Crossed over

Right! 6 days is grand ol' London. Its been...expensive. Thanks to all the people who came down to see me off at the airport, for your fantastic gifts, and for the really great song. I've never truly appreciated how nice it is to have a card from a bunch of people you really care about. Everything is still somewhat surreal to me; not having anything to do on Saturday is just so weird.

By some freakish coincidence, 4 of my Secondary School bandmates are in London too! And I must say, the familiar faces really really help. I've been hanging almost everyday with them. Got my first whiff of despair yesterday when I went down to my Halls of Residence.

This is the kitchen. State-of-the-art washing machine/slash dryer. Oven, microwave, dishwasher, kettle, fridge & freezer, full set of cooking utensils, full set of knives, and fulls sets of cutlery and plates. All done in a wood and metal finish, with a black formica tabletop. Oh-so-chio.

On the left, a picture of the lounge. Flat screen TV, DVD Player and Skybox. Full sofa settee with wood varnish floor, just like home. On the right is the bed room. Walk in wardrobe, Queen-sized bed with four pillows and duvet. I could sell this place.

So why the whiff of despair? BECAUSE IT'S NOT MINE. It's my elder sister's service apartment, and its about 30 minutes away from the City Centre by Tube (if we consider Piccadilly Circus as Centre). Mine, on the other hand, is a 20 minute walk to the Tooting Broadway tube station, followed by a hour's train ride. Yippee.

Now, pictures of my place will follow shortly, what with all the moaning I've already done about it. My Hall of Residence looks very modern, for the 19th century. It's architecture is quaint, and it possesses a certain je nais sais quois. Charming.

However, I'm only granted entry to the room because my shoulders are narrow. Four floors, no lift. Open room door, hit tiny bed. In the chest of drawers, if you pull out the bottom one, the rest on top go down a level. Seriously. The floors are...some weird plastic-rubber complex, much like the ACS(I) Classroom floors. The colour schematic of the room is off-white and TPJC-green. Feels abit like, as my cousin put it, a cell for young offenders.The toilets and kitchens are shared among the 19 people on each floor. 2 people in the kitchen at a time, or face the prospect of serious injury! (think face-in-stove). The toilets are open-concept stalls which link directly to the corridors, while the baths are just...small rooms with a bathtub in them.

Nevertheless, I remain hopeful. I really do. Its just in my nature for the glass to be rather more half empty when it comes to things like this. It may yet be a blessing in disguise!



So this is one of the things keeping my sanity afloat. A picture taken at my place during the last sleepover, crystallised into a glass paperweight. I tried to get a proper representation of how beautiful it really looked, but my damn camera refused to cooperate. So well, think of something in between 2 and 3. 1 is the original picture. Thanks yihui!

Right. It's 5am here now. I'm going to move into my Hall for good today, where I don't think they have Internet yet. But then again, I'll probably just hang around school or something to use the WiFi. Keep in touch, people!

Final Thoughts

Right. My final post before I officially cross over. I'd originally intended to post pictures of the multitude of events that have occupied the entirety of my time over the past 2 weeks, but I left my camera in David's house. So all I have now...is words.

Like I've shared with most of my friends, I'm not as emotional or as sentimental as I expected to be. Neither am I as uncomfortable or as scared as I thought I'd be. Which kinda scares me, really. Sigh. What keeps me going on right now is a huge store of adrenaline, and a great deal of anticipation for what lies ahead. I won't hedge about this: I really am pretty damn excited about going, and the road that's slowly unwinding itself before me.

The past 2 weeks have been great; singing Palestrina, going for Jo's BBQ with cut-price food (thanks Ernest!), then David's hugely anticipated Lamb Party: all concurrent with the teaching stint in the school-that-shall-not-be-named. Which incidentally, I really really enjoyed. To the point that for a moment, it almost became as escape clause. Sigh. And I hear my replacement's a kook eh? Thanks for that, Mark. Tennis sucks. And oh yes! Passing my driving test =)

Now in case you're wondering what that really out of point pic was, its something that came as a surprise to me. Not because its bawdy (all things considered, I'd expect that really), but more or less because of who gave it to me. I won't specify, but it was great hanging out with you guys. I know it might not have turned out the way it was planned, but it was nevertheless a great way to spend my 2nd last dinner where I eat the things I want to eat, for a long while. Company was really good. Thanks guys.

So thats it from me for now. The next time I post will be when I'm over there. Sounds emo, but its not. Strange. Anyhow, it might be quite a while depending on whether or not I can actually get into my accomodation, and secondly if it does actually have Internet.

So here I go.

Yeesh. After two abortive attempts to upload pictures of the sleepover, as well as a rather long, emotive prose (twice!), I've decided it was never meant to be. So for now, I'll just write whatever i feel like saying with no structure whatsover, and randomly intersperse the photo's I originally intended to put in.

The past week has been...just incredible for me, mostly because of the sheer number of things happening. Truth is, my life is rather boring. So when I have two 'gatherings' of sorts in a week...woohoo! Upon reflection, its really been a blessing how I've been able to meet all sorts of people, and form such close bonds with them.

Now, I'm a very firm believer that whenever you invite people for parties, numbers should always be SMALL. Mostly because I absolutely abhor crowds, but also because I find that its somewhat pointless to invite someone to a function, and not have the time to spare a word or two for said someone. It was with this idea in mind that I organised that last stayover I had at my place. The way things are going, the likelihood of me being able to come back for Christmas has dwindled to maybe 30-40%, which is really dismal. In fact, SQ is fully booked from 4th to 16th Dec. Bah.

So for me, that last gathering was really a time of just celebrating the bond I shared with this group of people who contributed to the experience of my life as I know it over the past year or so, and irrevocably changed the way I perceive some things. I'll work backwards from there on. So keep a look out, faithful fans!

Oh yes! I'd like to interrupt this tirade with a short song which was broadcasted over dinner (poolside cafe not bad hor), which later devolved into song...by Yanling. Now its sung to the tune of 'My Girl' by the Temptations.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside
I've got the month of may.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
Mi-chael
Talkin' 'bout Michael...MI-CHAEL!

*damage done, broadcast over*

Then also the tea on Saturday which, against all odds, turned out to be in my opinion a success. Despite lamenting having no new insights to offer, or information to share, it was really just...rather family-ish to gather everyone in a room on sofa's, and just talk about something that has been really close (or so I hope) to our lives over the past few years. Just reflecting on how the past 3 years have impacted my life...sigh. Its not really describable in words.

Then on to the present! No time to think! In between mugging learning outcomes and re-learning old lessons anew, I'm beginning to rediscover my passion for biology et al. Which is great, seeing how I'm about to go and STUDY it for the next few years or so. Yeesh. But I must say that against all preconceived notions, I find that I really have enjoyed myself over the past few days.

Preconceived notions are really a burden to carry around. Despite the obvious difference in heritage, I find that startling similarities can be drawn with that of the ol' Alma Mater. Palpable in the hallways is a sense of tradition and greatness, as though there exists something more than the mundane grade-grinding of an educational institution. Strangely enough, even the methods of propaganda in publications are alike (although they explicitly name their 'rivals'...so blase).

What differs though, is you sense that in this institution there is actually a thirst for learning; an inquisitiveness which is both frustrating and intriguing. Sure, you have your usual collection of dimwits, jocks and too-cool-for-j00 endemic to every boys-only school, but even they display a modicum of interest in what you have to say.

I guess one of the main lessons I've learned from yesterday and today is this:

Prejudice is something we learn from our elders.

Oh yes. Revenge.

All things considered, I should have put up the more unglam one. But what can I say? I'm just too nice =) And ok fine. The Michael Song was by me Ben and myself. But hey! It fits! Disclaimer: No scandal! Just poking fun! Thanks Yan for being such a great sport, and back off, buzzards.

...GEORGE!

post101

After a long hiatus of not posting for various reasons, this post is bound to be long. Steel yourself.

Let me start first with Enoch. Like I discussed with David, not having seen him with luggage etc, his farewell was really surreal for me. It does still feel that I am going to see him this Saturday during rehearsal and then the time after.

This whole last morning thing with Enoch went by like a blur. Struggling to rise from my bed before the Sun for the first time in a month, braving the walk in the rain to Dover MRT, spending some time in Macs, then blearily saying goodbye to Enoch. That's about the sum of what happened. I know I sure as hell am going to miss him, but I probably won't feel it for a bit. So many things happening at the same time...very overwhelming.

Enoch, see you soon, please.

The very next day, at the same time as the day before, I went off to Hongkong with my family. This whole trip started as a badly conceived idea by me to spend some 'quality time' with my family before we split up all over the globe (ok, exaggeration). Although it was a short four days, my prevailing feeling was one of...homesickness. Which is really a bad portent, considering how I'm going to skedaddle overseas for a good length of time in less than a month.

Random collection of photo's from the trip. It was pretty quick, especially considering that although we reached there on Friday afternoon, we left for a day trip to Shenzhen on Saturday, where I had the most expensive haircut of my life FOREVER. That is, unless I ever become a movie star. That being said though, I'd readily go back if I ever get the chance again.

And a big part of my trip was finally being able to see His Royal Highness Iskandar, and Her Royal Highness Teresa. It was GREAT to meet up with them. Teresa had to pull herself away from her precious study time (exam period!), and Ryan had to...stop slacking =P.

They brought me to this really great place to eat though...which I guess is pretty much what matters, isn't it? SATAY KING! Where I had this tanghoon in satay sauce with beef. I literally felt something inside me wither and die.

It was also there that I saw this really cool gadget they had at every table! Its like this electronic board which makes everything damn efficient! The buttons read 'order', 'more water', 'bill', 'service' and 'cancel'. So basically, you press it, and the waitress hurries over to accede to your request. Its pretty damn cool.

Haha...it prompted this discussion I had with Teresa about bringing the concept back home, which led us to muse about why 'Xu Liu Shan' failed in Singapore despite it being such an obviously kickass dessert place. Sigh. Mango puree...

Then, what I personally felt was one of the highlights of the trip...

I realise that of late, most of my photo's have become less collage, and more barrage. Its just that I have too many photo's I like, and I'm too lazy to load them individually =P This particular collection is from visiting my cousin who is currently working in Hong Kong. It was kinda funny, since her place is in this obscure corner of a mountain, which took almost an hour of travelling time from our hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. So anyhow, my cousin Jennifer just gave birth less than a week ago to baby Nicole.

Now the boy in that picture I'm so enamoured with is Nathaniel, who is the middle kid (for now!). Close friends will know that boys in my family are few and far between (like ratio of 1 boy to 3-4 girls?), so I'm pretty chuffed to have a nephew. He was insatiably curious about my camera, and some of the pictures in this collage were actually taken by him. A 22 month old boy. The eldest in the family is Nadia, the really pretty blonde girl. I think she's...4 or 5 this year? Mixed bloods really just tend to look good naturally. Sigh.

So enough with the pictures. I just got my admissions package from St Georges today, hence my sense of being overwhelmed. So many loose ends to tie up, vaccinations to take, things to read-and-know. Sigh. Its really not easy. This is really...well...my big push into adult life, and I suppose I can be grateful that it is rather late. General apprehension is beginning to creep into my psyche at this point.

I really wish I had someone I knew going there with me. Sigh.