Hello World! England 2011: Day 6

Buffet brekkie at the Travelodge. Bacon!!!

The kids attend a lesson on English linguistics at the British Library, conducted by Holly Gilbert.

 Picnic lunch on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral.

Lessons continue: we have a fantastic lesson on poetry with BBC's resident poet, Jacob Sam-La Rose. Sone simple games got the kids writing poetry they never knew they could create.

 I say 'simple', but his ability to fill the space with his personality was the fuel that got the kids motivated and push themselves beyond themselves.

In the end, the kids got to recite their own poetic compositions.

Kids were smitten with Mr Rose. He definitely has some new fans now.

Fusion pizza for dinner at Fire & Stone. This is my Athena: a Greek-inspired feta cheese and spinach combination; above is a Peking duck with hoy sin sauce thingy which was nice but I doubt I could eat the whole thing myself.

In Covent Garden getting the creeps and willies watching 'The Woman in Black'. Before curtain, understudy, Jeremy, came out to chat with us, which was nice.

Day 6 ends back at the Travelodge, London Ealing. Everybody goes straight to bed.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 5

Day 5 begins with a surprise: We're having a cuppa in the office of the Lord Mayor of Oxford!

The Lord Mayor is totally funky, firmly committed to the Green agenda and very interested in meeting young student visitors to her city.

We get a briefing about Oxford's policies regarding urbanization, environment and tourism in the Council Chambers.

Briefing over, we're ready to break for lunch.

Lunch for me is a traditional steak and kidney pie from PieMinister in the Covered Market. Hmm... kidney. Hold that thought.

City Council member, Nualla, takes us on our walking tour through Oxford's colleges, beginning with Christ Church, home of Lewis Carroll.

Apart from the historical commentary that Oxford U is so rich in, Nualla also shows us locations where the Harry Potter movies were shot, including this ilex tree in New College.

A better view of the ilex tree. Does it look familiar?

Dinner for staff was in Jamie's Italian. This is my Humble Green Salad topped with parmesan cheese shavings. So light, so fresh!

The main course is this skewer of British lamb on a bed of minted potato salad. The lamb included not just the meat that was tender and flavourful, but also lamb heart, liver and kidney. My meals today contained more exotic innards than I've ever had on a plate but I really enjoyed it all. This trip, I've been indulging my inner carnivore. Best holiday, ever!

And a tip of the hat to our excellent coach driver, Kitch, who has been awesomely helpful, friendly, amusing, knowledgeable, and above all, gorgeous. The kids will miss him now that he's dropped us off in London and we'll be travelling by tube from now on.

Day 5 concludes in the Travelodge, London Ealing, where we will be staying put for the duration of this trip.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 4

We've arrived at Stratford-Upon-Avon, camped right outside the birthplace of  W Shakespeare.

Our guide, Geoff, takes us everywhere to look at all things Shakespeare and his family-tree. Here, we've come to visit Shakespeare's chapel and burial place.

Officially, it's called Holy Trinity Church. Because today was sunnier than yesterday, the churchyard graves looked a lot cheerier than those in Haworth.

We have a lot of free time to wander around, but I spend most of my time strolling along the banks of the Avon, after which Stratford happens to be Upon. The views are breathtakingly scenic, peaceful and the atmosphere is ideal for chillin' out.

Back at Shakespeare's birthplace, the kids request a few scenes from the Bard's plays. The resident actors oblige with snippets from Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The actors made the scenes look like fun and really brought the text to life for the kids.

Here, Puck is planning some mischief in the Athenian forest.

Cornish pasties for lunch at Pasty Presto. Gigantic curry puffs they are, stuffed with generous quantities of different meat, cheese and vegetable combinations. Just one sufficed for a light lunch.

There were a few buskers about. The juggling acts always amuse me. They know how to work the crowd and offer good entertainment with their banter and the promise of a payoff at the end of their performance. This guy promised to put a burning torch down his trousers and pull it out -- still lit -- from the bottom of his pants leg. In case you're wondering, he did.

And here is 'Shakespeare's Ghost' attempting to startle the kids.

I love the way animals and human beings can coexist so easily together, unlike S'pore where any animal in an urban environment is treated with disdain at best, or rounded up and disposed of, never to be heard from again. But here we have ducks -- I was quite fascinated with this yellow duckling, so different from its fellows, yet still a member of the family.

Squirrel!!!

Dinner at the Garrick Inn: Scottish scampi, chips and peas. More shovel food! Yay!

Day 4 concludes with a slightly grouchy briefing at the Travelodge, Oxford Peartree. Sadly, my companions tend to see the worst in our charges and upbraided them for their 'bad behaviour' in the morning. I guess it is an integral part of a student's life to be scolded every now and then.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 3

From Wordsworth country, we travel to Haworth, Bronte country. The day is clouded over and blustery cold, quite a contrast from yesterday. The weather is certainly evocative of the Gothic influences over the sisters' writing.

The Brontes' Parsonage, now a museum dedicated to the celebrated family.

Angela, our tour guide, swears by the fish and chips at this shop.

And now, so do we! Fish is lightly battered, not too oily. White meat with a firm bite. Chips are the kind to be eaten in quantity, the best kind.

Haworth is quite picturesque. The storefronts are still very traditional, though it isn't a real village anymore. The market clearly supports the tourist trade now.

A short stop at Haworth Station before proceeding to tonight's pit stop.

Day 3 concludes at Travelodge, Redditch. Dinner is at the attached pub. This here is a beef and white stilton stew. They really are feeding us well here.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 2

Official (and possibly mandatory) banner shot. To be used in our review presentation and other PR material.

A full breakfast of bacon and sausage and eggs with sides.

Think the kids are here on holiday? Not while there's learnin' to be done. Lake Districts National Park guide, Ben, gets the kids measuring footpath erosion to determine the extent of damage tourists like us are causing to the pristine landscape.

I should also mention that it's the hottest day of the year, according to Ben. Unshielded by cloud cover, the sun produces brilliant illumination that makes our surroundings look so picturesque, but we're melting. Burns and tan lines all-round! Nobody thought to bring sun-block. Duh.

On to the pretty little village of Grasmere to sample the local world-famous speciality, gingerbread. Also to view the Wordsworth family churchyard plot and just chill for a bit.

This shop was especially hospitable. The jolly proprietor gave our guide a whole bag full of Kendal mint cakes to share with us and the kids. He also went around with a large tray of jelly babies, and offered free samples to passers by.

Next stop, Rydel Mount, home of W Wordsworth for the rest of his life after upgrading from dove cottage. Who said poetry never amounted to much of a living?

A view of last night's youth hostel from the water. We're moving on to Bowness for dinner...

Dinner being a slice each of gammon, turkey and roast beef; with stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and all the veggies we wanted. The place? Crown Carveries in a row of shophouses called Lakeview.

Day 2 complete, on to the Travelodge, Burton and call it a night.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 1

I'm in England! To be precise, at this point I'm in the Lake District and this is a bunch of kids from college who are on tour with me. Their first educational stop off the plane is Dove Cottage, home of W Wordsworth.

Wordsworth's actual cottage, external photos -- as expected -- allowed only. Inside, the cottage is quite cramped, for a two-storey edifice. People were obviously much more sociable and smaller-built then for the cottage to accommodate a family, domestic help, frequent houseguests and a dog. Quite a number of Wordsworth's personal belongings on display, so there's a real sense of connection to the man and his period in history.

All the kids, finally together for a group shot.

Our accommodation for the night: a Youth Hostel facing Lake Windermere.  Quite cosy, though the rooms are meant to be shared three or more to a room. I have a room to myself: a perk of being a chaperone. So it's me with a choice of top or bottom in my bunk bed, or the mattress on the floor. Toilet and shower facilities are communal, so guess who's waking up early to make the best use of them?

Wholesome, hearty, nutritious university style hostel food. Thick tomato basil soup, pasta in beef bolognaise sauce and a sweet apple crumble. Stuff to shovel into mouth and stomach in large quantities. Happy.

A view of the lake from the edge of the bay. Our hostel is the building on the left. We have a grand panoramic view of the lake and the hills on the far bank. My room faces behind -- a glorious vista of the back alley and the neighbour's backyard.

Day 1 settled. Shops close early around here, so there's nothing to do but admire the scenery and turn in for an early night.

Morpheus visits

Time for some pictures of a sleepy kitty

She's been so active all day. Finally, a chance to enjoy a little stillness and silence.

Doesn't this pix make you want to pop off to bed right NOW?

P.S. as I'm typing, Grimm is asleep on my tummy. Shh... don't wake the baby...!

Victim of the puppet-masters

I've been nursing a figurative sore head over what I perceived to be unnecessary intrusions of a certain committee into a certain project I've been supervising. Never before have I encountered such a bunch of controlling, narrow-minded, meddlesome worrywarts looking over my shoulder and telling me how I should run my own business. The level of trust that I once enjoyed from the previous management has now been replaced with a new batch of paranoiacs bent on oversight at every decision I make. It's intolerable!

That was a few days ago. Today, I've calmed down some. Having talked things through with my project members, I guess it's good that the committee did make their recommendations after all. A neutral third party saw some issues that were blind spots for me, being too close to the subject matter, and alerted me to potential hazards in my processes.

Fine. But I'm still going to greet them with a surly, pouty face whenever I see them. I won't give them the satisfaction.