calissa

I'm off to visit my dad this afternoon. Just before Easter, he retired from Geoscience Australia. He spent his entire working career there, starting as a draftsman back when cartographers still used ink and paper. They'd moved on to computers by the time I was old enough to remember anything.

However, in the last few years of his career, the organisation had shifted him into quite a different role--that of photographer. Dad loved this with a passion and so he was rather grieved once he realised it made better financial sense for him to retire sooner rather than later. Not long before he left, he got the opportunity to photograph the most expensive example in GA's collection.

I make no promises as to the veracity of this information, but I have been informed that this is pyrosmalite and the sample is worth $250 000 (though in what currency, I'm unclear).

Or, more accurately, it contains pyrosmalite, because clearly there is a whole mess of things here.

Apologies for the photo quality--the files had to be shrunk so that Dad could email them to me.

Dad had been quite concerned that he'd be bored in retirement, but he has adjusted much better than he expected. Indeed, I hardly ever manage to catch him at home these days. He was in Brisbane a week or two ago and I am looking forward to seeing his photos this afternoon.