1st week in Soton again!

2nd trip to Soton. I have landed safely in Stansted Airport around 7.30a.m on the 2/6/09. School has arranged a taxi to pick me up there and sent me to Montefiore 2 University Residence Hall. It took 2.5 hours to reach here. Really tiring and exhausted journey. The flight was not a pleasant journey coz having a serious headache. And it dragged for days to fully recover.
Now is summer, but a cold summer. Day long and night short. The day become bright at around 4.30a.m and dark at 10.15p.m. Still not used to it. 10p.m there are students playing football at the field. Girls were playing water bomb, shouting happily out there, because they have finished their examination. My flatmates, 6 all together are Master final year students. Some of them have left, I guess, coz I don't see them but just hear the closing and opening doors sound.
Really boring here, maybe because of the long hour day time. I feel like nothing to do. But in fact, there are tons of work load waiting for me. Normally I will go to jog at the Riverside Park at around 7p.m, after walking back from office. 7 something then only start cooking. When finished taking dinner, it already 10p.m. Due to jet-lag, sometimes, I slept at 9p.m. But now, I am getting better and settling down quite well.
1st weekend going back to Eastleigh. Just to visit the charity shop, Swan Centre, Tesco and Sainburys. The old lady at the charity shop still can recognise my face, eventhough I have cut my hair. So touch to listen that. Last winter, I went to her shop to buy a jacket c/w fleece in a cold morning. She saw me cold and happy to see me put up the jacket which I bought from her. She said she was happy because she can help to get a suitable jacket for my slim body. Old kind lady, thanks a lot!

Bangkok WREC 2009

1st conference paper was presented in the Bangkok WREC 2009. Quite worry, but also enjoyable. Now looking forward to present in Abu Dabi and Yokohama next year. Hopefully will be supported by UniKL MFI.

Mother's day

Mother's day - a day for us to celebrate and having family gathering. As usual, I will make a cake for my lovely wife. This year is chocolate brownies. See my kids were so eager to eat the tasty cake!

London trip

Christmax Eve - I reached London from Manchester by taking 1st class Cross Country Train. Very luxury and comfortable. I was lucky because I purchased the tickets with a very low price. We knew that most of the shopping complexes and restaurants will be closed on the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we have bought some food to standby. Initially I was thinking to celebrate my 1st white Christmas in London, who knows......

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!