Blog?

Think it’s about time to unveil my new blog at mylearningdiary.com. Check it out.

It seems that I’m in a bizarre period of time when everything around me has something to do with babies. My sister has recently given birth to a pair of twins http://www.pbase.com/dlcmh, on Christmas day. Friends and colleagues are having some fun time with their babies too (maybe it’s just sheer coincidence that I’m at the age band when people quite often start to have babies). But then again even the animals in my flat have babies! One of the baby platies finally survives, now big enough not to be eaten by other fishes in the my tank. And there are these garden birds, robins, found to have given birth to two babies in our courtyard.

At first we only spotted two adult robins that seemed to reside on the ash tree in our courtyard. Then one evening we heard one of these robins screaming and jumping non-stop while we were cooking. It was rather unusual, as all we did was just opening the kitchen door. We didn’t even step outside into the courtyard (robins are aggressively territorial and are quick to drive away intruders, most probably not including human :)). Not until we went out into the courtyard to find out what was happening that we know why the adult robin was behaving peculiarly. 

This is one of the pictures I took for the baby robin a day after she was fallen from her nest. At first sight I thought she looks like a crested penguin, because of her tall standing hair Very cute indeed.

My compassionate W almost immediately made her a "nest", believing that she would stay in there, as logically (at least to us) the nest could keep her warm at night. But that was not to be. Instead she preferred to stay at one corner, after I tried unsuccessfully to get her into the "nest" at the other corner. How naughty.

We left her some bird seeds. But I suppose she doesn’t know how to feed herself yet. So it became her dad’s or her mum’s (Male and female robins are identical. Silly us we initially thought both adult robins are male, because they both have red breast, as we thought only male robins have red breast. If that’s the case then they are going to be gay couple, and with these babies adopted? Hmmm, not very convincing isn’t it? :)) job to feed the seeds, taking from one corner to another, into her mouth. It was such a treat for us to be able to witness the adult robin doing this over and over again from our window.

It’s the second day today and this little guy still hasn’t fully developed her wings to fly. According to our friend, it’s best to leave them alone. It’s getting a bit annoying now that everytime we open the kitchen door the adult robin will keep screaming and screaming. In terms of distracting us I think he certainly is doing a great job, but not from distracting us away from his baby, just pure distraction Hopefully the baby robin has no problem living outside her nest and can soon fly like other healthy robins.

As far as I can recall, never once did I notice the presense of birds along the path I cycle through everyday for the past few months, apart from the mallards and mute swans that we always see in Reading. Surely there are plenty of birds there, but I can only remember seeing wild rabbits, in the dark!
It’s amazing what a difference it can make when one starts to pay attention to certain things. Nowadays, I will naturally look around to see what birds are around when I hear the chirping sound. It’s hard to tell if it’s because the interest I have recently picked up with W or I’m being made aware of the presence of such creatures.
So it’s interesting how much we have over-looked in our everyday lives, not because we are busy, or we are ignorant. Sometimes it comes down to just being totally unaware. It’s probably a good thing for people in a third world country not having the means to access foreign TV programmes. Not because the content of these programmes are bad. Imagine you have problems even drinking clean water or wearing clean clothes, or anything at all, and there you see westerners wearing proper attire for all occasions, eating food you can never have imagined. How do you expect yourself to get excited about the life you are living in?
I can understand why children quite often are happier than adults, as level of naivety and unawareness do make a big difference. By knowing more, the more likely you can get distracted or occupied. No? To me bird chirps now sound so much "louder" than before, like I have attached a new antenna to listen more clearly to that "frequency" of sound.

Has it occured to you that you want to slap somebody because they are so naive? Maybe you can’t understand why they can be so naive. Or maybe deep down you wish you can be as naive, as a child. We can be ignorant, but we can not be as naive anymore. Quite depending on people, naivety to a certain extent can really serve some people better.

There were all together 22 fishes in W’s aquarium - 6 zebra danios, 6 neon tetras and 10 platies. Actually a few too many. We used to only need to change the water once every 2 weeks.

I fed the fishes today, as I normally do everyday. However, something different happened. On first sight, I thought I saw a piece of fish waste sank and slipped underneath the fake mountain. Although I was sure it didn’t really look like fish waste, I didn’t pay further attention, as I couldn’t see what slipped into that opening, and I was busy observing the playful danios searching for any left over fish flakes on top of the gravel.

If it wasn’t the marmite jar, I suppose I wouldn’t have the headache I’m having now. It all started a month ago when my colleague’s 2-year-old son decided to be on a mission to "free" the fishes and hurled a marmite jar at his aquarium. It broke a big hole at the lower corner of the aquarium and  all the fishes were flushed down onto the carpet, except one algae eater fish, which thought it was a good plan to stay stick-on to the glass.

Two days later on a Monday morning, my colleague offered me the fishes, around 7 apparently still healthy platies according him, or else these tropical fishes won’t survive in the bowl in his home for too long. Seeing that these poor fishes would most likely not survive if they were not put in a proper aquarium, I took the challenge to rescue them. Actually 11 of them, which I found out only when my colleague arrived at my doorstep, to my horror.

As if the aquarium is not crowded enough, now the platies are getting comfortable and start giving birth to baby platies! Yes, that wasn’t a piece of fish waste. Like D, my colleague’s son, who blamed the marmite jar for breaking his aquarium and putting his lounge in a mess, W, I am going to start blaming the evil marmite jar as well.

Art was never a subject I enjoy. I’m not a patient man, really, though I may appear to be one. Maybe not all the time, oh well. I can still remember my calligraphy homework, awful, absolutely awful. Drawings, oh, you must be having a laugh. School time was really memorable. My this friend submitted an art homework on any subject, a very simple  drawing, in fact too simple. In it was an open book, with a shiny yellow colour house standing out of the book. I would say only two colours were used in total. But the idea was so obvious that even with such poor execution, nobody could really miss it, unless one didn’t know this famous chinese phrase in the first place. It was good laugh, even the teacher couldn’t help it.

W and I went to Musee D’Orsay last Christmas. It wasn’t my idea, as I didn’t even know it exists. Somehow it was top of W’s list of places to visit in Paris. Don’t think I have paid too much attention to impressionism art before until W asked me to get her a replica modern art painting from Kandisky, and some books on impressionist art. Though I have read bits and pieces about impressionism art then, think I only remember a few names, particularly Manet, as it’s also the name of a working group, Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, that I have interest in. According to my french colleague some americans try to pronounce the  working group like the french artist’s name, which he thinks is wrong. I can understand why.

In a museum, usually I will just stroll around, "try" to appreciate the famous few by paying them a visit and then leave. I don’t like renting audio guide, as it tells me very little things meaningful to me about paintings. So I might as well not pretend. I, however, know that I enjoy listening to museum tour guide, as I have overheard tour guides explaining about paintings before in other museums. The theme of the tour for that month was about impressionism. After weighing up the "options", it was a no-brainer really, as W likes impressionism art and I was also curious to understand more. It was money well spent, as it proved. I wonder if it was because I had low expectation. But it certainly was my best experience in a museum.

Don’t think I’ve imagined myself rearing fishes at home before. I hate the fishy smell, and I don’t like  "mundane" affairs like changing water, cleaning the tank every 2 weeks etc.  Keeping such pets at home can be quite involving. And I don’t think I’m a patient man, as was pointed out by W recently, towards certain things.

I have to admit that I start to appreciate nature a lot more than I used to when I was young. What’s changed? Physically everything looks like before. Fish still looks like fish and dog still has four legs. Why would I spend more time looking at a fish, at a plant these days? Could it be because I’ve too much time, more than before? Don’t think so. Even if I have plenty of time to kill back then, I don’t think observing a fish is top of my "things-to-do-when-you-have-time" list.

Everyone, who has the priviledge to see, sees. Of the same physical object saw, say a table, we all see table in its a physical form. Some people however "see" trees, chopped down, processed and assembled to give us this end product called "table". So could this be the reason why lovers tend to appreciate things that many couldn’t? I don’t know, as I’m not artist nor art lover. I can certainly draw similarity, as both requires more than just eyes to "see".

Think I’ve heard this countless times, especially in dramas, "There are a lot of things you can’t see using mortal eyes" (in cantonese of course :)). When I first heard this when I was still young, I laughed, "What is this mug talking. You see whatever you see, unless you are blind!". Even had someone explained to me, I probably still won’t understand. So…

Get to know this Chinese family who has just moved to Reading through W recently. Both the parents are illiterate, but decided to settle in England nevertheless. They were in Belfast for a year before moving here. Think the main reason was they didn’t want their eldest son, a 13-year-old, to suffer any more bullies from the local student there. Their children were brought up in HK until they moved to Belfast last year.

The eldest son looks grumpy and has bad attitude all the time. Who can blame him for behaving as such. He clearly does not like to live in the UK anymore, considering what he has gone through in Belfast, but he has no choice. His dad, who is ill with diabetes,  prefers to stay in the UK as a pensioner, as it’s probably a better option for the family. If one thinks that the child can surely choose to think and act more positively, this can only be true if he possesses enough wisdom. For a child at his age, can we really expect him to be rationale about his situation?

There are still options, but the parents need to act, if things aren’t working. There was this famous chinese story about a mum relocating three times, just so that her son could grow up in a decent environment. This trick worked years ago, and it will continue to work. I just hope the trick works soon enough, so that the child can start seeing the brighter side of life.

My colleague found this: type in "failure" (without quotes) in google and click on "I’m feeling lucky". Basically clicking on "I’m feeling lucky" just automatically takes you to the first web page returned for your query. Anyway, the return is a bit hilarious. Wonder if it’s a bug or pure "luck"…

I punctured my bicycle tyre after two days cycling to work last week, just two days. And I remember very well that when I bought the bike I was told that the tyres are kevlar tyres. In case you don’t know what kevlar is: Kevlar, also known as Twaron and poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, is a synthetic fibre that is five times stronger than steel, weight for weight (according to the excellent wikipedia on Kevlar).

What’s the chance, my bike, equipped with kevlar tyres, punctured in 2 days, by a tiny stone. But that was what happened, "how bad luck can I get?". To think about it, is it really that small a chance?

I’m pretty sure that no one put that little sharp stone on the cycle path to puncture anyone’s tyre. I mean, come on, if someone did do that, he must be a genius, as he certainly had pulled that one off But when the condition is right, something amazing can really happen. Allow me to use this cake baking explaination. Flour, sugar, eggs etc each in itself is nothing special (well compared to cake). By simply mixing them together, you get something even less spectacular :). But with the right mix, the right temperature and the right amount of baking time, you will almost certainly get a cake.

I don’t mean to sound like I rode myself to that stone to puncture my tyre. But surely the fact that I cycled, on that cycle path, created myself partial condition to trouble. So becoming a "lottery winner" is probably just a matter of time. Or is it? If nobody has any notion of a "tyre puncture event", will I know this can even happen? I don’t think so.

To think about it, it’s probably been 2 years I had been thinking about cycling to work.

I used to have a car, but was stolen. Didn’t bother to get another one, as most importantly I haven’t got a British driving license! Thought about getting myself a bicycle, but the danger of cycling on roads had always put me off. Not to mention the harsh cycling condition the British weather could offer sometimes, prevalent bicycle theft in Reading etc.

I certainly had focus too much on reasons why I should not cycle. Even after I cycled to work for the first time this morning I had doubts whether this was worth the hassle. As the route that I took required me to climb up a hill, which was quite steep actually now I realised. And there were no proper cycle paths. This is unattrative as I can foresee myself being unnerved by some careless drivers one day, just as what they did to my french colleague, couple of times already.

Fortunately, there is a longer route, with long stretch of cycle path, that circumvent the hill between my house and the company. Not only was I relieved, when I arrived home just now, I think I’m going to love cycling to work.

Cycling is good, good for your body and the environment. The government is encouraging people to cycle to work, with a scheme called cycle2work that allows employees to buy bicycles using government tax breaks. This is quite an attractive offer, especially when the petrol price is threatening to get past the £1 a litre mark. But to be honest, until there are more extensive cycle paths around, it is always going to be difficult to get people to take the risk.

He appears on the front page of the Economist that I received 2 days ago. As much as I wanted to read about what they have to say about him, the iconic figure that people do hold their breath and listen to when he speaks, today was just not the day. I had more "important" things to take care of

W was not too convinced that a circle with a cross below is a female sign. "Red is not really the kind of colour you would associate with a male symbol, isn’t it?", we all asked, including the very pro cycle shop sales assistant, showing his disbelief. But he was very sure that’s a male bike.

We were about to leave the shop, but W pleaded that we should double check, maybe with anyone in the shop. I understood that it would be a grave mistake if I left this shop with a female bike. But it was hard for me to question the judgement of that pro, who had been really helpful and nice throughout.

I was a bit surprised that not many people in the shop know the answer to the male and female sign. This asian (or indian as we malaysian usually call them) sounded like he knows exactly which is a male sign, circle with a cross below. That alone prompted me to go upstairs to confirm with the pro one more time. He was all smiling, drawing me both signs on the back of a piece of torn cardboard. The explanation from him wasn’t convincing, even after he showed his muscular arm at an angle to explain that the arrow represents male power, or masculinity But he was absolutely 100% sure, as he showed no sign of any second thoughts. I could see why, when he started explaining that saddle on a men’s bike is narrower, and hand grip on ladies’ bike is thinner. Anyhow I still ended up asking two more people in the shop and checked the Internet. He’s right, and I’m glad that he’s right, as too many people around think they know something when they actually don’t; yet I wonder where they get such confidence from. In this simple case of male and female symbols, where you can either be completely right, or completely wrong. If you know the answer, you should have facts to back you, as you probably have read something about it. But if you are confident about a wrong answer…

It’s no coincidence why some people can command so much respect from other people.