Easter Weekend @ Peak District

I know, Easter was ages ago. Started on this entry but never really got round to finishing it as I am busy saving lives.

4 days off from Friday to Monday and I was silly enough to not know it was a public holiday.
Because of that I actually booked my trip up to Edinburgh the weekend before when I really should've just done it THIS weekend.

So when my friend asked if I wanted to go to Peak District/Nottingham with him and his friends, I said yes.
After all, I had nothing better to do. And also it's a win win situation for us as I was free and they needed one more person to make the overall cost of the car rental to be cheaper.
I like this symbiosis relationship between mankind.

The Nottingham Eye.

Original.

So our little exploration group consists of 4 young working class adults, 2 of which I have never met before. I even shared the bed of Yue Peng, a lovely host whom I've never ever met.

See.

Because of people like her, and people like Yi Pei (another host in Manchester whom I also had never met but was SO lovely and accommodating; it made me feel like a completely bad person), I vowed to myself that I have to be a better person altogether.

And also the hundreds of times I have gone up to London and stayed at Liwan's - she hardly ever turns me down, Daniel, who also offers me his room as and when required and Melissa who includes me in all her plans when I am down and lonely in the city - I am forever indebted to their friendship.

I am quite sure they sometimes curse me in their sleep though. This totally ma-fan girl who comes and intrude into our quiet weekends, need to open door for her, need to share my shampoo, need to make sure she is fed and watered...

Lucky I got chinese charm to protect against all bad karma.

Anyway, I still promise to be a better person all the time. Of course, this would be helped a lot by having more money where I can pay for a 5 star hotel myself, or just buy my friends nice dinners at Nobu or something.

Don't worry chaps, the day will come soon.

Back to Nottingham/Peak District.

The other reason why I agreed to go was because I have never been to Nottingham.
Just as well, I guess.

When we arrived, Yue Peng brought us to her company headquarters - Capital One (yes, that credit card company). From the outside, it looked like a peeling old ugly HDB flat but on the inside....

I once again question myself why I am working in a manky old hospital.


We managed to fit in 5 games of foosball, 2 rounds of table tennis and a Connect 4 game during our 'short' visit.

Now really. These are the people I pay to handle my credit cards. There is where all the money go. Foosball, pool, table tennis - for all their 'tired' workers.

Meh.

Fine, I am going to order a whole body MRI scan for ALL my patients.
Tax payers will foot the bill.
Including those Capital One slackers.

The next day, we went to collect our pre booked car from East Midlands Airport.
The whole conversation went like this:
- Driving licence please
Wallace hands over his Singapore licence.
- Passport please
Wallace hands over his Singapore passport
- How many years have you been in the UK?
- Four
- If that is the case, it is illegal for me to rent you a car because you should have a UK licence.

At to which I almost had a heart attack and died.

I mean, all the travelling up here was to get that blasted car and to drive around Peak District.

Tulan and super bei face. -_______________________-

Then Wallace says in super flat monotonous voice:
- Can we try next door
- Yes

Next car rental counter:

-Yeah here are your keys.


Clearly, some people do not know how to do business. Europacar will crash and burn with all their law abiding workers.

After piling into the car - thank goodness someone rented it to us, if not I'll be on the next train back to London - we finally got to our first intended destination - Bakewell.

Famous for its Bakewell tarts.

Only having ever had Bakewell tarts from Tesco's or Sainsbury's, the tarts from its original hometown tastes exactly like...

Bakewell tarts.

Maybe one can argue it tastes a little bit different - perhaps more home made and not so artificial like the supermarkets. Also, the tarts were of different shape and colour and size compared to the generic supermarket ones (as illustrated above) - and every single shop claimed that they were the original Bakewell tart shop.

Like. Every. Single. Shop. You. Pass. By.

Among others

So what to do, had to sample as many tarts as I can right from all these ori shops.

Only to obviously find that they actually taste exactly like...

Bakewell Tarts.

Hooray.

After the extremely short visit to Bakewell, we moved on to the Dark Peak which were seriously high crags overlooking the Cumbra; the vast English countryside.

I really enjoyed it despite the cold. Sometimes, one has to look over the edge of a precipice to exalt in the glory of life in its purest form - just green, brown and yellow, with the blue blue sky, the rhythmic hum of bees and the smell of the wild wind filling all your senses.

It was phenomenal.

We managed to spend a freezing 15-20 minutes up there before we retired to the carpark to have our pack lunch.

My official new favourite vegetable is rocket.

That was 1 month ago though, now it is courgette.

Our final stop was Castleton where we visited the Blue John Cavern.

Blue John is the French name of the stone that resides in these mining caves and - I have never heard of it before hence I will cease to elaborate on it since everything now is easily a Google stop away.

Raw Blue John stone for you

A 45 minute tour to see stalactites and stalagmites, we even had an Easter Egg hunt in the cave! Yes, it was for the children, but hey if I spot a Creme Egg, what's to stop me from picking it up and devouring it in smooth sequence?

On the drive home, we passed by the Lady Bower Reservoir which...

Nah, photos.

Overall, I would say Peak District is actually wildly beautiful. Recommended if you have never been.

One more exciting place in Britain you can visit.