How You Live Your Life |
 You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside. You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think. Your friends tend to be a as quirky as you are - which is saying a lot! You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren't attainable. |
Here's wishing everyone 年年有鱼!
Ok ok don't puke please! I actually think this is a very nice picture. I took it at Borough Market yesterday.
Anyway, the main point of this post is to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year. I'll be wreaking havoc in fq's kitchen later so that me and pw can feed 5 people for reunion dinner. Wish us luck! Haha. If you subsequently see pictures of food, it means we all didn't die of food poisoning k.
heh.
I think I have finally settled in in London after about 3 weeks here. Haha, surprised that i took so long? Well it surprised me too.
The first 2 to 3 days were really quite miserable. I just felt like I was crawling around, lost and sad, in a big unfamiliar place, of which I can only see a small gloomy part of.
Then school and admin stuff started and we started to have mundane things to think about and so I probably had less time to be melancholy. But I still was. I was really quite upset when I found out that I was still homesick when I called home after the first week. Terrible. I thought I was made of stronger stuff. Well.
But after that, some sort of routine emerged in my new way of life and there was constantly friends around to talk, laugh, gripe and spend time with. So I started to enjoy London.
I just called home again. This time round I could ask about home and laugh about stuff.
I am happy.
To cut a long story short:
- There was no water because they were fixing something
- Someone left the tap in the toilet on
- Water came back for a while
- No one was there to turn the tap off
- There was a flood
Luckily it was at the other side of the floor, not outside my door.
I went to Harrods! That was on Saturday.
I also went to Camden Market. This was Sunday. It is like this immensely vibrant pasar malam selling all sorts of stuff. There are just so many things to occupy the senses. The sights, the sounds, the smells... So many things to look at.
Side-track: all my winter coats make me look either like a puff ball or a bah zang. I sigh.
Then there are those gothic people, complete with the spikey-do and black leather and metal studs. fq says we won't want to be there after dark. *raise eyebrow* There are loads of the black leather, lace, ribbon gothic/rocker stuff that me and pw figured will please plhu very muchly.
And this is my spoil from Camden Market. Aldo! Genuine! Leather! 10 pounds! XD
I like.
Isn't it beautiful?
Some days I forget that London is actually breathtaking, especially when it is all cold and dreary. Then, all I can see are puddles of water and old, tired and drab buildings.
But when the sun is out, I believe I can sit by the Thames the entire day, just drinking in the sights and sounds of the people and things around me.
London!
It was supposed to be a simple trip to find CNY decorations at Chinatown. So the plan was that after I ditched the water filter at Tescos at Old Kent Road, we'll bus back to dump our school stuff and then to take RV1 down to Covent Garden.
Obstacle #1
Our Oyster cards had only 20p left on them, which means that we wouldn't be able to take a bus home from Chinatown later. So we thought that we would top them up at London Bridge on the way back from Tescos. But when we got there, we realised that the station was closed because of some emergency. Ah well, we thought, it would open in a while; we can top up on the way out. And so we went home.
And came out. But the freaking station was still closed and sirens were still wailing. Ah well, we thought again, we'll just go take the bus. There would be stations at Covent Garden where we can top up before we come back. I remember telling pw at this point, happily, "We are not screwed!"
Obstacle #2
RV1 pulled up along London Bridge and we hopped on, tapped our Oysters... and got off the bus.
You see, unlike the EZ-link back in sunny Singapore, the Oyster can't have negative values. So our meagre 20p was insufficient to pay for the 80p trip. Freak!
We tried to look for somewhere to top up. But London Bridge was still closed. We decided that we could cross London Bridge (the bridge, not the tube station) to get to Monument Station on the other side. We hoped that it was open.
Obstacle #3
You guessed it! It was closed as well, complete with the wailing sirens of the fire truck. Well it turned out that there was a fire at Bank Station and so stations in the vicinity were all closed till further notice.
By this time, we have decided to walk to Chinatown. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. It was only that it would take us an hour.
And so we went along the northern bank of River Thames towards the Strand. It was a nice walk but we both think the South Bank is nicer to walk along. The north bank was just loads of office buildings, somewhat like the Raffles Place stretch of Singapore River.
We evetually topped up our Oysters at Temple Station, which was at Aldwych, which was near Covent Garden.
Haha, because we took an unintentional long walk, we both succumbed to temptation and took a detour to Ben's cookies at Covent Garden. (Ok, I was the more tempted one. pw was not that hungry.) The cookie was DELICIOUS! WONDERFUL! YUMMY! SCRUMPTIOUS! I had Fruits and Nuts and Milk Chocolate Chunks while pw had White Chocolate Chunks. The chocolate just sends you to heaven, I tell you. I want more. Heh.
Thus fortified, we went on to Chinatown. We found it without much trouble. I bought my CNY decoration and pw got cards for her family. And we made up our minds that we'd eat at Mr Wu's All-you-can-eat Buffet sometime. It's 4.95 per person and the food looks not bad.
Obstacle #4
We got mildly lost trying to get back to Covent Garden from Leicester Square. We missed a turn and walked in the complete opposite direction from where we were supposed to go. So we ended up consulting the big map of Central London several times and peering at street names and finally reaching Holborn after 30 to 40 minutes of walking. I suspect that we walked in some roundabout way.
From Holborn, we took a bus back and pw was so bushed she nodded off on the bus. I didn't though and was rewarded by overhearing this amazingly long and what sounded like a horribly insincere conversation. These two women ran into each other after having not met for some time. So one of them was going on and on with "Oh, how nice it is to meet you!", "So how's so-and-so? Is she still there?", "Oh my, can you believe that? She's moved to Moscow with her husband!" and "Oh, I did like her; she was lovely." It was just so... superficial. And you can hear every sentence ending with some exclamation. I would think that this type of small talk will run itself out in a very short time, but these two just went on for 20 minutes without a pause. Astonishing.
So here ends the long walk that we didn't intend to take. And we went home to a dinner of lousy sausages. Bleah, they were just bags of extremely minced-up meat soaked in oil. No more Tescos economy sausages for us, haha.
But Ben's cookies are REALLY GOOD. Well, I walked mine off. So I shan't get fat. Hah.
This plastic container here cost me 17.67 pounds.
ARGH! This is so crazy. pw got hers for 9.99 or sth. 
This tells you what the contraption does.
I'm pretty sure it's the electric memo part that made it so expensive. Well I don't need an electric memo. So I'll be bringing it back to Tescos tomorrow.
Oh the pain.
I've finally began to do more exciting stuff in London besides discovering which are the leading leading supermarkets in the country. Hah!
Friday
After a terribly boring lecture for Muscle and Exercise (henceforth MnE), me and pw sidled down to Borough Market, which is just a stone's throw from Guy's campus (and hence our place) to have lunch. On other days, it is just a fresh food market selling vegetable and fruits and poultry and the like. But on Fridays and Saturdays, there will be cooked food and loads of people go there for exotic food. We saw venison burgers, ostrich burgers, organic hot chocolate (the cow is organically bred issit?!) and all kinds of cheeses. Peiwen took a photo of the pheasants on sale. They still have their feathers on them! There was also a stall selling blocks of fudge! They look like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I bet are sumptilicious! We had german sausage in a bun and then bought yoghurt coated walnuts and chocolate coated coffee beans. The coffee beans are YUM! Haha.
Then we went to explore London Bridge (the bridge, not the tube station) and the surrounding areas. We found this monument thingy:
You can pay 2 pounds to climb up inside it. I think it is to commemorate the Great London Fire.
We then went over to Moorgate to meet fq and ning sang for dinner before going to Dijun's violin recital. She taking her postgrad diploma at the Guildhall School of Music. I met mosquito girl and mali (and her bf) at the concert. Everyone present were suitably impressed by Dijun's performance. We went to her school bar to talk after that. Then we adjourned to her flat upstairs (yes the bar was in the same building as the hostel). We left in a while, after having decided to meet again to eat the famous four seasons roast duck in while.
Saturday
Me and pw were brought around London to see the sights. 
This was at the British Museum. It is really really big and have wonderful fascinating exhibits from all over the world through the ages. I can foresee myself spending time there. We were just gasping and gasping.
We also went to the Tate Modern, which is a contemporary art museum. This one was a bit deep for us and we spent half the time laughing silently at the stuff. Oops. Haha. But there are several nice pieces that I liked. There was Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.
We went along the River Thames (at last!) and it was lovely. When the weather is warmer and brighter, it will definitely be a great pleasure to just sit down and watch people go by. The whole stretch was just bustling with activity: book sales, baskers, people on skateboards... 
This is piccadily circus:
and at the London Eye:
We'll go ride it soon!
We also wandered to Trafalgar Square and there was a huge Russian Winter Festival there. Loads of people milling around, drinking Russian beer, watching the concert and just having a good time. It was quite an experience. But that also meant it was rather difficult to take pictures. Haha, we shall go back again. If you watched 'Child of Our Time' on Central, you'd know that there's a sculpture of the disabled artist who was featured at the square.
Lalala. All in all, so fun! Well, today will be rest day.
I'm now in the New Hunts House Information and Services Centre. Basically I'm just at the library. Haha. I wonder why they want to call it the ISC. What a mouthful. pw's gone to look for a shaman by the name of Richard, in hopes that he can fix her comp so that she'll get the net from her room. *cross fingers*
It is an amazingly beautiful day today and amazing I've been stuck indoors the entire day. Lecture was only one hour in cos it's the intro lect. We ate our packed lunch and then waddled over to the ISC. Would you believe it if I told you I'm hungry now. Lunch was about 3 hours ago. I am perpetually hungry here I tell you. I think it's the cold. But now, the sun is shining and the garden outside looks gorgeous. It's like the 5pm in Sg. At 5pm here, it is dark already. I hope the day gets longer soon so that we can stay out later and go see more things. It's not been too fun so far. I have not done a single touristy thing yet, except to talk pictures of their red mailboxes and double deck buses.
Update: pw's comp was right as rain when the shaman loooked at it. he thinks the prob may be that the signal is too weak in Wolfson. *scratch head*
Oh well, think I'll be spending more time here at the ISC more often. I think the New Hunts House is very nice. Maybe cos it's modern. Haha, more like what I'm used to la. Old buildings are nice, but they are not very convenient or comfortable. Heh.
The people on my floor have almost all moved in or, rather, moved back in. I mostly meet people in the kitchen because people do have to eat at some time.
In 1201 is Felicia. She's from M'sia and is doing her first year in Neuroscience. Cool huh. She did her A Levels here in the UK so she does sport an accent when she speaks. But she drops it when she speaks to me. And she could tell that I was Singaporean before I told her. She smokes like a chimney when she studies, watches anime, is very friendly and is really chummy with Jermaine in 1210.
In 1202 is yours truly.
1203 houses Peter, this REALLY interesting character. He is like someone out of the 1950s. He has hair that is long and floppy like the Beatles and wears polka dotted dress shirts with nice homely sweaters and butt-hugging suit pants that shows his VPL. I must say, his butt is really quite perky. Haha. He is very friendly and a bit eccentric. And amazingly he watches anime... and likes Stephen Chow! He's watched Kungful Hustle and Shaolin Soccer and is looking for the older Master Chef shows.
1204: Sheetal. She's a medical student and is currently having exams. So I don't really know much about her yet except that she really does take her workd seriously and is worried about screwing up her exams.
Nicole stays in 1205. She an exchange student from New York. I've only said hi to her the day she arrived. Haven't seen her since.
Tall, charismatic Abby is in 1206. I actually can't remember what she studies. Oopsie. She is very nice and seems to be quite close to Peter and Sheetal.
I don't know who stays in 1207.
Helen stays in 1208 and I don't know much about her either.
En Son from Korea stays in 1209. She is the first person I met on this floor. She is extremely friendly and helpful and kind, offering to take us to the supermarket when she found out that we needed to get crockery and stuff. She eats a lot of onion.
1210 belongs to Jermaine, a tall, strapping black guy with a wonderful deep voice. Really, I really like his voice. His legs are about a mile long cos when he sits down, he doesn't look too tall. He watches anime and Stephen Chow as well. I can't believe that he is only 18. 18! Like my younger brother. I thought he's like 20. Ok maybe because he's tall. He doesn't smoke and washes his dishes. I like. He also eats rice. Haha, irrelavent point.
Dunno who's in 1211.
Keesha is in 1212. She does ancient history (cool!) and always says "See you later!"
Dunno who's in 1213 either.
Holly the law student occupies 1214, if I remember correctly. She is the homely homely sort of girl (at least from the way she dresses).
There's also Maria but I can't remember which room she stays in. She's from Ireland. She quite friendly and I've talked to her some, but I can't remember what she studies either. I think it's English.
Everyone's rather nice at this point. Let's see how it goes.
I've put up a grand total of 6 photos on flickr so far. The scarcity can be attributed to the fact that I have not gone sightseeing at all in the almost-one week here and also that my pics are gigantic while my internet connection is slow. So bear with me. I try to put up pics that are a bit more representative. Haha.
I spend massive amounts of time buying groceries, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. it is really quite amazing. Now I realise how much my mum does at home for all of us. I mean, I had time to bored and watch nonsense tv. Now I have watched like 30 mins in the entire week and that is only because we went to FQ's place where there is a tv. I don't think I'll ever go to the common room to watch it. Will just stay online when I'm in the room, haha.
School will start soon, so I guess there'll be proper things to do then. I've bought this gigantic writing pad (200 sheets) from the student union shop (yes they run a shop, not like NUSSU) for 99p. Quite a bargain I think. It's almost cheaper than paper at home. But that is an exception, I tell you. Stuff here is popo expensive. Next time I'll holiday in Thailand or sth. Then I'll feel better. I haven't really gotten the hang of converting the the numbers in the Sg equivalent yet, so I can still think stuff is cheap when they cost less than 1 pound. But then that is already like $3. Ah, got to curb my expenditure.
Looks like a good day today; there is actually sun. Good! Cos I'll be walking a lot today.
Haha, just a short post. I'm now in the UK! Only got internet today, so when I'm free I'll write more. But for now, just, "Hi, I fine and I miss everyone!"
