scenes of uk

2007-07-12T12:40:00.000+01:00

rights, so i'm leaving at 22.05pm tonight. and i am getting a headache from luggage weights. argh. hai hai hai.

so i will reach singapore on friday, 6pm (singapore time, uk time is 11am), terminal 1. flight is QF10 for all those mad people going to the airport to pick me up cos they miss me too much (ah hahahaha i feel so loved :p).

and yes, there will be changes to blog links. after i finish updating this blog with all the photos i haven't uploaded from my travels here, i will officially close this blog. there will be some url changes too so check back here ya. :D and apologies if u dont get ur souveniors so soon (although i think i brought back all ur stuff instead of my own), cos i gotta ship back a parcel. hahaha. yeps. see ya and hopefully when u do see me i ain't a puddle. :D

2007-07-08T01:13:00.001+01:00

to celebrate the reunion of the spice girls for their series of concerts, here's some songs from my fav spice girl: emma bunton! wheeee! she has such a nice, sweet and soothing voice and looks totally gorgeous. i'm so proud of her for not allowing herself to be pressured to be stick-thin!

her latest single (i think): all I need to know

what took you so long... my fav single from her!

2 become 1 - emma bunton

ahhh.. my fav spice girl song! wheeeee!!! ahhhh, what i would give to be able to go and watch their concert... sigh.

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and yes, yuen mei will be back in singapore (and disturbing you people) on friday! kekeke... arriving at 6pm, me think. heh.

2007-06-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

ok, the previous post was saved as a draft. i just published it. now, another update!!!

in the previous post, i mentioned that we went to tiger tiger to celebrate my 21st. yesterday, there was a car found outside the club which contained a bomb. to think that about a week ago, we were there and at the time the bomb was found, we were just leaving the club. how scary is that? thank goodness it didn't go off. till now, i think a total of 3 bombs were found around london. now, the entire central area is on bomb alert.

at times like this, i don't know if i am looking forward to going back or not.

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i miss loughborough. i miss the people. yada yada yada.

i still can't believe i will be going back in less than 2 weeks.

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more photos

http://nus.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30606&l=394df&id=730950122 - Barcelona part 3

http://nus.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31488&l=76fd5&id=730950122 - barcelona part 4

2007-06-24T17:17:00.000+01:00

hey all! I'm in Hereford nows.... the time to go back to Singapore is drawing nearer and nearer... just 2 weeks plus left now.

one of my cousin in hereford was attacked on his way home by a gang ( they say group of boys, i suspect is a gang cos there's been a series of attacks going on). You read these things in newspapers, you hear about them over the tv, radio, friends, but you never really think it could happen to you. i'm glad this attack hasn't turned my cousin into a shadow of himself, it would be rather sad if it did.

one of the things i am rather determined to do, when i go back to singapore, is to pick up hand to hand combat. at least, weapon or no weapon, i can still defend myself. it would be rather sad to go down without putting up a fight, sadder still knowing one can win if he/she had the skills to. so yah, it would be a good thing to learn. I remember wanting to learn kung fu when i was very small, but my parents wouldn't allow cos it wasn't something for girls; judo was out in secondary school cos it was ''too violent''. but now that i'm 21 and technically an adult (though i don't feel like one), i should be able to pick these up.

one thing which struck me was how lucky i am. when the loughborough union shooting happened, my friends and i narrowly missed it as we just left the union and were happily walking back to our hostel. imagine what could have happened if our International event had dragged on longer. we could be mixed up with the other big event happening downstairs, and who knows what would happen. and the string of rape cases happening in and around the university area... i'm lucky i was not a victim, especially since walking to and fro from butler to elvyn richards at night, sometimes alone, is something i do very often. so yah, i've been lucky.

i bid farewell to my elvyn friends on friday. don't know when will i be able to see them again. i hope they come to singapore one day, it'll be great fun!

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i am going to say this agains: i don't like clubbing in london. when i went to London last weekend, i was dragged to the club by my aunt. yes, my aunt. my dad asked my aunt to bring me to the nightclub to celebrate my 21st, so once more i had to brave the london night scene. went to tiger tiger, which is a restaurant, club, bar... had dinner, which was really good. i had the mexican chicken fajitas, and we shared desserts. it was alright till we hit the dance floor. this time around, we were hit on by more guys than last time, and it was worse.

i'll just talk about the worst guys: these 3 fellas. 2 of them hit on us together. it isn't nice when this guy starts sticking his butt (like it is some noteworthy asset. hello, get a life please) between my friend and me. it was even worse when he starts wiggling it around as though it is something so grand you should like, spank it or something. sorry dude, but i am not into this kind of things. nor am i interested in drunken guys who think they are Gods when actually, the sight of them makes me want to puke. and man, did those two guys have guts. guts in the sense where the world would be much better without them. first, they would not leave us alone. second, they would not stop trying to grab our hands. when i say i don't want you to hold my hands (did i mention the sight of him makes me want to puke?), i mean it. that doofus didn't get that message through the thick skull of his head and happily grabbed my hands, caressing it. omg, please leave me alone before i drop dead just to escape from you. when i snatched my hands back (like rudely. like, obviously i-don't-want-to-hold-your-hands), he cornered me. this is where i thank Gods and Goddesses for the presence of aunties at clubs with you. my aunt rescued us. hah, should have seen the expression on their faces when we told them she was our mother. but those guys are dead drunk, cos after that, they still wouldn't leave us alone. in fact, they tried to hit on my aunt! but well, we weren't impressed and they left after a while.

then came this guy, whom my friend and i noticed have been stalking us for some time. now this guy is the most freakish one i have ever met. he didn't like, hit on me or anything (thank goodness), but he was weird. he followed us from downstairs to upstairs and back down again, and then kept hitting on my friend. he even asked her to unzip the front of her blouse!!! like, hello?!!! i should have like, whacked him or something. and then he actually lifted his shirt and started touching his nipples. wtf. how horribly gross. and he tried to corner my friend, and i was like grabbing her hand and trying to pull her away but he wouldn't allow her to leave. in the end, somehow we managed to break free from him and we -literally- ran to where my aunt was. we told her about him and that guy actually came over!!! he came over and tried to drag my friend back to the dance floor!!! and when she refused, he just wouldn't leave until she told him that we were taking a break. then he went to the dance floor and just stood there STARING AT US. how freaky is that?! after that, the moron TOOK OFF HIS SHIRT!!!! and stood there. and then came towards us again and tried to drag my friend to the dance floor again. this was where we decided to leave the place. like my goodness, i need to wash my eyes. he didn't even have a hot body. like, omg, go look at yourself in the mirror, thank you very much. he was obviously on drugs.

and guess who we ran into when we went upstairs? the two drunks again. who kept insisting that we were koreans. and who still wouldn't leave our hands alone. sigh, some guys just don't get it, do they?

oh, and i found white powdery substance in my water. i didn't notice it at first, i highly suspect it wasn't there in the first place, if not i wouldn't have drunk most of the water. but after we decided to go downstairs from upstairs, i noticed the white substances. so i think someone dropped it there while we were walking from one place to the other. and after seeing those white things, i stopped drinking.

and i sincerely hope that i would not have to undergo this again.

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Some photos! click on the links:

http://nus.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30462&l=30a5c&id=730950122 - Barcelona pictures part 1

http://nus.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30498&l=534ed&id=730950122 - Barcelona pictures part 2

2007-06-17T18:07:00.000+01:00

am in London now, going back to loughborough tmr.

barcelona trip photos will be up tmr, if i have the time. leaving for lake district the next day, so might be too tired. plus there's packing to do, preparing to go back. I dont wanna go back!!!! nooooo!!!! *cries* hahaha

was nearly pickpocketed in barcelona. luckily, my pouch is always in front of me, so i could feel the zip opening. slapped the bastard's hand away and immediately checked to see if anything was gone. luckily, i managed to check everything before the metro could stop and he alight. grrrrrrr.

tried the spanish traditional wine, sangria, too. very nic! but it came in a huge vase (looked more like a vase than jug anyways), so had to drink like 4 glasses. -_-" slightly woozy.... good thing we had to walk some distance first, so the cold wind made it better. hahahha.

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i watched phanton of the opera yesterday!!! brilliant! love the theatre... and omg phantom's voice was sooooooooo good! *melts* so was the other guy's voice... christine's was alright, expected more power though, but then, this actress has to compete with the reputation of sarah brightman's absolutely brilliant voice so.... poor girl. haha. but the musical was fantastic! i love the chandlier! i want to watch it again! wahahahahaha.

i wonder how many more plays and musicals can i squeeze in before i leave. gonna watch othello when i next come. hope to catch avenue q and the complete works of shakespeare too. and i want to watch orlando bloom's play and equus (daniel radcliffe) but the price is like, freaking expensive! sigh. and spice girls is doing a series of reunion concerts!!! too bad i wont be around by then.... sadness. hmmm... maybe i can fly to tokyo to catch them... hmmmm

more updates next time. right now im tired. all those assignments plus travelling means not enough sleep. sighz.

oh, and i cant remember if i said this already, but thanks kendo peeps for the birthday card!!! *grin grin* it is on my wall now! hahaha. *grin grin*

2007-06-11T19:08:00.000+01:00

i am possibly at one of my lowest points right now, being here in UK. since turning 21, nothing seems to be going right. is there something about turning 21 which makes the first few days full of shit, to test if you really are matured enough to handle these? cos it sucks.

last night (or early this morning, rather), i completed the last of my assignments: the oral communication speech and the essay. Everything was done at 3.30am, all that was left was editing, rehearsing and bibliography. I came back from the place i was studying at all geared up for doing the bibliography, and then catching some much needed sleep. so, imagine my horror when at 4am, an attempt to save my bibliography file on my memory stick proved impossible because it was suddenly inaccessible. yes, INACCESSIBLE. the bloody message that popped up was that i had to format the drive, but doing so would mean i lose all my work, period.

naturally, i was upset. i was angry. i was pissed. at 4am in the morning, a grumpy and pissed yuen mei is not nice to put up with. thanks ran and alwyn for putting up with me. ran happened to still be awake, doing the speech too, so i went down to see if it could work on her laptop, praying that it would. it didn't. so we called alwyn, waking the poor guy up and asking if we could test my memory stick on his mac notebook. the nice guy immediately came over with his laptop, but it couldnt even detect my memory stick. so, all hope was pretty much lost, and i nearly had a breakdown. the shitty events before this were piling up, and i honestly was this close to just giving up. but i still have assignments to hand in in like, 9 hours, so i couldn't.

nice alwyn came up to my room and tried to figure out what was wrong for more than an hour. but like i said, it was a lost case, so alwyn went back to sleep while i finished doing the biblio rather dejectedly. then i emailed my lecturer to explain the situation and requesting for an extension. and i went to take short rest.

first thing i did when i woke was to check my email. my lecturer replied, and he was so nice to grant me an extension till wednesday! but alas, i am leaving for barcelona tmr, so i have to hand it in by tmr no matter what. fine enough, at least i wrote out the main points of my speech on my cards early, so i could still deliver the speech. a trip to the computer center proved futile, for all they could say was "we don't do repairs." right then and there, i began wishing that i was in NUS, because NUS would try to figure out the problem for you, at the very least. and i so wanted to go home cos i felt so troubled and lost and stressed and alone. the person did tell me about a computer shop at the student union building which might be able to have a look at my memory stick, so i went there. but when you're down on your luck, you will always be down on your luck. the stupid shop was not open; it will only open at 12 noon today!!! of all days... so i gave up, went back, took a short nap and prepared for my speech.

the speech itself was alright, i was shaking cos i was so scared that even more bad things will happen, like i'd forget what i wanted to say or something. but it went smoothly, the only good thing which happened thus far. i wore my peranakan costume for the speech cos i was talking about multiculturalism and felt that it was apt. immediately upon returning, i realized that one of the straps had broke!!! like, what the fuck. how much fucking worse could my day get?!

so yes, i am in a very very very bad mood right now, and let's just say that when i am in a bad mood, don't fucking piss me off. unfortunately, someone did, though i tried to control myself and not say it out, but really. please. if you can't keep quiet, then please leave me alone. like really really.

oh, and i have to rewrite my two assignments again. and i don't even want to think about the rest of the files i lost, all of which are of importance to me.

can my life get any shittier than this? would the person cursing me stop it right now and leave me the hell alone? why, of all people, do i always end up having to face shit like this?! i must have done something terrible in my past life.

i don't want to have to deal with this right now. my last few days here have been ruined.

2007-06-09T18:01:00.000+01:00

okays! as promised, links for bbq photos from jerry's and mel's cameras: jerry pics here, and, mel pics here
tell me if they work!

in other publication news, the creative writing story i wrote for my formative assignment is on my livejournal.

and i'm down to my last assignment! hurrah! this one special, have to write speech and essay and give speech.

thanks for all the birthday wishes, sent ecards, actual cards, pressies etc etc etc. piccies from last night will be up sometime.

pictures from my trip to warwick will also be up sometime. went there with ayam on 6th june! woot.

and if you're wondering what i did on my birthday itself, well, just doing erm my 3500 words essay. yeah. welcome to adulthood, me. a lesson in responsibility. and a lesson in not sleeping. 1.5hrs sleep, @_@. but but but, i received a call from siew! hahaha. she called while the kendo peeps were having supper after training, and they sang me a birthday song!!!! wow!!! hahaha... thanks thanks! and i was like, at the reception area checking for mail when that happened. -_-" people there staring at me, wahahaha.

off to barcelona on tuesday! :D

2007-06-05T13:52:00.000+01:00

heya! what's up with life for all of ya? i'm still slogging away with all my essays, bleah. sigh. the weather's been really lovely these few days, too bad i have to spend it at home. the sun's brilliant, like singapore, without the humidity. and i keep complaining that it is very hot. can you imagine what'll happen to me when i arrive in singapore?! i'll melt!!!!! a puddle of yuen mei.

anyways, just wanted to wish YICK SIEW a very very beri merry HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!! adult liaoz neh, be a bit more mature hor. hahaha. kidding kidding. hope you have a smashing one! and get well soon! and make sure u learn how to make mandu!!! hahaha.

here's something to listen to: grace kelly - mika. man, his voice can hit such high notes! *feeling less like a girl now* :(

ooooh, one more day till my 21st!!! aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! hahaha. thanks for all the cards and pressies everyone!!! so nice... all the way to UK some more. hahahah. arigatou!

and i'll be off touring on the 12th of june (yes! finally, after all the dreaded essays), to barcelona, then london, manchester, lake district, hereford, london, bath (and surrounding places), london, singapore. in between, i'll have short rests here in loughborough. sooooo.... MAN UTD, JANE AUSTEN fans and anyone wants anything from the specific places, please tell me! but er, i dun have a lot of money on me ah... hahaha. u want expensive stuff, might have to transfer money to my acct first. :D

that's all! take cares! :D

2007-05-26T17:52:00.000+01:00

My lovely friends here in lufbra threw a bbq party for birthday boy Xian Hong and me last night! Held at our very own Butler Court, the bbq party was a blast! Really nice and warm gathering of people, simple yet sweet. And fun. haha. One of the last few times all of us will be gathered like this too. Thanks Much Much!

And so, presenting the pictures!

Mel and me! All the girls turned up in pink! hehe. Coolness. Why pink? 'cos it is my fav colour!

one of the few times mel is taller than me! haha. Love her top.

Hui Ran and me! we're actually pointing to pink flowers. Doesn't really show up in the photos though.

Joan and me!

I don't know who took this picture, but the objects of interest here are Aida, the flowers she is holding, and Jeremy (guy nearest to camera and holding the jacket)

Aida and me

Gerrent tries to bully me...

unfortunately for him, I bully him back! :p

Joan and me! No, I did not suddenly sprout rabbit ears. That is an item of necessity (says the organizers) for the birthday girl. Birthday boy looked like construction worker haha.

Yan Lian and me! I was freezing. haha

Lester, a tranny Jeremy, and me!

Mel. The ears look huge on her!

Hui Ran and Mel

Ying Zhi and chicken

BBQ-ers for the night and Birthday Boy, Xian Hong! Man, his jacket thing is so bright! haha. Reflector!

BBQ food illuminated by his jacket

Me and my birthday cake!

Me, my birthday cake and Xian Hong's birthday cake! His cake handmade by his darling kies! haha. And it was superb!

The rabbit is hunted by Hui Ran!

the rabbit attempts to spear Jeremy with a satay stick

time for: pin the rabbit ears on the guy's head! presenting item number 1!

Most feminine-looking male, Jerry! and me. :D

Item number 2!

Act cute Gerrent and me!

Item number 3!

Natural Rabbit Ears Lester and me!

Item number 4!

Cheating Jeremy and Aida!

Item number 5!

Most innocent-looking (fe)male Wee Yong and me! Too bad, we all know the truth about he(r) otherwise. haha.

Item number 6!

Rabbit Alwyn and me!

Item number 7!

Trying to be a guy and posing with rabbit ears Joan, and me!

rabbit ears return to its rightful owner and Joan! and my pressie in the background!

Rabbits Ran, Joan and Me!

Item number 8!

Xian Hong and me! He cheat! He took out his construction worker jacket!

Sweet Yan Lian and me! Yan Lian is the girl who baked XH's cake

rabbits eat hot dogs too!

Suvian and hip-hop wannabe rabbit (actually, it was drizzling)

Singing Birthday Song!

Cake-cutting session! Or, as that Jurong Junior teacher once said, cut-caking session! -_-" *wonders about the standard of English at Jurong Junior*

Lemon Trifle Cake!

Aida demonstrates the right way to eat a cherry (and turn people on! you did not read this)

Yan Lian feeds birthday boy cherry!

After that, we played a game called Polar Bear! Rather familiar game to many of you, i must say... haha!

the dead polar bears and villagers playing a game of table-tennis

Polar Bear Jerry tries to disguise himself as a rabbit

tell me, tell me, who can the polar bear be?

I was the God, that's why I can take all these photos!

All my wisemen/women, polar bears and villagers! Oh, and btw, Mel went berserk last night while playing this game. She wasn't the wisewoman, but pretended to be very wise and accused Jeremy, Gerrent (both of whom were villagers) and Lester (wiseman) for being polar bears! Her reasoning? They made eye contact with one another! haha. She became the village fool after that.

me and my pressies!

a jewellery holder!

all my accessories! nice nice?? haha

and that's all! i'm currently collating all the photos, cos most of them are in the other cameras! will upload everything to photobucket when I'm done, so look out for the link! haha.

cheers! back to the essaying.

2007-05-22T13:20:00.000+01:00

went to London over the weekend to pick up Joan's friend, Gerrent and to watch LOTR the musical. Gerrent treated us to lunch! Whee! wonderful pizzas and tiramisu, bwahahaha! tiramisu date when I return, anyone? haha.

Anyway, LOTR musical was brilliant! seriously. well, if you expect it to be just like the movie, then I'd say you're deluded. Don't bother watching the musical. But if you know that this is a musical, and naturally, there are limitations which the movie does not face but the musical does, then you would be blown away by the amount of talent and creativity used for this musical.

Being only 3 hours long, and being unable to actually have LOTR the musical Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 (poor tourists like me wouldn't be able to afford to fly to London consecutively for 3 years), the storyline is bound to be stripped down and messed around with. This musical expects the audience to know the LOTR story, preferably read and know the book(s). This musical expects the audience to come with an open mind. This musical expects the audience to know that this is, afterall, a MUSICAL.

I was blown away by the brilliance. There were even songs in Elvish!!! And omg, the moment Legolas open his mouth to sing, I melted. Beautiful. And the person playing Aragorn was brilliant as well! And don't even get me started on Gollum and Galadriel. Guy playing Gollum deserves a trophy. The scene where he has an internal conflict? Absolutely fantastic. It was a freaking hard scene to portray, and he did it brilliantly! Galadriel's vocal range was stunning. My goodness.

Plot-wise, it was alright. Like I said, you have to know the story by heart. Cinematic brilliance? Definitely not applicable. War scenes? Put it this way. If you try to squeeze 50 people or more onto the stage to depict the fantastic battles the movie was able to portray, you'd have a trampled audience. I personally value my life.

Costumes? Beautiful!!! Amazing. Characters/cast? Woot! Bravery, for daring to do stunts and stuff that reminds one of a circus act. And yes, the hobbits are actually shorter. Even the dwarf if shorter. And Gollum does crawl around. And yes, they are able to portray the vanishing acts. And there were Ents. And no, the orcs did not sing. Neither did the ringwraiths. But they were scary in their own way. Stage props? They deserve all the awards for this. Never seen such creativity employed before. And the usage of the stage! Brilliant. Music? Halfway through the musical, I wanted to own the OST of the musical.

In short, watch the musical if you can. And if you have an open-mind about it.

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Apologies for the lack of updates. It is essays period once again. And I am ill. So hurrah. Anyways, Butler Court Summer Ball photos and updates will be up when I'm free. Prolly on Fri or Sat. Yeppers! And I still owe you guys photos from Amsterdam and Brussels, and other random ones taken after. GAH. You should just get facebook and view them there. Bwahahahaha.

2007-05-12T21:50:00.000+01:00

i'm so tired, frustrated of having to keep everything inside. being here gives me a sense of freedom and independence i've always yearned for, and at the same time, it feels as though i'm in a prison. something wants to bust out of me. i want to break free, yet i have to remain silent.

the only thing i really miss back home is the people i know. if i could only fly them here.

i miss being able to just meet up or phone one of the girls or guys to chat, rant, catch up etc etc. doing stupid things, sharing jokes, thoughts, feelings. going out for meals, studying together, kendo, karaoke-ing and screaming rock songs at the top of our lungs. there's no one for me to do that here with. i really wish that my 21st birthday could be spent with the people at home. i don't even know what to do for this supposedly huge celebration here. i don't even feel like celebrating it, cos it is so hard to celebrate. everyone is having exams or assignments then. it'll probably be a day like any other day, fading into the darkness.

ironic how in a nation with a significantly larger population than that in Singapore, i end up feeling so alone. so small, so insignificant. as much as i love being here in uk, it just doesn't feel like home. even when i'm with the rest of the Singaporeans, it doesn't feel like home. i'm still alone.

i have yet to meet someone here who could come close to the friends i have back home.

2007-05-08T19:08:00.000+01:00

My livejournal's updated. Contains a poem. http://mei-angiez.livejournal.com

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Continuing with Prague photos (it never ends!):

walking away from the castle

back of an alley in prague

absinth! most potent alcoholic drink in the world! contains 70% alcohol.

cannabis vodka

astronomical clock

see the white circle in the sky? that's the moon.

easter eggs!

me and the people making a traditional czech bread roll thingie... can't translate the name.

moi hostel!

us with our lovely roomie from USA, val!

dinner at the hostel's cafe

mine and ran's food!

mint hot chocolate!

imagine you tiao... with loads of cheese and ketchup!

yingzhi and yushan

municipal town hall

inside the municipal building

elavator with sofa seats inside!

staircase railing!

waiters posing in front of the restaurant

i'm afraid that's all the time i have for now. all the latest photos i've taken (International Day, Peak District and ISA Party) are all on facebook. you'll have to sign up to view them though.

gotta sleep. not feeling good. ciao!

2007-04-29T16:12:00.000+01:00

a continuation of prague photos:

view of part of prague

lovely lovely books

me with a kafka sign

jennie, me and guy in medieval costume

me and my "knight in shining armour"!

medieval sword!!!

so king arthurish

the torture chamber

very narnia-ish

this is quite morbid

i can't remember the story ran came up with this. i think it was sleeping beauty being very glad and guy in shining armour going "oooh yeah!" hahaha

oooooh dangerous pointies!

look at where ran is pointing! haha

but then again, i wonder if the guy who wore this armour really had huge well... you know....

i have no idea what ran is doing...

me trying to elongate my neck to fit into that looooong neck er thingie. the word for it just escaped me. gah.

i would seriously love to wear this!!! so beautiful!

another beautiful gown!

so casanova!

ran and kafka's house! yesh! this is kafka's house!

kafka's poor house became a souvenior shop.

the door is so tiny!!!

musical instruments!!!

yet another torture chamber

shan, mel and ran looking down a pit which we supposed was filled with crocodiles long ago. and the poor soul was hung from that chain thingy down that pit.

2007-04-26T20:59:00.000+01:00

i uploaded 2 haikus written during creative writing onto my livejournal. http://mei-angiez.livejournal.com

presenting the next batch of prague photos:

outside prague castle

girls going ga-ga over a guard

scary statues... symbol of power, perhaps?

building at the courtyard area

fountain!

cathedral

lovely stained glasses

this is quite morbid. like gargoyle!

me and yingzhi with the guard

typical kiasu singaporeans at the front of the "queue" waiting for the noon change of guards to begin...

changing of guards begin! grand grand ceremony!

taking dressing

and there's a band that plays from the windows! how cool is that?! and only at noon, folks!

i actually have a video of this but well, youtube is not allowing me to upload it. sigh.

see the guy in the middle? he is the cute guy. sadly, he hunches his back.

him again! guy nearest to my camera!

marching back

kat, me and ran with the cute guard! later, we saw his postcard!!! whoot!

i only have pictures of the buildings from the outside cos im mostly not allowed to take pictures inside. only shan can, cos we bought the liscence for her to take them.

right, that's all for now! im smashed! been running up and down from yesterday to today, non-stop. massive cook-out again today, cooked Japanese chicken curry rice and broccoli with mushrooms and oyster sauce. the thing about cooking like that is that it is draining, you get tired, and then you don't feel like eating much even though you're hungry.

the result?

hunger pangs at 2am in the morning! go figure.

and by the way, it is sunday, 29th april, 2am. i saved this entry as a draft previously, hence the inaccurate date and time.

2007-04-21T15:13:00.000+01:00

righto.... if you are interested in a drabble i wrote, click http://mei-angiez.livejournal.com/1949.html

do leave me comments yah! i feel very sad when i receive no comments. how am i going to improve???? boooo hooooo.... just click on murmur... haha

2007-04-19T22:51:00.000+01:00

alrighto! prague photos....

arrived in prague, took the train (or metro) to our hostel area. alighted at this station:

love the colours, the background!

checked into our hostel, Czech Inn (get the pun?), which is like, the best hostel of the entire trip! wonderful hostel at a really good price! slept like a log and woke up early the next day. on the agenda: charles bridge and prague castle.

this was on the way to charles bridge

across the bridge, is old prague

charles bridge! doesn't it look lovely?

the trick to getting the bridge and its loveliness all to yourself (well, mostly) is to go there really early in the morning. the view was worth it!

more older buildings we saw on the way to charles bridge!

structure at the entrance of the bridge

me, jumping up and down haha

shan giving a "look at this mad woman" look, and me being the mad woman

on charles bridge. so beautiful!

the statues on charles bridge are about christianity. really interesting and beautiful to look at. the statues line both sides of the bridge.

description of the statue above. anyone can decipher this?

charles bridge and me, a speck in the distance...

this is a familiar image to everyone

ran and me

the view on the other side of charles bridge

our shadows!

liling and xue ying wishing for something.
apparently, europeans believe that if you touch the gold on the statue, something good will happen. something like that.

no idea why i took this. just saw "Kafka" and took it, hahaha

towards the end of the bridge.

out of the bridge and on the way to prague castle...

a phallic symbol eh...

view of prague below as we near the castle

me taking a pic of ran taking a pic of me!!! she has the one of me. hahaha.

very very near prague castle now...

3 man band busking outside prague castle. they are really good!

alrights that is all for now! next post: prague castle!!!

2007-04-19T18:02:00.000+01:00

i absolutely love this song from Wicked:

both: there's been some confusion for you see my roommate is...
galinda(good witch): unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe
elphaba(wicked witch): blonde.

hahaha. love this.

and this is just amazing. especially the part when she is in the air and everyone else is on the ground, gave me goosebumps!

@@@

and this! thanks birdy for making this! so touched to see my face in there, hahaha. is like, body may be in butler, but soul (or heart) is at elvyn. eh heh...

that sounded.... wrong. but nvm. haha.

2007-04-17T00:44:00.000+01:00

taking a break from posting (or trying to) post those photos.

Trip to Hereford and London

well, to hereford was alright. took the train by meself for the first time, 'twas fun! hahaha. and tiring cos had to lug all those stuff but yah, 'twas alright. stayed in hereford for er 3days, didn't do much. unpacked and left some stuff at aunt's place, then went to town and my aunt bought me a nice new top from NEXT! sooo nice! and i received Easter eggs! like, chocolate easter eggs! so exciting, first time! hahaha. sad right, haven't had easter chocolate eggs before. hahaha. one was from thorntons, the other was a cute chocolate lamb from marks and spencer, bought for me by my cousin. awwwwwww....

then it was to east croydon (greater london) on tuesday. took the coach there, by myself too. 4hours! sit until my butt was aching. at first, i sat in this really nice and new coach, but alas, it was too good to be true. was kicked off the coach and transferred to an older and smaller one. boo hoo. not much leg room too. so there i sat for the remainder of the journey. alighted at victoria coach station, found my way to the victoria station, sat there for an hour waiting for my aunt to finish working so that i could take the train to east croydon where she'll pick me up. reached east croydon, met my cousin and we stood there waiting for my aunt. she came, and we went to her house.

typical londoner house i guess. not big, not spacious. but cosy. heh. imagine a rather thin and tall house. yep yep. so there i stayed for 5 days. met her lodger,J, who is a year older than me.

aunt brought me to oxford with my cousin. it was a great place, took loads of pictures. too bad it was for like a day, so couldn't do much there.

in london, i saw the musicals wicked and les miserables. wicked was funny and really good to watch, it is a nice fairy-taleish musical with a lead actress who has a superb voice. gave me goose pimples listening to her hit the high notes. enjoyed it much, perfect to just sit back and relax to. les miserables was amazing. really. it is so darn good! and i fell in love with the male lead's voice. his vocal range, the amount of control, amazing! and the plot, omg sooooo sad i was crying! but it is an amazing musical. really.

i also shopped a lot in london. i bought: a short hooded jacket (short-sleeved) for 12pds, tube top for 2pds, mini denim skirt for 6pds, evening dress for 10pds, wallet for 5pds, peep-toe shoes for 13.50pds and two eyelines for 3pds. that adds up to about 50pds, which is 150sgd. i have never shopped so much since i came to uk. london just has that effect on you. london and mid-season sales.

my last night in london was horrid though. i was upset, traumatised by what happened. i think, i hope i've come to terms with it, but yah, i should have expected that something like that could happen.

i went clubbing with J and another girl, A. my aunt pushed us to go clubbing together, so well we went. it was supposed to just be drinks cos A had to get up early for church stuff the next day, but when the place we ended up in turned out to have a dance floor too, A and J couldnt resist. so we ended up on the dance floor, and this ugly sleazy-looking middle-aged man jumped in between me and the girls and started gyrating towards me, mouthing some words i didnt bother to make out. the look of him disgusted me, what more his actions. and he completely blocked my path to my friends and he wouldnt let me get to them. and what was worse, the girls just stood there laughing and encouraging me to dance with him. i'm like, "wth? no fucking way! not with a sleazy man!" i was not going to lower my morales, club or no club. and i was honestly frightened because i didn't know how to deal with him and his aggressiveness. in the end, i had to like side-step him and squeeze my way to the girls. i was begging them so much to help me, but they didn't. they refused to come over to my side, refused to move from their spot. so i had to find a way to get past the horrid man. and when i did, they refused to change their position. i could have walked off myself, but i don't really fancy being stuck somewhere i am not familiar with. luckily, the guy left me alone. for a while.

he came back again when i took out my camera and stood reaaaaaallly close to me, peeking at my camera and invading my personal space. i was so uncomfortable. and guess what that asshole did next? he took my camera without my permission, took a picture of us and then proceeded to take self-portraits of himself! like, EWWWWW. i have photos of the fucking idiot on my camera!!!! and i had to snatch my camera back from him. and then, he made me take pictures of him! and then i had to take pictures of him and J, who became really uncomfortable. and that was when they decided to get away from that man.

why is it that when i was asking for help, they didn't, but when J needed help, she got it? just because she and A were attached and i wasnt doesn't mean that i should be some loose girl who should get it on with a random dickhead. i refuse to forgo my morals. i was already shaken and upset.

and the night got worse. i had to deal with another sleazy old man who looked somewhat similar to the first guy. there was these two younger men who started dancing with A and J and i was like well, dancing by myself while happily looking at them. then J started becoming uncomfortable with the guy she was dancing with and looked at me for help. so i tried to by dancing with her and she grabbed my hand and held it. and what did that guy do? he shoved my hand away - TWICE! such a bloody jerk. and i would really help J more, but then i had to deal with another asshole who decided to try dancing with me seeing as my two friends were dancing with two guys. i could sense him coming closer and trying to edge in, trying to catch my attention but i purposely ignored him. if i accidentally saw his face, i'd turn and look the other way. anywhere but at him.

but the asshole just would not get it. he still tried to get close, still tried to get my attention and was really starting to piss me off. then when the two guys started talking to the two girls, he decided it was alright to talk to me and his face suddenly appeared in front of mine and he asked, rather uncomfortably close, "hi, what's your name?" with a smug grin on his ugly face. fucking hell, wipe that off, would ya? my reply: "i have to go soon." but A and J were not ready to leave yet, so i couldnt. for awhile, i thought the guy had left me alone for good, but noooooo.

the (i really can't think of any other appropriate word to describe him) FUCKING BASTARD decided it was alright to get it on and started touching my waist! i froze when i felt hands on my waist. i freaked out even more when his hands started going down. i jabbed him with both of my elbows and he let go but guess what? the blockhead just would not fucking leave me alone!!! he started touching me again and thankfully, A declared it was time to go so i happily shoved the guy's hands away without looking at him or saying anything to him, just walked out.

i should have slapped him. i really should have. i was sooo pissed and disgusted. the moment i felt his hands, i felt dirty. i still do. i cannot get the feeling away, each time i happen to remember the incident, i just feel dirty. the worst thing was, there was no one i could turn to for help. no one to depend on but myself. i was honestly afraid. i have never felt so frightened and alone before. i wanted to cry, to scream, to do something. to cause serious injury to the assholes who ruined my night. but mostly, i was deeply hurt and upset that the two girls i trusted (i generally do not go clubbing or drinking with people i just met) betrayed my trust. i cannot believe that not only did they not come to my aid, they found the situation i was caught in humouring. i cannot believe that they actually encouraged me to dance with the guys. i can't. i missed loughborough so much, i missed people like hui ran and aida, people i can club with and trust that i will be safe with and not left alone and helpless in some foreign city in a foreign country. and i had to surpress what i thought and felt because they wouldn't understand, and i didn't want to make it worse. i couldnt think about it or talk about it because no one understood me. i couldn't tell my aunt cos she would find it funny and amusing and she will tell my dad and my mum will find out and hell will break loose. i didn't want to worry my parents. so i surpressed what i thought and felt, smiled and pretended everything was fine. i even tried to lighten the matter by saying instead:" why did i get two old men while you guys got the younger ones? is it cos im look old or im ugly?!" seriously though, i dont know why i was the only one who had to deal with these two sleazy looking men. do i look like im easy or what?

i deleted the first bastard's photos away. but the incident remains in my memory, haunting me. last night was the worst. i couldnt get the bastards' faces out of my mind, the dirtiness i felt. it got to the point that i broke, i had an outburst after dinner with my friends back at lufbra. i just couldnt surpress it anymore. i couldnt keep it locked inside and deal with it alone. i felt better after the outburst, but i still cannot forget the men and the trauma they put me through.

one thing i learnt: i really should just not trust people. they always failed when i needed them the most.

and i am happy, glad, overjoyed and immensely relieved to be back in loughborough, where i feel so much safer. and i dont want to leave so soon....

*edited names 'cos i decided it wasn't fair to well, reveal them.

2007-04-09T18:29:00.000+01:00

a continuation from previous post

most of the funky and funny photos taken at the palace gardens area are with yushan and mel! i took very little cos was saving space for the rest of the places, while yushan took more since she had the most memory space.

headed to the easter market to meet up with ying zhi, liling, xue ying and jenny

easter eggs hanging on a tree!!!

look at all the beautifully hand-painted easter eggs! no two are the same...

kawaii!!!!

strawberry eggs, anyone?

i bought a lady bird easter egg from there! bwahahaha. it is with xue ying now for safekeeping. haha.

went to this huge chocolate shop...

control thyself...

easter chocolate eggs!

look at all those chocolates! tempted yet?

xue ying and a box of...

cannabis chocolate!

more chocolates!

and then, we headed to a famous cake shop...

look at all those cakes!!!

think this is big? there are even bigger ones to come...

patissier (?) at work

mega-big cake!

are u hungry yet?

guess who this is?

cant remember where this is

they even have mozart chocolates!!!

we went to see the 100 yr old (i think) ferris wheel after that...

to the amusement park we go!

i wanted to go on it but.... no money. heh.

who is that, i wonder?

real horses for a merry go round!

me! the clown! ahaha

this is just.... weird. morbid.

yawwwwn. im bored...

went back to the hostel for some rest before heading out again at night. had chicken kebab for dinner, was yummylicious! then went to have a look at the night lights...

the parliament at night

remember that clock tower building from earlier? this is taken without flash

taken with flash. so beautiful!

me and the building

Day 2

lunch at the caterpillar! where 4 of us shared a massive wheelbarrow.

me!

went to a shopping center after that.

ronan keating walk of fame

me!

deep purple

mel did some wallet-damage while the rest of us just looked around. after that, met up with the others and left for the coach station. we're going to prague!

on the bus to prague! bye bye vienna!

the beautiful sunset we saw on the bus

im hungry! waiting for dinner now. next up: in prague!!! (get ready for photo galore!)

2007-04-09T16:35:00.000+01:00

25th March 2007

left Loughborough for Batislava Airport! that's in Slovakia. flight was at er 5.30p.m. from east midlands airport...

on the bus ride to East Midlands airport.
me, yushan, kat and hui ran

at the airport, waiting for our flight.
me, shan and ran

on the plane!
ran says we look like sisters. do we?!!! *shudders*

kat and yushan
kat's from cyprus

we arrived at Batislava at 9.30pm (vienna time, which is an hour earlier from UK time). had some problems from customs, ran cleared everything for us though, so by the time it came to me, it was smooth-sailing, bwahahaha. for a while, ran and me thought we would be turned back and put on the plane back to UK. we were also wondering if we had problems going through because the guy have not heard of singapore before! haha

took the bus to vienna, reached around 11.30pm i think. from there, we had to take the train to our hostel...

shan and me on the train with our ticket stubs!

westbanhof station: our hostel is located somewhere near here

we spent about an hour trying to look for our hostel!!! when we finally found it, we realized it was because we had exited from the wrong place of the station -_-" along the way, we saw...

trams! reminds me of san francisco!!!
also, a cute guy on those er skate skooters? who nearly fell off when shan suddenly yelled "excuse me!" to him. but he was really nice, and thanks to him, we managed to find our hostel. poor shan forgot to get his number though, hahaha

our hostel room! we stayed in wombats city hostel, it was brilliant! love it! a great start to our trip!

me and my bed!

6 of us in one room!
the other two girls are yingzhi and melody.

Day 2 in Vienna

woke up bright and early and met yz's friends, liling, xue ying and jenny!!!

this is for stef.
ste[f]an splatz! geddit? hehehe

gothic cathedral!

love these

we went high up the cathedral to see the bell.

poor yz was afraid of heights

ran and me

roof of the cathedral. this reminds me of bathroom tiles, somehow

write-up of the bell we paid 4euros to see, i think

me and the roof!

the bell. quite a disappointment really

back inside the cathedral

me and an elaborately decorated gate

behind the gate

outside the cathedral

"vienna" walk of fame!

a modern shopping center

vienna's souvenior shops!

huge hotdogs! viennese hotdogs rock!

lovely old buildings

vienna's funky public toilets! this one, the opera toilet, was playing opera music and tranquil sounds of water!

ran, me and 'cabaret'

life imitating art

can u see an elephant?

ran, shan and mel

beautiful statues

i wish i could, i wish i might
no matter how i wish
i can't translate this
sorry folks. :p

horse carriages! how 18th c

this means the soldier died in war.
one horse leg up means solider died of battle wounds
all legs down means soldier died a natural death

oooooh! men in uniform! phwaarrr!

we were really lucky. just so happened that an important minister was visiting, and so we managed to catch this parade!

supposedly welcoming a minister.

alright now: left, left, left right left...

part of vienna's royal palace

the royal palace

mel

the palace

i think this is a theater

parliament

statue in gold

me and the statue

angels at the base of the statue

the parliament

3 men

volkstheater

the entrance to the theater

ok i am tired. am going to shower now. will continue again if i feel more awake! heh.

2007-04-09T11:29:00.000+01:00

hey folks

am in hereford now. sorry i havent been updating with the photos, there's just too many of them for me to sort through. all of them (yes, every single one of the 1.512gb) are up on imageshack, without any captions and stuff so click here if u want to view all of them. otherwise, u can wait for me to pick out the better photos and edit them to fit into my blog, hahaha.

okays, that's all for now. ciao!

2007-04-06T19:12:00.000+01:00

i had a really funny and interesting msn conversation with my girls mich, mun wei and siew. pity sarah wasn't online, hahaha. in anycase, it was like the good old times of mass msn convo, with siew being the lost sheep as usual. haha.

it was an interesting discussion about how to tame ur boyfriends. haha. siew was scandalised at the ideas mich, mw and me threw out. haha. the poor dudes who had the folly to be our bfs. hahaha. but seriously, girls, we can't be bullied by them! haha.

ahhh, i miss those days. miss them. haha. can't wait to go karaoke-ing with them when mich and i return! hehehe. missing out so much on my friends' lives, only being able to read about that through their blogs or over msn. heh.

that said, i don't want to leave uk!!! no!!! only 2 and a half months more!!! ahhhh!!!! sob sob.

funny how time flies. i can't wait for the elvyn peeps to be back from easter break. it is so quiet here! and i'm bored out of my mind. haha. and i miss their jokes and what not. ahhh... i have to spend more time with them before i leave! if not... who knows when will i see them next? 10 years down the road, perhaps?

can i tie myself to my room and refuse to leave? ahahaha.

happy easter everyone! and photos are currently being uploaded onto photobucket and imageshack, will transfer them to my blog erm when they are ready. haha.

2007-04-05T15:45:00.000+01:00

i'm baaaaaaack! good to be back in butler, i don't know why but yah. haha. great to be back in an english-speaking country again! yay!!!

ok, i took a lot of photos. i mean, a lot! both my memory cards (of which one is 1gb) were used up, so yay! haha. expect loads of photos and a looooooooooong update (spread over the course of a week). haha.

righto! i need to go to town to grab some much needed groceries now. cya!!!!

oh, and do email me your addresses. FULL address. thank you very much! :D

2007-03-30T22:25:00.000+01:00

heya

in amsterdam now.... touring europe. this is my 3rd stop, brussels is my last. first two were vienna and prague. in anycase, will be back at loughborough on the 4th of april, if any of you were wondering (hahaha). yeppers. so watch out for updates!!!

to my nus and sg peeps, good luck for exams, assignments, essays, in short, hell month!!! ganbatte!

those having hols, enjoy and take cares!

:)

2007-03-18T22:30:00.000Z

because stef requested for this and he is rarely ever on msn.

written by yushan and me for a short creative writing assignment. do leave a tag to comment! and stef, please remember that the character stef is just a parody of you. :p

Setting: Stef and his mother, Mary, are having dinner together in their dining room.

Mary: How was your day?

Stef: OK.

Mary: Have you finished your homework?

Stef: I’ll do it later. By the way, where’s dad?

Mary: Oh, still working, probably. I wonder where my Laura Ashley evening dress went to?

Stef: Mum, dad can’t possibly be working. He’s…

Mary: Perhaps I should get a new one. There’s this really adorable dress at Ted Baker that I just have to get!

Stef: Mum, you don’t need a new dress. The old ones are just fine.

Mary: But it’ll be perfect for this gala dinner I’m going to on Saturday.

Stef: We can’t afford it now, Mum. Not with dad re…

Mary: And I’ll have to get shoes, and a bag to go with it. And make an appointment with the hairdresser…

Stef (interrupting loudly): We haven’t got money for that anymore!

Mary: [Pause] Have you finished your homework yet?

Stef: Mum, you know as well as I do that things are changing.

Mary: Oh are things changing in school? You still have to do your homework, Stef.

Stef (exasperated): That’s not what I meant.

Mary: I think you should go and do your homework now.

Stef: Mum, face up to the truth.

Mary starts clearing the dishes and hums a little tune.

Stef (quietly): Dad’s retrenched, Mum. He’s retrenched.

Mary continues to clear the dishes.

Stef (stands up and bangs the table): DAD LOST HIS JOB!

Mary drops the dishes she was carrying.

Mary (yelling): You have no right to talk to me like that!

Stef: Mum, please…

Mary (sobbing): It’s so hard. I can’t…It’s not true. How could it be? We’ll be alright… He’ll find a job. Things will be back to normal. Right, Stef?

well now, how about that? i'm much happier with this than i am about the creative writing story i churned out. gwah. probably because this isn't a solo effort and the creative writing one was. haha. anyone wants to suffer and read the story that i am handing in? heh.

in other news, i am halfway through my writing women essay! whoohoo! and i still have the analysis for creative writing to do which i have absolutely no idea how to do, and a victorian literature essay which i am totally screwed for cos i doing a question on Tennyson's In Memoriam, which is highly potentially suicidal. you go, ym.

oh, and should my oral comm speech be about the samurais and their code of honor? including seppuku? hmmm...

2007-03-15T19:18:00.000Z

Edinburgh Part 3: Arthur's Seat and Day 2

1st thing we saw out of the castle: a man dressed up as a erm someone? haha. i would say all the way back from medieval times, the attire. i think.

the royal mile in old town

love this! hehehe
if you don't get it, then well you must be a really sad person haha

poor statue with a cone on his head
can anyone with sharp eyes spy someone else as well?

yet another random building. i think this might be a museum.

did anyone guess correctly?? scottish playing the bagpipe!!! and man in kilt! phwaaaar!
and yingzhi gets a nosebleed. :p

statue and another building

scottish flags and others

another building

after which, we entered the...

museum of chilhood

victorian doll's house

doll's house

another doll house

puppetry

puppets! pinnochio anyone?

zoetrope

inside the zoetrope

tolbooth tavern: reminds me of harry potter!

the new scottish parliament: sides

still the parliament.
weird architecture for a parliament, if you ask me.

the queen's gallery. literally. all her valuable stuff are in there, and it costs a bomb to enter.
ok maybe i exaggerated the price, but still...

arthur's seat. free. bwahaha

parliament again

lamp! with the queen's crown on it! cool

holyrood palace. also very expensive to enter. palace where the royal family stays in when they come to edinburgh.
wanted to visit that initially, but decided to 'hike' up arthur's seat instead. glad we did.

arthur's seat from below. beautiful!

parliament again

closeup of the front view of the parliament
i had no idea i took so many photos of it -_-"

view of the palace, gallery and parliament halfway up arthur's seat.

view of calton hill from arthur's seat. wanted to hike up there sooooo much, but sigh. no time. :( and it was darn cooooooold!

old town!

top of arthur's seat

where old and new meet

taking a break at the "peak" of the mid-hike up arthur's seat

me looking bewildered at what those 3 monkeys are doing

me

wahahaha like this piccie!
guess which one is me? :p

jerry attempting to climb up arthur's seat.
no jerry, unless you want to break a leg

look! we can carry jerry! hahaha.

part of edinburgh

edinburgh

right below arthur's seat

edinburgh university is somewhere nearby too! anyway, we decided to 'hike' down when we saw that it was getting late and the ominous black clouds coming in. alas! the moment we started walking down, it started raining. and then, heavier rain. by the time we reached the bottom, we've had countless slipping scares and were soaked through. but it was still fun, the view was beautiful. highlight of the trip it was for me. not to mention it helped make my cough 'better', wahahaha.

me and joan, back at our hostel room.

yingzhi, on her bed. she looks like a sea animal. hmmm.... a seal?

joan, who was too lazy to sit up to take a proper picture, heh

we had fish and chips for dinner at a famous fish and chips place in edinburgh. pretty good, price was reasonable as well. apparently, the guy who plays hagrid in harry potter visits the place often! didnt see him that day though. i had calamari and chips instead of fish, cos i looooove calamari! haha. the best seafood is still in aussie and new zealand, except crabs of course. singapore has da (the) best chili and black pepper crabs in the world! phwaaaar!

at night, we had girl talk. well, with jerry the only guy around. hehe. he must have found it rather interesting. talked about erm ideal marriage proposals, body part(s) we look out for, physical features to die for etc etc etc. jerry had this really sweet marriage proposal to his gf which he described to us. omg! so sweeeeeet! his gf will melt when he proposes to her!!! *envy envy* if a guy so much as dare to even think of proposing to me the singaporean way, i will kill him first. if any guy is sane enough to want to propose to me, assuming. haha. but seriously, how is "let's get a HDB flat" (i.e. an apartment in flats - x storey high buildings common in singapore) even POSSIBLY considered a marriage proposal??? i'll ask the guy to go fly kite (apologies for singlish, don't understand ask moi). but yah, jerry's idea was just really sweet and simple. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ok, moving on to Day 2 now (technically day 3, but it doesnt count for me cos day 1 was spent in the coach -_-")

edinburgh castle whilst walking to the city center

the castle

statues!

more erm buildings?

for some reason, the statues remind me of egypt. or greece.

more more more buildings!

the bridge linking old and new town

eh, this popped up in our path so.... heh

if im not wrong, this building is the national museum.

and then we went shopping! cos the shops opened. haha. more souveniors and food!!! hehe. also bought a cookbook for beginners for only 2pounds! very useful cookbook. also bought a novel called labyrinth. can't wait to read it, but first: lit texts. haha.

and then it was bye bye edinburgh! along the way, we saw:

the forth bridge, just beside deep sea world. we didn't go in cos well, underwater world in singapore is the best! haha. but really, those who did pay a ridiculous 7pounds to enter the place came out disappointed and complaining that it sucked. hehe. more fun chatting on the bus, really.

forth bridge, taken while on the bus.

and that marks the end of the trip to edinburgh! phew! cut down on so many photos, @_@. righto, back to assignments! argh! hell week is upon me!!!! ehehehe. but after that, i'm off to vienna, prague, amsterdam and brussels for about 2 weeks! wheee! hehe.

ooooh, and i have a new skirt from topshop! bought from ebay, for just 6pounds plus! original price was 35Pounds, apparently. and the skirt is brand new, with tags and all too! cools. hehe. ebay is addictive. good thing i have to rely on my friends to actually bid for me, so pai seh lah. haha. so, only bought the skirt so far. *grin*

ok ok, back to studying. ah! the joys of being a student. tee-hee.

2007-03-15T17:50:00.000Z

because *ahem* someone *ahem* asked me for my address:

Yuen Mei Lee
F2A3
Butler Court
Loughborough University
Leicester
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
United Kingdom

or you can put YM Lee. just note that Lee is behind instead of the standard Lee Yuen Mei. hehe. i highly doubt i'll be receiving any post though, who will be so bo liao to post something to me!!! *whine hint whine hint* although a someone owes me post cos that someone asked for the address. wahahahahahaha.

and yes, i still owe the last set of edinburgh piccies. i just need to stop being lazy and resize them all and post them on my blog. *stares* erm yah. *stones*

i should go shower and start cooking. mwahahahaahha.

2007-03-10T16:53:00.000Z

i realised i forgotten to leave the message i wanted to tag on mimi's blog here! oops, sorry mimi! haha~ *hides under the table* mimi! when we return to sg, we have kbox session to celebrate all the 21st birthdays we missed okay??? hehe~ which includes siew, siwei, you and me! bwahahahaha. eh sorry wah wah, u not 21 yet then, so not counted. haha. mun mun, u older then 21 le, so also not counted! wahahaha. kidding. your birthday also celebrate okies??

i wonder if suyu will still be in sg for that. i hope so! then we can have a kendo batch 2006 kbox session! with the guys! wahahahaha. if memory serves, the guys' birthdays are all after june. haha. hmmm. wah wah, u aren't actually a guy, are you? :p

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finally, i'm putting an English song here! haha. this is a nice sad song! stole the mp3 from my brother, bwahahahahaha.

All Hands on Deck - Waking Ashland

All hands on deck
Don't abandon the ship
You'll never know what it could have been
All hands on deck
My ship is sinking
Don't let me go, don't let me drown

A step to the right to your own rhythm
'Cos what comes next is up to you
And I need a miracle to save me from this
And I need the angels to all pray for me
I can't believe you

All hands on deck
Don't abandon the ship
You'll never know what it could have been
All hands on deck my ship is sinking
Don't let me go, don't let me drown

Another day, another worry breaks right through
And indecision bleeds me dry
And she's turning pictures I'm not making for her
And she's painting pictures without me in mind
I can't believe you

All hands on deck
Don't abandon the ship
You'll never know what it could have been
All hands on deck my ship is sinking
Don't let me go, don't let me drown

All hands on deck
Don't abandon the ship
You'll never know what it could have been
All hands on deck my ship is sinking
Don't let me go, don't let me drown

The long walks on Moonlight Beach
The promises you could not keep
You're so contagious, so contagious
For all the world we did not see
And all the smiles you gave to me
They're so contagious, so very fake...

All hands on deck
Don't abandon the ship
You'll never know what it could have been
All hands on deck my ship is sinking
Don't let me go, don't let me drown

And goodbye to you, goodbye to you, you
And goodbye to you, goodbye to you, you

2007-03-09T18:24:00.000Z

hey guys, just a quick update to say the arts rag blog is working again! so all you people interested in ragging, and can't wait to get started, go to http://be-raggerfied.blogspot.com for more information, updates and fun! and this year, arts rag is going to go all the way to the top! hehe~ Be Raggerfied! Arts rag: Passion. Friendship. Triumph.

oh, and i know i still have yet to upload the last set of photos - Arthur's Seat and Day 2. i will, soon hopefully. depends on how i'm getting along with my work, ehehehehe. in the meantime, take cares!

2007-03-07T00:09:00.000Z

Edinburgh Part 2- Edinburgh Castle

close-up of front of castle

cannon and statue of soldier

swords!

further into the castle we go!

view of the new town from the castle

the other side of the new town

new town again!

me and aida

jerry and the western view of town

aida and me

jerry again

aida and me at the first part of the castle we visited, which i can't remember the name of, sadly. haaaiz. i am getting olllllllld!

model of edinburgh castle

jerry

jerry and a canon

dog cemetry

painting

a part of the castle

yet another view of the town from the castle

aida, me and a cannon

jerry and the cannon. this just looks so wrong, on so many levels.

we entered St. Margaret's Chapel, which is a rather small chapel but very old.

close-up of the er altar??

aida and me with the town as background

jerry and a write-up of the town behind him (well, actually it would be in front of him since his back is to us. humph. extra)

the back of the war memoriam

building housing the royal rooms and crown jewels

the royal palace. couldn't take any pictures in there though. nothing much anyway, the beds and all were gone. sobs.

the war memoriam building

close-up of the words above the entrance of the building. we couldn't take pictures inside to respect the dead, so yah. in anycase, there were portraits and statues of memorable generals and stuff, and books with the names of those who died in the army. a rather solemn place.

the great hall building

swords at the great hall

me and aida posing with the swords. too bad we can't play with them, ehhehheh

me and a person dressed-up as a soldier

the fireplace and demonstration area

spears

another painting!

a really old world map! think you can find singapore on this? haha

demonstrating a soldier's life

we headed to the Prisons of War after that...

Prisons of War entrance

shadows of prisoners in the past interacting!!! so cool right. haha

bunk beds. and jerry.

table with eating stuff

table with games they used to play

that clothes i see?? hur hur

more bunks

stairs stairs, down where no one knows

prison doors

me and aida, making money!

bank of scotland! no, not really. haha

the note i made!!! *nose grows longer* alright fine, i didnt make it. humph.

no! we've been thrown into jail!

aida gets out of jail and i have a new inmate.
aida says we look like drug addicts, wahahahaha.

no jerry, you don't shower with your clothes on. or with a bag.
but then again, none of us want to be around when you shower. wahahahahaha.

jerry peeps at aida while she's "showering"! scadalous! *runs away from aida*

signposts

view from close to the top of the castle!

er, i still don't know what does the E and R stand for.

into David Tower we go, a dark dark place

jerry, pretending to shoot..... something

somewhere in David Tower

down the stairs to Lord's Hall

the first thing you see in the hall: a bull's head. can you see it?

the dinner of death
basically, when a bull's head is served, it means someone is going to die

er.. a building in the castle

governor's house

aida and me again

the northern view of edinburgh

northern view still

aida and jerry

cannon waiting to be used

soldier preparing the cannon

as the clock strikes 1, he fires the cannon

the uk flag

the Edinburgh shop where my wallet became significantly lighter

bye bye Edinburgh castle!

it was alright, nothing spectacular. just the view was good. but yah, can't believe i spent 11pounds to enter. 11 pounds = 33sing. 33sing!!! i can go shopping in singapore! go kbox and watch movie!!! haha. but then, i can't visit castles in singapore, wahahaha.

alright, next post: to Arthur's seat and Edinburgh day 2!

2007-03-06T00:07:00.000Z

Edinburgh Day 1 Part 1

photos from my camera, yingzhi's and aida's.

left Loughborough University at 5.45pm. it was 7 hours bus ride! sat till butt ached. on the bus ride, here's what happened:

aida and yushan, sleeping on the coach soon after we left loughborough!

jerry and joan. jerry's eye looks weird... hmmm...

ying zhi and me

when singaporeans become bored, what do we do??
why, we play cards, of course! one of the popular card games in Singapore - Dai Dee (sp)!! poor jerry was roped in as well, bwahahaha.

jerry, aida, me and yz

taking a break at a rest stop

more card games on the bus. horrible jerry is peeking at aida's cards!

jerry shows just how good his dai dee hand is

we reached Edinburgh close to 2am. checked into our hostel. 16 people sharing a room, my friends and i were lucky enough to be sharing the room with other girls. the toilets were shared with everyone on the floor though, so it could get really squeezy at times. and some girls were really uncomfortable sharing the toilets with the guys, ah poor souls.

with the hostel owner

on the stairs. poor jerry, being the only guy, became our photographer for the day! well actually, he was aida's photographer for the day.

west end hostel

front view of our hostel

we proceeded to explore Edinburgh as we walked towards Edinburgh Castle...

houses which somehow reminds me of the ones i saw in Bath 10 years ago

erm a tower?? haha.

statue from across the road. the statues here are green!!

according to yz, these flowers are only seen in winter!

Caledonian Hilton. taken for the architecture

i think this was a church.

yep, it is a church! looks nice right?

a huge cross

another statue

view of Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle. Kinda weird to see a castle in the middle of the towns

Princes Park and Edinburgh Castle

another building i took a picture of without knowing what it is. sadness, i know. haha

Edinburgh Castle again, closer this time

ross fountain

description of ross fountain

rows of benches at Princes Park

us with the benches

jerry lazing around

view of Princes Street from the park

pretending to be charlie's angels!

spice girls? not quite.

and up the stairs we go...

me, aida and jerry(in the background)

aida and me pointing to jerry (can't remember whose idea was it to pose like that -_-")

yet another view of shops along Princes Street! i wanna go shopping!

pathway! guess where it leads you to?

aida and me, along the winding path

me! now, here is a fork, which do you choose?

jerry, trying to look cool

more pretty buildings!

yet another view from the slop up to the castle

me with yet another building

aida and me with a sign which says "Ramsay Lane"
i look like a guy! bleah

me and aida pointing to a UK flag. if you squint hard enough, you could see it.

posh private houses. i want one too!!

yingzhi and yushan. trying to sneak into the houses eh!

the witchery
reminds me of harry potter

you can see the old town in the background

front view of Edinburgh castle

view of old town!

me, aida and a dao (er arrogant) jerry

and so we get nearer and nearer to edinburgh castle!!! i'll stop here for now, going to shower. next post: In Edinburgh Castle (which has loads of photos in itself).

2007-03-05T22:14:00.000Z

*edited to add*

hey all! i'm back from scotland, but uploading pictures is taking eons!!! and there's like, 208 photos from my side! so, i'm going to break up the posts and well, only upload the nicer ones. hahahahahaha~ be prepared for long posts!

and i'm sick. with cough. very bad. boo. it became worse after the fire drill at 5am today, sigh. it was freezing cold outside, and brilliant me ran out of the room in slippers and ultra thin yoga pants. -_-" so i was freezing while waiting for idiots taking their time to stroll out (thanks to them, we have to redo the fire drill) and my cough became so bad, i actually puked from coughing. argh. i hope it gets better soon.

in the meantime though, here's a mv from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Clip of the song "God Knows" sung by her voice actress, Hirano Aya. Clip has English subtitles (although it may be a lil wrong at times). oh yes, i was erm "headbanging" (maybe bouncing is a better word) on the coach to Edinburgh with yingzhi to this song, wahahaha. love the guitar.

that isn't the full version of the song though. this is the full song, in japanese:

*i found the full lyrics of the song! in English and Romanji*

kawaita kokoro de kakenukeru
gomen ne nani mo dekinakute
itami wo wakachiau koto sae
anata wa yurushite kurenai

I run past others with a parched heart.
Sorry, I can't do anything.
You won't even let me
Share our pain together.

muku ni ikiru tame ni furimukazu
senaka mukete satteshimau
on the lonely rail

To live on without tarnish,
I face your back and head out without looking back
on the lonely rail

watashi tsuiteiku yo
donna tsurai sekai no yami no naka de sae
kitto anata wa kagayaite
koeru mirai no hate
yowasa yue ni tamashii kowasarenu you ni
my way kasanaru yo
ima futari ni God bless...

I will follow you.
No matter how agonizing the world is,
You will shine even in its darkest corners.
Cross over the end of the future,
My weakness will not shatter my spirit.
my way is overlapping with yours.
For the two of us, God bless...

todokete atsuku naru omoi wa
genjitsu tokashite samayou
aitai kimochi ni riyuu wa nai
anata e afuredasu Lovin' you

This warming affection that reaches me,
It melts my reality and roams my heart.
I don't need a reason for wanting to meet you,
Just my overflowing feelings, Lovin' you

semete utsukushii yume dake wo
egakinagara oikakeyou
for your lonely heart

For now, let's paint a beautiful dream
And chase after
for your lonely heart

yamete uso wa anata rashikunai yo
me wo mite kore kara no koto wo hanasou
watashi kakugo shiteru
kurai mirai datte
tsuyoku natte unmei kaerareru kamo ne
my wish kanaetai noni
subete wa God knows...

Stop it, it's not like you to lie.
Look at my eyes and let's talk about our future.
I am prepared,
Even if the future is bleak,
I might be able to change destiny if I become stronger.
But for my wish to come true,
Everything is God knows...

anata ga ite watashi ga ite
hoka no hito wa kieteshimatta
awai yume no utsukushisa wo egakinagara
kizuato nazoru

You are here, I am here.
Everyone else has disappeared.
While we paint the beauty of this fleeting dream,
We trace out the lines of our scars.

dakara watashi tsuiteiku yo
donna tsurai sekai no yami no naka de sae
kitto anata wa kagayaite
koeru mirai no hate
yowasa yue ni tamashii kowasarenu you ni
my way kasanaru yo
ima futari ni God bless...

That's why I will follow you.
No matter how agonizing the world is,
You will shine even in its darkest corners.
Cross over the end of the future,
My weakness will not shatter my spirit.
my way is overlapping with yours.
For the two of us, God bless...

righto! next post: Edinburgh day 1 part 1 - to and in Edinburgh Castle

2007-03-01T23:17:00.000Z

going off to edinburgh tmr! so won't be updating till monday, probs. hehe. don't miss me!!!! (i know you won't. wahahahaha) :p and ping, i'll make sure to have twice the fun for you!!! :D

and cos i won't be able to say this tmr, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!! you're one year older, but you're still younger than me! that's not fair!!! *jumps up and down in protest*

yes i'm hyper. must be that coooooooold walk back from elvyn richards. or maybe it is just my lack of sleep. again.

2007-02-26T18:14:00.000Z

i hate how i can't put titles for my posts, and as a result, my archives look so messy. for some reason, blogger doesn't allow me to put titles. :(

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happy belated birthday jingyi!!! sorry i can't be there to celebrate it with you. cheer up alright, dearie? will definitely pia rag with you when i return! arts rag rocks!

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so many birthdays, and this year is suppose to be special for me. 21 - a step into adulthood. and i will be celebrating it away from home. it should be memorable.

i'm feeling pensive. or perhaps reflective is a much better word. i was here in UK 10 years ago. the person i was 10 years before is so different from the person i am now. back then, i was cheerful, full of hope and wishes for the future. full of love and trust for everyone around me. the person i am now? other than a dream for a future to hold on to, i haven't got anything else. i'm cynical, suspicious and i don't trust people. i certainly wish i wasn't so, but i can't help remembering events that happened in the past which made me the way i am today. these memories constantly haunt me. all the more so these few days cos people keep asking me why i am the cynic that i am, and i can't give an answer.

for the umpteenth time, i wish i could forget. i wish it hadn't happened. of all the people in the world, why me? it destroyed me, tore me apart and left me alone to pick up the pieces. and i am still struggling with myself now, to stay away from that deep black abyss. 10 years on, and i still cannot forget. 10 years - it sure has been a long time isn't it? so why am i still holding on to something i'm better off without?

i look at my elvyn richards friends and i can't help feeling envious. i wish i had the sort of openness they have, the carefree spirit, the camaraderie they share. the trust they have in each other, knowing that one could do shit and not have to worry about being left alone cos the rest are always there to help you. it has been so long since i've seen something like this, the sort of people who i am meeting here, in UK. and i am sorry that i wasn't who i am 10 years ago, to share it with them. dan said to me once that he is getting used to having me around, like i've become part of their group. and i feel sad that i can't always be part of this group, because at the end of it all, i will have to leave. and i can't be as open as them, as carefree as them, as trusting as them because i've been burned too many times to be able to open up to someone again. there is a fear, a suspicion which constantly hold me back. at times i feel like letting everything out, and then i catch myself. why?

why? a question i've asked so many times. why me? the only thing i ever really want in this life, i ever desire, is for that one person whom i could trust my entire soul with. the person could be male or female, someone older, someone my age or someone younger. it could even not be a person. just something. but i can't. i fear too much to put myself back out there again, in the firing range.

perhaps another 10 years down the road, i might have changed again? maybe 10 years later, i could come back here again, and see if i am any different from who i am today? 21: something supposed to bring you a new lease of life. but i am still haunted by the past.

2007-02-25T16:32:00.000Z

second time posting this. i lost the first one, sigh. sianz.

photos!

starting with fnd...

aida

hui ran

me

aida, ran and me

cognito's dance floor. our fav club for fnd music

us in disco lights at room 1

"charlier's angels" - as aida says

hui ran

me

disco lights! i like the lights and the disco balls

ran trying to fly?!

the power of flash: we became snow whites!

no ran, u may not eat my ear!

bleah! i look stoned! wahahaha~

i love this pic! phwar!

we bumped into cossimo, bruno and annsophie...

with annsophie

with cossimo

dancing man! kawaii!

cool neh?

and the highlight of the night...

lee ryan!

at the end of FND: aida and me

me and hui ran

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at leicester city

the shires shopping center, where i went bankrupt! wahaha~

clock-tower

the shires, another entrance

dominoes, where we found.....

leicester fc merchandise shop! i wanna go to old trafford more!!!!

tower 2

at st. martin's square

leicester station

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isa fancy-dress party at lava bar/fushion!

me, aida and hui ran. we were given fake names and were supposed to find our partners. i'm ginger rogers (note: tag said roberts), whose partner was fred astaire (film classes, eh!). too tired to bother though, and you had to enter a dance competition if you found your partner! can't dance for nuts, wahaahaha. hui ran found her partner though!

me

hui ran and jerry

people dressed-up as greeks

johnny depp, owen wilson and random greek god, anyone?
guy who dressed as depp sure looks like him! and he could do the drunken swagger! and when he tried to do an indian dance, it was hilarious!

dance competition! the folks who actually registered for it.
guy in pink and his greek goddess partner dance really well! they won!

guy in pink ups the competition by taking off his shirt

two guys dressed as sumo wrestlers dancing. looked like two spinning balls to me!

that's all! phew!

2007-02-25T02:19:00.000Z

first off, i'm fine. thanks for being so concerned about me! haha. but i do have friends here who look out for me, so yep! all's well! :D

and WENHUI!!! HAPPY BELATED 21st!!! hope you're having a rocking good time in texas!!! see ya when i see ya, remember to send my your bd wishlist ya?

and yes lay ping, i do remember that your birthday is coming up. although i prolly shdn't remember in case hua flies to UK and chase me around with a erm stick. hee.

ooooh, and i wanna join arts camp this year!!! but but but, it is in june! (or is it early july??) boo! arts camp rocks! darn, can't bully the new freshies. *ahem*

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hmm let's see. i am suffering from serious sleep-deprivation. monday and tuesday night was spent mugging till 2am, wed was woken up, thurs.....

thurs was spent out pubbing with some elvyn folks. prawled the town for pubs, i had a drink at the second one we went to (i have absolutely no idea what the name of this pub is though. the first was orange tree, last was custard bar). probably not a good idea, since these folks are like, superhuman alcohol drinkers. seriously. they down their alcohol like water while i take eons to finish a glass. so what happened was, i was only halfway through my glass of cocktail (blue lagoon - Lou's recommendation) when they promptly declared the need to change to another pub. so i was like, "oh." *stares at glass* and then matt started going on about me needing to finish my glass of cocktail, and so i did the stupidest thing ever by attempting to finish it off as fast as i could. which led to a major headache and slight disability to actually walking in a straight line. ym should stick to VK mixes from now on (i loooove vk tropical! so nice and fruity! out-of-point). so, ym decided to be a good girl and stay away from drinks at the last pub, but ym had to take the customary first sips of whatever drinks her friends ordered. which led to an even worse headache. which led to ym stoning and being out-of-it. which led to hyper ym in an attempt to snap out of the tiredness.

and most of you know hyper ym is not a erm very nice thing. wahahahaaha. this time around, hyper ym resorted to stealing straws from stef and folding a heart (leading to the rest to debate on what it actually was. someone thought it was a duck! -_-"), and which the poor heart was thrown around, with stef being the main target cos the poor guy was sitting directly opposite me. wahahahahaha. birdy is lucky. lou, alex, helen and matt were off into their little couple worlds. haha. but it was fun. although ym should stop being hyper cos it'll ruin her reputation (yes, i know. what reputation, right?).

well, the night didn't end that well though. poor stef was bullied by some idiots at the pub. hope your eye's alright! i'm glad that it took all of us a few minutes of shock and worry before stef ran out of the pub to find the jerks. i shudder to think what would happen if the guys actually found the jerks. but still, the elvyn folks were so nice as to drop me off first before heading back, despite stef's eye. thanks!!! i'm lucky to have people who actually look out and take care of me here, although they really don't have to. for once, i could actually like, relax and not have to worry much about myself or others, cos i know there's like the rest around as well. i can't do that in singapore.

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fri was fnd. it was alright. went with hui ran and aida, pics next time. went for lee ryan's showcase, and we waited over 2 hours for it to start. and when it started, he sang 4 songs only. quite sad really. and poor guy lost his cool on stage cos some idiots threw stuff at him. first was some coin (i think), second was glass. and you could tell he was pissed cos he cursed the guys. then the last song, he forgot the lyrics, so he kinda walked off-stage. and it ended just like that. it would be nice if he had more control and actually thank the rest of us for turning up and waiting, but i guess you can't blame him.

i don't like fnd. it is too crowded and too rowdy. at the showcase, i was in front of the stage and i was being squashed. hui ran and aida were just in front of me, and i had to prevent myself from actually squashing them. so most of the time, i was fighting to support my weight as well as the weight of the crowd behind. and i wanted to yell at the girls behind me to stop pushing. first off, they can't sing. second, they can't dance. third, if there's no space for you to dance, then don't bloody do it! and the girl who kept abusing me kept coughing into my face as well. now i've got a slight cough. thanks a lot ya (note sarcasm).

and then, we went up to lava bar, where we saw this drunk guy lying against the bin and puking into it. ewwwwwww.... and aida and i had a few "lucky" drops of some unknown alcohol spilt on us. when we finally got out of there, i was whacked on the head twice by another jerk whom i should have punched except jerk was holding a fake sword while i had nothing. jerk also had two friends behind him.

and in cognito, some girl spilt her drink on me. i reeeeeaaaaally don't need to be showered in alcohol. and yes, i was quite pissed off by then. wasn't good company last night, sorry girls.

unless i really need to (in which case i prolly lost my mind), i will not go for fnd again. and you have to pay to go for fnd, and for P3.50, i really didn't need the experience i had.

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went to leicester with aida today for some shopping!!! took the train there, was rather tired from fnd but oh wells. i bought a halter from miss selfridge for P9! and a small shoulder bag for P18! the bag's really nice and all, and aida wouldn't let me leave/live if i didn't get it sooo.... haha.

at night, hui ran "dragged" us to the isa party. today's theme was fancy dress, so one had to dress up in costumes and stuff. i couldn't be bothered to cos i was really tired by then, so i just went in casual clothes with the rest. aida calls us "charlie's angels". ahhaahaa. isa parties are fun, it'd be funner if the rest of the sg folks were there too! jerry was there though, and so was joe. poor jerry was suffering from a leg injury, but he still came for this and danced. and limped back. tsk tsk. take care of that leg jerry, if not you can't go to edinburgh with us!

one thing about isa parties: the music. there's a lot of indian music. haha. so, we keep saying our bollywood dancing will become really good! haha. watching how the rest, esp the indians, dance was really funny though! hehe. really interesting. oooh! and we took pictures with "johnny depp" today! haha. the guy who dressed up as him really looked like johnny depp! and he was soooo funny, esp when he tried to do the indian dance. haha. met some nice folks there as well. a guy from belgium, a girl from cyprus, a guy from dubai and his friends.... yep. isa parties are great in that you meet loads of people from all over the world. ooooh, and this really nice girl called beatrice from uk as well! promised to vote for her during the upcoming union elections. she is soooo nice and friendly!

yep, and isa parties are free! if u have the discount card. woot! hehe~ left early though, cos we were tired. but today was rather amusing with all the costumes and stuff. more when i post the pics!!

right, bed time for now. ym needs sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. *goes into hibernation*

2007-02-22T13:58:00.000Z

i really don't like the new blogger. seriously. i don't have as much freedom as i did with the old one. *pouts*

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i was woken up at 3am this morning, because something really serious happened. perhaps after reading this, some of you would laugh it off, but to me, this is not something to be laughed at.

i was woken up by loud banging on my room door, and opened it to find katerina(ok, i spelt her name wrongly. this is the original greek spelling) standing outside, begging me to let her in. i did, and she was really distraught. her room-mate had gone for a party and came back drunk, and had brought back a guy. katerina woke up to find the two of them in the room, undressed. if you were to suddenly wake up and find not only 2 naked people in the room, but of which one is a naked stranger, how would you feel? i could understand why she freaked, i would to. and like her, i would have demanded that the guy left the room right away.

but, he refused. and her room-mate refused to let him leave, saying that this is the English experience. whole load of crap, if you ask me. if you want to screw someone, go find a private room. i don't fancy a free R-rated film, thanks. so the poor katerina had to leave her room and ask for help.

what happened after has yet to be resolved, but i sincerely hope that things would turn out fine. katerina stayed over, it is a good thing that my "quilt" is made up of two sleeping bags. the poor girl. i really felt sorry for her, to have to undergo such an experience.

as for me, my sleep-deprived mind gave way to paranoia. i couldn't sleep, my mind wasn't at peace. the worst was when katerina and my room-mate left the room at 3plus am to go find the warden to talk to. i locked the door and kept hoping they'd be fine. i don't trust people easily, and i don't trust the dead of the night. and i don't trust drunks unless i know you really well and i know you won't harm me. even then, i am really careful. so, i was worried for them and the ruckus that happened in the corridor after they left really didn't help matters. i was half-waiting for katerina's room-mate and that jerk to come a-knocking or something.

so when they came back safe, i relaxed. but i feared for katerina. it was only after she fell asleep did i manage to sleep. i wanted to make sure she wouldn't do something stupid like suddenly going back to her room. what if the guy is an aggressive drunk? or worse, decides one girl isn't enough? perhaps i am thinking too much, but this scenario is not impossible. rare, but we could end up as one of the rare ones. one can never be too safe.

this wouldn't have happened if people generally were more considerate to one another. just because having sex out in the open is ok for you, it doesn't mean it is ok for the rest of us. and we really do not appreciate a free movie. it is disgusting.

sadly, the nice girl i thought she was doesn't seem to be so anymore. if she refuses to compromise, i'm afraid my room-mate and i will have to step-in and it could get messy. and ugly.

and at the back of my mind, i can't help wondering if i could have done something more, something about this to stop what happened. i knew she was desperate for a boyfriend, i suspected she was sad, but i didn't know this would happen. but if i had paid more attention, perhaps i could have picked up the signs.

but perhaps isn't going to help me out now.

2007-02-20T14:17:00.000Z

it really bugs me how some people assume to know a lot about Chinese culture, tradition and the people, when really they don't know a single thing about it. it also bugs me when they start questioning me about Buddhism and going against it. I don't do that to your religion, if anything, I respect it because I don't believe that one religion is better than another. But to bring in your prejudices and assumptions and accuse me of things that are downright hurtful and untrue, that is too much.

I'm really pissed that this guy actually has the guts to come up to me and say that I am racist against the Japanese just because I am Chinese. why? because some people from China told him that Chinese hate the Japanese. why, hello mister. before you go around and start making such unjust accusations, do get your facts right. I am, first of all, from Singapore, and so that makes me a Singaporean Chinese. secondly, I practice a Japanese martial art. Now, why would someone who hates the Japanese want to learn something that is Japanese? thirdly, there is a reason why some (and note the word SOME) Chinese dislike the Japanese, but that goes all the way back to WW2 and personal grievances and stuff. it is the same as people hating the Nazis for what they did, or in this modern day, the Muslims for terrorism. But essentially, it doesn't apply to ALL of us. in fact, it applies to a minority. I know many muslims - some are even my closest friends - and they are certainly not extremist. if anything, they condemn terrorism. similarly, i do not support those Chinese who decide to go against the Japanese. get your facts right.

and the worst thing? this guy had the guts to come and crash my cny party UNINVITED and eat my food. and then make fun of the entire Chinese New Year tradition in front of me, when I was cooking. hello, go find a wall, bang your head against it and preferably, disappear.

the thing that sucks? i have to be civil. i have to remember to be civil. his friends are my friends and i really like those friends. they're nice and open. it is just him that is the problem.

and i should go for my lesson now. i loooove mr lewis! he is such a nice, fun and interesting teacher! if only there are more of such lecturers in NUS. sigh.

2007-02-19T14:07:00.000Z

Happy CNY everyone! it is now the year of the pig! all you tigers out there, this is our golden year! yay!

you folks are lucky. everytime i update this blog, there's photos. since it is cny, here's more photos about the last 2 cny celebs i went for!

sat: at the union

CNY celebration at the student union building was suppose to start at 8pm, with dinner. but, i waited for over 2 hours with my friends, before finally getting the food at like 10plus. sadly, the food sucked. bad reputation for chinese food! anyway, the fun was in teaching the europeans how to use the chopstick. uber funny, i tell ya! *evil evil*

hui ran, cathrina, annsophie and me

the art of chopstick-holding
'tis a dangerous business. there were candles on our table, and well when people try to pick things up with chopsticks and then drop said things, well.... they catch fire. which leads to the rest of us trying to put it out. wahaha

catherina and annsophie posing with chopsticks
posing cos the plate of noodles catherina looks like she's eating is actually mine. bwahaha.

joe and me. joe's from vietnam

aida and the outgoing president of singapore society, gavin.

aida, yingzhi, me and gavin

hui ran and me

hui ran, me and aida

wee yong, aida, me and jeremy. all singaporeans.

yingzhi, me and aida

cognito's dance floor. they were playing like, chinese songs before 12 midnight! i walked in with my friends, and we promptly burst out laughing. like, omg. how sad. especially since the song(s) had the irritating high-pitch voice of a taiwanese girl singer.

after the countdown to cny though, the part really started. i think the funniest incident was when i called the elvyn richards peeps to wish them a happy cny and kinda, screamed it into the poor recipient's ears, cos everyone was yelling "happy cny" as well! haha. but yah, the guy then asked me if i was drunk. hahahahhahahahhahahaha~ ym isn't drunk, ym doesn't need to be drunk to get high. hahahahahahahaha. funny, cos i didn't have a drop of alcohol that day. hahahahahahahaha. anyway, cognito's music changed to english (woot! thanks goodness. it wouldn't be so bad if they played better chinese songs in the club, but oh well) hip-hop/rnb and so we hit the dance floor! the pics aren't with me though so gotta wait for the rest to send them over.

anyway, reached back around 2 am.

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the moment i awoke, i started cooking. yes. the first thing i do on cny morning is to cook. cook for what, you ask. why, cook for the cny celebration dinner! 8 dishes o.O! and ym's first foray into cooking! disaster, you say! why, behold!

presenting dish number 1: hainanese chicken rice

dish number 2: stir-fry vegetables (by mel)

dish number 3 (incomplete): thai pineapple fried rice!

dish number 4: omelate! courtesy of mel again!

dish number 5: lemon chicken! (combined effort of yingzhi and me - i just deboned chicken. wahaha)

the complete set of dishes! (minus the fruit salad, which i forgot to take a pic of)

recognize this? yes, it is ym's potato salad! this time with eggs! haha.

cantonese claypot rice

the completed thai pineapple fried rice!

the other pot of potato salad

the dishes again. feeling hungry yet? hehe~

chefs yingzhi and me with the food.
i look fat! humph.

the folks from elvyn richards came trotting in at about 7pm, and dinner starts! and of course, what is a chinese meal without.......... chopsticks! and so, the challenge for the night: to eat the food with chopsticks! bwahahahahahaha.

elvyn peeps with their chopsticks!

and a group photo of them! notice how most of them are in red? tee-hee.
ym made them wear red/pink. bad bad lou and alex never follow the rule!
simon's red jacket was erm... somewhere. matt's jacket hid his red shirt.

annsophie and her 2nd foray into the world of chopsticks!

cossimo, bruno and joan

and the elvyn peeps challenge one another to use chopsticks to eat rice

tom and dave

the other chef of the night: mel!

yushan and me

yingzhi and me

tom (birdy) and an unsuspecting helen
matt's been trying to take photos of helen without her knowing it. bwahahaah.

me and catherina

cossimo with a bottle of sprite!

annsophie dancing

simon, birdy, helen and andy

tom, dave, matt

pretty cossimo! wahahaa

and when the pink umbrella reaches you, you strike a pose! what the elvyn peeps call the chinese pose, but which i refer to as the "japanese girls cute pose". in other words, you do the "twist"!

stef. liaoz, what face is that siah!

matt! sadness, the cute girl pose is lost on these guys...

an even disastrous attempt by dave

tom does it with gusto

while andy looks awkward doing the pose. haha

lou tries to look cute but alex spoils it wahaha

smaller mouth, brighter eyes, and you have an ahem cute "girl" pose.

helen does it the best! haha.

this is what i call, the shy "girl" pose.
and no birdy, i am not insinuating that you are a girl.
wait, maybe i am. hmmm... :p

and the best pose: simon! doesn't he look so cute? haha!

this is taken for mel, who love this person's socks and shoes. guess whose?

the umbrella just won't leave simon alone

and stef strikes a girly pose showing his all-red ensemble. did u guess correctly?
and yes, he is wearing a red jumper, red 3/4pants, red socks, red shoes and red ck boxers.
to answer your qn, yes stef, you overdid it. haha. but thanks! haha.

stef does another pose, this time with an umbrella.
do a marilyn monroe next time!
on second thought, maybe not. i still want my sanity. hehe

stef does mel's idea of a singaporean pose. he actually manages to look girlish cute here!
but i've never done this extreme pose in sg before... hmmm....

cossimo with the umbrella, trying to spin it!

nian nian you yu!

xing nian kuai le!

alex and stef, playing extreme slaps

and then, we proceeded to celebrate andy's belated birthday with a surprise cake!

andy cutting his cake

stef building another beer tower

andy still cutting the cake.
yes those are boobs you see on the cake

andy's cake!

what do you do with an extra piece of cake?

smash it into andy's face!

do unto those who do it to you (or something like that)
stef gets smashed back

random shot of elvyn peeps again

me and the elvyn folks!

and do the "twist" people!
i loooove this pic best! hehe

posing with my mini lanterns and the "fu" (not dimensional, i know)
my new top nice? hehe! hot pink and black! i like!

wishing all of you xing nian kuai le...

nian nian you yu!

and with the end of the party comes... cleaning up! siggggggh. haha. okays, off i go now! ciaoz!

2007-02-17T15:03:00.000Z

i haven't posted any pictures of my bedroom in butler, have i? hehe, for those wondering, feast your eyes on some pictures:

my side of the room - overall view.
sorry about my messy desk. it is much neater now, just that i didn't really clean it up before taking the pic cos i was so excited after putting up all the photos and posters! hehe

photos and posters!
spot your face?

i loooove this poster!

bedroom 2

bedroom 3!
the door at the side leads to the toilet i share with my roomie!

ensuite bathroom

ensuite bathroom 2

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last night, on invitation from mr. lewis, we went to the town hall for cny celebration! it was alright, just some chinese song-singing session, of which most of the songs we have never ever heard of! then there was reception, but the queue was soooo long, we decided not to wait for the food. so yah, rather small simple celebration.

us girls from singapore!
introducing [L to R standing] melody, yushan, yingzhi, hui ran, [sitting] me, joan and aida.

me and my room-mate: joan!

us with mr lewis

feeling like a star with all that cameras a-flashing! haha

mel and me

mel and me acting cute!
mel looks like she's trying to poke my teeth! hehe

hui ran and me!

hui ran and me again!

yingzhi, hui ran and me

us with our painted nails!
guess whose is whose?

us with our nails!
did you guess correctly?

yushan and joan

me and aida!
taken behind the back of mel... shhh...

yingzhi, hui ran, me and mel with our painted nails!

pretty nails!

mel's funny pic!
she was trying to show that her nails matches her top, but ended up looking as though she was touching a pregnant tummy! hehe

a much better pose, mel!

me and mel!
as you can see, we were really bored while waiting for the celebration to start, hence the weird photos. wahaha

my boots and hui ran's pointies!

us with the mayor, his wife, the vice-chancellor and a random stranger

a cute girl! she wouldnt sit still for a piccie though!

cute boys! they have such powerful english! when we asked the boys' sister if she gets bullied, she says yes. and one of the boys looked at us and said, "there's no forensic evidence to prove that we bully her!" woah!

mel and the cute girl!

the cute girl and me! doesn't she look so sweet?

all of us! erm, joan's face is like, almost missing? hehe

mel again. this time with a reserved sign on the table.
camera whoring, eh mel?

us again, with yushan's face sliced in half.
sorry lah! my hand not long enough to take a nice self-group photo. :(

yushan and me

yingzhi, me and mel
we're supposed to bite out lower lip, but yz doesn't look like she's doing that! cheater! wahaha

mel cam-whoring again!
this time with the chilis

yingzhi and mel
they call this the 'mee soto' shot.
i don't get how 'mee soto' this is!

@@@

after that, yz, ys, me and jerry (a guy from brunei) headed to tesco for some grocery shopping in preparation for sunday! then, mel and me trooped over to yz's place to watch waterboys! a japanese movie about male synchronize swimming. 'twas hilarious! omg! laughed soooo hard. watching swing girls, by the same director, the next time!

by the time i came back, it was 2 am... zzzzz....

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introducing my butler court floor mates, the folks of F2A!

catherina: a cute, bouncy girl from cyprus! she speaks greek! omg! omg! greek!

annsophie: a beautiful girl from france! she models!

bruno and cossimo: both from italy! not bad-looking too!

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and, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE! best wishes for the year of the pig! oink!

GONG XI FA CAI!

now, someone please send me hong baos, preferably in pounds. hehehe.

2007-02-14T01:49:00.000Z

just before i left evelyn richards and shifted into butler court for real, i joined my new friends for a chatting and drinking (they drank, not me :p) session. the window, which they were trying to cover up with beer cans, was almost complete after 3 nights of drinking! well, that is, two smart drunken idiots (oops! hehe *hides under the table*) - just kidding - decided to make the wall of beer cans fall. not once, but twice! and so... let the photos do the talking, shall we?

presenting the fallen beer cans!

alex, lou's boyfriend and one of the said idiots, building the wall of cans back
took lou a darn long time to get him to start rebuilding

steph building back the wall after alex gave up

simon to the rescue!
he shows that with patience, and determination, the wall can slowly be built back!

closeup of the cans! doesn't it look darn nice?

finally! simon's completed beer wall! lovely, ain't it?

after so much hard work, steph had to go and destroy part of the wall again... and so....
steph starts rebuilding again!

steph's incomplete wall! he spent the entire night building it, i think. i didn't get to see the completed one cos it came tumbling down before i saw it. ah wells...

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went for stupid tuesday at cognito in the student union building today! just came back not too long ago. met up with the evelyn richards folks again! before i forget, let me introduce one more member of the group whom i recently got to know! (don't say i forget about you hor[couldn't resist the singlish]). Andy - a good cricket player i heard! graham will enjoy talking to him then. he is tall, friendly as well. yepperz! annsophie thinks he is hot. shhh, don't tell her i said this, wahahaha. but too bad that he is younger than her! ah wells... they're all younger than me too! sob sob. so, all you singapore peeps dying for me to find a bf here, too bad! :p

and some pictures i took:

yushan and me!
thanks girl for going to stupid tuesday with me! love ya!

annsophie and me!
she's from france! isn't she pretty?

simon and jim

tom

disco dan and dancing dave. in other words, D to the power of 4!
what are they doing at the window, you ask.
well, they're trying to get the rest of us to go inside and dance!

stoned jim, and lou, dan, dave and tom

stupid tuesday was alright. 'twas great seeing them and chilling with them again, but i don't really like the music. first off, i'm already not a clubber. secondly, if i do dance, i would prefer hip hop and rnb. i rather prefer sitting down and chilling with friends, listening to a live band in a pub somewhere. yeppers! or in this case, the house party!

but still great seeing them again! am gonna drop by tomorrow (later) to say hi!

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have i ever mentioned how much i love F.I.R.? i really do! it is like, my fav chinese band ever! i realize i haven't done this in a while, since i arrived here. presenting my fav F.I.R. song!

天天夜夜- F.I.R.

Leann Rimes： How Do I Live Without You
Faye：I Want To Know
Leann Rimes： How Do I Breathe Without You
Faye：If You Ever Go
Leann Rimes： How Do I Ever
合唱：Ever Survive　How Do I　How Do I　How Do I Live

阿沁：当你的泪在微笑中滑落　回忆的风吹着我走我却情愿停留
Faye：等一颗心到时间的尽头呼吸也会痛
合唱：可是我记得你给我的梦

Faye：每一天在你的怀里等待
阿沁：每一夜我感觉你的存在走过伤害
Faye：我回头看
合唱：是永远都灿烂的爱
Faye：这一次我决定勇敢去爱
阿沁：这一次我陪你看到未来
Faye：So, How Do I Live
阿沁：How Do I Live
合唱：How Do I Live Without You

Faye： How Do I Live~ Woo-Oh~ Woo-Oh~

阿沁：当世界都遗忘我的时候你的一切对我来说紧握才能拥有
Faye：我明白一份真爱的背后藏着苦和忧
合唱：心痛的时候更深刻感受

Faye：每一天在你的怀里等待
阿沁：每一夜我感觉你的存在走过伤害
Faye：我回头看
合唱：是永远都灿烂的爱
Faye：这一次我决定勇敢去爱
阿沁：这一次我陪你看到未来
Faye：So, How Do I Live
阿沁：How Do I Live
合唱：How Do I Live Without You

Leann Rimes： And Tell Me Now

Faye：每一天在你的怀里等待
阿沁：每一夜我感觉你的存在走过伤害
Faye：我回头看
合唱：是永远都灿烂的爱
Faye：这一次我决定勇敢去爱
阿沁：这一次我陪你看到未来
Faye：How Do I Live
阿沁：How Do I Live
合唱：How Do I Live Without You (Without You)

合唱：是永远都灿烂的爱
Faye：这一次我决定勇敢去爱
阿沁：这一次我陪你看到未来
Faye：So How Do I Live
阿沁：How Do I Live
合唱：How Do I Live Without You

Leann Rimes： How Do I Live Without You
Leann Rimes： How Do I Breathe Without You

2007-02-11T20:10:00.000Z

ok, by popular demand, images of snow! be jealous, people! jealous! ahahahaha...
ok i'm mean i know. i can't help it. :p

snowy pavement right outside my block!

the snow road! haha

more snow!

snowy tree!

trees with berries

flowers! aren't they pretty?

more snow!

me and the snowball!

snow falling from the sky!

snowy town!

snowy shopping arcade!

snowy hockey field

snowy trees!

snowy rugby field! (i think)

snowy rugby field! agains!

raining snow! taken from inside my block

alrights! sick of snowy pictures already? :p

2007-02-11T18:38:00.000Z

alrights! pardon me for my absence! haha~ been busy erm... slacking. haa! bought more stuff from town - mainly food. there's a new pink cny top too! cos we're having a cny party on the first day of cny, and it has to be a new red/pink clothes. yep. anyway, i love my new top! haha! also bought a Loughborough Uni shirt, cos it was buy one get one free, so me and my friend got it. really comfy and nice!

i left out two people in my intro to some uni friends: simon and birdy! simon - aka ginger (cos of colour of hair i suspect) and boxer (mean karate player) - tall and stout, friendly, reminds me of a teddy bear. birdy - quiet, nice and shy. haha.

okays, this is going to be photos galore! beginning with thursday....

dave and his friend chris camped in my room making an aeroplane model for chris' presentation:

dave with plane model

dave posing with plane model

the plane model

dave and chris with the plane

chatted till 2am! phwaaar!

friday: house party!

was supposed to go for FND (Friday Night Disco), but due to extreme cold weather and snow, my floor mates decided to have a house party instead! bought 4 crates of beer and filled up the fridge with it. they're crazy, i tell ya! and i tried out the strongbow, but i didn't like it. just don't like beer. and so, steph the joker ran out to buy me a bottle of baileys! -_-" he came back, with baileys and a brand new packet of ice and was like, " mei is gonna get drunk! mei is gonna drunk!" i went, "no i am not!". and i didn't. haha. too bad, cos i was drinking really slowly and had only two glasses (on top of the 1/5 can). the idea was to fill up the window at the end of the corridor with empty beer cans! haha!

what happens when a bunch of people become drunk? mayhem! poor steph was bullied. haha! his jeans - and knickers - were pulled down, twice! once, i had the side view and promptly hid my face behind a pillow. the second, it happened in front of me and i turned away. heh. you don't get stuff like that in singapore! haha. they were also dancing in the room. haha. laughed a lot, was darn funny.

the sad thing was when they started asking me to stay on in evelyn richards. kept trying to convince me to stay. you never hear such heartfelt and sincere words from people, ever. made me want to cry. they did it again the next night, where i recieved a group hug - in the middle of the road, no less - when they were in a drunken stupor. but even while they are drunk, they are nice. and sincere. you never get such people in the world.

if they ever do stumble here, i sincerely hope that they will keep opening up their hearts, and embrace, to every new lonely student entering Loughborough or wherever they are at. the world needs more of such people, and i feel honored to have been given a chance to know them - and hopefully, will continue knowing them.

tom, matt, helen and lou
in helen's room

steph and tom imitating lou and her boyfriend alex
helen and matt look on in bewilderment

filling up the window!

helen carrying matt - martial art style
simon as her instructor

helen carrying simon - just managed to lift him up!

drunk steph making some funny sounds with the rest of the guys

drunk dancing dave

matt taking a self-portrait

helen and me

the party finally ended at 1am. slept at 2am. tired....

sat: international students party!
went to Lava Bar/ Fushion at the Student Union Building. the student union here organizes many hip events, everyday there's a clubbing night at least. met many nice international students there! danced till 2am, walked back to hall, reach around 3am. feet was hurting, was soaking wet from walking in the rain and really tired. the darn heater stopped working, so i had to endure cold water and zero heat radiator. on top of that, i didn't want to wake my floor mates up, so i didn't blowdry my hair. was shivering under the duvet, so darn cold.

sun: shifting!

started shifting to butler court today! so many stuff! haha. and the break in between the two trips i made, we had....

an impromptu (or two) haircutting session!

shaving matt's hair
mr shaver: simon!

shaving matt 2

matt posing for the cam while being shaved
helen took the pic

helen shaving matt's hair, trying to resue it haha

shaved matt! job well done!

lou shaving simon's hair

helen shaving hair

steph shaving simon's hair

lou trimming simon's hair
doesn't she look serious like a hairdresser?

the beer cans! hehe more and more!

presenting a shaved and trimmed simon!

2007-02-08T00:42:00.000Z

im here at loughborough, alive and well and finally got the internet up and running! hoot! made loads of new friends at my temporary accommodation, really friendly peeps who knocked on my door my first night here and introduced myself. just finished chatting with one of them. amazing really. will be sad when i shift out to my new accommodation on monday, but yeah, definitely will visit them to chill and hang out. my sg friends who stay in other halls love them too! cos they're so nice, friendly and funny, really warm, and you feel like part of the gang. they actually waited for me to get back to have dinner together, it is just amazing stuff really. and i know i sound like a brit wahahaha.

sadly, i still need some time to remember all their names. however, here's the peeps that i do remember: Lou (short for Louis) - a Northerner (read: scotland) girl who is really funny and has a wonderful accent and laughter; Helen from Nottingham - amazing and sweet girl; steph - the joker guy from essex and the butt of all my suaning; dave - another essex guy who just left my room a few minutes ago with his friend, really great chatting with him; dan - a guy who loves mini coopers and is gonna get one; jim- funny, sarcastic, knowledgeable; matt - uber friendly, helen's bf, funny; tom - kinda quiet but friendly and all; one more guy whom i couldn't quite catch his name. eep. haha. i think that's about all, and a few random people i get introduced to cos i was with the group. such a refreshing change from singapore!

in anycase, they're all up to celebrating chinese new year with me and the sg gals, which is really great. i love them all already! and they even offered to help me keep some stuff with them when i shift so i dont need to lug them all and one go, and even offer to help me carry the stuff there! like, it will be uber early in the morning and all, but yeah. how cool is that?

i think if they read this, they'll laugh. and tease the hell out of me. wahahaha.

it is forecasted to snow later today (it is 1:26am now, am gonna sleep after this). wooohooo! how exciting!

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went to town today (yesterday), went shopping, walked till my toes bled a little but 'twas alright. stuff i bought? a green cap for the snow and all other cold english weather; pots and pans and all the crockery for cooking; a tissue box. yep. haha. photos of the trip below!

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on the way to loughborough university....

me aunt and mum

me, acting cute in the train

in loughborough town today (yesterday):

Look Right at the traffic crossing

the button u press to cross

back of yushan and the building i was trying to take

yushan, hui ran, joan

closeup of the building

HSBC

in front of the lovely building

look at this huuuuuge bread! humongous!

gingerbread man!

2007-02-04T13:09:00.000Z

the past few days, i've been a homebody! yesh, been staying at home like a good girl and helping my aunt to springclean her house for chinese new year. sadly, cny for me will be in the hostel, far far away. well, there was a short trip to town on friday, to get some jewellery stuff so i could complete the necklace i was making for me aunt, and to get groceries. of course, it ain't my fault if along the way, a jacket and a pair of pointies fell into shopping bags. hehe.

the story goes: i was wearing me aunt's jacket cos my mum proclaimed that the north face one i have is too ugly (well, it is an outdoor jacket, DUH). so, my mum asked my aunt where she bought it from, and my aunt promptly showed us the shop. as it turns out, there was one last piece of jacket for my size, which fit very well, which was selling for 20pounds after further reductions (my aunt bought hers for 35pounds before christmas), so my mum bought it for me. later, my aunt brought us to another shop to browse through, and she saw me looking at a pair of pointies, which she tried, mum saw her trying, said the pointies were nice and asked me to try. (note: i dare not try the pointies cos i knew i wouldnt be allowed to buy it. or so i thought) and so i tried, it was nice and comfy, it was 10pound 50pence, and my mum paid for it. end of story.

yesterday though, i went to birmingham with my aunt and mum. again, it ain't my fault when a pair of jeans was bought for 7pounds 50pence. really. i was minding me own business staring at older women's clothes so i wouldn't buy anything when me mum came up to me and declared there were jeans some distance away and asked me to go and see. so i went, and the next thing i knew, me aunt had thrown the pair of jeans into my arms and i was led into the dressing room. it fit well, it was cheap, and so they say, the rest is history. my fault? nooooooo.... *shakes head*

other stuff i got: instant noodles (there was even 1 with jay chou's picture and signature on it! o.O), chinese new year biscuits and other goodies you can get in chinatown. lunch was dim sum, which sucked. argh. i shan't even describe how it sucked, but it sucked. grrr.

after that, we headed back to hereford. showered, rested, and then it was time for dinner! went out to firenze's for dinner. it is a famous italian restaurant here in hereford. i went there 10 yrs ago, im back again 10yrs later. the owner, bruno, is so much older now. he is retiring and returning to florence. so i'm lucky to be able to catch him again, and take a picture with him. hehe. the dinner was in celebration of uncle chris's birthday! hehe.

this week, and the past 2 nights, will be really cold at night. temperature dropped to -5degrees! the late morning/afternoon was rather warm though. egads! such extremes! *faints* it was so coooold, there was ice on the grass when i woke up yesterday morning! ice on the cars too! omg! ice! *freezes*

and so, photos!

mum

the icy morning, me and uncle chris
oooh, and my new jacket too! pretty?

chinatown

different shot of chinatown

the place we had dim sum

another part of chinatown

me, a speck in chinatown

busy chinatown

my cousins, graham and james.
don't they look good?

us with bruno at firenze

another pic of us

the new pizza man replacing bruno!

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i'll be short of an internet connection from tomorrow till no idea when. will be going to loughborough tmr, so will take some time to connect to the wireless. yeps! so c'ya in loughborough!

2007-01-30T22:21:00.000Z

pictures part 2

day 2 in UK: visit to a farm for meat produce and hye-on-wye! hye-on-wye is a town known for the amount of books it has and sells. a place commonly visited by writers, poets etc.

castle in hye-on-wye…

a popular venue for lit and books enthusiasts as it is home to the summer lit festival where 2^nd hand books are sold in shelves in front of the castle

break for lunch
L to R: Graham, my aunt, mum and uncle chris

the lit department of the 2^nd largest 2^nd hand bookshop in the world
hye-on-wye is the town well-known for the 2^nd hand books

bookshop 2

look at all the old books!
I spotted one which was from the University of Glasglow, 1819!

more old books…

pic of poster. Read and you know why I took it. Hehe.

name of bookshop we visited….

the venue of the bookshop was actually a cinema building, hence “cinema” in the name

the bookshop is also the home of those books on sale during the lit fest

lovely stone buildings in hye-on-wye
I love these buildings. So traditional, so English

hye-on-wye: a valley situated just below Black Mountain

day 3: shopping at chestelnham

i didn't get anything though. my mum and aunt did all the shopping!

Chestelnham: shopping paradise

random building I took while running to the carpark

another random building. This one is called the Prince-of-Wales!

I love this building! Doesn’t it look somewhat like a castle?

day 4: shopping at hereford! finally, i bought my boots! for 4 pounds only! ($12) and it is branded! and made in spain! the best thing about clearance and end-of-season sales. *grin*

other stuff i bought: brassiere and toiletries. and a nice, green shimmery button top!

the house I’m currently staying in

my new boots! Finally got my item of lust! Tee-hee

ain’t it lovely? And oh-so-posh?

end of entry! it is stay at home day tmr! so look out for me online! :D

2007-01-30T22:13:00.000Z

alright! as promised, pictures!

this entry is split into 2. and so, onward with the first part!

Pictures from Changi airport:

4one peeps minus corn

4oners!

wes and me

the lit peeps: tingren, me, weiquan

tingren and meiling

lay ping and me

some kendokas

mun wei, me and yick siew

kendokas missing mun wei and zibin

finally! A pic of all of us! (kendokas)

lay ping and the earrings I made for her

wei quan and me

tingren and me

family

bro and me

wenhao and nic trying to act as gangsters

still acting, and failing miserably :p

Pictures from Cirencester:

mum and a random backdrop in Cirencester

cirencester

closeup of some roman buildings

the rooftops look different too

roman buildings in cirencester. Any place here ending with –cester was a roman town

2007-01-27T22:17:00.000Z

i'm here in UK now, safe and sound! if not a little jetlag.... haha! thanks to all those who sent me off yesterday! *touched* and those who msned/sms me their well-wishes too! thanks!

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arrived in London at 6.30am (Sg: 2.30p.m.). Had a supper (pasta) and breakfast (sausage, hash brown, omelet) in the plane. Watched pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest and the departed. oh wow, i love johnny depp and leo dicaprio! ahhhH!!!! they were showing the queen too, but i didn't get a chance to watch that. was trying to catch some shuteye, but alas, the other person in our row was this old woman from ireland. each time i entered dreamworld, she'll be pushing her way out to go somewhere in the aircraft. so i kept having to wake up and stand up so she could come out. gave up trying to sleep at 11am sg time and settled down to watch the departed instead. i think i could have gotten 6hours of sleep in between the two movies, but oh wells. haiz.

upon arriving, we headed to starbucks for some much needed coffee. my aunt and uncle drove over from hereford to pick us up, and coffee was needed to boost our energy and wake us up! it was also needed to keep me warm. the temp is 6degrees when i arrived. brrrr.... it's amazing how mist (?) comes out of your mouth each time you open it. haha. anyway, so it was a 3hours drive back to hereford. we stopped twice; once for toilet break and the other to have breakfast. so i had to small breakfasts today! *must go jogging le....*

lunch was rather late in the afternoon. we had instant noodles for lunch, haha. my aunt morrocco chicken with er... crous crous (sp?). sorry, my brain ain't fuctioning right now, seeing as to how it is 6.28am in singapore but only 10.28pm here. yeah man, i'm jetlagged. grrrrrr.

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guess what? my genius of a mum took out my one and only towel from my luggage and left it in singapore. why? cos my dad said the luggage was heavy, so she brilliantly decided to remove my towel while thinking that i had packed another one. well, i didn't. i wanted to, but my mum said not to, so i didn't. and so now i am towel-less. hoorah!

it is a good thing i have an aunt here. it is a good thing she has extra bath towels to spare. if not, i'll be attempting to dry myself with toilet rolls and heat from the heater today.

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going to a farm-market for some groceries tomorrow! and then it's Birmingham on monday for some shopping in chinatown! instant noodles, here i come! wahaha!

may be heading over to swansea on friday to meet up with maryam. not sure if i'll be dropping by london to meet yingzhi (sp) and hui ran on sat/sun though.

ok, i really need to crash now. wooozy. photos next time!

2007-01-20T18:22:00.000Z

welcomes to my new bloggy!

this is the place to keep yourself updated with my life in UK (if you can be bothered to, that is. seriously, i don't think there'll be much excitement. i'm a boring person!) anyway, if you are really that bo liao, then i hope you enjoy your time here!

blog will be in use the moment i land in UK! check back here from the 27th jan! (if i can access the internet by then) :D