The term is coming to an end. This term from August to December with no half-term or break of any sort has been exhausting and I’m ready for a rest over Christmas. Yet being as self destructive as I am I’m planning another adventure!
My next adventure is back to China in search of the mythical town of Shangri La. There is an area in western Yunnan Province which changed it’s name in 2001 from Zhōngdiàn Xiàn to Shrangri La in order to attract tourists. I have to say it worked for me! So I’m heading to South China. South China has a very different culture to North China, I dipped my toe in that culture in Shanghai but now I’m going to experience the unpolished version. I am planning to stop in Chengdu – Sichuan (alternatively Szechuan or Szechwan – the only place pandas are native to), Kunming and Dali en route and I will be traveling by train and bus.
Deck the Halls
Vietnam is mad about Christmas. I didn’t have to go anywhere special to take photos of how OTT everything is; all these were taken on my street.
What I’ve been up to
Vietduino
I’ve been tinkering with some of the home-grown Vietnam electronics. Due to the modern industrial nature of the country many electronics components are cheap and readily available. They even have their own Arduino Uno clone called the Vietduino Uno which cost me about $3 and so far seems just as high quality as a branded Arduino. I’ve been playing with this for my own pleasure but I’ve also used it in the classroom to teach digital electronics in GCSE physics
Assorted photos
Advent of Code
Like every December, I attempt to tackle Advent of Code: a website providing new computer programming puzzles every day. I’m attempting this in Racket as a learning exercise and you can find my solutions on Github with a document describing what I did for each day. I have fallen behind and probably won’t finish before Christmas but I’m hoping to tackle some on the road.
Eastward Ho! 