life isn't quite so rosy at the moment. i was sitting at cafe humanities just now trying to get some work done when the words on my laptop screen started swimming in front of me. everything became a sort of blur, and i fervently wished that the cause is my recent bout of tiredness and not a giddy farewell to my 20/20 vision.

previously slack wednesdays are taken up by aerobics, work and a whole load of dance right now.

but there will always be the bright side, especially since i saw the biggest rainbow ever while having coffee and conversation at Costa today. i think the quote above is starting to make a lot of sense.

Labels: daily doings, moods

saw this on weheartit and thought it was really cute. today is one of those days where i wish a bear would pop out of my starbucks cup and surprise me too. i was brushing my teeth just now when it suddenly struck me that this, this is the time we've all been striving so hard for since school days began more than a decade ago. if school life were a marathon (with a good job at the finish line) then now would be the last kilometre or so. applications time- surely this isn't the best time to slow down, or let inertia get better of you?

Labels: musings

came across this while tumblr-hopping, and thought that this should relate to just about everybody.

Boy: Why don’t you ever take risks?
Girl: I take risks!
Boy: When’s the last time you took a risk?
Girl: Five minutes ago…
Boy: What-
Girl: When I said hello to you…"

Labels: quote

last weekend, i went to London. it was supposed to be a girly retail therapy trip, rounding up reading week. but in the end, all i bought was a three-pound pair of earmuffs from one of the roadside stalls. this is so reminiscent of my first London trip where i also abandoned all retail therapy plans and bought home only one item: a non-stick frying pan. evidently, i am a very lousy shopper in the land of english pounds and thick layers of clothes.

some point in the day, i left the girls to continue their tirade of shopping (and their preferred choice of dinner: duck) and met up with an old friend. we had okonomiyaki for dinner, then we circled soho once, twice, almost thrice, before we settled down on starbucks for toffeenut. that was when we started talking. he told me an interesting story, which amused me more than anything else. i wondered if green sparks would appear at that point, but they didn't. then it was off to snog. no, not us, the place called snog. its pink, serves good frozen yoghurt and i liked it very much. thank you for bringing me there. but i still miss the one i had during a work lunch one day (with mabelle and lilian) which had us running back to court for our trial. good times (:

#1: christmas lights on the streets of London



#2: at the dimsum place, with katie, and a ghost-like figure behind



#3: without the ghost-like figure behind, i found the distinction kind of creepy



#4: my favourite pk, who looks super skinny now (damn you woman!) (:


#5: amanda, lisa, myself, katie


#6: my all-time favourite food: siew mai (:


#7: this was the day before the grand opening of jimmy choos at h&m. apparently, the first 160 customers in queue (when the store opens on saturday morning) get first choice of the shoes. this photo was taken at about four pm on friday afternoon. crazy, crazy people.


#8: the love of my life, toffeenut (:


#9: SNOG, and waiter in hot pink shirt (if he were as hot as the pink shirt, then yes, i wouldn't mind)


#10: natural flavour, with raspberries and granola bits


#11: and my proudest photo of the entire trip :D i've the actual polariod, and it looks way better than this copy up here. ask me to see it :D


#12: said ear muff. it matches my little red riding hood coat (:

Labels: food, photos, travel

so we trekked down to the newly-opened cosmo after hearing rave reviews about it. though, i was rather skeptical after reading mixed reviews online (yes i research my eating places before going). in the end, i thought the place fell below expectations. the sashimi were little insignificant slices, most of the food were simply carbs and fried food. but i must admit that the teppanyaki (i had salmon and scallops) was not bad, sushi was good (could be because of my love of wasabi) and the desserts looked as pretty as a picture. thought the two-hour time limit was complete rubbish though (what if i like to slowly enjoy my buffet!), and that was the clincher that made me decide not to return to the place again. also, part of the reason for the non-enjoyment of the night could be due to the tension at the table. very, very awkward.

i actually miss proper buffets in singapore. the hotel ones that you eat properly good food, instead of stuff yourself with unhealthy cheap food.

Labels: daily doings, food

double portion of drowsy cough medication, check. 1.5-hour skype conversation with mummy trying to unload all this insomnia-inducing stress, check. cup of warm honey, drinking. i hope that once this cup of honey is finished, the medicine can work its little magic and pull me into dreamland.

i'm thinking, maybe i should go to school tomorrow to do my work since staying within these four walls of my room is obviously killing me.

Labels: moods

on top of keeping to my resolution of not skipping a single class or lecture this term, we have just received the grades for our eu law podcast today! our group got a first! well done guys (: all those hours spent in the learning grid doing our recordings paid off (:

also, i would like to add that my previous post on the movie review was really just that - a movie review. it has no connection to anybody whatsoever, and every statement made was written solely in the context of the film. so if you think i'm talking about you, i assure you that i am not.

Labels: daily doings

i must say, wednesdays spent in school are a lot more interesting than my usual habit of spending the day at home. from aerobics class, to gym, to non-flavoured skinny lattes, studying next to whirring coffee machines, discovering that i can read the guardian for free at costa, movie-watching, nursing a new-found addiction to raw spinach and the very novel experience of walking a drunk friend (whose name shall not be mentioned to protect his identity) home. i think i might have just cured my recent bout of insomnia and low spirits.



caught An Education at the arts centre with jeremy tonight. i thought it was a good film, albeit a bit predictable. after all, the story of an innocent schoolgirl seduced by the charm of a glamorous older man, the lure of paris, and the glitzy high life is one that we've all probably already seen, or experienced. still, it was a good film peppered with signature british humour that made it all the more enjoyable. morale of the movie: don't ever fall for the willy charms and lies of older men.

i would have chosen oxford over a man anytime though. but then again, i am not the one in love.

favorite quote of the movie:

One of the boys I dated, and they were boys, suggested that we go to Paris and I
said I'd always wanted to see Paris. As if I'd never been."

Labels: daily doings, movie

its been a crazy few days of insomnia and dehydration. this photo was taken on the streets of London. i was amused to see a brown starbucks coffee sign, instead of the signature green.

Labels: photos

happiness must be be pursued, a friend commented, it doesn't ploop at your feet. but what happens when chasing that bit of happy only leads you to a haunted, hollow sense of discontentment?

Labels: musings

almost a lifetime ago, before last summer, i wondered what Paris was like. it was somewhat of a childish curiousity, fuelled by occasional encounters in books and films. was it, as the books described, a city of lights all shining, scintillating and gorgeous? or was it straight off a scene on broadway, brimmed with romance, lovers, mystery and indulgence? last summer i quenched that curiosity. it was at first neither, then a little of both. in the end, it was a little of both.

i first stumbled into the city alone, having just flown in from Spain. it was early morning, i had just sat through a two-hour flight and another two-hour coach ride. lost, stung and exhausted, i tried to ask for directions in whatever little french i knew. it was a futile attempt, since there was no name to the place i was looking for. but i found it eventually and for the first few hours in this foreign land, we sat by the lakeside and feeded on vanilla icecream cones. we made a futile attempt to buy macaroons. then we trawled the famous shopping street of Champs Elysees. that was how our Paris adventures began.

at that moment, i felt wholly unsatisfied. paris, i thought, paris is just like any other city. it was overrated- there was no romance tingling in the air, only the distant wafts of smoke and uneven sunrays falling on our backs through the trees. i felt the exact same way the day i went to Costa and realised that the christmas minced pies i always read about in enid blyton books weren't filled with delicious minced meat, but a sweet, unsatisfying savoury kind of jam. at that moment, reality seemed to have lost out to the visions i had conjured up in my imagination again. is this how its supposed to be? do we always dream such impossible dreams that reality can never hope to surpass?

as usual, i spoke too fast, and i thought too quickly. we spent the next few days going to places which changed my impression faster than you can spell fickle. three places, i remember distinctly. thrice, i fell in love. the first was in the garden of versailles. i remember insisting on going to the place even though it was out of the way. i am glad i did. the grounds of versailles were so big, so sprawling and so beautiful. i remember how we sang and laughed as we took in the sights. i remember them laughing when i pointed to the lake and exclaimed loftily this is where i want to be proposed to. there, right in the middle of the lake. i should have laughed along with them. since now, on hindsight, i realised i went on to exclaim the same thing on that very night. this time, we were on top of the Eiffel Tower.

cliched as it may be, that was where i fell in love for the second time. i was never a sucker for conventional places (and oh, the Eiffel is the epitome of conventional), but girls will be girls and there will always be a romantic inside us that cannot help but be enthralled by a tall stunning, majestic structure which overlooks the city of lights and lovers. we painstakingly climbed six hundred and eighty-eight steps to get up to the tower, but the view was worth it. imagine our delight when the light show began just as we were on top of the tower. we saw the light show when we were gazing at the tower from the ground, and almost an hour later, there we were, up there, as one with the million lightbulbs and illuminations. the light show only comes on for five minutes every hour. i think the tower must have liked us just every bit as much as we liked her.

i'll tell you about the third place another time. this place would be the epitome of unconventional. for now, here are some photos from Versailles, and i promise to upload photos from the Eiffel, the third place and the Lourve soon.

#1: darkness and light, from inside one of the versailles palaces.


#2: acting cheesy


#3: we loved the long winding walks


#4: we really loved it, obviously


#5: the road to where?


#6: colours


#7: acting serious in the company of royalty


#8: sky and shadows


#9: in the room of royalty!


#10: we know i'm always a sucker for taking photos of kids, more so if its a pretty kid with an icecream (:

Labels: photos, travel

drink starbucks toffenut coffee-
buy boots
buy pk's birthday present
put feedback system in place
print notes from week 1 to 5
buy earmuffs (for running in the cold)
do seminar work
apply for vacation scheme
read international law (up till now, i've no clue what's going on in class)
research for EU law podcast
choreograph musical dance

ps. excuse the shameless plugging, but please visit HERE to vote in the abovementioned feedback system (if its any impetus, you get to read more of samantha's silly blogging there too!)

pps. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENGKUN (: WELCOME TO THE OLD PEOPLE CLUB. remember our days of teenage youth when we built snowmen? those days...


















ppps. ALSO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TSERUEY! my married partner- although i can't be there physically with you for your birthday, i'm sure someone else is there ;)

Labels: daily doings

despite having made no real plans for saturday (since we scrapped the oxford trip), first day of reading week still turned out rather exciting. unlike last year, it wasn't packed with London touristy things, but there's still some quaint excitement in setting off our own fireworks in the backyard, boys vs girls taboo, typical English pub dinner, ice-cream, chocolate fondue in the living room, fried rice and lengthy conversations.

look at those sparks fly.

Labels: daily doings

i'm waiting patiently for our group's podcast to be fully uploaded- the law school's website is taking forever- and thought that i'd do a quickie post while waiting. just wanted to announce that i've officially applied for final year accomodation two days ago! i know, i know, i'm going to have to leave my lovely new house, pretty room, big double bed and nearby supermarkets by moving out next year. but on the bright side, it's also goodbye sandwich lunches, household chores, and hello campus!

and this, is the lovely accomodation buddy i'm going to live with :D hello miss peng kun! here's to a good third year of happy campus life, good food, crazy exercise, much laughter and a lot of hard studying!









these pictures were taken in Paris in front of the Notre Dame. see, i am living up to my promise to upload travel photos. if you look closely, pk is carrying a box of the delicious Pierre Herme macaroons in her left hand. i remember this was the day that we sat outside the Notre Dame and munched happily on macaroons. and that was after a heavenly lunch of croque madame and the best french onion soup ever. that was also the lunch where pk happily broke a wine glass at. haha. good times.

Labels: musings, travel

one day i am going to read back on this entry and regret mentioning this embarassing fact but- grocery shopping got me very excited today! i went exploring again and found morrisons at last, in all its bustling superstore glory. i felt like a kid walking into disneyland for the first time, except that i'm 20 and it was a well, supermarket. but the place was really gorgeous, a cross between Cold Storage and Ikea really. it had all these little counters the way Cold Storage has, selling whole roast chickens, or mini wings if you want them, and the usual cheese counters, seafood counters and a lovely bakery. like Ikea, because the place was huge, and they even had a morrisons cafe within the superstore. but of course the best part of the place was the shopping. Ben and Jerry's at 1.90 (yes, that's even cheaper than costcutters at half-price), Tropicana juice at 83p, and their morrisons sandwich fillers even had honey mustard chicken flavour. anyone who knows me would know that i'm a huge mustard fan. and if all that isn't enough, there's even a Macdonalds outlet just outside the supermarket.

to adopt a bit of vampire-speak (halloween week and all), i am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with a superstore (:



yesterday a friend commented that i seem very contented (his evidence for that being my blog, since we haven't spoken to each other in a while). that statement gave me pause - i thought about it- and realised that he was right. i am contented, and happy, something people can say so rarely these days. there's no particular reason for this contentment, just a general feel-good vibe that i get. year two has been a peaceful balance between school work and other commitments. friends, social life and family are doing fine, and i feel like i have so much more personal time to think and do what i want this year. when i'm hungry, i eat; when i'm restless, i run. when i'm feeling studious, i study and when i'm bored, i talk to people. it's such a simple existence without any sort of obligations and head aches.

and last night, when we were all at Steph's birthday party, singing together, with the lights dimmed and candles lit, i suddenly felt so proud of our batch of singaporeans in warwick. we're so unstereotypically singaporean - so much talent flying around and our idea of a good time is just a cosy impromptu sing-a-long- which makes me feel so, so very glad.

in other words, i'm just quite happy la.

today i saw a rainbow outside our window and hurriedly snapped a picture (above). see, even the sky is happy (:

Labels: daily doings, musings