Out and About and TM people

The first few shots here are taken from the ferry that goes from Darling Harbour round to Cirular Quay in Sydney. We were making our way from the new Sydney Wildlife World round to the main area where the Opera House is for a drink.

Random... Kelly's new bike. It was a Christmas present from her friends, but causes such a stir when she goes down to the shops on it that she has only taken it out of the house twice!

The same night I had arranged a get together with all of our old Ticketmaster friends. Many of them had worked on the Lion King with me when I was working part time.

Rick (Box office manager), Simon (now box office manager somewhere else), Vanessa (now trolley dolly for Qantas) and me.

Gerrard (Annie's BF), Annie (now ticketing manager somewhere else)

Day in Blue Mountains

Monday was a free day for Jeff, Kelly and I so we headed out of Sydney and up to the Blue Mountains, only a 1 and a half hour drive away. We had a nice lunch in Leura overlooking the valley and then headed out to the tourist traps including a brief stop at the Three Sisters (below) before retreating to the car to escape the plague of fat black flies. Yuk!

After the Three Sisters we drove down a long and windy rough dirt road to reach a fire trail leading down the valley. Jeff then guided us on a off-track bush bashing trek through forests, down rock faces, over fallen trees and eventually up and out onto this outcrop (above). We were completely free of all tourists and noises apart from the black cockatoos squawking overhead.

ProShot

Hello all. Have managed to get hold of the official photographs from the grad ceremony now which are proofed online. Of course if you only take two pictures and they are both identical it doesn't leave much room for maneuver, so this is it folks. Like it or lump it. Ugg! Luckily I'm not blinking or sneezing, but with a few more attempts I'm sure I could have cracked a better smile or something. The DVD is on order and will be available in about 4 weeks... you lucky lucky people!

Just after the ceremony with Mark Willcox, my other PhD supervisor.

A few more action shots from the day...

This is Fiona Stapleton who was the overall director of postgrad research at the time but has since moved on to become Head of School for Vision Sci and Optom, and also full Prof status! Congrats Fiona!

Graduation

Hooray at last... finally managing to get pictures out from Jeffs internet. They are probably a bit smaller than usual size but rest assured I will upload the full album to the net once normal internet service is resumed.

I had a great turn out for the big day. Jeff and Kelly were in the expensive seats for the day.

Loads of the girls from the office came down too, from L-R Shamila, Vivienne, Tracey, Ulli and Jenn were all part of the gang.

This is my PhD supervisor Hua and I stood outside our research building.

Graduation Day

Hello all, many apologies for the delay in getting these to print. The Vision CRC Xmas party directly followed my graduation ceremony and I felt more than a little rough this morning on top of the usual jet lag. Sorry but I just spent an hour sorting out a blog post and then Jeffs computer lost it whilst uploading it. UGggggg! It's 2 am and I need to sleep. Jeff's home internet connection is very slow and clunky so alternative means of uploading them will be necessary. Watch this space. Tim x

First day

So woke up first day feeling pretty good. No major jet lag feelings, just waking up at 6am local time... which for me is nigh on impossible at home. Plenty to do though as had loads to organise in preparation for my graduation ceremony on Friday. Also just wanted to get back out and rediscover Sydney after being away for just over a year.


I have also been introduced to Minka's cousins, Trumpet and Jazz. Trumpet was more than happy to sit and pose. More from those two later...


So I went out and about in the afternoon, shopping at Bondi Junction then took the bus down to Bondi Beach. Its so easy to get around Sydney, especially during the day when everyone is at work!




I managed to catch the beach for about 20 minutes whilst it stayed like this, but it soon clouded over and got very windy, so time to move on.

Journey to Sydney

Hello S&N readers. Yes, I am now in Sydney for the next few weeks and will be continuing the pictures and fun from all the way over here. The flights over were OK. Manchester - Singapore is always the worst as it is nearly 14 hours in the air. I was (of course) sitting near the most annoying people in the universe, but that is nothing unusual. If only I had gone with the airlines choice of seat for me, instead of checking in online and changing it myself! I never learn. The man infront of me was also a bit trigger happy with his seat recline button which grows tiresome after staring at his dandruff for more than 90% of the flight.

Singapore airport was of course a haven. A quick shower and in no time at all its time to get back on another plane Sydney bound. This flight was not full and I managed to score an empty seat next to me. I managed to take a few shots out the window when we hit land over Australia. There are so many different landscapes and textures that are so amazing.

First landfall in Oz. The WA coastline is lovely.

More of the interior coming into the Northern Territories.

Too cloudy to see any of Uluru