Blog diarrhoea

I am so addicted to clementines and mandarins, I just can't stop eating them, for some reason! I think my body knows when Chinese New Year is round the corner..

I hate job applications. Loathe my current Unilever one with a passion.

Denmark Street was a bit of a letdown - nobody told me the street was only 100 metres long! - but at least Heidir bought the Ibanez he's been lusting after. Don't worry, pumpkin, if you can't pay your rent after having parted with letsnotsayhowmanypounds to buy that beauty, you can always busk at Gloucester Road tube station for a month. Lol.

Wonder if there's a piano equivalent of Denmark Street in London.

Oh! For the benefit of my few but faithful readers in Malaysia (hehe) - last Wednesday saw the falling of the first snow in London this year. Sadly I was fast asleep when the woman in the clouds starting emptying her featherpillows of their contents at 3 a.m. )= I did get to see the gardens all covered in white when I walked to college later that morning though. Hope it snows again soon.

Yesterday a friend presented me with a poem he penned just for me, the most heartwarming yet amusing poem okay, in which each line ended with a word that rhymes with 'May'. He is now officially my favourite curly-haired Singaporean Indian Muslim Japanese-speaking non-Fine Chem Chem Eng-er. Hehe.

Klutz

I've forgotten to bring my wallet to college on three out of four days so far this week. Monday, I borrowed one pound from Jin Rong to buy myself a pain au chocolat to assuage my misery, only for it to drop it on the floor and roll behind the vending machine out of my reach. Tuesday, as a result of reading my timetable wrongly and bringing in the wrong notes, I sat through all my lectures totally disoriented and at sea. Wednesday, I slammed the lid of the grand piano on my pinkie. And to top it all off, today I forgot my keys, and thus got locked out of my room for an hour or so. I've been such a klutz it's not even funny.

Story of my life. Sigh!

Good morning, Monday

Lipstick on my teeth
Perfume in my eyes

My hair out of place
My socks mismatched

Yesterday reverberates
Still in my head

Fuzzy wuzzy dizzy ditzy
Nippy in my skinny tee

I'm running late
Hot chocolate burns my tongue

But oh, it's Monday morning
So tell me, now - what's new?

Pictorial: Oct-Nov '06

I've decided to put up some pretty photos on my blog every now and then to systematically chronicle what has happened in the past one or two months. And they're not filler posts, okay! Lol. So here we go.

OCTOBER
Chicago Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, when Jenn Yi came to visit. And yes, I saw Ashlee Simpson. Not that I'm particularly proud of that. Heh.


Zhon Wei's pre-birthday celebration at Four Seasons, followed by a long and chilled night at Guan's.


Hari Raya with the Pengarah at Encik Adib's (our new JPA Student Advisor).


Burger night at Chuan and Nits's. Followed by Taboo and shisha.


NOVEMBER
Steve Tyrell at Ronnie Scott's. No shots of Steve himself though, cos I was too absorbed in the music and the everyeverything to be bothered to take out my camera. (= Oh, and there's a picture of me doing the touristy thing in front of the Eye. Teehee.

And the journey continues

So I left Malaysia on Thursday afternoon, with a somewhat-heavy heart and most certainly heavy bags. Settling in this time around has been a lot swifter and easier owing to a very fortunate transpiration of events that led up to our 20-odd boxes and suitcases being moved into the storage room inside our flat without us having to lift a finger ourselves! Plus, no boxes of mine went missing this year so that's a plus point... lol. I arrived in London on Thursday evening, and by Saturday night we were pretty much moved in and settled in, most of our stuff unpacked. And lookie here! I've even managed to put up a photo collage in sepia on the wall! (=

Speaking of missing boxes, the other day while unpacking my things I realised that I didn't have my folder with all my certificates with me in London, and I don't remember seeing them at home in Bentong either. Rightaway a dreadful recollection of my missing box from last summer struck me, and I concluded that the folder of certificates must have been in that box for it was to be found nowhere else... and that was a horrible shock indeed because this year I know I would be needing all those certificates to apply for a summer internship. I got so angry at the people who were responsible for it, whoever they were; until my mom called later in the day to tell me that the folder was actually at home sitting in an unopened box in my room. Phew! So... my apologies to the people who took my box/the people who lost my box, for thinking all those nasty murderous thoughts of you (just joking) but if you please, I'd STILL love to have the box back anyhow, thank you very much.

The guys minus Lance are at the moment keeping themselves occupied with the Playstation 2 - I hear boyish yelps, bursts of laughter and other assorted noises every now and then - Melissa and Lance have gone a-swimming and so that leaves me all alone to my muse, while listening to jazz - just the way I like it. (=

Autumn term of third year is going to be a time of attending career talks, filling in application forms, revising and re-revising my CV, doing online tests/assessments and going through interviews and the heartbreak of being rejected, which leaves much to be desired, really. Time to think about my future, to put it very plainly.

But moving on to more cheerful things - I'm looking forward to more 'kau yook fan' sessions at Oriental Canteen with Chuan and Zhon, Starbucks Fridays with the Chem Eng crew, karaoke sessions with the gang, Steve Tyrell at Ronnie Scotts, watching Kung Pow with my fellow Kung Pow-crazed housemates Alan and Yew Vern, and cooking up yummy dinners every night in our kitchen. (=

Anyways, more piccies of the house...

Our bedroom

Close-up of my desk

Ravioli hanging pretty from our bedroom door

Our kitchen

And the hallway

A maths paper like never before..

Yesterday I sat for the last math paper of my entire life. Little did I know it would also turn out to be the worst math paper of my entire life. )= By the end of the paper, I knew my hopes for a first class in my second year were reduced to ashes, and that's not me being pessimistic - it's me being realistic. Maths carries the bulk of the examination marks - almost a quarter of the whole examination with five other papers. And I was banking on Maths to pull up my overall percentage so that I might just scrape by with a borderline first class overall. But no. )= If anything, at least the blow was softened by the fact that everyone else thought it was the killer too, (misery loves company? No lah... I'm not that selfish) meaning it wasn't just me not performing up to standards, and that the paper WAS indeed a killer. Unless a miracle happens and they scale the marks soooo significantly that I somehow manage to get well above 60% for this math paper, I can kiss my hopes of a first-class goodbye...

In all this, I have but one consolation: I know I did my best, and I'm not regretting or blaming myself for not working hard enough. Because I did. I think I would have been less upset if it wasn't because I was looking to Maths to help me redeem the first-class that I missed last year. But really, all I can do now is to continue working harder for the remaining papers, and pray for a miracle to happen.

Or maybe I shouldn't place so much importance on getting a first class, some of you might be thinking. Not if you knew how I underperformed last year and how much I want to 'redeem' myself by getting that first class this year, not just for myself but to be really honest, for my parents too... although they aren't really putting pressure on me in that way. And almost everyone (i.e. the Malaysians in my course) got a first class last year... Only last night did I find out that some people think anything below 65% is considered 'bad for Malaysian standards'. Harsh, but true.

And to think just last Sunday at church the international evangelist William 'Gypsy' Lee preached an entire sermon on miracles, and said something which hit home rightaway: "it is one thing to believe in miracles, and another thing altogether to expect miracles".

Am I to expect a miracle? How? And why? Why do I even deserve a miracle? Deep in my heart I know I believe God is a miracle-maker, but dare I also say that I believe with all my heart that I have a share in all these miracles? Just like how you don't expect extraordinarily bad things to happen to you - for example being zapped by lightning and dying on the spot - you also don't expect extraordinarily good things to happen to you. Or maybe that's just me.... Are miracles for me?

Protest math

Courtesy of Marc and Yuyong. They say our Maths lecturer Professor Jacobs looks like a garden gnome. Hmmmm. And they even made me and Tzyy Jian put this photo as our MSN display picture, to campaign against math! "For a math-free world", they say. Lol. Anyhoo! The first of my five papers which is Math, starts tomorrow. All the best to me! (=

I think it's going to rain today

1. It's been raining intermittently throughout the day for the past week, not to mention it's a lot gloomier and colder than the preceding week too. )=

2. I am now on a 7-day free trial for Napster which I am going to cancel by the end of the 7 days, not because I'm cheapo and simply wanted to enjoy the free music for one week, but because I discovered that you don't get to keep your music once you cancel membership. And the basic subscription is 9.95 quid a month. I would have seriously considered going for it if not because they won't let me keep the music I download after I decide to stop subscribing.

3. I think I've thus far downloaded like 30 Marvin Gaye songs, 30 Stevie Wonders, 30 Tori Amoses, 20 John Mayers, 20 Rosie Thomases, 20 Katie Meluas, more than a handful of George Bensons, Herbie Hancocks, John Coltranes, Michael Breckers, Diana Kralls, Frank Sinatras, Tony Bennetts, Nina Simones, Oleta Adamses, Sarah McLachlans, Luther Vandrosses, Johnny Hartmans... and two things I've discovered about some of the music I've always liked: 1. In more than a few of Marvin Gaye's songs, there are sounds of people moaning and sighing apparently from a hot love-making (I've always disliked the term "make love" - as if love can be 'made' from lustful desires and pleasurable intimacy) session, and it absolutely grosses me out. (What was that all about huh, Mister Marvin Gaye??) I don't know if he has separate versions of those songs without those 'background noises' though, cos I've never noticed them before this. But seriously, it's super yucky la... it's almost like audio porn or something, if there ever was such a thing... Why do people like to spoil such good music like that?? But anyway, discovery number 2: I don't like Katie Melua after all. Don't like her style.

4. I bought another tub of Ben&Jerry's Dublin Mudslide yesterday... non-promotional *sheepish*.

5. I am eyeing Stevie Wonder's box set "At The Close of a Century" (4CD compilation) which is selling for 26 quid on eBay.co.uk, brand new. I really really really really want it - it has practically every single Stevie Wonder fave of mine with the exception of "I Can Only Be Me", and it comes with a little biographical booklet thingy - it's simply the PERFECT collector's item! I want I want I want! I've asked Eric to check the prices in Malaysia for me *cough* but he hasn't gotten back to me yet....

6. For the past one week or so I've actually been eating healthy, complete, balanced meals at home despite the fact that the five of us don't cook together anymore due to the exam season. People, you can NOT live on pesto and bolognese and Indomie, even if you like them, trust me on that. So, I've cooked chicken rice, roasted chicken, boiled spinach soup, fried 'chow mein', and plus, Melissa made tomyam soup yesterday too. Not exactly the ideal five-servings-of-fruit-and-veg a day but I'm sure Mommy would be pleased to hear anyway. Lol. Might wanna boil ABC soup one of these days too. (=

7. Oh! Oh! And how could I forget!! We've signed the contract for our flat next year - whoooppee! It's at this quiet (well, relative to the ever-bustling Cromwell Road) little road just parallel to Cromwell Road, called Emperor's Gate. Charlotte's place last year. We've got the nicest and cosiest little kitchen, with a dining table that comes with long benches on both sides - so nice! Only disadvantage - and it's only a slight disadvantage which I don't mind living with - is that I'll be sharing a bunk bed again. Oh, and it seems Alan is doomed to live in the basement for his entire university life or something.... hahaha. d=

Okaylah.. that's all for now, folks. Back to my books!

Won't let nothin' break ma' stride! (=

Just because the dreaded Mastery exam is tomorrow, doesn't mean there aren't things to be happy and thankful for today!

1. Ben&Jerry's Dublin Mudslide ice cream. Fickle-minded me spent a good 20 minutes at Sainsbury's yesterday after classes just trying to choose between the ice cream, Sara Lee double chocolate gateau, Starbucks' Banana and Caramel Frappucino and Starbucks' Chocolate Decadence Cake. Glad I finally decided to go for the ice cream. "Our Dublin Mudslide recipe combines dreamy Irish Cream liqueur, chocolate cookies and swirls of coffee fudge in ways that are just a wee bit wicked as well as entirely delightful." Drooling already? Hehe.

2. A nice, long and reassuring email from Eric (= Will keep your interview in my prayers!

3. A long-awaited short and sweet email from Irenna from GSK - I'm glad I didn't stop giving her the benefit of the doubt! (=

4. Another karaoke session to look forward to on Friday! Lol.

But for now it's back to my notes again. Prayer for my Mastery exam will be much appreciated (=

Economics for dummies

Question:
If you're married to one person, that's called monogamy; to two persons, bigamy; to many persons, polygamy. Now drawing a parallel to economics- if one firm dominates a particular industry, you call that a monopoly; similarly if two firms dominate, that's a duopoly. If there are many firms in an industry so that no particular firm/firms dominate, this market condition is called (____poly). <== fill in the blanks. Ha! I BET 'polypoly' was on the tip of your tongue but you realised soon enough how stupid that sounded, and stopped yourself juuuuuust in time right??

The correct answer is oligopoly, by the way. (=

[Edit] An oligopoly is a market condition where a few firms dominate. The last one I described above was a perfectly competitive market... To self: Sheesh, May! How to sit for econs exam like this??

Easter, oh easter!

Things I'm looking forward to this Easter vacation:

1. Edinburgh with Shin Ee, Alvin and Alan. Scottish highlands tour!
2. A posh Thai dinner at Blue Elephant with Melissa, a whopping one hundred pounds worth of, I quote from the restaurant tagline, 'Royal Thai Cuisine'! This time I don't have to stinge on dessert, what rapture! Sorry la but can let me show off a bit for once?? Hehe. (= Oh and did I mention that it's F-R-E-E free? Atta is such a dear. Khob khun ka! (=
3. More Thai food at the very quaint Churchill Arms with Grace and co. to mark the end of a very long Spring Term, and the start of Easter!
4. A trip to Oriental City for Malaysian food, perhaps?
5. Finish reading Oscar and Lucinda
6. Some precious personal piano time now that MNite is no longer eating up all my Blyth centre slots
7. Leaver's Farewell Picnic at Hyde Park - bring on the sunshine and blue skies and green grass!
8. Immersing myself in Pandora day and night... hehe. All thanks to Jenny..
[Edit]
9. Try out Nyonya at Notting Hill Gate - Mel and I walk past it every single Sunday on the way to church, and every single Sunday we tell ourselves we MUST eat there one day... And now the time has finally come... muahahaha
10. More food and hanging out with Amal, Isya and Azween at the 24-hour Tinseltown (gosh, so many of my plans revolve around food!)

Ahhhh. Now that I've listed out all the things I can look forward to, life isn't all that dreadful and bleak anymore. *wide grin* Lol, very therapeutic, I must say. But meanwhile, I must get back to Paragon and my Control project... timeconstantpbandintegraltimebodeanalysisrelativegainarrayyadayadayada

MNite galore!

Okay laaa... I know my blogpost which was supposedly about MNite didn't do justice to MNite at all. So here are video clips of a few of my favourite performances of the night (in no particular order... stop fighting and arguing, kids! Haha..)

Alan Chew - "Berhenti Berharap" The performance in which he stole the hearts of half of the audience i.e. the females, and put even a few males on the brink of tears (let's not mention names... haha)! **MUST WATCH!**

Thriller (Ghosts) dance Woo.... did you see Chloe's cartwheel across the stage??

Finale: Hip-hop dance Scintillating - wish I was there to catch that cap Azril threw into the audience!

Finale: Chinese fan dance Excellent choreography, three cheers for Sau Yin! And another three cheers for Wei Li's beautiful solo! (=

Finale: the whole thing! Because you know you just can't get enough of it... hehe. Including Ayish's very captivating Indian dance solo. (=

Other special mentions: Jin Rong in the Thriller dance - sleek moves, fuhlamak! Ni-Tsia as the seductive/sultry/sexy/sl*tty??! secretary - haha! Sau Yin, Eunice and Chloe as the 'aunties' - I LOVED your scene, girls! (and I am running out of colours already...) Joo Hong, Munirah and Wei Chieh as the Malaysian Idol panel of judges - hilarious! The freshers: Faez as Zakri and Paik Gee as Anne, Logan the Indian ghost, Sue Lynn the pontianak, Colin the Chinese vampire, quirky Tok Bomoh, Selina the scheming best friend, the ever helpful and supportive Hock and Muru (loved the impromptu lines you added to the script!) - everybody!!! (=

Of rodents and MNite

Last night there was a rat in our apartment!!!

At first it was in Lance's room-cum-dining-area, I was tearing the cabbage leaves at the dining table when I spotted it scurrying about on the floor near his desk, which is just 2 metres behind me! My instant response obviously was to scream at the top of my voice and dash towards Alan in the kitchen (all the while still screaming), who thought I had found a caterpillar in the cabbage or something like that. Come on, Alan! A caterpillar wouldn't have produced such a long screaming episode from me, maybe just one shriek but that would be it! Lol. Anyway, I stood as far away from the rat as I possibly could, and even made Alan bring one of the dining table chairs to me for me to stand on while I continued acting out my part as damsel-in-distress, hahaha! He, on the other hand, armed with a small cardboard box decided to confront the thing one-on-one - so brave Alan!!! At this point, Melissa who was in Alan's room doing some programming, had heard the ruckus and me screaming "RAT!!!!" and had quickly closed Alan's room door (but only to find out later on that the rat was small enough to go under closed doors). Once I had calmed down a little, Alan told me to bring the food to our my kitchen instead since there was no way two terrified girls were gonna continue being in the same room as a rat. So I made my escape to my own room.

While I was waiting for Alan to come, I heard a commotion next door pulak and so I pasted my ear on the wall adjoining my room to Alan's room, and clearly heard Melissa exclaim "That means it went to MY room?!?!?". For the yet uninformed, Melissa's room = my room, and you could have imagined how scared I was! And the next thing I knew, I saw the rat - the same small black rat - in my room under our desks!! I don't know how I had managed to somehow end up on the other side of the room but yeah, I found myself standing next to our double-decker bed but not on the side with the ladder. At first I jumped onto Melissa's lower bunk, screaming and calling for Alan while the rat scurried around near our kitchen area and then as the thing came nearer to me, in my desperation I actually clambered up to my top bunk of the bed (without using the ladder, mind you! The physical feats people are capable of when they're desperate/frightened... I tell you....)! I was HYSTERICAL! I was half-laughing and half-screaming at that point, really felt like a mad woman. And to think I'd run away from Lance's room only for the rat to follow me to my own room!

Thankfully, Alan heard my cry for help and let himself into my room with Melissa's set of keys. At this point also, Melissa messaged me a warning on MSN from Alan's computer: "MAY THE RAT RAN OUT"! (I only saw the message after the ordeal was over but it was SO funny!). Hahahahaha. We had such a good laugh over it later on! Anyway, Alan was in my room in no time, this time armed with the tong sampah, inverted, determined to pounce on it and trap it under the tong sampah. But lo and behold!- the rat was nowhere to be found, we waited for it and jolok-ed all the stuff in my room but there was no sign of it. I suppose it must have left my room somewhere between the time when I was on my bed and when Alan actually reached my room. Just to make doubly sure, we made Alan search through all our belongings (while Melissa and I were in the safety of our own beds) and the toilet and the closet. We still don't know where it is right now but let's hope it's no longer in the building!

Oh, and if any of you were wondering why my MSN display name reads "It's a RAT, not an ACROBAT", that's what Alan indignantly/exasperatedly said to me when I was fretting and wondering out loud if the rat would be able to somehow make its way up onto my bed by leaping from rung to rung on the ladder. *blush* I knowwwwwww.... I felt VERY bimbotic and still do.....

All that, over one tiny little baby rat.... aduhai! Girls will be girls, what can I say. d=
___________________________

Oh yes, MNite! All I'll say is that it only gets better every year (=

Random scribblings

An image that really tugged at my heartstrings today: (picture from postsecret.blogspot.com)
The virus that's been visiting every Malaysian household in Cromwell House and the Malaysian society in IC has finally found me and caught me. I've been down with fever, cold, cough, sore throat and headaches since Friday night and it ain't pretty what with the really harsh weather we've been experiencing lately in London. I missed a whole day of lectures plus a dikir barat rehearsal today. I reckon this is winter at its peak... What would I not give to be somewhere where the sun shines, where it's warm, where the greens are lush and the breeze gentle... *sigh*

MNite is this weekend and I sure hope I recover in time for that. I can't believe how quickly the year has zoomed by, cliched as it may sound, it feels like not too long ago that we were rehearsing for MNite 2005. I mean, it REALLY doesn't feel like a year has passed lor... Easter will be here in no time at all, and then summer, and I will be back home in Malaysia hopefully with an internship. And somehow all this applying for internship business makes me yearn to be home all the more, when I think about all the things I could be doing (and eating... I haven't stopped fantasising about cucur udang and yau char kwai). Who knows what this summer will bring? Perhaps I will be staying in Ampang with Eric doing an internship at GSK or Shin-Etsu; perhaps I'll be staying at home in Bentong doing an internship at Rubberflex; perhaps I'll be staying at home in Bentong with no internship at all! I must say at the moment I'm really keen on the GSK one and I'm sure it'll be fun, hanging out with Eric and Debbie at The Mustard Tree (sorry ya become lamp post for two months *giggles*), playing with my little cousins Thaddeus and Charmaine at home, meeting up and catching up with friends... Ah but I should stop daydreaming so!

Why me and Pilot Plant are meant to be

All my 5 terms in Chem Eng I've NEVER once done a laboratory experiment outside of the pilot plant - none in the proper LAB labs at all. Yes. Thanks to some cruel arrangement of timetables, each and every one of the experiments I've done so far in first and second year were ones in the pilot plant laboratory, the latest being the Pilot Plant Scale Batch Distillation - a huge-ass thingamajig spanning four floors of the pilot plant laboratory, which during its zaman kegemilangan (glorious days) was used by BP to distill oil. To think I was ever so intimidated by the Pilot Plant and all the machinery (hardly state-of-the-art but intimidating nonetheless) at the beginning of my first year... lol.

Today, and for the next two and a half weeks I will be spending no less than three hours every weekday except Wednesday in the Pilot Plant, watching digits rise and fall, recording values every ten minutes, turning valves on and off, pushing buttons.... *yawn* Not to say I'd enjoy very much more growing bacteria in petri dishes like Zhon Wei or mixing vegetable oil like Jin Rong but oh, isn't the grass always greener on the other side?

That said, I still am not quite used to wearing that stupid hard hat - it gives me mild headaches and makes my hair look flat. d=

Post-Boxing Day

.... and the first snow has fallen in London! (=

I practically jumped out of bed (mind you, I sleep on the top bunk of a double-decker bed) and rushed to my window, eyes still barely open, when I got a text from a friend telling me about the snow. It lasted only for about half an hour but BBC says it's going to snow some more in the days to come and BBC you had better not let me down!!!

Was planning to drop by Blyth today cos I borrowed a book of Schubert piano pieces from the Central Library and my fingers are itching to play that Sonata in A Major... and what with the thought of walking in the falling snow... But then by the time I wanted to get dressed it had stopped snowing and I got a bit lazy so here I am typing this blogpost. I spent quite a bit of time this morning adding pictures, tickets and other mementos and whatnots into the photo scrapbook I got for Christmas. Come to think of it, the scrapbook was really quite a timely gift, for you wouldn't believe the amount of junk and odds-and-ends I keep in a big Natwest envelope - everything from tickets to notes to receipts to cards to random cut-out scenery shots... and I haven't even begun to tell you about the junk that's in my wallet and bags. Mostly stuff that hold even the slightest hint of memories or nostalgia and I haven't got the heart to throw away. I am quite the lap-sap por. Lol.

The Boxing Day sales on High Street Kensington were quite disappointing. But in a way that's good cos I know I REALLY need to control my spending after the few shopping sprees I indulged in last month... Yesterday I only bought a pair of earrings for two pounds fifty - can you believe that? Lol.

Cullum frenzy

I'm going to try and make this as plain and as simple as is possible (for I have admittedly gushed enough in the past couple of days to various victims whose responses varied from envy to indifference to amusement to excitement): I had the time of my life on Tuesday night watching Jamie Cullum perform live at Royal Albert Hall and have never been more convinced of his talent than I now am. It was THE BOMB! My favourite songs of the night: Mind Trick, These Are The Days, I'm Glad There Is You, Fascinating Rhythm, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Nature Boy, If Only I Had A Brain.

Some photos taken from www.jamiecullum.com


Said it many times before, but the hours and the days are zooming past at breakneck speed, it seems one day you are experiencing Monday blues, and the next, it's the weekend already even before you can say Jack Sprat. It's crazy.

Second year Maple is underway and making slow but sure progress. Got stood up three times by my coursework partner who by the way has done next to no work at all nor given me any feedback on the work I've done and sent to him (am I so nice and forgiving and kind that people don't even hesitate to take advantage of me??). But it's alright. Maybe his dog died. Maybe someone sabotaged his alarm clock. Maybe he trips and falls and hurts himself real bad each time he steps out of his house. I'll let him have the benefit of the doubt. Lol. d= There are so many deadlines to meet in the next two weeks, that I don't know how I can still afford to play Minesweeper and Solitaire, go shopping, take unnecessary afternoon naps and go for unnecessary (though informative and interesting) debates on euthanasia. And that said, 'not have time' to go for cell group and Christian Union, vacuum the apartment, clear all the hair on the toilet floor or cook myself a decent lunch on weekdays. Look who's got a problem with priorities, *sigh*.

And again... *SIGH*.

All along, but ever more so lately, I find such fulfilment and joy in solitude - at times even to the point of being anti-social (i.e. actually dreading the thought of having company). I wonder why. It's not that I am a very introverted kind of person or do not have many friends. It's not like I'm depressed or anything like that (really, my dear, I'm not (.=). There aren't very many places I could run away to here in London except the piano room in Blythe Centre. I would take a solitary walk to nowhere... grab a book and my mp3 player and solo-picnic in Kensington Gardens... but for some reason I've never gotten down to actually doing it. Yet at the same time I yearn for the company of just one person - one person with whom silence is comfortable, but conversation even more uplifting. In my lifetime I have met a special two or three people whom when I talk to them, it just feels like coming home, somehow. The ease in conversation, the confident knowledge of that other person's presence and listening ear (or typing fingers for that matter) - it does so much more than one would imagine it could. Such is the power and beauty of a spiritual-emotional connection that goes beyond mere friendship... I miss and love you, you know that. *hugs* (=

Oh I don't know. Could be the side effects of an overdose of mellow jazz lyrics - or perhaps hormonal imbalance? - don't worry about me anyhow. (=

Thanksgiving

So many many many things to thank and praise God for in the past week (=

1. For the kind soul who found my pendrive containing 8 pages of my almost-completed pilot plant report (of which I had no back-up for except for the first 2.5 pages and which was due two days later!) and returned it to the general office in one piece. It was lost, but now is found!

2. For a really fun and exciting week - the Chamberlain House Halloween party was quite a roaring success! (=

3. For showing me that everything I have is His, and is of Him. That I am merely a steward of all He has bestowed upon me, and the human hand He chooses to use to bless and help His people. Also for freeing me from a certain enslavement I never even realised I was in!

4. For helping me and giving me strength to obey Him, one step at a time.

5. For helping me to finish my pilot plant report, when at the beginning it really felt as if I would never be able to even start writing it at all.

6. For kind gestures from friends - from the littlest (a cafe latte at Starbucks) to the largest (let's not mention... lol) - that light up my day and undoubtedly are God's way of blessing me through them (=

7. For a chance to be in Royal Albert Hall, twice in a span of 2 weeks, at that (=

8. For His assurance of forgiveness to me, and His endless faithfulness even when I stray off the right path

9. For being able to sleep at night and wake up refreshed the next morning.

10. For enabling me to stop and smell the roses along the way (=

"The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever."

Psalm 145:13b-21

Why I love Economics and hate pilot plant

Starting tomorrow, no more free mornings for me. )=

No more waking up at half-past nine, enjoying a leisurely breakfast while listening to music, and taking a good 10 minutes to decide what to wear...

Pilot Plant starts tomorrow and will last for 3 weeks, after which I start my Computing coursework which will last another 3 weeks. So far second year has been, at best, relaxing, and at worst, dull. Of course there are the occassional perks in the week for example last week when the Lecture Theatre 1 platform was for once graced by a good-looking (if gay...) Italian bloke, Mr Tommaso Valletti, our Managerial Economics lecturer, whom I shall henceforth fondly refer to as Tommy. *giggles schoolgirl-ishly* (= Ah, how I shall look forward to Thursdays from now onwards! I mean, it isn't often that you get an aesthetically pleasing AND pleasant-to-listen-to lecturer in Chemical Engineering. To give you an idea of what the usual staple is like, try thinking along the lines of sarcastic, prim-and-proper English speech, unruly strands of white hair on a partially bald head, beer bellies, foul tempers, stern faces, old woollen sweaters, unintelligible Russian accents - bah. Anyway, back to Mr. Tommy.... my first 'crush' on a teacher! Hahahaha! The guys and Yuen Ai are convinced that he is gay, and I'll give that certain effeminate gestures and mannerisms of his DO point in that direction.... What kind of straight man sticks his hand into his shirt and strokes his neck while talking? Or giggles mishievously - almost flirtatiously - when speaking about diamonds? Or puts one of his knees up on the desk while lecturing? Or rubs his own chest with both his hands? (Hmmm, wonder if it's hairy...) I would like to think that it is, maybe, an Italian thing to be really expressive and to use lots of hand gestures, but honestly I am not too convinced of the theory myself! Lol. But oh, he is so intelligent and so handsome and so charming and so funny and actually looks good in a tucked-in shirt and high-waisted jeans attire!!! (=

On a side note, I really enjoyed the Economics lecture - it was at least a refreshing change from the usual engineering-ish technical stuff thrown at us. Jin Rong and I impressed ourselves by sitting through the 100-minute long lecture without feeling sleepy and paying 95% attention to the lecture, at that! (the other 5% was spent appraising Tommy's clothes, looks, body and sexual orientation).

On another side note, I don't really have a crush on him lah! d=

Random thoughts

1. Since coming back to London two and a half weeks ago, I have consumed 11 plums, 6 big tubs of Onken yoghurt, 9 Breakaway bars, 2 canisters of Pringles, 2 cups of Muller yoghurt, 4 Tesco double chocolate chip muffins, 9 pints of fresh pasteurised milk (God forbid that I should ever have to restrict myself to skimmed milk!), one Sainsbury's butter brioche loaf, 5 packets of instant noodles, one bar of Cadbury wholenut milk chocolate, one box of strawberries, one Krispy Kreme (*sheepish*) and quite a lot of Ben&Jerry's ice cream.

2. I finally managed to beat Ni-Tsia's Minesweeper high score on my laptop - hah! Now, to conquer her high score on Lance's computer....

3. I have managed to live without internet connection at home for an unbelievable record of 17 days so far!

4. It is not fun to walk back in the pouring rain with 3 people under one very insufficient umbrella, whilst you're trying to avoid stepping on Tzyy Jian and Heidir's feet, whilst trying to avoid stepping in puddles. And one more thing - corduroy is EXTREMELY absorbent. Eeek.

5. Today my very emo Reaction Engineering lecturer Prof Kandiyoti (also known to me as Nasty Old Man) broke a wooden ruler into smithereens (oh okay, into four pieces) by striking it real hard on the table because he was pissed at a few girls who were talking during the lecture. Scary sial.....

6. Jamie Cullum has a new album out - I must must must must have it, and before the concert too! But oh, how very very broke I am.... )= *sigh*

7. I love how God shows His work of providence in my life even in the little things. I had resolved not to complain too much about my one missing box and instead be thankful for all the things I did manage to keep; be grateful for all the things I do have instead of griping about those that I don't. And I guess I've been rewarded because today when I went to the Chem Eng stores to buy a new lab coat and hard hat, the nice man gave me a free hard hat! (= Indeed, He (God, not the nice man at the stores) is our Jehovah Jireh!

8. It actually IS possible to get a bit sick of Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon In The Sky" after hearing it repeatedly a countless number of times! But you know what song I've never EVER gotten sick of (over)listening to? 'Now That I Have You' by Luther Vandross. Aaah..... (=

9. Creaming butter and sugar is three times harder in a climatic country than in a tropical country. I baked my first cake in London last Sunday and I almost I gave up because the butter-sugar mixture just didn't seem to want to cream together until after mixing it for like 20 minutes. But anyway it turned out to be quite a success after all (apart from the sliiiiiightly - but only very slightly! - burnt sides... heheh)! I made chocolate coating for the cake and Melissa decorated it with strawberries too - quite pretty! (=

10. It is only 8:23, and I don't know what to do til bedtime!!! I am soooooo b-o-r-e-d.....