London calling

Being in London, for whatever reason imaginable, is exciting. A friend of mine refers to London as the (current) capital of the world (current, since he believes the status of world capital will, sooner rather than later, shift to China, but that is world politics, in which I have no particular interest, at least in this post). Oh, and, by the way, this guy is French and for a Frenchman to say anything which offends France and/or places any other country in a better position than France, then it must be true! After having been here for over a year and a half, in many ways, I think I have made up my mind as to whether this is a valid statement or not...

London is truly a cosmopolitan jungle. Brits just make up some 30% of London's population and the remaining 70% are virtually from every part of the world. I was amazed (and still am) by the diversity of nationalities I encounter here. Imperial has students from every corner of the globe (is that a valid comment since the globe is a sphere and spheres, by definition, have no corners?) Beyond the campus, there are millions of people who visit or live here and contribute to making London society such a colourful one. Going for a walk or a ride on a bus or on the Tube will just give a glimpse of the variety of Londoners: the languages you hear, the dress code (if any), the literature being read, food being eaten...and this brings up the next point.

Of course, many are residents here and have families with their own culture, backgrounds and requirements. The communities of people from different nations felt, over time, that they have common needs which need to be satisfied and, since it is not convenient to travel back to the country of origin to (quite literally) "feel at home", then if Mohammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed. Thus, you find here in London areas which are associated with different ethnic groups. China Town is the most obvious example: bi-lingual (Chinese and English) street-name and shop-name signs, Chinese food outlets, Chinese pagodas, Chinese newspapers, Chinese talk, Chinese music and, of course, Chinese people. You go up to Edgware and you are amazed by the Jewish and Muslim presence there. Moving eastwards to Brick Lane (or Banglatown) and you are forced to doubt whether you are still in London: curry houses, Bangladeshi street names and shops and anything which does not make you feel like being in an English city. I could go on and on pinpointing different zones and its particularities.

The beauty of all these different cultures is that they are all concentrated within the same city, within a few square kilometres, sometimes within the same blocks sharing even a postcode! Take China Town, for example. One minute you are in Gerrard Street and your brain is seduced to think you are in Beijing then cross Shaftesbury Avenue and land in Soho with all its neon signed shops and teasing girls at club entrances! You can stroll down Brick Lane and the market there, ending up smelling wonderfully of curry and spices and, by the end of the trail, find yourself in Bishopsgate and the financial district of Liverpool Street, with its stainless steel clad buildings and high-tech finished office towers which are state-of-the-art exhibits of 21st century architecture. Or consider Embankment, where virtually all the London landmarks - the Thames, the Eye, Big Ben and HP - are found and then you go down to take the Northern line from Embankment station, travel northwards within the bowels of London and surface again at Camden Town station; a cultural shock is possibly the most diplomatic way of describing the sheer difference between the last time you saw daylight at the start of your journey and now that you landed in one of my favourite London areas: the totally liberal, Bohemian life of punks and fellows who choose to lead a more alternative lifestyle.

(Not to mention the beauty of being in a city where one minute you are amidst crowds of people who are willing to walk all over you simply to make it to work or a department store during the sale season, and the next minute you are in any one of Regent's, Holland, Hyde, Green, St. James, Greenwich or Richmond Park and find yourself immersed in an oasis of peace, away from traffic noise and fumes, and enjoy nothing but greenery).

A picture is worth a thousand words but, even better, a first-hand experience of London will, by far, exceed in any way whatever I tried to say, but I think I have made my point. So back to our original premise: London is the capital of the world, or not? In London, there are people from all over the world and, within this city, they all find a place they can call "home" (except us Maltese - blessed will be that day when I will come across a place selling pastizzi and/or Kinnie!); this city is a magnet which attracts people to travel to it, for one reason or another, and find in it a haven, a niche where they are comfortable. So I can safely say that my French friend's presumption is, indeed, correct and I, too, believe that London is (albeit not permanently) the capital of the world!

The land of DICs

Of course, the primary motive for my stay here in London is to be at Imperial. Alongside all the excitement that Europe's largest capital has to offer, I am here to complete a Ph.D. in one of the world's best learning centres; actually a few weeks ago, Imperial was ranked 5th best University in the world for research...and that is exactly what I am doing here...so it is quite an honour, really!

It is quite exciting to be back at Imperial at this point in time, especially knowing that my adventure here will stretch as far as 2012, when London will host the Olympic games. Despite the unfavourable economic climate which is still lingering on, the city is bubbling with activity related to my field: improvements to infrastructure and construction of new buildings, including a few landmarks which will alter the skyline in a few years. However, I am rather detached from industry for the time being and am more concerned with research, which is what a Ph.D. is all about.

I actually do not know how to classify myself at this time. I mean, in my M.Sc. days, I was 100% student: attending lectures, taking notes, sitting for exams, doing projects....things have now changed: (a) I get to sit in an office, albeit an open-plan one, but then again, we all live in the post-Corbusier era and no one gets the privilege of having a private office any more, unless you happen to be either a senior lecturer or a totally unsociable person; (b) I get my own workstation (albeit still not delivered yet); (c) I get to use the common room in the department (more on that later on); (d) I get to have lunch in the senior common room, where students are not allowed; (e) I even get to do tutorials (again, more on that later on). So it feels like I am "staff". But, then again, I am learning, reading, doing literature reviews and eventually will be doing lab work, writing papers and reporting to my supervisor. So I am "student" after all.

Case in point: Freshers' Week. During my first week here, one of my friends from Malta accused me of not being fit for Freshers' Week. Well, this is partially true: I am not an Imperial fresher and I do not really need all the campus maps, knowledge of whereabouts of Imperial Union, societies and clubs etc., but I am a Ph.D. fresher - this is a new experience for me! And you get lots of goodies from the stands: pens, pencils, notebooks, calendars, mouse pads, SIM cards, T shirts and condoms (not that I need those really!)

Back to business: (a) My desk is in Room 223, a Level 2 office as the name suggests, which is convenient: not too many stairs, just next door to a fire exit (handy in case of emergency and/or the fire drills which the Brits are obsessed with) and also to a male restroom (convenient for different kinds of emergencies). The office is dominated by Italians (3 No.), which is good since I get to practice my Italian often! Then there are 4 Brits, 1 Irish, 1 Spanish and 1 Portuguese...I love the multi-cultural facet of London!

(b) I still do not have my own machine, but this is on its way. A beast: a 2.6 GHz quad core processor, 8 GB RAM and 500 GB HDD, complete with 19" TFT. Combined with the super-fast Imperial Internet connection: pure bliss.

(c) Occasionally, I pay a visit to the department common room, simply for water/tea/coffee and a chat. But this deserves some comment. Like in all workplaces, there is free water provided; it is a basic human right that people are provided with free drinking water. But this is England; water does not suffice. You also get free tea! What working condition would that be if you did not have tea! It is expected! But when it comes to coffee - you have to pay 50p for that. Good quality, freshly ground coffee, but, unlike tea, you pay for it. It has to be only-in-england.com!

(d) The senior common room provides good food for lunch, everyday with a different menu, for just under £4. And quite good value for money: decently sized portions including vegetables and bottomless drinks, which means that I do not bother waking up early to prepare lunch and again do not think of food again until 7pm or so, when all I have is a light supper (all part of my health-conscious living!)

(e) Doing tutorials is possibly the most exciting part of the Ph.D. to date (given that "all" I have been doing so far is lots of textbook and journal paper reading and revision). Four times a week, I get to assist lecturers in doing tutorials for undergraduates and postgraduates, which means that, in addition to some money-making, I get to revise all of the basic structural mechanics and analysis which I had long-forgotten since my undergraduate days! More importantly, I am getting used to the classroom environment and the not-so-easy practice of translating whatever knowledge I have after almost a decade of structural engineering to simple, straightforward engineering talk which 1st years can understand without difficulty and (hopefully) remember always.

That was QUITE a longish post, especially when I remember that I have been at Imperial for only a month, but I tend to get carried away! Apologies. But please understand that trying to describe what goes on in the world's #5 university does deserve a lot of talk! And much more of that is to follow! So, long live Imperial!

Living on my own

It is standard practice in Malta that one does not leave his/her parents' home till the day s/he gets married. There is simply no good reason why one has to! Why should s/he? To live closer to uni? To live closer to work? What's the point? Saving a couple of minutes' worth of travel? And paying sky-high bills when you can live in the comfort and safety of home? Well, it all changed the day I moved to London.

Till that day, I never did any form of work which can be classified as being "household engineering". Never cooked (except at barbecues by the beach), never washed anything (except my car), never took care of any bills (except topping up my mobile phone). But when you find yourself in a city with 7.5 million inhabitants, then things had to change. It was possibly a bigger challenge for me to take care of myself than to work and get my M.Sc. back in 2007-2008! To be fair, I lived in a catered hall, where weekly room cleaning was also carried out, so "all" I had to do was laundry and the odd bits of shopping. It was a great time: had an "awesome" room-mate ("awesome" is a result of "How I met your mother" influence!) and established good friendships which remain.

Once I started working here in the UK in 2008-2009, I moved a step further up the ladder. I was living in a shared flat, where I had to do virtually everything (except remember to pay the utility bills). Luckily, I am quite organised and systematic and in a few weeks I set a routine for shopping, laundry and cleaning, which, I must say, was not too stressful after all. Of course, the various Sainsbury's meals did play a bit of a role back then!

Now that I am back in London, I find myself in a bit of a hybrid: a non-catered hall where one has to also make sure his/her room is kept clean. Again, not too hard a commitment. And I even manage to find time for a bit of daily exercise! I do not mind being in a hall; I am virtually only here to eat, wash and sleep. Having shared a room for a year and a flat for just over half a year, I do not find it hard to share a house, but I think I prefer having a single room this time round. I think the stereotypical room-mate experience is not like the one I enjoyed at all and, after a day's work at Imperial, I would rather could back and enjoy some peace and quiet.

As before, I consider myself to be quite privileged to be living in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the elite quarter of London (not that this affects me much). What I like most about here is that I am within walking distance of Imperial College, High Street Kensington and all its shopping delights, Holland/Kensington/Hyde Park and the Science/V+A/Natural History Museums. All in a posh setting of Neo-Classical buildings, all boasting rhythmic Doric porticos and elaborate facades which totally satisfy my fancy for architecture. Living literally around the corner from Earls' Court Station, I have the added convenience of being only a Tube ride away from Heathrow for easy travel, the West End for entertainment and the City for the sights. Well, the sky is the limit. As Samuel Johnson correctly wrote, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford".

Unlike many Maltese of my age and my social status, in the words of Freddie Mercury, I am "living on my own". Well, this is only a transient period, since in a couple of months all will change again...but that is another story!

Chariots of fire

I am not much of a sportsman; indeed, I would rather sleep or chill out watching some good movie than do any sort of physical exercise. In my primary and secondary school days, I never looked forward to having P.E. lessons. The only true sportive venture I ever enrolled in was playing basketball with a Maltese club for 2 years or so, an activity I was forced to quit after an injury sustained during the same sport! Well, apparently things are about to change...

When I flew to the UK for the first time to do my M.Sc., I was thrilled about the sports facilities which Imperial offered. The university's sports complex, "Ethos", is considered to be 1 of London's best and students have free unlimited access to it facilities. Prior to my departure, I assured all my family, friends and work colleagues that I will be exploiting all of the facilities: gym, fitness studio, pool...I even dared say, "I will be so well-built that you will not recognise me when I am back!" I know what you are asking...could they recognise me? Well, no they did not...I gained almost 10kg during my stay at Imperial, primarily due to the fact that English cuisine is heavily blessed with all sorts of fried food and, more importantly, I only visited "Ethos" once in 12 months.

Then came the next phase: work. I justified my lack of physical exercise by saying that an M.Sc. at Imperial is demanding and left no time for the gym (albeit I found time to travel in UK and Europe, visit all of London, engage in social eating and drinking events etc.) but all this was about to change. Now that I am about to start working, I had no revision, tutorials or studying to do after 5pm and could easily go for a jog or subscribe to a local gym. In fact, there was a gym close to the flat I was living in down in Epsom. I know what you are asking...the answer is: no, I did not do any of what I planned. All I did was gain another 5kg.

Back in Malta, with summer fast approaching and wishing to make the best out of the Maltese beaches without exposing excessive evidence of my Guinness and British food consumption, I decided to start jogging. Well, I did! I went for a jog on a Monday, and another on the Tuesday but none on the Wednesday. You see, the weather tends to get quite hot and humid in Malta, making any sort of jogging attempts simply impossible.

It was time to come back to London, back to Imperial actually. "Ethos" is still free for students and, despite all the global warming talk, the English climate is generally fresh and not too hot, especially at this time of the year. What did I tell everyone I will be doing once I am here? Exactly, jogging and making use of the sport facilities. To date, I virtually engaged myself in some form of exercise everyday - a minimum walk of 25+25 minutes to go to uni and back, a night jog of another 20 minutes and the occasional swim in the "Ethos" pool. And the minimum of 12 flights of stairs everyday. Besides not consuming any chocolate, crisps, burgers and fast food but fresh and dried fruit instead.

Results? I do not have scales here and I am no weighing machine, but let us say my jeans are fitting me more comfortably. And it feels good that after a day on campus, whatever body energy is left does not get stored but is consumed. So, three cheers for: "Ethos" and its superb facilities, fresh English weather for making jogging possible and my iPod which accompanies me in all of my walking/jogging activities!

Ye olde pubs!

I am not much of an alcoholic and, as a matter of fact, am not much of a fan of anything whose alcoholic content exceeds 15%, thus being limited to beer and wine..and the occasional gin-and-tonic or a decent Negroni. However, a stroll along virtually any street in London sheds light on how different the Brits are when it comes to alcoholic consumption.

The Malta history aficionado will easily recall that when the capital Valletta was being built, it was required that street corners are decorated by some sort of sculpture or statue to promote visual interest. This regulation was strictly obeyed, and I suspect a similar regulation existed in London in the past, only with a different specification. Indeed, many strategic corner sites boast pubs, typically called after some English county, royal or anything random including animals and trees! All with exquisite wooden interiors, resembling the hold of a ship, with low lighting (more often than not, candles), menus with tasty nibbles and all sorts of beers pouring from draughts.

Simply going around and visiting these outlets is an outing in itself, but, more interesting is the way the Brits pursue their "local" as they refer to the pub in their neighbourhood they frequent most. Be it sunny, windy or rainy, by 5.30pm the pubs are flooded with people, men and women, straight from the office, in suit and with attache case, draining pint upon pint of ales, lagers, stouts and whatever they fancy.

This almost religiously adhered to attendance to the pub is, to a lesser extent, also an attractive lunch time occurrence, when people from all walks of life rush to the pub for a "pub lunch", typically a fish-and-chips, toad-in-a-hole or bangers-and-mash (you see, English cuisine is not exactly the most exciting one). All this is accompanied by the omnipresent pint/s (yes, at lunch time), after which one resumes his/her work till 5pm.

I was totally bewildered the first time I attended a pub lunch. During my time working here, the office had a pub right underneath and this was a convenient excuse to not consider anything else for lunch. I could not believe that my British colleagues could consume 1 or 2 pints of beer (at 1pm) alongside a huge dish of heavy, fried food and then proceed to work when all is done, as if they had only eaten some light salad with a glass of diet lemonade!

I was even more amazed the first time I visited a pub in the evening with a Maltese friend. At 11pm, a bell rang and I was promptly informed by my friend (who had been in London for almost a year) that this bell signified that one should be considering his/her last round. At 11.20pm, the bell ran again, which to my amazement, signalled that I had to finish up whatever was left in my glass. By 11.30pm, we were outside and the pub done with the day's business! What a short-lived night-out! No wonder the Brits commence their night-outs at 5pm, straight after work!

Of course, one can always venture to a club in Piccadilly or Soho; clubs operate till the early morning hours, but I am not a club-person and prefer the relative peace and quiet of a pub with a pint of Guinness. Whatever your cup of tea is (well, or glass of beer for that matter!), if you are in London or anywhere in the UK, do not fail to pay a visit to a pub or two, but forget all about the Mediterranean ideal of healthy eating and avoid the other Mediterranean norm of going out at 9pm or so...this is England...at its best!

God save the Queen

To date, I have spent a total of 17 months in London and/or in its suburbia - 11 in Central London and another 6 in Surrey. I obviously do not consider myself to be a Londoner or anything of the sort. To start off with, my Maltese accent, reminiscent of the harsh Semitic one, will never be altered such that it approaches the soft Anglo Saxon one, especially the fancy "th" at the end of words (like bath or teeth), which is said like an "f" with a particular emphasis to shower the listener with saliva (gross, I know). But there is much more than spoken language which defines the British culture and, in my short time here, I believe I have grasped quite a few aspects of it...this is what this post will entail...

To begin with, the Brits are conservatives. Hardcore conservatives. In what sense? Anything you fancy! They chose not to switch to the Euro, they do not insist on having all cars with EU number plates, they refuse to change the driving system, they have their own electricity system, they speak in inches/feet/pounds/yards and what not...I could go on ad nauseam. Mind you, some of these are actually helpful for me: the electrics, for example. All the gadgets I brought over from home are simply plug-and-play, with no adapters needed! And the driving bit avoids me being run over by a car since I know which side I need to look at before crossing the road.

However, for such a country as England, I would expect some things to be quite different - let's say in line with modern European trends.

Say, the Roman Catholic Sunday Mass. Obviously, Protestantism dominates here, but there are quite a few Catholic churches in the capital. The strange thing is that a few of these seem to be frozen in time, precisely in the pre-Vatican Council II era. I do not find ANY valid reason why I should go to Mass and have a priest giving his back to the congregation (commonly accepted as ill-mannered behaviour), speaking with no microphone (as if talking to God by himself as in the Old Testament times) and having to kneel on cold marble steps to receive Communion (in a country where the concept of queue is almost sacred and everyone understands how it functions)! At least, I never went to a Latin Mass (yes, it exists too) which would have been a complete package for a typical pre 1960s service where the congregation was just an audience and full stop. Come on, guys! Wake up and smell the coffee, this is 2009!

Luckily, I found an alternative to this shocking service - a well structured Mass (albeit celebrated by a priest of Hispanic roots, whose English accent is almost as good as mine, but who at least faces the congregation) with live music, a decent audio system and communion rites not requiring that extra bit of effort of kneeling...what a relief to go to Church on the sole weekly "day of rest" knowing that it is not going to be so physically demanding!

I am a structural engineer and consider myself to be abreast of modern advances in the field, including new methods on how one designs buildings. Virtually all EU countries are nowadays talking of adopting European norms for use of concrete and steel in buildings, dubbed 'Eurocodes' (for the non-affiliated reader, these are simply standards which we engineers use when designing buildings). The Brits, like all good EU engineers, are well prepared for the introduction of these standards in 03/10 and I have attended a number of free, well-presented courses which assist the practising engineer in their use. However, in all of these courses, as well as in my M.Sc. days, the English speakers would be anything BUT acknowledging the pros of the Eurocodes. It is a well-known fact that the UK is EU-sceptic, but their constant nagging about how THEIR standards are adequate and there is no justification for withdrawing these and use instead Eurocodes developed by French or German engineers is, well, too much! What an offence to British intellect! In all fairness, the British standards are, indeed, superb, but one has to really move on with the spirit of the age - the zeit geist - and be a member of the global village.

I can draw many more instances where British conservatism rules and astonishes even myself, who comes from a naive, developing country as Malta. These illustrations perhaps provide a hint of how much the Brits tend to preserve their status quo. So, fellow readers, how can you expect these people I am sharing my life with to communicate with metric units instead of their imperial ones, which remind them of their glorious past? Or make them give up their Sterling pound and have instead Euro coins which bear Leonardo's Vitruvius Man instead of the portrait of the beloved Queen? So, may "God save the Queen" and let us sing "Rule, Brittania"!

Let the show begin

Just over 2 weeks ago, I flew back from Malta to London. I lost track of how many such flights I have done since September 2007..16? 17? Quite a few - AirMalta certainly made a profit these past few years!

Back in 09/2007, I came to London for the first time (actually, the first was 01/2007 when I came for a 3 day visit to get myself oriented in this cosmopolitan, ordered chaos). I applied to do a 1 year full time M.Sc. degree at Imperial College, presumably the best engineering learning centre in the world (well, debatable according to fellow colleagues from UCL, Oxford etc). It was a challenge, a dream, a goal. Challenge: like virtually all Maltese who are still not married, I never lived outside home all alone so had to feed, cleanse and safeguard myself in a great city together with a few other millions from all over the globe. Dream: I finally got to see all the Rogers and Foster and Piano and Wren and Pugin icons which I had long gazed upon only in books and Wiki. Goal: I wanted to pursue in the study of structural engineering - my greatest passion in life.

Time flew, quite literally since I travelled to and fro London-Malta-London many a time, and I successfully completed the M.Sc. with a distinction. A corollary followed: working in London with a structural engineering consultancy. It was yet another exciting time, engaged in design of high-rises and great engineering challenges, putting into use some of my M.Sc.-acquired skills. Alas a short lived time; after 7 months, I packed my belongings (say, 100-120kg worth of luggage) and headed back to Malta in 04/09...for various reasons.

Every cloud has a silver lining - back at home I got to work in a lively office with very lively colleagues working on even more lively projects. Then a phone call from London, from Imperial to be precise: an offer to start a Ph.D. program.

With much consideration and discussion with my better half and family, I accepted and was scheduled to fly on 27/09/09. I have special ties with the number 27, so perhaps it was a good day to fly (mind you, I am not superstitious). All I know is that I am now here, the Ph.D. is up and running and will be scribbling (well, typing) a few thoughts every once in a while...and that's what's this is all about!