Kaleidoscope 2007

The year of 2007 started with Caca joining with kindergarten, and Chika at grade 1 primary school. Novy did some voluntary work at kinder and primary school. She enjoyed making "Indonesian batik" with Aussie kids at primary school. I was just wandering around the laboratory.

In March, I visited Indonesia to assist ACIAR’s PCR training at Jakarta. During this period, I managed to have a one day trip to Cirata Reservoir, a central production of common carp. My PhD research was virtually started here, when I managed to isolate a fresh Koi herpesvirus (KHV), a lethal virus causing mass mortality in koi and common carp in Indonesia and worldwide. As the Indonesian isolate of KHV proved to be virulence on Australian carp, the virus is also being used for CRC’s project on the use of KHV as a biological control agent for carp. A very interesting perspective: we're searching for a way to control KHV in order to increase the production of common carp in Indonesia, and our Aussie colleaques are looking for the possibility of using KHV to get rid from carp. Carp is considered as a pest in Australian water ways.

We closed this autumn season by climbing You Yangs Regional Park. It is only 325m above sea level, but she is the highest mountain/hills in Geelong. Having said that you can imagine how flat the region is. In the winter, we went up to Lake Mountain at Marysville. It is about 120 km east of Melbourne or three hours driven from Geelong. We passed through Yarra Valley National Park with its towering Mountain Ash and majestic Black Spur forest. Our final stop before the ski resort was Marysville, a four seasons alpine village where we can hire ski, toboggan, and other snow gears. Our kids enjoyed tobogganing and making snowman. A quiet winter holiday.

August was quite ‘an academic month’ for us. I attended an Applied Bioinformatics Course at the University of Melbourne to strengthen my knowledge on using IT to glean understanding of the molecular biology of my virus. I then went up to Brisbane to defend my research proposal and to complete my PhD candidature at the University of Queensland. I have also completed research question and comprehensive literature review, which will be the first chapter of my thesis. Last but not least, Caca started to be able to read fluently. Sunarto’s family is finally free from illiteracy. Well done, Caca!

September 17th will be a day to remember by Geelongers: our footy club won the premiership after 44 years of drought. We joint with the crowd at Skilled Stadium to watch the grand final via "monster screens" as Caca called it. The Cats beat Port Adelaide to won the premiership. Go Cats! As the weather got warmer, we started going out in the spring. We visited Werribee Open Ranger. Our kids love to see animals in the wild… hippo, camels, giraffes, but there was only one lion, and it was sleeping. The ranger is actually larger than Safari Garden in our hometown, Bogor, but the animals collection is less diverse I would said.

In October, it was the Idhul Fitri that we missed it very much. We miss our tradition of “takbiran” until the late of night in the mosque, then pray together in the next morning at the football field because our mosque could not accommodate the crowd. We also missed family, friends, and our traditional delicacies during this festive season. Another big miss was the 50 Years Wedding Anniversary of Novy’s parent. My student allowance doesn't allow us to go home, to joint with our family and friends to celebrate the golden marriage of our parents. Live long, Mum and Dad!

But ... Chika and Caca (CnC) always bring smile into our faces. They have started their social and academic life in Geelong. CnC had their first ballet concert at Geelong Performance Art. It was a beautiful performance in a perfect place. At school, Chika won the general excellence award, a kind of the best student in the class. Knowing that she didn’t speak English when she arrived in Australia 15 months ago, that’s quite an achievement. It is so sweat, sweatheart!

Happy Prosperous New Year 2008!
Agus, Novy, Chika & Caca