I tested out this new device this morning. I placed it in my backpack and headed off to work, then whilst crossing the road a crazy women crashed into me from behind, sending me tumbling across her bonnet. I landed splat on my back on the road. My trusty Dell took the brunt of the impact and I was able to stand up unscathed The only injury I have is a sprained ankle which wasn’t protected by my computer. And guess what! The computer is still working and I’m posting this message on it right now

Apparently the little green man was indeed flashing when I crossed and the lady who hit me is in a whole lot of trouble. She will probably be charged with careless driving or careless driving causing injury. My computer will live for another day - and thankfully so will I!

EDIT: Thanks to my cousin Alison Petrie for the following photos (she saw it happen).

There were two ambulances, a fire truck and two police cars. Kinda overkill for an itty bitty test of a new safety device, but anyhows …

The woman on the right is the one who drove into me.

EDIT: It also turned out that I was badly bruised behind me knee. The woman who hit me lost her drivers license for six months and was fined for $250 for her failed efforts to remove me from the gene pool.

I’ll eventually remove all of the old posts here (which now redirect to the new site), but I’ve left them here for the mean time in case someone comes looking for them.

To make things worse, our other machine (300 MHz one) has been out of action since late last year, so we now have no NMR access whatsoever … for any non-chemists out there, this is bad, VERY bad!

MRI Quenching

I did some YouTubing and found this video of an MRI machine quenching itself (MRI and NMR are very similar instruments).

Liquid Helium

The NMR machine was full of liquid helium. The quenching involved the liquid helium evaporating very rapidly. Here’s a video about the properties of liquid helium and a video of a liquid helium fountain.

Aggression

Here are some demonstrations of why NOT to play soccer on a sand turf!

First up, Graeme trying to get the ball by running through his opposition.

Next up, a girl from the opposing team wipes out quite spectacularly trying to change directions.

This aint track and field …

Graeme … WTF?

The next photo is a demonstration of why being spectator is not safe either, this blindingly quick curving kick from Becky almost hit me.

Rules?

You can get away with a lot more in soccer than I realised …

Levitating ball

They were playing with a special levitating ball. If you don’t believe me, here’s the proof …

Goalie Extraordinaire

Nigel Alefosio did a stunning job in goal.

This kick was …

… 4 m too high … but Nigel tried to stop it anyway

The opposition team were quite a bit smaller!

But they could still kick! This one didn’t get in.

But this one when Nigel subbed off did …

Brooker bunch

Here are some pics of my lab mates Frederick from Germany and Worku Gobeze from Ethiopia.

Stunning ball handling

Some of the players are apparently as skilled at juggling a ball on their feet as they are round bottoms with their hands …

Mallory Handcock (left) and Natasha Munro (right)

Jonathan Kitchen firing off a shot

Rebecca Brassett in her first game since she was 12!

Victoria Adlam

Paula Ross, Rebecca Brassett and ???

Mallory Handcock and Kara Ross

Rebecca Brassett and Kara Ross battling for the ball

Jonathan Kitchen and Natasha Munro battling for the ball

Victoria Adlam, Jonathan Kitchen and Natasha Munro

Mallory Handcock showing off her golf shot

Our mighty team manager leading the charge to the front

Kara stomping her way down the boards, er, pipe … whatever that black tube thingy is called

Paula dribbles, Paula passes, Deb scores! Yay

Deb is also my physiotherapist so fingers crossed she’s as skilled with treating dislocated shoulders as she is at scoring goals!

Paula and Deb looking very satisfied with their achievement!

Scott demonstrating the ‘lower is better’ approach

Scott taking it a step further and demonstrating the ‘lets stand on our stick and head butt the ground coz we’re staring into space’ approach.

Deb deking some big guy

Paula chasing down the ball followed by Deb

My Mum (Joan Hellyer) and Dad (Ken Hellyer) posing for the camera.

The cake. It was a carrot one and tasted damn nice!

Siblings: Robyn Reid, Ken Hellyer, David Hellyer and John Hellyer. Or as I know them, Aunty Robyn, Dad, Uncle David and Uncle John.

“Murry! Shut up, I’m about to talk”

Dad about to launch into a spiel …

Dad saying something funny

Ick, gross!

Murry said something dodgy. Which incidentally I have on video, but I’m not going to post it here coz it’s a tad inappropriate

Dad continues his spiel …

That yummy carrot cake again

The family: Marthah, Scott, Joan, Ken and Ryan Hellyer.

If you don’t want your photo on this page then let me know and I’ll remove it asap.

My article is here … Finding the perfect Facebook-WordPress system

The solution that I am using is now Simply RSS, rather than WordBook which I mentioned in a previous post.

Rhyan McMillan and our uber awesome coach Jenel Bode

For her goodbye bash, she organised a goodbye party in a cave at Longbeach. It sounded boring, getting stuck in a cave all evening on a cold, wet, rainy day Luckilly Sarah was heading out to take Jane so I hitched a ride along so I could make an appearance and bail home early with Sarah. Darn glad I went though, coz it was totally awesome. The cave was wicked, the fire kept us all cosy warm, everyone had fun and there was loads of entertainment provided by my teammates who provided firebreathing, guitar and flame throwing demonstrations for us all. There were even baby blue penguins in the back of the cave hanging out with us!

Neil Dudley and Rob Owens demonstrating how much effort it takes to burn human skin

Neil Dudley pretending to be a dragon

Sarah MacDonald stumming on the guitar, Jane Soper sipping on her vodka and chocolate thingy

Neil Dudley trying to set himself on fire

The bonfire, Chris Laing in the background providing some music on his guitar

Bajeeze, two scary looking women! Thankfully they’re normally quite beautiful. The Beasts arch nemesis is on the left (she keeps scoring goals on us) Sheree Haslemore and ex Dunedinite Susan Green is baring her teeth on the right

Neil Dudley and Rob Owens lighting up the cave

Ryan sandwich? From left: Ryan Hellyer (moi), Rhyan McMillan and Ryan Wick.

Stupidly I didn’t think to take a camera, so thanks to Jenel Bode, Susan Green and Rhyan McMillan for the photos

Jane Soper providing amusement to the team by swinging towards a tree at full pelt

Neil Dudley doing a jig while Rob Owens learns why Jane Soper was so scared on the swing

Chris Laing and Jane Soper riding a tandem

Jane Soper in full flight