Second Aussiversary musings

Wednesday this week was our second Aussiversary, having stepped off the plane to start our new adventure two years ago.

To celebrate, here are some of things I have learnt over the past two years (in no particular order):

• Aussies are very serious about their coffee, and it’s fantastic. (Even if Melbournites think that Sydney coffee is crap!)
• The chips are disappointing but the fish is great.
• The Aussie ideal of mateship is aspirational and inspirational, even if not always realised.
• Not all of the animals are trying to kill you - including the dragons.
• Your average store chocolate is rubbish but they do have people who know what they’re doing.
• Jacaranda trees are awesome.
• If thongs are banned at a club, the bouncer will stare at your feet, not perform an intimate search. And you can buy thongs in vending machines.
• Aussie rules football is possibly the best spectator sport ever. (Based on one game!)
• Thanks to craft breweries, Aussie beer is not all bad, and some of it is very good.
• Brunch is a serious(ly good) meal of the day.
• Musically, Australia is trapped in the era of hair rock power ballads. And it’s awesome.
• The coins have animals on them
• For long haul, always fly an A380 if you can.
• The Socceroos may struggle but Aussies rule at robot soccer.
• They do a good line in sunsets.
• Australia is a great place to do bioinformatics.

Comment below if you think I’ve forgotten anything important - I’m sure there’s lots!

Where I'm from

Although I was not born there, I grew up in a small seaside town called Bognor Regis. Not surprisingly, the further from Bognor I go - and I can’t get much further! - the fewer people have heard of it, despite it’s infamy.

A friend post this video on Facebook the other day. For those curious, this is what Bognor looks like from the air. Or, more precisely, what Bognor beach looks like from a drone.

Bognor Regis Feb 2015 from Sussex By Air on Vimeo.

It’s no Sydney, but it’s not a bad beach. There’s even some sand when the tide goes out! :op If you get bored (it’s a bit repetitive), skip to 2:10 or 2:50 and you can see my favourite bit: crazy golf by the pier. (There's a good kebab shop, The Sussex Frier, in the background too! If it's not closed down.)

An unexpected visitor

As well as cool reptiles, Australia also has some interesting insects that are not found in the UK. One of them paid us a visit on Saturday night: a mantis of some sort.

I'm not sure what species it was, and therefore whether it was technically a "praying mantis" or not. Hopefully, it was a preying mantis and will despatch a few of our less appreciated insect visitors, i.e. cockroaches!

It didn’t come into the house, which is a good thing because the cats seemed super-interested! Indeed, it was Arthur who drew our attention to it, spotting it on one of the outdoor chairs in the dark.

I went out to take a few pictures and it obligingly wandered over to the door to give the kitties a closer look.

It's a(n auto-awesome) twinkly Christmas Tree!

This year, we made a little photo collage of our Christmas tree for our relatives back home. After uploading it to Google+ for sharing, something rather unexpected happened: a twinkly version appeared!

Apparently, Google+ features “Auto-awesome photos & films”

Auto-awesome creates fun new versions of your photos and videos. Your photos will be combined into short animations, wide panoramas or merged into group shots where everyone looks good. You’ll know when an Auto-awesome photo or film has been created by the [auto-awesome] icon.

It’s not just adding twinkles to lights either:

Auto-awesome photo effects

Eraser - If you take a sequence of 3 or more photos in front of a structure or landmark with movement in the background, Eraser will give you a photo with all of the moving objects removed. It’s helpful for those situations when you’re trying to get a great shot of a landmark or other crowded place, but want to avoid including all of the people in the background of your photo.

Action - Take a series of photos of someone moving (dancing, running, jumping) and Auto-awesome will merge them together into one action shot where you can see the full range of movements in a single image, capturing the movement in one captivating still.

Pano - If you’ve taken a series of photos with overlapping landscape views, Auto-awesome will stitch these photos together into a panoramic image.

HDR - High Dynamic Range is the process of taking multiple exposures of the same image. By merging these images together, your photos will achieve a greater range of shadows and light. Uploading three similar images at different exposures – low, medium and high exposure – will create an HDR image for you.

Motion - If you’ve taken a series of photos in succession (at least 5), Auto-awesome will stitch these photos together into a short animation.

Smile - If you’ve taken a few group photos, Auto-awesome will choose the best shots of each person in your image and merge them into one great-looking photo.

Mix - If you’ve taken a series of portraits sharing similar background elements, Auto-awesome will compile these photos together into a photobooth-style grid. Mix is meant to showcase portrait photos taken with similar backgrounds in time, so it works best with close-ups of faces.

My iPhone already has Pano and HDR covered but I am intrigued by some of the others. The twinkly lights is particularly good for this time of year, though, so stick up those festive shots on Google+ and see what happens!

A unique souvenir of home with a John Roued-Cunliffe Illustration

Before we sold our old house and moved to Australia, my wife commissioned a unique souvenir and a beautiful surprise present for me: a line drawing of our old house by John Roued-Cunliffe. Using a photograph plus some artistic license to place our two cats, Mia and Arthur, on the scene, John rendered a lovely keepsake:

John’s wife, Eddie, is friends with mine and she also has a blog, which features one of John’s illustrations. I think it’s great! Christmas is coming up, so if you’re stuck for present ideas then check John’s website!

Reunited at last!

One of the hardest thing about selling up and moving 17,000km away was putting our two cats through the trauma of being shipped off to a cattery then flown half-way round the world before spending another 30 days in quarantine at the other end - and, of course, being without them for all this time (barring a couple of visits). Today was the day that we picked them up from quarantine!

We had obviously done our best to prepare for the arrival of our furry friends - complete with comedy placemats from Ikea for their food and water bowls. (I am not sure whether they will appreciate them as much as we do!)

The whole process was also made much easier through the knowledge that they had been well looked-after throughout. This started with their cattery stay and relocation by PetAir, who have been great and clearly care for all the animals they relocate. We picked them up in the PetAir crate that they were shipped over in, and it made me smile to see the stenciled cats on top. The lady at the quarantine station also made us feel that they had received good care as, like the PetAir staff, she reported a bit on their personalities as well as simply their condition.

The most traumatic part of the process (today) was probably the journey out and back, which was largely due to a combined lack of familiarity with the car (a GoGet Hyundai i30 called Lorna), the route and our new Garmin sat nav. (I am not getting on with the latter but I’ll save that for (maybe) another day.) Given that it was only my second drive in Australia, though, it did not go too badly - thanks largely to some human navigation and Google maps on the iPhone.

Arthur is not shaken by much and so, somewhat predictably, it was he that settled in quickest, giving the apartment a bit of a look over before settling down in the “cat condo” to survey things for a bit.

Mia, on the other hand, went and hid in the bath for a while. I can’t say that I blame her - if it had been me then I think I would have wanted a bit of alone-time. The introduction of a bowl of food was well received and she did not stay in there for long.

Unfortunately, I had to go into work for the afternoon but was pleased to receive reports that tummy-tickles were being enjoyed - and a photo of Arthur doing what he does best: sprawled relaxation.

By the time I got home again, it was almost like business as normal - I got a good greeting, Arthur was only interested in food and Mia was soon surveying her new realm from atop the cat condo. That was, at least, until I started showing an interest - this post has been slowed down at times by a purring Mia on my lap! :o)

Southampton/Sydney differences - local wildlife

When I went to unlock the shed last weekend, I found this guy had set up residence in and around the padlock. Being in the south of England, I just admired the beautiful little critter. If the same thing happens to me once we've moved to Sydney, I think I might respond a little differently!

A Monster in the garden

There are many beetles in this world but this particular monster was in our back garden when we got back from our holiday last week.

It’s some kind of stag beetle although I’m not sure which species - there are a lot of them. I’m sure in some countries it would be considered a tiddler but for a British bug it was pretty big. Look at the mandibles on that bad boy!

New Year's Aspirations for 2013

I'm not a great believer in New Year's Resolutions. After all, if there's something you should change in your life, do it when you realise it, don't wait until the end of the year. There is also the potential issue of self-recrimination etc. if you fail to keep them.

At the same time, it is useful to reflect on stuff from time to time and New Year provides a good time for this and plenty of time sitting around to think about it too! I can't say I've given it a lot of thought but I did think it would be worth penning a few New Year's aspirations. (Not because its anyone else's business, of course, but I do think I am more likely to do something if I've publicly stated it - not that it worked with the gym!)

☑ Make more time for reading. I made a quite long Christmas reading list of interesting papers and stuff but did not do a very good job at getting through it and it's back to work tomorrow. I also got a few books for Christmas, which all look good. I'm also behind with work-related reading. Must. Read. More.

☑ Make more time for writing. I've got a few papers and a book chapter that need writing. Episodes of Mystic Mog and the Exploding Tortoise have also been decreasing in frequency down to a disappointing 4 in December. There are a number of contributing factors to this but one is clearly not setting aside time to write.

☑ Blog more papers. Although this is not specifically a science blog per se, one of the motivations behind blogging was to try and get better at science communication. The number of science-related posts is not too bad (about 1 in 3) but I could definitely do with blogging a few more original papers, which will hopefully also help with the reading and writing.

☑ Cook more meat. I don't intend to eat more meat. I'm never going to be vegetarian for a number of reasons but nor do I see the need to eat meat every day and tend to cook quite a lot of vegetarian meals. When I do cook meat, however, it tends to be safe recipes erring on the side of boring. This is largely because I lack experience and the confidence that comes with it. One of this year's Christmas presents was The River Cottage Meat Book and I intend to make good use of it!

☑ Budget. I don't consider myself particularly irresponsible with money but there is always room for improvement. I've got reasonably good of keeping track of my expenses in 2012 but 2013 is time to convert that knowledge into some proper budget planning. Maybe.

☑ Gain control of my inboxes. I had a bit of a purge a while back but my email is still swamped by loads of junk mail. Time for another purge, I think. I think it's also time to try and make Facebook more active and less passive - it's actually easier to keep track of messages in FB than email sometimes. Unless I really get my inbox in shape, that is.

Not the most inspiring list (or interesting post!) in the world but it will be interesting (for me) to revisit these in a few months and see what progress I am making. It doesn't hurt to have aspirations.

Ferntastic

One of the things I did during my week off last week was to plant a fledgling fernery in our back garden. (Back row: Dryopteris erythrosora, Adiantum pedatum Miss Sharples, Polystichium setiferum; Front row: Athyrium niponicum var dictum 'Apple Court', Polystichium setiferum Congestum.)

I'm not sure why I love ferns so much. Perhaps it's because (as a group) they date back to Devonian times (360+ million years ago) and feature among some of the oldest plant fossils we have. This one (right) is a Carboniferous example from the excellent Oxford University Museum of Natural History. I always feel that there is something a bit prehistoric about places that are rich in ferns. (Grasses did not come on the scene for another 300 million years or so.)
On the other hand, it could simply be something to do with how aesthetically pleasing I find them. I love the way that they are all curled up as they grow, such as this great specimen from our honeymoon last year in Belize (left). It also pleases me the way the ends of the fronds are sometimes curled, as in the fern below from our trip to Cheddar Gorge last week (below).

Either way, I am glad that we now have some ferns in our garden and hopefully I can keep them alive! They are all hardy, so fingers crossed. I probably should have paid a bit more attention to which ones were evergreens and planted the two deciduous ones (A. pedatum and A. niponicum) either both at the front or both at the left. The evergreens on the right should look nice in winter with the holly - hopefully the Dryopteris erythrosora won't look too silly when it's two neighbours lose their leaves.

iPlan with Onzo revisited (and not recommended)

I've blogged before about our iPlan energy kit and now that another few months have passed, it's time for an update. Sadly, it's not a good one this time.

Back in April, our receiver died. Opening up the panel, we found that the rechargeable battery had all corroded. When I contacted Southern Electric, they were happy to replace to unit. Good. What was not so good, they informed me that they were aware of the design fault and, as a result, no longer shipped the kits with rechargeable batteries. Perhaps they could have warned users?

The next problem was that, although they did send out a replacement, they did not do it particularly speedily. Judging by the material that came with the replacement kit, which had no mention of being a replacement, I was just added to the new customer schedule and, as such, had to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. As a result, we now have a nice big gap in our usage stats, which is not that great for trying to look at annual consumption as it clearly changes with season. It also neglected to point out that, even though only the receiver was broken, the sensor also needed to be replaced.

This was only a minor irritation and sorted out eventually through trial and error. The major irritation is that, now that it is all set up, the new receiver does not display the current power use properly. There is a obviously a loose connection or something, as squeezing the top a little sort out the problem (temporarily). It does not affect the uploading of data but it does limit the utility of the unit - as does keeping it plugged in to avoid using up the non-rechargable batteries it now needs.

Although I know that two faulty units might just have been bad luck but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the design or build quality of Onzo energy kits.

A month (or so) with iPlan

At the end of November, our iPlan energy kit arrived. With one full month under our belt, I thought it timely to give an update.

Initial experiences were a bit mixed as the website was done for quite a while but, right from the outset, the ability to monitor energy usage was really useful and reminded me to switch off lighs etc. It was also interesting to see how much energy some of our light use. (Not surprisingly (but still disappointing), the worst offenders were the brightest, most useful ones!)

Less useful at this stage is the daily target. This started off at a fairly reasonable 8.0 kWh per day (although I'm not sure how this was determined) but went down dramatically when I switched to our predicted usage from Scottish & Southern Electric (SSE). You can see this on our monthly usage chart for December, below, where the target line drops sharply on the fourth:

This is clearly nonsense, as the only days that we meet are target are those that either or both of us are away and thus (practically) nothing is being used. (The big spikes caused by extra laundry each side of trips is also clearly visible!) Having contacted SSE, I have learnt that this prediction is based on meter readings and because our reading-before-last was a massive over-estimate, our last period's usage was practically nothing. It should, I am told, sort itself out with our next meter reading later this month. Time will tell. (I still think it is a bit silly that you cannot over-ride their estimate and set your own target; you can set it for a percentage under their prediction but not over.)

Fortunately, even though we can't set a sensible target, we can still feel good about ourselves with some of the other comparisons available, such as the "LikeMe" comparison with "similar homes". It's not clear how a "similar home" is defined but I suspect, given how well we appear to be doing, it does not include a comparison of the number of occupants. (Either that, or the average couple out there are big consumers!)

You can also compare your usage with all iPlan users, although I'm not really sure how much this tells you:

Still, it makes electricity billing more interesting!

iPlan: geeky gadget fun with energy efficiency

Some time ago, I signed up to the "iPlan" scheme of Southern Electric. It was not the cheapest tariff available but the idea is that you can monitor - and therefore reduce - your energy usage, and this appealed to me on several levels. Unfortunately, my iPlan energy monitor never turned up, so I emailed them a week or so ago and they sent out a new one, which arrived on Friday. Yesterday, I cracked it open and had a play.

The device itself is an "Onzo smart energy kit" and consists of two parts: a sensor that clamps on to a cable, and a wireless receiver for monitoring usage.

As the instructions implied, it's was dead easy to set up and start monitoring power usage.

Of course, setting everything up when the washing machine and dishwasher are on and consuming nearly 2,500W is probably not the most reassuring way to start energy monitoring!

It needs to collect data for a week or so before the proper assessment kicks in but it's still interesting to see what effect turning stuff on or off makes. The kettle, for example, wacks a couple of kilowatts onto the reading (not surprisingly), though not for too long. The wireless monitor is great and can be stuck in any room, making such things easy - you can pop it next to the device about to be switched on and watch what happens. I love it!

Our baseline at the moment seems to be around 15-40 watts, although there is a lot of fluctuation. I look forward to testing out a few urban myths over the current weeks, such as the old question of how much power does a TV use on standby versus on? I've already had a bit of a shock about the kitchen lights, so I think this could work as an energy saving device - I'm off now to switch off some lights!

Great and Small, Climb and Hide

Today, we got the cat's a present of a new scratching post, as the old one was looking a bit ropey. We got them a "climb and hide" post from Great and Small, as it looked fun and they're worth it. I think Arthur likes it! As I was write this, he is now sitting on top and Mia has gone inside instead - as a black cat in a dark hole, however, she's not quite so photogenic.

My favourite thing about this photo, though, is that it looks like Arthur has climbed into some kind of strange suit in the style of Wallace and Gromit's "Wrong Trousers"!

It's a chunky mug day!

There are very few things in life that are as consistently pleasing and comforting as a good cup of tea. As the seasons change, the nights begin drawing in and the mornings start feeling more chill, it is time to break out the big guns for tea delivery. One of my favourite mugs is this one, which was a souvenir from skiing in Breckenridge.


Somehow, it feels too chunky during the summer months but now that it's getting darker and colder, the chunkiness is somehow extra comforting. Unfortunately, I cannot read the name on the bottom to give due credit to its maker, but here it is, in case your deciphering skills are better than mine!

Happy iHalloween

This photo is of the pumpkin that my wife carved for Halloween this year:
It was taken on my iPhone, uploaded to Dropbox, downloaded onto my iPad, cropped using PhotoPad and then blogged with BlogPress*. Isn't technology wonderful?

[*I'm actually a bit annoyed with BlogPress at the moment as it is refusing to pull anything down from online. Hopefully, iOS5 will sort that out, once I can persuade my work PC to let me upgrade. (My recent Windows 7 upgrade has done something strange to iTunes.)]

Comfort is a cat called Arthur

If I could get as comfortable as as our cat, Arthur, looks, I would be a comfortable man indeed.

Location:Southampton, UK

Go go gadget milk jug!

Every now and then, I come across an invention so simple and yet effective that I think: "Why didn't I think of that?" (Of course, my history of exactly zero inventions gives some indication.) One such device is the "Jug-It" milk jug.

I'd seen this bad boy in the supermarket but was rather skeptical, thinking that it would involve a lot of rinsing out of jugs and messy refills. How wrong I was!

One day, the regular milk was out and there was a jug-it offer too good to be true (3 for 2 on refills with a free jug, I think) so I took the plunge. Turns out, it's great! Simple too.

You just clip the bag in position, it's pierced automatically as you close the lid, and then it's ready to pour. Once the bag is empty, whip it out and bin it. Only the spout needs cleaning. No mess. No fuss. Great! Added to that, the bags are usually cheaper than regular milk and you cut down on waste by 75%. What more can you want from you milk delivery device?

SOLD! (Subject to contract)

This is our new house! (Hopefully.) Today I went by and took this photo. I'm not sure how clear it is but that's a "SOLD" sign outside now, rather than "For Sale". Yay! I know it doesn't really mean anything until the contract is signed but still, it's a step in the right direction.

We also had to get identification forms signed for the solicitors today. The world is such a distrustful place now. Before, I am sure you could just get a copy of an important document signed by a responsible member of the community, such as a policeman or teacher. (My old lab head signed my passport photo.) Now, you have to take a form along to the Post Office, where they charge you a fiver for the privilege! Oh well.

The one thing (so far) I think I would do differently if/when going through the house-buying thing again is to get a solicitor sorted out before putting in an offer. The first thing they wanted was our solicitor's address (before we had one sorted!) to get things moving. And while I am hoping it won't make much difference from now on, if we had got someone local at least we could have popped in and identified ourselves in person.

Growing Up

Well, I suppose it had to happen some time...! This week has a been a big week for me, having:

1. Passed my driving test. (Now I just need to buy a car.)
2. Bought a house (subject to contract etc.)
3. Got my first grant for a minion (a.k.a. PhD student).
4. Got allocated my first teaching duties for next year.
   
5. Signed up for health insurance.

Not bad, eh? Time to become a responsible member of the community. Of course, I also played a good few hours of GTA IV. After all, as a friend told me this week: "growing old is inevitable growing up is optional!"