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

Dinner! Good job Alan. And me.

Happy belated birthday, Celine!

Rahim trying hard to fit in.

Celine, Mindy, Yaw Vwee (a guy)

Herman cartoon in Cadbury World

Mindy's self portrait in chocolate

Wouldn't it be nice?

My impeccable ration of chocolates!!

Second Lecture and The Globe

Woke up very early for the 9:00 A.M. lecture, 323 Urban Life, Urban Communities, today and was one of the first to enter he lecture theatre. I sat right smack in the middle of the whole lecture theatre and waited. Somehow, while more and more people came, no one seem to want to take the seats on either side of me. In the end, the whole LT was packed and the 2 seats beside me was empty!! Super extra man. The lecture itself was pretty dry and cheem as the examples and issues discussed were all related to the UK urban policies, which I knew nought of. Even the occasional joke cracked by the lecturer made me feel more foreign as they were all regarding some former lecturer who I have never seen, or heard of before. That's pretty sad. I shall switch tactics and enter the LT just before lessons start and sit with some ang mohs the next time round.

On our way home from school after delivering lunch to Tong Wei, Alan and I made the best discovery of the week. A street soccer court complete with goal posts and fencing on the sides, that is free and open to public. Furthermore, it is pretty near our home. I foresee spending at least some time there in the near future!

Things picked up and got even better after that. We attended the free dinner at The Globe, a church that is really nice to international students. The food was pretty good and we made many new friends there! People from China, Indonesia, Slovakia, UK, etc. It's nice to have people in the same predicament as you, being away from home and finding it difficult to integrate and mix with the locals here. I had to admit that it was the first time I'm so happy to be able to speak to Chinese people. HAHA! Some of us exchanged contacts in case we are cooking and can have Chinese meals together. WOOHOO~ Best still, they have this weekly football sessions on Friday startingfrom 22nd Oct! Alan and I signed up without hesistation man. Seems like The Globe is a nice, and most of all free, place to hang out in. I will definitely be back there for their weekly Monday sessions.

Looking forward to see my old friends tomorrow too, after spending some time to make space in my room and vacuuming the carpet!

Alan and Tong Wei in The Globe

Some of the new friends made. From left: Alan, Tong Wei, Li Duan, Xiao Xi, Mr. Nice Guy, Cindy

New Iranian housemate!!

I forgot to mention our new housemate moved in today. He is a 29 year old Iranian and he is here to learn English. This makes communication abit of a problem as his English is like my Vietnamese. Ok, maybe better than my Vietnamese. And we do not know Arabian or Turkish which he speaks.

Other than the language barrier, he seems a pretty nice guy to get along with. BUT!!!

BUT BUT BUT!!! He uses a really weird shampoo. Introducing the first garlic shampoo I ever set my eyes on.......

Shampoo Parjak even has an onion picture on it. It's only saving grace is that it has "no fragrance" according to the label and i duly tested it. Sure enough, I can't smell anything. HAHA! Interesting shampoo indeed.

First lessons in Birmingham

Today was the day when reality hit me hard. My first lecture on River and Environments was much more difficult than imagined. And for assessment, I would have to write a 3000 word essay, with at least 30 references!! That's really a lot of references man. Sadly, readings were as aplenty too and a quick count reveals an average of 10 highly recommended readings out of a list of recommened readings. Damn! And the module would require equations which is as foreign to me now as my neighbour's chicken rice. I had much trouble locating the readings on the school's elibrary page too due to its poor connection and reliability. Well, I shall just take readings I cannot find as inexistent then, in order to lighten my reading load.

After school, walked around the school's futsal courts with Alan and was happy to watch a bunch of ang mohs playing football. The team in black was completely outplaying the white team, and the amount of running they do without the ball is admirable. That is one thing I think I can never do. HAHA! Oh man, I cannot wait for the futsal session I signed up for next week!

PROJECT CHILLED TEH SI was also carried out again but we realised it should be renamed as PROJECT CHILLED TEH SI TARIK as the pouring of the teh si into the bottle makes it teh si tarik. PROJECT CHILLED MILO shall begin tomorrow when the milk is predicted to be finished. Tomorrow is going to be another long day for me, starting with my lecture at 9:00 A.M. and ending with a free dinner at some local church that always gives out flyers for free dinners and meet-the-locals-sessions. It just gets worse man. Well, at least I'll get to meet my old travelling mates from Bristol, Nottingham and Southampton soon. WOOHOO~

Time to email the Prof. regarding possible alternative assessment. SIAN!!

Astro Turf Outdoor Futsal court in University of Birmingham

Egg Fried Rice with tomato, BBQ and mayo sauce

Watercrest Soup

Last day below actual lessons starts

The time has come for my actual lessons to start tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. and I'm having pre-school jitters, like a little kid afraid of going into a classroom full of people you don't know. And being an obviously odd one out at that. Most of all, I'm afraid there would be news of practical, tutorial sessions that would spoil my 3-day week, as well as unwelcome news regarding assessment. Damn! Please let there be no more bad news regarding modules, since I'm already unable to map a breadth, meaning that I'm already doing an extra geog module!

Woke up at 12:00 P.M. today to Alan's call telling me to meet him for lunch outside home. Good thing he called or I will just keep sleeping till God knows when. After lunch, we embarked on our greatest project so far. PROJECT CHILLED TEH SI!!! Basically, we made many cups of teh si and poured them into an empty 2 litre coke bottle. At one point of time, I was shuttling between 3 cups of Teh Si, feeling like a total pro in a Singaporean prata shop. The end result was well-worth the effort. Next time round, it would be easier too after we bought a 1 litre multi-purpose plastic flask. WOOHOO~ PROJECT CHILLED MILO shall commence once we finish our bottle of milk.

For dinner, it was egg-fried rice and ABC soup. The ABC soup was not bad as we finally found pork ribs for our soup. However, the pre-packed vegetables were not as shiok as the fresh ones that we used for previous soups. The egg-fried rice was quite okay but the rice was clumpy as we didn't cool it before frying. Something we learnt only after frying it. And we didn't really have much clue how to go about it. However, we shall perfect it tomorrow as we now possess the recipe from Google, and have prepared refrigerated rice.

May my future posts have more other than ramblings on food. Alan says I sound more and more like a chef while describing how to cook in the kitchen. Maybe I should consider it as an alternative to teaching. OK, good night all who reads this. I got to sleep for my 10:00 A.M. lesson tomorrow!

Remains of PROJECT CHILLED TEH SI after one day

Clumpy Fried Rice (please don't judge)

Refrigerated rice in preparation for perfect egg fried rice

Not so secret recipe

Gatecrasher's student night! And home-cooked food again!

Despite my lack of lessons yesterday, I woke up early to accompany Alan and Tong Wei for lunch near school. The chicken and fries there is shiok! But soon after we reached, there was this huge bunch of what Alan calls CATs (Chao Ah Tiong) that entered the store. With space already at a supreme in the shop, we had to cramp with this group of CATs and hear their heavily-accented ramblings throughout our meal. Instantly, one feels transported back to NUS. If only there were CANs (Chao Ah Neh) around too, then the likeness in atmosphere would be complete. Amongst this very Chinese atmosphere, we heard a group of 3 girls who were using your "lahs" and "lors". While we did not approach them, it's pleasing to know that we were not the only Singaporeans around.

After lunch, I went to school to sign up for the 5-week futsal course which costs 12 pounds. Sadly, I realised that I can only attend a maximum of 2 out of 5 sessions, which would mean this would cost 6 pounds per hour!! Damn expensive sia. Hopefully I can make some like-minded football-loving friends and have meet-ups for soccer other than the weekly session.

While waiting for them to finish their lessons, I tried doing my module mapping. Bla bla bla! It sucks and it's not even confirmed till now so I shall not mention it. Dinner beckoned and we ate at an atas-looking restaurant outside our home as it has 25% off all food bills on Mondays. Had cheese burger which was pretty good but still not comparable to Norway's. Tong Wei ordered the bacon burger thinking it would have only bacon but it was not meant to be as it had beef as well. As a result, he gave us a good portion of his burger. Suay sia! Luckily, we treated him to the meal as we owed him a meal for moving in first, if not his loss would have been immeasurable.

And after all that, off to Gatecrasher Birmingham we went. Alan was the one who suggested that we exposed ourselves to their nightlife culture since we are here, instead of being noob cakes at home. As it was student's night, we figured this would be the best opportunity to club. According to Alan, it is pretty cheap compared to Singapore as the entrance fee was only 5 pounds and a drink costed only 2.50 pounds. Damn it, I was talked out of smuggling a coke in by them and had to settle for a 2.50 pound Vodka Orange, which tasted surprisingly quite alright. Not very alcoholic. Apart from that, we just stoned at various corners, listened to the music, walked about, jerked/shaked/swayed on the dancefloor looking like total idiots compared to the ang mohs who actually danced. All in all, it was a pretty nice hi-tech place and an eye-opening experience.

The aftermath was quite sad though. There was supposed to be a free bus service but try as we might, we could not find the pick-up point. Walked for around 2 km in the cold and waited from 1.15 AM till 3.15 AM before we shared a cab back for 7 pounds which was not really that expensive. Stupid sia!

As for today, I had no lessons again so there was nothing much to talk about except for our second home-cooked food session. It was a mushroomy day as we bought a packet of mushrooms and decided to just finish it today. All the dishes had mushrooms in them except for the chicken which we forgot to add mushrooms into. HAH! A picture speaks a thousand words so I shall just let them do the talking for now.

The only 2 guys who took photos with these 2 muscular men.

Loaded at gatecrasher! But not in my pockets.

Cool Lighting system

Wonderful soup, vegetables, omelette and chicken

Warwick Daytrip

The weather was gloomy again today. Woke up to the sound of raindrops trickling down my window and instantly I thought, SIAN!!!! Nevertheless, I pulled myself from my suddenly heavy duvet and prepared to leave for Warwick, a spontaneous trip planned the day before as Tong Wei's friend, Yong Kang, from Nottingham visited. The weather proved to be a good time to test out my new 8 pounds Primark leather shoes, bought for it's waterproof ability and thank goodness it passed the test.

Warwick is a quiet little town with very castle-like buildings, emanating out from the Warwick castle which is undoubtedly it's main attraction. The castle was pretty, with a nice moat and green castle grounds surrounding it, with a sprinkling of peacocks, ducks and SHEEP here and there, but thinking back, we would probably not visit the very same castle if it is situated in busy London that has many other attractions. After spending some time there, we contemplated visiting University of Warwick (which is actually in Conventry which is a few miles away) as Mindy's army friend is there. But due to the time constraint, we headed back to Birmingham and had pizza, 6 nuggets and fries for dinner, making Alan a very sad boy.

Life is good, and we all made pretty quick friends with Yong Kang!

Tons of gigs in Birmingham

2 noob cakes who wished for umbrellas as their last request at the guillotines

Warwick Castle in the olden days. HAH!