Today marks the third anniversary of my cardiac arrest and the beginning of my amazing recovery back to more or less complete normalcy. Two kind friends remembered this event in advance, for which I thank them - and Emily who is good a remembering this kind of thing has no doubt sent me a card from Quito, which has yet to arrive. Yes, Quito in Ecuador! She and Greg are off shortly to the upper Amazon jungle and I wish them good luck.
Meanwhile, back here we're going to celebrate this evening with a night out. It looks like being a nice day in another way. The sun is beating down after yet another day of rain - getting on for another 25mm (or inch) or so. Dumaresq Creek flooded again. So, I might get out of the car and take to by bike to work at UNE. Yes, work. Well, I'm now interim Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science (CARSS) and I've circulated a 5 page discussion paper on CARRS's future. And then I'm working on a grant application which, if successful, would keep me employed until 2015 - when I turn 70! And a owe an article to a colleague by Monday. Oh well, it's sort of fun and keeps me off the streets where I might get up to mischief.
AS
Friday, 19 November 2010
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Under Water
We have just had several days of rain, and the next four will also be wet. We probably had about 60mm all up, or about 2.5 inches in imperial measures. After several months of above average rain, virtually nothing sank into the saturated ground and it ran off into Dumaresq Creek, which runs through the middle of town. This is a perpetual creek and always has water in it, but constrained to a narrow channel maybe 2 m wide.
Well, the latest rain generated an immediate flood and the accompanying pictures were taken about 4 hours after the last lot of torrential rain stopped and just as the grey cloud was lifting. Several streets cross the creek at right angles via causeway and the photos are of the Faulkner St crossing, which was closed to traffic. As you can see, the creek is now about 5 to 10 times its normal width. The first photo looks south down Faulkner St towards the CBD; the second looks east towards the coast - 100+km away; and the last, west towards the Great Divide, just 10km away. Such events usually occur once every two years or so, but the long dry period of the noughties reduced this somewhat.
AS
Well, the latest rain generated an immediate flood and the accompanying pictures were taken about 4 hours after the last lot of torrential rain stopped and just as the grey cloud was lifting. Several streets cross the creek at right angles via causeway and the photos are of the Faulkner St crossing, which was closed to traffic. As you can see, the creek is now about 5 to 10 times its normal width. The first photo looks south down Faulkner St towards the CBD; the second looks east towards the coast - 100+km away; and the last, west towards the Great Divide, just 10km away. Such events usually occur once every two years or so, but the long dry period of the noughties reduced this somewhat.
AS
Sunday, 14 November 2010
A Complicated Life
It's a while since I made a new posting here, but that is not through lack of anything to say!. Things are just becoming more frenetic and complicated. Last weekend, for example, I attended the Armidale Chamber of Commerce awards night because someone tipped me off that I might be getting an award, and I did after a fashion because a business school colleague, who is participating in a major study on small business innovation with me, one a lovely trophy and the citation included our work!
And then, last week, I was put back on the University payroll for a few months as interim director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science, with a remit to reform it in line with School (of Behavioural Cognitive and Social Science - BCSS) needs and emerging UNE Centres policy. There's a large number of meetings scheduled here.
On Thursday I gave an hour long staff seminar on the subject of "The relevance of Quantum Mechanics to Regional Science (i.e. economics)". The was a lunch-time presentation, not that I had time to eat anything. It went down well and I'm fortified to deliver versions of the paper in Melbourne in December and Monterey in California in February.
Also on Thursday, the Faculty held is annual celebration of research at a late afternoon function in Booloominbah, the grand old house at the centre of campus. Since (a) BCSS published the most articles in 2010, (b) I was newly appointed to that payroll, and (c) I was one of the more prolific staff, it was politic to turn up, even though the speeches were predictable.
I rose early (6 am) on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the full draft of the conference paper I delivered on Thursday, which I finished at 8.00am. It was then emailed to my colleagues at the University of Arizona at Tucson for inclusion in the Monterey program. I'm a member of the Western (US) Regional Science Association which has perhaps 150 members world-wide, including two here in Armidale.
Then it was off to a bridge tournament being held here this weekend, which means sitting at a card table for 16 hours over two days! I'm off for the Sunday sessions shortly. We didn't do well yesterday, but today should be a lot better and yesterday's poor results are history since today's event is completely separate.
Immediately after the closure of yesterday's event, I headed off to an Indian Cultural Festival in the Town Hall organised by by one of my work colleagues, Kiran Shinde, who comes from Pune (or Poona for the plebs). It was fantastic. There was a 90 minute show of Indian classic dance from various parts of the country, some Bollywood numbers, and some very lively dances by Sikhs from the Woolgoolga community down on the coast from us. After the dancing came a nice Indian meal enjoyed by the c. 200 guests. I didn't know that Armidale had so many people of Indian background - although I know well Kiran and another colleague, Raja Rajaratnam. Sounds Indian, eh! There I also met my new Head of School, who started his job on Friday. He's from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, but believe it or not was born in Hastings in Sussex, the same English County as me. Even more interesting was his living for a while near Brighton Station - presumably a few yards from where I was born!
Oh well. It's off to bridge in a few minutes, so I'll draw the curtain on this post!
[PostScript] We did really well in the bridge today and ended up a close second out of 27 teams contesting the event. Meanwhile, I attach a lousy picture of the Indian festival taken with my mobile phone!
AS
And then, last week, I was put back on the University payroll for a few months as interim director of the Centre for Applied Research in Social Science, with a remit to reform it in line with School (of Behavioural Cognitive and Social Science - BCSS) needs and emerging UNE Centres policy. There's a large number of meetings scheduled here.
On Thursday I gave an hour long staff seminar on the subject of "The relevance of Quantum Mechanics to Regional Science (i.e. economics)". The was a lunch-time presentation, not that I had time to eat anything. It went down well and I'm fortified to deliver versions of the paper in Melbourne in December and Monterey in California in February.
Also on Thursday, the Faculty held is annual celebration of research at a late afternoon function in Booloominbah, the grand old house at the centre of campus. Since (a) BCSS published the most articles in 2010, (b) I was newly appointed to that payroll, and (c) I was one of the more prolific staff, it was politic to turn up, even though the speeches were predictable.
I rose early (6 am) on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the full draft of the conference paper I delivered on Thursday, which I finished at 8.00am. It was then emailed to my colleagues at the University of Arizona at Tucson for inclusion in the Monterey program. I'm a member of the Western (US) Regional Science Association which has perhaps 150 members world-wide, including two here in Armidale.
Then it was off to a bridge tournament being held here this weekend, which means sitting at a card table for 16 hours over two days! I'm off for the Sunday sessions shortly. We didn't do well yesterday, but today should be a lot better and yesterday's poor results are history since today's event is completely separate.
Immediately after the closure of yesterday's event, I headed off to an Indian Cultural Festival in the Town Hall organised by by one of my work colleagues, Kiran Shinde, who comes from Pune (or Poona for the plebs). It was fantastic. There was a 90 minute show of Indian classic dance from various parts of the country, some Bollywood numbers, and some very lively dances by Sikhs from the Woolgoolga community down on the coast from us. After the dancing came a nice Indian meal enjoyed by the c. 200 guests. I didn't know that Armidale had so many people of Indian background - although I know well Kiran and another colleague, Raja Rajaratnam. Sounds Indian, eh! There I also met my new Head of School, who started his job on Friday. He's from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, but believe it or not was born in Hastings in Sussex, the same English County as me. Even more interesting was his living for a while near Brighton Station - presumably a few yards from where I was born!
Oh well. It's off to bridge in a few minutes, so I'll draw the curtain on this post!
[PostScript] We did really well in the bridge today and ended up a close second out of 27 teams contesting the event. Meanwhile, I attach a lousy picture of the Indian festival taken with my mobile phone!
AS
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Dangar's Lagoon
Eastern Australia has been deluged with rain over the last few months, and even the Armidale district, which escaped most of the drought conditions of the last few years, has witnessed a dramatic greening of the landscape. Even Dumaresq Creek which runs through town has flooded mildly from time to time and all the wetlands, which dot the New England Tablelands, have been rejuvenated. We set out early today to visit one of them, Dangar's Lagoon and, as the picture shows, the open landscape tot he east of it indeed looks lush and green.
The timing was not accidental as the forecast was for another heavy rain event this afternoon and we thought it best to see the lagoon in sunlight, if possible. However, the cloud scenes in the photos posted here testify to the impending storms. Our lagoons are areas of internal drainage not connected to the local river systems, so they contract sharply under dry conditions - aided and abetted by farmers who surreptitiously pump water for their own use, driving all the water birds away. Today, however, was just brilliant. The water level was highest I've seen it and the lagoon was teeming with families of ducks and swans (of the black variety).
The cluster of photos shows, firstly, the middle portion of the lagoon looking west and you'll probably make out three black swans in the middle among the reeds. Then we drove around the edge of the lagoon to a lovely hide provided by the national parks service where we could spy on the bird-life in a less threatening way. The second of the trio shows a black swan (they're all black in this district) on its nest atop a little mound surrounded by a variety of ducks. And the last of the three shows a bloke paddling a canoe around the lagoon with darkening clouds hovering overhead.
As you can see the scenery is very pleasant too, not to mention the peace and solitude.
AS
The timing was not accidental as the forecast was for another heavy rain event this afternoon and we thought it best to see the lagoon in sunlight, if possible. However, the cloud scenes in the photos posted here testify to the impending storms. Our lagoons are areas of internal drainage not connected to the local river systems, so they contract sharply under dry conditions - aided and abetted by farmers who surreptitiously pump water for their own use, driving all the water birds away. Today, however, was just brilliant. The water level was highest I've seen it and the lagoon was teeming with families of ducks and swans (of the black variety).
The cluster of photos shows, firstly, the middle portion of the lagoon looking west and you'll probably make out three black swans in the middle among the reeds. Then we drove around the edge of the lagoon to a lovely hide provided by the national parks service where we could spy on the bird-life in a less threatening way. The second of the trio shows a black swan (they're all black in this district) on its nest atop a little mound surrounded by a variety of ducks. And the last of the three shows a bloke paddling a canoe around the lagoon with darkening clouds hovering overhead.
As you can see the scenery is very pleasant too, not to mention the peace and solitude.
AS
Friday, 8 October 2010
Spotlighting
Last night Dot, Max and I went spotlighting in the Oxley - Wild Rivers National Park. To be precise we headed to Dangars Falls, a 190m drop from the Tablelands into a deep gorge, at dusk to meet up with the National Parks & Wildlife Services rangers who conducted the event. There were perhaps 25 or 30 people there and we heard a talk on the ecology of the area and what we might see after dark up in the trees. They also had some stuffed animals to see and touch, pygmy possums, a spotted quoll and that sort of thing. By the time the talking had finished, it was pitch black - the falls, which were thunderous after heavy rains, are perhaps 20km from Armidale.
So we spent the next 80 minutes walking the nearby tracks close to the top of the gorge, which wasn't particularly dangerous as most people had torches or 'headlights' and the spotlight illuminated the tree-tops. Still, we kept a close eye on Max who romped along at the head of the group right next to the leader. He doesn't seem to know fear and I had visions of him falling off the walkway over the creek and being swept over a 190m waterfall in full flood. Such fears were unfounded, by our expectations were confounded. If there were rock wallabies, owls, ring-tailed possums, koalas, sugar gliders, and other nice furry creatures around they kept to themselves. So, fortunately, did the brown snakes! However, we did spot quite a few brush-tailed possums, one mother carrying her baby on her back, which was cute. The odd bat also winged its way through the illumination, and we heard a chorus of mating frogs and various other croaks and chatter from unseen animals.
I'm sorry I have no pictures to show ... for obvious reasons.
AS
So we spent the next 80 minutes walking the nearby tracks close to the top of the gorge, which wasn't particularly dangerous as most people had torches or 'headlights' and the spotlight illuminated the tree-tops. Still, we kept a close eye on Max who romped along at the head of the group right next to the leader. He doesn't seem to know fear and I had visions of him falling off the walkway over the creek and being swept over a 190m waterfall in full flood. Such fears were unfounded, by our expectations were confounded. If there were rock wallabies, owls, ring-tailed possums, koalas, sugar gliders, and other nice furry creatures around they kept to themselves. So, fortunately, did the brown snakes! However, we did spot quite a few brush-tailed possums, one mother carrying her baby on her back, which was cute. The odd bat also winged its way through the illumination, and we heard a chorus of mating frogs and various other croaks and chatter from unseen animals.
I'm sorry I have no pictures to show ... for obvious reasons.
AS
Monday, 4 October 2010
Max Meets His Cousins
Max had a visit today from his two cousins, Hain and Abigail, who live on a large pastoral spread near Kentucky (New England, not the United States!). They came across with Stephanie, their mother and one of Max's aunts. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes or so and Max and Hain hit it off really well because they are both 6, with Hain slightly older. Abigail is only 3, so was rather out of the loop.The two boys were soon outside in the wet garden and took only a few minutes to round up a lot of snails. Max had 5 on his arm at one stage as the photo shows, and Hain had one or two. The snails also found their way on to the kids' faces and their trails had to be washed off. Dirt and slime seem to find Max wherever he's located! Then they played hide and seek, marbles and the usual sorts of thing for six year olds.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
English Weather Again
It's a month into Spring and our weather has turned awful. I hope UK readers will excuse me if I complain about 'English weather'. We haven't seen the sun in three days and temperatures have been colder than charity - around 12 degrees instead of the 18-20 we expect at this time of year. And we're in danger of dissolving from persistent light rain - although a quick look at the on-line rainfall radars suggests that we will shortly be deluged. Mushrooms are coming up all over the lawn. We haven't had anything like this in years! At least the vegetation is Irish green. It's so gloomy at 6.15 pm despite the fact that we've gone onto daylight saving.
AS
AS
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Fishing Trip
The final highlight of our trip to Canberra was a fishing trip on Saturday afternoon. Max, Rob and I headed off to the shores of Lake Burley Griffin with three fishing rods and some hooks, but no bait. I was assured that this was enough equipment to snare a few fish even though we were also missing a net to land any fish we caught. Now, this was the first time I'd held a rod in something like 35 years and I wasn't that confident. On that distant occasion I'd actually landed a Bream in a boat on the Tweed River in northern NSW.
This time around I caught another fish, pictured with Max holding it. The other photo shows him holding his line over the lake having just caught a fish himself. Both fish were unhooked and returned to the lake, but it seems that Max's fish subsequently died from wounds received and excessive time out of water. The poor thing was trapped by the hook and Rob took a while to release it. This sad outcome makes me want to give up eating fish! It was a great learning experience in excellent conditions, but I somehow cannot see myself line in hand any time soon.
AS
This time around I caught another fish, pictured with Max holding it. The other photo shows him holding his line over the lake having just caught a fish himself. Both fish were unhooked and returned to the lake, but it seems that Max's fish subsequently died from wounds received and excessive time out of water. The poor thing was trapped by the hook and Rob took a while to release it. This sad outcome makes me want to give up eating fish! It was a great learning experience in excellent conditions, but I somehow cannot see myself line in hand any time soon.
AS
Floriade
Our trip to Canberra coincided, as I've already said with Floriade and the 'official' festivities - separate from our visit to Tulip Top - were held in Commonwealth Park alongside Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of Canberra. Tulip Top was highly formal and concentrated on floral displays. Floriade had a mass of flowers, but also a huge range of other attractions for the whole family, including fantasy items like a forest glade with umbrellas floating in the tree-tops; a mechanical organ playing funfair tunes; a Ferris wheel and other funfair items; a planter basket competition; and flower displays (all shown here). Kids had a competition to paint gnomes and there were additional exhibitions of a lifestyle kind, together with lots of shops - many with a garden theme. In the middle of the park someone had even sculptured a model of old Parliament House out of sand and elsewhere there was a herd of full-sized, but artificial, Zebras!
The flower beds were, compared with Tulip Top, somewhat post-modern. Many were works of modern art, with complex and not altogether fathomable designs. And the beds sometimes did not show the same care in their planting out and maintenance as at Tulip Top. Nevertheless, the gardens and displays were overrun with locals and tourists alike. Being Canberra, visitors included scores of different nationalities from all corners of the earth, which gave the proceedings a cosmopolitan air. And unlike Tulip Top which attracted an older and slower paced demographic, Floriade was for all generations. So it was a successful event and one I'd certainly visit again. Entry was also free!
AS
The flower beds were, compared with Tulip Top, somewhat post-modern. Many were works of modern art, with complex and not altogether fathomable designs. And the beds sometimes did not show the same care in their planting out and maintenance as at Tulip Top. Nevertheless, the gardens and displays were overrun with locals and tourists alike. Being Canberra, visitors included scores of different nationalities from all corners of the earth, which gave the proceedings a cosmopolitan air. And unlike Tulip Top which attracted an older and slower paced demographic, Floriade was for all generations. So it was a successful event and one I'd certainly visit again. Entry was also free!
AS
Tulip Top
Just outside Canberra, alongside the Federal Highway linking that city with Sydney, a family has worked on establishing a brilliant garden which they throw open to the public in Spring. They call the place tulip top, for reasons that will be clear on viewing the pictures attached. The day we (Dot, Emily and I) visited it, the weather was beautiful and the crowds thick on the ground as they ambled through the valley housing the display or climbing the various slopes for views from above.
It must have taken a huge amount of effort to create their vision over perhaps 10-15 years, but the results were outstanding. Everything was manicured perfectly: colour combinations; juxtaposition of flowering trees an bulbs; everything in bloom at the same time; landscaping with artificial waterfall and water features; mass flowers all at the same height; and neat paths and borders. The flowering trees were a surprise and delight, especially the hybrids which had blossom in up to three different colours on the same tree. And, for the hungry and thirsty, the hospitality tent threw in the likes of coffee and poffertjes (Dutch pancakes) free of charge.
It was really on of the high points of the year for me and another reason why our overseas visitors, if any, should try to come at the end of September and in early October. By the way, the temperature on the day in question was a nice 20C. By the way, the pictures were taken early before the hoards of people arrived!
AS
It must have taken a huge amount of effort to create their vision over perhaps 10-15 years, but the results were outstanding. Everything was manicured perfectly: colour combinations; juxtaposition of flowering trees an bulbs; everything in bloom at the same time; landscaping with artificial waterfall and water features; mass flowers all at the same height; and neat paths and borders. The flowering trees were a surprise and delight, especially the hybrids which had blossom in up to three different colours on the same tree. And, for the hungry and thirsty, the hospitality tent threw in the likes of coffee and poffertjes (Dutch pancakes) free of charge.
It was really on of the high points of the year for me and another reason why our overseas visitors, if any, should try to come at the end of September and in early October. By the way, the temperature on the day in question was a nice 20C. By the way, the pictures were taken early before the hoards of people arrived!
AS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)