Personal


China and Personal19 Sep 2008 08:48 am

Sometimes, living on the other side of the world is really bl**dy frustrating. It’s not just the time difference, the miles apart and the fact that we are living in a completely alien country which can get exasperating, but also the fact that due to it being so alien, it feels as though we are completely cut off from what is going on around us (and the rest of the world for that matter). Yes, there is always the ONE and only international, english speaking, tv channel which we could watch, or the abundant rss feeds on the internet to keep us feeling the pulse of what’s going on in the rest of the world, but somehow that’s not the same as actually being part of and interacting with the (now so far away) more familiar part of the world.

 


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China and Personal16 Sep 2008 03:09 pm
Went to a Sichuan restaurant in Pudong over the weekend and were privilege to one of China’s most mysterious performing arts: ‘face changing’, or Bian Lian.


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China and Personal15 Sep 2008 11:19 am

Spend last weekend in Shanghai to catch up with friends and explore its streets some more. To my despair we are currently in the middle of typhoon season and heavy downpours followed me around throughout my trip; running for shelter, standing in passage ways and being forced to stop and appreciate my surroundings at length and in more detail enabled me however to find new alley ways with antique shops and observe some more extraordinary behaviour.

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The view of Pudong during the day; the view of Shanghai from Pudong in the evening


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China and Personal11 Sep 2008 04:02 pm

Told you there’d be no escaping the mooncakes … as part of the celebrations of ‘teachers’ day’ yesterday, we all got given mooncakes. I should probably provide you with a ‘cutting a long story short’ explanation of teachers’ day: to commemorate and celebrate Confucius’ contributions to Chinese culture and society, the Ministry of Education set his birth date (28th Sept.) to be national teachers’ day; fortunately it doesn’t just involve the big man, but symbolises a pat on the back for all teachers and educators in China. The date was recently changed to the 10th Sept.


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China and Personal09 Sep 2008 08:33 pm

I have been back to China for almost a week now and have pretty much settled in. Thankfully, due to iron willpower, I managed to overcome my yet-lag quite quickly by trying my very hardest to adapt to the local time as soon as I arrived. I am now back to my usual 6am to 11pm days of work, reading, running and yoga.


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Horticulture and Personal14 Aug 2008 12:00 am

After a string of fairly lengthy posts, I thought I’d mix things up slightly and just post several of my latest pictures, documenting: the view from my office window at home during the day and in the evening – we had a particularly spectacular sun set the other day… my stint in the ‘good life’ (see my previous post here), the white garden, which was magnificent yesterday, whilst it was misty in the morning, and finally my new bee hive and my raspberry swiss roll, decorated with raspberries from the garden.

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Personal10 Aug 2008 10:51 pm

In light of my new found ‘holiday‘ state and a friend’s 30th birthday, I traveled to Trier on Friday. I vaguely remember visiting there with school once, as part of an outing with my latin class, but it’s always different when you go somewhere out of your on free will.


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Horticulture and Personal07 Aug 2008 03:54 am

Having spent the last few weeks traveling, attending conferences, working on papers and answering student emails, I have found myself enjoying a bit of a holiday over the last few days. It wasn’t really planned and actually crept up on me rather unexpectedly: my work email is refusing to grant me access!


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Personal29 Jul 2008 03:30 pm

A good friend of mine has recently found himself without an internet connection, a mobile telephone or a land line. In essence he’s been transported back into the middle of the 19th century…


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Personal22 Jul 2008 03:43 am

Been back in Europe for about 3 weeks now and just thought I’d write down a few of my thoughts and impressions since returning.


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