Cambridge

Mood: Excited Health:Good Weather: Cold

Sighs... it was raining heavily as we made our way to the bus stop for our 4am coach to London. At London, the weather was not optimistic at all and it was cold at 8 deg. What was the matter with UK in the summer?? We filled our hungry stomachs with early breakfast before our next coach to Cambridge.

After arrival, Woon picked us up and drove us to the venue where Ling had her meeting. It was great to see her after so long. Shortly, the three of us parted for 'dim sum' lunch at 'Charlie Chan' :)

One prawn dumpling missing (Jeff was the thief)

As a 'siew mai' critics, I was glad that it tasted better than the previous ones I had in other restaurants.

After such a great lunch, Yan Qin, a Taiwanese postgraduate in Cambridge University (Ling's friend) brought us around the school. The highlights of Cambridge were the prestigious Cambridge university and its 30 over colleges!!

The bridge of Mathematics

The colleges are also hostels to the student there. Wow... I would love to stay in such antique centuries old buildings!! The following features some of the beautiful colleges there.

A clock with a bug that strikes many controversies

Ooo... seemed like a butcher stall!!

In most of the colleges, there were signboards to inform visitors to keep their volume down due to exam in progress. Hmm... even on a Sunday?? And also signboards to ask people to keep their feet off the neat 'carpet- like' grass except the birds.

Continuous stream of lake and boats rowing is evident in many areas of the colleges.

An engraved stone dedicated to a China scholar.

The significant of the poem and information about this poet were quite puzzling as there was no signboard for explanation. Guess I have to do a 'google' search then.

Antique clock

Standing on the wrong side of the sun!

Jeff acting cool on a sunny weather... hmm...

Flying hair...

This man was always mentioned in my course - Newton's law

Sculpture of famous scholars

One of the chapels (name can't remember :X )

Flowers blooming beautifully in Summer.

Notice anything about these flowers? The petals seemed to be the other way round!

The bridge of Science in the background

Yan Qi and Woon told us that this bridge is also nicknamed 'the depressing bridge or stressful bridge' as all students need to pass this bridge in order to get to the examination hall.

Boat rides are common around the university.

Nice town

Anyone fancy Peking duck or roasted duck? I was joking about if the students can be so poor that they captured the white ducks and slaughtered them for food!

With more than three hours of walking, Woon brought us to have tea and some rest at the orchard tea garden in Grantchester, which was around 10 minutes of car ride from the Uni. It also has a small museum dedicated to a good looking WWI hero - Rupert Brooke. He was a graduate of Cambridge University and was a famous poet, who stayed around the orchard. He died of food poisoning at a young age of 27 years old during the WWI while traveling to war site.

The tea garden was started by chance when a group of Cambridge students asked if they could be served tea beneath the blooming fruits trees instead of the front lawn of the house, which eventually became a popular spot for many famous people and scholars including Brooke.

Grantchester tea garden where drinks and cakes were served

The tea garden was over a century year old and its originality was maintained. Woon treated us afternoon tea and after that, we met up with Ling, Yan qi and Song Hee for dinner at a korean restaurant. Dinner was a complimentary from Woon. Thank you.

We had their chilli and sweet chicken wings and seafood pancakes for appetizers. For main, we had rice, hotplates of beef, ginger pork, fried chilli rice cakes, dolsot bibimbap, and tofu and kimchi. The outcome of our dinner ... empty dishes...

Finally, it was dessert time! We had tofu ice- cream!! Special right?

Tofu ice- cream which doesn't taste like tofu to me

Then we had complimentary mint ice- cream from the boss :)

The day was almost gone. We ended our dinner after 8pm and travelled back to Cardiff at 9.15pm. We have to thank a few people for making our Cambridge trip so pleasant; Yan Qi for being our colleges guide, Woon for driving us around and bringing us to places and food, Ling's for her hospitality and snacks on our way home. Also, thanks to the weather for stopped raining once we stepped our feet in Cambridge.

Boxing Day at Sanctuary!

Mood:Tired Health:Good Weather:Freezing

Our first agenda for Boxing Day was to meet at Rabab's place for breakfast at 10am. I was so tired, I didn't sleep until 3.30am. Reason - I forgot that I am sensitive to caffeine and should have avoided taking them last night during the cheese and crackers course.

Half- awaken Sam

Our main - pancakes and bacon! I LOVE BACON!

We also have cakes, mince pies and Rabab's sweets. Rabab was such a wonderful host! She took care of us and was the last person to sit down and had her food even on Christmas.

If you don't believe how amusing Gary is... see below...

He is so funny when he speaks, moves, smiles and laughs. Hahaha... I think I will die of laughter if I am with him for too long!

Soon, we set off to Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary in Upper Swansea Valley...

Today I learnt that Rabab drives. She normally cycled around Cardiff. Her reasons - don't see the need to have a car by herself and be environmental friendly :)

Our final destination after a long drive:

My feedback to Sanctuary - don't place the bin with the signboard please!

" My name is Thunder"

The first animal to greet us is Thunder. Thunder looked like a huge siberian husky but in fact, he is a wolf. His companion is a white beautiful wolf named Lightning.

It was a sunny day but freezing. Some of my pictures were blurred because I have to remove my gloves and take the pictures really fast and keep my hands in gloves again. It was so cold!

It was a pity that there were many cute and beautiful monkeys around but I couldn't take good pictures of them as they were kept indoors with dirty see through panels. I saw monkeys with the coolest hair- do, beautiful eyes and furs!

Also some of them were too far from the fence for a closer look

Except myself. Haha... (see carefully! I am no longer having dark eyes!)

From front: Junichi, James, Ceclia & Gary

One of my favourite - the Capuchin

Found my another friend - the red Fox!

Showing off their beautiful furs and grace!

I was not lying when I said it was cold. Poor chimpanzee!

No offends but I was glad that Halloween was over!

" I liked red pepper!!"

As I was walking around, I caught a pair of eyes staring at me... monitoring my every moves...

Haha... just joking!!

The BIGGEST & FATTEST PIG I ever seen!

Noticed anything about my hoodies? It was my new hoodies from Engineering school!

With my name on it :)

It was so cold! I can't wait to get inside the cottage at the Sanctuary. My hands were freezing even with gloves on!

What a cosy and warm place!!

At first I thought there was this toy cat on the table because it was motionless. But at closer look, I realised it was a real cat! This mimi was enjoyable the warmth from the fireplace. It kept staring at it and I wondered what it was thinking... magic?? Hmm...

"Let me introduce you to my friend behind me in the cage!"

"This is smarty - the smallest monkey here!"

Looking red from the cold and warming myself up

The staff was kind to let us use the table and chairs in the cafe even though we were not ordering food from her and had our packed lunch. However, we did order a few cups of hot tea to warm our bodies.

Even the house cat from the Sanctuary joined us

This was an amazing day but tiring! I dozed off in the car twice. Don't forget, I only slept for a couple of hours! I need to go back to my work now. I only have a week left for all my tasks! Sighs... Terrible terrible!!