london - here I come!

:) train in 45 mins. I am dead excited about seeing Bons and Janet. Hmmm not that excited about S also, something wrong. Hhahaha

But it'll be great. Provided if my right foot is still attached to leg after trip.

:) Photos to come. :) oooooo outta here!

benylin for chesty coughs

shit, shit, shit, shit...

Just the day before I am set off to London, a day which I have been thinking of for forever, I am down with a chesty cough, coughy and runny nose.

And it's not one of those colds that you can ignore, I actually feel light-headed if I stand still. I have a feeling if I had passed out at Sainsbury's earlier, last minute shoppers would have just rolled their trolleys over me.

Almost everyone has gone home, everyone staying at the hall has gone home. And it's weird. Althought I never quite see people in the hall, but their lack of presence can be felt. The entire Thornbank Gardens actually feels empty. And hearing people about how they are going to spend Christmas at home with family makes me a little homesick as well.

Well, at least S is coming over tonight to just keep me company before I go off for my road trip. Yup, it's one of those complicated relationships again. I'm not quite sure if I want to go back, or is it the lack of a familiar face that makes me go back to him? Or a genuine feeling that I do have for him? Don't know man...take it easy. Got iPod Shuffle, so I'm quite happy! muahahha.

I'm just so glad Bons and Janet are coming over. :)

freezer is warmer than outside...

Mr Winter has finally decided to bring his chill to the UK. It is f**king cold! I just checked, the freezer is at 4 deg C but the temperature outside is 0 deg. Win liao.

And of course, since a picture speaks a 1,000 words, here are like 3,000 words worth to say how cold it is.

website taken from www.bbc.co.uk

Doesn't this remind you of Act I sc I from Macbeth? I shall take more from Scotland to verify the gloominess of it all.

Me, as S said, looking like an eskimo. I was trying to puff out some mist. Not quite sure if it worked, but at least you get an idea of how cold it is.

There you go, 3,000 words. If only I can do that for my essay. hmmm I can't imagine how I will be driving through fog next week. I hope it's going to be fine weather, and that my kar will not be tia. Walking to the freaking city centre earlier already nearly killed me. Maybe I can go rent those shopmobility vehicles. Eh, no joke when foot hurts THAT much.

Everyone's gone home for the holidays, and it's starting to get cold. So it does seem like waaaahhhhhhh I'm all alone here!!!!! Till I remember I got that freaking marketing essay to cough out. Okay back to work.

world's most underrated ingredient

Ladies and gentlemen,

May I present to you the humble marzipan.

Perfect in stollens, gives that rich nutty taste. I've had stollens without marzipans - SACRILEGIOUS!!

Excellent in cakes.

Combined with the rich milk chocolate - is to die for.

Or just on its own. Ahhhh.

Perfekt!

PS. Just had 2 fantastic pieces of stollen from M&S. Food orgasm man.

reasons why i wouldn't buy a mac again

Just when I swore never to get a mac, and it's almost time to replace this iBook, my mind starts thinking - maybe a mac replacement ain't that bad. Or maybe it is!

So just please throw these reasons back at me again when I tell you that I want to get a mac.

• First mac bot was dead on arrival. Lousy customer service, and it took them 3 days to replace the first set which I bought and returned to the shop on the same day.
• Wireless card wasn't incorporated - okay this isn't exactly Apple's fault, but a month after I bought my iBook, all iBooks had wireless cards in it - DANG!
  
• Few months into using it, it started scratching my CDs, which meant that I had to go replace the CD-drive. Which also heightened my paranoia about extending warranty and so the short story of a long line of things - Apple earns more.
• Oh.. customer service... do I really have to call India during office hours from Monday-Friday for it? Not that I have anything against calling India, but most times I'll rather walk in a shop and cow peh, cow bu to the customer service in the shop about their lousy products.
  
• Three months back, my HDD crashed. And I had to replace it. Of course, due to first CD scratching incident, I extended my warranty, so it was free. But still, nothing was recoverable from it. They accidentally installed the new OS Tiger on it, which they told me,"oh, we can do it for you for $150." Please lor, no difference except for widgets plus they took the one good thing - iPhoto away!
  
• Applications are like YEARS slower on macs - MSN, Yahoo with Voice. You name it, mac versions come like ten generations later.
  
• Peripherals are more expensive and limited in variety.

On the plus side of Macs.

• No viruses (then again with like 1% of all computer users using mac, why bother?!)
• No need to install drivers for many peripherals.

That's about it really. Hmmmm

But I'm getting an iPod shuffle for Christmas! Muahahahah :)

it finally happened

After 3+ something months, the inevitable (to many) finally happened.

My craving for Singapore cuisine struck, at 3.01am on 17 December 2006. So here I am, asking my friend Sally to post Tiong Bahru Chwee Kueh.

And I am also craving Nasi Padang.

Maybe tomorrow shall go Java and treat myself to something...Just had a glass of milk, albeit COLD milk at 3 deg, but feeling a little more full.

Cravings are gone. Am sure they'll make another monster return soon.

Please remind me not to go to bed hungry.

ups and downs

It's been mostly down today.

1. It's end of semester 1. Which means, that 3 1/2 months have gone by. Very soon exams will be upon me, and lo and behold, I'll be back to Singapore - miserable and in some serious debt.
2. Right foot is hurting hell of a lot. I couldn't even walk far today. Going to school and coming home was like a huge event. Medication doesn't seem to be working - I need morphine!
   
3. Ryan has a cooking session at his flat, and invited everyone, I can't go cos of point 2.
   
4. Tried calling for a cab, obviously the cab system doesn't work the same way here as it does in Singapore.
   
5. Can't decide if I'm hungry or not SO Cooked a bowl of pasta, while stirring it, one piece of ravioli dropped on my white top.
   

Am going to take a hot bath, and then tidy up the room a bit. It takes me ages to clean it up and 2 secs to mess it. It's really annoying! K foot still hurts. grrr

kar tia

Hmmm just to show how excruciatingly painful my foot is, I have decided to name this post "Kar Tia".

Seriously man. I only danced for like 2 hours, and not like I was in my usual killer 3-inch heels. These were wedges and super comfortable! This morning I hobbled around and had to sit after 30 seconds going to the loo. Man...I can't even put my weight on that foot.

I am glad I made the appointment to go see the doc tomorrow. But must hobble up the hill to school. At least there'll be mulled wine and minced pies after the school session tomorrow.

Oh got ucler in mouth also. What's happening har?

it was really good fun

Sara & I


Mining Mike trying to lick Barrie's ears.

The class had our first outing as a group together. We went to the eastern eye, then went to cubes... I think.

Surprisingly most of the class went dancing! I guess that's what makes this place different from the others!

Tho I am now burping indian food - not good.

Of course I old liao. Dance 2 hours onie, then foot hurts like crazy!!! I think hor... seriously next time must dance in wheelchair liao.

But MAAAAnnnn it was good fun!

still hungry

I don't know but the hunger pangs started last nite, and hasn't ended. I just guzzed a bowl of Masala rice with Chicken Tikka (whatever that is) and fried an egg. Was super good, but not filling.

RICE! Not filling?!

And this morning, before school I had a slice of toast, milk. At 10 I had coffee with a cereal bar. At 12 my cornation chicken sandwich and chips. Dinner is now rice, chicken and egg. And I'm still hungry?! Yup, definitely still hungry.

And tired.

And frustrated...with what? I am not sure. It all started this morning, when after a week of glorious waking up at 10, and having time to do my assignment at my own time and some leisure time to be a tourist, now it's back to school. Grrrr.

I missed the 8.22 bus, waited in the rain, wind and cold for half an hour, only to have to stand for the whole journey in the bus, while another EMPTY 418 went pass me. The day kinda went downhill from there. By 2pm, I was feeling claustrophobic from the angora top I was wearing, cos it was too itchy in the stuffy lecture room.

Today's class was loads of fun - it was by Paul Goodwin, he is really funny. And why didn't NUS teach standard deviation the way he did?! I would have remembered what it was if they had! But despite Paul, I couldn't quite enjoy it!

K still feeling frustrated. Maybe should just shower and go zzz, not think about anything, cos tomorrow will be better - movement towards central tendencies.

More Sin City effect

hunger at 1

So super hungry now. I am now surfing the web for pizza express's pizza. They had a 3 for 2 promotion at Somerfeld last week.

OOooo I finally went down to the bath Christmas Market yesterday and tried mulled wine. It was really good! I liked it. And I actually bought some whisky cheese, not really my kind of thing, but it was really good. :)~

K I should get to bed, otherwise am not going to be able to get up tomorrow.

Foot hurts - seriously damn painful.

Suspect it's navicular fracture or stress. Been hobbling around the fast few days, doesn't help that I hiong and went to do 6 hour walk around Bath yesterday and another 3 hours in Clarks Village today. I think I need to go see the doc soon. Otherwise super pai ka. I WANT DR. TAN!!!!!!

k going to zz. over n out

taking a hike

After 6 hours of walking from Bath to Bathampton, then back to Bath and through the markets, my right foot hurts like hell... oooo and waking at 8am too to meet the boys at 9 for the walk

But I'm sure you'll agree that the pictures here are just plain evidence that it's all worth it.

It was shit cold today, despite reported temperature of 3 deg and sunshine. And for the first time I saw frost on grass. I've converted the picture into black and white and done the Sin City effect. Wooo hooo way cool. But I thought it's quite a cool effect, cos the black and white makes it look like its really cold, and the greens on the leaves draw out the contrast with the frost.


Will update more pictures on flickr. But I'm just excited by the pictures I took today.

Enjoy.

time to get crafty

Either out of sheer boredom or sudden burst of creative imagination, after lopping off the extra bits on my £7 GAP jeans, I had a bit of denim left over. So I made a pencil case, and a mobile phone holder.

Of course I wanted to contrast the ruggedness of denim against the sweet, classy and prim-and-proper ribbons. So went down to a haberdashery shop, bought 90p ribbon, in my most favourite deep royal purple, some fabric glue and sewed it all together. I wanted to make it look like it was a present!

So the wide ribbon strap goes around the wrist, customed measured to fit around my wrist.

Tomorrow, or rather today, I'll be off to walk along river Avon. :) It'll be beautiful and scenic!

More pictures to come. But in the meanwhile, another view of my mobile fone pouch. :)

t-minus 14 days

I can't believe it! In 2 weeks at about this time, I'll be packing me luggage on my way to LONDON!

*Just scuffed a big bowl of curry rice in like 2 minutes flat, I think it took me 3 mins to warm it up...hmmmm*

I do miss city life...So here's a checklist of what I need to do while I'm there:

• London Eye (Sore) - who cares? You can see miles and miles from up there!
  
• Madame Tussard's - give robbie a hug and kiss?
• Buckingham Palace - Not priority, but
  
• Zara!!!!!!! - Need I say more?
• Camden Market - if it's opened failing which - Portobello Market
  
• Re-visit Hyde Park
• West End!
• Comedy Club
• One of the museums - I don't care which one, as long as it's one! hmmm maybe the British Museum, it has the largest egyptian artefacts outside of EGYPT, notwithstanding the fact that the Brits actually STOLE the stuff from Egypt.
  
• Harrods! Actually it's more KRISPY KREME IN HARRODS!!!!!

And the general...shop, shop, shop! Well, not exactly cos it'll be too ex, but just window shopping is enough to make me super happy.

Ooooo I just found out that they've a Lakeland Limited in Bath! I nearly died on the street when I saw it - spent a good 1 hour there yesterday, but bot nothing. :) Although, the £8.99 hanging organiser is so super tempting.

This sense of jubilation (with triple !!! on this post) is coming from the fact that I just handed in my first assignment for the course - Managing Operational Processes, with my favourite lecturer Mike Lewis. He is HILARIOUS!

While telling us a story about his kid and some toothfairy in class he actually skipped around in front of the class. Then went,"Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure why I did that really." Had us in peals of laughter.

******It's been 2 hours since I last wrote in this post. Had to go do laundry, vacuum floor and washup from lunch******

I seriously think I am getting old. I don't know, previously my room, table (ex-colleagues can attest to this) and things in general are MESSY! Organised chaos I call it. But I noticed that in recent years, little things start bothering me. Like...

1. Smudges on mirrors - especially smudges on my rearview mirror of car
2. Edge between wall and floor and corners must always be vacuumed. Like use the hose and vacuum-kind, cannot use the usual fix on.
   
3. I like clean floors
4. The general state of my files seem pretty organised. I even do filing to get rid of unnecessary paper stashes.
5. I actually bother folding my clothes and putting it away.
6. I BOT stuff to organise my stuff in my bathroom. And it's stayed organised since.
   
7. Carrier bags from supermarket must be stashed away in one place.
   
8. No old boxes, unnecessary opened packaging which I think - can I keep this for the future?
   

In general, I like having things that organise things...See above of wishlist on Lakeland's hanging organiser.

I mean sometimes I see the way things are organised in some of my friends' rooms, I just so feel like cleaning up for them. Even feel like volunteering to vacuum for them.

WHAT AM I TURNING INTO!?!?

In any case, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. :)

mysteries

I think I've sat here so long, in front of my computer, that I am now officially part human, part couch - both of which are not doing any good for my back.

Anyway I just read the blog of this lady who was my counterpart at cch in Malaysia. For the life of me I cannot rememeber her name...

and after half an hour later...It's Morgan!

Yes, as I was saying, before I left the hellhole of a workplace in June, she had just broken up with her boyfriend. And now she is attached again. Cycle time = 5 months.

And my norwegian friend next door found a swedish boy. Like within weeks.

And this guy in my class actually broke up with his girlfriend, and is now with a french gal. Cycle time = probably in the negative zone.

How the hell do people hook up so quick? Some animal magnetism? Some scent that they dispense in the clubs that I don't see to get access to. (Like drugs, which my dad thinks at the ripe old age of 32, I'm on,... but that's another story altogether).

Then there is the question of what are clementines and satsumas? They look like oranges, smell like oranges, taste like oranges... BUT they are not oranges! Apparently they are different in that oranges are to mandarin (orange). At least the mandarin oranges have the "orange" word there not to confuse small brained people like me.

I've chomped down 7 packs of clementines and satsumas to date and still can't figure them out. Apparently satsumas can be gotten only during around Christmas. Very hard to grow meh? Look like orange still sua da pai.

One thing that is not mysterious is my dear government's announcement to raise GST to 7%.

When they announce anything that will fatten their own pockets...*coff*, I mean the national coffers, it's almost like a death sentence if you do drug traffiking in Singapore - confirm one.

Vote for them, that's what you get.

It's almost like if they say it, it'll be done. Tho they try to pacify you with it going thru parliament, but hey, there's only one party proposing the bill and the same party passes it. So I don't know...little old me... dunno any politics...the odds are kinda high that it won't go through? Hmmmm As a good taxpaying citizen I can only give my government my trust (and money).

So there you go. No mystery about the raise in GST! If only 4-D prediction was as accurate as the GST increases, I bet a lot of Singaporeans will be rich by now. Hmmm then again, Singapore pools is owned by who har?...

Ooooo got assignment to do, better not worry my little brain.

eine kleine Geschichte

Normaleweise schreibe ich auf englisch. Aber heute hab ich etwas, die ich moechte nicht alles lesen. Sehr paradox, dass ich auf den Blog schreibe. Ich hab mein JournalBuch nicht mit mir mitgebracht aber ich muss etwas schreiben.

Gestern als ich bin nach Hause gewesen, hab ich S gesehen. Er war mit eine Frau. Ich hab auserdem restaurant gestanden und ihm angerufen. Aber sein Handy wird abgedreht.

Und dann hat er mich gesehen. Zuerst hat er mich angelaechelt. Dann hab ich gedreht, und bin ich schon weg gegangen.

Er hat mir nicht telefoniert. Nur 3 txt message geschickt. Es gab keine Eklaerung, warum er mich nicht telefoniert hat, nachdem er mich gesehen hat. Ich hab ihm noch ein Text geschickt.

Sicher, dass er eine ganz schwerige Woche hat. Er war mit eine Frau bevor ich eben im Bath angekommen bin. Er had gesagt,"Sie ist nicht meine Freundin."

Er luegt.

Ich hab ihn gefragt, ob wir nochmal ein Paar machen sollten. Er hat gesagt,"Ja, okay."

Aber ich koennte nicht in seinem Haus bleiben, weil sie dort war.

Sie ist nicht meine Freundin.

Und nachdem ich meine Gefuehlen ihn in einem Text geschickt hab, hat er mich nicht beantwortet.

Wahrscheinlich ist das viel besser, das wir unsere Geschichte ein Ende machen. Ich weiss nicht warum kann ein Mann nicht ehrlich sein?

Ich moechte nur ein Mann, der mich liebt.
Der mit mir ist, wenn ich so einsame bin.
Der neben mir, wenn ich jede Nacht zum Schlafen gehe.
Der mich nicht weinen musst.

Den ich liebe.

Und das ist denn die Ende meine Geschichte. Das war etwas ein Traum, ich hab gehofft, dass er war der Perfekte Mann. Aber nicht.

Ouch. Es tut verdammt weh.