Thank God it's the weekend. Usually weekends give breathing space for us. Nevertheless, we still do work but at a more relaxed pace. Work of academics do not end with the end of office hours - they tend to think about science and education all day. In my case, I tend to work in the wee hours of the morning for me to focus better. The trick however is to get the balance of enough rest in order to drive to work safely.
Yesterday, was the final exam for PHY5601 Advanced Mathematical Physics. It was conducted as a take home exam where they can refer to any materials available. The only problem is how to ensure that they do not communicate with each other regarding the answers of the exam. But I trust my own students. Also, with the few number of students, one can easily check for any similarities. Perhaps next semester will be trickier, with a class of 40 for statistical mechanics; the size of the other class on Mathematical Methods is not yet known. I doubt we will be able to get back to normalcy within this year.
Being a Friday yesterday, I thought to myself that perhaps I won't be praying at the UPM mosque as I have not received any notification. Since I can't work from home anymore, I did not register myself for Seremban 2 mosque. Then suddenly I saw a list of names on FB that included my name. It was a nice surprise and luckily I brought my 'Friday prayer bag'. Then suddenly I paused, thinking there is another person in UPM with exactly the same name. Later at the mosque after checking with their master list (before entering the mosque), it was really me. I went very early to the mosque because I do not know what procedures they are implementing. Initially I parked my car nearby the student centre but over there all the entrances to the mosque are all locked. So one has to go through the main entrance and park within the mosque area. Luckily I was very early, there were empty parking spaces nearby the main entrance. So yesterday I had the opportunity to sit at the first few rows in the mosque but that also meant we were the last to leave as the mosque personnel control the movement of the congregation after the prayers. It was good work by them. Perhaps I will try again next week for Friday prayers in UPM, just to see whether they take into account who was in the previous Friday congregation or not.
Besides the exam and Friday prayers, I also met with two of my PhD students for their research progress. One physically, as he is a staff of UPM and the other virtually. I hope they are able to graduate soon within this year.
The other significant event yesterday was the return of Sally to her original owner as she missed Sally a lot, I was told. Here are some pics taken much earlier (with Bob's book nearby on my pile of papers) when I was told that she was to be returned.
I had grown closer to Sally for the last few months very much like Shaggy (who was her mum). So it is quite sad for me to see her go. I took a pic of her before I go to work.
I was not getting enough sleep the last few days during the week. In fact I was so sleepy during the drive back home and was trying hard not to micro sleep. There was one moment that I almost did but was conscious enough not to swerve. This is actually one of my reasons why that I had considered working from home as a good option for me - avoiding the long travel. I safely arrived home around 6.40pm. So, last night, I made sure I had a good sleep.
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