ESD Queens Formal

Well... It was a quick formal. Didn't have that many pictures, and didn't hang around too long either.

I should be working now, but I'm not

I don't know why these few days I have been procrasinating.

Got up at 6am this morning, it's 9ish, and I haven't done much! Read the news (dubai, singapore and melbourne), sent a few emails, and posted something before this... and after all these, I still don't feel like doing work.

Yesterday my supervisor "dumped" me. OK la, it's not that bad. Apparently this other dude (professor rather) read my dissertation proposal, and was interested in my research topic, and he wanna supervise my work. So yea, now I have to take a tiny winy step back, to see what brilliant idea this guy has. I think it's gonna be good (better) for me, but I just needed a whinge. It's one of those days.

This is such a busy week. We have another visiting professor from MIT down in Cambridge for 2 weeks to give a lecture on technology, trade and globalization. Quite a mouthful eh? I think so too. That puts an extra 15 hours of lectures over 2 weeks. I think this guy is kinda interesting, but he definitely has opinions of his own... some of which I don't share (fortunately or unfortunately).

Lent term is ending in 2 weeks. I haven't been to a formal this term yet, but have 3 lined up in the next week. Heading off to a Queen's formal, then a Sidney Sussex formal, and finally a Fitz formal. I think that should be my quota met for this term.

My 3 new friends - Elly, Milly and Raffy - are calling out to me to work now...

Reminiscing

It's only been less than a year since the Lees left Dubai. But it felt like ages.

Just as I was hunting for pictures for one of my assignments, I came accross these good old days we had at safa park... the picnics and stuff, plus Uncle Zach on the Hula Hoop, Uncle Sum with his Frisbee, Jedi and Faith in the Rug Sack hopping around , Carrie still preggers with Ethan then, sitting around French Bakery Cake or sometimes Pauls Fleur De Lys cake we had for the birthday boys (Middle Lee and Tiny Lee)

Anyway... it's nice looking back once in a while. Everyone has moved on and away. Which is a good thing I suppose. After all, friends will always be friends. :)

SG

Today I went to a lecture that was part of the annual distinguish lecture series, and the dude from the USA talked about Singapore... about Marina Barrage and Pulau Sermakau. Ahh... something I can identify with instead of just plain old US of A.

Food

I was downloading and reorganising all my photos from my camera, and came across all the pictures of food ZC cooked whilst he was around (except for the icecream of course)

From Chicken Kapitan Noodles, to Fuchow Fishball Noodles, to Pork Pasta, Chicken Tofu and more... 

And Cupcakes from Dubai

In the Mood

Somehow I seem to be in the mood for a whinge.

Today was kind of strange. I had 3 emails from 3 different people at the old workplace. I think i still have an option to return to my old job... or should I be moving to greener pastures? (literally).

I was just looking around job websites, and i realise i am stuck. I don't know what I want to do, I don't know where to go, and I don't know which jobs to apply cos I don't wanna start off as a fresh grad again. And some of the job has got really really sucky pay (not even enough for me to take a yearly holiday and still pay the rent!!)

Sadly, as I was looking through some "internships" on the job website (don't ask me why I'm looking through internships), there was this one internship that said I'm too old to apply. Yea reality hits... I am old. So old that even some internships deem me overage. Great. Maybe I should just skip the whole job hunt, return back to the old job and keep trodding on in life.

What say you?

It's snowing again!

Sitting in my room watching cars covered in snow zoom by, the poor dude pacing up and down waiting for the bus, the little kid in her turtle suit trodding along the street, and the raining down of snow flakes.

Nice. It must be freezing out there.

Gonna be a busy month post ZC visit. We have a visiting prof and I have half a mind to skip lectures cos I just don't wanna go out in the snow. Oh Oh... and it just got heavier.

ZC goes to UK again

ZC goes to UK again! This meant... I had company on the way back to Cambridge!! No... should I say, he had company going to Cambridge?!?

The ride was long. So darn long

Singapore to Dubai - 7 hours
Dubai Transit - 3 hours
Dubai to London Heathrow - 7 hours
London Airport Wait - 1 hour
London to Cambridge - 3hours +
Walking home from Bus Station in Cambridge - 0.5 hours
Total = approx 22 hours

That's how long it takes for me to get back to Cambridge from Singapore. Oh Oh, I forgot another 2 hours of check in time in Singapore. So that makes it 24 hours.

Hopped over to London again in the weekend before he caught his flight back to Dubai...
Super Chinese New Year festive mood. Chinatown was jammed.

Wah, feast after feast. Roast duck was yummy. But stupid Four Seasons at Bayswater cheated us of our money. Over charged by 2 pounds!!! That's like 10% of the bill.
Stupid buggers. They have good duck, but poor maths. No correlation or whatso ever... but I just had to say that. Better stop the feasting for a while.

Grandma, Chinese New Year, and Catchups

The Hungry Hippo says I've been missing for a while. Yup, and the hippo wins.

My Grandma (aka mama) is getting not-so-good by the day. Mama is getting weaker, more forgetful, temperamental and sometimes unreasonable. Whatever she was before, she is now the exact opposite. Like... she used to be thrifty with her spending, now she spends as if she has a billion dollars. Drama in the home... scary when one day she took a pair of scissors to cut of all her hair, downs five cans of 7-up Soda in the middle of the night (she's got diabetes), goes to the market to buy the entire store.

Hence my trip back all the way from London to Singapore for less than 5 days for Chinese New Year. I was meant to be in Amsterdam with the ESD group from Cambridge... but figured if mama really had alzheimers or one of those dementia thingos, I'd feel really guilty to have gone out magic mushrooming (not that i would?!?) in the dam.

The trip back was kind of hectic. ZC was back too. So obviously there was a meet the parents session. Kinda awkard... different families run differently. Oh well... Anyway, too little time, too much errands to run, too many people to meet. So if I didn't get a chance to say hi... sorry.

Chinese New Year dinner and goodies was yummy. Stocked up the supply of pineapple tarts and kueh lapis. Plus many many many good meals. Had 2 buffets in a day - lunch and dinner. And funnily, both Japanese food!
Managed to catch up with the cousins... many of whom I haven't seen since Rachel's wedding. Too bad, Rachel and Sharon are missing in this picture.

G0t to catch up with the Lees.... who have decided to stay on in Perth for the next 2 years. Ahh... missing my friends there - Jedi and Faith. I wanna go down to Perth, but looks like this year, Melbourne and Sydney calls... (and maybe Tassie - David , if you're reading this... i might be coming in Oct?!?).
And of course... with Cheryl and Yujun and one new addition... Baby Matthew.
Looking forward to the next trip back - which is I-have-no-idea-when. This is going to be a quick year (again). Time to job hunt for after August. Am I returning to Dubai??? I don't know! So can't really plan as yet.

Citibank - I hate You.

They are buggers. buggers buggers.

Last month, I had my credit card information stolen... someone racked up stupid transactions on my card. This idiot even bought a plane ticket and flew from Amman to Colombo on Oman Air.

HOW????

Airport security now a days is crap. I bet that's how osama does that. Hides in some rocky afghan mountain, steals credit card numbers, flies to god-knows-where... now we all wonder why the americans and the rest of the world can't find him. It's that easy! All you need is a stolen credit card number, and a fake passport.

This dude's name is RANGITH KUMARA. Prick!!!

Citibank - go after him... do your job. How did I manage to find this guy's name through my own investigation, and you have a team of guys working on this for the last 2 months and you can't even get a simple job done.... You all should be fired!