Spring and punting
Oxford in spring is really beautiful and pleasant. Flowers were blossoming like crazy covering the entire tree. They were so plentiful that I thought the trees looked a bit meretricious. The weather has been so perfect as well that I keep on wondering if I really am in England!
I've missed the best time to take photos of the flowering trees. The leaves had already started to populate them. They were even whiter before! Please excuse the lack of light as well. I was only free after work...
The coming of spring also means the start of punting. I've heard from my friends talking about doing it on the weekends, so I finally joined the college punt club with a membership fee of 10 pounds which entitles me to punt for free whenever I want for 1 hour. My friend's friend came to visit this weekend so it was a perfect excuse to go punting. I've been on a punt boat once when I was in Christchurch but there was a chauffeur punting for us. We had to do the actual punting this time, and it's proven to be quite a challenge for us (well, me at least). We were given one paddle and one pole. Supposedly, the pole is for pushing the boat forward whereas the paddle is for correcting the direction. When the pros punt, it looks so easy that the boat just glides in a straight line parrallel to the banks down the river. When we did it, the boat rotated at the same spot every 5 metres we moved. Then we would hit the banks, and we had to 'cheat' by hand-pushing ourselves away. We were sort of perpendicular to the banks quite a few times not to mention bumping into other boats. Me with no physics brain could never work out which side to paddle or which direction to push the pole when the boat was at an angle off the course. I eventually gave up completely and handed everything to my friend. He struggled initially but managed to take us back to the boat house. We planned to punt for 1 hour, but we ended up doing it for 2 hours, mainly because we stopped so many times! I was seriously wondering if we were able to make it back because it was against the current and the wind. I was actually telling my friends that I did not want to punt again because I was quite stressed the whole way through rather than relaxed as I should be. It didn't help that it was a bit chilly with the sun out and all the wind. But looking at the photos again, I seemed to have fun. Maybe I'll give it another try. I'll have to take all the tourists friends on it anyway...
Me looking relaxed but I really wasn't...
River Cherwell
I thought this photo could be a poster for a movie/book
These ducks were probably wondering how anyone could be so incompetent on water
I've missed the best time to take photos of the flowering trees. The leaves had already started to populate them. They were even whiter before! Please excuse the lack of light as well. I was only free after work...
The coming of spring also means the start of punting. I've heard from my friends talking about doing it on the weekends, so I finally joined the college punt club with a membership fee of 10 pounds which entitles me to punt for free whenever I want for 1 hour. My friend's friend came to visit this weekend so it was a perfect excuse to go punting. I've been on a punt boat once when I was in Christchurch but there was a chauffeur punting for us. We had to do the actual punting this time, and it's proven to be quite a challenge for us (well, me at least). We were given one paddle and one pole. Supposedly, the pole is for pushing the boat forward whereas the paddle is for correcting the direction. When the pros punt, it looks so easy that the boat just glides in a straight line parrallel to the banks down the river. When we did it, the boat rotated at the same spot every 5 metres we moved. Then we would hit the banks, and we had to 'cheat' by hand-pushing ourselves away. We were sort of perpendicular to the banks quite a few times not to mention bumping into other boats. Me with no physics brain could never work out which side to paddle or which direction to push the pole when the boat was at an angle off the course. I eventually gave up completely and handed everything to my friend. He struggled initially but managed to take us back to the boat house. We planned to punt for 1 hour, but we ended up doing it for 2 hours, mainly because we stopped so many times! I was seriously wondering if we were able to make it back because it was against the current and the wind. I was actually telling my friends that I did not want to punt again because I was quite stressed the whole way through rather than relaxed as I should be. It didn't help that it was a bit chilly with the sun out and all the wind. But looking at the photos again, I seemed to have fun. Maybe I'll give it another try. I'll have to take all the tourists friends on it anyway...
Me looking relaxed but I really wasn't...
River Cherwell
I thought this photo could be a poster for a movie/book
These ducks were probably wondering how anyone could be so incompetent on water
posted by Anderson | 2:03 PM
1 Comments:
Are they brother and sister? XD
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