♫ '...9 to 5...' ♫

Beginning to get into a routine... up for breakfast between 7 and 7.30, studying starts about 9, lots of reading at the moment, then finishes dead on 5, to get my feet up for a while before 5.45 G+T in the Senior Common Room (SCR). Not G+T weather, mind you, but at least it's doing something more interesting than just being cloudy - apparently winds of up to 150kmph (93.2056788 mph or so) due. Which is odd given I'm still recovering from a minor sunburn last week. Though, all considered, it'll be a while before I next see summer, so live it up in the Northern Hemisphere there.

Anyway, enough about me, lets talk about what I'm doing :) . Senior Tutoring is going fine - students are turning up to Tutorials and they certainly appear to be going well. Thank you to the Tutors! Still getting to grips with what needs done and when, so everybody's patience and helpfulness has been appreciated.

As to maths, getting there gradually - lot of reading to do at the moment on (maths interlude here) BEM, marginal ice zone modeling, Very Large Floating Structure stuff, chemical composition of sea ice, which have varying degrees of proximity to what I'm actually expecting to be working on, but are, more importantly, helping get a background understanding of sea ice. I'm not sure I've actually ever seen any sea ice now that I think about it, so I need all the help I can get. I could go into more detail, but I imagine not that many others would be quite as interested :)

For anybody thinking of coming to do PhD, I would heartily recommend the University - there's a good set-up here and a practical support network. Otago's got a strong research reputation and is looking to build on it, so structures are good - there's even a postgrad college (Abbey Coll.) and regular postgrad events, seminars, etc. happen in various places across the uni. Moreover, I've come across roundabouts 5 separate places I can get free percolated coffee, between college, grad lounge and department. They know grads. All I need now is some Wii and big leather sofas... :)

Of course, being in a college, there's a community feel here that's good to come back to after a day of studying numerical analysis and I think it makes a considerable difference. Most undergrads live in for their first two years, though some colleges will have them for just one and, although they're free to come back for their third year as well, they tend to live out to save a bit of money and to experience the somewhat legendary Dunedin flatting experience. Not quite en suite student living in these flats (small houses) - normally no central heating or double glazing so it gets pretty Baltic in the depths of Winter, which I'm told is most of the year :) I'm quite happy with my prepared meals, comfy bed and "why yes, I would love another port, thank you for asking", if it came to the choice.

One strange thing I've noticed here is that everything seems to take place roughly an hour earlier than in the UK... breakfast is sometimes busier than lunch will be by 7.30am (wait, that's a lot more than an hour...), people are queuing for dinner well about half 5, most people head to bed about 11 unless it's a late night, then they're normally back by 2. And me not a morning person either. But, in all fairness, it makes sense - everybody gets to enjoy daylight hours and, especially given how big sport and exercise are around here (except wherever I am), it makes sense. I get the impression that almost everyone jogs. It's a bit of a reversal from the UK! It's strange saying things like, "I'm going to go for a walk up the hill" and being told it's compulsory to jog it. Suddenly busy, sorry.

Speaking of time, there's a pretty obvious gap in my spiel describing what happens from about 7 until bedtime. Well, if I'm Senior Tutoring, since it's the first week of Tutorials, I'll pop in to those and make sure everything's ticking along. Around that, I tend to be back to the Common Room to see what's happening there and then up to my room to do any housekeeping and relax until bed, unless there's a movie or something on. Wild, I am. Incidentally, I've just finished Dune (Frank Herbert, 1965) which Wikipedia tells me is the best selling Sci-Fi novel of all time. Very absorbing, some very cleverly written passages and a fascinating depth of thought. Can see shadows of some of the recurring themes it inspired in the genre. Sounds like I know what I'm talking about, doesn't it? Nope, but hey, I briefly felt like I was back at GCSE English all those years ago. Once was quite enough.

Now, time for some pictures (particularly for anybody scrolling down past the reams of text looking for the pictures - wise move, 1000 words, etc. etc. :] ). As alluded to above, I popped up Signal Hill last Sunday, which was a nice walk - cool cloudy day, which was nice for walking but the photos all look a bit washed out unfortunately. On the plus side, I've thus got an excuse for washed out photos. To contextualise, Signal Hill rises up behind the College, via a hill road which skirts the top of Opoho suburb before winding through the thick evergreen forest to the lookout. Great place to view the city, which is splashed across the hills, running down to meet the Harbour below and a good view across to the Pacific on the far side of the Otago Peninsula.
[The centre of Dunedin from Signal Hill. You can see how steep some of the central streets are in the middle of the picture. I'm told that the city was designed with 2D plan having no reference to the geography, which became more interesting as it was implemented]
[Obligatory b+w, or 'desaturated' I believe is the term, photo. Solves the faded colour problem though, doesn't it? Dunedin proper, as shown above zoomed in, lies just to the right of this shot. This is roughly South-facing, bit Eastward I think - the Pacific is at the top of the photo (don't worry, below the clouds) and the landward end of the Peninsula is the chunk of hills from centre to left.]
[About halfway down, I came across a strange saddle plateau, between Signal Hill and a smaller mound beside. Actually, I'd been having great fun running down a steep mountain bike track through the forest and this patch of grassy heath-land suddenly appeared, so I slowed down for a bit of a look around. This is looking further up towards the Peninsula (very faded past the bit of harbour there), while coming the Dunedin face of Signal Hill, so now looking more Easterly. Very Scottish looking, I thought]

[Coming to the opposite side of the saddle, a better view of the sea-ward half of the Peninsula, it's tip off towards the left.]

[Strangely enough, this is actually further down the Hill. Quite near here, I came across a whin bush, still with a tinge of its amazing honey-coconutty, almondy smell. Reminds me of the old country...]
[You can see here quite how high this still is. This is looking South again, over Dunedin. Signal Hill itself works out somewhere a little over 300m, which is a bit smaller than Black Mountain or, well nothing in East Anglia anyway]

[Finally, if you've got good eyesight, you'll see the volume of rain coming down, though maybe not as I've shrunk the photo. Thankfully I'd brought a sunhat which was keeping the drops off nicely]

So, there we go. I'm off to bed as I'm hoping to get up early tomorrow. I know I keep saying I'll shorten these posts, but I'll get there. Particularly now that things are beginning to settle into a pattern... in the words of Dolly Parton, "9 to 5"...