发现世界

在台北书展看见这一张海报……


海报上说：
“因为喜欢，所以阅读；因为阅读，发现世界！”
把它送给喜欢阅读的你，
一同来发现世界！

游船婚礼

生平第一次参加游船婚礼。放几张照片上来，让大家一起看一看。

这就是游船了啦！

里头是这样的光景的。

这些就是部分和我一同赴宴的人！


当中还有小小的插曲。上了游船，我们就在窃窃私语问，会不会有人解说怎样用救生衣，或者至少告诉我们救生衣在哪里。答案是：没有！

船开了，菜肴也一碟碟地上桌。

吃到第三道时，我们看见厨房开始冒烟。烟越来越大，烧焦味也随烟而来。同桌的人不禁相对看，说：“不会吧？”我说：“真是大吉利事，我生平第一次参加游船婚礼，千万不要也是最后一次。”幸亏，烟后来慢慢散去。可是，也没有人知道为什么厨房会冒烟。

出游咯！（二）

这一次是因为Bologna Children's Book Fair而出游。

会到这里看一看。


也会到这里逛一逛。


游到荷塘来的小舟，谢谢光临，也请自便。

出游咯！

周先生去开会，陪读的人陪玩去了。

大家请自便。

多话的惩罚

小时候，上课时不停地讲话，老师给我们的处罚就是双手捂着嘴巴，不准把手放下，当然也不准发出声音；不听话的，就藤条伺候。妈妈则是大吼一声：“吵死了！”，我们就乖乖地不敢出声，因为不噤声的话，也是藤条来了。

昨天到凯文葛罗夫艺术与博物院 (Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum) 去，才知道原来多话的惩罚由来已久，而且让人怵目惊心。

16世纪的多话苏格兰妇女，会被罚戴上面罩 (Brank，也叫做Scold’s Bridle)。

据说，这是为了制止言语极端、惹是生非的女性而有的轻微惩罚。套上面罩后，面罩上一个带刺的铁片，就会压在舌头上。这样一来，只要动一动舌头，就会被刺痛了。为了避免疼痛，最好的方法就是让舌头乖乖地躺着咯！

17世纪的德国也不遑多让。套上面罩后，连嘴巴都无法张开！

如果你无法想象戴上面罩到底是什么模样，请看以下的明信片：
一看到这些面罩时，我的反应就是幸亏现在已经没有这样的处罚方法了，否则的话，我应该也有蛮大的机会戴上它们的。

十六的月亮在德国

千禧之钟

爱丁堡的皇家博物院 (Royal Museum) 有一座千禧之钟 (Millennium Clock Tower)。它诉说着上一个千禧的种种惨剧和希望。无论如何，它的设计者说：“它并没有涵盖所有的事件，也不企图去解释所有的事情。”这一座千禧之钟是应苏格兰庆祝千禧年而诞生的。

千禧之钟按教堂的结构分成四层：地下室、中堂、钟楼和尖顶。


地下室的那一层有代表着古代的神灵。转动轮子的猴子是古代埃及的猴神。看起来它是轮子的操纵者，可是它也是个囚徒。统治者囚禁它以获得权力和能量。历代以来，人们尝试解放它，但是却只是能够改变它受束缚的方式。



中堂是代表着像你我一样的普通人。我们都无法逃脱时间的巨轮。然而，我们无法看到的，其实是在我们之上的力量。列宁、斯大林和希特勒用无情的锯子扯动死神的钟摆，把千千万万的人带到生命的尽头。更加无情的是，当我们以为自己是在旁观着这一切时，我们的身影清清楚楚地投射到钟摆上的镜子。原来我们也是当中的一份子啊！


钟楼上，有十二个雕像组成一个圆圈。每一个雕像代表着一年中的十二个月；每一个雕像代表着上一个千禧年的悲剧和苦难：战争、饥饿、折磨、奴役、迫害、孤单、疯狂等。它们的名字就叫“追思弥撒”。这些雕像转动一圈需要一个小时，当它们因转动而离开了我们的视线，我们逐渐淡忘它们。可是，就在我们要完全遗忘之际，它们又再一一出现在眼前。代表十二月的雕像，更是人们挥之不去的阴影——世界末日……

玻璃窗是千禧之钟最具现代色彩的部分。它的设计灵感来自教堂的彩绘玻璃窗。教堂的彩绘玻璃窗往往诉说着神和圣人的故事，光线透过玻璃窗进入教堂，仿佛就是神光感召世人。千禧之钟上的玻璃窗述说的却是人的故事：人的活动、人与人之间的关系。可是，我们却无法走进千禧之钟去看这一个玻璃窗，我们只能够想象里头的光景。

钟楼当然是有钟咯！这一面钟象征的是有序和精确。比起其它部分的混乱，它是简单多了。人的智慧和各种发明由它来彰显。

向上伸展的尖塔象征着人类无尽的追求。悲哀的是，来到最顶端却发现一个女人抱着一个男人的尸体。丝丝的同情和无尽的怜悯，是他们的归宿。无论如何，人纵然有过去无尽的悲哀，也有面对将来的不息勇气。

一座千禧之钟诉说着太多的故事，不同的人来到它的面前有不同的体悟，正如不同的人在面对生活有不同的选择和态度。唯一的相似之处，就是我们谁也逃不了！

多利羊的真身

我见了多利羊 (1996-2003) 的真身。和真的绵羊没有两样哦！这样说很白痴，可是我见到她时，首先浮现在脑海的就是这一句话。

从多利出生以来，都是在报章、杂志和因特网上看见她。今天因为到爱丁堡书展去，所以顺道到皇家博物馆 (Royal Museum) 去看她。

因为多利的出现，人们看到了复制人的可能。于是，辩论展开了。反对的一方说，复制技术违反了宗教与道德，也破坏自然规律。万一失败了，或许就会出现有缺陷的复制物种。赞成的一方则说，复制技术可以治疗遗传疾病、帮助不孕的夫妇添小孩、复制濒临绝种的生物，是人类社会的一大福音。

这么大的课题对我来说，有些无法消化。或许我的智慧还不够。可是，我肯定不要复制自己，那太恐怖了。世上突然间多了一个和自己一模一样的人，实在是无法面对。

若无法下载以上短片，请按此。

Making Complaint Again!

Yesterday was a long day for me. Mr Chiew and I spent more than eight hours at Prague Airport. Yupe, the flight was delayed.

When I queued up for an hour and reached the check-in counter at 4:00pm, I was so happy because I thought we’ll be setting off on time at 4:55pm and reached Glasgow at 6:20pm as scheduled, then we could join our friends for dinner. Unfortunately, the lady at the counter told us: “These are the vouchers for you because the flight is delayed. The flight will depart at about 11:00pm.” What? Nothing we could do besides waiting. Sigh!

Waited and waited, tried and tried to kill the time. As we did last minute visits this morning, so we didn’t bring any book besides guide books for Prague in our hand luggage to minimise the weight of it. We talked about this and that until we had no new topic. So, Mr. Chiew renamed some photos taken these few days and I played some computer games. Luckily, we brought along our laptop.

It was 9:00pm finally, but the departure information board showed “NEXT INF 21:30”. Therefore, we sat for 30 minutes more. The weird thing was the information didn’t change until 10:10pm. We tried to get some help from the airport staffs.

On our way, we met a lady who was looking at a notice board.

“Are you going to Glasgow?” I asked and looked at the notice board. It’s about air passenger rights.

“Aye, that’s why I’m looking at my rights now.” She jotted down the details.

“Let me take a photo, it’s easier.”

“Oh, yeah, I should get my camera too.”

Few minutes later, this happened.

Yes, they were taking photos of the notice board and focused on “Long Delays” and “Help and further information”. And the lady said, “See, you started something.” I laughed happily and forgot that I should be very angry.

However, I think I’m a smart lady because I still remember to take this as a proof about the poor and ridiculous management of the airport.

Mr Chiew got the new information from one of the staffs finally. The guy made a call and told those pity passengers, “The plane will be arriving 15 minutes after midnight and departing one hour later.” I can’t imagine it. I took more than half a day to fly back to Glasgow from Prague! I can reach KL from London already!

In fact, I really pity on those elderly people. After waiting for hours, as a young person, I felt like half dead already, I think their tiredness might be double up of mine. An old man tried to lift up his legs every few minutes. I think this was to prevent his legs from swelling. Again, nothing I could help them besides showing a helpless smile.

When all the passengers had sat on their seats at 12:30am this morning, the captain apologised for the long delay. It was because of the plane was having some technical problems, of course he emphasised again and again not the plane we took, so the technicians took four to five hours to settle the problems. The plane we took flew from Barcelona to Prague and took us back to Glasgow. He also said that he understood our frustration and in fact he and the cabin crews were tired too. Scaring…

Anyway, I reached home safely at 3:00am this morning. Otherwise you won’t read my blog now. I hope I need not to make any complaint about airport or airline when I travel in the future.

Scotland! Scotland!

Let's see warfare between Scotland and England!

As what you can watch here, I spent my Sunday at a place full of hatred.

I went to Bothwell Castle, a 13th century castle located 20 km from Glasgow. The show of King Robert Bruce and the Knights of Scotland was held there. Time went back to 700 years ago when Robert Bruce was finally crowned King of Scots at Scone. As we all know crown always came with blood, so a lot of fights I watched. The video clip above was one of them.

When I heard the screams of “Scotland! Scotland!” and the boos to England, I really curious why the little children also hate English so much? Do they understand the history between Scotland and England that clear? Maybe this is so-called patriotism.

意外的收获

到爱丁堡去是为了探访作家博物馆。

走在街上，却发现了华莱士牛。兴冲冲地把它拍了下来。突然想起，这样一来苏格兰的英雄岂不是成了牛头？

华莱士牛附近就是X-光牛了。不过，同行的两个兽医说，那些牛骨头的结构是不对的。呵呵……艺术家遇上行家了。

在对面的爱丁堡市议会大楼前，发现了喜气洋洋的烟花牛和以苏格兰国花——蓟打扮自己的蓟牛。

旅客咨询中心旁的黑白两色的地图牛乍看之下，我还以为它只不过是一头平平无奇的乳牛。仔细看一看，却发现它可是一头世界牛。身上的世界地图在告诉众人：我可是来头不小的哦！

身为联合国教科文组织第一个授予的“世界文学城”之爱丁堡，以斯科特纪念碑 (Scott Monument) 附近的文学牛，向大家宣扬她的骄傲。少女牛和 (巴士) 路线牛也在文学牛的身边，分享爱丁堡的骄傲。

这一些牛是因为慈善之名而聚集爱丁堡的。艺术家为此盛事，绞尽脑汁，发挥创意，以期吸引众人的目光，然后再由衷地微笑起来。

94头散落在爱丁堡大街小巷、附近小镇、机场和动物园的牛，是此行的意外收获。更幸运的是，这是在牛群告别前两天得到的意外收获。

华莱士牛 Brave Moo

华莱士牛和独角兽 Brave Moo & Unicorn

X-光牛 Nightmoo on Blair Street

烟花牛 Festival Cow

蓟牛 Thistle Be the Cow in Edinburgh

地图牛 Globetrotter

路线牛 The Daily Cow-mute

少女牛 The Can Can Cow

文学牛 Moo Moo Ramotswe

美丽深海世界

到深海世界 (Deep Sea World) 去看鱼，也看因为鱼而快乐的人。

深海世界位于北女王渡口 (North Queensferry)，苏格兰的东边，北海的旁边。鼎鼎大名的佛斯河火车桥 (Forth Rail Bridge) 就横跨在深海世界的上头。突然而来的雾，为佛斯河火车桥披上了一层轻纱，朦朦胧胧的。


深海世界，号称欧洲最大的水族馆，却没有我想象中的好。或许是因为曾经到新加坡的海底世界 (Underwater World)。热带海中颜色鲜艳、色彩缤纷的水中生物早已在我心中留下了深刻的印象，为水中的世界刻画了刻板的形象。处在北纬56度的深海世界，怎么可能像新加坡海底世界有成片的鲜艳鱼儿？有的只是个别的小鱼缸中寂寞的热带鱼。

可是，当我看见海葵和寄居蟹时，又兴致勃勃了。因为我认识他们。曾经编写一份随假期作业附送的儿童杂志，写了一篇关于海葵和寄居蟹的故事，说海葵和寄居蟹的共生。寄居蟹靠海葵的毒触手杀敌、保护自己；海葵依附在寄居蟹的甲壳上以扩大觅食的范围。他们就是这样一个当打手、一个当脚夫地一起生活。当寄居蟹长大了，要换新甲壳时，还会把海葵从旧的甲壳搬到他的新家去。

另外一条我认识的鱼是小丑鱼，不过我喜欢称他为Nemo。装着Nemo的鱼缸旁有个说明，读了，我才知道原来海葵身上的毒对Nemo是没有效的，因为Nemo身上长着防止海葵刺细胞的蜇刺。因此，Nemo可以在海葵的身边畅游。Nemo也因为斑斓的色彩，而招惹了不少敌人。可是，当敌人靠近时，Nemo就会赶紧逃到海葵的触手间躲避，Nemo的敌人就这样成了海葵的美食。Nemo也会趁机捡些残渣饱食一顿。Nemo也在海葵的触手间产卵，繁衍下一代。

因为长了知识而暗自高兴的我，不禁在想：大人尚且因为看见熟悉的事物而倍感亲切，引发兴趣，小孩又怎么可能豁免呢？难怪坊间有那么多以卡通人物为主角的杂志了。翻阅了就会发现其实由Barney、Dora、Simpsons或Thomas the Engine Tank所教的英文、数学和教科书没两样，可是见到了它们，小朋友却会如获至宝似的。

扯远了，可是因为深海世界而长的知识依然还是美丽的。

出游以后

结束了六天的挪威和丹麦之旅，回到了格拉斯哥。

在开始我的日常生活：写论文、写文章和工作之前，忙着写投诉信。投诉奥斯陆机场的乱糟糟。

事情发生在26日从奥斯陆出发到哥本哈根的大清早。大约六点钟，来到堆满人的机场，我的睡意减少了不少。傻傻地排在队伍的后面等候……后来，有个工作人员发现我们排错了队，可是她竟然就这样走了去。留下两个不懂挪威话的人，四眼瞪四眼。

好不容易办了登机手续，已经是四十五分钟以后的事情。眼看机场人满为患，我们加紧脚步到保安检查处。依然是长长的一条人龙……排着队的时候，竟然看见一个人插队！接着是一家人，然后是一群人！天哪！这是什么世界？被插队的人没有出声阻止。最可恶的是，在场的工作人员竟然视若无睹。结果，就这样子有二三十个人插队。等我们过了保安检查来到登机口，又是另一个四十五分钟。

当时，就想起一个朋友说过的话，如果我们不阻止别人的恶行，那么我们就是变相地作恶。我是深深地认同这一句话的，所以一直牢记着它。仿佛成了自己“惹事生非”的最大后盾。

当日子一天一天地过去，渐渐知道阻止别人的恶行有许多方法，并不一定是要当场大声阻止。因此，我选择回来写信投诉机场的管理层。至于说阻止别人插队嘛，我学会了英国人的假礼貌，笑笑地跟对方说：“Excuse me, the queue starts here.”

或许有人会认为何必这么认真呢？或许有人会觉得这样岂不是破坏了人在旅途的美丽心情？旅途的好心情当然不会因此而没有了。认真嘛，想来也不是太认真的。因为写着投诉信时，我就在心里嘀咕：有谁会理睬我这一个小小旅人的投诉？

呵呵，自己高兴就好。

照片分享

为写游记，看了从2004年至今的照片。忽然想起刚抵达苏格兰时，拍了不少照片，通过雅虎相册和朋友分享。决定把它们公开，独乐乐不如众乐乐嘛！

格拉斯哥风光：
http://cn.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tkchiew/my_photos

爱丁堡和史特林的照片：
http://cn.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tglian75/my_photos

苏格兰其他地方的照片在这儿，不过其中一个相册还是关于爱丁堡的：
http://cn.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gieklian115/my_photos

剑桥、伦敦和巴黎在这里，H到格拉斯哥来玩和J的毕业典礼也在这里：
http://cn.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tglian115/my_photos

之所以会有这么多帐户，是因为当年上载照片是有限制容量的。相册的归类还真的是不伦不类，不过都是2004年拍的。大家请将就一些吧！无法再花时间整理相册了。论文还没有写完……

飞行十三个小时以后

从吉隆坡飞往伦敦，飞行时间不多也不少——十三个小时。

下机后，“脚踏实地”的感觉真好。这一次，比去年五月幸运多了，因为飞机可以马上降陆。去年，飞机得在空中兜圈，兜了五分钟左右吧！可是，对我来说却像是兜了半个小时似的。飞机一着陆，等不及工作人员接上登机衔接桥，我就跟空中小姐说：“Can I use the toilet now?”在她支支吾吾的时候，我边走边说：“I can’t wait. I want to vomit now.”结果，吐得我连自己是谁也不知道了。

虽然说今年很幸运，没有吐个不停，但是十三个小时的飞行所累积的疲累也是不能小觑的。在过关卡时更遇上人龙，花了一个小时左右，才顺利入境。

再等上一个多小时，才踏上由伦敦飞格拉斯哥的班机。

累得一脸倦容，双眼成了一条线的我，在机上跟 Toung 和 Wai San 胡扯。大家都认为如果有任意门就好了。把门一打开，就到了目的地。忘了拿东西，也不必怕。其实啊，是连行李也不必带了。因为要什么，把门打开就行了。

如果没有任意门，缩小和放大灯也不错。我建议 Toung 把 Wai San 缩小了，放在口袋里，可以省一张机票哦！Wai San 还以为是要把她缩小了，放进信封里邮寄。这可不行啊！盖邮戳时，会把她盖扁的。Toung 则认为应该把自己放大，那么走几步就可以跨过亚洲，来到欧洲……嗯，男生和女生的想法真的有些差异哦！

飞行十三个小时以后，最想念的原来是小叮当……

Burns Cottage

Now, it’s the turn to talk about Burns Cottage. Before talking about Burns Cottage, I must introduce a guy to you first.

Ladies and gentleman, let’s meet with Mr. Robert Burns. He is Scotland’s most remarkable and best-loved son. The Scottish say he is a humanitarian, national hero, poet and musician, lover and international son. I believe you still have no idea about him. Then, please allow me to introduce him from a foreigner’s view. He is the writer of Auld Lang Syne (友谊万岁). You should have an idea about him now, right?

Robert Burns was born on 25 January 1759 at Burns Cottage. He stayed there until he was seven years old. The cottage was built by Robert Burns’ father William Burnes two years before Robert was born. Do you notice that Robert Burns’ surname was different from his father’s? It’s not a typo! Robert Burns dropped the “e” from his surname to adopt the more common Ayshire spelling of “Burns”.

Ok, let’s go back to the Cottage. Roberts Burns and his brother, Gilbert received their early education at the cottage. Anyway, Robert Burns never went back to the cottage in his life until he died at 37 years old.

Since the Scottish are proud of Robert Burns, so everything related to him is considered important too. Therefore, we had a trip to the cottage to see its real appearance. There is a museum beside the cottage which so called the world’s most important Robert Burns collection. (Honestly, I doubt about this…) There are books and manuscripts, personal artefacts as well as art and “Burnsiana” in the museum, but not as massive as I imagined when I was reading the leaflet.

Even though I’m not very familiar with Robert Burns, but I enjoyed the trip as it’s good to see how the Scottish take good care of their heritage.

Culzean Castle

What did you do on April Fool’s Day? From the photos I uploaded this morning, I believe you know that Thiam Kian and I had an outing on that day. We went for a trip to Culzean Castle and Burns Cottage organised by University of Glasgow's International Student Office. Both of the places are in the south west of Glasgow. It took us 1.5 hours to go there.

Let’s talk about Culzean Castle first. Before I forget, let me tell you that we need not to pronounce the "z" for Culzean.

Culzean Castle dates back to the 12th century, but the castle we see nowadays was mainly designed and built in the 18th century. The famous Scottish architect, Robert Adam (1728 - 1792) was the designer of the castle.

It belonged to the Kennedy family. The tour guide emphasised, this Kennedy family has no connection to the Kennedy family in the USA. The purpose for building this castle was because the family wanted to have a big house for all of their family members. Of course, they wanted to defend themselves from their enemies too. Therefore they decided to build the castle at the current location, where there is sea cliff at the back and gutter in the front to provide natural defences to the castle.

Anyway, after staying in this castle for about 150 years, the Kennedy family gave the castle to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945. Do you know why they did so? The reason was that the family was unable to pay 74% of heritage tax to the government. What a high tax, sigh!

After walking around the castle, we moved to the Camellia House. It's a greenhouse in Culzean Country Park. Have you seen the photos we took in front of the Camellia House? My friend, Toung said, the photos we took between branches of the tree are Bollywood style photos. What say you?

Flowers in front of Camellia House attracted our attention. For sure, we took a lot of photos with the yellow flowers. Toung said again, it's impossible for people to be prettier than flowers. Why I always have such honest friends?

It was a great trip as the weather was pretty good. It’s rare to have a whole sunny day in Scotland during the spring, you know. Of course, Toung and Wai San brought a lot of fun to us too. And the happiest thing was we just paid three pounds each for the trip. ^_^