2007 - the year in review
2007 was challenging. We did a lot and made some great new friends. It involved 4 traffic infringements, 7 nights in hospital (1 knee reconstruction, 1 ankle modification and a field work accident), about 30 new bird species, 2 graduations and a single scientific paper.
The year started with some great adventures with Max in Port Stephens - even blue water spearfishing. Zoe started The Puku. In March, I began a new job, set up electrofishing.net and relocated to Randwick to live with Benwah. We went on a few adventures, including little Wolgan Valley, Royal National Park and Kangaroo Valley. Work also took me to the Mongarlowe and Macdonald Rivers, the Macquarie Marshes, Narranderra and the Gold Coast.
May was spent in Townsville and Armidale with the awesome locals - including fishing, cycling, big dogs and a few beers. Zoe also did some sailling through the Whitsunday Islands. June, however, was tough, as I began dealing with the emotional trauma from my accident, but YLD got his pilots licence, we spent some time in Bellingen and Duncan and Dave moved out of home. Zoe joined Ben and I in Sydney in July - which was all about sleep deprivation and the Tour de France. By August we were busy Dominating for IMD3 (adventure doesn’t start at midday), which built on the success of IMDII (blueprints for bigness) - the picnic was great fun and TimTim did 3000 push-ups, but we will have to put in a better effort next year.
In September, Bob did a half marathon and Ben did a whole one. In October, while I was away in the field, Dunk and Zoe got worked on by Dr Ron Clarke (aka ‘The Wizzard’). We also found out that Sascha is having a little baby. November and December flew past with the usual end of year rush - Zoe spent most of the time going stir-crazy from being inside too much and I put together an ARC Linkage application for next year (fingers crossed). The best bit about the end of the year was a photo with Stuart O’Grady, xmas with the extended family, retaining the Hamilton-Rayner Pool Trophy and Zoe’s birthday.
In 2008, I hope we can do some more travelling to visit our peeps in Europe, get the Pacemaker II on the track and have the best International Month of Domination ever. The year should start well - at Andy and Bob’s NYE party and a week in Bright, Victoria.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Ben managed a WHOLE marathon. Dominant.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Hi guys!
I’ve been thinking of youse in the last few days. Mostly because it was Zoë’s birthday and kiki and I were about to drunk dial… but unfortunately I couldn’t use my phone from switzerland to call Australian numbers, pfft!
Anyway, Happy birthday Zoë!
And on the other hand I started the year well, with my first (and I dare say last) attempt of skiing. I twisted my knee pretty painfully twice on the way down, and I rolled down most of the rest of the time with some rahter espectacular falls. If I had been smart as Meike was, I would have joined her at the hut having coffee and/or hot wine instead.
So today I’m still limping, it still hurts quite a lot and somehow because of that I couldn’t help thinking of you guys.
Ok, so I hope you’ll have a good and safe 2008. And if you want my advice, stay away from skiing, snowboarding or any other winter sport.
Hugs… Rodrigo
January 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Rodders,
Take my advice and stay in Townsville like I do!
The only physical strain I get is in my wrist ….. lifting up all those cold glasses of Bundy and Coke
January 7th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Sorry I have been away for a week or so and just catching up on Tom and Zoe “2007 in review”. I think there is a SLIGHT error in the “retaining of the Hamilton-Rayner trophy”!! It is very much back in Hamilton hands. Try again 26/12/2008.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I am still waiting for moderation.
Happy birthday Zoe, just in case my former comment doesn’t make it!!
January 10th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Liz
It just goes to show that you can’t believe all you read in the press
January 10th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
My understanding is that a lot of sledging went on at the Rayner/Hamilton Pool Cup.
Some dodgy comments were picked up by the “cue cam” referring to the physical fitness of one of the players from “across the Ditch”.
I gather that this has been referred to the International Pool Committee and that the result may be a suspension of up to 3 matches. The verdict will no doubt be appealed and will cover the front pages and letters section of both the SMH and the Gisborne Herald for most of 2008.
This is all heresay of course as I was at the time watching the much more genteel cricket (with a cold glass of Bundy and Coke) at my Queenslander in Townsville.