My Apartment

Joseph: Hey bro it's great to hear from you! I didn't know pple still come to my blog. I must admit it has been pretty stagnant and even when i blog it's quite mundane things about my life. Yea i play the piano and i think no one in london knows. Or should i say i USED to play the piano i'm not like a beginner all over again, after 10 years. Practice hard for your golf, cos we are. looking forward to play with you. Get the sembawang membership la. It's now half price entry, then you can sign me in as guest! hahaha. It's really beautiful to play it here in the UK.

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OKIE! Update about my apartment. The place where i stayed at for the past 2 years has been sold, and we were homeless till about 1 week before i returned. At that time, even i, someone who was always confident of finding a place which meets our demands, was starting to get nervous. Thankfully we have zhifeng and xunxing here to help us to meet agents, and to make phone calls etc., and we did find someplace near college, and at the max of our budget.

It's rather expensive, 100pounds per week for a double room, but it includes all utilities (water, hot water, central heating) and licensed TV. It was supposed to include internet (needs another 1 month to set up), landline (no tone). But we did manage to get them to buy us a washing machine (which hasn't arrived.)

it's a cosy (small) place with warm (dim) lighting, with little natural light, so it feels like it's always night. good for sleeping, bad for 9am lectures. we rearranged the whole apartment to make it more conducive for studying and it's much better now.






My bedroom, the bed on the left is Xunxing's who is away in Singapore now and i just washed his bedsheets. So there's nothing there. and the bed on the right is mine! =)














This is the toilet, which is next to my room. It's quite white and clean looking. Our official toilet cleaner is my room mate Xunxing, but he is away in Singapore and we are missing him already. Come back quick the toilet's getting dirty hahaha!












This is the kitchen. It comes equipped with one hot plate, and one not-so-hot plate. It also comes with an oven which helped me set my personal best of 2.5 hours to cook a lump of pork and some parts still were not fully cooked. It has no heater in the kitchen as well, so basically, it's a pretty cool place.







And here is the rearranged living room, with weixin studying hard. Weixin and Edwin are hit really hard by the lack of internet because they are very tech savvy people. It's not a very good picture because it still looks quite messy but it's better than it looks. The table on the right middle of the photo is my corner.








Close up of my corner. I am very happy to have my own study table at last. and a corner for my sports equipment, as you can see on the right. I like my corner. I can also turn the tv and watch it while i eat my breakfast there. hahaha.







So. That's my apartment (less edwin and weixin's room). It looks like this in both day and night, so there's no need to show day/night versions, unlike last year's. I love natural bright light and this place is not very good for my morale. But, i will make do. Okie that's all for now!

First Entry for the Final Year

I wonder if anyone still reads this, now that i haven't updated this website for almost half a year. I am now back, and i am going to try to update this more often. Set up in my first year in London to let my family know more about what i'm doing here, i am now in my final year. The conclusion that i have come to is: Time Flies No Matter What You Do.

I'm glad that time flies for me, that means that i'm probably making full use of my time, i hope. Some updates:

1) i've decided not to play squash for Imperial in my final year, mainly because i'm going to be unable to give 100% commitment to the team due to my work, and partly because it will give me an opportunity to try something different in my last year in this beautiful country.

2) I've started russian! It's very challenging, but certainly a beautiful language like many others. Annoying at the start because the letters are not what they seem in english. For example,

S is written as C.

T is written as m

R is written as P

P is written as n

B is actually v.
and some other letter which doesn't exist in english is B.

You get the idea.

3) i've been practicing my piano daily. the pianos in Imperial Blythe Music centre are so beautiful. I'm thankful my mum pushed me to grade 8 cos now i can book the grand piano rooms! WOOHOO! I shall take some videos/ photos sometime in the near future. Mum and dad cannot believe that i've restarted my piano again. Many thanks to vivian for letting me know how fortunate i am to learn it, and to Jay Chou for filming Secret.

Something embarrassing - Today, after i finished my practice session and i was getting ready to leave, two girls came in and asked me to sight read for them so that they can sing. hahaha. of course i played it like shit and they begged me to stop. Ok it wasn't so bad. but i don't think i'll hear from them again. So i console myself - I haven't played for 10 years.

4) Golf. Been going to the range with sebastian on a weekly basis. It's great. i've filmed my swing to show my family. Have a look !

Here's a picture of the driving range and putting green

me:

Mothers Day

^!^: Hehehe. Okie. i'm blogging again! but i'm already busy with my project. :P i'm still disappointed over somethings, but i guess i've just gotta gather myself and work hard for the next one month.

Jer: Bro! good to see you here man. How's things going for you? i hope they are certainly better now. I'm going to PLAB for my attachment! we can go for prata together :P

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Mothers day was on Sunday.... got my mum some flowers from a really good website... the service was so personal and efficient, delivering right on the actual day early in the morning. If any of you want to give someone flowers, ask me and i'll recommend this place to you!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know that i have made my mum happy, but i also know that there is never enough that i can do to give her back the same amount of happiness as she had given to me in my life. Somethings just cannot be repaid in full, but i am thankful for the debt.

Can't wait to go home for the summer... lotsa work to be done before that though! =(

Okie gotta get back to school now. Work work!

f*****ed.

just had my structures paper today. i'm totally gone. dead. ...

i'm just... finished. This year's exams seem to be too much for me. too much, too soon.

i've never felt this bad since JC prelims. and i failed that one.

Ooh.

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23rd Birthday

^!^ : Yea!!! It's fun!! and we're going again! hahaha. whee~!!!

Terence: Bro! I will visit you in June ok. Good luck with your exams preparations!!! Bon luck! hahaha. I'm finally going to Paris. Le City of Lurve. But i must survive my exams first. *terrified look*

Sista: Gentleman is a nice way to put it. I call it the househusband. What is the male version of a tai tai? Cooking is super fun though. Too bad our house oven is spoilt. I'm getting good at grilling meats.

cookie_monster: of course i can cook. but here only got pasta. hahaha. limited equipment. I'm going to Edinburgh tmr! hehehe. weekend trip.. then must study hard already. what are your plans?

Windz: I agree that pple only read as often as i update. but i can't help it. it's either i'm too busy, or i've got really crappy time management. Not everyone is as free as Electrical engineering ok.

Liuyk: Yuankang!! Why are you in Msia? ??? ???? ????? climb mountain ah. anyway, we must play football in RI when i get back! you know what. i sprained my ankle 4 weeks ago and it's still pain. I'm bloody old now. one month for a sprained ankle? it used to be 1 day! =(

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This year, i turn 23!! but in 2007, there is still no 29th February. Many people tell me that they feel sorry for me for having such a crappy birthday. But why is 29/02 crappy? I LOVE IT. Why? Becos...
1) it may be difficult to celebrate but it's easy to remember!
2) I sometimes get to celebrate on both 28/02 and 1/03 if i'm lucky! and finally,
3) 4 times less people on this planet have the same birthday as me! so it's 1/365 * 1/4 = 1/1460.
yes yes. i know someone will wanna correct my probability. go ahead i dun care. haha.

You know quite a few guys have told me in the past "If you bday really 29/02, i cut off my balls." i tried to tell them but they didn't listen. Sigh. See? another plus point. No no not the balls what are you thinking? I'm saying that it's a good conversation topic.

Anyway, my dearest vivian organised a really massive party for me, and cooked my favourite foods for our guests and me! It was yummy! Ok i'll let the pictures do the talking.




These are the party pictures!

Look at the food available! Mee siam! Vivian was just asking me what i feel like eating. and i stupidly said "ooh i miss mee siam." and she went all the way down to china town to buy all the ingredients on her own!

I think i'm quite easily tricked. Sorry for not saying something easier. Like "Oooh i miss sainsbury pizza."

Anyway, everyone loved the food and had lotsa fun! (that's the impression i got.)




Some of the individual shots.


1st row L-R:
1) xingmao and bingliang, Rojak! actors... really miss those days. the stage chemistry was amazing. 2) lianglong: 4th in all uk JUDO master
3) Changyong: Horny boy.

2nd row L-R
1) vivian and me! 2) john and sharon! 3) handsome alf and john again!

3rd row L-R
1) the pretty ladies 2) Sanmay! co-OGL at sojourn! 3) look i'm as tall as cumarran!



Here's some of the group photos:

1st row: With my OG. and cheryl spread toothpaste on me. It's her fetish. she likes toothpaste. I don't think i'll be an OGL again. with an OG as wonderful as this, i wanna keep the the space in my memory just for them.

2nd row L-R:
1) Housemates! thanks for living with me. and getting me the brilliant seinnheiser earphones! the sound blew me away!
2 & 3) Flat 5. Thanks for getting me strawberries, and durex lubricants. I'm sure they'll be great together. maybe i can swallow the strawberry whole! *gulp*

3rd row: 88 flat 7. The coolest bunch of guys who are always there for you.

I grinned like a fool while unwrapping presents.

hehe. thanks everyone for making my 23rd such a wonderful memory. I will always remember this.

Thank you, my favourite girl, for making all this happen. As i always believe, the party is only as big as the organiser plans it to be. Even though you were busy with work, you still took a few days off to put this party together. You're the best!






For more photos, please go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7400948@N04/sets/72157600007999894/

Prague

vivian: hmm. i can't decide which one is best too. anyway... it looks like hardly anyone is reading this blog anymore becos my poll for favourite quotes has one reply. =( anyway... i shall still post up some of our photos from prague!!

We started our trip with coffee and cake in a cafe located in an office/ shopping centre kinda thing.

This is the office/ shopping place kinda place. We're here becos we wanted to go to the supermarket! which is kinda an aunty thing to do, but i wanted to make use of the kitchen in our hostel apartment to make dinner!

Dinner. nothing very special cos of the limited cooking tools. the white wine was really nice and so was the conversation. it's really relaxing to sit down for a couple of hours and just talk.

after talking, vivian had to go back to do her coursework becos the evil lecturers gave her so much to do!

I didn't just make dinner. I made breakfast!

It's quite funny becos vivian spent the night doing her coursework, while i slept and got up early to make breakfast. i asked her if a househusband is a good ambition. muahahahaha. but i actually enjoy cooking.

We went sightseeing after breakfast. This is the change of guard. not really as spectacular as england's.

and the stupid guard didn't wanna take photo with me.

Panaromic view of Prague!

it's actually not that spectacular again. but there is no higher point.

still... the climb was quite tiring. so i'm ok with this height already.

Next we went to the river.

It's really beautiful, and it is really quite romantic.

But i forgot the name of the river. oops.

Oooh... us with the river and scenery.

Old town square.

Vivian and I try to be models with those old buildings.

We eat again. This time, it was authentic Czech food, pork knuckle and roast duck, with Czech's favourite beer!

The narcissists couldn't resist a photo with their reflections. It was in a high class shopping centre which was so expensive that it was empty. and we couldn't buy anything so we took photos.

The streets had cheaper things. i bought pair of leather shoes for 10 pounds and vivian bought a pair of sunglasses for 5!

Shopping is fun!! ok. i'm starting to sound gay.

But it's true! ....I mean shopping.

Us with the street which i forgot the name. The street is as long as its name, and it's a favourite shopping area!

Overall, prague was a beautiful place, but somehow lacking that "ultra romantic" image that i had in mind before i went. The thing that left the deepest impression is that...

all the cars are dusty. dunno why.