clean linen

I just got back from church not long ago. It's my last time attending church as a 2nd Year student. The next time I'll be back in church is in late September. One thing that really gets me is that I won't be able to attend anymore small group meetings with this small group I've been in for the past year, as every year, the small groups are reorganised. And because of my travel plans with my parents and then it's immediately back to Singapore, I won't be able to say a proper face-to-face goodbye to my small group leaders and mates. I was hoping to see them at church today but I decided to leave after 2nd service worship to sleep some and study some more, so that was my last chance down the drain. I had prepared keychains and short messages for them though, so I left them at the reception and asked my small group leader, Kieran, to get it from the reception after the 2nd service. Another "last time" took place yesterday - Saturday morning grocery shoppin...

I'm actually wearing FBTs in my room because it can get quite warm. But I'm really reluctant to open my window because bugs will fly in! So... I'm living with the stuffy-ness, and it can sometimes feel like I'm back in Singapore in my house, where it can get just as stuffy as this!

I just got back from my Land Law exam paper and... it was bad. Just when I thought I'd bombed the EU Law exam paper with 3rd-class answers, along came the difficult, tricky Land Law paper. My worst nightmare also came true: I spent too much time trying to organise my thoughts as to what was the effect of leases as opposed to what was the effect of easements. Or what the requirements of the rule under Wheeldon v. Burrows are as opposed to the requirements of the doctrine of benefit and burden... Great. Just great. But, in a bid to move on, I found this youtube video last night - all the handsome Korean actors and a popular Korean boy band in one music-video-cum-advertisement: I cracked up every time they sang, oh-so-confidently, "Lotte duty PWEE".

One thing good about Korean songs: I don't have a clue as to what the lyrics of the song mean. This means I don't get distracted by the words and find myself stopping work to pay attention to (and get lost in) the meaning of the lyrics. I do catch a few obvious words like "I love you" (saranghae), "now" (chi-geum), and "what should we/I do" (oh-to-ke), courtesy of the Korean drama serials and variety shows I've watched. But other than that, the music just has a soothing effect on me and, somehow, helps to lull me into concentration on the stuff I'm trying to stuff (and keep) in my brain. Today, I discovered this new Korean band called "Mate". They're a 3-man band who have been described as a band who does songs that are more of an indie pop / rock style. So far, I've heard 3 of their songs, and they're really nice! And soothing. This is one song: It's now in my "study music" playlist. Do try listening to ...

Yesterday night, we went over to Rich's house for dinner and a time of bonding, instead of having the usual small group meeting. We were supposed to have a BBQ, but it rained in the morning so we mistakenly thought the weather wouldn't be suitable for a BBQ in the evening. Thus, Rich prepared a very delicious meal for us! The photo on the left is of our "small group chef" at work in the kitchen before dinner began. And the photo on the right is of him cutting the roast duck (with my small group leader, Kieran, caught on camera with the blur look, haha). It was the makings of a full English roast dinner. Rich cooked peas, carrots and roasted potatoes. He also made sure there was stuffing and gravy. As a result of my not liking peas, my plate looked rather empty and sad beside Rachel's and Sidhara's! Even with the duck on my plate, it still looked like I didn't have enough to eat for dinner when compared with Sidhara's nutritious-looking plate of food! B...

I have survived the Japanese oral exam. It wasn't completely bad to the point where "IamgoingtofailIamgoingtofail" is now ringing in my head. But from the moment we got our Role Play "scripts", my heart was beating so s-duper fast and I was SO nervous. I also wasn't expecting TWO Japanese teachers in the room. In the previous semester, my Japanese teacher was the only examiner. To make things worse, the other Japanese teacher was really strict and unrelenting in the speed at which she sprouts out Japanese words. I think she completely slaughtered one of my two Oral groupmates because this friend from China is really veryveryveryVERY weak in Japanese. At least my Japanese teacher knew of the (low) standard of that friend's Japanese, so my teacher was angelic enough to actually repeat the question posed to that friend and said the important words IN ENGLISH so that friend could catch what the question was all about! Anyway, to help you understand better, ...

Now, when conversation topics revolve around things we want to do, it almost always ends with these 2 powerful, painful words: "After Exams". For example, person A says to me, "Lynn, you must watch this show! It's really good!" My reply to person A will be, "Oh REALLY?! OKOK I WILL WATCH IT! But... it'll have to be after exams..." We plan "after exams" things to do: make lists, mark out dates, bookmark information. All to be done after exams. We look forward to all these activities and yet, for me, I dread it too because it means exams would've come and gone and, I may not have done well for exams. But, looking forward positively, this is just a season of life that I have to go through so I'm going to do my very best and let God do the rest! In the meantime, it's a race/struggle/battle to remember principles and issues of EU Law and Land Law, together with the authorities such as statutes and case law (Law of Property Act 1925...

Last night, Hong Zhen, Janice and John came over to my room to have dinner together - our last time together, ever, in Broadgate Park, Nottingham. Everything proceeded as per normal. There was loads of laughter, random-ness, lame-ness and nonsense (especially where there's John around). Oh, and of course, we did talk about smarter topics like democracy, human rights, a possible brain transplant and the capacity of a human brain, genetics, schizophrenia, etc. Usual #1: John jamming a little on the guitar The comments you hear in the background belong to Hong Zhen!:) Usual #2: Eating and talking Last night, we decided to get Thai takeout from Sukho Thai. It was a BIG meal because we each had a box of egg fried rice, each had a box of curry (or Tom Yum in John's case), and then we shared half a roast duck. Usual #3: Tea-drinking And with John around, there definitely was tea to end dinner off... I post this photo because this shows us waiting for the tea. I'm on the right, mak...

Yesterday night, I had a great time at small group meeting! As compared to last week's not-that-great attendance of 4 people, last night we had a good attendance of 9! As ice-breaker, we played this number game where, as a group, we count from 1 to 21, each person taking a number in turn. The 21st person gets to choose any number and change it to something else. So, for example, I am the 21st person. I decide to change the 10th number to "dog". So every time we come to the number 10, that person says "dog" instead of "10". Every time we reach 21, that person changes a number to something else. And then the person on his right starts from 1 again, taking into account the numbers that have been changed. If you forget that a number has been changed and you just get it wrong, you are out of the game. Ok, if you didn't understand that, I don't blame you. Anyway, last night we played this game. And the last two remaining were Sidhara and James. The t...

6am For the first time ever during my stay in Nottingham, I woke up at 6am this morning. I was playing the 2nd keyboard in church for the 9am and 11:15am services, so I had to be in church by 7:45am. I was aiming to leave my room at 7:15am, but the bus took longer than expected to arrive, so I was about 10 minutes late! But, again, I really enjoyed myself today. Playing the second keyboard is really not as stressful as playing the first keyboard. I also got to use 2 more types of string sounds. Talking about string sounds, I really like the string sounds regularly used by the church worship ministry. The keyboard is a Roland keyboard. I wonder why I've never found these kind of string sounds on the 2nd keyboard back in LSBC... maybe because I haven't explored it enough! Sermon, times 2 For the first time ever during my stay in Nottingham, I attended both morning services in church and listened to the sermon twice over. I actually brought some EU Law notes, thinking I could slip...

Now that exam-panic is starting to set in - big time - I really need to find things that will keep me feeling happy and positive, as opposed to feeling depressed and negative. I logged onto Facebook today and saw that James had uploaded photos of a recent cell bonding. I looked through them and came across really funny photos, especially this one: My goodness for awhile I couldn't stop laughing whenever I looked at the photo. Cynthia was completely unaware of what was going on behind her. And James' expression is just classic. I'm now really looking forward to returning to Singapore - home and church - and yet at the same time I'm not really looking forward to it. Returning to Singapore means that when the new school year comes around... 1) I'm probably not going to be in the same small group as this year, because at the end of every school year the small groups are disbanded and re-formed. I'm going to miss my small group mates very much. 2) Janice is going to ...