出乎意料的发现来自自行车王国的我拿起英国的自行车还是有点不知所挫.

或许是中学时代骑得都是简易的老式自行车,一个踏板两个轮子什么问题都解决了.现在买的车,虽说不是什么好东西,可也有前三后七,十个齿轮21个变挡.买了车后闹了很多笑话.先是不知道怎么换挡,或者根本对档位没有概念,每次换还停下来搞不好还用手拨弄.还好这种笑话只出了两三次.最后去COUNCIL BOOK了一个自行车教练,一下子解决了我很多实际问题.从保养维护到上路安全一次性给我了一个全面的介绍.

刚开始上路的时候是下了很大决心冒了生命危险.先是在伦敦马路上根本没有自行车道,只能和公交车,汽车用一个车道.其次是左边行驶,搞得我完全没有方向.于是就出血投资了很多安全器具:头盔,萤光外衣,夜灯,防滑手套,等等.上路后背了一个很大的包,包上再罩了一个萤光袋,人像整一个硕大的荧火虫;心想,现在让人家看不见我都难.

上路后才发现挑战重重.路本来就窄,其他的Cyclists看上去完全是从环法自行车赛上刚回来的,倔着高高的屁股,嗖嗖的从我身边擦过.尴尬先不说,5公里的路就骑得我上气不接下气.心里想这些老外真是STRONG呀!于是度过了很多一边骑车一边心里暗骂的早晨.

买车第二个星期,锁在楼下的自行车莫名其妙的不见了前轮.周围朋友一问才知道,原来英国人由于从小就DIY自己装卸自行车,个个都是修车高手,拿个轮子简单不在话下.所以在英国丢车不是一整辆而是一个零件一个零件的丢.郁闷的我只能再去买了两把锁,一把锁前轮一把锁后轮.心想虽然每天麻烦点,至少不用抬个自行车去找新轮子吧!谁知两个星期后两轮子安全无恙,坐垫却不翼而飞!对着空空的钢管,我实在是哭笑不得.

你也该猜到我现在有几把车琐了,外加一把锁车垫.后来想想还不放心,干脆就每天练举重,吓吓的扛到四楼放在房间里.

上个星期参加了从伦敦到Brighton的自行车赛事.55公里,七个小时,一路穿过一些最优美的乡村小路,冲过海边终点线面对万众欢腾,想想这也对得起那些折腾.

附上照片;看看我那些MEATY同事们.

Nothing exciting to write about. Guess i'd just upload some old pictures. At least you can see me smile. -To all friends.

 

 

 

今天公司的一个同事出事了.上午没见她来上班.说是被卡车撞了.两位女同事赶去了医院.

TEAM里四个助理,一下子少了三个.另外一个上个星期父亲病危,在办公室里接了医院打来的电话后在那里痛哭.

窗外初夏的阳光灿烂, 里面阴冷的气氛笼罩了整个楼面. 最令我感到不快的是周围人的冷漠.仿佛什么事也没有发生.他们照常打着他们的电话,开着各种玩笑,跑来跑去的赶着各种会议.欧洲部的一个经理路过,调侃我们的位子空间狭小.问我们是不是每天早上做MUSIC CHAIR游戏.每天少放一把椅子,音乐一停没抢到位子的人就会被解雇.大老板抱怨着没人事先跟他请假,一个TEAM中同时有两个人休长假.那头另外一个经理也在电话里唠叨,说自己这一年工作有多么辛苦,放弃了那么多假期,我发誓我在办公室里见到他的日子加起来不到一个月.

欧洲人,习惯休很长的假,一年的假期加起来是美国人的两倍.连我这个小员工,一年也有25天的带薪假.他们抱怨说每次休假前后都很STRESSFUL,一大堆事情处理,忙不过来.休假也累.

在生活中挣扎着的这些金领,他们该更多渴望加勒比海的阳光,欧洲的滑雪场,还是背着猎枪追逐飞禽野兽?CITY只是他们的另外一个游戏场.每天都是120分的精力,120分的利用时间.剩下来的时间就是健身房.生活如此简单?

 

I think most people would agree with me the horror of first seeing the narrowed corridor in the student hall. If people used to live in Finsbury Hall, well for those don't know, it's one of the student accommodation provided by our University, they would probably remember the long corridors with doors on both sides, very much assemble the picture from the movie Matrix.

I used to get used to the fact that students are supposed to live like that. Well, you are a penniless student what more do you expect. The concept of being a humble student didn't change until recently. It happened at work that i need to carry out a student housing research. Student housing, a rising market in UK, has been attracting more and more attention from developers, property companies and investment companies. The big profit margin and record performance is driving property companies to buy more buildings and convert to student housing. And you don't need a collegue degree to figure out why it is making so much money. The space of the room is minimised to in order to maximize the rent achievable of the whole building. If we're renting a room in uni accommodation, the rate is appr. 110 GBP per week. Commercial student housing cost about 120 above, with the highest of 200 per week. All that money you only get a 16 sq metre or smaller room. That is effectly producing twice the rent as a normal office building nearby. In a property market driven by the strong rental growth, students are effectively the best cash producing batteries, perfectly placed in those small cells while living a life.

Of course there are upside of those buildings, the life style, the social atmosphere, the crowd...and mostly the craziness and freedom you enjoy comparing to strictly ruled uni accomodations.

SO if you are interested in living a life with like-minded people in a brand new modern building next year and of course if you have the spare cash, there're two newly developed near uni. So check it out, why not

 

 

OR we can group together and find more economically housing!

 

 

 

Nothing beats sitting in a running train through the English countryside after a long tiring week working in the City. The narrowed street of central London crowed by black suits men was gone out of sight and instead all surrounded you was the nice green meadow streching your sight to the blue sky edge, which was for me, eye watering view after the long dark winter. Warm early summer sun shines recklessly upon on me and I feel every cell of mine relaxed and refreshing.

Travelling always give me the simple pleasure itself beside the excitement of what the destination brings. The idea of getting away sounds as exciting as, many times, the actual travel plan itself. This time for example, the very best opportunity of sitting one hour in the train, is provide by going to a theme park near Staines. Dressing like a buch of teenagers, we pretty much behaved like one for the whole day. Jumping up and down and eagerly joining the long queue, our childish behaviour did indeed bring us some long-lost happiness, releasing the very inner secrets from our hearts into the carefree, grass smelling fresh air.

Anyway, it is very pleasant to see the summer coming again.  Hope people share with me the same feeling.

太久没有上网,以至于今天一打开BLOG就被自己几个月前设置的背景吓了一跳.原来之前的心情也可以这么阳光灿烂的. :) 那就继续保持这个颜色好了,显的热闹一点.今晚没安排什么活动,就把原来COURSE上的几个人叫出来去了PUB, 几月不见,MAGDA的化妆技术似乎又进步了,下眼线不是画一条,只是在中间靠眼球处点了一点.现在是流行这样么?感觉像古时的日本女人,看的老不自在.

老板今天穿了一双红色的袜子,很久没见人那么没品位了,就问他"圣诞节来了么?为什么穿红袜?",一说出口就发现讲错话了,圣诞节人家只是挂袜子,也没见穿成这样的.老板很开心的回答我说因为今天是周末,他要cheer up一下．我也没话讲了，就跟在他后面看着一身黑色西服下露出的红点．如果看过动画片watership down的人应该记得里面那只兔子，我老板就长那样，而且神似，呵呵．

去ＰＵＢ之前又去见了另外一个朋友，迟到了一刻钟，就看见他一个人在广场的石阶上郁闷的坐着．今天是他的生日，我也没带什么礼物，就冷嘲热讽了他一顿以示安慰．想着人家一个月后可以重返校园重新做学生，我有说不出的轻松感．然后就赶紧盘算着怎么过接下来九个月的日子．工作的日子还是挺开心的，有时候辛苦点，可是可以学到很多东西．有的忙也有的玩，比起学校里清淡的日子也是滋润很多．

发现自己是很懒,上次更新是在MID-EXAM,现在已经到FINAL了.上半个学期过得好漫长,三个月像过了三年.Anyway, 现在期末了准备考试,无聊的时候看看之前的照片,娱乐一下.

好久没有清冰箱，几盒肉已经坏了，看来晚饭只能吃蔬菜了．前几天做饭，左手右手都被烫了一个小包．左手被烫时在做糖醋虾，闻着大虾的香味，一夜没睡的疲倦顿时无影无踪．（海鲜市场早上５点半到７点半营业，所以熬夜后一大早去买海鲜）那天我一个人扛了一小箱虾，三只大螃蟹，两条鱼和Ｎ只扇贝．回来之后特别有成就感．果然是勤劳才能吃上好东西．不过估计没车之前不会再去那个市场，实在是很辛苦．恩．说到吃就饿了．还是去做我的蔬菜晚餐吧．

 

出于各种原因,直到现在我家还是没能上网.可怜的我每天背着一个大包,游离于学校和ANGEL之间,像是无家可归的难民.从Lecture到Library再到Angel的各种Take away,再加上上个月接连四次的Interview,大二的生活比起大一,平淡确也充实.SPACE也很久没有更新,这次上传新年的几张照片.在国外过中国新年,居然还能找到一帮人很积极的聚在一起看春晚,做传统食物,想起来就很温馨了.

从埃及回来就在家里闭关准备考试,所以到现在才有传照片.不知道可否把VIDEO也传上去?有余量同学跳Belly dancing的，大家不可以错过：）这个假期过得很舒服，非常relaxing,特别是在felucca上的两天，就在尼罗河上漂呀漂的，晒太阳，听鸟叫声，无聊的时候擦擦眼镜：）面对埃及几千的文明，我也只能看看残留的古庙和神殿，我们的导游毕业于开罗大学考古系，还有一个相关的Master degree, 文化程度太高了，所以每次听他解说就感觉自己是幼儿园的小朋友听大学老师讲课。所以说这次去更多的是感受埃及的现实社会和当地民俗风情吧。

假期结束就开始现实生活了，新年的resolution就是好好学习（感觉是很久没有学习了），也好好的玩（想在欧洲跑跑，但一直没有backpacking的勇气）。

We left the hotel at around 9am and was surprised to see that the most shops in the street were still closed. Well, seems Chinese shops have the longest opening hrs in the world! Never mind, we decided to walk from the hotel to Cairo Tower, where we get to see the whole city. The tour guide told us it would take roughly half hour walking but actually it took us more than an hour. We were quite lost in the street because we neither had a map nor spoke the language. We asked about 8 people before we finally reached the destination. Cairo's traffic is just the worst i've ever seen. There are around 5 million cars in the great city and traffic can get seriouly bad. You would never expect the cars stopping for you and walking across the street is just the scarest thing!! the bus gets so crowed that you can ocassionally see people standing on the steps and have their  hanging outside the bus.

I've spent my first twenty years identifying who I am and there's one feature in my character that I have long realised and can never deny, which is the unwillingness to accept new things, things like new technology, new ideas, new way of living... MSN Space has been one of them. Hundreds of times have my friends suggested me open up my own space, and I sturbornly refused to accept it on the excuse of the limited time I got. However, after all the viewing friends' spaces and sharing their happiness and experiences, I find it actually a good place to establish something of your own and indeed, like its name says, have your own little space. This is why I start building this little webpage on the internet. I can't garantee I will keep this up-to-date but whatever I write I'll try to keep it true to myself. Hope all my friends could share a little bit of my happiness and sadness while enjoying their own.