ISAAC day 2

我不是得閑無事回香港的，而是要去 ISAAC.

主辦單位安排了今天下午有一個"tour"。行程包括三個半小時的車程和兩小時的「參觀」。

本來沙達散博士與宋博士打算不跟團，改往名景點「天涯海角」參觀。後來潘博士覆述王太之理論，表示天涯海角「唔去就後悔半世，去就後悔一世」，於是眾人決定還是隨團出發。

行程的第一站，各團友就被安排往某咖啡廠「參觀」及購買手信。之後我對明年將主辦 AAIM 之潘博士說，可安排團友到位於紅磡的金至尊買金，貢獻香港經濟。

行程的第二站，也就是最後一站，我們到了國家4A級旅遊景點「興隆熱帶植物公園」。

我們用了一小時半的時間，參觀了很多椰樹，蕉樹，其他樹，與及更多的椰樹。沿途碰巧遇到心情好的職員，便講解幾句，心情不好的職員更會互相吵架。我們還可看牌上的中文字，外國的團友們便只可專心觀樹。

各中外團友們對於OC竟然能安排如此節目，無不感到十分驚奇，臉上不由自主的流露出奇特的笑容。由於節目過於「精采」，潘博士與宋博士在途中研究「紅豆生南國」的下一句是什麼。沙達散博士更情不自禁，表演拋樽雜技。

回程時王太再發表理論，指這些節目唔係幾好，「雖然天涯海角只係兩舊石頭，但都係呢到景點，第二到冇得睇」，眾人大表同意。王太又表示此行也有好處，就是「得到人生經驗, 以後冇咁易俾人揾笨」。

晚上的 BBQ，我也不想多提，除了有表演以走音 (?) 的民族樂器 (?) 奏出「有隻雀仔跌落水」...

back to Hong Kong

終於，回到香港。

不知是因為我搭BA/CX終於夠多，還是訂票時擺了 DR. 出來，還是我靚仔了，我竟然被 upgrade...

晚上到了別人的婚宴，也聽到了一些消息。本學系師生戀的傳統，有各位師兄弟薪火相傳，我實在感到十分欣喜和羨慕。

light bulbs and electricity

Another light bulb blows itself, the second one within two weeks. Added to the fact that the auto-switch-off "feature" of the electric shower seems coming earlier and earlier, I really suspect there's something wrong with the electricity in this flat...

ebay

I better stay away from ebay for some time, after spending a ridiculous amount of money buying "hard plastic" (which is my favourite toy)...

phone line problem seemingly resolved

Last week the phone line problem re-appeared, and the biggest problem is that I can't get online. This time I found a neighbor to phone me to "trigger" the phone line to work. This happened for two consecutive nights and she must be very unhappy about that. After I reported to BT (British Telecom, not bit-torrent) now it appears to be working properly, and in any case I (finally) got a mobile to "kick" the phone line should the problem comes back again.

And it is good to know that, while many neighbors here are old people, the one closest to me is a young pretty gal...

Snow

The worst is finally here. Snow. This is the first time I see snow falling. While students generally look very excited, skiing (with normal shoes) around and throwing snowballs to each other, I really hate this weather...

broadband!

Hurray! I finally got broadband at home!

hk-place

I'm not updating here recently; for one I'm very busy, for another I have no Internet connection at home yet...

Meanwhile I'm looking at the photos of this site. It's so good that someone takes a picture of everything in HK... This is the train station just outside my Ma On Shan home, and this is where I live before I move to MOS...

The new flat

There are of course "features" of the flat that you only discover after you move in:

1) A phone line is set up last Friday, and it was working properly. Then the next day it didn't work, giving no dialling tone when you pick up the phone. However if you try to call that number (and no one picks up the phone) it appears normal - you hear ringing tone. Then I asked a colleague to phone me, I pick up the phone, it works, and immediately after I put down the phone and pick it up again, the dialling tone magically appears! And now I can make calls...

2) Apart from the fact that everything in the bathroom is operated by cords hanging from the ceiling, which I was well informed, the electric shower automatically triggers the fuse after a certain (small) number of minutes, so it helps you save water, save electricity, and save time. What a wonderful "feature"...

First lecture

I had my first lecture on this Monday. Actually, two lectures, separated by an hour. It went not too well but also not too badly - I just keep on talking and talking, and there's very few interruptions from students, at least much fewer than a first-year class I have seen. Maybe it's really too boring so in the second lecture a significant number of people did not appear. (No, there must be other reasons, like they didn't appear after getting the lecture notes...)

Will be moving...

Assuming everything works out, this will be my last night in Opal Court.

Opal Court is certainly very good: in a very convenient location to university, city centre, rail station, ... everything. And you have a nice view of the city in 14/F when everything else is only two or three storeys high. A bit noisy since it is just beside the railway and a fire station, but I don't mind that. Also a lot of fun to have earthquake experience, like watching the lamp swinging, when wind blows... It would be good if I can stay there indefinitely. But I have to move to somewhere in a worse location, less secure, and, well, more expensive...

However, moving to some place without Internet (yet) is perhaps good for a lecturer who have a lot of work to do, like setting examination paper before he starts teaching...

Firework

Lots of fireworks today (actually, starting a week earlier or so), which I can view clearly from my room window.

some photos

Now, if you care to view, here they are. I hope I'm going to continually add more...

flats going away even more quickly

All flats that I'm interested in are gone within 3 days after I viewed them. Or before I view them. Except one that no one takes. So I'm trying my luck on this rather insecure flat - everyone can freely walk to the front door, and that's the only door you have to break to get in... even worse than public housing estates in Hong Kong which have 鐵閘. And in a place with this crime rate...

photo hunt

我覺得實在太好笑了...
http://forum.hkgolden.com/view.asp?message=530564
http://forum.hkgolden.com/view.asp?message=530047

講開又講, 我其實一早就應該問... 點樣免費睇生果報呢...

weather, buildings, and toys

(1) I've all heard about it. These days I have a chance of really seeing how bad the weather in UK could be... strong winds, raining all out of sudden, ...

(2) 英國D樓係咪紙紥的... D 牆除了薄至可聽見隔離講嘢外, 仲滲水的...

(3) I like Argos! They are having a sale on (one item of) my favorite toy! Saves me quite a lot of money even comparing with the price at HK... So, finally, this huge box is sitting in front of me...

flats are going away quickly

Tuesday: there is a flat for renting that seems too good to be true.
Thursday: after viewing it I think it is just so-so.
Friday: it's gone!

The Italy trip (3)

Visiting Siena and Pisa.
I should have been leaving early on the day after my talk. For some reason difficult to explain here, I'm forced to stay one more night. I stayed in Siena for a night. The hotel again want to get hold of my passport, at least for 10 minutes, the reason being that they need it for registration. This time my face must look real bad (on top of the usual bad, that is) and they make a photocopyinstead.

In the next day, before going to the Pisa airport, I managed to squeeze just enough time to go to the leaning tower of Pisa, only to discover later that - yes, again - the flight is delayed.

[to be continued]

The Italy trip (2)

The talks.
My talk does not attract a lot of people, as expected (within there I'm considered very "practical"). I was told that in the last session of the first day there are only 7 people in the room. Obviously there are more people than that in my talk.

Some of the talks I understand describe results that seem too good to appear in this conference...

Questions in Dinners.
Pretty much the same set of people are in my table every meal, and they discuss these questions.

(1) 100 ants are placed at different positions along a 1-metre-long rod. At time 0 they all move, in either left or right direction, with a speed of 1 meter per minute. An ant reaching either ends of the rod simply falls off, while if two ants meet, they immediately reverse direction and continue moving with the same speed. When will all ants fall off (with the adversarial, i.e. worst starting configuration)?

I haven't heard about this before, and the solution is so trivial that makes anyone needing to think about it appear so stupid. I barely manage to figure it out while the solution is being spoken out...

[to be continued]

The Italy trip (1)

Transport.
I fly from Gatwick to Pisa, and I change trains at King's Cross again, this time walking along those streets where you see on TV several months ago.

I could have saved the department some money since Ryanair had offered free flight tickets from Stansted to Pisa, but perhaps I'm a few days late and it's all sold out. Well actually there were some left at awkward times which you have to sleep in airport, etc...

Looking out of the plane window and watch a sea of bubble clouds is always fun. And I can look at the Alps, this time the real thing rather than on Google Earth.

I need a train from Pisa to Siena, with a change in Empoli. The trains are such that it doesn't have any announcement of what is the current/next station, and even you look out of the window it is not always easy to see which station this is.

Location.
ICTCS this year is held in Siena, Italy. Or more precisely, somewhere near Siena. My department head's description is probably the most accurate: "fancy ex-monastery in Tuscany". Basically, it is in a "certosa", some university accommodation for conference by the Universita di Siena, converted from a several-hundred-year-old ex-monastery. It is in a mountain area where you don't see anything other than grass within visible distance, and it takes at least a 20 minute drive to somewhere else that is a bit more interesting.

The conference organizers are well aware of this trouble, and someone (that is, one of the organizers himself) drive people from the train station to the certosa.

Accommodation.
I don't appreciate old buildings. In particular, it looks rather like a ghost house at night.
The worst thing they do is to keep my passport while I stay there. I don't see any reason they want to do this, and I don't feel safe without my passport. (OK, I have another one...) The reason that they keep it will become clear when you read on...

Food.
Obviously, at such places you can't expect people to find food themselves. The conference therefore arrange all meals for you. I have to say the food quality is reasonably good... And we have wine made by Universita di Siena. So we know what universities in Italy do. Hmm...

[to be continued]