My Journey Begins Here!

One week and off! Checking out what Europe has to offer because, frankly, Australia is just too darn south. And east, we rival Japan for being the Land of the Rising Sun and the Pet Shop Boys have been telling me to go west for decades. So I've collected my passports (hell yes that's a plural) and I'm  taking planes, trains, and automobiles to Europe (with a mate nicknamed the Fat Man, I'm expecting comedy).

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Two passports - Australian and Maltese. I just hope that Maltese are respected so that if get called an uncouth Aussie I can argue that I'm European -  I've always wanted to be couth.

I've spent no small amount of time planning an epic journey through Asia and some of Eastern Europe with the delightful and knowledgable Michelle from Jamieson Travel. I highly recommend them if anyone decides to join me in the Mediterranean. With her I have planned a trip through PNG, Indonesia, and Singapore  (visiting ex-Fenner friends) before I fly to Beijing and jump on the VodkaTrain, which takes me through China, Mongolia, and Russia. I have two weeks in Ukraine followed by four days in Turkey where I get to go to Gallipoli for ANZAC day. Then I head to Malta!

Plane tickets to everywhere!

It took just under a month to organise my visas, which was hilarious, especially the Russian one. They are so intimidating. Not on purpose but it just seems to be there nature. Fortunately my Maltese passport gets me into Ukraine as that one seems like a pain in the arse and is pricey. 

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One of many visas

In Malta I have a summer job very similar to what I did in Fenner. I am working for Education First as an event manager for European school kids learning English in Malta. I have to live on site and organise their social calendar. It's like being paid (albeit not much) to be a tourist. 

The last task I had was getting some foreign currency because despite Australia's dollar being incredibly strong outside of this great land it is nothing but colourful sheets of plastic. So, on Saturday last week I turned this...

 ...into this.

That's seven currencies and a foreign debit card full of Euros.

So...I leave on the 6 March and I guess I'll see you all when you come visit me? Yes?

The picture says it all

I picked this bad boy up a couple of weeks ago.

It only took me a month to find a way to get the photo online. Its surprisingly difficult to some very straight forward things with apple products. I am far from convinced of their apparent superiority. 

Time to take to the roads and see what it can get me...

Hot off the Press

My research has made the news!

I received an email from a friend today asking of this article in the ABC news was related to my PhD thesis. Turns out my supervisors were interviewed and this article written. Recently a journal article we published that summarized the last discussion chapter of my thesis was picked by the journal's editors as been valuable in its contributions to our field of research.

Now what?

I submitted my thesis last Thursday and headed to the uni bar for a few celebratory drinks. Alas, most of my friends from the Research School of Chemistry were overseas at a conference, but fortunately Jen had just returned from her two year stint in the States and happened to be in Canberra for the day. After a relatively long session at the uni bar we headed to dinner in Dickson with Tracey, Elene, and Linden. This, of course, was followed by more drinks at our old watering hole O'Neills for some 'almost half price' pints. It was good to see the old gang again. Whats more, it turns out Leah is coming back this weekend. Super!

This is a terrible photo - not the people in it, nor the fact I was too drunk to realise the auto flash was turned off, but because all the glasses are empty. Shame...shame on us all.

Theses Bitches!

 Here we have it, finally done. Four theses ready for submission. It has taken waaaay too long, but I'm cool with that.

It is pretty exciting stuff, I probably shouldn't be making that figure in the background pubic just yet, its a key mechanism that we haven't published yet.

 

Titled "Computational Modeling of the Water Oxidising Complex in Photosystem II", you can just tell it will be a riveting read. Perhaps I will look at it again at sometime in the next decade or two.

Not as pretty as it tastes

The other night I cooked up some crab (three actually). It was difficult to eat and I get the feeling I didn't get the meat out correctly, but it was super tasty. Slightly intimidating though, I kind of kept on expecting my dinner to bite me back.

I think I'm Back in the Real World

That's it, thesis written and mostly corrected. If all goes well I'll be submitted withing a couple of weeks. That means I can once again find time to update this lovely page. This first post is all about my new (old) TV. There was a fire at the Research School of Chemistry a while ago, and in the mop up a TV was packed away as it was believed to be damaged. They found out recently that it still works and so it went to blind auction. For $100 I picked up a 106cm LCD TV, which currently sits in my room connected to nothing.

I have included Stubsy to give you an indication of its massiveness

 The funny thing is not only do we not need another TV in the house, but its not even the biggest TV. Still not too sure what to do with it. Also, if anyone happens to have spare TV stand - let me know.