London - Oxford - Cambridge - 2019nCoV

After an interesting and joyful trip in the UK, I arrived in Hong Kong. I especially enjoyed the exhibition in the V&A on cars. It was not very big but brought out the main milestones of automotive impact on society. Interestingly it ended with the "Popup" - a modular car, quadrocopter and train compartment project - jointly by Italdesign, Airbus and Audi. I have been using this project in my University teaching and observe its progress carefully. The UK was still an EU member when I came in, and it was not anymore when I left. Interestingly there was no Immigration checkpoint to cross when leaving for Hong Kong at Heathrow Airport. Arriving in Hong Kong then, everything came to a standstill because of the new Coronavirus outbreak centred in Wuhan. After seven months of protests and violent riots, this was not what the city needed. But of course, Mainland China, especially the province Hubei was struck much worse. Some people started hoarding products on the rumours and then of course products ran low in supply very quickly. Amusing to see how bad social media fits into all this. Somebody says online that there may be no noodles anymore as the supply chains may be disrupted due to the closing of the mainland Chinese land border, and some hours later people buy up all the pasta available, even this is mainly shipped from Italy. Surgical masks and hand sanitisers are sold out everywhere, as well as any disinfectant. Stupid people are more dangerous than most viruses. And then there are these people who try to take advantage of these shortages by hiking up the prices. They are the scum of any society. And in an ultra-capitalist environment, there may be a few more of them. But generally, despite the hysteria, I find it very professional how Hong Kong deals with this new challenge.

Stroll over Oxford University

On the Cam-Bridge (Kings College, Cambridge)

WeWork like "Regus for hipsters"

Had a short trip to London for meetings and the chance of catching up with friends, visit Tate Modern and the photography center in VA. People were busy: some just coming back from Davos and others under the impression of the hilarous Brexit discussions in the UK’s House of Commons. We were looking for an easy way to host a meeting on the construction industry ourlook and tried out the WeWork co-working space in the Aviation House. It’s like “Regus for hipsters” a friend said. I was suprised that, according to the receptionist, about 2700 people are working there. The common spaces were rather noisy, and I would not be able to do concentrated work there. But most are of course in private offices or on hot desks. They advertise the possibility of “networking”. I would not know how to do that, why and with whom. So, it was not really a selling point for me. It was lifely. Some were playing ping pong, others relaxed at the soccer table. From 4:00 p.m. you get free flow beer. It must be hard work, spending the money of business angels. Nobody touched the chess game on the table. But I was happy to see it was available.

“There is a Barista here from 8:00 a.m”, they told us. This confused me, because I did not listen carefully and thought: “If they need a ‘barrister’ already in the morning, they must be in trouble.” But now I know that a ‘barista’ is not a lawyer, but the one operating the coffee machine. English is not my first language. They also said, they have ‘superfast internet’. But this must have been another misunderstanding, because they showed it using a WLAN connection. They called it ‘Wifi’. So, I assumed ‘Wifi’ is for WLAN, what ‘barista’ is for the one making coffee. How ‘superfast’ can that be? On data security standards, there was no information available. On the toilets there was mouth wash, but no towls.

I may sound a bit cynical, but honestly I kind of liked WeWork. The meeting room was good and easy to book. Some people were using it to teach courses, like ‘web design’ (the ‘barista’ of making a website). And for that, I found it perfect. I would not host a very serious meeting there though, where anything is confidential, because all is glass and transparent. Also, at the reception people have to sign in with a photo on an iPad, which I found rather strange - but understandable from their side. There was no information on what the photo is for and when it will be deleted. So, I was a bit shy about it and I could understand, if this puts off people entering the premises. Perhaps take some dark sunglasses for the check in procedure. Being called ‘guys’ at receptions, maybe a thing we have to get used to. Even the airport security called me ‘guy’, later that day. It must be just one of these anglo-saxon things like baseball caps. I am getting over it.

Chess game available in the common area of WeWork Aviation House, London.

Six Island Weeks in Britain

We have spent 6 weeks in Great Britain (not really that great), also called the United Kingdom (neither really a kingdom, and not united at all). For that period we have been splitting the time of our stay about equally into a hideaway period in Western Scotland and a very active one in London. In the latter, Feibai joined a Summer School at The London School of Economics (LSE) for qualitative research methods. It is very interesting and being a "number person" and seeing how artificially sometimes quantitative methods are applied to problems in social sciences and business. Good to learn more about better methods that make sense of data which does not mathematically add up. I spent most of my London time in the Royal Geographic Society (RGS) and worked in the reading room, or strolled around the University Campuses, where during the summer break I often had the library nearly for myself. In a lively and vibrant city like London, you need to know your islands of solitude. Otherwise it gets tiring. London is a great cultural place and one of my favorite cities. But we only like visiting it, and living not here.

St. Paul's from Tate Modern. Our first neighborhood in London.

We also spent 2 very remote weeks in Kilberry, in an old stone cottage called The Gables. It is located North of the Mull of Kintyre in West Scotland, and was part of the Kilberry Estate, which still has the remains of a castle. It is a wonderful place with a rough coast line. No no sand beach, few tourists, no mobile phone network, no internet. The next grocer is a 20 kilometer drive to the South. That's what I call being offline. But there are dolphins, seals, and even whales, in a beautiful and wild landscape. We enjoyed that a lot. It was nearly like a retreat. Also we spent a week in Glasgow, for ambulating on paths of memories when I did field work there in the Motherwell coal mine, about 25 years ago. The mine is closed. But Glasgow has still the same character of a broken city. When the retailers become the largest employers, that usually is the end. And that's what it is there: my true and only friend, the end. 

Travel Photographer of the Year 2015 Exhibition in the RGS (London)

In a busy city like London, you need to know your islands of solitude. For me, one of them is the Royal Geographic Society (RGS) in Kensington, of which I am a lifetime fellow. It has everything I need: an excellent collection, a good creative spirit living in the walls, quiet corners, and of course interesting fellows to talk to. Until September 5th, there is also the Travel Photographer of the Year 2015 Exhibition on show. Admission is free. The exhibition has attracted nearly 130 thousand visitors in the last three years. It is an interesting setting, because beside the excellent photographic work on parade, also the way of making this partly a rainproof outdoor exhibition in the Society's garden, is quite creative. From the desk I sit during the days, I can observe the visitors walking through the courtyard. There are always nice scenes in front of me, when I take my eyes up from the texts and maps in front of me and refocus. The photos are excellent. The submissions are from photographers all over the world. Also, the way the competition is structured, is very interesting. Perhaps some of you want to enter next year?

Shot with my Blackberry

Butterflies

Yesterday I visited the 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London. Amazing pictures. Wildlife photography today is far more than "only" documentary. On the lawn of the museum, they installed a butterfly house, which reminded me of the one in the making at Dundee Park, Mission Beach (Australia). This is the forth time, I came across butterflies. First of course, like every boy in the countryside, I had a little collection of species which I caught back in the fields in the Westerwald and pinned them to a wall. Then I got quite interest in tropical butterflies, when living on Lamma Island in the South China Sea (see the photo gallery below). Earlier this year, we helped a bit our friends Thomas and Lina Baur in Dundee Park with moving earth inside their butterfly house under construction. It was amazing for me to learn, how picky butterflies are on plants for feeding and breeding, and I realized how important floral diversity really is for them. I was frequently told by Chinese silk producers that this is a big problem on the Chinese part of the Silk Road, where the mulberry trees are cut down and there is a shortage of feed for silk worms now. Instead the farmers grow nuts.

Butterfly house on the lawn of the National History Museum in London

Butterfly house in the making at Dundee Park, Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia

The few butterfly shots below are taken on Lamma Island in 2008 - 2011.

Constant travel

Global view in Amsterdam.

Travel became so much the norm for me now, that most of the path is described in my normal blog. There is no base from which I do "trips" now. But it is all one long journey, since the end of November 2014. Starting from Beijing, first some places Germany, then Amsterdam, Copenhagen. Then one month in Hong Kong, 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Back to Germany. And now as I write these lines, I am sitting in London.

Sydney Rawson Institute for Seamen

Sometimes I try to make an analytical judgement on which might be a place to settle. But there are so many factors, which are completely random, but still making a deep impression. In the end it is more the what than the where, on which the decision will be based.

But a few things, I learned about travel itself. For example to stay in every place at least a week, if not a month. If you move around too much, you don't find the time to get things done, and you stay a tourist. Also it became quite conscious, that I don't like winters. They are cold, dark and you have to carry a lot of clothes. Traveling light is important: rather 15 kilograms, then 20. Also when you mix urban and real outdoor trips in one bag, this will get quite bulky and not appropriate for any of the two purposes. As we had to repurchase a lot of things, after our destroyed container from Beijing to Germany, this also lead to quite a "modernization". There are no heavy leather good or business suits any more. And when you live so minimalistic, you think twice, whether you buy a book on paper or electronically. I even have a luggage balance, with which I scale a pair of socks before I buy them. 

Poem of the week: Sonnet XIV

Arrived in London. Quiet weekend, working on lecture preparations. Tried whether the coffee shop of the British Museum or Tate Modern are more conducive to do such thing. I preferred the British Museum for the spirits living in the walls, and Tate for the esprit (that't more French, isn't it?) in the halls. Another thing I noticed, was that I completely forgot over my years of corporate brain drain, the poetry which was so present to me ages before. So, from now on I will recite and remember one poem per week. Will start with the ones which I knew by heart before. That's easier. I commence with Shakespeare's Sonnet XIV, as this always reminds me of the limits of my mathematical models. And I am not so far next week from Stratford upon Avon. 

View on St. Pauls from Tate Modern