Brrrrrrr.....!!

It's minus six Celcius in Manchester this morning. The Met Office predicted maximum temperature today is -2C! Brrrr.... I'm cold...

Sad Mac

Mac is sad after saying goodbye to Apple who is flying to Jakarta. Goodbye Apple....!! You'll love it there as grandma will take good care of you...

Apple is ready to go

Apple got his hat, spending his last day with Mac, and ready to start his long journey to Jakarta...

Happiness Measurement

I woke up this morning to see in (BBC) Breakfast News interviews about measuring happiness. Apparently, the leader of this country Prime Minister David Cameron suggested this idea – along with his big term like “Big Society” – amid all the budget cuts that might throw some poor people deeper into poverty.

Articles about happiness are all over the media today. BBC Magazine published an article by Michael Blastland, “Why is it hard to measure happiness “ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11765401). Whilst The Guardian contemplated deeper into the philosophy of happiness from the utilitarian point of view to Heidegger’s analysis of technology with the idea that life is something to be controlled and mastered (“What philosophy tells us about the happiness index” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/15/happiness-index-philosophy).

Reading all of this is amusing and entertaining. Yet it makes me think. What is happiness for me, for us common Earth dweller? How do we measure it (or do we need to and do we want to measure it)?

I am going to send the next few paragraphs as a comment for the article in BBC:

Indeed happiness is subjective and very personal. For me, I don’t really care about GDP, or whether or not I can buy new clothes every so often or not. My family has a roof to shelter for, we can afford some (healthy) food everyday, and my son gets the best education that he deserve to fulfil his dreams one day, that is the most important thing for me now.

Yet, even this personal measure changes over the years. When I was a teenager, being able to hang out with my friends around campfires and going hiking played a great deal in my happiness factors. In my career as an aviation journalist, taking pictures and writing about Concorde was the highlight of my life then. Now in my late thirties with a teenager son who wants to be a particle physicist like Brian Cox, seeing him flourishing in school is a great joy. So, I can say that I am happy in general. There are of course things that can me grumpy, but they do not count for my whole happiness, contentment and well-being.

Again, the measurement varies all too broadly. My friends who love shopping, came back from New York very happy – at least for me they looked happy – with so many new shoes, perfumes, clothes and all the “Sex and the City” likes. I would not be so happy walking in Trafford Centre among all the glittery fashion as I just don’t enjoy them. My next door neighbour looks very happy holding his newborn baby in the weekend, yet the next day he looks so tired and said he was looking forward to go back to work for a bit of “peace”. Relative. Personal. Immeasurable. Abstract.

Still, I have one formula that always succeeds in reminding me of how happy I actually am. Content is the word that is more suitable for this.

My formula is a song from Disney’s “Jungle Book” sung by Baloo the bear. It says, “Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities. Forget about the worries and strive…. When you found out you can live without it then go along not thinking about it! I tell you something good: the bare necessities of life will come to you.” This song is about discerning between need and want, about being content and appreciate what we have – after all, there are always people who sleep in refugee camps and cannot afford food, there are babies dying everyday of curable diseases only because they do not have affordable health care. The list of less fortunate people can go as long as forever.

So, at the end of the day, am I happy? I think yes, I am very happy. Our parents and grandparents got it right when they say repeatedly, “Count your blessings, love. Count your blessings.”

Mac meets Alan the Modelmaker

I went with Adeline walking around today. We went to a vintage fair in Printworks, Manchester, near the big wheel. Among all the vintage clothes, accessories and all girly things, I saw the best stall ever! It is called "Mossley Modelmaker". Adeline chat with the modelmaker himself, Alan Tolfrey. He is a very nice guy. I really like Alan. He is so talented, making all little buildings exactly the same as the real big ones.

Alan said, everyone has talents. He is enjoying his and starting to make a living out of it. How wonderful! He is an architec by trade, and now that he is retired, he can make models anytime he likes. Adeline said she can't imagine her dad retiring and enjoying a hobby like Alan, but then again, everyone is different. (Adeline's dad, Joe Tumenggung is 74 this year, and he is still investigating air accidents and/or incidents. He is in Batam, Indonesia at the moment, looking at parts of the Qantas' Airbus 380 engines that fell there)

I enjoy our little walk around today. We were meant to go with Cat Sullivan, a very nice lady who likes my pictures and who said that she wanted to meet me. Unfortunately, Cat is not feeling well. So she had to stay at her home in Sheffield today. I wish her well soon.

I was a little sad not being able to meet Cat today. But I am happy to meet nice Alan. Please look at his models in his website http://mossleymodelmaker.com/.

Now I'm going to watch the recorded Formula One qualifying with Adeline and Andy.

The Space Ape

I want to be a flying monkey! But I am 50 years too late. The job was taken in 1961 when Ham the Astrochimp boarded MR-2 capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and became the first ape in space. Ooh how I want to be Ham. He is my hero.

Ham preceded John Glenn, the first American who flew into the “outer space” orbiting the Earth on 20th February 1962 aboard Friendship 7. He was also three months earlier than Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who was the first human to travel into space on his Vostok 3KA-3 in April 1961.

Although some people might think that it was cruel to launch an innocent monkey – well, Ham was an ape, not a monkey – into space without his consent, I think it was great being Ham. I am sure that if human can understand what he said or read his mind, they will understand how proud Ham was. I know I am proud of Ham!

On 31st January 1961, Ham was strapped into his capsule and launched to orbit the Earth. His flight was 16 minutes and 39 seconds, before splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently, there was a little problem during his flight; his capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight. Good job he was wearing a good space suit that not only made him look so handsome, but also protected him from all those problems. When recovered by a rescue ship, he only suffered a bruised nose.

Ham’s name was not related to ham the cured pork meat. His was an abbreviation of Holloman Aerospace Medical, where he was based before his historical flight.

I want to see Ham’s spacecraft, but unfortunately Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry does not have it. Still, I am very happy to see all the aircrafts there. I like the Avro 707A that has a delta wing (its wing looks more triangular than regular aeroplanes).

 

I also like the giant Airbus 380 – although the model they have in the museum was not big at all. Adeline said that at this moment (it is the year 2010 when I wrote this entry), the A380 is the biggest passenger aircraft that can carry up to 600 real humans plus their luggage.

The Airbus 380 was in trouble a few days ago. It was an A380 owned by Qantas - Australia’s flag carrier and so far the safest airline in the world with no fatal accident at all since founded in 1920. According to the news, it had engine problem and had to return to base to Singapore, meaning it had to come back to the airfield where it took off.

There are so many things to write about when I am thinking about aeroplane and aerospace, but I have to leave it to next time. I am going to work with Adeline again today, and then later in the evening we are going to a birthday party of a sweet girl called Karina who wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. So I hope I can have some interesting chat with Karina about aerospace!

Mac in Libraries

These last couple of days, I have been visiting libraries. A library is a place full of books where human come around to read and they can borrow books. I like it, it was quiet and everyone there was all in their good behaviour.

First I visited Manchester’s John Ryland Library. It is an amazing old building, joined with a newer more modern part where there is a café and little shop. The library was having an exhibition about the life of writer Elizabeth Gaskell. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibition part.

We did have fun though! I went to the ladies room. It was a very old fashion ladies or “powder room”, with cute coat hangers and a chain to pull when you need to flush the toilet. Adeline took some pictures of me there!

Then we went to the reading room. Wow….! It is impressive. Not that I am an expert in architectures or libraries, but Adeline says this building it very special. It was renovated for months and months – in fact, it took three years from 2004 to 2007!

This library looks like a church. Well, apparently it was intended by the first owner Mrs Ryland to hold collection of theological books. I asked Adeline what theological means. She said theology is the study about God and religions. She said it is quite a complicated study and that she learned that for a few semesters in university. I am happy with the simple explanation that theological means anything to do with religion and the Old Man in heaven stuff.

The next day, Adeline took me to Manchester’s new City Library. It was only across the street from the old John Ryland library, very near Adeline’s office. I like it there! The sofas and chairs are colourful, and there are many busy people with their laptops and books. Adeline said they might be doing some studies or researches.

In this new City Library, we looked at some interesting knitting books. I want Adeline to knit more friends for me!

Mac messing about

Adeline was busy in court this morning, so I went around playing in her office hahahaha....!

Attack of the Giant Macaque

There are parades of old Rolls-Royce cars at Albert Square

today. This was part of  the celebration of the centenary of Charles Rolls. The Lord  Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Mark Hackett, was around as well. Many photographers, cameramen and reporters came to see the old cars.

However, Mac missed this. Adeline was going to take Mac to see the old gorgeous cars, but when Mac finally had time to go to Albert Square, the Rolls-Royces are gone.

Mac got so disappointed and angry that he wanted to take over the whole Town Hall. Watch out Manchester, for the attack of Mac the Giant Macaque!!

Mac decided Town Hall is too massive. “Let’s just attack a bus!”

Oh, the bus is still too much for Mac. At the end, Mac settled to attack the phone and the PC.

Well, that’s Mac’s story today!