Berlin

Berlin is quite far North, which although I knew, didn't quite illustrate the fact that the sun doesn't set until midnight and then gets up again at 4am. I am so glad that I bought by eyeshades with me!

Yesterday i worked in the morning, going through some emails and things that I needed to write, and then I headed into Berlin to see what I could see. There was a big gay pride parade on, and being from Sydney I did not think this was that interesting, and then I went on a walking tour and lean't lots about Nazi history. I knew bits and pieces, but now I know more.

Today I am finishing off an experimental plan and NOT writing a presentation that i really should finish, and of course, missing the premiere of Dr Who season 4, the Christmas special that features Kylie (Minogue) as a guest - the companian of the Doctor for that episode. Real bummer. I have been hanging out for this to come out for almost a year and now I am here and cannot watch it. I tried to find an illegal copy on the web in desperation, to no avail. Anyway - I'm finishing off my experimental plan, and then might be forced to do a bit on the stupid pesentation, or might just go to the Berlin zoo and aquarium.

Toddler Alert!

Today, i am at the Hahn-Meitner Institut in Berlin, preparing for an experiment that starts on Monday.

On the way here I stopped off to visit my nephew, brother, and his wife Li in Singapore where they live. It was great to see them again, Jonathon my nephew is growing up very quickly. He is 23 months old, which makes him very amusing and his favourite words are no and car. He is car obsessed, and I mean, obsessed. Li told me she was in a taxi with him and he said his other favourite sentence "whats that mummy?" pointing to a motorbike, and she said "its a scooter", thinking it was a scooter, and Jonathon YELLED at her VERY LOUDLY "NO MUMMY, NO!" (please note excessive use of favourite word here) "NO ITS NOT MUMMY. ITS A MOTORBIKE". Li said the driver had a laughing fit that nearly caused them all to die.

My brother Richard took the day off from work and we tried to take Jonathon out of rthe day, but he usually naps between 1 and 3pm, so when 12.30 rolled around he started getting CRANKY. Big time. We didn't bring the pram, so he had nowhere to sleep, and he got progressively worse and worse until he started screaming and crying uncontrollably and my brother just picked him up and threw him over his shoulder ala caveman. I suggested we head home so he could have a nap, but he was asleep like so much dead meat before we got there. As soon as we got him into bed he woke up and demanded that we "GO OUT AND RIDE IN A CAR. NOW. NOW DADDY. NOW. I WANT THE CAR> I NEED THE CAR. I NEED IT, DADDY". He eventually went back to sleep. The first words out of his mouth when he awoke, three hours later, were "I NEED THE CAR DADDY. OUT WITH THE CAR".

Jonathon likes to arrange things obsessively to. His cars all have to be in a row, either side by side, but sometimes lengthwise in a row. Don't touch them, they are his. And you don't know how they go. When he drinks some milk before he goes to sleep, he needs:
the green turtle in his left hand which HE will put beside his head. If you do it, this will not be satisfactory. he needs the pencil case with cars on it in his right hand, and he will clutch the bottle in both hands with the pencil case in tow. he likes to have the bottle cap balanced on his right foot, for all this to work. he hasn't worked out he has two hands only, and in order to put the cap on his foot, his shoes need to be off, and the turtle has to already be behind his head. But he wants all of this to happen at once, and he wants to do it himself. So you have to trick him.

I told my brother that I expected an interesting child from his genetic stock.

Last thing - my flight from Singapore to Munich (13 hours) was on a plane with NO INSEAT SCREENS. What the?! Lufthansa. Me cranky! And two toddlers in the aisle next to me, which were no problem at all except for their mum, who was totally annoying the crap out of me. I don't know how they cope!

Wow

Time flies huh!

Since January 26th (the last time I write) I have beasically been working, with a very small amount of climbing thrown in. I went to England for an experiment too, which was intersting, but great as I got to catch up with Vicky who I know from my work at NIST. Vicky works at the ISIS facility now, and is doing very well there. On the same trip I went to Switzerland and spent sometime at a workshop, but managed to go snowboarding - my friend Kat, well, her parent own a chalet near Verbier. It was awesome.





Mikl also had a significant birthday...






The reactor restarted after 10 months offline. So I can stop travelling so much (well, not really, I have an experiment in Berlin in a few weeks and possibly another one in the UK), but am very much looking forward to some Australian neutrons!