Riverside Twilight

Fee Chin was in town during the weekend and wanted to to see Big Ben again. I thought it would be a good idea to bring her along the Thames river and South Bank for an enjoyable evening stroll too. I've always enjoyed the night view there and its such a nice place to hang about.

It proved to a good opportunity to take some beautiful shots of London as the sun was setting.

The Big Ben and Houses Of Parliament looked really resplendent when illuminated in its golden lights. Taken from almost below the London Eye, the pinkish glow of the pier and water reflections made a colourful contrast and a good picture.

Panning my viewfinder to the right towards South Bank, I caught another nice view along the river. The lighting along the bridge and of the building was very aesthetically pleasing to the eye and there was a sense of calm when looking this way across the river.

She didn't turn out well in this one, but I thought the background gave a very good feel of the feel and atmosphere of the place and the evening. The London Eye is really quite a big structure and is impressive. The capsules rotate as the big wheel turns so they stay horizontal. Made largely of glass, it gives you beautiful, unobstructed views London on a clear day or night.

This is what happens when you cannot stay still when the camera takes a snap. :-) It was also difficult to frame the shot nicely as I didn't have a tripod and had to balance my camera on the edge of the lamp post. I got hungry after that so we left to have a good Chap Goh Meh dinner!

Snow Falls

Last week, the UK had its heaviest snowfall in perhaps the last century. In Reading, it was the heaviest snow in the past 16 years. Now, it doesn't usually snow around here, and even if it did it's so pansy that it doesn't settle but makes messy puddles instead. So when the forecast was 4 inches of snow, I was quite excited hehe. I like snow :)

So I thought I'd do a bit of a photoblog this time on my journey to work.

View from my room window at 7.15am.

Pavement right outside my front door.

Trying to be artistic, hehe.

Snow falling at Reading train station.

See that multi-storey car park in the background? A body was found there in the wee hours sometime last year. I went to have a look but the police cleared everything up already :P

Looking out from the train.

White all around outside the station where I got off.

Random shot, it feels kind of Christmas-y to me :)

Leading up to my workplace. Its the building in the middle at the bend of the road, where the van is. Very slippery pavement with ice.

There is a certain calmness that come with snowfall. Everything is quieter and more tranquil. Everyone drives slower, walks slower; no one is in a rush. People take their time and sometimes you'll get the odd few (like me) who will stop and take in the view. I wasn't the only person whipping out the camera too.

A really nice moment was when the snow started falling really heavily. Every single person in the office just stopped and looked out the window, and we all agreed how lovely it looked. For a minute we just stood there, admiring the view. I think snowfall has got to be one of the most beautiful weather conditions to ever happen.

The Pad

Well, hello. Welcome to my humble castle :)

I'd call it the shag pad, but unfortunately there's no such action going on. I'd also call it the love nest, but alas, not much loving going on here too. Boom-boom room sounds too dodgy, and to call it my oasis is really too cheesy, isnt it? So I'll just call it 'The Pad'.



The Pad sits on the corner at the end of Howard Street. It doesn't look like much from the front especially with the lovely bins decorating the landscape. But then again, over here not many houses look that appealing on the outside.

The house number is No.44 (superstitious Chinese readers may now shake their heads in disapproval). But that's not all, for my room number is....is...4! 'Sei Sei Sei'! In Malaysian terms, very 'suey', hehehe. Its like the number 13 fuelled up with Red Bull. Luckily I'm not that superstitious.




The Pad is pretty much white all over on the inside. My landlady's refurbished it quite well and all the furnishings are new. Ninety percent of the furniture is from Ikea. Don't you just love the Swedes?

The dining table is where I have my evening chow while watching re-runs of Friends for an hour every night. :) But sometimes I stay on to watch movies and serials, which I do on the comfy black Ikea couch.



But the area where I spend a big portion of the time is the kitchen a.k.a. 'The Lab'. This is where I experiment, chop, wash, marinade, fry, boil and prepare the 'Soul Food'. Its a good layout too. The washing machine and dishwasher are hidden within the cabinets. Very neat and tidy.

And finally, leaving the best for last...my cosy little cave. Ahh. At the very top floor, facing the backyard, its away from the noise downstairs and from the traffic. Its a rooftop conversion so there's actually not much space, but its comfortable enough for one. This is where I spend most of my time at home besides the kitchen.

Quick, how many Ikea items can you spot in 5 seconds?

I'd love to call it the 'Love Chamber', but that's already reserved for a certain room in the office. But it really is nice and comfy...anyone wanna come hang out? hmm? The bed's really comfy too...with lovely soft pillows :) (Guys need not apply. You lot can sod off. Hehe.) But becareful tho ladies, I've knocked my head a few times. The ceiling's less than an inch from the top of my head. :P

Reading

Reading is a town in the south-west of England. Travelling west from London, it takes about 50 minutes to reach by car. Kinna like travelling from KL to Seremban. It is famous for its university, music festivals and lately, its football team that is doing really well.

It has also been my home for a little more than a year now, and I'd like to bring you on a little tour around my turf :)

We start off at the main train station. This is a major hub for train services to London and also the south of England. I usually take the fast train to London from here and it takes just half an hour to reach the city. I also pass through its gates almost everyday since I take the train to and from work. The best thing about the station is that its only 5 minutes' walk from the town center and less than 15 minutes away from my house.


Walking into town from the station, two rows of red-brick shops greet you. There are a variety of businesses lining the street, from Starbucks to travel agencies to restaurants to camera specialist shops.

My first impression when I arrived here was that this town might as well be called RED-ding. So red!

A short stroll and we are in the heart of the town, the High Street. Almost every town/city in England has a High Street, which is the main commercial and retail artery running through the town. Here you will find most of the clothing boutiques, bookstores, sports accesories, pharmacies, home furnishing stores, banks, recruitment agencies, supermarkets, street stalls and many more different outlets.

It is usually very bustling on weekends, but I was up early and there wasn't many people on the streets yet. There are usually buskers as well, singing their songs and trying to get people to buy their CDs. There is a particular group of Red Indians in full costumes and paint that have been playing their instruments every week and they seem to have become permanent fixture of the weekend activities. Sometimes you get preachers, anti-obesity movements, etc. And during Christmas, there is a band from the Salvation Army playing festive tunes with their trumpets, trombones and flutes.

What I like about Reading is that everything I need is within walking distance. That includes the shopping mall! Its called the The Oracle and is right smack in the middle of town. Takes me less than 10 minutes to get there on foot. The Oracle is a nice mall with the usual retail outlets and I can pretty much get everything I need here. But what I like about the place is that most of the restaurants and cafes are located along the river that divides the complex in two.

When the weather is fine, it is very enjoyable to do some people watching by the river bank while enjoying some coffee. Once in a while there will be people kayaking or rowing along the river and everyone will look at them. Free show, I guess. Hehe.

The riverside looks very nice at night too when the lights come on. Also, it is also the place where all the festive celebrations take place, such as Christmas and New Year fireworks, promotions and summer events. The curved mini-amphitheatre are got turned into a beach during the summer and a skating rink during winter.

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Reading. :) Mostly because its one of the few places I can get really spicy food and it's healthier than Mcds. And also because most of the time the waitresses look quite pretty, hehe. :P

This is Vue cinema where I catch the movies and the Starbucks where I sometimes get coffee. I love going to the cinema here because I can get tickets 5 minutes before the show and I'll have a seat. No kiasu idiots fully booking movies 3 days before! It is also on a free seating basis, so as long as I go in early enough I am always guaranteed a good seat. But the best reason for going to the cinemas here is that there is no censorship. I can actually follow the movie through till the end without being forced to read the lines and joining the dots between cut scenes. Such bliss I tell you.

So that's a brief snapshot of Reading. Its an enjoyable place to live and I find it very cosy. I can escape the noise, congestion and crowds in London and yet I'm close enough to be able to go to the city anytime I want. Kinna like living in Subang Jaya where I grew up. Maybe that's why I like it here.

By the way, its pronounced 'Red-ding'. :)

Go Go Go! Ha Ha Ha!

I seem to be developing a knack for getting injured and then receiving free bubbly to enjoy the pain with. Just last month I blistered my legs and won champagne for it. This month, to be fair to my body, I got nice scars of war etched on my arm and ribs. And I got a bottle of even better champagne!

This is kind of unsettling.

I was paintballing in London during the weekend, at this pretty cool place near Liverpool St tube station. It was five arches under a bridge converted into indoor paintball pitches. What a novel idea! Not only can you have fun shooting your mates right smack in the city, but it also beats getting frostbite on your trigger finger when playing in winter.

As the type of scenarios to play with goes, it was pretty much the usual. Capture the flag, last man standing, VIP. If you've played any first-person-shooter PC games (Counter Strike comes to mind), you'll be very familiar with the games.

Speaking of Counter Strike, I got two very nice bullet bruises from this dude who must have played wwaaayyy too many games. I'll bet all the rain in England that he's one of those fanatics who spend many, many nights perfecting his shots and jumps with the mouse and keyboard, only stopping for the necessary johnny breaks and coffee. Heck, I'll even bet that he Himself practises all those moves. I'm serious about this. England has a lot of rain, so my stakes are high.

So there I was all crouched down, in the perfect hidden position flanking the right while my trusty team mate (who turned out to be not very reliable) was holding the left. We were at that point in the middle of the battlefield, holding off incoming enemies from taking our women, children and cattle. Damned if we were going down without a fight. For country! For freedom!

And then this bad-ass dude actually jumped from nowhere on my left and fired with abandon at near-point blank! He even had his knees tucked up in mid-air and gun aiming at the ready, an exact carbon copy of the Counter Terrorist in CS! It seriously looked like a scene from the game I tell you. Pow!Pow! I was shocked to say the least. I felt only sharp pains and bewilderment. I looked pretty retarded, looking around wondering what just happened. When the hell did the ground open up and swallow my team mate?? And dude...you're not supposed to fire when you're so close to me!! Bugger.

Now I've got two nice tattoo-like circles on my arm. It actually looks worse now as the bruise has spread wider. I've also got a nice patch of red, purple and discoloured circle on the right side of my ribs, and a nice pinkish blot on the left. Sigh.

At least I have a nice bottle of bubbly to ease the pain. Won it at the comedy club we went to at night. It was the first time I've been to a comedy club and I must say I really enjoyed it. The stand-up comedians were hilarious and had everyone in stitches :) I was laughing my head off the whole night hehe. Definitely a type of entertainment to be enjoyed more often!

Now this was the first time ever that I've won anything at a lucky draw. I must thank Christine who wasn't there when her name was called out. I wouldn't have been called otherwise.

Yeng Zee Yeong? Do we have a Yeng Zee Yeong in the house?

Aih. Don't know if the bruises or having your name slurred out like that in front of a hundred plus crowd is more painful. =P

Whoosh!

I've just reached home, to the warm and dry comfort of my room. Outside, the wind is blowing in every direction possible. Left, right, up, down, in your face. I really feel for the thousands of commuters still stranded at the train stations, braving the chills.

I'm gonna start this section about living in the UK with a bit of a rant. I was waiting for the train to get back from work and it was 14 minutes late. That was 14 minutes of enduring the cold gushes that seem to penetrate right into the bone. And when the train did come it was so packed (think Metrobus in KL) I couldn't even stick my foot into the carriage. I had to wait another 30-odd minutes for the next train. By the time I got home I was actually shivering. Bugger.

Man I can really use a nice bowl of hot soup now.

Not that it was anyone's fault. The country's been on alert for gale winds for a while now, but in recent days it has really manifested itself into a real devil. In fact, it was so bad tonight that a train actually crashed into a tree. How strong must the wind be to do that to a train?? At 80 mph, I'd say pretty damn strong. Even lorries get blown down on their sides.

Sometimes I can't even walk properly, swaying from side to side while trying not to get blown onto the road and the moving cars. Sometimes, I literally have to be on my feet, as I'd be fighting a strong flow from the left and it would suddenly change direction to hit me from the front or back. It really is a game of wit and endurance just to walk straight sometimes.

And the howl. Remember the sound of wind rushing by your ears when you were riding that awesome rollercoaster and you can't hear anything else? I can experience that just standing anywhere on the street. At night, I can hear the wind wailing outside my window. And as if my slit-eyes aren't small enough, I have to squint and make them even smaller to avoid irritation.

What a funny sight I must be to someone looking, hehe. But I guess everyone else is too determined to get indoors to notice anything else. Not only is there the wind to deal with, there is also the rain most of the time. Combined, both these forces can really cause some serious depression. Good thing I always have chocolate in my room. :)

I'm a bit warmer now, but not warm enough. Time to cook up a good hot dinner. I hope everyone out there will reach home safely soon and be able to have a warm dinner too.