School finally starts...

omg i haven't blogged for a week! i'm so busy ): ok fine it's not that bad. at least i'm doing sth in london and not just hanging around.

weds 29/9
had a walking tour for my first assignment. went to the river thames area. it was raining, so there was just this big group of people standing in the rain, drawing the london eye -.- so we took a walk along river thames, saw some famous bridges and stuff. really pretty. after we completed the walk, i walked back to connaught, taking in the sights along the way. everything is so old and quaint. and i stopped by the horse guard museum and saw the guards changing. the horses were quite smelly though. haha. horsey smell. so took a long walk back. wanted to go to borough market, but it wasn't in the way, so i headed to covent garden market. a market aimed at tourists. there wasn't much food, so i didn't buy anything. haha. found my way back by just walking and following random signs. woohoo i didn't get lost :D

drawing in the rain

graffiti on some building

River Thames

at the horse guard museum

a part of the covent garden market

some church i went in to look look see see

later that night, brought a cake which i bought from marks and spencer to ramsey hall to celebrate john's birthday :D oooh i love surprises. he was so touched :D yay :D mission accomplished :D

the cake. yumyum.

birthday uncle

thurs 30/9
went to freshers' fayre. took a lot of chocolates and sweets -.- signed up with a whole bunch of clubs and societies. but i don't i will be able to join all cos my timetable is really really cramped ): and a lot of activities clash. plus, it will be quite expensive. horseriding, gliding, mountaineering... all too expensive ): so i've got to decide on which one to focus on, and i'm inclined towards frisbee, engineers without borders and hiking and walking. oh and asian boards, just for the mahjong. haha.

the fair. had to queue to see the booths. for like 20mins -.-

after that met john and we headed to the buidling centre, which is like singapore's ura. they had exhibitions on too :D totally going to visit every exhibition :D so nearby somemore :D yay love it :D

engineering exhibtion

london plan

fri 1/10
had a meet the mentor session. well... i was the only one in my tutorial group to turn up. lovely. really. and my mentor was telling us how busy we will be with homework and assignments and all that stuff and how 30% fail and only 2 get first class. really, a great welcome speech -.- after that had our first official lecture. and by the end of the lecture, we had another assignment. we have to make a toy which will accept 3 spheres and 10secs later, the spheres will come out via 2 exits in the sequence of exit A exit A exit B... and the toy is for toddlers and must be able to be dismantled into 3 pieces to be kept in a box. like real toy. rumour is that 5 quit after receiving this assignment. not sure if it's true though. haha.

at night went for singapore uk association (suka). they had their annual agm and dinner. half of the people there were from uclsingsoc. it was like a singsoc event -.- they elected their new comm, which is like a walkover. after that had dinner. and there was singapore food! omg. satay, nasi lemak and sambal. you don't know you miss the food until you taste it. not the best, but better than nothing :D and the teh tarik was great :D

singapore high commission

yummy yummy

sat 2/10
connaught hall had a basketball session and i went to watch. it was pretty interesting watching from the top. i could like analyse what each player likes to do and what they cannot do. haha. after that, connaught brought us to camden town. then it was free and easy for us. walked around the markets. wanted to buy things for the boat trip but didn't get anything. bought cheap door hangers and liquer chocolates from the 99p shop :) that will be my favourite shop along with primark. haha.

connaught hall basketball

camden! :D

love the way they try to attract attention

then had a dhsya(uk) meeting. settled things for the picnic and day trip. and yah ate at the korean place assa again. why are we always eating korean food in london? and it's not that great. good, but not great. would rather grab a sandwich. cheaper. haha.

the food we had...

sun 3/10
jio-ed people out last minute to play frisbee at regent's park. lovely day, lovely weather. and it was really fun :D i want more frisbee sessions :D just recreational and all fun, enjoy the company enjoy the weather :D

oooh and we cooked supper, using minghao's induction cooker and jiapei's pot. bought the ingredients, and we had a curry party :D for what we had, i think the curry was not bad. yumyum :D 1st homecooked meal in such a long time :D i miss cooking ): ohh the pot was totally empty by the end. satisfaction yo! haha.

marketing! :D

had to use the curtains to cover and people fanning so that we won't activate the smoke detector :b

even had toasted bread

yummmy :D

stop salivating :D

mon 4/10
lectures officially start. but then i alrdy have 2 pieces of homework. so it doesn't really count as an official start for me -.- and seriously, they just plunged us head on and kick us in the butt. still need getting used to after such a long break, but hopefully, i will be fine. ok fine, i will be fine. i'm sure :) yes! haha. ok i'm being optimistic :D

):

had a welcome buffet by connaught hall. the food was quite bad. normal dinners are so much better. the buffet wasn't really free flow. you can only take up to a certain amount each round you queue. they had to control the food so that there was enough. and yah, the food was quite bad ):

tues 5/10
lessons again ): even more. 9am to 6pm with an hour's lunch break. but i finished my work earlier and went back to rest before going for a volunteer meeting session. was so hungry by then. after that, rushed to meet and speak the engineers without borders chairperson. put my name for comm. then after that went to the hiking and walking meet and greet session. after the briefing, lost them when we were heading to the eating and socialising place. so i didn't get dinner ): had lujie's digestive biscuits to curb the hunger. and jiapei's apple. and some chocolates. and tea. haha. great to have hallmates who stock up for war. hahahaha.

weds 6/10
omg today! my summary skills are great. so fast 1 week alrdy. haha. anyway, had lessons, like duh. see my timetable. it's terrible. ended at 12 today. and yah it's so early cos it's like "do you own things day" something like cca day. so i ended at 12, rushed back to changed, ran to the bank to activate the card that finally came, deposit leftover money, ran to nando's at brunswick (yes shunjie! they have nando's here and water is free flow) to say happy birthday to rachel. sat for a while then jogged to the northern end of regent's park for frisbee! :D yay it was really fun :D i'm going to join it :D it's fun, it's something i like, and it's one of the cheapest sports club. haha. but then, joining frisbee, i probably won't join hiking and walking cos both have activities on weekends. sucks. in such a dilemma. eeeek. so frisbee for the entire afternoon, went back to connaught for dinner then headed to sports night and the uclu bar with frisbee people. first sports night. interesting experience. i just concentrated on the game so i won't lose so i don't have to drink so much. but i'm actually feeling woozy. see, and i still blog, so noble :D haha.but it was really amusing seeing them make people drink (as long as it's not me) :D haha.

ah well, school has been really really busy. cramped up timetable, lots of activites from clubs and societies and connaught hall itself. and i still need a social life. baaa. but i will find a balance, i'm sure. and yes, i'm aiming for the prize given to the department's top student :D go jasvin! :b

At home, in London

time flies. it's alrdy like the 2nd week in London. oooh. and lessons still have not started. it's now like the official departmental induction week. so there's still more induction going on. and whatever they say this week we kinda heard them last week. especially the transition program on thurs. BUT i'm going cos i want the organiser :D school handbook you knw? essential :D haha and it's expensive.

yah so since the last time i blogged nothing much really happened i guess. we ran for a run to regent's park. it was sooooo cold. the wind was freezing i felt like my brain froze. and i didn't sweat. it wasn't an intensive enough run but it's too cold to intensify it. i need to consider the gym membership... but anyway, regent's park is sooooo pretty :D looks like a really good place for picnic. and we saw a squirrel which was cheated by lujie. heh.

pretty :)

they kept checking the map cos we didn't know the way

people practising wing chun. i want to learn also!

quack quack quack

hello weiliang the 2 of them combined reminds me of you :')

ok this photo proves that i was there. not nato ok. haha.

cute!

omg and we went to primark. there was a blackout so they were running on their generator. so some lights were not on and the escalators were down. and it was sooooo stuffy. i bought like 2 jackets, a pair of boots, 2 long sleeves, a pair of gloves, a hoodie, a bag, a pair of jeggings which totally look like jeans but no pockets, and 2 nighties cow print damn cute. haha. i'm like known my my animal prints cos i have like leopard and zebra. now i add cow to the collection. hehheh. and i spent like £90. oooh so happy :D but most of the things i bought were necessary so yah ok fine i'm just trying to feel less guilty.


oh and before primark we went to the ucl welcome carnival. the games were all larger than life size. but it was rather quiet. not many people were there. so i guess the atmosphere wasn't all that great.

the games

there was some planting dunno what bulbs for some elderly thingy. haha.

saw this around the corner. it's really nice. it's the barrier to block the construction site. and on every piece there was a drawing of a construction worker. i think it's really creative and it brightens up the street.

did our laundry on sunday morning. didn't have enough whites among the 3 of us so we asked cheryl to pool in some. the dryer didn't dry in 1 spin and we didn't knw how more spins were needed so we took our damp clothes to our rooms to hang dry. oh and our dryer to like 20p and washing machine is £1.60. other halls are like £1 and £2. hahahahaha.

my laundry :)

jiapei's laundry

on sunday afternoon, there was a welcome tea at connaught. it was at the lobby. the place is too small. there were so many people cos a lot of people just moved in cos ucl and lse are starting school soon. so we just socialised over tea and biscuits for 3 hours. then we had dinner. more socialising. then it was connaught's bar grand opening and we just socialised some more there. socialising is tiring. met a lot of people from many places. but after a while, they start to look the same. so the moment they change their clothes, i forgot who they are. haha. ok but they forget me too. cos when i changed for clubbing and wore contacts, a few of they insisted they never met me before and were amazed at how i know their names -.-


that night was fresher's fiesta. went to KOKO. it was quite crowded and i think it'll be the only clubbing event i go to in a long time. didn't really enjoy it .the drinks were so expensive. no wonder the brits drink before they club. and half the time the music they played were unknown to me. not very mainstream. and the guys we went with were nice. they kind of form a circle around the girls. haha. 

we got back at 3am. i washed up and slept at 3.15. damn, i'm efficient. woke up at 8 for breakfast. ahah. and induction started at 10. omg our induction is sooooo boring. and we didn't have a chance to socialise. it was just sit down in the lt and listen. so yah didn't get to know many people. for the first year, lectures and tutorials are held by the department with a total of 6 different courses. so there's like 120 people. quite a number of chinese and hongkongers. and i met a turkish, a lebanese and a guy from cyprus. totally exotic mix. and there's more induction thingy today. all talks. boring. haha.  

oh last night connaught had a clubbing thing but we didn't go so we had a mini party in theodore's room. we were drinking tea and playing monopoly deal. our kind of party. haha. then theodore's parents came back with alcohol and pies. haha. but it was 2 small bottles among 8 people. just to try the taste. minghao turned red, taught us the biological reasons and got high. haha. ohh and i learnt to play bridge! yay like finally. been learning it since like sec1. haha.

ok so i'm beginning to feel at home alrdy. like really settling down nicely. voice still tranny-like. and i'm really beginning to understand why the seniors say ultimately, when we arrive the people we stick to will still be singaporeans. like yah hi and bye, and the initial introduction is fine. but after that, there seems to be no common topics anymore. and even if there is, the conversation ends fast. so yah. ah well. 

ok i'm going back to my drama byebye! :D

Still settling down...

aaaaah... i'm still settling down. still rather unused about some things, like the weather, the efficiency of the banks... lalala. oh but i love they way they walk. fast.

i caught a cold and now my voice sounds like a tranny. my nannies have been forbidding me to eat chocolates, mooncakes and heaty things and complaining that i don't drink enough water. naggy people hahahahaha. ok la, they are just being caring :)

ok so the past few days i've been like still settling all the registration and banking stuff. registered with the nhs and had to do the urine test. hate it -.- setting up a bank is a horrible experience. hate it. so much things to do. and i have no idea what to do with portico and stuff -.-

weather's turning cold. cos of the rain maybe. rained for past 2 days. wind is like cold cold cold. wind come, hide behind somebody but wind still come. somehow. hopefully today is a sunny day. there's a carnival going on. excited :D

ok so other than the settling down troublesome stuff, i've been visiting various halls. ok so our toilet is shared by many and maybe we don't have auto doors and all the atas stuff. just a really simple hall with the necessities and some extras. but i think connaught hall is a really cosy place and the layout makes it easy to see people and make friends. so yeah, i'm liking my hall. just need to do up my room. heh.

and ytd was like tourist day. went to the charles dickens museum with mabel jiapei lujie and zuxin. its a mini museum inside the house he used to stay in. i read 4 of his books and didn't know he wrote so many haha. and i rmbed his biography was the first which i tried reading. didn't finish of course. and i wanna watch oliver! love the book though  read it so long ago i've already forgotten what's it about. haha.

there was a short film on charles dickens' life

a little portion of his published books from different eras

oliver twist :D

i remember going with jiapei but different dates leh... haha.

the house. all houses that belonged to famous people have the blue plaque on top.

we went for the open-top tour bus in the afternoon. £2 for ucl students. original £20. worth the money we paid. haha. so touristy taking the bus and taking in the sights. saw the beautiful architecture and some famous landmarks. saw people running in tanktops and shorts dunno how they do it while we were freezing on the bus cos of the wind. but yeah. pretty cool. saw the part of london to far to walk to. i haven't taken any public transport you know. amazing. just walk everywhere.

connaught and friend (mabel is the friend, she's from canterbury)

love it the way they have such old architecture in the middle of the street.

do you see ben? (no not the yellow guy)

westminster abbey

you can view other pictures from my facebook :) ok i'm going for a run later with my nannies. 

i love it in london, but i miss home...