Windermere, Lake District

I'll end with the picture of the sunset over Lake Windermere, taken on the second last day. The last shot my camera took as it ran out of space. Thanks joseph for your sepia and tripod pictures. It's been a good holiday. Thanks joseph, sebastian for the good time.

Another tripod shot by joseph. Peaceful eh? Spent the last day at lake district just relaxing, strolling, enjoying the fresh breeze and each others' company. 

Great shot by joseph. Not because i'm in it. But because of the feel it gives. Cool. 

At the tip of the lake windermere. Nice sun! and can't help but keep asking sebas... "Helmet got air-con ah?" 

The sun breaking through the clouds and the road ahead... 

Meh Meh Meh! haha. Sister, enjoy this picture of your friends.  

Taking a break from biking. Sebas looking shagged. He wasn't feeling too well that day. But still biked on through the runny nose and cramp. Grit and determination. 

Day 2 at windermere! Biking trip. Early morning mist settling in the background.

On the boat going back to where we started. hehe. Self shot silly picture! 

(from right) sebas, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, me. 

Joseph's favourite picture. Yes sis... i agree with you i look stupid in this one. I'm not a good poser lah... Not like.. joseph and sebas. 

more jetty shots.... hehe. 

Sebas fell asleep more than once! but somehow always cannot catch him sleeping. something will screw up somehow. This picture had some water vapour condensing in my lenses from that fall earlier in the morning. Explaining the dreamy feel to the picture. And sebas woke up just in time to pose. Amazing. 

After walking, went on a boat trip. Yo joseph... so boring meh? hahaha. 

The jetty shot! Seen everywhere. But mine isn't that great. haha. Joseph has nicer pictures but nevermind. this will do for me. hehe.  

This was where i wanted to take the picture for sebas. After climbing out of the water and balancing myself on that slippery rock, took a shot. Sebastian... I fell for you.

More entertaining because... my words came true again. I wasn't going to fall man. Until i saw this great shot i wanted to take for sebas. And jumping onto the rock in the river, i slipped cos that rock was so filled with dark algae i didn't expect to be so sliperry so i splashed bum first into the water. thank goodness nothing spoiled.like my camera. Yup. that's the result of my fall. Wet bum. 

Walking around Windermere. Just walking. Not my usual idea of fun. But turned out to be more entertaining than i would have imagined. 

At the top of the view point. Will have nicer pictures on our second visit back later. But on this morning, it was not the best conditions for a picture. 

Another Joseph tripod shot. The journey up and down the viewpoint was treacherous. Sebas fell first. the traction of his shoes weren't that great. Den Joseph was next. not sure how didn't look very dangerous but we think his bag got caught onto the gate which pulled him down. And i, as usual, had to open my big mouth and say "by probability, i'm going to be the next to fall." 

Third day of our trip, first day in the famous Lake District. decided to take a walk up the view point near our place. The weather wasn't very helpful. It was wet and slippery. This is the last stage of a 20 minute uphill walk to the view point at about 720 metres. 

Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford Manchester United

A joseph tripod shot. Just before we left the stadium. =( ... So sad. The tour of this stadium was actually longer than the man city one, but to me... it felt so much shorter. But it's ok. I will see it again someday. I hope. After departing the stadium, we had lunch in a nice restaurant by the river. Before the mad rush back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and briskwalking/jogging to the train station to go to the next stage of our trip - Windermere, Lake District.

Man united signs 2 new players! me again, of course. and sebas. We're gonna be the new frontline for Man Utd. Probably the shortest (erhem, heightwise) ever in its history. Yup this is where they have their half time/ post match interviews. I used to think it was one whole wall of advertisements for the sponsors. Turns out to be just a small bit. 

In the dressing room. Just to make visitors happy. They put the heads of the players on the hangers. -_-". but it worked! haha. Here i am with the two youngest and most exciting new players of Man Utd. (clockwise from top left) Christiano Ronaldo, 19, Wayne Rooney, 19, ChongWai Wong, 21. Yea dream on. 

Great players who have played in this stadium before, for opposition clubs. 

Jerseys of Man Utd through the years, with names of legends, past and present. 

The amazing treble. For the uninitiated, winning one trophy in one season is called ... winning one trophy. *duh* Winning two trophies in one season is difficult, it's called the double. Winning three trophies in one season, is called (no not the triple.) the treble. This is from the year 1999, the year i started to follow football when i was in boarding school. Man Utd won the Premier League, FA Cup, and the prestigious European Champion's League.  

A small part of the collection... 

Me in the stadium. Kinda in an awkward position. dunno why. I was just in a weird position. for no reason. haha. too excited mabbe. 

*speechless* 

omg. finally. i couldn't believe it was just there. The closest i ever got to it before this was SCV. Dad wish you were there with me. It's so amazing. 

Day two! Decided to walk to the Theatre of Dreams. You don't know my excitement of finally getting to see the real thing. The homeground of the great Manchester United. This picture was taken along the expressway. Yesh we walked along the middle of the expressway. Kinda a long walk. Longer for sebas cos he had a full bladder. He said he would have given up old trafford for a toilet!!! *shakehead* what a disappointing fellow fan. I wouldn't. I would pee on the pitch. hiakhiak. Can u see the stadium in this picture?! so exciting!! 

City of Manchester Stadium

muahaha. I couldn't resist but try this shot. self taken! How cool is that. *help he's chasing me!! ah!!!* One of my favourite shots of the trip haha. Anyway, this ends the tour of manchester city home ground on the first day. I have more pictures, so if anybody wanna see more lemme know... =) After this we went to walk about the city centre, and watched a horror movie in our room - "what lies beneath". Unfortunately, i only know half the story because i fell asleep halfway. -_-"

This is the statue of.. ok i dunno what it is but it looks like someone sprinting. The expression on the face of the sprinter is really fierce. What makes this statue cool is that the CG of the sprinter is very clearly not on top of the sphere, but it doesn't break. Mabbe its head is hollow. OK. Let's stop the geeky talk. But it's for the 2002 commonwealth games.  

Man City signs a new player! (me, of course. But i rather man utd sign me. as a player. not waterboy ok.) muahaha. Yea anyway this is the room where new signings are unveiled to the press and also where the press conferences are held. Cool. 

(from right) Joseph, Sebas and me! 

My FIRST view of a REAL football stadium. THe grass looks so good it's unbelievable. 

This easter break, due to a couple of reasons, I decided not to go to europe. Staying in england to tour manchester, and lake district windermere with Joseph and Sebastian. Day one arrived in manchester and decided to go down to the Blue half of the city - Manchester City stadium. This stadium is the new home ground of Man City, and was used to host the 2002 Manchester commonwealth games. 

London Games 2005

Okie. nothing much to say about the games as a whole. But let's talk about floorball! haha. yea the title is just a distraction.

For this games, i actually wanted to represent us for squash and floorball. but it turned out that the venues were rather far apart so i had to give one up. didn't play squash. oops. i'm sorry marvin to make you face the competition yourself. sigh. The circumstances didn't let me have the best of both worlds.

Anyway, floorball was really fun! As usual. the bad thing is, the place is too small, and i didn't play that good as i could. And i had a few disallowed goals! WHY?!?!?!?! =( . but nevermind it's not about me. it's a team game! and we all had fun. and we won all our games! yay!!! that makes it two golds in notts and london games! so fun... hehehe. But seriously the floorball team would have won without me... i was rather aimless in court. =( it's really quite a small space for manouvering and shooting. couldn't really make full use of my advantages. hahaha. yes yes.. complain complain. I'm such a perfectionist.

Thanks Sherry(issit spelt like this?), Joseph, Kailun, Yaoyang, Sean, Tzern, Sebas, Changyong, Jerome! it's so cool to play along you guys. i can only say one thing: I'm glad i'm on your side. hahaha.

The guy in the acs blue yellow polo is really funny. made me laugh so much. his name is moses and he's the president of UCL singapore society. He's really hilarious. and the nokia number 32 is joseph! bro why you look so stressed? hehe.  

hehe.. the games begin! so fun! i only took a few pictures. and this is one of the better pics. Can't help it... my digital camera has a 2-3 second lag before i take a pic. so usually i won't catch the moment i want. sigh. this one quite lucky! nicely proportioned. hahaha. 

Yay!! Floorball! This is the place that we were going to play in. far too small by any standard. but didn't matter i was still looking forward to it. Look at the beautiful sunlight pouring into the place!! Makes me happy... whee!! 

The Month of First Times

OooOoOooh... This has been such an exciting month. And will continue to be! Why??? Because.... it's the month of first times!

Ok. before you continue, please bear with me if i sound suagu (ignorant/silly/stupidetc.) But i really am so excited! so many first times in such a short time! yeah. so... in chronological order, here i go.

Number 1 first:
Four Seasons! First time ever going to four seasons. the duck is soooooo good. Haha. yeah that's the first number 1! Numero Uno!

Number 2 first:
Hamstead Crepes Takeaway! It's really funny this one. It's actually just next to oriental canteen, the place i've been to eat quite a few times. It's also the place i walk by everytime i walk to my hall from southside. But... horrors upon horrors, i'd never taken any notice of it. The crepe was not bad. I had what they called Crepe Complete (pronounce crap complete. MUAHAHAHA). yea. but it's far from crap. it's really pretty good. Just not very filling. haha. and it's an affordable snack. shall get it more often on my way home next time. ok i'm a pig.

Number 3 first:
First time took a cab! This one is funny. and very stupid. After floorball, we (we includes joseph, changyong and me!) wanted to make our way down to four seasons to meet up with weilun and andrew. So we walked. Right from the first turn, joseph pointed right and said that's the way, changyong pointed straight and said it's THAT way. I pointed down in between their directions and said let's compromise and try our luck. (yes i had the dumbest contribution)

so we walked. and walked. i would love to give you more information where we walked but i have no clue. First time in that area. YEAH ANOTHER NUMERO UNO! Paddington area. Asked for directions. Asked for directions a few times and we continued to walk. Weilun and andrew were getting impatient. and we were getting lost. So eventually, we turned into a place i thought looked VERY familiar. So i said, we're there!!!! YEAH!!!!!... and i had to add in the wise crack "Hahaha scully we turn around the corner and we're back at wilson house! HAHAHAHAHA that would be funny!" we turn the corner and i was right on both counts. we realised we were at sussex gardens, back to the first turn(sounds familiar?), after 20 minutes (it could be longer i dunno). Genius. Me and my big mouth. But it really was funny. haha. so out of desperation, we took the cab. NUMERO UNO! yeah. the price starts at 2 pounds. and jumps out of control after that. each time it jumps, it jumps 20p. yea. And guess what? i didn't know how to operate the door. i took about 5 seconds to find the handle and another 5 to figure which way to rotate it. the secret to opening cab doors is... you don't rotate it! you press the button and pull. Great. But i've seen pple push doors meant to be pulled. so i'm not too bad. haha. ( u know who you are!) And we had four seasons!!! Yeah. Good duck!

Yeah. so... NUMERO UNO!

Ok long post about small things. hehe. Shall end it at here. More numero unos coming. going manchester and lake district next week. yay. looking forward to that.

Busy Me.

Why is everyone saying that my blog hasn't moved for a loooong time? It's only been six days! And i've been busy! Really. I have. I've been so busy i haven't gone to the gym once this week this is terrible! Speaking of which... the deadline i set myself on new year's day has arrived. If anyone still remembers, i'm not exactly where i wanted but it's good enough. considering good nutrition is not that easily available here. Main Dining Hall seriously sells crap. Anyway... The don't-wanna-do-anything mood has subsided. Now i'm at the oh-shit-i'm-so-busy mood. hahaha. So stupid rite. I don't think this can be classified under mood swings, but haiyah. dun care.

Pardon me for talking rubbish. I'm reeeally so tired. But i'm not going to sleep yet... because... i just had a full dinner. Dun wanna get heartburn. Had it once. Sux. Had squash training today. These guys here reeeally have no idea of what a training session is. It's just training games. When i taught them a three man drill in court, they thought it was for them to warm up. after a while Mitch (the 2nd team cpt) was like, "Ok i feel warmed up and ready... let's have some games!" haha. So funny. Actually i kinda wanna just go the first team and be abit more useful. Cos the second team and first team both play the same opponents in the league. I think I'll be better off being a 3rd player on the first team than the 1st player for seconds. A little healthier for my morale also. Haha. But that guy in the first team disappeared after i was supposed to play with him.. He told me he thinks he's going to lose his first team place to me. haha i thought so too actually. Sorry if i sound overconfident. But aiyah... season ending.. i'm not that gian anyway. i just wanna enjoy myself. and don't burst that poor guy's bubble. He has played for like 3/4 of the season den i suddenly appeared from nowhere. -_-" hahaha.

This weekend and the week after that is going to be so packed. Saturday morning, london games practice, afternoon, meeting, night, malaysian night. Sunday, rush report and meet Eunice for some HP competition she told me to join with her. haha. Something about the uses of bluetooth. No clue... And rush report. monday report due. Den it's time to start another report... planning to have something on wednesday, but it's not confirmed, so i won't announce it yet. Plus london games practice and meeting. Friday got computing exam. And another report due. Sigh. Well at least after that it's holidays.

First day of hols is London games. I was reeeeeeally looking forward to London Games. But now... not really. Please excuse me if you're part of the organising comm but i'm going to speak my mind anyway. i was hoping that everyone would be close by... within walking distance, so i can go watch... support... laugh at them... those kinda stuff. Now it's like... some sports are really sooooooooooo far away. kinda got me rather disappointed. Oh well. i guess i'll just do my part and disappear after that.

I'm rambling. I think i should stop. Goodnite, world.

Belated Thanks.

Took a long time to get down to posting this. Was in the "don't-wanna-do-anything-at-all" mood the whole weekend and the end of the week. Don't feel like doing work. don't feel like playing squash for imperial. don't feel like blogging. don't feel like sleeping. don't feel like cooking. basically don't feel like doing anything. Not sure why exactly either. Can't pin down the reason.

But with the start of this new week, let me try to shake this lazy attitude off. I know it's seriously not good, but i can't help it. Must keep to my new year resolutions. Hahaha. Hmm shall not digress too far again. So many thoughts flying by in my head i don't know which one to listen to.

Ok. First and foremost, my pseudobirthday. Many thanks to all who helped me celebrate it. In chronological order...

Thanks Weilun, Edwin, Marvin, Raymond, Marc and not forgetting Fidel for the man united jersey! Yay. First one i've had. Kinda given up hope of them catching chelsea though. It's over. Thanks Reach Comm for having a surprise on the purpose of "counting funds". Thanks choy and kailun for giving me those cool workout gloves. Now i look even more suave in gym. can attract all the gays haha. Thanks edwin for trying to organise two surprises, of which almost both failed. Surprise can be a powerful ally. But it can also screw up the best of plans. I'm sorry for being so stupid in not guessing it. Well at least one worked! To Joy, Sebas, Raj, Yuyong, Justin, Zhifeng and Jac for having that birthday treat at Tootsies for the real birthday boy Marc and me. To Vivian, Joseph and Marvin for bringing me to 4 seasons to have duck. *sluuurp* Good duck! Yes this one also had surprises, though i kinda expected this one. But very paiseh. dun say here. =P Eh marvin and joseph, you still haven't pay me for that meal yet. hahahaha.

Hmm.. yes it's been great. Thank you everyone. I'm listening to the BoA cd (that my family gave me) again. The songs are seriously nice. No i'm not watching the DVD... (though that's really good as well... super cool dancing. have i said that before?) I'm listening to the CD. THE CD!!! hmm.. yea. Why did i even say first and foremost at the start of this post. That's all i have to say for this one. Haha. Thanks everyone~! *bow*

The view i got when i woke up last friday morning after brushing my teeth. Amazing snowfall. Probably the heaviest i've seen here. Snowing is pretty... but walking to school after that wasn't quite the same, sliding around waving/swinging my hands around to regain my balance like a psychomotor idiot when i slip. Didn't help that i was carrying my racket bag. =( hahaha. 

Post Elections Thoughts

Elections for the Imperial College Singapore Society happened today. I ran for vice president. I didn't really think too much about it. Everyone who heard that asked me why i didn't want to run for president. Perhaps now they will see it the way i do, hopefully.

A surprising number asked me if i was afraid. Of questions, of running, and this and that. I guess it would have been normal to be afraid. I haven't run for anything in my life. I have never stood up and told people to vote for me. It's not my style. My president now may not be too happy to hear this hehe, but i was an anti-council in JC. I'm not saying that there aren't capable councillors, i know plenty of outstanding councillors. But I didn't believe in quite a few things that they did. Especially match support. There was this thing in RJ that people had to go down to match finals, and after that, queue up to get a stamp to prove your attendance. In a year, every student was supposed to get three. I despised that system. And all those who formed that long queue to get that measly stamp. And even more so for those who left without cheering right after they got their stamp. I guess i make my point clear when i think something's rubbish. And perhaps i do have a rebellious streak in me. I went for all major finals, drew a smiley face on my card and left it blank for two years. Couldn't be bothered to queue. oops i'm seriously digressing. This is probably the one of the very few bad memories i have of my alma mater. And when i think about it... ok nevermind.

Anyway, elections today went fine, for me at least. My questions weren't too difficult. But towards the end, i was really disappointed that people were running becos they felt bad that there was no one in the comm, and the number of people in the room had fallen to a sad total of 31. I had really hoped that Lester Loi or Lianglong had run against me. I hold LL and LL in high regard and it would have been no disgrace to lose out to these two outstanding individuals. But today there was only me. They had no choice... I got 90.9% i think. But what happened to that 9.1%?!?! Ok i should stop being such a perfectionist. I didn't answer the questions that well anyway.

There were some people who had low confidence in themselves today. In fact, to think of it, there are many people who are afraid. Afraid of commitment. Afraid of failing. Afraid of losing. Afraid of losing something. Afraid of others' opinions. Afraid of the dark. If you know you belong to this criteria, please do know that you are perfectly normal. Everyone has fears. Everyone is afraid of something. What then sets apart the extraordinary, is how you overcome those fears. Live life knowing your fears. Just so you can run straight into them and come out stronger. Live for the competition. The hardest lessons in life are learnt when you lose. Ooh i do sound adultish. damn.

To all who got in, congrats, and i look forward to working with you. To all the others, especially to Alvin Chow, I admire your courage, and your guts in standing up to show that you are willing. Thank you. I felt that it was unfair that these brave people who stood up at the last moment got questioned to the extent that they did. As i told edwin... there were sometimes I really wanted to rebutt some of the questions for them... but it wouldn't be right. Some of the questions were plain silly. it's just out to make the people out there look stupid. Next year i'll really come down hard on people who ask stupid questions. Seniors should be asking questions to test the candidates, yes. But not unfair qns to make them look inferior, naive or dumb. In my mind, only small people try to make you feel like they are. Truly great people would make you feel that you could do anything.

Be a great person today. Share the inspiration.