Term 1 Week 7

Yet another week has passed. 3 more weeks until end of term! Time is passing by too quickly.

Currently rather pissed at myself for forgetting to prolong my French number. It was supposed to expire on 28 Nov but didn't realise Free was just going to terminate my line at 28/11 midnight. Oh gosh. I can't believe I've been so busy the past 2 months I completely forgot about it. Now I will have no French number for the whole of Christmas ugh.

Nothing much happened last week except for Black Friday sales. Had classes everyday and went skating on Wednesday. I wish I could say I learnt more tricks but no HAHA. Can't do a forward lunge literally because I'm not even flexible enough to do it on ground haha sigh need to practice off-ice stuff too.

I went for the Brandy Black Friday sale at Covent Garden!! 50% off everything but of course they kept away the new stuff omg I wanted the Kenzo jeans. But still managed to get sooooo much good stuff need to do a hauls post soon hahaha. Met C for dinner at Chinatown - it was completely dark because there was a power cut in Soho and Chinatown. Most of the restaurants were closed so we went to Wong Kei which was still open but they could only serve like 4 dishes. Made C go with me back to Brandy after dinner for round 2 HAHAHA. I need to stop buying clothes omg .........

Spent the whole weekend at home. Slept a lot, did work, finally did my accounts, even booked my return tickets and still can't believe I completely forgot about my French number argh. But yeah the weekend is over now and I feel like no amount of sleep can ever cure my fatigue in winter. It's almost half one, I should go to sleep now.

Half a year later

It's been such a long time since I last posted!! Almost half a year, considering we're now in late November. Can't believe time passed by so quickly, and so much has happened since May.

Brief summary of my life since May: Spain trip, London trip, Hamburg trip, last days in Strasbourg, internship, Strasbourg for K's birthday, Paris to visit YM, back to Strasbourg, second Brandy garage sale this summer in London, Workaway on French farm, back to uni, back to Strasbourg in October, reading week, more work and now we're coming to week 7 of Term 1. Crazy days! I've had so much work I didn't even travel during reading week. Also didn't have time for orch this term but I've started figure skating. Can't decide what to do for next term yet because I would really love to go back to orch but want to continue skating as well. More decisions sigh. But yes basically been swamped with work and nothing much interesting. I don't even shop as much anymore (because poor) and also no time. What is life at this point ......... Also have had no time to pack my room or do my colouring books even though I'm so stressed I actually should relax. Ah I don't know. House is settling in quite well, days are getting colder and I'm still contemplating getting a portable heater. O and P have also been reminiscing Strasbourg times with me, I'm glad I took photos of literally everything and everyday back in Strasbourg. I think that was just the highlight of my degree / life and now everything is going downhill from now onwards. I don't know I'm just really tired. I just wish to go back to the moment when I first arrived in Strasbourg and relive my whole year abroad again. Really.

Brandy Melville: London Carnaby Garage Sale

Finally getting down to blogging about this - Brandy's Garage Sale in London on 31 May. If I'm not wrong this is the first time BM held a sale in London, so it was pretty exciting. Brandy had been holding garage sales around Europe for the past few weeks and finally it was London's turn. I got to know of it on Instagram about 2 weeks before, right after my exams and I literally screamed after I saw LOL so I was looking forward to it so much! Carnaby also had a 20% off shopping party on the Thursday of the same week, but I didn't go as I was quite busy that evening and also I was hoping to get the new pieces in store at 50% off during the sale.

Anyway on Sunday morning, I woke up late. LOL. I meant to wake up at 8/9 to do some stuff / pack a bit but I guess I'd been too excited the night before and couldn't sleep, so I only woke up at around 11.30am. Got changed quickly and walked to Oxford Circus where I was supposed to meet E because she said she'd check out the sale with me! We walked over to Carnaby and arrived at 1254 when the sale was supposed to begin at 1300. Mistake :( The queue was already this long by then:

So we went around the corner and joined the back of the queue which was all the way past the bar on Kingly Street. THEN IT BEGAN TO RAIN. I had my waterproof jacket but of all days it rained super heavily that day. I never had the habit of bringing an umbrella. Surprisingly no one left the queue and most people had umbrellas with them. Also saw a few parents with their kids. I suppose most people came better prepared than me LOL.

Waited for super long. E left to run some errands and she brought back a raspberry magnum for me. Regent Street was having some Magnum event that day. At least I had magnum to munch on while waiting. E left after a while hahaha so I started talking to this Korean girl who was in the queue next to me, she was pretty cool. We'd started queuing from 1255, and we'd only just managed to turn around the corner at Toms at about 1428. That was 2.5h just to get to Toms. And after Toms there was still a long way ... So near yet so far.

Finally reached the store window at about 1535. O M G. Tried to peer in to see what was on sale cause we had absolutely no idea at all. Much to our disappointment they'd bordered out about half the store with all the new arrivals, which meant that the new arrivals were not going to be part of the sale. Great ... regretting not going for the shopping part on Thursday, I could've gotten one of the tote bags T_T Anyway, the sale was only a small portion at the centre of the store, so we couldn't really see what exactly was on sale. Spotted a few floral shorts and skirts at the side so I made a mental note to get those once I got in.

... And this was taken right before I got in at 1609 LOL. That was 3 hours of solid waiting o m g.  To shop just for 10 minutes. Anyway they'd let in about 20 girls right before us, so we were right at the front of the queue!! Then after a few minutes the guard said we could go in, so we rushed in. We had to leave our bags and coats at the counter and just take our wallet. I was too busy grabbing clothes to take anymore photos LOL. But basically it was just a few racks, like at the front of the sale there was a rack of skirts and below it was a rack of shorts. I grabbed 2 floral Heather skirts, 2 Remi shorts, a pair of Eve shorts, 3 Vodi shorts and 2 Kaitlee skirts from those racks. One of the Vodis and one of the Remis were the last piece in that design, so I had to get them. Off to the next one. There was a rack of long pants behind that rack and I saw the Alexah pants in the bohemian print and the new orange floral print, but decided against them because I don't like the waistband on them. Then going from clockwise direction it was outerwear, knits, tops, more tops until the counter. Saw the Scar jacket and was sooooo tempted but decided against it cause I wasn't sure of the quality and if I'd wear it. 

In the centre of the store they had a box of halters and tanks, so I managed to pick out a super nice Edel knit tank in baby pink, a white ribbed Joanne tank, a striped Mary tank and another blue marl loose tank top (which I later discovered stains on ugh should've checked). Saw a few bandeaus and a few of the striped Sachis but I don't really like the material of the striped Sachis. The next rack was all dresses. Omg. They had the Herika dresses in the rare older prints, so I got one of each since I didn't own any Herika dresses before that. Skipped the plain mint one cause it looked a bit sheer. Then there was the Alena dress in this textured material that was quite thick, so I got that too along with a tartan print Abigail dress. The next rack was all Luana tops, saw a plain dirty green one and a baby blue one but decided against those. Oh and I found the crochet design Joanne and crop top (I think it's either the Giselle or the Ellie?) against the wall so I got one of each too. By then I think my arm was starting to shake under the weight LOL the wooden hangers are super heavy. Walked around a bit more and realised I didn't have time to look at the Nadine tops but then they said the 10 minutes was up so we had to go and pay T_T Never mind I don't think I could've handled anymore anyway. So I went to pay and I think I bought the most number of stuff in the group T_T And the worst thing was they ripped out the price tags after scanning the items so I couldn't even check how much I'd spent on each item or if they'd miscounted or anything. Anyway my items amounted to a total of 235.50, which I thought was pretty okay considering I'd gotten 22 items. But I'm still pretty annoyed that I don't know the price of each individual piece I feel like I need to know argh, plus they don't give you a proper receipt so you can't return the stuff but that means you can't check either. I don't get why they wouldn't issue the receipt though, I mean if someone tries to return you can just check the date to make sure they didn't buy it during the sale and at 50% off? Idk. Lesson learnt: Should've taken note of price tags before paying. 

Paying. THE VODIS I'D BEEN SEARCHING FOR THEM FOR AGES. WOOHOO. And the Bruna shorts are right below. Then the Herika dresses. WOOHOO.

Mandatory hauls of the day photo!!

Most of the stuff were in perfect condition, except for the blue tank which had stains. So annoyed and I haven't tried washing it off yet but I've left it in London so will only be able to do so after I get back ... Some of the stuff had a few loose threads, didn't have time to check properly either :( Nothing too major though, thankfully, at least not any I've spotted yet. But otherwise everything else was in perfect condition!! Super happy with my Edel knit, the colour is gorgeous and really comfy to wear! As well as the Mary tank, I wore it during my last week in London haha. And finally managed to find the Vodi shorts in the black and blue floral print, I'd been looking for that for ages and it was the last one!! Had some loose threads on the bottom though but pretty expected due to the material and it wasn't too major anyway. Also super in love with the Bruna shorts, they're in a pretty shade of pastel pink and used to cost like 29 or something. And the Herika dresses. Okay whatever I basically love everything I bought!!! Except the blue tank but I guess it'll be fine once I wash the stains out. I hope. Super regret not looking at the Nadine tops and slightly regretting not getting the Scar jacket but argh whatever. I'M HAPPY WITH MY HAULS!!!

Okay so that concludes my first BM sale LOL never would I have thought that I'd be able to actually attend one ... They're always holding warehouse sales in the US and I've always been so envious of people who get to go. Anyway hopefully I'll be able to go for more in the future hahaha crapz my $$$ ... #brandy4life ayeeeeee.

Exams

First TGIF spent at home in more than a month? And only because all of us in the house are now down to one last exam and we all finish next week! Had curry for dinner and it was really good. 

Can't believe it was only last Friday that I was slogging away in the library for econs T_T Last weekend was such a horrible weekend, had Micro on Thursday, Macro on Monday and Stats on Tuesday so it was literally 3 consecutive papers except I was lucky enough to get the weekend. So far I've had French Oral, which went okay I guess. I didn't manage to finish my presentation, was down to my last point but the examiner told me to conclude so I went straight to the conclusion. When I was timing my presentation it only took 4min30s, but I didn't memorise my presentation word by word this time so I guess I spoke a lot slower during the actual presentation. The questions were quite okay, though I don't know if my answers or preparation were actually sufficient enough or if they addressed the question properly now thinking back about it :( I had one question that was unexpected and I was struggling to give an example and ended up giving the most cliche example of Paris (my topic was on tourism) "je dois donner un example ..." T_T So that was French Oral. Had slightly more than a week (10 days) to study for Micro, and I'm proud to say that I actually (almost) completed all the past year papers!!! Not sure how effective it was because the paper was really hard and I know I had some mistakes ... Was so tired after Micro and I was supposed to study Stats that afternoon but my brain just wasn't working. Dedicated the weekend to Macro and it was terrible because I did Macro right at the start of Easter break but by then I'd forgotten like EVERY SINGLE THING so it was as though I had to study all over again T_T So I didn't manage to touch stats until after the Macro paper. Made quite a few mistakes in Macro as well and didn't manage to finish my essays argh but I really didn't know what to write by then and there wasn't enough time!! I had a blister on my finger after the exam. And I wrote 15 sides. Then it was stats the next day and I couldn't remember the formulas T_T Didn't finish the stats paper, had 25m worth that I didn't have time to finish T_T Just hoping that I pass everything now. French written next week. I think it's good that I started and am ending with French and had Econs in the middle so I didn't have to keep switching subjects to study, though it was quite hard with Econs because Micro was so much math, Macro was more essay and graphs and Stats is just stats ... Okay please just let me pass everything please. :(

In other news I also sprained my ankle for the first time in my life yesterday. Went for a French revision class and missed a step when I was walking down the stairs. Went to the school clinic and the doctor said it was a hyperextension (??) because I basically slid down the stairs on the front of my right foot T_T It wasn't even swollen at first and I could still walk then within an hour it started to swell and now my right ankle is about 1.5 times the size of my left. So annoying and I've been limping about everywhere and I walk so slowly it took me half an hour to get to school today instead of the usual 15min a r g h. And I was supposed to go for the OML sample sale that day!!! And I sprained it right before I was going to leave school ugh.

Anyway there isn't much else exciting happening in my life so I've just been entertaining myself by adding things to my Brandy wishlist. Pinterest is wonderful hahaha but it just makes me want to buy everything o m g and I'm actually really broke right now T_T

Keeping my fingers crossed for French on Tuesday and hoping that my ankle will recover soon!!!!!!

March

It's been an overwhelming week, with end of term, B going back, spring week, opera, and LKY's passing at the beginning of the week. I've officially completed my classes for my second year at UCL, completed the spring week that I'd been looking forward to, had the last concert with string orchestra 2 weeks ago, and tonight is the last show for the opera and also my last performance with the symphony orchestra. Now that everything has / is coming to an end I actually feel a bit empty inside, but I guess it must be good if time passed so quickly it must meant that I thoroughly enjoyed everything while they lasted.

Meeting Sabrina and Hue for a quick dinner before the show later, gonna squeeze in some time to practise as well. Next week will be relatively easier and I really need to catch up on my sleep and also sort out my stuff. Will probably update more in detail then. x

School

I've been MIA for so long because I've been so super busy with everything. Supposed to do French now but I think my brain just stops working after midnight but I can't wake up in the morning so I have to finish it now omg .........

Anyway, happy CNY! Not much happening over here. I wish I was back in sg hahaha and I haven't even had time to watch the CNY countdown yet T_T It's a thing which I need to do lol I'll probably replay it this week and like speed through the boring stuff. I am also craving mandarin oranges which they don't sell here so clementines will have to suffice.

Life has been super hectic and packed but exciting! I went to Norway a week ago and spent a week there. Managed to see the aurora borealis twice, and also visited the Brandy Melville store in Oslo and got a ton of stuff - 4 Donilyn tanks + 1 Nadine + 1 Chiyo + 1 Ellie + 1 Genevie + 1 Bobbie and a Nana dress, which is basically the long sleeve version of the Alena dress. Too bad it only comes in black for now :( I was there on Thursday and they had a whole bunch and I hesitated cause it was 330NOK which is like 30GBP/$60?! Then I went back the following Wednesday and it was THE LAST PIECE on the last chance rack and I just couldn't bear to leave it behind LOL. So yeah. I also caved in and finally bought the American Apparel Tennis Skirt in white and am intending to get it in more colours ... New clothes hooray!! Brandy just had a warehouse sale ytd in Cali. I wish I was in Cali.

In other news strings concert and opera are coming up in less than a month, making it 5 more performances this term since the opera runs 4 shows. I'm slightly dreading the thought of having to play for 3 hours non-stop (okay there are breaks in between the acts but still) but it's my first time being involved in something that's not purely orchestral so it's very exciting! We just had the first rehearsal today with the chorus and some of the soloists and they were really good. In addition I've also finally reached the end of SW applications and have spent the past few weeks on apps and interviews. But I'm pretty happy to have came out with 2 offers, so Easter's looking very very busy. Exciting days ahead!!!

And I'm going to quickly finish up my French and sleep asap.

Oversleeping

Wasted my morning oversleeping when I could've gone for French. This sleeping thing is going too far because I can't even wake up to like the fire drill alarm clock now. And I just fall back asleep even if I do wake up on time and then I actually have strange dreams and don't wake up until hours later. So super annoyed with myself these days argh.

End of Week 2

Second week of school has passed and things have been slowing down to a more acceptable pace since the submission of my French essay. I know I've said this enough but I really NEED to stop leaving things until the last minute but it's just that I don't have this sense of urgency for some things?! But anyway, it's done, I just hope it'll be a good ending to this module because I really quite enjoyed it. The thing about literature modules is that it gives you an extremely good reason to READ and you get to read novels instead of textbooks. Novels!!! I haven't been reading much since JC to be honest and I always feel like I'm not sure what type of books I'm supposed to be reading ... I mean I still enjoy children's books LOL but I go through them pretty quickly and like young adult books are not very meaningful and sometimes too emotional ...? And then there're the classics which I've already read and popular novels which I have also read so now I'm kind of at a loss of what to read. I guess I need to start on Les Mis in French, after all I'm watching the play soon. And I haven't read the Fault in Our Stars and it's been so hyped up on Tumblr so I guess I should read it soon. But anyway, I really liked 19th century French lit partially because a lot of the works were more familiar, like Madame Bovary and Cousine Bette so I've read a number of works by the authors. However the emphasis of the module was not to read it in a conventional way, but rather from other perspectives and trying to get a deeper sense of the meaning. While it was pretty enlightening studying those texts I think it'd be too difficult to try the same with all other novels ... I mean I just want to enjoy a book. Haha.

Overslept on Thursday morning and missed the econs lecture :( Macro is actually starting to look better this term we're doing forex!! My favourite part of econs haha. Went for dinner at C's place today and stayed until quite late talking. I love days like this!

Currently browsing the Brandy Melville site. They really NEED to have a UK website soon I'm not kidding. It was up for like 2 days? And when I went to Carnaby yesterday it was under renovations and closed for a week. I am so tempted by every single thing on the website T_T My current favourite top is the Genevie top which I got in Milan. I usually hate wearing long sleeve tops and horizontal stripes but omg this top is perfect, I got it in the navy base with white stripes as well. I love Brandy <3

Back to School

It's barely been 3 days in and I'm already overwhelmed with so many things to do. I'm glad that a lot of things have been settled quickly but there's still a lot of last minute surprises (or rather shocks) popping up and lots of uncertainty. Of course the topmost priority now is my essay which is due on Monday but I am still less than halfway done. I really need to stop doing this!!!

Also been sleeping very late and taking naps in the afternoon (why is London so cold) but at least the days are getting longer. Having afternoon classes in December was just completely depressing because you walk into your tutorial at 3pm and it's still relatively bright and by the time you come out one hour later it's completely dark. I miss summer days and wearing skirts and shorts.

In other news I have also discovered the wonders of Topshop Joni jeans. They're high waisted so I don't have to bother with belts and stuff and the jeans with their new material are super stretchy like leggings. They also go well with crop tops which is why I am still wearing crop tops and cropped jumpers in winter. I currently own 3 pairs but I really need to get a pair in black even though I don't wear black in general.

This is actually quite a pointless post but I'm trying to record my days so that I can look back next time and know what I was actually doing lol. Today was actually a pretty smooth day, I managed to wake up on time and prepped myself for school without being in a rush. This waking up in the morning thing is really getting to me because I just don't have the energy to do anything if I wake up too late but yet I just can't wake up earlier. Tim's alarm clock Christmas present has been pretty effective the past few days (yes I got an alarm clock for Christmas!! Cheers for practical gifts) but I'm still waiting to see how long it can last before I get immune to it again. Anyway, the micro lecture was pretty good, I paid attention throughout the entire lecture and took notes and all, then I came home and on the way back I met my French tutor and we said hi. It's quite coincidental that she actually lives really near me and I've never seen her around the area before. Then I had lunch and lazed around but didn't fall asleep which is a good thing, did a bit of work and then left early to prep for rehearsal. Reh was pretty good as well and then I came back and lazed around some more (I really need to stop) and now I am going to shower and finally get started on work.

3 due dates tomorrow please let me survive them all.

Travels + Happy New Year

It's 2015! Been a long time since I last posted, school + winter break was completely packed. I don't even remember how I survived Term 1 with 2 rehearsals a week, 5 concerts, 6 mods and 1 essay due. And there was so much stuff for Music Soc, hopefully Term 2 won't be so bad as it's just going to be opera and strings have one concert and I'm so thankful that I've found a proper concert venue. Was literally freaking out over the past week after having emailed about 20 churches in the vicinity and getting quotes going up to 800 quid a night?! But at last one of them replied and I went to see the church yesterday morning and it was a perfect location. So that's one thing done.

Over the winter break I travelled for about 3 weeks which explains why it's the night before school reopens and I've still not completed my work. I went to Switzerland and Italy the first Monday of Christmas break, and came back a few days before Christmas. In Switzerland we were in Geneva but didn't really do that much, I can't really remember what we did except going around the city center, travelling to Montreux to see le Chateau de Chillon, going up to La Cure and trying to find the Old Town on the last day. Switzerland was really expensive, the cheapest meal we could find around was 17CHF and I'd only changed 150CHF for 3.5 days which was not enough. For one thing the train tickets costed about 40 or 80CHF for a return so a lot of our money went out to transport. Food was also really expensive with the exception of Lindt chocolates so we ate mostly bread and ham and chocolates there. I felt so unhealthy as we didn't eat any vegetables for the whole time so I had to get a coleslaw on the last night.

We took the train from Geneva to Milano Centrale. I really wanted to visit Milan and it was primarily because I wanted to go to the Brandy Melville stores there. Upon arriving at Milano Centrale, we got scammed while buying the metro tickets. It was a lot harder to read and communicate in Milan as opposed to Geneva because the people spoke French in Geneva so I could at least understand and reply in French, but Italian was just foreign. Anyway, we were having difficulties reading the instructions on the ticketing machine and not realising that there was actually an English option when this HORRIBLE man came up to us and offered his help. I was quite confused at that point in time so I stupidly accepted his help. The metro tickets costed 3 euros and I had exact change in coins, but the man claimed that the machine doesn't accept coins?! So I wanted to put in a 5 Euro note and he pointed to the machine where the 5 Euro words were scratched out and said I could only put in 10 Euro. I should have realised at this point he was a freaking scammer but no I don't know what was wrong with me then. So I put in the 10 Euro, he gave me the tickets after they were dispensed when I could've just picked them up myself, swooped away all the coins and handed me back a 1 Euro coin. WTF??? He was still holding another coin in his fingers so I actually snatched it back and then he disappeared with a smirk. And then I realised I'd only gotten back 3 Euros in change which means he just stole 4 Euros from me?! Was completely shocked that things like this could actually happen in public and we couldn't get any help. I later found out it was actually a common tourist scam. Ugh Milan is SO DAMN DODGY but lesson learnt.

The airbnb that we got in Milan wasn't as nice as the one in Geneva as well. The son of the person that I booked with messaged me via airbnb at the last minute saying he had work and won't be around that evening but obviously I wouldn't have had wifi on the train so I didn't see the message until we were like at his doorstep. Thank goodness his flatmates were in so they opened the door for us. I mean the room was pretty decent and all but the whole place reeked of cigarettes so I've learnt to check for No Smoking when booking airbnb. The only consolation was that food in Milan was actually affordable in comparison with Geneva, and I had some extra Euros left over from last year's trip to Barcelona so I was feeling a lot less poor than I had felt in Geneva.

We only had 3 days in Milan so we didn't really do much besides shopping and visiting Lake Como. Lake Como was really beautiful and I definitely spammed a lot of pictures there on instagram LOL. It was quite misty on the day we went but nonetheless the scenery was still worth it. We wanted to visit Castello di Vezio and climbed all the way up only to discover that it was apparently closed in winter ... Also had 2 gelatos there hehe. BTW in Italy if it's a single scoop of gelato it actually means double LOL cause they allow you to mix up to two flavours! And who cares about painstakingly making sure that the scoops are perfectly round balls (ahem sg), the Italians just slap the gelato onto the cone and voila the taste makes up for everything! I think I had 8 scoops in 3 days hehehe.

The highlight of my Milan trip was actually Brandy Melville LOL. Went to both the stores on 16 via Statuto and Via Cesare Baccaria (sp?) and I spent a hundred euros there LOL. The first store we went to actually had this sale basket with everything going at 10 Euros holy shit! I didn't even see the basket at first so I spent a long time looking around because I couldn't bear to leave the place without buying anything. In the end I picked out 2 striped long sleeve tops, one in a navy base with white stripes and the other one vice versa (my problem of having to buy the same thing in different colours). They were only 15 Euros each and actually costed cheaper than if I were to buy it in the US (cause of US tax and shipping and all). So I paid for those and decided to take one last look around and that was when I saw the sale basket. OMG. Apparently it had been there the whole time but I just don't know why I didn't see it earlier! So yes I raided the entire basket and found tons of things from the summer collection that I've been wanting for ages like the Heather skirts and Kaitlee skirts and this blue suede skirt that I've been looking for. So super happy with my buys ^_^ At the other store they didn't have this amazing basket unfortunately, but they had those cute wooden signs in the Brandy Stores and I've ALWAYS wanted one of those. There weren't many designs though and I contemplated getting one of Paris but it didn't really make sense since I didn't apply to Paris for my year abroad which means it won't be relevant to me in the near future lol. The one that I really, really want would be one that says LONDON or one of those proper Brandy Melville ones with the pink wooden heart in the center! There was also this really nice food market next to the Duomo, and lots of shops around the Duomo as well. We discovered shops that were really similar to Brandy - what is with Italian labels taking the American style anyway?? And then walked to this outlet (can't remember where) which was rather disappointing ... Didn't do much on the last day because to be honest Milan is actually quite boring after you've seen the cathedrals and the shopping so we went to the airport a few hours early and used wifi there hahaha -_-

Came back to London for Christmas and didn't really do much except playing Pokemon LOL and had a relatively peaceful Christmas except for the I Hall christmas gathering! Then it was Boxing Day which was quite disappointing this year and the sales weren't that good. I ended up only buying like a bar of soap from LUSH (which wasn't even on sale please) and a down jacket and 4 heattechs from Uniqlo (which I ended up returning 3) so yuppp. Trying to cut down.

The day after Boxing Day we left for Norway! It was absolutely freezing there and I was wearing like 4 layers - heattech, fleece, down, hooded coat (cause my other jackets didn't have hoods). The cold really hurts LOL like my hands were hurting even though I was wearing gloves. We actually reached the airbnb place at about 4pm and decided to laze around and watch tv and not knowing that the Oslo Brandy Melville does not open on Sundays T_T And it also does not open on public holidays i.e. New Year's, and those were the only two days we were going to be in Oslo ugh. This is my major regret lol. We brought food to Norway so hooray for Nongshin instant noodles! On Sunday we went to visit some of the museums, and did I mention it was the first time I saw proper snow! The snow in Switzerland didn't count because it was mainly ice flakes. But WHITE SNOW. SO PRETTY.

We took the train to Bergen the next day and stayed in Bergen for 3 days. It was snowing the morning we arrived and we took a long time to get to our airbnb place because it wasn't that near the city center and the snow from the previous days were knee deep. The place was on the top of a hill so it was quite difficult to climb up as the snow had covered the steps leading up. Some of the snow on the roads had melted so it was more like dirty slush. BUT SO MUCH SNOW. I've never seen so much snow before. 

There wasn't much to shop in Norway, but I got some cute socks from this shop called Cubus and the material feels very soft, almost exactly like Brandy's micromodal material. The highlight of our Bergen stay was the Gudvangen Fjords tour and also NYE fireworks. The Fjords tour took one whole day and it was on a ferry so it was really cold but it was all worth it. We stopped at Flam and had lunch there and walked around the very small town before taking the bus back to Bergen. NYE was pretty chill, the view of the fireworks was amazing since we were at the top of the hill. Travelled back to London on 1 Jan so that was the end of my travelling for now!

Back in the +44

Been really crazy since I came back to London, second year is no joke man! This week is even busier with 4 rehearsals and concert on Saturday but I did want to pen down some thoughts before I forget everything.

Anyway, I came back on London on Monday morning on the 22nd. C came to fetch me from the station (thank goodness!) and then I spent the morning just lazing around in the new house. I really like our house hehe. Couldn't unpack on the first day cause my room was still serving as the storeroom. I went out in the afternoon to Oxford Street and Regent Street (I HAD to check out Brandy Melville) and met Alice and Anna who were shopping. Then E and T came back the very next day and we had pizza for dinner. And the rest of the first week was spent settling in, buying stuff for the house, unpacking and such. I can't even remember what happened already because it feels like it's been so long and it's already the end of week 4. School life is passing by too quickly. :(

In terms of classes and all I'm rather enjoying my timetable this year - 3.5 days of the long weekend! It never actually feels sufficient though and I always seem to be rushing my French homework the night before classes. My Mondays and Tuesdays are also intensively packed - like literally all of my tutorials have been put together in 2 days alone. I don't have complaints though except that the school is huge and it's been a tiring (but healthy) workout running from one school building to another. And cheers for Free Fridays with Car - so far we've been exploring and walking around London and cycling (last week) but unfortunately I've got rehearsal tomorrow so I don't think I'll go out during the day.

In other news I've also been heavily involved in Music Soc this year. Made a crazy last minute decision to sign up for auditions for the Symphony Orch and got thrown into a fit of panic since I didn't have any suitable pieces in mind and I had to learn whatever it was within 2 days. Very grateful to Evan who took the time out to practise with me on the piano omg ... and by a stroke of pure luck I made it. It was quite a surprise because I honestly knew the parts which I screwed up in and also made a lot of stupid mistakes which I normally don't make ... but well say hi to 5 concerts this term, which is like one every weekend after reading week. And that's also how I ended up with 4 rehearsals this week alone. X_X I don't regret it though, sym orch's been pretty challenging so far and I've missed those type of grilling rehearsals for some reason. I also feel it's a good balance with strings cause there's more variety to the pieces this year. I will manage this, yes.

However work-wise I really think I need to work a lot harder this year. I've been doing my assignments and stuff and generally paying more attention in lectures but it still feels like my brain is not absorbing anything. Really regret not studying more last year because my foundation is really weak now so it's not helping much. Also I feel like I'm approaching quarter-life crisis and not knowing what I'm going to do in future when everyone around seems so sure and determined of their life path and I'm just trying to wake up on time every morning and catching up with work that's due the next day and stuff. Like trying to pull up my grades and get my shit tgt when everyone's applying for internships and summer placements and all. Idk I don't like thinking about it and I don't really know what to think either. Sometimes I also think I've been given so many chances and all but all I do is to ruin things for myself every single time. I don't know really.

Off day tomorrow so let's hope I get some proper work done. I wish time would slow down actually I really don't want school life to end that quickly.

Friday

Today is Friday and it's also my last Friday in London before going home next week :( Well until I come back the next academic year. Can't believe 9 months just went by so quickly, it feels like just yesterday when I first arrived in London and everything was so foreign but now I think being back in SG will feel surreal haha. Post-exams have been crazy, was in Romania last week (might do a post on it probably when I'm back in SG lol), came back to London on Saturday afternoon then spent a whole day in Brighton on Sunday (theme park!!!). This week I've been busy with school hahaha summer school ... it's actually UCL's Global Citizenship Programme and I'm doing the one on the Danube, which also includes Bulgarian lessons! Slightly thankful I didn't get allocated to Romanian if not I'd be so annoyed the week before at not knowing a single word in Romania, and Bulgaria has been pretty fun so far and I haven't been there so there's a higher chance of me travelling there rather than to Romania again! Finally got pushed to learn the Cyrillic alphabet properly haha I've been dragging it for years since wanting to pick up Russian a few years ago. I think the course has been rather intensive so far, like we have about 5-6 hours a day while my normal school hours was an average of 2 hours each day. Also have tons of admin stuff to settle and packing to do before going back and lots of appointments are clashing! I've missed some sessions already and I feel really bad because so much effort has been put into preparing this course for us. In all honesty I've really enjoyed all the lectures but it's a pity that I haven't got the time to be more committed to it, like how I went for half of a talk on Bulgarian writers in London just now but had to leave halfway even though it's so interesting and few people actually get the chance to hear close up accounts of these people ... argh too many things too little time.

It's strange how I've been wanting to go home for ages but now that the day is approaching I don't want to leave London somehow :( Also it doesn't help that the weather is getting nicer and SG is going to be terribly humid and I'm going to melt ...

Singapore Day 2014

Been super busy for the past 2 weeks but now that it's Easter break I finally have some time to relax a bit before exam prep. Anyway, last Saturday was SG Day and we were really lucky that it was held in London in our first year here :> Was already pretty hyped up for the event since the registration started, and it was really amazing and beyond expectations hehe! It was held at Victoria Park, so after A came over to put down her stuff, we left with the hallmates. Didn't really take a lot of photos but there was a lot of FOOD!

Mega group selfie while queuing to enter!

Food buddies L and S for the day :P Had so much fun tackling the different food stalls and trying out everything despite the long queues. Weather was really sunny and hot haha it really felt like SG!

First stop: Chicken rice! It was from a stall called Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice. It was so good!! I'm not sure which part of SG it's in but I'm definitely going back to hunt for this haha. The chicken was just right and super tender, and I've always loved the chicken rice rice! Missed it so much hehe.

Next, we tried the the char kway teow from Hill Street Fried Kway Teow. I didn't get a photo of it because I was so hungry hahaha ... but it was slightly too oily for my liking. Worth a try though!

Our 3rd stop was the carrot cake. The queue was just insane ... we queued for about an hour for it! But we realised that it's because they really take the effort to cook every piece to perfection AND they were giving each person 2 pieces which is like double the proportion! And it smelt really good too hehe. The carrot cake was from this store called Chey Sua Carrot Cake. I'm writing this down so that I will remember to search for it when I go back to SG LOL.

Super long queue. Glad that we went early because after we got our food it had extended way back from the initial end of the queue!!

Look at the huge pieces!

Super yummy too. I am craving this now as I type.

So after battling the hour-long queue for carrot cake, we were quite tired so we went to the other side of the park for the rest of the stalls. The bak kut teh had the shortest queue so we decided to try that first. There were stalls for chilli crab and rojak nearby too but the queues were really long so we didn't get to try those.

This was from Rong Cheng Bak Kut Teh on Sin Ming Road. (I just found their page on FourSquare and the reviews are pretty good too!)

Decided to go for the prata next instead of the chilli crab etc because the chilli crab looked really difficult to eat especially while queuing. The prata was a good choice! It was so soft hehe and the curry was just nice too, not too spicy. This was from Casuarina Curry so I'm guessing it's probably at Casuarina Road! :P

The queues were all super long so we went back to the other side of the park (the side where we started). L and S didn't try the chicken rice yet so they went to queue for that while I went for the satay instead with YW. By then they had already taken down the signboards so I don't know where it's from but the servings were really generous! We got 4 sticks each, a mix of beef and chicken.

Laksa and finally teh tarik to end off the food journey! Both queues were relatively fast, probably because it was quite late by then so there weren't as many people as before. I love the teh tarik hehe it's so strange because I don't even eat all these often in SG but after coming over to London I just miss all the food and want to try everything, even spicy food though I rarely take spicy. Oh and we got mini flags and this Singapore scarf(?) made from dri-fit material too! And also the stuff that they gave in our goody bags were really handy, including the picnic mat, the umbrella, water, wet tissue and heat patch. None of the conventional pens and post-its that we won't really need hehe. Really thoughtful of them. :)

And here's our selfie of the day with DPM Teo! Didn't manage to see PM Lee but we got a selfie with the DPM instead! Hehe and he shook our hands and spoke to us too. :D

Cool photobooth so we posed with our flags!

And a last photo before we left. Hehe the MRT / Underground theme was really cool too, didn't get to visit the booth but basically they kind of merged the MRT system with the London Underground system hehe! The social media aspect was rather well-covered too. Just discovered they uploaded this overview video 2 days ago and I'm proud to say that WE MADE AN APPEARANCE AT 1:11 HEHEHEHE. It was quite unexpected because when we first entered, there was this photographer so we asked him if he could take a photo for us but he told us to say "Singapore Day!" instead and we had no idea it was actually for the video!! But it was fun ^_^

Ending off with this screenshot HAHA okay that's all for now!

Lunch at Misato

The week is finally over haha super tired and just submitted my econs assignment because I forgot about it so I went grocery shopping instead. D; Thank goodness I already did half of it yesterday so there wasn't much left to complete / THAT I KNOW HOW TO DO haha econs ggcakes. Last week of school next week! French test on Tuesday and my essay is due on Thursday. :(

Anyway, met up with L and M during my lunch break today. We went to Misato, this Japanese restaurant at Chinatown which M suggested. The prices were quite reasonable, like the rice dishes start from £4+ and the udon dishes start from £6+ but the servings were large. L and I both got the curry udon and M got one of the rice dishes with curry chicken.

Chicken Katsu Curry Udon

I don't really know how to compare food HAHA but it's definitely more affordable than Koya. The serving size is relatively larger too. I would want to come back again!

OOTD / playing with different filters. Sunny but cold weather and sadly no more bare legs like last week. I was so sad that I had to put on leggings haha really dislike wearing tights / leggings!! Also I can't quite get used to babydoll dresses yet haha I think this is probably the only one I own.

Went to Camden after dinner with hallmates. Bought food (including really cute Disney cookie tins - the cookies were pretty decent too), a basin so that it's easier for me to handwash some clothes, and a Disney waste paper bin that was too pretty to pass but I probably would never bear to use it as a dustbin so I'll most likely use it for storage or something ... Anyway here's the tin that I got the first time! #disneykidforlife

Ending off the post with some flowers. Here's to a good and productive weekend ahead!

Bromley

Definitely did not expect so many people to read the previous post o_o The post alone hit more than 300 views within a few hours and made up for a quarter of the total views of this blog HAHAHA no one reads this space. I guess. But quite a few people have told me they could relate and stuff ... well it's good that it's over now and we all came through haha. To better days ahead. :)

Wanted to blog about Bromley! WT and I went back there last weekend for old times' sake. :) BSP London Trip '11 memories haha good times. It was actually quite convenient to get there, we took the tube to Victoria Station and changed for the Southeastern line. We arrived at a very good timing so we didn't have to wait very long for the next train.

London Victoria.

We took the train to Bromley South, which is the station nearer to Bromley High Street. It felt good to be back!! Haha. We went to the 99p store first (will never understand what's it with us and grocery shopping) and bought Maltesers. Then we walked to the Glades, which is now renamed as intuBromley or something. It's like a miniature version of Oxford Street really, they have everything! Even LUSH. So we browsed a couple of shops but didn't buy anything (except a haircuff from H&M because all of mine are in sg), before going out to the town central to get lunch.

All time favourite HAHA. Miss Selfridge was having 2-for-1 sales and I couldn't resist buying 2 skirts ... Unfortunately Topshop didn't stock as much though.

OOTD taken by WT because we found this really nice wall HAHA.

Spring is coming!

For old times' sake HAHA. Really miss the good times!

Then we found this nice mini garden hehe!

Details: All decked in Topshop (I think they're all from SS'13), ft. butterfly print kimono, bleached Aztec shorts and satin cami in ash.

I love kimonos! Really want a floral one for spring hehe because the butterfly prints tend to be slightly too loud sometimes. But the material is really good, feels somewhat like a cardigan because it's polyester and not chiffon. And the shorts is one of my favourites. Saw it in store back in May and contemplated for the longest time ever because it was $70+ and didn't look like it would go on sale. Bought it online in the end and was so glad I did because they got sold out not long after and never came back again! Super love the quality of Topshop denims.

More flowers (?).

We went back to the town central after that and went to look around Primark and some other stores. Picked up a book from a charity store for only £1 haha wish they had such stores around here! Also bought 2 more punnets of strawberries for only 75p each (but I had to throw one away yesterday because I forgot about them and left them there for 4 days so they got moldy :'( ) and went back to the 99p for grocery shopping ahaha. Satisfied popcorn craving and also found lovely Disney cookie tins so I couldn't resist buying one haha. If the cookies are alright I would seriously buy more just for the tins! 

Took train back from Bromley after that and that was the end of the Bromley visit. Okay actually there wasn't really much to do there and when we were there 2 years ago we also travelled to central London almost everyday, except for shopping on the last day HAHA. But it was nice to be back again, since it was the first part of London we came into contact with (minus the airport that doesn't count) haha it was seriously the most amazing 2 weeks of the year.

Had lunch with housemates-to-be on Sunday, and I had been really busy with school this week. Had French on Tuesday and I've got a presentation next week aye. Also just came back from rehearsal and our concert is only 1 more rehearsal away omg ... and there's only 3 more weeks to end of term. :O Need to get back to my philosophy readings now so tata!