Can I please come too?

Whose turn for the massage chair?

Surveying the damage

Dealing with our fallen tree

Tim in his New Suit

Tim Gets Photos Taken for Media

Tim has been doing some amazing things at work recently. He has a blog which has recently won an innovation e-award. He has also been doing great work with the School of Business' MBA program. If you want to hear Tim lecturing, click HERE.

Off on our big trip!

Today in just under an hour we are off on our big 'Round the World trip for almost 6 weeks. We will visit Singapore, Copenhagen, London, Paris, San Francisco and Seattle. We will certaily miss the cats although they will be seen to daily by our pet sitter Kylie. We are SO looking forward to seeting friends and family on our travels!

Home at Last!

Very happy to be back home at last with the cats and Tim (pictured here in his new T shirt from Chile).

Tim's Surgery Successful!

Tim's surgery today was a great success! After checking in at 7am he had his vital signs checked by the nurse. (I loved the sign that said "Shave Dr Franz's patients"!). Tim then got fitted with his anti-embolic stockings (necessary, as you can see from the sign, as he was Dr Shaw's patient) and booties and was off to surgery at 10am. He was out by 1pm, and we left to go home at just before 5pm, and were home by 6pm. Tim was still pretty groggy. We decided to test the success of the surgery with Indian take-aways (not vindaloo, don't worry!) and he pronounced it a great success right before he fell asleep!

Update on Tim

Tim and I went to his presurgery meeting today. Everyone at the Prince Charles Hospital has been great. They say there is a good chance that Tim can go home the same day as his surgery, which would be terrific!

Update on Tim

Tim has recieved his surgery date for keyhole surgery to remove his gallbladder. He has had the gallstones for about 6 months and will be happy to have the whole enchilada removed on March 10th.

Nice Birthday Weekend

We had a nice time on the Gold Coast o my birthday. We stayed at the Radisson Resort and it was really lovely. The very tropical and lush gardens had quite a few large water dragons. For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant, East (see below - very funky atmosphere).

Gardening Weekend

Today we spent the day putting in plants in the garden, including the Blackthorn and Australian Fuschia plants pictured above. Very relaxing for Nancy, but Tim was trying out his new chemical weedkiller sprayer - less relaxing...

Tim gets a major grant!

Today Tim and his colleagues in the business school John Steen and Mark Dodgson received an Australian Research Council national grant award of $170,000 to do innovation research!

Gallstones for Tim

Today we got the unwelcome news that Tim has gallstones which most likely will need to be removed (along with the gall bladder itself) with keyhole surgery. At least this explains why Tim has gotten occasional stomach aches over the last 3 months. He is in no pain since cutting out soda. He will probably have the operation before Christmas.

Tim gets reading glasses!

Looking very scholarly, Dr Kastelle....

Tim's Thesis Corrections Handed In!

Today Tim handed in his thesis corrections. Hopefully in a few months he will hear positive news and become Dr Kastelle! He plans to graduate at the ceremony December 2008.

Different Approaches to Yard Maintenance

A Close Encounter, as Told By "Poor Tim"

"My project today was to take about this many weeds:


Out of this section of our front yard:


At one point when I was putting some branches on the brush pile, I felt something on my shoulder, and brushed it off. This is what it was:


You might look at that and say, 'it's just a stick, what's the big deal?', right?

Well, here is the 'stick' as it angrily crawled away...


and then went up the side of the trash can...



and finally settled on the first suitable branch it found:


That's right, it was the BIGGEST stick insect in history!"

POOR TIM!

(the name of this stick insect is the TITAN STICK INSECT, one of the world's longest insects, which can grow to be over 15 inches long... here are some more photos of them - notice the nice lady is HOLDING hers....)



Here is a rare photo of one dialing out for a pizza with everything on it...

Tim and Gromit

This is what Tim was doing while I was gone - shaving and then growing back his beard, and marking final exams with Gromit's help...