clean linen

I just spent the whole day in my room working on my Land Law essay, which has a page limit of 9 pages, with a fixed font and font size as instructed by the school. It is due on the 8th of December, but I wanted to get it done by this weekend. I intended to do my laundry today but the hours just flew me by and before I knew it, it was dark and I couldn't be bothered to get my laundry done anymore. I shall do it tomorrow after church. Best news is: I have completed my essay! I seriously cannot believe how I just spent the whole day on the essay... I didn't leave the room at all today. My breaks consisted of trips to the toilet, making lunch, then making dinner. I was doing my essay even as I was eating my lunch and dinner! I did not go on the internet to window shop or just surf the internet, I did not watch any episodes of any drama serials, I did not 'stone'... Today was a strange day for me...:)

For those of you who have been praying or have prayed for me, I would just like to let you know that I'm feeling much better now! The headaches have somewhat gone away, definitely no more fever, and the soreness of my throat is not constant and terrible. The cough is no longer an itchy cough, but a really phlegmy one... All the phlegm is just stuck in my lungs, way down in my chest. Two words: VERY ANNOYING. However, I think I can safely say that the worst is over, in terms of fever and all other symptoms hitting at the same time. THANK YOU GOD!!

Unfortunately, I'm falling sick again. It came on really suddenly - the itchy cough, the phlegm, the sore throat, the headaches... I'm not very sure whether I'm having a fever right now but I'm a little "out of it", my back is aching and I'm getting cold waves sweeping over me once in a while. Last night, I made sure I got a good 9 hours of sleep, something I haven't gotten in a while now. I will definitely try to sleep earlier tonight after taking a panadol and taking cough syrup. In the meantime, I'm going to attempt to do some work because I can't just go to bed now! Moreover, today hasn't been a very productive day...

As quickly as it started, it has stopped snowing! I now have to do some work/reading before I go to church.

As at 8:55am, 23rd November 2008, Sunday: IT'S SNOWING! If Janice or Tzen were up, I'd probably get outside with them and experience some of it. But I think they're all still asleep! And the only person I'm talking to right now is one of the Year 1s who stays on campus. So, I just stand at my window and watch the snow fall... Thank God for snow. And I thank God I'm alive to see the snow!

At this point in time, temperature stands at 1 degree celcius, with real feel at -3 degrees celcius. It is forecast that tonight's temperatures will drop to -12 degrees celcius. There's probably going to be frost covering trees and grass and flowers (whatever is left of them) tomorrow morning... For the next few days, maximum temperatures are forecast not to go above 5 degrees celcius. Great. When I decide to stay here in Nottingham for Christmas break, a cold winter is expected. Last year, when I went back to Singapore during my Christmas break, winter wasn't as cold as this, if I'm not wrong. Oh, and it didn't snow today (refer to previous entry to understand better what topic I'm returning to). English weather is just so unreliable. While walking to Law School today for my criminal law lecture at 3pm, I felt like I was fighting a war and the wind was winning. It was raining and really very windy. My umbrella "popped" about 3 times. I was trying very...

I was looking at this week's weather forecast and snow is expected on Friday! However, that means that temperatures are expected to drop and stay low for most of the next 15 days (because the forecast is for the next 15 days only). Anyway, I'm actually not holding out high hopes for snow on Friday because the weather here can be so unpredictable (and mad). Moreover, it doesn't really snow in Nottingham, or rather I'm under the impression that it's not supposed to snow much, if at all, in Nottingham:)

Every Monday, at least Janice will join me in having takeout for dinner. Last night, we ordered Chinese takeout (well, almost every week it's Chinese takeout, but from different places) from Nosh. I decided to get the same thing I had when I had dinner with Hongzhen on the Saturday of week before last. It is a rice dish with beef and scrambled eggs. This time around, it was a little different from my first time of eating it, because it came with... peas!:( Now, if it hasn't dawned on you just yet by the sad face I put at the end of my previous sentence: I don't like peas. I spent half the time picking out the peas, ending up with a small mountain of peas at the end of my dinner: Besides the rice, I wanted to try their 'xiao long bao'. It wasn't what I was expecting! It was HUGE, compared to what I was expecting, more like a meat 'bao' but in the skin of a 'xiao long bao'. It was still very nice though, I will definitely order it again:) (My life ...

Friday Due to Malaysian Singaporean Society (MSS) Notts games taking place the next day, we went for our usual supermarketing on Friday instead, after Janice and I finished our last lecture for the day. Then we gathered at Hongzhen's house for dinner. These are the shots John took with my camera (on the left, Hongzhen cooking. On the right, Janice hiding behind her magazine while waiting for dinner to begin): Janice contributed the veggies, I tried cooking egg fried rice (which tasted more like garlic fried rice), Hongzhen cooked japanese curry and mince meat. Saturday The MSS Notts games is an annual event organised by the MSS of University of Nottingham where Singaporeans studying in various universities all over the UK come to Nottingham to play various games/sports with each other. Last year, I wasn't involved at all in the MSS Notts games because, honestly, I couldn't be bothered to. Besides, I didn't have any good friends coming to Nottingham. Actually, I don'...

Text message #1: Thisisyourmom.Iamtextingyou. Text message #2: I.Dont.Know.How.To.Space.The.Letters.How? Text message #3: Diditwork? Text message #4: Howaboutnow?Isitworking? Text message #5: Ididthat. Text message #6: Ok.I.Am.Calling.Jed.He.Has.The.Same.Phone. Text message #8: As you can see now I know how to do! Text message #9: Listen to my new message! I wont answer. Call now. New voicemail message: “Hi. This is your mom. Or your friend. If you do not fit into one of these categories, please do not call me. Thank you.” Jien showed me this last night, and it really got me laughing because it's so cute! (Ok, proper entry coming up very soon!)

Friday felt like a long day, I'm not sure why. Well, actually, every day has been ending off with me feeling rather drained... exhausted... It's not like my lectures are so heavy-going such as to make me walk out of the lecture theatre feeling like I was just run over with a huge truck filled with information. It's also not that I have a full day of lectures to contend with. I guess it's just the thought, and then most often followed by the action, of having to read and read and read? I'm not very sure. Anyway, I looked out of the window at 4:55pm on Friday, and I saw the moon. I tried to take a photo but you'll only be able to see that yellow dot of a moon here: Friday night picked up though, after I had my nice porridge dinner. The Year 1s invited me to join them in Gabriel's room, who stays in the same block as me. They were having sushi night, with yakitori and tempura! It sounded too good to resist and so I went down to look-see. I ate one piece of sus...

Another photo taken in Singapore (instead of the previous photo where it was taken in Nottingham) at Sheryl's 20th surprise birthday party: It's REALLY FUNNY!:)

Yesterday, a surprise birthday party was organised for Sheryl, where One-Third was invited to it. I attended it for awhile as well... through Skype!:) It was really good having a very quick catch-up session with Daniel, Bella, Julie and Sheryl! We took a few photos over Skype... and I've yet to see the one where Sheryl's boyfriend took a photo of them gathered around the laptop - it should be quite funny! Tina was stuck with school projects and work, so she couldn't make it. Jien was on a weekend trip in the US so she couldn't be there when we Skyped from two completely different parts of the world! Anyhow, Sheryl, I'm really happy the surprise was successful and I hope the rest of the party went well after we got off Skype! Please post photos on facebook! Also, may you continue to grow in God's grace, love and BEAUTY in each and every aspect of your life!

On Sunday, I skyped for awhile with Jien and was so amused with her 'curry-pok' hair: I'm seriously jeopardising our friendship by putting this photo and the next few photos up but... I need to share the joy and laughter Jien, because I'm really glad you skype with me so often and keep me from going mad alone in my room with just my books for company night after night! On Tuesday, I had my usual skype study session with Jien. I was reading my EU law textbook, she was trying to settle her school timetable when she returned to NUS. I was holding my head because I felt like EU law was going to make it explode, while she was trying to find classes she'd be interested in and would, at the same time, give her a 4-day school week. (See picture within this picture that's at the top left hand corner and you'll see the two of us, hand to heads) On Wednesday, I went to check for letters and saw a damaged letter box... ...which belongs to my flat's. After returning ...

If you read my blog regularly, I hope you've guessed by now that every Saturday I walk into Beeston to run errands that need to be run and to replenish my stock of groceries and necessities. Every Saturday, Hongzhen would accompany me. And once in awhile Janice and/or John would come too. That's in the morning. That morning, Hongzhen had an appointment at the bank so while waiting for her, Janice and I went into Peacock's to do a little look-see and shopping. We found a whole shelf of Christmas knick-knacks! They sold reindeers attached to a hairband together with a red nose that can light up! Here's a shot of me wearing a hairband that has happy-looking-in-the-spirit-of-Christmas things (I'm not sure what they are now, haha): Saturday nights are spent hanging out with Hongzhen, where we have a mini cookout and each of us will contribute a dish to our dinner together. When we're done with dinner, we would either watch a movie or just talk. Last Saturday, Janice ...

Life so far has just been books, lectures, tutorials, readings, and did I say books and readings? My weekend wasn't completely terrible and boring because I got to go to Beeston on our 'usual trip' on Saturday with hongzhen and janice. Then Saturday night I spent the night talking to the two of them, which was really nice. As for Sunday, I went to church and had a good time then too. So my weekend was good! (I've random photos here and there that I want to post but... another day maybe! haha) It's Tuesday... and it feels like the week cannot get any longer. And yet it's not like I'm anxiously awaiting the weekend because it doesn't mean much. The weekend just isn't that much different from the weekday. Anyhow, just wanna say that I'm strong and healthy and I'm just living life with my Law textbooks, cases and journal articles. Will have a more interesting blog entry soon enough.

This past few days I've always been wanting to listen to songs by Wu Jiahui (伍家辉). He's a Singaporean singer/songwriter who released his first album not so long ago. I found 3 videos of him performing live at the Esplanade during CNY 2008, and I really like the acoustic feel to all these songs. I have actually blogged about him before, putting up a video of him singing Jerry Yan's song, which he wrote for Jerry Yen. Anhow, the first video here is a song he wrote and sang and is in his album. The second song was originally sung by Ah Mei. First video: Second video:

As a Law student, I constantly have to learn all kinds of new words as, in law, there always seems to be the need to create new words to describe something, whether it be a principle or situation or doctrine etc. I'm just reading my Crim Law textbook now on non-consensual sexual offences as prep for my legal research paper, which is on the issue of consent. I came across this word that I never knew could be used and spelt in this way: fetishist fet·ish·ism [fet-i-shiz-uhm, fee-ti-] –noun 1. belief in or use of fetishes. 2. Psychiatry. the compulsive use of some object, or part of the body, as a stimulus in the course of attaining sexual gratification, as a shoe, a lock of hair, or underclothes. 3. blind devotion: a fetishism of sacrifice to one's children. Also, fet·ich·ism. [Origin: 1795–1805; fetish + -ism] —Related forms fet·ish·ist, noun fet·ish·is·tic, adjective fet·ish·is·ti·cal·ly, adverb And then last night, Janice introduced Hongzhen and I to a new term to describe ...