Bliss

I just want to say. It's GREAT to be home. I was playing down all expectations but back home, everything.... everything just felt so right. It was almost as if i've never left... very surreal. Like some kinda time machine just zapped me off to London for a few days (which in fact was 9months) and here i am, back home again. To the warm, familiar and happy faces of Family. It didn't take much, but in the few hours i've been back, i know they love me very much and so do i them. And, actually i miss them more than i think i did.

Really hate to see Ivory Coast go!!! Damn, it's sickening when crap teams like England (I really like Beckham though, he hasn't lost any of his charm ... now he has the softer more fatherly feel... drools, the way he talks to the kid... awww MELTS) go through so easily and those who really deserve it get kicked out, unrightly so! At least Angola held Mexico to a draw, way too many close shaves for them though, well, it's time an African team got lucky anyway.
Argentina is kicking some ass man, heh, hurrah to Messi!

Oooh, finally went for a haircut and i loook like a pirate now. But i like it. Just to keep you in suspense!!!

Woah... Mediterranean food is good stuff man. They had this amazing salad that was tasty yet healthy... there was avocado, brocolli, cucumber, very fine bean sprout, this rice tasting thing that looked like clumps of pomello and goat's cheese and some magic sprinkled on top that made my eyes twinkle and my ears wiggle :) And the spanish sausage and sweet potato was really good too. And best of all, to all my weight conscious friends, the dessert is SUGAR Free. Can't imagine a chocolate tart that's sugar free... but i found out that they used fructose instead... duh, there had to be some form of sweetener! Still, it's supposed to be healthy.

Interestingly, the whole restaurant was filled with LADIES. Such a girl power restaurant. Those men who were there were with their girlfriends/wives. Maybe it's the world cup effect, or maybe it helped that the French manager is such a good looker ;) No lah, it's a health conscious ladies restaurant. I would go again, anytime, oh yes, for the manager too.

On my way back :

A: Hey, excuse me, do you know where Covent Garden is?
me: Oh, (knowing how bad my sense of direction is) , the general direction is towards the left.
A: Do you know where this "rocket head " (sthg along that lines) club is?
me: No.
A: You went to River Island? Was there some kinda sale there?
me: Shakes head, laughs and walk away.

What strange pick up lines they have. More entertaining than anything. Gee.

Some exciting World Cup matches tomorrow. Sweden Paraguay and of course England Trinidad :) English TV actually isn't that bad. Very interesting shows like Super Nanny, Desperate Housewives, their version of MTV, a few drama serial channels. Maybe it's because we have a larger selection of channels than traditional TV. And maybe because I have been so TV deprived for 9 months. Past mid-night, they air ancient movies like these 3 cheekopek men in the jungle (the kind with a jungle wall paper and a few fake trees!!!) with a woman and they kept trying to peek at her bathing. One of them climbs up a tree with his binoculars, a gorilla (think King Kong style) taps his shoulder, he passes the binoculars to the gorilla, freaks out and falls off the tree... like HUH? Then the other man pretended to be the woman's maid by speaking in a really high pitched voice and LOOKED at her as he poured the water over her and when she was about to turn around... he threw the towel over her head and ran away ... like HUH? Sorry for the unnecessary elaboration, just found it too amusing.

Can't believe i'm 4 days away from Home. Too close to be true.

For the love of the beautiful game...

World Cup is such a joy! Italy made its appearance today against another African team, Ghana. The first half hour i was really scared for the Azzurri, the Ghanians played with no fear, no inferiority complex, as if they've taken part in every world cup when it was their debut match! But the Italians showed what they were made of, got about their business, and won it. The Italians were definitely the better side, but i do feel sorry for Ghana, thought they deserved at least one penalty. Football isn't the fairest game afterall. Watching soccer on BBC is so entertaining i tell you. Especially today's match analysis, they invited Marcel Desailly who was originally from Ghana and of course he was supporting Ghana, and the other guy kept arguing with him that it shouldn't have been a penalty yada yada yada and Desailly wasn't pleased at all. It was hilarious the way he argued... "Marcel, i don't care how many World Cups you have won with France, the referee was right, it shouldn't have been a penalty!".

The other day, the England Paraguay match, the commentators described England goalkeeper Robinson as a giant yellow banana when he hurled over a Praguayan attacker cos he was wearing bright yellow jersey! Man, i'm going to miss the wit of these people when i get back home and have to resort to watching soccer on Malaysian channels :( If, i can get any reception at all!

New found hero, Rosicky from Czech Republic, amazing amazing goals. Totally blew my head off!
Samba boys on tomorrow, can't wait to see Ronaldinho strut his stuff.

Oh yeah, it hit 32degrees today. I couldn't believe it when i stepped outside.

I've been meaning to write this for some time but i could never get my butt to sit still enough at the blogger home page. Afterall, there is always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. The xxx number of days i have in London, probably more than most people.

On the eve of shifting my stuff out of this little nest of mine, i look around and realize that i actually do like this make shift hole/semi pigsty (Mum wouldn't be pleased, but she wouldn't be here to see either, muahaha). How ironic, at a point when the room at its messiest and dirtiest, all the dust floating around in the room when the afternoon sun shines through (It's freakin' hot now, the room and everywhere else, it's almost like home! Can't believe the day i actually sweat has come). Soon, no more swipe cards, no more going... "SH**, I locked myself out of the room!" immediately after i close the door behind me, no more having to change for 20p coins for laundry. I'm so glad i changed my room in the end, otherwise I wouldn't be able to shake to the Cuban beat or pretend I'm a diva like Mariah Carey or Toni Braxton or squeal in delight upon seeing my dearest Roque in action on the pitch (even though he underperformed :( ) or jump onto the bed and hop around like a bunny when the last paper ended.

Came over, innocent, ignorant and holding on to mummy's hand for guidance. I was looking through my old emails and i can't believe i actually asked a senior if it was necessary to bring a kettle over, sounds so ridiculous now. And how i asked someone along Houghton street where Peacock theatre was. Those were the days. Where London was a big scary city, dirty and dodgey in certain areas, crowded, polluted, congested and absolutely busy, it still is and I was almost panicking the thought of living in such a place. Yet there was a certain allure about it, be it the cobbled streets of Covent Garden where I've set foot on countless times, the expanse of Hyde Park, my everlasting favourite Bayswater, Chinatown which has of course been an integral part of our survival in the land of expensive food (and almost everything else), the markets and desserts, the wonderful musicals, the lovely walk along the Thames where Westminster, London Eye and Tower Bridge can be seen. It has been a real eye-opener really, living alone in London. And i like it. But i haven't always liked it, there were times I got tired of living in Big city London, sometimes feeling most insignificant, one of the 7 million floating around, not really feeling rooted. But, I overcame that, called this place my second home, liked the freedom to (dis)organize my life the way i want it (not that i was constrained at home, but you realize fully just what it means to live alone includes the whole package of settling your own meals which can be a real pain and next year, of course, washing the toilets and kitchen! haha!)

And priceless still is all the travelling.

Well, everything fell into place in the end because of the new friends i've made here. Thank you for being a part of this wonderful journey, you've made a difference and I hope i've been a good friend to you as well. Cheers for the LSE mates !

For now, i'm looking forward to meeting a few more friends next week... old-time friend Tien Tien, wacky Marvin... (i'm expecting a running commentary of the natural science museum!!) and Wennee ;) and i'm in the thick of football mania too. Thank goodness for digital TV on my laptop. The African teams have really earned my respect so far... Argentina vs Ivory Coast... and i was thinking, where in the world is Ivory Coast(it's in the South of Africa btw) but man did they put up a fight and so did Angola. Debutants... but the way they played, held their heads up high. SALUTE! They just lack the finishing... which is a real pity but i do hope to see at least one of the African teams make it to the next stage. And then i was thinking, if an African team does win the World Cup, what a boost it would be for their economy, national pride. It wouldn't be a bad thing.

With the packing almost wrapped up, i'm done with my business in London... for now. I haven't had enough of everything here. But, it's time to take a break from this complicated place, back to where everything began. We've come full circle... as i've been telling Flor (who is currently on the plane back home with her little bro, we were supposed to go back together, but unforseen circumstances!!! ) My friends, catch me swinging back into town, live on 19th June!

My face has put on weight!

Look at HF!!! Even the angmohs don't wear tubes. You go girl!

The site of many artistic shots...! Check out the short skirt! I sound like some cheekopek. HAHA!


Lelong Lelong! Fresh Raw fish anyone!


Yummy OYSTERS!!!


Brownies. Cheap and good!

In love

I'm absolutely in love with life at the moment. Watching DVDs (settled my butt enough to watch Chocolat, good stuff man, the blissful look of those people who sank their teeth into the chocolate and Binoche's cooking should be sufficient reason to brush up my cooking skills... but alas, i have no chef hands...can't believe i survived 9 months eating my own terrible cooking half the time :(, which reminds me that Da vinci code sucked... wasted my money man, Tom Hanks super doesn't fit the role... SO OLD! And the plot was way too thin, injustice injustice!) Listening to Tao Zhe, pretending to sing falsetto like him and bobbing my head. (Which reminds me about how my Chinese has deteriorated to such a low standard, i feel funny speaking it, i can't write beyond Pri. 6 Chinese words, i ought to slap myself... It was really funny how mich and shihui were giving ali and me ting xie and i failed miserably! You think listening to Chinese music will help?? It's such a pity really, all the years of studying has come to this? Okae, speak more more more Mandarin when i'm home.) Browsing wedding photographs has become one of my online habits, it makes me oh-so-want to get married! This is what happens when you have so much time on your hands. And then i start playing with things like FACEBOOK. Choosing the chioest photo i can lay my hands on. The idea of Facebook is actually very dumb, like my friendster which has since long died. I remember the photo on my friendster was... Ultraman because i had ultraman hairstyle last time. And i was too shy to put my own photo online!!! So dumb right... silly JC days.

Today's weather was blistering hot. Should have bought those sunglasses man! Hot weather has come at last... a little too late, i'm leaving in two weeks! After almost 7 months of Cold, the snowman in me has finally thawed. Yeah, everyone's in a good mood when the weather is warm. We did a mini tour of the SOUTH bank today... Borough market which i adore... Had BROWNIE, delicious delicious followed by OYSTER and... what else, venison burger and some alcohol tasting. Perhaps i could buy some dried fruits home :) And then we went to Tate Modern, a little too modern to appreciate, there was this piece of art... which had many pieces of "shit" looking stuff scattered all over the floor, gave me a really bad feeling man, seriously, reminds of elephant excretion... And then there were preserved birds shot by arrows. EEEwww. Some paintings were really weird, this giant painting, painted red with one strip of purple at the edge. Damn strange lah. But they had some very nice photographs too to give tate credit. It's free so i shall not complain! The Thames walkway was packed packed packed. Never seen London so packed before, the Millenium bridge had an enless flow of people! Then, it was off to Bankside, finally, after months of procrastination and tasting the "famous" Bankside kebab which tasted normal, conclusion, banksiders have weird food taste. That goes for spicy Pork too. Haha! And we took endless photos of St. Pauls, from 1km away to 100 m away to 10 m away. And Gerald really likes to take artistic shots... like the one of him and hf "talking"... er... eh, (post it on your blogs!!) Yeah, hf, please brush up your photography skills. Haha!!

In my weak attempt to start packing, i dug out the scrapbook that the musketeers spent all night and day making for me (yeah, you sweeties :) )and it really made me laugh and roll all over again. I never got over the fact that yw thinks i have an iguana face that's why the iguanas behind my house are always so attracted to me. Our one and only agreeable cute guy with that group of pioneer jc students, we really did stupid things back then! Rocket making was like one of the highlights of upper sec man. The pumps and munching on hello pandas! And our love affair with Mr. Tang... And MJ> Feng Zeng!!! OMG, the fountain, that is really HILARIOUS!!! Come to think of it, we were... rude!!! Could saving the fountain have been more important? Thanks for being so down-to-earth about your expectations of my cooking skills :) Thank you babes! Looking at those photos also convinced me that i've put on weight, especially the face. Mmmm... exercise the face more? How to tone cheek muscles huh?

I think i've had enough play. Of course i'll continue playing, but time for more serious thoughts. About THE FUTURE. Sounds big and scary. But a big girl's gotta plan big things.

The world is indeed my oyster.