"The fifth month of the year was continued in style with more laughter, tears, coffee, food and unexpected hours of walking and hiking. =P "
Sadly, May was actually the last month that all of us could spend some good quality time with one another as by this time next month, every one of us would be pretty much separated and have different things to deal and get busy with. As usual after exam, we continued our lepak habit in the city of Nottingham and most Smurfies decided to have lunch together at Zizzi.
One conversation led to another and someone did cry very hard during lunch. While I did my best to hold back my tears as seeing others cry could easily provoke my overactive tear glands, I listened to the words of console by every one to the Smurf who got all teared up.
Sometimes I wondered whether the other Smurfies were actually consoling themselves deep down at the same time when they were trying to utter any soothing words as every one of us was experiencing the very same thing. I figured that saying goodbye would never be easy no matter how many times one practiced it.
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| Pizzas at Zizzi. |
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| All of the loves of my life. |
Strangely, it hailed unexpectedly when we were trying to leave the restaurant but the sun continued to shine again soon afterwards. I guessed the rapidly changing UK weather could still manage to surprise me after all these while. In the afternoon, we had a short chat in 200 Degrees before we ended the day with Sing-K session. I would leave out the details of the night as a secret but for what's worth, it was indeed one of the most beautiful and bittersweet nights that I had ever had in my life.
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| Cute mini Boost! |
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| Short coffee time in the afternoon. |
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| Karen Mok Night. |
With the limiting time that we were left with, we could only grab as much opportunity as possible to spend time with one another. One of the many things that I was so going to seriously miss was the home-cooked food made by my fellow Smurfies. I could only say that my Smurfies took very good care of me in these past few years when I was away from my family and they did a fantastic job at it.
To be frank, I could hardly remember any time that I had ever contributed anything into Smurf Village but these bunch of people were still willing to be my pillar of strength and asked for absolutely nothing in return. The only regret that I had was that I wished that I had been more "matured", "useful" and less "selfish" to my Smurfies.
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| Breakfast. |
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| One of the usual Chow Mien of 89 City Road. |
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| The usual Penne. |
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| Fried rice when we're too lazy to cook. |
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| Blissful evening with good Smurfy food. |
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| Portugal tart time with Smurfies. |
When HJ suggested that we had one last Smurfy trip to Peak District, a few of us signed up for it after giving it some thought. We departed early in the morning in front of QMC and then took another bus from Derby before beginning our few hours of walking along the countryside roads in order to reach our destination.
Our path to Castleton seemed endless and we kept lying to ourselves repeatedly that the destination was just around the corner so that we would not throw in the towel halfway through. However, the truth was that there wasn't any option left except to march on forward, as we're literally in the middle of nowhere.
Even though the entire road journey was long and tiring, I was really thankful that the weather on that day was surprisingly perfect, and that the view along the way was absolutely refreshing and stunning, except for the one equally funny and disturbing scene of a dead chicken/ bird/ whatever animal with feathers that I stumbled upon. It made me scream out loud and I really wished that I could just click the "unseen" button to get it out of my head.
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| The amazing countryside view. |
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| Sheep everywhere. |
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| Cows and horse along the way. |
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| No where to go except to head forward. |
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| Baby lamb and her Mummy. |
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| Keeping ourselves entertained. |
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| One of the many ladders along the way. |
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| Such beautiful creatures they were. |
Although we reached Castleton village in the end (oh God finally yes we did), it was the view along the journey that actually counted. I would not believe myself for saying this but it was certainly one of the most special and memorable day trips that I had with my Smurfies.
The experience of the day was the complete opposite of what I had expected. I did not exactly know how to put it into words but the day was very unique in its own way that although we were met with a series of "unfortunate" events, we still somehow managed to be in a surprisingly good mood and have so much more laughter compared to days where everything went smoothly.
The funny/ less fortunate events such as the "photo spot" situation that got us all venturing into a valley, the river of hope, the castle of 化肥工厂, the 为什么没有巴士可以到可是有巴士可以回 situation, the fish and chips dinner with rude waitress, the huddling together in a small bus stop seeking shelter from the cold rain and wind and many others would surely be hard to forget in a long time.
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| First time to see cattles with such special stripes. |
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| Finishing our Pringles while knowing that we're not far away. |
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| Felt like I was on top of the world. |
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| Phey Jie resting after climbing uphill. |
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| The typical post he loved. |
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| The view overlooking the village of Castleton. |
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| So happy that the trekking part was over. |
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| Walking around Castleton village. |
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| Into the valley we went. |
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| Meditating in the valley. |
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| The place where we decided to stop and turn back to avoid the upcoming rain. |
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| The very "charming" river of hope! |
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| Our "合体照" beside the famous Castle of 化肥工厂. |
If only time could freeze like photographs, and everything would stay the same and all of us could live next door to one another like the past four years, it would be the perfect world to live in. While everything in this real world would be changing day by day beyond any doubt, hopefully the memories that we all created together and our smurfyship could stand the test of time and last as long as we lived.
Goodbye, May. You, too, would be missed terribly.
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| Goodbye, for now. |
Photograph - Ed Sheeran
