Post a day/week

Unofficially signing up for wordpress’s  post a day. I’m not gonna post every day though, it’s not possible. I’ll just do those I like as and when I have time for it!

So. Today’s topic suggestion is What are You Looking Forward To?

Extremely easy, this one 🙂

FIRST. I’m looking forward to the end of my accountancy exam on Friday evening! As is evident by this post, I’m not really studying much at all, which should worry me. But like Jarrich said, I still have tomorrow! Hoho. So far I’ve been doing everything but studying. This includes playing (various) facebook games, chatting on MSN, cooking lunch, washing clothes, and Packing. Which brings me to…

SECOND. My flight leaves Heathrow next Tuesday night!! Yes, I will miss many things about the UK and about being on exchange. But I’ve also been missing a multitude of things/people back in Singapore! It’s kinda 50:50. But I must say that Lee Kwan Yew is right. Studying in UK has definitely given me an affinity towards this country, despite all the criticism and various grouses people have with the system here.

And it used to be that if you asked me if I’d consider working/living outside of Singapore, I’d say, No way! I’d miss all the people and food! Singapore’s my home, I’d never leave it for too long! Now, I can say that given the right factors, I could get used to living and/or working here. What factors?

1 Uno – Community. This includes people from work/school and church. Significant other? Lol.

2 Dos – Solid church that feeds me spiritually.

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Um.. I could make a list of what I’d miss and what I do miss, but, nahh. Maybe another post. I’ll just end here now. Fini.

Protected: A S’porean thing. (PW: dumb boy again..)

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Snapshot

Woots! I finally have time for what I hope will be a proper update. Really sorry for the lack of entries, I’ve been busy er.. alternately having a life and working in the lab.

I’ve a respite for the next few days as the post doc has gone off to Barcelona. It’s so new to have the whole day to slack again! Hoho. Of course, I have some work to do, but as per usual procrastination strategy, I’ll likely not start on it till about hm.. 10pm at night? Alas! Only 1 hour left.

Things have sorta stabilised around here. I’m not sure what I’ve said before, but like the initial settling in part seemed OK, and then up til my London trip there were some ups and down that continued when I came back. Now, I think I’ve adjusted and set my mind to rights again, although there is an ongoing situation that the party involved wldn’t talk to me about.. Hmph.

London trip was pretty awesome. I missed having fun, enjoying myself, and the constant verbal banter that’s always such a part of my NTU life.

I conquer my mountain

This photo was taken in Bath, where we had to do a spot of “rock climbing” (due to certain reasons I can’t elaborate on this publicly, but feel free to ask me), and as I got to the top I was really getting scared. Thing is, I knew I could do it, just that I had to conquer my fear first. Slowly, I managed to manoeuvre myself to the other side, and when my feet finally hit the ground, I just felt this great sense of accomplishment! Had a really good adrenaline rush going on too, and it was probably the most exhilarating thing I’ve done in a long time.

Kinda reminds me of Cheer, where I had to conquer my initial fear when doing a stunt, but in this case, I actually have to do more work, to make sure I get stable hand/foot holds, and also to anchor myself firmly to the rock.

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Also, I’m really looking forward to Scotland and Barcelona. I’ll finally be able to visit Eugene in Edinburgh and Sonia in St Andrews! I do pray that the weather won’t be so extreme by the time I get there though, I still wanna enjoy myself instead of being frozen!!

Ah, I would post pictures of the Snow here in York, but bcos I haven’t switched off my com from the last time I uploaded photos, my com refuses to read my SD card cos it had already been “safely removed” =|

Hmm.. I think I’ll leave this post like that for now. Note to self: take MORE PICTURES! (esp of people..) Cheers!

 

Halloween

I must sound a little weird saying this, but I don’t like being too free. I know I can probably do all my work in a leisurely pace, and maybe still have time to slack some. But when there’s no need for urgency just yet, it kinda makes me just slack… more.

…

The 2nd time I went to church was better than the first, I feel. Sermon was better, worship was good even though I was late. Student lunch afterwards at the pastor’s house where we just mingled with all the other students was nice. Less Singaporeans this time, bcos the freshers were attending a different church, so at least I still feel like I’m in a different country! O.o

On Sunday night we went out for Halloween. Goodricke, my college (over here, college = hall) organised a trip to the York Dungeons (an attraction in York), with entrance to this club afterward. Dressed up a little, bought wings and my flatmate loaned me a hairband with horns, so I went as like a sorta fairy. And yay, I made use of my casual dress + new-ish flat covered shoes that I thought I was never gonna be able to wear over here.

I also figured out why people here are mostly used to the cold – that’s bcos when they go out at night for clubbing, they dress up (read: less clothes/more skimpy) and normally don’t bring a coat! So.. I was just wearing a sleeveless casual dress with stockings and standing outside, where the temperature is about 10degC.. Brrr. Okay I did borrow a cardigan from another flatmate but didn’t wear it all the time outside.

York Dungeon was so-so. Definitely there’s strength in numbers, and they let us in in groups of 10. I kinda expected more from it, but on hindsight, it’s okay cos I really don’t like getting scared and I try my best to avoid it.

As for clubbing, I think most of my close friends (and maybe even some not-so-close ones) know my stand on that, so I shan’t repeat myself. I’m just glad that 2 of my flatmates wanted to go back early and so I could safely slink away with them.

On an unrelated note, I feel like I should eat more. I wanna have the feeling of being very full! Normally we don’t cook that much, just enough to be full by LKY’s standards. (What was it, 60, 70 or 80% full?) Okay, I eat about the same as back home, just that minus the copious amount of fruits that Daddy will cut, which never fails to leave us bloated!

Hm.. I’m starting to miss chinese-style cai fan a little. What I’ll give for Chinese veg! Hurrrh. Maybe I shld go buy beans at Morrisons. And sun bian look out for a hand mixer or something – I’m itching to break open the bottle of baileys!! Note to self: get coffee as well =D

Umm, bleh.

I went to church today. Though there’re many churches in York, the church I attended had 8 Singaporeans in service! That’s like a mini-Singapore already. Service was interesting… Like I told Celina, I really miss P&W and just having that corporate anointing when worshipping. Indeed, I wasn’t disappointed. Their worship set-up is not that elaborate, and the congregation isn’t that big either, but I just felt so at home during worship.

Afterwards we had lunch at one of the S’poreans house, and totally chilled there for the whole afternoon. I have mixed feelings about this. It was weird, being the only “representative” outta all the NTU exchange students, and it didn’t help that I was feeling extremely sleepy too!

Anyways. Guess I better blog more abt what I’ve been up to at York. Basically I’ve been nuaing around alot in hall. Totally avoiding anything to do with school work when there’s no lessons. Living in denial! Especially for this one module where there’s no lessons at all, just a presentation sometime in the vague, foggy future, and an exam that’s absolutely ages away. (So late, in fact, that I’ll take it in SG!)

Cooking’s been alright. I cook. I eat. I conquer! I also want to sleep, so I shall end this post very abruptly and try to do something a bit more engaging. Cheerios.

HSBC! grrr

Here’s my story..

1. I go to the HSBC representatives that are present in school during one of the school talks. He tells me there’s an account that’s suitable for me (he doesn’t name it) but I needa go to the branch cos they don’t have the stuff needed for me here.

2. I go to HSBC’s branch in york. The lady told me, if you’re only here for 3 months, there’s nothing we have that’s suitable.

3. I go back very confused and decide to do my own research. I hit on the “Basic Bank Account”, which looks suitable.

4. I go back to the branch. Different lady. I ask how I could open a basic bank account. This lady says “hang on”, goes away for some time, and comes back telling me that they ran out of application packages for it. Tells me to apply online.

5. I go back to the website at home. This is the page for basic acct. Obviously, there’s no link to apply online. I decide to try calling the 0800 number stated there. The curt lady on the phone told me “You can apply for a basic bank account online”. And btw, calling the 0800 number isn’t free from my mobile line.

6. I decide to click “request an application package”, and proceed to enter my address.

7. After about a week, I finally receive mail from HSBC. Alas! It’s only a brochure! At the end of the brochure (which I think I already have this brochure..) it says: Opening an account with us: Just complete an application over the phone, online or in your local branch.

Is this bank account so basic that no one would tell me how to open it?? Knn. I initially wanted to complain to HSBC, and I clicked on “making a complaint” on their website. Who would’ve thought? The procedure for making a complaint looks so complicated! So, I turn to you.

I hope I can open my account soon man. Grrr…

In York

Man, I haven’t wrote in so long.

I’ve stopped counting the days in York, cos it’s hard to keep track of the days! Was it just yesterday that I went to town with wc and jar, and had Sunday roast at the Evil Eye? And which day did Heidi and I go to town with Daryl and Gabriel, and walked home in the cold only to cook instant noodles for dinner? How about the day we did our laundry, and got jio-ed by Mathias to go to the pub with (mostly) random people?

Anyways, it’s only been a handful of days, but so many different things happen each day, I can’t keep track of it.

Dorene (Heidi’s friend) is here for a week – delaying the establishment of any sort of routine. She also lends her *vast* cooking experience 😉

I think I’ve met all my flatmates, though no guarantee I remember their names. Mostly everyone’s still at the microwaveable meals stage! But already I’ve had instant noodles once and fried rice twice. My contribution? Buying the food! Lols.

Okay. 1 am already and tomorrow there’s an early talk.. Stay tuned for updates~! 🙂