Bath trip

Bath, one of the earliest well planned town in the UK. And the Roman bath spa is the only hot spring in the UK as well. On the way going to Bath, we were passing by the Stonehenge. It was just at the road side, and no visitor is allowed to go near to the stones. The whole town buildings are full with Roman style, really magnificent! Sure will be visiting again.

ICHEN RIVERSIDE PARK

Another weekend in Southampton. Tomorrow will be my 2 month stay in Southampton. Meaning that next month I will be completing my first session of research work in Soton.
Today early in the morning already woke up and went for jogging. Jogging with jacket in the cold weather. After that, started my journey to Ichen Riverside Country Park. There are many parks in this area. As I mentioned before, English really know how to enjoy their life. Retiree will bring their lovely pet, dog to walk in the park. Their children have grown up, so dog is their only companion. They treat the dog like their own child. The dog has their special name, good food provided and everything for them.
Evening joined the Eastleigh Town Centre Christmas light up celebration. It is a happening fiesta with fun fairs and fire works display. I really enjoyed it.

NETLEY

Sunday is always my most anticipated day in a week. And I always pray to have a nice weather so that I can go for cycling at some interesting places. Today I go to Netley. Why I want to go there? Any special reason? mn.... because of the Netley abbey, Netley castle, Victoria Royal Country Park and Netley beach. Started my journey this morning at 9.30a.m, and arrived home at 5.20p.m in the dark. My bike lights batteries already flat. So, all the way I was quite worry. Worried about police and cycling in the dark, no 'play-play'!

Cycling

This morning the weather was good. After raining, the road was a little bit slippery. As usual, every weekend will drop by at the farmer market at Eastleigh and Swan Shopping before going for any outing. Today, I was cycling to the University of Southampton. Every morning sitting in the bus and enjoying the view all the way, and today, I purposely cycled slowly, just to grasp the opportunity to have a clearer and closer view on the scenery. After 30 minutes, I arrived at the campus. Not so crowded during the weekend compared to weekdays.
Although the weather was nice and cooling, but I was still sweating when arrived at the campus. My singlet was totally wet. I was wearing 4 layers of clothes just to avoid to get cold. Wow! Cool man, all the way cycling to the campus! Fun!

BURSLEDON

Today can be considered very lucky. Cloudy day and suitable for outing. I was cycling to Lakeside Country Park in the morning, and Bursledon in the afternoon. It's tiring, but really satisfied. Bursledon is actually not that far from Eastleigh, but because the route is up down hill, so it delayed my trip. As now in UK, 4.30p.m already starts getting dark. I have to rush my time. Travelling alone, this is the only worry.
English really know how to enjoy their life. Every weekend they will bring their family go for outdoor activities. Country park is their favorite place.
The Wind mill in Bursledon is the first windmill that I visited in UK. There are many in this country in fact. But today, the wind was not strong to drive the mill. So, it was not operating. Too bad! The Manor Farm Country Park with a nice lakeside is really attractive in term of their greenary and view, especially the Pontoon Lake. I just simply locked my bike at the tree and walked down to the lakeside.

ISLE OF WIGHT

Traveling alone is not that bad, but of course if there is companion, it would be better. Last Sunday I went to Isle of Wight alone. As usual, I took train to the Southampton Airport and transit with Unilink bus service to Town Quay. First time going to Town Quay, everybody has got off at West Quay. So, just seek assistance from the driver to remind me to get off at the Town Quay bus stop. Following his direction to the ferry station. The waiting time was in the vicinity of 50 minutes. Mean while waiting for the ferry, I managed to read up some tourism information at the counter. The Red Funnel ferry is quite huge, bigger than the Butterworth ferry. It's a three tiers ferry with main deck located at the 2nd floor. The spacious cafe offers wide selection of western food on board.
When arrived at the Isle, it was around 1.50p.m. Simply bought a pulp from Somerfield, I walked up to the main street. Without any guiding map, I was aimlessly strolling around while taking my simple lunch. It was drizzling in the cold weather. Luckily I brought my umbrella. I didn't care about people's perspective on me. I just enjoyed my own style of taking photos or video recording with my N95 mobile phone. Passengers laughing at me, I just responded with my happy smile.
My luck was good that day. Even though I was directionless, but the street brought me to the Osborne House, which was the Queen Victoria's family holiday house or we called it Palace. I supposed to pay for 10 pounds admission fees, but the counter lady just offered me the children ticket with 5 pounds only. See, can save 5 pounds already! The Palace is pretty spacious and decorated with splendid golden chandelier, huge lifelike vivid portraits, and noble furniture, etc. I visited a magnificent palace! Amazing and lovely trip!

West Quay

Titanic movie, I am sure most of the people have watched it. But Southampton I think not many people will know that this is the origin place of Titanic. And West Quay is where the Southampton Harbour located. There is a Titanic Museum opened for public as well. And today there is another huge cruise departs from the harbour, it is Oceana Hamilton cruise. Will go back again. The Leisure World and Ocean Village have not been visited yet.

Last night used an unwanted mineral water bottle to make a simple tripod for my phone, coz I know today I am going to take some photos here. Simple but quite useful. Just like my life over here, simple but with a mission!

Romsey

Romsey - a countryside town. There are 2 train services going to this town. Last weekend dropped by this scenaric and greenary town. Perhaps it was weekend, the streets were felt like deserted. Not many people were walking on the street. This town famous with 2 distinguishing features, there are many elderly and many ducks in the town. There are rivers around the town and always flooded, and ducks and swans like to play on the river.

Half way stroll around the streets, I stopped by at a local English pub. I like the natural decoration built in it. Just ordered a coke and enjoyed it in front of the pub. It has another emotional appeal to enjoy coke under the sun. Never feel hot and sweat. A relaxing afternoon, simple English designed houses, 3 empty tables at the road side, a few ducks walking on the streets and a single man with coke, it was my weekend at Romsey.

Skill transfer

Yesterday joined my supervisor, Dr. Patrick's lecture. There are some things that I can learn and practice in the future for my own lecture. This trip not only for my research, I can also learn from them on how to improve my lecture and lecture activities.
But one thing, their hardware facilities are much more advanced than us. Just look at their lecture room setup.

Winchester

Time flies. I am here for the 2nd week already. Work is work, during off day I will not work as usual and just went to Winchester, a historic town which I think it is worthy to visit. The pedestrian area has created a harmony environment for me to sit and walk around peacefully. No hassle, no rush and no pressure at all. The Sunday farmer market is pretty new to me. There are kinds of bread and cookies can be found here. And some interesting places we need to visit here, such as The Great Hall and Round Table, Winchester Cathedral, West Gate, Museum and etc. Basically this trip was the enjoyable one. Will be back again for the 5 pounds big cooked crab!

Raya

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf zahir & batin! Miss ketupat, lemang, siput, rendang and serunding this year! Really miss it!
Take good care when going back to hometown.
For those who want to courrier kuih raya, you are most welcomed! Hahaha... mimpi je!

Brockenhurst - National Park

Today took the 9.22a.m train from Eastleigh to Brockenhurst, the famous National Park in UK. The journey just took me around 30 minutes only, no delay. After getting off from the train, I saw a used train coach parked next to the railway station. It is bikes renting shop. I rented a mountain bike cost me 15 pounds. I round the village alone without any map but with a writen instruction provided. It's tiring but new experience for me, 4 hours cycling with mountain bike, not the racing bike that I used to take. Hopefully tonight won't have back pain la! Tua already maa....

Rice

Today is the first weeked in Southampton. Early in the morning already went out for 'lepaking' around. The shopping complexes open at 9.00a.m and close at 5 or 5.30p.m. There are so many new and interesting things for me. Advanced and very good quality. The price is considerably cheap. One thing I want to put up here. The Tesco in Malaysia most of them are big, but in UK here, I think the area is just half of it only, quite small.
Since we are in HVAC industry, just for your information, there is no HVAC system installed in most of the building. There are using natural ventilation due to cold climate here. But sometimes I really cannot 'tahan', feel stuffy! And most of the people wearing jacket or sweater, except me with singlet. Not to show off, coz I didn't bring.
Finally today I find egg fried rice in Tesco. Really happy to see it. Straight away bought 2 packets back. Although just the plain rice, but I really enjoy it. Everyday bread, pizza, nan,... miss the rice so much. 99 pence per packet, ok la!

Soton life

Today start taking bus to Soton. Very convenient and the bus follows the schedule exactly. The nice weather and smooth journey make my mood good today.

I met 2 Malaysian PhD students this afternoon. They spoke BM and straight away I asked them whether they are Malaysian. They invited me to the Raya Puasa celebration on the 3/10/08. Then, I will be meeting most of the Malaysian students in Soton there and then.