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In which I attend a physics lecture. On. Purpose. But get to go to Rockpool as a reward.

August 5, 2010 by Dee

Half a lifetime ago (literally, half my lifetime) I left my little old NZ for the very first time and embarked on what would be a 3 year odyssey of overseas travel and experience.  It was the best of times and it was the worst of times, but not necessarily in that order.

That is to say it was worse before it got better.

The worse was down to the efforts of the family I left NZ to go work for – and rather than tell THAT story, let’s just say, I was naive and innocent and they took advantage of that naivete and innocence.  But rescue after 3 months with these people came at the hand of Nobill and the Chairman, who have been mentioned in pages on this blog before.

Nobill and the Chairman are the salt of the earth kind of people who attended the church I took refuge in to escape my captors and I lived with them for the best part of 8 months while I absorbed American Culture and saved enough money for a round the US trip, which also is also a story for a different day.

In any case, it so happens that Nobill, in the years since I left fair US shores became a Nobel Laureate in the world of Physics – or more precisely Atomic Physics (which, if you’re anything like me, just makes Physics a whole ‘nother level of terrifying) and as a consequence he spends a fair amount of time travelling the world talking to people about Atomic Physics in the form of trapping and cooling atoms to make better atomic clocks.

I know, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound so hard.

When the Chairman told me they were coming to visit and that Nobill was visiting my university to give a talk then of course I had to go hear him! Even if it meant I didn’t understand a word… and so THIS is how I came to tweet “I am at a physics lecture (waits for the laughing to stop). Yes, by choice…”

Actually, as the Chairman had said, “when you see/hear this lecture you’ll come away thinking you actually know what he’s talking about. Until someone asks you a question… and you have nothing to back up what you think you know…”

In any case there was lots of liquid nitrogen illustrating the talk so it looked fantastic and went beyond physics lecture to physics performance…

As Nobill was a guest of the University and I was a guest of Nobill I was invited to join them for dinner after the show – and it happened that dinner was at a rather well known resto called ‘Rockpool’ – only one of the world’s top 100 restuarants bearing lots of stars and hats and the like.

We had the 8 course degustation menu, with the matched wines and it was gorgeous. But I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

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Commencement

May 24, 2010 by

In January of 2006 I asked the question… “I might, but would you?” And sought cyberspace’s advice as to whether I’d be so smart as to embark on a course of study. I did, and it finished at a graduation ceremony in April of 2008 when I walked off the stage with a Bachelors Degree in Theology.

Within weeks of that event I asked the internet (er.. Google) about “Post-Graduate Courses Sydney” or some such thing and came across a course that sounded interesting. 2 years and a month later I walked off the same stage with a Masters’ Degree in Digital Communication and Culture.

 degree.jpg

R0010245.jpgIt would be fair to say for the next little while I’m not asking the internet ANYTHING in case it
turns into more study…

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Well, I never…

December 24, 2009 by

If you’re anything like me, as the year winds down you spend the occasional moment looking back over the preceding months and reflect on what’s been going on.

I have a lot to reflect on.

I don’t think I could have predicted that at this point, one year since I upped stakes and left a reasonably secure job that I’d be able to say I’ve completed my Masters in less than a year, AND with a Distinction average (with 1.675 marks to spare!)

I didn’t imagine that I’d have supported myself by my own efforts and some canny contracting and today paid off a credit card (taking my total cards down to one. Phew – getting out of debt in the GFC. Yay me.)

I didn’t imagine for a second that I’d have spent one day a week as a nanny and LOVED it. It felt a little like a necessary evil in those first few weeks when I was terrified I’d end up destitute or when Missy spent that first hour of every day I was there SCREAMING. Happily, it has turned into the highlight of the week for me and will do so long into the New Year. Nannying 2009 culminated in a marriage proposal, and not my first from a member of the younger set.  I’m a huge hit with the under sixes – sigh, if I could just up the average age by about 30 years…

I never thought I’d find so little to blog about in a whole year.  I’ve been so remiss but I suspect that most of my writing energy was being expended on writing essays – and let’s face it, you’re likely to be not particularly interested in the kind of stuff I was turning out… maybe 2010 will be better for blogging.  I certainly need to do some design tweaking… this notebook look is so old skool.

I never thought I’d be able to successfully pull apart my Mac and put it back together (and have it work) without major incident.

I never thought I’d be in NZ twice in the year I was a student, nor that I’d be going also to Tasmania for a holiday in January but I did and I am, and I’m so grateful to be able to get to see the family and friends on the other ends of those plane rides.

I never thought at age 41 I’d have to prevail on other people’s generosity when my circumstances looked impossible and when I didn’t know where the next dollar was coming from.  At the same time I could not be more thankful that I have such close and generous friends who bought me groceries, meat parcels and coffee and who took me out for steak and tequila once in a blue moon.  Or, even better, gave me work so I could buy coffee for other people on occasion.

I never thought I’d be inquiring as to the possibility of further study next year, a research project that will upgrade my degree to Honours.  It’s a nagging thought I can’t shake… I must be insane, particularly given how excited I am by the thought of surveying Christian churches about their use of digital technologies…

Yep.

Insane.

I never thought that I’d be so happy to go to church on a Sunday nor that to get so happy I’d have to leave one church and take up with another.  This is such a bittersweet change and one that I never expected to occur, I still find it a bit bizarre.  I only know that given the paradigm shifts my faith and feelings have gone through this year and as hard as it is that there are people I see a lot less of now, it’s still the right thing to have done.

Above all, I never thought that my life could be so rich with friends, relations, experiences, love and life, both IRL and here online.  To all of you, whether I know you in person or ‘virtually’. Thank you for making this year an awesome one!  I hope yours has been as much an adventure for you.

Merry Christmas.

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Christmas Countdown

December 19, 2009 by

I am so remiss that I never told you about this… I was waiting until Dec 1st to unveil it, I did so on twitter and if you follow me there you’ll have seen the odd tweet about it… but, finally, here’s the link to my finished Flash project for 2009… Christmas Countdown, as designed by Lorraine Birmingham, but animated by me…

https://deeleea.com/wp-content/uploads/flashdemo/index.html Go on… click, you’ll like it.

Watch this space for a more personal Merry Christmas Greeting being created as we speak…

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