Travel tales, Part 1 - Edinburgh

That's Edin-bur-ah, not Edin-berg. Well it took me 2 days to find someone who spoke with any kind of Scottish accent! So the "bur-ah" vs "berg" story was relayed to me via an American delegate at the Nitrogen deposition workshop I attended. What a culturally diverse city with many many foreign nationals doing the business end of dealing with the public. To start with the young lady in customs at Edinburgh airport (story to be told in person to protect the not so innocent) had family in South Africa, but she hadn't been to visit them yet. And then the hotel I stayed at, on the dodgier side of town, had staff mainly from Eastern Europe. And the lady at Subway(TM) who was from some part of Asia and I struggled to understand her - although she probably wondered where I was from too. I later found out that there are a lot of young Polish people moving to the UK looking for work. The point-at-item-when-there's-no-other-option-system is well in place in Edinburgh.

The weather was typically fine, and much warmer than I expected, for the 3 days we were cooped up inside for meetings. Then the wet weather arrived with a serious gust of wind that blew for the next 1.5 days until I left. I felt really sad for the people in South West Scotland who had their neighbourhoods washed away. At least I could get a train down the east coast and not be too affected by the flooding.

I did find a way to spend some time in the wet weather before I left on the train; possibly one of the most amazing museums I've ever visited, Our Dynamic Earth. Loved the interactive style, touching an 'ice-berg' and being shaken by an earthquake, being sprinkled by a rain-shower in the rain-forest and being an astronomer for 20 mins.

Some photos are in a collection on Flickr.

Oh the workshop went well too: met lots of new contacts, got good feedback on the research our group is doing, and good feedback on my talk too.

Exam are fun...

... when you're the other end of the question. Not the writing end but the assessing end. While invigilating exams can be boring: watching 60 students write for 2 or 3 hours while you twiddle your thumbs and creatively imagine that they're writing sense and that judging by the furious rate of pen-to-teeth-tapping, the eye-rolling and the frantic hand-cramping scribbling that they all rose to the challenge.

The marking can be seen as labourious, spending precious weekend time getting through the ink-filled pages. I had such hope with this year's Functional Ecology exam. And up until the last 2 questions - grant it the longest and highest stakes - they were doing almost too well. Enough to be simultaneously suspicious and proud.

The dashing of those creative images can be very frustrating. Keeping conscious record of all the "What the heck!?" moments does serve a comic relief purpose. This years best of the 'Real answers to exam questions' is now on view. The names of the innocent have been excluded to protect their dignity.

P.S. The site is not exclusively mine; a bunch of teaching assistants and lecturers have been making light relief of student answers all year. Thanks Luke and Leia for this frustration-outlet!

Close to my heart

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers taking action through their blogs, and this year the issue of global importance is climate change. An issue close to my sensibilities.

Climate change has become a lot more press-worthy than when I was in undergrad and was first introduced to me by then Dr Coleen Vogel. How fitting it is then, that last night I went to her Inaugural Lecture, now that she's a full professor at Wits and was inspired by a glimpse into her research into how people deal climate variability and her role in the IPCC as a broker between African scientists and government policy makers.

Coleen, an inspiring speaker, reminded her audience about the projected climate changes at a global scale, and a continental scale - what's in store for Africa - and then at a regional scale and what we can expect here on the sub-continent of Africa. Some scary stuff if you let it get to you. Some days it gets to me - especially when I consider not just the change in climate alone but all the knock-on effects that are, in some places on the planet, already evident. This is the stuff that I'm interested in finding out more about. About how our planet works and how humans are a part of that system. Leonie Joubert's book Scorched is a wonderful work explaining both the science of climate change and the impacts that are projected for southern Africa.

The press now is filled with ideas that when each person making more ethical choices about the food they eat and the products they use we can all make a difference to the emissions that started all of this in the first place. And there are many organisations that are mobilising individuals and families to make changes. Check out 350.org and Earth Hour's "Vote Earth" campaigns and get involved. These movements are needed to make the policy makers take note that communities care and are willing to make a difference and help. Find a great book, printed on sustainable paper, filled with tips of how to make little changes daily that will have global ripples. I was inspired by the ideas in Simon Gear's book:
Going Green: 365 Ways to Change Our World: 365 Ways to change our world because it's relevant to all South Africans, presented in a practical hopeful and amusing style.



This issue is close to my heart. Thanks Blog Action Day for an reason to make it public.

The heart of a savanna ecologist

I have a physiological response to nearing the Kruger Park. It starts by the decent off the escarpment, seeing the rolling grasslands become mountains covered in aloes where the roadsides lined are with umbrella-topped thorn trees and pockets of indigenous forest, where the air hangs with humidity and the smell of wood fires. The road twists and turns its way through the gulleys and passages heading east like the rivers and streams that also snake their way to the ocean. With each passing landmark my physiology changes: muscles relax and breathing deepens. My heart rate slows and races ambivalently. Slowing in response to the drugged air of relaxation and racing due to the hidden excitement in store, hoping for excellent sightings and sincere rest and relaxation.



The Lowveld and Kruger featured often on the holiday calendars of my childhood and the 'magic' resonates with me still. While "The Wombles" may have been my earliest exposure to environmental awareness, the Kruger was the nursery of my passion for savanna ecology.

This past weekend the only difference to the normal pattern was that I drove to Kruger on my own. Plenty of time for self-reflection and mandatory sing-along with appropriate travelling tunez on my iPod, Blossom. After nearly 6 hours of private karaoke my voice was hoarse. But in the Park there's plenty of time to recoup.

This short trip was planned to visit with a friend who is an academic staff member on the fall semester OTS course. Finding out more about the course and the people who run it and the students who attend it, was enriching. The students were open and welcoming and the staff friendly, hospitable and generous. I am envious that I didn't get the opportunity to go on such a course in my early postgrad days. So much to learn so little time.



While game viewing was limited there were plenty of opportunities for relaxing. The most exciting sighting was a full-on savanna fire. I now have a folder full of photos for the fire lectures I give to the undergrads. The memorable moment of the trip had to be the mini-bus full of people stopping between us and the flames, less than 5m away, to ask in a high pitched voice: "What do you guys see?". Our initial response after gasping in horror was a timid: "The fire?". Like duh, isn't it obvious we're ecologists and we're watching an ecological process happen in real time only the other side of the road.



In the quiet times of sun-up and sun-down Lake Panic provided a photogenic spot where the clicking of camera shutters and animal calls were all that disturbed the settling air.



At the heart of it all I love Kruger and all I have learnt from this special place.

Web album of selected photos here.

P.S. Thanks Jen and OTS for a special weekend.