NUS, Singapore

Highlights of the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Open House (:


Cheam's acoustic set... the main motivation for us being at the Open House to begin with.


Photo with the university mascot--Linus the Lion. I kid you not!


The school brought in a food bazaar to entertain the parents and freshies! Presenting... the uber-sinful Ramly burger! Of course, nothing beats the real thing across the causeway.


Kebab... reminds me of UK. Sigh. This version came in a puny pita wrap--nothing like the ones you get for 5pounds along the streets of London.


Chicken curry and prata! (:


Cheam, Desiree and I with our precious Ramly burgers! We were starving after sitting through 1.5 hours of Cheam's music! Was worth the wait!

Spottiswoode Park, Singapore

If I'm not wrong, this railway line's owned by KTM, and is the property of Malaysia. Not sure if they're going to re-route this, since the railway station at Spottiswoode's going to be relocated at Woodlands. Hmm...


Found it really peculiar that there was a makeshift Hindu temple amongst the trees and beside the railway track. Wonder how long it's been situated at that spot already.


What's left of our colonial past... shophouses and chi-chi teahouses and eateries.


The back-end of the shophouses... pretty dingy.


Welcoming, much?



Our high-rise Housing Development Board (HDB) flats! I think this flat is about 15-16 story high. Not too sure.


Singapore's got to love its casino.


Just a few simple dishes--nothing pretentious. Stir-fried veggies and my Grandma's specialty of Black sauce potatoes with meat!


Dinner at Burger King with Talib. What a contrast to my homecooked meal.


With the encouragement of Sabine, I've decided to include posts about Singapore in this little travel blog of mine! Took these photos en-route to my Grandma's for dinner a few days ago. I would think most residential areas in Singapore have taken on more modern architecture and design, and Spottiswoode Park is perhaps one of the more rustic few left. Where I live, you'd kill to have the view of an abandoned railway track out your window. I'm surrounded by concrete shopping malls and sky-high prices for your basic commodities.

It's always nice to be able to take a breather after a chaotic day at school, and pause to admire the setting of the sun...

Malta, Europe

Malta, Europe

It’s fast becoming a tedious process keeping my blog up to date in a chronological order. It ain’t easy keeping the entries recent when free wifi becomes a prized commodity ever since I moved out of the university hostel. Since the last post, I’ve been to Venice, and then Malta. In fact, I bet I still smell of Maltese air since I only just got back to London today.

Malta has been a destination both Talib and I were much anticipating. Why? It’s way warmer than any part of UK. The food’s not going to just comprise of the same old potatoes and deep fried meats. And there’s going to be an abundance of nature. True enough, we got what we expected, and more. Talib managed to survive prancing around the streets of Malta with just a Muji cardigan, while I kept my feet bare 24/7 and wore old-fashioned sandals—which got quite a bit of stares from the locals. The local food was crazy exotic, and sometimes too much for us to swallow. We had our virgin taste of rabbit meat and lampuki fish pie. I must admit the novelty wore off after the second bite. The pie left a pungent, fishy aftertaste on my tongue which I simply could not wash off even with a whole bottle of Kinnie (their local version of fanta—gassy soda made with bitter oranges and herbs). The rabbit meat was like little cubes of fatty meat—really chewy and squishy. Phooey. I didn’t give those two a second chance after that. What we both did binge on throughout the trip though, was the local Maltese cheese and pea cakes. You’ll see their cameos in the series of photos I’m posting up. These cakes are made of crisp and buttery phyllo pastry, and stuffed with generous fillings of ricotta cheese, green peas or chick peas. When baked fresh from the oven, the cheese and peas just ooze into your mouth, and when combined with the buttery pastry… heavenly! I think we bought approximately three cakes a day. Thankfully the cakes cost a mere 25 cents each!

The weather was kind to us the first few days, and there was lots of sunlight, giving us great opportunity to snap some neat shots of the cliffs and limestone landscape. Interestingly, what we thought were sculptures and statues turned out to be water fountains only on the last day when it started to pour. We learnt from the customs officers on the first day of our arrival that the country had been suffering from a drought of rain the past few weeks, and the wells had all gone dry. I didn’t expect him to be serious when he first explained it to me, but the sudden rejuvenation of the fountains definitely proved me wrong.

Disclaimer: be prepared for a great many photos of cliffs, rocks, sea, sky and two overly excited kids. =D

Inverness (Highlands), Scotland

SNOW!!!!
(to be continued...)

Manchester, England

I’m sitting in the Red Café (rings a bell, Manchester United fans?) sipping on the worst cup of hot chocolate and finishing up my over-priced pre-packed blueberry muffin. It’s an interesting contrast. At this same moment, Talib’s shuttling around like a 5-year old, taking in the sights and sounds of Old Trafford Stadium—home to his much loved soccer team, Manchester United. Seems like déjà vu all over, as I did the same thing just a few months ago—sitting out from the Camp Nou Experience in Barcelona, just so I could use the time to finish a newly purchased Banana Yoshimoto novel. I stand firm when I say that I will not go for a stadium tour, even if it was paid for. It just has no bearing on my life.

A bit of explaining is required to answer why I’m in Manchester on this awfully chilly Sunday, and not slogging away in my tiny hostel cubicle and churning out my essays. Today marks the end of a 5-day trip. It begun on Wednesday—a three hour public coach ride from Nottingham to Manchester, followed by a 5-hour connection from Manchester up North to Edinburgh, Scotland. I guess our trip started on a pretty miserable note because our bus (damn you, Megabus!) was late for a whole 2 hours, which resulted in our arrival in Edinburgh at approximately 2am. Then from Edinburgh, we moved farther up North to Inverness—the capital of the Highlands—and made a quick visit to the Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. I must admit that I wasn’t much impressed with the scenery than I was with my first experience with snow. What started with a few pathetic ice flakes falling on our noses on Thursday became a full-fledged snowfall over the next couple of days. Kilian’s right—snow’s fun for awhile, then when the numb extremities kick in and you have to struggle to climb the mildest of slopes to avoid falling, you realize it ain’t that much fun after all. Mind you, the numbing process is anything but pain-free. I had to bear with a searing pain in my toes with each step I trudged upslope from the village centre of Dumnadrochit to the Urquhart Castle. It didn’t help that we were under the false impression that the walk would take no more than 20 minutes—the waitress at the café misunderstood us and thought we were driving up instead of walking on our stumpy feet.

That aside, I did try my first taste of haggis. If not for Wikipedia, I would have had absolutely no clue what I was in for—minced kidneys, liver and all other innards of sheep stuffed into a sheep’s intestine skin if I’m not wrong. Haggis tastes much better than it looks, but the texture’s pretty disturbing initially. A little sticky and gooey—clumping at the roof of your mouth and leaving a thin surface of the “sausage meat” on your tongue. It’s a great experience, but not enough for me to want to try it a second time. Did I mention that the Scottish accent always cracks me up? I’m a failure at mastering the accent though… Talib, on the other hand, does it naturally.

I really wonder how one can live in such a cold environment for their entire lives. Our tour guide in Edinburgh told us that it rains almost 270 days a year, and the temperature only gets colder hereon. It’s worse in Canada! Come on, how do you deal with only 1.5weeks of summer a year!!! I know for sure I’m not going to be retiring to one of these cold-climate countries. It’s sad when the only source of heat you have is the diminishing warmth of your hot chocolate.

Yorkshire Dales National Park (Grassington), England

Talib's been dying to escape the city life, so we made an extremely spontaneous trip up to Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was supposed to be a 2pound return coach ticket to Leeds, but it ended up costing almost 15 pounds, with numerous transits between transports. But it was all worth it. We had the BEST English tea, with the BEST fruit scone (for some reason I pictured Ritz apple strudel back from Singapore... I must really miss home) and hand-cut chips! We love you, Cobblestones Cafe! Talib even got a jar of lemon cheese as a souvenir. He's totally in love with Grassington now--land of the sheep.



Hamster.


DIY butter & sugar toast--leftovers from brunch the day before. Poor students, we are.


Sheep photos.


The sheep photobombed.


One cool sheep. Bet he was responsible for all the sheep poo pellets around us. LOOK AT HIS BLUE BUTT!!! :D:D:D




Happily skipping through the meadows. At least I looked the part.


Super cold la.


Posing for the shot!


My suicidal boyfriend. Sigh. It gets difficult keeping him under control sometimes. Got to stock up on the treats.


Atop Linton Falls...


I take better photos.





We met two freshly retired British geologists... who invited us into their home to get closer pictures of the river. That's when they introduced us... to the most popular British igneous rock. That's what they said, quote quote.


Our self-proclaimed most popular blue christmas tree.


We are one with nature.




Talib doing what he does best.


I am Chewbacca.




Aww, such a pretty photo with a pretty bin!

The narrow streets and roads within the heart of the village. Each time two cars travelled towards each other, one would have to give way by reversing into the nearest possible grassy patch for the other to drive by. Pretty cute, the way some drivers had to reverse for pretty long distances for our public bus.


The quaint little shophouses which line the village of Grassington. There were vintage and antique stores, shops stocked with hiking gear, and cozy little cafes.




The home-made fruit scone, with butter and awesome, awesome berry jam. Love at first bite. XXX


Hand-cut chips. Not the frozen ones you get in a bag at Tesco mind you. These still had their potato skins left on them. The cafe also had a million sauces for us to choose from. We got garlic mayonnaise and ketchup at first. Eventually ran out of them, and got vinegar and more mayo. We're such gluttons.


My new best friend, Sconey.


Sconey and Talib.


Chewing the one-day-old bread I packed for the trip. Wholemeal with butter & sugar--tastes just like home.