went to darwin college for dinner today.
it lasted almost 4 hours.
but it was incredibly fun :)
cos we were playing a game over dinner.
4 guys and 4 girls, with 2 other guys acting as waiters.

the game is called Murder Mystery Dinner, and is a game set borrowed from a brit by one of us.
we all sit around a dining table and have a three course dinner.
we play the game in between courses.

an exerpt from the invitation:

The plotline is as follows:

'It's 1925 in the UK and for those who can afford to live a little, the good
times have never been better. The sound of jazz is in the air, Wall Street has
yet to crash and the champagne is flowing like... well, champagne.

A small group of committed party-goers is on its way for the weekend at the
horse races at Oldmarket. A couple of hours out from London, however, the train
runs into a snow-drift. You might well be stuck here all night. Even more
disconcerting is the fact that when you gather in the dining-car for a spot of
dinner, Tim O'Shatner - one of your company - is missing. He is subsequently
found in his sleeping compartment. He is dead.

One of you is a murderer. Your task is to identify that person. Or, of
course, to evade detection. Luckily, you have the benefit of Flapper McClue,
the celebrated amateur detective, on board to assist you in your
investigations.'

For the uninitiated and clueless, a murder mystery is an evening where party
guests and hosts take on and roleplay the parts of various characters in this
drama. Nobody knows at the start of the event who the murderer is; each player
will be given a book of instructions for what he or she has to do and say at
specific times during the evening. One player is the murderer (and will find
out halfway - PLEASE keep a straight face when you turn to that page in your
booklet and don't spoil the game!!!) and has to evade detection; the others
have to correctly identify who the murderer is. "Detective Flapper McClue" will
be represented by an audio casette tape and will guide us along as the evening
progresses.


so all of us had to dress up as our role demanded.
and i had to dress up as a nun!!
wasn't easy finding a costume but it all worked out in the end.
it was great fun cos everyone turned up in costume.
we could see the thought and effort everyone put into it.
we each had a script, and we had to say our lines at the right time.
and there were bits where we had to improvise as well.
it was hilarious cos we all spoke with accents- there was the arab accent, which sounded a bit italin at times, an american accent, and the winner- the scottish accent. oh and of course the british accent.
and the food was fantastic as well- cooked by ls, ben and hx.

good food, good company and good fun.
what more could i ask for.
it ended at 11 plus, then we sat around and chatted till about 12.
then we went home. rather unwillingly i must admit.
back to the real world.
sigh.

there is a bop going on now in my college.
bop=party
the music is so loud i can hear it from my room, and its like 4 stories above the party room- which is more like a club, really. complete with a dj console and all.
i stopped going for bops after the first or second week of Michealmas.
primarily cos i stopped hanging out with the brits.
and cos the music is terrible.
the brits like cheese.
as in the music.
which is bad.
really.

and anyway i have decided that clubbing is pretty much meaningless (sorry veek).
its only fun if there is good company.
i used to think a good clubbing night out is 50% music and 50% company.
now i think its more of 20% music and 80% company.
good company is very important when clubbing, cos whats the use of dancing to good music practically alone (ie bad company)?

but salsa is different.
ah hah!
salsa clubbing is fun.
company doesn't really matter that much, cos everyone dances with everyone else anyway, so there isn't very much socialising (ie standing around and chatting)
so i can go to club salsa alone- i'll never ever go to a regular club alone.
what is important is the crowd.
ok and the music.
if there are lots of good dancers around then its fanastic- both to watch and to dance.
good company is just a bonus- going to club salsa with my team mates makes the night out better cos i love dancing with them.
otherwise i can just dance with random people.
and salsa clubbing is exciting.
every dance is a challenge to follow the guy's lead well.
and if the music is good, to interprete the music as well.

for example last night the dj played Represent Cuba, my fav song from the Dirty Dancing II soundtrack.
and i was so happy cos i love that song.
but my team mates were all dancing with other ppl.
and i just had to dance.
it so happened that this guy wasn't dancing so i danced with him.
and he was an amazing dancer who didn't just go through a routine- he shined and styled to the music.
since i knew the song practically by heart, i knew where all the accents were, so i could style and shine back.
so it was so so fun!
one of the best dances i've ever had.
unfortunately the next song was reggaeton and only 3 ppl there knew how to dance to that. including that guy i was dancing with! but i didn't. so too bad :(


and yes, i'm still doing salsa even though its the exam term
cos Varsity is on 13 May- ie we are competing against Oxford.
so i have to practice.
looking forward to it though- sounds like great fun :)


they are playing some song by the Spice Girls in the party room now.
arghhhh

handphones are scary.
i went out of the biochem dept after supervision today, then decided that i wanted to cook curry.
and i didn't know how many shallots to use.
well who better to ask then my mum?
so i took out my handphone and rang her.
and she gave me the recipe and instructions over the phone.
and of course we also talked about a lot of other things.

then she asked me "so whats it like over in england"
and it hit me that we were in different continents.
13 hours apart by flight.
yet i could stand by my bike in the cool spring sunshine and chat with my mum on my handphone.
just like i would if i were in a different part of singapore and wanted to talk to her.
so near yet so far.
its a strange feeling.

its exactly one month to my twentieth birthday.
and 6 weeks to the start of my exams.
why do they have to be so close.
and abt 9 weeks to the day i fly back.
time flies.
its scary.

ok
the string quartet is getting on my nerves
all the pieces sound the same after such a long time.
argh
i wanna drop my chem textbook on them!!!
the 6 cm- thick one.
then maybe they'll keep quiet :(

yes there is a string quartet under my window
playing some cheerful classical pieces.
cos there is a couple getting married in the college gardens which my room overlooks.
its a beautiful day and the sun is shining
there are 4 bridesmaids in yellow and a cute little flower girl.
and there are also old ladies wearing little hats (think queen elizabeth)
and middle aged ladies wearing big hats
very... english.
very much like a scene out of a movie
right outside my window :)

my grandparents came to england to visit my aunt's family.
so i went down to stay with them for a night.
on monday i took a train down to meet them and then we went to this chinese restaurant for dim sum :)


me and my grandparents! :)



xiu mai :)

then we went back to my aunt's place and i spent time talking to my grandma.
i think my hokkien is better than my mandarin now :s



my grandma cooked me many dishes, including sea cucumber! yay :)



she also baked me a banana cake, then my aunt taught me how to bake carrot and lemon cakes.



my cousin and i


spent the next morning in the garden taking random photos of spring flowers.




daffodil




then we went to henley for lunch


henley


then came back to cambridge.
where they visited my room :)
and passed me the things my parents packed for me.
including my brand new darling pink table lamp with polarising light :)
and 3 in 1 milo
and 2 in 2 coffee
and maggi mee for when i really can't be bothered to walk down 2 flights of stairs to cook.
and lots of other stuff.
yay
thank you mummy and daddy! :)

most restaurants here serving asian food will inevitably serve either one of 2 most interesting dishes.
the "singapore fried rice" or "singapore fried noodles"
that u can get anywhere in the world except singapore.

finally managed to get a short description of wat "singapore fried noodles" are:



doesn't look remotely like anything back home.

it was Good Friday yesterday.
went to church in the morning, then went for dim sum after that :)
went back to my room to rest for a bit, then headed out to sains to buy food for dinner.

its fun buying food to cook for 40 plus pple.
but it is even more fun cooking.
there were about 5 of us in the kitchen together.
there was just so much of everything.
for example i had to crack 45 eggs into one big mixing bowl and then add pepper and light sauce.
i really had no idea how much light sauce to add.
that was difficult.
when we cooked the veg the guy adding the light sauce just tilted the bottle over the veg, looked away, then counted "one onethousand, two onethousand, three onethousand, four onethousand, five onethousand" then removed the bottle.
and it worked cos the veg turned out well.
the most difficult thing to cook is rice.
we cooked about 4 kg of rice.
and the question is "how much water do u add?"
cos there are no markings on the pot at all.
so it takes great skill to cook rice.

we had a beautiful big screen.
it was nice and big big
so we were really pleased :)
plus the turnout was quite good- we only had one plate of food left over.
everything went smoothly- from cooking dinner, to screening the movie, to the sharing afterwards, to the dessert.
so we are very thankful indeed.

at the very least the movie served as a reminder to all of us what Good Friday is all about.
not easter eggs and furry bunnies
but the death of an innocent man on the cross.
who loved us so much He willingly died for us- unworthy sinners.

"...without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22




In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

i'm home!
or am i?
i just shifted back to my old room, the one i live in during term time, from my temporary holiday accomodation.
it feels good to be back.
back to familiar surroundings.
but is it really home..
i live here most of the time, yes.
but its not home.
when i'm in town and i wanna go back to my room i'll tell my frens "i'm going back to college" instead of "i'm going home"
most ppl say that.
because the word "home" is reserved for a special place called singapore.
i miss home.
where i truly belong.


on the last day of Wordalive, the cam ppl kept asking each other: "are u looking forward to going back to cam?"
most ppl said no, cos it meant leaving the holiday resort and going back to normal life, so it meant the end of holidaying
but i spoke with a fellow fresher, and we agreed that it didn't really feel like the holiday was ending.
cos we were going back to cam, which is like in england.
so it still feels like a holiday.
even going back to cam from ireland didn't feel too bad cos england is still "overseas".
so life is one big holiday.
in term time i go to sch in a foreign country
during the holidays i travel to even more foreign countries.
and during summer when i do go back home to singapore i'll be in ultra-holiday mood.
so i'll be on holiday all the time.
whee~


i feel like a nomad.
during the Christmas holidays i stayed in 6 different places.
nothing beats packing up my entire room into a few suitcases, boxes and bags and dragging them to the trunk room or my new room.
its is possibly the most annoying exercise in the world.
but i'm getting better at it.
in nov it took me over 4 hours over a span of 2 days to empty my room.
this time it took about 3 hours.
unpacking is a pain as well.
so the whole shifting room thing is terrible and i'm glad there is no more of it till term ends and i go home!
yay!

the flowers are blooming
and cambridge is really pretty now.
daffodils are springing up everywhere like weeds, and they're so nice and cheery.
took some photos on the way back to my house from town.


pretty blue flowers


blue flowers again


dunno wat these are but they look nice :)


garden beside the house i'm living in now. the yellow flowers are daffodils!



haven't seen any roses though.
don't think they are in bloom yet.
so sad.
roses are the prettiest of them all.

a friend tagged me on facebook
cos he took this photo of a bunch of us punting wayyy back in october when we first arrived.
fantastic photo taken from a brige :)
i like it a lot cos its one of the few punting photos with the whole punt in it!

i'm in the cccf com as the evange sec.
so i'm in charge of planning the CF movie screening event this friday (good friday!)
we are screening the show Miracle Maker, which will be preceded by dinner.
i thought it would be easy to organise this event.
but it isn't.
we needed to get a license to screen the movie publically, so we had to apply for it and wait for them to send us a copy of the dvd so that we can screen it legally.
then we had to acquire a projector.
and we discovered that the projector screen in HMH was spoilt, so we contacted eden to use the church building instead.
but we would rather much prefer the use of HMH cos we are more familiar with the place and we can serve dinner easily there cos of the kitchen.
although eden agreed to let us use the building, they wanted us to have some insurance thing cos we were going to have a large number of ppl in the building. that involves consulting an insurance agent and paying a lot.
so we were quite stressed.
and all this while half the com was in Wordalive so we were calling each other to try to sort it out.

and of course we were praying and praying and getting others to pray as well.
and now its more or less settled.
StAG agreed to lend us their projector screen, and the chinese church is lending us their projector.
the dvd license and dvd will arrive on thursday, and lisheng has kindy agreed to do a short sharing after the movie.
the whole com will work together to cook dinner.
and we are holding it at HMH.
yay!
so we just need a technical rehearsal now.

i'm looking forward to the event very much.
its held this friday, 7 pm at HMH.
all of u in cambridge now- do come for the CF movie screening! dinner is provided and it is good (cos hx and i are cooking :) )

i'm back from Wordalive!
it's a Christian retreat camp in Skegness in the northeast coast of England.
lasted from 3-8 april.
that's why i haven't been online.
its not cos i've been mugging :p
actually i would like to think that i have been studying.
studying God's word that is.
i think we each went for about 5 talks/ workshops a day to learn more about God's word.
there is just so much to learn- its incredible.

the most important lesson i learnt is very basic.
a timely reminder.
we all know the verse "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1"
but it hasn't really hit me so strongly before.
the theme of the first day was Creator God, and we learnt more about what that meant.
in one of the talks the speaker mentioned that there were millions of stars in millions of galaxies.
the earth we live in is but a tiny speck in the vast magnitude of the universe, revolving around one of the many, many stars in this galaxy.
and i am but one of the billions of ppl who inhabit this earth.
so i'm just like a grain of sand in this vast universe.
maybe not even that.
and yet.
and yet God loves me and calls me by name.
the Almighty Creator who brought about the universe knows and cares for me.
and i'm a sinful grain of sand.
so unworthy of His love.
yet He sent His Son to die on the cross for my sins that i may not perish but have eternal life with Him in heaven.

love so amazing, so divine

its incredible.

Thank you Lord

on the fourth day we took yet another day trip up to Newgrange.
there are a few Neolithic tombs there.
we visited the largest one.
initially i thought the whole mound was natural
apparently it isn't
the Neolithic ppl living there at that time built that mound using rocks and other stuff.
and they decorated the rocks as well- the most famous of which is the entrance rock.
the tombs are within the mound.
the Neolithic tombs date back to 3000 B.C, before even the pyramids, so they are pretty old :)


the largest of the Newgrange mounds!

entrance rock! note the famous carvings


then we went to Tara hill, another ancient place.
legend has it that there is a stone there.
and if the rightful king of ireland touches the stone, it will roar.
so we went to touch the stone.
nothing happened.

us and the stone!

and up on tara hill, i saw this:

a shamrock!!!
the most famous irish symbol of them all.
so i had to take a photo of it.
then i plucked it out.
now its sitting in my drawer
whee :)






i'm going for Wordalive this whole week!
bye~

on the third day we wanted to spend half the day at Malahide and the other half at Howth, both costal towns.
in the end we finished seeing Howth at 2:30 pm so we decided to rush back to Dublin and try to visit the Guinness storehouse before it closed.
that was exciting!
last entry to the storehouse was at 5 pm, we arrived at 5:05 pm.
so we had to beg the ppl to let us in, and they did! cos the place closed at 7 pm, so we would just have a shorter time to see it.
really nice of them :)

took the train to Malahide.

Malahide Castle. we went in to use the toilet. then we went out :)


had a picnic on a field by the sea. then i just had to do a jumping shot. so i did :)


then we got back onto the train to Howth.
we were quite lost for a while.
and wandered around walking in a general upward direction cos we were looking for the Summit.
which we eventually located.
along with a friendly signpost:


so we just had to go to the cliffs.


quite steep. so quite scary.


by the coast


Howth is really quite beautiful. i love the scenery! u can just about make out a lighthouse in the distance.


then we decided to rush back to visit the Guinness storehouse- "Dublin's most famous tourist attraction"



when we finished looking at the exhibits and learning more about Guinness than we would ever want to know, (what are the ingredients? who formulated it? how is Guinness made? how do u make the casks to store Guinness? how is Guinness transported?) we made our way to the bar.
its at the top of the building with a "360 deg view of Dublin"
so it was a circular place with floor to ceiling glass windows.
and a bar in the centre of it all serving... surprise surprise... Guinness.
we had a token with our entry ticket to exchange for a pint of Guinness, and so we did :)


so cute :)

3 of us !

now u see it..

now u don't. *burp* :D

we went on a guided day trip to the Wicklow Mountains on the second day.
unfortunately it was drizzling most of the time when we were outdoors :(
still managed to get some pics though!

first we went to Powerscourt gardens, a huge area surrounding Powescourt mansion.


powerscourt gardens!


a mossy arch in the Japanese gardens

visited the handicraft shops where i bought a handwoven pure wool scarf :)
v colourful! :)
then we went to Glendalough, an ancient monastic settlement in a valley in the Wicklow Mountains.
it was apparently founded by St. Kevin in the 5th century A.D., but all the structures were made of wood and they decomposed. what is left today are the buildings that were built later, in the 11th-12th century, and they are made of stone.
the pride and joy of the settlement is the round tower- a very tall tower used to store manuscripts in the past.


the only entrance to the settlement- the gate. contructed without cement and its still standing after like.. 900 years. wow.


Round tower


St. Kevin's nave


a lake near the settlement. it was raining rather heavily hence the mist.

we headed back to Dublin via the Wicklow Gap. Beautiful view!


3 of us after crossing the Wicklow gap, which can be seen in the backgrnd


Wicklow mountians! very windy

we arrived in Dublin in the evening.
by that time it had stopped raining and the sun shone rather brightly.
bleh.
so we had to take more photos :)


Ha'penny bridge- Dublin's most famous bridge


the Spire. we had no idea what it was. yf decided that it was a giant lightning rod that served all of Dublin so no other building need fix one. in the end we found out that it was just a momument to replace the destroyed Nelson's column.


visited Temple Bar again to get a photo of it at night :)