northern lights

i love Di's entries..

the latest is coincidently on my current newly developing obsession. And what Di has to say on the newest "controversy" can't be electronically penned any better, Di style.


the Golden Compass, is my new favourite must see. i have yet to watch it, but i know i love it already. just waiting for the right time and company ( in case you didn't know i can't make myslef go to the theatre ALONE). that's why i wish i was in Lyra's world. 'least i might have my Daemon with me (constantly).

why would i love the Golden Compass? u would too if you loved Narnia, i guess. and have an undying fascination for the magical world, one caught paralell to ours (i pray it exists), where animals talk, and witches and flying beings roam freely. Tres fascinating!

Deepa being the darling she is, got me my ultimate gift this christmas.. she knew i have been eyeing them since day one.

nothing beats the original. 'tho i underdstand the movie version doesn't differ much at all - just the title.

i HAD to put them in the cupboard to stop myself from burying my head in it.. which is a shame. they HAVE to wait till the First Assessment is over! or i'll be in trouble.

according to Lyra's world, every being's soul takes the form of a daemon. i was pleased mine for now (click to help me decide), took the form of a winged creature. it feels so fitting.

edit: not winged anymore - i'm a jackal, thanks to some question and answering by a couple of friends to "reconfirm" my daemon.. oh well..

mecca

shopper's mecca - it is said - is none other then Oxford Street in London.

Oxford Street on Boxing Day therefore, is very much equivalent to the annual pilgrimage in Mecca during Dhul Hijjah.

it felt like it.
i was there.

it was madness! it was equally bad IN the shops.. shopping that day really require superhuman strength and concentration. no wonder i didn't manage to get anything "spectacular". *sulk* a friend of mine got a pair of Gap Jeans for ten pounds (so her Facebook status read). oh well, i have enough jeans anyways *self comfort*

strangely that day, amidst the throng of people, a small seperate procession was going on. the saree and vesti clad (yes, u read it right) group marched against the crowd chanting and clapping to om, hare krishna... much to everyone's amusement.

the Routmaster. oxford Circus.

the junction where the christmas lights on Oxford Street began. squint and you'll notice the Enchanted Themed lightings in between the buildings.

fancy a chandeliar in the middle of the road?
why not?

Debenham's Christmas Deco. like golden threads

child's play

more christmas lights

so this i guess is how i end my christmas entries... wish i could say i saved the best for last, but no.. it isn't. the best entry i would be able to write would be one on SomersetHouse's Ice Skating Rink - opened only during christmas hols. we missed that trip. and how it'll look will only be limited to what we can see on the website.

but to end on a good note, most importantly, a merry christmas it was, i must say.

and a very merry christmas to all, i'm to wish... till here for now, from me you hear

christmas blessings

christmas was unplanned and spontaneous.

happens when u suddenly fall sick on the eve of christmas, with high fever and diarhoea to boot. so due to such misfortune, i had to cancel xmas lunch at Ah Soo's. which was a shame cos it was something i was looking forward to since the invitation itself. mainly to see what tht fella can cook for lunch, since he's the main and ONLY chef for the day.

with me calling sick, Deepak and Deepa refused to go anywhere as well (i love them so for caring for me so much tht way), and decided to have our very own xmas party.

i was as fit as a fiddle on the 25th of December. whoopee! with that and knowing we were to have our very first christmas together, christmas joy couldn't feel any better.

we exchanged gifts. and we took photos.

counting my blessings, i can't imagine how my stay in london would've been without them two. it's such comfort knowing everyday that there'd be someone to listen to you if your day had been low, or that there'll be someone to share your peak moments on days when you're happy. it's more then the mere thought of having someone else under the same roof with you. They give my days reasons to have a smile plastered on my face, and the very often face ache due to excessive laughing. Deepak's my punching bag. Deepa my comrade. But when Deepa and i become the butt of the joke, it gets even funnier. it such a comfort living together!

especially on christmas day in london, where annually, there'd be a blanket shut down of public trasport (busses, trams, rails, tubes..), having the Dee's at home, sacrificing their christmas' sleepovers and lunches for their invalid housemate is just the ultimate blessing anyone can get.

the Beggar's Roost

back to our adventure in newcastle...

(Yinsoon had been bugging us since day one to visit him in Newcastle. It was christmas and his family friend he lives with, Uncle Randy, wouldn't be in for the whole week. best opportunity to go and see yinsoon, and have the whole house to ourselves!)

after a 6 hour journey on the bus, we had to take a short train ride to Stockfield.. and the view there took my breath away.

frosted fields. vast acres of greenery. early hour sunshine
our journey to stocksfield from Newcastle's train station



i call the journey magical.
pleasant change of scenary from newcastle and london town.
sitting in the train, watching everything pass by from the window, was as if we were traveling backwards in time.

taking a breather half way on our trail towards Beggar's Roost.

Yinsoon led the way towards his humble abode

feeling thankful i wore Uggs.

warm and snuggly, loving the sound of frosted leaves and grass crunching under my feet

wishing we had a car.. lol..

impressed that yinsoon had to walk so much everyday to go to Uni.

Beggar's Roost!

the sight of it after our 15 min walk uphill was worth it

stained glass peacock

majestically looking out Beggar's Roost's beautiful garden

patio saved for summer

soaking up every corner of the house
i love english homes ;)

kitchen...

pool...

back to the kitchen again, after working out an appetite
sorry for eating up all of your food, yinsoon :P

we were so relunctant to leave Beggar's Roost. the best weekend holiday, ever.. and bet yinsoon had the best company after a long time ;) if i may say so for the others myself...

see you soon, yinsoon! we miss you already... and the pool table...

counting down to christmas

nothing beats being caught up in the christmas atmosphere. it's everywhere here - the air you breath, the sights you see, the sounds you hear, everything you read. even the weather seems really fitting. Brrrrr....

i'm suffering from an acute sense of mixed feelings. the holiday season is upon us - and all i want to do is have as much fun and adventure as possible, naturally. it's just too bad that in January, Uni reopens with a string of Assessments to accomplish

not letting that dampen the christmas spirit, i have had my agenda planned out.

It started with my quest to visit the Christmas Markets in London. never really had the chance when the markets started on the 1st week of December. so you can imagine my luck and joy when old childhood buddies Wai Chia and Wai Peng decided to do some shopping for thier mum, and called me along

they brought me to the best market i've ever been in. nothing like the pasar malam's you'll find back home nor your ordinary market with weird smell that make your nose cringe and automatically stop functioning. Borough Market (as it has been called for ages and ages - 250 yrs to be exact -at London Bridge) is simply unique. now which market have u ever done "window shopping before"?.. i raise my hand to answer

first aroma that hit me when wai chia led me to the cobble-stoned pavement (ooh, how classic) was the indistinguishable smell of ... Cheeese, even before my eyes could catch hold of any. and when they did.. my mouth started to salivate. it was like heaven - cheese heaven.

there was a particular queue leading to a stall with hot steam and even stronger cheesy aroma -

what the man did was to heat up the top layer of a thick slab of cheese - look at that thick block!-then...
scraped the whoooole melted layer onto a plate with steamed pickles and tomato. ooooooooh!


"you shouldn't have had lunch before coming", waichia said.


now u tell me.


The sight was unbelievable.

mulled wine - which is sooo delicious (fruity and herby and warm and nice); neatly arranged pastries, pies, handmade jams - handmade, how much more traditional can you get; chocolates, sold in huge wooden tubs. never have i seen so much chocolate in such a small space of area before.. yummmm... fruits, pumpkin, turkey, partridge, pork, beef, stuffed meat, stufed pork, sausages of he weirdest sizes.... soooo many. it was like being in a totally new land.

someone once told me you can't find anything traditional in london. i wish that someone reads this and swallow his/her words back. he/she is so wrong.. it really can't get anymore traditional then this. lovely, lovely, lovely

speaking of chocolates - check out the price of winter truffles... :S

wai chia and wai peng

mother of all pumpkins!

on a slightly different topic,

wednesday marked the last week of term - and what better way to celebrate it with music and alcohol/coke *ahem*, at the basement of one happening club. i love london clubs! correction: i love my first london club experience - at TigerTiger. love the music - DJ played jacko's BillyJean, Queen, The Wonders, to songs like The Way I Are (nod, nod) to (lol, i can't believe this song followed me) Umbrella - girls the song made me miss you :( .. arms on another's shoulders when george michael's Last Christmas came up.. awwww.... wat a mix!

when they say Law school kids can party, they really meant we can parttaay!


Deeps and i decided to spruce things up among our college mates with reindeer antlers. and they were a hit! i can't remember how many times they changed heads :P

Today - we're at Stocksfield - a beautiful village in newcastle!! it's freezing, but the frost makes everything look so pretty.




YinSoon, Lord of Beggars Roost Mansion decided to (has no choice but to, rather) play host for us.. and when i say "mansion" i mean it literally.


The lack of sleep thruout our 6 hour journey from 11.30 pm last night is taking a toll on me now...

look fwd to the continuing posts on this 2nd newcastle adventure of mine very soon- Christmas, here i come!

being under my tortoise shell

i'm hidden. covered. but strangely not protected.
oblivious with my surroundings. so narrow in perspective.
constantly in my own world. as if in a coccoon.

i'm a tortoise under a really big shell.

i shamelessly have to admit i missed out on alot of birthdays this year.. dave, if your reading this, this is a public apology. i missed urs too, rai. and *shame*shame* i forgot LingLing's, my cousin's. and so did aunty sylvia's. mum and dad's anniversary slipped off my mind. not untill i called her 2 days ago. so basically, i lost touch with the outside world for the whole of november.. *bow head with shame*.

with that said, i really dont know what's going on backhome as well. Deeps just got home. and the updates i got.. gosh.. i didn't know about this and that.. and i didn't know Uncle Lim died. all the jokes we made on our way up genting. bout uncle Lim paying for our school fee.. (yea.. we made lame jokes..).. and i found out he passed away 2 months ago only recently.

this shell is killing me - even as i walk daily my view is obstructed by the hood. i hate wearing the hood.

anyways.

back to me metamorphing into a tortoise.

i peeked outside my shell today. and the light was at first quite blinding. but the warmth so welcoming.. it suddenly hit me - such simplicity.. why didn't i think of this sooner??

i should get out of my shell more often.

facebook's birthday reminder! thanks prom.. how'd you guess i needed it :P
then there's thestar.com!

i found out Kluang's flooded again. and i remembered mum mentioning how the pots in the garden got overturned from the strong gales of wind 2 days ago. i should call her tomorrow.
then there's the mother of all news - HINDRAF.. sigh...
but most interestingly -
i learnt Jien's married. my celebrity crush from astro's disney channel. (i was really young). with sarah tan... wow.

one hour of e-news reading. the best hour for the week, truly.

it's difficult when u dont have the internet at home. it's really mahfan to have to go to the library and get misunderstood as being a nerd, when in truth, it's for the sole purpose of going online to say hello to the world. gosh, i'm such a drama queen. i'm not being misunderstood. i just think i am.

plus, no excuse for forgeting your friend's/relatives' birthdays!

i'm a tortoise trying to get out of her shell.. bear with me

ps: ever since the first frost - there hasn't been any frost at all. starting to doubt that it'll ever snow in london. with that thot, vickie - i'm looking fwd for more snow pix!

*first frost*

I have 2 hours before I should crawl under the duvet and call it a night. But, I still have one more assignment to finish. And it seems like it’s taking forever.. should I just pack it and call it a night anyways?

Opinion Writing is such a bore. I have writer’s block, and I can’t seem to find the right words to explain the Instructing Solicitors whether or not “Mr. Shields” can be compensated by “Merryweather Ltd.” for his personal injuries.. Strangely ‘tho, I find myself having the urge to write something for the blog. Writer’s block can be selective.

so here i am, in Words.

This weekend was really really laid back and relaxing (despite not finishing my homework – problem with having one week deadline). Nothing in the agenda this weekend. Nothing was planned. Deeps and I had set foot outside our house for an amazing total of one hour throughout the weekend... not bad. You can say we were practically hibernating. Can’t blame us – it’s the weather.. so berry berry cold, and the internal heater is the only thing that concerns you at times like this. I shudder to think about how we’re to survive December and January.

Last Thursday, the temperature hit its lowest since we got here. Freak weather, I think. 0°C. My first ever “suhu beku”.. hehehe… it was no wonder that, on Friday morning, Deeps and I had a pleasant surprise (Deepak missed all the fun due to his court visit)…

Deeps was making breakfast, when I heard her say, “Oh my gawd, ShoOoooO….!”

She was staring out of our kitchen window into our backyard…
And there they were, lil’ bit here and there on the ground -

Our first frost.

Laugh all you want, if you find this funny. But the both of us were honestly, very excited. Like I said, it’s my (our) first time. And technically, I think it’s the first frost for the season.. at least for our backyard, that is.

We actually tried taking shots of our warm breath in the cold.. (if they were watching, neighbors proly think we’re mad). My camera couldn’t really capture it well. With hindsight, I think I should’ve tried using Macro mode. I dunno. Would that work?

Neighbor’s tree is totally bald now. I regret not taking its picture when it had leaves for a more effective before and after shot. Till spring comes…

Color me blue

Our backyard. Self timer. We posed. Fullstop.

who got tricked and who needs a treat?

Halloween came and went...

much to our disspointment (deepa and i, to be more precise). well, to be fair, we didn't really took any effort. we just conveniently waited for an invitation letter to magically appear on our laps..

so halloween came and went.

Not for the bunch of kids in my housing area, of course.

3 nights before halloween, we had a loud knock on our front door. i opened the door to peep to see who was there (curse for not having peep holes..) and had a terrible fright when i saw 3 ski masked faces waiting in front of the door. immediate reflex - SLAM !

then i heard it

"trick or treat"...

-_-*

i really thot they were robbers..

no candies, we said to them..

then, you would expect them to leave, right?
instead, we heard one shouted - if we don't participate when they come back at midnight, "we'll live to regret it".

whaaat???

we slept with the front door double locked and our ROOM DOORS latched that night.. wat a bunch of stupid kids... we blamed the neighbourhood. we live in a dodgy part of east london.. so it comes with the territory, we thot. Oh, well.. nothing happened tho.

on halloween day, since the three of us homees had no plans (how awfully pathetic) we decided to stock up the house with candies, just in case..

but... nothing happened again, surprisingly.

even more surprising was us finding ourselves dissapointed they didn't turn up.

so, we ate them candies, and watched Stardust instead.

that was how halloween came and went.

dine and whine

It was like being in the set for a Harry Potter’s dining scene. When the children eageredly waited for the Sorting Hat to work its magic. Difference is, there’s no Harry Potter, no Sorting Hats and no magic wands.

19th of October marked my first Dining in session. The traditional ritual all Barristers would have to go through (12 times) in order to be “qualified”, among many other things.

How was it?

I’m not going to lie – it was boring. From the way we had to nod in unison to the Benchers that slowly enter the Hall one… by…. One… at the start of dinner, to the way we had to bow at the Benchers who wobbled (after lots of wine, you see) their way out one… by… one… at the end of the night. (aww.. c'mon, Sho.. don't be such a whiner..)

The only thing I shall brag about tho, would most certainly be the food. 4 course of fantastic english dishes. they gave each course a fancy name.. which i sadly forgot. but basically we had steamy Potatoes, delicious, melt-in-the-mouth-fish with leak.. and turkey -which was everyone's favourite tht night. with a quick eeny-meeny miny moe on which fork and knife to use everytime, I shamelessly gobbled them down piece… by… piece (haha… )

Speaking of pieces, i must add, conversations were utterly dull. sorry. I guess I weren’t into small chats that night. Somehow I couldn’t care less for the war in Pakistan, how the weather is or whether the Bar Course is treating us fairly or unfairly. I couldn’t decide what was more painful – pretending to look interested to or trying to stay awake.

I couldn’t see how us pupils are to gain from this dine-ins. What were the odds of the guy opposite me were to remember my name after that night? Cos I sure won’t even recognize him without that coat and gown. So much for “rubbing shoulders” with a judge or a practicing Barrister when the Benchers sit in the long Bench way up in front throughout the night?

I envied Deepak’s table. He was the only guy among 4 girls, obviously being a real gentleman among the laydees. At least someone’s having a good time. Deepa? She stole my “date”. Etmonia’s in love with Deepa, and blames me for not introducing her to Deepa sooner… I’m just glad I got two nice girls know each other.

Lunch on Sunday was a different story altogether. It could be because of the sun shining brightly thru the stained glass windows. (and we had good conversational piece going on this time). Or it could be because I was craving for salmon or lamb and I got both! ;)

Somehow, after Sunday, I saw myself looking fwd to the next 2 sessions next weekend. It’s ok if I might have to make small meaningless chats with “new people”. who cares if we won’t remember each other again. But you’ll never know, right, until you try? And it’s living the moment and making the best of it that really matters. I guess I didn’t make enough effort on Friday, what with classes and all in the morning.
So yes, I’m looking fwd to next week. Wonder what they’re going to serve us this time..

sunlight, stained glass, sunday, luncheon. how fitting

insider's point of view

at the grand hall in the Inn

outsider's question mark.

lincoln's inn from the outside

Deepa, Imdan and i.

ps: the pashmina sheds alot

like being home

HARI RAYA came and went. And weren’t we glad to have been part of the Hari Raya “open house” at the Stoke’s Centre a week ago. Sure, it was the free food. Yes, I admit. But our initial plan to just spend an hour there then leave backfired once we got caught up with all the hype. The Hari Raya mood was so like home. Hari Raya music in the background.. chatty noises. Familiar voices.. Bahasa Melayu sounded so nice after hearing so much british. Lol.. and colors! Oh, I loved the colors..

Deepa was right. We look great when we’re traditional. beautiful colors, both men and women. Flattering outfits – I’ve never seen anyone looking bad in a baju kurung, kebaya, Punjabi outfit or a cheong sam.

Oh, the food by the Malaysian Hall was good! I’ve never felt so happy to see Laksa Johor before. We had to queue. But I really didn’t mind. Queuing for Ketupat, rendang ayam, nasi… served by kakaks and abangs, how often will you get such service in London town?

“selamat Hari Raye, kak..”
“Selama Hari Raye… makan banyak banyak, eh. Here, I’m giving u the biggest piece…”

bless you.

Sitting with our legs tucked, on the floor (can’t duduk bersila, being all dressed up), indulging on Malaysian delicacies, I couln’t help feeling so proud. Look at us. All group together, dressed in baju kurung, kebaya, Punjabi outfits.. sambil bersalaman.. no one were strangers that day. Somehow, it didn’t feel like I was being amidst strangers. It was like being home.

Laksaaaaa....

look who i met, Thya - Jo! ^^


singying, served

True food


oink oink...