Life + Times of Fenton et al.

Category: Fenton

  • Next Please!

    For those that have been keeping score you’ll be aware that the end of this July will see the completion of my current employment contract. Further work with my current employer is not possible, mostly due to policy, bureaucratic and administrative reasons (You didn’t think keeping a Dutch-employed Australian in Germany was easy did you?). So, after a brief consideration of retirement, I’ve decided to press on in the workforce and am therefore currently engaged in seeking further work. I’d like to say I’m currently engaged in reviewing multiple offers but this hasn’t eventuated just yet. There are many factors that go into an employment situation when you are a physicist; a prime consideration is “Who employs physicists anyway?’

    The answer to that question is found all over the globe with realistic locations including the UK, the US, elsewhere in Europe and possibly even Australia. As a family we have decided to try to restrict the options to either German- or English-speaking countries. The transition for the children is probably the most demanding and to ask them to change schools, cultures and to leave friends behind is big enough — let alone a new language where you have little to no idea about anything for the first six months. Most of the children, of course, opt for a return to Australia to once again enjoy a closer association with family, sunshine and brutal sports. In the near future though this doesn’t seem all that likely. Ultimately of course it will depend on offered employment or a decided change in career.

    One of the big drawbacks at this stage is that we are in a sort of limbo. It’s more that we aren’t sure where we are going rather than that we are moving. Gaynor has become almost masterful at dealing with this condition — we’ve done it numerous times in the past — but still it’s not easy. Of course, this situation also means that those who were thinking of using a relatively cheap base for a tour of Europe should hurry up about it. 😀

  • Contact!

    Well strictly contacts. My most commonly worn pair of glasses recently defied any further attempts to keep them in one piece. Thus, requiring a new pair, I decided that instead I would see how I went with contact lenses. I have a trial period of a month with some soft, disposable lenses and I must say, after a short adjustment period, they are really quite comfortable. I’m also getting better at controlling my reaction to essentially sticking my finger in my eye when putting them in or taking them out.

    The peripheral vision is excellent but it’s still taking a bit of getting used to seeing myself clearly without glasses on. The feeling of walking around without glasses is not as vulnerable as doing it with blurred vision but it’s still somewhat ‘naked’.

  • Licence Obtained

    While not quite the dynamic title of a James Bond book, I’m nevertheless pleased to have completed the final hurdle — the practical exam. You may recall the earlier ones — to receiving my German driver’s licence. It was actually the second attempt having failed the first one on the last turn into the testing centre’s car park a week before Christmas. To be sure it was cruel (and I felt in error) given that we were expecting to drive to Spain a week later. There is a minimum two week wait between tests.

    We agonised over our options for a couple of days and in the end decided I was too poor of a passenger to make it. So it meant that in the end we flew to Spain, instead of the expected total of 6 days in the car. Though more expensive it was, of course, much faster however we are still undecided if it was less stressful. It also gave me an opportunity to use one of my more recently frequent phrases when discussing the (now obviously simple) solution to a problem: ‘… and all it took was a whole lot of money.’ I’m still amazed at how many problems this almost trivial solution can be applied to.

    So now I’m driving again, much to Gaynor’s relief (bad passenger that I am) and for those alert readers who remember my commentary on the Australian driving learner caught doing 177 km/h, I managed 130 during the exam I passed, mostly due to the short amount of autobahn and the under-powered car I was in. 😀

  • View from Europe

    I still follow quite closely the news and current events in Australia, using the ABC website almost exclusively for this. Two recent stories in a row made me think a little about what Europe currently means to an expatriated Aussie.

    The bombing at Madrid Airport made me sit up and take notice since Gaynor and the girls were only there the day before. Even though the bombed terminal was two kilometres away from the one the girls were transiting through it certainly made me stop and think about what it means to live and travel in such a place. While we feel closer, in some sense, to the centre of the world that also means being closer to world events, even the ugly ones. Certainly Europe has seen (and caused) more than its fair share of wars over the centuries and, in part, I put it down to the large number of sharply varying cultures crammed into a relatively small area. I am still amazed as how quickly culture and language change as you travel, even within a single nation. However, on the whole I think Europe does a pretty fair job of keeping it all in check — tolerance, building on common ground and the like — but incidents such as this bombing make you realise it’s not all roses yet.

    A story about a 40 year old learner caught doing 177km/h — according to the police (and look he probably was!) — also caught my attention. Despite growing up in Australia with a fair amount of government and traffic authorities’ propaganda, I’ve never believed that speed alone is dangerous. Since driving in Germany, especially on the autobahns (I’m missing them already!), I’m even more convinced of it. In my opinion the Germans, at least, take a much more balanced and reasonable approach. There are very strict rules governing traffic here and they view their driving much more as a social responsibility than as a personal right. The cost to obtain a licence alone is enough to make one value it.

    There have been many reasons why the time we have spent here has been very good for us and getting a different view of the world and life is certainly one of the top three.

  • Blogger Hiccup

    Google have released an updated version of Blogger — the site and software which power this blog. During the change over many articles were ‘re-published’, so to speak, when we applied the new labelling system [1]. So if you subscribe to the blog via the Atom or FeedBlitz newsfeeds (see down the left-hand side of this page) then you will receive notification of all the ‘new’ articles. Feel free to ignore them or re-read them, as you wish. Just pay attention to the date at the top of each post so you know if you are getting something fresh or a history lesson!

    [1] You’ll see any applied labels at the bottom of each post. You can click on it to get all the articles so labelled.

  • Paranimf-in’

    A little while ago two PhD students at work graduated from their respective Dutch universities. I had had a small hand in helping both of them with their theses — mostly editing (thanks be to Brett), English and some thoughts on layout. I attended the graduation ceremonies of both and they are somewhat different to my own in Australia.

    Firstly, the generic Australian version. Usually the protocol is to write the thesis, submit it to the univeristy who — with the preparation of you and your supervisor who have invited them — send it off to the examiners. There are rules about who can and cannot do this but in general it is three or four people who know enough about your work (hopefully) to say if it’s rubbish or not. They prepare a report on the work and then recommend one of a few possible outcomes[1] This then goes to the University who generally follow through on the advice they have received and a bit later on you (optionally and usually a few months) head to the official graduation ceremony where you, along with a few hundred others (mostly undergraduates), are presented with your scroll of paper. At some universities they read out the thesis title of the graduand before handing over the parchment and other places — like my own at ANU — they just print it in the program.

    The differences with the Dutch system include, for starters, it takes more the form of a formal thesis defence. The candidate having previously published and submitted his thesis to the examining committee, then comes before them in a formal ceremony and is grilled for a designated — and strictly controlled — time period. Work colleagues, friends and family typically attend the ceremony. To support the grillee — though pretty much only in a moral sense — two assistants are asked and they are known as the paranimfs. I don’t think there is an strictly equivalent word in English. Anyway, I was recently invited to be a paranimf. This pretty much involved wearing a dark suit, walking in the processions, standing in the right place at the right time and sitting still during the Process-O-Grilling. I thought it might also entail coming quickly to one’s feet and calling ‘Objection!’ or stopping the candidate running from the room but I appear to have been mistaken. Overall the ceremony went well.

    At the end of the Grill Fest the examining committee retires for its deliberations and upon return (usually) grant the degree on the spot. Usually then the candidate’s “promotor” (the academic who officially is putting him forward as a candidate) says a few words about the candidate (now Doctor) and their efforts. The ceremony is concluded and friends, family and colleagues adjourn to a reception room to partake in drinks, hors d’œuvre, congratulations and possibly even some gift giving. Then it’s all over bar the posing.

    The Man of the Moment with family members and flanked by his two Paranimfs.

    [1] Generally and broadly they are: conferral of degree with no changes, conferral of degree with minor changes, rewrite and resubmission of thesis and denial of degree.

  • German Driver’s Licence

    This post is part vent, part information. So, the time has come for me to obtain my German driver’s licence[1] and there are a number of rules governing the use of foreign licences here. For starters the most infuriating part is the sheer bureaucratic and almost arbitrary nature of which licences are easily exchangeable. Once you have moved here the rule is all licences should be converted to a German licence within 6 months. Since I only ‘moved’ here at the beginning of May[2] I must change over by November. There is a list as to which countries can simply exchange their licences and those whose resident’s must take theory and/or practical tests. The list is generated using the rule: “Whoever Germany has made a formal agreement with”. And that seems to be the only rule as far as I can find out.[3]

    That means that all countries in the EU are fine to just exchange, since Germany as an EU member has agreed to this. The list gets a little stranger the further away you go. So Japan is free to exchange as are South Korea and Canada however Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are not. The list gets, in my opinion, positively crazy when some states in the U.S. can simply exchange — such as Utah and Virginia — others must only perform a theory test — such as Missouri and Oregon — and still others, such as poor Texas, must do both a theory and practical test. Australia, NZ and South Africa also fall into this category of having to do both tests. If you hold a current licence the requirement for a certain number of instructor hours is waived.

    In addition to the tests one must also present documentation for a first aid course, eye sight test as well as a translation of any current licence. Of course each of these cost money and money also goes to pay for the tests, the licence itself and the driving lessons (enough for the instructor to determine that you are competent enough to pass). All up for Gaynor the cost was around the 400€ mark and I expect it will be a little cheaper for me, though probably not much. To keep this in ‘perspective’ one should realise that a first-time licence getter will pay a minimum of 1500€, most of which goes in lesson time to meet the required number of hours standard.

    The craziest part of the licence exchange (fühererscheinumschreibung in German) is that legally it’s ok for you to get off a plane from Australia — having driven your whole life in a right-hand drive vehicle and on the left hand side of the road — and do 200km/h down the autobahn. And you can keep doing this for 6 months not having a clue about the road rules or being able to read German to know them. After that however, they really view you as a danger on the roads since you don’t have a valid licence!

    On the plus side you do end up with pretty decent driver training and they really do seem to take their social responisibilty to be a good driver very seriously. In addition, the German driver’s licences are valid for life. You only have to do this once and they never need to be renewed. And — and here is the part I like and will miss soon enough — you can keep driving on the autobahns. 😀

    [1] Gaynor’s time has already come and gone and she successfully completed the transfer last April. But since she hasn’t blogged about it, I’ll have a go.
    [2] Actually didn’t blog about that piece of minor news though it was alluded to in our post about our visit to Amsterdam.
    [3] Bit more information on driving in Germany at How To Germany.

  • Poster Accolade

    Followers of the newly published calendar (link to the left) may have noticed a recent two-day event, the 18th NNV/CPS Symposium. It’s a small conference run by the Dutch Physical Society (NVV) primarily as a forum for PhD students. I presented a poster (pdf file, 1.8MB) entitled Detection of Relativistic Electrons and Positrons in a Tokamak which won the ‘Best Poster’ prize. 😀 The prize was accompanied by the gift of two books, The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos both by Brian Greene.

  • Consider Columbus

    For those not in the field of scientific endeavour (or indeed other forays into investigating the unknown) here is a quick working definition of what it is all about.

    Research, n.:
    Consider Columbus:
    He didn’t know where he was going.
    When he got there he didn’t know where he was.
    When he got back he didn’t know where he had been.
    And he did it all on someone else’s money.

  • Going Dutch

    Even though we are living in Germany[1], I am employed by a Dutch organisation, FOM. For foreigners coming into the Netherlands, they invite you to a Dutch language and customs course. This is to help you assimilate and acclimatise and so even though I spend very little time in the Netherlands I was obliged to attend. I have very little reason to learn the Dutch language, even though I was quite interested to. (I’m finding out that you can’t speak too many languages.). There’s little reason, since, not only do I spend very little time in that country, but my Dutch colleagues (and Dutch people in general) all speak excellent English.

    It was originally a five day course with a weekend after the second day. However a Dutch train strike on the Friday meant there was no course for that day. So perhaps that was a reasonable introduction to some Dutch customs. I took the trains from our village to Utrecht with a total travel time of about 3.5 hours on three different trains. The train from Köln (Cologne) to Utrecht (known as the ICE – International City Express) is quite nice, travelling around 130 km/h, with airline-type seats which have a power point and head phone jack (you provide the head phones) with audio programs available.

    I enjoyed the course — there is a fair bit of overlap between German and Dutch and with my German vocabulary getting much bigger this made it easier — though I do seem to be coming home with a sore throat from trying to pronounce some of the sounds. The course was taught in English and, even though everyone spoke it (other participants were Bulgarian, Ukrainian, French, Italian, Pakistani and Turkish), I was the only one who spoke only one language. Sometimes I really feel that here mono-lingual is mono-brow. *chest thump* “Ug. Me Fenton. Me speak English.”

    [1] Technically, I live in the Netherlands. That is, I have an official address there and Gaynor and the children official reside in Germany. Hopefully soon my Dutch residency permit will be approved and I can then officially move to Germany. So at the moment, I just holiday in Germany a lot. 🙂