Obviously, it is long overdue time for some news. And a haircut, for that matter, but I digress. I’ve just been sitting out on the lawn at the IRL Christmas BBQ. Very very pleasant: sausages, steak and some lovely salads, but forgot my hat so the ears are probably sunburned. You could almost say ‘it’s been a long, cold lonely winter’, but things haven’t really been that bad, neither on the personal nor the meteorological (weather) side of things. Having said that, the weather in Wellington is nothing to write home about, and I often find myself missing my distant friends quite a lot. New Zealand is pretty much empty of people my age, hardly a surprise, but has a noticeable effect on society here. As for myself, well I don’t want to start moralizing, but suffice to say that I could hardly be happier with various choices I have made. I don’t think I could handle it if there weren’t challenges and unrealistic ideals to work towards.

So things have been good. The lifestyle is great. It’s a great country. And I have been going out with Jacinta (not Lawrey) for the best part of 2 years now, and she is great. I have been ‘Andy Partner’ on a few occasions this year, noticeably last night when she won ‘best female costume’ at her work party after dressing up in a rash vest and board shorts, with a swimming cap. I have just remembered that ‘Leaf Man’ also wore a swimming cap, an Italian one …

Some people made it to Welly this year. Matt and Amber came down for the 7s, which is somewhat spoiled for us cricketers, but was nonetheless great fun with Samoa upsetting Fiji in the finals, but no-one caring too much because of the alcohol. Joe and Sonya (Sonia?) Taylor, whose wedding we went to in Taranaki in January (pic below), popped in later on the way through to the Wairarapa. Everyone else who has visited seems to have been a Girdlers Scholar – George (& Kate), Jacinta (& Stu), Frannie and Alfie have all popped their heads in. Everyone is always welcome (I can find you some ‘floor’ if required) and encouraged. Talking of the Girdlers, one thing I did this year was sit on the selection panel, and have been invited back for another go, so can’t have made too many faux pas(es).

New Zealand, of course, has just rounded up probably our worst year of international sport ever with a humiliating thrashing by Oz in the cricket one-dayers. We also lost in the netball world champs, the cricket world cup semi (as usual) and the yachting. The lowlight of the year in any field of endeavour was, of course, the debacle in Cardiff in the World Cup quarter final. Not sure what to say about that, except that Graham Henry and co. were considerably more constrained in their assessment of the refereeing than I, much to their credit, but not to that of Wayne Barnes or the French.

I’ve been playing cricket in the senior squad for Victoria University of Wellington Cricket Club. Just after posting this I’m running off to that website to update the player profiles. The club is short on batting depth, so I’ve been struggling in the senior team most of the time, and getting a few more for the second team the rest of the time. Of course, I still thoroughly enjoy cricket in general, but the icing on the cake this year was the one-day finals (2nd division) which was played on the Basin Reserve, the test ground in Wellington (pictured - Varsity taking the field).

Work has been about a squillion times more eventful than last year, which can only be a good thing. The highlight came last week, being nominated as an Assistant Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, which is a ‘Centre of Research Excellence’ here in NZ. Or an AI with the MI, a CoRE. Getting your head around organisational matters like this is essential for a scientist in NZ, if you wanna get money. I’ve also had exciting work trips to Dunedin (x2), Palmerston North, Wellington Central (x3) and, well, Sydney which was actually pretty good. Next year’s looking better already with trips to the States and Europe in the offing. I am still doing work on microfluids at Industrial Research Limited, based in Lower Hutt. Most of the past two years I’ve been examining surface slip, which has proved extremely difficult but we got a couple of papers out. Recent developments concerning the MacDiarmid Institute relate to a resizeable nanopore. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that. In science-related news, I was shortlisted for the inaugural Manhire Prize for creative science writing.

Some more pictures.
Kurt and I went to Oz in January to watch NZ lose 3 matches to Oz and England in Hobart (pictured) and Sydney. This was great fun and we also caught up with Rob MacRedie and his fiancee Sarah (rumoured to be getting married next month) in Sydney.

I got a new BBQ last Christmas and in February probably came close to Juliarse's record for 'BBQ's in August'. I would note that February has fewer days that August - but then again, BBQs are probably pretty tricky to organise in Antarctica.

At Easter I (left) went with a crew (right) kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park, keeping up my goal of doing at least one great 'walk' per year. The crew is (ltr) Lisa, Bouse, Conrad, Myregel, Me and Jacinta.

I went up to Auckland, or more precisely Leigh, to watch the Black Caps take home the cricket world cup with Kurt. We pulled an all-nighter for the semi final and were still cheering on Jimmy Franklin and Jeetan Patel when they needed 100 with a wicket left ... anyway, the sun still came up the next day. On the right, Otago University during a cold NZ Institute of Physics Conference.

Moving into winter, a guy from Jacinta's work (Sandy) had a 'Kamikaze Folding Chair' party. We responded in similarly absurd fashion by dressing up as sushi and taking a quarter pack of KFC. And on the right is the view looking back into Wellington Harbour from the lighthouse at Pencarrow Head during a long bike ride on Queens' Birthday.

Most wintry Saturdays I have been refereeing rugby. I've moved from schoolboys on to approx. U21 or weight restricted levels this year. The pictures show a 2nd XV match on a relatively good day at Mana College (Jerry Collins' alma mater) when Mum, Meg and Dad came to watch.

And there was a little bit of snowboarding around September up at Whakapapa and Turoa skifields on Mt Ruapehu. Honourable mention should go to Toast Martinborough Food/Wine/Music festival. I don't have any photos of it, but I think it might be my favourite event on the Wellington 'social calendar'. Such as it is.

I've probably missed a whole lot that has happened. Like having lunch at the French Embassy. Coming up, weddings of school friends all through January, bids for funding due start of Feb, walking the Milford track end of Feb, Jacinta leaves for Ireland start of March, APS meeting in New Orleans middle of March, Matt and Amber’s wedding in Taranaki at Easter. Action packed. But just now, up to Auckland for a bit of this:

So that'll do for now, can't be bothered fixing up the layout - hope to hear from you or see you sooner rather than later ... via Skype if you're into that kind of weirdness. In the meantime, Merry Christmas (to you and your kin), have a great New Year break and wishing you lots of love and sunshine for 2008.