Early in the morning!

I've been trying, for the last 3 weeks or so, to wake up early.

The problem was, I had been sleeping late. And it just gets worse. From 1am to 2am, then 3am, 4am and next thing you know, I was sleeping only when the sun was starting to rise up. It was bad. Very baaaaaad.

So one day, I slept early, thanks to some booze.

I woke up at 12noon. The same. No difference. Argh!

Until yesterday! I decided I got too sleepy while preparing for my exams and reading my notes. So I head to bed and TADA, I got up at 8.30am today.

I am so proud of myself.

Managed about 45mins of work.

And now, I shall go reward myself with a morning Starbucks latte!

I'm a happy girl. *skip to my lou*

My few cents worth - 7 May 2011

I just needed to let off some steam, seeing as to how I have been mostly keeping my thoughts to myself in the last two weeks or so. I've refrained from starting or joining the online debates, for personal reasons, but now that everything is (hopefully, more or less) done, I just need to get some things off my chest about this whole GE.

This post however, is not about who or what party I support. I mean, it's all cool and good and fine that there was debates about issues, and that almost all constituencies were contested. It's just my personal discomfort with certain aspects of this GE.

1. I don't get the name-calling. Surely, things don't need to get personal? Come on, aren't we supposed to be civilised adults (21-year-olds and above) who know better, which is why we get to vote and not every other little Tom, Dick or Harry. Do we really need to resort to calling people (whom we don't know) silly, rude or insulting names?

2. What's with the conspiracy theories? About the secrecy of the vote. About the media being controlled by the government and hence you cannot believe a single word. (yes, I get it that it is government-controlled, but come on, surely there has been improvement? So you can believe what is on FB and Twitter instead?) About how civil servants are tracked and how it affects your promotion. About relations and linkages (Singapore is SO small loh! I think we have three-degrees of separation, at the most! Just pick ANYBODY on FB who is living in Singapore.)

3. The Kate Spade thing. I GEDDIT that people don't like TPL and think she is unworthy or not a good candidate. What I don't get is, SO WHAT IF SHE HAS A FREAKING KATE SPADE? Even my younger sis owns a Kate Spade! Does that mean that since I own some Miu Mius and LVs and Guccis, I can never, ever think of becoming a parliamentarian??? Just walk down Orchard. Tell me how many people you see carrying a branded bag. I rest my case.

4. The silly proposals. As much as I get the concern and the respect that people have for GY, calling him to be the next president of Singapore is a complete insult to both the current President, and to GY. His strength is in policy-making and working for the people, and that is where he should be.

5. The idea that people only vote for the PAP or did not vote for the opposition out of fear. Another super idiotic conspiracy theory. Can't I vote because I prefer status quo. Can't I vote with either my heart or my head, without you thinking that there is something wrong with either my heart or my head?

6. And the call for people to do the right thing (and referring this to vote for a particular party). You think what? Russell Peters ah? Be a man, do the right thing! What's the right thing? The right thing is to cast the vote! Whether this or that party. Or even if it is an intentional void vote because you cannot decide, have no qualms about either or you'd rather choose neither. At least you have done your civic duty and cast that vote. THAT'S the right thing.

7. Taking issues or quotes out of context. If you wanna inform people about issues, you should do so properly. Don't take an issue, or a photo, or a quote and leave it for interpretation, especially when you are trying to insinuate something. Just because social networking sites have given you the power to spread information, doesn't mean you don't have any responsibility. Have some morality. Be objective. If not, at least be fair to all parties.

8. The snide remarks. I HATE THE SNIDE REMARKS. So so so juvenile. Again, you are supposed to be rational adults which is why you get the privilege of voting. Please, act like one.

That's more or less what I needed to gripe about. I must say, this GE thing made me consider quitting all forms of social networking. If not for the fact that I need to keep in contact with my family and friends, I would have done a FB/Twitter account suicide.

I'm a terrible blogger.

Yes, I am.

I didn't even bother checking the date of my last post cos I know it's been WAAAAY too long. I mean, it's a new year already! Although, technically speaking, the year is already 2 months old, and just into it's 3rd month.

My excuse is that I've been busy. Who isn't? The last few months have been a lot of travelling and schooling. Essays upon essays, presentations upon presentations, and places after places.

And now that I'm done with the official school work, I can breathe a little easier. There are the exams and the dissertation, but I'll just imagine they don't exist for the moment. One needs to have moments of delusions to get by.

Have also been thinking about what's next, after I'm done with school. I'm not too sure. I don't wanna bum around, but I'm not so keen about working. If only I could find a way to not hold down a proper job and just do little things here and there, help friends here and there...and lead a fulfilling and multi-purpose life! Hmm...it may not be difficult after all?

Being Too Green

Everybody who knows me KNOWS how much I like green.

Okay, I'm gonna put it out there, once again for the gazillionth time: my favourite colour is green.

There! I said it.

That said, I'm now feeling a little worried that I may have overdid the colour a bit. In my room. The room that I will stay and hibernate for, at least, the next 39 weeks.

Just looking around and I see quite a bit of green. For one, the things I brought tend to sway towards the green-ish side of things already. Then, there are the things I bought. Green sheets from Ikea, but that's just cause they were the cheapest. And then, I had to go to Primark and get a green throw for the chair. Ok, to be fair, it was the nicest colour around and the chair was really not suitable for human seating. It's a fresh olive green. :D

And did I mention the pinboard against the table? It was HIDEOUS! So I got Christmas wrapping to kinda "wallpaper" the board. It's nearly Christmas season. Go figure. I didn't get the tacky ones though. I got the not-so-obvious kinda of wrapper. The only giveaways were that the colours were white, red and green (with blue too!) and that there were stars and polka dots (I suppose that's for snow?). Yeah, I 'wallpapered' the entire board with that. About 1m (l) x 3.5m (w) of wall/board space.

The drapes are really awful. I don't know if I can do anything about that. I doubt it. Spoils my room though. Argh.

So yeah, back to the topic. My room, is turning out to be a little too green.

Great for the eyes.

This is why I don't do interior decorating. Or design. Or art.

The First Week, Or So.

It's a chilly night in most part of London, and especially where I am, which is on the other side of the river. Mostly cause it's been raining the whole day. I'm pretty glad I took the time and effort to get my room in proper living conditions so I can just laze in here while I watch the rain trickle outside. See, it wasn't that heavy.

I did take a walk at about noon to Tesco. It's about a 10min walk from where I stay, and there is another supermarket, Costcutters, just below me. The price, however, is not as great as Tesco or even Sainsbury so I refuse to pay for more. Plus, I had all the time in the world, so why not take a little walk down the nice neighbourhood and get some cheap items, right?

'Cept that it was drizzling. Hmm...didn't think that through huh? Yeah...but it was alright in the end. Came home with all the things I need to live comfortably - toilet paper, bread, ham, detergent, coffee, sugar, coke...amongst other things.

I have eaten out a few times since I arrived in London. Besides the Gold Mine duck rice and maybe the Wanton Mee soup at London Chinatown, the (Chinese) food isn't that great and exorbitantly priced. I cook much better. And cheaper. Do you know, the price of one meal at any of these 'restaurants' can buy me supplies for 1 week of food? Yeah...THAT bad.

Which is great for me, cos I love love love supermarket shopping. And the produce here can be super duper cheap. Like a packet of cheese for 67p; that's about $1.30. And a lot of other stuff are cheap too...but I forgot the prices already. Anyway, it's great doing supermarket shopping here.

I've also caught Jersey Boys and Les Mis. Jersey Boys was beautiful. Loved the songs and the way it was presented. Les Mis was also excellent. Eponine, Jean Valjean and Javert were wonderfully played. The role of Marius was played by Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brother. Okay, not a big fan, and I thought he paled in comparison to the rest of the cast, but to be fair, I think he did a decent job.

Oh, in preparation of my room, I also headed down to Ikea and Argos. Ikea never lets me down, but the hot-dog area was a little filthy. I got all typical-Singaporeanish and started using wet-wipes (which I brought from SG) to wipe the table. I mean, there was ketchup and mustard stains all over. How to eat on it? Urgh! Argos was an eye-opener. Catalogue shopping is my new favourite type of shopping. Okay, maybe 2nd favourite.

Oh, as for selecting course (or what we call modules), my Singaporean roots came out again. I went into the system on the day and time it was open for registration and tried to register all the courses I want, plus select my timetable choices (some courses have more than 1 timeslot to choose from). Before I came to London, I was already looking at the courses I like and surveying the timeslots and options that would give me a good timetable. I had 2 main options, with alternative timetables for each option. Kiasu right? Yeah, you can take the girl out of SG, but you can't take the SG out of the girl.

Anyway, back to registering courses, I think I was far too efficient and quick for the system. End up, the system had some issues and didn't start exactly at 10am like they said they would. So after a whole day of dilly-dallying, I finally got in and got all the courses and timeslots I want. WAHAHAHAAAA....

BUT, it is not the end, because they have to approve everything, which is likely the case cause I didn't stray very much from the regulations. So if all goes the way I want, I could possibly have a two-day study week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. NICE, right? WAHAHAHAHAAAA.....

So, it's been a rather fruitful week. It's the weekends, and I plan to go to town and get some stuff to continue with the sprucing up of my room. I have a list. Yes, I do. I always have lists. :)

Till then, tata~!

My First London Post: Observations

Hello from chilly, not quite gloomy (yet), sometime-windy London!

I got to do this quick, cos although I've been here for *counts* about 5 days, today being the 6th, I've still got quite a lot of things to do before I am REEEALLY settled into things. And also, I got to be in school in about an hour for an orientation talk.

School is LSE. Yes...no need to say more. *grin*

The weather is now in the tens, i.e. 10, 11, 12, 13...17. Today, apparently, would be between 11 and 18. That is not cold. At all. I generally just wear a tank-top, a sweater-ish top, and a coat with jeans or pants. It's toasty like that.

I'm loving a lot of things about London, as I always have. BUT...there is one thing I have observed that I'm not too keen about.

The air, my friends, is very dirty. Like smoke, soot, dirty particles...eeks. It makes my booger really, really...black. Yuck, right?

Okay, I will do another post about the food soon. I have tons to talk about with regard to food.

Signing off!

Goodbye Sunny-and-nowadays-flashflooded SG!

So the day is almost here. And by almost, I mean, just tomorrow. Yup, I'll be flying off from a hot, humid, tropical island, to a cold, gloomy, dry and bustling city!

Feeling excited, happy, and have been waiting for this day to come since, oh, can't even tell when. The countdown seemed to take forever, until the last couple of days, where it all seemed to flash by so quickly. Maybe it's the multiple farewell lunches/dinners/karaokes and the works.

Yet, also feeling slightly anxious. I don't know if my brain will activate when called upon. Not sure if I'd fit in. Not sure about a lot of things.

So God is my strength. And in times like these, I shall rest in Him and enjoy everything that He brings forth. I thank my Abba Father for everything and everything more.

Till a year later, SG!

Mac-ed Up and Ready to Go!

Hoohoohoo.

I am so delighted because I have finally bought a Macbook Pro. And now, I feel as if my life is complete. I don't miss my HP laptop at all. AT ALL!

Okay, so I'm exaggerating just a little.

But I am very happy indeed. My baby looks so cool. Awesome.

And in other news, I have finally got my visa. I got it on Thursday, exactly a week before I fly. What a relief! I had been all antsy the entire time my application was processed, thinking of reasons it could be rejected. But of course, the Lord is with me and I claimed favour over my application. As usual, my Abba never fails to deliver. Praise Jesus!

So the question which I've been entertaining as the day draws closer is, "How's the packing coming along?" Well, I'm please to say that the packing is somewhat done. Just some finishing touches that can only be done the day before I fly. Otherwise, I'd say, "All my bags are packed, and I'm ready to go..." :)

The nervousness is somewhat getting to me. I feel ill-prepared for it. Partly 'cause I've been watching a Korean drama for the last 2 weeks or so, and as most are, I've been caught up in it. I feel kinda dumbed-down now because it is so frivolous to watch Korean drama and laugh and cry. Plus the invigilation a week ago has also been a mind-numbing experience.

5 days to go, amigos!

5 Sep 2010

I must remember today. This day. This weekend.

What an awesome weekend; what an awesome day I had.

Dental, checked. Fish Head Curry, checked.

Yesterday was a busy, busy day. Much like the day before. And the day before.

I had a dental appointment. My first with a new dentist. My first dental visit in...like...3 years. I know, I'm not proud about it.

So I had this super teeth scaling and polishing that made my gums bleed. By bleed, I mean serious bleeding. It's as if my gums were having their period. Argh. It was a little uncomfortable at some bits, cos as much as I think I have been taking good care of my teeth, I haven't been taking good ENOUGH care of them.

And so, the dentist said it could be that I am prone to gum disease, and promptly gave me 2 special mouthwash to complement my dental care. And I promptly headed to Watsons after that to get me some new floss as well. No more half-hearted flossing. There is gonna be some SERIOUS flossing. I am determined to keep my sparklies sparkling for 1 year, till I can come back for my next dental.

My teeth felt so clean and bright, that I actually felt guilty drinking or eating anything besides plain water.

The irony was that I was meeting the past & present Hilltop girls for Fish Head Curry at Banana Leaf Apolo for dinner.

Argh!

Dinner, however, was FANTASTIC. While waiting for the 2 current Hilltop girls, Karen and I ordered a fish cutlet (minced fish, potato, spices) and some deep-fried onions-in-spices-thingy. When the girls finally arrived, we went straight for the jugular, and ordered a fish head curry, a masala prawn and a masala chicken. We all had biryani rice, which was yummy, and heaps of papadum. YUMMEH!

Dinner, of course, is not complete without lime juice and lots of updating, gossiping and chit-chating. It was a blast and I had fun picking on the leftovers while listening to the conversation(s). It was awesome.

No pictures because when the non-camera folks (past and present) come together, we generally forget to take photos, even when we already HAVE camera phones. Or maybe it was because we were all too hungry to bother. lol.

I'm so glad we met up. I'm so glad to know them, to have them as firm friends. They are part of a small group of people I know whom I feel I have some kind of affinity with. Some things just click with them. And it doesn't happen very often. So I'm glad.