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Thursday, February 4, 2010; 7:07 AM
Time
Yes. Time. That's something that we don't really have enough of. Its already coming to the close of the fifth week of school. This week passed so fast, Monday seemed like yesterday. Just today, I felt that I lived through 2 days worth of school. We had all but one of our core subjects packed in for us, leaving us saturated at 2.15pm dismissal. But wait. Life doesn't stop there. Next was the mad rush of setting up CNY deco in class and discussing IH Assignment for around an hour, leaving school at 4pm. Yesterday, I knocked out while reading IH notes at home. The time was 11.15pm. I couldn't believe I was so tired. Neither could I believe that it was possible for anyone to stay up until 2.30am almost everyday. YY's life is really hectic. Ballet, hip hop, piano, SLC and whatnot. She comes home on an average of 10pm everyday and sleeps at 2.30am for about half of this week already. Every morning, she comes into class carrying her medicine--a cup of steaming hot coffee and buys green tea in the afternoons to keep herself awake. I learnt that she stays up doing proposals and proposals and I actually suggested that she drop something. But she loves her ballet lessons so much that there was a day where she had ballet from like 3 to 6 and then from 8 to 10 at night. My expression read this 0.0 when she told me about her ballet schedule the next day. I guess that's how far one can go to fulfill one's passion. I did a art piece recently, entitled "Time", so far only 4 people have seen it, including me. Heheh. Kesha's "Tick Tock" is a frequent appearance on the radio in the mornings, it reminds me constantly how precious time is. Also not long ago, I wrote about a clock for my chinese compo descriptive essay. Its amusing how time really governs your life. Carpe Diem There are so many things that Iffera is going to do tomorrow---tennis comps and watching Avatar 3D for the first time. She can't wait and hopes time chooses to become a snail tomorrow.
Sunday, January 3, 2010; 1:59 AM
2010
Its a new year [so fast!] and I realise that I: 1. Don't want to finish blogging about my Paris and London trip as I feel that its better to talk to people about it. Really talk.2. Still have to copy out the LA compo on foolscap. Not that I didn't do it, I did- on Microsoft Word. 3. Am going to miss 202. A lot. 4. Have to look forward to a lot of piano practice and homework for the next 362 days. 5. Will be in a class which number is a palindrome [reads the same forward and backward] [313]6. Have loads of Christmas presents to give to friends7. Will miss waking up late in the mornings. 8. Didnt make any New Year Resolution yet. Still thinking about it.
Monday, December 21, 2009; 2:55 PM
London- DAY 3 and 4
Hello, I am blogging from my apartment. It is now Day 4 in London, the 21st of Dec. Its probably the 22nd in Singapore but I am living in a 8 hours later time zone. :D Shall blog on yesterday and today. I realise that for the past few days, I am accustommed to living in cold weather. Yes. Really got used to it. I just wear one layer of clothing under my jacket and leave the zip open. That one layer is cashmere. So in future, if you go to cold countries, wear cashmere, it helps. A lot. I also find myself turning to Chinese food after eating British traditional food for just one day, which is the first day I spent in London. Because my family and I couldn't stand the British food anymore. All the meat, gravy, potato, sauce etc. and no vegetables. So it is Chinatown for dinner almost every night now. Also, if you have been following the news, the Eurostar train from London to Paris is delayed on last Sat and Sun due to some technical problem, causing this huge backlog of stranded commuters that have to be cleared. My family bought tickets for Paris from London via the Eurostar train and now, according to the website, the train will resume operations tomorrow on Tuesday, which is when we are supposed to be travelling. Good news. BUT the bad news is, the trains tomorrow are for those people who got stranded on Sat and Sun. This means we have to leave on Wednesday, meaning we have to pay for one more night at our apartment and paying the apartment in Paris for one night for nothing. BOO. But that gives us one more day in London and one less day in Paris. Day 3Went to Cambridge! Haha. It was a 45 min ride from London's King Cross Station to Cambridgeshire, the town Cambridge is in. I couldn't catch the 9 and 3/4 platform in Harry Potter though. It was snowing in Cambridgeshire and we got on this tour bus with audio guide and listened as the bus rumbled through the town. We got off at this orchard stop where there was this huge shop selling organic stuff [organic food, organic vegetables, plants etc.] and outside this shop was pure snow on the ground. Yes. Snow like when you step on it your foot sinks into it kind of snow. Had fun hopping through the snow and saw rows of orchard trees that were actually apple trees. I kind of regretted plunging my shoes into the snow because when the snow melts into water, it seeps into your shoe and in the cold weather of Cambridgeshire, it freezes your foot. The shop had at least 4 kinds of potatoes on sale, a huge variety of sauces and jams and chutneys and Christmas puddings. There were novels sold at 2 pounds each, which is equivalent to S$4. Soaps are sold at S$2 each and they are small round bars of soap. Yeah. Ex. Did you know that Cambridgeshire is home to a great deal of colleges, not only Cambridge? Apparently, to get into a university, you have to get into a college as they have some ties to partner universities. We wanted to go punting [sailing on the river] but decided against it as you would be crazy if you wanted to sail in freezing waters. But guess what? We saw a particular teenage girl jogging on the snowy road, wearing a shirt and shorts. That's it. No coat, nothing. Our reaction: 0.0There were also a great deal of pubs, like around 15, in the town in the past so they had this competition among the different colleges. Competitors have to drink large amounts of beer in one pub and move on to the others, doing the same thing for each pub, without going to the toilet. There was this guy who completed all 15 pubs in a little over an hour, while other students were literally crawling from one pub to the other due to all that drinking, earning the term "pub crawl". There was this particular college, can't rmb which one, that earned a place in the Guiness Book of Records for the longest time a library book has never been returned. A guy borrowed a book and he died before returning it. The book was returned 200 years after its borrowed date and up till now, it is not officially returned yet. I loved the college buildings as they have amazing Gothic architecture and in winter, its really cool to see them covered in snow, looking so grand and all that. Cambrige took up 3/4 of the day so we went back to London and headed straight for Chinatown for dinner. Day 4This is um...today, actually. Initially planned to go to Stonehenge but we didn't want to spend 3/4 of the day [like Day 3] travelling to some place to see a bunch of stones. Cancelled that and went to visit Buckingham Palace and Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum. Wise choice, since it was snowing when we were in Ripley's. Heheh. My mum realised that we could walk to places like Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus [where Ripley's and theatres are], Soho, Chinatown and Buckingham Palace like under 45 mins, which is great since we have been living in close proximity to central London and we haven't realised that and wasted so much money on cab fare. Buckingham Palace was first. Took a great deal of pictures although it was drizzling. The only sad thing about it was I had to hold up the umbrella to protect the video camera and camera from getting wet. The price? An ice cube forming around my hand. The palace looks really grand up close and my sis spotted some discrete designs on the Victoria Memorial. Hand lunch at Pret A Manger. If you are wondering if this is a pet shop, like I thought in the beginning, it is actually a sandwich chain shop in London. The sandwiches are fabulous and the variety beats Subway. I feel strongly that this brand should come to Singapore. Had some egg mayo sandwich and a bit of tuna salad. Really good and worth eating when you come to London. Ripley's Museum next and spend around 2 hours there. There are lots of cool, fascinating things in there that you can't help but wonder how on earth did Ripley collect all these items in his life? I shall not blog about the stuff I saw in the museum, partly because I am lazy and also partly because its just too many things inside. Come and ask me if you really want to know what's in there and I will use up a great deal of time talking to you. :D Its 11pm in London now. Time to sleep and pray that tomorrow I can get on Eurostar. My dad just called their hotline and its closed as their operating hours are over. Like >.<>
I realise that I am blogging on the go. Heh. But sadly, this will end in Paris. I don't have free Internet connection in Paris so info on Paris will wait till I reach Singapore. If you see a London Day 5, it means that my Eurostar train is delayed. Bad as I have one less day in Paris, good because I can blog about my 5th day in London [which will be about the British National Museum] because that's where we plan to go if things don't work out.
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Iffera is now hoping that she will get a seat on Eurostar tomorrow and is looking forward to the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower and many other beautiful places in Paris. Meanwhile, she is enjoying herself watching comedies on tv in London and will be sad when she reaches Paris as the apartment there has no cable, or maybe no TV for that fact. She is not looking forward to the weather in Paris as it is reputably much colder than London.
Saturday, December 19, 2009; 1:52 PM
London- DAY 2
Today was less cold than yesterday. Went to Portobello Market in the morning and spent half the day there. It is filled with antique shops selling masks, as in masks for masked balls, wonderfully decorated. Also saw a shop with walls of sewing machines. Had Subway for lunch there at the market. But they have street side food too- includes crepes, African food cooked on the spot, German sausage etc.Next, went to Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland Xmas Market. Which is filled with rides and stalls selling mulled wine, sausages, doughnuts, turkey, pies and the traditional English xmas food. Got some bands singing as well and loads of ppl. Afterwards, visited Harrods and was awed by its architecture. They have this Egyptian themed escalator that accesses all floors of the mall. Since its too big, we decided to just explore a few levels only. I went to the Furniture Section and saw Fendi furniture. They have uh...Fendi rugs, Fendi tables, Fendi lights and even Fendi TVs! Also saw this tiger fur cover for like guess what, 3900 pounds! Yes. Its Food Hall was filled with very ex stuff, we won't buy we just look. They have this counter selling totally caviar and salmon. Yep. And one small bottle of caviar costs over 100 pounds which is over S$200. And they have small spoons made of mother-of-pearl, used just ot eat caviar, costing like at least 16 pounds. Seafood section is expensive. But their tea selection is very expansive. Its their specialty, anyway. Went to their Gallery section where they sell artwork. Very beautiful art pieces. They even have this Map section where they sell old maps. And Cheryl, they sell old Poland maps. Haha. Afterwards, went to Chinatown in Soho for dinner cos I got sick of all the British food. Its nice to eat rice and veggies again. I am back now in my apartment and looking forward to going Cambridge tomorrow! I hope its possible. If not, I will go to the British National Museum. Initially wanted to see a musical tonight but tickets are sold out for Mamma Mia! in the Prince of Wales Theatre in Picadilly Circus. Shall update tmr.
London- DAY 1
Prologue: 13 hours of airplane flight. 22 hours of no sleep at all. Red eyes from waiting at Heathrow at 4am Singapore time. Great. I am in London. And i still have to stay awake a few more hours before sleeping. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThe next day, is my first day in London. Very nice. I started with a walk in Hyde Park and saw snow on the grass in the park. Real snow. It snowed the night before. I live in Mayfair so its quite easy to get around. Turns out Hyde Park has this Winter Wonderland Christmas Market, which i will check out if i have the time. Today, i go to Madame Tussauds Museum. It is a wax museum. Yes. Cool and scary at the same time cos the figurines look incredibly real. I took pictures with Jiale is going to love this-MJ, Einstein, Shakespeare, Beckham. And i put my feet on Obama's table with Obama himself standing next to me. Heh. There was this wax photographer who stood taking photos of movie stars, making ppl think she was real. Which is really freaky. Went to this ride called SCREAM! in the museum where you just walk along a designated path and see real live actors lunge at you, shocking you, but they don't really touch you and you aren't supposed to touch them either. But this ride still pales in comparison to 13 Doors. Sigh. Had lunch at this local pub afterwards with a bar that says "No children should approach the bar" and with toilets like huge dressing rooms. Hee! Bought tickets for the London Big Bus Tour and self-tortured myself by sitting on the open-air upper deck of the bus for 1.5 hours. With the wind and all that, its freaking cold for my feet. And i got off the bus with numb legs, knees downwards. Went to Marks and Spencer to seek refuge from the cold and bought a hat. So cute! And stocked up food in the Food Hall. They have this extraordinary selection of sandwiches and salads. But sadly, no instant noodles. BOO. Walked, or more like ran, to Selfridges not far up the street. This is a department store in central London with beautiful storefronts with a pantomime theme this christmas. Again we seek refuge and again we explore the food hall. Almost every department store we go into, we explore the food hall. Yeah. Had dinner at some local restaurant not far away. Because we were too cold to walk any where further. Haha. Had bangers and mash, traditional English breakfast, which is sausage and mash potatoes soaked in gravy. Yep. This kind of ended my first day in London.
Thursday, September 17, 2009; 7:20 AM
Whee~ BISH.
Finally. All the drafts of the drama scripts are uploaded. All 6 drafts. Whew. Its now 10.21 pm, Thurs night, Sept 17. Tmr is the option form deadline. I am going to try for HP and if I don't get in, Double Science. :D Heheh. There are lots of things to look forward to tomorrow actually: 1. CL SIA Presentation: which I didn't really prep for, unlike LA. 2. Option Form Deadline: decisions, decisions3. HSSRP confirmation: I really hope to get in. The programme is super fun ^^4. Training: Not in the least bit fun due to my sprained wrist. Hmph. I will spend the whole training doing situps again. Hope it rains tmr!!!! So I can occupy myself with PT. LA SIA Presentation wasn't all bad today and Shichun looked like Patrick from Spongebob today, with a certain expression she had on her face. During LA, when I was presenting, if you had seen me laugh a little when I looked at the back of the class, it was because of Klara miming killing herself. Yeah. TOODLES.
Friday, September 4, 2009; 7:17 AM
IVP Show
IVP Show caused Shumin to leave sch early at 9.45 am to go to NTU to setup the poster. The event started at 1 in the afternoon. So i was partnerless in the bus. Hah! I managed to skip wearing the blue blazer :D You know why? I was supposed to get it frm Mr Chan + The fact that he didn't have it and Ms Chen Lin did + Ms Chen Lin got on a separate bus from the one I was in + The 90% possibility that she didn't bring the blazer to NTU + Fate played an impt part in this by making this sequence of events happen just right before we set off to NTU = No blue blazer to wear (gringrin)The bus had a NO FOOD sign but Shichun and the rest were gobbling down potato chips. Munch and munch until the packet was like 1% full and Shichun piped up "OH NO! We have to leave some for Xinyi, rmb? She wants right? " Shichun was all the while munching with Ellen and Jiale, and trying to avoid the bus driver seeing them eat. Heheh. So funny seeing Shichun 鬼鬼祟祟-ing around. Facts about the IVP Show: 1. There are tiny compartments beneath the poster stalls to put your bags in2. Just stand in front of the poster and wait for people to ask questions and don't disturb them when they are reading the contents on your poster. 3. Point 2 doesn't really work, cos you will feel bored, so you're better off talking. To do this will be to ask every single person who is staring at your poster in you sweetest voice: "Hi, would you like me to explain this to you?"4. There are people who actually come to view the exhibition very early. Shumin talked to a lot of people in the morning. 5. There is a cute cafe selling coffee and tea and snacks on the floor above the audi.6. This cafe is very very popular with students. 7. The lunch that you would get at NTU would be and is highly likely to be [rice + malay egg (actually egg covered with chilli)] again. 8. People can use your poster as a meeting place. I overheard 2 primary schools boys arranging to meet at my poster as they wanted to wander around by themselves first. =.=''9. My juniors from NYPS are a very resourceful group of people. They had specific people to help them advertise to draw more viewers to their stalls. There was a NYPS boy who dragged a teacher to see his poster. 10. Snacks were a fish burger like thingum with a packet drink. I ate the fish halfway and realized that I was swallowing bones (which are safely edible, btw) and I didn't feel comfortable so i threw the fish and ate the bun.Haha, yeah. Things to look forward to in this Sept hols will be: 1)Oprah Winfrey's Primetime Special on ch17 this Sunday, 8pm. This episode shows us behind the scenes of American Idol, the designer Valentino at work and inside the British Royal Palace. 2) Sept SPEX Comps 3) More level ups in Pet Society, Crazy Planet4) More revision for EOYs5) More hmwk due after hols 6) More piano practice7) More song lyrics memorization 8) More fun and joy 9) Full utilization of time10) A updated new blogskinYou know, I just realised that points 4 to 6 aren't really considered "looking forward to" material and point 9 is a definite thing. Heh. BOO. IFFY~:D
