Hermit's refuge

Random updates

2007-02-26T00:57:00.000+08:00

Ok, to avoid not blogging for the whole term (although it would be quite amusing to see the next post titled 'Holidays!' again), I shall just write some crap here.

Been really really busy with school and work. But finally there should be someone working Wednesdays in a few weeks' time, yay! I'll have one more night to do work, hopefully I'll be less busy la.

I just went to watch Verdi's Aida on Friday with the rest of my classmates taking the Verdi module and our lecturer. It was not bad in terms of the singing and playing etc. But the acting was a bit wooden leh, and the dancers were so amateurish (uncoordinated, super untidy etc). Everyone were commenting about all these la, so it's not just me being picky. It was quite fun actually, and interesting to finally watch an opera live.

I had some fun accompanying two singers on the harpsichord at the beginning of this term. It's great experience! Die la, I'm starting to like the harpsichord more than piano... I will miss playing the harpsichord when I leave uni! The early small ensemble I'm playing in is not very good, it's quite sloppy, and I'm so glad I'm just an unaccessed member. But it's also good experience to play with more than one other person lor. Will play for one of the singers again in March, and I need to decide whether I'm going to accompany the recorder player from my ensemble. I want to, but because it's only three weeks away and she just passed me the score on Friday, I'm scared that I'll screw up! Will try it on the harpsichord tomorrow morning before I decide.

Holidays!

2006-12-16T11:16:00.000+08:00

Glad to have a nice break.

But I should be quite busy working, because some of the staff working in the cafe will be going for holidays. So the restaurant people will be helping to cover since we are closed for three weeks. And then when we open again the week before next term starts, the head chef will try to arrange it such that I don't end up working from 8am to 11pm.

And then of course, I will try my best not to procrastinate and slack so that I don't end up with a pile of work to do last-minute before next term.

Merry Christmas in advance everyone!

-5°C on the first day of November

2006-11-05T22:50:00.000+08:00

It suddenly turned cold on Wednesday; I don't seem to recall it happened so early last year. But anyway, the sky was breath-taking when I stepped out of the house that morning. Sometimes I wish I bring my camera with me wherever I go, but I think some things are often missing from photos anyway (especially since I won't capture the whole experience as well as a professional photographer would be able to). And I'd rather not do an even worse job of describing it in words... the clouds were amazing. I don't know why, but either cold weather makes the sky more beautiful or I particularly remember beautiful skies on cold days because it's like a little ray of light shining through the grey moodiness of going out into the cold. It just makes me so much more optimistic about the rest of the day.

On this cheerful Wednesday I decided to give job-seeking another try. I always try for a short time, then stop, then start again, and so on. Really bad, but normally I begin to be convinced that I should just concentrate super hard on my studies and forget about working totally (ya right, if only I could be so hardworking!). So anyway, I went to the Jobzone and got the contact details for some job vacancies advertised there, and decided to call the one I preferred the most - cafe assistant, experience not required as full training provided - great, suits me perfectly!

'Sorry, the vacancy has been filled. But I'll just take down your details anyway, if there are other vacancies I will give you a call, is that alright?'

'Oh, ok.' (Downcast that this happens far too often)

But after taking down my name and phone number, the lady asked whether I was an international student, where I was from, etc, and suddenly, 'Would you consider working as a waitress in the restaurant at night? You do know we are a Japanese restaurant at night, don't you?'

Oops, I didn't even do any research on this place before calling! 'Oh, um, so sorry, I didn't know. But I'm interested in waitressing work...' (Cross fingers)

'Ok, would you be free to come down to the cafe tomorrow afternoon for an interview?'

Yes! Yay! (But reminds myself that interviews are usually the broken link between my looking for jobs and actually getting a job.)

I got the job, no big deal, cos obviously I was her only candidate anyway. The cafe-by-day-restaurant-by-night is small, during the interview she only asked a few questions, I got to meet her husband (the chef), and that was it. She asked me to give it a try on Friday evening. It wasn't that hard; keep all the stuff from the cafe and bring out the stuff for the restaurant and set up the place (most of which I've forgotten by now, but it's ok, cos both the chef and the other waitress teaching me were blur also), and then the usual waitressing work. I think the only hard part was not knowing the menu very well, but luckily most customers have the same problem so they will point to the menu when ordering.

I was lucky to have the other waitress teaching me; she was very friendly and helpful, trying to teach me everything cos she's going home at the end of this month anyway (she has finished her masters in I-forgot-what). I was also lucky that the other two chefs (uni students like me) have a great sense of humour and despite working really hard to get the orders out as quickly as possible, they try to have fun at the same time. And no one tried to slack off at closing time; we all helped to clean up the place and re-set up the cafe for the next day. Hmm... so the people working in the cafe have a good life huh, they don't have to set up the cafe or un-set up the cafe cos it's the restaurant people's job.

I'm also most fortunate that they didn't throw me right into the deep end by asking me to try out on a Saturday, which I've heard from the rest are very busy and I'll need to try to stagger taking customers' orders so that the chefs don't have too much to cook at once. And the customers won't be waiting too long for their food (but I wonder... they'll be waiting too long for their orders to be taken instead, isn't it still bad service?). Only after work when one of the other chefs was giving all of us students a lift home that he said last Saturday two waitresses were fired cos they kept rushing the chefs with lots of orders at the same time, and more importantly, they kept giving all sorts of excuses when the chefs told them to slow down the orders. I guess it's not just about doing things right or wrong; like any other thing we do, what's most important is the attitude. I will always remember that.

Exciting year ahead

2006-10-13T22:17:00.000+08:00

First week of school's over and so much has happened since last week that I sort of don't really know where to start. That, plus the fact that I've seldom been home (other than to eat and sleep) since last week, are quite solid reasons for not blogging I guess.

Classes are okay, at least for now I guess. And hopefully for the whole year, of course. I think I have to work really hard, and I will! I just haven't actually done any serious studying yet... only been practising more than doing anything else. Paper composition's going to be interesting, especially with all the different assignments ahead. At least they provide some sort of topic to get us going (i.e. this week's assignment was to write an invention, atonal one of course), unlike last year when they just told us to write 'something'. I'm going to be looking forward to Verdi too, although the thought of having to present a seminar (with another person) on someone I don't even know a single thing about (Meyerbeer) is quite scary.

But I'll definitely put in more effort soon. Right now I just have to concentrate on finishing my composition assignment, hopefully by Sunday, so that I can have some time to practise it before the play-through on Tuesday. And hopefully finish reading one of the recommended books on analysis for my Form and Syntax in Post Tonal Music module by the next lesson on Monday. Enough to get me going for now.

Something great that has happened is that I got one of the piano teachers I requested to have this year! And he is really good... constructive comments, suggestions and explanations on how to improve, demonstrations, not too laid-back (the most important, so that I won't start slacking again like last year because my teacher wasn't demanding enough).

Another thing is that I'll be playing the harpsichord in an early small ensemble this year. I can't wait! Really enthusiastic about it cos I don't think I'll ever have a chance to play in another such ensemble in future. Two people asked to have a harpsichord player but I guess I can't split myself into two during the module's sessions, so I can only play in one even though I was so excited at first that I could play in two!

And lastly, both Poot and I were asked by our lecturer to join the rehearsals for St. John Passion as continuo players. There would be a group of keyboardists being coached how to play the continuo, but only one person will get to perform. The point was that at least the rest of the keyboardists would have a great opportunity to learn something. I'm really glad I have chances like this and the early small ensemble.

Looking forward to the exciting (and no doubt busy) year ahead!

3 long days

2006-09-21T23:42:00.000+08:00

It's been quite busy these few days since I moved into my new house on Sunday. Warning, extremely long post!

Read the whole post, or read about: my moving and unpacking fiesta, getting fined 20 pounds, or spending 30 pounds on a T-shirt.

On Sunday Vicki helped me move my luggage to my house, and we were hungry so I wanted to treat her to lunch. Deciding on Adam's Place (a fish and chips shop near the university), we walked back to Selly Oak only to find it was closed. So we decided to go to Aldi's to get some groceries and cook at Vicki's place. Since we were really lazy, we bought instant noodles. I didn't unpack on Sunday, since I didn't have hangers to hang the clothes with, and I thought it might be more convenient to pack everything at the same time anyway. That night I slept for about 5 hours, waking up almost every hour because I was cold sleeping on the uncovered mattress without a duvet. I kept willing myself to sleep and willing dawn to come more quickly.

On Monday Vicki helped again, this time moving my stuff from Access Storage to my house. We went to Harborne High Street after that for some shopping (via Vicki's place, because we haven't yet figured out how to get there from mine. It was about 20 minutes to Vicki's place and another 20 to Harborne High Street, tiring after two days of moving!). I didn't really buy much groceries but instead bought quite a lot of essentials like shower foam, shampoo etc. I was glad to stop over at Vicki's place for a late lunch (at 3pm) of instant noodles and broccoli.

I generally unpacked everything on Monday evening and night, until everything was out of the boxes and luggages and I couldn't find anywhere to put them except stacked haphazardly on the table (there is absolutely no shelving in any of the rooms! The only furniture in my room are: a bed, table, chair, chest of drawers, and cupboard). Exhausted, sleepy and cold (the flooring is a worse insulator than the more commonly-used carpet), I went to sleep (this time on with bedsheets and duvet, fortunately).

I went back to Harborne on Tuesday (this time not via Vicki's place; I just walked in the general direction and managed to find my way there) to enquire at a stationery shop about a vacancy we saw on Monday, and got a form to fill in. I bought lots of groceries, essential stuff like a clock, rubbish bin for my room and food storage boxes, and a set of 'home office stackable cubes'. Dumping most of the groceries in my bag, carrying the stackable cubes in one hand and carrying everything else in the other, I had a tiring walk home. Basically it was only the hand carrying the cubes that ached, because I had put it in a plastic bag but since the bag was too small for me to carry it like people normally carry plastic bags, I had to carry it under my arm. The problem was that the plastic bag around the box made carrying it so much more slippery and my left hand was struggling to keep a firm grip on it. Stupidly, I only thought to take it out of the bag when I was left with the last quarter of the journey, of course. By Tuesday night all my things were packed neatly into the cubes.

On Wednesday I went with Lanx to Grace's house to collect things she didn't want any more (she's finished her masters' and will be leaving.) At first we went for some bookshelves, a vacuum cleaner and kitchen utensils (and oil, sauces etc), but she ended up giving us lots more, including an iron, a fan, her Play Station, indoor airing rack (I already have one of my own), laundry 'container' (?), extension plugs, and sold us her TV. After one trip to the train station with all six of our hands full, we still had to make another to get the TV. Fortunately, Felix agreed to wait for us at the University Station.

Unfortunately though, both Lanx and I got fined 20 pounds each on the train. It's a long story; when we bought tickets to get to Grace's house, we used the ticketing machine and bought return tickets that said 'Birmingham Stns' and 'University Birm', but we were going to Chester Road Station. So when we boarded the train at Chester Road with all the barang barang, we very unluckily ran into a group of three train conductors, standing right at the door where we boarded!

Once we had put all the stuff down, one of them commented, 'Should have got a cab, with all these things,' and proceeded to ask for our tickets. When he saw Lanx's and my tickets, he told us that it should have said 'Chester Road' instead of 'Birmingham Stns', which we honestly didn't know (I really thought 'Birmingham Stns' meant stations in Birmingham, stupid me), so Lanx tried to talk our way out of it by saying the machine made a mistake. The ticket conductor didn't have anything to say in argument against Lanx's explanation, but he spotted that our tickets were concession tickets and wanted to see our Young Person's Railcards. So just when we thought we'd be let off, he pointed out that both our railcards had expired. (Oh man, why oh why did I not check the date?! If I saw that it had expired I would never have bought concession tickets.) Conclusion: 20 pounds fine each. Sigh...

After we had brought all the things home, I embarked on a task I think nobody would have ever thought I'd do, especially if they knew me quite well. Basically, last year I signed up as a service checker with a certain company over the internet, and this was the first time they ever assigned a check to me. I was to check a shop in Selfridges in the Bullring. At first when I got the call on Monday I was really reluctant to go, because I've really not got the right personality for this kind of job! And the caller was quite incomprehensible, I didn't get the shop name and tasks I needed to do. Furthermore, I had to do the check within Tuesday and Wednesday. Such short notice.

However, after I checked my email on Tuesday and determined the shop name and task details, I thought, why not? It's a good chance to do something out of my comfort zone and I'd be earning money (or a piece of clothing) for it. The company was willing to pay up to 30 pounds for any item I buy, and I had to buy a minimum of 15 pounds worth of things. The difference will be paid to me in cash, of course. I thought it was quite worth it; I could buy something I like (hopefully) which was not more than 15 pounds, and get 15 pounds!

I was supposed to check the display/cleanliness, staff's friendliness/helpfulness etc, the usual, but more specifically, I was supposed to go in, browse around, and take note of how long it takes to be approached by someone (if it was more than 5 minutes then I have to approach them). After that, I'm supposed to describe/specify what I was looking for so that they can assist me, and try on the item. And here comes the hard part: I was supposed to ask about the price and act shocked at the high price, then seem undecided, then ask about a discount, then decide not to buy the item. All these were to test their reaction. I think it's quite weird, how many people nowadays actually ask for discount in shops where they actually know they wouldn't be given one?

I was really looking forward to buying a pair of jeans, but the pair I tried on (and liked very much; it was really comfortable), was 85 pounds (SGD 255)!!!! Actually, while waiting for the sales associate to get the pair of jeans for me to try on, I was browsing and saw other pairs up to 120 pounds. Most expensive pairs of jeans I've ever seen... or am I so un-shopaholic that I don't know the price of jeans anymore? But anyway, I came out of the fitting room and said it was comfortable but too expensive (I found it stupid to ask for the price when it was obviously printed on the price tag), so the sales associate offered to show me cheaper pairs. But he realised the cheapest pair was 80 pounds, just 5 pounds less then this one. So I declined.

I didn't ask for a discount because I just couldn't bring myself to say it; I felt stupid just thinking about it. After pretending to browse around the shop again, I finally picked up the T-shirt and asked for my size, then paid for it. I was already eyeing the T-shirt while waiting for my pair of jeans, after realising how highly their jeans were priced. I had sort of decided I'd buy the T-shirt instead, if it was cheap enough (or expensive enough, if you prefer... SGD 90 for a T-shirt, my god!)

I've already submitted the report, now it's just waiting for them to send me the reimbursement.

Back in Birmingham

2006-09-09T16:22:00.000+08:00

[*10/9/06: Backdated entry. Using the wireless connection outside the library.]

I'm now staying at Vicki's/Ruth's place, cos my house is currently under renovation. The landlord thought nobody would be moving in during this week so he decided to convert the existing bathroom and toilet into two bathrooms and toilets. I guess this is actually the best time for him to do it cos any later and we'll all start moving in.

So, after I took a taxi from the airport to my house and found out that I had to find somewhere else to stay, I had to take another taxi to Vicki's place. Actually the landlord did invite me to stay with his family but I thought it was better to stay with a friend, and also I didn't want to trouble him. At first I was going to sleep in a sleeping bag in Vicki's room but Ruth came around last night and offered me her room.

This place is so resort-like, peaceful and beautiful that I'm going to miss it when I move into my house! Other side effects include procrastination (haven't gone to the practice block yet), not feeling like going out to get groceries even though I feel bad about imposing on Vicki (eventually I did this afternoon), and basically just slacking/sleeping most of the time.

Or maybe I'm just a bit tired after having quite little sleep for the past week since I was busy ripping all the CDs. I guess I have nothing much to do too cos I don't have an internet connection here. And I can't watch or listening to any of the things in my external hard disk cos I don't have an adapter that its two-pin plug will fit into. I have one, but it's in one of the boxes in storage. I might buy one soon though, so that at least I can do something.

Anyway, this place has been great, especially waking up in the morning and seeing the sunlight spilling into the room. And then lazing around staring out of the window or trying to get warm by sitting where the sun beams fall on the ground (like a cat). More photos when I buy an adapter and get my camera's batteries charged.

Assorted ramblings

2006-08-30T22:34:00.000+08:00

"Hopefully one day I will find a special place that, with some imagination on my part, will be able to evoke in me that same feeling of serenity." [9/8/06]

This might be the place! Maybe I'll go there when I come back next August, if it's not too expensive.

On a side note, my left arm is now aching from the flu vaccine I got after work just now. Last year I actually thought this was a weird phenomenon until another friend who also got the shot confirmed she was feeling the same.

And today a colleague asked me when I'd be flying and then asked, 'Ey, so do you feel as if we're tying you down?' (Referring to me getting less than a week's time to rest and pack up before I fly next Friday.) Aww so sweet, how could I have the heart to say yes? Haha hmm... it's a bit weird to read the previous sentence cos the person asking me is probably older or as old as my mum! Using sweet in her case is a bit odd. But you know what I mean la.

Topic: daily

Discrimination

2006-08-29T22:15:00.000+08:00

Recently the residents in my block, and in the three blocks sharing the same number as mine, have been complaining about flats in the lower floors being leased, mostly to foreign workers. Somehow I can't help but feel that they're making a mountain out of a molehill.

They say it's unsafe, but instead I feel it's unfair of them to accuse the tenants based solely on the fact that they're foreign. Or, more accurately, that they're foreigners from asian countries. I doubt they'll be complaining if the tenants were from other countries. That's blatant discrimination! Coming from educated people, no less. What a disappointment that Singapore is said to be a progressive, multi-racial, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan country, and yet there are still Singaporeans who stereotype asian foreign workers as inferior beings, capable of crime.

I think if they're really so fond of complaining, the time could be better spent complaining about the students from the school right next to our blocks who often loiter in the corridors after school, hanging around and smoking, littering the floor with cigarette stubs. When some shoes belonging to my family (including a pair of mine) placed outside our flat were stolen last year, they were high on my suspect list. Or should I say they were the only ones on my suspect list? Now we only put footwear unworthy of their attention outside the flat. Anyway, enough digression...

Another thing the residents complained about was that by leasing flats to these tenants, the value of the flats in these blocks will surely fall. I don't disagree; this is a fact. And I only agree that the value will fall because the empty flats in the blocks are being leased (as opposed to sold), not because there are foreigners now living in the flats. I'm disgruntled that Singaporeans are so 爱面子 [literally: 'love face'] that they are actually bothered that their flat values will fall. I mean, ok, if they are looking to sell their flat, then they are really affected by this and it's just too bad I guess. But how many people actually bought flats in this area as a form of investment, as opposed to as a place to stay?

I think most people who bought flats here meant to be staying here for some time to come. People in the property market would know better than to invest in flats in such an 'unwanted' estate like mine. In any case, the value of the flats in this area has always been low low low, because nobody was ever interested in this area anyway. Which is why so many of the flats have been empty, leading to some newly (or, used-to-be-newly a few years ago) built flats nearby to remain closed to the public and not-for-sale. Finally, it's led to the flats in the lower floors of our blocks being leased in an attempt to fill up more flats.

Just my random thoughts on the complaining residents, I just thought it's not such a big deal that some tenants are now living in our blocks. Accusing others based on their nationality is plain disgraceful and surely some flats being leased is not going to cause the value of the flats to drop that much lower? (I must highlight that I have absolutely no idea of property values and what not.)

Topic: singapore, hdb flat, complaints

Last week of work

2006-08-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

It's my last week at work, and I'm not going to say it feels like I just started work yesterday because it really doesn't. In fact, I've had quite enough and I'm sick of going to work only to be doing almost nothing for half of the day. At times I wish I had chosen to slack for the whole holidays, like some friend who said, 'It's my holidays, I should relax and do whatever I want.' Hmm ya... but that would mean I would probably be using money out of my savings and not adding a single cent to it.

Actually, I was quite surprised that my teacher could identify with and supported the idea of slacking during holidays, when we met up two weeks ago. She felt that most people think that studying music is a soft option, because to them music is a form of recreation. They don't realise that when we are really absorbed in our work or practices, it gets intense.

Ugh... ok, I must say that sometimes I'm don't concentrate enough during practices. But I admit that my mind tends to wander off quite often when I'm with friends, and I'll be thinking about some passage in a piece, or what some author wrote about something. Not that I find my friends boring, but the brain just wanders off by itself. Once, a person I had just known for a few weeks observed, 'You can really just sit there listening to us for the whole day and not need to say a single word, right?' Haha I think she was mildly surprised, maybe because she's more talkative. But people who know me get used to it anyway.

I think I've spent this holiday quite unproductively slacking- and practising-wise. I haven't spent enough time doing both! Guess I still have September in Birmingham, where I'll probably have less distractions, to get more practising in. That's if I'm not too busy unpacking/moving into the house and looking for a job. Actually I'm wondering if the practice block will be inaccessible until nearer the start of term. Or maybe I'll be able to get in if I register my card with the department secretary, hopefully.

Topic: daily

Gripes and Respect

2006-08-22T22:44:00.000+08:00

I was thinking of resigning earlier than the agreed period of service, but was hesitant cos they do seem quite busy nowadays. But the problem is, there is only this amount of work that they give me. I can't help feeling irritated that I'm wasting time sitting in the office doing nothing when maybe, I could have worked a few packed days a week and spent the rest of the days doing things I'd rather be doing instead.

Now that I finally made up my mind, hardened my heart and asked to resign, they asked me whether I can stay longer and what could I say? I agreed. I guess I should have stood firm. Sigh. Well, I could say it's because she just pointed out that there are some things I haven't completed, but I can swear she never told me to do those things in the first place! I may be a great procrastinator when it comes to my own stuff, but I never procrastinate at work, I've always been doing whatever I'm told to do right after I'm told to do it. I mean, what else can you do at work that will make you procrastinate? She just told me to do something else in addition to what I've already done, but conveniently used it as an excuse to imply that I haven't tied up the ends.

I think I will only ever take up another administration job if it's just a temporary job during my holidays, or if I'm really jobless and desperate to earn money. Er, the previous sentence shall not apply to Birmingham, because I'll only be too happy to find a job there. Hmm, ok so it does apply since this falls under the last category I guess.

Ok, rant over.

Not all is bad about this job, really. The people have all been really nice and they are helpful when I dunno where to get stuff. They are really neck-deep in their work; quite a lot of them stay in the office till later than 10pm, and come into the office some two hours earlier than starting time, to get their work done. Yet they remain dedicated and hardworking, albeit complaining once in a while. But hey, they're entitled to it after all the time they've sacrificed for the company. I respect those people who are so devoted to their job. Hmm yeah, I guess sometimes I get very irritated with that certain her, who will claim I haven't done what she's told me to even though she didn't tell me to do it in the first place. But at other times she's perfectly friendly and cheerful; most people I've gotten to know in the office says it all depends on her mood, so I try not to be too bothered by her anyway.

To think that I've been dreaming of slacking, relaxing, bumming around (as my piano teacher put it) for the remainder of my holidays... oh well. I'll be looking forward to the next summer holidays! Hehe a bit too early for that ya, I should be looking forward to the December holidays. But I'm looking forward to next August (cos I'm only planning to be back for a month), when I'm just going to sit around, go out, do nothing, for the whole month. Yeah! Feeling just a tad more cheerful again...

[*Edit: It's settled, I'll be stopping work next Friday instead of my intended this Friday. Well, not too bad, I'll still get to relax for a week before I leave.]

Topic: gripe, job, daily

It's been a long while

2006-08-20T23:42:00.000+08:00

Wow time really flies. It feels like I've only been back for a short while but I only have two posts since I got back. Blame it on the job, haha. I just feel like slacking for the rest of the day when I get home, and it's the same for weekends.

But despite the work, I'm happy to be back. Really! Although I didn't miss home or have any cravings while I was in Birmingham, now that I'm back I start to crave all the food and sometimes I get tiny bouts of nostalgia when I think of going back to Birmingham in September. But at the same time I'm so excited about living in a new place with new people, having new modules and classmates next year! Oh ya, and worrying about getting a job... that's the important thing. It's very weird to have conflicted feelings...

Other than working and slacking, I've been trying to exercise (aka lose the weight I put on in Birmingham!!!)... I've been swimming on Saturdays and Sundays, and running once a week (most weeks :P). Quite hardworking, right? But I still haven't exactly reduced myself into what I used to be. Well, nevermind. Just a little improvement is still a small step forward.

Now I just have to make sure I finish ripping all the CDs into the external hard disk before I leave, or I'd have lugged them back for nothing. Why was I so stupid to have even lugged them there in the first place? Sigh...

Topic: daily

Sounds familiar...

2006-08-09T22:54:00.000+08:00

[*21/08/06: Back-dated entry. Wrote this some time ago but 'never found time' to post it.]

After watching the first video during the national day parade, I didn't know whether to be sad that we actually have to write variations on the soundtrack from Lord of the Rings, or happy that we are actually brave enough to so blatantly use the movie's soundtrack.

I know it's really hard to write cliche, cheesy, 'grand/majestic/herioc' music like that without feeling disgusted by your own work, so it might have been easier to use someone else's work and still feel disgusted that you actually did that.
But it still feels wrong somehow. What happened to telling us to be creative and original? And telling us to use our own words when answering comprehension questions instead of copying from the passage itself? Er... ok, I guess we just end up paraphrasing the passages anyway.

I think I could accept something that sounds somewhat similar or familiar, but not something like this where the tune and harmony of the original soundtrack are almost completely preserved, other than a countermelody (which is then played as the foreground and hence becoming the melody) written above them.

Topic: singapore, ndp, nationaldayparade

I am Singaporean

2006-08-09T21:18:00.000+08:00

[*21/08/06: Back-dated entry. I am Singaporean meme started by mrbrown. After my brother suggested I could do one too I've been thinking about it on and off... and even when I finally wrote it I never posted it.]

I love 'classical' music, dating back to the middle ages, by composers all over the world.

My nickname in junior college was Debussy, after the French composer whose music I was madly in love with then.

I'm studying music in England, something I most wanted to do since I was 17. I am really grateful to my parents and aunt, without whom I would never have had the opportunity to do so.

I love the wide open spaces in England, and I hope I can make use of this opportunity to do some rambling in the countryside someday.

I wish there were such landscapes in Singapore, but I understand that she's just too small. Hopefully one day I will find a special place that, with some imagination on my part, will be able to evoke in me that same feeling of serenity. And if that fails, I can still make short trips to scenic spots in the region (when I have money).

I'd love to live in a little cottage in the countryside, or even just a house in the suburbs or city. But I wouldn't be able to afford either. Neither will I stay in England after I graduate, because I plan to return to Singapore and start working to repay the huge sums of money I'd have spent by then.

I dream of living in my own house (ok, flat), where I can have some space to myself and set up a studio where I can lock myself in with the piano, and perhaps teach. But I know I wouldn't be able to afford a private apartment, no matter how small it is. Maybe, just hopefully, I might be able to purchase a 2 or 3-room HDB flat when I turn 35.

I once entertained thoughts of staying in England after I graduate, not concerned about whatever kind of jobs I might have to take on to eke a living there. But I no longer hold on to this idea. I think it will be much easier for me to find a job in Singapore, after having tried so hard to find one during my first year in Birmingham, although there might be a wider range of jobs in the music field abroad.

In the end, it's my family, friends, memories, and maybe the future, that keep me here in Singapore.

My name is Jessica.

And I am Singaporean.

Topic: iamsingaporean

Got a job at last

2006-07-14T08:32:00.000+08:00

Seems like all employers don't think I can take up a sales or customer-related position. I originally applied for a customer service job but the job agency called and suggested this admin job instead. But the dates are really quite good la, this job ends just four days before I leave.

However I can't help but feel lazy to get up every morning and go to work. And I keep catching myself thinking that I had accepted this job too hastily for someone who's been so intent on getting a sales/customer-related job. Sighs but if I keep waiting around I might just end up slacking the whole holiday! Not like I'm not slacking now, I haven't touched the piano for even a second since I started work on Wednesday. Not surprising that this makes me think that this job is such a bad idea. But anyway... whatever.

The first day was actually quite busy until late afternoon, but yesterday I didn't have too many things to do since the 'Little Boss (LB)' was away. And 'Tiny Boss (TB)' didn't seem to have lots of things she wanted to let me do hehehehe so happy. Weird nicknames haha. Hmm it goes something like this. 'Big Boss (BB)' is the person whom I reported to on the first day, but LB and TB are the people who'll be giving me work to do.

YAY it's Friday! Can leave half an hour early! And LB is away today too! Why is it that when you're at home you try to find a job but when you find one you feel like quitting?!

Topic: daily

Back...

2006-06-30T23:15:00.000+08:00

Yep been back for some time but I haven't felt like blogging or doing anything much (including practicing). Blame it on the weather, I think. AND the construction work going on somewhere in the lower levels of my block. The drilling seems to go right into my head.

I went shopping with KK on Monday... we watched She Is The Man, and in the evening we went to Esplanade to watch the performance of Emz's (& the rest of Les Six) piece for the art installation at the concourse. All the pieces made an impression in their own different ways, it was real cool! KK got me a birthday present in advance (a book, obviously...) which I just started reading today in the room furthest from the source of the drilling noise, cos I just couldn't do anything else.

Been looking for a job too but I haven't been successful. I can't blame anybody except myself, cos I'm quite specifically looking for jobs that are sales/retail-related or at the very least customer service-related. I'm convinced that it's going to make it easier for me to find a job when I return to Birmingham, since lots of employers prefer people with experience. Hope I find a job soon! =)

Topic: daily

Efficiency

2006-06-17T00:10:00.000+08:00

Met V, a friend from Hong Kong, this afternoon because I asked her if she could help me move my stuff to storage. I had lots of shopping bags full of stuff since I didn't have many boxes, so V suggested I should go to Access Self Storage to buy more boxes.

When we got to the place, there were many people waiting to be served. Quite a lot of them were there to 'open a storage space' and at least two people were moving their things in for the first time so they were waiting for staff to remove the locks on the doors of their reserved spaces. However, there was only one person at the counter. The day when I went to reserve a space there was also only one guy at the counter. I was telling V that if they knew the summer holiday period was usually quite busy due to international students storing their stuff, they should have more staff working per shift. I waited around for a rather long time and in the end we decided to go to Argos instead.

At Argos, we decided that the boxes were too unreasonably priced. So V suggested that she could loan me her boxes since she wouldn't be travelling home this summer. So in the end we went to the city centre for very much nothing. But anyway thanks V for lending me boxes and helping me bring them to my room too! And helping me squeeze my stuff in >.<

to this.

Haha ya I was that messy and pathetic, using shopping bags and cereal boxes but now I have real boxes! :)

Topic: daily

Packing

2006-06-16T00:46:00.000+08:00

I'm sort of done packing and tomorrow I'll be bringing the all the barang barang to the storage place, Access Self Storage. I'm just hoping I didn't leave anything out.

I'm feeling evil that I decided not to sing in chamber choir for the Summer Festival, cos I'm scared I can't manage packing etc plus sing for the concert. Hmm... looks like I made a mistake in choosing the date to 'start the storage thing', maybe I shouldn't have chosen the same day of the concert. But anway, don't think anyone would mind as long as I return the scores.

Now the whole room is in a mess. Bleargh

Topic: daily

2 jokers in my house next year

2006-06-14T01:36:00.000+08:00

This evening I went to pay my rent for the house I'll be moving into in September, cos I wouldn't be back in Birmingham until mid-September so I have to pay in advance. I probably haven't mentioned that due to a certain twist of events, I'll be sharing a house with four other guys next year. (If there are any cousins reading this, please hush, I'm not supposed to let my grandma know ok?) Two of them are Singaporeans, one is Russian and one is from Hong Kong.

I couldn't really remember how we got there the last time to sign the contract, so I contacted MIB, one of the Singaporeans. Ya that was his initials on his cheque book, quite cool right. Ok, anyway, when I found out that MIB was planning to pay his rent one of these days I asked him whether I could tag along. And it was good that I did, cos if I didn't I'd probably have walked in circles for dunno how long before I took the right route. At the same time I realised that I'd be staying with two jokers next year, MIB and his Russian course-mate S.

On the way to our landlord's shop, we were about to cross a road when suddenly,
MIB: ey later when we cross the road we have to bend down.
me: ...??? Huh, why? *Looks around quizzically wondering about the lack of any low obstacles over the road*
MIB: elderly, what.
me: o_O *Sees an 'elderly' road sign across the road* Oh!!!!
We both burst out in laughter. After a while, I find it a lame joke, but I sometimes wonder at the speed of MIB's brain. Do all 'computer' people think so fast? (He studies er, I forgot what, something with a computer in it la)

When we found the shop the landlord started to explain that we could write twelve cheques, one for each month, and date it for that month etc etc, and then he had to leave to help serve the customers. His shop is something like a mama shop, or like a mini ECON Mini Mart if you know what I'm referring to. It sells the usual snacks, drinks etc that mama shops sell, and then it sells canned foods, frozen food, milk, bread, magazines, newspapers, alcohol, cigarettes, birthday cards, whatever cards, and rents DVDs.

So we wrote our cheques for September's rent and waited for him to finish serving the customers. When the landlord came back and realised we had only written one cheque each, he was like, 'You can write twelve cheques blah blah blah... you understand?' This was directed at me cos I suppose the first time he mentioned that I had a quizzical look on my face so he thought I didn't understand how that worked.
MIB: I think she wants to come here and pay you every month. She wants to see you every month.
Me: ...
Landlord: *after a few seconds, realises the joke* hahaha, you naughty boy, say such things.

It was really funny LOL. That was MIB's way of stopping the continuous 'twelve cheques' thing. Nah, our landlord is a nice man, he's very sincere about touching up the paint, door etc of the house before we move in. And I know he was just trying to save us the trouble of having to go to his shop every month, or post him a cheque every month. But as MIB said later, on our way back to the university, 'Go to his shop every month also good what, every month get free drink.' Haha it's true, when we went to sign the contract he told us to grab a bottle of soft drink each on our way out, and this time he did the same thing again. But this time we didn't take any, er cos I'm trying to lose the 'winter weight', whether or not it's actually 'winter weight' is beyond me... anyway I just try.

Yep, so on the way back MIB was saying that S's jokes are even more 'cruel', as he put it. What he really meant was that S was very good at cracking jokes. And that he hasn't even cracked the more 'need to use brain' jokes yet. Alright! Bring it on man! What's better than living with two jokers who can entertain me and make my brains work at the same time. Hehe I think next year will be amusing indeed.

Topic: humour, daily

Bath

2006-06-13T00:19:00.000+08:00

As I mentioned, I went to Bath with Poot and Celine last Friday. The train ride was about one hour plus, and we had to first take a train to Bristol Temple Meads station before taking another train to Bath Spa station.

Bath is a very charming little town. Even when we were in the middle of the city, most of the time I could catch glimpses of the countryside through gaps in buildings. We reached Bath at around 11 plus and were planning to catch a free walking tour at 2pm so we just took a walk around the city taking photos before having lunch and lounging about in a beautiful park where Celine and I got terribly sunburnt. The walking tour was great, we got to see the city and at the same time were educated about architecture. The guide was not exactly very interesting (he used to be a teacher and we know teachers are boring :P), but I was really interested in what he was saying cos all the talk about ornate decorations, 'the age of reason', the proportions of the buildings, the symmetry and what not paralleled what was taking place in the musical styles during the respective periods. It's one thing to look at pictures and another to see them in real life with a guide explaining at the same time. Anyway, photos!

Bath Abbey

Left of which was the Roman Bath, which regretfully we found too expensive to visit. And neither did I take any picture of it cos there wasn't anything much to see from the outside. The England flags on top of the abbey where supposedly there because of the World Cup fever, our guide later told us.

The park where we had lunch and then proceeded to get sunburnt in deck chairs

We paid 1 pound to get into this park, and it was worth it. It was not very crowded, unlike the Royal Cresent where there were lots of young people sunbathing and playing everywhere. Haha Celine deviously took that last photo just after I thought she had already taken a picture and looked down at my camera.

The Royal Cresent

According to our walking tour guide, the low 'rock wall', in the the olden days, served to separate the peasants from the more distinguished people. The grass on both the higher and lower 'tiers' would be cut such that they reached up to the same height. So the peasants would have been standing deeper in the grass.

As we were on the walking tour, we heard some music playing. It sounded like... a harp? A guitar? A mandolin? A shop playing a CD? We turned a corner to discover a very talented musician playing some cylinder-like thing with two mallets in each hand.

Some sights of the city

As you can see, it was breath-taking. And you can glimpse the countryside in the second photo. I'd rather visit Bath than London anyday.

Topic: travel, bath

Things I'll miss when I leave

2006-06-10T23:35:00.000+08:00

I've been slacking too much. Now I really have to start packing. ARGH. Wonder whether I should buy a weighing scale to see how heavy the luggages are so that I won't exceed the weight limit??? Celine left this morning... and she won't be coming back (other than to visit) cos she's a one-year exchange masters student from France. I wonder how I will feel when I leave in 2008. But for now, here are some things I will miss:

The sun + cool breeze combination in summer (uh, when there is a breeze la)
The cold winds during autumn/winter/spring (it's freezing but quite shiok too)
The sights all around me (e.g. trees/plants in full bloom, stark tree branches in winter)
The harpsichord(s)!
The blue skies (ok this can be counted in No.3, but I just suddenly thought of it)
The walking (I love to walk, especially in silence/alone)
The amazing opportunities to travel (ok I know I haven't made much use of it but student mah, must be thrifty and must study! I'll try to utilise my time well next summer)
The squirrels everywhere (even in dustbins sometimes)
The more relaxed, laid back pace (other than essay/assignment submissions of course)
Hot water taps (so efficient for washing the dishes)

But there are also things I look forward to when I go home:

Family and friends (of course)
My piano (er so-so la, but not having to walk to school to practise will be a plus)
The beach! And the sun (not so much the sun now, cos I dunno if I might be permanently lobster-coloured when I go back)
The food (? think I'm weird cos I don't really get cravings for anything except once in a long time)
Taking mrt's and buses again (instead of walking and occasionally taking buses or trains)
A job (hopefully if I can find one?)
Shopping (? maybe, but I'm not very keen on shopping unless it's CDs heh)
No more big fat hairy bees suddenly appearing when I'm walking (in summer) or smaller bees seeking warmth in my room (in autumn/winter)
Shops and stuff not closing so early (only pubs/clubs will remain open at night here)
The efficiency
Being able to still be out in the middle of the night and not worrying too much about safety (as opposed to really silent/deserted and dimly lit streets here. Even if a street in Singapore is empty at least it'll be brightly lit unless u're really in some ulu place la. Or is the night sky here darker??? Maybe there are more trees, which makes it darker.)

I'm not looking forward to:

More mosquitos (there are mozzies here that are thinner and longer, but maybe they don't like my blood or maybe they got squashed by me if they hid under my duvet before I go to bed *evil laugh* So far I've only seen and killed two ever since the start of warmer weather, ok make that 3 cos I just saw a big one.)
Cockroaches and lizards (I haven't seen any in my flat/room, not that I'm complaining, but I've only seen lizards once or twice out of rooms. Cockroach count = 0)

Topic: birmingham, singapore

Roasted

2006-06-10T00:41:00.000+08:00

I went to Bath with Poot and Celine, her flatmate, today. Had lots of fun and got really sunburnt! Yes it's really hot here now... sometimes I think it's even hotter or at least as hot as Singapore. Here's a comparison between my leg and arm to show how burnt I got.

Think the few times I ever got this red was only during camps or maybe in secondary school when we were rehearsing formations during band prac. Actually, I think I've only been so burnt once or twice before. Or maybe I forgot. Or my skin has gotten so used to autumn/winter such that I became a 白斩鸡 ('white chicken' in chicken rice terminology) and then it was very prone to becoming red. Feeling hot all over and itchy!!!! ARGH. Luckily I don't really have to go out until Monday, and hopefully by then I don't look so lobster-like anymore.

Will update with photos of Bath soon when I get more photos.

Topic: daily

London again

2006-06-07T23:13:00.000+08:00

Poot and I went to London one day after our exams. But I was very sian after that and was too lazy to blog about it. So... the highlights of our trip:

Buckingham Palace

Horses seen near Hyde Park

The guys look so small on such big horses. Their euphoniums and tubas look miniature and light too. Haha ok maybe I'm too used to seeing asians with instruments la.

Hyde Park

It gave me a very beach-like feel.

National History Museum

I like the egg-size comparison thing. The smallest is the hummingbird egg, shown with the nest also, and there's the chicken egg. The white one is the ostrich egg, but I forgot what the two biggest eggs are -__-''' Oh ya, the odd-looking egg behind the chicken egg is very special cos its conical shape prevents it from rolling off cliffs and stuff where the bird usually has its nest. I'm such a geek hor?

Tower Bridge

We were very lucky and some ship happened to want to come through. Lots of people gathered to watch. Haha ok, maybe the Londoners were not that interested but they had no choice except to wait till the bridge was lowered before they can cross.

And Poot spotted a rainbow!

Sometimes you have to slow down to notice things. The last time I saw a rainbow was on a busy street and people were just going by without noticing too. Or possibly they noticed but were not interested.

Topic: travel, london

11 days to go

2006-06-07T16:06:00.000+08:00

Will be back home in eleven days!!!

Nowadays I'm just about doing nothing... going for chamber choir rehearsals that's all. Actually really quite diao to go also, cos there are only two year ones including me plus I'm not even a singer lor. But nevermind la, there are also some non-singers so I don't feel too out of place. Otherwise I will really have nothing to do for summer festival liao. I wanted to practise a lot since I'm so free, but it feels really weird to go to the practice block now cos it's so empty. Other than small chamber groups or duet-ters practising, there isn't anyone else. And then I'll feel so extra to be there. Like, 'What?! Why is some enthu-kia still practising when all the 2nd/3rd year recitals are over?!' (assuming they dunno it's a first year). Somemore I'm like learning new pieces also, play until really CMI... so I'd rather the practice block be full and noisy. Anyway, I'm very good at sleeping in late also la, that just gives me yet another excuse not to go to school hehe.

I have to start packing my stuff also. Packed two boxes so far, one has books that I'm not planning to bring back, and the other was for all the winter coats/jackets/whatever you call them. Haha they were so thick I had to squash them into the box but it's good that they managed to fit. Can't believe it. Time flies. It feels quite odd now thinking of leaving Birmingham for Singapore, but it's almost like the same feeling I had thinking of leaving Singapore for Birmingham. I think I will never be content living in any country cos each has its own pros and cons. I just really hope I will have the opportunity of travelling round the world, even if I do it in my eighties haha.

Hmm recently I just discovered that a Hong Kong friend and I really share lots of similarities. Especially that we don't want to get married and have children. To us, married = no freedom. Married + children = even less freedom. Haha I know it's really selfish of us to think this way. But from another point of view, we get to enjoy freedom without being selfish towards our family (as in, spouse and children). And both of us would really love to travel. Er actually who wouldn't? I think tourism must be one of the richest industries around. Ya, so family = no money/time to travel.

I think the main reason for both of us was that we feel very strongly about having personal space/time. We realised this when she asked me whether I'd prefer to stay with my parents if I had a choice and I said no. It's not because we don't love or care for our parents, just that we'd really prefer to live alone. The point is, you need to have the money to be able to live alone in Singapore if you're under 35. And people change. We realise that by our mid-thirties, who knows, anything can change. Haha what a nonsensical rant, I know I will never be able to buy my own house.

Anyway the point was that we found it quite amusing that we would never have thought of each other as the sort of person who doesn't want to start a family. I always get people telling me that I look like I'd make a good mother i.e. 'you look motherly' *puke*. Not like I don't like kids, actually I'd really like to work with kids but cos of the reasons above I'd rather not have my own. Ya. And so this friend also looks like the 'motherly' type (whatever you think that looks like haha). All these 'you look like ____' are usually stereotypes anyway.

Having conversations with this friend was both quite funny yet beneficial also. Haha cos I'd be trying to speak in Cantonese, but as soon as I've spoken a sentence I'll switch back to English. My Cantonese always sounds weirdly accented. Like when I try to speak English English haha. But hearing her speak in Cantonese was good cos my brain can actually start to try to think in Cantonese also so that the brain thinks of the sound of the words before I say them. Rather than thinking in English or Chinese and then trying to say what I want to say in Cantonese. Whatever, I know I'm just crapping on a lot of non-related and irrelevant stuff in this post. Just suddenly felt like typing something just now, procrastinating the packing mah.

topic: daily

2006-05-31T22:31:00.000+08:00

It's funny how during exams or during term I really felt like blogging but now that the school year is over I can't find anything to say. Ya. I think most of the time I'm keeping this blog just for the sake of keeping it.

Looking forward to going back to Singapore though, but I really hope I can get my piano standard back up before that or maybe one week after... really want to continue lessons with my teacher.

Choosing modules now also. There are so many modules I'm interested in that it's really hard to choose one over another. I wish I had five years here to do them all or something. Dunno, I shall see. Next year's going to be something of a fresh start again I guess, new people to meet in new classes, new place to stay, new courses... and of course, getting extremely busy. Hope everything will work out in the end.

topic: daily

last minute

2006-05-21T00:13:00.000+08:00

临时抱佛脚。 [literally: hugging Buddha's leg at the last minute]

It's a bit too late to lament that I never went home after each Text lesson and re-read, re-wrote, and revised the notes I took during lesson. So now when I find I need the notes, they are disorganised scribblings in pencil all over a few pieces of paper. And my scribbling during class is... as 'bit-ty' as it can get. Some bits I have to take ages to realise what I meant when I wrote something down. Sigh.

Sort of done going through the notes. Was going to rewrite everything but I think there might not be time and in any case Poot and I discussed quite a number of the set works over the phone yesterday and this morning, so I'm going to count that as ample revision of the notes. Think I'll go sleep now, then wake up early tomorrow and write essays on each movement of the works. Maybe not every single movement of every single work la. See how... cos I dunno which movements to question-spot also!

[Apologies to anyone offended by this crude depiction of Buddha's foot. Absolutely no offense or blasphemy was intended.]

topic: daily

A Day in London

2006-05-13T03:32:00.000+08:00

My first solo trip! Was quite excited.

[Scroll down to skip this boring part...]
Got a shock when I woke up in the morning to see that it was 5.45am. Somehow I managed to turn the alarm off and go on sleeping without waking up. Luckily my body seemed to know that I needed to wake up or else! Haha all those rushing-to-school sessions helped and I wasn't too flustered. But I was still quite worried that I might be late for the megabus cos I left at around 6.10am and the bus was scheduled to leave at 6.30am. At least the cab came very quickly, I guess cos it was in the morning and they didn't have many customers. And the pick-up location for the bus wasn't too far also.

The bus went past... er... lots of highways, green fields, yellow fields (I like the yellow ones, don't know what plant it was), and stopped at Coventry to pick up more passengers. After that I dozed on and off, until we neared London. It felt quite weird to see everything in bright sunshine this early in the morning.

At first when the bus reached the Greenline coach station I was quite blur and I didn't know where to go. So I just walked around and after finding the Victoria tube station, I was quite -__- cos actually I could have walked through this shopping centre-like building to get there instead of walking around the building. But it was ok, get to see how the place is like right? The place was milling with people and luggages and suitcases, cos people take the Gatwick Express from the Gatwick airport or vice versa. There were quite a lot of pick-up/drop-off points for those open-top sightseeing buses and little newstand-like 'shops' along the street sold tickets for these buses. So far I've seen two companies, one called The Original Tour and the other Big Bus (something like that la, can't remember.)

I took the tube to Oxford Circus... being the sotong that I am, I forgot that to get to Boosey & Hawkes, Bond Street would be nearer. So when I got to Oxford Circus and realised that, I set out to try to walk to Bond Street station, which was only one station away. Took detours along the way cos I kept thinking I was walking in the wrong direction even when I wasn't haha. So I took long ways round before I happened to chance upon Bond Street station heehee. From there it was quite easy to get to Boosey & Hawkes thanks to Ruth's clear instructions and cos I went to check the map online too.

After helping to collect a score from Boosey & Hawkes, I also browsed for the Bach Italian Concerto + French Overture + Duets + Goldberg Variation score but they didn't have it on the shelves. The shop assistant said they had the Goldberg Variation that came by itself. So I decided to go to Schott. This time I didn't get lost walking back to Oxford Circus station. But from the station I started to get a bit confused, cos there were four exits from the station, each on all four sides of the junction. So I didn't know which was the exit on the map that I was supposed to 'start my journey from' haha. Stood there looking at the signs for some time and luckily the first guess I made was right. Yet I was blur again. I walked past the Great Marlborough Street sign and continued walking until I came across the toy shop, Hamleys. Again thanks to Ruth I knew I've walked too far. Once I found the street it was ok.

Schott only had one copy of the score, so after buying it I decided to go to Chappell to see if they had a copy too. Ok, this was dumb. I walked to Bond Street station before realising that I was supposed to turn into New Bond Street, which was also on Oxford Street and which came before the station when I walk from Oxford Circus station to Bond Street station. But it was quite easy to find. Managed to find a copy of the score there. Yay. I succumbed to the irresistable temptation of Starbucks... the shade and frappucino. It was too hot! I was roasting after walking to and fro on Oxford Street and taking detours on Regent Street and others. Haha but ok la, they are known for the shopping right. At least I got to see them.

After getting all the scores, I had lots of spare time before meeting Clarice and Yiting for dinner. First I went to Westminster:

The British Airways London Eye

Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster

Westminster Abbey

Then I went to Covent Garden:

Exterior and interior

There was a man entertaining people:

St. Paul's (I escaped here from the buzz of Covent Garden, for shade, benches and tranquility)

Then I walked around this area and Leicester Square:

Royal Opera House

Trafalgar Square (too bad Nelson's Column was undergoing some work)

National Gallery

St Martin-in-the-fields

I sat around Trafalgar Square for quite a long while, enjoying the breeze (when there was one), and getting roasted by the sun, just people-(and pigeon)-watching:

The pigeons are too used to humans, so if you feed them they will even perch on you if you have food in your palm. A man was doing that and also helping some visitors do that so that they could take photos. Bird flu how??

After I got sufficiently burnt I took to exploring the area and also chinatown. I chanced upon this:

Hopefully I'll be able to watch Les Miserables in my three years here before going back to Singapore! Then I took refuge in Burger King cos my legs and my skin couldn't take the heat anymore. Had to order a cup of coke. Haha so I sat there till around 4.30pm and then I went to the Leicester Square tube station where I was supposed to meet Clarice and Yiting at 5. It was much cooler there!

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Misato, in chinatown. Luckily Clarice suggested that we go early, cos the queue really started to get long while we were eating. The food was good! Er, but too much. It's really really toooooo much. Haha but worth it for 4.90. Just that we couldn't linger around cos they were quick to clear our plates and give us the bill once they saw that we weren't eating any more. More customers waiting!

Yiting bought each of us a postcard and chocolate (in very high class packaging):

Thank you yt! Clarice and I felt bad cos we didn't get something for her.

It started raining and we couldn't find seats in fast food restaurants to 'sit around', so we went to Clarice's room. Cos it was too early... I booked the 10pm bus back to Birmingham. We took a photo together:

Taking the tube back from Clarice's place to Victoria was quite weird, cos it was only 9-9.30pm, and yet it was already quite empty. The stations were also quite deserted, especially the one near Clarice's place. But once I got to nearer the busier stations there were a little more people. I slept most of the way back to Birmingham. Oh ya, I was quite evil, I called a cab when I reached Birmingham, but cos there was a taxi stand where I was waiting... and another company's cab came up, so I took that cab instead. The original cab I called, called me 4 times when it arrived.

topic: london, travel

2 down

2006-05-11T02:30:00.000+08:00

Finished the TMP take-away paper. It's ok I guess. Not particularly difficult in the normal sense of the word, but it was difficult cos all the melodies sounded disgusting! Actually no, my main grouse is the 'Schubert lied'... it sounded very communist. I'm not even sure if it was taken from a real Schubert lied cos they might not do that to prevent people from looking up the original harmonisation. However it might be real, cos there were translations of the lyrics too... don't tell me they went to make up some lyrics and melody haha. Or they might have used a Schumann lied, or some other less well-known composer? But I think the string quartets were not Haydn's. They were a bit too melodious, especially the second one. The first might still be quite Haydnish... I chose to harmonise it instead of the too-ornamented second quartet. There were two of each - Bach chorale, Haydn string quartet and Schubert lied - and we pick one of each to do. We certainly have advantage over some people cos we've done this before, for A level portfolio. There's a wide variety of different syllabuses that people take here, so I dunno what they did during A levels.

topic: daily, music, university

1 down

2006-05-09T01:53:00.000+08:00

The aural exam today was fine I think. It started out rather easy. Intervals should be ok, although I can't really tell for sure if I was 100% right cos each interval was only played once. According to the psychology textbook, 'auditory sensory memory is a form of sensory memory for sounds that have just been perceived.' The sound then enters short-term memory, which is the 'immediate memory for stimuli that have just been perceived.' So my brain would remember the interval as what entered my short-term memory, and subsequently what my brain thought the interval might be. Since each interval was only played once, I had no second shot at another sound entering my short-term memory to check if the answer I've arrived at was correct. Hehehe actually I don't know if all that reasoning was sound, I'm just trying to make use of what I remember of what I've read so far.

Melodic dictation should be ok, unless I made any careless mistakes, especially missing out naturals after writing accidentals. Then I will really bang my head against the wall. It started out really simple, but soon had some jazzy chromatic notes. The second half is quite nice actually haha... jazz-like. But I almost lost one-third of the marks. After the chromatic notes set in, I got distracted and wrote down the last third of the melody a tone higher than it should have been. Fortunately I discovered my mistake when I sang through it again when we had some time to look through our melodies after the last playing. Heng ah!!! Otherwise...

Types of chords were ok, quite easy. Just hope I got the inversions right. Rhythmic dictation fooled me at first. It was hilariously easy for the first two bars, and in slow 6/8 time also. But then in the third bar there were more small note values and I started to panic a bit. In the end I still managed to complete the whole thing, but I'm not sure whether the rhythm is right. Next was a chorale, and we had to name the types of cadences and keys. Confused big time! Other than the first and last, I was unsure about the rest. (Actually only the first if my 'academic guess' that the chorale will end in the tonic is wrong!) Er... once it started modulating in the second phrase I just lost my marbles and my hearing and my thinking processes. Anyhow tried to count/guess for the other three cadences.

The last part was another chorale, but played with deliberate mistakes and we had to spot the mistakes, with extra credit given for explaining what the mistakes were. It was fun and quite easy, cos in this sort of harmonic context of course any mistakes will stand out. But it was also worrying cos I think it was 20 marks (?), and I think both poot and I didn't have 10 mistakes in total. And that was only assuming that another 10 marks are for the extra explaining. *fingers crossed* lor, what else?

So much for the sunny weather in the past few days, it rained almost throughout the day today. Was quite depressing to walk to an exam in the rain, especially when I was nervous about the exam. But the sheets of rain made the vale look really pretty. It looked like the whole area was misty. Actually it could well have been... it was probably part mist and part rain. Current psychology-book-reading progress: 6 more chapters which I will scan through tomorrow morning before attempting the exam. Was intending to stay up but aiya whatever la, I sort of can't concentrate on reading already. What I've been doing since 11pm has been to scan the pages, which explains why after days of snail-paced progress I suddenly managed to speed up today.

topic: daily, music, university

Butterflies in my stomach

2006-05-07T22:56:00.000+08:00

I don't know why I'm feeling very nervous about tomorrow's aural exam!!! It should be fine, but I just keep getting the jitters. There's not much I can do also... practise a bit using Auralia, but other than that, I can't really do anything. Anyway sometimes it's a bit pointless to practise cos it's supposed to be quite natural by now lor. If it's not then I don't think I'm fit to be doing music at a tertiary level. Ahhh but I'm still scared. What if something happens, like my hearing suddenly becomes screwed and I just can't tell what's the answer?!

There was once during TMP when our teacher was quizzing us and the answer to my turn was major 3rd, but I kept saying diminished 4th. Although it's technically right (M3=dim4), well C - E is a major third and C - F flat is a diminished 4th. So if you had to dictate the top note, you would write E instead of F flat wouldn't you? It doesn't make any sense to write F flat in this context. Haha unless it's dictation of a line and the key is C flat major or some key with even more flats heehee imagine that! It'll really be evil of the people who set the paper to give such a key for dictation. Hmm but C flat is ok, cos just think of everything in C major and flatten every note lor. =) Seriously, I know I don't have to treat this paper so seriously until I get nervous about it the night before. It's just an aural paper, for goodness' sake! And judging from the standard of the questions in the diagnostic test we had during the start of term I, there shouldn't really be anything I have to worry about. *fingers crossed*

Couldn't really concentrate on doing anything more after dinner... and I actually went to play the pig-stacking game at orisinal! Haha, cos all the blogs I usually read have been checked and re-checked several times in hope of any updates already... which is stupid cos it would obviously be sleeping time in Singapore so once I've read the newest entries there wouldn't be anything left to read. Unless someone stays up all night blogging haha. So there was nothing to distract me from my thoughts. Orisinal helped a little bit la. Hmm I got a bit nostalgic also, cos it reminded me of the period of time when we liked to play orisinal on the computers in the mep room! We are so fortunate to have been there before IP started, with the IP students now I don't think they can really have the mep rooms distributed among the different levels (I think?). Dunno what's going on there now, poot and I will go back to tj to visit when we're back in Singapore! So exciting. I hope the mep trip to London in December would be on too, then hopefully we can go there to meet up with them!

Ok la, think I shall sleep early. Can't do anything, sleep lor... at least it might guarantee a clear mind tomorrow right. 早睡早起身体好！=D

topic: daily, music, university, exam

listening to election results on skype

2006-05-06T23:49:00.000+08:00

So it's still 82/84 for PAP, Chiam in Potong Pasir and Low in Hougang. Poot, Ruth, and I were very 紧张 this afternoon, at about 2-3pm (Singapore time 9-10pm)... waiting and waiting for the result. At first we were trying to listen to radio stations online, but it was very bad. The most I could catch was an average of 3-5 words before my connection would be cut off. We got quite pissed with trying to do that, so we ended up with Proko playing the listen live on his computer in Singapore, and the four of us having a conference call in Skype. That way we could hear nice and clear without disruptions. Other than the fact that we had to turn up our volumes to hear, such that if any of us spoke it would be super loud. Waited and waited until Ruth had to leave for work. And waited somemore. Then finally did the results start to stream in. Lol so exciting. My first time actually listening for the results of an election lor.

Anyway, didn't do much work since 2... we were on Skype for so long. After all the results were in, poot suddenly asked for clues for The Wicked, and that started all of us playing. (See la, tell you to play only after exams, don't listen la. Haha but nevermind la, poot will be guai and study right?) For me it was after a 2 week long hiatus... I previously got stuck at a level and decided it was time to study liao. That's how I came to be playing for the whole evening and night. But that's the limit, I shall start studying again tomorrow. Good night.

Topic: singaporeelections, radio, thewicked, daily

I Don't Want to Live on the Moon

2006-05-06T01:09:00.000+08:00

Found this page of sesame street videos (from lancerlord), and I was just telling poot that I was sad they didn't have my favourite song, I Don't Want to Live on the Moon. THANK YOU POOT!!! She found my song for me! And lots of other songs too! :D

Heh sorry... so childish right. Actually I didn't watch Sesame Street as a kid, or in fact watch cartoons... only watched cantonese dramas with my grandma before I went off to nursery/kindergarten/school+daycare. And The Sound of Music, of course... my mum says I loved that a lot, I still love it! Only when I got bored/procrastinated during sec school years or holidays then did I watch Sesame Street! :S Super slow. Yup anyway, I absolutely love this song... actually it's like the only song that I like la. The rest are... 'okay lor' kind.

Hmm, actually the song... now when I really listen to it, it's sort of like an analogy for me being overseas. Like, I want very much to travel and see other countries, but I guess if I'm honest with myself... I don't really want to immigrate. Part of me sort of wants to, but then there are other things that make me hesitate: family, friends, and memories of the place(?). Especially family. With friends, we can easily communicate and keep in touch over the internet, and maybe once in a while when we have enough money, meet up somewhere? But the family is a different thing altogether.

My grandma, for one, would be devastated. When she comes around to my house once in a while and gets to webcam with me, she will be nagging, talking, etc nonstop. And of course every parent will feel sad if their child wanted to immigrate. Asians are very different. Our ties to the family are stronger than, for example, people in the UK... once they grow up they buy/rent their own house/apartment and live alone and support themselves. But it's different for us, usually we only leave home if we get married. Ok la, there are increasingly more people who do move out. But in any case it's not easy also, like I think emz and I always complain that we want to move out but then can only buy flat after 35 if we're single. Unless we strike it rich and manage to buy a condo or private property. Pathetic.

K, I'm drifting a bit. Ya... so my parents will also be sad. I think they are already a bit sad that I don't want to go home next summer holiday and that I choose to stay here instead. Haiz. *Heart bleeding from the guilt* But I really want to travel around leh. And experience how it's like here in summer... otherwise, three years here will be so wasted if I don't make use of the time. Anyway, back to the immigration thing... like poot and I have occasionally discussed, it's also not really feasible to pursuade one's parents to immigrate with them. They already spent like half their life in Singapore, slogging it out and everything, and then suddenly they have to adapt to a new environment. And for more elderly parents whose English aren't that great, it's going to be even harder to adapt. So it's really heartless to make them go through such a big change after they've spent their whole lifetime so far in Singapore... and they'll obviously have close ties to Singapore too.

Haha I dunno why I'm ranting on and on la. Cannot-make-it. I think I'm definitely going back to Singapore after I graduate. Originally I really wanted to work here for some period first, but now I'm really quite undecided. I don't think my parents and grandma would be very enthusiastic about that. Aiya, anyway, if I can't find a job here fast enough after I grad, it's going to make it even harder to pay off the debts. Ok, shall like abandon this until nearer the time to think about all these things.

Went to school today to help my piano teacher flip page while she was accompanying Ruth for her recital. It was not as exciting as it sounds, but this was the first time I saw a fortepiano. But it's not that much different from a pianoforte (modern piano) anyway... hmm or at least I couldn't detect much timbre or sound differences from where I was sitting. After the rectial we (me, poot, ruth, roger) went to have ice-cream haha! Cos it was sweltering hot. Unbelievable... after the winter cold, I never expected to have this sort of sunshine! Great weather... lots of people have taken to sitting around on the grass around campus and even on the vale. After ice-cream, poot and I went to the Central Library to return and borrow more CDs. Haha last lap until context exam liao... must mug until our ears rot from listening to too much music! =D

Oh ya, last night I couldn't get to sleep (maybe cos of that long nap)... and then just when I was about to fall asleep... Jessica! JESSICA??!!! JESSICA!!!!! I jerked awake. -___-''' Guess what, it wasn't me they were screaming for! I can only suppose some other Jessica stays in this same block. I looked out of the window to see a guy and girl dragging an inflatable pool around on the grass outside. Mad. Play with inflatable pool in the middle of the night. And some curious peeps from poot's flat shouted to the guy and they kept up their shouting conversation for quite some time. Sighs.

Haha my longest post in a long time. Sorry for such a rambling post. I was less than pathetic at studying today... current count: 414 pages left to read. ARGHHH. Night. Going to wake up early tomorrow. I MUST make it! (Otherwise waste money come here... ya... ultimate motivation to study man.)

topic: sesamestreet, immigration, singapore, daily, music

On studying and eating

2006-05-04T23:57:00.000+08:00

I was feeling very wonderful this morning cos I woke up early and thus felt very invigorated. Actually it's not really considered very early by any standards, but 7-8am is quite early for me since I've been lazing in bed for too long. I might try to return to my sec sch/jc pro-ness of being able to wake up around 4-5am to go to school and still being able to take it. (Ok la, except for the dozing off in class.) But it might help for these few weeks, if I reduce sleeping time it could greatly increase the amount of time I have to study. In any case, I love the feeling of waking up early. In the beginning it's quite sian and I always feel groggy but after I get used to it, it's actually quite refreshing. Nowadays the sun rises quite early too, so I feel more motivated to wake up... compared to in winter, when you wake up at 7 or 8 and it's still dark outside. How depressing.

Anyway, I was feeling very fresh and happy... managed to concentrate on reading for the longest period so far. Current count: 424 pages, or 9 chapters, left. That seems like I've done very little only because I've been slacking for the whole evening and night, and I took a really long nap in the late afternoon. I really achieved quite a lot this morning, just have to delude myself a little and think that tomorrow's going to be a better day.

On the other hand, I have been feeling rather disgusted at my increasing pigginess. I ate two sticks of ice-cream today... and tons of other snacks. People always say, 'Aiya, don't worry la, when you study and become stressed, you'll lose weight liao.' They are so wrong! Because when I concentrate on studying, or become stressed, I become more and more tempted to eat things. Of course the best way to solve this is not to buy those snacks. But without any snacks around at all makes me very restless, and I will feel quite sad when I want to eat something but there's nothing for me to eat.

topic: daily

a bit less apathetic

2006-05-04T00:04:00.000+08:00

I'm really good at procrastinating. I always 'waste' my time reading stuff online. It's weird that when I was in Singapore I was so super bochup about politics, even when I had to study Social Studies and General Paper, but when I'm here now I become an avid reader about the big election this year. Maybe it's only because the election this year is exciting. Or it's like 'absence makes the heart fonder', so only after you leave Singapore then only do you start to want to be aware of what's happening back home? Not that I'm no longer bochup, but at least I'm a bit less apathetic I guess. Everyday when I'm bored I surf blogs and news websites to check for any update on what's happening. It's so happening! Not that it matters to me, cos where I stay will probably remain uncontested forever. But it's just quite interesting to watch, like watching people fight in the street. Haha ok not so exaggerated la. Anyway, can not anyhow say stupid things also. I should *zip* already. Just realised this abnormal phenomenon that I actually bother to go read things about politics. -___-

446 pages left to read. Actually, I'm feeling rather awake now, which is unusual also. Plus this morning I woke up feeling sick and groggy. I'm weird. Think I shall continue reading until my eyes close, which should be quite soon cos I'm still reading the most boring chapter!

topic: singaporeelections, daily

Poot's mad

2006-05-03T23:44:00.000+08:00

Poot's mad. She said so herself. :D

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
dun distrub u

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
haha [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
oops

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
disturb u i meant

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
my typing very teh powderful oso

jessica says:
haha disrupt

jessica says:
distrup

jessica says:
distrub

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
heehee [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
LOL!! [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
u is not mean to me larh

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
:( [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
LOL! [emoticon]

jessica says:
i playing on the words only what!

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
i is bery sad now [emoticons: OK!]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
:D [emoticon]

jessica says:
ya la ya la

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
Hahahahahahaha [emoticons]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
sad still give :D [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
LOL! [emoticon]

|PrincessPeg aka Ningning@SNjB|~*^poOT* {uni@bham} GBHFDL [48 more days] says:
im mad

topic: daily

Yawn

2006-05-02T21:52:00.000+08:00

Cannot take it anymore... must go and sleep. This so shows that I can't do bio afterall, was reading psychology and my eyelids started becoming so so heavy. Cos this chapter is definitely the most uninteresting one, it's about synapses and neurons etc. Heh but I guess the sciences have to co-exist huh.

I counted, I have to read 10 chapters, or 467 pages, of the psychology book. I'm going to leave out the rest cos I don't think they are really relevant to what was taught, even though some of the left out chapters include the introductory chapters. Whatever. And I have until next Tuesday to do this. Hope I can manage it. Only read 10 pages so far. T_T

topic: daily

Argh

2006-05-02T00:56:00.000+08:00

Heehee 'argh' is the right word. Need to study!!!!! Poot just convinced me that I should read (ok, study) psychology before attempting the online exams. Sigh. I've never really read the psychology book before all the online tests during the terms, cos I would think what's the point? During the test, just use the index of the book to search for the keywords in the question and voila, there's the important page where the answer can be found, just scan through its contents! Maybe that's the reason why I got quite a number of Bs, and guai girl poot has all As. So I wasn't very concerned about psychology, cos it's just a MOMD (module out of main discipline)... I thought I already had too many Bs to be able to pull the final mark up to an A anyway, so I wasn't going to read the book. Yet just now poot went to check all the marks of the tests and proved me wrong, cos out of 4 tests in a term, the 3 best ones are used. This constitutes 60% of each term's marks, and the 2 final exams will count as 40% each. Thanks to them only counting the 3 best tests, my average so far is still going to be around an A, or at the very least a high B. So, I still have a chance to get the final grade up to an A, if I don't screw up for the exams. Ya lor, that's the long grandmother story... so now I have to read the psychology book. Sian. Not that I don't find some chapters interesting, but it's a bit like history and literature, I can find it interesting but I can never memorise anything.

When I came back just now, a note was stuck on the back of the front door. It said something like, 'Stop leaving stinky bin bags outside, take them to the bin you lazy ass!!' Another flatmate scribbled a reply: 'We'll get rats. I don't like rats!' A third flatmate wrote, 'Deal - only if the kitchen stays tidy cos it's a shithole!' LOL they'd die if they were in Poot's flat. Call this kitchen a shithole?? They probably haven't seen Poot's kitchen, and her flat's corridor too.

Ok la, going to read some psychology before I sleep. Really feel like sleeping now and waking up early tomorrow to study, but I don't trust myself to be disciplined enough.

topic: daily

Birds

2006-04-30T23:54:00.000+08:00

Another doodle, did this while listening to stuff (a.k.a studying for exams). Hmm I seriously dunno how and what to study! Argh. Quite frustrating. It was the same during Os and As mep papers... er ok la, except for studying the set works. Yep so I know I got to study the set works, and finish the harmony take-away, but I wish I knew what to do for the rest. Whatever. Get a good night's sleep first. :)

topic: daily

The Wicked and ArtRage 2

2006-04-30T20:53:00.000+08:00

My first two ArtRage 2 doodlings. Heehee. It was fun! It's cool that the program imitates real-life painting and the colours blend when they are mixed. Not sure whether my control over the mouse improved heh but it seemed easier to draw with this than with good ol' paint. Envy people using tablet though *cough cough*.

Recently I've been totally hooked on a game too: The Wicked. It was brought to people's attention quite some time ago; too bad I only stumbled upon it after so long, but I'm glad I did. It's really mind-boggling and addictive. Haha I guess it depends on what different people find interesting or fun, but it's safer to only go try this if your exams are over. Don't say I never warn you hor.

topic: thewicked, artrage

Curse of the Clock Tower

2006-04-26T22:40:00.000+08:00

I went for a concert at Barber today, by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo. Before that I had dinner with Pohning/Ning/Poot (:P). We walked past the clock tower on our way there and were reminded of the supposed curse: you fail all your exams if you walk under the clock tower. While it seems like some made-up story, I dare not try it and wait to see if it's true. It's like how I know certain things are just silly superstitions, but I still try to avoid doing such things. Most of the time it's the consequence that provoke fear I guess. I don't believe in stupid little things like 'if you point at the moon your ears will be cut off', but it's a different matter with things like 'if you sew while you're pregnant your child will be disfigured'. It's not as if I believe it's true, I know it's a superstition, but the notion of the possibility of causing the disfiguration of my child through my actions is just way too scary. So there are some superstitions that might be disputed wholeheartedly in my mind, yet I would never be brave enough to even dream of proving them wrong.

topic: superstition

locked out of the flat

2006-04-08T01:00:00.000+08:00

Lol sounds dramatic eh? Actually, not really...

Pohning came to borrow my flat's vacuum cleaner cos she couldn't find her flat's, so I got it for her from the storeroom in the kitchen and wanted to help her bring it to her flat. Without giving a second thought, we both stepped out of my flat and let the door shut by itself. When we'd got the vacuum cleaner to her flat, I told her to call me or something when she was done with it, and turned to go back to my flat. But I realised I didn't take my key with me! -____-''' Of all times, I had to do it during the holidays... sigh.

However, two of my flatmates have been staying here during the holidays so we went and rang the doorbell. But nobody answered. We remembered seeing half-eaten food on the table in the kitchen and shortly before Pohning called I heard someone answer the door and I think it was a take-away delivery. It was so weird that she had ordered food and then left it on the table half-eaten. I thought maybe she went out to meet her friend or Pohning suggested she might be bathing or something. After vacuuming, we rang the doorbell again but still, nobody answered so we left the vacuum cleaner outside my flat.

I called Shackleton hall's reception using Pohning's phone but the person said there weren't many people there so I might have to wait until quite late. I told him I'd be in Pohning's flat. It was already 7 plus or something like that, so Pohning went to cook dinner while I watched Ice Age 1 on her computer. She asked whether I wanted to eat but I had already washed and cut lady's fingers before she came to my flat. After Ice Age, we went on to Water Boys, and halfway through we stopped again cos it was past 9 o'clock and there still hadn't been anybody ringing the doorbell. So I called Shackleton again, and they told me to wait until they changed shifts at 10 something, and asked whether I was stuck outside or whether I had somewhere to go. So I said I was in Pohning's flat, and the person said he'll write that on the paper.

11 o'clock, and still nobody... I called Shackleton again. 'Oh, we just sent someone but there wasn't anybody there.' Erm! I told you I'd be in Pohning's flat! Two times! 'Ok, if you wait there now we'll send someone over'. Pohning said, 'Huh wait outside? But it's so cold!' I ended up waiting at the door, opening it a crack to peep out and listen for sounds. At least they really meant now, the person came quite quickly, driving one of the white minivans the uni's staff use. He said he came by fifteen minutes ago cos there was a call reporting a power trip in my flat, but there was nobody so he left. I was like huh?! Power trip? And I told them two times that I'll be waiting in Pohning's flat!

There still wasn't anybody at home, so I still dunno where the power trip call came from. I guess either they mistook me on the phone saying there was a power trip, or someone in flat 21 is still living in the dark waiting for people to go reset the power. It's probably flat 21... how can 'I'm locked out of my flat' sound anything like 'the power tripped in my flat'????

topic: daily, universityaccommodation

sorry for being constantly MIA!!!

2006-04-03T19:40:00.000+08:00

Oops, it's like I only blog like once in a thousand years and check my blog for tags in months or something. And I've been away from msn for ages like Emily pointed out too. =D
Anyway, I was catching up on her blog just now and found a very interesting and rather curiously, surprisingly accurate quiz.

the Observer

your Enneagram type is FIVE

"I need to understand the world"

Observers have a need for knowledge and are introverted, curious, analytical, and insightful.

How to Get Along with Me

Be independent, not clingy.
Speak in a straightforward and brief manner.
I need time alone to process my feelings and thoughts.
Remember that If I seem aloof, distant, or arrogant, it may be that I am feeling uncomfortable.
Make me feel welcome, but not too intensely, or I might doubt your sincerity.
If I become irritated when I have to repeat things, it may be because it was such an effort to get my thoughts out in the first place.
don't come on like a bulldozer.
Help me to avoid my pet peeves: big parties, other people's loud music, overdone emotions, and intrusions on my privacy.

What I Like About Being a Five

standing back and viewing life objectively
coming to a thorough understanding; perceiving causes and effects
my sense of integrity: doing what I think is right and not being influenced by social pressure
not being caught up in material possessions and status
being calm in a crisis

What's Hard About Being a Five

being slow to put my knowledge and insights out in the world
feeling bad when I act defensive or like a know-it-all
being pressured to be with people when I don't want to be
watching others with better social skills, but less intelligence or technical skill, do better professionally

Fives as Children Often

spend a lot of time alone reading, making collections, and so on
have a few special friends rather than many
are very bright and curious and do well in school
have independent minds and often question their parents and teachers
watch events from a detached point of view, gathering information
assume a poker face in order not to look afraid
are sensitive; avoid interpersonal conflict
feel intruded upon and controlled and/or ignored and neglected

Fives as Parents

are often kind, perceptive, and devoted
are sometimes authoritarian and demanding
may expect more intellectual achievement than is developmentally appropriate
may be intolerant of their children expressing strong emotions

Quick and Painless ENNEAGRAM Test

topic: daily, quiz

holidays!

2006-03-30T17:31:00.000+08:00

Haven't been doing a lot for this first week of the Easter holidays. On Monday Pohning and I went to Ruth's flat and we baked brownies and made rojak and curry chicken for dinner. Was quite fun, really miss baking... think I'll try to make up for that when I go back to Singapore hehe. Anyway, I was very clumsy with the peeler which I was trying to use to peel apples for the rojak... heehee, I'm already quite bad with the normal kind of peeler that looks like a knife, but this peeler was another type which I completely dunno how to use... so I dropped the whole apple into the bin. *rolls eyes* Lol I switched to a knife instead. If I continued to use the peeler I'd either take hundred years or drop all the apples into the bin.

On Tuesday we were quite hardworking and went to school to practice, not to mention feasting on two pieces of fried chicken and chips at Adam's Place afterwards at about 3 too. I was thinking of going to practice on Wednesday after we came back from Tesco (earning a 'why you so mugger?!' from Pohning), but on the day itself I was very sian and decided to give it a miss. Besides, it started raining after we got back... best kind of weather to stay indoors and slack! Lastly, I regret to say that I was being very lazy this morning and didn't go to school to practice as planned, again. Haiz... I really must go tomorrow, this must not become a habit like during the Christmas holidays when I procrastinated almost all the time and didn't practice much. Oh but I'm quite happy to say that I didn't slack for the whole day today, I spent most of the time listening to stuff online. Failed to configure the proxy on both mozilla and internet explorer to connect directly to the school's network even though I swear I followed every single instruction on the IS helpdesk webpage. And checked it many times too. Whatever. So I couldn't access the naxos music library online. But I signed up for a free trial on www.classical.com, which Pauline recommended to me some time ago. It's quite cool, I managed to find some things that I previously couldn't find on CDs in the music library! Er ok, I haven't really looked through the central library's CD shelves thoroughly, but I'd rather enjoy this than pay to borrow CDs from the central library unless I desperately need something from there.

topic: daily, music

Most crappy essay award

2006-03-20T11:48:00.000+08:00

This is my shortest essay and yet it took the longest time to do. So loser :(

It's the first time I stayed up for the entire night (last few times I could at least sleep at around 4 or something), yet I didn't even hit the word limit whereas for previous essays I had to lie a little in the word count so that I wouldn't have overshot the limit by too much. Some parts of the essay were totally make-this-point-longer sentences. Actually, when I consolidated points from the books, I had 6000+ words. But it was too much and so disorganised that I got stuck trying to make some sense out of the essay. So early this morning I started being vicious and cut out the bulk of the points, plus summarised the remaining points I thought were the most important. Then I found myself with too little words. -___-'''' Anyway, I'm just hoping that the essay wouldn't be too narrow-minded or worse, unbalanced. Just going to do some laundry and then I'm going to enjoy a nice long nap.

topic: daily, university

I can be buay song too

2006-03-16T23:51:00.000+08:00

I was on the bus to Selina and Jack's shop after school (they decided to move there recently), when I encountered something quite unpleasant. The bus was very crowded and I was sitting right at the back. When my stop was coming up, another man was also squeezing towards the front from the back so I followed behind him. About one quarter of the way there, I sort of slowed down cos it was getting quite congested and this girl became buay song about that for no apparent reason. She said, 'Are you moving to the front?' and I didn't really hear her properly cos I was concentrating more on trying to move through the people. So I said, 'Sorry?' That was when she became super 'attitude'. She said 'If you're moving to the front do it quick then' or something like that, and pushed past me towards the back of the bus lor. It was definitely on purpose that she bumped into my shoulder and bag. She can't have been much older than me, in fact she looked younger. I really don't see why she was in such a big hurry to move towards the back. There were only two empty seats, vacated by me and the other person, and anyway the other passengers closer to them would have gotten the seats lor. I was quite shocked and pissed but kept moving towards the front cos my stop was right up. I really don't want to sound racist or anything... but what went through my head at that time was ok, I'm a Chinese la, so? So you can bully me cos the whole bus was filled with blacks to back you up? How'd you feel if a white did that to you lor?

Sighs. I missed my stop in the end. Cos even though the 'bus stopping' sign was lighted up, I was stuck somewhere with about one third of the way left to the door. Although the driver stopped, no number of 'excuse me's convinced the people in front of me to move. Especially the man who had been squeezing through before me. I dunno why he had to squeeze through if he wasn't getting down at this stop, maybe he was just being kiasu and wanted to make sure he'd get to the door by his stop. But I just don't understand why he didn't budge no matter how many times I said 'excuse me'. The people around me all heard lor, they were looking at me to see what I would do. But he just refused to move, and the bus driver decided to move on. So a lady behind me started pushing against me cos she was going to get down the next stop. Duh, I want to get down also! But the man just stood there. Argh. It was so frustrating. And then, when we reached the stop, he got down. Diao. Fine. Then tell me that you were going to get down at the next stop and let me squeeze past or something?? Make me walk in the cold somewhere I'm not familiar with... sigh. But it was not too bad, I sort of retraced the bus route back to the stop I meant to get down.

topic: daily, transport

last lap

2006-03-13T22:46:00.000+08:00

It's so obvious from my dust-covered blog that my life is extremely dull. Anyway, it's the second last week of term and next Monday is the submission of the last essay I'll have to do this year. It's both 'yay!' and 'oh no!'... cos I haven't started even reading the books I borrowed. That just shows how cmi I am.

Sunday was the University Choir concert. We sang Verdi's Requiem, it was ok i guess. The soloists were good. So anyway, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons we had rehearsals so I haven't been doing my work. I spent quite a long time practising harpsichord after lecture today, cos I haven't really practised since dunno when. Until now I've only finished my Schubert exercise and I have to read things for text tomorrow. Sigh. This Friday will be the submission for the final composition for studio comp, and I still haven't made changes since the lesson last Thursday.

Actually, I'm sort of getting the can't-be-bothered feeling since it's the last lap. Really want to sit back and say 'heck care la'. But I guess I shall change that feeling into a more positive one, like 'go go go! last lap!' haha hope I can do that. I think this essay is going to be quite cmi, but I'll just try to put in all the effort I can. Hopefully it's not going to be too out of point though. *fingers crossed*

topic: daily, music, university

freezing

2006-03-04T23:51:00.000+08:00

It was so bitterly cold in St. Augustine's Church, where we had the chamber choir concert. I was shivering all the time. I probably looked like I was having spasms or something lol. I wasn't sure whether to wear many layers under my black shirt cos the previous concert at Barber it got so hot when I wore a tube and a tee underneath. So I compromised and just wore a tee under my shirt instead. Horrors. Who'd have expected the church to be so cold!

I learnt that I should probably be more confident of the map I check on a website when I'm going somewhere unfamiliar. I remembered the directions clearly but I thought I was going too far and maybe I'd missed the turn into the road where the church was. So I started asking for directions, and detoured for a while until I came across a pair of policemen (uh, a policeman and a policewoman), who were able to give me the right directions. It turns out that I should have continued walking instead of start asking passersby and going the wrong way.

It was so cold that I just had to cook something when I reached home. Decided to bake fries and to compromise for such an unhealthy choice (at 10+ pm too!), I cooked chrysanthemum tea. It was the ultimate comfort to stand in front of the stove and oven. Actually why do they call chrysanthemum tea that, since there really is no tea in it? Maybe they should call it chrysanthemum water/drink or some other name instead.

topic: daily, music

Just so pple know

2006-03-03T23:21:00.000+08:00

I am looking forward to going back to Singapore during the holidays. No matter how much I say I don't want the school year to end, I'm actually getting excited thinking about going home too. Being back in Singapore means being back in the comfort zone, where you don't have to speak with an accent in case people don't understand you (and worry about being fake), or speak without an accent and worry that people can't understand you. And it means no school work! ;D It's my top reason la. I am so looking forward to it.

It's also going to be a comfort zone where you know everything's reasonably affordable, and don't have to think twice before buying something. Finally... I think I'll go crazy buying CDs, scores, books, clothes, watching movies, and a thousand more things. Of course I'll probably have to find someone reliable to rein me in... it's ok, I still have some time to calm down before I break loose in Singapore!

This morning I was walking to school in fantastic sunshine and I caught myself daydreaming about what I'd do in Singapore. Like wear sandals, slippers, and stuff like that... cos I'll probably be taking the MRT/bus so I won't need to wear super comfy shoes to walk around. And it wouldn't be so cold (or rather, it would be too hot) so I could loose all the bulky clothing. And I wouldn't be carrying books around. It means getting to use a washing machine. It means not waking up shivering and huddling under the blanket every morning. It means... hmm so many things! I think I'm going mad right now.

I can think of so many places I want to visit, so many things I want to do. Oh, and the food, how could I have forgotten the food! I'll definitely have to go to the beach. I miss the sun and the sea! No matter that I'm not a very sporty person, or that the beaches in Singapore are not pretty/clean/pleasant. It's just a compulsion I get after being here in the cold wind and under grey skies. Eurgh. I think I shall find a day to spend at the beach, from sunrise to sunset. That would be nice. =)

I'm going to have to start planning after the exams. I'm so sure I wouldn't have time to do everything I want to otherwise. But first, I must probably look for a job. Too bad, daydreams just don't fit into reality all the time huh. It's ok, I just know it's going to be alright. I'm going to use every single minute that I'm not sleeping doing something productive. No more slacking! =P As if... if holidays are not for slacking, then I dunno what is. But whatever, I meant no slacking as in, I better make better use of my time during the holidays.

For now, back to mundane life I guess... heh back to doing my Schubert lied. Was supposed to try and finish my work tonight cos the chamber choir concert's tomorrow night. Ahhh... it's the essay-around-the-corner worries getting to me again. Which was why I just needed to stop for a moment, block out everything and immerse myself in a beautiful daydream. =) Soon soon... it's already March!

topic: singapore, daily

Uh, random post?

2006-03-03T02:06:00.000+08:00

Back from a long talking/gossiping/reminiscing session with Poot. Was great drifting from topic to topic, I always thought if you see a friend almost everyday there would come a time when there will be absolutely nothing to talk about. Looks like I was wrong. And anyway not like we are very talkative normally too right. So it seems we still can find lots of stuff to talk about. Makes me wonder a little how it's going to be like next year, when we're staying at different places, maybe taking different modules too. Hmm, I think I'm alright, I'm sometimes too loner anyway, but I suppose it might still feel a bit weird.

Sighs and this term is just flying by even faster than the previous term. I guess it's rather selfish of me, but I sometimes wish term would never end and I can stay here for longer than I could. Anyway, went babysitting today and I learnt quite a lot from Selina. She came home quite early and we were just chatting and we sort of got started on the topic of her really early marriage and stuff, sacrifices, etc. and I realised she's such an ultra strong woman. Respect her man. Yea, I know, I shouldn't be so selfish and think only of me, myself and I.

On a totally different and random note, I walked home after studio compo lesson today in a 'rain' of ice. I dunno if it could be called hail, cos it didn't seem to be dangerous stuff pelting down with a vengeance. But it was definitely not snow, which is more of pieces of white stuff floating down to the ground. It was sort of like little styrofoam balls raining down from the sky. As if some little kid was having fun scattering them from among the clouds. The weather was very weird today. First it was sunny and a bit draught-y in the morning, and then suddenly it snowed/iced, for a bit. It stopped, and then snowed again, etc etc. This went on for about 4 times. The other day my text tutor was saying it's suddenly very cold cos we're under some low pressure, which is sucking the cold air from the arctic. Lol it led one classmate to ask, 'are you a weatherman during your spare time?' My text/TMP tutor has been quite commonly touted by my classmates as some sort of a know-it-all (not in the negative way... more like, wow, how does he know all these things?).

topic: daily

Just filling the space

2006-02-28T17:21:00.000+08:00

Came back from lessons and I'm slacking between now and choir rehearsal later. Or maybe not. I ~~might~~ should start doing a bit of studio compo stuff after this I guess.

Text was a bit less boring today than last week, but I think people might have become a bit irritated by one classmate who has become ultra talkative since around the start of this term. This person was just making remarks and comments to lots of things said during class, and trying to answer the questions etc. That's good I guess, it shows the person's enthusiasm. But at some point it got a bit too much and I remember last week someone said, 'you talk too much'. Just now another person asked, 'do you actually answer everybody's questions?' This has happened quite a few times, e.g. when the teacher directs a question towards a classmate and this person blurts out the answer either cos he didn't realise the question was for someone else or... maybe he was way too enthusiastic.

One of the entertaining bits of the lesson was the comical second movement of Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks. The opening sounded like some cartoon opening music or something. And there was this part where the teacher played a bass line, and it sounded like some cool jazz bass line. Most of the lesson was still sian as usual, but at least there were some less-dull moments. At the beginning of the lesson one classmate was saying something... imitating someone? Or whatever... part of the sentence was 'I will do anything for you, blahblahblah.' Another classmate, who's a bit blur/slow sometimes, was staring at her at first, cos she thought the first classmate was actually saying that to the teacher. And when she realised her misunderstanding, she burst out in laughter and her laughter was quite infectious larh... another classmate was also giggling like mad and the rest of the class were smiling.

I dunno why I'm still blogging even though I don't have much to write. Everything is about lessons, how much more dull can it get?

topic: daily, university

shiver...

2006-02-23T22:38:00.000+08:00

After the sunny, cheerful week previously, it suddenly turned grey and cold on Saturday. Sighs no sun, gloomy, rain/sleet/snow, wet, chilly...

On a happier note, I watched the Incredibles with the kids today. Great! Regular hero-saves-the-day cartoon, but still good. You get a family of heroes even. =)

Oh ya, I was supposed to blog about how nerdy poot and I were last week. On Friday, we went to the music library at the Barber Institute, and then to the Selly Oak library, and then to the Birmingham Central library, for one single purpose... borrow books for our next essay! Uh, and to return the books for the previous essay. But that's not the point. I now have 12 books on my table waiting to be read. (Ah, the nice module tutor decided to extend the dateline by two weeks... phew.) One of the books is for text, so okay, 11 then. But today, after studio lesson and before I went to babysit, I went to the Selly Oak library again to borrow one more book. So it's a total of 12. Just nice, a dozen! Ya ya, go ahead and call me a mugger.

While we were in the city on Friday, we also went 'to take a look' in Waterstones... (haha KK should know that 'to take a look' is a phrase that doesn't exist when applied to bookstores!) We both ended up falling for this 3 for 2 offer, which basically means you choose three books, and pay for the two most expensive ones. I think both our choices ended up having all three books at the same price. So we paid like 5+ pounds for each book. Quite cheap compared with Kino la, but this Wednesday, when we were at Tesco, we visited the book aisle and one of the books we both bought was selling for 3+ lor! ARGH. Where to find new books at such a price in Singapore?! At least not all the books I bought were available in Tesco lah, otherwise I think I'll be banging my head against the wall.

LOL ranting on and on about borrowing books in 3 libraries, then complaining about disparity of book prices, just sticks an official label on me that screams 'NERD!'

topic: daily, university, nerd

2006-02-16T12:19:00.000+08:00

Poot's complaining that I haven't blogged for a long time. Hmph... your blog was dead for longer than mine lor =P

Anyway, just dropping by for a short note before I leave for my studio composition lesson. Planned to go to school in the morning to practice, like I usually do on Thursdays. But I guess my brain or body just couldn't take it anymore after having very little sleep since last Friday when I was pia-ing the essay (again). So I'm still at home now! But not slacking la, I was still doing the studio stuff just now, but I decided to blog a bit before I have lunch and go for lesson.

This time I didn't have to stay up till the wee hours of the morning to finish up my essay, but I still got quite little sleep. For both Friday and Saturday I slept at 4 am and woke up at 7 the day after. Guess that really helped, so that I didn't have to sleep so late on Sunday. But I still woke up super early on Monday morning, cos I decided to read through the essay and probably find some musical examples before I went to school to print it. Monday night I went babysitting, and after the kids were asleep I started doing my string quartet exercise on the sofa but nodded off after only doing like 3 plus bars. Reached home at 12 plus and luckily I managed to become more awake by washing my face with the super cold water. The string quartet was not that bad except for the last phrase, which was quite irritating after a while. Lol I think I spent a bit less than 1 hour doing that phrase alone over and over again! In the end I still wasn't satisfied but it was already 2 plus so I decided I better sleep.

Had to wake up early on Tuesday cos my lesson was at 9. And I hadn't read up on Stravinsky for my text lesson in the afternoon. Scanned through a short paragraph about him, although we were supposed to go borrow some more substantial books about him and not read some stupid book that's more like a summary of the history of music. Luckily some of my classmates were too busy doing their essays to be so hardworking also. But I better go borrow books before next Tuesday, cos I know my classmates are super hardworking and enthu, they are scary! This was also an abnormal Tuesday, cos I was supposed to play at this early music concert. I was totally crap. Argh. I'm still hating myself for letting my nerves get to me can. Sighs.

K larh, gotta go liao.

broke my record

2006-02-07T23:28:00.000+08:00

I woke up at 8.25 this morning. My new record! =P

My lesson was at 9, which means I had only 5 minutes to dash out of the flat, which was quite impossible so I took 10 minutes instead, grabbing a mandarin orange to eat on the way to school. Lol. Was supposed to meet Poot downstairs at 8.30 so I had to call her to inform her not to be punctual. Heh luckily she hadn't left her room yet. Poot said I should blog about this hahaha. I guess I don't want to break this record. I shudder to think what time I'd wake up if I ever managed it. Hmm... 9am perhaps?? I just realised that in Singapore I never had the privilege of waking up merely 35 minutes before my lesson hahaha. If I were ever in that situation, I think the only way I'd not be late for school was if I made it out of the house in 5 minutes and got a cab straight away when I got downstairs.

Busy again

2006-02-04T21:24:00.000+08:00

It's that time of term again... when the blues start to get to me. Essay's due soon, and I'm still convinced that I stupidly chose a question that I'll probably not be able to answer. The books I borrowed seem to be out of point too... I'm sooooo dead can. ARGH.

Got back my paper composition too. Lots of comments about my 'weird' use of accidentals. I must concede that some of them were careless mistakes on my part, e.g. writing an augmented 5th interval instead of a minor 6th (G-D# instead of G-Eb). Fine, but some of the rest were not that hard to read what. C-C#-D and C-Db-D... like what's the HUGE difference lor. And actually, for that augmented 5th interval thing, I think it's alright for me to leave it as such cos it was what I intended to write, an augmented 5th interval. So why in the world would I think of turning it into a minor 6th until I got the score back and realised/remembered that oops, they prefer 'normal' intervals. Whatever. Lesson learnt. I think I have to like keep this in my memory forever, so that I won't do foolish things like that again if I ever take composition in my next two years. Which is very very possible cos it means I'll have less essay-based modules to do!

Now it's usually the instrumental lessons I look forward to, and there are so little of them... 10hrs per year for each instrument, pathetic! Sighs. But at least I'm enjoying them. The pace for piano is also picking up a bit, now we manage to go through more pieces each lesson. Loving harpsichord loads... it's so... I dunno? I guess Poot was right in saying that it's the vibes our teacher gives off that makes harpsichord lessons so enjoyable. She's so enthusiastic about everything, new pieces, old pieces, etc, even discussing fixing spoilt strings/parts of the harpsichord, which she does in addition to tuning at least two of the harpsichords each time she comes! Quite sad that this will probably be the only time in my life I'll get to play the harpsichord. I must make full use of this chance! =)

Text is boring as usual. But once I realised why I couldn't figure out the tone rows in the first movement of Webern (I didn't know there could be overlaps, stupid me...), I found it quite interesting. It's like solving a puzzle, like crossword puzzles (not the fill-in-the-blank type, the circle-the-words-you-spot type, what's it called again?) or sudoku. I also really admire Webern for actually coming up with such highly compact movements that made sense once we figured out the structure in class. Gosh, he's mad, in the words of one classmate... or maybe he's a genius, or maybe a mix of both. TMP is going along fine too. It's the usual cycle of 1) do exercise for homework, 2) teacher plays through exercise during class and comments, 3) look at the composer's actual harmonisation of the exercise, name chords etc, 4) give out new exercise, 5) listen to some music and guess the composer (this one's more for context, but our teacher's just trying to give us more exposure).

Ok, enough rambling and slacking, I guess I'm going to make a start on my text and studio compo homeworks (I finished TMP, yay!). Hopefully, if I finish those two by today, it leaves me ample time to finish my essay without having to practically not sleep the day before it's due... like the previous two times.

Little anecdotes

2006-01-31T23:48:00.000+08:00

This morning...

Teacher: *hands out copies of reading*

Teacher: the author is good, he says 'bad' when he means 'bad', there's also 'good', 'poor'...

Me: (thinking) huh... pour? pall? ... confused

Me: *flips page*

Me: (thinking) oh! poor!

-____-'''

Yesterday, after chamber choir rehearsal...

Some sopranos: *enthusiastically discussing and singing something, which sounded like it was from some Mozart opera to me*

A: *rolls eyes* sopranos...

B and me: *smiles*

Me: (wanted to say) hmm, so... are you a soprano or an alto??
[in joking manner, cos she's actually a soprano but she's been singing alto since we will only be a pathetic two in numbers if she didn't join us]

But I refrained from saying anything. What if the tone came out wrong? Or what if she took it too seriously?? What if she didn't think it was funny? And anyway, I didn't even know her personally, I only knew her name. I think jokes/witty stuff are easier to say when one's in the company of friends rather than we-just-happen-to-have-met people. Not like it was an extremely witty/funny remark anyway, which is probably the main thing that causes me to doubt its effectiveness and wonder about the what-ifs that could arise.

By the way, some of the conversation (or 'conversation') were paraphrases of the actual incidents. This aging brain of mine just can't keep up. =(

Happy Chinese New Year!

2006-01-28T23:53:00.000+08:00

I just couldn't resist taking a photo in a pink tee, red pants, and on my red duvet cover, which in turn is on my red bedsheets. Heehee. How appropriate for Chinese New Year.

I was also very guai, I spring-cleaned! Now my room's really neat and tidy. It might have been even more tidy if I didn't have a 'clothes line', which is actually just a long piece of nylon rope strung from the bar above the curtain (what's it called? I think I used to know...) to the thing above my door (the thing that will ensure the door closes by itself even if you forget to... I'm sure I used to know the name for it too!). Seems like my vocabulary has decreased instead of increasing... bah. There's also a stack of books on my table waiting to be read, hopefully something I can start soon since the essay dateline is drawing ever so close.

At least I completed the string quartet for TMP as well as finished identifying the tone rows in the second movement of Webern for text. I'm just left with processing sounds for studio composition, and reading those books of course. There you go, a muggerish Chinese New Year for me this year. Ha not like I was THAT muggerish la, if I were I might have already completed all those homework and I'd probably have already started on the books. But oh well, at least I made some progress today.

Had dinner at Ruth's flat today, with Roger, JJ, Edmund and David. It was rather quieter than any meal I've had there, as noted by most people, cos of Zhuomin's absence. But it was still enjoyable, lots of laughs as usual. And good food too.

Long post again

2006-01-26T22:10:00.000+08:00

Yet another post for me to lament and ponder about mundane stuff. Nothing interesting, skip it, you basically wouldn't be missing anything except maybe 'hearing' me talk more than I usually do in person.

The other day, Poot was telling me how she felt that the Christmas holiday and her trip back to Singapore was like a dream. She felt as though it never took place, cos now we're back to grinding our noses in school. At first I didn't really agree, recalling how I slacked everyday until I had to make a big rush to finish my final compo during the last one and a half weeks, how could that not be considered a decent period of rest? But later I paid more attention to how I was feeling at the very moment and I understood how she felt.

It's a continuous sequence of tasks to do, datelines to meet, etc. I guess it gets tiring after a while, because there just seems to be a mountain of things to do yet too little time to complete them. I'm quite sure it can't be attributed to school work, although the essays do require quite some effort, because even in secondary school or junior college we used to have even more school work. No, I think the lack of time may be due to the small little things we used to take for granted in Singapore, such as laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, etc etc. Things we didn't always have to do for ourselves. In addition, I've been washing laundry by hand to save on the costly cost of operating the washing machines and dryers in the laundrettes. So it really takes up lots of time. Hmm on hindsight, I guess it's also partly my fault for slacking, and then having to do last minute work, but I guess it's quite impractical to expect someone to work every minute that she's awake too!

It's also quite surreal in that I can't believe it's the second term already! Sighs. Someone should look into inventing some device that enables its owner to live in their own time capsules, to savour the good moments for as long as they want to. I know, impossible and ludicrous, but just let me dream. I would love to live in a world of my own. Seriously. I'm not autistic or extremely anti-social or anything, but I think I have more anti-social tendencies than an average person. Sometimes I just hate socialising with people, trying to be friendly with everyone, going out when all I really want to do is to stay in my room, and yada yada. Of course I could be on the other end of the spectrum, be really mean to everybody, angst-filled, offending anyone who tries to talk to me etc, but what's the point? Or rather, I think I'm just not made to be that offensive. I just can't do it.

I really enjoy having lots of time to myself, even if it's just a short 20-minute stroll 'home' from university. When you're walking with someone, (no offense Poot, since you're the person I walk with the most often) you pay attention to the conversation. When you're walking alone, you get to mull things over, appreciate the beautiful sky, the silhoutte of bare tree branches against it amongst other things, and hmm, it may be weird, but sometimes I do enjoy the cold breeze on my face. Like how today I was marvelling at the sky when I enjoyed my walk home in quite a cold weather. I regretted not having my camera with me, though probably even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to do justice to the breath-taking sight. Sadly, I'm not a professional photographer. At least I can still cherish the image in my mind's eye.

Now that I think of it, it's all the small things like these that are part and parcel of everyday life that may seem very trivial, but that go unnoticed all the time, which makes my heart skip a beat each time I notice them. And makes me regret not having spent more time admiring such things in all my life. But then again, we can't all just sit around relishing the wonders of life every single minute, life has to go on. I guess if I had all the time in the world to enjoy beautiful things, I may no longer find them so special.

Back to the point of living in my own world, I guess it might not be that good an idea. Of course right now, when I don't get enough time to myself, I crave for that sort of life. But imagining being a recluse for the rest of my life, I guess I can't do it. Not after 20 years of knowing my family, friends, and putting up with my fair share of socialising.

Haiya... I dunno what I'm rambling on and on about in this post, but if you managed to survive this post, kudos to you!

Chicken day

2006-01-20T23:54:00.000+08:00

Had quite a fulfilling day today, not that I accomplished lots of things, but I just felt that it was time well spent. Went to school in the morning to practise, then I met Poot and we went to the city centre together. First stop was Argos, where I got a pair of headphones for studio composition this term. Now I can finally stop borrowing Poot's pair, so bad lor, though I only borrowed it from her to use on three occasions. Sort of regret forgetting that I should have asked whoever went back to Singapore for the Christmas holidays to help me buy a pair of headphones. Cos at the price I got mine, I could have been able to get a pair of Sennheiser ones for the equivalent in Singapore dollars, albeit a low-end one probably. Oh well...

Next, we were about to head to Gregg's, where we usually like to buy baguettes for lunch. And their baguettes are really well worth the price. For just 1.5 pounds, you get a very very long baguette stuffed so full that I usually have trouble eating it without stuff spilling out of the bread. That was when Poot noticed the offer advertised in the window of the KFC outlet across the road from Gregg's. It was a 2-piece chicken meal at 2.99 pounds. I know I know, it's really expensive if you convert it to Singapore dollars, but it was the temptation of something affordable after not having eaten KFC for dunno-how-long. So too bad, we gave Gregg's a miss and had lunch at KFC instead. Lots of people were having the 2-piece meal too. They only have the original chicken though, no crispy, which is what I'll usually crave for cos the chilli in the crispy chicken is just too hauntingly unforgettable. But it was still good, oily, tender and piping hot. Their fries are nicer too, it's a bit chunkier than the normal KFC/Mac's fries. So it was the kind of fries I like, crispy but with soft insides. Yum. Heh I'm like totally not even putting any effort into my plan not to gain any more weight this year. Damn.

After lunch we headed for the indoor market where I got some nuts and to the outdoor market where I got some grapes. Then we went to Allegro Music to get manuscript paper, cos I used up quite a lot of what Zhuomin and Ruth gave us, and left Poot with ~~quite~~ very little. Oops, ok, it's entirely my fault, now I feel so bad for Poot. At first I was going to share a pad with her since I think I might still do paper composition next year, but I guess it was more convenient for us to each buy our own. Just feel bad that Poot had to fork out money to get manuscript paper when I used so many pieces of free ones!

Our last stop was the Central Library, to borrow books for our upcoming essay dateline. Sighs. Trying to switch back to mugger/nerd mode. But it was quite irritating cos there were only limited resources and quite a lot of the books that we thought might be useful were in the reference section. Bleah. We're going back tomorrow, armed with laptops, paper, and cameras! Don't care...

For dinner, we cooked chicken rice at Poot's place. The packet says it's for 3-4 servings, but after eating a serving each, there was still enough left for probably another 4 meals lor. They were probably thinking of people with huge appetites. Of course we also helped Poot finish up her yellowing broccoli, but it wasn't really that much vegetables. So it was definitely the rice and chicken. I took pity on Poot and 'helped' her by bringing three packets of potato chips (ok, here they call it crisps) back to my room in the end. We originally each bought a 24-pack bag of chips last term, when we were super busy doing our second essay and totally craving for such things all the time (or at least I was). She still has some left (as opposed to piggy me, who finished all 24 packets long ago last term), and she just discovered that they expire this February. I was telling her that my flatmates might think I'm mad (if they don't already think so), like 'she went out with her bowl, fork, spoon, and a freezer bag containing some black thing (Poot's headphones), and she came back with her fork + spoon (I left my bowl sitting in her fridge with 3/4 of the leftover rice), three packets of crisps, and a book (my score which I left at Poot's earlier). Maybe she ate the black stuff and cracked her bowl, so her friend gave her crisps to console her!' LOL

on animals and tone rows

2006-01-18T22:59:00.000+08:00

I'm having 'lots of fun' identifying the tone rows in Webern's Konzert Op.24, which is what we're supposed to do for text homework. The sheet of the tone row, its retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion, and their transpositions in twelve keys that we're supposed to write out sometimes doesn't help. In the first place I was quite careless and I transposed some rows wrongly, sometimes in the wrong direction and sometimes I don't even know what my brain was doing when I made that mistake. And then there's that 'problem' of the composer's creativity, which is exhibited through his juxtaposition of different rows such that my brain gets a big workout just trying to put the notes into their respective rows and not mix them up. I'm only at bar 16! Slow progress...

My cousin sent me this today:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2006/01/18/1399667-ap.html
I wonder whether the hamster knew she was going to end up as food or was she very excited to have a snake for company? Maybe she could speak parseltongue and managed to escape death. Wonder how she feels when frozen rodents are put into the cage for the snake. It's like seeing your fellow humans being eaten up by aliens or something.

Oh ya, just recently I realised that my preconceived notion of two squirrels living around the trees I can see outside my window was wrong. The other day I saw three, no, four squirrels simultaneously running across the branches. Previously I've only seen two. Here's a picture I took of one of them:

sigh Mahler...

2006-01-15T23:57:00.000+08:00

After not conscientiously listening for a long long time, I decided that I better buck up and start mugging the crap out of my ears from now on. Last night I listened to Varese... erm, hmm, he's fine, there are some things I really like (and in fact some of the compo assignments got partly influenced by him), but there were also some parts that were too eeek for me. Unfortunately, I've been slacking for the whole of today other than practising in the morning. So I decided to listen to Mahler's Symphony No.1 just now. I love it! Perhaps other than a few cheesy moments... but maybe the 'cheesiness' occurs to me only because too many composers have copied his style for so long that these things have become yucky cliche stuff. Mahler is just superb for all the lyrical, long, 'heart-melting' (not as heart-melting as Sibelius' Violin Concerto heh), 'stretched', 'sighing' melodic lines! Haha those are just my own descriptions, I dunno why I never fell in love with Mahler before today, maybe it's cos I haven't been listening to a lot for ages, or if something was playing I just didn't actually pay much attention to what I was hearing. *Contented sigh* I'm glad I really listened today.

I guess from now on I have to listen to much more everyday, or I have no idea how I'm going to pass my exams next term! Yay. Nothing like a fresh start to inspire me to work harder. (Just hope it's going to last me the whole term lor... >.<)

First week

2006-01-14T23:06:00.000+08:00

It's been a nice honeymoon week back in school. I wish it could just stay like this forever haha. Sigh. Nopez... it's going to be back to normal by Monday. This week was good although I was nervous about the composition submission and playthroughs, but once that was out of the way, I had quite a good first week back. Since official lessons for music only start on Thursday, I practically only had one lesson this week... cos I suppose a playthrough is technically not a lesson?? Hahaha whatever, I'm just babbling nonsense.

Yep, so it's been good, I only had studio compo this week. It was quite boring actually, to me it's more like something to stone to. It's so 'white-noise'-y... like just background noise that you might hear for the first 20 seconds or so, and then your ears and brains learn to shut it out. It's also quite hard work for the brain to concentrate on following the 'music' cos unlike normal music it's just made up of sounds. I tend to form some sort of 'movie' in the mind's eye according to the sounds I hear. But it can't work for everything cos some things just don't make sense in order for them to fall into a storyline. Luckily it's not going to be that bad, just anyhow edit sounds on Adobe Audition and I guess anyhow arrange sounds into a 'piece'??? Haha I sound like those who will stand up and indignantly say, 'That's not music!' But it isn't that bad, I can still appreciate it, but it's just different. Some of it really makes me switch off but some of it is really interesting! There was this piece in which sounds subtly melted into one another e.g. there were sounds of cars driving past, and then it slowly turned into sounds of water etc, it's all gradual and nice. So it's not as bad as it seems to be, from what I've been typing above... there are genuinely great stuff too. I guess I shall learn to like some of it by the end of the term. Yea... anything to get out of doing lots of essays next year man. Heehee

Last day of hols

2006-01-08T23:38:00.000+08:00

School's starting tomorrow... for music students official lessons only begin on Thursday, but the dateline for most assignments is 12pm tomorrow. And the playthrough for the first years' compos is on Tuesday! Final year performance students are also having a January Assessment. Shiong huh... scary, whole holiday no lessons no nothing, suddenly just have assessment when school starts. *Shivers* I'm sort of dreading the start of school... sighs. But wells, I guess I better try to get rid of this stupid feeling. Time to start being a nerd again!

Was just recording some band pieces from my MDs into the laptop using Adobe Audition, a programme originally called Cool Edit Pro but has been bought over by Adobe. The reason why I'm doing this is so that I can listen to band pieces without having to take out my MD and plugging it into the laptop, or using earphones to listen directly from the MD. Why can't I just transfer the songs into my laptop using the USB cable? Cos the sony NetMD programme only allows for transfer of songs between the MD and the computer from which the songs were originally transfered into the MD. So I have to use such a weird method. And anyway, I forgot to bring the MD's charger which is also where the USB cable is plugged into (I'm using external batteries to operate the MD). But no matter, I'm enjoying listening to the pieces at the same time! Makes me quite nostalgic though.

call me a lazy pig oink

2006-01-07T23:53:00.000+08:00

Can't stand it... ARGH what's new, I woke up late again. It was 11 plus, so I didn't see the point of going to the library to photocopy my compo cos I dunno what time it closes on Saturdays. I don't usually go to the library cos there's a music library at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. But I don't think the music library would be open today, or maybe it was, just that I'm blur. Anyway, the point is, I'm a lazy pig!

But I did spend my day tidying up my room and making it fit for living/studying for the next term la. Not that bad, coming from someone who always has piles of books/paper/stuff on her bed ok. I just move those piles to and fro the table/chair and the bed, depending on what I'm going to do i.e. study/use the computer, or sleep. Haha bet you didn't know I was such a slob. But I'm not disorganised ok, if I need something I usually know which pile of stuff the thing's in. Just gimme a minute to look through the pile la =P

Just checked the Barber website, yep, the library wasn't open today. I thought, heng ah, I'm not that blur afterall. BUT... I checked the main library's opening hours on the Bham wesite, oops, it was open from 10 - 2! Feel like banging my head against the wall can. Now why didn't I check those websites when I woke up late this morning??? The first excuse that came into my head was, but I only thought of that just now! Yet there's only one reason... it was cos the lazy pig in me just wanted to assume that they weren't going to be open for me to go and photocopy my compo. Nooooo this just has to stop. Ok, no way is there going to be somewhere for me to photocopy tomorrow, but I promise I'll go practice in the morning. Yes, I will!!! Ok, I'm going to sleep now! Hope one day's enough to get my body clock back on track in time for start of school. Bleargh.

By the way, the weather here's really great for lazing in bed. The room gets progressively colder through the night, cos the 'high-class non-gas' heater in the room can only be set to 24 degrees celcius at its maximum, which you might think, like air-con what! But combined with the weather here it really gets cold la. So they have this thing called a heater booster, which when pressed will make the heater's temperature rise until it hits some maximum... 30-something, I think. After which, it will switch back to the 'normal' mode of 24 degrees and so the room temperature falls steadily from then on unless you press the booster button again. So at night when I go to bed it might be quite warm, but when I wake up in the morning it's cold! Yet the bed is so comfortably warm that you just want to stay in it. Cos the booster's built along a row of wall-sockets by the table... which is considered very far away from the bed when I wake up in the morning!

Aiya, ok, good night. From now on I shall be more disciplined... if not I'll just die when school starts man.

It's how you look at it

2006-01-06T23:51:00.000+08:00

On Thursday night I finally finished writing my compo on manuscript paper. Whew. Then I was determined to write out the parts by this morning too, so that I could photocopy everything today. It was all going quite well, I finished all the parts except for the piano one by 5 o'clock in the morning. That was when my self-discipline failed me. I decided that I could get a quick shut-eye and wake up at 6.30 to finish the piano part before having breakfast etc and leave for school at 8.30.

I should have known better than to do that. I didn't even remember hearing the alarm clock ring, nor remember switching the alarm off. I was woken up by the postman ringing the door bell. Dunno why but I just jumped out of bed and rushed to answer the door. I'm usually quite bo chap about the door bell ringing, I'd just leave it to my flatmates to open the door. I signed the package for a flatmate, my eyes still quite out of focus from the short period of sleep after staying up through the night. Put the package and letter at the respective flatmates' doors and stumbled back to bed.

The next time I woke up was at 11. Horrors! I was supposed to meet Shuying downstairs between 12 - 1pm cos she's coming back to Birmingham today. Ok, so no time to finish up the piano part and get everything photocopied. So much for trying to settle everything by today. Nevermind! There's always tomorrow! (I know, this is a bad habit... there should never be a tomorrow...)

But all this not-getting-anything-done stuff was probably a blessing in disguise. When I was copying the piano part this afternoon, I spotted a gross amount of careless mistakes and omissions in the conductor's score. Some of it weren't in the piano part even. I suppose I missed them while I was copying the other parts. Guess when you look at it this way, it was fortunate that I didn't decide to just photocopy the completed stuff after being woken up by the postman. Then I would have photocopied all the mistakes. Heh always trying to take the optimistic approach =P

I've finally really completed the compo and sorted out what goes in the portfolio and what needs to be photocopied etc. I just hope there are no more mistakes!!!! Now all I have to worry about is the playthrough on Tuesday. I'm not that scared of my compo sounding horrible, I'm more scared of sight-reading my group member's compos! X(

I'm done!

2006-01-04T09:18:00.000+08:00

Yay I can finally declare that I've completed my composition!!!! *Jumps around crazily* I just need to copy out parts and stuff. Oh ya, and think of a title... quote(Emz): You people are always the same, why no title one?! And arrange the rest of the compositions done during the term into a portfolio. The longest piece I ever written! Hahaha sorry, I'm too excited at having finished the compo. I really hope it will be playable, er it's already chicken feet compared to all those torturous pieces I used to write okay... in any case, I shall know during the play-through. Please please please let it be playable!!!

Ok, anyone who sees me online and feels like helping me think of a title, please message me... I'll send you the file. Heh will appreciate your help. I'm hopeless when it comes to thinking of titles! I remember KK suggesting funny titles when we were all rushing our compos for As... she thought it was so amusing to call my piece 'Zombie'! Hmph. Hahaha but we went crazy laughing at all the ridiculous suggestions... missing all of u!!!!! *Sigh*

But amidst all that happiness from having completing my compo, I'm still feeling a bit dissatisfied with it. Especially towards the end. Hmm or should I say, starting from 2 minutes onwards! It sounds so... squeezed out of nowhere just to fulfill the requirement of a 6-minute compo. But anyhow, it's all done now... maybe I'll just take a little more time to think through before I do the parts and photocopying etc.

Italians also say 'towkay'???

2006-01-02T22:51:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I read an email about an upcoming competition, International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine" 2006 Sixth edition, organised by an Italian publishing house, Taukay Edizioni Musicali.

Was quite amused at the name of this Taukay Music Publishing House. Tried to translate 'tau', 'kay', or 'taukay' using my little Italian dictionary, but there were no such words. Maybe my dictionary is not good enough. So I tried the Babel Fish Translation website, but it didn't manage to translate the words too. Perhaps the towkay of this publishing house wanted people to know that he could speak more than just Italian.

Happy 2006!

2005-12-31T23:56:00.000+08:00

New year's always the cheerful time of year! It's when new hopes, dreams and goals are made, when there just seems to be endless possibilities the new year might bring. It's time to start anew again!

This positive outlook is probably the reason why lots of people make new year resolutions, whether they actually stick to them or not. But anyway, I'm just going to grab the chance and give it a try...

1. Stop procrastinating already! (This always fails, but no harm trying again.)

2. Save money, so that I can travel around sometime. (So that people won't go, 'What, you studied in UK but didn't visit France/Italy/[insert country]??!!')

3. Listen to more music. The amount of music I listen to here has been quite significantly reduced as compared to before... noooo how can?!!!

4. Practice more. (?) Or rather, practice more effectively.

5. Read more. Sadly, my reading material has been limited to essay-relevant books. Not a good way to gain more knowledge, I suppose.

6. Sight-read some pieces for fun. Just so at least I 'know' a wider range of pieces without having to learn all of them until I have the time to do that.

7. Make fuller use of free time (i.e. after essay submissions) to go explore places around Birmingham. Or places outside Birmingham, if possible!

8. Make fuller use of busy time (i.e. time management). I really need to master this essential skill.

9. Wake up when the alarm goes off, not press the snooze button!

10. Eat less chocolate when I'm doing work, or when deadlines are approaching, or any time at all!

Too bad this didn't happen on Christmas Day

2005-12-30T23:00:00.000+08:00

Some photos of a freezing-cold, snow-covered yesterday...

What I saw outside the window when I woke up.

The ducks, geese, swans and whatever-the-black-fowl-is enjoying(? maybe not...) their frozen lake and leaving their footprints all over the place. Must be fun!

The 'artistic' shot...

Lesson learnt: never go out with hair still wet from a shower on cold days. Apart from the intense cold feeling it brings, damp hair also starts to turn into frost. I must have been a funny sight for all the people driving/walking past me on my way to the practise block. Heh

Didn't practise much anyway, my fingers were already half-frozen when I got there even though I wore my gloves. And they just got colder while I was practising. Waited quite some time for the bus to get to the city centre, shivering despite the fact that I was wearing a very thick coat already! It was really just a waste of time cos Allegro Music wasn't open again, because of some 'unforeseen appointment'. Sighs. No scores again.

Composition blues

2005-12-29T23:57:00.000+08:00

Ok, I'm not just a little slow, I'm running out of time! I can't believe I barely have about one week and two days to finish my composition. Yet I'm not even up to the two minute mark, out of a 6-minute piece. DIE!!!! Hmm somehow composition is something that should be enjoyable, an outlet for expression, something that is created when inspiration strikes the composer. But I think that's just the romanticised image of composition. It has never been the case, at least for me so far.

In sec school and jc, compositions were always done last-minute, either cos there were other homework to do or it was just because I couldn't think of what to write and so I wait for inspiration to strike me. That's just another justification for procrastinating. Inspiration never strikes when you want it to. But working last-minute under pressure forces me to churn out something, no matter how ugly it sounds, just in time to meet the deadline. I hope this never fails, I dread the day when I'd wake up and realise that it's the deadline for some composition and I still haven't completed my piece.

Actually lots of composers didn't just sit around and wait for inspiration to strike, or they'd have starved to death. Especially those who had patrons. And worse, they had to compose according to the patrons' tastes. That's supposed to be the reason why lots of Mozart's and Haydn's works are in major keys, the 'happy' key. Hmm actually, it's not really true, there can be pieces in major keys that are sad sounding and pieces in minor keys that are happy sounding. Even worse, those composing under regimes. Like Shostakovich. Erm enough, I'm not going to comment on Shostakovich cos I never studied him in-depth, go ask Poot if you want, I'm sure she'll have lots to tell cos she did one of her essays on him.

I think I'm quite fortunate, at times I suddenly get ideas. Probably why my progress is so slow is because a lot of ideas are those on the bits I've already written. I will go back and tweak around a bit, change a note here, a rhythm there... sometimes I take a long time doing that, yet later I'd decide that the previous version sounded better. Or maybe I'm too fussy and critical. I often find myself looking back at what I've written and thinking of ways to improve it. I just wish I had more ideas on what's coming next. It's usually a forced continuation from where I stopped previously, and it sounds so fake. But so far I don't quite dislike the piece yet, maybe cos everytime I return to what I've written I'd rack my brains to improve the forced-sounding parts and when I'm lucky ideas take shape. Maybe by the time I finish the composition I will look at it with distaste though, that's always the case. I have never liked anything I've composed so far. Hopefully one day I'll write something I like.

Post-Christmas sales

2005-12-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

Went shopping today, the main aim was to get some scores, but I also wanted to see how the post-Christmas sales were going. It was really busy, the city centre was crawling with people! Who said Singaporeans are kiasu?? I think people all over the world love sales. Considering that it's a weekday, I was quite surprised to see such a crowd. It's not even a holiday or weekend. Maybe some people here don't have to work on 28 December. I saw that the library was closed, and Allegro Music was closed too! So much for wanting to get scores. Should have gone tomorrow instead.

I didn't go crazy buying lots of stuff though, I didn't really see things that I'd need or things that I liked enough to justify spending on. Some things were still quite expensive even after the supposed 70% or 50% off, these shops are definitely not where I'd normally go shopping in. I went CD-browsing in Virgin, a suicidal thing to do normally, but this time I didn't buy any CDs. Saw some things that I'd really like to have but I managed to control myself. Sighs. I'm going to go crazy buying CDs when I finally get back to Singapore in June... if the Tower Records classical section doesn't close down by then. Don't think it will la hor, Emz and KK and Gerald, you guys better keep patronising it! =P But I discovered that the Virgin store that I went browsing in has a bigger and better-stocked classical section (although a bit dusty) than the HMV in Bullring.

I ended up buying a pair of boots in the Indoor Market... where there was nothing on sale but it only cost me 10 pounds. Compared to 15 pounds onwards that I saw in some shops. Maybe I'm just not a good shopper, I don't really like to shop and I only go shopping when there's something I want to buy in mind. Like scores. Sighs, shall go back to Allegro Music again tomorrow, it's going to be open! Hope the city centre won't be that crowded anymore.

Only a little snow

2005-12-27T23:58:00.000+08:00

I was very excited when I looked out of the window to see it snowing suddenly. Got my camera, braved the cold and ran out of the flat wearing my tee shirt and shorts. Few photos later I returned to the warmth of my room. Brrr... But the first few photos were wasted efforts, there was no hint of snow at all because it wasn't snowing very heavily. Later it became more snowy and I ran outside again but still no luck. Sighs. The snow stopped about 10 minutes later.

Only later in the afternoon did I manage to snap two photos that had any indication of snow when it started snowing again. Good thing the temperature had not gone up, or it might have been rain instead. Actually, in the photo it does look like it's just raining heavily! But this time the snow only lasted 5 minutes or so. Too bad. All the photos I took from behind a window (my room's, and the one in the corridor) didn't work too. No sign of snow at all.

Was listening to BBC Radio 2 online after dinner while browsing blogs and was reminded of Singapore. Imagine, listening to British radio still can think of Singapore?? Wells, one song certainly worked. It was 'Downtown', sung by Mathilda (if I didn't hear wrong). 'So go downtown, everything's waiting for you...' (or something like that). Remember the advertisement for Downtown East? That's the one! I'd always thought it was some silly jingle they made up for the ad, but now I know it's not. The version I heard was in four languages, 'a special version made specially for BBC', according to the DJ.

Haha don't ask me why I was listening to Radio 2, I just suddenly felt like hearing some oldies... and this station had some oldies programmes. I was going to click on one of them but the 'listen live' came on before I could do that and I got hooked by the oldies they were playing at that moment. Haha perfect! But later another programme started and this time it reminded me of band. Cos it was a documentary about some brass band composer or about brass band music(I think). So it had lots of not-very-short snippets of brass band music. Nice.

slacking on Boxing Day

2005-12-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Last night I babysat overnight. Jack picked me up on his way when he drove the kids home from Chloe's house (I think the kids' friend or cousin or something). They went straight to bed cos it was past bedtime, so it wasn't that bad. No need for entertainment or looking after or drawing! Selina and Jack were going to be playing mahjong so they arranged for me to sleep in Teri's room, which had a bunk bed.

I just watched TV for a while and decided to go sleep at about 1. But just when I was drifting off to sleep at about 3, Teri cried. Cos she was having a nosebleed. Didn't take long to stop it, but she just refused to calm down and kept crying for daddy and mummy. Even faking that they were on the way home didn't work. At first she stopped crying but insisted on staying downstairs on the sofa to wait for them to come back. At last I got her settled comfortably lying on the sofa with cushions etc, then Nicholas came downstairs cos he was woken up by her crying. And refused to go back to sleep upstairs. I was still trying to get Teri to fall asleep on the sofa (thinking that I'd carry her upstairs later), but Nicholas spoiled it when he said, 'I thought daddy said they're playing mahjong and will be coming back very late?' So Teri started crying again, and dozens of 'They're driving back' didn't help... she started howling, 'I want NOW!!!' So I called Jack and he said he'd be back, which made Nicholas a guai boy again, he went back to his room to sleep.

While waiting for Jack to come home Teri was nodding off but she'd wake up at every small noise. I guess at 4 she's still a bit insecure, like Nicholas doesn't care cos he knows that his parents are just out having fun, or they are working (on normal days). But Teri will be a bit unsure and almost every time I'm there, she'll be asking for mummy by bedtime. When Jack came home she started crying all over again and spotting that Selina wasn't with Jack, she kept asking for mummy, to which Jack just responded, 'She's on her way.' He got her to sleep in his room in the end. Selina said she called at six in the morning when they finished playing mahjong, but nobody answered. Haha we were all sleeping. They are strong huh... busy with preparations during the days or weeks leading up to christmas and on christmas itself they still have the stamina to play mahjong till six! Take my hats off them man.

Later when I woke up at about 8, Nicholas got up shortly after and we went downstairs to watch TV and Selina called again. Haha so funny... they went shopping, cos it's sales time! Wah... superwomen liao. The kids and I had breakfast while Jack went to fetch Selina, and later they insisted on driving me back.

Actually it was not as tiring as usual, since they had to go straight to bed. Which means I practically didn't have to do anything at all. Just watch TV, do whatever I want, and sleep. Except that I didn't get much sleep. Somehow in my own room I can laze in bed forever but in other places I will automatically be awake. Sleeping on the top bunk was great, brought back memories of those days as a kid in the bungalow-type chalets near East Coast with my cousins. Everyone wanted the top bunk and we always had to take it in turns. Those were the days when both the eldest uncle or my dad's companies had chalets which employees could apply for, and if you were lucky you could get one. Now we're all so busy doing our own things, even with fortnightly dinners at my grandma's, sometimes we just can't make it. Actually I must admit that sometimes it gets really tiresome, especially when it used to be weekly dinners. Too much of a thing is not always good. Heh what am I complaining about, I'm now still quite a long time away from one of those dinners... and missing the steamboats already. And other food. But ok, STOP!!! Don't want to get those food cravings started again. Sighs but it's never too long, before I know it, I'd be flying back home again...

Merry Christmas!!!!

2005-12-25T02:25:00.000+08:00

Heh no white christmas though... that was taken when it snowed one day in November. Or was it December? Late November I think. Before term closed.

Just came back from dinner with the Singapore Society people... it was fun! Or rather, it was funny! Very entertaining haha. I'm not the very-into-gatherings kind of person but still, it was good to get together with people on Christmas eve and stuff. Anyway I've been MIA from Singsoc activities for quite a long time heh. Always having other things going on during term time when they have activities.

Now waiting for my grandma and aunt to go to my house. Was supposed to wake up early to webcam with them but I decided that since I reached back at 1 plus, I might as well just stay up. Then sleep all I want after talking to them. Anyway tomorrow nothing to do also. Maybe I should go out on Boxing Day for the sales... or 27th? to avoid the crowds. What I really want to buy is some scores though, so I guess 27th would be better... I dunno when the shop might be open.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone! =) Sorry about the cards, hopefully they still make it to Singapore someday haha. Maybe they're on a ship instead of a plane...???

the kids

2005-12-24T01:35:00.000+08:00

Cute right? The kids I babysit... Nicholas is 7 and Teri is 4. They were quite excited to get their photos taken, but were more excited to get their hands on the camera. So you get to see pictures of them with me.

I was actually quite reluctant to post the pictures with me cos I grew fat! =P
Hmm Nicholas was looking very sian and my smile was very forced cos Teri takes ages to snap a photo. But then, she's only 4 la... in the other photos she took, some were blur cos she doesn't understand that you have the hold the camera stable to take a photo.

Oh ya, I have become these two monkeys' copyist. I copy their chosen pictures from their books or whatever. I think I should switch from studying music to art or something! Today's was the most complete picture I ever copied... it was the cover of Nicholas' joke book. And Teri, being the younger sibling that she is, of course wanted anything that her brother had. She already had another picture I did for her before that! Hmph. But if I refused to draw one for her, she'd have kicked up a big fuss and cried (her way of getting what she wants and also getting attention). So I had to do two copies of this:

Nicholas had already coloured the belt of some girl in the picture. =)

Later when both of them were colouring in their pictures, they wanted me to help. Argh. In order to be 'fair', I did both at the same time by colouring all the things that were of the same colour at one time on both their pictures. And I did both copies in the same colours cos that was what they were doing anyway, they were copying from the book. But Nicholas was a very smart older sibling. He kept nagging at me to use different colours for his cos he could predict that Teri would like his picture more. Cos his is more well-coloured... Teri's colouring is not as good as his of course, and he knew that Teri would eventually try to own his copy. He wanted something in his picture to be distinct, so that in future he could argue that it's his! Hahaha so smart.

Hmm sorry to all younger siblings, but I quite sympathise with him when he has to give in to her all the time. And Teri is not stupid too, she's a bit spoilt in the sense that she'll cry to get what she wants. But I think her parents realised that already, there was once she got scolded for crying when she got rice instead of noodles for dinner cos she prefers noodles. Selina just shrugged and went like, 'Take it or leave it.' And when Teri continued crying even harder, she just took the dinner away. It's like, ok, if you cry it means you don't want it. Fine with me. Haha way to go man!

I hate it when they play-fight and you tell them not to do it, but they still choose to do it. And when they accidentally hurt each other, they cry. Maybe today I was a bit pissed with telling them too many times not to play-fight under the table, I just ignored them when they cried. It was like... I told you not to do it, but you didn't listen, so don't come crying to me when you get hurt. Was I a bit mean? Maybe... but not like they had serious injuries that bled and stuff, it was just hard knocks that hurt for a while and after that subside. Anyway if I started comforting one party, the other will also come up with some scrapes like, 'Look, she scratched me, you can still see the marks.' Heh I've learnt quite a bit from watching how Selina deals with them, like when I reach there early and she's not rushing to go out. After watching how strict she is with them and stuff, I can take the cue from her and not feel too bad when I do such 'evil' things.

Haha enough about the kids... here's a colourful sunset I snapped from outside my flat when I left to go babysit them. Merry Christmas! =)

Scenic picture

2005-12-22T23:02:00.000+08:00

I took a detour by the lake on my way to the practice block today. Cos I've seen many beautiful moments but haven't gotten a chance to capture them cos I don't usually bring a camera with me when I go to school, or go to the city centre even. But this morning I finally remembered and though it was quite disappointing not to have a nice sunny day like yesterday, I still like this picture. At first when I looked at the picture in the preview mode of my camera I was disappointed, but luckily I didn't delete it! When I put it on the computer it looked so much nicer, the preview mode just doesn't do justice to photos. I'm glad I kept it.

If I didn't tell you, maybe you'd have thought I went sight-seeing somewhere? But now you know, it's just the lake on the vale, where quite a lot of the accommodation sites are. The fact that the lamp posts on the other side of the lake can't be seen makes the photo look even more like it was taken in some scenic spot too, I think. If only the ducks and whatever other water-fowls were more scattered about the lake... but then I suppose the lake wouldn't have looked so calm with too many of them around. This morning they were at the other end of the lake, cos a lady with her two children and a dog was feeding them. That's why you see this white thing swimming towards their direction. But a sign on my side of the lake says not to feed them cos it attracts more birds than the lake can support and they might get diseases. *Gulp* no bird flu, please!

Merry Christmas! =)

tang yuan!

2005-12-22T19:45:00.000+08:00

Heehee cravings are quite subdued after a satisfying bowl of tang yuan. When I took the tang yuan out to defreeze, I thought the picture on the plastic wrapping looked familiar, so I turned over and realised that it's made in Singapore. Haha so patriotic huh... support Singapore products man. Hmm then I realised that it's probably the brand that we used to have at home. Not sure, but it really would seem too coincidental that two different Singaporean brands of tangyuan might have the same picture on the wrapper.

But commercial tang yuans, nice and sweet as they are, can't be compared to the homemade ones. The ones that my grandma makes are small and they come in white or pink. Usually those that are offered to the gods/dieties/buddhas(???) will have small pieces of... er I dunno what it is. It's hard and light brownish, like the colour of light brown sugar, and when the tang yuan is cooked, it melts to become a sweet syrup. Yumz. The others will usually have either nian yong or dou sa, depending on what my auntie gets to make the tang yuan with. When I was young I used to help and it was really fun. But sometimes it would be disappointing to eat cos the size of the tangyuan is so small that there's often not enough filling inside, so there are like a lot of tang yuan that have no taste. I used to prefer the pink tang yuans, weird preference haha.

I'm also missing the peanut soup(?) that we used to have at home when we cooked our own tang yuan. It comes in a can and is not as nice as those that are sold in hawker centres la, but it's nice enough. I couldn't find anything like it in the canned food section of Day In, too bad. Actually, usually we don't cook our own tang yuan at home on dong zhi itself. Cos in addition to eating tang yuan at my grandma's after dinner, there will usually be a lot of left over tang yuan to be ta pao-ed home... my grandma doesn't exercise quantity control!

Merry Christmas! =)

Food cravings strike again

2005-12-20T23:54:00.000+08:00

Not again. =X

Had delicious noodles at Selina's tonight, fried in black soya sauce. There were pieces of pork, and some of them were just fats even. There was also vegetables and prawns in it. Prawns! How long has it been since I ate one of those?! Wah... one would think that after eating such mouth-watering food, the cravings would stop. But no! It just has to hit me even harder. Haha spurred on by the good food perhaps.

Now I'm craving for... char kuay teow, zai mi fen, omg curry vegetables!, cai tow kuay, yu pian mi fen, laksa, curry!, rojak, chicken rice, char siew rice, century egg porridge, roti prata *slurp* I better stop before I start drooling hehehehe.

Imagine how fat I will be once I set myself loose when I come back to Singapore next June. If it were August, it would have been more appropriate... Hungry Ghost Festival!

And I don't care, I will be very delighted to go shopping. That's like the first time in my life you hear me saying that hor? Totally miss shopping with you guys!!!! Oh ya, I think I know why I suddenly thought of shopping... cos every time I go shopping with KK we will inevitably eat somewhere, and I think quite a lot of times we ate out for both lunch and dinner! More incredible was that time when we were at Plaza Singapura and we ate BK for both lunch and dinner, plus, it was mushroom swiss both times. Hahahaha BK was also our comfort food after piano lessons... hey we need those carbos after all that adrenaline k. =P

I miss Christmas, squeezing in the crowds on Orchard road for no particular reason. It's just another opportunity to meet up! And the inevitable empty feeling that hits us later when we're about to go home. Cos everything just seems so... I dunno, empty???

Now I start missing Singapore... miss ya guys!!!

Merry Christmas! =)

Warning: boring post

2005-12-19T21:52:00.000+08:00

It's another ranting post again... it's going to be a yawn etc etc so skip it if u want. I've just been having such thoughts in my head nowadays, I dunno why. But I just can't help thinking that studying here is pointless. Told you it's going to be a bore. It always is with such topics.

It's not like I'm not happy to be studying music, and overseas somemore! I'm really contented with what I'm doing now, really. Just that the other voice always reminds me that so what if I'm contented with this? It's not going to last forever, it's only three short years that will whiz by soon enough. And then what am I going to do after that?

Obviously, I'll have to go back to Singapore and earn money to repay those loans. And I'm well aware that the few job options open to me would be a) teaching in some school (if they still need music teachers by then) or b) teaching privately. Wow, what a wide range of choices! Of course, I forgot to mention I could also choose from a variety of other jobs like waitressing, administrative stuff etc. But that would be defeating the purpose of studying music in UK. I might as well get on a plane now, fly back to Singapore and start looking for a job. But then again, if I actually decide to teach privately one could also argue that I might as well have not studied in UK. I could just have started that after As, and at the same time just do all the diplomas that Trinity and AB offers. Or at most just settled for the much-less-expensive choice of studying in NAFA. Back to the point: I don't think I'm justified to be studying here, though it's probably going to be the best time of my life... something that will give me great memories to treasure forever.

I think it all sort of boils down to money. Just imagine, if I was sponsored, I probably wouldn't be going through this i'm-feeling-guilty-for-wasting-money crap in my head. I think I wouldn't have minded being bonded to some company or whatever. Ya, I know that's a really selfish notion, but still. Don't tell me everyone who was sponsored to study overseas really had the company's interests on their minds. In the first place they probably applied for scholarships because that would help pay for their courses, and even if they were rich people... in the employer's eyes it's probably still more prestigious to have been a scholar right? Anyway, no offence meant to scholars here, it's purely a ranting session.

Actually, come to think of it, I think I have totally no sense of direction in life. I have no goals and aims and things like that. Unless you count hoping to go on a tour around the world... but I think that's more of a dream, and quite an impossible one too. It probably won't come true for me but whatever, it's still a nice dream to hold on to. Heh you just got to have that something that at least cheers you up a little sometimes, even if you know it's too ambitious. =)

Haiyah... I really don't know what's the point of life. We just study, work, retire, and then ultimately die. It always makes me think, why should we be here at all? Why don't we just not exist if all we do on earth is to slog on and on yet in the end we'll all just die? But there are also beautiful things in life to appreciate, like sunsets, sunrise... great friends... sweet little kids (sorry, I've just been reading a mr brown post on his children)... and so much more. It's always a bit of a bittersweet thing when I think of how life is beautiful yet it's also transient.

Kaez, I shall stop here before this post sounds too despondent. Anyway, I've put some of my photos on shutterfly... you can view them at www.debussy.shutterfly.com.

Merry Christmas! =)

char kuay teow...

2005-12-18T20:46:00.000+08:00

I'm craving for char kuay teow!!!! All thanks to you poot, why did you give me your leftover chicken thighs??? See larh, I went to put one of them in the oven zhi bao ji style (erm ok, i meant aluminium-bao-ji style) and I dunno why after I ate it, I started craving for char kuay teow. Hahaha k la, not your fault... don't be angry arh :P There are countless other things that I crave for from time to time, so I guess it's really not your fault! Heh. But I'm definitely going to Day-in (or Day In?) to buy tang yuan for this Thursday. My parents just informed me on webcam this morning that Thursday is dong zhi. Nope, not to tell me to eat tang yuan, but to tell me to call my grandmother! *Horrors* What am I supposed to say to her on the phone? 'dong zhi kuai le' ??? Yikes... *shudders*.

I had an enjoyable day in the practice block today! It's funny how quickly time passes when you're practising... I forgot to bring my handphone with me so I had no sense of time. But I sort of glanced through some parts of each of the new pieces, and then I practised the Bach. When I was done fussing about with the Prelude I played through the Allemande twice... and then I decided to stop. For one, the colour of the sky suggested either that it might be sunset soon... which would start about 3 plus nowadays? Or that it might rain soon. And anyway my arms were a bit tired and I was a bit sian by then. Haha it was so amusing, when I looked at the clock tower, it was two o'clock! Which was the time I originally intended to stop practising. A bit freaky also.

I finally decided I've procrastinated long enough and washed the pair of sludge-splashed jeans from that snowy day. And now I've got brown sediments in the bath area. Eurgh.

Merry Christmas! =)

if u don't get a Christmas card...

2005-12-17T21:03:00.000+08:00

I sent the Christmas cards yesterday... but I can't guarantee they won't be belated. Actually I can't guarantee that they might even reach Singapore. The stamps stuck on the envelopes fine enough, but then the 'par avion' ('by plane') labels she gave me just refused to stick. Argh. I hope the people sorting out the post will have enough common sense.

I made great progress in my compo today. In total, I changed 5 things and added 4 clashing notes, one to each 'chord'. Yet it still sounds remotely tonal and cliche. Great progress indeed. Sighs... back to work!

If you don't get the Christmas card, let my daily 'Merry Christmas'-es make up for it. Merry Christmas! =)

S.A.D

2005-12-15T23:48:00.000+08:00

I woke up super late again. Argh. I have this nasty feeling that I might be suffering from that disorder from psychology... called 'seasonal affective disorder'. I have the symptoms of excessive sleeping, excessive craving/eating, weight gain. Ahhhh! How?! Fortunately, the only symptom I'm lacking is depression. Anyways, I found this article describing how scientists investigate this disorder using hamsters:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Health/story?id=1385037

I found it quite amusing that they actually use such funny methods to determine whether the hamsters are sad and depressed. Please don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not a cruel person and I definitely love animals. In any case they're not torturing these hamsters, since according to the article hamsters don't sink in water. So that means they can't possibly die cos they can float. Oh wells, I guess the test might actually just make them more depressed huh. Want to give up but still cannot die. Poor things...

But then, I realised something contradictory about the article. Cos you're supposed to be craving for foods that are sugary, but how come the hamsters 'decline to slurp up tempting offers of sugar water'? And the scientists say this shows that they are depressed. How weird.

If only my desk lamp's fluorescent bulb hadn't fused, I might have gotten some light therapy. And it doesn't help that I can't find a replacement bulb! It's quite lame, but Tesco stocks bulbs in all sorts of shapes and sizes except one that can be used with this lamp, which indicates that the bulb should be a maximum 11W G23 fluorescent one. It was the same in the indoor market when I went there with Poot last Friday too. Even more lame is that Argos, which sells this model of desk lamps, does not sell the bulb for it... despite selling all sorts of other bulbs! -_-''' Unless I want to buy a new desk lamp, which comes with the bulb. Diaox... Okay nevermind, maybe one day I'll go to Homebase and see if they actually sell bulbs, since I got my desk lamp there.

I'm just a bit glad that I'm currently craving for things that I can't really get here, like chicken rice... sighs. Oh actually I could get it, if I cook it. But nevermind, I'm just trying to ignore the fact that I could cook chicken rice here too... I don't need to gain any more weight. Unlike some people in Singapore, cos I just saw this advertisement for weight gain in TODAYonline. I thought there was something wrong with my eyes but on closer look it really was for weight gain... generally targeted at men who want to look muscular, it seems.

'expedition' to Four Oaks

2005-12-14T02:28:00.000+08:00

This morning I took a leg-breaking 35-minute brisk walk to New Street station to take a train to Four Oaks. I can only blame myself cos I was totally blur and groggy this morning when I woke up thinking it was 8 plus, when it was actually 9 plus. So by the time I leisurely got out of bed, bathed, ate breakfast... I realised that I was running a bit late. Bleah, sleep too early sometimes makes matters worse huh... too much sleep = groggy in the morning. Well at least the walk to the station gave me a thorough waking-up. I didn't dare to take the risk of waiting for bus no.46, cos I might have just ended up being even later. I didn't want to take a cab cos it would surely have costed more than 4 pounds... which is super expensive! And being the dumb person that I am, I didn't take the train at Five Ways station when I could have. Cos I didn't know the train to Four Oaks comes from Redditch, which means it does stop at Five Ways, a stop before New Street. So totally diaox... -_-''' I could have saved myself from quite a bit of walking.

At New Street station there were only three counters open for ticket sales, and there were long queues. This man got so impatient that he scolded the person at the counter when it was his turn. Apparently he missed his train and was late. The person at the counter was quite pissed too cos there are self-service machines, but the man said he didn't have change. And the man made the person behind the counter so irritated that he said something along the lines of 'You're abusing me.' I couldn't hear him but could sort of guess cos the impatient man then said, 'No, I'm just complaining about the inefficiency of the train service, I didn't make it personal.' Diaox again... isn't he just wasting even more of his precious time by nagging at the man? And wasting all the other people-behind-him's time. The person behind the counter finally gestured towards the customer service place (room?) whatever-you-call-it, and think he probably said something like 'If you're unhappy you are most welcome to complain to the people at customer service.'

I thought I was so dead when I heard an announcement saying 'Please note that the 11.45 train to Four Oaks will depart from platform 12a.' I was supposed to be at Four Oaks by 11.30! But luckily after I bought my ticket, I didn't foolishly go off to platform 12a and wait for the 11.45 train. I asked this man at some counter and he told me there was a 11.20 train at platform 8a. Whew... 5 minutes for me to get there, which was more than enough cos it was the nearest staircase to the counter. Wells I got to Four Oaks at probably 11 going to 12???

One weird thing I encountered was this man and woman getting on at Sutton Coldfield, which was one stop before Four Oaks. Both had quite obviously just ran to catch the train. The woman just sat down in front of me, then cos I thought the man was caught in the door I turned around to look. So he asked me whether the train goes to Litchfield (dunno whether that's the correct spelling). I didn't even know where that is, so I said, 'It goes to Four Oaks.' Haha as if it's so much of a help right. Then the woman told him that it most probably does. I was thinking to myself that I thought the last stop is Four Oaks? But I didn't say anything. For all I know, Litchfield was probably some place near Four Oaks. When we got to Four Oaks, the driver announced that the train terminates there. And the man and woman were like quite 'oops...' but luckily there was another platform at the station, where the train goes to Litchfield. So the train that goes to Litchfield also passes through Four Oaks. And at Sutton Coldfield they probably got to the wrong platform, seeing 'Four Oaks' and thinking it's just the next station on the way to Litchfield. At least they didn't have to take a train back to Sutton Coldfield! Confusing train network. But then again, can't blame them cos the place is so big!

My teacher picked me up from the station and I was most apologetic for being late. But she just said not to worry, just that she won't have that long with me cos she'd already planned to go to the bank etc later. Doesn't matter cos she originally intended to have a one-and-a-half-hour lesson today. Plus she usually loses track of time during lessons and ends up dragging each person's lesson. I'm quite ok with this, but I think Poot does get quite pissed right? Cos instead of starting at maybe, 11 o'clock, she'll end up starting at 11.20. Then your lesson will probably drag till 12.40 so the next person's lesson starts even later etc.

Her Steinway is quite an old one... she was saying it needs a complete haul-over etc, all the strings are still the original ones except one that someone broke. The keys were heavy but they don't feel like the 'normal heavy'... sorry, each time you see weird sentences like that it just means I can't describe what I want to say. Ironically, the keys feel like the loose kind of keys... you know, on super old pianos where the keys are so easy to press? Yet you only get a tiny, muffled sound. And to get louder it really did take quite a lot of effort. By the end of the third page of the Bach my hands were almost ready to crumble into bits. (See poot... I didn't use 'crumble to the floor'!) I must really strengthen my fingers! Maybe I should go back to doing those exercises that I used to do for Ms Ching. Sighs.

Piano lesson was really long. I think by right it should have ended after we were done with the prelude of the Bach suite. But she didn't know and was like, 'Right, so what else did you bring today?' And we went on to the Allemande! *faints* I'm so totally cmi. Cos I said we could either continue with the Bach or I could play Messiaen, but I told her I haven't practiced Messiaen since the last time I played it for her. Haha she was like, 'You didn't do much practising did you?' Oops! I must WAKE UP and STOP SLACKING already!!!!!! Hmmz but for Bach she did give me some useful ideas and comments. I also asked her what other pieces she would recommend. The funny thing is, she only wanted to recommend little pieces cos she said I already have so many big pieces already. It's a bit the ermz... cos with so little lessons per year and with each lesson spent only on one single piece (in the case of the Messiaen, only 10% of the piece!), it seems a bit impractical to stick to only a few pieces leh. Shouldn't we like move on? Like for harpsichord, where the aim is to explore more repertoire. Ok I still don't have a lot of harpsichord pieces but at least I can say I've played more pieces for harpsichord than I've played for piano lessons.

It was quite funny also cos she went to her score cupboard, and I thought she was going to choose things to show me. But she just took out some scores from the top of a stack and went like, 'Let's see what we have here.' Cos she said her cupboard was not organised. It was really just stacks of scores! And later when she suddenly thought of Schubert's Impromptus, she wanted to find the score but obviously she couldn't unless she wanted to look through all the stacks of scores in the cupboard. She said she was planning to go through the cupboard and organise it this holiday. Among the pieces she recommended were Kabalevsky's Sonatinas, Schubert Impromptus, Dohnanyi's Rhapsody, Liszt's 'O Lieb' from Liebestraume, Albeniz's Tango from Espana, Granados I-forgot-what-already. I went to the Central Library to borrow the scores... yes even Dohnanyi! Previously I thought I might not want to learn it cos it's a bit cheesy. But I thought maybe I should give it a second chance? Yay, one of these days I'm going down to school to have a sight-reading day! I really prefer learning new pieces or reading through new pieces to working on the piece :P

I had to wait quite long for the train at Four Oaks station. Cos when she and her husband dropped me off at the station, the train had just left. I didn't know that was my train or I might just have run for it. Only when I was halfway across the bridge and I asked this man which train I should take, then I realised my train was just leaving. But he said the next train would be in ten minutes. Crap lor. What ten minutes... exactly ten minutes later I was still standing on the platform wondering where the train was. And there were three other women who wanted to buy tickets but could not find anyone at the counter. When someone finally appeared, one of the women was telling him that if the train had come before he appeared, then it was not going to be her fault if she just got on the train without a ticket etc... nagging at him. Lol she was certainly pissed. But the man was like, 'There's a self-service machine.' The funny thing is, the woman told him she didn't have change. But later, she didn't buy the ticket from him and bought her ticket from the machine instead. o_O

To kill time and distract myself form the freezing-cold wind, I kept walking up and down past this poster that warns people not to travel without tickets and to pay their fines if they were caught travelling without tickets. If they don't pay their fines they will be charged in court and also publicly named and shamed. Oh wow. If they are so strict about tickets why don't they just install some kind of ticket barrier, so that people cannot get in without tickets? But then again, looking at the layout of these stations it seems a bit unfeasible la. Probably only the stations like New Street where there is a 'proper entrance'... where there are usually people stationed to check everyone's tickets. Heh I think 'freezing our butts', something I think Poot wrote in our birthday card to Kankan, was quite appropriate today. The wind was so cold I thought I'd huddle in a corner on a bench while I waited for the train. But the the bench was sooooo cold! I didn't want to sit on it anymore. So I resorted to walking up and down like some ancient Chinese scholar memorising his text. Hahahahaha

Monday without school!

2005-12-13T04:58:00.000+08:00

Heeheeheehee hahahahahahaha I think I'm just going mad.

My first school holiday out of Singapore. Erm, ok la... if you don't count those holiday trips when I was younger. This is just different from having holidays in Singapore... I dunno why, maybe it's just because it is!

Last night I went for Andras Schiff's recital, he played Beethoven's sonatas, Op.31 Nos. 1, 2 & 3, and Op.53. First half was a bit boring, except for the few interesting parts. Eh, duh... if it's not interesting then it's boring right. But the first sound he made stunned me. Cos it was so... I dunno how to describe it... focused? Ms Ching used to say my sound is too scattered, I must learn to concentrate it together. Complicated, intangible, cheem theory for me. I think if not for the futility of repeating things again and again, she'd still be telling me the same thing now. But now I can understand what she meant, although I still dunno how to achieve that sound. Another thing that impressed me was how clear and delicate his playing was. All that fingerwork!

For some reason I've always been a bit biased against Andras Schiff, whether cos records by other pianists were recommended or cos I get influenced by people who don't like his playing. But yesterday I think he wasn't that bad, other than for the boringness of the first three sonatas. The Waldstein was so much better than the other three, which makes me wonder whether it was because of the change of pianos? He played on a Bosendorfer in the first half and for Waldstein he played on the Steinway... haha just a random thought cos otherwise why did he have two pianos on stage for? He could have played all the sonatas on either one of the pianos. Pity he didn't choose other interesting things to play, cos the Waldstein was really good. His encore was a bit of a yawn again, he played something which he introduced as the original second movement of the previous sonata. By 'previous sonata', it's a bit ambiguous as to whether he meant the Waldstein or the Op.31 No.3. *Shrugs* I dunno anything... I'm really really just an ignorant student.

I wanted to wake up early today to go to school to practise. No, I'm not mad ok... I'm having piano lesson tmr that's why I'm practising. Cos my Bach totally cmi. Actually, I didn't do much to improve it today either. Bummers. I woke up super late, like 10 plus? Cos some drunkards (or if they weren't drunk, then they are irritating fools) were making a huge din last night/this morning at 2am. I dunno how long it lasted but it certainly seemed very long to me. Surprisingly there were still people left to make such noise... but anyway, at the beginning I thought my flat was empty cos it was super quiet on Friday night. But at 2 plus one of my flatmates came home. So I thought there were still two of us left in the flat. But I was wrong again... last night, I heard another flatmate and her boyfriend come home. Weird. I haven't got to speak to either of them so far, somehow I don't bump into them... we seem to live on totally differen't time schemes. But I assume their terms just haven't ended? Especially the flatmate doing pysiotherapy.

Ok, I'm going to catch an early sleep tonight. I don't want to wake up late again tomorrow.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention, I vacuumed my room today! Yay! I celebrated this by walking around my room without wearing my slippers -_-''' Heehee. See poot, I'm not lazy k. And I'm determined to keep my slippers off in my room. As a motivation to keep the floor in its clean state, and as a motivation to vacuum the floor whenever it gets dirty. =) Anyway, the clean floor does wonders! Last time whenever I was thinking of tidying my room I'd always procrastinate. But now with the floor so clean, I actually FEEL like tidying up my room! Yay.

busy days

2005-12-09T07:11:00.000+08:00

Wow this few days have been quite busy. Hah not as in the i-need-to-hand-in-my-essay way though. So that's good.

Yesterday was rather hectic cos Pohning's French flatmate, Celine, invited us for crepes in the afternoon... and some of her friends too. And we readily agreed to help her make the crepes, so fun! But there were other things to be done, like Poot had to get her laundry done since she's leaving soon... and I had to help her carry them down to Shackleton cos the laundrette there is bigger. And after that, we came back and helped Celine mix the crepe mixtures for a little while. Then I had to go over to Shuying's place, cos she cooked things and invited people over (on the day she was flying!). Plus I owed her money and I wanted to return it to her before she goes back. Then I went with Poot back to collect her laundry... and then I went back to get some things from Shuying, like left over potatoes, onions, cucumber etc. Oh ya, and a banana... cos I was telling her I haven't eaten any bananas since I came here cos it's quite ex. So she was determined to keep one for me... from the bunch that she bought from the open market, where it's cheaper.

After that, I went back to Poot's/Celine's... where they had started cooking the crepes and some of their flatmates and their friends were there. Oh and one of Celine's friends. Now I can see what Poot meant when she told me that when they cook dinner, the British flatmates would just sort of talk among themselves so Poot and Celine usually talk to each other. Cos even if they tried to make small talk with the Brits they would feel so awkward and excluded. Cos Celine's French friend was sitting at the table with the flatmates, and they just kept talking among themselves. Oh wells. I guess it's actually normal la. I mean, if one foreigner sits among a table of Singaporeans it's quite likely that everyone will talk among themselves and not talk to the foreigner also right. Even Celine said that her friends all happen to be international students cos since we're in UK, of course the Brits will mix together and in France she would do the same as well.

Anyways, back to the story. So... after some time more of Celine's friends arrived. In total there were two French guys, one German guy, a Taiwanese couple and Poot and me. And Celine of course. Later the flatmates and their friends left the kitchen and the rest of us were just chilling and talking. I can't believe it, we managed to do this until like seven plus!!!! And the main topic was actually movies. Me and Poot, and I suppose the Taiwanese as well, were a bit diao with the German guy cos he kept like having the impression that we're from China. Just because we look Chinese. As in, he kept slipping when he said things. Like, blah blah blah so is it also like that in China? Then like all of us will be like... ermz... speechless... then Celine would be like, they're from Taiwan and Singapore. But then the conversation will usually just like steer in another direction. But then I don't actually blame him la. I guess it's a slip of tongue cos we all look Chinese to them. Like if you asked me to identify a French, German and Brit without letting them speak, I'd probably not know the difference too.

After Celine's friends left, the three of us started clearing up the kitchen. Hmmz... teamwork really makes the chores get done faster and less boring. And me and poot wanted to cook dinner for Celine. We cooked fried rice with mushroom and chicken, baked potatoes, stir-fried wu gui dou ['tortoise' bean??? haha they call it fine beans here] with mushroom and chilli, and soup from the chicken bones, onions and carrots. We sorta overcooked by a lot. Cos potato, plus rice... super filling! And we cooked super a lot of rice too. I already ate like triple my normal portion for that dinner, and in the end there was enough food left maybe like for two meals. And the whole pot of soup was untouched cos by the time the three of us finished eating a lot of the food, we had no space left for the soup. Bleargh. Me and Poot ta pau-ed half of the left over food each, and I was left with the whole pot of soup. Celine was like, 'Happy New Year Jessica!' And we all burst out laughing. Heh... I was telling Poot I can drink ten servings of soup for ten dinners from that pot. I think I'd probably be sick of onions by the end of that.

And guess what time we ate our dinner? Nine. Cos we took one hour to cook everything. Yes... one hour. Actually ok la, that's about the same amount of time I take to cook a proper meal back in Singapore too. Just that here it's much easier. 'Aiya, sui bian la, just everything dump into the rice cooker and eat lor. No time! Need to do essay!' Hahahaha. Wells by the time we finished eating and cleaning up everything it was eleven plus. I think? Then I went back to my flat to borrow the vacuum cleaner (or hoover, as they call it here) for Poot and Celine, cos their flatmates somehow threw away the bag of their flat's vc cos it was very dirty. We were like huh... so where are we supposed to get another bag from? And Celine was leaving this afternoon so she really wanted to get her room vacuumed by yesterday. By the time they finished with the vacuum it and came up to return it, it was past twelve. Actually it was quite convenient, since their flatmates were at the flat next to theirs for Christmas dinner/party. Which started at nine.

This morning, me and Poot were actually supposed to meet downstairs as usual at 8.30 so that Poot could go for the Psychology lecture at 9. Ya la, I haven't gone for Psychology since the first lecture. But whatever. Both of us ended up oversleeping! I suddenly woke up and when I looked at the clock, it was like 8.35 or something. I quicky called Poot on her handphone cos I thought she'd be like waiting for me downstairs. But it turned out that she was woken up by my call. Hahahah we were damn comical. Cos Poot was doing last minute tidying up and packing and stuff last night, and also doing a write-up for her studio composition which she was going to hand in today. So she slept at three in the morning... aiyo poor thing. Apparently she wanted to call me at two but she thought she better not. Hahahah. In the end we went to school quite late to hand in her studio. And yada yada...

Then we took a bus down to the city. Yay! We went kai kai-ing! Hahahahah. I think I'm becoming crazy under Poot's influence leh. How... someone save me. Yepz, anyway, it was really fun cos finally we could (window)-shop to our hearts' content without the thought of some assignment lurking in the corner of our minds. Lots of nice clothes in H&M... hah but then, no money. I settled for some Primark stuff, like track pants for me to wear in my room... I've been wearing knee-length shors and actually it's not really cold. It's only cold when I go into the kitchen. And anyway I decided not to make my flatmates too disgusted with my hairy legs by wearing something long. Hahahaha.

One bad thing about shopping today was that, there was time constraint. Cos my flatmates were doing Christmas dinner tonight and they invited me and of cos I told them I'd be there. But I forgot that I'd be babysitting. So I decided that I'd just cook baked potatoes for them and like leave it in the oven and leave them a note before I go off. So I had to be back quite early. In the end, just as I was adding herbs and salt and oil to the potatoes before baking, my flatmates came back from Tesco's with chicken etc. So I told them I'm not going to be able to make it yada yada. And I think maybe cos I haven't really joined them for anything since start of term, they weren't really surprised. But they were like, 'oh you shouldn't have done the potatoes'. But then I felt bad cos I told them I'd be there yet I pang seh. Haha. When I came back home they had slotted a card under my room door.

holidays are coming!

2005-12-06T06:47:00.000+08:00

Yay! Holidays holidays holidays... hehehehehehe.

Eh... dunno what to say leh. Wells super glad that term is over, not so busy anymore. But that's also a ninth of my time here gone too :(

Christine said I could try to ask Sue whether I can sign out the harpsichord and its room's keys for the holidays so that I can practice. But she said it might not be possible so I may just have to practice on the pianos. Funny, ZM said that she isn't really keen on Bach but today she set me stuff from Bach's French Suites. Ah very nice! I like them better than the English Suites! Yay... think of having all the time in the world to practice! Ok, not all the time in the world I guess. But still, it's going to be so empty or emptier cos people will go home. :D

Need to do my compo though. I did churn out a few bars for individual tutorial but then I didn't like it. It was too cliche, pastiche... pentatonic! Daria said it wasn't very pastiche cos the 'gestures are different etc' but then I still don't like it so she suggested that I add dissonant notes to it. But the few bars of the middle of the compo that I churned out was ok, at least I didn't hate them that much. Just that I think it's not really effective to think of a beginning and a middle and work out what goes between the two. I need to rethink!

Need to find a job too. Hopefully one that can still be continued after the holidays. But if not, at least for now. There are so many things I want to buy! Yet at the same time I want to save money for next year's fees. Bleargh.

My flat's going to feel like the first few days when my British flatmates haven't moved in yet... empty again! Good in some ways but then again, I might not be used to all the silence after they're gone. We're going to have Christmas dinner this Thursday... heh they invited me but then I thought I should still cook something and chip in. Otherwise super bad. Hahaha this works on the reciprocity principle of the recent psychology test! :P Anyway I've been quite bad to them la, so dao to them. Never join them for anything, the most I do is say hi plus a bit of small talk when I bump into them. And my alarm clock's snoozing every morning! Hahaha somehow the people here don't seem to need alarm clocks to wake them up. I've never heard anyone's, and Pohning doesn't seem to have heard anyone's too! Hope they're not too pissed with me and my snoozing...

On Sunday Shuying and I went to Selina's house for Christmas dinner. Very yummy! Hahaha Shuying was in heaven :D We bought two big lollipops each for the kids, and a box of chocolate. (Hahaha reciprocity again!) Cos we couldn't really decide what toys to buy for them and anyway toys are expensive. But guess sweets as large as what we bought aren't very practical too. Though they look really attractive, kids can't finish all of it at one go right. Selina was questioning why I chose to borrow money and come here to study if all I wanted to do next time was to give private piano lessons, reasoning that I could have done that long ago. I was like ermz... dunno what to say. Hah but she did set me thinking lah. It's quite true that since I came here, there must be something I can gain that I can't get in Singapore right... I just dunno what that is. Heh obviously the course isn't what I'd be able to get back home. But then like she said, I can still do the same things next time even if I didn't come here. I was totally o_O Dunno la... I need time to think!

whew...

2005-11-22T16:58:00.000+08:00

YIPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

No more essays for the term!

I ate so much rubbish since last Thursday that I must have put on tonnes by now. In any case my face is already rounder :( And my hand's still too used to typing two spaces after each full stop. So spastic.

Although both Pohning and I tried very hard to do our essays as quickly as possible so that we wouldn't have to do the whole last-minute thing again... we ended up sleeping even later than last time. Guess the main reason is that this time the questions we chose were harder than what we did last time. And I think once we started on the essays we began to regret our choice of questions! After the chamber choir concert on Sunday I tried to finish up on Holst whilst Ruth and Zhuomin proof-read what I'd written on Vaughan Williams. So stressful! Their english is too zai already. After their suggestions the whole essay just sounds so much more convincing and un-amateurish. Wah... *shakes head and sighs* must improve on my english!

The Holst part of my essay was so obviously crap compared to Vaughan Williams. There was so little things to say about him... plus I only had two books on him, one of which is a biography by his daughter... which is quite unuseful for my essay. The only other book I speed-read at the conservatoire library was purely on his Planets. And it had lots of talk on his rhetorical gestures and less on the influence of English/French/German/Russian on his music. I think all three writers emphasized a lot on the influence of English folksong on his music so I ended with practically nothing about his influences from abroad.

So just when I was heaving a sigh of relief at finishing the essay except for typing out the musical examples... Zhuomin called and said, 'What where the foreign influences in Holst's music? You have written on the English influence but your question is on combining the influences of home and abroad.' I totally freaked out! And even in the end when I finally called it a day and went to sleep at 4am, the Holst was still crappy, lame sentences strung together in the hope of answering the question. Lame things like, 'Debussy and the Symbolists probably influenced Holst in his rhetorical ideas yet he created his own rhetorical gestures. Blah blah.' I'm so going to die.

Whatever. I'm just glad it's over!

sigh again

2005-11-14T23:27:00.000+08:00

Just lemme rant on and on and on and on.... everything's happening at the same time! Oh man... well in sec school or jc when there were lots of tests at the same time I could just pick one and sorta ignore the rest and hope for the best. But right now I guess I should have learnt the importance of time management back then.

Piano lesson's going to be on Thursday, chamber choir concert's on Sunday, after which will be harpsichord lesson. And Monday's THE deadline! And what am I doing now? Listening to some contemporary music cos I have absolutely no idea what to do for my compo homework due this Thursday.

Choir was terrible today... normally after rehearsal I'd be in a good mood and the songs will be ringing in my head. But today everyone was sian diao and we practically sang every song at the same slow speed. I've heard us sound much better than this... i.e. last week. Maybe everyone's loosing a bit of confidence cos the concert's round the corner yet we've only had about 7 rehearsals only? (And I still don't know how to pronounce the Czech words in the Dvorak, especially since today I sat next to someone who pronounced everything differently from the person I sat next to for the previous few rehearsals.) Or maybe everyone's too tired.

Guess I shall go sleep soon... otherwise I'd just be dead during text tomorrow, which is already sian enough to make me sleepy without me having too little sleep the previous night. Maybe I should check that I've finished tomorrow's homework first! It's going to be mayhem if I suddenly realise I haven't finished something.

....sighs....

2005-11-13T17:05:00.000+08:00

Just came back from harpsichord lesson. It always makes me happier! But now that I'm back to my room and I start thinking about the essay again, plus getting Gareth's reply to my email... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I'm regretting my choice of question now!!!!! How how... too late to change already, guess I'd just have to try to stick to it and try to get hold of some of their scores. I can't even decide which works to write on, now that Gareth says I should just focus on 2 or 3 of each of their works. Oh no!!!!!!!! Now I'm damn stressed... it's worst than last time. Cos I'm worrying about the previous essay getting second marked, and I'm worried that this essay is going to be as bad as that! And I haven't done my text homework for Tuesday... and compo homework for Thursday... and Sunday's the chamber choir concert, no more time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH... I hate being stressed, makes me hungry all the time. I'm going to BALLOON to thrice my size! :(

I miss band!

2005-11-06T00:40:00.000+08:00

Was listening to band pieces while I was doing my text homework (erm ok, I probably shouldn't have) and I just suddenly felt so nostalgic. Miss the music. It's so different. And listening to the music also brings back all those memories of being in the band! Sad to say that most of the memories are of sn band... haha. It was more memorable.

Sighs. Ok, back to text homework. I'm quite sian... cos I still can't figure out the form. Maybe I should leave it for tomorrow. But I know I shouldn't. Bleargh. =(

Bleargh...

2005-11-04T22:36:00.000+08:00

It's going to be busy again... cos the Chamber Choir concert's going to be on 20 November, and the next essay is due on 21 November. No more last minute pia-ing! *Sobs* Gotta start now... not much time left. Sighz...

At least this week I'm not going to have to change much of my compositions anymore. But next week will be another new piece again. They are just so good at making everything clash together. Oh wells.

Got to practice harpsichord tomorrow morning cos I didn't practise much when I was rushing for the previous essay deadline... and my lesson's on Sunday! Practised a bit today, was quite ok but I think it sounds rather clumsy. All the ornaments' fault la... hahahaha ok, it's my fault, still can't play the ornaments un-clumsily. Heh k, going to start reading all those books for the next essay, or I'll never finish on time!

it's over!

2005-11-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Yay it's finally over! Whew. Slept for only 2 hrs last night trying to finish the essay. The last three days felt like those days before the compo deadline for As, everyday was just sitting in front of the computer and trying to finish all the work. And staying up till unearthly hours everyday... just that this time I wasn't that shiong to try and stay up two nights in a row. Anyway that didn't work during As, cos the second night I just couldn't take it anymore and I fell asleep in front of the computer. And woke up damn flustered! Heh it also felt like when we camped over in the mep room to do our compositions... cos I'm 'not at home', and it was just as cold, or maybe colder. Now I can understand why the Brits always leave their dishes unwashed in the sink, it saves time! But then their extra time is spent doing different things la. Still, same principle. Hahaha no la, I only allowed myself to not wash the dishes yesterday night cos it's absolutely the last night I had to finish the essay already. I'm just so glad it's submitted, no matter how badly I think I've done. Anyways, shall not go on and on about how irrelevant I was in the essay.

I'm in a real good mood! Despite a headache... cos I've just finished my TMP and text homeworks for tomorrow's lessons! All that's left now is to re-think my compositions. But that's on Thursday, I shall try to loosen up a little. I need sleep! My eyes have been bloodshot since yesterday morning. But I impressed myself by staying awake during context lecture today! It's no mean feat k, sometimes it's really boring cos it's 20th century stuff that sort of puts me in a trance after a while... really easy to fall asleep. I even did that once in the lecture on dear Mahler, who's not as boring. But after listening to so many of his works in the same lecture...

Anyway, I'm also happy cos I can go babysitting again this Wed & Thurs. Yay! Babysitting means income, plus fun with the kids. Hahaha looking forward to dinner there too. I guess I just have to make sure I don't leave all the compoitions to Wed, or I'd just 'crumple on the floor'. Heehee this was a phrase I suddenly said on msn yesterday to pohning while we were cheonging our essays and we both find it funny... don't ask us why, it just is! I think we're going a bit crazy after last night. On Friday and Saturday they are also letting me try out in Jack's restaurant, to see if I can manage... and if I can (hopefully I won't screw up!) they'll hire me as part-time staff. Finally a more stable source of income than the on-off babysitting!

Okay, going to sleep. Thanks anyway, to everyone, for dropping by my taggie. Definitely cheers me up to get msges from you guys! =)

3 more days to write my essay...

2005-10-28T16:28:00.000+08:00

Having a very bad writer's block! Basically I borrowed three books on Debussy, one of which I think is quite useless, and then another only has one short chapter relevant to my question. The last one has many examples of analyses illustrating the author's point but not enough elaboration about his points and description of the examples. Like how am I supposed to know what he's talking about when he doesn't reproduce the score in the book?! And I can't just blindly copy his examples word for word cos in the first place, I'd probably be seriously penalised if they spot it as plaigarism, and obviously cos just by reading it without any score I can't even tell whether it's relevant for my question. Bleah...

And the organisation is totally crappy cos basically I just borrowed ideas from the short chapter and wrote them in my own words, then now I'm trying to borrow ideas from this book. So the whole thing is jumping from one point to another without any structure at all. But hopefully this will be solved once I get all the points I can say about Debussy in first. Heh Ligeti, Messiaen, Boulez, Berio and Stockhausen can come later, since I think I won't be needing too many points from them. Hopefully that's what the question's asking... if they meant to ask for more points about the rest then I'm totally dead.

Sighz... shouldn't have put in so much effort to do the compositions la! Yesterday was crappy. Haha ok la, the shape and motifs stuff and styles were ok. But all three compositions didn't get played through (except at the piano) cos my classmates were just super put off by the rhythm. Anticipated that I'd probably get killed by the players when they try to sight-read the rhythm but I just didn't change it. I just wrote whatever it sounded like in my head and tried to squeeze them into some sort of meter la. So there were like thousands of ties and everything was offbeat. Stupid me, wasted my time and now I have to rush my essay. Only one other classmate had two completed compositions... the rest had like, maybe 10+ bars of each compo? Should have just scribbled something down and heck. But well, it's good in a way I guess, cos it means that after the essay submission on Monday I won't have to rush out all the compositions in time for compo lesson on Thursday. I can take my time and think about how to notate the rhythm so that they can play it!

How life is like for me...

2005-10-21T16:20:00.000+08:00

Having an incredibly lazy Friday afternoon now... got loads of work to do but I got hit by that all-too-familiar sian feeling this morning and I've been procrastinating ever since! Hahaha decided to update, at least it's a little bit more productive than trying to read but moodily staring into space or out of the window right.

I actually planned to go to the city centre today... to go to the rag market, indoor market and outdoor market. Hahaha was going to look for cheap clothes and stuff in the rag market, wanted to buy nuts from the indoor market, and to get bargains for fruits and vegetables from the outdoor market when it's about to close! But then I woke up super late this morning (10 plus!), and anyway it started raining after I ate lunch. So I decided not to go. Heh it's really inconvenient to totter around with an umbrella and bags of things when you go shopping alone.

Basically my life here is boring and it pretty much feels the same as how it used to be in Singapore. Really! Except for some slight adjustments of course... like the weather. And walking to and from school (sometimes more than once) everyday, or walking to town and back, or lugging heavy groceries back from Tesco (heh but we've taken to sharing a cab back nowadays). It's really a lot of walking unless you're willing to pay £1.10 for a bus ride, or £0.90 for a train ride (when u still have to walk to campus cos that's where the train station is!). A cab ride back from Tesco usually costs £4, so shared between me and Shuying still reasonable la, cos you can take it from right outside Tesco and it brings you all the way home (haha don't need to climb the dratted slope like if you take the bus). Hmm sometimes when I'm really tired (like when I had to lug 16 CDs to central library to return), I take the bus to town for free using my ID card... actually we're supposed to pay once the bus goes out of the so-called campus (a few stops after where we get on) but then most of the time nobody notices. Of course in town then cannot do that, have to pay lor. Apparently if you get caught then have to pay fine but then so far nothing's happened yet. And I'm not going to do that all the time la, walking is healthy... starting to feel like I'm getting fatter cos the cold weather makes me hungry like 24/7, can't stop snacking on biscuits whenever I'm in my room! =P

Other adjustments I guess are just the chores lor, like washing up after meals (hehehehe like to cook and eat but hate washing up!), and laundry. So far I haven't used the laundrette yet, I've been washing the clothes in my toilet and then hanging them next to the heater to dry. But the sink's a bit small so I bought a pail from Tesco just this Wednesday. It's really ok cos I've been used to washing my shirts by hand in Singapore but then jeans are really problematic cos they take quite long to dry. There was once when I washed both pairs at the same time and ended up having to borrow a pair from Shuying to wear hahaha.

My timetable is very empty:
Monday 12-2pm Context 1a lecture, 7.30-9.30pm Chamber Choir rehearsal
Tuesday 9-10.30am Technical Music Perception lesson, 2-3.30pm Text 1a lesson, 7.30-9.30 University Choir rehearsal
Thursday 9-10am Introduction to Psychology lecture, 2-5pm Paper Composition

Shiok right. The timetable's really slack but the workload isn't! I mean, before I came I got people telling me that oh, arts very slack one la, the timetable's super empty. And it's really true, but then there is so much more to it than just the timetable. I just think the deadlines for the two essays are really scary! One's going to be due 31 October and the other one 21 November. And the books have been completely snapped up at the Barber Music Library, such that I had to go to the Central Library on Wednesday. Hahaha I sat at the reference section for hours typing the important chunks into my computer, and when the battery died I copied them onto foolscap. (The library didn't have sockets for me to plug my adapter.) What freaks me out is that I will usually do the weekly homework and stuff for the seminars (obviously cos it's due sooner), then it seems as though I haven't really started on my essays. TMP homework is like considered the easiest, just counterpoint and figured bass... then followed by Text, basically analysing Bach's Partita No. 4 now. The most taxing homework is Paper Composition, it's like even up till the day of the lesson I still won't feel satisfied with the compo, but too bad... just have bring it to class anyway.

Usually between the two lessons on Tuesday Pohning and I will practise in the practise block cos we're in the same TMP group, then my Text lesson is at the same time as her Studio Composition. We will book the two rooms, like she book a piano room followed by the harpsichord room and I book the harpsichord room followed by piano room. Then we'll just switch. Sometimes when my lessons are not in the morning I'll try to go practise in the morning, but sometimes it doesn't work cos I'll just oversleep la. On free days I'll practise in the mornings also, cos in the morning it's usually more empty and even if you don't book should be able to find a room. Especially Fridays! I just love Fridays... cos there will be Chamber Orchestra rehearsal at 10am so there is less people to fight with for rooms. And most of them like to go clubbing/pubbing after Symphony Orchestra rehearsals on Thursday nights so they won't get up so early on Fridays to practise. So far for the past few weeks it's just been me, a flautist and a trombonist practising in the morning. Sometimes there's a singer, but sometimes there isn't. Last Sunday I also tried practising before going for dinner at Ruth/Zhuomin/Junkai's place. Cos their flat is much nearer to campus so since I'd be going down for dinner might as well go practise first. Shall consider practising before the rehearsals on Mondays and Tuesdays maybe, like go home after lessons, pack dinner or have early dinner, then go practise before rehearsal. But seems a little impractical ley.

Haven't actually found a proper job yet, but I've been babysitting for this family. The mother (Selina, from Singapore) is Shuying's friend's sister, and she's been here for 15 years. She met her husband (Jack, from Hongkong) when she was in uni I think. They are super busy cos Jack runs a Chinese restaurant so he has to be there every evening/night to socialise with the customers. For Selina she has to be away about three evenings a week cos her company sent her on some computer course and she also started indoor golf. So whenever they need people to take care of their children they'll sms Shuying or me, depending on which days they need la, cos we have our own things on different days. It's quite a good job, it's £10 per night, plus dinner (hahaha it's the highlight of the visit for us, cos they are really good cooks!). Basically the kids will have things to do, like homework, reading, practise violin, and we just have to keep them on-task and make sure they finish everything they're supposed to do before they play or watch TV.

They are so adorable, and quite well-behaved also. Nicholas is 7 and Teri is 5/6? Teri always likes to play teacher and she loves colouring (hahaha the best activity to distract her and keep her occupied). She's also always asking us to plait her hair. Nicholas just loves to watch cartoons. Sometimes they'll argue and all that, but then they stop very fast, like once you stop them they'll listen. So far I haven't had to use any threats to tell their parents or whatever to keep them in control. The challenging thing is that cos they're so young, they just need attention and both will try to fight for your attention. Quite hard to keep a balance cos I can feel that Teri's more pampered, of course la, she's younger and she's a girl somemore. And yesterday Nicholas was just complaining to Jack that it's unfair that if Teri hits him and he complains, it's still his fault yet if he hits Teri, it's also his fault. Too bad that he's the elder son la. I try my best to be very fair but I guess Teri gets more attention cos since Nicholas is supposed to be independent and do his work by himself, it doesn't make sense for me to just sit beside him and look at him do his work right. Plus Teri doesn't really have any work to do usually, just reading sometimes. So have to keep her occupied with something cos I don't want the TV to be on while Nicholas is doing his work.

The good thing about the job is, when they go to sleep at about 9 or 9 plus, we can do anything we want. But then sometimes that's not always the case la, like when one night Teri suddenly woke up crying for Selina and refused to go back to sleep. Had to carry her downstairs to "wait for mommy to come home", and then she eventually fell asleep on her favourite sofa. Or when nowadays Nicholas keeps coughing in his sleep and then he'll wake up crying cos I think it's quite painful. And at bedtime they'll always ask me to sit in the corridor just outside their bedroom doors. But then most of the time I'll be tidying up downstairs (and I'll take as long as I can), then when I go back up to check on them they'll be asleep. So I can just do my homework downstairs. When the parents come home (usually Jack comes home first at about 11 plus), Jack drives us back.

Last night Jack was saying that maybe I can work at his restaurant on some evenings until he hires a permanent staff, cos someone from Malaysia working in his restaurant will be going back next week. Wish it wasn't temporary though, haha but I know the limitations of hiring me, cos I'm not free on Monday and Tuesday evenings, then when they need a babysitter on Thursday I won't be able to go to the restaurant also, cos Shuying's not free on Thursdays. Supposed to ask her if she wants to do the days I can't go... but Thursday's the real problem. Hope he doesn't change his mind, I need some income! Applied for a sales assistant job at Selfridges but haven't got a reply so far. I think another week or so, and I'll know they don't want to hire me if I still don't get a reply.

Okiez, going to start work already. Enough of slacking around today. Bleah.

Stratford-upon-avon

2005-09-24T23:00:00.000+08:00

The seven of us (Sabrina, Shuying, Chris, Kenneth, Tony, Kenneth's dad, and I) went for a day trip to Stratford-upon-avon today. Was very excited, woke up super early... haha also partly cos I get hungry quite easily in the early morning, dunno why also. Called for a cab to come at 8.15 to pick me, Shuying, Kenneth, Tony and Kenneth's dad up from Elgar Court. The phone operator said they'll call me when the cab reach but they didn't leh... make me wait in my room for so long, in the end I decided might as well go down and wait. And it was there already, Shuying was also there. But we had to wait for the rest and the driver said it was 75p per minute for waiting time. Ouch! But luckily they came like maybe one minute or less later la, so not that expensive.

When we reached New Street station the rest were all there but we weren't sure if Imran was coming so we waited until 8.45. Then we walked to Moor Street station, bought our tickets and caught our 9.27 train to Stratford-upon-avon.

[haiya... really cannot take it already... i'm sleepy and cold. why is it so cold tonight?!]

The train journey was quite fast and it was quite funny especially when Sabrina was laughing all the time. The scenery was beautiful, green pastures... erm ok, got brown and yellow also la. Cows, sheep, trees... blue sky! If I ever get a chance I'd like to spend some time to experience farm life. Haha of course I'll feel quite isolated and sian without my laptop, and so far away from other civilisation also... but I think it'll be quite a great experience. Especially the peacefulness, tranquility... haha used to dream of living a quiet, simple life. Now not really, I guess it could get a bit boring la. But still want to experience it. Maybe for a week?

Just outside the Stratford-upon-avon train station was a large carpark where many locals parked their vehicles to sell things. It was like a flea market, everything was being sold there. There were books, antiques, toys, plants, fruits and vegetables, and all the things they decide they don't want anymore. The antiques were fascinating, there were clocks, pocket watches, sets of cutlery etc... haha even old coins selling for 20p each! Kenneth's dad bought fruits from one of the stalls, it was very sweet (except for the occasional sour ones)... nice!

Then we walked towards Shakespeare's birthplace and passed by another flea market. Even more things to see, and to get tempted by. Shuying ended up buying a very nicely decorated candle holder. The whole place was so beautiful, I love it more than Birmingham! I like the way the streets and buildings (or shophouses) kept that 'old' look but the shops inside were modern, selling things like sports wear, hip clothing, perfume etc. There was a shop selling cakes, pastries, oh no... haha too bad, don't get to eat take a picture also not bad la.

Doesn't it just look so delicious...

We also walked past a brass quartet of two trumpets, trombone, and tuba busking in front of a shop window. So cool! Don't know whether they bought arrangements of some pieces or did their own, but it was really good.

Nearing Shakespeare's birthplace there was a plaque-like stone on the ground labelled 'Shakespeare's Ghost', with a statue of a dog tied to a trophy in front of it. On top of the stone, there was a grey statue, apparently of Shakespeare holding a book. Then... the statue moved! It was just a man busking. People were putting money into the trophy for him, and he would bow to them in apparently the Shakespearean manner I suppose... haha. But some people stood very near him and tried to stare into his eyes. He would go still for some time, and suddenly reach forward to scare the people. Later when we were returning and passed by the place again, he wasn't there anymore.

[Ok, gotta go for music department socialising activites heh... shall continue this some other time]

so excited

2005-09-24T07:33:00.000+08:00

We're going to Stratford-upon-avon today! So exciting... we're going to catch a train there and estimated that the tickets will not be more than 30 pounds. Then we'll get to see Shakespeare's birthplace, etc... haha this is exciting! We'd probably not get to do this so often once school starts next week. Made an egg sandwich for lunch... heehee we're all on tight budgets so we should save on lunch! Okiez, going to get ready, otherwise we may just miss the train we're planning to catch!

Department talk

2005-09-22T00:42:00.000+08:00

Had a department meeting at Barber Institute this morning. Wah this year like quite a lot of people taking leave and stuff. The department should be mostly English, I think. Maybe some international students but mostly non-asians. About the only asians there were Poh Ning, me, and this Hong Kong girl. Don't really know her name, it sounded quite weird... but I know it starts with G.

We also got to meet our 'parents'... each senior is assigned to one of us. My mum's Lizzie, she's really nice and friendly. But I think many of them are not really used to Asians, can tell that the parents with asian children were having quite an awkward time trying to make small talk haha.

Tomorrow supposed to go register for our MOMD (modules outside main discipline). Thinking of taking Introduction to Psychology, or History of Art , or The Impact of Mathematics. Haha hmm I know some people will go, 'Eeee... maths....' Haha but sounds quite interesting leh, here's the module description: These linked modules will explore the impact of mathematics in topics such as: music; art and literature; chaos; sport; money; stars and planets; the past; the future; recreational mathematics; architecture. Quite cool to find out lor. How how... cannot decide!

Very happy that my airmail parcel was delivered to me safe and sound, and on time too! 12 + 9 days = 21 sep. Yay... happy with my speakers! Hahahaha and finally scores! Heehee don't have to borrow Poh Ning's Beethoven sonatas anymore.

K, going to sleep. Maybe can fall asleep soon and then maybe if I'm too tired I won't wake up when my flat mates come home later.

So fast, Tuesday already!

2005-09-20T07:00:00.000+08:00

Haha eating breakfast and blogging... quite tired... last night we came back at eleven plus and then shortly after that my flat mate came back with a noisy and rowdy bunch of people. Was going to knock out but then kept getting distracted by the noise.

And this morning after I woke up for about ten minutes I can hear sounds outside my room already. Wah, how she sleep so late but wake up so early?! (I woke up at six lor) Nowadays I wake up earlier to bathe and let my hair dry before I go out... cos if I wash my hair at night then it'll still be wet when I want to sleep. Bad for my head right. And when I wake up in the morning i'll have a really 'nice' head of explosive hair! Haha... okay sorry crapping around.

Hmmm oh ya. Yesterday's dinner was great! Hahaha all of us have been like living on bread to save money... and also cos when you buy bread there's the expiry date lor. So must finish before it expires right. Yesterday we all couldn't take it anymore, so we decided to meet at Shuying's flat to cook fried rice together. Hahaha so fun, we all took turns to fry different batches of rice cos the wok was rather small. But then the rice was a little sticky cos we just cooked it before we fried. Haha no time to wait for it to be cold already! YUMMY!!!!! Hahaha

Then we went to Melvin's flat for tea. Lanx was super despo to go clubbing so Melvin managed to get him a place cos one of his friends was going for a movie instead. Yepz, so we chatted until quite late and the four of us shared a cab back to the vale but poor Chris had to walk home alone cos Queens Hospital Close was in the other direction.

Today... meeting Ruth and she's bringing us to buy our books. Then I also need to get to the HSBC New Street branch to get my cheque book. Sighs... they make me so sian. Last week they told me my cheque book reaching the uni branch this week but yesterday they said it was sent to New Street. And can't set up the internet banking cos there's always an error when we tried. But when we ask the man at the bank he'll think we didn't follow his instructions carefully. Got very irritated with him yesterday cos he kept saying things like, 'you must have read the digits wrongly', or 'you must have input the wrong details' etc. We understand English perfectly well ok... sigh.

Then back to my room to dump all the books first before meeting Chris at the uni train station and we can all go open market together. Yay it's supposed to sell really cheap things near closing time so can get all the groceries there. But one thing I won't buy from there is the meat la, cos may not be fresh. Need to get lots of fruits, I just don't feel right if I don't eat them! Hahaha so opposite from my bro.

Some of them planning to go party with their flat mates (cos it seems like the fastest way to get to know them!), but don't think I'm going cos tomorrow got some deparmental thing. Anyway, I'm not really into such things. Guess I'll just mix around with my flat mates, talk to them etc but don't think I'll go parties.

Okiez... going to fix some lunch to bring along later. Haha my loaf of bread's expiry date is today! Need to finish it... don't waste money!

The First Week

2005-09-18T11:42:00.000+08:00

[13 September 2005 2020hrs: not so tired tonight so I can start writing about the previous days, and maybe if there's going to be enough time tomorrow I can copy this into blogger using the wireless network outside the library!]

Sunday and Monday felt like a single (long long) day. It just felt like the two were joined together and the day never ended. I think it's partly due to the flight.

Spent most of Sunday packing, frantically trying to get many things into the luggages without exceeding the weight. Too bad, in the end the weight was 33.5kg in total. Supposed to pay 3.5 X $72.50 = $253.75!!! But luckily we didn't have to pay eventually, explain that later.

And then si4 yi2 came to visit in the afternoon, so most of the time was spent talking to her. Or rather, just sit with them in the living room lor. Cos I don't have that many things to talk about.

After that we went to grandma's house for dinner. And then it was back home to get the luggage etc ready, before san1 shu4 and xiao3 shu4 drove my grandma and aunt down to pick us up. Somehow it felt like a very normal trip, as if I were travelling to UK for some band thing. At the airport I was sitting next to my grandma and she was constantly telling me the do's and don't's (again!). Later da4 bo2 and my cousins arrived and there was a spate of photo-taking, haha all of us whipping out our cameras. Sat there for quite long, and Guanyan was wondering about Popeyes so he and my dad went to buy some food. Ate a muffin (yum!) cos I know I'd surely be eating some more when I met my beloved section later.

Then it was time to say goodbye, everyone was wishing me all the best etc. Grandma was crying but weirdly I wasn't affected, even though usually will cry watching people cry in shows. Think maybe it also depends, like if I'm watching the show alone then I can really cry buckets but if there are other people watching then I won't be that affected. Sigh. Nevermind, she'll cheer up soon. And anyway she can always go to my house and see me via msn and the webcam.

Met my dearest section at Swensens. Thank you all SOOO MUCH!!! Where else can you ever find a section that's still sticking together since secondary school days... yay ET rocks! (Hmm Debbie, maybe I'll give you an 'internet send-off' haha. Too bad I can't fly back) Anyway, at Swensens, Debbie and I had two different kinds of "peaks", which is basically just lots of chocolate ice-cream, cream etc piled up in a tall tall glass. Mmmm CHOCOLATE!!! Jiehui and Shini shared some dunno-how-many-scoops-of-ice-cream thing, and Yiting had another chocolate thing in a shorter but rounder glass. Hmmm seriously I think my description skills are really bad hor, ok nvm. And since it was four ice-cream items, we could order some set thing which came with fries, the total costing $26. Thanks Yiting for your treat!

Thanks everybody for your present too! Haha the lantern is really hilarious! What am I supposed to do with it? Haha. And there's the butterfly-thing, which (sorry!) I haven't opened cos it looks very fragile and I think I'd wait till I move into my permanent accommodation so that it wouldn't break during the move. Thanks very much for the thumb drive, should be more useful than my tiny-capacity one heehee. What I really liked best was... the monday-to-sunday thing! (Hmmm were you all thinking it was the chocolate?) Now I know why you all said I have to flip it everyday (I will!) haha then I won't forget what day it is and what lessons I'll have ya. Well, so sorry about the chocolate actually, cos all of us didn't get to sit together on the flight to Dubai, and Poh Ning's mum was holding the plastic bag when we boarded the plane cos I had other things to carry. Later when we reached Dubai's baggage check for the transit... the chocolate had to pass through their scanning machine, which was labelled 'radioactive'. Argh. So sorry! *Sob* I didn't get to eat the chocolate! =( =( =( =( But anyway, I'm really happy and thanks again for all your presents! And the effort put in to make the monday-to-sunday thing!

Walked down to the check-in place together and took some photos. (Hey, must send me ok... can't wait till I move into my permanent accommodation and apply for the internet service in the room!) Sorry that you all had to leave so quickly, haha cos we all wanted to check in as soon as possible. Anyway, the check-in was quite bad, cos the guy at the counter was very irritating. According to Poh Ning's dad, they called Emirates in the morning to check whether her mum's luggage allowance was 20 or 30 kg. Apparently they said it was 30kg, but the guy at the counter refused to believe that cos on her ticket it said 20kg... 'if it was 30kg they'll have put it on the ticket, makes sense?' Argh, he said that with the very irritating kind of discriminating tone lor (he was also Chinese ok, hmmph we really have lots of things to bring what!) So we were 15kg overweight altogether. But in the end they managed to convince (actually not convince, he didn't look convinced but anyway, think he just didn't want to argue) the guy and he let us off without having to pay. (Thanks ah, Poh Ning! Otherwise I'd have to pay so much!) Second, when we passed him our ticket-holder (which contained next June's ticket also), he took out the wrong ticket for mine. Instead of taking out the Dubai-to-Birmingham ticket for 12 Sep, he took out one of the June tickets. Wah... luckily I realised when he returned me the tickets for next June. And I was wondering, huh? Why would I need to fly from Dubai to Birmingham next June?! Lastly, when people check in together usually they'd give you seats together lor, but he gave us seats that were quite separated, at rows 16, 19, and 38.

Oh ya, there was a small (ok not very small) glitch on my part too. Haha when they were scanning our hand luggage then the woman told the guy to check my bag. Apparently I put a sort of set of things like nail clipper etc in my bag but I thought I put it into one of the luggages. Whoa, mayhem! I had to take out anything that resembled the rectangular-shaped thing that they saw in the scan. Finally after scanning my bag three times over, we found the thing. They are so weird lor, they confiscated one sharp-looking thing but then they let me take back the nai clipper and some other things. Actually I think those that they returned me were still quite dangerous-looking leh.

Anyway, I wasn't very unhappy with sitting separately la. It gave me a little taste of what it feels like to fly alone. I took 38, cos at least 16 and 19 are nearer so they can be closer together. (But in the end they swapped places with some people and sat at row 39, haha I was so blur I only found out in Dubai!) My seat was a window seat, beside two Africans (Or African-something, I just don't want to use the term 'black' cos somehow it seems a little degrading leh). The baggage compartment was quite high up and I had to tip-toe a little to reach the handle and try to squash my hand luggage in. The plane was very big and of course stable, except one small part when we were having our second meal. Oh ya, the meals on Emirates are good! (Ok, please note that this is coming from a very sui2 bian4 person!) And I think it really depends on your choice when you order. Our first meal was two triangular slicles of bread, one with ham and pickles on top and the other with some sort of cream cheese. The cheese one was delicious!!! And there were other things, which I forgot. (See, the cheese one must really be so nice that I forgot what else came with it!) The second meal we had a choice of ommelette or noodles. I think I made a right decision with the noodles, cos I generally don't have a good impression of ommelettes on flights. They just seem too watery to me all the time, I don't like that. The noodles were yummy haha just normal noodles stir-fried and there was one rather big prawn sliced into half. For dessert (yay, dessert!) was a fruit tart. Yum. And of course there were fruits, salad, bread, butter, biscuits, cheese etc. Actually I slept for quite a lot of the flight, and so did my two neighbours, so I didn't really have to bother about them.

[13 September 2005 2150hrs: Aiya, think I should go sleep. Eyes starting to get tired and starting to feel sleepy. Actually, also cos my legs are aching... well wait for my post on today! Haven't really adjusted, now I sleep at 10 and wake up at 4! Ok, to be continued...]

[15 September 2005 1638hrs: Just got my wireless repaired, been getting disconnected all the time just now. See la, wasted 1.5 hours of my blogging time! *Sob*]

On the transit flight from Dubai to Birmingham, the three of us got seats together. Poh Ning and I sitting by the window and her mum sitting on the aisle seat in the middle section. The first meal was another bread affair. This time it wasn't as nice but still, it's nice! Haha. Somehow I had lots of appetite on the plane but Poh Ning and her mother were complaining that they were feeding us like pigs. The second meal was good too, I think we all took chicken. Cos I've experienced beef on planes that really taste bleargh. So I decided to get chicken. And the dessert was a creamy thing with berries on the bottom. Yum! Heehee. Yupz, so that's about all I have to say about the flight (actually it's quite a lot!). The coolest thing about Emirates is that they have one camera attached to the plane's nose showing you the pilot's view, and another camera attached to its belly showing you the downwards view. It's really cool during take off and landing and when we were low enough in UK we could enjoy the downwards view and see all the fields and buildings!

[15 September 1658hrs: wait, lemme just upload this before I continue the story...]

Then when we got down the plane, the customs was soooo slow. I think we waited more than half an hour lor. At first there were two queues, one for British passport holders and for non-British passport holders. Cos the British process is faster, they finished much faster than us. So they opened the other counters to us. But later another plane arrived and all the people on the plane were British! ARGH. One big group. So they had to give those counters to them again.

[15 September 1805hrs: this has been very slow moving, like I said, it's a long day. And now I'm chatting with lots of people on MSN so it's slowing me down quite a lot! Haha lemme publish again...]

[18 September 11:14hrs: using the wireless in the library now. Met Poh Ning and Shuying here cos they needed to fix their hallsnet. At first I didn't want to come but later I thought I should cos if the Arts Building was open then maybe we could book a room to practice on Monday. But too bad, it wasn't open]

When we reached the luggage belt it was really easy to spot our luggages cos most of the people were gone already, and only the last few people's luggages were left. Luckily we still managed to meet Shuying in the end (her flight arrived at 11+ but she said she would wait for us and also her parents were taking the same flight as us). At first the welcome team was already getting the group of international students gathered there to move out of the airport and we thought we'd have to wait for the next bus but luckily they managed to give us our yellow stickers (like we're tourists!) in time for us to follow the group.

It was a very sunny day, even in the plane the sun was shining so brightly we lowered the blinds for most of the trip. Actually we only raised it when we were nearing Birmingham so that we could peer down to see the scenery. I didn't know what to expect of the weather so I had my jumper in my hand luggage, and Poh Ning's mum was saying we might be cold outside especially me cos it was just a jumper (their jackets were a bit thicker), so she actually took out another three jackets from her luggage. But in the end we didn't need to use the jackets at all.

After the bus dropped us off at Prichatts, it became very chaotic. There were people everywhere, and everyone was collecting their luggage from the van. And then we were supposed to queue up in a line to store our luggages in the Social Centre. But it was so full they changed their minds and they told us to move back so that we could put our luggages on the grass outside the building. The whole thing was quite tiring cos I was carrying my super heavy hand luggage and my laptop bag too. My right shoulder was aching!

Tags were stuck on our luggage and we were given half of it so that we could collect our luggages later. Then we had to queue up in the Social Centre to get our accommodation contracts, and then our keys for the temporary accommodation. It took very long and all of us were very thirsty. Fortunately there were cups of water. There were many things to collect and everything was really messy.

The three of us tried to ask if they could allocate us to the same flat for the temporary accommodation but they said it was on a first-come-first-serve basis. But we still ended up in the same flat cos we were queuing one after another. The flat was non en-suite, but it was still ok I guess. My room was very dirty, there were little white bits of things on the floor and everything. So I was always either wearing my shoes or my slippers when I was in my room. Some photos of how the room looked like when we first went in... (actually I took these after I finished packing the day before we were moving to our permanent rooms)

The next few days were mostly just going around to do our registration with the university, going to the library to install the authentication certificate for the wireless, going to the finance office etc... Takes quite long sometimes, cos the queues are all very long!

The most irritating one was the bank. There were only two counters, and the people there could only do transactions and stuff, those with questions all had to queue up to ask another man. Only one man to answer so many people's questions! And he's quite racist... argh. When Poh Ning and I tried to ask him how we can set up internet banking, he explained the procedure and then he said, 'if you're not comfortable with English, translate the website into your own language...etc' Felt like boxing him. He says that to everyone who's Chinese-looking lor! Hmmph. Managed to get my solo debit card but can't really do anything with it cos obviously withdrawal got limit so can't pay my fees and accommodation in cash. Then we tried to pay through the epayment gateway in the the university's website but there was an error. We're guessing there's also a limit for such online payments. So now we just have to wait for our cheque books to come.

They are really weird. On Monday I went to collect my card and cheque book, but cos mine were supposed to be collected at the New Street branch, they said I had to wait a few days for them to be redirected to the university's branch. Then when I went back again, they only gave me my card. I was worried that they'd sent my cheque book back to Singpore, like Poh Ning's, so I asked them to check whether that was what happened. But then they said I asked for it to be sent to UK. So where did my cheque book go? Now I'm supposed to go back sometime next week. Sigh. And next week is Freshers Week, the whole university will be crowded with people trying to get everything done! Even longer queues than now! But we're hoping the banks won't be that bad cos if most UK students already have accounts they won't have to keep going to the banks.

1

2005-09-10T12:12:00.000+08:00

Class lesson was super early today. 9.30 am... the earliest class lesson I've ever had! A bit too early to properly wake up but then I like it. Heehee I'm an owl/early bird, I work better in the morning or at night. Afternoons are bleargh, too drowsy.

Ms Ching was super friendly today. Haha maybe it was her first lesson of the day? She talked to us for quite long (as in, ask about how's everyone etc), I think the longest I ever remember from all the class lesson. And she was very amused to hear that my luggage is super overweight. Sighz. Ok, anyway, playing was ok. Except for (ARGH) my stupid lack of concentration at one part. Not again! Anyway, i was quite comfortable with the speed though I know it's definitely too slow to be the real speed Beethoven intended! But well, better to play at a manageable speed than to trip over all the semiquavers!

Was very inspired by Adeline's playing to start learning Bach again! And Ben's Beethoven too. Michele played Mozart's concerto in C minor, I just love watching concertos during class lesson! Sighz. Ms Ching says next year they'll do more duets. So fun! I want to do too. The rest of the class is actually quite poor thing, cos both Shaun and I are leaving. That leaves the five of them... further split into two 'Beethoven groups' of two and three. Shaun and I are from the same group, leaving poor Adeline and Bernice to fend for themselves now! Haha that was a project we were supposed to have been doing from beginning of the year but other than discuss what topic we should do, we haven't done anything! And the concert's coming, december?! I think. And if Ben goes into NS early, then that leaves the four of them. Hoping I can have lessons again when I'm back next year. And class lessons, I'd definitely miss them!

After class lesson Adeline and I had lunch at Han's... and she treated me to a slice of their oreo mint cake. Yum. Was very interested in her job, and I think it's really quite interesting! I mean, other than the fact that it's not something to do with music, but I think it's so different from a static clerical job. When she's not fighting cases she has to do research on other cases, and she can have lots of cases at a go, which means she's always fighting against time to get everything done by their deadlines. Stressful, but definitely not boring! Later we went window shopping around Novena Square, and I was eventually pursuaded to do crazy things like try on a skirt knowing fully well I wouldn't buy it in the end. Oh well. Adeline's really young at heart!

Ok, enough for now. Feeling super tired from waking up so early this morning! And from all the packing! Haha it's a miracle! (Well, no, it isn't actually) I didn't exceed the baggage limit. Cos I took so many things out! Too bad, just got to air mail some things over.

2

2005-09-09T22:40:00.000+08:00

Met some of the mepers today for lunch in Soup Restaurant at Suntec. We were actually very undecided about what to eat. But Ms Chew said we should eat Chinese food cos Poh Ning and I are leaving already.

Oh before we met Ms Chew, Kan Kan, Poh Ning and I went to minitoons in search of a gift for Ms Chew. Poh Ning and I couldn't decide between a cookie monster soft toy and another soft toy which is very hilariously labeled 'Animal Ball - Chick'. Cos it's basically a very round chick haha very cute! But cookie monster was also adorable with its funny look. Kan Kan prefered the chick but she was a little unwilling to help us decide cos afterall, the gift is from the two of us. But in the end she got quite fed up so she decided on the chick heehee.

Ok, anyway, got to go pack somemore. ARGH

3

2005-09-08T23:04:00.000+08:00

Got my JBL Creature II speakers today. Originally wanted grey cos if it was black, the subwoofer really looks like Darth Vader's helmet, and white feels too... cold? Just didn't like the feeling of white. But in the end I settled for white cos they didn't stock grey. It's packed quite snugly in a box but weighs 6kg. Guess I have no choice but to ship it over, although I keep thinking of sending by air so that I can get it sooner. But then again... $$$$!!!

And my packing is still in a mess! Even if I manage to squeeze everthing in, I bet I'll still exceed the baggage limit. Cos the smaller luggage is almost full and it already weighs nearly 15kg. Imagine how heavy the bigger luggage will be once I manage to pack everything else in it.

In the morning I got a flu vaccine before going to Sim Lim. Now my left arm is aching. I think I'd rather the jab hurt a lot and after that not have this sort of post-jab aches. When he said 'your arm will ache for one day or so, don't worry and just don't carry heavy things etc', I didn't really bother cos at that time it was only a little tingly sensation around the fingers. But later when I went home and practised for Saturday's class lesson, ouch. At first it was perfectly fine, but once I finished practising and put my hand down from the keyboard, the muscles were all wound up tightly as if I'd been doing one-arm push-ups or something.

Okay, shall sleep earlier today. Been waking up quite late nowadays and getting that 'I just wasted my whole morning' feeling. Going to meet the mepers tomorrow! Finally we managed to find a time...

Hermit's refuge

Random updates

Holidays!

-5°C on the first day of November

Exciting year ahead

3 long days

Back in Birmingham

Assorted ramblings

Discrimination

Last week of work

Gripes and Respect

It's been a long while

Sounds familiar...

I am Singaporean

Got a job at last

Back...

Efficiency

Packing

2 jokers in my house next year

Bath

Things I'll miss when I leave

Roasted

London again

11 days to go

last minute

A Day in London

2 down

1 down

Butterflies in my stomach

listening to election results on skype

I Don't Want to Live on the Moon

On studying and eating

a bit less apathetic

Poot's mad

Yawn

Argh

Birds

The Wicked and ArtRage 2

Curse of the Clock Tower

locked out of the flat

sorry for being constantly MIA!!!

"I need to understand the world"

holidays!

Most crappy essay award

I can be buay song too

last lap

freezing

Just so pple know

Uh, random post?

Just filling the space

shiver...

broke my record

Busy again

Little anecdotes

Happy Chinese New Year!

Long post again

Chicken day

on animals and tone rows

*sigh* Mahler...

First week

Last day of hols

call me a lazy pig *oink*

It's how you look at it

I'm done!

Italians also say 'towkay'???

Happy 2006!

Too bad this didn't happen on Christmas Day

Composition blues

Post-Christmas sales

Only a little snow

slacking on Boxing Day

Merry Christmas!!!!

the kids

Scenic picture

tang yuan!

Food cravings strike again

Warning: boring post

char kuay teow...

if u don't get a Christmas card...

S.A.D

sigh Mahler...

call me a lazy pig oink