Hi, and welcome to my site! Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is alia-801 (you didn't think I'd make it that easy did you?!) aka 801, 801_frog and various other combinations of things with 801 in them somewhere. And before you ask, it's a very long story.

I'm 30 years old, female, and I currently live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm the Club Coordinator for Whitehorse Gymnastic Club, I teach Chemistry at Monash College, and I am involved with astrophysics units at Monash University School of Mathematical Sciences. Previously, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PostDoc) in the newly-formed Centre for Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics at Monash University. I did my first degree (BSc) in Chemistry and Astrophysics at Keele University, then stayed on to do my PhD in Astrophysics (more about that on my work page). I was a postdoc at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK for a year too, working with Sean Ryan.

The biggest use of my "spare" time is looking after our sun conure parrot, Magic.

The rest of the time, my hobbies include: dancing, yoga/pilates, coaching rhythmic gymnastics, reading, cinema, singing, theatre, watching Derren Brown and reading his books, and (when I'm somewhere that has them) castle-spotting with my blokie, Richard. I'm also a first aider and communications operator for St John Ambulance.

Oh, and I also like looking after my neopet, BobPteri.

and training my Racing Frog, Beachfrog.

When I get chance, I take part in online campaigns for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) via their PandaPassport website:

In my previous incarnations (prior to becoming alia-801) I have also been a Drum Major in a marching band, a young leader for the Girls Brigade, Speaker of the House at my university, and a Sunday School teacher. For one reason or another I don't do any of them any more, but they were all fun at the time.

So, that's most of my waffling. About the rest of my site: it's a somewhat eclectic mix of things I'm interested in, things I like doing, things that I've put here so I don't have to keep posting copies to people, and stuff that just got put here cos I was bored at the time I wrote it! So just get clicking on the links and enjoy!

A couple of my friends run online shops:
Gadget Village (UK) sells high-quality gadgets and gifts - a great place for unusual presents
Neopets images - copyright Neopets.com; Turtle image - copyright WWF.