Pat and Tanya's Australian Adventure

The End

2009-09-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

Our Australian adventured ended on August 31st, 2009, 361 days after it started. On our last weekend we attended the highly-anticipated yabby-fest. Back in Canada now, we're getting used to working full-time again.

We had so much fun at the yabby-fest that we forgot to take pictures. Here a few pictures anyhow with a couple from the Landfeldt's back yard and our first two dives back in Canada at The Rothesay and Lock 21

New Zealand Redux

2009-08-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our last trip in the southern hemisphere before returning home. We spent six days in Northern New Zealand, where we saw Cirque du Soleil's Dralion, walked in the giant kauri forest, dived the Poor Knights Islands, and bathed in thermal pools.

Here are a few pictures.

Avenue Q

2009-08-18T06:52:00.001-07:00

The Internet is for Porn
by bloodreddeath

Tonight, Tanya and I went to see Avenue Q at the Theatre Royal. It was a great show. Sort of a cross between Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, and a Chris Rock routine. The video above contains music from the show. Here are some other versions.

Jervis Bay Photos

2009-08-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from my birthday weekend in Jervis Bay.

Happy Birthday Pat!

2009-08-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, this past Sunday was Pat's Birthday. To celebrate we spent the weekend diving with our friends in Jervis Bay. On Friday morning, we went seal diving and on Friday evening we boarded the Ocean Trek liveaboard. The weather was unseasonably warm for winter and the seas were relatively flat so we were able to do most of our diving just outside the bay - we're told this is an extremely rare occurance. Over the weekend, we dove with seals, Port Jackson sharks in the hundreads and even managed to do a spot of whale watching. Orca whales no less! Pictures and possibly some video will follow.

Wrapping things up

2009-08-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

As our time in Sydney nears its end, we're frantically trying to take advantage of everything we have here. Last weekend was surfing. This weekend we went for two dives, one at Shiprock with members of Saint George Scuba Club, and one at Kurnell with the people I work with. Over the next few weekend's we'll be in Jervis Bay, Northern New Zealand, and attending a Swedish Yabbie-Fest.

Here are the pictures from Shiprock and Kurnell.

For my Mom and Dad

2009-08-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom and Dad,

Pat wanted to make sure you didn't show up a the airport with your computer in hand, so he made me post these for you.

Love Tanya
xoxo

Mom and Dad's Vacation from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Tjapukai Dance Show from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Darwin to Alice Springs Trip Video

2009-08-01T02:03:00.000-07:00

Darwin to Alice Springs Trip Video from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

As promised, here is our trip video.

The Red Centre

2009-07-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

We're back from our trip to the wet North End and the dry Red Centre. Our 12 day 4076 km journey took us to Darwin, Kakadu National Park, the Moscow Circus, Nitmiluk Gorge, Devil's Marbles, the West Macdonnell Ranges, Finke Gorge National Park, King's Canyon, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and finally to Alice Springs where we caught our flight home. With the exception of a near-miss with some horses and a small forest fire blocking our route, the trip was relatively drama free. Our camper van was cozy and we actually enjoyed living out of it for the duration of the trip. Sleeping 9 hours a night was nice too.

Here are a selection of pictures from the trip. A video will follow soon.

Our Great Northern Adventure

2009-07-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

For the last two days, Tanya and I have been touring around Darwin and Kakadu National Park, sleeping in our Wicked Outback 4x4 Campervan. Today, after checking out the boats at the Beer Can Regatta, we'll start our ~~2000km~~ 3076km journey, going down to Katherine Gorge, Devil's Marbles, the MacDonnell Ranges, King's Canyon, and Uluru before heading to Alice Springs for our flight home.

It's been great so far, though some of our off-roading in the park was turned back by a forest fire (above).

Dwarf Minke Whales

2009-07-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Dwarf Minke Whales from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

As promised, here is the video from our dive trip with the Dwarf Minke Whales that the onboard video pro made. Its a bit long (30+ minutes) so if you want to see the whales they start around 9 minutes.

The Day the Music Died

2009-06-29T04:31:00.000-07:00

I'll always remember where I was when I heard Michael Jackson died; snorkelling and diving with Minke Whales on the Great Barrier Reef. Last weekend Tanya and I flew north to Cairns where we hopped on board the Spoilsport for 3 days of diving and snorkelling with Minke whales. The trip finished off with a low-level flight back to Cairns in an 8-seater Cessna operated by Hinterland Aviation.

Here are some pictures. There will probably be a video later.

Sydney Winter Festival

2009-06-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to the Sydney Winter Festival. They have an outdoor ice rink that costs only $20 to skate on, but tickets were sold out weeks ago. They also have a range of traditional winter foods from all over the world. I was promised poutine, but couldn't find any.

Here are a handful of pictures.

Taronga Zoo

2009-06-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to the Taronga Zoo where we had a chance to see the world's only captive (rescued) leopard seals, a red panda, a pygmy hippo, and giraffes against the Sydney Harbour skyline. We also went for a dive at Shark Point where a cuttlefish tried to mate with me.

Here are some pictures at the zoo and diving.

South Australia

2009-06-12T01:49:00.000-07:00

We've recently returned from our trip to South Australia. While there, we cage dove with great white sharks, snorkelled with sea lions, dove with leafy sea dragons and watched the mating rituals of the giant Australian cuttlefish and that was just in the first four days! After that we headed to the Flinders Ranges for some hiking where we climbed to St. Mary's peak - the highest peak in the ranges. After a few days of hiking we headed south to Kangaroo Island where we did a bit of diving and watched the New Zealand fur seals and sea lions.

Here are some pictures.

Cape Solander to Cronulla

2009-05-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we decided to take a hike from Cape Solander to Cronulla. It's a nice hike with some good views of the ocean. On the way back 5 or 6 humpback whales were passing Cape Solander, but they were hard to make out without binoculars.

Here are a few pictures.

North of Sydney

2009-05-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we drove north from Sydney to South West Rocks. On the way we stopped in Nelson Bay for a high-tide dive at Fly Point. We spent two days doing, er, character-building dives at Fishrock Cave. On the way back we spent a day diving The Pinnacle in Forster.

Here are a few pictures.

Diving and Fireworks

2009-05-09T20:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we braved the rough seas and made two boat dives with St. George Scuba Club, at Minmi Trench and The Leap, in less than ideal conditions. To celebrate our safe return, Darling Harbour city council put on a sound and light show. Fireworks and jetskis, what could go wrong?

Here are a few pictures.

Busted!

2009-05-07T15:59:00.001-07:00

I received my first Australian speeding ticket yesterday, for doing 71kph in a 60kph zone on Sunday April 26, at 7:08am. Cost: $81.

Ulladulla

2009-05-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made the 220km drive south from Sydney to Ulladulla for a weekend of diving off an RIB with some of the members of St. George Scuba Club. The weather cooperated nicely and it was some of the best diving we've done in New South Wales.

Here are some pictures.

Weekend's diving and surfing

2009-04-27T03:51:00.001-07:00

This weekend's waves were bigger than predicted, so our diving at Voodoo and Shark Point was relocated to Shiprock and Bare Island, respectively. The good news is that the surf was up for our second surfing lesson.

Here are the pictures from Shiprock and the pictures from Bare Island. We don't have any pictures of us surfing.

Back from sandgroper central

2009-04-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

We're back from our trip to Western Australia and Justine is back in Ottawa. While there we spent a few days in Perth, most of our time in Exmouth, and made a side trip to Coral Bay. The highlights of the trip were snorkelling with whalesharks, manta rays, sharks, and diving on the Exmouth Navy Pier.

Here are a few pictures of the trip.

Coral Bay

2009-04-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

Today we made the 150km drive to Coral Bay for some snorkelling. We got really lucky and saw a manta ray, a dugong, and a whole pile of sharks.

Justine in the Muiron Islands

2009-04-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

We made two dives yesterday at the Muiron Islands, and saw a leopard shark!

Biggest.. Fish.. Ever

2009-04-09T04:51:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely in Exmouth yesterday to dive and snorkel the Ningaloo Reef. First on our agenda was snorkelling with whalesharks, and we weren't disappointed. We got to spend about an hour snorkelling with the beautiful creature pictured above. We'll post a full photo-report of our trip when we get back.

Justine Arrives

2009-04-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Justine just arrived in Sydney this morning and the three of us are flying off to Perth and then to Exmouth to dive the Ningaloo Reef. While there, we should see whalesharks, coral spawning, and hopefully some manta rays and dugongs.

Spelunking

2009-04-05T02:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Tanya and I drove to Jenolan Caves to do some spelunking. We did the Plughole Adventure Tour, which involved some rappelling, walking, crawling, and squeezing through some very tight spaces. It was a lot of fun, even if our guide was a 12 year old girl who weighed about 95 pounds.

Before and after we walked around a couple of the show caves and took a few pictures.

Under the Sea

2009-04-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

Today we used 2 for 1 coupons to see Under the Sea 3D at the IMAX. Even though it was narrated by Jim Carrey, it was still a lot of fun. Most of it was filmed in this part of the world, so we got to see places we've been diving (Papua New Guinea, the Great Barrier Reef and The Coral Sea), things we've seen (stingrays, wobbegongs, frogfish, and stonefish) and places we will be diving (South Australia) and things we will hopefully see there (great white sharks, giant cuttlefish, and Australian sea lions). It really got us looking forward to our upcoming South Australia trip.

Blue Mountains

2009-03-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

Today Tanya and I went to the Blue Mountains. We did a few hikes: The Red Hands Cave loop, a walk around the Wentworth Falls lookout, and Govett's Leap to Pulpit Rock in Blackheath. The last one was an especially hard hike, but the views were worth the effort.

Here are a few pictures.

Diving in Port Botany

2009-03-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

Today we made our way out from Port Botany for a couple of dives off the Seajohn, one of the club member's boats. The visibility was not great, but the geology of these dive sites is interesting and we saw a few nice sea-creatures. Here are today's pictures.

Sydney Wildlife World

2009-03-25T04:07:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, we used up some extra tickets we had for Sydney Wildlife World, which is just a five minute walk from our apartment. Here are a few pictures.

Nelson Bay

2009-03-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

After the Whiteheads left us, Tanya and I spent the weekend in Nelson Bay shacked up and diving with the Saint George Scuba Club. Despite a leaking drysuit and injured knee, we managed to get a couple of nice dives in, one at the sewage pipe and one at Fly Point.

Here are a few pictures from our dive at the sewage pipe.

Goodbye Dave and Agnes

2009-03-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

For the Whitehead's last weekend in Australia, we flew to Broken Hill. From there we rented a car (Mitsubishi Lancer) and drove, rally style, through the outback. We saw Broken Hill (lead and zinc mining town), Silverton (silver mining town and the filming location for Mad Max II), Mutawintji National Park, and White Cliffs (opal mining town, with an underground hotel).

Here are the outback pictures.

The Whiteheads leave for Canada tomorrow. For their last night we went to a great production of Buddy! (The Buddy Holly Story). It was a real toe-tapper.

Valentine's Day Massacre

2009-03-06T03:44:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Boxing from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Here's a video of some frisky kangaroos Tanya recorded on Valentine's Day during our one day whirlwind tour of Brisbane.

The Whiteheads are here

2009-02-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Dave and Agnes Whitehead showed up at our door last Friday, after a 4 leg, 24+ hour, flight from Sault-Ste-Marie, Ontario, looking surprisingly spry. We let them rest for a day and then took them on a road trip to Jervis Bay, before putting them back on a plane to Darwin. Tanya will meet up with them this weekend in Cairns.

Here are the roadtrip pictures.

Walkabout Park

2009-02-12T23:55:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to the Australia Wildlife Walkabout Park. We parked, then we walked about. It was wild, but it was also 40C so we gave up and went to the beach instead. Most of the wildlife seemed to consist of spiders anyway.

Here are a few pictures.

Devil's playground

2009-02-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

Tasmania from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Last weekend Tanya and I spent a few days in Tasmania, where we saw seals, penguins, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, wallabies, potaroos, ostriches, emus, big-belly seahorses, bandicoots, kelp forests, old prisons, and lots of spectacular scenery.

Here are some of the photos.

Rotorua video

2009-01-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

Rotorua from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

The Land of the Long White Cloud

2009-01-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Tanya and I went to New Zealand. We landed in Auckland, drove to Rotorua, and came back to Auckland via Goat Island. Then Tanya flew home and I flew to Wellington for the CATS 2009 conference.

In Australia the insects and animals are constantly trying to kill you. In New Zealand, the earth itself is constantly trying to kill you. Rotorua is exploding. You can hardly step anywhere without falling into a thermal spring, geyser, or sulfur pit. Here are some pictures. We might have a movie later.

Who's down with BPPV?

2009-01-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Me, that's who. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is a condition in which the patient feels like they just stepped off the playground spinner, only the feeling doesn't go away. It makes it impossible to focus on anything, causes sea-sickness, and makes standing up difficult. It's caused when a calcium rock forms in the inner ear and finds its way into the semicircular canals that provide the body's sense of orientation. The treatment involves the Epley Maneuver: Imagine playing one of those handheld games where you navigate a ball through a maze by tilting the maze, only the maze is in 3D and the whole thing is inside your head.

I didn't know this yesterday morning when I woke up. All I knew is that I had trouble standing, and the world appeared to be spinning around me. After a few rounds of staggering to the bathroom to throw up I called Divers Alert Network (since I had been diving recently) and their on-call physician deduced that my symptoms were probably not symptoms of decompression sickness, but may have been symptoms of an inner-ear injury. I should get to a hospital emergency room as soon as possible.

With Tanya's help, I got cleaned up and took a taxi to the hospital. The triage nurse took my blood pressure, sitting and standing, and I guess she didn't like what she saw because I was very quickly sent to get a 12 point electrocardiogram. The ECG nurse asked me if I had a history of heart illness and sent me back to the waiting room.

After sitting in the waiting room with my eyes closed for some amount of time, the doctor called me in and did a neurological exam to see if my symptoms were an indicator of a stroke. After all that, she deduced that I had BPPV in my left ear, performed an Epley maneuver on me, gave me a script for some very strong anti-nausea medicine, and sent me home. I spent most of the day lying in bed with my eyes closed and after doing a couple of home Epley maneuvers on myself I was starting to feel better by about 10pm. This morning, after being careful to sleep on my right side I'm feeling much better.

All in all, considering what could have caused these symptoms, BPPV is probably the best possible outcome.

Dugongs

2009-01-12T00:39:00.001-08:00

Dugongs from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

This weekend Tanya was sick, so I had to go on my own to see Sydney Aquarium's newly acquired dugongs, Pig and Wuru. These cute sea creatures are a mix between elephant and mermaid. In fact, it's conjectured that sailors who spotted dugongs for the first time thought they were beautiful sea-women (mermaids). Those old-time sailors must have been myopic or extremely horny, or both.

Here are a few pictures.

V for Vampire

2009-01-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tanya and I went to the Maritime Museum to have a look at the HMAS Vampire, a Daring Class destroyer, and the HMAS Onslow, an Oberon Class submarine. I was amazed at the number of knobs, dials, gauges, buttons, monitors, tubes, pots, pans, wheels, valves, and bunks they could cram into the sub.

I learned that I'm too tall to spend any length of time in a submarine. Here are the pictures.

Coolest thing ever

2009-01-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Tanya and I went to the Powerhouse Museum to see the Star Wars Exhibit. They had lots of models and costumes used in the filming of the original trilogy. For a Star Wars fan it's pretty cool stuff. The most impressively detailed model was the coffee table-sized Millenium Falcon. Conspicuous by their absence were any models of the Death Star (first or second).

Here are my pictures.

A bastard of a place

2009-01-05T00:04:00.001-08:00

Our trip to PNG was fantastic (a selection of pictures here) – we even had a two day extension courtesy of Air Nuigini. We were meant to come home on Friday but they cancelled our flight so we stayed at the resort an extra day and ended up with a day in Port Moresby. Apparently cancelling flights for no apparent reason is quite common in PNG so it seems we truly had an authentic experience. The day in Moresby we could have done without as it is considered unsafe for non-locals and unfortunately for us it is very obvious that we are not locals. It is recommended that you do not go outside of your gated complex unless accompanied by a tour guide or armed guard - no kidding. Unfortunate really, as our hotel was only minutes from what looked like a beautiful beach. That said, we did get a brief tour of the city before we left so at least we can say we saw it.

As you would expect, we spent much of our holiday diving. While diving we had the chance to swim with dolphins and sharks and take a few pictures with our new macro lens (Thanks Mom and Dad). We did manage a few hours above water during which we went for a walk in the village, a mountain rainforest walk, and a trip to the hot river (43C).

Swimming with Dolphins

2008-12-26T03:02:00.000-08:00

Today, for the third time, our dive boat came across a pod of dolphins on the way to our first dive site. We had the opportunity to get in the water with them and Tanya took a few pictures, including the one above. Very cool.

Christmas in PNG

2008-12-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas eve in Papua New Guinea. Tanya and I arrived three days ago and have been diving, eating, and hiking since. The scenery here (in Kimbe Bay) is amazing, both above and below water. Our resort (Walindi Plantation Resort) is adjacent to a volcano. Usually resort guests can hike up the volcano, but right now that's not possible because the volcano, like me, has too much gas coming out of it.

Here are a few diving pictures that don't do justice to the diving here. We will post better pictures when we get back, get organized, and have a reliable internet connection.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Busy busy

2008-12-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

This last week has been busy. Last weekend I flew to Christchurch to give a talk at New Zealand Mathematics Convention. This week I've been co-organizing the NICTA Workshop on Computational Geometry for Imprecise Data. Tomorrow I fly to Gold Coast to sing karaoke at the International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation. Then it's back in Sydney for 2 days before we fly off to spend Christmas in Papua, New Guinea.

Today was the first nice weather we've had all week, so we took the opportunity to go snorkelling (pictures). We also found this critter our hallway.

A Star Wars Christmas

2008-11-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the Sydney Christmas Parade. I didn't really understand the theme. Here are the pictures.

Priscilla

2008-11-29T04:46:00.001-08:00

Tanya and I just got back from Priscilla: The Musical, based on the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It was fabulous, but left me hungry for Monte-Christo Biscuits.

Christmas is Coming

2008-11-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

Last night the Sydney City Council lit up the Christmas Tree and started the Christmas Projections. Here are the pictures that were used to make the slideshow.

The Dave Thomas Show

2008-11-25T01:24:00.000-08:00

I just learned that Dave Thomas, one of the founding members of Carleton's School of Computer Science is giving a talk at the University of Sydney tomorrow entitled Hey! You! Get On To My Cloud. I lost track of him for a while, but it looks like Dave is now Chairman of Bedarra Research Labs. I can't tell exactly what it is they do from their web page.

Bad News from CA

2008-11-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

It looks like Bell lobbied the CRTC enough to keep up their anti-competitive practice of throttling third-party traffic based on content. As a result, all canadian homes can continue to enjoy shitty Internet connections without any option for something better.

In related news, Sony, Disney, Paramount et al are suing Australia's second largest Internet Service Provider because they are helping their customers violate copyright.

English Test

2008-11-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember my friend, colleague, and host Joachim Gudmundsson who came out with us on Robbie Burns day a few years ago. Joachim's trying to become a permanent resident of Australia. To do this, he has to take an english test. Here's one of the questions from the test:

The instructions for a grant application say All students who submit a successful application will receive a copy of the Student Handbook.

Question: Will all students receive a copy of the Student Handbook?

a) Yes
b) No
c) Not enough information to decide

This is actually a difficult question. I know the correct answer (and so does Joachim) but it's not at all clear that the test adminstrators do.

Jervis Bay

2008-11-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of our weekend in Jervis Bay aboard the Ocean Trek. There was a definite lack of sunshine and it shows in the photos.

One Shark, Two Sharks, Three Sharks, Forty-Eight Sharks!

2008-11-12T02:21:00.000-08:00

Today Pat and I went out for a late afternoon dive to try and get a bit more experience with the new camera before our trip to Jervis Bay this weekend. When we arrived the sun was bright, the water was calm and divers were buzzing with excitement. As I entered the water, I heard Pat groan - "I left the lens cover on the camera." Not normally a problem, unless of course its in a waterproof case and you're already in the water. Oh well, that just means it's bound to be one of the best dives ever. About 15 minutes into the dive we had yet to see anything interesting, so I thought to myself, so much for the best dive ever. About 5 minutes later, I was eating my words.....as we swam over a gully, we saw three then four then five Port Jackson sharks THEN we saw more and more and more. Thirty-two in total on the way into the gully. On the way back out, I counted again this time forty-eight! FORTY-EIGHT Port Jackson sharks just resting on the bottom of the ocean.

Eel Fight!

2008-11-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

The underwater case for our new camera arrived on Friday. Today we went out to play with it and were lucky enough to witness an eel fight. Here are some more pictures.

Endangered Bandicoots: Slow Down!

2008-11-08T02:18:00.000-08:00

And some more pictures from Manly.

Sydney Aquarium

2008-11-04T04:42:00.000-08:00

Tonight, just before the US presidential elections started, we went to the Sydney Aquarium and took some photos.

Gilligan gets off

2008-11-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

I picked this up at the discount store on Pitt Street today. I can't wait to watch it.

Biggest...jellyfish...ever

2008-10-29T00:20:00.001-07:00

I snuck out of work a little early the other day for a late afternoon dive at Bare Island. On the way back, we ran into the biggest jellyfish ever (more pictures). This thing is so big it literally has its own ecosystem (a swarm of fish live in its guts). I mentioned it to the local divers and Bjorn Landfeldt dug up the picture at the top of this post (taken by him in 2005). It seems to be related to the Lion's Mane Jellyfish.

New Camera

2008-10-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Pat and I bought the Olympus e520 on Friday so we played tourist all weekend. A few shots from around Sydney...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tanya.whitehead/Sydney2008#

Where did the pictures go?

2008-10-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Not sure where the pictures went on the blog, they were there last night......

Here's a link so you can see them on Web Albums

http://picasaweb.google.com/tanya.whitehead/TheApartment#

The Apartment

2008-10-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to taking pictures of the apartment. Ok, finally got it clean enough to take pictures.

Here is the tour......

The Bedroom - look to the left to see the original T&P designed side table. It also doubles as a storage chest.

The Kitchen - small but it has a gas stove.

The living room/dining room. This is the room that Tanya built. We bought all of our funiture from Ikea - I had no idea you could build a couch.

The bathroom - my favourite room. Separate shower and bath!

The ANZAC Bridge

2008-10-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

The ANZAC Bridge.

Trip Video

2008-10-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Mike Ball Coral Sea Liveaboard - October 9-16, 2008 from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Here's the trip video prepared by the ship's photo/video pro. The version of Over the Rainbow in the closing credits is written and performed by the ship's captain, who also appears in the video.

Sea Turtles, Lion Fish, Guitar Sharks, Oh My!

2008-10-17T03:18:00.001-07:00

Pictures from our trip to the Osprey and Great Barrier Reefs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tanya.whitehead/GreatBarrierReefAndOspreyReef#

Lowest Unique-Bid Auctions

2008-10-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

I normally won't put technical stuff on here, but this is a problem I've been thinking about that might be interesting to even the non-technical readers.

In a lowest unique bid (LUB) auction a bunch of bidders bid on some prize, say an iPod, a Mini Cooper, or even a house. All the bidders submit their bids anonymously and without knowing what anyone else has bid. The value of a bid can be any number of dollars and cents. Here's the weird part: The winner of the prize is the player that has the lowest unique bid. The winner then pays the value of their bid and gets the prize.

A lot of these have been run (usually on the Internet) and the winners of these auctions usually get the prize for a tiny fraction of it's actual value; a Mini Cooper recently went for $243.42.

There is an important legal question surrounding LUB auctions, namely whether they're really auctions or are they lotteries. Legally-speaking, the difference between a lottery and an auction is that the value paid for the prize should be related to the value of the prize. I've been working on modelling this as an n player competitive game (the bidders) and trying find the symmetric Nash equilibria to determine if the value of the winning bid is indeed an increasing function of the prize value. So far I've only been able to solve a few special cases.

GBR

2008-10-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

We're back!

2008-10-15T16:03:00.001-07:00

We're back on land after our Great Barrier/Osprey Reef liveaboard. We made 23 dives and spent about 18 hours underwater. Pictures to follow.

Rob and Paula sitting in a tree

2008-10-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Our friends Rob and Paula are getting married back in Ottawa. The ceremony is on November 1st. We're both sorry we'll be missing it.

Diving and the New Apartment

2008-10-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

We've moved in to our new apartment and only had pleasant surprises so far. The lock-up garage is big enough to hold all our dive gear as well as our car and there is a car-wash area that's perfect for rinsing our gear. The wet smelly gear never even enters the apartment. The new neighbourhood is also much quieter at night than the last one.

In the last few weeks we've done a fair bit of diving, including shore dives at Bare Island (Right, The Bombora, and the Isolated Reefs), Shark Point, and Shellharbour (The Arch and The Gutters). We've also done a couple of boat dives with St. George Scuba Club (Marley Point and Pizza Reef). It turns out that I'm prone to sea-sickness, at least when it comes to catamarans.

Tomorrow we leave for a week-long trip to Osprey Reef aboard Mike Ball's Spoilsport. It's a catamaran. I've packed the sea-sickness tablets.

Frist Psot

2008-10-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start with a little plagiarism. Tanya's update email of Sep. 23rd:

The Journey

Our journey was relatively uneventful. We began by meeting our friends Mike and Alette and the airport and catching our flight to Vancouver. When we arrived in Vancouver we took full advantage of the free wireless and ordered our scuba tanks online so that they would be delivered shortly after we arrived. Two days later we finally arrived in Sydney - yeah! Upon arrival they proceeded to delouse us by spraying some kind of chemical all over the plane and waiting 5 minutes. Only then were we allowed to de-plane. Upon deplaning, we headed straight to immigration where they didnt even bother to look at our Visas and sent us on our way. While waiting for our luggage a quarantine officer approached us and asked if we had any sporting equipment. When we replied yes, scuba gear and that it was fresh water they pulled us aside and checked to make sure all of our gear was dry. Apparently there is a virus in Canadian fresh water that is not yet in Australia. After full inspection they allowed us to proceed.

The Arrival

The weather in Sydney upon arrival was a balmy 15C with 4 meter waves and lashing rain. Needless to say we did not get diving the first weekend. So on, making the best of the hand we were dealt we headed out on Saturday and bought our car. We bought a green Mitsubishi Magna. IOn Sunday, we decided to hit the beaches and spent the day looking at the various beaches in Sydney as it was far too cold for swimming with both the air and the water still 15C.

Apartment Hunting

As Monday rolled round, we decided we should start looking for an apartment. The process is a little different here in Sydney. The market is hot at the moment so the real estate agents are not very friendly nor helpful. We called around asking to see a few places and many agents just said NO - come to the inspection on Saturday. When we could get an agent to show a property during the week it was usually a dump. As we were unsure of how hot the market was, we put in an application for one of the dumps and the agent called back and asked us if we would like to pay more rent. When I said NO, the agent was genuinely shocked that I said no. With shock he asked me again if I was willing to pay another $20 per week at which point I again said no. The next place we applied for asked us to pay rent two months in advance instead of the usual one however, the location was not great and we found another place by the time the got around to agreeing to take us. After all of that, we ended up going to the Saturday inspections and found a small one bedroom. Basically, if an apartment is any good the real estate agent has an inspection on Saturday that lasts 15 minutes so you along with a bunch of other people wait outside until the inspection time then everyon piles into the apartment to inspect it. Should you wish to take the place you can put in an application and about 3 days later they will call you back if you have been shortlisted or selected otherwise you never hear from them again.

The apartment is great. It is a small one bedroom but has air conditioning which is a huge plus. We get the keys on Monday so I will forward some pictures and the address once we get moved in. The apartment is just around the corner from my office and 2km from Pat's office. Pat has free parking so he can drive if he likes but will probably just walk.

Work

Last week I started work at the new office. The office is much like the stories of the IT sector prior to the bubble bursting. It has a play room with tv, pool, couches. They have a espresso/latte machine in the kitchen and a "drinks" fridge for Fridays. The drinks fridge is a full size fridge full of beer. As I havent worked a Friday yet, I'm not quite sure how it works yet but I'll keep you posted.

Diving

Pat and I have managed to get ourselves sorted and have been out diving 5 times since we arrived. The water is a little on the cold side 15C but it should start warming up soon. The diving is pretty good here. The visability is not that great - at best we have seen around 30 feet so far but usually around 15-20. The marine life is amazing though. So far we have seen a Port Jackson on every dive and stingrays on most dives. Other interesting things we have seen include: wobbegongs, cuttle fish, bailers (giant snail - the size of my head) and some reef squid. We've upgraded to 15L steel tanks (120 cu ft) so I'm still a little wobbly on my feet as they are heavier than I am used.

The Car

If only we could dive without a car - life would be blissful :). If it weren't for the fact that the car takes us diving I might hate the car but seeing as it allows us to dive I am still fond of it. Regardless of the fact that so far the car has been mostly trouble......We managed to get a $81 parking ticket, an oil change that cost $200 and just last night the someone broke into the car and stole our GPS. Since they broke our window its in the shop getting repaired as I type. That said, it allows us to go diving so its a love hate relationship at the moment.

Well, that pretty much sums up the last three weeks.....