OK, so we are slower than a wet week in Dirinbandi. I've moved labs, and we have a new addition to the family, Michael James. Jack, now "Big Bear" to Mikes "Little Bear", is now two would you believe, and adores his new brother (for the moment that is). There's been little movement here, but we've added some "new" Jack pictures, fixed a few broken links, and added some new ones, and some more BASIC programs, so have a browse.
After three years virtual presence, we still have nothing fancy, but we can rabbit on about our selves, our hobbies, what we like and dislike and some of our favorite web sites. Of course we have a whole page devoted to our son, Jack. We even have some useful info to pass on. Just like chatting to people on the bus you know, but you don't get as many funny looks. Isn't this new fangled technology marvellous.
Peta is a Melbournite born and bred. After some years traipsing about overseas she has settled back in Melbourne, dividing her time between looking after Jack and Mike, and working for the community group TreeProject where she spends her time a) getting people to grow trees, b) getting people to plant trees and c) getting people to donate money so a) and b) can occur. She doesn't like computers, and thinks that MicroSoft Word is an instrument of the Devil (especially about 11pm when you have to get the newsletter out and your column formating changes of its own accord). The only reason she agreed to appear on this page was because Ian promised to set up some environmental links.
Ian is a Queenslander, he also does research into how the brain works. After a stint in overseas laboratories, where his reasearch attracted the attention of three of the six people who care about his obscure subject area (who said variously "You're wrong!", "Who cares?", "So what?"), Ian returned to sunny Melbourne. After 4 years working at Monash Medical Centre, he has moved to RMIT, and has spent over 3 months trying to build a laboratory. The hottest topics in brain research are how we see, and how we form memories, so Ian studies how the brain controls blood pressure (typical really). Click here for a picture of Ian's favorite molecule, the blood pressure lowering drug clonidine. He also likes programming in BASIC (who knows why?). For reasons not entirely clear the NH&MRC have given him a grant to continue to work in this field, so he will continue to bore people senseless for at least another 3 years. If you are really interested in how your taxpayers money is spent, then click here.
Here are some photos of our marvellous boy Jack. Little Bear is now two years old, and has been renamed "Brave Ulysses" after his habits of fearless exploration. I have added some pictures of Jack on his trip to Turkey in August 1998.
Mike is a real little cutie. He is like Jack in some ways, but unlike Jack in others. At the tender age of "not quite two weeks" he has won hearts all around.
(Sing to the tune of "our Favorite Things". Come on, the net is supposed to be interactive)
Acoustic music, folk music, "Not Drowning Waving"
Jazz Music, Blues music's prettty amazing
The Whirling Furphies playing their strings
These are a few of our favorite things!
(Now if I could just work out how to make one of them audio file thingies I could play you a sample).
Bushwalking, Biking and all that physical outdoorsy stuff. If you want you can view a photo album of some of our European trips, but it's in inline JPEG format, so people with Mosaic browsers can't see it sorry. You can also view some photos of our trip to South West Tasmania, but be warned, it's a big, slow page with 8 inline JPEGs. (Again, apologies to Mosaic users). Ian also likes looking up at the night sky, and wants to show Jack the Moon. Peta bought Ian a Telescope for Christmas, and of course it's been cloudy almost evry time I'e wanted to use it. Hopefully I can put up some astronomy photo's later this year
We haven't done too many trips since Jack came into our lives, when I get the chance, I'll feature some of these. Jack has been to North Queensland, Europe and sailed the Mediteranian, as well as camping out at Maldon and Port Fairy. He also has overcome his fear of the bicycle seat and now trys to climb into it every time I go to the garage. With the arrival of Mike our camping trips will be a little curtailed, but we should be able to do a couple of nice trips for the kids.
Calendar of community conservation events Still adding events
BASIC programming FAQ and hints Under construction.Soon to come-The wonderful world of ferrets, I've got all the data, just have to build it.
