Welcome to the blog!

My trip to Brisbane was interesting so I left rather early in the
morning and on the way stopped at Coomera, more precisely the harbour, to
drop off the jerry cans some Richard had bought on Ebay - turns out I found
myself in the most amazing area for manufacturing open ocean catamarans,
hangar after hangar with the hugest yachts and catamarans I have ever seen
in all stages of construction: Fibre glass outer hull, painting, finishing,
it was endless, a few hundred people would have been working there and it
was really cool to watch!!! So I went to Brisbane to see customs to get my
paperwork done and it was interesting. The office I came back to as I was
told had closed for good, so there was a little note on the door that I
should go 200 m down the road to some other office building which I did -
they however did not have a clue what to do so they made a phone call and
as they did not have any instructions on how to handle the case they sent
me to the city. Great. I found a parking spot for commercial vehicles: 20
minutes for free. First thing I looked into was the face of a traffic
controller when I got out of the car (which looks commercial, right?):
‘20 minutes, my love’. Oh yeah. But this should be not the only one to try
and flirt with me. The customs officer was worse. Yet I got my papers sorted
and was out in 17 minutes. Cool. On the way back some shopping, got a pizza
at Domino’s in Tugun and some fruit, then home and made apple cream semolina
pies and a paprika bread with herb and garlic butter. Me the entree and desert
and Dave the main course: chicken and vege stir fry. I turned out really cool.
Carol and Tim turned up and later Ilona with a bottle of cherry schnaps from
Switzerland and with a few cocktails I made up with the last half bottle of
rum the party got going. My goodness: All I always wanted to know. So Ilona
was born in 1944 and the year I was born she was in London at the International
Whaling Commission Meeting to protest against whaling! What a story!! She just
kept talking and telling us the most amazing stuff, really interesting. And
she is, as much as Dave, still married: Another detail I did not know. Simply
never got divorced. No contact any more, but still married. Hmm. So the last
boxes went off to the post office today, all set. Now the final sort here and
clean-up and tomorrow flying fox flight trials in the afternoon and before a
drop-off at Justin’s house. Plus paperwork and Sandy polishing. A busy day it
will be.

Piles and piles of stuff - so finally it has come down to moving back up to Brisbane for me - and this means sorting and sighting of my entire belongings!! So slowly but steadily I am making way through all the stuff and IT IS A LOT but anyway the end is near. I packed up most of the equipment and some packages are on their way to Germany already. I saw a beautiful poster of Murwillumbah today, taken along the river with Mt. Warning in the background, and the best: In the foreground left corner there is our house!! So I got one for myself and one for Dave as a go-away ‘Thank You’ present … with a sticky note on it: ‘Flying Fox Hotel Murwillumbah!’ *hehe* Stuff is packed up also to stay here at Justin’s house and at university, plus I am right now putting my mobile and the satellite beacon and other stuff on Ebay. The phone is locked to the provider here plus the charger/transformer has an in-built Aussie plug *dang* Also I got rid of my first laptop *sniff* to be recycled. With a 2GB harddrive it was just too old and bits and pieces stopped working all the time .

The disease scare is on again, after a horse in Queensland has died of Hendra virus near a bat colony. Since 1994, two people and a bunch of horses have bitten the dust over the new virus, for which a vaccine was developed and announced earlier this year. Statistically, the
average Australian is 1600 times more likely to die from another human’s hand, and 6000 times more likely to be killed in a traffic accident. Ergo: This is still a very exotic way to die. Probably as exotic as of overeating with salt. *yuk* Some Melanesian people fortunately have been inventive in their approach to solve the problem (see below). The contract brain diseases, however, the bats usually go extinct real quick so this is not a real concern *chuckle* … see Guam, they ate all their bats and then even started importing them to keep eating so species after species goes extinct …
The day has otherwise been rather eventless. Luffley’s cafe has experienced a price rise in coffee at around 10 AM. Dave got one for 3,50, I paid 3,80 already a little later. *grrr* Besides, not much, paper work, bat watching, laundry, car painting (good fun actually). A Torres strait islander robbed the pub in Nimbin and fled by car, which was found in Murwillumbah today. That’s all for tonight I guess

Well this is a small world! My first and best and long-standing friend Alex (http://greenfish.twoday.net/stories/1687278/) I was in kindergarden with and who now has taken on the task of telling people what good arts means in his job as PR coordinator (click ‘english’ to get version you understand ;)) sent me an email today -
and he is in the US 27 July to 10 Aug to visit Marc, his older brother who so happens to have an American girlfriend from Albany … really small world … anyway we’ll see whether we find a chance to catch up .. although I saw Alex at Christmas last year, and that’s not too far back

So if this is true, then Bill Gates will soon not be the richest man any more. Scroll down a bit and read the essay. You’ll get a kick out of it, promised …

… well given i will move up to brisbane next weekend with light gear i have started to eat down my food storage .. and there is a lot to do! anyway the freezer is already empty except for a huge bag of pumpkin chunks! and i am almost out of bread mix. oh, yes, the cans are gone, too, except for one with baked beans .. so i am not worried it will be a precise landing: just as Stephen J Gould said: ‘I have landed’. I did a whole day of literature again today, it was really cool and fun to learn so much … right, off to bed. More soon - Jodi, how about you say something for a change???

So while Jodi is in Conneticut today to get her feet massaged and pampered i have been sifting through literature all day yesterday, all night, got some sleep, more now … the end is near though, however, only to create more work, of course. hell this is science: did anyone ever think of all these poor people who actually have to read the stuff others put out? and keep up with it and archive and keep track etc. Oh well. I think Dave may have had trouble sleeping last night he must have very light sleep as i really tried hard to be quiet. the bats were a LOT more noisy then i was anyway … oh and I came across fun websites: ivory-billed woodpecker. the ghost lives on. two years into it and still no proof. who was a little fast there? anyway, t-shirts are still for sale, get one for the laugh about the mis-ID .. and millions of dollars went into it, too … oh well …

More: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/ (the believers’ website)

So while I am working away day after day by writing and data stuff for papers and my thesis, it is raining outside … endless cascades of water falling from the sky - and this is the DRY season. Wow. Anyway, climate change I guess .. US Congress has heard today climate change is real: http://www.physorg.com/news70197498.html,
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/22/global.warming.ap/index.html, hey, what’s new there? We know that for twenty years now. Maybe in twenty years when the water has reached the steps of the White House they will pull out the Pentagon studies they got 25 years ago and will wonder … anyway, besides things seem fine, Jodi (Jodi?) got a job promotion cluttering her with even more work but what’s new … Ok better get back to doing stuff. More soon ..

This acutally was supposed to go here a few days ago … :

So have I ever mentioned how much I hate paperwork? I mean, seriously, I have been sifting through receipts forever now to document where all the money has gone … one stack to keep, one to burn, one for my boss to tax-deducted anything she can (maybe a new printer for the lab)! I went bat-releasing today, Pottsville flying fox colony for a change, interesting. Tons of blacks in the back, mangrove swamp, spoonbills! and I spent a few hours writing on the beach … reports are coming up. What Jodi is doing now? No idea … probably just about to wake up! Hey Jode, what’s up over there? Can’t hear me, too far away ………. oh, here is a shot prior to bat release, too, watch Dave …