Sheffield

I had only one hour in Sheffield before Transpennine train took me back to Manchester. Fortunately, many major point of interests are scattered around north-northwest Sheffield train station, most things can be reached on foot.

Once an important steel city during Industrial revolution, Sheffield is now one of the UK’s biggest cities, a major industrial and cosmopolitan city. Those in process safety occupation know Sheffield for its well-known University of Sheffield’s MSc in Process Safety and Loss Prevention.

Some of the point of interests visited were: Town Hall, City Hall, Peace Garden, Winter Garden, Millenium Galleries, and Sheffield Hallam University.

Welcome to Sheffield (at Sheffield train station)

A road in Sheffield

Leopold St. heading toward Town Hall

City Hall

A bus in Sheffield

Taxi in Sheffield

Town Hall

Town Hall and Peace Garden

Winter Garden

Millennium Gallery

A modern building in Sheffield

“What-If” on external wall part of a building in Sheffield Hallam University

A wall fountain in Sheffield train station

Sure lof it’s Edensor

Edensor (pronounced: “Ensor”) is a village, a small village in Derbyshire, England. If not because of Andrea Hirata‘s novel bearing the same name, it will almost certainly be unheard in Indonesians ears. Edensor is not a tourist puller, the nearby Chatsworth House is.

In his novel, Andrea, with his strong fluidic narrative, and vivid details of his story, tells a tale about his struggling time in the Universite de Paris of Sorbonne, and his summer traveling across Europe and Africa partly to find his childhood ‘girlfriend’. It was she who gave him a book inwhich naturalist description of a village captivating him. That village is Edensor.

Story has it that originally the village, much of it belongs to the Dukes of Devonshire, was close to the River Derwent immediately below Chatsworth, but the Dukes had it moved out of sight over a hill, apart from one cottage whose tenant didn’t want to move, which still stands in Chatsworth Park.

When I’ve got a chance to visit Manchester last June, I didn’t miss it without visiting Edensor.Will it be as breathtaking as its novel?

The village is easily accessible from Manchester by taking 48-min to 1hr 18min train ride to Sheffield (price varies) and continuing with a 50-min bus ride (5.50 GBP return trip) from Sheffield Interchange (Bus Number 214/215 Sheffield – Matlock).

….I am stunned. Overwhelmed with dejavu from seeing this charming village. I feel like I am already  familiar with rooster-carved village gate, with stone benches, with arrays of daffodil and astuaria flowers. I am as though passing through a time tunnel and thrown away to imaginary land that has been long settled inside my heart.

I  asked the driver to stop and bursted out of the bus. Thousands of memory fragments on this beautiful place for tens of years suddenly synthesized before my eyes, so lovely.

To a passerby woman I asked,”Madam, can you please tell me the name of this place?”

She looked at me calmly then answered.

“Sure lof, it’s Edensor….”

(free translation from Edensor, Andrea Hirata, 2008)

 

Edensor

Reading Andrea’s Edensor novel with Edensor village in the background

Edensor

Edensor with St Peter’s church in the background

Start of Edensor

St. Peter’s church

Graveyard near St. Peter’s church

 

Edensor Tea Cottage

 

An area at Edensor

A house in Edensor

Rose Cottage in Edensor

Another house at Edensor

An area at Edensor

Bus stop in front of Edensor

People jogging on the main road near Edensor

A couple walking on Chatsworth Park. The footpath links Edensor with Chatsworth House, a 15-min walk.

Chatsworth Park Map

Herding the lambs

Chatsworth House and its garden. Seen here The Cascade (fountain)

Chatsworth House and The River Derwent

Welcome to bachelor life

Summer holiday started. Quite earlier for some. For us it just started today when my family departed Doha to Bandung, Indonesia. Inevitably, they left me behind due to my work schedule and leave planning. I am officially now bachelor, local bachelor only.

What’s life as a bachelor? Not too bad.

– Feel awkward without such noise, without kids around but definitely miss them

– Doing everything myself – house cleaning, laundry, cooking and so on….

– Start realizing how family-oriented life in this city is not favorable for bachelor. Family Day!

– Some degree of freedom – no complain on home late, no NOC required, much me time

– Time to self-discovery – with much me time probably it’s the best time to self-discover myself

– Time to try something new – new recipes, new websites

– Time to accelerate work progress – now I can take my work home and work uninterruptedly

– Time to build love among us – distance separates us but it only makes us closer

– Time to build stronger relationship with friends (those having the same local bachelor status 🙂 )

– As Ramadan about to start, it’ll give me much more time to get closer to Him

See it’s not that bad. Now let me start counting down the days until I meet them. 32 days more 😦