The Blog....Dr's S & M

Garden update

2011-10-24T04:33:00.003+02:00

Now that the cold has gone and there is some sun mixed with lots of rain things are starting to grow in our not so little garden. Marty spent most of the winter working hard getting a whole bunch of veggie patches built and now its time to eat some fresh produce. The only problem is that the grass keeps growing really fast and we got rid of Victor the sheep...not very fun with half an acre of grass to mow.

bub pics

2011-10-24T04:30:00.002+02:00

It all feels much more real after seeing the first ultrasound pictures...hmmm does it look like a boy or a girl?

New House

2011-08-18T06:21:00.005+02:00

Suz and Marty decided it was time to upgrade our house, and also try and find a block of land that wasnt like going hiking just to get to the front door. So after accidently making an offer and having it accepted on a house we looked at we had to rapidly get our old house up to scratch and on the market. Somehow it all turned out fine and we sold our house within one week of having it on the market...yay! We were really stressed about possibly having both houses at the same time, fhewww. And we even managed to sell our old house at top $$ and buy our new place at bottom $$ so couldnt have asked for more.

Here is the new place: Its a 1950's weatherboard place on half and acre but its been completely renovate recently...and it even came with a sheep, her name is Victoria (aka Victor or sheepface)...stay tuned for Martys landscaping adventures!

new synchrotron uniform?

2011-04-04T10:11:00.001+02:00

wow we have been back from France for over a year....

2011-01-07T03:08:00.016+01:00

so what has happened in that year.....

- Suz unemployed for six months (almost goes crazy), gets job (CSIRO), stays in job 9 months, gets ARC grant, moves back to Monash...would have been quicker not to go to France and stay at Monash! Also Suz managed to obtain six publications in 2010, which is strange considering she wasnt doing any research.

- Marty still at Monash doing postdoc...think he is aiming to be the first person to do all of undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoc and whatever happens after postdoc, all in the same department. Oh and he did some first year lecturing for the first time.

- Suz and Marty get married...ohhhh....Yarra Valley, Tokar Estate, 9th October 2010. Of course it was the best wedding ever. Wedding version 2 in Sydney the week after to involve the extended family and sydney-ite friends - awesome spit roast! Honeymoon followed in Margaret River, lots of food, lots of drink.

- Suz and Marty spend the entire last year pulling out all the weeds that grew into trees while we were in France. Now we have a veggie patch and the rest is resembling a garden. Marty has developed an unhealthy obsession with talking to his vegetables and growing stupidly large zucchinis.

- Marty decided to become a woodworker, bought all the tools, made two screen doors, a mantle-piece and is half way through building his man-cave (aka wine cellar).

- And thats about it...see I saved time by not updating my blog for a year.

being unemployed

2010-03-05T02:14:00.002+01:00

....if anyone is wondering about the sudden burst of action on my blog, I can only suggest it has something to do with being unemployed. Although that being said, I have been unemployed now for 3 months and its only now that I could be bothered updating the blog. Its a strange thing having no job, everyone thinks it would be great all this time to do the things you never have time to do...cook nice things, get fit and healthy etc. but no it doesnt work that way. It appears that you need to have a job in order to feel like doing anything :)

Oh well, the good news is I have just been offered a job at CSIRO doing powder diffraction...so now I can go back to not having the time to do the things I want to do...

The Dordogne, France

2010-03-05T01:50:00.010+01:00

OMG its only 2hrs east of Bordeaux...how did we not find this region earlier. Gorgeous. More to the point why did none of the Bordeaux-ians tell us about it!!! I'm not usually drawn to winding rivers and castles but this area just has a different feeling about it. I think its because of the underlying history that you can see everywhere.

There are thousands of caves in the rock faces which have Palaeolithic cave paintings (16,000 yrs old). Lascaux is the most famous. Along the cliff faces are hundreds of insets where apparently wooden huts were built so that they were overhanging the water. Unfortunately we didnt get to go into any of the caves as it was the wrong season...but we will definitely go back.

We spent some time in Sarlat, a medieval town in the region...apparently the best in France. And after going there now I would totally agree. Even better we werent there in the peak season so it wasnt full of tourists. This was definitely the best meal of the year!!!

Spain with the parents

2010-03-05T01:02:00.015+01:00

We decided to escape France one more time when my parents came to visit to sample the extremely tasty food and wine. You might see a trend here that we spent most of our time searching out food...oops, I blame my parents!

St Jean de Luz, a fantastic seaside town, which is technically in France but has a distinctly Spanish air to it. First stop, lunch...muscles...delicious, especially being a seafood town. Then we decided to follow everyone elses lead and go for a siesta - in fact there really is no choice everything is closed until around 7pm. Next of course is dinner - the pictures tell the whole story really, we had seafood paella and seafood Bouillabaisse...if only we weren't so full from lunch!

Vitoria-Gastiez, probably my favourite town in Spain, just so relaxed and friendly - oh and the bestest tapas we have had yet! Marty was in food heaven here.

Re-visited Bilbao and this time actually made it into the Guggenheim instead of just looking at the crazy building from the outside - well worth the visit! The outside of the building is made of billions of Titanium panels to look like fish scales...really looks great.

Then off to San Sebastian, amazing town but way over touristed and full of English people (apparently there's a direct flight from London). But even with all the English folk the beaches look very tempting and the tapas are world renowned...and not suprisingly the worlds best restaurant is here, El Bulli (unfortunately you have to book a year in advance so didnt get to try it out!)

Suz goes to Rennes sans Martin

2010-03-05T00:40:00.006+01:00

After a lot of attempted negotiating with the emotionally devoid French, Marty was forbidden from accompanying me to the conference in Rennes. So I left him in the apartment with a kitchen full of food and a new puzzle for entertainment and went to Rennes.

While the conference turned out to be a bit of a waste of time it was a good chance to catch up with some ex-kepertites, see Rennes, have a crepe Suzette and some cidre.....oh have a run in with a crazy hotel lady in a pink dressing gown.

a bit brokded

2010-03-05T00:22:00.006+01:00

I always tell people that climbing is a very safe sport and there isnt much chance that you can injure yourself if your sensible. However, Marty decided to prove me wrong and fell off a wall whilst bouldering, indoor climbing mind you and onto a mattress, and broke his ankle. Lucky enough for me I happened to be in Poland at a conference so I didnt get to hear the crack and have to put up with hospitals in French.

So four days in hospital, three screws and a very annoying resin cast later he managed to hobble home. I say hobble as they dont provide crutches at the hospital you have to take yourself to a pharmacy somehow and get them (tres intelligent).

So apart from being a traumatic experience on both our parts we did come out ahead in some ways. Marty managed to get the next two months off work with pay, they even paid him a few weeks once we returned to Aus...dont quite understand. And I learnt the value of living in a country where you can speak the language perfectly, knowing half a language isnt helpful!

Marty in Lourdes getting healed - dont think it worked!

climbing adventure - dordogne region

2009-10-24T18:40:00.002+02:00

Nice days climbing in a little crag in the Dordogne...pretty fantastic rock features in this area and some nice 5c - 6c routes, lots of small finger pockets which were quite sharp on the fingers though. We were even all alone for the whole day which was a nice change from being constantly stuck in a city.

Went out for a well deserved beer and a cepe omelette (local mushroom delicacy) in the local town Brantome. Pretty amazing scenery for a small town in the middle of nowhere in France - massive abbey alongside the river built in 769, pretty young hey!

...paris, strasbourg, munich, saltzburg, bratislava, high tatras, budapest, trieste, lago lugano, lyon, bordeaux...where to begin

2009-09-07T16:18:00.003+02:00

Head in the clouds

2009-07-31T10:10:00.004+02:00

So straight after Dr G flew out we headed off to Verbier, Switzerland to visit Jo and Gareth and see the 15th Stage of Le Tour de France, which just happened to be finishing there. We decided to drive this time rather that fly because it takes just about as long once you transfer all the way to Verbier (9hrs), which as it turns out was a great idea as its really beautiful scenery - very different from the completely dull trip from Melbourne to Sydney of about the same time.

We were only in Verbier for 4 day (too many holidays already), the first day was beautiful and we all hiked up the mountain a little way and did some yoga with million dollar views...I could certainly handle doing that each morning. Unfortunately the next two days it was pouring with rain, 15 deg colder and snowing 500 m higher than us, yay for unpredictable high mountain temperatures (Verbier is at 1500 m). So that killed all our grand adventuring plans of mountain biking and rock climbing...grrrr.
Luckily, the weather cleared up on the last day for the tour. The final part of the stage is a 8 km climb from Le Chable to Verbier (about 8 %), so we camped out on the corner in the last 1 km...was fantastic fun, would love to follow the whole tour one year. Also silly us forgot to bring our bikes with us from Bordeaux so we could have a go at the hill while the road was closed off, oh well.

2009-07-23T12:52:00.004+02:00

Another public holiday long week in France - Fete de la National (aka Bastille day)...so a perfect opportunity to escape France and head back to Spain.

First stop - San Sebatian which is a lovely, but entirely too tourist infested town on the north coast of Spain. You actually struggle to find someone who doesnt speak english. So we just made a quick lunch stop and moved on to quieter, less-touristy places.

We set up camp in Mundaka, a beach town known for its surfing...although when we arrived we were slightly confused by this as there was not a sign of a wave around. Even the next day as we baked ourselves in the sun, unaware that we were getting completely sunburnt (good job coming from Aus and NZ you think we would be experts at not getting burnt), there was no sign of waves. But finally on the last day, when the weather was grey and miserable the waves appeared - but I still think the Aus beaches are better (way too spoiled)! NOTE: see pastey white bodies in photos this is pre-sun burn, we were all red for about a week, followed by much peeling, but now are not so white....some might even say we are carrot-brown/orange due to the entirely uneffective carrot containing sunscreen marty recommended to us...hmmmm ;)

So while Mundaka was a lovely place, it contained all of three restaurants and the occasional very small supermarket, so we had to escape each night in search of food. One night we ventured to Bilbao for a yummy dinner, but owing to our roasted red bodies we didnt hang around too long. Definitely the highlight of the food and drink was a fantastic tapas bar in Vitoria (kindly recommended by lonelyplant) where we all tried to decide if we should kick the chemistry career and begin a Tapas bar????

tennis champion

2009-07-04T13:44:00.005+02:00

So I go and teach Marty how to play tennis, then in his very first competition he wins....how rude!!! (btw I lost)

Paris adventure

2009-06-12T09:54:00.006+02:00

With one of the many many long weekends in May we had a trip to Paris :) It is certainly very nice to be able to hop on a TGV train in Bordeaux and end up in Paris 3 hours later! oh and earning Euros makes Paris not so expensive.

We had a fantastic dinner on the grass of the Eiffel Tower and watched the sun set...awwww ;) then went up the tower at night with the other billions of tourists (obviously we werent the first to think of going up the tower just before closing to avoid the crowds).

There was plenty of time to visit all the other sites. It was actually a great time of year to be in Paris as its not peak season but still really warm weather. We managed to get into the Louvre without waiting in line at all. And we discovered a really cool tour in the Sewers of Paris which sounds pretty gross but was actually a good way to see the history - there are even street signs under there.

The main event for Paris was Roland Garros...we went and watched Dominik in the qualifiers and unfortunately he lost so we didnt get tix to the main draw. Anyway I would certainly go to the qualifiers again as its exactly the same quality tennis and atmosphere but without all the people.

Archachon v2009

2009-05-28T21:31:00.001+02:00

this is what happens when an IT building burns...oops

2009-05-28T21:29:00.002+02:00

...and the chem building is right next door so lucky it didnt spread or BOOM!

mamoth cycling adventure

2009-05-04T11:51:00.006+02:00

So a quiet innocent day of cycling - just to get back into it after not much during winter - turned into a crazy 115 km ride, which my legs and bum are really regretting now....but it was really beautiful cycling through the vinyards in the Entre Deux Mers region of Bordeaux! really amazing.

Escalade in Santa Gadea, Spain

2009-04-28T21:52:00.005+02:00

Back to Spain again for 4 days of Bouldering in Santa Gadea, a very very tiny town in the north of Spain about 5 hrs drive from Bordeaux. The climbing area was only discovered a few years ago and has been kept a nice secret by the spanish - but maybe not for much longer! Over the three days of climbing we only managed to see a very small part of the area but you could easily spend a year there and not see everything :)

....and Marty's bestest climb of the trip, a fantastic dyno - boom! unfortunately that meant I was in charge of the camera so the photo doesnt full capture his flying moment.

Easter in Spain

2009-04-21T09:45:00.022+02:00

With spring setting in now, we thought we might escape France for a bit on a mission to find food with flavour. So we hired a shitty little lawnmower/car (Citron C2), which really struggled on the 130 km/hr autoroutes, and headed to the north of Spain for 9 days. Barcelona was definitely the highlight of the trip, but all the other smaller cities had something interesting too.

First stop San Sebastian/Bilbo which despite the freezing cold and rain (...ah yes it does rain in Spain on the Plain) are definitely on the top of my return-to-when-its-nice-and-warm list. Truely amazing tapas in these places!!! Bilbo is home to a much talked about Guggenheim museum which doesnt really fit with the rest of the towns architecture but it does have the cutest little red 'Bilbobus'...

Next stop Pamplona - home of the Running of the Bulls. Randomly on our drive there, in some small town which remains nameless, we were told to pull over by a bunch of locals - and a few seconds later billions of cyclists zoomed by. I appeared to be standing at the piss-here zone which was rather entertaining! After much searching we discovered it was a professional race the 'Klasika primavera' a one day race...pretty cool, Marty managed to pick up a food bag they droped full of protein bars which taste alright the first bite but after a whole bar are a bit difficult to get down.
Pamplona is a pretty nice place, was very empty though so hard to imagine the atmosphere with the bull running (even with El Torro Marty reenactment)...although we did stuff ourselves full of the bestest Tapas for the entire trip here! the Spanish ham is amazing.
Next we stayed at Zaragoza - known for "Our Lady of the Pillar" a church where St James saw a vision of Mary, bus loads of tourists turn up here to kiss the pillar...did really want to catch some random disease from all the tourists so steered clear of there. We had a pretty cool hotel here right opposite to the church (see the building on the left thats our hotel), great view, but I really didnt enjoy the ding-donging bells every hour of the night - that was a very long night ahhhh!!!

And onto Barcelona - what a fantastic city, I cant wait to go back again for more days...the markets are just amazing I could literally spend all day in there, the Tapa's superb, parc Montjuic has the best atmosphere overlooking the city where the 1992 Olympics were held, La Rambla and the Sagrada Familia 'monstrosity' that is still not finished after 100 years. 'La Rambla' is just crazy at night, the funniest is the thousands of indians standing around with six packs of the cheapest beer you can find trying to sell you one for 1 euro....I still dont understand why, you can go into any bar and buy a real beer for cheaper.

Last stop in Spain was Girona - known (and Im not sure if this is a good thing) for Catalan mullets like you have never seen before, on men and women. Apparently, their towns animal is the donkey and to pay tribute they all grow mullets to look like the tail...there are whole families of mullets walking around! This was really just a stop over place on the way home and to meet up with a mate of Marty's but it turned out to be a really beautiful town (if you ignore the mullets with legs).

We spent the last night back in France again...just to break up the drive (yes we are getting the European mentality that 2-3 hours drive is too much in one go). We stayed in Carcasonne - known for the La Casoulette - a meat and white beans stewy type thing, which is really yummy but as Martin found out is not so good if you eat it for lunch and dinner on the same day....amazing castle city but a bit too full of touristy-type stuff and tourists.

The End

Australia Parc - version French

2009-04-19T16:30:00.002+02:00

if you want to laugh at what the french think of Australia check out the website for 'Le Parc Australien' which we passed by on the way back from Spain for Easter....the representation of Aboriginals is particularly entertaining.

our cycling adventure

2009-03-16T20:29:00.003+01:00

...this is the result of our grand plan to cycle to Arcachon (100 km round trip) on the weekend! One flat tyre, one not-quite-fixed-properly spare tyre (oops), a 5km walk back to the nearest train station, an hour wait for the next train and a 15 min train trip to arrive home...with only 30kms on the clock for the day! Oh well, guess we learnt our lesson not to leave the house without atleast one spare tube each :)

Bordeaux at night!

2009-02-20T21:04:00.000+01:00

...only in France - wine and champagne in the lab!

2009-01-30T15:21:00.003+01:00

Skiing and snowboarding

2009-01-21T19:55:00.002+01:00

Appart from lots of eating and drinking in Verbier we managed to fit in a week of skiing/snowboarding...Marty tried snowboarding for the first time, very funny but unfortunatly he picked it up a little fast that I did the first time so I couldnt laugh at him for too long. The snow was fantastic and even kindly topped itself up midweek :) The only problem was that it was reeeeallly cold in the mornings (-10 deg) so we couldnt spend whole days out there, but hey when youve got a week then no worries.

Bonne Noel with Jo and Gareth

2009-01-19T20:14:00.005+01:00

....two weeks in Verbier, Switzerland for Noel, ah what a hard life. Thanks Jo and Gareth for having a lovely house in the mountains. We had a lovely banquet xmas dinner with all the Chandlers and friends followed by a bright and early fall from the sky...

...our pressie from Jo and Gareth on xmas morning, "parapenting" if your French or "paragliding" otherwise...totally amazing, take off on skis pointing straight down hill was a tad daunting but once we were up there, no problems...flying into the mist in the valley was unreal. Unfortunately the camera was broken on Marty's turn so there is no evidence that he didnt chicken out at the last minute!

...climbing climbing climbing!

2008-12-18T19:12:00.003+01:00

So when we first rocked up to the climbing gym (salle d'escalade) in Bordeaux this is the conversation we had (n.b. it was/is in Frenglish).

S & M: Bonjour, we are new a Bordeaux and would like to climb.
Man behind counter: d'accor, 10 euro each SVP.
S & M: (think bubble: "maybe he doesnt realise we havent been here before") Donc, do we have to fill out some forms.
Man behind counter: No, just 10 euro each.
S & M: OK, huh!

So in Australia, you have to fill out a billion forms signing your life away, go through a long and boring test that you know how to belay and climb up a wall etc. In France, they assume that if you are at a climbing gym you know how to climb, and if not then "French shrug", thats your problem!

Oh and even better, you can belay with whatever device you want and take down the ropes to lead climb as you please.....ah Je t'aime France!

Manscarves.... the new black

2008-11-23T16:58:00.000+01:00

Cure for Jetjag....French fiesta

2008-11-23T16:56:00.000+01:00

3 hrs after arriving in Bordeaux from 40hrs in transit, 1 shower and 4 glasses of wine later.....

Post graduation festivities in Sydney

2008-11-23T16:55:00.001+01:00

Marty gets Doctorified

2008-11-23T16:53:00.001+01:00

...its nearly book time

2008-10-13T07:12:00.000+02:00

http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2008/9780854048373.asp

Hadron Rap

2008-09-11T07:28:00.000+02:00

...can I see an APS version of this coming on? totally funny :)

The Coffee Master

2008-08-29T01:08:00.000+02:00

Who said that doing a PhD and PostDoc doesnt train you for anything....I am now officially a coffee froth making god! See the government funding/tax payers money is going to good use :)

A Perfect Day at Mt Buller

2008-08-29T01:01:00.001+02:00

Thats right you silly Sydney-siders, we can go for a day trip to the snow here in Melbourne! Yeah!

Suz, the reformed skiier looking all together silly! But snowboarding is so much better than skiing...just no comparison.

Sorry Marty, your just not cool cause you ski! OK maybe your a little cool cause you can go over jumps (sort-of) BTW the snowboarder jumping is not me its Mike...I would likely kill myself trying to get air.

suz has a new bike....v. nice!

2008-07-03T00:36:00.001+02:00

marty is famous.....

2008-06-02T04:19:00.001+02:00

http://www.sci.monash.edu.au/postgrad/profiles/

suz's birthday lunch at lilydale

2008-05-09T05:42:00.000+02:00

its mushroom time again.....

2008-05-09T05:39:00.001+02:00

Notice the women are gossiping and the men have decided just to walk in peace!

Dont eat these ones.....

....if you do you might end up looking like this.....

rock climbing suz....

2008-05-09T05:31:00.000+02:00

Sailing around the Bay

2008-03-14T00:15:00.000+01:00

Scrabulous.....

2008-01-09T04:33:00.000+01:00

OMG I know this is really pathetic and nerdy but I just got the worlds bestest score in Scrabulous...check this out....eight letter word over two triples and all seven letters used up totals 149. Yeah yeah! Now back to work :)

Bordeaux here I come....

2007-12-10T03:58:00.001+01:00

Well it seems that I'm the proud owner of a Marie Curie Fellowship! Yay....they took their time letting me know though, really it was driving me bananas.

So late next year Suz & Marty will be packing our bags for one year to live in Bordeaux. Anyone want to rent a lovely house in the hills?

OMG this is so funny....I almost wet myself laughing

2007-12-05T23:28:00.001+01:00

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1172543272

wilsons prom adventures

2007-11-14T00:13:00.000+01:00

Out and about again...do I really have a job, I certainly feel like this year has been a joke.

Just got back from a four day hiking adventure at Wilsons prom with a large group of 11 people...while its fun having so many people along, its pretty hard to get 11 people moving each day! Fantastic weather the whole time, we even manged to go swimming each day which is quite a feat considering how far south we were.

The only downfall of such nice weather is the hordes of snakes out and about, which if you are into such wild life may be good but in my case I was not so impressed. We saw lots of new birdies, including my favourite so far a pair of gang-gang cockatoo's.

Note: never bring a pommie along with a bb-gun when possums are about (unless you are in NZ)...

Backyard Blitz

2007-10-19T06:00:00.000+02:00

wow lots of weeds can grow in two weeks.....so Marty got the 'very concentrated' weed killer out for some extreme, heavy handed murdering of onion weed. Hopefully next weekend they will be ready for digging. Man this is a big back yard, what have we got ourselves into...oh well should be fun :)

Visiting Dr G in Chicago

2007-10-19T05:48:00.000+02:00

Well another sucessful trip to Chicago for "work" hosted by Dr G and KWC/PK (thanks guys!)
We had some very sucessful shopping trips due to the fantastic exchange rate and the ridiculous 75% off sales....saw the Blue Man Group perform a very strange but fun show....taste tested lots of American beers "Sam Adams" in particular, I think Im now converted...unfortunately the fun all had to end when beamtime started, but we got lots of good results so YAY!

The Bristol Club...well known for their iced coffees and mexican delights.
New shoes on display at the APS....very yummy margharitas at Mi Hacienda!Some pretty results at the synchrotron...if you dont get it then just soak in the pretty colours.

Jo & Gareth Wedding version 2

2007-09-06T01:57:00.000+02:00

Jo & Gareth (ie. Mr and Mrs Chandler) were lucky enough to have two weddings so that the whole world could be with them getting married. They had a lovely Sydney wedding last weekend at Newport with all the Nevilles and McIllwraiths and friends...beautiful day and fantastic photos...thanks Marty http://elario.deviantart.com/gallery/

Mikey in London.....

2007-08-24T01:11:00.000+02:00

We had 24 hours in London only, where the lovely Mikey let us stay in his Wilsden Green abode. Plenty of time to see all the sites including the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, London Museum, The British Museum...oh and the tube...why does it alway have to break down, ew its so hot and stuffy! London is a great place to visit but it baffles me why so many Aussies are excited about living there???

Thanks Mikey...enjoy your 10 days of peace in the shoebox...S & M

The Tatra Mountains

2007-08-23T09:48:00.000+02:00

The Tatras are a mountain range in Slovakia which are divided into the High and Low Tatras for obvious reasons. We spent a few days in the Low Tatras "Nizke Tatry" to start with however it rained most of the time so we didnt get to see much. We went and saw the Bystrianska Caves which were amazing, much better than Jenolan but I cant tell you much about them as the tour was in Slovak.
Most of the time was spent in the High Tatras "Vysoke Tatry" which are just amazing. In 2004 however, a storm where winds were 200 km/hr went through and blew over a large portion of the pine trees so the lower parts of the mountain now look like a tree graveyard...but obviously it doesnt stop the endless stream of tourists hiking in summer, even on the highest peaks with really difficult tracks there were still people around. There are loads of high mountain lakes "pleso" which are so pretty..I cant wait to go back again!

Lower Tatras:High Tatras:

Bratislava...the land of bridges

2007-08-23T09:18:00.000+02:00

Bratislava has an old bridge "stary most", a new bridge "novy most", and a really new bridge that looks like a small harbour bridge...it was really confusing!
We stayed in a great little hotel right next to the castle "hrad" (see look I know some Slovak now!) which has a fantastic view over the town. There was a great thunder storm one night in the distance luckily, where Marty managed to get a great photo from our room.
The old town is really pretty but unfortunately some smart investors have turned it into an expensive swish restaurant area over the last two years where there are hoards of British blokes out for a pissy weekend. What they dont realise it that one or two streets further on the food is literally ten times cheaper and much better, but they all get trapped in the touristy area...oh well we win out again!

We left our car parked outside the hotel, which is apparently a 'really safe area' however some lovely person or people decided to steal our hub caps...god knows for what reason other than it was the newest model of the car. We were pleased to find out when we eventually returned the car that they were only worth $50 in total.

Next up Cesky Krumlov....

2007-08-23T09:02:00.000+02:00

So from Prague we picked up the little red "Skoda" car, the pride and joy of the Czech Republic however I think its a hunk of rubbish equivalent to a lawn-mower on wheels..anyhow, it was a car. We headed a 100 k's south of Prague to a medieval town called Cesky Krumlov for a few days...absolutely fantastic place we had so much fun there, I would highly recommend it to anyone. The town was built in the curve of a river that comes all the way from Prague...we went about 30 k's upstream one day and lazily floated on a canoe all the way back to town through all sorts of villages. There are many locks in the river which we had lots of fun sliding down and somehow managed not to capsize!
Well I thought Prague food and drink was cheap but this is just amazing..we had the bestest meals ever and struggled to spend $20 between us including drinks...wow

Now the holiday begins...first stop Praha

2007-08-23T08:50:00.000+02:00

I hadnt been to Prague before as I was too cheap previously to pay for a visa...but now that they are a civilised country and accept that Aussies are harmless no worries!
My first view of Prague was through a plastic Czech beer cup and sausage...na zdravie! It was ridiculously cheap something like 2 dollars in total!
My next view of Prague was in an outragous crowd of tourists milling around the old town...grrr I really do hate being in such touristy places. Owing to Marty speaking Slovak which is essentially the same as Czech (say like an Aussie and a NZer talking) we managed to stay out of the touristy areas and find some real Czech culture, ah much better :)

Guernsey Wedding

2007-08-23T07:15:00.000+02:00

The main event for this holiday finally arrived...Jo and Gareths Wedding in Guernsey!
It was held at Saumarez Manor (where we also happened to be staying)...apart from the creepy woman looking after the accommodation and the ghost tour they made us go on it was a pretty nice place to stay...it was definitely a good place to have a wedding!
The fact that the weather was shocking on the wedding day didnt trouble anyone we all had lots of fun and Jo and Gareth were so happy. As per usual the girls spent all day getting ready and the boys slept in and threw on their suits just in time. There we lots of Aussie friends and fam there to wish them well. The reception was a blast.
Yay for Mr and Mrs Chandler

2 weeks in Bordeaux 'working'

2007-08-23T07:03:00.001+02:00

OK the adventures started with Bordeaux again for two weeks of hard work, ie. eating and drinking french delicacies, well we did actually get alot of work done but cant have all work and no play! It was very exciting having Marty along finally, instead of him sitting at home getting sms's from me saying how much fun it is..yay! However I must say its a bit rude of him to get better results than me at work, thats just not fair :)

Pretty good this time to is that the fam came along for a visit, and liked it so much they stayed an extra few days...now they understand why I want to go work there. Mum was very happy when I took her to my favourite duck restaurant (duck being her top menu pick), where they serve nothing but duck dishes most of which you cant tell are actually duck. Dad was very pleased with the French beer and Matt was very relieved to have some normal people to talk to ie. not mum and dad.

yay for Adam!

2007-06-21T05:47:00.000+02:00

Congrat's Adam....its about time!

moving, moving, moving

2007-06-21T05:34:00.001+02:00

OMG are you alright Marty? Well all moved out of Forest Hill now and my life if packed up into boxes and stuffed into a 2 x 3 m storage unit.....next stop Europe....then new house :)

varmen (high temperature)

2007-06-12T01:28:00.000+02:00

My boss who is staying in Denmark at the moment forwarded this email to me, it was sent from the head of school there. By the way it was 25 degree's!

"Kære Alle

På grund af varmen beder Institutlederen jer alle huske på at drikke rigeligt med vand o.lign., og når det er muligt at komme udenfor og køle ned."

"Dear everyone

The Head of department wants to remind you to drink plenty of water etc. in this hot weather and when it is possible to go outside to cool down."

Matts Graduation

2007-06-11T07:23:00.000+02:00

Congrats Matt....well the last of the Neville's have got there BSc from Usyd now! I know this is pretty pathetic but we counted up 5 BSc's, 3 hons(chem), 1 Masters(chem) and a PhD between us. I think we are keeping the BSc degree afloat.

Apart from the worst weather you could ever want to have on your Graduation, consisting of being constantly pelted with freezing cold wind and rain, it was a fun afternoon. The random weather actually made it more exciting as each outing was an adventure trying not to get blown away.

we are famous.....

2007-05-30T08:39:00.000+02:00

Suz, Marty, Mandy, Danny and Adam made our TV debute on 1 vs 100!
We spent the day at the studio filming....but shhhh cant tell you want happens you will just have to wait for the airing in October.

world of mushrooms v2....

2007-05-02T01:09:00.000+02:00

OK I should explain my rather cryptic last post about mushrooms....sorry to disappoint you all they are not magic mushies, however, it was quite an adventure.

The story begins with a Slovak adventure to an enchanted forest in a place far far away...in this forest there were all types of strange mushrooms, especially there were lots of toadstools with little families of forest creatures living underneath. I was told dont pick these lovely looking toadstools because that would be bad and we dont want to upset the forest creatures. But these other bright orange mushrooms we can pick because no one lives underneath them, they have been specially grown for us humans to eat. So we picked lots of 'good' orange mushrooms and let the toadstools be!
Then, later that day, my second adventure began...I had to eat the mushrooms. This may sound like an easy thing to do, but my brain was saying 'suz what are you thinking orange mushrooms cant be good for you, just get rid of them'...and the slovaks were saying 'suz no worries we been eating them for 30 years and look how we turned out'. Eventually, I cooked them up into some scrammbled eggs, ate them and enjoyed....an look Im still here now, and I hope not in a dream, so they must be full of goodness! And we all lived happily ever after.
The End

A world of mushrooms....

2007-05-01T01:49:00.000+02:00

ha ha....

2007-04-23T04:44:00.000+02:00

SMartys House....

2007-04-20T03:13:00.000+02:00

Oh my gosh....suz and marty just bought a house! What? you say, Suz your last blog update was a house warming party in Forest Hill...well all I can say to that is, oops guess I will just have to have another house warming.

So excited...the address is 20 Birdwood Ave Upwey, we wont move in until the end of August tho. Its a 1/4 acre, amazing view of the dandenong mountains, 10ft ceilings, fantastic balcony for bbq's, hot spa bath in the bathroom, kitchen is all jarrah wood...ahhh will have to wipe the smiles off our faces soon I suppose but until then :)

P.S. No we are not going to buy a dog!

Housewarming party!

2007-03-30T02:03:00.000+02:00

Well I have been in my new place in fancy ForestHill for 5 months now...and finally got my act together for a housewarming do! Apart from really crappy weather it was lots-a-fun :) much eating and drinking and even some dancing thanks to the crazy netball girls. Marty's world famous taziki dip once again was a big hit, I think we all need a garlic detox now.

I dont know if this is a sign of old age but I noticed that almost everyone was drinking wine all night, I only found evidence of four beer bottles the next morning...hmmm very concerning. I may have to have a second 'beer-only' house-re-warming party to remedy this.

Clockwise: suz and lil's, suz and lauren, adam and nicole, keith and irene, matze and lils, netball girls providing entertainment!

Weekend on the town....

2007-03-22T03:51:00.000+01:00

OMG Matze's b'day was fantastic, we went out and about in Fitzroy first to Ilk bar then to Peel...so much fun but what a random mix of people! BTW do you like my new haircut?

A wander in Sherbrook Forest is a lovely way to spend Sunday afternoon (esp after the night before) . Followed by a really nice dinner at Baden & co. place in the Dandenongs, they have such a cool house.

Look I have not one but two new papers!

2007-03-22T03:35:00.000+01:00

....and one is a front cover :) (thanks my lovely artist x)

....stay tuned

2007-03-20T03:06:00.000+01:00

Keep watching, I promise there will be a new exciting blog update soon!

Tassie - "Hiking in Freycinet"

2007-02-16T06:33:00.000+01:00

Went for a fantastic four day hike around the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmanias east coast, better known for Wineglass bay which appears on pretty much every ad for Tassie tourism.

Day 1- Carpark to Hazards beach. After an hour or so of tourists milling around the beginning part of the track we managed to escape to the beautiful Hazards beach. In the far yonder part of the beach is where we set up camp, couldnt ask for a better view...much better than any five star resort.
Day 2- Hazards beach to Bay. After a very nice short stroll to we set up camp in definitely the best spot on the site (you can see Marty perched on our front door step). We thought again we might be virtually alone here but in the late afternoon we were over-run by ten or so tents but I suppose it was a Saturday night. I was going to swim here but we spent all afternoon watching some stingrays swimming around so gave it a pass - even though they are pretty harmless all the recent publicity still sits in the mind. Again a stunning sunset, awe how romantik!
Day 3- 'The killer walk' - Bay to Wineglass bay via Mt Grayham. Well we knew this would be a hard day of 5-6 hours up and down hill and we were correct, but the views of the whole peninsula were stunning at the top. Marty by the way is only a small way up the first hill and looking absolutely stuffed!

Day 4 - Wineglass bay to the carpark. Waking up at wineglass bay is just amazing, go do it if you can! The end............oh and here are all the critters we saw along the way. Featured are 'Wally' the wombat, a confused wallaby, a very hungry Echidna and some very cute Penguins. I wont even bother mentioning all the birds!

Tassie - "The IC07 Conference"

2007-02-16T06:11:00.000+01:00

Nice two week break in Tassie due to a rather convenient conference....as per usual decided to tack on a nice holiday after the work was done. Started by bringing my car along on The Spirit of Tassie where to my joy there was only a lovely 1 meter swell. Passed the day happily with Adam and Soph learning new card games and staring at endless ocean. Camping in Davenport the first night was to our surprise very nice with our own personal beachfront tent accomodation. The only problem was finding dinner where a lovely local told me "sorry love this is Davenport"....hmmm, by the way this was 8pm Saturday night, gotta love taswegians!!

The next day we drove through the middle of Tassie on route to the conference in Hobart, where we took a nice scenic drive through the Highlands, where we saw pencil pines and cushion plants, the only problem was that a great deal of the road was dirt....hmmm by the way this was the A5, only in Tasmania!!

Finally arriving at the conference, many talks were listened to and crosswords mastered, but most of all much beer was drunk in order to fullfill the young chemists role in attempting to drink the town dry and never be invited back again. Outside work time we managed to see the sites from Mt Wellington and go to the Cascade Brewery, where we almost wet ourselves laughing 'at' not 'with' the over exuberant tour guide. I think we suceeded, well at least in part...hmmm, by the way pubs shut at 11pm all week long, where are we again?

Aussie Day weekend at the Mornington

2007-02-02T04:55:00.000+01:00

Had a lovely Australia Day weekend at the Mornington Peninsula at The Duriska's very 'European' holiday house. Great way to avoid the crowds we thought, little did we know throngs of Melbournians had the same idea....the drive took twice as long!

Mandy and Dimma came for the day and we gorged ourselves on wine and pizza at T'Gallant winery. Marty then finally had a chance to play with his new camera toys - some filters - at our favourite winery destination 'Tucks Ridge'

We spent the next day getting back to nature with a walk/ bird watch along the coast at Cape Schank. Marty found himself a very dead hawk which he is still yet to identify? Followed by some awful windy/rainy weather which didnt deter us from an amble around a very big Homestead which had some fab birds (even for a not very interested bird watcher like me).

On the way back to Rosebud I was so excited when we saw a koala feasting on some gum leaves, and in true Australia Day weekend manner stood there with all the other Aussies gawking at it while it sat there eating away not in the slightest bit interested in us...but so cute and fluffy, I wonder if they bite?

....more exciting things in Sydney

2007-01-04T05:12:00.000+01:00

A whole week in Sydney and lots of things to do (other than catch up with rellies, poor Marty!). Managed to fit in some rockclimbing with Matt and Freida and with Jrod. A quick drive around the northern beaches which had some really big waves, a lovely but tiring walk around west head and a catch-up with Kirsten and Chami in their new house where Marty took a lots and lots of pickies of their new puppy!

Top: Marty, Matt and Freida rockclimbing
Bottom: Great waves at DeeWhy, Mum and Dad at Westhead, Kirsten and Chami's cute doggie!

How exciting NYE.......

2007-01-04T05:07:00.000+01:00

Oh my gosh this was the best new years ever....look at the view we had (and the sexy photos Martiman took!). We had a fantastic picnic in the Botanical gardens (specially people only allowed...) courtesy of mum and sat back, relaxed and enjoyed :)

Xmas bbq at the Nevilles

2007-01-04T05:03:00.000+01:00

A quick catch up with the Sydney boys and Girls (Xina all the way from Japan, Dr G and Mikey before their overseas adventures, Jrod in the midst of writing up and Kathy just being Kathy)

Clockwise: All of us eating again, Greg and Jrod, Keep on trying Mikey.....

Neville Xmas in Melbourne

2007-01-04T04:55:00.000+01:00

Mum, Dad, Matt and Freida made the long car journey down to Melbourne for Xmas.....we ate and drank our way around the world with lots of yummy delicious creations.

The Xmas activities (clockwise): Suz and Marty, Frieda and Mum modelling the latest xmas fashion whilst opening presents. Suz stuffing herself on rasberry souffle, the souffle and Matt checking out his beer collection from around the world.

The pre and post xmas actitivites (clockwise): Mum and Matt, and Dad at the Mornington Peninsula, Mum and Dad getting lost in a really cool hedge maze. Matt and Freida at a yummy Chinese restaurant, the fam posing in Melbourne, Rudolph at the Museum.

Weekend of food....

2006-12-05T00:35:00.000+01:00

Oh dont we love this time of year....endless food and drink, yum yum. This weekend is the first of many to come .

(1) Cuckoo restaurant in the Dandenongs : smorgasboard of German food, oh dear I nearly had to be rolled home.(2) Cherry picking....do you think 8 kilos will last very long?
(3) Wine tour in the Mornington Peninsula. After eating at the Cuckoo the day before the last thing I felt like was more food, but suprise suprise I managed to stuff myselft again with the yummy food at the wineries. Oh and lots of wine also.

Borat......

2006-11-28T23:52:00.000+01:00

I havent put any movie reviews on here before but Borat has hit a nerve with me. I'm shocked that this movie has been getting good reviews and it takes alot to shock me! ....Borat is totally and uterly disgusting, racist in everyway possible and offensive! I can see the point of the film but here is the line ___ and he well and truely crossed it. I hope he does get sued by every American, Jew, gay, female etc. person out there.
It gets no stars from me....

Bordeaux in Winter...

2006-11-26T23:43:00.000+01:00

Well another exciting trip to Bordeaux, cant say the weather/atmosphere was as spectacular as last time during the summer/ bordeaux wine festival/world cup finals...but who can compete with that. This trip consisted of baguettes, canelles (a specialty from Bordeaux, yum yum), intricate naughty creations from the patiserie and fiascos with our one attempted day of being tourists at St Emillion.

Here are a few pickies (clockwise)...Suz with Baguette, Jo eating delicious chocolate breakfast, Suz and Jo (awww), Greg and Natasha strolling around town, Greg checking out the heights in St Emillion, and Suz and Jo again doing what Europe is good for.

How Exciting - Moving House

2006-11-02T23:59:00.000+01:00

Well the time has come to say my good byes to Elwood and move onto bigger things....the parents decided to come and visit on the weekend of my move (how kind) and with the help of them and my personal muscular removalist (aka. Martiman) the move was all too easy. Oh and dont let me forget to mention the fantastic sparkling new removal truck from Thrifty with a cool hydrolic lift at the back that provided many hours of entertainment for Dad and Marty...boys, boys, boys!

'The Truck'The boys playing with 'the truck'

My handy helper

......and the new house, happy housing to me!

A Day in Brisbane

2006-11-02T23:54:00.000+01:00

Here are a few pickies from my one and only day in Brisbane for a med interview....still havent heard if I got in? I had a few hours to kill before flying back to wonder around town, think I may have seen all the sites now! not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with Brisbane, its just not very exciting....OK I'll stop now before I dig a bigger hole.

good things come in threes

2006-10-16T05:10:00.000+02:00

Been to lots of exciting concerts lately....the cat empire and the whitlams were absolutely fantastic but I dont have much to say about Little Birdy other than never again......

Torquay Netball Trip 2006

2006-09-14T09:42:00.000+02:00

We were on top of the ladder for the whole season but come finals time no luck :( oh well atleast we didnt stack our team for the finals. Here are some pickies of our end of season trip to Torquay where all sorts of fun and games went on!
Including a very amusing outting to the 'local' in our Charlies Angels gear.....
.....a day of mini-golf that even Greg you would find difficult!

and many other stories which I'm not allowed to tell :)

Fun and games with my phone-camera

2006-09-05T02:36:00.000+02:00

Check out all the nerdiness in Chicago!

2006-08-17T09:53:00.000+02:00

Tourists in the Chicago heat

2006-08-05T07:37:00.000+02:00

While I may be in Chicago for work purposes we cant have all work and no play...here are a few things that Greg, Marty and I got up to in the sweltering 100 F heat. We first escaped the heat by visiting the art gallery and were rather suprised at the quality of it. Then we made a quick trip up the Sears tower. But fortunately (or rather unfortunately for our credit cards) shopping was the winner!

See look I am a tennis legend...this sign proves it! My award for best record of the season in 1994 is still up at the tennis courts at Naperville North.

Frosty Melbourne!

2006-07-21T07:30:00.000+02:00

Brrrrr....this morning I awoke to a chilly reminder that I'm really in Melbourne not Sydney...FROST ON MY WINDSCREEN! thats just not on :( I want to be back in Europe in the warmth. Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end...back to work now.

Alle Les Bleu!

2006-07-06T10:48:00.000+02:00

FRANCE v PORTUGAL

OK so I'm not French but....while in France do as the Frenchies do! C'est la vie...

Bordeaux food and wine v3.0

2006-07-05T17:38:00.000+02:00

The Bordeaux Wine Festival

The event we were all waiting for finally arrived...for 12 euros they gave us all a souvenir wine glass as snazzy glass holder and 12 vouchers for wine!! Well that was until many locals gave us there unused books of vouchers which Mark was determined to use each and every one of! In any case the wine goddess/god was friendly and gave us good plonk with which we picked a different food to feast...the night finished off fantastically with fireworks in the river which are close to the best I've seen.Mark sampling from the wine god!

Jrod appreciating the wine god!

Suz and Timi working our way through the big bottle

Bordeaux food and Wine v2.0

2006-07-05T17:17:00.000+02:00

St Emillion Degustation

To be truely tourists in Bordeaux during the wine festival we took a tour out to St Emillion. Other than the extreme heat that day and the somewhat hung-over group that we were we enjoyed a day of wining and dining.

Who can resist a pictureque moment in an old town!

Wine wine is everywhere....and all the more to drink!Hmmm frogs legs, dont know if I'm a fan....they look very cute though and we ate them all!

Bordeaux Food and Wine v1.0

2006-07-05T17:01:00.000+02:00

French Group Outing to the 'Beach'

Arrived in Bordeaux again for 'work' however the Frenchies had another idea. Day 2 consisted of a group outing to the lake which went for around 12 hours. They certainly know how to entertain...firstly we had about 10 different wines one for each course, by then we were all a little toasty and cautious not to make fools of ourselves. Then many hours of games and swimming (they were missing the Aussie essential cricket set though)...then we moved location to have a bbq at someones house where the drinking began again...I give them a 8 out of 10 for good bbq cooking, but there is something wrong with drinking good wine at a bbq and not bottles of the cheapest beer available!!

Mark and Suz showing off their sexy bodsProf Jean-Franc., Bleita and Jrod sampling the fine wineThere were even some spedo's out and about!!And the Frenchies cooking up a feast.

London visit with Jo and Gareth

2006-07-02T16:54:00.000+02:00

So back in Europe again...for work, he he!! First stop London to visit Jo and Gareths new humble abode. We ran around taking some tourist photos for a few hours with Ben our cousin for Grandmas 80th (yep thats as far as my tourist adventures there went). We also went up north to an air and music show where we worked on being relaxed playing golf, swimming and picinics. Its nice being back in Europe and not feeling like a tourist just experiencing the culture instead. Hi Jo thanks for letting me stay....

GO Aussie GO!

2006-06-15T07:41:00.000+02:00

Aussie Soccer in Fed Square
Australia 3: Japan 1

Cocktail Party Theme "uniforms"

2006-06-07T06:33:00.000+02:00

Well Monash Chemistry certainly put on a cocktail party to rival the Sydney Uni Alchemist balls. We drank all sorts of cocktails from centrifuge tubes...guests included; sporting starts from all fields, medical staff, cross-dressing school girls and nuns, marty in tights, suz in lycra...and much more!
There were also many games to be had throughout the evening!

Look who came to stay!

2006-05-31T10:02:00.000+02:00

Warren Miller - Higher Ground

2006-05-31T09:55:00.000+02:00

Now I'm really looking forward to this ski season....the movie must have worked as I'm not really a very big snow fan. However, there is no way ever that you will find me on top of a big mountain like some of the idiots in the film...do they have a death wish?!?

I think this year it is time to move on and try snowboarding!! as my skiing is really not getting any better and really the snowboarders have so much more style! I'm not a fashion victim I promise :)

Dutch paedophiles to launch political party

2006-05-31T09:52:00.000+02:00

Oh my God are they serious!!!!!

Last Update: Wednesday, May 31, 2006. 7:35am (AEST)

By Stephanie Kennedy

Paedophiles in the Netherlands are launching a political party to lobby for a reduction in the age of consent from 16 to 12 and to legalise pornography on television.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity party plans to officially register as a political party in the Netherlands today.

It is calling for a cut to the legal age for sexual relations to 12 wanting to eventually scrap the limit altogether.

The party says private possession of child pornography should be allowed and it will lobby for the broadcast of pornography on daytime television.

Other issues the party plans to take up include legalising sex with animals and allowing people to go naked in public.

The party's program also includes legalising all soft and hard drugs and free train travel for all.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1651419.htm

Sing Star

2006-05-16T07:00:00.001+02:00

Sing Star...ah what a great invention, many great nights have been had making a fool of ourselves. Anna and Dave had their un-official house-warming do recently, and here are some happy snaps of us all pretending to sing well...I think the verdict may be that Anna gets the Sing Star award and Adam gets the very Amateur award! but hey being able to sing isnt everything?!Pia and co.
Dave and Ute trying to add a little dancing into the singing.
Anna and Faye in a close contest (can you tell by their serious looks)
Marty and I
David and his favourite toy
Adam and Nicole looking very pleased with themselves for some reason

OK yes I'm a nerd!

2006-05-12T02:02:00.000+02:00

Look what I did today....a real column with fractions and tlc plates and everything!
For all those who have no I idea what I'm going on about just notice how professional :) I look in a lab coat!

Wilsons Prom

2006-04-21T01:21:00.000+02:00

Marty, Adam and I spent the Easter weekend tramping (yes NZ word I know!) around the Wilsons Prom...here are some happy snappies of our adventures. We intended it to be a nice and relaxing trip but ended up walking around 50k's in 3 days, some were less happy about that than others...however, I claim that the VIC parks people cant measure distances correctly. Somehow, according to their signs walking, to the lighthouse is a few km's longer than the way back, even though its along the same path hmmmm.
There were fires through the park this time last year caused (so I hear) by back-burning gone awry, very awry! falling asleep on the job is alright in some occupations but not this one. Anyway, we spent most of the time walking through the burnt section of the park but the up side is that the water views are much improved.
nice tights!
an exhausted Suz after the lighthouse journey

wow the new and improved view...
and the infamous lighthouse.South point...funnily enough like the name sounds its the southern most point in Australia

Our lovely campsite at Roaring Meg...which I havent decided if the name is from the roaring trickle of a creek or the roaring wind that threatened to bring trees into our tent. Oh and look my nice new blue tent isnt it lovely!