Saturday, December 25, 2010
8:32 am
Merry Christmas everyone!!! Its the time of year when people get presents and stuff (though should be celebrating the birth of christ but not everyone out there are christians), eat turkey (mmm...turkey), and sing merry songs that havent changed for the past...i dunno...100 years? A time when snow is supposed to fall and REAL christmas trees are put up in the house. Hmm...christmas sure has changed over the years, but a wonderful holiday nonetheless.
Oh yeah, i'm back from london (actually been back for 4 days, just lazy to post anything). Didnt get stuck in heathrow airport for too long a time so thats fine. I should recount the 10 days i spent there before i forget.
Day 1: Reached london in the morning (london is 8hrs behind), checked into the hotel somewhere along kensington, near the imperial college. Went to walk around, to hyde park, big ben, buckingham palace. Saw the change of guard, with the royal music and everything. Sis took alot of pictures of squirrels and birds...she thinks theyre cute. Saw stuff like the london telephone booth, mailbox and buses, which was like...quite interesting cause usually you would see all of that in cartoons or movies. Well its as iconic thing... Got to see horses, lots of horses, cause theres this royal calvary thing somewhere and everytime they have the change of guard (which is like every other day) they would display the horses. It was really cool.
Day 2: Met my cousin who was studying in imperial college to give him some stuff (LED monitor for his laptop), and he gave us a tour of the campus and the surrounding area. Can totally see the difference between the engineering faculty and the arts faculty...oh and apparently people party alot in uni. Campus was pretty scattered and seemingly quite big so took quite some time to walk the whole length. Which reminds me...i still have no idea where i'm gonna go after army. Went to the natural history museum too. They have this huuuuge rock collection which was totally awesome (sigh...i'm a geography student after all), and also a skeleton of the dodo bird among other extinct species.
Day 3: Left for kent which is a totally different city haha. Was an hour plus drive south east of london (parents rented a car). Had to get a gps to get there...roads in the UK are really really confusing. Alot of roundabouts too...totally reminded me of mr bean. After much awkward turns and going the wrong way, finally managed to reach the place we were supposed to stay. Not really a hotel, more like an inn, or a tavern like thing. I love british architecture haha, look like those medieval kind of thing. There was free internet too. Oh on this day, temperatures went to about 1 degree so it was pretty cold. Was still only wearing my jacket though...my windbreaker was of no use in this trip.
Day 4: Went to WIMBLEDON!!! Yayyy. Only tennis fans would actually be so excited actually...the only Grand Slam on grass courts, where thousands have participated but only a few have won. Hahahaha i was seriously very ecstatic when i went there. Toured the whole compound, even areas not usually open to the public (cause the tour guide was nice). Centre court seemed smaller than on tele though. I was expecting it to be bigger than the one in school, but its actually the same size, or about there anyway. Tickets also much cheaper than expected...only 20 pounds for everything besides centre court and court 1. Man...i really wanna watch a match there someday. Bought a few souvenirs (sam zan and asraf, you'll get yours soon), took a look around the museum there. Got to see the actual trophy :D
Day 5: Drove to Cambridge to get back my exam papers...or not. Did go to cambridge though, even went to the cambridge university foreign exams campus. Maybe i shouldve jumped in to take a look lol. Ironically its opposite a cathedral...for people who regretted taking the exams in the first place and want to repent i guess. Mrs Tan was right...its super dark in winter. Shouldve written more legibly...oh well. As a side note, KFC in the UK doesnt taste as good as the ones back home. Fries are huge though...
Day 6: Parents found a castle to go to. Think it was called Leeds castle...apparently its quite well known and its used quite alot for meetings of presidents or stuff like that. Was kinda spooky in a way i guess, but they decorated the place with disney characters dressed in christmas clothing, so it was more on the weird side. I love the library there though...its gigantic...took up a whole room. The books were really old too, seemed like centuries old. Hundred plus rooms in total but only about 50 opened to the public. People still live there apparently.
Day 7: IT STARTED SNOWING! OMG first time seeing falling snow in my life. First thing i did was to make a snowball to throw at my sis hehheh, first blood. Wasnt too much though, so couldnt do much else. Didnt want to go out cause was afraid the car might skid and crash into something. Parents said i was too paranoid...so they went out themselves. Guess what, car skidded and almost hit a bench. Tsktsk...
Day 8: There was a blizzard halfway through the morning so there was snow till about ankle height. Pretty high...or thats what i thought at least. Played the whole day in the snow. Made a snowman, threw and got thrown snowballs with my sis and dad, lifted large blocks of compacted snow. To my surprise, snow is actually pretty heavy. The bottom ball of my snowman was like...10kg or something. Wasnt actually very cold when it snowed...felt colder before it did actually.
Day 9: Had to get ready to leave for london again. Was quite worried that i couldnt get home cause heathrow airport was closed cause british airways were ill prepared for the frost. Packed stuff and headed back to stay along trafalgar square. Was basically walking the whole monopoly board. Saw regent street, whitehall and all that. No free parking though...damn. Wish i could find GO so that i can collect 200 pounds from some random place.
Day 10: Flight was at night (at least i hoped it was at night, since the whole thing about flights being delayed or cancelled was getting on my nerves) so went to walk around first. Went to the national art museum. The paintings were really cool, the brush strokes and blending and everything. Some were life-like...especially the venetian section. The ideas of the artists who drew the pictures were really deep, like the way they express the subject is so difficult to be interpreted well. Im glad i went for art lessons in NAFA during primary school...
Yup so the flight was 13hrs. Managed to watch quite a few movies and not sleep so much, though its not really a good thing. Jet lagged for the next 2 days... Oh and SIA is awesome. They were the few flights who actually left the airport. Lucky me. Got delayed an hour though, and delayed once again cause the flight crew was stuck in a traffic jam...found that funny. Yeah...all in all, got to see lots of stuff haha. First time in europe, wheeee.
Ye Olde Great Britain
brendon...
