26 - 30 June 06: Final Stop at Cambridge
After 8 days on the road, we finally reached our final stop in Cambridge 3 days before Daniel's convocation. On our first evening, as we made our way to an Indian dinner and had walked past the legendary apple tree which Isaac Newton had sat under (see picture above), we sighted Stephen Hawking along Trinity Street (for the record, it was Monday 26 June 2006 at 7.15 pm)! We only realised it after we walked past his wheelchair just after his wife had helped him out of the car. What a moment to savour, having been just inches away from a great mind! According to Daniel, he has to use a pseudonym when he delivers a lecture as many curious tourists have been known to trespass just to get a glimpse of him. Here's the great man (from an internet photo) himself.
The next day, Angela, our niece who works in London, came up to meet us for lunch at the Market Square. After that we went punting on the River Cam. It was quite like dodgem cars on water as all the punters were doing it first time and crashing into each other! Good thing, the collisions were all gentle affairs unless you put your hand or fingers on the sides (OUCH!) All the guys had a go at it and we all know now for sure that Hon Leong can't punt to save his life:) Anyway, he did what he does best as the picture below shows...
Here's one showing the famed Mathematical Bridge which is supposed to be built without the use of nails ...
After all that effort, we went to have a real English Tea with scones served with jam and whipped cream and Hon Leong's favourite apple crumble with custard...
On the 3rd day, we took a train down to London to have dimsum at Soho, visit Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, Covent Garden and then have dinner at the famous Bays Water roast duck restaurant. Evidence of the fun...
29 June: Daniel's convocation - here are the pictures of family and friends...
And some behind-the-door ones like this...
and this one showing the window that Hon Leong dislodged at great peril to his life (it weighed a ton!) and at great cost to Pembroke!
24-25 June: Bath
Leaving the Lake District, we headed southwards towards Bath with a lunch-stop at Birmingham. After idyllic Ambleside, Bath was all gentility a la Jane Austen with slanted rows and rows of terra cotta terrace houses and balmy weather. A cricket field with the game underway just next to where we put up completed the picture. In between visiting the Roman Bathhouse and the Weir, we made an excursion to Stonehenge which was rather a let-down. Anyway, here's a collage of those moments...
22 - 23 June :
" I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze"
Wordsworth, 1804
From Scotland, we made our way down to the Lake District. After meandering along the narrow lane by Lake Windermere, we reached Ambleside and went in search of Cote How Guest House.
It's a delightful historic house and we stayed in the Rydal Suite which was once the studio of a local artist Frederick Yates who had painted the ex-American president, Woodrow Wilson beneath the skylight in the suite.
Ancient it definitely was as the wooden floors were not even and the great bath tub had no tap mixer and we had to use the kettle as a make-shift shower (see how Andrew got his hair washed...notice his World Cup boxers?)
Swallows nested in the barn behind the house where a river ran into Lake Grasmere. Mr Harry, the rabbit and his family lived in a hutch in the front garden and friendly Tippy, the owner's golden retriever were all on hand to make our stay there so idyllic.
A rainbow even appeared the next morning to greet us...
Nobody visits the lakes without taking a walk to figure out how such perambulations inspired the poetry of Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley. Although the daffodils had come and gone (in early spring it seems), we did pass Dora's Field, a daffodil plot that Wordsworth bought for his daughter just next to his house in Rydal...
More shots of our looong trek round Lake Grasmere...
On the morning of our departure, an injured badger was found nearby and our host, David Welch, a former park ranger, was on hand to rescue the poor creature...
17jun: Glasgow after 25 years
17 June: Flew in to Glasgow and were met by Kwong Ming and our Daniel (who'd mistakenly arrived a day earlier from his Sweden holiday) at the airport. Really touched by KM and Linda's hospitality, fetching, feeding and housing us! Upon our arrival, we trooped off to University Gardens to show Daniel and Andrew where we'd studied, stayed at and sought fellowship. First stop was the campus to revisit its awesome Gothic (now then notice lah:)) architecture. Next was a walk to the 21 Huntley Gardens basement flat, our first matrimonial home. The place looked the same albeit with back garden spruced up (see pix below showing kitchen window, meaning that the kitchen is none the worse, even after Alan Tan nearly burnt it down 25 years ago!) 
After some fish and chips along Byres Road to assuage HL's craving, we popped over to the Botanics across the road to rest and work off before our dinner date with the Chung folks at Wilton Street. And nobody should find the doorway to 2 Melrose Street unfamiliar!
Mr and Mrs Chung were thrilled to bits that we'd visited although there was some confusion with dates and they'd ordered pigs' lungs for the day after (hing ah!). They are such dear folks who'd rented a room to HL in his first year. It was good to see them still sprightly even after retirement. Pity all their 5 kids (now adults with their own kids some more) are now based in other cities and countries. KM and Linda, who joined us later, did renew friendship and invited them to the church fellowship. Dinner was a grand feast as they fussed over us.
18 June: The next day, a Sunday, we joined KM and Linda to attend both the Cantonese and English services, located a stone's throw from GCCF centre. The Chinese church there has grown by leaps and bounds. Now it's the English-speaking service that's the smallest group as there's a core group of Cantonese and a growing Mandarin-speaking community of believers. Chi Khen, Anita, KM and Linda have really been stalwart in serving the Chinese church in Glasgow. Do continue to support them in prayer, especially as they seek His will concerning buying their own church space.
The worship for the English service was ably led by Nora (Chi Khen's daughter), Wayne (Kwong Ming's youngest son) and Oswald (Meng Yin's son). Praise God for how the next generation have been blessed and love Him wholeheartedly.
We next went to Baird Hall (it's being turned into a hotel!) for a lunch meeting with Moira Tierney followed by a walk around Sauchiehall St and St George's Square.
In the evening, KM and Linda hosted a potluck gathering in our honour. We had great fellowship with the families of Chi Khen and Anita, Leong and Fiona, Meng Yin and Choi Chun, Mr and Mrs Lo, Leslie, Tricia MacGuigan, Susan Leitch, Mrs Chung, and many others roped in to cook up another grand feast. The house was abuzz with the thick Scottish accent ...what nostalgia! Here are shots of some of those present:
19 June: After spending 2 nights at KM and Linda's, we rented a car to head north through Fort William right up to Inverness to find Nessie. Here she is!
After that it was southeastward towards Edinburgh. But we made a stop at Aviemore where Daniel and Andrew did some claypigeon shooting at 30GBP each (everything's quite ex in the UK now!). Alan, the instructor, was quite impressed with the boys' shooting skills, thanks to NS training.
After a pizza lunch stop at Perth, we reached Edinburgh but not before we got lost until my Google map came to the rescue. 'Auld Reekie', Scotland's capital city was colder (to me at least) than Inverness as the winds sliced through the Royal Mile and Princes' Street. Here's a collage of shots of the Edinburgh castle, Holyrood and Arthur's Seat.
22 June: We left Edinburgh to visit Mrs Vera Anderson at her beautiful retirement village at Auchlochlan but not without a stopover at Rosslyn Chapel which turned out to be just a tiny quaint building undergoing renovations now to cope with the Da Vinci Code fever! Anyway, Cheapo us didn't pay to go in but just got some shots of the exterior and a CCTV capture of the interior below.
Where Mrs Anderson is putting up, a small self-sufficient flat that has a chapel and club-like facilities, is really paradise! Here are shots showing the cafe where we had lunch and her flat. BTW, when I tried to pay the lunch bill, we discovered that it had already been settled by one of her friends from another table whom we discovered later, to be an admirer of her godliness. Isn't that awesome?
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR...
22-23
June: Ambleside, Lake District.
24-25
June: Bath and Stonehenge
26-29
June: Cambridge (& London)
After all that effort, we went to have a real English Tea with scones served with jam and whipped cream and Hon Leong's favourite apple crumble with custard...
17 June: Flew in to Glasgow and were met by Kwong Ming and our Daniel (who'd mistakenly arrived a day earlier from his Sweden holiday) at the airport. Really touched by KM and Linda's hospitality, fetching, feeding and housing us! Upon our arrival, we trooped off to University Gardens to show Daniel and Andrew where we'd studied, stayed at and sought fellowship. First stop was the campus to revisit its awesome Gothic (now then notice lah:)) architecture. Next was a walk to the 21 Huntley Gardens basement flat, our first matrimonial home. The place looked the same albeit with back garden spruced up (see pix below showing kitchen window, meaning that the kitchen is none the worse, even after Alan Tan nearly burnt it down 25 years ago!) 
