Australia

I spent the first half of June in Australia, which made me very happy.

Saturday was with Patrick, enjoying "the greatest city on earth", with lunch in Manly.

Sunday was with Jacqui and Vik. We had plans to go to the rainforest, but it was too rainy (and, especially, windy), so it became an indoor day. We ate yummy food, watched some of their wedding DVD and wandered around the mall. They introduced me to a couple of amusing TV series, and Tom visited and we played games.

Monday was a travel day, back to Yass to see Mum and Dad.

Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to writing a postdoctoral fellowship application. The fellowship is for the study of complex systems, and I proposed to research "The Role of Emergent Phenomena in the Properties of Multi-scale Materials". I should hear back from them in October (don't expect a post here unless I'm successful - not receiving fellowships is common enough that it's not news).

On Thursday I visited my grandparents, and enjoyed time talking and sharing photos. In the evening, we visited Irene and family. It's always nice to see them, and I was especially touched by the model of the solar system that Campbell showed me: Earth comprised Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and Boston: apparently these are the places that are important and interesting to him.

On the weekend we went to Old Bar to visit Carl, Ang and Daphne. This was the highlight of the trip, because the whole family (all members of the three generations starting with Mum and Dad) was there. Much of the time, we just enjoyed watching Daphne. We also played games, played outside like children again (childhood is contagious) ate delicious pizza from the oven in the backyard, and went for a walk to the park. I particularly like this family photo:

On Monday I visited Sarah: it had been almost four years since I saw her (almost as long as the previous time!), and it was good to catch up. I think she's had a few more meanders on her life trajectory since high school than I have.

I spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Wollongong with Tom, meeting his friends and visiting the places he frequents. Maybe if I ate as much as he does all the time, I would be as tall as him! Hiking up Mt Keira was fun, even if I was a little more formally dressed than I would have preferred. I spent some time with Mel for the first time: it's obvious that she's a source of extra enjoyment in Tom's life, certainly not extra stress, and that's a good thing! I think Tom's life in general has much more of the former than the latter.

On Thursday and Friday, I was back in Yass, finishing my fellowship application. Tom, who drove me there, and I did get in a game of Android: Netrunner (he won pretty convincingly). It was very satisfying to get my application turned in, along with the letters of recommendation.

Saturday was a quieter day. Irene and the boys visited, and we enjoyed the sunshine. Americans expected that the weather might have been hot, because it's Australia, or cold, because it's winter, but really the weather in Yass is very nice: a typical June day is 13 Celsius (55 F). Australians just think it's cold because we assume that every day is an outside day, not like in the US and other parts of the world. Mum and I went for a walk, finding Hamilton Hume's grave (we looked for a long time before we realised that there were large signs pointing towards it).

Sunday was time for another trip to Canberra, catching up with three generations of family, plus friends from ANU. Pretty casual overall, just keeping in touch.

On Monday, after a little reading, packing, helping Dad, playing with Buster and walking, it was time for a very long trip back (Yass-Canberra-Sydney-Honololulu-Los Angeles-Minneapolis-Boston-Cambridge).