Bonus birthday

When you have a birthday against the odds, it is worth celebrating the occasion properly, if necessary with a festival of birthday events. On August 19, the 64th anniversary of my birth, I climbed up the Great Wall of China.

That evening, I joined friends in a Beijing restaurant for the first of my birthday dinners. This magnificent meal was organised by John Zhen (on the right front of the photograph)

A week later, I met with friends in Paris for another restaurant celebration, in a little place called Bistrot d'Henri. Meghan Halse came up from Lyon, Simon and Krista Rogers came over from from Julich in Germany, and Allan Raudsepp and partner Steph, come across from the 13th arondissement. Mark Hunter joined us enroute to New Zealand via Paris.

Finally, I had a family birthday brunch in Cambridge at Giraffe restaurant, where James and I shared the birthday cake and ice cream. I have promised to help James eat his cake on his fourth birthday, due in a few weeks!

Having found unexpected birthdays to be such fun, I am determined to have more of them. I think I might now aim for 65. The gloomy predictions of my medical advisors will need to be respectfully circumvented, and thus it may not be possible for me to please everyone.

More China images

In the forbidden city











The grand staircase in the Great Hall of the People.








The Banquet Hall











Paul giving the address from the Banquet Hall stage.














Miang outside the "Bird's Nest"









Typical evening entertainment.


















64th birthday on the Great Wall











The palace temple













Paul eating scorpion









Outside Tian'anmen Gate

Rising CEA

My latest CEA shows a renewed rising trend. This is a disappointing result after the drop in early July. Something has changed and two possibilities come to mind. By late June I had exhausted the supply of the Chinese herbal medicine supplied by the Ngee Ann clinic in Singapore. I have been taking an alternative Chinese herbal treatment supplied by Bo-Ying Ma in London. And, since coming to the UK, I have taken a weekly treatment of intravenous vitamin C when possible, although there have been periods when I have been unable to take treatment, such as my week's holiday in France. Perhaps more significantly, my London physician has been reluctant to give me the 100 g dose which I had taken in New Zealand, prefering instead to stay with 75 g per infusion.

I have another IVC next week. I will try to persuade Dr Adeniyi-Jones to increase the dose. And when I return to New Zealand for four days in September (12th to 15th) I will collect the prescription sent by Ngee Ann to my New Zealand home address. The four days back in New Zealand will allow me to give a public lecture for the University ("New Zealand as the new Tiger Economy"), to launch my book, and to have a CT scan, another CEA, an IVC treatment and a consultation with my oncologist.

It is not too surprising to me that my latest CEA is up. I have experienced more pain from the upper anterior abdominal tumour in the last few weeks. It is not too unpleasant but the discomfort acts as a reminder that all is not well. The CT test in September will give valuable insight. It will also act as a crucial evidence base for deciding what the next step will be in this long journey.

A brief sample of Beijing contrasts

I am now back in London en route to the Euromar meeting in Frankfurt with just enough time to make a brief posting with some images: Robin Dykstra and John Zhen from Magritek, looking in on an NMR logging tool factory, a tricycle taxi outside our hotel in Changping, the giant 7500 square metre overhead electronic display at "The Place" mall (at that moment showing text messages which anyone could send to the device), and, part of the foyer of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

This NCPA centre contains 20 separate theatres, and runs simultaneous concert, opera and drama performances. The architecture, like so much of Beijing, is simply breathtaking. On our last night in Beijing, Miang and I were guests of Professor Lizhi Xiao in the concert hall, to experience 7 master concert pianists from all over the world perform in succession.

This morning, we got up early and took the subway to East Tian'anmen, to join people in the Palace Gardens practising Taiji. After visiting Tian'anmen Gate we wandered across Tian'anmen Square, amid the tight security that this place now features. By 8 am thousands were queuing to see the embalmed Mao in his Mausoleum. China is deeply paradoxical.

Beijing

I can't blog from China as my blogsite is blocked by the Chinese censors. This entry is thanks to Catherine.

Miang and I are having a most extraordinary time. It seems that the highest levels of Chinese government back the conference I am at. They gave us the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square for our conference dinner, which was held in the Great Banquet Hall, where foreign dignatories are welcomed. Even more astonishing, Chinese host Professor Lizhi Xiao asked me to be the conference dinner speaker, so that I had the chance to address the audience from the podium on the giant stage.

I will give a full China report when I get back to the West and have access to complete internet service.

August Visitors

This week was a chance to catch up with more visitors. First, my old friend, Bernhard Bluemich, came over in the train from Aachen to spend a night and a couple of days here. My finely honed tourist guide skills were once more served up, along with a rather splendid high table meal at Trinity, where we met up with Robin Carrell, a New Zealander, Professor of Haematology here and also a Fellow of Trinity. Robin took us up to the "combination room" after dinner where the feast continued with cheese, fruit, claret, port and snuff. And yes, Bernhard and I did indeed partake of the snuff box. Meanwhile, as we dined like mediaeval kings, recreational looters smashed windows, burned cars and shops, and generally created mayhem in London and other major metropolitan centres. Such is the life of Professors of Physics! And who says being a scientist is dull?

After dinner Robin took us to the ancient room in the college where Isaac Newton conducted some of his optical experiments, then we walked under the stars on the bowling green outside where Newton was wont to stroll while deep in thought.

Next to visit were Suzanne Fielding from Durham and Meghan Halse from Lyon. Suzanne is a soft matter theorist who has been a regular visitor to my lab, and Meghan was my PhD student number 19, and now a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Lyndon Emsley. By now my tour guiding is extraordinarily professional, a sampling of college courts, halls and chapels, Kings College Chapel of course, strolls across the backs, the old Cavendish Laboratory in Free School Lane, the Eagle pub where Crick and Watson made their DNA announcement, and of course a sample of Trinity High Table, this time lunch, under the watchful eye of Henry the Eighth whose portrait towers over us. I can only describe the impact of taking these two lovely young women to lunch in the midst of the venerable, and on that day ancient, fellowship, as "electrifying".

Today Meghan and Suzanne joined Miang and me on baby-sitting duties with grandsons James and Thomas. In a visit to Homerton College grounds, over the road from the kids' home, Suzanne sampled the water sculpture and encouraged James to do the same. Then Meghan led James on a spirited run across the sports field.

For the next two weeks Miang and I will be in Beijing (ICMRM11) and then Frankfurt (Euromar). At the Euromar meeting Mark Hunter (PhD student number 22) will deliver the Raymond Andrew Prize lecture, for the best Magnetic Resonance PhD in the world for 2010. It would be reasonable to say that I am rather proud of him!

Two movies

As we were waiting to board our plane for the south of France, I discovered that my grandson Thomas had a particular fascination with his granddad singng "we're all going on a summer holiday" quietly in his ear. This Cliff Richard song from the 1960's clearly resonates with a new generation.

Chris and Hiva had arranged to rent a renovated farmhouse near the village of Revel. It had a swimming pool and Hiva, whose father Manouchehr was a representative diver for Iran, was determined that James should develop confidence in the water. Here you see him achieving his first dive.

Near Carcassonne-a story in photos

Visitors

Last week Miang, Catherine and I, joined Chris, Hiva and their two sons, James and Thomas, for a week long holiday in a cottage near Carcassonne in the south of France. More on that in my next blog. But in the period leading up to that we had some visitors.

First was Vanessa Leung, whose honours project I supervised in 2000 at Massey University. Vanessa did her PhD at the Australian National University in quantum optics and now is on a post doctoral fellowship at the University of Amsterdam, working on low temperature condensates on nanolithographed structures, test-beds for quantum computing technology.

Vanessa has been a regular visitor to my blog site and has sent many encouraging messages over the past two years, during which she has held a post doctoral position at the University of Virginia. It was a real pleasure to see her after so many years, and to catch up on all she has achieved since those undergraduate days. We managed a good tour of some of the colleges, a visit to the Fitzwilliam museum (pictured) and a lunch at Trinity High table.

Next to visit was Miang's good friend Azizah from Malaysia, along with her daughter Nur and another friend. My tour guide skills now being honed, I gave a slightly more accomplished version. In the picture you can see me expostulating on the vaulted ceiling at Kings College chapel.

Catherine's 40th

Saturday 23 July was the day of daughter Catherine's 40th birthday. We celebrated it in style, starting with lunch at Bistro Bruno Loubet at the Zetter Hotel on Clerkenwell Road. Who says the English don't do food? The food here was extraordinarily good, even as good or maybe better than the best one finds in New Zealand (high praise indeed). The evening was spent at Café du Marche, also in Clerkenwell, the part of London where Catherine lives. She had booked the entire top floor, for her 24 guests, who were treated to Champagne and canapes followed by an extraordinary three course meal. The Portuguese Maitre de claimed that the steak was the best in London, and I have to say, having chosen that option, I have no reason to doubt him.

Catherine suggested "urban glamour" as suitable attire. Miang joined Catherine for hair styling in the afternoon and you may judge here whether the result was worth the salon's efforts. I have to say that Catherine looked rather chic in her long dress (the massive gold bracelet was our gift). Chris and I (he with the green tie and me the Kia Kaha) opted for the conservative, namely the smart suit. But I have to confess, all attending looked pretty good.

I could not resist the chance to speak, the opportunity to tell stories of Catherine's beginnings to her astonished London friends and colleagues was not to be wasted. But it was also a chance to speak a little more seriously of what both Catherine and Chris, and in his case his lovely wife Hiva and their Children, James and Thomas, mean to my life and to Miang's.

Most of us left by about 12-30 am, but a hardy few, including Catherine, partied on for a while. Next morning it was Catherine's job to open all the wonderful presents brought by friends the night before.

It was a brilliant occasion. Everyone present had a wonderful time. Miang and I felt so fortunate to be able to take part.

On Sunday we headed back to Cambridge, with another visit to the grandchildren and then a meal at Trinity High Table in the evening. I have still not quite mastered the rituals, when to stand, in which direction to file out. Miang and I sat with Lord Rees, the Master, a charming man, another brilliant physicist in the history of brilliant Trinity physicists.
I do like sitting with Rutherford's portrait overlooking the table, knowing that he must have been seated many times, in the same spot at dinner. And for that matter, so of course had Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, John Joseph Thompson, Byron, Tennyson, Wittgenstein and Huxley. Such is Trinity College.