whymustitellyouwhatidoinsep

Monday just started! And it is back to school again after a whirlwind weekend. I managed to totally forget my worries about my studies and have a good time. Plan your studies around your travelling and fun, as I put it. Wise words indeed.

Over the weekend, on saturday, we picked up our old travelling pals from Birmingham city centre. Celine, Mindy, Yaw Vwee and Jun Yi all arrived 2-3 weeks older, fatter and length-of-hair-longer than when i last saw them. Our ploy to get Tong Wei to pick them up with just a paper with their names failed miserably as we all got spotted before any form of plan was put into action. Sad sia. Well, in any case, when everyone was gathered, we were all starving and no one could resist the suggestion for a Chinese buffet at 5.99 pounds. Yaw Vwee was told off by this possibly-racist, or simply over-sensitive, ang moh when he took a picture of her daughter, but apart from that the buffet lunch was awesome.

After lunch, it was on to the city tour with none other than yours truly as the tour guide. Sadly, when I was busy explaining the sites, my dear friends felt that I was crapping!! Is my reputation really that bad? Subsequently, some time was put aside for shopping which seem to interest our dear friends who live in more suburban areas as compared to us. HAHA, poor little country bumpkins.

The highlight of the day, at least to me, was DINNER. Sticking to our manly words, Alan and I prepared a 4-course meal, with additional chilled milo and teh si, as well as a cake for dessert. Having been practising for a couple of times over the past week, we were confident when approaching this delicate task of cooking but alas not everything turned out perfect. The vegetables was apparently described as "as crunchy as potato chips". I wonder if that was a compliment or a thickly-veiled attack on the poor skills of the chef that left the stalk of the vegetables somewhat raw? Poor us, getting all these stick after such monumental effort. Nevertheless, we had a good time just talking and catching up while listening to Jay Chou songs (again!). Our housemate, Rahim, even dropped by to hang out a little with us. I hope he doesn't feel left out in this house.

Sunday proved to be another great day, helped by the lovely sunshine and weather. We woke up late, as expected but set out for the one and only Cadbury World!! The place I read about all the way back in Singapore, when i first got my SEP acceptance and package from UOB. The place where i imagined with my geographical imagination as a chocolate paradise turned out differently from what i expected (buildings made out of chocolate) but it was heavenly nonetheless. Filled with the fragrance from the milk chocolate aroma along its corridors and with many enticing and SHIOKADOODERDOO chocolate freebies, Cadbury World is definitely a must-see attraction in Birmingham. Definitely well worth the 7 plus pounds entrance fee, which should have been 10.50 pounds if the lady had not screwed up. Still from a high of living a childhood chocolate fantasy and seeing all the dizzying amounts of chocolate sold in the Cadbury World store, I ended up buying 20 pounds worth of chocolate!! I guess there would be enough chocalates for me as ration over the next year, especially when taking into account those i bought from Switzerland. Life is indeed a box of chocolates. Freddo ones.

After Cadbury World, we ran to the bus interchange to catch Mindy and Yaw Vwee's buses. It was tiring but worth it since no one missed their bus! After that, lunch was alright before we bidded farewell to Jun Yi. Celine's bus was very late at 8.45 P.M. due to Nottingham's proximity to Birmingham, therefore we decided to catch a movie. After some procrasination, we decided on "Eat, Pray, Love", a romance flick shot beautifully over 4 countries, 3 continents and as many if not more male leads. The food motif was especially saliva-enticing while the show as a whole makes you want to travel to all the places it was shot at. Celine loved it, and even cried to its scenes. Alan and Tong Wei slept through parts of it. I guess it can only be summarized as opinion-dividing.

All in all, the weekend was good and I was happy to meet up with my old friends. If we are all in the same school, it would be havoc man so it might be a blessing in disguise that we are not. Well, it is back to school for now, for today!

Arts peeps outside Central Library (Birmingham). HAHA