Woke up at 7.30am. Took some mocha with pasta for breakfast. The ride’s gonna be long, I supposed. Met Ian Tan, Joanne and Ivan at 8.30am at the lobby. Ready to go off. The Circle/District line is down today, gotta detour by the Victoria line to Victoria tube station.
Today’s itinerary is Warwick castle in the afternoon, when we arrived in Coventry at noon time. Met all the others at the tube station, Ian Cheng and Chwen were there earliest. That makes 6 of us. Yan Neng and Serene are late! Haiz, maybe it’s Hwa Chong culture, haha. Finally the 2 arrived by 9.15am. 15 minutes late, lunch should be on them. Walked to Mega Bus coach stop in 5 minutes. I guess everyone was excited about the trip, there were non stop chatting. Tan went on to find the bus, and it was on the other side of the building! Almost missed the bus, a close relief. But the bus is super cui. Cui may sound exaggerating at this point, but super is the word to emphasise. The seats look moldy and unclean. But for the sake of reaching Coventry, we gotta make do with it. Haiz.
Sat with Serene for the trip. As usual, I became chatty. Talk about anything under the sun, while it’s still in the sky. But time seems to pass more quickly, and can get to know friends better. Guy or girl, it’s no difference. As time goes, the heat is becoming unbearable. Machiam like Singapore. I shed my outer coat, then my inner fleece layer, and finally left with my polo tee. Still sweating! Buay tahan, the bus uncle switch on the wrong thing issit? But amazingly, despite the heat, Serene managed to keep her 2 layers on. Both woolen somemore. She seemed to come from deserts, the heat is like nothing to her.
Our bus ride got delayed. I’m sure it’s not due to the stop we made at a services point, more like stuck in London for super long. Anyway, our arrival time is an hour later than usual. Time check, 12.30pm. Tan’s friend, Nicholas, is coming to pick us up before sending the girls to city centre for their hotel. By the time we reach Torcil, the hostel which Nic is staying at, it’s was pretty much past 1. I called Jeremy at this point, thought maybe I should meet up with him to leave my stuff in his room. Guess what? It’s such a coincidence that he stays at Torcil too! The girls left with Tan and Nic to Coventry city centre for the hotel, while I stayed for a chat with Jeremy. Seems like he’s been pretty happening in Warwick, downing lager and spirits. Anyway, after that, I went to catch Tan, Nic and the girls in Coventry. Met Cheng and Edmund at the bus stop though, can’t remember his girlfriend’s name. Had some fun chat together, before they alight for the train station to take a train to Birmingham.
I alighted 1 stop later. The city centre is something like London, but not so London like also. Don’t know how to describe. Walked through the entire centre trying to find the police station, since the hotel is there. But just can’t find. Called Tan, and they say wanna come find me in city centre instead. Well well, all the more better. Told them I’m at Council House at first. But as I walked towards the cathedral structure, I found a surprise! Cathedral ruins. Oh gosh, that’s so beautiful. Not that I’m gloating over its destruction. But imagine my surprise finding daylight through a Gothic architecture within a modern city like Coventry. Wah seh, cannot miss. Seriously, the internals were ruins, but restored in a dignified manner and with sculptures placed all around in memory of World War 2. Apparently it was bombed in WWII, everywhere except the external walls are flattened. Even the sanctuary. Interestingly, there’s a wooden dilapidated cross standing crooked. Accordingly to an article, the story goes back to post WWII when a priest actually erected a wooden cross within the ruins with 3 nails to signify the ‘Christian hope of resurrection’. Wow. Now, there’s an international community of the Cross of Nails that supposedly do charity and community work around the world, fighting for the cause of peace and love for all victims of war. Cool. Finished my tour of the ruins, but they have yet to arrive. Waiting in the cold, bearing with the hunger of no lunch, pacing around to warm myself up, I seriously believe the cold I’m feeling is due to the lack of food. When they finally arrived, it’s again another tour of the ruins. Haiz. But soon we went into the new cathedral, next to the ruins. It’s very tastefully artistic, puts any church in Singapore to shame. Was wondering that despite being so rich, how come City Harvest never really had a church so tastefully modern? There are the 2 walls leading up to the altar. Each wall is staggered with glass panels facing the altar. According to Nic, the panels represent a human life, from birth at the panels closest to the altar to death at the main entrance. The representation is in the form of colours, from bright to dark. At the end of the panels near to the altar, there are organs placed 2 to 4 stories high up, and of gigantic size as well. Cool. What’s more interesting is that despite the cathedral being Anglican, there’s a statue of Virgin Mary on the right side of the altar, looking at Jesus Christ and the cross. In fact, Nic mentioned that the cathedral seems to be in the structure of a cruciform. Not very obvious, but maybe it is so. Then on the left side of the main entrance, there’s a Unity Chapel. Can’t really remember if that’s its name, but there’s something quite significant about it. The floor plan is in the form of a 10 armed star. Wow. Right in the middle of the floor lies a pentagon, above which is a hanging cross. The pentagon branches out to form a pen-star spanning the room, with another 5 arms cutting between the arms of the pentagon-star. On the floor around the star itself are mosaic pictures representing the 7 continents and some of the saints in the Bible. The artistic feel of the entire place is pretty good, simple and elegant. To put it simply, it’s the 1st time I’m impressed with modern Christian architecture. Usually, the good ones are historically significant architectures but this one is modern and exceptional. Wow.
Anyway, the girls went for Primark shopping and the rest of us just went walking around everywhere, talking crap and stuff like that. Went to Nandos for dinner after that. Interestingly, other than Ivan, the rest of us had never been to Nandos before, even Nic. Ha. Soon the other Warwick people came, Shuki, Aileen and Jiawei. (Don’t know I got their names right). Jeremy came the last, and all of us had a good chat since Nandos serves pretty good food. At least the sauce is spicy enough for us, given that we used the extra hot ones.
Jeremy gave me a tour of University of Warwick, which seems to have a pretty good environment and pretty comprehensive in terms of facilities as well. If only MHA will give me my 4th year for Masters, I would have applied for Warwick Business School.
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