April 6th - Day 2 - Sanger!!! & Cambridge, of course.

It's my first day at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI, Sanger hereafter). I was nervous, a bit. I have no idea where to wait for the bus, and I have an induction course at 9:00. I don't know anybody there because my supervisor is at a meeting in Edinburg. This morning, I felt lonely.

I woke up at 6:30 and logged in to chat with a few people from home. It felt a little warmer that way. And lightly chatting about nothing in particular really helped to ease the tension a little. Peg gave me two muffins yesterday, which David insists are not real muffins, but are sweet cakes Americans passed as muffins. He said that only true Englishmen above 55 years old would appreciate the true beauty of muffin, which now the world calls "English muffin". Quoting David: "It's muffin, and it's certainly English, but it's not English muffin." He's such a funny guy.

I dressed up. Almost never wore formal shirts and slacks in Malaysia. Tried to take a picture, but my hand shook and the lighting was not right so I deleted the photographs. I planned to head out at 7:30, but was delayed somehow, and ended up leaving the house at 7:45. Walked down a private drive today towards "the Green", crossed it and walked towards the Catholic church.

There, I didn't see a crowd as Soon Joo promised, but just a couple (actually I'm not sure if they are a couple, maybe just one man standing next to one lady). And the bus stop opposite the church was empty. I have no idea at which side of the road I should wait. The wind gave me courage I guess, to be bold enough to ask the lady if she knew where I should wait. I didn't finish my question, "Excuse me, do you know the bus to Hinxton..." I was going to continue saying "...where should I wait for it?". But she said "Yes, it's here." before I finish. I was grateful non-the-less, and thanked her. Really, Cambridge people are in so much of a rush. They talk faster, they respond faster, they even walk faster. And for those of you that knows me, you know I walk fast. They are even faster than me!



Top left, you can see the private drive I walk towards the Green. There is an archway at the end of that drive as you will see in Top right. Bottom left, you see the Green. It's a very flat very beautiful piece of land, where the grass is green and white wild daisies scatter everywhere. Bottom right, the Catholic church, which I waited for the bus across the road from. Oh and by the time the bus arrives, there really is a crowd waiting to get on. So Joo is not totally wrong.

Arrival at Sanger then was fine, and induction course was a breeze. Then the reception lady got Theresa to come get me. She was really nice and introduced me to everybody. I actually have trouble remembering all the faces and names! Too many, too short a time. One of the other team leaders gave Theresa a hospitality card. Ha ha ha... that means free lunch. Because Arnab is not around, and because I don't have a desk yet. Our room is being renovated, so everybody was moved temporarily. I don't even have a PC yet. Theresa got Catherine to follow up on that. I got it in the afternoon. But that was after lunch.

I had the chance to look at some of the work that I'm supposed to do here after I got my PC, and the people made my brain spin really quick. I had brainstorms after brainstorms and I ended up quite beaten, actually. My mind was all jumbled up with questions that I couldn't answer and ideas that I myself could not get a feel of, let alone grasp.

But I got home alright, and decided to take a walk to clear the head. That went well. Cambridge is a nice place to walk. It's cold though. The wind was strong when I left Hinxton. It was as if I had to fight against the wind as I walked. When I sat down in the bus, my heart was racing. It's definitely a good cardio-workout, if nothing else. Central Cambridge was better, but there were wind still. I took some more pictures.



Left, taxis of all shapes, sizes and colours lining up outside a row of shop on St. Andrew's Street. Right, those red phone boxes that I really like standing outside Great St. Mary's church. That's at the end of Sydney Street if I'm not mistaken. The directions are somewhat jumbled.



Left, look what I found?! But they are expensive. For certain reasons unknown, I had better not publish their price. But I could never afford a pair in England, I think. Right, another church. Forgotten the name of this one. I like it because it's got stones in its wall. I really am falling in love with the architectures of England. I wonder why colonization had not bought these architecture preferences to Malaysia.

I've seen two buildings at the corner of the street with my lucky numbers: One's 107, a house on Hills Road on the way to Hinxton, and another is this: Restaurant 17. Ha ha ha ha... you must think I ate dinner there. If so, you must think I'm rich?! No, because you know what? I walked to Sainsbury's and bought a week's worth of groceries. And I cooked my own dinner. Half of that pot is going to be my breakfast tomorrow morning. Chicken soup, it's good for curing cold, they say. In my case, I want to prevent it. However, I do think that it tastes different from chicken soup with similar ingredients (potato, carrots and mushroom) back at home. I have no idea what I missed out. But never mind, someone once said to me that he eats the food for the function, not the taste. I guess doing that is not so bad. Chicken soup it is!