hello moscow!!

on another note:
THANK YOU LILIAN!
i adore it! it now has a season spot on my table :)

i can't believe i've watched the entire season 4 of project runway!
self-imposed hiatus from work is now over.
back to antihypertensive agents. gosh i'm slow...

I LOVE YOU ALL!

that is absolutely the best birthday surprise in my entire life!

the video was so touching i cried.
i'm so glad you all are here to spend it with me. i'm just so thankful to have friends like you all. sometimes i wonder how i get so lucky. cambridge would be so different without each and every one of you.

AND thank you too! everyone back home!! the video from one of the saturday night gatherings (starring uncle 2's tummy) was the best :) thanks mum, dad, pers, k2, t2, k4, t4, amanda, mei, di, dan, aunty minda! i love you all.
and my dear friends from home... you guys were there for me since the beginning! i can't thank you guys enough. it's been an amazing, crazy 21 years and it's all the more special cos you guys are here to spend it with me. looking forward to the rest of our lives together... the videos were amazing, made me think of you guys a lot. i miss everyone so.. can't wait to go home and have a proper celebration!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
especially you nic. i can't believe how much effort you put into coordinating everything, from a whole MONTH back. my god you rock! all the secrets painfully kept, all the times white lies you have to make up, all the massive messenging sprees, i don't know how you did it, but you managed to get everyone that was important in my life in that 23 minute video - no matter where they were geographically or whether you knew them at all. i've already thanked you a zillion times and you know how much i love you. <3 to more good years ahead love! :)

take notice, take interest, take me with you

thoughts that go through my head when i sit in the library for hours, hours that can be better spent basking in the sun (yes it's getting warmer. finally!) - in chronological order:

1. amsterdam! we are officially going! wooo
2. what to have for lunch
3. what time should i go for lunch?
4. glucocorticoid agonist = prednisolone
5. what to pack for AMSTERDAM!
6. glucocorticoid antagonist = mife-something...mife-what?!... MIFEPRISTONE - how my notes mock me
7. die! how am i going to remember all these drugs?!?!
8. i need to plan my birthday party
9. i also need to start planning for japan! :) oh yeaaaa.
10. oestrogen agonist = ethinyloestradiol! SCORE!
11. who do i invite on friday??
12. i am getting hungry
13. maybe we should cook fried rice for dinner tonight.
14. oestrogen antagonist = ..... CRAP.
15. it's time for toilet break.

and so it goes...

on a lighter note, today i've heard from so many people back home it made me miss home quite a bit. perhaps that's why i'm still up writing up massive replies. summer's going to be so fun! error - POST EXAMS are going to be so fun! i can't wait.

but for now it's bed time. must hit the library bright and early to get my favourite table - the whole world is back. don't quite know if it's a good thing or not at this stage.

night world. x

when you come undone

i hate work. fullstop.

houses made for one

thank god the internet is back! the "one-hour job" as proclaimed by the either very optimistic or just plain stupid pembroke IT department turned out to be a 5-day mess. every night for the past 5 days i've been sitting in my room wondering how to entertain myself - i only have that many movies. watched wicker park the other day. if only josh hartnett would stand up straight and not slouch, he would look so much better. reminds me of his pearl harbour days, when i was first mesmorized by his shyness.

everyday i wake up and force myself into the same routine.
sometimes i feel thankful there's the framework
other times i bemoan the monotony
the days seem so blurred
i can't keep track
my existence hinges on each chime of the clock -
there isn't any sound otherwise

yet, i don't want term to start. once it starts, it will break our routine. and stress is not condusive for trying out a new routine. new lectures = more material to cover. people will be coming back to break up the peaceful working air around pembroke these days - they already are. the library felt so crowded today with so many familiar people working, staring, watching, mocking.

i am in such a crap mood.

blue is the colour, football is the game

let me clarify.
i do not on normal occasions feel like that, but judging from past statistics, my football colours have slowly been turning purple. (good on ye if you got that - you know me well.)

look at how desperately the real chelsea fan is hiding behind his team's colours. talk about allegiance..

i now (proudly) own a chelsea flag. it's sitting (prominently) in my room.

it was such a scrappy first half. sluggish at the start of the second but it started going when both teams realised they needed some sort of drive to get that decisive goal. injury scare galore for chelsea - we even poked fun at cudicini unknowingly and got death-glared at by the person sitting beside us.

and now it's back to work. :(
the only thing keeping me going is probably my next trip down in 2 weeks' time.
on a side note, clinicals in london would be such fun, but also such crazy expenses. well, we'll get to that when we do.

tomorrow i go down to london to watch chelsea. again.

based on the number of live matches watched, i'm more of a chelsea fan than a man utd fan. to date, it's 3 blues to 2 reds, one of which is a chelsea v man utd match last year, which turned out to be a lame match because it was after the title has been won. what a bummer. all i saw was dongfangzhuo. gosh.

but it's hello didier and co. again at stamford bridge tmr evening.

don't get me wrong, i'm far from complaining! a live football match is A LIVE FOOTBALL MATCH! totally different from watching on tv. all the adrenaline, all the singing, all the passion. the different angle u get to watch the match from. it's a whole new experience. plus tmr's match will be an amazing one given the aggregate from the first leg! i can't wait. it was merely an objective observation..

however come end april, it's HELLO RONALDO for real! :)

in a potential title-decider of a match too!
these next few weeks will definitely be a nail-biting wait.

THANK YOU MENG!!

breathe in for luck, breathe in so deep

the weather today was miserable. it was cold, but not cold enough to snow (although meng claimed it did). so basically it snowed everywhere today, except here. it's like a trend, i seem to be avoiding the snow this year. where is my snowball fight?

tmr i move back into foundress. i've grown used to this room though, it's so nice to have an uncluttered space where only the minimal amount of things exist. everything is so neat and tidy. i know exactly where all my stuff are. staying in the the older part of college makes me think ahead to next year when we'll be staying in O. gorgeous split set with a kitchen shared between us, it will be absolutely amazing! my room will be bigger then foundress and i pay less (as we found out yesterday on our stroll around college in an attempt to drag our lunch break). our grand plan to both get a first this year and pull mich up to share our floor seems foolproof, except for the tiny detail of working our asses off from now onwards till the end of exams. well, at least we have some motivation to study..

it's been one week in of work since after america, not counting the side-trip down to london on thurs. i am bored already. so much so that i'm looking forward to the match on tuesday. football and a haircut! and yet another escape away from the stress of spending ages memorising a flowchart and forgetting it the moment you start on something else. wahey, i better start finding good eating places in london for dinner! another good distraction.

night x

"A notable feature of a live show involving Carrabba is that while performing he will stare, almost unsettlingly, into the audience at a particular person. This has come to be known among his fans as "eye sex." Carrabba, in an interview with the Associated Press, said, "You can't help but look at the audience and if you find somebody and they're having that movement listening to a song that gets to you, I'll connect with them and have eye sex with them." "

OMG HOW COOL IS THIS?! NIC AND I ARE GOING CRAZY!!

colour the coast with your smile

it's the most genuine thing
that i've ever seen
i was so lost
but now i believe

yesterday was so awesome i really want to start all over and do it again, even though it meant having only 2 hours of sleep. but it's definitely worth it, no doubts.

highlight of the day has got to be Dashboard Confessional's acoustic concert at st. james' church in picaddilly.

i think i have fallen in love with chris carrabba's music and him as a performer. such raw emotion, so much passion into his songs. normally i don't immediately listen out for the lyrics, but my favourite line of all time is from stolen,

before the gold and glimmer has been replaced
another sun-soaked season fades away

i don't know why but his lyrics always seem to jump out at me. maybe it's because of all the repetition, maybe because it's an acoustic set, and everyone knows i love anything acoustic. but it was an absolutely incredible night! we were so far in front i swear he could have been just singing most of the songs just for me.. :) definite eye contact on so many occasions oh yeah!

i bought a dashboard shirt, lined up with all the other crazy fans for an autograph, a picture and some priceless conversation. i love it that it was an acoustic set; we couldn't have got such a cosy and close experience otherwise. chris was so nice in person but like nic said, he was smaller then he looked onstage. then again, everyone with a guitar looks cool.

apart from the concert, yest was all about the FOOD!

• royal china in the morning for dim sum - heavenly. highly recommended. 5 stars. it has to be the best dim sum in london, on par with all those hongkong restaurants, and that says a lot about the quality of the food. my god, i could actually taste the huge prawns in my ha kao and ha cheung! we left feeling slightly too full but slightly lighter after cashing out on the bill. (which wasn't that expensive for a place of this standard tbh)
  
• gordan's wine bar in the afternoon for some wine and cheese - 4.5 stars. the oldest wine bar in london, with its rustic cellar/dungeon feel. i had to stoop to walk across to our table at the far end of the basement. there were candles everywhere, twas so romantic - the rose and cheese were so good together! i now understand why angmohs can just laze around all day, just sipping wine/drinking tea and chatting.
  
• chinatown's random chinese restaurant for roast pork and duck rice - 4 stars. i've tasted much better duck before but it was good all the same because we were just so hungry after the concert and before we went on to zoobar. ahh how lucky am i to have been born in asia where we get asian cuisine so readily. i couldn't and wouldn't want to live on anything else!

and also a big THANK YOU TO EVERYONE BACK HOME! i've got all my birthday presents and it was so sweet! we were sitting in starbucks opening them all; i felt so so loved :) ahh i wish all of you guys could be here with me on the actual day, and i can't believe i'm actually turning 21! huge expectations to live up to, but i will try my very best don't worry dad and mum!

i guess it's luck but it's the same
hard luck, you've been trying to tame
maybe it's love, but it's like you said
"love is like a role that we play"

chasing the ghost of a good thing
haunting yourself as the real thing
it's getting away from you again
while you're chasing ghosts