Tuesday, September 30, 2008
~*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*~
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Went to school yesterday to settle mods for these two sems. It's official, I have a four-day week (assuming that tutorials also do not fall on friday) all year! Weekend traveling, here i come! :P The process of module selection took longer than expected though, cos a couple of people were asking questions like '-points at timetable-, how do i know when exactly are my classes'? Errr...just highlight whenever you see the class you want to take in the timetable? Haha alec and i were looking at each other with this 'huh?' face when that question was asked.
Then it was off to shopping with see jia and kenneth! Because see jia didn't have many winter clothes, it turned out to be a HUGE shopping spree for her. Darn i already have most of the stuff i need, so no excuse to shop man. DID end up getting a cap, 2 scarves and a school bag though, although i maintain that those are ESSENTIALS, so it doesn't really count. :P See Jia must be the most efficient shopper ever though. Haha i was telling her that if it were me, i'd take hours to come to a conclusion of what to buy, cos i just KIV everything. But for her it was, 'this is nice', then try it on, then buy. I think kenneth must have been thanking his lucky stars that it wasn't me doing the shopping. :P
Oh, and i cooked dinner last night!! Haha cos alec was too lazy to cook. The egg i tried frying for kenneth turned out damn miserable, but the pasta was edible i guess, so all's good!
Random ShotsI commented about how kenneth looked damn scary wielding the kitchen knife, and so here's a photo to prove my point! :P
Poor Alec wouldn't have known what hit him had he opened the door. :P
Don't let the smiling face fool you. Kenneth was actually have a damn hard time cutting up the minced beef. Haha it took him almost 10min to achieve it.
Anyway, the terrible weather the day before had obviously taken its toll on me, and i'm down with a cold. Noooooo i just recovered from my cough! Hmph. Panadol cold relief seems to be working somewhat though, so i shall cross my fingers and hope the cold goes away soon.
~*11:06 AM*~
Monday, September 22, 2008
The weather in Notts is terrible today. Has been raining on and off the whole day, and so it's more chilly than usual. Thankfully all the essentials for the house has been bought! FINALLY! Haha that was 3 days of grocery shopping straight. :S The walk down to the city centre is starting to feel less long and tiring. Guess i'm getting used to it. :)
Anyway photos from last week's trip! I realise i have TONS of photos, so instead of giving a whole long commentary, i'll let the pics do the talking. :P
Stratford
Conventry
York
Think this is a really nice, pretty town. Especially loved the piano busker. Made me miss my piano back home.
Hadrian's Wall
Rather disappointing honestly. When the tour guide mentioned about a huge wall that sounded similar to that of the Great Wall of China, i had huge expectations of it. But then it has already eroded to this state.
At the border between Scotland and England
It was freezing cold. Look at my eskimo shot!
Jedburgh
Edinburgh
and Edinburgh Castle!
Our very animated and funny tour guide in Edinburgh
At the dinner table for the Scottish Show in Edinburgh
Gretna Green
where couples used to go to elope. Awww how romantic. :P
Grasmere: Lake District
The scenery in this entire area is just AMAZING. Pity the bus driver's driving was akin to taking us on a roller coaster ride, which caused me motion sickness after a while, so instead of taking more photos, i was trying not to be too nauseous.
The cruise and steam train ride at Windermere: Lake District
Liverpool
Chester
In North Wales: SO MANY sheep.
First there was one, then two, then look at all of them! Haha, and my dad is doing funny poses again.
Llangollen: North Wales
And the hotels I stayed in for the three nights...
Especially LOVE the rubber duckies in the hotel we stayed in on the first night. Loved them so much, that there's a set sitting on my desk in hall right now. :P
And finally...Aimee and me!
Met this really nice aussie girl on the trafalgar tours. This tour operator is apparently renowned as an old-folks oriented tour company, and hence besides the both of us and david (this other law school guy who's here on exchange -- what a small world huh!), there's absolutely no one even near our age. :P
~*6:32 PM*~
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I've officially moved into my school hall! Initially, was rather apprehensive about st peter's court cos it's quite far away from school, and the area it's in is supposedly not really safe, but once i opened the door to my room...it's love at first sight! Contrary to the usual, where hall rooms are small to the extent of being claustrophobic, my room is actually somewhat similar in size to my room back in singapore. Although technically that doesn't say much, cos my room back in sg was not super huge to begin with anyway. But just like the small, cosy feeling of it. :P The idea of my own toilet is another plus too. No need to sprint across the corridor in all my unglamness whenever i need to use the loo. Privacy in this sense is always good. :P
Pictures of my room and the common areas!
Here there's photos of my very own private toilet, my room, the corridor between the rooms in our flat, the common kitchen and the common living area. :P
The view outside my room. :)
The other two people sharing our flat are also chinese, which is quite cool. As alec said, at least it'll be more docile, which is perfectly to my liking. :) The other girl in our flat is this taiwan girl doing her postgrad at notts, and is really nice and friendly. She even offered kenneth and i instant noodles for dinner, which we felt too paiseh to accept. The other guy, also a postgrad, but from china, is more quiet though. All we said to him today was hi and bye...the rest of the time he just stuck to his room. Ah wells maybe after a while he'll open up. :P
Anyway, as with the process of moving into a new room, alec, kenneth and i had to head out for groceries and stuff for the room. Apparently the city centre was rather nearby, so alec suggested we walk there and save the money we'd have to pay for the bus. And lo and behold, down the road, up a slope, and down the slope later, there was Market Square! (Haha although honestly, i think my stamina SUCKS, cos personally i DID think the walking journey was rather too long for my liking. Oopz. :P)
Market Square, aka Nottingham city centre!
This is the part of Nottingham i absolutely love. Everything from the huge open space and the city council building, to the fountain and the tram car, it's just SO beautiful. I could stay there all day. And the shopping in the area's quite good too, so that helps as well. :P
Anyway, Market Square was totally swarming with students, as many people whizzed by with what looked like a truckload worth of groceries and other misc stuff. Because the 3 of us only reached in the afternoon, and only proceeded to start our acquisition process after lunch, all the major cheap outlets like Primark and Tesco were already absolutely raided by the time we arrived. It took us 4 places and 3 shopping areas before we finally laid our hands upon single-sized quilts. Everywhere else there was only king and super king left. No prizes for guessing why the other size we wanted got snapped up so quickly. :P Because we were so loaded down with all our pillows and stuff, we had to leave grocery shopping to tomorrow, and hence dinner consisted of a very sumptuous roasted chicken ham sandwich, with absolutely no other ingredients. Ah wells...at least it's only one day...so i guess i'll survive. Tomorrow i shall go get my cornflakes and milk and pasta! :P
-Xin Ling :)
P.s. Have loads to comment about the travelling prior to reaching notts as well, but it's really late, so i guess i'll leave that to another day. :)
~*11:15 PM*~
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
Poor Alec wouldn't have known what hit him had he opened the door. :P
Think this is a really nice, pretty town. Especially loved the piano busker. Made me miss my piano back home.
Rather disappointing honestly. When the tour guide mentioned about a huge wall that sounded similar to that of the Great Wall of China, i had huge expectations of it. But then it has already eroded to this state.
It was freezing cold. Look at my eskimo shot!
where couples used to go to elope. Awww how romantic. :P
The scenery in this entire area is just AMAZING. Pity the bus driver's driving was akin to taking us on a roller coaster ride, which caused me motion sickness after a while, so instead of taking more photos, i was trying not to be too nauseous.
First there was one, then two, then look at all of them! Haha, and my dad is doing funny poses again.
Especially LOVE the rubber duckies in the hotel we stayed in on the first night. Loved them so much, that there's a set sitting on my desk in hall right now. :P
Met this really nice aussie girl on the trafalgar tours. This tour operator is apparently renowned as an old-folks oriented tour company, and hence besides the both of us and david (this other law school guy who's here on exchange -- what a small world huh!), there's absolutely no one even near our age. :P
Here there's photos of my very own private toilet, my room, the corridor between the rooms in our flat, the common kitchen and the common living area. :P
The view outside my room. :)