i conquered the world!

on monday =D

heehee =P i was actually stoning in the room while mark hui xuan and kai played... then hui xuan had to go... and mark walked her back and left... so melvin took over mark and i took over hui xuan... (and i beat two guys at RISK!) see the little orange guys in the top left corner? i kicked them out!

okay photo post =P

typical english breakfast... only without the happy face (you can choose to have beans or noodles as well... just 4 items and two drinks and toast)

i forgot what this is >.<> the thames... my phone cam is pretty lousy =(
the fountain @ piccadilly
the people i went to ikea with... lol. and the london buses
train station (lots of people bike here)

that's it for now =) [this post was mainly to gloat about winning in risk XD]

sunday

was a really interesting experience... the pace of life here slows down soooo much... you see ppl just sitting around relaxing... the people walking at the shops walk slower too. (and all the singaporean christians went to morning services =S so i had no one to hang out with) stoned with a jap year 2 till about 4pm then went for service

hillsongs... has great worship (to be expected right?) but the preaching isn't very solid... at least yesterday's one wasn't. lots of verses thrown at you to substantiate a point... but not very anointed. messages here are short! like 20 min.. and they get a lot of guest speakers (pastor's coming in october). i guess i'll check out another church in the morning then go for the afternoon service again next week. i feel like hillsong is a good place to serve... but dunno about feeding and growing there.

we shall see.

pray for me!

thank you =)

i realise i haven't put up a thank you post yet... i guess it's cos it means that i'm really here and not going back... and won't see you guys for a year. bah.

thank you! to the people who

gave me a letter/ wrote in the black book:
xingcong (though i'll see you in london lol.), jofid, heiman, andrea, izzy, jiahao, shawn, joseph, jem, hwei, michael, joy, joash, fel, lindis, u-glen, eph, clement, yeow, amanda, jan, yuhua, zj, jane, esther, daniel, renhao

gave me cool stuff:
felicia (i'm using the bag to carry my shower stuff to the shower!!), u-glen (my last mooncakes in singapore), the whoever(s) who contributed to the webcam (haha i haven't set it up yet!), shawn for the book, janiah for plane food (your brownies are really good... *drool*)

sent me off at the airport:
(wah long list and sorry sorry, very lag in putting up photos.)
shawn, hwei, jan, lindis, jofid, justin, andrea, izzy, daniel, renhao, jane, amanda, esther, xingcong, joel

and the well wishes of the rest... 'last meals' and such.


i feel loved ^^ hehe.


it's been super busy... well sorta. heh i could choose to be a hermit in my room i guess. still shopping and getting stuff to make my room 'mine'... going to ikea today!

sunburnt skin + london weather = peeling = gross

more details!

my room:
i think i'm really blessed... cos i've got a toilet and adjoining showers in the same corridor as my room. toilets are shared by the whole floor... 2 on each floor so some pple walk really far just to use a toilet (the inside of the hall is a maze... and lots of fire doors so you can't really tell where you're going) toilets are clean =) well... even the public toilets are a lot cleaner than singapore... and there are very few of those around... so you can imagine the number of people using them.

the room itself is pretty small... no pictures for you till i finish putting away stuff ^^ (which probably will never happen) i got a mug yesterday for £1 *yay* can make hot drinks once i get a kettle (the ones provided in the pantry are scarily yellow 0_0) i was blessed by the last person who used the room... i brought 10 hangers and i haven't used any of them cos the last person left about 15! no lack here.


weather report:
i'm getting used to it! it's about 10-20 deg... windchill is terrible but i can walk ard the hall in shorts and t-shirt without being too cold. out of doors two layers has been enough so far. but wind blowing = brrr (today's pretty warm. joy!) super dry here though... moisturising has become a ritual... and bits of me a cracking and flaking off eep. flaky christian ehehe...


shopping:
i think i've been doing nothing but shopping. and walking around.. albeit not productively. we met a year 3 ucl guy who used to be classmates with some of the s'pore guys (the world is too small lor.) and he was saying tt everything we seemed to want can be found in ikea... so off to ikea on saturday =P it isn't as easy to get lost in london as they say. it's pretty much the same as s'pore, you walk in the general direction of the place and you'll find it.


orientation:
it's pretty much free and easy, no groups/ course introductions... so i've pretty much been going up to random ppl, introducing myself and talking to them about uni and courses and countries (so surface! bleh.) i've met... 1 german, 2 from hongkong, 1 brit, 1 czech, 1 china, 2 malaysians, 1 american (postgrad student!), 1 swede (although i only talked to this guy in passing)... and a couple of girls on my floor... brits i think, i didn't ask. hmmm. still trying to get to know people around my hall. there is unfortunately a tendency for singaporeans to stick together and eat together and walk around together... so the only chance for talking to people is in waiting for the lifts. hmmm.


i can't think of anything else... humph. shall go do qt and off to be a kiasu singaporean =P gonna enrol 1 hr before our enrolment time starts... heh

contact details

if anyone wants my address, room tel, hp drop me a tag/ comment/ email/ msn!

if you're from cg, there's a post saved as a draft on the blog/ a copy on the google whiteboard (but people haven't been added to it... yet...?)

if you're from arrow vid it's on the google whiteboard too! (if you want i'll put one on the groups as well, but i'm lazy to log in to yahoo)

yup. if you're from school/ moe/ acquaintance sorry... haha i can't remember everyone so i need you to tell me you want my contact XD

ehehe

okay. i'm vaguely wondering "Oh God... what have i gotten myself into" and discovering a need for many things that i didn't pack... heh

highlights of yesterday:

taking the tube... (i fell asleep =P thank God for friends who stay awake, and for hooking me up with Hillsong London people)

walking! many things are expensive... walked to the theatre where Hillsongs is, supermarket, argos... i think i can still get lost cos we were following a fren ard (who has been here about a week alr) and i was just blindly following. lol.

more walking! i got my london phone number... pay-as-you-go... see how it goes... whether getting a plan is worth it. -i foresee many msn nights with the phone off-

got back and started unpacking (information overload gosh)... then i heard many doors closing and poked my head out to ask someone/ anyone and went down to dinner. happily followed the girls in front of me until i got to the cashier. and i got stuck! cos i didn't have the pass card... the card machine wasn't working when i checked in! so i had to abandon my food and get one. pfft.

in the queue to talk with the wardens i saw a guy with the same kind of expression as i had... so i started talking to him haha. same problem with food! seems pretty nice, a local from essex. hehe. favour favour.

okay off to breakfast

0 days!

haha i didn't have time to blog with all the last min packing.

quick update. i'm in london, safe, baggage chucked inside my hall.

i can't check in till after 2pm (london's 7 hrs behind)
i can't get my debit card... it is mia. but at least the account is set up..

going for lunch/ getting phone/ water distiller in a while.

yup.

the two hillsong pple who came to pick me up are funky... (maybe i'll serve in video min there too =P) see how it goes. i'm still hanging out with the bunch of sporean frens... so pray that i make friends quick quick and make good Godly ones too =)

4 days

hmmm... people are going 'ohno! i still have so much to pack/ i'm over the weight limit!!' i'm going 'um... i can't seem to find things to pack... aside from more clothes... am i missing something here?'


anyhow.

the to-do list:
1. pack... wash clothes... pack
2. buy 200ml showergel of some sort
3. print more passport photos
4. buy that stupid clever pencilcase
5. get eyebrows trimmed (yes.. i do know they need work)
6. pack my room (omg once i'm gone my room's gonna become their office >.<) 5. sort out music on my comp 6. rip sermons + music into comp 7. collect my x-ray from joel
8. book the cab from airport to hall (well... if i don't get a lift, i'll prob take the tube with nick and zihao...)


i feel relatively accomplished XD.

tomorrow/ today will be all about money... get what little pay i can from working for parents, change money for me... get travellers cheques in case of emergency... (my UK branch got changed to Russell Sq apparently. thank God.)... close my UOB account (with that measly $2200 in it =P to go into paying parents for all the stuff they bought for me. omg tt brings my spore expenditure to $4000+)

last bible study. can't wait =D


ohoh. there's this courtesy of the 'dandan' on my tagboardXD (i actually didn't get to see it cos i was inside the audi talking to people... so. hurrah for the invention of video cameras)


Online Videos by Veoh.com

6 days

and i haven't done anything on the to-do list...

oh i taught my mom to msn! haha... so fun... she doesn't scream at me anymore =D!

and i'm finally getting round to doing this... =P


Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross infront of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk* the ones you’ve never heard of.

01. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
02. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
03. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
04. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
05.+ The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
06.+ The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
07.+ The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
08.+ Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
09.* Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.* A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.+ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.* Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.+ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.+ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19.+ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20.+ Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. + Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24.* The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30.+ Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32.* The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33.* Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34.* 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36.* The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37.* The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39.* The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41.* The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42.* The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45.+ Bible (Bits and pieces.)
46.* Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51.* The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52.+ A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54.+ Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56.* The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57.+ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58.* The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61.* Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62.* The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65.* Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67.* The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72.* Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75.+ The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76.* The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77.* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78.* The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79.* The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80.+ Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81.* Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83.* Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84.* Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85.+ Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91.* In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93.+ The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94.* The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99.* The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

hehe i think my book knowledge is kinda sad..

and the crossed out ones are more like books i can't be bothered to read... like even if they were borrowed for me.

what a waste of time. hee =P

at this time

exactly 7 days later.

i'll be on a plane to Heathrow airport... and a new future.


and i don't know what to expect... but i guess it doesn't matter cos i know God is good =)




to-do:
1. pack... wash clothes... pack
2. buy 200ml showergel of some sort
3. print more passport photos
4. buy that stupid clever pencilcase
5. get eyebrows trimmed (yes.. i do know they need work)
6. pack my room (omg once i'm gone my room's gonna become their office >.<)
5. sort out music on my comp
6. rip sermons + music into comp
7. collect my x-ray from joel
8. book the cab from airport to hall

can't seem to think of anything else... although i vaguely remember something.


heh... go out with friends... go out with random people... go out with parents... teach parents msn... figure out skype and teach parents (i'm lazy to do this... really.)...

7 days more!

indecision

packing options:

1.1 check-in big luggage bag, handcarry 45L bagpack + laptop bag (currently in progress, big bag ~22kg, handcarry 4kg laptop... well the weight of the laptop 3kg?)

1.2 same as 1.1 only that laptop, software, hd, camera go into handcarry, cables/ powercables/ mouse go into luggage

2.0 check in big luggage bag and 45L bagpack, use laptop bag as handcarry

3.0 check in big luggage bag and 45L bagpack, use small haversack as handcarry with laptop, camera, hd inside... cables and stuff into big luggage

4.1 don't bring bagpack (get parents to bring @ christmas), check in 2 medium luggage bags, use laptop bag as handcarry

4.2 like 4.1 only use small haversack with same conditions as 3.0

5.1 don't bring bagpack (same as above), check in 1 big luggage bag, use small luggage bag as handcarry + laptop bag

5.2 like 5.1 only without the laptop bag



how? suggestions?


couple of things... i'd like to have my bagpack with me if i can help it... i'm a bit more than half packed (weight of the check in might be a problem, max 30kg)... and i dunno whether it's safe to carry a laptop bag around in the open... space isn't a problem i think.


pfft.

i wonder

what God feels when we complain about Him... when we call Him a lousy bugger (heh yeow.)

but i know from the bible that God is love... so that means He can't be anything else but love?

after all, all the judgement + anger was appeased at the cross... and we're covered by the blood of Jesus, made righteous through His death... so there's nothing left but love?

that blows the mind doesn't it...



...



a quickie: accomodation settled, can move in 17th after 2pm... visa called me so i'll collect my stuff on fri... cab, dunno yet... prob with nick unless it's very inconvenient (eek. then i'll be a lightbulb sharing a cab with a couple =P)... banking still pending - God... do something here.

in my head

is a mess (just like my room)

maybe it doesn't look that way... but everything important to do with leaving Singapore's been going wrong

- i get the offer of scholarship... accept the UCL offer with minutes to spare... apply for accomodation and make it on the last day

visa app
- i wait very very long for confirmation... but i don't get it. so i email international office...
- i get a reply ~1month later: they sent a letter
- i get the letter... 1 week? later and happily go down to visa application office where they tell me: no, you can't make your visa cos the letter doesn't have all the info we need
- i email them again... and get joel to chase them, joel gets an email saying 'we faxed it to you'... but he hasn't received it...
- i finally get the acceptance letter, go down to visa office and apply
- that was two weeks ago... and i've been calling the office and getting engaged tones. pfft. so where's my visa?!?!

accomodation
- i find that everyone has their accomodation but me... i email accomodation office and get an offer (apparently UCL hadn't forwarded my details to the hall...)
- i have this amazingly troublesome time trying to get my documents to the hall by the deadline (okay not really... but it was quite strange that all my faxes couldn't get through...)
- i realise i don't have a hardcopy of proof of accomodation... nor confirmation that i can move in early on the 17th and i email them
- i'm still waiting...

banking
- i sign up for the international student account... (very happy... can get something done smoothly)
- i discover my account has been set up... branch: one in OXFORD... when i'm studying in? LONDON... pfft
- again i'm waiting for reply/ confirmation/ something


call me of little faith... but i'm wondering if this overseas thing has all been my effort and not His plan...

or maybe it's been going right... just in God's time and not mine

or maybe it's like what pastor says... that the devil catches a glimpse of the amazing things God has called you to do... then tries his best to stop it from happening...


maybe i should stop thinking so much and trust that my Daddy God makes all things work for good.

aye-scream for ice-cream

what i've been doing in my spare time.... *evil grin*

trying to squeeze my life into a 45L bagpack and beeg suitcase...


not that hard.

only that the mother is worried about the weight and i have to somehow pack so that the bags are of relatively the same (manageable) weight

in any case... i'm a quarter done... the clothes shall go in slowly day by day or i'll have only shorts and school shirts to wear for 2 weeks 0_o

can't pack the electronic things either cos i'm using them =S... then again... those are going into the laptop bag as my handcarry (with the exception of the many many data cables)

...

haha. the stupid vacuum packed pillow is happily un-vacuuming itself and puffing up

...


13 days more.

i haven't collected my visa (they aren't picking up the phone)
i haven't settled who's sharing a cab with me/ booked a cab from airport to hall
i haven't confirmed that i can move into my accomodation earlier
i haven't changed money/ made bank drafts or travellers cheques
i haven't got confirmation that the UK bank branch has been reassigned (they put me to a branch in Oxford... and i'm going to London...?)
i haven't got my password for S'pore side internet banking (culprit: memory loss)
i haven't bought a pencil case (bah.)

should i be panicking?

burnt...

i haven't blogged in a few days... not that there's much to blog about...

- been editing vids [i have a new respect for all those fan-subbers out there... subbing takes forever! 0_o] i wanted to upload the TSPC one... but it's too long for youtube and they don't let me post it so no point.

- editing more vids... well taking them actually - ice-skating vid and turkish ice-cream-man vs nicholas to be uploaded soon (soon is relative to my free time)

- trying desperately to learn how to create a torrent so i can spare myself the pain of sending all the MOE scholars the TSPC vid... [meh. if only downloading from youtube was an option... but it becomes private... and then pple can't get the add anyway =( ]

ULTIMATE frisbee today with the
ULTIMATE tan lines (i am so chao-tar)

check out my invisible watch...

right arm (the left one looks the same)
poor legs...

along with the 'burnt' theme... today's daily devotional=) :

Jesus Has You Covered

Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. Leviticus 1:44

Imagine the perfection of Jesus covering you from head to toe in the sight of God every moment of the day. Does that sound like a dream? My friend, that is your reality because Jesus became your burnt offering at the cross.


In the case of the burnt offering, when the offerer lays his hand on the animal sacrifice (Leviticus 1:3–4), the perfection and beauty of the unblemished sacrifice is transferred to him, and God sees and accepts him in the perfection of the animal.

In Hebrew, the word “accepted” implies being treated with favour, delight and acceptance. This means that you, for whom Jesus became a burnt offering, are treated by God with favour, delight and acceptance because the beauty and perfection of Jesus has been transferred to you. As your burnt offering, Jesus have made atonement for you on your behalf.

Jesus is your atonement or covering for sin. How precious Jesus is to the Father is how precious you are to the Father because when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus, your atonement, your covering.

So every day, take Jesus as your burnt offering come to God and say, “Father, I thank You that Jesus is my burnt offering. He covers me from head to toe with His righteousness. I thank you Father, that You see me without spot or wrinkle. You see me covered in all the value and perfection of the work of Your Son. What He is to You, I am. Who He is to You, I am. As He is now, so am I. I am in Him!”

Jesus has you covered. You don’t appear before the Father with all your lack, faults and shortcomings. Jesus proclaims to you what is right with you in spite of what is wrong with you because He has you covered. Today, hear him telling you, “Go, girl! I have got you covered. There is nothing for you to worry about!” Hear him saying to you, “Go for it, son! I am covering you. There is nothing for you to fear!”