Vikas Aggarwaal took us to the Black Forest in south western Germany. The scenery made it feel like home 🙂 We took a short Gondola ride to the top of a ski field (summer season) and went on a scenic walk through the forest.
Blog
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Chemistry lab in Heidelberg
Our lab got renovated recently. It doesn’t look anything like this old school chemistry lab we saw at the Heidelberg castle though!
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Internal shoulder photos
Look away now if you don’t like seeing icky stuff. The following photos are of the internals of my shoulder as seen through an athroscopic probe during a Bankhardt repair performed in late November.
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Japanese delicacies
Vicki and I stopped over in Japan on our way back from Europe. Here are some lovely photos of the wonderful delicacies you can enjoy whilst visiting 😀
I must have been hungry as I ate a whole bunch of these fish, eyeballs and all! They had a nice ginger taste to them and washed down well with a cold glass of coke (which was necessary as it was darn hot there). 
Eel spines, apparently they're a chewey snack!? No I did not try these, they look gross. 
I also tried authentic Japanese sushi and a few other generic local foods, but I won’t bore you with photos of those.
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Random people pics
Here are some photos I found kicking around on my hard drive that I’d forgotten to upload to the web.
Vicki Argyle in an alcove at Davids Castle in Jerusalem, Israel 
Vikas and Stephanie at the Heidelberg Castle in Germany 
Vicki Argyle on a strange wooden seat at the Speyer transport museum in Germany 
Vicki Argyle outside the Heidelberg castle's walls -
Heidelberg
After our day trip to Karlsruhe, Vicki and I met up with Vikas == (another former labmate of mine) and headed over to Heidelberg. When we arrived, we met up with my old friend Sandra and Vikas’s friend Stephanie.
Sandra Panienka, Stephanie Jungkunz, Victoria Argyle and Vikas Aggarwal The city is incredibly beautiful. High up on the hilltop is the famous Heidelberg Castle which went to visit.
Heidelberg castle 
Entrance to Heidelberg castle 
Stephanie standing in front of the castle 
Vicki and Stephanie checking out the local architecture 
Vikas – up close and personal -
Karlsruhe
After galavanting around England, Vicki Argyle and I headed off to Karlsruhe in Germany, where Frederik (my ex-labmate) picked us up from the airport and took us to the “Institut für Anorganische Chemie der Universität Karlsruhe”, which is the inorganic chemistry department of Karlsruhe university. We got to meet Frederik’s lab mates, including Julia who is coming to Dunedin shortly. Frederik also took us on a tour of the city of Karlsruhe and taught me some highly useful German phrases such as ‘Willst du mich heiraten?’.
Frederik and Vicki Argyle 
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The royal guards
And the prize for the busiest tourist attraction in London goes to … the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.
I took the photo below by standing on my tippy toes, waving my camera held high and clicking away in the vain hope that I’d get a photo of something interesting.
Vicki tried the same approach, but had a lot more luck than I did!
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Shoulder surgery
I’m having a Bankart repair done on my shoulder on Monday. Below are some photos of my shoulder. Uunfortunately you can’t see much damage as it’s the soft tissue which needs repaired. My shoulder pops out of the socket on a regular basis ever since I was body checked in a non-contact ice hockey game. I even managed to dislocate it picking up a bottle of coke the other day!
Here is a video explaining the type of surgical procedure I’ll probably be getting.
