Hua duo from ai ren

Summer blooms to keep me going! : )
It's truly summer because we get woken up at 6am almost every morning because the sun shines too bright and it's still bright at 10pm. Bliss! Can finally walk out in skirts and shorts.

Tonight's dinner was so good. :D Vincent cooked pasta with garlic, anchovies and mushroom sauce for us (me, Maureen and Jason). The best pasta I've had since coming to England! Woohoo gonna have strawberry cheesecake later for dessert in Maureen's room.

Constitutional law exam on tuesday. And I'm down with the flu!!!! :( :( :(

Afterthat, I can fly. For 3 whole months!

Thank you everyone (male and female) for your encouragement and prayers! Truly appreciated. :)

Exam

Contract law exam just 1 day and 2 nights away- i'm so so scared....

updates

Some updates:

I will be going to Eastern Europe this summer!
With my wonderful Sherwood Hall mates; Fidelia, Maureen, Jason and his 2 friends.
- Bratislava (Slovakia), Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), Krakow (Poland) and Berlin (Germany).

Taking French next year as my external module too! Woohooo :)

Spring is here... :)

100th post

This is my 100th post!

Between 2 worlds....

Friends n family with me at the airport

Back at Nottingham

Back to notts

I'm back at Nottingham!

Many thanks to the people who prayed for me in church and at home, and to those who sent me off at the airport!
Thanks especially to James, Loyalle and Weichuan for coming and for their very thoughtful gift! :) I really like it.

I had a safe flight; didn't suffer from travel sickness. I have overcome it! Thank God. Touched down in London Heathrow at 530am; got the National Express bus at 7am and it was another 3+ hours to the Nottingham bus station. Arrived early, looked for my luggage; looked up- and lo and behold, there was Vincent right in front of me! Haha I'm sooo happy to see him again. :)

Managed to stay awake for the whole day, thereby fighting off the jetlag. Walked around town with Vincent to buy a few essentials, then to Broadgate to change my standard room to a studio, then to Sainsbury's to shop for groceries to cook at Xuanee's place. Vincent cooked for us- will post photos soon. :) Afterthat unpacked, slept then went to Fidelia's midnight surprise party. Hehe somebody is 21 years old!!! Happy Birthday FiFi!!!

Yes Mum, the change to a studio room is successful!

Today woke up early to do more unpacking and FINALLY finished. Will start studying today.

leaving on a jetplane

I leave Singapore for the UK this Sunday. How quickly 1 month has flown by. :(
This time I leave not with mixed feelings of fear and excitement but with the sense of unfinished business. Things left unspoken and undone (on my part)- how I wish I had more time or more initiative. Went to visit my grandma in hospital last night; she looked very faraway. We all felt very sad. Just pray that her pain will be alleviated and more importantly, that God's will be done. But I trust that my family, friends and relationships are in God's safe hands. And I will be back in 2 months time!!! Hahaha! This time no more exams to study for. :D

One among the many I will miss- who also woke me up in the middle of the night.
Attention-grabbing Whisky!!! Super cute!!

Friends and family

I'm back home! Have been since last Sunday and boy am I enjoying it. :)
Been super jetlagged the whole of last week but have since recovered from it after Kor's wedding. Kor's wedding was wonderful! It was full of joy and glory to God. Very happy for Kor and Jamie who are on their honeymoon now.

It's been great shopping, eating and meeting up with my family and friends.
I am a very happy girl. :) Have not been studying though!

Unfortunately I have not uploaded all the recent pictures taken in Singapore onto the com yet, so dear friends, you guys have to wait!

People I've met up with include:

1. VJC friends at Ichiban Sushi where Wei kindly shared her $30 voucher with us. Much fun, animated talking, laughing and photo-taking! I love you girls. :)
2. BLC youth, aunties and uncles at BLC itself during Kor's wedding. Nice warm feeling meeting the people who watched me grow up, also those with whom I grew up.
3. Brighton friends in church, which proceeded with an outing to Vivocity! Alot of excited squealing and hugging. Haha I was "re-introduced" to the Young Adults group, which was quite amusing.
4. Shopping spree with Shella in town, followed by Bugis hawker dinner with XinXin and Eugene.

Tomorrow will be a sisterly outing to Cheh's house where we'll watch DVDs, view each other's pictures and eat the much-anticipated Japanese meal Cheh is going to cook!! :)

Friday- cell group outing to Sentosa where we'll have our sharing and discussion by the beach! Nice!

Home sweet home

Saying goodbye...

fi, me, vincent, jason and jingfeng(fi's bf who flew all the way up to visit)
Wonderful Sherwood hall mates :) Jason and his fans
Vincent, Brad and me off to London!
Mau mau, me and fifi

Homecoming

I'll be back home on 25 March, Sunday.

Await my arrival! :)

Leaving for London in less than an hour's time, to stay the night at Vincent's sister's apartment. Flying off the next morning.

Today we just heard the shocking news that Deanna's room got broken into and her laptop got stolen, while the group was out at Pitcher and Piano. Robber climbed through the tiny slot in the window to break in- must have been a really skinny person. All I can say is I'm so sorry for Deanna. Poor DeBird!!! On the penultimate day of term too. I hope the police catches him and then you'll sue him big time. Sigh Nottingham is indeed the crime captital of the UK.

Alrighty, gtg now..Easter break officially starts tmr.
Will touch down in Singapore soon! :)

Love you all,
Carol

Arch comes to visit (tour of Nottingham's University Park Campus)

More dancing daffodils

The lake with Trent Building in the backdrop

A sun-bathing Mandarin duck!

Future lawyers

Arch in notts

Arch comes to visit

Outside the Sherwood dining hall

Trent Building and the field of daffodils

By the lake and blossoms

Probably the best hall in the world

commitments

My Commitments

-Christian Union leadership team: Prayer
-Malaysian and Singaporean Society: Welfare Officer
-Law Student

Last night we had e elections for the MSS committee. I'm very touched and happy that all of my dearest friends from Sherwood- Fifi, Jenn, MauMau, Stef, Deanna, Chen, Jason, Raymond, Yifei, Vincent(HK) turned up in full force to support Vincent(Msia) and I.. :) I love you guys, thanks for all the support and encouragement!

Especially to Jenn "Jbird", Stef "Stepbird", Fifi "Chickybabe" who really helped me with my speech! Haha I had the best counsel, all the HK girls are seasoned debaters who take part in mooting competitions or in a leadership position. :) Jenn is really wonderful; she's running for President of the International Student's Bureau and I do hope she gets it- She does have what it takes! And her pep-talk really boosted my confidence and determination to achieve what I wanted. And Vincent, now the Vice President and Jason, who soothed my nerves by totally cracking me up with the things they said. lol!

Anyway, my position was the only one contested out of the 8 posts- I didn't expect that at all. Was also having a nasty headache, having not been sleeping well the last few weeks. Still, I prayed for strength and a clear mind to answer questions and God really did come through for me. Surprisingly, I didn't feel nervous at all and I could deliver what I wanted to communicate naturally.. :) The Q&A round was good too, although everybody was directing all the difficult questions at me rather than my competitor. My friends, not just the Sherwood peeps but seniors like Jon and Zijing told me I spoke and answered very well! Hehee praise the Lord!

I remember the last time I did something like this was 2 years ago during the Project Work assessment in college. Super stressful time.. I never thought I was cut out for public speaking, but Mr Hoe revealed to me the next day that the assessors told him that I answered a challenging question very well. I was very encouraged. Also ran for one of the slack positions in Dance Society in college but I met a couple of girls in the toilet who told me they voted me for President instead! Hahaha!

In all, I'm glad for experiences like this, where I'm pushed out of my comfort zone and stretched to fight for something which I'm not naturally inclined towards. It's great achieving something you put your mind to doing. Again, I have my Lord and my friends to thank for.. I couldn't have done it without you. :)

Congrats to Vincent too!! You'll do an excellent job, no doubt about that. Thanks for everything. :)

Hua Tuan Jing Cu

You know it's Spring when the flowers are out in full bloom.... :)

Snowdrops in Shropshire

Daffodils! Pockets of gold everywhere on campus

Petunias in London

Roses and tulips in my room

Sprightly Spring Days

A snapshot of leisure time in Nottingham

Ping Pong and pool after dinner in the JCR.

Players and spectators we have.

Spring days by the lake

Outside the lakeside cafe

loved

:)

Christian Union Leaders Weekend Away in Shropshire

The Sherwood crew- Sam, Pete, Me
Me with the Rutland team- Manny and Gwiz

Tired and bored- spent most of today cooped up in my room; am punishing myself for going out practically every single day for the last 2-3 weeks.

Life has been good though. I'm very happy, I love all my friends, especially those in Sherwood Hall whom I've been spending the bulk of my time with! Almost every night will be in someone else's room with a group of friends watching movies, eating dessert or drinking coffee. :)
I really treasure the friendships made here, very blessed to have a group of friends I can both trust, confide in and have fun together.

Stefanie's room- Party room/Night club, restaurant
Vincent's room- Cafe/Lounge, movie room
Maureen's room- Movie room
Fifi's room- Movie room

Had steamboat in Vincent's room last night and lots of delicious dessert!!!
Strawberries and vanilla ice cream doused with Bailey's Irish Cream, followed by Vienetta (ice cream with layers of chocolate). Mmmmmm :D

Sang Chinese songs (!!!) in my room with Fifi and then we went to view the moon eclipse outside, where the whole bunch of asians was to shang yue. Too cold outside, so we proceeded to the JCR to play pool and ping pong. :)

Good night I'm so sleepy...

CNY in notts

CNY cookout (continued)

Maureen preparing the meatballs! Her face was sooo red! Hehe

Everyone looks on as Deanna slices the grilled chicken, fresh from the oven. Chef/Birthday boy Vincent and the bak choy
What is a Chinese gathering without mahjong?
Deanna performing with the makeshift microphone (ie mop)
Xin nian kuai le from Nottingham! :)

CNY cookout back in Nottingham

Chen (China) and I
Maureen, me, Deanna (both HK)
Home-cooked tang yuan!

London CNY

CNY in London: 16-18 Feb

Leicester Square's Chinatown

Sunset at Notting Hill

Beautiful houses!!

All of us (3 frm SG, 1 frm Holland, 1 frm Canada)

I have roses!

Valentine's flowers