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Published: April 21st 2010
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Its been so long since I wrote it has been 2 months since I moved back to Townsville and I will be moving back South in a couple of months to start life as a non student. I ended my time in Brisbane with a couple of parties on the Gold Coast, one of which was Australia Day where the entire country goes to a BBY and listens to the top 100 on Australias Radio 1 counterpart, Triple J. This one was slightly unusual in the fact that neither of my housemates were with me. I got lessons in Australian bands from the Gold Coast gang and the party ended with me being carried around on shoulders (we all took turns) before the 2 hour haul back to work the next morning. Managed to get another one day festival in, a dance on this time before work kicked back in properly (most the country took half of January off). The weekend before I left Brisbane in mid February the twins, old friends of Adrians that have become new friends of mine held a 30th at their house with the theme ‘Twins’. Tom, Adrian and I, not wanting to leave anyone out
went as Team Zissou. This is an obscure but vocationally accurate reference to a cult film based on Jacque Costeau, the worlds most famous marine biologist.
I left South East Queensland the following morning reflecting on my Brisbane experiences and the friends I have made. While I was keen to get back to my house it was nice to be in the real world for a bit. Unfortunately I don’t think the environmental public sector has the kind of hands on work I am looking for but I learnt a lot about water quality and South East Queensland and worked with some great people. A particular favourite was Edward the finance guy who grew up in Brisbane and took me to all the places to go and Siobhan, the person I sat next to who made me laugh every day. Particular work highlights were monitoring the Brisbane river (i.e being paid to cruise the city on a boat) and visiting sewage treatment plants in my last week. You may be rereading the last sentence in surprise but I drove 800km in 2 days and saw more of the beautiful countryside during this time then in my entire summer.
I arrived back in the ‘ville a bit shell shocked that everyone else had had the summer off and I had a week to finish two subjects and plan my thesis. Fatigue set in and I spent a couple of days just sitting around trying to get my brain to work before packing in all the required courses to be able to continue to dive in Queensland. This was particularly important as the field work for my masters thesis involved going to Lizard Island in the northern Great Barrier Reef. I dived every day, catching fish and spending hours in the laboratory processing samples. Despite being ‘off-season’ being on a research station is a great atmosphere, surrounded by people far more knowledgeable than I about all things marine, scooting around in a 4x4 buggy, small boats and no shoes for a week. I have added some of the pictures to the blog and Facebook. I think they say it all.
You arrive on Lizard island in tiny planes and only if you are a guest of the research station or luxurious resort on the other side of the island. I was briefly tempted with the offer of staying for
3 months to help another student before the idea was cruelly snatched away by the realization I needed to spend the next month in a histology lab at university preparing and analysing slides of fish livers to study their body condition.
So its been back to the grindstone with university and work. This semester is my final one and a research semester so no lectures but over 10 thousand words of scientific sense to write in the next couple of months. It does not sound like much but writing with this kind of conciseness does not come easily to me, as I am sure you can imagine. Have had a few good nights out but am missing the buzz of city life. I got a fix over Easter where I visited Brisbane, catching up with old and new friends and having a fantastic time.
The next time I drag myself away from the books will be for the ‘Grooving the Moo’ festival up here in Townsville. Six of the Gold Coast crew and my brothers best friend are all coming up for the weekend and Vampire Weekend are playing so I can’t wait. Things are the same old
same old in the flat. Sometimes I love living with the guys and other times the testosterone levels and smelly socks lying about the place drive me mad. We are trying to enjoy our time together as with trips planned in May and June (for them not me, I will be strapped my uni office desk) it will be over all too quickly.
Anyway, hope to see you all in July, I am trying to book a flight for a visit home in July so everyone take the month off!
Love to all,
Nik xx
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