So Bizarre!

I helped my flatmate configure her settings for IE the other day so that she could surf the net on her laptop in the hostel. It wasn't hard. I was purely following the instructions given on the brochure. I did it for myself. So I just repeated the steps and did it for her. She nicknamed me "computer whiz".

Ha

Ha

Ha

Most people who know me would say that's a big fat joke because I am a computer idiot of humongous magnitude. I agree with that, by the way...

Well, last night, this girl from the flat upstairs came down to ask for help because she could not set up her IE. My flatmates gladly offered to lend me to her...

Fortunately, it wasn't too big a problem. She claimed she followed the instructions but when I checked, I saw that instead of putting "8080" in the port field, she put "8088". Problem identified, problem solved. Less than 2 minutes. Easy Peasy... I got a tiramisu cake as a reward because she was so grateful. Yippie!

I know some of you are now thinking I have such a big ego and I'm going to boast. But no, that's not what I'm going to do, so shut up and read on. It was not intelligence coming into the picture here. It was an issue of nationality.

Simply put...

Singaporeans are just damn good at following instructions.

Bedtime musings...

Following my previous post, here's an update on my sprained ankle... I basically didn't do what I know I should do... which was R.I.C.E - Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Instead I hobbled around for the 2-3 hours immediately after my injury doing things like preparing dinner. Very bad. Very very bad. My ankle became sufficiently uncomfortable for me to ask my flatmate if she had a crepe bandage because she's from GUIDES and if anybody else had a bandage in the flat, it might be her but nah...no luck. This is why you should ALWAYS follow FIRST AID guidelines so you avoid unnecessary discomfort...

In the end, Mum and I had to take a bus (because there was no way I was going to be able to hobble down the hill) to the supermarket to look for a damn bandage and unfortunately, the supermarket just didn't stock it! What I got there instead was a tube of Deep Heat which I figured would be better than nothing. Passed by a petrol station on the way back and decided to pop in to try my luck... They didn't sell bandages either! The guy tried to sell me some band-aid instead, which was so not funny because my ankle was quite uncomfortable. By this time, I was really desperate so I just asked if they had a first aid kit there, hoping that there might be a crepe bandage there. I finally got lucky! Found something that vaguely resembled a crepe bandage and the nice guys there were kind enough to give it to me...

End result! Nice not?

So now I'm recovering nicely.. pain's subsiding and almost gone but I'll still have to be very very careful because it will take about 8 weeks to heal completely (kindly refer to a physiology textbook on wound healing for more information).

On another topic, I went to the "Freshers Fayre" (pronounced "fair") last week for first year uni students. There were booths promoting the uni's clubs and societies, insurance companies, banks, pubs and clubs etc... Came back with bagloads of freebies that they were giving away...

including that banana-shaped thingy...

Freebies unravelled!

And now it's time to introduce to you some of the more interesting items....

Highly impo(r)tant for the fun-loving ones

A teabag... in its most unpretentious form!

Mysterious cans...

I opened the big one already.. It's baked beans... any guesses for what's in the small can?

Least discriminatory gift.

EVERYBODY uses it right?!

And finally, I got several memberships...

CLUB memberships... Music (and drinks) anyone? *wide smile*

Murphy - Don't I just love this guy...

I had my first birthday overseas! Absolutely different from the one I had last year (which was my 21st so naturally it would have been quite a party compared to this year's). Thank you to ALL the people who sent greetings live! (mum), via phone (dad), MSN (bro), e-mail greetings, e-card greetings, and of course, greetings via snail mail (which I consider the only TRUE form of mail). Special mention goes to cui, dor and dada...

1) Cui: Because she sent me such a long wonderful e-mail and "sang" me a birthday song in it (her promise of a present also helped). But I really appreciate her gesture, because she INITIATED contact (I sent an email but it was to a wrong address, so I won't count that...) and all the more because I know she hates computers and is rarely on them but she made such an effort to do it...Because she loves me :)

2) Dada: For keeping up the LHFC practice of sending "reflections". Great recollections and reflection of SUPPOSEDLY being the SKP at my 21st birthday party (C'mon.. you were a GUEST la... just that you had additional tasks...hee..)

3) Dor: For dedicating a blog entry and a webpage (http://minz.poonpipi.com/) to me...

My flatmates put together a little celebration for me too! Super sweet of them considering we've known each other for only a couple of weeks...

Presents from them! See that little ticket? They bought me a ticket to Edinburgh!

Looking pleased....

Don't be silly..of course it's cold! I wouldn't have killed the little squirrel and put it on my coat otherwise, would I?

Onto the events of today...

Went for a little walk through the forest to see the river that runs through my campus...

Blackberries!

Isn't nature beautiful?

It was on this walk that Murphy enters the picture. Murphy.... of the "if anything can go wrong, it will" fame. In my haste to see the river, I missed a step and (no, I didn't fall into the river!) sprained my ankle... Haiz... I've seen lots of sprained ankles but this is the first time I ever actually had one... By the way, the above photos were taken after my ankle was sprained... I tell you this so you won't imagine the worst and think of me crying in the forest... It's not really painful, I could still walk, and I DID have to walk a pretty long way after that.. but c'mon, the last injury I thought I would have was a sprained ankle!

I brought lots of band-aid cause I figured that would be more useful, what with me cooking everyday and using knives and I never for a moment thought about a sprained ankle. I can do a beautiful (to me, anyway) figure-of-8 to immobilise the ankle BUT I have no crepe bandage... See what Murphy meant?

I have to go out to buy one quick.. because Murphy also says "left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse".

A Glimpse of Aberdeen

Decided to post up pictures because so many people were asking for them... So here they are....

Aberdeen: Granite City and Oil Capital of Europe

My flatmates! From left: Stephanie from USA/France and Julia from Germany

We went together on a tour organized by the International Office of the university... By the way, I'm thoroughly impressed by the university's facilities and services. A new ₤10M sports centre, a career centre to help student find part-time jobs, their own shuttle service that runs every 10 minutes between the 2 campuses, absolutely huge 6-storey library.... I could go on... But I shall not. More pictures below..

It's an open-top bus tour!

University of Aberdeen - Not where I'm studying but I took the picture coz it looked so pretty. Like a postcard, don't you think?

Cemetery.

Beautiful North Sea...

Where the oil men work...

Lighthouse!

Big HELLO from Scotland!

Six eventful days after first arriving in Scotland and I’m still undecided about whether I like this place. Upon our arrival at the Aberdeen International Airport, my mum and I were given the Asian “privilege” of getting special attention from the customs officers. And because we were not well-trained in the art of lying, we didn’t escape unscathed. We managed to bring in some stuff that are not quite allowed but sadly, I lost my precious packet of dried scallops. Goodbye, tasty Chinese soup. Perhaps someone will be so kind as to ask chef Wilson for an alternative?

From the airport, the university “Meet and Greet” team was supposed to well, meet and greet us. But… we waited and waited… and they didn’t come! Lucky for us, we met 2 guys from India who were in a similar situation as us and after calling the school, told us to take a taxi from the taxi stand outside. Apparently, there was supposed to be a representative from the school but for some reason he/she was not there. The impressive thing was the school actually had a contingency plan (which I found out at the taxi stand). The airport officer in charge of the taxi stand had been given a list of names of students who were arriving that day and the place of accommodation so all we had to do was hop into a taxi, bags and all, and off we were to the hotel free of charge!

And at the hotel, the most exciting thing since I've been to Aberdeen happened to me! Mum and I were rudely awakened from our nap at about 7pm (we were adjusting to the time difference) by this pitter-patter sound that we thought was the rain coming through the open window. Well, we discovered that it was the ceiling leaking! Minutes later, we actually had a HUGE GUSH of water coming through the ceiling boards... At this moment, the most ridiculous thing flashed through my mind – the trailer for “Dark Water” which showed a mother and daughter in their new flat and water coming through the roof. When they called the building caretaker, they were told that there hasn’t been anybody living upstairs for a long time... Ok, back to real life... we called reception and all the manager said when he came up was sorry and explained that the gentleman upstairs had forgotten to turn off the tap while running a bath... and that's it!

Now, what kindda service would you say it is? For a freaking ₤66 per night, I sure expected much better service (and now that I'm bitching, I have to say it does not provide shower caps, bedroom slippers and a mini fridge bar, all of which I use and consider essential). But the best part was 10 mins after the manager left, the ceiling board collapsed! We now had a gaping hole in the ceiling where we could see the pipes above...

Thankfully this time, we were given another room...but which presented with its own problem because it faced the entrance of a pub and we were kept awake till 3am by singing, shouting and laughing pubbers who apparently didn't care that the next day was a working day... But aha, I am a lot more tolerant of noisy pubbers than I am of leaky ceiling boards that collapse...

Tomorrow, we shall further explore this city... The adventure continues!!