Gunpowder Plot

Time passes to quickly here, it’s no surprise I suppose. Bogged down with work and what not with the mandatory 30 minute walk to get to the Med School from Broadgate (my residence). It’s not that bad really, but the weather is more troublesome than you would imagine. Bloody blistering wind, you can even hear it howl at times. It’s disheartening that it’s not winter yet, because you know it’ll only get colder.

As for events, Diwali (North Indian way of saying Deepavali) and Eid (Hari Raya) came and went – and as you would guess – too quickly. Substituted the annual outing to the temple with a prayer meeting whose highlight was the sweets distribution. Mainly of the North Indian variety, but hey, whose complaining. As for Eid, it’s a bigger celebration among the Malay community in Loughborough. With a much higher proportion of Malay postgrades, Saddiq and gang, who are based in Sutton Bonnington are booked for nearly a month with all the open houses they have got to attend. It’s almost unbelievable – he visited 12 open houses in 1 day! Imagine how Rendand-saturated he is. Sigh, if only he thought of getting some kuih for me…

Nottingham has been witnessing random fireworks (as far as the international students were concerned) for 2 weeks now. Turns out that it’s in conjunction with Bonfire Night - to remember Guy Fawkes and his gang’s failed attempt at blowing up the House of Parliament (The Gunpowder Plot). A couple of us headed down to the Forest Recreational Park to witness the biggest fireworks display in town. It was decent – the fireworks but the bonfire lighting was peculiar, don’t know how else to describe it. They decided to burn down an entire mock ferris wheel that took 1 week to build. No clue as to why there were swans on it

Since we wanted to get back home via the free shuttle bus, we had almost 2 hours to waste after Bonfire Night. Instead of taking the tram back to Old Market Square in the city centre, we walked all the way back. Caught a glimpse of the night life in Nottingham City, yes, it’s been more than a month and I have not yet seen the night life….sad… We saw all the clubs that the locals keep mentioning and finally spotted the Nottingham Trent University. It’s an entire separate university, based in the city itself.

So there, that’s 2 weeks in a glimpse. But am honestly anticipating and entry by next Sunday, what not with the biggest inter-university games – The Malaysian Nottingham Games coming up on the 12th of November. Can’t wait to see friends from afar….and yeah, am going to be a first aider. Yippie!!!


Current Music: Sheila Majid’s Ratu