2 hours more before my flight back to Singapore.. could have been 3 hours or more.. but thanks to the delay of the previous flight for more than 1 hour.. shortened my waiting time here in Bangkok.
The 12 hour flight was faster than expected. First time in my life I slept for more than half the flight.. think staying up overnight with the kids the night before was a good move =)
Mixed feelings now.. When the warm humid Thai air hit me I immediately missed UK weather.. but the smell of impending rain and the dark clouds here brought a warm sense of homeliness that's so comforting.
So now I'm sitting on the floor plugging into one of the secret hidden power plugs outside the transit lounge and riding on some unencrypted wireless network trying to kill time as people race past me via foot or travellator to catch their flights.
Update once more when I reach home finally.. and definitely will backdate all my past overseas trips.
Cya.
~oOo~chio rambled on [10:20 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
天下无不散之宴席
Monday, January 22, 2007
Less than an hour before I take the bus to Heathrow airport.. sigh.
Heavy hearted leaving this place.. especially after such a memorable Prague trip. I don't know what this feeling is but.. it's intense. Maybe it's the I'm-never-coming-back-to-this-part-of-the-world-again feel.. maybe it's coz what the kids have done for me.. with me... *sigh*
Maybe a few episodes of Prison Break and the smell of Singapore air will cure.
Bye bye UK, Europe, and all my friends.
Thanks for the wonderful memories.
~oOo~chio rambled on [2:27 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Prague
Friday, January 19, 2007
My final European destination, with the best friends that I’ve made this season. How much greater can this experience get?
19th Jan – Off to Prague! Going to Prague itself is a very special event for Manhon and I.. coz we missed the previous flight there. Haha we were even joking the other time that we had higher chance of missing this flight coz we had more Singaporeans in the group this time (the girls missed two trains to Germany during the last period of time that we were supposed to be in Prague haha) So the whole trip this time was meticulously planned out. I was still not sober from the previous night’s drinking and was struggling with my anyhow-packed bags (checked out of my Leeds room that very morning) as we hobbled to the coach station at 4am in the morning.
Reached London at 10am or so. And the plan was to have the ever famous Bayswater Four Seasons Roast Duck for lunch. The rest of the crew went to queue up at Bayswater while the Kid (Manhon) accompanied me to Martin’s place to dump my bags.
Ah but due to time constraints we didn’t eat at Bayswater itself in the end. We dabaoed the duck rice and ate it at Victoria Coach station itself. Mmmmmmmm and it was still so DELICIOUS!! Whoa really I think it was the fats but the duck just melted in my mouth and the meat was so succulent and tasty and wooooh. Kid said that it tasted much better at the shop itself. Oh well, guess this was the next best option for me.
Once again, I boarded the Greenline Coach 757 to London Luton Airport. Really Kid and I have a love-hate relationship with this bus service. Was a cheaper way to the airport but at that time we only arrived 15 minutes before the plane took off. So along the way we were reminiscing about our past experience.. re-analyzing what we could have done blah blah blah.. much to the irritation of Sarah and Yingying sitting in front of us.. haha.
Not hard to tell that actually getting on the plane itself was an achievement for us.. Arriving in Prague was truly celebratory. I was damn happy that we were finally there. Kid was too. Haha guess this gives the trip a happy start. Blah blah blah.. checked into the hostel and we immediately scouted for food. Prague is literally quite a dead city at night. Shops all closed.. no people around.. but we still managed to find a few eateries around that were still open. And we ultimately decided on 1 that blatently displayed their ‘Best Café 2005 and 2006’ award right at their door.
So-called traditional Czech food is all about meat, meat and more meat. I ordered this huge meat platter dish which had a bit of what everyone else ordered. Not something to eat on a bad stomach (haven’t recovered from the previous night’s drinking) but I just needed the kick of eating lotsa traditional Czech food.
20th Jan – New Town, Old Town The day wasn’t very cold.. but it probably didn’t start well for Sarah.. coz she stepped on dog shit. Bwahahhahaaa! So naturally she became today’s Joke-of-the-Day.
Map on hand.. I navigated to the places of interest as indicated on the map while the Kid with the guide book explained in his dyslexic English what the hell those sights were.. Henry Tower.. Powder Tower.. blah blah blah.. The rest of us just took photos. Neub was the official photographer simply because his camera was the best. Haha.
Probably one of the nicer places where we snapped a lot of photos was Wencelas Square.. Paid to go into the National Gallery and obviously none of us were particularly interested as we walked out within an hour. Sian la.
Lunch was at Café Lourve which Samuel recommended. And lo and behold – it was ‘Best Café 2003 and 2004’! Food was good. The hot chocolate I had was a demonic concoction of pure chocolate aimed to worsen my loose bowels (but it was darn good). The toilets were good as well haha.
Turning out of the National Theatre we hit the river.. it was then when I realized why Prague is named the Most Beautiful European Country. The scenery was truly comfortably beautiful. Maybe cos it wasn’t as built up as the Seine or the Thames river.. or cos it was bigger than the Florence or Pisa rivers.. or it simply had the right mix of beautifully scattered old buildings, bridges, trees and birds minus hordes of tourists who have diminishing effects on its rustic feel. An excellent place for the many group photos that we took here =)
Yah and Kid being the kid he is started taking out the bread that he kopped earlier and throwing at the seagulls around the river. Didn’t take long before the rest of us joined in and Neub took many excellent photos of the birds in action.
We saved the crossing of the famous Charles Bridge for later/tomorrow and headed into the Old Town for a walk. It was souvenir shops galore as we kept on stopping to see what we could get back home. From old communist caps to Russian dolls going down to the most minuscule sizes to puppets to traditional wooden Czech toys, these little gifts were hot stuff as they were by far the cheapest things to buy as presents in all of Europe that we’ve traveled.
See this photo? Totally unposed. 3 cheers to Neub for catching this very good shot of the day!
Took a few steps more before we stumbled on the next must-see destination in Prague – the Astronomical Clock. It’s an interesting and clever contraption.. every hour the clock will chime with the figurines on the clock moving their little actions. It’s like a toy magic box just that it’s now huge sized and placed in the open subject to the battering of the weather and it’s a wonder how the mechanisms survive till now. Apparently the 2 faces of the clock can tell lots more information then just the time.. but also daylight hours, moon blah blah blah. Real clever invention.
Nearby was also this Jan Hus statue which was often featured in ‘Lovers in Prague’.. a typical dumb Korean series that the Kid and I watched the whole thing in 1 night to psyche ourselves up for our previous Prague trip. In the show the "write your wishes on paper and stick on the statue and it will come true" legend was utter rubbish.. haha. The actual statue was a clean slate! But still worth a photo moment.. after all it’s featured in the show…
Only 40kronos to go up the Old Town Hall Tower.. for an old tower it has a surprisingly futuristic lift And we were greeted by the breathtaking sights of Prague! I personally like this photo a lot. Some ang moh took this photo and he said “Say SEX!” which we all spontaneously did. See everyone so happy?
Didn’t take long for the sun to set. Night-time Prague is equally mystically spectacular. So after dinner our dear Sarah did the navigation to bring us back to our hostel. She ODAC one leh.. Ok lor.. so I kept my map and we guys just followed behind. After all Prague is so small can’t get that lost…
But keeping tabs on my compass tells me we were walking in the wrong direction for quite some time already. So secrectly I took out my map and started to figure out where we were.. But I just can’t find the street name that we were on on the map.
Then I heard bursts of laughter when the rest of them stopped at the end of the street facing a big open area.
“I can’t seem to find where we are. Can you help me find out where we are?” I asked them, most of whom who were still laughing away.
Neub then pointed to something that looked strikingly familiar… The Jan Hus statue.
BWAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAAA!!! I think all of us were rolling on the floor laughing uncontrollably while passers-by just gave us weird glances trying to figure out what was wrong with us. It was hilarious!
So our dear Sarah became the joke of the day today. Even after the guys bathed we had to write ‘GPS’ and ‘Astronomical Clock’ on the bathroom mirror to remind the girls of our (mis)adventures when they bathed. Hahaa!
Teckie’s birthday was past midnight.. but we were yet to plan a ‘surprise’ for him. The birthday cake Sarah painstakingly dragged from Old Town was residing happily on the free refrigeration on the window ledge. We forgoed our episode of Prison Break and went to sleep.. and the plan was 15 mins later we would all sing Happy Birthday together.
Think I really fell asleep hahaa.. but I woke up in time and yeah.. it was Happy Birthday Teckie! Now he as old as me already hahaa
21st Jan – Charles Bridge, Prague Castle Yep. The next morning we went back to take a photo of the place we stumbled upon the night before.. How can we forget? Probably the most famous thing in Prague would be the Charles Bridge.. quite obvious due to the fact that it has an overwhelming number of tourists on the bridge itself as compared to anywhere else in Prague. So wad about this bridge? It’s a stone Gothic bridge that connects the Old Town and Malá Strana. Its construction was commissioned by Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and began in 1357. In charge of the construction was architect Petr Parléř whose other works include the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle.
Due to the kid’s horrible pronunciation of his Eyewitness travel book.. I took over and read out all the descriptions of the statues along the bridge as we passed by them.. while we took silly pictures in front of the them. Seems like a common interest among all of us. Haha.
It was a loooooooong way up to Prague Castle. But as usual, after every long climb up, we are treated with a magnificent view. Though I must say Prague Castle itself was a tad disappointing. With all it’s hype I would expect it to be some lavish magnificent castle with lots of photo moment. Turns out to be like Skansen in Sweden.. a big compound with small buildings that turn out to be little museums featuring life in the Castle compounds. Yah come to think of it.. it’s more like 紫禁城 in China rather than any of the European castles featured in all the other neighbouring countries.
Well.. lunch was on me that afternoon. It was the last meal we would be having together. Thought that was the least I could do after all they have done.. for my birthday.. for the farewell =)
Squeezed some time before heading to the airport to shop at the marketplace.. hoping to grab some last-minute gifts and to clear out all of Czech dollars.
There was only a one hour+ buffer between arriving in London-Luton and everyone’s National Express bus back to Leeds. All had lessons but Kid’s First Aid lesson was especially important as if he missed it he had to re-take the lesson for £200! So we took all precautions we could NOT to miss our flight back to London. Everything went fine. We were at the airport so early we had to sit down doing nothing just to wait for our gate number to open so that we could check in. We even had time to really spend our combined amount of 300+Kr on some crappy dinner. And of course we boarded the plane on time.
Whoa but 谋事在人、成事在天! The plane could not take off because the airport at Luton could not detect our plane on the GPS! Whoa how sway can that be?
1 hour waiting in the plane. We arrived in London at 2300+hrs. Takes about 45 minutes to get back to Victoria. Their coach back to Leeds was as 2330.
We attempted to camp in Victoria train station but was chased away. It was freezing cold outside so we tried our luck at Kings Cross station instead (coz Zuther checked online it was a 24hour train station).
But it was closed too! Luckily Teckie managed to comtact Weilun who was in Imperial so we spent whatever’s left of the night at his place. Saved from the cold!
Kid’s train was at 6am. Expensive train back sia.. think it was about £40+ with Rail card. No choice la he had to attend his lessons. Sent him off to the train station. Yep, that was the last I saw of him. Hai…
Headed down to Victoria Coach station to send the rest off at 8am too.
And that was the last I saw all of them.
Thanks for all the memories, dear friends.
What a way to end off this trip… this whole SEP.
~oOo~chio rambled on [11:59 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Last 2 days in Leeds
Thursday, January 18, 2007
It's the wee hours of the night and I'm like almost done packing my stuff ready to check out of my room in St Marks. As the rain patters outside and the music plays from my laptop, the incessant ringing of unbearing and reluctance lingers within me. This is it - SEP has come to an end.
The elation of submitting my final exam script in Leeds was short-lived, as it was quickly overcome by the fact that I'd be leaving this place for good. The next batch of exchange students arrived today and I took them for a short walk around Morrisons the supermarket. Didn't bring them around much though.. coz it was 5pm already and everything was closed.
Met up with the Singaporean peeps for dinner at Red Chilli's - this nice spicy Chinese Restaurant down the road.. for my birthday dinner. They treated =) Haha partly because I had no pounds left. But the most touching thing was that they actually baked/made an ice-cream birthday cake for me. Really appreciate all their effort but I couldn't find any other way to express my gratitude other than 'Thanks', 'thanks' and 'thanks'.
Hai, it's stuff like this that makes my second last day in Leeds more heavy-hearted. Thank you Manhon, Sarah, Yingying, Nic, Zuther, Sherrie, Edmund and Teckie. And Yuanjing for the present. I'm really going to miss you guys a lot a lot.
Tomorrow the Singapore Society's going to organise a pot-luck farewell party for Yuanjing and I. Whoa lao eh, just want to make me cry only la.
It is a blessing to receive warmth in the world.
~oOo~chio rambled on [5:00 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Last Burst of FIRE
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
This moment marks the start of ultimate mugging coz my last paper is Transfer Processes aka Fluid Mechanics which I absolutely suck at. Knowing that people have failed this module doesn't really help.. screwing up my previous 30% assignment makes things worse..
Past few papers have been fine.. if not fantastic haha.
Thanks Hiroko Martina, Yu, Yuanjing, Fion, Eric and Manhon for the card =) and again Fion Yuanjing Yu Manhon for the small celebration =)
Heading to library to camp now.
CHEEOOONNNGGGG AAAHHHHHH!!!!!
~oOo~chio rambled on [1:09 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
iPhone
Friday, January 12, 2007
What made me go "Wah! Wah! Wah!!!" in the library.
Makes my iPod look like crap.
~oOo~chio rambled on [12:28 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Cheong to the end!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Studying is so sian.. Can't wait for the exams to be over so I can end my days camping in the library. At least studying here is not as shiong as back in NUS. Wohoho last night I still could afford to watch all 6 episodes of Prison Break with the stupid neighbour of mine. Yes, I only have 6 episodes kopped from Chye's hard drive. I need all the other episodes!!! Who has??
Another paper in 9 hours time. Going to hit the sacks soon. It's going to be 5 consecutive days of exams.. Yeah going to be over soon!
~oOo~chio rambled on [1:02 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Paradoxes
Monday, January 08, 2007
So this is the beginning of the end. Exams officially start tomorrow. I seem prepared for it but it feels strange that i only studied this module for less than 2 days. Argh anyway I already did a 50% essay for this module so see how tomorrow la.
10 more days to end of exams. I don't feel nervous or anything.. dunno why. Keep on thinking about going back to Singapore. Feels sad that this whole episode is concluding.. yet can't wait to see all that is back home.
Thank NUS for the intensive-study training.. camping in library with food with Yuanjing mugging our lives away.. managed to revise almost all my 6 modules in a week. Don't see a lot of pple in the library though.. wonder where they mug.. or if they even mug at all... And because the slackers at the library closed at 5pm during the weekend, we found a nice spot to mug.. Civil Engin LT!
Oh actually the LTs quite high tech one.. That's Sarah the kantang Ah Lian.. lawyer-to-be.. aiyoh...
Had dinner with the Singaporean gang at my place. Celebrated Zuther's birthday. And then they started talking about renting their own house next year and where their place is going to be and paying more for a nice cosy place and blah blah blah. So fun right? A house with all your friends staying together. I was about to ask for an invite to their house warming.. but then it struck me that I won't be around...
Gosh I'm going to miss these kids lots lots.
Anyway.. I just realised how terrible mess my hair has become after 4 months of not cutting. Took this photo after bathing.. no gel.. no beannie.. original disgusting hairdo
Wa lao the 1st thing I do when I get back is to get my hair in order.
Hai.. ok la. Going to sleep already. Wish me luck for exams tomorrow.
2 hours more before my flight back to Singapore.. could have been 3 hours or more.. but thanks to the delay of the previous flight for more than 1 hour.. shortened my waiting time here in Bangkok.
The 12 hour flight was faster than expected. First time in my life I slept for more than half the flight.. think staying up overnight with the kids the night before was a good move =)
Mixed feelings now.. When the warm humid Thai air hit me I immediately missed UK weather.. but the smell of impending rain and the dark clouds here brought a warm sense of homeliness that's so comforting.
So now I'm sitting on the floor plugging into one of the secret hidden power plugs outside the transit lounge and riding on some unencrypted wireless network trying to kill time as people race past me via foot or travellator to catch their flights.
Update once more when I reach home finally.. and definitely will backdate all my past overseas trips.
Cya.
~oOo~chio rambled on [10:20 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
天下无不散之宴席
Monday, January 22, 2007
Less than an hour before I take the bus to Heathrow airport.. sigh.
Heavy hearted leaving this place.. especially after such a memorable Prague trip. I don't know what this feeling is but.. it's intense. Maybe it's the I'm-never-coming-back-to-this-part-of-the-world-again feel.. maybe it's coz what the kids have done for me.. with me... *sigh*
Maybe a few episodes of Prison Break and the smell of Singapore air will cure.
Bye bye UK, Europe, and all my friends.
Thanks for the wonderful memories.
~oOo~chio rambled on [2:27 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Prague
Friday, January 19, 2007
My final European destination, with the best friends that I’ve made this season. How much greater can this experience get?
19th Jan – Off to Prague! Going to Prague itself is a very special event for Manhon and I.. coz we missed the previous flight there. Haha we were even joking the other time that we had higher chance of missing this flight coz we had more Singaporeans in the group this time (the girls missed two trains to Germany during the last period of time that we were supposed to be in Prague haha) So the whole trip this time was meticulously planned out. I was still not sober from the previous night’s drinking and was struggling with my anyhow-packed bags (checked out of my Leeds room that very morning) as we hobbled to the coach station at 4am in the morning.
Reached London at 10am or so. And the plan was to have the ever famous Bayswater Four Seasons Roast Duck for lunch. The rest of the crew went to queue up at Bayswater while the Kid (Manhon) accompanied me to Martin’s place to dump my bags.
Ah but due to time constraints we didn’t eat at Bayswater itself in the end. We dabaoed the duck rice and ate it at Victoria Coach station itself. Mmmmmmmm and it was still so DELICIOUS!! Whoa really I think it was the fats but the duck just melted in my mouth and the meat was so succulent and tasty and wooooh. Kid said that it tasted much better at the shop itself. Oh well, guess this was the next best option for me.
Once again, I boarded the Greenline Coach 757 to London Luton Airport. Really Kid and I have a love-hate relationship with this bus service. Was a cheaper way to the airport but at that time we only arrived 15 minutes before the plane took off. So along the way we were reminiscing about our past experience.. re-analyzing what we could have done blah blah blah.. much to the irritation of Sarah and Yingying sitting in front of us.. haha.
Not hard to tell that actually getting on the plane itself was an achievement for us.. Arriving in Prague was truly celebratory. I was damn happy that we were finally there. Kid was too. Haha guess this gives the trip a happy start. Blah blah blah.. checked into the hostel and we immediately scouted for food. Prague is literally quite a dead city at night. Shops all closed.. no people around.. but we still managed to find a few eateries around that were still open. And we ultimately decided on 1 that blatently displayed their ‘Best Café 2005 and 2006’ award right at their door.
So-called traditional Czech food is all about meat, meat and more meat. I ordered this huge meat platter dish which had a bit of what everyone else ordered. Not something to eat on a bad stomach (haven’t recovered from the previous night’s drinking) but I just needed the kick of eating lotsa traditional Czech food.
20th Jan – New Town, Old Town The day wasn’t very cold.. but it probably didn’t start well for Sarah.. coz she stepped on dog shit. Bwahahhahaaa! So naturally she became today’s Joke-of-the-Day.
Map on hand.. I navigated to the places of interest as indicated on the map while the Kid with the guide book explained in his dyslexic English what the hell those sights were.. Henry Tower.. Powder Tower.. blah blah blah.. The rest of us just took photos. Neub was the official photographer simply because his camera was the best. Haha.
Probably one of the nicer places where we snapped a lot of photos was Wencelas Square.. Paid to go into the National Gallery and obviously none of us were particularly interested as we walked out within an hour. Sian la.
Lunch was at Café Lourve which Samuel recommended. And lo and behold – it was ‘Best Café 2003 and 2004’! Food was good. The hot chocolate I had was a demonic concoction of pure chocolate aimed to worsen my loose bowels (but it was darn good). The toilets were good as well haha.
Turning out of the National Theatre we hit the river.. it was then when I realized why Prague is named the Most Beautiful European Country. The scenery was truly comfortably beautiful. Maybe cos it wasn’t as built up as the Seine or the Thames river.. or cos it was bigger than the Florence or Pisa rivers.. or it simply had the right mix of beautifully scattered old buildings, bridges, trees and birds minus hordes of tourists who have diminishing effects on its rustic feel. An excellent place for the many group photos that we took here =)
Yah and Kid being the kid he is started taking out the bread that he kopped earlier and throwing at the seagulls around the river. Didn’t take long before the rest of us joined in and Neub took many excellent photos of the birds in action.
We saved the crossing of the famous Charles Bridge for later/tomorrow and headed into the Old Town for a walk. It was souvenir shops galore as we kept on stopping to see what we could get back home. From old communist caps to Russian dolls going down to the most minuscule sizes to puppets to traditional wooden Czech toys, these little gifts were hot stuff as they were by far the cheapest things to buy as presents in all of Europe that we’ve traveled.
See this photo? Totally unposed. 3 cheers to Neub for catching this very good shot of the day!
Took a few steps more before we stumbled on the next must-see destination in Prague – the Astronomical Clock. It’s an interesting and clever contraption.. every hour the clock will chime with the figurines on the clock moving their little actions. It’s like a toy magic box just that it’s now huge sized and placed in the open subject to the battering of the weather and it’s a wonder how the mechanisms survive till now. Apparently the 2 faces of the clock can tell lots more information then just the time.. but also daylight hours, moon blah blah blah. Real clever invention.
Nearby was also this Jan Hus statue which was often featured in ‘Lovers in Prague’.. a typical dumb Korean series that the Kid and I watched the whole thing in 1 night to psyche ourselves up for our previous Prague trip. In the show the "write your wishes on paper and stick on the statue and it will come true" legend was utter rubbish.. haha. The actual statue was a clean slate! But still worth a photo moment.. after all it’s featured in the show…
Only 40kronos to go up the Old Town Hall Tower.. for an old tower it has a surprisingly futuristic lift And we were greeted by the breathtaking sights of Prague! I personally like this photo a lot. Some ang moh took this photo and he said “Say SEX!” which we all spontaneously did. See everyone so happy?
Didn’t take long for the sun to set. Night-time Prague is equally mystically spectacular. So after dinner our dear Sarah did the navigation to bring us back to our hostel. She ODAC one leh.. Ok lor.. so I kept my map and we guys just followed behind. After all Prague is so small can’t get that lost…
But keeping tabs on my compass tells me we were walking in the wrong direction for quite some time already. So secrectly I took out my map and started to figure out where we were.. But I just can’t find the street name that we were on on the map.
Then I heard bursts of laughter when the rest of them stopped at the end of the street facing a big open area.
“I can’t seem to find where we are. Can you help me find out where we are?” I asked them, most of whom who were still laughing away.
Neub then pointed to something that looked strikingly familiar… The Jan Hus statue.
BWAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAAA!!! I think all of us were rolling on the floor laughing uncontrollably while passers-by just gave us weird glances trying to figure out what was wrong with us. It was hilarious!
So our dear Sarah became the joke of the day today. Even after the guys bathed we had to write ‘GPS’ and ‘Astronomical Clock’ on the bathroom mirror to remind the girls of our (mis)adventures when they bathed. Hahaa!
Teckie’s birthday was past midnight.. but we were yet to plan a ‘surprise’ for him. The birthday cake Sarah painstakingly dragged from Old Town was residing happily on the free refrigeration on the window ledge. We forgoed our episode of Prison Break and went to sleep.. and the plan was 15 mins later we would all sing Happy Birthday together.
Think I really fell asleep hahaa.. but I woke up in time and yeah.. it was Happy Birthday Teckie! Now he as old as me already hahaa
21st Jan – Charles Bridge, Prague Castle Yep. The next morning we went back to take a photo of the place we stumbled upon the night before.. How can we forget? Probably the most famous thing in Prague would be the Charles Bridge.. quite obvious due to the fact that it has an overwhelming number of tourists on the bridge itself as compared to anywhere else in Prague. So wad about this bridge? It’s a stone Gothic bridge that connects the Old Town and Malá Strana. Its construction was commissioned by Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and began in 1357. In charge of the construction was architect Petr Parléř whose other works include the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle.
Due to the kid’s horrible pronunciation of his Eyewitness travel book.. I took over and read out all the descriptions of the statues along the bridge as we passed by them.. while we took silly pictures in front of the them. Seems like a common interest among all of us. Haha.
It was a loooooooong way up to Prague Castle. But as usual, after every long climb up, we are treated with a magnificent view. Though I must say Prague Castle itself was a tad disappointing. With all it’s hype I would expect it to be some lavish magnificent castle with lots of photo moment. Turns out to be like Skansen in Sweden.. a big compound with small buildings that turn out to be little museums featuring life in the Castle compounds. Yah come to think of it.. it’s more like 紫禁城 in China rather than any of the European castles featured in all the other neighbouring countries.
Well.. lunch was on me that afternoon. It was the last meal we would be having together. Thought that was the least I could do after all they have done.. for my birthday.. for the farewell =)
Squeezed some time before heading to the airport to shop at the marketplace.. hoping to grab some last-minute gifts and to clear out all of Czech dollars.
There was only a one hour+ buffer between arriving in London-Luton and everyone’s National Express bus back to Leeds. All had lessons but Kid’s First Aid lesson was especially important as if he missed it he had to re-take the lesson for £200! So we took all precautions we could NOT to miss our flight back to London. Everything went fine. We were at the airport so early we had to sit down doing nothing just to wait for our gate number to open so that we could check in. We even had time to really spend our combined amount of 300+Kr on some crappy dinner. And of course we boarded the plane on time.
Whoa but 谋事在人、成事在天! The plane could not take off because the airport at Luton could not detect our plane on the GPS! Whoa how sway can that be?
1 hour waiting in the plane. We arrived in London at 2300+hrs. Takes about 45 minutes to get back to Victoria. Their coach back to Leeds was as 2330.
We attempted to camp in Victoria train station but was chased away. It was freezing cold outside so we tried our luck at Kings Cross station instead (coz Zuther checked online it was a 24hour train station).
But it was closed too! Luckily Teckie managed to comtact Weilun who was in Imperial so we spent whatever’s left of the night at his place. Saved from the cold!
Kid’s train was at 6am. Expensive train back sia.. think it was about £40+ with Rail card. No choice la he had to attend his lessons. Sent him off to the train station. Yep, that was the last I saw of him. Hai…
Headed down to Victoria Coach station to send the rest off at 8am too.
And that was the last I saw all of them.
Thanks for all the memories, dear friends.
What a way to end off this trip… this whole SEP.
~oOo~chio rambled on [11:59 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Last 2 days in Leeds
Thursday, January 18, 2007
It's the wee hours of the night and I'm like almost done packing my stuff ready to check out of my room in St Marks. As the rain patters outside and the music plays from my laptop, the incessant ringing of unbearing and reluctance lingers within me. This is it - SEP has come to an end.
The elation of submitting my final exam script in Leeds was short-lived, as it was quickly overcome by the fact that I'd be leaving this place for good. The next batch of exchange students arrived today and I took them for a short walk around Morrisons the supermarket. Didn't bring them around much though.. coz it was 5pm already and everything was closed.
Met up with the Singaporean peeps for dinner at Red Chilli's - this nice spicy Chinese Restaurant down the road.. for my birthday dinner. They treated =) Haha partly because I had no pounds left. But the most touching thing was that they actually baked/made an ice-cream birthday cake for me. Really appreciate all their effort but I couldn't find any other way to express my gratitude other than 'Thanks', 'thanks' and 'thanks'.
Hai, it's stuff like this that makes my second last day in Leeds more heavy-hearted. Thank you Manhon, Sarah, Yingying, Nic, Zuther, Sherrie, Edmund and Teckie. And Yuanjing for the present. I'm really going to miss you guys a lot a lot.
Tomorrow the Singapore Society's going to organise a pot-luck farewell party for Yuanjing and I. Whoa lao eh, just want to make me cry only la.
It is a blessing to receive warmth in the world.
~oOo~chio rambled on [5:00 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Last Burst of FIRE
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
This moment marks the start of ultimate mugging coz my last paper is Transfer Processes aka Fluid Mechanics which I absolutely suck at. Knowing that people have failed this module doesn't really help.. screwing up my previous 30% assignment makes things worse..
Past few papers have been fine.. if not fantastic haha.
Thanks Hiroko Martina, Yu, Yuanjing, Fion, Eric and Manhon for the card =) and again Fion Yuanjing Yu Manhon for the small celebration =)
Heading to library to camp now.
CHEEOOONNNGGGG AAAHHHHHH!!!!!
~oOo~chio rambled on [1:09 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
iPhone
Friday, January 12, 2007
What made me go "Wah! Wah! Wah!!!" in the library.
Makes my iPod look like crap.
~oOo~chio rambled on [12:28 pm] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Cheong to the end!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Studying is so sian.. Can't wait for the exams to be over so I can end my days camping in the library. At least studying here is not as shiong as back in NUS. Wohoho last night I still could afford to watch all 6 episodes of Prison Break with the stupid neighbour of mine. Yes, I only have 6 episodes kopped from Chye's hard drive. I need all the other episodes!!! Who has??
Another paper in 9 hours time. Going to hit the sacks soon. It's going to be 5 consecutive days of exams.. Yeah going to be over soon!
~oOo~chio rambled on [1:02 am] Leeds Time~oOo~
___________oOo___________
Paradoxes
Monday, January 08, 2007
So this is the beginning of the end. Exams officially start tomorrow. I seem prepared for it but it feels strange that i only studied this module for less than 2 days. Argh anyway I already did a 50% essay for this module so see how tomorrow la.
10 more days to end of exams. I don't feel nervous or anything.. dunno why. Keep on thinking about going back to Singapore. Feels sad that this whole episode is concluding.. yet can't wait to see all that is back home.
Thank NUS for the intensive-study training.. camping in library with food with Yuanjing mugging our lives away.. managed to revise almost all my 6 modules in a week. Don't see a lot of pple in the library though.. wonder where they mug.. or if they even mug at all... And because the slackers at the library closed at 5pm during the weekend, we found a nice spot to mug.. Civil Engin LT!
Oh actually the LTs quite high tech one.. That's Sarah the kantang Ah Lian.. lawyer-to-be.. aiyoh...
Had dinner with the Singaporean gang at my place. Celebrated Zuther's birthday. And then they started talking about renting their own house next year and where their place is going to be and paying more for a nice cosy place and blah blah blah. So fun right? A house with all your friends staying together. I was about to ask for an invite to their house warming.. but then it struck me that I won't be around...
Gosh I'm going to miss these kids lots lots.
Anyway.. I just realised how terrible mess my hair has become after 4 months of not cutting. Took this photo after bathing.. no gel.. no beannie.. original disgusting hairdo
Wa lao the 1st thing I do when I get back is to get my hair in order.
Hai.. ok la. Going to sleep already. Wish me luck for exams tomorrow.
Blah blah blah.. checked into the hostel and we immediately scouted for food. Prague is literally quite a dead city at night. Shops all closed.. no people around.. but we still managed to find a few eateries around that were still open. And we ultimately decided on 1 that blatently displayed their ‘Best Café 2005 and 2006’ award right at their door.
So-called traditional Czech food is all about meat, meat and more meat. I ordered this huge meat platter dish which had a bit of what everyone else ordered. Not something to eat on a bad stomach (haven’t recovered from the previous night’s drinking) but I just needed the kick of eating lotsa traditional Czech food.
Probably one of the nicer places where we snapped a lot of photos was Wencelas Square.. Paid to go into the National Gallery and obviously none of us were particularly interested as we walked out within an hour. Sian la.
See this photo? Totally unposed. 3 cheers to Neub for catching this very good shot of the day!
And we were greeted by the breathtaking sights of Prague!
I personally like this photo a lot. Some ang moh took this photo and he said “Say SEX!” which we all spontaneously did. See everyone so happy?
So after dinner our dear Sarah did the navigation to bring us back to our hostel. She ODAC one leh.. Ok lor.. so I kept my map and we guys just followed behind. After all Prague is so small can’t get that lost…
Probably the most famous thing in Prague would be the Charles Bridge.. quite obvious due to the fact that it has an overwhelming number of tourists on the bridge itself as compared to anywhere else in Prague. So wad about this bridge? It’s a stone Gothic bridge that connects the Old Town and Malá Strana. Its construction was commissioned by Czech king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and began in 1357. In charge of the construction was architect Petr Parléř whose other works include the St. Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle.
Though I must say Prague Castle itself was a tad disappointing. With all it’s hype I would expect it to be some lavish magnificent castle with lots of photo moment. Turns out to be like Skansen in Sweden.. a big compound with small buildings that turn out to be little museums featuring life in the Castle compounds. Yah come to think of it.. it’s more like 紫禁城 in China rather than any of the European castles featured in all the other neighbouring countries.
