Vietnam

I think that if you had told me at the start of my degree that I would be working on a 400m span cable stayed bridge I'd have been reasonably happy. Might have prefered a 50 storey building, but this would be ok. If you'd told me that I'd be doing it in the middle of Vietnam, I might have looked at you with a slightly strange expression. Nonetheless, a week ago, an American, born in Britain, and working in Singapore, found himself on Singapore Airlines on a flight to Hanoi, to do just that.

In fact the bridge is about 100km from Hanoi, in a place called Hai Phong. A somewhat industrial port city that my fellow countrymen were shamefully bombing in my parents lifetime. Now, I lived about 100km from Heathrow Airport when I was in the UK - it takes not more than 2 hours. In Vietnam, that was 4 hours. Oh, and you need to add in an extra hour to get my visa on arrival (gratitude to the 4 other AECOM personnel who waited paitiently, and did not abandon me in Hanoi Airport!!)

The reason behind the slow traffic is mainly the motorcycles and slow lorries, and somewhat narrow roads. There is a complete lack of what I (and most western types) would call road discipline. In fact, the techniques I have for driving would be, frankly, useless in Vietnam.

So, with the slow Visa, and the long trip, I was not well pre-disposed to the trip. The weather didn't help either. It wasn't cold by UK standards. But I didn't see the sun in 4 days (again - this happens in the UK, but I'm a spoilt Singaporean, where this doesn't happen).

The place does have its charms. The people are very welcoming and friendly - and are quite happy to attempt to speak English to those who know not a single word of Vietnamese. It is also, quite like Java, a window into a time gone by elsewhere in Asia. Lots of small roadside stalls.

The bridge we're looking at building (quite some way into the future) sits over a port - the ships are BIG. Some 200m long in cases. There is an existing bridge, built a few years back, but currently it's 1 lane in each direction. Last year 3 ships drifted into it in a typhoon and bent it. They are now thinking they should repair it. 

The food is relatively typical Asian. At least the stuff I ate was. Simple veg, with more elaborate meats. I don't think I ate anything too unusual, certainly some pidgeon though - quite tasty actually. The exception was an attempt at a western dish in our hotel: Chicken Maryland; breaded chicken served with tomato sauce, potato dauphinoise, and bacon wrapped around banana. No - not a typo! It really was bacon around banana, and tasted about as good as it sounds. So rubbish then. (Actually, the dauphinoise with tomato sauce isn't a great hit either. One to avoid next time).

I think that I'm heading back again in a few weeks time - hopefully I'll have enough notice to get my visa in advance and not have the queue for so long!! 

Here are some photos:

 

The existing bridge

 

and where it got bent last year

 The big ships that need to fit under our bridge

 

Lots of bikes - no rules

Roadside stalls - not quite sure what they do when a train comes.

Old School Photos

For each camera that I've owned there are a couple of really memorable photos I've taken - from the top of Table Mountain with my first zoom camera, photos of Sydney Opera House with my first digi cam, New York, Paris, Boston, Vancouver and New York (again) with the camera I gave the Dodgess two years ago... some of Singapore, Vienna and Boston (again) with the camera which was the first present I gave my wife after we married.

With my first camera these photos are from the banks of Lake Squam, with early morning mist sinking below the tops of the mountains in the distance, all reflected in a glassy lake. It was  given to me by my father circa 1993, and featured little other than a 35mm lens. Whilst going through the piles of accumalated goodies in my room before moving here I cam accross this old camera and decided that I should bring it along. And so, just before Christmas I bought a proper, old school film, and stuck it into the camera with no idea whether it would work.

Of course, it being a nineties camera I didn't have to do much other than put the film in - there is nowhere for a battery at all! And after a short reacquaintence with it, I managed to work out how to work it.

At this point I should probably point out that the wedding present I gave the Dodgess is a rather swish new camera - it takes photos by itself if you smile at it enough, you can change the lenses, add filters to it, set it up to take photos with 30 second exposures (to get really funky traffic effects), and for the most part all you have to do is press a single button. What's more, for a digital camera, the colours are hugely intense. We have expanded the basic model so that, with a couple of additions we can get ultra-wide angle shots, or zoom in to factor of perhaps 25 on the widest angle.


With such an array of options, the single zoom of 35mm posed a new challenge (well, obviously not new, but certainly forgotten) of getting the framing nice without any optical assistance. Which was fun.


The other non-novelty was having a limited number of photos. I mean, technically, the new Sony does indeed have a limit - it's about 1000 photos before meeting a computer and whilst the Dodgess and I have achieved that, it isn 't too harsh a task master. With the film I had 36 exposures - it certainly makes you think more, especially when you have to pay for them be they good or bad photos.


One of the treats was not seeing the result straight away - and having to wait for the film to be exposed, and then thumbing through the pictures to see whether they had worked.


Mixed bag - in low light the photos are poor. However, in the sunlight, they really shine - there is certainly now wash out of the colours around Marina Bay sands where I finished off the film. In fact, I'd say the photos have as much depth as the professional ones we had taken for our wedding. I'll try and get some up once I can scan them in.


So - quite an enjoyable foray back to a non-digital world, which I shall no doubt repeat. It is staggering to think that a camera that hasn't seen outside its case can work without any prompting 13 years after it was superseeded.

Mad Month

So the first month of 2011 is almost over. It's been a little crazy - both the Dodgess and I have had some very late nights.


The Dodgess has been playing with SLO - doing Carmen. This has meant that for the past three weeks she has had rehearsal or performance every night on top of all her normal work - itself quite a busy week. The result is that we had grabbed dinner together at 6ish every night, and, in order to try and get my work done, I've then gone back to work on several nights at 730ish, and worked on for an hour or two.

It's not the first time that I've only seen my home in the dark - but it has been one of the most draining. Partly because as well as a crazy month here, I've been helping out with my Mother in Law, who has been having her house refurbed - 2 nights at IKEA, and numerous hours lending muscle. Still - it has been a while since I've been able to help with muscle once again.


The Dodgess did treat me to a night at Carmen. I don't tend to go for opera that much, I find the stories a little exagerated, and for every moment of world beating music, there is an hour of so-so music. Carmen is generally superior, and I really enjoyed it this time, in spite of some slightly weird staging - the last scene felt as if Carmen could simply walk away from Don Jose - in fact I wondered why she didn't!!


Next week is the Lunar New Year. It's kind of like the Asian version of Christmas - I get to work half a week at work. Good - a chance to catch up with sleep. It really is like Christmas - most Singaporeans have a whole list of Reunion Dinners. The Dodgess and I will also have a few - probably not as many as most, but they'll still be nice.


Looking forwards to the year of the Rabbit I think there is a lot to look forwards to. We have a new project at work - some Tunneling work I believe. So I will have a new challenge in a new field of engineering. I hope that I can do some alignment design for rail, and the tunneling will be fun to learn I hope. We also have the tender for our viaducts - We're just closing out the design, and I went to have a look at a model of it last week and it looked very neat.


The Dodgess and I hope to have a look around Asia a little more - a few days in Bali, perhaps some in Malysia, a proper holiday trip to Hong Kong. We're saving a long trip for 2012 when we'll head back to Europe - probably in the Summer for my younger brother's wedding.


Lets hope that the Rabbit bounces high - Gong Xi Fa Cai

The End of 2010

So 2010 is ending. It's been a busy year. It started in snow, and within a week I'd moved to Singapore, and 3 days later started a new job. Within 2 months I had a new flat. That's probably enough for most years, but this year I also decided I would sit for chartered engineer status - weeks of preparation, and a weekend of exams. And 2 weeks after that I got married, then held a second reception 2 months after that. Not bad work.

So my aim for 2011 is not to undo all my good work of 2010.


Having been in Singapore for almost a year I have to admit that I rarely miss the UK. The big exception is friends. One of the very strange things is that on a typical day, the only person who I see who has known me for more than a year is my wife; this can be a strange feeling. Still, having no history can be an advantage. (And this is just a little harsh - there are quite a few Singaporeans whom I made friends with when they were in the UK).


In many ways engineering life out here is pretty similar to the UK - we use the same codes, we worry about the same sort of things. I stay far more in the same place - in fact, there hasn't been a work day when I haven't been in the office at some point. This has meant a lot less time in cars which has got to be a good thing.


I think that Singapore is gnenerally happier than the UK that I left. This is not quite a sad a reflection on the UK as it may seem - Singapore is a very nice place to live. Part of this is that Singapore hasn't slowed down economically - people are mostly in work. There is not news each week of another corporate disaster, and people are looking forwards hopefully rather than with dread. Then there is the weather - being cold is far worse than being hot. It only takes me a few minutes to cool down after over heating. Warming up takes far longer, and can be very hard to achieve if you don't want to spend a fortune on gas.


The Dodgess and I really loved both the Singaporean and UK weddings - we had a great time at each. The other day I'd had a bad day at work... by the time that I left I was fuming. I had a couple of hours to let this brew, and then I had decided that I would lease off all my frustration at the Dodgess. As soon as I saw her, all my problems were gone... and work was not a problem... that's why I married her.


Professionally, I passed my chartership exams. I thought doing them in Hong Kong, would be great. It wasn't. The only time the weather was nice was when I was in the exams. Which led to hours spent in an unmemorable hotel room. Possibly not a bad thing. I hear from a most reliable source (the Dodgess) that Hong Kong can be great, and I think that I will probably go there again next year to find out. Still, I'd far rather have had a poor weekend and passed, than have to sit the thing again!


So looking back - I did alot in 2010. As I said above, I really hope that I don't undo all that good in 2011. Looking forwards, in 2011 I hope to have some new and exciting projects at work and I hope we can do a little more exploring of Asia. And, within 12 days, there will be more than just my wife who I will have known for more than 1 year over here :)

Christmas Time

A year ago I had a white Christmas. I think it was even by the Met Office's description a white Christmas - which is to say snow actually fell on me. The day started in Birmingham, and the Dodgess and I drove to Cambridge, and we had a traditional family Christmas meal, inasmuch as anything that we do is particularly traditional. Still, it contained roast meat, roast potatoes, wine, crackers, and a traditional English pudding with brandy set into blue flames.


This year, all a little different. For a start, lets look at the temp - last year about 32F, this year still 32, but C. So I've spent pretty much the entire day in shorts and a t-shirt. It was white at times, but only because the rain was so heavy. As for the food, well, not quite the same. Our Christmas dinner was sausages, with cabbage, and potato gratin. A strangely Germanic lunch given those present: from Singapore, France, Singapore and me, from either side of the Atlantic depending on whether England or USA is doing better at sport. Perhaps the Germanic influence is a nod to my maternal ancestry?


Having opened some presents, we then went for a walk along the beach. We had a couple of cameras to play with - the Dodgess had our latest. I had my first camera, circa 1990, which doesn't even require a battery to operate. In fact, all it does it take photos with a 35mm lens. But, it does seem still to be working.


Dinner was effectively from a hawker centre, albeit a rather posher one. A seafood platter consisting of sea bass, chilli crab (the first time I've had the Singaporean speciality here) and clams. Served with the smell of sea water nearby too!


So it's been a good Christmas nice and relaxed. Nice and happy.


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Christmas dinner was the second time that the Dodgess and I had eaten fish this week. The first was a complete disaster. Wanting a late dinner, but something more than a gobble down takeaway or hawker food, we opted for Fish and Co. Why? Well, we had eaten a couple of really nice meals with them previously this year, so why not?


Well, they had changed the menu this time. Taking off some of the more varied dishes, and offering instead 6 choices of fish and chips from 'around the world'. Seeminly, all they do is add a different cheese to the fish. Err... Sorry? Cheese? with Fish and Chips.

Now, I'm British (at least today I am, maybe after the ashes re-start I'll reconsider and become American). Being British, I have been exposed to a vast array of fish and chip shops. Not one has ever offered me cheese with fish. It had to be tried, if only for the same reason people stare at crashed cars. The Dodgess didn't fancy the cheese, so opted for the Pollock version. This was off, so back to the cod then.


My 'Japanese' version, served with some pathetic watery soy sauce (why??? it's vile with the batter - use vinegar!) also had that most Japanese cheese of mozarella stuffed inside. So, a British dish, served with Italian cheese, and called Japanese due to the presence of soy sauce and some seaweed?


On tasting, I discovered why I've never been offered cheese within battered fish. It's dreadful. The cheese only detracted from the flavour of the fish. It sort of leached it away without adding any flavour itself -- just the texture of slightly spongy rubber. FAIL


Still, at least my fish was cooked. The Dodgess's (and lets not forget that her first choice had run out) was not even that. Raw, progressing to frozen in the middle. As time was late we suggested they just abandon serving the Dodgess, and we'd get something on the way back for her. They insisted that a new portion would be ready within 3 minutes. It came 8 minutes later as I finished. So we packed it - then they gave us the bill, which included not only the Pollock (more expensive than the cod), but a service charge too - what for, pray tell???


Eventually, we took the cod home for free, but if they had really wanted to fix things, it wouldn't have been on the bill in the first place. Never again methinks, it was a truly hateful meal (company excepted, which was, as always, fabulous, even if a little hungry!)


 

Becoming Chartered

If you are to believe it, then I have been an amateur engineer until now. See, whilst everyone knows that it takes 7 years to become a doctor, and 7 years to become an architect, they don't realise the same is true of engineers. We, having spent 4 years racking up debts at university, then have to work for another 3, 4, or more years to prove our competence.

It is possible that you remember reading a post about a trip to Hong Kong - it really wasn't an enjoyable trip overall, however the main aim was achieved. I passed my Chartership exams.

That doesn't really do justice to the achievement. I PASSED MY CHARTERSHIP EXAMS.

That doesn't either, if I'm honest: I PASSED MY CHARTERSHIP EXAMS.

Now that... is better.


It's very hard to know how you have done in the chartership exams. They are rather like a driving test. They test what you can do, and judge it against a set of criteria, as opposed to a uni exam where they test you to, frankly, break.

So, having submitted two reports about my work, I turned up on the only nice day of my 3 in HK, and had a 15 minute presentation and 1 hour interview about my work. It was knackering. Then, on the Monday, I wrote about health and safety for 2 hours. 6 hours after I finished I was on my plane home. 

And then I waited. Forgot about the whole thing whilst I got married. Waited a bit more, forgot about the whole thing whilst I got married again (well, held a second wedding reception), then figured I'd just been forgot. See, it never takes 3 months for exam results to come out.  

The Institution of Civil Engineers, of which I am now officially a member, does not make a large song and dance of this. A letter attached to an email just lets me know I have to pay a bit more in fees. But still - it's nice. It's very good to have passed, and it should help me go forwards. 

Of course, what Chartership really is, is a mark of ability. A symbol that you are trusted by the Engineering Community. A mark of respect. Something which employers value highly. That employers reward.

At least that is what it is in the UK. Or, rather more correctly, was, in the UK. Not so much any more I would suggest. Over here it means little more than diddly squat. They have their own exams, their own system - which takes a few years, and a few exams... 

In Need of a Break

It's probably true that the week before someone goes on holiday, it can be defined that they need a break. But for me and the Dodgess, I think this is certainly true this time.

I have worked since January, in which time I've taken all of 5 days paid leave, and whilst two of those were related to going on a trip to Indonesia, it still marks a long long time without an extended break.

What's more, this has not exactly been a quiet year, when you combine the efforts required to plan a wedding, sit chartership exams, then plan another wedding reception, all within 10 months of moving half way around the world.

So the Dodgess and I are really looking forwards to 4 days in the UK, then 4 in the USA, then 8 in the UK, completed by a week of indulgence in Vienna. We can't wait :)