something to learn every day

Things I learnt today, in the 9th month of my 24th year on this earth.

1) Pots that have been used to boil soup on the stove tend to be quite hot. Use oven gloves or a thick tea towel.
2) Do not keep your fingers on the narrow edge of a closing door. Otherwise it WILL hurt.
3) Driving and steering is more difficult if your fingers have just been trapped in a door ten minutes beforehand.
4) Remember that you need your purse or some sort of currency to pay for items you want to buy in a supermarket. Try and realise this BEFORE you get to the checkout if you want to minimise embarrassment for yourself and inconvenience for other people.
5) Nothing ever works in science. Don't even bother to get too excited about anything until it's all but set in stone. And even then, make sure it's not sandstone.

I don't mind learning new things. But I wish I didn't have to RElearn the same lessons all the time.

"The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate." - Douglas Engelbart

In which case, I have the potential to be VERY mature.

words for love

I love you.
愛してる.
Ti amo.
Saya cinta mu.
Je t'adore.
Saranghaeyo.
我爱你
Ja Tebe Kokhaju.

funny, how such simple phrases have the ability to make you feel so happy, or cause your heart to ache.

I need to think less and sleep more.

Earthquakes don't only affect humans

(photo from Xinhua newspaper)

I've just read that due to the earthquake activity in Sichuan, there isn't enough bamboo available to feed the pandas in the area (Chengdu has a major panda sanctuary). So the authorities are feeding them congee instead. This article caught my eye, partly because it's sounds so cute, and also because I hadn't really thought about how the earthquakes have affected the wildlife in the area on a longer-term basis.

I think this is a natural response. The initial reaction to any crisis of this kind is to save as many people as possible and then start to worry about the logistics of providing food and shelter. This is where aid charities can help the most - whilst the government and local communities concentrate on rescuing people (and in this case, pandas too) relief organisations are vitally important for making sure that the survivors have enough food and water to stay alive. Although aid help isn't a long-term solution, people can not start to pick up their lives and start again as best they can if they have no resources or worse, hope. What has greatly encouraged me is the way local Chinese with the means and ability have rushed to set up food stations and provide help to those in need. Even more encouraging is how the government appears to be working with these individual groups to provide relief, and also admitting its shortcomings that have contributed to the massive death-toll figures still being counted.


I wonder, if it were not pandas that were being fed congee that could be fed to hungry people, whether there would be an uproar. But the panda is not just any animal, it is a much-beloved national emblem for China and holds a rather special place in people's hearts. More importantly, the private and state response to this disaster has for once been very open. The feeling is that they are putting as much as they can into the rescue and relief effort. When this is the case, I doubt that people will really begrudge the pandas their share of aid.

Weather forecast on the confocal

The weather is being a bit funny lately. As usual. Sometimes I wonder what we would talk about in the UK if we actually had a more stable climate. Not that we don't have meaningful conversations, but it does mean it's easier to have random conversations with complete strangers on a rather non-controversial topic. Even if the weather behaves for a while, we can still comment on whether the BBC weather forecast has, for some reason got it RIGHT for once (though that's probably just due to the laws of probability - it has to be right at some point. Surely). Or if we'll have a drought this year (it never ever ever has but we still get hose pipe warnings). Or flooding in the summer as soon as it starts to rain again (i.e. two days later).

It was nicely hot and sunny last week, so much so that when the air-conditioning was broken in one of the labs I got visitors whilst I was in the chilly confocal room. Actually, I didn't mind being in the dark and cold for once, although it meant I was missing out on the sunshine outside. For one thing, now that it is officially 'summer' the sun goes down so late that I still got some melanin-inducing rays after work. For another, after sitting in the sun at lunch I was thankful for the cool temperature the microscope has to be kept at.

Now that it's gotten cooler again, I've reverted to wearing a jumper and gloves in there.

'Britain doesn't have climate. It has weather.'

By the way, the whole point of this entry was to show off some of the images I've been getting recently....

What to do in Manchester

People often ask me what there is to do in Manchester. I guess in actual fact, it's not so much what there is to DO but rather what there is to see. Especially if you love architecture. The juxtaposition of so many architectural styles is part of what I love about Manchester, and to me represents the hotpot of people that you can meet there.

But what is there to do?
- Wander around the crafts markets either at Piccadilly Gardens or St Ann's Square
- People-watch on the balcony overlooking Piccadilly train station (modern but with Victorian elements)
- Ponder over the tulip/onion-like fountains in St Ann's square (Victorian/Edwardian buildings) with the live music in the background if it's a Sunday.
- dim sum lunch in chinatown or further out (the Chinese arch is much nicer than those in London)
- study egyptian mummies or measure your heart rate at the Manchester Museum inside the University of Manchester main building (gothic)
- stand and squint at the Town Hall (gothic), Central Library (neo-classical?), G-Mex (Victorian aspects) and Bridgewater Hall (modern), all within a few hundred metres of each other.
- Broaden your cultural education at the Manchester Art Gallery (neo-classical facade with a strangely sympathetic brick/glass/steel extension)
- Cocktails at one of the bars in Deansgate
- walk around Castlefield (ex-Roman fort) and pretend to pilot a biplane or steam engine at the Museum of Science and Technology (Victorian ex-railway station)
- squint through the gate at the Coronation Street film set at Granada Studios.
- shopping!
- Feel arty at the Cornerhouse or catch an art film/play/ballet down Oxford Rd
- Have some 'PROPER' curry, complete with chip butty and mushy peas (the fluorescent green kind)
- Wander round the free exhibits at Urbis and then go over to the Triangle and sit in that peeled orange that is supposed to be a Cafe Nero
- Have a hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) in the Moet and Chandon cafe and look out of the window into the space pods on the Manchester wheel.

Further outside Manchester -
- Manchester United stadium, just to say you've been
- Salford Quays! Just to get some calm and quiet, or to visit the Lowry, or shopping outlets, or the Imperial War Museum North, or to look at all the different bridges constructed in the area....
I love this place
- shopping at the Trafford Centre, if only to look at the over-the-top kitschness of it all (modelled on Meadowhall, Sheffield, by the way)
- Bolton fish market, where you can get a crate of sea-bass for 25 quid
- ice-skating at Altrincham (where I wore out several pairs of jeans during my teenage years)

- Alton towers. Yesss!
- Blackpool. Not so sure, but must go at least once in your teenage years if you're a Mancunian. Ideally on bank holidays where there's so many people you can't see in front of you. And ooh and ahh at the rather skimpy (but famous) night illuminations. But full of Victorian elements. Including some Victorian bathing huts still scattered around further away from the iron Blackpool Tower.

The list goes on...and on.....and Ariston. (If you remember the washing machine advert back from when we were kids...)

Manchester is fun. :P

Only problem is of course............ it's always raining. So don't forget your brolly.

Home

I went up to Manchester for the weekend, to get away from Cambridge and recharge my batteries at my 'other home'. Originally three of my friends were going to come with me, but two of them dropped out quite late and so only one was brave enough to put his life in my hands and risk the drive up to Manchester with me at the front wheel. I guess maybe I shouldn't have told them that I've never driven so far before and that I only got my licence at Christmas....

There's something about going back to Manchester that never fails to make my heart lift everytime I see the familiar buildings and when I know I'm nearly back. Manchester is still very much my home, having spent the first 18 years of my life living on the same street, within walking distance of the hospital I was born in, and close to my first school. Many of my friends still live in Manchester, and my friend from Cambridge was dragged around with me as I met up with friends and family (my parents are away, but several of my cousins have now located there).

However, part of me felt rather sad. There are so many memories attached to Manchester for me, both happy and sad. Parts of the city has changed a lot, but still recognisable, and at every corner images from the past flooded my memory. But I think Manchester will no longer be a big part of my future, because I don't feel strong enough to move on from the past if I were to stay there. So where to go next?

Although I'm torn between anticipating the future and fear as my ties are cut away, I know I'm very lucky. My friends in Cambridge have helped me learn to soar up and aim high, but my friends in Manchester keep me grounded and lend me their strength to keep going. And my family? My extended family are my safety net, because I know they will always catch me if I fall. And although I doubt that I'll go back to live in Manchester, at least I always know where to go to touch base.

Manga at Urbis

I went to Manchester this weekend, and there was an exhibition on manga ^_^. So I thought I would just rub it in for Daniel (My project deadline is not so urgent, so I can find the time to go away, and to cap it, I have manga to look at. So :P)

Actually, the bits I loved most were the cute doodles that were decorating the wall spaces AROUND the main manga images. And there was a Darth Vader helmet with a Pikachu-like smiley face on the headpiece.

http://www.urbis.org.uk/page.asp?id=3225

Sorry Jon, I went without you. But I'll go again next time I'm in Manchester and your exams are over!! Yaku soku...

PS More blog on Manchester later.....

One of Jackson Pollock's works. Illustrates the state of my mind lately.

My motivation levels have hit about minus ten million lately. That includes the lack of motivation for lab work, for keeping up with the latest literature for my field, for socialising with people, ringing up friends, cooking, eating, etc etc. I have about 5 or 6 drafts for blog topics on the go, only, I lack the motivation to finish writing them. And then I have to delete large chunks because the news references I've made are very out of date.

I even went to the Fitzwilliam museum to wander around the gallery and get some inspiration. Normally that never fails, especially if I then go back and do some sketching or painting. But for quite a long time now, the feeling of calm and control I draw from my art has eluded me.

However, it appears that my ability to complain and moan has not.

PS- no comments needed. The writer for this blog will recover shortly, probably after being given a big kick up the backside and a gag. In the meantime, the editors offer their sincere apologies for the extended lack of quality in the material currently on display. Hopefully abnormal transmission shall resume shortly.

Heartfelt

(image from www.nlm.nih.gov medical encyclopedia)

Have you ever wondered why we can 'feel' with our hearts?

In a medical sense, surely our hearts are just organs, lumps of muscle that pump the blood, laden with waste carbon dioxide from the rest of the body, to our lungs, where the carbon dioxide is exchanged for life-giving oxygen and sent back to the heart, which pumps it back out to the other organs. It is a machine, an amazing feat of evolutional engineering, but with a clear and essential function.

Yet if this is all that a heart is, then why can we feel pain in our chests when we are sad, lightness there when we are glad?

Again, there is probably a medical explanation, the effects of chemicals synthesized in response to hormonal and neuronal signals in the brain, linking our emotional responses with physical symptoms. So this is how. But why? Fear, attraction, disgust, these are emotions that seem useful in terms of governing how we should react to situations, telling us what is safe and what is not. But why do we feel intense emotional pain, intense joy, intense love? And why in our hearts?

Or perhaps there is a psychological explanation. We are aware of the phrases 'heart-felt', 'heart-pain', 'heart-ease'. Maybe unconsciously we make a link between emotions and a physical presence for them in the cavity where the heart sits, and so our bodies and sensory centre respond accordingly? But the concept of the heart as a centre for emotion and feeling has appeared and reappeared in many different, separate, cultures over the course of millenia. Independently, different cultures have believed that the heart, not the brain, is the seat of our intelligence, and come to the conclusion that this is where our souls reside. The Aztecs cut out the hearts of human (and animal) sacrificial victims as offerings to the gods. Egyptians believed that our hearts would be the organ sitting in the balance at the judgement of the dead, and our sins would show up in the weight of our hearts. Different languages have different phrases that involve the heart.

And even before we were truly aware of the existing symbolism surrounding the heart, as children, did your heart really never 'sink into your boots' when you were disappointed, or have a 'heavy heart' when you were sad? I never truly believed before that you could really feel your heart break, or understood just how much pain you could feel in your heart.

Do you know why people who have kind and unsuspecting, giving, hearts seem to attract people? In this world of ours it seems almost easy to become cynical, to lose that ability to trust in someone else or something else. Barriers can be built around hearts, to protect them from attack and from injury. But hearts can atrophy, you can lose the ability to use them as more than just a mechanical pump. The shackles you build to protect your heart can feel heavy, and dull, as if they were truly weighing your heart down.

But having closed your heart, how do you learn to open it up again? Perhaps, if you have the answer, you could share it with me?

1st May elections

I nearly forgot to vote in the local elections today. I kept reminding myself that the elections were on the 1st May, but it was only after I got home after work that I remembered what it was I was supposed to do....

What annoys me most about the campaign tactics used is the amount of negative campaigning all the parties do. Instead of focusing on what they can actually achieve, the newsletters and flyers that come through my door are filled with why I SHOULDN'T vote for another party. For example, the Liberal Democrat flyer tells me that 'Labour and the Greens can't win' in Trumpington, whilst Labour tell me that there is 'disillusion' with the Lib Dem party. But they neglect to tell me why it is I should vote for THEM.

Actually, I have voted this year. If only because I believe that the UK political system is one of the fairest ones in the present world, and I am fortunate to know that my vote will be counted. It may not be a powerful or particularly influential voice, but it still has its part to play.