Book love...

Out and about I stumbled upon a collection of children's classics and it got me thinking, "Why haven't I read more of these books?". Much to my delight most of them are free on our Kindle Fire. Here's the first, a surprising page turner:

Black Beauty.

Book love....

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure.

Scarves....

An artistic take on the three new scarves I got for Christmas. Do my families know me or what?

Sea Shepard Revisited.....

While enjoying the beautiful summer weather and strolling the waterfront we noticed that the Bob Barker (of the Sea Shepard fleet) is still docked in Wellington harbor. We then happened upon another one of their vessels: the Brigitte Bardot. She is one mean-looking trimaran (three hulls).

 

A tribute to their sense of humor. If you look closely you can see the railing is wrapped in silver garland and the red banner reads "Reindeer Crossing". :)

 

Brigitte and Bridget. 

Book love.....

The Year We Left Home.  

The final countdown.....

I am just three days away from officially completing the first, of four, huge projects for my dissertation!! Since we returned to New Zealand (middle of September), after visiting family in the US, I've been working on this project seven days a week. Needless to say, I'm more than ready to see it completed and that will happen the day after Christmas (Boxing Day). For the past week I've been trying to adjust my attitude regarding the fact that I'll have to visit the lab for a few hours on Christmas Day. I mean we were planning to be here in Wellington anyway but I really didn't want to spend part of the holiday in the lab. Just today I learned that tomorrow (Christmas Eve) will be the last day I will collect data for my experiment. As luck would have it, but really it rarely works out so beautifully, I WON'T have to work on Christmas Day and instead can spend the day at home with Timmy enjoying Christmas breakfast, opening presents and not thinking about work. :) With that said to finish the last, time-dependent portion of my experiment I'll have to visit the lab for just an hour on Boxing Day. With Christmas Day off I cannot complain and as I write this post I have a big, cheesy smile on my face. :) I couldn't be happier.

Tim's Visit to Christchurch

Back in November I went to Christchurch for the annual MacDiarmid Institute meeting.

The MacDiarmid Institute is a network of New Zealand researchers who focus on material sciences and nanotechnology.  A cool side note, the organization is named after Alan MacDiarmid, a kiwi who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000.  If you ever visit Wellington, I'll show you his Nobel Prize Medal, because it's on display in the lobby of our building.

For the student at this meeting, our focus was "Future Proofing Your Skills" and we had talks on topics such as job hunting, starting your own research group, finding funding and commercializing your research.  The meeting was held at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  Many of you probably remember I've visited Christchurch in the past on my way to Antarctica.  In September 2010, Christchurch suffered a severe earthquake that devastated the CBD.

Perhaps you remember seeing my previous pictures, from my Antarctic days, of the Christchurch Cathedral.  It's a very different view today.  The picture above was taken next to the hotel that I stayed in on my 2009 trip to the ice.

While there's a lot of work to be done over the next decade or two to repair Christchurch, there are beacons of hope.  In the dead space from demolished buildings new public spaces are opening up, like this soccer field.

To help businesses recover, a new open air mall, named Re:START has opened.  The building below (and the entire mall) is completely made from converted shipping containers!

While it was a somber visit around the rubble, it was encouraging to see that recovery was under way.  Next time Bridget and I are in Christchurch, we'll let you know what progress they've made with their rebuild.

Merry Christmas.....

With our first southern hemisphere Christmas approaching we see these banners all over the city. Yup. Windy. Welly. :)

Kiwi Parliament....

Last weekend, while out and about enjoying the beautiful summer weather, we strolled by Parliament. It's better known as the "beehive" because of it's shape. :) Here are some pics of the statues in the area.

Sea Shepard.....

Last week we were strolling on the waterfront and happened on something most surprising: the Bob Barker vessel of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society! You may recognize the names from the Animal Planet show Whale Wars. The Sea Shepard Conservation Society was originally organized to shut down whaling and sealing operations but today it's mission focuses on protecting all marine wildlife. The Bob Barker is currently docked in Wellington where the crew is regrouping, gathering supplies and giving tours of the boat. From what I've read their next campaign will focus on preventing poachers from killing whales in the Southern Ocean. Check out their modern day pirate ship. :)

 

Google Earth Tour

Below we have a post entitled "Tim's Trip to Sydney."  It includes an embedded Google Earth tour illustrating Tim's journey from Wellington to the University of Western Sydney campus in Campbell, New South Wales, Australia.  To view the tour, most of you will have to download the Google Earth Gadget.  If you wish to give this a shot, just click the link in gadget window and follow the instructions (Windows will take care of most of the heavy lifting, you'll just need to click along the way).  We understand if not everyone is interested in installing another program on their computer, but for those of you who do, we'd love feedback...  Did the tour work, was it informative, other thoughts?  If enough folks are interested, we'll start to include more Google Earth tours in our posts.

Tim's Trip to Sydney

Book love.....

Notorious Nineteen.

 

Book Love......

Room.                                       

Puzzle....

My mom, Linda, sent us a puzzle to be opened on December 1st. Growing up I remember staying up late and working on puzzles every Christmas and New Year's. So it was fitting that we work on one as our first "Kiwi" Christmas approaches. The only trouble was that we don't have a surface large enough to accommodate any puzzle of decent size. With no table and a tiny desk that's already holding our Christmas tree I was left scratching my head. I thought, "I really want to do this puzzle...but how??". Working in the lab it dawned on me when I saw some large cardboard box tops. Knowing that people would look at me like I was an idiot I fought the wind, thanks Welly, and wrestled the box top home. I lucked out when the puzzle fit perfectly. Here are the facts: I opened the puzzle at midnight on November 30th (early Dec 1) and we finished it last night (Dec 2, Kiwi time). :)

Book love....

Guns, Germs and Steel.

No "King" Here

Yesterday's symposium was intense, but extremely interesting!

Early this morning I made my way to the Sydney Airport and now I am waiting at the gate for my flight.  While there was no sightseeing on this trip and I do not have any photos to share, I do have one interesting tidbit.  If you're a fan of Burger King restaurants, in Australia you'd have to seek out a Hungry Jack's.  Apparently when Burger King expanded to Australia, the name had already been trademarked so an alternative was selected.  Read all about it here or check out their website.