Narrabri & Kangaroos

Yesterday, I arrived to Narrabri, a little town about 550 km from Sydney. We flew there in a Dash-8, and got a taxi to the telescope. The lady driving the taxi had an astonishing dialect. I wish I had recorded some... I could barely understand a word! 

As we got closer to ATCA, the telescope area, I was keeping my eyes open for kangaroos. I had already seen two Galahs (rosenkakduor) by the roadside. Then they appeared. About 10 at a time, standing by the road, watching us, jumping away if we got too close for comfort. The closer we got to our destination, the more of them there were. The sun was setting, and the CB cloud that had made our landing bumpy and fun, gave a great background to one of the telescopes (there are 6) as I took a fair amount of photos. I'm just adding one right now (showing some of the kangaroos, hence the washed out colours of the sky), but more will come to a webalbum at a close location hopefully soon. 

After dinner and setting up the observations, I was the first one to get some sleep, which would be 4 hours - and then I mightily surprised woke up in the middle of my deep sleep. Walking outside to the control room soon cured the sleepiness - The Milky Way was clearer than I'd ever seen - and since it's the sky of the southern hemisphere, the Magellanic clouds were visible too. I took my time walking... Now I'm monitoring monitors, hoping that nothing goes wrong, since I probably wouldn't know what to do about it :P

A walk in botanical garden

After 4 days, I finally got to see my first parrots, on a grey cloudy, and very comfortable (temperature wise) Sunday evening, as I was walking through the Domain and the Botanical Garden. 

The first one was a rainbow lorikeet, who patiently waited for me while I searched for my camera, but, I still wasn't quick enough. He had a very sweet and mild chirp. Just after that, a disney-bird caught my eye - a kookaburra! (kookaburras are not parrots, but they are still birds worth all respect due to their looks, style and personality, not to mention the laughter...) He was not laughing, just watching me and blinking while I chatted with him... The locals enjoyed watching me and all had nice comments as they were passing by. A bit further away, walking towards Mrs McQuaries chair, I heard a loud WAAAAK, tightly followed by more very insistant WAAKs. My suspicions were correct: High up in a gumtree a sulphurcrested cockatoo was purched on a branch! And then another one came, and another one, until the tree top was filled with awesome birds, and WAAAAKs, and I was in heaven. Obviously the camera wasn't resting either. 

 

WAAK!

My Kookaburra-friend

A sulphurcrested cockatoo posing nicely for me (sorry about the darkness, haven't had a chance to work on the photos yet..)

Kookaburras, cockatoos & astronomy

Well, I haven't seen either of the first two yet... But I am sure I am about to. So far, I have experienced warmth in wonderful amounts (i.e. all the time), ocean, friendly people, the most beautiful city, awesome accent, inspirational locations for work (ATNF contains a  large amount of astronomers, which all of a sudden makes your work seem more interesting and of use), and fun times with my superfun supervisor. 

Some pictures from the first few days: 

A sign of heat. Notice how the birds line up in the shadow of the palm tree... 

Flying foxes (flygande hundar) - these bats have a wingspan of 1 m

Taking the ferry out to Watson bay

And, yesterday, Jayanne and I took the ferry back to the city instead of the train. The light was excellent. Sydney harbour bridge was impressive. 

Approaching circular quay

Companions (so far):

Moi-meme, by a beach in Watson bay

Luuk (cousin-in-law) was my guide the first day when I rebooted my brain in the sunshine

Jayanne, demonstrating the funky chairs on the sydney trains :)

I did it!

Tonight, David and I attended the kick-off IYA (international year of astronomy), which was held a the Forks. And we skated there! I decided when I moved to my apartment that I would skate to the Forks at some point, and now it has finally taken place! This wouldn't be such an amazing thing if not taking into account that I'm a very shaky skater :) But after having fallen once, I became more daring. The nervousness also had the unexpected bonus that it kept me very warm. The quality of the ice deteriorated closer to the Forks though, due to more skaters, so next time I think we'll go the other direction, towards Assiniboine park. 

On another note: We watched Australia at the cheap seats last night (something I just had to do before heading there in a week). This is a movie I realised people would either hate or love. I loved it. Finally a movie that is a real movie! An epic, long (2.5 hrs), beautiful piece, that reminds me a lot of really old movies. Best was the intro - never has a murder been presented in such an artistic manner (this sounds wrong - it was not glorified in any way, but it definitely caught interest). Worst was getting used to the totally unnecessary enhancement of the upper lip of the female main actress. Easiest was to enjoy the male main actor (Hugh Jackman, need I say more... ;) Try to get a chance to watch this movie, without any expectations either direction, and just enjoy it, without being critical (as if those critics could to a better job than Baz Luhrmann anyways!!)

First entry of 2009

It's the Thirteenth Day - which is a holiday in Sweden, but doesn't seem to be recognized here (the day the 3 wise men reached Bethlehem, and also apparently the origin of the starboys, who later on were moved to Lucia celebration). The eve of the 13th day, I did stay home. All inspired for the new year (or at least made to believe so), I woke up with headache, which escalated into a migraine, which lasted all day long. Today is however my "new day with new chances", so I'm up early (combination of jetlag, and D getting up at 4.30), and intend to get lots done today! 

Following here is our Christmas greeting card. It should later be a clickable link to a webalbum of our Swedish jul-och nyår adventure. 

(En kvick personlig års-berättelse följer här:

Det var ett bra resår (dock ej så bra som min mors, men det går förstås inte att tävla med). January 2008, ett återbesök till Hawaii, där D och jag hade firat smekmånad 2 veckor tidigare, och mitt första beök på Mauna Kea. Sen var det dags för 1 vecka i Sverige på egen hand i Februari. Konferens i Victoria i maj, och konferens i London, Ontario i juni. Sommar i Winnipeg, med mkt badande. Sommarsemestern sköts på till September, då vi åkte till Holland i 9 dagar, och jag lärde känna mina svärföräldrar lite bättre (äntligen! :). Men först var vi en weekend i Calgary för Alyssas bröllop, och hälsade på Candia. I november: Tillbaka till Hawaii, för 7 nätters observationer på Mauna Kea. David kom för tidernas kortaste HI-semester, 4 dagar, efter jag var färdig, vilket vi tillbringade på stranden i Kona. Suveränt. Winterpeg i 1.5 månad med rejält låga temperaturer, under -20 i ca 2 veckor, innan vi åkte till Sverige på juldagen, med ankomst annandagen. En helt underbar vecka tillbringades i Onsala, och nu saknar jag Cassie... )