2020.......

I think everybody can agree that 2020 has been a very miserable year. It was supposed to be the main chunk of the first year of my PhD but like the rest of the UK, it was basically spent locked up. It's pointless really venting over how problematic multiple lockdowns have been so I am not planning on dwelling on COVID. The vaccine is here, let's hope it work and soon so we can all go back to normal. 

Instead, what are the positives? I passed the first year review for my PhD. This is quite a big deal for me. I left school with massively sub-standard GCSEs and A Levels and ending up at University College London - a top 10 university in the world (only a slight brag - it's a big deal for me) still leaves me with massive imposter syndrome. Being in the Army definitely helped develop me but I am really taking to the academic life. So yeah, 1st year review done and pretty successful. The next step is called the Upgrade. This is the penultimate milestone before completing my PhD and is currently the reason I am in a constant state of stress. COVID (sorry!) means that I have not done any fieldwork, not had any conferences, not sat in any classes etc etc etc so yeah, writing 15,000 words and a 30 min presentation showing my progress is probably not as far ahead as I expected. Fingers crossed.

2020 is also the year of no international travel. On a plus side though, I reconnected with my love for hiking and being outdoors. A long weekend in the Lake District and another weekend in the Cotswolds might seem quite ordinary to most but it actually made me realise that I have probably visited more places abroad than in the UK. The last time I was in the Lake District was when I was 16 which really isn't acceptable. When COVID goes back into its hole, I think spending some weekends doing trails like the Pennine Way and the Carlisle Way. In terms of international travel, I told my supervisor that I am going to China in the summer to do some fieldwork regardless - he completely agreed.

 New Year is also about resolutions and promises to oneself that really won't be kept. I definitely want to go to the gym more but I hate the gym so I have to find a way to congratulate myself every time I go. Instead I will be more realistic - 

- go for a walk in Regents park more
- schedule my week better (already been doing this so can't fail)
- stick it out with my 中文 classes.

all realistic, all doable :)

For those that read my 'back to being an aquarist' post, the tank is now nicely cycled with a few more plants added. The shrimp are happy but the snails keep breeding. In the new year I will add some fish. Undecided yet but watch this space for another blog post on fish.

So for everyone that reads my highly summarised blog posts, thank you. I hope you all had as unstressful a 2020 as possible, had a very awesome xmas and is excited for a prosperous (COVID-free) new year.

  

back to being an 'aquarist'

So, a few years ago, I developed a fascination with keeping fish in a tank thinking it would be quite cute and something nice to look at. Not long after I invested in a Fluval Edge tank aimed at beginners which had a……in summary, it was much more hard work than you think albeit super enjoyable. I’ll skip most of the story as it was several years ago and no longer relevant.

 

The interest has never really gone away but it never really seemed practical (or fair?) to keep fish anymore especially with moving into central London student accommodation to do my master’s degree and later PhD. Well that all changed very quickly over the last few months. Firstly, my PhD supervisor is an archaeobotanist who also happens to enjoy growing his own aquatic plants in tanks along with fish and shrimp. Secondly, a friend of mine has jumped over years of practice and gone straight for a marine tank in his student accommodation. This was all too much for me and the itch culminated in me taking advantage of black Friday sales. So now I am the proud owner of a 34L Fluval Flex. The problem was that I got the tank but was determined not to go rushing into it and so to date, I have probably consumed over 50 hours of YouTube videos and blogs about freshwater fish, aqua scaping, aquatic plants etc etc (I promise I put an equal amount of effort into my PhD). I’m also a big fan of supporting local business so after some advice, I headed down to an aquatics store in Balham, London and started the process of building up my tank.

 

First things, first. I needed a good substrate on the base of my tank in order to provide somewhere for the plants to hold onto. The guy at the store (who is super helpful) also advised some fertile soils to make a thin base at the bottom of my tank so that future rooted plants can have something to get a bit of extra food from. On top that, I went for a relatively light coarse sand. This is good because it has more surface area than sand for ‘good bacteria’ to stick too (for the Nitrogen Cycle – will talk about this next time) and still provides something stable for plant roots to take hold in. Next, I got a couple of dragon rocks to help build up my new aqua scape. Finally, I got myself a couple of Java Ferns – they are supposed to be super easy plants that can tolerate beginners a wide change in water conditions. Add the water a there we go (Photo 1).

I am actually missing an entire of week of allowing my tank to cycle so will skip forward to today. I received a text from my PhD supervisor saying he will harvest me some plants.....then he asked if I want some shrimp. I will do some posts later on about the types of plants and other things inside my aquarium but as of today, I have a nice little aquascape going on with a few different species of plant and some gorgeous cherry shrimp. Originally, I counted 7 of them in bag but of the course of the evening, I have only been able to find 4. I'm not too concerned though because they are tiny, and I have a nice little underwater forest going on.  

 

So yeah. This just a very quick zoom through of the where I am at with my new tank. I will let it sit for about month and give the plants a chance to get comfortable and start to grow before I consider adding any fish. In the meantime, though I will write a little but more about this hobby. Hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

back to blogging

2020 has definitely been an awful year for many thanks to COVID-19 currently running wild. For me, most of the first year of my PhD was spent locked up in my room not being entirely productive. Instead of writing paragraphs of regrets though, I have decided I want to get back into blogging with the intention of talking about my travels again but also my PhD and (hopeful) future academic research. I have also got back into my fish keeping hobby (yes..I have a fish keeping hobby) and am going to blog about my experiences and share with you the progress I am making etc (keep reading for more).

 

I have been thinking about this for a while but the sudden burst of energy I felt pushing me to write this small update is quickly fading. Stay tuned then for some updates and thanks to anyone who reads what I have to say 

tel aviv, 2018

Coming soon...... (promise)

san francisco (part 2)

One of the main reasons for visiting the US was to visit my friend Kush, he looked after me over the time I was there. He showed me the fancy cafes, the famous gay bars. Most of the time he did have to work and so I had to fend for myself but luckily (and £50 bill later ---- oops) he was available to call. Note to self, read the rules on international sims.

He took me wine tasting in Napa, which was a very fun drive into the countryside to see where they make all the famous Napa wine. He got me tickets to go to the California Academy of Sciences for an over 21s evening. It was a fantastic experience filled with albino crocodiles (see the photos album) and an exploration of space in the planetarium. I was even encouraged by buy a CAS mug and t-shirt (which I unashamedly wear most places).

I was very fortunate to meet his friends who are all very fun loving and welcoming people. It was however, strange to be around so many Americans at once. In London, you can usually hear an American voice from a mile away allowing you ample time to steer clear. It was even stranger that, people in San Francisco also really do have their own little micro-identity, even more particular than just being 'Californian'. One taxi driver told me that in SF, being 2 hours late does not even count as late. San Franciscans seem to reject chain stores. I counted 1 McDonalds, 1 KFC and 1 burger chain (that I can not remember) that is popular on the east coast of the USA. Everywhere else, the cafes and restaurants are independent or from very small 'local' chains. It was nice to see in comparison to London where everything tastes the same but with a different big corporation name on it (generalisation perhaps but pretty accurate too).

I don't think I can talk about San Francisco without mentioning in more detail the gay village, the Castro. You know it straight away by the flag, who's size could match the Royal Standard flown from buildings occupied by HMQE2. It is huge!

The Castro itself is like another little self sufficient city within the walls of SF. You see same sex couples walking around everywhere all well dressed,  with immaculately kept facial hair and all, yes, I mean all, walking small dogs. The streets are clean (compared to the neighbouring Mission district). It is quite a polar opposite to our well loved, grimy streets of Soho. The area does not really seem to reflect that once upon a time, most things homosexual were illegal. The only reminders are the occasional wonderfully drawn murals of prominent patrons of the LGBT cause. The night life was different to what I expected too. Most people there are settled and in couples (or so it seemed to me) and although the bars were full...well...it just wasn't London.

I think that going to SF was a good first choice for breaking into America for the first time.  I would be wrong to say it was one of my favourite places to visit but I met nice people and they made it worth while. Maybe New York is next?

san francisco (part 1)

I am sat in Heathrow Terminal 2 about to jet off on my second holiday of the year (check me out) when I notice that actually I have not finished writing the blog for the first big holiday of the year - San Francisco. I have never actually been to the US of A and so what better place to start than one of the worlds most important gay holy cities. Famed for its rainbow crossing, Alcatraz (did not visit - sorry) and the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco was definitely a place to visit. 

Travelling from Termnial 2 with United Airlines, I have to say, I half expected to get dragged off the flight for double booking - the media scares you like that. In reality, it was one of the most comfortable flights I have ever had. An entire row to myself, no children and very friendly air hosts. I was even offered (and gladly accepted) second meals. Speaking of food, SF was not good for my average body mass. The food was just exceptional. Mexican, Korean, Chinese, American, Italian, Japanese, anything you can think of, they had it there and it tasted amazing - albeit a little expensive compared to lots of other places I’ve been. That is to be expected I guess considering people like Mark Zuckerberg and other tech nerds with big salaries live there. One Mexican place in particular sticks out, if you walked in to the same place in the UK then even if you are not a snob about the state of restaurants etc, you would probably have raised an eyebrow. This place was well and truly local and you could see that although very friendly, they clearly didn’t worry much about losing business from snooty tourists. They didn’t have to worry though, the burrito I got was the size of my head and (unlike the UK) actually packed with stuff that tasted heavenly - you didn’t even have to pay 80p extra for guacamole!!

Aside from the food, San Francisco has a very split personality. It is a city famed for being close to Silicon Valley, the 5 sisters and its ‘caring’ attitude towards the homeless and lost. In fact, as you walked around the city, there are homeless people literally everywhere. You can at one moment be walked through very very fancy looking houses and apartments but around the corner a totally different picture. On one occasion, I was walking down a road and there was a guy sat there injecting himself with some amber looking stuff. That said, walking around these sorts of areas should seem threatening and indeed, if I was in the same sort of area of London then I would feel threatened. But in SF, these two worlds just sort of rub against each other but do not mix or bother each other. Nobody tried to ask for money, nobody even looked your way, they just went about their own business, chatting with each other etc. I suppose if the wealthy were being harassed on a regular basis then something would be done.

It is nearly time to board so I think part 1 will end there. Part two very soon, with photos I hope if this iPad does as I want.

what's sort of travelling is not fun...

... Commuting!!!

Most of my blog page is about travel but unfortunately, I am not loaded with spare cash so it's not always possible to jet off randomly. I do however suffer everyday from a very un-fun sort of travelling, one that is common knowledge to many people living and working in London....the morning commute.

I think I want to dedicate this little piece to what is probably the most stressful part of any day.

My shift patterns are pretty strict and I either start at 8, 9 or 10. This means that I can catch fixed trains and you'd think would have a pretty robust routine that would lead me walking into work smack on time if not before. Wrong! Unfortunately, my area is covered by Great Western Railway. Anybody who speaks to me knows the of the utter contempt in my voice whenever I mention that company. There is a reason of course, mainly the £3550 they charge for an annual season ticket from my home to London Paddington. From July 2017 till January 2018, the trains were old, cramped and delayed. From January 2018 they are new, cramped and delayed.

It actually baffles belief but since the start of the new year, my trains have been on time 6 times only. The rest have been cancelled or delayed from 5 mins to 1hr 30 mins. As I have an annual ticket, I am not entitled to compensation. Instead, they assume that I want to renew my annual pass and will make it a bit cheaper for me to do so if the punctuality % is below a certain amount however, the 3.4% increase in January will likely cancel any savings I make out so either way, I am stuck.

 On what planet can a company have such poor performance yet continue to increase charges? SO why post this rant? Is it important? Yes! The UK has some of the worst performing yet most expensive railways in Europe (opinion based on experience). It is maddening that rail users have to continue to pay too large a chunk of their monthly salary (https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jan/03/rail-fares-cost-commuters-up-to-14-of-their-income-says-study) to private companies for such a shitty service. End of rant.