Beijing Olympics on Stadium Astro

Omg I just had to include this in my entry. Maybe it's the Olympic craze going on now, or maybe it's my love of Transformers, or even the fact that Singapore's gonna get an Olympic medal after a long wait, but I thought this advertisement was really cool!

HOSTUK Finale - A town gathering, caravans and a dash of ducks in Lyme (27 Apr 08)

Sunday morning came and the Westheads were headed to the church. Brian and Julia were the lead guitarist and singer and so they had to arrive earlier to set up the musical instruments. Besides, they just came back from their holiday, so they were really eager to meet up with the other townsfolk. I was kinda surprised that Julia told us that we did not have to come along if we were uncomfortable attending church service. She did relate a bit of unpleasant incidents where previous students who home-stayed felt they were obliged to attend church. However, I was pretty cool about it (even if I am a bit atheist) and wanted to see for myself what church service was like over here. My prior knowledge of church only extended to City Harvest, which I must say I wasn't really too excited...but that was in the past...

Hope Revival Church, a short 5 min drive from the Westhead's residence

A mini-bar counter to serve drinks and snacks...it's really a small place actually

And there's the Westheads setting up their musical instruments...way to go!!

Lydia having a bit of fun with her friend as the adults prepared

The whole session took about 2 hours, with Brian and Julia taking the lead in the worship service belting out Christian songs. I must say their display of their musical talents was amazing. After the event ended, everybody present gathered together and Ben and I mingled with the townsfolk as if we were part of the community.

There was a group of youngsters aged 8 to 16 who were curious of the 2 new faces present. There was Ian who came along and entertained the children with his "Smiling Queen on a pound note" trick, which I responded by producing a Singapore dollar note so that he could make Yusof Ishak smile too! :p

We also saw Simon, Jane and some of the young adults whom we hung out with the previous day at the BBQ. The youths and adults were more involved in community work, which were showcased at their booth, and most touching was their work involved in supporting an orphanage in Uganda.

And there were of course the old folks who came forward to greet us. There was even an aged couple who just returned from Singapore while all the while praising the Marina Mandarin hotel...lol!! And of course the friendliness of Singaporeans. :)

As a whole, I really felt that the townsfolk are very strong as a community and their faith keeps them together. It's as if it was some gathering where people from all walks of life got together, regardless of their background, age and differences.

We bade the townsfolk farewell and headed back where Julia fixed lunch for us. And over lunch, we discussed things about the Christian faith in Singapore (I was so glad Ben was around for this cos he's much much more knowledgable about it than I am) and other things like religious practices in Singapore. (something which I have a bit more knowledge about at least....haha :p)

Our yummy lunch with sausages, carrots, and Yorkshire pudding!!

This is the mini-me size version of Yorkshire pudding...the authentic one is actually really huge, about that of a plate....but I had that at Toby Carvery, so it was really interesting to see mini sizes of it! :)

And when the meat gravy sauce goes over it...absolutely fabulous!!! :p

Brian then introduced us to his caravan, parked in his backyard, where the Westheads use it for their road trip. It's something which he is very proud of, and it's according to Julia, something like "a home away from home". I must admit it's the first time I stepped into a caravan. And the thought of travelling in it sounds quite cool!

Foldable sleeping quarters and a kitchen counter

Brian then took us to Lyme Park, a large and famous park nearby. It was used as one of the site locations for the shooting of the drama version of Pride and Prejudice. (Hmm....not really too excited about this, bet it would interest the literature arts people who like Jane Austen novels) Anw it was a 10 min drive there.....where along the way.....caught this interesting sight....

Tada! See the banner? According to Brian, when there's an important birthday (like a 18th or 21st), the relatives or friends of the birthday boy/girl will decorate and hang out a banner for everybody in town to see....sometimes well wishes are written on it...as well as probably an invitation to a party....haha....so this corner of the street is something like a noticeboard! Well I wish that I had such a banner too!! LOL :p

Another sight that greeted us upon entry to Lyme Park, an 18th century hunting lodge by the kings where they used to hunt deer here

A closer look

Lyme Park is also known for having a deer park where heards of deer roam....but we did not get to see any on that day...


The Lyme Hall, an Elizabethan manor house, which is another highlight of the park





A group photo taken...but we seemed to have forgotten somebody....

Oh it's actually Millie!!

Into the Lyme Courtyard


Brian then took us to another route into the muddy terrain....

Where we caught the south front of Lyme Hall along the waterfront




We then headed down to the lake where something caught Lydia's attention...all this while it seems like we are the ones following her arnd in the park....lol..

So what could it be that caught her attention?

THIS!!!!

Hmm......ducks......



Lydia was really curious so she went up.....

Stared........

And forced the poor duck into the water!! LOL

This lady was nice enough to give Lydia bread to feed the ducks

Which she happily did so....

An obviously excited Lydia ignoring us as she chased after ducks and feeding them...:p

And soon it was time for us to leave. We had to catch the train in the late evening and so Brian drove us back, but of course not forgetting to take a group photo with the Westheads!

And so we were back to where it all began.....

A small parting gift for Lydia...I gave keychains from Singapore to each member of the Westheads, but Lydia got the pink Merlion one cos it's her favourite colour!

In short, what a great weekend with our wonderful and hospitable hosts! Really have to thank them for the great experiences we had!

For more pics, go http://picasaweb.google.com/eicko2000/NewMills

Mexican Fiesta!

Celebrated Dad's birthday at Triple 3 Restaurant at Mandarin Hotel. Our usual place of eating every year, and it's always international buffet. However, this yr was a bit different. The theme was Mexican Fiesta so it was mainly Mexican food. Great delights such as tacos, fajitas, guacamole and mixed with green and red salsa sauce, mixed with the usual international cuisine and of course....the desserts!! Lots of oven-baked chicken, mussels and meat too. And the weirdest I have tasted.....oven-baked chicken with tomato and chocolate sauce....yep...chocolate sauce...unbelievable....it's called Pollo En Chocolate Sauce by the Mexicans :p

Yay!! Have always enjoyed the desserts section in Triple 3

Jellies in little glasses and chocs...there's this really nice green tea choc

Chocolate con Churros present in the desserts section!! Had those in Spain and loved it. Although it was cinnamon flavoured this time without the chocolate, the problem was easily solved from the nearby chocolate fondue...keke

Complimentary Mexican beer from the restaurant....Sol beer is rather refreshing and light with no heavy aftertaste :)

HOSTUK Part II - Mills and a bit of chilling with the local youths (26 Apr 08)

An awkward start to the weekend morning...me and Ben "concussed" till the late morning....yet our hosts were nice enough to let us sleep in....which made us feel damn paiseh...oops...:p

Our day started off with Brian taking us to the Heritage Centre in New Mills first...also a good excuse to take Millie out according to Brian...lol...

The road leading down towards the town centre...I mentioned that the house was situated upon the slopes...

Old brick houses that have been around for some time in New Mills

An overview of Torr Vale Mill

The River Goyt running through New Mills

The tracks and railway line where we first arrived and set foot upon New Mills. These tracks go way back since New Mills used to be an important industrial town producing cotton, prints, paper and cloth. It's known as the Hope Valley Line.

A model depicting New Mills in the 18th to 19th century, with a bit of audio history in the background...some of the mills were burnt down and relocated before

Haha...drunkard's reform....what a story..

Too much drinking kills!! HH...are u looking at this?! :p

As you have noticed, New Mills seems like a place to drink..(well actually the whole of UK is!!), but being a former industrial town, drinking was and still is a favourite past-time for the workers...

Familiar sight? Well it's actually the black and white photo of the Fox Inn where we drank at the previous night!! Amazed that the exterior has not changed much...

Brian explained to us that fires have ravaged the Torr Vale Mill and that there has been debate within the town as to pulling the now-defunct mill down or to preserve and restore it...though I personally feel that they should keep it...

The Heritage Centre was a good start to introduce us to the town, and we continued further downhill

Group photo with Brian, Ben, Millie and myself. The guy taking the photo had no idea how to use my camera and first pointed it at himself!!

Remains of the Torr Mill that was burnt down in 1838

Building of a dam to harness the energy from the currents of the Goyt River...even Brian was surprised at the project that he started whipping out his camera too!!


Cute dog? Well...it almost came to blows with Millie...haha...after Millie struck a very aggressive stance....never under-estimate its size sia...



Millie's having loads of fun being let loose here...happily jumped into the River Goyt at one point...

The Millennium Walkway that was opened...well...in 2000 (duh!)....links the park back to the main street up



See the powerful flow of the River Goyt? No wonder they want to use hydro- energy here...









Approaching the town centre...



The Town Hall in New Mills



Brian then took us a vantage point where we could catch a great view of New Mills and the surrounding area, mainly the Peak District...





Brian then led us to a shortcut back to his house...squeezing uphill through the alleyways....

Bingo!! And finally we reached back!!


The Westheads fixing lunch for us...the other girl is Lydia's friend who joined us for lunch too..

More conversation ensued during lunch. This time, we talked about youths in general, and Brian was mentioning about the growing problems of British youths. Cases like knife stabbing and drunkardness are becoming increasingly common. (Sure to have some of these cases in the daily tabloids everyday...) Another instance that surprised Ben and me was also Sasha's behaviour towards her parents in our presence. She was slightly rebellious and openly 頂嘴. Well, I mean we all have our moments when we do that to our parents too, but what was surprisingly is that it was done in the presence of guests, which kinda made the situation a bit awkward. Ben and I could only smile sheepishly while Brian and Julia lamented on the problems of raising children.

And speaking of youths, Julia introduced us to a couple of them in the neighbourhood and we got to hang out with them for the rest of the day. It was one of the guy's birthday, and we were invited to join them. "What could be more British than learning how to play cricket" she said....and so we were whisked to High Lea Park for a bit of good ol' cricket batting...

In a nutshell, cricket = somebody throwing the ball and it has to bounce on the floor once b4 the guy from the opposing team with the wicket (the batsman) whacks it. Then the other players try to catch the ball to kick the batsman out and gain control of the wicket, while the batsman runs to some place to score his team a point.....hmm....or at least that was what I could catch from the brief 5 min crash course to cricket....lol

A brief demonstration of the game

The batsman...erm....batswoman...holding the wicket...oh man...I seriously forgot their names liaoz...but kinda remembered a bit about them especially after chatting with them....the gal and guy (couple 1) here are engaged to each other and will marry after the girl graduates from med school...the bespectacled guy in the video trying to catch the ball is Bill, who's also the birthday boy.

And here's Jack tossing the ball...he's the most atheletic of everyone present....eh...me and Ben's fitness just can't cut it!! The other girl has quite an interesting personality cos she's quieter and wasn't too keen on playing cricket (the other guys and espeically the other girl had to drag her to play), and she shows interest in sharks and shark attacks....hmmm....so let''s call her the Shark Girl....lol


Me and Ben joined in as batters and fielders, and it wasn't long until we had to remove our jackets cos it was hot running even when the temp. was about 14 deg Celsius!!

And here's the interesting part, as we were playing halfway, there was this other group of youths nearby who was really rowdy and obviously drunk. (kinda early to drink in the day eh?) So one of them decided to come over and make trouble. Was asking to hold the bat and walking up to the batter to scare us. Kinda pissed us all off...although I was really amused to see this....it's like seeing the good side and bad side of British youths...On one hand, there's our group who's having good clean fun and on the other it's a bunch of drunken noisy ppl...2 sides of the coin

And then finally this guy came forward and attempted to snatch our yellow bin, only to be tackled and taken down by Ben "rugby" style!!! (Dun play play ah...my roomie is a rugby coach ok....hahaha) OMG....Ben actually saved the day!! The guy limped off feeling damn paiseh.....what a pity I did not film it down....the scene was absolutely hilarious!!!

The bad guys....from a distance...defeated and retreated :p

Our cricket session ended with me getting the lowest score....a single digit number whereas Jack had the highest....100 something points...lol....hmm.....I am seriously not cut out for batting...keep missing the ball...hahaha..

Our next location was the BBQ at Simon's and Jane's house. The BBQ being in honour of the birthday boy, and it's also a get together session for these pals who have not seen each other for some time...busy with school, work and many other stuff

The mini-car in front of Simon's house...with alot of chopped wood..quite a unique sight that first greeted us

Simon and Jane on the right waiting for the pit to heat up...and there's the gal from Couple 1. Oh...btw...Simon and Jane are engaged too, so I guess that makes Couple 2....lol..

Simon's dogs...he owns a pair of really fierce and noisy...terriers?! Hmm...not too sure of the breed of dog...but they get much more tongue slurping and crotch sniffing than Millie....hmmmmm...but the best way is to...again tickle their undersides to conquer and win them over!! :p

The living room, where we survived on XBox for the night!!

The cosy fireplace....the chopped wood outside is put to good use over here, a very old way of heating up the house...

Food being prepared....meat meat and more meat!!! To make burgers and hot dogs of course!!

And here's Simon's dogs up close...

A BBQ without our usual food like satay, crabstick, marshmellow, chicken, potatoes...but still yummy!

Simon and Jane and Shark Girl

And another group that joined us. The 2 on the left is Couple 3! Also getting married soon! While the guy's quite a crappy and tok cock person...haha

And here's birthday boy and Couple 1...keke

We chilled over booze and burgers. Then another thing happened which amused us. The children who lived next door over the wooden fence started being mischievious and devilish by throwing rocks over and occasionally using their camera handphone to peek over the fence!! The rock landed a short distance from the tok cock guy's crotch!! (Hmm...what's this about crotches again? Lol..) Simon went over to the neighbours to lecture them and after a while, they came over with their parents to apologise....wow....talk about really naughty children....

As night came, we retired to the house for XBox and played racing and shooting games. My thoughts: the whole day was really like being in a chalet, with a bit of fun and random occurrences!! Other thoughts that struck me was how young these ppl are marrying, something which is different in Singapore. Just today, I have already met 3 couples who are like in their early 20s, yet are already preparing for a future together. The theme for the day was really about the British youths, where I got to see good ordinary youths having fun, who aren't really much different from us (think chalets, BBQ, XBox, and a bit of sports), and of course the bad youths.

Another eye-opener in just one day. Up next is the finale, coming soon!