Christmas cards, tweets and squeaks

How will you be sending Christmas wishes this year?



From: Over the Hedge, 1 December 2009

Travel tales Part 2 - Coventry & Statford-upon-Avon

It's quite evident that Coventry went through a forced revamp in recent history - it was severely bombed in the 2nd world war and show signs of hasty rebuild. And yet it's an ancient city with it's claim to fame back in the 11th century when Lady Godiva trotted through the town on horseback naked to protest the extortionate taxes her own husband demanded from the residents. See the Wikipedia write-up for the suggested links between this event and the origin of the phrase "Peeping Tom".

Part of the Lady Godiva story is attached to the old cathedral that was damaged in various attacks and wars. The city has successfully managed to maintain the shell of the building and have preserved it, next to the new cathedral, as a monument. It was so touching and real and such a beautiful place.

As we were exploring the old cathedral a graduation ceremony was taking place in the new cathedral. The joy on the faces of the graduands from Coventry University was clearly evident.

After a warming latte in Starbucks(TM) we headed out to Stratford-upon-Avon and straight to the birthplace of The Bard himself: William Shakespeare. The real priceless artefacts on show were incredible and walking through the house and room where he was born was surprisingly emotive; his works in the 16th century have shaped so much of what we know as the English language today. There's more to WS than just Romeo and Juliet. We also went from his childhood home, of a family with a moderate income, to the home of his (and Anne Hathaway's) daughter, Suzanne. A much larger home as her husband was the town doctor. The garden's alone speak of the wealth of the family. Some pretty scary surgical instruments on display though *eww*.



At 16:30 the bells of Trinity church pealed in glorious tune. The place where WS was entombed after his death. The fading light and growing cold signalled time to leave this enchanting town. I will make my way back there in the warmer months on day to explore more fully this picturesque place. Tudor is so retro.

All this manic exploring was followed by equally manic packing: not surprising since the volume of my suitcase had shrunk and the contents to fill the suitcase expanded substantially! After a wonderful breakfast in Leamington an eventful journey home commenced: train to Basingstoke, taxi to the hotel, lift to the house, rest for 2 hours, lift to Heathrow, serious last minute shopping and relaxing in the Club lounge and then boarding and home.

Thanks to all hosts, co-explorers, drivers and companions on this trip. I was exhausted from fun and chatting when I got home. I hope to return the favour soon.

More photos on my Flickr profile.

Travel tales Part 2 - Windsor & London

This is a long post: steel yourself! So the rest of the nearly 2 weeks I was in the UK were about seeing friends and family and some of the country I hadn't seen when I was last there. What a rush! Six hour train from Edinburgh to Birmingham, then a train change and on to Coventry. Yay! Claire was there to meet me. Lots of chatting, brief nap, laundry and back on a train to Basingstoke to the family. Train change at Reading and there they were waiting at the station with hugs galore. Quick stop at the house and on to the Apollo hotel where I stayed for the weekend. How posh! Felt like I was walking more upright and behaved in a proper well-mannered English style.

After a good evening chatting to the family and answering hundreds of questions from the girls (All good K&S - we had kinda lost touch for a while there while you were becoming great humans) a good long peaceful sleep in pure comfort in a king size bed with a down duvet *swoon*. Brekky and then out exploring with Rob & Lorraine.

We started in Windsor and explored the town and the outside of the castle. The £15 entrance fee to the castle seemed rather steep. The Royal Standard was not flying when we arrived, but after walking and having coffee as we left town, having decided to go through to royal London, there it was, flapping in the breeze. So while we were exploring QE2 herself snuck in a back entrance. Even the paparazzi were setting up hoping to catch a glimpse. Maybe they also missed her arrival.

On to London avoiding the normal route R&L use as there was rugby at Twickenham. Still with all the roadworks (sound familiar Saffas?) and general pay-day-before-Christmas-Saturday congestion we got through to Hammersmith and took a tube to Westminster and popped up above ground right underneath Big Ben.


Exploring the parliamentary and royal end of London, which I didn't get to when I visited in 2003, was fascinating. Dang there were a lot of people out to see the sights! Highlights were the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Royal Guards, St James park, the 'royal mile' down towards Buckingham palace and then back around past the treasury. Plenty of history there. Then a view of the London Eye (the weather was bleak we weren't paying to see the top of the grey clouds we could see the bottom of from the street!) and the London-end of the Thames then back underground and back to Basingstoke for Nando's for dinner - a little taste of SA in the UK.

Sunday was shop shop shop and then a dash out to Stone Henge and back via The Vyne. Again the weather was bleak and really windy and cold at Stone Henge. Crazy how they're just rocks in a circle but so much mystery and myth surrounds them and the folks who walk in a giant circle around them. The Vyne is a beautiful quintessential olde English stately home in the heart of Jane Austen country - something you'd see in a period movie or book adaptation. The image below is of the summerhouse. Darn shame we didn't get there with enough time to look around the house proper.


Excellent home cooked meal and some more chatting and present wrapping and back to the station for the train back to Lemington Spa. The next 2 days were spent on a post-grad workshop for PhD students at the University of Warwick. So much of fun and learning - Thank you Kate, Jane, and Nathalie for the generous welcome and all the arrangements.

Stayed tuned for the next instalment of Travel Tales: Coventry & Stratford-upon-Avon.

Thanks to BA.com and Charlie R.

... for the upgrade to BA club class on the way out from Johannesburg to London Heathrow. What a way to fly: real comfort, real sleep, real cutlery, real food, real service.

I also have reason to believe that I sat in the same seat that KP - if you're an England / South African cricket fan who'll know who he is - sat in on his way out for the current series. Ooooh *faint*! (no not really, he plays for the other side).

Sadly on the way back from Heathrow everyone who paid for the Club seats showed up and I had to manage in World Traveller, not unlike a long tube (London Underground) ride! Noisy and a lot more squishy. Seriously though BA rocks! Travel with them if you can.

Travel tales, Part 1 - Edinburgh

That's Edin-bur-ah, not Edin-berg. Well it took me 2 days to find someone who spoke with any kind of Scottish accent! So the "bur-ah" vs "berg" story was relayed to me via an American delegate at the Nitrogen deposition workshop I attended. What a culturally diverse city with many many foreign nationals doing the business end of dealing with the public. To start with the young lady in customs at Edinburgh airport (story to be told in person to protect the not so innocent) had family in South Africa, but she hadn't been to visit them yet. And then the hotel I stayed at, on the dodgier side of town, had staff mainly from Eastern Europe. And the lady at Subway(TM) who was from some part of Asia and I struggled to understand her - although she probably wondered where I was from too. I later found out that there are a lot of young Polish people moving to the UK looking for work. The point-at-item-when-there's-no-other-option-system is well in place in Edinburgh.

The weather was typically fine, and much warmer than I expected, for the 3 days we were cooped up inside for meetings. Then the wet weather arrived with a serious gust of wind that blew for the next 1.5 days until I left. I felt really sad for the people in South West Scotland who had their neighbourhoods washed away. At least I could get a train down the east coast and not be too affected by the flooding.

I did find a way to spend some time in the wet weather before I left on the train; possibly one of the most amazing museums I've ever visited, Our Dynamic Earth. Loved the interactive style, touching an 'ice-berg' and being shaken by an earthquake, being sprinkled by a rain-shower in the rain-forest and being an astronomer for 20 mins.

Some photos are in a collection on Flickr.

Oh the workshop went well too: met lots of new contacts, got good feedback on the research our group is doing, and good feedback on my talk too.

Exam are fun...

... when you're the other end of the question. Not the writing end but the assessing end. While invigilating exams can be boring: watching 60 students write for 2 or 3 hours while you twiddle your thumbs and creatively imagine that they're writing sense and that judging by the furious rate of pen-to-teeth-tapping, the eye-rolling and the frantic hand-cramping scribbling that they all rose to the challenge.

The marking can be seen as labourious, spending precious weekend time getting through the ink-filled pages. I had such hope with this year's Functional Ecology exam. And up until the last 2 questions - grant it the longest and highest stakes - they were doing almost too well. Enough to be simultaneously suspicious and proud.

The dashing of those creative images can be very frustrating. Keeping conscious record of all the "What the heck!?" moments does serve a comic relief purpose. This years best of the 'Real answers to exam questions' is now on view. The names of the innocent have been excluded to protect their dignity.

P.S. The site is not exclusively mine; a bunch of teaching assistants and lecturers have been making light relief of student answers all year. Thanks Luke and Leia for this frustration-outlet!

Close to my heart

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers taking action through their blogs, and this year the issue of global importance is climate change. An issue close to my sensibilities.

Climate change has become a lot more press-worthy than when I was in undergrad and was first introduced to me by then Dr Coleen Vogel. How fitting it is then, that last night I went to her Inaugural Lecture, now that she's a full professor at Wits and was inspired by a glimpse into her research into how people deal climate variability and her role in the IPCC as a broker between African scientists and government policy makers.

Coleen, an inspiring speaker, reminded her audience about the projected climate changes at a global scale, and a continental scale - what's in store for Africa - and then at a regional scale and what we can expect here on the sub-continent of Africa. Some scary stuff if you let it get to you. Some days it gets to me - especially when I consider not just the change in climate alone but all the knock-on effects that are, in some places on the planet, already evident. This is the stuff that I'm interested in finding out more about. About how our planet works and how humans are a part of that system. Leonie Joubert's book Scorched is a wonderful work explaining both the science of climate change and the impacts that are projected for southern Africa.

The press now is filled with ideas that when each person making more ethical choices about the food they eat and the products they use we can all make a difference to the emissions that started all of this in the first place. And there are many organisations that are mobilising individuals and families to make changes. Check out 350.org and Earth Hour's "Vote Earth" campaigns and get involved. These movements are needed to make the policy makers take note that communities care and are willing to make a difference and help. Find a great book, printed on sustainable paper, filled with tips of how to make little changes daily that will have global ripples. I was inspired by the ideas in Simon Gear's book:
Going Green: 365 Ways to Change Our World: 365 Ways to change our world because it's relevant to all South Africans, presented in a practical hopeful and amusing style.



This issue is close to my heart. Thanks Blog Action Day for an reason to make it public.

No wonder

From Over the Hedge : 2nd Sept 2009


The jump rope I bought a few months ago is lying in a bunch under my bed. I'm starting to believe it's the nature of jump ropes to make knots, with or without you in it.

I found myself daydreaming...

Maybe it's the extra time I have on my hands now that my crazy teaching load has lifted. Maybe it's the thought of a few days out of the city. Maybe it's just spring time and thus time to contemplate the meaning of life love phds and the universe.

Same day-dream. Different day. And always about driving the same spot of highway out of Joburg. Wishful thinking?

The Amazing Green Race - Public Lectures

The Wits chapter of Roots and Shoots, in alliance with our 'local' Biosoc and the Explorers club, are currently running a campaign to promote environmental awareness about making small lifestyle changes to make a global difference. They call this The Amazing Green Race. Something that I support - it's great to see good citizenship being driven by this energetic young committed bunch. Next week there are a series of public lectures here on campus as listed in the graphic below. What a good opportunity to learn more about our planetary home.



Save the ice-cream!

Somedays I'm the hippo

Scientists tell us that the Artic ice-caps are melting faster than ever and this means that "sea-level rise is worse than we thought". Read the full New Scientist article here. What would life be without the Florida pan-handle? And I bet the top of Table Mountain would make a lovely beach. *Vote now for it to be one of the New 7 wonders of nature*. That might be a bit extreme - I'm sure you get the point.

Last weekend when it was icy-cold in Joburg and as I was standing in the shower I got thinking about how the ice-caps are melting and yet some of the people that could do anything about it, were freezing. The warm steamy water served as a melting medium defrosting my extremities... and I just stood there.

We're often told that showers are more water and energy efficient. I guess this does not apply when you stand in the shower even an extra 3 minutes to defrost, de-stress or de-dirt. With a water crisis looming, my extra time in the shower did my Catholic guilt no favours. So I blog before you today saying: "Hi. My name is Terri and some days I'm the hippo".

If you're privileged, like me, to be able to watch the Discovery channel or Animal planet you may have seen their "Save their planet" campaign, specifically the spot advocating using only the water you need. Watch the clip on YouTube here. Yup yup yup. Some days I'm the hippo. Taking a long hot bath and using your dexterous chimp foot skills^ to keep topping up the water is the likely equivalent to the sauna-esque shower. We're blessed to have had those days. Use them wisely.

^ with apologies to the original author, who shall in the interest of protecting their life from an angry mob of thirsty animals, remain anonymous.

Removing scum

This is not an infomercial. Do not adjust your monitor.



Care of Comics.com.

I recognise this situation.

I wonder if my family, friends and students hold back when I start spouting off about biology.

Quotes about writing.

Ever been the lead character in the writer's block scene of you own life story? Here are some quotes that may help get you energised about writing again:

"Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw lights on for your reader." Lamott (1994:225)

or maybe more simply:

"You want to write? Write.... Just plant your butt in a chair and write." Smith (2006:82).

I found both these in Cecile Badenhorst's book: Research Writing.

When is father's day, not father's day.

Today, 9th June 2009, is a special kind of father's day for us.

Let me tell you something about our dad. He loved travelling around South Africa in our caravan. He loved travelling to wild places specifically. He loved, before our home suburb developed, cranking the volume on the 1812 overture on the record player and walking down to the spruit and just listening (much to the chagrin of our older siblings). He loved Woodland Kingfishers and Brown Snake Eagles. Once he retired he loved flannel shirts. And he had the biggest collection of boring corporate ties that I've ever seen. He loved my mom's quilting hobby and he loved taking these works of art as the requisite blanket on picnics or to lie on underneath the fig trees on the banks of the Sabie river.

Mom kept his ties and flannel shirts when we cleaned out his wardrobe after he died. She always knew she wanted to do something special with these items. She finished this work of art over the last few months.


It's a picnic blanket, so we don't have to use the bed quilts on damp, squidgy and weedy grass on all future picnics. It's made from his flannel shirts (the green flannel is extra) and bound in his ties. The quilt pattern is called "Snails trail" and this too has significance. Dad was house-bound on oxygen for the last few years of his life. From the oxygen concentrating machine he had a long "trail" of translucent pipe to his cannula... just like a trail left behind by a snail. That's how we'd track him down in the house if he wasn't in the bedroom. Mom called the quilt: "Ties that bind" - holding the quilt together.




You'll notice the dirt on the label. That's cos we broke the quilt in at our church's recent potjiekos competition.

Pretty artistic way of remembering Dad. Eleven years today that he's been out of our physical presence, but always with us. Even now when we go on picnics. Even more so when we hear the call of the Woodland Kingfisher: a loud trilling song, kri-trrrrrrr descending and fading.

Birds of a feather.

Do yourself a favour and read "A guide to the birds of East Africa"! Rarely has a book got me glued to the pages and stealing moments to read just one more chapter. It's a novel by the way. This frantic reading was spurred on by the fact that the book had to back in our bookclub collection by tomorrow morning. I only got the book from B on Sunday - I've never read a book in less than a week, but I was determined not to give it back half-read and wait my turn to read the rest of it.

Nicholas Drayson's language is full of innovative adjectives that add a very special sense of humour to the story. I even had to haul out the dictionary to look one of these up. What presents itself as a field guide is actually a bit of a love-story wrapped up in guy talk, walk, politics, wagering, escapades and twitching aplenty (bird watching). One reviewer (on the kalahari.net site) calls these 'fairly frivolous events'. They also said it was set in Nigeria *koff* umhmn that's not in EAST AFRICA! Maybe reading the title would help before you write a book review. This light-hearted narrative is set in Nairobi, Kenya.

In the haste to finish the story before the bookclub deadline, I took the book to the symphony last night, reading during the pre-concert talk, while the orchestra was tuning up, and the last few minutes of the interval, and even in one-chapter snatches at my desk today. One particularly humourous thread in the story nearly had me rolling in the isle at the Linder - a hysterically funny story about .... hadedahs.

Here's précis of the story to entice you further to read the book. Mr. Malik is an shy ordinary man, with a comb-over. He's a semi-retired and spends Tuesday mornings on a bird walk led by Rose Mbikwa with whom he is secretly in love. Harry Khan, a long-lost school bully of Malik's, turns up in town and meets Rose hoping to convince her to be wife #5. A love triangle develops and the boys set out to win Rose's company at the Kenyan event of the year - the Hunt Ball. The winner will be the one who sees the most number of bird species in one week. Frivolity ensues - African twitcher style. Do enjoy the read - it was far more manly and funny that I had imagined. I've very glad it'll be on my bookshelf again soon.

Percussion rocks!

The show is not over... well not for another 2 weeks, but last night's (Wednesday 27th May) display of technical mastery should be blogged about while I remember.

My Mom and I were graciously gifted season tickets to the 2009 Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra Second Symphony Season. I've always had an affinity for classical music and went through a stage of listening to nothing else. Then I went through a "it isn't cool for someone your age" phase and now I'm back to loving it and I remain unaffected by what people may think or say to that fact. Part of loving the experience of the weekly concerts is the visualisation of a style of communicating that is traditionally auditory. There is so much to see, hear, feel - real food for the senses.

Last night's theme was works from Russian composers.
BORODIN: Prince Igor: Overture
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto, no.3, op.26, C major with the soloist being Ayano Shimada who was trained in Japan and France with many laurels of competition wins and solo appearances around the world.
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade, op.35
Conductor: Emil Tabakov

While the music was not really my taste, the performance was one of technical mastery from both soloist and the orchestra as a whole. The soloist appeared in a passion purple gown contrasting violently against the black and white formality of the orchestra members. And then with little adieu clicked and whirred in harmony with the brass and strings and percussion and woodwinds to create a cohesive flowing story. Her dexterous and impassioned skill was awe inspiring with hands blurring confidently over the keys. In her encore, of course we wanted an encore, her movements were lithe and flowing and purposeful and sensual, gently stroking the ivories into life in a distinct contrast of theme and style to the concerto.

The orchestra carried this momentum forward after interval into the Scheherazade - an emotive fantasy in 4 parts with literary inspiration from Tales of the Arabian Nights. In the first movement, the sea-sawing of the cellos to imitate "The Sea and Sinbad's ship" was even more evident with unfocussed (soft) eyes where the musicians deftly bowing the strings in contradictory to-&-fro motions, matching the pushing and pulling of the waves on the high seas. The theme of the Sultana sensual and exotic and fragrant and colourful [1] expertly portrayed by the first violinist and orchestra leader. The first cello, oboe, bassoon, clarinet and flute making regular expressive contributions to the symphonic work, with the harp contributing a sense of mystery and fantasy. And then in the forth movement the Festival of Baghdad, the sea and the shipwreck where all the emotions of the story unfurl in regimented tympanic glory!

I left there feeling the music. Not just seeing or hearing it this week - a wonderful sensory experience. I think I'll do it again sometime.

For the record Mom admits to being in a "Russian phase" and said that this week's concert was her best. And she wants to come back in her next life as a tympanist.

[1] Rimsky-Korsakov is reported to have been a synesthate where tonal keys had colour. Here is a comparative table between his perception of colour and key and that of another Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (Harrison, 2001:123). And here is an article about synesthesia.

NSFT Awards follow-up quickie

This is an update on the NSTF awards mentioned in a post a few weeks ago.

One of the School's finalists won, and she just happens to be my research supervisor too. Congratulations Mary! She won in the category: Eskom Award for Research Capacity Development over the last 5-10 years. The award was in recognition for her contribution to the training of students and her own innovative work on grasslands and forests.

No word yet on whether Neville won in his category. He sent out the email about Mary's award. We hope to hear positive feedback soon.

I'll be watching the NSTF Awards page for the official list of 2009 winners.

It was a flippant throw away Friday tweet. And then it wasn't. I started thinking about how I am really blessed to think that everything is can be right with the world with just a cup of chai and a ginger biscuit. The feeling only lasted til the end of the ginger biscuit.

There are so many 'things' not right in the world: poverty, right in my home town; war and unrest, seemingly far from home but it's here and even more scary for me if it's underground; and the changing face of our planet ... well all these things make my heart sore. Making a difference where I can change that to soar.

In my perception of the world, as I saw it on Friday last week for a brief moment, it was all right in that world. Until I realised my world is part of the collective whole.

Kinda serious for a Terri-fic Tuesday. Reminds me to count my blessings everyday.

No more conversions!

Who knew first principles of conversion could desert you! I used to rag the 2nd year engineering students I helped tutor at UJ about forgetting about converting between units and orders of magnitude. Now it's my turn to blush. I had to convert a concentration of base cations (mg/l) into a mass-based concentration (cmol/kg). This was not a trivial exercise. About 100 Google searches on concentrations and conversions and numerous Aardvark queries later, I finally got the solution put together. The results look realistic compared with another years set of results and they are an interesting contrast to the base cation concentrations of soils determined by another method. This is a good thing!

On with presenting this data in a meaningful way. Oh first the stats...

I *gasp* can't *gasp* stop

I've been working through another book by Cecile Badenhorst in order to get to my publications for my PhD write up (describing the process of writing an article for publication). One of the golden rules in her book is: Writing begets writing. I had a very real experience of this yesterday. I'm retyping here what I wrote in my writing journal[1].

19 May, 09:30
" All the thoughts running through my head now want their own 15 mins of fame and be idolised on paper. They need to get out! Release is what they crave! How do I sort? Filter? Settle my mind to focus on ideas that right now mean progress towards a goal? Can we get to channelling creative thoughts soon please, Cecile?

I love this state! I need to use fine sandpaper or something to refine it into avenues that are a little more distinct.

There's an underlying caution that I'll write down stuff buried so far beneath the layers of sedimentary knowledge and emotions and feelings and thoughts. We could have a volcanic-like eruption of words that could have serious repercussions. Is this an early warning system to save the inhabitants? Does it matter? Bury the emotions or live with them and work with them. Colonise the lava fields. Rich volcanic rock makes for fertile ground for further life, words, emotions and thoughts.

Carry on writing."

On the next page in the book: "How and what you write is a choice" (Badenhorst, 2007:9). I chose to write this one in more than just my note book. More insight to follow. Really loving writing and looking forward to directing it in more purposeful ways.

[1] Yes she advocates writing, not typing, for many reasons and advises that all writing should be on coloured paper, in felt-tip coloured pen and only ever in the landscape position - no lines allowed!

Boys, bikini's & global warming

(from BC Comic of the Day today)

You like me! You really really like me!

I don't suck! I'd like to thank the Academy for the award and thank you to all my adoring fans. You are the most awesome 3 people I know.

For the late bloomers this is kind of a blog-tag game. I was nominated for an awesome award. I find 7 reasons why I think I'm awesome and then I tag 7 more awesome people. So let's get down to the serious business.

The Chambers online dictionary defines awesome as: adj 1 causing awe; dreaded. 2 colloq completely and utterly wonderful. Let's continue with the second definition for now. In my humble opinion, "awesome" is an adjective that lives outside of me: scenery, works of art etc. I heard something lately about an increasingly "me" centred culture. So I'm doing this as a self-esteem building exercise as opposed to a 'centre of the universe' program. This seems a good place to start this list:

1. I believe I'm humble. This may stem from my dislike from being in the spot-light and how these types of commentaries make me feel like I'm writing my own obituary. The great news is that someone else will write my eulogy and they will get to say why they thought I was special. Today this task is mine. No Max (name changed to protect identity) this is not about self-esteem - it is part of my value system to be humble.

2. I know a heck of a lot of stuff, usually inane factoids. What I'm chuffed about is that I'm starting to make the links, sometimes obscure but links nonetheless, between some of these things I've learnt. I think this comes from my recent news junkie leaning (especially science news) and from tv doccies and from other life experiences. I love acquiring new knowledge. Sometimes I like applying it too.

(paused to ponder)

3. I like helping other people learn and get passionate about learning. Glancing over to the light switch there's a magnet that says: "To teach is to touch a life forever".

4. I expect good, no great, things from everyone. This includes students I teach, friends I make and all my family members. Sometimes because not everyone can achieve my exalted expectations, I'm left a little disappointed. My stuff not theirs. I still expect them to do their best and make their lives better.

5. I'm generally calm and collected. And I'm always on the look out for the positive. Positive intent or motivation, positive outcome, positive terminal (a little shock therapy never hurt anyone!).

6. I have a quick, if odd (see point 5), wit. Well, I make my sister laugh. She reckons I should have a comic strip.

7. I want to save the world. No small task. And entirely selfish. I'm not ready for a world predicted to have no Cape Town, no fynbos, wars over fresh water, searing heat and Armageddon-like storms. I believe each one of us can make a difference - even if we start the paradigm shift.

I'm proud of being dredging these seven traits that make me awesome for me. Even though I'm still feeling a bit camera shy about sharing them with the blogosphere. I've tagged 7 folks via email and will post links to their awesome acceptance speeches when I receive evidence.

What relief!

The whole idea of this blog was to provide experience for writing up my PhD results. I had a crisis of intellectual property faith early on and realised that this may not be a useful or ethical purpose. My intention for this exercise then became one of keeping the 3 readers out there up to date with my progress and as a way of practising my writing skills hoping that this would spill over into writing up my PhD.

Officially, today is the first day of my write up. It's very early days yet. This week's focus means that I'll spending time thinking about my major findings so far, how they can be moulded into publishable papers and how to represent the data so that they tell the story appropriately. And then I get on to actually writing the stories.

I can 'see' two papers so far. There's still some work to be done and data to be untangled and models to buid and test. In spite of this, I feel good that I'm getting somewhere now. Really proud of myself today. Yay! I'm sure this feeling will pass soon enough but it's worth remembering now and for when frustration and confusion bear down their weight.

This is like my Comrades marathon. Right now I've been on the road about 7 hours and only 4 to go.

Reader or writer, intent and response

Extended families can be rich in the dramatic. Especially if the lines of communicating are not equal in all directions, which is probably never likely. A recent family drama turned out to be a storm in a tea-cup. These are my words describing my perception. Some other family members are probably still licking their wounds. All about a status message on a popular social networking site.

This again got me pondering the accuracy of social networking statuses. In the past this pondering has been confined to my head - is it brave to post this here considering the repercussions? Can they, SN statuses, in all honesty, be an accurate reflection of a writer's mental state? I presuppose that the meaning of my communication is in the response I elicit, from those I communicate with. Getting an overwhelmingly concerned response from friends and family in response to a status update warrants questioning of the writer's intent. If attention is what you seek, then you'll get that, possibly different to what you intended.

So when dramatic and concerning statuses find their way into social networking reality and the response is equally dramatic (Newton's law: for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction) - does the reader's response match the writer's intent? And how seriously should we take any future social networking statuses?

With concern and apologies to the family for hanging our laundry out in the open.

Ditching the lab-coat for the common good

This week I ditched the lab coat and dexter glasses to attend the NSTF plennary meeting. Our school had 2 finalists in the 2009 awards list. We were led to believe that in order to be considered in the process further the finalists or a representative (me) needed to be at the meeting to collect their certificates. Turns out this was not the case.

Someone wise I know once mentioned that even at seemingly unimportant meetings its a useful strategy to find a take home message. I learnt 3 things at the meeting:
- Afrikaans is still alive! I am mostly exposed to English and to hear Afrikaans in this setting seemed unusual. Of course it's still alive, first language Afrikaans speakers are passionate about their language.
- Academics are friends of technology. I felt out of place being one of the few audience members who wasn't concurrently working on my laptop and attending the meeting.
- The seating arrangements reminded me of students filling a lecture hall, where they fill seats from the back and on towards the front. Do we match our students behaviour or are they matching ours? A similar pattern is also evident in church on Sunday mornings.

The heart of a savanna ecologist

I have a physiological response to nearing the Kruger Park. It starts by the decent off the escarpment, seeing the rolling grasslands become mountains covered in aloes where the roadsides lined are with umbrella-topped thorn trees and pockets of indigenous forest, where the air hangs with humidity and the smell of wood fires. The road twists and turns its way through the gulleys and passages heading east like the rivers and streams that also snake their way to the ocean. With each passing landmark my physiology changes: muscles relax and breathing deepens. My heart rate slows and races ambivalently. Slowing in response to the drugged air of relaxation and racing due to the hidden excitement in store, hoping for excellent sightings and sincere rest and relaxation.



The Lowveld and Kruger featured often on the holiday calendars of my childhood and the 'magic' resonates with me still. While "The Wombles" may have been my earliest exposure to environmental awareness, the Kruger was the nursery of my passion for savanna ecology.

This past weekend the only difference to the normal pattern was that I drove to Kruger on my own. Plenty of time for self-reflection and mandatory sing-along with appropriate travelling tunez on my iPod, Blossom. After nearly 6 hours of private karaoke my voice was hoarse. But in the Park there's plenty of time to recoup.

This short trip was planned to visit with a friend who is an academic staff member on the fall semester OTS course. Finding out more about the course and the people who run it and the students who attend it, was enriching. The students were open and welcoming and the staff friendly, hospitable and generous. I am envious that I didn't get the opportunity to go on such a course in my early postgrad days. So much to learn so little time.



While game viewing was limited there were plenty of opportunities for relaxing. The most exciting sighting was a full-on savanna fire. I now have a folder full of photos for the fire lectures I give to the undergrads. The memorable moment of the trip had to be the mini-bus full of people stopping between us and the flames, less than 5m away, to ask in a high pitched voice: "What do you guys see?". Our initial response after gasping in horror was a timid: "The fire?". Like duh, isn't it obvious we're ecologists and we're watching an ecological process happen in real time only the other side of the road.



In the quiet times of sun-up and sun-down Lake Panic provided a photogenic spot where the clicking of camera shutters and animal calls were all that disturbed the settling air.



At the heart of it all I love Kruger and all I have learnt from this special place.

Web album of selected photos here.

P.S. Thanks Jen and OTS for a special weekend.

Have I passed the Sustainable assessment test?

While working on my assignment for a certificate as Higher Education Assessor and Moderator, I've been pondering how to measure, I mean, assess my own efficacy. So I came up with an equation: insight gained + output product = f(time on task). Yes how nerdy of me - who else would consider describing their experiences by means of a mathematical relationship.

My pondering came from the fact that I've been working on this assignment and my insight gained has showed substantial increase and resulted in some implementation success. However the output product lags behind. So I'm now rethinking my equation - I think that there's an exponent or variable missing.

Maybe that variable is procrastination. It's been my honest opinion that procrastination as a life-skill is an emergent learning outcome of post-graduate study. Meaning that it's not planned on and sometimes has no intrinsic value - it serves only to delay submission. This blog serves as case in point: instead of working on the assignment I'm contemplating the impact of the insight gained on life outside of teaching. Does that mean I've learnt the art of sustainable assessment for life-long learning? Did I pass the test? Have I met the learning outcomes?

Make no mistake, this post will be in my assignment. Then it's not procrastination. Back to the chalk-board for equation derivation...

Earth Hour

For the last few weeks I've had Global change, including the media favourite, climate change, taking up substantial amounts of processing power. No I haven't developed the next GCM - but I have been facilitating the Global Change Honours course. The course hosts 4 of South Africa's top global change scientists, including 2 of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Grant it, that was a sizable group of recipients.

One guest speaker suggested that for South Africa to reach the reduced emission targets, 50% will be about changes in technology and power generation and the rest would be up to the ethical choices you and I make. In our class discussion yesterday, we got on to the campaign trail and Earth Hour became a point of discussion.



Earth Hour asks everyone to switch off the lights and appliances in their homes and places of work for one hour on Saturday 28th March. Not a lot to ask to make a real statement about living more sustainably and making ethical choices. Have you signed up yet?

How are corporate branding and the weather related?

Corporate branding and the weather are related by location. After a hike across the width of campus and back again in the pouring rain with only a mildly effective rain coat I was shivering and soaked to the bone. Thank goodness Wits has a 'gift shop' on campus displaying an array of items all branded with our logo and mascot and in varying shades of varsity colours. While the range extends from pens to crystal glasses, I was most interested in the dry clothing on sale today. Two-hundred rand, a quick change later and I'm fully branded a Witsie now. Hey at least I'm dry and warm again and there's no prospect of campus perambulations this afternoon, even though the weather is unlikely to clear until the weekend.

As an aside I had a momentary thought about the power of corporate branding, while using a free branded pen that was less than completely useful. Surely most corporates would spend a little more money and get Bic-like efficiency from branded merchandise intended for freebie give-aways. The longer it lasts the more impactful your brand. Well I bet the marketers would make that intellectual leap.

Partial eclipse of the sun

If you live in SA remember to look out for partial eclipse of the sun on Monday morning (26th January) between 7:10 and 9:30am. Western Cape viewers can expect an almost 60% eclipse. Get yourself a pair eclipse viewers, to block out heat, light and UV rays, and support the JHB Planetarium in the International Year of Astronomy.

Get your viewers here:
* in street sales only (while stocks last) (with eclipse / International Year of Astronomy poster) of the following newspapers:
- The Star and the Pretoria News - 20th, 23rd, 24th Jan
- Cape Argus - 23rd Jan
- Daily News (KZN) - 20th Jan
- Diamond Fields Advertiser (Bloemfontein / Kimberley) - 20th Jan
Thanks to DST & Independent Newspapers for the above!!

* at BP filling stations around the country (while stocks last) (one per customer)
Huge thanks to BP, who bought 150,000 viewers for this!

* from a couple of retailers:
- Experilab, Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Cape Town
- National Museum, Bloemfontein
- Digital Experience, Fourways Crossing, Jhb
- Park Meadow Optometrists, Park Meadow Centre, Kensington Jhb
- Jhb Planetarium, Yale Rd off Empire, Wits University Campus
Contact details for the above are at www.planetarium.co.za