I had a nice weekend away in Warrnambool. Visited Mum and Dad and did a dive on Sunday with Rickie. (Back of the breakwater, choppy, messy, visibility less than a metre, maximum depth 6m!) It was Rickie's first dive in 5 years and frankly it showed: he lost his weightbelt within half an hour. Classic Rickie quote: "I thought something was happening when I started going up, but since I wanted to go up anyway, it wasn't until I went to go down that I realised I'd lost it". The main thing is that we said we'd going diving, and dammit we did.
Friday saw me present at the Department's Doctoral Consortium. It was the first chance to air my (toned down) views in a public academic forum. I think it went well, and the reaction ranged from piqued curiousity to concerned opposition. Better controversial than ignored.
Since it was Valentine's Day on Thursday, Marie and I had a romantic dinner at Poppy's Thai on Lygon St. It was our first Thai meal since Thailand! Delicious too - I heartily endorse the yellow chicken curry.
Quick question Neal: with the coffee machine, is there any cleaning or maintenance I should be performing, other than intermittent wipe-downs and tray-emtpyings? It's not getting much use, but still, it'll be a month.
Hey Neal, sounds like it's going well done there. I know it's pretty scary, but you'll be fine. And remember, if you're not sure about a climb, you can ring me up and I'll let you know if it's okay. As you know, I've helped a lot of people just like you with a hand-up during this stage of their climbing development.
Anyway, things have been pretty quiet here the last week, getting back into the routine. Gerd's in Tassie for two weeks and Theresa is in Perth (probably?). Went to Mexican last night with Marie, Paddy and Rickie, which was good. Went to Ivan's party on Saturday, and Friday was Rickie's birthday so we went out to a few bars in the city. Both were Very Late Nights Indeed. Other than that, I've just been in and out of Uni and catching up with people. I've got a doctoral consortium on Friday, which should be interesting.
Well, we returned to Melbourne yesterday in the early morning - 7:30am local time. After sleeping off the jet lag and post-trip exhaustion, Marie's now preparing for starting her new job on Monday, and I'm well, still sleeping off the exhaustion. I've been getting shit from people for my extensive blogging, wondering how much time I've spent in internet cafes (1-2 hours a week). Well, some people take lots of photos, other people write. I did take a few snaps, and I'm now wondering how to include them here. I like Gerd's approach, but I don't think I have the patience for the hours of fiddling around required.
Neal left this morning for a month in New Zealand, heading back to his beloved Queenstown and surrounds for rock climbing and camping. Theresa is flying off to WA for a month-long driving trip, where she'll get to see a lot of landscape. So, it's a case of two in, two out. Later, Gerd is heading to Tasmania for a couple of weeks before his relos come over - so the house will be a bit empty before becoming bustly again.
Tonight I'm catching up with a large group of friends from my uni days (undergrad) for dinner and drinks.
Re: returning from travelling. Marie and I think that Stewart St is the best hotel we've stayed in. The room's quiet and the en suite's nice and clean with hot water. There's no mini-bar, but you can drink the tap water. It has internet and laundry facilities, and while it's self-catering and no one comes to clean the room, the staff are very friendly and informal - I give it 5 stars.
Re: returning from travelling(2). Two re-discovered joys of western living - big soft fluffy towells, chess and tim-tams.
