Sunday, January 29, 2006

Chinese new year

大年初一,正值星期日,應節食品包括年糕與走私臘腸。節日活動則有「新春發財跑」及「同電腦打麻雀」...

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Chinese restaurant review: 東方酒樓

今日年廿九,我黎到呢間「東方酒樓」試試... 本來我諗住黎食叉燒飯,不過我見佢 buffet 都有叉燒,又有飯,咁就 buffet 把啦。

呢間只須4.2鎊,一星期七日都係呢個價錢。也是市中心,裝修很正常。侍應很兩文三語...

食物方面呢,都係咁上下嘅嘢,未來來去去都係 D 豬肉牛肉瓜瓜菜菜咁。比起上次,種類較少,無點心壽司,不過就好食 D ,同埋 D 春卷個樣好好多。 D 食得飽嘅炒粉麵飯反而有成四五款。D 叉燒... 好鹹。其實其他嘢都係。又其實上次個間都係。

總結黎講幾好,應該多 D 幫襯。

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Exam results

我想問吓當年 Isaac 嘅 OS 試卷平均分係幾多呢... 話唔定我可以超越 Isaac,甚至迫近當年 HB 佬嘅 Solid state...

好在我只係出咗半份卷... 不過我已經可以想像,遲 D Examiner's meeting 俾人插嘅情形:「點解同一班學生, 做人地個三題好地地,做你個三題就咁差,你點出題目架?」

Friday, January 20, 2006

Exam

So my students have their exam today. I am invigilating another exam in the same timeslot, so I don't know how they are doing it. It is not a bad thing, though, to invigilate a lot of students taking "Renaissance poetry". (You know what I mean, right?)

Talking about my own exam, I think it is a easy paper. This is to be understood together with the fact, if you don't know it, that almost all tests and quizzes I have set in the past are believed to be of reasonable difficulty by me but not so by students, and sometimes proved to be deadly.

In the days before the exam there are students troubling, of course. I particularly dislike guys who keep on asking for hints. I mean, why do you think I would give hints to you? You ain't pretty gal, huh? (And even that won't help, of course...)

But at least I was out of office for the whole day before the exam, which possibly avoided some trouble. That is to attend an introduction session of a course on postgraduate certificate in higher education, or something like that (I never remember the name). I thought only HK secondary school teachers need to take a PCEd. A year's work to come. A probation requirement. Pooh...

Monday, January 16, 2006

epidemic

From here:

The death rate among aunts and grandmothers of college-age students is phenomenal, far beyond anything actuarial. It is biased toward exam time. A death in the family is the standard excuse for missing classes and examinations. Although some students are remarkably inventive in concocting stories, most are not. Faced with such an excuse, be aware that the student may be working you. These things are also cyclical. If one student gets away with it, others follow and you have a veritable epidemic among your students’ relatives.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

AAIM'06

I think I ought to advertise this conference: my ex-boss is a co-chair, and the PC members include my current boss, my PhD examiner, 4 of my co-authors, HKU-related people, and many online algorithms and scheduling algorithms experts.

And I am not submitting a paper there.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Chinese restaurant review: Flame

由於各位對我咁耐都未幫襯過呢到既中國餐館感到十分驚訝,今日 lunch 忽然諗起,於是去了幫襯一間叫 "flame (焰)" 的,自助餐,每位五鎊 (只限 weekday lunch,weekend 要九鎊)。

這間餐館位於市中心,裝修很 "in",紫色燈光(!),外表横看豎看都不像中國餐館。

先說小食,除了那些蝦片沒有蝦味,與及春卷很蚊形(當然唔脆)外,大致上都OK的。

至於熱盤,有十多款普通過唔普通的,例如炒西蘭花,甜酸雞之類,部份菜式有點怪味,但大致上唔算難食。

這裡還有點心和壽司。點心共三款,分別貌似牛肉,燒賣與餃子,不論外表與味道都是公仔點心那個水平。壽司也無謂多說了。(五鎊你想有乜你食?)

最後是甜品,那西米露很啱我胃口,而諷刺地,全店最好食的似乎是那個西式的 cake。

總的來說,味道過得去,五鎊任你食,食乜都抵啦,算係唔錯。如果九鎊就可免則免了。

Sunday, January 01, 2006

back to UK

I've come back to UK after this very short vacation (oops, no, should be research visit). Boarding the flight with no problems after a quick recovery from a fever the day before. For the first time, some officers appeared in the customs, although I still regret for not smuggling a lot more things...

People at tube and rail go strike causing the King's Cross St. Pancras station closed, and I need to go to the nearby King's Cross Thameslink station to take another train and involve a change in Bedford in order to get back. I have been around King's Cross for an enough number of times so that isn't much of a problem, fortunately.