May 17th - Day 43

Woke up in London and going to sleep in Cambridge. So have you found the reason why I delayed postings for two days? Or have you not noticed. In the case of the latter, I should be quite sad. Ha ha ha ha...

British museum, a beautiful building and a informative place. Too bad, this girl is not very interested in history, she's more interested with currency. Ha ha ha ha... No, that's just a pun. I didn't mean currency as in money, I meant "current-cy"... the "opposite" of history. :-) But we did find some currency in the museum. Ha ha ha ha...

I went to see the Rosetta stone. I wanted to know what that is and how is it related to an algorithm in Structural Bioinformatics. Sorry, can't stop linking things to work, can I? :-p *guilty as charged* But I couldn't see the connection. Maybe it was a metaphore of how they used the algorithm to decipher a protein's structure in Bioinformatics, as the stone was to help decipher hieroglyphs. Maybe... maybe not. I don't know the stone any better and I don't really know the algorithm well.

Evolution of Chinese writing, Samurai culture, and Egyptian sphynx fascinated me for just one moment. Of course, it did humour me quite a bit more than it should when my miniature jade Budai (the smiling Buddha) met the near-life-size stoneware Budai Statue. And the special exhibition of "intimate portraits" had nothing overwhelmingly impressive. With that we left the museum for Convent Garden.

Convent Garden awed me for just a while longer than the British museum exhibits had. They have numerous knick-knacks that were interesting now and then. Nothing very fruitful of that visit lest for the knowledge that a particular food stall there failed some expectations. Ha ha ha ha...

The highlight of my day was definitely the visit to Sherlock Holmes Museum. Being a very dedicated fan of his adventures and a loyal admirer of his intelligence, I found myself believing in his existance, which was denied by an actor of Dr James Watson, who said to me "Of course he's not real. I'm not real, and Mrs. Hudson is not real. Not until after six. I'm over a hundred years old now. But at six, ah, at six I will be real and very much younger." He is a lovely man, but I believe he's blind to the fact that he had just shattered a girl's dream. Ha ha ha ha... Time to wake up. Although, not being real does not deny the greatest detective the priviledge to be admired.

A walk pass Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street towards Oxford Circus marked off a few "Been-there-done-that"s of London, before boarding the couch headed for a quieter city - Cambridge - leaving behind the too busy city of London.

Came back to a new room, themed in natural brown. Wonderfully calm.

May 15th - Day 41

Sorry this is very very late, but I lived without internet for the past weekend. You will soon find one why...

Yeay... got people cook for me!!! So pretty so nice so delicious so happy... I can't run out of adjectives? No... oh, it's beyond words!!! =) There were ladies' fingers, mushrooms, sambal seafood and soup. Look at that and that and that and that!!!

My host was awfully drunk. She had, in total, 5 bottles of beer on that day -- 4 bottles with me, before, during and after dinner. We called Miss Loh, and cheered her up a little. Because she was screaming that she's so happy by the end of the conversation. I miss you too, Miss Loh. If you by chance read this.

April 10th - London - Day 6

Almost one week in UK, just almost. Good Friday, a public holiday in UK. I've planned to meet Peg in London. The journey starts here, ~200metres away from my home away from home.

The journey to London took about two hours on couch. The couch leaves Parkside at 6:45 and arrives at Victoria couch station 8:45. I walked across the street to Victoria underground station to meet Peg. We had breakfast at a Cornish Deli and continued our adventure.

First stop: Buckingham Palace. That's one of the Queen's men on guard at the door on the right. On the left, a picture of me and Peg walking towards Buckingham Palace. More pictures below of the Palace and the Queen's monument. Peg brought her little friend, "Zyu Zai", as you can see in the picture.

We walked passed St. James Park and Birdcage Walk on the way to the next stop, Westminster Abbey. Here's recording our footsteps on the Jubilee Walkway. We spent some time at the Westminster Abbey, then walked to Big Ben and then crossed the Westminster Bridge. After crossing the bridge, we took a small break at McDonold's.

The photographs below in top to bottom, left to right order: Birdcage Walk of St. James Park, the signboard of Birdcage Walk, Westminster Abbey, 12 Martyrs on the walls of Westminster Abbey, footstep on Silver Jubilee Walkway, Big Ben, Big Ben, London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster Bridge & Big Ben in 17.




We then took the underground to get to Tower of London. The queue was too long, so we did not get in. But we took a walk across the Tower Bridge, which is nearby and recorded our footsteps at the middle of the bridge, where we see the gap between the two risible arms of the bridge.

There was rain and we could do anything else, so we took the underground to Chinatown. There, I bought a pashmina scarf, which you will start to see me wearing tomorrow. I can swear that I don't know the guy behind me in the picture. He sneaked up on me when Peg took this picture of me, and when the picture was done he laughed out loud while he walked pass me. I had seriously thought he was mentally challenged before knowing what happened. Peg took another one with just me in it. But I thought it would be fun to have this one uploaded. It was something new, to meet warm people away from home.

We took the underground again to Stepney Green to meet Lee Sim for dinner before going back to Peg's house in Leyton. She introduced a Thai restaurant that she frequent. The food, atmosphere and staff were nice. Although I have to admit that the waitress is not very good at using my camera.

We had, that evening for dinner (top to bottom, left to right), the famous fried chicken on salad with vinegar, Lee Sim's fried noodles, Peg's Pad Mee and my Tom Yam rice noodles. I think I had the names correct, but I'm not entirely sure except for my Tom Yam. Ha ha ha ha... bear with me though...

April 5th - Day 1 - UK, London & Cambridge

Yello... UK!!! yello... London!!! yello... Cambridge!!!

My flight was sweet. It was delayed, though. Heathrow is OK, not the nightmare I imagine after hearing people call it airport from hell. It's busy, and we had to walk very far, and we have to wait very long. But it was sweet and nice.

Note to all and self: I have never (never ever!) felt like a foreigner before!!! Kudos. :-)

I wasn't allowed to use camera at the borders, where we had lot's of time. So no photographs from Heathrow, I'm afraid.

Second stop: London!!! The tube was packed. So I haven't room to get my camera out from my bag. But I got the cam out after I met Peg. She treated me to lunch at McDonald's. And McDonald's in UK have got bacon!!! Ooooh... Mummm mummm mummm.



On the left, that's Miss Nyon (Oh I'm sorry, Dr Nyon, ha ha ha ha) with my iPod Touch. She's going to get one. She played with it a little while and decided that she really likes it. We were sitting at our table at McDonald's across from King's Cross. And that on the right, is McDonald's Chicken and Bacon Sandwich with Brown bread. Filling and mmm-mmmm... Good!!!

Next stop: Cambridge!!! I took the train from King's Cross. Dave told me the scenery on the way is not good. I think he overrated my tolerance. The fields are so green. I love it. It was a wonderful journey. A few pictures:



I walked from the train station to Warkworth Street, where my guest house is. And Cambridge is just so beautiful: the sky is blue and the grass is green. Can't imagine anyone who would not fall in love with this place. This is where I live:



On the left, a picture of how it looks like along the street. On the right, a picture of El-Shaddai's front door. I had to stoop the camera real low to get this shot. My room's on the top floor of this cozy little house.



I'm currently placed in the double room. So on the left you see two beds. In the middle you see I have a little TV set in my room. On the right you see I have a wash basin in my room. So I can brush my teeth in my room in the morning. :-)

Long long first day in UK. Wow!