For anyone missing my face...

and for narcissistic me, heh.

If not for the French PM...

I would be on a National Express Coach right now on my way to crossing the English Channel and setting foot on France. As it is, France is now in a rather messy situation and therefore I am here in the NHH ISC writing a blog entry griping about the messy situation.

So, will be flying into Germany on Friday instead. In the 13 days we'll be there, 3 days will be spent in Frankfurt (Hahn), 6 in Munich and the last 4 in Berlin.

From Hahn, we'll take a day trip out to Freiburg to see the Black Forest; from Munich, we'll be going out the Fussen to see Neuswanstein, King Ludwig's fairy tale castle and from Berlin, we are probably making a day trip to Potsdam.

En route from Hahn to Munich, we stop over a Nuremberg (think Hitler!) and between Munich and Berlin, we'll pause at Dresden.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that I AM travelling and I am sure I will love Germany as I love any new place. It's just that France has a special place in my heart, see. And it's just next-door to England. How infuriating.

Trips out

Last Week: National History Museum

Good weather that day! Wonder if the tree got tricked to throw out her blossoms; these few days it's been raining non-stop. Anyway, very pretty.


The museum from the outside...


and the dinosaur on the inside!


The place is really big, just like the British Museum. We only went through selected bits, including the dinosaur exhibit! How can we miss that. We had to tear our eyes away from the display cases in the Minerals and Rocks hall to get to the meteorites at the end. That hall is really nicely done up and the amazing display of rocks will make Mrs Chua (my sec 3 geog teacher) faint.

Today: Covent Garden, St James' Park, Buckingham Palace, Victoria

My Ben's cookie at Covent Garden. It's white chocolate with cranberry: there were WHOLE cranberries, not bits of fruit.


St. James' Park: my first visit to a UK park. Really beautiful. When more flowers bloom as spring marches along, it will be even more breathtaking.



Buckingham Palace: actually not very spectacular but the gorgeous blue sky makes up for it.


Right next to the Palace is The Royal Mews, where the horses that draw the Royal family's carriages stay. We were lucky to see not one, but two carriages pass by!


The weather turned very gloomy in the afternoon and it alternated between raging rains and hail for a while. After the violent period, it settled for a sort of drizzly grey. A girl actually threw her umbrella at the side of the road because she got so frustrated by the wind turning the brolly inside out.

Hail:

First day of Easter Break

It's been a totally nuah day today.

7.15 am: Woke up.
7.30 am: Skipping, crunches, push-ups.
8.20ish am: Shower.
9.00ish am: Breakfast (wholemeal bread, Lady Grey tea) cum reading.
9.30ish am: Wash up; Laundry.
10.00ish am: Household maintenance (ok, I tightened the raffia rope that I hang things from; it was beginning to sag in the middle).
10.30ish am: Went online for a while.
11.15ish am: Got fq's call to get my ass down to pw's kitchen to make mee hoon kueh.
11.30ish am: Got my ass down to pw's kitchen to make mee hoon kueh. Had mee hoon kueh. Wash up.
1 plus pm: Adjourned to pw's room to play bridge.
3.40 pm: Left for Borough Market. They all wanted scallop. But we got there too late and found the scallop stall only when the stall holder was washing up. fq and sh were very disappointed. I got a scone; pw a slice of loaf cake and fq chocolates from cranberry.
5.30ish pm: Got back to pw's room to eat M&S trifle and talk.
7.00 pm: Left for dinner at Melati, a restaurant doing Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine.
8.00 pm: Reached Melati.
8.15ish pm: Began eating (curry chicken, sotong in indonesian sauce, kangkong and tauhu goreng with steamed/coconut rice)
8.45 pm: Finished eating.
9.00ish pm: Went into Costa to nuah somemore. Ended up with 1 cup of coffee among the 4 of us. Then we all settled down to read newspapers for the better part of the hour. Haha.
10.00 pm: Made our way to Leicester Square to take tube.
10.50ish pm: Got back in my room.

Now I shall go shower and then will hit the sack when my hair is reasonably dry. Can hardly keep my eyes open now!

The clocks go forward at 1.00 pm tomorrow to British Summer Time (aka Daylight Saving Time). What fun!

A quick one on Cambridge

Went to Cambridge the last weekend to disturb aa and t, a new friend. I really like the place; it is so different from London with all its greenery and the quiet tranquility that comes with being a university town. Lovely.

Arrived at midnight on Friday night and were chauffeured to t's room to spend the night. He gave up his room to us 2 girls and went to bunk with v, just a corridor away. The goodwill of people I barely know!

There was a party going on at the function room across the lawn but it stopped VERY promptly at 1 am in the morning. Amazing, I think.
(to bluebacterium: this college was supported hugely by Lee Seng Tee! there were quite a few buildings named after him.)

Sat morn, we cycled to Granchester for tea under the (bare) apple trees. I was majorly traumatised by the bicycle that was too big for me. When I was moving it was fine, but once I stop I take on average 4 tries to start. I kept swerving left and crashing into various things; luckily t was very good and did not laugh at me while waiting for me get started. If not I believe I could have cried.

My tormentor:


Scone and tea! I love scones!


After lunch, we went punting. Very fun! We all took turns doing it.

That's t punting us. Haha, doesn't he look like he's been doing it all his life? And the bridge in the background is the Mathematical bridge. Sir Issac Newton designed it and it was built without the use of any bolts at all. Yes, it was many interlocking logs. Now there are bolts to hold it up.


Sat evening, we left t to go to aa's. She took us to Nando's for dinner. pw was very gratified cos she's been wanting to eat there for ages. They serve chicken (roasted I believe) in various degrees of spicy-ness: shiok!

On Sunday, aa took us around the colleges and the town area, with a break to eat lunch with the very formiable Chan Lek. By formiable, I mean his mind. Really makes you feel rather inadequate. pw doesn't really get why I feel a bit awkward around him though. But then, she makes friends and talk to people THIS easily.

Me and aa on the Mathematical bridge. Don't we look like kids?! Terrible.


We left on Sunday evening by the 7pm National Express bus. National Express really has earned a fair bit of money from me already!