Holy week et al.

The sunshine in London persisted and at some point the temperature here exceeded that at Malta; we had 25 and even 27 degrees in the first few days of the Holy Week 2011. I was more excited about a set of forthcoming activities rather than having to bear with the high temperatures in the office and sometimes the incomprehensible occasional resort to switching on heaters by some of my fellow co-workers. Let's not get started on that...

Last Friday was the last day when most of us in #223 were still in London and thus we all decided to head off for a decent lunch off Oxford Street in one of the best revelations of early 2011: a steak house. The food there was great: medium steak with fresh frittes, preceded by a fresh salad and the main served in 2 equal helpings to keep the meat warm. It was a very lazy afternoon (Friday fever at its best) and followed by an equally lazy weekend before my Easter break. The Sunday was particularly sunny and beautiful and I ventured to take a few snaps of the latest Rogers building in Knightsbridge. What a privilege to be living in the playground of the great architects of the 21st century!

The Monday was characterised by a 2 hour long lunch break in Hyde Park, enjoying the sunshine and with occasional freshening "dips" in the Diana fountain. If only London is as sunny all year long! Tuesday was then my last proper working day for April and on Wednesday I only turned up at the office briefly to clear a minor pending job, clean up my desk and switch off the PC to avoid any temptation of working remotely from home. Come Wednesday night and I met up with one of my Maltese mates who came down to London for the evening to join me for a concert in the Royal Albert Hall: a Pink Floyd tribute concert.

Anyone who knows me will be aware of my PF obsession. I will not diverge from the proper content of this post, but I still think PF are one of the greatest bands ever. Although I had been to a concert of Roger Waters, the Brit Floyd concert sounded too good to miss, especially since the band is voted as the best tribute band so far. The venue was great as always and from the opening Shine on you crazy diamond right down to the closing Run like hell, the concert was simply amazing. The music and the projections were impeccable and the 3 hour long gig was worth every penny. Back home, my mate and I had a quick nap from 1am to 2am, when I had to get up and commence my long journey home (he eventually left at 4am to get the 6am train back to Nottingham).

I operated on auto-pilot as I got the 74 bus to Marble Arch and then 757 coach to Luton (I slept throughout all of the latter journey and thankfully the airport was the last stop; if it was not, I would have kept going on and on!) The flight was on time and after a quick breakfast and coffee in the terminal, I found myself a good seat on the good old Ryanair plane and slept from 6.30am after departure right till we were flying over Sicily. And 30 minutes later, we landed in Malta, my first trip since December.

I was surprised to find that the island greeted me with a grey cloudy sky, but I reckoned this was the usual "Good Friday" weather (alas, the bad weather persisted with consistence throughout all of my stay while London was venturing in the high 20s!) Once home, I started my marathon of good home meals. Easter has always been my favourite time of the year, on many levels: culturally, spiritually and gastronomically.

Thursday night was characterised by the usual Maundy Thursday ceremony in church and Friday morning we went up to Mdina and Rabat to visit the churches there (a first for me) and do the traditional Maltese visti. Lunch was invariably devoid of meat, but was replaced by one of my favourite foods: rikotta pie, cooked to perfection by mum. Friday afternoon and evening was then a visit to Valletta and its procession, another first. I also took a picture with the well-loved personality Il-pampalun and met also an ex-teacher and ex-classmate from secondary school! I did not fail to get a decent supply of karamelli tal-harrub, which I look forward to every year!

As much as I love London and its eccentricity and vibrant life, I still think our own capital is a gem and I am so thrilled simply to walk throughout the straight longitudinal streets, up and down the stepped side streets and admiring all of their Baroque splendour. I found that much of the capital is really being revived, with the new Palace Square, the restored National Library, the works on the Palace and Castille and numerous pavings works everywhere. Besides the City Gate/Opera House project. I cannot wait to see the city in 5-10 years' time...

Saturday was generally relaxed and in the evening headed off to an Irish pub in St Julian's for a surprise birthday do and a gathering with my friends. Good fun. Easter Sunday was then another day of eating and food, this time at the in-laws' and then at home in the evening. The unusual event on the Sunday was the 7 tremors felt over Malta, with the largest at M4.1 felt at 3pm. Personally, I felt nothing...

On Monday, I headed to Valletta again with dad, with hopes of seeing some sun and taking some good pictures, but had to endure nothing but humid, foggy and cloudy conditions. Albeit the uncooperative weather, I enjoyed the trip very much and my thoughts were a re-iteration of those on Friday. Finally, on Monday evening, we headed off to Mgarr and had a massive celebration of Maltese food: snails to start off and then a mix of rabbit, horse and quail. And Kinnie. And wine. Good fun, again!

On Tuesday morning, we made our way to the airport and, in grey and foggy weather, took off to land back in London, welcomed by the sun. It was indeed a very short break and did not enjoy a single hour of Mediterranean sun in 5 days but I swear I will go back in summer for 2 weeks and not return back to London until I am fully tanned!

Summer!

I think that the world has really gone crazy! It has been 18-21 degrees all week in London and blue cloudless skies from sunrise to sunset. Which makes it much tempting to leave the damn office and head off to Hyde Park and chill (well, sunbath really). This morning I woke up (late, as I do on most Saturdays) and after a good session on the piano and a quick lunch, headed off to the City and River Walk with a colleague till the late afternoon. I think I got back with a tan!

The biggest shame was that as soon as I took out my camera to capture a few London shots sporting (rare) sunlight scenes and blue sky backgrounds, I found out that the batteries are dead. And soon after my phone battery was on the verge of death, too. Not amusing at all, especially considering that the Shard has grown by a good handful (or two?) of new floors since I last saw it 2 weeks ago and it is always good to have photographic records of the construction of such landmarks.

And once by the Globe, I got tickets to watch Hamlet in the very theatre of Shakespeare, but not until July. It is embarrassing that after 3 years in London I have not been to the Globe yet, but this is will soon be another thing off the list!

Although I am generally very optimistic, I am more than sure that this blissful summery weather will not last that long and thus I want to exploit it to the full and intend to head out tomorrow...again!

An excursion to Bath and Cardiff

I am not sure if I had mentioned it earlier, but I am back on my own, sadly enough. No, no, I am not a prototype of the highly-debated new divorce legislation back in Malta, but the wife headed back to the sunny rock since the term is over and there is not much point staying alone for most of the day while studying for the upcoming exams. Thus, I needed to devise new ways to keep myself entertained. Last weekend's trip to Bath and Cardiff was the first such event...

On the Friday evening, I took the train to Bath and landed there at around 10pm, where I met my good Maltese friend waiting for me. How lovely the city is! This was my fourth visit to the ancient Roman settlement but I am nonetheless enchanted each time I pass by the Avon, the Pulteney Bridge and the Abbey. This was my first time to see the city lit at night and the view was fantastic.

Once at his abode, I got rid of my belongings and headed off to the union on campus with a bottle of his favourite wine and over 1,000 words or more emptied it in no time. The temperature was comfortable, the setting peaceful (all the undergrads were gone) and it was good to catch up with a friend outside Skype/MSN/Facebook/email. At around 12 we decided to head back and get some sleep for a long day awaited us. We did not sleep until well after 1 due to more and more talking, ranging from work, buildings, music, Malta, people, divorce, food and (did I mention it?) buildings.

The damn alarm rang at 7am and miraculously we got up and one coffee and only a few essential words later we headed down to the station and got the 8.30am train to Cardiff. It was my first time to Wales and I was looking forward for the day trip. By the way, the idea was this: my team Inter was playing against his team Milan on the Sunday and being the hottest game of the season, we decided to go to Cardiff on Saturday and then watch the game on Sunday. Luckily (or otherwise!) Inter qualified for the Champions League quarter finals and the Inter-Milan game was re-scheduled for Saturday, which meant we were going to miss it! This did not take away any of the excitement for our visit to Cardiff and we still managed to get a sneak of the game at a Welsh pub there and we were kept up to date with SMS texts from our friends. I am postponing this last detail not to re-open any wounds, but sadly "we" lost 3-0. Embarrassing. Anyway.

Once at Cardiff, we started roaming around the city centre. The weather was rubbish at first, but in the next half an hour it cleared up and was sunny and very pleasant throughout the rest of the day. We strolled about and headed to the Cardiff Castle, which kept us entertained till lunchtime. It was a fine example of motte and bailey medieval architecture and it was very well preserved and documented. By 1.00pm we were starving and headed off to the first pub and had a decent pub lunch which kept us going till the evening. After lunch we slowly headed down to the Cardiff Bay area and its former docks which were modernised and now boast some fine examples of contemporary architecture, much to our liking. A pit stop at the Starbucks there fuelled us with much needed caffeine and we strolled for a few hours in the area, taking some 300 pictures and, needless to say, the omnipresent Maltese talk on 101 topics. Dinner was at a Chinese buffet place which we spotted and immediately grabbed our attention. It was not bad but had better, though it did fill me up till lunchtime the next day...

We got the 8.30pm train to Bath and landed back home at 10pm. We watched the dreadful game highlights and a shower and change of clothes later went back to the Bath centre and to a local club. This venue and its antics kept us entertained till 2am or so, by which time it was time to retire.

No alarms were set and we got up at 11am or so and off to the city centre, beautiful Georgian Bath. By now, hunger was becoming an urgent matter and given the considerable munchies, we unanimously decided to go to another Chinese buffet place. This was way better than the Welsh equivalent and we stayed there for 2 hours or more, eating, pausing, talking, drinking and many cycles thereof. I did not eat till lunchtime the next day and to make up for the enormous intake of food, I seriously considered to fast in a Ramadan fashion (this did not work out).

Back home, I packed my few belongings and headed back down to the centre and after a few more roaming around, I was on the 9pm train to Paddington. I got home considerably tired and after a decent power shower and one final glass of wine to round up the weekend, I slept till 9.30am.

What a good start for April! And this was no April fool.

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...

The times they are a-changin'

Towards the end of 2010, the news items which mentioned protests in Tunisia seemed to be like mere passing comments which are found in all daily news, at least to me anyway. But by 14th January 2011, when the Tunisian president fled from his country after 23 years in power, these events were no longer insignificant, even in my neutral eyes. Within less than 2 weeks, protests sparked off in Egypt on 25th January and by 11th February, their own president gave up his throne after 30 years heading the country. It was very clear what was to happen next: protests started off in Libya calling for the resignation of their own premier who has been in power for almost 42 years. This particular event had far more serious consequences than the similar ones in the neighbouring countries...

The whole affair kicked off on 15th February and the fighting is still on-going to date. Luckily and thankfully, dad was away from Libya since he was on his field break and this made matters far more serious as far as our family is concerned. However, the fighting between protesters and Gaddafi loyalists is extensive, very often fatal, and the number of casualties and deaths is constantly increasing. One major stronghold remains, Tripoli, the city which was my "home" for 6 weeks in 2008. Whenever I switch on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera (often in succession), I often recognise the places where the conflict is on-going and it is a real shame that people of the same nation end up fighting and killing each other, probably due to financial interests rather than true political loyalty.

Malta is featuring prominently in the whole saga, for many countries have based their evacuation camps on the island, being the safest nearest country and a stepping stone to the rest of the world. I believe some 8000 people have so far been taken to Malta from Libya via plane or sea and I guess many more are to follow.

I trust that the conflict does not last for much longer and that the sweep of change going on through North Africa and other Middle East countries will bring happier days to the region.