Of Onions...

An old school mate, Pi Xie (yes, unique name, no?) apparently is coming down from Canada with a few other friends from around to visit the UK in December 'till January.

So, she asked me where in the UK I was and I told her, Nottingham. And then, she asked... What's there to see in Nottingham?

And it hit me. What is there to see in Nottingham? Notts games is coming up (4th of November) and my parents are visiting around Xmas. I'm bound to be asked this question again soon.

It got me thinking hard. What do I know about Nottingham? Well, there's um.. Hooters? Oh.. and of course our massive, green campus with the spiffy lake. It's quite a nice lake.. the Trent building overlooking the lake with shrubs, wild geese, swans, paths all around the lake. I have to say you've really gotta watch where yer stepping so if you're thinking of pak-tohing, it's good to look down and not really a good time to go goo-goo eyed with your loved one.

Thinking even harder and I've realized Nottingham's got its layers. It's like an onion! Lots of layers to discover. So far, I only know.. where to shop and get groceries. A couple of clubs I've actually visited - Oceana, Faces, Geisha, Bar Snug, The Works. A few pubs. All three comic shops in Nottingham City. The main Uni campus and it's sister campuses (Sutton Bonningtan where you can actually see rabbits frolicking on campus and oh so, industrial Jubilee Campus). I've been to Wollaton Park a few times for picnics and cycled once around it.

And then I realized there's quite a number of layers I've yet to discover. I haven't actually been to the Nottingham Castle which I've heard is just really a large wall and not actually a nice big castle. I've not been down south to the Peak District which is treat for nature lovers apparently. And of course, there's a seedier layer to Nottingham.. the strip clubs. One not too far from Dunkick at Isis. One right smack in the centre of the city, Bar Hambug.

Looking at the larger picture, I've yet to discover much of the UK either. I've visitted Manchester, Bath, Blackpool and of course, London. I haven't been to Newcastle, Edinburgh, Warwick, Birmingham, Oxbridge or anywhere else actually. Mm.

Then, I'm starting to realize.. i'm running out of time here. So 'lil time, so much things to do. If I was to look everything metaphorically.. I'm only past a few layers into the onion.

Hm.

Isn't she a beauty?

Yeah, there she is. My poor fragmented uni card. She's only 2 weeks old mind you. Then again, perhaps I should look at the glass half-full. When life gives yer lemons, make some lemonade!

It ain't wrapped.. It's contoured! How the curves fit into your palm.. giving a sleek feeling as you slide it across the library automated gates!

It ain't broke.. It's merely umm.. detachable! Makes it transporting around much easier! The larger piece is usable for getting into the library and getting books and all.. the smaller one would be ideal for times I can't remember for my life my library card no or my id no.

But most of all, she's unique! Of the thousands of Notts Uni cards out there, she's one of a kind!

Heh. If anyone needs a spindoctor, you know who to call.

Two sidenotes:
1) I've taken down my tag board as you've probably noticed. Feel free to leave a comment or just hit me up on MSN. I'm sorry that you can't leave a comment if you don't have a blogger account, but I left it as such to prevent people from spamming my comments.

2) I was looking around the net and I came across this guy on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/jamescarrington
A song of his was on Smallville's latest episode. Ache. I didn't watch it but I heard it was a good song from kryptonsite.com. Yes, I've given up on Smallville.. occasionally watching it if I'm bored out of my wits. In my book, Smallville has gone to the dumps. Check out this new show: Heroes. Good stuff!

While on myspace.. I also did a search for Rendra Zawawi. A talented uni mate of mine. Check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/rendrazawawi Heck! Even, Pete Teo left a comment on his myspace so he's definetely worth checking out.

Pete Teo's right here: http://www.myspace.com/peteteo

Enjoy! Cheerio.

Of Dreams, Uni Cards, Free Stuff and Looking Korean ..

You know you're gonna have a eyebrow raising day when you've had a dream the previous night where: You're on the Deathstar. You're a Jedi. Princess Leia and Darth Vader makes cameos. Safwan, Praveen and Jeannie are in there too. You save everyone by slicing 'em with your lightsaber and using jedi mind tricks. And you say in your dream: If Luke Skywalker can escape the deathstar, I'm sure we can!

That was the most out of the world dream I've ever had. It was like some badly written essay by a 10 year old brought to life. I would know.. with my mom telling me some of the essays her students write. I can guess why Saf and Prav appeared in my dream coz that day there were over here watching the George Lucas in Love parody with me and I remember talking to a guy from UNIM who knows Jeannie from Taylors CPU. Still, that was one far out dream. I told my law mates about it and they laughed their heads off. Mm.

On with my day...

I went to the library with my semi-broken, cello-taped, warped uni card and guess what? I still can get in and out with it and borrow books with it. The only downside is that the uni sports centre doesn't seem to be able to read the barcode well. That means they doesn't recognize I have a season ticket and I might have to pay a pound each time I go in. Good thing I still have my receipt for my season pass with me.

I did go down to talk to the uni card people but they said they're giving priority to the people who haven't gotten their cards.. So that means, I've got to wait 2 weeks to get it fixed and it'll cost 20 quid. *sigh* But my earlier experiments showed it still kinda works.. so maybe, just maybe, I'll survive with a warped, cello-taped, broken uni card for the rest of the year.

For lunch yesterday, I thought I'll be lazy and just head down to the Portland Food Court to eat rather than pack something coz I was rather low on resources back home anyway. Before that, I popped by the SU shop and they were like giving loads of free stuff. I headed down the stairs, I got a free pack of Levels. Wahey, that's like... dessert! I was about to enter the SU shop, and behold! Free samples of juice! That's part of my 5 portions a day! Exit the Su Shop, Lo and Behold! Free sliced up wraps and sandwiches. Yay, for free protein and carbs! So technically, I could have like walked around like 3 times and gotten like enough free samples to count as lunch. But, nah.. I didn't. Instead, I spent like 4 quid on lunch. I really shouldn't have gone for the strawberry cheese cake. Cursed sweet tooth. In hindsight, I should have been kiasu enough to have pulled the stunt off.

But it wasn't lunch that was particulary interesting. While I was waiting in line to enter the food court, this Korean girl suddenly popped into my range of version and like stared at me and then apologized. So, I asked her whether did she mistaken me for someone and she said.. I looked Korean! She said it was the leather jacket, the way I dress, the hairstyle and all.. And I have to say, I was flattered. I mean, back home.. we've got girls go stark-raving mad at some of the Korean stars (I can't name any to save my life, btw). Even my bro has been said to look like that Korean guy in Winter Sonata. (Although, this was by an aunt and there might be a bit of family bias, but hey it still counts!)

So, here's the deal. Why fantasize about some Korean star far beyond your reach when you can go after either Leong brother.. easily accessible, just as good looking but twice the charm (it's the Leong family charm you see) Heh. It's gonna be awhile till I get my feet back on the ground.

Not bad for skipping the freebies and getting a boost to the ego instead. Heh. Priceless!

That's it for now! Cheerio!

Alive and well/ Calamity Jo

I've got a rather long post in the works but it seems I'll never get past the draft state.

It's been a week or so of money flowing out my pockets. I kinda left my brand new Uni card in my pants and threw it in the washing machine. It got all warped and the barcode readers can't seem to pick it up. It'll cost to get it changed.. and worse still, I ruined my house's washing machine by forcing it open. The door handle came off and the technician should be coming in around now while I type this. He quoted me 41 quid over the phone. Calamity Jo, I seem to be.

Count in costs like books, sports membership costs and tv license and all... That's alot of cash outflow.

On the inflow side, I haven't been credited the cash from working at the conference centre yet but I've got another job interview lined up for me. It's this company which does crowd management at concerts and other major events. From what I've heard, basically you'll all there is between thousands of mad-raving fans and the celeb. A co-worker of mine at the conference centre did a brief stint with them and helped herd Beyonce off the venue apparently. I guess I'll check out the brieifing/interview thing and see how it goes.

If you're looking for a challenge, check this out: http://www.robmathiowetz.com/
See whether you can get everyone across the river. Apparently, it's used in job interviews in Japan.

Well, that's all for now folks.

Lots going on...

A week plus of neglect! Well, If i could sum up what I've been up to in a rather non-sensical and convulated post, it'll be: (in back chronological order starting from last night)

Last night
A group of us banded together to have our own little Lantern Festival dinner in Beeston. Most of the food was provided by Weng Yau, Eugene, Daniel and Kwan Wei but a few of us brought a dish or two. I came up with the most Asian dish I can cook.. Fried Wantans! They came out quite okay although quite a number were squished and ended up like eggless mutabak 'cause the skin split. Nevertheless, it was well recieved and an hour of wrapping wantan seemed to have gone appreciated!

Some pics of the night:

(L-R) Esmund, (some HK guy I met during International week), Jin, Kwan Wei, Daniel, Lai Ling, Han, Charlene, me and Eugene.
Cameo apperance: My fried wantan behind the furthest pot on the left.

Chow time!

Yes, centre of attention. I like it that way.

Making myself at home...

Past week
In the academic department, I've dropped commercial law. I intented to change that module to Public International Law (PIL) but it was filled up and I ended up fifth on the waiting list. So now, I'm currently on Family law. Nevertheless, I attended the first two PIL lectures and it was fantastic. In the first lecture, the lecturer brought an inflatable globe and we were to name a country and point it out starting from A to Z. So, it was like a mini-beach ball session with the globe flying across the lecture theatre and the receiver having to name a country with the alphabet we're on. Some were trying to avoid the globe like the plague when the harder alphabets came up.

The second lecture didn't involve any gimmicks but still, PIL seems right up my lane as it's to do more with current issues. It's interesting to note that to the public's eyes that Public International Law does not seem to exist because it's pratically not enforceable but in truth, it's not the enforceability which really makes the law exist but it's existence itself. This perception is further enforced by media reports of conflicts involving Public International Law but in actual fact, PIL does exist. Take criminal law, it's there but yet people still murder,rob, etc.. Does that mean Crim Law doesn't exist? *

The other modules I'm taking this year are Criminal, Land and European Union Law. So far, Criminal has proven the most interesting but Land and EU law at times, prove as interesting and as painful as staring into the sun.

In other areas of my life, staying with my bro has its ups and downs. Someone to cook for you in exchange for well, cleaning up. One of the downs is that my bro tends to live up to the animal of the Chinese Year he was born in (1983.. go figure) He came back from Malta with a bronze tan, Maltese drinks and interesting tales of his adventure there. In fact, we had a Maltese themed house warming on last Tuesday.

Mm.. There was one interesting thing that happened last week too. It was at the Inter-society clubbing event at Faces. It was still rather early around 11-ish when we got into the club and as I was walking past the dancefloor, a hand whips out and grabs me. As I look around, I notice this Korean girl I've seen from somewhere and her group of friends looked just as confused as I did. Then, she said something like about knowing my brother from church. And it struck me that she was at church on Sunday and was talking to my brother. Then, I asked her name and with the music suddenly turned up, all I could barely hear was two syallables! ( I later asked my bro and her name's Nadine) So, I just stuck around 'till she shifted her attention to a different guy and made a discreet but swift escape to the bar. Hm. Talk about wierd, random encounters. I mean, if you want to someone better, there's gotta be better ways than to enlist his help in getting the dancefloor started and trying to get to know the person better in a club. o.0

'Till next time, peeps!