Day 137 - When the girls came visiting

The girls wanted to see what my place is like. Hence, we called for another pot-luck gathering session at my place today!

Nice sunny day like yesterday, that I could walk around lup-sup without a coat when I picked them up at Kings Cross.

Photos courtesy of Esther.

Ming Li cutting up vegetables for fried rice.

They've done most of the cooking back at their place already. Hence the relax look.

Ziwei heating and tossing her Jap curry pasta.

Carbo overload session. Hence the fear.

Aiyah just eat and be happy lah.

The spread - Laksa fried rice by a few of us, Jap Curry Pasta by Ziwei, Scotch Egg by Sainsbury and baked by Janelle, Shepard's Pie by Janelle and Ying Hong (under Janelle's guidiance of course), stuffed omelette by aku. Ying Hong's cooking debute woah!

What's left? Nothing!

Day 136 - Dorset Roadtrip

Planned for this trip since a few weeks back - our first and only roadtrip. It was out of necessity as

1. No trains to the Dorset landmarks
2. Buses from London to the nearest towns of the landmarks leaves only once a day at 6pm. That means waste money for accommodation
3. Attractions are far apart, at least 8 km away. Buses don't stop directly near the attractions, and require you to change buses at several towns to get to the nearest stop. Doesn't help that the bus frequency is lousy, so you might spend one whole day just waiting and changing bus.
4. Long distance between attractions mean that you have to hike like almost one whole day from one coastal landmark to another. And there are like 4-5 landmarks to see.

So yes, by going on a road trip, we would only pay 1/5 of the amount required.

We reported at Hertz Victoria Coach Station to pick up the car. Ming Li and I have finished our exams, Esther and Janelle needed a break in between exams, and Ying hong has no exams! Heather have another paper while Ziwei initially couldn't make it, but when she later could, we had already booked a car that is only enough to accommodate the 5 of us. But it turns out we were given a larger car as they have run out of the one we booked. If we have known, we would have gotten Ziwei along.

It's bank holiday weekend, so everyone is leaving London too. They don't call it jams here. Its called "Queues"

Esther, our main driver. Who says woman can't drive? Her driving is really smooth!

The navigation system directed us to cross the Swanage Harbour with what seems like a bridge on the map. Turns out is this vehicle ferry. We cut queue unknowingly (or as the road put it, "infiltration"). It was so smooth, that we didn't know the ferry was moving until it is time to disembark.

Stop 1: Old Harry's Rock and Wife

After a long 4 hours drive and wait in the queue, we've finally arrived. We were tipped off online to park near the place instead of paying £8 to park at the National Trust carpark.

Anyway, anyone who mugged Marrionne Chiong (refer to post on Seven Sisters) would have heard of Old Harry's Rock and Wife.

At the coast

Identify the coastal feature. (Lesson material collection galore!)

Notch! Notch! Notch!

Aren't Old Harry and his Wife, but I think this is pretty pretty too!

Preparing for a lunch picnic. Guess where the mat is from? Singapore Day.

The self prepared spread!

Old Harry, and his wife, and possible would be WIVES and a slave maybe.

Old Harry is the big one in the middle of the picture, while his wife is the smaller stack further away.

An arch should be produced in a century or two. That means Old Harry will khang khang?

Yes the coast is nice, but so are the wild flowers.

Old Harry got a lot of choices hor

Only Ming Li was brave enough to walk to the end of the really narrow path.

Stop 2: Lulworth's Cove

One of the more symmetrical coves in the world. Looks really pretty on the Internet.......

but like nothing much up close leh

white pebbles

Guess its beauty shows from afar, or even in aerial photos like those on the internet.

But we found this really pretty but less noticed formation called "stairwell"

Really interesting. Spotted a few fossil shells as well.

Stop 3: Durdle's Door

Actually can walk from the carpark at Lulworth's cove one, but since the carpark ticket at Lulworth's Cove is valid for the carpark here, might as well drive there instead of walking 4 km lor.

It's quite a steep path down......

Nice Bay

Durdle's Door! Ok, now turn to Marrionne Chong Page......

Obligatory touristy shot.

I tried knock knocking on Durdle's Door, but no reply. Hence this expression.

Stop 4: Chesil Beach

By the time we were done with Durdle's Door, it was around 6pm. It takes about 3-4 Hours to drive back to London. Since the sun set at 9pm, and the highways at this part of UK don't really have street lamps, we were wondering if we should proceed to Chesil Beach, which is about 20km away. But Janelle said, since we're here, might as well lah! And there we are, off to one of the longest tombolo in the world (about 16km. measured using Google Earth during my lessons)

And we were rewarded with a really beautiful sight of Chesil Beach from Portland

Boy we were happy

"Eh is the photo taken?" "taken liao I think. I thought I heard the click sound"

I'm just amazed by it. I've taught about it, talked about it, and finally see it with my own eyes. Can I bring students here one day? Funding please?

It's 720pm

Thought they burn kim zua here in UK also.

The lovely vehicle that served us really well.

The beach/tombolo is actually quite high.

Esther back in the driver's seat, after Janelle took over from Old Harry's Rock

And why didn't we get lost? £14 for the Never-Lost Navigation system! But it can be a bit slow within the city lah. As in ask you to turn left 2 junctions later, but actually referring to the junction just in front. But oh well. At least better than maps.

And so we made the long drive back to London. Reached about 11pm. Luckily no jams. I mean queues.

Day 132 - Seven Sisters with 4 other sisters

Back in my secondary school days where we were the last batch NOT to have the combined humanities crap, the only humanities subject I took was Geography. Yes, pure, untainted, and not-an-elective Geography.

Those who were part of this good-old-days would remember mugging the geography bibles by Marianne Chong. The green one for human, the light blue one for physical. For those who are doing O'levels now, don't bother looking for these old books. Even though it features some similar topics like "Coasts", "Rivers", "natural vegetation", "Development", the focus is at least 50% different from your current syllabus.

Well when I'm so sick of mugging this book, I would turn to the centre fold where there are nice beautiful coloured pictures. And one that never fails to be stuck to our head is the White cliffs of Seven Sisters in Sussex, England.

So since we are here, why not visit that place?

That's what we did.

I wanted to celebrate the end of exams, Janelle and Esther wanted a break before their next paper in June, Ying Hong and Ziwei needed a break from essay writing, Ming Li wanted to join but decided to bring her parents around, Heather had a paper to mug for.

So just the 5 of us, 1 brother, 4 sisters, to 7 sisters, reporting at Victoria Coach Station at 7.30am. Ying Hong barely made it in time for the bus. If not, all 4 sisters can't go as the tickets were with her!

Step 1: Take a bus to Brighton. Yes there are much faster alternatives and train routs, but given Fun Fare offers of £6 for a return trip, we're taking an extra hour of travelling time to Brighton. For some reason, our driver is in a mood to crap a lot. I emphasise A LOT!

Brighton on a much nicer weather. Although there aren't any gloomy clouds like when I was here for the field trip, it still looks kinda ugly to me. :P

Step 2: Take a bus(No. 12 if I remember correctly) to the Seven Sisters country park entrance. It takes about an hour. The TV screen there aren't no TV mobile - it shows what is captured by the CCTV in the bus. Why would I want to know?

In case of emergency, open the flap and jump down. Will I survive?

Yup, we are there in time for the low tide!

The walk towards the cliffs. Janelle is amazed

Concrete path somemore!

A channelised river in the country park.

Meander, meander, meander

It's spring. All the wild flowers blooming.

The lake that is left behind after the river got channelised. See how things are growing in it?

Wind tortured trees. The wind was so strong, birds who attempted to fly against it are stuck in the same position, cursing and swearing against the wind.

Sitting on the mat (kindly provided during Singapore Day), about to start our lunch.

There it is, the beautiful Seven Sisters cliffs.

Stupid strong wind.

Rock that has been fed on or burrowed. See, I got pay attention during my "Restoration and Management of Freshwater Ecosystem" lessons.

My attempt to show how small the notch is by using my handphone. Bad example.

Then I decided to use a penny for scale purposes. But how will my future students know the size of a penny?

Decided to stand there instead. :P

More notches with rocks inside. So what erosional process is involved?

On the cliffs. We were surprised that there weren't any barriers.

We saw loads of loose limestone lying around, and people who have formed words with it. Hence the crazy idea to form.....

THIS!

"Eh, must send this to International Relations Office!"

What we feel sometimes, especially when deadlines collide. (Just for laughs!)

The other "sisters"

Doing a Nature Wee Tribute.

Act 'seh' only.

It's time to go

This abandoned estuary looks like it's from some textbooks.

Black sheep?

We took the bus back to Brighton. Had an hour or so before our bus back to London.

At the old school pier. The weather is really bright.

Future lesson material. Guess if I'm at the updrift or downdrift portion of the beach?

The ugly Summer Pavilion - A result of the orientalistic imagination of some royalties in the 19th Century, mish-mashing everything he thought to be Indian.