Down-to-earth ***

Does the distance matter with the relationship?

At this end of the final year, I heard a lovely news that two friends have just had new boyfriends.

The couples, whose natinolities differ each other, will soon separate after their graduation.
Both of them called themselves stupid because they thought they would break up with their boyfriends when their new lives start in different places.

Does the distance matter with the relationship?

I myself have kept a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend for three years.
There are several disadvanteges; long time no see, time differences, and etc.
But I believe that they are only excuses to break up and the real reasons are somehow different.

I broke up with my ex when I and he lived in the cities next to each other. Now I and my boyfriend have been together even though there is a long, long distance (Japan to U.K.).

From my experience, it is possible to keep the relationship as long as the couple can believe each other and keep their main promises. On the other hand, It is possible to break up if the couple cannot believe or understand each other.


But, in fact, many couples have broken up under the circumstance of long distance...
Then, does it suggest that the distance matters?

Anyway it happens no matter what situation you are in.
I only wish good luck on my friends' future***

posted by sue @ 9:49 PM 2 comments

Headache...

Last a couple of days, I stayed up until I saw the sunshine (5.oo a.m) and woke up a few hours later (9.00 a.m at least). And finally I have got a headache because of the insufficient sleeping time.

Fortunately I am still a student and it is on holiday so that I can sleep and recover from the lack soon.

But I am afraid if it happens to me when I start working in a few years... I know many freshers work like that in Japan. Can I work well under such situation? I cannot answer it now... zzz

posted by sue @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

Trip to Cornwall 4: the train

St Ives train station was much further from the town than I expected, and sadly it was nearly time for the train to depart. Across a long carpark behind the bus station, I finally arrived at the station and got on the train.

I could not remember how much it is exactly, but I think it was around 2.00 pounds.
Disappointingly the windows on the train were covered by dust and not clear. However the sea was so lovely that I forgot the disappointment.
If someone likes sea, I will recommend to visit there and take the train. The view is extraordinary.

At St Erth station, I changed trains and left for Bath where my friend lives which was my final stop, stooping by Plymouth and Bristol Temple Meads (although I did not take off the train at either stops).

I do not usually travel by train a lot because I believed the train trips in England must be awful, never on time, dirty carriage, and not a good service.

But it was wrong. The service was quite good, especially in the sleeping carriage, and the trains were new and most of the time clean. Still, the trains were not on time, but I had a lovely time on the train. I really enjoyed the passing and changing view of the land.

On my way to Bath, I was thinking that I would recommend the train trip for Cornwall to my friends, with enough time to allow traveling and a bit of patience.


*St Ives Bay Line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ives_Bay_Line
*Trip to Cornwall and Devon : http://www.cornwall-devon.com/public/nt_TICS_HOME.html

posted by sue @ 6:33 PM 0 comments

Trip to Cornwall 3: St Ives

My next stop was St Ives, a small town known for its beautiful sea and seaside.

I took a bus from the Penzance central bus station to St Ives. St Ives is situated in northern part of Cornwall, the other side to Penzance which faced the south sea.
It took more or less 30 minutes and cost 2.80 pounds for a single ride. On the way to St Ives, I saw daffodil fields, hills, and cows which I expected to see in Jersey, smart face and light brown look.

On arriving at the small, but central bus station in St Ives, I walked down to the street leading to the seaside. The sea was so beautiful. The water was clean, transparent and coloured emerald green. I felt like I were in Greek or some Mediterranean seaside.

There was Tate St Ives museum, one of Tate museums, and they showed Turner's masterpieces with south-west (Cornwall) motifs. Many artists were attracted by its beautiful scenery and left great works there. Turner was one of the first people who was charmed by this county, and hundreds years later I saw his paintings and do understand its beauty.

Though I heard the garden in the museum was nice too, I did not have enough time to look at it and ran to catch the rural train running just by the exquisite sea.


*St Ives Tourist Information : http://www.stives-cornwall.co.uk/
*Tate St Ives : http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/

posted by sue @ 5:32 PM 0 comments

Animal park

When most lively students have gone somewhere on holidays, the campus becomes a lively place for animals, hares, squirrels, blackbirds, robins, ducks, swans and etc. etc. etc...

I saw baby hares which I was longing to see since last year. They were so tiny and hopped little by little, they moved around only as twice short distance as big ones did. So sweet.

The scene where big and small hares jumped one after another reminded me of my favourit picture book, Guess how much I love you. Did they try to show their feelings assimilated to the length of their hop as the story hares did? Even though the story was fiction, I cannot stop imaging their competition.



*Walker books- Guess how much I love you : http://www.walkerbooks.co.uk/Guess-How-Much-I-Love-You-Paperback-074455439X

posted by sue @ 10:40 AM 0 comments

Trip to Cornwall 2: St Michael's Mount

When I woke up, the train was still moving, headed toward Penzance, the south-westernmost station in England. The scenery from the train window had changed from city to country view.

Passing a great hilly terrain called Bodmin Moor in Cornwall and some stations, the train started running by the sea. I saw an island or more like a small mountain surrounded by sea water. It was St Michael's Mount which I was going to see an hour later.

Soon, the train arrived at the final stop, Penzance, around 8:15 a.m.
It is a port town facing the sea and there are pleasant sea scents, seagulls mewing (I like them) and boats and ships alongside cars parked in the station carpark.

Conveniently, the Penzance information centre and the central bus station are next to the station so that I could easily access a bus which took me to Marazion, a lovely small town with the famous, mysterious island.

The bus which goes to Marazion runs nearly every 15 minutes and the return ticket costs 2.15 pounds (or it could be cheaper since I traveled at peak-time). It took 10-15 minutes to arrive in Marazion square where there are a post office, shops and bars.

Through the narrow path between the shops, I faced the sea and the island whose approach was still covered by water. The whole mountain and its pathway appear when the tide is ebbing, and you can walk on the hidden sea-path during that time. Otherwise boats come to pick you up for the island. A castle and garden are there and it opens to the public from 10:30 a.m..

Because it was still early in the morning, I saw off the stuffs working there heading to the island by boat. By the time the tide seemed to start ebbing, I moved to my next destination...


St Michael's Mount : http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-stmichaelsmount/

posted by sue @ 2:39 PM 1 comments

Trip to Cornwall 1: sleeping carriage

If someone asks me where I wish to go, I will answer "the sea" most of the time.
And that was where I went a couple days ago. Cornwall, to see the sea.

I took the sleeping carriage, called Night Riviera Sleeper run by the First Great Western at Paddington station at 23:50.

I chose the berth to share with another female and it cost me 56.30 pounds with a Young Persons' Travelcard to go to Penzance from London (7 hours by train!!), and I think it was quite cheap.

The departure time was quite late at night so that people who were going to take this train could wait in the first class lounge with comfortable sofas and free newspapers.

It was off-peak, just before everyone took their Easter Holiday, so I could use the compartment by myself. Lucky me :D There were double-deck beds, toilet kits, towels, two bottles of water, a basin, big rectangular mirrors and of course a window. It was much better than what I expected and I had a good night sleep there...

To be continue...


First Great Western web site: http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/

posted by sue @ 11:45 PM 0 comments

Contemporary art

To be honest, I do not quite understand contemporary art.
They are meaningful and make a large impact on people's minds. At the same time, however, it is hard to perceive what they aim to tell us without an explanation.

... but peculiarly I like to see them no matter what they mean and I love some of them even though I do not understand their metaphoric meanings.

Maybe that is how art should be - they automatically give us some feelings and we enjoy looking at them.

posted by sue @ 11:02 AM 0 comments

Unpredictable weather

Bright light through the window woke me up (at 8.00).

A strong wind blew and shut the window with a bang (at 8.30).

Raindrops started falling down from the grey sky (at 9.00).

Sprinkles changed into driving rain (at 9.30).

Suddenly sunshine came out and a bit of light rain began (at 10.00).

Then the blue sky came back and the sun was shining (at 10.30).

But the wind blew to bring another grey sky again... (return to the first line).


That is how British weather works, especially in spring.
In a Japanese saying, we say "autumn weather changes as rapidly as woman's mind", but I guess that British weather in spring is far more changeable than a woman's mind.

posted by sue @ 5:34 PM 0 comments

Green Tea - Japanese tea

When I was in Japan, I used to drink green tea after dinner nearly every day. Different from ordinary children, I did not like sweetened drinks like fruit juice or hot chocolate, instead I loved water and any kinds of tea (though sweetened drinks are my major drink now.)

Green tea contains rich vitamins and minerals such as Polyphenols, preventing arteriosclerosis, and vitamin C, helping the production of collagen.

I found Twinings, a leading tea company in England, producing a wide range of green tea -
green tea with orange & lemon flower, with pear & apple, and so on.

In Japan there are several varieties of green tea leaves, whereas here there are various mixed blend green teas!! It sounds peculiar to me that green tea comes with sweet flavours. But I should not be prejudiced against those blend ones and should try them some day.



*Twinings' range of green tea: http://www.twinings.co.uk/GreenTea/
*Vitamins in green tea: http://www.green-tea.co.uk/green-tea-vitamins.html

posted by sue @ 4:08 PM 0 comments