Visitors in May

We've had lots of visitors lately. I've written about our April visitors so now to our May visitors. 

Casey and Andrew visited for the footy. They're West Coast and Bombers fans respectively as are Paul and I. Since our teams have both been playing much better this year, it was set to be a corker of a match. Unfortunately that also meant that seats were hard to come by, so we were up on the third deck. Great view from up there though!

 

The Eagles fans. 

I look shocking, sorry. In my defence it was raining so my hair is wet, not greasy!!!

Fraternising with the enemy ;)

Lawrence, one of Paul's work mates from Adelaide also visited last month and we took him wine tasting in the Yarra.

Domaine Chandon

Boat O'Craigo

Train Trak

Sticks

(where I didn't take a photo)

Yering Station

We had a great time with both sets of visitors. It's always fun to have people staying as we get to be tourists again. But it is also nice to have quiet time!!

Dessert Pizza

Pizza night has become a regular occurrence. We've had three so far and I'm looking forward to the next. I made a dessert pizza at one of them. I took a photo, but never got round to posting it.

Nut-free chocolate spread, sherry soaked strawberries and blueberries, mint, marscapone, and grated white and milk chocolate to finish.

Introducing Brigitte

This post goes all the way back to April, when our new car finally arrived. It took what felt like an eternity for the paperwork to be finalised, but the car was eventually ours the weekend after Easter. Her name is Brigitte Peugeot.

We took her out for a drive that Sunday, with the girls (aka dogs) in the back. Myf was rather offended that she had been relegated to the very back of the from the backseat. It didn't matter to Morgan - all car travel is an attempt on her life.

Our first stop was Woodend where we called in at the brewery for refreshments and to stock up our fridge. Cute 'cellar door' and great beer. I highly recommend it.

  

Next stop was Hanging Rock for a walk with the girls. Dogs aren't allowed up to the rock itself, so we walked around the base. Turned out to be a great move because everyone else was on the other walking trail. It was very quiet and secluded so it was hard to believe it was only an hour out of Melbourne.

 

 

We did at one point hear some rustling in the bushes and got the distinct impression we weren't alone... can you see our audience?

We drove home via Daylesford, but didn't stop. 

Roadtrip number one was a great success (notwithstanding Morgan), so we're very pleased with our new addition.

Sunday Picnic and Stephen's Visit

Two fairly recent events that I haven't blogged about yet are 1. a Sunday picnic with Stefania, Matt and the girls and 2. Stephen's very brief visit to collect his car.

1. It was a nice afternoon and we were about to lose our car, so we drove out to visit Stefania and Matt and then went on to Lysterfield Lake for a picnic. The weather was great and so was the company. 

 

Giorgia is getting so big. I can't get over how grown up she is!

 

 

Martina is adorable

 

 

A couple of weeks after that, Stephen came to collect his car. Very selfish of him to take it back after lending it to us for a year while he was in Canada! It was great to have Stephen visit, and I wish he could have stayed longer. We'll have to book another trip in for him soon!!

Arriving at the airport

Brunch at Tom Phat (YUM!)

Dinner with Tash at Portello Rosso Jamon Bar (More YUM!)

Walls of wine

Patatas and Croquetas and olives

 Chocolate dessert

Churros

Creme Catalan

Did Stephen eat all of those desserts??

And after all of that food and fun, we had to say goodbye. I'm not sure anyone came out looking great in this photo, but it makes me chuckle!

Dogs, House and Garden

A brief update on some of the things that have been happening around our house.

We've had our French Roquefort posters framed and they're now hanging in the dining room.

We gave the dogs bones recently. We've held off doing this because of an allergy to red meat, but they really need them for their teeth. They've been a little itchy since the last bones, so we might have to make them less frequent and maybe supplement with antihistamines.

Myf, in true princess Myf style, didn't want to get her paws dirty.

Morgan, however, was happy to get stuck in with both paws.

We've had some success in our vegie patch. We've got some small beetroots and and baby leeks. 

That pretty much sums up all the basic around the house news. Stay tuned to read about Stephen's visit, the new car and other social events.

Lessons Learned at Media140au

The key to effective use of social media is to keep people up to date and empower them to make informed decisions.

I went to a conference on the use of social media in science communication last week. I came away from the day feeling inspired about how we can use social media to inform others and correct the misinformation out there. I felt excited about how I could use it in my work. I felt so inspired that I joined twitter while I was at the conference. I can't believe it's taken me this long. - twitter is awesome.. but I digress. 

I wanted to blog about some of the things that I learned at this conference. I wish I had the talent and inspiration to be a fabulous, intelligent science blogger and put all of this to use. but instead I'll have to try and utilize all that I've learned at work and hope that it helps us to increase recruitment for our trial.

A good example of effective communication is Andrew Maynard's 2020 Science Blog in which he asks questions in order to promote discussion.

Key points from the keynote

You can't just emulate other people's successes without really understanding what it is that they have done to be successful.

Be careful not to alienate people by being forceful and uncivil with your own opinion. This makes it difficult to have an open and honest dialogue.

Social media makes it easier to listen to other poeple and their thoughts and concerns. Then we are able to build a two-way relationship.

It is important to engage listeners as equals.

How to "listen"

Buzz numbers is a "listening" tool that tracks your mentions on social media and the sentiment behind the mention.

There are other free tools (ie socialmention), but you get what you pay for.

We should be listening for: 
our brand/organization name; competitors; broader industry mentions;
key stakeholders (eg CEO/ministers); scientific research; topical issues.

Why should we be "listening"?
In order to identify raw insights and gain feedback;
to assist in engaging customers/participants by identifying opportunities and leads;
for campaign analysis - are people speaking about us online;
to build an online community and reach out to bloggers;
to get on top of bad media;
to analyze our reach and recognition.

Other points from the day

It's important to focus on the dialogue, not just the tools.

Look at the facebook page of the Chief Scientist of Australia for ideas on how to interact with the public.

It has been shown that the more you "communicate" the more popular you become ie the more followers you attract and the more they interact with you.

It's important to bridge the gap between on and offline. Don't limit communications to online. Once a communication/contact has started, it can be continued offline.

Questions to ask ourselves

Where is the target audience? How do you get the right audience into the discussion?

How can I empower people to make a decision that is right for them?

Who is in your social network and how can I use them?