exploring the surrounding areas

i've only really been talking about my little excursions, so this is turning into a bit of a weekend blog. but i assure you i am still on my elective, and going to hospital monday-friday. just that there's no reason to discuss anything about my daily living because you're all already on my elective email list (if not, shoot me an email and i'll add you).

today kiran and i hired some bicycles and cycled to a nearly village? suburb? called grantchester. we went to the orchard, which supposedly has some amazing scones. i thought they were alright. what excited me was that virginia woolf used to go there for tea, as did maynard keynes and a whole bunch of other famous people who were prominent figures in my high school education.

{sign from the Grantchester Meadows entrance}

We then hopped onto a train bound for Ely, and walked around the town. It was, as promised, quite lovely. And the cathedral was amazing. I think definitely one of my favourites so far. This is kind of cliche, but I also really like Notre Dame.

{Ely cathedral}

We went home and killed some time, then I tried out Zubeida's carbonara recipe. She bought the ingredients and was planning on teaching me, but we never got around to it, and the ingredients were reaching their due date. So before she left for the weekend, she verbally talked me through it. Of course, I got all of the instructions muddled up, and got all the quantities wrong. Kiran has been very encouraging, and tells me it tasted fine, but was lacking in salt. I thought it was bland, too. Then I realised that I'd forgotten to add cheese. Whoops.

{The final product}

Ruth 2

Praise God that He is a God of "it just so happens.." There have been too many coincidences, and truly in all situations God works for the good of those who love Him. Thank you, God.

Weekend in London

The last time I was in London, I wasn't a very good tourist. All I saw was Harrods (though quite extensively), the outside of Buckingham palace, and the Engineering department of Imperial College.

This time, Jing set out to rectify the situation.

{The tea selection at Fortnum and Mason}

It was kind of cool because you could smell the tea before deciding which one to buy. Jing swears by the tea so I bought some.

{The British Museum}

{London Eye and the Thames}

{Me standing cheekily next to some calvary dude outside a museum}

{A cool self-juicer at Borough markets}

I'm on night shift again tonight. So J and I had a little wander around the city centre. And went into the university library (!!!). They still have some of my information from 2005. Gosh.

first weekend in the UK

I spent the weekend visiting Cambridge and Oxford. Having walked around Cambridge already, I will still struck by how magnificent the buildings in Oxford are.

{The chapel of King's college in Cambridge. Described by Wordsworth as "this immense and glorious work of fine intelligence!"}

We also walked around Clare college, because it happened to be open to visitors that day.

{The view from Clare bridge}

In Oxford, I visited Christ Church college, where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.

{The dining hall of Christ Church}

{An oblique view of Christ Church from the meadows}

In between my sightseeing, I also managed to try my hand at cooking. Mind you, I don't mean any of this English overcooked vegetables/ extremely dry roast nonsense.

{My attempt at fried rice}

arriving in the UK

a couple of months ago, it dawned upon me that going to the UK for six weeks would be something of a challenge because i'd have to cook for myself for that whole time. but towards the end of last year, my concerns shifted towards how i was going to actually arrive at my destination.

the first part was smooth enough: get on the right plane, make it through immigration and customs, find the national express coach, get on the right bus, get off at the right stop. the next bits were slightly more challenging: wait for a taxi at a deserted stand on a cold night, wheel luggage bags through the hospital's revolving doors, and wheel said 35+kg of luggage around the hospital site trying to find desired block of flats. i met a co-elective student (also from Australia!! hooray), and quite gladly let him lead the way. i had enough difficulty trying to wheel my bags through the unforgiving sidewalks. i think one of my wheels is quite damaged already.

when we arrived at the apartment, we saw that the other elective students had arrived already. and were informed that the kettles were not working (instant noodle plan foiled), and that the shower was not working either. and also that we should knock on random people's door asking to use their shower. at this stage i'd been traveling for close to 20 hours, so not showering was not really an option. i knocked.

later, feeling tired but clean in J's room, i had my first brilliant idea. why don't we check that the iron is working, i said. because if it isn't, we can get them to fix it when they come to change the kettle. so i got out the iron and turned it on. looked around for something to iron. could not locate anything, so decided to iron the carpet. and promptly smelt something dodgy...but don't worry, i hadn't started a fire or anything. when i placed my hand on the carpet, it was warm (= iron working), but also hard (= melted carpet).