River Tyne At Night

Went for an international students induction talk conducted by the university deans at Herschel Building in the morning. Actually, the talk is more applicable for those students who will be studying for the full course as it's mainly about the payment of tuition fee.

We went to the Union for lunch. Had a chicken filet for 3 pound. The chicken filet was very small in size and the plate was practically filled with chips. There's something funny about eating out in UK and that is you need to pay for some of the sauce. So, next time when you happen to go to a restaurant in UK, remember to ask whether you need to pay for the sauce, dun be a typical Singaporean and just take everything and ended up paying extra. Anyway I learnt my lessons from Yusen who paid extra 60p for the gravy.

The Union

We did some shoppings in the city later in the afternoon. I realised that not all the stuffs are expensive in England. There is a shop along the main street in the city center that sells clothes that are even cheaper than in S'pore, e.g. the winter clothings cost only 11 pounds and 5 pair of socks for only 2 pounds. We spend 2 hours in the shop all thanks to Xue Jia who was like trying out clothes after clothes and seeking our advice all the time. In the end, I bought a winter hat for just 1 pound.

We went back to fetch Zhen Siong, who had finally arrived from Singapore, at the Richardson reception. After that, we began our first attempt to cook. Well, we dun have much ingredients on hand, only chinese handmade noodles, vegetables and some campbell mushroom and cream. So, we decided to dump whatever we have and try to come up with something edible (imagine chinese noodles and campbell soup.... 'zhong xi he pin'). True enough, the dinner turns out quite horrible. So, we learnt something new today and that is not to add campbell soup to chinese noodles.

Later at night, we met up with the rest of the 'khakis' and took a stroll down to River Tyne. River Tyne is the main river which flows across Newcastle, separating Newcastle city centre from Gateshead town centre. This is also how Newcastle Upon Tyne got her name. The night view of the river is simply superb. The road along the river is properly lit. Across the river is the Baltic Square which looks like the esplanade in S'pore. It is also colourfully lit, which adds life to the night. There is also a boat by the sea which have been turned into a club. The highlight at the Quayside is still the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. At certain time of the day, the whole bridge will tilt to be almost parallel to the sea, so that the boats can move under the bridge. We are so fortuate to be there at the time when the bridge is going to tilt. It is really really amazing to witness the whole event for ourselves.

A ship moving under the bridge