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.

A Blue Zamboni goes to the Vet

Today we took Zamboni to the vet as he hasbeen sneezing. The vet diagnosed a cold and prescribed some antibiotics. Weirdly, when we too him out of the carrier at the vets he was mostly blue from having rubbed up against the inside of the carrier... (photo taken with iPhone).

Successful Teaching Grant

Today I was really excited to learn that I'd received an Australian Learning and Teaching Council grant to study and make recommendations on the curriculum in clinical psychology in Australia - we had a really fabulous team across 5 universities and it will be a great project.

Oliver Sacks

Today we went to hear neurologist and author Oliver Sacks speak downtown. It was a very interesting lecture. His most famous book (The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat) is probably still my favorite.

New Technology!

oday I got an iPhone - it is incredibly nifty - will bring together in one device phone, address book, memos, camera etc. - very cool!

Tim gets reading glasses!

Looking very scholarly, Dr Kastelle....

Home at Last with the Cats!

It is good to be home with the cats! They missed us...

Singapore

We decided to actually stop over in Singapore on the way back from London, rather than just go through the airport as we usually do. Our hotel room at the Hotel M was a penthouse suite, an upgrade costing only $20! A highlight of our one day in Singapore was the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (which is supposed to have monkeys but we did not see any...). After a fabulous dim sum lunch downtown, we headed for the airport and home at last...

Camden Markets

On our last day in London we headed to Camden Markets. The markets are amazing, with every type of food, clothing, antique, etc you could imagine. Tim got some cool music and I got a great leather trench coat.

British Museum

On Friday Tim worked in the morning while I went to see the British Museum. It is a fabulous place - the Elgin Marbles and Rosetta Stone were highlights...

Trip to Cambridge

Today we took the train up to Cambridge University to visit Tim's colleague Dr Elizabeth Garnsey, a reader in Innovation Studies there. The Judge Business School at Cambridge is in a lovely restored building with a very funky interior...but we did not have time to go for a punt...

Our cool pad in London

We shared a great apartment in London with our friend Paul Harnett. There was a very cool cat who lived next door and spent lots of time in the lovely back gardens...

Nancy Sees Abbey Road

Today Nancy toured London on her own while Tim was hard at work at Imperial College. After seeing sights such as Abbey Road and the Design Museum, Tim and Nancy had dinner at a great Lebanese restaurant.

Sunday in London

Today we went to Chinatown for lunch, then went to Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Curcus, had drinks along the Thames and finished up at the Tate Modern Gallery.

Saturday in London

Today Tim and I had fun just wandering around London. Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, right across from Imperial College where Tim was doing research. We also walked past St Paul's Cathedral on our way to dinner at yet another Polish Restaurant...

A Fond Farewell to Bonny Scotland

Today I bid a fond farewell to bonny Scotland. I had the most wonderful time in Edinburgh, and especially enjoyed my time with my host at Edinburgh University, Ken Laidlaw. I spent my last day giving a talk at the NHS, then had a great lunch at a nearby museum...

Unfortunately I flew into London via Stansted Airport, which must be the stupidest airport in London (the signage esp was horrendous). Wish something like what was in the CLIP HERE had happened while I was there...

Visit to Vane Farm RSPB Reserve

Today I went with Mary and Catherine Laidlaw to the great Vane Farm RSPB Reserve, part of the Loch Leven National Nature Reserve. We saw excellent birds, including lots of baby swallows and goldfinches. We also saw a fox out by the ponds. Afterwards we went to the historic village of Dunfermline, birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. The Dunfermline Abbey was truly spectacular!

Last Polish Meal in Edinburgh

Today I ate my last Polish meal in Edinburgh, in Leith at the Krakow Restaurant. I had pierogi and potatoe pancakes... afterwards went back to spend time checking email with a post-dinner scotch...

Last walk around Edinburgh

Went up to Calton Hill to grab some last views over Edinburgh...

Old Moor RSPB

Today we visited the RSPB Old Moor bird sanctuary in the Dearne Valley - it was a fantastic day out! Tim then headed down to London and I went back to Edinburgh on the train for one last week.

Great Owl Sanctuary visit

We left York to travel to the village of Penistone to visit our friends Kiera and Alex and their three kitties, Growler, Apollo and Starbuck. Today we also went to visit the great Chestnut Centre Otter, Owl and Wildlife Park in Chapel-en-le-Frith, High Peak, Derbyshire. To go to a site to hear a Tawny Owl calling, click here.

York

After the conference we had fun wandering around the town of York. Particularly impressive was the York Minster, the oldest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. The town itself was very beautiful, and we ate a great dinner in a middle eastern restaurant.

PSIGE National Conference

After a relaxing time in the Highlands it was back to work. Tim came with myself and my colleague Ken Laidlaw, to the British Psychological Society's "Psychology Specialists Working with Older People" national conference in York, England. We drove down from Edinburgh in Ken's nifty Jaguar, and Nancy and Ken presented several papers over the next few days. Nancy also presented the poster above on behalf of her colleague Paul Harnett, who is doing wonderful work with grandparents taking over as sole parents for their grandchildren.

Loch Ness

On our last day in the Highlands we took in the sights of Lock Ness. This included a morning spent in the lovely forest of Glen Affric, where we looked in vain for the elusive capercaille, the national bird of Scotland. We had no better luck seeing the Loch Ness Monster... It was in the end good to head back down from Inverness, through the lovely Cairngorms National Park back to Edinburgh. On the way back we stopped at the great Scottish Liqueur Centre, home of the very fine Columba Creme liqueur.

Tim is Officially DR TIM!

TODAY was an especially exciting day, as when we woke up and check our e-mail we found out that Tim was now officially DR TIMOTHY H KASTELLE! It was very exciting, and being on the Isle of Skye made it a memorable day. We spent the day touring around Skye and had a lovely celebratory lunch at a terrific little restaurant on the island called the Old Schoolhouse. We then went to an otter sanctuary (but saw no otters) before leaving Skye in a rainstorm. Luckily the weather broke when we got to the last stop on our Scottish Highland tour, Loch Ness. We stopped briefly at Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. There we stayed in a very pink room in a small hotel...

To the Isle of Skye

After an interesting breakfast we drove from Minard Castle to the Isle of Skye, through Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands. It was a long but beautiful drive through wild and spectacular scenery. By the time we got to Skye it was nearly 5pm. So we just checked into our bed and breakfast (the Glenview Hotel) north of the town of Portree. The scenery on this peninsula, known as Trotternish, was very beautiful, so we decided to drive around until it got dark (which didn't happen until after 9:30pm). We didn't realise until we looked around but our bed and breakfast was near what turned out to be the best birding spot on the trip - a high cliff with waterfalls and lots of Northern Fulmars (with some checks clinging precariously to the steep rock faces). We ate dinner at a tiny pub at the very northernmost tip of the peninsula - spectacular (although the ale was pretty so-so...)...

Minard Castle

Today we woke up late and spent the morning walking through the hills around Dunoon with our friend Neil. (Neil is a professor of economics at Strathclyde University near Glasgow.) After some lovely tea by the fire in Neil's charming home, we drove to Minard Castle on Loch Fyne, our destination for that evening. It was a fantastic place to stay and our deluxe room was incredible. Around sunset we drove to check out the Isle of Jura, down some incredibly narrow roads with lots of sheep. We also saw cool canals to move the boats between lochs, and some great little Grey Wagtails. It was a fantastic day!

Tim's First Castle

We drove northwest out of Edinburgh today and visited Doune Castle, just north of Stirling. This was Tim's first real castle to see in Scotland, and it was an ineresting one. It was where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed in 1974. We then drove north to the Trossachs and Loch Lomond, an area of great natural beauty. We ended the day at the home of Tim's colleague from Scotland who was kind enough to put us up for the night in the town of Dunoon. They had a great little cat called Esme who was very amusing...

Scottish Ornithologists' Club

Today we picked up the rental car and went for a drive back out towards North Berwick, mainly to see Tantallon Castle from the landward side, as we had only seen it from a distance on the boat trip. On the way there we passed the Scottish Ornithological Club's headquarters and spent a few hours wandering around the marsh and fields nearby...

Great Chocolates

There are a lot of neat chocolate shops in Edinburgh - I bought Tim a chocolate owl today...