Life in Oxford: Freezing

Well, I've finally brought myself to upload some of my pictures to Flickr, so I can give everyone a proper update. I've been struggling with the weather somewhat, because temperatures have dropped to sub-zero and below-zero numbers:

Sub-Zero Oxford

Of course, the weather update's never accurate - it says that the lowest temperature would only go down to 6 degrees Celcius, but when I walked past the lawn that was covered with ice, I knew Yahoo! needed some corrections.

So what have I been up to? Well, on Monday, Franz and I prepared some food to celebrate Siu Yau's birthday, so we got him a whisky dundee cake and some Ben's Cookies, and brought them to iFocus night:

Franz Multi-Tasking: Cutting Cake and the Bible

So a dundee cake is somewhat like a fruit cake, or at least it looked like one and tasted highly suspiciously like one, but no matter, it was good! We somehow... didn't really sing him a Happy Birthday song because...

Well, because. :)

And here're the Ben's Cookies, which were the highlight of the night:

Ben's Cookies

Which of course, Chris had never tried before despite being in Oxford for 8 long years:

Chris Sneaking Off a Cookie During Bible Class

And what do you know? Caught on iPhone! Haha. And of course, there's Emmanuel, Siu Yau himself and Benjamin:

What are you looking at, bud?

Well, everyone's really stressed one way or another - I mean, what else is new? But! David and Chris never fail to remind us about who and what God means to us in our lives. And here's another mugshot of the birthday boy, obviously a failed one:

See No Evil!

Today, Jed and I decided to treat ourselves (Jed just recovered from a rather serious flu and cough, and I was feeling rather cold and hungry, as usual) to a good meal at Eagle and Child, the famous pub that C.S. Lewis and his contemporaries used to frequent:

The Eagle and Child

And well, it looked like the typical English pub, with a nice warm (and dark) setting; there was lots of alcohol of course:

So How Much Do You Pay Today?

And well, they sell ale here too:

Ill Ale

And here's what it looks like inside:

Interior of Eagle and Child

With nice lamps everywhere:

What a Lamp-Post!

Somehow we were given too many utensils; here they give you a wooden ladle with your table number on it, so please don't go using it to tuck into your food:

Mambo Number, 10?

And there's Jed the sick boy who recovered:

What You Looking At, Wise Guy?

And what did we have? Well, British-style Beer Battered Fish & Chips, Shepherd's Pie and a bowl of Calamari Rings, and to top it all off, a pot of Earl Grey:

Shepherd's Pie

Calamari Rings

Beer-Battered Fish & Chips

Earl Grey

Well, it wasn't exactly a rip-off - and furthermore, Jed said he enjoyed himself today: "It's the loveliest meal I had in ages!"

Yup, that's how deprived we are here at Oxford - with the cold weather, a warm meal is a blessing indeed. :)

So last Friday I had some of my Chinese friends come over to Jesus for lunch and I hosted them at the dining hall:

The Chinese Boys

We ended up talking about politics, entertainment and other Chinese news - I'm always impressed by how the Chinese are so up-to-date with world trends and issues. Amazing people, widely read. :)

And then of course there was Hassan's Van, which introduced us to the Chicken Platter (way too big for the both of me and Jed to share) and the Mixed Kebab (good but it was huge beyond proportions):

Mixed Kebab

Chicken Platter

All in all, things are going well - I'm struggling but it's fine, I'll grow and learn slowly. I really miss home at times, but hey, this is home for now. :)

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I will lean on God more, forgive me for falling and stumbling, I will not give up!