Quickie Update...

Hiya everyone,

I'm dropping by quickly just to say that I'm fine! I've just moved to a new flat and it's lovely (pictures up soon). I'm now living with Stephanie and Eliot!

I've actually got loads to update about BUT there's no internet connection in the new flat (yet). It's in the process of being set up. Once the wireless connection is set up, I'll be more regular in my updates and I'll even do back entries to tell you all what I've been up to - promise.

This quickie update has been kindly brought to you by my neighbour (whoever he/she is) who has an unsecured wireless network - the world is indeed a happier place when people are willing to share.

Lots of love,
Mae

Moving In Progress...

It's been 35 weeks (slightly more actually) and my lease is ending today... 35 weeks, almost 9 months... I keep thinking that this is about the same time between a baby's conception and birth. How is it that such time has passed?

More than the stress of packing and moving (side note: I'm packing and moving stuff from my room. ONE ROOM. And it's driving me absolutely crazy. How my parents can move house 5 times is waaaaayyyy beyond my comprehension), the ending of the lease also indicates all of us leaving.

The first weekend:

Julia had arrived the day before, with her boyfriend Michael. All I was told was: there's a German girl already in the flat. But I only met her the day after, after her boyfriend drove back to Germany and she returned to the flat. I remember her knocking on my door and introducing herself with a bright smile to my mum and myself: Hi, my name is Julia. I'm from Germany...

Stephanie arrived some days after I did, with her parents. My impression of her was of a girl that spent the first couple of days doing up measurements of her room while her parents were busy unpacking. Her parents brought most of her boxes into the room, Stephanie would have an idea of where she wanted the large pieces of furniture (bed, desk, drawers, closet) placed, everybody would move her belongings out of the room, drag out the large pieces of furniture (mattress included), reaarange the room, move everything back. Repeat process each time Stephanie had a new idea of how her room was to be arranged - 2 or 3 times... Obviously there was some tension with this kindda major operation. As a result, I remember thinking that Stephanie was full of teenager angst.

Karina moved in next, with the help of her boyfriend Colin. A very private couple, helped by the fact that Karina's room was closest to the main door. They came and went and I only saw them in the short distance (5m?) between the main door and her door... Was Karina shy?

Elli moved in last, helped by her Dad and her sister, Rachel (so she says). I remember seeing her Dad. I have no recollection of seeing Rachel. Another silent flatmate, very focused on moving everything (and there were lots of things!) into her room... Kept to herself pretty much... It was until 2 days after she moved in that I even knew her name was Elli.

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After the initial curiousity with each others' lives, and discussion of practicalities (let's pool together some money to buy toilet paper! and dishwashing liquid! and salt! and sugar! and aluminium foil!), we all settled into a comfortable routine.

Life most times is just a wakeful version of sleep... Wakeful and conscious, yet dazed and unaware. You remember going to sleep, you remember closing your eyes, you may realise you're drifting off to sleep... but you never actually realise the exact moment that you fall asleep. You don't recall the point of transition where you cross the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Similarly, it's hard to pinpoint the moment that we started to live as 5 members of 1 flat, instead of 5 individuals in 5 different rooms, sharing a kitchen, 2 toilets and a living area. It's hard to establish the moment that we were no longer surprised to see "unfamiliar" faces when we came home and instead started to ask, "Where's (insert name)?" or "Has anybody seen (insert name) today?"

So there we were... awake and conscious, yet dazed and unaware. Drifting from day to day, existing in our comfortable world we created away from home.

During this time, we also developed some bad habits (bad habits are enjoyable, incidentally). We started to sit around in the living area for long periods of time having tea. Each of us had pressing deadlines hanging over our head, obviously, with us being "full-time" university students but there was a strong magnetic force that made these sessions irresistable. How can anybody concentrate on essays/exams when there are 3 or 4 others sitting just outside your door talking about their childhood, discussing politics, exchanging stories about their brushes with authority/the law, organising the next outing/flat dinner/BBQ, looking at photos, ripping off each other's CDs and mp3 (major music piracy syndicate), watching DVDs, or simply enjoying each other's company?

And when we eventually tore ourselves away from the group and went back into the privacy of our own rooms, the other bad habit kicked in. SKYPE. So after spending hours chatting outside, we excused ourselves on the pretext of "I'd better be getting back to writing my essay" only to go back into the room and continue chatting online. It's impossible to get any work done in this place!

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Extracts of our online conversations (online names have been changed to protect our privacy):

Elli: do u want some music

Mae: dance music???
Elli: no dreams and memories
Mae: oh yes... dreams and memories... :)
Elli: now?
Mae: if you want....
Mae: yeah, i am free to receive files now
Mae: that was real quick!
Elli: yes, made a temporary mess of my desktop though!

Mae: hahahah
Mae: temporary is the key word....
Elli: fancy going shopping?

Mae: ok!

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Mae: BOO!!! :P
Karina: Hey! What you up to? Im just having a spot of dinner!
Mae: Hahaha... just checking whether you're being productive and doing your work.

Karina: Yes I am being productive! Thats why I am having dinner so late - I lost track of time!! Reading lots of journal articles for my essy. What a good girly I am!

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Steph: what are you up too?
Mae: blogging in between watching TV
Mae: y?
Steph: just asking
Steph: i guess i could wright [sic] a mass e-mail... i'm way over due
Mae: hahah...i tot u had something to do
Mae: u can msg the guys and ask if they are planning to come up at all
Steph: ...

Mae: OR you could do dishes!! :D
Steph: lol... ya after i get this letter started
Mae: yes... dishes..not terribly exciting
Steph: totaly [sic]
Mae: blog's up!
Steph: cool, i just saw!

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19 May: Julia and Karina moved out.

20 May: Elli, Steph and I moved out.

We can no longer just take a few steps out of our room to "have a cuppa tea" or "go for a walk" together...

This takes getting used to...

Holiday Part IV: Brighton, Back to London, And The End…

Day 11:

2 days 1 night in Brighton. A relief after the hustle and bustle of being in London for 3 days. London’s great, but it really is too hectic (on a side note: I’ve been giving some thought to whether I am a city girl or a country girl).

When I planned for this entire trip, I booked all bus tickets and all accommodation in advance, except for Brighton. I decided to take a gamble on a hostel that didn’t take reservations thinking that it not being the peak tourist season i.e. not summer, there shouldn’t be a problem with accommodation. We didn’t end up sleeping on the streets (I knew that wouldn’t happen!). We got 2 beds in a room with 3 other girls, decent toilet and shower facilities.

Arrived in Brighton around noon and enjoyed lunch in a quaint little Italian restaurant that was celebrating their dunno-how-many-th anniversary and was having a promotion. All pizzas and pastas at £1.50 – as advertised here.

Elli joined us in Brighton for a day trip so we spent a couple of hours roaming the beach and the pier…

Brighton beach has no sand! It has pebbles instead!

After that, we went back to the hostel and chatted while Elli waited for time to pass before catching the train home. Turned out well because Cui then had a chance to get to know Elli a bit better… We ended up reading our horoscopes from some British tabloid and now on hindsight, it was not entirely on the dot but there were elements of accuracy in it. Cui’s horoscope said something about a person in green bringing her a jackpot – me, me, I was wearing green! And she did chance upon a “jackpot” *blush*. Elli’s horoscope said something about meeting somebody on the train and when she took the train home, she happened to sit next to this girl who turned out to be reading the same book as she was and they had a chat! We had all forgotten about the horoscopes until I re-read it at the end of the week and realized!

That night, we contemplated going to the pub. And decided against it. For the most ridiculous reason ever: we wanted to preserve the memory of the night before. Hahaha… (yes, looking back at it now, I can laugh). Instead, we stayed at the hostel, took up the big comfy couch and… gossiped. I know… Terribly exciting! Not. But it was really nice to catch up with each other after not talking for half a year. There were things going on in her life that I vaguely knew about and there were things going on in my life that she vaguely knew about so this was a great time to change “vaguely” to “definitely”. And the most shocking event of the evening? At 9:45pm, the owner of the hostel said: “15mins before lights-out!” Un-*mumble*-believable!

Day 12

The weather was wet and miserable so we stayed indoors with a hot cuppa tea and talked about Thailand (Cui and I are going to Thailand in September!) and loads of other random things… After a long draggy afternoon, we finally caught our bus back to London.

We were staying in a different hostel this time because the previous one was fully booked. This hostel looked much nicer (big TV room with a huge flat-screen TV, nice clean room and we didn’t have to put on the bed sheets ourselves!) but was kindda way out from the “happening” part of London. Anyway, we ended up sharing the room with 2 other people and when we tried to unlock the door after checking in, we realized that it was latched from inside. So we yelled at the people to open the door and we heard a deep guy-ish voice telling us to wait. Then there was giggling. Then Cui said she heard noises that sounded like people putting on their clothes and zipping their trousers up. *gasp* Not for the first time, I wondered who were the people we were sharing the room with.

Well, it turned out to be 2 “ladies” from Holland. “Ladies” because I suspect they were hyenas really… How can humans possibly be capable of laughing at almost anything and everything ALL THE TIME? And laughing until they can’t talk and are practically wheezing? Seriously, we had a hard time figuring them out.



Day 13

The hyenas were really bizarre. They got up real early in the morning, went to the shower, got themselves all dressed… and went back to bed. Someone please support me in my belief that this is NOT normal?!

The day was spent roaming around London, we had seen the sights we wanted to see so the rest of the time was for shopping or wandering. Cui ended up buying a qipao *resisting the urge to comment on her purchase from London* and I left halfway to go to meet a new friend.

Met up with Matthew at night! Matt’s a friend from college and he moved to London a couple of years ago. The last time we met was when we were both on duty for National Day (arrghh…I can’t remember which year!).

Day 14

Final day of the trip. Cui goes back to Singapore today and I return to Aberdeen. But before that, we met up with Elli, Rachel (Elli’s sister), and Steph (who brought a friend along).

Rachel, Steph, Elli, Cui, Minz

Zafar and Steph

Elli (who came from her home near London) and Steph (who came back from France) have come to London so that the three of us can take the bus back to Aberdeen together. It’s a 12-hour bus ride from London back to Aberdeen and the only 2 reasons we’re taking the bus is because 1) it costs only £1 and 2) we have each other’s company. Strangely enough, it turned out that I wasn’t much company because I slept all the way (yes, ALL THE WAY) from London to Aberdeen. I don’t normally sleep for 12 hours and yet on a squashy bus journey, I can sleep for 12 hours. I amaze myself sometimes. Elli’s dad said that the reason I can sleep so much and so soundly is because “Mae has a clear conscience”. I’m inclined to agree.

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End of trip, Cui and I are still friends!!! Sure, there was tension at some points along the trip (it was an intense 14 days) but I think there were 3 main reasons why we didn’t fall out with each other:

1) There were only 2 of us on the trip. Falling out with each other meant…ermm...being on our own? (Note: Not that we’re incapable of surviving independently.)

2) We arranged to meet others (Julia, Elli, CJ, Matt, Steph and Rachel) along the way so that gave us opportunities to take a break from each other.

3) Compromising and knowing when to keep our mouths shut.

So yes, it is possible to go on a trip and not fall out with each other... *bright smile* Looking forward to the Thailand trip now... Cui's turn to plan and organise! I just have to turn up on that day! :)

Holiday Part IV: Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go To London

Day 9:

Arrived at our hostel where we were greeted by a sullen bouncer-type “security” guy that barked instructions at us to fill up a form with our particulars. Surprise 1: At the end of it, he asked us how to say “thank you” in Mandarin.

After putting our stuff in our room, we went out exploring… Our hostel is right in the middle of London at Picadilly Circus! The center of Central London was bustling even at 10pm! Off we went to check out Chinatown…

We found a shop selling all sorts of Oriental goodies… Snacks (they were selling Wang Wang snacks!), noodles, sauces, loads of stuff! Unfortunately, we went in as they were closing (there were still people browsing and paying at the cashier though) and when we tried to go down to the basement of the shop:

One of the storekeepers: 关了。(Closed)

Me: 你们有卖杯面 吗？ 可以看一下吗？(Do you sell cup noodles? Can I just take a look?)

Him: 我们什么都有卖！可是我们关了！现在不可看！(We sell everything! But we’re closed! Can’t look now!)

Is that attitude or what? After we walked around the rest of the Chinatown area, Cui concluded that they could afford to act so zuai because they were the only such shop around the area…

Went back to the hostel and planned our day for tomorrow. Asked the sullen-faced “security” guy for maps and recommendations of tourist attractions. Surprise 2: He was really helpful with the tourist attractions. He works at night and visits the attractions in the day so he’s rather familiar with them. He turned out not to be so sullen after all! Ended up chatting and found out that he sold his gym and groceries shop at home just to come to London to learn English and his excuse for being so sullen was: “I’m Argentinian, I don’t smile” which is as bizarre as me saying: “I’m Singaporean, I don’t vote” – which is rubbish, because we do. Of course we all do.

Day 10:

One complete day of sight-seeing. We started out together…

Trafalgar Square

Cleopatra's Needle
(Cui will have you all know that I was a bit obsessed with finding this landmark)

London Eye

... and lots more attractions e.g St Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (read: I'm tired of waiting for this slow coach internet connection to upload my photos).

Just before lunch, we went separate ways… Not because we couldn’t stand each other any longer but because we were interested in different stuff... Cui went off to some Chinese Emperor's special exhibition (ahem, using MY student pass to prove that all Asians look alike to the Westerners. Or to get a student discount. One of those reasons, I forgot which.) while I went off to the art gallery.

I ended up back at the hostel first and after leaving my bag in the room, I went to the TV room (strangely enough, I went there to write a letter). There was a soccer match on TV and hence, the room was predominantly male (predominantly because there was a female. Me.) I had the grace to give up my front-row seat on the comfy sofa to sit at the back so that some alpha male could get a better view of the match. With that, I ended up sitting next to a guy who soon started talking to me... Using my impressive interrogation skills, I soon found out that he, Daniale, is a 31-year old Italian thoracic surgeon. (I am hoping "thoracic surgeon" in English does not translate back to "butcher" in Italian.)

15 minutes later, I was joined by another Italian guy, Pasquale, whom I had gotten to know earlier that afternoon. Pasquale is a 21-year old "student of music and student of languages" (that was really how he introduced himself! Yes, Gordon, I know you think it's pretentious.) who plays the cello, speaks Italian and Spanish and is currently learning English and Arabic. I introduce Pasquale and Daniale and soon they were chatting away in Italian, leaving me in peace to write my letter...

Then enter Cui, who had been waiting impatiently for my return - she figured that since my bag was in the room, I couldn't be far and would return soon. Anyway, she soon joined us in the TV room and the whole getting-to-know-each-other process started again. Somewhere during the process, a strange strange thing happened. Cui speaks English (obviously) and French (she had lessons for 2 years) while Daniale speaks Italian, French and a wee bit of English. Their choice of language for their communication was French (of which I know nothing except things like Baguette and Croissant). Yet, when they don't understand each other after trying in French and English, they looked at me! As if I could magically translate what was just said! Which, as much as it would boost my ego to say I could, I couldn't.

L-R: Pasquale, me, Cui, Daniale
*Needed no translation to understand: Let's go to the pub.*

In the pub, we were joined by 2 guys whom we didn't know. They just happily walked over to our table at some point and started talking to us. A guy who works in IT and a engineer(?). After asking if we were from Britain and being told that we were from Asia, they guessed that we were from Malaysia =_=

Right...and that's all I'm going to say about this day. The rest of the evening shall be summarised as "pleasant". *Guess what, Cui? I'm going to keep my side of the promise =P *

Oh... one final note: I'm inspired.

You know how everybody has something they would love to do e.g take salsa classes or volunteer or learn something new? If only they had the time... If only they had a partner... If only life was not so stressful... If only they didn't have to do the housework... And then sometimes, life drops us a nice surprise and sends a person or event along our way and suddenly, we're inspired... To drop our excuses. To make an effort. To finally do that thing we've been putting off forever.

Well, I'm at that point now. I'm inspired...