Last nite in Swindon

After one year in Swindon, I'm moving out of my lovely nest I resided for the past 13 months tomorrow. Spent the day cleaning up my room. Although Swindon is just an industrial town and not as beautiful as other towns like Bath, but I quite like my place. It's home away from home.

Next up, I'll continue on traveling down south for the next 2 weeks before joining my friend to Italy. As you might have notice, I've just came back from up north (Lake District & Scotland) and I'm still catching up on my trip report and also all the photos. Yes, it's all play and no work now =) I still have a few things to think through while on my travel. So I hope I can come to a conclusion by the time I get back to Malaysia.

Don't envy me, you too can do it if you want to. You are in charge of your own life.

20th Aug 2008 - Lake District (Keswick)

Day 2

Woke up @ 7.45am to prepare for my departure. Went down for breakfast and there's already several other guests in the dining table. The owner greeted me and sat me down. Started with some cornflakes, followed by toast and coffee. His daughter was helping him serve the food. Then the full English breakfast with sausage, bacon, egg, baked beans, grilled mushroom and tomato. With a full stomach, I cleared my stuff into my car. The owner was kind enough to let me leave my car there while I hike up the Orrest Head Viewpoint on a hill nearby, made popular by the poet William Wordsworth. It has long been proclaimed one of the finest viewpoints in the Lake District offering an extensive panorama and it is very easy to reach on foot as it's not a steep climb and after 30mins I reached the top. Its an amazing view from the top overlooking the windermere lake and the surrounding hills. As i was alone there so i was jumping and running around taking shots of the view and also myself. Just I as I was ending my crazy run around, other tourists started to arrive. Phew, talk about good timing =)

Back at the B&B, i bid the owner goodbye and head to Hawkshead for the Beatrix Potter's Gallary situated just 30mins away. The roads were narrow winding country roads. So concentration and going slow is the way to go. Park & Display carpark at the village costs GBP2.20 for 2 hours. Lucky the machine takes debit card as I didn't have enough coins.

I first stopped by the Old Grammar School founded in 1585 by the Archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys. The ground floor classroom retains many old & original desks covered in carvings done by the boys, including the poet William Wordsworth and his brother John. Upstairs is the headmaster's study and a classroom containing an exhibition relating to the history of the school, the founder and William Wordsworth.

Hawkshead is quite a charming little town. It's layout reminds me of my visit to Padstow minus the pier. Bought the entrance ticket for the Beatrix Potter Gallery for GBP4 from the tourist information centre adjacent to the gallery. It's a scheduled entry (meaning they only let you in according to the time written at your ticket, which is just a piece of paper attached to the brochure) as the gallery is pretty compact. It's a 17th Century building, which was once the office of her husband, local solicitor William Heelis, has remained largely unaltered since his day. Upon entering, you'll come to a reconstruction of part of William Heelis' office on your left. To your right is a room similar to a living room and behind that is the kitchen. Upstairs in several small rooms, you'll come to the exhibition of a selection of Beatrix Potter's original drawings and illustrations (changes annually). You can also find her published books and some information about this amazing lady.

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who was best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Potter published 23 children's books in total. With her earnings from the books, she bought the Hill Top Farm and many other farms nearby to protect them from being industrialized. She died at Castle Cottage in Sawrey on 22 December 1943. In her will, Potter left almost all of her property to the National Trust — 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land, cottages, and 15 farms. The legacy has helped ensure that the Lake District and the practice of fell farming remain unspoiled to this day.

19th Aug 2008 - Lake District (Windermere)

Day 1




After checking in, I rested in my room recovering from the long drive. The room is pretty small, with a single bed, a wash basin, a small TV and 2 small table cabinet, but its sufficient for a single person. The toilet & shower is located upstairs. As I will only be here for one night, I wanted to make the most of my time here so I head out although it's drizzling. Armed with a local map I got from the B&B, I went out wandering around with no particular destination in mind. The town of Windermere is very compact but lively. I ventured into an area which i thought was a park but turned out it's actually the local library. Coming out from the library, I stopped to look at my map. A very kind lady also coming out of the library stopped and asked if I needed any help. Her act warmed my heart and I smiled saying "I'm fine, thank you" (coz i have no idea where I wanna go). Looking at the map, I saw there's a public footpath nearby which would lead me toward the lake promenade area. So I decided to go there since I still have about 4 hrs before the sun sets. I took the wrong lane thinking it was the footpath but turned out its a dead end with holiday cottages to my left. As I turn back towards the main road, an old lady (living there) with her raincoat over her head pointed me to the correct entrance way. Hmm... people here are sure really friendly =) It was actually a tiny lane hidden next to the lane I took. The path took me through the woods with a stream to my right. At the end of the path, I came out to a main road and took a left turn towards the lake. There, I was welcomed by the beautiful lake Windermere.

Swans and ducks flocked around tourists for breadcrumbs, dozens of gondolas and boats parked at the shore for rent. I lingered at the promenade watching and photographing the swans just inches away. 2 Japanese girls standing near me kept saying 'kawaii' (meaning cute in jap). Further down the path, i came to the docking bay for yachts. They were all lined up neatly and most of them are actually for sale. Several new models were also on display on land but the price tags on it really shocked me (some are equivalent to the price of a house). Back at the promenade, small kids having fun feeding the birds while their parents watch on with a big smile on their faces, lovers and couples strolling along the shoreline, everybody is having a wonderful time. Such a peaceful and nice scene...

As it started raining again, I thought I better head back. It soon turned into a really heavy downpour. Despite having an umbrella, I was still soaking wet knee-down. This doesn't help when I overshot my turning without knowing it until a few blocks down. Shower time, the water was icy cold !!! No matter which way I turn the knob there just isn't any hot water coming out. Quickly braved myself thru the cold water shower and back to the room to warm up. Dinner was tomato & vege soup pack, bread and pringles. Watched some Olympics and surfed a while and slept @ 11pm with the rain still going strong outside.

Greetings from Lake District

I'm blogging from my room in Greenriggs Bed and Breakfast in Windermere, Lake District... This is my first stop of my rather ad-hoc (no planning little research) 10days trip towards Scotland. I first came to know about Lake District watching 'Miss Potter', the movie and later heard people talking about its beauty. It took me about 5hours drive from Swindon due to some congestions along M6 and I arrived around 3.15pm.

Windermere in the Lake District - 10.5 miles long and 219 feet deep - is England's largest natural lake. Its name comes from the Scandinavian for 'lake of a man called Vinandr'. Known as Birthwaite prior to the arrival of the railway, it is about a fifteen-minute walk from the lakefront, and has now grown together with Bowness.

to be continued...

Third Time Lucky...

Finally, in my 3rd attempt in the UK practical driving test, I passed the test!!! Now I can drive all the way to Scotland in my little Micra... yippie !!!

I was so close to getting the license 2 weeks ago in my second attempt but then towards the final 5 minutes going back to the test center, I made a silly mistake which caused me the exam. Today, I've got 2 minor errors in total but I was so happy when the examiner told me that I've passed the test. This license will be valid until I'm 70yrs old ... Another task down and now working towards my next task.

p/s: Today is the 14th July on the chinese calender, which in chinese tradition marks the opening of the door from Hell and the hungry ghost come out to feast. Hence if you are go to Malaysia or Singapore in the month of July (in chinese calender), you could see people praying at the roadside offering food, fruits, paper money (for usage in hell) and josticks. You could also see stages being setup and there would be performances to entertain the 'brothers' (ghost). All these are part of the tradition which is pretty unique.

Passport Renewal in 1 Day

Woke up at 4.15am yesterday morning to catch the 5.35am National Express bus to London Victoria Coach Station. Why so early you asked? That's because I want to save money :p Well, officially one should get a queue number at the Malaysia High Commission in between 9am - 12noon, then come back to collect the passport at 3 - 4pm. So after some checking, I decided to take the bus instead of the train as the return ticket for the bus (~2.5hours one way) is GBP17.10 while the train ticket (~1hour) would have costs me GBP37 (that's GBP18.50 one way) !!! Of course taking the train means I can sleep for another hour more but since I'm no longer working so I can catch up on my sleep later.

The sun was just rising as I walked to towards the bus station and the bus was only 25% full. The journey was pretty ok and I reached London Victoria about 8am. Armed with the London map, I found my way to the Malaysia High Com at Belgrave Square about 20 minutes later (the actual journey is just about 10-15mins but I had to stop a couple of times to check the map). As I was nearing the place, I saw various flags from different countries . I guess the UK government specially grouped all the embassy and High Com offices from around the world here. I saw the Malaysian flag as I turned round the bend ... ahhh.... a sense of familiarism arises. The immigration office is at the lower ground and there weren't anybody around.

It was still pretty early so I decided to take a stroll around the area. This area looks pretty high class and there were also some private residential at the other end. After I got back to the high com building, it is still pretty vacated. So i sat down and waited. Then I saw someone (looking like a Malay immigration officer) who came and walked down the stairs. Afterwards, a chinese mother and daughter too disappeared under the stairs. I got up and walked down the stairs. Pushed on the blue wooden door (which I thought was locked but wasn't) and let myself in. Inside there were already about 8 people waiting at the reception area :p

At 8.55am, an officer came in and asked us to register at the registration log book. After 10 minutes, he came back and started calling our names one by one to go through the forms and documents to make sure they are correct and sufficient before issuing us a number. I had downloaded and printed out the required IM.42 form but he told me that it is not acceptable as the form must be printed double sided. So I paid him 25pence to get the official form and got my queue number 007. Another long wait before my number was called and this time, the lady officer told me that my photocopied IC must be on a whole sheet of paper (I cut out my photocopied IC from a sheet together with my Sg IC and driving license). There goes another 40pence for the photocopying service. Luckily my passport photo which I've taken back in Swindon was accepted, otherwise I would have to go and take another photo there. After checking the documents, paying GBP50 and taking my thumb print, she gave me a receipt and ask me to come back at 3pm. Walked back to Victoria train station and grab a Quarter Pounder meal from McD. I still have 3 hours to go before 3pm. Hence I decided to visit Tate Britain.

Tate Britain is a part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It was the first established of these museums, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the work of J.M.W. Turner. I reached there just in time to join the free guided tour at 12noon. A tate guide took us through a few paintings and collections and told us stories behind the paintings and also about the painter. It was such a delightful experience as I learned so much more about the painter and the paintings that I would not have if I just wondered around myself. The tour lasted for an hour and off I went to explore other parts of the museum. There was a special exhibition by Martin Creed on show - "Work no. 850" at the gallery where it centres on a simple idea: that a person will run as fast as they can every thirty seconds through the gallery. Each run is followed by an equivalent pause, like a musical rest, during which the grand Neoclassical gallery is empty. So every 30 seconds, you could see a person sprinting across the gallery. These people are actually volunteers and some of them are not from the athletic background.

At 3pm, I got back to the High Comm to receive my new passport. I'm so glad that they offered this same day collection service so I do not need to come back again to collect the passport some other day. As I've booked my return bus ticket at 6pm so I got another 2 hours to kill. Since I was tired and the sky looks like it might rain, I decided to just sit outside the station and read my guidebook on Scotland.

On my journey back home that day, it suddenly struck me that my first passport was issued in my hometown Taiping (1999), then 5 years later (2003) I renewed it in Singapore. Another 5 years after that, I got an issue from London (2008), UK. I wonder where will my passport be issued in the year 2013?

Officially Jobless...

1st August 2008, my last day working in UK, end of my 12 months contract. I am now officially jobless again. I had mix feeling leaving the company, the job, my colleagues.

At 10am, I sat down with my manager and department director for an exit interview, giving some feedbacks of my views while working here the past 12 months. At 2pm, my department colleagues got together to a presentation to bid me farewell. My manager gave a short speech and then presented a few farewell gifts to me. They got me a British flag (it's actually a decorator one could hang on the wall) and everyone signed on it. Its pretty cool. Also, they bought me 2 travel guide books, one is for Scotland and the other is about amazing places in Britain. The Scotland guide book will come in really handy for my upcoming trip to Scotland. Also, they got me a GBP30 gift card from Argos although I don't know what to get yet). I was truly touched by this presentation. I hadn't had much interaction with many of them other than the very few whom I work closer together with. Also due to my inwards and conservative personality, most of the time I was quiet and kept to myself. But for them to turn up and showered me with all the gifts and thoughts really warms my heart.

Then at 3pm, we head out to Keynes Park for a picnic. My director had organized this picnic since I was leaving and also it has been some time since the department had a get-together. The weather wasn't all that great for the past few days. and just as we started the bbq, it started to rain. So we all hide under umbrellas and a para-gliding canopy (belonged to one of my colleague) and waited for the rain to past. Its quite a scene. Luckily the rain did not last long... after 30 odd minutes the rain subsided and we proceed on the games and bbq.

Some of my colleagues brought their children there and we played 'hit and run'. It's basically cricket where the hitter would try to hit the ball and then run to a base nearby and back to the pit to protect the pit. The server will try to get the ball back and try to hit the pit before the hitter comes back to the pit. All the others will try to catch the ball and return it back to the server. The hitter would be considered out of the game when the ball he hit is caught by the rest before dropping to ground or the server managed to hit the pit. Its was kinna fun.

After all the food and games, we bid farewell and headed back to home. This would be the end of my working experience in UK. It has been a truly remarkable experience working in the UK and I have gain valuable skills, experience and also the good working attitude portraid by my colleagues. I will definitely miss my time here.