Category: Travel

Oxford

The trip to Oxford was not bad.

Oxford is quite different from Sheffield in respect of the design of the city. The city dates back to the medieval times. Bicycle is the main transport in the city and also a healthy mixture of races. The colleges in Oxford are spread around the city but most of them are closed to the public and has huge tall walls with spikes on top and security guards guarding the entrances. However, tours are conducted for a small payment. Another thing is there are plenty of shops selling jumpers and t-shirts with the name University of Oxford printed on them. Anyone could just buy them and show it to their friends and claim that they were from Oxford Uni.

Since the city is famous for it’s historical sites, our main attractions were the historical buildings. Our first destination was Bodleian Library, which carries over 5.7 million books (almost a copy of every book published in Britain) and no one has ever been permitted to check one out. We were looking forward to see the library but unfortunately, the library was closed due to some unknown reason.

Sadly, most of the historical sites we visited were not interesting. Carfax Tower and Covered Market were the uninteresting sites. The former is just a clock tower with little architectural significant and the latter, which is just few steps away from Carfax Tower, is just a normal market and doesn?t have anything interesting.

The only thing that caught my attention for a while was a small notice written in Japanese stating “Nihon go hanashimasu” which literally means “Converse in Japanese”. It was pasted on a shop owned by a Japanese looking lady. Probably it’s a advert for hiring people who could speak Japanese.

The only interesting place we visited was Christ Church College. It?s the film site for Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and Shadowlands.

The dining hall scene in Harry Potter was shot in the amazingly huge Dining Hall built in 1529. It also has many connections with Lewis Carroll?s book, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. The dining hall and the people around him inspired many of his ideas. (Apparently, Alice is the daughter of the Dean (during Lewis?s days in Christ Church) and Alice’s cat Dinah inspired the Cheshire-Cat). The hall has a magnificent ceiling, of ‘hammerbeam’ construction. The portraits of many famous members of Christ Church can be seen on the wall, including a few of the thirteen Prime Ministers educated in the college.
We took couple of photos before heading to the Cathedral. Apparently, it is the smallest cathedral in the country.

While I was loitering around the staircase that leads to the dining hall, I spotted a small carving on the wall. It went something like ‘L.P.C 1864’.

By the time we finished touring Christ Church, it was dark and raining heavily. We had to cancel our visit to the museum due to insufficient time and ended up in Starbucks. We spent our remaining time in Starbucks before heading for our 3 hours journey back to Sheffield.

– 11:30PM

York, England 2002

York is located an hour away from Sheffield. York serves as a very important historical site for England. It signifies the presence of The Roman Empire, The Vikings and lastly the ancient political scene in England.

MASSOC organised a trip down to York today. My friends and I had to wake up in the unearthly hours of Saturday morning where it was freezing and raining heavily. But it did not break my spirit of travelling. Frederick was the only one who couldn’t make it. He decided not to go after waking up late even though he had already paid for the trip.

It was still raining heavily when we arrived in York. Despite the unappealing weather, we still had to continue with our itineraries. Our first destination was York Castle Museum. The museum used to be a fortress for centuries. The entry fee was 3 pound and it took me a while to realise that we’ve been conned. The exhibitions were boring. The first section was all about the world of interiors of Englishmen ranging from a Moorland cottage to a Georgian house. It looked like an early version of IKEA.

The second one was about the story of life from cradle to grave of English culture. All I could remember from there was just the immortality rate of children. Before the Parliament passed an act to regulate mid wives on childbirth, the death rate of childbirth was extremely high, especially in suburbs where 1 in 4 children will die. The last one was the most interesting of all. They had a replica of a Victorian Street. We walked down the cobbled street and peered through the windows of shops long gone such as toy shops, candies shop, saddle shop etc.

My friends and I wanted to take a picture and I tried to set up my tripod. However, one of the security officers came by and forbid me to use the tripod. I begged ‘Just one, please!’ The officer was nice enough to let me take one but I had to be quick because his boss will be around soon. We got everyone together and posed in front of a horse carriage.

Opposite the museum, on top of a hill, lies Clifford’s Tower. Once the central stronghold of York Castle, Clifford’s Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror to secure the unruly north. I climbed up the stairs and took a closer look. Its diameter is pretty small but its walls are quite high. However, visitors must pay another 2 pound in order to enter it.

Dreadfully disappointed with the museum, we headed to The York Dungeon. York Dungeon was almost the same as Dracula’s in Melbourne. It has interactive staffs to scare the hell out of you and base their design on gruesome things. The York dungeon brings more than 2000 years of gruesomely authentic history vividly back to life and death. The path to the exhibitions was pitch dark and no one knows when one of their interactive staffs would jump out to scare you. The first exhibition was the effect of Bubonic Plague to York. Dead bodies were thrown together and left to rot; unprecedented and rather unreasonable treatment of patients (ie by draining out the bad blood in the body); isolation of patients.

Rats caused the plague that swept throughout Europe and wiped out millions of people and no one knew until the very end. Some thought it was cause by black cats and they started killing them. Obviously as a result of that, more rats roam the streets.

At the end of each exhibition, the interactive staff would try to scare people. They would usually give an innocent speech and all of a sudden, something pops out suddenly.

The last section was the torture section. All sorts of torture that was used for the past few centuries were on display using dummies and a little sound effect. The most gruesome of all was where a cage was laid on the body of the victim. Then the torturer would put a starved rat into the cage. The rat will then eat the flesh of the victim in order to feed itself and to escape.

I had a traditional English meal for lunch. I had a Giant Yorkshire Pudding with Beef. Yummy, it was much better than the one they served at my previous hall.

Khai Fei, Su Ween, Michelle, Mindy and I headed to the York Minster. It’s the largest medieval gothic cathedral north of the Alps and a treasure house of 800 years of strained glass. We didn’t bother to enter the cathedral. All we did was just took couple of pictures.

The girls wanted to shop. Chuo Ming, Han Choong and I decided to have coffee in Starbucks (there are 3 Starbucks in York, but there isn’t one in Sheffield at all!) The Starbucks we went is located in a few century old huge ballroom-like-room with high ceiling and chandelier. Starbucks amazingly preserved the interior of the building. All they did was just set up counter in the middle of the room without even touching any of the walls.

While Han Choong and I were enjoying our coffee, Chuo Ming slept. Since both of them were happily seating on a sofa and I was sitting on a wooden chair, I moved to another table with a sofa. Han Choong moved to my table and left Chuo Ming sleeping alone on the sofa. While we were happily reading the newspapers, 2 gorgeous English girl sitting opposite Chuo Ming started shouting ‘hey, sleeping boy! Wake up!’ I looked at their direction and one of the girls started pointing at Chuo Ming. I laughed out loudly. They asked
“Is he your friend?”

I answered “yeah”
“oh, I thought his friends abandoned him and left him alone there”
I replied “yeah, we’re going to abandon him soon’.
Han Choong suggested to the girls to take a picture with Chuo Ming while he was sleeping. Unfortunately, they declined otherwise it would be the one of the funniest prank we even made.

We left at 6pm and by that time, I don’t feel well. It must be the rain. I’ve been walking under the rain for the whole day. I feel a flu coming soon.

I slept throughout the journey back to Sheffield. By the time I reach Sheffield, I found that I’ve been drooling all over my hand and shirt. hehe

London – One Day Trip

I almost missed the bus to London this morning. I waited 10 minutes for a non-existing bus to the train station and only realise it when there is only 20 minutes left before departure. I rushed to the main road and search for a taxi but there was not even one on the street. Panicking and desperate, I called a taxi. Few seconds after I put down my phone a taxi came. The taxi driver sped all the way to the train station as soon as I told him that my train is leaving in 10 minutes.

Fortunately, I got there on time just few minutes before departure. The trip to London needed me to take a bus to Derby’s train station. It only took me an hour and it seems shorter cause I dozed off few times on the bus. The train to London took about 2 hours. I arrived in London St Pancres safely.

I somehow ended up in the London Underground. Totally no idea how and where to go, I consulted the tube map. I’m meeting Gin Yew and Claudine in Victoria station at 1:30pm and therefore I searched for the word Victoria station. The blue line on the map indicates that the Victoria line goes to Victoria station. Once again, totally no idea where and how to use the tube, I took a risk by taking the Victoria line despite the uncertainty I was having.


St Pancres Station

London Underground reminds me of Melbourne’s train system. People rushing, high-speed escalators and the gushing wind caused by the train on its arrival. The trains here look pretty good. It has seats with comfy sofas and it’s much smaller. The train takes an average of 1 minute to its next station.

I was early by 1 1/2 hour. I wandered around, took some pictures and even had the time to take a look at the toilet. I needed to pee badly and searched for the toilet. A payment of 20p is required in order to active the bar that blocks the entrance to the toilet. As I got out from the toilet, I was famished. Auntie Anne’s Pretzels was literally calling my name. I stopped myself from buying it (2 for one) so that I wouldn’t spoil my appetite for lunch later.

Claudine arrived on time, exactly on 1:30pm. I passed her the carton of cigarettes she wanted and she introduced her English boyfriend, John and her friend, Gan (Malaysian). She was pretty adamant on asking me to join them for lunch. I told them I would call them as Gin Yew arrives.

Gin yew was 20 minutes late. I passed him the credit card that his parents passed to me. However, it was crooked probably because I put it on my back pocket for too long. Hopefully it still works.

We headed to Leicester Square next. We arrived totally no idea where we were and walked around searching for Chinatown. Fortunately, we found it within minutes. All we did was just walk straight after we got out from the tube.

London’s Chinatown is huge and much different. Most of the shops there are Chinese restaurants and even the arch is much different from others. Gin Yew and I were supposed to meet up with Claudine and her friends for lunch at Four Season restaurant. According to her, it serves the best Duck rice in town. Gin Yew and I searched the whole Chinatown for that restaurant. Claudine said that it’s opposite Pizza Hut. It seems that the restaurant is on the other side of Leicester Square. Frustrated and tired, we settled down in Crispy duck restaurant instead.

We ordered a set lunch (fried squid, sweet and sour ribs and fish) and added half a duck in that 3 stories high restaurant. We ate and chatted for an hour. Gin Yew is currently studying Engineering in Portsmouth Uni. He was supposed to get into 2 year but apparently the uni rejected his foundation he did in Malaysia because the uni claims that it wasn’t strong enough. Barely 2 weeks of staying in Portsmouth, he already made plenty of friends. He is staying with 5 other Caucasian in his Uni’s flat and as usual all of them drinks alcohol everyday.


Chinatown

Initially, we had no plans at all. No idea where to go. I looked at the map and suggest that we go to Westminster, where the Parliament is. We took a tube and as soon as we got out from the station, we were astonished. We didn’t know the Great Ben and the Eye of London (Ferris wheel) were located in Westminster. Never once in our life that we though of being in London, looking at the great Architecture of Englishmen together.

He hurried onto the bridge that crosses the River Thames and started snapping pictures. Across the bridge, lays the London aquarium and the Eye of London. We vowed visit them one day.

We then walked around the Parliament. It was closed to public and barricades were deployed to deny entries. Feeling unsatisfied just by walking around the Parliament, we rubbed our hands on the building to please ourselves.


Gin Yew & I – Eye of London


Westminster


Side Walk of River Thames

Buckingham Palace was our next target. According to the steel engraved maps located on the streets, the palace is somewhere nearby. However, the map wasn’t very clear and we wandered around for quite some time until we asked a policeman for direction.

‘Excuse me, where is the Buckingham palace?’
The policeman turned and gave me a big smile ‘Just go straight and turn left, you’ll see a big arch on your way and then go straight’
It was the first time a policeman gave me a sincere smile. Back in Malaysia, the policeman only smiles when say, “Datuk..boleh tolong aa?? (Datuk, can you help me???)”

We had to walk though a huge and long avenue as we passed the huge arch. The road was paved in red probably to symbolise a red carpet. Buckingham palace was a disappointment. I was expecting some palace guards dressed in the Red Coat to be standing in front of the gates. There wasn’t even one on the entrance.

Gin yew and I were very much tired by then. We barely rested and walked non-stop. However, it did not dampen our intensive and compact London tour. We headed straight to the London Bridge.


Buckingham Palace Arch


Buckingham: Gin Yew & I

The station for London Bridge is called London Bridge. Once again, we had totally no idea where the bridge is. Fortunately, there was a signboard that shows the way to London Bridge. We arrived upon an empty bridge. It was just a straight bridge with cars innocently crossing it. The word London Bridge is engraved on the bridge. It is not the bridge we wanted to see! We wanted the bridge that is always featured in post cards and advertisements!

We stood on the middle of the bridge and found the real London Bridge we wanted to go. Tower Bridge (the real name for the bridge we wanted to go) is just few miles from London Bridge. I found out that the London Bridge was the first bridge that crossed River Thames. It was build by the Romans during its occupation of England.

It was sunset when we arrived at Tower Bridge thus it gave me great photos opt. We took couple of pictures, headed back to the tube and rushed back home.


Tower Bridge : Gin Yew & I


Tower Bridge

I almost missed my train again. I ran as soon as I got out from the tube and made it just in time for the train. Damn, my time management is really bad.

The train took me 2 hours again. I had to stop at Derby to take a bus back to Sheffield. The bus ride was unpleasant. Even though the bus was amazing stuffy and hot, the driver turned on the heater.
I arrived in Sheffield exhausted. I bought McDonalds for dinner and headed straight back home. Despite the lovely sceneries and clean streets. London is polluted. I cleaned my nose when I got back from London and found that all the substance was black.

I complained to my housemates that the Buckingham Palace guards weren’t around. Frederick told me that the guards would only appear during ceremonies!
– 12:56PM

Melbourne 28

Melody and I had dim sum with Wei Chen and Ben at Sharkfin’s. The food was great. Ben was suffering from a hangover from last night’s clubbing session with his friends. Apparently, his friends were forcing him to drink because his birthday is next week (on the unfortunate September 11). He had to down a bottle of Black Label for 21 seconds (in conjunction with his 21st birthday). Wei Chen on the other hand passed me the anime that he burned for me. Thanks mannnn!

My dad recommended the Chinese museum in Chinatown for us to visit. After Ben and Wei Chen left, we headed to the museum which is just few blocks away. The entrance fee was $4.50.

The displays wasn’t that good. There are loads of things missing and not properly maintained and preserved. The lower floor exhibition was the worst. It was totally empty and deserted. The lights were dim and sounds of the Chinese opera playing. Back in Malaysia, the only time I get to listen to Chinese opera is during the Chinese ghost festival. The opera is held in an open space; up on a man made stage; with chairs arranged in order. The first few rows are usually empty. Apparently, it’s for the dead to sit.

They designed the place in to a replica of old Chinese ghetto. As we enter one of the exhibitions, 2 Chinese opera singer dummies freaked me out. It was so spooky that at one point I did not dare to enter one of the exhibitions. We quickly headed back to the ground floor.

The museum has 4 floors. The ground floor is basically the reception area with some souvenirs for sale.

The 2nd floor is a small art exhibition room and the 3rd floor is where all the important stuffs are. However, the 3rd floor exhibitions are not properly maintained. Some of the displays are broken and no proper security is installed. Anyone could just take anything back home.

But there were couple of interesting displays. Racism towards the Chinese immigrants was not bad. There had couple of degrading cartoons drawn by white extremists ie comparing rabbits with Chinese (on the terms of overpopulated), images of Chinese taking advantage of poor helpless white ladies, social ills brought by the Chinese. On the other hand, it seems that the Chinese population helped the Australian army during WWII by providing minor services.

After museum, we headed back to the city. Melody shopped again. I had to follow her around because I’m running out of money. I cant shop!!!

We had McDonalds for dinner. I had to budget myself.

However, I still could afford to watch a movie. Insomnia, based on Stephen King’s novel, was bad. The story line was boring but the cinematography was great! The movie is based in Alaska and the sceneries were great. Couple of months ago, I visited a website maintained by a girl who is living in Alaska. She had couple of beautiful pictures of Alaska. Unfortunately, I lost her url.

I’m leaving tomorrow night. It’s been 1 month 3 weeks ever since I got here. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Melody and I decided to go to Sandringham tomorrow. For your information, Sandringham is the train line we always take to go back home. Sandringham is located on the beach. We’re gonna picnic there!
A little bit of info on Sandringham http://www.bayside.vic.gov.au

The itinerary for tomorrow:

Wake up early for English breakfast in the city.
Go home, do laundry and pack up.
Head to Sandringham.
Dinner.
Airport and leave Melbourne 🙁
– 3:00AM

Melbourne 26

It’s been a long day. Melody didn’t sleep a wink but I dozed off at 4am (Melody was doing her assignment). She finally finished it at 3pm. I woke up at 2:30PM, cooked lunch and headed to Melbourne Uni to hand up the assignment.

We bumped into Ben while we’re on the way to the city after handing up the assignment. Ben is going to Irene’s party tonight but Melody and I decided not to.

We walked around the city and Melody did some shopping. As the sun is about to set, we headed to Flinders St. Station and Yarra River to take some photos. Hopefully they’ll turn out well.
We had dinner at Greco’s in Crown. It was good but we had to rush a little bit cause we’re watching a movie in an hour time.

The Sums Of All Fears was good, really really good! However, I felt uncomfortable throughout the movie. There was this old lady who kept on coughing and coughing, irritating, and worst of all, she smelled bad. I couldn’t stand it!

After the movie, we had cake and coffee at Greco’s again. The waitress who served us the previous time was surprised to see us again. Greco’s food and drinks (especially their café latte!) are good but sometimes it’s horrible. We had chocolate cheesecake which was really really good! But my Irish coffee was horrible. It was alcoholic and very bitter. To add salt to wound, it cost a bomb! Last week, the day where I spilled by coffee in Greco’s and was given a free cake and drinks in return, I had the most horrible tiramisu. It was soggy. It was as if it has been dipped into bucket of water.
– 11:22PMIt’s 3am and Melody and I are still awake. Dont think Melody will be sleeping tonight.
– 3:00AM

Melbourne 25

Irene is having a BBQ at her place tomorrow. I might drop by and say hi

grrr, i couldnt break the apple into perfect half again.
– 11:40PM
I’m in Melbourne Uni’s computer lab again. The mouse i’m using now is darn sticky. I wonder how many hands touched it. Imagine what they did before that, ie masturbated in the toilet, dig their nose, euw euw euw!!

Melody is trying to finish another assignment again. I guess we’ll stay up the whole night again…

I bumped into Kwok Hoong again in Bluezone cafe. We chatted for a while. It seems that he has a new girl in his life now (not to say very new but recently). That’s quick, he broke up with Irene (it’s Irene’s birthday today, Happy birthday! :P) a month ago! Kwok Hoong was eager to show me his new girlfriend. Probably we’ll have dinner this weekend.

The Bluezone cafe boss seems to like Melody and I very much. A Chinese man with huge glasses and unshaved moustache and speaks with a heavily Chinese accentted English, he’s always smiling whenever he sees us. And today, he gave us a discount for the muffin we bought (wee!). Even though he seems like a nice man, he’s somehow dangerous. He could split an apple into half with his bare hands! And it’s perfect half! According to Melody, the boss studied Shaolin Kungfu in China for 10 years.
And last night, i tried splitting a small apple with my bare hands. I grasped the apple and pulled it with all my strength. The apple did not split but the top part came off. I tried again and it split! However, it was perfectly half, only a quarter of the apple came off. I’ll try again tonight.

Interesting website, http://nowayjose.blogspot.com/ – traveller on the move!
– 3:54PM

Melbourne 24

I’m in Melbourne Uni’s library computer lab. Just had lunch with Melody and now i’m waiting for her to finish classes so that we could go home together and cook. I still have about an hour to go, i guess i’ll head down to the arcade. What a boring day (oh what a boring postt…)!
– 3:44PM

Melbourne 23

Melody stayed up till 9am to do her assignment but I only lasted till 6am.
I watched 5 episods of The Simpsons today. madness…

I found some interesting juice recipes while shopping for groceries at Coles.
Pineapple, Lime and apple.
Peel and chop ¼ pineapple. Using a juice extractor, process pineapple, 1 lime and 1 green apple.

Raspberry, orange and Passionfruit
Using a juice extractor, process 1 punnet fresh raspberries and 2 peeled oranges. Pour into glasses over crushed ice and stir in pulp of 2 passionfruit.

Tropical Blend
Using a juice extractor, process 1 chopped mango, 2 peeled kiwi fruit, ¼ pineapple and ¼ cup fresh mint.

Citrus blend
Using a juice extractor, process 2 large oranges, ½ lemon and 3 large apples. Serve immediately.

Carrot, Apple, Pear and Lemon
Using a juice extractor, process 2 carrots, 1 apple, 1 pear and ½ peeled lemon. Serve immediately.

Grape, Kiwi Fruit and Berry
Using a juice extractor, process 500g of seedless grapes, 2 peeled kiwi fruit and 1 punnet strawberries. Stir in low-fat milk and crushed ice.

Pineapple, Rockmelon and Grape
Peel and roughly chop ¼ pineapple and ¼ rockmelon. Using a juice extractor, process pineapple, rockmelon and 1 cup of seedless green grapes. Serve immediately over ice

Vegie Juices (euw!!)
Beetroot, Celery, Ginger and Pear
Using a juice extractor, process 2 large beetroots, sterns removed, 4 sticks celery, 1 small piece of fresh ginger ad 1 pear. Serve immediately over crushed ice.

Capsicum, Celery, Cucumber and Lemon
Remove seeds and membranes from 1 red capsicum, chop roughly. Using a juice extractor process capsicum, 4 stalks celery, 1 Lebanese cucumber and ½ peeled lemon. Serve immediately.
– 11:50PM

Melbourne 22 – 100th entry!

Melody is rushing her assignment tonight. She’s not going to sleep until she finishes. I guess I’ll accompany until I fall asleep.

Nothing particular happened today. All I did was just having lunch in Melbourne Uni, went online in the library, went to the arcade and cooked.

I cooked pasta. It was easy. All I did was just fry garlic, onions, mushrooms and minced meat. At the beginning, everything turned out fine but after I put in the sauce, Melody found out that I put in the wrong sauce! It was some instant pasta packet rather than the pasta sauce! Thank god she managed to recoup it otherwise her housemate would hate me even more.
– 9:38PM

Melbourne 21

Hen joined the Daytona I competition at Russell St. today. The entry fee was free but there weren’t much people (about 16 contestants). There are only 2 rounds, the qualifying round and the finals. The former is where 2 racers will be competing with each other and the winner goes to the finals. The latter is where all the 8 winners of the qualifying match compete with each other for the 1st prize. The winner will be presented with a small trophy.

Hen’s first match was exciting. Initially, he seems to be losing and the other player was much better than him. The other player kept on banging and overturning Hen’s car but Hen still could catch up with him. At the final stage, Hen was still behind, but within a twist of luck, the other player’s car crashed and Hen managed to win!

However, the finals wasn’t interesting. Cars just kept on crashing and cars kept on overtaking each other. Hen finished 7th out of the 8 contestants. Boo hoo.
– 10:50PMUpdated album section with Easter Break Melbourne trip pictures.
– 9:22PM