A Boy's Journey

2007-09-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those
who love him" - 1 Cor 2:9

2007-01-04T02:18:00.000-08:00

Happy 2007!!!

A bright red photo to greet u guys in the new year..hehehe..anyway this photo was taken last Christmas along Orchard Road. Someone actually approached us to be 'models' for the Uniquely Singapore campaign. Not bad sia..Anyway, it's time to get my blog back in action again after so many months. It had been a real busy year for me with all the Design Projects, FYP blah blah blah...especially after a long year out of NUS. Kinda got use to the slow and carefree lifestyle in UK and now it's back to reality. Anyway, i'm just glad that the year has just passed by rather smoothly and now i'm left with 1 more sem before i'll be entering into the workforce. Time really flies man...Guess i'll miss sch life real soon. Most imptly, gonna cherish this last sem and make the best out of it!!!

New Yr's Resolution - Create Everlasting Friendship!!!

2006-07-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

You Are A: Lamb!

Peaceful and gentle, lambs have been used in religious imagery for millennia. Lambs are baby sheep, an animal tended by shephards since the dawn of history. As a lamb, you tend to stay together in a flock and graze on grassy land. Lambs don't mind being led and tend not to go off on their own.

You were almost a: Kitten or a Duck
You are least like a: Squirrel or a Pony What Cute Animal Are You?

2006-04-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

MSU 2006...

In a bid to distance itself from the perception that beauty pageants are only for the brainless, this year's Miss Singapore Universe actually features 3 postgrad contestants. I think in the history of MSU, no postgrad students have taken part in this kind of beauty pagent. So, this year is an exception in order to show that MSU finalists are not a bunch of bimbos but those who possessed brains and looks. Anyway, after watching the pageant on Sunday night, my impression of highly educated personnels changed. It seems that they are not so good in presenting themselves afterall. Juliana Chan was contestant most touted by the media and she was expected to outshine the rest of the contestants in the Q and A session. Being the A*Star scholar and a future PhD doctor, I would have expected her to come up with some intelligent answer for her question on whether Singaporeans are able to slow down and appreciate the music. Her response was Singaporeans are going at 150km/hr and they better not exceed the speed limit otherwise they will get a parking ticket. I was like duh.. u dun get a parking ticket for speeding..u get a speeding ticket!!!

I guess the most confident and one of the better looking contestant is jade seah. She is definitely my hot favourite for that night. Nick said that this girl is damn loud and vulgar in school, even worse than the sgt and warrant officer in SAF... lol.. She's just the direct opposite of lightning and thunder. You can see the lightning before you can hear the thunder. But you can hear her 10 blocks away before you see her. Look at the way she answers her first question. Her first response was like Wah! So chor lor...got ah lian seh..But on the whole, I feel that she is more deserving to be the winner of the MSU compared to carol cheong whom I think is more bimbo la. I seriously think she won cos she is the most busty contestant in the pageant. No doubts why she got the highest points in the swim wear category and won the body beautiful award.

2006-03-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

The Taste of Failure...

Been working hard on my research project for the past 3 weeks. It is really a long and painstaking process since each step in the synthesis of the bulk film would take at least 1 day. Extra care is also needed to be taken in the handling the ceramic powder to prevent contamination in the sample. Contamination is a real serious problem in nano processing as it has an adverse effect in the crystalline structure of the piezoelectric bulk film. This structure will in turn affect the electrical and physical properties of the piezoelectric thick film. Finally, after 3 weeks, I managed to prepare my very first batch of bulk film. Sent my samples for x-ray diffraction today and found that the crystal structure of the film is not we wanted, which means that my 3 weeks of work has gone down the drain. Well, now my sup is working on another composition for the film which hopefully can work. So, after my sup has finally come up with the new composition, I'll have to redo the whole processing again. Well...this is what research is all about. Doing the same process again and again until the optimum result is obtained. Hence, patience is the key to research and so is the ability to recover from failure. This is also very applicable in our daily life. We need to be patient in whatever we do and also not giving up easily when faced with obstacles. With these attitudes, we can then overcome the barriers in our life!

2006-03-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

Live action 'Simpsons'

The British has actually recreated a video of the introduction to "The Simpsons" with live actors. The video was originally intended as an on-air promotion for the Sky One network, which airs new episodes of "The Simpsons" in the UK. Check out the Real Life Simpsons Intro video

Any fans of classical music out there??? Is you are a fan of classical music, you will simply love this video. It is an improvised version of Canon in D Major by Johann Pachebel played on an electric guitar!!! The guy is simply awesome...Watch the video for yourself Canon

2006-03-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Doing Things With A Passion...

Woke up at 7.30am on Sunday morning to help out in the youth seminar organised by YEC. I can't imagine anyone would actually come for a seminar on Sunday morning 9am. I would rather have slept through the morning than attend such a seminar. Anyway, I dun even wake up so early on Sunday morning for church manz!!! hehe.. at least the CC is catering a lunch buffet. The theme of the seminar is on youth leadership and the target audiences are the YEC members and the committee members of the various youth organisation in the Whampoa area. On the whole, I would say that the talk is very inspiring and it really make us probe about the issue of leadership, how we could actually make changes to the society and not just waiting for things to happen, initiative being the key point. However, the ultimate driving force that motivates us to completing whatever tasks assigned to us is the passion for the tasks. This is so true! Without passion, we can't sustain long in whatever we do, be it the events we organise or the careers that we are going to take up. Well.. I was chatting with Samuel the other day and the word passion was also mentioned during our conversation. It is really important that we chose a job because we have a passion for that job and not just because the company is paying well!!! Else we will end up working for the money and hence lose sight of our life....

Well.. it was yet another uneventful day in IMRE. Today is a day of washings!!! After5 weeks in IMRE, this is the first day I officially started work in the lab!! Wooohoo!! Sounds exciting eh?? Well... maybe not.. I'm supposed to clean up all the beakers in the oven and all the apparatus required for the experiment. You should have seen the number of beakers in the oven manz..I nearly fainted at the sight of them...All the beakers are in one big mess!!! So.... I spent the whole day washing the glasswares. This is the first time I washed so many apparatus in my life!!! Well... looking on the bright side, I'm going to start my experiment tomorrow! Yeah!!! All these while, I have been doing so many readings on the project...So kinda look forward to tomorrow!!!

2006-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

A Walk Down Memory Lane....

It's the time of the year, the first saturday of March when all the Victorians would gather in VJC. Well...it's the annual Victorians' Day!!! As usual, we would meet up on this special day to go back to our college. This time round only KX, ZH, Dennis, TH and I went back. We had lunch at Parkway Parade food court before making our way to VJ. The college has really changed quite a bit. One of these is the new guard house at the entrance of the college. All of us still couldn't understand why is there a need for the guard house. They should have used the resources else where. As we were walked along the road leading to the canteen, we were greeted by an overwhelming tree house on our left! We were like what the ... ...what is that tree house doing in the college??? Must be the works of the ODAC ppl!!! We went to the staff room to look for Mr Lam and Mrs Choo but they are not around. So we wandered around the college. It really brings back alot of memories of our college days such as 'buanging' our common tests and being called up for remedials. Anyway, we saw Mr Lam in the hall and they are having an alumuni floorball game. I was so glad to learn that Mr Lam is having his 2nd child already! He is really working hard I must say....

As we came out of the hall, we could hear very familar music. It's the songs for the college dance! And we also saw Victorians dressed in the yellow and white PE t-shirt doing the familar moves for the college dances like the mash potato thingy in the friendship dance. Those were the days manz! I'm really amazed that until now they did not change the songs for the college dance. It has already been more 7 yrs ago!!! Oh..anyway.. they were also selling this limited edition Victorian bear at $15 which KX, ZH and Dennis bought. Here's a picture of the bear. Isn't it cute!!!

We went to the newly renovated student lounge. I must say that I'm pretty impressed with the facilities. There is a pool table and PS 2!!! We played a few round of pool before making out way out of the college.

2006-02-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

Verse of the day...

'For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it' Matt. 16:25

What we give to God, we don't lose because God redeems it for us. But what we withold from God, we will lose.

2006-02-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Gatherings...

It's the second week of IA and so far there's not much of work to do. This is probably becos I haven't sit for the lab safety test so I do not have clearance to enter the lab. So....for the time being I'm quite slack, more of self readings of the materials Dr Yao Kui has given me and I'm proud to say I had finished reading one of the books (not that I really understand)...hehe... Anyway, I'm in admist of the 2 days safety training conducted by IMRE. Well...it's like going through the lab safety briefings.

Met up with my JC classmates at a kopitiam near Holland V last Fri. The venue was suggested by Nicholas who claimed that the XO fish bee hoon was very famous. Well...I must agree that the bee hoon is really nice. After dinner, we head down to Holland V to chill out. Actually, we wanted to find a void deck where we could drink the Vodka that TH brought but a bit off la. This reminded me so much of my army days where we would find a deserted area to drink before going to the club...haha...Finally, we decided to settle down in TCC. We had a great time catching up and also talking about JC days. Come to think of it..it had been 7 years since we knew each other. Time really flies manz! Anyway, it is KX's bdae the next day and we got 8 slices of cakes to make up a complete circle of cakes. It is rather unqiue as we can try different favours of cakes...hehe.. Anyway, we are quite unsatisfied with the customer service as the waiter did not provide us with spoons when he served the cakes. And his reason is 'Sorry, we do not have any spoons left as all the spoons are not washed yet'. What a lame excuse man! Couldn't they just go and wash the spoons for us! Anyway, TH submitted a complaint letter but till now no response yet...That night, when we were in ZH's car, TH, Dennis, ZH and I had a small debate about a very commonly used wedding phrase 'Life is the flower where love is the honey'. TH thinks that it is the perfect love phrase..so what do u guys think?

Saturday was a busy day for me too. Met my cell group members for a badminton training at Delta Sports Complex. This is supposed to be a training for the friendly inter-cell competition next saturday. Haven't touched my racket for a long time and my skills have certainly deproved alot manz. After the game, I could feel my right arm aching like crazy and I even have problem lifting a cup with my right hand during lunch.

That night, I went for the RH bash organised my the Bizcom. The crowd is not really that healthy, probably less than 30 ppl. Seems like the hall spirit is diminishing! Well...Bernard if you are reading this.. you better do something about it! Okay la...dun wanna pressurised you and stop playing so much DOTA..hehe....Anyway, congrats to the RH handball team for being the champion in IHG!

Last but not least before I forgot....it's Valentine's Day tml! So jus wanna wish all those love birds out there Happy Valentine's Day and a Happy Friendship Day to all my friends.

2006-02-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

Start of IA...

It's good to be back home again and somemore jus in time for CNY. Woohoo!!! Reached Singapore on the first day of CNY at 6pm. I was so tired after the flight that I went straight home to rest and din go visiting on the first day. But I managed to recoup my ang bao lossess the next day...hehe...and feast on the CNY goodies, all the bak kua, pineapple tarts, etc etc. I also get to eat all the local delights , kway tiao, prawn mee, carrot cake, laska that I missed sooo much when I was in Newcastle...yum yum... (have to stress this for all those who are still on SEP... wahahahaha)

Anyway, I finally and officially started work today liao. Hurray!!! Well....kinda look forward to this day as it is a good start to the new semester. Anyway, in case you guys do not know, I working on a research project in A-Star, Institute of Material Science and Engineering (IMRE), which is just behind bizad. So to those studying in NUS, can always drop in a text msg to meet up for lunch in the bizad/arts canteen. hehee....The first day went rather smoothly and I met up with my supervisor, Dr Yao Kui, a senior scientist in the RI. Well..he is a rather nice guy. But when he told me about my research project, I was like wat the...??? My project is on developing piezoelectric thick film through chemical solution deposition. Sounds veri cheam sia!!! I dun even noe what is piezoelectric film man!! Anyway, he passed me 2 texts and a few journals to be read within 2 weeks!!! Oh man!!! Seems like I can't avoid studying even I'm doing my IA. Well... gonna be more motivated towards work and hopefully I can learn something which I can't learn in NUS. Seems like I'm gonna be piezoelectrified in the next 2 week...

2006-01-28T04:43:00.000-08:00

Last Day In Newcastle....

Well...it's finally time to go home... Can't really say that I'm not looking forward to going home but think I'll be missing Newcastle very much, all the wonderful friendship and memories that we shared. Time really flies manz! 4 mths ago we jus reached Newcastle and were so excited about the place, about the cool weather and now it's time to go back. Anyway, it has been a great experience on the whole, having a taste of the English culture which is apparently not what I expected it to be.

The day before, we had a farewell chinese buffet lunch with our Singaporean lecturer, Ming and the 3 poly chem eng students Delwyn, Darren and Shuling. Edelene who had just came over for exchange in Newcastle also joined us for the lunch. Ming was such a nice guy. He treated all us to the lunch.

Later in the evening, we went over to Regent's place to 'lao yu shen'. Well.. it was the eve of CNY eve and we had our own kinda celebration. After that, we went to an open field to light the fireworks that Zhen Siong bought before heading down to chiong in one of the clubs. We intended to get high and drunk that nite but the drinks were not as cheap as we thought they were...hehee..so budget lor!

2006-01-26T16:59:00.001-08:00

Milan - Italy / Isle of Skye / 20 Days Europe Trip !!!

The date of entry may sound that I'm blogging about the recent stuffs happening to me but well... as the title of the entry suggests...it's not!! Hahaha!!! This is about the milan and isle of skye trip on the 2nd Dec and 9th Dec respectively. You can really see the amount of back dating I have to do manz! Nonetheless I'll try to fill in as much details as possible for all the trips but guess I'll upload more pics than words..wahahaha...

Milan - Italy

It was Thursday afternoon and as usual we had to rush to the airport after handing in our assignments. We reached Milan 2 hrs later and checked in to our hostel. Well...I can say that this is the worst hostel so far. The bunks are small and the lockers are located outside the bunk. The toilet is even worse, quite similar to the one in the army except that it is even jialet!! The worse thing is that they do not have a seat for the toilet bowl!! OMG!! Oh... another thing I dislike about Italy is that the people there are very rude and hostile.

We went to the Duomo, supposedly the third biggest cathedral in the world. The amazing thing about the cathedral is that the whole building is made of marble. We went up to the top and the view was simply brillant. We could see the entire Milan city.

Well...being the fashion capital of the world, branded boutique shops, such as Prada, Gucci etc etc are found almost everywhere in the city. You can say that Milan is a heaven for the girls manz. Besides, you can also see posh ferraris parked at the side of most roads. We went to the Leonardo da Vinci museum which displays his clever inventions and artistic creations.

The most memorable experience is definitely snowing in Milan. This is the first time I saw snow! It was Beautiful! We also made a snowman!

Isle of Skye - Scotland

We joined a 4 days/3nite highland tour in Scotland. Well...the scenery is marvelous! The pictures will tell it all manz!!

20 days Europe trip

Well...it's kinda hard to describe the trip in detail and I also how to start too. Anyway, I'll just start with our route. We flew to Barcelona from London, then took a train to Nice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Interlaken, Lucern, Zurich, Paris then finally back to Newcastle. Jolene, Joreen, Bingshu, Zhen Hao, Meifen joined us from Singapore on this trip. So you can say that it is a rather big group, a total of 8 ppl!!

We met up with Tee Hoon in Rome on Christmas Day and was so shocked to hear that he was robbed in Marseille. At least he din get hurt. The most memorable event is sleighing in Switzerland. It was great! The snow white mountain and coniferous tree made the experience even more wonderful!

Met up with Jasmine and Eufo in Paris on the 31 Dec. It was really some kinda chem eng gathering and we did lots of crazy stuffs in Paris which I'm not so proud to reveal in my blog...hehe...

On the whole, it was a great experience and an eye wonder, but it was quite tiring!

2005-11-24T04:10:00.000-08:00

Amsterdam --- Netherlands

This is some real backdating manz....It's January already and I'm still doing blog entry for November. Oh my God!!! Someone gotta motivate me to blog manz...think if ziying hasn't tagged..I would be too lazy to blog liao..lol...

This is about the Amsterdam trip on the 24th Nov 05. We took a cuise from Newcastle port to Ijmuiden. The entire journey was totally horrible. It was a 12 hr journey and the ship was shaking violently throughout the whole journey, making us feel so miserable. Luckily, I managed to get the sea sick pill from the cabin crew. The pill was very effective and immediately put me to sleep. I almost fell off my bed a couple of time at night thanks to the choppy wave.

We reached Amsterdam on Friday afternoon. The first thing that we do is to look for our hostel. We had some difficulties with the tram system as there were so many tram stations all over the area. Well.. I can tell you that it is super dangerous to cross the road in Amsterdam. Besides the cars coming from the opposite direction than those in UK (welcome to left-hand driving system in Europe...), the trams and now gotta watch for the bicycles coming in all directions! Bicycles are favourite form of transport by the Dutch just like in China. Anyway, we managed to find our hostel in the end which is just opposite Hard Rock Cafe! Cool!!! The hostel name is Stayokay...hahaha...hopefully our rooms are in a 'stayokay' condition.

We checked out one of the Dutch museum (forgot the name liao) which lirong recommended. She said that we could get free admission if we told them that we are under 18. Well....apparently it doesn't work out and we gonna pay to get in. What a shame! Anyway, like all the museums, there are alot portraits and drawings about the country's history. Borrr....ing!!! Perhaps, I'm not the kinda art person.... Hahahaa......The night activities are more interesting. We are hearding down to the Red Light District. Wooohooo..... Well.... too bad we are not allowed to take photos in the area, so no pics to show you ppl. Anyway, it's very interesting how the prostitutes operate in the district. They would stand behind a glass panel, skimpily dressed and those interested party would just come up and knock on their glass panel. Then they will negotiate the price before getting into the room and do their 'business'. Besides that, there are alot of sex shows in the area. Yusen, Joanna and Regent went for one of the shows which cost 30 euros!!! Crazy bunch of guys!!!

There are alot of coffeeshops in Amsterdam. These are not those usual kopitiams in S'pore where people sit down and have coffee. These are the ones where you walk in and fly out. Haaahaha... these are the places where you can smoke Marijuana. The smell of Marijuana is so strong and distinct that you can immediately tell it is Marijuana a few metres. It is just so disgusting!!!

The next morning, we visited the 'cleaner' part of Holland -- the outskirt of Amsterdam. We saw alot of windmills in the area -- the icons of Holland and the Dutch ladies of course...hahaa... There is a sense of peacefulness in the outskirt, really a good place for retreat!

Canals are also an important icon in Amsterdam. They are also seen everywhere in the city such that Amsterdam is being described as the second Venice. The last day we took a canal cruise which brought us through all the major canals in Amsterdam. The view is simply awesome!!!

2005-11-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

Oslo - Norway....

This is our first trip out of UK and we are going to Norway. Well... we have seen beautiful pictures of Norway, snow capped mountain and copper sulphate blue kinda river. It's a shame that we only have 2 days in Oslo and would not have the time to travel to such places. Anyway, think Oslo will be equally nice, at least it is something different from the usual English cities. We will be flying to Oslo via Ryan air, one of the budget airline. The two way return airfare is only 45 pds! Think even flying from Singapore to KL costs ard $200 plus.

Our flight is at 6.20pm and we reached the airport only like half an hour before. So we have to hurry with the checking in of our baggage and dashing to our departure gate. It was a 1.5hr flight from Newcastle to Oslo. The moment we stepped out of the plane, we can feel the cold norwegian weather hitting hard on us. Luckily, we came prepared and wore our long john plus extra clothings. Well... it's a shame that it will only start snowing on Monday, so we wouldn't be able to see snow during our trip. Nevermind, we shall see snow in Switzerland during Dec! We went to the luggage collection point to retrieve our backpack and only to realise that my backpack is missing. I went to make a lost baggage report and they told me that they can only tell me the outcome on Saturday afternoon. My heart sank as my notes and letter of accomodation in UK are in the backpack. This is supposed to be a fun trip and now it turns out this way.

Well... it's no use worrying about the bag now, gonna cross my fingers and wait until tomorrow afternoon. We then board the bus from the airport to Oslo city. It was already 11pm by the time we reached the city and we have to find our way to the hostel. Fortunately, we met 1 nice staff from 7-eleven and he showed us how to take the tram to our hostel. Eventually, we reached the hostel at 12am.

The next morning, we woke up very early to have our norwegian breakfast. Well.. it was not really that nice. The bread was very hard and the salmon has an extra fishy smell. Nonetheless, we still finished up the breakfast before going to the city centre. We took the tram to the Norsk Folkemuseum. Basically, the tram can take us to all the attractions within Oslo. Tram runs on electricity instead of diesel and is the most convenient transport in the city.

Norsk Folkemuseum is the norwegian museum of cultural history. It showcases the clothing and equiments that the norwegians used during the early days. There are also wooden cottages where the norwegians used to stay. These cottages are located in the open, amist the coniferous trees. There is also a small church at the top of hill. It would really be nice to live in this kinda cottages, away from the busy city.

ZS and I went to the viking ship museum which is just next to the Folkemuseum. There are 3 real size viking ships in the museum of which one of them is in a really bad state. The ships are streamline shaped and engineered to travel at a very high speed. The viking's worksmanship in shipbuilding is really impressive. However, they seems not to be not that smart when it comes to designing land transport. They constructed a cart with wheels that cannot turn and thus the cart can only move straight!

It was only 4.30pm after our tour in the museums but it seems like it is already 7pm. The sky is getting dark. We try to find a norwegian restaurant to have our dinner but the restaurant are too expensive. The cheapest meal you can get is 20 plus pds! In the end, we had our dinner at McDonald's. Think this is definitely the most expensive McDonald meal I ever had in my life. It cost 6pds!

The last day we only had morning to tour the city as our flight back to Newcastle is at 5.15pm and the bus ride from the city to the airport is already 2hrs. We went to Vigeland park which is Norway's main attractions with more than 1 million visitors each year. The unique sculpture park is the work of the sculptor Gustav Vigeland with more 200 sculptures of nude men and women! There is also a tall pillar with sculptures of men and women on it, which is supposed to mean the strive for spiritual excellence.

Finally, it was time for us to go to the airport to catch our flight back to Newcastle. Anyway, I called the airport earlier and they told me that my backpack is in Newcastle. I was so glad that at least my backpack is not lost.

2005-11-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

Mission Impossible---Bath/Stonehenge/Cambridge

This weekend we embarked on the most challenging and almost mission impossible trip and that is to travel to Bath/Stonehenge/Cambridge in 2 days! Well... the journey from Bath to Cambridge is already 6 hrs and to think that we are going to 3 places in 2 days! Incredible! We only started preparing for the trip on thursday. It was rather late to do bookings for hostel and transport. Most of the hostels are all full and the single trip train from London to Bath cost 16.50 pds. In the end, instead of doing our assignment, we spent the whole afternoon in computer lab planning our itinerary. We came up with the cheapest and the most time saving method for our trip and that is to take a train to London on Friday afternoon and then transit another train to Bath. We will spent Friday night in Bath and the next day afternoon we will join a half day tour to stonehenge. On sunday morning 6am, we will go back to London and from there to Cambridge again. Sounds like a lot of travelling eh??

We went to the train station immediately after our lessons on Friday to buy the train tickets from London to Bath. But the ticket seller told us that we can only get the tickets at London. When we arrived at London, we were shocked to realise that the train ticket has increased from 16pds to 40 plus pds in just one night. Eventually, we managed to find a bus to Bath at 15 pds. Well.. it kinda expensive for a single trip bus ride but it's the cheapest we can get and we really got no choice at that moment. On the bus, we made phone calls to the hostels for a room but all the hostels are full. We were really disappointed and were about to give up when we found one hostel with vacanies. The staff told us that he will reserve a room for us but when we reached there, he told us that the hostel is full. In the end, we have to continue our search for an accomodation for the night. It was already 11.30pm. All of us were tired after the long journey but thank God, we managed to find a room in YMCA in the end.

We woke up early the next morning to start our tour in Bath. Bath is a beautiful Georgian city with delightful crescents, terraces and architecture. It is very different from the other cities in England that we have been to in a sense that there are Roman buildings in the city. There is a big roundabout, known as the Circus, with continuous stretch of Georgian houses built along the road. According to the local, the buildings are placed in a circular formation to represent the stones that are arranged in the same manner in Stonehenge. Hence, no matter from which exit you stand at the roundabout, the views of the Georgian houses are still the same.

The famous heritage of Bath is the Pulteney Bridge. The bridge has a Palladian design and it is one of only four in the world lined by shops on both sides. It was built for William Pulteney, whose wife had inherited rural Bathwick across the river from Bath. Terraces are cut in the river banks and across the river creating small rapids and parabolic water flow.
We went to Prior Park which is located at the outskirt of Bath. Set in a sweeping valley, we are able to get magnificient views of the city of Bath. It is a really nice and scenic park with a sense of peacefulness. The main highlight of the park is the Palladian bridge. The bridge is one of the only four left in the world and therefore it is under the preservation by the National Trust. The Palladian design is based on the original design by Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect of the Renaissance, for the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

It was already 12.40pm after our visit in the park and we have to get back to the city centre by 1.30pm to join the Stonehenge tour. Well... the city is approximately 40 min walk from the park. So we ended up running all the way back to the city. It seems like running is unavoidable in all our trips like running to the train station to catch the train to Edinburgh and running to catch the bus to Holy Island. But eventually we manage to reach the city on time.

It was a 1hr plus journey to the Stonehenge and we ate lunch on the bus. Lunch was bread and jam that we have packed during our breakfast in the hostel. Kinda pathetic but we have to think of ways to minimise our spendings for every trips. The weather was perfect, bright and sunny just the right day to go to Stonehenge.

By the time we came back to Bath, it was already 5pm. We wanted to go to the Roman Bath but it was already closed. To our delight, someone came out from the back door and we managed to sneak into the museum. The Roman Bath used to be the bath spa for the Romans during their reign in England. The Great Bath is the highlight of the museum. The bath is 1.6 metres deep which is ideal for bathing and has steps leading down on all sides. Statues of Roman soldiers are placed around the Great Bath.

The next morning, we boarded the bus at 6am back to London. The bus fare was incredibly cheap at only 1pd! (How I wish I can get this kinda fare for all my trips) It was a 3hrs journey and the 3 of us slept soundly throughout the bus ride. After sleeping only after 12 am and waking up at 5am this morning, all of us were dead tired. We then took the train at King's Cross to Cambridge and reached there at ard 1pm.

Cambridge, compared to Oxford, is definitely much more quiet. Although both of them are university towns, Oxford is a more cosmopolitan city. There are not many people along the streets in Cambridge whereas in Oxford, it is bustling with people in the city centre during the weekend. On the whole, I would consider Cambridge to have a more conducive environment for studying. Yusen was total mesmerized by the place and was even thinking of doing his masters in Cambridge!

We went to Queens College where the world famous Mathematical Bridge is located. The Mathematical Bridge is part of Cambridge mythology. It has been said that Newton designed it, and that it was so elegantly constructed it needed only mathematical principles, rather than screws or nails, to hold it together. The legend also has it that inquisitive students took it apart to see how it worked and were unable to put it back together. It was, in fact, built by James Essex the Younger in 1749. College records show that coach screws were used to fasten the joints of the original bridge.

Most of the colleges are located along the river. And as we walked along the river, we could see people punting. Well.. punting is the traditional English way of boating. There will be a guy standing at the rear of the boat and trying to move the boat forward by using a long pole to push against the ground of the river. It is a lovely sight, seeing the grand looking colleges, people strolling along the river and punting. We also met some Singaporeans studying in Cambridge and Imperial. Well... we could that they are Singaporeans immediately when they started speaking, all the 'la's and 'lor's, simply the trademarks of Singapore.

The biggest college in Cambridge should the King's college. It has a magnificient chapel just beside the college and a big patch of grass in front of the college. Well... there is a 'Do not step onto the grass' sign and we simply went in to take a better picture of the college. In the end, someone came over and scolded Yusen for walking on the grass. Luckily, Zhen Siong and I came out first.

It was getting late and along our way back to the train station, ZS found 30pds on the ground. At first, we were just thinking of having bread for dinner. In the end, we went to a chinese restaraunt to have a sumptuous meal in London. By the time we reached Newcastle, it was already 2am monday morning and all of us are dead tired.

Mission impossible accomplished! Experience level up!

2005-11-07T23:32:00.000-08:00

Brighton....

Jason and I were discussing where to go on Sunday the night before but Brighton is not one of the places in our mind. We were contemplating between Cornwall and Maidstone but Cornwall is too far from London so we bought the bus tickets to Maidstone. The bus is at 9am the next morning and we arrived 5min earlier. Thinking that we still have some time, we went to buy breakfast at a shop which is like a few metres from our departure bay. However, the bus left when we were back. The next bus to maidstone is in the late afternoon and there will not be enough time for us to travel around the place. In the end, we decided to go to Brighton instead since it is highly recommended by Jason's friend.

Brighton is located at the southern coast of England, 2 hr bus ride from London. Well... Brighton is famous for the beach and the long pier which extends up to 1km from the coast. There is also an amusement park on the pier which makes it even more special. During summer, the beach is filled with people, enjoying the sun and doing water sports. Well... today is definitely not a good day to visit Brighton. It is pouring heavily and the wind is blowing very strongly. Jason and I were shivering in the cold weather as we did not wear extra clothings.

We went to the Royal Pavilion first, hoping that the rain will stop by the time we came out. The Royal Pavilion is house to Prince Regent and a very interesting building. The exterior of the Pavilion has an indian look while the interior of the building is decorated with chinese paintings and lamps with dragon carvings. Well.. seems like Prince Regent is heavily influenced by the indian and chinese culture.

It is still drizzling after we finished our tour in the pavilion. We decided to go to the pier despite the strong wind and the rain drops hitting hard on us. Most of the shops on the pier were closed. The amusement park also ceased to operate during this period of time. Seems like it really is a wrong time to come as there is nothing to see on the pier. One thing comforting is the beautiful view when you stand on the pier and look back at the coast. I can imagine that it is a great place during summer with the bustling people on the beach and the pier.

2005-11-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Oxford...

Well.. the weekend is finally here again and this time I'm going to London alone. Woohoo! Quite an exciting one eh? Anyway, Yusen, Zhen Siong and Regent are going to Manchester and Liverpool this saturday but I did not join them as the main purpose of their trip is to visit Old Trafford and Anfield (well.. maybe for Yusen). Zhen Siong was quite relunctant to go but in the end joined them. As for me, being a non-football fan, decided to go to London to find Jason instead and then going to Oxford together.

Boarded the megabus at 3.40pm on Friday evening and this began my solo trip to London. It was a 7.5 hrs journey due to some accidents along the road that caused the bus ride to be delayed by an hour. It was a very long journey. I tried to read some notes to kill time but got kinda dizzy due to the bumpy ride. In the end, I slept throughout most of the journey. Reached London Victoria at 11.30pm and Jason was there to fetch me. We took the tube back to his place. The train was in a massive bad condition and it looks as if it has been running for decades without maintenances and it also made abrupt stops in between stations. Eventually, we reached Jason's place at around 12 plus am.

We woke up early the next morning to board the Oxford-London tube and reached Oxfordshire in 2hrs time. We met up with Jason's army friend, Weihao, who is currently in his third year in Oxford University and majoring in Chemistry. He brought us to his college, Worcester College and it was really beautiful. . It is a nice place to study in, with those traditional English buildings and a pond just beside the building. You can just take a stroll in the park after school and immediately be refreshed. Well.. today is probably the graduation day as we could see students in their graduation attire taking photos with their parents.

Oxford used to be a small university town. But as the influx of tourist to the area increases each year, Oxford soon became a cosmopolitian city and thus lost its peaceful sight compared to Cambridge. However, it's still a place worth visiting as the university colleges remained unchanged and still retained their first look.

We went to Christ Church College after our visit in Weihao's college. Well... Christ Church College is the biggest and richest college in the university. Famous people like Charles Boyle came from that college. The college was made even famous when the dinning area of the college was being used for the filming of Harry Potter. Flock of tourist came to the college just to have a peek at the dinning area and it cost 3.50pd just to get into the college.

Weihao then brought us to the river which is just a few minutes walk from Christ Church College. We could see people rowing in the river. Apparently, rowing is a very popular sport in Oxford University and there is a regatta where the various colleges would compete and try to sink their opponent's boat. Erm....as you can see that the colleges are not really in good terms with one another. There is sort of a rivary just like the halls of residence in NUS.

Finally, we went to one of the museum in the university. Well... this is not one of those museum where they display boring stuffs like old paintings and antiques. This museum is really an interesting one. It is the Biology Museum which showcase the skeletons of the different animal species. They even have a giant dinosaur skeleton in the museum. Pretty impressive eh??

Well.. today is Guy Fawkes Day. It is the celebration of this guy called Guy Fawkes who failed to bomb one of the major building in England. On this day, fireworks will be displayed throughout England. At first, Jason and I wanted to go to River Thames and watch the fireworks but the bus driver refused to let us take the earlier bus back to the London. In the end, we can only watch the firworks display from the windows of our bus. Kinda sad...

2005-10-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Seahouses...

Well.. actually our plan for this weekend is to take a bus to Holy Island, which is 60 miles to the north of Newcastle, then spending the night at Berwick. We have already called the night before to make a reservation in the youth hostel. We also did our research on the attractions in the island. Well... it seems that somehow we ended in the Seahouses instead of the Holy Island...

It was 8.15 am and I'm all packed and ready for the trip. We are supposed take the 8.25 am bus at the Haymarket and reached Holy Island at around 10.45 am. Well, this is the only bus that goes to the island for today. It is not easy to get to Holy Island as the land connecting the mainland and the island will be submerged during high tide and we can only go the island during low tide.

Went up to Zhen Siong and Yusen rooms and only to discover that they just woke up only! Can't believe that Yusen can be late for 2 consecutive sat morning. We had to run to the Haymarket to catch the bus. Despite all our running, we still missed the bus by a minute. So, we are stuck at bus station and lost about what to do next. In the end, we decided to go to the tourism office to ask if there are other ways we can get to Holy Island. The tourism lady told us that it's not really possible to go there today as the next low tide is at 4.45 pm and there will be no buses connecting the mainland to the island by then. She recommended us to go to the Seahouses and also the Bamburgh Castle instead and this is how we ended in Seahouses.

It was a 2.5 hrs bus journey from Newcastle to Seahouses. Seahouses is located at the coast near Berwick so it is rather close to the English / Scottish border. The first impression that it give me is that it is like another Tynemouth. Being close to the sea, Seahouses is famous for their fish & chips though I din really had fish & chips for lunch. At first we were hoping to get a boat trip to Holy Island from Seahouses but they dun have such deals. In the end, we booked a ferry cruise around the nearby islands which include the Farne Island. According to Zhen Siong, seals could be see on the Farne Island. The cruise was great at the beginning and the view was superb but it gets quite cold with the sea breeze blowing against us. The cruise brought us to the Farne Island and we can see seals swimming in the sea and white baby seals packed at the coast. The sea became rough when we headed back to mainland and the ferry was shaking violently. Zhen Siong and I started to get a bit sea sick and he claimed that the fish he had earlier was at his throat. We managed to survive the cruise without vomitting on the boat.

The last bus back to the Newcastle is at 5.45 pm but it will be going to Bamburgh before making its way to Newcastle. We managed to talk the driver to dropping us at Bamburgh Castle to take some photos before sending us back to Newcastle. We are allowed to spend 3 min to take the photos of the Castle, so we make it a quick one before going back to the bus again.

2005-10-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

The Match...

Managed to buy the Sunderland vs Arsenal tics at onli 5 pds. Well... it's not the EPL matches but the Carling Cup matches, so ticket prices tend to be cheaper. A typical EPL ticket would cost at least 30 pds, incredible izzit?? Yet there are still people willing to fork up the money to watch 1 match. It's a home game for Sunderland so we just took a Metro (similar to MRT) to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. It was a 20 min journey and we soon reach the stadium. The place was crowed with people wearing red and white strips jersery, most probably the Sunderland fans. We had to queue for quite a long time to enter the stadium.

The stadium was totally packed with people. It's like another NDP in S'pore. We got quite a good seat, just a few rows from the field so it's kinda up close and personal. We are at one corner of the stadium so we could catch an even better view when the players take a corner kick. It is 7.45pm and the match is about to begin. The Sunderland players ran into the the field with the fan cheering loudly behind. This was followed by alot of booing when the Arsenal players came in. Well... that's the moral disadvantage for away team. It was a one sided match with Arsenal dominating the whole game. Arsenal had fielded in their youth players but they still managed to win the game with a 3-0 victory. It is really a good experience watching a live match with the fans cheering for their own teams.

After the match, we went to the casino. Well... we din go down for the gambling but for the FREE buffet. The casino is providing free food and drinks on sunday, monday and tuesday nights to attract a bigger crowd. They are even giving free DVD players if you visit the casino for 20 times in 1 month. The supper for that night is steak and it was superb, the best and most filling meal I had so far. Well...it's a pity that Regent, Zhen Siong and Yusen can't eat beef.

2005-10-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

Refreshed!!!

Today is Sabbath day and I really look forward to this day where I can go to God's House and get renewed in the Spirit. I haven't been attending church for 2 weeks due to all the travellings and I'm feeling so bad about it. Finally, today I can quieten down my heart and come into the presence of God. Went to Juni's place at 12.45pm to meet Wenjin who is supposed to bring me to the new Bethsan. We then went over to Yanzi place before going to the church with her. The new Bethshan church is located very near to St James Stadium (well.. in case you dunno, St James Stadium is the home ground for Newcastle United FC) and the place used to be a methodist church. The church members are very friendly and came over to greet us when we entered the church, making us feel so much at home. The church is very big, about 1/3 the size of a concert hall with 2 levels. They got a great worship team and even have a group of dancers in front of the stage. The service is very good and I felt so refreshed after the whole service, never better before. The only bad thing is that there is a soccer match in St James Stadium, Newcastle vs Sunderland on that day. This seems to draw some of the attendance from the church.

After the service, I went back to play tennis with Regent, Yusen, Zhen Siong and Jonanna. Well, I'm not really good at the game. The last time I played was 1 yr ago. Anyway, being a badminton player, I tend to hit the ball too high and send it flying over the fences. After the game, the rest went to Regent's place to have dinner while I was stucked at home doing the lab report dued the next day *sigh*. Lab reports again!!! Seems like the life of a chem eng student is going to start again....

2005-10-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh....

It is the weekend again and this time we are going down to Edinburgh! Jasmine was like "I want to go too!" when I told her that we'll be going to Edinburgh but too bad she's in Germany (sorry gal). Anyway, I have heard a lot about the place, its rich history and of course the Edinburgh Castle. Those who had been there always say that if you have been to Edinburgh Castle, there's no point visting the rest of the castles in UK. The unique part of Edinburgh is that the current city is built on top on the ancient city, so it'll be great to participate in the underground tours to see the ancient city. Keith had told me to go for the ghost tour where the guide will bring you underground and tell ghost stories about the place. All these make me all the more wanna go to Edinburgh.

Well, the day that I'm looking forward to is finally here. We are supposed to meet at 8am that day, take a stroll to the train station and catch the train at 8.45am. However, it was 8.30am and Yusen was not here yet. Went up to his room and found that he had just woke up only! In the end, instead of taking a slow walk to the station, we had to run there in the rain. Luckily, we managed to board the train and the train started moving like 10sec after we stepped into it. Xuejia and Joanna slumped into their seats immediately and couldn't stop panting. Not soon later, they dozed off. Well, Yusen was the one who kept reminding people not to be late and he himself was late.

It was a 1.5 hrs train ride. The first impression of the city when we arrived is that it's like another Newcastle. Well, it doesn't seems to be as impressive as the people had described it to be. At one look, the city seems to be divided into two different time zone. On one side are all the modern buildings and shopping malls while on the other side are the old buildings. The Edinburgh castle sits on a big rock in the middle of the city. This is the unique difference between Edinburgh castle and the rest of the castles in UK. Edinburgh Castle is built high upon the basalt remains of a long extinct volcano. People have come from all places just to visit the castle.

We paid 9.80pds for entry into the castle which is rather expensive (Well.. we have come all the way here to see the castle). The interior is rather disappointing, not as good as I expected it to be. There are many old Scottish houses in the castle, which have been turned into resturants and souvenir shops. There are also people dressed as Guards during the early Scottish wars. Edinburgh was once the royal residence of Scottish Kings and Queens. Over the next century the castle was used to hold prisoners of war during several conflicts including the Seven Years' War (1757-63), the War of American Independence (1775-83), and the Napoleonic wars (1793-1815). Recenly, the Honours of Scotland -- the Crown, the Sceptre and the Sword of State have been brought to Edinburgh castle from England. The Honours of Scotland now resides in the heavily guarded crown room. We had to queue for quite long to catch a glimpse of these precious items.

We wanted to go for the ghost tour after the castle trip. However, most of the tours are either full due to the weekends or too late at night, which we can't go as our train leaves at 7pm. Eventually, we found one historical underground tour which starts at 4pm. The guide allowed us to join the tour after our lunch as long as we came back before 4pm. However, when we returned, the guide backed out on his words and refused to let us join in. Yusen got so pissed off and started arguing with the guide but it's fruitless.

We went to our final destination -- the Arthur's Seat. It is located within Holyrood Park in the centre of Edinburgh. Arthur's seat are the remains of a volcano that erupted under water during the Carboniferous period. It is located 250m above the city. We had a hard time climbing up to the top of the hill as the hill is very steep and the path up is rather narrow. It was raining in the morning which makes the ground even more slipperly. Eventually, we reached the submit the view was superb. We could see the entire Edinburgh city beneath us and the sea. Well, it's a special day for us as we got to see a guy dressed in bagpipper, clothings proposing to his girlfriend at the submit. It's sooo... romantic.. *envy*

2005-10-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

Autumn in UK!!!

The weather is getting colder each day and the temperature now is around 8 degree celsius. It has been raining for the past few days and according to the weather forcast, it will continue to rain for the rest of the week. Casper has told me that it is usually a wet season before winter sets in. Well, hopefully it will not rain this saturday as we will be going down to Edinburgh. We won't be able to enjoy much of the places if it rains on that day.

The rain drops in UK seems to be much smaller than in Singapore so you dun really feel the droplets hitting on you. In UK, the heaviest rain you can get is just a drizzle unlike in Singapore, which usually pour heavily for the whole day. The leaves are also starting to turn yellow and falling off the tree, signalling the start of autumn. I wouldn't say that it is a pretty sight with bald tree but it's something different which we dun usually see in Singapore. However, I really think that the sight of snow capped trees and snow covered ground is marvelous. I really hope that it will snow in Newcastle before I leave, though it only started snowing in Feb last year. Well, I gotta pray hard and cross my fingers about it.

2005-10-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

Lake District....

Finally, we are going to embark on our mini adventure to Lake District. We have been planning for this trip 1 week ago, from sourcing of car rental to planning of the route to Lake District. This is going to be a rather exciting trip as we are going drive to Lake District and this is the first time that we are driving in UK! Woohoo! Well, the seniors have told us that most of the place in Lake District are rather inaccessible by buses and it would be best that we could drive there, so that we can cover more places.

We went to Europcar to pick up our cars, 1 black and 1 blue Nissan Micra. It was drizzling that morning so it wasn't a perfect day to drive. Our drivers for the first part of the journey are Zhen Siong and Yusen. As for me, being a non-driver, I was responsible for navigation. Well, reminds me of the topo exercises I used to have in SISPECS. Yusen hasn't drove a manual car for 3 yrs, so he had some difficulties trying to drive initially. After driving a few rounds in the carpark, we began our journey to Lake District.

It was around 1.5hr trip and the view along the way was fantastic. We reached Ullswater in the afternoon and the scenery was marvelous. Nice, blue lake with the mountains at the background. It was so refreshing when the cool breeze blew into our face. All of us felt so relaxed just by looking at the lake. It would definitely be an ideal place to stay after retirement, the pace of life seems to slow down by a few time in this kinda countryside area.

We then went to Aira Force. It is like Bukit Timah Reserve but here you get to see the temperate forest rather than the tropical rainforest in Singapore. Along the way we could see trekkers, both young and old, coming here to see the waterfall. It is a rather long way up the hill to where the waterfall is but upon seeing the waterfall, our tireness seems to disappeared.

We eventually had our dinner at an inn in Kirkstone Pass, supposedly the highest point in Lake District. It's a traditional English inn and also the only building on the mountain top. Had the traditional English sausage and hot chocolate for dinner which costs 9 pds plus. Finally, we spent our night at the Patterdale Youth Hostel.

The next morning, we drove down to Wintermere -- the most beautiful lake in the district and also most populated with tourists. The 2 major towns, Wintermere and Amberside are located at the coast of the Wintermere Lake, which accounts for the large number of people. Well, the lake really lifted up to their name. It was really beautiful and there are swans and ducks swimming in the lake. We took the ferry cruise from one side of the lake to the tip of the lake, where Amberside is. The cruise view was absolutely fabulous!

2005-10-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

York....

Today is Wednesday and we are going to York!!! Haha... you guys must be wondering why right? The lecturers have cancelled all the lessons for the day and we have 1 free day. Hurray!!! So, we decided to go to York and bought the train tics too.

We left for York in the morning and reached there 1hr later. York is the epitome of Ye Olde Englishe Towne. It is a city of extraordinary cultural and historical wealth. We were so amazed that the city is actually surrounded by a magnificient ciruit of 13th century walls. At its heart is the immense, awe-inspiring minster, one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world. The medieval spider's web of narrow streets are similar to those in Durham and Alnwick.

York Minster

We went to the National Railway Museum immediately after we dropped off from the train. This museum features a wide display of trains from the first train that was used to transport cattles to Eurostar which runs from London to Paris. It also depicts the history of the railway in UK, how it was constructed etc. The museum also showcases miniatures of trains and of the people constructing the railway. The workmanship is really good and all of them look so real.

Later in the afternoon, we went for the guided tour around York. The guide is a nice old fellow and started bringing us around, telling us the history of the place. We soon got bored of the grandpa and grandma stories and broke off from the group. Went to the York Minster instead. The York Minster is the island's largest medieval cathedral and Yorkshire's most important historic building. The Minster had been badly damaged by fire in 1984 and the government spent a huge sum restoring it.

We paid 6.50pds for a tour in the Minster and the undercroft. Unlike the Durham Cathedral, we are allowed to take photos in the Minster. We then started taking out our cameras and snapping shots everywhere in the Minster. The Minster is at least 1.5 times bigger than the Durham Cathedral. The interior is magnificent. Sinuous stonework surrounds a wonderful uninterrupted space. There are more than 200 expressive carved heads and figures. The main attraction is still the conical rooftop with no central support, which clearly represents the major stages of Gothic architectural development in the early 12th-century.

In the undercroft, we are able to see the treasury and crypt. The treasury houses 11th - century artefacts, including relics from the graves of medieval archbishops. The crypt contains fragments from the Norman cathedral, including the font showing King Edwin's baptism that also marks the site of Paulinus' orginal wooden chapel.

We ended our day at the Clifford's Tower. The tower is the precious little left of York Castle. We dun get the chance to go into the tower as it was closed for the day. However, we managed to capture some photos of the exterior before going back...

2005-10-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

First Day of School

Finally, it's the first day of school!!! For the first time in my life, I'm looking forward to the start of school (am I crazy??). Maybe because I haven't been studying for a long long time, 5 mths already. Though I've been going back for lectures in NUS during august, it's just not the same...I'm like going back for a holiday (sorry guys).

Anyway, I attended the first lecture at 11am - Multivariate Methods. The class is only 7 ppl. Oh man...will definitely kena arrowed to answer questions... Anyway, the lecturer is very nice and she keeps claiming that she can't believe how organised she is for the first lecture, claims that she has always been very disorganised.

The next lecture is Human Resource Management which is only 1 hr per week. Half of the lecture goes to a guy who talks about the new HR text that has just been published, leaving the poor lecturer only half an hour to conduct his lecture.

The day ended off with a Process Intensification lecture. Well, seems like the first day have been rather smooth sailing and I hope that everything will go fine as the semester passes by.

2005-10-02T22:27:00.000-07:00

Tynemouth & Sunderland....

Today, the S'pore society people brought us to Tynemouth. Well, it had always been their tradition to bring the freshers to Tynemouth to eat fish & chips. Yujin has been telling us about how big the fish portion is and making all of us drool. Finally, we can try the fish & chips for ourselves.

We took the Metro to Tynemouth and was immediately greeted by the flea market at the Metro station. Unlike the flea market by the quayside that only sell daily necessities, the market here sells alot of old stuffs and souvenirs. So, we spent 1 hr looking for souvenirs that we can buy back to S'pore. Yusen was deciding whether to get a tile with an old english picture which costs 5pds. In the end, he got an Abba gramaphone disc at 1pd.

Tynemouth is located at the coast of Northeast England and also where River Tyne exits to the sea. From the coast, we are able to see people sailing in the sea. The Tynemouth castle and priory stand on the rocky headland overlooking the sea. The promontory forms a defensive site above the river entrance. Robert Mowbray, the son of Robert of Mondrai a norman knight who had fought with William the Conqueror, built the first castle here about 1080. There is also a statue of Admiral Lord Collingwood, facing the sea which is supposed to be visible from wherever you stand at the coast.

We had fish & chips for lunch. Well, the fish portion, like what Yujin had mentioned, was incredibly large and I was trying my hard to finish my food. In the end, Shangyuan had to help me with the fish. The fish & chips we had is traditional english style and we ate it with pure vingear instead of tar tar sauce.

After lunch, we took the ferry from north shield to south shield, Sunderland. Well, Sunderland is a small town, and the street is just like that in Newcastle. Most of the shops are closed because it's sunday. I left earlier to meet Anthony to go his church. He used to be attending Bethshan Christian Community but they broke out from Besthshan to form the International Harvest Church. It is rather hard to find AOG church in Newcastle, most of the churches in Newcastle are anglican, St Mary, St Thomas etc. The congregation is held in a person's home and just around 20 people. The service is similar to the charismatic churches in S'pore, worship followed by sermon. Had a great time fellowshipping with the rest after service ended.

2005-10-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

Alnwick....

It's the weekend again!!! Yeah!!! We have made it a point to travel every weekend during this SEP, so that we can cover as many places as possible. Today we are going to Alnwick. Alnwick is Northumberland's historic ducal town and also one of the site in the filming of Harry Potter. Well, Alnwick is a small town and also rather near to Newcastle, making it the best choice for a day trip.

We took the 10am coach and the journey is about 1hr. Eventually, we reached Alnwick in the late morning. The streets are rather similar to the ones in Durham, narrow and cobbled. The place is like a small maze and we got lost trying to go to Alnwick Castle. In the end, with the guide of the local, we managed to find our way there.

The entrance fee to the Alnwick Castle and Garden is 12 pds (Wow!!!). Being typical Singaporeans, we stood at the outside for a long time and discuss whether we want to go to both places. Eventually, we managed to get 2 more gals to make up a group of 14 people and get a 50p discount for each person. The castle was really nice and immediately all of us agreed that 11.5 pds entrance fee is worth it. The towers of the castle stood tall and grand, surrounded by nice, carpet green grass. We also came to the spot where they filmed Harry Potter having his first flying lesson.

The imposing Alnwick Castle is the ancestral home of the Duke of Northumberland. Until now, the Duke and Duchess is still staying in the castle, so it is not surprised that we can find plasma TV, VCD players and photographs of the royal family inside the castle. These people only move in during winter. The castle is thus opened to the public from spring to autumn. The interior is sumptuous and extravagant, with an incredible display of Italian paintings. Magnificent carving decorates the rooms, completed by the Florentine-trained Alnwick school.

A 10min walk from the castle brings us to another place of beauty - the Alnwick Garden. This is the garden of the Duke and the place is incredibly large. It's like a larger scale of botanic garden. An interesting part is the posion garden which features the different kind of posionous plants in Alnwick. The highlight of the Alnwick Garden is still the tree house. Well, as the name suggests, the whole house was built on the tree and it was around 2 storeys high. It was rather unique and they even have a chimney that emits smoke, which makes the tree house so alive making us feel as if we are in fairyland.

2005-09-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

The Run

Met Yujin, Wanling, Terence and Jerome at sport hall. They just came back from Switzerland and were manning the S'pore Society booth at the CCA exhibition. Yusen suggested going for a run and Yujin was quick to agree to it. It's really really a long time since I last ran and I dunno whether I'll be able to keep up with their pace (Yujin seems to be rather fit though he claims that he haven't run for a long time).

We met Yujin, Wanling and Jerome somewhere near castle leazes for the run. Zhen Siong did not join us because he was busy fixing his computer which had 'kana' virus. Anyway, the weather was real good for a run with occasional cool breeze blowing towards us. A good thing about running in England is that you dun really sweat while you are running.

We ran to town moor. Yujin was really 'siao on', started singing army songs and shouting 'left right left right left'. He also made us 'chiong' up the knoll, which reminded me alot of those army days in 4SIR. It was really tiring as we have to run up the knoll with the wind blowing at us. All of us were almost half dead when we reached the top of the knoll.

The view from the top was brillant. The bright blue sky above us and the big green field just under our foot. After looking at God's marvelous creations, I really cannot imagine how beautiful heaven will be.

2005-09-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Grass Is Not Always Greener on the Other Side

It is the week of registration in the university and we have to attend quite a number of induction lectures regarding the use of the library, lab safety, IchemE talk, blar blar blar... We also need to register for our modules which we faced tremendous problems. One of the module, biotechnology, which I'm supposed to take is now offered in sem 2. They just decided to change it to sem 2 recently and until now they haven't updated the module website, which states it's offered in sem 1 (now you can imagine how efficient is their adminstration). Eventually, we spoke to the lecturer who allows us to do a self study on the module and she will set a final paper just for me and Yusen. There were also lots of timetable clashes but Ming managed to sort it out for us (thank God). Now, we are taking modules from year 2 to year 4.

We had been in England for almost a week and the conversion of pounds to sing dollars really hits us hard. The cheapest lunch you can is to grab a sandwhich in Greggs which costs ard 1.75 pds, which is equivalent to 5.25 sing dollars (amazing izzit??). We got sick of eating costly sandwiches which is not really that spectacular. So, we decided to get our own bread, ham and cheese to make our own sandwiches for lunch. In fact, it is very common for foreign students to pack their own lunch.

Washing clothes in England is also very expensive. Unlike in Raffles Hall, we can use the washing machines as and when we want because they are free. Over here, using the washing machine each time costs 1.60 pds while the dryer costs 20p. It's really really expensive to wash clothes here so we decided to wash once every week (no more than that). We also came up with our own way to dry our clothes without the dryer, i.e to hang them in front of the heater.

The English people are generally very friendly but they tend to drink alot and go clubbing almost every night. So, it's very common to see a drunkard struggling to walk in a straight line along the streets at 1, 2 am. However, the thing that amazes me is that they are still able to wake up early the next morning to go to work or school and not suffer from hang-overs.

2005-09-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Flea Market & Baltic Museum

Finally, it's sunday, the last day of the week! The seniors brought us to the flea market at the quayside. There are alot of make-shift stores but not much of a crowd at the market. The stuffs sold are mostly daily essentials and clothes, not much of souveirs. We walked around the flea market. There's nothing really special about the market, just like another 'pasa malam' in S'pore. The only difference is that the market is in the day.

Flea Market

Later in the afternoon, we went to Baltic Museum which is just at the opposite side of River Tyne. The catch about this museum is that it's FREE (what a relief!). We have been spending alot of money on food and travelling, gotta cut down on my spendings. Anyway, I'm not really a person into art, so I can't appreciate the drawings and scupltures in the museum. Saw a scuplture of a rat and a cockroach, dun really know what they are trying to depict. Just wanna take some pics of the art pieces but got stopped by the security guard who insists that no photography is allowed (what a pity! anyway photography is also a form of art mah). We went to the top of the building where we are able to enjoy the scenic view of the city of Newcastle and also the famous Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

2005-09-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

A Day Trip in Durham

Today is first saturday since I reached Newcastle and we planned to go to Durham. Durham is just a 15 min train ride down from Newcastle and it's a small town, suitable for a day trip. The place was also made famous after it was used as one of the site for the movie, Harry Potter (though I'm still not very sure which is the part).

We bought the tickets at the central station and it costs 4.80 pds for a day pass (wouldn't consider it to be too expensive). Well, in England, you dun really need to get a ticket to board the train unlike in Singapore. However, there will be random spot checks by the conductors and if you are 'suay' enough to get caught without a ticket, you will be liable for a fine of 20 pds or more. So it's up to you whether you want to take the risk anot.

We reached Durham in the late morning. The place is awesome. From the elevated ground, we are able to capture the overview of the whole town. The Durham Cathedral stands high and prominent admist the rest of the buildings. It really looks very grand from far, can't imagine how beautiful it will be when it's just standing right in front of me!

Durham Cathedral

Durham is small, posh and exquisite. We walked along the traditional english, cobbled street to reach the town centre. The street is rather narrow with rows of shop houses by the side. You can also see people busking by the road side. In fact, it is a common sight in England. After a 15min walk, we reached the outskirt of the Cathedral. The view was magnificent. There is an open patch of field outside the Cathedral and Durham Castle is just opposite the Cathedral. Durham Castle was the prince bishops' home until 1837, when it became the first college of the new university. It remains a university hall. We din go in to the castle due to the limited time and therefore have to choose between the castle or cathedral. In the end, we chose to go into the Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral is considered to be Britain's most magnificent Romanesque struture. It is vast and has a pretty fortified look because although it may have been built to pay tribute to God and to house the holy bones of St Cuthbert, it also needed to withstand attacks by the Scots and Northumberland tribes on the Normans.

The interior is spectacular. Durham was the first European cathedral to be roofed with stone-ribbed vaulting, which upheld the heavy stone roof and made it possible to build pointed transverse arches, the first in Britain and a great architectural achievement. It's a pity that we are not allowed to take pictures in the holy ground.

We paid 1.40 pds to enter the tower leading to the top of the cathedral. It is a long way up with a total of 325 steps and it gets kinda dizzy when we walked up the spiral staircase. Nonetheless, it's worth it as the view from the top was simply breathtaking.

2005-09-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

A Day of Sweat

Went shopping in Eldon Square, a rather big shopping mall in Newcastle. At first it was supposed to be mere window shopping but we came across Sport World, that is having storewide sale. Some of the sport equipments are really really cheap, e.g. a pair of soccer boots costs only 11 pounds. We got stuck in the shop for a long while. Nicky, Yusen and Zhen Siong were busy choosing their boots. In the end, all of them picked the grey 'total 90' boots. When I asked them why they chose the same boots, they claim that the boots are different cos they have different sole design (err...lost for words).

Later in the afternoon, Regent brought us to a Chinese supermarket where we can get some chinese stuffs like oyster sauce and rice. Yes.. rice, you dun get to see rice being sold everywhere in Newcastle. Actually, the ang mohs do eat rice except that they do not know how to cook rice cos they haven't see a rice cooker. All they have is those rice that is frozen and all they need to do is to put it in the microwaves. Anyway, we bought a 10kg sack of rice which costs ard 5.80 pds (not really that expensive). This would also mean that we have to carry that sack of rice back and it's a long trip back by foot.

We then went to Netto, the supermarket that is supposed to be selling the cheapest stuffs in town. True enough, the food is rather cheap and we bought alot of stuffs that would last us for at least a week. Anyway, the bad thing about Netto is that they do not provide plastic bag, so you must bring a bag to contain the stuffs. The reason is simple enough: to reduce budget. In the end, we bought so much that we can't possibly bring back (bear in mind, we still have that 10kg sack of rice to carry). Regent suggested that we could use their trollery to push our items back (What a brillant idea!!!). We pretended to return the trolley and then tried to smuggle the trolley out. However, we got caught by the security guard and in the end we have no choice but to bring the stuffs back in a box. It was a long journey back, and we were sweating like crazy carrying the rice and groceries that we bought.

Me carrying the sack of rice

2005-09-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

A Home Away From Home

Met up with the rest of the freshies early in the morning near Keith's place. All of them look really really tired. Seems like they haven't recover from the jet lack. 2 hongkee gers just flew to Newcastle this morning and joined our group. One is called Eleana and the other is Hugo, same name as the brand Hugo Boss. Our group seems to increasing in number each time and that would mean more names to remember.. Aaargh!! *faint*. Anyway, Keith is our tour guide for the day as Yujin and the rest of the committee member of S'pore society are heading down to Switzerland late afternoon *envy* (nvm..we are going there during dec too). Keith had been to Newcastle for a six mth attachment, so he is the 'lao jiao' in the area. We met Yujin along the way to campus and he brought us to the internet bubble in the old library. Apparently, the place used to be a library but now you can't find books there. We met Yujin's friend in the old library. This guy's called Regent and he's in his final year doing business. He just flew in from Singapore this morning and was so unfortunate to 'kana arrowed' to be our new tour guide just because he bumped into Yujin at the wrong time.

Regent brought us to the city centre where we went to set up our bank account and get pre-paid cards for our handphones. Later in the evening, Regent was also kind enough to invite us over to his place for dinner. He stays in Honey Pot House (what a cute name) which is just a small distance away from the castle. Currently, his flat is still vacant expect for this BBC (british born chinese) guy, Steven, who is staying with him now. We ate the dinner that Regent cooked for us. It is really an enjoyable meal, eating some home cooked food and chit chatting with one another. It's just like one big family. A home away from home (Raffles Hall motto).

The weather gets rather cold in the evening and there's like free air conditioning in the house. It's so cold that nite that Yi Fong jokingly said,' Can you pls turn down the air con?'

2005-09-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Setting Foot on the English Land

This is the first time that I travel on a 13hr flight. The feeling is horrible!!! I'm stuck in a small little seat with not much space to move my body and I din get much sleep throughout the journey. Luckily, there is a small TV screen at the back of every seat, so I was spending most of the time watching 'Simpsons'.

20th Sep 05 0715: We finally arrived at Heathrow airport. Yujin had told us before that Heathrow is a crowded place and the efficiency level of the staff is very low. This is indeed quite true. We actually queued for an hour to get through the custom and Yusen was complaining that his back is aching from carrying his 10+++ kg backpack for too long.

We had to wait for another 5 hrs for our transit to Newcastle. In the mean time, we wandered around the airport, checking out the prices of the food in UK. 1 bottle of 500ml coke costs 1.20 pound. That's crazy man!!! Dunno how are we going to survive for next few months, feasting on roti for lunch, breakfast and dinner???

The English is also rather innovative to come up with the idea of condom vending machines which are found in all the male toliet in the airport. This really tells us something about their lifestyle.

20th Sep 05 1415: After a 1 hour scenic ride on the plane, we finally reached our destination, NEWCASTLE. The weather is superb. Like what Tee Hoon mentioned in his blog, it's like being in sunny Singapore with a portable air con. It gets even colder when the cool wind rushes into your face.

Yujin was already at the airport to fetch us. He thought that we are arriving at 9 plus in the morning and has been waiting for 5 hrs *poor guy*. We boarded the bus to our hostel and along the way, Yusen and I were like going 'wooo' and 'wah'. The traditional English buildings and architectures are simply superb and they are arranged in an orderly fashion along the road. For the first time, we are finally away from the high rise HDB flats. 1 year ago, Yusen and I were still planning to go for SEP, now we are in NEWCASTLE.

We reached our accommodation, Esther Campbell Court Richardson Road in around 20 min later. The building structure of the blocks is very similar to Raffles Hall and I really feel as if I'm walking back to my hall. The difference between Raffles Hall and Esther Campbell Court is that the latter is more communal. We are staying in a 6 room flat and will be sharing the toilet, shower and kitchen.

One good thing about the university is that it is located next to the city center which is like the new SMU campus. Therefore, we can get our daily grocery rather easily. Yujin brought us around the city, to the Green Market and Grainger Market where we can get vegetables and meat and to Wilkinson where we can buy cheap household supplies.

Later in the evening, we met up with the rest of the people from the Singapore Society and also some of the Singaporean freshies that have just came over to Newcastle. We had a chinese buffet in a resturant in chinatown (the Englishmen actually put up a sign 'zhong guo chen' a direct translation for chinatown instead of ' tang ren jie'). The meal was marvellous especially after a long flight and we were all feeling tremendously hungry. The buffet costs 7.20 pounds (you can eat an international crusine in Paris Resturant at the same rate). Guess like chinese food in UK is a luxury, and dun think we can enjoy it as and when we want if we want to reduce our budget. Seems to me that I'm gonna miss the fried kway tiao and chicken rice in Singapore.....

2005-09-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

The Departure to UK

The day is finally here when I will be embarking on the journey to Newcastle, UK, land of the English Premier League (though i dun really watch soccer but who cares jus join in the crowd). Filled with mixed feelings, I'm at same time excited over the trip and also worried about what is lying ahead of us. But I know whatever it is, God is there with me. Reached the airport at 8pm, though my flight is at 12.45 am. (thanks to my mum who keeps rushing me to be at the airport early). Had a farewell dinner with my relatives while waiting for my friends to come. Was so touched that tianhua, weihan and casper actually took a cab down to send me off. Thank you guys and I hope to see you soon when I get back to RH (if Mr President can get a place for me when I return). Anyway many many thanks to those who came down too. Guess like I'll be missing you people while I'm in UK. The time has finally come when I have to learn to be more independent and stand up on my own feets.