It’s Conference Time

The Australian Language Technology Association (ALTA) are having their yearly conference, and this time around it’s here in Sydney.  So, for the next couple of days I’ll be on the UNSW campus.  It should be quite an interesting event with all sorts of NLP topics to be covered.  It’s also a good opportunity to catch up some former colleagues – note I did say some. 

Scots Invented Everything

Last night we met up with Kieron, who’s holidaying in Australia at the moment.  His girlfriend Pauline’s uni friend dragged us to a number of gay clubs.  At 2am we decided we needed dinner, so Kieron, Amanda & I headed to Mamak for some late night Malaysian.  Hopefully Pauline enjoyed the strip club and scheduled transsexual performance that the three of us missed.  It was great to catch up with Kieron, not least because it reminded me of this:

 

 

Scotland Beat The Wallabies!

DEFINITELY worth getting up at 4 am for!

Blokus

While we were in the States in August, we decided to look for travel games – and  what a find we made!  We played Blokus often while we were still in Chattanooga; we’ve played it on planes; we play it here, there and everywhere.  It’s awesome fun!

Rise Or Repeat

The Wallabies rugby team are currently on their Spring Tour in Europe, and it was supposed to be a historic tour.  For the first time in years there was the possibility of getting a home nations grand slam – victories against England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.  The Wallabies, who only managed 1 win from the entire Tri-Nations tournament, managed to put away England, but Ireland held them to a draw. Now that they can’t win them all, their target is just to not lose any.

This weekend the Aussies are heading to Murrayfield to take on the Scotland.  The Scots are in a strong rebuilding phase with their new coach, while the Wallabies are just rough at the moment.  Add to that the depressing effect that arriving in a wet, cold and grey Edinburgh has had on the Aussies, and it’s looking like the Scots are in with a chance.

The big question is : do we get up at 4 o’clock on Sunday morning to watch it live, or do we wait for the myriad repeats later in the day?  Not hearing the results isn’t an issue, we just won’t look it up online.  It’s more about whether or not it’s worth the resulting tiredness of getting up at 4am.  At the moment I’m thinking it IS worth it just to know that it hasn’t already happened, and that cheering on the boys in Blue might actually make a difference.  Of course, at 3:55 Sunday morning I may feel otherwise.

‘Mon Scotland! 

Hong Kong Wrap Up

There is lots more we could tell you about what we got up to in Hong Kong.  There was the awesome Taste supermarket which had the huge variety of produce you would expect from an Asian store but taken to a gourmet level and mixed in with all sorts of imported goods from the UK (I was delighted to find Hula Hoops , Apple Tango & Scottish Highland Spring Water!), the US and Australia- all at super cheap prices.  There are all the descriptions of more meals we could give you, such as the beef brisket noodles or the hairy crab or the conch.  There are also a ton more pictures of the city itself.

However, in the interests of avoiding over-saturation let us say just this: we had a truly wonderful time and found Hong Kong to be a delightful place. It is definitely on our list of places to visit again!

The HK Beer Post

You didn’t think we’d go all the way to Hong Kong without sampling a local beer did you?  Of course you didn’t.  And so I present one of the most common tipples to be found at the eateries of Temple Street – Yanjing Beer.

Yanjing is a very basic beer, with no distinguishing features.  However, it is definitely not a bad beer, so it’s pretty easy to drink.  Also, for something so basic it is priced as you would expect – a 600ml bottle will set you back $5.50 … in Hong Kong dollars!  That equates to just 60 cents, or 33 pence per pint. I’m fairly certain the people who saw me buying it in the store saw the equivalent of Tesco Value Lager, but what the heck – it certainly hit a post conference spot.

A Beautiful Day

Today’s activities were some of the first we planned when we knew we’d be coming to Hong Kong.  We wanted to visit the Tian Tan Buddha and eat food in the vegetarian restaurant run by the monks of the Po Lin Monastery.  We were already looking forward to this immensely, but even more so when we discovered the best way to get to Ngong Ping village was by cable car.  Honestly, I don’t know why anyone would go any other way.

Having passed up and over mountains and valleys, 25 stunning minutes later we arrived. Since we arrived before the crowds that came later we had Ngong Ping practically to ourselves, so it was a pleasant walk to the Buddha.

At 35 feet tall, he’s apparently the largest outdoor sitting bronze Buddha in the world.  And the 268 steps you climb with his peaceful gaze upon you are totally worth it.

It really is a very peaceful and beautiful place to be.  The museum underneath the statue had many ancient Buddhist texts, along with a revered bone relic.  It left us feeling particularly tranquil, so it was the perfect time to head to the nearby Po Lin Monastery.

We headed to the restaurant for our vegetarian feast.  And what a feast it was: mixed mushroom soup, deep fried spring roll (some of the best I’ve ever had), black mushrooms with vegetables, fresh bean curd sheet with lemon sauce (oh so good), and fresh lily bulbs with vegetables (seriously fresh and crisp), all served with steamed rice and Jasmine tea.

The food was really good, and we satisfied our tummies along with our souls.  It’s been an absolutely wonderful day so far.  As we head off to the Temple Street Night Market, we’ll leave you with just one more photo.  Rar. 

Inner Peace And Happy Tummy

Today we headed into the New Territories to explore a Hong Kong outside of the city centre.  We caught a double decker bus (the first we’ve seen for three years) and got some great views as we headed to Sha Tin. We knew that just a five minute walk from the station would be the start of the walk up to the 10000 Buddhas Monastery.  However, in the recent words of a fellow traveller inadequate signage left us exploring the Po Fook Memorial Hall instead.

This was the entrance to the hall, and it had a lovely koi pond and more turtles than I have ever seen in one place.

The memorial halls are mausoleums, and they seem much more spiritual and revered than ours in the west.  We didn’t take any photos inside the halls because it just seemed disrespectful.

After exploring the halls, we did find the Buddhas we’d been looking for as well.  Sha Tin really is quite a serene place.

It’s a steep 500 step climb to the monastery at the top, but it’s very much worth it.

After finding peace, we found ourselves hungry, so we headed a few train stops further north to Tai Po.

We started at the Tai Po Market with all manner of fresh goodness.  Imagine 20 fishmongers all in one place, right next to 40 butchers.  There were all manner of things hanging on hooks- from steaks and chops, to kidneys and hearts … and even a skinned pig’s face.  We headed up to the Cooked Food Centre on the second floor, but as it was the lunch rush we don’t have any pictures.  A word of advice for travellers – if you want to eat here, either take a local with you or find somewhere with pictures so that you can point because there is no English.

We were after a particular Hong Kong treat: roast goose, so we headed a couple of blocks over to the recommended Yat Lok.  They don’t have an English menu, but they do have a man that speaks English and is happy to help out.

We had a nommy lunch of Roast Goose, Suckling Pig, Gai Lan with garlic, rice and assorted sauces.

It was a very fulfilling and tiring day, so we’re having an early night, which I will use to prepare for my talk tomorrow.

Looking forward to the rest of the trip!

 

Preparation And Planning

It isn’t long now until we fly out to Hong Kong, and we’re really looking forward to it.  We’ve been doing plenty of planning, figuring out where to go, how to get there, what to eat, and importantly what NOT to eat.  You can be sure we’ll fill you in on all the hopefully not too gory details (we’ll have WiFi).

I’m also fully prepared for my talk at the conference.  Having ironed out a lot of kinks with a very patient audience of one at the weekend, I was ready to give the talk at work.  There were two reasons for this: the first was as a practice for me; while the second was to introduce others in the company to what we’re doing in R&D.  All told it was a great success, and I’m prepped for the real thing, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh and the temperature just hit 38 C/100 F,  so we’re ready for a break in more moderate climbs!