The Sun

Remember way back in primary school when the teacher showed us how to draw a SUN. The sun always looked like this:

Never once did I question my primary school teacher as to why the sun should be drawn that way.
The sun usually looked bright and round in my eyes:

In high school, when people started reading and seeing more things around them, I learnt to draw the sun like this:

Again, being a typical Malaysian student, I didn't ask much. I just followed what others did.. and well, also because the sun looked wayyy nicer than the first one ;p
But to my naked eye, in sunny Malaysia, the sun still looked round. Sometimes looking up at the sun was impossible. Squint till cannot see the sun or if I tried to stare at the sun, my eyes will ended up seeing stuff in weird colours:

After high school, I was bound to meet someone who was selling art pieces at the malls (aka art drawn by professional artist) and it always looked like this:

PS: it will loook prettier with colours on it

This morning, I finally found the answer I wasn't was searching for after all those years XD

As I looked outside my window, the weather outside was absolutely fabulous today after all the continuous snowfall in the previous days. Hence, I decided to play around with my GF1... Played with the ISO, and WB modes on Manual.

I also ended up getting shots of the sunset. Yay because through my window, I can see the sunrise, and see it moving to the right side till it sets. East and West doesn't seem so far ;)

I thought the shots turned out nice... But then when I asked a friend to give his opinion, he said it was nice but its like any other normal photos.... *sad* Oh well, as long as I am happy with it and at least I know why the sun was drawn as what I've been taught since 6 years old :)

Wagamama

Wagamama, with their motto 'Positive eating + Positive living',  is a Japanese restaurant serving a variety of ramen, donburi and salads. People love this place. When I heard about Wagamama from Fiona, and I mentioned it to other people, all they do is gush about it!

I had my first visit to Wagamama located at Glasgow's city centre. Wagamama's menu can be found online.
After lab, the five of us walked through the snow-filled paths towards Wagamama.

Looking at the menu, there was a wide array of choices to choose from. Took me awhile to decide. Finally, with some recommendations, I opted for the Chilli Ramen. It is a spicy noodle soup containing red chilli, onions, bean sprouts and a choice of chicken or beef. I ordered Chilli Ramen with chicken as it was cheaper ;p (8.95 pounds).

The bowl of noodle was huge and there was a generous portion of chicken. I would say it tasted like prawn noodle soup in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Linzi, Fiona, Becky and Eva all ordered curry chicken katsu with rice. I had a taste of it and the curry reminded of the Malaysian curry with santan. It was not spicy.

As for drinks, green tea is free of charge if a meal is ordered.

All in all, Wagamama is the place to go to if I ever miss Asian food. It has a good ambience for friendly meet-ups with friends :)

Meet Eva!

She has this fascnination with leaving footprints on the snow. Adorable in pink! ;)

After a snowfall

James Blyth Court is the name of the building I am currently living in. It is the stretch of bricked walls on the right in the picture below:

While walking to the lab on Wednesday morning, I could not help but snap a picture of  the beautiful, white, freshly fallen snow, yet to be touched.

As winter progresses

From The Evening Times:
"The continued blizzards today came as the coldest night of the winter saw temperatures plummet to -20°C in Altnaharra, in the Highlands. In Glasgow it was -5°C.


Air travel was also seriously affected.
Edinburgh Airport was closed and early morning flights were affected at Glasgow Airport.
Due to weather problems in south England some flights were cancelled. Glasgow Airport was also handling diverted flights from Edinburgh.
Snow also hit Gatwick Airport, which was closed today and will also be shut tomorrow, leaving thousands of travellers stranded.


There was widespread disruption on the railways, with a number of ScotRail services cancelled. Motherwell and Cumbernauld services were suspended while the Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh line remained a half hourly service. Early trains from Stirling to Glasgow were cancelled.
Trains from Glasgow to England were all running, but with some delays."
The much dreaded time of the year has come! The first snowfall was fantastic, but more snowfall after that is becoming a nuisance. The thing I am not looking forward to is a further drop in the temperature outside. Reading that the Highlands has reached -20 degrees, it is possible for it to be this cold in Glasgow too....
The good thing about winter is that it does not tempt me to go out as much ;)

Tuesday night out

After the class test ended yesterday, I was not prepared to hit the books again for the day. I wished for a heavy snow in hopes for the class test to be cancelled. Lady luck wasn't by my side. It snowed heavily after the test ended!

Since after a snowfall everything usually looks white, clean and pretty, and the fact that I did not want to touch any books, my friends and I decided to do some photography in the city.

It was 4.20pm, when we left the halls. During winter, the sky turns dark at around 4.45pm which isn't very nice because it makes me feel sleepy... :(

Anyway, we headed out to George Square. It was litted brightly with colourful lights and decoration, all set up for X-mas.

There was also an ice rink set up.
1 pound to keep your bags while you ice skate is expensive!

After George Square we headed to Argyle Street. A few of us went to Debenhams to shop, while a few others and I checked out Sugacane, a candy store.

It was really cold that night. My face was almost frozen...

It was a nice evening out.... AND it ended with us seeing the usual fox roaming outside our our halls.

Esja

Sunset over Reykjavik

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: James Wyld

James writes: Over summer this year, I finally started hiking regularly - something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Thankfully, this is Iceland and there is no shortage of places nearby to explore.

Across the bay from Reykjavik, one such place is a mountain called Esja which provides the perfect opportunity for a quick break from the city. Esja only takes an hour or three to climb, and for your efforts you are rewarded with fresh air and amazing views back to the city. In summer it is possible to climb it even late into the evening thanks to the long days, but as winter takes hold, the days shorten and Esja can often be covered in snow. On these days the experience of climbing it changes dramatically, and the sense of adventure heightens.

One thing in particular I love about winter in Iceland is the light from the low sun. Perhaps due to the short days, it takes on an almost magical quality as it paints the sky in striking but soft colours. On this particular day in late November, I was just finishing a hike on Esja - walking across a field back to where I had parked my car. Looking over the water to Reykjavik, the distinctive shape of Hallgrimskirkja was clearly sillouetted against the setting sun.

People often ask me why I moved here, I find it is not a very hard question to answer.

James, a native of Australia, is currently Virtual World Project Leader at Iceland's CCP Games, the innovative team behind the award winning EVE Online.

Monsters

Right in the heart of Reykjavik is a fascinating little pop-up park, nicknamed Hjartagarður by locals. About a year and a half ago, it suddenly appeared between Laugavegur and Hverfisgata where once only shabby back-buildings had stood. The most interesting thing about it, though, is that it has become a sort of street art gallery with every bare available space on the surrounding walls and abandoned buildings filling to the brim with raucous colors and trippy imagery, including this charming pair.

It's movements like this, surreptitious, dark-of-night grand, illegal and fantastically vivid, creative and rebellious and often stunningly well executed, that effect their own kind of revolution. They make us react and opine and smile and remind us that there are still people out there who are willing to buck authority for art, and for what they believe in.

p.s. You can click on the image to jump to flickr and check out a few more photos from the park.