Cultural Learnings of London for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Singapore

2009-04-28T18:07:00.000Z

Another one of those unproductive days, and I am really really really sick of studying. Anyone in the same position?

Proper post will come soon, hopefully.

2008-10-11T21:00:00.007Z

Your's truly has finally, finally, finally decided to put an entry on his blog. Sorry to all my DFRs for the long hiatus, I just got caught up with my life (ha!) and forgot all about this.

So begins my third and final year of my undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Having mixed feelings about what could potentially be my last year in London. To be fair, I have grown to like this place quite a fair bit: unfriendly people, crap weather, rubbish air quality, milk that causes stomach upsets (list is not exhaustive). But now I wonder whether it might be a wise decision for me to either return home after graduating, or to explore (and possibly settle down in) someplace new.

I guess I should just focus on doing well in school for now, something for which I have lost all drive and motivation...

School has pretty much started, and I am thinking of switching courses, more because my current timetable sucks than anything else. You can quite tell I'm more focused on enjoying my last year than enjoying school itself. The usual events that mark the start of the academic season (Freshers' Fayre, moving in etc) have passed, and we're now down to the bread and butter of it. I'm still trying to adjust, hopefully I'll settle in soon enough.

I know I sound like school's been quite a chore, but it has not been that bad really. A real morale booster was this new addition to my lifestylie:

The Nespresso Machine. Easy for making fresh, authentic espressos, and quickly too. Just pop the capsule into the machine, press a button and out comes the coffee. The capsules themselves cost 26-29p, which is pretty reasonable if you ask me.

Another morale-boosting highlight was watching Travis for the 2nd time in just over a year! And this time, their performance was much more energetic, a band known for belting out melancholic rock tunes at their sublime best.

Haha, check out the Orange R2D2 amp! I thought that he might suddenly come to life and do the Domo Arigato Mr Roboto on stage.

Exceptional. I was so happy they played re-offender, they didn't play it the last time round. And I have to say their new album, Ode to J Smith, is a pretty good one too.

The set at the Astoria Theatre. I used to suspect this place might be a bit dodgy, but turns out it was quite a good venue, much cosier than the likes of the Wembley Arena and the O2. I've yet to visit the latter, but I'll be there in February to watch Keane, incidentally also for the 2nd time.

Well take care all, hope that all is well. You shall year again from me very soon, I promise.

2008-03-04T23:53:00.006Z

Hello my DFRs

Time really flies and term ends in barely one-and-a-half weeks. A lot has happened in the past two weeks and the Easter Break can't come soon enough.

About a week ago, I popped in to Maison Malinowski at Covent Garden for some brunch. Well the food was alright, but a tad too expensive. I will probably go there again, though not anytime soon.

This was some kind of potato omelette, almost like rosti. It was alright, reasonably filling, but as mentioned it cost a little too much.

For the first time in quite a long while, I actually ventured out of my comfort zone (that is Zone One of Central London, pun intended). I have to say, while there are stories about how dangerous London can be, Canada Water during the day was quite a cool place to visit. The weather was perfect, and I took my time to enjoy the surrounding atmosphere. Needless to say, I will definitely be coming back to this place which is a 40-minute bus ride away from where I live.

The trip, which was incidentally meant to be for shopping purposes, yielded a pair of running tights and some groceries. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to a Giant Tescos, which was possibly up to 5 times or more the size of the largest Tesco Metro in Central London. This thus meant encountering items which I have never before seen in any other Tesco.

I wonder if these are Whiskey-flavoured.

Ah a Slovak friend of mine is crazy over these, and I have to say that even though they weren't all that authentic, they are after all made in Thailand, and they taste pretty damn good.

Well unfortunately, I don't have very many photos this time around, but I leave you with a familiar sight - the view from the top of Regent's Park. I did put up a similar picture exactly a year ago, if you look under the entries for March 2007 you might see it.

The sky this time was slightly cloudier. This photograph was taken in the late morning, whereas the one from last year was taken in the afternoon.

Well, I'll be back soon my dear readers. Stay tuned.

2008-02-15T23:51:00.010Z

Xin Nian Kuai Le!! (Happy New Year!!)

My sincere apologies to those DFRs who have diligently checked www.davidgoestolondon.blogspot.com everyday without fail in anticipation of an exciting, picture-filled entry. You shall be somewhat rewarded this time. While I can't guarantee an exciting entry, I can guarantee nice pictures!

Just a week ago, I was back home in the motherland for Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations. Patrons of this website would remember how I flew to Singapore and then flew back within the space of 3 days last year. This time, I made sure I stayed longer in Singapore. I decided that lectures and classes were not as important as spending CNY with my family at home and indulging in those wonderful New Year goodies.

This year being the year of the Rat, I thought I'd get a photograph of two well-dressed rodents to decorate this entry.

I think they look like the perfect couple. They have indeed survived the demands of the rat race that is life.

Anyway, since the second-most important part of CNY is eating (the most important being receiving red packets filled with cash), I thought I'd share (not literally) with you some of the stuff we had for our reunion and CNY dinner.

Yu Sheng. The must-have fish salad. I really miss having this.

Ooohh roast pork. Family's secret recipe. Not quite like what we get in HK style roast meat places. Just look at the crispy layer on top.

My aunt's baked chicken, with marinade somewhat like that of a korma. This dish appeared on our CNY menu a few years back, and it has become quite a favourite ever since.

Taking a break from food images, this is something I've not played with in a long time - sparklers! Well firecrackers are banned in Singapore, so the next best thing would be these "hand-held fireworks". Nowadays they even come with a "wheeeeee" sound when we light them. Genius. (PS I know I look like some small kid in this photo, but I couldn't help it. I was, after all, playing with sparklers.)

Festivities aside, I had time to do some of the stuff I would usually do when I go back, namely eat some more. Well in this case I didn't have the time to go to places for Char Kway Teow / Hokkien Mee (most of these places were closed anyway), but I did have time for Mr Teh Tarik.

I had two cups of my favourite iced milk tea when I was back. Mmmmmmm.

All good things had to come to an end eventually, which explains why I am blogging from chilly London. So I leave you with some pictures of fancy-looking coffees I have had so far. These are not only for viewing pleasure, they helped warm me up whenever the weather got really miserable.

I shall try to blog more regularly in future.

2008-01-20T23:40:00.000Z

Greetings my DFRs!

Ah, with reference to my previous email, I would like to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and Happy 2008. I know these greetings are rather overdue, and I am very sorry that this blog post has taken such a long time to come. I do hope that everyone reading this has had a good 2008 thus far. Mine has been average really.

Well, for those of you who have been wondering, the Winter Break consisted of trips to Rome as well as various parts of Morocco. Christmas itself was spent in London, and so too was the New Year. Simple affair, but the presence of the rest of my family and the people who made me happy during that period was hugely appreciated.

So Lent Term is now in full swing, and I can barely stand still for a moment. I have kind of gotten into the routine of doing work, but life is now kind of different for several reasons. February can't come soon enough, when I get to go home to Singapore for Chinese New Year!!

Well my DFRs, unfortunately that's all for now. A longer post will come soon enough. There also seems to be some problem uploading photos at the moment, so once that is sorted out I promise a post with many many photos.

Do check this website regularly for any updates.

Cheers.

2007-12-10T23:58:00.000Z

Hey there my Dear Faithful Readers!

We are now into the last week of term as I speak, and the winter break can't come soon enough. The previous week, Week 9, was pretty hectic for me. Of less significance to me was the fact that I burst my budget. Always inevitable (as I have experienced last year) whenever the end of term approaches.

One of the main reasons for my high level of expenditure was the fact that I ate out quite a bit, and one of the reasons for me eating out was that the good man Josh was over from Oxford for a day. We had a good Indian dinner at the Tavistock Tandoori Restaurant (formerly known as Hot Chilli), then being the Gunner Fan that he is, we headed to the Emirates after dinner (i.e I acoompanied him on his mini pilgrimage).

Royal Salute.

Well, as a Man Utd fan myself, I have to say I was hugely impressed with the Emirates and its sheer majesty. As Josh continually re-iterated, there is a "friendly rivalry" between us when it comes to football. I mean, only one English team has gone 49 matches unbeaten in the EPL, and only one English team has ever won The Treble.

Yes, I was indeed dressed specially for the occasion.

On Friday of Week 9, it was the annual Newman House Christmas Party. This was the second year in a row that I was attending the party, even though I was not a resident last year. The dinner was wonderful, even though I was sitting with several unfamiliar faces (actually that probably made it all the more interesting). Alcohol does wonderful things to your head, and for some people (like myself), it removes mental blocks from your head, enabling you to come up with the most profound discoveries ever, such as the David Vera Theorem of Alcohol Abstinence, and the Vera-Witajewski Curve of Alcohol consumption. Marvellous.

Pictures of 1. My table; 2. Foie Gras; 3. The main course - Turkey with stuffing, veggies, bacon and a sausage; 4. Christmas pudding with custard sauce.

On the whole, it was a blast of an evening. A perfect way to end of a hectic and tiring week. The total amount of alcohol consumed included 10 glasses of wine, 2 gin and tonics, 1 tequila shot and a JD coke. Best of all, I was able to help clean up after the party was over. Mathematically speaking, if I were to plot a graph of "how tipsy I felt" on the vertical axis vs "how much alcohol I consumed" on the horizontal axis, as the amount of alcohol I consumed tended to infinity, the level of tipsiness approaced the "drunk" threshold from below, without me actually getting drunk i.e the "Drunk" threshold level of tipsiness was a horizontal asymptote.

Well that's week 9 in a nutshell. My "interesting pic of the week" is as follows:

The main character of the Bee Movie.

Well, it's just 4 more days to the end of term (and Rome). I hope everything will bee fine. I should get to see you one last time before the festivities begin. Until then, see you guys later.

Cheers.

2007-12-04T01:04:00.000Z

Thousand apologies for not having updated for a while. It has been a very busy period for me with assignments, deadlines and lots of other major events including the visit of my dad. Well, I have little more breathing space now, so I thought it fair to blog a little.

Time really flies and it is already week 9 of term. Before you know it, it will be the Winter Break!! But first, I have to cautiously negotiate the last two or so weeks of term.

You should know by now how much of a sucker I am for good food, and good food I got when my father came over to town! Pictures of some of the stuff I got to eat (possibly the best food I've had in London for a while) while Lao Pa was over:

Japanese-style fried dough fritters with a molten chocolate centre. Mmmm...

Mojito with cucumber. Refreshing.

Pork Medley

Mousse Cake

Roast Dinner

Treacle Sponge with Vanilla Custard Cream. Absolute beauty!

Grilled scallops (tastes a lot better than it sounds)

Chocolate Fondant...

With a Green Tea centre. Sounds weird, but trust me, that was a heavenly comination.

Best of all, 27th November was the day my dad turned 55:

Picture of the Birthday Dad and his son.

This past weekend was LSE Cathsoc's Advent mini-retreat. It was good to spend 4 hours or so of quiet time away from them books and to do some reflection (not in the mirror of course).

Pictures of the retreat.

Then on Sunday, it was the much-anticipated Maroon 5 concert and a 2nd visit to the Wembley Arena. While I am not a huge Maroon 5 fan, I felt that most of their songs should be quite easy to groove to when performed live. Better yet, Dashboard Confessional were opening! The crowd just went berserk when they said "Remember that song from Spiderman 2?"

The concert itself was alright. Certain songs were disappointing, but they managed save the situation towards the end. Still, they could not compare to Keane (who were the band I watched when I last visited the Wembley Arena, for those of you who don't know). The set was pretty cool though.

I now leave you with another one of those interesting sights you occasionally happen to chance upon. Really, I thought I had seen it all in London. Guess I was wrong.

Till next time, my DFRs. Hopefully I won't be drowning under a mountain of work.

Ciao.

2007-11-19T01:21:00.000Z

So begins the Seventh week of term.

During the 7th week of term last year, I was talking about wanting to watch musicals, taking my maiden bus journey in London and finding ways to save money. Not much has changed since. There are still several musicals I would like to watch, I hardly take the bus these days and I am trying to be thrifty.

Week 6 was when the blustery weather really hit me. While I was fortunate enough not to have fallen terribly ill, I did experience poor appetite and the lack of solid sleep. You could say this was not exactly a happy week for me, but I am still thankful for the people around for their support and understanding, and I would like to apologise to anyone that I might have offended / pissed off along the way.

One aspect of life at the LSE I am especially grateful for is the quality of the lecturers. This year, the lecturers and class tutors are much better than in year 1, which kind of makes sense if you think about it. The following lecture slide shows how the lecturer recruited "Dora the Explorer" to try and teach us calculus. Brilliant.

The best part of the week was when it ended. Friday was Fish-n-chips day! Some of us headed to "The Rock and Sole Plaice" for a good fish-n-chip dinner. The meal was huge and while my appetite was not great, all I can say is rock (a type of shark meat) totally rocked!

Then on Saturday, Marcel and I headed to Hampstead for Saturday walkabout and some Belgian Chocolate Hazlenut Cream Crunch Crepes that were absolutely out of this world.

That was our lunch.

On the whole I had quite a good weekend. Cai parties are the bomb and we should have them more often.

Week 7 has just started. Time to prepare for the arrival of the Winter break.

Bonne semaine.

2007-11-12T01:18:00.000Z

The first picture-less post for quite a while:

Hi there my Dear Faithful Readers!

It's the end of week 5 / start of week 6. The end of autum brings with it gloomy, rainy (basically just rubbish) weather. People smile less these days and are afflicted by SAD. Well, c'est la vie.

Half a term has just whizzed past. Those lucky students in other colleges have had their reading week (you should know how I feel about reading week by now) and very soon, it'll be Christmas Break!! Albeit for only three weeks.

The workload, while not getting heavier in absolute terms, is definitely a step up from first year. I find myself having to use a certain instrument a lot (it's called a brain) to get my work done. To some degree, I have to admit I am enjoying my course (got the pun?) at the LSE. Yes, it is tough and makes me want to just tear my hair of at times. However, if it were too easy, I wouldn't feel any pride if (IF and not WHEN) I graduate would I?

Week 5 of term was not the best of weeks for me. The highlight of the week was probably a Thursday afternoon which did not really start off too well. After lecture, I was passing by the Quad when I saw a group of Indians and Pakistanis watching Cricket, and my plans to get 3 hours of revision were suddenly forgotte. I have to admit, while it was raining cats and dogs outside, the Quad itself was almost like a cauldron. I exaggerate, but you get my point. In the end, Pakistan won with a ball to spare. But it was a good game with a good crowd.

Thursday evening's Cathsoc Bible Session was just me and Father Iain. We watched a DVD on two Catholics who have had their lives transformed as a result of their beliefs. The DVD was meant for youths in the diocese who were about to be confirmed. I have to say that while it was a bit frightening at some points, the messages put forth held a lot of meaning and would certainly help the younger generation better understand the Catholic Faith.

On Saturday, Eng Kiat and Winston came over for dinner. We had Tatranski Cai, tomatoes with cheese, Turkey Bolognese Pasta and Tiramisu. The Cai did the damage and we were quite tipsy by the time dinner was over. However, we had a lot of fun watching videos from www.collegehumour.com and listening to all kinds of rock songs. We should do something like that soon, with more drinks of course.

That's all for now my DFRs. Week 6 beckons.

Cheers.

2007-10-27T23:42:00.000Z

Good evening my dear fellow faithful readers

I apologise for having ignored you for so long.

One of the main reasons (or excuses) for my absence was the start of term. While it was mildly comforting to exercise the brain and to be out and about for something purposeful once again, I am admittedly finding it challenging to adjust back to that kind of lifestyle after such a long time-out.

As per the beginning of the previous academic year, I have started getting involved in this supposedly boring and time-wasting sport we call cricket. Well, it certainly wasn't either of the above for me. This indoor session, organised by a friend of mine living in the same hall, took place at an indoor sports complex Canary Wharf, which I evidently never knew existed. In fact, that was my first ever visit to that part of the City. Cricket itself was amazingly tiring, yet amazingly satisfying. My bowling was alright I guess, and batting was a reasonable improvement from the LSE trials of last year. Best of all, this was the first ever proper stress-free cricket I have ever played. The ache I experienced on the left side of my body the following morning was sure worth the session.

Living at NH has its perks. For instance, having a kitchen does enable me to prepare my own meals and hence save a fair bit of cash. While my repetoire is limited and I have only cooked a few times thus far, I feel that I am at least good at what I have cooked:

Pasta Bolognese (which was made using canned tomatoes and not bottled pasta sauce)

Minced Lamb Fried Rice

Alright, nothing too impressive to all you gourmet chefs out there. Still, it's a more than decent try if you ask me.

There was also a "Last Supper" (don't ask me why it was so-called) on one of the weeknights, and we had a very good dinner Spread!!

Look at the spread. The Cote d'or ice cream was simply out of this world.

The final major highlight during the week was probably a trip to the city of Cardiff, capital of Wales. A big "thank you" to the organisers of the trip (you know who you are), and my apologies for arriving late on Saturday morning.

The city itself was good for a day-trip, nothing more. While Cardiff Castle did have some fascinating history to it, it was on the whole a disappointment. We did have a very witty tour-guide, but the Castle still failed to impress on the whole. The food was mediocre too, nothing too different from what you might get in London pubs.

Rarebit (NOT rabbit) toast for starters. It was just cheese and some tomato-based sauce on toasted bread. Simple Enough.

The main course was, however, a tad too salty. These huge brown meatballs in sauce are called "Faggots". Again, don't ask me how this name came about. The first bite tasted like heaven, but by the 7th bite I felt like I had been assalted.

Shots at Cardiff Bay. We took a bus to Cardiff Bay, which was the highlight of the day in my opinion. This part of the city was surprisingly modern, and the city planners have done a superb job I must say.

Roald Dahl Plass. I did know that he was part-English and part-Norwegian, but I never knew he was born in Cardiff. No Giant Peach or Chocolate Factory here unfortunately.

The last photo I took before leaving Cardiff. Yes, I do like to admire sleek cars with funky number-plates.

I hope this post has satisfied you guys for now, and I promise to blog more regularly in future. Promise.

2007-10-06T20:23:00.000Z

The man is back.

Coming soon to a blog near you.

2007-06-27T14:49:00.000Z

Guess who has finally decided to publish a post.

As mentioned in the previous edition of davidgoestolondon, I was away settling some issues. These issues took longer than expected, as a result of some unforeseen circumstances (read laziness). But alas, here I am, blogging with gusto like you've never seen before!! Yea right.

Before the barrage of food photos, here are some of the sights (non-culinary sights, mind you) that I did manage to capture during the last few weeks in london.

I burst out laughing upon seeing this.

Newman House, where I go for mass every Sunday. The Chapel and the entrance.

Travis concert. Awesome.

Notice the clear blue skies overlooking the not so clear brown waters of the Thames.

Another photo of the sky - during sunset. We rarely get such skies in London.

And now, for the food photos:

Tea-time at Paul's. The hot chocolate was unlike any other hot chocolate I have tasted in London - rich, thick, smooth and very chocolaty. Tasted almost like pure melted chocolate. Then there was the bread basket, quiche, chocolate torte with ice cream and the macaroons.

Nasi Goreng from C&R. Fairly Authentic I must say, just that I hate fried eggs.

Belgian Chocolate Hazlenut Cream Crunch crepe from the Kensington Creperie. Not many people know that the Kensington creperie is a branch of the creperie at Hampstead. While the Kensington one is more accessible, the one in Hampstead has a prettier setting. Also, eating such a crepe on a cold wintry night is more enjoyable than eating it besides the unbearable heat of the stove.

The Indian meal at Mela. Had Butter Paneer, Chicken Tikka, Pilau and Garlic Naan. The Naan wasa a fail, otherwise the food was of rather high quality. And the desserts - Gulab Jamun with ice cream and a Kufli - were really sweet (in both senses of the word)

A Filipino meal, consisting of Garlic rice, Beef Stew in Penut sauce and Prawns in a coconut Gravy. Steep prices, but as a half FIlipino myself, I must say the food was authentic and on the whole, the meal was a little too filling, but hugely satisfying.

Very well then, this is the final post of the academic year 2006/07. Thank you for your kind patronage, and I leave you with one last photo:

From Heathrow, while I was waiting for the elevator. Let's just say that I couldn't bear to leave London, and I can't bear to leave you guys waiting for my next post. But I guess I will only be back in the next academic year, which isn't very far away if you think about it. Farewell then, my dear faithful readers.

Cheers.

2007-03-27T21:48:00.000Z

Dearest Faithful Readers,

Thank you for your continued support and patronage of www.davidgoestolondon.blogspot.com. Without it, this informative website will not have been functioning for so long.

Unfortunately, the publisher has certain personal issues to settle (read exams) and will not be able to update the blog until further notice. Fret not though, for the publisher promises that once the issues have been settled, this site will be up and running again.

For now, the publisher would just like to share with you some of the events (Including his 21st Birthday) that happened over the past week or 2 when you, the faithful readers, we wondering whether this website was about to become extinct.

Photos taken the night of the publisher's Birthday with his parents at Miyama Japanese Restaurant

Another Japanese meal, before the publisher was scheduled to watch Wicked the musical

Wicked the musical. In the publisher's opinion, it was ok. He thought it was great but not outstanding.

Kobe Jones, a Japanese fusion restaurant. The publisher thoroughly enjoyed his meal. He would also like to let the discerning reader know that in the last picture of the dessert platter, what looks like 2 wooden chopsticks are in fact solid chocolate.

The publisher spent about 2 hours preparing this pasta sauce. Here are some remnants of it.

Kebabs are the publisher's favourite food.

The above meal of briyani rice and curry was finished just a few minutes before this entry was published.

The publisher would like to take this opportunity to wish all readers a happy Easter, and will return once his issues are settled, which will be in approximately 2 months.

2007-03-11T21:02:00.000Z

1 more week to the much-needed break.

Nothing of major significance happened this week. As mentioned in the previous post, I've reached a "better bored than busy" stage.

Anything worth noting was a bit of an indulgent spree during the last weekday of the week. Bought 2 packs of maltesers, a pack of 10 2-finger kit-kats and 4 fairtrade chocolate bars. Life of debauchery indeed.

On Saturday, I attended my 2nd ever retreat at Fr Iain's Carmelite Priory. It was a lot more fun this time as the group was bigger. We talked about St John of the Cross, had a light lunch and a final prayer session. Sure beat locking myself up in my miserable jail cell of a room and trying to study on a Saturday afternoon.

Cry for help from the window

Playing with the pulpit.

Then on Sunday, Anu the Tabla pro came down. We had a Hare and Tortoise lunch, followed by a trip to Tower Hill.

Close-up shot of the Gherkin. It looks even more Phallic if you ask me. Scarily so.

Some "castle" like structure near Tower Bridge.

We decided to go on this cruise along the Thames, which took us from Tower Hill to Greenwich

The bridge never looked this cool.

Canary Wharf. The land of big banks and symbol of internships for university students.

Greenwich. We only spent 20 minutes there.

Parting shot of Greenwich. I'm sure I'll be back here someday.

I leave you guys with images/pictures of monuments you probably have seen before. Cheers to the Easter Break!!

2007-03-04T23:16:00.000Z

Not the best of weeks in London. Bah, I daresay the most frustrating and irritating week in the UK thus far. But well, as that stupid cliche goes, life goes on.

Well, I guess it was good that I was feeling a sense of malencholy that I attended the Keane concert. Just insane. They just sound so darn good performing live! Tom Chaplin has incredible stamina. He ran up and down the stage throughout the whole concert which was about 15 songs long, maybe took a 2 minute break in between (to pee/drink up), yet his voice never sounded like it'd go out of tune. What a performance!!

The set was just awesome!

This was Wembly Stadium, just behind the Wembly ARENA where the concert was held. Hope to see a football matche there in my lifetime.

Friday brought much cheer and relief to me. For once in a long long time, I kicked studies and books out of my brain and just enjoyed the afternoon! Places I visited included Trafalgar Square (sounds like "The Vulgar Square"), Saint James' Park (no, not the Newcastle United Stadium) and Westminster Cathedral of the Precious Blood.

Trafalgar Square. I never knew my phone could produce photos of such high quality!

At night, it was yet another Cathsoc dinner, this time at Fiori's at Leicester Square. Hmm, pasta was ok I guess. It was evident that places like Strada and Bella Italia would have served much better pasta, but the one I had was passable. After dinner was Bar Ciao once again. Gosh I should stop frequenting that place, not because the food is crap. Quite the opposite in fact. Eating all that cream made me worried not about my weight or figure, but more about all that sinful white fluff clogging up my arteries. I shudder everytime I imagine what might happen.

Yes this is the "Stracciatella Sundae" I had. The top bit and the bottom bit is all whipped cream. Tasted heavenly at first, but got disgusting after a while.

Well the week-end finally arrived, and thank goodness for that. Saturday consisted of doing laundry, a little bit of work (one maths question), watching the game at the pub, going for a much-overdue jog and having dinner at Chinatown. This might sound like an absolutely boring and monotonous kind of Saturday (I should very well have been at London Games), but after one roller-coaster week, I decided that "Better bored than busy" is a sensible philosophy. I actually enjoyed the day in fact.

The view from Primrose Hill where I jogged to. Gosh, this was indeed breath-taking. And i really mean it. I mean, if my lungs were any weaker, the view would have taken my breath away, I would thus have stopped breathing and probably eventually just collapsed. Ok that was lame.

On Sunday, the inaugural VinE gathering was held at UCL. For 10 quid, I have to say the food was mightily worth it. I ate my fill indeed. I guess that even though I don't feel the same level of attachment to VJ now as I did back in 03/04, I'll say that it still felt kinda good doing mass dances and cheering.

Some of the nice people who made this event possible.

Well that's all for now. Good night to all, and may the next week be an easier one.

2007-02-28T01:35:00.000Z

It has been a while since I last blogged. The workload for this past weekend was just simply insane. Hopefully it will get a bit better. If it gets any worse, well, let's not think about that.

Right. Thursday night, I had Char Kway Teow at Kiasu. Yes, I know it sounds rather dull talking about what I had for dinner on this day and that day, but all I can say is that I live to eat.

Char Kway Teow (Penang style i.e with less sweet flour sauce)

The food's quality was really authentic and the serving size was decent for me at least. Price-wise it was ok. On the whole though, I did not like the place. I guess it was the service, and the "blue-ness" of the place.

Friday was quite an eventful day. I visited Borough Market for the first time in my life, and I must say that despite it's size, it is one heck of an awesome place for food. The chocolate brownies and toffies were out of this world.

Some of the interesting sights at Borough Market.

That same night, the LSE Cathsoc went back to Rock and Sole Plaice for dinner. Mmmm...good, old-fashioned fish and chips with a marvellous tartar sauce. Yummy.

The Rock and Sole Plaice. Don't you just love it when they come up with such inventive names for restaurants?

After dinner, we headed over to Bar Ciao for ice cream. It was a really nice gelato restaurant, albeit a bit smoky. The quality of the gelato made up for the smokiness I guess. The "pasta" I was just awesome.

What we ordered. Anthony ordered the orange thing, which was some orange-liquour contraption. Totally insane.

Anthony doing what he does best - ACT COOL!

What I ordered. "Tagiatelle". Really good ice cream.

A new day beckons. So too the Spring Break. I could do with some time off.

See you in a bit.

2007-02-21T01:25:00.000Z

It has been quite a while since I last blogged, and you'll soon find out why...

I shall keep the words for this post to a minimum (by my standards) and try to show more photos.

I went back to S'pore on Thursday! Arrived on Friday at about 7pm Singapore time, then met Clarence Tan for dinner/supper.

These we had for dinner...

And these for supper at Hong Kong Cafe.

Saturday was New Years Eve. A fairly eventful day - Prata for breakfast, pool in the afternoon, then reunion dinner.

(The first of the 4 Yu Shengs I've had so far)

Sunday: Chinese New Year Mass, Milo Peng, Nasi Lemak, Lontong and most importantly, New Year Dinner!

That's dessert by the way

Yu Sheng number 2

Nephew and Niece

Monday and Tuesday: Severe tiredness, lessons, feel-bad factor. But the UCL Chinese New Year dinner on Tuesday night made me feel better:)

Same shirt from same chain of shops

Yu Sheng number 4

Alright that'll be it for now. Sleep beckons.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

2007-02-11T23:32:00.000Z

Just a short update before week 6 commences.

Well it's reading week this week for some of those in other colleges and the Law students in LSE. Pooh, reading week. What reading? Everyone's going to Spain and Portugal and France and China and whatever you've got.

I'm not bitter or anything. I mean, I do finish school a week earlier than most of the rest. Thing is (and I have mentioned this before) how much of a misnomer is reading week? With everyone travelling to places all over the world, I'm certain people will get their "reading" done.

Something to look forward to is this special festival called Chinese New Year! Highlights include pigging out, collecting red packets, meeting relatives (Yes I'm going back!!) and pigging out some more. The kind of life a student doesn't usually have time for.

But of course, the dark side of it all is that the work load is piling up, and I've got to finish my assignments REALLY soon. Gosh, this is not good. Ah well, I guess I shouldn't really be complaining should I?

The weekend went pretty fine I guess. Dinner aside, I stayed-in for pretty much the whole of Saturday. Sunday was just the usual, mundane stuff (which I quite enjoy actually). Yes this included a run and half a pint at Mabel's during Arsenal-Wigan. And, I had a hall dinner which was pretty ok.

Yep. We are now right smack in the middle of Lent Term. It's all systems go from here. I just need to find the fuel to get the systems going haha.

See you in a bit.

2007-02-10T01:28:00.000Z

Yet another weekend has arrived.

The weather is really springing surprises on us these days. Just a week ago, the temperatures were milder and the sun was out more often. This week, however, it was quite the opposite.

Well, as for what I did during the week, good ol' Sanjee was in town for his Imperial College medicine interview. I managed to catch up with him and part of the Mama gang before they headed for Brazil-Portugal at the Emirates.

Faiz, Sanjee, Puvan and Amir

Sanjee and I then headed to this kebab place at Bayswater. Price-wise, it was a little too much for me. That being said, I think that the food was of the highest quality. It was a genuine Lebanese Restaurant which sold kebabs, skewers, baclava etc, not those we find near our halls selling kebabs and pasta and fish n chips. It was one powerful meal which we all enjoyed, considering how hungry we were.

Now this is what we ate.

After dinner.

If you have been watching the news (whichever side of the world you're on), you would have heard that it snowed in London on Thursday. Like when I woke up, it was snowing, unlike last time when it had stopped snowing, but the snow had not melted.

Somehow the wonder of seeing snow had diminished considerably after seeing it last time round. It was ok I guess, but it was somewhat disgusting, considering how dirty the city of London is. Of course, the slippery snow on the ground made it difficult to walk to school.

Some pictures of the snow (No snowmen for me this time).

That same night, after our Catholic Society session, we headed of to the "Rock and Sole Plaice" for some old-fashioned English Fish n Chips. Even though there was little salt and stuff, I quite enjoyed it actually. The tartar sauce was quite out of this world.

I'm sure you all know what this is.

The CathSoc people who tuned up.

Friday after school, Sanjee and I checked out St Paul's. Really cool place. Unfortunately most of the galleries were closed, leaving us to explore the crypt alone. Lots of interesting items, too bad no cameras were allowed.

Friday nigt was Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre!! Honestly, I am not a musical fanatic, but this was like woah!!! I even bought the cd after that haha.

Where it all happened.

Here's something to usher in the week-end:

Where did this come from? That recent Tagadella Knights movie or F1? Cool stuff at Covent Garden.

Well good night all, and see you in Singapore in a week.

2007-02-05T01:20:00.000Z

January came and went a little too quickly. The good thing is the Easter Break is not too far away. The not so good thing is, this means that the final exams are not too far away either.

Well, as you probably inferred from my previous posts, I went to Manchester during mid-week for a pilgrimage of sorts. Unlike the last time, I had a lot more time to explore the city entre and the area around the Theatre of Dreams.

The trip started very well, with Jia Chuan smartly spotting Jenny's, where they served 3-course lunches for 5quid. It sounded a bit suspect at first, but well it was a LOT - Soup, roast meat with a vegetable buffet and a slice of cake. For 5 pounds! As Cheng put it, it was arguably the best meal we have had in the UK thus far.

And of course, there was the match. We were seated at the East end, which was rather unfortunate because 3 of the 4 goals were scored at the West end. No worries, I managed to get Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty on video. And the 35pounds were damn well worth it.

Alright, here are some photos of the sights I could not fully appreciate last time round.

Haha, this logo was quite hilarious.

Even the stretch of road leading to O.T is named after a Man Utd Legend.

The time and date of the Munich Air Crash, and the United Players who perished. February 6th 1958 - We Remember.

A perfect shot, with the club logo in the background

Before the match. Stretford (West) End was in the background.

Where I got my 4pound kebab dinner from. Exobitant, but huge servings.

Now, I couldn't miss a shot with the metrolink station named after the Theatre of Dreams could I?

So we reached London on Thursday at around noon, when it could have been at 6am if we were willing to pay 5quid. We ended up getting swindled by a fake Serviceman and chased out by one rough-and-tough security guard at the bus station. Still, while we might rather have been sleeping, it was good fun, seeing good ol' Chih Chwen laugh like he has never laughed before! And Wesley was quite amusing too, though I felt a bit sorry for him. And Vernon made me realise how fun "Guy Talk" can be haha. Real player this guy - plays on the left and plays on the right. All in all, GG GUYS!!

Thursday night was the first of the Anthropology play series at the Camden Peoples' Theatre. While it was a simple affair, I was pretty much impressed with the entire performance. The only downside was that the theme was very feminie, as a result some parts got bitchy and I could not stand it. This is not to say that the acting was crap or anything, just that I could not relate to the theme. It was a marvellous effort nonetheless.

Friday night saw me break new grounds. I lost a game of monopoly, having died as a result of Supertax. Right. And to think that at one stage, I owned the Dark Blue and Orange areas, and had houses on them. Go figure.

On Saturday, seeing the the sun was out, I decided to get the heck outta my room and go for a run at Regent's Park. Boy did I make the right decision. It was a thoroughly enjoyable run. The endorphins really made me high, but what was even better was the view from the top of Primrose Hill on a clear, sunny, winter afternoon. Sounds oxymoronic, but it aptly describes the weather for that day. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera with me. That view spurred me on and made me complete the run. Woohoo~

That evening, I attended a Jazz concert at Netherhall. A big thank you to Miguel for organising this. A lot of Cathsoc people came down, and it was great fun. Listening to the fantastic tunes being belted out, enjoying the food and beer, and of course enjoying the company of each other.

Before the concert. Anthony enjoying the comfortable seats at the auditorium.

See the difference?

Roberto was evidently quite drunk. Even before he came.

Group shots

Shots of the performers

The first ever picture on my camera with Anthony only.

Sunday was a normal Sunday. Church, lunch with the crew, match at the Tavern (with a pint of course) and work. A relaxing way to end off the week. And of course, there are certain things in life that can make me happier:

Waitrose Belgian Chocolate Milk and M&S Triple Choc Crunch cereals!! Goodness, I'm gonna become a bloated balloon diabetic soon.

Alright, the new month brings with it events to look forward to, such as CNY and going home!!!

Good night people.

2007-01-29T22:38:00.000Z

The end-of-the-week post has been POST-poned until today, the beginning of a new week.

Some long-overdue (well 3 days or so) glimpses of my efforts at trying to be a skilled photographer:

I have no idea what this lion is for. Perhaps an statue erected in support of the England Cricket/Soccer teams (whose emblems are 3 lions)? Makes sense if you ask me, they need all the help they can get.

"Scenic" shots of the Thames. I quite like the last sunset one. Then again, I suppose many people have already taken such photos before.

The Tate Modern museum. Don't mind me saying, in the 2nd shot, the museum looks a bit like a phallic symbol.

Saint Paul's CE Cathedral, taken from the South end of the Millenium Bridge.

Some random shot of the LSE Library at night. I was quite fascinted by the blue lights on the ground, something I have never really seen before despite my 4 months there so far.

Alright, Friday night was the night of the much awaited Cathsoc Pub Crawl! The itinerary of the night consisted of visiting 2 venues, but the amount of alcohol we consumed was like woah.

The first stop was a German restaurant at Old Street. This place wasn't exactly a bar, it was more of a proper restaurant serving dishes like pork knuckle and sausages. It was really German alright. The waitresses were dressed in German maid dresses. And the atmosphere was awesome! There were these 2 groups of Englishmen who were having some "friendly banter" with each other, singing songs such as "Sit down shut up! Sit down shut up!". I am definitely coming back to this place. Check out the booze man!!

One litre of Eredinger. Ok, maybe it does not look big...

This shot should put the size of the mug into perspective.

Group photo. From left: Dan, Alison, myself, Mattei and Mattei's friend who was visiting from the USA, Christina.

Cheers mate.

Look at how much he drank?! Well, actually he didn't have ALL of it. Thing was, after Dan, Mattei and myself finished our litre of beer, I decided that I had enough for one stop. However, Dan and Mattei had another half litre more!! Sheesh, I need to train myself up.

Ok with that we wrapped up our visit to the German place and headed for (final) destination number 2.

I could have swore I was not drunk when I saw the words SINGTel. What on earth was this shop doing here?!

Ok enough of Singapore Telecom, our next stop was a Cuban pub, Cuba Libre at Islington.

The entrance.

My drink for the night - Mojito. It consisted to 2 shots of rum (which if I'm not wrong has over 50%), sugar, lemon and mint leaves. Potent cocktail. In fact, I had 2. Was quite close to being wasted after that.

Alison's marguerita, which I accidentally spilt in my semi-drunken state. Fortunately she had already finished it somewhat.

After my 2nd Mojito, I was gone. And to think that Dan and Mattei were going for a third one!! Well, I somehow made it back to hall on my own (by bus). Thank goodness.

I woke up on Saturday morning, thankfully not feeling much of the hangover from the night before.

Saturday consisted of doing laundry, work and attending a talk by James Gomez. Shan't elaborate too much on the talk, but it was eye-opening to say the least. Then we went to Covent Garden, where I did some retail therapy. More on that later.

Sunday, I finally had some good Singaporean food - Chicken Rice, Yong Tau Foo, Fried Bee Hoon! My stomach was well and truly smiling after that heck of a meal.

Monday, I did more retail therapy. All in all, my total expenditure was less than 100quid.

My 3 Fred Perry shirts. Thoroughly satisfying purchases for me. The long-sleeved ones were only 16 quid! And check out their design, cool indeed!

Alright, this one was a bit of a heartache. As you already know, I'll be off to the Theatre of Dreams soon, and I thought I needed the appropriate attire. So off I headed to Lillywhites during my 3-hour break on Monday. Well, jerseys there went for about 34quid. Only problem was, no size!! Smallest was XXL. No choice then, I headed to search for other shops, and when I finally found my size, it cost a whooping 40quid. It was now or never. Sigh. Well my bank account does feel emptier, but I guess I feel happier, so it balanced out eventually. Looks like the term "Retail Therapy" does make sense after all.

And to top of the start of the week, I attended a Chocolate Tasting session organised by the LSE Swiss Society and sponsored by Lindt. Yes, chocolate! We learnt a bit about how chocolate was made, and the art of chocolate tasting. Technically, based on the climatic requirements, it does seem possible to grow cocoa in Singapore haha. And I never knew it could be so sophisticated. Like we had to feel, smell and look at the chocolate, listen to the sound when we broke the pieces and of course taste it. Then there were different aspects to the flavour of the chocolate, such as woody taste, tobacco, mushroom, olive, vanilla, fruity, burnt etc.

The 3 types of chocolate we tried.

The one on the left was from Cuba, 55% Cocoa. Fruity and sweet, the nicest of the lot. 2nd one was from Madagascar. Slight hint of vanilla, 65% Cocoa. Was ok I guess. The 3rd one was just 75% Cocoa, strong and bitter. By the time we reached the 3rd one, LDMR had set in and we didn't really enjoy the chocolate. Still, it was worth the 1 pound. In fact, I am now a member of the Swiss Society (in addition to Singsoc, Cathsoc, India and Japan)!!

Right, hope the nice long entry has left you dear readers satisfied. Now it's time to hit the books, literally. Hope my head won't hurt from it.

See you in a bit.

2007-01-25T00:15:00.000Z

It was just another Wednesday morning. Or so I thought...

Having woken up at about 8, all lethargic and groggy, I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Upon reaching the lift landing, something caught my eye...

NO KIDDING! That white thing was really snow! Seems like the BBC was right about the weather forecast after all. For once at least.

It was just as well that over breakfast, ZhenQiang decided to make a trip to Regent's Park to check out, take pictures of and play with this fascinating white substance called snow.

Armed fully with our heavy duty winter-wear and our snapping devices, we left for R.P in haste, lest the snow melted before we arrived.

Right. Many of you might think us too trigger-happy to take such shots. But hey, it's not like you see something like this everyday do you? At least not in London.

A snow-covered car. Pity the owner hahaha.

We reached R.P in good time, and immediately put our cameras to good use.

Some "scenic" shots. I have NEVER seen Regent's Park like this.

Of course, no winter would be complete without a snow fight would it?

More random (scenic) shots.

YES! This is a dustbin alright! I just thought, the way the snow formed a sort of duvet atop the bin was really neat.

London Business School, where my Mum did a 4-week course 8 years back.

London Central Mosque

The first of the few Mr Frosties we would encounter

Ah, this Snowman looked in much better shape, pardon the pun. I even gave him rabbit's ears!

One could perceive BT Towers in the distance

This mini lake was frozen! The cup's there as evidence

A frozen tap

Zhen Qiang and I decided that, in the spirit of fun, we would create our own Mister Frosty as well.

Yes, considering it was our first attempt, it was a pretty remarkable achievement! Seriously, it's the first time I have ever made a snowman! He didn't have a name though.

Unfortunately, ZQ had to return to hall to get his stuff as he had lessons, leaving me to check out Primrose Hill (and the view she had to offer) alone.

This was, by far, the best snowman we saw. As you can tell, it had a Lucozade bottle for a nose and a bonnet. And it looked nicely fed/fat. His creators took care of him really well.

Miscellaneous hill-top views.

Right. A totally cool experience. Well, those who have been skiing will probably feel that what you might have just seen was nothing compared to what you have experienced. Alright, the thing is, all this happened in Central London, right at my very doorstep. No additional costs were incurred during this mini-trip.

In addition, this snow actually gave me an excuse to visit Regent's Park leisurely and really admire whatever was on display. I mean, when I go jogging on the outer road, I hardly have time so much as to even glance at my surroundings, focusing soley on the road ahead. In a way, I killed 2 birds with one stone today then.

Of course, along with the snow came the relevant puns, e.g "There's snow way I'm going out there." or "Snow joke this weather.". Haha, the punster is always filled with such cold jokes.

What a day. In fact, by the early afternoon, the sun had made a brief cameo. Bloody hell! What has global warming done? In the short term at least, it has made the scenery in London nicer? I'll leave you to decide whether that's true or not, and well, more photos on that next time.

Right now, I'm going visit a special place where dreams do come true.

Good night mate.

2007-01-21T22:00:00.000Z

It's the end of yet another hectic week, and week 3 beckons.

Same old, same old. I guess I have gotten used to the routine of schooling and studying, and trying to have fun in between. Life's ok I guess. Nothing really to complain about, yet nothing worth really being excited about.

Wait, I DO have stuff to complain about. For the first time in 20 years on Planet Earth, I was stuck in a bloody lift! Can you believe it? It all happened on a Tuesday evening, at Hughes Parry Hall. After dinner, I entered the lift with 4 other people and pressed the floor buttons. However, once the door shut, the elevator did not move, and we were stuck inside for almost 20 minutes. Needed the bloody Fire Brigade to come rescue us. Right. And they say that a hero will save us...

It was more of an irritating rather than frightening experience, mainly because I had work to do then. Still, the breath of fresh air we inhaled upon being rescued was very much welcome.

Then on Thursday, some really strong winds (almost literally) blew the house down. Crap, my hall and the surrounding area was blacked out for about 12 hours, from 9 in the morning till 9pm. Insane stuff. It all started when I realised that my ceiling light and lamp were getting dimmer...Then after a while, the internet connection went off too. Fortunately, I was about to leave for school then. Only problem was I had to take the stairs.

In the evening when I got home to collect some stuff, the ptich-blackness of the vicinity was quite overwhelming. Never knew I would live to see a day when I would be engulfed in absolute darkness. Well, I guess I did experience something like that in Singapore before, but it was never this bad. Turns out, the winds blew up to 99 miles per hour, and the total damage caused cost millions of pounds.

I hope, though, that the lift will be repaired soon. Well my hall has always had problems with elevators. Last term, one of the two was perpetually spoilt. That's stilll not so bad. Now that both of them are down (pardon the pun), I have to take the stairs. Well, 7 storey's isn't that tiring a climb, but try doing it 5 times a day. Like for laundry alone I made 3 trips to the basement and up. Best thing was, the maintenance crew doesn't work on weekends. Swift and efficient indeed!

That night, my hall served chilled dinner. Just as well, then, that I was not eating at hall that night, because I had a Japanese/Korean "Buffet" dinner to attend. I paid 6 pounds for it, and in the end it was not really satisfying. Some sort of buffet, well I only managed to go for one round before everything was finished. The food tasted ok, though it was cold. Largely unsatisfying. Fortunately, the bar was open and the pint of Stella Artois made up for it. Also, a hilarious conversation with this Chinese bloke made the dinner experience all the more lively. I realised how shitty my spoken mandarin was.

I watched a musical put up the the Singapore Playhouse London (SPL) on Friday. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much for 8 pounds. And the theatre pretty much said it all. The people in the play had marvellous voices, but the sound system did them no justice when it made them sound muffled. Still, it was a good maiden attempt at a musical. Well done guys!

Saturday consisted of finishing a Math exercise, as well as visiting my good pal Miguel's place Netherhall, which is the Opus Dei Residence in London. Some of you might have read of it before. It set nicely in a quiet and serene district, ideal for the life of contemplation and meditation. The general feel of the hall was cosy and the facilities were quite awesome too.

Miguel's room. He pays 140++ pounds a week, and this includes breakfast, dinner and people to help do laundry. Pretty awesome, and there's a direct bus to LSE.

Shots of the Chapel. It was a really beautiful chapel indeed.

The chapel taken from upstairs, where the choir and organist are. On the right of the photo, there's a picture of the founder of Opus Dei, Saint Josemaria Escriva

There were people playing soccer here just before the picture was taken. In fact this place can be used for basketball or even cricket!!

In addition to this, there was this wonderful auditorium that hosted all sorts of events from seminars (there was one on Medical Ethics chaired by Cardinal Cormac last December), Rock concerts, plays and musical performances. Cool aight. I might consider staying there next term.

Alright. Time to work. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Such as the beginning of a new week.

Cheers man.

2007-01-14T23:42:00.000Z

Whew, survived the first week of the Lent Term (presumably named because the Season of Lent begins midway through the term).

It was honestly a fairly decent week. It felt, in a strange way, kind of refreshing to once again attend classes. Well, some of them. It was rather mentally stimulating, though many might beg to differ.

Alright, as the new term begins, I figured it would be fitting to kick-off with some long overdue photos of the vicinity of HPH.

Marchmont Street, which is the road leading up to my hall (when I am walking back from LSE at least)

China House!!! The restaurant which sells 3 pound 50 Chinese takeaways!! You've heard me rant about it, you've seen the dishes the place serves, now you have seen the place itself!!! Haha..

Now, would you ever see this in Singa-land? For the record though, I have never stepped inside, lest I get mistaken and hit on. Pardon the homophobia, it's just the way I am.

Cafe Valencia. Sells pretty good burgers and kebabs. For the times I need a hot snack, and a mere sandwich won't do.

Russell Supermarket. Usually get my breakfast from there for Sunday mornings, when I need to go to church early.

Mabel's Tavern. An Arsenal fan base in it's own right, though I've watched some Man Utd matches there too (and not against Arsenal anyway).

Cartwright Gardens, the small garden with Tennis courts in front of my hall.

John Cartwright, former Brit Politician.

The stairs leading to the entrance of HPH.

View from the corridor window on my floor. The spire thing in the distance is the King's Cross Saint Pancras Train Station. Not very far really. And yes, it was sunny that day.

View from my room.

Honestly, for all the crap I might say about my hall, it is really a marvellous place. Firstly, the location is relatively safe. At least we don't get broken into, or have unwanted strangers sleeping in our TV room for months on end before people find out. Also, Brunswick Centre, Waitrose, a 24 hour Tesco's, and all the other stuff mentioned above. Geographically speaking, it is also fairly near LSE, Oxford Street and other main areas in Zone 1 of London.

Meeting the guys from Cathsoc once again was a real blessing indeed. As usual, we had Wednesday Mass, then food after that. Marie brought some Galette's from France. Les Galettes is something eaten around the Feast of the Epiphany. It tasted really awesome, some kind of almond cake pastry. Inside each was a small plastic figurine. Whoever got the figurine would be king for the day. And I'm not sure whether it was coincidental or part of the plan, there were 3 cakes and hence, for the day, there were "They three kings".

Of Orient they are. But why is Father Iain looking so fierce?

Finally found some reason to visit the Brit Museum near my hall. I'm frankly not a museum person. Still, it was a fascinating experience nonetheless. It was not solely about British exhibits, mind you. There was stuff from all over the world, and almost all ages. Greek Egyptian, Asian, African etc. And what was particularly satisfying, was looking at certain exhibits that were partially destroyed and be able to explain why they were how they were, e.g when certain sculptures were severly weathered. Brought back fond memories about the formation of Granite, Sandstone, Limestone, Chemical Weathering, Carbonic Acid...Ahh, such was the marvels of this wonderful subject called Geography. Fair enough, I still prefer Mathematics, but Geography was just amazing. Mind-blowing. A special thanks to my wonderful Geog Teachers in JC, Miss Lian and Mr Pang. Oh, and thanks Amanda for giving me a reason to visit the place!! Will make sure I go back someday to get the 2 pound souvenir wine. Yes!! Well at least I hope I saw the price tag correctly haha.

Sunday was a cracker of a day. First was the news that I did not make it to the Cricket team. Truth be told, it was expected, and I was not disappointed. Still, I hope the team Captain gets some Social Cricket going, cos I think it's really fun.

It felt at home to be at Newman House once again, attend mass with loads good music (a rarity in London) and meet up with loads more friends.

Sunday night saw me finally get to see where my culinary skills truly stood. Yan Neng and I, having made up our minds that we were quite sick of hall food, decided to make good use of the Kitchen-Pantry on the 7th floor (my floor) of HPH. The menu of the day consisted mainly of simple dishes that brought back poignant memories of the times we gathered at our own dinner tables with our respective families. Home-cooked food is what you call it. It was a bit nervous preparing dinner, having not touched a frying pan or a pot for quite some time. Thankfully, everything turned out fine. Not exactly according to how I expected the dishes to be, but still quite good for dinner. Ahh, home-cooked food....

Yan Neng's Cabbage and Tomato soup with shrimps. Seriously, I never knew a soup so easy to prepare could be so marvellous!!

Shrimp Omelette.

Three shots of my "Stir-fried diced chicken breast with capsicums and onions", or simply "Stir-fried Rainbow Chicken" haha. You decide which shot is the best.

The last 2 dishes I prepared. I thought the dishes were pretty good and hearty. No self-praise intended of course =P. What I would call "Ordinary dishes, extraordinary meal".

Well, I guess things are starting to look brighter once again. The sun's hogging the sky a lot more these days and sets later, and there's a lot less wind. Spring time is coming!

Right. Time to brace myself for the week ahead.

G'night mate.

2007-01-09T01:12:00.000Z

The euphoria experienced from the day before has subsided, and I have been brought back down to Earth. With a sickening THUD.

Sigh, the first day of school was no mean feat, especially keeping in mind how Mondays are the heaviest days of the week (with all 3 Abstract Math lessons). I have noticed that lots of people have yet to get into the term-time groove, which is not a funky dance move by the way.

With the New Year and the New Term comes other new items, such as new lecturers. All I can say is that it will be a mammoth task keeping up this term, if you get what I mean.

I tried a "Singaporean" fried dish for the first time in London. Singaporean Fried Rice. If you patronise any decent Chinese restaurant in London, Singaporean fried rice / noodles just means the normal fried rice / bee hoon flavoured with curry powder. The concept might actually sound weird, but the fried rice I had actually tasted surprisingly good. Just a little to salty though.

I have noticed that most Chinese restaurants in London do not serve good rice, even restaurants which serve good dishes. Thr rice is often too wet and not fragrant. I generally prefer my staple dry and a bit grainy. Basmati rice is an excellent example of how rice should be cooked. Full credit to the Indians when it comes to preparing rice man.

And of course, the first day of school, the last ever cricket trial in LSE. It was, again, ok-ish. I learnt that one should NOT field using his legs. Was hit twice by cricket balls travelling at a considerable speed. Gosh, that hurt. Bowling was not too bad. Got hit all over the park, but at least I did get one wicket. Just imagine...

"And here he comes, bowling over the wicket, it's a full delivery, AND IT STRIKES THE LEG STUMP! Off come the bails, and the batsman is headed back to the pavilion. Great piece of bowling there, and the batsman departs, bowled Vera!"
(Then, this is where the home crowd erupts with ecstacy).

As you can tell, I like to imagine myself as one of those really prolific bowlers in the world of cricket. I can imagine the elation whenever a wicket the stumps are struck, or when the umpire raises his finger at an LBW / Caught appeal.

Yes, I got a bit carried away there, but it was the only bright spot in a day filled with gloom, so you'll understand. I know where I stand, and someone of my incredible calibre will obviously not make the team. Yes, incredibly crap calibre.

Alright, it's time to hit the books. Expect another sickening THUD. Hah.

Cheers mate.

2007-01-08T00:36:00.000Z

I was there...

...when the crowd cursed and swore in exasperation at every stray pass made.

...when the crowd ooohh-ed and aaaahh-ed at every missed opportunity.

...when the crowd rose every time a goal seemed imminent.

...when the everyone crossed their fingers at every set piece to be taken (here Giggsy's free-kick just clips off the crossbar)

...when Ronaldo's Razzle Dazzle tormented the opposing defence

...when Fred the Red made his half time appearance.

...when the Super Swede 17 Henrik Larsson opened his Man United account on his debut, and with a peach of a finish too

...when the opposing supporters found their voice after their team equalised (and in the process put the home crowd to shame...)

...when Baby-faced Assassin Solskjaer scored a trademark Super Sub winner, albeit with some help from the opposing keeper...and in the 90th minute!!

...when the crowd chanted "Ole! Ole Ole Ole..." after the winner was scored.

Whew! What a day. I had to awake at 7am on a Sunday morning, spend over 42 pounds on the ticket alone, take 5 hour journey to the City of Manchester, miss the first 30 minutes of the game (which was no great loss really), skip lunch, take the 5 hour coach journey from Manchester back to London and have dinner at midnight. The sacrifces, though, were well worth it.

Of course, there was time for a trip to the MUFC Megastore (where more cash was spent), and a few photographs of the East entrance.

Special thanks to Jacob for agreeing to pay 42 quid for the match. It was well worth it eh?

Almost a decade to the day I started supporting United, my dream finally came true. At the Theatre of Dreams!

Ole!

2006-12-31T14:39:00.000Z

Just returned from my quick getaway in this shopping and food paradise called Bangkok. T'was really a much-needed trip for adding improvements to my wardrobe, getting away from the (then) blustery weather and just having a carefree, fun-filled time. For once the blog will be on the "Cultural Learnings of Bangkok".

Having waited out the 2 hour flight delay, my family and I finally managed to get on the plane and get on with the flight to Bangkok.

We touched down at about 6.30pm local time. The sky, while sunny, was just somehow hazy or misty. A product of the immense traffic in the city area. The new Suvarnabhumi Airport was to quite a large extent a monstrosity. Sure, it had a brand new feel to it, but even when it was sunny, there was not much light coming into the place, and it was not because of a lack of windows. Quite the opposite in fact, considering the amount of glass around. Still, it had the feel of one of those production plants under a communist regime, or chicken coop as my mum put it.

We got past immigration, then got on the hotel cab. The traffic was a killer, and once traffic gets heavy, the road shoulder becomes an extra lane. Wait, it's more like the whole concept of lanes is just forgotten. No offense to the Thai people. That we managed to arrive safely at the hotel shows that they do drive well, even if it might seem dangerous.

Ahh, the wonderful hotel we stayed in. It wasn't one of those villa-type spa-resorts in Phuket or Bintan, but still it had that nice rustic, peaceful and calm feel to it, compared to the traffic on the street outside.

All of 64 storeys high.

The wonderful room

And of course, the bathroom / toilet. Brilliant.

Our first dinner was at Baan Khanitha, a small tourist-y restaurant 5 minutes from the hotel.

The food was delectable (as expected, since I've eaten there before). Tasty, yet still fairly authentic. Yum.

The following morning, this was the view we had on the 52nd storey of the hotel as we ate breakfast. If only breakfast could be like that everyday.

The subsequent days was when the "retail therapy" began. I could practically overhaul my wardrobe haha - 25 shirts, 4 pairs of jeans (2 Levis and 2 Lee's, all original), a pair of berms, a suit and some pants, a winter coat and some chocolates. Ok for a guy, that's pretty much eh?

On the second night, my parents and I had dinner at my Dad's colleague's place. His house was mansion-like, and very much like Banyan Tree. It was simlly HUGE! I think that would be like everyone's dream home man.

Then we had a few drinks at this place, Vertigo Restaurant Bar and Grill, on the 63rd floor of the hotel, overlooking the Bangkok skyline. Absolutely magnificent view of the city. Did give me butterflies in my stomach though..

In general, the food in Thailand was exceptional. This one is something like our "Cai Tau Kuey", which I ordered from the foodcourt at Siam Paragon. I would have preferred the bits of cake to be cut into smaller pieces. Still it was fairly well done, somewhere in between "Black" and "White". Enough sweet sauce to give the dish some flavour, yet in controlled amounts such that the dish does not make one feel full too quickly.

This ice-cream we shared at "The Cream and Fudge Factory". For those who have yet to try it, what they do is take the ice cream, put it on what looks like a frozen chopping board, and mix it with the requested toppings e.g choc chips, rainbow sprinkles, the various sauces, even oreos or brownies. Sweet stuff, in both senses of the word.

Banana Prata. Never thought I'd find this here.

This mini rainbow is an arrangement of pens on sale. And this is like only 10% of the pens available. One can only imagine the myriad of colours if the pens were all arranged according to colour...

On Saturday evening, I went for Mass. Now this was probably THE highlight of the trip (more of a highlight than all the shopping), going for a Catholic Mass in a country which is 96% Buddhist. Roman Catholics make up less than half a percent of the popuation, and Churches generally cater to foreign tourists (like myself). Being an avid fanatic of Catholic Church Architecture (regardless of whether it's Notre Dame, Westminster Cathedral or the Parish near my house in Singapore), I just had to visit the Church of The Holy Redeemer, arguably one of the most unique Catholic Churches in the world.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. Looks like a Buddhist Temple right?

A closer view of the entrance.

Even the interior looks pretty much like one of the many temples you'll find across the country. It is fascinating to note that it is not just the churches which try to adapt to the local architecture. I have seen mosques that look almost like temples as well, save the dome together with the crescent and star on top.

Close-up view of the altar

The carved murals

A mini altar with a picture of Mary.

The creche. On the right is a wooden cross, and also a statue of, if I'm not wrong, the founder of the Redemptorists, Saint Alphonsus Ligouri.

This is another one of the typical examples of a mini-shrine with architecture similar to that of a temple, and instead of a statuette of Buddha, it is instead a statuette of the Virgin carrying the Infant Jesus.

Well in principle, it kind of makes sense that at the end of the day, it's peace, love and kindness which religions will preach. It's also comforting to know how all religions are inter-linked, such as how the "Allah" Muslims pray to and "God our Father" which Christians and Jews worship are in principle the same God. Or how one can find many similarities between Buddhism and Hinduism, as can be seen from both temples. It is also common to read about people going to places of worship not for tourist purposes but merely for some solitude and calm, e.g Buddhists praying in Churches, or Christians praying in Mosques. It is only through mutual respect for each other, humility and desire to serve, that we as a community of faith (regardless of WHICH faith) can achieve our ultimate aims stated above. It's such a pity that not many people understand that these days.

I digress. Just a bit of history about the Church, this is a Redemptorist (CSSR) church, and when the head of the Redemtorists worldwide, Bishop Fulton Sheen, visited Bangkok at that time, he suggested that the Church Architecture be similar to that of most local places of worship, thus the temple-look. Dedication day was October 24, 1954. Fascinating stuff indeed. Of course, there are the other churches around the country which look like the typical church you'll find in Europe,

In general, the Catholics coexist very harmoniously with the majority Buddhist population. From what I have read, most of the land used to construct the churches in Bangkok were granted / donated to foreign missionaries by the Thai King at that time.

Alright enough of churches, here are some "Christmas Pictures" I took with the decorations near my hotel. Fascinating stuff. How often do you get to take photographs with a life-size teddy? Or a snowman? Or a present 10 times the size of my head? Go figure.

Alright with that, it's good bye Bangkok. T'was really a much-needed break for shopping, eating, bumming around and basically not having to worry about anything.

Another thing about the Thai people that I really admire is their sincerity and friendliness. The average Thai citizen is not exactly better off than an average Singaporean living in a HDB flat, yet they go about their daily business making customers (well tourists, like myself) happy. The kindness they have shown is for real. You can feel it. It is not as if most of them get an extra commission by being nice, yet it is something that they do ever so willingly. Fair enough, I did have some nasty encouters with crap service, but I shan't take anything away from those who served selflessly and with pride. That is something no amount of "4 million smiles" campaigns can ever achieve.

Of course, whether this level of service will sustain remains to be seen. The influx of tourists, together with a burgeoning middle-class will make the country much different from what it is now, say a few years down the road. Already we can see a huge focus in the development of infrastructure (all the highways) and even a new airport.

Well the departure hall of the airport was not too bad. Reminded me a lot of Charles de Gaulle in Paris. I guess it is a decent airport after all.

Alright. That's it from Bangkok. It was indeed an enjoyable trip, and I hope to see you soon!

Next stop, wintry London. Happy 2007!

2006-12-10T01:44:00.000Z

And so my last week in London is over.

I went to visit the area around LSE on Tuesday afternoon.

Looks like a church?

It's the RCJ.

Then LSE Cathsoc had the carolling service on Tuesday night, at St Anselm and Cecelia. It wasn't bad, considering how little we practised. And we only had ourselves as the audience.

The church where we sang.

Miguel, the guy from Opus Dei. Cool dude man.

We adjourned to All Bar One for some drinks / dinner after the event. Here's a shot of the Sarahs, Mandy and Fr Iain. Sarah in pink looks angry.

Plus myself. This time Sarah looks dazed.

Myself, Amanda, and some people from KCL Cathsoc. I'm evidently lousy at remembering names.

Some mates and myself went to catch the Producers on Thursday evening. It was a splendid musical, more of the light-hearted funny sort than Phantom or Les Mis. Which is why I enjoyed it. I think Les Mis or Phantom would put me to sleep. In addition, it was 12quid 50 tickets for balcony seats, but we were upgraded (pardon the pun) to higher seats, where the view was clearer. It was because the upper circle was quite empty.

Theatre Royal where the show was.

The Chandaliers are Classic.

Chih Chwen, the hunky guy.

Group photo after the show: Helena (is that how you spell her name?), Yan Neng, Myself, Chih Chwen and Mervyn

A shot from the hall party on Thursday when I returned from the musical. Pity the booze had run out, and it was almost over.

My first experience as a volunteer was on Friday afternoon, at the Passage. It was basically a place serving food to the homeless / poor people. The lunch that day was hearty: Roast chicken drumstick with potatoes and veggies. It was, though, a rather eye-opening experience. As my role for the day was to clear the cutlery of those who had finished, I got to see how bad poverty in London was. People were taking unfinished food from other peoples plates and stuffing it in their mouths. Others just took leftovers, wrapped them in newspapers and stuffed in in their bags, presumably for dinner.

Alright, I have never built a house / school in a dirt-poor country before, but this is a developed, modernized city we're talking about here. The poverty on the streets, while not extreme, is still somewhat appaling. I guess it's experiences like these which suddenly jolt us into appreciation of the luxuries that we enjoy.
That night, I attended the Newman House dinner. It was a fantastic way to round of the end-of-term celebrations.

The plain dining hall was, on that night, transformed to some formal restaurant.

We had our Christmas Crackers. Upon cracking them, we took out the goodies and had our own crowns.

The main course: Roast Turkey, Hash browns, Bacon-wrapped chipolates and veggies. Mmm...delectable.

The 4 of us: Myself, Ian Tan, Terri and Philibert. The girl in the background looks like Sophie Ellis Baxtor.

Sarah, from LSE.

Jess, the Kings Cathsoc President.

Alright, this is where the red wine set in, and I started taking photos with people I didn't really know. The guy on my left is Daniel. He was obviously gone when he said "What do you get when you mix a crap red wine and a crap white wine? A crap rose wine.".

More random people.

John, the Altar Server from Nigeria. He was somewhat gone too, but still a nice chap.

The star of the show: Fr Peter Wilson, Senior Chaplain of Newman House.

The Sophie Ellis Baxtor lookalike.

We took some photos at UCL too. The Quad (as it's called) was decorated.

The Christmas tree really stands out.

And here, something else on the statue stands out as well: The Blue Ribbon on his neck! Now what were you thinking...

Well, this term has been a good learning experience for me. It did not start out too well, with all the catching up, loneliness, missing of 2 weeks due to NS and stuff. However, as time progressed, I feel that I have become happier, gotten more used to the place, and made more friends. Sadly, I doubt the next term would be as fun as this, but still I'm looking forward to greater things ahead!

Till then, have a good Christmas and New Year. See you in 2007. Cheers!

2006-12-05T01:08:00.000Z

And so we're into the last week of term.

Went for a day trip to Oxford over the weekend. My sentiments before the tour itself was that it would be some old, boring, ancient, uneventful place. I was gladly proven wrong. Hope that you'll enjoy the photos.

The few "nature" shorts of the day.

Kebles College. Faiz and Jerald, our wonderful hosts.

The Natural Science Museum. Some interesting shots I took with some extinct creatures. Ok, I'm not photogenic.

Trinity College. Pity it was closed.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I got to listen to them for free!

Ahhh lunch. A humongous Cornish Pasty (pronounced Pahs-tee). The main shopping district of Oxford is in the background.

Heh which is the biggest bird of them all?

A Proton!! The Brits will only settle for the best cars in the world : P

Even when people vandalise, they try to make sense. Such is the high level of intellect in the University town.

The Radcliffe Camera, where people do research on Philosophy and Theology (I think). Entry is apparently for "Members Only".

Bodleian Library. Another "Member's only" place, except for the souvenir shop.

St Edmund's College (or Teddy Hall), where Faiz studies. Haha, in summer, people sunbathe in the graveyard (2nd photo on the left), leaning against the tombstones. Or they just play cricket, using the tombstones as the stumps.

Magdalen College. I think it might have been one of the biggest ones.

Christchurch College, with the (supposedly) magnificent dining hall which the Hogwarts dining hall from Harry Potter was based on in the movie. I didn't see it though.

Zhenqiang, Winston and I sniffed out this little gem of a hill, besides Oxford Castle. By right, we should have paid , but there was no one collecting fees/tickets at the gate leading to the hill, so we just free-rode. It was a good detour from Primark.

Last shot of the day at Oxford: The same shopping street from earlier on, only at night. Really looked pretty with the lights and stuff.

Yea so it was an enjoyable trip. Oxford was a nice little quaint town, with incredible architecture, and yet the entertainment scene was quite happening as well (pubs, lots of university and hall parties, good shopping). It's a really nice place. That being said, I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to survive there for a year. I am a city person after all. Still, it is worth a visit (at least for a day) and I would recommend it to people who have yet to visit the place.

Sunday was "meet some old friends" day.

I met Anu, the mama pro tabla player for lunch. We ate at HK Diner. Had a really satisfying lunch, and a good chat too! Sadly he could not hang around for too long, as he was headed back to Singapore.

I went with some LSE friends to this Postsecret thingy. It initially started when people just needed to find an outled for their secrets. So this Postsecret thingy was started precisely for them. People could write their secrets down on postcards, and send them to this guy in the US. It has since become a huge phenomenon.

A sample. Anyway, YN managed to get the last autographed copy of the Postsecret book. Congrats!

At night, I met yet another long lost friend: Kylash! He's at Imperial now. Great guy he is. House captain, Prom King, OCS Infantry Sword of honour..This guy is one high-flier. Anwyay, dinner was at this kebab restaurant in Bayswater. I wasn't exactly hungry, and I was not expecting much for kebabs, but the wrap I had was surprisingly great! And it was nicely filling too!

Ok another food pic - Pizza. This one I had on Monday from the Pizzeria near my hall. For 3 quid, I got this pizza (7 inch) and a can of coke. Value for money indeed. It was also filling, as the crust was thick. I generally enjoy thin-crust pizza as thick crust ones are usually not cooked well i.e charred on the outside, uncooked on the inside. However, this one had a surprisingly firm crust that was slightly crunchy without being burnt outside, and the inside was properly cooked.

Ok. Enough for now. I think I need to get some rest now (It's 2am). Looking forward to going home!!

G'nite mate.

2006-12-01T20:02:00.000Z

School finishes in one week. Mmmm...

Had dinner with some friends from the Catholic Society on Monday night at Kam Fung. Chicken Rice there was quite good as usual, and the dinner table was accompanied by lots of good chatting and other food for thought.

The dinner table.

After dinner, Justin, Anthony and I went to Brunswick Centre for a good chat. This place was nice and quiet, though the amount of pink that filled the place was quite freaky. So too were the occasional passers-by. But well, I guess we might have attracted some stares ourselves. I mean, 3 guys in a Pink Place.

But it was even more good chatting none the less. About religion, relationship problems, video games, any thing under the, erm, moon. T'was a great night indeed.

As my mum was in town, we went with some of her good friends for dinner on Tuesday at this Jap place at Hampstead. It's my third time there, and the food has been consistently good. After dinner, we went to have crepes! Ooohhh, the crepes with belgian milk chocolate, hazelnuts and cream was, pardon my language, really orgasmic. Imagine the sweetness and warmth of the crepe in the deep of winter. Ahh...Ok I apologies if that did not sound too right, and it was not that cold either, barley 10 degrees. Still you get the idea about how fantastic the crepe was.

MSS organised Mambo Jumbo night on Thursday. Unfortunately, I'm not a Mambo person. Still, the R&B section was pretty cool. Unfortunately for the organisers, the club management was quite kek gao, and kicked everyone out by 1.30, and we thought we had the place till 2am. I ain't never going back to that place man. Idiots. And for the first time in my life, I actually bought a girl a drink! No, don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to hit on her or anything (she's attached to someone else by the way). It was just that she was one of the group dancing with us, and another guy friend and myself thought we'd each buy a bottle for one of the girls. Unfortunately, I found out later that she does not drink. Right. Lesson learnt, enough said.

So week 9 is almost over. In a week and a half's time, I'll be back home. See you soon man.

2006-11-26T22:47:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-24T00:31:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-21T00:29:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-17T00:17:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-14T20:09:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-13T20:55:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-08T00:12:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-05T23:51:00.000Z

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.

2006-10-31T00:10:00.000Z

It was my first Monday in London since quite some time ago.

Lesson-wise, getting through Monday requires a fair bit of effort. There're one Econs lecture, 2 Abstract Maths Lectures and one Abstract Maths Class. I could feel my brain crying out for help at the end of the academic day.

Then there were the cricket trials.

We met at St Johns Wood Station. Having chatted with some of the guys, I realised that the probability of me making a fool out of myself (in cricket terms) was immense. I mean, the only ever Cricket experience I had was playing with some dudes about half my age at Katong Park. Equally embarrasing (even before the trials began) was that I had no idea what a "box" was. For those who do not know, it is something men wear to protect the sensitive area.

So the trials began. It has been a long time since I bowled against 'empty' stumps, so my bowling was rather wayward at the start. Furthermore, I was bowling against a real batsman this time. Anyway, the bowling became a bit more stable after a while.

Just a sidenote, I personally feel that the entire motion of bowling in cricket (from the run-up to the mini-jump and the swinging of the arm) is elegant and graceful. It really requires a lot of skill and training to execute such a manoever.

I guess since I have ZERO (proper) cricket experience, my aim was just to get the right width and length. It got better as I bowled more.

Then came the batting. It was my maident attempt at batting with pads and gloves on (minus the BOX). The whole set of gear on me was rather asphyxiating, especially the helmet. As expected, I missed several of the balls that were bowled towards me. I was LBWed a few times, others I'd probably have been caught. But still, it was a good experience.

After an hour or so, the session came to an end. I was probably the worst ever player (in history) to grace the Nets of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Still, it was great fun. And some of the better (much better) players gave me rather encouraging advice. A few of them said that I should stick at cricket, because my bowling improved over the hour, and I have the potential to be a decent bowler. They were probably just being polite, but still it made me feel better.

I just find it so sad that so few people from the motherland can appreciate Cricket. Sure, it does not always provide the same kind of adrenalin rush that Soccer of Basketball does, but it is a sport that requires skill, patience and judgement. People who label cricket a boring sport are just plain ignorant.

Since I probably will never ever get to play cricket when I return to Singapore, I guess I will make use of my time here in London to do more batting and bowling.

Ok, enough of balls and boxes, I think I'll be heading to dreamland now.

Later.

2006-10-29T09:43:00.000Z

Having taken one drink too many the night before (it's more like earlier in the morning), I rose at 11am. That's darn late by my standards. After a quick wash, I dragged myself down to the dining hall for brunch. Not bad really.

Anyway, it was a Saturday, and I had no intention of staying in my room completing my work (though I probably SHOULD have). I also needed to 'walk' the effects of the alcohol away. I decided upon visiting RC churches in the vicinity, since I quite enjoy looking at Church Architecture.

Armed with my Digiam, London A-Z guide and some notes I wrote down from www.rcdow.org.uk, I set off in good spirits.

My first stop was the Church of St Aloysius Gonzaga, a short walk from HPH. This is the parish of Somers Town.

I guess this is what they call a "Modern" Church over here. It may not have the Neo-Byzantine architecture of Westminster Cathedral, but it's beautiful in it's own right. And it certainly does have a lot to offer.

Just a little history, St Aloysius Gonzaga was born in 9 March 1568 at Lombardi, Italy. He was born a noble, and was the son of a compulsive gambler. Eventually becoming a member of the Jesuit community, he cared for Plague victims in Rome during the 1591 Plague Outbreak. In the end, he became a Plague victim himself and departed on 21 June 1951 in Rome. Canonized in 31 December 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII, he is the patron saint for AIDS Patients and AIDS caregivers.

These 3 stones pretty much sum up the brief but rich history of the church itself.

And this is the history corner, where there are write-ups and photographs of the various significant events that have taken place in this humble parish since it was built.

That's the view from the entrance.

A closer view of the altar

The tabernacle

The chapel on the side

Having said a quick prayer, I felt ready to embark on the long journey to my next Church.

The journey to the next parish took quite some time. The bulk of the walking was along Euston / Marylebone Road. There were some rather eye-catching events taking place along the way. There were also some places of interest.

That was part of the JFK International Students' Hostel or something like that.

Madame Tussauds. The queue was quite long. The dome-shaped thing popping out on the left is the Planetarium.

A wedding! Taking place at the Westminster Town Council. One of the few weddings I'd encounter on this day. I think the couple were Indian. Bless them.

I have never seen such a large row of Pinkish Red (or Reddish Pink, whichever way you look at it) Houses in my life.

And so after over an hour of non-stop walking, I arrived at my second destination for the day. This is the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as the Marylebone Parish.

The outside is quite nice really.

The view from the entrance. Fairly majestic.

A closer view of the altar.

Another of those side chapels. Too bad I could not find out what the Chapel was called.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find out any history about this beautiful Parish. No worries, I made a small contribution to the Church funds, prayed, then continued on.

This time, I passed by Edgeware Road. This was probably where the Moroccan Community can be found. There were lots of Halal Restaurants selling kebabs. I was rather tempted to get myself some, but I refrained from doing so, keeping my budget in mind.

This leg of the journey was not as long. I reached The Church of St James, also known as the Spanish Place Parish.

Arguably the most Majestic destination for the day. There were lots of people outside because a wedding (another one!) had just taken place. Beautiful day indeed.

As usual, I will start with views from the entrane. The former was taken with flash. Which do you think is nicer?

Closer view of the altar. With flash.

Statuette of Mother Mary. From one of the many side chapels that this church has.

Paschal Candle. First one I've seen today.

Once again, there was no information about the history of this parish. It would have been nice to learn more about this architectural marvel.

My final destination for the day was the Ogle Street Parish, or the Church of St Charles Borromeo.

It's a pity the church is sort of "blocked" in the front. I mean, it does really look quite nice.

Saint Charles Borromeo was born in Aron, Italy on 2 October 1538. His life focused mainly on helping the poor. Eventually becoming a Cardinal, he was the Archbishop of Milan. He also happened to be a teacher and parish priest to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Having succmbed to fever, he was called home on 3 November 1584. He was canonized by Pope Paul V on 1 November 1610.

When I entered the church, there was this old man walking up and down the side of the church, praying the Rosary. It was a bit scary.

View from the entrance. This is quite a small parish. I think it can only seat less than 200 people. And unlike most other churches where the congregation is in front of the Altar, the Altar here is surrounded by the congregation. Does really add to the cosy community feel.

The Baptismal Pool. The word Baptism really means "Plunging" so here Catholics to-be are immersed into to water. There are 7 steps leading to the bottom of the pool, representing the 7 Deadly Sins. At the bottom of the pool, the Old Person dies, and the New Person is reborn. The 7 steps out of the pool represent the 7 Blessings of the Holy Spirit.

The Papal Blessing by Pope John Paul II. The unique feature of the Papal Blessing (compared to Papal Blessings of most other churches) is that it was signed by the Pope himself, not someone signing on his behalf.

A statuette of Mary comforting Pope John Paul II

As you can already tell, the are lots of allusions to Pope John Paul II in this church. Here are photos of the 2 rather significant events during his papacy: On the left, Pope John Paul II meets the leader of the Jews in Rome. On the right, he meets Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II and left him in a critical condition. The Pope survived, and forgave Mehmet later on. Not something easy to do if you ask me.

It turns out that the gentleman praying the rosary on the side of the church was Father Alan Fudge, the Parish Priest. I also chanced upon a lady preparing flowers for the Altar at mass. At the basement, a group of African women were having a prayer session for peace in their homeland. A rather cosmopolitan Church indeed.

This marked the end of my mini pilgrimage. It was spiritually enriching, and also a feast for the eyes in terms of architecture. Best of all, I spent 0.00 pounds for this whole journey.

I hope that my DFRs liked the photos and found this little write-up informative. When I do have the time, I will go exploring again sometime soon.

Better do some proper work now.

Cheers mate.

2006-10-28T01:36:00.000Z

It's now 3.30am on a Saturday morning. As the working week draws to a close (it already has), I thought it'd be fitting to share some rather, erm, memorable experiences with my DFRs (Dear Faithful Readers).

I have to say that Catholic Society is a pretty happening place. In my first week, I got to know Marie (from France) and Roberto (from Italy). This time, I got acquainted with Miguel, a Finance pHd student from Spain. He also happens to be a member of Opus Dei. That's rather intriguing if you ask me. Hopefully I'll get to know more people from exotic places around the globe.

On Friday, I somehow bumped into Father Iain in school. Seriously speaking, he's quite a witty chap. He mentioned "We are coming up with a pro-life education programme. The plan is in an embryonic stage.". As I discussed the prospect of watching a football match, he mentioned "Perhaps we could watch some second rated team like Chelsea.". Haha, now that's what I call a sense of humour.

And I finally got to play my first game of pool at HPH. Not the best of conditions to play in, but I won anyway! Guess all the training with the brothers really helped.

Friday night was Crush!! It was a Halloween ediition of Crush, though I did not bother dressing up as Barney or something. The quality of song choices was not exaclty consistent, though I did have some fun. Like the "Intellectual" drinking game I played with this UCL guy Oliver. It consisted of asking each other general knowlegdge questions and if we could not answer them, we had to drink. I stunned myself with my intelligent guesses, answering 2 out of his 3 questions correctly. He could not figure out both of the questions I gave him though, so I guess that's something to be proud off. Here're the questions:

1. Who's the longest serving MP in the world? Ans: Fidel Castro (I answered, in true patriotic Singaporean fashion, LKY)
2. When did Manchester United first win the European Cup? 1968 (my question to Oliver, which he got wrong)
3. Who's the best selling artiste of all time? Elvis (I got that right)
4. What's the Capital of Slovakia? Bratislava (He got it wrong)
5. The richest South American Country I.T.O GDP? Argentina (I got that right)

Besides learning some interesting facts, I also got to try Aftershock and Snakebite, the former being some anaesthesia-tasting drink which leaves your tongue totally numb.

Then there was this bloke in the toilet who was quite obviously drunk. While taking a piss, he noticed two little creatures crawling on the wall. "Hey, I found two spiders here. Anybody hungry? I can sell them at 50 pence each. There're at least 3 grams of protein in each one."

Ok the alcohol is taking it's toll on me, so I think I will go to sleep now. The rather inviting bed is about 30cm behind my chair.

G'nite mate.

2006-10-24T20:35:00.000Z

Guess who?

After a fortnight of absence, the David is back in London!

And arriving with him are some new additions to the room...

Add hot water and ice (optional) and you have one superb drink.

If I get another unpleasant hall dinner, this will come to the rescue.

You know what they say about successful people...

Just a quick update. I arrived at about 6am London time this morning. Went to my hall, had a quick bite, then attended lessons. I did not fall asleep, but I was totally zombified. Nothing the profs said registered. Fortunately, some friends helped me out with the catch-up work. Special thanks to Winston, CC and Yanneng. I'll buy you guys coffee someday.

Ok, here are some long overdue photos of the OFFICIAL final moments I spent in Singapore.

At Open House 06. Not the best of OPHs I must say, but check out Benny Tong's bag.

Last Dinner with 20th

The three brudders from A51 (Half of the Sworn Stonetable Brotherhood)

Friends from Catholic High. Please don't call us Cathigh. We're not a bunch of cats on drugs or something.

Ok that shall be all for my re-introductory post. Shall try to update more. Please do leave a message if you drop by. Thanks.

Cheers mate!

2006-10-05T21:32:00.000Z

And so, my first week in London has come to an end.

Life here has been good (pardon the lack of adjectives) and I'm pretty much enjoying it. Some things could be better but I guess I'll refrain from whining.

Ok. The food around here has varying degrees of quality, depending mostly on what one's budget is. The one and only hall dinner I had was, while not the worst thing I've ever had, forgettable. Other than that, most of the stuff I've eaten has been quite superb (and fattening) really, no thanks to my mother and her fellow female partners in crime. Roast duck, salt and pepper squid, tempura, grilled cod, fried prawn noodles...Such are the luxuries that I'll miss when I return. Well, I could still possibly enjoy some of this stuff when my parents are not here, only that I'll get the 3pound version from Waitrose or Tesco's. That's not a bad prospect actually, because the variety of microwaveable meals available can be quite overwhelming.

I have somewhat settled into life here at Hughes Parry Hall. Food and washing machine aside, I have to say that I like this place. I have gotten to know some of my floor mates, and there're lots of fascinating stuff about them. Being an inter-collegiate hall, guys here come not only from LSE but also from other schools / colleges under UOL. Opposite me, there's this guy studying / training to be a sax player at Royal Academy of Music. Then there's this other bloke doing Development of South Asian Economies at SOAS. These are pretty wicked courses to take if you ask me, and I take my hat off to them (well not that I'm wearing one now, bu you get the point) for pursuing a course in something they are SERIOUSLY interested in. In addition, having Brunswick, Russel Square Tube station, cheap restaurants and a few other UOL halls in the vicinity is a big plus point (get the pun?).

One thing I've learnt is not to judge people by their appearances (or books by their covers, whatever). Like the Chinese dude and the Sri Lankan Postgrad student (both coincidentally at LSE) may look like nerds, but they go for CRUSH every Friday night. That's what I call working hard and playing hard. Respect. May we someday blaze the dancefloor at the Quad, even though I totally suck at dancing.

The not-so-good part so far is not being able to know many of the Singaporeans. It was probably because I missed the Freshers Camp, and in all honesty, it is not exactly the most happy of feelings to have. Fortunately, I am gradually getting acquainted with many of my fellow countrymen at LSE. To those whom I've gotten to know, thank you for having made the transition into life here all the more smoother. Of course, I have also gotten to know others through Lectures, Hall mates, Catholic Society etc. No point coming to London to hang out only with S'poreans is it? I'm not an ultra-nationalist or something, though there might possibly be such people around here in London...

Well, I shall be returning to the motherland for two weeks or so, hence I will miss out on all the fun here. And the blog will stagnate for a while I guess. After all the blog address is davidgoestolondon, not davidishavinganoutrageoustimeinsingapore. To my Dear Faithful Readers, stay tuned in 2 weeks time. I'll be back, somewhat with a vengeance muahahahahah. Right.

Cheers. Mate.
(Pardon the monotone of this entry. As you would have already read, I'm not very proficient in blogspeak, so I hope you haven't dozed off reading this)

2006-10-04T22:31:00.000Z

Y'arite?
Ok. As I have promised my Dear Faithful Readers, I will bring them on a pictoral tour of my residence

From the lift to my room. The exposed cement and bricks adds a, erm, retro feel to the whole corridor doesn't it?

And so the doors have opened. WELCOME to this humble dwelling of mine.

The very first object my eyes saw upon entering the door. It now comes complete with some cheesy vjc orientation t-shirt.

The sink and mirror. A HUGE eyesore when I first entered my room, but I'm beginning to appreciate it's value. At least I don't have to walk to the nearby toilet just to brush my teeth. Sweet.

The table where working and socialising can go on at the same time, and rather smoothly at that.

The window sill. I think that the curtains they provided do help to liven up the mood of the room a little, bright colours and all.

The nice wooden shelf above my bed. The big monstrosity of a box at the bottom shelf is a mini (how ironic) first-aid kit.

Where the day ends - for those two blokes lying over there and for myself. Oh by the way, their names are Patches and Gibbs. They were a present from my mother.

That's one of the shared washrooms. The one nearest to my room, where I ususally take a piss / crap. Obviously when no one else is using it.

The kitchentte which has a BLOODY STOVE! And they told us that no COOKING is allowed. Marvellous. I'm so gonna cook something that's bloody better than what the dining hall serves (not that the dining hall's cuisine is very bad, but still...)

That shall be all the photos for now. I shall post more photos soon, including one or two of my archnemesis, the washing machine.

Seriously speaking, we're on better terms now. Though he still eats my cash, at least he cleans my clothes well (after I trashed him s***less and made him my servant hahahaha).

So lectures have officially started. For now, everything seems manageable. I wonder when crunch time will come. Oh and last night, there was this party on board a boat sailing through the thames. Specially organised by the UCL Singsoc for Freshers in London. It was indeed a fun-filled experience. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera with me. No worries, I'll get the photographs from other friends who did.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more stuff.

Cheers. Mate.

2006-09-29T16:32:00.000Z

Greetings from the land of grey skies and melancholic rock bands

Yes, after the death of Pundemonium, the Punster is back! This time though, reading this blog will not be as Punishing as the previous one.

This blog will be about what the blog title suggests - My time in London. I will do my utmost best to provide you, my dearest faithful readers, with updates of my life over here. Wherever possible, I MIGHT provide some pictoral updates. Still, do not expect entries to be frequently frequent. After all, the life of a student in London is indeed busy (though not always with academic work...)

For now, there is not much stuff to talk about. I have only been here for slightly less than 2 days, and nothing really significant has happened. The only thing that caught my eye was a billboard advertisement on this product (slimming product i think?) called Pomegreat. Their slogan was "If the carton was much bigger, we'd be called 'Pomebloodybrilliant!'."

Ok, that will be my introductory post for now. Stay tuned for more updates.

Cheers mate.