Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

Potsdam is a ‘capital outside the capital’ of the Prussians, now located on the outskirts of Berlin. The Prussian kings built numerous castles and buildings around a garden now called the Sanssouci Park. After successive expansions of the park and construction works, the park is now home to 20 or so buildings for the royals. One of my friends wondered if everyone in the royal family was fortunate enough to occupy each of these buildings. We entered the park from the west, and we first visited the New Palace (Neues Palais). With its polished marble floor, we had to put on their special slippers when walking inside the palace – it’s actually not so much walking but feels more like ice-skating! One of the most memorable parts inside the palace was a grand ballroom decorated with sea shells on all its walls. Just imagine how cool it would be to hold a party there with an underwater theme! It’s a pity I can’t share any photos here because photography was forbidden, so you should see it for ...

Originally an innocuous lyric in Coldplay's song Talk, now this question becomes tricky for me! During my time studying PhD, I had to work on a protein involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The most common symptoms include loss of memory, disorientation and deteriorated brain function, collectively called dementia. I used to joke that I was bound to contract the disease simply through constant handling of the protein. Everyone knows that memory is not the most reliable thing on Earth. There were occasions when I just became uncharacteristically forgetful, especially when too many things were happening in my PhD life and occupying my cramped mind. I jokingly called this symptom ‘juvenile dementia’, as opposed to the normal ‘senile dementia’ that generally occurs much later in life. My jokes have now unwittingly become true – at least that’s according to my health insurance company. The company decided that I had a case of dementia because I made a claim for a drug comm...