Durham, UK

durham.

it was a three hour rail ride to durham from london.. fatigue basically sent me sprawling on the carriage desks and we arrived in durham at around 1.30am..

breakfast was made up of leftover cornish pastry and digestive biscuits.. and i had to wait for yang's tutorial to end so that she could take me around town.. well, not that that took a long time.. durham downtown is extremely small, even by copenhagen standards.. in fact, i was done with touring in an hour.. haha..

but the town was picturesque and you somehow got the feeling you werewalking through a movie set.. the catheral and castle were basically THE BIGGEST tourist attraction and apparently some harry potter scenes were filmed there..

i tried a caramel treat from gregg's that yang was raving about.. it was basically caramel sanwiched between chocolate and all-butter shortbread. i think its funny how i have a sweet tooth but it takes some very precise ingredients to send me into a frenzy. i'm thinking ben's cookies here.. the caramel shortbread was good but a tad lacking in uniqueness.. but try it if you have the chance, it could just be your thang..

i have been to uk so many times but never had their fish and chips and i kept this experience exclusive to durham as yang had told me about a place that was supposedly pretty well-known for their fish and chips.

centrally located, bimbi's was the place to be and when we arrived there, it was pretty crowded with people either tucking into massive plates of fish and chips or sitting in silence before empty plates, very likely in semi-trance.

to sum up lunch in one word: 'Fantastic' with a capital 'F'. the haddock was about a foot long, undoubtly fresh and tender to the ickle fishbones.. but their secret lies in the batter which was brittly light and produced a neat crisp sound when disturbed.. now if only i had a tape recorder.. the fish was accompanied by baby-finger-sized fries that were slightly soft and sinewy-looking. with plenty of ketchup and vinegar on the fries, lunch was demolished in half the time it took to serve. pleasure.

we had dinner at the great hall in the university as it was a good way to meet yang's friends..having heard numerous horror cafeteria stories, i found dinner surprisingly edible.. i had the rosemary dumpling and lamb stew, while yang had the vegetarian marcoroni.. but what really saved the meal was the bakewell tart with custard. a yummy crumbly dessert drenched in luscious custard.. like what could possibly go wrong right?

after dinner, yang and i returned to her room where we relaxed by watching disney's beauty and the beast. growing up, disney cartoons were very much a way of life.. in fact, we watched it so much, my parents had to lock up all our video tapes (yeap, it was video TAPES back then) during the exam period so that we would not get distracted.. haha.. the cartoon was beautiful and even now, i find myself mesmerized the littlest details that accentuate the movie. be our guest.. be our guest.. in fact, right now, i am trying to download the little mermaid.. it's a pity what they have done with current animations.. don't you think that in the process of reinventing themselves, disney has lost its appeal?

on this trip, i fed swans and ducks at hyde park and watched disney cartoons.. i am so not convinced i'm actually turning 21 this year..

we proceeded to the 'unddy' which was a rather spacious pub on the school compound where students hang out since there was pretty much nothing esle to do.. basically it was just people-watching and there were groups of bar-crawlers, decked out in vintage golf attire, providing entertainment for the rest of us with their drunk antics. even in a bar could i find something to munch on- 'mars bars and white chocolate toastie'.. you got that right baby.. a toasted sandwich filled with oodles of melted chocolate- terrbibly ingenious creation.

the 8-hour night coach ride from durham to stanstead bordered on almost-hellish as i wasn't aware they would make so many stops in-between... it was tough to sleep on the bus as everytime there were new passengers, lights would be flicked on so that the bus conductor could check their tickets. but it was a small price to pay for so much fun!

at stanstead airport, i had a disappointing egg mayo sandwhich from boots and needed something sweet.. as usual.. attracted by the sight of millie's cookies with its chunks of cloying toppings that crowned each muffin. i knew i had to get one- my excuse: travel sickness.. millie's bestsellers include the blueberry muffin and the banana toffee muffin (which i opted for).. even without tasting it, i could just savour whiffs of the strong toffee aroma and though it somewhat overwhelmed the banana flavour, i didn't mind that one bit.. i like my muffin on the dense side and was pleased to note the further contrast between the hardy caramel top and soft spongey moist insides.. eating it warm+off the palm of my hands = more than delightful.. stud muffin...

so that pretty much wrapps up my gastro-adventures in london/durham.

my bed looks terribly inviting and i actually feel missed by the folks here.. =) my bathroom mate got a haircut from a hair school that he could not wait ti re-visit in april.. haha..

alrights.. stay tuned for belgium =)

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