London Day 57 : Focus, Eyes on the Prize

Pictures from Nottingham

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Being here in a foreign country so far away from home, it's so easy to stray and lose focus on the main reason why we're here and spending so much money for it.

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Once in a while, I get reminders to stay the fk awake and keep my eyes on the prize and stay focused. For that, I am glad. I'm not here to be an average student, albeit in a university like UCL. I'm here to do the best I can and I know that is much much more than I am doing now. First class and nothing less.

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Stay focused.

London Day 55 : London's Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum, along with a few other museums is located in South Kensington. Oddly enough, I went with a Malaysian friend who came here on vacation. We HAD to meet up cos my mom gave him packs of my favourite instant noodles. PAPA TOMYAM!

There's an ice skating rink right outside the Natural History Museum.

The exterior.

Seriously, english architecture just revolves around pillars. The British Museum has pillars, UCL has pillars, Natural History Museum has pillars. Everywhere I see PILLARS. Ran our of ideas, I'm guessing. They should try spirals.

The entrance.

Super cool! There were statues of mythical creatures and this escalator going up into a big round thingy I assume is Earth.

Dead Rhino's mummy.

Dino skeletono.

Outer space.

Cyclops skull!!!!

Early scientists believed that the skull above belonged to a Cyclops, as depicted in the picture above. Looking at the skull, it isn't hard to believe it belonged to a cyclops. But modern science shows that it's actually part of a skull of some normal mammal. Boring.

Cyclops. Cool.

Dinosaur period snail.

Ball of fuzzy cyrstal.

Fossils , so cool. This is called a Memorial Stone because of all the "memories" inbedded in them. I think.

On the left, what people from ages ago used to believe is Zeus' thunderbolt.

To me it looks like... a pee-pee.

On the right, what they believed was a devil's toenail. Or was it horn? i forgot.

Entering another planet

The most unflattering angle in the world.

Looking too happy with destruction.

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There was an earthquake stimulation set that actually moved and we got to "experience" an earthquake. IN CASE OF EARTHQUAKES, DUCK UNDER A TABLE! Can. Confirm survive.

Sean checking out suspicious looking things. I don't know if it's just me, but those things look like...

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I need to pluck my brain out of the gutter.

The earthquake stimulation platform. It is designed to take on the look of a Japanese store, with a tape playing of the actual events that occured in Japan.

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There was Japanese noodles on the shelves and they all looked real. I tried to take one but it was glued together =( I guess I have to buy them from Chinatown for 98pence per packet.

Fossils and stuff.

Woman gazing.

Ikan bakar.

Crocodile Hunter.

This skull was so freaking huge, if I battle this skull and only the skull without the body, I'd still lose. Freakin tooth was longer than my finger.

Searching for diamonds.

Birds!

The furthest left is the most gargantuan egg since the Dinosaur period and man, the thing is the size of a watermelon. Whichever vajayjay plopped that out, must've been huge. I could probably fit my head in.

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Not that I want to. It's extinct anyways.

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The third from left is an Ostrich egg. Bayangkan.

In Victorian days, display cases like this one here used to be popular and could be found in the houses of the rich and upperclass. What initially looks like tree branches is actually....

Hummingbirds =( A lot of them were killed for stupid display cases in Victorian times.

Hedwig.

In the animal kingdom , the male species is always the more beautiful one, the more attention grabbing one, the more colourfun one.

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The only case in which the males are uglier is humans

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Truth.

I was so excited to see this DODO bird! But it was a fake model, reconstructed.

Giant sloth!

Dinosaur!

In cartoons, this dinosaur is always friendly.

Betsy and I.

Betsy , Sean and I.

Cornelius and Sean.

Bob and I

Glenda and I.

Old Man Baker and I.

T-Rex and I.

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This one was a animated one, that moved and growled and all. Sean took so many pictures. Boys will be boys. From 5 to 20 years old. All the same.

Sean.

Sean .

Sean Again.

Guess who.

No points for guessing who took this picture of a Lego Dinosaur.

Visited Miss Lim

MAMMALS.!

Visited JiaShen as well.

Visited Billy.

JiaShen when he was younger.

Giant elephant and its Mini-Me.

Darn big tooth.

This, I don't even know what kinda tooth it is. Like some deformed ugly head crushing tooth.

This, I don't even want to call it a tooth. Looks like a freaking rock.

When I see these tooths, I feel like my own wisdom tooth isn't too bad after all.

ByeBye Betsy!

London Day 54 : I feel so Adult, now.

After the rather unfortunate events of Friday the 13th, I have since cleaned up my own mess and have started stitching my life back together.

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I bought a new leather purse (18 pounds after 10 percent student discount) and a leather sling pouch WITH zips and a flap, too. (20 pounds, no discount from the street vendor).

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I made a police report at the Holborn Police Station and the woman there was so lovely she was very helpful and kept calling me "love" and "sunshine". I readily forgave her for having long acrylic purple nails despite being at least 45 years old.

After reporting the crime, I took my police report and, today morning, went to the Malaysian Embassy to get a replacement IC.

For all fellow Malaysians, should you ever need it, the address of the Malaysian Embassy, London is:

45-46 Belgrave Square London

SW1X 8QT.

Nearest tube station: Hyde Park Corner ( Picadilly Line )

Tel. Numbers: 020 7919 0236/0251/0210

All pictures in this post taken with my blackberry. The quality is really quite good. Not that I'm pushing for anyone to get the blackberry. If anything, I'd recommend otherwise. Cos the blackberry is just so business-y looking and dull.

Waiting my turn. Turned out I couldn't do my IC here, only back in Malaysia and within 30 days of my landing on Malaysian soil. So now I'm to be stuck with a slip of paper as a poor substitution of my IC.

Saw this sign on the road. So weird. Depositing waste without consent is an offence. And I suppose the number provided is for one to call and ask for consent to deposit their dog's waste?

A park nearby. I've decided that the parks here are so much better and more beautiful because they're actually well taken care of and they have so many more colours than we do.

Purple berries that I wanted to taste but didn't dare to.

More embassies. even the architecture here is prettier than back home. I suppose it's not our fault we're a fairly recently independant country.

Saw a procession of horses marching into Hyde Park. Are the men on the horses.... knights? je ne sais pas.

Today was a pretty good day. I had a nice walk around Belgrave Square, saw pretty colours and streets, annnnd bought myself a Teh Tarik (1 pound) and Nasi Lemak for lunch (3.50 pounds) from a small booth in the compounds of the Malaysian Embassy. It was authentic Nasi Lemak. yummmm.

Also, another reason why today is a good day, is because it was actually quite sunny! rare sisght here in London and I really appreciated the good old golden rays.

My plants sitting on my windowsill. They're succulent flowers (meaning like cactus) and don't require water ( once in approx 10 days), making them the perfect plant for me.

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Thing is, I've been taking care of them equally and treating them both the same but somehow the yellow one is all droopy and looking like it's gonna die.(kla, to be honest, I suppose I always favoured the red one cos it was prettier) I was most tempted to throw the whole plant away. But, as I was discussing with my mom, one does not throw out one's baby just because it's ugly.

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My mom said I was an ugly baby with 3 strands of hair and she didn't chuck me. So I suppose I couldn't chuck the yellow plant.

So, I trimmed it. I guess I went a little bit too far.

I didn't know how, so I hacked the whole thing off. Grow now, little one.

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cheers y'all!

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edit:

If your wallet gets stolen/lost.

1. Cancel all cards

2. Make a police report.

3. GO to your embassy to get an ID slip if you lost your ID.

London, the big 50 : Friday the Thirteenth

Friday the Thirteenth is a superstitious day of either good or bad luck. In numerology, in Norse mythology, in tales of the Knights Templar, even written by authors . This day has been regarded as an unlucky one since the 19th century.

Jesus Christ was, apparently, crucified on a Friday.

In numerology, 12 is a number of completeness, 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 hours of the clock, 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12 Gods of Olympus. Whereas 13 is a number that is irregular, transcending this completeness.

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 - Friday the 13th.

source: wikipedia.

Friday the 13th occurs at least once a year and at most thrice. This year, it occurs thrice. February, March and November.

Today is the last Friday the 13th. Today, my luck was shit. Today, I got pickpocketed in a Zara store on Oxford Street while queueing to pay for my purchase.

I only realised my purse was gone when I reached the till. Malaysian ID, Driving License, Debit Card, Credit Card, Waterstone's Card, Tesco Card, sentimental items. These were what went missing. The dismal cash I had in there, ( less than 10 pounds ) was the least worrying thing.

Looking back at the CCTV tape, it all seems so OBVIOUS. The security guy could immediately tell which was the suspicious guy. The guy right behind me in line who was holding up a woman's sweater to block the view of the CCTV while he reached into my bag and took it and just left. Right there. I knew he was jostling me too much and I shifted my stuff but I guess I should've turned around and told him to fk off instead.

"IF"s will ruin you if you keep thinking about them. So instead, I did what I had to do. I cancelled my cards. I called home. And I thought to myself. MAYBE, if it hadn't been stolen and I didn't spend half an hour in the store looking for it and checking the tapes with the security guard, MAYBE I would've gotten into a serious accident, ,like get hit by a double decker bus, if I stepped out earlier. MAYBE, by losing my wallet, I saved my life.

That, I suppose, is what some may call denial. But it's not to me. It's not that I'm deluded. I have learnt my lesson and it was the hardest way possible. But then again, I'd like to think that worse shit might have happened if this didn't .

Please keep your belongings within your vision at all times and if you feel like something's not right, don't just brush it off the way I did. Turn and give the finger. Preferably, carry your cards in a separate holder and not in your wallet. AND never think that things like this only happens in the street. It happens EVERYWHERE. Even in a store.

So I learnt it the difficult way. I hope none of you have to.

London Day 48 :5th Nov, Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. (Holla*)
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!

The night of November 5th, Yahui and I were supposed to go to a LSE public lecture on the growth of China or something like that. Walking out of the hall, we just stopped midtracks and thought: If we were going to spend the night out anyways, why not do something fun that we'd enjoy instead of going for some talk we'd most likely sleep in or spend the entire time passing notes to each other?

SO.... we turned back and met up with a bunch of others who were going for the fireworks display. hoohah! LSE whaat?

Took the tube all the way to Canada Waters . Which, duh, isn't really in Canada. IT was quite a long tube journey. Fireworks were supposed to start at 7. AT that time, we were still in the tube -____-.

Came out of the tube station and half ran all the way to the nearest source of bing bangs. HEARD 2 booms, saw a few pathetically small ones.. then.. the end. =.= Desperately searched for bigger boom bangs but were rather let down. Travelled all the way there for nuts.

Us all taking a picture in a parking lot in hopes of catching some remnants of fireworks -__-

In other news, who wants to send me food from home for Christmas? :)

GUESS WHAT THE GAY HAPPENED???

NOW my left gums, upper and lower, are throbbing and swelling. WHY? cos A NEW WISDOM TOOTH IS GROWING AT THE UPPER LEFT!!!!! so lucky!!

In addition to the fevers and blah di blah, I now have THIS too, to add to my wellbeing.

Life, sometimes, is just fantastic.

I also can't smell or taste anything. FML.

London Day I dont care

Have been sick.

very sick.

Sick like a dog. Wake up perspiring , shirt soaked through. cough cough. mucus everywhere. blablabla.

feeling better nw though. Write soon

London Day 42 : hovering at 10 degrees

My first class was at 11am today, and I as I was walking to class, this was what the sky looked like.

The temperature has been hovering around 10 degrees these past few days, and I'm anticipating harsher weather to come soon and have started layering. The wind is killer and everyone's having a second bout of cold. Lectures with 300 people almost daily. The best way to share the germs and spread the love.

It's been drizzling miserably quite often, too. And one day while walking back under the drizzle, I realised something...

That ALL my shoes

Are either suede

or leather.

Not the smartest type of footwear for walking in the rain. I spray them with suede/leather protector but I doubt it works.

Saw this fluffy thing in the park the other day. Unlike the ones in Malaysia that live in drains and look like rats =/ If we had parks like these back home , I bet our squirrels will be this cute too. I've also seen FOXES in the parks at night. REAL ONES! First (and only) time I saw it, I was so excited, I followed the thing but it ran away =(. The interesting thing with foxes is, when you stare at it, it stares back. For real. Others have told me the same thing as well. Why are there no musangs in Malaysia? pupus?

Today's Lunch.

Risotto (3 pounds) and microwaved soup in a pack (Forgot how much harhar)

The risotto is so good and cheap compared to other places, I've had this something like 10 times now and I still love it!

Statistics test tomorrow, which is open book. But because it is open book, I feel very suspicious... humm...

London really isn't as gloomy as everyone says, albeit the lack of sun and the sky darkening at 4.30 pm. It's all about your own attempts to uplift your spirits!!

Also, I feel the need to announce ( I dunno why) that I've been downing A LOT of orange juice lately. I've seen Cherly(link on your right) turn orange from eating too much papaya and other orange stuff and I'm wondering if the same will happen to me. If so, I'd be the only one with a tan in winter.

Chilly!

jwC

London Day 40 : Dom Perignon vintage champagne

I start with a picture of this graffiti work here. Innocent picture.

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I don't usually talk about clubs and parties and the such, but I'm making an exception for this one cos something happened that I think is worth mentioning here.

This was at Maddox and the event was called Ecstacy, organised by UCL's Malaysian Society. Hence all the asians in the pictures below. Not cos we're racist.

Chris.

And no, his arm wasn't around me.

TIP to ALL: in clubs and at parties and when dancing, don't let people touch you. If someone approaces you and you say no, they'll understand english and get lost. Don't be stupid and compromise yourselves. Please. Why let strangers touch you for fks? If you're my friend, I touch you for free k.

Kevin was the photographer of the night. He's the one who took my wind blown hair picture.

PRESENTING SHAN, who's from China but was raised here.

He's obviously not a Malaysian but the event is open to all.

The story begins and ends with Shan here, hero of the night.

See, there was a sort of celebration going on and people came in bearing bottles of champagne with fireworks on the top and brought these bottles to this table (not ours and we didn't know anyone there. We didn't get a table cos we're poor like that. harhar). So we saw a first batch of 5/6 bottles being sent there with a birthday cake. Looked on enviously, then continued on with our lives.

Then, a second batch was delivered. Again with fireworks. Shan here, our hero of the night, just went to the table, took one up, and came back. HAHAHAHAHHAHA. Shook the bottle, popped the cork, made a huge mess everywhere as the champagne overflowed like it's supposed to do, and passed some out to everyone. I read the label. It says: Dom Perignon vintage champagne. Didn't mean much to me.

Until one guy, Nigel, read it and exclaimed: WAH THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE CHAMPAGNES WEI! Then stood up, went to the bar, and asked for the price.

It was approx 280 pounds per bottle.

280 x 5.5 = RM 1540.

My first taste of REAL expensive champagne. Thanks to SHAN! HERO!

Thai flavour : this is Pan Pan, who's in my Economics course.

Their names are really cute, like one girl's nickname is Smile, another is named PRAEW (prononuced PROW) and here it's PanPan. Cute anot?

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I end with another picture of innocence.

I know I said I'd write about Nottingham and Bristol but a bit the malas.

Was supposed to go to Norwich this reading week but due to complications, I might not after all =(

It's cold and wet now. The sun goes down at 5pm ( which is actually 6pm cos of Daylight Savings) . I get hungry really quick. My skin is dry. My eyeballs are dry. My fingers are numb when I'm outdoors. Man, I miss the Sun cos it doesn't even show it's face much here. Weather is getting colder. It's now stil around 10-12 degrees in the mornings but the wind is killer. And the heater only operates certain hours cos my residence hall is too kiamsiap.

life though, is still good. And I have a lot to be thankful for.

I LOVE YOU MUMMY.

Nottingham Games 2009

I'll write tomorrow. After a good sleep and some brunch.

=)

jiaweiC