Jesus is still the reason

Merry Christmas everyone!


Well it's that time of year again and Christmas this year was a pretty quiet one. We had the usual family dinner on Christmas Eve, after which we tackled the presents and headed down to Knox to watch their Christmas production. The day itself was pretty low-key, Calvary didn't have a service (as usual) and I couldn't really be bothered finding anywhere else to go to. Plus I guess I didn't feel like I needed to go... Spent the afternoon around at home, both the boys were out with their respective girlfriends and later Dad went to his family's do, so it was a quiet evening just for Mum and me.

I don't go back to work until the 12th, and over the break there are a number of cricket matches at the Basin (Wellington vs Auckland on the 30th, vs Otago on the 2nd*, vs Central Districts on the 11th - plus the international vs the West Indies at the Stadium on the 7th). On the 2nd I'll be up near Turangi with some people from work doing the Tongariro Crossing. Mum wants to have a day trip to Somes Island some time when the weather is nice, which could be today going by the look of things. I'm making slow progress on the CKC planning, and I need to do some painting around the window frames of the house, so there's no shortage of things to do.

Coming into the new year, my schedule is even crazier than 'last' year, if such a thing is possible!!
14-28 Jan Beamtime at Stanford
8-12 Feb Conference in Dunedin
15 Feb Stu and I and one of his mates are flying up to Auckland for the day for Top Gear Live
18-20 Feb Mike is visiting IRL
21-24 Feb Mike and I tramping the Northern Circuit
25 Feb - 2 Mar Beamtime in Chicago
8-10 Mar Beamtime in Melbourne
24-26 Apr Beamtime in Melbourne
And sometime in April I am supposed to be planning a mini conference for the NZ synchrotron people...
And, in August/September Mum and I are planning on going to Scotland (for the Edinburgh Tattoo) and Ireland. By then there'll be more beamtime to fit around, so it's never ending.

Not that I'm complaining - rather I am amazed at all these amazing opportunities and so thankful that I was born in NZ, at this time in history, etc. etc. One of my constant prayers is, 'Lord, please never let me take all of this for granted.'

Happy birthday Jesus.

Christmas is coming!

On the ninth day before Christmas, I looked at my diary:
Seven people to email
Six tasks to do
Five days of cricket
Four important meetings
Three days left at work
Two Christmas lunches
And a pizza party tomorrow

Hey, at least I've finished all my Christmas shopping. Including for myself (can't resist a bargain) - check this out:



I know my hands often look huge in photos, but not this time. My new cute little Acer Aspire One arrived today. Since I've got that CKC pizza & games night to plan for tomorrow, I'm trying to resist the urge to play with it too much. I have 200 toothpicks to hide around the house (actually, I've hidden most of them - about 25 to go and there are not many hiding places left!)

In other news, the Kenya DVD is now finished and in the process of mass production (i.e. Al making 20-odd copies). By the way if anyone would like one, $10 each plus postage ($4.50 within NZ) with all proceeds going to Childfund. Just send me an email. For those who went on the trip, it'll arrive in time for Christmas, which is a bonus.

Three days left at work and then I am on annual leave from 20 December until 11 January (three weeks' break). Then the travelling starts again: on 14 Jan I'm off to Stanford for 2 weeks and once I get back to NZ we have a biannual conference in Dunedin. Anyway more about that later.

The Christmas production went. I won't say it went well, because it didn't, and I won't say it went badly, because it didn't. We messed up more than a few of the lines (I say 'we', because I had to stand in for some of the parts). But the main thing is all the kids had fun, and the dance was probably the best part.

Last trip for the year

I know as soon as I give a post this kind of title, something will crop up and I'll have to visit the airport again, but hopefully it'll hold true this time.

I've been at the Australian Synchrotron annual users' meeting this past week and at the time of writing this am helping a colleague with some synchrotron experiments. I'm leaving tomorrow evening so he'll be on his own for the last day or so of it, but I figured the Sunday school Christmas play was more important. Actually this Sunday it's only a dress rehearsal, but still - important.

The meeting was really beneficial, especially since I'm on a few committees now including the powder diffraction PAC (proposal allocation committee), the Foundation Investor contact group, and recently was appointed to the user advisory committee. The latter two each had meetings during the conference.

As well as all that I was offered a complimentary ticket to the conference dinner, which was held on the 89th floor of the Eureka tower complex. For a certain reason (not worth detailing here) a few of us arrived before the main bus-load of people, so I had a bit of time to wander around looking out the windows. What an incredible opportunity, and an amazing position to be in. I spent a few moments thanking God for all that He has done for me, particularly with regards to the synchrotron roles - no doubt about it, it is all His planning and doing. Simply amazing - who would have thought that I would be here.


On top of the world at the bottom of the world