SHRIMP

For two days last week I got some time on SHRIMP II, one of the department's more interesting random number generators/wiggle matching device. SHRIMP stands for Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe and is a pretty cool machine involving firing a beam of caesium atoms at a target material and collecting what comes off in using a mass spectrometer style magnets and flight tubes to analyse the secondary ions you want to look at.  It can be used for isotopes or concentrations but I was "merely" measuring absolute counts of sulphur in a 12kyr stalagmite.  It was a bit of a recce operation with HSG, one of my groups postdocs to explore whether this technique actually works and we can find what we were looking for, but the results are reproducible and looking very interesting with distinguishable anomalies and background rate, so hooray!!  Its actually pretty good that after just three weeks of my PhD I've been driving the SHRIMP and getting good quality reproducible data, scratch that, its amazing, a very good start to the PhD.

SHRIMP is big: and takes up an entire room, or rather three of them take up a huge room! When building the building they had to build in a crane into the structure of the building so that if the machine ever needed to be moved out you only have to knock down one wall rather than the entire building. The original, SHRIMP I, as the machine used to date the oldest rocks in the world, which is extremely cool.  Plus I quite like having three control screens in order to drive the thing and get results, its really good fun, but like all geological type machines, it takes up a lot of time, an all-day job and is quite tiring.  Thankfully it can be set-up automatically to run overnight so that you can run coarse resolution overnight automatically then go back and high res the bits that look interesting during the day.  Also, we only had two days on it because its really expensive, more than my scholarship is worth (apparently).  Allegedly I may get some more time on it in December!

I have a house, hooray!!  I'll be living in Lyneham, one of the more studenty districts of Canberra.  I move in on Wednesday, should be fun.

Its a bank holiday Monday here so a good time to relax, and sort out the next big jobs on my list now that accommodation is sorted: a new bike.  Plus my supervisor is away for the next two weeks so I'll probably have very little to do during the week as well.

Proof for AC

In the face of the jibes I've had over the last twelve months, yes this is real.

Now do you believe me?

The Great Australian Divide

Is apparently this:

The two different flavours of this popular brand of nougat filled chocolate (other brands of nougat filled chocolate are available). Both contain peanuts and coconut so actually taste pretty similar.  The Honey Log has more chocolate and equal amounts of peanuts and coconut and a honey nougat.  The Summer roll has more coconut than peanuts (but more coconut and peanuts than the honey log), less chocolate and regular nougat.  JB and ES prefer the honey log, NB, TB (the two daughters) and JB's various Twitter companions and random people in some seminar he was giving prefer the summer roll.

My decision: The Summer Roll is nicer.  I have declared my position!

More Snackfood!

So HSG (my co-supervisor or at least Post-Doc in the same group, its much harder to work out people's academic position in Australia) introduced me to this today - pictured on top of a very interesting sulphur anomaly!:

Its a Violet Crumble, basically a Crunchie, slightly longer.  But its nicer than a Crunchie, less sticky, less orange, and just more crunchy!  I approve.

The Green Machine

Last night I went to my first rugby league match with the JB family.  We were watching the "semi-final" between the local team, the Canberra Raiders (aka the Green Machine) and Wests Tigers, who are presumably from somewhere in the west. (Western Sydney apparently, so East in fact!).

Its finals season in rugby league, the actual league part is over and done and dusted, but like all good commercial sporting fixtures there's got to be some-kind of play-off system to decide who really won.  I guess its a bit like playing next goal wins at the end of a football game.  The top eight go into the playoffs in a very complicated system known as the Duckworth-Lewis method, sorry McIntyre Final Eight System. Might as well be the same thing.  Teams are ranked to aim to make it easier for those who actually did well during the real season.  And the games are played over four weeks, with two teams eliminated each week.  (Why they can't just give the top two a bye to a second round I don't know). But teams are given different priorities.  In the first week, known as the qualifying final, all eight teams play, the top two can't go out if they lose, but get a bye if they win, the bottom two definitely go out if they lose and the rest inbetween either go out or stay in depending on their result and the ones around them.  Its a crazy system that requires the games to be played in a certain order  to avoid dead rubbers.  The second week is called the semi finals and involves the two highest ranked losers and two lowest ranked winners from the first week.  The third week is known as the Preliminary final and is actually a semi-final.  And the final final on the final week is the Grand Final rather than just the Final because they've been having finals for about a month now. Confused? I was!  JB suggests you need a Masters to understand the system properly.  he's probably right.  Anyway, if you'd like to know more then check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntyre_Final_Eight_System

A bit like Blackpool's meteroic rise in the Championship last season, the Canberra Raiders had been having a bit of a poor season, but picked it up towards the end becoming the only team all season to win six in a row and nine in ten matches as they found their way into the finals slots.  They then beat the second-place team in the first week of the finals and consequently found themselves rewarded with a home fixture against the third place team, Wests Tigers.  So here we were, JB is a massive fan of the Raiders so managed to get tickets.  The roads were blocked, the local papers and radio had been on about nothing else all day. And it was already reasonably full when we arrived just before seven for a 7:45 kick-off.

The stadium was pretty good, it was a record sellout crowd for the club given the situation and was quite cool, built into a hill like the LA Dodgers or Olympiastadion in Munich.  In the UK, I'm used to small stadia being quite boxy, such as Selhurst Park for example, which holds about the same number of people (Just over 26,000).  However the Canberra Stadium is just like a mini version of a bigger stadium, though with just the two multi-tier covered sides.  A bit like most modern small stadia I guess, I just haven't been to many.  There were a lot of Tigers fans in the crowd.  Since Canberra has only had a rugby league franchise (I hate the term franchise when it comes to sports - it sounds so purposely commercial) since 1982, most people in the town have an outside Canberra team still either as the one they support (or "go out for") or a second favourite.  So there's often a strong away crowd at these matches.

The match itself was entertaining, if not quite as fluid as I thought it was going to be.  The Raiders were pretty poor, but found themselves going into half-time only a converted try behind at 18-12.  The second half was more even, with the Raiders and Tigers matching themselves try for try, but a penalty successfully scored by the Tigers (albeit there was some dodgy refereeing all night) and a later one missed by the Raiders left the final score at 26-24.  The Raiders out, and season over, and despite the loss I reckon all the only slightly drunk people in the ground appreciated the fact that the better team over the match and season had won. And that the Raiders had had a pretty good past few months, albeit peaking with their win over 2nd place Penrith Panthers.  It was a good evening, but freezing!

Progress

On the housing front its been nice to actually be getting somewhere.  I saw more houses over the weekend and a couple this week.  All of them have been so much better than (all but one of) the ones I saw last weekend. And at reasonable prices this time, hooray, I will be able to eat! Why was the quality so bad last week, its really strange.  But yeah, lots of places I'd be happy to live in and I couple I actually want to!  Now all I have to do is choose between the cosy one with a wood-burning stove and cushions and the like and a dog and a hot-tub or the bright airy one with homebrew, a cool garden, and a Wii.  Its a tough choice!

I thought towards the end of last week that the weather had turned for the better.  Its been a lot warmer during the days, reaching mid teens.  But the thing about Canberra is that, because its not coastal in anyway, there's a big diurnal temperature range, so its still absolutely freezing at night. Plus of course, weather never really turns instantly and we've had some more rain.  But it does feel as if Spring is on the way.  Blossom is out and I even had lunch outside (albeit with my coat on!).  Its now two layer weather!  I've got some good photos of weather related stuff over the last weak. It makes landscape shots more interesting!  All of these are on my commute in and out of ANU, which is a nice way to travel.  I hope I don't have a hideous commute wherever I end up.

And work has been going well too, though I'm remembering how I work, and just how rubbish I am in the afternoons at getting everything done!

I have a pidge! That little hole in my heart has been filled! And a student card (finally) and the like.  Certainly starting to be a bit more settled.  Now if only I could remember people's names!

Twisties

These are Twisties, another Australian must have.  Basically they're oversized NikNaks with Wotsits flavouring.  I'm not 100% convinced, not too much of a wotsits flavour fan.  but there you go!

Lamington

Contrary to how it sounds, Lamington is not a small village deep in the English countryside somewhere near Milton Keynes, but rather an Australian foodstuff.  An Australian Swiss roll would be the most accurate description.   Plain sponge rolled with cream with a chocolate coating round the outside and desiccated coconut.  Its rather tasty

JB is at pains to point out, however, that this is not an authentic Lamington.  I look forward the the real thing!!

Earthquakes

So the Christchurch earthquake has obviously been in the news here, and it prompted a couple of interesting coffee time discussions the department.  The first was a have you ever felt an earthquake line, to which the kiwi responded of course, with a laugh. In fact the geologists from more sesimically active areas seem to get annoyed when people come up to them, knowing they're geologists and talking about the time they felt an earthquake.  It just happens a lot to some people.  I, myself, haven't felt one, I slept through the one that hit Oxford two and a half years ago.  I must remind myself not to be too excited amongst other geologists when I do finally feel one!!

The other cool thing about this quake is that it was on an undiscovered fault, no-one knew it was there because as the Christchurch is on river gravels, their was no surface expression.  I find that cool, there's still lots more to discover out there!

Rain, rent and relatives

Canberra is a pretty dry city, usually.  What we had on Saturday was a once in a couple of years rainstorm, which lasted pretty much all day.  If we hadn't have had four consecutive days of something similar in the UK a couple of weeks ago after our own particularly dry summer I'd say it was unusual.  Unusual weather for Australia, well maybe just weather as opposed to climate!!! So it rained, and the storm drains had all of a metre of water in them and there was some wind and some trees fell over.  Wuss trees. This morning was back to one of the clear crisp winter mornings that Canberra is meant to be famous for, and it was pretty good.  Its a bit strange being catapulted back into Winter again in early September but in a way its quite nice.  Still can't get over the combination of tropical birds and contemplating gloves! We went for a walk on Saturday afternoon with the adopted family (!), the kids huddled and moaning at the (at worst) blustery weather, the dog (who practically deserves his own post) being mildly confused.

With the adopted family I've kind of been catapulted into a social life, which is no bad thing, its good to talk to people, rather than hiding away in a hostel room which was very nearly my fate!  Went to a dinner party hosted by David Cameron who kept saying far out, in a way that seems very mid-90s but is probably just Australian!  And on Sunday I was introduced to one side of the extended family for a 2-year old's birthday party.  Its been quite surreal but to be fair, I'm pretty thankful for the human interaction at this point!

I've also begun my search for a room in a shared house.  Canberra's housing stock is fairly rubbish.  Most places are pretty poor, and the people and fairly uninspiring.  Some places are all-right but the people aren't great. One place was pretty much a slum with one of the tenants living in a caravan outside the front.  A lot suffer from that Oxford affliction of being a normal sized house with an ill-advised extension on the back adding extra rooms and blocking all light to the rest of the house. There's not much out there at this time of year (houses will become available in about three months or so and the big rush is in February).  If I was willing to up rent from a third of income to a half then there might be stuff out there, but its not exactly the most sensible financial strategy!  I guess it would be too much to find a 57 East Avenue type house again, but its kind of what I'm holding out for.  I've been told there is good stuff out there (other people in the department say they pay similar rent as the places I'm looking at) but that people tend to hang onto it.  So still hopeful and we'll see what the next week brings.

So yeah, thats about it, I've just realised I might have sounded a bit moany in this blog, its actually been good so far!

First Impressions

I arrived on Thursday morning, and it wasn't too bad a trip.  Partly helped by the fact I got two seats on the lengthy flight from Dubai to Brisbane, so at least I could spread out a bit and get some sleep.  I've been suprisingly not that jet-lagged, which I'm thankful for.

I'm currently staying with the Aunt and Uncle (ES & JB) of a girl who joined my lab in Oxford last year.  They're really nice people and have certainly helped me settle in.  They have three kids and I'm currently displacing the eldest by living in her room.  I suppose I should move out as quickly as possible!  But the housing market is something I'm attempting to get to grips with this weekend.

So on Thursday I got myself a bank account.  Which was suprisingly easy, just the passport needed.  Though the idea that I can't use any ATM anywhere for free is a bit alien to a Brit! Getting hold of a mobile phone proved trickier. I'm aiming to get a contract phone, but right at the start I'm going to stick to PAYG, which I thought would be easier, SIM card for $10, but it takes 24 hours to activate, which is really annoying when you have no means of your own transport and have to call to get a lift!  Plus there's no credit included in the $10.  That's one of the biggest differences I've noticed so far in Australia, commercial markets are a lot less competitive and so its company driven rather than consumer driven, if there isn't enough choice for consumers then its the company that holds the power.  In the UK you would get a free SIM when paying for phone credit, which would work instantly, and not have to pay to withdraw cash from another banks ATMs simply because if anyone did charge, people would go elsewhere.  Maybe the consumer choice is less in Australia and until one company uses these kind of tactics, none of the others will.  Anywho....

On Friday I ventured in to ANU for the first time.  Canberra has a really good network of bike paths, and the one from Hackett, the suburb where I'm staying to ANU pretty much follows a storm drain for its duration, so its pretty green.  About twenty to twenty-five minutes cycle through the suburbs of Canberra, though then again, this city is nothing but suburbs.  The one thing thats really different about Canberra is the birds, parrots and cockateels and cockatoos and the like. Its really quite cool to have "tropical" birds in a suburban environment.  Though I have been warned about the magpies!!  They're bigger than UK magpies and look decidedly meaner, plus its "swooping season".  Its the beginning of Spring so the magpies are getting a little frisky and the males often dive-bomb passers by, some people even have cable-ties attached to the top of their cycle helmets (supposedly compulsory but not everyone wears one) as the magpies swoop the highest part of the person.

Registered successfully, though I forgot my passport *slaps forehead* so had to cycle all the way back to Hackett and in again, which was fine as I didn't have much to do.  Then I attempted to try and find my new department, RSES, I ended up cycling around the entire campus thoroughly lost.  The campus is a big place, and quite disorientating, but I found it eventually, walked in through the front door, no security, no reception, Canberra is a very safe place, and quite quickly located my new supervisor (MG).  MG seemed nice, as did the rest of his group that I met, much smaller than OceanBug thats for sure, but then how many scientifc groups are bigger than OceanBug?! Spent the rest of the day with MG, getting a tour, introductions etc.  The department is a real warren, and is going to take a long time to get used to, and quite quiet it seems.  Met a couple of Postgrads, before joining the departmental friday night football game, (which apparently wasn't that departmental) before a few "pints" and then back home.

Departure

Its the 31st of August, and I'm off to Australia.  Obviously this blog looks a bit bare to begin with, I'm only starting it with about an hour before I head off to the airport, but hopefully I'll stick at it and we'll see where it leads.  Part ramblings about grad-student life, part travelogue, part cultural sterotyping and part science blog is the aim of this, we'll see how it goes, I bet I end up talking about Arsenal. I'm taking with me approximately my own weight in stuff, half on the plane, and half in a box being freighted.  Its really not that much stuff to be fair.  I do have accommodation for at least a couple of days, got that sorted towards the death.  And I finally got paid for my last couple of weeks from my previous employer, so I have a small amount of money too. So how hard can it be?

Its been great seeing everybody over the last few weeks but for now its, adios amigos, see you soon.