York trip...first weekend trip outta notts

York is a beautiful place, very ‘Europeanish’ and all..too bad we didn't have the time or the opportunity to go visit the uni there,would have love to see what it looks like. We went to the city instead. The weather was quite good at the start, and it feels even warmer then in notts, (despite usual sayings to the contrary) there was actually hot sun shining down on us when we alighted from the coach...rain and low temperature only came near the end of the day tour....

Was a bit awkward at first when I boarded the coach and ended up sitting beside a stranger who looked as if he was ready to sleep the whole journey away, but I had no other choice, coz the bus was super packed already so the group had to split up.Yupz..so after like 5mins or so, I decided to break the silence (how to survive 2+ hours of boredom if I don't???) and from there on, there wasn't much of a silence left throughout the journey. =p Being here alone made me less shy of taking the initiative to strike up conversations now. That's good I think..Anyway,we spoke about many things throughout the entire journey and it really tested my mandarin conversational skills quite a bit! Haha..I try not to use english substitute for one or two words here and there which I can't communicate immediately in mandarin, and trust me, it wasn't easy sometimes. But we had a pleasant chat and that was a good start to the day I guess..

We reached York at about 11.30am and everyone was complaining about how hungry they were, so we began to source around for a good cafe/restaurant/pub...bascially we were looking for anywhere with food that is traditionally YORK. We ended up eating at a little pub..all of us had yorkshire pudding but with different fillings for lunch today. Quite tasty really, and it was only after we had polished off all (or almost all) of our puddings that we realised that opps, we didn’t take a picture of it at the start..

Then the rest of the day we went from shop to shop, popping in and out of (winter) clothes shop, a painting shop, numerous food places that sells chocolates, ice-cream, sweets, etc...and etcetc...(The peter rabbit and pooh shop was really cute...and I wouldn't mind spending my whole day inside the shop haha)...Along the way we just bought more and more food..doughnuts, ice-cream..also tried a sample of this toffee that was soooo sticky and tough that I could hardly move my jaws with the sweet in my mouth...in the end, most of us didn't even finish half of the sweet...

We also walked along this market street which is rather reminiscent of the Pasa Malams in Singapore.There were all kinds of items on sale: Books, winter apparels, cards, soft toys, wallets, paintings, etc…there’s this store selling ceramic pooh-themed x’mas cards which allows you to have a little handwritten msg within in gold if you were to purchase a card. Wanted to buy one but finally decided that it’s not feasible to post it back home for it'll most likely break in mid-journey on top of costing a bomb to send.

It started raining quite abruptly in the middle of the trip...after we emerged from the disney shop...But the rain soon became mere drizzle and we continued on our way...walked along the walls surrounding the city, which was a cool experience as you get a pretty good view of the city from there...and a rather frightening one too coz it's high up, and open on one side(no railings or stone walls)..plus the pathway ain't exactly very wide so we had to move carefully.. oh and along the way, we saw some people kayaking out in the river (the sight of the riverbank was bee-u-tea-ful!) and it brought back some fond memories…had about 4 wonderful memories with kayaks in them so far…obs, macritchie, sea-sports club at ecp(reminding me of the holt watch chalet) and sec4 adventure camp…

At the end of the walking trail, we went into the national railway museum where there were several trains on display..looked around at some bullet trains. The place was quite dark so we couldn't take any pictures..and we only stayed for a little while before RuShInG to the York Minster Cathedral for the 4.45pm service..We reached there slightly late but luckily we could still gain admittance...It's a really nice, grand victorian-style kinda church, and the service was quite a new experience. The choir sang beautifully, and the whole atmosphere was just so respectful and saintly. The main source of light in the place came from the many candles, whose lights flickered along the railing behind the choir. We only realised how late it had become when we emerged from the church about an hour later, at about 5.50pm? So we rushed through the light rain and luckily just managed to catch our coach before it left. This was followed by almost 2hrs' journey, where I spent about a quarter of it talking to Cynthia about life here and the rest of it alternating between looking out of the window and getting lost in my own thoughts, or drifting in and out of sleep... Initially, the night coach ride had a cosy, familiar feeling attached to it…But after a long while, it began to feel as if i was back on the airplane again coming here..felt somewhat claustrophobic such that by the time i got down of the bus into the cold night air, i was feeling a little unwell =p

But the night walk did me some good as it woke me up a lot...Went to z's place for dinner, prepared, cooked and consumed home-cooked chinese dishes with the girls! Very simple and plain dishes, but it beats hall food anytime because it's done by us ourselves and it feels of home.

That was my saturday, spent with friends as if i was on a holiday...wonder how many more weekends are there where we could indulge in such fun trips (if there's the opportunity to)...workloads getting heavier and i'll be kidding if i say i ain't stressed.

Last but not least, I just want to add here too that I love my brother! =)

p.s. And I so feel like coming back to Singapore this dec hols now, though it's so short..but anyway, it's not possible and i guess i can wait a few more months... yes, im sure i can =)

p.p.s And I realised that perhaps this blog thing made me communicate and connect more with ppl back home than when I was physcially there myself. So keep up your blogs/emails people!It's nice to hear about how each one of you are right now =)
I might not be able to blog so frequently at times or write such lengthy blogs often (spent a lot of time on it lorh!!) but i'll try to keep it up still.(whenever possible) =)