A nice day in Lake District

Remember when I said every time I went out to some great events in London, it would definitely rain? When I planned to go to Lake District, I was so nervous because the earlier you got the train tickets, the cheaper it would be, but the only problem is the weather forecast could not predict what will happen two weeks later. So after I got the tickets, I was literally praying everyday for Mr. Blue sky and thank god it worked.

Lake District is actually a huge national park. I’ve been told the best way to travel there is trekking or living in a cottage for like a couple of weeks. My friends and I only got two days so we just went to Windermere. Everything looked fantastic with the sunshine. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming. There was a moment I totally forgot I still got to write a 15,000-word dissertation.

The wind was a little bit cold when we took the cruise. I suppose if we came like two or three weeks later, it wouldn’t be that cold. But again, weather issue. We chatted with local people and they said it rains a lot during summer. By the way, about the cruise, you need to be very careful with the timetable because it’s quite complicated…We missed the last one to Bowness-on-Windermere and when we finally got there the Peter the Rabbit shop was closed, sad. That was not good news for a group of people just finished a 15-mile journey. We also found out that if the group got more than four people, the cheapest way to travel there is taking a taxi. The price for public transportation is ridiculously high!

I had a wonderful time with my friends. When we got back I thought since I was in northern England, I could go to Liverpool and Manchester. I came back from Manchester to London on 20, May. Two days later I saw the tragedy happened there. To be honest I was shocked and frightened because I’m about to go to concerts with my friends in July. Since then every time when someone says “have a nice day” to me, whether that person means it or not, I really appreciate it. Because you never know what will happen, like the weather in Britain.

Have a nice day:)

 

 

It’s paintball time!

I’m a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory. The main characters love playing paintball and I’ll never forget when Sheldon “sacrifices” himself, says “geology is not a real science” and then got shot like a hundred times (never understand why he just hates geology). So when my classmate asked if anyone wanna join his paintball team, I raised my hand immediately. Well, I thought that would be the best way to celebrate after finishing nearly all the tests by shooting at some strangers, or the other way around.

But when we got the paintball field, I suddenly realized it would be more like “the other way around”. We thought we would fight each other, that felt kind of fair cause we were all rookies. It turned out all the players together were separated into two teams. That’s totally different! Some people got plans for each map, they had professional gears, even the way they shot looked like real soldiers and I saw some people even crawling in the mud. The only thing I knew was we got to wear overalls, that’s it. We played six maps and almost every time I just followed those professionals and waited until the time was up.

Looked quite happy–before the fight…

However, when the fight actually started, waiting behind was not a good idea either. The paintball gun is quite heavy and the bullets have really unpredictable trajectories. There were a lot of obstacles and trees on the battlefields, which means you think you are shooting at someone, but in the end the bullet can go literally anywhere. A friend of mine got “killed” almost every time by stray bullets.  Besides, all the players were wearing camouflage and googles, you can only tell who’s on your team or not by a very small armband and that was not helpful at all. So, when everybody looked nearly all the same and with those random shots, you can imagine what kind of chaos that could be.

And when I was struggling to survive, some players were either really into it or just being weird. My friend said one of her teammate asked her, “Can I shoot you?” and then the person said “just feel like doing so”.  I guess…I don’t know, shell-shock??? Also I’m not trying to blame anyone, but some people, unlike those professionals, they were just shooting at wherever they wanted. When I was lying on the ground, tried to figure out which way to push forward, I got shot twice on the back by friendly fire. I mean, come on guys! I was fighting for you! L Lots of unexpected things could happen on the battlefield, like someone rushed out of nowhere, tried to cross the bridge, and didn’t realize there were 10 enemies waiting right in front of him and yelling “we only got five seconds left, shoot everything you have!” And then it was just like what Sheldon did…

“Geology isn’t a real science!” scene.

 

Anyway, I had a wonderful day, even I was exhausted in the end. It was quite painful when I got shot by these plastic bullets. Imagine what the real bullets will be like and what how cruel it can be in a real war. I guess that’s something worth thinking about.

BAFTA red carpet:cold but happy

I never thought I could get a chance to see a red carpet ceremony. I mean, although I study at Regent and there are so many film premieres at Leicester Square, I never went to those things because I have too many classes. But this time it’s BAFTA, and the ceremony was actually on my birthday, so I did whatever I can to get that precious wristband. One thing I couldn’t understand is that some people queued for the wristband on Friday or even Thursday, but it wasn’t handed out until Saturday morning. I really can’t imagine how they survived in the night. I just queued for about two hours in the morning and I couldn’t feel my legs cause that was way too cold. Besides, I said it was raining almost every time I went to some big events, this time it was snowing! I guess I must be REALLY lucky…

But getting the wristband is just the beginning. The next day, Sunday, I needed to be there at noon to queue for entering, while the ceremony wouldn’t begin until 4.30 pm. A lot of people went there much earlier than I did, but I just couldn’t get up and I thought if let me standing in this weather for six or seven hours, I would be literately freeze to death. Even so, I still waited for four hours to actually see a star I could recognize. That was amazing. There were lots of Harry Potter fans, more than you could imagine. Eddie Redmayne, he came quite early, and he signed almost everyone, except me, cause fans next to me begged him to take a photh with them and then he just kept walking. That would be fine cause I’ve never watched or read anything about Harry Potter. But, then, I don’t think I will get another chance to get his autograph…sad.

Anyway, at least I could see all those actors and actresses I love and they were actually walking in front of me. I got the autograph of Luke Evans, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, and Simon Pegg! That was a real surprise cause I checked who would attend the red carpet but his name wasn’t on the list. And I also got one from Lin-Manuel Miranda~ I could never afford the ticket for Hamilton but that doesn’t matter cause I met its creator! ~ This is the best birthday I’ve ever had:)

A rainy Spring festival

Celebrating spring festival in Britain is quite different that in China. Because no matter what, this is a different country with different cultural and traditions. Actually even in China we have various traditions to celebrate this festival, based on where you are from. For example, as I know in southern China, people don’t eat dumplings at the lunar new year’s eve. I’m from central China and we have something quite unique. People always think we will have a banquet on the new year’s eve to celebrate, but in my hometown, we have that banquet during the week before the new year’s eve. We invite all the family members, have a small ceremony to worship our ancestors, and we must have certain number of dishes, usually that magic number is 10. Among those dishes, there must be a whole fish and nobody is allowed to eat that fish. It serves as a token for happiness and fortune, because there is a Chinese idiom “Every year has enough things to spend” and in Chinese the word fish, “yu”, share the same pronunciation with the word for enough (I never know this is so hard to explain when you write in English). Anyway, we don’t eat that fish then but we will have it on the first day of the new year. We won’t waste it.

Here in London, or perhaps in the West, most people celebrate Christmas and New Year, January 1^st. I went to the Christmas carol service at St Paul’s on Christmas eve. That was amazing. For Chinese New Year, there was a celebration at Trafalgar square on January 29^th. I went there with my friend. We were so exciting before we got there, thinking there might be something special. But, it was raining, AGAIN! I mean, I went to see the New Year’s parade and it was raining cats and dogs. I basically saw nothing and I got drenched, thankfully in the end my friend came to save me with her umbrella. So I guess maybe raining is the best way to celebrate anything in this country. Maybe here we should do the water-sprinkling festival.

But rain means something good will happen in the coming year, especially rain in spring. Because it brings water to the field and water is crucial for farming. Raining in spring means in autumn there will be a good harvest in autumn. However, raining all the time may have some different meaning. In 2016 we’ve seen a lot of, disasters, that’s the only word I can use to describe. Hopefully, 2017 will be a good year for everybody, although based on what has happened recently, it feels like a wishful thinking.

My friends and I had a great dinner on the new year’s eve. Those dumplings were made by ourselves. Most of us never made dumplings before but we all thought that was the best way to celebrate. No matter what lies ahead, happy Chinese new year!

Watching films in London

When it comes to films, people always think of Hollywood blockbusters, or in other words, American films. But British films, with the unique styles, fascinating stories, brilliant actors and talented directors such as Christopher Nolan and Richard Curtis, also have great reputations in the industry.  Maybe you are not a Star Wars fan cries like a baby at the end of Rogue One, I suppose you will always smile while watching Love Actually during the holiday season.

Watching films in London is an entirely new experience for me. First of all, most of cinemas have 2D version, that’s just fantastic. I know 3D is a fancy technology that can make films look more ‘real’, but I really don’t like those glasses. You can also find more art films to watch and even some classic black-and-white films. I highly recommend Regent Cinema and BFI Southbank. BFI has the best archive and they have special screenings every month, for example in this January it’s all about Martin Scorsese. Regent Cinema is downstairs at the Regent campus and they have a special discount for UoW students. If you buy tickets for their double-bill, that means watching two films for one night, there will be an additional discount. Since I study at Regent and I love films, you can’t imagine how happy I was when I found out that.

I don’t like 3D that much but I do love IMAX. I go to BFI IMAX quite a lot cause they often show documentaries. I’m not 100% sure if IMAX is the most suitable method for action films, some directors even use that for romantic films, which I really don’t get it. But I truly believe it’s the best way for documentaries, especially those about space and the planet earth. Watching this beautiful blue planet shown on the enormous screen, you can totally understand how precious she is and how tiny we are.

If you want to be more excited, you can try the ‘screen unseen’ or whatever it’ll be called by different cinemas. It means the name of the film won’t be revealed, you will never know what you’re going to watch until the very moment when the rating certificate pops up on the screen. The ticket can be quite cheap and the cinema guarantees for such screening they will choose “films that are going to be classic in the future”. Based on my experience, it truly is. And if a film is extremely popular, maybe something like this will happen:

Poor little monster…

My friends always say I spend too much time in cinema. I don’t argue with them. Sometimes even I myself feel the same. But when the lights go off, all the audience start focusing on the screen, laugh at every joke, cry at every tragedy. Maybe we come from different countries, maybe we can’t understand each other’s language, but we all enjoy this magical moment. To me, that’s the best part.

 

The Fireworks Festival

November 5 is a traditional British festival called Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night. People set up bonfires and shoot off fireworks to celebrate the failing of Gunpowder Plot. Each year many famous places hold special fireworks displays. This year I went to the Fireworks Festival at Alexandra Palace.

Alexandra Palace is on a hill in the north London. When you climb up to the top you can see almost the whole city at the south side. Besides the fireworks festival, it also has an ice rink, a German Beer Festival and a play field for children. The only trouble on that day is the weather: it was freezing cold! My friend and I tried to find the bonfire. Unfortunately, we got lost because there were so many people. In the end, we decided to find some hot drinks. Obviously, everybody thought the same because we waited for nearly half an hour to buy coffee. But, at the very moment when we just paid and waited the barista to make our drinks, the electricity was gone! Not only the coffee shop but all the stalls in the same area. People were literally screaming when suddenly all the lights were out. Luckily a few minutes later the electricity was back and we were all cheering. It sounded like the special sound effects for a sitcom.

Before the fireworks show there was a half-an-hour laser show. They set up a man-made fog to create better visual effect for the lasers. The fireworks started at 8 pm. To my surprise, both shows had background music. The host chose quite a lot hit songs with strong beats so people could dance with the music. It felt like a huge party. Besides, dancing made me feel warm. One segment came with Adele’s Hello and all of sudden everyone started to sing along with it. What a concert!

The show only lasted for about 30 minutes. Although the weather was freezing, it was totally worth it. Just think about it, how many times in your life you can sing together with 10,000 people? The atmosphere was wonderful, feels quite similar to our Spring Festival: everyone’s happy and enjoy themselves. The show was called “north London’s legendary firework display”. It truly is legendary.

 

Chocolate Show @ Olympia

Last Sunday I went to Olympia Exhibition Center for the Chocolate Show. I got a 50%-off entrance ticket from Timeout.com. I guess when you come to UK, almost everyone will recommend this website to you. It has the latest updates about films, concerts, plays, and so on. Sometimes it has special offers that can save quite a lot for you. Check out this website once in a while and maybe you can find something fascinating.

The Chocolate Show is part of the London Chocolate Week. The show attracted a lot of people and at noon there was a long queue at the front door. Many famous chocolate shops had their exhibition stands. And of course, it’s a show about food, so the most important part is definitely tasting~ Almost every shop offered small pieces of chocolate for people to taste. However, some flavors were really, well, let’s just call that unique. Like this one, Dark Chocolate with Goji Berries. To be honest, as a Chinese I found it tasted really weird. And normally we don’t put goji berries in desserts. We use them to make medicines.

Besides these special flavors, some shops used chocolate to make shoes, tools and greeting cards. I thought no one would eat them because they were so beautiful. There were exhibitors used chocolate to build houses and Christmas trees. That’s not about food anymore. That is art.

Speaking of art, I guess some of you may know last year a chocolate artist, Jen Lindsey-Clark, created a chocolate figure called Chocobatch and earlier this year she made Cumberbunny. These two were based on the shape (face) of Benedict Cumberbatch. This time her team brought Chocolate Queen. It’s not hard to tell who inspired her. But I always think human-shaped food is a little bit creepy. I do love these fantastic creations and appreciate the artists’ hard work. But think about it, if you let me eat one of them, where should I start? Head?

The show also had some clothes with accessories made of chocolate. There was a chocolate fashion show at 5pm but unfortunately I had to leave early. All the chocolate tasted excellent (except the goji berry one, sorry). There’s no doubt this is the most delicious exhibition I’ve ever been to.

Breathtaking view@Sky Garden

Before I came here I’d read an article called 20 Places You Have to Go in London.  It was written by a famous Chinese blogger, she always write something about living in London. And the first place she recommended was Sky Garden. Not only because it has a breathtaking view, but also the entrance ticket is free, all you need to do is book a place in advance. As being a student who really worries about money issues, Free sounds absolutely attractive.

However making a reservation is not an easy thing at all. I guess because it’s free there are lots of people want to go up and see this wonderful city.  It took me three days to finally get a ticket and that was the last one for the day. After I came back one of my friends said why I didn’t ask her to go with me,  I said I really wanted to, only if I could get another ticket.

I have to say weather in London is really unpredictable. When I arrived there it was sunny, the sky was blue, I thought I could take lots of great photos. But three minutes later when I got out of the lift, it looked like there would be a storm or something, that was quite frustrating.

But the view truly is breathtaking. The skyline of London is totally different from the one of my hometown. In China people are obsessed with building higher and higher skyscrapers. Every time I went to Shanghai I felt intimidating, at some places I couldn’t even see the sky because those glamours glass buildings were just too tall. On this 35th-floor garden I could see so far away I thought I probably saw the edge of this city.  I saw Tower Bridge, the Tower and London eye, kind of figure out where should I visit in the coming weeks. There was a sign on a window said you could see the Olympic Park from there,  unfortunately I couldn’t.

Just like its name, Sky Garden is literally a garden. There are lots of plants, which made me wonder how did they grew plants on the 35th floor of a modernized building. I saw people from all over the world, they all came here to enjoy this beautiful view . I guess that’s why this place is so popular.

LES MISÉRABLES @Queen’s Theatre

I have a CD of the Les Mis 25 anniversary concert, I’ve been listening to that for quite a long time. That one is very impressive with wonderful cast and crew, every time when I heard Bring Me Home with four Valjeans I just could not stop crying.

In China, musical is kind of a new thing, we do have musical fans, one of my friends is a life-long fan of almost everything related to musical, but still, compared with other fan groups there aren’t many of them. 

It’s not easy to get the tickets. Well, it’s quite obvious, this is one of the most famous musical shows in London. I went there with 6 other classmates and the only type we could afford was on the upper circle. The theater is not large so if we leaned a little bit forward we could still get a great view. And the audience, all of us, we were so excited to be there.

Live is totally different from CD. The sound effect, the set, the performance, even incidents. The first half was supposed to end after One Day More, but they had some technical problems so it paused for about 5 minutes before that, luckily it didn’t take long and then everything went well.

The cast is extraordinary. Before I went there my musical-lover friend gave me a quick lesson about this company, but when I actually heard them singing it was really an eye opener. Jeremy Secomb, who plays Javert, I just fell in love with him when he sang Stars. I guess because I started from watching that Tom Hooper film and Mr. Russell Crowe’s Javert is really, well I should say at least he tried. Anyway after that every time when Javert comes up I feel quite nervous cause I really want to hear something good. Mr. Secomb has done a great job and he truly deserves the round of applause at the end of the show.

3 hrs is really not a long time, at the end of the show, everybody stood up and kept clapping until the last person got of the stage. People were crying, laughing, some of them singing together with the actors. I guess this is why we love going to live concerts and shows, because this is the place we can actually feel it and share the moment with people around you.

There, out in the darkness
A fugitive running
Fallen from god
Fallen from grace
God be my witness
I never shall yield
Till we come face to face
Till we come face to face