Guy Fawkes Day

The Guy Fawkes Day is widely celebrated across the UK. Sometimes it is also called as the Bonfire Night. It is a day to commemorate a criminal called Guy Fawkes, to put it simply.
This is how the day was commemorated...

Guy Fawkes was an English soldier who attempted to carry out an assissination of King James I and members of both houses of the Westminster Palace on 5th November 1605. Guy Fawkes was in large part responsible for the later stages of the plan's execution. His activities were detected, however, before the plan's completion. Following a severe interrogation involving the use of torture and a trial, his conspirators were executed for treason and attempted murder. Guy Fawkes' failure is remembered with this day on November 5th.


A shot of the event taken at the Midsummer Common, Cambridge under the bright full moon.

The bonfire

The 15-minute fireworks display.

All Systems Go!!

I have told myself not to blog anymore until next week or so. Blogging is first of all, very time consuming and secondly, time is a luxury to me now. But I am extremely elated, ecstatic, excited, overjoyed, happy, energised and whichever adjectives synonymous to any of them because my long-awaited parcel has finally arrived! I just can't help expressing this feeling now in my blog. After 2 months of waiting and winter is coming, it is finally here! I was waiting faithfully for my winter clothings which I brought over from Japan via shipment from Malaysia. Without that, I'd be in deep trouble. Already the temperature has gone down tremendously from 10-ish to below zero at night. Thank you Irene, for coordinating this delivery.

My much awaited winter clothings, direct from Japan, via Malaysia

No way I am gonna share this out. This can stay in my room....

Luckily Irene wrapped this up in plastic. The oil leakage was terrible.

This was the content of the leaked pack...tom yam paste!!

Check out my personal storage space in the kitchen man! All systems go...O yes, does anyone know how could I import a 10kg koshihikari from Japan? :)

That means I could now cook to my heart's content and most importantly, have the authentic Malaysian taste which I have yearned for all these while. I was holding back my purchases of the Malaysian ingredients because nothing beats the original recipes from home. No doubt I could get the ingredients in Chinatown, London but I was also expecting the parcel to arrive every day! Besides, I was pretty doubtful of a mat salleh signing off on the recipe bottles with the caption, "Authentic Malaysian recipe". Would anyone believe that, c'mon?! Now that I have all the ingredients, I could now cook some Malaysian dishes for my block mates and invite the Malaysians for a get-together. Haven't been doing this since I left Japan! Alright, now it's all systems go!

Akitaka Soeno from Toyota, presenting the company's Hybrid Technology at the Engineering Department

Apart from that, I have another encounter with the "land of the rising sun". No, I'm not going to say it's the haunting again, but I chose to go for this talk by Toyota. They were talking about the Hybrid Technology and future vehicles.

Jalan-jalan and Raya in London

So, I have been complaining about the lack of time and packed study schedule and what am I doing in London then??!! Well, for fun.

I can't be always sticking my bottom onto the chair, stare at the books (notice I used the word "stare" and not read) and not treat myself to some fun. Last week's Saturday, all things have to take a back seat and I was going to unwind in London with the other Chevening scholars no matter what was coming up for the week. Noris, Aeni and Fairuz came all the way from Glasgow, Scotland, en route to our compatriot's Raya open house in Turnpike Lane, London. How small could the world be? Very small. Aeni Hashim is actually Diana Hashim's younger sister! And Diana Hashim happened to be my ex-colleague who handled the Gamuda scholarship, from the HR Dept.

Me, Fairuz and Aeni at the Big Ben

This shot is to affirm that I have put on some pounds on my cheek. With the lack of exercise and falling temperature, one can't stop eating and hibernating in the room. Let me assure you, I could have gone much chubbier by now if not for the "regulating" activities in Cambridge. Well, I have to cycle for lectures every day, so it's kinda good exercise.
Noris, me, Aeni and Fairuz

Our London walkaround, one day prior to meeting Shahnaz for the Raya Open house. I was quite crossed with the way people take photos for us. They either crop the top of the Tower Bridge or the side of the bridge. This is the best group shot that I could get. The best shot should feature the flag of England on the left tower. O well, I can't complain much since I didn't have a tripod with me and that people actually did us a favour.

This is the Victorial Memorial and the background of Buckingham Palace. Apparently, the Queen was out for dinner, so we left for other places. This is my second time visiting the palace. The first was in 2004.

Wellington Arch, looking majestic at night. Trust me when I tell you that this shot was taken at 6.30pm. Yes, sunset time is as early as 4.30pm now. It's as dark as Malaysia's 8pm by quarter to 5. So, it's abit daunting at times when you feel like doing some grocery shopping and have to start putting on the lights, wearing thicker clothings etc. If you really want to travel in the UK, don't come around this time, because you get less daylight. If you are not an avid photographer, then don't bother about it.

I didn't want to inundate this section with too many touristy places. I think you could see them in my Yahoo photos. This is Portebello Market, located somewhere in or near Notting Hill. It's a lovely place for a stroll. It's like a flea market selling antiques and collectors' items.

Some of the cool items found in the Portebello Market. I will definitely come back to this place when I have my wallet loaded next time. There are so much to see and buy. And all of these items are really one of a kind, and could never be found in our average pasar malam in SS2. Am not sure for the next 2 years....

Again, how much smaller could the world be? I was staying at the Malaysia Hall and took a shared bedroom. To my surprise, my roommate was Adam Sharif! Adam was last year's Shell Centenary Chevening scholarship recipient. He was one of two Malaysians who was awarded the scholarship to study Economics in Cambridge. He's a member of Girton College. A mere coincidence that we met in such a time and place. I have only "read" about him in the Shell Scholarship website (http://www.shellscholar.org/students/cambridge.html), so meeting him in person was amazing. Already such low probability. I mean, what are the chances man....

Finally, this is Shahnaz's place for the Raya Open House. We had daging rendang, ketupat, kuih muih, cookies, and a great time! Kartini (the one in green) is currently studying in the University of London. She was one of the hosts for the 3R programme in Malaysia. Kartini has also put up a blog in the Hot FM radio station where she is attached to at: http://www.hotfm.com.my/tini_uk.asp

The one in red is Sue Anne who studied in Cambridge before continuing her Masters in LSE. The rest of us need no more introduction. All of them are this year's Chevening scholars.

A video snippet of the group's interaction after the Raya Open house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzWsDW_VpKA

Hedingham Castle, Essex

This year's Chevening Scholars welcome reception was held at the Hedingham Castle, Essex. The castle is known to be the finest in the East of England. There were 95 students from Cambridge, represented for the event. The 95 students came from all over the world and it was a good opportunity to mingle and network around. Scholars from University of Essex, Norwich and East Anglia also attended the event. So, it was a big crowd that night.

We had a short tour of the castle and were briefed of the history about the who's who in the castle previously. I could hardly remember all their names and their roles because we were suddenly bombarded with so many names. But I did remember names like William the Conqueror, Princess Matilda, King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and etc.

These are the Japanese scholars whom I "bumped" into during the reception. They are here on a short-course study under the scholarship and would be leaving in December. Had a wonderful time chatting with them. Felt pretty guilty because I spent half of the night pow-wowing with them (in Japanese) when I should have spoken more to the other nationalities. Oh my, but it was good because when you are in a different country, chatting with a Japanese (who is also out of the country) is really a different experience. When they feel unrestricted by their countries strict customs, you get to hear all the suppressed stories from these people; about what they really feel about the country, the culture and their way of thinking. I ended up taking the centrestage in the conversation after that because they were more interested in knowing what I did in Japan and the places I went to. Apparently, they came from places like Aomori, Shizuoka, Osaka and Fukushima, all of the places that I have stepped foot on before. So, they were really interested when I told them what I did there and they recipocrated with tips on what "I should also have" done there by extending the "secrets" of these places. Aha...now I know. Could this be a precursor to Japan again??? The haunting...

Week Leading to Halloween

Halloween seems to be a big thing here even though pockets of people opposed to the idea, saying that it is an American culture. I mean, American or English, c'mon it's all in good fun! My blockmate, Ulrich (pronounced as ul-reek) from South Africa joined in the bandwagon to make the Halloween weekend a blast. He prepared himself a pumpkin costume.


Ulrich is also a runner (look at the background of his room). He runs for the college and he does like 10km in 40minutes! He's fast! Both of us signed up for the ballot for London Marathon 2007. Hope I could get it. He's reading his PhD here under the Commonwealth Scholarship, wow! Now, he wants to be a pumpkin, hahaha! I wasn't able to participate in the Halloween party which Wolfson College is known for, because I was also engaged at another function; a welcome reception at Hedingham Castle, Essex the same night.

This is Chikara Hirai from Japan Rail. He did a presentation on the company's train systems punctuality model for Cambridge students. It was done in English. Yes! Finally, I get a Japanese presentation in English! The reason I put this slide along with the Halloween section was because he presented on the same day as the Halloween weekend, and coincidentally I have already been "haunted" by all things Japanese. Everywhere I turn in Cambridge, I bump into Japanese things, lectures at times used Japan as a reference and that I have been meeting alot of Japanese almost every week. You can say I have become extra conscious of the Japanese presence since I came here, or it's really the "haunting" for a trick or treat....