How it started

In September and October we visited Australia. I was visiting the SKA simulation group at Swinburne Uni in Melbourne and the ATNF in Sydney. I've been to ATNF many times and have old friends there. I'd never been to Melbourne before but really liked the people there as well. Judi and I had a blast in Victoria and New South Wales. We always have fun traveling together.

When we got to Sydney, I was offered a job at ATNF and found myself thinking hard about it. I'd always enjoyed visiting the AT and loved Sydney. One of my favorite things in the world is to ride the Manly Ferry.

The main question in my mind was how my kids, Zoe and Gavin, would react. They are 21 and 19 respectively and just wonderful children and people. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

When we got back, I talked to both of them. I can't say that they were thrilled to have me on the other side of the world. Somehow they came to terms with it (maybe). We're going to pay for each of them to visit twice a year - that'll help a bit. Also phone calls are cheap, and we'll work on getting a video connection set up. And I'll be back in the US fairly often.

To help us decide whether to go or not, we made up a spreadsheet of pluses and minuses. Here's the final version. It's a good way to focus the mind. Most of these ratings changed over time as we found out more. It'll be interesting to look back on this spreadsheet in a year or so and decide what we got right and what we got wrong.