Hello madness

I am currently in hour 23 of a 24 hour study period on the lake, and unless I am hallucinating the internet I seem to have found an unsecured wireless network in the middle of the lake. Weird.

Will write more once I am on solid ground and have showered and slept. Ahh sweet sleep, I will be yours soon.

Water, water everywhere

Before the field work begins in earnest and I am even more tired than I currently am, Anas had the brilliant idea to go to Niagara Falls for the weekend. A hearty breakfast is of course required before any road trip, and there is none heartier than that offered at "Fresh Kutz". I was told that I had to try Peameal Bacon, so try it I did. I ordered two poached eggs with peameal bacon, which came with two pieces of bacon. This may indeed seem stingy, until you realise the size of these pieces. Imagine the main piece of a rasher of bacon, and then imagine it being two centimetres thick. Like a steak. A bacony steak.

We then went to the Bracebridge Farmer's Market and picked up a supply of Austrian cakes and pastries for the journey, and we were off! The drive to Niagara took quite a while as the traffic was bad, but we handled this difficulty with Linzer Torte, cinnamon buns and a poppyseed roll. We had booked ourselves into the Travelodge in St Catharine's, a town not too far from Niagara Falls, earlier that morning. After finally finding the motel (we were mistakenly looking for "Comfort Inn" instead of "Travelodge"), we checked in and discovered that the card keys to Anas' room did not work. After telling this to the person working the front desk, she came and tried them too before agreeing that they did not work. Apparently the machine to make new cards had died in the arse so she decided to give Anas her card to use to get into his room. I will return to this saga shortly..

Anyway, we dumped our things and drove to Niagara Falls, marvelling at the hordes and hordes of cars and tourists and paying $20 for parking. We then went exploring for a couple of hours, checking out the falls themselves (which Anas has seen countless times but which I was blown away by) and people watching.



We then enjoyed a buffet dinner at the top of the Skylon tower, overlooking the falls which by this stage had been illuminated by lights. As is expected at a buffet we ate possibly twice as much as necessary and so then went walking to explore the more cheesy parts of Niagara Falls, the main streets and shopping areas. Filled with flashing lights, haunted houses, fudge shops, souvenir shops, Cuban cigar shops, more haunted houses, Starbucks everywhere, it was both mesmerising and horrifying. It was like being on Pleasure Island from Pinnochio (I'm sure I saw a few asses).

Once we'd had our fill of neon and sugar we made our way back to the hotel to rest up for another big day. Or so we thought (dun dun dun!). After arriving in Anas' room, where I had left my things as my room hadn't been cleaned yet when we checked in (at 5pm), we saw that he had a message on his phone. It was instructions to contact reception immediately. So off we went, to be told by the new person working the front desk that Anas should never have been given the other person's key, as it was a master key. We had assumed that this was the case but held ourselves back from ransacking everyone else's rooms. We were then told that Anas would have to come and ask to be let back into his room whenever he wanted to get into it, or he could just leave the door ajar. Despite being told how ridiculous this was, the woman refused to come to any other sort of arrangement and kept going on about how there was nothing else she could do, and how it was going to be quite inconvenient for her to keep opening his room for him.

The saga actually continues further but I can't be bothered going into it any further. One thing I will mention however is that breakfast was served using entirely disposable "crockery" and cutlery, which resulted in my bagel melting into my styrofoam plate.

Not letting the motel experience sour our moods, we headed into Niagara-on-the-Lake for a day of wine tasting and architecture perving. This is the area that is famous for ice wine, and I tried quite a few!! I am not usually a fan of sweet wines, but I really did enjoy some of these. It was a really lovely little town as well, filled with tourists but they were a bit more of your up market tourists when compared to the hordes in Niagara Falls. High
tea eaters and wine tasters. We found a few shops absolutely packed with jams and tapenades and dips and jellies, all with open jars and cut up bread or pretzels so you could taste everything. So we tasted everything. There was also some free entertainment, as there was one very hot chilli cheese spread that kept causing people to choke in shock.

After getting our fill of culture and wine and fudge we got back in the van and headed home to Bracebridge, spying this on the way..

Mister Peanut!

Welcome to Harp Lake, mind the plankton

I'm falling behind in my writing and have so much to write about but will start back with my day on the 14th, last week. I had my first introduction to Harp Lake where I will be doing my field work, and am pretty happy with it! Puzzlingly, there is an old sign on the road to the lake with "Aussies - Free Beer" written in fading writing, which I may have to further investigate when I have more time.

The main task for the day was installing the met. station buoy. The Canadian pronunciation of "buoy", booee, is invading my brain and I have started occasionally saying it like that in my head when I read it or think of it. I am turning into a Canadian and I've only been here two weeks. I think it is all the Tim Hortons coffee I've been drinking, and the wild blueberries I've been eating.

Anyway, installing the buoy involved going out to the deepest point in the lake, attaching ropes to four cinder blocks, throwing them over the side of the boat and attaching the other ends to the four corners of the buoy. It is very important however that the buoy is as stationary as something in the middle of a lake can be, which means that the ropes attaching the buoy to the cinder blocks have to be as taut as possible. This is turn means that someone needs to be in the water, making sure the ropes are located well and nice and tight. Given that this is my study, this person was me. For your enjoyment, here is a very fetching shot of me trying to figure out the tangled ropes.

I'm so juvenile

Here is the promised funny picture. After enjoying a very tasty (and huge) seafood meal, Anas and I decided to share some dessert, ordering the gelato crepe. We couldn't help but laugh and take some photos when it came out..

Ontario, no moose yet

We have spent the past couple of days in Ontario, getting very excited about the field work we will hopefully be starting next week. The lab facilities here at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre are fantastic, and everyone has been very friendly and accommodating for us. I just finished building the lab circulator component of our LOPC and we can start conditioning the water tomorrow, ready to put some animals through and see what we can detect! Yay! Will probably head out tomorrow to set up the met stations on the lake too, so fingers crossed the nice weather we have had all day will hold out for us. It's a little suspicious actually that the weather is so nice today, as we are doing inside work for most of this week, and hopefully field work for the next two weeks, so I am sure it will be pissing down while we're out there. We are planning to do one or two 24 hour sampling periods in our sampling plan, so I hope we can get our hands on a thermos and maybe learn some local folk songs to keep our spirits up :s

Anyway, enough about the science... though to be honest, that is mostly what my brain has been full of ever since I arrived in Canada. I am staying in a town called Bracebridge at the moment, and the lab is a ~40 minute drive away in the middle of nowhere, near a town called Dorset. Driving anywhere here is pretty impressive, with the giant trees and rocks and rivers and lakes to look at, and the variety of roadkill is a bit different to home. Smelt my first dead skunk last night, though luckily only caught a little whiff. Haven't seen any deer/moose despite the road signs warning of them, given the size of moose I'm kinda glad we haven't come across any while driving yet.

Driving from Montreal out to here is said to take around 6 hours but it took us much longer as we stayed multiple times for leg stretching and eating and drinking. First we stopped for bagels to bring out to Norm and Sandy (our gracious hosts), then we stopped for a second breakfast (I had a delicious crepe with fresh fruit and maple syrup), then later we stopped for coffee and timbits, then we stopped for lunch at a schnitzel haus, then finally we made it there and went out for Chinese dinner.

Speaking of Chinese, I really haven't had a chance to watch any of the Olympics but I guess there is always 2012 for that... At any rate the broadcast here unsurprisingly focuses primarily on the Canadian team, who apparently suck, and there is no Bruce McAvaney so what's the point? I've also totally forgot to put my footy tips in the last two rounds, and consequently ended up with 1 point last round, so I'm probably now a lost cause for the remainder of the H&A matches.

I am happy to report that my sleeping patterns have completely sorted themselves out, and I managed to get through it all without becoming hopelessly addicted to temazepam.

The food here has been so good so far, and my jeans have become mysteriously snug. It's just too hard to have any self control when you are eating out as often as we have been, though now we are based at the lab for the next few weeks we have bought a pile of bread/meats/cheeses/salads to make lunches here which should help matters. I also sussed out a nice jogging route this morning along Muskoka River, so hopefully the weather holds out for me. Anyway, I will be hauling around 30 kilos of equipment up and down the water column of Harp Lake using a pedal powered winch for the next two weeks so I should be safe to enjoy another timbit or two.

(I have a funny photo of our dessert from last night but don't have my camera cable handy so you'll have to wait for the hilarity)

Canadia, I made it

Ugh I shouldn't have waited this long to write my next post as the past few days are a total blur, but I just didn't have the strength to write earlier. Dealing with a 12 hour change in time is somewhat difficult, and I am trying not to rely on temazepam too much to see me through (largely due to my finite supply). I am hoping my stinginess is going to be of assistance tonight, as I went for a huge walk after dinner to find a NovaScotia bank ATM so I didn't have to pay a withdrawal fee, so hopefully the exercise will have tired me out a bit (although perhaps the cake I had on the way back counteracted this). I decided to take out a somewhat hefty sum to see me through for at least some of the time while I'm out doing my field work, not realising that ATMs here give you cash in 20s and now my wallet won't close.

I've been in at uni since Tuesday trying to get my head around the LOPC (laser optical plankton counter) that we'll be using for the rest of the month in Ontario and it's been a real struggle. I won't go into the details as I'm trying not to think about it again until I'm back in there tomorrow, but I have to ask - why do people developing these new technologies insist on fitting them out with serial cables?! This wouldn't normally be too much of an issue but Montreal seems to be going through a PCMCIA serial port card drought. Got my machine talking to the LOPC today though so should be ready for business by the time we leave for Ontario on Sunday.

Today was actually quite a cultural success in many ways, as I sussed out Canada Post, signed up for a Canadian mobile plan, drank some Canadian mojitos (well, they were made by a Canadian), saw someone getting arrested by the Canadian police, and learnt where the local soup kitchen bus works their magic. Oh and I found out today that my abstract has been accepted for oral presentation at the NALMS conference in Lake Louise in November!

Right well I'm going to try and battle the sandman now, good thing I'm still reading my Neil Gaiman book.

Stupid Gaijin - Part 2 (3/8/08)

OK so I'm fairly confident I was just a regular stupid gaijin today. Took me ages to wake up this morning, which makes sense as it took me ages to fall asleep last night. Thank goodness for drugs to assist with such things. I was starting to nod off last night when I heard a rustling sound that didn't stop. I turned on the light to find a massive black cockroach perched on one of my bags! Tried to squash it but the book I used was too stiff and didn't quite make sufficient contact with the intruder. It scurried off and after waiting for it to reemerge for a while I gave up and went back to bed (with my sheet up to my ears).

After a tasty breakfast down at a nearby cafe (super thick toast, egg, bacon, salad with dressing, coffee) I ventured into the Tokyo subway network to get to Harajuku. The information lady at my hotel told me everything I needed to know so it was quite easy really to buy the ticket and find the right train. After walking around for half an hour or so I decided to go and get some old school culture before checking out the new school punks, and set off into the Meiji Temple grounds. It was also a nice respite from the hot hot sun being surrounded by all the trees. I eventually came across the temple gardens, and thought paying 500Y to check them out wasn't too exorbitant. The gardens however weren't exactly mindblowing so perhaps it was. There were fellow tourists everywhere, and I ended up making friends with a Korean mother and son at the well. We took photos for each other, and then it seemed like the mother was trying to set me up with the son. We walked around together for a while, exchanging pleasantries before parting ways once we left the garden.

Oh and while I was in the garden I also made friends with a little butterfly who seemed quite fond of me.


By this stage I was ready to check out what Harajuku is now known for, and followed my ears. Bands were set up at regular intervals along a fairly long stretch of footpath, with Japanese punk the order of the day.

I'm not sure how they organise themselves, as it wouldn't really work if two bands are playing too close to each other. There were also blankets set up with people selling random crap, old clothes/toys/books etc. Nothing particularly cool, just normal old flea markety stuff. Also lots of street vendors selling food, all versions of the same stuff - octopus balls (just like in cooking mama!), noodles with cabbage, some sort of meat on a stick. I had the noodles with cabbage, was quite tasty. Wish I'd tried the octopus balls though, but no regrets about steering clear of the meat on a stick.


Here was a big stadium I walked past, and there were heaps of people hanging around a big yard out the front, with photos on blankets. I think that a singer was performing at the stadium in the afternoon, and the people were comparing/selling/showing off photos of the singer? I don't know, it was a bit weird. I also walked past these people obviously doing something for a tv show which seemed to add weight to my idea that there was some sort of popular singer performing there.

Went back into the main shop area after this, battling the oppressive heat and hordes of people. Was determined to find a cool shirt for my sister, which strangely enough proved to be a bit of a difficult task. Found lots of cool shirts in one big shopping centre before realising it was the Harajuku equivalent to The Colonnade or something and couldn't afford anything. Ended up have a win though, in one last shop I checked out before heading back on the train.


The must eat thing in Harajuku is apparently the Harajuku Crepe, which is a big crepe filled with cream and other tasty stuff. There's a pretty big selection to choose from, and every stall had a line of people waiting to get one. It was so hot though that eating a big pile of cream was the last thing I wanted to do so I just bought another bottle of water and continued on my way.

After heading back to the hotel and having a bit of a rest from the long hot day I ventured out again for dinner and discovered my meat identification skills were even worse than the previous day. I have no idea what I ate for dinner, but it was tasty so who cares? Well, actually I guess I do care but I doubt it was whale or cat or anything.

I walked past my hotel after dinner to go and get some snacks for a convenience store and noticed a couple enjoying what seemed to be steak and salad in the hotel restaurant. It confuses me why people would do such a thing. It costs about 5 times as much as a delicious meal at any of the other restaurants in the area, and surely you are going to have a better meal if you eat the local food? Mind you, having said that I was actually tempted to try a pizza for dinner, as there seems to be quite a few places that make them and I was curious to see what a montrosity it would be. Bento won out in the end though. Mmmm tasty selection of things I can't identify..

Stupid Gaijin - Part 1 (2/8/08)

Well, I've survived my first two flights! The flight from Perth to Singapore was uneventful, but annoying as the plane was a bit old and thus didn't have on demand entertainment. By the time I thought to start watching a movie or show, I'd missed the first 20 minutes of everything, plus the selection was miniscule, so I ended up watching Made of Honour as I figured it was the only option that could still make perfect sense even if you'd missed the first seven eighths. Boy and girl are best friends forever, boy realises he loves girl just as she has a whirlwind romance and engagement, boy convinces girl to abandom wedding at the altar. Sorry if I've ruined it for anyone but it's your own damn fault for wanting to watch such rubbish. Don't go there, girlfriend. I did manage to have a spare seat next to me though, and the dessert was a triple choc drumstick, which went a fair ways to making up for the shitty entertainment.

I had a couple of hours to kill at Changi airport before my connecting flight to Tokyo, so I did a lot of wandering around and burnt my tongue drinking a very hot tea. Also bought a Neil Gaiman book to prevent any further temptation to watch terrible terrible films. Not to worry though, because my flight to Tokyo was on a super fancy Airbus A380 (I think it is?) which had huge personal screens and an amazing choice of films and shows. They even included The Mighty Boosh, Summer Heights High, and Kath and Kim! My buttons stopped working after I selected my first show, so I was forced to watch it all, and then had to get the hostess to reset my system. It froze again so I just had a little nap and read my book instead. The food was good and of course I ate it all, so I think I've had about twice the number of meals in the past day than I normally have.

The man sitting next to me on this flight had such bad breath. It was just like the breath of my MATLAB tutor, I wish never to be reminded of his breath again.

So, I'm in Tokyo now and it seems to have turned me into a social retard. I am hoping it is just the fact that I am functioning on possibly two hours of sleep in the last two days. After checking in I got a map and went for a fairly hefty walk down to Ginza to check it out. After a while I figured I should have some lunch, but couldn't decide where to go. Some places had such nice looking food displays but looked a bit scary inside, with lots of old Japanese men. I finally went up to a place that had nice pictures, and sat down to wait for a table. After they brought me an English menu I realised I was in a restaurant that served pork or pork or pork. The pictures still looked nice but after waiting for a while I left, figuring there wasn't much point waiting around for ages for something that I actually am not that fond of eating. So I wander down the road a bit and find some more nice pictures, and point at one to a waitress as I can't possibly figure out what it is called. She promptly points me in the direction of the lift, as I am trying to order something from an upstairs restaurant. Stupid gaijin. So of course I go upstairs, it is very nice and friendly and I order what is in the nice picture and I get it and... it's pork! Clearly I can't tell thinly cut pork from thinly cut chicken in an attractive photo. Anyway it was very tasty and quite cheap so it doesn't matter.

At some stage in my wandering I also heard a bell a few times, and thought it was coming from a souvenir type shop I was walking past. Turns out it was a guy on a bike trying to get past me for ages. Stupid gaijin. I think I need to have a sleep.

I walked through Hibiya Park on the way back and although it looked lovely and peaceful it was actually deafening with the noise of.. something? I assume it is some sort of insect in plague proportions but I couldn't figure out what it was. So so loud, quite similar to a dentist's drill. I then started thinking that maybe they've just set up heaps of speakers playing that sound that only adolescents can hear but clearly I am past adolescenthood, and such a thing doesn't strike me as a very Japanese thing to do, so it must be a natural noise. Noone else seemed to mind it, but I guess I was hardly clutching my ears and crying so it is hard to tell if people were effected by it at all.

Am back in the hotel now having a little lie down and trying to stay awake so I don't wake up at 2am ready for a new day (it is only 4:50pm now). I should probably make a semi early start tomorrow though, as I'm taking Harajuku by storm! If the weather is anything like it is today I feel sorry for the kids, their makeup is going to run terribly. Fingers crossed I can navigate the metro system successfully, I'm hoping my stupidity of today will disappear after a good night's sleep.