Gaddafi's gone

The topic of this post is probably the same as those in all journalistic writings all over the world: Muammar Gaddafi, former leader of Libya, has been caught and killed. The Libyan revolution is over, probably the last stage of the Arab spring, at least for the time being.

Just over 8 months after the protesting began in Libya, it seems that the fighting is over and Libyans can start rebuilding their country. This will be a massive undertaking and definitely outside the scope of this post. What I want to write about is a sideline to the main story.

It is totally amazing that within hours or perhaps minutes of the former leader's capture, videos of the undertaking started appearing on YouTube. Footage from phones somehow found their way online, depicting the last few minutes or hours of a person's life and the degrading way of how the man met his fate. By now, the death has been confirmed and more of these videos are surfacing by the minute. The more I see, the more I am disgusted.

I am not saying Gaddafi was a fine example of decent human behaviour and probably would have deserved being executed after his capture. What I fail to understand is that despite all the wrong a person could have done in his/her life, there remains a basic, minimum threshold of humanity which still needs to be respected. A person close to death does not deserve such maltreatment and humiliation and, what is worse, a dead person should not be thrown on a street, trampled upon or stripped naked. The Libyans were right to get rid of a man who treated people like animals but it seems that they have not learnt the lesson and are doing it all over again.

I only trust that the Arab spring was not, in fact, an autumn. In any case, so long, Colonel.

A+E: check!

During all the time I have been in the U.K., one thing which I have never used were the NHS services. Well, except for going to a dentist when my wisdom tooth was killing me, but then again that was not A+E as such. Now I am able to tick "Use NHS A+E" off the list...

It was an ordinary Wednesday afternoon coffee break at the SCR. I unusually had an espresso and a quick sandwich when, all of a sudden, I had this intense pain bang on in the middle of my abdomen. I could barely walk back to the office and I immediately blamed the espresso: perhaps it was burnt or I should stick to my usual Americano version of coffee?

The pain got worse and my wife and co-supervisor promptly called the emergency and "ordered" an ambulance. I feared it would be the appendix revisiting me after almost 2 decades of silence. The ambulance did not turn up half an hour after calling so we decided to get a cab down to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Less than 10 minutes later, we were there.

By now, the pain was ironically subsiding, though I was still not uncomfortable. After a quick registration or whatever you would call the initial process, I was called by a nurse some 30 minutes later who did a basic examination and thought the pain was too high up to be appendix, which was a brief relief, but had to await being seen by a proper doctor.

The doctor only called me almost 2 hours later, during which time the A+E waiting room seemed to be more like a social club rather than a place of emergency: people eating, drinking, watching TV, flirting, browsing YouTube on their laptop (yes, that's right) and the odd cry of pain from 1 or 2.

Anyway, I was my turn after a long wait and the doctor said it was probably some bug or stomach acid. Back home, I slept rather well, though the next morning I still did not feel too well and stayed at home. By lunch time, I thought I was 100% recovered and was almost going to the office but by 5.30 the pain had returned and by evening it was almost unbearable. There we go again.

I slept uncomfortably and got up well on the Saturday. I ate like a toddler all day but by today I think all is fine. I guess I will never know what exactly was wrong with me but what I do know is that the A+E in the U.K. is not very different from the A+E at home!

The beginning of the end?

Monday, 5th October, 2009: I was registered, for the second time, as a postgraduate student of Imperial College London. Wednesday, 5th October, 2011: I am now starting my third year (and, in theory, my final year) of my Ph.D. It has been a sinusoidal journey of ups and downs, with many positive academic highs and opposing dry periods, but I have survived so far. A Ph.D. is way different from all I had done in the past: nothing is really predictable, almost everything depends on third parties and pretty much everything depends on self-motivation. If I start writing about the actual Ph.D., this might turn out to be a mini-thesis, so I will stop here. But there is more to this matter...

A few weeks ago, a bomb dropped in my wife's inbox. It was a Ph.D. offer! Prior to that fateful day, I was utterly convinced that I would never recommend to anyone to enrol on a Ph.D. (I was passing through one of the unmotivated times!) but suddenly I had to change my position. Or rather, I decided to take the role of Pilate: I did not want to commit myself to suggesting a 'Yes' or a 'No'. My wife's wisdom, after several days of soul-searching, led to the 'Yes' answer, which meant refusing a job position and extending our planned stay in London by another 3 years or so. A change of plans (quite literally) overnight.

Now that the final year has officially started, it means that some of my office colleagues who were there before me when I started are now finishing off their own final year and this will entail a number of goodbyes, soon. They are, in a way, a source of inspiration to me since I am getting a sudden surge of momentum to work hard and finish my own work too. Possibly without any further extensions. Although, as it turns out now, I will be sticking around for a while, even after I am done! I am not complaining since I do love this city and am actually now looking forward to staying here for longer. Possibly seeing a Royal Coronation? No, long live the Queen!

Indian summer!

The Indian summer is over! After almost 2 weeks of fantastic weather, we are back to normal London weather: fresh and cloudy. But it was the hottest week in the last century and on 1 or 2 days it was here hotter than the Bahamas. What a shame that I had to work, even work hard. But one particular afternoon, it was too warm and nice to stay in the office and my colleagues and I headed off to Hyde Park enjoying the sunshine and the cooling water of the Diana memorial fountain. And did not fail to get disgusted by this year's Serpentine Pavilion, of which I still do not understand the whole point. But I will not waste time writing on that.

The whole "Indian summer" kicked off when my mother and sister visited us for a week. It never crossed our minds that the sun and heat would persist for a couple of weeks, so we thought it was mere luck! We made the most of the good weather by visiting Richmond (and managed to "meet" a couple of deer, too) and then another trip to Regent's Park and a long day out to Greenwich and the obligatory visit to one of London's architectural landmarks during the annual London Open House; this year we visited the Broadgate Tower in Liverpool Street. It was a fun week, though I must say that our poor studio flat was filled to its capacity, but we survived! It is always nice to have visitors and to be able to entertain.

On the following weekend, we headed off to Wembley Stadium for a tour of the sport Mecca with a Maltese friend. Nothing compares with a full stadium and in action but it was nonetheless a great experience. A decent pub lunch concluded the outing.

On what was probably the warmest day of them all, my wife and I headed off to central London for one massive riverside walk, this time on the north bank, kicking off at the Monument and up its 311 steps for an amazing 360 degree vista of the City and beyond and then continuing up to St. Paul's, across to Tate Modern, a sneak into the Rose Theatre (a first for us), a tasty focaccia for lunch at Borough Market, a site visit at the towering Shard, then back to St. Paul's (which we hoped to enter and go up its dome but we found out that it was about to close 40 minutes later and thus had to postpone) and then a visit to the Barbican. Even writing all these made me tired!

The first day of the week was nice and sunny, too, but that is all; from today, we are getting temperatures as low as 10 degrees at night and sunshine is at a premium. Possibly a good sign, since I can focus on my work, especially now that I have started my 3rd and (in theory) final year of my Ph.D. More on that, later!