Friday, November 28, 2008

I am feeling restless. Have been for the past few days. 

If I was in Singapore, I'll probably have forced MH to go romping around Singapore with me. Since I'm not, yesterday was spent romping around Lancaster town. It was raining again, as usual, nothing new. But there was some sunlight which is a good thing here. So I decided to go to town early and walk around by myself.

Walked up to Lancaster castle, the priory and Roman baths (which were decidedly unimpressive. it was pretty much a small pile of rock. =\). The weather was fine and there was hardly anybody and everything was just so British! Hahahas. It was nice to able to take a nice long walk by myself. And I also realised that Lancaster has a Tourist i building! I did not know Lancaster had one. XD

I love romping alone somewhere, only with my ipod and camera.

I can't wait to go to London and do some romping alone. =D

Sometimes, being by yourself is the best.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Yays! Parcels!

48! Thanks for the notebook and kueh. Hahahas. Such fun. By the way, oil stains from the keuh are now on the letter and everything. XD

Funnies! Thanks for the little things and biscuits! =DDD Made my day! Infact, made the week! =D You guys are such love!

Miss you guys so much!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Picture this. You are an undergraduate at Lancaster University. You have essays to write and presentations to do up. You are half hard working, therefore of the reading list provided, you only bother to look for the * ones. They amount to ten books. Which sounds daunting, but most are just a few chapters.

So one day you are feeling particularly hardworking and decide to enter the library and do some searching of books. It is very simple. As like NUS, there is an online cataloge.

Difference starts here. Firstly you can search for the author's name but you will never get the particular author you are searching for. For example, you look for Smith, your results will have one Smith and about ten George and Brown. Fine. Search by title. You type in "Globalization and Resistence" which is the exact title of the book. Your search result ends up as,

"10 results for Globalization"
"1 results for Resistence"

You click on Resistence and obviously the result isn't your book. Because for the word "resistence" to appear as in a book title, unlike what the Lancaster online cataloge might suggest,  IS NOT THAT UNCOMMON.

Right. So after trying countless combinations and permutations of keywords, you finally find the book on the catalogue! Success! Even better news! The book is "On Shelf"! This is excellent news. You happily jot down the location and call number of the book and run off to find it!

Except the library's system of call numbers is BRILLIANT. QA-QB is NOT next to QBa-QC in fact QY-QYp is! When the shelf says "Journals" it actually contains oversized books! The journals are two shelves away under "Books"! And infact, QAxxx books are NOT shelved in the shelves marked QA-QB but are infact in the next shelf whish is happily marked as Y-YB!

Brilliant!

Finally! After painstakingly searching the entire Q and Y section, you find the particular shelf with books of the call number you are looking for. And finally finally!!!

THE BOOK IS NOT THERE.

There are supposed to be 3 copies of it. 
Other books with same/similar call number are shelved there.
Online catalogue says "on shelf"

THE BOOK IS NOT THERE.

Let me repeat,

THE BOOK IS NOT THERE.

By the way, the books with same/similar call numbers are useless to you, because they aren't of the same topic.

Repeat this process 10 times.

Treasure the NUS library system please.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Tadaa! Went to Liverpool on Sat. It was excellent! Pretty much my fave city besides London. Liverpool was really fun if only because there are so many relics of the Beatles here. =D And one of the first thing we found was....
The loveliest mailbos I've seen in the uk. I adore the crown on it. Albert Dock!
We reached the Beatles shop and what was the first thing I found? Monopoly Beatles style! HAHAHAS.
The interior ceiling was covered with Beatles song titles. The store was also continuusly playing Beatles' songs which totally gave it a hippy vibe. =D

I am in love with this place. And I have bright pink socks. XD

The museum which most of us decided not to go. Many other things in Liverpool to see! =DDD
But still from the outside was cool. And yes they were blasting Beatles' songs too. Hee.

Isn't this adorable. It was on sale, only 5GBP. But it was pretty heavy. =\

Hahahas. Atas back shot of me at Albert Dock. Lovely place.

Lovely picture with Maranda! It looks cold, but it wasn't so bad. Temperature warmed up a little over the week. But still as wet as ever. 

See why I love Liverpool? You get quirky things like these ferries appearing out of nowhere! If only Lancaster was half as lively. XP

Huay Wen's feet and an autumn leaf. <3
Some famous hotel. I think the Beatles stayed here or something. Interesting thing was they had weird statues with their arms opened all around the building. I was deeply amused!

Random colourful building!

RAG. It was emotional looking at this.

John Lennon statue outside the pub they used to play in. Very cool. And if you think the brick wall looks funny well...

They look like this up close! All the bands that have ever played in the pub have their names engraved on the wall. Very very cool. 

Entrance and me! =D

Hahahas. I seem to be making a point to visit such places everywhere I go. XD

The Brits have this tradition they got from the Americans. They wear/show/put up poppy flowers to remember all the soldiers who have died in all the wars/battles the British have fought. I like it.
This place totally remineded me of my European travels. =D


Because I am a dork. 

Mummy!


This is their train station, BIG THINGS HAPPEN HERE. =D

Yay! Lovely place!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Hello world. 

No no, I'm not dead. Just busy. Busy going out. Busy doing work. And unfortunatly busy being ill.

Manchester pics are actually up in my picasa album already. So check them out there if you want to.

Wednesday was Bonfire Night. But since I was down with the flu all I really did was wrap myself in a blanket and slept away the next few days. =\ Friday night some folks came over and we cooked up a Singapore-Malaysian-Thai storm of food, of which I ate rice and egg and veges because everything else was curry based and I totally couldn't stomach them then. The I procceeded to sleep 16 blissful hours and woke up at 3pm today to eat and get ready to go out to town!

Fireworks at Lancaster Castle! It was near and beautiful and also really really wet. It is a surreal feeling watching fireworks in a crowd where everyone isn't sticky and sweaty, but bundled up and carrying umbrellas. For once I'm glad there was a crowd, blocked off most of the wind.

Anyways, British weather has officially taken down my umbrella as it's latest victim. Now none of us are going back to Singapore with the ones we brought!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

HAPPY BRITHDAY APPLIE!!!!

hope you had a wonderful time! =D
*evil laughter* HAPPY HALLOWEEEEN =}



For Halloweeeen, Tze Khee, Huay Wen and I decided a night out in town would be excellent! Yays! So we wandered around town looking for a place to drink while trying to experience the wacky crazy outfits of the locals. Sadly, Lancaster is pretty much a dead town, BUT. We still managed to find ourselves a club with a Halloweeeen party! Yayness!

Bulmers and Fruli! Apple Cider and STRAWBERRY BEER. STRAWBERRY. It's really really good! =D 

Random scary clown we met on the street!

The front of the Club! If you're wondering why it looks like an old English church....it's because it used to be a church.

Now it is a club. 

The British love their beer.

We had witches hats! Convenient things!

Taken before the crowd got in! Still it took us 15mins to get a drink. =\ Expensive drinks. They upped the price for Halloweeeen I think. 

I AM A SCARY WITCH. FEAR ME.

More 'bloody' outfits we saw! The British are really obliging! They let you take as many photos as you want! =DDD

Next entry would be about Manchester! I already know a few people looking forward to pictures! Soon! When I get the rest from Tze Khee and Huay Wen! =D