August Update

Greetings all! Its been a while since we sent an update but we've been pretty busy over here in sunny Brisbane. Since we last wrote we've had no less than 8 visitors. Needless to say we have now been to most of the major tourist spots around Brisbane, several times! Our favourite is probably the Botanic Gardens at Mt. Cootha, since discovering that we've been back 4 times! Here's a photo of Andrew admiring the architecture of the Tropical Dome.

Our friend Aileen was the first person to make the trip over from Perth, which was kind of appropriate given that she was the one who introduced the two of us almost 5 years ago today. Here's a photo of Natalie & Aileen taking in the sights of Southbank. Even before Aileen had left for her conference in the Gold Coast, Andrew's Dad & Brenda had arrived, and given we don't really have room for 5 at our dining room table we all went out for dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant in New Farm. Highlight of their visit was a spectacular Flamenco concert. During the week Kip dropped in for dinner and we treated him to Natalie's latest speciality....Tomato Seafood Risotto.

The week after Seb arrived, and after sleeping for most of the first two days (ok, he was recovering from a cold) we ventured out to see an excellent Japanese Drumming concert. Nicole flew in from Singapore a couple of days later on the way home from her Adventure's in Europe and the day after that Andrew & Seb left for Sydney (Andrew got a paid trip down there to use some special lab equipment at the University of Sydney). Andrew spent the weekend with Seb in Sydney taking in the sights (they walked over 20kms in one day) and here are some photographic highlights of their trip. Meanwhile Natalie's mum had arrived from Perth and Natalie took two days off work (only 2 weeks after starting, heh heh heh!) to visit the Gold Coast with her Mum & Nicole. Of course a picnic at the Botanic Gardens was also in order and here is a photo of us all outside the Japenese Garden. And last but not least Andrew's Mum arrived a week later, just in time for her birthday!

In between all of those visitors Natalie also finished off her Master's Thesis and got a High Distinction for it! Even sweeter than that, she landed a job the week after handing in her Thesis as a Project Co-ordinator for an International Development company that does aid & development projects throughout the Asia-Pacific and Indian subcontinent regions. To make it even sweeter the company has its offices at the University of Queensland, 2 buildings away from Andrew's lab....so now we get to walk in to work together every morning¡...how sweet is that! :)

Meanwhile Andrew has been beating his head against the brick wall that is his PhD... and let's just say he has a pretty sore head at the moment. But one bright spot was the University business ideas/commercialisation competition, which he entered along with 2 guys from his lab. Together they won a runner's up prize in the student division, which was pretty good considering there were over 100 entries. Unfortunately their high tech nanotechnology idea wasn't good enough to beat a student who invented a device to tell whether a cow is ready to be artificially inseminated. Here is a photo of Andrew with Dan from his lab holding their prize envelopes.

Other than that, its been pretty quiet over here in Brisbane. Hope things are going well for you all and we'd love to hear about the goings on in your part of the world - so email us when you get the chance :) Thanks to everyone who has been to visit us, its been really great and helped a little with the homesickness!