today i met qunxiang and we played bridge at young chelsea bridge club! it felt really nice meeting a friend whom i haven't seen for so long. he came to europe with a few other friends on holiday! meeting people (random singaporean strangers on holiday, friends and also my siblings) who travelled all the way from singapore to london evokes a special feeling in me. it reminds me that perhaps the geographical distance between singapore and london isn't that great a deal after all. it's the sudden remembrance that i'm just a plane ride away from home! and that particular plane happens to take off in a mere 2+ months' time! so exciting!
i almost forgot the purpose of this entry. it's that i miss bridge alot! i didn't even realize that i miss playing it that much until i saw the bidding boxes and the boards. all the memories of past bridge games came flooding my mind. im not kidding. the more i play, the more i realize how much i used to play it in the past, and how little bridge i got to play over here. today i declared some NT contracts, and i still feel apprehensive about NT contracts, especially 3NT! i won't forget how yiwen always tries to land me in 3NT contracts because i just have something against them and refuse to (or rather, i cannot) declare them properly. qunxiang's very nice because he used our ssc convention! all my bridge life i've only known ssc and i really don't know how to play the conventional ones. what a paradox. i miss counting points, memorizing cards, bidding, dummying, declaring, and even making mistakes! today i made so many stupid mistakes, but it was all so fun! i wish i had a regular partner over here to play bridge with me. i miss yiwen!
anyway, the bridge club that we went to is a really nice place. when we reached there, because i was late, the game had already started! but the people were so nice they let us join the game anyway! i think we messed up some of their pair numbers or something. they have this cool electronic system that allows us to enter our results immediately after every board. so basically we don't have to wait for anyone to key in our results manually; the rankings ladder will refresh itself after every round! at the end of all the rounds we don't even have to wait before we get our rankings. so high-tech! we also didn't need to pay for the game because we're students, and they provided the hand diagrams for everyone after the game. i like the rooftop view from the room too. i just have to lift up my head and i can see the silhouette of the trees against the sky. this evening was really very reminiscent of my bridging times in scba. if only my bridge friends can all teleport themselves over here to play with me..
i shall resolve to learn acol soon so that i can partner random strangers and play. yay this bridge club will be one of my favourite haunts in time to come!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
bye bye holidays
today's the last day of my holidays! 5 weeks of easter holidays flew past just like that. i wanted to blog about my trips but i never did get down to it. maybe another time! right now im just waiting for my laundry to dry, and in another 20 minutes or so i can quickly go shower, get into bed, and have a good night's sleep before getting swept into the whirlwind of a brand new term. i feel so accomplished after completing my lab reports! they're finally done after so long. i can't recall how many times i redrew the graphs, or how many times i almost had to re-do the whole thing.
this holiday is probably one of the best i've ever had. i've met my erjie, been to many places, seen alot, experienced alot and laughed alot. i love the cobblestone streets in eastern europe, the many different skies i saw, and the good foods we savoured. i think of paris now and i remember how we lay down on the grass at night to watch the eiffel tower against the starry sky. and of course disneyland comes to mind and what can i say but that it is no doubt the happiest place on earth. i miss the sun, the sand and the sea in noordwjik. amsterdam just reminds me of red lights, weed-y air that clogs up the throat, magic mushrooms, leaning buildings, and a bunch of sneaky mickeys. it's quite overwhelming now that i think of it. so much has happened within 5 weeks, yet everything just zoomed by.
oh! time to collect my laundry!
this holiday is probably one of the best i've ever had. i've met my erjie, been to many places, seen alot, experienced alot and laughed alot. i love the cobblestone streets in eastern europe, the many different skies i saw, and the good foods we savoured. i think of paris now and i remember how we lay down on the grass at night to watch the eiffel tower against the starry sky. and of course disneyland comes to mind and what can i say but that it is no doubt the happiest place on earth. i miss the sun, the sand and the sea in noordwjik. amsterdam just reminds me of red lights, weed-y air that clogs up the throat, magic mushrooms, leaning buildings, and a bunch of sneaky mickeys. it's quite overwhelming now that i think of it. so much has happened within 5 weeks, yet everything just zoomed by.
oh! time to collect my laundry!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
telepathy
Jamie: [in English] It's my favorite time of day, driving you.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.
it's amazing how one letter can look like it's a reply to the other, when it's not.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.
it's amazing how one letter can look like it's a reply to the other, when it's not.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
movie quotes quiz
=P
Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDB and take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. NO CHEATING.
Leave a comment with your answer.
the 15 quotes
1) a beautiful mind: My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back...
2) the pursuit of happyness: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.
3) 50 first dates: Hi, I'm Tom!
4) He's always chasing the pot of gold, but when he gets there, at the end of the day, it's just corn flakes.
5) love me if you dare: Tell me you love me. Tell me, because if I tell you first, I'm afraid you'll think it's a game. Save me... I beg of you.
6) a walk to remember: Because then you wouldn't be able to hide behind your books, or your frickin' telescope, or your faith. No, no, you know the real reason why you're scared? It's cause you wanna be with me too.
7) She's more real to me than anything I've ever known.
8) cars: They quit on me. When I finally got put together, I went back expecting a big welcome. You know what they said? "You're history." Moved on to the next rookie standing in line. There was a lot left in me. I never got a chance to show 'em. I keep that to remind me never to go back. I just never expected that that world would... would find me here.
9) We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.
10) mulan: My, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one's late. But I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all.
11) They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.
12) There was a girl under the kitchen sink.
13) I'm such a big coward, all I do is hide. All of this magic is to keep everybody away. I can't stand how scared I am.
14) They look at us like we're monsters.
15) That was the last time I ever saw him. He married, of course. And inherited his millions. But the crash of '29 hit his interest hard, and he put a pistol in his mouth that year. Or so I read.
16) Do you know why you're afraid when you're alone? I do. I do.
oops too many nice movies around!
Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDB and take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. NO CHEATING.
Leave a comment with your answer.
the 15 quotes
1) a beautiful mind: My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back...
2) the pursuit of happyness: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.
3) 50 first dates: Hi, I'm Tom!
4) He's always chasing the pot of gold, but when he gets there, at the end of the day, it's just corn flakes.
5) love me if you dare: Tell me you love me. Tell me, because if I tell you first, I'm afraid you'll think it's a game. Save me... I beg of you.
6) a walk to remember: Because then you wouldn't be able to hide behind your books, or your frickin' telescope, or your faith. No, no, you know the real reason why you're scared? It's cause you wanna be with me too.
7) She's more real to me than anything I've ever known.
8) cars: They quit on me. When I finally got put together, I went back expecting a big welcome. You know what they said? "You're history." Moved on to the next rookie standing in line. There was a lot left in me. I never got a chance to show 'em. I keep that to remind me never to go back. I just never expected that that world would... would find me here.
9) We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.
10) mulan: My, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one's late. But I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all.
11) They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.
12) There was a girl under the kitchen sink.
13) I'm such a big coward, all I do is hide. All of this magic is to keep everybody away. I can't stand how scared I am.
14) They look at us like we're monsters.
15) That was the last time I ever saw him. He married, of course. And inherited his millions. But the crash of '29 hit his interest hard, and he put a pistol in his mouth that year. Or so I read.
16) Do you know why you're afraid when you're alone? I do. I do.
oops too many nice movies around!
Sunday, April 06, 2008
雪
it's snowing! again! in london! in spring!
this morning i got woken up to find out that it's snowing! it's such a nice cosy feeling to be sitting in front of your desk, facing your windows, and watching small little fluffy snowflakes fall. and slowly, gently, they gather on the roads, the grasses, the trees, the lampposts, and on your heart. everything is white now.
im using my atama no kamera to take photos of this beautiful sight.
track 18 of the proposal daisakusen soundtrack is so sad, and track 7 of the secret soundtrack is so sweet. but they both portray a snowy setting, like what is before my eyes now.
this morning i got woken up to find out that it's snowing! it's such a nice cosy feeling to be sitting in front of your desk, facing your windows, and watching small little fluffy snowflakes fall. and slowly, gently, they gather on the roads, the grasses, the trees, the lampposts, and on your heart. everything is white now.
im using my atama no kamera to take photos of this beautiful sight.
track 18 of the proposal daisakusen soundtrack is so sad, and track 7 of the secret soundtrack is so sweet. but they both portray a snowy setting, like what is before my eyes now.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
travel log part 0: the prelude
i feel far too lazy and sleepy to work on my lab report! so much so that i actually feel less lazy about blogging. i was away in eastern europe for 12 days! from 22nd march to 2nd april, i was travelling around prague, vienna, budapest, bratislava, zagreb and ljubljana. for a complete account of the trip, you can refer to twinnie's blog because i have this feeling that my blogging interest will not sustain! nonetheless, i guess i should also put in some effort to do some sort of travel log cum reflections about this trip, so here is part 0 - the prelude.
before we set off on our exciting eastern europe easter excursion (don't you just love alliteration?), a series of unfortunate events unfolded before our very eyes. somehow, things just go very wrong whenever the two of us - twinnie and i - are together. so as usual, we are already very accustomed to being jinxed by each other and we have learnt to accept things the way they are, i think. i bet twinnie will think it's just me jinxing her though. but never mind! i think the trials and tribulations that we have conquered are very blog-worthy, so here's a list that we came up with on our bus ride from victoria to luton airport, just before we embarked on our journey to those foreign lands.
i suppose i should give a little background to the situation before introducing the ultimate list. before our trip, twinnie was staying with me for a couple of days. we had quite a few things to sort out before the trip, which included planning itineraries for prague, vienna and budapest since my sister and bernie kor were in charge of the other places. twinnie also had to change money and i had a few errands of my own to settle. you can never imagine what obstacles there were in our way to stop us from achieving our simple aims..
a series of unfortunate events
commenced on 21st march, the day before we left london
1) internet 爆!
my internet bandwidth exceeded! i don't know how it happened, but i've never encountered such problems since i've been here! it must have been the loading and re-loading of nodame special. (by the way, nodame special is nice! but i just watched proposal daisakusen special yesterday and it is even nicer! so sweet!) okay, putting the cause of this problem aside, this single event was the catalyst that sparked off the following spate of horrible incidents. without internet access, how were we supposed to plan our itineraries? and how were we supposed to be able to print out all the flight confirmation slips, etc etc?
2) money changer + post office
twinnie went to the money changer only to find out that she didn't have the correct amount of pounds to exchange to euros. the daily withdrawal limit is 250pounds, but we needed at least 400? where to get the money?
i was supposed to get to the post office to post cihan's birthday parcel in time, but on that fateful day, by the time i was free to go to the post office, it was already closed.
3) cans "opener"
hahahaha i think this must be our greatest achievement ever! we actually used butter knives, you know those kind you use to spread butter on bread, to open cans of sausages and tuna! don't ask me why it was done. i can teach you how to do it though! can openers are not indispensable!
4) laundry
i think it took me 100000 years to wash those clothes and get them dry before i could pack them into my luggage.
5) low cartridge
after having to bother my roommate jess and borrowing her lan cable to use for a while, we had internet access to do a little bit of the itineraries and start printing the confirmation slips! that's a little bit of progress. but then my printer became tired out and was too lazy to churn out the ink..
6) internet 再爆!
there were still many loose ends left untied on the night of 21st, and we had to get everything done before 10am the next day! so we decided to wake up a little earlier on our day of departure, so that we can use jess' internet to finish up with everything. then we found out that. her. bandwidth. was. exceeded. too. oh. my.
7) printer died
my printer decided to give up.
8) hairband broke
twinnie's hairband broke. this might be considered too trivial to be placed on this list, but by this point in time, with the amplification of our emotions (it's the ku xiao bu de feeling), this was already considered a major disaster.
9) bus 36 ignored us
we missed our first bus from my hall to victoria, and we almost didn't manage to catch our bus to luton airport. the key word is "almost" though!
10) hz almost got knocked down. phew!
by now, what can i say. im just very glad that she's alive. in retrospect, being seated here in front of my laptop and being able to laugh at this series of unfortunate events, im very very happy and proud that all of us are still safe and sound after this entire trip. yatta!
the end.
before we set off on our exciting eastern europe easter excursion (don't you just love alliteration?), a series of unfortunate events unfolded before our very eyes. somehow, things just go very wrong whenever the two of us - twinnie and i - are together. so as usual, we are already very accustomed to being jinxed by each other and we have learnt to accept things the way they are, i think. i bet twinnie will think it's just me jinxing her though. but never mind! i think the trials and tribulations that we have conquered are very blog-worthy, so here's a list that we came up with on our bus ride from victoria to luton airport, just before we embarked on our journey to those foreign lands.
i suppose i should give a little background to the situation before introducing the ultimate list. before our trip, twinnie was staying with me for a couple of days. we had quite a few things to sort out before the trip, which included planning itineraries for prague, vienna and budapest since my sister and bernie kor were in charge of the other places. twinnie also had to change money and i had a few errands of my own to settle. you can never imagine what obstacles there were in our way to stop us from achieving our simple aims..
a series of unfortunate events
commenced on 21st march, the day before we left london
1) internet 爆!
my internet bandwidth exceeded! i don't know how it happened, but i've never encountered such problems since i've been here! it must have been the loading and re-loading of nodame special. (by the way, nodame special is nice! but i just watched proposal daisakusen special yesterday and it is even nicer! so sweet!) okay, putting the cause of this problem aside, this single event was the catalyst that sparked off the following spate of horrible incidents. without internet access, how were we supposed to plan our itineraries? and how were we supposed to be able to print out all the flight confirmation slips, etc etc?
2) money changer + post office
twinnie went to the money changer only to find out that she didn't have the correct amount of pounds to exchange to euros. the daily withdrawal limit is 250pounds, but we needed at least 400? where to get the money?
i was supposed to get to the post office to post cihan's birthday parcel in time, but on that fateful day, by the time i was free to go to the post office, it was already closed.
3) cans "opener"
hahahaha i think this must be our greatest achievement ever! we actually used butter knives, you know those kind you use to spread butter on bread, to open cans of sausages and tuna! don't ask me why it was done. i can teach you how to do it though! can openers are not indispensable!
4) laundry
i think it took me 100000 years to wash those clothes and get them dry before i could pack them into my luggage.
5) low cartridge
after having to bother my roommate jess and borrowing her lan cable to use for a while, we had internet access to do a little bit of the itineraries and start printing the confirmation slips! that's a little bit of progress. but then my printer became tired out and was too lazy to churn out the ink..
6) internet 再爆!
there were still many loose ends left untied on the night of 21st, and we had to get everything done before 10am the next day! so we decided to wake up a little earlier on our day of departure, so that we can use jess' internet to finish up with everything. then we found out that. her. bandwidth. was. exceeded. too. oh. my.
7) printer died
my printer decided to give up.
8) hairband broke
twinnie's hairband broke. this might be considered too trivial to be placed on this list, but by this point in time, with the amplification of our emotions (it's the ku xiao bu de feeling), this was already considered a major disaster.
9) bus 36 ignored us
we missed our first bus from my hall to victoria, and we almost didn't manage to catch our bus to luton airport. the key word is "almost" though!
10) hz almost got knocked down. phew!
by now, what can i say. im just very glad that she's alive. in retrospect, being seated here in front of my laptop and being able to laugh at this series of unfortunate events, im very very happy and proud that all of us are still safe and sound after this entire trip. yatta!
the end.
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