Skiing

It's been a surprisingly busy week since the last post. Things should be winding down for me as I only have two weeks until I leave on July 14th. However, as is often the case many things seem to happen at the same time, I 'll avoid using any cliche's about buses.Since I last posted, not surprisingly, England's euro 2012 adventure fizzled out, losing to Italy on penalties, there was an air of inevitability about it all. At least Italy have gone on to the final, setting up an all Mediterranean final with Spain.
On Wednesday I gave the medical physics students their final exam so once the marks are all finalised I should have a bit of time free. I am not sure yet what exactly I will do or where I will go but it will probably involve some skiing. Also this week I have been working on a response to the assessors comments for an NHMRC funding proposal submitted back in March. These need to be submitted by Monday and are worth spending some time on as apparently these can make a difference for borderline proposals. Other work related matters I had the opportunity to attend a 'round table discussion' with last year's Physics Nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt. He is an astronomer at the Australian National University and he talked about ways in which Chile can improve its position both nationally and internationally in the world of astronomy and more generally science. He also talked about his experiences in Australia of dealing with government and their policies which was quite interesting as I could relate to a lot of what he said.
On Tuesday I went for my first ski trip of the year at el Colorado which is about 1.5 hours outside Santiago. The weather was absolutely incredible, blue skies and warm sunshine. There were also no crowds just a few rich Brazilians. I had a great day, some photos are below and more can be found here. I skiied pretty hard all day so my legs were pretty knackered by the end of the day. I had hoped to go again on Thursday or Friday this week but the weather hasn't been too good which means there has been lots more snow in the ski areas so next week should be good.

Santiago is down there somewhere in the smog.

Yoga, Opera and football

Time for another update from Santiago. We're now into the winter season. A whole lot of rain over the last week, mainly over the weekend has meant a big dump of snow in the mountains and the most of the ski resorts open this weekend! I now have a few weeks or so to make the most of it before I return to Australia.  The views on clear days of the snow covered mountains now are spectacular.

I have to mention football and the Euro 2012. The tournament is now down to the business end, lose and you're out, winner takes all. England play Italy on Sunday but before that there's a few juicy match ups, Spain v France could be a bit tasty as you never know which French team is going to turn up. I'll be heading down to the Shamrock on Sunday afternoon which has sort of become the HQ for the British and Irish lunch members. I can recommend both the 'Bangers and Mash' and 'Fish and Chips' that  they serve and there was talk of a traditional roast lunch being on the menu for Sunday's game.

I had a small party at my place on Saturday night which I think was reasonably successful and the neighbours didn't complain. I was woken up in the early hours of the morning by loud bangs and flashes which could have been gunfire. Later when I got up I found that there was no water and electricity. The transformer in the street had decided to blow up over night which is slightly less dramatic than gunfire. The water supply was restored once the emergency generator kicked in but there was no power for most of the day which meant a freezing cold shower.

Monday night I did my first ever yoga class.  Karin normally does yoga on monday nights but for some reason this week they were having the class in her apartment, I think someone was away this week. So three of us and the instructor pushed our bodies into positions that nature obviously didn't intend. Although I have never been to a yoga class I do have some experience with yoga, I am the owner of a yoga DVD that I used privately for a couple of months. I actually quite enjoyed the class and might take it up when I return to Australia. Interestingly I slept really well after the class and had really vivid dreams.

Tonight I am going to the opera, a production of Donizetti's 'Lucrezia Borgia' at the Teatro Municipal. I don't think I have been to an opera as an adult, as a teenager I have vague recollections of gatecrashing a rather grand open air production in Orange in the south of france once while on a family holiday.

Pre match blog

It's the morning before England vs Sweden. The games are on at pretty civilised times here, 12 midday and 2.45 pm in Chile, (compared to Australia) although it has been leading to some pretty unproductive afternoons as I have to go to the pub to watch the games. The first game I watched was on Saturday afternoon, I worked at home in the morning so I could go to Flannery's (one of the Irish bars) in Santiago for the 12 o'clock. There were quite a few people there I  knew and so it was around 4 pm by the time I eventually left. Germany vs Portugal. I managed to find myself in the Shamrock pub with around 25 Portugese despite my efforts to invite Germans. Germany are looking the team to beat although Spain looked pretty good yesterday. On Monday, England's first game against France, I  For todays game I am going to the Shamrock, this is a relatively new bar in Santiago, only open a few months and owned by an Irishman Darren. The British and Irish lunch club will meet for lunch first then stay on for the England Sweden game so I am sure a few cold beers will be taken and the afternoon will stretch into the evening.

Other important new. The snow has finally arrived, I on't think there is enough for the resorts to open yet but I think it will only be a week or two so I might get a week or two of the ski season before I leave on July 14th.

I gave my last lecture to the students here last week. Next week I will do some revision with them and then they have an exam the week after so I should have some free time the first two weeks of July.


A

Brr

The weather in Santiago is suddenly very cold. The last few days have seen morning temperatures of only a few degrees above zero. This has been accompanied by clear blue skies which I far prefer to the greyness we had previously. My apartment is not too cold despite not having any central heating. There is an electric convection heater which so far has done the job. Santiago is a bit like Brisbane in some respects in that everyone is in denial that it actually does get cold in winter and warm insulated buildings are needed.

Anyway, a short summary of what I've been up to the last 7 days. On Friday was the second British and Irish Lunch, regular readers ( I like to think I have regular readers) might remember the first one I went to a few weeks after I arrived. This one was in a restaurant Coquineria which is underneath the Hotel W. The service and food was not too impressive unfortunately but I think a good time was had by all anyway. Needless to say after a pisco sour and couple of glasses of wine I wasn't too productive for the remainder of the afternoon. Saturday was a pretty lazy day. I then went out for dinner in the evening to a local Italian restaurant Tiramisu, they do really good pizza's. I've realised that you have to be careful in Chile when ordering long drinks. My friend Karin ordered a vodkas and tonic. In Chile that means 3/4 of a large glass of vodka with a bit of ice and a can of tonic water.

On Sunday we had arranged a trip to Isla Negra which is best known as being the favourite home of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, he also had homes in Valparaiso and Santiago. Apparently he had an obsession with the sea which explains his love of the house. It is located right on the coast overlooking the windswept rocky coastline. You are able to do an audioguide tour of the house which was quite interesting. I have put some photo's up here. Sorry that there aren't any of the house.

Andrew