Back to the UK

We had PULSE@Parkes session from Cardiff in December. Rob was in the UK following the dotAstromony conference. He decided to take advantage of the both of us being in Europe and ran our first international session. It was run at and in collaboration with Cardiff University and involved students from the local schools.
My trip to Cardiff was the first long drive in my new car which I had bought just a few weeks earlier. It's a Volvo, what a surprise! I'm very pleased with it. It eats up the mile, sorry kilometres, on the autobahns, is quick enough that I can overtake safely on the crazy German roads and is surprisingly frugal. I drove through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France before taking the tunnel to the UK. Once on the other side I had to concentrate hard to drive on the left. I was finding it hard going before I stopped off at Doug's for a quick pit-stop. It was just a flying visit but it was great to catch up for a bit. By the time I left I felt infinitely better and the rest of the drive was easy.

The PULSE@Parkes session went well and I think the students enjoyed it. We has a bit of local press too (albeit rather inaccurate). It was nice to meet up with Rob again and catch up with the latest gossip from down-under. It was also a good excuse to visit the family. Despite passing right by Nick and Ceri the timing meant I couldn't pop in, a shame but we knew we'd be meeting up at Christmas.

My things arrive at last

My things from Australia were eventually delivered in November but not before the removal company had lost three of my boxes. One of them included my entire DVD, CD and software collection so I was not best pleased. Initially they just sent me an insurance claim form but I harassed both the Australian and UK ends until they eventually found my things in the warehouse in the UK.

On the day they were to deliver they turned up in a huge double trailer truck and were surprised when they couldn't find anywhere to park. This was particularly annoying as I'd paid for them to use a smaller transfer vehicle. They disappeared and returned eight hours later in a rental van. Apparently they'd been doing the transfer in lay-bys and kept being moved on by the police. They'd also managed to lose my mattress by this point but all the other boxes were there. It's not exactly the professional service I'd hope for.

I've since finished unpacking and there doesn't appear to be anything missing. Unfortunately there has been damage to the furniture due to very poor packing and handling. I made an insurance claim which they eventually approved, but not before they'd managed to make a mess of that too. The incompetence is staggering!
The damage is annoying but it's a relief to have all my things again and have the flat sorted out and feeling like home.

Moving into Bad Godesberg

After a few of weeks of flat hunting here (back in September) I managed to find a nice place in Bad Godesberg, according to Wikipedia 'the posh part of Bonn'. When Bonn was the capital of Germany this was the area where most of the embassies were. It's a short train ride from the centre of Bonn so it's very conveniently positioned. Also Aris and Michael live just down the road.

When flats in Germany are described as unfurnished they really mean it, no lights or kitchen, just wires and pipes! Luckily there is a toilet and bath but that's about it. I made a massive Ikea order and had them deliver all the parts for my kitchen. I decided to save a bit of money and install it myself. It took me a whole day and I nearly destroyed my back in the process of lifting and cutting the worktop. In the end though it all has gone together pretty well and it was actually quite satisfying.
I had a lot of furniture coming from Australia so I had to wait for useful things like my bed to arrive. I have a new sofa so I only had to spend a couple of weeks on Norbert's airbed (borrowed by most of the new pulsar group when they arrive in Bonn) before moving onto the sofa.
It didn't take long to get the internet and TV sorted out so despite the lack of furniture things were comfortable, if a little sparse.

A trip to Besançon (from a while ago)

Well, it's been ages since I last updated this blog. Things have been very busy here and I haven't had time but now I'm going to try to fill in some of the blanks. Back in October I went off to a conference in Besançon. We drove down from Bonn and it was a nice change to be able to go to a conference without having to get on an aeroplane.

It was a very useful meeting, it brought me up to speed on the projects here and I think a lot of progress was made. I knew almost everyone at the meeting and it was great to catch up with a lot of folks I've not seen since in years. The food was great with lots of good cheese at every meal, not a good place for those who are lactose intolerant!

The town itself is set in the ox-bow of a river and is full of beautiful old buildings. It used to be a centre for the watch industry until the advent of quartz clocks. The conference was held opposite the historic transit telescope used for timekeeping and testing of mechanical chronometers. They organised guided tours of the telescope and the Musée du Temps in town as well as a spectacular conference dinner.

A trip to Effelsberg

Last week Michael took Paulo and me to see the telescope in Effelsberg. I'd been to Effelsberg before during a conference in Bonn over six years ago but this visit was more interesting because I knew I would be using this telescope a lot over the coming years. Unfortunately, unlike the day six years ago, it was cloudy and rainy.

We were introduced to the local staff and shown around the main building before going on a tour of the telescopes. I say telescopes because a new LOFAR station has been built next to the 100m. While LOFAR will be an amazing instrument and this station alone has the same collecting area as Parkes, it's not exactly spectacular to look at. It is basically a lot of wire in a field with a big box-o'-electronics next to it. Still, it's going to be fun to use.

Then we turned our attention to the 100m itself. It's a beautifully designed telescope which changes its shape in an entirely predictable way as it moves. This means that unlike the GBT it can maintain an accurate high-frequency surface without needing actuators. We took a lift up to the top of the towers. To get to the focus cabin the telescope was pointed nearly horizontally allowing us to walk along one of the support arms. This has the added advantage of not having to climb all the way. From the arm you get a good view of the primary and secondary focus cabins.

Once inside the primary focus cabin the telescope was slewed so that it was pointing directly up. It was interesting how our perception of the space in the focus cabin changed as the floor slowly became the wall and visa-versa. Once we'd reached the zenith we climbed up to the roof to admire the slightly damp view of the valley.

Back on the ground we inspected the cable wrap before heading to the control room. In the rack of backends I saw a familiar sight, a PDFB from the ATNF. It still needs a bit of work before we can use it regularly. There was also the new multibeam backend which vital for the new survey.

After a quick meeting we drove back to Bonn, stopping for a late lunch and a beer in a nearby village. I'm looking forward to going back to observe!

Bonn

've been in Germany for nearly two weeks now. Luckily I've not had any jet-lag worth mentioning, in fact it's been nice to be getting up early in the mornings. I'm staying at the Internationales Gästhaus just a couple of mins walk from the lab. It's small but has everything I need for the moment.

My office isn't quite ready yet so I'm sharing with Norbert. He, Paulo, Aris and I make up the pulsar group, but there are more people on the way. The weather has been beautiful and we've been eating out on the roof most days despite the wasps.

At the weekends I've been out exploring Bonn. It's quite a nice little city with plenty of old buildings and lots of parks and squares. Despite the city being small on Saturdays it's very busy with people shopping and there's something happening in most of the squares. But on Sundays all the shops must shut by law and it's a ghost-town. The public transport is excellent and there are plenty of bicycle lanes. Living in Canada and Australia I'd almost forgotten that bicycles existed but here they're everywhere.

The latest news is that I've found a flat in Bad Godesberg, just 4 mins by train from Bonn. It's nice and big with a spare room for visitors and a south-east facing balcony for my satellite dish :) Unfortunately it doesn't have a kitchen or any light fittings which is normal in Germany. There's lots to do but it's relief to have found somewhere already.

Leaving Sydney

Ten days ago the removers came and took all of my worldly possessions to send them to Germany. I had spent the week before taking apart all my Ikea furniture to keep the shipping-volume down. By the end of the week I was sleeping on the sofa and living out of a suitcase.

They took four hours to pack up all 75 boxes / thingies and take them away. It was pretty stressful watching my things bump around in the back of the ute on their way up to the van.

After that I moved into George's spare room which he had kindly offered for my last week. It was surprisingly tidy, I suspect that the imminent arrive of Sha may have had something to do with this :) The last week was good fun, every night we were drinking and eating somewhere with friends. Jono and I even managed a last Pizza Tuesday.

I had the traditional pulsar farewell at Fusion before Dick left for Parkes. It was nice that so many people could come to say goodbye (and avoid the cafeteria). I sold my car and returned the house so that I could spend my last weekend in Sydney having fun rather than messing around with moving.

On my last weekend we had a little BBQ around at George's house. That day he was busy taking Sha to Manly (well there's a double entendre for you - but since it's George that I'm talking about, Manly clearly refers to the place). Anyway, Vik helped me go shopping and grab food, beer and fuel for the BBQ but we forgot to lock the house and we found Anna tidying when we returned.

I really enjoyed the BBQ. Anna burnt down George's garden, George played a duet with Sha, Sha and Jono beat everyone else at mahjong and Jo kicked my butt at Tetris.

The next day George, Sha, Jo, Vik and I headed off to Watson's Bay for nice boat ride, a short walk and a great view of the city. It was a stunning (to borrow George's favourite word) day - sunny and cloudless but not too warm.

We had fish and chips at the dock then walked around to the head. We passed a nudist beach which was a little disturbing with blokes standing around butt-naked but Sha and Jo seemed interested! We walked around the cliff-top and enjoyed views of the waves breaking against the rocks below. Vik managed to find a way down and we walked around exploring the rock-pools before the rising tide made it time to go. George, of course, managed to get wet.

Mike kindly gave me a lift with my huge bag from George's to the ATNF on Monday. I had a final morning tea and said goodbye. George, Jono, Mike, Vik and Neerag waved me off when the taxi arrived. "You're a very popular guy," said the taxi driver. They just wanted to make sure I actually left :)

Unfortunately, on the way to the airport the taxi hit a plastic bollard which then jammed under the car. We had to pull over in one of the tunnel's emergency stopping areas to remove it and check the tires. I thought this might be ominous but other than that it was a pretty smooth trip. My bag weighed 31.4 kg (which means that George's scales are accurate to within 0.2 kg) but I wasn't charged any excess.

I managed to sleep well on the flight and arrived in Frankfurt rested. I spoke German for the first time in ages when buying my train ticket. It was easy stuff but I has quite pleased with myself until I turned to leave and said 'Merci', immediately followed by 'Bollox'!

The train travelled along the bank of the Rein all the way up to Bonn. There were lots of little villages nestled between the valley sides and the river and it's really quite picturesque.

I got to MPIfR just before 0900, got set up in the guest-house and then was ready for work. I managed to stay awake until 2200 and had a very good night's sleep.