Away for a week
I won't have access to the internet for a week while I go on my field trip. If possible, and if a great urge arises, and IF there is reception there for my S'pore line, I shall be phlogging.
Checked the weather forecast for Shrewsbury, which is the closest town to the
Preston-Montford Field Studies Centre. It's a freakin' -1 degC tonight. The next few days' forecast is not that encouraging either.
http://www.onlineweather.com/v4/uk/city/Shrewsbury.html.
Today -
EBE lecture 15: Metapopulations
EBE lecture 16: Chaos
Wagged both lectures. R helped me get my notes, and that's all I need.
After so many days (or indeed weeks), I've managed to work my way past the firewall and now I can FTP files onto my server, but it's still extremely slow and many my files (i.e. images) ended up broken or not completely uploaded. Shall have to find a way around that...
I think I'm about to fall sick, if I'm not already sick. I've a sorethroat and a bit of wheezing... which I recognise as not being symptoms of sinus. Took some pills and drank Beechams Hot Lemon (yuck!) and hope I won't fall any sick-er than this.
BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2002
The exhibit for the
BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2002 is now open at the Natural History Museum. I shall be going there one lunchtime to take a look. Meanwhile, the website's got some wonderful images too.
Today -
EBE lecture 13: Inter-species competition
EBE lecture 14: Predator-prey dynamics
I wagged my very first lecture... lecture 13. Some lecturers tend to have this ability to scare off their students. I asked R to save me a set of notes. Even when I went for the second one, I nearly fell asleep, had I not started drawing random things on my notes, like many others. But I couldn't help it. He was still as boring as ___ (fill in the blank), and his annoying habit of closing his eyes (and raising his head at the same time) is really irritating. I admit I'm mean, but hey, I'm not the only one. This is getting really over the line now... I just hope no authorities from Imperial will stop by this blog!
There was the ICSS OGM during lunchtime. There were reports from the treasurer, secretary etc., and little bits and pieces of info to let us know how ICSS was faring and also, the events lined up for us these few months. Got my ICSS membership card and the Makan Card (which entitles the holder to a 10% discount in selected oriental restaurants in London).
Had dinner outside... with the ICSS bio people. Out of the five bio freshers, only three went (two of them were unwell) and two 2nd-years, and two seniors. Went to the Oriental Canteen at South Keng. So many people are falling sick... this is one bug I wouldn't like to catch.
Today's weather was much colder than yesterday's, which was in turn colder than that of yes-yesterday. In other words, the weather is becoming colder. I wore my long coat for the first time... finally... now that the temperature is low enough. I put my clock outside on the window ledge and the temperature reading was 9 degC. It rained a little in the arvo, and some people said that there was frost on the grass in the early morning.
Today -
EBE lecture 11: Climate change
EBE lecture 12: Population dynamics
We had a new lecturer today. Boy is he boring! This lecturer is much younger than our first one, and but he speaks slow. So slow that he puts people to sleep... and he talks with this funny habit of closing his eyes for 2 or 3 seconds instead of blinking. It's annoying... he does that when he's lecturing and it makes us wonder if he himself feels sleepy too. He'll be teaching us for the next few days as well. Knowing that I would be falling half-asleep, I recorded the lectures. Upon playback, the only thing I could hear for the first few minutes was the coughing and sneezing of the students in the auditorium. A friend even commented that the place is becoming more like a medical waiting room than a lecture hall. The bug... aye, gotta beware of the bug...
Went to the maths tute room to get the sheets (linear, quadratic etc. graph-sketching notes, but didn't go for the tute. They don't do any teaching anyway. You just sit there and work.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but the water here tastes and looks horrible. It tastes metallic and stale, and has white swirly whisps of substance in it, even after it is boiled. Some say that it is because of the heavy mix of chalk and lead in it. Auntie D (recall: from Friday 17 Oct's blog) called me up saying that she was at Oxford St, getting a water filtration unit for me. I kept insisting that I didn't really need it, or, if even I did, I was in no hurry at all. Nevertheless, she got it and I met her at the South Keng tube station to get it from her. She's such a nice auntie. I wanted to pay for it but she refused. She'll be going back to Hong Kong tomorrow...
I used the filter when I got back, and the difference was just fantastic. The filtered water was delicious! If such a thing can be said of plain 'ole water. There were no more 'yucky' tastes, it was clear without traces of chalk, and it was so refreshing and pure that I downs a few cups. There were a few occasions when, in the first few days of my being here, I actually had to squeeze my nose while drinking water... it was *that* horrible. I've been lucky so far that I haven't developed rashes yet. Or maybe it's really only chlorine that causes it.
Yumm... water... yum...
Tg Piai
That's the place the SBWR staff and volunteers and some NSS people went for the overnight camp during the weekend that's just past.
TH has sent us his trip report... and since he want to go there again it must've been good. The photos of the sunset and sunrises... the wonderful mangrove foliage and flora and fauna... sigh. Waaahhhh I wanna gooo... give me the mangroves... not the hills and lakes of Wales and England. (Hmm, actually, I don't know yet. I'm reserving that statement for later use.)
I have been forced... to write up another blog entry... at this time of the day... thanks to a fire drill.
It wasn't really a drill. The security officer said that the cause was that the sensors detected some drugs (!!??) or something, and sounded off... it wasn't because of smoke or heat. And that it was illegal, and the person responsible could deal with the government if he wanted to.
We were all freezing outside... some were in their PJs, and many were in bathrobes. I changed my shorts for jeans and lopped on my Abb Boarders jumper. A few unlucky ones were in the shower!
Bugs and Nits
Today's blog is becoming way toooo loooong for a blog, but I couldn't help but include this anecdote. No, don't worry. There are no nits here.
It's just that these few days have seen many people falling sick with the 'flu and coughing and all, and so over the dinner table a part of our convo included a topic dealing with transmittable bugs (viruses) and "sore-eyes" etc. My little contribution was about Abbotsleigh having nits... and so here I shall include my full account of the experience through two emails which I sent to my friends at that time:
==========================
----- Original Message -----
From: xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 1:36 PM
Subject: update 5
NEWSFLASH!!!
The sequel to OUTBREAK in boarding houses in abbotsleigh in australia:
OUTBREAK 2 - NITS
Story synopsis:
There is this little girl in year 8 in the Vindin Boarding House, who has
had NITS (otherwise known as head lice or parasites). She has, apparently,
had them for 5 weeks (since the hols) and she can't seem to be able to get
rid of them from her hair. Her family lives quite some miles away, and she
has no guardians nearby, SO she HAD TO continue staying in the boarding
house, with NITS in her HAIR! Fact: nits love living in clean hair, and you
can't just get rid of them by washing your hair more often - it gets worse!
She has been treating her hair with some nits detoxification chemicals but
to no effect. Obviously it can't go on this way, and something must
happen.... and something DID happen: through time, the Vindin house had
become so infested with nits jumping/flying all around that all the boarders
in Vindin had to leave the house and stay away with their day-girl friends
or other friends, for at least a week. The nits had even spread to some of
the day-girls, and ALSO McCredie House and some of the other boarding
houses.... which means that MY house is also infected....
The housemistress called for a emergency year 11 meeting yesterday afternoon
after school.... telling us what is happening, and what to do... and what
all of us had to and have to do is to wash our hair with nits detoxification
chemical, massage deep into the scalp, leave it for 30mins, and get a friend
to comb our hair for us, starting from the roots. It was disgusting. So
yesterday before dinner we had to send all our clothes to the laundry, and
it's not the usual laundry.... it's the central laundry where, the old
timers say, nothing comes back to you in one piece... and sometimes, whole
pieces of clothing gets missing. I didn't send ALL my clothes in. I have
this spray that you use when you have muscle aches and stuff, and at home in
S'pore I sometimes use it to keep ants and insects from coming through the
window ledges and doors, so I sprayed that spray into my closet and my
drawers. (Don't worry, I am not allergic to that spray.) It does not do
anything to the colours or texture of clothes, so it's safe. My roommate and
I have had our heads inspected for nits, and none of us has it nor the eggs.
------ INTERRUPTION -------
While typing this email, I was called out for another emergency meeting and
guess what!!! THEY ARE CLOSING DOWN McCREDIE!!!!!! Arrrgghhh!!!!!!! The Head
of Boarding came, and they said that things are getting out of control, so
we cannot stay any longer.... and must arrange to leave asap. We must be
prepared to leave for as long a a week, or even longer.
I need to make arrangements now, so I'd better stop typing now. I'll
continue if I have the chance.
==========================
----- Original Message -----
From: xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 1:36 PM
Subject: update 5 (continued)
OUTBREAK 2: NITS (continued)
i'm now in my parents' friends' house/ friends'
parents' house, whichever way you like it. it's the
family who used to live in s'pore, but migrated to
aust. they're the ones who live closest to my
school ( besides another family of aussies who
live, like, practically 100m from my school, but
i'm not that close to them so i won't consider
living with them...)
what a surprising turn of events! now even if we
want to go to school tomorrow, we're not allowed
to. the boarding head and coordinators
(housemistresses) said not to return to the
boarding school until monday night. they don't care
if we wag (skip) school on monday. many of the
asian boarders do not have anyone whom they can
live with for such a long period of time so they're
being normadic: they're gonna sleep in different
places on different nights. i know one who will be
staying with 3 different day-girls!
yup, as i said in the earlier email, this
particular year 8 girl started the whole
catastrophe. i pity her, actually. it's not her
fault that the stupid nits refused to have their
line of reproduction halted. at first, i was
shocked when i found out that her house, vindin,
had to be closed down. now it's my turn... ... it's
amazing just how a few minute creatures trillions
and trillions of times smaller than we are, and not
causing any particular harm, can do to so many
humans. now let me add on to my list of disliked
creatures: mosquitoes, some flies, big cockroaches,
irritating ants, and NITS.
also, i mentioned that a few day girls had them
too. it must have been from those living in vindin.
so, yeah, yesterday all those in mccredie had rid
their hair of nits already, so we were all
considered nit-free....until today, when after
school, one of the mccredie boarders found jumping
nits in her hair! so one of the day girls must have
passed it back to her... and this cycle of nits
jumping from everyone to everyone else must be
stopped... and that's why i'm here.
before we left the house, we were instructed to
clear our shelves of our books, empty our drawers
of our personal belongings and clothes, remove the
bed sheets and mattress protectors etc., and send
all our clothes in the closet to the laundry,
except for those which we will be wearing. so it
was like moving house, but we put the things in
trash bags instead of boxes. some people will be
coming to fume the entire house and sprinkle some
white powder around to kill the eggs, and so that's
why we need to protect and hide everything away. we
were told to bring our valuables with us to
wherever we are going to, so just to come to this
place now i've brought along: my laptop and laptop
bag, my camera and camera bag, my school bag
containing all my books and files and the skink, my
longish kipling (camping) bag for my clothes and
pillow (yes, we had to bring along our pillows too)
and a smaller bag to use when i go out. i hope i've
not 'shrunk' too much by carrying all those stuff!
during biology today (which is after lunch) 3 girls
did not turn up for lessons. after a while, one of
them came back and said that they had gone to the
sick bay to get Sister (the nurse) to check their
hair for nits during lunch. one of them had eggs,
the other had jumping, active nits, and so they
were both not allowed to go back for lessons! my
bio teacher asked me if we had nits in singapore,
and i shook my head and said that i haven't even
heard of that word until yesterday. she said that
yeah, she hasn't seen a real louse until she came
to live in australia. (she's originally from UK.)
i'm supposed to have a maths common exam (something
like the twice-weekly tests, except that this isn't
twice-weekly, and it amounts up to 15% of the half-
yearly/mid-year exams) tomorrow, but since the
boarders aren't gonna be in school tomorrow and on
monday, it will be postponed to tuesday. thanks to
the nits.
oh, and we now have this joke that "every
abbotsleigh student does have eggs." (referring to
the female's egg cell.)
i think i'll try to draw up a cartoon or write an
article on this 'outbreak' of nits for the
newsletter!
==========================
Fun, ehh? Not everyone gets to experience outbreaks of nits.
Ha! When the server works, it works like a charm...
Well actually, not quite. I still can't FTP files.
So I am not *that* happy a person...
Will be going on a week-long field course from this Friday to the next, at Preston-Montford, at Shropshire near the Welsh border (that's all the way west, across the central parts of England. See:
Field Studies Centre, Preston-Montford. The lecturer says it's a 3-hour bus drive from here, and my seniors maintain that it actually takes 4 hours. We'll be needing Wellies, aka Wellington boots aka Phua Chu Kang [sp?] boots aka wader boots aka... you-will-be-getting-wet-boots. They're available for hire at a pound per day (says the lecturer). I can't stand the way the Bio Dept is handling the trip... less than 5 days away and they haven't even given us a detailed list or info regarding the field trip... what we need to bring, where exactly that place is, what we'll be doing, and other important information. Unless... unless they're not planning to give us any info sheets, which is even worse. All we've got is a notice at the start of term asking that we pay 45 pounds for the trip, which we did. As for the other bits and pieces of info, we knew what we know only by asking the lecturer. The Faculty of Life Sciences student association has organised a bar night for us... to 'send us off for the trip". Grrr... It would seem that they only know and recognise the value of $$ (<-- opps, wrong symbol. There is no pound symbol on my keyboard) and drinks.
My Hall has organised a movie outing tonight at 8pm to watch
Kill Bill. At first I wanted to go (aww c'mon! It's a movie! Me... movies... me... movies... get it?), then by some miracle, I had decided to stay and 'study' since half of the Hall isn't going anyway. Out of curiousity, I went to check it up in
IMDB... and was relieved that I didn't waste my five pounds on it. It's not the type of movie I'd usually watch, and the screenshots look kind of... lame. I'm not a fan of Uma Thurman either. Out of further curiousity, I checked the ratings for it, after seeing the plot and the movie images. It was an 18 for the UK, and thus not surprisingly... R(A) for Singapore. Which means, if I were back in Singapore, I'd have to wait 3 years to be able to legally watch it in the cinemas!!
News-wise in Singapore, there appears to be some hullabaloo regarding the recent death of three SAF servicemen. Read about it in
MINDEF's statement.
HQ's blog also has some less-publicised info about the case and other lesser-known or even unknown ones. God bless their families and also all currently-serving NSmen out there. Oh all right... those who've done their duty too.
Sydney is becoming an increasingly scarier place to live in now that I'm no longer there...
Teenager fights off kidnap bid. I can imagine my parents telling me about it once they've heard this piece of news. The news article is dated 21 Oct, lol. It's still the 20th here. Hate being on this side of the globe.
Today -
EBE lecture 9: Climate change
EBE lecture 10: Biodiversity :) :)
EBE tute 2: Got back our essay assignment results. Could have done better but seeing as most people in my group have the same grade (none higher, X lower) I'm quite relieved. Remarks were ok, not as bad as I expected. Maybe the tutor's only being lenient for our first assignment. (Recall my first Commerce exam at USyd... that was horrible... hardly anyone passed...)
'Twas an uninteresting day today. Besides venting my anger at the college server (it's fact becoming a habit anyway... now that 10 minutes' loading time for pages has become 15 minutes), and trying to come up with piles of towels and bedsheets to sit on and elevate myself on the inconveniently-low chair (it's not only me... it's low for everyone else too), there's nothing else worth noting.
I haven't touched those two games that I bought yesterday... am trying to maintain my self-discipline, which has flown out of the window ever since the HSC exams ended last year.
Tried writing up my notes, got bored and uncomfortable with my sitting position, kneeled and sat on my legs... tried the crosslegged position... got pins-and-needles after a while... sat back down in a normal position, and now my bum's hurting. Didn't know that towels could be that hard.
A Day Out
Made my way down to Waterloo this morning to meet Ro-- and Ra-- (looks funny, doesn't it? Still don't know if I should keep my policy of not using others' names in my blogs). Surprisingly it only took me about 25 mins to get there, including the walk to the tube station and the swaps of the tube lines. Got a day pass for buses and trains. Ro-- had brought his GF along, G, and we got along quite well together... she's a year younger. :) Ro-- is sort of like a lost 'childhood friend'... one of those whom I knew when I was like, 2 years' old, and forgotten for a long while when our families moved out of Hong Kong, only to be remembered when our parents had the pleasure of seeing each other again. Went to Chinatown for lunch, and walked around Leicester Square. Enjoyed two rounds of bowling and a few games at the arcade in 'Funland'. They had Time Crisis III... but I only got past the first stage. :( If there was Time Crisis II (I found out that they did have it... on the lower floor) I could have whizzed through the first few stages, having played it numerous times at home... so many times till my fingers were numbed and swollen from pulling the trigger too much and too hard. :P Passed by HMV... saw some games on promotion and seeing a few good deals we each got ourselves a game or two. I got Rainbow Six: Gold Pack edition for less than 3 pounds and a Soldier of Fortune: Special Edition for less than either 4 or 9 pounds... opps I can't remember! The receipt is not with me. There was a third game (the 'one' in 'buy two get one free') which Ro-- kept, since he only had one game. We could always meet up in college and pass it around.
While walking along the main street in Chinatown I met one of my hallmates. In the arvo, Sam came to join us, and after spending a quarter of an hour, we split up and I went with Sam (Ro--'s younger sis, whom I've already met in Singapore when she and her mom came to visit a few months back) to meet her friends who were around that area. Ra--, Ro-- and G left, but I remained there with Sam. Her friends are... hmm. Weird... crazy, fun-seeking, a little rowdy... definitely not my type. Can't mix with them. Anyway I left at 5.40 and arrived back in my Hall at a little past 6. It wasn't dark yet... but was about to darken. There were those orange-pinkish-purple-ly colours in the sky beyond the clouds... those colours brought about and made beautiful due to the substances of pollution in the atmosphere...
I did a bit of TB reading and highlighting, and then turned to my laptop for want of something to do with it. R came knocking on my door, used my laptop for a while, and we chatted... and chatted... and chatted into the night and nearly mid-next morning. I've learnt a lot from her, about her religion (Druze), her background and family... her culture... plus a bit of science and the likes. We had lots of exchanges of personal experiences and questions... it was fun but I was sleepy. ;P
I can never complain enough about the college server.
I still can't upload files via FTP.
The server is really getting on my nerves. It clogs up or bogs down when it feels like it, and sends me error 404s or is sooooooo incredibly slow that I can take 10 minutes just to load a page. Arrgh for such a supposedly 'techie' college, why can't Imperial get something decent?? Unless all of London is like that.
Today -
EBE lecture 7: Carbon (uhh...)
EBE lecture 8: Nitrogen (uuhhhh...)
Maths tute was on log so most of us skipped it.
Did up notes and some reading in the arvo.
Went out for dinner with Auntie D and family. She's visiting London for a few weeks... Went to Chinatown and had Chinese food (duh). While they were on the way driving me back to my Hall, we went to Sainsbury's (it's a supermarket chain) and I got myself some... stuff.
The Excel computing prac was cancelled and rescheduled. Knew it only after having arrived at the compt lab... they said that the biochem people were in there, and they'd be staying there, and so we'd have to cancel ours. It was ok for us living around campus but for the greater majority who had to travel more than 15 mins by foot, or had to take the tube, it was a most annoying thing.
We took advantage of the free day that we unexpected had today to visit a friend's Hall in Evelyn Gardens, supposedly a 15 mins walk from the college. Even armed with a map, the three of us - R, C and myself - took almost to 45 mins to find out way there. The roads are so confusing, and the road signage here is so poor it's not even funny. It takes skill to spot and read the sign bearing the road name. The people on the streets aren't of much help either in giving directions. At Southwell, Evelyn Gardens, we chatted with *the* friend whom we were visiting, explored her room (:P), chatted, mainly about boys (uhmm...) and some 'internal jokes'... and I also navigated my way up the 3 levels (actually, 5, including the basement level) of the Hall to a neighbouring block and met Ra--, Ro--'s friend. Said 'hi', talked a little, and settled on meeting out this Sat.
Sent in my essay. Phew. Done. Wished that they gave us more time though... I simply have too many things to write about.
Singapore will be hosting the
Biology in Asia International Conference in Nov 2004. A pity I keep missing out on symposiums and such. I won't be there.
SEC is hosting a lecture on "Science in Society, Singapore-wise - A City set between Reef and Rainforest". Its going to be held on Nov 1 at the Ritz-Carlton.
SEC together with WE (World Environment) is also running a wildlife photography competition - and the junior category is <21. Too bad prints have to be of size 8R though - and it doesn't mention anything about digital submissions. I don't know where and how much it'll cost for me to develop my digital pics into prints, and then... plus the postage fee and time... sigh. Deadline's end of this month. If only I were back in S'pore... then I'll go to the office and pester SEC lol.
SBWR volunteers are going for the camp-over outing to Tg Piai National Park this weekend. Sob.
Chatted a lot today... during lunch, dinner (I played a less active part then), and after dinner close to midnight (i.e. a few minutes ago). Not sure what's gotten into my hallmates but they decided to call up Chinese food take-away... at 10.45pm! 'Said that they were hungry. I chose a 'pork with pineapple with rice' dish. Turned out to be 'char siew' cooked in 'gu lou yook' style. For 2.99 pounds, it's not bad. Delivery's free too... and it's available from 12 to 12. Now I'll know what to do if I'm stuck in Linstead without a meal.
I'm a happy being... not taking into consideration the fact that my ICQ seems to be becoming sort of suicidal (it enjoys hanging itself)... and that the college server is still giving me problems (I'm getting used to that)... and that my essay is still far from finished (I'll do it after this... really!)... and the bread on top of my fridge has expired (forgot to chuck it into the fridge itself). I'm a happy being when I remind myself where I am - not the 'London' part - and what I'm not studying.
The JC2s in S'pore are going to sit for the A-levels very soon... wish them luck. ZF... Ganbate!
Tomorrow's only session in college is yet another computing practical... on Excel. Aww c'mon... Excel! I'm planning to hop down to the compt labs, grab the handout, and disappear. Was taught how to use Excel in sec sch, was taught it in IPT in high sch, and used it in biz stats in USyd... and I don't want to go through it here again. Shall see how it goes.
As for now... 'night.
Sniff sniff... my essay's going nowhere. I have a whole morning off tomorrow, so it's not that bad. Though it doesn't mean that I can bludge (<-- till now I can't be sure if it's Aussie slang or what) around. Which is what I've been doing. How sad.
Today -
EBE lecture 5: Niche
EBE lecture 6: Trophic webs
I've got around 50 pages of the textbook to read... only read some parts of it... those that are more readable. Reading and absorbing the info in the TB is a tiring exercise... it's so unreadable. Not exactly what one may call written for the layman. Well after all, this is made out specifically for ecology students. So I suppose I can't blame them. Sigh.
A note to my friends in Sydney - I'm being kept out of the adco-forums after the major server downtime. I can log in but it keeps thowing me out once I click to get into a thread... shall hunt for the remedy but meanwhile I'll be out of action in there. ICQ-wise, same prob with staying on. I'm getting really pissed.
Yay! My blog has received 1050 visitors! Dunno where that many hits come from though, given that not *that* many people know about its existence.
EBE lecture 3: Plants and soil (was boring)
EBE lecture 4: Biomes (was much better... the best topic so far IMHO)
Maths tute 1: Basic algebra.
For the maths tute, basically, one just sits there and works on a worksheet. Sec sch stuff. Completed the questions, got them all ok; went back much earlier. Apparently we don't need to attend all the maths tutes - just the ones with the topics which we feel we might need help with. Sigh - wasted the arvo.
Right. Back to work.
I'm in the middle of coming up with a draft for my essay. I've got so many things to write about... I don't know where to start. Did lots of research in the IC and Science Museum libraries and online too. Plus my own collection of email correspondence, newspaper extracts, and books I should be able to come up with something pretty comprehensive. Now I only need to concentrate.
On the fencing front, the President has decided to 'postpone' the match, since none of us are ready. I'm glad... wouldn't like to get bruised all over too soon. There's an archery club session tomorrow (I think)... so I'll be hopping over to that one. My mom just commented that none of the sports I play involves running around, but that suits me fine. :P
Lessons proper started today.
EBE lecture 1: Intro to ecology
EBE lecture 2: Climate
EBE tute 1: Ecology essay assignment, 5 A4 pages, due this Thurs
So far so good, 'cept that each lecture is only 50 mins' short and the lecturers lecture at a pace much faster than those at USyd. At least they give us sets of their PowerPoint lecture notes, but we have lots of self-reading to do.
The scheduling of timetables here is also very different. All first-year bio dept students share the same timetable of core courses. The different units of study or courses are also not taught simultaneously as they were at USyd - each term is split into four equal periods where each period is dedicated to a certain unit. Right now we're starting with 'Ecology, behaviour and evolution' (aka EBE) :)
I chose for my essay the topic 'Politics of Conservation'. Mwahaha... politics... and conservation... it can't get any better than this. There are quite a lot of topics on the list that I wouldn't mind writing about though. Among those sacrificed:
- Nature reserves and the SLOSS debate (SLOSS = single large or several small)
- Japan and its whaling industry
- Hot spots of biodiversity
- Why are there so many kinds of beetles? (Now... if only I had brought along with me Wallace's
The Malay Archipelago!)
- Why does conservation matter?
- Biological control of insect pests
... and one which would have no doubt invited raised eyebrows from my peers had I chosen it: Mechanisms of coexistence in lizards.
I must be really free, no? Typing up such long blogs everyday. Bahh... off to work with me. I really should start getting back into the habit of 'working'. (I forgot, what does it actually mean?)
I've got 15 more minutes before I've to run off for my tute. I'm in my room now... since my last lecture ended before 12 and fencing ended at 2. I'm in group 9 for the 'Ecology, behaviour and evolution' course tutes, so that's at 4pm on the days that I have it. So since it only takes a 4-minute-walk back to my Hall... well... might as well.
Savvy? (lol... must've watched
Pirates of the Caribbean too many times.)
Went to the
ICUFC fencing session during the lunch break. They were teaching the basics: intro to the three weapons, how to hold a foil, the
en garde position, attacking, parrying, yadda yadda... I asked if I could skip the basic training and head on to 'social' fencing. After finding out that I've been fencing for close to two years, they asked if I wanted to join the team. I was like, "No.... nah... I don't think I'm up there yet." And I haven't touched a weapon for almost a year... feeling stiffened, lazy, and unalert. Met the President, and she said that after the session, I'll have a bout with her and another fencer just to practise and see where I stand. There is an upcoming
BUSA match this Wednesday (!) at Southampton, and they are in need of experienced fencers to be on their team. As things turned out, we didn't fence in the end, but she got hold of my email details and said that she'll email me regarding the competition. I know that this is a good opportunity for me... but I do seriously doubt if my standards are 'there'. Besides, she wants me to fence with the epee, and I have not fenced with that before, having only fought with the foil (click
here for more info about the weapons). I will only have tomorrow to get used to the feel of an epee, and to fight well with it too. An epee is heavier, has a much larger target area - basically one can hit anywhere on the body, unlike the foil which is limited to the torso - so it hurts more if your opponent is a nasty one. Tough. Aww...
Anway, gotta run now.
How's this for a new type of error? :
ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
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While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.blogger.com/
The following error was encountered:
Socket Failure
The system returned:
(55) No buffer space available
Squid is unable to create a TCP socket, presumably due to excessive load. Please retry your request.
Your cache administrator is webmaster.
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Generated Sun, 12 Oct 2003 19:22:09 GMT by icproxy.ic4life.net (Squid/2.3.STABLE4)
I can't believe this... FTPing at 0.02 KB/s, so going by the average file size of my photos, it'll take me 2 hours just to up/download one!
Of wings and fallen feathers
Yesterday, passing by a carpark on the way out of Hyde Park, while walking towards the direction of IC, someone in the group spotted a pigeon huddled into a miserable grey ball by itself, by the side of the road. It was injured, and had its flesh showing (and freshly-bleeding) from its back, to the left of the spine, just under the left wing. When it was carried it to a safer place under the trees away from the carpark, it struggled, glided down to the ground and sought refuge under a car... but eventually we managed to get it 'transported'. But then we decided that we couldn't just leave it there... and seeing as how I was the one staying closest to where we were, I brought it back. I placed a piece of tissue over the wound, took off my Gore-Tex jacket, and wrapped the bird with it, cuddling it all the way.
Back at the Hall we got hold of a cardboard box, bandages, medicated swipes, and gloves. We placed the pigeon in the box, and placed it right outside the main doors of the Hall, since we couldn't (and it would be unwise to) bring it into the Hall. One'd never know what germs and diseases a bird from the wild might carry, especially if it's a pigeon.
The wound was still bleeding... not much, but enough to form a few droplets of blood on the floor of the box. I fed it warm water; tried finding sugar or glucose but there was none. No talcum powder either. Cleaned up the wound... dabbed away a few clotted balls of blood, removed the dried grass and dirt from the area, and after much, much difficulty and taking turns trying, got it bandaged up. Problem was, it had a bad left leg as well - it was limp and unusuable. It was also very much aware of its surroundings... very lively, and struggled a lot. It was very obviously in shock though, and there were some short periods were it had the characteristic gaping of the mouth, raise of the shoulders, and widening-diluting pupils. Vent was all clean, nostrils clear, legs pink, feathers dry... so it was definitely healthy. My immediate problem was to keep it warm, and to give it lots of rest. Infection of the wound was also a worry, but that was taken care of, more or less. It was a dilemma. There was nothing I could do to provide warmth for it. No hot watter bottles, no portable heaters... I left covered the box, wrote up a note to stick to it, and relunctantly, left it where it was.
Coming back from dinner at night, less than four hours later, ZM and I went to check on it. It was stone solid, cold, unmoving... dead. The neck wasn't bent back, and its eyes weren't closed. It was in a straight, rigid position. It died of cold. We placed it in a plastic bag, and unceremoniously dumped it in a rubbish bin, lacking the tools to dig a proper hole in the grounds of the Gardens. That would be the first bird I have ever disposed of in such an undignified manner, and it would make the sixth bird which I have failed to save. It's always 'if only I had the materials'... 'if only I could keep it warm'... 'if only' does not help. Knowing that I had done all that I could under the circumstances, I just have to give in and accept it. We humans like to comfort outselves, so in such cases we might be better off thinking that the bird might be better off dead. I don't know; we aren't judges to this.
All I know is that hate it when a bird which I know, have formed a bond with, or tried not to, has its neck arched backward, its eyes blank. It means that yet another life has been lost on my hands. The rock pigeon is catergorised as 'vermin' by the locals and even the RSPCA, but it is nevertheless still a living thing. It saddens me greatly.
I have handled smaller birds before - sparrows, munias and budgies mainly - but nothing quite as large as a mature rock pigeon. And almost always, T has been by my side to help me. My small field kit, containing tweezers, bandages, alcohol swipes, a packet of glucose sugar, twine, measuring tape, plastic sheets, a syringe, bird seeds, reptile vitamins, and some other useful items, has served me well in years past. It's just that I have never had the occasion to use it in the last 10 months and thus dropped the habit of carrying it around. I didn't even bring it with me to London.
Other sad endingsThe non-native escapee Collared Starling
The injured non-native Cutthroat Finch
The escaped Yellow Bittern which was then chased and no doubt torn apart by the crows
The very-nearly-hatched Pink-necked Green Pigeon during my primary school days
The numerous waders which crashed into my sec school building (is it situated on a flyway path?) and were found dead by the gardener... I had nothing to do with those except to record their details into my fieldbook
Happy endingsThe flightless Eurasian Tree Sparrow at Katong, when I was much younger
Another formerly-captive Eurasian Tree Sparrow
"Rainbow" the homeless and flightless Rainbow Lorikeet juvenile in Abbotsleigh Sydney
Numerous Scaly-breasted Munias
The Blue-winged / Mangrove Pitta released at Sungei Buloh
The Common Mynah which crash-landed into my sister's room
And these are only the birds. There were also cases involving reptiles, amphibians, insects and domestic animals. It is just my unfortunate tendency to cross paths with these animals and my further unfortunate inclination to have them rescued and cared for. As in the case with the birds, some end sadly, and some have delightful ends.
SingSoc Freshers' Picnic
no sleeping late for me this morn. got up at 8am plus to try my luck at the internet - it's fast becoming a gambling thing - lady luck has to be on your side if you wish to get online and actually be able to use the internet.
lazed around, played Solitaire and Free Cell on the laptop (just felt like it), and got ready to go out.
ICSS has organised a Freshers' Picnic at Hyde Park, so i decided that i'll go.
walked with a few other ICSS members to Beit Hall (at the Union Building at the back of the campus) to meet the rest of the ICSS people. met more new people from Singapore whom I hadn't seen before, and chatted, and waited, and enjoyed the sunny weather. was wearing two thin layers, and i felt hot! had a 30 mins leisure walk to Hyde Park, pass Kensington Gardens. passed by many riders on horseback, geese, swans, ducks, seagulls, sparrows and squirrels. we walked along the Serpentine river.
we sat under the shade of the maple trees, laid out the food - biscuits, orange jelly, chocolate chip and nut cookies, choc bars, sandwiches, drinks that all taste horribly like medicine... and talked and chatted and hovered around. most of the people from my group at Sojourn... KL, C, CW, FH... were there as well.
some played captain's ball, some were engaged in volleyball and other ball games, a few went boat-paddling up and down the river for a small fee, and the rest either played with the frisbee or lazed around.
i sat and talked, and introduced and re-introduced myself. getting to know the SingSoc people better now... and discovered that Linstead actually has more Singaporeans than I thought they had. i was just that i had not mixed with them before, having the inclination to mingle more with the other international students and British-Chinese.
went squirrel-hunting. they're so cute and tame and unlike those in Singapore. they're grey squirrels, i believe. chased the giant crane flies... i knew better than to touch them from past experiences - crane flies have extremely brittle and breakable legs that detach easily from the body. bent down under trees to collect the good nuts... nuts that the squirrels may like. found a few, and kept them in my pocket. when i come upon a squirrel, i'd squat down and toss it a nut, and it'd come bounding ever-so-weightlessly towards the nut, grab it in its paws, examine it for a while, and take it between its teeth. some of them eat it on the spot, and some of them dig holes in the soil and leaf litter to store the nuts for future consumption. took a few pics of them, though some pics were taken by C so i'm not sure which were taken by me and which by him. almost all the squirrel photos look alike anyway.
back at the picnic area... managed after many discouraging attempts to get a decent shot of the ladybirds on a tree. there were yellow 10-spotteds and red two-spotteds, some of which were around 3mm and none were larger than 10mm TL. one of the reds was most cooperative, allowing me to adjust its position to my liking. also took a shot of a giant crane fly (?)
Tipulidae resting on the bark.
around after-mid-arvo many of us left, i along with my Hallmates back to the Hall.
seems like London is not so deprived of wildlife after all. that's but a misconception.
Gripes
A few things I'd like to get off my chest:
- the internet connection in the Hall:
I don't know why, but ever since the network got a virus and went down (the first time since I came), and came back up again, i have been unable to establish a connection to the ICQ server. it keeps giving me stupid error codes and then hangs my compt.
- the internet connection in the Hall:
this I also have no idea why, but ftp access to my 'gallery' folder containing all my digi pics has been virtually impossible. i click to get into the folder, and wait... and wait... and waaait... and then the server times out and I get kicked out. can't get in even when i maximised the server timeout settings.
- the internet connection in the Hall:
apparently the college server becomes so stuffed and overloaded at night that 7 out of 10 pages that I visit display the DNS server errors or whatnot. for example:
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.blogger.com/
The following error was encountered:
Unable to determine IP address from host name for www.blogger.com
The dnsserver returned:
No DNS records
This means that:
The cache was not able to resolve the hostname presented in the URL.
Check if the address is correct.
Your cache administrator is webmaster.
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Generated Sun, 12 Oct 2003 22:17:48 GMT by icproxy.ic4life.net (Squid/2.3.STABLE4)
- the internet connection in the Hall:
it's totally unreliable. I don't know why we're paying so much for such a dodgy service. the helpdesk people never answer the phone either... it's always on voicemail, and when I leave a message, they never get back to me.
- my laptop / the internet connection in the Hall:
I've lost my cookies. my laptop has forgotten that I can rightfully access some sites, and has somehow convinced itself that i must not be allowed in. i find myself being stuck out of certain forums and password-protected sites, for after I enter my username and pw, and 'enter'... I have to wait... and wait again... and then 'the page cannot be found'.
am in the college and science museum's library. the stupid network has been down since late yesterday arvo. it's always down. we pay 35 pounds, and the server works only half the time. argh.
had free time in the morn, and a maths evaluation test at 11. the test was designed for students with A or B grades in A-level maths... to check that they did not need to go for the maths tutes. i didn't know if i was one of those required to sit for the test... or not... most people knew about it through the letters the Dept sent them, but as i've not received a single letter from the Dept, i didn't know. yesterday i went to ask the undergrad office, and they just told me to go for it. i was thinking... that the HSC standard is most definitely lower than the GCSE A-levels, and i only scraped it through with a Band 3 (middle band) in it... and so... technically-speaking, i should be going for tutes without needing to sit for the test. the test was a total.... uuhhgg. i know it was easy; the questions were easy, but i have TOTALLY forgotten everything i had learnt. i last touched calculus and graphs and logs more than a year ago, and had i known that i had to go for a maths eval i would have at least gotten a look at my maths notes... which are in Singapore. sigh. SIGH. *bangs desk* messa hates maths.
the arvo lecture was about science writing. how to write about biology. common mistakes that students make. spelling errors. scientific errs, grammar, tenses, units of measurement, singular and plural nouns... it lasted from 2 to 4 with a half-hour break in between. do Brits have an obsession with breaks? we have a one-hour break between our first and second lectures, followed by a two-hour lunch break, then a tute or a prac. i'd rather they compress everything together, and let us end earlier. right now the sch day ends at 5pm or earlier depending on the nature arvo session.
9.30 - lab intro for Grp A students. there're two groups for lab work, grouped according to surnames that come before or after "Lee". so i'm in A. there's nothing much to the intro... just safety guidelines. got my small-sized labcoat which is still way too large for me, safety goggles, and knew where i sit. it's in alphabetical order.
during the lunch break we (as in a few Singaporean and Brit-Chinese friends and myself) went to visit the
Science Museum (right next to our dept building).
also had the intro to compt facilities, followed by the 'practical' on info retrieval [see below].
in the college bio dept compt lab. it's our computing prac. doing some stupid stuff like 'learning' how to use online resources, journal DBs and such. doing things like what we did in compt studies in sec 1. bored!! it's 3 hours' long. just had an interesting break - an emergency drill whereby we had to evac the building. spent some time out on the Queen's lawn, under the sun. now back. sigh. shouldn't have come back. in the lab now there's only less than 30% of the original number of students.
London: Day 7
today's a free day. no lectures... nothing to do with uni.
apparently Dad is still around; he's got the flight time wrong... it's not taking off in noon but in the late arvo, so we met up again. went to Knightsbridge to shop around for some warmer clothes for me. Mom was also hunting for some clothes and chose a nice one, she said, a red (!!) overcoat and she'll be passing it to a friend to bring it here to London when she visits this Sunday. had late lunch in a newish Shanghai restaurant, and Dad was so impressed by the whole place and the food there that he kept praising it and spoke with the owners for a while. the couple who ran the place came from Hong Kong. exchanged biz cards and introduced ourselves. so if i'm ever yearning for some good Chinese food i could always go there.
walked back to South Keng, and there near the V&A Gallery we made our good-byes again. no tears this time, just emotion. this time, i was prepared.
went back into my room and played on the compt and tried fixing the internet connection in vain.
testing testing.
funny how blogger isn't bringing up the latest posts... not even when i click on 'Current Posts'. in the archives i have to click on the most recent one TWO times before the actual, real thing comes up.
Please bear with me for a while... bear with my uncharacteristic, broken-up, shortened, illogical, messy... way of blogging in the past few days and days to come. There are just too many things to write about, and don't forget that I, too, suffer from the overly common teenage syndrome known as Laziness.
London: Day 6
bio lectures and introductory talks
bio dept building
46 items on the book list, of which roughly 17 are compulsory readings
[more to come: my timetable, IC's vs USyd's - good? bad?]
more bio dept's talks - study methods ie. learn how to study - everyone nearly fell asleep. felt like a TKGS' pastoral care assembly or Abbotsleigh's pre-exam workshops
120 new bio students, very little, but they said it's considered a lot already. am in Group A for prac. are freaking 3 hours' long!
bio meet-the-buddy session. so inefficient, list of buddies, some are buddy-less, i among them. senior unwilling or can't be bothered to tell us who - waiting... waiting... waiting... zzz.... gotten fed up. any 'old senior without a buddy was assigned to 4 freshers. after a few minutes i apologised and made my way out. was in basement bar in Southside.
went to meet Dad at the entrance of Watts Way - went to Gloucaster Road to HSBC. found it after walking around lots. then called mom - decided that there is no use or want of setting up a new back account with HSBC here... so left again. passed by Baden Powell House - and it was about scouts. have been wanting to find out what it is. shall go there one day when i'm free. went to
Natural History Museum. wanted to join as member to get free admission to the special exhibits. entry to the Museum is free but the special exhibits which are put up from time to time need tickets. gave in the completed application form, showed the staff my IC union card (haven't got the official IC ID card yet) and was told that Imperial students get free entry into the exhibits too - just flash card at exhibit entry. nice.
walked around a lot. very extensive collection, very nice and impressive and engaging and interesting. shall be going there again.
closes at 5.30, so left at that time. walked around South Keng looking for a nice place to eat. settled on the 'Little Japan' cafe/restaurant which also serves other oriental food. was managed by one man. food is ok.
today's the last day and night with my dad before he returns to S'pore. eating slowly, talking and chatting a lot. finished, got up, and went next door into the small little bookshop. surprised that prices are somewhat similar to S'pore's, not really that much more expensive.
walked back towards Prince's Gardens. dad came up into room with me. dilly-dallied for a while. hugged, said good-byes, a little bit of tears (my first this time round. i didn't cry when i left S'pore). more hugs, thank you daddy. bye bye... take care... coming back in Dec, so it's not too far away... bye again. sniff sniff, grin, sniff, sigh. once more, here i go again.
London: Day 5
registered with College
long queue
HKgers speaking Canto, annoying
Korean guy
gothic student
took ID photos, applied for College ID swipe card
checked out the Student Connect office and asked questions
C came to my room during lunch
made new friends, all in Bio, also came to my room for lunch
went Beit Hall to take a look at friend's room
applied for Union card, got it
went to Bio Dept, got missing materials
prob with their postal system... argh
field course 24 to 31 Oct
new Faculty of Life Sciences undergrads' reception. boring, similar to the int'l students' reception
was overseas students' party at bar/pub tonight till past midnight; didn't go. went to Harrods at Knightsbridge with Dad. impressive building, internal structures. prices are unbelieveably high though - 400 quid for a normal long winter coat, over 8000 quid for some painting. 45 quid for a desk lamp. had nice section for the horses - harnesses, bits, reins, saddles etc. and riders
internet worked for a while, for slightly more than an hour, then refused to work
icq and email ok though, only IE not willing to 'find' the DNS server. don't know what's wrong!! more than 120 new emails. a wonder my email still has space
A from the room across the hallway came into my room for a lengthly chat. she's a medic, ie. medical student.
London: Day 4
Long day. The days are becoming so long and full and tiring (physically and mentally) that I am starting to doubt if I can keep up with the up-to-date blogging of my wanderings. I've done and seen so many things worth mentioning that I've even forgotten what I did in the morning.
Ahh yes... spent last night at the hotel, and travelled in a black cab to Linstead, taking my final piece of luggage - the smallest piece, the most important piece, containing my ****** and ****** and other *****. Also brought my printer and scanner to my Hall. Right after I deposited the things in my room I had to run out again, to join the other international students at the International Students' Reception at the Great Hall, Sherfield Building. That is like the main building of Imperial... the general building... the office building. The reception was more like a series of talks by some prominent senior staff and students - Sir Richard Sykes the Rector of Imperial, the Director of the International Liaison Office, the President of the Imperial College Union, the Head of the College Health Centre, a Reverend from the Chaplaincy team, and the organiser of English courses for students.
[More to come: what they said, etc. etc. And Dad went to help me buy things from supermarket!]
3 500 overseas students from over 110 countries at Imperial. IC itself has over 11 500 students.
Got the ICU Handbook 2003. Planning to join Archery, Fencing, Photography, and hmm... gotta think out the rest first. Am already in ICSS. They've got [Horse]Riding... that's a great temptation.
Went down to Winchester to visit Justin. Almost 2 hours' journey. The Tube with change in stations, then rail train for 1 1/2 hours. Left South Keng at a quarter to 1, and arrived at nearly 4. Nice place, Winchester. A little town... visited the thousand-year-old Winchester Cathedral.
[More to come: Winchester College etc., EE's call. Walking all the way. Bought fruits at Sainsbury's at Winchester. Also dispute over 'yes or no go', missed train etc. Burger King is 'fast food', but darn slow.]
Train to London Waterloo from Winchester at 1745, arrived back at the Hall at about half past 7. Meeting with the Warden Anthony at 1950, nice person. From Auckland, NZ. Wife also Warden, have little baby. Lives in the penhouse, big. Cheese and wine party, etc. etc. River cruise and party etc. BBQ dinner again. Getting sick of it already. BBQ nothing like the Barbie in Aust.
What else did I do today?? My memory is starting to become occupied by the names and faces of people. Not only that - their background, their home country, the course they're doing, and their room numbers too.
London: Day 3
I feel so good... I got
Linstead Hall at Prince's Gardens, the only catered hall which is on-campus. It's my first choice too... and I've got a single room. Many people have to share rooms. Arrived by taxi at the Student Accomodation Office at half past 8, since their opening times are from 0845. In the end, we waited for more than an hour till the doors opened to us at nearly a quarter to 10. I simply showed the staff my College acceptance letter and she fetched my accom package. It was all ready... and has been ready since Tuesday, so it's a very silly thing when they did not want to disclose the details of my accom (not even the Hall that I was put in) over the phone when I called earlier on this week.
Lots of fire doors, one every few steps, so that it is impossible to run along the corridor without banging into a closed door. Room is at the rear side of the Hall, with a window view of some tall old residences and a car park. The views from the front face of the Hall better by far... facing the Prince's Gardens with its yellow, brown and green foliage. A single bed, a huge basket under the bed on wheels, a wardrobe (bad, bad design for the part made for the hangers), a sink, mirror above the sink, desk, shelves above the desk, a small fridge, a laundry basket, heater, table lamp, a set of drawers on wheels... The kitchen (it's soooo small) is just a few steps to the left of my door (when I'm coming out), and has a small microwave, a vertical bread toaster, an electric kettle and coiled stoves. The toilet and bathroom are in two different cells next to each other, and are to the right of my room. I call them 'cells' for they are too pathetically small to be called 'rooms'. There are no sinks in either of them, and so I think we've to return to our rooms to wash our hands. But overall, I'm more than satisfied. I'm a happy fresher. No need to cook for myself (and others) except during the weekends when I'm not eating out, and no need to travel to College. It takes me 3 minutes to walk from my Hall to my department building.
Visited the home of my dad's colleague who leads the London office. It's in Kensington, on the very street where Notting Hill was filmed, and the shared backgarden of the residences on that street was very possibly the one in the garden scene with Julia Roberts in it. Theirs' is an impressive family, with the older brother working as a marketing director in the film industry, and the younger brother, G, who's my age and starting this week at Oxford, helping out at film sets and film production processes. They're responsible for coming up with the previews and clips of movies (for example, in order to get the Americans to invest in movie so-and-so) as well as the official trailers. The current ones involve one with Kim Basinger (they've to travel to New Mexico to be with the cast and crew), and another is a novel-based film called 5 Children and It, whereby 'It' is is the name of this little slender alien-like creature. The Jim Henderson gang (of the Puppet Show) are helping out with modelling It and bring It to life. The author of the novel, I believe, is the same one who came up with The Railway Children. G was saying that 'It' has great potential for a whole new market with its tagline and brandname being 'It'. A frisbee would have the design of It upon it, and so when one throws the frisbee he would say, "Catch It!", the obvious pun wholly intended. Or maybe there can be something like 'What is It?" and "Have you seen It?". It is an interesting concept, one that would definitely catch on into our daily use of words.
Residing in a neighbouring terrace is the soundtrack composer Michael Kamen, the man behind the music of films like Robin Hood, and more notably, the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which is among my favourite of all soundtracks after Hans Zimmer's. There's also a famous singer somewhere around... and Henry Lennon also lives on the same street. That street is simply amazing... it's like movie directors, producers, actors and everyone in the film industry lives on and around it.
Portobello Street - antiques etc etc. Mom told us to go there. Also where scenes from films were... filmed.
[More to come: Linstead Hall, location, structure of building, condition of rooms, the maze-like internal architecture, date of establishment etc. fresher's BBQ at night - friends made etc., many went clubbing at Irish Pub at Leicaster Square, a few tube stops away, supposedly till 2am, followed Dad back to the hotel for the night.]
Nice blue sky and sunlight for a short while in the morn. Considerably colder than the past 2 days, but still, according to the Brits, warm. That in the last 4 months, it had hardly rained for more than 10mins every time, and that the rains were more like drizzles. Fortunate, very fortunate to have a beautiful year this year.
Squirrels, birds hovering in air, but does not look like raptors. More like duck or geese, but bigger than ducks. High altitude. Above central. Seagulls, more ducks around the Serpentine River that cuts through Hyde Park. Hyde Park huge. Has horseriding!
Long and busy next few days. Timetabled it out in my USyd Union diary. V convenient to use. 0030 now, going to bed. Slowly trying to convert to 24hrs' way of telling the time. Everyone uses it here. Information sheets, orally, etc.
Ps. Getting tired writing in complete sentences...
London: Day 2
Dad went down in the early morning to have breafast with this Singaporean guy, whom he said might easily be the most famous (?) Singaporean in London. He's the CEO of... some company whose name is difficult to pronounce and I cannot remember. I went down later, and then at around noon we met up with an Auntie Daisy, EE's long-time friend who's lived for over 20 years in London. Went to Picadilly, Leicaster Square and Soho, and the Covent Garden Market, where the scenes from My Fair Lady were filmed. Got a UK mobile line, and an international calling card. Made some texts (sms-es) and calls, and calculated that the cost of a local text is 12p, and a global one is 24p, and a global one using my Singapore sim card is S25c.
Learnt that from 23rd Aug, passengers are required to buy the tickets before getting on the buses. Learnt about the day passes, week passes, and other cost-saving ways of commuting. Learnt about the different zones in London, the different ways of transportation and their names, that the subway and the underground mean totally different things, that this is one of the warmest Octobers ever, that we are lucky that we haven't had a chance to get caught in the rain... yet, and also, that the Queen is currenly on holiday in Scotland.
Went on The Original Tour, on one of London's famous open-top buses. It started from the centre of Central London, at Trafalgar Square, with statues of King Charles III and some other famous people from Britain's history, then crossed the River Thames a few times over the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and a few smaller bridges, circled around other famous places like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Victoria Statue, the statue of Duke Wellington, war memorials, Commonwealth Gates, the London Eye, the London Tower, the church which Shakespeare used to attend, the National Gallery, the headquarters of BBC, the headquarters of the Financial Times, the first-ever Lloyd's Bank, Hyde Park, and many other places.
Saw blue skies, and rays of light emerging through the clouds surrouding the sun. It could be considered a beautiful day in London. We were fortunate indeed.
Saw the man who, for some reason that I did not get, imprisoned himself in a cage suspended in the air by a crane. He's been there for a fortnight (?) and has been starving himself, surviving only on water.
After the tour, we took 'the Tube', aka the Underground, aka the MRT, to South Kensington, where my College is. The Tube was a disappointment. I have never before seen such small and narrow trains... I estimate it to be only a little taller than 2m, and the width is 50% that of Singapore's MRTs. Even the trains in Sydney are much better. The space down the middle bewteen the two sides of seats is such that there is only space enough for one standing person when the seats are occupied. Ventilation is horrible... it is overcrowded, stuffy and hot, and with winter clothes on, it is unbearable. Dad and I declared that we wouldn't take it again if we could help it. The fare is not cheap too - a journey of 8 stops costed GBP3.20 (equates to more than S$8!!). Auntie Daisy said that even the underground trains were subject to traffic 'jams', than a train might be stopped for 10mins or so every now and then during busy commuting periods.
Imperial College was better than we expected. At least it has an identifiable campus, and the building structures and architecture are not as... 'dodgy' as I would have thought. The building of the Departments of Medicine and Biological Sciences (my dept.) is one called the Sir Alexander Fleming Building, and it is quite impressive. With walls of glass, technological-looking and modern, it is in fact, attractive. Some other buildings are older brick ones, and some look Victorian and all. There are carved reliefs [sic] of the College crest, of the artistic render of bodies, and some other creatures that popularly decorate the upper exteriors of gothic structures. The building for the Environmental Sciences is rather grand as well, as is the Beit Quadrangle, the College Union's grounds, which reminds me of the Main Quad of the University of Sydney. While walking around, I met my senior from ICSS, whom I came to know through Sojourn. We just smiled and waved to each other, silently expressing, "So here we are."
South Kensington is, they say, a town of the upper classes, and the great academic and scientic minds. It is where the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the home of the Royal Geopraphic Society, and numerous other museums and exhibition halls are found.
Visited the free open exhibition, '
Earth from the Air' held outside the Natural History Museum by world-renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It was most amazing, and consists of a hundred or so photos of earth and its landscapes, people, cities, animals and geography taken from the air. Take a look at its website, and imagine looking at the huge, original slide of those images.
Took the bus to Notting Hill (yes, the Notting Hill of the Notting Hill fame), and had dinner in a restaurant called the Singapore Chinese Restaurant.
London is a fascinating city, and with the right mind, I might warm up to it after all.
Will be going to IC again tomorrow. It should be an exciting (and also dreaded) day.... for it is then when I shall find out where I'll be living, and actually move in into the hall of residence. I hope it is somewhere good.
Singapore - London: Day 1
Went to the airport with dad at around 7.30am, and there was lots of hugging and "bye-bye..." at home. Jane had to go to school and my mom had to send her so they couldn't come to the airport with us.
In all, we (or I) had 6 pieces of luggage, including the 2 boxes of scanner and printer. Total weight was 89.6kg... a wonder how we managed to pull it though. I wouldn't know how I would have handled it if my dad didn't come along... but in the first place, I knew he was going to come as well and so I knew I could bring more.
On plane, watched Hollywood Homicide, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Italian Job and Whale Rider. While sleeping I listened to Pirates of the Caribbean, having watched it twice I could now recall the scenes from listening to the music and the dialogue. The pop music selection was horrible, and it was more effective in waking me up than putting me to sleep. The classical music also had bouts of operatic singing with either deep bass voices or shrill, ear-piercing notes that didn't work too well either.
Am staying at Hilton Kensington. EE knows a friend who knows the manager of the hotel, so we had much cheaper rates. I came to London withouth expectations. I only had the words and the descriptives of what others used on London. Now that I'm here, I shall add some of my own, in addition to grey, wet, dark, and dull, I should say that it is extremely messy. The airport is messy. The roads... my goodness. They're no better than spaghetti. The streets in the city are crowded... there are so many people even though it's a weekday. Technology is still a step or two behind (half-surprisingly)... and the tech on the buses still falls into the human manpower category. At first my dad stopped at the front, wanting to pay for the fare first, and the driver indicated that we'd 'sit down first'. There are bus conductors on each bus, and in the afternoon, we boarded the bus first without paying anything, then this person with wearing a little machine in front of him would come round and sell us our tickets. I wondered what he'll do if the bus gets more crowded... and how he could recognise the new faces, so to speak. The fare is one pound per adult, no matter how near or far the destination may be.
The streets remind me of Hong Kong. The trees, most of which are maple trees, remind me of Sydney in autumn. There is nothing that reminds me of Singapore.
Went to
Piccadilly. Had Italian food. Too cheesy. Too expensive. Mussels are stale.
Applying the experience gained from the arvo while boarding the bus, my dad just walked towards the back of the bus without paying anything. This time the fierce lady driver knocked on her screen (that separates the driver from the rest of the bus) and shouted, "Excuse me!" and instructed that we buy our tickets before getting on the bus. Rrright... so we got off. And hurriedly, my dad stood in front of the ticketing machine inserting the coins, and pressing the desired ticket type. The coins kept on spilling out, and we thought that the maching was faulty. This tall guy, quite young, was cursing behind us. He too, wanted to get a ticket before the bus went off. Then when the bus did drive off and we (and him) still couldn't get our tickets, he gritted out a "f****** hell", nostrils flaring and all. Then to top it off, he said "Thank you very much." to us.
That was when I had barely spent 5 hours in London, and my first time here too.
I must admit that I was initially unimpressed... with this City of London, that embraces the griffin as its symbol. A far cry... I should think it is time for it to stop looking back at its history and focus more solidly on its future. There is still much, much more that it can do to improve. I feel that it's already satisfied with its history, its rich culture and people, and feels that it deserves to have a break in advancement.
10.50pm now. Going to bed. Goodnight, and I hope tomorrow will be better. I do not wish to dislike London
I wonder if Dofu is anticipating my leaving? She's more attached to me than usual, and keeps staying so close that I keep tripping over her. It is said that dogs have unexplained powers. Or maybe she simply recognises the tell-tale signs... the fuss over everything, the mess, the packing, the walking around the house carrying things from the luggage in the living room to those in my room and vice versa. Will be checking in the luggage tonight so I gotta get everything ready asaic.
Okies... this should be my last post before I set off tomorrow morn...
Hope there'll be some good movies (at least 3 and a half) on the flight there. Good 'ole SQ.
If I have the time, I may send in some phlogs so keep your eyes peeled to the right.
