減壓良方

Sorry，我又講Colin Firth.

琴日Daily Mail話King Colin會再踏足West End舞台，非常興奮。只可惜DM出名鍾意炒作新聞報流料，都係0吾好抱太大期望為妙。

壓力大ge時候特別喜歡睇King Colin做戲。前日終於睇0左keoi3同Julie Andrews合演ge Relative Values. 一睇即問：‘點解同Easy Virtue條橋差0吾多ge?’ Anyway，keoi3， Julie Andrews同Sophie Thompson都幾有chemistry. 一向都好鍾意King Colin演comedy，特別係St. Trianians 0個種得啖笑ge無里頭喜劇。今次keoi3扮camp camp 0地ge Peter，仲camp過Mamma Mia ge Harry Bright，加上極度抵死ge對白同British humour，笑死。講真，keoi3走drag queen路線真係會幾ok，應該揾埋Geoffrey Rush同Guy Pierce重拍Pricilla.

琴日睇0左review麻麻ge The Last Legion. 其實都幾好睇a？係就係歷史攪錯0西，但係從一部adventure movie ge角度出發，套戲其實ok. 話說當年聽到話Colin要扮Roman General，第一個反應係：大纜都扯0吾埋wor！而我睇緊部戲ge時候亦不停被keoi3個British accent distract. 不過部戲全部人都係British accent，無0野好講。不過幾surprise ge係Colin扮General都幾有板有眼，特別係武打場面都ok。我lum除0左accent之外，keoi3真係扮mat1似mat1.

突然lum：如果達西先生有d camp camp 0地ge話......

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E篇entry code-mix／－switch ge程度非常嚴重。

Les Miz

上星期終於和Angel看Les miserables.

Les Miz的plot最全面亦最複雜，亦有很多不同角色。Act 1看得不很明白，但後來故事繼續發展下去便明白箇中的來龍去脈。Jean Valjean和Javert，Fantine，The Thenardiers，Corsette各有恩義情仇；Marius與Corsette相戀撇下了Eponine；Enjolras和學生要搞革命，最後全軍覆沒只有Marius生還......

歌曲和配樂十分出色。很多歌都耳熟能祥，例如Do You Hear the People Sing, Castle on a Cloud, I Dreamed a Dream和Red and Black。奇怪的是都記不起在那裡聽過。特別喜愛Bring Him Home，其中一段的falsetto很動聽，也很難唱。喜歡Red and Black和Do You Hear the People Sing的激昂，演Enjolras的Killian Donnelly唱得很好，能夠帶出歌曲的感情。在Youtube聽過他以前唱Javert和Jean Valjean的歌，真的很很不錯。反而對Gareth Gates的Marius有點失望。感情是豐富的，但很多時候都聽不到他唱甚麼，相信他對聲線的掌握還未熟練，不過他一定比上一位Marius-Nick Jonas唱得好。劇中所有笑位均由演The Thenardiers的Martin Ball和KatySecombe送上，非常搶境。

很精彩，so far看過最好的musical，不過仍然較為喜歡Love Never Dies，主要是因為不太喜歡這樣嚴肅的題材.

當晚的Jean Valjean是最左面的Simon Bowman. Amazing.

Les Miz concert的Enjolras是最愛的Ramin Karimloo，Killian是Ramin右邊金長髮那位，可以選擇性ignore Nick Jonas (as much as I appreciate his effort, he's in no comparison to the others on stage).

活在倫敦 樂而忘返

由Yr 2暑假開始準備application到現在，差不多過了一年半，來倫敦也有半年。由始至終都沒有跟父母討論過出國讀書的事，我只是拋下了一句說我想去英國，UCL又肯收我，他們又很支持我的決定，一切都很順理成章。

有人說在外國生活會有種liberation，我徹底地感受到所謂何事。在倫敦的生活簡單到不能再簡單。身在外地，不想見的人，不想做的事，又或是難捨難離的「雞肋」現在都可以置諸不理，因為是「 非不為也，實不能也」。

學校近King’s Cross，亦即近British Library和British Museum，乘十分鐘Tube便可直達Covent Garden，Leicester Sq和Piccadilly Circus，我覺得自己住在世界的中心點。從前會覺得香港也是一個挺發達的城市，住在倫敦才知道何謂大城市。

「大城市」的大不在於地理範圍，而在於多元文化。香港人的生活除了工作，還有甚麼？日日營營役役，消閒節目來來去去都是「 唱K，睇戲，食飯，‘luk’ 齡」。這邊生活節奏是慢了點，但至少有life. 在HKU，遇上天地堂大家可能會去main lib睡覺。在這裡，遇上天地堂，我可以先吃一個picnic lunch, people-watch，然後再去British Museum逛一兩個小時才回校上課。天氣好的日子，我可以去Hyde Park坐草地望河餵天鵝，下雨時可以去Tate和National Gallery賞畫看雕塑，weekend可以去Emirates Stadium看Arsenal，遇上The King’s Speech的premier可以跟King Colin握手，星期一至六都可以去West End看場world-class musical...... 在香港，我說要去香港公園野餐享受藍天白雲，穿西裝背背囊，自己都不禁失笑。我說的不僅是一種生活模式，而是一種生活態度。香港除了缺地，更缺乏對藝術和體育等等非商業活動的支持，更缺乏對生活質素的要求。

上完所有lecture，快得不得了. ‘Other universities expect you to be good, UCL expects you to be brilliant.’ 一個undergrad水平的advanced course要看十幾二十份article，學業繁重得我不能想像沒有讀過Ling的同學如何應付。 當然，大家有自由選擇要不要be brilliant. 望著曾在這個dept待過的學者的名字和那個有點‘harsh’的offer condition，我充滿期望的來到UCL。上了二十個星期課，我覺得那天價學費物有所值。短短半年，我比以前努力，也學到更多。 很幸運地遇上很多好老師和好同學，難得大家還有心搞班活動聯誼。雖然中國學生佔了三分一，但這裡是真的international，文化差異是未曾見識過的。我欣賞的同學有很多，有些是典型的天才學生，有些很有critical thinking，有些很有will－power，有些很用功...... 當然，即使是一間所謂世界排名第四的大學也不能保證所有的老師和學生的水平。

我會很想念在這裡的人和事，正如我也很想念在HKU的日子。讀中學時有陣子很想去外國留學，後來不了了之。倫敦這地方，很容意令人迷失或者繼續過港式生活。既然想留在comfort zone，無須dum幾十萬落咸水海。當我無論對生活或學業都有自己的想法時才離家闖一闖，我覺得我能體會更多。

......

仍然為了要在星期三飛荷蘭前完成1000字essay proposal而煩惱。很遺憾，雖然我很尊敬小矮人，但我們真的合不來。

Wed no Strike

Somehow I can foresee that I'll screw up the 1000-word proposal. Shit! I wonder how much I can do in 3 days. Absolutely hate it.

Off to Holland in a week's time.

坐在草地上吃picnic lunch. Spring is in the air~

Bumped into a classmate on the way back to Chandler House.

'Ni ziji yigeren chi wufan?'

'Dui a.'

Surprised look. Somehow I don't understand what's so surprising. I mean, can't you have lunch alone?

I like you, just as you are.

We were at Costa sipping coffee. She asked about his love life. Then we started doing a round-table dissertation on romantic love.

‘We just didn’t click. Sometimes, it’s a bit difficult to be with someone like that. It’s ok to be friends, but, well...’

‘Maybe your perfect match is the complete opposite of you. My girlfriend and I are the exact opposite.’

‘If you find someone who’s very similar too you, it won’t work out.’

‘You never know. The one you love may be very different from your imagined ideal partner.’

‘I mean, I’m open to all sorts of possibility.’

‘The best thing is to find someone who complements you.’

‘I believe it’s about whether you accommodate and accept each other.’

It’s funny. We have all sorts of philosophy of love. I somehow had the feeling that they thought I chose not to fall in love with anyone who didn’t fit my ideal of men. Gee! I don’t believe in ideal because there’s no such thing as ideal. It’s my philosophy that no 2 people can be 100% completely identical or complementary to each other. And falling in love is not sth you can choose to do or not. It just happens. But, whether to start a relationship with someone is a matter of choice. You can love sby and choose not to be in a relationship with him or not love sby but choose to be involved with him. And the similar/opposite/complementary theory is not sth I believe in. I mean, everyone is unique, so as every relationship. Some relationships work out because the 2 of them are similar in mind, they’re the exact opposite or they complement each other. Why only believe in one way? If you do, isn’t it a kind of ideal? Having say that, however, for me, I do think that there has to be some common ground on ethical values for both parties because if there aren’t, forget about love, I can’t even respect him as a human being. Is that a kind of ideal? Maybe. What I’m saying is that I don’t have an ideal of what a man’s temperament or interest, but to start with, I have to be able to respect that person, whether to be friends or on a more intimate level.

草皮老師的悲哀

'Just because it's in the textbook doesn't mean it's right.' - John Harris

先問一句，大家覺得「張三通過週六槍擊李四，上個星期導致他死亡。」arm 0吾arm grammar？

我0吾明點解一個0係UCL拎distinction畢業ge MA Ling學生寫short paper ge quality竟然差到0甘。點解可以夾硬話一句錯grammar ge句子係grammatical然後話d data support某個framework？一個有少少良心ge人都知道學術研究求真，0吾可以作data？你估你讀緊中學？你係咪蝦阿Ad 0吾識Putonghua!?

我亦0吾明點解自己作為native speaker，覺得句句子係錯ge都仲要夾硬當係arm，原因係份paper話arm。如果份paper一定arm，點解要有native speaker？叫0西d外國同學仔講都得啦！0甘求其揾個人寫完份paper都一定arm啦！

E個dept 0甘多年0黎出左0甘多好勁ge scholar，又有好多好勁ge scholar0黎教書，好多學生慕名而來，我真係0吾expect d同學ge水平差距0甘大lor！點解讀到master都可以0甘讀書法？

Ok fine! 我被人屈0西機！

我真係戥阿Ad慘！

Dear John

John was very funny today. He was talking about catalexis and he demonstrated it with a ‘poem’.

Taffy was a Welshman

Taffy was a thief

Taffy came to my house

And stole a piece of beef

He snapped his fingers and read that aloud. What’s funny was the way he snapped his finger at the last beat and held his hand there, looked as us like he’d just finished the most funny thing on earth and we should laugh. Of cox we guffawed and clapped very enthusiastically. Luckily no one fell off their seat. LOL

He said ‘the projector got carried away’ in his _____ (fill in any word you like) Irish accent. Then he flipped through the ppt in a frenzy. Oh my!

‘I sent an email to you today.’ Um, it was 0930... ‘Are you in the 1100 back-up class?’

....

‘I think the lecture today will finish early. We can talk afterwards and before your back-up class. Would it be alright for you? We can always fix another time to talk for a longer time.’

I totally freaked out because I’d prepared nothing. Why ppl here like to send emails at the last min? I wished that the lecture would run longer than expected so that I needed not talk to him today. I mean, I was quite unprepared.

昨天才和Fion談起Dr. Matthews，又想起去年差不多是這個時間去和老細談Czech declensions. 今天，找回了那種感覺，那種被點醒了的感覺。

John office的牆上有塊白板，我坐下，他就拿起筆在上面寫，十足十1-to-1 tutorial. 我只是跟他說我想做Cantonese，喜歡做1st assignment，他便說了一大堆我沒想過的ideas，可以做的experiments，怎樣用不同的theory去分析data。

前幾天見Andrew，同樣十分鐘，同樣討論essay題目， 天淵之別。我發現相比其他同學，我能見他十分鐘已經很好。跟他brainstorm題目，想到了兩個，他告訴我可以看哪篇article後便打發我走。有了題目，卻不知該怎樣開始。也許我這樣說有點誇張，但我覺得「見完等於無見」。

老師不單只要教授知識，更加要引導和激發學生思考。十分鐘，高下立見。

忘了跟他說聲：Happy St. Patrick's Day！

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Arm arm 發現以前有個人叫 John Harris CHANDLER. 笑0左！