So, Chinese New Year is just round the corner. Like really, just after this weekend. To me, weekends are like corners. You go right around it and before you know it, it's over. And you can't really see what is beyond the corner, till after it.
Okay, enough about corners.
So yes, Chinese New Year, or otherwise known as Lunar New Year. It's the Year of the Dragon. I don't really buy into the whole horoscope thing but a lot of people do. My mum, for example, buys into it hook, line and sinker. Don't get me started on her fengshui stuff.
The reason I don't buy into it, is because I do not believe in luck.
I believe that I am blessed.
Erm...okay, not about to go on a long post about this.
Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year. It's a good time to meet up with relatives, friends and enjoy the food and snacks. If you do get angbaos, good for you. If you don't, eat more food. If you are giving ang baos, be a cheerful giver.
Happy Dragon Year! :)
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Inspired...
I like reading blogs. I read a few blogs..some famous, some not-so-famous...or should I use the word "popular"?...and some are friends' blogs, or introduced by friends via their blogs. You get the drift.
I read them rather regularly and if I missed out on a whole load, I'd continue from where I stopped. I rarely comment just because I am too lazy to. I mean, I am even too lazy to blog.
That said, I've recently (like, today) been introduced to this blog, A Blog About Love, by my college friend Zhing, who is a lovely and AWESOME PAWSOME blogger herself. And I have not been able to stop.
I mean, I've literally been reading the whole day...from the first post to...well, I'm still mid-way through her blog posts. So much for work huh? Oh yes, did I say I started work already? It's been 8 weeks, although out of which I was on leave for 2 weeks. What can I say? I plan my holidays waaaaaay in advance. That should ALWAYS be the way to holiday.
Oh yes, so back to the blog. I won't say too much about it, and leave you (whoever you are) to read it for yourself. I just wanted to say how inspiring they are, as a couple, and how I totally get what they are writing about/saying. After all, I am living it - being happy with myself, the way I am and who I am as a person. I love their energy for life and the energy they emit. It's exactly what I hope I have been doing in the last 2 years, and what I hope my friends will all have.
Sending love and happiness to all!
I read them rather regularly and if I missed out on a whole load, I'd continue from where I stopped. I rarely comment just because I am too lazy to. I mean, I am even too lazy to blog.
That said, I've recently (like, today) been introduced to this blog, A Blog About Love, by my college friend Zhing, who is a lovely and AWESOME PAWSOME blogger herself. And I have not been able to stop.
I mean, I've literally been reading the whole day...from the first post to...well, I'm still mid-way through her blog posts. So much for work huh? Oh yes, did I say I started work already? It's been 8 weeks, although out of which I was on leave for 2 weeks. What can I say? I plan my holidays waaaaaay in advance. That should ALWAYS be the way to holiday.
Oh yes, so back to the blog. I won't say too much about it, and leave you (whoever you are) to read it for yourself. I just wanted to say how inspiring they are, as a couple, and how I totally get what they are writing about/saying. After all, I am living it - being happy with myself, the way I am and who I am as a person. I love their energy for life and the energy they emit. It's exactly what I hope I have been doing in the last 2 years, and what I hope my friends will all have.
Sending love and happiness to all!
Monday, January 09, 2012
Back For Good
So...2012, huh?
Well, the grand plan to stay away until I squeeze every second of my student visa did not come to fruition. Personal decision. Good, personal decision.
We did have a good run, didn't we? (I know, it's just "I" but the many "I"s make a collective "we". I'm schizo like that.)
1 year. It was such an amazing one year.
First, I visited a whole lot of beautiful and amazing places (outside of London). There was Paris before school started in September, Amsterdam snucked in during the Michaelmas term, Austria (Salzburg and Vienna) a week before the term ended and when it was snowing beautifully, Israel right after the term ended, a roadtrip to York, Edinburgh and Lake District during the Christmas period, and to cap off the year 2010, a nice visit to Oslo and Stockholm. Lent term saw me heading back to York and Edinburgh with some Singaporean friends via rail, and then another roadtrip to Bath (via Stonehenge), an unexpected stop at Exeter to queue for the iPad2, and a week of bliss in Cornwall. Easter holiday was spent at my aunt's in Basel, Switzerland, where I had some much-missed homecook food and Swiss treats (lotsa chocolate!!).
Of course, I cannot forget the days at Manchester. I finally saw my first live match at Old Trafford, Man Utd vs Chelsea no less (which the home team won 2-1). I toured the museum and stadium twice over on two separate occasions. I did a super last-minute and tiring bus trip to Manchester to catch Gary Neville's testimonial match, which saw the Class of '92 return to play. I saw David Beckham play, clean up real nice and be a real gentleman, signing autographs and letting us flash our cameras in his face. The shopping at Manchester, in my mum's words, was "better than London". I agree it is easier, but "better"? I disagree.
There was Bicester Village (ok, not London, but close enough), days upon days walking down Long Acre to get to Chinatown, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Knightsbridge, Bond Street, Selfridges in particular, Harrods (at times), Westfield at Stratford, plus possibly my most regular place to go: TESCO EXTRA at Surrey Quays. I think I can never shop in Singapore again. Really.
And the food, oh the food. I really didn't miss the food in Singapore. Part of the reason was that I could cook, and my friends and I did cook regularly. We made soups, dishes, rice, pasta...and just to boast a little, we were very successful with our Hainanese Chicken Rice, Bak Kut Teh and Ko Lo Yuk (Sweet and Sour Pork). In fact, we had a wonderful Chinese New Year reunion dinner! And if we didn't cook, there was always Gold Mine (best roast duck in the world), Yauatcha (1-Michelin-starred dim sum), Lido (dim sum and more), C & R (Singaporean/Malaysian food), Jasmine Princess (I think...at Mayfair, dim sum), Belgos (musselssss and beer) and the best pho in the world at Cafe East! At the very least, we could always count on the takeaway place near our residence. Singaporean noodles or fried rice, anyone?
School life was a rollercoaster ride. There were days of relative quiet, when all you think about is showing up for the two days of lesson and pretend you know what is being said. Then there are hurried days of preparing for presentations, writing your essays, wondering if what you said or wrote made any sense or did someone called your bluff. There was the mugging that we Singaporeans were so used to, the tension and stress of exams, the 10-minute blank-out from the word 'GO' before you furiously start scribbling whatever you can possible remember and attempt to string into proper sentences. Halfway through, you start panicking about the lack of time and how you still have 2 or more questions to complete. Your hand feels limp but you still need to muster whatever strength you have left until the examiner says, "STOP. Please put down your pens." You scribble that last word, hoping no one saw you, check that you have your name and pray that somehow, God's hand was on that paper, not yours. You feel that relief and it's as if everything you mugged for that subject has been poured out, together with your relief. It repeats. Twice.
And after the exams are over, it's the dreaded dissertation. I started my studies not knowing what I was going to write, and then, having a feel of what I wanted to write. It changed after several discussions with the adviser. Not much, but just narrower, and narrower...and it's a discovery of just how ambitious or totally clueless you were when you first started thinking about your thesis. It was the latter for me. Then you kinda put it aside over the Lent term, and the holidays, and the exam period, and only really start on some serious work when you are done "resting" after the exams. Then you (I) generally panic for a few weeks, wondering what to do, how to do what, when to do what...and the biggest question of all "HOW AM I GONNA CHURN OUT 10,000 WORDS?!?".
The first step was to get the resources and documents. That meant many trips to the library to borrow thick, heavy books, photocopy as much as you can (*ahem*, as the copyright laws allow for, I meant), and for those you deem important enough, to hog it with your life and bring it home. There were also trips to the British Archives, which to me was quite the eye-opener. I touched REAL official documents from the past, letters which heads-of-states, kings and presidents signed, memos, etc, and took photos of these documents for my research. Ingenious suggestion from one of my profs.
And then, it was to read ALL these material and make sense of it. I also started just typing ideas out and reproducing chunks of information on my laptop, while organising my thoughts and my study area. By then, I had reduced my living/dining room to my study area. Everything was on the floor, on the coffee table, on the dining table, on the TV console. Finding a place to eat or sit meant removing some materials and relocating them somewhere else for the time being.
And then, as you start putting your thesis together (from skeleton to having some actual meat) you realise you've been wrong all this time. The real question should have been: HOW AM I GONNA KEEP MY THESIS TO 10,000 WORDS??? This process, might I add, took me a good 2 weeks. And that includes formatting and writing the references and bibliography. Not. Fun. At. All. When I finally got it done and ready for printing and submission, it was not really "Phew! My thesis is ready!" but more "I don't care if it makes sense! It's less than 10,000 words! I can't wait to get it out!!!"
But really, the past year had been such a great experience. I liked living on my own. I liked London. Most of all, it made me appreciate everything I had in Singapore: the conveniences and awesome things about Singapore that we take for granted (good leaders, transport, food, good but comfortable standard of living), my family and my friends. There is still no place like home.
Except for shopping.
Well, the grand plan to stay away until I squeeze every second of my student visa did not come to fruition. Personal decision. Good, personal decision.
We did have a good run, didn't we? (I know, it's just "I" but the many "I"s make a collective "we". I'm schizo like that.)
1 year. It was such an amazing one year.
First, I visited a whole lot of beautiful and amazing places (outside of London). There was Paris before school started in September, Amsterdam snucked in during the Michaelmas term, Austria (Salzburg and Vienna) a week before the term ended and when it was snowing beautifully, Israel right after the term ended, a roadtrip to York, Edinburgh and Lake District during the Christmas period, and to cap off the year 2010, a nice visit to Oslo and Stockholm. Lent term saw me heading back to York and Edinburgh with some Singaporean friends via rail, and then another roadtrip to Bath (via Stonehenge), an unexpected stop at Exeter to queue for the iPad2, and a week of bliss in Cornwall. Easter holiday was spent at my aunt's in Basel, Switzerland, where I had some much-missed homecook food and Swiss treats (lotsa chocolate!!).
Of course, I cannot forget the days at Manchester. I finally saw my first live match at Old Trafford, Man Utd vs Chelsea no less (which the home team won 2-1). I toured the museum and stadium twice over on two separate occasions. I did a super last-minute and tiring bus trip to Manchester to catch Gary Neville's testimonial match, which saw the Class of '92 return to play. I saw David Beckham play, clean up real nice and be a real gentleman, signing autographs and letting us flash our cameras in his face. The shopping at Manchester, in my mum's words, was "better than London". I agree it is easier, but "better"? I disagree.
There was Bicester Village (ok, not London, but close enough), days upon days walking down Long Acre to get to Chinatown, Regent Street, Oxford Street, Knightsbridge, Bond Street, Selfridges in particular, Harrods (at times), Westfield at Stratford, plus possibly my most regular place to go: TESCO EXTRA at Surrey Quays. I think I can never shop in Singapore again. Really.
And the food, oh the food. I really didn't miss the food in Singapore. Part of the reason was that I could cook, and my friends and I did cook regularly. We made soups, dishes, rice, pasta...and just to boast a little, we were very successful with our Hainanese Chicken Rice, Bak Kut Teh and Ko Lo Yuk (Sweet and Sour Pork). In fact, we had a wonderful Chinese New Year reunion dinner! And if we didn't cook, there was always Gold Mine (best roast duck in the world), Yauatcha (1-Michelin-starred dim sum), Lido (dim sum and more), C & R (Singaporean/Malaysian food), Jasmine Princess (I think...at Mayfair, dim sum), Belgos (musselssss and beer) and the best pho in the world at Cafe East! At the very least, we could always count on the takeaway place near our residence. Singaporean noodles or fried rice, anyone?
School life was a rollercoaster ride. There were days of relative quiet, when all you think about is showing up for the two days of lesson and pretend you know what is being said. Then there are hurried days of preparing for presentations, writing your essays, wondering if what you said or wrote made any sense or did someone called your bluff. There was the mugging that we Singaporeans were so used to, the tension and stress of exams, the 10-minute blank-out from the word 'GO' before you furiously start scribbling whatever you can possible remember and attempt to string into proper sentences. Halfway through, you start panicking about the lack of time and how you still have 2 or more questions to complete. Your hand feels limp but you still need to muster whatever strength you have left until the examiner says, "STOP. Please put down your pens." You scribble that last word, hoping no one saw you, check that you have your name and pray that somehow, God's hand was on that paper, not yours. You feel that relief and it's as if everything you mugged for that subject has been poured out, together with your relief. It repeats. Twice.
And after the exams are over, it's the dreaded dissertation. I started my studies not knowing what I was going to write, and then, having a feel of what I wanted to write. It changed after several discussions with the adviser. Not much, but just narrower, and narrower...and it's a discovery of just how ambitious or totally clueless you were when you first started thinking about your thesis. It was the latter for me. Then you kinda put it aside over the Lent term, and the holidays, and the exam period, and only really start on some serious work when you are done "resting" after the exams. Then you (I) generally panic for a few weeks, wondering what to do, how to do what, when to do what...and the biggest question of all "HOW AM I GONNA CHURN OUT 10,000 WORDS?!?".
The first step was to get the resources and documents. That meant many trips to the library to borrow thick, heavy books, photocopy as much as you can (*ahem*, as the copyright laws allow for, I meant), and for those you deem important enough, to hog it with your life and bring it home. There were also trips to the British Archives, which to me was quite the eye-opener. I touched REAL official documents from the past, letters which heads-of-states, kings and presidents signed, memos, etc, and took photos of these documents for my research. Ingenious suggestion from one of my profs.
And then, it was to read ALL these material and make sense of it. I also started just typing ideas out and reproducing chunks of information on my laptop, while organising my thoughts and my study area. By then, I had reduced my living/dining room to my study area. Everything was on the floor, on the coffee table, on the dining table, on the TV console. Finding a place to eat or sit meant removing some materials and relocating them somewhere else for the time being.
And then, as you start putting your thesis together (from skeleton to having some actual meat) you realise you've been wrong all this time. The real question should have been: HOW AM I GONNA KEEP MY THESIS TO 10,000 WORDS??? This process, might I add, took me a good 2 weeks. And that includes formatting and writing the references and bibliography. Not. Fun. At. All. When I finally got it done and ready for printing and submission, it was not really "Phew! My thesis is ready!" but more "I don't care if it makes sense! It's less than 10,000 words! I can't wait to get it out!!!"
But really, the past year had been such a great experience. I liked living on my own. I liked London. Most of all, it made me appreciate everything I had in Singapore: the conveniences and awesome things about Singapore that we take for granted (good leaders, transport, food, good but comfortable standard of living), my family and my friends. There is still no place like home.
Except for shopping.
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