valentine's day!!!

yesterday morn's snow storm caused school to be cancelled for a day. the good news: my exam's postponed till thursday. considering i haven't finished studying for it, i am definitely thankful. :P bad news: well, not much actually. except for the fact that i have to shovel the snow off bb when i take him out tomorrow. hope the weather's conducive enough for me to drive around.

so what's my plan for v'day? hmmm...both cheetah and i have already laid the best plan. we're planning to go for a dinner (restaurant---still not decided yet) and then off we go to catch the hugh grant-drew barrymore movie. haven't seen him in any movies for a while. ah, sexy british accent, i like! plan might be postponed to thursday, but ah...i don't care. let's cut some lax on this overly exaggerated 'holiday'. everyday's love day. you can share your care and love to anyone. there's no need for chocs or flowers. (1 stalk will do :P)

when the first hour on the 14th started, bunzit gave me a call, wishing me happy valentine's day. told him, neh...i don't celebrate v'day. most important dates are birthday and christmas. those are the true occasions which are worth celebrating and yes, i am always overjoyed!!! talk about how unromantic i can get, yes...i am the 'man'!!!

and yes, another important occasion is coming up: the lovely chinese new year! time to call up all aunts and uncles and wish them good health and much prosperity in the coming year of pig! bah, i am positive that my calling card will take several attempts to finally get through. many people overseas call home on this big day. and yes!!! i am gonna have 2 celebrations--1 with roommie and close pals. the other one will be with the icf gang. time to cook, have a bit of chit chat, and enjoy the spring festival in this cold weather. hopefully, no blizzard.

i am beginning to like 2007 already.

insulated window

my heater's located directly under the window panel. which is right under my bed. that's not just the cause of why my room's really cold despite the high temperature i've set the heater to. i've tried to bait the 'belts' of the window into the boundary of the panel, but to no avail. alas, there's a small gap where all the cold air enters and i end up sleeping with socks and 2 layers of blankets. just right after i cleaned up the house, i realized that i still got some unused towels, courtesy to dear roommie. decided to push em in between the panel and the window and i am enjoying the pleasure of warmer and more conducive bedroom. haha!

dreamed about my ex-classmates in cedar. i've been wondering where christina tan and ling fang went to after secondary school. anybody have any idea where they are? i didn't bother searching on friendster. oh ya, and grace chen too! i know that she went to ntu and she used to have this email with elmoblues in it. anybody wanna help me get her email address? i want to be in touch with her. time does make you nostalgic about school days 5 years ago. but the sad part is that it's pretty hard to meet up with all of em. they're scattered all over indo or singapore and my holidays are relatively short.

anyway, superbowl's on tomorrow! i shall take side on the colts. it's the fight between the midwest teams!

christmas is just around the corner

i am not an extraordinary writer. but i love writing. you just have to sit down, think of what to write, and start typing. i am thinking of making a submission for exponent's end-of-semester literacy issue. hmmm...still not quite sure on what to write, but if i don't have enough time, i will send one of my blog entries which i found to be quite inspiring.

and...christmas is just around the corner!!! i've been humming christmas tunes. am listening to instrumental version of white christmas. loving it! i remember spending christmas somewhere in austria last year. felt pretty empty coz i normally went for our family gathering, and then had some quality time with cousins, not forgetting the solo performance on 1 christmas song. yes, pretty embarrassing, for i do not have such a wonderful voice, but hey...you get to flaunt off your vocal talent only once a year.

aside of that, i shall not look too far ahead to christmas. thanksgiving is just in...let me see...5 days' time! planning to have the traditional american feast, but i think it's still questionable coz leaders' meeting is going to be held on thursday. not many people may turn up since they'll be busy preparing for the meeting. and i don't want to be left with plenty of turkey to be eaten for the rest of the week. the drowsy effect is unpleasant.

shopping? yesss!!! am planning to buy some body splash for sis who's stepping into adulthood and is curious about beauty products. aside of that, time to relax with my 'family' out here. :)

daylight saving time

today's the second day the clock's turned back by an hour. and it seemed so bright at 0715 in the morn! was glad that i could 'gain' an extra hour of sleep on the first day daylight saving time took effect. not bad! :D

anyway, been detached from this blog for quite a bit. went to do some stuff that i have been dying to do before i graduate:

1. attend amy tan's book signing. yes, she's at purdue. yes, shame on me for not reading any of her books before. (well, i did watch her joy luck club movie) yes, i have bought her book. and yes, another shame on me for not touching it despite having it for almost 2 weeks.

2. trip to cedar point. this is the best amusement park i've ever visited! the rides are all equally good! you name any scariest rollercoaster rides, they have it. go before winter starts. they only open during weekends during this period, but less people come. but, do bring your hoody and never wear slippers! (don't be like me. barefeet while being swung about in the air)

3. pumpkin carving! kaka! trick is to ensure that you remove all the pumpkin fillings coz they make carving difficult. here's my prized possession:

4. cooked some interesting indonesian delicacies. we've tried croquettes, risoles, bola-bola, pastel, cold roll. frankly speaking, i am done with deep frying. kitchen's become so sticky. and found sesame bagel with garlic cream cheese to be utterly heaven!

5. got to know my small group girls better. hmmm...interesting to see how each individual differs from another. ii is sometimes afraid of not saying things right. qing knows the clear line between right and wrong, but sometimes she can be slightly aggressive. nini chooses her principles by trials and errors and how i always yearn to be (sorta) the center of attention. we have a long way to learn about one another, but am glad that there's no superficiality.

other than that, there are some good news too:

1. granpa's become great granpa. greato! i do hope his spirit of life will be improving coz he's been negative thinking for the past 3 years.

2. guyfriend's starting to open up. i know i can be harsh at times whenever somebody needs comfort. i need to be able to offer advice, yet make the person feel better, instead of even worse.

3. mom's finally gone to zhong guo, the first overseas trip since 2004! she did need some relaxation. i would have gone nuts if i were at home the whole lot of time, just concentrating on work and kids. hah! am looking forward to having my 4 kids.

4. was being really positive towards uncle and family when they were here at purdue. despite their curious nature, (which normally irritates me easily) i was able to carry myself well. great job, mel!

happy halloween, everybody!

pastries

you guys seem to read about my woes of being in london all the time. but there's one thing that i absolutely love about london---its pastries! croissants are good and if you buy a packet of 4 at sainsbury's, it only costs you £0.48. good to go for the next 4 breakfasts. i just tried the french baguette...whoa! wonderful smell and though it's hard on the outer core, it tastes amazing! one strange thing though, brits absolutely love krispy kreme and guess what's the price for each original glazed donut? it's £0.99! wow! you can get 3 krispy kreme donuts back in indiana. huh! what a way to jack up the price just because it's an american product.

not forgetting the asian food stores in chinatown. you can find anything under the sun! the javanese brown sugar, sweet soya sauce, chilli padi, pocky pocky, spices, green tea, anything! i just made laksa out of this rather expensive instant packet manufactured by a singaporean food company and not only it tastes authentic, for the price of $5.48, you can save the entire broth for 2 meals, while you can only get a bowl of laksa in a normal restaurant. haha! seriously, the only reason that i survive in london is that it's impossible to explore for food within 9 months' time. i think i am going to make good use of my reading week searching for good, inexpensive food.

i gave up my badminton performance to the other guy. apparently, there's only 1 badminton single team for each school and since the guy looks very much interested, i'll let him play for sports' day. and i shall try to go to the gym tomorrow. it's already day 12 and i haven't been there for even once. argh! £25/30=£0.83 per day, so i've lost £10!!! but i got group meeting tomorrow at 1...hmmm, i need to wake up early then. 1 month and 1 week countdown to my going home and i don't want mom to think that i'm flabby.

how about stonehenge for this holiday? unless tomorrow's group meeting is successful, i don't think it's possible. there are so many that i want, but again, i guess 1 week of holidays is never enough.

and of course, happy valentine's day! i don't really care about this event, but am certainly going to watch what londoners do on this so-called special day.