So, as we quickly begin the final descent into the New Year, I crawl my way simultaneously towards the two month mark and it feels like a good to time assess, or reassess, my life here at the moment, and indeed this blog. The pace of life is no slower than it was when I arrived and began writing about my experiences here but the frequency of new things to try and to write about is inevitably decreasing. That's not to say that they don't happen with some regularity or that I've stopped looking but my life here is now pretty full from wake to sleep with 'stuff' of all forms. I hope to continue exploring at the weekends and return with an abundance of photos but I think that the weeks will be less vociferously or frequently communicated than they have been till now. I do, however hope that people will continue to leave comments which are a huge pleasure to see when I arrive in the morning.

News for the moment: we sacked our Ayi. Why? Well because though she was jolly round and jolly jolly, her cooking tasted identical whatever we requested, her cleaning was worse than mine (this is quite a feat), she broke my toilet and tried to blame me and though we were paying her far more than we had been advised, she seemed to do everything with an edge of reluctance that made the evening meal less than enjoyable. So, three weeks in, we let her go. It's also no cheaper than eating out in the end and I may get someone to come and clean the flat once a week sometime in the future.

In another strange turn of events I drafted a letter this week to one of the best known scientists in the world from another of the best known scientists in the world. Don't ask, suffice it to say this has earned me a position on a committee which I may comment on more when I discover what horrors this entails.

As I've been so shattered recently in the evenings with various meetings, lessons and trips to the gym in an attempt to work off a few of the vast numbers of calories I consume, I've been watching a lot of movies. Some superb ones indeed. Unless specifically requested, I shan't give in depth reviews, but recently, the films I've seen and can recommend are:
1) The last life in the universe - Very sad, beautifully shot Thai film in Japanese, Thai and broken English.
2) The house of sand and fog - Surprisingly moving story about a woman and a family and a house...in some fog...with some sand.
3) Happy together - Not the best Wong Kar Wai film I've seen but not bad. Gay Hong Kong couple in Argentina not being very happy together.
4) Old Boy - Korean film directed by Park Chan-Wook with hints of camera work and music of Jeunet but one or two more deaths. Another genuinely moving piece of Asia extreme.
5) Billabong Odyssey - Documentary about big wave surfing. Worth a watch not only for the first scene of a 70ft wave being surfed.

TH - I haven't managed to get hold of 2046 yet but will give a full review when I do (if I understand it myself).

So since writing the above, a minor triumph has occurred. I managed to go to a hair dressers on my own and leave with something resembling the haircut I was after - this was done with the use of Chinese, hand-waving and minimal flashes of panic in my eyes. I can't say I've cracked it but this was a goal I'd set myself. In fact, with the two hours a week I have (which is really all I can manage) I'm not going to become anywhere near fluent with Chinese. Most people take six months, two hours a day to get to a level where they can hold a reasonable conversation in this most frustrating of languages. However, I'm not giving up hope, will continue with the characters, the intonations, the lack of tense and existence of many words which have no direct translation and hope that in a couple of years time I will at least have taken steps in the right direction.

Tonight is the group bonding exercise where I attempt to prove that I can pretend to be a normal human being. Badminton and tabletennis is planned followed by a meal at a restaurant. I want to be able to go and have a normal chat with the students though I have to admit topics are limited and this is a real quandary for me. I may talk about this some other time.

Anyway, for now I'm attempting to read papers before I attempt a calculation myself which may or may not be possible and I may or may not waste a couple of months of my life on. This is the precarious route to discovery in theoretical physics. I've spent many months on a single calculation before only to keep hitting the same (computational in this case) brick walls and in the end have to give up. In the process I learnt a reasonable amount but could have done many other things in those six months. This sort of thing is completely inevitable in this field however so I don't worry too much about idling my way down these theoretical blind alleys if, every now and then, I see the beam of an answer shining around a corner. To work per chance to dream.