Front page news ;)

Some publicity for my Fellowship :)

A wet day in Christchurch, sunny days in Atlanta

Therese and I had a great meeting at ESR with Dr M. Taylor (who is one of Therese's supervisors for her PhD) and we got to look around the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at the University of Canterbury. I stayed in Christchurch for Saturday. I was in the CHC Sept. earthquake and was keen to see how the centre of CHC is recovering post-Feb. earthquake. I was really impressed with Re:Start and the use of shipping containers for buildings.

 

On Sunday I flew to Wellington to visit Te Papa so I could see Kahu Ora. Liz and I did some of the materials analysis on four of the kakahu (cloaks) examined as part of the research behind this exhibition. An amazing exhibition.

Finally I headed to Atlanta for four days to stay with friends Ellen and Karen. I got chance to watch a practice for the chorus they are involved in, Our Song. We visited The World of Coke and tried some truly disgusting drinks from around the world, and had some great meals including catching up with other friends David and Paul.

Now I'm back home keep an eye on these pages for news about publications arising from the WCMT Fellowship. It was an amazing time. I learnt so much and met some amazing people.

Da boch chi Dunedin

See ya Dunners.

I've had a fantastic three weeks on the 'scopes and writing articles based on the research. Liz and I have submitted one article already and plan another before Christmas (bullet work) and one after (knickers work).

I'm heading to Christchurch tomorrow for a couple of days. I'm due to visit the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at the University of Canterbury and ESR.

After CHC I'm going to Wellington to Te Papa to see the kakahu (cloak) exhibition - Liz and I did some materials analysis on some of the kakahu on display.

Then, on the way home, I'm visiting friends in Atlanta for a mini (4 day) holiday.

Thanks for reading :)

Old is sometimes better

People sometime ask me why I use SEM for my work when I rarely use a magnification of greater than x200. The simple answer is improved depth of focus compared to optical microscopy. To date I've been using a JEOL FESEM for the work, however the lowest magnification Joeline will play at is x25. Sometimes we need lower magnification. For that we use the old Cambridge S360 which we can use at x5. Just to clarify Cammy is ~25 years old, whereas as Joeline is 10 years old next April. Yes, these 'machines' have character.

Cammy and Liz

Typical x5 image from Cammy

 

It's not all work - I've had a chance to visit some old haunts including St Clair:

  At the weekend it was back to the vineyard, Sunday was glorious:

Hot in the basement

The air conditioning is broken in the SEM laboratory (in the basement of the anatomy building).

However, Liz and I are making good progress with our imaging projects fuelled by morning coffee and cinnamon buns.

We've finished the knickers specimens, found some interesting seam damage due to laundering. Here's an example.

And we've started the bullet hole specimens, here's a sneak preview of part of a .357" hole in our single jersey fabric:

Today I gave an invited lecture to the Forensic Biology Group at Otago, I got chance to present Liz and Jules with Churchill coins :)

A new worst job at the vineyard

There's a new 'worst job at the vineyard'. The vineyard is owned by my friends Trevor Deaker and Mark Borrie who I'm staying with while I'm in Dunedin. Eight Ranges Wines is based in Alexandra and I've been helping them for quite a few years.

We drove up to Alex on Friday night; there are always jobs to do. This weekend we undid, flushed and re-did up the irrigation pipes and lifted wires. The new worst job is brushing the 200+ filters in the irrigation pump to remove fresh water snail eggs.

Of course there's always time to catch up with old friends; Kay and Evan Moore from Aravin and John Matheson from Drumsara.

 Kay, Evan, Mark, Trev, John at the waterfall party

We also had a visit from friends Aimee and Tony Rae and their almost two-year old son Maxwell.

Some pics from the vineyard for you to enjoy.

Tussock chasing bunnies