photos of london!

If you've forgotten how i look like in this 1 week of absence... haha

this is the street where i am going to be staying at for the next 3 more weeks

That's the street to work. autumn hues!

me with a street busker with ultra long arms. ^_^

Westfield shopping centre, during its opening. it's HUMONGOUS at 1.6 million square feet! i'm so gonna go there everyday after work. many brands that i have never seen before!

more other photos on facebook, but more on flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/31958478@N06/sets/ enjoy! ^_^

WESTFIELD, europe's largest inner-city mall

Today, 30th of october 2008, marks the opening of Europe's largest inner-city shopping mall!!

'With more than 265 shops from over 15 countries, and 16 brands that have never been seen in theUK before, you'll be spoilt for choice.'

and guess what? it's within WALKING distance from where i work!!!! lalalalala i am going over to check out DAY1 of this phenomenal shopping experience very soon!! totally excited!! show your enviousness please!! ^_^

look at the list of shops here. and that's just for fashion. can't imagine we were all so excited abt the opening of vivocity in singapore. >.<

West End!!

i bought tickets to Lion King and Les Miserables!! yayyy!! they're not as cheap as they can get, as i bought them really late! like only today, for les mis on saturday, and lion king next thurs. i didn't know they get sold out so fast! so i ended up having to get them for like £30, which is about 75sgd. it's not too bad a price actually, but les mis has tickets as low as £17 if i had booked earlier! Now i'm so tempted to book tickets for the rest of my trip here, but then again i want to check out tkts on saturday first, to make sure i'm really getting the best deals! up on the rest of my list are wicked, hairspray, grease, sound of music, dirty dancing, sangre flamenca. all of which i can get for about £10-30. i'll get them on monday. hope the deals are still available then! others that i want to watch but are out of my budget are mamma mia, cabaret and stomp. but i'm happy. 6 musicals and 2 dance shows are good enough for a 25 days trip! hahaha~ my card is so going to bust

(and that's still not including the $$ i'm going to need when i travel to cambridge, loughborough, oxford etc!! yikes)

24 on the 24th

oh and i forgot to mention, i'm now my favourite number 24! =) had to work that last day before i boarded the plane to London. had tonnes of work to clear and handover before i left, so it was crazy. even left a couple of hrs later than expected, OT-ing til 630pm on a friday night! then had to pack... so it was a nice night with the family. and yes, thanks to fsc for the wonderful personalized presents! love em. ^_^

it has to be post-bdae luck, coz i bumped into qling at the airpot! she was heading for perth, but she told me her friend was on the same flight as me. sure enough, i met her! and she shuttled me to an empty row for me to have to myself. woohoo! the last time i had a whole row od 3 seats to myself was on a 1hr domestic flight. this was 13 hr flight! amazingly comfortable. =) i've almost forgotten that SQ is more comfy because of more leg space, and yummier food n beverages. i had red wine with steak! (no haagen daz tho. humph.) the screen was further from my eyes (due to more space) thus i didn't get a headache from it. managed to catch 5 movies with good sleep in between! =) hope the flight back is as comfy. hehe

in LONDON!

it's cold, it's windy, it's rainy, but it's LOVELY. autumn leaves are beautiful. the family i am staying with is wonderful. There's no wireless internet there yet, but i finally got my dose of internet here in the lab, where i'm waiting for ym safety course to start. oh finally i can get in touch with people. =) abit of jet lagging (and thus waking in the morning at 5am the past 2 days), but i'm settling in real fine. serene's sis was really great bringing me around yesterday. i covered many places! london's roads are messy tho, just like singapore. so it'd take me some time before i can get around without getting lost. haha.

BIG PRIZES TO BE WON!!

discovered a really fun game, with high chances of winning big prizes!! go go play. it expires 25th oct so hurry! and do share your prize with me if you win, coz i recommended it! haha http://project.omy.sg/onegame/main.php

for at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold

Am so upset that my london trip would make me miss a picnic. i so very much love picnics, and i am going to miss it. am so so so sad!!!!! =( Well at least i am not too upset about not being able to make it to kusu island, after discovering that there really isn't too much to see there. but I STILL WANT MY PICNIC!! *wails* oh geez. i'll stop whining like a baby after this. London should be more fun than a picnic at kusu island anyway, right? =P

speaking of london, i am finally going! flight confirmed, lodging confirmed. i never expected the flight to be so cheap, less than $2k! i always had the impression that everything would be more expensive than going to the States, flight incuded. haha. ok suaku me, never been to London before can? Now it's my chance. And i'm flying SQ!! i wonder if qiaoling and the rest would be on that flight? Then maybe the 14 hr flight wouldn't be too boring, with friends who'd appear at a press of a button. hahahah.

I cannot help but remember what he said to me. Why must some people talk so dirty? I had such a hard time trying to understand what that joke targetted at me meant. Spent the next hour pondering over it, until i finally got it. and felt so offended. bah. you think it's cool? you think that chemistry would fly just because you speak that way? you're totally wrong man. so sorry. but that's the biggest turn off ever.

Sometimes it really is very difficult to read a person's mind via internet. there's so much less you can receive as compared to meeting the person physically. i don't know what is wrong, or if anything is wrong at all. maybe it's the overload of work recently. but i just pray that he'd be fine. he was a special one all along. to me and to others.

Wii Rockband rocks!

And FSC rockband rocks even more!! ^_^


Thanks FBmummy and daddy for buying the set, for having us around, for feeding us like pigs.... ^_^

Heroine in the making

can't believe it's over. finally. it had been on my mind for ages, but no time to prepare until 1 hour before the real thing. last minute couldn't find mouse, then my thumbdrive kena virus cannot use. whoaa.. never been so worried before. by then, there was a qhole big crowd and no speaker. then i was so stressed i plugged the wrong wire for the projector and nothing would show up. had to get the director himself to help me.. "sweetie, you got the wrong one!" >.< so embarrassing.

anyway, i was done speaking 15 minutes before my estimated time. as usual, i speak twice as fast as i rehearse, just because i am ultra nervous. everyone was very encouraging after tt, but i know i can do better. will train up my guts in this one year! *oomph*

during the discussion, he mentioned that "if this works, you'd be a heroine!" indeed, i really hope it'd work. not because i am desperate to be a heroine, but because i am genuinely doing this for a cause. an important cause for the cancer patients. let's all work together for the greater cause! (and for to be heroes and heroines. haha)

well he pissed me of early in the morning, and so i decided not to bring him up to the office. dumped him to find his own things to do in this unfamiliar area for the next 2 hours. i am not so soft hearted when it comes to manners. teach rude people a lesson.

There's no comma in life.. it just goes on and on..

Have been way too busy meeting up with friends almost everyday, that I have no time to blog. And in the day time, i am way too caught up with lab work. Oh well, at least i found the time to upload pics onto facebook. That's the priority now since i love the tagging function on facebook. haha.

met up with quite some old friends at WL's wedding. the first girl from rgs 401 to get married!! way to go gal!! =P

all of a sudden, i am going london. with ultra short notice. woo. rushing to settle things these couple of days. yet, i don't know the exact date that i'm leaving. nor the date i am returning! have to give up emcee-ing for ronald's wedding (so sorry dude); have to back out of my helping in the youth camp in dec (sorry mama rose..); have to give up going to thailand yet again. so many years, and i still cannot make it there! argh. and the thai classes.. i have to give up teaching too. so sorry to so many people.. realize that i have alot of things to hand over when i leave the country. we don't live alone!

and amidst all these, i am finding friends who're in london. connections! i don't want to be all alone when i go over. during exchange, i had a whole bunch of 10+ pple going over with me. at the conference, there was fangers and i. now, i'm all alone. my first trip completely alone, going with noone, knowing noone there. hope it'd all go fine!

maybe it's God's way of telling me it is time to take a break from all these again. i have been taking up a whole load of things, trying to be superwoman once again. he's now forcing me to throw everything down, and leave. hmm.

solution

it's amazing how i still managed to think of this solution even tho i was almost a living zombie. EARPLUGS! i remembered that i bought a couple of sets when i was doing marble sculpturing, but never used them coz they were provided at the site. and when i used them on the 48-hour train ride to tibet, i managed to sleep past the noise of chinese nationals who wake up at 5am daily! so i used earplugs last nite! haha... but somehow this set wasn't too good. one side had some sort of 'leakage' halfway thru the nite, which shouldn't happen until the plugs have been used a couple of times. nonetheless, i guess i was way too tired so even tho i was awoken by the usual noises, i fell back into sleep and clocked a good 10 hours sleep! quite happy. =P at least i'll be awake for the presentation tonight. or even if i'm not, the wine and cheese should keep me alert with some endorphins. ^_^

snoooooze

i can never understand why people snooze. when friends tell me they have to wake up 1.5 hours before they leave home, i cannot understand. why waste 1 hour on snoozing, when you can get much more quality sleep during that hour, then waking up on the dot at the end of the hour? why let the every-5-minute snooze wake you from your beauty sleep so many times during that hour, that in actual fact you get no rest from snoozing at all? and i think it's even worse to snooze when you're sharing room with someone else. being woken up by someone else's alarm clock is bad enough. but being woken up by someone else's alarm clock 10 times each morning is even worse. i've been so tired lately that every second of sleep counts, but i just don't get it. i probably live on less than 5 hours' sleep each night again. was talking to yw about sleep yesterday, and i realize i can't even remember when the last time was when i had good sleep and felt really awake. i think that was in 2006, before i came back to singapore. it's the new house, i tell you. the toilet is situated in the wrong place (my room). the toilet door is of absolutely poor quality (cannot open nor close without loud banging). the roommate sleeps way less than cat (my previous and bestest roomie). i thought that going overseas for a short trip would help, but i forgot about jet lagging. so in the end i never made up my sleep either. i am now so used to being un-awake everyday. 2 years of it, will i not get used to it? but getting used to it doesn't mean i enjoy it. i wish i were more awake, i wish my brain was more refreshed, i wish i had my good temper once again. i'm just tired. maybe sometime soon i will take 1 week off and sleep in a hotel. in singapore. to avoid jet lagging.

Friends Forever

I first heard this song when lyn sent it to me. lyn's my friend since forever. and today, while looking at wesley's blog, i saw it again. and this time, the video came with subtitles, and i paid extra attention to it. reading the lyrics, pondering upon them, made it mean so much more. Wesley placed this there, knowing that his time at GPC was going to end. I really wish he wasn't leaving, but i know that there is another church that needs him so much more. I hate to see him go, the one who has made tremendous changes to the youth's lives in the past 6 years. Made us all so much more significant amongst the sea of adults. His contributions, i cannot describe. We all know it from our hearts.

But indeed, friends are forever. especially if the Lord's the Lord of them. friends are for ever. i deeply hope that one day, all my friends would become Friends Forever.



Friends Forever

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes he's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

CHORUS:
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say "Never"
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

With the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you'll live in
Is the strength that now you show
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong


Music: Michael W. Smith
Lyrics: Deborah D. Smith

SPORE in S'pore

it's really addictive. ultimately fun. tho i am really quite busy lately, i did spend a few hours last week playing, and i've progressed from cell->animal->tribal->civilization! yeah man, i'm now a CIVILIZATION! of course, that can beat my bro who is already the most powerful person in the galaxy. bah. there's no game that i can beat him to.

and it's not just about the progressing from stage to stage thing abt this game tt's fun. it's the designing of your animal/creature/whatever at any point of time you like. Plus, you can take picture of it, with any emotion or action on command! hahaha but i didn't. coz i use my bro's comp to play SPORE. mine's bright pink at the moment, living in a snowman-like house. i'm going to challenge myself to make something that looks like that from the pokemon series. bro saw that pple online did that. i don't believe it's out of my ability to do so if i try!

oh how i wish i could play the game now, when i'm out of home. but of course, i can't. not just in principle, but also i have no time to play now. going to be rather busy this week with church and some biannual advisory meeting at the labs. my bro's so going to become the all omnipotent being before i even progress to fight on the galatical stage! darn. it's so ironical how something called SPORE, implying its miniature being, could take over everyone's lives in so short a time from its release. oh, just like a virus.

breather

woof! i can finally sit down and do things at my own pace. i quite like coming to work at 6am, coz noone's around to disturb me and i have the whole place to myself. makes work much more efficient. PLUS, by mid afternoon i am free! like now! hahaha... such a rarity these days. must really rest well til tmr afternoon. Then it's non-stop work til 2 weeks later! >.<

have been talking to friends about various career choices recently. and the conversation never fails to return to something abt science being the worst pit to fall into, be it workload-wise or $$-wise. i totally agree that it's so tiring, and i don't have much $$ prospect (contrary to what people outside the field think, that a simple doctorate degree brings millions to the pocket). yet, during all these conversations, not once have i faltered in my decision to enter this field. exhausting it may be, frustrating some things may get, but nothing beats having a passion for the job. I don't know how so many people nowadays can choose jobs with fantastic monetary gains but minimal job satisfaction over jobs that offer the exact opposite. what joy is there in doing something that you dislike, just for the $$? maybe $$ can make people happy. i don't know. but i love my job. ^_^

we're always on the floor

as i scrolled down my own blog, i realized that the photo of the chestnutties.. was soo familiar. not just the people, but where we sat--the FLOOR. hahaha.. we're always sitting on the floor eh? hey guys when's the next gathering? which floor shall we sit on this time round? =P

ARGH

there seemed to be something odd going on with my blog template, so i decided to make a small change to it. just chose a new, simple template. blogger said tt my page elements would be retained. so happily, i chose this new template. and...... all my blog links disappeared! argh... and the last time i did a backup of those links was like 2 yrs ago or something.. now everything's gone! i'm too lazy to do anything to it now.. not something for an IT idiot like me. it's too much work. let me wallow in self pity for some time first... >.<

chill out

despite the heavy storm that just had to come when we were on our way to dinner, we managed to really enjoy ourselves. It's the company, i tell you. of course, and the food/drinks/music.

since dinner was delayed by something like an hour due to the rain, plus there was a queue at the restaurant, ells and i were H-U-N-G-R-Y. we ordered the set, which comprised of TWO main courses per person, along with salad and soup. hahahha. it was yummy~. poor huishan was too sick to eat much though. >.<

i was quite excited about the mid-autumn lantern display along singapore river, so i dragged elly n huishan for a mini-photoshoot. could see that my clothes were still abit wet. luckily i was in my boots, so my jeans were rather dry. ^_^

after that was of course TIMBRE. my first time at the arts house branch. nice place! goodfellas was playing. lalalla~ and elly's friend came along. neil, he was. took us quite a few tries before we got the right shutter speed and exposure amounts in the dim place. but here they are.

me and huishan aka vivien. her sister is wendy, and my sister is called vivien. haha.

it was yet another scene that i'd seen gazillion times in tv shows and movies. but this time round, to be a part of it was no fun at all. it fact, it shook me so hard i didn't even know how long i had stood there, in a daze. when the sun was barely up, i made my way out of home. the lift came, and through its glass window, i saw red spots splashed all over the sides of the lift. as the lift door opened, i half expected to see dead body sprawled on the ground. the pool of red spots with the absence of a body did not bring any relief to me at all. i ran away from the bloody sight, and stood in front of another lift. but this lift just wouldn't leave the level, and thus i had no chance of getting any other lift. i considered walking down 19 floors, but was afraid that there would be some form of danger lurking in the stairwell. in the end, i waited until someone on another level called for the lift, and i got into another. when i got downstairs, i saw lots more bloody splashes all over the place. ok, red splashes. they looked more like paint, but red still ain't a nice color to appear just anywhere. but the sight of decent-looking human beings at the ground floor made me feel so much more at ease.

things hadn't been going right at work. 4 weeks of waiting came to naught, and this had to happen early in the morning. it sounds like just a prank or a joke, but to see it in person just wasn't something nice at all. and noone seems to be able to understand this. it's not funny. all of a sudden, i only want to spend the rest of my life chilling out with elly and friends.