It finally happened……
…. I had a shave! Haha. I think I like it. Although, clean-shaven is still a bit weird. I think it looks best at about 2-3 days growth of stubble. Will continue to stay a little less beardy than before.
Well, the beer brewing has continued. We had a reasonably large bottling session a couple of weeks ago putting the two mid-strength amber ales into their bottles. We made two brews that were completely identical in every way, but one was fermented with a packet of Safale-S04 and one used a vial of liquid english ale yeast from White Labs. I can’t believe how different they taste! We’ve also started keeping our yeast to re-use the good stuff, which should save us a few dollars.
Speaking of homebrew – went to Mitch’s 21st birthday party last night. He’d bought three small kegs of imitation Asahi and it tasted really very good. Much cheaper than buying the real stuff (although not as cheap as making your own 😀 ). Was a really good night (after a shocking day at work which I wont go into). Good to meet some new people and catch up with some others that I haven’t seen for ages.
What else… er… oh yeah, I was pretty ill for about a week or so recently. My first sick-days off work since I came out to Australia. It started off just as a cold, but worked its way down from blocking my sinuses into a pretty nasty sore throat, then finally into the chest providing me with a lovely cough which hung around for ages. That meant missing a whole week of gym sessions, but it turns out you burn a fair few calories sitting on your arse if you’re ill anyway. Down to about 101-102 kg now. Almost reached the target!
We hosted a BBQ/NRL grand final party thing which was really good. Plenty of homebrew sampled by all, and lots of good food. Thanks to those who came along! Shame I didn’t really get any pictures.
Work has been a huge pile of FAIL lately. We keep preparing to go to Sydney to do some experiments, and then the neutron cold source dies. Then it comes on again, and we prepare to go again, and it dies again. I am at least going down there with Arthur in December to present a poster of my work. I’ve not done any conferences or symposia yet so I’m quite looking forward to it – should be good to meet some others from the neutron field. Tutoring has also finished now – a blessing in disguise. Good to have the time back and no more marking to do, but I am definitely going to miss the extra cash.
Speaking of which, hooray for the current AUD –> GBP exchange rate!! It’s absolutely awesome. So awesome in fact that I did a fairly sizeable transfer from my savings here to my english account ready to spend over Christmas. This does however make me feel VERY poor out here :/
Finally I think the most interesting news recently was our camping trip to Maroochydore. Lisa (somehow) managed to organise us and Ben, Andy, Sarah, Stewart, Mike, Lisa, and I went up on Friday night – pitched our tents about 100 m from the beach and had BBQ and drank beers for two nights. Lots of good fish & chips was eaten too 
Unfortunately, unlike being ill, you DO NOT burn lots of calories while sat on your arse drinking and eating…… I have put some pictures up from the weekend here and there’s one panoramic pic from the beach (which didn’t come out anywhere near as good as it should have done).
Think that’s all for now! Will update again soon(ish).