Writing...

There's a certain satisfaction in writing long emails and blogs. For me its been more of the former than the latter since I arrived in the fair city of Edinburgh. I think its a lost art. The ability to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and to write sincerely, from the heart, and to let others know about how you're doing.

I think I'm one of those who derive great pleasure from writing. It used to be fiction - I remember loving the freeform composition writing I did in secondary school. Now apparently I get a kick out of talking about my travel experience, writing in a somewhat off-putting mildly disjointed way - But i guess that's the way I'm thinking at the moment. Free-Association mental workings.

I think, well, I'm quite sure I will write a book on my travel experiences. Probably a photo-book kind of thing, with my notes supplementing my favourite photos from my 6 months here. So I have a one man market, but are there any more out there who would buy it?

Gambling.

I had never been a gambling man.

 Well, I claim to scoff at those who make their fortune from the bad plays of others, and disdain the casual wagered games of chance (or skill). Perhaps I just can't play it well? I hope my dislike for the bet goes deeper than that.

I'm straight and narrow. Always on the straight and narrow. A failing perhaps - To always want to know exactly where things are heading, to want to know as much as I can about the future, to find the path laid before me unfurl exactly as planned. Boring? Methodical? You decide. I like seeing my plans put into action. I like knowing what I want to do tomorrow, the day after, the week after, the year after. Well, not exactly in three-dimensional computer simulation kind of detail, but a rough idea would be good.

I was never one to live life on a day to day basis. Even now, on a honeymoon semester in Edinburgh, it shows. My Rainlender is packed - Not with school stuff, but with the things I want to do OUT of school. Carpe Diem, they say. I say Carpe Diem, Carpe Noctis, Carpe Vita.

And that's just me. I like me this way.

Osmonds!

Fantasies

Right now I'm thinking...

Get one of my friends to find a bloody pigs head.

Bring it to the Chem Engin Office in NUS.

Leave it on a certain someone's table.

Tattoo across the head in fluorescent marker (or better yet write it in blood on the wall)

"READ AND REPLY YOUR EMAIL"

People are the same everywhere.

It was hilarious.

I was just in one of my chemical engineering classes (polymer science and engineering, to be exact.) The lecturer was saying that for this module, it will be a self-study guided lecture style, so he expects us to go and read up on the subject matter ourselves, and gather back the week after to discuss the answers to some preset questions he had for us. So he gave us the list of books that we were likely to use, and the call numbers in the library, and ended the lecture early.

And JUST LIKE WHAT I WOULD EXPECT IN SINGAPORE, every single scheming struggling chemical engineer in the bunch made a beeline STRAIGHT to the library, barely after he finished his last sentence. I was lucky to be ahead of the pack, and secured myself a copy of one of the books. Some others weren't as lucky. I think the librarian was shocked at the sudden impulse input of chemical engineers popping in.

Score one for kiasu-ism! When it comes to being kiasu, SINGAPOREANS ROCK.

SNOWFIGHT

I know its another entry about snow, but i can't help it. :)

I received a call from Kit, my HKU friend, telling me everyone's having a huge snowfight at the other end of Pollock Halls. So I gave the 2 girls a quick call, and quickly ran out. Keyword being quick, as it turns out i was desperate for some snowy fun.

Having being cloistered in my room the past 2 hours with the windows drawn, i was pleasantly suprised to see the ground outside coated with a thick (to me. its about 3cm or  4cm) layer of snow. Sensing imminent joy, i quickly ran (as fast as i could on snow, that is) over to Chancellors court. To my suprise, it wasn't just Kit, but the entire group of year 1 Singaporeans and HK people were there!

Heh. I was running like a sissy and screaming like a girl for over an hour. Halfway through I took off my jacket and was throwing snowballs with glee, in my t-shirt and track pants. NO GUTS NO GLORY. I don't think I could feel my fingers after the first 5 minutes, that was lucky. I might have sprained one of them dodging a snowball in bullet-time matrix style motion. As I type now, the feeling is returning to my fingers...... Ouch. really good thing that I couldn't feel my fingers earlier.

Alright, next objective - Cavorting around in the snow in sexy army shorts, and taking pictures to prove my EXTREEEEME nature to the guys. TAKE THAT YOU PUSSIES.

Oh and so sorry I haven't been updating the blog recently. A lot of time goes to updating facebook with my pictures. And blogger is inherently ill equipped to handle mass photo uploading, and facilitating a photostory style layout. Nasty stuff. Will try again when I have more time.

People try to put us d-d-down...

Isn't it a wonder.

It's snowing outside.

It's beautiful.

It's magical.

A soft white down, covering the land like a silky negligee, hiding the colours, the sound, the light.

Falling ephemerally, like dust in the wind.

The trees bare their upturned branches, stretching out like hands to receive the bounty of frost.

And all is quiet.

I hope i never lose my sense of wonder.

For if I do, I will never be as awestruck by such simple feats of nature.

Life is beautiful.

Highlights - A week in Edinburgh

Where do I begin?

Let's start with an amazingly beautiful campus, sprawling over the southern end of the old town, providing education for the masses for the last 200 years.

New friends, new acquaintances, new bonds.

An amazing city with well preserved Georgian architecture. (Pictures is Calton Hill at 6pm in the evening. Walking there tomorrow!)

Beautiful monuments to the figures that have shaped the city's history. (The prickly thing on the right is the Scott Monument, taken against sunset, with the outline of Edinburgh Castle on the bottom left. (Visiting on sunday!)

A night at Bannerman's with some lovely friends.

A historical tour, spanning the odds and ends of Edinburgh's history, and a visit to a very famous dog's gravesite. (For the unintiated, that's Greyfriar's Bobby, the dog that sat at his masters gravestone and wailed until he died.)

A walk up Exorcist stairs... (not the real one, just reminds me of it.)

Which is nicely rewarded by presenting us with the entrance to the castle (Revisiting on sunday!)

Edinburgh is a beautiful city, I cannot stress that enough. The beauty of the place alone was worth all that trouble coming over here.

Classes? What classes? :) Well, class ranges from interesting to boring... but as usual, being engineering, its more of the latter than the former, and being engineering, the girls are..... well, nuff said. Taking Polymer Science and Engineering, Environmental Issues in Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Fouling in Process Industries, and hopefully Human Resource Management. See how it goes. :)

It's a pleasant 25min walk to class everyday. I feel the pain and stiffness in my calves when I reach my destination. At this rate, I might actually be healthy by the time i leave here!

And i found the most value for money thing here... Rittersport Block - 95 pence. TAN DIO. When crap cafe coffee costs 1.10 pounds, and a sandwich at lunch is 3 pounds...... Rittersport for 95 pence? TAN DIO. TAN DIO, TAN DIO, TAN DIO. heh.

Well, that's it for now. Update if and when i have time yeah?

Ridiculous

I just made a list of all the places i want to visit while i'm here.

If I spent a day in each city, it will take me 2 months to cover everything. (not including travelling)

Time to start prioritizing......

And on the 5th day, God Gave me a Rainbow.

The biggest, fattest, most well defined rainbow I have ever seen in my life. If there was a Ms Rainbow Universe 2009, this clinches the top prize.

I love studying in a foreign country. If there's one thing I can say now, is that everyday brings a new and unique experience.  The morning was dark and gloomy as I made my way down to the King's Buildings, where the science and engineering students work. But as I left my first class of the semester, I was pleasantly suprised to see a shiny day, chasing the clouds away.

Now isn't it a lovely day to be out?

Taking a Backyard Stroll: Arthur's Seat

Brilliant, I was, to take a nice morning stroll. I headed out this morning while the sky was purple (at about 8am), and went to get me some hearty breakfast. (Enough for 2 people or a cow.) 

The sky is beautiful at that time of the day. The purple highlight transforms the most mundane scenes into panoramas of beauty, sweeping across the breaking dawn like a wave of a royal hand.

When the light got brighter, I walked back past Pollock Halls, making my way down to Holyrood Park. 

This area has been a park for over 400 years, and is well tended by paid and volunteer woodsmen. I took the long way about, skirting the Salisbury Crags, which gives walkers a beautiful vista of the city falling below it's heights.

 Going round the back, I approached the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where people were bustling about getting ready for some mass run in the park. Luckily i went early enough to avoid the crowd. 

Cutting across the centre of the park grounds, i made a beeline for the peak of the park, Arthur's Seat. Legend has it that this is where King Arthur was buried. I wish. Apparently it might have just been a bastardisation of "Archer's Seat", which makes more sense as an band of archers holding the location as high ground would prove nearly impenetrable.

Well, whats a climb to the top without a view from the top?

I'm gonna get back up there again. Going solo wasn't really such a good idea - The wind nearly blew me off the top of the hill. (yes all *** kg of me). Will get and post more pictures soon.

Till then, I'll just have to walk more and buildup my stamina!

The Eagle has Landed

I was toying with the idea of sending a mass email to all the interested participants, but the idea of collecting the email addresses is... well, daunting.

Meanwhile, first impressions:

This... is not my hostel room. :(

Wish it was though! It's a graduate hostel room I think.

Here's to more good first impressions. :)

And where it stop nobody knows.

Stimulation is a terrible thing.

With the date of my departure fast approaching, I find that time is fleeting...... Minutes flit by like so many buzzing insects, whirring past the stream of consciousness. It takes a great deal of effort to contemplate each moment as a seperate entity, denying the endless agglomoration of time, sectioning the hours into coherent units.

It's aided less still by new sources of endless entertainment - 10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, a few thousand readily available episodes of Naruto and Bleach, as well as the siren call of a bed that I won't see for 6 months. Attempts at regaining traction in my usual social life has encountered, well, lets just say a few oil slicks. Still, it's a futile attempt, for in less than a week I will again be wrenched from the familar comforts of mundanity and whisked to - let's face it, a really really cold place.

Which is not necessarily bad. It's cool. (snort snort.) It's making sure that everything falls in order so that the transition is smooth that bothers me. It would seriously annoy me if I missed something and have the transition interrupted. Bah. Only time will tell.

Musing - If Schadenfraude is a word that means pleasure at the misfortune of others, what's the word that means pleasure at the happiness of others?

She looks so happy. :)

And it was really nice to see the entire gang (well almost the entire gang) together last night. It's been a while since I saw most of them, and its the first time we got together all the couples. Very sweet. Very nice. Let's hope this team sticks together for the long run.

You guys rock my world. :) (I'm gonna miss you all.)