Country road, take me home...Home will be quite soon. Week 8 just came and went. Arguably my most enjoyable week in London thus far.



On Friday, some friends and I went to watch the ULU Chamber Choir perfomr at this Anglican Church near my hall. It was not some huge choral performance or anything, but it was magnificent alright. The final song of the night, Billy Joel's "And so it goes" is still stuck in my head. I think it is the melancholy, something which I can relate to all to often.

I spent Saturday with LSE Cathsoc. We had a retreat during the day at Father Iain's place, the Carmelite Church. It was the ideal location for the retreat.


This was the secret "Life-changing" room Fr Iain was telling us about.




We had a thanksgiving lunch of roast turkey with stuffing, sweet sweet potatoes, M&S chocolate cake and carrot cake. Delightful.


This was one of the team-BUILDING games, where we had to come up with a structure made out of straws and scotch which could support a hymnal within 5 minutes. Sounds like the typical ice-breaker, but it was rather CONSTRUCTIVE. Haha, sorry, the Punster in me is coming back.

I was rather glad to have turned up for the retreat. The crowd was small, but it was a meaningful way of spending the afternoon, engaging in some thoughtful conversation and deep reflection about our faith. At the same time, it was good to get to know other members of Cathsoc much better, Fr Iain included. Definitely more fruitful than stoning at hall or squeezing through the crowds of Oxford Street.

After a cash-saving hall dinner, I spent more time with the Cathsoc! (Albeit a slightly different group). I participated in my first ever Pub Crawl with Cathsoc (and in London for that matter). I meet some of the guys in school, then we started our mini tour. It was understandably a bit weird, since one would not usually put "Catholic Society" and "Pub Crawl" together. I guess it's alright to go out for a few drinks with a group of good mates and enjoy each other's company.

Our first stop was the Poland.


The Polish Bar near LSE.


Polish beer was great! I can't exactly describe it's taste, but it was somehow better than most of the other beers I've had in my life.

The beer got me grooving the cool song that came one - Billy Jean. The place wasn't exactly huge, but it had the atmosphere alright. We hung around for a while more before we left.

The next stop was Scandinavia.


This bar has some really wicked cocktails. Most of them look like ordinary juices and taste rather innocuous, but after you've had them, you'll begin to "feel it", if you can catch my drift.


Mattei and his drink, Longberry. It looks like some plain raspberry drink doesn't it? The glass isn't very big, and it doesn't really taste of any alcohol. In fact, it is quite delicous, so much so that the last time they came here, someone actually finished the drink with a gulp or 2. Right. It has 6 shots of vodka in it. Mattei could handle his drinks though. He's quite a seasoned drinker.


I tried out the Lemon Icicle. Evidently, double straws is the norm of the house. The faster you finish, the more you want, and also the more "in the mood" you feel. It was a good drink. Fortunatly I was still quite steady after my drink. Somewhat high, but steady.

Our final stop for the night was Holland.


Anthony, the cool dude who's shirt was similar to mine, only that his was YSL, and mine was G2000. Really good company.



Duvel was nice and velvety. Mmmm. And this place was playing AWESOME music, like Sweet Child of Mine. The place was filled with loads of, erm, slightly more middle-aged people, but they looked like they were really enjoying themselves, dancing and all.

In an attempt to satisfy my curiosity, I finally went to Portobello Market with ChihChwen and Winston on Sunday. It was a blustery day in the morning, but the rain went away eventually and the sun made a brief cameo.


Portobello Road/Market. You guys might know this, "Portobello Market" was mentioned in some Disney Song! Check it out on Wikipedia or something.

We made our way right to the end of Portobello Market and walked our way towards the beginning of it (i.e Notting Hill Gate station). The "end" of the market was disappointing, with very few sights worth beholding. However, as we neared the "beginning" of the market, our initial sentiments that we had wasted our time disappeared somewhat. There were loads of shops selling antiques (wooden ones, metal ones etc.), funky t-shirts and wall decorations. Winston even got himself a Levi's denim jacket for 20 quid! Alright it was 2nd-hand, but it was the perfect fit for him, and he really looked like DA MAN in the jacket. Fantastic buy indeed. In addition to the sweets, pillow cases and thread we bought from the market.


I tried to take a nice "artistic" shot of Notting Hill Gate Station. Did it appear on the movie Notting Hill? I'm quite certain Portobello Market did. Well, I have not watched the movie, mainly because I don't believe in this soppy mushy bullcrap. Well, I just might if what happened to Hugh Grant in the movie happens to me.

Alright, another long post, another week gone. Here's a "treat" for my Dearest Faithful Readers:


I don't think any of you have ever seen what a hall dinner looks like have you? This was the one I had on Saturday night. It was quite good I guess. Nothing spectacular, but hearty enough to make my heart (and stomach) feel nicely warm.

That's it. I'll try to update soon. I have a jam-packed week to look forward to.

Cheers mate.

2 weeks to the end of term. Well, 2 weeks and 3 days.

Has been a pretty cheerful week, save the Monday morning blues. Unlike the previous week, however, they did not last for too long.

Cricket trials part 2 was pretty fun. I have to say that while I am no Andrew Flintoff, my bowling has become a lot more accurate. I was battered about 5 times in all (which would have gone for 4 or possibly 6 in a proper match), but most of the time I had the batsmen defending, and restricted them to at most one run per ball. Some of the shots which the batsmen made might have been caught. In fact, I got one wicket! No, it wasn't an lbw, neither did I bowl the batsman. All he did was attempt a swing one ball which I bowled, missed, lost his balance and somehow hit the stumps while turning back. Ok, it was a major fluke, but it was a funny moment really.

Unfortunately, I was hopeless as ever at batting. I needed to be "tutored" in how to hold the bat. I was then bowled twice. Sigh. Actually, I would like to feel the bat a bit more, to be able to hit the ball well, and someday become a Master Blaster like Sachin Tendulkar was.

I've been eating lots of takeaways lately, especially from China House, the much talked about Chinese/Cantonese restaurant that sells takeaways for 3quid50. The XO Sauce has really come in handy these few days.


Beef Hor Fun with Black Bean Sauce (from the previous post)


Fried Noodles (Chow Mein) with Duck and Black Bean Sauce. The Mein dish for that night haha.


Chicken Fried Rice. Mmmm. All these were taken with my webcam!!

I was treated to even more good Chinese food on Wednesday night. My mum's friend was in town, and she brought me to Joy King Lau. The Roast Duck and Lobster Noodles there were absolutely exquisite. Thanks auntie for the treat!

Thursday saw the Poster guys come to LSE. Selling posters at like 3 for 5 quid. I just went berzerk and got myself like 7 posters. Have a look at them. I re-decorated my room for the 8798325134th time.


The Green Lantern no longer has the entire wall to himself. He must now team up with the Rastafarian, Bob Marley!! Strange tag-team, but I think they could be quite a force to be reckoned with. "Green ring-ed soldier, in the heart of America..."


A clearer picture of Bob Marley. Rasta fari, Haile Selassi!



Spidey. Which way up do you thing he is?


Life is indeed full of difficult choices. Which should I drink?


It's past 12:51 already.


Well do ya do ya do ya wanna?



So the wall overlooking my resting place looks a little more colourful.

I still have a black-and-white poster of the city of Paris, but it looks a bit gloomy, so I shan't post it.

My wallet's feeling lighter these days, but I'm happier so I guess the money's been well spent. In any case, I'm still within my budget. Shall TRY to save up for something special. I'm always trying, aren't I?

Ok I hope you like the pictures. I'm off to prepare myself for tomorrow morning's Economics class, by sleeping of course.

By the way, the Ashes have begun. Go Aussies!!

Cheers mate.

Hello

We are now into the 8th week of term, and I'll be back in the Motherland in 3 weeks.

The end of Week 7 was really quite eventful.

I had a TGIF lunch with some other Singaporeans at this restaurant KamFung. The Chicken Rice was absolutely sensational. The meal was, while a bit of a strain on my walled (7 pounds), left my hunger pangs well and truly satisfed.

TGIF part 2 (at night) was monopoly with some Singaporeans in my hall. Some people might find that sounding a bit sad, and fair enough, I would not have minded going out for some drinks or even a club event on Friday night. However, as it was a real blustery evening, I was quite glad to stay in my friend's room for a few rounds of the "Nice, Ruthless, Money-hungry family game". The company was exceptional, so were the Scottish Fudge and Chocolate Caramel Biscuits that we feasted upon throughout the game. Of course, a certain player (guess I shan't name her here, though people who know her won't be surprised about her behaviour) was quite comical, and really made the whole thing so much more entertaining. First, she asked (about the game),"In which direction do we move?" Then, upon landing on the property shoe owned during the game, she exclaimed loudly "280 pounds!", obviously mistaking the price of purchasing the property to be the same as the rental cost of landing there.

I had to rise pretty early on Saturday morning (9.30am, early for a Saturday) and take the tube to Liverpool Staion, because Saturday was Paintball Day! I was very much looking forward to this day. I met Justin and a few other LSE Cathsoc people, as well as people from the Cathsoc of other colleges. We took the train to Bellericay, which is 30 minutes from Liverpool Station, then took a leisurely 30-minute stroll through the small country town to the site. The weather that day was magnificent. It was a bit chilly, but the sky was nearly cloudless and the sun was out, so we were quite glad to soak in the great weather for that day.


A shot of the road leading to the Paintball Centre. Really scenic. A lot nicer than Notts if you ask me, due in large part to the Sun's conspicuous presence.


Upon reaching Delta Force, we were given a safety brief (sounds like NS), issued cover-alls and helmets (sounds even MORE like NS), then told to wait for our turn (Now that sounds too much like NS, it's scary).


When the game started, it was actually quite fun. We were split into two teams (some of us combined with other school kids), and we had 3 different missions. For each mission we would either defend or attack, so that's 6 games in all. I shan't go into the details of the missions, just tha they were indeed quite exciting and realistic. For example, the "village" mission had real huts for us to hide in. Ok, maybe it's my first time playing Paintball.

The not so fun part was getting hit by the paintballs. They left marks on the coveralls (which soaked through and stained my jacket underneath). Besides, they really hurt. My left arm still has a bruise from that afternoon.

The games finished at about 4. Having changed, we made our way back to the station. This time, the sunset was spectacular. Unfortunately, I'm not a skilled photographer.


This was taken in the morning, just outside the paintball place.


This was taken at 4pm on our way to the train station, when the sun somewhat started to set.


The view of the railway from atop a bridge. The sun sets very quickly, evidently.

So Saturday was quite a unique experience for me. Hall dinner was pretty good, Spaghetti with Cream Chicken sauce. Unfortunately, as I did not have lunch that day, my hall dinner was digested by the time it was 9pm, so I went to China House to buy some Beef Hor Fun. For 3quid50, it was a great deal.


Accompanied with XO Sauce!! And a can of coke.

Sunday was the Academic Mass. It was the first time that I attended a Mass celebrated by a Cardinal. It was a massive event, with at least 10 other co-celebrating priests and one co-celebrant Bishop. And the choir was, as usual, in fine form. Church music was of the highest quality, and the homily was quite good was well. For someone who was quite old (on the wrong side of 70 as Cardinal Arinze put it), he seems like a witty chap. My favourite part was when he said something like "If we have to attend too many meetings, we become BORED members." A page out of my book it seems.



Some photos of the Cathedral after mass ended. Really magnificent. I guess it might not compare to Notra Dame or Sacre Coeur of Paris, but it is a gem of a building in it's own right.


His Eminence shaking hands / giving blessings after Mass.


Miguel! The Spaniard in Cathsoc. He's a pHd student reading Finance, and he's a member of Opus Dei. They're obviously not what they're portrayed to be in the Da Vinci Code.

After Mass, we had some wine at the Cathedral hall, then we made our way to Chinatown (again) for lunch. This time, it was Wong Kei. I had duck rice, which was ok for 4quid. Probably the cheapest in Chinatown, though quality-wise there are several other better joints.

Alright, this post and the previous 2 pretty much sum up my entire week 7. Hope the read has not been too monotonous.

Will talk about week 8 soon. Maybe I should just abandon this "week-counting system". We'll see how things go

Good night.

It is almost the end of the week. While they grey skies have not disappeared (they're probably here to stay), I'm a lot happier these few days!

Thursday did not exactly start on a bright note, pardon the pun, as it was drizzling rather steadily. I made my way to school with my hair soaked, just in time for a Math lecture.

The first notable highlight of the day was a presentation on careers / internships and the application process. It did make me think about my future path (since I'm not bonded) and what I would like to do, at least in the near future. This was when a timely reminder was made, that first-year students should focus on getting good results as it will provide a platform on which we could build on if we chose to apply for internships in the 2nd year. Touching base with the application process / CV writing procedures will be beneficial, but academic results are top on the priority list for now. Of course, the REAL motivation for attending the session was the free sandwiches.

When school ended, I had an hour to spare before my next big thing at 6 in the evening, so I thought I'd go back to my hall with a friend of mine. It was a good walk, where we started talking about religion and what beliefs. Not that I have many, but when she said to me "You seem like a very staunch Catholic.", I wondered how true that was. The person probably did not know me very well, because my faith is something personal to me and which I am not very outspoken about. However, it did make ME wonder in what direction I'm headed in life. I do believe, just that sometimes when I ask questions, I can't seem to find answers. I've sort of reached a "religious inertia".

It was with this reflective, somewhat pensive, mood that I went for the Cathsoc bible session, the second ever in my life. It was a thought-provoking session, where I left feeling a little more comforted. Roberto, this totally cool Italian dude doing a Masters in Philosophy, said something rather profound about Jesus' love which, more than just sounding impressive (at least from a prospective Mathematician's perspective), left me at ease for now. Hmmm, I think I should attend these sessions more often. Conducted in a very relaxed environment, and yet with a high level of mental stimulation.

Anyway, that's about as gloomy as the entry will get! After the session, I went with Justin (the Cathsoc President, who happens to be from Hong Kong), to this gem of a book / comic shop called Forbidden Planet, at Holborn. It was an AMAZING shop, with shelf upon shelf of books, comics, novels and other memorabilia from various animated series. I parted with 8 quid for a Green Lantern poster, which I felt was well worth it.

As Justin and I were walking back, we reminisced about the times when Collector Cards were still popular. It is sad that nowadays, the cards on sale are of the playing type, e.g Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Marvel and all other sorts of playing cards. When I was a decade younger, I used to collect cards, the sort which was collected for artistic value and animation, not the playing type, in the hope of amassing a large collection which could be shown off to anyone who was interested. I can still remember the days when I would take $3.50 with me to the Mama Shop near my old house and buy a packet of Spiderman / Marvel VS Wildstorm cards. I can remember the anticipation I was filled with as I slowly opened the packet, hoping that I would strike lottery in the form of a limited edition Hologram / Chromium card. I can even remember the jubilation and ecstasy I felt when I did indeed strike the jackpot, or the dismay when I discovered that all the cards in the pack were extras (i.e that I already had the type of cards in the packed as I had gotten them when I purchased previous packs). I also remember buying card protectors and carefully placing the cards inside, hoping that each good card would someday find a worthy card holder / frame as it's "protector". My card collection (my pride and joy back then, still is somewhat) is now in my cupboard in my room in Singapore. I hope that the lice / silverfish have spared them. I should invest in some dehumidifiers to keep them in good condition.

For the first time during my stay in London, I patronised Hare and Tortoise, this Chinese-cum-Singaporean-cum-Japanese restaurant near my hall. I bought Chicken Rice for 5pds50. The chicken was good, but the rice was unlike typical Kway Png rice. It tasted like five spice flavoured rice (catch isn't it, Five Spice Flavoured Rice. Could make a rap out of it). Thing is, the takeaway also came with the soup, unlike kopitiams in Singapore where you get no soup if you buy a takeaway. It was on the whole a satisfying dinner.


The Chicken Rice meal, which I successfully transferred from the container (evidently) onto the plate so that it would look a little more presentable.

I have cleared all my assignments for the week, so I set aside some time to make my room look more like that of a young student (well young adult student).




New additions to my otherwise monotonous cell. The decor does make the room look less bare, and the thing is I hardly spent anything on it, except for the crucifix (and the 8quid poster, which I'll show you soon). If you can see the Union Jack postcard on the wall (with the word "London" right down the middle), I actually found it lying on the pavement on my way back, along with several other postcards. Seeing that it was in a decent condition, I picked it up and put it to good use!


Ahh, the 8quid Green Lantern poster! Really does look damn cool, even if it might not be in good shape. Still, you can't tell from the photo can you?

Ok it is a bit late, and I've got a 9am class tomorrow morning. I am well and truly sated for now. If only every day I spent in London could be like that. Alright, I shan't ask for too much. Hopefully my next entry won't be a depressing, sombre piece.

G'nite mate.

Grey skies have descended upon the City on London, and it's effects have crept upon me without warning.

Have not been feeling very cheerful these few days. Somehow, my mood has taken a turn for the worse, and I've become a tad irritable, and for no apparent reason. Strange it seems.

I don't know, the person who has been yearning for good company has found this queer desire to some solitude and quiet. I guess we all need space sometimes, don't we. Breathing space, space to move about, even the space to think and reflect. As the classic Chicago song goes, "Even lovers need a holiday, far away from each other.". Not exactly loved ones in my context, but fairly close I'll say.

Everyone seems to be drowning themselves in books these days, and perhaps I should follow suit. But there are just too many distractions around. I can't seem to channel this negative energy of mine towards something positive. Something purposeful.

Ok, maybe it's just the effects of Monday blues. The week will get better. It CAN only get better I guess, with a Cathsoc Mass followed by Cream Tea on Wednesday, possibly Dinner with some good ol' JC pals (Indians!), Crush and most significantly (to me at least), a huge visit to Westminster Cathedral on Sunday. Hopefully this balancing act will come good.

On a slightly brighter note, hall food has been exceptional. As in, exceptionally good. For the past few nights, I have cleared my dinner plate with ease. I guess that's a slight boost for my finances, considering how I'm saving some cash by not having to buy dinner. Of course, a good meal of fried hor fun or duck rice once in a while won't hurt my wallet, would it?

Term ends in about 4 weeks. While I won't say that I miss my home like mad, it'll be nice to finally be able to meet my loved ones again.

Now, I'll TRY to study (keyword is TRY)
Cheers.

So begins the Seventh week of term.

Last week, a new addition was, well, added to my room to, shall we say, liven up the atmosphere.



Borat Sagdiyev, the "Kazakhstani" journalist. I still can't forget that outrageous movie of his. Totally mind-blowing. "Borat" is without doubt my top search on Youtube, and I end up laughing till I tear everytime I watch this bloke, even if i might have watched him many times before. Insane.

On Wednesday, I embarked on a "long" run/jog around Regent's Park. The total distance from my hall to the park, the entire circumference of the park was about 7+ km. Tiring indeed, but it made me feel a little less guilty about indulging in too much roast duck and hot chocolate.

Indulge in roast duck I did, as I embarked on a short march from school to Chinatown on Thursday evening. In economic terms, there's some sort of "Perfect Competition" going on between the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown (Well it is more like Monopolistic Competition, if I remember my JC economics jargon correctly). Point is, the duck rice in all the restaurants were about the same, so I eventually settled for the cheapest one. In the spirit of healthy living, I walked back to my hall from Chinatown. Not very far I'd say, and the free newspapers I collected along the way served as insulation for the meal-to-be.

For the first time in my life, I watched Braveheart with some hallmates in one of our rooms.



The supposed highlight was this fat Scot saying "I'll crush you like a wor-em!" to Mel Gibson's character. Honestly, it was not exactly the most inspiring film I've watched. The actual highlight of the film, where Gibson mustered every ounce of strength to shout the word "Freedom" just before he was beheaded, was arguably the only enjoyable part of the film. Having watch LOTR, where the battle scenes were well and truly EPIC, Braveheart really paled in comparison. Perhaps I would have felt differently about Braveheart had I watched it when it was just released.

Saturday was Notts Games. I awoke and the unearthly hour of 4am just so that I could arrive in school at 4.45am and take the bus to Nottingham. The games were ok I guess, though it was difficult for me to stay awake throughout the day. At about 5pm, I took a short nap at the common area leading to the sports hall, in full view of everyone who entered and left the place. Didn't bother me of course, since I was dead beat.

I realised, as the day ended, that the University of Nottingham was the only university out of my 6 UCAS choices that rejected me. I'm glad they did, because Nottingham U is, in my opinion, a rather boring place, compared with the sights and sounds of London, around LSE. To each his own, so I hope that people from Notts reading this are not offended.

On Sunday, I went with some friends for lunch at Chinatown (again) after Mass. The set meal was worth it, I must say. For 6 pounds I got a soup, a huge plate of fried beef noodles and a dessert. I'm a student, so I shan't ask for much. As has become my custom, I walked back to hall after lunch.

Sunday was also when I made my maiden bus journey, from my hall to my mum's friend's place at Victoria. It is actually fairly simple to take the bus, and it is better than Tube-ing because it is less claustrophobic, and of course it's cheaper. It can be fairly pleasing when one sources out a way of saving cash.

The week stared on a tired note, as always. During my 3-hour break this afternoon, I made my way to Lords Cricket Ground to buy myself a BOX (read groin guard). It is a good idea to protect onself during sports, especially if it involves, erm, sticks and balls. Right.

Another post draws to its conclusion. I should get down to watching some plays real soon. Dirty Dancing / Avenue Q / The Producers anyone?

Alright. work time.
Recognise.

It looks like it is going to be an eventful week. In fact, some "events" have already taken place.

LSE kicked-off the Anti-Racism Week with an International Food Fare at the Quad. The highlight was, of course, the variety of delicacies on offer. But what caught the eyes even more were probably the incredibly exorbitant prices. I paid a pound for 3 pineapple tarts. Ok, the tarts were really good, but still, they're only tarts. ONLY tarts. (Hope no one's feels that what I just said is too tart, pardon the pun). Things could only get better, as the price of tarts was later reduced to 4 for a pound, and even later 5 for a pound. Should have waited a little longer eh? Then Wesley and I shared Briyani for 2 pounds. Really minute portion, and the flavour and taste of the rice was, well, negligible. I decided to leave before I got ripped off any more.

Of course, no LSE event would be complete without some weird comments coming from people. One caucasian bloke stared at the Singapore flag and asked his friend "What sort of flag is that?". Another time, I told this other caucasian friend that I would wait for him at the Singapore booth, where the Singapore flag was hung. "What does the Singapore flag look like?" he asked. "Add a moon and five stars to the red portion of the Polish flag" I said. Right. If anyone noticed the boo-boo I made, the moon and stars was supposed to be added to the INDONESIAN flag. Or I could have said something like "Invert the Polish flag, then add the moon and stars to the red portion." The second option would have been better actually, since the caucasian would probably not have known what the Indon flag looks like.

Most notably (for me at least) is the increased breathing space, having gotten this HUGE assignment out of the way. Whew. This tutor (shan't mention his name lest I be prosecuted) of mine, who has been nagging at his class (via email) to complete this big-ass assignment, speaks in an absolute monotone during class. If that isn't bad enough, his class is at 9am in the morning, which means that I have to drag my sleepy self to school and listing to his sleep-inducing voice. Then I realised that he actually does have a sense of humour! Ha! Well, in an email he sent out to us (nagging at us again of course), he actually managed to type a smiley!! How rare is that! Maybe he does have a life after all...But my position still stands: I hate his lessons.

With a little more breathing space now that I have cleared some major assignments, I spent some quality time with a good friend of mine: Youtube. Yes, I know that sounds rather miserable. After all, nobody wants to go out with David :'(. The searchwords of the day was "Cricket" and goodness me, I saw some sublime batting and bowling. Really amazes me how the likes of Brian Lara or Rahul Dravid hit boundaries so effortlessly while I struggling to even make a connection with the bat I'm holding or the ball that's bowled at me. I can only hope to attain 0.1% of their skill level.

London has become much colder, and so I discovered when I did not feel like getting out of bed this morning. For real, lying in bed under the duvet covers was sheer comfort, and I almost could not get up this morning for the hall breakfast. Speaking of hall food, I must say that the general quality of hall food has stabilised on the good side. During the past few days, I have pretty much cleared my dinner plate. Mmm..guess I'll put my bold plans to sharpen my culinary skills at the pantry on my floor on hold.

Another good reason to eat hall dinners is that sometimes, I get to know more people. Today I got to know this Bangladeshi fella (can't remember his name?) who's a muslim. We ended up talking about religion and it's implications on the world today. It was a really deep dinner-table discussion, and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Thanks man, whoever you are, for making dinner so much more thought-provoking.

This week, certain other Colleges under UOL have this thing called "Reading Week", where they don't have to go to school for a week, and instead do their "readings". I wonder how much of a misnomer that is, considering that most of my friends are now away on vacation in Scotland and Holland. Good thing is that LSE finishes one week earlier than the other UOL Colleges, so things even out. Like how a time series graph evens out after the residuals are subtracted from the original data. Right.

I ought to get some REAL work done now. feels like I have been slacking for too long.

Cheers mate.

The past week has been, on the balance, a fairly satisfying one.

For the very first time, I patronised this small Chinese restaurant near my hall called China House. The 3 pd 50 takeaways seemed rather reasonable in my opinion. While the duck rice I brought back to my hall cannot compare to the likes of Leicester Square or Bayswater, I did not have to spend any additional cash on taking the tube or paying more for the Chinatown / Basewater duck rice, which is about 4 pds plus. For 3 pds50, the China House one was decently filling. In addition, I had XO sauce in my room...

Friday was TGIF. Sadly, everyone else ended late, so I went back to my hall and took a nap, then went for a run in shorts. The weather was a tad chilly, but it felt really good. My legs were up to the challenege, though my hands were on the verge of dropping off due to frost bite.

As it was the end of the Halloween week (Guy Fawkes they call it? Not a pleasant sounding name if you ask me), fireworks lit up the London sky for a few nights, and I was lucky enough to get an unobstructed view from my room. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a skilled photographer.


This was the only decent shot I guess.

The week-end was fairly eventful. Saturday afternoon started with meeting Amir, my friend from JC now at Bristol, along with 2 others, at Lillywhites. The sports apparel on offer there will make one spoilt for choice, especially the football jerseys. I have never come across West Ham United or Portsmouth jerseys on sale. And the England one is only 13quid99. I do not support the England national team (in fact I think they suck) but the jersey has a rather funky design. Maybe I'll go get one sometime soon.

We then headed to Leicester Square where we had some awesome doner kebabs. I have seen so many of those huge chunks of meat slowly roasting away, and they have never failed to tempt me. So I finally satisfied this craving today. Mmmm..


That's the famed bear at Leicester Sq. I'm not sure what he's called, but I must say he was not exactly very friendly towards me. I felt quite hurt frankly. I do have some suspicions as to why he behaved that way, but I shan't publicize them here.

Dinner on Saturday night was a cook-out at Rosebery Hall. Food was exceptional, though I was feeling ill that day, so I did not dine like how I normally would. No disrespect to the chefs, the cooking was outstanding, it was just that I was simply not well.

Then I watched Borat at night. "Gendobre yagshemash!" Obviously that's not Kazakh, but it was hilariously funny! To the extent it was a bit over-the-top, but still I laughed until I teared! "My wife dead. HIGH FIVE!!" Insane. If going to Cambridge to made Sacha Baron Cohen turn out the way he is now, then maybe I should have tried for a place at Cambridge too. I wonder if studying at LSE will make me end up like...

This weekend, I finally attended Mass at the Newman House Chapel for the first time. Music was good, so was the homily. And the priest is quite cool too. I then had lunch at the church basement. The main course of the day was this Polish meat stew with boiled potatoes. Ahh....heartiness epitomised. I do not exactly enjoy eating Sauerkraut, but on this day when mixed inside the stew, the meal was exquisite. Dessert for was pancakes with fruit in yoghurt which I passed, mainly because there was alcohol in the fruit, and I needed to work.

On a concluding note, today's the day I have waited for for quite some time - ORD LO!!!!! Never thought I'd see the day where I could say these 3 (actually 4, including the LO) syllables. Well, you can now address me as MR Vera. Thank you.

Ok. I will heading to Laa-Laa Land now. I will try to update soonest.

Chin quie.