London, continued...

Bubble tea and mango sago in an asian teahouse

Grace acting cute haha

The fattest, furriest and friendliest cat ever.. :D it approached Grace and I on a London street. We spent about 20 minutes stroking it; I was sooooo happy!

SO CUTE

London, continued....

Me, Vincent, Jaclyn (his sister) and Calvin (sister's bf), outside Shakespeare's Globe

Exhibition showcasing the social divide in Tate Modern Museum. Someone asked if there was an earthquake! lol

Saint Paul's Cathedral at night

Borough Market, London
(Food heaven!)

Pheasants, Mandarin ducks, hares, deer

Brussel sprouts on a wheelbarrow

Soooooo crowded on a Saturday morning

Vincent, Danny and Grace. I'm glad all of them got along so well! Oh yes, Grace was accompanied by 5 lawyers on her trip to Borough Market. ;)

Xmas 2007

Christmas 2007
Leicester, London, Nottingham, UK

In Leicester's city centre with Archana

The best crepes in the world! South Kensington, London. With Grace :D

Enjoying his crepe!

home alone

My home alone experience wasn't good.

I started at 7pm and once I finished cooking, eating and cleaning, it was 830pm.

The food wasn't so bad, but I ended up throwing away 1 portion of it cos I hate eating leftovers. The carrots and chicken were overcooked.. :(

It was the chopping carrots and frying in the tiny pan, with alot of food flying out, then finally the washing up which was sooooo tiring. My shoulder is aching. These mundane things take up sooo much time. I've done nothing constructive today...

I am not a domestic goddess.

At times like this, I appreciate my super boyfriend even more- he who taught me how to cook, clean, iron, self-medicate and does them for me most of the time. I really take him for granted.

And I miss him. :(

Anyway, here's the plan for the winter vacation.

18-19 dec: Leicester to visit Archana

20-23 dec: London to be with Vincent and Grace

23 dec: Back to Notts with Grace

26 dec: Vincent comes back to Notts

Ice skating

Outdoor skating in Nottingham

Finally, something I can do which Vincent could not.. ice-skating!

It was his first time and after 4 falls, he could glide on ice!!! So proud of him.. Hehee

The atmosphere was so Christmassy, ice-skating out in the open, underneath the stars and the kaleidoscope of colours from the German Christmas market not far away. Families, parents literally dragging their toddler between them, young couples, friends forming a chain, annoying hooligans, girls donning headscarfs and long black cloaks, big men falling- all on ice.. :)

Afterthat we went to the German Christmas market, had German doughnuts which were yummy, German wheat beer and walked around, hand-in-hand, enjoying the festivities. The next day we were back for the garlic mushrooms, German sugared muffins and a dome-shaped amaretto whip. More photos to come...

Just for laughs

Just for laughs

This is what we do when we're sick of staring at law books. :D
That's my Halloween costume which I was supposed to wear but did not eventually cos I thought it looked too slutty. Hahaa
We made the collage of photos (centre photo) during my birthday because my noticeboard looked too plain. It was an arduous process, but doing it together made it alot better :) He has an amazing artistic sense...

Anyway, after the essay deadline on Monday, we've been enjoying ourselves alot, going out to town, eating out, shopping, having friends over.. and ice-skating.

Now I'm home alone for 2 days, having sent him off to London at 8.28am this morning. And all our friends have gone home for the Christmas vacation too... Yup, so it will be a test of my home-making skills as I cook and clean for myself. So far, it's been fine, I had a bowl of cereal and 2 chunks of grilled foccacia bread from M&S. Vincent is sooo worried; before he left, he chopped all the ingredients for the soup I'm making tonight and wrote out the recipe for me. He even drew me a map of the city centre.

I'm happy and grateful for him.. It's in the little things that he does which shows me that he cares, alot. Like making 3 trips to the laundry room (for washing and drying), in the dark and chilly night, lugging 2 huge hiking backpacks full of dirty clothes, simply because he didn't want me to be out in the cold. Cooking sweet corn and carrot soup and fish porridge (which he hates), because he knows I love it. And how could I forget, he made a cucumber and avocado mask for me! Hahahaha.. All this, among many other things he does, day by day, for me. I am a blessed girl.

20th birthday

My 20th Birthday

This is a bit late, but I promised my family I'd put up pictures to let them know how I celebrated my birthday this year. :)
Vincent refused to let me into his room the whole Friday and only called me at 7pm to tell me to come down to his room. When he opened the door, this is what I saw. His room, neatly tidied, just for the occasion and the table set for two. 2 tealights floating on water, a circular glow to create the atmosphere. He had been experimenting how to make the candles glow tall and bright for weeks. I was so happy and surprised, I knew he'd be cooking for me but I didn't expect everything to be so perfect. Afterall, we were eating in his room. But yes, he exceeded my expectations! The food was amazing too; gourmet style specially prepared by him. The starter was smoked salmon wrapped around a chive and cream cheese dip, and ciabatta drenched in olive oil. The main course: vanilla flavoured haddock (because he knows i like fish and sweet things), with honey roasted walnuts and mushroom risotto. And a bottle of white wine bought from the Christmas market which was really expensive. Everything went so well, even the flame died once we finished eating. What made me the happiest was the fact that someone would go to such lengths just to make my day. He'd been planning what to cook for my birthday since last summer! ie 5 months ago.. Yes, I was beaming throughout the whole dinner! That's the happiest day for both of us in the whole semester, for him because he loves to see me happy.

After that, I wanted to go back to my room to get something but he persuaded me to stay and barricaded his cupboard, hinting to me that my present was inside and that I could find it at 12am. Then when it was finally midnight, Jenn and Xuanee came in to the room with a cake lit with 20 candles! :) That was really sweet of them. Jenn stayed for a really long time and the 3 of us talked into the night. The next day we went to Frankie and Benny's, this American-Italian restaurant in town. Although not as many people as last year turned up, it was still a nice get-together with close friends. :) And that's how I turned 20.

bday

That's Jenn, me and Xuanee with the birthday cake in Vincent's room,
Claire, me and Jenn,
Chen, Vincent and Aidan in Frankie and Benny's.

I really enjoyed myself and I'm glad all of us got along well during the dinner. There were conversations mainly in English and Chinese (because of Chen) and smatterings of Spanish (from Jenn and Aidan), French (from Aidan) and Malay (from Vincent). And of course, lots of laughter. Thank you God for all of them! :)
My 20th birthday was a very happy one indeed.

Bleahhhh

Once I finish my tutorials tomorrow, I wanna watch Enchanted. :D

Just had the chicken curry for dinner which Vincent cooked. It's really good.. :) I'm upstairs in my room now as he entertains Otto, a Ducth friend. Vincent was telling me loads about Otto, so I'm glad I finally got to meet this enigmatic character. Talking to him at first was a little awkward because his command of English isn't very good; hence the hesitant little pauses and silences. But after a while, he warmed up and our conversation was rather pleasant. We talked about European history and the Austro-Hungarian empire which ruled much of Europe, including Holland, Germany and Italy in the 1800s. As well as church history like where the Presbytarians and Calvinists originated. For the record, it was from John Calvin. And other stuff like how most Europeans attend the festival celebrating St Nicholas instead of Christmas. He asked me how I knew and I told him it was because of Milad, a German friend from last year.

Talking to him reminds me of the amazing international experience I had in hall last year and how comfortable I felt with internationals. Had so many close friends from all over the world- Germans, French, Canadians, Brits, Singaporean/Malaysian, Hongkies, South Koreans etc. Really miss that all of them, as well as being able to engage so many of them everyday. Every meal, every moment spent in each other's rooms was a cross-cultural exchange with like-minded people. The friendships and breadth of exposure were really priceless. They opened my horizons. And now I feel both a twinge of happiness and sadness. But as Jenn said, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it's happened". Because of last year, we know there is a place for people like us.

Anyway back to Otto. In brief, Vincent went over to Otto's place for dinner. Vincent had sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and half a sausage for dinner. He began by eating the food. A few mouthfuls later, he began swallowing it without tasting it, then as it became more and more intolerable, gulping it down without even chewing. Once he came back, he immediately threw up in my room. Wow... even hall food wasn't that bad. And he told me alot more interesting things about his host, like how he counts by the minute- "I'm going to the toilet, I will be back in 1 and a half minutes". "The potatoes will be done in 2 minutes". Truly one of a kind right!!

Ok back to land law... :(

Goodbye Autumn
Snapshots from Clumber Park

I don't know why all my posts are in retrospect.

I think Autumn is my favourite season. It makes me love going outdoors; the amazing fall colours never fail to elicit a sigh and a "it's so beautiful" from me. My favourite moments this semester were all last season. Kicking through a pile of crisp, freshly fallen leaves, lying on the soft hay, looking for splotches of red and yellow amisdt the fleeting green. And most of all, walking/biking through the canopy of towering multi-coloured trees by the lakeside in my school. The view and experience is simply breathtaking. "I feel like I'm in a postcard!" :)

Now that it's winter, I dislike going out. Cold, rainy, miserable weather. It's much colder this year; last year we had a warm winter. It snowed quite heavily last Sunday night when we went to watch "Elizabeth: The golden age". Very good show. I like Cate Blanchett lots.

This semester has whizzed by. Will things ever slow down? It's tutorial after tutorial, readings after readings, late nights after late nights and the ever looming thought of the coursework deadlines and exam dates in the back of my mind, tacked in full view onto my noticeboard. I didn't even feel like celebrating my birthday. Why was last year so different? Cos our grades weren't counted. This year counts 50% towards our final law degree.

I have to finish preparing for my EU law tutorial soon.

On the bright side, I'm going to spend Christmas with Grace Tan! Who will be flying to London from Kenya! She's actually studying in New York though. I should be honoured that someone whom I haven't seen in 3 years will be traversing continents to spend Christmas with me. :) I'm looking forward to seeing an old friend (best friend in fact), whom I know very well, am comfortable with and who shares the same outlook and values as I do. This semester has been rather lonely at times. Don't really have any close, like-minded friends with all the Sherwood group back in their respective countries and the everyone else like Jen, Aidan and Hannah all so busy. Even for myself, I don't really have the time to socialise and make new friends. Hence, thank you Lord for Grace! God has also provided in the form of Cat Fairbrother. I signed up for this 1-to-1 bible study program in my church and she's the one I was paired up with. She's 23, married and living in Beeston, 5 minutes away from me. She's really nice and someone I can relate to; sensitive, soft-spoken and not intimidating. Will be meeting her every Wednesday to study Ephesians together.

And a shoutout to Cheh, I just received your package!!! It arrived a day early. :) I love the jewellery set, the pearls are so pretty! Will be wearing it tomorrow. Thank you so much! Feel so loved from home.

London pics

LONDON
September 2007
(the photos which shld have accompanied the London blog entry)

This is Covent Garden. I love it; went there every day! It's very quaint and charming; buskers flock there to perform. We saw this Irish guy swallow a blown balloon!! And an African guy balance a shoe, then a whole metal trolley on his head.
It's also the setting of William Wycherly's "The Country Wife", for those who did A level Literature. Horner, the protagonist of the book stayed there.

This is Vincent (who took all these wonderful photos) and I. We're in the Embankment, which has a naval theme to it. The lamposts and benches have engravings of fish on them. In the bankground of the picture you can see the Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.

This is a very cool art display in the Embankment. The structures show the expulsion of water from the body, in different ways. In the foreground, you can see vomitting. There were spitting, urinating, perspiring etc too.

This is Whitehall on a cloudy Autumn day. There are guards and horses on the other side of the building. You can see the London Eye in the backdrop. I'm wearing my new Muji rain-proof coat here, bought from Covent Garden! hehh

I'm posting all this as a response to Dazz's endorsement of my blog on her's. haha.. She says to read my blog cos my life is so happening here. Unfortunately I haven't been taking that many photos of life in Nottingham, (so used to it now) so here's something about London! Hope is reader-friendly enough!

MSS events

MSS Halloween Party
Guess who?

Answers from left: Lara Croft, William Wallace

I know this is super late but I havent been uploading my photos. A picture taken b4 my camera went out of battery.
My first clubbing experience in the UK. Besides "clubbing" in Sherwood C16 last year!! Unfortunately it was a most traumatising experience since I was put in charge of the cloakroom. Slept-talked about it all night. :(

Nottingham Games went really well! :) About 500 people from all over the UK universities attended the event. Met Shi En's sister there too, she came down from Warwick to play netball.
Good job everyone.. and especially to Vincent for the wonderful Pretty Orchid dinner buffet. Mmmmm.... Some mouth-watering dishes to tempt your tastebuds: Rendang beef and potatoes, sambal king prawn, tofu with vermicelli, sambal chicken drumsticks, mee goreng and coconut milk rice. Ahhh... Marshah our secretary hyper-ventilated when she saw the rendang beef. Hahaha. So did all the Japanese players who came the earliest. They loved the food and were very polite, thanked us for the food b4 leaving. Oh yes, and we sold ALL the lunches we bought from Pretty Orchid during the food fair! :)

Anyway, off to dinner and to doing tutorials....

updates

Hi all,

Sorry for not updating. Have been very busy lately- to the point of not blogging or checking facebook.

The workload is piling up. Even though I've alot less lectures this year, there's still alot of independent study.
Have to finish Criminal Law tutorial which is tomorrow, so it's off to dinner and reading Criminal cases after this post.
Then there's a dinner at Hannah's place tmr evening where the Sherwood 9:20 group gets together.
Friday moving stuff to the Sports Centre in preparation for Nottingham Games on Saturday.

Yes, MSS stuff has been taking up ALOT of time. So after the culmination of everyone's hard work into Saturday's Notts Games, there should be alot more breathing space.

Got my questions for my Psychology essay already. Need to start preparing next week!

Yes, life is really different from last year's free and easy days. On the bright side, I've been learning alot. Time-management, efficiency etc... AND most importantly, how to cook!!! :)

I've been cooking alot of breakfasts which usually consists of sausages (Cumberland, stuffed cheese, British pork, beef) toast, eggs and sometimes mushrooms. Can do all this confidently now, without Vincent's instructions and supervision! Also prepared dinner all by myself a few days ago- Tortelloni (wild mushroom and smoked salmon) with garlic, peppers and chorizo. Proud of me??? Hehe

Tonight Xuanee (a Malaysian friend/neighbour) is cooking.

Today Vincent and I went to study at the Lakeside cafe. It's a really nice place, just overlooking the University's lake. We had mocha and Viennese Whirls. :) Autumn is coming to an end though, cos it gets dark at 4.30pm. We had to cycle back in the dark- it was fine because he installed lights on our bikes. I think I'm quite ready to brave this winter cos I've got all my warm stuff- A Zara wool coat and a Gap wool jumper which I just bought yesterday. Pricey, but at least I like them and will wear them. The exams start a week earlier too, so sigh... Will be busy studying this winter vacation.

Ok, off to prepare tmr's lunch! Becoming so domestic now. Unexpected huh!

Clumber Park

Weekend at Clumber Park

It was a clear Autumn day.

Clumber Chapel

Tandem-biking, which was really really fun! Explored all the bumpy forest trails on bike.

Swan lake. I counted 21 swans in just 1 part of the lake. :) We actually saw swans fly in a V formation! It sounded like a small plane taking off; the whirring of their huge wings brushing against the water surface.