Travel
|
I travelled extensively around the Europe and northern Africa during my stay in the UK. I'd like to observe how others have been making their lives and how other parts of the world operate, and to enjoy lovely coincidence in the journey. Travel writing from Robert Macfarlane, Alain de Botton and Linda (in Chinese) always provides a pleasant companion.
Two things are musts for me in the UK: trekking in the bright, breezy spring and summer and watching BBC documentary films at home in the long dark, dreary humid winter. I've long been fascinated by the BBC series of 'Nature & Science', particularly those being narrated by David Attenborough. Life-long favourites are Planet Earth II, Human Planet, Frozen Planet, and Blue Planet produced by David Attenborough, Arctic With Bruce Parry, the Oceans, the Story of Math presented by Prof. Marcus du Sautoy at the Open University, and the Empire by Jeremy Paxman. Recent pick is Inside the Animal Mind presented by a naturalist Chris Packham, which I find shares quite a few insights in Behavioural Economics. Needless to say, my strong recommendation goes to the Wonders of the Universe and the Wonders of the Solar System presented by the star professor Brian Cox at the University of Manchester^_^. His witty show, The Infinite Monkey Cage, is just fabulous! I trained as a figure skater at age 7 and later extended my enthusiasm for classical ballet. Beloved ice dancers are the pair of Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov, and Michelle Kwan for her expressive artistry. My frequent choices for classical ballet pieces are the National Ballet of China, the Royal Ballet based on the Royal Opera House (ROH), and the Opéra National de Paris, while the year 2013 was 'dominated' by Giselle, which was co-produced by the ROH and the Royal New Zealand Ballet for the latter's 60th Anniversary Celebration. The lovely surprise in 2014 was also Giselle but at ROH danced by Natalia Osipova and Carlos Acosta. Osipova's Russian ballet is truely accurate and effortless grace with great fluidity of movement and classical aesthetics. The 2016-17 season has been enlightened by Ikeda Risako's Cinderella and Okumura Kosuke's prince at the New National Theatre Ballet (NNTB), Tokyo - full of precision, power, enthusiasm, love, sparkling spinning, and delicate details and interactions. In 2018, the ROH product, Marguerite and Armand, and Bolshoi's tour to Beijing with Le Corsaire and the Flames of Paris are performances you could ever wish to see. |