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Finally, someone who appreciates our talent! I can’t wait to show my kids what the famous comedian Dr Jason ‘Jho Low’ Leong says about neurologists. Haha.
In all seriousness, not a day goes by without me feeling #blessed to be in this position.
In case you’ve missed all the announcements, Hashtag Blessed is now available on Netflix.
It’s that time of the year again! Payback for all the instances you were picked last when choosing teams. Redemption for all the missed kicks, headers, and tackles when you were a kid. A chance for nerds everywhere to finally prove their worth on the football field. Fantasy Football, that is…
If you’re interested in learning about mathematically-optimal strategies for Fantasy Football (and who isn’t?), here’s a lecture on the topic given by Josh Bull from the Mathematical Institute at Oxford.
You may rightly ask, what do scientists/geeks/nerds know about Fantasy Football anyway? Actually, more than you might think. Josh, for example, won the 2019-2020 Premier League Fantasy Football competition, partly using mathematical modelling strategies carried over from his work on cancer cells.
As Jack Black says (or sings) in the School of Rock:
Math is a wonderful thing
Math is a really cool thing
So get off your act let’s do some math
Math, math, math, math, math
I didn’t have to self-isolate thanks to the existence of travel corridors, but at the same time I didn’t really want to go anywhere crowded. So I took a walk in the University Parks instead, stopping at St. Catherine’s College along the way to check my mail.
Admittedly, it’s strange to see Oxford so quiet this time of the year. Strange, but also nice in a certain way, because it’s often difficult to appreciate how beautiful the place is when there are a million tourists around.
Anyway, here are some pictures from my walk yesterday (click/tap on a picture to see the full size image):
When I returned to Malaysia in March this year, I honestly didn’t think I’d still be here come September. But all good things must come to an end. After almost 6 months at home, it’s finally time to go back to the UK.
I’ve been away from home since I was 12. So this shouldn’t be too difficult, should it? Yeeesss, and no.
In the last 6 months I’ve grown incredibly close to my kids. In that sense, this pandemic has been a blessing in disguise. Looking back at my life for the last few years, everything has been proceeding at breakneck pace. Housemanship, MO-ship, MRCP, neurology subspecialty training, PhD…all these leave very little time for family.
And yet for the last few months I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with my wife and kids. I’ve been able to teach them how to:
Ride a bicycle
Play basketball
Play the piano
Do Taekwondo stuff
Attend online classes (!)
Paint
Play chess
All that, on top of spending more time with my other family members. Alhamdulillah, I am grateful for these moments , moments that are now etched into my memory and that I will treasure all my life.
If we put aside the pain of being away from my family, I’m actually very much looking forward to resuming my DPhil work in earnest. To a certain extent, I feel torn between two loves. Love for my family, but also love for the topics I am studying: neuroscience, neurology, memory, motivation, apathy etc.
To me, these are important things, worth the time spent studying and researching them. Malaysia is not unusual in that we have a lot of people with stroke and dementia. If I can use my knowledge to help my future patients, that would be worth all the sacrifices I’ve had to make, and am still making.
My 3 year-old son asked me this morning where I was going.
“Daddy’s going to work,” I replied. In my mind, I wonder if he understands that ‘work’ is 10,000 km away.
I asked my wife to just drop me off at the departure terminal earlier, but told my kids to stay at home, not because I was worried they’d burst into tears, but so that they won’t be able to see mine…
Hasbunallah wa ni’mal wakeel.
How do I even begin?
Imran Idris 