I am going to bitch

about the weather. England's very fine, variable weather. If I could describe the weather, it'd be someone in a permanent state of PMS -extra sensitive and prone to mood swings (male or female, I do not know -trying to avoid the girl-nature-irrational/man-culture-rational thing haha but let's just assume that men can PMS too).

Rewind a few weeks back.

Ok actually I can't even remember when the weather was last good for more than 3 days in a row. Hmmmmm.

All I know is that Weather probably got pissed off and turned all cold at some point about 2.5 weeks ago, nicely coinciding with the miserable having-to-study-for-exams period. Raah. Which also coincided with the wonderful let's-turn-off-the-heating-forever-in-hall event. I HATE having to do work in the COLD!

After the exams, Weather seemed pretty undecided about how to feel, with clouds intermittent with sun intermittent with rain intermittent with clouds etc. Make up your mind already!

Well, on Saturday, Weather made a pretty great personal breakthrough and decided to send the sun shining and the temperatures soaring -such that a t-shirt/sleeveless top was enough to suffice for the daytime temperatures over the Bank Holiday weekend-woohoo!

On Tuesday morning, someone must have hurt Weather as it started to get a little sniffly and the tear ducts burst open in the early morning-as if my laptop hadn't been through enough I found a small puddle of water on it as I had left it next to the window (but luckily it was only on the surface). Don't take it out on my laptop la! ): In the afternoon Weather seemed to recover a little, and it was still really sunny, but we could all feel a slight chill coming on.

Wednesday -Weather decided that it was really hurt and sobbed a little, trying to squeeze the tears from its eyes with some success, I guess it was wheezing and crying at the same time because the winds were blowing too -and left us at the gates of the Buckingham Palace with no changing of guards to see. Boo.

English Weather needs a psychiatrist.

Ohmygosh what a crappy post. I guess I don't want to go back to an empty room with no entertainment except a book and music. Which has been nice, really, but I just need some brain-rotting videos to watch sometimes. It's hard to blog without pictures so sorry that it's not very entertaining!

A quick one

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, examination period has just been crazy, especially with the amount of people coming and going to London during this time.

I haven't actually had a proper chance to just relax and breathe.

I think I'm so used to having so much time to myself over here (especially during the week before exams, my life mainly revolved around attempting to study and dinnertimes in hall) that it takes a lot of getting used to when all the people from my life in Singapore suddenly pop up here and I have to divide my attention between them and what has been my life here for the past few months. I can already foresee a huge ginormous problem adapting back to life in Singapore when I get back.

But it has been great seeing those who had come (: Even though I wish I had more time for them!

And sorry that this is not a proper update, I'll do one when my laptop is back in action (I can't believe I've survived 23 days without one -hopefully it will be back in action) and when I can upload photos and all (which is also a problem because my memory stick, in an unfortunate incident, is now firmly embedded in Rumen's laptop and looks set to be stuck until he finds a way to dislodge it... hahah), cos my words aren't getting very interesting now because I'm just feeling a little tired and drained. Haha.

So yes, exams are over and I have approximately 1 month left in this wonderful place and will try to spend every single day savouring it. (:

Hope everyone is doing well!!

The kind souls of London

Yesterday, the plan seemed simple enough -send Ally and YS off safely and find my exam venue nearby to take the scary scary paper. And boy it was just a mad rush. Ally, YS and I were running late and needed to fly down to Victoria as they needed to catch a 9am bus to Luton airport -and well it's a little hard with luggage and morning crowds, and to cut a long (but not-so-exciting even if heartpounding from all the fast walking) story short, they missed the bus (I even think I saw it drive off). By 2 minutes. But thank goodness for

Kind soul #1:

The bus driver of the next bus, who informed us that the bus had just left. Well given my experience with missing buses (haha) I went aww please they only just missed it by 1 min and there was bad traffic etc. and he was like welllll by right they should have to buy a new ticket at £11 each -and by this point I could tell that he could probably be persuaded since he didn't give an outright no (like someone at the Victoria Coach Station the last time...) -so a few more 'pleaaaaaaaaaase's he said well alright. I guess it helped that the bus was probably really really empty. But yay to kind sould #1!

So after leaving Ally and YS I needed to find my exam venue with was supposedly around the vicinity, and so I located it on a map in the rail station and proceeded to try to find my way there. Well it's my fault probably but I didn't read the map extremely carefully so I only knew the general direction in which to walk but not exactly where to turn into the street, so at some point it was nearing 9.30am (exam was at 10am) and I could see the London Eye and the River Thames up ahead and had no idea if I had passed the turning or not -and the street wasn't appearing on the maps at the bus-stops, so I stopped to ask for directions (something I've learnt how to do over the course of travelling because it's the fastest way to get anywhere), and thats when I met

Kind soul #2
He was taking a smoke-break outside the building and I figured -hey if he works here there's probably a pretty good chance that he knows the street is -well he didn't. Haha he was saying that he only had a vague idea where it was but he wasn't too sure, and it could be either in that general direction or that general direction, and then he turned around and asked someone else standing nearby if he knew where it was but he didn't either, but oh wells at least he made the effort. Thank you kind sould #2!

I decided to continue heading down in the direction I was going, and at some point decided to go into a shop to ask for more directions. So I was at the cashier asking him if he knew where Marsham Street was, and that's when Kind sould #3 entered the picture -

Kind soul #3
He was paying for some stationary at the next cashier, and overheard me asking for directions -immediately he went Marsham Street? Come this way with me -and he took me to the shop front and pointed out the direction to me, told me which street to turn into, what landmarks to look out for. I was so happy I that I called him a lifesaver. (: THANK YOU SO MUCH KIND SOUL #3!!

And yup I managed to get to my exam venue with time to spare -turned out that my exam was in a church of some sorts. Haha. Interesting experience doing an exam with a huge bible-verse on the walls of the venue. Oh and before the exam the very intelligent charming lecturer smiled and said hi to me (: Haha. And the exam turned out to be fine and one of the more enjoyable ones I've ever done because I really liked the questions.

London is SO AWESOME :)

Phew

Well I got my piano therapy after sitting in the Music Room in hall for most of yesterday and attempting to study, rewarding myself with a few tunes everytime I sort-of-vaguely-remember a few sentences (so as you can tell studying wasn't very productive) but all the same it had such a soothing effect ahh. (:

Also in the evening my favourite people in hall Rumen and Mingte came to join in, and seriously -3 people/music junkies in a room with a piano, a guitar and a mac laptop -how much work can be accomplished under such circumstances? But it was such good fun -and Rumen's right -we're probably all looking to be distracted anyway. Haha.

9 May edit: Haha I super super like this picture! Mingte looking like some hyper Taiwanese variety show host, me looking like I accidentally wandered onto the set and Rumen's face saying WTH is wrong with these weird people, invading my personal artistic space and stealing MY limelight(getting better at reading his facial expressions!)!

I am going to check my mail for the CD in a bit. Fingers crossed! [it didn't arrive]

Bleah.

I can't believe that a incapacitated laptop can bring my mood so down, but I guess it's because this is the period I really need it the most -my notes for exams, and also it's kind of stressful needing to contact the friends who are staying with me next week (even though I am super looking forward to seeing all of you!) and not being able to unless I drag my butt down to school to use a computer or sit in this lousy computer cluster room.

My recovery CD had better arrive today.

I need piano therapy raah!