Some songs just trigger something in your heart.
Iris by goo goo dolls. Collide by howie day. Don't look back in anger and wonderwall by oasis. You're beautiful by james blunt. Be like that by 3 doors down. Demons by fatboy slim featuring macy gray. Good riddance by green day. Unwell by matchbox 20.
So many more....
Feeling pensive again. ;)

Soup test passed ;)

Still on the topic of food. Decided to finish my 2 pieces of chicken fillet today. Well, actually sliced them and planned to eat like half of the slices today, half of them tomorrow for lunch.
Decided to marinade them using my chinchalok chilli sauce I brought over. Together with the chilli sauce with garlic mentioned earlier. And of course a little bit of the assorted condiments I keep in handy.
Oh put in a leeetle bit of ginger for taste. And almost a whole onion. Just for the heck of it. Nutrients and all.
Then stir-fried the chicken. This time I didn't add too much water ;)

After taking some for myself, I asked the rest of my flatmates to try my cooking (5 angmohs, all sitting around watching television) whilst I cooked a soup. (Yeah mushroom soup)
Guess what.
They had emptied the bowl by the time I finished cooking the soup and was about to resume eating the rest of the chicken.
One whole piece of chicken fillet, they just went like "its very nice!!!", "yuan you should stop studying med and become a cook" and the like, and finished my whole damn chicken fillet.
Wah lao. I know its nice lah - I had actually considered finishing all of it myself - but... I don't know whether to feel flattered, or upset, or both.
My chicken fillet... 1 pound ($3!) worth of chicken fillet... just gone like that....
:(

Lucky I didn't share my soup.

And speaking of soups. I just put some chicken, mushroom, lettuce, onions and some secret ingredients to the slow cooker. Getting two friends to come over for lunch tomorrow - one cooking pasta. I'm providing the soup.
So I've passed my grilled/stir-fried chicken test, now for the soup test. ;)

Having too many options available is not good.
But then again its been just 2 weeks. I've like 5 years ahead of me.
Ah well.

Tried stir-frying some turkey today. Yes they were meant to be stir-fried, said so on the packaging.
Marinaded it, added assorted sauces to it, then put it in the pot (I have no pan). Added some chilli sauce with garlic.
Added some water.
Added more chilli sauce with garlic.

I had turkey in spicy soup today. Which tasted quite nice, actually. Honestly.

Mushrooms with onions turned out just as I planned though.
I think I'll stick with cooking mushrooms. They're so much easier.

Was walking back to Ronson today when this girl distributing flyers approached me and said, "Hi, do you want a free lunch?"
Is it just me or did a saying just pop into your head as well? ;)

I love my room. Though its smaller than many others, messy and is still quite bare, I just LOVE it. ;)
Origins of the squirt soft toy? Oh I was walking with a group when two girls decided to enter this disney shop. Well to shop, of course. Saw this wonderfully cute squirt and I promised them that I'll share with them if they wanted to buy other soft toys. (3 for 20 quid lah)
And so they bought the soft toys.
Did I just say I LOVE the squirt? ;)
And oh. I got speakers (and a hidden subwoofer) for 35 quid. EXcellent sound system, I tell you. Enough BASS!!!! YEAH!!!!

Yes I'll say it again, I LOVE my room.

:D

OK if that sounded scary rite, I'm still the same me. Do still email me, call me, whenever, whereever. I'll still always be there for my friends :)

Just read some resources available on the intranet and understanding suddenly dawned on me.
I'm now in university. Studying medicine.
It's gonna be a whole new ball game.
I finally have to accomplish what I promised I'd do in 'school'.
It is time to realise my potential.

Few updates of my life:
1. Medicine course has finally started. Started on Monday, in fact, with registration and all. First 'group' lesson's gonna be later. (Using computer cluster now) Well actual lessons won't start until end of next week, supposedly. All the lectures/tutorials now are for the sole purpose of teaching us how to learn in a PBL-based setting. "To learn how to learn", in other (their) words. And my timetable's like 9-4 almost every day. Ahh!!!
2. Starting to miss a few certain people in my life. People, you know who you are. I don't want to name names 'cause erm... some of you don't know who you are. *wink*
3. My internet connection's prob gonna be on end of today. Barring a few technical glitches, like my laptop fingerprint reader not recognising my fingerprints. Like what happened this morning. So I'll prob see ya online sometime soon! ;) If you're online around 6am in the morning dat is heh.
4. I have a webcam. *hint*

See ya all soon.

I get what you mean, when you say its scary, thinking of committing to him(her) for the rest of your life.
I get what you mean, when you say its so hard, keeping your long-distance relationship going. Or trying to get it started.
I get what you mean, when you say you miss home - the food, the people - everything.
But I don't get your answer, when you say you cant do it, for everything's gonna be fine.
I'll do what you're doing, I'll stay by your side, 'cause I don't know anything else.
(Unfinished)

Trying to write some lyrics. Cheesy, yeah, but well its a first attempt. Suddenly feel in the mood for it. Not addressed to anyone in particular, but hey if you think it means something to you, its intended for you ;)

Mark : Call me dude. Anytime you want/need to talk. And I mean Anytime.

Getting to the phase where u miss home. Family and friends, rather.
Loneliness, in other words.
I've made like quite a few friends here, one i think can be for life. No I'm not interested in her, she's attached too, but hey, pam its like us, the brother-sister kinda feeling.
Its only now that I realise how much you rely on your friends when you're overseas? I mean, like, experiencing it all for yourself - its really eye-opening.
Sharing my flat with Brits - there's this guy who's doing postgrad civil engineering - nice guy. Some other guys just moved in today - haven't talked much to them yet. Should be good.
And hey I just came back from the pub. Some wine for dinner and a pint of beer. (Of course I'm not drunk yet.) Quite good music, this SCU-BAR near the accomodation.
I shall take pictures quite soon, haven't been getting around to doing that. Quite a nice place, actually, my room. Manchester is quite nice, in general, in fact :)
Yeah feeling quite pensive again ;)

Still have time to waste, so shall just summarise some oddities I've experienced here so far:
1. Keyboard layout. the @ is not located on the 2, but is on the ' key instead. Basically trades places with the ". Weird.
2. LOTS of places to have coffee here. Aside from Starbucks, there's Nero, which, as Mark recommended, has GREAT espresso. It's those kind of coffee that is acidic, And aromatic. Very nice. And there's like what, 3? 4? I encountered just walking into the city centre. And countless other small cafeterias too. And the prices are close to what they are in Singapore. An Americano's £1.69 (x3.1 for sing dollar) at starbucks, an espresso's £1.20 at Nero! It's like, well almost coffee heaven to me man!!!!
3. They sell Tiger beer here. And apparently it is quite well received.
4. Chinese food is damn ex here. There are like only 'proper' chinese restaurants here, and you can easily have 2 meals for what you pay for a meal at any chinese restaurant. Eg - Dad and I had claypot beef and something called a 'yi(4) pin(4) pou(1)' yesterday. Just these two and rice. Bill came up to £33.
Had lunch at this bar (2 of us) for a grand total of £8. He had wine, I had pepsi, we both had this chicken/beef wrap thingy.
5. Winter clothes here are actually cheap! At Primark's - this chain, something like Marks and Spencer's - you can buy a zipped sweater for £6. Cotton, I think.

Will post more as I discover more nuggets of interesting information I glean from here.

Long awaited update of my life now that I'm in Manchester!

Well what have I been doing here for the past 3 days? What am I gonna be doing in the next few days, weeks and years?

Spent the last 2 1/2 days 'touring' Manchester (city centre and university) with my dad. Got introduced to various interesting and not-so-interesting buildings. Old structures and ancient ones. Safe streets and those to be avoided after dark. Well most of them, basically. 'Cause apparently drunkards and poor homeless blacks rule the streets after the pubs close.
Oh and we WALKED a LOT these 2 1/2 days. Nope didn't rent a car - not much parking space here in the city area, come to think of it - and the hotel we booked was within walking distance (kinda) from the university.

OK the city. First impressions : Small, old, and well, small. The whole city centre is like... the CBD, actually. With very few tall buildings though. Most of them are like ancient structures - or modern buildings masquerading as ancient ones - and aren't more than a few stories high. And the university is really like SMU, location I mean. Of course. So its within walking distance of like, the equivalent of Orchard Road. Woohoo. One of these days if I feel depressed I'm gonna undergo quite a bit of retail therapy.

OK orientation's gonna start tomorrow - actually registration starts today, but there's nothing more than that - and I'll get sporadic Internet access if I really want to. There's this computer cluster where there's free computer use 23 hours a day. But is damn crowded, of course. So I'll login once in a while to blog, check email and do various weird stuff. No MSN though, these smart people have somehow disabled the program - even the web version!!!

Oh people here are generally nice, I think. Not much contact with Brits as of yet, as this orientation's only for international students. And the international students I've met seem quite blur too. Which is good of course.

Will blog again soon. Cheers.

I'm leaving in 5 days time.
Wow.

Been feeling quite down today. Think its due to pre-departure jitters.

Realise I need to get back to memorising huge chunks of stuff again.

Saw "The Maid" 2 days ago with my grandma at J8. Had lunch too.
Accompanied her to her dental appointment and had lunch with her. Again at J8. (The lunch not the dental appointment)
Went to J8 today to do some shopping. Thankfully I didn't have chinese food for lunch again.
Hey they are good restaurants - Ding Tai Fung and Crystal Jade - I particularly like the noodles at Ding Tai Fung - but I'm getting sick of Chinese food. I mean, I have slightly more than 2 weeks left in Singapore and I should be sampling more local cuisine! Like Malay food. Roti Prata (I'm sure they don't make it the same way in UK). Hainanese Chicken Rice. Mutton soup. So much more!!!

Btw, why did I edit my previous post? No its not just because it can be used against me in some court case in the future, but more importantly, because I realise I was very biased and quite irrational in comments about others. I know not what others think, hence I should only comment on facts - what I know are true.

And just after the SMSL gathering, I went to Mark's house for dinner. Had a great time laughing and watching people laugh. Haha... But seriously, friends like Mark, Kiezin and Peiying keep me grounded. I do believe without friends like them, or my primary school friends I met up with earlier, I would be truly lost in this mazy chaos of a life.
Thanks guys.

Purpose.

Taking advantage of my camera's "food" picture settings. Hmm. Does my creation look more appetising? ;)
Now. Yes am back to satisfying my craving for steak. Story behind this? Here goes...
1. Steak - Decided to try a can of stout my dad bought. Muddy Murphy's Irish Stout. Couldn't finish the 500ml, left the remainder to ferment in the fridge.
Decided to put it to some use, hence the steak, and
2. Onion Soup - Substituted stout for red wine. Works just as well I tell u.
3. Scrambled eggs - Forgot to add milk!!!! Oh no.
4. Veggies - Decided I needed fibre. Stole some beans from the fridge. Onions from well, emergency storage.
5. Champagne grapes - Apparently my aunt brought some from australia. Nice!!!
So there goes. I think I'm getting the hang of cooking steak. Getting more interested in cooking and photography. ;)