Halloween
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Went to cheong at Oceana to celebrate Halloween! Bought a crazy mask and though was still half sick.. still enjoyed myself a lot =)
Signed off at
11:59 pm
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27th Meetup!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Since I travelled so far to this part of the world I told myself I should meet up with old friends.. also taking the chance to travel around visiting everyone hee. Rongxuan suggested meeting up in Bath, and so we did =)
London
Travelled down to London on 27th Oct night first.. since Martin and I had to catch the 7am bus to Bath. Was supposed to stay at Martin's place but his accom cock up so both of us went to stay at Adeline's place instead. Sounded like a better plan actually, since she couldn't join us for the Bath trip.
Oh I was totally overwhelmed by her place! Her apartment was HUMONGOUS.. it was like she had a whole condo to herself! Overlooking the Thames River some more.. whoaaa.. And what's more overwhelming was that she prepared dinner for us! And both Martin and I had a huge sofa bed to sleep on!!! Whooaazzzz..
It was a great catching up session. I think 3 of us chatted till about 3am in the night about godknows what stuff.. then when Adel went to bed Martin and I talked till about 4am before dozing off...
And Adeline's father (who was there) was so nice! He actually woke up especially early to prepare breakfast for us IN THE DARK! Whoa luckily we realised in time so we helped out in the breakfast-making. So 感动 that we took photo with him. Haha!
Bath
So Martin and I took our coach to Bath. Dunno whether heng or suay but the coach broke down even before departure so the journey was delayed. BUT the replacement coach had TV! Haha so just watch lor. Wanted to sleep one to make up for the lack of sleep the night before.. but ended watching TV the whole way ha. I'm such a sucker for TV.
Daniel was there already (coz of the coach delay) and Rongxuan will be late.. haha President leh! So we 3 guys just walked around the streets of Bath while we waited for her to come...
Bath is SOOO BEAUTIFUL! When I mentioned that Cambridge was 'stuck in time' in the previous posts, Baths was like taking a time travel machine back into time. The buildings were all similar and so ancient. Seems like all new buildings had to be built with the same Bath limestone that the old old buildings were made of too, to preserve the city's image....
Well.. after Rongxuan came (she was wearing some Jap-lookalike attire haa) we went for lunch at some restaurant lor. Expensive sia. But well worth it =) Again there was lots to talk about.. but strangely we talked about serious stuff.. hoho.. Medicine.. future.. politics.. whoa.. can't believe that i actually engage in such conversations haaa
There was nothing much to do in Bath really.. so we just roamed around rather aimlessly. Daniel brought his video and we made some silly video hoho which should be shown to the rest of the 27th during Chrisco.. so keep it under wraps for now ha.
Dan and I went to the Roman Bath Spa.. about the only touristy thing to do there.. £10.. Martin and Rongx decided to give that a miss (after they will have the chance to come here again) so they went Ben and Jerrys haha. Well.. Bath Spa was cool.. standard historical stuff though.. but it's interesting to see how the Romans developed the hot spring so well even in the past.. hoho and the hot spring was still working! Not availiable for public though...
We snapped up some photos before dark.. and by 6pm.. we took the train to Bristol. And yes, I managed to bring across my 英国人是笨蛋 theory to them.. which they seemed to be convinced.. haa by how 2 single train tickets can actually be cheaper than a return ticket (how dumb??).
Bristol
Dinner was the first thing on our minds so Dan and Martin the lao chiaos of Bristol took us to this Chinese restaurant for goooood chinese food. It was a long wait though.. coz it was seemingly popular. Food was good.. and we can't finish the roast pork so we had to dapao it haa.
Martin broke off from the gang as he had other agendas.. to shift his stuff from Bristol to London where he's studying now. Rongx and I headed to Dan's place (which used to be a WWII hospital!!) to spend the night. Whoa his place is really scary la.. the corridors are dark and gloomy and the toilets are spooky wonder how he manage to live there haaa.Rongxuan was begging to drink! Haha strange ah.. 2 bottles was what she challenged herself hahaa.. and she got what she asked.. Dan popped out his red wine and we drank through the night.. It was a nice night to drink.. coz it was drizzling outside and his room was nice and cozy and warm. Watched videos of Rach, Jiamin, Isaac and him in NY and listened to their recordings.. very nice! Whoa the killer was when he played the mp3s of Hwachong songs he sung with Wendy.. so sentimental and so nice.. nostalgic until can cry......
3 of us downed 1.5 bottles. Rongxuan was 'poisoned' by then haha.. so we hit the sacks.
Thanks to Daylight Saving Time (clocks turned back 1 hour) we had 1 extra hour of sleep! Particularly fantastic for me coz I didn't get to sleep much in Adel's place the night before. And the weather was superb! Sunny skies.. Dan said that was the best weather we could ever get in Bristol. So heng! So hiao me happily popped in my contacts and donned my Oakleys! Whoa hardly get to wear oakleys here ok??
Bristol is a hilly hilly hilly place.. though it's just like any other UK city... except maybe near the sea the buildings look slightly different. Went to this suspension bridge which had a nice view of the river than ran through Bristol (and Bath). Interesting fact: lotsa wires around the bridge to prevent people from jumping off.. ha as suicide rates are high there. There're even Samaritan's Care signs to tell people... don't jump. Ask for help.
Lunch was at this little cafe where we had Sunday Roast. Again here's a little incident which proved my 英国人是笨蛋 theory:
We were there at around 12.20.. the sign outside the shop explicitly stated that Sunday roast would only be available from 12.30. Fine. 10 mins difference only wad. So I decided to order food 1st. After all, we were the only ones in the shop.
Me: Can I have 3 lamb roasts?
Waitress: Sorry, lunch orders can only be taken at 12.30.
Me: Well, that's like.. in 5 minutes time?
Waitress: Yes.
Me: (diao) Can I just place my orders first then? Since it's only 5 minutes. That would be 3 lamb roasts.
Waitress: Oh no sorry. The machine won't start working till 12.30.
Me: (wa lao 3 lamb roasts to hard to remember meh??) Ok, then can I have a coffee please.
Waitress: Sure.
So she made me mine (ok Dan's) coffee.. and I happily brought it back to our table. Put the coffee down and oh! it's 12.30!
Me: Can I order my lunch now?
Waitress: Sure. What do you want?
WA LAO! Faint on the spot.
Lunch was good. After which we just explore Bristol lor. Walk walk. Went to Dan's university which was supposed to be very nice but it was unfortunately under renovation. =( Walked all the way to the river front (even Daniel didn't explore that much of Bristol in his 2 years here) and went to the Bristol Industrial Museum.. which was it's last day of opening before closing down for renovations. Oh well.. but by then we were so tired of walking we just went in to sit down. Haha.
Went to this nice chocolate place for guess what? Chocolate. I had this potent chocolate drink which whoa.. kept me damn full! But we headed back to Dan's place to cook anyway. Remember last night's roast pork? Haha yah it was left outisde the window and just had to heat up! Natural refrigerator! Got vegetables and rice... nice simple dinner. We were saying can't imagine last time we all siao siao councillors now doing domestic stuff like gathering to cook and eat. Haha.
So by night it was bye bye to everyone. Coach to London then from London back to Leeds. Long bus rides.. but cheap mah. Haiyah sway I was sitting beside this fat lady so my whole 5 hours journey i only occupied half the seat. Damn. So uncomfortable.
Oh well.. it was a great weekend. One of the best weekends so far. As Rongxuan said, the places were so-so but the company was great. Whether in Singapore or overseas.. council has forged my best friendships. Really, 27th was the best thing that every happened to me =)
Signed off at
12:26 pm
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27th Weekend!
Friday, October 27, 2006
I have 10 minutes to type this post before I gotta go catch my bus to London later on... This weekend is Meet-Up-With-Council weekend haha so exciting! I'm bunking over at Adeline's place tonight.. together with Martin who is homeless now.. then tomorrow we are going down to Bath to meet Rongxuan and Daniel there. Yingting supposed to join us but she had a £400 medical seminar on Sunday so she said she has to prepare for it. *bleah*
Still dunno what we are going to do in Bath.. but that night we'd be going down to Daniel's place in Bristol to bunk over haha so Sunday is Bristol-Day..
After which will be my looong looong bus ride back to Leeds.. reaching at 5am on Monday morning!
Anyway this week has been a little better than normal.. with Yuu cooking haha. Will update more when I get back...
Argh and the new IE7 seems to screw up my blog layout. Someone help me figure out what's wrong and recode the HTML for me pleeeeeeeeeeease??
Signed off at
11:39 pm
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Of Tough Luck, Nice people and the Place That's 'Stuck in Time'
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Went winter-clothing shopping on Saturday. Whoa for the first time in UK I see things that are considered cheap haha. It was a place called Castleford, 2 train stations away from the city centre.. and it's a nice outdoor cluster of shops.. mostly factory outlets or warehouse sales. And so check out how Singaporeans reacted to cheap stuff...
Haha.. and we had lunch at KFC. Interestingly the staff looked quite perturbed when I ordered 'whipped potato'. Until I realised that they don't have whipped potato.. just the gravy (which is considered a side dish.. quite bo hua hor?)
And here's what I bought..
Call it engrossed in shopping.. or just damn sway.. but here's what happens when you don't arrive at the train station early enough...
- Sway = I saw the 1527hrs train zoom off back to Leeds right before my very eyes.
- Heng = Some kind people at the train station told me I could take the bus back to Leeds at the bus station outside the shopping place.
- Sway = There was only 1 bus stop and I should be at another bus stop which I don't know where.
- Heng = I met an African kid who brought me all the way back to Leeds. Changed 3 buses.
- Sway = I missed my National Express Coach to Cambridge, which left at 1645hrs. Oh well, actually it was the coach to Milton Keynes where I had to change another coach to Cambridge at 2105hrs.
- Heng = There was another coach to Milton Keynes at 1800hrs. It would arrive Milton Keynes at 2050hrs, just in time to catch the next coach.
- Sway = The stupid bus driver (out of chaokeng or kindness or wad) decided to take a half an hour hot-food break along the way. I hence reached Milton Keynes at 2110. Yeap. I missed the coach number X5 to Cambridge.
- Heng = According to the notice, X5 operates every half an hour. There's another coach at 2135 hours.
- Sway = I boarded the coach only to know that it's going to Bedford instead of Cambridge. The last bus to Cambridge was 2105. So screwed up right? Oh well, I just decided I should just inch my way as close to Cambridge as possible. Yingting said that a cab there would cost £70+!!
- Heng = I managed to get a cab that charged me only £32!! Whoa immediately jump in and take! The cab driver was quite nice.. but when he knew that I had only been UK for a month I could almost hear the wa-lao-I-should-have-qiao1-this-noob-for-the-cab-fare in his tone haha.
- Sway = Yingting lived in the bushes la! Her place so hard to find! I felt so paiseh for the cab driver who had to drive me all the way to another city which he's not familiar with.. and of course.. charging me so little.
- Heng = We found her place at last.
- Sway = I only had a travellers' cheque with me. Yah I had lotsa travellers cheque which I decided I should use instead of cash. But obviously the cab driver can't accept travellers cheque.
- Heng = Yingting saved the day! Whoaaaa home sweeet hommmeeeeeee...... (not my home.. but it was the 1st time ever first arriving in Leeds that I had this feeling)
Check out photos of Cambridge!
Cambridge was awesome! Just so happened it was the annual Apple Fair and more so it was the 10th Anniversary! It was held at the Botanical Gardens and the whole experience was fantastic! I had never seen so many different types of apples in my life before! There were all the apple products as well.. apple cider.. some apple and spiced elderberry drink.. apple toffee (like 糖葫芦 like that.. but instead of dates it's apple) and.. cheeze. Ha not apple cheeze but just cheeze.. just that I swakoo never see cheeze in it's original form before.
And there was apple tasting. It was A WHOLE ROW OF APPLES! And every apple not only looked different, they tasted different! Like all my life I only thought there were 2 types of apples - the ang moh type like Royal Gala apples and the Asian type like Fuji apples. Real eye opener. At the end of the fruit-tasting row I actually felt full. Haha.
Though it was autumn.. we settled our lunch English style aka Picnic! With Yingting's friends from Cambridge medicine.. and they were a Fantastic bunch! All very sociable, friendly, great people to talk to and there was this Malaysian couple Peini and KunHiang that stayed with Mok and I all the way so they could do punting with us. (punting = this boat ride thing where you move the boat using this long stick that digs into the riverbed. Characteristic of Cambridge and Oxford) So nice of them!
But sadly I didn't get to punt. Bad weather. =(
So Yingting brought me around Cambridge to see all the colleges. Oh and the experience was exhiliarating!
Well you see, unlike stupid NUS or Leeds or most other universities in the world which goes by the modular system.. Oxbridge goes by the Collegiate system. Think Harry Potter now. So there are over 30 colleges in Cambridge, and each college is like a House in Hogwarts. The students have their lectures in the main university campus, but go back to their Colleges where they stay to have their tutorials. So they actually live and study at the same place! How cool is that! It's like I go for lectures in Engineering and go back to Sheares Hall where all the Chem Engineers will gather and have tutorials in Hall. A waste of resources for the University.. but the concept is just so cool. And as Yingting said, she feels so much for Cambridge and identifies herself with Claire College where she lived in. As for me? Haha NUS Sucks.
And the colleges were beautiful! There'd always be this big lawn where the buildings will surround.. somehting like a parade square of grass.. and the interesting thing is No One Is Supposed To Step On The Grass. Some of the colleges even have ducks wandering around and even COWS! And they all look so cosy and warm and so conducive for studying.. well probably amplified by the fact that the weather was drizzling and cold where I was standing looking at the majesty of the buildings. What's even more interesting is that each of the colleges have their own identity.. like some colleges are leftist, there's the richest and poorest college and there's even the gay college as well haha.
I was telling Yingting that I definitely will send my son or daughter to Cambridge. But that again, I have my brother. That's why when I called back home I told him to get himself into Cambridge or Oxford!!!
So that I can go again and do punting. Haha. No la. I will definitely go Oxford to punt one of these days. =)
Anyway the streets of Cambridge were very quaint. Yes, again, as Yingting described it was stuck in time. Not like Leeds or Birmingham or London where it's somewhat modernised, Cambridge is still very old-English. Nice, peaceful and happy place. I like!
Oh I'm so glad to have Yingting around. She seemed to be so experienced tour guiding me around haha.. must have practiced a lot in her 4+ years here already. And even better coz she's a student we could get into the colleges for FREE! Yes, some colleges charge admission fees for entering the college. So commercial.
So all in all, Cambridge was an unforgettable experience. I left feeling fully satisfied even though I didn't get to punt. The only regret I had? Was that I didn't study hard enough in JC to get into there myself. *sigh*
Just yesterday I decided to be adventurous and cook fried rice for dinner. Made a lot of rice in the afternoon and let it dry in the fridge.. figured out that I cooked too much rice so I invited the girls over for dinner.
Whoaaaaa it was VERYYY NICEE LAAAA!!! Haha either fried rice is damn easy to cook, fried rice is naturally nice, I miss fried rice too much, or I'm just a damn good fried-rice-cooker haha.
Ok.. I'm off to do my homework now. There's nothing else to do anyway.. And for the first times in my life I'm the only one who turns up for class with all my homework done. Felt so cheated the first few tutorials when I spent so much time reading the Soci readings, doing my Chem Eng tutorials, only to go to class hearing most of them say like "Oh I can't find the book in the library" or "I read but I didn't understand anything in the book". Bleah. The Chem Engineers even said they don't know how to start and asked to have another session to go through the tutorial. The whole class say they didn't know leh. Wa lao it's just smack in the notes la.. of course need some thinking with a bit of CEP and ESS concepts. And some more they are Postgraduate students lor. I'm just a freakking undergraduate still.
And I start to take back what I said about how good the lecturers are here. The Transfer Processes lecturer is an ah neh and he is damn ngeow la. He wastes time in lecture scolding people for stupid things like whispering and even looking out of the window. When the students genuinely don't know some maths equation, though simple, he thinks they are joking with him. Wa lao, what kind of lecturer is that? Ask question kena scolded. And last lesson he took lesson individually because he suspects that some of them were signing in for other students in the previous lesson when he passed around the attendence sheet. Like hello? You only have 1 hour of lesson don't waste time on these stupid brainless stuff.
And the Postgraduate module I'm taking (Numerical Simulation) lecturer is an ah tiong and he just rattles on all the irrelevant stuff and doesn't teach. Like just now during the make-up tutorial he just sat down there and asked us to go ask him questions personally. Whoa so I had to save the day by asking out loud "Is this the way to do the question? Blah blah blah..." out loud in class so everybody will know how to do. (like I'm the only one that did?) The last lecture was on MATLAB and he just brought us to the computer cluster and gave us a set of notes and told us to play with the computer programme ourself. And the notes sucked la. NUS gave so much better notes than his. I was totally bored coz I already know the basics of MATLAB after PDC and Process Lab last sem. He couldn't even explain why must put the ; at the end of evey command. Bleah I had to explain to the guy beside me after he left.
Means 4 things
- NUS is damn zai
- NUS teaches too much
- Only native lecturers are good. Just like Singaporean lecturers in NUS and ang moh lecturers in Leeds.
- If you are here just to do reasearch, DON'T TEACH!!
Ok. Going off le.
I don't think I know any Muslim friends reading this blog.. but Selamat Hari Raya Adilfiltri anyway.
Oh, Happy Deepavali =)
Signed off at
11:37 pm
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Sushi Party
Saturday, October 21, 2006
At such an unearthly hour there are still so many people (Italians I guess) standing outside my window gathering there.. talking.. so noisy.
Just came back from another gathering at Yuanjing's place. This time was a MASSIVE gathering of like 38 people squeezed in a tiny kitchen.. It was supposed to be a sushi party.. where we make the sushi ourselves.. which is essentially making popiah but using seaweed as the skin, rice as the filling and topped with wadever was around - carrots, eggs, salmon, cucumber, crabstick..
It was yum yum. And after that we were treated to Chocolate Fondue! Wow!
After everything a few of us wanted to go down to the clubs in town.. but along the way the Taiwanese girls decided to go for Karaoke instead! Heng the karaoke not open tonight.. and the only one was open was those type have to sing to everybody and malu yourself one.. so after a loooooooooooong walk around the city we decided to head back.
We walked Karen, this Taiwanese girl, back to her private accomodation. Wow and it sure was cosy.
This was the common room.. her room had a nice cozy Queen Sized bed and attached bathroom. shiok.
Going to Castleford Shopping centre to buy winter clothings tomorrow.. followed by Cambridge! Before signing off.. show you 1st something interesting..
What they call ATMs here...
Signed off at
10:27 am
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Early in the morning
Friday, October 20, 2006
Oh yay.. I just struggled to finish my assignment for this postgraduate module which was supposed to replace CN3421 Process Modelling and Numerical Simulation.. I was like forced to read through my CEP (Chem Eng Principles) and ESS (Equilibrium Stage Separations) notes to be able to figure out how to do the assignment.
Working at night here is so shiok.. like it's really quiet and it's cool.. I guess I found the right balance between how much I should open my windows and how high I should turn on my heater. Haha. Which means.. I'm turning into a night animal again.
My new Japanese neighbour 悠う is fantastic haha. At least he's one more person around that practices open-door policy.. and last night I was in his room watching some Japanese arty-farty movie. Very nice show.. though.. I fell asleep at some parts oops ha.
But still I'm starting to miss Manhon.. just for the fact that I miss coming back from lessons and get to talk to someone in rubbish Singlish. Though I still chat to everyone back home on MSN... but well.. You won't believe it.. but it's actually very streneous trying to speak perfect English (even without any accent) all the time. Try it la! That dumdum will only be back in November.. argh.
Ok I'm going to hit the sacks now.. I feel so relieved now that I finished all my work haha. (though there's still a pile of sociology readings that I borrowed from the library and have yet to read). Oh well.. I'll just read them on my loooooooooooooooong ride to Cambridge this weekend.
Yeah.. and Sushi party tomorrow. Hope my diarrhoea doesn't act up.
お休みなさい！
Signed off at
1:35 pm
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96 more days..
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
While Singapore's suffering from the Haze.. look what shrouded Leeds this morning...
THE FOG!
Just finished my lunch of super-salty noodles. Tried to stew chicken and potato but think added too much soya sauce haha. But now am so full I can vomit a cow. The weather is sooo cold and the fog's making it worse. Glad the heating is up.. means ah.. can go and sleeeeeeep soon haha.
96 days more.. to going back to Singapore.. The countdown timer on my desktop finally went past the 100th day mark... much as I wanted to blog that day.. I.. lazy. Haha. Was busy these few days though.. doing my tutorials (when I realised no one in the class did!) and reading my Soci readings (and I realised half the class didn't read!) and soon I should be doing this online assignment which is due on Friday...
So the past 2 weeks just zoomed past like that.. and the most exciting things that happened were probably planning all the weekend trips and our December Europe tour, which we would probably be visiting Berlin, Interlaken, Venice, Pisa, Roma, Chamonix and Paris. And of course the next few weekends will be spent in Cambridge (punting with Yingting!), Bath (27th meetup!), Bristol (Bumming with Daniel!), Dublin (with Elibirdbird and Teckie), Scotland (with Fangxi and Summer) and Nottingham Games at well, Nottingham. Oh Nottingham games is this sports events where ALL Singaporean and Malaysian students from all over UK will meet up in Nottingham for sports! How cool is that? Haha.
York - 7th October
It is said that of all the UK cities, only York's and Bath's architecture were not destroyed during the WWII and hence retained a lot of its Roman Architecture. Yeah quite true. It's really different from Oxford and Leeds and Bradford.. Buildings are much older.. and more rustic. As we went with MASSOC (Malaysian and Singapore Society), it was a massive group of people which was really hard for the organizers to coordinate.
So the tour started off with the Railway Museum.. Just a lot of trains lor. Nothing particularly interesting. Saw some that looked like Daily Express. Teckie was particularly excited though. Yea coz some looked like KR's KRonos. I forgot to bring my SD card in my camera.. so just snapped around with Yuanjing's camera instead.
And after that we walked along the York Wall to the York Minister.. one of the must-sees of York. I could only appreciate the architecture to a certain extent.. coz it was after all, a church. So how? Just take photos lor. Haha.
There was a 1 hour lunch break and we walked around before settling down at this shop that sells cheap crepe roll thing. Not that filling.. but they had free-flow drinks.. something very well appreciated when the weather was chillin cold outside. Oh and they had a buy 4 get 1 free promotion.. so the 5 of us just saved 50p each on our lunch. Just nice =) The shops along the streets of York looked somewhat like those in Sweden though. And yes, EXPENSIVE.
After lunch we split up into small groups and visited where we wanted to. So while Teckie, Elibirdbird and Yuanjing went to the Viking Museum, Manhon and I took the boat ride down York River. Thought could take the drive-yourself boat.. but we ended up on the guided tour boat instead. After which we walked around.. and out of sheer tyconess we managed to get into the Castle Museum for free! Nothing much though. Luckily didn't pay!
And if you ask me the most interesting thing that happened that day was when we came back to Leeds.. for there was this cool high-tech game machine that projected a huge screen on the floor.. to play 4-on-4 virtual soccer! Yeah once you stand in the area the motion sensor could sense you and you just have to kick the virtual 'balls' into the other 3 goals while defending yourself. Haiyah. Got video but lazy to upload. Go figure out from the photos yourself! Haha.
Blackpool - 8th October
Not wanting to spend a Sunday slacking in Leeds, Yuanjing and I decided to head down to nearby BlackPool to check it out. Why Blackpool? Simply coz it was in my 'Rough Guide to England' that it's a Must-Go. So we go lor!
Turns out that it was just like a Genting Resort by the black Irish Sea. Yea the Irish Sea was surprisingly Black. Not nice and blue under the sun but dark and ugly. It was high tide when we arrived the the waves were lashing at the shore. Very nice.
So of course the main highlight was the Blackpool tower.. which was a blatent copycat of the Eiffel Tower.. shorter of course. It was even explicitly stated that the Blackpool Tower was inspired by the Eiffel. Bleah. No originality. But since we were up there.. just climb up lor. Got lift.
We got our Bird's Eye View of the city.. which was quite ugly coz it just comprised of many short buildings of the same colour. Only somewhat far away can some greenery be seen. The view of the sea and the shore was much nicer. And since it was sunny we stayed there for a while to let the sea breeze chill us out for a while before going down.
At the lower levels of the Tower there are other 'attractions' like the Dinosaur Ride, Ballroom, Circus, food.. We took a walk around the city instead of staying in the Tower. There were many many other attractions around like the Theme Parks, Sea Life Museum, Wax Museum all of which needed exhorbitant entrance fees. So we just took photos outside the attractions haha.
Guess what? It was low tide already.. and what was lashing waves a few hours ago now reveled a nice flat shoreline peppered with families and their children and dogs running around playing. And donkeys. Yeah correct, donkeys. It's surprising how many children were sitting on the donkeys who were made to stroll along the length of the beach. But the view was so beautiful.. the clouds.. the sea.. the sun that I just took photo after photo after photo...
We took the 6pm coach back. Would have stayed for the night if we could.. coz the night view of the place was going to be spectacular.. with the tower in lights and the big ferris wheel lighted up also. But the last coach to leeds was at 6. So too bad lor.
At least we managed to find stamps and posted back postcards from the top of Blackpool tower =)
Birmingham - 14th & 15th October
In the weekend that passed Fangxi, Yuanjing and I decided to pop down to Birmingham to visit Summer and Lilian. While Yuanjing went for her mega dive exhibition.. the rest of us headed down to the Cadbury Factory (or Cadbury World for the kids) and had a WillyWonkaChocolaty lotsa fun! It was all for kids.. and the whole tour was about how chocolate was discovered.. how cadbury was founded.. their work ethics.. how the company grew.. blah blah blah.. the best part was being immersed in the smellll of chocolate the whole time. And of course.. the free chocolate bars.. free chocolate samples that were given out. Whoa by the end of the day ah.. we were sick of chocolate already.
Then we took a loooooooooooooooooooong walk to this park called the Cannon Hill Park. Through Birmingham University.. discovered the Sheares-Hall-Lion-minus-the-Book logo on a lamppost.. discovered a place that looked like Singapore! Check out the photos for details.
Yea the park was a nice place.. lotsa ducks. Didn't really take many photos though.
Summer's and Lilian's Japanese flatmates cooked for us! So nice of them. We helped out a bit though. Haha. And Fangxi and I were struggling trying to converse to them in Japanese.. but ah.. just cannot make it la haha.
The next day Summer and her Japanese flatmates went for a charity run.. so Lilian brought us to this shopping complex called Bullring. It was like Taka.. huge shopping centre with lotsa small shops inside. And the highlight of the day was.. eating Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!! It was expensive though.. a dozen doughnuts for £7.99! Oh but it was heavenly...
Blah blah blah walked around.. went St. Martin's Church.. Chinatown.. wanted to go to Art Gallery but was too far away...
Interestingly when we went into Bullring again we were surprised to find out that Krispy Kreme were giving out FREE doughnuts! Of course we went to grab ours but we stood there for very long looking perturbed.. figuring out why they were giving away so many free HOT doughnuts.. they weren't deformed.. they still tasted great.. and they weren't going to close shop anytime soon. Turns out that it's a promotion thing.. when the red logo on top of the shop lights up.. they will give out FREE DOUGHNUTS! Aiyah shouldn't have bought just now haha.
This pretty much concludes the Birmingham trip.. but for me the best part of the trip was reconfirming that Summer Alamak Pan is essentially.. a bimbo.
On visiting Hamburg and Frankfurt
Summer: Oh Frankfurt! I like to eat the hot dogs!
Me: Oh yah in Frankfurt all the buildings are tall and thin. Some of them are a but curved. But in Hamburg all the buildings are short and fat and round. Got 3 layers.. the middle layer is darker colour..
Summer: Really ah! I wanna see!
On cheonging in Singapore
Yuanjing: But in Singapore you all cheong until late at night meh? Take taxi go home very expensive leh.
Summer: Oh we don't take taxi. We share cab.
On where we are going to travel
Summer: (looking confused) Wait wait wait.. so confirm we are visiting Paris and France?
Got lots more.. but these are the classic ones that I remembered.
This post sure took long.. haha I typed half of it then cannot tahan went to sleep then I woke up.. went to the Japanese Society gathering for free sushi (haha so gian beng) but it wasn't much anyway. So now I'm back to complete the post.
Yeap and finally I see something about halls here that is similar to halls in Singapore
Haha IHG! Finally something other than cheonging.
And to end off.. a check on how the leaves of the tree outside my window are shedding away...
Nice ah.
Ok la.. end off already. Hope that I update soon.
Ciaoz.
Signed off at
11:54 pm
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As Winter Creeps In..
Friday, October 06, 2006
Whou.. it's been really long since I updated this blog.. lazy la.. haha.
Having internet in the room for almost a week now.. and have come to realise that it's really impossible to use 25gB in 1 month! So now I'm spamming my bandwidth to make my money's worth.. uploading photos.. listening to streaming radio from Singapore stations (I downloaded this cool widget that has all Singapore radio stations!) Too bad my internet speed sucks so much that I can't watch ppLive. But I've survived so long in hall with no TV.. so it's all right for me =)
At least I'm kept in touch with the world by listening to radio.. I just heard my 1st piece of news in ages on Power 98!
The weather has turned freaking cold the past week.. Signs of winter settling in fast and furious.. And I noticed the leaves on the tree just outide my window change colours.. A phenomena I've seen for the 1st time (come on Singapore the trees whole year same colour one la).
Oh.. i need to mention that on a cold night like this.. I'm so glad to have hot curry beside me.. courtesy of my neighbour ManHon =)
Studying in the University of Leeds
It's been almost 2 weeks of lessons now.. and I've sorta settled my modules happily. Doing 5 core modules with 1 Arts GEM.. a sociology module. It's really a whole new education experience here.. i mean other than the super-slack timetable.. Lectures by the ang-moh lecturers are surprisingly interesting.. Dunno it's the way the speak or wad.. and they actually do engage the students during the lectures. So unlike in NUS where lecturers just rattle off their notes or powerpoint slides.. lecturers here seemed more committed to TEACH.. explaining to students their queries and making sure they are understood before the lecture carries on.
With more time on my hands I feel like studying more haha.. ironically. I mean after all the playing and cheonging when there's really nothing to do I'll just flip out my assignments to do or readings to read.
Oh it's worth mentioning that I did a very British act of sitting in the park under the warm sun.. cool breezes.. hot coffee.. listening to iPod.. reading my readings!
Photos taken on my phone so quality no good ah.. but while back in Singapore we always see the black birds and sparrows (and mosquitoes and chameleons and ants and spiders) in our parks.. the animals that I see very often on the lush green grass are... Squirrels! Will try to catch them on camera some day... =)
Fangxi Visited Leeds
Nottingham hasn't started school so bored Fangxi popped by last Friday to visit. I must say there isn't much to do in Leeds so we took a 30 min coach ride down to Bradford to visit the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. And it was a fun place! Too bad our coach back was 3pm so we couldn't spend more time there.... Check out these photos!
And watch the news!
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Ok.. and so we finally caught the so-called "Best Fish and Chips in UK" since 1960.. though what I read on my Rough Guide to England recommended a shop in Whitby as having the best F&C. But still it was fantastic fish and chips! Yummm..
Went to Royal Armouries Museum again with Fangxi on Sunday.. and it was definitely a more fruitful trip this time.. coz there were better shows which I did not get to catch the week before.. including the falconry show where they showcased birds of prey strutting their skills in getting their dinner...
And I managed to catch this street performance on Briggate (Leeds' answer to Orchard Road.. but much shorter).
Self explanatory photos yea?
The bag he held at the end was for donations. And I thought I'd only see such things in Period shows!
Singapore Society Chinese Dinner
Met up with the rest of the Singaporeans in Leeds. Felt so at home suddenly.. and could whack out all the broken English and lahs and lors without having to consciously make an effort to speak perfect English (with or without accent) haha!
The surprising thing that we were treated to a FREE dinner at this posh chinese restaurant. Whoa when the dishes were laid on the table I couldn't believe my eyes! Sutff that I won't even eat often back in Singapore! So much so that I even mumbled to Teckie.. "Whoa.. what did I do to deserve this?"
So how to describe the dinner?
SHIOK LAH!
Haha
After the dinner we were strolling along the Millenium Square where I caught this exhibition of photos of animals..
I must say they were really stunning photos. Wouldn't hesitate to buy the photo collage if they were on sale...
Swiss Dinner Party and Halo
For something more recent.. Just yesterday Martina and Doreen (Yuanjing's neighbours) invited all of us over for a Swiss meal.. it was just potatoes fried with flour and cheeze and it was seriously delicious! and filling as well. But of course.. the best part of the Swiss meal was that it ended off with... CHOCOLATE FONDUE!!!
Just so happened that there was this SMS spreading around which allowed us free entry into Halo and so we conveniently popped down. Reluctant as I was.. how can I miss 'visiting' this nightclub which was once-upon-a-time a... CHURCH! Haha I've heard so much about it even before coming to Leeds!
Ok from now on I should update my blog every day at least.. otherwise I'd be losing all my readers haha.. And yes I still owe my Sweden/Norway travel article.. still slowly writing la.. but if you all want to see photos.. all are uploaded in my Flickr website.
That's all for now.. hope your computer doesn't crash by the number of slideshows I've put here haa.
Ciaoz!
Signed off at
6:22 am
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