clean linen

I just realised that I've been blogging in here for a few years now. I started in April 2005!! I read a few of my entries in April and May 2005 and came across this entry on my pet dog, Keller. We put him down in 2007. I really miss him now!

On Tuesday, I was walking back home from school when nostalgia suddenly hit me. I realised that I will really come to miss Nottingham and the life I have here when I graduate next year and return to Singapore. Especially since the likelihood of my returning to Nottingham in the near future doesn't seem that great. Although I have agreed with Hannah that when she gets married, I'm going to fly over to the UK to attend her wedding. And when I get married, she is going to fly over to Singapore to attend my wedding:) But until the two of us actually find boyfriends, settle down and get married, I don't think I'll be returning to Nottingham any time soon after graduation! One thing I'll miss about life here in Nottingham is... takeout from Sukho Thai. Last night, hz and I decided to get take out for dinner. I was sooooo happy to have some thai food. You see, it's been awhile since we last had takeout. And I love the green curry and egg fried rice (I LOVE EGGS. THANK...

A few weeks back, I was talking to Jolene online when she told me that she wanted to knit a scarf for herself but all the materials were just too expensive. That gave me the idea of surprising her with wool and knitting sticks. So, after class on a Wednesday, I walked to the sewing shop in Beeston and picked out a few balls of wool, as well as knitting sticks. Of course, this was done with the help of the nice lady working in the store, since I've absolutely zero idea as to how to knit and what goes into knitting. I put the wool into a box I got from the post office, then realised that the sticks were too long to fit in! So I tried pasting the sticks to one side of the box: I wasn't allowed to do it because the knitting sticks were considered as dangerous objects in this context. So I had to take the sticks out, and posted the wool over first - which Jolene received today. I went home with the sticks and only sent it out about 4-5 days later (or was it a week later?). I had to ...

Daylight savings has come to an end, so now I'm 8 hours behind you, if you're in Singapore! Last night, before I set my alarm on my handphone, my smart phone showed this message upon my setting the alarm: Alarm goes off after daylight saving transition What a smart phone! Thank God for such advanced technology!;)

I've been trying to switch from a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) to a Pay Monthly plan ever since I got back to Nottingham. Right now, the PAYG tariff that I'm on is called "Text and Web". For £10 a month, I get unlimited texts. For £15 and more, I get unlimited texts and unlimited web access. However, I have been meaning to switch to a good Pay Monthly plan that gives me free minutes as well as free texts. As I am now a small group leader, I need to make more phone calls than before. Well, ok, so it's more like I WANT to make more phone calls than before so that it will help me to stay in better touch with my small group members. I started out thinking I will stay with O2 and just switch from their PAYG tariff to a Pay Monthly plan. The 1st time I went to the shop to get it changed, I had problems with the credit check because the bank hadn't gotten my correct address. I got it changed. One week later, I returned to the shop. The credit check failed again. I was told ...

Hz and I did our supermarketing today, and we bought empty vacuum bags so the vacuum cleaner could actually work again today! Last week, we wanted to clean the house, but the vacuum cleaner refused to work, because its bag was full and we had to replace it with a brand new one before it would agree to start sucking things up again. So, we came back with empty vacuum bags. And we vacuumed the house. Hz vacuumed the whole ground floor, the toilet, the small corridor outside our rooms on the second floor, as well as her room. I vacuumed the drying room, my room, and the staircase. My room carpet feels REALLY nice now. As a side note, last Saturday, I also changed my duvet and pillow covers! AND, I re-painted my toe nails. [BEWARE: PHOTOS OF UNSIGHTLY TOES COMING UP] They used to be a very dark purple, which looks like black at a glance and from certain angles. Now, they're... sort-of metallic pink. Somehow, looking down at my toes and seeing them coloured, makes me a little bit happie...

Yesterday, I left for school and saw this happy looking car parked outside. It is definitely owned by a female driver... How girlie can a car get! Which is exactly why I love it! Seeing random things during the day makes me feel a little bit happier and/or positive about life! Anyway, yesterday after I got back from school, I thought my mum had packed in barley seeds for me in September. Hz's been coughing quite badly, the dry kind of cough. So I thought I'd boil some barley because it's cooling and it's just a nice soothing drink. I took out the packet of what I thought was supposed to be barley, and boiled it. But the water wasn't turning white-ish, like what barley drinks are supposed to look like. It didn't smell like barley either! Here's a photo of the end-product: I quickly smsed my dad to ask him if my parents were free to come online to skype with me for a short while because I really wanted to know what I was boiling in that pot of mine. I did skyp...

Yesterday, it rained for most of the day and it was just cloudy, grey and gloomy. I had an hour break in between Family Law lecture and Trusts Law tutorial. So I sat in Law School and had a chocolate fix - Hot Chocolate and a triple chocolate cookie (the delicious soft kind!): It helped to perk me up and made me feel that the day was a good one despite the greyness of it all. Thank God for the endorphins chocolates produce (release?) in human beings when they eat chocolate. I am going to grow so fat here in the UK.

Firstly, I'm not looking forward to leaving the house for classes today! It may look sunny right now, but the weather website says the real feel is only ONE DEGREE CELCIUS?! I wish Singapore had 4 seasons so we can experience funny things like that!;) Also, daylight saving time comes to an end this Sunday morning, returning back to standard time. Once we hit Sunday at 1am, imagine that clocks in the UK come to a standstill for an hour. Everyone in the UK will find themselves gaining another hour for that day. For Singaporeans living in Singapore reading this right now, this means that the time difference between you in Singapore, and me in Nottingham, will increase by one hour. Now I'm 7 hours behind you. Come Sunday, I'll be 8 hours behind you.

Last night, as I am now leading a small group (SG) in Impact (aka young people's ministry in Christian Centre) with another British called John Gell, the two of us were invited to Tim and Sheila's house for dinner. There were 2 other SG leaders there as well. Tim and Sheila are an adult couple from church and they are "Impact Mum and Dad". This year, they're making it a point to spend more time with the Impact SG leaders by opening up their home for fellowship over a period of 3 or 4 weeks, inviting 3 or 4 leaders to their home each Friday night. *Digression: I'll always tend to call John Gell by his full name here, because there's another John by the name of John Teng. Then there's Jon Cheong. They all sound the same but they're very different people:) It was a REALLY DELICIOUS traditional English dinner - home cooked cottage pie, peas and carrots with gravy (When I told HZ, she said it sounds like hall food, haha). We also had cheesecake, which t...

*Note: Before you start reading, let me warn you that you may find this entry abit... eh, "HUH?" I usually try to write about more interesting stuff. This seems rather pointless, actually. But I'm writing on anyway:) Technology saves us the effort of getting up from wherever we are to go to the location of another person, when you want to say something to the other person. Of course, there are the pros and cons to this. But from a positive point of view, it makes communication easier, not so tedious, more convenient. Last night, HZ messaged me over Skype from her room to remind me to ask PY something about water bills. We actually had a short conversation over Skype, when we were on the same floor of the same house, under the same roof. I found it very amusing. The moment HZ reminded me to talk to PY, I saw PY on MSN and proceeded to ask him a few questions. He told me that the stuff he needed to refer to were at home, and he would let me know when he had gotten home. He ...

In the midst of all the irritating (because they tend to be too long and too wordy and just too much) and yet interesting (I've this love-hate thing going on pretty much all the time) readings I have to complete for each seminar and tutorial, it is good to watch something funny and/or nonsensical. I would like to share this funny nonsense with you:

Due to the fact that it was expiring on 14 October 2009, we had mee rebus for dinner last night! It was something very different from all the Chinese food we have been enjoying for our dinners, so it was nice!

I think every time Friday comes around, and I blog, all my entries will have this same title: "THANK GOD FOR THE WEEKEND". Because I really am SO GLAD there's such a thing as the weekend. And, too often, it goes by way too quickly! So I haven't been feeling well since Tuesday. It started with my throat being really painful. Then on Wednesday I woke up with a stuffy nose, which was blocked, and yet runny too. This continued until today. My voice has "deepened", and my nose is still really blocked. But I'm getting better already. And yesterday and today, I've been making it a point to sleep as much as I can. Hz has been the most FANTASTIC housemate - cooking, looking out for me in various ways, etc. Today, she made sure I wasn't napping before she took her shower because my room is right next to the toilet, so whenever the shower is on or there is a flush, my room gets all the noise. Also, she has had to eat "sick food", a.k.a. soup-y or ...

It's Day 2 of this new week. Randomness #1 : Lunch with Hannah at Nosh We had a good time catching up over big bowls of noodles. I'm already missing small group meetings with Hannah! Randomness #2 : Good food over the weekend Staying with hz means I get to eat better food because she, and now it applies to myself as well, makes it a point to have decent/proper meals, at least for dinner. Over the weekend, hz's boyfriend, Kai, came up from London. Here's a shot of the two of them in the kitchen: I definitely have great meals this year as compared to last year. Randomness #3 : Vocab expansion Reading law articles forces me to expand my vocabulary. I'm now reading a 120-page article for my International Criminal Law (ICL) seminar on Thursday. Two new words you can learn with me: Fiat = a formal authorisation or proposition; a decree Aberration = a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected, typically one that is unwelcome

In my 1st year, I stayed in Florence Boot Hall, catered school accommodation. In my 2nd year, I stayed in Redwoods, Broadgate Park, self-catered school accommodation. In my 3rd and final year, I am staying in a house in Beeston, private accommodation. With wonderful housemate, Hong Zhen (hz). I finally made it a point to take proper photos of my room and the house, now that it has all been cleaned up and is tidy. My room My room door, with the 2 shelves next to it. "Mr Handyman Can" Gabriel helped me to mount my mirror: Observe, my entourage of lovely toys: And I must also draw your attention to the polaroids I pasted on the cupboard doors: My study table: Here's the view of my room when I sit/stand at my study table and look out the window, which looks into our backyard (that actually has a pond covered with algae), as well as my neighbour's backyard: Then my storage space, where I hang up all my clothes: I would like to draw your attention to the photos and personal...