thanks fred so much for hosting us. and even let me and edel slp on his bed while he and jf went to the other room offered by his flatmate who's not in that night..so nice also. we played daidee the night and went to bed at abt 2 plus.
next morning, fred fixed us fried bee hoon and scrambled egg for breakfast! wah...first time i eat fried hoon after 2 months? he's very hardworking lor. we had some probs getting out of bed at 10am.haha. after the sumptuous breakfast, we 3 went to the visitor centre, got the map and some brochures then waited for a long time for the bus which we figured out that comes at hourly interval. got on and headed towards temple newsam. all the attractions are off leeds city centre. transportation is just wasting our pounds and pences. we reached there, drizzling and we trek upslope , round half the golf course and thru a forest then reached the house. the field in the house is wow! got a guy which brings his dog to the mid field. the scenery is super breathtaking..so country side.
we proceeded to the visitor centre to buy the tix for entrance to the house and the farm. we totally have no idea why is it called a temple. the farm is really an experience..all the equipment and machinery, the animals and their stables and coops and pens. too bad we din see the horses. and the man at the ticketing booth were telling us to look for one wk old piglets which we will see if we can find the rabbits but no....we din see either of them. there are so many different kinds of chickens, geese, ducks, pigs, cows and the bulls are in the restrictred area but oops..we went right through it. the bulls look really scary, think we will die if all of them jumped out of the cages and charged at us. they haf rings on their nostrils, making so much noise.
we have to cross a short tunnel to the other side where the sheeps are. then the stupid chinese geese, yes that's the breed, keep making noises when we passed them. jiafang was like walk one step and then stop then walk. the geese made noises when there's movement. and it all started by one goose. the others were echoing.they stopped when he stopped..haha like conducting an orchestra lor.
next to the magnificent house. man...u'll take 15 min to walk from the bedroom to the dining room. it's real big. wat a house! really like the space in there. but it might be scary if there are few pple living in it la..but these kinds of houses sure haf countless servants. the bedrooms are accompanied by a dressing room beside it. the bedrooms are like the size of 3 seminar rooms, those larger ones in E4, or rather 4 master bedrooms in HDB flats and the dressing room is like 2/3 the size of the bedroom. the dining room is the size of a convention hall lor...and on the wall are thousands of paintings. very victorian style. it's really awesome inside.
we figured out that there are some houses which are closed in winters are becos the king and queens stayed there. so when they were not staying there for the summers, it'll be open to the public. so this temple newsam is not in use anymore. it was a beautifully conserved masterpiece. the archaelogists and others restored the whole place based on photographs. but too bad the kitchen is gone. cant be restored i think, it was replaced with a fire exit. how i wished i could video taped the entire place. just cant described in words.
rooms are not just bedrooms and dining halls...there are several other rooms for certain purposes..cant remember all definitely. there are 3-4 levels. and some rooms including the dining room were used as wards during the first world war. some princess and prince's rooms overlooked the garden with a central fountain. the house wasnt just occupied by one family obviously. there were a few, so some rooms were used for different purposes. fantastic trip!
we waited another 45 min for the bus in the rain. headed back to leeds city centre and walked back to fred's hall...wah...got rice with green curry and a chicken thigh. yummy!!! super good host sia. his another flat mate, peace, is a vietnamese and she's making vietnamese spring roll lor! feeling nostalgic haha. talked to her abit and ya she knew hoa sua...as usual i cant just say hua1 ser1, she din catch it the first time, then i tried to speak with viet accent then she understand..haha i can still fake viet accent.peace taught i expert in cooking leh! haha then i told her i went there to cultural exchange and for some proj, so i'm not a hoa sua student. well hoa sua restaurant is really famous. she did the fried one cos i remember the white, unfried one has a kind of grass or herb with a super strong smell lo.
after dinner, we played bridge then we went to the pub to have some shots and barcardi lime. quite nice leh...the drinks...but the place is ya as usual very smoky. oops fred was abit seyh...haha but can lah not really drunk. staggered abit at first but the cold just got us more awake. walked back to his hall and ate some cookies...wah leeds have cheap digestive biscuits and coated with chocolate some more lor...only 33p...this time we insisted on slping in slping bags instead then fred and jf took the bed, cos his flatmate came back.
fred told us to take the sandwiches he made, from the fridge tmr morning. so thoughtful rite! haha i'm really impressed. cos our train is 7am on mon.
mon morning, he took the free shuttle bus around leeds city centre with us to the train station and there we bade farewell. we got on the train back to newcastle.
