Flight Details

Qatar Airways, QR638K Arrival at Terminal 3 on Sat, 26 June at 3:05pm.

Bye Bye Bath

I had a wonderful time in Europe with lots to thank God for. Travelling alone does force me to rely on Him more, and it does make me more sensitive to His presence and little blessings that He drops into my path. I thank God for he how provided me with a free bedroom for 2 nights through Kit's friend in Stuttgart. I thank God for how He lined up my itinerary so nicely that World Cup matches literally followed me around Europe (from cheering with the local fans for Germany in Stuttgart, with the Spainish in Valencia and the Brits in Bath). I thank God for how He provided me with a Aussie buddy in Paris, and FIVE Singaporean room mates in Valencia. So though I travelled alone, I never really walked alone. Pun intended.

And so the time has finally come for me to leave Bath.

I'm glad I did 70% of my packing the day before I left for my Europe trip. It did safe me a lot of trouble yesterday when I finally cleared out of my residence at Carpenter House. I marked my final day in Bath but going to the world acclaimed spa in the morning, and the Roman Baths in the afternoon. Suddenly it felt as if I never really did explore Bath as much as I should have. But then again, anything that I've missed will always be another reason to go back! I maintain that of all the places that I've visited over the past 5 months, Bath remains the most "liveable" of them all. It ranks high among my list of potential retirement places.

Now I'm back in sunny Weston-super-mare with the Page family. I led worship for the third time in Christ Church today, and in a way, it was a fitting farewell to the people I've met here. I can't thank Andy and his family enough for the hospitality that they've provided for me. As a token of my appreciation, I've given them my 3 pillows, 2 duvets and remaining supply of Milo :)

Summertime in June

I haven't had internet connection for a while, a update's long overdue:

I blog this from cosy YMCA hostel in Basel, Switzerland, now adventuring
through my (mini) budget-style European tour. The world cup starts TODAY. Walking around the streets, supporters are decked out in their team's jerseys, adding to the festive cheer. It's a strange sight to see a sea of green Mexicans here in Switzerland. In the background, a string orchestra livens the atmospshere with theme songs from Pirates of the Caribbean and Mission Impossible.

God has been good. Travelling alone does feel really different, and it has its challenges indeed. Today my train from France was delayed, which meant that I missed my connecting train by a matter of minutes. Fortunately the monsieur at the ticketing booth was kind enough to put me on the next train and upgrade me to first class on a fast train. And it worked out well, for I left an hour later but still managed to catch up with the earlier train that I'd missed!

Progress so far: I've gone through Amsterdam, Delft, Paris, Versailles and Nice. Within a week, I've spent 1 night at the airport, 1 night on a sofa, 2 nights on a train. Budget traveller style. With a very good bed tonight, it's time to finally catch some proper beauty sleep.

Paris was magnificent to say to the least. I can understand why the City of Lights is easily everyone's favourite European city - just so many things to see but much better organised than London! Pickpockets were on the prowl though, and their methods are so blatant its laughable. Every day a group of them camp along the steps of the Sacre Coeur, friendship bands in hand, waiting to stop passing tourists who already know what's on their minds. One of them tried so hard to stop me and bombarded me with questions which I avoided. When I totally ignored him, he suddenly asked me to "look there". So obvious. Well thank God I was prepared so he had a futile time with me.

I also got acquainted with this Australian dude from Sydney, Alistair. He's an interesting chap - an Atheist who majored in Aboriginal studies. We hit it off surprisingly well and he was a great travel companion in Paris.

Studies wise, my exams and papers have gone well. Results aren't out till August but I'm expecting decent grades. I'm really glad to have had a thoroughly enriching experience studying in Bath. A year would have been just nice, but yes it has to end somehow. Post Easter, I joined the Bath Christian Union, Bath's version of Campus Crusade, and managed to make good Christian friends here in the end. As much of my blog testifies, being a Christian youth in the UK isn't easy, and we should keep praying for them.

Until next time, au revoir.

Marriage at 22

This week has been a restful one for me. Classes have officially ended,
with exams coming up over the next 3-4 weeks.

I've had privilege to lead worship twice this week - once at the Uni of Bath Christian Union meeting yesterday, and once more in Christ Church, Weston super-Mare,
with Andy last Sunday. The congregation have been very friendly and welcoming to me.
Sunday was a bit o milestone for them as they finally put up projector screens in their church! Andy went through quite a period of 'campaigning' for the screens. Its still a temporary setup though, held up by prayer and bits of strings. Apparently you need a permit from the Church of England to drill a hole in your building, which could take a while to come through! Christ Church is still a very traditional, largely elderly Anglican church nonetheless. I'm glad to have introduced the congregation to a different style of worship. Usually their songs are quite stop-start, with intermittent pauses for announcements, Bible readings and prayer. Medleys and songs that flow right through seem to be quite uncommon in English Churches.

We had tea with a very friendly and chatty group of Andy's neighbours. I'm pleased to have met Jason (a 22 year old mechanic who tunes Rolls Royce engines for Airbus!) and his fiance Steffie. Both of them are into music too, and they lead worship at their church. They are such a lovely couple. I understand that they are going to get married really soon! Marriage at 22!? (Btw, Steffie's only 18)

But before anyone makes any hint of moral judgement, let me set the record straight that getting married early is not something to be frowned upon in this culture. Steffie graduates from music college this monnth, so both of them are of working age. Considering that Jason and Steffie have been going steady for 3 years now, they are both mature enough to acknowledge that its time for God to take their relationship into a higher level. In fact, praise the Lord! For marriage is fast becoming a dying institution in the UK now, that its so common for the current generation to cohabit, have kids and not even think about marriage! Trivia: 45% of all children in the UK are born to unwed couples. No wonder society's in decline.

Evidently, the UK culture is very different from Asian culture. Unlike us who move out only when we get married, the kids move out of their parents' house the moment they turn 18, or go to college. In some sense, British youths are forced to grow up faster. So really, marriage at 22 is no big deal. Suddenly, the fact that my RI buddy Joel is getting married at 24 in October this year is not such a big surprise after all.

And to think that I just turned 24 last week!

(The Brown Family - Jason & Steffie are in the middle)

An unconventional birthday celebration

Thank you everyone for your birthday greetings!

The chaos caused by the ash cloud was a blessing in disguise for me. The travel frenzy led to Ryanair slashing their prices down to as low as 3 pounds per ticket. Suddenly, it was cheaper to jet across Europe than to take a cab to school.

And so I found myself spending my birthday in Krakow, Poland, ‘celebrating’ it in a rather unconventional way in Auschwitz – the Nazi concentration camp that housed the gas chambers which claimed the lives of 1.5million Jews among many others. Walking through the compound made me sick in the stomach. It’s unthinkable how cruel mankind was during that time. The whole experience made me look at my birthday in an entirely different light, seeing how blessed I was to be born in Singapore in this generation and not 60 years ago during WW2. Although we so often tend to complain about life in S’pore, I’m thankful that the struggles and problems we face are nowhere as near to the life-and-death hardships that the Jews had to go through then. All our worries seem so trivial. It was a poignant moment. Not the happiest way to celebrate a birthday but very meaningful nonetheless.

I’m back in Bath now. Tonight I had a potluck with my fellow exchange friends. It was nice to have Asian food all over again. I cooked mutton curry =) And my friends were so nice to surprise me with a cake and a Bath Rugby jersey. I’m so gonna miss them and exchange. Exams are coming in 2 weeks which means it’s time to hit the books. It also means that my time in the UK is fast coming to an end! Sigh =(

Amazing Easter

Hello, I know it's been a month since I updated. I have been busy traveling around and writing essays. So here goes..

I've now just passed the midway point of my exchange adventure. Unlike the 1 week mid term break we have in Singapore, the British system gives us 2 weeks off for Easter! (btw..I hear that Daniel had a month off!) So whilst most of my other friends flew out to explore Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam, I decided to do a comprehensive tour of the UK.

Naturally, my first stop was Liverpool, where I caught my first ever Premiership game at Anfield - Liverpool vs Sunderland - with Raja, Andy & his son Tim. Being a matchday Saturday, the atmosphere was much different compared to the Thurs night Unirea game. It had a family-outing, carnival-like atmosphere. The stadium was packed to the full, which probably explains why we were unable to obtain Kop tickets this time round. How I managed to get tickets in the first place was quite a miracle to be thankful for in the first place. They were sold out on the Liverpool website within 10 minutes! We were seated directly behind Pepe Reina's goal & had the sun in our eyes throughout the game. Well, of course Pool won, 3-0 the final score with Torres scoring a beauty in the 5th minute. Raja & I went nuts celebrating (see FB video).

Raja & I then joined Desmond in Ireland for a homestay with a nice Irish family. Their daughter is a phD student named Ellen, Desmond's flatmate who's writing her thesis in Bath. They live in a cosy cottage in Sligo, a little town by the coast in the northern part of Ireland. We saw snow capped mountains, a waterfall, and lots and lots of sheep.

Silas came to visit on 1st April. While Desmond & Raja proceeded to Dublin, I went back to London to pick him up from Heathrow. Was really delighted to meet him, as he restocked my supply of Bak Kut Teh and Chicken Rice. From there we spent a couple of nights at the Berrys and had a really wonderful time exploring London, covering all the major tourist sites like Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral and Trafalgar Square.

There are so many things to write about our subsequent excursion, it would probably take me days if i wrote it in detail. A picture speaks a thousand words anyway, so I'll upload the backlog of photos in due course :) In summary, we toured historical York, went for Easter Sunday service in the grand York Minster, climbed up to the castle to view the Scarborough seaside, ventured through fairy tale land in mystical Edinburgh, wandered into Callander village where Silas experienced his first snow, scaled the mountains and trekked 24 km in the scenic Lake District, had a swinging good time at Go Ape Grisedale, before finally spending a day of rest back in beautiful Bath. Not bad for a self-catering, budget backpackers holiday huh. Had we signed up for a tour package at the NATAS fair, we would have spent 3 times more money!

There are so many things to thank God for. Silas literally brought the sun to Britain. Since the 3rd of April, it has only rained for ONE day, which is amazing by UK's standards. God sustained the weather, our health and safety throughout the trip, providing us with good lodging and company. Everytime I'm with Silas, we 'just whack' when it comes to food. Haha, Silas probably put on 3 extra kilos during the trip. My appetite hasn't been the same since, which is probably not a bad thing considering I haven't been exercising as much since I've come here. (The 24km route march is our saving grace really!) God's manifest presence and beauty was revealed through his creation. From the mountain to the valley, from the city to the countryside, from the waterfall to the sea, from the snow and blistering rain to the sunshine, we experienced it all. To top it off, the Icelandic volcano erupted a few days after Silas left, bring all flights to a standstill.

As I write this, the airspace just re-opened, so you can imagine what it would have been like had Silas been grounded here. We'd probably have put on a couple more kilos. Haha.

If I were God, I'd end all pain

A speaker from Australia, John Dickson conducted a seminar series entitled a Passion For Life. He presented Christianity using an unbiased historical and academic approach, dealing with difficult topics like atheism and suffering. I like the way his puts forth his defense of the faith by using historical and academic evidence, to tear down the attacks of supposed 'scholars' who published their arguments based on seriously flawed premises and laughable school-boy errors. The second seminar on suffering was conducted using a cross-sectional analysis from the points of view of the different religions: Hinduism views pain as part of the balance of reincarnation; Buddhism attributes it to the presence of desire, Islam sees it as the will of Allah, Atheism boils it down to pure coincidence, Christianity explains it as part of the physical disorder and decay of creation due to human evil.

The difference is this: the unique Biblical perspective allows us to bring our suffering to God, unlike the other religions. In categorical terms, the God of the Bible would himself completely fail the test of the Buddha, as passivity in the face of suffering and immunity to the experience of pain are concepts utterly foreign to the portrait of God revealed in the Bible. For God Himself knows pain. The story of the Bible unfolds like a tragedy - The Creator designs the world for independent relationship with him. Human beings take that independence, transform it to autonomy and say no to God. God sends prophet after prophet pleading people to return to Him. Prophets are refused and rejected. Finally God himself enters our world in the person of Jesus Christ only to be resisted, rejected, insulted and ultimately tortured and crucified by the very people He came to save.

The anguish of God in the person of Jesus is captured in Mark 15, consistent with the poet of Psalm 22, an uncanny connection made explicit when Jesus cried "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" the opening line of Psalm 22. To clarify, these words were not a cry of self doubt questioning His identity as the embodiment of God, or questioning His mission as the Saviour of the world. His words, chosen carefully, are a deliberate and agonizing identification with the suffering of the famous poet of Psalm 22. And therefore with anyone who has ever felt like crying out "my God, why have you forsaken me, there on the cross God in flesh intentionally enters into the pain and misery of the world. This is God at His most wounded, and yet at His most glorious.

God is able to comfort those who suffer, because He knows it firsthand. That God himself knows and understands pain - what the Muslim defines as blasphemy, and for the Buddhist as unenlightened - is for the Christian, precious.

http://abmp3.com/mp3/john-dickson-if-i-were-god-i%27d-end-all-the-pain.html

Go Ape

It's 430am.

Some drunk blokes are making a ridiculous amount of noise in the kitchen and waking up the block. Alcohol.

Last week has been a thoroughly eventful one for me - quite a week of up & downs in fact! I had a bout of food poisoning upon coming back from London last weekend and had to bear the effects of it while going through an individual presentation on Monday. Thankfully I made it through by God's grace. I've submitted my two 1000+ word essays too, so I can breathe a bit easier as Easter draws near. I'm anticipating Silas's visit too!

I had a very enlightening time attending a series of night talks by John Dickson (see subsequent blog entry). I've also attempted to make new friends by breaking out of my circle of Asian friends. While the rest of my mates went to visit the Stonehenge, I went alone for a Go Ape trip at the Forest of Dean on Sat. Its basically a high-wire adventure course that takes you from tree to tree, 15metres above ground. It was a spectacular and thrilling experience - videos & more photos are on Facebook.


Finally on Sunday, I was invited by Andy Page to lead worship at his church, Christ Church, in Weston-super-mare. Its amazing how God works. The 3 songs I selected were entirely in line with the theme of the service and the preacher's sermon, to the extent that the preacher even quoted the last verse of Servant King - one of the songs which I led - as a challenge to the congregation. This is one of those "God is so good" moments that sends chills down your spine. Thank you Lord.

Mother's Day in London

After what I wrote in my blog post couple of weeks back, I decided to give it another go and pay a 2nd visit to Holy Trinity Brompton - this time bringing Bess & Siang Liang along for the 930am service. I begin to understand how HTB has multiple services on Sundays, and how every session is different! The first service is largely for families, with cute little children action songs for worship. It was Siang Liang's first visit to a church this morning, and he thought that the service was great! Do keep praying for my friends.

The UK celebrates Mother's Day today, so Nicky Lee's sermon (yes there was a sermon today!) Based on Matt 6:25-33, his sermon outlines how our mothers, in many ways, demonstrate attributes of God. It was quite a hilarious sermon as the HTB drama team role played scenarios for every attribute. They are really good. I like Nicky's closing statement - Mothers are Supermodels, for they model after God! Put the first letter of each word together :)

Teaches
Helps
Admonishes
Nurses
Kisses
Sacrifices

Makes Meals
Understands
Models

In the afternoon I went for yet another service at 5pm. This one's more targeted towards the youths, with worship led by Time Hughes. This particular service featured an interview with the pastor of the Church of Baghdad (amazing!). Apparently this pastor has to travel around with 30+ bodyguards wherever he goes in Iraq. Hearing stories of how his church got bombed last year, and how his Iraqi congregation is still going strong - despite many of them getting killed for their faith every month - does tug at the heartstrings. After witnessing such a testimony, I pray that the youths will be inspired to keep the church growing in the UK.

And yes, I had a chance to meet up with the Berry Family!

Weekend @ Weston super-Mare

It has been quite a busy week, some of my friends had gone over to 'colourful' Amsterdam to spend the weekend. I opted not to as I had quite a bit of work to do. So I decided to spend the weekend staying back in Bath, rather than travel around like I usually do. So you see it was indeed a timely and pleasant surprise when Andy called me and asked to spend Sunday with his family. He was so kind to pick me up from my hostel and let me stay a night at his place. Meet Andy, Helen, Laura, Tim & Natalie Page. Laura's 11, Tim's 9 and Natalie's 5.

Though it's only about 40mins away, the weather in Weston super-Mare is starkly different. It is such a sunny place, there was no cloud in the sky for the entire Sunday! The hospitality that the Pages showed made the welcome even warmer. Look at the duvet that they provided me for my one night's stay!

Like me, Tim is a massive Liverpool fan. We look forward to going up to catch a Premiership game together! He plays chess & the drums too. Indeed the Pages are a truly musical family. Andy is an established pianist and organist. Helen is a violin & flute teacher. Laura plays the French Horn. Little Natalie plays the violin. She's a really clever girl for a 5 year old!

Andy was playing the organ for his sister congregation, Emmanuel on Sunday morning, so I went along with him while the rest of the family went to their home church. Emmanuel has a largely elderly, Anglican congregation. Andy kindly asked me to minister a song on the guitar during the Holy Communion. With the theme of the service being obedience in God's word - Abide in You finally made its debut in the UK :) Andy doubled off as a soundman and organist, it was quite a sight to see him play a song, run to the back to adjust the volume, then hop over the communion rails to adjust the microphone for the preacher.

Do pray for this congregation that God will raise up the younger generation for this church. I think the youngest member was probably in his forties. Having said that, the members are very very welcoming and sincere. They really make visitors feel at home!

The afternoon was spent at the playground with the kids. Reminds me a lot of the times when I'm at Pasir Ris & East Coast Park with Raelene!

Cambridge & Brighton

It has been a wonderful weekend.

I met up with Kit & Daniel in Cambridge on Wed. With a unique system of 31 colleges, it is essentially a university town. Dan stays at Girton college, the furthest college from the train station! He stays in a really beautiful place though. I love his room, the carpet is so soft, that sleeping on the floor is actually comfortable!

Kit & I enjoyed a punting tour along the Backs. - a Venetian like boat tour through the little canals of Cambridge. On a better day we would have tried punting ourselves, but with strong currents & bad weather, we decided that the tour was a better option. (We managed to bargain the price down from 12 pounds to 7 pounds anyway!) Our boatman was this French guy from London, who despite his 1.5 years experience, seemed to have quite a hard time maneuvering the punt with 8 tourists on board! It was quite a no frills kinda tour, which was nice. we caught a glimpse of the Bridge of Sighs, & the 'more famous' colleges; Trinity, King's & St John's.

Over a romantic Italian dinner at Strada's. Kim, Daniel Chen & I plotted a special birthday surprise with cake & customised candles for our dear host. Blessed 22nd birthday to you Daniel!
Brighton is a town that never fails to surprise you. It is no exaggeration that you can experience the world in one day here. Its streets & shops boast architecture of international design; a walk through the town takes you from the domes of Saudi Arabia, to the harbour of Santa Monica. Mediterranean-inspired houses of Italy & Spain line the coast, with an occasional monument & Anglican chapel in between. Finding food here is quite an adventure. A single street can boast food from India, Greece, Mexico, Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand & Turkey! It's a perfect place for tourists to visit. In fact I suspect that very nature of this town is attributed to the immigration of tourists themselves! Whilst enjoying my roast lamb, I had a interesting chat with the cafe owner of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", a Kurd who migrated from the Middle East 30 years ago.

If you're looking for a lovely seaside town to spend your vacation, Brighton is the place to go. The wind at the coast is SO STRONG, it literally blows you away. The seagulls were having a fantastic time flying SIDEWAYS, without even flapping their wings. It was a sight to behold.

I enjoyed the sunshine in Brighton. It truly Brightons up your day :)
My only grouse (and main one!) of the UK is that the weather is so unpredictable, that you hardly ever get to enjoy a full hour of sunshine. It is possible to enjoy all 4 seasons in a day, from heavy snow to happy sun to gloomy rain all in a matter of hours. Many people here actually think of Singapore as a wonderful place. Having sun the whole year round sounds like heaven to them. Then again, this part of the world probably never experiences humidity. Kit officially concludes that Britain has the most ridiculous and worst weather on the planet. No wonder the Brits love to talk & complain about it all the time.

You'll Never Walk Alone

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark

At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

My Anfield Experience

In life, we all have a personal checklist of the "Top 10 things to do before you're gone". Tonight, I add another tick to my list. I have FINALLY graced Anfield, Home of the mighty Reds. Even better, I've got Kop End tickets :)

13:30 I step onto the Liverpool Lime St platform, it took me 4 hours to get here by train. I can't believe I'm finally here in Liverpool! Daniel (Lee), Daniel (Tan)'s friend from Cambridge, a fellow Liverpudlian is due to join me.

14:00 Famished, I walk in the first restaurant I could find...a chinese buffet for 5.85 pounds! Talk about a good first meal in Merseyside. I had 5 servings + 2 bowls of soup + ice cream :)

15:15 Daniel arrives & we take a 10 min walk to the Liverpool International Inn. Its a cosy, no frills, eight-in-a-room, quiet dormatory. Counter staff was really helpful, showing us the bus no.17 & bus stop to get to Anfield.

16:00 We find the Liverpool official shop in the city centre. A Liverpool jersey costs 40 pounds! 60 pounds if you wanna get one with Torres/Gerrard/Kuyt etc. Daniel gets his scarf for 7 pounds.

16:30 I make my way to the stadium 3.5 hours before kick off! A tad anxious that my ticket never made it through the post =s My worries were unfounded though, a few photos & a short wait later I got my tickets at the counter.

17:30 The gates open in an hour, we walk around checking out the nearby hotdog stands & Liverpool themed cafes. A few dudes try to sell their match tickets outside the gates, blatant black marketing in broad daylight!

18:30 The gates finally open. I find my seat in the legendary Kop End. Time stands still for a moment as I breathe in the surroundings. From my seat, I can almost touch the left corner flag.

19:15 Its getting really cold, 45 mins to go & the seat's not getting any warmer. I pop down to the waiting area to get a cuppa hot choc. The screens are showing the highlights from the 2001 Uefa Cup final that Pool beat Alaves 5-4

19:45 The lads start warming up. Reina is closest to me as Valero the goalkeeping coach takes a few shots at goal. Gerrard, Skrtel, Kuyt & Aquilani warm up in my area :)

20:00 The fans resound the anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone. The hairs stand at the back of your neck!

20:05 Kick off! Gerrard takes the first shot at goal after only 23 seconds!
(I shan't do a minute by minute commentary, for match highlights refer to http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/)

Reflections on the Kop:
Simply surreal, while the rest of the stadium sits, the Kop stands throughout the 90mins. Braving the blistering cold, singing with gusto song after song after song, cheering the players on with "C'mon you mighty Reds!", singing Ja-vier Mas-che-rano when he makes a good tackle, chanting Da-ni Pa-che-co when he comes on, booing the opposition player for playacting on the ground for too long, acknowledging Rafa when his subs make the game changing impact. Amazing stuff. Any football fan in the world has to come here to experience what being a real fan means. The 12th man really makes a difference. From the 70th minute on, you could sense the cheering intensity getting louder & eventually hitting a climax when Ngog nodded the ball home in the 81st minute. As the Kop leads Anfield in a reprise of YNWA at the 90th minute, its a truly proud moment to be cherished.

The atmosphere can only get better. I'm expecting much much more come the bigger games as the stadium wasn't as packed - Unirea's not exactly the most frightening of oppositions. The current Pool team still quite below par anyway. Bring on Fernando Torres when he's fit again, I'll be there.

Aptly, Ryan was the man-of-the-match tonight. Babel i mean :)

CNY @ Windsor & Holy Trinity Brompton

Windsor castle. One of residences of the Queen of England. It's a real shame that I can't post any photos of the inside of the castle, as photography was not allowed. It is really quite an eye opener to the life of royalty. You should go visit if you get a chance.

The highlight of the weekend though is the Reunion Dinner that we had at St Georges University in south London. It was a real pleasure to have been hosted by Jayden, a Singaporean studying medicine there & his friends. The feast included *deep breath* roast pork, delicious duck from Four Seasons, dumplings, fried rice, chow mien, chicken drumsticks, chop suey, tang yuan, salmon pastry, fish balls, topped off with banana ice cream crepe :) It was a lovely evening spent with HKers, Canadians, an Englishman, a Korean and my fellow Singaporeans. We rounded the night with a game of HK vs Canada vs S'pore mahjong.

With the 11 of us from Bath cramming into Jayden's apartment for the night, it really was a squeeze but amazingly we did it. I had a chance to catch up with Daniel (who happened to be in London) & his friend Charles on Sun morning. We visited Holy Trinity Brompton, the church which started the Alpha Course, pastored by Nicky Gumbel. The morning worship was led by Tim Hughes :)

I must say that save for the worship (which was good) & the church building, I was surprised by how different the service turned out. I'll try to sound as neutral as possible here. It was the first service ever that I attended that did not have a sermon. No lesson from the Word of God at all.

Perhaps today might be an exception, being Valentine's Day, Ps Gumbel did a "talk show interview" with Nicky & Sila Lee, authors of the bestselling "Marriage Book". Much of the questions centred on what made a relationship work, and how Christians could keep their marriage pure in a world of broken relationships & sexual pressures. Topics like communication, patience, intentionally making time for each other etc. wer brought up. The session was rounded off with a prayer invitation for couples.

Honestly, today's 'sermon' did feel like a Focus on the Family workshop more than anything else. Granted, it was very insightful & the congregation probably does need sth like that at this point of time. I do question the extent to which a church should go to being "relevant to the world" & perhaps omitting the Word of God might be pushing it a bit too far. Then again, today could have been the exception rather than the norm, so forgive me if i'm mistaken. I'm not in any position to make a fair judgement. Just that, yes I did leave HTB feeling a tad disappointed.

Back to CNY...Dan, Charles & I had the most marvelous Chinese char siew roast pork rice ever for lunch. I haven't found anything close to this in Singapore. A real morale booster for the week ahead!

Friends from Singapore (and the rest of the world)

Allow me to introduce my Singaporean friends:

from left: Siang Liang (SMU Accountancy), Bess (NUS Applied Maths), Ee Suan (SMU Accountancy & Econs), Raja (NUS Chem), Desmond (NUS Chem) & Gerald (Uni of Bath Aerospace Engineering)

Last night, we had a mini Chinese new year gathering at Cafe International, a cosy Tues fellowship Widcombe Baptist Church - the church that Gerald attends. It was nice to have a taste of home, with a 2 course 'chinese' dinner with minced pork rice & green bean soup for dessert. Overall we had a lovely evening of informal fellowship, with the emcee Tim (environmental researcher at the Uni of Bath) giving a speech on what Chinese New Year meant, with its red packets & gongxifacais.

Of course, while birds of a feather seem to flock together naturally, I've been making friends with other exchange students too. To name a few, my floor has quite a mix of international students: Armin, an Iranian who was born in Norway, Sundeep from India, Gil from Korea, Coleen from the US, and Betty a 4th year student from Indonesia. I take the bus up to school with Alvin, a Canadian with roots from HK & share modules with Peter, a Taiwanese who spent 12 years in Thailand. Soon I'll be playing tennis with Alex, a Dutch whom I met in one of my Management classes. Go figure.

And so at 10am today, I took the bright orange bus up to the Uni on the Hill. It's quite a steep climb, so cycling's out of the question. Being the first day, many of the exchange students were visibly lost, not knowing where the classes were and how to get there. With buildings 3WN, 8W and 6E, its quite a challenge, but once you realise that everything takes dressing from the library right in the centre of the school, it's not too difficult to get around really.

I had 2 classes today, Business Strategy and Modern British Society. Compared to the 3h 15 min ones that we had to endure at SMU, 1h 50 min long ones were a refreshing change. I'm getting good vibes about the lecturers, the workload's on the heavy side though, with the former requiring group HW submitted at the start of every class & the latter having deliverables like 1 presentation, 2 tests and 3 essays. We'll see how the rest of the classes go.

The weather today felt like it was the coldest thus far, at at around 1pm, it started to snow! So we all had a bit of fun taking photos and looking silly. I got to meet Gerald today - Daniel's friend from True Way Presbyterian - the Singaporean studying full time here. He does aerospace engineering, i'm sure Kit & Han Ling would love to meet him. He's a real friendly and helpful chap. In fact we're gonna have a pre Chinese New Year dinner gathering at his church tomorrow! All us Singaporeans are invited so I'm really looking forward to that.

After a long day, I attempted my biggest ever cooking challenge thus far, Beef Stew. Being my first shot at it, I must say that I'm really pleased with the end product. Taa daaa...

Believe me, it tastes better than it looks.

Settling in

It has been an eventful weekend. Orientation was on Saturday, it was great to meet up with all the international students, close to 80 of them - Canadians, Dutch, Germans, Argentinians, Spanish, HKeys etc. It was nice to meet 3 more Singaporeans from NUS! Raja, Bess & Desmond. I recall Desmond from my TJC days, in fact we had played tennis at House level together once! Small world..

The town center of Bath's quite a pleasant place to walk around, i've uploaded photos on facebook :)

The UK adventure begins

So this is it. After 4 inflight movies, 3 breakfasts meals in a row, 2 hrs on the coach, and 1 overweight luggage bag to drag around, I've arrived in Bath. I must say that Qatar Airways provided a really pleasant & enjoyable ride with its touch-screen inflight system, comfortable seat & adequate leg room. The first thing that greeted me in Bath was the wooden scent of my room in Carpenter House. It's nice to have a cosy room to myself, albeit a rather small one. Here are some snapshots:

the rectangle room

my bed

desk & window view

the big, clean kitchen

Effectively, the journey from airport to room took a grand total 24 hours. My body clock's naturally a bit ahead of time, I slept at 9pm at woke up this morning at 5am. The duvet provided kept me warm and snuggly. The weather surprising not as cold as I anticipated, it feels like 10 degrees, nowhere near the subzero winter that I was bracing myself for.

A morning walk around Bath with my 2 Singaporean fellow travellers takes us from cafe to cafe in search of our first hot meal. We eventually settled for a quiet little restaurant that was part a departmental store - reminds me a lot of the IKEA cafe back home. Breakfast was thoroughly satisfying. TEN items + toast all for a grand total of 3.45 pounds! McDonalds 'big' breakfast is not even half the size of this.

For those of you new to Bath, the reason why it is named as such is due the Roman Baths that were built here between 100-500 AD. Other attractions include the Jane Austen House (author of Pride & Prejudice), the Bath Abbey & the Sally Lunn House (the oldest house in Bath). More to come when I get down to visiting them.

And so today was spent fixing up my internet connection and orientating myself around the town. It is a quaint looking, old-fashioned town that houses famous brands like Marks & Spencers, H&M and Starbucks, very much similar to Bremen in Germany. My hostel is located right in the heart of the shopping district, so groceries and entertainment are just a stone's throw away. Nice.

Sainsbury's is the local NTUC with affordable bargains. My first attempt at preparing a decent dinner was well...decent. Spaghetti served with brocc-cauli & mushroom soup. Siang Liang liked it, so I guess that works out. Will attempt the meaty dishes on a more gung-ho day. Orientation starts tomorrow. This will be my first visit to the University of Bath. Pray that I will be able to get all my 5 modules! A bit of a bummer that I'll be missing the noontime kick-off of the Merseyside derby though =s. Peace to all back home.