our cycling adventure

...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!

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

Skiing and snowboarding

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

....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!

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

Cure for Jetjag....French fiesta

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

Post graduation festivities in Sydney

Marty gets Doctorified

...its nearly book time

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

Hadron Rap

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

The Coffee Master

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

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!

marty is famous.....

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

suz's birthday lunch at lilydale

its mushroom time again.....

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....

Sailing around the Bay