a peek at my 1st few days here

this is what my room at mulberry guest house looked like.


it was a twin room

and i adored it soo much because it was an attic room!
so so quaint! :D


desk and towel rack


sink and tea table (is there even such a thing as a tea table??)


there was even a tv... that none of us bothered to even switch on =p


closet with a robe inside

the next morning, we woke up at about 8am because the landlord (im not sure if this is the correct term for the guy that ran the place) told us that breakfast would be served at that time. plus we had to check out by 10am anyway.


an english tea set!

from the left is a kettle of tea, milk and extra hot water in case the tea was too thick, or we wanted to add more water after finishing the tea.


toast!


an english breakfast of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and a sausage.


butter basket with jams and marmalade.


and we wolfed it all down.

wad to do... all we had for dinner the night before was maggi snack sized instant noodles.


the dining room was very pretty

see the fake fireplace? lol~


cereal bar

i purposely took some cereals just because i wanted to drink milk. LOL!


an extremely sleep-deprived me


summore got sofas at one corner :D


the outside

the guy walking towards me is marcus. the other guy is kean min. both are classmates who also had no temporary accommodation.


Oxford is a very green place!

u see plants EVERYWHERE.


just in case any of u are interested in staying there.

note that its 78 pounds for a twin room!


gate leading to the backyard


frontal view of the place


camwhoring with the sign board


=p


the houses in the neighborhood


see, so much greenery!


camwhoring at a gate

then we called a cab to pick us up and send us to our respective halls of residence.

after registering at the reception of my hall, i was led by my room by volunteer guides. thank goodness for them, i have no idea how i would have lugged my 40++kg of stuff up 3 floors by myself.


my room!!


nice right???


the door on the right leads to the ensuite bathroom




the shower area is tiny, so i tied up the shower curtain and nvr use it.

if i were to use it, i would be in constant contact with it whenever i shower. and i find that very gross :S


my cupboard is decent.

not too small nor too big (but there really isnt such a thing as too big is there? i could always buy more stuff to fill it up! =p).


the view from my room


im right opposite the sports bar.

which means that i nvr need to play music in my room, because the music from the bar is loud enough to be heard quite clearly in my room when i open the window -_-

plus at night, i always hear drunk ppl shouting. luckily the windows are sealed at sides pretty well, so when i sleep, i shut the windows and can sleep semi-peacefully. but still faint shouts can be heard. *shrugs*

its not that bad really, coz the bar closes at about midnight and i dont generally sleep before midnight anyway =p


on my right is the hockey field *wink*stalker*wink*


on my left are more blocks.


most ppl brought about this much footwear.

i brought this plus....


this.

muahahahahahaahah! lemme tell u what they all are.
clockwise from top left: court shoes (studying law mar!), heels (for clubbing proms and dinners. black, so it'll go with anything.), sport shoes (for walking and also incase i wanna do sports), flats (for walking. plus stella told me that most ppl wear flats here. they're red by marc ecko. blardy expensive but so damned NICE!) and boots (for fashion winter or cold weather)!

see... all have their very important functions! all cant be left behind, so i brought all! =p


and when we were out shopping, i bought this:



i thought it would be like a bun or something. so that i could eat it when i was hungry at night.
manatahu it was...


so compact! like a fruit cake or something. very sticky and chewy.

in the end i just stuck it into the freezer. and there it stayed untouched for a few days. but last night i was searching for something to eat again, so i took it out and microwaved it. then it tasted much much better! so now i know how to eat it... haha~

this is my fire evacuation leaflet:



right in front of my building!

and im too lazy to even leave my room when the alarm rings -_-"

haha... i damn love staying in cheney village and the block im staying at is great too! its the nearest hall to the college, just 5-10mins away. and its about 5-10mins to clive booth where caroline n wei yee are. and the sports center is right opposite my block in case i ever wanna do any exercise (for 19 pounds a month if im not mistaken. so its unlikely i'll join the gym. but dance classes may be held here :D) and the laundrette is very near my block.

AND i love my room! err... even though the bed is facing the door which is very bad feng shui. but if anyone has any suggestions that dont involve moving the bed or my door, im all ears! although some of my friends find the size of the rooms small, i find it just right for a single person who is only gonna be staying for a year. if i were to live out the rest of my life in this room, then i'd find it small -coz i'd keep accumulating stuff over the years. get what i mean?


i put up lil sticker pics of shaun n i on my table =p

the other day, after going to the shops, i came back starving.
so i put together some salad for myself.


it was huge!


*greedy*


looks so super nice right?

like something from a restaurant. *proud*
summore its the 1st salad i've ever made ok? dun play play... =p

i dont like mayonnaise or thousand island or any of those kind of salad dressings, so i put balsamic vinegar. VERY liberally. big mistake. its was too sour! haha...

but now i know how to adjust la. learn from my mistake ;)

after finishing that huge plate, i was still hungry -_-"
*sigh* im not a salad person la. so i went and grabbed something else to eat =p

tonight i made beef stew for my frens (2) n i. its was so yummy! i make a mean beef stew! *proud*

haha... im always making beef stew la. wad to do... i like mar =p

ok, thats all for now!

of laundry and fire alarms

im currently uploading pics onto photobucket. since i wont be going out tml, i'll take my time and do a nice long post on the pics :D

i went to the laundrette in my hall of residence just now, you wont believe how horrendously expensive it is to wash clothes here! its 2 pounds to wash and 1 pound to dry. that equates to roughly 19 ringgit!!! in the past, i could send 5kg of clothes to the dobi and that only cost me 5 ringgit. here, one load of clothes is barely 3kg coz the washing mashine is small and i even have to operate my machines myself, as compared to handing in dirty clothes at the dobi and collecting clean and folded clothes the next day. haih... can die wei. i guess that means i'll have to handwash more clothes then... :(

oh ya, dont be fooled by the term "hall" of residence. each "hall" is actually comprised of a set of buildings. one "hall" may have up to 20 blocks of residential buildings. so i guess the term "student village"might be more appropriate :)

the laundrette is located in a separate building and is thankfully quite near my block. and although i whined about the price, i must admit that i absolutely adore the dryer! the clothes become so WARM! so nice and toasty to the touch. an unexpected bliss in the cold weather. i hugged my clothes hamper to my body as i walked back to my room. hehe~

***************

last night, at about 3am, the fire alarm went off. it very very rudely woke me up. at first, my very groggy mind thought that it was my phone emitting that awful siren. then i realised it wasnt. then i thought it might be the fire alarm. but by the time that thought occurred, the alarm went silent. so i thought, oh wells, whatever. then went to toilet. when i came out, the alarm went off again. and its not just any old alarm, its an extremely piercing alarm! so i was feeling quite pissed off and opened my room door. my other flatmates had also opened their doors. everyone was feeling sleepy and irritated. we all thought it might be the fire alarm, but we also were too sleepy to care. so when the alarm stopped, we went right to bed.

haih, i tell you, if that were a real alarm and not a drill or someone smoking in their room, we would all have fried to death in our sleep. LOL!

then this afternoon, the alarm for my block went off AGAIN! apparently, some girl downstairs was cooking and when someone opened the kitchen door, the smoke reached the smoke detectors. i have no idea how she cooked until soo much smoke was produced. i even smelt it as i was walking past that floor. it smelt slightly hangus.

luckily the smoke detectors were not connected to sprinklers!!! i swear i would have KILLED the girl! imagine being soaked by sprinklers and rushing out of the building, only to be met by chilly british weather. can die wan lor! not to mention all the electronic stuff in my room such as my laptop and camera. but on second thought, all my possessions are insured. so if they get ruined, i can get new ones! =p

ok la, thats all for now. my posts have been very wordy without a single picture. dun wanna make your brains work too hard =p

i must must must get my bus pass!
all the others have gotten theirs. only this genius that forgot to bring her "license to occupy" hasnt got hers :(

im currently cooking soup. i had a huge huge bowl of salad just now, but im still hungry. so its soup for me! i put chicken, potatoes, carrots and an onion in my soup. i'd put in more stuff, but thats all the stuff i had -_-"

back to the bus pass. all students living in the halls of residence get a bus pass free. its already paid for in our rent. this bus pass enables us to use the "brookes bus" for free. and its a very important pass coz this bus links us all over the city. so unless we wanna walk all the time -which is quite time consuming, this bus pass is a must have!

ugh, i wish we had a wireless network so i could check on my soup without constantly running in and out of my room -_______-

i have alternate paragraphs on the bus pass and my soup! lol!

i tried to collect my bus pass on tuesday, but i forgot my license to occupy. then today, i tried again, but the line was too long and we were rushing to a talk. after the talk, i tried again, but the line was too long and i was in a hurry to get to the banks before they closed at 4pm. unfortunately, not only did i not get the bus pass, i did not make it in time to the banks either -_-"

so i must must must get the bus pass tomorrow!

and if i manage to finish up all the uni stuff before 3pm, i'll try going to the bank again. or else, i'll bring my laptop to the computer services and hopefully they will be able to figure out why i cant install my webcam to my laptop and install it for me (and i hope its free too!).

haiyah... so many things to do. the most annoying thing is that everything closes so early here, so i have no choice but to get up early and rush about. then by the evening, theres absolutely nothing to do and everyone hides in their room... unless you're one of those that clubs then they'll have dinner and start dolling up.

as for me, i use the evenings as time to cook dinner and use the internet ;)

Oxford!

hey all!!!
missed me much? *wink*

well, i've finally gotten my internet connection, so i guess it'll be safe to say that im here to stay ;)

i know that before i left to the uk, i've been blogging sporadically... not sure if u guys noticed. but i was kinda doing some soul searching. looking for the reason i started blogging in the 1st place. my desire to blog was gone. i was just doing it like an obligation (even though i tried very hard to deny it). before that, a few ppl had also told me that my blog had changed. it was no longer ME. it was more the blog of someone who was just blogging for the sake of blogging (if u get what i mean). i guess it became rather commercialized.

but now that im here in uk, my longing to blog has returned. i've found my reason to blog again! whee~~
wanna know the reason? the reason is loneliness. (note that this is just one of the many reasons i blog, and not the only one. just that this is one of the main reasons.)

in case you're thinking im lonely, i'd tell u right now that im not. im surrounded by people from all over the globe. what i mean by loneliness... is the inability to express myself fully to those around me. the inability to let my usual crazy, wacky self out. the inner amy. LOL!

so where will that amy go?
here!

so unless im extremely busy, this blog will be regularly updated :D
(cheh, talking as if so many ppl wanna read my blog -_-)


ugh, i wanted this 1st post in uk to be a happy post. now it has become emo :(

nevermind, on to the more cheerful stuff!

hmm... lets start at the beginning!

so on the 12th, i flew to uk. on the flight with me were several classmates. but they were mostly sitting at the back, i sat up front with caroline. an hour after boarding the plane, it was announced that there were technical problems with the aircraft and we had to switch planes. so we trudged all the way to another terminal at the opposite end of the building. oh yes, did i mention that i was carrying a very heavy handcarry, a laptop bag and another huge bag?

when we reached the other terminal, we sat in the waiting room for over an hour before they allowed us on board. then we waited again on the plane to takeoff. by the time we took off, we were already delayed 3 hours.

on the plane, i sat next to a malaysian lady who was teman-ing her husband (who was in 1st class because this was a business trip paid by his company) to uk. and we chattered away in the beginning, but after awhile we got overcome by hunger (our original flight flew at lunch time and was supposed to serve lunch) and started preserving our energy.

i caught "sex and the city" on the plane! but all the juicy parts were cut :(
i also watched a korean film called "once upon a time".

but mostly i felt extremely bored on the plane. i did try to sleep, but i wasnt very successful.

when we landed, we had to wait in a long queue to get through immigration. after about an hour, all of us were through. we collected our luggage and went into the arrival hall. however, the van we had booked wasnt there. so us girls waited while the guys ran about the airport trying to find it. finally, a guy come up to flo and things got sorted out.

a few of us hadnt booked temporary accommodation, so we had to stay at a guest house. caroline and i shared a twin room at mulberry guest house for 78 pounds. thank god the bus driver was nice enough to drop us off at the guest house! if not i have not it would have been a real hassle! i'll tell u more about the guest house when i get a card reader. so i can upload the pics, coz i forgot to bring my cable for my cam. actually i purposely left it at home thinking that my laptop's card reader could read my memory card, but it cant. chis!

on sunday, we woke up early for breakfast and got a cab to go to our respective halls. once i got to my room, i started unpacking. and i realised that i rather like unpacking to new places. lol! its fun deciding what goes where! =p

at about 2, i met up with my friends and we walked to the city centre. thats right, we WALKED there. and on our very 1st day too! it took about an hour and a half to get there. plus lots of asking for directions -_-"

but we finally made it to primark! and primark is evil i tell u! its so cheap, i nearly forgot i was spending pounds! =p but the best thing is that they give us free hangers. all we had to do was ask :D

i bought pyjamas and a robe and something else i cant remember =p

then we took a bus back. but we got off at the wrong stop and ended up at the headington shops. after loads and loads of walking (about 2 hours), we finally got back. by then, everyone was dying. so we went to our rooms and i finished unpacking.

the next day, we went to tesco early in the morning. we managed to do most of our grocery shopping there. then we rushed back to attend a talk for freshers. in the afternoon, we headed back to the shops to buy some more stuff. u have no idea how much has to be bought until you are in the same situation.

we had monday free, so we walked to the banks (about 45 mins) to open our accounts. but we needed a certain letter that we didnt have, so we walked back to ask student services for it. unfortunately, the letter can only be ready by friday. we wanted to go back to the city centre because i was quite desperate at that point for a phone number, so we took a bus this time (we were so tired, there was no point trying to act the hero and walk).

so ladies and gentlemen, i finally have a uk number! my loved ones have been notified, and now its time for you... general public to get my number (hahaha, as if im so important).
my number is : 07531870375

so do call me!
yes, i do realize the risks of openly displaying my number, but if you're so rich and wanna prank call me all the way from malaysia, then by golly, u are welcome to do so. i look forward to wasting your money :D

today, we had to do our enrolment, where we finally received our library card which enables us to come online. FINALLY!!! oh dear internet, i love u!

ughhhh, all this freshers week stuff is such a bother. running here and there, filling forms left and right. rushing from this building to another... *faints*. the locals can enjoy the week by clubbing every night, but for those coming from other countries, this is one tiring week! because we have to buy all kinds of household goods. from knives, plates, pots and pans, all the way to toilet paper. while they just bring their pre-bought stuff over by the truckload.

buying the stuff isnt tiring... its lugging all the stuff home thats the killer!

i sound so unhappy dont i? but im actually very happy =p
i dont mind the walking. im just quite impressed with my stamina. lol!
with all the walking and lugging stuff around that we do here, it'll be quite impossible to gain weight! im gonna have an ass to die for! lol!

oh, and i havent told u about my housemates yet! im staying in cheney village. and i'll have to explain how things go here first. each block has 3 floors. to get into a block, u need to get past a lock. once in the block, there is a lock that u will have to get past to enter each floor. once u enter the floor, the last lock will be the one to your room. so in total, u have to get past 3 locks to enter your room. so i guess security is pretty tight!

in my floor, there are 6 girls including me. 3 girls from other parts of the uk, 1 from china, 1 from japan and me! the 3 white girls are 18 years old, so they are proper freshers, all ready to have fun. the china girl and i are 20, so we're not as excitable and prefer to sit the clubbing nights out. while the japanese girl is a post graduate and i see very little of her.

so far, i find everyone nice, and the common areas are still clean, so im not complaining :)

and i like the weather here coz it lets me wear all sorta combinations of clothes i've never tried before (oh, just wait till the novelty wears off...). and with this weather, we could walk all day and still barely break a sweat. in malaysia, u dont even have to walk. just going outdoors and standing still is enough to make u sweat -_-

the only thing i dislike about uk is the cold toilet seats! how i dread going to the loo! how unfair it is that guys pee standing up. oh and im beginning to dread showering too! in malaysia, when im in my room, im usually sans-bra and pants. but here, the most i go is san-bra when i sleep. lol!

which reminds me, its time to shower! if u have managed to keep reading till now and didnt skip a word, im pretty darned proud of you! *pats u on the back*

im leaving on a jet plane

dont know when i'll be back again...

seriously dunno when i'll be back again coz i didnt buy a return ticket =p

anyhows, im blogging from the airport, the next u will see of me, i'll already be in UK! :)

busy bee

so many things to do, so little time!

been busy showing shaun around and packing. so far, i've packed 20kg... and thats just clothes. >.<
clothes that have been squashed in airtight bags. i wonder how much it would weigh if it weren't stuffed into the airtight bags... -_-"

btw, i have a 32kg check-in allowance, so my remaining 10kg will be shoes, toiletries, hair dryer, (maybe) iron, stationery, make-up stuff... opps, i just realised that in the midst of packing winter coats and jackets, i forgot to pack some dresses for dinners -_-"

about a dozen emails have been sent between Brookes (my University) and I. So many things to gao dim! *headache*

i shall go make mooncakes to cheer myself up =p

distraction

im having my period. was feeling bloated days before it came. i thought i was getting fat. thank gawd its just blood. lol!

anyways, im still feeling slightly bloated. and now that im having my period, im also feeling like a bloody fountain. literally.

so lets casts our minds back to a time when i was feeling happier :)

i have no idea what date this was, but i think it was last month =p

bbq at sandra's place!


i did more than just pose ok! =p


stella n i


it rained half-way through the evening


ok la, it drizzled more than "rained"


kiong has an obsession with ah lien poses...


see, he's a natural =p


look, chris' shirt says kryss!


the guys just mostly sat and ate.
*sigh* used to it already la.


and everyone is used to me camwhoring too =p


kiong pretending not to see the cam and jo attempting a smirk =p


kiong still pretending not to see the cam (after he quality checked the previous picture)


food!
ok la, it was already half-eaten but i was hungry ok. u must always let hungry people eat. im quite sure its the law. and im quite sure i fail as a lawyer =p


>o<
bad lighting


:D


corn, mashimarrows and pork satay


too many cooks spoil the broth =p


lamb and sausages


brandon, jack and jason


the umbrella is soo cool right?
it can shade 2 people!


stella and i again!


leonard

then we moved inside coz it was drizzling plus we had to regenerate blood after donating soo much to the mozzies -_-"


jason, jo, kiong, gabe, bernie


stella, obstrusive lamp post, shih yang
=p


chris the blind guitar hero


all of them have their own "pretend i dunno got camera directed here" pose


jack is horrible!
he kept ordering me around *sobs*
then have to sit nxt to him after i lost a bet summore. haih... im so soi la.
have to sit next to ugly guy =p

visa

i was feeling rather anxious in the waiting room. when my name was called, i went to the counter and received my big brown envelope. then once i reached my seat, i ripped into it and took out my visa and began flipping through it. &^%$# there was nothing in it!!!

then as i was dejectedly putting it back into the packet, i realized that i had another passport in the envelope. so i quickly flipped through it. and lo and behold! my visa!!!

the 1st passport i pulled out was the expired one -_-"

I GOT MY VISA!!!
woooootttt!!! woohoo!!! whopeedoo!!! walla walla bing bang!!! lol

part of the reason i was anxious was because besides my 2 passports, the only other original document they took from me was the unconditional offer letter. then i found out that everyone else submitted ALL their original documents :S

but i have my visa now! so all is good :D

just 2 lines

will you be mine?
am i yours?

that's how shaun asked me to be his gf. you should have seen the way he looked when he asked those two lines. hopeful and not entirely confident. how could i not melt???

and we havent looked back since!

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY BIE!