to the place where time begins...

every single day. time is a strange concept. how can one actually decide where time begins? i can't even begin to fathom what a genius God must be, to even create time. when He created it, how did every place on earth start with a different time and then starts to run non-stop till the end of its course?

anyway.

a compulsory day of community service in the south-eastern village of charlton brought me close to the borough of Greenwich, home to the prime meridian of the world, established in 1884.

Some background info if you're actually interested:

What is a meridian?

A meridian is an arbitrary north-south line used by an astronomer as a zero point from where to take measurements. By comparing thousands of observations taken from the same meridian it is possible to build up an accurate map of the night sky. The meridian line in Greenwich represents the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude Zero (0° 0' 0"). Every place on the Earth is measured in terms of its angle east or west from this line.

The creation of Standard Time
Since the late 19th century, the Prime Meridian at Greenwich has served as the reference line for Greenwich Mean Time. Before this, almost every town in the world kept its own local time. There were no national or international conventions which set how time should be measured, or when the day would begin and end, or what length an hour might be. However, with the vast expansion of the railway and communications networks during the 1850s and 1860s, the worldwide need for an international time standard became imperative.

Why Greenwich?
There were two main reasons for the choice. The first was the fact that the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian. The decision, essentially, was based on the argument that by naming Greenwich as Longitude 0º, it would be advantageous to the largest number of people. Therefore the Prime Meridian at Greenwich became the centre of world time, and will be the official starting point for the new Millennium.

Anyway, let me first talk about the day of comm service. As part of the internship, we had to contribut to CSR (corporate social responsibility). All 200+ of us were split up into 3 groups to go to 3 separate venues - i got to go to a special school at Charlton, and the work there was really really physical. the plan looked like it was drawn for some major construction work that would take professionals about 3 weeks to finish. "The challenge mainly involces transforming an outside area into a sensory garden. The work will range from the construction of a timber pathway, removal of Tarmac path, removal of a very large area of turf, construction of a timber pagoda, concreting an area of ground in preparation or a shed and constructing a raised wheelchair accessible flower bed, work at the riding stables, etc etc." sounded quite crazy to me. and it was. i was part of the group that had to remove a very large area of turf. we were armed with spades, shovels and gloves. it was tough, took about 9 of us to literally dig up an area of about 100 sq metres of grass, weed, whatever was on it. there was also a metal slide that was fixed on a slope which had to first be removed, and some huge metal beams with concrete slabs below- too heavy for anyone to carry, so some of them had to drill away the concrete and free the slide first. the idea was to create a completely blank canvas for the special children to decide what they want to do.... heh. at the end of it my hands and back were completely aching. it was a lot harder than last year's comm service- bringing some special children to sentosa for a day (but i didn't even go for that heh). but it was quite fun, the group of people i worked with were really funny. there was a couple of english, some irish, a canadian, and i dunno what nationality the rest were. but they were talking about history and geography (as we removed the turf we left some plots to resemble countries in continental europe). i learnt quite a big deal about european history and geography haha.

So, after a day of back-breaking work (such that i'm still aching 2 days later), i decided to take a trip to Greenwich, since everyone tells me that it's really nice there. no one else wanted to come with me. everyone just wanted to go home and shower, and my friends were assigned to another group in another location.

I was quite scared once i was alone. it was the first time in a long time i was venturing into an unknown place alone- and it was already evening. i hopped on the bus, flipped open my map (courtesy of juline) and tried to locate where to alight. where i alighted was some ulu place. when i alighted and the bus pulled away from the busstop i felt like i was just abandoned in a vast field. there was no one around. so i used the map and walked towards the famous Longitude 0º that was shown on the map. i came into the grounds of the royal gardens (the royal palace used to be here a long time ago) and slowly some people appeared in my field of vision, lying on the grass just busking in the sun and reading or sleeping. i was tempted to do the same but i had quite enough of the sun for one day (they must have chosen the hottest day of the year to make us sweat!) and besides, i had a higher purpose - to search out that prime meridian. and, i was getting this familiar feeling in my head. the kind i used to get every saturday after frisbee training. i think i'm allergic to the sun. it gives me headache. and it's so not because i don't drink enough water- i hydrated myself quite well (mainly to get away to take breaks. haha). so my walk around the most beautiful borough of london was rather short-lived. i'll let the pictures do the talking...


the view from the top of the hill. (thank God i started my walk at the top of the hill, not from the bottom, for once...)
that's the royal naval college and the old queen's house. today, it is home to the trinity music college (you know, the alternative to ABRSM) and the national maritime museum. the tall building in the backgroud is canary wharf, the newly developed 'shenton way' of london, where i work.

another UNESCO heritage site. it's the 2398745th i've been to in europe already. ok, i exaggerate, but you get the idea. almost every old touristy place is a UNESCO heritage site.

after crossing the gardens, i found the royal observatory, where the english astronomers used to work. it's now a museum, and it was free. i'm not that interested in astronomy, plus i was quite eager to go home and shower, but i had to go in cos the courtyard was where the official clock was located.

some other meridian's used by other astronomers in the past...

but there's only one in use today:

ta-dah! (yeah i'm referring to that red line thingy in the sign...) this was where the 3rd millenium AD began. the digital clock under it used to countdown to the millenium, but it now records the time that has elapsed since then, to the millisecond, or something precise like that.

you actually have to queue up to take a picture on the line. and while queuing,
i found singapore, at latitude 103 degrees.

there, my obligatory tourist photo of me standing with one leg in the western hemisphere and one in the east. it'll be a lot cooler to be there with at least 1 other person, at least you can do something more creative...

this is the official clock that first showed the official GMT to the public since 1884. too bad i had no watch to align my time with. then again, i trust microsoft. when mr gates says its 10.59 (as it is now), i take it as that.

after getting over all the excitement, i decided to go down to the village to look-see. it actually does look a bit like the greenwich village in new york cos it's a little out of the city and strangely quaint and slow-paced (or i'm just anyhow associating because i assume that the americans must have copied something more than just the name.)

this is the verse than adorns one of the entraces to the famous greenwich market. how apt.

shops around try to ride on the GMT fame...

and greenwich has its own eye - called the greenwich wheel, quite a recent addition to the traditional village.

like i said, it was a terribly hot day. so i went into an air-conditioned bookshop, cooled down a bit, and headed for the train station, across the Thames and back into busy busy London.

____________________________________________________________________

crossing over, back to the eastern hemisphere- soon, soon! :)

of mathematicians and punting

Cambridge (the original), UK

19 July 2008

I've always wanted to see for myself how the land of geniuses is like. Having visited (the fake) Cambridge in Massachussets (where Harvard and MIT are) in 2005, it was finally time to make a 'pilgrimmage' of sorts to the legendary town where all our (Singaporean students') misery begin and end.

With an overwhemling percentage of fellow interns hailing from there, it wasn't too hard to find one who would be willing to bring me back home. Lots of them study mathematics, descendants of our beloved prime minister, a respected alumni. I tagged along with my Vietnamese friend, who works in the same dept, when she went back to Cambridge for a dinner. The extremely unreliable weather forecast nearly thwarted our plans, butI decided that it was today or never, let it rain for all I care.

The ride there was pleasant enough. Getting out of the hustle and bustle of the city and being transitioned slowly into the countryside with its rolling plains, fields of flowers in full-bloom and cattle grazing was therapeutic enough. The length of the train ride (1.25 hours) was lost in the nice chat we had.

meet my friend, thuong! :)

Upon arrival, things weren't quite as serene and quiet as I had hoped it to be. Alas, it was a summer saturday and the student town was transformed into a giant tourist attraction. The streets were full of people and the university has cleverly (what do you expect?) cashed in on the visitors. There was a long line to enter King's college (the most famous college of the university) and one had to pay about 5 quid, or something like that just to go see the chapel and grounds. Thankfully for me, all Thuong had to do was to flash her student card and we just walked right along the queue and into the college. The King's college chapel is home to the King's college choir- one of world renown, especially at Christmas time ('Festival of 9 lessons and carols', et cetera). The chapel is supposed to be the most magnificent in both Cambridge and Oxford, but it's really nothing compared to all the other great European cathedrals, so i was none too impressed. but still, for a college, it's not bad; and considering that they hold services in there every day, and students actually attend it, that i find more remarkable.

the line starting to form outside...

outside king's college

side profile of the chapel -->

in the choir

inside the chapel...

on the grounds of king's college the flag is up, and the fountain filled with water, only because it's graduation day!

I never understood the complicated education system of the university of Cambridge until this day. Thuong explained to me that within the university there were 31 colleges, each independently run. These colleges house students, and organise what is known as 'supervision', which are 1-to-1 sessions between the student and a senior supervisor (usually a PHD student) once a week for each subjecy. It's the equivalent of 'tutorials' at normal unis. Wow, i never knew they had such personal attention. Every college thus has their own administration (and separate, different entrance fees for visitors), own chapel, hall, library etc. The interesting thing is that students are not split into colleges based on their fields of study. Each library has a collection of books across all disciplines. Amazing. Obviously, the colleges also represent the heart of student life and there is a lot of rivalry among them. I only visited 5 colleges that day (Downing, King's, Trinity, St John's and Queen's). Each was different in their own right, but all beautiful, full of grandeur, and awe-inspiring. i can totally see how students are so motivated and clever there.

downing college (looks like some resort!)

Queen's college
looks like some place out of a fairytale!

'mathematics bridge' in queen's. (some great engineering feat, apparently)

Thuong is from Trinity, which also explains why we spent the longest time there. Wasn't entirely bad though, since Trinity is also the biggest and richest (the amount of land they own in the UK is only 2nd to the queen). More importantly, we had picked the right day to come, because it was graduation day for the masters students, so there was a banquet, and you can walk on the grass. only on graduation day :) we were slightly late for the lunch tho, but we did manage to get some dessert and drinks. the cup of strawberries in milk & sugar was sooo good, and the bottle of apple juice lasted me for about 4 days. haha. we totally blended in with the guests at the graduation. the garden at trinity was especially beautiful, with carefully planted flowers which had a violet colour theme, all in full bloom, and trees that were manicured with equal care. more importantly, within the walls of the colleges, it was an oasis of calm, a world of difference from the noise and crowds just outside.

me and my apple juice bottle (and the library in the background)

thuong and her porter.

the hall of trinity college (where they have their meals)

more lawns (except you cant step on the grass!)

in the beautiful garden

with the manicured trees (can you spot them?)

one of the manicured trees had a secret opening at the back - it is her secret hideout!

another part of the college's sprawling grounds!

The river Cam runs through the town, and through some of the colleges, and is very pretty. A favourite activity along that river is punting, which really reminds me of what we always do in Chiangmai, but the people here would rather think of it as 'Little Venice'. It was quite a crowded day though, and the narrow river was quite full. It was also quite chilly with threats of rain (remember the weather forecast?) so i decided to give it a miss (anyway, how different can it get from the rafting we did down the mekong, right? haha.) it must be quite romantic tho, and james & sarah mentioned at lunch on sunday that their friend proposed to his girlfriend there - hired a boat and filled it with rose petals, how terribly sweet, awww :)

a typical cambridge postcard picture :)

boats for self-hire (i.e. not a chauffeur punt)

Another reason why it resembles Venice, is because of the effort that has gone into trying to replicate what they have on Venice. In St John's college, one of the bridges over the river is called the Bridge of Sighs, after the one in Venice.

there! the bridge of sighs. (i think we saw the wrong one in venice last time?)

we then went shopping a little after lunch (for books, what else?), and walked around somemore till it was time for me to leave, and for Thuong to go for her dinner. She very kindly invited me to stay, but i wasn't keen on walking back home past midnight alone, plus i was tired out from all that walking (and waking up early on a saturday morning!).

the market

graduation takes place in the white hall.

that all-too-familiar crest that adorns every GCE booklet cover!

no prizes for guessing the name of this cute church!

cambridge is a bicycle city - even 'car park' actually refers to 'bicycle park' - unless genuises have their brains wired differently?

My storybook accompanied me half the way, and i was dozing off when a rowdy bunch of youngsters got onto the train, bound for the saturday night life of london.

GCE- the average singaporean student's much-feared nemesis.

there, i've paid homeage to those conspirators. too bad the closest most sg students come to know about cambridge are the exams, not the beautiful town i had the privilege to visit.