Andy's Work Fun

Andy's group had their end of year Xmas party at Kial and Kelsey's new place in Kambah. Prior to the feast we all walked up to the trig on Mt Taylor. After a rainy start to the weekend, the clouds cleared, the sun came out and we were soon all hot and sweaty!

Ascending from the southern side, at the top we were greeted with glorious 360 views of Canberra - the peaks of the Brindabellas to the arboretum, Black Mountain Tower, Mt Ainslie, Lake BG and the city. An awesome place to show off Canberra to the many non Aussies in the group. We headed north off the summit looping around the west side of Mt Taylor back to Kial and Kelsey's house.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing cricket, and enjoying a BBQ and awarding the annual Experimental Expertise Award (i.e. the most expensive lab accident).

The following week, Andy departed for a 10 day trip to the US visiting Bill in Tallahassee followed by attending the AGU Fall Meeting, apparently the largest earth and space science meeting in the world in New Orleans. Unfortunately a cancelled flight, due to the unexpected snowy conditions, meant Andy hired a car and drove the 600+km from Tallahassee to New Orleans.

In New Orleans, Andy celebrated with his US colleague Stephen who was made an AGU Fellow; was able to catch up with Alice and together they spotted a fire engine full of Santas as well as stumbling across a laser/smoke show on the way back to his accommodation one night.