Two years ago, one of my PhD supervisors David Herbert picked me up from Kristiansand International Airport, and my adventures in Norway received a warm welcome. It was snow white then just like today. When I look out of the window now, low and behold, the exponentially increasing flurries dance at the rhythm of the…
Category: Personal
Snapshots
After the smoke subsided, I listened attentively as two men spoke into my small Canon A70 away from the big mass media cameras. How could I not dig back looking for the traces which lead us to some ashes? The project, however, required new instruments from old sages, so I could attend the fragments of…
‘Recomposing’ Myself
I like music. Good music relaxes, inspires, energizes and occasionally touches me. Lately, a range of musical images and sounds as metaphors keep hovering over my head. Somehow, they open up fresh ways for me to think, and reorder my reflections. 'Recomposing': Perhaps, I am working on this again and again… Posted with Blogsy
Forbidden Education
They say that learning is a life long activity, but beyond that, I think learning to learn (again) is a series of necessary interruptions through life. Watching the 10 episodes ploughing through the subtitles of the originally Latin American-Spanish independent documentary 'Forbidden Education' was exactly what I needed yesterday. Because this PhD journey of mine…
Revisiting is Good Practice
Revisiting is good practice because so often I miss the treasures when I'm in a hurry. Last night, I revisited Luther and reason; and both surprised me. This morning, a detour to think about research programmes helped to refine the way I look at my work. The last one week, it was good to return…
Minority Alien
I spoke with a 'minority alien' today. The content of our chat spurred me to question whether 'minority' is simply about numbers, and the word 'alien' – at first sight – doesn't necessarily mean a visitor from another planet. Memories of 'minority' voices from two contrasting countries engaged in dialogue flashed back like it was…
Five Sentences
How much can I say in five sentences? It depends whether what I string together is well formulated, crisp, clear and meaningful. But the inner critic haunts me that English is not my first language; Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, and even a bit of Norwegian floats in my head. It's inherently multicultural and multilingual with all…
The LEGO® Story
This was hard to resist. I love Lego! Posted with Blogsy
Random Thoughts on a Cloudy Saturday Afternoon
Let's see whether I can get back to a blogging rhythm again 🙂 I suppose I need to learn about how holidays mean holidays. It's quite futile to switch back into working mode after entering into the relaxed zone. But I need to switch to work mode for the purpose of setting in a draft…
Random Thoughts Mini-Come-Back
When I held Anja’s hand to help her practice her baby steps, my mind wandered briefly to think of how I needed all the help I could get to move along in my PhD journey, and overall life here in Norway. The help came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, genres and content,…