It snowed throughout last night, what better way there is than to spend the day before touring UK with a snowy white Christmas here in Cambridge? Whoohoo! *fluffs* It had been about 8 and 14 years (if I remember correctly) since I last played with real snow. And it feels just like the morning of Christmas like a kid again. Snow was quite an eyeopener for my course mate, Jeff, with his virgin encounter with snow, nevertheless he quickly got quite acquainted with the white fluff from another world. Had some minor snow fights, rolling snow balls, snow angels and touching up a snowman. Maybe I might raise the notch up next time with a fort fight. But hey it’s not really Christmas without the snow right?

The town really looked different decked in white. Spent much time in the afternoon exploring the town all covered in white. It gets real dangerous when the snow starts to harden, leaving a layer of thin ice on the road which is a real hazard to vehicles, particularly bicycles as well. Even walking on the pavement is really a cross-terrain challenge or speed and balance! It snowed sometime around this time of the year last year, but not so soon, so apparently the weather was quite a surprise as it was last year as well. Seems that the winters are getting colder and whiter here so as those who stay here exclaimed!

Took some cool pictures of town, including a new panorama I’ve included in my photostitch page.

Saw Jeff off at the coach stop in the afternoon, pushed and helped him lock his bike at the rail station about 1.5km away for his planned return journey. He will be heading up to London to meet the gang beforehand today. Later do I know that the walk back to college is not a smooth-going as I thought! Smooth-going in a literal sense- the pavements are just too slippery to walk! And I went “Sploosh!” on a sidewalk which looked like a small puddle, but underestimated the depth (my whole shoe literally went under…). Oh yea, saw quite a number of people slipping and falling over ice on the streets today as well (tries hard not to snicker), hilarious! You can get traction by walking on the snowy pavements which will only wet your feet! Reached back with wet socks after walking 6km in total and man, it was a full leg workout alright! Like a long balancing act man, despite it being a walk. It’s almost like walking the whole distance on a balancing beam!

I will be leaving to Wales tomorrow morning through London, meeting the gang all directly tomorrow afternoon in Cardiff.

I hope I will be able to find time during my travels to sneak and update here and there, as we do get Wi-fi on the buses and trains. For now, I did better finish packing my stuff. I will be back in Cambridge after the new year!.

Had some problems with my bank a few days ago. Apparently I was charged like 3 pounds from my account without any notice, clarified that with that at the branch and was told it was a stray bank charge and they immediately refunded the value in full. Scary!

Banks are different here and the bank’s online facility is quite unique from that back home in Singapore as well- yes we have to key in the bank pin and password each time you log on, the catch is that you are not allowed to enter the password in full, but rather key in 3-4 characters from your long passwords and pin based on their character position, mental!

And yes, the secure card reader don’t seem to have much use either. Why don’t they just use those 256-bit pin verification dongles? Buying stuff online works through the same verification method as well, but is not that “secure” as I expected it to be. Tried to purchase my oyster card online via the transport for London website, but the website kept telling me that the transaction was unsuccessful and to submit another. I assumed that I was not charged and the transaction didn’t go through due to a verification problem (you have to key in passwords, pin numbers, have the correct address etc), but my bank statement didn’t state otherwise- I was charged the full value of £23 (£20 value + £3 card value) each time even for a failed payment and was refunded only 2 times automatically from the website.

The bank representative explained little of the workings here on their debit cards, apparently every charge to a card successful or not will be treated as a point of sale transaction, only where the payment is verified where the card be actually charged. Go figure! but my bank balance don’t seem to be saying so!

I have to be more careful buying stuff online now, all these rouge charges are getting hard to keep track on!

It’s important but not Urgent!
With term ended a week ago, had about a whiff of freedom and lots to procrastinate, well so as it had been now. I remembered dreading the long days in lectures and supervisions of the previous term, always hoping for some breather off so I can consolidate and get work on track. Then I discovered what weekends are best used for. Well, till I wished they were longer as well as I never had enough time to get backdated work done and they always just end up in a viscous cycle, piling up almost no end in sight. That had to stop, one day. Then suddenly comes this offset of freedom.

Just like the fun and lightness of the new ice skating fair ground on Parker’s piece, this holiday felt strange, a direct contrast so unreal- no nagging alarms, dragging myself to make breakfast everyday in the dark and cycling at break-neck speeds to the department in time for lectures hoping not getting hit by traffic along the way. Go figure, well that’s life of a typical Cambridge university student.

Come to think about it, I had not actually got anything academic done till date. Spent much of the early week getting chores and dated freelancing projects settled. At least that is all done with a load off my chest so I can focus. It had been sometime since I’ve trained my brain to work on a schedule and I guess it’s not too late to get myself onto a stringent routine. So school work is next.

Holiday plans
Oh yes, I will be staying over in Cambridge for much of the holidays, most people I know will be heading back home for Christmas, but that’s something I find unjustifiable, let be costly for just a short 6 week vacation. On the contrary, I will be spending Christmas over with Aunt Jenny’s- she’s an old family friend in Hampshire who invited me over to spend Christmas with her family. Went around hunting for some gifts in town after sending Christmas cards home at the post office. After much consultation for an appropriate gift, finally settled for a niffy box of chocolates and a bottle of wine for them.

Now all I have to do is decide on my mode of transport there. I am very much torn between choosing the coach or train to get to Farnborough through London. Initially, I wanted to take the train to King’s Cross and London Underground my way to Victoria station or Heathrow to catch a connecting coach to Hampshire, it’s being the fastest and cheapest solution. The underground is cool, but I’ve not actually seen much of London myself, and I don’t want to pride myself having traveled London, but only in the tunnels!

So yup, that will be the coach for me there and keeping my options open for the underground trip back, which may not be a bad idea after all- I will be spending the new year’s and the countdown in the heart of London thereafter. Yay!

Woohoo better-than-dominos quality pizza with the same 2 for 1 offer in a restaurant, how else can it be better? Apparently it’s possible with coupons! and lots of them! Headed up to Pizza express situated near Jesus College with the gang for dinner recently, the chow down was definitely not possible without the website my friends discovered while hunting for the best food deals in town. This funky website goes by the name of Student beans and can be useful if you are a student on a budget here.

So apparently we all students entered this rather “posh looking” joint (which we all definitely looked out of place). It was rather hilarious when our “voucher mastermind” kept clarifying with the waiter there whether we can use those printed coupons off the net, before we ordered and even when we are paying, man it does adds to the cheapness which we students already have. But hey if you are asking for dinner on a budget that’s the least you can do. And hey at least the Pizza was great and so was the venue!

Word of good buys can go a far way, well despite the financial situation of the store actually offering the bargains. Borders UK and it’s current owners and joint administrators are currently working with the company’s management in order to attempt to sell the business as a going concern. Much of Border’s UK operations are winding down as well, and they are no longer accepting orders and transactions through its website. All stores are still open with sales up to 30% all books whilst the financial position of the Company is currently being assessed.

Borders (UK) Limited has 45 stores, 36 trading as Borders and 9 as Books Etc across the UK. They always have this typical trademark style in their stores which I always adore- a humongous store layout with all books unwrapped for browsing, just like a library with lots of browsing/seating areas often with a cafe always nearby. “Borrowing” a book home, well means of course involves purchasing it, but hey there are no due dates right?

It is just sad that they have to go, it will leave a big hole in the retail scene particularly in the small city of Cambridge. Since my visit to the store yesterday, apparently business is real good with about a third of the books already wiped out from the store. Had a chat there with the staff who were really grateful to the mass of people expressing concern on the financial situation of the company. They are all as lost in the state of things now with hope of finding a buyer for the chain of store and saving the franchise here. There is no word of the financial state of Borders in the US or back home in Singapore, but I think the situation is not as bleak as it is here, well or that I know of from home?

Today is the last day of term! Two months of back to back hectic lectures, supervisions and lab, all over! well for 6 weeks of term break at least. And whoa was it hectic. Quite notably, the pace of classes going on here in the department are so fast it can be compared to almost a half a semester of teaching (5-6 months) in the polytechnic all covered over a span less than 2 months!

It’s remarkable, yet something I am glad I survived even after spending sometime out from studying. In stark comparison, even friends I know in other universities are not that pressed, with still much bumming around even after the first week of term. Maybe it’s just something about the demands of Cambridge which is as synonymous with it’s name.

Christmas get-together
There are quite alot of end term events on these days. There was a Christmas pot luck organsied by the Cambridge CCCJ this evening at the halls, well it’s not really much of a pot luck anyway with home-cooked buffet style serving of dinner, dessert, followed by some acts, performances and lots of Christmas carols throughout the night. It’s the season to be jolly!

Christmas get-together dinner

Performance Skit

Singing christmas carols

With so much free time now comes great responsibility to use it. Man it’s almost like the weekends I look forward to at the end of every week, it that it’s happening everyday now, whee!