A Walk In The Woods, Wendover, United Kingdom, 27th Jan 2007

Missing a few icebergs, otherwise it would have made an excellent Chivas advertisement.

What you need when the fishes don't bite. Friends that don't as well.

Such is the silence one finds in the woods in winter that I heard the hooves minutes before both rider and horse came into sight. The very first thought which came into my head was to dive for cover, and then it dawned upon me that I wasn't carrying a ring in my pocket.

She's too nice to be a Ringwraith, anyway.

I think that's the Vale of Aylesbury behind me.

The spot where Evelyn and I had lunch minutes before the photograph was taken.

Ten seconds was barely enough for me to scramble up the slope.

The highest point in the Chiltern Hills, tucked inconspicuously at the end of a poorly-marked track that led away from the main path. I was hoping they didn't have to introduce three boulders to render the particular spot higher than all the others.

One of the many paths that led to somewhere in Wendover Woods.

Wendover, and the town itself. All there is, really.

The Morning I Didn't Know It Snowed - Cambridge, United Kingdom, 24th Jan 2007

Snowfall is very unlike rainfall, which one is able to ear even if one is unable to see. I have two friends to thank for these photographs - Haihan, who told me snow has fallen, and Shireen, who then told me it was still falling. Otherwise, my curtains would have remained drawn and I would have left for lectures without my camera.

Sherlock Court, that part of college where my room is located, covered in a fine sprinkle of snow.

That building in the middle is the King's College Chapel, and running across the photograph is the river Cam. Here I stand proudly decked out in whatever I could muster to meet the cold, all of which, except the fur cap which I bought for £5 at a departmental store here, were acquired in sunny snow-free Singapore.

It wasn't half as bad as I make it out to be - three layers sufficed to keep me warm and snug.

And only two days before, I was walking around town in a pair of sandals.

Mallard ducks looking rather befuddled. As they never fail to do.

The History Faculty, the facade of which is made of a mysterious, porous type of glass which allows air to pass through it almost unhindered, and where I go everyday to have my lectures.

I learnt in four months here that windows, or glass for that matter, are not the best kind of architectural features to adorn a building with, especially if it was meant to be built in a wintry, windy country, and also that good ventilation is something I would rather do away with when the cold wind blows.

The Amazing Adventures Of Sixteen Singaporeans On The River Cam, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 20th Jan 2007

Midday on the River Cam. We had a rare glimpse of real daylight in what has thus far been a rather grey and blustery week. Fair weather lasted, to my delight.

Visitors from London, on a glorious sun-soaked afternoon in Cambridge. Top row (from left): Andrew, Chee Hui, Zhen Qiang, Kelvin, Keng Seng, Weizhong, Darius, Nicholas, Weiming and Haojun. Bottom row: Jane, Kandy, Evelyn, Michelle, Astee and myself. I had initially expected only a group size of about eleven, consisting of the seven people from UCL and the four of us from Cambridge who would be joining them, but was pleasantly surprised when the addition of the folks from Imperial College swelled the ranks to sixteen.

The hovel which is my room, containing uneasily fifteen (the fifteenth being the kind and gracious host who took the picture) very uncomfortable people.

The deep breath before the plunge, and calm on the Cam before it was shattered by the farcical antics of the most inexperienced punters in the world.

All fun and laughter, before we lost the control of the punts to the Cam in spectacular fashion.

And before Weizhong decided enough was enough and jumped abroad in defiance of the intractable currents that were nudging us away in the opposite direction.

Everywhere But Old Trafford, London, United Kingdom, 13th & 14th Jan 2007

Who would have thought to have bumped into the Merlion on the London Underground?

Arsenal's spanking new Emirates Stadium, which I must admit, rather grudgingly, is one of the handsomest stadiums I've been to.

Little wonder we couldn't locate Highbury, the old Arsenal ground. It was gone!

White Hart Lane, home of Tottenham Hotspurs FC, which is not across the road from where the Emirates Stadium or Highbury is, as I believed. My visit to White Hart Lane meant that I had already covered the notable triumvirate of football grounds in North London, and all the significant ones in London with the exception of West Ham United's Upton Park.

The fluff machine in The Bear Workshop in Covent Gardens. You select a bear, choose the clothes you want it to wear, fluff it up, give it a heart (which they stuff up the backside) and a name, and pay twenty quids for all that.

Kids love it. Not sure I can say the same for parents.

One of the many talented buskers in the area. This one here is balancing himself on a tightrope (well, it isn't all that taut) and juggling blades, which I'm sure are fake.

Flattened bottles, meant to be used as plates, on sale in one of the markets. They were already closing by the time I got there at about seven in the evening. One of the many interesting trinkets on offer, and I really should have made a beeline for the market earlier.

Where The West Learnt To Think, Athens, Greece, 1st to 4th & 7th Jan 2007

The Temple of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and the jealous husband of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, near the Ancient Agora. One of the best preserved ruins I saw in Greece.

A view of the Acropolis all lighted up just before dawn, from the nearby Lykavittos Hill.

Snakes and Ladders - Live! Held at this Christmas Carnival for children in the National Gardens.

Day breaks over Athens. That is the Acropolis on the right. The Acropolis, which means city on a hill and which is located on one of the eight hills in Athens, commands a superb 360-degree view of Athens.

A game of backgammon in the National Gardens. There were many firsts for me on this trip, and witnessing what is one of the world's oldest board game being played, by some of Athen's oldest residents, was one of those.

The Panathinaiko Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 were held.

I tried to look wistful on the last day of my journey, but ended up looking rather bemused in front of the Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea, built at the junction of four streets in the centre of downtown Athens.

A Fitting Finale, Santorini, Greece, 5th & 6th Jan 2006

Taken at the Red Beach on the southeastern corner of Santorini. The first time I've ever had a photograph which is dated and dated correctly as well, and that is courtesy of Evelyn's punctiliousness in setting the correct date and time for her camera.

The northern half of the island. Santorini is made up of four islands, of which the main island Thira is shaped like a crescent. This crescent encloses, together with the three outlying islands by the names of Nea Kameni, Palia Kameni and Thirassia, the caldera below which lies the crater of the still-active volcano. The caldera is on the right side of the island in the picture.

We were actually looking for the Pyrgos Monastery, but wound up instead at a military installation. It is both impossible and implausible that they've replaced the monastery with a military installation and yet fail to update it on the tourist map.

Monastery or not, the views were still breathtaking.

The sun sets on the last full day of our travels (the 5th of January). We were to spend nine hours of the 6th on a ferry and only half of the 7th in Athens, because our flight back to London was scheduled on the evening of the 7th.

It's also the first time I've distinctly made out the shape of the sun at sunset. Normally I would've been contented with a blend of incarnadine and orange where the sun is supposed to be, but this was simply indescribable.

And so was this! 2007 for me really began from here.

I had intended for us to catch the sunrise on the hill where the military installation was, but we missed a turn and ended up here on Perissa Beach. Driving in the morning was a harrowing experience, as the roads were unlit and the windscreen was all fogged up. Justin had to drive most of the time with his nose on the steering wheel.

It was just as well that this wasn't the tourist season, because we would have gotten effortlessly into a scrape the way we were high-beaming on the road to light up distant road signs.

Here was what we did while waiting for the sun to come out. It was also what we did after the sun came out.

And the dog was really good at fetch! I think I've half a dozen pictures of it catching the pebbles we tossed in mid-air.

Daytripping, and loving it! Would have been an infinitely better picture had our driver looked into the camera.

Taken on the morning when we unwittingly brought both car keys out, and used only one, consequently immobilising five very annoyed people back at the hotel.

The Greek islandscape, of blue-domed churches and whitewashed houses. Zhen Qiang's Holy Grail.

Oracle-seeking In Delphi, Greece, 4th Jan 2007

They frown on genius...

...but my utter shamelessness carries the day.

The best view we had of the site of the Oracle at Delphi. It was closed when we arrived at three in the afternoon, half an hour too late.

There are still some refuges in the world where technology has been unable to penetrate, and this is one of them. Suppose the Oracle familiarised herself with Hotmail, or Nokia, we would then have had ample warning of the shorter opening hours in winter.

Then again, she would probably have loftier issues to deal with, and greater furies to contend with than that of ten unknown commoners.

A rare shot of the Temple of Apollo without any visitors.

Actually, the three main pillars were positioned on the right to block off the few tourists who happen to be on-site. How they manage the picture-perfect shots in postcards I've not the faintest clue.

It's impossible to be unaware of them whilst walking in these parts, because each goat has a bell tied around its neck that chimes with the slightest movement made. The fact that these bells can be heard for miles around is probably the reason why the goatherd is nowhere to be seen.

Montane merriment in Delphi. Greece more than meets the requirements for a booming tourism industry, in the cities she is blessed with ruins from classical times, while in the countryside she is equally well-endowed with marvellous natural scenery.

Pales in comparison to the one we witnessed at Cape Sounio the day before, but beautiful in its own right.

One should never get too complacent.

Never So Glad To See The Back Of The Sun - Cape Sounio, Greece, 3rd Jan 2007

Presenting the awestruck visitor to the Temple of Poseidon!

It is a calamity of the highest order that we will never find out who she is.

The best place in the world to watch the sun set, or so Nicholas said. I had my hopes up, but what I was to see exceeded these expectations by a very long mile!

The windswept headland where I was nestling and waiting for sundown, at a rare moment of deceptive calm.

We were pampered with an array of breathtaking sunrises and sunsets in Greece, and this was one of those!

And if you're thinking, as I was then, if only everyday could be like this, then I say if everyday was like this, it's best you move elsewhere, for you'll never think another sunset beautiful as long as you have a house where you see them like that everyday.

And after waxing lyrical on the waning day, I should draw attention to the fact that we were really at Cape Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon.