Our Monkeying Days...

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Snow in Notts!

Saw in the weather forecast that it would snow in the wee hours of the morning here, so i actually set my alarm clocked to wake up (all my flatmates thought i was mad. :P)...and there it was!!

Haha ok not very clear...but u can see the white colour of the snow on the cars. :)

And this shot taken in the morning is clearer...

And this was how the houses looked like in the morning! :P

Oh, and the christmas lights and the christmas fair, as well as the outdoor skating rink at market square, are all up and running! WOW there's really such festive cheer in the air!! Inspired by them, I got 2 pounds worth of deco and had a mini christmas decoration in my room. :)

My room is now christmas-y! :)

~*1:12 PM*~

Saturday, November 08, 2008

This whole week has been super weird. First my mp3 breaks down. Then my laptop monitor dies on me when i have a presentation in two days' time and which i hadn't prepared. And then yesterday, as if i hadn't gotten my fair share of bad luck for the week, I had a whole string of bad incidents. First this salesguy at carphone warehouse added 20 pounds of credit for me to the wrong network because he didn't clarify that my network and this other network were not the same, and then refused to refund my money. Then, out of three transactions, 2 of the cashiers short-changed me money, and only gave back the correct amount when i pointed out that i needed more change. And then the shuttle which was supposed to come did not come, leaving me waiting at the bus stop in the cold for one whole hour. Honestly, all this suay-ness has gotten me rather tired. I'm tired that after having just resolved one problem that crops up, another obstacle is thrown my way, so fast and so close to the previous incident that i don't even have time to breathe a sigh of relief. I can only pray and hope that this bout of bad luck will end soon...

~*6:23 PM*~

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Haven't been blogging in AGES! Well, guess it's cos i've been too busy travelling out every weekend. What i've done over these weekends is really too long to go through, but at the end of it all, I'm just really grateful for the great friends i have here! I think ultimately the company is what really matters most. No matter where you are, or how terrible the weather could be sometimes (and noooo i insist i'm NOT a jinx on the weather! :P), in the end, with friends around, even walking through the strongest gale is still a fun experience! :D So thanks guys, for making my weekends so wonderful!! :):)

On another note, starting to feel somewhat homesick. Haha rather delayed reaction really, but i guess after the initial excitement and novelty has worn off, and life settles into a routine, you start missing people and stuff back home. Because ultimately the routine in notts is just not the same as the routine back in sg. Need to figure out if there's a way i can skype. One year only on msn is starting to feel somewhat insufficient.

-XL

P.S. Haha as you can see, on my part i'm emo-ing after a great weekend has ended, as we all said we would individually. :P

~*9:46 PM*~

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

It feels so good to be eating ice-cream when the weather is cold. Not that i'm actually doing it, considering how i'd closed the window as i tuck into my Cookie Dough Ben&Jerry's ice-cream. Wow...but it's DAMN satisfying! Haha, i guess it's cos i've been craving ice-cream since FOREVER, considering how i'd been down with a cough, and then down with a cold. It's been a month since i last tasted ice-cream. The horrors!

Anyway, Italy air tickets have been booked! It's rather ironic that i'll be going there without visiting Rome and Venice, but i guess the places that Jansen has planned sounds interesting nonetheless (Florence, Milan, Lake Como, Sicily!), and I can't wait for dec to come so i can fly off already! Spain planning is still in a mess though, haha i guess mostly cos i'm doing the planning for that, and I have still yet to figure a lot of things out. But will be meeting lilian in glasgow this thurs, and then we can really sit down and discuss, and start the rest of the booking! :P Sadly, tutorial timings are STILL not out, and weekend trips have to be held on hold, even though i'm already more than ready to book tickets for at least a couple of them. Ah wells. Hopefully by the end of this week, as promised.

On another note, was talking to Kenneth, and I realise that I've more or less settled into life in Nottingham. There's no longer that feeling that 'I'm in the UK', or 'I'm staying in a hostel'; now i view Notts Uni as 'school', Market Square as 'town', and my hostel as 'my room/home'. I guess having nice roommates help. Xin Yi is like this big sis to me, always fussing over whether i'm getting enough food, whether i need help with this and that etc. Also, now that I've met people like See Jia, Russell, Sheanney, Wilson, Natalie, Pierre, Andrea and Stephanie, school no longer seems like such a friendless place. Sadly they'll all leave notts after this sem though. But i guess it's good that there's always msn to keep in contact, and I can always meet See Jia and the rest of the NUS exchange peeps again when i'm back in sg. :P

And i'm also getting pro-er at cooking! Haha i think by the end of the academic year, I can go for a chef degree. Thankfully communal dinners within the flat are getting more frequent though. It's really damn mafan to cook just my own share. And with communal dinners, it means more dishes! Like yesterday there was my french fries (made from scratch with potatos) and lemon chicken, xin yi's ma po tofu, and sen jie's stir fried beef, and long beans with pork slices. YUM! :P

~*5:25 PM*~

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Went for the annual goose fair today! Stupid me actually thought i was going to see geese, but it's really just a temporary amusement park. (Apparently it used to be an annual goose trading day many many years ago, but the geese had disappeared over time, and had been replaced by this annual festival.) Compared to such temporary theme parks in Singapore, the place was HUGE though.

The Fairgrounds!

The huge stuffed toys were SO tempting, but we didn't try the games at any of the booths in the end.

Some of the rides

We all tried the ghost train, which was honestly quite funny, instead of scary. There was this part where they flashed green lights on the walls, with images of those really fake cartoonish ghosts and a recording of ghostly voices, and russell, see jia and i just burst out laughing. Russell, Andrea and Stephanie were then garang enough to try this windmill-like ride (centre row: left), which was CRAZY, while See Jia and I opted for the seemingly tamer mouse roller coaster (centre row: right), which honestly WASN'T that tame. Omg the coaster was turning as it was dropping, and it made me quite nauseous for a while. Haha, and honestly i was quite freaked out by all those drops. I think i barely opened my eyes the entire ride. See Jia and i were saying that the couple next to us (who were wonderfully calm the entire ride) must think the both of us are super noob, cos we were going 'omg omg' the entire time. :P

Russell was damn freaked out after his experience on the windmill ride. :P

~*5:45 PM*~

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Random shots over the weekend!

GREGGS! One word: YUM! :P

Autumn's finally arriving! Just look at the colour of the leaves! Haha, it inspired xf and i to take this emo shot.

Xf's drink at The Bank...

...and our Sunday Roast Beef, all for 4.99 pounds!

Tornado in the sky. Xf and I have NO IDEA what this is, but doesn't it look cool?? :P

I just LOVE xf's guitar. Easy to press and strum, nice mellow and rich tone, and a beautiful dark blue colour! Wah, it's love at first sight! Shall get myself something like that once i'm back in Singapore. :P

Anyway, I've spent SO MUCH money over these couple of days that it adds a new meaning to the idea of broke-ness. Haha first it was tickets to glasgow, then it was my coat and backpack, then yesterday it was textbooks. And textbook buying round 2 still beckons within these couple of days. Man money is going out the window, and I haven't even been here a month yet! Note to self: I should NOT shop anymore (exception being when i'm in spain cos, really, how can you NOT shop when you're at zara there?? :P)

~*2:04 PM*~

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Haven't been updating for a few days cos i've been down with a cold, so was too busy coughing and feeling sian to post. Thankfully it seems to be getting better after drinking LOADS of warm water, and hopefully i'll be fully recovered soon!

Anyway, xf's here!! Haha so cool to be shopping with her around notts. It's like going along orchard road in Singapore, only colder. Was happily showing her around broadmarsh shopping centre, and introducing her to my all-time favourite pastry shop here, Greggs. Thankfully, I managed to risk temptation from all the nice stuff at H&M and Dorothy Perkins, such that i ended up getting only 2 more scarves. A worthy investment, if i may say so myself, since I have now learnt my lesson and shall cover up (excessively, if necessary) to prevent myself from catching a cold again.

Oh, and I have also just booked my bus tickets to glasgow! Darn excited. So the travelling begins! :D:D Sadly, the journey both ways would take me a whooping 23hrs in total, but since that would mean saving 27 pounds compared to taking the train, i guess it's worth it.

~*11:11 PM*~