Naomi & Dave's Blog

Madeleine Melissa McConnell-Griffiths

2009-02-19T10:08:00.004+11:00

A daughter was born to Naomi and Dave on 22 January 2009 at the North Shore Private Hospital in St Leonards (a northern suburb of Sydney). We had agreed on Madeleine as a name for a girl, and after she was born we quickly agreed on Melissa as her second name. She was born healthy, at eight minutes past one o'clock in the morning. She was weighed and measured:

3.62 kg (7lb 15.7 oz)
53 cm (20.9") long
36 cm head circumference

Madeleine was born about 1 week later than predicted, after Naomi laboured for about 14 hours. Naomi was booked in for labour to be induced on Wednesday 21 January, at 9am. Early that morning contractions started that seemed more serious than the numerous episodes of the previous week or so. We duly went to the hospital at 9am, and were extremely pleased with the approach of the obstetrician who suggested simply "breaking the waters" and standing back. Things started. By 11am it was serious. We spent much of the morning walking up and down outside in the cemetery that just happens to be adjacent to the hospital. Some hours earlier, 3:30am Sydney time, the new president of the United States was being inaugurated in Washington DC. Later, in Australia at 12:30, the ABC replayed Omaba's address. Naomi attempted to watch it, but could only get it in 60-second bursts between totally distracting contractions. By that time the labour was quite intense, and the cemetery was too far from base. We spent the afternoon and evening in the birthing suite and pacing the halls of the maternity ward. After spending some time thinking that the child's birthday would be 20 January, Madeleine was born at 01:08 on 22nd.

Long time, no post, again.

2009-02-19T10:01:00.002+11:00

Well, the months tick by and still we ignore you, the faithful readers of our blog. Wishful thinking I suspect. Anyway, be warned that a smattering of new posts will start to appear, perhaps a flurry, or even a storm. More wishful thinking. Why? Well there is something, or rather someone, to talk about and this seems like a good place to put all the stuff that might interest only the avid blog reader. It should at least interest the writer.

Long time, no post

2008-10-08T17:43:00.002+11:00

It's been a long time since we posted anything here. Life has been the usual whirlwind: Dave travels to the observatories frequently, Naomi travels further afield frequently and we travel together for holiday. Abby the dog is almost two and as most people who know us already know, we're expecting a baby in January! So either there will be a lot of posts come January, or virtually none as we run in small circles keeping the little one alive and happy. Only time will tell. We have a couple adventures in store before then so we'll try to get the blog going again and document those while we still have time...

Nearly one year on

2007-12-03T20:26:00.000+11:00

It's been almost a year since we got Abby. When she was just a little, little puppy I took a photo of her in front of the hydrangeas. With the hydrangeas in bloom again I thought I would go for a comparison. So compare this one to the one we posted last year.

Long overdue post

2007-11-26T20:21:00.000+11:00

It's been ages since we posted here! Mainly we have been paralysed by the feeling that we should write about our Offa's Dyke walk in Wales, but there were so many pictures to show that we just couldn't make up our minds. Finally I've decided that we just need to move on and keep posting. One day we'll put together a webpage on the Wales walk, but in the mean-time life has continued.

Summer has begun in Sydney and we spent a day a few weeks ago doing a very Sydney thing by joining the throngs of people at Sculpture by the Sea. For three weeks during November sculptures are set up along the cliffs between Tamarama and Bondi Beach for people to enjoy. Some of the sculptures are quite well suited to their surroundings, some could be just about anywhere. The image on the left is one of my favourites, he's a lifeguard.

Flying Sydney's Coast

2007-09-02T22:19:00.001+10:00

So, once I had myself converted and confident in a low wing aircraft (see blog on 28 July), it was time to take some passengers. On Sunday 12 August we (Naomi, Sarah and I) went for a flight down Sydney's coast. Here is Sarah, standing on BWX's wing before we all climbed in and departed from Bankstown. It was a lovely clear day for flying. We flew north over Paramatta to Hornsby then over to Pittwater.

Naomi took this shot as we turned at Barrenjoey: Palm beach and Pittwater are visible over the wing. We flew down along the beaches from Palm Beach, past Manly and the Sydney Harbour heads.

The city is visible in Sarah's photo taken over Dover Heights. At Bondi we saw the crowds running the annual City-to-Surf. Once past Botany Bay and Cronulla we turned in away from the coast, flew west over the small town of Appin, then north back to base at Bankstown. The whole trip took just over an hour.

Two Passports

2007-08-27T16:26:00.001+10:00

I now have one of these! In an amazing case of bureacratic efficiency, I applied for my passport on Monday 13 August and picked it up from the post office on Friday 24 August. Incredible. In case you needed proof that Australian bureaucracy is more efficient than in the U.S., here's a little tale for you. A year ago I needed to renew my U.S. passport so I filled in the paperwork and sent my old passport, together with the necessary documentation, fees, photos, etc. to the U.S. Consulate in Sydney. They then forwarded the passport on to the U.S. where the new passport was issued and returned to me six weeks later - with my name mispelled (Noami)! It was almost impossible to speak to a human at the consulate but eventually I managed to get my passport returned to the U.S. and reissued and returned to me. The whole process took about 3 months, by contrast my Australian passport took 11 days. Gotta love small countries.

Citizens one and all

2007-08-15T11:39:00.000+10:00

After three years of temporary residency, two and a half years of permanent residency and 8 months of extra waiting I became an Australian citizen on 10 August 2007. Together with 40 others I was sworn in as a new citizen by the Lord Mayor of Sydney at Sydney Town Hall on Friday afternoon. Dave and Sarah came to the ceremony. Later that evening Dave and I, plus our friend Shaun, went to dinner at Cafe Sydney (Sarah was coaching debating) at the Customs House at Circular Quay. We had a great view of the Harbour and Harbour Bridge from our rather chilly outside table. Shaun's a bit of a photographer. He brought his gear around and took this nice photo of Dave and I.

Flying in BWX

2007-07-28T13:14:00.000+10:00

I now have a small share in this aircraft. It is a Piper Cherokee, registered BWX, and belongs to the Sydney Flying Group. All my previous flying experience has been in Cessnas and the Skyfox Gazelle. To qualify for the insurance terms for BWX I needed 5 hours experience in this type of aircraft, which I reached with this morning's flight at Bankstown airport. With me in the photo is Bruno Rovelli, the captive instructor in the Group. We intended to do a trip through Sydney's controlled airspace, but were denied entry. Instead, I flew half a dozen circuits in a pretty stiff cross wind.

Red smug

2007-07-26T20:35:00.000+10:00

The new car has arrived. Naomi is looking smug because we now drive a Toyota Prius hybrid. This is it, parked outside our house this morning. We wonder how many new prius drivers have accidents because of being distracted by the fancy electronic display telling them that they do indeed get 4 to 5 litres per 100km—in the city.

Bread taste

2007-07-23T09:55:00.001+10:00

By the way, the bread tasted pretty good. If I do say so myself!

Baking bread

2007-07-22T18:17:00.000+10:00

Naomi got a book for her birthday: "The Bread Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum. On the same day her bread machine died. No matter, back to the traditional methods she went. Today she baked a basic hearth bread. It looks great. Later we will judge its taste.

Back to school

2007-06-29T19:46:00.001+10:00

I have taken a two-day course on writing. It was not a lesson on hand writing, although that would be useful. It was a course on improving English composition. I have always been unhappy with my writing, and around last Christmas I was browsing in Gleebooks and my eye was caught by a book called "The Little Red Writing Book" (TLRWB) by Mark Tredinnick. I read a couple of pages and was convinced that I needed the book. It was odd holiday reading, but I enjoyed it. It has certainly helped by writing confidence, if not the writing itself. And then recently, I came across the two-day course on "Business writing", run by the same Mark T as part of the Sydney University continuing education program. The course followed closely TLRWB. In fact we were issued with a copy—in my case useful, because the dog had chewed my first copy. We studied sentence structure and punctuation. We eliminated bureacratic language. We went from passive to active. We sorted out which and that, who and whom; we planned paragraphs and whole articles. It was a lightning tour of the subject and will take some more work to get the full value. There was an interesting mix of students: a group from one of the Commonwealth Bank's finance offices; two people from the Sydney Cricket Ground trust; a contractor wanting to improve tender writing; someone from the NSW police ministry and a NSW country concillor. Mark's is a noble job: stamping out bad writing. I hope he succeeds.

The astronomers' dog

2007-06-28T20:36:00.000+10:00

Not long after Naomi returned from the other side of the planet, we had a week at the observatory in Narrabri, on this side of the planet. I had a week as Duty Astronomer; Naomi had an observing session with her student collaborator Joanne Dawson. Jo studies in Japan, and came to observe our magnificent southern sky. To add interest we took the dog. We all travelled to Narrabri packed into the Corolla, Abby in her cage. We took her for daily walks around the observatory grounds where she discovered kangaroos, sheep, lots of very prickly bushes and mud. Here she is conducting her observations.

A visit to my nation's capital

2007-06-01T02:07:00.000+10:00

Surprising though it may seem, I had never been to Washington D.C.. I've been to more than twenty countries, most of their capitals, and would even consider myself a regular visitor in my new country's capital but I had never been to Washington, D.C.. Until last Friday. I stopped through D.C. on my way round-the-world and spent two very hot and muggy days (I am told that's a standard for D.C.) wandering through my nation's capital and history. It was quite impressive really. I liked seeing the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Lincoln's Memorial. I probably could have done without the high school band at the WWII memorial or the overly patriotic masses of people, but it was good to finally see where it all happens in U.S. politics. Here's a pic of the capital:

I was afraid the intimidating guard standing in the bushes with a very large gun was going to mistake my camera for something slightly more dangerous!

Abby gets a hair cut

2007-05-14T12:37:00.000+10:00

After nearly seven months of growth, Abby was disappearing inside her own coat. We decided it was time for a trim, before the bitter Sydney winter bites in mid-July. Yesterday she went to spend the day with a lady in Camperdown (5 minute drive from home) and she has lost her shaggy look. The behaviour, however, is unchanged. She is still a puppy practising to use her new teeth.

Abby goes to Tasmania

2007-04-18T16:22:00.000+10:00

Actually Abby and Dave and I went to Tasmania. We spent last week there on holiday over Easter. We all flew down on Easter Saturday and spent 5 days in Bracknell with Dave's parents. Dave and I then left Abby with the grand-owners and went to Cradle Mountain for our wedding anniversary. It was a great trip, we'll post some Cradle photos soon but here's a quick one of the shaggy beast in the Bracknell garden. Note the blue sky: it was really warm in Tasmania - in mid-April! Global warming I tell you.

Not much to blog about

2007-02-17T13:34:00.000+11:00

It's been a while since we've added anything to the blog. I could blame it on the lack of time now that we're back at work, but basically I think it's just that there's not much to write about when our days are filled with work. But, we have a new photo of Abby in time for her 4 month birthday so I thought it was worth putting that on here. Abby continues to grow at an amazing rate and she's getting to be quite a nice little dog. She loves romping with the other dogs at the dog park each morning, particularly Bruno, who's another young (5 monthold) labradoodle. Besides the Abby update there's not much to report. I'm at Narrabri as Duty Astronomer and Dave is minding the zoo. Sorry to be so dull, we'll try to do something interesting soon!

Madness at Qantas

2007-01-23T09:24:00.000+11:00

I'm flying to Houston, Texas tomorrow on Qantas. And as Sarah said, whatever I do, I musn't wear a tee-shirt showing George Bush as a terrorist. Unbelievably, Qantas refused to board a man yesterday for wearing such a tee-shirt. Qantas claims that they won't allow a passenger to board wearing something that might offend someone or might pose a security threat. It's hard to imagine that his tee-shirt could be a security threat and as for offending people, what about the people who get on wearing tee-shirts that say "free sex lessons" or other forms of obnoxious messages? Those messages offend me, but I wouldn't forbid someone from wearing one. It's a world gone mad.

Back to work

2007-01-16T15:18:00.000+11:00

Sadly the extended holiday at home has come to an end and it's back to work for us. Dave and I had three weeks off to try to break Abby in and enjoy ourselves. I can truly recommend a holiday spent at home. All good things have to come to an end and Dave headed off to Parkes on Saturday leaving me to handle the first week back at work with Abby. Abby's coping pretty well, but I'm finding the driving home for lunch a bit tedious. Maybe I should take Abby to work with me.

Abby is doing well, she's growing like a weed. She puts on about 1 kg every 10 days. I'm glad I don't gain weight at that rate! Her time is divided pretty equally between sleeping and getting in trouble. Right now she's asleep. More photos soon....

Christmas Cheer

2006-12-26T15:08:00.001+11:00

Christmas has come and gone. Boxing Day seems to be a day for lazing around, looking at the photos and trying to get through all of the leftovers from Christmas dinner. We had a lovely Christmas at home this year joined by Dave's parents and of course Abby the dog and Cooper the cat. We kicked off the morning with a nice round of present opening:

We then prepared a huge lunch of baked salmon, stuffing, salads, Christmas pudding and pumpkin pie (to satisfy my yearly need for pumpkin pie). We dressed Abby up for the occasion and she looked very fetching in her red bow.

More on Abby

2006-12-19T11:05:00.000+11:00

Abby continues to settle in very well. She's cute as a button, sweet as a pea, but you could describe her as a mouth on legs. While typing this I have stopped her from chewing the table, my chair, and the block of brass acting as a door stop. Mouth on legs. If you need something chewed, she's your girl. Here are some more photos.

Abby the puppy arrives

2006-12-15T18:31:00.000+11:00

The long awaited puppy has arrived! She was transported by air from northern NSW today. Her birthday was 18 October, so she is just over nine weeks old. Her new owners think she is great - very quiet nature but inquisitive and quite smart. Cooper, on the other hand, is not so sure. Abby may turn out to be a cat mauler, only time will tell. Cooper is taking no chances yet. Watch this space for lots more photos.

Bruny Island wedding

2006-12-10T10:08:00.000+11:00

Last week we travelled to Tasmania for 5 days for Douglas and Freya's wedding. We had 5 days down there, staying in a holiday unit on Kingston Beach with Dave's parents. In spite of forgetting some important items (trousers, belts, etc) a good time was had. There was a party at the Hobart Waterworks reserve on Friday evening for a large crowd of D&F's family and friends. The wedding on Saturday 2 December was a smaller affair, held at The Hothhouse Cafe on Bruny Island. All 40-odd (some were odd!) guests travelled by car ferry. The day was typical blustery Tasmanian spring, sun, wind, rain in short sharp bursts. But the venue had sufficient shelter and warmth for comfort.

The photos show Freya and Douglas signing the register (note Freya's bouquet of her beloved orchids), and a group afterwards with superb view in the background.

Puppy update

2006-12-04T12:11:00.000+11:00

We're happy to have learned more details about our impending puppy arrival. We have selected a breeder of Labradoodles (Labrador/Poodle cross) in Northern NSW. Our pup has been assigned by the breeder to meet our personality request: laid-back and compliant. The little chocolate girl is now almost 7 weeks old. The breeder is supplying us with regular photos, like this one that was taken last week. Pretty adorable, eh? We've also decided on a name: Abigail (probably Abby for short). We're slowly getting things ready for her arrival on the afternoon of December 15. You can count on lots of photos then!

A spot of radio astronomy at Parkes

2006-11-26T17:02:00.000+11:00

November had to be a bit quieter than October. Dave's son Andrew returned from a year overseas on 10th and plenty of tales to tell and lots of photos: Thailand, Russia, Finland, Poland, ..., and finally Canada. He stayed with us for a few days then went on to Hobart to find some work. Then we had observing.

This observing run was at Parkes. Observing is usually exhausting, but always enthralling. This time we were both part of a project to measure the polarized 21cm emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the beauties of the southern sky. These measurements are to contribute to the PhD thesis of Ann Mao from Harvard. She flew out to Australia and we collected her from the University Lodge on Sunday afternoon. The telescope was allocated to the project for eight nights, beginning Monday 20th. The drive to Parkes from Sydney should be a straight forward 5 hours, but this November a bushfire has been burning in the Blue Mountains. We took the normally quicker route over the mountains (the Bells Line of Road). Half way over we were stopped and informed that the road had just been closed by the fire. Bother! We eventually arrived at the telescope after more than seven hours of travel, including doubling back to the Great Western Highway and driving through lots of smoke.

One of the joys of polarimetry is that is is best done at night. Our telescope time was from 7:30pm to 6am. Half way through the week Dave had a management meeting to attend. It was conveniently held at the Parkes observatory, but meant getting up earlier than usual on Thursday morning.

Here we are, on our way to observe one evening. The skies were clear most of the week, with very warm weather for several days - up into the high 30's. Parkes is in drought at present. We had the pleasure of the company of a year 10 work experience student, Rhys from Camden in south west Sydney. He had the stamina of the young and worked all day in the Parkes Visitors' Centre, and with us in the control room until about 2am each night.

On the fifth night we finally managed to produce a respectable image of the LMC from the first four nights' observations. Here we are looking at the result (from the left): Rhys, Naomi, Dave, Ann. We came home the next morning, leaving Ann to make the rest of the observations alone.

Party

2006-11-26T16:50:00.000+11:00

Well, the exciting events of October had to be celebrated. After numerous approaches to Naomi of the kind "Well it must be your turn to buy the drinks" we decided to throw a party at 13 Toxteth on 28 October. The party was so good there was no time to take any photos. We had about 50 guests, which made our spacious house seem just a little smaller. We have a great bunch of friends - after saying "drinks provided" we ended up with almost as much grog in the house after the party as before! A great time was had by all.

Lots Happening!

2006-11-16T20:25:00.000+11:00

A lot has happened since our last post. Where to start? First Melissa & Christopher came to visit. We didn't think we'd ever get Naomi's mom here but we did. It took something pretty big to get her here and that something was The Prize. Naomi was awarded the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year at Parliament House. Here's the proof:

For those that don't know, joining Naomi are the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, and the Federal Minister for Science Education and Technology, Julie Bishop.

The prize was presented on 16 October 2006 at Parliament House in Canberra. It was quite the event! We were joined by (R-L) Sarah, my mom, Christopher, and Rose all looking very glamorous:

Life didn't really slow down after that. Naomi found herself looking at two nice job offers and has accepted a new position as a Science Leader at ATNF. She started on Monday 13 November.

And last, but certaintly not least, we're getting a dog!! The pup will join our household on December 15.

October Long Weekend

2006-10-04T20:10:00.000+10:00

Last weekend we happily enjoyed the October Long Weekend. It seems that long weekends are at least twice as good as a normal weekend even if it's only 50% longer.

We were blessed with perfect weather for the weekend and decided to take advantage of that with a walk at Kuring-gai National Park just north of Sydney. We went up to West Head, where neither of us had been, and did the 11 km Waratah walk. It turns out the Waratah Trail is aptly named and we saw a nice patch or Waratahs in full bloom. There were lots of wildflowers, some aboriginal rock carvings, heaps of sunshine and a pleasant breeze. We had our lunch on a rock overlooking Yeoman's Bay and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. All that and it only took us 45 minutes to get there!

13 Toxteth Rd

2006-09-28T20:44:00.000+10:00

At last our move to Toxteth Rd is complete. The move started on 3 August. People, boxes and cat finished moving on 4th August. Telephone was finally connected 3 weeks later, and today finally we have broadband connections. The technology is simple, the bureaucracy is VERY difficult. In fact, while Optus were trying to get everything right, Cooper had time to settle in, go missing for two and half weeks, mysteriously return and settle in again.

13 Toxteth Rd from the front and a shot of Cooper in the kitchen.

Let Blogging Begin!

2006-09-28T20:18:00.000+10:00

We've decided to join the thundering herd and start blogging. We hope this will help our friends and family keep up with what we're doing. If we can keep it up...