clean linen

All too quickly, it's Friday again. I started the week by visiting the doctor at the Cripps Health Centre on campus on Monday morning. Don't worry, it's not that I was very ill. Last Tuesday, I suddenly felt a lump just below my chin, on the right side of my throat. I think one of my glands were swollen. I would experience great discomfort and quite a bit of pain whenever I swallowed down water or food. When I skyped with my parents last Thursday, they suggested I start taking the course of antibiotics I brought with me from Singapore, and book an appointment with the doctor for a consultation. So, that I did. I started on antibiotics, which I have now completed (and the swelling has subsided). The visit to the doctor was a quick and easy one, and overall it was a good experience! My doctor was really nice. But when she heard of my taking antibiotics without a doctor first recommending/prescribing it, I could sense the disapproval in her voice when she said, "Usually w...

Before I begin writing about the highlights of my weekend, let me tell you that I tried cooking pineapple rice on Thursday and it came out better than the first round! I cooked enough to have it for dinner on Thursday and Friday. Here's a photo: Ok, back to my weekend. Saturday I went to Beeston for my weekly grocery shopping trip with Hongzhen late Saturday morning. John joined us for a little while before heading back home without us. Janice joined us halfway at Beeston as she needed to get stuff from Sainsbury's as well. It was a cold, windy and grey day. I took a shot of the sky from my room just as I looked out and saw this big patch of grey clouds get blown past by the strong wind: One thing that brightened up my day a little were the donuts Janice and I bought from Sainsbury's. They're REALLY sweet and very pretty. Even the packaging is really nice! Janice bought 3, I bought 3. I ate one and gave 2 away today. For dinner, Hongzhen came over with her DELICIOUS fri...

Two nights ago, a friend sent me the link to this youtube video of Rob Thomas doing an acoustic version of his song "3am".

I skype regularly with Jien, who's now in the US. We decided to start studying together over skype and so last night was our first time actually doing it! We'd both be on skype, but we'll be doing our own respective work. All I had to do was to just imagine that we were back in Singapore in a Starbuck's or McDonald's and it'll feel a little bit more like the old days. Here's what my screen looked like: For this shot, I enlarged the window of Jien because I wanted to take a photo of the post-it she was holding. At other times, it was much smaller at the corner of my screen. About the post-it, we kinda entered into a pact between the two of us that we would cut down on the desserts we eat. However, it hasn't been strictly enforced and this piece of post-it is more like... a souvenir from the many skype conversations we've had together. Anyhow, I must say that this 3-hour-15-minutes' long study session was quite a productive one! I finished my Crimi...

I went on my usual Saturday grocery shopping trip with Hong Zhen and John, which was good! We ended it off with a Beeston Burger each for lunch! Look at the amount of stuff we bought... we filled up the whole bench just between the two of us! Well, ok, it wasn't as much as it looks from the photo. And Hong Zhen was holding John's burger, hence 3 burgers between the two of us. As for the photo on the right, that's where we got the delicious burgers from! On weekends, this little road becomes a roadside market with this, rather famous (in Beeston that is), burger stand serving up many hungry/greedy customers. We decided to have a potluck dinner at The Four's house on Saturday. It was quite a stressful experience for me preparing the chicken claypot rice, because I knew I wasn't only preparing for myself and Hong Zhen, which was the original plan. Instead, the new plan was that I would be cooking for the two of us PLUS John, Po Yew and Daniel. Anyhow, I cooked it in my...

I woke up this morning to mark my being here for about a month now. With the pretty morning sunrise I saw through my window, I realise that I am beginning my 5th weekend here in the UK. I suddenly missed church back in Singapore and decided to pay a visit to the websites of LSBC as well as Christian Centre. I must say that the "video people" in Christian Centre must be quite professional because the videos they produce are of great quality! Here's the video I saw on their website publicising their Alpha programme: Yes, I think the one thing I miss the most about Singapore is feeling right at home in church on Sundays and knowing so many people in church while being known to many as well. Here, I'm an unknown and, while it's something different and nice in a way, the "homeliness" is still not there. Oh well, not good to get too homely here right. Since I'll be going back to Singapore eventually...

Here, you see a photo of another 'elaborate dish' I tried today for my dinner. It's supposed to be pineapple rice... Not a success though, because the rice was too mushy (I put too much water). Also, I did not put enough pineapples so the pineapple smell/flavour isn't very obvious. Lastly, I keep cooking too much rice! So, next week I'm going to try it again because I would like to perfect the stuff I cook since I'm not a fantastic cook to begin with. Thus, I must work on my cooking skills. Since I'm only cooking for myself, I can afford to make all the mistakes I need to make in this trial-and-error process without utterly humiliating myself in another person's presence (and having to torture that person by having to eat what I cook). Hence, more pineapples, less rice, less water. And I think less egg, or pour in the egg bit by bit at a slower rate... hmm ok, I'll just 'mess around' until I get it right. Looking forward to Round 2!:)

I just realised that I haven't updated for a few days now and so it's high time I blog! Anyway, in the few days that I was 'away'... Thursday : Domino's pizza! I had major cravings for pizza and hobnobs on Thursday. So Janice, Sue May and Tzen joined me in having pizza delivery in my room for dinner. We were raving stark hungry by the time the pizza came because we waited one and half hours! Silly delivery man... but the pizza was still very good, all the more because we were too hungry! Saturday : Grocery shopping; Steamboat with Janice and Hongzhen! Due to constant reminders from my mum and friends, I went to Boots when I was doing grocery shopping in Beeston and got myself this: As for dinner, I had steamboat with Janice and Hongzhen in my room, using Janice's rice cooker as her's was bigger than mine. It was a good time eating, talking and watching "Home Alone"! Can't wait for the next time we're going to do that again. Sunday : Going t...

I got back from small group meeting about half an hour ago and I still can't help thanking God for placing me in such a nice small group! My leaders, Rachel and Kieran (I think that's how his name is spelt), are really putting in alot of effort to give this small group a good start. They're really driving home the point that we want this small group to become something like a close-knitted family. It helps that all of us are open and honest with one another. Tonight, Rachel shared about the power of the gospel and what are a few things that prevent us from actively sharing the gospel with our friends. The three things she highlighted were guilt, fear and worry. From there we launched into a discussion on how these three things impact our lives, what effects they have on us, how we can overcome them, how we should view and treat them... then there were faith issues and questions that we discussed and shared about as well. Now there still are the stark differences between the...

All this while I have been too lazy to do any proper cooking... sticking to pasta or porridge where I can throw in all kinds of things with these two basics that don't require much preparation in advance. Well, today I finally resolved that I will try to cook my maid's version of claypot chicken rice for dinner and... It wasn't a disaster!:) I took a photo of it but I must say that this photo doesn't do it justice! I'm not being biased here since I'm the one who cooked it, but it smelt really nice and looked very promising in real life: It didn't taste as good as the one I get to eat back home in Singapore though. I didn't add ginger because I was too lazy to cut it. I also used the ready-chopped garlic from Sainsbury's, which is not at all like the good garlic I'd use if I bothered to buy the whole garlic and smash/chop it all up. So, yes. I'm very proud of myself. This, to me, is the most elaborate meal I've prepared for myself without ...

This is my 3rd Sunday back in Nottingham for the new school year of 2008-2009, and also my 1st Sunday back in Christian Centre (aka T-Street). I went to church with 4 juniors today, as they are on "the church circuit". (I still find it strange to call them juniors, or freshers, because out of these 4 juniors today, 3 of them are older than me but they're Year 1 students all doing law) It felt good to be back in church after two weeks of staying in my room on Sundays. The first Sunday, I busied myself with grocery shopping and unpacking of all my stuff. The second Sunday, I was in my room trying to get over the horrible feeling of being attacked by the flu bug, of which I am still fighting against. The third Sunday, I found myself worshipping with God's people, excited about being in His establishment. The sermon was not as 'substantial' as I hoped it to be, and I found myself walking out of the church feeling as if I didn't learn much. But the whole action...

Last night, I took some photos of my room for all of you to see so you can get an idea of the place I'm staying in right now. Now, when you first enter my room, which is room 5, through this door, you will be able to take in the whole layout of the room immediately: My room is classified as a "studio room" (if I'm not wrong). I have a small toilet, a small kitchen, desk and bed all in one contained area. Upon entering the room, on your left, it is the toilet, which looks like something you will find in a cruise ship: Immediately next to the toilet, you will find the small kitchen: And directly opposite the kitchen is a small dining table with a notice board, of which I have decorated with photographs and pictures that remind me of home and all the friends I have back in Singapore: As you move further in, you will then find my study desk, which is next to my cupboard, and my bed (I didn't take any other photos so I will refer you back to this photograph): When I to...

The small group meeting I attended last night was good! I daresay better than the small group I attended only a few times last year! Again, I was the only international student there, with everyone else British. They would launch into British culture or lingo and I would sit there feeling a bit lost and the odd one out, which is a feeling that is not new to me. However this time around, one of them would actually remember that I'm not a British and pause to explain to me what's going on! Now, this, was something new and very nice to me. Because it was our very first meeting as a small group, we played quite a few ice-breakers. One of which they simply called "The Forehead Game". Basically the person on your right writes a famous person's name on a post-it and then pastes it on your forehead. Each person then has to guess what is the name on their forehead by asking yes-no questions. I gave the person sitting on my left "Thomas Hardy", thinking that he...

When I first read my land law textbook and came across the word "escheat", I thought it was pronounced as "(sorry if I'm being rude) ass-cheat". But I learnt in lecture the other day that it is actually pronounced as "eeeees-cheat". Well, we learn new things every day, don't we.

It is confirmed! I attended my first Japanese lesson with the Language Centre of my university and got my module entry form signed and submitted to the law school. Everything's set now! I am now taking Criminal Law, EU Law, Land Law, a year-long module of Japanese Stage 1 (lowest available) and a 10-credit research paper to make up the 120 credits I need to satisfy school requirements. Today's lesson was mainly registering who got to be in that group with that timeslot, what textbook to buy and where to go to do our homework when it involved listening to tapes and all that... The only things we learned was the first 10 or 15 characters of the Hiragana and how to say 'good morning', 'good afternoon', 'good evening', 'goodnight', 'thank you' and 'how are you today?'. All these, I knew before coming to this class because of my prior private lessons with Hitomi's mum, which brings me to my last lesson with her. After my last lesso...