Congratulations to a colleague and very close friend

with Shawn and Bernd,
originally uploaded by leongtuckwah.

Tuck submitted his PhD thesis last Monday and received his balloon at the School of Graduate Studies (If you see someone with such a balloon on campus, you can assume this person has just handed in his or her thesis - or it's open day at Melbourne Uni ;) His supervisors, Shawn and I were fortunate to be with him at this big moment.

Tuck has worked extremely hard over the last few years and created a more than outstanding piece of research. His supervisors highly praise his work and I'm sure it will be the thesis against which all other theses in the near future will be compared with (including mine :-O ) Tuck has also managed to get a post-doc position at an outstanding university in Europe, and that during times where funding and jobs are generally short.
He will leave us soon and Shawn and I will miss the conversations with him over a cup of coffee about research, life and everything else.

All the best Tuck!! ... and time for me to get some work done ;)

From Sheffield to Salzburg to Auersbach and back to Melbourne

Eureka Tower,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

I travelled quite a bit over the last few weeks: First I left Sheffield after 3 great months and said "see you" to Nicola, Silvia, Coilin, Grace, Andy and Peter.
Wolfgang picked me up at the airport in Salzburg and I had a few fantastic days with him Laura, Sophie. It was great to catch up with Elisabeth, Regina, Michi, Carina, Geraldine, Berni, Christoph & Sigrun.
On the way to Auersbach I stopped in Graz to hang out with Lena on the Mur beach.
I spent my last week in Austria then in Auersbach with my family, relatives and friends Mario, Arnold, Christoph (playing volleyball felt sooooo good :), Lorenz, Jürgen & Phil. Time was way too short, and it wasn't fun to say "goodbye" again.
After more than 28 hours on planes and at airports I arrived in Melbourne where I was happy to see Lisa again. All the travels were fantastic, but I'm more than happy to settle down for a bit and to change trains and planes with my bicycle.

A weekend in Wales

Juergen, Jenny, Johanna & I,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

I spent the last few weekends mostly working (or at least I tried to) so that I would have some time for Juergen, Jenny & Johanna. They came to the Island for holidays and we caught up in the North of Wales for the weekend.

I was planning to take the train to Aberystwyth early in the morning on Friday, but I took the wrong train and ended up in York. Eventually at 6pm (and 4 hours later than intended) I arrived at the coast in Wales and met JJJ.

The following day, we hung out on Llyn Peninsula. Unfortunately, my digital camera stopped working, so I don't (yet) have many pictures to show. Any who, we saw lots of beaches, sheep, hills & the highest peak in the UK (or at least we saw the clouds surrounding it), the hometown of the British pop star "Duffy" (who won 3 Brit Pop Awards a few days before), cliffs, and more sheep.

We continued our trip with some pretty impressive castles (Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Conwy), and a short visit to the place with the longest name in the UK, called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is Welsh for "St Mary's Church in the hollow of the White Hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio near the Red Cave. We saw neither church nor cave, but the sign at the train station was pretty loooooong.

It was good to see the sea again, get some sun, have lots of food (especially the huge breakfasts with everything from black pudding to baked beans), and to hang out with old friends and have fun (and to eventually get the RIGHT train back ;)

Visit to York and Life in Sheffield

York Minster,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

Lisa visited me in Sheffield over the last few days. We spent most of the time in Sheffield, which is lovely to live. However, for her last sightseeing trip in Europe we had to go to York, which is only 1 hour away by train. York is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the primate of England (whereas the Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ALL England :) The church is incredible and also the rest of the city centre is very charming and resembles the atmosphere of the Middle Ages (though in a much more touristic way :) We ended this trip in a traditional pub where we tasted ales with Peter Wright and his wife.

Some notes about Sheffield:

• We walked across the town over the last few days and discovered some beautiful patches.
  
• It's got one of the best independent cinemas I've ever been to (I wish I had time and money to go there every day).
  
• I also found good coffee, though for the most time it's safer to order tea.
  
• And I watched a great game of football - Sheffield United beat Norwich 1-0.
  
• Finally, I've become physically active myself and participated in circuit trainings in the gym - omg, my muscles are sore :) I hope it will help me playing volleyball again.

Arrival in Sheffield, UK

Why 2 separate water taps?,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

From Jan to April 2009 I am a visiting student at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. I will use these 3 months to to get to know other people with related research interests and to make some progress in my thesis.

My impressions after 2 days are predominantly positive. Sheffield seems to be a nice town, although it's actually quite big. My uni is close to where I live, directly in the city centre. My host and my colleagues here have been very supportive and I think that I will have a good and hopefully productive time here.

Two things that I can't understand however are: Why is it impossible to get good coffee here? (tea is nice, but it can't replace coffee) And why do old and new basins have two separate water taps? In this way you can chose between burning your hand or freezing, hmmm...

Christmas / New Year in Austria

Lisa's first snowman,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

Lisa and I had a wonderful (though chilly) time in Austria over Christmas and New Year. During this trip I was reminded of several things:
1) How beautiful Austria is with all the historical places, the wonderful nature and pittoresque landscapes that the weather at various seasons paints.

2) How good Austrian food tastes, the bread, the meat, the pastry, I really missed it :)

3) How dreadful smoking is, especially in Restaurants and coffee bars. I can't see any reason why it is still allowed and accepted.

4) Finally, how valuable my family and my friends in Austria are to me. Thanks to you all, and especially to Mum & Fritz, Dad & Heidi, Anita, Doris,Arnold, Mario, Lorenz & Silvia, Wolfgang & Laura, Celina, Frankie and all the Spartakaners, Lena and Juergen, for such a wonderful time. It's great to know that it is possible to keep up the friendship despite the geographic distance.

PS: I put lots of photos on Flickr

Trip across California - the academic part

view from the hotel room in san diego,
originally uploaded by bernd ploderer.

The second part of my trip across California is all about academic stuff. I had the honour to be a guest at UC Irvine last week. In that week I was worked in the Lab for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction, gave a presentation there, and met great and very supportive people working on similar research.

This week I am at a conference for computer-supported cooperative work, one of the top conferences in my area of research. Yesterday, I took part in a workshop for doctoral students, and Tuesday will be my first talk at such a big conference - please keep your fingers crossed for me. The photo shows the view from my hotel room - the environment is just gorgeous. I went to the zoo today, but now I'm working on my slides again, although I know that I will never feel perfectly prepared.