longleat safari

one of my happiest childhood memories was visiting longleat safari park in somerset. so when T told me his parents' lived in somerset (and i suppose so did he at some point!) longleat was the first thing that came to mind. to my surprise, he said he'd never visited because his girlfriend only liked the giraffes, and they could spot the giraffes a mile away. all he had to do was drive her around the park boundary and she could get her fill of the lanky beautes. 

related this to rui over whatsapp and she sent me a picture, along with a quote for T to further woo his lady love with.

"one's not half two and two are not halves of one" - e. e. cummings

such articulate simplicity. 

thanks rui for starting the weekend on a contemplative note. 

have a great one, folks!

what are you up to this weekend? might be a quiet one for me so do share and let me live vicariously through you.

TGIF

and a cheap poster, anybody? 

a door sized poster of the timeless ms. hepburn was selling for four quid!

what a steal :)

what posters were on your bedroom wall growing up?

dong dong qiang

one of the best things about my flat is its proximity to chinatown, and its associated asian grocers' :)

but the iPorpor was quick to warn me of the "chin lang", whatever they are.

 

anyone care to shed some light on the chin lang? i tried googling but iPorpor probably got the phonetics wrong. really curious though!

old buildings in hipsta'

also have a certain charm.

old buildings

have a distinct charm, don't you think?
(this was taken last week when it was dark and drearyy)

emo nemo

was talking to T over lunch and somehow stockholm crept into the conversation. putting it in context, the only other time i've lived away from home was for that six glorious months in 2009. 

i was in a completely different place then. it was the first semester of final year, i had a job waiting for me, and all i had to do was pass two (!!!) classes at stockholm uni and i was home free. it helped that the classes were taught one before the other, so at any given time, i was only studying one subject. what a luxury! and we had something like six hours of contact time a week. as you can imagine, my time in stockholm was literally a six month long party. having next to no responsibilities was the best. plus, being able to speak english made me the one eyed man in the land of the blind so classes were really manageable. in retrospect, two years on, i think i'm still partied-out from stocks!

now, i'm living away from home again but this time my academic performance really matters! and that's not something i'm used to, having somehow associated living abroad with hedonism and not much else. so i need to stop comparing this with stockholm because that was an amazing experience never to be repeated. but i do miss my stockholm flat and housemates so. this lot is a far cry from the swedish coordination and efficiency i enjoyed. over here, i've to pay to use the on site laundry room. grumble.

posted this in november 2009 and glad i did because they were a really good bunch :)

spontaneous feeding frenzy

i really like my corridor.

according to Kjell, the corridor-dad because he's lived here three years and counting, we really lucked out this time. every single corridor dweller is nice. and while nice is never enough (if you're looking for a soul mate or something) it pretty much suffices for communal living. all the horrors of college dorms somehow don't exist in our little piece of stockholm. the kitchen's always impeccably tidy, the corridor elf (we take turns so it's only your turn every three months) does its duty with aplomb and our inter-personal relationships are cheery. everyone gets along, no politics, just a lot of good-natured ribbing. it's a circus every night at 8ish when we congregate and get in each other's way, in a good way. Kjell tackles Ayumi-san, Piotr restrains Kjell, someone helps locate Ayumi-san's misplaced slipper, Fariba rolls her eyes at our childish antics, i'm cowering somewhere trying not to watch the latest slasher flick on tv. good times :)

and like tonight, Krishna very kindly cooked me tandoori! i didn't realise how obviously i'd been lusting over his dinner but he offered to make me chicken and i couldn't say no. and he made 1kg for me :D so i've plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow, maybe even dinner. mhmmm :) we cook in ways that reflect our individual cultural heritage - indian Krishna cooks curry, japanese Ayumi-san does miso soup, swedish Kjell does swedish caviar on hard bread with cucumbers, Yulan's brother cooks delicious smelling chinese stew, polish Piotr eats something salty (tonight he helped me eat my zucchine e panna because i'd gone a bit heavy on the salt and couldn't stomach it myself) and i steam / fry / boil pork that's pushing expiry.

i wish i'd more time with them but i don't stay in as often as i should. that's one of the reasons why i cherish my sundays so. it's the one day i don't go out / talk to anyone / do anything. i nua at home, pig out on chocolate and chips, gulp tea by the gallon, read trashy magazines and while the day away. i love waking up in the morning and knowing that there's absolutely nothing i need to do. talk about the absence of responsibility! amazing stuff.

what's one thing you learnt living away from home? i'd love to be clued in. 

free fall

sort of how the first day of real lectures made me feel

what was the last thing that made you feel this way? misery loves company!

new friends say hellO!

 

took this photo of T and D on the grass today to prove to my family that i have friends here. both of them were bemused that i have such disbelieving folk and waved for even greater friendly effect. 

the weather has been incredible and i have found the english obsession with the weather to be most contagious. having been here for over a week, and starting the week with my ski jacket, it is almost absurd to now be prancing around in my tshirt and shorts. in (practically!) october. but no complaints from the girl who grew up on the equator. we were joking that we probably got our annual supply of vitamin D this afternoon.

love the spontaneity of plonking ourselves down on a random grassy patch in between classes and practising some sun salutations over lunch. made the subsequent damp bottom and lingering grassy smell worth it!

old habits die hard

uncool as this may sound, i had the bad habit of ending a night out by uploading the photos when i got home or blogging. thing is - my hyperactive mind goes into overdrive with the slightest stimuli (funny, that's what hyperactive means, isn't it!) and the only way of slowing things down when i get home is by letting it all outta the system.

tonight was no exception and i'm immensely grateful for opportunities, and what is shaping up to be a fantastic group of friends. we have so much in common that it's like talking to myself sometimes. to meet people on a similar page and in a similarly good place boggles the mind. the universality of the human condition and its multi-faceted nature fascinates me. doesn't hurt that the friends i've made so far are really really interesting! wow. couldn't ask for more :)

(gawd it's hard not to sound like a self-satisfied twatface... please excuse me!)

what are your winding down habits when you get home after a night out on the town? do share!

paranoia

my goodness, i'm so paranoid about the hard water and having lime stains in the glassware that even my flowers drink brita filtered water. on a related note, having fresh flowers is a recently acquired habit. it's probably the lone indulgence i've brought with me from home.

when i was pupilling, i used to wish i'd fresh flowers at my work station and endeavoured to always have a full vase when i did eventually get my own office. well, we all know how that particular pipe dream worked out, or not, so here i am, back in student accommodation with flowers on my windowsill to remind me that i am, after all, an adult.

question going to all the adults reading this - do you have a personal ritual or reminder of your adulthood? i'd love to know :)

no raining on my parade

sun's up, surf's up! 

whoever said english weather was the pits, lied.

(now please don't let the thunderstorms come bite me in the behind)

my uni is cooler than yours

with not one but two bouncy castles for freshers'

how's that for a start!

p/s have you been on a bouncy castle recently? what's your favourite fairground attraction?

matching moleskines

please excuse the terrible photo quality - surreptitiously snapped this during our first lecture (when i wasn't confusing football boots with human anatomy) but couldn't resist photographic evidence of how my first friend and i (oh so gay) share a weakness. yay to being like-minded in more ways than one, and to being coursemates with some really fascinating characters.

things are looking up!

do you have a notebook weakness? actually, any weakness would be just as interesting. do share!

complete reinvention

 could very well begin with these free pole dancing classes...

 gotta love the freedom of self-discovery that being at uni offers :)

while we're on the topic of discovery, i had my first lecture today and it turns out that predator torres is not the name of a muscle (like i had thought) but a football boot. say wuhhht??? so there i was, completely punked by the MCQ gods.

good night!

p/s have scheduled a daily post for the next week so do check back if you'd like to see more of "home till next summer".

p/p/s what would you reinvent yourself as if given the chance? i'd love to hear! 

in just a few hours

i start grad student orientation. 

so, with a bit more confidence than i really feel,

and thus it begins!

mules

it was a secret project to see just how much of my life i could take with me and i think we now know the answer is 100kg. 

sent an advance party of 20kg with my mother who passed through london earlier this month, single-handedly carted 60kg myself (thank you, thank you very much) and the remaining 20kg will arrive tomorrow with my most reluctant mule.

so there i was, all smug about my minimalist nature and ascetic lifestyle, when all of a sudden i realised i really needed my stuff.  how's that for a revelation. no amount of pragmatism would separate me from the junk i'd lovingly acquired at home. 

which is how i ended carrying 14kg in a tote not meant to bear more than 5. looking at my bag, one would think i'd serious trust issues to not let even my hairdryer go into the baggage hold.

but mule #2 just texted so say he managed to lob a decade off his age, affect nonchalance and waltz right through the check-in masquerading as a student so i know the rest of my luggage is now on its way to me.

tomorrow's moving in day! wish me luck :)

fortune cookies

can be surprisingly accurate! there were five of us at dinner and all five fortunes were right on the money. and it wasn't all hocus pocus  hogash! one of the fortunes, and i'm not saying which, was mega specific. 

it was very nice to be spoilt rotten and driven all the way back to the country. took almost ninety minutes at 50 miles per hour but made it home safe and sound, despite the multiple threats of abandonment in the passing cornfields. funny story here - two years ago, while on exchange in stockholm i had the hugest craving for roast duck. naturally, this warranted a trip to london. after dinner on my first night, K made me walk all the back to my hotel alone and through a long, dark alley at that! just as naturally, i never let him hear the end of it. two years of emotional blackmail later, he's got a sweet set of wheels and finally paid penance by seeing me to my (albeit faraway) doorstep. not bad eh, the interest my badgering and public humiliation has garnered :)

also, on an even more nostalgic note, when i was last in london two years ago, i ended the post with "don't know when i'll be back next but i am pretty optimistic that something good's going to happen and it won't be too long ;)" and whaddya know! sometimes life has a strange way of turning out just the way you want it...

the big smoke

i could get used to country livin'! visited the weekly country fair yesterday and the farmers' market for some fresh produce. gotta love the sweet sweet corn and wholesome goodness on sale. however, some of my favourite adults are in the city and maybe it's time this city mouse* makes a trip back to civilisation.

but just for lunch, and church this evening :)

*in other country news, we caught our first mouse, people! (unamused. completely unamused.)

how do you do?

staring out at an expense of green and so thoroughly grateful to have taken this extra week in the country.

what i've been up to:

1. getting acquainted with the hares, foxes and geese on the grounds

2. composting all my biodegradable kitchen waste  

3. doing lots of walking. or rambling, as it's called here. 

being able to do absolutely nothing for a week is sheer luxury :)

and so it begins!

i told myself i'd only flip my brain 180 degrees once i'd been called.

and if you're so inclined, you're welcome to track the lead up to medsch here.

buckling down for a brand new adventure, having closed one chapter while staring down the other.

do come along and we'll see where the wind blows :)