To all Wolfson House Residents Monday 28 April 2008
Following a flood at a sub station in the London Bridge area, the Guy's Campus is without mains power. Current advice from the power company is that this problem may not be resolved until the end of the week.
Campus Facilities: To protect critical services, a decision has been taken to close New Hunt's House and the Greenwood theatre and the College is keeping under review the occupancy of other buildings. Services on the other campuses are unaffected and students are advised to use these facilities where possible. The College is also reviewing contingency plans to relocate teaching to other campuses where possible.
Wolfson House: Regrettably, there will be no power throughout the day although we anticipate that power will be restored at around 1800 each evening to allow occupancy of the building overnight. Therefore, until the situation is resolved, for health and safety reasons, all Residents will be required to vacate the Residence between 0800 and 1800 each day when the power is re-routed to other critical services.
Please vacate the building promptly at 0800.
When leaving, be sure to switch off all electrical appliances in your room/kitchen and take with you any personal possessions that you may require during the day.
yadah yadah yadah...
Power failure plus forced evacuation. Splendid. And did i tell you about the 2am fire evacuation on Saturday? Wonderful. Plus i just got to know my neighbour was stabbed in his leg by some guys at the park below. Spectacular.
I was waiting at Leicester Square for Florna to arrive when 2 students approached me to ask if they could take a video of me. They were doing a research project and would like to interview me on my thoughts of London hosting the Olympics in 2012. So i went on happily criticising London's incapabilities of hosting the Olympics based on the recent T5 chaos, traffic woes and overworked transportation network. To think i almost added a "i think Beijing will be able to host it much better than London"... Although i really think its true, i think its not a very polite thing to say to these 2 British students so i ended off saying "probably if the mayor can do something about these problems, i might just be a bit more optimistic about the Olympics in 2012."
When Florna arrived, we headed off to a dimsum restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we took a tube to Old Street Station and walked a short distance to Bunhill Fields. For those who do not know what Bunhill Fields is, it is actually a very old burial ground. It is the resting place of lots of prominent figures like John Bunyan, Susannah Wesley, John Owen, Isaac Watts etc etc. JOHN BUNYAN!! I'm so happy to be able to see his tomb. And i will be happier if i can see him in person next time.
Defoe... author of Robinson Crusoe And of cos William Blake As the rest of the tombs were fenced up and locked, we could not access them at all. I might have to drop by another day to ask the park attendant to open the gates for me.
We crossed the road and entered into the first Methodist Church built by John Wesley and his residence.
if you look carefully at the photo below, you could read the words "the world is my parish".
In the church compound stood a memorial of John Wesley's mother, Susannah Wesley.
The plagues of some of the ministers The chapel where Charles Wesley and John Wesley used to preach Reverend Charles Wesley Reverend John Wesley
at the altar A curator whose name was Fred gave us a tour of Wesley's residence. I enjoyed the tour very much (compared to the visit to Windsor Castle the day before) as i really learnt more about John Wesley's personal life from the artifacts left behind. The following is a painting of Charles Wesley preaching to a group of American Indians in America. Apparently this might never have taken place as both John and Charles were forbiden to preach to the Americal Indians by the local authorities at that time. This was the study room of John Wesley.
You might find this chair very weird looking. In fact, it was a cockfighting chair where the referee sat on during cockfighting. Apparently a cockfighting referee gave this chair to John Wesley after hearing his sermon one day and knowing that John Wesley was in need of a chair. At least it was a cockfighting referee not a doctor, i don't suppose wheelchair is as comfortable as that. This was one of John Wesley's personal favourite portrait of himself. He purposely did not put on the wig as he thought that the wig was too troublesome and costly to maintain. This interesting gadget could generate electricity charges that John Wesley used to cure depression by 'shocking' the victim. Apparently he used it to cure other 'illnesses' as well. A portrait of John Fletcher
This used to be a prayer room for John Wesley The preacher's room A ROTA for preaching. Unfortunately we have to cut short the tour due to an appointment. But i will definitely come back again for the museum and the tomb of John Wesley.
Mel, Ives, Sok and I met up at Waterloo Station this morning to embark on our trip to Windsor Castle. Was pleasantly surprised to know that each of us only needed to pay 13.90 pounds for the return train tickets with the admission ticket of the Windsor Castle (the group deal). For your info, the normal student rate for the castle itself is 13 pounds. So we spent close to an hour playing bridge on the train all the way until Windsor and Eton station.
Security was tight. It was almost close to clearing customs in the airport. At the beginning of the trip, we were each given an audio gadget to educate us on the various locations of the castle compound. After taking some photographs at the entrance, we made our way to see the changing of guards.
Change of guards
Ives and I agreed it was a pretty terrible changing of guards. I reckon any recruits in BMT can do a better job than them. Steps are not together, some messy confusion in between, i seriously didn't know what they were doing at all. With such standard, i will feel very unsafe as a member of the Royal Family. Enough of that...
St George's Chapel was gorgeous. However, although it was magnificent in terms of architecture, it seemed devoid of life. It's like a shell that is hollow. To me, its just a building with nice ornaments, great splendour and nothing more. As i walked pass the tombs of the Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, I couldn't help but think if Christianity to them is just a 'royal ritual' or a real life-changing spiritual phenomenon.
Next, we visited Queen Mary's Dollhouse and i have to admit the dollhouse was really exquisite. But i couldn't help but think the money pumped into making such useless white-elephantish dollhouse could be used to feed how many millions of African children who are starving every day. Seriously, you can't play with it or touch it and it's just there for people to look. That's so DUH!!
Then we moved on to the state apartment showing various rooms of the Queen. I was most intrigued by the great hall where the plagues of the emblems of various peoploe of the Order of the Garter was found. The white ones depict knights who has committed crimes and had their knighthood stripped off, and they remained there to serve as a reminder for the rest of the knights in the Order. I asked a warden how they came up with a coat of arm for the different knights of the Order. It was interesting to know that the coat of arm was designed in this College (can't remember the name) in accordance to the name or the royalty genealogy of the person. And i got to know that Prince William is the 1000th recipient of this Order and the Queen will be inaugurating the ceremony in June. I wonder how Prince William can get the Garter but i guess its more of a matter of Sovereign choice than personal contributions to the society. For those interested to know what is the Order of the Garter, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Garter
I think its so stressful to be in the Royal Family... i'm glad i'm not in it. tsk tsk
The Round Tower - out of bounds Where the Queen lives
The Crooked House of Windsor Statue of Queen Victoria
A pity that no photography is allowed in the state room and chapel so i couldn't show you guys any scenes from the inside.
Evening was spent at Yongxin's place for the Easterner's Fellowship. Was pleasantly surprised to find a park with an exercise corner at island gardens. Woohoo...my first pull-ups in don't know how many months man... haha... oh right... tmr is Bunhill Fields day!!
Why are there so many Songs about rainbows And what's on the other side Rainbow's are visions They're only illusions And rainbows have nothing to hide So we've been told and some chose to Believe it But I know they're wrong wait and see
Someday we'll find it The Rainbow Connection The lovers, the dreamers and me
Who said that every wish Would be heard and answered When wished on the morning star Somebody thought of that And someone believed it And look what it's done so far What's so amazing That keeps us star gazing What so we think we might see
Someday we'll find it That Rainbow Connection The lovers the dreamers and me
Have you been half asleep And have you heard voices I've heard them calling my name Are these the sweet sounds that called The young sailors I think they're one and the same I've heard it too many times to ignore it There's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it The Rainbow Connection The lovers, the dreamers and me
Alright, i do have to admit this is a pretty random post. I think its more of like trying out my camera phone. Its only after 3 months of using my phone that i realise it can work as a camera. Oh gee.. that is so embarassing. Just out of boredom, i've decided to take some photo depicting my usual Sunday routine. =)
I always have to walk through the tunnel to get to London bridge (i mean the literal bridge) and it always stinks of alcohol, puke, garbage etc etc etc. I do dread this part of the journey the most. London bridge! Yeah... on my way to St Helen's for the 1030 service. at Bishopsgate Tadah! St Helen's! Waiting for the service to start And after that, i will take a tube to Hammersmith Broadway Shopping Centre to eat my McDonald's before service at CCiL. cross junction tadah! waiting for service to start! After that will be Bible studies till evening. Then some of us brothers n sisters with the pastors will have dinner together. Well, yesterday was somewhat like a pretty special occasion as Oriental City in Colindale will be closing down in May. So we went there for our dinner. And i had my KHAO SOI!! OOOOOHHH. Of cos you can't compare it to the ones in thailand but its good enough for some nostalgic satisfaction. Next, pastor vincent dropped me off at Kilburn to take the Jubilee line back home. I really do think Sunday is my busiest day of the week. hee hee hee
Thousands of London Underground workers are to stage a two-day strike in a row linked to the collapse of maintenance giant Metronet, it was announced today.
The Rail Maritime & Transport union said the walkout on 28 and 29 April will cripple Tube services, causing travel chaos for millions of commuters and other passengers.
The strike was called after the union said it failed to receive written guarantees on outsourcing, pensions and travel facilities of 2,500 workers formerly employed by Metronet.
Oh man... what's new? Better make sure i shelve all my going out plans for that 2 days. *sigh*
After staying in Central London for so long, it's always nice to go to outer London to see how it is like. When Carol asked me out to go to Richmond Hill, i agreed immediately for unlike my NUS mates who are mugging furiously, i'm slacking like nobody's business spending most of my time planning for tours, gymming, reading, improving my cooking skills, going out etc. Oh did i mention i only have one exam? erm... oh yah my holidays kind of started from Good Friday all the way till let me see... 21 May? [i know i'm gonna get killed for that statement HAHAHA]
Richmond Hill in Richmond, London, has the only view in England to be protected by an Act of Parliament - the Richmond, Ham and Petersham Open Spaces Act passed in 1902 - to protect the land on and below Richmond Hill and preserve the view from the hill. Immortalised in paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds and J.M.W. Turner, it was described by Sir Walter Scott as "an unrivalled landscape".
"The view from Richmond Hill is, by universal consent, the finest within a few miles of London. Indeed, of its kind, it is difficult to surpass anywhere."
— from The Queen’s London
-> from a not so reliable source Wikipedia
Of cos, after being baptised in the gorgeous magnificent view of Wales, this Richmond Hill is like an ikan bilis swimming beside a pomfret (not that exaggerated to use a whale in this case). However, compared to the rest of London, it is still a really nice historical town filled with greenery beside River Thames. Walking beside the river A swan
Carol on Richmond Hill
And after that, it was dinner at Carol's house. That's jasmine the chef flaunting her culinary skills. Tadah... i love home-cooked food. Oh man wait till xiaosheng sees this.... *evil laughter*
I just came back from Wales last night marking the end of my most wonderful period of time in London. It was indeed a foretaste of heaven delight. To spend days sharing and praying with brothers, listening to messages delivered by godly preachers like Don Carson, Terry Virgo and John Piper, praising and worshipping God from day to night, i would love to fly over to attend this event every year. Will be posting more pics up soon
I woke up in the morning seeing some flakey thing outside my window. Oh my goodness it snowed. The roofs of the buildings and cars were covered with white snow. London?? Snowing?? April?? That's so unheard of. Oh well, the mess at T5 is more predictable than this.
A bunch of us went to eat at Gourmet Chinese Buffet Restaurant after church service. It was really good and a pretty good deal for 8.50 pounds. Haven't gorged myself for a very long time hee hee. Oh well, will be going for New Word Alive Event at Pwllheli the whole of next week. Will be absent till i come back. tata
After fellowship, a group of us went down to Royal Albert Hall for Prom Praise 2008. What exactly is Prom Praise many will ask...
"It is a mixture of church service and concert: blending hymns and worship music with an orchestral backing alongside selections of secular music. Singers and choirs, as well as solo musicians provide contributions to the events to create an atmosphere of celebration at each Prom Praise concert."
It was an amazing experience. To me, the highlight of the evening was when the organist played the organ to "And can it be" with the whole Royal Albert Hall thundering with voices of praises to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Keith and Kristyn Getty sitting at the circle All Souls Orchestra conducted by Noel Tredinnick A short snippet of 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God (Psalm 46)'
Blest is the land whose Sovereign Lord is God the everlasting. Who seek His will in one accord, who lift their voice in praising. The one true God alone, He watches o'er His own. His liberty secure, His justice true and sure, His kingdom ours forever.
The train ride to Porthmadog was indeed beautiful. The train passed by the coastal beaches, the estuaries, castle ruins, green pastures, mountain ridges etc. After 6 hours on the train, i finally arrived at Porthmadog train station. From the station, i took bus S97 to Nant Gwynant.
The journey on S97 was like a roller coaster ride. The bus meandered skilfully on the narrow mountainous route, close-shaving on-coming vehicles leaving my heart beating like a ticking bomb. The bus went on up and down the neverending road until the driver stopped the vehicle at this 鸟不生蛋的地方. There was a sign (pic below) of YHA at the entrance but i could not see any buildings in sight. So i took a walk up the road leading deep into the woodland. The building faces a lake [Llyn Gwynant] with the mountain ridges as a backdrop. It was just gorgeous. And the good thing (or bad thing) about the location was that there's no mobile phone reception at all. It was like totally cut off from the outside world - a great place for urban escapade.
A view of Llyn Gwynant from my room
Shared the room with 2 other hikers
The next morning, while waiting for Guofeng to arrive, i decided to explore a bit around the hostel. A shot taken from the hostel An interesting 'throne'
Guofeng arrived and we started the trek attempting to take a short cut to Watkin's Path. We ended up getting lost in the farmland. The path was practically non-existent and we were totally clueless how to get pass the fences and gates. In our futile pursuit of the shortcut, we ended up walking back to the main road to find our way to the start of Watkin's Path. The start of Watkin Path. There are altogether 6 possible routes to take to the summit of Snowdon. Watkin Path is the longest, hardest and yet offers the most spectacular view of the 6 possible routes. The path starts at Pont Bethania, Nant Gwynant about 3 miles north-east of Beddgelert, and is marked by a public footpath sign as shown in the below photo. We followed the metalled track until the path forks off to the left through an oak wood full of large rhododendron bushes. We passed through a gate and emerged into more open mountain country.
After passing through the gate in the mountain wall, we saw slabs of sloping rock on the left that were smoothed by the glacial action of the last Ice Age. THe deep scratches in the rock were caused by stones embedded in the glacial ice. Afon Cwmllan (below) was just spectacular.
The path passes by Plas Cwmllan, now derelict, which once housed the manager of the slate quarry. During the last war, the area was used by commandos training for D-Day. The house walls were still marked with bullet holes as you can see in the photo. The white veins running through the rocks are quartz We entered into some of the old South Snowdon slate works. There was a building on the left which was the barracks where the men used to sleep during the week, returning to their homes at weekends. There were lots of slate piles in the area.
The smoothening and deep scratches on the rocks We stopped at the quarry site to have our lunch which consisted of sandwiches and ribena. The path next was indeed pretty tiring to walk. It was practically zigzagging steeply to the ridge.
We arrived at Bwlch y Saethau (Pass of Arrows). It is said to be the battleground at which King Arthur was fatally wounded. Legend has it that Sir Bedivere carried his dying King to Llyn Llydaw, casting the sword Excalibur into Llyn Glaslyn on the way. Having placed Arthur on a barge to be taken away by the "fair maids of the mountains", Sir Bedivere climbed to a cave high in the crags of Y Lliwedd, where he and the Llanciau Eryri (Arthur's men) still sleep until their King should need them again. I was so tempted to dive down to Llyn Glaslyn to find the Excalibur hahaha. We were faced with the hardest part of the climb. Frankly speaking, i took a wrong turn and led us to the most treacherous part of the route. My original intention was to take a longer (more gentle) path up to the summit. It was only until both of us were halfway up the vertical steep loose scree slope that we realised we took the section that "should be left only to experienced mountain walkers with proper equipment". It was too late. We had no choice but to find our way up the the summit, scrambling with our four limbs.
A pic taken dangerously while scramblin on the scree slope
We finally reached the summit of Snowdon. It was really windy, misty and cold up there. The summit of Snowdon is said to be the tomb of Rhita Fawr, a giant who was killed by King Arthur, hence its name Yr Wyddfa or "burial place".
A seagull on the mountain..cool Triumphant grins =)
in deep thought on the mountain top
Unable to bear with the freezing cold, we decided to descend the mountain via Pyg Track staying over at Pen-y-pass YHA. Along the way we saw the ridge being covered with snow.
However, to my uttermost horror, i saw that Pyg Track was covered with snow too. And for those who has trekked on snow before, you should understand why i called it the horrors of horrors without crampons.
Being cautious with our every step... a slip and DOWN you will go
The steep downslope did not make things easier.
But we did managed to get pass the snow bit eventually. Thank God for His tremendous grace. We then reached Llyn Glaslyn, a lake that is a classic glacial feature 38 metres deep. Another legend claims that the "afanc", a dreadful and troublesome monster, is trapped here, having been dragged by oxen over the mountains from Betws y Coed. Cool ah?... =P
Gate to Pyg Track Admiring the valley at sunset
And we finally arrived at Pen y Pass car park with the sheep greeting us by grazing. And how can we not treat ourselves to a great dinner after the hike? We had pizza and Welsh lamb stew yum yum. A pic out of our room at Pen y Pass YHA Both of us were supposed to take a 1230 bus the next day to get to Porthmadog. We decided to spend the morning taking Miner's path to visit Llyn Llydaw. It was extremely foggy that morning and we were literally consumed in fog.
However, the fog started to clear away when we made a turn to Llyn Llydaw. The weather conditions in mountainous region indeed is unpredictable. Llyn Llydaw is a glacial lake that is 58 m deep. Legend has it that King Arthur disappeared here, carried away by the fair maids of the mountains. An old mine quarry site
Some remnants King Arthur where are you?? After immersing ourselves in the beauty of Llyn Llydaw, we made our way back to catch our bus. But we made a short visit to the ranger station aka visitor centre.
On bus S97 to porthmadog station I miss the countryside so so much.... sigh As we still have 2 hours of so to spare at Porthmadog, we decided to take a look around the town. Was surprised to know that it was a harbour. A 'pasar malam'
Parish church. I think one obeservation i've made was that i did not see any Africans during the trip. It reminded me of this journal article in which African's were often sort of excluded from the English countryscape. At the train station, we met this 92 year old man who kept talking to us. Frankly speaking, most of the time i could not understand what he was talking about. However, all i know was that he did talk about the history of the place. On train ride back
My 16-day Europe-camping trip was cancelled due to lack of numbers. The agency broke the news to me when i went down today to ask them for a letter and invoice for the application of visa to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Disappointed? Yeah a bit. But it just means that i might have to re-plan the whole Europe trip again. And this time round, i really might be backpacking alone. Pretty cool experience yet at the same time i hope i do not get stranded somewhere. I wonder if my parents will freak out if they know i'm going to travel alone. Hmmmm...
Unable to tolerate the amount of mass (and mess) on my head, i decided to go to a proper hair salon to have a haircut. The reason why i stress the word 'proper' is because i have since condemned all hair salons in chinatown. I went to Supercuts at Liverpool Street Station today and I really got a makeover. I hope you guys don't laugh at my new look. Seems like Guofeng will be the first one to witness my new image. Hahaha.
Pretty excited over tomorrow for Guofeng and I will be heading up to Wales (Snowdonia National Park) to scale the summit up Yr Wyddfa (1038m). I mean comparing this with my previous ascents of 4000 plus 5000 plus metres (like Kinabalu or Kilimanjaro etc) it is like comparing salmon fish to a great white shark, but the thought of hiking really perks me up tremendously. I sure do hope my knees can take it over the next 3 days to come. Alright don't say don't have, it is afterall the highest peak in Wales and highest peak in UK (excluding Scottish Highlands). tsk tsk
