I've been distracted for the last two months, partly because I was away for 5.5 weeks, and partly because the Rugby World Cup was on, and I'm a huge (All Blacks) fan. In fact, my overseas trip was so that I could catch a bit of the rugby in New Zealand, which is like home to me. I did mix in some geology with my travels: I was on a volcano, I visited some ancient clastics and some modern carbonates. I even did some work on my thesis and a manuscript my supervisor and I are working on. And I watched a lot of rugby, on TV, and in the stadium. I went to five games: three pool matches and two quarterfinals.
When I came back to Canada, I struggled to get over the jet lag, because the rugby was still on, and I was up until 4 or 5am watching the semifinals, and then the bronze final, and then the final. SPOILER: A week later, and I'm still pretty elated about the results.
Now that the RWC is over, I need to get my nose back to the grindstone and finish off my thesis and that manuscript. They're getting there. I'm struggling a bit though, because I'm in rugby withdrawal. So last night I went through some of my photos from Australia, and printed off a few from my outback trip, so that I could look at the really cool geology and be motivated to get some writing done. It also got me thinking about the things I saw that I want to blog about, so now I have a list, and a schedule. Hopefully it will be a nice distraction from writing and figure-making. Anne Jefferson's
writing challenge couldn't have come at a better time.
In the meantime, here are a few teaser pictures from my time away (and if anyone knows how I can save them so that the colour doesn't sometimes get changed when they are being viewed, I'd be grateful):
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| Beside a fumarole on White Island |
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| Fumaroles! |
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| Uluru |
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| Valley of the Winds, Kata Tjuta |
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| King's Canyon |
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| Standing beside the Webb Ellis Trophy, two weeks before New Zealand won it |
