Hmm.. I've got complaints that I've not been updating my blog... =( but that's because my schedule for the last few days has been nothing but hectic... So tired today cos I've been up early for the last 2 mornings to go rowing/coxing.. I'm really enjoying it though... Just that getting up at 6am in the morning can be quite a challenge... ;p

Anyway, I was at Ballroom Dancing yesterday! Woohoo! It's my 2nd lesson... and guess who was there? I'm abit hesitant to post this picture 'cos I think it's create like chaos and people will start flocking to my class you know... haha... but after MUCH serious consideration, I thought what the heck, I'll just post this once-in-a-lifetime photo... Got it taken when we swapped partners....

See? I knew it would cause some commotion... we were dancing the waltz then, but we also learnt the quickstep, social foxtrot, cha-cha, rumba, jive and some more which i can't remember...

so now... Shall we dance? =)

Played quite a bit of Ultimate Frisbee over the weekend.. Or rather yesterday... (If you're wondering what Ultimate Frisbee is, check THIS out. It's kinda like american football/netball/rugby played with a frisbee. Basically trying to bring the frisbee into the "try" zone for a point. Played 7-a-side, 45 mins or until a team reaches 13 points). Churchill was having a match with Trinity B yesterday and we kicked ass! We beat Trinity B 13-5, which was quite a triumph considering we were told how good Trinity was SUPPOSED to be... Hmmz... And I scored 3 (if not 4) points for Churchill. =) But it was a really good game...

Then after that, I went to Downing College for another Ultimate Frisbee game with the CUMSA peeps.... It's tiring you know... ;p Thereafter I cooked dinner and invited Gladys and Ee Mae over (together with Chris) 'cos I couldn't stand hall food anymore.. haha. =)

We had mushrooms with cheese (learnt from Allan's sister.. don't ask me why the mushrooms are arranged in a smiley face... ;p), roasted/grilled chicken wings (kenny's very own..), bean sprouts with dried shrimps (yummmmmmy) and stir fried mixed vegetables (courtesy of Gladys).. It was a really yummy meal I must say...

Oh, and this is for those who are missing Singapore food right now... Does the stuff in the wok remind you of something? *hint* pincers? well, if you said chilli crabs, then you're right.. except I can seem to find anything with more than 4 legs in the supermarket, so... it's chilli pork instead..... ok, please take a moment now to wipe your saliva off your keyboard. ;p

Ok, I'm gonna stop here. Hope everyone's doing great! Take carez!

Just some random ramblings from a random kenny.... ;p

Rainbow!
I think it's not so clear in the photo anyway.. But I saw a rainbow yesterday! (ok, so what's the big deal? ;p) it was quite short lived though, and I could see it from where I was sitting in my room.. =)

I've got MAIL!
woohoo! My parcel from home has arrived (read: reinforcements have arrived!) Contains my much needed retainers (for my teeth), soccer boots, contact lens, tupperwares, and dried shrimps! =) and a card from home! thanks! and thanks corrie for your letter! (it IS the first mail btw)

The calm before a storm
Well, this is one of the main streets at Cambridge, where all the shops are.. Took this photo 2 days ago and cos i though the sky was really blue and then went into Waterstones (a bookstore). Came out to find that a storm was approaching and quickly hurried off for lecture. Stopped taking pictures cos I thought the world was gonna end... ;p bleahz...

Mooooooooo!
Cows! Along river cam! Went to observe rowing today so I can do coxing tomorrow morning... =) and realised that there's THE OTHER SIDE of town.. hmmz... it's like WOW... anyway, was cycling along river Cam and took lots of nice shots... This is my favourite... I'm calling it... "Cows"... what a name! =)

The trees around are all starting to turn golden brown at this time of year and there's really a myriad of colours all around, it's beautiful.. Here's a picture of the tree that I can see from my window and I think it's really nice....
Of course I suppose it also looks nicer partly because it's juxtaposed with the ugly buildings behind... ;p

Anyway, I walked out of my room today and wondered why the hell was there smoke coming out of the laundry room. Then to my horror/disbelief, the smoke was all around... Actually it was just fog... But quite thick fog... Visibility was down to like 100 yards (or 180metres)... And here's the same tree shrouded by fog...
It was quite a cool morning.. literally... =)

Hmm.. I've had feedback that I'm not talking about any academic stuff... Haha.. Especially when I'm supposed to be studying... ;p Well, so here's abit about where my lessons/lectures/etc.

Basically, for my first year, I'm supposed to choose three experimental science subjects along with Maths.. And for me, I've chose to do:
1. Physics (No choice lah.. I'm supposed to teach Physics)
2. Geology (Which was why I applied to Cambridge in the first place really...)
3. Evolution & Behaviour (Now, this is quite an anomaly... Considering it doesn't help me in any of the 2nd year subjects that I'm taking... But I'm just taking it out of interests and I'm really enjoying it. *grinz*)

So how's lectures been? It's been good so far I must say... I get to learn interesting stuff... Like I learn about the different method of dating.. (woohoo! dating!) And also there's lots of sex in my lectures... I mean we had like one lecture devoted to "What is Sex?" I even have proof!

See? Lecture 2 : What is Sex? Haha.. And before you think of anything else, sex here refers to gender... ;p and the above-mentioned dating refers to geological dating of rocks. =) But still, they're really interesting.

Favourite subjects so far are Geology and Evolution & Behaviour.. Now here's a bio joke... We all know flamingoes are pink right? But do you know why they are pink? Well, most flamingoes live in Africa right? And in Africa, we've all seen in photos of the beautiful sun setting and sinking into the horizon, painting the sky a magnificent pink. Thus flamingoes, who are feeding in the lake evolved to turn pink as a form a camouflage to protect themselves from predation from lions, etc. Now, what happens if the lion was on the opposite side of the lake looking at the flamingoes? Well, the other side of the flamingo is actually blue. =) (ok, for those who're like what the hell? flamingoes are actually pink because of the shrimp they eat... and this is true!)

I've also had people wanting to know how advanced the Cambridge LTs are... so here it is:
This was I guess really advanced for the 70s... ;p I think it's not really clear in the picture, but the projector screen is not the "springy" type that we're used to, but is actually held by strings on both ends! And although I've not seen it being raised or lowered, I think it's pretty manual... ie. u untie the string, and pull... Now now... Talk about technological advances eh? And you also see, we're still stuck in the OHP era. And to think back in Singapore schools, it was actually hard to find a projector. I remember Pierre had to search high and low to borrow OHPs for Madama Butterfly... Next time I'll just ask Pierre to borrow from Cambridge. ;p

And this is just a nice little cafe really near to my lectures where I hang out at between my lectures if I can afford a coffee... =) It serves good coffee and have a good ambience at least... hehz. That's it for now... Hope everyone's doing great! Don't forget to tag!

This is a panoramic shot of my college... Click on it to view a bigger picture.... The nice beige buildings on the left is the Moller Centre.. which is where conferences, exhibitions etc are held.... And then the ugly brown squarish buildings to its right is where our rooms are... Hmmz... Well, to be fair, we do have quite a large plot of land... just that I think the buildings are quite ugly... ;p Oh well.. I'll update about what happened over the past week soon! Take carez!

The Adventures of Kenny in.... a mine!
Well... Because MOE is giving me so little allowance, I have to supplement my income by working in mines... So here's Kenny in a hardhat and mining goggles and a bright yellow vest so that even deep down in the treacherous mines, Kenny can be easily spotted...

Ok, yah right... Only the first statement in the previous paragraph is true... ;p haha. Anyway, I had a GEOLOGY field trip to Ketton Quarry, Peterborough yesterday (12/10)! It was quite cool... field trip in week 1 of term! woohoo!

We set off from the Dep of Earth Sciences around 1.30pm, and after a long bus journey, we finally arrived at Ketton Quarry... and began our fieldwork... (damn.. they didn't tell us about having to do work initially...) We started looking at the different layers of rocks, how they were formed and geez, these things are 160 million years old! (that's the Jurassic period btw..)

Here we can see a group of students listening intently to our demonstrator Lez... And we can see the layers (bedding) of rocks behind him as well.. That black/grey-ish bit is called the Rutland Formation...

And this thing here (in Geology, we learn to take photos with a scale... so here's a comparison..) is a fossilised sea shell which is 160+ million years old... cool isn't it? =) In Singapore, we can only hear about all these fossils, but here, we can actually find them!

Here, we can see another fossil.. it's called a bivalve...(it's that white-looking thing above the pencil) ok, basically, it's just probably a mussel or an oyster... ;p And of course, we see my dear pencil as an object of scale too...

Yupz.. so basically we were quite fortunate, cos the weather held up till we left, when it started to drizzle and by the time we got back to Cambridge, I had to cycle back in rather wet weather... hmmz... But it was quite an enjoyable trip nonetheless and I'm definitely looking forward to the field trip to Arran (some island off Scotland..) which is during the Easter vacation... =)

Date: 10 Oct 05
Guests: Jason & Chris
Dishes: Chinese fried rice & Grilled chicken in oyster sauce..

Anyway, Kenny was a little lazy on Monday, so I just decided to cook something simple.. Which was just fried rice with chinese sausages & just a simple dish of grilled chicken in oyster sauce... But of course my culinary skills are beginning to rival that of those chefs in the dining hall.. (not that it takes alot of skill though.. ;p)

So it's been 1 week since lesson started.. And every morning, Kenny goes through a hectic routine:

7.45am - Alarm starts ringing (SHUT UP!)
(Alarm continues to ring at 9 minute intervals...)
8.15am - That's as much I can stay snuggled up in bed without being late... sighz.. so Kenny stumbles out of bed to brush his teeth...
8.20am - Breakfast time! Breakfast consists of... Bread with jam/marmalade/peanut butter or sometimes cereals... Checks email while munching on bread...
8.30am - Changes into lecturewear..
8.35am - Leaves to cycle to town... Brrr.. it's cold....

Here's the cycle path just outside of Churchill....

Alamak! Traffic light! Notice the sheer number of bicycles? Yeah, if you had teleported into Cambridge during this hour, you might have mistaken the place as China, which prob has more bikes than people...

Here's the bridge (look abit further) that's been coined the "Orgasm Bridge"... it's not a typo... ;p and it's not, as I guessed, because the students in the rooms flanking the rivers make out really loudly, but rather because the bridge has 2 steep slopes... But I guess the slopes only turn some people on.. (I won't be surprised to see people cycling up and down and slope! *gasp*)

Finally at around 8.55am, Kenny turns into the Museum of Zoology where he has most of his lectures (not inside the museum.. duhz... the LTs are all near the museum... ;p)

Disclaimer: Apologies for the blair witch projects shots, as all photos were shot on a MOVING bike....

That's another day in Kenny's life....

Hiya people... Here's a view of my room from the courtyard! (it's on the ground floor if you haven't noticed... ;p) And from my window, you can see "Kenny" looking out of the window (OMG! They killed Kenny!), THE dog, and my plant that has been refusing to grow.... hmmz...

Anyway, the point of this post is to show how lonely my pigeon hole is... My poor pigeon hole (it's the one in the middle with my initials "LOW H Y K" has been feeling really lonely with no pigeons visiting it in the last century or so... =( (see how loving the pigeons left right above and below have been?) hehz... if you need my address again *wink*, it's:

Kenny LOW
Churchill College
Cambridge
CB3 0DS
United Kingdom

Or you can drop me your address and I'll drop you a postcard from Cambridge... =)

If you haven't noticed, there has been quite a few backdated posts... Notably:

Chapter 13 - Food Fiesta
Chapter 12 - Ice Breakers?
Chapter 10 - Beautiful Cambridge
Chapter 9 - The Great Migration
Chapter 8 - Musicals Galore!

Yeah.. i'm catching up on my work.. ;p I think that's all the catching up I've to do for now.. =)

Here I am, back from my first day of lectures (which was quite... *yawnz*) And sitted in front of my laptop with
a bowl of nice yummy sweet delicious juicy strawberries...

ok.. I just like the contrast of the red strawberries with my white bowl... =)

Anyway, over the past weeks, I've cooked not 1, not 2, but THREE meals for myself and some of my pals in college....

Session #1
Date: 30 Sep 05
Guest: Jason Yuen (eligible bachelor from Hong Kong)
Dishes: Grilled trout, Mushroom Omelette and Cauliflower in Oyster Sauce

Here's a photo of our eligible bachelor pretending to be at work.. haha

Verdict: Ok, the omelette may not look good but it sure is darned good alright... ;p (and so was the cauliflower and so was the trout)

Session #2
Date: 3 Oct 05
Guest: Christopher (from the land of "Malaysia BOLEH!")
Dishes: Sweet & Sour Pork & Stir Fried Cabbage

Verdict: Sweet & Sour pork was REALLY REALLY yummy, although the cabbage was abit hard... But successful nonetheless.... =)

Session #3
Date: 5 Oct 05
Guests: Jason Yuen, Christopher (woohoo, repeat customers!) & Koel
Dishes: Stir fried fine beans, Black pepper pork, Grilled mushrooms with spices

Verdict: Really yummy dishes that I was quite surprised we actually finished EVERYTHING.. including the stuff like onions and garlics.... amazing... Most critically acclaimed dish was the Black Pepper Pork.

Wow.. If Kenny can cook, so can you! *wink* ;p

Hmm.. then along came the local Freshers and suddenly there's like 2 million new faces and then you have this vertigo sensation when you look at the number of people... Well, we were split up into groups where we did some ice-breakers, which I'm sure we all know is as useful as trying to dig a hole with a teaspoon. Anyway, we had this "boat-building" thing that was interesting enough to be mentioned... ;p Basically, we were given materials like balloons, cardboard, pens, tape, etc and we were supposed to build a boat... Yeah, it's that simple... So, we went ahead and built a boat...

So here is Ben holding "THE BOAT". And then we were told that it was supposed to stay afloat the longest.. and apparently, we were supposed to use an aggresive strategy... So, we stuck pins on the sides of the boat as you can see from the straws sticking out from the sides...

And then we launched the boat... And here's a photo of "THE BOAT" in action... And as half of you can probably guess (i mean this is not rocket science), we didn't actually burst any balloons at all... The pins weren't sharp enough... Hmmz.. I guess we'll have to request for sharper pins next year....

Here's another picture of other boats that were built... I just had to put this picture cos it's so nice... the reflection of the clouds on the pond and also the faces of the people watching... Ahh... Picturesque setting... =)