a week enriched with hope 'n pleasure

So it's 10 at nite and I ve finally survived the rather long and stressful thursday. Albeit 6 hours lecture, all the rushing n running around (in the zero plus minus two temperature).. The wind was extremely cruel, i could hear my ears, fingers and nose shouting and complaining about the cold. Oh ya, it snowed a bit on tue morning.

But on the brighter note, it's such a relief that mcq test was dealt with. Haven been examined for bt a year ade.. It turned out not too bad either.

I would say this week is my happiest week ever since. I enjoy reminding myself that it's just one more week from home. How much i hope that time stops here so that time to go home is not approaching, hence time to come back is not so soon too..

Funny though, I thought that with the end of the test, my brain will be relatively empty and carefree. But new thoughts seem to be swirling in my mind: my essays-to-be-done, my packings, my groceries-to-be-finished...

Leaving these alone, i shud be on the lovely holiday mood now! Get ready for packing n dancing home with glee =)

aspirations

A msn conversation with yong tonight made me realise that im losing the momentum that saw me through before i came up warwick. Absolutely absent from high expectations and ambitious dreams.. Guilt is growing intensely in my body when i see everyone puttin their hard (extremely hard) toils in pursuing their studies upon achieving their desired ambitions.

There's no drive or motivation to keep going. Have been just thinkin for time to pass, and time to go home to arrive. Waiting for lectures to end, exams to pass (jz to pass..).. I wonder what's wrong with me..

Initially i would say tat it appeared to be a positive thing, where i can jz enjoy my learning process n uni life here. No pressure to do well, no more burning of midnight's oil, no more cryins at nite while tryin to memorize the lines in the textbooks during exam period..

But in reality, it's not. It's not.

It's time to have a good talk to myself n find out the root of the problem now. I know, i know, the study culture is different here. Jz try to pick up with it asap n make the best out of it.. U would definitely like to be a successful career lady, wouldnt u?


Got to keep reminding myself that excellence was one of the goals i set out to achieve by going overseas to study. This is a golden opportunity given to me n i shud grab it tightly..

Stop procrastinatin my dear. Stay focus and dont walk off the track..

devil: But it's last week for the term already =(

angel: But dont u forget that u r having a mcq exam tis week???!! Start working now!!

devil: But it's just mcq, n consists of onli 20 questions..

angel: It's stil an exam, n it's counted towards ur module marks..

devil: Yes i know. But it's just 15%..

angel: Dont u want the 15%?? Fine, if u dont want it, just carry on procrastinatin, dreaming n wanderin around..

devil:(speechless)

The angel won n pinkiecloud is taking out her lecture notes..

endless

So i had another skype call fraught with tears, which made me think about how i came all the way overseas, and how the clutches can still stretch so far. i don't know. i guess it's the ties that bind, and you really can't run away from it. neither do i think i really want to, deep down inside. after all, heartstrings can't be cut that easily.

I always thought skype was invented to be a happy thing.
And that if there are tears involved, they are tears of joy.

Funny how I keep getting proven wrong;
Time and time again.

I'm tired of this.

the new record

For the first time this week, I actually have a straight record of zero days of cryins.. Tis is largely due to the reason that i ll be home soon. On a very happy note, im very glad to remind myself that it's just one more week to go.. :D

Another pivotal reason -- all my lovely friends. Thank you to everyone who cheered me up in their own little way these two weeks. That's very very sweet n kind of u.. Esp tat u either hv to stay awake late at nite o made the effort to wake up from ur dreams early in the morning to skype with pinkiecloud. Thank you very, very much.

After all these, i decided to reward myself giddily with a better n more luxurious meal. This is also in corporation with the 20% discount from xanana (esp if u study economics, u should be aware that tis a good deal that u shudnt have missed, esp when u perform calculations on currecy conversions)..

My supreme of salmon..


Stir fried ciabatta..


Burger special..


Actually we also had the very nice banoffee waffle as dessert.. One of the very famous desserts here.. It's a Belgian waffle topped with sliced banana, vanilla ice cream and drizzled with toffee sauce.. One of the best dessert i ve ever had. Sorry that i couldnt show u an image of it, i forgot to take a snap of it.. ): Sorry..

Honestly speaking, tis was my second meal in xanana ever since i came to warwick. I shud admit that im quite reluctant to spend on outside food. Jz bcuz pinkiecloud rather spend it on somewhere else n pinkiecloud thinks that her cookin is stil not too bad yet =P

Guess these pictures attribute to good eyecandy for my blog.. Wil take more (meaning hv to eat at outside more??) nx time..
Take care =)

supper-supper

Have been updatin n replyin to emails today. Think i ve gained weight now.. Duno.. Perhaps anyone could tell me if im more chubby n fat now?



Haha.. I think late-nite suppers are my soulmate now.. Chocolates, cookies, cereals, muffins, bread, candies, tidbits, fruits, yoghurt, wedges, fries etc etc... Have been happily enjoyin suppers almost every nite.. Tats y i gained weight i think.. But it's very pleasurable to have supper, esp when i was watching drama, sittin on the chair with my legs tugged in, it was like the best time for the day (other than skype).. But i should really stop eatin junk, sum day, for health purposes, n otherwise im going to be fattie yunyun :)

Thx to joanna who came over to hv dinner n chit-chat with me.. N brought me delicious muffins from BB's. Well, I hope my black pepper chicken was not too bad..

Was expecting snow today.. According the forecasts, strong winds from the north MIGHT bring snow.. Oh yeah, 'might', so it's not sthing wrong when in the end there was no snow.. Hopefully i ll have snow days again nx term..

Drawing close to the end of the weekend, the unproductive weekend i shud say.. But im glad at least im not cryin again tis time, im ramblin about little things but that brought me SUPER happiness.. I ve been refraining myself from talkin about the perils, frustrative, n emos..

Guess this more or less sums up tis week. Wil be steppin on the grounds of msia in two weeks time.. Oh I just cant wait for the day to come :D

a pot of warmth

Im sorry that tis would be a long post again, but a couple of things cheered me up these few days. First of all, my hat goes to crystal and wendy who made the effort to wake up early in the morning to chat with me. Was motivated a lot. N cryin reduced drastically. Thx gals, they meant a lot to me. But im sorry if i ve made ur day started with unhappiness to see a hampau cryin in the screen while having ur breakfasts..

Drama was good. Initially my heart was teared to pieces when i was informed that the website i used to stream dramas was shut down. Couldnt get any alternatives thou. Finally resorted to another blogspot n everything went off well. Managed to catch up with 'Moonlight Resonance' which was stuck half way. Im at epi 22 now.. I must say, drama really enlightened my life over here a lot. I rarely cry when i watch drama, but eversince buckets n buckets of tears ensued while watching 'Moonlight Resonance', seeing the family of 'joe bao' so happy n so close.. but me being away from daddy, mummy, and my two sisters whom i miss a lot a lot..

One of my fav is epi 14, where 'jo bao' disguised himself to cheer her daughter 'ah hing' up, singing the warm n fuzzy 'fen fen zhong sui you nei', one of my fav songs.. It made me tot of daddy who always tell us super funny bed time stories.. I watched the scene for at least 10 times ade.. But of course, dramas really helped to drive my sorrows away. Sometimes i was hesitatin whether to sacrifice one hour for drama, but it proves to be really worthwhile. At least after tat i can study better, have a better mood, n head to bed sweetly, grinning in glee.. ^-^

Also, caught a glimpse of klang wonderland from the pics on the online paper. This is the place that i love n miss very very much.. My homeland =)Please dun misunderstood that klang is so dirty o doesnt look like a city. It is indeed a very lively n happy city, jz that due to construction that had gone on for more than a year, traffic is gettin worse n worst.. But rainbow after rain, im sure klang wil turn to an even beautiful place after all these upgrades.. Nevertheless, im Definitely proud to be klangites =P


So much of feelins came up when i saw tis pic. This is the road i used to drive on almost everyday. How much i wish tat im jamming there with the other motorists now..


Got the fantastic idea of motivation from wendy, i wrote about ten messages n hung them around my room.. In mandarin though.. SO that not everyone, esp the cleaners can read them?? Keke.. But the genuine reason underlyin shud be i love expressin myself in mandarin more, it's very romantic n expressive to me. Half way thru writin i did cry, but now i keep on reminding myself to be strong n tough.. TO be aware that im very blessed indeed as i can cum to uk, n oso go home so often..

Another cheerup: My first taste of hotpot in uk. Blindly joined the china in focus for a hotpot dinner in coventry yesterday. Tell u wat, i expected lots of chinese to join the event, yet it ended with all the caucasians.. N the best part is, they could speak mandarin.. Omg.. I was utterly stunned n impressed.. Their mandarin were fluent n they could share stories bout themselves in mandarin! N they loved the Chinese culture. Im so glad. So for the whole night, we converse in mandarin n it was really cool..

However, the hotpot wasnt really nice though.. These pictures shall tel u the stories..

That's the 'pot', made up of two soups, one is herbal soup, n another is a spicy soup, but it seems its just some chilly oil.. Very different from the one we usually have in msia..


N when they add the soup, they add purely hot water instead of the real soup like in msia.. So the soup actually ended up getting tasteless-er and tasteless-er..


Secondly, the 'ingredients' to be put into the hotpot. There were mussles, fishballs, sausages, seaweeds, 'dong fen', 'dou gan' etc.. But stil different from ours..



Sum prawns, n beef.. Din eat much prawns thou, cuz i was thinkin that it's quite troublesome n i dun hv the magic skills of peeling of the prawn skins with the chopsticks..


The sauces available.. Tis was the onli one i really enjoyed, without them, the soup was almost tasteless..


The hotpot din end up tasty nor delicious anyway. It was quite bad actually, to me. Wat we have in msia is definitely a lot better i would say. It's a buffet hotpot, so there was actually a free flow of food n drinks. So i ate a lot of 'dong fun' and sausages through out as onli them seemed to be of my taste.. Each country has their own taste preference i guess..


Despite the somehow rather tasteless hotpot (actually im pretty regret tat i shud jz order a simple chinese dish instead), but it was good experience though.. N got to know a lot of new frens, who can speak mandarin.. This is julie, n spain, n her mandarin was the best amongst all.. A very friendly n jovial lady..She has a twin sister who went along tat nite too..


Me n shin li..


That's ding, from china, doing acc n finance too..Blurred by the steam.. hehe..


The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty well.. With all the chinese paintings n decorative styles.. N the tv was showing a show of 'A date with Lu Yu' from the phoenix channel..


As u can see, everythin was quite 'chinese-styled'..


It was very kind of the driver of the restaurant to send us back (fee shall be included in our meal already), n he stopped me right in front of my flat. So i ve successfully prevented from walking back alone. N on the way, we heard the song 'tong hua' by Micheal Guang Liang. Few of us (me at least) were singing out along, n yeah.. Feelin very warm n sweet tat nite. Reached comfie heronbank at around 11. But im was an impulsive and wonderful nite =P