On Sunday the 27th, Kenny embarks on another epic journey... this time to Kings Lynn to visit dear Maetro Fraser... Caught the 9.33am train and reach Kings Lynn just after 10.10am... Quite an uneventful train ride... (Well, i think i'd prefer it to be that way... ;p)

Upon reaching Kings Lynn, we went for a walk around town.. Kings Lynn is somewhat a port of call where it used to do a fair bit of trading via the Great River Ouse... but of course, all that is history now... And here's a picture of Captain Vancouver.. who was the guy who discovered Canada apparently...

So after the walk around town and after a cup of hot coffee in a nice warm cafe, we headed off for what I think of as a really nice house!It really is a very nice cosy english home, with a nice little fireplace... awww.... isn't it just so wonderful?

And Fraser also has a small plot of orchard with lots of apple trees, plum trees, pear trees, tomatoes and more! It really is quite nice... Here's Fraser leading the way through the orchard... Bright sunny day... and you can see the apple hangiing from the tree too...

And there were chickens too! Four hens and two smaller chickens which were supposedly bred for show but were given to Fraser by his friend... And Fraser was also kind enough to offer me eggs to bring back to Cambridge.. yummy!

And this photo here shows how the apples are stored... And if you notice the white labels on the front of the tray, it's actually the type of apple it is... (And obviously I can't quite tell them apart! ;p)

This is Bonzo the dog... he's really adorable and very clever too... He loves to sit by the fireplace where there's warmth and puts his back to the panel heater when we're in the dining room... =) And then although he's a sheep-dog, he's more of a hen-dog really... His job every evening is to chase the hens back to the pen where they're kept for the night to keep them safe from the foxes... ooh... this is really wildlife/nature in action...

Finally, here's a photo of Fraser and me in front of the fireplace.. I don't think you can quite see the flames in this photo, but well, there are flames... ;p Nice isn't it? Thank you Fraser for a really lovely day! =) There're more photos here if anyone's interested!

On Saturday, I headed for the land of Robin Hood, aka Nottingham. Basically it was the Nottingham games organised by the Malaysian Singaporean Society at Nott Uni... And there were games like soccer (futsal), tennis, bridge, etc etc. And I was SUPPOSED to play soccer initially then I got kicked out (oops, pun not intended ;p) cos they could only register 7 players.. Then, somehow I was gonna play Men's doubles (tennis) with MIT Matt, but... we decided to head to town instead, which I suppose was a better choice... =) (well, I invited Matt who's on exchange from MIT, and Debra's supposed to play tennis..)

In the town of Nottingham, which is like twice that of Cambridge, and 10 times more modern, we walked around. There was a German festival or sorts in town and so we walked around that. Here's a picture of the German sausage stall, which I must say was DAMN good... yummy.. Thinking of it again makes me really hungry. If not for the hefty sum of £2.50 for a hot dog, I'd have gotten another one.

And Nottingham is known for the Nottingham castle, so if we visit Nottingham, how can we not visit the castle? Ok, so this wasn't the castle. haha.. that was just me and Matt having fun at the playground inside the castle. which is when this sign comes to use:


Anywayz, we were in the castle, and we also went for the tour of the caves in the castle. Supposedly, it was used as food storage, butchery, etc previously, although obviously it's unused now... however, as a geology student, there were certain interested features about the cave... ;p
As can be seen in this photo.. eg. the bedding layers where you can see difference in grain size... and according to the explanatory notes, it's supposed to be sandstone... ;p

More pictures... this one of MIT Debra on the slide...

Robin Hood the XXth, Matt Zedler!

The Heroes of Justice @ Nottingham. =)

Well, thanksgiving is a really small (read: non-existent) thing in the UK... so much so that they didn't even sell turkeys... so well, I prepared a thanksgiving dinner on Thursday (24/11) for some people... although I swear it's a pain to get people for dinner sometimes... But well, I managed to get 7 including me in the end, which wasn't too bad really... Well, here's what we had:

There was a stuffed chicken... well, got no turkey so we pretend the large chicken was a small turkey lah... ;p then there was also chilli sotong (squid), baked potatoes, chilli chicken, and mushroom omelette.... in case you're wondering what stuffing was in the chicken, it was some bread/onion/mushroom/carrot/spices stuffing... =)

And here's who was at the dinner:
Chin Tah n Sean...

Alvin sitting like tua-pek-kong like that... And Shuang Ning.... + some parts of Xilin...

Xilin staring intently at the fresher's photo and Jason, trying to look less horrible by taking off his specs... ;p

And here's probably for my mum and anyone who's interested:
A photo of the completed lor-bak (braised pork) and chilli spinach (cos there's no kang kong) and stir-fried potatoes... =)

Well, a week ago, it was forecasted to SNOW in Cambridge on Friday, (ie. today), but then by yesterday, the forecast had changed to cloudy skies, which I guess I'd expected pretty much.. But well, as I was putting my trays back in the dining hall after lunch just now, I saw flakes of SNOW drifting to the ground.... bwahaha...

Here's a photo from my window...(Clicking on the picture actually enlarges it btw...) Well, it only snowed for like 10 minutes, but who cares, it's snow anyway... haha.. and the best part being it snowed in Churchill and apparently not in other colleges, eg. Robinsons... ;p... Churchill rocks... =)

Here's a close-up... if you can't see the streaks of snow in this photo... then.... i'm speechless... ;p

Kenny goes to London once more... =)
After lectures on Saturday, Kenny heads down to the railway station with Jason to head down to London... Just to get away from Cambridge for a while basically... haha... and also to meet up with some friends.... But for me, it was also to catch another West end show, and this time, it was to be "The Phantom of the Opera"...

Well, I reached the ticket booth at 2.10 and managed to get the VERY LAST ticket for the matinee show... which I thought was quite lucky, otherwise it'd have been a wasted trip.. I paid £30 for a £47.50 ticket which was 3rd row from the front in the stalls, which I must say was an EXCELLENT seat.... got to "Her Majesty's" theatre with like 5 minutes to go...

Anyway, I am incredibly, absolutely astounded and fascinated by The Phantom of the Opera... there were so many moments during the show that made my jaws drop in awe and wonder at how they managed to do those stuff on stage. It was really incredible. Given the chance (& money), I'd definitely watch it again... As Pierre said, it's like wah! got "lake", got rowing boat, got chandelier falling, got people falling, got people disappearing, it was simply..... an experience beyond words...

Well, and we all know how Harry Potter is quite a big thing in London.. afterall the setting was in London right? So, when our train pulled into King's Cross station, we (Jason n I) had to find the legendary Platform 9 3/4... And indeed, oblivious muggles around didn't quite notice the presence of the platform....

And I even got a chance to go into the Platform! haha... although I have no pictures to show for it.... cos Hogwart's Express wasn't there that day anyway.... ;p

Here's Jason copying what I did earlier... hahaha... ;p

And of course the movie seems to be a really big thing and there's like posters and billboards everywhere... And I'm watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on MONDAY! woohoo! I'm watching it with Society Nine and Three-Quarters... (aka Harry Potter Society..)... [yes.. Cambridge University, (one of) the finest universities in the world (we're better than Oxford at least... ;p), has a Harry Potter society]

And I just thought of a new oxymoron... Muggle Society.... since Muggles won't know they're muggles, there can't be a muggle society can there? =)

It's been yet another busy AND hectic week, leaving me with little time to post stuff... Time has gone by so quickly that we've finished 6 weeks of Michelmas Term already.. 2 weeks to go! =) (Cambridge weeks start on Thursday btw...)

Well, last Friday was the launch of Churchill Springball... and I've been getting quite a few messages on MSN like, "huh? but it's winter now..." urm.. well, it's just the launch really.. meaning we start selling tickets and all... but the actual ball happens on Feb 10.. which technically isn't Spring yet.. haha.. But the launch was really fun... This year's theme is Karishma, which is some Bollywood theme... and obviously that's not very exciting for me, considering where I come from... (more info on the website)

For the launch, it was made to be like some movie premiere thingy where some of us (like ME!) were dressed up as Bollywood stars, and we had a director, camera-man, screaming fans, bodyguards, etc etc... Really cool.. Here's some photos from the after-party, ie. Pav.

Kenny & rower Gemma....

Kenny & Jason... (what's with the look? ;p)

Kenny & "kelsey-kerridge" Xilin & Pav-ver-of-the-week Nic... =)

And then 2 nights ago, there was a really nice full moon, here's a photo I took..
It's a 2-sec exposure shot without a tripod so it's abit blurred... hmmz...

keke... hope everyone's doing great! cheers!

so exciting... got my costume today for Churchill Springball launch tomorrow... ;p just a teaser of what i'm wearing... thanks to my mum for sending it over.. =)

Well, just a few photos and a short story on Guy Fawkes day... well, basically, Guy Fawkes was one of the guys who attemped to bomb the parliament house before we all were born, and got caught and executed. Thereafter, a bonfire was lit and fireworks were subsequently added to celebrate this "victory"... it's quite duhz i know, but well, i'm not complaining, i LOVE fireworks. =) Here are some shots taken on my digital camera.. (Here in the ulu-ness of Cambridge, i'm sure we don't get as spectacular a display as in London or anywhere else, but it's good nonetheless...)



nice eh? i like the colours in this shot...

my favourite shot.. =) it somehow looks like some fibre optics actually... hmmz...

Twinkle twinkle little stars,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle twinkle little stars,
How I wonder what you are.....

Well, wonder no more, cos Kenny THE astronomer is here! Well, last Friday, while the world was busy jiving to the cheesy music and getting drunk, Kenny braved the coldness (of 6 degrees celsius) to go stargazing at the observatory... Actually, it was more of a photography trip, with Sean, haha... But it was a worthwhile trip though... Had lots of really good photos from my digital compact camera... so let's start with our astronomy lesson #1:

[ps: these photos were taken on my digital camera and arrows, lines & words have been added in to explain the constellations]

Constellation #1: Cygnus the Swan
Well, this picture goes first cos it has a good view of the observatory that I have access to (cos I'm in the Astro-soc)... It has a 12-inch telescope inside, which isn't all that fantastic, but good enough... =) And above the observatory, we can see Cygnus the swan... Sorry, but part of the constellation was blocked by the observatory so I can only show part of it.... ;p

Constellation #2: The Big Dipper
This is the big dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Major (a big bear)... Well, it's called the big dipper cos it looks like a dipper.. duhz... and what's useful about the big dipper is that the two top most stars in the constellation point towards the North Star or Polaris... hence, allows it to be used to navigate if you're REALLY lost in the wild... (sorry, my photoshop skills aren't good enough to draw a arrow yet...;p)

Constellation #3: Orion
Undoubtedly the most known constellation and easiest to identify, except that people usually don't know what the constellation is, other than knowing Orion's belt... Orion's belt is really the belt and if you see the 2 stars in the row below the belt, it's supposed to be the sheath... Betelguese and Bellatrix (names of the stars) are the shoulders of Orion and Rigel and some unnamed star are the knees of Orion. Orion's belt can also be used to tell the North direction actually... (see picture below)

The arrow shown points ROUGHLY to the North, but is not as accurate as the one in the Big Dipper... but since it's pretty much the easiest constellation to identify in the sky, I suppose it can be used... ;p

And then you're wondering... Kenny kenny, but I can't see the constellations in Singapore/London/Timbaktu.... Rubbish... If you look hard enough, it can be seen... (on a clear day lah... duhz) haha... =) Yupz...

Anyway, footnote here: to all who've sent me postcards, thanks, I've received them! (you know who you are... *wink*) My cough is a little better already... thankfully... (note: a little) other than that, I'm still pretty much alive and kicking... trying to keep up with the hectic routine still... cheers! =)

My apologies for not having blogged for sooo long.. it's been a really hectic week for me... not so much in terms of school work, but rather, activities... Been doing quite a bit of coxing, soccer, frisbee, ballroom dancing, astronomy, etc, etc.. And a week just whizzed by just like that... =(

So Kenny, what interesting stuff happened in the past week? Tell us! Tell us! ah, alright alright... last Friday, I went for Halloween Superhall... so basically it was a Halloween themed formal dinner...
Check out the menu man.. it's even Halloween-themed.. It's Batwing cauldron of vegetables for main course and blood orange mousse for dessert btw... But... the main course seriously sucked...

And I went for the superhall mainly cos it was my college dad's birthday... =) And so we each have an orange with our names written on it... (It's SUPPOSED to look like a pumpkin btw... if you look at it from like 10 miles away or if you're drunk.. i suppose it's easier to achieve the latter... ;p) And we've got bats scatted all over the tble too... =)

Family photo! (from left: my college mum Alice, KENNY!, my college dad aka birthday boy Bob, my college brother Hui) Yeah.. it's quite fun.. and i've got like college sisters, uncles, cousins, brother-in-laws, etc.... hehz

And of course, what's Halloween without costumes? Well, I never thought i'd have a chance to wear my Madama Butterfly t-shirt.. but guess what? it suits Halloween! hahaha.... and here's a picture of Yanning, KENNY! and Gerald (who came down from London), all ready to go..... party... lol...

Yupz.. it's been really busy but really enjoyable too i guess... But having a bad cough now though... *cough* cough cough go away, come again another day...

(PS: if you haven't already noticed, the photo in the previous post was taken from Shall We Dance, and edited via photoshop... yeah.... cos my mum was like, eh, who's that girl? ;p)