British weather - take 3

(River Ouse, which flows through York, flooding its blanks)

Why were the British so adventurous, exploring the world and building "the empire where the sun never sets"? It is because the weather here is so bad that they just have to get out of here and find somewhere nicer to live. Well, even the ancient Romans (who ruled Britain for a while) complained about the weather here in their records, as has every foreigner since. On Monday, during our RSD lecture, the sun suddenly broke through the cloud during a pause in the rain, and shine right into the lecturer's eye! The lecturer, who is from Germany, and had earlier just complained about the persistent rainfall, was so exasperated that he exclaimed "Now what's wrong with the weather in this country?"

Since the excitement of the first snow, it has been raining non-stop, until middle of this week. It was almost like Singapore's end-of-the-year rainy season. As the rain comes in from the Atlantic Ocean, riding on top of the warm ocean air, the temperature has been warmer than usual. Even after the rain stopped, the temperature has remained well above 10 degrees, whereas the usual temperature at this time of the year is about 5 degrees. Is this just a weather anomaly, or is global warming truly upon us now?

Liverpool

Map of Liverpool
The Overseas Student Association here organizes trips to major cities regularly and last weekend's (i.e. 19 Jan) was to Liverpool. Well, actually all they do is to hire a coach to bring us there and back. These trips are "touch-and-go" affairs, really. The coach leaves the campus at 8.30, and leave for the campus at 5pm. Discount away the 2 hours road time per way, we really only have a few hours for sight seeing. But one cannot be too fussy with the ticket costing only 5GBP per head, which is a few fold cheaper than going on your own by train.

I supposed the most famous things about Liverpool are The Beatles, and Liverpool Football Club. (Apologies to Everton fans, but they really should have called themselves Liverpool United or Liverpool something), so a trip of few hours should not exclude visits to places related to them. But since I am not a fan of either, there is not much things to say, except maybe "It's raining, as usual". So just enjoy the photos I have taken!

Not Previously Seen - Part 2

This is something that Mr Paul Phua would be delighted to have. It is a calendar I bought during the post New Year Sales at the campus bookshop. As you can see (click on picture if you can't), it cost 5GBP after a 50% discount. 15SGD, is not cheap for a calendar, but hey, this is not just a calendar. It comes with 300 paper aeroplanes that flies well!

The magnetic covered box opens up neatly into a calendar stand. There is a new paper plane every weekday, and 1 for the weekend. You fold the plane out of the calendar paper, which has the pattern of the plane on one side, and the instructions for folding the plane (the previous day's -- can you figure out why?) on the other. The instructions also illustrates the proper wing angle and launch speed for the best flight.

The planes fly very well if you follow the instructions closely. The wing angle and the launch speed is very important. Even that simple "Flying Wing" you see in the picture below flies well. The size and type of paper matters too. It is A5 size(half of A4 size) and of the same type of paper as the "horse racing calendar" we have back in SG. I tried using normal printer paper, but it doesn't fly as well, most likely because it is too heavy.

For daily recreation, this beats computer games. The creators of the calendar have a website here and here. Take a look, it's interesting! And get fascinated by what a origami genius can turn a piece of paper into at http://www.folders.jp (Just click on the links under the dates if you don't understand Japanese), keeping in mind that origami artists does not use glue or cut the paper to get to the final shape.

Exams over, but no celebrations

The only thing I don't like about being a student is taking exams. As I was telling someone, an exam is like a FA Cup match. No matter how well prepared you are, you can never guarantee that you will win the match. Exams are also disadvantageous to older students, where our "RAM size and processor speed" are not as high as they used to be.

Should an assessment be solely testing your understanding of a topic? With the tight time constraint in an exam, the answers are more instinctive than well thought, so it isn't really a very fair test of understanding. Or perhaps a fair test should cover a person's capability to memorize all the details in their heads, and the ability to form (hand written) answers from them in the shortest time? Maybe, but with information so easily available nowadays, perhaps this ability is not as crucial as in the days gone past when information is restricted to selected experts and libraries. Besides, tight time constraint isn't really that crucial in the engineering world, where the ability to generate a precisely correct answer, even if it takes more time, is preferred over giving a half correct answer -- being as useless as a totally wrong answer-- in half the time.

And that is why I feel quite frustrated after finishing the exams. I know that the answers that I have submitted is not a good indication of the knowledge that is up here in my head. If there isn't that 2 hours time pressure there, I would certainly be able to come up with a perfect (ok, a much better) answer, yes, even if I am not allowed to refer to my notes.

I much prefer open assessments (or as we call it in TP, "assignments"), not that it is easier. Open assessments are more like a NBA Play-Off series. It is a longer process, but besides giving you a chance to recover from an "off-day", I feel it is a more accurate test of a person's ability to apply his knowledge in the real world. But of course from the examiner's point of view, there are issues not present in closed book exams which needs to be tackled, plagiarism being one of them. Here in York, plagiarism is taken very seriously and the university put in lots of effort to ensure every student thoroughly understands what plagiarism is all about. But that would be a topic just as lengthy for another blog entry.

First Snow!

Nothing excites me, one from the tropics, more than seeing snow fall. Yet, looking at the snow falling, it also calms the mind and put a person at ease. Somehow, looking at snowflakes dancing fast and furious in the wind, and yet not making a single sound in the air, gives one a peaceful and rather surreal feeling. Is it just an illusion, or does the air really becomes quieter when it is snowing? Perhaps the falling snow acts like a sound proof wall? I must google to find out.

I was woken up very early this morning by the cold, since I did not turn on the heater as it was still mild when I went to bed last night. The weather report had forecast snow for parts of UK, but York was not one of them. So to my surprise, and excitement, when I looked out the window, I saw the carpark covered with snow.

I was out with the camera(this one belongs to a friend) at first light. It started to snow very heavily as I walked around the campus. Among the wildlife, the seagulls seemed the happiest, flying and circling around the lake, shrieking. The swans, as usual, are graceful in the water, oblivious of the snow falling around them. The ducks looked subdued, but the most miserable seemed to be the "black coloured bird that walks like a chicken" (update: it is called a moor hen, thanks to seismic. Click on comments link below to see his comments). Though they are usually shy birds, they just sit there in the middle of the road, and got up reluctantly only when humans come near.

The workers are busy around the campus though, spraying de-icing agents on roads, walkways and bridges to prevent people from slipping. Snow means more work for them, so I supposed not everyone is happy to see snow, unlike me. According to the barber at Langwith, it doesn't snow as much as it used to, perhaps it is because of global warming, and don't bring back any snow from Austria, he had said . Snow may not be pleasant for the residents here, but it will be a sad day for them if it doesn't snow here anymore.

Oh yes, I also found that cameras using AA size batteries don't work well in the cold. I think the fault lies in the batteries, which stop discharging electricity when it gets very cold. I have to rely on my trusty old camera to finish up the job. Lithum ion batteries seems to work better in the cold. But unfortunately, not anticipating the snow, I didn't charge the battery beforehand, so that too went flat after a few shots.

Anyway, here are the photos that I took. Even as I type, snow continues to fall. I would like to spend the whole of today out walking in the snow, but unfortunately exams are just a few days away, so one must get down to studying. Will update with more photos if it snows again. It is tempting to say it will, since this is just the first snowfall of winter. But with global warming looming, one cannot be too confident. It only snowed once last year, a third year student told me. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

2008 New Year's Eve

Well, what do you expect to do in York on New Year's Eve when the exams are exactly one week away? Not much, except to dig your heels in and study hard. But we still manage to find some time for a small gathering in my kitchen. Shown in the picture are students from Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, standing around the window to look at the small scale fireworks from the direction of Millennium Bridge. Guess who is from where?

With most students still away on holiday, it is still very quiet here on campus. Most of the students left are East Asian whose home are too far (and thus too expensive) to fly to for this short holiday.

But it is not a ghost town here in York. Between Christmas and New Year is the post-Christmas Sales season. This is UK's equivalent of the Great Singapore Sale, so York's city centre is decorated with Sales signs all around, and crowded with shoppers carrying shopping bags big and small. Any good bargains out there? Well, GBP has weakened somewhat over the weeks, but at 1GBP=2.9SGD, things are still almost 3 times more expensive here. Anyway, I don't really know as I have not been bargain hunting around; you are looking at someone who don't even go for GSS.

A Quiet Christmas

Those of us who grew up in Singapore where Christmas is synonymous with the Orchard Road light-up can be forgiven to think that York's city centre is lit with lights a few folds grander and brighter, with snow falling and revellers singing and dancing the night away.

Especially here in York, where is the Archbishop is the second highest ranking cleric after the Archbishop of Canterbury, one would imagine Christmas to be a grand, bright, merry occasion. The reality is that Christmas in York seems rather dull, when measured against Orchard Road's unrestrained profit making Christmas.

Firstly, Christmas lighting in the city centre is not as elaborate or bright as those in Orchard road where big shopping centres compete with each other to put up the greatest and the brightest to attract customers.

Secondly, in Singapore, Christmas is an end-of-the-year excuse for busy friends to gather for a binge. Here in York, as you may have guessed, Christmas is a traditional family affair where people spend their Christmas at home, much like CNY back in Singapore. As such, it turns utterly quiet on Christmas and Boxing Day as all shops and places of interest are closed. The whole country shuts down, even the trains and buses are not running, so if you don't have a car, you are basically much stuck and isolated at home.

On the campus itself, all of the UK students have gone home, and most overseas students are spending the vacation outside York. A Christmas party to be held by the university's chaplins has been called off, presumbly due to poor response. So the whole place is very very quiet.

York is well known for its Christmas market though. In the run-up to Christmas, there is an open air market held at the city centre everyday, which attracts a lot of visitors, making the city centre as crowded as Tampines Mall (ok, it still can't beat the Orchard Road crowd). However, as a tourist, I find Vienna's Christmas markets more interesting. For one, the weather there is colder and the more numerous markets are located against a backdrop of classical buildings. Also, the atmosphere and the goods there are more like our stereotype of Christmas: snow, candles, christmas deco, nutcracker dolls, hot wines etc. Here in York, the stuff sold at the Christmas markets are more down-to-earth: sausages, candy, poultry, clothes etc stuff that families, not tourists, would need. But to be fair, downtown Vienna is made for tourist whereas York is a small, traditional city that needs to cater to its residents needs.

So it turns out that Christmas here is a rather subdued affair. However, the upside is that it is still an authentic, religious and sincere. All of the many churches here hold services from Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day. I could hear the church bells tolling as I was walking on the campus grounds on Christmas Eve. I kinda sympathized with the Christians in Singapore, where Christmas has mostly lost its religious significance among those who celebrated it. I would think that a true Christian would appreciate Christmas here more than in Singapore.

Vienna

map of vienna
Perhaps the biggest talking point about this trip is that the trip was cut short by a week from 10 days to 4 days. What can I say? As this is a public blog, I will not go into details the reasons for shortening the trip, but let's just say that I am happy to get an extra week to study for my exams.

So it is four days in Vienna. We stayed in a Youth Hostel in the centre of the city, surrounded by buildings of old style architecture. Unlike the capital cities in many other parts of the world, Vienna has managed to retain the look and feel of its heritage. If you imagine the buildings in the whole of CBD area all look like National Museum, Raffles Hotel or the MITA building (but in pastel colours), that is how Vienna feels like. In the city centre, there are no modern buildings that look out of place with the historical buildings.

Weather wise, it was probably below zero most of the time. Even though it didn't snow during the time we were there, we can see snow on roof tops, grass lawns and back of lorries. So at least we know the temperature weren't warm enough to melt any snow that fell before we arrived.

The people of Vienna are cold and not very polite. Perhaps it is because they are a proud people with a very rich and glorious past. Austria produced many musicians (Schubert, Mozart), and scientists, among them numerous Nobel prize winners. The royal family of Austria was arguably the most powerful royal family Europe has ever seen, ruling from Spain to Serbia, and even briefly in Mexico. Having mentioned that though, we have a fellow Austrian student(Lea, she is actually of Brazilian origin) who invited us to stay at her Austrian boyfriend's(Reinhard) house. They were most hospitable and Reinhard also came to welcome us at the airport(with beer!) and showed us around the city.

Reinhard's apartment is in the city centre in a traditional Viennese building. The layout is very similar to what I saw in Vietnam last year, when a student in the MFA-IAI course invited me to his place. A typical apartment building consist of four blocks surrounding a court yard, with the corridor on each level facing the court yard. There are no lifts, so you climb up a spiral stairway up to the apartment. When you enter the apartment unit, you come into the kitchen first. The living room is across the kitchen directly opposite the entrance. There is another room to the left of the kitchen, and a bathroom on the right. The toilet is outside the apartment along the corridor.

Besides walking around the city with Reinhard, we also visited the Museum of Fine Arts, attended the "Nutcracker" ballet at the Vienna Opera House and visited the Schönbrunn Palace. The photos are in the photo album, so I will save the effort to describe what we saw there.

Vienna definitely deserved more than the 3 full days I spent there. There are just so many churches, museums, palaces and performances to visit and attend. I probably should also join Aki on to Salsburg, but I supposed the freezing cold, the long and late nights, and the thought of the coming exams got the better of me. I flew back on the fifth day, one day after the other Singaporean traveling companion suddenly decided to go back to UK. I also got to admit that my zest for travelling has diminished a lot over the years, as those of you who know me are already aware that I don't travel often ever since I started teaching in TP.

Perhaps when the weather turns warmer and the days longer, my enthusiasm for travelling will return. But I don't think I'll travel far again before winter's over. The room in the hostel is right now too warm and cosy for me to venture out.

British weather - take 2

It was raining for almost the whole of last two weeks. The rain has stopped, and we have got fair weather, but it has turned much colder. The daily temperature has been hovering around freezing for a few days now, and the lakes are starting to freeze.

It seems that the clouds act as a insulator to prevent heat from escaping, so when it rains here, the temperature is actually milder than when the sun is out. The opposite effect of what we have in Singapore where rainy days are cooler than sunny days.

The cold weather sets us up nicely for the trip to Austria, where the daily temperature now is about the same as what we are experiencing these few days. Cool!

Ducks walking on the ice, instead of swimming in the lake

Newcastle

Map of Newcastle
So, the busy weekends continue with a visit to Newcastle last Saturday. This one is organised by the Overseas Students Association, with the subsidised coach ticket costing GBP4. I was with three other students, all doing Linguistics, presumably one reason they went for the trip is to experience the Newcastle accent. A staff manning the Information Centre at the railway station had a strong accent that sounded not far from Scottish, but we don't know if that is the Newcastle accent.

The weather was wet and cold, the start of a cold spell to hit the eastern UK that has continued since. We didn't visit many places because it was just a day trip, and the coach journey already ate up 2 hours per way. But rather than bore you to death with the description of the places we visited, I'll leave it to you to look at the photos that I took.

One noteworthy incident though. Unknowingly, we took our lunch at a Chinese restaurant that was just opposite the Newcastle United football stadium. We happened to leave the restaurant 10 minutes before the start of that Saturday's game, and bumped right into the fans streaming into the stadium. The passion of the fans were evident. Despite the rain, they were singing loudly, shouting cheers and ignoring the traffic, and it was quite intimidating to watch them. And there were so many of them streaming incessantly up the street that we wonder where they came from. Singapore has tried to build up grassroot support for the S League, but I really don't think we will ever get to this stage. It is just not in our culture to be so fanatic over a football team.

Picture showing Newcastle United's fans streaming into the stadium, which is the structure in the background behind the Chinese arch.