Ah... Life

Weird habit

2011-05-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

I proudly declare my love for drinking hot chocolate out from a bowl with a spoon.

Just like how people drink soup, but I drink hot chocolate.

For some reason, hot chocolate just taste better out of a bowl to me.

Oddball.

Why some men will always stay single.

2011-05-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello readers, this cracked me up in the midst of mundane exam studying, so I hope it brings some laughter to your day too!

Please read decription below before listening:

(Taken from this website, I did not write any of it)

The story is this: a girl was out with friends having drinks on King St (in Toronto ). This guy approaches her and won't leave her alone -saying how cute she is. She finally gives in and hands the guy her business card to get rid of him.
The attached is an MP3 file of not one, but TWO voicemails this guy left. This goes down in the history books - especially the second voice mail.
After hearing them you can clearly see why she didn't call him back - instead she called in to the Z103.5 morning show & had them play this on the air.

So, why do some men stay single? Well, honestly, I don't know. But in this particular case, it is pretty obvious.

This serves as a warning to all the girls out there, men like these exist!! Remember the voice. HAHA.

Spot on

2011-05-18T16:14:00.001-07:00

(Credits to http://www.demotivation.us/).

Break a leg

2011-05-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

A very good friend is having his string quartet composition performed live for the first time today!

Best of luck.

Happy hour

2011-05-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Slurping a caramel frappucino from Starbucks. With cream of course.

The best part is, its half priced! I love Starbucks happy hour.

Found a song with the most amusing name ever, its called 'Eat shit and die' by Electric President. Surprisingly, the song wasn't bad at all.

Exams starts in two days. Ready for war!

Related links:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3213714

The ruling of the wealthy

2011-05-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning from London! Started the morning with some news reading on the BBC website and found something that made me fueling with anger.

Extra England university places for wealthy considered

England is turning into a disgusting monster of elitism. First an increase of tuition fees of up to three folds and now this!?

Of course, I can regard this as good news to me, as it dramatically cuts down local competition for highly skilled jobs, but this is fundamentally unjust to working class youths that cannot afford a tertiary education!!!

I myself have been through the whole disheartening (but luckily successful) hunt for financial sponsorship for university, and I can imagine how most average high school students would feel dejected by these extra hurdles. And many would falter and give up.

How can the wealthy be permitted to buy their way into a university???

Why should they be given unfair advantage over the other students? Solely because their parents are richer than others?

Where is the academic integrity that education institutions pride themselves upon?

Also, students from outside EU would no longer be eligible for any grants and loans, so to this in particular,

GO TO HELL!

Parental guidence advised: Do not read if you are under 18

2011-05-09T16:39:00.001-07:00

TOLD YOU SO.

Double standards that we embrace

2011-05-05T02:35:00.000-07:00

First, read this:

Rules for Killing Rogues - By Victor David Handson

This was what exactly what went through my mind with I first heard of Osama's death.

So it is morally justificable and rejoiceable to assassinate your opponents when Obama does it? The success of this operation was seen as Obama's greatest achievement of his presidency to date and welcomed with utter jubilation by most of the world.

The right thing to do, would be to capture bin Laden alive and put him on trial. Although this means more debates and conflict on the legislation front, that could go on for years. I guess the Democrats would prefer to finish this bin Laden filecase that has been sitting on their tables for 10 years, and focus on winning the upcoming elections.

Hypocrisy right in our faces! This further proves that there are no real moral standards in this world, people just hear what they want to hear.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

2011-03-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

Great poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye about death, or rather, immortality. Enjoy!

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,

I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain,

I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,

I am in the graceful rush

Of beautiful birds in circling flight,

I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,

I am in a quiet room.

I am in the birds that sing,

I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave bereft

I am not there. I have not left.

AHHHH! Here comes the fart!

2011-01-14T04:28:00.000-08:00

11th January in history

The legendary Bing Crosby records one of his first hits – “Ol’ Man River” – with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

This was the beginning of Amelia Earhart’s solo flight trip across the Pacific. She was the first person to ever have flown across these waters by herself.

China and the United States signed a treaty that ended extraterritorial rights in China.

.
.
.
bla
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.
.
.
bla
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.
.
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and loads of other stuff
.
.
.
but only one thing that happened on 11th January that really made an impact in my life.

The Legend was born, a.k.a. Choo Geng Qian!

Thanks for being such an amazing friend + expedition mate. I really wouldn't know how to cope with ** without you!!

Eventhough you farted in my face, I still love you. Haha!

Eh, a skype gossip session is in order! Tell me when you free you busy woman. Tried to call you the other day but you weren't picking up :(

And sorry for the late post XD

Lastly,

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

祝你

心想事成
买马票，中头奖
青春美丽
天天都开心
白头偕老
不要太想我

还是想我好一点

Marvelous words

2011-01-11T14:00:00.001-08:00

Hi readers, what are you doing this Tuesday evening?

I want to share with you something I came across today. Some exceptional writings/poems by Siegfried Sassoon. It got me reading it a few times over. I hope you will like it as much as I do.

'I keep such music in my brain
No din this side of death can quell
Glory exulting over pain
And beauty, garlanded in hell'

' He was a consolation which grew to a spontaneous existance in my thoughts, and remained with me unfalteringly until gradually merged in the human presences which superceded him.'
- Extracted from 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting man'.

Have a good day.

Of peddlers, ceilings and tea

2011-01-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

We wanted something different, somewhere to get away from the cold, where we won't see another similar looking cathedral. (I don't care if it is claimed to be the biggest, grandest or whatever-est cathedral, they all look the same. Except La Sagrada Familia of course, which looks like a melted wax candle).

So us four girls decided to step foot onto AFRICA. Yeah babeh, we spent 10 days in the Kingdom of Morocco.

First stop was Fez. We arrived late evening and took a taxi straight to our riad. (Riad = Hostel/hotel).

This riad is seriously the most luxurious 'hostel' that I have slept in. All my student travels have been spent in 6 bed dorms. But this is exclusive, only the four of us.

A four poster queen sized bed. Slightly too romantic in our opinion, but never the less, very nice.

Check out the ceiling of our room! This is outrageous.

After we dumped our bags, oogled at our beautiful ceilings, and snapped some photos, we went out to hunt for food.

Staple food for Moroccans - Cous cous. With chicken and vegetables. This is yum.

Pastilla. A savory filling of shredded chicken, nuts, and loads of other ingredients, all wrapped in a crispy pastry sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was rather bizarre tasting dish. Didn't finish it.

Lovely kebab with their awesome homemade chips! Moroccan restaurants all sell chips that taste like how mums would make them at home. Lovely.

Washed it all down with a glass of mint tea, another Moroccan tradition.

Quickly walked around the old medina, and headed back to the riad for a good night's rest.

Next morning, had breakfast at the riad.

And headed out to get lost in the huge maze of narrow streets and specialty shops, called the old medina.

The most hazardrous transport in the old medina. Better watch out.

The array of things they sell are too much to handle, carpets, paintings, leather bags, blankets, spices.

The peddlers are often very loud and will try very hard to get you to look at their goods. It was quite a daunting experience.

Morocco is famous for leather goods. This is a tannery, where they clean the skins.

Some finished products for display.

Stopping for tea after walking

The main entrance of the old medina

Voted as photo of the day!

It a new year.... once again

2010-12-31T10:15:00.000-08:00

If there is one word to describe my expectations for year 2011, it is
UNCERTAINTY.

In fact, so uncertain that I cannot have any expectations for it at all.

First of all, I would be graduating next year in July. That at least I hope would be a fact that I can say for sure.

But what after?

A job? but what, where and when?

What job would I want to commit myself to at least for the next 2 years? One thing is for sure, I want it to be something that I enjoy, but again, what do I enjoy!?!

Malaysia or England? or perhaps Singapore? This doesn't really matter, each place has its pros and cons. Though England would be most less likely of all, considering circumstances.

Gap year? no gap year? Mum definitely says noooooo. Perhaps a compromise gap *half year* would do!

Post graduate? Still in consideration, the biggest question is Masters in what! Definitely not risk, and statistics related. Perhaps Philosophy, Sociology or Psychology. No, I am just kidding myself, I'd never be able to produce a 10,000 word dissertation. But then again, if I don't try, how would I ever know?

Starting from July 2011, I would be diving into the unknown. What is in store for me????

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining and not at all negative about it.

After all,
What is life without some excitement of the unknown?

May everyone have a great and exciting year ahead!!! Happy new year.

Love,
Chee Huan.

Preview: My Moroccan adventure!

2010-12-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

I just returned from Morocco two days ago!
It was one adventure filled with sand, colours and Moroccan people.
Will blog about it later :)

A little taster nevertheless.

Review: Jonsi's gig at Hammersmith Apollo

2010-11-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

*New post on my expedition is below the post 'How to build a kindergarten'*

With all the bombardment of the blog with my expedition stories, I thought it would be good to share a little of what I have been up to lately.

The truth is, my life have been pretty much a routine ever since I got back to London. Right now, I am busy with my part time job and studies, so thats the two things that I spend most time on. Of course not to mention all the mindless internet surfing and facebooking in between!

So last Friday after work, I went to hammersmith apollo to see Jonsi perform live. Jonsi was the guitarist and vocalist for the Icelandic post rock band, Sigur Ros. He has a solo career now and released an amazing album called 'GO' last year.

Check out his use of cello bow on the guitar! Awesome.

Jonsi isn't typically the kind of music I listen to, but after Andy introduced his songs to me 2 months ago, I was hooked to his falsetto voice and very intense emotion of his music.

Here's a little taster of his live act.

'go live' preview from Jónsi on Vimeo.

The concert started off with the opening act of some band from Canada. It was pretty disasterous in my opinion. The music wasn't too bad, as it bear some resemblence to the experimental genre, but the male vocal was not up to par and worst of all, is extremely Elvis Presley inspired.

An hour after the opening act, Jonsi finally made an appearance with an unreleased song. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the song, but I do know that I loved it. The main instrument was the acoustic guitar and Jonsi's soothing voice was a perfect start to the evening. Updated. The song was 'Stars in still water'.

He went on the perform several more unreleased numbers and those from his album 'Go', each one better than the previous. I was particularly looking forward to my favorite song from the album, 'kolniður', however, I was slightly disappointed as somehow, as it didn't come across as powerful as I expected it to be.

But he made a come back with 'Around us' and blew us all away with the last number 'Grow till tall'. A combination of the images projected in the background, flashing lights, and increasingly thumping beat of the last part in 'Grow till tall' made everything so intense to take in. It was definitely mind blowing for me, and I believe, many others in the concert hall would agree with that. All along the concert, I could see several heads bobbing to the music and I found myself tapping my foot to the beat too.

The performance left me with goosebumps all over and a big smile on my face. I will definately look forward to another Jonsi live performance in the near future.

He will be performing in Japan, Seoul, and finally his home country Iceland next. So for those who are in the cities, do attend as it would be well worth every penny.

Here's an incredibly powerful and beautiful song, Kolniður:

Have you experienced the power of Jonsi's or Sigur Ros's live performances? Do share them with me in the comment box!

How to build a Kindergarten

2010-11-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

*New post underneath this post!

Here is what we did for all 3 phrases in Raleigh expedition.

Photos were taken by my project manager. She took the photos everyday from the same angle at different times of the day (18minutes later each day), so it has the effect of a kindergarten building up in the span of one day.

Yes, I am proud to say, we made a difference.

Music composed by a fellow venturer, Andy C, while in Borneo.

My Raleigh story in Photos (Part III)

2010-10-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hello dearies! I feel a sudden urge to upload some more photos of my expedition on this lovely Sunday afternoon. The weather is rapidly getting colder day by day, its already snowing loads up north, so I just pray that it doesn't reach London! When people get older, they no longer do snow fights, thus the only thing left with snowing is the horrid slippery roads when the ice melts.

A big sorry to my expedition mates, especially GQ, for the long delay for phrase 2 and 3 photos. By the way, I am debuting my Phrase 2 photos right here, so that means the blog readers get to see my photos first hand! Yippee :) Some exclusivity huh?

Here goes:

Phrase 2 - Environmental project at Sepilok

Our job - Complete the boardwalk for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center.

FYI, the Sun Bear is an endangered species found primarily in Southeast Asia. They are the smallest species in the bear family and can be identified through the distinct white patch on their chest. Like every human has unique finger prints, no two white patches are the same.

These bears face threats of extinction mainly due to deforestation and illegal poachers. The Sun bear conservation center (SBCC) takes in baby sun bears (most of their mothers have been killed by poachers), rehabilitate them, and set them free into the wild when the bears are ready to feed themselves.

As part of their awareness raising campaign (and fund raising), they are opening a visitor center somewhere in year 2011. Thus, my team was there for 3 weeks to help build a boardwalk leading to the visitor center.

Our home (Jungle Camp as we call it) is a 45minutes walk + trek to the worksite. So lots of walking involved everyday!

This is our worksite when we found it. The frame was made by teams from the last expedition.

We started by finding used wood that is usable, and started debolting them. Debolting is the most tedious part of the project! I can still rmb wrestling with the spanners to get them out of the extremely rusty bolts. Not fun.

Then it went on to drilling. Not an easy job, but friendships bonded along the way (lets say lots of girl chat was involved in the process)

We had unexpected visitors in Jungle camp one day.

Thats just one of them by the way. There were 3 orang utans that swung by that day! They were rehabilitated by the nearby orang utan center and released into the wild after that. So, technically, these were wild orang utans we were seeing!

Some days later, one alpha male orang utan actually CAME IN to our dining area and started trashing about the place, in the presence of GQ, J-Mo, Nabo and Tomnus (No, these are not their real names, just nicknames)! Argh, why wasn't I there too!!??

We also decided to organise a fancy dress party to spice up our time in Sepilok! I have never been involved in any kind of costume party before, so here goes my debut costume.

Hmm, you'd probably not be able to guess what it is, so I will just tell you. I intended to be a Malay warrior! Well, I do look vaguely like one, you have to at least give me credit for the glamorous head gear, sarung, and ultra tanned skin, no?

Loved Mica's 3 leaves idea, and Nils 3 bowls costume that reminds me of Mr.whatshisname in one of Enid Blyton's books! FYI, he is a character with saucepans of different sizes and colours hung around his body, and he never remembers his name, so people just call him whatshisname!

On the last day, we held an opening ceremony for our bridge, complete with red ribbon cutting (in our case, AWAS tape cutting) and our very own awards ceremony!

I was awarded the 'BEST CHEENIUS'. Justified, I would say :)

My Raleigh story in Photos (Part II)

2010-10-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! Sorry for the stagnant state of my blog, but I have been extremely busy since coming back to London. Have been bogged down by settling in my new flat, getting internet connection, finding a part time job, and of course, studying (To be fair, I haven't been doing much of it since term started XD).

Finally, I got the camera cable from my brother (since I left mine back in Malaysia), so here are some selected photos of phrase 1! Its only a selected few, for more photos, please check out my facebook. For phrase 2 and 3, I am debuting my photos here, so stay tuned!

Phrase 1 : Kindergarten project at Kampung Maliau Layung

This village is located at Pitas district in Sabah. Sabah is the poorest state in Malaysia, and Pitas is the poorest district in Sabah, so you can imagine la.

This is the first time Raleigh is working in the village. Thus, our team has the mission to complete the foundations of the kindergarten and break the ice between the villagers and Raleigh venturers.

This is the kampung.

And this is our work site. I took this photo after a few days of work, so you can see that most of the main poles are already up. We started with completely flat land with some tree stumps.

One week later, joices went in.

While we take a break.

By the third and last week, the floorboards went on and we took our breaks lying on the wooden platform.

Of course, its not all just construction work!

We also tried to teach some english to the kids.

Made giant dominoes game set with some extra help.

Some had a mudfight in the middle of heavy rain, which later became apparent that it wasn't a very wise choice at all because villagers pee and poo everywhere ;)

At the end of 3 weeks, the villagers organised a farewell party for us! Out comes the traditional gongs.

The traditional dance.

Before we left, we made sure to leave our mark.

Good bye Kampung Maliau Layung! I will be back soon :)

My Raleigh story in Photos!

2010-09-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

On 1st July 2010, the HCVs (Home Country Venturers) arrived at Kota Kinabalu. We came pouring into Field Base, fresh faced, clean and ultimately, confused...... Not knowing what we signed up for XD

After introductions and lunch, we headed off to TAC to get started on training. The international venturers arrive a day later, so we get a head start!

Jom bertolak!

This is where we slept.

When the international venturers arrived, we performed 'Rasa Sayang' to welcome them!

We were then put into different groups to commence name games and training.

This is my group - Delta 4. I was blocked out somewhere :(

Playing games.

Demonstrating how to use the parang.

Best part of TAC. Trek training!!

During trek.

It wasn't an easy trek as it pissed down with rain in the afternoon. The river rose quickly and some people had to move their hammocks to higher ground. We were wet, muddy and cold. But weirdly enough, we were happy! We left feeling that we could conquer everything and anything for the next 10 weeks.

Phrase 1 photos - Kindergarten at Kampung Maliau Layung would be uploaded soon!

My Raleigh experience.

2010-09-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

P/S: Long written post ahead, if reading isn't for you, please come back in a week as I will be posting selected photos of my expedition. thanks!

Imagine being stranded in an unfamiliar place, together with 11 people you have literally just met, all striving to achieve a common goal that most of you have never done before.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster? It bloody is. But somehow, with a miraculous turn, it turned out to be one of the best episodes of my life.

Over the whole course of Raleigh, I helped to build the foundation of a kindergarten at Kampung Maliau Layung, completed the boardwalk for a bridge at the Sun Bear Conservation Center, obtained my PADI open water diving license and planted coral at Mamutik Island, and trekked for 11 days in the beautiful Long Pasia.

Up till this moment, it still feels surreal to me that I helped to provide an education opportunity for the young children and also contributed to the fundraising efforts to save the sun bears. Work was challenging at the construction site as I have never properly hammered a nail, dug so many 3 feet deep holes, or sawed wood while hanging on to a pole before! But when I think of the difference that I am making, all of the effort and sweat is definitely worth it 100 times over.

Of course, the expedition isn't just about what we built and where we went. More important are the lessons we learnt along the way, friendships bonded in the process and all the highs and lows we went through together.

I wasn't expecting to experience a culture shock in my own country. Kampung Maliau Layung, possibly one of the poorest places in Malaysia, showed me a whole new face to my homeland. Never in my life have I met people that smile so sincerely at strangers, so content with the things we take for granted, and so generous to share the little things that they have. It is through them, that I realised how blessed my life had been.

Living amongst the Brits also taught me some precious lessons. I am definitely more confident in expressing my opinions, more eloquent in doing so, and more comfortable with leading and decision making. Not to mention participating in the occasional banter and refuting sarcasms ;P
Although I study in London, most english people I met at university are just mere acquaintance. But after the expedition, I am proud to say that I have made several strong, perhaps even life-long friendships with my expedition mates.

Expedition also made me realised that my boundaries are limitless. I could never imagine that I would volunteer to take the radio on trek (also on the longest trek - nearly 7 hours walking), walk 13km in a day to transport our kit and food to the project site, not bath for 4 days in a row, and not scream at the sight of leeches. Geng Chian and I also managed the impossible ---> gaining weight on trek!

Alongside challenges, fun times are always happening during the past 10 weeks.
Best moments were:

James head dived into some dubious substance that smells and looks like poo during a mudfight.

Singing along to Disney songs while digging.

The look on Nils's face when he first tried cempedak.

Having a rave with the villagers to tradisional music.

Debs and Mica doing their signature dance across the boardwalk of the bridge we built at the Sun Bear Conservation Center.

Witnessed an orang utan stole our medkit and ran away with it (we got it back in the end, phew. Cheeky monkeys with a bag full of drugs isn't good news).

Doing the YMCA and macarena dance while diving (not to mention all the rude hand signals and *ahem* that happened underwater) ;p

Showering under the waterfall with all of us shivering under the freezing water and howling in pain when the water pelted on our backs.

Trying to outdo each other in the 'Best fall competition' and 'How many leeches have you got competition' during trek.

The time when GQ farted straight into my face. NIGHTMARE but admittedly pretty funny!

Cutting Pip's hair (It turned out pretty well, luckily :p)

Every moment together with the HCVs :)

Although the expedition is over, but the Raleigh spirit will continue to live on in all of us. What is the spirit you ask?? To me, it is the courage to challenge your limits, the will to make a difference, and the desire to live a life out of the ordinary. LIVE ON!

Comments would be much appreciated!

Leavin for 10 weeks

2010-07-01T04:21:00.000-07:00

Peeps!

2nd July - 9th Sept

I am currently in the Sabahan Jungle, being fed to mosquitoes.

Come back soon for updates on my expedition adventures!

I promise I won't disappoint.

Till then,

Over and out.

RA RA RA... RALEIGH SPIRIT! !

2010-06-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

I am counting down the days to my Raleigh International Expedition to Borneo.

On 2nd July 2010, I will leave the comforts of home to challenge my limits in rural areas of Sabah for 10 weeks.

I will be involved in 3 weeks of community service, 3 weeks of environmental work, and 3 weeks of adventure stuff.

I asked myself a thousand times before I made this decision.

Do I really want to spend my whole summer vacation doing this?
Can I survive for 10 weeks without any modern technology?
Can I get along with the other venturers (who would be mostly Brits) when I don't even have many Brit friends while studying in London?
Being physically inclined as I am, would my team mates see me as a burden when hiking?
Would the buildings or bridges that I helped to build be hazardous to the people who use it?

Most of all, CAN I JUST SHIT IN A HOLE DUG ON THE GROUND
out in the open with insects buzzing and possibly a squirrel watching?
When I went for the introduction week, I tried my best not to use the 'hole' (Ok la, its proper name is 'long drop') for 2 days... But I don't think I can avoid using it for 10 weeks XD

Now, you'd probably ask why in the world did I chose to do it.
The answer is,

I AM PROBABLY CRAZY
as with all the other Raleighians.

But let me tell you one thing,
crazy people have the most fun, and do the most exciting things.

I was joking, I assure you, Raleighians are very sane people. But we do have lots of fun and exciting things going on :)

The thing is, I have always wanted to help underprivileged people (honestly). I once volunteered with World Vision, doing some super boring admin work.
This is different.
Its my only chance to build a school/water gravity feed system with my own bare hands (Not literally, I will have hammers and nails... >.<).
The best part is, I get to see how my contributions are really leaving an impact on the local people.

This is the first time in a long time to step out of my comfort zone, to do something totally out of my league.

Am I scared?
Very.

Am I prepared to take the challenge?
HELL YEAH.

Want to learn more about Raleigh International? Click here

Alternatively, here is a more interesting blog about a previous Borneo expedition early this year. Every time I read it, I get all hyped up to go :) Give it a try!

As far as preparations go, I just brought my air ticket to Kota Kinabalu yesterday (which cost me a bloody 640 ringgit), have not brought any of the equipment needed (Waiting for equipment briefing), and have not got any of the vaccinations required (going to Dr. Kung's clinic tmr!).

Hopefully everything will be done by next week.

For some reason, my mom is extremely worried that I will encounter a crocodile, tiger, ____(enter name of deadly animal here). TOUCH WOOD.

Some thoughts.

2010-06-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Peeps!

I am done with 5 papers. Now left with one more to go on Monday, then........ the sweet taste of freedom. 'Gladiator's ost - Now we are free' playing in the background.

I rarely (Ok, lets be completely honest here) I NEVER update myself with any Malaysian news while in London. But this afternoon, I had a sudden surge of patriotism and decided to keep myself updated with news at home. Bad move.

"Woman dies in fire as bhp staff refuse to loan fire extinguisher"

You can read the full story here:

http://komuniti.malaysiakini.com/news/woman-dies-in-fire-as-bhp-staff-refuse-to-loan-fire-extinguisher

Story cut short,

2am in the morning
Accident happens -> Woman pinned in car, screaming for help -> passerby saw engine catching fire -> Passerby ran to the BHP station to get a fire extinguisher -> BHP staff refuses to open the door -> Passerby insists -> BHP staff claims management does not allow loans of fire extinguishers to public -> Passerby insists again, this time offering his identity card as collateral -> Staff refuses again -> Woman burnt to death.

How depressing. But can we blame anyone?????? Of course, the reckless drivers that caused the accident. But, what is most debateable is, should the BHP staff be held into account?

First of all, I was perplexed by BHP's policy on fire extinguishers.

His requests were denied, the staff claiming that the management did not allow the loan of fire extinguishers to the public.

What nonsense. Surely, no one would come looking for fire extinguishers for fun. It is only when disaster strikes, when lives are at stake that we will need one. What are you guys trying to say? That a life is not worth one of your bloody expensive extinguishers? Thats coporate social responsibility at its rotting core.

(Of course, this is just based on what is claimed by their staff, I do not know if they really have this kind of rubbish policy, and since all their staff are probably horribly trained, what they claim might not be true).

BHP government relations manager Abdul Kaiyum when contacted claimed that the BHP attendants refused to open the door for Teo as he was not ‘acting calmly’ when asking for assistance.

Every single second counts in a life death situation. Just because he came running and shouted to hand the extinguisher over, doesn't mean he wasn't calm. To me, he acted with absolute rationale, running to find a fire extinguisher instead of panicking like what most people would do.

What were they expecting? A dashing young man in a suit, saying "Excuse me sir, but a woman's car engine is catching fire and she is trapped inside, would you be so kind to lend me your fire extinguisher so that she doesn't have to die?"

In defence of the staff in charge, he said that the two of them previously had been attacked and beaten up by assailants while on duty at the station.

Ok, this is a justifiable defence. After all, it was 2am and it can get pretty scary when a frantic man come knocking on the door. Robbers are getting smarter ( more immoral) these days, preying on the human compassion. I have been told to never stop the car if a bloody man asks for a lift to the hospital at night, because thats a trap to rob you. Once again, we see the decaying morality of society. :(((

But then again, when such a big accident happens nearby, people nearby would surely have heard the crash?? I have heard the sound of a small accident before, and it was LOUD. This surely would have been much louder. If BHP is near enough for him to run to, surely they would have heard the crash and would be able to verify his story.

(I do not know how close BHP was to the site of crash, so this is just an assumption.)

“I was willing to leave my IC with the staff as a guarantee, but they refused,”

What kind of stupid assailant would give you a photo identity when robbing you? If you say it might be fake, well, does it even matter? Photos don't lie, as long as the photo on the id looks like the person, then its good enough.... and this the staff can verify.

That said, no one really knew how the situation was at the time. The passerby might be a beefy guy with dragon tattoos pounding on the door of BHP. Or the staff were just too selfish and wouldn't give a shit if a woman dies, in case the company wants them to pay for the extinguisher out of their monthly paychecks.

How I wish we could go back to the days when people leave their house doors wide open all day and need not worry about parang-wielding barbarians come crashing in.

Those days are long over.

Quick Update

2010-05-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Its that time of the year again. Exams. So far, I am done with my Finance paper, and have 5 more to go. Finance was not easy, but I predict greater challenges ahead (Statistics in particular). It feels like eternity, having to study everyday until 7th June.

The weather is nice and warm ( its 25 celcius outside) with an occasional cool breeze, the English call it 'boiling hot', but they really don't know what 'boiling hot' is. They even call the pathetic sprinkle of water from the sky as rain.

I call this Ice Cream weather, where everyone strolls along the street with an ice cream cone in hand. And there's me, inside looking out, with a book at hand. To make things worse, most of my friends are done with their exams, so I hear conversations like these everyday:

"Eh, what should we do today ar?"
"Dunno, how about Hyde Park, or some food market, or we can just sleep for the whole day."

"R talked about going to Lake District the other day, is it still on?"
"You bet. Lets go visit Bath as well!"

"ZL asked to go for dimsum at China Town... They are having a 50% discount!"

Wow, look at all the things I am missing.

I am not complaining that LSE starts exams so late... Extra time to study is precious.

So, I am blaming it on UCL instead. Why do you end exams so early?? Just to make me miserable ar??

*Ok, I know I sound very depressed, but do not worry, I am still very much sane., just a lil exhausted.*

Pray for me ppl, I need all the luck to face exams.... It will be one heck of a ride.

Cheers,
CH.

Lobster noodle @ Hakkasan

2010-05-03T02:57:00.000-07:00

So far, the best chinese restaurant I have tried in London would definitely be Hakkasan, located in Soho (near Tottenham Court Road station).

I have been there 3 times and the food & service has always been excellent! Of course, what do you expect from a Michelin star chef? Not to mention the very charming waiter on my 2nd visit ;D

The restaurant boasts a high profile clientele, so photograpy isn't encouraged within. But during my last visit, the lobster noodle (龙虾伊面） looked so good that I HAD to whip out my camera (its my brother's camera actually, since I left mine at home XD).

The gravy was absolutely divine... Lobster broth shimmered for 8 hours! Yes, I kid you not, 8 hours.

OK OK. Enough of the noodles!!!!!!!!

I love the red flower (rose?) on the table.

I like the above photo of my brother. Credit to the photographer.... ME. hehehe

We ordered some mocktails to wash everything down.

The best one was the green coloured drink. It has a really cute name too! ---> Washing potatoes. Haha! Don't worry, no potatoes inside, only kiwi, lime, and the magic ingredient, coriander!! Extremely refreshing, tried and tested ;P

I look so frumpy in my yellow top. Will nvr wear it again XD

Dessert. I love this mango rice pudding! Served slightly warm, it is creamy and satisfying. A great way to end the meal.

Have I got you drooling over your keyboard???

Hyde Park in Spring

2010-04-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

This boy has extremely pink cheeks! And he just stands rooted to one spot for agessss... I guess he was waiting for me to take a photo of him :)))) He's adorable!

Some camwhoring photos XD Please skip if you have a weak heart!!

Have a nice day everyone!!!

The sun is here to see us!

2010-04-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

As some of you might know, I was supposed to travel to Porto on Saturday.
But all plans went to the garbage bin due to the volcano ashes blanketing Europe.

So I went to Regents Park instead.

Weather in London is getting extremely pleasent nowadays. The sun is shining, temperature is just right (18 - 20 celcius), flowers are blooming..... Spring is officially here!

Unfortunately, this is the time when students have to lock ourselves up in the room and study for the upcoming exams..... Why can't we have exams in January instead? I don't mind staying in during the cold weather!

Anyways, look at the lush green gardens!!!

SPOTTED:

1) Bride in beautiful white dress!

2) BUTT CRACK

Can you spot them??

Rotten Luck.

2010-04-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

"Oh no! Uguys heard of the volcanic ashes from Iceland? They are cancelling flights out of UK today and the news say that it might last a week :("
Text from Liyana, dated 15th April 2010.

Liyana, Ruui and I were due to travel to Portugal and Spain during 17th April 2010. As of today 18th April, we are still in London.

Will try to get refunds on air tickets. But will probably lose money on the coach tickets between different cities.

To everyone stranded in a foreign country trying to get home, I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

Hairy affair

2010-04-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

Look at my hair!!!!!!!

Sorry, I was looking real hard for a photo thats shows my hair better, but this is the only one decent enough.

This was taken quite some time ago, when I had a fringe.

But you get the idea, my hair was out of shape, way too thick, and way too long.

Since haircuts in London are expensive (25pounds is considered reasonable, anything less means lousy haircuts that will make you wished you were never borned). *exaggeration intended*,
I decided to bear with it till I return home.

But while walking on the streets one day, a young lady approached me to offer me a haircut absolutely free!

She is a trainee at Toni and Guy, and needed a model for her assessment this afternoon.

I thought Toni and Guy is quite reputable, so I decided to give it a go!

Results:

Sorry, camera out of focus XD Lets try again.

Tada!

I would prefer it to be shorter, but to be safe, I told her to just snip off 1 inch. My head actually feels a tad bit lighter XD But I think its not much difference from the old hair.

What do you think?

P/S: My hair feels extremely dry, any recommendations from you girls out there?

I made lunch!

2010-04-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

I have been living in London for almost 2 years now, but this is first time I made something nice for lunch.

The blessings of a catered hall :) Lots of time (and effort) saved from shopping for groceries, planning the menu and washing up after each meal.

However, we don't have a proper kitchen in the hall, so I could only buy some ready made stuff and assemble them.

Here is what I made!

Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel!

Unfortunately, thats just an image I got from the website XD

Mine doesn't look half as good...

Wanted to take a photo with the salmon, but failed.

I look forward to moving out next year, then I can have a say on what I feel like eating. Its probably better for me to watch my diet too!

Pre-exams syndrome = excessive snacking = weight gain :((((((

I need more self control! (Says me while munching on a cinnamon roll saved from breakfast).

Thats me.

The most happening dad in the world!

2010-04-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

ITS MY DAD.

PERIOD.

Reason?

Scoll down please.
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Cute? You ain't seen nothing yet.
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Need I say more?

Quoted from my brother: 'Now I know where all my mad hatter moments came from.'

Well, you are not alone brother.

Good old Japanese food

2010-04-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

I used to love Japanese cuisine, but my fiery passion for it died when I discovered something new --> Korean cuisine (Probably due to its spiciness, endless amounts of side dishes and how ppl in the movies/dramas look so greedy in every meal scene).

So when my cousin invited me to a Japanese restaurant with her friends 2 days ago, I was estatic! Its been a long time since I had a proper Japanese meal, and I really do miss it.

We went to 'Sushi Bento' near Southgate station (in zone 4).

Here is the menu of the night!

Starter 1:

A wooden boat filled with sushis and sashimis. The boat comes with a sail attached! But you can't see it in this photo XD

A close up shot of what's on the boat. We wholloped everything in 10 mins (there were 6 of us btw). All ingredients used were extemely fresh, a pre-requisite for good Jap food ;)

Starter 2:

Another sushi platter.
The 'salmon and salmon skin roll' (two outer rows of sushis) is the best amongst all.

Starter 3:

A variety of sashimi dipped in a sourly sauce. The sauce is really really really tasty :p

Main courses:

'Nasu den' - Grilled aubergine with sweet bean paste. 2 thumbs up!

'Ebi Tobikko' - grilled fresh king prawn with Tobikko mayonnaise sauce.
I thought it tasted just like normal mayo XD

'Kinoko yaki' - Baked wild Japanese mushroom in light butter sauce.
I am proud to be a mushroom lover!

No introduction needed for this I suppose? Its the all famous Unagi bento!

Seafood ramen in chilli based soup. Kinda spicy.

By the way, we had 2 portions of each main course listed above. What a bunch of hungry monsters!

Dessert:

Green tea and Black Sesame flavoured ice cream.
I prefer Black Sesame, Green tea was too thick for me.

Oh, there was this too:

Sake!

Had a sip to taste. Didn't like it though XD Alchohol never taste nice to me.

We left the restaurant with a super full tummy........ and 28pounds lighter in our wallets.

Sorry for neglecting you for a long time my old friend, I will start to go Japanese restaurant hunting again soon! I promise ;)

Dear Ler, I am sure you are having a great time in Rome now.... thats including loads of good food. So, we are fair!!

Road Trip in America

2010-03-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps! Fancy a 10 day road trip in the United States?

How about it being absolutely free of charge??

Well, you could very well be the lucky person to win this lucky draw competition by TrekAmerica!!

Go ahead, click on the link below, and just fill in your name and particulars.

On 1 condition : If you do win, pls pls pls let me be one of your 7 mates!

Link:
http://eightmates.trekamerica.co.uk/?uniqueId=9d234764-d797-4ac3-a522-4b6b7c706e32

Good Luck everyone!

UCL Dance Show

2010-03-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

Are we human?

Or are we dancers?

(Lyrics from 'Human' by The Killers)

WELL, we may very well be dancers. Because everything would be much more exciting!

I went for UCL's Annual Dance Show on Friday night, and I have to say, the show was
DOPE DOPE DOPE.

I even hate to say this, but overall, it was loads better than the LSE dance show (But we had a few really good pieces as well!!)

And, this time, I took many videos, so I can share the joy with you, my readers!

See I love you guys so much, holding the camera while trying to enjoy the dance. Its hardwork you know! So pls do click the 'play' button!

Lets start with my fav routine of the night:

Some Bad Romance

Throw in some bboys!

This is swing dance?? Not too sure, but it sure is something different for the night!

Oh Oh! Banghra! This is a nice one

Cha Cha Cha!

Vindicated

Everything wouldn't be complete without at Micheal Jackson medley!!
One of the best of the night.

Triller

Thats the few good dances that I video-ed that night. I have a couple more videos that I didn't upload because it was simply not up-to-par.

All in all, I was really impressed with the quality of performance. After all, this was a student production and the 4 pounds tickets were absolutely worth it!!! Will be back for more next year *wink*

I hoped you enjoyed the videos and
Thanks for watching!

Imperial College students have other talents too!

2010-02-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, I intended to be sarcastic.

Admit it guys, Imperial College （IC) students = geeks (Yes, thats including my dear brother.. no favoritism here!)

However, we saw a different side of them tonight. The evil side, the sissy side, even the inner Micheal Jackson side of the Malaysian community in IC.

All of these were showcased in their annual Malaysian night - Born to be Vile

To make things even better, my brother is part of the performance crew!!

I am sorry, I have to post this up. I have to!

You did a fanstastic job! Particularly loved the Indian dance and Dikir Barat. Oh, not the mention, the electrician scene ;)

(Warning: If you did not attend the play, you will find the following to be complete jibberish, as I am too lazy to explain the plot)

The opening dance. ACT COOL LA NOW

Microhard's CEO, Bill Backgates. YESSSS

Dikir barat with a modern twist. I know your name is not UCL, LSE or even Kings la, its Imperial, no need to remind us so many times!!!!

Stomp. GO BACK TO WORK!

Donald Tiram's Tiram Tower.

Overall, I can see that tremendous effort have been put to this production. And I enjoyed seeing how everyone on stage is having a good time performing. Great job guys!

My favorites from the play:

1) Di mana ada gula, di situ ada gula-gula.

2) Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik tak hujan!

3) Gajah mati meninggal gading, udang mati meninggal kulit, manusia mati meninggal...... dunia.

4) Diam-diam ubi berisi, diam diam orang..... bisu

5) *guys playing DOTA* One said, "Wah, look at this fella, nickname is must-get-first-class-88" Then all of them shouted together, "MUST BE SINGAPOREAN LA!"

6) Health minister: "Errr, dis sos tiram ah, er... is not good la. It has kasinogen in it... so, err, it is not healthy la..... so... ban la"

7) "My house destroyed, my partners took over all my business, and me declared officially dead. All these happened just in one day.... Why, its sounds like the beginning of a really bad play!"

Ok, now I have to take back what I said about the Imperial people.... they are no longer geeks! Instead, now

Imperial College students = talented geeks!

Isn't that a compliment????

Pollocks Toy Museum

2010-02-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

I am getting so nostalgic huh? My last post was about childhood, and now, I am going to write about my visit to the Pollocks Toy Museum!!!!

They claim to be the last Victorian Toy Theatre printers. Check out all the cardboard theaters behind me!

Here's what you see looking through the small hole. I find it really fascinating! Different layers of cardboard managed to give an illusion of 3D effect.

Toy theatres are like TVs in the old days. Imagine a roomful of people fixing their eyes in a small cardboard made thingy, with characters sliding in and out of different scenes. I really want to watch one someday!

The stairs are filled with exibits of old board and card games.

There was this too:

I have no idea what you call it, but just put the strip of photos in the cylinder, rotate it at a good speed, and we see motion in the photos! Something like a flipbook, get it?

This is the very first version of Jack in a box....　It didn't start out as a real box with a creepy clown inside, instead, it was just an illusion trick!

Something interesting. Snakes and ladders is actually a religious Hindu game. Do bad deeds and you end up going down a snake head to hell. Do good and climb up the ladders to divinity!!

Loads of freaky dolls that girls like to play with (why??) :

The one on the right looks like an overweight grown man dressed in a petticoat.

Burnt victim?? Gotta love the hair.

Woho! Bare naked ladies!!

Teddy bear with a telephone.

Doll house. You prob can't see from here, but these are really small toys. The red doll on the bottom right corner is smaller than my little finger.

Ok, this was taken in the toy shop. We were reading this children's book about "What if I were an elephant?"

Well.....

Haha!

Outside the museum.

LAST PHOTO!

GET READY FOR THIS!!!

HAHAHA!

Reminiscence of Childhood

2010-02-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked back to the time when you were a carefree, hyperactive, and excessively annoying kid with nothing-better-to-do other than play with toys and watch cartoon on tv all day?

(Phew, that was one long sentence. Congratulations for reading it till the end!)

What were the toys that accompanied you through your childhood?
Do you still have them stored in a dark cupboard somewhere in your attic?

Here are some things I rmb from my early days:

1) Polly Pocket. The oh-so-cute mini dollhouse and mini plastic figures that only bends at the waist and have a round plate as feet.

2) Lego. Really enjoyed messing around with the colourful plastic pieces, but never built anything worth mentioning though. The best I ever did was a brick wall....
Hi, Lego man!

3) Barbie???? I had a few of those. Thinking back, I still can't understand why I liked this one. They look utterly bimbotic to me now.

4) Snake and Ladders. My favorite board game!

5) Jengga. FYI, I was quite good at this... My bro and I even got creative and used the wood blocks to construct a spaceship!!! Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

6) Barney the Purple Dinosaur. I love you, you love me, we are happy family~

7) Sesame Street. I LOVE Elmo & Cookie Monster. Big Bird freaks me out though. Still does.

Haha! Amazing times...

SMILE!

Apple's new toy.... The iPad

2010-02-02T16:44:00.000-08:00

Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably would have known Apple introduced their latest innovation, iPad, not long ago.

Watch Steve Job's presention here : http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Its features are definately impressive (best web surfing experience, 140000 applications at your fingertips, bla bla bla...) But there is one tiny flaw----> Its bloody impractical to use.

Unlike normal laptops, the iPad cannot stand on its own. The best way is to prop it up on your thighs when you are sitting on a couch, like this:

But in real life, we don't get the privilege to sit on couches all the time. In that case, we need to rely on our hands to do the job. Like this:

Imagine watching a movie with the large, high resolution screen.... in that position for 2 hours.

This is what you get:

(Note the different expressions on Mr.Stickman!)

Ok la, maybe some of you are thinking: "Aiya, which idiot will hold it like that for 2 hours??? Put it on a flat surface to watch it la!”

True, in that case....

Despite that, I would still love to have one very much... The reason? Because like all other Apple products, this one has the "cool" factor to it.

I mean, who doesn't want to be seen holding an extra large version of the iTouch, right???

Quarantined

2010-01-13T04:51:00.000-08:00

Your connection was throttled to 128Kbps (16KBytes/s) at 13:45 Saturday 9/1/2010 because you exceeded your 7.0GB weekly cap.

WTF.

Well, I don't deny streaming ALOT more movies online last week.
But come on, its Christmas holidays!
We should be given the discretion to watch whatever crap we want, how much we want.

Now, even loading the FT website takes agessss

Next time, I will monitor my usage closely.
Make sure I use 6.9GB EXACTLY every week.
Thats what you call maximisation!

Guess what came in the post ytd????

2010-01-07T02:10:00.000-08:00

A BABY

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Introducing my brand new 'just arrived yesterday' baby!
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BLACKBERRY CURVE 8520!

My webcam's photo quality is quite crappy so it does my bb no justice.

I wanted the one in violet, but Vodafone only has bb's in black?
Not sure, because I forgot to mention the colour when I ordered it on the phone and the sales guy didn't ask either.
So I am assuming they only have 1 colour option.

So much for my pink phone dream!
Well, perhaps another time then.
Since my dream phone (Samsung Haptic in pink) is only for sale in Korea.

Till then,
I am very contented with this.

Cologne. Part 1!

2010-01-04T04:17:00.000-08:00

I HATE hassles. Especially when changing service providers in UK... Why do they need to lock your mobile phone and number!? Isn't it our rights to change to whichever service providers that we wish without that extra hassle of unlocking everything???

Sorry for the random rant. Lets continue with the main content---> germany!

Durgha and I stayed in Severin's house for the whole duration of our trip. Our train got delayed due to 'extreme weather conditions' (quoted from the announcements made at the train station), so we arrived in Cologne 3 hours after our expected arrival time.... around 9pm I recall.

And we were STARVING... Sev's mum prepared a wonderful dinner and we took a walk down the river after filling ourselves to the brim... YUMS. Sorry, no photos were taken as we were too busy with the food...

But here's one with sev and parents.

Next morning, we walked to the famous dome of Cologne. Climbed up some everlasting spiral stairs till the top of the clock tower to get a bird-eye's view of the city... I swear, half way up, I was starting to think the staircase was never coming to an end. And as you might know, being a physically inclined person as I am, it took massive effort for me to reach the top. XD

But the view was worth it!

As you can see, the top was all caged because some maniac jumped down the tower to kill himself, but he landed on a pregnant lady... so basically 3 lifes was lost that day. The bars all around made me feel safe in a way, because I have a "teeny" fear for heights.

We then went the awesome Christmas market right outside the dome.

So much food and cookies!! My favorite.

I'll end with another random comment... I love blog wars!

Happy New Year 2010!!!!

2010-01-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

Its already year 2010. I hope everyone had a great time counting down! As for me, I went to embankment to watch the fireworks display at London Eye. The display this year was much better compared to last year's.... AND at 15 minutes past midnight, it started to snow!! The snow didn't last for very long, but it came at the right time~

And then, I got pickpocketed.

They took my phone! Now I am searching for a new phone. Any recommendations?

I am currently looking at the Blackberry Curve 8920 Gemini

The classic black one.

or

The girly violet one.

I'd probably go for the violet one, as I have always wanted a pink phone. Besides, black is too common. Don't you think so?

Paris Je'taime - Part 3

2009-12-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

This greeted us the moment we open our doors in the morning. SNOW!!

My toes were FREEZING... since I was just wearing a pair of sneakers and 2 layers of socks.

Went to Sa Creca, where according to Durgha, is THE place for a great view of the city....

Alas, we chose the wrong day to go.. due to the snow and fog, we couldn't see much from the top.

HMPHH...

So we decided to go indoors...

How Chrismasy! Snow outside, cool Christmas deco, and a cute Santa Claus with at least a convincing beard...

Went for a walk at night...

Thats it in Paris!!

Packed my bags, and was on the go again.. this time to Cologne, Germany!!!

Due to the snow, our train was delayed for 1++ hours..... Huddled around the heaters in the station while waiting.

When the train finally came, there was such chaos around! People no longer sit according to their allocated seat numbers, they just grab the nearest available seat... Luckily, my seat was still empty when I got to it.. phew! When the train stopped at Brussels, they allowed too many ppl on board and they had to stand on the walkways. 2 days later, Eurostar announced that all services are cancelled due to weather conditions.

Paris Je'taime - Part 2

2009-12-26T17:46:00.000-08:00

Me, in the metro on Wednesday morning to the city centre of Paris.

The weather was beautiful. This was taken from the metro....

The great thing about metro in Paris is that it goes overground, so I get to do some speed sightseeing without walking! haha, lazy... Another good thing is that phones do work on the metro.. Unlike in London. Going on the tube (equivalent of metro in Paris) means being cut off from the world.

We went to see the second significant landmark of Paris - Arc de Triomphe. (The first would of course be Eiffel Tower...)

Didn't take the lifts up to the top though... the bloody lady at the counter wanted to charge me 5.50euros!!! (FYI: In Paris, if we can prove that we are under age 25 and is a student in Europe, entry fees to tourist attractions are waivered). But she insisted the nationality mattered as well! Obviously, that was just a pile of bull cuz I managed to get into other places for free!!!
Woman, please get your facts straight before you talk okkk

Champ Elysees(biggest shopping street in Paris) is practically connected to Arc de Triomphe, and on the other end of the street is the Louvre, so we took a nice walk down the street.

Lots of snacks along the way!

Some detours

Finally arrived at the Louvre! This is where the artwork of Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vince is displayed.

Inside the Louvre.

Mona Lisa! Lots of ppl crowding around one small painting.

Went to the Pompideu centre after that. Its a contemporary art gallery, but the main attraction for me is the view of the city from the top floor.

See the red elevator across the building? it takes you straight to the top.
Unfortunately, there was a strike going on that day, so the centre was closed. Really disappointing!

End of part 2

Paris Je'taime - Part 1

2009-12-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

I took the Eurostar train to Paris on 15th Dec 2009. During packing, I was debating whether to bring my long ZARA jacket (an old one from last year) or a new short jacket that looks cooler. In the end, I decided to go for ZARA since its a warmer jacket.... Boy, was I glad I did the right thing, because the moment I stepped out of the train in Paris Du Nord onto the platform, I started to shiver.... It was freakin cold in Paris!!!

My ex-roomie, Durgha, met me at the train station. We took the metro to Angelica's studio apartment, where I would stay for the rest of my time in Paris. Oh, its really common that ppl play music or beg for $$ in the metro.... I was quite shocked the first time someone asked me for $$ in the metro! But I just got used to it for the next few days...

After dropping off my suitcase in Angelica's studio apartment, we started our sightseeing spree with the Palace of Versailles!

Durgha and I outside the palace.

The gold trimmings on the blue roof shines when sunlight hits it. But its not visible in this photo.

One of the hallways.

The doors are TALL.

And the ceilings are AWESOME!

The view from one of the windows.

Chandeliers are everywhere.

See? Told you its everywhere.

The lake and gardens. Should be great to come during summer, the flowers and trees are dead in the winter.

Outside.

By the time we finished Versailles, the sky was already getting dark. We dropped by Durgha's place to pick up some stuff and since her hall is near Eiffel Tower, we did a little detour there.

I am sure you have seen photos like this a thousand times.

There were so many peddlers selling Eiffel Tower souveniers. Remember those mini Eiffel Tower key chains where almost everyone seem to have on their school bags?? Even I had one on my primary swan bag.... Its super annoying because one after another, they will come asking you to buy their stuff... Come on, I just want to enjoy the sight of the tower peacefully!!!

We then had a cookout at Angelica's place.

Our chef of the day.

Angelica and I

All 3 of us!

Went to watch 'New Moon' after that. Well, its not my usual type of movie, but at least that Jacob guy is really HOT... The other 2 girls are on the Edward team though. I, on the other hand, find him the most unattractive actor of all time.

Thats it for part one. I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Please feel free to comment to share how you spent your Christmas... I would very much love to hear~ Lots of love.

Coming soon

2009-12-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

As the title says, this post is a preview for my next few travel posts.
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First stop, PARIS (FRANCE)
City of romance

Next up, COLOGNE (GERMANY)
THE city for german Christmas markets

Stay tuned!

Korean Madness

2009-12-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VIP day!!

2009-12-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

5th dec (Oxford Street, London) - Very Important Pedestrian（VIP) day. No, its not me being lame, it really is called VIP day. Search it up on google!

Its a day when pedestrians rule! Oxford Street(the busiest shopping street in England), was closed off to cars and we, the shoppers, get the whole street to ourselves! Imagine walking in the middle of the road without the fear of getting run down by cars....

The street were bright and colourful with Christmas lights and some street performances.

With Jo to go hunting for a dress. We got some free accessories instead... Repeat *Absolutely free*!! Lucky Jo got a 20pound gift card at Evans. Unlucky me got a 1 pound gift card..... its in my trash can now

At Selfridges.

Man-made snow!
Real-life models in the display windows of La Senza! The male model has a great body, but an amazingly ugly face.... -.-

When darkness falls....

Met up with Hui Eng and we went to Candy Cakes for some hot drinks... to beat the winter chills

Ok, last photo........

Oh so cute!

My new obsession

2009-12-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

Omg Omg OMGGGG.... It is gorgoeus isn't it?

Its finally here~

2009-11-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

I have been waiting for a week... and now, I can finally feel it in my hands!!!

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The Kite Runner. By Khaled Hosseini.
I brought this second hand book from Amazon for 2.76 pounds.

I know there is a movie based on this novel, but personally I would always prefer to read the original book.

Movies usually misses out the core essense of the book as they need to compact everything into 2hours.

Plus, I always get disappointed when the movies portray something different from my imagination when reading the book... (think Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter, I seriously expected him to be MUCH more good looking and charming).

BUT, there are always exceptions! Lord of the Rings Trilogy would be one of my fav movies of all time. Maybe its because I couldn't understand the book XD

Holiday plans

2009-11-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Its 90% confirmed... I am going to Paris and Germany for my winter holidays!!!

Will be staying with my ex-roomie, Durgha, in Paris for a few days.. Then we will fly to Cologne and spend a great german christmas together with a few friends at Severin's house. I think Sev mentioned his vacation home in the countryside as well!

Now its just the ever troublesome work of looking for the best deals for travel tickets.

While searching for the best deals for flights.
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Got bored, so start fooling around with the webcam!!!

Heheh XD

I am starting to dream of the Mona Lisa, Eiffel Tower, German Christmas markets, and sausages already.

If you are wondering, I am listening to Damien Rice and Imogen Heap. *Love*

I won't stop until that boy is mine

2009-11-18T03:15:00.000-08:00

Heheh, vain huh? But thats my fav part of Lady Gaga's song "paparazzi".

Here is a great video of a dance to that song. Check it out! Its just 1.14min of your precious time...

Oh btw, I have been listening to Rihanna's new song, Russian Roulette. Didn't knw what was russian roulette beforehand (Yeah, I knw, I am a noob XD). But after searching it up on wiki, the lyrics made alot of sense.

Just additional info: Russian roulette is a fatal game of chance. You load one bullet into your pistol, spin the barrel, aim the gun to your head, and pull the trigger.... since there are six slots in the barrel, there is 1/6th chance that you will die. Yikes!

Check wiki for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_roulette

Oh, and here is the song

Me? A dancer????

2009-11-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

I just came back from my very first dance workshop!!! Its beginners hip hop and our instructor was Andre Bright! That guy is just brilliant~

We danced to Janet Jackson's "Rock with u". The choreography was amazing but I was a complete noob... I actually felt sorry that I made such a good routine look bad....

Conclusion: I am rubbish at dancing~

Here's a video of Andre dancing : He is not only an extremely talented dancer, he is a very charismatic, energetic and fun person as well!

(I tried to find a video of the choreo he taught us, but couldn't) :(

Amazing right? I loveee his style. The one he taught us was as good if not better... if you have the chance, attend his workshop!! You will not regret it.

New resolution: Become a better dancer. go go 加油！

Some scholarly fun

2009-11-12T03:10:00.000-08:00

Heya, been to Cambridge for a day trip last Saturday. Was down with a cold but went all the same since we brought the tickets alr! But I went well prepared with loads of tissue paper.. hehe *sniff sniff*

The morning was a really unlucky one cuz Victoria line was totally closed on Saturday for some construction work! My hall mate and I were frantically searching for another route to get to Victoria coach station, and in the rush, I left one of my cute pink mitten on the tube!!! *Cries*

When we got there, the bus had just left the station! ARGHH... so we brought a one way ticket to Cambridge... *money flies*

But the rest of the day was awesome. Cambridge was absolutely stunning, the place just oozes this scholarly aura that made me feel a lil smarter (pun intended) XD..... We went punting and listened to the King's College choir during the evening. The choir was amazing! Voices of angels...

Here are some sights of Cambridge：

Me and my brother. See the tree behind? Its the decendent of Newton's apple. They took the seeds of that apple and planted it here.

Thats punting. We saw all the 7 colleges by boat. Good rest for the feet!

Thats the mathematics bridge! haha.

There are better photos in my brother's camera. Will upload it as soon as I get my hands on them！

Munching on a muffin now btw... I am such a pig

A cute one I hope!

A taste of Ecstacy

2009-11-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

Haha! I fooled you didn't I?? No, I am not on drugs, it is just a UCL Malaysian Clubbing event called 'Ecstacy'.... I wonder who named it~

hmm, I look really ugly in all the photos, but what the heck...

My fav!

It was held at Maddox Club. Quite near where I live, which made it better. Music was good, crowd was great (where else can you get so many gorgeous Malaysian guys and girls all gathered in one place???) ... down side would be the pricey drinks though, but it doesn't matter, cuz I don't drink!

Bugger!!!

2009-10-20T11:41:00.001-07:00

KIASU LA.
Tickets for George Soros lecture was sold out in LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR.
Omg.... why are ppl in LSE so kiasu leh.
Can't take it anymore, I am being left behind... with no intentions of catching up.
Give me a push.
Somebody.

God save the cream

2009-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Was walking by Selfridges on the way to Covent Garden, and we noticed a poster that said 'God Save the Cream'.... haha! it was really catchy so we decided to take a closer look...

Rupanya, its a new ice cream shop at the lower ground of Selfridges! haha....

the main entrance

Inside

Menu

OMG OMG... this one is called Obamarama at the white house. Its white chocolate ice cream with a splash of Baileys Irish Cream, cocoa butter, malted Horlicks.... lovely!

This is Carameltz... Caramel flavour ice cream. This really rich and smooth, but I prefer Obamarama.

Did I mention this place will only be open till end of Nov??? Oh, must come back another time!

London, prepare for the wrath of the siblings!!!

2009-08-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Great news! My brother will be joining me to study in London in Sept! But he is studying in a diff uni though---> Imperial College. Doing something math-sy.

Boy, it does feels good to have a family half way across the world!

Congrats bro, you definitely deserved it ^^

My parents and bro

The four siblings

Awesome times

2009-08-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

Last friday was the last day of my internship at SC. I will definitely miss it there!

A photo with the entire dept. We have 7 staff and 6 interns. What can I say? We brought down the average age by half.

One with the SC interns, plus some GMEs...

Will meet some of you tonight for steamboat dinner. Can't wait!

The sweetest thing

2009-07-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Copied from someone's post:

男朋友是：要來欺負的。

但是，普天之下，只有你可以欺負他。然後，你還可以理直氣壯地跟他說：

「我沒欺負你，對不對？快說我沒欺負你！」

男朋友是：要來支持環保的。

你用不完的洗臉奶，面膜，洗頭水，潤膚露和沐浴液都可以塞給他用，那你就可以買過一些新的。

男朋友是：要來減肥的。

你吃不完的菜，他幫你吃。不好吃的，他也幫你吃。那麼，你就可以只吃最好吃的和最喜歡吃的那些。

男朋友是：你有時無法不對他說謊的那個人。

當你的好朋友問你：「你這件大衣好漂亮啊！買了多少錢？要不要３０００塊？」

你會立即翻翻眼皮說：「你想得美！３０００怎麼行？半價也要５０００啊！」

但是，當男朋友說：「你這件大衣好漂亮！」，

你卻會說：「半價才３０００，是不是超值啊！」

男朋友是：要來秤體重的。

當你問他：「我肥不肥？」，他回答說：「肥！你很肥！」，你就知道你不肥。

男朋友是：要來增加自信心的。

當你失意，當你沮喪，當你對自己感到失望的時候，你只想他在身邊。他的一個擁抱，勝過千言萬語。

男朋友是：白天裡，你看到蟑螂，老鼠或任何可怕的小東西都可以大聲喊他。

但是，半夜裡，當你肚子痛得死去活來，你卻會拚命忍受著，捨不得吵醒他。

男朋友是：良心發現的時候要來珍惜的。

有時候，你望著他，會想想自己到底交上什麼好運，會遇上他，會有他這麼愛你。不過，只是「有時候」，其他時候，尤其是生氣和吵架的時候，你會忘了。

男朋友是：用來把你自己貼上去的。

快樂或傷心的時候，有事沒事，你都擁有把自己整個人強橫地貼到他身上去的特權。

男朋友是：你愛他比任何人要多，你有時候卻又好像恨他比任何人都要多。

男朋友是：你把最多的思念留給他，也把最多的眼淚留給他。

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什么是女朋友呢？？

女朋友是：要來溺愛的。

愛她的方法只有三種：溺愛，溺愛，然後還是溺愛。

女朋友是：要來明白這個世上除了男人之外，原來還有一種兩腳生物，是你窮畢生的聰明才智也沒法理解的。你不能吃她，又不能不理她，只能愛她。

女朋友是：要來訓練膽識的。

家裡有蟑螂，壁虎或任何可怕的小生物，你去殺生。

前面好像有什麼危險，你去看看。

遇到惡人，你上！

女朋友是：要來練習臂力的：

所有重的東西，你拿。

不時要抱抱。雖然你沒比她重很多，而且她最近吃很多，屁股甚至比你的大。

親熱之後，雖然很累，你的手臂還是要伸出來讓她的頭枕著，讓她覺得幸福。

女朋友是：要來自找麻煩的。

有的時候，你覺得沒有自由。

沒有的時候，你發現這樣的自由有點蒼白。

女朋友是：要來百思不得其解的。

你永遠弄不明白，為什麼她平時買了那麼多的衣服，每次要外出時仍然會苦惱地對著衣櫃抱怨：

「天呀！我沒有衣服穿！」

女朋友是：要來違反天性的。

男人明明是天生會到處播種，到處留情的動物，然而，你卻會因為她而明白，欲只可以寸進，惟有愛可以直抵心房。你竟會為她想到守身如玉。

女朋友是：要來提升男性荷爾蒙的。

每一次，當你滔滔不絕地談到你的工作，你的理想，每一次，當你大發議論的時候，你看到面前這個女人，她微笑的眼睛望著你，充滿仰慕和崇拜，那一刻，你突然覺得，你在這個世界上是多麼的重要，你是個多麼了不起的男人。

女朋友是：要來明白有一種幸福叫做寒冷。

嚴寒的夜晚，她理直氣壯地把一雙冰冷的腳丫往你暖洋洋的肚子踩過去，你卻竟然覺得有一種說不出的溫暖的幸福。

女朋友是：要來讓你變回一個小孩子的。

你明明已經長大成人了，這個女人還是會在餐廳裡把好吃的菜送到你嘴裡，而你竟然會不在乎旁人的目光，張開嘴巴吃得津津有味。

女朋友是：要來心軟的。

愛上了她，你才發現原來你不是鐵石心腸的，原來你還是很怕女人哭的。

女朋友是：要來挑戰人類極限的。

看過她睡覺時流口水的樣子，你還是覺得她可愛。

看過她最糟糕的時刻，你還是很想跟她一起。

原來，你可以這麼愛一個女人。

原來，你可以這樣等一個女人。

女朋友是：要來欺負的。

你做夢的時候儘管可以這麼想。

女朋友是：你不想她跟別人結婚，可她想你跟她結婚的時候，你卻又會害怕。

女朋友是：她把最多的思念留給你，你卻害她流最多的眼淚

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

Dear dad,

Happy Father's day! I love you!

The middle baby with the weird expression is my dad.

Dad and I

June 2009

Cool drums

2009-06-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

Finally back home~~

2009-06-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

After 18hours (I think) of travelling, I arrived safely back in Malaysia on 21.15 local time. but spend at least half an hour waiting for my bag though.

First of all, I realised it was SOOO hot here!! Such a shame, London is in its best weather now, abit sunny, but cool and breezy at the same time, yet I am leaving it at its finest glory and will be returning in Sept, when it startes to get cold and miserable again. But whatever, I am just so happy to see my family again!

Due to jet lag I went to bed at 3am and woke up at 2pm! The best part was, my family actually stayed up and chit chated with me when I couldn't fall asleep. Awesome.

Anyway, we will be going to Petaling Street tonight for some beef noodles... thinking of it now makes my mouth water.... Yumm. After nine long months of (tasteless) English food, its about time to eat some REAL food!

Its OVER!

2009-05-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

I officially announce to the world...

MY EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!

After 2 months of living like a zombie, I can now take a deep breath and start to LIVE....

Now, I just need to worry about my results in July.... I don't have a good feeling about it, but who cares? There is nothing I can do about it now... in the meantime, LETS CELEBRATE!!! YEAH BABY!

What should I do tomorrow? Hmm..... how about wasting time? hehe, sounds pretty good to me.

Unconditional Love

2009-05-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

I came across this amazing video just now. Have a look, I am sure it is worth your time.

I got teary eyed after watching this... My respect to all great fathers out there! Dad, I love you~

Exams tomorrow!

2009-05-17T02:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the severe lack of update since end of last year... Had been busy with pretty much everything BUT blogging (ahem, obviously).

Anyway, this week will be an extremely important week for me, because I will have my first exam paper tomorrow! and another one the day after AND another one the day after.... phew

You might think it sucks that all the papers are crammed together on 3 consecutive days but I relish it because I JUST WANT TO GET OVER IT! (with the best possible marks I can get of course).

I have been working hard for the past few weeks and the energy level is just not there anymore. Good thing the exam is starting soon. Good Luck to me! and same to all my friends out there who are having their exams during this cursed examination period..

Bonjour!

Shooting bullets......... snow bullets, that is.

2009-02-03T01:44:00.001-08:00

I couldn't believe it... It snowed in London! This time, it wasn't those teeny weeny itsy bitsy amount of snow we got, but loads of it! Enough for us to built a snowman and pelt each other with snow for 3 hours!

The snow fight started in front of the main house.... After we finished scooping up all the snow around us, we moved to the garden.

Snow angels in the making

Hello Mr Snowman!

HEHEHE

After all the craziness, we went to Cafe Nero for hot chocolate... YUMMY

First dinner of 2009

2009-01-07T16:04:00.001-08:00

1st Jan

Alas! we finally had a party at Zenith's huge, humongous, massive, giant ( whatever that means HUGE) room. Seriously, those are the exact words people blurted out whenever they first step in her room.. and to think she pays the same amount as we do!

Oh, it was a hot pot party by the way. In Malaysia, we call it steamboat, but the Chinese call it hot pot. Perfect for sharing!

Empty rice cookers

Haha.. Ethan 'helping' to clean the vegetables.

Preparing the sauces. The brown box is wine contributed by James.

The ingredients.

The soup~ Yummy

Now thats more like it!

Haha! Look at James!

Aren't they sweet?

Well, I ran out of photos.

Thats all folks! I shall retire now.

Countdown to 2009!

2009-01-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

What do you do at New Year's eve in London. Go to the London eye for fireworks of course!

Yup, thats exactly what we did. All 18 of us from Nutford House. Well, we initially set off with 18 people but dispersed later on for various reasons (James wasn't interested in fireworks and left to join his friends in a bar, we just lost Durgha and friends halfway..)

Oh yeah, believe it or not, we left the hall at around 8pm to get a good spot to view the fireworks. Haha! So we spent around 3 long hours waiting for the countdown.

It was really cold and all of us were shivering, so we sorta danced a little bit to the music blasting from the speakers to keep warm. A good way to pass time as well...

Another way to pass time... Photos!

This is what's left of the 18 ppl.....

Check out the crowd~

Oh, I have a video of us dancing around to the music. Haha~~

Finally, the countdown!

Here is a video of it~

Then came back around 1am on the tube... which is free of charge by the way. Yay!

Last but not least, I want to wish everyone

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love,
Chee Huan..

Hotness~~

2008-12-29T15:05:00.001-08:00

What more can I say?? HOT HOT HOT!

Sorry, Spongebob. But you look better bald.

Day 3 in Barcelona

2008-12-26T06:31:00.001-08:00

Have you ever been to a real castle on top of a mountain? I have!

This is our first stop of day 3 ---> Monjuic Castle.

Although it wasn't as grand as the ones we have in our fairytales, the view from the top was amazing.

The Olympic stadium was nearby ( in fact, it is inside Monjuic park). So we dropped by to have a look around.

Hmm, does it look like I am carrying the torch?

After that we visited the Palau Nacional MNAC. It is basically an art gallery, like the Tate.

I don't know if you can see it, but it shows 2 guys chopping people's heads off when they were sleeping. Imagine being murdered in your sleep... Yuck.

This teddy bear is cute! But Mun Hon didn't agree with me....

We then stayed around for a Magic Fountain in front of the museum. Wasn't that great though.

Then, my favorite---> dinner!

These are just for starters. We had main course, wine and dessert later on. But no photos to show... sorry!

Yup, thats it! Gracias for reading!

Day 2 in Barcelona~~Part 2

2008-12-24T04:35:00.001-08:00

Hi ya! It is Christmas eve.... Merry Christmas everybody!

Anyway, lets get to the real stuff... I hereby continue day 2 of our amazing travel to Barcelona -.-

I forgot where I stopped last time but lets start with this.......

They have doors specially for kids!

Another one of Gaudi's works. The balconies looks like skulls~~

A bunch of kids singing along with the guitar. They looked so happy!

La Rambla at night!

Group Picture.

We went to the Boqueria Market, hopefully to get our dinner there. But alas, this is what we found.

Yikes!!

But other stuff were nice.

Can you see the giant lollipops?

Would love to try them~ But it costs a bom!

Sadly, we couldn't find any real food there, so we had to find another option for dinner...
This is what we got:

Tapas! The calamari was super delicious!
Insook can't wait to dig in!

The dinner was good and affordable... A great end to day 2!

Day 2 in Barcelona~~ Part 1

2008-12-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

7.30am - Woke up. The room is so freaking cold... They must have on the A/C instead of a heater.

Our first stop -- The cathedral in Barri Gothic.

I only took a photo of the top of the Cathedral because the lower part was covered with a large advertisment banner. WTF

When we were about to leave, the guys wanted to use the washroom. On their way there, they discovered a garden within the Cathedral.

After that, we stopped by to get some Churros with chocolate. Yummy!

Next stop, Palau de Musica.

Trust me, it doesn't look like much from the outside. But this is the most magnificent and impressive performing stage I have ever seen... Not that I have seen a lot of stages anyway~~ But judge for yourself....

No photos were allowed inside, so i extracted an image from a website.

It looks far better in real though.

Also in here, I found the smallest door lock ever!

However, this small lock is pretty common in Spain.

We then headed to Santa maria church, but it was pretty disappointing since we have been to the bigger and better cathedral.

I don't knw what structures are these. Just snapped away because it looked nice.

Later, we went to the coast line to enjoy the wonderful weather of Barcelona. The sun was shining~~ but it wasn't hot and humid like Malaysia. Instead it was cool and sunny.

Lunch time!

Our first meal in Spain. Paella and Tortilla Patatas.

The paella was quite good although I would prefer it less soggy. The potato omelet was a let-down though, mum makes better potato omelet!

After lunch, we walked down La Rambla, a street with souvenir stalls, cafes, and performers. What performers? Let me show you~~

I actually wanted to finish posting the whole of day 1 in 1 post, but just realized it was too long. we really did visit many places in day 1... no wonder my feet ached badly when i went back... Anyway, part 2 of day 1 will be up soon! Thank you for reading!

Day 1 in Barcelona

2008-12-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I am back from Barcelona! It was one of the best times I have had in my life~

Here goes...

Day 1 (17th Dec)

Our flight is at 9.55pm from Luton Airport (situated around an hour drive away from London). My travel companions (In Sook, Zhu Lian, and Man Ho) and I left at 3pm to catch the Green Line bus to Luton Airport. It costed us 14 pounds for a return ticket.

While waiting for the bus

Introducing the Green Line bus to Luton Airport!

In the bus

Arrived at Luton Airport at 7-ish pm. Checked in. Hanged out at the food court, had dinner. Then proceeded to the gates. Docked the plane and off to Barcelona!

The first thing when we touched down at Girona Airport--> Wind the clock back an hour! Its 10pm now...

We then paid another 21 euros for a bus from Girona Airport to the city center... That took around an hour as well. Alas, although Ryan air sells really cheap flight tickets (36 pounds in this case), we had to spend alot more on transportation to and from the airport. But it is still cheaper than other airlines....

Reached Barcelona and took the metro to our hostel, BCN backpackers Casanova. We brought a T-10, this allows us 10 journeys for the price of 6. The good thing is, we are allowed to pass the ticket for others to use, unlike London's oyster card--> one card for one person.

Waiting for the metro

Inside

When we reached our stop (Urgell), we stood at the doors and waited for it to open.... But it didn't. As we started to get worried, a local standing just next to the door reached out to a lever at the door and pulled..... All of us felt soooo embarassed!! Apparently, we were supposed to open our own doors! HAHA... Many thanks to the gentleman! We would have missed our stop and still be wondering why the doors didn't open if it weren't for him.

When we arrived at the hostel, I quoted my name to the receptionist to check in. He gaved me a somewhat confused look and said : 'We are not expecting anyone to come in at this time.'

I gave him my booking reference. He then said I made a mistake in my booking and could only come in at 10am, ( which means 9 hours later)! Oops!! Where are we going to spend the night?? I don't wanna sleep on the streets!!!

Luckily, the recepionist (I later found out his name is Federico) was a very helpful person and tried to get us four beds.... After some clicking away and resuffling, we get a place to rest! I felt soooo relieved.... I would have felt so bad if we really had to roam the streets until 10am.... After all, it was my silly mistake.

The hostel. This was taken in the morning.

My bed ( the lower deck). Upper deck belongs to In Sook.

My locker

We retired to recharge our energy for tomorrow.

Day 2 coming soon!

BARCELONA~~ Here I come!!

2008-12-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

Will be leaving for Barcelona, Spain in 12 hours time!

Can't wait for the excellent Spanish food, works of Gaudi, warmer weather and cute Spanish guys...

I will be back on 21st Dec.

Wait for my update and don't miss me!

Well, actually, DO miss me... Haha!

They'd rather throw it away

2008-12-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

The caterers at our halls are MEAN.... except this guy who works on the weekends though.

Anyway, today at breakfast, we saw there were lots of leftover pastries and the caterers were already packing up all the food. So we thought we'd ask them whether we could have more of the pastries to have for lunch, since they usually throw away the food.

My friend asked: "Are you going to throw away the food? If yes, could we have them instead?" The evil lady just said: "NO, you already had your share. " and just turned and walked off....

F*** them.

I hate good byes

2008-12-12T12:23:00.000-08:00

The first term is FINALLY over... I have been looking forward to the holidays for several weeks, but now its here, I feel I'd rather it still be term time..

The reason? Most of my friends are going back home for Christmas. Today, I saw two of my friends off and most of them will leave by Sunday... I feel sooo lonely already!

The usual chaotic, noisy and crazy atmosphere of Nutford will be gone during the holidays and I will not be looking forward to it...

Well, at least I can look forward to my trip to Barcelona~~

Winter Wonderland @ Hyde Park

2008-12-11T09:28:00.001-08:00

There is some kind of temporary amusement park at Hyde Park, so we dropped in after dinner to check it out, since it is so near to our place.

Smile~~~~

Durgha and Tim went on this ride.

We saw this evil laughing 'Santa'.

There was an ice skating rink, but none of us went for it because it was really crowded inside and it cost 12pounds. Plus, I really don't want to fall in front of so many people. Instead, we stood outside the rink and laughed at people that fell on their butts... HEHEHE

Have a Nutty Christmas!

2008-12-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

*Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way~~~*

Woho, I am in Christmas mood!

Lets see what mischief my friends and I were up to during our Nutford House Christmas dinner, shall we??

The after dinner Christmas pop quiz! There were 8 teams all together.

The team talents section - see who can finish a whole stack of super dry, tasteless biscuits the fastest!

While waiting for the results, Insook entertained us with a song or two...

Miracles do happen! We won the 2nd prize!!

Our prize of the day! Early Christmas present huh. We finished the whole bottle there and then.

No one in our team knew how to pop the champagne, so the quiz master did it for us. Thanks!

My room mate, Durgha, and her team won the 3rd prize! A box of chocolates!

Guess what we did after that. We went to Mel's room to do some face painting!

Thanks sooo much, Mohavi! I loveee it!

Wolf man in the making...

Completed! (I am sorry the photo is abit dark)

Haha, Courtney and his goofiness. No offense, Courtney!

Rithu's bold and colorful

Emily, the mascot of the Poison Ivy Club. Haha.. Love her expression!

Yup, thats me!! Like it? I look like phantom of the opera~

Thank you Mohavi and Sarah(Pic) for the amazing face painting you guys did for me!

AND FINALLY

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Thanks, MEL!! For inviting us to your room and letting us use your face paint and stuff.
You rock!

That was one heck of a night.

Finally! My first art gallery~~

2008-12-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

Just came back from Tate. They open till 10pm every first Friday of the month, AND they give half price tickets for the ongoing exhibitions. This month's was the artworks of Francis Bacon. The normal student price was 10.40 quid, but for today only, we got in for 5.20q. Not bad huh?

Hmm... How should I describe Francis Bacon's art? It was definitely odd, gross, nightmarish, powerful, depressing(maybe)... Loads of screaming and gaping mouths, as if they were in terrible agony. Distorted human depiction ( Male nudity in particular)... Dark and sombre colors... Here are a few of his works I got off the net:

I think you can now imagine the entire atmosphere and mood of the exhibition.

After the exhibition, we spent an hour or so at the galleries which were free of charge. I certainly enjoyed the paintings there... There was a particular painting of a family on the hills, dancing in the sunset. It took my breath away.... I was totally mesmerized by the colours of the sky, all the red, yellow, and orange hues~~ I hope one day, I will be able to witness a sunset like that.

Don't ask me, I have no idea why its there. Looks like a mouse's skeleton sitting behind a gold machine gun. Randomness....

Bon Voyage!!!

2008-12-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

A close friend of mine, Lai Sim, will be leaving for New Zealand soon for a month long student exchange program.

BON VOYAGE~~~

Have a great time!

And tell me every single nitty gritty detail when you get back!

2008-12-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAI YI!
ISN'T IT GREAT TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY AFTER STPM?
HAVE A BLAST AND SUPER DUPER FUN BIRTHDAY!!

Bodeans and Waffle House!

2008-12-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

Had dinner at Bodeans on Monday. They have 50% of the main course every Mondays! The portions were HUGE and it was super duper delicious!! We had baby prime ribs, lamb rack, and pork ribs to share. The lamb was my definite favorite! The meat was soooo juicy and succulent... Yummy.. The funny thing was, the girls were eating with our fingers while the guys were using cutlery! How the world has changed.....

Haha, thats Joyce!

We then headed to Waffle House to get some dessert. Well, we didn't actually plan to have waffles beforehand, it just came up during dinner and we decided to just go for it. The waffles were pretty pricey but it was absolutely heavenly. Me and Rithu shared a belgium chocolate waffle with vanilla ice cream, and a banana toffee waffle..... How sinful was that.

Last photo of the day!
Zhu Lian, I think you meant 'thumbs up' rather than 'thumbs down'...

ULU

2008-11-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

ULU stands for University of London Union (To fellow Malaysians, it is not ulu, ok?).

It was Stephen's birthday on Friday night (Happy Birthday Stephen!), so we decided to go somewhere to celebrate. After 4 long grueling hours of indecision of where to go, we finally settled on going to a bar at ULU.

Guy on far right is our bday boy!

Durgha and I had our first shot of tequila!

On the count to three.... *GULP*

It kinda tasted like petrol though. All the same, thank you Leo!

Many other people came along with us as well, but everyone got scattered everywhere, so we didn't have a big nice group photo... Too bad

Water : Source of Conflict, Tool of Development

2008-11-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite. Nice postcard given out during the conference.

22nd Nov 2008 (Saturday)
Attended the above conference at Hong Kong Theater, LSE.
It was the second time I stepped into this theater. The first time was during undergraduate registration.
This is one of the nicest theater in LSE although it is quite small in size. I really love the carvings on the ceilings.

Anyway, here are a few snapshots that I stole during the ongoing conference.

Also, I took some brochures and magazines placed out for us.
The conference really opened my eyes to the water crisis around different parts of the world. In fact, one of the speaker spent 10 minutes describing in absolute enthusiasm about the water agreement dispute between Malaysia and Singapore some years back! Haha...

Another weird fact I found out, we can save up to 70% of our daily usage of water just by being a vegetarian!

We then had a case study and workshop, where we had to role-play different groups of people in Uganda and had to come up with a solution to solve the crisis in the country. It was good fun as it was a first time for me.

When it all ended, we headed to a local pub to socialize with other participants... In my opinion, that was the best part of the conference. We had a really good conversation about integrating business and profits in the efforts of reducing environmental pollution. Deep huh? Well... To be honest, I mostly listened and just gave a few random comments between the gaps.

Although I got lost finding my bus stop (hehe..), and missed my dinner, it was definitely worthwhile. I will be coming back for more.

Love Music Hate Racism

2008-11-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

Its friday night! There was a free music gig going on at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) so a few of my hall mates decided to check it out.

We watch 'Frank Hamilton and band' perform. They were awesome! Really talented artists I would say... Search 'frank hamilton' in myspace. If they get famous (which is pretty likely), I can say I watched them perform for free!

A photo with the lead singer, Frank!

Wow, look at all the beer bottles! Don't worry, that wasn't mine...

British Museum, Trafalgar Square, and King's Cross

2008-11-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

My timetable had the courtesy to leave my Wednesdays off. For the pass weeks, I still do go to uni to get some work done, but this week, I decided to visit the British Museum.. Wo-ho!

Mohavi(my hall mate) and I left the hall around 10am-ish and took the bus 7 that stops right in front of British Museum. It looked really nice from the outside.

The inside was better. It was a massive space with semi-transparent roof and large elegant white staircases. Mohavi became so excited because she remembers the staircase from a scene of a Bollywood movie. Have a taste of it:

However, it was really disappointing because most of the rooms in the museum was closed off for a Babylon exhibition. We would have went for it if it didn't cost 8pounds to get in. We went around the remaining rooms briefly. Here are a few interesting snapshots:

hmm... I wonder where did the head go. And what is the hole for? Hehe

See the resemblance?

Definitely the most interested room of the museum. You should have seen the faces of the kids when they stepped into the room... *Blink Blink*

After the museum, we dropped by Trafalgar Square and attempted to climb up the lions... Failed miserably though and only get to watch people taking photos sitting on the lions... *Sob*.

Not satisfied, we went to the all famous king's cross station....

I am sure you know this.....

Bye mom and dad! I am abandoning LSE to go to Hogwarts!!!!!!

Yup, thats it for our super duper fun Wednesday!

Handphones dropping curse in Peacock Theater, LSE

2008-11-18T13:04:00.001-08:00

It is my 7th week in LSE and I have already seen 3 mobile phones left in Peacock Theater ( where our lectures are normally held). I think all the studying and homework are getting into the heads of LSEers.

First time was around a month ago, the girl sitting next to me found a nice clamshell phone ( please don't me for the model, I am hopeless in these). Anyway, it was just on the floor under her seat. After she asked around and still couldn't find the owner, she just put it back and walked out. So, I, being the good Samaritan as usual (hehehe), took the phone and called someone from the contact list (actually, I just wanted to mess around with the nice shiny phone) . Bingo, I found the owner and returned it to her right after... *applause*

Then today, I witnessed not one, but TWO handphones finding their way out of their owner's pockets. This time, it was on the seat in front of me. So, I aka miss good samaritan, picked it up and just handed it in to a staff at the Theater. Sorry, didn't have the mood to go through the whole process of looking through contact list again. Or maybe it is the fact that the phone wasn't as nice at the last one. haha... So end of story.

At least, that was what I thought... Half an hour into the lecture, a girl found it so boring and decided to leave in the middle. As she was walking out, god knows how, her handphone fell out from her bag onto the floor! Haha... Personally, I find it really disrespectful to walk out of a lecture like that, so I didn't bother to return it to her. Apparently, ten other people thought so too, because they, like me, just witnessed the whole process and none even made a move to call her back.... at last, a girl got up from her seat and ran out to give the phone back to the girl...

Phew, its a wonder you even read my post till this far. Considering the lameness of what I have to say. Anyway, watch out for your phones in the PT, it tends to go missing~~~

Hello World

2008-11-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hey people,

My first post for my first blog ever. Special thanks to my sister ( who is 14 years old) who taught me how to set up a blog. Yes, its embarrassing, so sue me...

Anyway, I will be updating you guys about happenings in London, life in LSE, and things that are going through my mind ( although I really don't think that much).

Watch out for my second post!

Take care.