End of the Year

The end of 2008 has come. Year by year, the time just shifts too fast for me to grasp a single moment in its entirety and enjoy life second by second. Every year we celebrate the new year that it may be as good or even better than the last year, and to do this we reflect on what has happened. What we have experienced and what we have learnt, the good things and the bad.

I suppose the first thing I've learnt is that people are never who they seem to be. Under calm waters usually lurk a deeper (sometimes dangerous) current. Friends are also hard to come by. It has taken me the whole 4 years of my university years to realise who are the friends I want in life, those who are worth holding on to and those who are better off as just "hi-bye" people. I have not come close to being able to read people easily but, by withholding a part of myself and not throw the whole of me into a friendship has done wonders. Instead of feeling cheated by something that wasn't even promised in the beginning, you get more than what is expected and that is very fulfilling.

I tend to complain every day about something but looking back, I think that I have actually enjoyed the experience of being here in UK. Living through the gloomy weathers, and spending time with my friends. It's nothing compared to being at home, of course, but it's something different from what the rest of my life would be (the way I envision it). The complaining was a fun activity in itself, just another way to communicate with people.

So what does the year 2009 bring for me? It marks the end of my university life and the starting of work life. It brings about uncertainty in life, as this time it is surely a time where I would be moving to a place where neither my family nor friends would be there, in person, to buffer anything that might happen. It is a scary thought but I'm sure I will survive and be stronger from these experiences to come. Granted that I only have to go through these things in August, but you only have to think about how the years slip by, that 8 months would just pass by without any thought to what I want.

I'll just have to make sure that I make full use of the 6 months left of university. I won't waste my time making new year resolutions as they don't help much anyway, but will just spend my life as fulfilling as possible.

Happy New Year and may the year of 2009 bring much excitement and happiness to you!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...

I just found out something interesting. Apparently there's a religious symbolism behind the Twelve Days of Christmas...

Religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas (The 12 Days of Christmas)

1 True Love refers to God
2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

 

Taken from: http://www.carols.org.uk/the_twelve_days_of_christmas.htm

Christmas '08

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all! Let us all celebrate the day that Christ was born with joy!

For fun, here's a site to track Santa Claus.

Transport problems

I'm sitting in the train to Nottingham now, but not the train that I was booked on. It's another train which is 15 mins later than the other train and I am lucky to be able to get on this train without additional charge.

We had planned our journey to reach St Pancras International in plenty of time for our 1115 train, and had left at the time planned. Unfortunately, the tube stations were against us leaving London so they all decided to go on strike. Signals failed, lots of tube lines weren't working and we had to go from one tube station to another just to get to St Pancras.

The Hammersmith and City line which is the most convenient for me was down. If we had been able to take that line, we wouldn't have needed to change at any tube stations and just to get down at Kings' Cross and St Pancras. We got down from the bus at the station and found out that the line wasn't working, so we had to take another bus to Paddington Station to take the Circle line, which to our dismay when we got there, it wasn't working as well.

So, we had to take the Bakerloo line to Baker Street and change there for the Metropolitan line to get to St Pancras. And the Metropolitan line is not the most frequent of lines. We had to wait there at the station for 15 mins before our tube arrived, therefore making us late for our 1115 train.

We just queued for the 1130 train and thankfully, after explaining what happened to the attendant at the barrier, she let us in without extra charge. It was such a relief to get onto the train to Nottingham. Else, we would have just turned back and gotten another ticket for another day which would've been cheaper. And just spend Christmas and New Year's in London.

I hate travelling in London.

Portobello Market

I walked out to Portobello Market this morning to try and find a suitable gift under 5 pounds for exchange during my Christmas party. Since it's a Saturday, the whole market was open and there were lots of things to see. As I always forget to bring my camera out, I did not manage to capture any interesting photos.

Two things that happen to catch my eye this morning. One was a stall manned by 2 people from China. They were selling iPod nanos 8Gb for around 50 pounds, which apparently is half of the normal selling price. I wonder if the iPods are genuine ones (which they claim them to be), but they could be fake ones for all I know. I just google'd iPod nano and apparently the ones I saw were the 3rd generation ones, not the new 4th generation. Not a lot of people crowded around that stall though, only a few who seemed to be really interested in buying.

Another was that there was a funeral procession down Portobello Road and there were 2 hearses - one a modern hearse and another was a horse-drawn hearse. Following that was an expensive looking car (which for the life of me I do not recognise). There were also people running after the procession with one guy who seemed to be a reporter.

There were people who stopped and took photos of the horse-drawn hearse which I felt was quite disrespectful to the dead. But I suppose they expect that since they went down such a crowded street. The horses were very pretty though.

Anyway, I still can't find my gift.......

Frosty Day

MOULD!!!

ARGHHHH.. there's mould everywhere!!!

Anybody know if I can get Thirsty Hippo here? or any equivalent? Or it won't help at all?

Lincoln Christmas Market

We made a trip to the largest Christmas market in Europe, which incidentally is only situated less than an hour away from here. And we managed to get the train tickets cheap as well. As there was a promotion on one of the train booking websites, we only paid 1.15 pounds for our return trip to Lincoln.

Lincoln is a pretty place, and its annual Christmas Market brings in a lot of tourist. It was so packed and there were a lot of stalls as well. I didn't actually count how many stalls there are but apparently there are over 300 stalls there.

I was going to put photos up, but looking through the photos that I've taken, they don't seem to be very nice and I didn't manage to capture the atmosphere there. So, what I'll do is that I'll post up a photo of me, which I rarely do. Here's me with my red jacket and sling bag. Apparently people recognise me from away by those two.

We had to climb up Steep Hill (yea, that's what the road was called) to get to the market, and yes, it was very steep indeed. It was good exercise to climb up that hill though.

Here's a photo that shows (not really) the crowd that was there. It wasn't that crowded when we got there which was around 1030am but it got crowded as it got later. Behind you can see the cathedral which is apparently one of the must-sees in Lincoln.

 

We did go in and see the cathedral. But unfortunately, due to our reluctance to part with our money, we did not explore the whole cathedral, even though I had really wanted to before. So, I just took a photo from the entrance. Didn't get to see pretty stained glass....

Well, it was a good experience to get into the Christmas mood and rub shoulders with everyone else. I, for one, do not really like crowds so I don't think I'll be making another trip next year to the market. I prefer slow and less crowded places. Another thing that makes it a good day was that the weather was beautiful, albeit very cold. My hands were frozen after I left my gloves off to take photos. But, no complaints - as long as it's not raining or very windy.

Nottingham is pretty as well...

A 10,000 pound jigsaw puzzle

Read the news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7765701.stm

I wouldn't mind having that kind of puzzle to solve. I've always been interested in puzzles and how to solve them. I play lots of puzzle games online and try out every sudoku that comes my way.

But, how good it would be if solving a puzzle equates to getting 10,000 pounds at the end of it?

Winter Woes

Just chatting to my friend on MSN and talking about the cold weather and the people who make it just a tad difficult to live through UK winter.

emily says:
i wan
emily says:
some animal with lots of fur
-Val- says:
polar bear
-Val- says:
hehehe
emily says:
yea
emily says:
that sounds good
-Val- says:
eh then u go back kuching sure die one la
-Val- says:
emily says:
thn i go back kuching and can cut off everything and it won't grow back d
emily says:
cuz the gene become dormant
-Val- says:
hahaha buy veet ah?
emily says:
no need
emily says:
just cut
-Val- says:
hahahahahaha
emily says:
dormant gene rmbr
emily says:
haha
-Val- says:
oh that one
-Val- says:
hahahahhaaha
-Val- says:
creative also!

So, if I had fur, I won't have so many problems associated with cold weather, would I? Dormant gene that activates when the weather is cold and unbearable and goes dormant when the weather is warm/hot.

Maybe I should just get a portable heater, a table lamp and my books, and hide in my closet to get through winter.

emily says:
i shall take the heater
emily says:
and hide in the closet
emily says:
me
emily says:
a heater
emily says:
and a lamp
Pui San says:
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Pui San says:
die later
Pui San says:
no o2
emily says:
leave a bit of opening la
emily says:
haha
Pui San says:
sounds more like prison
Pui San says:
or sauna
emily says:
sauna is good

Sounds good eh?