Last Kick of Winter

Now is 9.00am Saturday in the UK, 7 hours behind Malaysia. The Daylight Saving Time (DST) began on last Sunday. Last Sunday morning i woke up and found that the university computer clock was moved an hour forward. I lost an hour in my sleep! :( This is my first experience of DST. I didn't experience this when i was in Arizona, which is one of a few places in the US that does not observe DST.

This week, cambridge is very misty and foggy, very bad visibility and of course, this means Cold! Last week, the weather was even more changeable, you could experience Four elements of weather in One day: (light) snow, rain, sun and (strong*) wind! It alternated faster than women mood's swing! In contrast, the weather before this was averagely sunny and warm (8~18'C); and with flowers blossom and tree flowers, you could feel that the spring was arriving. But the weather has changed abruptly for these 2 weeks, and people claim that this is the last kick of this winter! A strong karate kick, i suppose! Huuuuuuh Ah! haha! ;p

* This may give you an idea of the degree of strong wind during that week. There was one afternooon i was walking along Madingley Road to my lab in west cambridge, which is far away from the city centre and with no tall buildings around; And, i was carrying my laptop in a bag slung over my left shoulder. The wind was so strong that time, i could feel its force exerted on my body and pushed me away and the resistance to walk against the wind. I could hardly open my eyes due to the debris blew off from the ground and carried by the wind towards me. Then this "magical" phenomena happened; Amazingly, WoW! I saw my sling bag with the 2.5kg laptop inside was blown off with an angle of about 20 to 30 degree away from my body! We can do some simple mathematical calculations to estimate the speed of wind :D

Cambridge Parker's Piece in mist (Top) and fog (Bottom) in different day of this week. During the foggy day, the thick mist has covered up the landmark of this square green common land, which is the single lamp-post at the junction.

"Door Keeper" in Science Fest

Last Sunday, March 25 drew the curtain on the 2007 Cambridge Science Festival. It was a two week grand event organised by cambridge for the public. Cambridge Science departments organised talks, lectures, hands-on activities and demonstrations for children and adults. Most of these programs are very innovative, interesting and informative! (Walau! Three "I"!) For instance, the "Bottle Your Genes" in Biology Zone, which helped you to isolate your own DNA, then you could bottle your genes and take them home with you. The Engineering department also got involved by helping children to design, make and test their own crane in "Crane Construction Challenge".

I didn't volunteer to help in making cranes nor other programs organised by different science departments. Indeed, there was no posters about this science festival seen in the Engineering dept, except a memo from the eng. dept. calling for volunteers in crane construction. The festival may target the public rather than university students. And I believe that there are calls for volunteering at different science departments for their own programs but not in the eng. dept. Therefore, i was not aware of this festival until Saturday morning on March17, which is the most popular day, I curiously followed a group of children to the Cambridge New Museums Site and bumped into the "Crash Bang Squelch!". 50 fun-tastic hands-on science experiments awaited for all ages (but i saw mainly children there) to "play" around. Since cambridge is small, i bumped into my new friend from Korea, Jihyun. She is a graduate student from the Cavendish laboratory in the Physics Dept. She was in the site demostrating how to build bridges.

All vonlunteers did a great job. They were very attentive and helpful in response to any of your queries, and of course to curious school children. In my case, i just simply threw a question to a volunteer regarding a bridge in cambridge that built without nuts and bolts; I watched it from a documentary TV program in Malaysia. The student tried to provide me as much information as he could, he then even pulled in one of his friend to join our discussion.

With their information, I have found out about this bridge. It is the bridge that i used to see everytime when i walked from the eng. dept. to the university library following Silver Street to Queen's Road. However, due to the bridge is full of nuts and bolts, i never made the connection of it with Mathematical Bridge that i knew, which its architecture should be self-balancing without the need of nuts and bolts to hold the planks.

That morning inspired me to get involved in this great event. Therefore, i volunteered on last Saturday (March24). ha! I was assigned as a "door keeper" for a lecture held in Isaac Newton Institute and went back with two science festival red t-shirts (the one with very big STEWARD printed at the back shown in the photo) and one mug with the face of Isaac Newton. They are free gifts from organisers of science festival and that lecture in Isaac Newton Institute, respectively :)

Jihyun with a creative little girl. They supposed to build a bridge, but the little girl seemed has her own preference and idea :)

Looking for "micro-prawn" in water samples from a pond.

Free T-shirt for volunteers of Cambridge Science Festival. I have two, one is M size and another is L size, which is reserved for my brother in Sabah :D

Met Ivan and his boy in this event. He is a very friendly and talkative guy, a good father too!

Catching up

i don't like to attend dinners i.e. wedding dinner, birthday party, company annual dinner etc. however, when i received the invitation from Cambridge Trust on their reception for new scholars from Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (CCT) and Cambridge Oversea Trust (COT), i accepted their invitation without any hesitation. haha! my dear friends, please don't complain that i am unfair. without their busary, i may ended up washing UFO in one of the restaurant in cambridge now. therefore, i really need to show my face by supporting their events.

as i have been told from other experienced scholars, this year reception is relatively small scale compared to last year, which was a whole-day event with Prince Charles as the honourable guest! anyway, the Dining Hall in Robinson College was still full of scholars from different countries, enjoying their "finger buffer" and also busy interacting with their new and old friends. There are about 60 scholars from Malaysia; other majority scholars are from Australia, Canada, China, Cyrus, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, USA. There are few from Algeria, Antiqua, Bangladesh, Chile. Egypt, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordon, Sudan, Turkey etc. Some are also from the countries that i have never came across i.e. Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Guyana, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Trinidad etc. The world is very big!

That evening, surprisingly, i was one of the last few to leave the hall! First, I met two of my Hong Kong friends, Adys and Man Yi. Both of them are very sweet and soft-spoken girls, it is always very pleasant to talk to them. They are totally different from those career-woman-type of girls we used to watch in HK movies. Then i was attracted by a Korean girl in her national costume. Jihyun's korean costume really reminded me of my youngest sister in Malaysia. she had one when she was small, also the similar pink color as Jihyun's, but its top part is in vivid green; it is a present from my mum's korean friend, a civil engineer who built the Penang Bridge. i still remember that we always had to spend some time to play with the ribbon in order to get a correct, typical korean knot. haha!

after that, there were these two very sporting girls from China joined us. i especially like one of them, Mei Mei. she is a bit dark, so i kept on telling her that she doesn't seem like a chinese from China to me; because many new friends told me that they can tell that i am definitely not from China, firstly due to my accent, secondly is because i am not fair! haha. then i bumped into some Malaysian, some i knew but no chance to talk much, some i just met; and also some new friends from my college.

all in all, this is a fantastic evening, lucky to meet Adys and Manyi again, and other new friends. this makes me feel that i started to catch up. i was late for most of the things in cambridge; i didn't come during last october, which is the start of 2006/2007 academic year; i even missed the fresher's week and the matriculation for this Lent Term; i have missed many chances to meet new friends, but i think i am catching up now :D

The Dining Hall, Robinson College, Cambridge on Monday 12 March 2007, 5:00 to 7:30pm

Friends from Hong Kong: Adys (Center) and Man Yi (Right)

From Left: Jia Jia (China), Jihyun (Korea), CL in baju kurung, it is a present from Rassilah of S.E.H (Malaysia), Mei Mei (China)

Wedding in downing

Downing is my college, but of course, this is NOT my wedding. Got you! haha ;p On the afternoon of March 2, the weather was extremely good, sunny and blue sky. When i walked into my college towards its pc room, i suddenly came across a couple of bride and groom were just standing outside the chapel. Wow! i quickly threw my bag on the grass and took out my "lazy" (LZ1) digicam. WaLaU! i know the bride, she is the receptionist from my division, Sarah. the link below will lead you to my yahoo album, which captures the entire wedding process, follows the sequence of the ceremony; the walk into the chapel, singing, chaplain blessing, saying "i will" (not "i do"?); ring exchange, the couple hands with ring were covered by a holy tower (i never seen this before); then the 18sx moment, praying, paper signing, ceremony ended and friends blessings outside the chapel. at last, the couple went off in their cool ahpek car. the entire process took less than an hour! Downing college is neither the most famous nor the largest among cambridge 31 colleges, but it has its own unique architecture and landscape. and it seems prettier than ever at this afternoon...

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chweelin_choong/album?.dir=18ddre2

CNY eve with mozart

i was not only with Mozart during chinese new year eve, but also with my new friend from Hong Kong, Adys. we have dinner together in an asian restaurant, followed by a music concert in my college. Adys seems like music concert and i also think that Mozart song is just perfect for cny. haha. it's true, especially if you're in the uk, and couldn't hear the cny songs in street! Mozart music is always lively and cheerful, an opposite of his real life, a miserable gambler. besides, i discovered a very excellent and passionate violist, a chinese guy, think is from Australia. he is the violin solo for the 1st song, and one of the violist in the orchestra for the 2nd duo piano concerto. i believe that every audience could also feel his passion, from his face expression, body movement with the music told that he was completely in the world of mozart! he inspired me, i also wish to do my research with such passion! yeah! my 1st cny eve in the uk was really not bad, with a friend and mozart companions, and also a passionate virtuoso :D

A "super white" cambridge

a "super white (haha! pls don't say it in chinese for penang hokkien)" cambridge on feb8, the heaviest snowing day for this winter. It was basically a black-and-white world, everything was covered with snow, plain white; sky was grey, no sun; and most of the people were wearing dark color winter cloths. Cambridge seemed so gloomy, another type of beauty. When reached west cambridge in the afternoon, snow has stopped. ha! found two snowmen were guarding the main entrance of west campus, one facing in, another facing out. i have taken a lot of photos on two of them, but forgot to take a photo together with them. I quite dislikes to take photo alone, but with the snowmen companion, of course, it is my pleasure! :D

Winter cycling in cambridge

the scenery along the river cam is marvellous. the river, the boats and the farm landscape, with the colorful sky as its background, forms a series of colorful paintings, which cheered me up along the way. when there is no wind and the water is still, the objects and their reflections on the river (i.e.trees & goose) form unique mirror images. i wondered whether the goose was staring at herself and reciting "mirror, mirror on the water, who is the prettiest in the world??" haha. anyway, the ducks in the uk are not ugly either. however, to me, cycling in such a cold weather requires guts and determination, especially when the sun started to set and the temperature dropped drastically, i felt that the cycle pedals had become heavier and heavier while cl's heart was getting colder and colder...

http://www.stuartbell.co.uk/cycling/2006/06/11/waterbeach-along-cam/