German Christmas Market @ Princes Street Gardens

It’s been a while since I wrote a proper blogpost, apologies. With the advent of Aria, my leetle iPhone 4, I’ve gotten lazier and resorted to micro-blogging on twitter (see sidebar on right). But yes, Christmassy treats in Edinburgh! Went to the Christmas market with flatmate Gillian and her friend Nicola. Walked there, but unfortunately, we got splashed with SLUDGE from the road when two cars sped by…ugh. Gill and I got the brunt of it, but thankfully my black polka-dot coat didn’t show it, and she managed to use this miracle cleaning thing her mum gave her to get rid of the stains. Phew! So much for pleasant drivers…

I was quite excited as it was the first time I was going (first time in Edin, duh), and a couple of days before I’d seen them setting up a Ferris wheel (squeeeal!) and other colorful rides. :) So sue me, I am amused easily.

Behold the Christmas Market! :)) Whee~

Anyway. We arrived and honestly, I was surprised at how many stalls had been set up! Yours truly, being a hopeless city girl, had only previously ventured along the commercial part of Princes Street (cough, Miss Selfridge and The Body Shop) and neglected the gardens portion–never realized how much space was in that stretch beside the road.

Museum Saturday

Played tourist today and decided to go to the (free) attractions in Edinburgh to pass my Saturday :)

My happy tourist get-up for the day :)

The first museum I went to was the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments, which belonged to my university. It’s a small museum–about two rooms in size, and houses unique, varied specimens of old stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, percussion instruments, bagpipes, etc. I was hoping to see some ancestors of the piano, but apparently those are found at the other museum at St. Cecilia’s Hall (which I haven’t gone to). Next time for those!

Display cases full of the time-worn instruments.

Not knowing where I’m going.

This is not an emo post (the title is misleading)!!

:) In fact, it’s one of hope (and has updates about my life in Edin at the very end, sorry for the long post).

Was doing my devo this morning and something hit me–which I wanted to put down in words. I’m not a Bible scholar, and neither do I profess to be one: so check me out, and if you find anything odd, do correct me and share your thoughts! :)

Naaman's wife bidding him farewell, with slave-girl beside. Image courtesy of Garden of Praise.

 

Last night, at PCCF (Pollock Chinese Christian Fellowship), we were discussing 2 Kings 5– the passage where Naaman, the macho army commander, had leprosy and ended up listening to his wife, who listened to a little Israelite slave-girl, who suggested he go and meet the prophet Elisha back in her homeland to be healed. In short, he did go, and Elisha did heal him, but not how he expected it to happen (waving of hands, thunder, sudden cool sci-fi peeling off of the lepromatous skin which would drop to the ground…). Naaman had to go splash around a 7 times in a stinky river (or so it seemed to him), and his leprosy vanished when he was done.

Cool, right. So what’s the point?

Medicine in Edin + other fun things

Unimaginative blogpost title, I know.

This will be week 3 in Edin. :) Weather hasn’t changed significantly yet. Hope everyone back home is doing great! Am blogging from the uni coms again, so I can’t post any pictures. Do look on FB for my Edin album, though–all the pix have been nicely captioned so you know what you’re looking at. And well, if I don’t know what they are… you won’t know either I guess. LOL.

Classes have officially started, albeit with a “soft” module called vertical themes. It’s much like our good ol’ BS and Comm med in IMU–at least, that’s the general impression I get. People here skip them. Some of the lecturers are quite sleep-inducing, but most of them are fairly engaging and I can… somewhat stay awake. Mmm public health. Next week I start my GIT rotations at the Western General Hospital in Edin. According to seniors, it’s the least well-planned module, the largest in scope, and the most difficult to get through… :( just my luck! Hah. Starting with gastroenterology. Fingers crossed, will be silently praying all the time that I get through it fine. During briefings they didn’t hesitate to share with us how 40 out of the previous year failed Year 3.

Cropping the post so the main page isn’t a wall of text–do click if you want to read on.

Fairytale City

 

The Royal Mile.

 

Feels unreal, at times, that I’m really here.

Princess is twenty-two! :)

 

My cute birthday cake :)

:) The birthday has come and gone.

Thanks to everyone who sent me love and wishes. *chu & hugs for all of you!

Picture Perfect Beautiful

:) New song addiction, thanks to Jobear. Ciara’s Click Flash, if you didn’t know. Been checking out other artists on youtube as well; added to my iTunes playlist some tunes from Leona Lewis, Chrisette Michele, Tamia, Danny Gokey, and Travis Garland.

Jobear came back to KL on Monday, and I don’t think I’ve dragged my sorry moping self out of the house this much in the past month as compared to the past week we’ve spent together.

So we did heaps. of. shopping. Mostly window shopping, though I did find one or two things. Went with mama bear, Rae, and Jobear. Walked around the boutiques in Kota Damansara. On another day, we went to Robinson’s, then also to Empire Shopping Gallery, next to Subang Parade. Today, Mama bear and I went to Charles & Keith (much love because they have my size!!), and we took advantage of their end-of-season sale. 

Jobear, Rae, me, mama bear at Mustard! Cutest boutique ever.

Oh Shopping Days…

Besides sleeping / eating / the occasional going out / facebooking, I’ve been shopping quite a lot. I’ve got this nagging feeling that it’s a continuation of my retail therapy during the pre-EOS5 studying time (i.e. Body Shop, The Face Shop, Borders, etc.).

Where you ask? Well, this last Monday to Thursday, Kara, one of my Canadian friends who is now working in Singapore, came up to visit me in sunny KL! :) Took her all around for a mostly shopping & eating holiday, with the occasional touristy sightseeing thing in between.

Kara & I at KLCC

We shopped in Bangsar, Pasar Seni, Plaza Damas and KLCC. At Pasar Seni I picked up two wooden bangles with ethnic motifs–RM10 each. Really quite nice, I think they were hand-painted. In Plaza Damas, I found two nice new tubes to wear with some tops I already had. Kara did a lot of souvenir shopping, and even got herself a mani + pedi before heading home.

Don’t ask how much I ate… haha.

Then, after she left, I went back to Cat’s Whiskers in Bangsar to take advantage of the crazy sales there!! Half the boutique was 70% off–they were 2009′s stock. Got 3 items, and 3 accessories for only RM65; what a steaaallll. :) Went with Adele & Azelia.

The dress I didn't buy... but am still thinking of. Love the polka dots!

Today, I went out to run errands with mummy and afterwards, we ended up in Midvalley / Gardens. Originally went to redo my eyebrow embroidery at Empro, but apparently the original takes 3 months to be removed before we could do the new one… So I figured I’d forgo that and just do the eyeliner thing instead. Mummy did too. :) Aaaand she bought me a new strawberry yogurt mask from Laneige! Used it tonight and it feels really nice. It smells so yummy, I could’ve eaten it. Mmmm.

Strawberry goodness. <3

If you look hard, you can see my eyeliner tats–it’s semi-permanent. No more smudged / fading eyeliner!

So unproductive these days–I have so much time to pamper myself, which is totally unlike me on normal uni days. I normally couldn’t care less about my appearance; as long as I’m clean, I’d go out and do stuff. Nowadays… I even have time to do my makeup, take extra care of new zits that appear, do my hair, do my nails, coordinate my clothes, use masks… 

I feel so girly-lah.

May not be such a bad thing after all. :)

Yawshing’s 21st & The Opera @Sunway

Yawshing’s 21st is actually on the 19th of Jan, but he decided to celebrate it early since next week was going to be GP postings back in Penang for him. 

He cleaned up well! :) The nine of us (including Mira’s boyfriend) had a lovely dinner at Monte’s @Bangsar Shopping Center. Monte’s is a restaurant & wine bar, which I think has food that is pretty good value for money. It’s not exorbitant, but prices are to be expected for a place like that. Portions were okay. Wasn’t feeling too hungry, so I just had the carrot & pumpkin soup along with the chicken & mushroom spaghetti off of the kids’ menu. Both were pretty good–the soup was sweet and creamy, and the spag was just right as well as just the right amount. Didn’t get jelak. :)

Yes, we medics know how to have fun. ;) Apparently it’s a Tamil (or Hindu? sorry, not very good at this stuff) tradition to feed the family cake after you blow the candles and cut it… And feed he did, lol. I left early to catch the late dregs of cell, so not quite sure what happened after that. However, I did meet up with them later at The Opera, a new club at Sunway that we decided to check out.

A SOTY-licious Cameron Highlands trip

I’ve been like, the laziest blogger on earth, seriously. It’s been two weeks into the new year, and it’s only my second post. There’s a million things I need to update and write about, but first, let’s talk about the awesome roadtrip that just happened this past weekend. :) And yes, hello, hello! Apparently this lil’ place has been getting 100+ hits a day, which is a DRAMATIC increase since last year’s 50-60 a day. This is a strange phenomenon, but one that is welcomed. Where did you all come from?

Long post, with many pictors. So, click to view the extended version a lil’ further down. :) Didn’t wanna stretch the page.

Right.

Despite the fact that the Season of the Year! the musical (we refer to it as SOTY from here onwards) ended more than two weeks ago, we, the gung-ho cast and crew, are still hanging out. 17 of us piled into my apartment in Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands from the 8th of Jan til the 10th of Jan and partied in the cool, mountain air. The drive up was epic–Pearl, Kenny & hamsap (Daryll) were in my car, and we grooved to some pretty hot tracks on the way there.

The early team, which departed PJ Friday afternoon consisted of yours truly, Pearl, Kenny, Hamsap, Voon Wai, Isaiah, Sue, Mel Tee, Alex, and Marcus. Yeah, we parked by the side of the road and camwhored at the welcome sign. Ah, the joys of self-timer. After unloading at the apartment, we went up to Brinchang for some hearty steamboat, which cost only RM12 per person. For dessert, we raided the Brinchang night market for strawberries dipped in dark chocolate fondue. <3 yum yum yum! The tangy strawberries were perfectly balanced out by the melty, rich dark chocolate…

Sense of Accomplishment

Yup. It’s been an okay week. Despite not being able to meet my 1.30 target bedtime since the “treatment” plan started on Monday night, I’m on track with everything else. Tonight, I was able to write about 50% of my selectives report, leaving the other half for when I get more data about the treatment phase in my project. Ah, bliss; one worry lessened. Hung out with Rae & David while writing it. Rae studied for her last exam, which is tomorrow. All the best, love! :) Dea’s at a camp right now, can’t wait for her to come back so we can all hang out and update each other fully!

Also, I bought the OldTown White Coffee 2010 organizer. I couldn’t resist after Rae showed me how she customized hers to look very chio! Having second thoughts now, though–I’m really quite attached to my Starbucks 2009 organizer and was really looking forward to making my own refills… We’ll see how I feel after selectives end and I have less on my mind.

Attended meetings for the IMU Ball and MEDT1/08 convocation magazine planning this week. There’s a lot to do, and not that much time left; need to make good use of time. We have good committees for both things, so hopefully the enthusiasm keeps up and everything falls into place before deadlines creep up on us. Semester 5 won’t be as light as Semester 4, especially with the heavy-duty MSK & CNS! 

Musical rehearsals aren’t letting up anytime soon, with performance dates approaching mercilessly. Oh, if you want to attend, you need to tell me by Friday so that I can put in my request for tickets! They’re fast running out. For more information, see the Facebook invite that I sent out for “Season of the Year! the Musical“. :) It’ll be held in my church, SIBKL. A 5-performance run beginning Christmas day. You get to see me play an interesting character–very unlike who I am in real life. It’s been a real journey. The script for the musical is completely original, as are the songs (with the exception of one parody). Admission is free, so what are you waiting for?

It’s a little sad that I can’t do much in the days leading up to Christmas–will be heavily involved in the final practices for the musical. But at the same time, when all the performance excitement is over, I’ll hunger for more again… Self-control, Jade! There’s a flipside to every coin. :)

I’m in a strange mood right now. Don’t know how to describe it–somewhat peaceful and wistful about life. 

Had a nice dream yesterday.

(Could be the caffeine from the xi mut milk tea I had earlier.)

Mr & Mrs Charles, 7/11

Dearest Alice & Chee Wee,

You are both an amazing couple, and I wish you nothing but the utmost joy and blessing in your new life together! I’m so glad you guys invited and included me into your celebration. Don’t think I would have ever seen the sides of you that were revealed in various events leading up to and even in the wedding. :)))

Don’t forget Ps. Chandran’s advice, hahaha!

<3 May your new life become even more beautiful with time, as you grow together in the Lord.

The Long-awaited Night Out

Went to Luna Bar & Bar Celona–both for the first time, with Matt and his two friends, Hansel & Vincent. We were joined briefly by his friend, Benji, who left to go for this TAG event at Barsonic. Jo & Jon came for a while too, then they left to eat and sleep. Photos can be found here.

Never have I spent so much in one night! :((((

I hereby declare that I will only go out on ladies’ night in the future… It’s soooo expensive! No wonder people get broke going clubbing, ugh. For people like me, who go to dance, cover is just killer. Ladies’ night ftw.

The view from our table at Luna Bar.

Seriously, thanks, Matt, for getting my drink at Luna. :) I really liked the atmosphere there–pity we couldn’t sit by the pool or a window. We still got a pretty good seat, though. It’s got a nice view of KL city, has a pool in the center, was quite windy despite part of it being outdoors, and had nice mood music. It feels like a nice, intimate place where you don’t really want to bring a large group. On any other day, I would have been content just to stay there…

Ltr: Matt, Hansel & moi being pose-y.

But I wanted to dance. :P Bar Celona started out being dodgy. Cover charge was HIKED because it was a “public holiday” the next day, and they only gave us beers as the free drink. :( Boo. I don’t like beer. Then, the music they were playing was really un-danceable and gangsta when we walked in, but we tried dancing for a bit. Thankfully, the music got better–or I’d have been really annoyed and felt like I wasted my money on paying cover.

New pet peeve: people who STAND on the dancefloor and take up space. Honestly. There was this dude who just stood in the middle of the dancefloor, with his eyes closed, nodding and smiling to the beat. Hello, dancefloor = DANCE LAH!

The night yielded a few interesting moments… And was a nice end to the week. Not as exciting as I expected, but good nonetheless! Thank you, Matt, for organizing the night and calling all of us. :) Sorry the hat thing didn’t work out, and sorry you had to give up going for the TAG Barsonic old-school rock event. Make it up to you later! Back to CVS + Respi + Hemato + GIT tomorrow…

The EOS Lifestyle

…is what I’m living at the moment.

With the End-of-Semester 3 exam looming in the back of my mind, I go about my daily activities–it infuses a little more restraint and discipline in terms of time management and what I should and shouldn’t do…

It’s a little hard to concentrate on studying, because of the summative that was two Fridays ago. But I’ve been trying, praying, trying, and praying again. The summative went really well, though. Throughout that studying period, so many things happened (seniors/friends dropping in randomly to quiz us) that just can’t be attributed to coincidence anymore. :) A Greater Hand moved in the background even as we sat in those glass fish-tank studyrooms in the library, mugging our minds out.

 

New hairdo! (bad pic, though)

What can I say? The days have been passing by splendidly. Saturday (the 30th of May) I went with mumsies to get a new haircut at Guessen Hair Studio @ Plaza Mon’t Kiara. Japanese haircuts always sit well with my hair! At night, I went with Matthew (ex-choir mate) to watch our old choir, The Canticle Singers, perform their “Be Our Guest” concert at Perdanasiswa Hall, UM. It brought back a lot of good memories, and we quietly sang our parts through a few songs. :) Yay for student rates! Apparently Matt looked young enough to pass–they didn’t ask him for his student card. We went out for drinks later, and did a lot of catching up. Lovely night.

Sunday I woke up late for church, had a gruelling audition for the X’mas musical in the afternoon, then attended the Global Day of Prayer with mum & dad at night. I still can’t feel the passion to pray for my country, but I certainly heard a lot about its importance that night. The worship was amazing–I teared up during more than one song that night.

Monday was…Monday. Studying attempts. A lot of random laughter in the library. Aaand today (Tuesday, after midnight) was another “studying attempt day”! Karaoke’d with Leon, Jaeric & Jo @ Sunway Pyramid Red Box from 11am-2pm, went to uni to try study (I finished ONE miserable note) before having dinner and scooting my cute little butt off to swing dance!

ltr: Sookyeen (sp?), Abang Lionel, Matt Bedell, Guat Seng, moi

Socials venue changed to this place called Sid’s Pub @ Bangsar South. It was easy to find. And I discovered how BAD I had become at dancing… I forgot almost everything! Took more than a few dances to get back into the swing of things, ha ha (pun intended). Got stepped on. Got knocked into. Danced (badly) with Matt Bedell! Had a ton of fun.

Now I’m at home, showered–in a state of half-dress–and about to head off to bed. :) Just felt like sharing.

Tomorrow, another fun-filled, fantabulous day awaits! And then, of course, there’s Friday. ;)

Cafe Chulo @ Jaya One

…is a really nice place to hang out–especially the upstairs section. Nice, windy, and casual.

I had a really good night tonight, catching up with old choir friends and all. :)

Just a short blurb. I’m pretty happy right now.