Raah!

I can't believe I'm feeling so stressed out right now, but I just don't have enough time to do all the things I need to do before I leave for Easter travelling!

On a random note, I was walking along somewhere in school quite a while ago and I overheard the funniest thing ever:

Girl to another girl: My life, has reached a new low! I, just treated myself, to a new highlighter. [Now imagine this with a British accent]

I immediately saved what she said in my phone and I just discovered it haha. Okay back to the point.

I'm leaving early Tuesday morning for Prague, then to Germany (Berlin, Munich), then to France (Paris, Nice), then to Spain (Barcelona), and finally to Italy (I think - Rome, Florence, Venice). Err can't be bothered to type the dates down but I'm spending 4-5 days in each country (with the exception of 7 days in Italy) and will be back in London on the 23rd of April! So don't get worried if I'm slightly uncontactable (anything urgent I have my mobile with me -or just msg my Singapore number too)! (:

I'm stressed out now because I haven't printed stuffs or changed money or packed -and daylight saving time has eaten 1 hour of my time -instead of it being 11.06pm it is now 12.06am!!! Roars.

But I know it's going to be a really amazing and fun trip so looking forward to it, though I'm sure I'm going to miss my comfy room back here and all things familiar about London. Haha.

Take care everyone!! Will try to drop some updates while I'm travelling around :)

Loser moment of the week

Okay, more like loser moment of my entire LIFE.

I had 3 cans of Campbell soup, and was happily taking one out to attempt to make myself a nice lunch. And then I realised... I didn't own a can opener.

And since we live in the 21st century, I opened my Internet browser and googled for - "How to open a can without a can opener" (where else do you turn to for advice?).

The first search result I got had a video, and I thought -hey that should be helpful! I played it, and a homicidal-looking man with a knife proceeded to stab the can with a knife until he got the can open.

Watch it here (only 46 seconds to open a can)!

I did attempt to try it except I couldn't get the knife to even pierce through the can lid and then I decided I didn't want to end up creating a bloody mess all over the kitchen.

And so I boiled some water and opened a packet of instant soup instead. Hah.

But anyways I now own a can opener and had my soup tonight! (:

A general mish-mash of things

In my state of essay writing I've678y (in case you're interested, the"678y" appeared when I was attempting to take a notebook down from my shelf and caused Lonely Planet: England to fall onto my keyboard, at the same time dislodging my comma key) -Anyway, I don't really know what I've been doing the past week so I'm just going to jot down random things that come into my mind:

The Beautiful Weather

There has been wonderful weather in London for the past week! Clear blue skies, comfortable temperatures and all. In the week alone I had 3 lunches sitting on the grass which is the perfect way to enjoy a sandwich, to have a cup of hot chocolate, to enjoy good company, and to unfurl a map of Europe to plan for Easter travels. Feeling the sun on your skin here is very different from Singapore (where it's always just... hot and humid) because it actually provides a comfortable warmth amidst the cool temperatures. I hope more of these days appear while I'm still here, because today was just all windy and cold and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 5 layers of clothes (but without my proper winter coat) and STILL ended up getting mildly frozen.

Picnic with the girls in Gorden Square which nestles inbetween UCL buildings (:

303

This is interesting (and strange). I've been wanting to jot this down for a really long time but it kept slipping my mind.

In 2007, I had some really good days in Thailand and Cambodia (and I miss those days)! Some part of the good days were spent in our comfortable (or some not-so-comfortable) accommodation, so let me just recount 3 of them:

In Krabi, I shared a room with Anna. The room number was 303.

In Chiang Mai, I shared a room, again with Anna in Sri Pat (miss Whiskey the sometimes grumpy old daschund!!). The room number was 303.

In Phnom Penh, I shared a room with Huishii in Hotel Champs-Elysees. The room number was 303.

I'm now in London and everyday I come back to...


I don't know if this is just coincidence or plain creepiness or what! Maybe I should make 303 my new lucky number. Haha.

Verticality in the London Landscape (nerdy geog-ish post -skip if you want)

Today, I took bus 274 from a bus stop on a road that runs parallel to Camden Road -where I've never gone before because I always stick to Camden High Street and Camden Road! And this bus brought me on the most delightful journey through Camden towards Marble Arch -I saw beautiful canals, really nice pretty houses, the gorgeous Regent's Park, and pretty blossoming trees. I am so going to explore these spaces very soon!

It's interesting how the Underground system is such an integral part of London, yet at the same time there is not much interaction between the underground and the street level -the underground seems to be a separate world of its own, twisting dark tunnels occasionally emerging into the sunlight (but still separated from the streets through high walls). You take the tube from where you are to exactly where you want to go -and so what lies above the stations the tube stops at remains a mystery. Which is probably why I enjoy bus rides so much (but my bus pass expires today raah) (:

Also, I was on the London Eye today (thank you very much to Yinghong -and Happy Birthday to you!) and I got to view London from a very different vantage point! It was a good time to go up, just as the sun was setting and the lights of the city gradually came on (: So much of the city could be seen, at the same time it revealed so much of the city unknown to me. I now have a better first-hand experience of viewing landscape from a vantage point (alienation and distanced from the landscape? somewhat. haha)! But it was a good ride all the same. (:

Conclusion? London is best experienced from the street level, where all the sights (little details) and sounds and the people are a feast for the senses ;)

Singapore Food

I was out with Claudia, a German girl I met on the field trip in Brighton at the National Gallery (which is a really nice place (:) -and she asked me what Singapore food is like.

Where do I start? I told her I couldn't explain it.

And so I did the next best thing -took her to Chinatown, bought her an egg tart (okay which is not super Singaporean but whatever, I like it) and then we had Char Kway Teow at this new Singaporean restaurant (but without hum, and the hawker centre atmosphere -it's not good eating it in air-con where it gets cold quickly -and in fact this one included sotong and prawn, it's not the same haha)! How would you describe Singaporean food??

What I'd really like now is,

1. My yu2 pian4 tang1 from Haig Road
2. Ah-balling from Bedok 85 (and sting ray would be nice...)
3. Red bean soup from Bedok South
4. My aunt's yongtaufu and other Hakka dishes
5. Duck rice from Tanah Merah

Okay stoppp. Haha. Getting hungry and my room is miserably devoid of proper food!!

And I guess I'm never going to get down to talking about my hot lecturers so err don't expect much. Haha!

Nerdy post

Ergh I just completed an essay that was rather excruciating to write -not that the topic wasn't interesting, but I had all these bits of information but had no idea how to piece them together into a coherent argument.

Which just goes to show how little I understand socialist and post-socialist societies.

All the same, I have no regrets about taking this module (Anthropological Approaches to Socialist and Post-Socialist socities) -I'll always remember how utterly lost I felt during the first tutorial, not knowing anything about socialist societies in Europe (not exaggerating here). Well, now I'm pleased to know something about them! Especially since it's an anthropology module, I think the lecturer did a good job of really going into the everyday lives of these people under socialism and post-socialism, and I think that's one of the reasons why I'm doing a social science in the first place, to understand more about the lives of people on our planet hohoho.

But this module has been strange in that the more I learn about these societies, the more I cannot find explanation or use the theories I've learnt so much about (on ethnicity, nationalism etc) on them, socialist/post-socialist societies are so complex in terms of the different forces that brought about such drastic changes within a relatively short period of history, at some point through the course I genuinely felt like I just couldn't comprehend what was going on (like how could perfectly functioning social relations just suddenly break down into ethnic violence?).

Well, of course I can't claim to have been doing my readings religiously so that's perhaps the reason why. Also my grasp on history is really really bad.

Oh goodness I'm rambling. And I'm not even rambling about vaguely interesting stuffs (sorry for putting all of you through this torture). I promise more interesting stuffs the next time round on my not-so-academic life haha. 1.25am, time to go to sleeeeep without having to worry about this essay anymore.

And in slightly more than a day's time, I will be missing out on an opportunity to perform on Steinway pianos in the Esplanade Recital Studio (whywhywhy)!!! Good luck to all NUSPE performers for the concert! (:

Nottingham (Not Nothing-ham)!

Last weekend, I made a long overdue trip to Nottingham to visit Huien! She's been telling me about her life in Nottingham for the past 2+ years and it's just so surreal to finally be there and see the things she's been telling me about and the people she hangs out with (:

Day 1

Arrived in Nottingham at 1150am at Broad Marsh Station where Huien picked me up! We went for lunch at Pitcher & Piano which was located inside a beautifully converted cathedral -a fantastic place to have a lunch because it was so quiet and peaceful, with high ceilings and stained glass on the sides of the walls -niice!


After lunch we made our way to her place which is along Lenton Boulevard -street of Nottingham's students! Apparently the whole street of houses are all lived in by students, which I found really really amazing -to me that was just a mind-boggling thought, whereas to Huien it seemed perfectly normal. Haha. And she lives in a really nice house (with nice housemates)! I've almost forgotten what it's like to live in a real house (okay not that I live in one in Singapore) because everyone I visit in London lives in an apartment. Haha. After dropping my stuff off in her gorgeous room which houses the most comfortable bed in the world, we head off to Nottingham University!

As we went around the university Huien tells me about and shows me all the different places on the campus where she has lessons, where the library is, where people people-watch, the halls, the different places they have to hang out and the different buildings -and what can I say, I'd love to lead a campus life like that (motivation to do further studies in the UK wahaha -if only someone would sponsor me)! I really miss having a campus life where there are loads of spaces to sit down and hang out in -something that's really missing in London campuses (but all the same everyday I'm learning to appreciate UCL's campus because there are more places to hang out now that it's warmer hee). And they have a LAKE!!! Omg EVERY campus should have a lake (reminds me of Chiang Rai Rajabaht Uni's grounds too) -it's gorgeous! :)


As part of Huien's Introduction to Student Life in Nottingham (NL1101E) course she had exciting plans lined up for the night too! So far I've passed 1. Living on Lenton Boulevard, 2. Visiting the campus -but 3. is the tough one -Night out at Ocean, where Nottingham Uni students partay hard especially on Friday nights (those without tickets can queue from 10pm to 1am and not even get in). Huien and friends, in their younger days (year 1), used to visit Ocean every Friday night. Of course now that they are older and wiser they'd rather curl up in the comforts of their house, but it was her friend's Stephanie's birthday so we all headed down to the club.

So within 5 minutes of getting into the club I decided not to speak for the rest of the night because I was trying to say something to Huien's friend but she could not at all hear what I was trying to yell. The place was crazy crowded (refer to picture below -where boys take off their shirts -some never putting them back on throughout the night - at the song I'll be ready) omgg. It is normal to be stepped on/pushed/whacked on the head by people pushing through (or sometimes, people too engrossed in making out) but all the same it was good fun (with good company) with many interesting sights haha. Even though my stamina for these places last only about 2 hours. Whoops. I'm going to try not to step into these places for a long, long, time because I think I'm a little hearing impaired now (I'm listening to my mp3 player at the same volume I always do but it sounds softer somehow)! Haha.


Day 2

Omg I'm getting too lazy to blog so this will be short. Haha. Day 2- Huien brings me into the city centre! We do a bit of shopping but don't last very long due to being slightly exhausted from the night before (my legs were aching like crazy) -goodness me signs of age. Haha. In the Market Square, there is a structure that looks exactly like a miniature version of the London Eye -which apparently Huien and friends think is quite a joke (it is kinda haha) hehh. There is also a building (the Council House) that resembles UCL's Portico!

Skip to highlight of the day - Lee Rosy's Tea Shop! Huien and friends hangout here because it's such a nice place :) And I can understand why they love the place -it's super cosy, with nice lighting, comfortable seats and art-displays on the walls which change every once in a while! There's a rack housing rows and rows of bottles containing tea-leaves which you can open and get a whiff off before you decide on the tea of your choice -and the smells were wonderful! We decided on Jasmine and Flowers which was extremely fragrant and soothing -swooons-. I love tea! Also the apple cake here is very good and I was shocked when Huien bought a slice EACH for us -it is that good! Haha.


Day 3

Touristy day in Notts! Mostly recuperated from the day before so was all fresh to meet the day! And it was such a nice day, with blue skies and the warm sun -I had to take off my coat because it was getting too warm! We took a walk through The Park -which is an extremely nice residential estate where Huien and friends go to spot nice houses -and there really were nice houses there! I'd love to live there. Heh. Imagine -it's a perfect Sunday morning and you wake up in a nice house there and make your way to one of the terraces in your house, sit down on your nice chairs and have a good cup of tea. Ahh. Bliss.


As we walked downhill, we approached Nottingham Castle and... GEOGRAPHERS DELIGHT!! SANDSTONE! ROCKS! WEATHERING! -tries not to hyperventilate- How gorgeous is this? :)


We then head to a pub Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem -established in 1189AD. What's so special about this pub? Well, firstly, it's OLD. Quoting the sign on the wall, "This was the year of ascension to the throne of King Richard the first, known as Richard the Lionheart. Legend has it that the brave knights and men at arms, who rallied to his call to fight in the Third Crusade, gathered at Nottingham Castle before journeying on to Jerusalem". This place is full of legends -some really lame but interesting. Haha. Oh and what else is special about this pub? It is built into a cave in the rocks! So cool can.
We journey on a little further and hit more of medieval England -Robin Hood's statue (in the post below below)! First, I must tell you about my dad. Upon learning I was in Nottingham, the first question he posed to me was, "Did you see Robin Hood??" I swear my dad knows more about England/London than I do. Anyways , my only impression of Robin Hood was from that ridiculous movie Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Hahaha. I really wonder what medieval England is like, it is fascinating but at some point it just doesn't seem real because... I don't know, probably because of what popular culture has done to it :P

Okay anyways sadly, I had to leave in the evening and go back to London to a not-as-comfortable room but oh wells. On the bus back, I saw the most gorgeous sunset -no pictures, but it was a soft glowing red sun which illuminated the whole sky and slowly sank beneath the horizon to give way to the night. :) Nice!

Thank you Huien for hosting me and for providing me with such a wonderful weekend, I really am glad to finally see and experience your life in Nottingham :)


Okay next update will be about... my hot lecturers. haha! Stay tuned.

Things only cliff can come up with

Cliff: U dun need a funeral 2 know pple will gather 4 u! says:
by tube? its a transport system?

mingli says:
yep it's the mrt equivalent

Cliff: U dun need a funeral 2 know pple will gather 4 u! says:
then u can go ard asking pple "you tube?"

mingli says:
HAHAHA
cliiiiiiiiiiiif
that's quite funny
hahahahhaha

Cliff: U dun need a funeral 2 know pple will gather 4 u! says:
haha...
yeah! i think so too!
at least im laughing here to myself

I took the night off

because the flu bug is going around and I'm sick with a bad cough yet again (I'm running out of my trusty yellow runny-nose tablets ahh) -I'm sensing some sort of pattern here because both times I've fallen sick, it happened the day after I completed an essay. And 3 more essays to go! Uh-oh. But I guess that it's not just me because just today alone I have met 3 other people who are flu-ish too. Hah.

Which is really a shame because the weather is absolutely beautiful! I walked past one of the gardens near school today and was quite shocked to see that the green grass was covered with people lying around! Mich, Bert and friend Dongliang and I got fish&chips and headed down to a park near Brunswick Sq to enjoy the sun ourselves -it was nice sitting on the grass and just nua-ing around (: And we saw a Whomping Willow (well admittedly you have to manually get it to whomp by attempting to hang from the long huge branch but still it was cool haha!)!

Anyways I was in Nottingham over the weekend to visit Huien and I had a blast, so thanks loads and loads dear! :) More updates about that sometime later this week, I think I should get to sleep now! Retarded picture of me and Robin Hood below to keep you all happy til then. (Mingrong show dad -when he called and heard I was in Nottingham the first thing he asked was if I saw Robin Hood hah)Wonderful host Huien and I outside Nottingham Castle - She never did such touristy things like visiting all the Robin Hood rubbish in Notts in all her 3 years there until I got there. Haha

Les Miserables

Okay I admit that I spent a lot of time wondering when it was going to wow me. The musical took a long time to climax, but when it did -oh my goodness it was so good. And then it worked its magic all the way until the end.

I can't quite place how Les Miserables is great, I'm not feeling extremely WOWED like I did after Wicked but it's not because it wasn't good, I guess that Wicked was fantastic in a feel-good way? Les Mis affects more subtly, and I guess it's was a somewhat more thought provoking production.

And of course having a stellar cast helped loads too (:

Off to Nottingham for the weekend (to the detriment of my essays, but oh wells. Time in the UK is growing short!)!

I almost got to Hogwarts...

but I got stuck halfway through the wall. Darn!!

While waiting for my hair to dry...

I shall tell about random interesting things that happened...

The Mousetrap

Spontaneous Friday night outing with Yinghong and Ziwei -and finally got companions with me to watch The Mousetrap -a play by Agatha Christie!

The whole thing was just plain amazing, and was classic Agatha Christie. The characters each with defined character traits -the usual spirited young lady, retired military man, nervy/bumbling and enthusiastic young man, dour older lady, the foreigner, a husband and wife (wife being all wifely and sweet usually) couple, the detective -are snowed up in a guesthouse, a murder happens and the murderer is amongst them.

Gasp. In classic Christie fashion the plot twists and turns, leading every character to be suspected and linked to the case at some point in time, but of course the vital piece of information you need to know is withheld till the very end -the climax provided at least 2 twists before revealing a totally unexpected outcome -and once again (sigh) I DID NOT see it coming. Brilliant. :D

Sex and the City -20 years later

I was on the tube to meet Mich, Ryl and JY (Ryl and JY are in London this weekend!) at London Bridge, and a group of 4 ladies came onto the tube. They were in their 40s and 50s and dressed to the nines -heels, styled hair, clothing ensembles carefully picked out from the wardrobe, made up -lipstick, mascara, glittery eye-shadow (in colours like blue) applied onto their eye-lids. I know this sounds very dodgy and like something that could look really really wrong but I thought they looked fabulous (quite stylish)!

So anyway the tube was relatively crowded and these two girls next to me got up, presumably to offer their seats to some of these ladies. And all of them looked so terribly amused that people were actually giving up seats to them (nudging each other and teasing about who should take the seat) -so one of them plopped down next to me and I really didn't know if I should have gotten up -cos yes they were "old" but definitely filled with more vitality than anyone else in the carriage (plus I didn't want to be laughed at by them haha).

And when the tube reached a stop where more people got off, the other 3 moved to take a seat on the other side of me (1 was on my left already), and I got up cos I thought they'd all have liked to sit next to each other, and presumably the "oldest" of the lot of them took my seat. When one of the ladies saw that I didn't get off the train and only got up for them, she was like awww that was really sweet of you, you shouldn't have! And then she tells me that the oldest lady was the one who should have gotten the first seat but she didn't want to -and this is the funny part -she gave me a conspirational look and said, "I don't usually bring my mother out."

HAHA. I can only hope to be half as happening as that gang when I'm 40/50. :P

Best Cheesecake EVER

Brought Ryl, JY and friends to my favourite East End today! And I am not exaggerating but the Sunday (Up)market has the most amazing cheesecake IN THE WORLD (or whatever parts of the world I have been to). The first time I was there last month they gave me a sample (lavender cheesecake) to try and I nearly died cos it was so heavenly, and this time we bought a slice (pistachio) to enjoy for ourselves.

And enjoy ourselves we did. I am seriously declaring this to be the best cheesecake in the world and beats any cheesecake (Cheesecake Cafe and Secret Recipe will never taste the same again and will never be able to measure up unfortunately... ): ) I have had -cold, firm, smooth texture, melts in your mouth -HEAVEN. Words cannot describe it! Loooooove it (:


Alrightey I'm so tired now from all the walking this weekend I'm going to conk out. Oh and the nights have been getting freaking cold, and the winds have been blowing crazily (today there was crazily strong wind and rain that left me quite scared cos I really felt like I was being blown off course and not being able to see where I was going) so I'm going to start piling on the layers again. Byee!

In the past week

You know temperatures are rising when...

1) You actually feel warm and sweat a little on the way to school

2) Flowers are blooming (: (I now have a mini-garden in my room! New flower buds bloom almost everyday whee)

3) People start dressing differently at school (less coats, more fashionable)

4) You are shocked and horrified when you put on your jeans as they are looser than usual (okay this is just in my case), but then you realise oh that's because you aren't wearing extra layers of tights/stockings beneath the jeans.

Oh yes I have also gotten myself a new camera via Amazon, the Sony T77 (brown)! Which is slimmer and feels so much more fragile than my old one that I think I'm going to have to protect it with my life.

Haha okay travel adventures continued:

Maastricht

This is in Southern Netherlands, and apparently is supposed to be quite different from the rest of the Netherlands. The place is really pretty, with an extremely quaint feel all about it. I would say that if there was a prize for adaptive reuse of buildings, Maastricht will win it hands down! One building I loved was a cathedral -there are tons of cathedrals around Europe, but this one is amazing because it was converted into a book shop! It was just so amazing, and there's really no better place for books to be in. There's a cafe at the end of the cathedral, and a metal structure in the middle of the cathedral that provides the other "floors" of the book store. And look up at the ceiling you can see the faded paintings that cover the ceiling. The other buildings look old, yet when you look into the glass windows you see that it's very nice inside, with soft yellow light shining out of the windows. Niice! I think it'd be so nice to go to school here (: Thanks to Ryl and JY's friends for hosting us and letting us stay in their rooms!

Oh and first experience in a coffeeshop! They check our IDs before they let us in. Of course being the good girl I am all I did was breathe in second-hand weed (Ryl and JY's friends and their friends from school tried some). This coffeeshop is really nice though, they have delicious milkshakes and have games lying all around for customers to play with -if not for the smells it'd be a fantastic place to hang out I think! Haha.

Amsterdam

Well, Amsterdam just has this vibe about it -I could feel it the moment I stepped out of the train station! We found our way to our accommodation -and were very excited to stay in a houseboat! Then we saw our rooms and didn't quite know how to react -the rooms are TINY haha -barely enough room for 2 people to do packing/unpacking at the same time! haha. Basically if you stand up, you are still taller than the upper bunk (while I was lying in the upper bunk Mich was STILL taller than me)! Haha. And there are no steps to the upper bunk so you have to step on the ledge of the lower bunk and somewhat awkwardly clamber up into the upper bunk (I whacked my head on the top of the cabin at least 3 times getting up and down throughout our 2night stay there).

Amsterdam is SUPER PRETTY with its canals (: I'd love to just go back and chill there (1.5 days was definitely not enough to enjoy the city)! Ahh I'm so lazy to describe everything and everywhere we went I'm so sorry! Just a list -Van Gogh Museum (It's so nice to see all his works up close and to get a good look at the brush strokes, and to discover new favourite paintings -I particularly like the Starry Night Over the Rhone -it was gorgeous (:), the Red Light District (didn't dare to look the women in the windows in the eye because I know I wouldn't want to be objectified like that), Anne Frank's House (eye-opening, I'm glad it serves as a reminder of what else Amsterdam has been through -also a reminder that there are many others like Anne Frank and provided the wider context that people today are still being discriminated against based on race -which is something Anne Frank's father fought against after the war), windmills at Zaanse Schans (really pretty, I loved the green fields and blue sky -otherwise the place gave me a very Stepford-Wives feeling), the RijksMuseum, and the Heineken Brewery (Very theme-parkish but fun in that way haha).

I really wish I had more time to soak in the city though! I'm sure that Amsterdam is so much more than just a city for tourists and it would have been nice to walk around and discover more about it (such as it never occured to me that Dutch colonial influences acted in more than one direction -in Amsterdam you find loads of Indonesian restaurants too -okay so geeky)!

Oh and Dutch people are really nice (:

What I also like about the places we went is how people cycle everywhere -and their bicycles are not those hard-core-mountain-biking bicycles that we see in Singapore and in the UK, but those nice looking kinds with high handlebars and high seats -I'd love to ride around in one of those there! And also seems like such a perfect mode of transportation for a date -on the backseat of those bicycles. Wahahaha. Okay dream on.

Well okay back to more normal life in the UK! I have 4 essays to write this month and I don't know how I'm going to accomplish that uh-oh.