New house

I'm thinking that no one really checks this space anymore, so I've decided to just post a wee bit about my house, and then maybe release more information when more interest is expressed.

Yes, I crave attention.

Straight to the point, thats the grand entrance to the grounds of the estate wherein my house lays. St Davids Square. I would give out exact addressess, but I fear incurring a flood of mail from my e'er so devoted friends.

And that's the main transportation to my place. Dockland's Light Railway (DLR), which is essentially a monorail through the most beautiful, unpolluted parts of London. I've got a view of the River Thames from the balcony, and Greenwich Village lies o'er the banks. Its an hour commute to campus, but its a damn sight worth it. Corny references to Island Gardens aside, this place is seriously like home with air-con in the streets.

If I did manage to shamelessly accrue any responses by my blatant whining, I'll post more soon with pictures of the house itself, along with the facilities *winkswimmingpoolwink*.

Till then, toodledoo!

I'm not obsessive. Just obsessed.

Long time

Its been a strange, but fruitful year. Still completely unsure if I'm doing what I really want to be doing, but its damned comfortable for sure. I'll probably elaborate more at a later date, or maybe not at all. Its kinda difficult to write again after so long. Heh.

The past week has been turbulent, what with the uncertainty about accommodation and my trips home and all. But thank God, just on Sunday things started falling into place. I've got a house to stay in now, and I'm looking forward to it greatly! I'm going to be staying with Singaporeans! Surprise surprise, me reverting to comfort zone. But though the place is far (50 mins tube away), I've completely fallen in love with the place. River view, swimming pool, gym and pool table, the works! Haha...just awesome.

Also, just Monday I managed to find a reasonably priced ticket home! So its back home this Christmas for carolling and weddings. Downside is, I'll be taking this rather new, unblooded airline called Etihad. Total travel time from Heathrow to Changi is close to 24 hours, with a mad 10 hour overnight stopover in Abu Dhabi. Thank God for the company he provides though. I'll be going back with one of my housemates, so all will be good (I hope).

Update with pictures incoming...in the next month or so maybe.

Return

The sheer surreality of my being (once again) a thousand miles from home has yet to strike me. It feels as though any moment I should hop onto a cab for the half-hour journey home. Going back home has been a great, and much welcome (though little deserved) break for me, and I was just musing with one of my classmates about how ridiculous it is that, when the time comes, I loathe to leave either place behind.

Nevertheless, this term promises to be a short, albeit hectic one. Today during the second lecture of the day, the lecturer so kindly reminded us that it is but 8 weeks to our exams. Can die.

A very pretty picture of the view from my window. The beginning of Spring, and the ground is littered with pretty pink flowers. Yet the scent that wafts in the air is not floral, but that of my hostel-mates excesses from last night (ie. vomit...and possibly some swass).

Anyway, the flight was pretty good. I watched four movies on the way. To be exact, I watched one movie thrice, and then another movie. Which one you might say? The History Boys. Awesome film. The themes are somewhat discomfiting, but the sheer beauty of language and idea is incredible. Probably gonna watch it tonight again cos it seems my neighbour downloaded it already.

One phrase from the movie that sticks in my mind which I find...particularly poignant:

"...I am not happy, but then again, I am not unhappy about it."

its over

Finally! Term 2 with its many travesties and trivialities has reached its end. As I burn my many handbooks to fend off the impending chill (both a meteorological remark and metaphorical reference to my exams), I can only reflect on how fast time has passed. I'm getting used to this place. Something I thought I'd never say.

And my exams....sigh. I know I could have worked a lot more, but I think I did fairly acceptably for it. Stupid thing was...the paper ended at 11.15, but I thought it ended at 11.45. Disaster to the max. Left out quite a few MCQ questions like that...like 15 out of 260 marks. Ended up guessing. Which is kinda scary, since the paper is negatively marked and all.

But I'm glad its over for now.

Just a little picture I took in Hyde Park last week that I wanted to share...from the board "Thing's to look out for!". And I must add that these bird feeders are not British. Get it? Nevermind.

Bah

After having seen the delirious fun that my three 'friends' had without me (although thanks for that poster pic!), I've been prompted to post my OWN adventure, to show that my life hasn't been completely uneventful. Well...to convince myself, at any rate!

To the three of you, I think Jo expresses better than I ever can how I feel right now.

Aaaaaaaaaand she's going to kill me for putting that picture up.

But seriously! While them three were hetting it up at the Falls, I had a blast of a time in York! Pictures will prove that I ALSO had access to Krispy Kremes, although bringing them all the way from London shortened their shelf-life considerably.

That's...well...me, Jo, and her flatmates in one of the flats, gorging ourselves on the sweet delights of Krispy Kremes, although poor Charlotte (Right photo, on the left) gave them up for Lent.

And thats us in one of the pubs, gradually getting soused. Well...I gradually got soused anyway, but I've also discovered my alcohol tolerance isn't as low as I previously thought it was!

I know this post is kinda text-skinny, but I have exams coming up in less than a week now. So Ima going to have to scoot. I didn't get the chance to maul 'That Lonesome Road' while walking along snow-strewn streets, but I DID get to go for a rehearsal of Mozart's Requiem! Jo is just so damn lucky la...

So in signing off, I leave you, David + Enoch + Bert with one final picture.

(P.S. If you couldn't already tell, I'm hugely jealous, and I wish I was there.)

another day

I can't seem to stop blogging...any little distraction that grants me respite from the endless toil of revision seems preferable right now.

So...funny thing happened today in school. Just chatting with this random girl who I know stays in halls, and we were moaning about revision and how much we hadn't done and yada yada, and the conversation turned (as conversations will) to the state of our rooms.

Me: My room is getting really gross.

She: Tell me about it! My bed is messy like you wouldn't believe!

Me: Huh? Why don't you just clean it up?

She: Oh no...I do most of my work lying down.

Now...it took EVERY IOTA of self-control (and gentlemanly valour!) within not to respond to this. And I basked in the warm satisfaction of my new-found maturity for the next half hour or so. Go me!

And I have fallen completely in love with the smell of clean laundry...it's been so long, I'd forgotten what it was like. Ahhh...

omg

I didn't really want to post, but when I came across this, my fate was sealed.

There was no way I could go to sleep not posting this...I've watched it like 5 times and I still find it funny!

Though I think Enoch will like it more than me...or maybe Jerome.

in between

Taking a short break from the interminable amount of work piled before me...I've clocked a healthy 30 hours of studying in the past 4 days, and I feel my body literally breaking down. Ah, the joys of studying. I never thought I'd say this, but you guys, enjoy the relative zho-bohness of NS while you still have it!

Just listening to the 2005 AEWF recordings, and I know its weird, but I can still remember my part. I guess prolonged periods of studying makes me sentimental and all...sigh.

Its funny though...whenever I listen to QingJiang, I always zip the recording forward so it hits the middle bit, and we skip the beginning. Wish I could do that in real life.

And people who leave their handphones on in Concerts should be shot.

poem

The great Dr Starling, in his Law of the Heart

Said the output was greater if, right at the start,

The cardiac fibres were stretched a bit more,

So their force of contraction would be more than before.

Thus the larger the volume in diastole

The greater the output was likely to be.

If the right heart keeps pumping more blood than the left,

The lung circuit's congested; the systemic bereft.

Since no one is healthy with pulmo-congestion,

The Law of Doc Starling's a splendid suggestion.

The balance of outputs is made automatic

And blood-volume partition becomes steady-static.

When Guardsmen stand still and blood pools in their feet

Frank-Starling mechanics no longer seem neat.

The shift in blood volume impairs C-V-P,

Which shortens the fibres in diastole.

Contractions grow weaker and stroke volume drops,

Depresseing blood pressure; so down the Guard flops.

But when the heart reaches a much larger size,

This leads to heart failure, and often demise.

The relevant law is not Starling's, alas,

But the classical law of Lecompte de Laplace.

Your patient is dying in decompensation,

So reduce his blood volume or call his relation.

-Professor Alan Burton (1972)

quick post

Hi guys! Quick post in the middle of the day, no pictures and such.

I'm just taking a little break from my studies, firstly because I've gone for 6 hours without stopping (which I am inordinately proud of), and secondly because my neighbours, having argued for an hour, are now spending another hour in a marathon of....well, you know. Whatever it is, its too noisy for me to concentrate.

So I hear the A level results were favourable! Congratulations to all! Welcome to life. Sigh.

So in an effort to complete my round of vices this week (having already gone for total inebriation, and on another occasion complete immersion into video-game addiction), I went for a poker game last night. Of course, I kinda just dealt...I'm still very much against gambling and all. But the game itself is fascinating in terms of the range of strategy and many possible permutations and such.

Just another bizarre observation before I sign off: Yesterday, a bunch of us found a dead squirrel outside our Halls of Residence. The poor thing had been obviously bitten by a fox, and was missing both its forelegs. Highly upsetting. Then it struck us: we were more upset by the sight of a dead squirrel than the plethora of dead humans we see weekly in the dissection room.

What have we become?

That's right people! Another post! All to keep my erstwhile critics happy.

Aha! A picture that undoubtedly needs no introduction (but I will give one anyway). So last Saturday, we gathered in this poor guy's room for what was optimistically called a 'drinking games' session. As with most of these things, it turned out to be more drinking and less games, but nevertheless, it was fun!

So I know most of must be thinking: How did the uber-lightweight Geoffrey manage to survive this one? Well, it's all about wetting your lips people, wetting your lips. I stuck to nothing stronger than a Malibu Pineapple anyhow, which I have the strangest affinity for. Of course, the other hardcore alcoholics in the group were egging me on to take more.

Some artistic shots of the people that were there:

I really did have a better time than I expected to, although the aftermath was...let's leave that aside :P These are the people I hope to room with next year anyhow.

In other news, I have been elected to the committee of the St Georges Branch of the LINKS, which is part of St John's Ambulance Services. Basically, for those not in the know, I joined this little first aid group that provides first aid support to many of the events within London, the Premier League and Musical Theatre being among this number (yes, weep). But through an albeit small amount of gentle coercion, I am now a Committee Member.

I am...the Storekeeper. I take care of uniforms and assign them to members before they head off on duties.

Tell me, do I REALLY have a saikang sign posted on my forehead?

Post

Right! No excuses! The reason why I haven't blogged for so long is because...I'm dead. Haha. Well, not really, but I kinda wish I was. It would be a perfect explanation for what my exam results are going to be this term. It would ALSO be blessed relief from the ongoing spate of maladies I've been subject to for the past 2 weeks. I think I've been hit with three separate strains of cold/flu, each choosing to attack when I'm in recovery phase of the previous.

Also, after having not blogged for so long, it was kinda hard to summarise everything that had happened...really a vicious cycle and all. But here I go! (Warning: Long post)

Blast from the past isn't it? First picture from J2, second from the Open House this year. I realise with a jolt of horror that I'm wearing the same pair of specs I was in JC. And all thats really changed is the haircut...whereas David has lost his shiny specs and the chins! And no, I did not purposely choose a bad picture of David because he always blogs bad ones of me...it just turned out that way. But of course now I said that, everyone thinks I did. Oh darn it.

Then of course, the grand ole alumni barbeque. Sigh. How it warms my heart as I collage these pictures. Of course, I don't have very many of them because no one sent me any -_- But I have these few! Me looking stupid with Caleb (meaning Caleb looks stupid too), and of course the unforgettable to-be-legendary picture of Daphne in a stunning evening dress...haha...I'll NEVER forget it, nor am I gentlemanly enough to let her forget it. Not to say I'm not gentlemanly! Just not...enough.

Going chronologically, CRAB NIGHT. This really should become a tradition. I looked at all the pictures of the crab swimming in chilli sauce, and I became soooooo hungry for it that I lost appetite for my pasta lunch. Great food with greater friends...what more can one ask for right? Then of course, Jo and I getting our choir fix by the beach, she by singing carols and old favourites, me by telling kokphai not to be flat. Sigh. Good times.

I withheld the picture of Karno in Bong's ugly jacket because I think David has sufficiently embarassed him, but I did put the picture of of Bong in his not-strappy-yet-plunging shirt! (Its the small one at the top. Small because I still want bong to be my friend, but at the top cos I want everyone to see it). Of course, I have many more stalkerish photo's of bong, but lets leave it at that shall we? (Jo, Yanling, you have my number).

Ah...Jolly ole Tooting in the Winter. It actually snowed TWICE this term, but the second time I remembered to bring my camera.

I've never actually seen real fluffy snow before coming to London, and its actually kinda surreal to see everything masked in white. I really couldn't stop singing Christmas Carols the whole day. I was THAT happy. Of course, the normal 20min walk to school blew up into almost an hour due to the concurrent snowball fight and many picture takings we had on the way to class. Although in our defense, not very many people showed up for class at all. Its amazing how the snow can even make a place like Tooting look beautiful....sigh. But those days are come and gone...till next year I guess. At the bottom you can see the aftermath of the snowfight...me sleeping. But hey, whats new right?

Moving to more recent times, we just had this Chinese New Year Dinner last Tuesday at this faux-Chinese Restaurant called Chinese Boulevard on Smugglers Bay. The food was...alright I guess: a pale imitation of home which made me long for home all the more. I guess it was also somewhat exacerbated by the fact that I was recovering from my first flu (got my second one somewhere in here), and was feeling kinda gross. But the company was nevertheless good, punctuated by all these questions of "Tell me, do you get this dish in China?". I won't even tell you how expensive this dinner was, but hey, when you pay it pounds, whats cheap?

And now, from just last night, a little steamboat party in my room! It was actually surprisingly good, and really cheap! Only four pounds! (which I know is $12, but trust me, its cheap here). We had cod (which dissolved a lot), pork, chicken, prawns, fishcake, fishballs, tofu, mushroom, spinach and chinese cabbage. Pretty damn good, if I say so myself. This is more or less the group I've come to be most comfortable with. We're setting up this little Networking Group on the halls internet to play a FPS called 'Unreal Tournament'. Hope that pans out. And yes, I am a Man U fan.

Thanks to the people who've written to me this term, and kept my spirits up and all. Its funny, but they seem to be ALL alto's. I guess Michael was right: Sops are nice to look at, but Alto's are better to take home.

Right! I'll try and keep this updated more. Until then, ciao!

fitting

Oh well...it does seem somewhat fitting that I'm back to blogging, now that I'm once again high and dry in Dubai International Airport. What's to say? The month at home has been incredible...and I found it ridiculously difficult to leave. Fair ran through the departure gates. Sorry to the people who came to send me off!

As usual, my Emirates flight was delayed by an hour or so, giving me time to reflect amongst a cloud of Indonesian maids on their way to Sri Lanka (huh?!). I kinda surprised myself by the depth of feelings running through my head. It must have appeared very drama to the people I was on the phone with =P

Oh well...on the bright side, I'm kinda looking forward to getting back to my room. I'm very much one for my comfort zones, and running from my favourite to my next other seems to be the best thing to do. Wash the sheets, wash the towels, rearrange the furniture...the possiblities are endless!

Pictures will follow when I'm in a more insouciant mood.

Sigh.