Is it London 2012 or London 2020?

Last week, we were visited by one of our mates who is doing an M.Sc. at Bath. Incidentally, I will soon be visiting him and his wonderful city (for the 4th time!). Back to the present, this architect friend of mine has been to visit me in London for 3 times before so I had to think of a new place to visit. I also had to find a new place to visit myself and had no difficulty in choosing: the London 2012 Olympic site.

In the past few weeks, I was tutoring 4th year students in a design project, which was the structural design of 2 stadia in the Olympic village. The main stadium and aquatic centre and quite impressive and I became quite bored simply seeing calculations and numbers. I wanted to see the REAL thing, so that was a good enough excuse to pay a visit to Stratford and the massive construction site there.

It is always good to catch up with a Maltese friend and after a long detour of talk which also included partially planning the Bath trip, we arrived to the viewing area overlooking the construction site. The stadium is almost done, the aquatic centre too, the velodrome is ready but the rest is mud and rubbish London ground fill.

I will visit the same place in a year's time and if the place is transformed from an almost urban wasteland to even a fraction of the magical computer-generated images, then I would have to say that the Brits managed to finish on time for the 2012 games only through divine intervention.

Transfer to Ph.D. status: check!

Soon after the family left, I had a minor cold but this was a good enough excuse for me to stay at home. I always think it is best to stay in bed and not do too much work in the event of illness, and in 1 day I was back on track. Only to find in my inbox an email from my supervisor asking me if it was fine to do my transfer in 3 days' time...let me explain.

When I started my Ph.D. back in October 2009, I was registered as an M.Phil. student; this is normal University procedure and the norm is that after the first year, one sits for a viva exam and produces a document - the transfer report - outlining the work which had been done in the first year. After passing the transfer, then the student would be officially of Ph.D. level. My report was completed back in December 2010 (only 14 months after enrolment) but the logistical requirements meant that my transfer was scheduled for March 2011, almost half a year late. Anyway...

I put together a couple of slides describing my (boring) work and proposed plan of action for the remaining 1.5 years and come Friday, I set up the projector and all and presented my work. The examiner was surprisingly impressed and he said that normal procedure was to ask the student to leave the room and deliberate with the supervisor on whether to pass a student or not. In my case, he asked me not to leave and that he had nothing to deliberate since it was obvious I am of Ph.D. level and that I would successfully complete my Ph.D. on time. Quoting.

I said to myself, I am not so sure that all will be done in the remaining 19 months, but all that matters is that I am now, officially, an Imperial Ph.D. student! Yeah!

February fun

Amidst my intense following of all the Middle East turmoil, February had its fair share of fun, too.

In the last weekend, we headed off for a weekend in Essex, at Clacton on Sea, to be precise. It was another HOST visit which I applied for and this time we were hosted by a lovely English woman, sadly a widow, who provided us with a warm welcome on a Friday evening, toured us through some out-of-the-way charming English towns (and many a tea break!) and also served as a discovery of a simple yet interesting board game I had never heard of: Yatzee! Apparently, I am either very good at it or else very lucky; I choose to go for the first but others seem to differ...

One week after our Essex trip, we were visited by the rest of the Micallef clan. Initially it was only going to be mum and sis (+1) but since dad happened to be grounded at home due to the Libya uprising, he came along with the group and, ironically, had our first full family holiday abroad (though London is not much of a holiday destination for me anymore). Anyway, it was a fun few days, with ample shopping time, a massive eating do at China Town and the compulsory visit to the West End - this time it was the musical Wicked which was, well, quite wicked!

By this time, we have spilled over into March, for the Micallefs left on 8th March and that week brought about another milestone in the journey of my Ph.D...