Christmas Day

Christmas day was no less hectic despite Max's departure for Tamworth and the coast the day earlier. We had three separate engagements, first visiting Dot's friend Jane and two of her three sons for morning tea and nibbles. After a weight raising two hours, we then moved on to Dot's cousin Bob's house on a property called Springmount about 20km north of Armidale.

There must have been 25 people or so at this waist expanding Christmas lunch. In fact, there was so much food, that the left-overs would have fed Napoleon's entire army during its retreat from Moscow back to France in 1812. The lunch itself was held in some splendour amidst Bob's collection of antique furniture and Christmas memorabilia. Of special note, was his collection of perhaps 20 mechanical Santas who say ho ho and other things while nodding cheerfully in one's direction. These were augmented by several nativity scenes (being good catholics), hosts of angels, and lots of mock vegetation in the form of wreaths etc. See the accompanying photo.

Finally, in late afternoon, we returned home for a recovery session prior to heading iff next door to our neighbour, Christine Hunt. She had all her tribe around, including Kassandra and Michelle who grew up with Emily and Rebecca. Dot and Dick had to reluctantly bow out of this third extravaganza on account of tiredness, but I ventured forth to play Boules (French bowls) on their lawn.

However, that wasn't quite all for Christmas Day. I had a Skype session planned for 20.00, but that went belly up when the program refused to operate and I had to download the latest version. Alas, Phillip and Brian were eating breakfast in Plymouth by the time I got it working and somehow we never reconnected.

AS

second coming

Five days after leaving Canberra, Beck, Max and Rob turned up in Armidale for 4-5 days. It was a boisterous and tiring few days with Max at the helm and each day started with him climbing into our bed at 5.30 am. He spent his time thereafter:
* hunting for spiders and other insects (and associated entomological work)
* playing in various parks (with ever hair-raising and unintended use of equipment)
* shopping
* bush walks
* watching videos, and
* beating us at his favourite game of matching pairs of animal tiles laid face down.
I played him four or five times and only won once. He also received a variety of presents and went shopping for a few more, though he didn't quite realise they were for him. Once upon a time, young kids were in bed by 19.30, but Max managed to keep going for an hour or so longer.

The picture show Max hunting for lizards, tadpoles, and yabbies (crustaceans).

AS

Christmas a Week Early

As I had a meeting with my specialist in Newcastle last Friday, we decided to extend the trip to Canberra to see Emily and Greg for the first time since they returned from the US and meet up again with Beck, Rob and Max. Absence from the last-named gives us perpetual withdrawal symptoms.

It's not normally a difficult drive from Newcastle to Canberra because it is freeway conditions for most of the way and I had acquired an e-tag to navigate the toll roads around Sydney. An e-tag means avoiding toll-booths by paying fees electronically as you speed past instead. On this occasion, it poured heavily for most of the journey and the heavy spray made driving a nightmare. Still, we managed the journey in less than 5 hours.

Saturday was a shopping day for Christmas presents, including taking Max to his favourite store: Socrates! Socrates sells mind-bending games and toys for children and he scored a plane which flies long distances when you launch it correctly. And, on Sunday, Max came with us first to the Australian Museum and then the newly opened national portrait gallery. At the first, he designed his own future mode of transport on a computer and this was automatically uploaded to a film about a city of the future which we then went and saw. He had the pleasure of seeing his own 'plane' orbiting this city with a picture of Max on the back! And, at the portrait gallery, he went around ticking pictures off a card as he viewed them.



Later that afternoon, we went to Beck's house and assembled Max's Christmas gift from us, a trampoline, much to his delight (pictured). That evening we had an early Christmas meal and opened some of his presents before going outside to wave some sparklers around. This rounded off a hectic day for the VERY happy little man!



Yesterday, in wonderful driving conditions, Dot and I drove the whole distance from Canberra to Armidale in a shade under 8 hours (plus stops for R & R). That meant a shade under 95 kph average for the 756 km journey - a long way! That's the fastest we've ever done the journey.



AS

Earth Studies Building

Today we celebrated the official opening of our new academic home, the reconstructed earth studies building. We staged a large party addressed by the Dean, Margaret Sedgley and the VC, Alan Pettigrew, pictured in the centre.

In fact, this was a culmination of four years of effort on my part starting in early 2005 when, as the incoming head of school, I found that UNE's Council had funded our school $3 million for a new building. I quickly worked out with the head of Facilities Management, Mike Quinlan (in the blue shirt), that this sum would buy about half of our needs if we constructed anew and thta it would be better to spend the money on refurbishing an existing building. I soon found the heavily underutilised Geology building and proposed moving there to UNE's then business manager Graham Dennehy. UNE usually doesn't move fast, but on this occasion the message came back in 24 hours that I had a great idea.

A year of architectural work then ensued, whereby a user's group met with design and construction professionals to decide upon the building's optimal layout to fit us all in and conserve the necessary teaching and research spaces. This bought together staff from Geology, Geography and Planning, and Archaeology, as well as Facilities Management in an effective working group. The resultant plans were approved by the users and passed Armidale Council (the Mayor was there today also). The work was sufficiently complete for us to move in mid-2008 and we have spent the last 5 months fine-tuning our occupation.

The outcome is very good and my colleagues are happy. Today, I received a strong round of applause when the VC noted my driving role in making this outcome happen, and I basked in the warm glow of a job well done!

AS

Horrible? Wonderful? Conundrum

I discovered this morning that two conferences in which I normally participate annually are end on. The first is being held by the International Geographical Union Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems (IGUCSRS) and the second by the Pacific Regional Science Conference Organisation (PRSCO). I'm the Australia - Pacific representative on IGUCSRS steering committee and have attended every meeting for the last 14 years on every continent except North America ... and Antarctica ... and I've also organised two of its conferences in Australia, the only country to have held two meetings. I'm an organiser of the second conference and treasurer of the host organisation, The Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Organisation International (ANZRSAI). I've also only missed one ANZRSAI meeting in over 25 years and was also President of that organisation during the 1990s.

What's the problem you ask? Well, one runs from 13 to 18 July 2009 inclusive and the other from 19 to 22 July inclusive. I also feel that I must get to both because the host of the former is a very good friend, Lucka Lorber. And I have to get to the latter to attend the AGM (as ANZRSAI Treasurer) and one of the best meetings in its field in the world. PRSCO attracts delegates from China, japan, Korea, south-east Asia in general, ANZ, Canada, the USA (including I predict at least three heavies in whose homes I've stayed in the US, Mexico, Peru and so on ... i.e. the Pacific rim).

But there's a bigger problem. IGUCSRS is being held in Maribor and PRSCO in Surfers Paradise. Before you run to your atlases, I should point out that Maribor is in Slovenia (just north of the Adriatic) and SP is, of course, only 400 km from where I live here in Armidale. The destinations are separated by something like 18,000 km!

Nice problem. What would you do, assuming both are afforable? It makes getting to Darwin for the 2009 Planning Institute of Australia meeting look a doddle.


AS

Plympton

I hope that Brian and Daphne get to read this brief missive. We've just returned from Adelaide where I spent four days at a major international conference. Dot and her brother, Dick, came along for the trip too, but spent the days out and about in the Adelaide region visiting wineries, galleries and that sort of thing. Meanwhile, I was confined indoors at the Australian Wine Centre in the botanical gardens ... which wasn't so difficult to take.

I took part in a panel session, delivered a paper and chaired a session, which about the most that anyone did. The organising groups were the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association (of which I'm Treasurer) and the Australian Research Council Research Network in Spatially Integrated Social Science (ARCRNSISS). I'm also a member of the latter, which paid my travel, accommodation and registration fees! So, I had a good bargain.

What's all this to do with Plympton? Well, after the last conference session I took the tram from downtown to Glenelg on the Gulf of St Vincent. That's unremarkable, but half-way down the the 10 km to the beach I was stunned to find myself going through Plympton, which doesn't look anything like its UK namesake. In fact, the tram stopped at Plympton South and Plympton Park. Does anyone know how Plympton (OZ) came to get its name?

AS

Screwing

I have just spent an exhausting weekend screwing ... IKEA furniture. The job was easy enough; it's just that there was so much of it to do. Part of the problem was the fact that I bought so many doors to front the bookshelves. They involved some heavy screwing, especially of the hinges and then the adjustment screws.

It's just as well I had this job to do, mainly indoors, because the weather was awful. A fierce low pressure system, with the lowest central pressure I've ever measured on my barometer, was parked off the coast and created gale force winds that shredded leaves and branches off our trees. It was also 'freezing' cold here at about 13 degrees C compared with our normal temperatures around 23. These conditions were mild compared with those down south. In the Snowy mountains it ... snowed ... the heaviest falls of the year including winter and further south there were floods. Last week parts of Queensland had two successive storms with the power of a hurricane and something like 200 to 250 mm of rain. We had a lot of rain, too, but only about 75 mm (3 inches).

AS

Addendum to year one.

As an addendum to my last post (that's not a pun), today was officially Octidi, Vingt-neuf Brumaire in the French revolutionary calendar, and my morning tea was held at 4.38. That might seem an odd time in the morning to hold an event, but I'm operating on the revolutionary time system where there were 10 hours in a day and 100minutes in an hour!

By the way, I banned cake from my event because Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said about the starving French peasants: "let them eat cake". I didn't want to bring bad luck on the participants because Marie lost her head shortly afterwards in year 2.

AS

Year One

On 22 September 1792 the French monarchy was abolished and replaced with a republic. The French calendar was also amended on this day to be year one. The calendar also had twelve months, each divided into three ten-day weeks called décades. The tenth day, décadi, replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity. This arrangement left five or six extra days, which were placed at the end of each year. Each day was divided into ten hours containing 100 decimal minutes made up of 100 decimal seconds.

These innovations did not catch on and were scrapped within a decade. However, the time has come to revive at least one aspect of the French republican calendar. Today, 19th November 2008, I proclaim the end of year one under Australia's Armidale Calendar and there will be festivities to mark the occasion. Today marks exactly one year since my cardiac arrest and my first birthday party today celebrates a year of survival and recovery. There will champagne and caviar and cake to mark the occasion in the Earth Sciences tea-room at 10.30.

Emily very kindly sent me a first birthday card to celebrate this august occasion, though the picture on the front didn't quite match my chronological age and status! However, It's the thought that counts and I'm happy to receive such cards belatedly from anyone. So, I now embark on year two and only hope that this new epoch survives longer than the original republican calendar. Alas, I can find no way to revive a full decimal calendar despite the obvious productivity increases that would emerge from having a 10 day week with only one day of rest.

AS

A Meeting with Martin Luther King

This is my third posting of the day. While dining out on Brisbane's South Bank the other night with colleagues, discussion turned to 'famous' people we'd 'met' or at least had been in the presence of. I brought the house down so to speak when it was my turn to talk. The most famous person I'd met was ... Martin Luther King ... and the meeting was much more than the passing of two ships in the night, so to speak.

This story also ties in with the launch of QE II because both events were of the same vintage. MLK was in Newcastle (UK) for the award of an honorary doctorate after his award of the Nobel Peace Prize, and asked to meet some 'students'. I put up my hand immediately and, as treasurer of the student union, I was 'selected' along with another. This led to about 40 minutes alone with the great man ... and he was a GREAT man ... discussing the ins and outs of the struggle for economic and social improvement among America's black population via the civil rights movement.

It was an inspiring story, and one that I've followed for my entire adult life. MLK was eloquent, lucid, thoughtful, and quietly spoken on the outside, but obviously focused and determined, qualities at the core of his undoubted success. Perhaps Obama will carry on from where he left off and cement the rise of the US's minority groups to full participation on the centre stage.

My university days were inspiring because of such events. Does anyone else remember such historic and vivid occasions from their university days?

AS