Week 1 in These Little Four Walls of Mine

So, i knew there wouldn’t be internet connection at my new ‘house’ over at UK...I tried to prepare myself for it. But alas, the feeling of not being able to use the Net whenever I want still irritates and depresses me a little. Since I couldn't blog about my first few days in Birmingham, I just jotted down mini notes about my first week here. I thought I'd post them up once I get my line. They go:

[WARNING: LONGGGG POST AHEAD!]

Saturday, 20th Sept 2008

Finally. Finally here. After 17 fucking hours of journey, I finally touched down at Birmingham International airport. Sweet jaysus. It was a pretty bumpy and uneventful flight. The airport wasn’t too impressive, but hey, it’s a small one anyway. Got through the customs without much problems although I was mistaken for someone’s ‘wife’. Honestly, some poeple cannot judge. Pretty surprised that they didn’t check luggages there. Had I known, and if I had a bigger luggage, I would’ve smuggle tons of maggie curry with me.

It took forever to get to the university, and even longer to get to my house. I was so tired and frustrated that i wished so so badly that i had chosen a hostel(the bus dropped students at hostels straight away) instead. This senior had his friend to drive us over to the house. When I was in the car, my eyes grew bigger and bigger when the dude drove further and further away from the university. Oh shit, I thought.

If the distance didn’t put me off enough, I was at a state of shock when I reached the house. My first impression was that it was downright horrible. It looked delapitated and the backyard was full of junk. It was dirty and old. I nearly burst into tears on the first sight of it. I was so fucking exhausted then that I was kinda looking forward to having a nice rest at a good clean place, but this was far from it. By now I really really really wished that I had chosen hostel instead.

Here's what the backyard looks like:

Sodding horrific, innit.

Too late now. Wasn’t impressed with the inside of it as well, but what choices do I have? My housemates are nice guys, they let the only lady in the house choose her room first, so I took the most decent looking one. Furthest away from other rooms, reasonably sized with a mirror on the wardrobe.I looked at the totally empty room and felt so...lonely. So miserable. And I was hit by a hooge wave of homesickness. Then I discovered that all my housemates are mandarin speakers. Despite being very nice, I felt mentally isolated because I felt I couldn’t click with them. Not yet anyway.

The empty room that awaited me when I first arrived.


The boring view outside my window.

Landlord is a nice Indian fella who speaks with heavy accent and he took forever to sort things. By the time I could leave the house to get some basic stuff like pillows, blanket and bedsheets, all the shops were pretty much closed. All I managed to do was to have dinner at Subway. So that night, I slept with nothing but my jacket as a pillow. Luckily there was a heater in my room, so it wasn’t too bad even though I had no blanket. At that moment I thought “I feel so miserable, I could die.”

It struck me how difficult it was to be totally independant, and made me realised how much I’ve been pampered at home. I prepared myself somewhat to be alone and independant, but the real situation is so much more than the mental simulation. I missed Mum who would get things done for me when I needed her to, I missed Dad and his “Aiyah, it will be fine la, don’t worry!”, I missed Leen who would help me organize things and make life simpler for me, I miss Joe who would keep me company till late at night, I missed Faye who would...just be there anyway. I kept reading the cards my darling friends made for me over and over again, and I kept chanting Mum’s message: ‘Things’ll fall into place’ in my head until I fell asleep.

Sunday, 21st Sept 2008

Woke up automatically at 8am in the morning. I don't know why, but something tells me it's because of the uncomfortable situation I'm sleeping in. And there was so much in my mind the night before. Since I couldn't get any more sleep, I decided to go for a morning walk around the neighbourhood. I still felt really miserable in the morning, which sucked because I was also angry at myself. I knew it was self-pity, and I thought I prepared myself mentally so as not to fall into this state. I was just moping and down.

An empty lane in the morning.

But by late morning, all I can say is: thank god for Shiun Lei and Eng Keen. These 2 dudes came looking for me, and took me under their wings. It would’ve been the absolute pits for me if I were left alone again for the day, when I needed distraction and encouragement to continue. We went to the centre of Edgbaston to hunt for supermarts. Found Aldi and Sainsbury, but it was SUCH a LONG walk!! Took us approx. 30 mins if not more to reach Sainsbury. My legs ached like hell, but I kept my trap shut. I just wished I had spent more time on the threadmill at home to build up my stamina. And oh, for some god-fucking-knows reason, the roads in Bham are always uneven. Which makes walking even harder.

I bought some stuff in Sainsbury, but since it was such a long walk, I didn’t buy too much because it would SUCK to carry such a heavy load back. Managed to get a cheap pillow, but it turned out to be rubbish. It was so flat that it felt as though there wasn’t any pillow at all. No blanket or bedsheet yet, but SL was kind enough to lend me his extra bedsheet, which I would be forever grateful for.

Had my first home cooked meal at their place. They brought a rice cooker with them, so we cooked in that. I let the guys handle the cooking, because I would not know how to cook without salt or oil. It’s a complete blasphemy to me. Who am i to complain though, when I’m the one sticking around for dinner? The spaghetti they cooked turned out not too bad, even though it was bland. Fortunately the sausages they put in where savoury enough to add some flavour and cover then blandness. I offered to wash the dishes instead.

Only one pathetic rice cooker to cook in.


Product. Which isn't bad really. And greens!♥

I thought it was actually a pretty fun meal.

Things seemed to look slightly brighter from here on. Then I realised things just seemed extra terrible yesterday because I was so fucking tired.

Monday, 22nd Sept 2008

First day exploring the university. Reaching there itself took about a 20 mins walk. It’s big(means more walking. Joy.). It’s green enough. Not so much medieval type of architecture, but I can live with it. I see quite a lot of fairheads around. There’s the fair share of oolang and chinaks but I’m convinced that it’s the same everywhere. Uni of Bham is definitely an internationally diversed uni. Not as bad as I thought it would be. I’m actually liking the uni. Alhamdulillah.

The Old Joe clock tower which is the landmark of the Uni.










The great hall, which was quite pretty, actually.


Lol ok, I'm jakun for taking this pic. But they have really nice toilets, and I'm pleased with that.

Collected my ID and bank letter, after an approx. 2 hours wait in queue. Fuckage, but I’m glad I got some things done at the very least. Later in the evening, SL, me and EK went jalan-jalan around, and found a ‘shortcut’ to Sainsbury. Hurray. Round 2 of shopping. It was then that I had my first taste of the English weather. Guess?

Yeap, it rained. Not complaining too much since it’s just a drizzling and not a torrential rain but we had to carry loads of heavy plastic bags, it was a still a long way despite the shortcut, and it was COLD. Wished now I had a waterproof jacket. Had dinner at theirs again, and what did we cook? Guess? Chicken Tikka Masala(must try this one day)? No. Spaghetti again? Yes.

Typical street in Bham.

Then during the night, I stuck on the cards my lovebug friends made for me to make my room a little more personalised and cheerful(since buying posters in UK is equivalent to highway robbery). I put up the photoframe Leen gave me as well.

It was oddly satisfying when I was done. It made being away from home a little less harder, it made my room a little more comforting, and it was a step further to having a new ‘home’ here. Here in my little four walls.

Tuesday, 23rd Sept 2008

City tour was today. This comedic old English man with a typically English brolly brought us around Birmingham City centre to explore and explained to us the key buildings here, along with a brief history of it. Quite a lot of oolangs here, but they really don’t cover every inch of the street. I’m not particularly bother either anyway.

Victoria Square of Bham. (dear god, I hope I got that right)


Yes, that's just me posing.

And I can't even remember half of the buildings that Mr. Brollyman mentioned...but i shall just show you a few examples here:

Oh oh!! I know this one...this is the infamous Bullring shopping centre. Damn a lot of syok shops, but it's not a place for students on tight budget, unfortunately.

The city centre is surprisingly quite small. I wasn’t paying attention half of the time Mr.Brollyman was explaining to us. I was just busy looking around and snapping pictures here and there. If I was gonna be tourist-sy, might as well do it in a group. I liked the city well enough. Not too many victorian architures as I would’ve like, but oh well. Birmingham City is mildly interesting to me. I found it rather dirty, and the air there wasn’t fresh at all (not that I was expecting it to be, being a big industrial city after all). Infact, it has a kind of stale stench. Not unbearable, but not too pleasant either. A lot of shops though. And Bullring rox my sox. Went into Debenhams and bought myself 2 actual pillows (ones where you can REALLY sleep on), quilt and duvet. Guilty. Expensive when converted...but hee, I don’t really care. I needed those so badly.

My room afterwards. See? So much more comfy now hor?

Later that night(after another round of spaghetti for dinner), we had the Irish Dance event at the International Student’s marquee back in the uni. Figured it could be a good chance to meet other students, so I eagerly went for it. It was rather fun (but extremely tiring because my feet had already been busted earlier on by the sheer amount of walking I’ve been doing since I touched down), and I actually danced like those little characters in Harvest Moon. Which I now suspect that the game was probably based on Irish culture. I didn’t quite get to meet as many international students as I hoped though. Boo.

This was also the first night I had real actual sleep. It just felt so good.

Wednesday, 24th Sept 2008

If there’s anything I’ve learnt thus far, it’s to wake up earlier than the guys at home. Why? Because...they take forever in the bathroom. Srsly. I know, it’s well within their rights to use the bathroom however they damn well please but honestly, why do they call girls the vain ones?

I need a big loud alarm clock. Better put that in my list of to-buy.

Course introduction was today. Seems like my timetable will be rather packed. Shitties. And seems like 60% of my department will be filled China Chinese. Bye bye ang mos. *tear*

Thursday, 25th Sept 2008

Nothing much for the day, expect for which I have to choose my modules. I can choose one module outside my main discipline(which is engineering), but I don’t know what I should choose. Nothing really interest me. Which alarms myself, because it seems like I don’t have an interest for anything useful in life at all! I wanted to take German lessons, but seems like it’s difficult for 2nd year direct entry students(a.k.a me) to take language courses as I will need to demonstrate I have the 1st year qualification to continue, which of course, I don’t have. I know nuts about German language.

WHY on earth must they make things so difficult? I considered Psychology. It looks at least a wee bit interesting. But really, Psychology, who am I kidding?

Went to the Societies Fair today, but couldn’t quite decide what I should join. In the end, I didn’t join any. I hope there might still be a chance for me to join though.

Friday, 26th Sept 2008

WHEE! My internet connection finally arrived! If there’s the one good thing about being in UK, it’s the internet. Downloading at 500kbps was awesome. ‘Nuff said.

Cooked my own food at home today.

It was...tomatoes and roasted beef slices (at discounted price in Sainsbury) stir-fried in eggs. ♥

Okay, it doesn’t have the package, and any right-minded person would probably not touch it by the looks of it. But I liked it, it’s the way I eat. Was pretty happy with my meal. But I swear I will get better at cooking! Necessity is the motherfucker of improving your cooking.

----------------------------------------------------

Thus sums up my first week here, miles away from home. Eventful? Not really. It’s was a good experience, IMO. Not all great and pleasurable, but it’s one important one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Hopefully things will only keep improving from now on.

Zomg. That was a darn long post. I'm out.

Bishie of the Moment:

Cain Hargreaves of GodChild

Somebody, Slow the Evening Down

My clock shows 4.38am now. Less than 24 hours till I leave.

I woke up bright and early today after being dragged up by Mum at 9 something in the morning...so where the hell did all those hours in between disappeared to?! I swear, time is moving too fast. Seems like just yesterday my holidays started.

Sad to say that I'm not even done packing yet, still need some stuffing to do. I always thought that there wasn't much to carry over, but somehow, I mysteriously seem to be running out of baggage space. Hmm. Can it be the bajillion t-shirts that I'm planning to bring over?

I tell you, it's so damn hard to decide what to bring and what not to bring. Right now I'm not really excited anymore. Just tired. And a bit worried about what might happen when I get over (will I even get a house?!?!?).

Since tonight is my last night at home for at least another 8 months to come, I suddenly feel really berat hati to part with my comfortable environment. I've always been waiting for the day I get my turn to go overseas to study, to explore, to venture out of my little shell I call home. But now, on the eve of this much-awaited day, I kinda think that I'd still like my comfy little shell the best, and to be honest part of me is unwilling to leave. Dad dismissed it as just a phase everyone has to go to, in which he is absolutely most probably right. I guess it was way worse for him back then when he first stepped into foreign soil without any guidance at all.

I feel like I didn't spend enough time with the family albeit my 19 years here. Feel like I didn't converse enough and cherish enough. Not that I'm a very family-ish kind of person, but I realize how unappreciative I was before of my surroundings. Why is it always that when you're about to leave, only you'd realize how important something is? I know, I keep telling myself it's only 8 months too. But I think the distance added some weight into my emo-ness. I tell myself too, it's a borderless world now with the godlike existence of the Internet and webcam. So no biggie, really. Emotions, you really just have to die.

I'd miss my K-town gang terribly too. With the departure of Louise, Cam and me now along with Boon Li later, it will be extremely hard for us to gather up again but I'm positive that we will eventually. I shall look forward to our Vegas trip next!

Now to quit sounding like an emo spoilt brat, I shall go make love to my dearest bed for the last night. Amen.

Bishie of the Moment:

Kotoha from 是
Possibly the prettiest boy ever existed in any manga.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

....

Okay, so I don't have a clock anywhere near me (excluding my digital clocks shown on the laptop), but somewhere in my mind I can hear the faint but annoying sound of the ticking clock...getting louder and louder as the seconds pass by. My digital clock tells me there's approximately 1 day and 21 more hours to go before I official leave the Malaysian soil. Doesn't help that my still half-empty luggages are sitting next to me, looking forlornly at me while I type this. If Leen were here, I can vivdly imagine her screaming at me to pack and most probably doing the packing for me because of my lazy ass.

Joy.

A lot has happenned within these few weeks. I especially hung out a lot with the gang, which I think I will miss these moments the minute I land in UK. Sap much? I spent time with family too, though I think I probably went out more often than staying at home...But there's always the webcam right?! I keep telling myself: "Jaysus girl, it's only 8 bloody months till you get your ass back. No need go all emo and what not." Still...as the prospect of leaving looms nearer, my initial excitement has somewhat diminished, replaced with half dread and half keberatan-hati to leave. Emotions, go to hell.

That aside, I got my new laptop during the last 2 weeks as well. My laptop is the new HP Pavillion dv4 model. My old dv6 is actually still functioning perfecto...but Dad offered an upgrade since Joe wanted a laptop for himself. He didn't mine taking my laptop as he only wanted to 'play' with it. So I took up dad's offer.

Here's how it looks:

It's so glossy that it can replace a mirror, I swear.


And it has a funky light logo on the front. I likey.

Personally, I thought the polished look of the lappie looks good and sleek, but boring. I considered Dell's XPS model because it looks really chic and I like the microsatin feel of it. This HP model is a fingerprint magnet, which has never really bothered me until now actually, but oh well. Since I was so satisfied with my 1st HP laptop, I decided to return HP for my second. And this one comes with a nifty fingerprint verifier too. Kinda fun.

The one I bought did not come with a lid protector, and since it's a polished-finish, that means it's not only a magnet for finrgerprints, but scratches as well. Nasty. I bought a transparent skin protector for it, but while I was browsing the laptop skins...I saw a Kakashi skin. My anime instincts took over and I bought it as well. However, when I tried to put on the Kakashi skin, I thought the design kinda..sucked and it made my laptop looks cheap and ah beng-ly.

Kakashi skin. I loathe the word 'Naruto' on it. I don't want anything associated with Naruto the character(excluding Kakashi because he is cool), thank you very much.

Loud no? But it was one of my fav Kakashi pics. =_= I can't help but to think that the laptop looks utterly boring and kept wishing that it had some paint-job or emboss on it like other hp special editions (I went with this because I thought it has the best configurations).

What to do?

My anime instincts took over again and I modified it to look like...

this. (ta-dahh *dryly*)

Okay, so it still looks a bit ah beng, but a lot less than the full skin, no? *tries to reassure self*. This way, I get to protect my laptop without it looking too boring. But then again..when I finally realized it, I should've put on Kakashi first, then the protective layer. Now my Kakashi sticker might get scrapped easily and come off. *bangs forehead on wall* Shows that i cannot plan and organize the way I do things to save my life.

A week after I purchased my laptop later, I found it to be...DEFECTIVE! T_T My pretty quicklaunch buttons couldn't work and I had to bring it back to the shop. The sales rep tested it..and he found that it could work! Just not sensitive and it takes a heck of a long time to get it to sense my finger on it. The sales rep told me I had to sent it back to the service centre and that'd take 5-10 days. What da fook? I'll be leaving in 4 days time(respective to that day)! In the end I had to bring my defective laptop back. Now I only hope that I'll be able to get it fixed in the UK (it had better be able to be fixed). Other than that my laptop also freezes a lil sometimes, which irks me a little because I expect it to be utterly smooth for the price I'm paying for it. HP! Take note: Sufficient to say I'm not all happy with this laptop, but I'll keep it anyway because it's performance is still not too bad. I might go looking for other brands in 3-4 years time.

I worry too much on little and unimportant things. My luggage is still looking forlornly at me...

Within these few weeks, I also met up with Wenn Yit and Peck Lui, had potluck with the gang and the Kwan side had a 'farewell' potluck for me as well. I'm too tired to elaborate more about these little events, but I can say that these little events mean more and more to me as the days goes by. Thank you all for being there. :)

Cam has gone over to the UK and I'm really glad she got there safely and smoothly (okay..maybe not too smooth but yea). If she can do it, so can I. ^_^

This, with absolute certainty, will be one of my favourite pictures for years to come.

As tired as I am now, I shall continue with my packing.

Bishie of the Moment

Death the Kid of Soul Eater
Twin guns, awesome. 3 Lines and symmetry, LOL.

Of a Farewell Dinner and an Overdue Game

Yesterday night was my formally informal 'farewell' dinner with my mum's side of the immediate family(keluarga nukleus!). Dad took us out to a pretty nice and expensive chinese place at PJ, called the Jaya Palace (China Pek much?). Knowing that I wouldn't be able to eat expensive Chinese food over at the UK, he pretty much spoilt lavished me with what is probably the best dishes I've ever tasted in my life thus far.

Among what we had included:

Octopus legs in ham tan. ♥♥


Joe just being his obscene self with an octy-leg.


Lobster sashimi ♥♥♥


Sharks fin soup ♥♥♥♥
(Okay, I know this is a politically incorrect dish, but it's really difficult to give up such a traditional and de-fucking-licious dish I tell ya. This is the signature of a real chinese meal.)


Oysters ♥♥♥♥


I won't tell you what this is, but I'll tell you that it's bloody damn good. ^_^ ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Needless to say, it was a night for gluttons. Thanks Pa, for such a wonderful meal! :]

And..quoting one of my t-shirts: I'm not spoilt, just well taken care of. ;)

Apart from ze fantastico dinner, that night I also managed to finish Kingdom Hearts II. Finally. *Does the Suzumiya Haruhi dance* Yea yea, I know I'm a bit behind times with the game (I can see Xiang Lyn choking in exasperation if she knows this)..and it took me like...2 years to finish it. LOL. Alright, I actually started with KH2 mid 2006, then found that I couldn't understand a single thing of it and felt compelled to play Kingdom Hearts I to know what was going on in KH2. Also, insert A Levels, 1st year E&E engineering and sheer laziness somewhere in between it, and there you have it! 2 facking years to complete 2 simple games. I rawk. ♥

Now for my belated rave about the game; it was amazing. Nothing less expected from Square Enix, the brilliant brains behind Final Fantasy. KH is probably the best action-RPG game I've ever played because of the nature of the game, the ingenious mix of Disney World and FF worlds, the awesome battle systems, CGs and VFX. The plot of KH is somewhat original, yet it has the distinct stamp that screams "FINAL FANTASY!!" all over it. The ending was expectedly a good fluffy ending. It didn't help that Joe kept saying "Cheese ball! Cheese balllllll!!" and "Oh, this is sooo Final Fantasy." at the ending.

Not much to say about it since practically everything that I said has been said by those who played so much earlier before me. All I know is I enjoyed it immensely. And as it is from the same producers of FF, one can always count on them to deliver the bishies in the game. Half of the game itself was eye-candy. *_* And oh, I really love the character outfits in the game.

Cloud and Leon(Squall) in the same game. *Insert drool* ♥


Got to play with Jack Sparrow as well. It really amused me. Wish it was really Johnny Depp who voiced him though.

Ass-kicking Mickey. Only SE could've done this.

And the Favourite Character award goes to....

Roxas!! ♥♥ He's so emo that you can't help but wanting to give him a good smack in the face, yet loving him at the same time. ^_^

Last but not least of the pic-spam...Sexy man in black cloaks. Sweet mama. Square Enix sure knows how to sell them. (This might not be from either KH1 or 2, but from other sequels. Just felt like pimping them anyway)

Also, the English KH cast contained a few surprises for me. Most shocking of all is:

Yes, the heroin of the game, Kairi is voiced by none other than Hayden Panettiere. C'mon people, join me in saying "ewww". She was in KH 1 too. It's a wonder why I didn't notice it in the first place. Not that I have something against Hayden, but I just think that she's is disgustingly overrated. Just because she's in Heroes, now she's practically everywhere. *rolls eyes* I even thought Kairi was likable, although she does have some irritating trying-to-be-tough-but-i-am-really-a-damsel-in-distress moments in the game.

Unfortunately, my dear Roxas is voiced by Jesse McCartney. Although Roxas does somewhat look like him...I don't like to think Roxas as someone who sings the song "Beautiful Soul". So there.

Others in the cast of KH(1&2) included Haley Joel Osment(Sora, the main proto), David Gallagher, Britanny Snow, Christoper Lee, David Boreanaz, Mandy Moore, Sean Astin and Lance Bass.

I'd have never noticed them if I hadn't looked closely in the credits. If only they featured Christian Bale as one of the voices! =o

Bishie of the moment:

Zexion from Organization XIII of KH2.
(Alright, he barely even appeared in the game, and only appears in KH2 Final Mix. But he's the typical FF type of bishie, and I likey. Period. ♥ )