First Instance Of Wanderlust - Cambridge, United Kingdom 14th October 2006

The flowers still in full bloom in mid-autumn, and less chill always means more cheer.

Chee Hui, Nicholas and I in front of Pitt the Younger, who is depicted here in a Roman toga and who studied here at Pembroke College in Cambridge more than two centuries ago. He was a very capable man who became Prime Minister of his country at the age of twenty-four, at a difficult time when the British were facing the challenges posed by the rise of Revolutionary France from across the Channel. It is hard to imagine anybody becoming a leader of his or her country at that age these days. In three years' time, I shall only have graduated from NIE with my Teaching Diploma, which doesn't amount much to a premiership.

We had the good fortune of seeing a wedding taking place in the Queen's College Chapel. Here the bride is attended by her Scottish relatives, attired smartly in their kilts. I've always wanted to wear a kilt, though I'm quite put off by the rumour that those Scotsmen who wear them wear nothing underneath.

The Mathematical Bridge straddling the River Cam, designed by the genius of no lesser a mathematician as Sir Isaac Newton. Legend has it that this bridge was originally built and could stand without the aid of any nuts or bolts, and that they dismantled it later on and couldn't put it back again. Today, it is thankfully held together by more than the laws of physics. Nobody would like to tiptoe hither and thither worrying constantly that a misplaced step might upset the mathematical balance so precariously established.

(Here I may have underestimated the power of science, but I'm not taking any chances!)

King's College Chapel, easily the grandest, and tallest chapel in all of Cambridge. King's College constitutes, together with Trinity and St John's, the richest three colleges in Cambridge. Incidentally, the rents in these colleges are also considerably higher than in most of the other colleges. Little wonder there, for most of those who have secured a place there are wealthy themselves.

By the River Cam. Those are punters you see on the left. Punting involves using a long stick to propel the craft forward by pushing it downwards and against the river bed. Jonathan, a college of mine at Seng Kang Secondary School and who studied previously at Oxford, said that I must definitely try punting since I'm at Cambridge. It looks fun.

Ivy on the walls of St John's College. We were walking rather aimlessly around St John's College when we bumped into Alvin, a second-year economist, who pointed us here. Would have missed out on this pretty sight if it wasn't for that chance meeting.