divabot

With an hour to go before being collected by shuttle to Dunedin airport and then en route to Wellington and Melbourne, it is opportune to review the past few days which have been dominated by the subject title. On the sightseeing side of the journey I took the opportunity to visit the Dunedin Chinese Garden which, despite several prior trips here, I had never been to. It was a pleasant environment and includes a good documentary of said people in the early days Dunedin (gold, market farms and laundries, and terrible discrimination) which match experiences elsewhere. I was very fortunate to have an impromptu musician playing a huqin which was a highlight. Afterwards made my way to the Art Gallery which has a small selection of early modern European and Australian material, some awful abstract expressionism, and a exhibitions on contemporary Chinese art which didn't interest me, but the Artificial Wonderland by Yang Yongliang (cyberpunk-industrial landscape in digital media with traditional style) left a strong impression.

On the study and university side of the equation, attended my first tutorial in-person for Critical Reflections on Higher Education, followed by a lunch with Jim C., and David E., at the rather nice Otago staff club. We chatted about the restructuring that the University IT services are experiencing and how this does leave open the opportunity for a good eResearch program. Jim C., also received a hand-delivered copy of Papers & Paychecks. A couple of evening's prior I dropped in to visit the local university RPG club, OURS and deliver a copy to those said folk as well and played a couple of rounds of Red Dragon Inn. Another related venture was a long meandering walk from the city to St Clair beach via South Dunedin and St Kilda, suburbs which I hadn't really explored before. I spend the better part of a day there, watching the surfers as the tide comes in, whilst at The Long Dog cafe. It was a curious observation I made of myself - whilst others had come here to surf, others to visit the seaside cafe and chat with friends, I had come here to study advanced macroeconomics, such is the madness of 'lifelong learning'. This said I have completed an extensive content review of all course material related to this postgraduate economics degree which now gives me two months to complete an intensive review, with a strict timetable in place.