far, and a little away again. // 14th june 2007

heyos.

i am now in maner's apartment in london. wanted to post up pictures from the final days in lund with the family and friends but haven't had the time or state of mind. will do that later on maybe at olivia's or hun's.

the first day in london after leaving lund was kinda hard, it was only a 1.5hour flight yet it felt like i had gone so far away from it. i missed the place, the people, but these you can still revisit and reunite with. it is that certain time in your life when all these places and people came together quite magically, that certain time that you miss intensely and will still miss from time to time in the future because you will never relive them again. so how leh? be glad that you were blessed with those places and people during that certain time and treasure those
great memories lah.

otherwise i am quite enjoying london so far, especially the afternoon rambles into museums and random streets that i have been doing on my own the past two days.

and there are really alot of singaporeans in london it seems. i can hear them everywhere haha.

perfekt day // 29th march 2007

after that rough night, i decided that i probably need make myself go out and do things that i normally do back home that i haven't been doing for almost 3 months.. and that worked super well!

i went walking about to see photography shows in town, sent my holga rolls for development, finally got a library card at the city library which turned out to be a really nice place, borrowed photobooks, bought small boxes (which i collect) as well as super cute little tomtes (what gnomes are called in Sweden). along the way i also chanced upon yeo hiap seng soya bean milk, muruku and umbrella jelly...little spots of home!

after that i was really tired but felt so much better and finally more emotionally acclimatised to life here. thank God! :]

far and nearly faraway.

i am in school right now as today is the Kickoff meeting for the Sony Ericsson project. this means that we have a sit down consultation with Claus and Charlotte our two tutors and really talk about the project, make sure everything is set straight, (or at least any broken bones are set properly in good casts) before we move ahead into the cadding and prototyping stage for the final presentation.

when i arrived extra early in school today, studio was almost deserted except for one person who is like the usual designated music player in our side of studio. i did a doubletake...it felt rather familiar. not unlike back home when we go to school on saturday sometimes and unexpectedly find some warmth in the little cluster of people there. well, you find home at the strangest moments sometimes.

it was actually a rather rough night for me last night but thanks to timely online prods and shake-ups from great friends i am blessed with, i made it through. special thanks to my journeymate man. it was exactly what i needed to hear. thank God for you!

oke lah, time to get ready for the Kickoff liaos. take care you all. for those i'll be seeing in Milan, can't wait!! be well meanwhile. :]

quick catchup post 5 : frisbee, soup, flowers, makan, dressups, more makan..

spartan frisbee! i was in tshirt and shorts!! beep me if you need proof haha.


vilken soppa! a warm and wonderful soup and beer fest we had in school in IKDC, felt almost like our all-year-round oktoberfest parties in studio back home in NUS.


sometimes even the down days are made a little better with flowers popping up left right and centre regardless of your mood...




and down days are lifted up just a little more when corridormates leave food for you when you come home late and are feeling absolutely too tired to cook. thanks much. :]


frodo and the wizard of oz! we dressed up for a costume party at one of the Swedish corridors in our block..



and no week can go too wrong when we have our unbeatable international dinners in the best corridor in the world - the one and only EF international corridor of Sparta!

evidences of spring

spots of spring..




flowers are seasonal....



but evidently, cigarettes are not!

dinner at berit's // and i can use an oven now..

berit, a friend from church, invited me and peiching for dinner and cakes at her place on saturday. haha we ended up baking till late and we stayed over cos it was too late to try to find our way home. it was a crazy unexpectedly funny night! a blessing.



and then the next day when i was back home i was so inspired by the oven that i baked my lunch... mystery fish fillets, broccoli and mushrooms with generous amounts of olive oil, butter, lemongrass, grapefruit juice, thyme and pepper.


haha it wasn't too bad! i finished the lot of it!

i need to zhng my bike..

today after church, Elaine, Adam and i were riding home on our bikes and from the Domkyrkan to the AF building which is about 100metres i was already super struggling with my tiny bike that has spoilt gears. so Adam was really nice and offered to swap bikes with me for the ride home. his bike was too high for me so he even gave me a boost to start the bike going. haha i felt like a small kid learning to ride a bike for the first time.. and it was SO MUCH EASIER riding his bike as compared to mine! riding my tiny mustang bike feels like i'm trying to climb a vertical mountain with a stationary exercise bike man....the gears are gone, the torque is almost negligent, the seat is too low.....even on flat roads it feels tough.. at first i thought i was damn unhealthy or what but a few people have tried my bike and certified that it is true madness using it. like Elaine said, i also can't believe i have been riding like this for 2months man..

oke if the weather is better tomorrow i think i will head downtown after class to get this little pink machine fixed..

yeah finally forcing myself to zhng my bike!



*zhng - upgrade.. used similarly to pimp my ride..


and btw my bike is almost hidden in the shot.. but yeah that's how little it is. : ]

power postal service

somewhere out there in the world, either in singapore, the netherlands, or sweden, there definitely exists a super power postal service.. i can't believe the card still managed to find its way to me siah.

thanks Renjie for the still-in-time CNY card, much appreciated. and i hope you know where Lund is now hor!! haha.

Snökaos! Snow chaos in Skåne..

my own personal kiruna in the balcony i think i have no access to...


i had been sleeping for about 40mins from 630am to 7+am and woke up to resume work for the presentation today only to get a call from Ingrid my crazy funny classmate at IKDC who was part of the crew that dressed Alec up as a nun in Milan last year... i thought i was late for presentation or something but thankfully it was news that the presentation today was cancelled due to extreme snowing yesterday and overnight...it was truly bad last night trudging through calf-deep snow and getting snow blown in my eyes cos of the scary winds.

i was like shocked and then abit relieved cos i really wasn't that prepared for the presentation today and though undeserving i have been blessed with an totally unexpected extension. thank God. i will have to work hard over the weekend though, cos the presentation will probably be postponed to next week and next week Olivia will be coming to visit. haha maybe amidst all the cooking and shopping she can also train me more in perspective drawing.. or drawing in general..

oke time to catch up on some sleep. take care folks.

cha ye dan

because i was so happy that i got to eat a cha ye dan today, i gave up some sleep to draw this. haha. it was really a wonderful blessing because the night before i had been thinking about cha ye dans nonstop after Peiching told me about Stella, Linus and Robin making cha ye dans in Gotheborg.. and today at the end of bible study, Sandra(from China) whipped out some she had made for Annice (Korean-Canadian). and Annice shared them with us. wah happiness and joy!! my dayandnight-long craving very unexpectedly fulfilled! heh. Thank God for bible study, sandra, annice and cha ye dans. : ]


oke what are cha ye dans?

translated, they are tea-leaf-eggs. hard-boiled eggs that are cracked a little and then further boiled for hours in tea leaves, water and soya sauce and other good stuff that Sandra was describing that i didn't even understand in chinese, will have to see those ingredients before i can identify them... so the happy hard-boiled eggs soak up all the power essence of the tea leaves and soya sauce and end up super tasty happy hard-boiled eggs. commonly eaten for breakfast in China, or eaten anytime anywhere, in Singapore. haha oke actually i think we mostly eat it in chinese tea houses and also at pasar malams. (night markets) and also random stalls along the street.

mrmmms. happy. : ]

i can cook good rice afterall + food and friends in my lundlife..

helped my neighbour thomas with cooking rice the other day and woohoo!! we got good rice!! and i tried some of the special bolognese that he made and wah it was actually power curry bolognese. and it went really well with the slightly salted rice. goodstuff never bluff! i even cooked perfect rice in a pot on the stove the next day oke!! not bad eh! haha.





i also had legendary pancakes with the legendary pancake maker very early one morning and that was kind of surreal but warm and nice. it more than made up for my craving for supper amidst work that we always have back home in Singapore. because they are so legendary, i cannot put up pictures of them. : ] oke actually it was american pancakes and not legendary swedish pancakes that early morning. but they are legendary by association lah heh.

and then yesterday i had mysterious mockmeat made from the same materials as mushrooms but no mushrooms were involved in the final product...disturbing. but it was quite nice and tasted wholesome cooked by Marta with sauteed zucchinis and the 5.90 kronor caesar salad pack from ICA that -everyone- has been buying..it was apparently sold out according to Kuba!

i must say, i am truly blessed with these food and friends in my lund life. makes life much warmer and happier here!