Change of plans

Well! It looks like sanity will prevail and I will NOT be heading to the US to sample. I am part sad and part relieved by this news, mostly because of the amount of hassle that has been lifted from my shoulders.

I have also wrapped up ALL my NSW sampling, a BIG tick-mark and big relief. Hooray! In the last batch of sampling down in Narooma, my ever-loving and ever-patient husband came along with me as a scribe and cheerleader. I was bolstered by his faith in my capabilities as a scientist, and impressed by the legibility of his notes on my datasheets. Excellent work, good sir. We managed to get stranded on the island for a few days by swell generated by a cyclone up in Queensland. When the swell hit the Narooma Bar, it made it impossible for any boats to come out to the island and pick us up (Google image "Narooma Bar crossing", and prepare to be impressed!). Lucky for us, I actually listened to the advice of the good people at Parks and brought along several days of extra rations. Also lucky for us, Tom had the foresight to bring along our snorkels and fins, which made for some excellent castaway days on the leeward side of the island. Snorkelling with seals is unforgettable! I would like to ask my marine biologist friends one question: why do seals hang upside-down, motionless in the water? Occasionally they will spin around and draw rings of bubbles around themselves, but mostly they just stare at the sea floor with their back flippers bobbing out of the water. Why?

Since the US is out of the picture, I am in the throes of another logistical wrestling match, this time in working out my Queensland and South Australia sites. The good news is that QLD has a plethora of islands, most of which are stunning (do a quick Google image search of, oh, I don't know, Whitsunday Island). The bad news is I don't have permits yet, but hopefully that situation will be remedied directly. I spoke to the kind folks up in Queensland's equivalent of Parks and Wildlife (they just restructured, so I'm not sure even they know what their job titles and departments are just yet), and it seems like human decency and understanding might work some more miracles for me once again. Hooray! I may grumble to myself about how long these things take, but when it comes to the folks who actually do the work it seems they are all pretty incredible people. Government agency inefficiency, however, is a topic that I won't get sucked into, except to say that somehow normal rules of existence cease to function in that mystical land of Government Office.

Besides uni, things are great. Busy, but great. We have some cool adventures in the pipeline, but fieldwork sampling schedules make these adventures somewhat tentative, so I won't divulge them now. Besides, what's an adventure without the element of surprise?

My biggest achievement since I wrote last is the fact that I have invested (very little, as they were 50% off) in a pair of clip-in shoes for my bike! I can now power up hills with the ease and grace of a congested hippopotamus, which is a vast improvement: previously, I would always feel more than a little surprised that I had made it to the top of the hill at all.

Until next time...