Monday, 11 January 2010
have i mentioned how much i HATE neuro? now every fricking time i make a movement or see something or hear something or remember something i get distracted by what it takes to make that movement, or see or hear that thing or remember that thing. and i start thinking of the motor cortex, visual and auditory organs and cortices and how you make and recall memories.
so much so that i get distracted when reading my textbook on other topics. how ironic.
if i haven't said it before, or have not made it clear, i say now...
I HATE EXAMS.
I HATE NEURO.
claudia(:
06:13
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
snow snow snow snow snow snow! we went for lunch at a korean restaurant and on the way there and back had loads of fun in the snow...
spicy pork stew!
i can't believe we got this much snow in one night. more to come! :P
claudia(:
00:28
Sunday, 3 January 2010
IT'S 2010!!!
new year's was fun! i had 2 places to be at for dinner on new year's eve, so it was quite a rush around manchester, and with infrequent bus services, it was quite overwhelming, but it was a lucky thing that i managed to get around pretty well, so it turned out alright in the end.
following a day of completely unproductive attempts at studying, i went to edwin's to help cook paella. i was supposed to bake dessert, but i got lazy, and there were desserts already anyway, so i went over early to help tim and edwin prepare for dinner - paella and steamboat. dinner was supposed to be at 6, but in true rubber time fashion, people only started arriving at 730 and some even had food to prepare, so i helped make and fry spring rolls etc. it was really fun though. and the food was yummmmyy :p i need to learn to make spring rolls and get the recipe for the paella.
then off i went to sarena's house for okonomiyaki with sarena, yc and ryo. there were mounds and mounds of cabbage because they cut two heads of cabbage, and apparently it was really dense, so they ended up with loads of it. we had sweet potato soup too. yummm :) such guilty pleasures.
at 11pm we went to exchange square to watch the fireworks and join in the countdown. got there at 11.45pm, and the atmosphere was really high. and there was a 10 minute firework display, which was really nice, especially since i haven't seen fireworks in ages. (i can't wait for national day, so i get to watch more fireworks. heehee :p) and then amazingly, we all wanted dessert... okay, well, not all of us, but sarena, yc and myself, so we went to a tai wu for dessert, hoping to have some hot chinese desserts, but all they served was western desserts, and what was more, we had to spend a minumum of 8pounds per person if we wanted to have the desserts in the restaurant. so we decided to take away our food, and went to piccadilly gardens bus station to have our desserts in the cold. it was crazy cold, but fun (:
and that was how i spent the last day of 2009 (:
happy new year! <:o)
claudia(:
11:17
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
apparently my promise to blog every week is failing. haha. but at least im doing so more often than once a month. must be a good thing, no? on the other hand, i don't think my blog is getting many readers, so i don't really think it matters that much anyway. hee.
so we didn't get to go to germany. because of the STUPID snow. our flight got cancelled, and apparently the whole of europe was "on lockdown" (tim's phrase). it was really unlucky, because the previous day and the following day, i think most of the flights were fine. but i think the weather on that day was particularly bad, because when yc and i were on the way to the airport, we heard that the trams and trains around, in and out of manchester had all stopped or were serving sporadically. and then when we finally got onto a bus on the way to the airport, we stopped on an incline and the bus SLID SIDEWAYS because of the ice. omg. it was such a weird and then scary sensation. the double decker bus LITERALLY SLID SIDEWAYS.
anyways, after we queued for like an hour to check in, they decided to cancel the flight (-.-) and we instead tried to search for other flights out of manchester to munich, but apparently all the other airlines were not operating. moreover, flights till after the new year were all fully booked and we had no choice but to cancel the trip altogether :(
then we headed back to manchester city centre and home to put our stuff down before going out for a good japanese dinner to drown our sorrows. and then we watched avatar. i must say, that was the highlight of an otherwise disappointing and boring day. someone (AHEM) PLEASE send me the movie? heehee :P
anyways, in the week, we had a christmas eve dinner, complete with turkey. cooking it was rather fun. and the dinner too. basically the whole thing.
and then it was back to the studying. study study study. mug mug mug. exams coming. then hopefully a trip *crosses fingers. that's all for now i suppose.
claudia(:
09:59
Saturday, 19 December 2009
first snow in manchester! that was yesterday. and today, it continued. really really nice.. (: this is also part of the reason why i love staying in ardwick, even though it’s practically on the other side of manchester (it is LITERALLY on the city edge. haha.) there’s hardly anyone or anything to spoil the snow here. well, there ARE people/things that spoil the snow, but not as much as the main roads/areas of manchester, and the result is waking up to a brilliantly white car park (outside my window) and schoolyard (outside the main door of of our building), making footprints in the snow (not sand) and slipping on icy surfaces. haha. but by far, the best thing is having a warm drink and snack and being nice and cozy in my room. hee :)
but in a few hours, we are going to be heading off to munich and vienna where the temperature is like sub zero. and quite far subzero. like -7degC. and snowing. palaces and christmas markets here we come! should be really fun. i WILL update after that. definitely.
anyhow, we are going to be away for christmas, so before i forget, happpy christmas everyone!
moving on... ashley has sent me on a mission of sorts. let me give you a bit of background on this...
a few weeks ago, i asked ashley to buy me some bak kut teh mix and send them to me so i brew up some bak kut teh goodness over in manchester. so he got me a HUGE bag of mixes (which made his room smell of bak kut teh) and asked me to review each one of them to find the best bak kut teh mix of the variety available in giant in tampines.
so my housemate, henceforth known as yc, and i, went out to get some pork ribs for our bak kut teh. and we got 4 ribs, which we split into 2 portions so we could try two brands of mixes. i’ve been a bit laggy with this, so forgive me, please, but here goes the reviews...
note: i will be grading this against the bak kut teh sold at the hawker centre near southpoint because 1. that’s the one whose taste i can remember best 2. i love that type of bak kut teh - clear peppery soup (vs. dark herby soup)
attempt 1: yeo’s - 2.5/5
herby, not too peppery. not very garlicky. dark soup.
attempt 2: ILC brand - 3.5/5
REALLY PEPPERY AND GARLICKY. VERY nice. clear soup. burns throat, not only because it’s hot but also because it’s peppery. very warming on a cold winter night.
apparently i’m not a very good reviewer. haha but practice makes perfect, so im not giving up now. bak kut teh here i come :D reviews here are subject to changes and editing. so are the scores. soon i will be the very best pre mix reviewer out there! and i will be famous with all singaporeans overseas students who are looking to buy premixes before returning to their country of their study :P
claudia(:
10:34
Monday, 7 December 2009
recent activity and going-ons have made me wonder what sort of person i am and how people view me. well actually i've been wondering for a long time already, but just decided that today was a good time to bring it up. i don't know why.
i feel i am a very shallow person. i know what i feel and think, but i have no idea why i feel or think that way. or maybe i just don't want to see the truth as to why i feel or think that way. or maybe i know why i feel or think what i do, but just can't put it into words. or maybe i am just a very irrational person trying to be rational. or maybe it's the other way around. anyway, aren't emotions supposed to be, by the very nature of emotions, subjective? why should there be a reason to what i feel? but then again why not? according to the
Jung-Meyers-Briggs Typology Test, i'm an ESFJ - extraverted, sensing, feeling, judging personality (which hasn't changed much since jc) and apparently i have "strong, contradictory forces" that consume me.
sigh. i have such a weird personality. need more time. boo.
claudia(:
10:24
Friday, 4 December 2009
i know i haven't blogged in almost a month. so shhh..
anyway, tonight we had dinner with a friend and his mom who came over from hk. let's call him... T. i got to know T from hall last year, and he was a mild mannered, quiet guy, whom a lot of people seemed to be pretty much okay with. we willingly included him in our clique, and we got along pretty well. well of course, there were little things. but friends aren't perfect, and we were able to overlook those flaws of his and accept him as a friend.
this year however, something seemed to change in him. he became louder, more crass (his word, not mine), intrusive and basically it was an almost 360 degree change in his attitude towards uni life. he drank (though not until he was wasted), talked loudly and made rude comments, and we were all taken aback by his manner.
to cut the long story short (and to generalise all of the small incidents that led to the conclusion), we figured that there must be something really wrong with T. he claimed that he was depressed last year, and it wasn't really himself that we knew, instead, this was the real him. after consulting with a doctor, we deduced that T might have a psychiatric condition. hypomania (which can result from/lead to depression and bipolar disorder). all the symptoms fit.
T's friends seemed to all hate him, and be putting on an act in front of him (we, ex hallmates, certainly were). his academics seemed to suffer. not only did he have to see the senior tutor after being summoned due to complaints from his pbl (tutorial) group, but he also had a three page report written by the gp from the gp's practice he was visiting on his unacceptable manner and unbecoming behaviour.
all this led to his mom coming over from hk to make sure everything goes okay and i guess to generally take care of him for a bit. they went to see the programme director, who offered T a year's interruption of his course so as to get his affairs in order before concentrating on his studies. in reponse, T called him a jackass for not wanting T to take his exams, and even lodged a complaint against him.
while T said all of this, his mom just sat there with a passive face, as though she could accept all of this, although in her heart, she might have felt quite dismayed as to her son's behaviour so far. she even asked us to be more patient with him and give him more understanding due to his condition. watching her take care of her son like that, and even flying all the way over here, it made me realise how much parents must love their children. no matter how irritating or annoying they can be, even if it is to them, parents stick by you, no matter what.
on a separate thread, i wonder if i will ever be able to do that. show such calm while my child behaves like such. or would i just fly off the handle and like, strangle him/her. anyway, this isn't a matter i have to sort out now.
other than that, i've just been really busy. the singsoc's DnD was it's final event and is over. it was a huge success, and i really think everyone who attended enjoyed themselves. it rounds up a year of events that have been both successful and some only partially successful, but a year which i wouldn't exchange for any other person's year. agm is our next event, and we will be stepping down and handing over to the next committee, whom i honestly don't think, but sincerely hope, can do a better or as good a job as we did. heehee (:
germany/austria trip is coming up! can't wait! then it's exams and before i know it, second sem will be here. which means.. spring is coming up! and then SUMMER! :D i need some plans for summer!
okay, i will make a resolution to blog at least once a week. haha. i hope it works out.
study study study! get honours! :D
claudia(:
09:48
