Christmas Plans 2006

Heading for our second Christmas north of the equator and it still has a movie-like feel about it. Having grown up with Christmas during the summer time -- and all the wonderful things that means -- a northern hemisphere Christmas seems a bit like living in a movie. You know, you've seen many things in movies and if you ever experience it -- say you get the opportunity to stay in a high-class hotel after having only ever seen them depicted in movies -- then so many things that you know about but have never experienced suddenly become more real. The full-on winter clothes, everything spiced with cinnamon, snow, Santa actually needing a fur-lined suit; these all make a little more sense now.

So having said that, we decided last year that we felt we'd like a break from the cold (mostly Gaynor) and are heading to Spain for a week just after Christmas. Thanks to a generous benefactor we'll be shacking up in warmer climes, along with my brother who is flying over from the US. Gaynor notes that with his arrival here all my siblings (barring Alistair) will have visited Europe.

So in light of the trip Gaynor has decided to "go easy" on the Christmas feasts. She listed the menu the other day and I'm not sure exactly what she means by the term but I'm looking forward to it! We are also going light on the presents -- something I personally prefer anyway -- due to the move at the end of July next year. More on that later perhaps. (No, we don't know where we are going yet).

So we wish you a happy and joyous Christmas time and of course, all the best for the New Year.

Blogger Hiccup

Google have released an updated version of Blogger -- the site and software which power this blog. During the change over many articles were 're-published', so to speak, when we applied the new labelling system [1]. So if you subscribe to the blog via the Atom or FeedBlitz newsfeeds (see down the left-hand side of this page) then you will receive notification of all the 'new' articles. Feel free to ignore them or re-read them, as you wish. Just pay attention to the date at the top of each post so you know if you are getting something fresh or a history lesson!

[1] You'll see any applied labels at the bottom of each post. You can click on it to get all the articles so labelled.

Summer Holiday 2006

OK, so we are a little behind in reporting some of our trips, including Bavaria, Paris and our summer holiday to Croatia -- in reverse chronological order. So first one first let's go through our haul over to Croatia.

The purpose of this holiday was different to last year's summer excursion. Last year it was all about getting to one of our most-wanted-to-visit places (Italy) and also get in a little bit of relaxation as well. This year the ideas were different.

The drive to Croatia was broken up with a stay overnight at Augsburg -- no sightseeing, only somewhere to stop, eat and sleep. We reached the campsite mid-afternoon the next day with enough time to set up tent, make some dinner and meet the neighbours. The people next to us were very friendly, greeting us in German (since they saw the car's plates) and then switching to English when I explained in German that my German wasn't so good. Turns out they were Slovak and were very kind and friendly to us our whole stay. Both the mother and father also spoke Croatian -- which turned out to be very useful later in our stay -- and the wife also spoke Hungarian! These Europeans!

Pretty much from the next day the name of the game was do as little or as much as you liked. Gaynor, of course, had a book or four she'd bought to read. "Holiday" is a synonym for "book reading" in Gaynor's language. Gaynor also enjoyed a swim in the bay first thing most mornings and considers it a great way to start the day. The children spent time in and out of the expansive pools of the campsite and various trips down to the bay shoreline for swimming as well. They had a great curly waterslide with water pumped out of the bay and this was an especial favourite of the children. Unfortunately not too many photos from around the camp as most of us were too busy with nothing to do but, to the right here, you can see an example of the sort of sunsets we had to put up with.

We did manage a trip or two into the town of Rovinj itself, working our way to the church and up the church tower. We seem to climb these whenever available with Gaynor staying at the bottom with Bryna and the other children coming up with me. Churches themselves don't cost to go in but the towers usually incur a charge. The attendant did warn that the stairs were a little worn in places. I passed this information on to the children along with instructions to step on the outside of the stair if it looked a bit dodgy. I knew Elijah was listening carefully since I had never seen him move so slow when awake! He placed his foot gingerly towards the outside of every step as though it contained some volatile explosive. In the end I had to hurry him along, even though the stairs were pretty worn.

The children do a Fab Four before the ascent.
The sunlight throught the stairs isn't just for laughs either.

The view from the church tower across the Adriatic was simply gorgeous.

As well as the seemingly obligatory visit to the church we also patronised a couple of restaurants, one of which -- Figarola, as seen in the picture -- is now our new favourite restaurant in Europe. We highly recommend it to you if you are ever in the area. Apart from the wonderful views, Gaynor was particularly impressed with the seafood risotto with all the of seafood sweet and tender, not overdone like so many other places. It was creamy and well seasoned with fresh herbs that rounded out the flavour to perfection. Other delicious servings included a pork schnitzel with a special seasoned crumbing (Fenton), grilled chicken breast in a creamy sauce (quite a departure for Mara from her standard spaghetti bolognese) and a pork and prawn kebab (Joshua).

The view across the Adriatic from our table at Figarola

We really enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing time only wishing it could have been longer. The drive home included a couple of multi-hour waits through the mountain tunnels of Austria and another overnight stop in Augsburg. This time though we took in the town centre and the cathedral, which is home to the world's largest and oldest stained-glass windows. We didn't stay too long but still another pleasant memory to add to the trip.

Recent Birthdays

This time of year is always busy in our family with birthdays. Children recently on the receiving end were, in chronological order, Mara (the 19th of October), Bryna (the 30th of October) and Joshua (the 9th of November). They clocked 10, 3 and 13, respectively.

Mara wished to get her ears pierced. I offered but she claimed something about infection and had Gaynor take her into town to a slightly more reputable place. She's been asking for a couple of years for this particular kind of pain and, in principle, I didn't have a problem, happily agreeing to 25 as the correct age for this procedure. Gaynor pointed out that she herself had holes put in her ear lobes on her 7th birthday. She seems to have turned out alright and so I acquised. Here is a photo of Mara with a few of her friends who came for a sleepover party.


Next up was Bryna whose only real birthday wish was Nanna, Poppa and a birthday cake with candles on it. We knew this was her real wish since she repeated it many times over the course of about two months. We are glad to report we came through with the goods -- special thanks to Nanna and Poppa for doing their bit (travelling half the globe). You can see the cake that showed up in the photo.


Finally, Joshua made it relatively unscathed into his teens. He actually voiced few birthday wishes but when pressured finally came up with a couple of sporting goods and a DVD. Some happened, others didn't but he also had a sleepover party with a couple of friends -- staying up quite late (and then also getting up quite early) to watch movies and play video games. You can see a snapshot from this event below.


Of course Gaynor provided her usual scrumptious birthday dinners (menu by request) and wonderful cakes. Though they don't seem especially so now I'm sure the children will thank us in the future for the delicious food their mother generated and the genetics that allowed them to enjoy these delights repeatedly.

Paranimf-in'

A little while ago two PhD students at work graduated from their respective Dutch universities. I had had a small hand in helping both of them with their theses -- mostly editing (thanks be to Brett), English and some thoughts on layout. I attended the graduation ceremonies of both and they are somewhat different to my own in Australia.

Firstly, the generic Australian version. Usually the protocol is to write the thesis, submit it to the univeristy who -- with the preparation of you and your supervisor who have invited them -- send it off to the examiners. There are rules about who can and cannot do this but in general it is three or four people who know enough about your work (hopefully) to say if it's rubbish or not. They prepare a report on the work and then recommend one of a few possible outcomes[1] This then goes to the University who generally follow through on the advice they have received and a bit later on you (optionally and usually a few months) head to the official graduation ceremony where you, along with a few hundred others (mostly undergraduates), are presented with your scroll of paper. At some universities they read out the thesis title of the graduand before handing over the parchment and other places -- like my own at ANU -- they just print it in the program.

The differences with the Dutch system include, for starters, it takes more the form of a formal thesis defence. The candidate having previously published and submitted his thesis to the examining committee, then comes before them in a formal ceremony and is grilled for a designated -- and strictly controlled -- time period. Work colleagues, friends and family typically attend the ceremony. To support the grillee -- though pretty much only in a moral sense -- two assistants are asked and they are known as the paranimfs. I don't think there is an strictly equivalent word in English. Anyway, I was recently invited to be a paranimf. This pretty much involved wearing a dark suit, walking in the processions, standing in the right place at the right time and sitting still during the Process-O-Grilling. I thought it might also entail coming quickly to one's feet and calling 'Objection!' or stopping the candidate running from the room but I appear to have been mistaken. Overall the ceremony went well.

At the end of the Grill Fest the examining committee retires for its deliberations and upon return (usually) grant the degree on the spot. Usually then the candidate's "promotor" (the academic who officially is putting him forward as a candidate) says a few words about the candidate (now Doctor) and their efforts. The ceremony is concluded and friends, family and colleagues adjourn to a reception room to partake in drinks, hors d'œuvre, congratulations and possibly even some gift giving. Then it's all over bar the posing.

The Man of the Moment with family members and flanked by his two Paranimfs.

[1] Generally and broadly they are: conferral of degree with no changes, conferral of degree with minor changes, rewrite and resubmission of thesis and denial of degree.