day three

Apart from registering with my department and attending a chem eng exchange welcome session, there wasn't anything much happening in school for me. what was more memorable was that, for the first time, i took a jog around hyde park. i decided to be brave and experiment going out t-shirt and shorts. given that the temperature was sub NUS LT7, it was a pretty novel experience. i hardly perspired, even after i stopped running, but my fingers were freezing at the end of the jog.

but i digress. more on the park itself: hyde park is huge (i guesstimate about 7km in diameter), and it's really scenic. because of the huge amount of open spaces, hyde park is frequented by many dog owners who prefer to let their dogs run free instead of on a leash. and because of that, the dogs appear more frisky than their singapore counterparts.

hyde park

some dog owners and their dogs

more dogs

yet more dogs

squirrel (plentiful in hyde park)

swans (there are a whole bunch more plus ducks as well at another pond)

horse

one strange thing is that there are zero cats. none at all. in fact i have yet to see a cat since i arrived in london. in their place instead were squirrels. there are probably more squirrels in hyde park than cats in a singapore HDB estate.

this evening was also the first time some friends and I cooked a proper dinner to eat (as opposed to preparing microwavable food the day before). due to budget (for all) and dietary (for some) constrains, we decided to prepare a rather queer meal of spaghetti with pork sausages and minced lamb in mushroom tomato sauce. it turned out surprisingly edible (and rather tasty in fact). not bad for a first attempt at cooking.

our proud masterpiece (and pretty delectable as well)