Le début de mon rêve

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

New Homepage

Please Check out my new Homepage @ http://chernkuan.weebly.com/
Keywords: chern kuan, weebly

Friday, May 29, 2009

Leaving grenoble..... 290509 1715hrs...

I am leaving grenoble.. Aliah and Xueli are the remaining survivors of RHB.. oh.. did i say xueli? =P Anyway, here is an emo blog..

John: Great roommate buddy.. I was really very lost when I came to france and really thank you for everything especiall during the time when i am very down.. =) Oh ya.. i will miss ur cooking.. Enjoy ur rest of ur trip ya ;) Oh btw, I can do 20 chin ups now! HAHA!

Aliah: Its really very good to know you and I am glad that i have really known u better during this trip.. =) Anyway, I really want to thank you always being very helpful and always willing to put in the initiative!

Xueli: Hi "wife".. Forever the very FUNNY one! hahah.. k la.. i enjoy knowing u and ya.. I just filed a divorce already.. Better to divorce u before u ditch me !! hahaz~~

Charlene: U are really a very special friend.. I took sometime to be able to connect to u and I am very glad that I did and now, I have one more very good female friend =) Thanks for being there to share the stuff.. It really helps a lot..

Huong: Funny funny! dont emo k! ;) I will be waiting for u party!

Hogz, Jianhua, Alvin: Sorry.. no time alr.. A good summary.. its very good to know u all better in sep.. Hogz, the forever cool guy, jianhua, always jio me pool! Alvin, who always so fun to be with.. Thanks for being tgt in this sep with me.. =)

Many others: Again, Very sorry for not being able to address all.. Really no time already.. LOL.. meet up soon k!

Updates.. Exams (21, 26, 270509)

Exams in french...

I am taking 4 modules + 1 french module course in france.. =)

My first french exam is TSTN(Traiement du Signal et Transmission Numerique) which is on the 21st and it proved to be an easy paper since I have already a certain understanding of half of the course and it was also taught in english. (however, the exams are in french) .. The 2nd part is a killer. John and I were reading up reference books in order to understand what the lecturer is talking about. Firstly, it is in french and secondly, it is very complicated. In the end, the exam proved to be OK..

My second french exam is called Energie et Habitat. It is a very difficult module which I have struggled throughout although I have been putting in consistent work. The exam itself was.. haha.. i really dono how to describe.. You will not know if your answers are right or wrong as it is just very complicated. I had problems understand certain french key technical terms and had to ask the teacher who to my amusement, asked the entire class too.. And guess wad, the first response is.. : Heyz! Pg 32 of lecture notes.. Next: ohhh and pg 33 too.. LOL! and guess wad, I just copied the whole chunk into the answer booklet.. =P Lets pray for the best..

My last french exam is called Electronique de Puissance. A moderate paper but once again, difficult to say pass or fail. I have tried my best and have to wish for the best ba! =D

Going off to scotland soon.. John just went off.. and I am feeling emo now =( my last few hours in rhb..

Updates.. Trip to England (290409 - 030509)

29^th April

TGV from Grenoble to Lyon St Exupery.

Plane: Lyon to London Gatwick

Train: Gatwick to St Pancreas. St Pancreas to Nottingham

I met Lenny at 3pm at Nottingham train station. Lenny treated me to Chicken lunch and a bus ride to Nottingham.

30^th April

Lenny and I toured around Nottingham city centre. I bought a Liverpool shorts for 9.99Euros which is a great bargain. There is a shop called Sportsdirect which really offers cheap and good prices to quality shirts. I bought a pair of shorts here too. Later on, we went to a shopping centre and got a 2Euro chicken which is really big enough for 3 people. That is our dinner for me, adeline and lenny.

1^st May

Lenny went for classes and I went to tour Nottingham by myself. I tried a speciality – Jack’s potato which cost 2.70 Euros but was very filling and appetizing! I visited a War museum (free of coz =P) and the Robin Hood statue. I am very impressed with the pricing of the food in Nottingham. It is definitely far cheaper than in France.

I reached back Lincoln Hall at around 3pm and played squash with lenny. Squash was really tiring and really needs to have a lot of technique and skill. It has been a long time since I performed court movement and was really shagged out after the 2 hour game.

We realized that the hotel that we have booked – Cresent House Hotel, which is at Southport, Merseyside, Liverpool is very far from Liverpool city centre. A good 30km! We have to buy a new train ticket which will take us from Manchester to Southport instead of to Liverpool.

This is a note to all future people who wants to go to Anfied, Liverpool. In many websites, they do recommend Southport to stay in when we go to Liverpool. However, if you need to go to Liverpool early to get tickets on the spot, DO NOT stay at southport. The earliest time we can get to Anfied from Southport on a Sunday morning is to take a train from Southport to Saint Hills and a bus at 9.34am. Hence we have to change our plans. So what did we do??

2^nd May

Early morning, at 0415hrs, we set off to Nottingham train station. Lenny wanted to go to Liverpool to try to buy the match tickets as from the website, the tickets office is closed on Sunday. I will travel and meet up with him at Manchester. In total, we walked a good 5km. Never did we know that this is the start of our road marches.

My bus at Broadmarsh bus station transits at Sheffield. I also have the chance to see the famous stadium – Hillsborough which is the stadium of Sheffield Wednesday. The Hillsborough disaster is a chapter in Anfield history which is being commemorated until now.

At Manchester, I received news from lenny. The ticket office is closed on Saturday to accommodate for the match on Sunday! A wasted trip!

When Lenny comes, we toured Manchester and even went to Old Trafford – Stadium of Manchester United. We took a stadium and museum tour. Although I am not a supporter of United, I really felt that their stadium is really good and classy. The tour itself is really very good. I also helped hogz to get a Man U scarf from the shop there.

After Old Trafford, we went straight to Southport. Most of the shops are already closed. We realized also that there are no early buses or trains available on a Sunday. We headed to our hotel (Crescent House Hotel) which is a 3 star and cost us a whooping 30pounds a night each. We have no choice as all the hostels are fully booked in Liverpool. The service by Jenny is great. We explained to her that we will need to leave early the next day and whether we can have the share of our breakfast in the evenings to which she agreed and prepared for us. It is really good service. I love the 2 dogs (Both were called Missy)!

3^rd May

Early morning 0550hrs, we took a taxi to Mughull for 23Pounds for 2 persons. The taxi covered nearly 20km of the distance. We have decided to walk the remaining distance which is around 10+ km in order to save cost. Our target is to reach Anfield ticket office by 0815hrs as the ticket office will open at that time. The time now is 0610. Off we walk, walk and walk. We have a good breakfast at Macdonald’s on the way and continued walking all the way to Anfield.

When we were near and found that the time is not in our favour, guess what? We ran. This is really our one chance to get to see a match in Anfield so we gave everything we can to get it. We reached Anfield ticket office at 0815hr SHARP only to be turned back by a crushing truth.

The chief steward said: No more tickets. All sold out.

Devastated we are. There is just one more way to get tickets – Black market. However, we are not willing to pay more than our budgeted amount. The moment we stepped out, a guy approached us: 400pounds for 2? WHAT? 200 pounds for a ticket? That is around 440(1 : 2.2) Singapore dollar per person! Insane!! No, sorry, no. Our max budget is 100 pounds per person which is already insanely a lot. But since we are able to pay 86 euros for a Barcelona ticket, the maximum that we can go is really 100pounds, above which, we really are unable to watch it. And so, we waited.

Another guy approached us. 150pounds for a ticket? No. 100 pounds. He left.

We waited for some time, took photos and waited and took photos again. We saw the 150 pounds guy again. We asked him again: 100 pounds? To which he replied: Alright! He led us to a corner and passed us our tickets to which we carefully checked to ensure that it was really authentic. The last thing that we want was that the tickets were faked. We were really very very happy when we got the tickets. In fact, we were very excited to be able to watch our first Anfield match.

Before the match, we went to the Merchandising shop and I got a scarf and jersey. The jersey cost 40pounds in Anfield. Although the price in Nottingham is cheaper, I want to get it at Liverpool as it is authentic and it is of the latest season. I got a beanie outside Anfield and I am well-equipped!

Later, we had our lunch (chips with rice) near Anfield. The shop is run by a group of Chinese from Guangdong and we had a fine chat with them. After that, we were ready to enter the legendary KOP.

The match is awesome with Liverpool hitting the bar 3 times. It ended with 3-0, Liverpool winning Newcastle. The atmosphere is really awesome with the singing of: You will never walk alone, chants of A-LON-SO, Shit-real (Shearer) and Going down, going down. When Joey Barton injured Alonso, the entire crowd stood up and booed him. When the ref pulled out the red card, everyone booed even harder! Later on, Owen entered and the ex-Red was booed also. Sad for him.

After the match, we toured Liverpool centre. Many shops are closed and we just walked around. Lenny and I shared a 2 piece chicken + 3 wings for dinner. It was still very early for our train back to Nottingham so we have to wait for the time to pass at Macdonald’s.

The train from Liverpool to Nottingham took us 3hrs, from 2123 to 0023hrs. All buses and trains are terminated when we reached Notts. Guess what? We walked another 45min back home again. =)

Updates...(7th - 20th April)

Sorry for the late updates.. cant seem to upload my photos here so i put all into my facebook! =D

7^th April (Tuesday)

Lenny, Lining and Chris arrived in Grenoble. I was so excited to see them as it has been a long time before I met them. Chris was telling me all his “heroic” stories =P

8^th April(Wednesday)

Travel around Grenoble. Went to Grenoble city centre and drank coffee. Drew equipments for skiing.

9^th April(Thursday)

My 2^nd ski day with Chris, Lining, Lenny!!

10^th April(Friday)

Rest

11^th April(Saturday) – Barcelona Day 1

We took a long train ride and transited 2 times at Valence TGV and Montpellier before reaching Barcelona. Lenny and I had our first kerbab meal of the journey at montpellier =) Kerbab meals are in fact one of the cheapest food with a good serving of meat in the entire Europe. Food in Europe is expensive which can amount to 5-6 Euros per person and a kerbab cost around 3.50 to 4.50 euros. Most importantly, it is filling!

When we reached Barcelona Franca station, we had to take a metro from Barcelonette to Maria Cristina for our Barcelona match. For the match, FC Barcelona will play against RC Recreativo at Nou Camp. Nou Camp has a capacity of around 98K seats. Our seat costs us 86Euros which is really freaking expensive.

The Barcelona match starts at 8pm and our train reached Franca at 8pm. Why? Thanks to the match being changed from Sunday to Saturday 1 week before the match itself!! Can u imagine it?? Luckily we still managed to catch half of the match =P

When we reached Maria Cristina station, we ran and walked to Nou Camp, flashed our tickets and rushed for our seats. The atmosphere was indeed awesome and excellent!!

After the match, we walked all the way to our hostel – HostelOneSaints which is not very far away. The hostel was good and beautiful. For the price of the hostel, it is definitely very worthwhile to stay here. The service is also great, free internet and the hostel is safe.

12^th April(Sunday) – Barcelona Day 2

In the early morning, we (Chris, Eunice, Lenny and me!) got a T10 ticket which allows us to travel 10 times by bus or metro. The first stop that we headed to is the Barcelona merchandise stall. I will rate the store as the best football merchandise stall and a must-go. I bought a Barcelona shorts there which cost me around 34.50 Euros. Although it is expensive, it is money well spent as it is nice and comfortable. The whole shop is very nicely decorated, aesthetically pleasing to buy stuff.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city centre. I had my first 1Euros Mac burger for lunch and a cheap dinner at Bocata. The quote of the day happens to come from Bocata which is: I am having my dinner while all of you are having your supper!! The portion is cheap and rightfully small so we have to find a Kerbab store to top it up.

A side note about Barcelona after I have visited Madrid. Although Madrid is the capital of Spain, it is not as English-friendly as Barcelona, most notably on the train and buses.

13^th April(Monday) – Barcelona Day 3

In the early mornings, we walked up one hill. This is the start of my “destructive” photo series which I will post in full =P. After that, we went to another hill. =)

In the evenings, we went to Estacio d’Autobus os Barcelona Nord to wait for our bus to Barcelona Girona Airport. As our flight timing is in the early morning, we need to be there even earlier which means that we must sleep in the airport and at the bus station. It was indeed very pitiful when we slept at the train station as we were chased from one place to another when we were sleeping.

Finally boarded our plane to Madrid!!

14^th April(Tuesday) – Madrid

After a 1hr + flight, Chris, Lenny and I reached Madrid in the early mornings. The first thing that we did is to put our luggage at the airport luggage storage. I bet you can guess why we did so right =) Lenny and I tried to call Liverpool to get our tickets but failed. Breakfast at Madrid (Sol) was good! We had an awesome breakfast which is cheap and good! There are churros, purros (The Ang Mo version of you cha kway) and a cup of good coffee. For coffee lovers, a cup of good coffee really makes a different to your day.

It starts to rain now. After our breakfast, we went to the famous Del Prado museum but the entry fee was not worthwhile to go in so we headed to Gan Via which is their city centre to walk around. Frankly, the city was expensive and not very touristic. Luckily, we are only staying for just one day. The shop – Café and Teh is rampant here. Initially we wanted to have the traditional rice here but was really put of with the price – around 12.50 Euros per person and the serving is not big plus it is just mainly rice.

Had a quick dinner of bread + fillet which cost 3Euros and top it up with a 1 Euro croissant with ham and cheese. After which, we took a bus to the Bernabeu stadium – Home of Real Madrid. The merchandise is not as grand as FC Barcelona who even has shops in the city.

After another good Kerbab dinner, we took another bus to the stadium of Athletico Madrid. Have a quick look and head back to the city centre for dinner.

We went to an Irish bar and caught the match between Liverpool and Chelsea – 2^nd leg of the Champion’s League clash. Liverpool must score at least 3 goals to ensure qualification to the semis. It started off well with Liverpool leading 2-0 before we saw the powerful Chelsea rising and chasing the game to 2-3. The eventual score is 4-4.

After the match, we returned to the Madrid airport to get our luggage and prepared to spend our consecutive night in an airport.

15^th April(Wednesday) – Lisbon Day 1

For every flight that we have took so far, I concussed immediately when my head touched the seat. The next time when I open my eyes, it is time to get off. This was no different. Opening my eyes, I saw the Lisbon Airport. In Portugal, things are cheaper than Spain, France and definitely, Switzerland.

We took an aerobus to Roccio, which is at the centre of the city centre and walked to our Hostel – Easy Hostel. It looked quite shabby when we walked up the steps to the hostel. However, the surroundings changes when we entered the Easy Hostel. The first thing that captured us are the 3 computers with free internet access. Next, the free breakfast! (Although we are supposed to check in at 1pm, but well..) Had a good talk with the receptionists and after putting our luggage with them, we went to tour around Lisbon!!

For my vacation trip, I will rate Lisbon as the best and must go place. Using our autobus ticket, we headed to Belem and ate the famous MUST-EAT Portuguese tart! Too bad I didn’t eat more than one. It is really awesome -> Max. After that, we reached the other part of Lisbon and went to their famous castle. I bought a banana and strawberry ice cream which is very nice.

Our next highlight is food! After days of Kerbab, it is time to try something different. This meal is called Bifana. You can catch it near the city centre in one of the shops which showed a huge boiling pot of meat. The meat is pork. One bifana cost 1.75 Euros and it has a great serving of 3-4 servings of meat. The chili just makes the entire serving awesome.

Went back to Hostel and concussed at 5pm until the next morning. Although we tried to wake up at 9 to have dinner, in the end, we just continued to sleep! The bed was just too comfortable and we were also just too tired to do anything.

16^th April(Thursday) – Lisbon Day 2

We headed to Cascais, a nearby town. The trip there is very cheap and it is really a place with very nice scenary. Before the trip, the owner told us that there are FREE bikes all around Cascais, much to our disbelief. Oh come on! Free?? Who will not be skeptical right? =P But once again, we were proven wrong. The moment we exited Cascais, we found this bicycle stand which we can lend bicycles to cycle around Cascais FOR FREE! Awesome deal~ Took lots of photos here =)

After Cascais, we had a Bifana lunch and topped up with 6 for 5.10 Portuguese tarts from the city centre. The egg tarts were definitely nowhere near the original one.

We walked all the way to Place de Liberature and enjoyed the Portuguese arts and culture. If you noticed their floor tiles, the designs were not painted on the tiles. Instead, they were designed with coloured tiles! How awesome!

We took a walk to Bairo Alto, hoping to catch the vibrant night life there. As we were too early, there were not many night lives around. I did manage to buy some strawberries which cost a cool 0.70Euros for 500 grams.

We had a good dinner of Bacalhau which is the national dish of Portugal – Cord Fish.

17^th April(Friday) – Porto Day 1

We took the 11pm train to Porto. There are frequent trains from Lisbon to Porto and we got the tickets when we just arrived in Lisbon. It is a long 3-4 hours ride to Porto.

When we reached there, we checked in to our Rivoli Hostel. It is a cool hostel~ =) On the first day, we cleared their 5 must-go monuments and had their local traditional Franceinhal dish which cost around 6 Euros. The dish tasted strongly of cinnamon which really gave it a unique taste. =)

18^th April(Saturday) – Porto Day 2

Early in the morning, I am busy planning for the trip to Liverpool. Horrible! The flights all seemed so expensive I have to do lots of permutations and combinations to find the cheapest flights to and fro to UK. It was raining heavily when we set off. We walked all the way to the lover’s park and I lost my water bottle at the Irish pub which I managed to find it the next day.

We had dinner at Imperial Macdonalds. I had McRoyal Deluxe which cost an awesome 4-5Euros for a meal. It is definitely better than kerbabs =P

We met Karine, who is from SMU and currently on exchange in Spain. We played many games of bridge which were very thrilling =) More games to come when we go back k!

19^th April(Sunday) – Porto Day 3

On Sundays, most of the shops are closed. We had pastries lunch and Royal Bacon in Mac.

Lenny and I parted ways with Chris and Karine at the Porto airport. We are leaving for Girona Airport where I will go to Paris Beauvais and Lenny for East Midlands.

20^th April(Monday) – Girona Airport, Paris, Lyon, Grenoble!

Len and I met Francesha, a Singaporean who is studying at the University of York at Girona Airport. I also met another Singaporean, Carmen who was on exchange in Paris. It is very nice to meet your fellow countrymen when you are many miles away from home =)

Carmen and I took the same flight to Beauvais airport. I walked for 1hour to Beauvais city centre to catch my TGV. My itinerary back is: Beauvais -> Paris Nord, Paris Gare de Lyon -> Lyon, Lyon -> Grenoble. A super long journey which lasted nearly 24hrs. Shag but fun, Tiring but worthwhile! Next trip: UK!