Finally back in the familiar grounds of London! Felt nice to be back in this bustling city and not having to face language barriers as we did in Paris and Barcelona. Met up with Hanwei and Dars for a Korean lunch at this restaurant with a Japanese name (ironically according to Dars, the owner of the restaurant is Korean) near Leicester Sq Underground. Anyway the food was marvellous and the spices in the food tickled my taste buds back to life...and bringing back memories of spicy Singaporean food!! It was great to be in company of 2 wonderful friends and although it was the last time that we would get to meet up together, we managed to push that thought out of our minds and keep the smiles on our faces throughout the entire meal. We then took pictures together at the end before we departed for our various destinations. JinYing and I then headed down to the National Science Museum along South Kensington Road. The exhibits felt less interactive than those in the National History Museum but it still stirred up 2hrs of fascination in us. We managed to check out the aviation displays on the top level as well as a few other smaller exhibits before deciding to invest some time walking through the green belt of the city - Hyde Park - towards our hostel at Bayswater. It was nice to be strolling with JinYing in this expanse of greenery with the air so refreshing and we were fully energised by the time we stepped out onto Bayswater Road. After picking up our backpacks from the luggage room of our hostel, we tubed down to Heathrow T4 which marked the end of our stupendous 10 day getaway! This trip although was a relatively short one brought me indescribable amount of fun and these memories will be etched firmly in my mind for a long time to come. Thanks to JinYing for being such an awesome travel buddy + Karin and Corine who made the Paris leg a doubly amazing experience! =) Quoted from Wikipedia: "Sacré-Cœur Basilica (translated as "Basilica of the Sacred Heart") is a Roman Catholic basilica and popular landmark in Paris, France, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre (Montmartre butte), the highest point in the city." An uphill stroll (about 10 minutes) followed by ascending a flight of stairs (full of dodgy-looking Afro hawkers) is necessary for visitors who walk from the nearest station to reach the entrance of the basilica. It was pretty tiring even for young adults like the 4 of us...but I realised that taking photos works wonders in diverting one's attention away from the tireness! The beauty of the basilica became obvious when we approached with its almost white exterior standing out from the surrounding landscaped greenery. The sheer size of the basilica with its impressively grand interior managed to hold us in awe for a full 20 minutes. The second stop of the day was Fragonard Museum (the théâtre des Capucines museum) situated opposite L'Olympia. In fact, the entrance of the Museum is pretty obscure and if not for our sharp eyes, we would have easily missed it! Anyway, there were displays of how perfume was made and how the extraction and manufacturing processes have changed over the years till the present day. It was amazing to know how much effort it took to extract just a few drops of essence from the various flowers. The ground floor was the boutique which sold various perfumes and toilettes manufactured by Fragonard. The sales personnel were extremely helpful and tried their best to explain the differences among the perfumes even though their vocabulary was limited. The lady even sprayed perfume onto JinYing after she decided on her purchas. The excellent service made the entire experience at Fragonard very memorable! The flight from Paris CDG to London Luton was a short one and we were soon back at Astor Hyde Park Hostel. I must say a big big sorry to Andrew (and on behalf of JY) for flying your kite...cause we both knocked out by the time we received ur sms when you said were already at our hostel..=P Versailles - a place that reminds me of the treaty that was signed after WWII (I remembered how much difficulty I had remembering this French name in history class while in secondary school). Anyway, We were to visit this magnificant residence of King Louis XVI on a hazy morning but hanging out together in a group can lift one's spirits magnificently. Karin's bubbly self (though I don't think she will agree with this description) and Corine's comical confused expressions just makes the day ahead looks like it could never have been finer! Of course, there's JinYing who will never fails to find an occasion to attempt teasing me and that just makes my day so much more fun! We took loads of pictures while wandering through the residence which feel much more like a museum than a residence. There were paintings and clay sculptures along the corridors exemplifies the grandeur of the place and I could faintly imagine how proud the Kings were when they hosted dignitries in their residence. We also visited the Grand Trianon (which was at a far corner from the chateau) and the visit there took us through the park (known as Le Parc) which was a huge expanse and breathtakingly huge piece of greenery that had fountains along parts of it! Before we realised it, early evening had arrived and we had to bid our fond farewell to Versailles. After dinner with JinYing at a random restaurant in the vicinity of Eiffel Tower, we joined in the crowd in queueing up for the tickets to enter the iron tower built on Champ de Mars. (Karin and Corine was at Champs-Élysées as they had already complete Eiffel the day before). It is the tallest structure in Paris and one so recognized throughout the world! However, the sheer size of this structure is hard to grasp you unless you are standing beneath it (that's my personal take). After almost an hour, we finally got our tickets and were ascending the lift that would bring us to the 2nd level. It is pretty unique experience because the lift travels upwards in a diagonal and the experience of being squashed with so many overexcited tourist in such a confined space can be pretty unforgettable too! We had to take another lift up to the 3rd level summit where we got a wonderful view of Paris even though it was slightly hazy and the winds were pretty strong and chilly. We had a great time taking pictures and admiring the view from above such that we were among the last few to leave the Eiffel Tower that night. The moments spent up there in Eiffel was simply awesome...thanks to Gustave Eiffel and (you will not believe it) JinYing! =) After a long and cold night spent at Girona airport, we were finally on our Ryanair flight to Paris Beauvais airport where we would then catch the bus down to the city centre. It was a short trip down to the city centre and by 10am we were at the hotel waiting for Corine to bring us up and into our room. It was a small and cosy room and we had our own bathroom which was so wonderful! We began the day by visiting Notre Dame de Paris, which is a Roman Gothic cathedral and also the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. It was built in the early 12th century and it stands majestic today after more than a decade of restoration and cleaning. we were in full awe when we stepped into the cathedral and spent a good hour exploring the place. There were not only sculptures but also glass paintings upon the windows of the cathedral which was simply beathtaking. JinYing and I each bought a souvenior coin representing the cathedral for 2 euros each. Subsequently, we headed down to Champs-Élysées which is one of the most famous streets in the world which is one of the many icons of Paris where we got to see many high class stores as well as to soak up in the atmosphere. It was a brief trip only as we decided that we should head back to Musée du Louvre since it would close in the early evening and we wanted to have enough time to see the major exhibits there. We took the metro back to the Louvre station and in less than 20 mins we were inside the famed glass pyramid of Louvre. Some of the major works in the Louvre included Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo which many have flocked from far and wide just for a glimpse. After spending almost 3hrs browsing through galleries and looking at sculptures, we felt pretty much saturated and decided that we should leave the place. However, the true beauty of Louvre is only revealed when the sun sets and we were totally immersed by the beauty that we whipped out our cameras and in no time got back down to the tourist-y action of picture taking! (Check out the album to believe it...) Though waking up early though wasn't exactly my fondest activity, we decided that we should sacrifice an hour of sleep to get down to the beach early to enjoy our breakfast! JinYing went to the breakfast area to pack up our meal while I freshened up (was busy nua-ing in bed before that). The trip to the beach required us to use the train and after another 10-min walk, we were comfortably seated on beach chairs facing the sea. However, our breakfast was interrupted by a guy who insisted that we had to pay for using the beach chairs but fortunately he allowed us to go without paying when we offered to move ourselves away. It was really nice soaking up the sun and having our breakfast with the cool sea breeze blowing against our skins. There was so much fewer people as compared to the first day when we here at the beach. We spent time enjoying the scenery and also got to chat for quite abit before deciding that we should move on to our next destination - Cosmo Caixa (a Science Museum along the fringes of Barcelona). It was very much emptier than the Natural History Museum of London and the exhibits were slightly less interactive too. It might have been due to the dim lightings that made me feel abit sleepy and hence I was looking forward to get out for some fresh air even though there were several interesting exhibits like a video which showed how smart an octopus was...=) Barri Gothic was our final destination in Barcelona for the day and it is one of the oldest quarters in the city of Barcelona. The buildings were made up of stones and it reminded me abit of Oxford which had an old town feel too. There were many shops along the way but we didn't really have alot of time to appreciate all of these because we had to catch our flight in the evening and hence had to leave prematurally. After collecting our baggage from the hostel, we headed on to catch the bus to Giorona Airport but unfortunately we were 20mins late (we only reached 20 mins before our flight) and were refused permission to board the plane and in the end had to resort going to the hotel across the carpark from the airport to make another reservation for the flight to Paris early the next morning. It was really a heart-wrenching to spend another 70 euros each for the new flight tickets but we decided to put this aside so that we could enjoy the remaining of our trip. We had dinner at the hotel for a surprising 8 euros which brought us a complete meal (dessert, appetizers and main course). We subsequently went back to the airport to find a comfortable spot to settle down for the cold and long night ahead... First destination for the day - La Sagrada Família (Catalan, 'The Holy Family') - a large Roman Catholic basilica designed by the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi many centuries ago. It was inspiring to see this piece of work (even though it was still under construction) as it incorporates nature - trees in specific - in parts of the design. JinYing and I had a wonderful time inside the basilica, taking loads of pictures to try to do as much justice to this place as much as possible. We even got to go up the tower to have a look at the architecture in greater detail. It is a dizzying experience when one is up at the tower because of its sheer height but the fact that we got to admire Barcelona from above made every cent and ounce of energy invested worthwhile. The next destination was Park Guell which is another piece of work by Gaudi. It was almost a 1km walk from the nearest train station and we had to struggle against an inclined road before finally reaching the entrance of the park. It was a park that I feel has much of a beach feel and it is one of the most unique park I've visited since coming to Europe. Finally, the last piece of work by Gaudi that we visited was Casa Batllo which looks like it was made from skulls and bones but at closer inspection, one would realise that the "skulls" are balconies while the "bones" are the supporting pillars. This building stands out among the rest of the buildings along Passeig de Gracia. We then walked to the the main shopping street, La Ramblas, in search for dinner and ended up at a restuarant which sold Spanish food, for instance black paella (squid inked rice with seafood on a hotplate), grilled sotong which was round and juicy (unlike those in Singapore) and also a beef steak. This was one sumptuous dinner and although cost us a bomb, allowed us time to rest our tired feet and filled our stomachs nicely all in a restaurant with nice ambience!
The first stop that morning was to Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (or the National Art Museum of Catalonia) which houses an impressive collection of artefacts as well as paintings from around the world. We had difficulty trying to guess the meanings behind the works since we couldn't read the explanation (which was in Spanish and I couldn't bear to part with my precious Euros for an audioguide). We spent an hour trying to find our way to the cable car station which would bring us across the port and to the beach which was at another end. It proved to be a very worthwhile ride as we managed to get a bird's eye view of Barcelona. We saw many people soaking up in the warmth of the sun and there were even women who were 1/2 naked sunbathing there! We had our super late lunch of paella (Spanish version of claypot rice) - which was yummy but slightly too salty - along one of the restaurants along the beach area. After lazing for abit at the beach after our lunch, we walked down to the Aquarium and then towards the statue of St Christopher Columbus which is erected on one end of La Ramblas (nearer to the sea). We ended the day by heading back to the National Art Museum of Catalonia to watch the musical fountain performance (3 to be exact) and it was simply breathtaking. The gradual change in lightings as the sun continued its slow decent beyond the horizon lead to a different feeling during each performance. In fact, we spent almost 3hrs watching the musical fountain performances even though it was quite a chilly night but every single moment was so totally magical and worthwhile! We headed down to Westminister Abbey and then past Big Ben and the Parliament House where we took one of the best pictures of the day. Cracked our brains to come up with fresh poses under the glaring sunlight (fortunately we both had sunglasses) which wasn't an easy task. We also walked across Thames to reach the London Eye where JinYing managed to get a picture taken with some Victorian-dressed baskers (with a small fee of course!) We also got to visit the National History Museum in South Kensington and we were both fascinated that we were fiddling around with almost every single exhibit. Unfortunately we couldn't finish up with the biology section and we had to conclude our visit and get back to our hostel to pick up our luggage and catch our evening flight from Luton to Barcelona. JinYing and I checked into Astor Hyde Park on Inverness Road (a road perpendicular to Bayswater Road, and very convenient to reach from the tube). We headed to Buckingham Palace and was treated to a spectacular display of the change of guard (happens at 11.30am usually) with parades of smartly-dressed soldiers and even horses marching into the compounds of the Palace. We stayed till almost 12.30pm and then took a few more pictures in St James' Park before heading down to Leicester Sq to buy tickets for the tickets to Les Miserable for the evening. The next stop was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge for more touristy action (essentially picture taking) and we also got to walk a good stretch of Thames before finally tubing down back to Leicester Sq to catch the musical in the evening which was fantastic (though quite a depressing ending). After my final paper on 31 May (HRMII) which I fared the worse (but at least still passed), I headed straight down to London from Nottingham on National Express (ticket cost me 7 quid) to stay over at Han's place. Managed to meet up with his girlfriend and we chatted abit in her room till almost 2am before I decided that I shouldn't hold them up anymore. Went back to his room to catch a few hours of sleep before heading down to Heathrow to pick JinYing up from Heathrow airport where she was due to arrive at about 7am on 1 June. Well...it's been more than a month since I last blogged and it feels like I'm not doing justice to the places I've visited nor to my friends who have attempted in the past month to read up for updates on my travels! So here's my desperate attempt at a quick wrap up for the month of June and try to make my blog look somewhat more complete...hee! Finished up with my 3rd examinations...Control and Instrumentation which I thought I did pretty ok...though I din manage to finish up the paper (cause I spent so much time on the Bode Plot), I guess I pretty much did most of the parts in the questions I attempted...=) Anyway, the past 2 days have been terribly hot (in excess of 20 degrees) and it made me realise how well I've adapted to the cold such that this little bit of heat is a torture. I keep having the tingling sensation on my skin (which might be due to the fact that I haven't sweated for such a long time) and that is really irritating. But I guess it's also good that it's gradually getting warmer so I won't have to make a quantum leap adjusting to the humid weather back in S'pore! So I've decided that I should resume some semblance of exercise starting tomorrow - a month since I last exercised (I'm considering dance to be a form of exercise to make myself feel less guilty...else the figure will be something like 5 mths?!). Will be meeting HW for a jog tomorrow before lunch at Wollerton Park and I'm thinking that will be really nice (imagine running with deers and having a lake and large expanse of greenery as your scenery)! Not to mention the thousands of calories I'll be expending from that jog...the thought of that is just so appealing!! Made the call to Thai Airways after lunch today and amended the date of my return flight. Currently, my return is fixed on 2nd July (reach S'pore 3rd July) but I'm on the waiting list for the flight on 1st July (reach S'pore 2nd July). Hopefully I get the flight on 1st July so I've got HW to keep me company during the 15hr (flight + transit at BKK). I can quite officially begin my countdown of the days I've left in Europe (with an error of +-1 day). Looking forward to be in the company of family and friends but at the same time I suspect I'll be missing the life in Notts alot...hah! June looks pretty promising with several trips planned (some not yet fully firmed up). I think I'm crazy to be talking about this during the midst of exams but I really feel I need a break after a depressing paper this evening! Anyway...I'll be doing London, Barcelona and Paris for about 10 days in early June, followed by a few days break in Notts where I will be busy doing last minute packing and figuring out how I'm going to pack up my hardcase luggage. Subsequently, I'll be heading to Norway (Bergen and Oslo) for a 5 day getaway to admire the fjords which I've so long heard and seen in pictures about. I'll again have a few days to recharge in Notts before leaving for Prague and Budapest (where I will spend roughly a week) before finally return back to London to meet up with HW and preparing for the dreaded 15hr flight back to S'pore. Sigh....I'm so seriously going to be broke by the time I return to S'pore! The previous post about studying must have given an impression that I've been so religiously doing revisions but quite fortunately (or unfortunately) I've always got a multitude of things to distract myself with. Firstly, the return flight back to S'pore which my parents have been hinting I should confirm soon. I've finally and officially decided that the 1st July sounds like an auspicious day to fly back since HW is also flying back on that evening (but that's assuming seats on the flight are still available which I still have to confirm with Thai Airways) so I don't have to endure the almost 15hr flight (with a transit in BKK) alone. Alot of mixed feelings have been washing through me as I reminisce about the wonderful moments I've had in Notts...and all the awesome friendships which I've formed here. In fact, some of us are organising a mini party tonight in Dars' room, complete with hot and spicy chicken wings (from Iceland) and also to watch the American series "How I met your Mum" - which almost easily is the lamest show I've watched in a long while! After getting all the submissions in, it was finally down to real studying (though it still hasn't got much semblance to the kind of revision I've had to endure in NUS). And studying as we all know can be quite a monotonous activity, but not when you've got friends studying together, though we may all be different majors but I've come to realise that having good company is really important. The almost full-time study-buddies...HW and Dars are amazingly fun people to work around with and they keep me motivated to go on even though my body and mind are always in constant rebellion!! Ah...and the heavenly kit-kat breaks which we've had during almost every study session cannot be forgotten (though I hate to be reminded about how many calories that all adds up to). My first exam in Notts was over on 16 May...microwave and optical engineering (a very big sounding module) but fortunately the exams turned out to be pretty ok even though I hardly understood whatever that was being imparted during lectures. Hah...and I'm just done with VLSI Design today before dinner and it was disastrous...the questions were hardly similar to the past year papers which I spent the entire night before going through. That put a dent on my morale as I struggled to write stuff on the exam sheets and pray that some marks would be awarded. Totally reminds me of the exams in NUS where I'm always in such a state...maybe that's my equilibrium in NUS?? Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out well eventually...no way I would want to take any of these modules (equivalent of a level 4 elective in NUS) again!! Been feeling very much too lazy to update my multiply for the past weeks...but I guess I should find time to do it before memories fade into oblivion!
Was rushing out for an assignment before the Manchester Spring Competition. An industrial design assignment (given out the Tuesday before Easter) required me to design a bathroom scale (one of the 3 options offered). It Was really stressful producing the sketches in 2 short days and I was very much happy to say that I eventually produced something that looks pretty realistic...something which I never thought I would be able to do in my lifetime (to draw stuff with detail and not making it look too horribly amateurish). Unfortunately I was too excited to get my assignment submitted that I forgot to take pictures of my final pieces of design which I still can't believe I could forget to keep a souvenior of something significant as that. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the assignment and take pictures of them before leaving Notts.
After the competition, I had a VLSI lab report due and it was painful working through lab reports without any references and I've learnt to appreciate the times I've had in NUS...but there was also a good thing which came out of this - I was forced to go through my lecture notes (albeit briefly) and get myself started on revision...hehe! All these assignments kind of wrapped up my April and right after that submission, came another Industrial Design assignment which was a group project of which there were 7 of us and we were supposed to design an exquisite upmarket table fan. I absolutely loved working on the design even though it was super time-consuming, but the sense of accomplishment at the completion of each A2 page cannot be easily described...haha! In comparison, the group project was comparatively less stressful than the individual submission I had to make right after Easter...so that might have helped me to enjoy the drawing process even more. The project turned out pretty ok and I was really glad when it was over because it meant I could focus finally settle down and focus on revisions (or more accurately to look through my notes for the first time for most of my modules).
In fact, during all this while, my legs were itching to be working out on the dance floor. I guess it's due to the post-competition withdrawal symptoms bah...but I haven't been in my dance shoes since 28th April and it has been quite a significant period of 3 weeks of rest already! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll still be able to dance at least once more before leaving Notts...=)
Competition Day is here! The post-Easter Manchester Spring Competition was held at Owens Park Main Hall (in Fallowfield Campus of the University of Manchester). It was awesome to be able to come to this competition after an almost 1.5mth break. This ballroom was a hall, and although not comparable in terms of grandeur to that of Winter Gardens, was still decorated to give statue to the event!
Cindy and How Choon arrived at Manchester from Portsmouth after a 4hr drive and they came straight over to Owen Park to look for me and I was really touched by their actions! It is a warm feeling inside when you meet up with friends overseas (don't ask me why) and I felt like I had just so much to talk to them about. We chatted throughout the Ballroom section of the competition and it was only after lunch that changed up in preparation for the Latin section did I have to leave them.
It was quite a torture to be in my dance pants (with the additional weight put on during Easter) and I could hardly breathe and that made me a little nauseous at one point but fortunately it didn't get any worse and I managed to finish up all my events eventually. Did the Novice Cha, Open Jive and Advanced Samba, of which I was knocked out in the quarterfinals for both jive and samba (due to overwhelming difference in the standard of the competitors). It was a very tough format this time around because couples with levels above beginners for most of the latin dances (besides cha cha) were placed into one single category.
However, Sarah and I were plesantly surprised to know that we made it to the finals of Novice Cha and we were so delighted when we were announced runner-ups! After posing for pictures with the other finalists, we proceeded on with our own photo taking session at the back of the hall in a variety of poses (refer to photo album)! With the announcement of the results, the competition was concluded and the entire team headed a few streets down to have our supper of curry. (I ordered Shami Kebab and being so eager to try out the food, I forgot to take a picture of it...=P). It was almost 1.30am when we left the restaurant and by the time we were back in Notts, it was easily 3.45am already!
I must say that this competition is one perfect conclusion to a rewarding partnership and I'm really fortunate to have met her partly because this partnership has rekindled my love for latin dancing and also because I've made such a wonderful friend here in Notts!
This unexpected friendship will be one that I will be treasuring for for a very long time to come! =) Thursday came a little too fast, I was thinking we had quite enough days to practice before the competition but now that it's only 2 days left...it signals for a need of more intensive practice! We met up for lunch after my VLSI lectures at 1pm at A23 before proceeding to A23 (our favourite dance hangout) to dance. We had a lazy start to our practice but we started getting serious after settling down. Also, the flute ensemble had their practice going on and subsequently, the Sax ensemble came along to practice too. Though it was pretty noisy, we were still able to work on our routines and it was cool that we had an uncanny ability to filter out competiting sounds and keep to our own rhythm well! Anyway we concluded our practice by about 3pm as Sam was to come practice the standard dances with her...and I had the rest of the afternoon free before we arranged to meet up again at night to practice. In fact, it feels like we are one of the most serious couples in the team with our ridiculous practice schedules (which is almost twice everyday...=P).
Evening practice took place in Portland building again and we ironed out the issue of our positioning in samba as it was still pretty confusing where we should be facing at the end of our travelling walk...and most of the routine was sorted out by the evening and it was a relief that we would have a routine that would be repeating itself without too much awkward steps. Walked her back to Broadgate before returning to Derby Hall after which I was too tired to do any work so I just had to surrender myself into the welcoming arms of my comfortable bed! Wednesday before microwave lectures, I met Sarah to work on samba again and things were starting to brighten up but we had to conclude our practice unfortunately as I had to rush off for classes. However, after microwave lectures (which never fails to leave me lost), I had lunch at portland building with HW and Raymond before leaving them to find Sarah to finish up the 2nd part of our practice.
This time, we were abit more focused and decided to make alterations to our cha cha routine so that it would look more fanciful with 2 new yorks in rapid succession (while I shifted my hips to counter the outward force exerted while she did the new yorks). It was actually a part of a routine which Sarah found while watching dance videos on youtube and we decided to have it modified to fit into our routine and it turned out pretty well!
Zihao also came to find us and he gamely volunteered to be our video-man which was really sweet cause we were travelling much to far to be captured decently on video. It allowed us to see some glaring problems which we then proceeded to correct. Also, I was amazed when Zihao (after much pressure from Sarah and I) gave in and performed for us a 2.5 rounds spin turn in midair in a single jump! I simply have to find time to see him do some iceskating before I return back to S'pore...it's rare to meet guys who can do spins with seeming ease! Hence, after a 3hr practice, Sarah and I concluded with our parting byes while the rest of the dance team was just streaming into A23.
It is astonishing how time flies when you're doing serious stuff....hah! | |
