# Cloud Craze!

To show support for the "save-the-cloud-post" petition, I decided to post a few random clouds picture I took in UK. Not as colourful, but these are the better clouds I see in UK rather than the greyish rainclouds during most of the time. hehe...

Camdem Town

Taken during regular visit to Camdem Town, one of the most interesting local markets in London. The punk culture there is very strong, so it's fun to see all sorts of "self-decoration".

Battersea Park

Taken during summer outing to Battersea Park, outer London. That is the hottest day I'd ever experienced in London.

Plymouth

Taken during trip to Plymouth, Southwest England. Yes, the Mayflower steps are here, where the Pilgrim Fathers first embarked on UK.

Stonehenge

Taken in car during the journey to stonehenge.. Not sure of the exact location. the clouds a bit "senget" due to car moving.

# Exams...

Final exams is nearer than I thought!

Would be doing less posting... to concentrate in doing the final preparation.

I will be back. (Terminator)

Ganbate!

# City of Bath

Continuing from the post about Stonehenge...

After visiting the mysterious stonehenge, our next destination is the City of Bath - one of the oldest city in UK.

One of the most significant landmark is the Pulteney Bridge and the Weir. We took a stroll along the river. Watching the ripples at the weir is definitely a great relaxation!
(To get the weir into the pic, I had to extend my already-freezing hand over the edge of the bridge walls, nearly dropped the poor camera...)

We had a great time walking around the city, exploring every corner of the streets, tunnels and shops. The sunshine was extraordinarily good for UK weather, and it seems like almost everyone in the town has come out to have a nice sun-bathing. We explored some local markets and shops. There was once we saw a "White Shop", which sells everything in white colour, and before long we saw a second shop called "Yellow Shop". Here's the "white" shop... (some ppl might argue these shops contain elements of racism)

We did not enter the Roman Bath House and the Pump Room, due to its unreasonably high price. It was a bit disappointing because I have done quite some research online about it before coming, but the 8.50 pounds is quite a rip-off for a short tour around that place. But anyway, reading about its history online, and looking at the abundant photos online, has more or less provide the picture about the place, so we didn't feel too bad.

We went to other attractions like the Royal Crescent, Sally Lunn (the oldest house in Bath from 1482), the markets and many other interesting small shops.

Instead of focusing on the normal "tourist attractions", I think I shall post some photos of the not-so-normally-seen-corners of Bath. These little discoveries, many of them normally unnoticed, certainly brought surprises and happiness to us. Perhaps, you have noticed the little things too, during your trip there? *^_^*

For example, not only that the shops have peculiar names, even the streets too. Should we keep our voices down when walking on the Queit Street? And the Gay Street sounds interesting too...

Check out the allocation of DOORS in unexpected places! The top part of the photo shows one which is located right next to a roadside stairs. The bottom part shows a very random door which appear in a wall (double-storey high). Imagine walking out of that door and realize, "ooops..."

and how about Jane Austen's centre?

Also, remember to check out the many interesting small shops around the city!

One of the best surprises we got when roaming around the markets is to find our country flag! There is this small but wonderful shop which sells the flags of all countries in the world! (the owner claims so). Well, I found mine!

# The Queen at 80

(Photo from BBC)

Today is the Queen's Birthday! and boy, she looked lovely in pink!

A friend and his wife has gone to Windsor to (hopefully) see the Queen, we did not manage to go, but were equally excited for this event!

Happy Birthday Queen!

BBC Full Report (with videos, pictures and news in depth)

# Thoughts on Easter Island

(Photo from www.zeigermann.com)

This is a rather small post, for it is just a few scribbles of thoughts. Panda's comment in Stonehenge post about Rapa Nui reminded me about the downfall of the civilisation on the island, and the destruction of the Easter Island.

From the original lush green vegetation to the dry empty land, how could this happen? I am sure that the people are aware the depletion of the resources as the activities of deforestation goes on. I have heard before that the island is so small that one could stand on top of the mountain and see every corner of the island. But why have they not done anything to preserve the rescources before none was left?

As the resources continued to diminish, the dominoes effect comes in. The Islanders are trapped in a self-inflicted environmental collapse. With no trees, no boats can be built, hence they were cut off from the outside world. No more erection of the moai, hence the collapse of the belief systems, then social organisation. Then the meaningless destruction of the ahu among opposite clans, then war, then...

This looks familiar! Well, we do see them even in today's world! Look at how human consume the resources in the world, and we will know Easter Island has just provided a model of what-could-have-been. The set-up of the model is strikingly similar to the world we live in now - limited resources, unlimited wants. Throughout the years of human history, people have found ways and means to extract resrouces to sustain population growth. Yet, have we devised a system that actually conserve the environment and preserve the resources? Have we found a way of living that does not irreversibly damage our life support system?

In the Easter Island history, we saw the ugly nature of human of fighting for survival, and a scarier thought is that human has not even remorsed even until the final fatal end of the civilisation. If this is how human act, this would be a very scary reflection on today's society. In every aspect of our life, have we gone too beyond the turning point? Do we still carry out acts of destruction though we are well aware of the consequences? Do we ignore the warning signs and hope silently that the comeuppance will not fall on us, but on OTHER people?

Unfortunately, in most of the times, we do. And I am not speaking onlt in environmental terms. Major decisions in all fields - politics, economics, society, humanity... Have we not come upon some hauntingly familiar scenarios? Do we learn? Do we take different action?

Let's pray for a better tomorrow.

... ... ... ...

Okay, I should stop rambling before I go into a rattling mode.

Quote of the day:
"If we forgive God for his crime against us, which is to have made us finite creatures, he will forgive our crime against him, which is that we are finite creatures." - Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher.

# Stonehenge

Finally, we've been to Stonehenge! I've always wanted to visit this mysterios place since my first year in UK, and finally we've done it.

Six of us rented a car and started our "journey to the west" (from London to Bath). It was quite challenging driving in UK as none of us have really drove in UK before, and only one of us have international driving license. Some road signs are a bit confusing, and there are many turns that we actually missed 2 turns during our journey. To add on to our anxiety, the only driver with the international licence is used to left-handed driving! ... But luckily, our journey turned out to be quite smooth, except some small misses and confusion.

Our first stop: Stonehenge
The sunshine was so good! So I am quite happy with the photographs we've taken. Here it is - the famous stones!

A little bit of facts and myths...
Stonehenge, built at around 3100 BC, at Wiltshire UK, was a myth that has yet to be solved. Various speculation about its uses include astronomical purposes, human sacrifice, pagan worships and religious ceremonies. It was constructed in three phases - the earthwork, the arrival of bluestones, the arrival of sarsen stones, and some rearrangement. (More details)

At the first sight of the stonehenge, I realized it was smaller than I have imagined. Yet, its magical effect still caught my breath. Although it is no longer a complete circle as it has been, the stones still exuded an air of mystery. As we stood gazing at the structures of stones, I somehow felt being tranported back to time. The wind seemed to be whispering in my ears about the old myth; there seemed to be sounds from the past echoing in the wide plain; the place actually felt ancient to me.

Despite having known about stonehenge in books and documentaries, I can't help pondering about the same old questions that have been asked many many times. Why did people build it? Why the efforts of dragging the bluestones, and why the construction and reconstruction? Why does it have such an appeal even after so many years?

I decided not to write a long essay of its history, myths and facts here. Reference can be made from some links like Earth Mysteries, Wikipedia and others...

But I do wish to share this feeling of awe at the sight of these magnificent stones. Its immensity and its grandness still held power over people, or at least, over me.

There is a phrase from the commentaries that I like, "Even if the stones are removed and all that is left is the empty plain, this place would still be a mystery with the untold ancient stories and memories."



(Bath trip to be continued...)

# Album of Spring

Spring is here! After reading the wonderful posts about hanamatsuri and sakura by panda, moody, robin and others, I can't resist but to compile a small Album of Spring, to celebrate the arrival of the long-waited season.

First of all, the album cover...
(Gotta apologize to kk for putting him on the album cover without permission)

We went to the park opposite our house, anticipating a sea of flowers. But when we reached the flower garden, we found THIS.

We found some daffodils and some patches of flowers blooming here and there, and have to settled for those. While we didn't get to see many flowers, we did get to see a lot of ducks and swans.


Lacking the collection of the flowers, I decided to turn the focus of my album to other subjects - the kids.


It was fun watching the kids, accompanied by their parents, having their great time at the playground. Many of them found the sandbox the most wonderful place to roll around and giggle for every little joy.


... and I found this little boy looking around to find someone to acknowledge his achievement of building the "sand castles" on the table. :-)


Beside the river, the mum and the kid are feeding the ducks...


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Bonus Tracks

Undaunted by the failures of finding our "sea of pinks", we continued our search in other parks. Well, our efforts did paid off - at least we have got one tree blooming in pink. hehehe...


And we found a "sea of yellow and white" in another park too!


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