Armidale, NSW, Australia

I have arrived in Armidale.  Far, far away from the ocean filled with scary sharks!
It's beautiful here so far - very green, lots of pastures, sheep, old cathedrals and beautiful buildings.  It's nice to see a bit more of Australia.  Looking forward to visiting the University of New England tomorrow.

Australia is forgiven for the vegemite

These are avaliable in stores with a tiny spoon to eat as a snack!  I may have to move here!

3rd fatal shark attack on the west coast of Australia in 6 weeks

Just saw this on the news:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-22/diver-killed-in-suspected-shark-attack/3595308/?site=perth&section=news

The ocean around here is scary!

Surfing in Australia...great white sharks...

I was going to go surfing today.  I was sure of it.  I leave tomorrow for Armidale to visit the University of New England, the distributed site of the University of Newcastle medical school.  So I figured I should try to get in the water while it's beautiful and I can.

Then I heard about and saw this:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/21/3345298.htm?site=newcastle

And this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/17/3166660.htm?site=newcastle

I don't think so...

Vegemite...

So I did it. I ate some vegemite. On toast with margarine. It was at 1 am after an evening of eating some great food and drinking some great wine. That may have played a role in my feelings about it.
It was overpowering and salty and VERY yeasty!
I worked for years with Drosophila (fruit flies) in genetic and evolutionary experiments and we cooked their food in the Zoology building at UBC. On those days, the entire building would smell like yeast and other things that were quite terrible.
Vegemite tastes exactly like the smell of that horrible hot room of fruit fly food.
We realized that we were living out some of the Men At Work song lyrics...
"...I come from the land down under..."
"...he just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich..."
Until I tried it, I thought I would fit right in here in Australia. Maybe not...

Great food!

I just had dinner around the corner from me at East End Enoteca - an Italian restaurant.  It was fantastic!  I had the beef with beet root chutney - wow!  Australian beef is delicious!  Almost as good as Argentinian...but not quite.  :)

Black Butt Animal Reserve

I just had to post a few quick photos of the koala that I was able to pet yesterday at Black Butt animal reserve here in Newcastle!  They feel just like little teddy bears!  :)  And Black Butt is a type of tree...in case you were wondering...

Me petting Bella!  A 6 year old female koala!

Bella eating gum leaves.

The Dunkleys, me and Bella.