17 August

London - Edinburgh
We made our way to Kings Cross and got there about 2 hours early, which was just as well. We were supposed to pick up the tickets with the credit card used to book them. But since Mum had lost her wallet, we didn’t have it – so had to ring up some call centre where they told us we would have to buy new tickets at over 200 pounds!! (the originals cost 40.) While I was on the phone we arranged for the other tickets to be couriered to us in Edinburgh, so that would save some hassle later. At hearing 200 pounds we went to the counter where the woman helped us, made some calls and somehow got our original tickets out of the system.
The train took about 4 hours to get to Edinburgh and gave us quite a different view of the countryside. When we arrived the streets were full of people there for the Festival, so navigating our way to the apartment we were staying at was a bit of a challenge! We managed to find it ok and it was nice to have a bigger area to occupy than the small hotel rooms we had been staying in previously.
After that we had a wander back to Princes Street to look around and suss out what we were going to do on the next few days.

16 August

London

Sunday in London, with the plan before the trip being to be able to go along to a service at Calvary Chapel Westminster. Despite the long day preceding, we woke up early enough to be able to get to the 9 am service at the normal venue – only to find when we got there that it had become a building site. We wandered along to Buckingham Palace (just around the corner) to decide what to do, while I tried texting the only person from church whose number was in my phone’s contact list. She replied to say where they were meeting, which was up near Kings Cross at 11 am. So we made our way up there and managed to find it. We just couldn’t help but get the impression that ‘somebody’ didn’t want us to go! (wallet, hospital, traipsing around)
In the afternoon we went to St Paul’s to have a look around (since we didn’t manage to fit it in during our last holiday in London in 2005).

15 August

Hong Kong - London

Another early start as we were on a 7:30 am flight to London. The flight was pretty uneventful, and so was getting from Heathrow to our hotel – where Mum found that she didn’t have her wallet any more. (Last seen buying a ticket at Heathrow terminal 4 tube station.) Naturally this triggered a number of phone calls to Heathrow lost property, the bank back home, insurance company, and after about 3 hours we decided nothing more could be done so we went to find someplace to get dinner. On the way I started feeling really dizzy, sat down for a while but that didn’t seem to help, decided to try to walk a bit further and ended up just giving in and lying on the ground inside Victoria Station. Some other people passing by came to help, called the paramedics who came and checked me (blood pressure, blood sugars etc.) and couldn’t determine anything so we went to the hospital. 4 hours later after more tests, having something to eat, and feeling like we were being ignored a lot of the time, I was feeling much steadier and so we got a taxi back to the hotel. The fare was 10 pounds, and we only had 7 pounds in cash due to the aforementioned loss of wallet, and me collapsing before we could get to a money machine. Thankfully the taxi driver took pity on us. So most of the day had been relying on the kindness of strangers. It is good to know there is still some humanity left in the world.

14 August

Hong Kong

Day 3 in Hong Kong was noticeably hotter than the previous two days, and it was this day that we went to Ocean Park – with what felt like half of Hong Kong. Clearly the heat was affecting locals and tourists alike! It was here that we really noticed the presence of our ‘invisible shields’, in every queue we stood in we managed to get pushed in front of. Maybe the military would be interested in developing this as a cloaking device!? The dolphin show was ok, the rollercoaster I went on was rather lame... the highlight of the day was watching a panda forage around in his enclosure for treats the keepers had put out.
In the evening we made our way to the promenade by the Cultural Centre to watch the Symphony of Lights.

13 August

Hong Kong

On day 2 we awoke to rain, but decided to stick with our original plan and just take umbrellas. We got the MTR to the island and then the ferry to Park Island, which is where the ‘Noah’s Ark’ family attraction is. Figuring it would be good for us to patronise the Christian effort, we were disappointed to find that the references to the rainbow were a sign of peace and harmony between all people (contrast Genesis 9:11-15) and what we can learn from the Flood story is that we should try our best to save the planet. Hmm.



From there we got a ferry to Tsuen Wan and MTR to the Ngong Ping gondola. This took about 30 minutes each way and gave us a very different perspective of the landscape.
In the evening we went to the Temple Street night markets which was very close to where we were staying, and managed to bargain some very reasonable prices. Not something I particularly enjoy though!

12 August

Hong Kong

Our first day in Hong Kong and we thought it best to start at the National Museum, which was quite interesting. In between the rain showers we tried some dim sum for lunch and made our way to the Star Ferry terminal for the ride across to Hong Kong island. The view from the harbour of the skyscrapers was just as amazing as the view we had from the air on the previous day.
From the ferry terminal we caught the bus up to Victoria Peak. When the cloud lifted on occasion, it offered us yet another spectacular view over the city. We had dinner and stayed until it started to get dark for more photos. Then we got the peak tram down, which was a bit of a harrowing experience (especially compared to, say, the Wellington cable car). Upon seeing the queues for the bus back to the ferry terminal, we decided to walk back. But in Hong Kong, the pedestrian routes and the roads do not necessarily correlate and long story short we ended up going in the wrong direction. It was easiest to just get a taxi back, which was an experience just in itself...

11 August

Wellington - Hong Kong

Mum and I left Wellington airport for Sydney at 6 am, then on to Hong Kong, arriving about 6 pm local time. We had some amazing views coming in over the city. Followed the directions to our accommodation and found it without any trouble at all. We went for a wander around the few blocks closest to us to get something to eat and then called it a night.

This time next week...

... Mum and I will be in Hong Kong.

It's the first stop on our month-long trip to Scotland and Ireland and a few places in between. In the planning since November last year or so, and I haven't really thought about it seriously until I got back from Melbourne a little over a week ago.

I have a cold at the moment but am feeling better today than yesterday, so it should be well and truly gone by the time we fly out. Don't want anybody thinking I might have swine flu.

To follow up on the Melbourne experiments, we did manage to figure out what the problem was (parasitic reaction from the sides of the samples) and a stop-gap solution to fix it (coat the sides and change the experiment) and overall things worked very well indeed. The last few days (while I've been sick) have been spent on the most mind-numbing of all analysis: peak fitting of time series data. But that's fine because it's not like my brain has really been working anyway.

The broccoli experiments were very cushy by comparison: set up samples, define scan area, hit go, come back 12 or 24 hours later to repeat the process.

-- While we're away I'll try to put pictures up as often as I can, so stay tuned! --

July in Melbourne

I'm currently in Melbourne for synchrotron experiments, having finished one and have two more to go in the next 10 days or so.

The first ones were conceptually simple but we still had problems trying to get them to work. Even so I think the data we collected will be enough for a nice publication.

The ones coming up this weekend were always going to be much harder. And late yesterday I received an email from the others who are coming over to say that there appear to be some problems with the setup... all very frustrating (especially since we had to previously cancel beamtime on these experiments)! So we have just under 3 days to figure out how to make things work.

The last ones will be something completely different and in a sense I'm just coming along for the ride. A new user wants to look at the distribution of Se in broccoli. So this will be my first time on the XFM beamline - should be a useful experience.

Help! Facebook ate my life!

So I realise it's almost a month that's gone past since I last wrote anything on this blog. Personally I blame Facebook. You see, it feels like not much has happened that's worth writing about, but then I have managed to put something over there every day. Mostly drivel, so I'm wondering how much longer to keep at it. The other option is to refrain from posting any status at all - I mean, who really needs to know that I brought a blanket to work, or that I just finished a huge packet of pineapple lumps? I refuse to join Twitter, but isn't it all the same thing - e-noise? Maybe I'll use the trip to Scotland and Ireland in August to see how I go on a month without posting a status.

I'm also thinking that I need to spend more time digesting the Word, and I find the best way to do that is to write stuff down. It helps keep me focused on the task at hand. So I could develop that and use the blog as a platform for sharing.

Anyway, a few things from last month:

I had a trip to Feilding for my first ever tie with the Hutt Valley Div V rep team. Won my singles and lost a ladies' doubles in 3 sets and a mixed doubles in 2. It was a long day but I managed to listen to a couple of sermons on my ipod and write down some ideas for CKC for next term.

Last weekend Stuart was desperate for some company to go snowboarding, so against my better judgement I said I'd give it a go. After my last (and only) experience skiing, where I failed miserably and said 'I'm never doing that again', I found the snowboarding much easier. After 2 1/2 hours or so, when we paused for lunch, I realised just how bruised my knees were and decided it would be better to take the gear back (and get a refund on the rental) than to carry on. It all worked out rather well - only $35 for a morning. I might even try it again some time.

Next month I'll be in Melbourne again for three weeks. Three experiments; the second of which has been almost a year in the planning. We had a meeting of the entire project team on Friday which was very productive. Hopefully we will get some good results.

Then I have two weeks back at home before heading off with Mum to Scotland and Ireland for a month. It still feels ages away; undoubtedly because of the Melbourne trip which has been occupying my mind.