Some Stories: (Caution may contain drug references)

One day Jules was wandering the corridors of the John Curtin School and discovered outside the old physiology lab a large cylinder of Nitrous Oxide. It had apparently been left there in the hallway, forgotten, unloved…. Not wanting to keep all the fun to himself he soon told a few of the other students. So for a few months after Friday beers we would wander downstairs to suck on the nitrous. Then collapsing in giggles on the floor or running as far as we could down the corridors before it wore off. Jules would also do this alone (not recommended by the health and safety committee) and came around one day with the cylinder on top of him and blood coming from a cut on his head. He took a few photos of his head in the gel doc machine to remember this famous incident by. (A scanned version of one of these is out in the ether somewhere?). The photos hung over his very messy desk for a long time. One day the nitrous cylinder disappeared and we were all very sad.

Having lunch with Jules: he always brought healthy stuff from home to eat. Many times he would reach into his deep cargo pant pockets to discover the container of humus had leaked again.

And those cargo pants, they hung so low the technician would complain she could see his pubic hair.

Working late: Being a dedicated student Jules often worked late. But that was ok as there was a bed in the first aid room where he could sleep over.

Canberra student accommodation: I remember Jules living in a large university run flat with 8-10 people in a dorm style flat. It had two complete kitchens side by side in one room. This lead to problems with the dishes not being washed. The problem became so bad they had to call a flat meeting on the dishes crisis. The solution - they threw out half the dirty dishes.

In between flats: He spent a week or two camping out on Black mountain. Another week (must have been winter, and someone else was staying on the couch) he stayed in my garage. He arrived with a shopping trolley with all his things and stayed in this dark cave of a garage (it had no windows).

The scientist was ever experimenting: Jules and Jochen ordered magic mushroom spores over the internet from the USA. Then tried to grow them in the incubator at work. They didn't grow. Other native mushrooms were studied and collected from the surrounding bush. I went to a rave in Belconnen with the two of them and remember drinking one of their mushroom milkshakes. Many other purportedly hallucinogenic substances were tried by Jules eg. Cough medicine, nutmeg, acacia bark (the botanic gardens in Canberra had some rare species), and of course many mushrooms. Jochen was keen on keeping their urine after a good high to try and purify for the second time around.

Jules was always doing something crazy and having adventures. I last saw Jules when he visited me with Claudia in Aachen, Germany three years ago while they were hunting for postdocs. These were a few memories of him running around Canberra, always having fun, full of ideas and life.

(click for large photo 4.5MB)	Skiing Thredbo ~July 1998: Jules, Jochen and I drove up to Thredbo for a days skiing. After smoking a couple of spliffs on the drive up we headed up the mountain. I took this picture on the lift and then promptly dropped my pole. Jules and Jochen skied down the steep lift line to rescue it for me..
(click for large photo 3.9MB)	Cocktail party at Lower Downer, Canberra 1999. Mary Huggins, Jules and Michael Clarkson.