Tuesday, November 27, 2012

水之故事

Water - one of the most important and fundamental needs.

It is funny that the quality of water is so different at different parts of the globe. They always told us that Singapore's tap water is safe for drinking, but somehow mothers only lets us drink boiled water. =P I remember the tap water in China gave a thick white foam when we boiled it, so we ended up getting mineral water and juices everyday.

On the first day I reached the U.K., there were no more water filters in our nearest Tesco and we had not figured out how to get to town for more shopping. So, I ended up drinking about 3 glasses of boiled tap water before I dragged mineral water home, and I had a tummy upset =( totally 水土不服!

Luckily, I got better on the second day after shopping in town (retail therapy always works!). And we finally bought the water filters (they come in a jug form):


To use it, you'll need to install a water filter at the base of the inner tank.





Filter the water by filling the inner tank and waiting for the water to trickle into the outer tank. For every new filter, you'll need to discard the first two rounds of water. With the third round of filtering, you can restart the timer / counter on the lid of the cover by pressing and holding the button until the meters show up on the display.


The little water droplets at the side shows up when you are filtering water (Cool!)

Ok. I mentioned about changing filter earlier. You'll need to replace the filters roughly once every month. The meter shows a blinking "NEW" beside the cartridge icon whenever it's time to change the filter. Amazingly, so far it has reminded us to change filters in exactly monthly intervals (accurate to the day).


Oh, and I still boil the water after filtering - just out of habit.

Ironically, we always ask for tap water in the restaurants (because it's free of charge).

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Luck or 风水?

Sometimes you need to believe in something before it works.

Just like in the game of mahjong - luck or 风水? Maybe it's 风水 , but one must first be lucky enough to get the 风水位 . Luckily, I didn't lose too much =P.

Someone I know had a lot of 桃花运 after getting a pandora bracelet.
Now I am so tempted to go get a pandora too. Sigh.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Fireworks @ Surrey!





Fireworks at 4 deg C! Brrrr....
(It's like watching at least 4 x NDP fireworks...)
异国看烟花,另有一番风味。

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Time as it comes...

I just gained an hour of time! Thanks to the end of British Summer Time (BST).
I just witnessed my computer clock run from 1:59:59 AM to 1:00:00 AM. Yay!

Monday, October 22, 2012

One Month in U.K.!



Okay. I am now officially back to blogging. I felt that it is necessary to document the happy places I have visited and those I will be visiting, plus these little bits of thoughts and feelings now that I am back in school again. I have decided to stop playing those clicking games on FB that is taking up so much of my free time everyday - goodbye my Farmville 2 and Simcity Social neighbours - at least I am going to cut down my visits. Lol.

This post happens to be the 200th post on my blog AND today (22 Oct) marks the ONE MONTH since I reached the U.K.  *applause*

I remember how I had to walk to Tesco's and lug those pillows, pots and pans, plates and bowls etc back home. I had a wonderful birthday in our first trip to Guildford town with my fellow Singaporean classmates and friends. We have been to London (for two weekends!) for sightseeing, went shopping at the outlets at Bicester Village and Portsmouth, and immersed ourselves in the 书香气息 in Oxford. I am so looking forward to the afternoon tea day-out next weekend! =) 

And I am so lucky to have great flatmates who can really cook so well! So 幸福 to have yummy and hot home cooked dinner. I have been diligently trying to learn a trick or two from them as well. The minus side is we do spend up to 4 hours on dinner every day - includes preparation, cooking, eating, chit-chatting after food, and washing up. But it's all worth it!

Although it has been 3 weeks into lessons, I still feel like I am on holiday (i.e. not a student). Hopefully with my new determination to quit FB games the situation will be better?? (Lots of uncertainty here.) I am definitely enjoying every weekend when I would become the typical tourist and start exploring other parts of the U.K. and Europe - once the holidays come!

For those curious, life as an overseas student involves more than just playing and studying. The everyday troubles include:

  • what to eat and how to cook for your three meals (mine usually become just two meals on the weekends)
  • vegetables, meats and breads expiring faster than you can cook and eat  (throwing away food is like throwing away money)
  • the pile of dirty clothes that you need to bring to the laundrette some 10 minutes' walk away (your mood to do laundry will be affected by the gloomy weather)
  • clothes shrinking in the dryer (I avoid this problem by airing my clothes with a laundry rack)
  • arriving on-time for school / play with the not-reliable-at-all bus timing (sometimes the bus drivers will change the routes or just skip your stop)


It's still a great experience for me though. Having fun everyday! =)
Hopefully I can whip up a dish or two when I am back!

To end this 200th post, some snapshots of my happy travels so far:

London!

The London Eye!
Big Ben (Now officially known as Elizabeth Tower)

Buckingham Palace (Look at the crowd!)
Changing of the Guards Ceremony outside the Palace


Portsmouth!

Spinnaker Tower

View down from the top of the tower (Jump if you dare - on the glass window)

Rainy day!

HMS Victory @ Portsmouth

 Oxford!

So "Scientific" Taxi

Christ Church College, University of Oxford
The Grand Hall that inspired Hogwarts' Hall. (Photo from Wikipedia - mine had too many other tourists)

The long dining table


Sunday, October 21, 2012

Works in progress

Stay tuned for updates.

I'm currently trying to figure out which blog layout I like best and adding the personalisation touches. *sigh* feeling lazy (just wanna grab those available templates) but cannot bring myself to using a blog design I don't like. I'll work on it again soon. =P

Sunday, July 01, 2012

delay delay delay

I have been telling myself that I want to blog... about the Korea trip, the Bali indulgence experience, the cruise trip with brainies that took 10 years to materialize, and the most recent Taiwan trip with all the freaky rain. Before I realize it, more than half a year has gone and I am less than 3 months away from my studies in UK. Lol..

I guess I'll delay it further... Maybe I'll resume the habit in UK. =P 
Meanwhile I need to struggle to fill in the immigration forms, settle school admin, HR admin, money issues, spend more time with family and friends, start to draw up my shopping list, decide if I should bring my bolster, decipher again what is differentiation and integration... and to prepare my rusty brains to go back to studying again. Phew... the list gets longer.

Procrastination - my greatest enemy.

Monday, November 28, 2011

那些年,我们一起追的女孩

大家都在谈的电影。有些人说,这部电影感动人心。也有些人说,这并没有想象的那么棒。

我觉得电影虽然不是迂回曲折或感人肺腑,但它却简单,真实地诉说了一群人的故事。也许因为这个故事是那么地平凡,所以才能打动那么多人的心吧。

这平凡的故事,勾起了埋在心里的好多回忆。那个时候的我们,心里想的事应该都不一样吧。那个时候的我们选择不说出,不面对,就让时间帮我们忘记。时间过了,但伤痕却留着。回不去了,只有遗憾留着。

有些事,错过了对的时机,就回不去了。就像有些人,不能成为情人,却可能成为最好的朋友。

女主角的一句话让我印象深刻 : “人生本来就有很多事是徒劳无功的。”
也许,很多事最重要的不是结果而是过程。
也许,所有的“曾经”都是为了让你更珍惜你的“未来"。这么想,会不会比较快乐呢?

电影的结局不是 happy ending。但现实中,又有多少 happy ending 呢?
想想,我拥有什么, 渴望什么, 又失去过什么。

这,就是现实。

Monday, September 19, 2011

The story behind the piece of paper…

Here's the story behind that piece of paper that caused yaya so much $$ and headache... Yaya once thought she should just give up trying...

If you have not heard the disaster with Car 206 in yaya’s first attempt, click here. Basically, yaya was so gan jiong that she couldn’t pull the handbrake while on the slope, striked kerb (x3) during parallel parking and directional change, and mounted kerb at vertical parking. Halleluyah…

The night before the second attempt, yaya had the 闲情逸致 to drink 花茶. Ended up yaya stayed awake for the whole night, woke up late on the 2nd morning, took bus 81 (saw it as 51), only realized her mistake after the bus went on the expressway, hurriedly alighted, hopped on a taxi and arrived late for warm-up. During the test, yaya started the car, stepped on BRAKE (instead of accelerator) and wondered why the car didn’t move (= delay in moving off, 2 points). Yaya mounted kerb again while turning in the narrow road to do parallel parking. Sianz… Whatever happened after that was due to the “die liao heck care” attitude.

Yaya didn’t manage to book an earlier test (this one is 5 months after no. 2) because she happily went to Niagara Falls & NYC! Anyway, the third attempt was at a 430pm slot (warning! BUS LANE hours) cos yaya was pek chek when everytime she went to the CDC counter there’s only 830am or 430pm slots left! Although Yaya had LOTS of sleep the previous night after what happened in no. 2 and an almost perfect warm-up, she cui-ed during vertical parking cos the car refused to get into the lot and yaya’s correction c.m.i. Yaya politely asked to re-try the vertical parking and this time round it went in straight in one attempt! (Yay!) And the tester said “Sorry, you’ve exceeded the time limit.” (dotzzz.. WHY is that an immediate failure!?!) And even though Yaya had failed already, the tester brought her out and went a HUGE round outside. And cos the traffic conditions were so horrible at 5pm, yaya could not change lane and somemore kana horn-ed at by some cruel idiot. *sigh*

Luckily Yaya took the lesson from no. 3 and booked a test slot at the optimum time of 155pm this time round. But the storm came before she left the house for warm-up. So yaya mournfully walked out and decided to take a taxi (in case she is late cos of the rain). In the end the taxi took her a huge round (went all way to potong pasir and up expressway before going to paya lebar) and made her so freaked out she’s going to be late even after taking taxi! Luckily, she arrived on time. Guess what? It’s our old friend 206 again! This time round, 206 gave yaya a roll backwards on the slope (cos yaya didn’t make very good relations with the handbrake again) and the engine stalled when yaya was going to turn back into the driving centre! yaya’s legs must have turned jelly after such a “safe” test!

Ta-da!!! Yaya Finally PASSED! (with 2 demerit points only – for that rollback!)

Phew… Come to think of it… Yaya feels like a good driver… Just that she gets gan jiong once the tester is around. Testers should be more friendly, right?! WHY make yaya so scared of them every test? The tester who passed yaya gave her the results slip and shooed her away without talking to her! While yaya was totally freaking out (what if the tester gave me many many small small points) cos the tester DIDN’T say a word! Heng... no need for any more driving tests le... Hurray!

Friday, July 15, 2011

迷失

人生,不可能永远一帆风顺。
我懂,但也往往会为了生命中的不如意感到气馁。

挫折、迷惘、失望、渴望,失去、后悔。。。
我累了。我已迷失了方向,不知该往哪走。

有时候,我好想变成一个自私的人。

有些事,是永远无法选择的。
有些洞,是永远无法填满的。
有些梦,是永远无法实现的,
有些错,是永远无法学乖的。

有些伤,是永远无法痊愈的。

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The sweetest smile

yaya bought a new toy - the C peel from someone on hwz.

Just about 25 hours after the collection, the seller smsed:
"By the way, you have the sweetest smile last night, i hope you don't mind if i tell you so, can't take it off my mind, sorry..."

OMG?! It was a mere 5 minute encounter! Creeps...

Luckily he is not the persistent type =P

I'm having fun with my toy otherwise. *winks*

PS: Beer + Champagne is a potent combination. Best not to try again.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Feelings from the past...

或许是迟来的感慨,但心里还是放不下。

点点滴滴的回忆,不断地在我脑海里浮现。
快乐与悲伤仍记忆犹新。

时间,改变了一切。
但过去的感受与现在的心情交错着,让我傻傻分不清。

我心里的阴暗,也许才是最真实的。
就算一时忘了,那也不过是短暂的。

我到底在想什么? 我想我快要疯了。

Sunday, February 06, 2011

it's so complicated....

I didn't meant to make any decisions so complicated, but sometimes it just becomes so.
I wish all questions are just yes and no. Answer it, and move on.
But somehow I find myself playing the "roti-prata" game (a phrase learnt from Vince when he referred to yj as the "roti-prata girl") - changing my mind every other day.
Why am I making my life so difficult?

When I was young, my dream was to "be able to just walk into a shop and buy what I like, without worrying where the money come from". Now I have the ability to do that, but I start to think "Can I afford to pay the bill next month?" or "Is this the best way to spend my money?" or "Should I buy A or B or C or D? Or wait till E comes?"

We are confronted with choices every day. Do they put you in a dilemma?
Sianz. I don't even know what I want to do with my life.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

说不出的软弱

沉浸在美丽的童话梦境
无法逃出最真实的曾经

不想期待却又抵挡不住
渴望坚强却仍软弱无助

现实里只存在无比空虚
梦境里就算虚无但丰富

未来没有虚幻也无曾经
现实与梦境经已分不清

Monday, December 20, 2010

another long period of absence

I wanted to blog about my Taiwan and HK trips, but somehow the blogging never started. The HK photos are still "in the midst of uploading to FB". It's not easy to filter 2,800 photos from 2 cameras after all. Pei Shi and I really made full use of our digital cameras. =P

After many months of absence from blogging, my life is, sadly, very much the same as before. Tonight, after watching my daily dose of drama (currently Secret Garden in Korean), I finally gave my blog a little makeover and start to type the first entry after months of missing in action. There's just too much I want to grumble, but I guess those are too mundane and un-interesting. So, I shall tell the story of how I failed my TP test last week (sigh) to whoever has not heard it yet. The story goes like this...

1. Slope > handbrake refused to be released. yaya struggled (both hands) with the handbrake for 5 min while the tester looked on. When the handbrake finally went down, all confidence disappeared and the hands feel numb.
2. Directional change > Tester: your front wheel touched the kerb. yaya: no feeling at all.
3. Parallel Parking > Parked, pulled handbrake, struggled with handbrake for another min, banged kerb while moving out
4. Vertical Parking > Parked too close to the right, did not pull handbrake this time round, but as I turned right out of the lot, the rear right wheel gently mounted the kerb (that's a tick in the full circle)
5. Driving outside> Tester: your outside driving is ok. Practice more in circuit and come back and try again.

Yaya knew all was lost when she finally released the handbrake at the slope. I just didn't expect my circuit to be THAT bad. Sigh. I was probably too gan jiong or too suay. Now totally no mood to even book retest date. Haiz.

6. After test, the sore throat before the test developed into flu, then fever (with accompanying MC), and finally a cough.

Still recovering from No. 6 (physically) and No. 5 (emotionally).

Monday, June 21, 2010

烦!

yaya always wanted to blog, but when I open the window, I just don't know what to say.
Maybe it's because I'm getting so old that I'm too sad to blog.
Maybe I'm too emo and I don't want to spread the emo feeling all over this blog.
There are just too many questions I'm firing at myself internally, and I'm not getting any answers.
There are just so many things I hate about myself and I can't resolve this internal conflict.

I'm vexed...
And There's No Way Out.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

feeling lost...

yaya can't help it but feel really empty at times...
I've lost motivation, and never had any direction.

I know life's unfair, and I'd accept it, cos I can't change how others' lives work out. I want to change mine, but I never got down to it and it didn't go the way I wanted it to.

Life goes on, whether someone enters your life or leaves from yours. I knew it all along, but I'm afraid to see it happening again, though it has happened again and again.

Knowing what I don't want to do but not knowing what I want to do is getting me nowhere. I don't know how to continue and I'm waiting for some heavenly intervention which may or may not happen.

I've lost patience and I'm starting to believe somethings will never happen. I'm getting scared... of things I cannot see or feel.

Life's never fair.

Monday, April 19, 2010

24 days more~~~

yaya is counting down to the day I leave for Taiwan!
'cos there's nothing else to look forward to. (minus the goodies from online shopping I'm waiting for...)
I'm yearning for a day or two off work... and I'm so tempted to take leave! *argh*

YJ says my mood for the day ranges from "tired" to "very tired" to "super tired". I think it can summarized in just one word : "exhausted".

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

rumblings...

This place is becoming largely dead... As with its owner... haha~

Not the latest I've discovered about myself... But I now know how lazy I can be.
Many weekends have passed (I gave up counting) since I told myself I should start to exercise.
My clothes are lying everywhere but in the wardrobe, and it's a challenge to find something to wear every day before I leave the house.
My Jap is growing rusty, though I did try to revise sometime 3 weeks ago (forgot most by now).
I'm really interested to learn (a) driving, (b) keyboard, (c) guitar. Maybe after I'm back from Taiwan.
The Taiwan trip is one month away, and the itinerary is still "in progress" of becoming complete. Argh...

Work's piling as if I've been on leave forever. Everyday I learn to do "magic" - I'm supposed to produce something that should have been done some 12 months ago. I really wish I'm on leave forever and ever. Mondays are the dreadest ever... The last Monday I survived... I was in office till 11pm with no dinner, no aircon in office, lack of sleep and lots of leftover work for Tues and probably the rest of the week. *sigh* Fridays have lost their charm, and Paydays are now no longer marked in my biological calendars. Sunday Nights come with servere disappointment and withdrawal symptons - I tend to refuse to sleep until well past midnight. Oops... Just realised that's what I'm doing right now.

Still recovering from the lack of sleep last night. Luckily tonight YJ pei wo go watch movie ("Date Night" is pretty funny... good for a relaxing Tuesday night out!). At least I had something to look forward to on a tired Tuesday~ haha.

What I learnt today? The world is small...

Monday, February 01, 2010

hiding from reality...

I admit I've been real lazy... That explains why this space is almost dead... again. (lol)

I'm losing interest in too many things. Nothing seems meaningful anymore...
Sometimes I wish I can just be the irresponsible girl which I've been locking up deep inside myself.
Sometimes I wish I can stop dreaming and get back down to earth.
Sometimes I want to stake all my money (i hate gambling!) and get huge profits without deserving it.
Sometimes I really hate myself (why?).
Sometimes, I just want to hide in the black hole and never come out.