WiDe EyEd WoNdEr~eR

2006-03-06T15:39:00.000Z

bird!

another bird!

~A Tale of 2 Cities~

2005-11-11T21:54:00.000Z

Friday, 11/11/05...

Rite after our only lesson of the day, a multivariate lab, we rushed back to our rooms... time was not ample! i packed up my bag for the weekend, then had a quick lunch of my instant meal (its curry chicken again!) oh and our fave supermarket Morrisons is closing down on 19/11!!! *looks of terror* heeeeelp!!! where are we gonna get our cheap instant meals and cheap bread and cheese and ham now!!! hmmm really dunno how these angmohs do business one... they're the most popular supermart amongst the students in a student town... and dey still wanna close down!! haiz just hope that something even better and cheaper will come up in its place! meanwhile... a minute silence for the unfortunate demise of Morrisons...

well aniwei rite during lunch i heard from flatmate Katie that i could actually go to her house to stay when we were in cambridge! haiz but after alot of directions and map-printing and advice from her, we couldnt go to her place to stay in the end cos our itinery din allow us to stay overnite in cambridge!

after lunch we headed for the train station.... damn it was raining yet again! arrgh and the wind!!! so soooo strong lor! i was actually nearly swept off my feet by one particular gust of wind manz! ha and i saw this umbrella... or rather wat remained of it... just the broken skeleton, with the cloth completely torn off... being dragged across the ground by the wind lor!!! crazee one the weather here! reached the train station, and we still had to collect our tickets for the london-cambridge journey and buy tickets from london to bath! i totally din have a good feeling abt buying tix last min for the london-bath journey, and i was proven rite when the (this one was particularly grouchy and rude) ticket sales person quoted us 27.70pds for a 1way trip!!! wah really slaughterhouse lor! of cos we din buy then...went to national express to find out the bus prices, which were much better...16.50pds... so we decided to go london see if the train tix were any better (which means the evil woman was really trying to cheat us!), if not at most we take bus lor..

so we boarded the train for a long journey down south! wah actually recounting now... we spent so much time and money on transport for the weekend lor! actually made ard 10 journeys for the whole wkend lor! hmmm lemme see...

Newcastle-London Kings Cross-London Victoria Coach Station-Bath-Stonehenge-Bath-London Victoria-London Kings Cross-Cambridge-London-Newcastle!wah no wonder spent so much $$ la! hmmm well but we did get to see alot of places lah... so i guess it was quite worth it!

The train ride took something like 3hrs, during which time i actually managed to get some studying done! ha bo bian lah... feeling too guilty liao and feeling the heat too from too much work piling up! yups we reached london bleary eyed in the evening, looking for cheap tix to bath on the same day... impossible task manz! the price was a cool 47pds for a single trip tic! so we were momentarily lost! got kelv to call up national express, and luckily they still had seats on the bus which was leaving at 7pm... 40min to get there... could we make it!!?

evrthing seemed to be agst us lor! super crowded station during peak hour, super long queue to get the tube ticket, super super long walk from the underground station to the coach station! well but i can say i've taken the london underground, and was quite unimpressed! it was old and creaky and dirty and moved in sudden, jerking movements! 2pd for a single trip was simply too much to pay! but we had no choice... if only their stations din have the gantries we sure go in without tix one! ha but again if it was lidat no one at all will be buying tickets liao cos the place was so crowded it was impossible to catch violators!

we reached victoria station and the next task was to find our way to the coach station within 15min. the walk was so far despite kelv saying its very near... and it was still raining! by the time we reached it was 6.56pm, but any chance of getting onto the bus disappeared when we saw the long queue at the ticketing counter! haiz in the end run til lidat still muz watch in despair as the bus left before us! luckily there was a 7.30bus thou, but this one takes twice the time to reach cos it was going to alot of other places, and in the end we only reached bath at the unearthly hour of 11.53pm!!

okie now finally at our destination... next prob to set in was accomodation! jialat lor! cos on the bus we called the hostel we booked, and dey actually told us dey've given our room to other pple cos we din pay the deposit! another hostel i'd booked with on the bus oso dua us in the end cos when we walked in dey told us dey've given all their rooms out in the last hour! grrr! was so scared at dat point lor! i really din wanna go to bath to slp in the streets in the rain wor! luckily in the end we found (after much searching!) this ymca hostel with vacancies! whew super relieved at that point manz... even thou dey only had twins and triple rooms... triple was 18pds/head... way above budget! well but luckily the guy at the hostel was really nice and in the end we worked out a deal for a 2 man room with an added mattress at 16pds/person...quite exp ah but since breakie was included we decided to take enuff breakie to last us the whole day haha!

the hostel room was pretty cosy... ensuite summore, with our own sink! but one thing bad... THE BATHROOM WAS SPOILT!!!! arrgh! so we had to walk way down the corridor to the other part of the building whenever we needed the bathroom or the toilet! wah den even worse, there was dis drunk man who was sitting on the stairs cursing and swearing at evrthing which moved in front of him... keep chanting wat "cockfight! cockfight!" crazee manz... so old liao still act like kid! ha den he was naked lor! ok la had his boxers on, but he was so drunk his willy was oredi dangling out of it and he din noe it!!!

blehz after much care taken to get past the crazee man, we had our 1st bath in Bath (pun intended!) and rested for the nite... wanted to say rested early, but it was totally not early le manz...3am...we had to wake at 6am to see the city the nxt day... blehz totally worn out aft the long day travelling!

A Special Day, My Special Day!

2005-11-10T09:26:00.000Z

Ha finally 8th of Nov has come and past, and I'm one year older all of a sudden... really quite weird to be one of the eldest here in Newcastle, but it truely was an all new experience spending my birthday overseas for the first time.

The day started with frens and family from back home calling and msging their regards at 12midnite... so touched u guys still remembered... thanx again, cos u made me feel like i'm not dat far from home! However the lessons dat day were a bore... attended 1hr of lecture, then went to the comp lab for awhile... zs had biochem so he went off and it was down to kelv and me...kelv wanted to come back to eat bread, but i thot it would be pretty miserable to be eating instant meals on one's bdae, so i msged Regent to ask him out for lunch.. ha being the nice guy he is, he agreed of cos! yay so bdae lunch was chinese buffet! in the end i managed to persuade kelv to come along too! so it wasnt that bad actually.

we went to ho's buffet in chinatown (literally translated to 中国城 by the angmohs!) for their buffet lunch it was 12.55 by the time we reached, and both of them guys had lessons at 2! all the more i was touched dey agreed to come eat with me! the buffet spread was good... alot alot of meat, got sweet and sour pork and chicken, lemon chicken, fish fillet, chicken wings, fried noodles and fried rice... blah blah~ so nice lor! but i realised its alot of starchy and greasy stuff, so we were full like after 2 major servings! dats their tactic evidently, the buffetmasters, and seemingly it worked quite well! nva mind nxt time must train up to be able to tahan lots of starch! how can i eat only 2 servings at a buffet... throw face!! heh but aniwei we did take desserts after dat lah... ate some orange, some pineapple cubes, jelly and 5scoops of ice cream! their ice cream here is all the soft soft movenpick kind, so its quite nice!

after paying 4.40 each for the buffet (its pretty cheap considering the amount of food available!), we realised its oredi 2.03pm! the guys were pretty late for their lessons, so we ran back to sch. and to make it worse it was raining again!! ha so paiseh manz let the guys be late for lesson cos of me! well but luckily for them too... cos both had their lessons cancelled or ended early! kelv's lab was cancelled cos of a MIA lab demonstrator (not unusual here!) and Regent's lesson ended at 2.20, 5min after he went in!(dats not unusual here either!!)

spent the rest of the afternoon half-aslp, reading abit and doing some blogging... pretty dull and unhappening... grrr and to make things worse again it was still raining! wah the feeling was terrible manz... alone in my room doing nothing and listening to the falling rain and howling winds outside on my bdae!

haha but it all got better in the evening! we left for Regent's place at close to 7... so nice of the hunnypotters to celebrate for me! Regent had baked a nice chocolate cake for me and zs, on top of the meal he prepared! it was pasta nite! a choice between cream of mushroom or tomato. of cos being the sucker for cream of mushroom i'm, i jumped for dat! its a shame thou that the buffet was still having an effect on me, so i din quite finish my food! so sorrie to regent for dat!

after dinner the cake was brought out... so farnie how dey redid evrthing 2 times... sing song den make wish den blow candles for zs den the sing song den make wish den blow candle for me! ha so we reused the candles and cake! ;p we took a long time for this process thou, and the cake was abit of a mess to cut up! but when we tasted it, i knew for sure Regent could add a bakery section to his restaurant if ever he opens one! it was so nice lor... i'd thot ice cream cake was impossible to make at home, and he totally disproved dat theory! thou it wasnt really an ice cream cake la.. just choc cake with ice cream added to it to add to the flavour! but who cares... as long as its nice!

oh and the presents! so sweet of the hunnypotters to know dat i'm gonna get a newcastle uni shirt... so dey got it for me and zs first... a nice dark blue shirt it was, with the newcastle crest rite across the back! dey oso got a newcastle uni keyring.. looks class it does! oh and the ricky road gang got me a football! ha i nearly bot it at the liverpool shop lor, cos it has all the Liverpool players' autographs printed on it! luckily i din buy it then! hmmm still wondering if dey really deflated the ball and pumped it back up when we got back here... if not how to hide a football in their bags! ha it'll remain a mystery thou!

we chatted and watched tv till quite late... was supposed to go to the jazz cafe to unwind, but most of them din want to, so we just stayed at hunnypot till 10+ and went to the casino... the jazz cafe will have to wait til another day again... dat sorta rounded up the evening on a low key...

and i just wanna make use of the last few lines to thank everyone who remembered me on dis day haha! esp Regent for being so nice and eating buffet with me and making cake and cooking pasta for us, to the hunnypotters and exchange gang for celebrating with me, and of cos to the one who's always kept me company thru those lonely moments and counted down to the day together with me, Jolene (",) thanx for always being there for me!

The REAL Theatre of Dreams!

2005-11-09T09:36:00.000Z

Ha I'm back... to describe the second leg of last weekend's adventure! Sorrie eh... taking so long cos I'm bogged down by so much assignments and events and the need to go to the casino evr nite!(i'm 9 stamps out of 20 towards my free dvd player!)

Aniwei after spending the nite in Manchester at Steven's home, we woke up at dawn to catch the bus... Regent was as usual grumpy as he woke up, and evidently ZS was so scared of him he just shoved his hp alarm beside sleeping Regent's ear! den summore grabbed it back once he stirred for fear of his hp landing up smashed agst the wall!

We washed up and left the house by 6.30... the housing area was actually q nice and quiet... got a railway crossing too... hmm mebbe during the day it aint so nice and quiet ba...

Walked some distance to the main road, only to find that the bus services dun start till 7.23! how to catch our 7.30 bus lidat! lucky Steven came to our rescue! Out he drove in his parents' car, still half aslp, to deliver us all the way to the coach station downtown! aiyoh he so nice to us till we paiseh ah... so early in the morning still had to wake him up to help us!

Since we reached early, we deccided to go to the travel office to complain abt being cheated by the various evil Manchester bus drivers the day before! Arrgggh... only to find out that on Sundays the travel office din open till 10am!! good for the evil bus drivers den... escape the law for now... but regent said he'll type a complain email! wanna get our $$ back manz!

our bus was National Express service 60, plying between evil city Manchester and city of angels Liverpool! bus journey was a rather sleepy and unhappening one... took us ard 1hr to reach liverpool.

ha quite surreal really... always been dreaming of the day i'd actually visit Liverpool and all of a sudden here I was! okie but back to reality.. no one had a clue how to get to Anfield, and I managed to get the directions from the ticketing guy at the coach station... budden all 3 of them told me dey din want to go to Anfield at all! wahz left me totally crushed lor... cos dey like want me to go alone and dey go city centre 1st...felt so ostracised lor! but in the end dey still nice enuff... dey agreed to go together to Anfield, but dey wun go into the stadium... well actually true oso la... dey dun even watch soccer how to feel the passion i've...

we took the bus to Anfield... took us like 20min... thruout the whole journey, from the city centre to Anfield Road, Liverpool struck me as such a much nicer city than Manchester! The scenery, for one, was much nicer... lowrise, colloquial buildings and neat residential areas against big city smog and towering high rise buildings... even the people were much nicer, more helpful and more friendly... greeted us with a smile... from the ticketing guy at the bus station to another one I asked for directions on the street... and all the bus drivers we met greeted us with a smile, and not a scowl!

We dropped at a bus stop some distance out, and walked the rest of the way to Anfield... Ha so enthusiastic was I abt getting dat space on the stadium tour dat we were there before anything was open! took pictures of some of the nice buildings and streets there... and of cos of the famous Shankly gates at the stadium! quite dramatic really... machiam like arriving in Mecca lidat! regent kept ka-jiaoing me asking me to do the buddhist 3-steps-1-kneel! ha actually it was quite apt manz... its almost like a religion to me haha!

Aniwei i registered with the stadium tour people for the waiting list... now the only hope was for someone not to turn up... even so there were 5 pple on the waiting list ahead of me!!! well i could only hope... oh and the 10am tour was a private tour for kids so obviously dey din want a chinese youth amongst the kids... and the 1st tour i could go onto was the 11am one...

Meanwhile, we walked to the street next to the stadium, where there was this quaint little cafe ... quite homely inside... the little english cottage kind of feeling! heh it was this kind of feeling i was looking for when i came to UK! nice cottages and nice people, and nice food!! yups the food there was terrific too! i had a milkshake for only 1pd, and it was pretty good! regent had this full english breakfast set for 3pd... definitely worth it! got sausages and bacon and a traditional black pudding and toast and coffee and i thk still got other things... his plate packed till i couldnt remember le!

And so we sat at Linda's and rotted away till 1045, when i made my way back to the stadium, heart in mouth and hoping for the best! the rest were unaffected and totally oblivious of my excitement and carried on rotting at Linda's.. back at the tour reception, i saw group after group after group of people arrive, lucky pple who've booked before me... with each group that came my heart sank abit further... i kept asking the staff, and dey kept asking me to go outside and wait! aiyoh how to... i so kam cheong liao!!

finally at 11.03 dey summoned me to the reception counter.. yay i was in luck!!! gonna go on the stadium tour le!!! super super excited, cos it was one big big birthday wish come true! it was a shame thou i could have no one to share my joy with, cos the others all din wanna go in, and i was the sole asian on the tour, trembling in excitement as i waited at the players' entrance at the side of the stadium! i even had to buy myself a birthday card wor!! haha abit pathetic... but well... i was alone mah~... and i reeeeeeeeeeally wanted to be presented with the card in the dugout!

the guide unlocked the gate to the players' entrance, and in we all rushed like children seeing ice cream for the first time! we walked down thru the corridors as the players would when dey arrived in the stadium... walked past the television interview areas we see evr wk on tv... den on into the home dressing room~! was truely a sight to behold ah! 19 Liverpool jerseys hung neatly on the wall, above the changing benches... 2 physio benches were in the middle of the room... on the other side were the team fridges and reserves changing area... the guide kept stressing that the floor was non-slip... haha dats cos in the away team room the floor was of lousier material, hoping, of cos, that key players would slip and fall and break a leg before a match! ha and also, the Reds changing room was small, basic, and unglam! dats wat impressed me the most! such a big club, so rich, players treated like kings on the training grounds and all over the world... yet once they enter the stadium before the match its back to the basics... football, and teamwork... it was still the same design as the 1960s, same benches, same racks... abit ugly even, but dats wats impressive!

I snapped furiously at the jerseys... machiam like divine objects... now i can say i've touched Gerrard and Carra and Cisse's jersey! a real pity Owen's wasnt hanging in the Reds changing room anymore!

outside the room was the world famous "THIS IS ANFIELD" sign! super touching, the moment.. all the history of the club, all the championship winning teams, all the great moments... this sign was there thruout all those times to witness it, and now I was there! And as i stepped forward to touch it, I thought about just how many great players have done the same as they ran thru this tunnel out to play the greatest game in their life!

The tunnel led out to the dugout area... the home and away teams were seated together, separated by just a narrow alley. behind, thousands upon thousands of Liverpool fans would shout themselves hoarse to intimidate the enemies... really could imagine the atmosphere! I took a seat to listen to the guide explain all dis, and it just so happened that the exact seat i was sitting in was the same one that Rafa Benitez sits during the matches!! wow... talk abt sitting in the hot seat! and to make it more special, the tour guide called me to the front to gimme my bdae card at dis moment! really really special! haiz but its a shame no one was there to share my joy and to help me take a foto of the moment! ha in fact thruout the whole tour i was like begging the angmohs to help me take pictures... till 1 was pretty buay tahan at the end!

from the dugout, the view of the whole stadium was magnificent! the grandeur of the place simply awes u beyond words! The letters LFC was printed across the Kop side of the stadium... across all the seats... so touched at that moment i almost cried! i cant believe it too manz... but well... I was there where I din think I would ever be!

A walk around the stadium and more explanation followed. I realised this tour was much more relaxed than the Man Utd one... more casual, slower pace, and the guide kept poking jokes at people and at other teams! The Man Utd one, the guide was in a suit, all formal, and kept asking us to hurry up! The facilities in the stadiums were another area of difference... Old Trafford was all high tech, with a top quality changing room, press conference room, press holding room... but it was all quite cold concrete, the feeling... Anfield was old and used, basic facilities, but u really feel like u belong there lor! well well mebbe its just becos i'm a Liverpool fan ba!

Yups aniwei the tour just abt ended there... and it was followed by the museum tour! in it, countless memorable moments were captured, in photographs, in jerseys worn by players, letters written by great people, and of cos in trophies and cups and medals won by great teams who triumped over all else! there was dis room showing the road to winning the European cup this May, and i was almost moved to tears again as I stood there reliving that moment at 6am S'pore time in May lor!

Out of the museum, I proceeded to the LFC store... where I was about to break the bank! initially i set the limit at 40pds... afterwards, i realised that was simply not enuff cos there was too much i simply needed to buy! in the end it amounted to... guess wat... 100pds!! as if not enuff, Regent saw this limited edition watch commemorating the European Cup win... i got tempted, and spent another 50pds!! wahz 150pds gone! well but i know if i din do it i'd surely regret it later on!

By now I've met up with the others in the shop... after paying for my precious memorabila, we went out of Anfield. I took saluted the statue of Shankly one last time, and off we went... took a return bus to the city centre, where more amazing sights awaited us!

The city centre was all about grand old buildings and amazing architechture... gives u the 19th century kind of feeling as u walk thru it... i like!!! we alighted at this row of bus stops... all shaped like big glass capsule! i was again impressed... if u had dis in Newcastle or Manchester sure kena vandalised one!!

We walked to the tourist info centre, bot a few postcards, and carried on walking thru the busy streets, towards the dockside... yups the dockside was the most beautiful part of the city... right on the water's edge, one side was the sun setting over the horizon far out at sea, with sailboats and ships dotting the great blue sea... the other side were more grand old buildings... truely beautiful... these were called the 3 graces... cos of how elegant and graceful they appeared! In fact, regent said the Shanghai bund was modelled after this area here! now dats truely something new and surprising!

other than the dockside, we also visited the Beatles museum! I really wanted to go in, but the rest were again reluctant to spend the time or the 7pds entrance fees, so we just took a picture outside and bot stuff from the shop... really a pity to come all the way and not to go in!

well aniwei by this time it was just about dark in Liverpool... 5pm it was only! we left the dockside back for the city centre area... nice buildings paved the sides of the roads all the way... really nice! Liverpool is such a nice city i realised once more, from the architechture to the dockside to the beatles culture to the nice people and to the football club, I was in love with everything there! mebbe i shd come here and live one day hor!

since it was still early then, we found a kebab shop, and sat down for dinner, and to rest our tired legs after a whole wkend of walking! i had chicken and chips, cos dey'd run out of fish! ha den dey charged us less than the correct amt, so i just kept mum and paid up haha! ;p zs had managed to save 2 pieces of bread and a hotdog from breakfast, and he just ate that and chips..talk abt saving on meals! Regent and Joanna shared a pizza... alot of kebab ingredients in it, but it made a wonderful combi... kebab pizza haha!

after dinner, still had quite some time, so we walked slowly back towards the bus station... we even managed to lose our way for awhile, before finding the place and boarding the bus back to Manchester! The bus ride was a sleepy affair, as was the train ride back to Newcastle after, which just about rounded my weekend trip, heh but not before a trip to the casino to get my stamp!

Manchester, the faceless city of dreams

2005-11-08T17:29:00.000Z

Our train rocked slowly on... and the journey passed pretty uneventfully... i was too tired to even stay awake for a few nice fotos of the sun rising over durham! we arrived in manchester salybridges station ard 9+.. but dat was still the suburbs... boarded a coach to carry on the getting-oh-so-sianz journey towards manchester!

when we finally arrived in the city centre, first thing we searched for.. guess wat... yups the toilet!! and it was a tuff one to look for ah! finally went into this thistle hotel to use its toilet to wash up... the city was cold that morning... and i was soon to find out that the city is in fact really quite a cold city in another sense! hmmm dunno y leh... not really anything else to feel abt it... it really fits the kinda just-another-city places... hence i was actually pretty disappointed...

braved the 9deg morning chill and went to superdrugs to get medicine for my coff... it was really killing me manz... there'd be like abit of phlegm and itch deep in my chest, and when it came no matter how hard i coff i just couldnt get it out! realised dat dis was the "cold" kind of coff and dat my nus wellness centre issued medicine, useless as it already was, was of cos not gonna cure me! got some syrup for a chesty coff... hmm fits my symptoms exactly! it really was q good! now aft 2 days i'm almost recovered le yay!

aniwei walked ard the city centre q aimlessly... nothing much to see! regent mustered all of his one yr experience of dis city and brought us to some places... went to the city council building first... another one of those big, old, colloquial buildings... q majestic actually, only i thk we've seen too many of such buildings to be impressed anymore! furthermore it was raining q heavily again!! there were a couple of big towering statues outside the building but the rain prevented me from studying who dey were!! went into the city council to be welcomed by 2 unwelcoming security men.. we were like gonna take fotos of joule and dalton sculptures (ooh nva knew dey were from manchester!) den dey came running shouting no fotos no fotos... den kept making the hand sign of taking foto.. as if we couldnt understand english lidat... insulting lor!! ha but regent managed to help us get back at them! cos fotography was actually allowed there lor! we got a permit from the counter den went back and purposely walked rite past them and started taking fotos of evrthing! dey started making the stoopid hand gesture again, and we waved the permit at their faces, making them go red in the face haha!

actually the council was oso q boring... there were supposed to be some famous murals on displays... but dey had to close off the whole floor dat day... so we ended up entertaining ourselves.. got dis long long corridor with some particularly bright and big round yellow lamps along it mah... so we made use of photography tricks again to take fotos of us with a light bulb stuck to our heads and of us hurling a fireball! bo liao hor!! haha i thk alot of pple thot so too... the angmohs were like... wat are these chinese kids doing making stoopid poses in the middle of a corridor as if dey were grabbing something!

aniwei we left the council in the still falling rain...walked to the tourist info centre nearby, picked up some info sheets... there was gonna be a fireworks display later in the evening! of course mah... the whole of uk is celebrating zs's bdae with him! haha of cos not la actually... it was actually guy fawkes day as well... big day in england... as pple commemorate the anniversary of his famous plot to blow up the english parliament house! mebbe zs's his recarnation hor!! *gasps* we decided to go to dis Heaton Park to see their fireworks display at nite... just hoping dat the rain would've stopped by den!

more walking in the rain... to the city library... another of those so-grand-but-so-common old buildings... then next was across the road to this midlands hotel... according to regent dis one was ultra posh! he'd announced proudly... justin timberlake stayed here, britney spears, red hot chilli peppers stayed here... den i saw a plaque at the entrance... wah bu de liao ah... dis hotel actually was opened by the rolls and the royce from rolls royce!! no wonder la! haha den it's supposedly the most famous landmark in manchester.. its small wonder considering how manchester was turning out to be!

we spent quite awhile inside... just slacking and nuaing in their posh chairs... actually it was just like another ritz carlton or grand hyatt leh..only liked these weird looking chairs which is surrounded by cushion on the sides, back and top! so when u sat in it and talked it sounded like u were talking in a washing machine haha.. weird feeling... cool!

after the midlands it was oredi 12+... we walked... in the rain again arrgh... to chinatown, which was some distance away...to the restaurant where we were supposed to meet regent's BBC fren steven for dim sum lunch... dat restaurant actually served buffet!!! but is thai buffet la... and steven wanted dim sum, so we went along with dim sum la... wah exp lor!! the dim sum like the same quantity as s'pore.. 2 items in the basket, den was like 3+pds!!! each har gau is SGD$3!!! hmm but not bad la the food... at least got restaurant std... and we ate our fill. in the end we paid like 9.3pds each!! $28!! treated steven and his gf mah... cos he was putting us up at his place dat nite!

aft lunch it was time to head for the theatre of dreams!! i left my bag in steven's car.. bad decision... cos i ran out of camera batt later on and the spare batt was in the bag! aniwei very coincidental, cos cherlene ( nus chem eng too on exchange to leeds) and her frens had just got to chinatown as well and were gg to old trafford too! so i went to find them and we went together!

got onto the bus for the stadium... yah talking abt buses... really hate the bus system in manchester manz! there were like a few diff companies running the buses! so even the same bus number can have buses from diff companies! so confusing lor! den we had nothing but bad experiences with the drivers! dis particular driver of the bus to old trafford... we asked for a day pass for all buses... he gave us one just for stagecoach buses! we tried to change, but he refused thou it was his mistake! in the end we had to buy tickets again for our subsequent journeys when we could've used the pass for the whole day if it was the correct one!

almost drained of cash by now, we arrived at the theatre of dreams, hoping dat it'd right the so-far-so-nightmarish trip we were having... heh the sight of the towering 67000 capacity vessel did much to improve the mood all round thou!

we half-ran-half-walked to the entrance. i was expecting to be turned away since we were oredi late for our tour (we had changed the timing 2 times and still managed to be late!) luckily there were still vacancies on the next tour, so we got our tickets for dat... actually this tour was oso pretty rushed... wanted to spend more time on the displays in the museum, but the others were not as interested in the history... den we'd only 45min before the stadium tour, so in the end i could only finish 1.5 floors of the 3 storeyed museum!! wanted to go back to explore again after the stadium tour, but by the time it ended evrthing was oredi closed!!!

the tour was quite amazing... the view inside the stadium was pretty breathtaking.. nice! even more magnificent dan wat i saw in the tv! we saw the changing room... then there were press conference rooms and lounges and reception areas for the press... and in the stands were vip boxes costing tens of thousands of pounds per season and vip seats! all high tech and posh... very different from wat i'd see in liverpool the next day... even went to the old tunnel... which was the only part of the stadium not destroyed during WWII, and where the coffins were laid after the man u plane crash dat split the busby babes apart! went to the new tunnel too... den the stadium guide, prim and proper and all formal till now, turned on the canned cheering and applause and ran down the tunnel, all 60+yrs of him, like he was some player making his old trafford debut! crazy old man haha! den regent even managed his usual tricks and stunned a bottle of milk from the man utd changing room fridge! i was joking dat he deprive rooney of his milk later he cant play properly the next day! den the next day i happened to see a few min of the match on tv and rooney was actually looking particularly malnourished and pale! hehe mebbe i was correct aftall! ;p

the tour finally ended at 5.15pm... now comparing to the liverpool one... i thk the man utd tour was more sights and less description... more formal and less emotional... ha much different! we ran as we could, hoping to make it into the megastore before it closed! din do it... grrr streak of bad luck continued! we reached the doors at 5.20, but the doors were oredi closed althou it was not supp to close till 5.30!! i argued with the guard again, no use... grr really hate these bad angmohs... always close early... layzee bums! told em my frens were inside and he asked me to wait outside! i wedged my foot under the door and he kicked it away!! wah wat customer service!!! grr i was quite fuming by now!! haiz tuff luck... land of the layzee storekeepers... cherlene was inside the store, so i called her to ask her to help me get some postcards..lucky she was clever and went earlier! now i got 3 postcards with man utd faces on them... giggs and van and scholes!but its a shame dey dun have any postcards showing the stadium or any of its history!

we walked out of the theatre, and there was Sir Matt Busby Way! ha spent my last ounce of battery power taking fotos of dat memorable lane! den walked to the bus stop to catch a bus back to the city centre... yups more tuff luck with the buses! the first one dat came was quite empty, but it din stop!! wah so dis kinda drivers dun only exist on sbs buses! it din stop at the bus stop...it did like 150m after dat... duh!! we stared in despair as it zoomed off aft dropping 2 passengers... grrr we were so angry with the buses by now! and it hasnt even ended yet! waited for another like 20min before the next bus came... dis one did stop, but it wasnt a stagecoach bus... so yeah we'd to pay again for the tic! great manz... just to add.. the one which zoomed past without stopping happened to be a stagecoach bus... and we wouldnt have had to pay if it'd stop for us!

the bus ride was miserable ah... the itch in my chest was back and i was coffing till my lungs felt like bursting throughout the whole journey... den we kept overtaking the stagecoach bus we were supp to be on... each time dat happened my blood just boiled more lor!

when we were finally back in the city centre, it was oredi dark, and still raining! haiz dampening the mood even more~ we had to walk a long long way to another bus stop to get the bus to Heaton Park for the fireworks... if it was still gg on anyway! the bus was from another company again!! arrggggh!!!! regent decided we shd get the day pass dis time... so it was another 3.20pds! the bus ride was long, and when we got down, we could hear the fireworks in the distance... helped lift the mood a little, but the pouring rain and the long walk to the park brought it to another low again, not to mention the muddy sludge we'd to trek thru to get there!

it was a big english countryside carnival there... would've been nice had it not been raining, but it was some experience anyway... went to the top of the hill there to get a good view of the spectecular display in the skies... ahh finally things were starting to get better finally... den i realised i'd absolutely no batt left in my cam to capture the moment le! had to rely on the others' cams for dat le... aniwei it was pretty enjoyable ah... thou the rain sorta make it seem less spectecular...the fireworks went on nonstop for more dan 1hr lor... added to the atmosphere! but i realised dey no organisation one! dey put all the same kind of fireworks together, then when dey use finish dey just set off the next kind in line and use up all of dat in a shot... nva plan properly and mix the diff types to make the show nicer one!

when the explosives finally ran out, the crazee angmohs were still not satisfied... dey carried on their trail of destruction... setting fire to evrthing dey could lay their paws on to start a huge bonfire! even saw a big figure of guy fawkes burning inside... haha nice sight! then we went ard the carnival, trudging thru the mud... got quite sianz and dey went to the hot dog booth... dey got dinner, but i din cos i was still coffing bad, and i needed the toilet urgently! had drank too much water while trying to stop coffing le!

aft dey got their food we started back out the same long way we'd walked in from... sianz lor... shoes and pants all dirty le! we went the wrong way (arrgh can it get any worse haha!) and had to walk all the way round the perimeter to steven's car (he'd just come to join us at Heaton Park) got some bread for the next day's breakie from the sainsbury mart beside the car park, then we all packed into steven's vw to make our way back to the city centre...

steven decided to drive to dis famous kebab street in downtown manchester... he recommended a particular kebab shop, and we bot more food! esp me... cos having oredi visited the toilet, was hungry le! wah and the street was super super rowdy lor! like those streets in turkey aft a champions league match lor! all the pakistanis in their cars revving engines and blaring horns and playing loud music and shouting and dancing in the streets! wah really machiam like little bollywood lidat!

we made our escape fast after getting the kebab... da bao to steven's home to eat! steven's house was a humble abode, but nice and cosy... we ate the kebab in the living room... nice! ate with our hands the traditional way... it was q good ah.. compared to the kebab we had in newcastle! wrapped in naan and got chicken with the red sauce and alot of veggies... den i even ate the veggies lor... so proud!

aft eating we watched a tv show on werewolfs on tv... the 80s kinda movie... super dumb one lor! the werewolfs must take 10min to transform and the girl will just stand there by the open door and stare for the 10min without moving before trying to escape only after the transformation was finally done! den the werewolfs will wait by the side and one by one attack the hero in the story one lor... haha was more of a comedy than a scary show! den aft dat got another show even worse! a chinese show with jet li inside... only it was dubbed in english!! haha sounded so farnie lor seeing chinese faces and the angmoh accent... esp since the show is the ancient ming dynasty type! haha i buay tahan liao den went upstairs to zzz le... steven let me take his sis's room... so nice of him! the room was small but cosy... abit cold but i was so tired i was numbed and knocked out after awhile haha...

What a Weekend!

2005-11-07T20:24:00.000Z

Wow really... wat a weekend it's been! In a nutshell, it was about healthy living, a taste of home, a country celebrating, wonderful scenery, going crazy shopping, nice english people and a dream come true! Just a perfect weekend... read on!

The fun started from Friday... slacker Mark Willis cancelled the control 2 lecture again for the umpteenth time and we were free from 11 after our lab! came back and slacked for awhile... went to zs's to cook our little remaining pasta... mushroom cream sauce it was dis time... but it turned out farnie! dunno if its the pasta or the sauce... abit sourish one.. ha i miss some properly cooked pasta!

After pasta was slacking time! oredi in weekend mood mah... so just came back and zzz for awhile! i'd to get some reading done thou, since i was again going away for the weekend... so i dragged myself off the bed aft 1hr to read biochem... but read biochem i didn't... slpt at the table i did q alot!

Regent came to meet us at 3+ to go running... ha the healthy lifestyle bit i was talking abt... just abt time i started exercising abit... my joints are getting stiff and my back is hurting as much as ever... and i noe running can do nothing but good for it... incredibly eh! So me and zs and regent braved the pounding rain (drizzle actually) against the wind dat cut into our faces (ok not dat serious, but it sure was pretty cold in shorts and tshirt at10deg on a rainy day!) and set off on our route! kelv din join us dis time cos he was packing for his london trip... bang sair gia lor... nva go manchester and liverpool with us! well aniwei disregarding him... the run was actually enjoyable! went across the cowfield, careful to avoid the landmines paving the path... then went into lezares park to run round the pond... really q a good feeling.. running against the scenery of greenery and a pond with plenty of avian lifeforms on it, and a backdrop of the majestic St James Park! had alot of fun just watching the slping duckheads appearing startled from under their wings as we trotted past... then dey'd wiggle their tails and make their ways into the pond however fast their short legs could take them... them paddle furiously to get away from the pounding machines approaching! there was a family of swans too! 2 adults and 2kids.. dinno those 2 were actually the kids cos dey were so big... young adults le in fact! i actually thot they were some other kinda goose lor.. haha ignorant!

well aniwei regent was again up to his tricks trying to scare the swans out of their feathers! but he din succeed yet again... guess he just dun have luck with swans eh... haha cos dey simply glanced at us and carried on their business of looking nice on the pond! the rain had just about stopped by now, and we just kept doing rounds ard the park and pond... nice running route it was, if only abit too short... actually any route here is a good route to run lor! cos the weather is so nice! u start out freezing, but once u're warmed up it gets quite comfortable running here!then there arent as many cars as there are in s'pore too, less roads and more natural greenery!

we din run too long or too fast, cos regent has asthma and the cold wasnt doing him any good... besides he had to go back to the hunnypot to prepare for the s'pore feast! we ended the workout session at 4pm, still not yet breaking a sweat.. came back, washed up, read abit more biochem, and my tummy was crying out for some home-cooked food oredi!

waited till 6pm, then set out for hummypot... haha i thot we were late again, but amazingly being late is really the s'porean trait, cos we were still the earliest there!! we went to the train station to collect our tickets to manchester and buy more tickets for even more trips to come haha! then went back just in time for dinner to start!

the nasi lemak was good by home-cooked standards! regent did a great job with the wings and dey were really nice.. the ikan bilis and peanuts too lor... super hot and sweet at the same time... whoo really a wonderful feeling on a cold, rainy day! den there was the egg, fried to perfection by soccer star-turned cook shangyuan, and the nice chilli paste! lirong and regent each made a pot of rice, and both were just as nice! haha if only evr fri can have a s'porean dinner manz!

we ate till super full and satisfied, then the next thing to do... yups of cos... to make our way to the casino! dvd player waiting! Wah quite wei feng ah... the whole bunch of us.. almost 20pple charge into the casino together! sun fei and erik said wanted to make me drunk... but luckily dey were just joking.. if not how to go manchester! we got a mahjong set and went upstairs to play.. realised dey had a buffet gg on! now dats weird.. thot dey were supp to serve buffet from sunday to tuesday after midnite... farnie how come friday 9pm oso got one! but in any case we were all too bloated to eat anymore!

mahjong lasted till like 11+... the rest of them went back to the hunnypot, while i'd to walk back to ricky road cos i actually managed to forget my liverpool scarf!! in the end when i reached regent's place again it was oredi almost 1am le... oso dunno how we wasted our time.. it was suddenly 3am out of nowhere! we realised we havent booked the bus tix from manchester to liverpool, so zs went abt with it... din succeed thou cos there was something wrong with the net connection. i refused to give up, and kept trying... finally got it to work, compared a few diff companies, and in the end had to book 3 separate times to get the bestest deal! grrr and when it was done the clock showed 5.20am!!! i'd just laid down when zs's alarm started ringing!! so... no slp for me at all!!

all alarms started ringing when i found dat zs had disappeared! i'd now 2 tasks on my hand... wake regent up without being beaten up by him (he's known for dis when pple wake him up!!) and to solve the mystery of the disappear-without-a-sound-zs case! got a scolding from regent for waking him up... another one for trying to keep him awake... haha at least i din kena beaten up! and after tracing footsteps and looking for clues, i found zs's shoes outside shangyuan's door and him snug on the bed!! walau so he'd disappeared to zzz, leaving the halfbooked bus tix to me without even informing me!

we gathered our stuff, and was out of the house heading for the train station, where we met up with joanna. just nice, boarded our 6.14am train for manchester!

wow den it was incredibly cold that morning lor... i thk abt 7deg! brr boarding the train din help much at all... i thk the 1st train dey dun switch on the heater ba! so i shivered and coffed my way into a disturbed snooze... hardly the perfect way to start a wkend adventure! but luckily things picked up from there...

A long long day~

2005-11-02T03:59:00.000Z

ha yups its 4am yet again! i just came back from the casino! took abit too long tonite manz... was 12++ by the time we went out, and 1am when we reached the casino... the food was not much left le... and carol suay suay cursed us spot on... it really was beef as she predicted so we all couldnt eat... and we went late so the mushrooms were all gone too! in the end we just had chips! even thou i'm still pretty sick! the flu is not coming i think... but its turning into a very irritating and dry coff! coffing nonstop nowadays and throat is so dry... bad feeling... cant even sing song now anymore! and all the food i'm having isnt helping it at all! i need some porridge and kway teow soup manz!!

aniwei dinner was not bad... we bot 2 packets of chicken breasts yest... cooked one pack last nite into black bean paste chicken... then tonite we used the cantonese mushroom sauce to make another chicken dish... together with pork and tofu...lovely! ha but i'm still looking forward to our planned chinese buffet on fri! ha and regent just told me it might be changed to nasi lemak at regent's place on fri nite! woohoo i wouldnt mind that too... a taste of home! then chinese buffet can come next week!

the liverpool website so heartless... havent replied to me on my plea to be let into the stadium tour dis sunday! pple come all the way from s'pore to spend their birthday at the stadium, summore their fan for 12 years le... den dey so heartless tell me its all fully booked! grrr!!! really really hope to see Anfield manz... hopefully i'll get some good bdae luck!

Aniwei Halloween last nite was pretty crappy! we were supp to go Tiger Tiger with joanna's flatmates... q onz cos dey said free entry before 10pm... but when we finally went, late as usual, at 1045, it was 4.50pds... so exp lor!! very unwilling to go in... one main reason was cos of the amt i'm spending nowadays! kelv and zs just came up with the crazee idea of going to norway and milan on the last 2 weekends we've free now... so we booked the tickets last nite, and off we'll be headed to 2 more countries! totally crazee manz... hopefully it wun affect our studies too much! Aniwei back to halloween... the people were really dressed in just abt anything lor! it was more like one big fancy dress party in town... totally no halloween atmosphere at all! there were spongebob square pants, males dressed as hawaiian dancers, batmen and robins, devils, construction workers, policemen wannabes, and ALOT of girls dressed like nothing but prostitutes as my flatmate (wayne rooney) pointed out q rightly!

I was pretty sick and in no mood for clubbing... den the 4.50pd pricetag turned me off even more! but in the end evrone decided to go into tiger tiger so i'd no choice but to follow... din enjoy it much in the end really... the music was good for awhile but it got bad quickly... den i was coffing pretty badly and my back was hurting too so i din really shake alot...just more of looking at the ghosts and ghouls drift... or rather stumble... by~ then zs and kelv had followed carolyn back to her place to get costumes lor! siao one... dey borrowed lab coats and lab goggles to dress up as mad scientists lor! plus the devil's pitchfork... perfect turnoff!!! but dey were having fun thou... zs was dancing his farnie moves again... big actions and swing-from-left-to-right motion...and kelv was at his mambo best in his shiny labcoat... all the patterns came out! i thk i was the only 1 not enjoying!! arrgh y was i sick!!!

well aniwei i just gotta say that their halloween here is really not wat i expected lor... i was expecting more like fright night kind of events... ghost walks and dressing up as ghosts to scare pple... but here evrthing in the end turned into one big party and clubbing event again... as with all big occasions! yups another difference i noticed between my impression of the traditional english culture, and the actual societal behavior!

one last thing to boast of... i've finished my lab report for the week oredi! haha q amazing leh... we finished lab early at 3pm instead of 5pm... then i saw still early so told zs we mite as well get started on the report... mebbe can even finish by the end of the day! so we started on our report... splitting the job... he did results and calculations while i did the intro, discussion, conclusion and part of analysis... it was surprisingly fast too! mebbe cos we were working together on 2 computers at the same time... cos we really completed most of our report by the time the rice was cooked... and wrapped it up after dinner!so we've really managed to finish the lab report on the day we got it! yay dats the way manz... i wanna carry on dis trend... gonna start working hard while i'm playing hard as well!

Farne Islands, Bamburgh Castle and smooooooooth jazz!!

2005-10-30T14:24:00.001Z

Lazing ard in my room now...a relaxed sunday in sure makes for a nice change from all the running ard and travelling! even managed 8hrs of slp last nite! something i havent been able to experience for quite some time! Woke up this morning (or was it afternoon?) pretty confused! my computer clock and my phoneclock were showing different times! haha u see today the time in UK is officially set back by an hour to accomodate for daylight saving... so i was like... wat time izzit exactly! but i thk i roughly got it right now... its 2.30pm now! so all u folks in s'pore must take note hor... i'm now 8hrs behind, not 7hrs anymore! oh then all the times we fixed to meet last nite all kena jumbled up! cos no one knew whether the meeting times referred to the new time or the old one!

aniwei just completed the error analysis part of my lab report... i cant believe i'm actually spending so much time on a report during exchange lor!! actually it's quite straightforward one lor... only cos the lab manual so lousy all the information dun give us... so we've to look for them ourselves... den to make things worse our values are like totally out of range when put on the charts lor!!! grrrr pek chek! ha in the end we'd to extrapolate our values... totally ficticious now... but dun care le!

Yesterday was really quite some adventure lor! it all started horribly wrong for us... all 3 of us woke up late after the late nite on friday! the bus was at 8.25, and i was supposed to wake up at 7.30am... 3 alarm clocks screamed and banged away on my dead brains...the robotic arm simply sheeshed them with the snooze button! a wakeup call from jolene din do the job either... i slpt on... evidently it was the same case across on zs's side lor! when i finally jumped up at 8.14am, zs was just calling me... he was still online as well! wahz! bus at 8.25... how to make it in 10min! dis one even more power from that time we nearly missed the train to edinburgh! aniwei i washed up within 3min, changed up, and was downstairs by 8.20... zs and kelv were just down too... pretty incredible how all 3 of us cud've overslpt!

we started the do-or-die dash for the bus terminal! huffed and puffed away... cursing and swearing under my breath... 2nd time in 2 weeks... bed to road in 10min! ha dis time even better...6min! mebbe nxt wk we can do a 3min! well but not evrday is sunday... and not evr sat we're so lucky... cos we missed the bus! missed it by just 1min summore!! arrgh!!! now thk of it quite funny oso... 3 of us standing there so lost dinno wat to do.. then still half awake only! we got all the timetables out to try to work something out... but it was impossible! the only bus which could connect to the bus to holy island was the one we just missed! and it was the only bus into holy island for the day! we pondered taking the next bus, which would drop us at the causeway at 12+pm, and walking across to the island... figured it was perhaps the best we cud do... so we went to the tourism info centre to confirm the timings of the tide...

not good at all... suay a second time! cos we found out that by the time we reach the causeway, we'd have only less dan an hour to cross the 5km long causeway before the tide swept in and wash us all out to sea! that's wat is special about holy island... it is only accessible during low tide! mebbe dat's wat make it so holy... well i guess we arent holy enuff so cannot go lor!

i asked the tourism lady where else is good to go and she recommended the Banburgh castle... i looked at the map and realised it's near this other attraction Seahouses which we'd intended to go! so it was set! furthermore from seahouses we cud still go to holy islands! hehe mebbe we're holy afterall!

the bus to Seahouses din leave till 11.25, so we effectively wasted 3hrs doing nothing after missing the early bus by 1min!! finally after we boarded the Arriva bus and bot the 5pd day pass, I took my seat and munched away on my bread... no more ham le so i'd opened my lemon cheese curd from tynemouth! had intended it for granny one but realised the expiry is dis yr so how to give her!! no choice lor so eat myself hee!

aniwei as i was chomping away the bus sway its way through the english countryside... now dis was my impression of England mah... small cottages, lush countryside, sheep and cow and long, winding country roads... not clubs and rubbish all over the floor and and violence and sex! so... dis side of england is not dead as i thot afterall!

i took out my camera, wanting to start my serial-fototaking... it was den dat to my horror i realised my bad luck for the day wasnt over!! i'd carelessly left my memory card on my table!! wat was a good camera and spare batteries when u dun even have a memory card!!! so disappointed lor! but zs was kind enuff... for the whole trip i shared his camera with him.

the bus journey lasted like 2++hr... thou the passing scenery was breathtaking, we were relieved to get off when we finally arrived in Seahouses! it was a small town... very charming... hmmm but by now i've seen so many of these small towns it just doesnt aw me anymore!

we realised that the last boat to holy islands had oredi left!!! grrr more bad luck!! well just one last operator having any trip, so we had no choices! bought the 1.5hr boat ride ard the farne islands then. we still had an hour to waste, so we walked ard the place.. as usual we located the gift shop for a bout of spending... bot some postcards and a few little gifts... dats it... budget exceeded... so no lunch! zs bot fish and chips but i could only enjoy the aroma!

we were pretty excited as we boarded the boat! those small fishing boat kind... very rustic.. nice! but i shd've known it wouldnt be the same feeling once we were out to the open seas... in dat small boat! the views it brought us to were unforgettable... the farne islands are a group of 28 islands off the town of Seahouses... the boat brought is ard the islands... it was high tide then, so quite a few of them were completely covered. the view was made even more dramatic against the beautiful skies as the backdrop... the was a castle on one of them, some old stone houses on another, and an old lighthouse on yet another! and soooooooooooo many seagulls flying ard and perching atop the rocky islands... now i was awwwwwed! and there were so many seals too lor!! dat place was where they gather each year to give birth to new life! and there were some cute baby seals there..arrived early to greet us too! some of the playful seals even came swimming out towards the boat... so cute lor! pity we couldnt get onto the island to play with them!

the scenery was perfect from the boat... but the boat ride itself was a far cry from perfection thou!! ha frankly even as i type now the screen is like rocking in front of my eyes! we were practically thrown ard as the tiny boat rocked and wobbled out on the endless seas... we clung on for our dear lives.. me even worse... trying to keep balance and take fotos at the same time! kelv looked unusually green and zs could feel the fish he ate trying to force its way out and into the sea it came from!

as such... we were all pretty relieved when we were back on solid ground... no wonder we saw a dog which was on the previous trip walking unsteadily after it came back la! we took some seconds to find out footing, inhaled deeply, blink a few times to try to get the world to stop rocking from side to side... aft dat we walked to the bus stop... i had dis crazee suggestion... i'd checked the bus timings on the boat... we could catch a bus which would drop us at banburgh castle! thou it would be closed by then, we could take pictures outside! that was wat a day pass is for mah! however we only had 1min to take pics before the same bus would bring us back to seahouses! ha the guys took my crazee plan... i asked the driver if it was ok to wait for us to take a few fotos, and he was pretty pleasant thou he was like covered with tatoos!

the bus took 8min to reach bamburgh...this one more pretty than Seahouses... its more of a village! we had 3min to take fotos while the bus went to make a u-turn! we ran like crazee then...found a nice spot... took a few snapshots of the castle, then ran back to the bus stop juz in time to board the bus! i thk its worth it lor... silly as it may sound... in fact i thk dis castle is nicer than the one in Edinburgh lor... even thou dat one is more famous and costed us 9.8pds to get in! (i still havent got over the steep price yet... bo hua!)

the bus went straight to Alnwick, so we din get down at Seahouses.. took it all the way back...1hr+ it took... slpt abit on the bus... at Alnwick we'd like 15min, so we went into Morrison's and me and zs each bot a bag of apples for 92p... cheep enuff la... i thk i need some fruits manz... the food here so heaty! and i'm still sick!

the next bus took us to Morpeth, where we had to change again. This last leg brought us back to Haymarket in Newcastle... pretty dazed by all the travelling we did, we were also pretty relieved to be back in the warmth of the city... yup right... its still 13deg, but the city felt much warmer dan the coast cos less windy mah...

my flatmate had told me abt dis jazz bar near the central station which had a live band and a burger and chips for 2pd.. so i suggested we go for dat...after much searching we finally found the place... and i wasnt disappointed at all! the entry was 3pd thou cos its weekend... and the burgers din start till 9pm... so we'd to wait 1hr thou we were all famished!!

the bar was a quaint, rustic shophouse... inside it has just the kind of decor i like! dim lights, 60s atmosphere... ooooh! if only got such places in singapore! then the 2nd floor was a dance floor! we learnt that dey play salsa and retro! wow its machiam like all the music i love rolled into one perfect lounge! i'm gonna be back nxt week!

the beer there was cheeper dan the soft drinks lor! so i bot a can of strongbow for 1.5pd... pretty cheep for 500ml! it was nice surprisingly! a hint of bitter-sweetness... apple cider it was... perfect with the atmosphere!

the live performance started at 9... a band called Zoe and her boyfriends... dey were really good lor! the keyboardist was power! and the singer... her voice was like perfect lor... sultry, low, full of feeling... i juz soaked in the atmosphere... it would be a dream to open such a place in singapore!!

the food came soon after... very small the portion! the bun was big but the meat inside was pathetically small.. like 40% of the area of the bun only lor! well but free one wat to expect... still no regrets about going there! the food din fill Kelv up, and he kept saying wanna go casino for free food... but my gut feeling told me sat nite no buffet...

after much complaining abt hunger from kelv, i finally gave in and we left the place at 11pm.. wanted to stay till the end and go up to see the dancing place, but i guess i'll just have to come back next week ba!

we din go casino in the end thou... walked back, munched on my chocolate covered mcvites biscuits(i need a bit of luxury food so i bot dis big big roll for 1pd.. a real bargain eh!) went over to zs's to do abit of lab report, but by 330am i buay tahan liao.. came back and went to bed without brushing teeth...eeks!

Duck rice and a hair cut!

2005-10-29T05:12:00.000+01:00

arrgh 4.30am again! its getting worse each nite... i'm turning into a norturnal animal again... and i thot the time diff between s'pore and uk would help me revert back my biological clock! seems like my nocturnal power too strong le muahaha!!!

Aniwei today q happening! I got a haircut!!! ha woke up at 9+ to go for my only hr of lesson of the day... a multivariate methods lab at 10am... spent an hour falling aslp in front of the comp... when i wasnt aslp i was coffing away haha... could do the worksheet but din understand one bit! i realise the labs here are all lidat one... guide u along step by step in the worksheets without explaining wat each step means.. in the end we dun understand at all!

was still super tired aft the lesson so intended to come home to zzz for awhile before carrying on with the lab report for tue's lab... however "awhile" turned into "a long while"... 2.5hrs spent konked out... woke up at 3.30... and i was supp to meet regent at 330 to buy train tickets for nxt wkend's trip! lucky i was supp to go his plc to meet him and not go to the stn straight... if not he sure kill me one! msged him to tell him i'll be late... and he gave me bad news too... the stadium tour for liverpool is fully booked till dec!!! big blow to me lor... thot it would be my special bdae prezzie...but... haiz... wonder y anfield tours are so hot when i managed to book an old trafford tour for the same weekend only yest! and its cheeper at old trafford too! nonetheless i'm not abt to give up... sent out an email to liverpool public relations crying out abt their lack of professionalism... their loyal fan of 13years come all the way from s'pore to spend his bdae here and the door's slammed right in his face!!! hopefully dey'll make an exception to make my day... i mean make my year!!

went to regent's place ard 4+... he was buzzy cooking with the hunnypotters... duck rice tonite! i went to book the hostel for tmr's trip to the holy islands... then regent helped us book the manchester train tix for nxt wkend... we're all set! wow thk of it got so so many trips to plan and so many tix to buy all at once... q confusing and at the same time scary to think how much $$ i'm gonna spend! but hopefully all's worth it!

tonite's head count...17... quite modest for hunnypot diners! there were a few new faces... this guy raymond brot his baby... wow there're s'poreans who're married with babies here! impressed! he's another navy regular, almost got his major rank liao! impressed how he's got the will to come study (or mebbe take a break from the seas) after eons of working life! Aniwei his baby was sooooooooooo cute lor... called Angel... she was like looking at us... den her mum told her to wave... den she started waving... den suddenly realised we're one big bunch of weird looking strangers staring at her... den she drew back her hand with a agonised expression and started wailing! hehe mite be cruel to say dis... but cute lor! heh den later on i managed to shake her and she smiled at me! baby charmer hor! ;p

duck rice was served ard 6.30... Regent shd really go open a restaurant some day lor... it's a shame if he doesnt... he can cook so many dishes, and not say anyhow one hor... he'll invite like 30 pple to his place and be able to fill us all up..30 full souls smacking their lips after an excellent meal! the bak kut teh was good... so was the curry... and tonite's duck rice... ommph! had 2 servings of rice, 2 big pieces of duck, and a lor egg... den add on a big heap of chilli paste lirong's granny had made... shiok shiok!!! heh oops talk until i'm hungry again le... but 4.50am... i'd better not eat at dis time... suicidal!!

aniwei aft the meal was haircut time!! ha butcher-turned-chef-turned-barberman regent had borrowed a set of clippers and scissors from his flatmate and we were gg under the carving knife! no choice la... my haircut 5weeks old oredi... starting to look bushy... eeks i juz cant stand long hair lor! den a haircut here... which is not even of standard... costs 7pds... so i'd rather be regent's guinea pig! I was the first onto the barber's chair... as the shaver made its moves my hair started to fall onto my lap in clumps... i hoped for the best...

ha but i trusted regent enuff la... he wouldnt do something he isnt confident of aniwei mah... after like 15-20min of shave-twist head-shave-cut cut-shave some more-cut abit-shave abit more... he told me he's done! i swallowed hard and lifted myself with wobbly knees to look into the mirror up on the wall....

whew luckily there was still hair left! ha in fact it wasnt dat bad afterall la! yay he repaid my trust in him... sides are neat... slope at the back... top and fringes trimmed... i say its QB standard le lor... def better dan the no-skill 7pd barbers here! okie regent had just opened the door to another career... ha impressed! i brot in the vacuum cleaner from the kitchen and kelv used it to help me get the hair off my body... so farnie lor... somewat really resemble QB house... the vacuum summore! den regent was at the side taking fotos of kelv giving me "a good suck"!!! (haha pardon me i cant help it!)

oh aniwei it was kelv's turn to go next... he very zwai still say want dis want dat! haha den regent cut and tok happily at the same time... den he cut too much on the sides!! den it became real farnie lor... the top long long den the sides like no hair at all! he tried his best to save the job... but in the end it still looked weird... sides too short le mah... den to match it he'd have to shave off evrthing on top! ha of cos he din do dat la... which is y it still looks weird haha... the rest were luffing so loud when kelv went outside lor... dey were saying he looks even more like bart simpson now! mean wor!

haha aniwei aft the haircut and a few games of heart attack... we left the hunnypot for richardson road le... came back and found a party (another one!!) going on in my flat! evidently dey've got a stripper for the party... for dis guy! den he couldnt take the joke i thk and pushed the woman and den stormed off! wah den the rest like so angry cos dey spent q alot of it... haiyah but mebbe he just more conservative mah... which is pretty weird amongst these ultra-liberalists!! well aniwei the stripper looked way beyond 40 lor... abit crumpled lidat one... lucky she din strip in the end... would be some sight i'd prefer to avoid lor!!

den aft dat the crazy boys went to set off fireworks downstairs... guy fawkes day is nxt sat manz... mebbe dey got the dates wrong or something... or dey just too much $$ to spend buy so much fireworks! so loud lor!! den as if not enuff dey got more fireworks out and went to the cow field to light them! haiz pity those poor cows slping there tonite manz!!

ha aniwei i've like 2hrs left to snooze now manz... waking at 730am to catch the bus to berwick... hopefully i can wake up manz... i'd better! holy island here i come!!!!

Lab reporting sick!

2005-10-28T04:17:00.000+01:00

i dun believe it manz... its 3.48am again! haha i'm back to my late slping habits le! heh i nva thot i'd be mugging my lab rep till dis time during exchange! ha but its 3/4 done now... shd be able to finish it tmr!

and I'm officially sick for the 1st time in uk le! well... almost, but not quite full blown yet... haiyah wat to expect... evr lesson and report and lab sit beside zs... of cos will kena sooner or later one mah...now aching all over.. the eeky pre-feeling of flu! had taken some medicine, ha i dunno how much is 10ml so i thk i overdrank the coff syrup by alot! no wonder now abit gong gong one...

oh den tonite we went to dis hyena club down near Lezares Park for one of those stand-up comedy England is famous for! free one summore! cos we went to get the coupons the other day... so shiok got free show... muz get more nxt wk den mebbe can go again! dey got free shows for students evr thur nite mah... haha wonder wat dey earn... England really weird lor I realised... some things can actually get free one (like dis kinda show... and entrance to clubs) or very cheep (like alcohol and biscuits and instant meals) but there're oso so many things which are shockingly expensive! (like cooked food, transport) heh economics... shant be bothered! shall just stick to the cheep stuff and shun the exp ones!

Aniwei the atmosphere was good at the club... we went in early at 7.45 cos any later and we'd have to pay! another weird policy... just go early and u get good seats which are free... go later and u muz pay for lousy seats! dey were showing those farnie home videos... luffed like crazee lor! the actual show din start for so long i thot the videos was the show oredi! but the curtains finally opened at 9pm to kick off the comedy nite!

The host was dis scottish guy who was spewing vulgarities like anything... well i thk the pple here all do dat... so nothing unusual to them! practically evr sentence contained f**k at some point lor! ha and dat was just abt all i understood from his sentences... wah his scottish accent so jialat the 5 of us just sat there stunned while the geordies guffawed away! the first act was a guy from liverpool... better, but not by much cos he was speaking too fast! den he was staging personal attacks of people lor... making them the butt of his jokes! haiyoh pity those poor souls... dey had no choice but to sit there and be suaned! then i realised stand-up comedy is just low class humour lor... all abt personal attacks and sexism and racism and vulgarities! but they sure made the audience luff la wat with their scathing attacks on topics... kena picked on by them and die! dis liverpool guy quite zai ah... even started playing the guitar and singing out loud, integrating his insults into his songs! and i must say he's q a good singer and guitarist too! impressed... but again unimpressed by him!

there was a 20min break... regent and the guys starting playing the number guessing game... i was pretty gong from the medicine and started falling aslp! den dey keep shouting the numbers so loud and making me jump! grrr!!! at dat point kelv and zs were both like "duh... wat were they tokking abt!!!" well but at least it was free entertainment la

lucky we din leave during the break ah... cos the 2nd act was really good! ha in a sense dat we cud understand him more! again the personal attacks! he very unwisely started attacking females and the pple of newcastle, and their city monument and the famed Angel of the North... woohoo was he looking for trouble manz... attacking the city in front of its pple! cud feel the tension almost! luckily he steered away in time before beer bottles started flying towards him! the rest of the show was the usual vulgarities and insults again le... hmmm dis show surely changed my opinion of english stand-up comedies... thot dey were pretty cultured and formal one manz! ha but it sure was eye-opening wasnt it!

the show finished at 11pm, there was a club below the hyenas... got free entry but we were all too tired to go le... so we trudged back... and it was the start of lab reporting for me till now! gawd its 4.15 oredi... better slp manz... still got another lab at 10am tmr! grrr so many labs here one! better get to zzz le...

My first Carling Cup match!!!

2005-10-26T03:27:00.000+01:00

Woohoo i thk i'm in deep trouble! evr nite come back at like 2+am den not studying enuff anymore! For the 2nd time in 2 nites I went to the casino! not to gamble of cos... me being so suay always... but just to eat supper... the yao gui singaporeans dat we're! I realised studying here is really acres different from the singapore study environment lor! here studying is like a cca lidat... den enjoyment and relaxation and rest and chionging would take priority! den in singapore there's nothing other dan mugging! and i'm pretty much becoming a really good ambassador to Singapore! so many pple asking about the country when i chat with them den I keep telling them how nice the country is and how stressful it is in NUS haha!

Oh den i also realised the casino is really a great place to hang out ah! if u're not a gambler la dat is! since i signed up for the membership (free!) i've been there like 4-5times (free!), had 15+drinks (free!), played a game of mahjong (free!) and had 2 suppers (free!!!) ha last nite it was char siew rice, chips and beef stew (which i din eat... just got the gravy but it turned out horrible rather dan being the curry i thot it was!) tonite it was steak (i couldnt eat again!!), mushrooms, a tomato and chips! so shiok lor! and i drank a coke and 2 hot chocs! ha but if u're tempted to gamble den the casino can be quite a scary place to be in! like regent... tonite he lost quite abit ah! muz stop him from putting so much money here le manz... if not our manchester and liverpool trip nxt wkend sure no need to go le haha!

Aniwei i actually din feel like going to the casino tonite le... but we'd come back rather late from the Sunderland-Arsenal match, so mite as well go there and eat some supper! Ha aniwei tokking abt the match... yuppz... I've finally seen my first match in an English stadium!! It wasnt the greatest match ever, but it was pretty good for a 5pound ticket... and we saw championship material in arsenal vs the patriotic sunderland fans... q some matchup! Arsenal expectedly fielded a squad of mostly unknowns... with Sol Campbell, van Persie and Pascal Cygan (can u believe it!!) being the only first team players to appear on the nite itself! den even with the reserved squad dat dey sent out, they still managed to throunce the home team 3-0! The standard of football was understandably not good... but i the atmosphere was superb! den the Sunderland cheers all abit weird weird one... not nice! Sunderland tried very hard, and fielded their first team, but some Arsenal youth players were too strong for them, so in the end dey'd to admit defeat! Oh and halfway thru the match it was raining q heavily! but the rain simply stopped as suddenly as it'd begun... weird english weather! Lucky there was shelter in the stadium, and even the seats were allocated... so I must say its a much better place dan the national stadium ah!

We left the match 5min before the end.. thou 3 gols were scored, all of them were at the opposite end of the stadium! But overall it was still a good experience la... hopefully Newcastle gets to the nxt round.. den can watch if its a home game! Outside the stadium it was chaos... lots and lots of police on standby, alot of them on horses! Den nicky was up to his tricks again and was taking pictures stroking their behinds!

Followed the crowd back to the metro station. We couldnt get onto the 1st train so had to wait for a second one. it took us back to central station, where we went to find Regent and gang...initially din want to go casino one... but in the end evrone say go so no choice lor haha... but it'll definitely be my last time till Nov, where i'll start collecting my 20 stamps on my card for the free dvd player!

Beautiful Edinburgh, ever-present rain, some unfortunate events, and a trip to the casino!

2005-10-23T04:39:00.000+01:00

4.39am now!! amazing i'm still awake now hor? ha and i'm just having dinner! peanut butter bread... when u're hungry u eat anything! those flatmates... or rather the whole block of mine still awake and being a menace too! Still up to their tricks of splashing water at passers-by walking below! Den created so much noise lor! dey'd splash water at the people and curse and taunt them and den luff... den the victims wld of cos be angry den start screaming and cursing back! den just now a fren of one of the gals kena... den she was so hurt a fren could do it to her lor... i oso pity her 4am come back in the cold den suddenly a pail of cold water land on ur head! den she super angry lor... rightfully so! came storming up to our flat to have a confrontation with the guys! she was trying to scold them and reason with them... the guys here were simply laughing and cursing and scolding her! wah i've nva seen worse behavior than dis lor! haiz so much for the conservative, well-mannered image of the British! Aniwei today was Edinburgh day! nearly started with a nightmare too ah! cos of all the noise the kuku angmohs created last nite, I couldnt slp till like 5am.. den had to wake up at 7.30... den i couldnt lor! slpt rite thru my 3 alarms! den only when kelv came knocking on my door at 8.15 den i woke up! jialat... our train was at 8.45!30min how to get ready and rush to the station, which was a 25min walk away! i jumped out of bed at 8.18am, thking dis time confirm die liao! den rushed to wash up... was done by 8.25, groomed and packed and changed up... pretty impressed with my timing summore haha 7 min from bed to downstairs! but from there it was even more terrible! the gals evidently din realise how late we were... still walking and talking slowly... i rushed them like mad... den me and kelv started running! it was 8.32... 10min to the train, and we were still at Richardson! in deep trouble le! and the rain was still coming down... getting heavier... made things worse lor... so cold den the rain was terrible den we'd to run with unbrellas... now thk of it we must've attracted q some curious stares ba! aniwei by now... 8.35... the gals have got our msg and started running too! in the end we reached the station at 8.40 sharp, and found the correct platform... the train has just come! whew in time! we did the impossible manz... its a wonder... 25min from bed to train station! The train ride there was boring... the rain was by now coming down in sheets, and the windows were all blurred by raindrops, so i cudnt take any fotos... the others were all slping after the morning jog... and xj was looking q sick... really felt bad manz... for waking up late! grrr really hate my blockmates now... got urge to request for room change! We entered the Edinburgh Waverley station at 10 past 10... q relieved we got there at all! q disoriented, and evrone had different intentions on where to go from the station. in the end it was decided to go the the West Princes Street Gardens and then to the castle like we planned last nite. The city sights were really spectecular lor... if u're one into those old old colonial styled buildings this is heaven lor... and it was heaven for me! the buildings were mostly built into the sides of the hills, the old town at least. Then the new town was built up by the modern buildings and shops..no skyscrapers thou leh... I thk dey dun wanna spoil the old-fashioned look for the city...

The gardens made a very romantic place to have a picnic with your other half lor... ha if not for the rain! rite in it was one of those old country cottages, the kind i always dream abt living in... soooooooo homely, so cosy! I've set my mind on living in one of these cottages one day when i retire, with my own little porch leading out to hills and mountain streams! I oredi have an idea wat the inside is gg to be like summore! ha aniwei back to reality... the house wasnt even open to public entry... dreamer!

Outside the house a squirrel was busy digging for nuts by the side of the path. it was like dig dig dig... look ard.... den eat eat eat... den dig dig dig again... so cute! den its tail so big and bushy... cute!!! and not scared of humans too lor... ha i managed to get it to pose for my cam! (yah rite!) Oh... and the trees there... so nice too! red and yellow and brown... a beautiful combination... put together with the statues and monuments in the garden... realy painted a dramatic picture!

We were looking for a way up to the castle on the hilltop... there was a locked gate, and kelv actually climbed over the gate thking it cud lead him in! i said not possible lor... pple where got just use a low gate to keep u out of a CASTLE one! So we walked the long way thru the gardens, up the hill, then found the castle looming in front of us! actually not dat nice leh the castle, as compared to the city.. i thk we've seen too many castles oredi la... but since evrone said must see must see, we followed the crowd and paid 9.80pds to get in! Just before the castle there was a tartan weaving made, where dey weaved all the scottish kilts and costumes.. went in to take a look, and promptly started spending on postcards and a fridge magnet again!!!

when we finally went into the castle we werent much impressed... the land area was big, and there were cannons and big guns, so this was a more modern castle ba... not very pretty inside the castle leh... din even have a map or a tour for us... too exhorbitant oredi la 9.80 for dis! the only area which interested me was that since the castle was built onto a hillside, it had many buildings on different levels... some went up, others went down.. like u enter a building from the top floor lidat... dis was the kind of building i was looking for in edinburgh! read about underground streets and buildings and streets on different levels and lots of mysterious passageways in a book abt Edinburgh some years back... it was the main reason why i've always wanted to go to Edinburgh! but i din see much of all dis during the whole trip leh..

there were lots of museums in the castle thou... i thk dats the main function of the castle... alot of museums in 1 place! tried gg into all of them but ran out of time, so in the end we'd to skip some.. aft awhile it got tiring looking at museum afte museum aniwei... worth mentioning is the crown jewels of Scotland thou... the last coronation of the Scottish King with these item were more than 600 years ago, but dey've been kept, hidden, passed from hand to hand, place to place, before finally returned here for public display after the world war. we saw the tower where it was famously hidden during the world war too! oh in the exhibition of the crown jewels we were actually not supp to take fotos, but i heck care still take! heh all the way till the room holding the jewels la... den got tight security den i din risk it le... aniwei the queue was very long lor... long long line stretching from outside, crawling round and round the different exhibits on the royal family before reaching the Jewel Room. The crown jewels were a sword, a sceptre and a crown of cos... but wat puzzled me was that there was another item... the stone of destiny... just a big slab of stone dey said the kind sat on.. so ugly i dunno why he like to sit on it oso! aniwei there was a set of royal jewellery on display too... this one totally outshone (literally) the dull jewels, shining and beckoning in the display window! wah if can bring one of them home den best le lor!
Aniwei we finally left the castle at like 2.30.. amazing how we cud spend like 3hrs inside! rite outside the castle was the famous Royal Mile.. where all the royal buildings were last time.. it stretches over 1 mile (duh... if not y the royal MILE!) and actually most of the city's attractions were found here la.. the street was pretty nice! those old old buildings again which i like so much!

There was dis Camera Obscura, a museum of visual effects, holograms, 3D shows, magic tricks and a panorama of the whole city somehow reflected via big mirrors onto a plate in the museum! this was the one i really wanted to see... but the others decided that 5.20pds was too much to pay for it (it probably was lah) so we din go in.. kept walking along the street.. there were a few other attractions along the way... but dey were either galleries or paid attractions we felt were not worth the money. one thing we were really interested in was The Real Mary King's Close tour! dis one is really my dream tour la... dey'd take us underground to those old medieval buildings which were were built on different layers of the hillside... and all these were in underground vaults over which the current city has been built lor! really really interested in dis... but the tickets were sold out!!! the history totally no tickets le... den got a ghost tour the 1st available slot was 6.40 while our train was at 7pm!!! arrrrrgh so i din get to see it!!! after dreaming of how it looks like for years lor!!!

was terribly disappointed at dis point, a dream of many years shattered... but there were actually other tours out on the main streets which would bring us underground la... thou to a different part, where the buildings and streets were only 200+ yrs old compared to the medieval ones below mary king's... but we had to settle for dis one... the guide told me i cud go find the girls, who'd disappeared by now, den come back to join the tour 5min before it started.. so i went to find the girls... den dey din wanna go... just wanted to sit in a cafe and eat!! so we went back without the girls… den the ticketing guy told us the tour was fully booked oredi! That got me so upset lor… cos the guide had promised us 5 tickets just 20min earlier… I was real angry and started arguing with the guy, stating that we were promised the tickets and it was the only tour we cud catch without missing our train! Den he actually said he dun care lor! Dat just made me explode le… I got so angry I scolded the man out loud… lashing out at his bad attitude and how the company can break promises to clients and still dare to say dun care… and so much for edinburgh’s friendly treatment of tourists who’d come all the way here to miss dis cos he din care! I got the guy’s name and his company’s details… determined to see some action done on his attitude… he really shattered all my dreams of seeing the underground city with his “I dun care if u miss your train” lor!

we had no choice but to give up any hope of going underground... and i was fast losing the mood to tour le... went to a fish and chips shop to grab a bite.. fish was too exp le so i got a chicken fillet and chips for 3.30pds... den the chicken so tough one! but can fill the stomach den ok le la... zs bot a deep fried mars bar... which his flatmate had recommended to him so much! but 1.50pds for a mars bar was too much for me la... in the end it wasnt really special leh... dip mars bar into batter den go and fry it only leh... gonna try making it nxt time!

we walked on down the royal mile... it sure stretched a long way for a mile! the rest of the attractions were not interesting... there was dis people's story museum which told of the pple of edinburgh... but it was disappointing as well... the upstairs gallery was closed cos it was late oredi... den the place was so small it looked like a boutique rather dan a museum lor... haha nva mind la... not much to miss oso...

we were heading towards the palace of holyrood house now... its the queen's residence in the capital of scotland! this was almost closed too by the time we reached there... it was den dat i realised 1 day in edinburgh was really not enuff lor!! must come back nxt time oredi... if anything it is to see the underground vaults!

our last hope for any satisfaction from the day trip... the holyrood park behind the palace... it was said dat got king's arthur's seat up there, and we wanted to see for ourselves! It was a long and treacherous trek up the hill... all 400+ feet of it... some parts there werent even paths... had to climb the rock at the side of the hill... q dangerous considering there were 2 girls and we were not geared for dis... but adventurous mah... den xj was super garang at one point... she wanted to take a short cut and started up dis steep slope which was like 55-60deg lor! i take my hat off to her... a girl climbing dat monster with her handbag! i was abit worried for her, and kelv who oso decided to take on the challenge... we went the long way but were still faster dan the 2 of them in the end lor! but it was a relief to see em make it la... if dey'd slipped or something the consequences i dun even dare to thk of... all the way down the hill via the rocky sides!!

the way up was pretty scenic... we kept rising and rising and the whole city started coming into view behind us! it was a good climb too.. thou dangerous... the environment was great... cool (i mean cccccold) mountain air, and the hike-in-the-countryside kind of feeling!

there was a surprise awaiting us when we finally reached the top after 40min of climbing! actually the surprise wasnt meant for us la... u see dis guy was gonna propose to his gf den he was there waiting for other frens to lure her up! gonna be some show manz... so we stayed to watch! oh den the so-called arthur's seat we realised was the whole summit lor, not really a seat there! chey... but there was a topographic point stating adt we were 255.0 metres above the city, and i just took it as arthur's seat! even sat on it to take fotos haha! but we'd to tread carefully ard cos the summit were all rocks and the plc was rain after the rain... slippery rocks are dangerous rocks!

we waited for q a few min... i'm sure the groom-to-be felt it's longer dan dat... for the bride-to-be to come up... ha den it was really dramatic lor! the bagpiper he brot up with him started playing the bagpipe, den he held her hand... talked to her for awhile... she was crying and smiling at the same time... the bagpiper music make it even sweeter lor the moment... den he went on his knees and she covered her mouth... he's succeeded! ha touching moment manz... sure would be a memorable proposal too lor...

we gave the couple our congrats... happie dat we managed to capture the touching moment on film and video haha! den even took a foto of the bagpiper with the whole city in the background... wonderful! the occasion simply washed away any upset feelings i'd den!

by den we realised we din have much time left... better get down soon or we gotta run for the train again le! the downward journey had seemed q tuff on the way up, slippery rocks and all... but in fact it was much easier dan expected... kelv slipped 2 times and landed on his butt... lucky it was grassy area den... so much for saf shoes! and joanna became separated from the grp and lost her way for awhile on the way down! but aft 15min we were safely off the hills le...

by the time we were down it was mostly dark le... we made our way back to the train station without much incidents, and managed to get onto the train back...

den on the train we met some very rowdy angmohs again lor... much like my flatmates! we were all aslp mah... den one of them walked past and deliberately knocked my head with his elbow... dammit! den after dat they played music very loud and started talking and singing loudly to prevent us from slping! den 1 of them actually threw a beer cap over lor... luckily i was aslp den... if not i'd have exploded again lor!

Regent msged to ask us to go to the casino cos got buffet again! ha so off we scooted to regent's place to wait till midnite... dey were playing monopoly when we got there! the student life here really very different lor... no need to mug so hard, den got time to enjoy and relax one... haiz once more i regret gg to chem eng in nus!

looked up alot on the tours we were planning the coming weeks, and got some ticketing details in the meantime... time well spent... by the time we left his flat for the casino we'd pretty much decided on gg to manchester the coming week... london and surroundings 3 weeks later... bath and stonehenge on another trip down south, and to the scottish highlands the second weekend of dec! yay! excited! oh den on the way to the casino i saw a stretch limo.. so long and class manz... at least 4-5 doors on each side! i tried to capture it, but for the 3rd time of the day someone walked into my path the moment i pressed my shutter button on a nice car! had missed a vintage rolls royce and another rolls royce during the day oredi!! grrr...

but by the time we reached the casino we found out dat there was actually no buffet on sat! mebbe cos dey dun need it to attract pple to go on sat! we did have ard 3 drinks each thou... i had 2 hot chocs and a coke... den we played mahjong! the only game there dat was free mah... paid a 10pd deposit but we cud get it back later. I continued my losing streak from my previous session at zhenhao's place... it stretched to 42 games lor... i decided dat it was really bad luck cos so many times i was just waiting and the tiles i wanted just din come out! ha but i finally managed to snap the longest losing streak in history on my 43rd attempt... felt pretty smug at dat! ha dat was when we finally packed up and came back... and i'd to start tahaning another session of partying outside... oh oh btw the wayne rooney in the next room brot a girl back and dey were doing it nxt door lor at 5am! so loud somemore... dunno wats tactical!! ha aniwei free show lor... haha alritez den... i thk dis shd be enuff for an entry... wat 5+pages le!....

The rain drizzles on, and the noise rumbles still

2005-10-22T01:46:00.000+01:00

The noise!!! arrgh its really killing me!! blehz those angmoh flatmates and blockmates of mine! wah i thot they'd stop partying once sch begins, but how wrong i was! It'd not only not subsided, it's got much much worse lor! even now as i type dey're making water bombs outside! Wah win liao now dey picked a victim den totally drenching him head to toe! wah how mean can dey get!Den 2 nites ago dey were like standing at the window splashing water down at pple who were passing by downstairs lor! On a rainy chilly nite! Oh last nite slightly better... dey got a long long wooden pole back... dunno for wat... haha but it replaced the CONE le! the cone... ha dis object... dunno y dey like to bring back from the side of the road when dey're drunk! I gathered tt its a sign for "do not disturb, having romp inside room!" oh together with the wooden pole came a windscreen wiper! wonder which unfortunate car kena! Oh and to top up the party... dey got a new TV!! 25inch i thk! den now even more pple crowd in here the whole day long playing ps2 and watching cat 3 movies and getting rowdy! the only time dey go out is to drink... den when dey come back it just gets even better!

Ha at last surveillence the average population in the flat now is like 12-13 lor... peaking at 20+ in the evenings... party central... a tag its living up to!

Yups aniwei away from the party zone... I realised tt the days here really change q drastically! just a week ago the weather was all fine and sunny... but it has since been raining for days straight... saw the weather forecast just now... q amused to see 8 rainclouds in a row symbolising the conditions of the coming week! den the days are getting shorter too! 2 days ago it got dark at 7... yest it was 6.30... today zs told me he was walking back in the dark at 6pm! wow i thk we're in the middle of the season change! the leaves dropping are q spectecular too! today was walking back in the rain... den the wind so big... den this big big tree was raining leaves like anything lor! really all fall off at once ah! i looked up and saw a yellow blur of falling leaves... really pity i din take a foto of it... cos i was trying to get thru the wind with my out-of-control brolly mah haha!

Dinner tonite was good! finally got to use some of the seasoning powders we brot from S'pore! we used 2 packets of the roast meat sauce... den marinated chicken drumsticks and baked them... q nice! affordable meal... 60p only and 2 drumsticks each! q pleased with myself... cos i havent spent any money from mon till today! den got new bread, ham and cheese today which pretty much settles my lunch for the coming week le!

Been doing some reading in the evening... muz make sure i dun slacken amidst all this travelling! Still got more to read tmr... oh but the students here really q slack! my project group for this project engineering module... the assignment given out for a week le... but dey like bochup lidat... i dun even noe who dey're!! today i tried to find em... but all of them were gone oredi after i finished asking the lecturer some questions... heh i was slping thru his lect ah... and i thk he was pretty angry with me... cos when i asked him the questions he was like abit bo chup me lidat... grrr pple wanna learn he still attitude... stoopid angmoh haha!

Alrite since got time now and the noise is gonna keep me up for another hour at least, I'll just type out my diary entry for the second day of Lake District! pls go below to 10/10/05 to find it k? yupz morning s'pore... g'nite newcastle!

Sia Suay ah!!

2005-10-19T20:40:00.000+01:00

A routine day in school... particularly tiring cos I din slp much last nite! arrgh when can I ever transfer all my entries from my diary into my blog! Aniwei I just came back from a talk by P&G, they're offering summer internships as well... wah so many companies... giving me abit of hope, but evrone of them oso see results as the 1st criteria... which is a pretty heavy blow for me... haiz... well but dey sure were generous with the refreshments!! just nice I was hungry... ate alot! finger food and sandwiches and chips... but it was really scary looking at zs and kelv lor... zs was gorging on the fruits... kept going back again and again to the buffet table, in the end even walked out of the place with 2 bananas, grapes and an apple... win liao lor! den kelv largi better... he liked the plate, so simply walked off with it! and the free gifts... grab like crazee lor! haiz now I know wat image Singaporeans portray to the western world... desperate, greedy, poor!

Luckily they provided food at the talk... cos I got "bang sair" again! kelv and I were supposed to cook pasta for dinner after the talk, but when we met to go for the talk, he told me he'd already eaten at Joanna's place le! if not for the food at the talk I'd be cooking myself! once more I was "bang saired"... like evrone for himself atmosphere... no discussion...no camaraderie! Really beginning to get sick of dis... arrgh I miss all my good frens! Cant wait for 5 Dec to come ah!

This afternoon the Singapore society AGM was held... pretty formal affair... but there was a mini verbal going on within... between Regent's gang and the committee... so scary lor the tension, as they threw verbal daggers threw the cold air! then when the elections were held kelv and zs were luffing so loud as dey created jokes out of people... so mean lor! disruptive of the solemn occasion too! Luckily dey din manage to saboh anyone into any of the posts... the new committee was chosen, with practically the whole Marris House gang in it! Hopefully dis new committee will organise more fun activities while we're ard... and more trips!

Wah so tired now... and feeling pretty grouchy... perhaps cos of all the events today ba! nva mind... rest awhile den later muz read abit le... need to upload fotos too! yawnz~~

It shall live in my dreams!

2005-10-19T00:19:00.000+01:00

12.20am in the evening. I dun believe it manz... I actually rejected the chance for free food! Regent and the honeypotters are at the casino getting yet another chop towards the free kopi-maker (dat happens when 15 chops are accumulated) and there's a free buffet for the casinosians tonite! Regent just msged me say there got nice steak and all the food!!! and i'm stuck in my room! well well the sacrifice had to be made la... stayed back to upload more fotos before all my frens start complaining i'm not doing my job!

then i'm looking for opportunities for IA/VIP, either in S'pore or in UK. Actually now is a very confusing time for me... mind totally in a mess trying to logically sieve thru all the alternative routes and decide which one I shd take... alrite here's a breakdown... its a rundown between:

1. doing IA at ASTAR DSI and give up my minor dream
2. finding IA with a better company and still give up my minor dream
3. do my vacation internship in S'pore and do my minor in technopreneurship
4. find a vacation internship in UK and do my minor in technopreneurship
5. just do a vacation internship and dun do a minor at all
6. do IA in UK and die when I return!
7. abit far-fetched, but.... do a 1 year placement and graduate in 2008!

well well... 7 paths... blur liao... firstly, is a minor in technopreneurship worth doing? does it give me an edge in the future? or shd i just concentrate on pulling my cap score up! help help! advice anyone? Aniwei i've been spending these 2 days sourcing for chances for ia and vip, both in S'pore and UK... just applying for evrthing and see how it turns out first ba!

As if all those considering is not enuff, I still had to contemplate whether to buy that dream object.. the gramophone... anot! spent quite some time today researching on gramophones too! ha even got that guy to drive it to my hostel just now to show me again... well must admit he was earnest enuff and a nice guy to come all the way here even thou i told him i still needed to consider!

U noe when he reached he actually set up the whole thing on his bonnet... so farnie drew so many weird glancecs from the half-drunk freshies... ha esp when he started to play a record at my request! took some fotos and came back to research... the verdict... tt gramophone is a reproduction!! well in fact its still good value for a reproduction at 50GBP, including some records, needles plus delivery! but i figured if it was a reproduction its value wun rise but will in fact drop, so i mite as well wait till i got my own house and big big hall then buy one from online... since the online price oso similar. summore shipping it back to s'pore would be such a chore! alritez... so its decided... tt rustic machine will just have to rest well in my dreams for now! ha decided for the moment at least... someone try to change my mind??

yupz aniwei almost 1am liao... xuejia just came to borrow my hard disk to go copy a file from sun fei, putting a grinding stop to my foto uploading... hope she returns it fast so i can carry on! ha i'm full, but i'm thking of the feast at the casino...

Red Alert... funds running low... spendings overload!!

2005-10-16T22:09:00.000+01:00

Help!! i realised i'm a shopaholic! i see things i like, i keep thking of them till i get them! and on me mind rite now is a gramaphone!! believe it anot! haha lemme tell u the story...

ha lets start from last nite... i din eat my instant food! life aint dat bad to me aftall haha! xuejia cooked porridge and some dishes for the hk gals, den cooked our share too! kelv and zs (once again) din tell me abt it till i went over and found out myself! but lucky there was still food... so dinner was saved! aft dinner we actually wanted to rest early one... but Keith kept calling us saying dey were waiting for us... den we paiseh oso... so decided to go there walk walk talk talk... i brot my laundry to put in the machine (3rd time washing in newcastle! exp lor 1.6pds for a normal wash... dryer stil muz pay separate so my heater and my table lamp become my dryer!) hehe aniwei i even brot my pail with me to keith's... so lok kok lor... slippers, shorts and t shirt plus pail and washing liquid! den q surprised to find the place stuffed with pple!! like 20+ again for the second nite lor!

thot we go later abit sure will be spared from the drinking binge... haiz but how wrong... there was still q some alcohol left... and yujin and gang, having heard of my tolerance level... set out to try to make me drunk again! den dis time largi worse! i finally saw y pple always warn abt yujin when he's drunk lor! he was attacking practically all the guys! lapdancing, smooching, touching, dancing, take off shirt, take off pants!! he did it all lor! scary! i kena a few times too... come touch me and my ears even kena licked!!! eeeeks!!!! blehz!! ha can really see a 3m circumference ard him with no guys one lor... he go anywhere den all the guys run away! q farnie! keith even went under the table, out of doors and evrthing to avoid him... but in the end his shirt still got torn off! haiz really pity yujin's gf!! haha but i thk he was only out to create fun la... cos even thou he was drunk he stil din touch any gal at all! den he left the other drunk guys alone too...

well the nite passed just lidat... was supp to come back to study one... but in the end reached only at 1am and promptly fell aslp le!

dis morn i slpt til 10+... gg to tynemouth with regent and gang! kelv chao mugger... staying back to study... so only me and zs and joanna went... met at the haymarket metro station and waited ard for pple... when evrone was there regent and carol so zai lor... juz walk thru the gantry without tickets! den the 3 of us blur blur juz follow! its actually a huge risk to take ah... u see the metro here no need to put ticket into the gantry one... can walk rite in... trust system... but if dey catch u there'll be a 20pd fine... plus dey'll take a pic of u and paste it at the station!!! dats y i was so scared la! i really make a bad crook lor... thruout the journey my heart was in my mouth and i was like throwing nervous glances out of the window looking for the conductor! luckily we din get cot!

we finally reached tynemouth aft the hell-ride! shopping paradise! ha actually its a big flea mkt by the station la... all the trinkets and collectibles u can thk of! den me dis kind like old old things one (aka karang guni!) of cos its heaven for me la! actually its our 2nd time there le... but the other time went with the s'pore soc totally no time to look ard at all... so had to go again lor!

i really couldnt control myself as i said... but i still did a pretty good job holding back... keeping my spendings for the day within 30pds... wow dats like $90 le lor! i bot 2 metal wall signs.. those 70s pattern advertisement design.. the drawing poster kind.. for 10pds... den bot a bottle of lemon cheese curd and 2 small bottles of jam for granny... home made stuff... stuff to bring home... thk it shd be good... esp the curd... cant wait to try it! ha but muz wait for granny to open it la! den granny sure say i'm a good boy today lor... cos i bot her more things! got a decorated goose egg! painted and crafted... den inside got a geisha... v intricate and sweet lor... but oso v fragile! dunno how i'm gonna bring dis egg shell back to s'pore! oso got a keychain with the england emblem carved on it... 2pds... wah but the displayed price was 6.5 pds lor! the kind old boss said the last time our gang bot so many from him he thot he'd better put the price up before he ran out of em! ha but he was still nice enuff to sell it to me at 2pds la...

oh den there were so many dogs there lor... out wif their owners on sunday walks... realised evrwhere we go there're so many doggies... except newcastle! mebbe city pple dun like dogs ba! rite den regent was looking for antiques lor... now i noe wedgwood is a good brand for porcelain and china... he good businessman lor... buy to keep den sell nxt time! haha i tried to be like him and guess wat i targetted! yupz the gramophone! wow it was really nice lor! the original hmv one... his master's voice... still got the logo on it... den still can play... its the wound up kind... super antiquity... super retro... haha dunno y i like stuff from dat era oso leh... but i was really attracted lor... the price tag put 65pds... but the guy say 55 can lemme have it... still can gimme a few records plus needles and deliver it to newcastle for me! super tempted... but muz restrain! cos by den i was oredi penniless and owed regent 8pds le!

i got the guy's namecard and he say will call me on wed... still contemplating now... quick quick opinions pls! izzit worth it to get a piece of sound-producing wood the size of a huge carton for 160sgd and try to ship it back to s'pore? i'm positively sure its a good piece of antique thou! i've up till wed to decide!

yup aniwei aft we left the mkt we went ard tynemouth... oredi too broke to eat lunch, so had to survive on my 2 pieces of stolen bread (the angmohs finished my bread so i koped theirs!) plus my choc milk! carol and dennis and dennis's sis and carina went back 1st, and she took my jam back by mistake... oops! we went ard tynemouth den... wanted to go to the lighthouse at whitley bay... but alas after opening its gates the last time we were there, it wasnt open today! q disapponted really... its one of the main reasons y we re-visited tynemouth... ha the flea mkt being the other! well but we still got some nice shots of the coastline and the lighthouse... not a wasted trip!

the trip back was even worse dan the one there! cos the 1st train we boarded the conductors were on it! we din notice...lucky regent did in time and shooed us all off the train bef it moved off! so much movement the conductor sure see one lor! den we scared he wait for us at the nxt stn so had to get the tic... but i said get the cheepest one la... so at least can say we miss the stop or summthing if he really comes up la! it was 1.3pds... compared to the 3.2pds we'd have spent to be on the rite side of law... okie la... in the end we made it back! saved 1.9pds and nearly had 2 heart attacks!

came back and cooked spaghetti with kelv... dat muggertoad went shopping without us! ha but lucky he bot the stuff for dinner! now i owe him 2 pds... well the spaghetti we cooked was q nice... we put a can of meatballs in too... den got the chicken patty...4 for 1.99pds ... we fried 1 and shared... meagre meal... but i'm satisfied... to get a gramophone i muz eat grass! haha now gonna do some reading... den later try again to upload pics to dis blog! if not all words sure poot evrone to slp!

Slack Sat...

2005-10-15T20:12:00.000+01:00

Yup here's my second post in like 10min... haha dunno whether dis is the way blogging works... post alot all at once... but dun care la... i like typing mah!

haha aniwei today sure was a slack day! woke up at 915 anticipating the soccer match... but Nicky called to say its been cancelled cos evrone couldnt wake up in time! so disappointed lor! but in the end I still wanted to play so gathered evrone again to fix another match at 5pm! yay!

aniwei the whole day was spent in my room... as i said... no breakie... lunch was biscuits i brot from s'pore...den later gonna cook my instant chicken risotto... chey the other time i ate it was like chicken porridge lor... wat risotto manz!! studied abit... updated my team for the fantasy football league... farnie feeling... in the land of epl but now got even less access to the matches dan in Singapore!! they dun show the matches on tv here lor... esp the home matches... cos dey scared pple dun go stadium just stay home to watch... haiz I miss watching football with the guys! oh but 1 piece of happie news... Liverpool finally won! whew! and Cisse finally scored! its abt time manz!

then got an email from Astar abt ia... now i'm really torn lor... dunno whether to do attachment or just settle for a vacation internship plus a minor in technopreneurship... frankly i'm pretty interested in the technopreneurship thing... but the attachment will give me more experience in chem eng lor... esp if i can get Astar... but again i shdnt be able to get it la since my grades arent good enuff haha... well i thk i'll stick to technopreneurship and try to get Astar to lemme do a vacation internship with them ba...

oh rite... inspired by the Pool victory... I went marching to the soccer grounds at 5pm! even got wayne rooney to go with me! haha its my flatmate Colin la... he really looks remarkably like Rooney lor...den when we reached pple were like calling him Rooney and asking for his autograph and stuff.... dunno if he was offended leh... well but he's a nice guy la... i thk my best flatmate le... actually the guys are all q friendly... the gals i interact with em less...

the match went pretty well! Rooney was in fact q skilful! ha just like Rooney haha! the match was high-scoring... like 9-5 in the end i thk... but we won! heh and i scored one and created 1! din really play dat good... but i quite like playing soccer in england! it starts off very cold... but once u run ard abit its comfortable le... wun sweat one!

came back, washed up and washed my dirty socks in the sink...shh dun tell the angmohs!! aniwei dey went out to the indian restaurant le la... took cabs summore... 16 of em i thk... lucky i din go... else sure spend alot one! aniwei when i'm with evrone i really feel out of place lor...

haha kk enuff said... time for dinner! ciaoz!

Wat a nite!

2005-10-15T19:35:00.000+01:00

Welcome..... Weekend! Whew its a refreshing feeling... staying in the hostel to nua on a weekend for once! Kelv actually wanted to go Glasgow one, but we figured such a rushed trip without any planning wun turn out well... so we decided to stay back, save some pounds, and voila...here I'm updating my blog!

It was a great nite yesterday. In the evening went shopping with Joanna and ZS for Regent and Carol's prezzies... I was quite agst flowers, but Joanna was insistent so we got a big bouquet for Carol... I suggested a jumper for Regent... went to sports soccer to get one... actually had my eyes on a few I thot were so nice! but i was overrided again and in the end we got a Caterpiller jumper for Regent. went to Marks and Spencer afterwards to top up the prezzies with a box of chocs and a box of choc chip cookies... perfect!

When we reached, the Honeypotters (Regent's place incidentally is called honeypot house... sweet name hor... haha!) were all in the kitchen... and we were like pressing the buzzer like crazee in the cold! brrrr... esp me lor... cos i decided to wear dis nice new shirt i got from Primark for 6pds... haha i ego la... got a few pple say I look smart so I gek saye wear dat thin shirt without any jacket over it lor!! haha vainpot! Well in the end we'd to call em to open the door for us! Carol was happie with the flowers! haha and i told her to make dried flowers! we got ZS to present the bouquet to her on his knees summore! Regent thou was abit disappointed abt the colour of the jumper... I knew it! ha but he still appreciated it la~

The food table was still under construction... and my tummy was growling... hehe nowadays meals really jialat... anything to save money! it means like 1-2 meals a day... and alot of instant food! well but in the end we were not disappointed for the long wait! Regent and co (nice label eh!) really cooked up a storm worthy of a banquet lor!

okie menu:
1. Curry Chicken (2pots!!)
2. Sweet and sour pork!
3. Dang Hoon and egg and crab meat!
4. Yorkshire pudding with crabstick and mayo inside!
5. Spring Rolls and Samosas!
6. Fried rice!
7. Chicken wings!!
8. Jelly drink!
9. Mushrooms and brocolli!

wow good hor... well at least to refugees like us it was a feast lor! so paiseh always go their place to eat den dey nva let us help out! hmmm even as i'm typing now my tummy is growling again! q pitiful.. no breakie... biscuits for lunch... dinner will be the last 50p instant food box i've left! haha tmr gotta get more le!

well aniwei my new shirt!!! the gan dang ah... i was trying to get it onto my plate... den the curry splashed up! kena!! later gonna do my laundry... hope it comes off! haha aft eating my fill... dey were left with wine... lots and lots of wine evidently! den Regent had dis crazee idea to try to get me drunk! he play cheat lor! say wanna drink with me... den he pour a sip for himself den half a coffee mug for me!!! in the end i drank like 3 mugs ba.. lost track le... became super super red... and the object of many fotographs! ha but dey stil din manage to get me drunk! chey dunno wats the big deal abt alcohol lor...waste money den not nice to drink at all!

aft all the drinking we finally got down to cake cutting... ha Regent's 25 and Carol 21 le~! congrats congrats dudes! the cake was pretty nice... carol baked it! so many pple there lor... 27 in total! its a wonder how the small kitchen fitted us all in! hardly any standing space!

it was ard 11+ after all the fun... some of them went back, the rest of us headed for Ikon... its supposedly the best club in Newcastle... which is the 2nd largest clubbing city in UK... so cant be too bad ba... wah but it costed 5pds to get in lor! heart bleed! hmmm the music was not bad la... trance i thk... oso dunno haha... but the crowd was q bad! mostly working adults... alot of 30+ and 40+s! den some of them came over to dance with us lor... weird weird pple.. then their dance is the feet-must-leave-the-ground... jumping kind... so keep bumping into each other lor... haha i tried to dance like em... kept stepping on pple's shoes oops!

the clubbing din last long... by 2 am dey switched off the music le... so early lor! haiz wasted 5pds... but ok la... special occasion mah...yup so we hung ard abit outside the club... a few angmohs tried to come chat up our girls... but dey din mean any harm so we din do anything to em... den later went back to the Honeypot to pick up my jacket and walk back...

wah the loud music left my ears ringing lor... in fact even up till now i still hear ringing in my right ear! but aniwei I was so tired I just fell aslp once I came back lor... wanted to write my diary but ended up just falling aslp ontop of it again... poor diary gotta endure my weight!

Its Friday!

2005-10-14T16:23:00.000+01:00

15min of free time... just time enuff to post a little something here.. heh at least it keeps the blog moving! been trying to upload pictures onto my blog... but blogger seems to hate me.. can only upload 2 den the thing refuse to accept anymore picture le! grrrr!

Aniwei its fri... time seems to pass fast here! i thk perhaps it becos the lessons are mostly 1hr long... lectures and tutorials are together...oh and i completed my 1st lab for process control2 yest! it was just a worksheet... worked from the start to the end and managed to get a plant up... without knowing head or tail of wat i was doing! just follow instructions on the worksheet...duh how to learn lidat!

Then last nite and this morn i was planning abit for the trip in dec... really excited abt the trip! but more and more i'm suspecting 18days for 5 countries is totally not enuff! well see how it goes ba.. anwei i booked the air tickets to get us from london to barcelona... later gg to buy the train tics to get to london from newcastle. now contemplating whether to risk my exams and go on to prague aft the rest return to singapore on 3/1/06! haha dats the purpose i'm here mah... to see sights and go places!

Now gonna leave le... gg to Regent's place... his and Carolyn's bdaes coming up nxt wk... dey so nice of cos must go help em celebrate la! haha and eat good food woohoo! cheepskate me! well not dat cheepskate la... gonna get em nice presents now!

btw I thk i'll sacrifice any trips dis wkend to stay in! lots of studying to catch up and mainly to update my blog and try to get it to display pictures! heh btw u can go to musicsenz.gfoto.com to view more pictures if u're interested to see how i'm getting on here! site is under heavy construction too haha!

alritey... time to go! have a good wkend evrone! hope it applies to me too!

Finally starting on my blog!

2005-10-13T03:28:00.000+01:00

Haha finally, aft a long long long long delay...I'm starting on my blog proper! My apologies to one and all...cos the past 3 weeks i've been so trapped trying to edit and upload my fotos while gg on so many places to visit!

Yup aniwei just an update... I've been here for like 23 days... well settled down, and oh yah I'm supposed to mention dis too ba.. sch's in its second week oredi. Lessons here are sorta different from wat we have in Singapore... takes some getting used to. The lectures are mostly held in classrooms cos the cohort here is like 30+ strong only... den there is this module with like 7 students only!? The lecturers here also more approachable... like fren fren lidat... haiz if only I discovered dis place earlier!!

Oh but 1 real bad thing abt this place is the admin!! and i mean REAL BAD!! Ha like no communication within the school one lor... we were supposed to attend dis lab session last fri, but there wasnt anyone at the venue! looked ard the whole building and asked like pple in 3 diff offices! and no one could tell us where the venue was at all! den tell us to email the lecturer when the lesson was gg on oredi! den finally someone told us tt the lecturer had booked 2 diff venues! ultimate! haha we just gave up on it... later when we went back to the office to find the lecturer, we were told dat someone from another dept was supp to contact us but didnt, and we were sent to tt guy... from marine engineering believe it anot!! well then dis guy started mumbling dat he din have anything to do with it! so he was making arrangements for another module we found out!

Ultimately he tried his best... helped us send an email to the lecturer.. wonderful... and sent us back to the chem eng office! and in the end we dinno wat happened, till this week dat is! went to the lecture on mon den we were told tt lab hasnt even started! wow wonder why the whole school couldnt tell us manz! haha now i believe wat some seniors here say when dey say the admin here cannot match one! heh and yest it happened again... when evidently no one told our lab coordinator dat we're on exchange and he was pretty pissed off! den 4 sets of equipment in the lab broke down!!! haha me and zhensiong couldnt get a single reading at all... now gotta redo the lab le!

Yikes talk abit too much on the admin le... better just leave the topic before u leave dis page haha... weather here... wonderful! can say its cold, but i'm pretty much used to it by now... but strangely these 2 weeks its been starting to rain more frequently after 2 weeks of sunshine.. I think its starting to turn to autumn weather... can see the leaves turning yellow... q nice I suddenly realised this week! its around 10-15 degrees now on average.. quite comfortable... only when it rains... like today.. den it gets miserable walking ard... its like in-ur-face kind of rain... cannot siam one!

now talking of walking around... Newcastle is a small city... I mean its a big city, but the city centre is small, and lucky for us the univ is rite smack in the middle of the city. As such we walk ard pretty much. Takes ard 20-40min to get to whereever we want in the city.healthy lifestyle dis is... saves is some money too.

really trying to cut down on the amt i spend evrday so I can do more travelling! wah really becoming pretty miserable, and unhealthy... breakfast I usually skip. Lunch would be sandwich packed from home... or mebbe if i want hot food den it'll be a pastry from dis bakery chain called Greggs... its a lifesaver here! oh then there's this kebab shop at the local market... 1.20pounds for kebab meat and chips...eat till wanna puke... alot of food to last the whole day! tried the kebab, and the chicken curry and chips... equally filling!

Dinner we'll try to cook normally. Joanna (she's oso on exchange...archi) is our main chef... cos xuejia (NTU triple e) cant cook! we help out too of cos! ha then when joanna's not cooking we'll mostly eat instant food. dey sell these frozen dinner boxes in the supermarkets... as cheap as 50p.. dat normally does it... easy manz... anything to go travel!

The culture here... its really a chionging culture lor... was really not used to it manz. Initially when we just arrived the whole place was so dead... my whole block was so empty.. den when kelv's block started filling up I knew it wasnt a good sign... I'm the only fgner student in my block! Aniwei once dey moved in the whole place became totally upside down lor... a madhouse! evrnite is chionging nite... evr nite a diff theme... den I made a habit of collecting all the postcards with diff themes dey give out on the streets evrday. The booze here is cheap too.... got like 1pound drinks in the pubs and clubs... and the alcohol in supermarkets are cheaper dan some of the softdrinks! den its the 1st time i see a school with a club and pub and promote drinking and smoking one lor!!! well well talk abt culture shock... but its all part of the experience la...

Oh aniwei the pple here go clubbing evrnite... well at least at Richardson Road where I stay la... perhaps cos the pple here are mostly freshies getting their first taste of life away from home and first legal sip and puff... then evrnite the party will be onz till like 3+am... which is when the drunkards start coming back... den dey'll blow dose loud party horns downstairs...and press the door buzzer! den kick on the door... den those inside will shout together "ITS OPEN!!!" which is when I jump! haha my place incidentally has the good fortune to be the "PARTY CENTRAL" of my block lor! all of em will crowd inside my flat and drink and smoke and watch tv and blast music and play playstation and cook dinner till chaoda and eat and not clean up and come back drunk here aft clubbing while I shiver alone in my room haha. well its just the culture I guess.. in fact i think all the angmohs here have the same habits lor... only my flat is sorta like an enclave!

Well but they're mostly prettie nice pple la i thk... kids leh... 17-19yrs old only... den got chat abit with them.. I got a London guy Rob, a Northern Irish Colin who happens to look alot like Wayne Rooney, a Scottish girl Amy, one from Cambridge called Katie who is somehow related to the famous Earl Grey, whose monument stands high up in the city centre. And i thk she has a stake in the Alnwick castle which I visited lor haha! dunno real anot... then got 1 more gal from Middlesborough, Charly. Oh den I realised Singapore is q a popular tourist destination among the British lor... alot of those I talk to here have actually been there... den dey'll be so proud and start gushing... "I've been to Singapore! Its clean and u cant chew gum! and I've seen Orchard Road and the cable car to Sentosa broke down when I tried to take it!" Blah blah blah... ha den I'd offer to take them in if dey were ever to come again! as if dey'll lor... Singapore go one time more dan enuff oredi leh!

Yup now u have a general idea on how life is here... I shd start posting some entries on my travels and adventures! haha u guys wun believe it lor... timid me was actually daring enuff to take on the challenge of stepping into the driver's seat of a manual car for the first time since I got my license 3 yrs ago! as if not enuff.. I drove all the way to the Lake district, all the mountainous roads there... wah now looking back on it... eeyer I was like toying with my life manz... but it went q well la! only regret is dat i was so stressed driving I din really appreciate the nice scenery!

yupz now its time to head for a pub to catch the england-poland match! here not used to having no football to watch at home! land of footy, but i've to go to pubs to catch matches!

Alrite... i'll be posting some entries of my travels and special events here soon... stay tuned!

Lake District Trip - Day 2! (09/10/05)

2005-10-10T03:51:00.000+01:00

Here's all you need... and some you dun need... to know about the second day of my trip to the English Lake District in Cumbria!

Latest to zzz the previous nite at 2.45am, and I was the first one up by 7! Woke up with q a bad headache... havent had a good slp for 2 nites le mah. No one stirred in the room, so i just laid there and waited till ZS woke up and switched on the lights.

Washed up pretty fast, then waited for the rest and ate my apple lattice... not bad for the price... 4 for 89p. We were checked out by 8.15am. The morning was q dramatic lor... the view outside the hostel was one of a typical english countryside.. trees, hills, stream... The morning dew had settled on the car and coloured it with a layer of mist!

It was my turn to drive in the morning. Now dat I've familiarised myself with the manual gear controls, I was more confident with the piloting of the vehicle. The drive to Windermere was in fact quite enjoyable in the light sunday morning traffic! Reached Windermere pretty fast, then went straight to the tourist information centre. Parked in front of a nearby art gallery and went in. I had half a mind on the risk of getting a ticket for illegal parking, but decided to take the chance after noticing tt just abt every car on the street were parked lidat! hmmm aniwei its a sunday and the layzee angmohs wun work on sunday one la... so the art gallery wun open and the parking wardens would still be in bed haha! Most of the shops in town were closed too I noticed, so it was just a town brimming with tourists and tourism business!

We actually spent a rather long time in the tourist centre. Got the lady there to give us lots of brochures and guidemaps and then point out to us where is nice, plus guide us which route to go to see the most! haha i thk she oso tat boleh tahan us... stay there and ka jiao her so long! Oh the place was a gift shop as well, so after getting the info we needed, I couldnt resist but started spending again! got some postcards, a nice fridge magnet for granny, plus a few blocks of Kendal mint cake! (I said i was gonna bring em home for the guys to try mah!) Opened a packet to try... not bad at all! Minty and very very sugary! ha but it's good to nibble at la ;p

It started raining q heavily outside as we were planning our route in the tourist centre, but luckily for us we managed to outlast it, and it'd stopped by the time we left the place. Ran back to the car to chk... okie it was still safe, and the gallery was still closed, so i figured it wun open at all for the day definitely le... so I left the car as it was and crossed the road, heading for dis Orrest Head viewpoint! Across the road was the Windermere Hotel! quite majestic... and symbolic of the place mah... so we took fotos of dat as well!

Walked this hilly trail up to the Orrest Head viewpoint. Was a thoroughly enjoyable hike.. pleasant greenery, machiam bukit timah hill minus the insects and the sweating!Fresh countryside air, lush greenery, a rickety wooden gate, wild berries, and a donkey strolling on a farm!! dreamy ah~~~ and when we got to the top I was awakened from my dream... by the magnificent view which greeted me! The Windermere Lake was laid out in front of me like a 3-D jiasaw puzzle... every last piece of it was in the rite places lor!

Switched to my trigger-happy mode, and went on a shooting spree! had lots of fun striking kung-fu poses and statue positions. We guys even peeled off all our tops and sacrificed for the camera! brrr abit cold... thk it was below 10deg le lor... but funnily enuff i got used to it after awhile!I was actually starting to enjoy it lor... nva mind the angmohs ard thking we muz be crazee chinese monks from shaolin doing those poses! Kelv actually ran off with my clothes lor! luckily i was used to the cold le ;p

By the time we got off the hill we were way behind schedule oredi... but it was well worth it definitely! Walked back to the car, reliefed not to find any slips of paper flapping on the windscreen! We waited for ZS and Regent to go post their postcards (now i'm regretting not posting one on dat day to get the Windermere chop!), then we were off to find the Hammerbank viewpoint. This one was disappointing, after the previous stop. We couldnt see anything scenic abt the scenic spot here, so we just moved on to the Queen Adelaide's Hill. Now dis one was good! A little knoll we charged up! and rite on it were so many mehmehs! Could feel their alarm as they saw these weird 2-legged creatures charging towards them lor... they turned and sprinted off in disgust. But dey did leave behind lots and lots of landmines! ALL OVER the hilltop! no one ever taught them toilet etiquette dats for sure! We had to tread carefully to avoid the black gold all over the ground. Oh then i had alot of fun chasing down the poor white animals... so cute! The lake was again rite in front of us... took it all in... splendid! Now i noe why Windermere was the king of the lakes!

On our way down the hill, Kelv tried to gek saye and sprint down the trail.. in the end lug saye lor... cos he couldnt brake in time and ended up on his butt!

Aniwei we were on the car soon afterwards, towards our next stop... the steamboat cruise of Lake Windermere! When we reached the pier, it was already packed with tourists and families out for a weekend break. The carpark lots by the roadside were all full, and I was lucky enuff to find a lot by chance. zs wasnt dat lucky thou. Waited a long long time for them... til the other 2 fell aslp in the car, which i've parked successfully on my 1st attempt at parallel in 3yrs! Beside the car was a golf course tucked among the hills... I just stared dreamily and waited for the others to come.

Finally i waited so long till i buay tahan liao... called zs and dey've actually parked at a paid carpark some way off and were taking a train to the pier! ha dey paid for the carpark, but dey got a train ride at least la.. me, kelv and joanna headed to the pier on foot to meet them up, and ran into so many little frens along the way! so many pple brot their doggies out for walks lor.. so cute! There were even a few looking q pitiful as dey sat in the family car, waiting for the master to return...such cruel pple... come to so nice a place den leave the doggie in the car! There were alot alot of birdlife by the lake as well! Swans and ducks and seagulls, all sqwarking ard, unafraid of the human presence! I even went to stroke a swan, and it simply shoke its tail! so cute lor!oh and den another one of those extra large white swans actually started pecking at me... chey do i look like swan feed!

We bot the 6.95pds return steamboat ticket to Ambleside. Boarded the boat and went rite up to the top deck and the front of the craft! It was a fun ride! the view of the jetty was impressive from there, sailboats, yachts, swans, seagulls, pierside cafes and all...postcard view! The fact dat Regent was there to stir up the atmosphere made the ride even more fun! He and Kelv were trying to come into the picture as i took a video clip, den dey actually bang heads with each other accidentally lor... so funny! The lake was actually pretty big, and the boat took us from the middle of it up to Ambleside at the top. The ride itself was only so-so thou... not alot of spectecular views leh... only the pierside den nicer... well but it still was q some experience!

We disembarked at Ambleside after the relaxing 45min ride on the steamboat... ooh how nice if we cud have a steamboat on board the steamboat hor! oops hungry again le! now Ambleside had a nice quayside as well... and we had a good stroll along it, accompanied by our little frens the ducks and swans and gulls. then the seagulls very kewt lor... got these posts for the boats to moor to at the pier mah... den on each of the posts was a seagull perched smartly... den can see a whole line of them... q a sight lor! There was a youth hostel just by the lake too... if only we'd managed to book a room there the previous nite... so nice lor!!! wasted...

Was pretty hungry by dat time, so we went to have lunch at a restaurant by the pier. It was just abt the only one we cud afford to eat at, and it turned out quite good too! Lunch for me was a battered haddock fillet and chips... a proper meal by the lake! This fish was good! much softer and more taste dan the rubber fish we had at tynemouth.. and its cheeper too lor.. at 4.72pds!! had some bo liao fun trying to arrange the different packets of sauces and taking fotos of them cos there were so many kinds and the packaging was nice!

After lunch we walked ard abit mote, having missed the 3.20pm boat. bot another postcard and another fridge magnet from the shop there... wah i realised i'm really some shopper lor... gimme money and i'll spend it for u! Aniwei we took the 3.45pm boat back to Bowess-on-Windermere. Both these places, Bowess and Ambleside, are towns by the Lake Windermere mah. The boat ride was uneventful. By den all of them were tired le and no one wanted to go to the top deck see scenery with me... in the end evrone slpt thru the boat ride on the peaceful journey... no waves at all... dats the good point abt travelling on a lake!

Back on the Bowess side, I quickly went back to the car, hoping for the best. the sign said free parking for 2hrs, but we'd been gone for like 4hrs le lor! whew luckily we got thru again! i was correct... parking in the lake district is really pretty much free! ;p

We drove on to take the car ferry! Another first... driving across Lake Windermere wor... try beating dat haha! Joanna took over the wheel from here, and unfortunately for her it was alot of winding mountainous roads again! It was already q late, so we couldnt see much anymore. We headed for Lake Conistan, making it the last stop of our trip. The roads here was tricky and direction signs unclear, and we ended up taking q a few wrong turns!

Eventually we werent let down after the long drive. We managed to find the launch point of the Conistan Gondola, already not operating by dis time, but it suited our purpose! cos it provided a tranquil, clear and empty lake for us to take some really nice fotos! but really cold there too! we even took some shots pretending to walk and float on water! heh and kelv and regent and zs even did the unthinkable!!! dey added ammonia to the lake! pple say dis lake got copper sulphate colour... we werent sure of dat, but now it definitely contains some ammonium salts le... even saw some froth remain on the water surface as i left... yucks!!!

By the time we left Coniston it was oredi turning dark. Nothing more to see at dis time in England aniwei, so it was time to start our long journey home. We stopped over at a small supermarket along the way to let them get some snacks, then moved on quickly cos it was oredi getting late le. Was a really really long drive manz. Had to get back to Kirkstone pass, to Patterdale, then back where we came from past Ullswater. Then Joanna got so freaked out by the Kirkstone ghost stories that she refused to get out of the car when we stopped there to use the toilets. actually the place really was quite eerie at nite ah. the restaurant was closed by then, and it looked like a totally different place from wat it was in the daytime. Somehow i din recognise it even when i was standing outside the door lor... eeyer spine-chilling... then the wind was so loud... wailing so terribly! we got back to the car and drove off fast, too fast nearly! Joanna was so scared she drove so fast gg downslope she nearly sent us head on into the wall and down the ravine!

After a long and very dangerous drive, we were relieved to finally emerge unscathed from the national park. rested for some time to recover at the M6 motorway service centre. XJ was feeling sick from the drive down the mountains and had puked a few times oredi!

I din eat anything... the wkend spent so much le muz eat grass again! Took over the wheel from there for the marathon drive back to Newcastle. funny how the return journey took much longer dan the journey there even thou i was driving much faster on the way back... heh roads here really weird la!

Finally got back to Newcastle after 11pm, and at my persistent request, we went to the esso station to give the car a small cleaning up. I scared later dey charge us for returning a dirty car! den the rest were like saying i was wiping it like it was my own car lor! ha actually i wun mind if it was my car lor... small and cute and fuel efficient and good to drive! i still had half a tank of fuel left after the whole wkend driving lor... abit wasted purchased the whole tank den return half a tank to them!

After the cleaning up we went ard looking for free carpark lots. unfortunately dis was newcastle and not windermere, and evrwhere we cud park we found signs boasting the punishments we'd receive if we got cot parking. in the end we had to settle for our own backyard, the richardson road student hostel carpark! we ran the risk of a 45pd wheel clamp fine! in the end i'd to wake up at like 7am the following day to go down sit in the car to make sure no one came to clamp my wheels!

While joanna sent regent back, the rest of us trooped upstairs, cooked our instant food, ate it wearily, den came back to my room and fell aslp soon aft, still dreaming of the lakes, the hills, the swans, the scenery~

Trip to Lake District! - Day 1 (8/10/05)

2005-10-10T00:54:00.000+01:00

Well since i still got time to wait before xuejia returns my hard disk, i thk i'll just write my entry on Lake District! went the weekend before last, but hasnt had a chance to type out my diary since then!

Aniwei on a saturday 2 weeks ago.....

Woke up at 7.15am even thou I only slpt at 3+am. We're going to Lake District! whoo so gong gong... wonder how i was going to drive later!

Well I packed quickly for the trip, prepared my sandwiches, using expired bread, almost expired ham and fortunately not-so-expired-but-still-taste-farnie cheese. This was gonna be my lunch... wanna go travel... must save on food! Hmmm in fact i thk the cheese got prob ah! cos the prev day I forgot to take it out of my bag den the sides had actually turned colour le! tore off those sides... stuffed the rest into the sandwich all the same... aniwei eat oredi oso come out the same!

Was oredi 7.52 when I went downstairs... win liao i was still the earliest! waited for the rest... to arrive, then realise wat they've forgotten to bring, then go back up to get... was oredi past 830 by the time we reached Europcar, the car rental company.

Regent was there waiting for us...thou we'd planned for the 5 of us, we asked him to join us when he said he wanted to go. He always so nice to us of cos we din want to disappoint him la! summore with him ard its always more fun! We asked for a 7-seater car, but to our dismay they din have one! Asked for a bigger 5 seater so the 6 of us could squeeze, but dey oso din have! i thk dey just wanted us to get 2 cars and let them earn more lor! On that occasion they succeeded... cos regent was oredi there and we all wanted him to go, we asked for the quote of a second car. a total of 190GBP, which would get us 2 cars, and we could return the cars without topping up the fuel! super super exp... but we just swallowed the bitter pill and took the deal... the deposit was paid using my credit card, so I was abit worried, esp since granny had nagged and nagged at me not to drive here!

Well in any case, the adventurous streak in us overrided the safety concerns, and were checking the cars in no time! both Nissan Micras, the cute Volkswagen Beetle lookalike I like! Dun believe it lor... 3 years nva drive manual car...3months nva drive any car at all, and there I was driving a manual rented car to the mountainous regions in England!

Really scared, but no way out by then... summore we got 2 cars and 3 drivers, so I was gonna drive alot manz! I oriented myself to the manual system in the Europcar carpark, but not before taking fotos of my new car! Very soon, I was out on he roads le! on A69 speeding towards Carlise! The drive was pretty straightforward, and thankfully I was still driving ok. We stopped at a service park near Penrith to eat and rest. I thk i really gong le... actually left my sandwiches on the ATM machine aft drawing $$... den was searching for them!

We tried to book our accomodation for the nite, but all the youth hostels I called were full le! Kelv la... ask him book early he dun want! I was pretty worried, but we figured last resort we'll just slp in the car and save money!

We changed over and Joanna took to the wheel, while I gratefully regained control of my camera. Lost our way abit in Penrith town, wandered ard for awhile, and at long last passed the sign welcoming us to Lake District National Park! very nice spot where we stopped for fotos... the view of mountains and farms... ommph! We stepped out of the car, and loud moos greeted us! so it was a farm! The cows were warily welcoming us to their homeland! alot of them crowded towards the low gate and we took some fotos to them! Regent was trying to scare them... haha can tell how annoyed they were... irritating kids disrupting their morning meal!

Next stop we took was at this marina along the mountain roads. went into the small road to see if got accomodation, but were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves rite beside the Ullswater Lake! And got so many ducks... cute ah! Saw us and swam their way over, quacking happily! haha the animals here all so cute and friendly one!

The view there was magnificent... splendid! Wooden bridges stretching out over the water... docks for the numerous yachts moored there! went out over the longest one, and got some really nice shots from there!. then us s'poreans really leave bad impression evrwhere we go lor! were so noisy and jumping ard on the wooden bridge trying to scare the poor quackies. I thk the pple there oso buay tahan us lor!

I took over the wheel again from here. It was an upslope out of the marina. At the exit to the main road I had a great fright! When I couldnt get the car to start on the slope (i'd lost my technique aft 3 yrs!) i stepped too hard on the accelerator, so hard the car skidded and there was a burning smell from the tyres! Then after that it was all mountain roads... one bad thing abt driving for me is dat I'm so focused on the road I cant enjoy the wonderful scenery flitting by at all! On the way to Aira Force waterfalls a car in the opposite direction suddenly cut into my path to overtake the car in front! Wah mercedes den can anyhow drive meh! nearly swerved off the road to avoid the car lor! but lucky nothing happened other dan a side view mirror which slammed in after being hit by a passing shrub!

The Aira Force Waterfalls sign was a sign of relief for me... literally! Parked, the car, got out still stunned.. The park was free to enter, but dey sure knew how to earn their pounds from us thru parking! we paid 3GBP for 2hrs when the machine refused to give change for the 2.50GBP parking fee... eat money one!! Inside the park, it was a very good walking trail... but we were totally not equipped for hiking! was preparing for the worst when i saw alot of angmohs in full hiking gear, down to the boots and walking sticks! was thking we were done for le!

well but it turned out dat the angmohs da jing xiao guai la... cos it was all pretty easy trails inside the park. It was quite disappointing too for a famous attraction. We walked past a gushing stream which fell off one side of a bridge... but when I was told that it was THE waterfall, i was totally baffled lor! wah i thot wat famous waterfall! end up look like those large sewage pipe discharge lidat! still took some pictures to prove dat we've been there la.. actually the streams were much nicer than the waterfall itself... but somewat reminds me of taman negara! We ended up taking nonsense shots of evrthing possible, even blackberries and slugs!!

Now Joanna took over the hot seat again. She wasnt much better off than me... her engine stalled q a few times... den she just couldnt get it to start sometimes so we were in the middle of the road with 4-5 cars waiting behind for us to move off... so paiseh! We drove past a small village, with all the B&Bs showing the no vacancies sign... I was starting to worry! We found this YHA youth hostel in Patterdale, which gave us hope! Went in and I was delighted to find vacancies, cos I wasnt really prepared to spend the nite out cold in the car while on a holiday lor! We put it to a vote and fortunately it was decided tt we'd stay there for the nite!

The cost was 12.50 with a membership, or 15.50 without. I figured that since the membership was 10gbp and I could use it during the Europe trip I'd just get it la. The room turned out to be surprisingly nice too! Old country-styled cabin, with double-deckered beds... and we got a whole 8-bed room to ourselves too! mebbe dey know we sure make alot of noise one so shift other pple away first haha!

We put down our stuff, then set out towards Windermere, the most famous of the 17 lakes! The intention was to see abit of the town on the nite before going back the following day to tour the lake!

Passed by this Kirkstone Pass along the way. It's supposed to be the highest point in the area, with a trail up the hill leading to this point. However, we were in a rush and the place was so sooooooo cold we din stop to climb. Now thk of it abit regret not insisting in climbing! Then there was this famous inn there the Kirkstone Pass inn, which held the title of being the highest inn in England! We decided to come back to have our dinner there after going to Windermere... more symbolic mah!

It was a long drive to Windermere. took 15min to get to Kirkstone, then another 25min to get to Windermere. However, our speed was slow in the mountains la... ard 30mph. When we reached Windermere it was already 7pm, and all the shops were already closed to our dismay! We managed to find a coop supermarket still open, so went in to get some breakfast for tmr. I got some apple lattice to share, and that Regent super nice again bot alot of sneaker bars and snacks for supper!

Last order at Kirkstone Pass inn was at 8pm, we rushed as fast as we dared on the mountain roads back to reach at 7.20. Found a nice table, cosy inside, like a log cabin, evrthing made of dark oak wood, with red cushions on chairs and a nice fireplace! was abit disappointed there wasnt window views of the pass thou! We read some ghost stories pple told abt the place, and the gals were pretty freaked out, esp Joanna! Regent was up to no good again... tried to pull off the "mysterious hand on shoulder" stunt, and managed to scare ZS there! We were again making so much noise pple were looking in disapproval... wait a min... or were those 'real' people?

I asked the attendant wats good to recommend, then had a good chat with her... its a wonder how i can communicate with angmohs haha...i'm amazed! Learnt abt the pass and this Kendal mint cake, which is a locally produced mint candy, very sweet and good as an after-meal... definitely must buy some back as gifts!

In the end dinner for me was a Cumberland sausage served with mash. Waited a long while for the food (long mebbe cos we were so hungree!) but when it came, we werent disappointed! The sausage was (contrary to wat i was expecting) long and curled round 2 times! (is dis too descriptive?) Nicely decorated, and tasted great too! They had alot of different sauces, and I tried as many as I could. had the English mustard, the french one, mint sauce and horseradish. I couldnt really tell the 2 mustards apart, thou the english one was supposed to be hotter. The mint sauce was new.. saltish and very green. It was minty too... weird combi... I din like it.. the horseradish was the nicest one to me! Abit like wasabe, but more sweet and not as pungent! Oh and I shd mention too... the mash was also wonderful! This is wat I call an meal mah, in contrast to kebab and sandwiches and instant food evrday! The potato was mashed to a puree, and the gravy... i'm hungry again!!!

After this filling meal (and when i say filling it must be really something!) we played snakes and ladders! (bo liao hor?) I won too btw! xj was supp to do a forfeit, and she still owes us till now! The restaurant was closing by the time we left at 9.30.

An uneventful, but not undangerous by any means, drive back to the hostel followed. We bathed, then went up to the lounge to slack. Regent was still trying to scare us by switching off the toilet lights! duh!!! Aniwei I tried to write my diary, but was made to play Jenga... wah wats with all these games manz! and we were making so much noise again lor! pity those who were slping downstairs! Oh den I also noticed there were alot alot of old pple staying there ah... old pple in a youth hostel... ironic!!

Played till 1am, then while the rest went to zzz, I carried on writing my diary till 2.45, before falling aslp on my upper-deck wooden bed!

Pre-trip

2005-09-14T10:33:00.000+01:00

Ha first entry into my new blog! Pretrip planning actually began long ago, building up to the current crazee rate... what with insurance agents to meet, trip itineries to plan, baggage to pack, vaccination, stuff to buy, frenz to meet up... haha but its q fun actually! weird feeling it is... watching all my friends mug like crazy while i'm running abt worrying abt a different set of issues... living in a different dimension u could say... ha quite enjoying it!

Now that i'm 1 week from my trip... its starting to get abit worrying... my modules matching still isnt properly cleared! all thanx to the as-always not-just-a-little less than efficient administration of NUS... hopefully I'll get to clear all those modules I've mapped over. Really hope to get an opportunity for overseas industrial attachment, failing which I mite just clear 7 modules there then come back to do a minor in technopreneurship... but again... thats just a thot... easier said than done haha...

Went to travelex today... found out that the trip itinery I so painstakingly eked out from 2am to 4pm (yup its 14hrs nonstop mind-boggling toggling with the timetables eh!) is sadly unfeasible. Luckily this nice guy at travelex (Godfrey's the name) was patient enuff to entertain our bombardment over 3+hrs... (okie for this i'm gonna give him a.... MOONCAKE!!) and helped us tweak it so we'd see the most in the limited days we have! really hope to catch the Chelsea-Arsenal match on 18th Dec leh... hopefully can get the tickets!

Aniwei... haha alrite this is q long for a debut entry... cant keep it too long... else hard to keep up on the word count haha... time to re-type out the trip itinery!