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Chinese New Year, the London version

I never knew Londoners had such a fettish for things Chink (have a look at China in London). Yesterday at Chinatown, I think I saw more gweilos than Chinese. And not only gweilos, but African Caribbeans and Sikhs, among others. When the gang of us photographers (five photogs, mostly Nikonians, three with D70s and intimidatingly monstrous lenses) went early to scout out the best shooting spot, there were hardly more than a couple of handful of people - press photographers excluded. But whatever you could see of the pavement was quickly filled up as the distant sounds of Lion Dance drums drew nearer. There were kids - so many kids (the human variety, not goat)! Kids hugging lamp posts, kids sitting on shoulders, kids waving paper dragons, kids wearing sunglasses, kids in strollers, kids wearing cute doggie hats.

The main procession was led by an Englishman with a plush dog on his hat, followed by an entourage of banner-carriers and people in traditional garb. There were more folk dancers, drummers, dragons and lions. Lots of martial artists - most of them non-Chinese. Their flags read "International Joseph Lee Wing Chun Assoc." or something similar; men gave melee combat demos as they walked along, and some associations carried with them weapons of all sorts. Women were dressed in amusing costumes with an oriental theme, but their interpretation of Chinese styles are not quite what I'm used to.

Over at Trafalgar Square, they had some performances on stage, but it was impossible to see as the place was too utterly packed. There were stalls, balloons, firecrackers, and all the accompanying noise and mayhem.

It's a funny feeling. The British don't just watch you celebrate CNY... they actually celebrate it with you.

I did an essay on optimality in bird migration. On the fuel load, stopovers and predation risk. I read 31 papers, and cited half of them. I was inspired then... to collect all sorts of specialist papers relevant to the local (Singapore) fauna... and come up with some sort of databank or knowledge base, not for scientists but for the layman or average naturalist wanting to find out more. But that's just a vision. I'll have to do that before my MyAthens account expires.

I know what I want to do now, after this year. MSc in Science Communication. It's a bit of everything - journalism, PR and public affairs, media work, broadcasting, science policy, science controversies, ethics.

While I have time I try to squeeze in the TVB series <<酒店風雲>> (Revolving Doors Of Vengeance)... such a gripper, that one. I haven't watched such stuff in ages. That's over now, and I'm now on <<冲上云霄>> (Triumph In The Skies).

Here's something for Star Wars and gaming fans: the recently-released demo for SW Empire at War, an RTS.

Meanwhile it's all this festive Chinese spirit - CNY dinners, gatherings and all those new year goodies and nian gao. This weekend is packed.

"Have you seen the whale?"

On any other day in London, I would have thought the person asking such a question was mad. But the unusual does happen in London from time to time. This weekend, a whale decided to get itself stranded in the River Thames. It was first sighted on Friday, and by Saturday morning it had swam westwards towards Battersea. It was all over the frontpages, all over websites, and BBC even had a helicopter over the site to provide live coverage over a webcast.

This was one lost whale. Northern bottlenose whales are found in deep, open waters in the North Atlantic (more info on BBC), so it's a rare sight around here. It was so distressed... rescuers mounted a full-sale operation in an attempt to save it.

I first heard of the news on Friday night, after coming back from the first day of our ICMUN conference. Dad came to London on Sat, and he knew of it too... and was interested in checking it out. So after some time at the computer trying to figure out where exactly the whale was then, we headed off towards Battersea, joined by Xi (who had abandoned her post at the conference).

It was packed full of people... bikes, cars and baby prams parked right by on the pathway, Toddlers sat on daddies' shoulders, teens and old men climbed up lamp posts... when I last went to Alberts Bridge for Guy Fawkes fireworks it wasn't even this packed.

I was at the back at first, and couldn't see what was happening. But twice the crowd clapped, and so it must have been something accomplished. When I finally found a gap which could fit me and my new VR 80-400mm, the whale was already lifted onto the salvage vessel. People clapped again. I reckon everyone thought it was a successful mission, and the whale was saved. As the rescue team and boats made off eastwards away from Battersea, people started to disperse, and everyone was happy.

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My dad called me this morning from the cab, as he was heading to Heathrow. He said that the whale had died. I knew... I was reading the news and following every piece of article and radio broadcast. They said it died from "natural causes at 1900 GMT after suffering convulsions". It was such a magnificent beast... at up to seven tonnes and 18ft... and yet its life was just as fragile as any other animal's. A sad ending for this out-of-the-ordinary cetacean.

Onlookers gather on Alberts Bridge

Watching the rescue team at work

Whale on mattress on barge

Keeping the whale wet

Waving goodbye

Reporters interviewing Guy-who-was-in-water-with-the-whale

Bug correcting behaviour practical

These are Oncopeltus fasciatus, distantly related to the Dysdercus species (Cotton stainers) we know so well. Forcing them to turn at a bend imposes a short-lived opposite bias on their subsequent turning, ie. they will compensate and turn in the other direction when they come to the next junction, thus resuming in the original direction. This exp looks easy but it's not - this took us 5 hours, and that's when I handled them directly with my hands. Some others, those less fond of our creepy-crawly friends, used wooden sticks and paintbrushes( = more victims of drowning).

The fan in my laptop broke down.

It's making all sorts of worrying noise and vibrations, and the keyboard heats up extremely quickly. If I don't shut down within 30 mins to let it cool down, it gives me the accursed BSOD and comes back with a black screen saying 0003 = Thermal sensor error.

Not a good thing.

There comes a period in life when you start to wonder why you ever did all those things in the first place. Or why I'm still doing them. I thought I was done with being involved in societies and committees and all that. First year come second year come third. I vowed SingSoc was the last I'd touch. Then fencing needed help. I went to help, but on the condition that I'd only do what my job requires and nothing more. Then ICMUN, the little infant it was, needed help too. As a future housemate of all the inaugural committee members, I was obliged to do something. But this is not what I signed up for. I did not think then, that I'd put in my all, and at this moment I know I've not been putting my best efforts into this.

There comes a period in time when you get sick of all this commitment and responsibility and work. I'm not exactly sick of it, but I am tired of it and I have become numbed. It's like I do the same thing year after year - for how many years? Since sec school? - but for different purposes and with different people in different places. mUN@IC is coming real soon - it's upon us this weekend - and recently we've been holding publicity stints. Booths around college, giving out flyers and brainwashing passer-bys. Before I'd reach out to the people like it'll get me the Best Salesman Award or something, but now I'd rather sit behind the desk doing Sudoku or chat absentmindedly with friends. Not only because I doubt the success of our first major intracollegiate conference (I know, that's bad, that's really bad, but it's really discouraging. And ever since last year's pulling-off of SingSoc's major event, I take to the Easy Way Out like a courageous-less mouse) but truth be told, it's because I can't really be bothered anymore.

When my dad said he might be coming to London in January, I said that I wasn't sure if I'd be free. When a friend asked if I'd be free for lunch on a weekend, I wasn't sure if I'd be free. SingSoc's gonna have trip to Birmingham soon and I'm not sure if I'd be free. Natural History Museum WLG's asking me to volunteer on blah^th the Saturday and I had to reply with I wasn't sure if I'd be free. Goodness man, I wasn't sure why I won't be free either. On some dates I know I have events and activities which I couldn't just shrug off, and when I don't have activities, I won't be free 'cos I want the time for myself. I want to be not doing something for once. Gone are the weekends when I was able to laze about at home. Now there isn't a single weekend when I've just bummed about doing nothing.

There comes a time in life when you just wished you had no obligations, no nothing, to anyone, anywhere. No deadlines to meet, no budgets to keep to, no dates to set, no people to recruit, no posters or tickets to design, no to-do lists to draw, no emails to read and reply to (yes, I'm sorry, my email reply rate recently has been at an all-time low), no documents to print, no Union to deal with, no meetings to attend, no late nights to owl away with...

I want to finish that book, watch those TVB serials, read my texts and papers, do some research, have some cereal, edit some photos and clean my fish tanks.

Things I wanted to but didn't do in my holidays:

- explore nature areas
- meet up with all my friends
- visit the Star Wars exhibition
- watch a movie
- shop around for a new camera backpack
- settle MUN stuff
- go to the zoo

What I did do was to spend more time out of the country than in it, post LOAs everywhere, and go horse-riding in Malaysia. It's funny how my bum is only starting to ache days after the trip. My thighs are sore too.

So it's 'back to school' and the college routine. Currently we're doing Animal Behaviour, and we've got birdman Ian Owens and insectman Jim Hardie. Today was (almost) all things birds - evolutionary behaviour, proximate and ultimate causes of behaviour... ... why Blackbirds let out alarm calls, evolution of colouration or why sparrows choose mates with larger bibs. Once I put forth a question to Prof Owens asking something about the baiting behaviour in herons - to be published to the BESGroup blog, but he still hasn't replied. I've a handful of questions I'd like to ask; I might pick a breaktime to pester him with.

Dofu

Pic on the left shows her bad eye before the surgery; the second one was taken two days after the surgery - while she was napping under my chair.

Poor Dofu, she's going for surgery tomorrow. The eye specialist says it's glaucoma, and she's totally blind in one eye. Unfortunately, it can develop in less than 24 hours, and it did so, far too quickly. She was so depressed today, so dispirited. Glaucoma causes great discomfort and pain, in dogs, as in humans. It started off as a potential cataract in Christmas, and her usual vet did not detect anything more serious... and recommended that we wait for the practice's specialist vet to return in early Jan. We couldn't wait; the state of Dofu's eye deteriorated unexpectedly quickly. After many phone calls and bounces from one vet practice to another, we located *the* canine eye specialist who could help.

So they will remove her left eye and replace it with a prosthetic one. She's still young, hardly six years' old, but she's a schnauzer and they've got their history of genetic disorders, as do all breeds of dogs.

We'll be picking her up on Sunday. Hope all goes well.

Poor Dofu.

Will be out of the country again, till the 8th, this time to Malaysia.

Despite my Cantonese-Shanghainese roots, I've never been to Shanghai before. Until now. My parents have been there a number of times, Jane as well. They tell me that five years ago, the skyscrapers on Pudong weren't there. That a decade ago, the Bund was already as elegant as it is today. That I wouldn't have been to China if I hadn't experienced Shanghai.

It's a funny city. It is unexpectedly modern, yet not totally so. It is old and dirty and messy, but it has its own draws. Even along the same street, modern architectural wonders can sit side-by-side shabby alleyways where people hang their clothes on trees to dry. It's a city of people and bicycles. There's the police, but there's no law. Anything goes. It's safer to cross the roads when the red man is on and the vehicles travel in one direction, than when the green man comes on and cars, bikes and cycles come at you from both directions. New estates and properties are so grand, they make Europe's royal households seem ordinary.

When we went, the weather was more horrid than London's. Drizzles, mist and crowds everywhere. When you could hardly make out what was on the other side of the Huangpu River, visibility was considered 'good'. The same miserable fog greeted us in Hangzhou, where we stayed for a few days. An ancient Chinese saying goes "in the sky there is heaven, on earth there is Hangzhou and Suzhou." Hangzhou in winter is not exactly this scene of beauty... there is no colour there... all's carpeted in a sheet of mist. Ancient Chinese charm, you could call it. Like the paintings.