paddling it all together...

Tuesday, 30th January 2007 – 4:37pm Singapore time

A new week has begun! Yay! I had a really good weekend… Some good things are happening… *grin*

I also went for practice… Practice was tough but fun… Well, kinda… Christophe (men’s team captain) tortured us a little bit, but it was alright… Nothing drastic… We had two new guys joining in for practice on Sunday and as always, I had the ‘honour’ of sitting in front of them… It’s not exactly a bad thing (to be sitting in front of someone inexperienced), but it annoys me sometimes when they get out of sync and start hitting their paddles against mine or when they splash excessive amounts of water on my back… Actually, I shouldn’t complain about getting wet… Dragonboating is a WATER-sport and you’re supposed to get wet… But too wet also not nice leh… *whine* haha…

Oh, and these two new guys, well one of them had this habit of groaning and moaning really *loud* when we did our sprints… And he was sitting behind me! So there were many times which I had to contain my laughter…

Anyways, people out there who have the slightest bit of interest or curiosity about dragonboating should really just give it a shot and join me for practice this weekend… Seriously, there’s no harm in just giving it a try… If you don’t like it, then stop… You’ll never know until you try… You don’t need to have a minimum level of physical fitness or swimming proficiency… You just need to be properly attired and have a positive mindset! It’s a healthy activity and I’m sure you’ll like it… Click here to find out more: http://www.canadiandragons.sg/

Enough promotion… I kinda procrastinated doing my laundry over the weekend and only did it last night cos I ran out of clean underwear (tee hee!)… Since my jeans and berms were still kinda damp, I decided to go to school without my pants on! Haha… Well, I actually decided to wear my grey/black Quiksilver boardies to school… At first I felt quite ah pek, but it’s actually really comfortable, so I think I might want to wear them to school again in the near future…

In other news, Jamal is turning into a bigger himbo than he was… In fact, he has overtaken me on the scale of himboness and air-headedness… He’s doing things even I wouldn’t think of doing… A recent example would be when I asked him to help me sign up for booth set up duty for the ‘Fest La Vie’ at the Central Forum… We were on the phone and agreed to sign up just for set up duty… He said he would sign up for me since I was already at home (no internet)… A few minutes later, Himbo Jamal SMS-es me and asks,

“What are we planning to sign for again? Was it to set up?”

So himbo right? And of course, he’s done other himobtic things these past few weeks… Afidah can vouch for them! Hehe…

I was at NUSSU’s ‘Fest La Vie’ yesterday… Actually felt a little irrelevant being there… And we had a storyboard going on but it started turning into a grammatical nightmare… Thank goodness I didn’t volunteer to man the booth… I would have just taken out a big red marker and circle out all those horrendous mistakes… ;p

I’m gone for now… Till more amazing adventures...

Nurul: Ya la!! I’ve been in school for more than three weeks liao! Still never see you… You better hang out more at the department of English language and literature… Cos that’s where cool people hang out… =)

PS to all: DON’T watch the movie ‘altered’! Serious waste of money… Trust me…

*almost* time to say TGIF!

Thursday, 25th January 2007 - 4:55pm Singapore time

When you so desperately look forward to any semblance of a weekend drawing close, it means you're having quite a shitty week... It's only Thursday and I'm pooped! In fact, I had been pooped since yesterday... I just need to go on for one more day and the weekend will be here! *think positive*

Nazira: No swimming ability is required... Our life-jackets work very well, I think... =) If you're interested, you can join us for training this Saturday from 3:45-6pm or on Sunday from 9:45am-12noon... SMS me if you want more details... Hope to see you or anyone else who wants to join in! It's super fun, serious... Hehe...

Reza: Boo!

break to re-group...

Monday, 22nd January 2007 – 7:40pm Singapore time

I am aching all over… Yes, I finally went for dragonboat training and it was painful! And it wasn’t even serious training… I am such an unfit prick… Anyways, I was late for practice but Tharin was nice enough to tell me that I have a ‘Late Pass’ since I just came back from Norway… If I am a BMT Platoon Sergeant, then Tharin is my platoon sergeant… He is more militaristic than I am, seriously…

Anyways, I was really happy to see my old mates like Melvin, Rosina and Clement but was really shocked (and very sad) that some of my fave team-mates have left Singapore for good! =( These people are namely Jan, Caroline, Femka and Michal! I miss you guys! Jan and Caroline have gone back to England while Femka and Michal have fled to The Netherlands… Veldig trist asså…

Oh, and Tharin has asked me to consider training to be a cox cos we lost some coxes as well… Coxes need to have a good sense of balance and a loud voice, both of which I possess… I actually don’t mind doing it but it’s a really heavy responsibility which I am not sure I am ready for… How good a cox can determine if a team wins a race or not... We’ll see how things go in subsequent training sessions…

Oh, and if anyone is interested to join my team, please tell me! We need more paddlers! It’s really, really fun and you really improve your fitness… And it’s not as tough as you might think, seriously… No experience required, and there's no age limit... Highly recommended…

Moving along, I had my Principles of Marketing tutorial today… Was a little sad cos I didn’t get the same class as Jamal and/or Afidah… The class was alright though and my tutor was this super geeky girl who was really nice… She’s like Marianne with less sugar in her system…

Ya la… I am actually a little bit down today cos some really bad karma came by to bite me in the ass… Sigh… Life is such a biatch sometimes… It dampened my mood a little, but I am ok with it la… Gotta move on… =)

Oh, Cik Rahimah and Cik Mahat are back! Yay! They’re my landlords in case you don’t know… I gave them the specially knitted woollen socks I bought them from Norway and they loved it! They said the socks were nice and comfy and warm… Yay!

This week will be super busy, so let’s hope I’ll pull through with minimal scratches…

Afidah's birthday and SMP reunion...

Friday, 19th January 2007 – 2:28pm Singapore time

So Afidah had her 22nd Birthday on Tuesday and Jamal (aka her boyfriend) decided to have a mini surprise party for her… That’s a sweet decision, but it would have been sweeter if he had made it a week, instead of the day before! It was a really mad scramble for him (and moi) as we spent a substantial portion of Monday running around all of the major shopping malls on the Orchard Road stretch to look for that perfect birthday gift for her… Jamal finally decided to buy a brown bag from BloodBros Projectshop which I felt was a rather good choice…

Anyways, then came the part where we had to try and plan out the surprise celebration for her… Jamal called his aunt who’s the marketing manager of ‘Tepak Sireh’ (a restaurant near Arab Street) to see if he could reserve one of the private rooms for the party… As the restaurants were hosting some other corporate delegates at the same time, we were only allowed a table reservation, which was good enough given the fact that his reservation was so LAST MINUTE…

And then came the mad scramble to get the people to come for the party… Jamal called one of Afidah’s gal pals Uni who had to ask her sister to call Afidah’s home and disguise herself as a secondary school friend in order to get hold of Afidah’s elder sister Noriza’s handphone number… And of course, since Jamal was going to be spending the whole day with Afidah and to avoid any suspicion, I was the contact person aka phone operator for the day…

So when Tuesday arrived, everything was put in motion… We all pretended nothing was going on until dinner time when everyone gathered at ‘Tepak Sireh’ awaiting the arrival of the birthday girl… Well, when she arrived, the surprise was actually kinda spoiled by Jamal’s aunt who had welcomed them at the door…

She said, “Your friends are wating inside… “

LOL

I find that kinda funny actually… But oh well, we tried… And of course, I’m sure Afidah was pleased to see that all of us (were) put (to) in effort (by) with her boyfriend to make it a nice surprise for her… The party was small; only seven of us… It was Jamal, Afidah, Noriza (Fidah’s sister), Rajeev (Noriza’s boyfriend), Uni, Hajar and myself… But I’ve always preferred smaller parties; they’re easier to manage and the interaction is more meaningful…

We had dinner and desserts which was followed by the cake-cutting (cake sponsored kindly by yours truly) and of course, lots of chit-chat… After the meal, Jamal’s aunt proceeded to bring us around the restaurant for a tour… For those of you who are unaware, the restaurant used to be the home of the bendahara (prime minister) of Singapore… And there are quite a number of exhibits and very interesting artefacts which are housed there…

Some examples are the old musical instruments (some of Middle-Eastern origin), pictures and even embroidered cloths (called 'songket') which were of royal origin…

We were also brought to the ‘pelamin’ room… A ‘pelamin’ is where the bride and groom are put ‘on display’ on their wedding day… We can also refer to it as the ‘throne room’ as in Malay culture, a bride and groom are considered the queen and king for the day... It means they have absolute power and control over anyone around them (right!)… But only one day hor…

The tour was really interesting and what I really liked about it was the fact that it was really short and sweet… After the tour, the whole lot of us headed to ‘Ambrosia’ for some coffee and more chit-chat…

It was almost 10pm when we parted ways… I felt that the entire thing was quite a success despite being put together very LAST MINUTE… I had a really nice time and I hope birthday girl enjoyed herself… After all, it was her night…

I met up with the SMP mentors yesterday… Due to LAST MINUTE commitments, Shahnas and Husna had to cancel and due to her lack of alertness and mental tancity, Jane didn’t come because the poor old bird thought we were meeting next week instead… This happened despite the fact that I put down the day AND date very clearly… That’s why she’s a science major… Anyways, because of such screw-ups and the two buggers (Jamal and Chewy) who already couldn’t make it, it was just a group of five namely Alex, Evelyn, Hui Shyan, Trina and myself…

It was a simple affair; just dinner at Niqqi’s Cheese Prata Shop… Nothing big but it was nice to see all the mentors again… Of course, we spent some time reminiscing on the old days when we were actively mentoring those annoying kids… But we also managed to catch up with what’s been happening with each other and as usual, I made everyone jealous by bragging about my travels while living in Europe… hehe…

Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day… Will clean up the house a little before heading back to Bedok house and get ready for my first training session of the year… I’ve not trained for more than five months! Ack! Hope I don’t die!

finding the balance...

Thursday, 18th January 2007 – 2:54pm Singapore time

Without really realising it, I’ve come to the end of my second week in school… To be honest, I’ve been feeling like a freshman these days… I have no clue where some of the LTs are and I have forgotten most of the important shortcuts and basic things like how the RBR system in the library works… You can’t really blame me; I had been away from school since April last year… Plus, a lot of re-construction is going on right now and it kinda puts me off balance…

Firstly, the arts canteen has been closed!! Super sad cos the canteen used to be an ‘anchor-point’ for me… It’s a place which I go for rest and refuge after a long day of lectures or a particularly difficult exam… It’s where I meet all my friends and where I get to sit and look out to the sea while I sip on my soy bean drink… It’s a place where I can claim some form of ownership over – I’ve always enjoyed teasing friends from other faculties who ‘crash’ the arts canteen for their meals because of the superior quality of food served there… And of course, I miss all the makciks! They doted on me and gave me free food all the time! Sigh… And I have to wait till next semester if I wanna enjoy any of this anymore… Sad…

Anyways, I received an email today from Rosina who’s the membership IC for my dragonboat team… Apparently Tharin (team manager) told her that I have returned to Singapore and she decided to send me an email to welcome me back, and to encourage me to come back for training… Pressure sia… Hehe… So I kinda promised her that I will be back for practice this Saturday… I just hope it won’t be a tough session since we haven’t kicked off the new season yet… I don’t want to die of exhaustion… Going back to the boats also means that my days of being fair and lovely are over! Muahaha… I was born a dark-skinned baby, so I guess I have to stay that way… ;p

Afidah’s birthday celebration on Tuesday evening was quite a success, will post an update on that once I get hold of the pictures… Having dinner with my fellow SMP mentors… I love hanging out with them cos everyone is just so fun! I hope someone brings a camera… hehe… Till the next update!

Happy Birthday Afidah!

We have another birthday y'all! It's time to wish Happy 22nd Birthday to Afidah! Yay!

My wishes for Fidah (also known as makcik tua): may you be in good health always, no more freaky face operations and may you get good grades always... Oh, and may you never end up looking as crazy as you behave or else you'll end up losing all your friends... hehe... Kidding la... You will still have one friend left - Jean... ;p

Thanks for being a great gal and one friend who's really fun to hang out with... Hope we can re-live our panggang days soon!! I want to panggang with you and pakcik tua... =)

birthfull sunday!

It's birthday shout out time! First and foremost, Happy Birthday Aunty Evelyn!! Thanks for being one of those really important pillars of strength and support in my life and in the life of many others... It's great that I have always been able to confide in you and you are somehow able to understand so many things in your special way... Love you lots lots! :))

Not sure if I should reveal Aunty Evelyn's age here... Hehe... But whatever it is, she's looking good and rocking it, even when she's a great-aunt to many little kiddies...

Another big birthday shoutout also goes to Huang 'the meatball' Zhichao... Happy 23rd Birthday Meatball! Hehe... Zhichao (also known as cowcow) is my junior from my NS days and we've gone a long way since the first day he came and got bullied by moi to being a law undergraduate at NUS, president of the NUS dive club and just an all-round (pun!) nice guy!! So, since you're nice, you won't carry me around anymore right? We all know you're strong enough to do that, it's been established a long time ago... No more carrying ok? :D

Oh, and we should meet up soon cos I miss putting my finger on your vibrating eyebrow! Heehee...

Whatever the case, hope my two birthday babies today enjoy themselves and let's hope the rain stops so that they can some fun in the sun! :)

no pitfalls...

Saturday, 13th January 2007 – 9:10pm Singapore time

It’s the weekend! Yay! Not so yay cos I have a little headache now… =( Anyways, the last few days have been quite dampening because of the non-stop rain! And I heard it was much worse before I came back to SG… I can’t imagine how you all suffered then… *shudder*

I am proud to announce that I have gotten accustomed to the humidity! Woo hoo!

Anyways, the highlight for today was seeing this girl while I was eating at McDonald’s with Hajar (after accomplishing a super secret mission)… She was like any other normal girl, except that she had a very healthy growth of underarm hair which was sprouting all over the place… And the fact that she was wearing a singlet made it stand out even more, especially since the singlet was white…

This reminded me of my sociology class on deviance… So this particular girl is someone we would label as a ‘social deviant’ because she refuses to shave her armpits while wearing a sleeveless top… So why would it have been ok if it was a guy instead? In fact, we would expect a guy to have his armpit hair still intact… It’s all thanks to social norms and these norms have been passed on and reinforced over so many years that it’s ‘natural’ for a girl to want to have some of her bodily hair removed…

Even though naturally speaking (since everyone has hair there, regardless), it’s ok for the girl Hajar and I saw to have bushy armpits, the sight of it just grossed us out… The person who came up with the idea that women should shave (more than us men) must be damn good…

I emailed Tharin (my dragonboat team manager) to ask him for the training schedule and he actually asked me to come today… But I skipped training today… Hehe… I am lacking the confidence la, after not training for 5 damn months… And I am also enjoying being a little fair for now… You know, fair and lovely… Heehee… But I think I will go tomorrow la… Might as well get started…

I met up with Hafrez to catch up with him and also to pass him the gifts I got him from Oslo… I also spoke to him about his future plans and all that… And of course, I told him that he is perhaps too old to have a mentor now, since he has started wearing long pants to school and knows how to gel his hair nicely… Big boy la…

But guess what his reaction was? He wants to me to carry on being his mentor! Haha… He was saying that it’s boring to be at home all the time (to which I answered he should spend the time at home studying) and he just SMS-ed me asking me to celebrate his birthday with him next week…

Well, I am ok with ‘mentoring’ him I guess… I have more freedom to do what I want since it’s no longer being done as an official duty… Also, I don’t have to worry about any quotas and such… So as long as he wants to see me, can lor… And at least I can help him if he gets into trouble with some parties (which I will not mention)… So settle la, I will carry on seeing him… I mailed Puay San (the social worker) to check if it’s ok to do this and I guess she’ll say yes…

Rohana: So which school did you mentor? And how are you involved in SMP now?

Alritey, time to go now… Have a good weekend!

a fresh start...

Tuesday, 9th January 2006 – 9:30pm Singapore time

So today was the first day of school for me and overall, I would say that I t was a good day… In fact, it had been good sine I moved back to Dover last night… The house was in a very good condition and I managed to fix the showerhead! The showerhead in the bathroom has always been problematic and it takes you really long to get done with your shower as the water pressure sucks like crazy… Cik Mahat tried changing the showerhead once but it didn’t work… Anyways as I was showering last night, I got super annoyed and just unscrewed the whole damn hose to discover that there had been a small piece of rubber lodged in the hose! I removed the offensive thing of course and voila! Normal water pressure while showering again!

My first class for the day was ‘Multilingualism’ administered by Dr. Ho Chee Lick… Dr. Ho was my tutor for my Syntax and Morphology class when I was still a freshie and I’ve always liked being in his class as even though he may not be the most articulate lecturer in our department, he knows his shit and has no pretensions…

It was also nice to see many familiar faces in the class like Liang Cai, Matthew, Sean, Mandy, Chiayi, Joanna, Hajar's best friend and many more…

As expected, Dr. Ho ended the class early (another reason why I like him) and I had a little breather before my next class which was Language Planning and Policy by Dr. Lionel Wee… Dr. Wee is the man that Hajar would gladly give her eggs to if given a chance… He’s the other man besides Dr. Donohue who can elicit the ‘muka steam’ (horny face) reaction from her… Hee…

Hajar: I think he got a new look… Well at least his hair looks nicer and he wore a nicer shirt… You should crash the class one of these days… ;p

Dr. Wee also ended class very early (2 hours earlier in fact) and it was much needed as I had a lot of errands to run… I first went to the optician to get some contact lens solution but they were out, so it was to the pharmacy to get shaving cream and deodorant and a new nail clipper… Then I headed to NTUC Fairprice to get a whole load of groceries and other household items… I was glad that the whole trip was a success and only three items have escaped my clutches… We’ll see how it goes tomorrow…

While I was unpacking my groceries, Nurul called and she informed that one of my lecturers collapsed and passed away recently while he was conducting a lecture… At her request, I shall not reveal the name of this lecturer but to find out that he had passed on so suddenly was a shock as he had always seemed to be in shape and in a good state of emotional health… I always enjoyed his lectures as he has always been very articulate, witty and passionate about what he lectured about… He even shared recipes with us during class… I enjoyed his class so much that I even got an ‘A’ for it… Rest in peace, Dr. X…

I also managed to call Hafrez, the boy whom I have been mentoring since he was a teeny little kid in Sec 1… He is now in Sec 3… Time really flies… I asked that we meet either tomorrow or Thursday as I had bought some souvenirs for him from Oslo… It would also be a little sad as it would be the last few sessions of mentoring I would have with him… I think it’s time that I let go… =)

So yeah, it’s been a good day… Even the rain was welcome as it helped me to cool down a little… Hehe… Good to be back home and in school again… We’ll see if I’ll say the same things in a few weeks time when all the mid-term assignments are due…

PS: Watch ‘The Arena’ on Channel 5, every Tuesday at 8:30pm… Good shit!

a tall story...

Saturday, 6th January 2006 – 5:24pm Singapore time

At Ms Rohana’s request, I shall stop complaining (but it’s really hot leh!) about Singapore’s weather and try to focus on the positive things which have happened since I hit home soil… Well, one good thing I can think of right now is that I feel tall again! Yay!

All the Viking blood in those Norwegians back in Oslo had made them gigantic so while I lived there, I was never considered tall… I was like, average or in extreme cases, I was below average… So after being out and about these past few days, I feel tall again cos Singaporean men are not as tall as their Norsk counterparts… Cheap thrill, hehe…

Anyways, I received a rather peculiar message on friendster recently:

hmm muke abg cm pernah nmpk tapi tk ingat kat ne... lau leh kwn ok jugak adk tkde bro umur cm abg... soey lau panggil abg... msg adk ar 8******* k aslmkm... adk tunggu

The Malay here is rather ungrammatical but the English translation would be as follows:

hmm, it seems that I’ve seen big brother’s face (i.e. me) somewhere but I can’t recall where… if we can be friends it’ll be pretty ok [because] little brother (i.e., him) doesn’t have brothers of big brother’s age… suitable if I call you big brother… msg little brother 8******* ok? peace be upon you… little brother waits…

I really don’t know how to react to this one… Seriously dumbfounded leh… Does he want me to be his SMP mentor? I already have two kids; I don’t need one more, especially those whom are already 19… Any suggestions?

h-o-t!

Friday, 5th January 2006 - 11:26pm Singapore time

Today marks my first week back home and by now, I have already re-adjusted to most of the things back home... For example, I have already gotten over the jet lag and have already gotten used to eating lots of rice again...

However, there is still one thing (& it puzzles me so much) which I have not gotten used to & that's the damn weather!

Now I *TRULY* understand why those ang mohs compain so much! Becasue what they say is really true... It's so damn bloody hot here! I think the temperature plus the super duper high levels of humidity have taken a toll on me... I really feel uncomfortable when I'm outside during daytime and at night, I've been having problems sleeping because I keep perspiring... This is made worse by the fact that I can't use the air-con as I share my room with my little brother who will fall ill if he has to endure overnight exposure to air-con... It's a painful compromise if you ask me...

So right now, I am kinda looking forward to moving back to Dover where I can have the fan (no air-con in that house) aimed at my face full blast so that I can probably sleep better... Or I could just try to get used to the humidity here again... Sigh... Gimme more time...

London update!

So our flight to London was like at 9:30am and it was at the Sandefjord Airport!! If you remember what I said in my Milan update, the airport is a two-hour bus ride away from Oslo city and of course, you have to be there two hours before the flight, blah di blah…

So yeah, we had to wake up damn early in order to catch the train to the bus terminal and then the bus to the airport… We almost missed the bus but made it just in time… Hehe… I slept through the entire bus ride and after checking in, we sat down at the café there for some breakfast… Aunty Evelyn visited the souvenir shop to buy some stuff for herself and the loved ones back home… We were so engrossed with shopping that we didn’t take notice of the time until I heard a voice over the public announcement system:

“Passenger Mr Angullia, please proceed to gate 16 for immediate boarding…”

Oops!

We ran to the gate and promptly got to the plane… The air stewardesses gave us dirty looks, but we didn’t delay the flight, so ok lor! ;p The flight to London was boring and dreadful… Aunty Evelyn especially hated it as the seats were unadjustable… Hehe… Poor Aunty Evelyn… I just slept through the entire thing of course…

We arrived at the Stansted Airport and decided to book our accommodation and tours at a service desk at the terminal… There was a little drizzle outside as we made our way to the bus terminal to get on the bus which will take us to our hotel… The bus ride was pretty long and it took us quite a while to arrive at the Victoria Station… Armed with a map, we made our way to the bed & breakfast which we were to stay in… Our living quarters actually doubled up as a lecture venue for students from King’s College, which was kinda weird cos it made me feel like I was still in school…

Anyways, we unpacked our stuff and got settled in before heading out to look for a place for some lunch… We found a cosy little café where they served fish & chips and we had that for lunch… In between lunch and dessert, I decided to give my BMT junior and friend Ivan a call… Ivan had been studying in London (on an MOE scholarship no less) for the past year and was more than happy to meet up with me… We made arrangements to meet and so Aunty Evelyn and I headed out to the city centre…

We decided to walk which wasn’t really a good idea co we didn’t know any shortcuts and hence took a really long route… It took us forever to get there of course… Hehe… But we got really familiarised with the River Thames and all the other streets around it… We decided to first try out the London Eye but managed to get shots of the Westminster Abbey and Big Ben on our way there… After a relatively long wait in the line, we got our tickets for the Eye and were soon loaded up into one of the little cabins…

Truth be told, I wasn’t really impressed with the whole London Eye experience… It could have been the bad weather (slight drizzle), the annoying commentary which a mother was giving to her child (and to the rest of us in the cabin), or perhaps I was just expecting too much… Whatever it was, it was not so nice… After we disembarked, Ivan was already waiting for us… It was real nice seeing him again as I had not seen him since ORD… I promptly introduced him to Aunty Evelyn and Ivan then proceeded the take us on an insider’s tour of the streets of London…

It was really fun (& useful) to have Ivan around with us as he taught us all the shortcuts, showed us all the nice (& useful) places like Chinatown and he also showed us ways to save some moolah! London, as you all know is a damn expensive place and the prices are comparable to what I was used to in Oslo, so getting tips on how to save that little bit of money was much appreciated…

Ivan also took us to the different theatres and I was contemplating watching ‘Chicago’ (featuring Ashlee Simpson) but we thought it might be better to go the next day instead, so we kept on wandering around… After dinner, we went our separate ways and agreed to meet again after Aunty Evelyn and I were done with our tours for the day…

We had to wake up early next morning to get sorted out for or tours for the day… So we headed out for some breakfast and then headed out to the bus terminal for the bus which would take us on the tours… The first was a tour to Windsor Castle which was the summer palace for the Queen herself! Veldig hyggelig asså! The tour took quite long as the castle was damn huge... Even so, not the whole castle was open to the public… I can’t imagine how long I would take to tour around if that were the case… My personal fave from the entire tour was the room which housed Queen Mary’s Dollhouse… Very cute and fascinating… We weren’t allowed to take photographs, so I don’t really have any to share with y’all… Sorry…

We then headed out to see the Stonehenge… The journey was quite long la and I got kinda bored… Which was no problem cos I just spent the time sleeping…. Heehee… We arrived at the the Stonehenge, and truth be told, it was nothing more than a bunh of pillars put together… But I guess if you were to really learn the story behind its formation and the historical significance of its design, you will be able to appreciate it a little more… Plus, the scenery around was great… Just lovely vast fields of green… And the skies were nice and blue, unlike the greyness which you got in the city…

The third tour we went on for the day was to the city of Bath where we were to visit the Roman Baths… The city itself was really a special place because of how it was designed… It also had a special significance for me as one of the works I studied for my ‘A’ levels was Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath”… Lame connection, hehe… Anyways, the baths were really nice and you can still find hot springs there…

After the tour, we bundled back to the bus and made our way back to the city… I was a little anxious to get back to town early as I was hoping to catch ‘Chicago’… But alas, there was a bad traffic jam and we got back too late to catch even the late musicals… Sad la…

Aunty Evelyn decided to head back to our room as she was a little tired and so that left me with a meeting with Ivan… We met up and went to a Malaysian restaurant for some dinner… I had nasi lemak which was quite close to the real deal and since it had been a while since I had some local cuisine, it was nice… Ivan and I then parted ways… I thanked him for all he had done for us and proceeded with a long walk home which was nice and relaxing with the nice cool winds of London blowing…

The next day was our last in London… We packed our stuff and checked out of our room in the morning and decided that it was perhaps best that we take the big bus tour… So we headed to the tour office and got some tickets for ourselves and took the bus from the main stop…

The big bus tour is basically a bus ride which takes us from West London to the east and of course the guide points out to us the main spots of attraction like the palace, the museums, the London dungeon and so on… It was a nice tour which allows one to see the city in a nutshell… We got off at the Tower of London (which houses the crown jewels) and had a spot of lunch before heading out for a river cruise down the Thames… The cruise was nice and relaxing and the witty commentary made it more fun… Once we were done, it was time to head to the famous London underground where we took the tube to Heathtrow for the flight to Paris…

Overall, London was fun and it had a very rich history which really fascinated me… And it was nice that everything was in English after having everything in Norwegian for so long… =) Paris update to come soon…

the wrong stroke...

Monday, 1st January 2007 – 10:37pm Singapore time

Happy New Year y’all! I hope 2007 will prove to be a nicer year for all of us… And may all of us be nicer people than we were last year, especially you, Reza…. Hee…

Anyways, I don’t know if it’s the jet lag or if I’m going bonkers, but after watching the news, I went to take a shower and as I was showering, I kinda subconsciously took my razor and started shaving my face! Shaving one’s face is by no means a bizarre event but the fact is, I shave only once a day and that happens in the morning! I guess I need a longer time to re-wire myself into ‘Singapore mode’...