London- nice and ugly.

well i'm here again as a form of escape from my cheap but idiotic place. it's a dorm, so there are lots of young people around and people who are staying for a long time in london ( for work, for aiesec whatever the reason). so i bought myself a nice 50 pence 2nd hand book to read, and it was a pretty captivating book. i sat in the tv lounge to read and found myself changing my sitting position every now and then. the staff came up to me and asked me to "sit properly" coz my feet was on the sofa, as if i was sitting indecently. that caught the attention of the few guys who were sitting opposite me. one of them went "tsk tsk" at me, but i wasn't bothered, so i just carried on with my reading. somehow it seemed like i was some kind of a challenge, so this other german guy came up to me asked me to drink his stella artois (becoz its from germany) and i kindly refused. He persisted and promised to go away after a sip. so i took a sip and asked him to go away. but still he didn't, he wanted me to drink more and he hands starting landing everywhere on my back and waist and almost down to my butt. i wasn't offended or anything but i positioned my arm somewhere that blocks him from touching anywhere else. he wanted to take a photo with me and he announced to all his frens that he likes me. gosh, that was too quick if he wants to get me in bed. he grabbed my waist harder this time and after the photo was shot, i pushed his arm away from me. he looked at me with a little diss, i guess i knew he failed in pushing his luck/. i pretended to make a call and i walked out and my legs brought me to the internet cafe once again. i opened IE and all i saw on the history were porn websites.

oh dear. ~ alright internet time is up and storytelling seesion is finished once again. ciao!

Abit empty...

Now at a internet cafe in London. I'm staying in a 12 bed dorm by myself but i meet my friends in the daytime, so i'm not alone the whole time.

I just left Sweden less than 24 hours ago, and i'm once suffering again from post travel syndromes. This time, it's much more intense because not only i left Sweden behind, i had to leave my cousin (distant) too.

Looks like words aren't going to be enough or accurate. I'm sitting in front of the computer, trying too hard to think of how i should write in this entry, only to find out my internet time is running out.

Maybe i shouldn't write too much. I looked at squadblog for the first time in 3 weeks. suddenly, noy only i think i missed out alot, but a sudden kind of loss hit me, all at one go, again.

Just want to say, for those who know me will know that i don't really have any cousins who i am close to. so for the first time, i developed a close relationship a relative who treats me so well and who i can talk to so comfortably with, i had to leave, it some kind of new emotion i'm going through right now. time's up. see u guys.

Where are the penguins and the polar bears??

been in sweden for 4 days and there's so much things i have to write but... looks like there's too much!!!

1st day was in london stansted and the airport was a nightmare. then got to sweden and saw my lovely cousin who welcomed me. then we went shopping in the mall near her place. her dad came down from halmsted to pick me up. We headed back home to sleep.

2nd day we walked around the town centre of lund...just going into shops and my cousin had to buy like lots of christmas gifts for her friends...so basically i was just tagging along... then i watched the movie ' Lilja 4ever' direted by Moodysson... this is the 2nd movie of his i'm watching... and i cried so terribly at the end of the show... i sort of like broke down when the show ended and i couldn't stop crying for the next 15 minutes... my cousin said too that she felt so bad after watching the movie... at night we watched youtube... please type in "idiotic swedish idol" and u'll see the most ridiculous audition in your whole life... we laughed till we almost died!!!!!!!!

Swedish BRUNCH... my cousin used be the chairperson of this 'Brunch Club'!!! It's like the student union who will prepare exam tea for us... but she did this every sunday, when party animals are dead drunk on saturday night.... and wake up on sunday just in time for Brunch. Its swedish above... ask me to know what they are...



3rd day she brought me to her university where i sat in for her lecture…well they were all in swedish!!! So I was kinda bored sitting in for 3 hours (!) and not knowing a single word but at least I met her friends…and we went to eat Turkish donars and we had to find refuge from the cold weather in some kind of theatre hall… like open spaces in the esplanade… then we walked around town again and went back home… lynsey got so tired she just slept on the couch for an hour while I was still busy laughing while watching Friends on TV… they’ve got the Simpsons too! I haven’t watched TV for soooooo long… I couldn’t stop watching… then at night, we went for a Christmas party with her friends… I couldn’t understand what they say so I’m just there sitting and eating… I wasn’t even listening to what they say… but things got better when we played a card game of ‘Plum’… haha not bad, I got 4^th out of 10 people… and lynsey got 1^st!!! she was saying ‘ we’re good coz we have asian blood…’ muah. Silly.



At night when we talked about India..she’s going to India for her medical course on Global Health for 2 weeks and I showed her a couple of pictures of Bangladesh… then I told her about the prosititution… and slums… and the literally shitty boatride we had… haha… so, I guess it seemed pretty too much for her to absorb at this moment... she has got to experience it herself... but i'm so glad i could at least tell her what the indian culture is roughly like, and what to prepare for...

okie la, enough of boring narration of my day... nothing interesting... no ski or snowboarding, becoz europe is facing SNOW CRISIS.

okie, when i have time i will edit my post to be mch more informative... Tack! (Thanks in Swedish)

Crazy is what makes me interesting

P.S: This entry has been edited for a more informative read. Enjoy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello! This is my holiday interval post. Do you know this little island we went to? Only the craziest people go in the winter. Label us crazy or siao char bors... we beat every young travellers hands down!

Let me do the usual routine once again, may i introduce my travelling companions:

Left: Japanese Girl - Rina Amano ; Right: Taiwanese Girl - Fion Huang

And alright, this is how they really look like:

3 pretty faces again...

And.. THIS IS WHERE WE WENT! Introducing... Isle Of Man!
So what did 3 crazy girls do on an island in the middle of Ireland, England and Scotland?

We saw castles... This is Peel Castle, situated on a small island off the coast, where the Kings of Mann resided in until 1220. We couldn't visit there because we ran out of bloody time! =(
However, Peel is a pretty interesting town! It's known as one of the most "Manx" of all the island's towns and i think so too... There's like this "Sailors Shelter" which was built a pretty long time ago, which gives a feel of antiquity of the town... Like we've really been transported back to the times when sailors had came to the island after thousands of miles of travel.



Waves crashing onto the land during high tide at 2pm.

Down the promanade of the town was the museum, aka House of Mannannan.. just some exceptional un-crazy stuff we did... It was great! I love the museum!!! (it was interactive and unlike some which has similar types of the different types of china plates in a display case, haha geddit?)

This is a life-sized Viking ship! How Cool!!! They had touch screens at the side where we could find out information about each and every item on the ship... Like that Viking flags consists of red and white alternate strips... and we could examine the contents on the ship too, such as the stolen jewellery, the types of weapons used and a captured celtic girl to be sent as a slave... It was a great visit...
They even have a life size mock-up of a wood-smoke-belching kipper factory! We just went "wah wah wah" all the way... although all the kippers were fake but they all look delicious!! mmmm!!! We were determined to find a place to have a taste of it... It's known to be the best in the world... how could we miss that out?

So along the promanade, was a REAL kipper curing factory... so along the same stretch, there was the factory, the quay (although the 'feel' was disrupted by some of the berthed luxurous yatchs) , the Sailor's Shelter, the castle, all these that manifests the 'Manx' character of the area. We dropped by a bar... and we had........

Traditional Manx Kippers!!! Crazy food we ate!!!... Boy boy it was SALTY. very very salty... maybe that's why it's the best... This dish awoke our sense of taste and the aftertaste would stay in our mouth for a pretty long time and made us crave for more in the mouth but we wouldn't want more than 2... on the scale of 10, it was 9.8 for its saltishness!!!!!! and we thought only chinese people like their food with lots of salt.. the Manx people probably have numbed taste buds then.

hehehe... We had a footbath in our accommodation dormitory at night... (Fwah) It was one of the most expensive schools on the Isle of Man.. 20,000 pounds a year for High School students... (!!!) For your info... There is a number of multi-millionaires on the island... 20Kpounds is probably what they earn in half a month. Maybe. *Starts dreaming*

The next day, we went to the south of the island... a miracle made true by Santa Claus Tom...

That's our Santa Claus in the middle!!! I will always remember what Sami (Saingaporean-Turkey travel companion) said... hitchhiking requires a great deal of gut feeling... I felt good about Tom and he could be trusted... true enough, he made our stay in IOM a super-duper, absolutely fabulous one... So we weren't the only crazy people around. Tom offered to bring us around the island in his Rover car... He wasn't as insane, but he was willing to try what it was like to be 3 crazy girls - He drove us through the whole TT race course around the island....

You see, Isle of Man is famous for its TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle race... but people like Valentino Rossi doesn't participate in such races because it TOOOOO DANGEROUS... They go around the island at an average 350km/h... every year, someone's life will be taken away and after the race, wraths can be seen displayed along the race track... Even on normal days, IOM doesn't have any speed limit!!! NO SPEED LIMIT!!! There's even a road sign that says NO SPEED LIMIT!!!

Anyway,

We went to this village called the Cregneash Village... There are many 19-century Manx thatched cottages, where the roof is made up of super dense hay/straws that are surprisingly water-tight... We had to hide in the cottages from the gale wind and rain... This used to be a real Gaelic-speaking village and now the last of its kind to be preserved in the world... A place we would probably never see again anywhere else.

I had my left thumb bitten quite badly by the horse... It's bruised now, the horse mistook my thumb for a carrot, athough i didn't think it tasted like one. He bit me REAL hard... =/


Soon later, Tom drove us to Sound... near to Calf of Man we found ourselves trapped in a gale.!!! All wet and being blown away. All ships and flights were cancelled but we ngeh ngeh want to go out to play.

I couldn't stand still to pose for a decent photo. The wind speed was 60km/h. gosh! no wonder everyone couldn't believe we were there!



We went to the biggest static attraction on the island - The "Lady Isabella" Great Laxey Wheel... It was humongous! It's the largest working waterwheel in the world!! IT'S REALLY HUGE.... It was used to keep water away from the quarries so that mining for silver-ore could take place... It was a great place to go too... the had explanatory notes on how the waterwheel worked,

I took a picture of the very front of the wheel (refer to the previous picture).. It was a picture no tourist can ever possess.

because i risked my life to stand on the edge of the wheel to have that picture taken. Well, I'm still safe though!

Just another nice picture =)

Isle of Man really has her (or 'his'?) very own dotty style too... fairy bridge? It was known to have spotted fairies here and kids come to make wishes on thie bridge, pining them up on a particular tree, where the fairies will come to grant them...

Just some nice pictures again, with my handy camera on 10 seconds timer.

Just for your information, Manx sheeps are believed to have 4 horns and Manx cats are believed to be tailess. Well, it could be just what people say....


so, seeing is believing.

Well! That's so much about the highlights of our short but looney getaway... Thank you to my travelling mates and special thanks to Tom, who unconditionally gave his time and energy for us. We are extremely grateful to Tom, who made our stay in IOM an exceptional one...

We had so much laughter, did so many crazy little things ( e.g. swearing at ducks) and having to climb through gates because all the places of interest were closed during winter (i.e. FOC). All these little memories i will cherish them... i really enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MOMENT, DAY AND NIGHT, of Isle of Man with both of you & with Tom. I hope you guys did too... It was a crazy little holiday... I guess we were the only tourists on the island... No one could be as crazy as us...so we were the only privilaged ones....

And for the first time, we saw snow... and for the first time, we felt seasick (like really queasy)... and for the first time, we were caught in gale winds...

This trip made me feel really fortunate, that my life is so well and perfect with few troubles... not from the fun we had but from all the conversations throughout the trip... It was quite alot of self-discovery and even if i don't ever know how to learn to love, I will still live my life the way i want it to be.

Like i said on the train... uncertainty excites me. That's why crazy is what makes me interesting. =p Thanks Nic G N.

My holdays have started!

hi guys, my school has ended, just like how NUS students have finished their examinations.

So i'm going on my own holiday from tmr till 1st January 2007.... a long long holiday... holiday with my flatmates, holiday with my cousin, holiday with friends from ccivs... Isle of man, Sweden and London...

I finally got my tickets to go home... i'm not revealing the date... it may be ealier or later... i just know i had to pay 200 pounds more for it... actually the ticket is very cheap one... so cheap i don't mind paying that extra bit... but add in STA admin fee (what the hell) and airport tax... it sounds really bad on the final price.

alright i do hope i will have the time and energy to blog in between, so that i don't have to blog so much at one go...

I'm really looking forward to going home because i have plans for myself and some targets to acheive by my birthday... i'm going to get my own birthday present... for my 22nd birthday, i don't want any presents (omg, i remember saying this same phase not long ago for my 21st birthday. because i want people to buy stuff from our fundraising booth on SDE day)... but this time, i don't need any presents because i know what i want for my birthday! =)

sometimes i get caught up with what i can do in the future, i forget to enjoy the present.

Lab report.... i better start doing now...

Life as an exchange student ...

i give my instructor zero brownie points!!!!! Grrrrr!

Law essays and lab report to be done by Thursday. I can do it! Good NUS kids for completing your examinations! Enjoy your life and mock me if u can!

To Egypt from Singapore via Leeds

The sun peeking over the mountains in Saudi Arabia at Dahab, Egypt. Such a beautiful sight, I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I had overslept. Calm and relaxing... but not so much, because almost everyday, I tried hard to integrate into the group of British but I gave up every night. Then i think to myself, I am not as good as I want myself to be, or that I think i am. I am still not as assertive as I want myself to be but anyway, my guide (instructor) had really much less organisation skills that I expect him to have. As much as I look up to him, I do take the piss out of him too.

Anyway, it's really the first time since I came to England that I have so much interaction with the Brits. They can talk through the night and survive on beer and they have a strangely odd sense of humour, that I would find it really funny if i could understand. Every 10 seconds you can hear laughter from a casual conversation between 2 people and they really enjoy each other's company. Brits just like to have fun so they can't be bothered by other's problems. So if you need a listening ear, a Brit is not the right person to look for.

Btw, I was in Egypt on a dive trip and i did 3 specialty courses there. As mentioned above, due to my instructor's obsession with beer and british humour, I was at the bottom of his priorities. He kept procrastinating to go through my specialty courses and now, I have to meet him on another day, just so that he can rightfully certify me. Amongst other things, there were several other incidences that just made me minus some marks off my instructor.

But there were really fun and thoughtful people around despite all the odds i face with the group. My diving buddy was a great diver, helpful and not bossy. She so good natured, and very encouraging too! She's a great friend to have... I wish she can be my diving buddy everytime...

Ah! Shipwreck! my buddy and I are now castaways!

Oh no! an octopus bit your toes??

Relax, it's just the camera! Smile!


Haha, okie, end of story. =)

Maybe something different, my hotel room is such a surprise everyday. Somehow i managed to get the single room with a balcony. The rest didn't get and they were clearly jealous of me. anyway, in the afternoon, there will be someone to clean up the room and create magic out of towels:

1st day i entered the room with a pleasent surprise.

Then I get elephantS!!! the bright yellow towel is mine, I bought from Turkey (Jacq remember?)
Then mother swans and baby swans! In the middle is my diary and my water bottle...

Hahaha... This one made me laugh non-stop when i stepped into my room. The "man" had eyes and mouth!!! and the specs is MinE!!! haha...

some lotus... the little bottle in the middle of the yellow towel is my balm cream.

Awww.. how lovely!


On the last day... Aeroplane!!! with my specs... and the 2 blue dots are bottle caps...

Egyptians are quite creative, aren't they? Beds are such perfect places to leave ur surprises on.

Added bit: SCENES AROUND EGYPT

Lots of policemen just dossing around random places.

Huge mountains of sand everywhere!!

Toilet in the middle of nowhere, made out of stone and sand.

Short buildings, palm trees, sandy mountains and arabic man in the red car. How more Egypian (intentionally spelled Egypians) can this get?

Shall end off with a nice scenery.

Egypt is a good place to go. Its a privilage to be standing on the land where the longest history of mankind was said to be found on. On the way we found little kids trying to sell bracelets to us, if we don't buy they will go " Why no? You English Losers!" So sometimes it's justifiable that i don't feel any sympathy towards them, isn't it?

And camels are EVERYWHERE! =/ it sucks because I don't have pictures of camels just lazing around in the sun. There was this particular spot on the beach where a horde of camels were just "parking" there (they are a form of transport for the Egyptians). i'll try to get it and post it up.

Masallah! (arabic for 'wonderful')