Blessed Be Your Name

emoness

2008-11-07T16:31:00.001Z

i miss lancaster so much it's unbelievable
has it really almost been a year ago since i was excitedly preparing for the trip?
i'm not there anymore and i'm back here... almost as if i've never left..
sigh
emo......

Florence (Italy)

2008-08-10T10:27:00.008+01:00

this is my absolutest favouritest place in Italy

photos by sy

sunny island

2008-07-05T17:53:00.001+01:00

yes i'm back...
and i'm jetlagged.. only managed to have some shut-eye at 6ish this morn :(

will be trying to finish updating all my holiday pics before i leave this site for good.....

lemme get back into my normal sleep pattern first ya..

final destination

2008-07-02T22:28:00.003+01:00

on reaching london from poland, everybody on the plane was just clapping cos it was such a smooth journey.. the best budget flight i've ever taken.. and once we stepped out of the plane, mandy and i were just grinning from ear to ear - the weather was fantastic, people didn't stare at you, everyone spoke English and everything just felt familiar. once we dropped our stuff off at our hotel (first ever :) thanks mandy!), we headed straight for chinatown for a bowl of noodle soup..

day 2 - mandy and i headed to harrods for a round of final shopping (for me at least). First day of summer sale, what better timing :D YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! had to part ways with mandy after that :( she was on her way back to sunny island while i went to disley for the final time

day 3 - strawberry and raspberry picking with my cousin-in-law and my nephew. i had the most amazing time :) the best part was making sure some of it went into my mouth while i was picking.. i know aiden had lots of fun too, though he definitely ate more than picked..

day 4 - went outdoors to kick a ball around with aiden and hui ling while we waited for Eunice jie to come home from work. i'm truly gonna miss this very much..

day 5 - i'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when i'll be back again.. oh i hate to go..

still in Krakow

2008-06-28T20:37:00.003+01:00

i know i said that i wont be blogging til i'm back in the UK...
but i was insulted 3 times today!!!
and i'm not pleased about it.. totally ruined my rather nice impression of krakow so far
in fact, i'm quite angry and even a little shocked/traumatized..

in Krakow

2008-06-27T21:25:00.002+01:00

i never thought i would like poland more than barcelona.. but in a strange and indescribable way, i do like poland.

our hostel is really nice.. huge.. and the best part is we have our own room,own toilet, our shower, own kitchen, own fridge, a pretty large table for putting our stuff and an extra bed... never mind the fact that the mattress on the bed is so soft that we can feel the wooden panel beneath it, i'm just glad that it's not the oven-like hostel we had in barcelona.

first day in poland and we had to get used to the fact that we were the few chinese pple around.. 3 chinese girls somemore for that matter.. pple on the streets were just staring and staring at us.. many of them walking past us only to turn back to continue staring and pple driving their cars staring out of their windows to look at us.. anyway cos weiwei is not with us anymore.. we're returning to our hostel early every night so that we don't put ourselves in unnecessary danger :)

last night, we went for a concert held in a beautiful cathedral.. there's always something about music that never fails to put a smile on my face.. today, we went for a salt mine tour and it was amazing. 9 centuries of mining in Wieliczka, some 200 kilometers of passages, 2040 caverns of varied size. The tourist route starts 64m deep, includes twenty chambers, and ends 135 m below the earth surface. There were 3 chapels inside totally made of salt. Absolutely stunning and impressive :)

after a lunch break, we headed to the grounds and actual buildings of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau, the sites of the mass murder committed against the European Jews as part of the Nazi plan for their complate destruction. It was truly a depressing eye-opener for me..

anyway i'm off to bed :) super early i know.. but we had a long day and we'll be doing a lot of walking tmr..
til the next time when i will probably be blogging from the UK again..

in Barcelona

2008-06-23T22:42:00.002+01:00

it's the last night in Barcelona...
and it's been crazily hot!!!
so hot that it only calls for shorts, spec tops and ice lollies
i'm seriously dying of heat...
but it's been good company so far ..

looking forward to poland
but weiwei is leaving us to return to lancaster
it'll just be the 3 of us girls roaming the streets of krakow.. interesting :)

any dream would do

2008-06-17T23:28:00.004+01:00

yes.. i've left lancaster
yes.. i'm in london
yes.. i've seen the Big Ben, London Eye, Oxford Street, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Horseguard Palace, Buckingham Palace, Harrods etc..
with my mummy, daddy, mama and papa (they left for Shanghai yest)
have since been checking out more sights in London with SY

and i'm watching a grand total of 5 musicals here
2 down (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Sound of Music)
3 to go (Wicked, The Lion King, Les Miserables)
we're on a roll :)

we took a day trip today to Bath
to see the Roman Baths.. it was pretty cool actually
and came back earlier to our hostel to indulge in cup noodles and instant pasta
ok til the next time ...

anyway cos we're watching 2 musicals tmr, sy and i decided we're gonna dress up to go for them, a big change from our usual ensemble of jeans, tee/tank top and slippers
i'm so psyched ^_^

belated and advanced

2008-06-11T22:18:00.004+01:00

10th June

Happy 22nd Birthday Jie :)

12 June

Happy 23rd birthday Ven-nini =)

i love you both

final farewells

2008-06-10T01:44:00.004+01:00

after 5.5 months here, there are so much stuff and pple i've to say goodbye to
farewells began on tuesday..

with the exchange students' farewell dinner

our last cell meeting on wed

exams ended on friday
we caught up on much needed sleep in the afternoon
and the 6 girls headed to town at night for some partying

sat was a lovely lovely day
perfect for a picnic on the grass which was exactly what we did

my face is cut off in this picture
but we look so happy that i just have to put this up :)

isn't the sky lovely?

and then it was Singapore society post-exam BBQ on the same day

can you see me? i'm right behind sy... at the end of the mat
this was about 9pm by the way... the sun now only sets after 10pm
i still remember how it got dark at 4pm when i first came in jan..

my last sunday in lancaster..

we went to church in the morning as usual.. during service, Gail was doing announcements after the worship segment when she suddenly announced that it was mandy's and my last week in Christians Alive.. she then asked the church to send us off in prayer and for anyone who wanted to pray for us to just gather around us and lay hands.. i was so overwhelmed when pple from my cell group, uni and other friends i've made here just began surrounding us and that was when my vision blurred with tears.. i was and am really super thankful for every single one of the people that God has placed in my life here..

farewell dinner for mandy, sy and i at night..
everyone prepared 1 dish each and we were just supposed to bring ourselves
we decided to surprise everyone with this...

yup, so sushi was our contribution
mummy, ever since you gave me the recipe, i've made it 4 times here :)

we placed 4 cameras on timer mode at different places in the kitchen to get a group picture from different angles :)

the 3 of us visited lancaster town for the last time today (mon) to have a look at Ashton Memorial
i'll upload pics of the trip another time..
we rushed back in the afternoon so i could begin packing my room
hasana, mandy, sy and weiwei came over for dinner to help me clear all the food left over in my fridge/freezer/cupboard

ada came over about 12 plus with a bowl of homemade dessert and a handmade card with pictures of our cell included.. i was really so touched.. i'm gonna miss her lots

anyway i've to finish packing my room now cos i'll be leaving lancaster for good tmr :(

this has been one really long and bittersweet farewell...

so this is it

2008-06-08T01:06:00.002+01:00

my time at lancaster is really truly coming to an end with the conclusion of my exams
so the past week has been pretty busy and it's gonna get busier these last few days

just from the top of my head, these are the stuff i've been doing the past week

dinner at weiwei's place (he cooked for the 3 of us)
skyping conferences with mandy and sy :)
farewell dinner with the rest of the exchange students
last cell session
2 post-exam bbq on the field (1 was by Singapore society and it was today)
sugarhouse with the girls (which was a huge disappointment)
lunch on the grass with mandy, sy and weiwei

tmr - farewell dinner for mandy and i by the cell
mon - explore lancaster town (never too late for that)
tue - drive down to manchester for dim sum in 2 cars
- the day i'll leave lancaster for good :(

Milan, Pisa (Italy)

2008-06-03T13:32:00.005+01:00

Milan

Picture 1 taken down

this was initially a picture in the train on our way to Milan from Venice. But Mandy and SY insisted i take them down cos it was very early in the morning, we all just kinda woke up and we looked very cui.

2) We came across this Italian restaurant where to our surprise, it was managed and owned by Chinese, thus explaining the chinese tea we were served. The food was absolutely amazing.

2) An absolutely beautiful cathedral, both the exterior and interior

4) We took this outside the beautiful cathedral cos we stopped to ask the police for directions as to where the entrance of the church was. They were really nice and friendly and were happy to take a picture with us.

2) This girl was playing the piano in the middle of the square and she was really really unbelievably good.

Pisa

It was a beautiful day in Pisa and we took almost 2 hours finding our hostel. Pictures 1 & 2 were taken beside this railway track, looks really nice and all but we were so tired from being lost and having to drag/carry our luggages and bags.

3) Walking towards this supermarket Pam. We were really excited when we saw this cos it's one of the landmarks we had to look out for near our hostel.
4) 3 happy ladies when we finally found our accommodation, which was actually more a camping site with the rooms being inside caravans. How cool is that!

illusion

reality

the first 2 people on the tower from the left are mandy and me

mandy and i were queueing up to climb up the tower and the other 3 were accompanying us. See what we do when we're feeling high and bored :)

3 & 4) Mandy and i on the tower, taken with SY's cam after dunno how many optical and digital zooms. Her camera is amazing i tell you.

the view from the top of the tower

cooking in our little caravan home for the night. More like Mandy, SY and nick cooking hurhur. Weiwei and i were in charge of taking pictures.

3) Our homemade candlelight dinner for 5 :)

Milan and Pisa were fun. I love love love the pictures we took in Pisa especially cos the weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and cool. It shows, doesn't it? Staying/cooking in the caravan also made the Pisa leg of the trip very memorable. But coming up next (Florence and Rome) are my absolute favourite parts of the trip. Til the next entry.....

photos by sy, weiwei, nick and i

left behind

2008-06-01T23:22:00.002+01:00

so Dianna, my very nice flatmate left this morning for good
she'll be travelling a week before heading back to california
helped her carry her many huge bags down from our 4th floor into the waiting london cab
was really kinda sad when we hugged goodbye
it's been 5 months
i'm gonna miss seeing her around ever so often
bumping into her in the kitchen while we're cooking
borrowing each other's pots/pans/plates/utensils/washing powder
knocking on each other's doors

haven't seen Cat, the other flatmate around in ages
i know she's gonna be back cos her stuff is still in the kitchen
she's prob gone travelling

but for now, i'm all alone in the flat
and i need to study for my paper tmr

it's but a breath

2008-05-31T15:10:00.003+01:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIANGFU !!!!!!!!!

i've been back from the road trip with my family since thurs
they're on their euro trip now while i'm supposed to be studying for my final 2 papers
the word is supposed :)

i'll be done with exams next friday..
my time here is coming to an end..

gone yet again

2008-05-24T13:40:00.003+01:00

hi friends

once again, i'll be away from lancaster til the 29th
the folks are visiting and i'll be road-tripping with them around northern england
in a 15-seater minibus :)
they're arriving tmr and i'm now at disley again with my cousin's family
my niece has started crawling :D

i'm still in the midst of my exams.. 2 more papers in june :s
and then it'd be london, barcelona and krakow..
ok i guess that'll be it for now.. tata!

p.s. i had a little shock over the last few days. got an essay back with 47 marks. It is considered a pass here still but it was ridiculous to me cos i really put in a lot of effort for this particular paper and the comments written on the cover sheet did not tally with the content of my essay. So i emailed my tutor asking for a meeting to clarify things and she realised that she had confused me with another person with almost a similar last name and that she hadn't even read my paper yet. Well, it took another day for her to remark my paper or rather to read it for the first time and i'm happy to say that the new mark made more sense to me :D

Venice (Italy)

2008-05-17T21:02:00.009+01:00

I've finally gotten down to begin the next entry of my easter vacation.. if i went chronologically, it would be Amsterdam next. Unfortunately, i don't really like it well enough to do up the pics for it yet. Thus, i decided to move on to my next favourite place - Italy :D We visited 6 places in Italy - Venice, Milan, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Vatican City.

Here's the entry on Venice.

I personally don't like Venice that much. Having always wanted to go to Venice after hearing stories about it being a water city and romantic city blah blah, i was immensely disappointed with the place and i must say it is definitely over-rated. The water wasn't as pretty as i had imagined, it stank a little to be honest. The squares were just crawling with tourists and pigeons, very much a tourist trap if you ask me. When i say tourists and pigeons, i really mean that the place was just swarming with them in every direction.

this is the entrance to our hostel. imagine our shock when we reached and saw this.

and this was what the interior looked like. thank goodness the rooms were normal-looking
the rooms were definitely fit for living :)

the gondolas that cost an exorbitant amount to sit on.
just an idea about the cost of it, we took the water bus which was cramped full of people only for 2 stops and that cost us 6 euros each.

a picture of us on the bridge after being caught in the rain and putting down our bags at the hostel

3) only if you have about 80 euros to throw away. If you want, you can sip from a glass of wine, have a violinist to play for you or a lady to sing for you.

oh just a point of information, there are no roads at all here.. only form of transport is to walk via many bridges or use river transport.

see what i mean by a ridiculous number of pigeons

2) & 3) the tourists
4) that's how we move around almost everyday or every other day.. it's really no joke

1) & 2) night scenes in Venice
3) & 4) at St Mark's square, the principal square in Venice

just to name my travel companions

from left to right: denis, nick, mandy (amanda), me, weiwei (cyrus), sy (si ying)

pictures from sy and weiwei

without you, there wouldn't be a me

2008-05-15T23:41:00.002+01:00

backdated: 11 May 2008

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! =)

I hoped you had a fantastic Mother's Day, though it must have been hard without your sunshine :) haha i'm kidding!! see you in 10 days :D

gone for a few days

2008-05-09T09:36:00.003+01:00

hey friends...

i'm going paris today
seeing yuan, dor and dong :D
yayness!!

will be back on the 16th
much love :)

p.s. dear mandy, thanks for being so concerned about me finding my way to the hostel, helping me check how to get there from my bus station in paris, writing down every single step in order to get there and even circling the metro stations i gotta take in various colours :)

p.p.s dear sy, thanks for compiling a JUST FOR JULS list of songs for me to listen on my 20 hour bus journey to Paris.. i'll be thinking of you when i'm listening to them ^^

much love dears.. even though you two are happily shopping in Primark, Manchester and eating half price dim sum today... xoxo

i see your true colours shining through

2008-05-08T19:12:00.002+01:00

pictures taken along the roads, streets, parks, everywhere in Switzerland.....

what lovely news

2008-05-08T11:38:00.002+01:00

Hi Juliana,

You'll only need to answer one essay question in your LINGxxx exam, and your
exam will last for one hour (half the questions in half the time
compared to normal students, because you only studied half the course).

You'll have a free choice of questions, but obviously I'd suggest
choosing one which relates to the topics covered in Term 2!

Best wishes,

Vicky

yay!!!!

one and only

2008-05-08T02:42:00.008+01:00

H.A.P.P.Y B.I.R.T.H.D.A.Y DADDY!!!!!!

I Love You :)

depression

2008-05-06T16:55:00.002+01:00

here are the list of things that are going through my mind now :(

ban mian *
egg prata
fried carrot cake
cockles
ba chor mee
plain porridge *
kiam beh * (only my parents will understand this)
hokkien mee
stingray
pokka green tea *
hor fan
fried fish beehoon with milk *
durian
chin chow
prawn mee
teh peng
sweet potato
fishballs
cuttlefish
arts canteen's Yong Tau Foo
mama's chicken herbal soup *

* super thinking of it

faith, hope and love

2008-05-05T17:26:00.000+01:00

it's gonna be an amazing 21st :D

football mania

2008-05-04T23:03:00.005+01:00

it was a weekend of football overload

started with the National Football Museum yesterday morning at Preston
Mandy and SY each had a friend visiting from Sg who happened to be football fans, thus explaining the itinerary planned. The guys were having a great time i reckon, from the absurd amount of time they spent going through each panel as well as the number of photos taken of every single little detail. We girls were moving from one bench to another that were positioned at various locations within the museum while camwhoring to entertain ourselves and being very amused by the guys.

we headed to Blackburn stadium in the afternoon for the final match played there for the season between Blackburn Rovers and Derby. Yes, not a very exciting match i know but SY's friend Gabriel was a Blackburn fan so what to do?

Watching my very first live match was truly an interesting experience. The crazy number of people at the stadium and the rowdiness of the crowd or should i say the Derby supporters/chavs (strange that they were the ones making most of the noise) were just some of the more memorable stuff. It was really strange that the match started when it started. I was expecting some really dramatic kickoff. Or perhaps, i was just too distracted looking at the Derby supporters singing/chanting/dancing that i missed the start. One moment the players were dribbling the ball to each other to warm up, the next moment they were playing for real.

Anyway when i found out the match had begun, my eyes began to follow the ball closely and i got quite confused most of the time whenever there was apparently some foul committed. I would nudge SY on my left to ask her what was going on and she would tell me she didn't know as well. I would then nudge Mandy on my right who would in turn nudge Gerald (her friend) to find out what was going on. And then halfway, i would get distracted once again by the constantly ever annoying shouting Derby supporters and then, i would miss seeing Blackburn score the goal!!! oh before i forget, i have to mention that Blackburn apparently played their worst half of a match ever for this season as declared by a loyal Blackburn fan sitting behind us.. they actually let Derby score a goal first.. and even from the perspective of me, one who hasn't watched a football match ever even on tv, they didn't seem to really want to win as much as Derby did. I couldn't sense any fighting spirit at all.. not for the first half at least.. It was hilarious seeing the manager decked out in his suit coming up really close to the field to shout at them. Thank goodness the second half was much more bearable to watch and the match finished with 3-1.

As it was the last match of the season, there was kinda like a celebratory thing at the end for the players to thank their supporters. The players all went back on to the field carrying or holding the hands of their children and waving to their supporters. It was a really lovely sight to behold. This player (whose name i found out later to be Matt Derbyshire and the same age as me) was holding a pair of twins if i didn't get it wrong, one in each hand, and it was simply adorable to watch. I nearly drove SY crazy by the number of times i said 'soooooo cute!!!!!'

Later, cos the guys wanted to get pictures and autographs with the players, we ended up hanging around and outside the players lounge doors for more than an hour. The guys happily got a couple of autographs and pictures from the likes of Matt D, Roy C (whom i understand he used to play for ManU), Tugay etc. Too bad we couldn't get to see player 9, who scored 2 goals in the match and apparently is the best on the team. Oh ya, i decided i'm officially a fan of Matt D, because he has twins at my age, and because after he kindly took a picture with us and signed autographs for the guys, he thanked us for coming to watch the match (not like other dao players), got into the car he drove himself (instead of having a chauffeur) and waved to us even as he drove off. Friendly and unassuming guy :D

visited Old Trafford today.. more on that the next time and pictures if the rest decides to send me the very lovely pictures of ManU stadium. I am very impressed by it if i may say so. The grass is unbelivably green and the stands so red. The contrast in colours is very nice :)

weekend at disley

2008-05-02T00:18:00.005+01:00

so i was at Disley again over the weekend
actually, it's more like sunday and the first few days of the week
i always love going there.. it may be only for a few days each time
but i love just staying at my cousin's place, playing with my niece and nephew, hearing my nephew call me liana-yi in his cutesy ang-moh accent, seeing my niece's beautiful smile.. eating really nice home-cooked food by my cousin-in-law

well this time, in addition to the above, i got to pick the kids up from the nursery where once i reached, my nephew excitedly told all his playmates that i was liana yi.. apparently he had been telling them about me the whole day :D i also got to hide under the dining table a few times with my nephew as ordered by him, read bedtime stories to him, help to bathe, change diapers and clothe my niece, eat homemade bread and homemade jam etc

finally, i even managed to explore a nearby spatown called Buxton by myself. Buxton is half an hour by train from Disley and the place is just amazing. It's small like Lancaster but it's a much nicer than Lancaster in my opinion. There is a really pretty landscape pavillion garden with a lake where you can feed ducks, a playground, bridges, mini waterfalls, lovely flowers, much like botanic gardens. There's also an indoor public swimming pool/spa, a lovely mini hill in the middle of the town with benches near the top so that you can just sit overlooking the area and take in the nice scenery.. and it has an operahouse!! how cool is that??

well, the next time i'm back at disley, my parents, grandmother and maybe godfather will be in the uk as well and we're gonna be doing road trips together.. really looking forward to it cos it'd mean that 2 of my papers will be over, one of which happens to be next wed.. eeeks!

oh ya.. i nearly forgot about Paris before that with yuan, dor and dong
and even before that, i'm visiting biggest football museum in Preston (this sat)
football match at Blackburn (this sat)
Old Trafford stadium tour where Manchester United is based at (this sun)

but until then..
i'll be camping out in the lib again :)
busy busy...

when time ceases to exist

2008-04-26T16:02:00.002+01:00

ever since the start of my easter whirlwind travels, we've lost all track of time, day and date.. everyday, we go by First day of Switzerland, First day of Rome and Day before flight back to Liverpool etc...

today like the past few days, i've stuck in my room trying to do my essay and have only gone out as far as the kitchen.. i thought mandy just left for her Paris trip when it was actually yesterday that she left...

it's Saturday
not friday..
and tmr is Sunday..
i'm going to church
and then to Manchester :)

Jiak Hong

2008-04-24T12:40:00.003+01:00

it's the exam period once again in NUS
and i'm missing the mugger gang..
and when i think of them, i think of this film..

Vienna (Austria)

2008-04-24T01:27:00.005+01:00

this entry will be one with an overload of pictures.. i already tried to cut down.. really..

the hostel where we stayed at.. and met these really cool Americans.. one of whom is a wedding photographer who spends half her time travelling from the money that she earns.. she's offered to house me in LA if i ever visit there one day :)

the snow followed us from Salzburg to Vienna..

our very first meal in Vienna.. authentic Viennese food.. at least mine was.. the one on the bottom right.. and the best thing was it only cost me 5 euros..

Imperial Silver collection in the Imperial apartments.. the top right picture is the way napkins were folded when there were important guests received in the palace.. only 2 ladies knew how to fold it as it is and it was so top secret that the formula was only passed down verbally

we're just beginning the tour of the apartments.. which was simply amazing to say the least..

Parliament

i took the first 2 photos cos i was struck at how such beauty could be born of the earth and dirt..
apple strudel and hot chocolate :D schweet! (austria is famous for apple strudel)

we took a lot of such photos in the middle of huge public spaces.. but it's great cos no one there would remember us after 5 minutes of leaving the place hehe :D

the exterior of the State Opera House .. pictures of the interior coming up in a bit..

St Stephen's Cathedral - the pictures honestly do not do its magnificence justice..

this toilet was one of the attractions stated in the guide to Vienna we had.. and it costs us 0.50 euro cents to enter..
eating this was cheaper than eating at a normal eating place

Schonbrunn Palace - the summer palace of the monarchs, one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria.. the whole place is so huge that it requires a whole day to explore it including the apartments, the gardens, the terraces etc.. we went there twice.. once during the night cos we watched a concert there and the next day where we spent about 3-4 hours exploring the palace grounds.. it was great cos we got to see the place in different light...

we paid 30 euros each to watch a concert that played songs by Mozart and Johann Strauss.. not very worth the money i admit.. but it's something i have to do in Vienna.. considering my music background..

we visited the Central cemetery, Vienna's largest burial ground, where composers, writers, artists and politicians are buried e.g. Brahms, Schubert, Strauss and Beethoven..

the first 3 pictures are of this chapel inside the cemetery.. the last picture is a section where Austrian soldiers who fought in WW1 are buried..

walking up to the Panoramic terrace of the Schonbrunn Palace where we took a whole lot of pictures.. cos of the long way up, we worked up a sweat and were able to take off our coats for the first time.. definitely reason to take photos to show the colour of our clothes beneath our boring coats..

picture 3 looks vaguely like the picture i have of me in perth looking at a beautiful sunset.. both were taken without my knowledge haha..

the many expressions of Ning

i told you we took a lot of photos..

it was really funny cos we spent about half an hour taking all those pictures.. and becuase it was only the 2 of us, we had to take them ourselves by balancing the camera precariously on benches and setting timer mode before rushing to stand in front of the cam.. random strangers approached us to ask if we needed help to which we declined politely hurhur..

we paid 2 euros to get standing seats for watching an opera in the State opera house.. the main thing wasn't the opera.. it was more to see the interior of it which was definitely worthwhile.. even if it meant standing for the entire 3 hours of watching an opera which was totally in German..

this little boy was breakdancing by himself in the middle of the St Stephen's square

doing up this entry really make me miss Austria so much ...
this trip was also made more fun because of Ning :D
i miss her too! :)

juls... in lancaster... walking on sunshine

2008-04-23T11:56:00.003+01:00

that's exactly what is on my msn nick now..

and that is what started a conversation btw my dear bro and me. it's the second time he initiated a convo since i'm here.. first time being to ask me how to keep youtube videos..

jed: hey jie
jed: how're you
me: I'm ok.. wah how come you suddenly talk to me
jed: sian ma
me: wah liew.. sian then talk to me
jed: no la.. i see you so sian that's why
me: huh??? who says i'm sian
jed: yeah.. your display name..
me: huh?? walking on sunshine?? how is that sian...
jed: no... juls... in lancaster
jed: sounds sian i think

hahahahaha... my brother is so cute :D

spring's here..

2008-04-22T16:16:00.002+01:00

BBC says that it's 16 degrees outside now...
the sun is shining...
i'm supposed to meet mandy and SY in a bit at the lib to mug..
but it's super hot outside!!
can i not go?

Salzburg (Austria)

2008-04-22T01:27:00.005+01:00

i have so many photos it's really not funny.. took me ages to sieve out these few..

introducing ning - my lovely Austria travel mate and old friend
and the bags that took me through the whole month of travelling

this is what i kept seeing on the way from Klagenfurt to Salzburg.. it was that close

the roads are super empty in austria.. seriously, where are the people and cars??

all these photos will only make sense to you if you have watched the film. i had to go for this tour cos its my absolute favourite musical movie of all times. i think i've watched it more than 20 times.

this is the abbey where the 7 children went to find Maria when she suddenly left

and these are why i love Austria so much :D

this is the church when Hollywood filmed the wedding scene between Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer

this is the bridge where the children came to the first time Maria brought them out

the hostel we stayed in at Salzburg.. where we got to know this American girl (?) Lauren pretty well and made friends with a Hongkonger, Korean and another American (?) who was a nanny with a German family. How cool is that? Ning, correct me if i got the nationalities wrong :D

p.s. this is the first out of 18 entries i'll be doing on my travels whenever i'm free.. one for each city that i visit :D

p.p.s. photos all not edited.. the sky, the clouds, the snow.. everything you see is reality as it is

back in lancaster

2008-04-19T22:10:00.002+01:00

it's almost surreal that my month-long vacation is over and i'm back in my room at lancaster
alone with my own bed and shower
i've travelled 18 cities in 4 countries for the past month
lived out of my backpack and the same few clothes
ate, smelt, saw, heard, felt, learnt and experienced a myriad of things
met pple while moving from hostel to hostel
it's been an awesome but tiring journey
and i'm glad to be back
pictures up once i've finished rushing through the next set of essays (an anticlimax to an otherwise wonderful holiday)

Bern-Switzerland

2008-04-04T19:52:00.002+01:00

hello everybody!!!!

here's a shoutout from the land that i've always dreamed of coming to... Switzerland :D
it is really beautiful here.. mountains, lakes, beautiful scenery.. what else can i ask for?

spent 2 nights in Geneva and 2 nights in Bern already... we'll be heading to Interlaken tmr, a city in the middle of two lakes and where we'll be going up a mountain to see the Swiss Alps, my main purpose in coming here... thus i'm really really excited...

time is passing so quickly when you're having fun.. it's already days into april and i only have about 3 months left til i go back to Singapore. Talking about Singapore, it's really amazing how we meet fellow Singaporeans here... in hostels, in trains, even just walking along the roads.. our accent is just too distinct to miss.. i'm kinda proud of this actually cos i've really met so many Singaporeans here, in a way, it's almost feels like home away from home...

anyway we still have about 6 days left in switzerland before we head to Italy for the final leg of easter vacation.. its been an amazing whirlwind of a trip so far.. i'm learning so much, seeing so much and feeling so much :D

can only post pictures at the end of my trip when i'm back at lancaster..

still in vienna

2008-03-29T01:15:00.003Z

it's now 215am here in vienna and i'm sitting at the computers at the foyer of the hostel i'm staying. i need (we need) to pass the time to 630 to catch the train back to klagenfurt where we'll be catching a flight back to london (where the next leg of my trip begins)

we had planned to take a night train tonight originally to save on accomodation and because there weren't any available rooms for tonight anymore.. however it appears that there isn't a night train even though we were pretty sure we saw it on the train schedule online.. thus we have to just hang around in the lobby and wait for 630 to come..

it'd be the same thing for me again tmr night.. the only difference is that i'll be spending the night at the london airport instead of a hostel lobby.. again, it's to save on accomdation and cos i have an early flight to amsterdam the next day...

feels so strange that one week in austria has just flown by like that..

i've experienced snow that fell relentlessly, met people from all over, watched a concert, an opera, visited all the locations that the Sound of Music was filmed, the birthplace and residence of Mozart, the Imperial palace and summer palace of the period of monarchy rule, the place where beethoven, strauss and stralms was buried etc etc. most precious to me was the times spent catching up with ning and the times we spent walking leisurely along the streets of vienna eating from a hugeeeeee ice cream cone with 5 scoops of different flavours. I've learnt so much from her on this trip and i truly truly enjoyed myself travelling with my friend from long ago.. okk maybe not so long ago.. 5 years?

i know i've probably mentioned it countless times.. but it was truly a very fruitful, enjoyable and rewarding trip.. austria definitely ranks pretty high in terms of all the countries i've visited. i love the place, the architecture, the history of the 600 years of monarchy, the culture. however as ning says, austria doesn't seem to have a distinct culture of its own.. nonetheless, i still feel this place has its own beauty and i absolutely love it.

vienna

2008-03-25T21:27:00.003Z

i have 4 min left to type something ...

it snowed here again in austria

snowed cats and dogs for the entire day.. so much so that we just had dinner and quickly came back to hide in the lovely hostel..

oh.. i've since left salzburg.. in vienna now.. the land of music.. love love!!!

gonna visit the opera tmr.. some famous musicans' birthplace and graves.. what a contrast..

the day after.. we'll be taking a day trip out to the Danube river/valley :D

if you can't tell, i'm bubbling over with excitement and I'm finding it so hard to contain it

ok tata!!!

the hills are alive...

2008-03-23T23:17:00.002Z

omg omg omg omg omg
i can't believe i'm truly in austria.. it's like unbelivably beautiful and amazing
it feels so surreal

i'm loving every single bit of austria, the snow-capped mountains, the scenic train ride from Klagenfurt to Salzburg, the clean and extremely new hostel, the people i've met here (i've met more international people here in 2 days than the 2 months spent in lancaster - korean, hong konger, canadian, new zealander, american, iranian), the food, the beautiful city of Salzburg where i went for a Sound of Music tour (something i always wanted to do), walking along the streets while it is snowing, YES snowing heavily!!!

i felt like a small child again :D ning was telling me to pull up the hood on my jacket cos it's still water.. but i told her to gimme awhile of feeling it falling on my head.. i love it

however, one thing i totally didn' factor in while preparing for this trip was the language barrier.. everything is in german.. we had to guess what it is we were ordering on the menu hurhur.. another thing was the cold.. i've to borrow ning's stuff cos i don't have enough.. it's like below 0 degress... freezing!!

nevertheless, it doesn't take away or diminish my excitement or joy at being here one bit.. in fact i've´decided that i absolutely have to come back here again some day..

tmr we're going to climb up a small hill to see the old fortress of Salzburg as well as visit Mozart's birthplace and residence.. it's going to be awesome..

til the next time i get the chance to use the internet again
the computer is irritating cos the letters on the keyboard are all over the place..

in LONDON

2008-03-21T17:43:00.002Z

i'm wondering how to summarise the week's events here in a matter of words..
ever since coming back from manchester last sat, it's just been hectic and a crazy swirl of rushing essays. i had 3 2500-word essays due this week just to give you all an idea..

4 weeks ago, i had an elaborate and perfect plan for doing 1 essay per week so that i wouldn't have to rush myself.. as usual, my plans never work and i ended up with 4-hour sleep everynight and sleeping at 5am one day... :/

so anyway it was just the ultimate madness on wed night, the night before 2 of my remaining submissions. i stayed the entire day and afternoon in my room working and i completed one at 1am.. which was when i had my dinner hurhur.. the funniest thing was that when i went into the kitchen, 1 of my flatmates was inside cooking as well at that ungodly hour.. i went in to join her and when i finished cooking (maggi only la!!), the other flatmate walked in with her laptop to cook/continue working as well.. its crazy!! so after dinner/supper, i went to take a hot shower to refresh myself.. or so i thought.. however when i came out.. i was so tired i decided to sleep and wake up at 7am the next morning (the submission was at 2pm)

to cut the long story short, i woke up close to 10.. panicking like mad.. i almost wanted to hand in the essay with 1500 words.. but i knew i couldn't so i think i took a lot of stuff from the readings i had and i think in my panic and hurry, i didn't cite them properly... really crossing my fingers, praying and hoping now that i wont get caught for plaguarism.. and the best thing was after i finished the essay, i ran out in my PJs across the campus squre to print the paper, ran all the way to the building to drop off my essay.. the lady who was going to collect the papers on the dot of 2pm was already waiting there.. she said to me 'hurry along dear, you only have about 2 min to attach the cover sheet to your paper and write your name'... when i dropped it in the box, it was exactly 1.59pm.. my hand was shaking...

sorry i know i'm kinda rambling now but i'm actually at an internet cafe in an extremely ulu part of London where my hostel is .. and i have 15 min more on the time only and a whole lot of stuff to say..

i think i have only time left to share my packing experience with you all :)
after my last lesson at 5pm yesterday, i went back to my room to cook dinner (i had to finish up all the food i had in my fridge and freezer cos i dont get to keep my room during easter break and that includes packing out of the kitchen as well) i nearly died gorging myself with all that food, pasta for 2, 3 huge chicken thighs, eggs...

started to pack my stuff into my luggage after dinner... it was more difficult than i thought.. seriously, i dont understand how i accumulated so much stuff within a span of 2 months.. so anyway i was panicking and stressing cos i didn't know how i was going to finish packing and all.. had to rush to SY's place to spend the night so as to catch the early bus to the train station for our early train to London ( and we forgot it was Good Friday.. so we didn't realise there was no early bus in operation on Public holiday and so we had to take a cab :/ )

anyway i'm digressing, what i wanted to say was how in my panic and stress, people in lancaster who i've only known for 2 months offered me great and timely help.. at random points of time a few weeks back, i casually mentioned to various people that i might need help.. and i forgot all about it.. unless yesterday, when cyrus, nick, zhennan and ada all called/sms/msn me at various times to ask if i wanted them to come over to help pack/ store my bags or to transport my bags to wherever i needed... i was reallllyyy touched... nick and cyrus especially, they came at 10 plus and stayed with me and helped with packing til 1 plus... before zhennan and ada came to help carry my stuff.. seriously ah, i didn't know how i can have so much stuff... i had to split my stuff and put them in 4 different places (cyrus, nick, SY and ada's room)

arghhh no more time.. else i'll be charged somemore..
leaving for austria tmr... then amsterdam.. then switzerland... then italy...
will update as much as i can :)
much love :D

oh ... it was my beloved nephew's 3rd birthday yesterday.. i wanted to do a special birthday entry for him but i had no time.. will do one when i'm back on the 19 April :D

byeeeeeeeee!!!

quote mandy: drowning in words

2008-03-17T12:28:00.003Z

feels good rushing to class to discover there's no class

feels good having a few hours before essay deadline to prettify the essay, proof-read it and print it

feels bad seeing the person beside me at the com lab having 2 full pages of citations and references for her essay

feels bad seeing the printed essay with ink smudges on the sides cos the printer is lousy

but i dont care :D
i only need to pass :)

feels good hearing the thud of the essay dropping to the bottom of the essay box

*2 down, 2 more to go

laughs

2008-03-12T22:42:00.000Z

this is really funny... watch it :)

2 alarms in 1 night

2008-03-10T23:55:00.002Z

RED FOR ANGER

I'm super angry!!!!

the alarm in my building sounded tonight... twice!!!!! for the same reason!!!!!!!

this girl was having a party in her room and they were all smoking..
the first time it happened, we all had to get out in the cold
the girl apologised and was warned by the potter
we all went back
15 min later, it happened again
and i was so flustered, i forgot to change to shoes and went out in slippers!
the girl and company fled the scene when the alarm sounded again
and guess what? she lives in my flat :/
so now it appears that all my flatmates smoke :/

i'm gonna die of lung cancer :(

really backlogged

2008-03-10T14:26:00.004Z

it seems like i have a lot of stuff that i haven't been updating..

Liverpool (pics up when i'm less tied up with essays)

The day trip was good and not good in a way. It was good cos we managed to go to the Maritime Museum where we could see models of important ships in history like the Titantic and read all about what happened on sea journeys in the past and life on board a ship. This was really one museum i liked and enjoyed exploring and it says a lot cos i'm not a big fan of museums. We got to Albert Dock and spent a lot of time taking pictures here cos the scenery was really nice and the wind was amazing.

Beatles Museum (Long story: the reason why it was good and not good)

We arrived at the entrance only to see a large crowd coming out of the museum and just gathering outside in groups. It turned out that the fire alarm in the building had sounded and so everyone had to get out, wait around for the fire brigade to come and check through the building and give the clear signal before being allowed to go back in and continue the tour.

Anyway we got into the queue and waited like everybody else. There were 2 groups - those who already have the ticket and those without it. So anyway the clear signal was given and the 1st group went back in while the 2nd group went in by batches to pay the entrance fee. Barely 10 minutes later, the alarm sounded again. The whole procedure was repeated and you could hear mutterings of dissatisfaction all around you.

We got in line again, while being no where near the start of the queue. When it was finally our turn to get in, we couldn't have been happier cos it was starting to drizzle and it was really cold outside. Just as we stepped foot into the building (not even buying our ticket yet), the alarm rang.. AGAIN...for the 3rd time! I was truly pissed off and so were like 50 other people.

We got in line again while waiting for the fire brigade to arrive but this time, we were already at the start of the queue. At this point, the people working in the museum decided to give out free complimentary tickets but they only gave it to the first ten people in the queue. So we got one :) and we started to feel slightly... i repeat slightly.. happier.. especially when it was announced that because it was getting late, those without the ticket were not allowed entrance anymore. goodness.. we were coming so close to waiting so much for nothing...

AND we're finally in after about 1 hour or maybe even more.. it was really nice inside to read and listen about the Beatles, especially when I grew up listening to Beatles thanks to my daddy. We were about to come to the end of the tour and take a look at the souvenir shop which was the highlight of the museum. i know mandy wanted to buy some stuff and so did i. but guess wad? yes!! the alarm sounded again!!! for the 4th time!!! and this time, they announced that because it was way past opening hours.. we had to come back the next day (we were only in liverpool for that day!! there was no next day for us!!).

however, they did say that they were very apologetic about it and that if we were to email them our address and the number of tickets we had, they would send a cheque to us with full refund for it. So that was what we did and we were wondering how they were going to verify the tickets that we had through email. But guess what? Nick emailed them to say we had 4 tickets that needed a refund and they sent a cheque for 4 Adult tickets, no questions asked and included another 4 complimentary tickets. I'm amazed!

It's good cos we kinda earned from this in fact. If we had bought the tickets, we would have bought the student tic. So now, we're getting a refund for the adult tics which we didn't buy and getting some more tickets which we'll be able to use when we go liverpool again at the end of easter vacation :D yay!!

SO because of the time wasted at the Beatles museum, we didn't mange to go to Liverpool Football Club as was our original plan. Nevertheless, we were not that disappointed cos the trip was still relatively good with great company and we know we'll be heading back there soon in the very near future :D

love in the mail

2008-03-06T13:24:00.004Z

guess what came in the mail today?

I have BAK KUA!! and DRIED MANGOES!! and PRAWN NOODLES!!

but what truly made me really really happy was this... (minus the Pong Biah)

mummy: ... you are the jewel in our family. You are also the SUNSHINE & SUNFLOWER...

daddy: ... though daddy seldom msn you but daddy miss you very much...

boy boy: ... *enclosed with his pic* you're looking at your mature and champion brother... he signed off with 'your cute and sweet bro'

jed: ... it's been good in Singapore but boring without you to help me choose my clothes... i bet you miss Singapore so i asked mummy to pack prawn noodles for you... nice right? i know...

mama: ...现在又有煮菜，奶奶很喜欢...

i'm truly blessed... i know..
thank you for the love
i really miss you all :D

edinburgh 15-17th february

2008-03-04T14:35:00.004Z

i'm sorry this has come so late.. but here are the pics of my Edinburgh trip. There're more of cos but i've picked a few to put here.. the rest are on facebook hurhur

denis baked this strawberry cheesecake for the 3 of us :D

our budget hostel..

i love the lighting of this photo (it's not edited by the way)

we're at Edinburgh castle.. but we didn't go in cos the entrance fee was 8 pounds?

taken at a factory/showroom that made Scottish kilts

climbing Arthur's Peak.. took us about 2 hours i think no kidding..
it's actually steeper than it looks..

the wind when we reached the top was amazing:)

Law faculty of University of Edinburgh

we stopped at Chocolate Soup after our extremely fun but exhausting climb

my lion queen :D ._.

Were you affected by the UK quake?

2008-02-28T01:15:00.003Z

Newspaper headline reads...

The strongest earthquake to hit Britain in 25 years has shaken homes in England and Wales. Did you feel it?

The tremor hit at around 0100 GMT and was measured at 5.2 on the Richter scale.

Its epicentre was near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, but the effects of the quake were felt throughout the country.

There were reports of residents being woken from their sleep by the tremor as far away as Wales, Scotland and London.

The US Geographical Survey's website reported a quake of the magnitude of 4.7 and said the epicentre was 30 miles (50km) south of Kingston-upon-Hull.

That's about 125 km south-east of where I am.

i wasn't sleeping at that time but i didn't feel anything, or rather we (mandy, SY, nick and i) didn't feel anything since we were all together at my place.. however, people in other parts of the uni felt the tremors..

i should think my building is rather stable :)

can't get it out of my head

2008-02-26T02:25:00.003Z

mandy, SY and i have got to be the most hardworking exchange students ever!!

we're all doing work here NOW at 2am!!

and it's not cos i've been procrastinating.. well maybe i have.. but the fact is i've been waiting for my group mates to send me their research so that i can get started on the report which i volunteered to do.. how good and amazing am i!! i'm on exchange for goodness sake..

yup so it's due in about 8 hours.. so i shall resume work and update you all again later..

tons of edinburgh pics have been uploaded on facebook by nick and SY.. you'll be able to find them if you click on my profile.. if you're too lazy to do that, gotta wait til i'm less tied up with work..

ciao~

winter is not over

2008-02-21T14:50:00.003Z

just when i thought spring was on its way here... the weather has taken a turn for the worse.. almost to the time when i first arrived. In fact it's been like this since we came back from Edinburgh, as if the cold followed us back from Scotland...

i was wearing 4 layers yesterday, including a short-sleeved tee, my long-sleeved tee, amanda's wool pullover and my coat and i was still cold.

winter is so not fun anymore... i can hear the wind outside... getting louder and louder..

i've spent the entire day in my not-so-warm room today and i'm not looking forward to stepping out in the freezing air for my class in an hour's time...

cny week

2008-02-19T16:30:00.004Z

I'm back from my weekend trip to Edinburgh

but since i haven't gotten all photos from si ying and nick yet, i shall upload photos from CNY week instead..

CNY Eve

as you can see, while everyone is bao-ing jiaozi, i'm watching from the side hurhur

CNY Day 1

this is especially for the 2 who've made SEP such a wonderful time so far, and only cos you 2 complained about not including you in the previous v-day entry haha!! love :p

disclaimer: photos are quite bad cos they're not taken by me hahaha

vday special

2008-02-14T18:14:00.007Z

what better time to tell you all i love you than vday itself?

thanks for all the time you guys gave me the 2 weeks before i left
and right before i left as well :)
this goes out to all of you reading this & i'm really sorry if i don't have any pictures with you.

note: it's in chronological order

happy V-day to all of you!!
with much love from lancaster :D

the nephew and niece

2008-02-12T22:37:00.000Z

INTRODUCING....

AIDEN ZHI YONG HEADLAND

there are very few pictures of Aiden cos he got chicken pox this week and was feeling very under-the weather and thus rather uncooperative.

EVELYNN HUI LING HEADLAND

the humble abode of yours truly

2008-02-07T18:12:00.000Z

i've finally gotten round to taking pictures of my room cos it's relatively neater now :)

what greets me when i open my room door

the white thing below the window is the heater in my room which has mood swings
it tends to automatically switch off when it's the coldest in my room :s

my snack corner :D which is getting bigger by the way..
with much more in my drawers and in the kitchen outside
i assume a big box of goodies is on its way here from Sg (thanks mummy!)

my work corner. check out the pile of library books on the right. i work here ok!!

my room when i'm standing at the heater. the brown doors with tees hanging on it is my wardrobe. the other brown door on its left is obviously the main door. the green pieces of post-its are reminders of my deadlines. i told you i work here!

my bed, shoes, scarfs

my wardrobe. i'm sorry for the blur picture.

my family has the habit of changing NEW bedsheets every CNY and so i'm carrying on the tradition even when i'm here. the new sheets given to me by Kindness 2 :)

my warm and inviting bed plus the comforter :D

and thats the end of a peek into my humble abode for the rest of the next 5 months.

happy lunar new year!!!!!

2008-02-07T17:42:00.000Z

firstly, here's wishing everybody back home in Singapore a very blessed lunar new year..
it's my first time celebrating CNY away from home and so far, it has just been amazing

-i had my first reunion dinner with the girls and nick last sat (made wantons etc..)

-then on mon, the 3 girls met up for dinner again to plan for our easter vacation and we ate tang yuan (this was just bought and boiled )

-yest after cell (it was my very first time at a cell here, but more of that in another separate entry), ZN (the fulltime Singaporean here who brought us to his church) invited Amanda and I to a reunion dinner/Chinese get-together at his kitchen.

We finished cell about 10pm, reached back to his place around 1030, stood around while people started streaming in with their contributions of food/began cooking their dish, made some new friends, counted down to Chu Yi at midnight, offered greetings all around and dug into a huge spread of deeeelicious food (omg, i cant even begin to describe how sumptuous the dinner was, beyond my expectations of food cooked by students and when the main cooks were all guys). We broke up the gathering about 2am where i had to go back and begin work on a presentation for tutorial this morn, thus only going to bed at 430am

- class at 11am today. I would have woken up at 1045 but i set my alarm to 9 so that i can call home when everyone was at toa payoh. Talked to like a zillion relatives for 28 min :D

- going for another steamboat reunion dinner at ZN's place again in an hour. this time, it's going to be a Singaporean/those who have studied in Singapore before kinda dinner whereas yest, it was a gathering of Chinese, Hong Kongers, Malaysians, Indonesians, 1 Korean, Chinese British etc.

- heading to Manchester tmr with Amanda for reunion with Eunice jie and family. Mighty looking forward to it cos Allister, my cousin-in-law said he's going to prepare a 10-course meal :D

truly a wonderful and memorable Lunar New Year for me

p.s. the temp today was between 8-11 degrees C and i felt it was unbearably warm!!!
- think i'm finally getting accustomed to the weather and i'm definitely not looking forward to the heat awaiting my return in June..

staying on campus

2008-02-06T10:35:00.000Z

i was really disappointed with this particular module that i'm doing here..

Film Modernism and the Avant Garde

but this week, i'm starting to enjoy it more and more.. such that when i was doing the reading for this week's film 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie' (Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie), i lost all track of time (maybe cos i switched off my com to take away all distractions) and read til quite late..

this morning, i woke up at 845 and my only class was at 9am.
i brushed my teeth, changed into a pair of jeans, pulled on my coat over the tee i slept in, grabbed a breakfast bar and headed to class :D

i love staying on campus hurhur..

1st reunion dinner

2008-02-04T14:10:00.000Z

the first CNY reunion dinner at lancaster.. with just 3 of us girls preparing..
very simple.. but took nearly 3 hours including preparation time and cooking..

what better way to end dinner than with a chocolate fudge cake :D

the second snow

2008-02-03T22:44:00.000Z

2 nights ago, it snowed for the second time since i've been here

and again, i missed it

juls: i didn't see it fall!!!!
amanda: ya.. you not online la.. so we couldn't tell you.. we tried calling you as well but your phone was engaged.. maybe cos we were both trying to call you..
amanda: it lasted only for a while but the whole ground is white!
amanda: the road in front of my window is totally white!!
juls: argh!!!! i feel so cheated!!! booo :(
amanda: it looks like rain.. super fine
amanda: don't worry, it should snow again tmr..

half an hour later....

amanda: IS IT SNOWING AGAIN OR RAINING???
juls: *runs to my window to open the curtains*
juls: huh?? nothing la
amanda: GOT
juls: don't have!!
amanda: MY ROOM OUTSIDE HAVE
amanda: look at the lights
*we both continue staring intently from our individual rooms*
amanda: aiya raining la
amanda: sian diao
amanda: NOOOOOO
amanda: IT'S SNOW!!
amanda: i can see it outside my window

a few minutes later...

amanda: NOOOOO IT'S HAIL
amanda: there are ice balls on my ledge
amanda: HUGE ICE BALLS

i'm still staring intently, and getting upset cos i wasn't seeing anything amanda was seeing

juls: noooo it's rain!!
amanda: it's snow!! the car outside my window is totally white again

after much staring and blinking and staring and blinking and opening my windows to stick my hands out to feel the air... i saw what i wanted to see :D

people running out to play in the snow.. it's so blur cos the pple kept moving

what the ground looked like after they all went back indoors

wind, rain, snow and hail

2008-01-31T15:23:00.000Z

all in one day :)

it was mighty scary last night cos the wind howled so fiercely and loudly through the night. i laid in bed wondering if the building was going to be blown down.

weather forecast said it'd snow today :) and it did! with hail too!!

unfortunately i was in class and didn't get to see the actual falling.. only realised it after class cos there were carpets of white everywhere and small bits of ice on the ground..

of many experiences

2008-01-30T23:29:00.000Z

i cant decide if i'd rather have sunny but very very cold weather or cloudy but not so cold weather

so today was a very very chilly day (i keep thinking i've adjusted to the cold cos some days, i go out with just a tee and my coat). i dressed myself in a long-sleeve tee, ven's thick turtle-necked jumper, put on my coat, my boots, my scarf and my gloves, stopped at the entrance of the building to put both hands in my pockets before stepping out into the freezing cold, looking down the entire time so the wind won't smack my face full-force.

i smiled
cos i only had one class from 9-10am
before i would meet amanda to catch the free bus into town.

our first stop today was Wilkinson - a place selling all the household stuff you can imagine
gosh if only we discovered this place sooner :(
pots and pans were like about 1/3 of the price we paid at Sainsbury (the supermart we've been frequenting).. a wooden spatula was 35p here and i bought one from Sainsbury at 1.99 pounds :(

anyway i bought bathroom cleaner, a scrub and rubber gloves.
i'm all set to wash my bathroom soon :D
i feel like a housewife hurhur

amanda, si ying and i also bought minced meat at Sainsbury today.
We bought a packet of wanton skin from the chinese supermart at Manchester last week so that we can make wanton this sat for our CNY 'reunion' dinner haha.. hopefully it'd be edible:)

oh ya! the 3 of us went to the Royal Infirmary last night for reasons undisclosed. It was truly an experience. There was no one at the reception, didn't see any patients and we only saw one nurse. We walked past a few wards, one of which was the maternity ward, and it was dark and empty! Don't the people here give birth at night?? Real strange.. and to think this is like the only hospital in town..

mucho frio

2008-01-28T12:58:00.000Z

after service yest, amanda, hasana (canadian), nick (msian) and i stayed for student lunch (free!) in church, after which we decided to brave the cold and try walking back to campus. it was a really long walk, made fun by the company along the way. it took us about 1 and a half hours including trudging up the hill before reaching the campus and stopping at a supermart we've never seen before for about 15 min.

i guess the exercise made me really hungry cos i decided to cook more food than i normally would.

i tried cooking turnip cake (saw the precooked packet in a chinese supermart at Manchester and decided to buy it). It was really nice though a little burnt :p

and because it was so cold, i decided i wanted to have a hot bowl of soup. i opened my fridge to see what i had available to dump in and the result was a bowl of tomato-bai cai-crabmeat-chicken soup. yumm :)

dinner was followed by a hot shower :)
nothing beats that in winter..

Manchester

2008-01-27T23:08:00.000Z

yet the start of another week..

the weekend was good.. spent it in Manchester with family
gosh, homecooked food (liver, beansprouts, broccoli, beef, mushrooms..)
TV
playing with the niece and nephew
cuddles with the niece and nephew
hearing Aiden call me 'liana yi' in that cute British-accented voice of his and giving me his cheeky never-fail-to-melt-my-heart smile
seeing Hui Ling's cute and fat pork-chop thighs and charming everyone we meet on the streets with her million-dollar smile

i was all set with my camera to take hundreds of photos of them.
i charged my batt the night before i left
but at deansgate station where i transitted to go manchester, in an attempt to take some pictures of the station cos the train was delayed for 20 min, i realised that i had left my SD card in my laptop after uploading pics the previous night.
then i found out that i left my railcard in my room which i'm supposed to show the train conductor when he comes to check tickets. While pretending to sleep, i was praying really hard that he'll just check my tickets and not ask for my railcard. amazingly, he totally walked past me altogether, not even checking my tickets :D

taking the train myself was quite an experience. The routes are not so clear-cut like our MRT. There are like up to 14 platforms at each station and you really gotta look carefully to find out which platform is your train gonna be at and go there in time to catch the train. At Deansgate station, i was really quite lost cos my tickets did not state a route going from Deansgate to Disley (where i was supposed to be picked up by my cousin-in-law Allister). I only had a ticket from Lancaster to Deansgate and from Disley back to Lancater. Anyway if all these sound like Greek to you, just understand that it was really quite confusing for me.

But i managed :)
and i'm proud of myself :):)
and i promise to charge my batt and bring my SD card along when i visit Manchester again in 2 weeks for CNY reunion dinner with the family :):):)

it's the weekend yet again

2008-01-24T23:55:00.000Z

end of week 2

i'm going to Manchester tmr for the weekend

taking the train for the second time

taking it myself for the first time

i'll be fine :)

p.s. a picture of the pasta i cooked, as you requested Mummy

more than words

2008-01-22T23:57:00.000Z

i took the evening train with amanda (si ying went on an earlier one). we had to change 2 trains before we reached Durham. This was taken when we transitted at Newcastle.

Durham at last!!

Durham Cathedral - where Harry Potter was filmed!!

I like this photo cos of the moon at the top. It gives it a very special quality.

Still the Cathedral, but looking at it from another angle across the river bank

The same place as the previous photo, but taken in the afternoon

View of Durham from the train station

The view while walking to the city centre of Durham from the hostel we stayed at

We took the whole of Sat to visit Newcastle since it was just 1 stop away. This is the centre of town - a huge square - and we saw a group of Red Indians(?) campaigning for the fight against Racism by singing some of their songs. They were amazing. I was totally captivated by the music.

Check out the number of people watching them

We stopped by Newcastle stadium. Took pictures from the outside cos we girls refused to pay money to go in haha.

The huge shop below the stadium selling all the Newcastle stuff - jerseys etc

Chinatown in Newcastle. But it's so small, it's more like China 'street'

Back to Durham on Sun. The Cathedral again, and this time we went in the day to explore the inside as well as the courtyard. The inside was so pretty. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside :(

View of the Cathedral courtyard from the corridors (this is at the back of the main Cathedral, thats why photos were allowed again)

Find this familiar? Think Harry Potter. Slugs scene?

Me, Dennis (our new-found friend) and Amanda. Dennis was the one who brought us around for the 3 days. He was really a good host.

Si Ying and I. The photos all look photoshopped!!

The corridor. Familiar again?

The Cathedral in the background. Dennis was carrying all our stuff :)

I love this shot, even though we look so tiny

Entrance of Durham Castle

The Courtyard of the castle

Final meal at Durham - Zen, where we had great and much-missed Thai food.

Overall, a fantastic trip!! We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly thanks to a really good host and great company :) looking forward to the next! yay!!

yummy

2008-01-18T14:47:00.000Z

before i go, here's a pic of my lunch :) cooked by myself again

the first trip out

2008-01-18T13:55:00.000Z

so the first week of school has come and gone
some classes were really very interesting (p.s. liangfu, 1 lecturer brought in a youtube of Liverpool singing You'll never walk Alone)
and i'm really loving the lecture theatres here, with the quaint stone walls as their walls instead of the claustrophobic cemented walls we have in nus & the old-school chalkboards alongside modern white boards. it really makes me feel happy going for classes :)

that aside, i'm going for my first weekend trip in 2 hours and it's to Durham.
photos up when i'm back on sunday!

the wind has been howling since i woke up this morning
the trees are bent over like grannies
a sight to behold...

my successful attempt at cooking

2008-01-16T11:04:00.000Z

an interesting msn conversation last night with Percy, a Hong Konger who's also an exhange student here

Percy: Have you eaten?
juls: No, not yet. I'll cook soon, still thinking what to cook
Percy: you???
juls: haha yessssss... i'll try
Percy: ok. good luck. don't burn the kitchen. hahahahaa
juls: it'll be my first attempt.. but i hope i wont haha
Percy: won't siying or amanda come to help you? you're really brave!!!

ok so basically, it appears that within one week here and still only in the getting-to-know-peeps phase, i've kinda gotten myself the reputation of not being able to cook and never ever gonna make it. yikes!

maybe its cos when the 7 of us were cooking dinner together a few days back, i looked really helpless/confused about what you should be doing in the kitchen. or maybe it was cos when the water in the pot boiled, overflowed and looked like it was going to push the lid over, i jumped, stared blankly at it and shouted 'it's boiling! it's boiling' (before grace calmly walked over to lift the lid) etc

whatever it was, i was determined to cook a meal totally by myself.
here's my work of art :)

2008-01-15T16:51:00.000Z

so i thought that seminars (tutorials) would only begin in week 2 as told to us during orientation. thank goodness i decided to check with the department beforehand and they informed me that for this class, seminars begin this week. so anyway i walked into class about 5 min late and i realised that i was the only Asian present :s a bit scary but i survived. just that it was pretty difficult trying to understand everything that the people were saying cos their accent is so thick and they talked so fast. every time the class laughed, i would be wondering what's so funny.

anyway i already have my first assignment
and tons of readings.
here, the coursework is not that heavy, but the readings are massive...

gonna go prepare my first homecooked dinner by myself now..
shall leave you with pictures of the view from my room
pictures of my room up only after my things are relatively neater hurhur

to the left

and to the right

taken at 415pm here..
see the building behind the cars? thats where one of my classes are held
i just love the short distance to classes..

more birthdays

2008-01-15T10:23:00.000Z

happy birthday to the 2 people who've been so much a part of my life

11 years and counting...
i love you :)

20 years and counting...
we can quarrel to eternity.. but we both know our friendship is more than that:)

first day of school

2008-01-14T16:14:00.000Z

i had one lecture from 11am to 1pm today . It was a film module. Again.
It was quite boring. So was the film screening. It was more a lecture on modernism than on film. But i'm gonna withhold my judgment on the module for now cos it might turn out pretty good, as it was with GEK 2020 in NUS. i absolutely loved that, minus the first 2 weeks haha (so hang in there yuan and fu!!). Anyway, i walked around the building like 5 times before i found the lecture theatre (it's 3 min walk from my place), cos the sign on it was so tweeny. Reminds me of what the speaker said yesterday at church: Never lose sight of your purpose. If you're to be a sign, you should be big enough to allow others to read you.

so i went back to my room after the lecture for a 2 hour break where i made lunch (more like microwaved my can of stewed beef which was nice apart from it smelling and looking like dogfood), called home, did accounts and chatted online, before going back to the same place for another 1 hour lecture. I was there almost 10 min early but the place was full and the lecturer had started talking. Like wad on earth??!! Oh and guess wad, i saw Feifei, this Chinese girl studying at Lancaster full-time and one of those at the lunch gathering after church yesterday. I found out that she's a linguistics major as well and she's taking all 3 of my LING mods with me :) Nice to see a familiar face, but i seem to be unintentionally mixing with only Asians.

Anyway, class ended at 345pm and when i walked out, the sun was setting :(
How fast is that!

Oh well, in other news, i'm heading to Amanda's in a bit to cook dinner (Si Ying and Kheng Guan as well) and plan for our first trip out of Lancaster this weekend if all works out.

And i forgot to mention the dinner i had yesterday night. 6 of us went to Grace's place (a HongKonger), and we cooked pork potato tomato fishball cabbage soup, chicken drumsticks, fried luncheon meat, fish fingers, stir-fried cabbage and pizza. Awesome!

2008-01-13T18:01:00.000Z

It's been a week since i left home, amazing how fast time flies and yet at the same time, time drags on and on and on...

Anyway, Amanda and i went downtown to Zhennan's church today - Christians Alive. It's a very warm community where people just come up to you after service while we're having tea and biscuits to just chat/welcome you/find out more about where you come from. People are friendly and they remind me of cym :)

The service is more charismatic in nature where after the main worship segment of the service, people other than the worship team will just come up, take the mike and maybe sing a song that God impressed upon them. Another person will then come up to say how the song that the person has just sung is totally in line with what God was speaking to them. Other people will just come up to pray for people who need prayers and everyone will respond in choruses of Amens. It's really a new and different experience for me altogether since in Singapore, i've never ventured beyond methodist services. Oh, and i really thought the preaching was good and impactful. Not sure yet if i'm gonna stick to this church though. I may cos i really do like it here. But i might wanna try other churches as well, we'll see. I'm also hoping to join a cell here too :)

Anyway after service, a group of us went to the house of one of Zhennan's friend who lives in town and everyone chipped in to prepare lunch. Amanda and i helped to wash/dry the dishes at the end since we were not much help with the cooking hurhur. I think there were about 12 of us. It was a nice chilled-out kinda gathering, great fellowship and just getting to know more brothers and sisters in Christ.

Can't believe school is starting tmr. I'm looking forward to it but i'm afraid that i'll be the only Asian in my classes. So far, i've just been sticking real close to the Singaporeans, Malaysians and Hong Kongers haha.. oh well, i'm sure things will work out ok..

birthday wish and a congratulation

2008-01-13T01:37:00.000Z

HAPPY 3_ th BIRTHDAY
CHAI!!!!!

Congrats on your baptism
PL (my dearest mentee)

lancaster castle

2008-01-12T21:46:00.000Z

It was a lovely day for going out cos the SUN was shining today. Here at lancaster, the sun is a treat :) so anyway, 8 of us headed to town together this afternoon - 3 Singaporeans, 3 Hong Kongers, 1 Canadian, 1 American. We visited Lancaster Castle and had a 1 hour guided tour. The castle is presently used as a working court so i'm sorry but there's no pictures available inside the castle; as well as a prison which houses about 170 convicts now. Yes, you read it right. The castle is 4/5 prison and 1/5 court. During the tour, we heard how centuries ago, people were tried, convicted and executed for minor crimes like shop-lifting or forging signatures. An 11- year old boy was imprisoned and whipped for stealing a celery, can you believe it??!!!

anyway we managed to see a prison cell and had the experience of being locked up in one with all the lights off/windows shut. it was pretty interesting being locked up for fun and for just 30 sec. However, about 200 years ago (not sure about now), there were only trials in december. So like if you were arrested in June, you were locked up in the cell for 6 months without ever seeing the sun or going out of it for that matter, and without even being convicted yet! You're just awaiting trial. You would then be released if found not guilty. So imagine, being locked up for 6 months before being able to prove your innocence. gosh!

wednesdays and saturdays are street market days. Basically, people just set up tents at the centre of town to sell their stuff - fruits, pillows, boots, street snacks, piping hot donuts, chocolates, dried fruits etc

1) Andy, the American, buying a cushion. He's really very funny and easy to talk to. Anyway, the shop keeper here looks mean but the people here are really very friendly.

4) Kids love to play on this fountain. There were actually many children here. Talking about children, i must also mention how there are like sooooooo many dogs here. It seems like everyone owns a dog, big or small. I have to siam every 30 seconds.

3 & 4) The Lancaster Castle

1) The Castle wall

2) The Castle
3) A church (the crucifix at the top can't be seen, but there is one)
4) The Castle

This is the inside of the church. Talking about church, i need to sleep soon cos Zhennan (one of the Singaporean friend that we met during the Singaporean gathering - dorcas, he says he knows you. He's from AC, one year your senior) is gonna bring Amanda and I to his church tmr. He's driving :)

note to mummy: I finally bought my pot, frying pan, chopping board and knife today.

the first few days

2008-01-11T17:44:00.000Z

hey everybody back home!!!!

this is just gonna be a blog for updates about life in Lancaster til i get home in 6 months so that i dont have to repeat the same questions many times. first things first, i am doing very well and thanks to everyone for the prayers and love :) i was really very overwhelmed at the airport on sunday.

anyway, it's been great here so far but i'm still trying to get used to the weather here. It's really cold, about 3-5 degrees, dipping even lower in the night and plus wind chill, it's bad.. I got pushed off the pathway twice from the wind so now i'm really paying a lot of attention even for just walking.. its also so cold here that it even hailed on my second night for about 20 sec. It's been raining almost everyday, not the heavy kind of rain we get in Singapore, mostly drizzling and so i dont bother using an umbrella here. Actually, umbrellas wont be very helpful as well cos the wind pushes it the other way round, making it more a nuisance than any other thing. Oh ya! Another thing worth mentioning is how long the nights are here. Sunrise is at 8am and sun sets by 4pm.. We're in darkness most of the time!

anyway, as most of you already know, i was on the flight to Manchester with Amanda, another girl from NUS and it's really been great with her.. we've also met up with the other 2 NUS exchange students Kheng Guan and Si Ying. On our second day here, Kheng Guan bumped into his Singaporean friend who's studying full-time here and he in turn introduced us to the rest of the Singaporeans who are studying full-time here and we had a really nice Singaporean gathering at one of the guy's kitchen (he volunteered to cook dinner). In other good news, Kheng Guan lives in the same building as I (Amanda and Si Ying live much further away), and knowing i cant cook to save my life, he's being very helpful by asking me to join him for dinner if i didn't want to cook. so yay for me:)

orientation has been alrite i guess, nothing special. all my classes are registered too and its really funny cos you think UK is developed and yet classes are registered manually here, by getting into a queue for modules of your choice and just signing on forms provided by the various departments. Anyway my timetable isn't that fantastic. I have fridays off which is good i guess. Thought i would have wednesdays off as well but now i have a tutorial from 9-10am (which still isn't that bad la i guess.. but 9am!! going out in the cold for just 1 hour!!!)

i've been to lancaster town 3 times so far. First time, Eunice jie (my cousin living here permamently) and family brought me here. In fact, her husband was the one who drove Amanda and me all the way here from Manchester with Aiden (their son) while Eunice jie took the train with her 6month old daughter Hui Ling. Really grateful for that cos Amanda and i were already having problems pulling our luggage off the conveyor belt at the airport and onto our trolley. Can't imagine how we would have managed getting on the train as well. So ya that was the first visit to Lancaster town. The second time, i went to town with Eunice jie, her kids (they took the 1.5 hour train down again) and Amanda to do some grocery shopping. The final time which was just yesterday, I went with Amanda again and Si Ying to do grocery shopping again. We bought stuff like pots, pans, toilet paper, dishwashing liquid, pork, potatoes, pasta, pasta sauce, chopping board, cutting knife etc etc etc.. we nearly died carrying everything back (15 min on the bus from our uni). We're super aunties, checking for discounts, offers, stuff packed in 3s so that we can share, expiry dates that were the latest. It was realllly fun actually. We've designated Wednesdays as grocery shopping days from now on cos there's a free bus from campus there only on this day (otherwise it's 2 pounds for a round trip to town and back - 6 dollars la!!! ). oh ya, i really gotta stop converting the cost of things here back to dollars cos it's just gonna be extremely heartpain..

foodwise, i'm still surviving haha. in fact, the 3 of us (amanda, si ying and i) cooked pasta with pork japanese curry today for lunch. the curry was an instant mix but still!!!! we all dont have much cooking experience ok so it's already quite an achievement wahaha.. talking about food, i'm gonna go prepare dinner now :)

before i forget, i must say that the 4 days of waiting for the internet has been agonising and painful. 4 days never felt soooo long. it was difficult not to be able to get in touch with anyone and i honestly thought i've been here like forever. When my internet account was set up 2 days ago, i was over the moon. Unfortunately all the internet connection at my college (hostels here are called college) was faulty so i got really frustrated cos internet was so near yet so far. Amanda and Si Ying were happily msning each other and facebooking. rahhh... then when my connection came back yesterday, i spent the whole day configuring my laptop for the network access rubbish which got me really irritated cos they kept saying configuration failed blah blah blah.. but all's good now...

so i'm now one happy girl in lancaster :)

miss you all back home!!