Post-Road Trip

After about 500 miles of travelling in the past 2 days, its nice to be back in my room, no matter the smell and everything that I hate about it.

Roughly our journey in TWO DAYS!

On friday night, me and Edwin awaited the arrival of Kenny, Jun De and Rina who came from Glasgow where they are having their exchange. They came around 1am and bunk in with us in our ghetto.

Revelie was at 7am and after some breadfast we were on our way to our first destination: Inverness!

Vehicle Commander Kenny Low and Driver Jun De

Parkour at Inverness Castle!

Posing like the statue at Inverness Castle!

It was just a short stop at Inverness for an hour and after taking some pictures we were on our way again!
Loch Ness here we come!!!

We searched for Nessie and we found it! I have to admit that I was one of the people who don't believe that there is nessie but there it was right in front of our eyes and boy it was majestic. It was too huge to come to shore and only the baby Nessie could come near. I really wanted to have a ride on Nessie and tried to swim to it but alas it was too fast and the loch too cold for me to swim to it. Oh well, at least one of life's greatest mystery has been solved!

We first spotted nessie along the river crusing peacefully.

I went down to the banks of the loch and was speaking with one of its babies.

Nough said.

Even though it didn't let me have a ride on its back it was nice for it to come and say hello to us. BYE NESSIE!!

Next we went through the Loch Ness to reach Fort Argusta and Fort William. We didn't stop at these towns but stopped at some random part along the road that had really nice scenery and was also one of the highest place around. Took a walk around and did crazy stuff for camwhoring purpose!

We then drove on to Glencoe Mountain where we stayed at a youth hostel that was near the Glencoe Ski Centre.

A random place.

Our car!!!

Sorry Guys! My bowels are too weak!

Jun De and Rina who went off walking without locking the car, leaving the three of us to protect the car. Hmm wonder what was their ulterior motive....

We pass by Ben Nevis Distillery which was close but the whisky smell was so STRONG!

Edwin trying to drink some whisky here..

The next morning, the 5 kiasu Singaporeans went to the ski centre at 8am when it opens at 830am. We ate some breadfast again and did our business before the ski centre opened and up up here we go on the chair lift.

We only bought the beginner pass that only allow us to use the access chair and the rope tow that was a very lousy and tiring way (on us) to bring us up the beginner slope. In fact, they do not really check if we use the other lifts which Edwin and Jun De tried. The rest of us didn't had time to try (or I would say BOJIO!) as we had to leave by 130pm to go back to glasgow to return the call by 5pm.

Skiing on real snow is really different and MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE FUNNNNN!!!!!!
The slopes were longer even on the beginner ones and it was just so exciting to go down the slope at speed and try to control your descent by turning. Even though I fell lots of times and my knees hurt after that, it was like my ski instructor like to say 'SUPERB'

Approaching Glencoe Mountain in the misty morning

Reached the base of the Glencoe Ski Centre. And we are one of the first!

Log Cabins! So cute!

The Plateau Cafe where people rest after skiing!

Camwhoring moment!

The sky cleared up when we went down in the afternoon for this awesome shot!

When we reached glasgow, we dropped off Rina and went to return the car before walking for like 2 hours before we reached the city centre and ate buffet at CHINA BUFFET KING!!!

We were so hungry and tired after a long day and not eating much other than some bread for both breakfast and lunch so we really whack the food at the buffet (I said I could eat a Dinosaur) until we were stuffed. Then it was finally time for goodbye as me and Edwin parted with Kenny and Jun De (who was in the toilet clearing space for another round of buffet when we left) and took the train back to Aberdeen where we walked (again) back to hillhead.

I really ate everything except the fried rice which were disgusting and I shared the cake with Edwin. Pictures of Icecream and fruits not shown too.

Hit the sack immediately when we reach. Didn't shower as my shower was still spoilt. Yucks. Haha.

Another week

Bonsoir!

A week passes too fast...and its adventure time again!!!!

Had ski session (I am getting better!!!) and

whisky tasting session (early night!) and 

cookery session (we made chocolate cakes, tiramisu, pancakes with fruit salad and chocolate sauce! I made the chocolate sauce only haha!) 

Watched this movie Hotel Rwanda with the friends of Médecins Sans Frontières Society (just randomly went as it was after the cookery session). It was about the genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994 which is like just 18 years ago. I was 5 years old. It shocked me to think that around the time that I was living in the world, atrocities like these which I only know happened during Holocaust (pardon my lack of general knowledge) occurred. It was a really good movie that showed us that despite in the midst of all the despair, hope can arise out of the 'enemy'.

Turns out the lead actor was WAR MACHINE!!! Cool!!!

Anyway its friday and some friends from Glasgow are coming over to Aberdeen tonight to crash before we go on an adventure tomorrow. Not really sure where exactly we are going but should be Loch Ness and Glencoe. Ciao! (I am trying to learn a bit of the European Languages!)

Module Review

One of the more boring post that I will be doing:

A module review of the classes that I am taking in University of Aberdeen

PX2512 : Quantum Physics and Special Relativity
We had 2 teachers for this module and the first one, Prof Ross is simply hilarious, and the most vulgar and insulting teaching I have ever seen. Everybody loves him. See the email that he send for instance:

"Since the dawn of time, for the dinosaurs until their civilization fell, now for humans, in the brief period we have left before the penguins rise to conquer us for the hubris of naming a fairly poor biscuit after the most natty animal, all life has striven toward one goal. It has brought madness to many, riches to none, destroyed cities and continents, broken hearts and soured the most pure of love, annealed the souls of the truly great and left broken those too fearful to crest the highest peaks of knowledge and gaze upon the epiphany there waiting. I refer, of course, to delivering a perfect set of lectures on Special Relativity. (Like the vengeful ghost of that coward Einstein never could.) I've unquestionably done that now, and it's time to admit that there is nothing left for me here in Aberdeen. Finally I am free to pursue more financially rewarding employment (by selling my origami outside bus and train stations, vaccuuming money out drains and sewers, and setting fire to actual money and selling the ash to ash-collectors) and return to my true calling - my detective work. I assure you: from now on in this world, no matter how dark the night there will be no hiding place for evil.

I.e. There is no class this Friday. Ekke will be taking over PX2510 to teach you Quantum Mechanics. Lectures will start on Monday and be given by a man that my own mum described as "quite literally better than you in every possible way, Ross. Why did I even bother giving birth to you? You're rubbish."

Ross"

Having said that, I think he is great teacher and someone I would aspire to be like if I'm a teacher haha.

With 3 one hours lesson a week, and 3 CAs where the questions are given out one week in advance to prepare, its quite a relaxing module.

EG3593: Reservoir Engineering 1: Fundamentals
Taught by a really boring teacher. Overlap 2 hours of lecture with physics so I just went for physics instead. :P

There is also a lab and tutorial lesson in addition to the 3 hr lecture weekly. Bummer.

GL3524: Petroleum Geology and Reservoir Characterization
One of the more interesting course with 2 days of field trips!
Stuff taught was also more interesting!

GL4524: Petroleum Systems
6 Lectures + 1 3000word essay + 2 one day courses
So much for a lvl 4000 module. Seem quite easy to wing it. Even if I don't know a lot of the course materials.

EG3537: Dynamics 1A
Another Engineering module which gives a lot of problem. 6hr of lab! with assignments that is required to submit online fortnightly and notes that you have to copy in! sianxxx

Overall its pretty slack compared to NUS. But I'm on exchange after all. What do you expect haha!

Post-Shetland

Returned from Shetland this morning at 7:00am and went to class straightaway and what an adventure it was!


It all started with a ferry ride from Aberdeen Harbour at 7pm.
A freaking long 12 hour journey to Shetland it was.
The boat was rocky and it took some nice fudge to keep the motion from getting to me.

Northlink ferry that took us to Shetland.

There was a restaurant, a bar, a shop, cinema, cabins on board the ferry.

In the morning we woke up to see Shetland approaching us and soon got off the boat to reach Lerwick, the capital of Shetland. We wandered around for a bit to find some makan as it was too darn early (7am!) and no shop was open yet. Finally we found a nice cafe called Harbour cafe to have a nice breakfast!

Dawn came and we woke to see Shetland! At last!

Like a small toy but its actually a normal size boat

Its a beautiful day in the town of Lerwick!

A hearty breakfast before our journey at the Harbour Cafe!

Opens the earliest and save good breakfast at a good deal!

First time driving in a while! Edwin needs to 'warm up' he says.

First time driving also in a while but I'm calm and cool as always. 

We rented a car that turn out to cost 100 pound (wow!) for two days....after we added in petrol money.
Well I am kind of glad the car came back in one piece given how we were driving it haha. Edwin and I (mainly me) didn't treat it very kindly haha as we were so out of practice. Incidents like stepping on the gas pedal too hard when starting, hitting a wooden pole while reversing, driving with handbrake on, stalling on a roundabout during peak hour...etc.

Shetland was a good place to practice our driving a bit as the roads didn't had too many people. Mind you when there were people they mostly just zoom past us! (I was travelling at 50 miles per hour only which I feel was quite fast already!)

Other firsts was driving into a ferry which brought you to another island to continue the journey and defrosting the car in the morning. We definitely gain a lot of valuable experience driving on our own. Just don't tell our moms! haha!!!

Had to defrost the car in the morning! 

Reaching the next town!

Shetland ponies were plenty!

We saw many lochs and islands like these as we drove around!

The ferry to bring our car across to the next island!

Alas, most of the place that we went to were closed as it was winter and most people were slacking/sleeping/holidaying which is just as well as it seems me and Edwin are the only 2 tourist on the island LOL!

Foords Chocolate - CLOSED!

Give me some Valhalla Beer which the bottled version you can find only on Shetland - CLOSED!

During the summer, another thing that you can find on Shetland is many wildlife abound. Especially birds, like puffins can be found! You can kayak or hike around to see them! In winter you will just see the ponies, countless sheeps that leave droppings or what Edwin call 'mines' everywhere and also seagulls hanging around the cliffs.

An example of a puffin! (which i certainly didn't see)

All I saw were some seagulls!

The reason why we wanted to go to Shetland was because there were huge fire festivals around Shetland around these periods of time. Called Up Helly Aa, they are the biggest fire festivals in Europe! Especially the biggest one in Lerwick with like thousands of torch barrels as they march in their viking armour and burn their galley (viking longboat) at the end of it before the party of all parties begins and lasts till dawn.

See why I wanted to go!

Biggest Fire Festival in Europe!

The one that we wanted to go to was much smaller and at most a hundred people and it is at Norwick which is as far north as you can go in Shetland.

The most northern of places, Norwick.

However due to some misleading information from the internet, we were ONE WEEK EARLY!

I really felt like crying at the moment! Luckily something happened to save the day!

We met with the people of Norwick and they were really welcoming and really sorry that we came too early. I guess most people don't come to visit them and they were surprise to find that we travelled all the way to see them.

They gave (YES GAVE) us a set of their old costume from a previous Up Helly Aa and let us pose for pictures with the galley. They also lit up a torch for us as well! 

We were so grateful for their hospitality or maybe it was the beer and whisky that they plied us with haha.

Lighting up the torch!

Our very own Up Helly Aa!

The kid was scared haha!

Nice blokes!

YARRGGGHH!!!!

Oooops! Almost forgot to mention another person who made our trip really worthwhile!
Willie! Our housekeeper at the Bed and Breakfast place that we stayed at in Shetland. He was really nice and made a really good breakfast that probably counted as our lunch as well given the portion that we ate.
The previous night we couldn't find a place to get dinner as the place was too ulu and he made some lasagne for us with NO extra charge! I was really touched by that effort as he could just f*** care and leave us to starve on our own. Bed and Breakfast and Dinner for 30 pounds! Worth it!

Here's Willie!

Just a simple dinner with some lasagne and bread and tea!

Awesome breakfast with Black Pudding, Fried Egg, Fried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Sausages, Bacons and Toast!

Our cosy room!

Wanted to see some northern lights too but all we saw was a full moon!

On our way back on the second morning, we had to wait a while for the ferry to arrive and I started goofing around in the new costume that I had haha!

Viking Stowaway! SHHH!

Never see viking drive car ar!

I have come to conquer thy land!

We also drop by a place called Brae where there is this Frankie's fish and chips shop that is the top 3 fish and chip shop in  Scotland so naturally as Singaporeans, we have to get the best things! And it was good!!!

The fish was fresh and like 鱼片 instead of one huge fillet!

Fish Cake!?? Really good too! Fried Potatoes with fish!

I drove back all the way from Hermaness the most north of Shetland where you can only see the north sea back to Lerwick and saw more scenery along the way...

Before long it was time to say goodbye to Shetland...

No idea why this galley is over here...

During summer, you would see lots of wildlife here!

Viking Ruins like these were aplenty everywhere!

One of the two castles in Shetland! You could call it the most northerly castle!

We manage to get some valhalla beer which were really good! 

Well it has been an adventure! Far vel! Hjaltland!