funny sign

guess who made this:

=D

I have been:

- watching very many movies at home;

- cooking AND baking AND washing; (*gasp. i KNOW. =p ..)

- walking around;

- getting to know his friends;

- playing darts;

- watched a floorball practice;

- surfing musical websites;

- discovered ASOS.com;

- missing friends;

- counting my blessings;

- thinking...

(and doing all the usual 'mel' things. =p )

ps: teddy says hi. =D ..

the iron mystery.

Dear all,

I am sure we are all curious about the iron in the kitchen. So here's the story. =) .. :

Well you see, it all started with the rice cooker breaking down. But even with that, we still must must have rice for dinner. So what do the cooks do? The cooks (J and S) decided to form a water bath in a pot and put the rice pot in the water bath. But the rice pot won't sink in the water bath. So what do the cooks do now? They put a heavy container AND the IRON on top of the cover of the pot to hold the rice pot (which is in the water bath) down.

there. THAT'S why the iron was in the kitchen. =D

random photos from boxing day. =)

We escaped from the mad mad sale at Oxford street and we walked.. and we walked.. and we walked... =p .. and here are some photos for you all. =) .. stories (including story about the iron) later. *winks

Spot the odd gadget out. =p

more about the philo. dept in king's...

it's an interesting sight really. Notice the sign from the previous post? Similar signs like that were all over the place from around the main entrance leading all the way to the philo. dept which is kind of buried about 3 floors under.

Some thoughts that ran across my mind:

1) Philosophers are really bad at directing themselves in the physical world. (probably because some aren't even sure whether it exists.)

2) The dept. was trying to emulate Plato's cave, like how the 'enlightened' professors keep returning to the cave for the betterment of the poor students who are still in the dark about the 'truths' of life.

uh huh. =p

as I said.. interesting. =D

pictures from my first day out. =)

from random walking... =)

of getting boots, walking along oxford street.. venturing into chinatown and trafalgar square.. and visiting the organ AND the philo. dept. in kings! =D

I survived...

- 2 plane rides

- disagreeable old ladies

- HUGE bagpack

- telling my life-story to the immigrations officer

- my first tube ride. =)

- a lot a lot of briyani.

=D

...

spending time with the babe. FINALLY.

hello london. =)

Leaving in about 16 hours time

For those who are interested...

I'll be at terminal 1 at 1630 hours tomorrow.. =p .. call if you want to come!

Packing update.

I finally started. =p .. heheh..

it's so hard to differentiate between necessity and indulgence. Unlike for short trips where one can just live with the same outfit for days on end (for days will indeed end soon), packing for 8 months is like... moving house. I want to bring EVERYTHING. (ok dear, don't panic, i'm not bringing everything. =p )

but... let's see if it's possible: if teddy is everything to me, then.. i'm kind of bringing everything (++) right?

hehehehe..

oh dear. packing woes.

Ithaka

'As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.


Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.


Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.


And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.'

mel needs to..

eat: durian, bak khu teh, chilli crab, max brenner's, menotti's;

get: boots, bak kwa, plugs, ISC, contacts;

do: bring grandma to zoo, say goodbye to people and find a dhl box large enough for the bench...

... before she leaves this coming sunday. =p

For the interested, her flight's in the evening.. she'll need to be there by late afternoon to check-in. email her for the exact details k?

just. if you're interested. =D

(rats. she forgot about packing.)

leaving in 9 days..

dear all,

as this is the first post of this blog, i shall attempt to make it sound official. Here's the place where i'll document my travels.. in the UK and in Germany... plus (hopefully) escapades to France and Venice and Switzerland and... =) ..

now's the packing process, plus pre-trip thoughts.. emotions.. the realisation that i will be missing friends, and no they can't just all be packed into dhl boxes. hee.

oh my oh my. packing. mmm.