Winter 2008
22 August 2008
It has been a fairly quiet couple of months for us. We have both been working hard: Krome Studios have a lot of projects at present so Jay has been very busy on a number of projects. He has had to travel to Brisbane for work as their other offices are there and also Adelaide.
My work has been busy as well. One of the other associates in the private group has been away so I have been doing some of his work as well as my own. I have tried to maintain my normal sunny disposition at work as nurse Petrea is acknowledging in the photo (that's her hand). Last week at St Vincent’s there was a conference on ultrasound-guided nerve block techniques at which I presented and gave hands-on teaching.
In June we escaped Winter for a long weekend in the Whitsundays: a group of islands off the coast of Queensland. We stayed on Hamilton Island which is a direct flight from Melbourne so the travel time was minimized. This is the view from our room:
We got to spend some time on the beach as the weather was warm and sunny for most of our time there.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkelling again and look at the coral while it's still there. No one looks good in an underwater photograph with a mask and snorkel on.
The coral in this location was less dramatic than where we went last time, hundreds of miles to the North, but the schools of fish were much more striking.
The accommodation at Hamilton Island was quite dated, with the pools being genuine 1980s originals with faux sand and rocks around the edges. The food at the resort was expensive, as expected, but of a reasonable standard. Of course we ran into several nurses I knew from Melbourne and also a friend from the gym. We weren't the only ones looking for somewhere warmer during Melbourne's Winter.
David Helfgott played a concert in Melbourne in July and we took the opportunity to see him perform. He is certainly an enthusiastic and unusual performer. Even from the circle we could hear him humming and singing along with his performance.
In August Jay was sent by work to a conference in Seattle, "xna GameFest 2008" which was run by Microsoft for Xbox360 developers. The notice of the trip was too short for me to organize to go too, but he was able to extend his stay by a few days at each end and visit his sister and her family in Burbank.
This is his five year old nephew Fraser who did not make that block tower without the assistance of an engineer. Jay also visited friends in Seattle and LA.
On the flight home Jay unfortunately lost his birthday when he crossed the International Date Line. We had drinks the following weekend to celebrate him remaining 36 for another year.
We will be back in LA at Christmas and we plan to visit his other sister Denise in Calgary in January. That is going to require some new clothes for me as I've never been anywhere that cold. The rest of our itinerary is not yet determined.
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My work has been busy as well. One of the other associates in the private group has been away so I have been doing some of his work as well as my own. I have tried to maintain my normal sunny disposition at work as nurse Petrea is acknowledging in the photo (that's her hand). Last week at St Vincent’s there was a conference on ultrasound-guided nerve block techniques at which I presented and gave hands-on teaching.
In June we escaped Winter for a long weekend in the Whitsundays: a group of islands off the coast of Queensland. We stayed on Hamilton Island which is a direct flight from Melbourne so the travel time was minimized. This is the view from our room:
We got to spend some time on the beach as the weather was warm and sunny for most of our time there.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkelling again and look at the coral while it's still there. No one looks good in an underwater photograph with a mask and snorkel on.
The coral in this location was less dramatic than where we went last time, hundreds of miles to the North, but the schools of fish were much more striking.
The accommodation at Hamilton Island was quite dated, with the pools being genuine 1980s originals with faux sand and rocks around the edges. The food at the resort was expensive, as expected, but of a reasonable standard. Of course we ran into several nurses I knew from Melbourne and also a friend from the gym. We weren't the only ones looking for somewhere warmer during Melbourne's Winter.
David Helfgott played a concert in Melbourne in July and we took the opportunity to see him perform. He is certainly an enthusiastic and unusual performer. Even from the circle we could hear him humming and singing along with his performance.
In August Jay was sent by work to a conference in Seattle, "xna GameFest 2008" which was run by Microsoft for Xbox360 developers. The notice of the trip was too short for me to organize to go too, but he was able to extend his stay by a few days at each end and visit his sister and her family in Burbank.
This is his five year old nephew Fraser who did not make that block tower without the assistance of an engineer. Jay also visited friends in Seattle and LA.
On the flight home Jay unfortunately lost his birthday when he crossed the International Date Line. We had drinks the following weekend to celebrate him remaining 36 for another year.
We will be back in LA at Christmas and we plan to visit his other sister Denise in Calgary in January. That is going to require some new clothes for me as I've never been anywhere that cold. The rest of our itinerary is not yet determined.
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