My University

Yeah, my lovely school in Cardiff! I saw a bunch of Harry Potter (I mean, students in graduate gown) in and out of my school. I didn't know, but today was the graduation day. I didn't attend my own graduation ceremony back in ... when? 2007?

My major purpose to come to Cardiff is to see BF, "THE" BF. He is lovely and cheerful even when he talked about depressing current situations of the U.K. According to him, the British government will cut 25 percent of budget for higher education, which is not promising to me because the job market will further shrink. Ahhhh, my future is in the dark! But BF was kind of optimistic as usual because he is BF.

Walking Around

Ohhhhh, Student Union! I remember I used to come here to read newspapers and have some beer. It is lovely that the university has a pub. British!


St. Mary's Street is remodeling. I assume that it is going to be more pedestrian-friendly.


Cardiff Castle!


I don't quite remember what arena this is. An ice hockey arena?


King's Cross! It is just like yesterday that we came here almost every Thursday. I really miss those days. The area around King's Cross has quite changed in 4, 5 years. New buildings have been constructed.


Exit is still there. Again, this was our weekly clubbing place (after a couple of drinks at King's Cross). Man, I'm nostalgic now.


Yeah, we lived in this hobbit house. We had lots of fun stuff here.

Dad's Army Marches On

To get right to the point, I couldn't get the story, even I slept around the end of the show. This show is supposed to be funny, and actually there were some scenes that made me laugh. But, other than that, it was not exciting. Well, I can't complain because the ticket was only 5 pounds (viva, student discount!).

Air China Part I

Yes, I expected the poor manner of passengers, so I wasn’t surprised, but I was pissed off.

Oh yeah, there’s one thing that surprised me. Before and during the meal, I had red wine (of course, I made the best use of my privilege of flying an international flight!). Toward the end of the meal, cabin attendants pushed through the drink cart. I asked the third one, and the same attendant who served me the first two paper cups of wine told me, “No, you’ve already had two!” Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Air China doesn’t serve the third wine?!

I asked another wine during the second meal, of course, this time, to a different cabin attendant. Luckily, I got it, yay.

Air China Part II

This may not be because of Air China, but I don’t remember when I first came to the U.K. with a JAL flight they did the same. Toward the end of the flight, cabin attendants sprayed pesticide in the cabin. Wow, I thought, this is disrespectful to passengers. I will check if other airlines do the same when I go and come back from Portugal next week.

National Express

I remember Heathrow Airport was chaotic, but it is not anymore, which is surprising to me. Well, it was right after the terrorist attempt when I used Heathrow Airport for the last time. There was no doubt that it was chaotic.

But, Central Bus Station at Heathrow Airport is still chaotic. I went to the bus station to get on a bus to Cardiff. It was easy to find the station and buy a ticket. Good. The problem was ... where is the bus stand?! The ticket lady simply told me, “Right out there.” It is the central bus station, CENTRAL, which means terminal, big, and lots of buses! I went OUT THERE anyway to wait for a while. I was wrong. OUT THERE where I was was the terminal of local buses. It was almost the departure time of my bus. Frantically, I rushed to another terminal to catch my long distance bus. Then, I remembered that I had caught a bus there when I first came to the U.K. five years ago. Anyway, there was no time to be nostalgic. I spoke to, again in panic, bus staff, “Where’s the bus to Cardiff? It’s supposed to leave at 6:05!” It was 6:05. Then, the guy said, “It’s late,” smiling. “Oh good. Which stand is the bus coming in and leaving from?” There are several (10?) stands at the terminal. The guy’s answer was, “Whichever,” smiling.

Yes, I clearly remember now that this is the British way. Public transportations never run on time, and many things are not strictly prescheduled. That’s just chaos to me (Remember, I’m Japanese). But, I learned by the end of my year-long stay in the U.K. that everything would be all right at the end. This is the British way. I’ve just started retrieving this sense of Britons.

Victoria Hall

Initially, I planned to stay at MA’s place while in Cardiff, but it turned out that he was out of the country this weekend. So, I changed my plan and booked a room of university flats. To be exact, this is not run by Cardiff University but by a private company. Anyway, Victoria Hall is the place where I will stay for a few days.


I could imagine my room because L used to live in Victoria Hall and I visited her several times here. But, wow, this is small! Because I’m living in a two-bedroom apartment in the States, which is relatively small from an American sense but big enough to little Japanese like me, this room is just the size of a Japanese one-room apartment, man!


And look at this sink. This is the most inconvenient sink in the world (but I know this is a widely used type of sink in the U.K.), with hot-water and water separated faucets. This is another inefficient thing in the U.K.


I think the typical unit bath applied to Japanese small apartments is better than this bathroom :P