Oslo 2014 - Frozen Everything

When ppl ask me about my Oslo trip, I usually talk about (in this order) jumping on frozen puddles, the meteors, and the frozen grass. Not your typical city trip [honestly, there's not much in the city - it's a ghost town at times], but I learnt the value of self-entertainment on top of the importance of good travel company xD.

On the weekend of 13th-14th Dec, a few of us headed up North into frigid weather. The first day started v early - meeting time 0430. [I've since had an even crazier experience, wait for the post ;)] Cheap flights usually depart at weird hours, hence the need to get up at even weirder hours. At least there's chance to sleep on the plane/train/bus shuttling from place to place.

Flight/train ride was uneventful. Fast forward to Oslo city centre, where our first stop was the Viking Museum. While not v large, the museum still had pretty cool exhibits. All those huge ancient viking ships were feats of engineering in their own right, esp since they didn't have machines and such to help out back in the day. Really takes hand-made to a whole new level. Even the smaller tools, though rusted and crude, looked functional and sensible.

[Side note: Norwegians can speak English well and are damn good looking (based on the nice bus driver who let us know where to get off!)]

The real adventure came after that. Heading back to the city centre, we deviated from the pavements (a good 6km walk) in favour of a short cut. This short cut set us on a direct line to the city centre through a massive field of frozen grass (and some trees). My cheap boots were no match for the slippery terrain and it was quite scary - small slopes (~0.5m high) = potential ankle sprains. Lucky I brought gloves man, coz I had to brace myself a few times. At points in time we met fences, and though these were easy enough to cross (heng ah if not need to turn back!), it meant we were trespassing. So we shut off the assistive lights and carried on under the moonlight. We got out ok in the end, but somewhere in this frozen field, I lost my oyster card T.T which I'd just topped up that same morning (with £10!!!!) T.T What to do, let it go~ At least we got a nice view of the city along the way, and the shimmering grass was pretty, although I really wanted to thaw my feet after that.

You don't realise how numb your feet are getting as you admire the view.

After that, we walked around looking for good affordable food and ended up in macs coz we were too hungry or just didn't care anymore. [Singaporeans dun complain, overseas macs are damn ex and you have to pay for extra sauces.] Although it'd been dark for quite some time, the night was actually still young and we went hunting for a good spot to view the Geminid meteors. There was time to spare, so we went to some sculpture park (Europeans really like their nude sculptures) and took some cool long exposure shots.

Photo credits: Bingjie

Then, we decided that that park was too bright and went somewhere else. Then, we discovered a trip highlight - a frozen water feature. From testing our weights on the ice we proceeded to stamping on it and got some kind of childish joy from seeing water seep/burst through the broken surface. Never see before of course excited la. No judgments k, it was fun :) 

Funny reflection = frozen surface = throw sticks and stones to confirm

And finally, the best moment of the night - the meteors! Well, they weren't showering like rain (yet), and so we entertained ourselves for quite a while finding constellations. Funny enough, coz I'd never been interested in astronomical stuff. Must've been the post-Interstellar craze haha. When I caught my first meteor, it was magical... But not all of us caught it - I just happened to be staring at the correct portion of sky. It was gone in a second and the sky extends past the peripheral vision, so we stayed for more! I managed to catch about 6 in the end, which I was quite happy with. Another friend told me she caught over 15 from 1-2am at a darker place :O We retired at around 11pm, prying our frozen selves from the park benches with necks aching from staring directly upwards. No pictures although I did try - coz I possess neither a super camera or lightning reflexes. Just contented to watch. It's amazing how exciting those fleeting moments were, and how pieces of rock hurtling through space could make one feel happy.

I swear there were stars.

Next day we struggled to wake. The plan was to catch the sunrise (at a v "worth-it" time of 9am). While we made the time in the end at the harbour, that plan fell through thanks to the clouds. Wondered around a war exhibit and stuffed a member of our group into a canon xD. I don't really rmb what happened from there... except that we were pretty excited to see ppl again. Oh yea and we found more frozen puddles! One of them had mud inside and it's not difficult to imagine the consequence of jumping on it hahaha.

Immense grey view in place of sunrise.

Our favourite pastime - the dirty version.

That was also the day we got really good food. Our targeted eating place had actually closed down months before (and the tourist website wasn't updated -.-) so we diverted to a nearby pub. I don't really know how to do justice to the awesomeness of the food, but I know that even without the cold and tiredness, it would've been a fantastic meal. It wasn't cheap (worked out to be over S$40 per person D:), but at least we managed to have one v good meal in Oslo, if not we'd have eaten macs for nothing lol.

Being Asian, although this wasn't all the food.

Back in the city, we stumbled into an xmas market, where we finished half a plate of lefse samples (we did buy some in the end), sampled a large variety of jams which prob had a thousand servings of saliva in them, and ran afoul of some cheese. I unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) didn't get to try the super weird cheese. My friends had to douse the flavour with chocolate.

Running out of time by then, we took a quick stop at the Royal Palace before fast-marching back to the train station to catch the train back to the airport. And that's it.

While editing the photos for this post, I was playing around with the colour saturation. In the end I decided not to be overhanded, coz the true colour of Oslo (at least when I was there) was grey. The city is really not the most lively of places, but self-entertainment can save the day. I still can't forget the frozen ponds/puddles. See, being a suaku isn't all too bad - there's some innocent fun to be had :)

Been busy writing my internship report which I kinda should've done ages ago. So the many things I've been bursting to share (Oslo, Spain & Portugal) will have to wait. Now, this is not ideal coz you lose the enthusiasm to write about things long past, no matter how exhilarating they were in their time. Which explains why I'm struggling to write a report about the internship I enjoyed so much.

I just thought I'd put a little note out.

Weekend of beautiful weather - LUBE & Cambridge

I was jio-ed to two different activities (incidentally by the same person) over the final weekend of November. Committing to these meant studying only the nights before for two tests on the following mon and tues, but by then I'd alr had one of my most enjoyable weekends since coming to London. Therefore, special thanks to Denise and also the UMC style of just go only - no regrets man!

I really like this picture hahaha.

Quite aptly, the first event was the LUBE (London University Bouldering Event) round on Saturday, 29th November. [Skip down to Cambridge if you've got no interest in a climbing waffle :)]

There were last minute calls for 2 girls to join ICMC's teams, which was how I ended up half-pulled-half-jumping in. I'd never have considered joining alone coz (cui-ness aside) it's a lot less fun and more scary. And I rmb being genuinely excited - this comp join for free and for fun, so no pressure (or so I thought xD).

[Before the comp itself, there was this obstacle called London's Transport System to get past. I swear, Singaporeans have ALMOST NOTHING to complain about regarding public transport. We have it DAMN good alr please, but sadly we've been spoiled by our own high standards. And don't get me started on cost - a single tube journey within zone 1 in peak period costs more than getting from Pasir Ris to Boon Lay station and back. So anyway I've forgotten the details, but there were disruptions to train lines (planned/unplanned I forgot) that made route planning so difficult we spent an hour trying to figure it out. It got to the point where I felt like some divine power was trying to prevent us from getting to our destination.]

About a third of the total boulder area.

Early that morning we found ourselves at the White Spider climbing centre - an ulu but awesome looking place. The comp had a foreign format - carnival style, 25 routes, flash-10pts, 2nd attempt top-7pts, 3rd attempt top-4pts, following attempts no points, self-scored (no route judges). K la, I got 50 points meaning the routes I could top I flashed, and others I couldn't top within 3 tries and just stopped attempting after that. Good: really forces you to flash and attempt wisely. Bad: no points after 3 attempts = no point trying again. Downer... there were quite a few routes that I knew I could do (after some 10 more tries...).

So yea, I didn't know what to expect, but even then, I felt like I didn't do fantastically well. Hahaha nvm, it was still enjoyable, plus we got to play in the cave after the comp! That kind of huge cave is rare, and it was damn fun to heel hook all along this super long roof route. But by then I was tired and sloppy and kept coming off D: In the end, fingers and wrists were sore and I was aching mildly the next day => proof of effort and price of experience? :) Really glad I went for it, it was meaningful. And the skies were so awesome after we left the gym.

[Bonus mention: I thought I'd be the only one with the Bouldermania 2013 shirt in London. Hoho, the moment we stepped out of the changing room, standing right there was another guy wearing the exact same shirt. An awkward, shocked second later, a "Nice shirt." was exchanged and I went away.]

Sunday, 30th November saw me up early again, this time off to King's Cross station. Where this sticks out of a wall:

Hahaha maybe it was the early morning or the lack of crowds and despite the magic of my childhood, all it looked like was a sad trolley half stuck out of wall...

The hearsay was true: Cambridge is like a prettier Oxford. I don't belong to the level where I have friends to visit in Cambridge so I was just there for the place haha. The day was spent like that: wander around (it's not big), go to the town centre, the bridges and into any college open to visitors. Also got to go watch a trampoline competition, which (though small) was interesting since I'd never seen it live before.

The first college we walked into - first impression set the bar v high.

Back to the place. It's so nice... Really peaceful atmosphere, perfect for... studying and strolling around to destress after that. The weather was once again awesome - sun was out for most of the day and it wasn't v cold. Cambridge is like one of those places that has a walk-into-a-painting kind of feel, and I think the pictures do a better descriptive job than I can with words.

Soap.

Imagine this in the spring/summer!

When I think about it, most of my traveling involves walking and more walking around places. And that turns out to be one of the best parts of student travel. Sometimes tiring, but only on foot do you get the most immersive experience. Every turn and corner can bring smth unexpectedly worth exploring. Rather than looking at a picture, you feel part of the picture. Smth like that.

Of course, the other best part of student travel is going around with friends. There is this well-known fact that not everyone can travel with everyone, and even close friends may not be exempt from that "rule". But I think I've been mostly spared from that thus far. So I count myself extremely lucky really, to have friends whose company I enjoy, and the added bonus of going around all these beautiful places with them. [Hopefully they like traveling with me too xD]

Dun think I've ever seen ducks so orderly.

I like how the purple bits showed up after autocorrect.

Those two sunny days really lifted my mood. And for the record, those two tests were easy and I scored well :)

Venting some steam

If I were my younger self and less in control of my temper I'd be raising my voice at someone. But no, I shall use this space to voice my petty problems instead. Get rid of some bad energy so I can channel the rest into completing my tut due tmr.

So today I flashed my first 2 yellow problems (V2-4). Instead of "yay! I did a yellow!", my head immediately went "easy route that's why I can complete". I was doing ok colour-wise but still felt off and went back with a slight ache.

Then, I was told that fish curry would've to be postponed :(

THEN, the bus broke down. In SG, the driver issues a ticket for a free transfer. The driver was then walking round the bus checking for smth, and 2 more buses had alr arrived. So I followed everyone else and tapped into the next bus.

That itch of irritation was turning into smth else by then. When I saw my card value and realised I'd paid the fare again I let out a small f.

But nvm, small things. Just that (not just based on this alone), I can see v little reason to complain about SG's transport system now.

Brighton - Sunset and Pebbles

The weekend following Oxford saw me heading down South to Brighton - a coastal place known for being pretty in summer. I'd had my reservations because of what ppl were saying, but it turned out that it's not so bad in the autumn after all.

Cheap train tickets (£10.40) meant leaving early and returning late. Hence, I was up before light and on my way to South Ken station at 6:45am. When it's that early on a Saturday morning, you get a really different view of the station underpass compared to normal.

Felt like a zombie RPG.

Brighton itself was at first a rather sleepy place, but that's our fault for going too early. Shops don't open till 10 plus and so we hobo-ed around till then, taking some time to stroll in a loop around the neighbourhood and even go into a playground for some childhood fun. [This playground really reminded me of the one at Pasir Ris Park. The one I used to play in, with the spiderweb (a much smaller version here) and the wooden shaky bridge, which are both long gone now.] 

10am. Shop opening time! And we were right in saying that here, 10am open really means "set up shop at 10am", not "prepare to receive customers by 10am". But differences aside, at least the shops were finally open, and first up, Open Market, where I found myself being extremely tempted by quite a few finger foods. [Having bfast early also means getting hungry early.] Bought some cheap flavoured cheese in the end, while D left with a bag of 10 pork pastries (which we all got to pinch ^^).

Trombone squash that got tired trying to climb out and simply ended up hanging there.

It was raining on and off throughout the day, but it was heaviest when we were walking through Brighton's North Laine (I think), so we took shelter in a small shop with a turnstile entrance. Only it wasn't a small shop - turn a corner and the shop actually spread across a few lots, and even had a second level. Talk about a deceiving front, but we happily browsed all round the second-hand everything-also-have shop until the cloud went away.

Good for browsing without objective.

When the skies finally cleared, we headed to seafront where we ended up spending the rest of the day (or should I say daylight). In the UK, the sea is a rare sight unless you live in a coastal town, so this was a treat:

After we were done behaving like tourists, all it took was a short stroll for us to arrive at Brighton Pier. For description purposes, it's like a giant jetty loaded with many recurring fish n chips and waffle/crepe stalls, and oh, an amusement park right at the end. I think we were dying of hunger by then, so we simply walked up to a random fish n chips stall and ordered. Three of us were happy with our scampi/cod n chips, but poor D's adventurous mindset left him with a rather pathetic meal. None of us knew what a saveloy was (in defense, it does sound like a species of fish), but he ordered one anyway, without chips. Turns out that a saveloy is a single, thin, slightly-long sausage.

With lunch done (after much donation of chips), we took a walk around the amusement park and it brought to memory the Escape theme park. [I'd only ever been there once when I was 7, weird since I lived so near... But it closed before I was old enough to drive the karts on my own - which I'd been wanting to do since my only visit there :(]

Fast forward a little and we were ducking for cover again in a fishing museum. It's a good thing that the heaviest rain comes in spurts here, and we were out on the beach again in no time. The beach is pebbly! Having never been on a pebble beach before, the sensation of walking on the beach was a bit strange. At least the shoes didn't get any granular intruders. Ah, and being on a beach where everyone was in jackets and long pants was weird too. Disregarding that, there were many nice photos to be taken coz the sky was such an amazing blue! We all were commenting on how the colours look better in the photos than in real life hahaha.

Trudging along on the pebbles got a bit tiring, so we retreated to the pavement and continued walking parallel to the sea. Some 30 mins later we arrived at the colourful houses (actually I think they're more like storerooms for equipment) that C had been looking for. They were cute. And I think no two houses were the same colour.

Despite being only about 4pm at that time, the sun was due to set soon, and the crepuscular rays were about to show. [We'd had quite a nerdy discussion on that thanks to D.] It was quite a nice end to the day, with four of us squeezed onto a bench facing the sea, watching the sun get engulfed by the clouds. There were no break in the clouds for the anticrepuscular rays to be visible, so we headed back the way we came from, for dinner (so cheap and filling compared to London!) and the train back.

Bonus: camera's night vision makes everything look like its blazing.

Bonus: 4-flavoured pizza (which was too big for me to finish), and dessert for just £7.50!

Oxford

[I've left this post so late that I've alr gone to Cambridge. Think this still deserves a post for itself haha.]

Oxford wasn't boring, but it wasn't all that exciting either.

Return tix were cheap so we got up early on a Sunday morning to go to a place well-known across the world as home of some of the smartest minds around. [ICL beat Oxford to 2nd this year though ^^] Slept almost all the way there.

We came into Oxford before 10am, and some of my first and best impressions of the place was formed by these:

Like spray paint against the sky.

Brings to mind elmo.

There's beauty in the simple things - not always, but stopping to look is sometimes rewarding.

First up, the Bodleain Library - or in a more commercial sense, the Harry Potter Library. I was gonna have to take their word for it since the library was closed to visitors :( Same for the Great Hall in Christ Church. So the second impression I got was that we spent a lot of time visiting the outside of places. I can't rmb if these places were used as filming locations or whether the sets were modeled after them, but it would've been nice if we got to go in.

The outside of the library.

Some more wandering and we arrived at a covered market where we had lunch, and here I learnt that it's cheaper to dabao than to eat in. Apparently you pay for a space to eat your food. Works for me haha.

Another part of our plan was to rent bicycles and cycle to {insert forgotten place here} about 2.5 hours outside of Oxford and back. There were plenty of barriers to this plan. Firstly, the cycle shops here are no ECP rental giants. The one we visited had only 3 cycles for rent. Secondly, sunset was getting earlier and even at that time, 5 hours cycle meant returning in darkness. So we scrapped the plan :(

Instead, we spent the rest of the day wandering (some more) around Oxford on foot. Good company helped dull the mundane-ness, found myself laughing at quite a few random things [I can't rmb what exactly anymore, I just rmb laughing] because someone started and set the whole group off. Would've spent more time in the Oxford Musuem of Natural History, but simply flitted around the aisles. There's always the London one which I haven't been to anyway. Brought to mind the internship days, where the 3 of us could spend hours in museum exhibitions coz we literally read through everything.

Ended up walking through a park and deeper into a trail area. Wasn't expecting this sort of outdoor stuff in Oxford, but outdoor stuff is usually pretty :)

That... pretty much rounds up the Oxford experience. It's a small, quiet place - much like a prettier Derby I feel.

Retrospect: Half year

It feels like I've been away for a long time.

It's strange. Part of me is inclined to say damn fast 6 months pass alr, but the other part feels like I've been around forever, and there's still a long way to go. I rmb the days in RR where every Fri we'd be going "it's Friday alr/again??" and in no time we were wrapping up our internship, and preparing to move to London. I haven't gotten that feeling since.

Maybe it's smth to do with studying (which I don't enjoy hahaha). Not to say I haven't been enjoying myself - weekends are spent out exploring and I can climb with awesome ppl again. But weekends always pass wayyy too fast, and weekdays... Dunno la, maybe it's coz of the current period where there are lab reports to do and tests to study for. And I'm tired.

Or it could be that I'm finally starting to miss home?

Not bad alr la actually, it took 6 months for the novelty of living in another country to die down. And technology only makes clearer all the things I'm missing out by being away. [Like I got to watch a Skyped live-feed of my cousin's wedding dinner and see all the nice food my sis was blatantly eating in front of the screen.] It's an invaluable experience to be living overseas and all, but in my current state of mind, 7-8 months to go before I go home seems a v long time. I think I need a holiday haha, so happy that there's just 3 more weeks till the end of term!

I'm glad I started keeping a blog. Now I think back (and read my old posts), a lot has happened over the past half year. In Derby: we, the lost sheep had to find our way quickly, and the beginnings were difficult and frustrating. There were painful lessons and uncomfortable times, but I think the balance still tips towards an immensely positive experience. The work was at times v challenging, but we were always surrounded by warm and helpful ppl. We also had our trusty little Kalos (which had to be patched up after a bit of misfortune by my hands xD) which took us to beautiful places all over the UK. In London: all the stories were true - it's so much more exciting than Derby (and more ex). I've made many new friends since coming here. There's always smth to do [whether or not I have the energy is a different story haha], when I'm not learning how to study again.

When doing things like aerodynamics, need to clear brain space, so details tend to fade, but thankfully I have stories of those halcyon days (lol) stored for leisurely perusal. Some of my personal favourites (from before London): Housing Problems, Story of the Lost Sheep #1, Peak District – Of Majestic Views and Sheep, Belgium 2014, Happening days.

Haha, but I haven't been as eager to blog as back then - should get the habit back. For now in brief, this weekend was particularly happening. Sunday I visited Cambridge which was really pretty, and so I've now visited both famous university towns. Saturday I went for my first boulder comp overseas - not entirely happy with my results but it was an experience (mild ache for my efforts hahaha). On both these days, the weather was the best I could've ever asked for. I'm not sure if it's officially winter yet - the warm sunlight and amazingly blue skies made it hard to tell.

Happy 6th months in the UK to myself, J and D, the REP RR bunch! How time has flown since we left our sunny island on the 1st of June, and how we've grown since then.

Unexpected amazing view from Tolworth station (29/11)