all.

.. But I'll give you your simulation oh great research Gods! I'll do what you ask if it will get you off my back for a few months. But I'll just have you know, this research lackey ain't happy. I'll be up till 5am on a Friday night doing this .. And then I'll be cranky. Stupid simulations!

Before I start, take one more look at it... See

... It F$^king WORKS!

In my cave

2006-09-07T09:41:00.000+10:00

I wake up in it, work in it and go back to sleep in it. I've been living in this cave for a few weeks now, but each week I decide I need to move a little further into the cave, to get away from other distractions. It's a bit of a maze in here too. Thankfully, I have a pretty good sense of direction, and shouldn't have any problem getting out when I need to, but for now, I'll stay in my cave, until what's done is done.