tomandzoe.com - live from the northside

This year the Rayner family returned the Annual Pool Competition Trophy to its rightful place!

Short story
In January I fell off a cliff, came very close to really messing myself up and spent the year recovering. Somehow I managed to finish my PhD, get a job, see a lot of new birds, build and ride a fixed gear bike over 1000 km, attend a conference and win a photo contest. Zoe worked really hard to support me through this difficult time, managing to finish off most of her own studies and take the lead on the financial front. Mum and Dad were a massive help and all my friends were amazing. All-in-all a big, action-packed and pretty craz year - the most challenging yet. But, we made it!

Long story
2006 began with a 5-way pelvis thrust from a cliff in Royal National Park. Shortly afterwards I ordered the Dominators singlets and set a PB commuting time of 30 minutes, 30 seconds. However, the following day, 21 January, I fell 25m off a waterfall and nearly died. This was, of course the defining moment of our year - I wouldn’t recover my sense of humour for a couple of weeks and I wouldn’t get back on a bike for some time. For the next two months I took drugs, did Sudokus, watched A River Somewhere, complained, cried about sporting events (Winter Olympics etc.) and tied saltwater flies. Meanwhile, Clwedd was living it up.

TC Larry hit the coast of North Queensland in March, but was a bit of a fizzer in Townsville. At the end of March I wrote the first in a series of posts (I, II, III, IV, V) about different styles of thesis writing. In early April Kiki instigated a series of parties and other events for her farewell, which finally occured on the 21st. By the 30th, I was off crutches and hobbling around. In May I was back in the field (although I should’ve probably stuck to the office) to survey the post-cyclone Larry fish communities. I released a media-statement to conincide with a public lecture on our results, with interest from Cairns to Hobart. Lastly, building began on the Pacemaker and the fine winter weather continued.

June saw Zoe’s work continue with EcoFest at Queens Gardens. Around this time, birdwatching began in earnest. Mum visited and we spent some time up the coast, hanging around Ingham. Towards the end of the month, the World Cup and the Tour de France caught our attention. In July I headed to Paluma for Steve William’s lab meeting, before nearly getting run-over on the 26th - around the same time that my PhD funding expired.

August saw the return of the International Month of Domination (IMDII - Blueprints for Bigness). The response was massive, with heaps of people emailing me from all over the world. Lach and TimTim were up to their usual antics. I spent a lot of time birdwatching with Alex during August, in my bid to see 50 new species in a month. Things started great - we saw some amazing species and I got some excellent photos. On the 16th, I smashed my communit PB with a new time of 26:58 on the fixed gear. Lach and Rob gave us their accounts of IMDII. Tim Prior completed the domination by helping me to reach my goal of 50 birds in Hobart. Zoe stayed home while I conferenced and took care of work.

In September I did my PhD exit seminar and Karin got her Kiting under control. Zoe went to Cairns for a conference in October and spent some time on Dunk Island with Amanda on her annual pilgrimage. I won a $1000 photo contest and went Eco Twitching with Alex. In November I did an electrofishing course and Zoe did some more work. Then I moved back to Port Stephens and handed in my thesis. It’s been good to hang out in the South for a while, see my family a bit more and work on different projects. Zoe stuck around in Townsville through December to work and party.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 1st, 2007 at 11:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.