Thursday, March 31, 2011
Let's take a break from the England travel posts, shall we? :) Warning: Disappointment ahead! School's starting
next week,
so I'm trying to enjoy my last week of.. ..
Sleeping. Haha
I'm gonna have Law next semester,
so I'm
not looking forward to it.
But I guess it has to be done.
On the bright side,
it's my
last semester!
Then bye to studies for a year,
and
Hello Brazil! :D
Ever since
The White Queen,
I got to know of a particular catergory of books,
being
Historical fiction.
It's an interesting take on history,
and I
loved the White Queen.
Elizabeth Woodville,
was absolutely charming. I thought all queens were supposed to be,
that's why I'm mentioning it only now,
because it turns out,
they aren't. Or at least, Philippa Gregory doesn't portray them that way.
Credits to http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/philippa-gregory/other-boleyn-girl.htm After visiting the Tower of London,
I decided to get The Other Boleyn Girl and The Red Queen,
because.. I thought that they would be fantastic.
I guess it's because
The Other Boleyn Girl was supposed to be critically acclaimed.
Well, I don't know how to put this.
I found it kinda boring, yet I couldn't put it down. I found Anne Boleyn treacherous, yet Mary Boleyn made me want to keep on reading. But I guess with historical fiction,
one can't write it the way one would have liked it to end.
So then I decided to get
The Other Boleyn Girl.
[
the movie edition]
Credits to http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_poster/the_other_boleyn_girl_2008.htm Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn, and.. Eric Bana as Henry VIII. I haven't actually watched it,
but from the looks of the summary,
it's a different portrayal, I guess.
Hopefully it's good.
But my greatest disappointment is
The Red Queen.
Credits to http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/2010/08/19/the-red-queen-by-philippa-gregory/ Judging by the
first 100 pages or so of the book,
as compared to the other books,
yes it's boring, but also yes, I can put it down. I rarely find books boring.
And it's not really Philippa Gregory's fault.
Because if she was accurate enough,
then it's really
Margeret Beaufort's character at fault.
She's just so..
Boring.
But the thing that's really cringe-worthy?
[
And Elizabeth Woodville of The White Queen best phrases it]
"Pompous" is the word for Margeret. However.. [
Disclaimer time]
I'm not pinpointing the actual people,
since there are always
different POVs at any point in time,
and Philippa Gregory offered up just one of many.
I'm still quite disappointed though.
But with every disappointing book,
I always read till the last page because, there's always a chance of salvation. :)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Note: My apologies! There's something wrong with Blogger, so the words are all clumped up! Bear with me and hopefully the next time it will be fixed! 12th March 2011: Saturday We left Cotswolds early in the morning,
and arrived in
London noon-ish.
We headed straight to
Hyde Park,
since it was near our hotel.
..And we found this strange tree. o__o The only reasonable explaination I can come up of,
is that it was struck by lightning, and half of it just stopped growing after that. :S
[
It's probably not true.]
And we turned into the walkway towards
Kensington Palace.
We were greeted by the Sunkun Garden. [
Though I'm not sure why they call it 'sunken'..]
Then there was the pathway towards the Orangery. [
Apparently, you can eat and drink like a princess there.
Who knows? *shrugs*]
And finally, we took the route to the
Enchanted Palace.
Note: I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the palace. The Enchanted Palace was basically, the home of
7 princesses.
[
Some became queens.]
So we were supposed to 'find' the princesses.. [
It was kinda creepy at certain points.]
And most of the stories were
tragic.
Psst! If you can make out the black crow there, I think it was alive once! It is still an experience worth going at least once though. After that, we went to
Portobello Market because it was supposedly good.
And I guess so if you're looking for good buys and antiques,
but since we couldn't carry lots of stuff back,
the only interesting feature of the market was the
blooming blossoms.
[
Sounds like an oxymoron!]
Ah.. The first sign of spring. 
Update on time: 6 pm My mum and I are late! Hailing a taxi, we rushed to St.Katherine's docks,
to
Ivory House, where the
Medieval Banquet [
MB] is held.
Note: Because most of my photos are dark, I'll be using some from the MB Website. 
There are several arches like these with tables in them, and this is before everyone is admitted, so it looks really neat.
[
Wait till it's full and past 11pm. You'll know what I mean.]
Like it was straight out of the medieval era! 
Our wench for the night. [
It was not meant to be an insult!
She told us to call her a 'wench'!]
There were some programmes while we ate, and part of the acrobats
involved the
poor jester having to learn how to unicycle. :S
Of course, there were
musicians too.
Though,
I didn't know that they had electric guitars in those days.. 
The Queen! *bows* [
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a good picture of King Henry VIII. But that's alright. He just looks the way he's portrayed in most pictures.]
And there was some
sword fighting among the
knights too.
Also, there were many interactive parts for the audience..
Like shouting and clapping,
[
so it was unbelievably noisy and crazy.]
and we had like some
medieval/village dance or something.
Like everyone holds hands and jump in a circle.
And there were
costumes for rent too!
Check out my neighbours! 
Left to right: Monk, Snow White, Lady from Court [I presume],
Monk, Queen, Crusader [
The King was in the loo. Haha]
The wench and the Royal Couple. [
It was her birthday. :)]
The food was pretty good!
So I expect that I should have been able to, be quite fat,
even during the medieval times!
But main beverages were
red wine and
ale.
[
I didn't notice the water till it was too late.]
And I was REALLY thirsty.
I know that the more I drink, the more thirsty I get.
So I guess what I did was really foolish.
I ended up not being able to walk in a straight line.
But don't worry,
nobody had to carry me home.
But it was an interesting experience!
So if you wish to book tickets to the Medieval Banquet,
check out this link below! http://www.medievalbanquet.com/index.html Ale anyone? -End-
Saturday, March 26, 2011
:DReady for the
second half of the
third day?
11th March 2011: FridayAfter lunch in Broadway,
we headed to
Bourton on the Water,
which was pretty far away.
It's called the
'Little Venice of the Cotswolds',
because it has this stream that runs through the town,
and there are bridges to cross it at intervals.
Pretty cool huh?
One of the bridges has this
huge willow tree,
[
Disclaimer: Not sure if it's really a willow, but sure looks like one huh!]
which drips its fingers into the water.
AND the town has its own
residential ducks!
Doubly cool!Because we were running short on time,
we decided to head straight to what we thought were interesting.
1) Model Village
It's like a model of Bourton on the Water,
scaled down to 1/9 of the actual size!The string of images below should be interesting. :3
Model
Actual
Model
Actual
Model
Actual
Model
Actual
I feel like Gulliver!
2) Perfumery
It's like, this perfume factory and shop,
so they produce their own special mixes,
though they were kinda traditional, if you ask me.
We didn't make it for the tour around the factory,
and there wasn't much to take in the shop,
so no pictures, I'm afraid.
Finally,
we drove to the neighbouring town, Stow on the Wold,
but by that time,
most of the shops had closed,
[because it was 6pm]
and it was too dark to take pictures so..
We decided to get dinner at Moreton in Marsh on the way home.
It supposedly has the 'real fish & chips',
so we were looking forward to it.
But we couldn't find it.. ):
..Remember 'Ye Olde Red Horse'?
I'm mentioning it again because..
..Yupp.
Haha,
'The Blue Boar' huh?
I don't know if it's a trend,
but I see alot of pubs pairing,
primary colours with
an animal for a name.
If I start my own,
I'll probably call it
'Thy Green Bear'.
This pub seemed ALOT busier though.We headed home after that.
But what's interesting about the countryside,
is that when it gets
dark out,
there are
no lights on the highways,
much less the smaller roads!
We can only see what's ahead,
and behind is
TOTAL BLACKNESS.
..Yeah.
I'm just glad I wasn't alone those two nights!
-End-On a sidenote,
I went for my
flower arrangement classes again,
and did this piece..
..I prefer bouquets.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Hello!I'll be separating the third day into two halves again,
because there are lots of things I wanna show you!
11th March 2011: FridayWe got up early the next morning,
[
We have to, if we wanna catch breakfast on a farm! :S]
and headed straight to
Broadway Tower.
Apparently, if you get right to the top,
you can see
all 6 counties of the Cotswolds,
and I DID go all the way up,
but honestly, they all look kinda same-ish.
But not
too similar.
Anyway,
when we tried to find the entrance,
honestly one would think that they would proclaim it,
but it was a
small metal gate at the
side of the road,
so if we hadn't asked at a nearby cafe, we would have TOTALLY missed it.
Past the gateway...! With arches of trees to welcome you! :OIf it was during winter, at night,
I'm quite sure it would be
creepy.
Let's take a closer look.
At eye level: The stairway in the towerNote: There were actually sheep and red deer to the left and right fields of the Tower, but I didn't bring the lens which could zoom in properly, and they're not as cute and majestic [respectively] when taken afar, so I'm sorry okay? >:After Broadway Tower,
we drove to the famous market town,
Chipping Campden.
I have to say, I was quite excited,
but unfortunately, whatever markets that we saw,
were only the ones I had to imagine of markets past.
The town was still very much
pretty, though. :)
The Market Hall,
apparently it was built to shelter the vendors of the past.
What a traditional English sweet shoppe looks like!I went crazy for awhile, till upon closer inspection,
I discovered that they were either
liquorice or
gummies, or something like that.
My interest wilted away quite quickly after.
A pretty alleyway, isn't it? :)
If only the bus stops at home looked like that!
I wouldn't mind taking the bus every day! :xWe then drove to a
sister town of Chipping Campden,
which is
Broad Campden.
It was REALLY small,
like a 10 min drive, and we were out. .__.
We went there to see the adorable
thatched roofs of the olden days.
Most of the houses in Cotswolds had it before,
but they switched to the tiles,
whereas some continued to leave their roofs thatched.
Thatched
Tiled
See the difference? :oAfter the short stop,
we headed to
Broadway for lunch!
[
And our last stop for today.]
Our cozy corner at Tisanes.Tisanes Tea Rooms & Gardens was a recommended cafe,
so we tried it out and were not disappointed.
They have
really good food,
their own
special teas,
[
If you go, try out the Cotswolds Afternoon!]
and
who can forget their scones?Not me, that's for sure.So,
this ends the first half of the third day!
I mentioned before that I got my results back this week right?
Well, I didn't get all A's this time round,
but I got
one A and two B's,
so
I'm still really happy with my results!
[
Especially since I almost cried with despair after one particular paper.]
So
thank you Jesus!All Glory Goes to You!
And none to me!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Hi guys!
This is the
second day,
second half of the trip! :)
10th March 2011: ThursdaySo after lunch,
we drove to the farm to check in.
It was really cool..
Like, we could see the farmers getting ready for spring.
And the farm we stayed at,
Haselor Farm,
was a little off the road,
[
so it's more suitable if you drive]
but it was fantastic!
Don't believe me?
Check out the pictures!
[
However, the pictures I'm showing you are from the guesthouse,
not the one the host stays at.]
This was our room!
Beautiful, huh!
This is the neighbouring room! :D[
I didn't get to see all of the rooms though.]
Finally, the breakfast room! :DThe host,
Jackie, was really really nice to us!
So I reckon if you'll be around Evesham and need a place to stay,
check out her website! It might save you lots of 'hotel' troubles!
[
http://www.haselorfarm.com/]
After we checked in,
we drove to
Broadway, which was
supposedly 15 mins away,
to check it out.
I say supposedly, because on
Google Map, that's what it says. :/
And the only reason we took
twice the time,
was because my mum was driving at
40mph. ++.
I don't blame my mum for trying to be a
law-abiding tourist,
but it was quite disconcerting to see trucks and buses [
and more]
speed past us and honk or tailgate us.
But I don't blame my mum.Anyway,
Broadway is supposedly
'the Jewel of the Cotswolds',
because the town is beautiful and stuff..
And it was!
Except, because we arrived at
6pm,
all of the stores were closed.. And the pictures are kinda dark,
because the days are short during winter, right?
Guess where's the bathroom? Haha!
Since it was too late to do anything else,
we headed back to Evesham for dinner.
Remember
'Ye Olde Red Horse'?
Ever wondered what an
old English pub looked like?
Honestly, I don't know!
But it might have looked something like this.
Also notice how..
There's no one.Yeah..
I mean, there were some patrons, mostly male,
mostly for the beer or wine. But it's still kinda empty, right?
The food's good though.
So that wraps up what we did for the second day.
In more current news,
I auditioned for the soloist part in the
Easter production on Sunday..
And I was REALLY nervous.
Mostly because, I never thought about joining..
But since I was enrolled and I've got the time, then why not?
The audition went pretty well,
but from the time I came back from England till today,
I've been either catching up on my shows,
practicing for the audition and sleeping.
Mostly sleeping.My bio clock's really screwed. ):Tomorrow,
I'll be checking my results..
Hopefully everything goes well! :D
As Ryan Higa would say,
less than 3!
