Saturday, December 30, 2006

lesson #069: good to be back?

So I'm back in Singapore. It feels both good and bad to be back.

The Good's:
1. Weather's no longer freezing
2. I can play my PS2 games
3. I can meet my best pals again
4. I can eat good food for cheaper
5. The shops open until late

The Bad's:
1. Weather's too hot
2. Hair frizzes out thanks to the humidity
3. I get scolded by my parents again
4. House is too crowded and noisy
5. When school starts I have to meet people whom I know have gossiped ridiculous stuff about me

I would rather stay in Thornbanks. Over there if one of the boys annoy me I can just tell him to fuck off. Then he will show me the finger and we will both laugh about it and that will be it.

Over here in SMU if you know that this person has talked bad about you you still have to keep up appearances and pretend that nothing is wrong. You still have to smile and compliment the person's dressing and act like long-lost best friends.

I am fucking sick of this.

I'm even starting to miss Manuel's smelly feet. LOL.

mon has bin bad at 5:18:00 PM

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

lesson #068: shit. i'm leaving.

It's 1 AM on Wednesday, 27th December. My flight is in... 20 hours. I've packed most of my stuff away, but there are some stuff I left in the kitchen too. I can't believe this is happening. I look at my empty bathroom, my empty room, and feel as empty as them. Shit. This has been my home!

Shit. I'm leaving.

Let's rewind back time! Let's do things differently! Let's make the most of this experience. Let's go out more, cook more, stay up into the wee hours of the night more, chat on MSN more, play poker more, flirt harmlessly more. Let's go to classes all over again, let's not pay attention, let's fall asleep, let's go to town after the lessons to shop. Let's laugh more, cry more, feel more. Let's share secrets more, confide in each other more, get to know people more. Let's get drunk more, say 'fuck off' more, push each other more, tease each other more.

Let's do something! Anything to make time stop and turn back! I'm sure there must be something!

Shit... shit.

This can't be my last night. No no no no no no no no... =(

mon has bin bad at 9:02:00 AM

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

lesson #067: boxing day blues

Just had a nice Christmas dinner with Yang, Manuel & Sabine and Josh & Tahlia. Manuel & Josh kept teasing me about the happenings at Qube last week when NOTHING HAPPENED. But the more nothing's I said the more vigorous they began to tease me so, yeah, whatever, I can't win with these boys.

After dinner I cleaned up, went to my room to read up a bit on Entrep, and then decided to start packing.

It's when you're packing your things up into a luggage (or two) (or three) that it hits you how terribly... final your action is. You're really leaving this place for good. You're not coming back in January like the rest of the people. You see your food still in your cupboard and you know they will be left uneaten. You've treated the fridge like your own for the past 3 months, so it's weird to think you'll never see it again.

And your room, your little corner of peace (except when the fucked up Canadian is playing his horrible music). It's sad that you find it all too easy to throw things away from the table and the drawers. Two days from now this room will be empty again. Two days from now you will wake up from the bed, go out, but you won't come back to sleep on that same bed again.

It's just weird.

It's also weird that the past 3 months have gone by so fast, yet so many things have happened. Relationships changed. I remembered a time when Gary would send me a text message out of the blue saying he missed me. And yet yesterday we broke up.

I don't want to leave Bath. I want to stay here and pretend nothing has changed, that we're still on exchange and that we're having fun with people from all over the world.

It's not a good idea to listen to Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars when you're feeling sad. I wish you're here to hug me again, just for one more time.

mon has bin bad at 9:39:00 AM

Sunday, December 24, 2006

lesson #066: all i want for christmas

is a good set of poker chips.

Yes, I am thoroughly addicted now thanks to the Thornbanks poker club, Unibet, and Youtube. Been watching hours of heads-up poker matches and picking up on the pros' way of playing, at the same time practicing the easier poker tricks like the thumb flip and roll down. It's so intriguing! Can't wait to play back home. La la la... Yang and I were even half-seriously discussing setting up an SMU Poker Club. And we'll determine who gets to be president by playing heads-up. LOL.

I'm sure some people are rather sick of me talking about poker all of the time *cough*Uncle G*cough* so I'm terribly sorry for that.

Anyhoo, moving on to other stuff. Did some Christmas shopping for the family yesterday:

Bought the fat reindeer for my little bro (wanted to buy him a PSP but that's rather out of my small budget) (and he'll spoil it within 3 days). The necklace is for my sis. She isn't the most feminine of girls so I thought the black bird would be appropriate. The lady figure next to the fat reindeer is for mum. Bought it from the Roman Baths gift shop and since it's so expensive I have a niggling feeling that it's Made In China and I had just been ripped off. And that's an Italian silk tie all wrapped up in the red envelope, for my daddy.

Since I've been such a good girl this year I decided to buy myself a present too:

I think I will really, really like it.

mon has bin bad at 11:31:00 AM

Friday, December 22, 2006

that's nice

Very pretty. I like it a lot :)

mon has bin bad at 11:24:00 AM

lesson #065: that last poker night

Pictures from last Friday's poker tournaments. Played 2 rounds with 3 GBP buy-ins.

Pre-poker dinner at Las Iguanas with Luc & Han

The paella Luc & I shared was rather underwhelming...

After we polished off the dinner in 5 minutes, moved on to dessert @ Luc's.

Ben & Jerry's!!!

We were all ready & geared up for poooookerrrrrr.

Can't you feel the tension in the air?

I lost early in the second round so I took this chance to get some pictures.

They left the next day. Jerome went to bed early so couldn't take a picture with him. Incidentally, I'm wearing my lucky necklace in this picture, one of my favourite accessories now!

---------------

The next day, after saying goodbye to Jerome and Quentin, we went for lunch / tea at the Hands of Bath Tea Rooms. Luc really loved his food.

I ordered the Christmas afternoon tea with turkey & cranberry sandwich, scone with clotted cream & jam, and assorted biscuits + a mince pie thrown in. Urrppp. It's got a lot more food than Han's ham!

Check out my scone with the 1 cm thick clotted cream. Sinful heaven!

And then it's Luc's and Han's turn to leave Bath. I swear people are leaving this town left, right and center!
Top left: the view from my window
Bottom right: spotted this hippo on one of the shop windows. SO CUTE!

mon has bin bad at 7:56:00 AM

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

lesson #064: drunk & disorderly norwegians on the rampage

So it was Nicola and Rossi's turn to leave. They left yesterday morning and on their last night here, they cooked some really delicious chicken for us.

Henrik's friend Erik's over for a coupla days and together with the two of them Yang and I made our way to the Royal Crescent. Like, finally, after staying how many months in Bath, we're doing our sight-seeing. And we spent like, approximately 15 minutes admiring the sight before I lost my patience and asked the boys if we could go home so that I could play poker online (freeroll happy hour!). But we ended up walking around town instead, as well as going to Sains where the Norwegians bought 8 bottles of beer.

And they finished the 8 bottles of beer in 2 hours, after which they banged on my door and Manuel dragged me out to play stupid drinking games. Some how or other I found myself drinking half a pint of a disgusting mixture of Pinot Grigio and gin, and shots and shots of gin.

Needless to say we were all drunk yesterday.

Today they're less drunk than yesterday but that didn't stop Erik from snatching the undies I was drying on my door handle. And it's the pretty purple Topshop one too! Oi!

I'm getting rather tired of poker (most probably because I keep losing and Manuel seems to win every single bloody hand).

I'm tired of a lot of things... Can't even be bothered to read my Entrep text and write my stupid essay. I'm ready to go home... But even then I still need to help Gina, my exchange buddy from Mexico City, find a place to stay in Singapore and stuff.

She will arrive in Singapore 2.5 hours after me, so I guess I'll have to dump my luggage at home and then drive straight back to the airport!

I'm bored now but at the same time I'm too mellowed down to feel like doing much - for example I could do stretches and practice my turns but I'm feeling all too merged to my swivelling chair.

Post with pictures next time... 8 days to leaving Bath.

mon has bin bad at 7:27:00 AM

Sunday, December 17, 2006

lesson #063: it feels so empty without you

It's 2 AM in the morning and I'm sipping my tea and thinking. And thinking and thinking and thinking. I can't stop my brain churning out all sorts of things. Such sad, melancholy things.

I'm still drinking tea late in the night.

What changed?

I'm not drinking it in the kitchen with Zhi, she's not here to dish out advice to neurotic me.

I'm still eating suppers.

What changed?

The kitchen is empty, Sherazade doesn't pop in once in a while, Coralie isn't here to try to stop herself from eating Nutella.

We still played poker.

What changed?

The poker gang seemed to shrink and fold into itself. There's only me, Yang, Josh, Henrik and Manuel. And we all knew Henrik will be leaving soon as well. While Josh still cracked his jokes and we still ooh-ed and aah-ed at nice hands, the game felt short and empty. The laughter didn't feel real, as if we're all too conscious of the gap left behind by the others. Kosta, Alex, Anders, Jerome, Quentin, and of course... Zhi. It's become a habit to try to persuade her to play. Now that there's no need any more, it feels... weird.

The nicer Manuel is to me, the more advice Josh tries to give me during the game, the sadder I feel. The poker chips felt heavy in my hand, and my leaden heart wouldn't let me play well. Throughout the game I thought I was waiting for a nice hand but I realized I didn't give a crap about the hands. I was waiting for something else. I was waiting for that little bursts of happiness that come out of playing with the people you've grown close to. Our tight-knit little poker gang. And now half of them are gone. There's no Kosta to tell Josh to quiet down; no Alex to go, "Aaaaaaall iiiiiinnnnn"; no Anders to sit quietly and wait for everybody to get kicked out. It feels weird that some of them were still here yesterday night, yet they're all gone tonight.

What changed?

Thornbanks feels empty.

"Don't cry, little Mon." you said. But I can't. It's as if I've found and then lost something good. You guys made my stay in Thornbanks so enjoyable. I look forward to our meetings, be it poker or going out or just talking on MSN. I'm glad to have gained your friendship, I'm glad for poker because it brought all of us together.

I'm sorry but tonight I think I'll cry a little. Just to release this bit of sadness and to tell you that you're sorely missed.

What changed?

Everything, man, everything.

mon has bin bad at 9:59:00 AM

Thursday, December 14, 2006

lesson #062: our last dance

Starts off at The Huntsmen as a dinner with Yang, Zee, Luc and Isa to send Zee off with a bang

Me: Hmmm... a chance to photo-whore
Luc: Hmmm... my sideburns are itchy
Mr House Burger: Hmmm... EAT ME BEYOTCH!
Ms Innocent Juice: Hmmm... ain't I pretty I know you dig me
(OK you must excuse me for the lameness 'cos it's 2.21 AM in the morning and I have been awake since 8 AM and yesterday only had 2 hours of sleep)

We moved on to Slug & Lettuce, it was the Thornbankers' last night partying all together.

My hair's grown extremely long! Zee's super dooper cute in her suspenders.

Josh really likes his tongue!

Zee's last night... Anders' too.

And Alex's.

Hmmm. Looking at these pictures are making me emo again. Bloody hell.

Bottom left: with Leila, Hind and Henrik. Leila's getting married next summer! How exciting!

I didn't realise Jerome was so tall!

Yang drank. Yang happy.

I'm already missing our suppers together, babe.

Bottom left: The Mojito's Kosta bought for us.
Right: Girls rule!

Everybody got drunkerer and drunkerer...
Bottom right: Anders trying to spin me around

Did I mention drunkerer?

Will miss these crazy boys

Bottom right: Kosta's never looked more handsome!

As the night went on Anders took control of the camera and these are the results!

No, that's not a middle finger. I just have an abnormally long pinkie!

Walking home... Bath's beautiful at night.

Well the gist of the story is when we got to the gate and everybody was saying the last good-byes I had some sort of a mini breakdown and cried. I cried for the days that we had had. I cried for the days that could've been. I cried for the times that we may forget in the future. I cried for this experience that will soon end. I cried for the lonely quiet nights that lay ahead.

And as much as I'd have liked to contain the tears and save it for when I'm safely in my room as compared to in public scrutiny (someone kindly commented that my make-up was running all over the place) I just couldn't. I think it got worse when Jerome surprisingly comforted me (I really don't understand him sometimes). And then it got EVEN worse when Manuel showed the nice side of him 'cos he usually acts like a jerk, always teasing girls.

It's silly because I've tried acting like the strong, independent woman and with one single sweep the vulnerable side's exposed.

Bah.

Speaking of vulnerable side my word count for Treasury Management essay is *still* 0 out of 2,500 words. And the deadline's in 48 hours.

La la la...

Shall go and sleep (relatively) early tonight. Bonne nuit, world!

mon has bin bad at 10:11:00 AM

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

lesson #061: how i became sarong party girl

Transition #1

Bake mini cheesecakes for the ang mohs to try as the way to a man's heart is through 'is stomach.

A bit burnt but still deelishhhhh.

Transition #2

Travel up to London to widen up horizons and find things to brag about.

The beautiful Xmas tree at Covent Garden

Xmas lights in Regent St. Yang, me, and my FAT CHEEKS. RAHHHHH!

Transition #3

Take innocent pictures while having nutella crepes for dessert

I had a headache, so was taking a short nap when I was woken up by Zee who told me they were gonna start eating. Ergo the puffy eyes!

Transition #4

Jump at the first chance of clubbing together