Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk

Last weekend Aleisha, Marty (a collaborator from Monash university) and myself decided to join the ~200000 other people celebrating the 75th anniversary of Sydney harbour bridge by walking over it. The most enjoyable part of the event was the knowledge that thousands of motorists were unable to drive over the bridge in their useless Australian made cars for a day. Other than annoying motorists it was an excellent opportunity to do some photography of a popular land mark from an angle that you can not normally get.

Due to popular demand a photo of Aleisha and I (apparently this blog has too much ranting from me and not enough photos of Aleisha and I. Me rant, never)

Marty

What does 1.5 million dollars buy you?

Well after much hype and speculation we have finally moved into our new lab, well into the new office at least. While the air conditioning seems to be permanently stuck on 16 C and the network is only partially functional everything else is looking pretty good. No doubt the lab will turn into a dumping ground as soon as we can use it so I figured I would put up a few photos while it still looks new.

One of the coolest features are two temperature/humnidity controlled crystal growing rooms. They are also designed to minimise vibrations, lets hope this will mean that I will be able to grow some single crystals for once.

At the back of the lab we have a instrument room, unfortunately we dont have any instruments yet. Depending on how my PhD writing goes I may start living in there.

In our old lab we had one partially functional fume hood, in this lab we have ten.

Our office is located at the front of the lab and will seat ~25 people in total.

I managed to score a fancy desk with a view in the quiet part of the office. I think my boss was hoping that I would write up quicker if I had no distractions!

Tasmania – Part IIII

Well it is time for the final instalment of my Tasmania journey. After leaving the Walls I decided to spend a couple of days exploring the Northern part of Tasmania. I stayed in a town call Sheffield which has become famous for its murals! The town was quite nice as it had a pub with cheap accommodation and a bakery with good danishes. I spent a day in the tourist trap call the Cradle Mountain National Park doing some hikes and while the place was nice it was just swarming with American tourists. That night I went to check out a penguin colony and got chatting to a park ranger who gave me a tip-off for an excellent place to spot Wombats. Trusting the ranger, the next evening I headed to Narawntapu National Park. Almost as soon as I got out of the car I was greeted by a bunch of Pademelons and when the sun started to set I finally saw a Wombat, actually I saw about a dozen in the end.

Cradle Mountain National Park

I hope you all like this photo as the rocks were bloody sharp!

Cradle Mountain

A Pademelon

Wombat!