I want a tiny pterosaur for my birthday

For anyone who is starting a list now for my next birthday (only 10months away people!) here's one for you: a tiny little pterosaur (not a dinosaur)!

I promise to feed it and walk it and take real good care of it. And train it to catch ladybugs for me. Puh-leeeaase can I have one?

love Miff xoxo

Bringing the HP Home

Escaping the evil clutches of stupid overlord in Sydney, HP is making a return to Melbs. I think everyone here is more excited about it than she is! Me particularly, as it is rare for me to never have lived in the same city as one of my favourite people.

I know she is sad to be leaving Sydney, but a fresh start away from idiotic co-workers is good for the soul.

I'm worried that this could mean bad things for my body as her arrival may mean the consumption of much beer. However, if she is still on her pilgrimage training, it may be a good thing for my fitness levels.

Sending her lots of kisses and love, hoping that the move isn't too traumatic and that the dickhead possibly pulls his finger out and actually talks to her. Not that I'm cranky at him or anything...

Proud mum

I am the proud mother of two small dogs who took their first ever swim on the weekend! So cute! Husband and I drove our dear little rat-dogs to the doggie beach at Brighton for the second time. Last time they had a little paddle, but this time were brave enough to go out of their depth and swim around.

Now I'm behaving ridiculously like an overly proud parent - which of course I am - I think though my excitement is a little bit over the top. I'm not convinced they were having fun, more that they were trying to follow husband and I, but they seemd pretty willing to swim to us and then turn around and swim back.

Buster was using her tail for a rudder, but Beans, who must have had his tail docked when he was a pup, seemed to manage OK without.

Mostly I'm proud of their braveness, but it is quite daunting to think that they trust us enough to be encouraged to come to us when we call* when that is possibly a scary thing for them.

Buster even put her head under the water to pick up a golf ball. And then sneezed.

We met lots of other dogs - mostly big water loving ones who gulumphed around wanting pats and trying to steal our ball.

They both rolled in lots of muddy sea grass, got very sandy, did wee on lots of sand castles (well, anything that was mound shaped) and chased sea gulls, so all in all a very good day.



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* although that begs the question - why don't they come when I call them normally?

Solar Eclipse - here's what it looked like

Below is what the eclipse looked like using a sun spotter (just lenses and mirrors). Also had some solar telescopes set up but didn't have the technology to take a photo through that!

Partial Solar Eclipse

On 7 February there will be an Annular Solar Eclipse. Imagine the Earth out in space, then put the Moon between us and the Sun - voila! You have an eclipse. An annular eclipse (as opposed to a total or full eclipse) is when the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than the Sun, leaving a ring of light around the Moon.

The annular eclipse will be visible if you are lucky enough to be in Antarctica. For those of us who won't make it to Antarctica this afternoon, a partial eclipse will be visible from the eastern states of Australia. In Melbs we will get a 9% eclispe, like the image above.

Not totally impressive, and not noticable unless you are looking at it - however, don't look at it! Unless you have solar telescopes, not a good idea to stare at the sun, what with the blinding and the ow and the pain and the burning. Lucky for me I will be running the solar telescopes at work for the public - my favourite kind of people.

The next Total Solar Eclipse will occur on 1 August 2008 and will be visible in Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, Siberia, Mongolia and China. Australia will see its next partial eclipse on 26 January 2009, but will have to wait until 13 November 2012 for our next Total Solar Eclipse.

In daylight saving time -

Eclipse begins: 2:39pm / Eclipse maximum: 3:28pm / Eclipse ends: 4:15pm