Nottingham Castle Journey

“I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.” by Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet. 

Almost every city in UK, there will be a castle and cathedral. Owing to UK unique history, the places I visited so far has this kind of city structure. York, Nottingham, Lincoln, and more to come have their lovely church and castle even though most of them are smaller in size. 

Nottingham Castle is situated very near to the city, especially the Broadmarsh Shopping Mall. In normal days, the admission to Nottingham Castle is about  £5.50 (include museum, but exclude the underground tour). However, if there is any special event, maybe you can enter for free.  Basically, castles in UK are usually built in highlands, sames goes to Nottingham Castle. This gives an amazing panoramic view in the castle. 

The are two museums in Nottingham Castle, one is on hillside, another one is at the lowland just besides the Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem pub (famous pub). The entrance to both museums is included in the £5.50. However, as stated earlier, the underground tour cost me another £4, which was guided by a speaker explaining the origin and development of the castle. 

Nottingham is also famous of Robin Hood, being one of the most recognisable characters around the world. Oh yes, I didn't know that. So, whenever you are here, it is more than common to snap a photo with Robin Hood. Yup, bow and arrow is like his signature !!! 

The Renovation of My Little World from 2010 - 2014

In my latest blog design, I find myself going extremely simple in everything. Perhaps, I have matured along the way with high tendency to seek for a more convenient of life. Hahahaha, I believe I am experiencing the mid-life crisis. Anyway so far, it has been a year since I changed my theme. This time around, I was spending quite some time to do research on how to give a simple look on my blog. I removed all the fancy gadgets, background image and gave it a less clutter look. Other than that, here are some of the tips I used for my bloggie design, mainly referenced from http://helplogger.blogspot.co.uk/:

1. How to align the blog header image - this was quite a frustrating experience in blogger template adjustment. But the code from here solved my problem
2. How to optimise google search for blog post title -  As the post title always started with the blog title, this gives a less attractive search results for the posts. Please find the self-explanatory from here.
3. Removed the blogger bar (can be done now) which make my blog looks more clean.
4. Gave a new blogger image (^^) with description on who I am. Finally a mini-masquerade mask pic taken in Venice!
5. Gave a new blog header image, also taken in Venice.
6. Added the facebook like button, which is quite good for publicity. And, so far, only this post worked for my blog. 

This basically sum up the minor yet time-consuming edits!!!!!!! 

Just as life will always goes on and earth will always spin, My Little World has been transformed for so many times that I lost count. My regret now is that I did not save a printsceen of my blog designs previously. Thank goodness with https://archive.org/web/, I manage to retrieve some of blog interfaces I applied last time from 2010 and 2014. Yet, many were lost. 

Oh gosh, 2010 was a dark year for me? I don't exactly remember why it was so dark. Then 2011, I decided to go green, Oh yes, I still remembered the Japanese Garden's bridge which was used as the blog header pics.  

Then, in 2012, I decided to give a more messy design, which the background pics were taken in Dreamz Bakery . Over the year in 2013, I was back to simple design with brownish background.

In later of 2013, I was having a liking to yellow designs thanks to the Hard Rock image taken in Penang. As you can see in 2014, my life has gotten slightly complicated. Therefore, any simple gestures/ designs/ lives/ happiness seems to be my cup of tea. 

If you are missing out some of the blog design/ or you wonder how was your blog evolve/ mutate over the years, you can always try to find it using https://archive.org/web/. 

United Kingdom Adventure: Nottingham

Oh Oh Oh!!!!! In a flash, I have been in the United Kingdom for 3 months! 9 more months before I return to my lovely home country, Malaysia! Hahahaha, anyhow, here is it! The houses in Nottingham look as above - red bricks with chimney!!!!!! So far, this area is quite peaceful and very near with University Park of Nottingham. 

To the city, I can see that the city council of Nottingham actually seems to be quite like a mini white house of USA. The architecture in UK definitely is an eye-opening to me because it is very hard to find such buildings in Malaysia. This seem-to-be peaceful old market square often hosts different events! Now, it houses the Wonderland of Christmas Market which I might be covering in the future, hopefully!!!!

Oh yes, looking the cars here in UK! I was so lucky to bump into a wedding at the city council! The black car for the bride and the red bus for the guests! Such a beautiful event !

Yup, this is the city of Nottingham with nice food and beautiful buildings! In the next post, I will be covering the Nottingham Castle! Oh yes, there are too many castle in Nottingham. Till then, tata (^^)

My First UK Blog Post - A View from My Window

This year was crazy - 2014. The workload was okay but the uncertainties were definitely high. So, after years of dreaming to study in overseas and all, I finally had my wish came true as a Ph.D student. Hahahaha, kinda old to keep on studying, but gonna keep going on!

It is of course a great opportunity, since I am running off to United Kingdom (UK) for a year. So far, everything treats me okay, except for the weather - reasons >>>the temperature difference between morning and evening can be > 10 DegC. Yes, for this reason, I have suddenly suffer from minor migraine - which in my entire life, this is not an issue. I can't stay up late in UK, can't boil midnight oil>>> maximum drop-sleep time is 1145pm. @@

Anyhow, the groceries here and food here (I mean from supermarket) are quite affordable in the sense that it won't kill off your wallet at the end of the month. No car for me, good for diet! Hahahaha, people here are quite polite until it is frightening at one point. And, at Nottingham here, I feel quite cosy. It is a city with nice buildings and architectures and great food. 

As for the utility bill, it is still quite a weird arrangement. For water bill, we prepaid an estimated water usage for 6 months @@. As for electricity bill, we need to submit our own tariff reading, else they will calculate based on past record. This is a whole culture shock to me (^^).

This sums up my current life. I have been so busy with research etc. At one point, I was so phobia of writing even a single word. It actually took me a lot of determination to write this post and select the fine pictures above. 

Never thought that this post is actually 9 months apart. Great that my posts productivity declined greatly, because I am living a real life or Am I? By the way, my bloglink also changes over here to xjion89.blogspot.co.uk . Guess because I am in UK. Hahahahaha. Keep in touch and keep supporting my blogs. 

Cheeeeers, 

xjion a.k.a Jay  

A Happy 2014 - Smile like Mickey Mouse (^^)

Oh my, 2014 is here in a blink of an eye! Regardless of how positive I was/ am, I can't stop myself wonder and worry how my this year will be! If you have read my previous post on the ever-increasing conditions in Malaysia, I guess it will never be an easy year. 

Anyhow, I think perhaps because of aging, I feel that I can easily emo/ depressed. Mid-life crisis comes earlier this year?! This year, my resolution is simple - be happy! (^^) Smile like Mickey Mouse (^^)!!!!! I finally dug up some photos years ago! I remembered it was taken in Midvalley, when they had an art gallery on Mickey Mouse (^^)! It was even FOC to view the art pieces ! Yup, it was that simple, be happy!

When I was a little younger, I really wanted a lot. As I grew older, perspective starts to "evolve", I feel that less is more. Spending days with your love ones, be more appreciative of what I have, accomplish self-set goals, etc.... are more like my direction of lives. 

Then, there are some people who I thought I know, just change completely opposite. They used to enjoy life, love life, appreciate life.... But, after working, I can see that some of them became cocky/ arrogant and blindly chasing things that they thought they want  - money, fame, promotion, etc.. Well, I ain't Saint, I do have desire to chase those stuffs, but not neglecting my lives!

Keep your virtue! Smile like Mickey Mouse (^^) 

Awareness by 110 CancerCare

I think many of us know about CANCER. As the world continues to develop, so does cancer! There are getting more and more cases of cancers as approximate 7.6 millions deaths (13% of all deaths)  in 2008 were caused by cancer [1]. I understand the devastation and effects of cancers to both the patients and his/her family. 

I was contacted to write about 110 CancerCare project joint-ventured by National Cancer Society Malaysia and AXA Affin Life Insurance [2]. As an effort to spread earlier awareness on cancer, the webportal provides some of the available paths to safeguard future of yourself and your love ones [3]. 

Personally, I think is a very good initiative to promote health awareness and future protection on cancer. Therefore, maybe you can just spend 10 mins or less to have quick check on the links, it will benefit you in a small way, yet, who knows this small gesture can save your life!

*Note: The post is solely for information-dissemination, author is not a member of the organisations as mentioned above.