As far as I know there are three major Chinatowns in England: London, Manchester and Newcastle. The one in London is the biggest one, but still smaller than my impression of ‘Chinatown’ when I first went there about three years ago. Never been the Manchester one so can’t make any comments. But the one in Newcastle can actually be called ‘China Street’ rather than a ‘town’, seriously it’s only one street.

Tonight Lee and I went to the one in Newcaslte to meet up with his friend and had a dinner together. He said there is a nice restaurant that we should really try out, so we did. It was at the corner of one side of the street, called ‘天天’ (tian tian?), can’t remember its English name. It was a typical Hong Kong style restaurant which means not very fancy furnitures but nice food! It was funny when three of us sat down, I got served a set of chopstick whereas they got knifes and folks. I don’t know whether this is in their regulation or not but just found it really funny. Lee was not very happy about it because he can use chopsticks.

The food was indeed very nice, not like those greasy buffets I mentioned before. Here is a little tip, if you want to have proper Chinese food at a reasonable student price in England (or anywhere in the world), don’t go for buffet, but those full of Chinese customers. And the more they are, the better food that restaurant offers. Normally those offer student price ones aren’t in a decent decoration, but the food still nice.

Got this email today, this is the second time I received bonus from Skype. Last time was even better:

Dear Feng Hong,

Thank you for using PayPal to buy your Skype services. We are pleased to inform you that you are a lucky winner of one of the 2,000 exclusive prize packs!

The following prizes are on the way to you:

* A Plantronics .AUDIO ™ 60 enhanced multimedia headset
* A voucher for 30 minutes SkypeOut credit
* A voucher for 3 months free Skype voicemail

You will receive the prizes via Royal Mail recorded delivery to the primary address on your PayPal account. If you do not receive your prize within 10 working days of the date of this email, please contact us at skypecompetition@paypal.com.

Yours sincerely,
PayPal

but I was in Japan at that time so have not luck to receive it.

I don’t know what is the deal between paypal and skype, but it seems you got more chances to get their epecial offers if you use paypal to buy products in Skype. Paypal is a good stuff, so far I have been using it to receive money from friends and do some internet payment.

(C) RichardHong.com / Durham University Main Library

Jay told me there is a sign like this in the library, so today I found it and couldn’t help to take a picture with my phone! They know Durham students are working hard and need a bit humor sometimes.

Phone pic, St. Merry path

I assume spring is slowly arriving in Durham these few days. As I went out for shopping last weekend and today, I feel it’s getting warmer and gloves and coats are not more needed. Raining still continue, but that’s just what English weather is. I couldn’t believe it was still snowing one weeks ago and now it’s spring. Guess this getting-warmer-and-warmer weather will last until late May.

Some sakura photos I took last year

On the other side of the world, Japan is also having its spring of 2006. I’ve got quite a few photos of Sakura from my Japanese friends. Spring is the best season in Japan I think, the blooming of Sakura is really beautiful, weather is warm but not hot, cool but not cold, it’s also the time when most of Japanese people go out and have hanami (having a picnic with cheery blossom viewing). I wish I could be in Japan now but not in this raining English weather.

When it goes to my hometown Shantou (south China), it’s already quite hot out there. Just talked to my family today and they said the temperature is around 25 degree, kind of like summer in England. But when it’s real summer there, normally it’s too hot to go out during the day.

Looking forward to summer here, I like English summer!