Geoverse

I feel like i’m becoming a different person lol. You wouldnt believe how much shopping I’ve done so far. Just today I got myself some great bargains. A 3 persons tent for $40 and a pair of excellent running shoes for $60. I also got over the last few days a good firm pillow, mobile phone, bike helmet and whatnot. Now that I finally get properly paid it feels kinda good to be able to afford this kinda stuff. Next week there’s a computer sale at the Canberra university (not ANU!) I probably want to check out. I’m looking for a nice and big flat/widescreen monitor so I can properly watch movies but they dont come cheap :-). I’m still keeping in mind to get a double bed too but they are hard to find for a good price. That’s it for now. I’ll post some lab pics and a brief description of my work at the uni this coming week.

Today I bought a mobile phone (yes really! ). It’s the Nokia 5140i. My provider is Vodafone. Below is a picture of the model . It’s not the latest and greatest but it’s good enough for me. Just a simple camera and stereo radio in it. A phone is supposed to do what what it’s meant to do, i.e. allow you to phone someone. I got a pre-pay one because the way I see it, I wont be using it that much. What I really like about it though is that it goes 300 hours in standby and 5 hours when using it. That’s pretty good. It’s also water and shock proof. There is a compas on it, a torch and things like a calculator, internet/mail and whatnot. Unfortunately it has infrared and not bluetooth. My laptop has just the opposite! I’ll have to get a cable tomorrow… If you want to know my number, email me (see website geoverse, contact) because I’m a bit hesitant to put it here. Though for you people in the Netherlands you probably want to hook up with me via skype cuz that’s free! Btw I love it that the shops are open on Sunday! Nice…

We had a heavy thunderstorm last night with hail stones up to the size of golfballs! The thunder was really loud and there was a massive downpour. I think it lasted about half an hour. I took some pics afterwards which you can view in a gallery. See link below.

Thunderstorm pics

News link

G’day,

Today I got the first deposit of money on my bank account! Woohoo! It’s the reimbursement from flight and baggage relocation costs. I’m still going to try and get a (partial) reimbursement of the rent I had to pay to hold my room before coming to Canberra. Life’s pretty good here. Always something going on at work or at home with my housemates.

At work for instance I recently got hold of an awesome computer with dual xeon processors and two monitors, just because it was lying around collecting dust. It was pretty funny when they asked me what I wanted: a pc or a mac. BUT i didnt fall for the evil temptation of choosing a mac because frankly nobody cares about a mac ;-).

Besides that I’m rebuilding the attenuation apparatus i’ll be using together with my supervisor Prof. Jackson and a technician at the lab. We’ll be done tomorrow hopefully. The lab itself isnt that big but when you walk further into the next door buildings what you see is laboratory/workshop heaven! A wideknown fact is that the SHRIMP electron probing devices are actually all build here. YES! Right here at ANU. Sweet as! Anyway, I had a little tour through all the workplaces. I was pleasantly amused with all the stuff they have here. It belittles the HPT lab at Utrecht completely ha ha.

I’m going out with some mates for a steak tonight. There is a really cheap place in Dickson where on mondays and tuesdays you can get a steak and you grill it yourself on the barbie. Plus you get some chips and salad too. Awesome!

Cheers