Big Brother UK

It's funny how, when I was in NUS, in hall I wasn't even close to being the oldest among my peers. I mean there's like my neighbour (nb) who is 2 yrs older than me, and Eu Ong and the other senior guys.

But here living in Evelyn Gardens, I meet people who are so young, I already kinda forgot what I was doing at that age! I played tennis doubles with this 18yr old greek who was giggling away like some small kid about making the opponents run, and I was having lunch with a 18yr old hk girl who lived down my corridor giving me advice about the coming winter (cos she stayed here for a few yrs already) heh.

And its also interesting that the freshers keep coming to me for advice, from anything like cooking, to alcohol, to bgr, to schoolwork. haha. Maybe being 23 yrs, I really am more experienced hurhur. (but I'm really no jiu gui ...)

In any case, hey, don't get the wrong idea. I'm not complaining, in fact I don't mind helping whenever I can ... being big brother's kinda fun still even though I've been doing that for 23 yrs heh. Well, maybe just dont keep mentioning about the age gap la. 1 times, 2 times, its alright, though it's kinda irritating when it keeps getting brought up "But you are TWENTY THREE yrs old and you should know about this and that, right?"

I understand u la, nb. sian.

Anyway, somehow, I seem to know quite a bit of whats happening around to the singaporeans around me. heh. Quite the opposite when I was in KR when I was about the last to know anything.. but here, somehow, its different. Maybe being older helps.

Oh well. Interesting times ahead, I suppose.

All That Jazz

Caught Chicago on Wed night, at a real good price of 13quid, but the seats weren't front row of cos. Well, Ashlee Simpson actually starred as Roxie Hart for the London production... and I would say her performance was just passable at best. Actually, the whole show was ok la overall, dancing was really good, but the singing could have been better. The actress who did Velma was really the show stealer for me, while Roxie and the lawyer... well let's just say I've seen better. So perhaps I was lucky never overpay for it la. Never mind, watching Producers next thurs night, which I've heard it's highly entertaining, so it should be good la.

Oh. And this is the reason why Ashlee Simpson is so unpopular in USA. I'm sure you can figure out why.


Last night, was supposed to go union bar, jio a lot of ppl le, then suddenly once it was made known it was gonna be a foam party, suddenly everyone decided not to go! Then I was like, hey man, we can always stay away from the foam if you dun wanna get wet (cos its a separate arena) etc, or we could just pop by and see how it goes and decide to barhop later or what. I mean, its a Friday night! Not that I condone a partying lifestyle or what, but theres no school the next day and at least should spend some time with friends, right? Already quite lonely in London, then cannot stay in on Fri nights what heh. Nevermind, I'll try to inculcate that into the freshers hurhur.

So Chow rang me up and I went over to his place to chill out. Turns out its just 5 mins away and it's on my way to school in any case. 4 guys shared a 20-piece KFC bucket, shiok! ended up watching Lost, but I was really the lost one as I stopped in mid season 2 after I lost interest in Lost. (4 losts in 1 statement hurhur. ) Anyways, ended up playing Texas Hold'em with a bunch of Singaporean graduates in Flat 3, fun loving group la. They even bought playing chips and card cloth, the whole package la, and its a really easy and addictive game. hah. Well, I'll still keep the Genting trip last month in mind...

Mahjong weekend!

The Fed-era goes on ...

So I've just read on the net that a certain Roger Federer has just won his 10th title of the year, the Madrid ATP Masters. Actually its kinda scary how much his one-man domination of the circuit, bar the slight irritation of Nadal, is really begin to show. Well, no need for me to heap more accolades on to him, and besides, I don't get a chance to watch any tennis on TV here (cos the TV room reception sucks la. seems like Sky TV shows soccer 12 hrs a day, so no F1, tennis etc for me)

Here's Tan Xiexing's blogpost about Roger Federer, which seems to be hugely inspired by this previous post of mine. Eh. Plagiarism is a crime ok dude? haha. btw, how did I inspire you to start blogging one ah, you gotta tell me man. take care in sg!

I think I should really grab any chance to watch any live sports event in UK/Europe, be it soccer, F1, tennis, snooker or just anything that can entertain me la.

walk this way

Why does today's walk to school seem shorter than usual?

Is it because of familiarity setting in ...

or the easy on-the-go listening of Van Morrison ...



or am I simply just walking faster?

In any case, it's a good thing and I ain't complaining =)

surprise!

Well, surprised I was! On the 21/10 night 11pm, some of the IC singaporeans came over to my room and gave me a surprise party! heh. it's been a really long while since I last had a surprise party and somemore this away from sg, even more special la.

Anyways, many thanks to Teresa, Joanne, Adeline, Binghao, Laphang, Clinton, Terence, Zhengyuan, David, Liling and her UCL friend who popped by! thanks for organising and making the trip over =)

heres some pics


kena caught out look

um a snapshot of some ppl who came by.. shld have taken a grp photo la!cutting cake ...
freshly baked by the boys ... lub lub haha
Then sunday and 22nd itself, was a ridiculously wet day! oh well kena drenched, didn't play my tennis, and basically was so gloomy. Till dinner at least, when I went out with the boys and jinyang and jo who came all e way again, twice in 24 hrs!
Italian Pizza down the road, super filling, and affordable, by London standards heh

classy eh

Communications

Well, I've always thought that communication between a couple is the single most important factor to maintain a relationship ... well. Apparently theres this English guy (Millington) having many interesting conversations with his German gf (Margret).... just see the excerpt

As I say, though, the point here is about the model of the world we have in our different heads; it's not always (with worrying frequency, yes - but not always) about how desirable it is to arrive at tomorrow. It's about communication. Communicate this, everyone: Margret walked into the living room last week and asked me, "What's the difference between a cucumber and something else?"
How - how, by God's holy jowls - do you answer a question like that? "Well, a CD player doesn't fixate nitrogen as it grows, and Pascal's Wager is more of a theological argument that's less useful when preparing a salad," I replied.
She nodded and left the room again.

heh.

taken from Things my Girlfriend and I have quarrelled about

Musings pt I

1) You know you're in UK, the birthplace of billiards, when lecturers use a pool cue as a pointing device
2) It's funny when 20 guys and girls gather in a TV room (plasma no less) with comfy sofas, watching Chelsea vs Barcelona with beer in hand, and not a single one is a Chelsea supporter. And we're 10mins walk to Stamford Bridge
3) A piano concert of Classical and Romantic pieces cost 2quid at the Royal Albert Hall, while a sandwich costs 3.50quid at Starbucks
4) It's not as hard as I thought to stripe a lawn, as I've seen 1st hand this morning in the gdn across my room
5) I miss the days in Singapore when I overslept, and could watch the webcast that same evening. Wait. It just happened to me today. Well, except the webcast part.

heh just when I decided to turn in early last night, I ended up sleeping past 9! My only lecture today was from 9-11 so I decided not to go and just read up the notes online. helllloooo han, theres no webcast here ok ...

Anyways, heard from Ian that NUS is giving each of their exchange students 3.5k SGD from next academic yr onwards. sigh, talk abt being born a year too early. 3.5k could really go a long way even here in London -- thats 1 Starbucks sandwich per day for a year! =)

Looking forward to the weekend!

sighhhh

It hit me earlier than I thought. Man's greatest fear.

Loneliness.

I think it's a combination of everything. Missing friends and family in sg ... miss hall where I can just walk out of my room at 2am and go to my neighbour's room and chat till 5am ... miss the late night suppers. miss my guitar. miss my room and cable tv. miss you, you and you.

and it just only took a couple of songs on my playlist to invoke all those memories... sigh I'm just not used to this emo-state at all, cos I dont get it back home in sg. oh well.

Butterflies, zebras and moonbeams, take anything you want from me. anything....

woot!

Queen's "We Will Rock You" was absolutely fantastic! Especially for a Queen fan like me who knows the lyrics by heart, it was even the more fulfilling to watch a rock musical. Anyways, shall not spoil it, but say that all rock fans should catch this musical, whether you're a Queen fan or not.

anyways, went to play tennis for the 1st time at Hyde Park on Friday, and went to check out the London Eye at night. London eye was good la, the city lights at night was quite a sight to behold. 135m up in the air, 30min ride. I wonder if the Singapore Eye will be as good as this.

Played tennis today again at Cartwright Gdns in moss filled tar courts. haha doesn't sound too appealing actually, but it was real fun playing with the UCL ppl (thanks kaiping!) Tho I'll need to get used to my borrowed racket, cos the tension is a bit too tight for my liking. Anyhows, its just an excuse to play more!

Going to make mutton rendang now, so here's some pics over the past few days...

Me and Alex (a Freddie fan) before the Queen show

Mr. B couldn't stand my singing no more so he locked me in.Before the London Eye ... thats the Big Ben
Night shots of London from the air
my favshot of the night.
thats me pushing the Eye in circles. heh
I feel so touristy in London man. Some Singaporean in my course even said that I'm more british than the singaporeans who've been here 2 yrs already. hah

oh btw my toe's getting better now, after visiting the evelyn gdns resident medic. hurhur thanks hor teresa for operating on my smelly feet! Will return the favour in Baileys! =)

The mini celebrity

"Oh .. so you are Zhonghan ... the exchange student!" Wa lao I think I must have heard this line at least 20 times in the past week. Seems like I'm kinda a mini celebrity here...seems like a lot of singaporeans know me and I haven't even met them yet. and everyones like saying how I will enjoy life here as an exchange student simply because I only need to pass/fail. Well, granted that, and even though I'm still very much in tourist mood, still must study what!! In fact, the non-engine modules I'm taking here are really way more interesting than anything that I've ever taken before in NUS. OK lets see my modules

Microwave Technology: Already stated to be the hardest topic. I was never good at signals always. And I guess the class register of only 13 people says it all, how people are avoiding this module here. Hmm.
Human Computer Interaction: Not bad, no exams, but courseworks are already due next week. About how to design interfaces, so it's quite engaging topic
Control Engineering: Should be the most labourious of the modules, right now its just abstract formulae after another. the prof is good tho, he's Italian and he has an Italian accent. And he always wears his Lacoste shirt. So pro-Italia. heh
Intro to Comp Architecture: basically means assembly language. Labs and labs, hopefully straightforward even tho its tedious
Comm Systems: Tomorrow's my 1st lesson, but it's another signals module, so I think I'm not gonna do too good on this...
Project: oh yes. I'm doing the 3rd year of a 4yr MASTERS of Eng. course here in IC. But I will only get a B.Eng after I finish my final year in NUS .... oh well. sian. Anyways, I'm doing this M.Eng project with 5 other pple, of which 4 are Singaporeans. It's a rather power-group (so I was told), and I won't be one of those typical exchange students who pangseh their project grps. Besides I'm going to camp in the labs for 8 weeks in the summer to do our project. Right now.... our proposal is to devise a brainwave monitoring device. From scratch. Haha ... It's ambitious la, but it's gonna be fun n challenging
Roman Empire: My favourite topic of late, of my favourite empire. Hope its gonna be a blast! Think I'm really gonna enjoy it
Film Studies: Another of my recently acquired hobbies, though this will be a appreciation of rather old and classic movies like Sherlock Junior and Bonnie & Clyde and Casablanca. And not Matrix kinda contemporary stuff.

So there. the 2 humanities and project will last through the whole year, so that's 5 core modules + 3 others for the entire Autumn Sem. Rather xiong hor. I also think so... but no choice, they dont offer these in the Spring sem.

Anyways, weather in London has been surprisingly warm these couple of days. 2 things I noticed about Londoners:
1. In Singapore, we seen parents often carrying their child in their hands. But Londoners (or actually European) seem to have this fetish for posh baby carts. I swore I've not seen 2 of the same designs around ever since I've been here, and I've seen a lot of carts.
2. Drivers here are absolutely friendly to pedestrians. I mean, Singaporeans are so used to honking at pedestrians or when a driver in front of you stalls at the zebra crossing/road turning. I do that myself too sometimes hah. And I think I should pick this up from the Londoners la. Even though I see the rubbish truck driving at 80km/h through a narrow street, they still stop for the pedestrian (usually with a posh baby cart) to cross the street. Must change!!

Anyways the some of the Singaporeans from Holbein and WJ came to my chillout balcony last night for some .. erm .. chilling out. In fact so chill that we stayed indoors in my rather small and cosy room hah. Here's some pics
that girl's teresa.




Oh and Teresa's a 5th year medic in IC ... means shes 83 like me! So rare to find 83-ers around here. Cos the 83 guys all stay far away from me, and Evelyn gdns where I stay are mostly freshers. Oh well. Even the 3rd yr exchange guy from USA is 20 yrs old only. damn.

Ok, gotta go cook soon. early dinner tonight cos....... Queen's "We Wll Rock You" is waiting for me!

another picture post

Ok before I sound obsessed with my balcony again .... I must really say today was a beauuuutiful Sunday morning. Woke at abt 11, had breakfast in the common room, and went out on my balcony and WOW. its just brilliant. And its so nice to find a pretty well kept garden in busy london (there are lots of well kept gdns). Flanked by the busy streets of Fulham and people walking around doing their sunday activities, you find a peaceful acre of greenery in bloom. That kinda sums up London in a way, the amalgamation of cultures and lifestyles, in one of the greatest cities of the modern world. You probably can find every kind of different lifestyle in this place, something I think even places like New York and Paris cannot claim to be.

Took this before, but today the flower bushes were in bloom! So pretty

The sun peeking outThe banner above my balcony (Willis Jackson & Holbien)
Went Covent Gdns in the afternoon with the guys n Joanne. Its this market square bustling with street performers and buskers. This is just one of the many. Silver helium guy I call him.
Went on the Lily Whites later

open eyes!
Literaly "chilling out" while waiting for Lap to shop finish. Ohhhh... and I bought 2 caricatures at the market. It's a bit pricey tho, but I suppose its ok to spend on something I like.



One day I shall get my caricature done too

btw, I chanced upon a shop selling all rock memoribilia, mostly UK bands but basically ALL the classic rock legends from Beatles to Hendrix to Marley to Queen to AC/DC to Led Zep and I could go on forever ... If anyone wants anything, just feel free to ask. Im surely making a trip back there soon heh =)

Harrods + covent garden + singwei's place

I was so stupid on my1st day of school! Walked a good 20 mins to school for my 9am lecture, and saw that the room was empty... double checked the location and it was right, and it was only after another look that I saw my lecture started next week! and ALL my EE lectures start next week. Oh well. Better than missing my 1st lecture I suppose. Anyways this is so 'NUS' of me also, cos I also somehow miss or go for the wrong lects/tutorials for the 1st few weeks of school. Haha. Some things dont change much eh.

Went Harrods in the afternoon with Joanne and Ziyang. It's this posh shopping centre opened by Mohamed Al Fayed, and really caters to the rich and famous only. like, for eg. an umbrella cos at least 70quid. Pple like me, can only window shop and eat krispy kreme donuts hah. Heres the pics

The huge Harrods building
Some of the bags
heh. Im cataloging for my cuz
Harrods brand bear
Deco
Chocolate shoes. melt on your feet not on your hands
Their best selling toy. Go figure



Didn't stay too long, cos was meeting Edwin, Samuel and Singwei at Covent Gardens. We the St John's Chinese High Alumni in London haha. Great to meet up with them all again. Ate at this Belgo's near the Covent Garden tube, where there was a beat the clock concept. So our meal cost 5.50quid cos we ordered at 5.50pm. which is very affordable for a London dinner already =) Will try the mussels next time.



Covent Market Square is this huge square with lotsa stalls in it. Sadly I only went at night, and I can only imagine how beautiful it will look in the day
The many buskers and street performers around certainly livens up the place. Heres one guitarist tapping the guitar on his lap. Amazing Grace



Went Singwei's place after, it's a super cosy corner and its rather cheap too! Really a good find man. He even has a drumset in his room and a newly acquired Squire bass heh. We did a mini britrock jam but it was late at night so we didn't want to wake the neighbours. Found out that all of us bar Edwin was crazy about the show 24 season 5, so much so that we ended watching THREE eps of that show right in his room !!! haha. Hope we didn't spoil Edwin's fun heh.

Oh. We had a Brokebed moment. Obviously after years of Singwei's straining his bed's wooden planks, it couldn't hold on any longer (with all 4 of us on his bed hahah). It broke! uh oh. sorry about that dude.

Gotta meet up again soon ok!

nice afternoon jog

After not exercising for quite some time, decided to go for a jog today. Since all I had was a library tour which I skipped, I pretty much stayed indoors the whole day till about 3 plus pm. Then me and LH took off to Linstead and picked up Joanne along the way, before continuing on to Hyde Park for the jog.

Hyde Park is soooooooooooo beautiful! It's gonna be a great to just walk around the park, sit on one of the deck chairs and just lay back the entire day. gonna find time to do it soon before it gets too cold. Anyways, I was in t-shirt and shorts forthe jog and its chillingly cold man! gotta get track pants too..

images courtesy of Lap's new cam phone. stunning aint it.

Loads of pigeons around
Thats a man swimming ... see the thing near the middle
This is like one of those expert photography. just peaceful looking at this! and they are huge =)
Having a bite
I think this is lake Sepertine.



dinner!
And I cant wait to makan after such a nice jog !


Anyways, looked through one of my modules today. Music and Western Civilisation .... the essays are really tough! I wonder if I'll be able to appreciate classical western music also. oh well. I also need some classical songs on the ipod now. heh

tml sch starts, tho I only got a 9-10am lect .... heh.

Maybe I'll walk on Hyde.

My place!

My room! It's rather narrow, even more than KR room. but its longer + has a sink & a balcony. and someone cleans it for me every other week heh. curtains are nice tho heh

My Desk. Think I need speakers soon. Miss my 'airfans' hahShelf ... Green label, baileys with mint chocolate, malibus
My Bed !

Views from my balcony. My folding chair which I just bought is at the bottom left corner. ultimate chill out


Thats Fulham street across.
Down my street at Evelyn Gdns
Garden opposite my balcony... they just striped the grass today
Across the street. Traffic wardens having a field day

The Singaporeans in Willis Jackson House. L to R Clinton, Binghao, Lap Hang having our 1st asian home cooked meal


Simple meal of salmon, diced chicken, vege and rice ... yummy