Dragon Boat Race

It was a lovely Sunday (2-Sept-07) morning and my aunt was suggesting the previous night that we go to the dragon boat race held at Hanningfield Reservoir nearby. It is an event for the 50th anniversary celebration of Essex & Suffolk Water. Before going out, aunt's friend called to ask for extra hand for her team as their drummer was injured and was unable to attend. Aunt suggested me....

I was shocked and surprised that me, a spectator, suddenly turn into a participant!! So we head out. It was amazing seeing so many people at the lakeside waiting for the event to start off. The main control tent of the event

There were actually 16 teams participating but one of them pulled out... or chickened out? So this is aunt's friend, Caroline, who's very friendly. Our team members were all wearing viking horns.

And this is our team... named "Hidden Tiger Crouching Dragon Boat" What do you think about that name? cool? Soon it's our turn... and there we are listening to the briefing and preparing ourselves. That white t-shirt guy with 2 hands stretching is me. I'm standing in front as I'm their drummer.. We compete against the green shirt guys who were beside us.
So we went off... and this is the first round...
Crossing the finishing line, just a close win, with our time nearly at the bottom of the chart. LOL~~
This were other teams competing...
This is the second round for our team and we had a great win over the same team in first round... but sadly our time only improved 0.21 seconds... we had fun though.
Then it's time to have lunch and I had this. Chinese stir fry with sweet & sour chicken, costing £4.50. The other choices are with vegetables or curry. There were other food around as well. After that, it was our final round but sadly we failed badly as we even lose to the previous team which we won twice.
So this is the winning trophy. What do you think? I think they were stunning.
This is the time chart in the end of the qualifying rounds. The fastest 4 teams compete in the final round. Here is the video of the final round.

In the end, the winning team is "Super Heroes"!! How great were their costumes...

This is the announcer's car. He had been in Dragon Boat events for many years, so his car's number... DRA66ON = DRAGON. This registered number must had cost him a bomb.

For more official photos, go to www.dragonboatevents.com and click for Events > September - Oct > Sunday 2nd September - Billericay, Essex - camera icon and look at the photos. You can spot me in 2 of the photos. Sorry that I can't provide the direct link of the photo page as the page is in Flash format.

1 year ago....

1 year ago... at this moment... I'm still on the plane with 4 more hours reaching Heathrow Airport.
1 year later, now, at this moment... I'm sitting here bored waiting to work... and writing blog.

Should I say happy 1st birthday for my stay in England?

The Orsett Show

First day of September, that's last Saturday, I went to The Orsett Show with aunt and granny. The Orsett show is a traditional agricultural town show held in Orsett since 1895. The show provides a mix of both town and country attractions to provide a great family day out with plenty for all the family to see and do.
The weather was fine that day, sunny, windy but not freezing. The entrance cost £9 per person but you can stay there for whole day and watch any shows. Too many shows to see though. You can even go out the show ground and come back again whenever you want.
I didn't took many photos of the crowds, more focussed on the events. The first event which caught my attention was the motorcycle show. They really got guts to do that. There are 2 riders taking turns to showoff their skills and in the end, they both 'fly' together...

Sorry about the video, it was not taken properly as I can't see the screen of my camera.

After that, I went around the tents... and I saw this...
Our very own Proton Satria Neo on display... this is the basic 1.3L version, selling at £7995. I wonder how are the sales figures....

Agriculture Tent

It was very interesting seeing that there are competitions going on. Contestants brought their best harvested fruits or vegetables to enter the competition and the judges will judge the best of all.

Potatoes

Cacti

Carrots

Tomatoes

Home-made Wine

Flowers

The Heaviest: pumpkins and marrows

other categories are like cabbage, onions, turnips and etc. That's for the agriculture tent...

Arts & Crafts tent

Basically I didn't took many photos as most of them were arts. This is the baking contest where the concept is basically similar to the one above.

This is the one which impressed me. How are the ships look? Nice? Printed? Postcard? No. They were painted by hands on a piece of stone!! This marine artist really impressed me. He can draw every ship in the world as he has all of the ships' informations.
So much for the art & craft tent... we move on to the outdoors...

Steam engines

So here is the steam engines' show. As you can see, this one below is huge, and it's the biggest in all others.
while this one.... is the smallest... cute eh? even the whistle sounds so cute..
This is 1 of the 2 early steam rollers in the show...
and this... is the oldest engine. And it's my favourite. It looks like a sports car design though.. Long wheel base and low central of gravity.
Coming up next is the classic cars' show. As of space reason, and I know readers are not fan of cars, I just show you this picture. Behind the classic cars are the steam engines earlier on.
That's all the shows that I was able to watch. Some random photos below to share with you all...
This wooden cow here is for you to milk it. Of course, brown fake wooden cow comes with brown fake milk...
This is one of the horse in the stables. There was a horse race later in the afternoon which I was unable to watch due to time limit.
Horse shoe making... which is interesting to see. I think this industry is becoming rarer nowadays.
And this is the photo which I like the most in all the photos which I took that day. I don't really know the reasons though. Just like it.

Anyway, other than the above events, there are still dog shows, donkey rides, amusement park, terrier racing and etc which I was unable to see. Farm rare breeds were available as well. There was also helicopter rides which cost £25 per person for don't know how long is the ride.

That's the Orsett Show.

Day Trip to Croydon

*This is an overdue post again*

Next day after the Notting Hill Carnival (Part 1 & Part 2), I went straightly to Croydon, which is the south of London. As it was out of the tube network, I need to either take a train or tram from Wimbledon to get there. I never tried the tram before, so I decided to get to Wimbledon to catch a tram.
That's the outer view of the Wimbledon train station where I drop off from tube to continue my journey by tram from the same station. Journey took around 30 minutes from Wimbledon to Croydon.
This is the tram on the street of Croydon. What's the difference between train and tram? train doesn't go into the streets, while tram does. Train has higher ground clearance, but when you sit in the tram, you feel like cruising just above the ground. Trams are electric buses.

So why did I went to Croydon?
Well... I went to the Home Office. The Home Office building is called Lunar House. I went there for my appointment of changing my visa.

My appointment was at 11.30a.m. but I need to be there by 11a.m. I arrived and queued up starting 10.30a.m. Got my number at 11.35a.m. then went upstairs for further process. It was a long wait at the counters... At around 12.30p.m. my number was called and the process went on quite smoothly. They informed me that I'll need to wait for 2 hours to get my documents back. So I went for lunch!!

I had buffet lunch as it was quite cheap. £4.50 for around 20 types of food to choose. Bargain!! and it tasted like home cooking. As usual, I was too hungry and enjoying the food too much then I forgot to took photos of what I ate.

After that I walked around Croydon town centre as I still got plenty of time. As I browse through the products in a computer shop, I saw this unusually huge universal remote control for TV and etc. You can estimate its size by using the batteries to the left. Those who use this remote must have swollen fingers...
Went to Whitgift Shopping Centre after that. It's the largest shopping complex in Croydon.
Centrale which is opposite to Whitgift. Didn't manage to go as I ran out of time.
As I went back to Lunar House, a lad asked me if I could speak mandarin. I was asked to help a crying girl who stood there with a luggage. I spoke mandarin, she looked at me, I spoke English, she looked at me as well.. She only told me she come from Mongolia. No wonder she doesn't understand either Mandarin or English. She gave me 2 pieces of paper in her hands showing some handwritings of "She need to immigrate, please help her" and another piece written "Home Office". Then the guard came out then brought her into the building and found out that she is only 16 years old. The guards asked for help from the minor section then I went into the office as I was in a hurry.

I arrived just in time to collect my documents and my passport. Before I went on my journey back to London, I took a short walk again to the next tram station. This market reminds me of pasar malam...
In the end of the day trip... I got myself this....
A visa which wrote Residence Permit under the participation of International Graduates Scheme... which I can work full time for a year. The one upside down is my student visa which is actually still valid.

So... when will I get my job??

Notting Hill Carnival Part 2

Continued from Part 1

26 August 2007
Children's Day

There are not really too many people around the carnival route but it was enough to clog up tubes and walkways. We were lucky to get a place beside the route.
It started around 12p.m.. The First electric car came up as the sponsor and the huge truck came after it with big ass sound system which can blow your head off. You can see from the video below.
The sound system was so huge that the sound pumped by the sound system can affect your digest system. My camera can't even get the sound nicely.

As the parade passed by, this costume caught my attention. What does that look like? Some bird right? Imagine more.... what are you thinking....
Does that look like huge erected testicles with huge balls hanging.... especially it's at that position... =.=" That guy who wears it must be happy... and whoever designed this costume must be gay...

More photos are in the video clip at the end of this post.

27 August 2007
Adults' Day

Due to some delays, we arrived quite late that day. Didn't really manage to catch some special photos in the parade, but caught some photos on the street. Millions of Londoners, party-goers, tourists and etc were clogging up streets in Notting Hill area. All you can see is people, huge sound system, tonnes of booze (alcohol drinks), sexy hot chicks, police... and of course... tonnes of rubbish around.


I didn't try the food as I'm broke already. sad. Too much to try also.

Anyway, this testicle with 2 balls bird outfit appeared again next day... gee.... with different guy wearing it... and with a reflective vest!! What's going on!?!?!?
What are the Chinese girls doing in the Caribbean carnival?
Here is the video, but before that, just wanna inform that the quality of the video is worst of worst as I can't get the original video uploaded. The uploaded video is a compressed version so the quality is quite bad. Anyway, enjoy...

Nottinghill Carnival Part 1

*Finally come up with my carnival trip as I was too lazy to edit the pictures and videos. Sorry about that*

I arrived London at 25th August in longer time than I thought. It was unexpected that there is engineering works happening half way of the rail track. I was forced to change bus at Billericay to Laindon to continue my journey.
Damn the train delayed 20 minutes then forced to change train again at Upminster due to some faults. I continued my journey by tube as I was fed up. I arrived around 2 hours later than usual time. Went for a nice meal after that with my mate and off to the carnival!!

It was around 4.30pm when we arrived Hyde Park where the first day's event took place.
The weather was fine and many people were there enjoying the sun and holiday and of course, the carnival!!

First day of the carnival is the National Panorama Championship which Steel Bands take part to compete against each other. Wondering what is steel bands? Basically, steel music is a type of Carribean music which their instruments were mostly made of steel. Thinking of pots and pans and those big steel oil barrels? Well, not pots and pans of course... they are professionals though.
How were they sound like then? Watch the video below. First part of the video is the practice session of one of the bands and second part is another band in the competition. There were altogether 7 groups competing that day as it was the finals.

That's the end of Nottinghill Carnival Day 1, National Panorama Championship.
This photo was taken at around 6.30p.m. Love it.

Part 2 for day 2 and 3 coming up shortly...