what happens when your alarm and ringtone are the same...

my alarm used to have sound but i put it on silent when we were staying at the hostel so i wouldn't wake the other people... and i just haven't got round to putting the sound back on...

then the other day i ordered a jersey for Joe Ann.....

and a few days later i wake up from sleep and see missed calls from an unknown number.. i ignored..

next day, same thing O: .. thinks to self: "could it be the jersey?!?! so fast??"

today.... i heard vibrating so as usual i wanted to snooze my phone.. and i thought i had snoozed it..
but i heard "Hello? Hello?" by my pillow.... :/

and when i finally woke up and opened my door there was that delivery failed note wedged under my door... i hope i didn't piss the guy off :S .. here's hoping they're willing to deliver again ><

and i'll make sure i set the sound back on the alarm ._. ......

-llen-

shocked...

Christmas went by just like that..i guess it partly didn't feel like christmas was even here because the usual indications weren't there.. every year dad would put on that CD of christmas songs.. this year i didn't hear it.. USUALLY (coz sometimes we're too lazy :p ) we will decorate the christmas tree... of course, no chance for that this year.. we ALWAYS have a feast for Christmas and this year we definitely had no feast..

but still, it was ok.. i had Chin Li with me.. and it's just part of being away from home i suppose..



Today is the 3oth of December.. and i'm somewhat in a state of disbelief..


First came the "HUH?!?!? New year's eve is tomorrow?????"

Then the moment of reflection...

highlights: it was just this year that i completed A levels.. went for a trip with 3 great pals...ended up in the most unexpected uni..had to make an important decision...(all that somehow felt like it happened ages ago..)..went on a trip with Chin Li..spent my very first away-from-home Christmas..

ahh...amazing how time flies...

and then i thought about all the people that made 2010 a great year.. family, friends..listing it out will be too tedious so.. i bet you know who you are ;) ..

overall...even with all the ups, the downs.. i think 2010 has been pretty good coz all i can remember now are the good times.. and i can't help but smile... :) .. this may be due to my optimistic nature though..hehe..

Here's to a great 2011! New resolutions, and hopefully better self discipline to achieve them!

and cherish the last 2 days of 2010 while it's here :)


-llen-

the real Christmas post!

So..let's start from Christmas Eve shall we? :)

My memory's a little foggy coz the days seemed to be a bit jumbled up in my mind right now.. but if i remember correctly i woke up really late.. hmm...

The uni was nice enough to give us a room in one of the self-catering halls so we have a kitchen to cook in and it has a TV in it!! it's actually one of those rooms that guests stay in so i let Chin Li have that room..So on Christmas Eve i got up, got ready and walked over to where Chin Li was staying..
Mum told me to try to be available to skype so i could wish my aunt a happy birthday...

so the kitchen.. we were given very little tools and very lousy tools too.. the frying pan was badly scratched, little pot was..burnt inside? and there was a..i think it's a slow cooker but we later thought it belonged to the chinese who used that kitchen too...
the chinese were quite friendly.. they let us use their very good knife..

anyways.. dinner that night was to be spaghetti aglio olio which i've been craving for coz we NEVER get spaghetti at the cafeteria.. and we were gonna pan fry salmon fillets..the thought of it made me so happy..

then we used the slow cooker to boil water to cook our spaghetti... (we really didn't think it was a slow cooker then and we couldn't use the pot coz it was so black inside.....) the water took SO LONG to boil... must've been an hour plus... i decided to try and scrub the pot and it was actually possible -.- ...

halfway scrubbing mum texted me so i left the scrubbing to Chin Li and went to skype :) ..

everyone was there.. they sounded like they were having a great time.. had a nice time chatting with them too <3 .. aunt told me she got an ice cream machine and she was gonna make me ice cream when i went back :D .. dad told me not to shop online so much (which i actually don't honestly!! yiishhh....) then he said something like "Eh, boxing day you go and buy some stuff for yourself lah.. those heavily discounted stuff go and buy!!" and from the back i could hear "buy what you need......" then only dad "ya ya ... just buy what you need...." XD ..

after our conversation i went back to the kitchen and the water still hadn't boiled!! in the end we chucked the spaghetti in even though the water hadn't exactly come to a full boil.. which resulted in an awfully textured spaghetti -.- ..

it really was quite depressing.. craving for that taste, that texture for so long, thinking you COULD finally taste it but no..not today.. :( .. all this on Christmas Eve!! :( salmon tasted good though thankfully..

we then went to the Chaplaincy for the 7.30pm Christmas eve service... and that made me feel better :) ..

Next, Christmas Day lunch..

The chaplaincy organised a 1pm lunch so we decided to go... It was nice.. food was good..Chin Li and i sat at a table with 4 Nigerian guys.. they were friendly and all.. chit chatted while eating.. it wasn't like Christmas back home at all but it was really nice and it did feel like Christmas :)

though one of the people we ate with took a photo of me with his phone.. sure, he asked me to look at the camera BUT what normal person would take a picture of someone they just met a few minutes ago?!?! not a photo together but a photo of... anyways.. i thought maybe it was their culture or something... but creepy nonetheless..

after the meal when we decided to go back Chin Li thought we should say bye to the people we ate with.. it was courtesy and i agreed that we probably should say bye.. and to our surprise, 2 of those guys decided to find out where my hall was and wanted to accompany us.......

so they followed to my hall.. one of them didn't want to come in but the other one (the one that took photo with his phone in fact) came in even after Chin Li subtly said bye at the door...when he asked for my extension i conveniently forgot and i think only then did he get the message and decided to go.. though he didn't really buy it that i forgot my extension i think... but who cares! they just ruined my Christmas for me.. they didn't exactly ruin the whole thing lah.. but it sucked to have to meet creepy people on Christmas day... i'm not a racist and i don't agree when people generalise and say Nigerians are dangerous and stuff but really, these people didn't do their people any favours by behaving that way..

and you may think i'm paranoid and stuff but i wouldn't have been so worried if the hall hadn't been deserted.. anything could've happened and nobody would've been there to hear or see or help.. but thankfully nothing happened...

overall this year.. Christmas didn't exactly feel like Christmas.. even when Christmas was approaching i couldn't really feel it.. and i kinda forgot to wish people Merry Christmas :/ ...

anyways, i hope everyone else had a great Christmas :) .. 2011 is coming soon and i haven't even posted about the Durham-York-London trip :P ...

-llen-

Happy boxing day!

Guess i'm a little too late in wishing people Merry Christmas :/ .. it's the holidays and yet i haven't really used my laptop at all..

So..i've been back from London for a few days now.. the trip was pretty enjoyable.. i surprised myself for actually still remembering where some of the shops were.. We didn't have a proper map with us but with the help of the maps along the streets and a bus map we managed to get around pretty well :)

we had awesome duck rice..had malaysian food.. I managed to get to Selfridges for my cheesecake~~~~ took Chin Li to Greenwich and showed her Canary Wharf..hopped around the tube a lot..SNOGGED....

all was well until the very last day.....

We stayed at the Malaysian Hall for 2 nights.. and on the third night shifted over to a hostel..near to that hostel was Camden market (apparently about a 30min walk) which we initially planned to visit.. due to timing issues we more or less said we wouldn't go after all..

We went into a tube station and Chin Li managed to pass through the ticket machine thing.. but my ticket somehow got rejected by every machine and i couldn't go through.. after a few minutes i finally got through manually and by then Chin Li was no where to be seen!!!! and on top of that my phone had no network coverage all of a sudden!!

so i thought i'd go back to the tube station near our hostel and she'd probably be there.. but when i got there..she wasn't! D: .. horror!!

quickly went to a public phone and called her and she was at Camden Town station and that left me in a bit of a shock.. (my phone still had no reception) ... last thing she said to me before the credit ran out on the public phone was that she'd wait for me there.. so i went ...

To get to Camden Town station i actually had to change trains quite a few times.. and by the time i got there we had to make our way back to the hostel to get our bags... and we were running short of time..

One of the biggest mistakes i made was not having a pulling luggage.. i had a stupid heavy bag which i had to carry all around with me up and down the stairs coz my pulling luggage was too huge and i thought it was ridiculous to bring that..grrrr... (and note also that when i got to Durham, we actually walked about 30minutes from the station to Chin Li's hall..with my stupid bag!! and when we left Durham for London that same bag was carried to the train station passing stairs and slopes along the way grrrr... )

SO.. we rushed and rushed.. my arms kept feeling like they were going to just break at some point.. AND THEN... we had to wait for a train to get to the main train station... and based on my calculations, we were sure to miss our train back to Edinburgh...

When the train finally came and we got on i just sat there thinking about what we'd do....and even when we got to the station, part of me already gave up.. because it was already a few minutes past 4pm.. the trains here are really punctual most of the time..

when i got to the machine to get our tickets..i looked at the board... there was a train for Aberdeen..calling at Doncaster, Darlington....Newcastle...EDINBURGH!! and it was delayed!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!

please understand that i had really really given up hope on getting on our intended train hence the inner scream and burst of hope...

we got the tickets and went to the platform and hopped on from the first class coach and slowly made our way to our seats.....

i was still in disbelief when i was in the train... still shocked.. very tired... happy nonetheless...

And it's all thanks to the snow for delaying the train... snow is a really good friend of mine now .. and no matter how many people hate it, no matter how many people say Snow is bad, Snow creates a lot of inconvenience, i'm gonna stand by Snow <3 ..i love you Snow!!!


i should put a proper Christmas post here next time XD ...

-llen-

Hello from Durham :)

Just woke up and my arms are a little sore from carrying my luggage around :/

Taking the train was more complicated than i thought -.- ... ok maybe not very complicated but a little more complicated than taking a bus....

London on Sunday :)

will probably update when i'm back in Edinburgh....


-llen-

do you ever wonder...

whenever you miss someone, do you ever wonder if they miss you too?


-llen-

hard work paid off :D

title does not refer to exams though..haha...

My hard work refers to my catering card balance of 11+ pounds...whee~~~ i think i overspent on junk a bit too much but it's all good! leaving campus on Thursday anyways and Chin Li + Durham here i come!! can't wait :3 ..and then to London!

Anyways.. when i first arrived here dad and mum took me to Tesco A LOT.. it was very near and very convenient so got a lot of stuff from there..including a plastic kettle..
Mum and dad being the health conscious people they are, would usually say no to plastic containers so what more a plastic kettle right? But surprisingly while mum thought we should wait to find a stainless steel one dad just said "buy lah.." .. and buy the kettle we did..

Fast forward to a few days ago.. Mum and dad skyped with me and told me to get a new kettle -.- .. I was happy to get a new one (coz occasionally i wonder if i'm gonna die faster boiling water with a plastic kettle...) but what am i gonna do with my old one?!?! sell? who wanna buy? so the only solution was to give it away....

So today after i couldn't stand looking at the kettle in the corner i packed it back into its box and stuck a sticky note on it saying "Free Kettle! Purchased 3 months ago. In good condition" .. and when nobody saw me i placed it on the pantry table...

When i went out to get dinner i peeked into the pantry... The kettle was gone! :D .. kinda surprised though.. i thought people would be suspicious of a free kettle.. made me feel like Santa Claus somehow.. XD

ho ho ho...

-llen-

what's beyond tired?

Been sleeping late these past few days.. probably shouldn't have but i did anyway..

Friday morning we had out maths exam and as usual when sleeping late becomes a habit, sleeping early gets tough.. which resulted in getting not quite enough sleep ...grr.. anyways.. the paper was ok.. just that the calculator i brought in and had been using for ... 6 years? wasn't in the approved calculators list -.- .. so the nice lady told me lent me one from a big box of calculators..

After 6 years of using the same calculator you kinda get used to where the buttons are and which button does what -.- .. but luckily i've seen a calculator like that before ! hehe.. Wun Yeun's one was like that :3 .. (only thing i like about that calculator was the fractions function ..real fractions on the display!!)

but thanks to some common sense on my part i managed to find the buttons i needed...though i did panic a little...

After the exam i felt so tired... so sleepy.. but i knew i had to get some grocery shopping out of the way..coz i knew i probably wouldn't be able to study today anyways..
so i went back to my room and suddenly, a call!

It was my stuff from Mountain Warehouse :D :D :D .. finally!! my sleeping bag, waterproof shoes and waterproof jacket .. arriving on the day the snow began to melt ... hrmphh.. but it's ok.. i expect more snow to come and when that happens, i'll be prepared to play with snow properly!!

After getting the stuff and having lunch, off to the city i went!

Managed to get to the place i wanted to go quite easily and i was pleased with that :3 .. (coz i've never been there before and i went alone...hehe)

By the time i got the stuff i needed and went back to campus, the main cafeteria was closed so the only food i could get which would allow me to swipe my catering card was pizza :3 .. and it just so happened that they had my favourite flavour today :'D .. (could this day get any better?? :D )

Came back to my messy, new stuff-filled room and ate..

Oh! i forgot to mention.. i bought a pair of hair cutting scissors today..and a comb.. (yeaaa..i didn't bring a comb here coz i never thought i'd need one......) and i decided to trim my own fringe.. maybe more like cut since it was so long already.. it would've covered my nose in a few weeks..haha..

Thanks to youtube...ok..maybe not youtube but the people who put up guides on how to cut your own fringe, i learned some tricks to experiment on my fringe-cutting experiment... it's the first time i'm seriously cutting my own hair.. i remember as a kid i did try to cut my own hair only to get scolded by the babysitter... :/

so the end result of my self-cut fringe? (which took quite a long time i think :/ )

hmm... maybe it's because i cut it myself..or maybe it really isn't too bad ...but i think i did quite alright for a first attempt XD ... it does look a little weird..maybe..hmm...

but after every haircut, it's a habit for us to take a shower..and it'd been a long day so i decided to shower... and after shower had to fix the hair a bit..hehe... but after that i just felt reallly tired..but my room was still a mess with plastic bags, stuff on the bed.. wardrobe was a mess too.. so i ended up setting up my new kettle, tidying this and that..and now.... it's 3am and i think i've gone beyond tired... i've started to get hungry but i feel so restless now...haihh... wonder what time i'll get up tomorrow....

-llen-

living in a catered hall....

at this uni we're given a fixed amount to spend on food... and this amount cannot be carried forward to the next semester or refunded back to us... ain't that just cruel?

SO.. with the semester coming to an end, students in catered halls who have previously not really been spending the money are scrambling to use up the money.. (me included -.- ) .. so what do we buy? crisps! chocolate bars! yogurt! ribena! bottled water!

it's like i'm an animal storing up food for winter... junk food...

my stash so far? 18 bags of crisps, a few kitkats, 4 bars of snickers, 4 packets of ribena.... and i still have to spend at least 12 pounds a day to finish it before i go for my holiday....grrrrrr....

(i do not intend to finish the junk by myself, ok... hahaha.. some of it is for chin li :D )

-llen-

does anyone still use friendster??

I haven't changed my settings yet so i still receive emails about friends' birthdays through friendster and since it's been sooooo long since i last logged in i thought i'd go take a look...

I dunno when it started but friendster became very uncool... maybe it's because i've gotten used to facebook's layout but friendster's layout makes me feel very uncomfortable somehow..haha...

I remember leaving testimonials for people on friendster... and people leaving me testimonials too.. so i went to my testomonials and read the very first few....

Needless to say... memories came flooding back.. it feels like it's been so long ago.. it was only about 5 years ago?

and then there were testimonials from used-to-be very close friends... what happened? when did we stop talking? when did things become awkward between us?
i wish we could go back to the way we were and pick up where we left off.. i wish i still meant something to you but i know it will probably never be that way ever again..

but i guess it's just another one of those things about life.. accepting the fact that some people will walk into your life, leave very deep footprints there and walk out and leave you with memories and the occasional "hello, how are you"..


-llen-