Talking again

Yah, what's new? We academics spend alot of time talking. Its 7.12 pm. Am at KLIA. Two bowls of noodles already in the tummy. Killing time til the 8.20 to Penang. I must say I am not doing too well for my carbon footprint. It's quite insane. We travel long distances and spew tons of carbon and then speak for 10 or 15 minutes.

Came down this morning to present a paper at the IRERS 2008 at PWTC. Had to come. The organisers of the symposium are also the sponsors for our research project. But I was tired of staying in hotels so I came down on the first flight and then took a cab direct from the airport to the venue. Thought I would never get there in time to present my paper - the traffic was terrible. Luckily, I was the last speaker out of five. And I ended up with more time than the allocated slot because the earlier speakers were all short and sweet - ehmm, the speeches I mean. Ehmm, but they were sweet too. And short, I think.

As presentations goes, it was quite relaxing. The audience was friendly. One asked me what the new Chief Minister of Penang's intentions were with regards to urban conservation in George Town. My cheeky response was that the question was a difficult one because I don't know the CM personally. But I did say that the CM's public murmurings appears to indicate he is supportive of conservation.

Lunch was just passable. Nothing like KLCC (the convention centre).

Coming back to KLIA I took the LRT but got a little confused. I forgot that I have to switch trains at Masjid Jamek. And when I reached Masjid Jamek, it was another round of figuring out where to get the connecting train. Signage is real lousy, made worst by defective memory.

Wow, the train was really crowded. I had to be constantly aware of my wallet and handphone in my pocket. And also watching out for my backpack with my notebook in it. If you have a big bag travelling to the airport, avoid the peak hour.

Looking around I am quite amazed at the number of people in the lounge. Nobody here seems worried about food prices going up - everybody's eating. Did you know that one-third of the food bought by Londoners are thrown away? A speaker from UK thought that it would be great if we could convert those food waste to biofuel.