It interesting that such technology and capability already existed ages ago, but no one seemed to put it all together for the consumer. Apple seem to always get that right, this time they are doing it again with a new slate tablet computer called the iPad.

At first glance, it looks like an over sized iPhone, which the distinctive bezel, form factor and home button. It’s not running the full workstation-capable version of OS 10 contrary to much speculation, but rather a portable-enhanced version of OS 10 which is largely similar to the interface on the iPhone, for a larger screen. It comes in 2 favors, Wi-Fi or one with additional 3G in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB capacities on flash drives.

The fun device seems to cater for a void in the market which tries to be neither on both ends, namely a phone nor a work-capable computer. If you need an, it will only truly shine for it’s wireless capabilities and size, so it will be wise to get the one with 3G. Otherwise, it will just be a regular slate with no noticeable selling points. To me, the iPad seem to fit into the market for people looking to have a device around the house for quick access to emails and the internet, but not much one being a full-fledged computer, something which might rival the iMac or iBook. So technically it’s in a class of it’s own filling the void between the iPhone and the iMacs.

Though multi-touch may be a selling point, capacitive touch screens are good for gesture based commands and navigating menus. Not exactly that impressive for writing, something a tablet must be good at. Capacitive touch screens are just simply something notorious for precision. Moreover, I don’t see a need for a slate, being a tablet user myself for almost 5 years, having used on screen digitizers (wacom penabled screens) on convertible slates as well as traditional pen based drawing tablets (intuos4) from wacom, I find the lack of precision of the screen a big turn down for a promising product- It is just not as practical as I’ve expected it to be too. In short, the precision offered on dedicated tablets is very important and is something I don’t see the iPad fitting well into my needs as a student who needs to use a tablet for lectures as a student, let be precise enough to take down notes or do drawings accurately on.

The iPad is after all, a fun product not intended for work. Like, the iPod touch bigger brother. An expensive toy.

Hardware-wise, it does bags 10 hours of battery life. But big no nos will be the lack of a user-replaceable battery and a small resolution XGA screen- You can’t really call the slate an internet machine with a screen resolution of 1024×768! The 1Ghz A4 processor of the iPad is adequate, despite not being as speedy as most mainstream tablets on the market now. This apple designed processor is largely tailored to the basic needs of the device and OS, thus would be adequate for the basic functions it aims to serve, don’t expect it to be much of a production computer though.

The really cool thing I like about it is that it can run literally all iPhone apps on it out of the box, so that will allow many users to port over from existing iPhone platform and also establishing a good base for the new product to grow on.

I can’t deny that the device is indeed very pretty, but it will never be powerful enough to be justifiable to do descent work as a proper computer or for school, etc, yet too big to conveniently carry around as a portable device. It’s trying to be something, but not really found it yet. Anyway, with apple aggressively promoting the iPad SDK since it’s launch, it will be fair however to give it some time for iPad dedicated apps to grow on it where it’s functionalities can be truly realized. But for now, and for me, I will be putting my money for the next gen iPhone maybe coming out in June, that will be a better choice.

Video of the iPad at the click:

I had this problem with iTunes previously, but solved the problem by reverting the program, so I am posting this here in case anyone who experienced the problem on a same setup can get a solution here.

After updating iTunes on my PC to the spanking new 9.0.2 64-bits to suit my current system platform, I kept getting numerous errors whenever I try to install new apps on my phone. The system will just fail an app install each time and will demand a phone restore each time I plug the phone back into the sync cable. Bad!

Also, what you will get from iTunes will be a myriad of irritating, yet not very helpful error messages only the person who wrote the program knows about. I mean who knows error codes man? So much for user friendly apple software!

Seemingly, the programs are not installed at all on the phone, but with the icons showing on the springboard. True enough, launching them will crash you back to the homescreen. iTunes will simply just hate your iPhone (Latest firmware 3.1.2) and treat it like some foreign virus, demanding it be cleansed with a restored backup each time after plugging your phone into your PC.

I’ve heard about file permission errors in the iTunes music directory. Sometimes, R-clicking on your iTunes music folder C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes and unchecking “Read only” under “Properties” will help.

In the end, it turned out that it’s an iTunes program error with the 64-bit version. Apparently, the latest iTunes 9.0.2 64-bit does not work on my setup running Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate. Force installing (the installer will recommend you to install the 64-bit version) the 9.0.2 iTunes 32-bit version makes everything work like a charm.

What other cooler way to mark the end of the university’s 800th anniversary celebration with a cool and ambient lightshow held at night with fire art performances? Apparently, the whole stretch along Cambridge King’s parade street was closed for much of the night’s last week for the event, consisting mostly of laser and light shows. The crowds are evident as well- with the roads packed and queues to the event snaking out onto the streets.

People passing by during the evening will be delighted with much of a treat- Lasers and life performances by the Fire Troupe, consisting of fire breathers and eaters. There was much to see. You will be greeted at entrance to the event with a splash of animation projected onto the senate house. The white walls of the house made an ideal projection surface for the myriad of lively and brightly animated features seemingly “painted” onto it’s walls.

It’s no other painting either, each animation segment is uniquely different and animated to tell a story about the university’s rich history, intentions and foundlings of the university as a global world leader in education with an alumni of 85 Nobel Laureates. Notable figures shown will also include Issac Newton & Charles Darwin.

Woot projection!

Transforming the senate house

Animated pictures & text

The event saw a tour around the King’s college grounds, demarcated by thin green electro-luminescent strips lining the path taking us towards the college chapel and along the river Cambridge. There, another set of animated projections were displayed on the chapel and adjacent building walls. Ambient sounds were played throughout the tour path, giving the area a rather upbeat feel despite the dark eerie setting required for the projections to be effective. The place was packed almost bumper to bumper, as remarked by some: “This is the amount of traffic King’s will get the whole year in one day!”. The tour ends with a globe laser display at the green towards the gate exits, painting the global outreach Cambridge have in education as well as constantly echoing the slogan “transforming tomorrow”.

King’s college chapel

The crowds

The lasers at the end

The show was great, but otherwise not really much an eye opener. However, it actually gave me a chance to tour and see King’s college in the night- something I’ve not had the opportunity to do so. “Apparently it’s the same as what they did for the opening ceremony last year as well” as exclaimed my seniors. Nonetheless, everything was rather new for me and I guess something worth-wide to mark the end of 800th years of achievement. I don’t think we may be seeing another celebration as big as this, well for a long time to come.

Aunt Jenny is an old family friend who I know since I was very little, in fact she knew my mum even before I was born. Jenny now resides in the UK, having migrated there and living in Hampshire with her husband Uncle Raymond, they have 2 children. My mum had been in contact with her all the while and she also serves as our main UK point of contact whenever we are visiting the United Kingdom.

Naturally, Aunt Jenny was the first thing on my mother’s mind and consultant of choice when she learned of my decision to study in the UK. This is also particular in helping me integrate into a distant foreign country. Well, not that I am not integrating well myself, but I guess she just wanted to “be sure”.

Snowy days

At Jennys!

cosy Christmasy living

The Plowmans had the honour of inviting me over to spend Christmas with her family and I am humbled to do so, it being my first Christmas December over. Personally it’s quite an eye opener to live with a traditional British family. I stayed over for almost a week in between my trips between London and Cardiff where their home near south Hampton surprising serves as a very good transition point between my trip as well. I got to know their family and way of better. I was like an anthropologist, observing the life and family roles of a new found species to document in a science documentary.

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Views of their snow covered neighborhood in winter, sights we can only dream of in Singapore (Fullsize)

Housing in the UK are most private landed homes, with land abundance everywhere they are the preferred housing option compared to apartments, which are actually non-existent in the UK except in the big cities. This is so also given the many building height restrictions in the area as most countryside and towns are free fly zones for private recreational planes as well. Then there come the interesting land laws I was told, particularly claiming ownership of anybody’s if you’ve stayed and maintained it for over 5 years.

Integration was great, I made myself at home in no time. I stayed at their daughter’s room who lives in her own home but will be back over Christmas with the family. I the mean time, I have her whole room to myself.

Christmas cards

My room

Discovering ponys in my guest room

I remembered passing by some magnificent views of the country side on my way to their home. Both Uncle Raymond and Jenny were at the train station to pick me up and gave me a lift home. I will touch on the views of the nearby country side later, but in the meantime, here are some excellent photos.

Oh yes, back to food, it was different. Generally eating out is very expensive in the UK, so usually cooking at home is a very viable, not to mention economical way to dine as well. Jenny is a very good cook too! When I first came into the UK, I never quite caught on the “1 hot dish a day” lifestyle, with only a hot meal eaten either for lunch or dinner. Sandwiches are eaten to top-up the rest of the other meals such as breakfast, lunch/dinner. We Asians in comparison are so used to eating hot cooked meals for lunch and dinner daily. No wonder my college dorm mates never understand why I have to always cook 2 times a day on weekends!

River from the lake

Running stream

fanastic lake views

But sandwiches are not too bad either, with that as a staple comes the varieties of toppings and preparation styles which can go with them, all heartily taught by Aunt jenny herself, who happens to be one of the best home cooks I’ve ever met too. She found my love for cheesecake and sweet pickled bread- to the extent of myself stocking them all up in college after my trip home!

I was a man on a mission too, to gather all the best recipes from Jenny so my mum can try them out at home too. Jenny shared with me all her cook books, websites and magazine clippings containing particularly her strawberry cheesecake.

Kingmead, queensmead, now princesmead!

Frozen lakes

Reflective lakes

Christmas dinner was yummy, not to mention interesting as well. The spread was big- bit too big for lunch when I first saw the spread. I was naive, thinking that if Christmas lunch was this big, will Dinner even be digger? What will I be missing then? Later do I know that Christmas dinner is usually a big hearty meal served around 2-3pm around lunch time, culture I never quite understood. Breakfast is actually “breakfast” or “lunch”, dinner is usually eaten during lunchtime and dinner from what I know of is known as supper. Go figure!

Sights of Yately
Throughout my stay, Uncle Raymond brought me sightseeing around the country side near town, namely their iconic horseshoe lake, rivers, parks and castles. Horseshoe lake, as the name suggest is presumably is a lake shaped like a horseshoe. Lined along the lake are nice riverside trails which are all dried and compacted from the cold, with some occasional bits of frozen ice which makes trekking abit more of a challenge.

Distant hotair balloon

Oaiham castle

800 years apart

Walking in a temperate forest is an eyeopener for me, firstly the floral are all new to me and walk is very cool, calming and overall a rather enjoyable experience- It’s almost like walking through a spare Singapore tropical forest, only with the air conditioning and de-humidifier always on. The feeling is rather unreal, considering after all my exposure in cross-country running and training the sweaty topics. Beat that!

The winter trails are usually very long and stretches for miles at a go, offering great cross country running route for many of the locals around the area as well. Beats running around in circles in most parks in Singapore! We even got to visit a 12th century castle for keeps too.

Besides natural attractions, they also showed me their main shopping areas around town, as well as tagging along with Aunt Jenny on few of her shopping trips, learning about as well as gathering ingredients for a cheese cake she will be making in the evening so she can teach and demonstrate to me the preparation processes. They also showed me various pubs around town where my parents used to hang out during their UK trips here, in particular few arms pubs which had been around since then till today.

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360 views of the Horseshoe Lake and nature reserve. (Fullsize)

Worklife balance
There are much differences to how things are done in a traditional Asian family back at home. Particularly the free time they have for family (besides getting used to their diets too!) Back in Singapore, everyone works, hoping to get the “best” out of life and climbing up in carrier advancement, often at expense of family time. The work-life balance in the UK is very good and there will always be family time for everybody, even the shops closes early at 5pm so store owners can spend time with their family members as well- a stark contrast to life in Singapore.

Moreover, it seems owning a car in UK is very much justifiable as opposed to Singapore as well. The car here, particularly in bigger countries are workhorses. Faithfully to the job. For motorheads, it also justifies the love and passion of driving, the highway and countryside roads here are just excellent to drive on. No wonder almost every family member in the family owns a car each.

Swans

Chinese food!

text

Farewell
As well every journey embarked comes a time of farewell too. I was treated to a farewell dinner at a local Chinese restaurant on the night before my departure back to London. Conicentally, the owner of the resultant was from Singapore as well, the creepy thing is that she used to stay not far from where I am currently living as well. What a small world.

Thanks Aunt Jenny, Uncle Raymond and family for a fantastic time out and dinner. Will definitely be looking forward to next year’s. =)

More photos of the trip in the Hampshire photo album.

In stark contrast to the modern buzzes of life in Cardiff, this second part of my Cardiff trip will cover trips to more medieval parts of town, particular the Cardiff castle and the St Fagans village and National History Museum.

The Castell Caerdydd, which most of us come to know as the Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion. It is located right in the heart of the city of Cardiff itself just not too far off the university grounds and within walking distance from the central railway station. It is one of the main tourist attractions in the city itself and a must visit, you will have no problems finding it either- you can’t miss it with it standing out with it’s high castle walls, it’s just seem completely out of place in a modern city.

Nice open parks such as the Bute park can be found adjacent to the castle grounds, which unlike the castle grounds have no chargeable admission fee to enter. The park will bring you past the western exterior of the castle separated by a small moat and the River Taff. River cruises serve the River Taff. The Coopers field in the park itself has some stone hedge-like theming, remnants of a miniature world wonder.

Cardiff River Taff

Cardiff castle

Fort

The castle itself was transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort. The castle’s full high walled fortification serves more than to keep prying tourist eyes but served a more practical purpose around AD 55 during the conquest of the Silures tribe. Within the fortress wall houses a vast open field, a keep, mansion and several tunnels and observation posts, all nicely preserved till today. The Victorian mansion sits on the western site of the castle grounds, flanked by walkways linking the top of the fort walls. A stone clock tower can be found beside the castle mansion itself.

The castle was enlarged and refashioned in an early Gothic Revival style for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute by Henry Holland in the early 19th century, but actual works only begin in 1868 when John Crichton-Stuart, (the 3rd Marquess of Bute) commissioned William Burges to undertake a massive rebuilding which turned the castle into a 19th century fantasy of a medieval palace we still see till present.

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The Victorian mansion, Cardiff Castle. (Fullsize)

The mansion may look intimidating on the outside, but is a sight to behold by itself. It is actually very well preserved in comparison to the surrounding ruins and keep. It gets better in the interior too- decked with a series of rooms, hallways and fireplaces which constitute the highest achievement of later Victorian Gothic Revival design. Even the dining halls are all elaborately decorated. The mansion however has a contrasting mixture of elaborate and dark areas, which do not seem to go well with the general lavish theme, this includes the vast open carpeted walkways in comparison to the cold clammy concrete cladded “dungeon-like” narrow spiral staircases which serves the various floors including underground rooms, the library as well as the roof top open air bathing area.

Flag of Wales!

The dining halls

Open air roof bath area

Located just outside the mansion is a clock tower, which has it’s location at the south west corner of the castle fortifications. The Clock Tower was restored in 1869 and feature covered walkways which continue eastwards. Other towers in the castle grounds include the Tank Tower, the Guest Tower, the Herbert Tower and the Beauchamp Tower. There is an extensive internal tunnel network in the fortification walls that link all the towers altogether.

The trademark of the Cardiff castle will have to be the iconic Cardiff Castle Norman Keep located at the center of the castle open fields surrounded by an active moat (It’s surprising rock frozen in winter). The keep was constructed on a high knoll within the castle grounds at about 1091 by Robert Fitzhamon, lord of Gloucester and conqueror of Glamorgan, it was first uncovered during the third Marquess of Bute’s building campaign. After through the tides of time, only the other shell of the Keep remains today. Despite being in the ruins, the Keep still houses a mini courtyard and several rooms on it’s upper floors, all precariously served by steep and narrow staircases.

On a little history of the keep, after the failed attempt of Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror’s eldest son, to take England from Henry I, Robert of Normandy was imprisoned here until his death in 1134. The castle, rebuilt in stone, was an important stronghold of Marcher Lords, in the de Clare and le Despenser dynasties, also the Beauchamps Earls of Warwick, Richard of York through his marriage into the Neville family, and the Herbert family, Earls of Pembroke.

The keep

peekaboo!

View from the keep

In the 18th century the castle became the property of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who became through his Herbert wife a major landowner in the area, and whose heirs developed the docks that transformed Cardiff from a fishing village to a major coal exporting port during the 19th century. The castle very much stood the tide of time and passing, with preserved nuances of it’s military past.

The best place to buy souvenirs in Cardiff are the from the traditional small shops lined through out the town, the items here are generally much cheaper and richer in variety than those sold in the official attraction gift shops. It’s shopping for these unique Welsh items where we come to discover the eating places around town.

Cardiff is also home to few of the best pubs I’ve ever been to in the UK so far. Good here meaning great food and drink with a price and ambiance that is hard to beat. Few commendable pubs will have to be Edwards at Royal hotel, the Lifebar along St Mary’s street. A highly recommended fantastic dinner spot will include the Owain Glyndwr Pub near Market street by the castle. Here it is not uncommon to get a full main course meals at £10 or lower (Some even going at £7). Though usually meant to be shared among a pair, we usually get ahead of ourselves by ordering (and eating) 2 main courses per person. It’s quite a good deal and the food’s good! Nothing better than chilling out with a good beer after a long day of sightseeing.

Owain Glyndwr- Great pub!

Country views

Neat garden walkways

Our next day saw ourselves setting up for a long bus trip out of the Cardiff bus terminals towards St Fagans. The route there is served by Veolia bus services. St Fagans (Welsh: Sain Ffagan) is an area in the west of the city of Cardiff. It is home to St Fagans National History Museum (formerly called the Museum of Welsh Life), St Fagans Castle, St Fagans Old Rectory and St Mary’s Church. The town is situated in a rather remote and snow capped area, served only by one 2 hourly bus service. Our journey saw us passing many other small neighborhoods and nucleated towns before hitting the museum entrance.

We arrived early and checked out the nearby country side while waiting for the place to open. To the south of our destination lies the village of Michaelston-super-Ely, and to the east the suburb of Fairwater. St. Fagans is home to St. Fagans Cricket Club. In 1648, the Battle of St Fagans took place close by. St Fagans lies on the River Ely, and previously had a railway station on the South Wales Main Line. The regular distant horns of passing trains reaffirms railway still active till today.

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St Fagans National History Museum St Fagans Castle (Fullsize)

On entering, picture this: being greeted by a row of nicely arranged trees planted alongside a long pathway leading to a fountain and the castle (St Fagan’s Castle) in the background finished in lush white as sparking as the snow all around. The museum is essentially an architecture museum with all the exhibits in 1x scale. It’s interesting how the museum is able to showcase various different builds of traditional houses of Wales itself. There are over forty original buildings sourced from Gwynedd, Flintshire and Worcestershire over various historical periods in Wales all re-erected in the 100-acre museum parkland. We got to visit one of the display highlights, particularly the 14th century St Fagans castle. The interior are darkwood elaborate and spacious, it’s almost like stepping back into time.

The various houses provided an insight to how Welsh Iron-Age ancestors lived in Celtic Villages. There is much to explore, but did didn’t managed to see them all, citing bummer as the attraction had to be prematurely closed due to heavy snow (it was not even snowing though, just white everywhere) cutting our stay at museum short. But on the bright side at least we did get to see some of the main highlights.

On our way back to Cardiff, we got to meet a fellow local at the bus stop who was traveling there himself too. It was there where we learnt about how notorious the bus delays can get here. Little do we know that the bus we were waiting for had broken down, leaving us stranded in the cold snow for more than 4 hours. Usually a tell tale sign of a bus coming will be people randomly popping by the bus stop at the stipulated timings of arrival, we were sickened and about to embark on a long walk back to the nearest town before this guy came to the stop.

Frosty!

Our evening stop

If only it’s open

We got to learn quite alot of local knowledge thanks to our Welsh friend. Had had some time to spare before the event with his friends, so he kept us entertained and chatty throughout our journey including introducing various nice interesting eating spots in town itself. He personally brought us to the best spot in town for traditional Welsh gifts as well as a café serving traditional Welsh food, we had something which goes on the line of Rarebit (we thought rabbit) and of course more Laver. With our tummy filled, we then made our way to our last main attraction to catch spot of the day- Barry Island.

I remembered another local university senior staying in Cardiff telling me that no one visits Barry’s island (or Ynys y Barri in Welsh) in winter. But we went ahead with the trip anyway as it’s our last planned spot which is not too far off either. It is located in part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. Named after the 6th century Saint Baruc, the spot is one of the few nice beach sites transformed into a district, peninsula and seaside resort which are very popular in summer. It is rather accessible as well, it being just a short 15 minute train ride from Cardiff central railway station.

It being winter, the place was quite a dead town on our arrival. The place was creepy deserted and quiet, but awesome as well, it seems as if a zombie apocalypse had wiped the town out completely. There was not even a single soul when we arrived and got off the lone train at the station. The amusement park in front of the station was quiet and empty. It was there where we encounter the longest and one of the most slippery ice cladded pavements on the whole trip.

On top of the beach!

Fantastic long coastlines

Could be better in summer

The highlight of Barry Island will be Whitmore Bay Beach with it’s wide open sandy beaches. The beach is long and protected by 2 natural breakwaters which shelters the bay and beach area from the sea. Surprisingly there is live at the place too. We get to see an occasional jogger or an elderly couple and a small group playing catch with their dog on the beach, but that’s very much the patrons at the beach for today.

The tides are rather low for the day too, with a reasonable 100 meter walk from the start of the beach to the beachline. There are small trails by the small hilly ridges on both ends of the beach, bringing you over the knolls with unobstructed views of the sea out of the bay area. There are no skin baring, surfing or sun bathing here at this time of the year, but the beach is a fantastic place to spend by yourself with the sound of There are some standalone amusement fairground flat rides operating by the beach itself, together with some small arcade shops and jackpots. There are few eateries in the area, but most of them are either closed for the winter or just don’t serve food within our price range. We had dinner at a nearby pub serving reasonably priced pub food by the road near the railway station. It was not necessarily the best we’ve eaten in our trip. The ambiance is decent with the exception of the continuous looping of lady gaga on the pub televisions.

Small beach fairs

Night’s still young!

Welsh dragons

We embarked on our train journey back to the central railway station, we had some bites at a local pub before heading back to the hotel for a deserving night’s rest. Our final day in Cardiff was spent catching up with exploring missed sights around the town area, particularly exploring the stretches of the River Taff beyond the Millennium stadium. That is of course not forgetting some also some last minute Christmas shopping around the capitol area after collecting our return train tickets from the Central railway station.

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Cardiff Central Railway Station. (Fullsize)

Cardiff Central railway station is one of the few major British railway stations on the South Wales Main Line. It is also the largest and busiest station in Cardiff itself and in Wales, it being one of the major stations of the British rail network, being the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside London serving over 11 million passengers a year. It is managed by Arriva Trains Wales and served by mainly by First Great Western trains.

Statues + Birds

Shop shop shop

St Mary’s street for lunch!

There is quite a lot of shopping to do before leaving. After all it’s Christmas with many different kinds of sales and offers going on, not to mention a large variety of shopping arcades and independent shops littered all around the main city center too. St Davids is a new shopping establishment at my time of visit and spots quite several shops from major UK retailers. Notably most of the stuff sold are actually almost the same things we can find back in Cambridge, with the exception of the lower prices from the Christmas sale. We trotted down the Queens arcade, pass the Capitol center shops and John Lewis before chilling out at the pubs over lunch and catching our train departure thereafter from the Cardiff Central railway station back to London.

Cardiff is a city with a rich mix of the past and present. The lack of outdoor activities and attractions during winter was not much of a total letdown but which could have added more to our trip. But it has it’s unique perks too, such as the fantastic snow views in the white highland forests and English gardens. Ultimately the thing really memorable about Cardiff will have to be the really friendly people themselves, not to mention the fantastic pubs in the city. These itself are justifiable factors to recommend a return trip back to Cardiff again.

Cardiff city trip (19th to 22nd December 2009)
Cardiff is the capital of Wales and has a population estimated at three million. Wales (Cymru) itself is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and is officially bilingual with English and the indigenous Welsh language, both having equal status.

My trip there started with a long bus trip from Cambridge to London Victoria bus station, almost missing my 8am bus and barely forgoing locking my bike due to a frozen/jammed lock. It was a trip to remember, yet one where Murphy law seem to rear it’s ugly head even before my journey started. The transit from London Victoria to Cardiff bus station was as smooth as silk, with plenty of time to spare in between the stop. Hung around the station’s upper crust store where I got to talk to some of the locals and a hobo who resides there. At all times being vigilant, it’s interesting to chat and hook up with locals in the area to know the inner workings around town.My journey there lasted about 3 hours, including the 2 hour trip to London, it took about 5 hours top via National express bus. You just got to get into the habit of sitting out long bus journeys, which is a reasonable way to travel discounted without a railcard. I arrived at the Cardiff bus station with a whole afternoon to spare. There is plenty to see and do.

Welcome to Cardiff!

Wales Millennium Centre

Big bikes, small bikes

Cardiff is also Wales’ chief commercial centre and the largest city and most populous county of Wales. Met up with my travel buddies from Imperial college at the inn we are staying for the trip. It’s location is surprising smacked right in the middle of town along St. Mary’s Street, which is not too far off Queen’s Street too. The hotel is called Sandringham spanned over 2 blocks across the road, with the reception and restaurant (free wi-fi) in one of them.

The rooms are surprisingly decent, with the exception of the narrow stairwells typical of these rowed English houses which proved to be quite a challenge going up with large backpacks. We got a roof loft which provided great night views, surprisingly we are unable to get any internet mobile coverage in the room at all. After a short integration and lunch, we started off with a bus towards Cardiff Bay, one the main sea viewing sites of the capital.

The castle riverside

Bridges round the castle

Lightsticks at Cardiff bay

On arrival, you will be greeted by the Wales Millennium Centre (Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru). It is essentially an arts centre located in the Cardiff Bay area spanning a total area of about 2 hectares. It was opened in 2 phases on November 2004 and January 2009 respectively, honored with an inaugural concert. It seats 1897 and mainly hosted arts performances of opera, ballet, dance, comedy and musicals. It’s also home to the national opera, dance, theatre and literature companies of Wales, as well as the national orchestra. Les Misérables was a musical on for the night on the day we visited.

Cardiff bay in the evening

Fancy!

Pubs by the bay

It internally comprises of one large theater and two smaller halls and also includes shops, bars and restaurants. It has a hallway lined with the center gift shop as well as several “cart” stores selling specialized Welsh handmade gifts. Being a tourist spot, the prices of the items sold here are usually marked up higher than what you get from traditional street stores. Without a doubt, the Millennium Centre also has a local nickname “Armadillo”.

Just off the Millennium Centre center is the seaside bay. The Roald Dahl Plass are a series of tall cylindrical towers spanning over 5 meters tall arranged in an oval just by the bay area near the iconic Pierhead Building. The bay area and Mermaid quay offers a nice quiet sea view with few scattered fishing boats over a horizon, but is not buzzing much with activity in the winter. Generally winter is a period where most outdoor activities die down, particularly when the sun sets awfully early too. It was about 4pm where the place is as dark at the peak of the night, but most of the shops, pubs and restaurants are still open till late. The restaurants in the area are of upper class, serving more of a finer cuisine of food, particularly seafood as well, the place is generally popular with evening dinners looking for quality food.

By the seaside

Christmas lightups

Lots to shop

Various attractions around the Bay also include Techniquest- a children’s play and learning science center as well as the Dr Who exhibition at the Red Dragon Centre off Hemingway Road. We were fortunate to have the hospitality of a small family restaurant back in town, serving awesome Welsh steaks. We all loaded up before hitting the shopping arcades for a night of window shopping, exploring and checking out various shopping centers the place is renowned for, particularly Queen’s street and the new St David’s. We ended up purchasing quite a lot more stuff than we’ve expected.

shopping seal of approval!

Steaks!

Cardiff market

We were up early the next morning to check out most of the local sights within town itself. The Cardiff Central Market is no exception either, buzzing much with activity, this 2 floored traditional Victorian indoor market is a mini spectacle and sight to behold itself, both inside and outside. The upper stores sells dry good and textiles while the lower floors houses mostly stores selling daily-fresh produce. The market was designed by the Borough Surveyor, William Harpur, and opened in May 1891. You can view a panorama I’ve taken of it as follows.

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Cardiff Market Exterior. (Fullsize)

The market is smacked right in town as well, feeling quite abit out of place with all the modern shopping arcades around it. It’s surprising how many of Cardiff attractions are situated all within a short walking distance from each other, a short walk from St Mary’s and crossing few underpasses will bring you to our next attraction, the Cardiff National Museum, it is right next to City Hall and the law courts.

The locals call it Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd, otherwise known as National Museum Cardiff. It houses collections of archaeology, botany, fine and applied art, geology and zoology, essentially it being a museum and art gallery in Cardiff. It is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Like most museums in the UK, entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Inside the Cardiff market

Cityhall and the Cardiff museum

Inside the museum

Designed by architects Arnold Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, the museum have a typical British architecture- a large front lobby with a high ceiling topped with a domed top. There are lines of displays located on the multiple floors of the museum accessible on both ends of the long lobby. The current standing building is just what is left of the structure first founded in 1907, when it inherited the collection of the Cardiff Museum, which shared the building of Cardiff Central Library. The museum started construction in 1912 as a civic complex of Cathays Park, but only opened to the public after the First World War in 1927.

Cardiff University

The war memorial

City shopping

A walk further north away the museum will bring you pass the buildings of Cardiff University itself. Known as Prifysgol Caerdydd inWelsh, the university is located in the Cathays Park area of the city and is consistently recognised as providing the best university education in Wales. The campus grounds spots a rather interesting mix of olden university buildings and modern blocks built alongside it to supplement the building needs of the modern university today. You can see the obvious change of architecture with the times. The university received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities.

The university buildings are built all around Cathays Park, which is also home to the Welsh National War Memorial. Cathays park itself is situated not too far off the heart of the city, just off the popular Queen’s street Cathays Park or Cardiff Civic Centre (Parc Cathays). You can access it past the law courts and resides just behind the City hall and Cardiff museum, within walking distance from the north road (A470).

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Cathays Park, Cardiff Wales, Welsh National War Memorial. (Fullsize)

Surprisingly smacked right in winter, the park (Alexandra Gardens) still retains much of it’s lush greenery, the green is nicely manicured and the trees all neatly pruned. Prominently placed in the center of the park is the Welsh National War Memorial, designed by Sir Ninian Comper and unveiled in June 1928 by the Prince of Wales. The memorial commemorates the servicemen who died during the First and Second World Wars. The park is also is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff and offers a large fairground area for most national cultural and sporting institutions, such as the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales.

One of the best ways to enjoy the Welsh lifestyle is to visit their regular weekend farmers market along the River Taff. Such markets are known to have existed at the site since the 1700s. You can find authentic Welsh food and souvenirs.

The Sunday market

The millennium stadium

Warming up with a nice hot coca

It’s setup almost like a typical night market in Singapore, with make shift tented stalled lined along the banks of the river. Delicacies include traditional ones such as Welsh roast lamb served from the slab and Laverbread. There are ample seating areas by the river side with music played by the road sides. Many people simply just enjoy sitting by the curb side enjoying the breeze and atmosphere. If it ever gets too cold, simply just head into any of the nearby inns for a cup of hot chocolate.

Further down the River Taff will bring you right to the iconic Millennium Stadium. Also known as the Stadiwm y Mileniwm (Welsh) it is a large multipurpose stadium able to host a variety of events such rugby, football and boxing, considering it being the home of the Wales national rugby union team and the Wales national football team.

I never thought it will even be possible to convert the sport grounds into a Grand Prix track, after learning that the vast stadium is also used to host to many other special non-conventional large scale events such as the Super Special Stage of Wales Rally Great Britain, Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain. Besides being the national stadium of Wales, it’s also a performance hub and many music concerts, including Tina Turner, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, U2, Stereophonics and the Tsunami Relief concert.

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The Millenium Stadium. (Fullsize)

The Millennium Stadium costed £121 million to build and is owned by Millennium Stadium plc which is a subsidiary company of the Welsh Rugby Union. It was designed by Lobb Sport Architecture and built by WS Atkins and Laing. It was completed in time for Cardiff to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup and in time for the new Millennium too.

It is not the views of the stadium from across the River Taff where you can fully appreciate it’s size.
It is the second largest stadium in the world with a fully retractable roof, with it only being the second stadium in Europe to have this unique roof design which allows opening and closing based on ambient needs, ventilation or lighting. It is the third largest stadium in the Six Nations Championship with the Stade de France being the largest.

This ends the first part of my Cardiff trip, my next post will see us through more traditional places such as castles, including those out of the city.

Caught Avatar 3D yesterday afternoon at the Vue Cinema in Grafton shopping center. Yes I know it’s been a month since it was released and everyone had already watched it, let be some even 2 to 3 times, so this rant is not new. But I had not really been watching movies very often these days, let be even only major ones over the yesteryear. But when I saw the trailer to the show last year I told myself that it’s a show I will definitely have to watch.

And I did, and was blown away by the show. At the end of the show. I was lost for words, far beyond thinking ages since I’ve left a theater after a show feeling so captured, so memorized- I was torn beyond words to even describe how good the show was. Let be even forget about the high ticket price (despite it already heavily discounted at £6.95) I paid to watch the show in 3D. The experience the show provided was even worth more than the price. It was a show which I left the theater still overwhelmed, it’s just that fantastic.

One thing I like about adventure, sci-fi shows is that it immerses the viewer into a whole unique world given it’s rather bizarre ecosystem, told over a brilliant storyline and fantastic soundtrack (which I can’t stop listenng now) which amazes audiences at every corner of the planet Pandora. Well though as saying goes, sex sells, but I think the skimpy sexy Na’vis are just part of the main attraction in the show.

The show also blends in the world of nature, science and technology as an insight to a world as envisioned by James Cameron himself. All brought to life true a new frontier and setting a new benchmark for 3D and animated CG films (including human motion tracking film) since Final Fantasy, the spirits within wowed us almost a decade ago. And you need not to be an animator to enjoy the film by the polygon!

Avatar, though only 4 years in the making (since 2005) the story was actually written in 1995 over a period of 3 weeks, after James was done with the Titanic. It was set for a 1999 release, but CG and film technology was not mature enough to make the film as he envisioned it to be, until now. James is not done with Pandora just yet- A sequel is confirmed by himself and it’s rumored that the sequels could look at the interior of Pandora, possiblity introducing us more of the ecosystem as well as Pandora’s marine life. Apparently James Cameron has a whole underwater landscape mapped out. Sam Worthington (Jake Sully) and Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) have signed for a trilogy. With rumors of the return of RDA’s Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and Secops’s Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

“Avatar” earned it’s place in the record books as the most successful and highest grossing Sci-Fi movie in history, I won’t be surprised if this show gets an award this year for Best picture and I believe they will, deservingly. For me, this masterpiece will get definitely get a place in my video collection when it releases on Blu-ray or DVD.

And hey, it’s 2010 and we are almost more than a week into it already. A whole new year, a whole new year of possibilities and expectations! So far so good, but still largely very far away from home.

Well not that I actually miss home, much, but I guess the bore of work seems to creep up at you at times, particularly when you think you want to find time out to enjoy and party for the holidays, particularly this new year.

I guess the same can’t be said for school I guess. I always tend to have this strange mixed feel of anticipation attenuated by work over the new year. Something evident since my poly days given our school term smacked right over the new year period.

This is of course in contrast to those carefree days I miss even before my time in poly. It seems the old idea of a new year in January for a fresh start of a new school term with no current work (or deadlines) looming your head is a thing very much of the past now, even in university.

Anyway, at least we do get slightly more holidays. Notably my holidays last Christmas was excellent, so I am not complaining, much. Looking forward, there is much to expect for this new year. Particular looking back at what happened during the new year’s day celebrations in London.

Anyway, to make up for that on a brighter side, at least I can bask with some presents I’ve got over Christmas! Man there are quite afew! I’ve not actually found time to go through all of them, having only returned back home only very recently. It’s like Christmas all over again!