she-e-ryy (sherry baby)

its been quite a cold summer, or at least it hasnt been warm worthy since i got back, and now i have to leave soon so id never know if it ever gets warm in london during summer. my dad and sis have left for singapore and now its just me and my mum (and a rat, which my mum is convinced lives within my walls, sorry may) in cold summery london, packing up my room.

it was fun having my family over, and of course, graduating. the feeling of ive-got-what-it-takes-to-tackle-the-world-now hasnt really come to me because really, i might be looking at unemployment for a while (yes, even with a lse degree, which really scares me) but the fact is, i have graduated. i made friends that i really liked, lost a friend that i liked, and added on facebook my eye candy, so i guess its been three years of growing up on my own and trying to find my way around. but i know that even if i am down, id have my family to fall back on, not that they can offer me any strings to pull, but just that i can count on them to be there for me; and my friends, haha, for all the laughter and senseless nonsense, and the relieve knowing that some people in my life are probably going to be in my life for a long time to come. ;)

(and i realised that this might be the last of my post under the label 'life in london')

and so it goes, and so it goes.

yesterday i gave up and went back home early. really early. but then lulu was home and shortly after mayling came home, so my guilt dissipated x100:) fyi i was already tucked in bed by 4. im not very proud of it but hey i did read a bit while i was on my bed.

anw im realy excited now about watching the king's singers come june. im so glad we bought the tickets already:) i keep rewatching their rendition of 'short people' and i keep getting imageries of versitility (haha man that was so long ago!) singing it and debbie jumping around. or was it yingtee?

i feel lousy for being this hermit during exams (quote my georgetown friend "girl i heard all about lse ppl and exams") but well, two weeks more!

though her home is on the surface she is still a universe

there! i made lunch in a box! how cool :)
but no, fried bee hoon tastes quite bad when its cold. i have to think of something better to put in it. and yes, a pretty lunch box is a motivation to actually use it. and yes, sadly, fried bee hoon is what ive been eating the whole week, although i think im properly sick of it already.

the end of my first study week.

oh lover, i'm lost

this week's greys featured the song 'duet' by rachael yamagata and ray lamontagne- its currently a favourite of mine and i was absolutely thrilled to hear it on greys. its about time derek stops being the rock of everybody; seeing him crumble makes him seem more human. just when i thought greys was getting stale;)

so jiax came and left; my essays written and handed in; paris trip gone and over.

hanging out with jiax and may made me feel like i was back in jc all over again; seeing each other 24/7 (twas the life of a chorister); making each other laugh over the silliest of things; and spending too much time in useless shops picking up anything and everything. 1130-1900 from my place and we got as far as oxford circus.

i fell in love, for the fourth time, with les miserables again. not having the luxury of west end down my street will be the biggest thing i miss from london.

the finality of my undergraduate studies is actually here! yay?

as the end draws near,

and so it was that i attended my last law ball, and my last vine night. it didnt really occurred to me until i was walking back home last night, barefooted, with my new swinging heels in my hands that i realised- hell these are my lasts.

and so i decided to become a little more active on facebook, cos, its really the only way to keep track of the people you've met and want to keep in contact with (or stalk) in the future.


law ball was such a last minute affair - getting the tickets, the shopping, down to the very last minute of preparing for the ball, which involved mainly the Crisis of the Shoe That Wouldnt Fit. in the end, with the lovely help of my lover, and two and a half insoles, the shoe fits!
cinderella my foot.
it was quite fun meeting (new) people, talking to my tutors, and seeing jerald run away from a girl. as judy said, it was rather like a girls night out, and for that im thankful ;)

at vine night i discovered a younger self of gurmit singh, who was so lovable even the boys were falling for him. of course, dancing in heels was not a very smart idea, and for the neutron dance (up down kick down) my shoe flew off. nope, not very glam. but ah, i hope vine survives our generation!

you got me begging you for mercy oh why wont you release me

so, i woke up early today to actually go for a class that i missed yesterday. the grand plan was to hand up my essay today (since there was no way i could have finished it yesterday) - and well, lets just leave it at that. anyway, it seems that good things come to people who wake up early (karma! or the bird thing), cos there was a really cute irish guy in the class;)
ah.

then i spent my lunch break between trying to get waiter's attention at cafe rouge, and shopping at covent for a dress for the law ball. i bought my dress in the last five minutes of our shopping, hows that for decisiveness ;)

now with all that settled i can finally get back to thinking about my essay(s). and debate. and coursework.
the work never stops!!

nothing sweet about me

all i want to do is to have a long good sleep. it seems like ive had alot on my mind- work related- and i feel like im still having a sleep debt from that night after judy's party. oxford for the weekend was a good getaway, and of course any time spent with my darling is time well spent. im still sorry for my 'poor' choice of movie, ahhaha, 'hard candy' is hardly a light jolly movie to relax into at the end of a week. besides, i think anders is traumatised for life (cue: castration segment)

i think im much happier this year. i feel im much better settled down, with school work (although i joked that 'i go to lse, sometimes'), with friends, with finding stuff to do in london, and of course, finding my way around london:) the night after judy's party i somehow ended up at westminster bridge, but thames river did not disappoint, and i am a little bewildered it took me three years to see this side of london.

another side of london that i was glad to have found- brick lane! or rather, the vintage stores around it. im glad i didnt cancel on lover even though i was really quite tired that day. i cant wait to wear my scarves, bags (yes, plural), and ooh i cant wait to go back again and just spend the whole day looking at those gorgeous (too long) dresses, running my hands through the silky scarves, or just playing with all the intricate clasps and knuckles of the old bags. i dream about my own fashion line and how vintage-inspired they'd be- oh but what a dream.

four more weeks of lent term, but with the weather warming up, and all the concerts (rachael yamagata!) and plans coming up (miss sung!) - cant wait;)

meanwhile, back to jurisprudence.

is love alive, is love.

ah my life- its been work and then nights of top gear/csi on tv. i actually forgot about last week's greys until eug spoke about it in her email;) i felt so lousy with all the work that i made a pan of betty crocker- that was last tuesday. and its still on my table, in my room. i sleep to the taste of betty in my mouth, and i wake up to the smell of it. lovely.

pout, twist, and jiggle

so all the snow's melted and gone; school in full swing (once again (im not a model student)); and i recently discovered a new hobby (but theres recession so i cannot eat out/buy new grunge clothes)
fyi the grunge look isnt working very well. ive exhausted all my black/bad-attitude clothes.

being "snowed in" for two days (yay no school) was quite fun; i felt like a little kid who's constantly in marvel of the whiteness of london. i find myself yelping like a lost puppy whenever i see a new area of white london. i only wished i had charged my camera- it died on me after only taking ten shots;(
thank god for wellingtons!
(i kept trying to write 'hello sexy' on cars. hee)

then it got irritating when it all melted into ice. lover was ice-skating along the streets. funny sight, but quite poor thing lah;)

and we just watched midsummer night's dream;) im not sure how i feel about modernised plays, except for the fact that im thankful i can understand shakespearean language this way. but seeing a shakepeare play in today's clothes and jokes(which was funny!) is rather, strange.

its that beautiful-

light, fluttering snow on a sunny winter day. and watching the snow dance around in the brightness of day from inside my warm toasty room.

seventhday

hereby marks the end of my (incredibly sinful and indulgent) chinese new year celebrations. and to mark that i woke up at 7am today, a feat that will go down in history cos i dont think id be able to repeat it anytime soon. if only you knew what time ive been waking up for the past few days..

so. i ate too much, slept too much, went out too much, and went school too little.

i had dinner with The Flatmates (smirk) last night, and i do think it was quite nice, even though it was just hare and tortoise, and may and i each brought our respective other-half; but cos we can be such a functional household sometimes it was just nice to have a meal out, together. ;) id forgive you lulu, for not even tearing at the last episode of greys.

be ok

im terribly jetlagged;( there was one night i slept at 7pm, not terribly proud of it cos i still slept till bout 8am. but i slept at 11pm last night and i woke up at 5am today. sigh i think thats going to be my life for sometime.

havent been having an appetite for a few days now, but yesterday we had a brainwave (thanks to shawnie) to make roti john. !! it was really good, and i think that whetted my appetite really well, so tonight we're making seafood crumble from the waitrose winter cookbook. life seems to be perking itself up!

workwise im sure it'd perk up soon enough.

what have i been up to:

1. procrastinating on my jurisprudence essay, big time. i just cant seem to choose between dworkin or hart. ah the lesser of two evils.
2. painting my nails :D
3. going for free hair treatment and blow dry at trevor sorbie, again. im becoming their resident hair model!
4. going school religiously. i actually sat next to jerald twice cos i go sch so early nowadays
5. GYM'ing. yes, LA fitness has become my gym. well, at least until my free passes run out, which is this friday. im not very good though, i give up after a while but at least i make it through a good whole hour! (albeit with breaks in between). and to be honest some of the machines still scare me ie. the cross trainer/step machine/those things with weights. guess id be sticking to my treadmill.

and i know this is really early, but i already bought my christmas cards :) yes im one of those irritating people who get into the festive mood really early, but hey the cards were adorable and i reallyreallyreally cant wait to see everybody back in singapore ;)

all in a weekend

SO- i went to Brussels on saturday, ah the wonders of eurostar trains. so voila!, in two hours we were in Belgium. okay, so cher and i arent the best street navigators, and i think the tourist map we were given is rather dubious because the 'shopping street' was as empty as any other street that we were at, but at least we got to eat good food;) the street stalls around the st catherine church was really good: we mistakenly ordered raw oysters instead of raw mussels (shame on us level2 frenchers) but hello hello it was good! damn borough market you cheat our money. then we walked around and got lost and went back for another bowl of soupe poisson, which was just what we needed to warm our bodies.
belgium waffles do live up to their name;) it was chewy! well okay so technically we didnt have the real one but what the heck it was so delicious i didnt care if choc sauce was all over my gloves (and face).
well i got to see the EU side of brussels, the schumann part was quite pretty,and disappointingly there werent any lobbyists.
it snowed quite heavily the whole day, and cher's hands were too cold to hold the umbrella so i had to do it, but i kept poking her eyes/head/cheek/nose, and the umbrella kept collecting snow so it was very heavy to actually hold it high enough for her. damn you all tall people.
there were more english people than locals out on the streets. the locals were surprisingly really nice and friendly whenever we ask for directions (which happened erm quite a few times)
and then of course we went to the supermarket and wiped out the entire shelf of maple syrup waffles. i bought one pack for all my favourite people :D so if you get one you're loved by me. its quite crazy though i have to wait for like 3 weeks till singapore before i give any of them away so i hope i dont actually eat any of them before i go home :)
towards the end we camped at this place called le grande cafe; and we sat there for ages (not realising it was that long- 2.5hours!) but the food was good, we both had beers (hee) and i was quite proud of myself until i looked at the alcoholic content and it said 2.9%. well alright there how did the waitress know i dont drink!

THEN- sunday was shopping spree at bicester village. yes, spree- the word both evil and indulgently satisfying. i will (and shall) never understand the allure of versace/ugly luxury fashion brands. but nonetheless i bought quite a few things and did my christmas shopping. lets just say i cant wait for it to rain in london (so i can use my new brolly)!

headlines

the guardian, "barack obama arrives at the white house for meeting with george bush" but channel NewsAsia had to go with "Obama makes triumphant white house visit"
asians.

in other news, both my favourite people (rosh and cher) are back! got a call from rosh yay and cher showed me her battle scars (and vege soup, very dubious). ;)

jonny was very friendly today at the library, and it just makes me wonder why im so surprised at people's friendliness. maybe ive been conditioned into a city alien, hm.

sniffles

i think i kinda like the feeling of being drugged- the paracetemol laced in your breath, drug-filled brain and wooziness all around. and then of course, the afternoon nap that you didnt know you took, but eventually takes up the whole of your day and then you slowly wake up feeling cold (damn the cold feet) and hungry, and you realised its quite dark already; after which you go make yourself some crappy dinner and then you go straight back to bed (not before some guy calls to offer you three issues of marie claire magazine for 1 pound, sigh) cos thats all the energy you have. i dont know how other people do it- blocked nose and muscle aches and all and stilll out there, fighting the cold and going about life as though the cold has no effect on them. i guess i am just weaker than i would love to be; or as jon always say, 'lazy lazy lazy!'

thanks though to my lover for the lemsip and good 'ol trashy fashion mag;) ah she knows me so well.
(lover truimphs all)

may the nasty cough never descend upon me!

happy diwali!

and this is how my diwali day went:

9am: decides not to go for make up medical class. sorry stuart andrews!
11am: michael wilkinson is doing jurisprudence! i really think he's a nice guy but i just dont get him when he lectures. rachel and i debated whether he's lost or gained weight.
12noon: goes for jurisprudence class. i teach my bbc friend another hokkien swear word.
12.01pm: nose works come on and valerie keeps looking over, oops.
12.58pm: my handphone rings in class, and my tutor concludes he's gone over time. ;)
1pm: get my hairdryer back from jessica, finally, but my ears were so blocked i couldnt really hear what she was saying...
1.30pm: i finally make my way over to meet jon to discuss about trial moot. no rooms in the library are available (fully booked til 5pm) sooo we make our way to the new academic building's new cafe.
1.45pm: we realise we cannot find a good argument for one point.
2pm: he makes his way to his class, and while walking he notices my new hair colour! yay
2.10pm: tries to find a free computer in the library, to no avail. make myself comfortable in one of the table facing the wall downstairs.
2.30pm: my ipod dies after singing its last breath on Ingrid Michaelson's Far Away. as soon as i put down my earphone, this old lady beind me says 'oh please go get a handkerchief, the sniffing is so annoying!'
2.31pm: i recover from my shock and apologise.
3.15pm: i stayed at my spot longer than i intended to, and in defiance sniffed loudly before i left. TWICE.
3.17pm: cannot find a free computer. panic, because i have to send an email before lecture.
3.20pm: spotted: two girls abusing the quick access computer policy by hogging the com spots to study. i go over and ask to use the computer. i stand and try to finish using the computer as fast as i can, while half debating whether to tell them to go find their own study spots.
3.30pm: ivan spots me and borrows copy card from me.
3.40pm: still stuck at the com, not going well and i figured i cant finish before lecture starts. sends email promising to attach the full authorities tonight.
3.45pm: hand towel thing in toilet is stuck.
4pm: medical law lecture. didnt have the notes cos i didnt go for class, so i simply sat and listened.
4.02pm: sees the essay questions,panicked a little when i didnt understand two of the questions; then realised i was being silly because we have not done those two yet.
4.25pm: finished my can of coke ;(
4.55pm: jay comes over and tells me how she loves my clothes. weekly ego booster;)
5pm: public international law lecture. spotted: tristan lookalike, again!
5.55pm: my bottle of sparkling water erupted all over me and my books. brilliant.
6.05pm: starts to drizzle a bit when i walk home, we tease judy about her saliva.
6.20pm: meets cheryl for groceries, and as soon as i walk out of my house it starts to pour.
6.21pm: it hailed. ! in oct. !
8pm: we spend way too long in waitrose and i end up with snacks. and also lots of fruits to balance it up.
8.20pm: i have oven baked fish and chips, which cheers me up a little, sigh.
10.13pm: finished dinner, sent email, and my lover is making me jealous.

and now i will go have an early night.

edit:
10.20pm: ITS SNOWING!

barely midterm yet

and im sick, again, but this time im actually going for makeup classes tomorrow, which says alot;) i might have been going out too much, but hey roshni was down for the weekend and i really enjoyed the indian company that one saturday afternoon. honestly ive always had friends from all races and colours but it was my first time spending so much time with a whole group of indian people who kept cracking indian jokes in that really funny indian accent;) ah goodness gracious me!

my ingrid michaelson cd came, finally, and im a happy girl. i want a mr lobster man too!

cheryl's house has turned from a poker house into a gaming house, with the new purchase of a ps3. they bought one game after another, and so this morning i forwarded ian the hmv newsletter which said grandtheft is on discount. and mr hopeless said they didnt want to get too addicted but oh they've been playing the whole morning.
which reminds me- i should go dig out my ds lite ;)

laughs

joke of the day (yest):
shop assistant: hey you look like an american
eddie: !!?

and my (not too fantastic) logic tutor reminds me of wilson from house.

before and after

before and after

okay you cant really see the gradiented cut of my 'after' shot (i tried my very best to photograph that in) but hey. cheryl is a damn good hairstylist (with lotsa patience, i think ma knows what a fussy girl i am with my haircuts) and the best thing is that she did it all with her nail scisscors. yes the tiny scisscors you cut your nails with. i kept asking her if her fingers are cramping and she said no.

so there! im bringing overseas student scrimping habits to a new level.

funny thing is how people dont notice that ive cut my hair though. its quite short now compared to what it was before! tan is the best. asked him whats different about me, and he stared at me for damn long before asking 'erm, something with the hair?'

rushing off to meet eddie now, after going out for three consecutive days (funny thing was i couldnt recall what exactly ive been doing at supper last night to shangjun) but hey its been fun not doing my readings, yet, which i will get to tonight. i will!