Life moves pretty fast

The Doppler Effect is one of those scientific principles that most people have kind of heard of but can’t really define. As a result, it sits in a box with Schrodinger’s Cat or the philosophy of Occam’s Razor in that it pops up in various random bits of culture from time to time with just enough information to be able to follow the reference.

The official definition of The Doppler Effect is “The Doppler effect or Doppler shift is the apparent change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer moving relative to the wave source.” One way this is used is to measure astronomical speeds of an object, a star for example, and discovering whether it is moving toward or away from Earth by how its light shifts to the red or blue end of the spectrum respectively.

However, the most common example that people recognise in everyday life is that of the passing emergency vehicle with its siren on. As it passes, the tone of the siren seems to change pitch, getting lower. (Sheldon’s explanation is probably better as it gives a demo (link)!)

It could be said that I have just been on a trip dominated by the Doppler Effect. Specifically, I have been to the Singapore Grand Prix and had the joy of many, many cars racing by my seat at high speeds and the pitch of their engines changing with rapidity as they hurtled along their laps.

This has been something of a bucket list trip for me. Somewhere I have always wanted to go ever since the race came on to the calendar about fifteen years ago.

If you are not a fan of Formula 1 or at least unfamiliar with the specifics of the Singapore Grand Prix, this race is quite unusual in that it takes place at night under LED streetlights. In fact, until recently it was the only race that took place at night in the Grand Prix calendar.

The result of the race being at night, around the city streets of Singapore, is that the cars seem extra electric in their movement and speed, the sparks they generate as titanium under-floors hit asphalt create small firework displays across the race circuit, and the sound reverberates off high rises and overpasses in amazing guttural vibrations that excite the body as they move from eardrum to soul!

This combined with the equatorial environment and underpinning East Asian culture gives an overall cyberpunk atmosphere to the event that I found invigorating in of itself. I felt a little bit like Rick Deckard from Blade Runner after each of the three days of racing as I walked back to my hotel, listening to my favourite cyberpunk playlist. Fortunately, in contradiction to classic cyberpunk tropes, the rain held back most of the time.

So anyway, here I am a few days later after my trip, the worst of the jet lag has started to ease off and I have a chance to take stock of my holiday. To use the analogy of the Doppler Effect, it is interesting how the distance of time before and after the event changes your perspective on it.

Prior to leaving, the thing I was suffering most anticipatory nervousness about was the weather! Here it could be said that the trip fully met my expectations and was sultry every day with high temperatures and humidity. I don’t think I have drunk so much water in my life! I am not a creature who naturally gravitates to hot weather. I am quite pleased it is autumn again in the UK for example. However, those sultry days were replaced with warm tropical evenings perfect for enjoying the Formula 1. I’m just glad I took a lot of shirts with me – particularly after my morning yomps to see a few sights!

I did treat myself to an excellent seat on the start finish straight and a nice hotel, well located for the race and with all mod cons. The logistics of the trip went perfectly which is always a relief.

Thus, I think I have learned that many of the things that were playing on my mind before I went, were negated and caught up in a mix of adrenaline and momentum over the trip and hindsight shows that I needn’t have worried quite as much as I am prone to doing.

The thing I am most proud of though is that I actually went. That might sound silly in some ways, particularly if you are an experienced traveller, and as I have been abroad many times before. Why would I book something that would make me nervous? But this was in fact the first time I have been on a long-distance trip on my own. Jen and I were fortunate to travel to Canada, New York and Hawaii but this is the first alone. I am genuinely proud of myself for doing it. To paraphrase George Clooney in the movie Three Kings, “you get the courage after the thing” or to put it in a football chant, I need to recognise, “you only sing-apore when you’re winning”!

I found Singapore fascinating with its tumbled mix of Asian and Western influences combining to give a welcoming and diverse location. It is as clean as everyone says, and it may have been due to the Grand Prix which made traversing the city complex due to closed roads and lots of celebs being in town, but the security presence was very noticeable.

My highpoints outside of the Grand Prix were the beautiful Buddhist shrine at Thian Hock Kang Temple in Chinatown and the Gardens by the Bay with their Super Trees. In both cases the juxtaposition of the ultra-modern and the natural/spiritual created a lovely immersive blend.

So, the event has passed, and the tone has changed. This is now an experience I can call on. The anticipation has been replaced with a satisfaction and gratitude for the opportunity. The trip was amazing overall. Those are memories I will never forget. I enjoyed everything from chatting motor racing with drunken Aussies at the racetrack, to immersing myself in a new and different culture.

I suppose in many ways that will be the same for my sabbatical overall. It is a relative distance to events both prior and during, and the colour and tone of those events has and will continue to shift in my mind. As with this trip, I think time will refine and polish the memories, to remove the rough edges of anticipation that I took into it and provide me with that courage to call on.

To finish on another great quote, this time from Holly in Red Dwarf, “time is a great healer – unless you’ve got a rash, in which case you’re better off with ointment!”