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So well...two big mistakes I've made this week.

No 1. Went to Ministry of Sound on a whim. Found out it was smaller and noisier, and even made me nostalgic for the 'clubs back home'. Thats how terok it was. Charissa! David! Bring me out again! I promise this time I'll behave and imbibe much much so everyone can have a good titter. Some random pictures...

On the left is a picture of myself (obviously on the right) with one of my newfound friends, posing geekishly in front of what is ostensibly the facade of the 'Ministry'. Still no cheekbones, sob sob. Took us a darn near hour to find the place. Now honestly, the place was TINY. The 'main' dance floor was comparable to perhaps...enough to park 6 SBS buses, 3 by 2 (bad allegory, but I need something everyone will understand). So it really was pretty much a body-rubbing session. On the right some random pictures of the club, as well as the British answer to condom-dispensing machines. Sex toys! With names like 'the tickler', and 'pussy willow' to name a few. Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy myself. I didn't even have the promise of prata and teh tarik to sustain me this time round.

Mistake no 2: I found out that DotA works in my Hall. Die.

And to all my horizontally-enriched friends, I found a little picture along the road for us.

Eloquent, no? They say a picture tells a thousand words; this one is a veritable Shakespeare sonnet. I haven't touched a single bag of potato chips since I've seen this.

And oh yes! Many thanks to the peeps who read my blog and tagged, as well as those of you who went the extra bit and emailed me your encouragements. Very very much appreciated really...keep it up guys (beg)! Its gone a long way toward making my week all the more bearable.

And now, the mardi gras outside my room begins.

hmm

Under the certainty of heaven, all we have is today.

When yesterday is already ours, what more can we ask?

post without pics

This will be one of the posts without pictures. Guys...just bear with me, and withhold judgement for a bit. I've just been doing some thinking, and I need to sound stuff out.

Right. Its been slightly more than a month since I've come here, and depression just hit me like a sack of wet flour. I need familiar company quite badly...people I can confide in. It's bizarre because I'm beinning to sense the whole feeling of aimlessness that I had in army...that I'm permanently running out of things to do. Perpetual boredom. This aching feeling that there's something I want to be doing, but I'm not sure what. Though I suppose thats nothing new since I get that at home sometimes.

And then the whole problem of isolation...I really need company before I shrivel, but I think I've come across rather antisocial so far. I just don't quite know how to relate...to just let go and have a bit of 'fun'. Sigh.

post nada

My life seems unreal

My crime an illusion
A scene badly written
In which I must play

How strange the past four weeks have been...wandering around literally in a daze, absorbing endless amounts of information and experiencing the bizarre. I know some of my dear friends (ie DCT) will be more or less eager to point out how fatalistically melodramatic this all is, yet at the same time, I cannot help but feel it reflects the depth of my thoughts. I've remarked to a few friends that it feels so weird that the lives of the people you hold dear should move on even when you're not there. Weird, and slightly saddening.

Even now as I type, sounds of intermittent fireworks (Guy Fawkes Day!) mingle with the ubiquitous police sirens in the night. My point? Not a safe area. Only today, in the Supermarket, there was this quite exciting police chase going on. Not to mention, there are FOXES in this area. I don't mean cheap hookers and pretty babes...I actually mean the four-legged bushy tailed as-cunning-as-a-fox fox. Its just been all so overwhelming.

It does indeed sound like my mind is a bit scattered, as indeed it is. So I'll move on to the pictures, in the hope they'll give this post some sort of direction.

First up, a picture of my really crap room, made really small on purpose so that the mess is hopefully obscured. Skillful use of mood lighting, as well as lots and lots of pillows have made it somewhat inhabitable at best...but the ongoing mardi gras outside my room every night, coupled with the water pipes running through my room make a rather difficult environment for sleeping and for studying alike. I must, again, mention the awfulness of the linoleum floor. After spending more than 24 hours in the dissection room, I can safely say: congealed blood. At least I got my bedding in my favourite colours though...little saving grace. Size wise, the room's about half the size of my old one, and the windows open out into a rubbish area. Not rubbish as in crappy view, but rubbish as in trash. I suppose the persistent fire alarms are also worth mentioning. In fact, this collage on the right was taken at on a very drizzly, chilly midnight two nights back. As usual, cause of alarm was someone forgetting to switch off the toaster. One thing I'll say for the UK is that no matter how absolute crap the service is, the emergency services are brilliantly quick in response. This particular incident's response time was somewhat less than 7 minutes.

So above are a few pretty pictures of my school...the nicer side of course. The slightly whitewashed scenes are the bits I see when I walk to school every morning (20 minutes ley!)...the hospital portion of the school. The school will be the yellower bits...nicer than I'd expected to be honest...pleasant surprise. And to be completely honest, I am enjoying the academic portion of my studies so far...its just the social part which is a bit lacking.

Before you guys ask, I have been blessed enough to gather my own little niche of close friends; mostly other International Students much in the same straits as me. A bit of trivia: I'm 1 out of the 8 International Students matriculated this year (out of a cohort of 400!).

Also, it really helps having close friends in London, as well as family. The bunch of pictures on the right were all taken at Cambridge, where I've spent 2 out of my 4 weekends so far. Its like a 10-quid bus ticket to get up, and I basically spend my entire weekend there recharging before coming back to dreary Tooting on Sunday nights. Featured in the middle are Ryan and Ivan, two really old friends who've stuck with me for...a really long time. Its just such a blessing to have them around to call on, and to be able to support each other. Of course, my beautiful younger sister is also in Cambridge, so going up to see how her is always great; like she said, at certain points at weekends, it almost feels as though we were at home. Don't actually know if thats a positive comment or not!

These are just remaining random pictures taken in London. St Paul's Cathedral, the corridor leading to my Eldest Sister's Law Firm, and then a random chio car (Mark Tan! Identify!). The two weekends that I haven't been in Cambridge have basically been spent in my Eldest Sister's place in the Borough, which is somewhat near Central London (half an hour away from Covent Garden). This is opposed to staying in Tooting, which is about an hour away from Central. All in all, St Georges would be perfect...if it wasn't in Tooting. But thats just a pipe dream, no?

Taking a page out of Bert's book, I'll hold back on the rest I have to say so that I have enough left over for the next few entries or so. But to those who care: I'm doing fine. I really am. Thanks heaps for your prayers and well-wishes. I honestly do know that this post could be a lot more informative and a lot less whiny, but I've got a whole stack of stuff to mug about the nervous system before my Dissection Room Session in less than 12 hours.

So I leave you with this perplexing question, courtesy of the Museum of Natural History.


Don't look at it too long. It drove me slightly nuts. Take care!