September 24, 2008

Pictures so far!!!!
the crows are damn fat lor!!!!!!
our zi lian pictures
out from my window!
not hard to see that we are quite bored over there
zi lian with tortoise!! hahaha!!!
trying to take a picture of mist coming from our mouths.

where we work. everything in there is purple..... including our top!
it's a misty day.... we are in xian jing (heaven)!!!
What we had for dinner one day! quite a lot of butter lor.... die!! I must diet!
Tower of london! read the book that I recommended and you will understand the significance of this place
London bridge! in blue~~~~
traitor's gate! so scary!!!!
I believe there have been occurrence of such events here
A closer picture of london bridge!
apparently everyone throws rubbish in rivers or any kind of water body.
looks like a drawing I saw in US the other time. quite nicely done up...
I can't do the vertical images properly! someone help me!
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Everything was normal as we are getting hang of doing the chores that are required of us at the job. We have managed to find a place with free WIFI so that we could all our parents after our work at Premier Inn. I called banedon yesterday and it felt like years that we are apart. I seriously have missed him a lot and hope to be able to call back more often! Didn’t call my parents because they are in Malaysia and I didn’t want to disturb them while they are working. We also managed to cook our dinner successfully without much hassle and problems like having burnt meat or inedible vegetable so I have concluded that we are quite good cooks!

But the only major issue I have with the house is the tenants, especially the bitch that live beside us. I am sorry to have used such a harsh word but I really think that she is a bitch and there is no word to substitute it. We got told off when we accidentally used her cups because we thought that there are from the landlord; she ordered us to do the chores (you think you own the house is it?!!!) and she even tell us to keep the kitchen clean cause she found a strand of hair in the sink. Freaking irritating lor! I mean if you cared so much for such things, go and rent an apartment by yourself rather than cramp in a small place with us. I mean there are things that we understand but I think there should be a certain degree of tolerance between tenants. You don’t freaking own the house and you shouldn’t be ordering us like we are your servants. YOU BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I Hope you go back to the hospital and give us peace. Additionally, the kitchen belongs to all of us and not yours so please exercise tolerance. If you are unhappy, you can jolly well complain to the landlord and get the hell out of this house and get your own house! I will not tolerate such behaviors and shall try my best to get you out of this house for the short period of time that we are staying.

I am just very angry with her behavior and I will grab any opportunities to tell her off.

Besides the irritating tenant, we manage to do our laundry and get our laundry line up. I am actually quite proud that we did it all on our own. I really think that the landlord is nice but I wonder why he didn’t choose his tenants more carefully.

Anyways, I managed to finish “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Phillipa Gregory. It’s a captivating book and I will recommend it. I’m just glad that sasa bought the book and thus we are able to read it. It makes me know what happened to Anne Boleyn in her lifetime and I seriously didn’t know that she is Queen Elizabeth I’s mother. So if guys are interested, do grab the book and read it. Actually, the main character of the book is the sister of Anne Boleyn but the author acknowledged that her main reference is “The rise and fall of Anne Boleyn” so I think the author is trying to do a third person perspective or is it second? Not too sure about this perspective thing but it’s nice. heehee….

From this book, I realized that how fortunate I am as I don’t have a female sibling since I think rivalry between female siblings seems to be very strong from I observed in my workplace. I will definitely be jealous if I have a female sibling who is prettier than me. HAHA>>>>>> I am just glad that I am only being compared to my cousins whom I don’t see very often in the first place.

I may be starting on the half blood prince that had been long due since I didn’t have the urge to get the book two years ago. I hope that I will remember the previous episodes of Harry Potter so that I will know what is happening. Just hope that it will be a good read too~
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We went quite early to our workplace the next day because we didn’t want to be late but we ended up waiting for like 1 ½ hours before we start work. Apparently, they only start work at 830 (which dragged to 900) and we reached there at 730 but we figured out that we should leave a good impression at least for the first day. =p

We were introduced to some of the staff like Kam, Debby, Karen and Jenny and they are quite friendly except that we couldn’t really catch what they are saying because they slur A LOT!!!! Anyways, we sticked to Karen for the day of work since another new girl was following Kam.

Housekeeping is actually much more complicated than I thought and I realized that I didn’t have the strength to do all the things. But as a kind reminder to all that is going to live in a hotel, inn, whatever la….. Please remember to wash your cup and spoon before you use them. I don’t want to elaborate since it may be against our policy to tell everybody what is going on but you should get what I mean right. I didn’t really like to wash the bathroom because it was kind of troublesome and we need to check out whether there is hair in the bathtub. I prefer doing vacuuming and making the bed. Same goes to sasa because we expressed the same feelings after we discussed about it.

It was around 2 when we left the Inn and we went to Loroughbrough to get shoes for sasa and bank account as they don’t do direct payment to us. We went into Barclay and the person told us that we needed to prove that we are staying at certain place before we can open an account. But we just moved in two days ago and thus cannot produce and form of letter to show that we lived there. We then went to HSBC and I got my bank account done. It was actually not very good to open an account with HSBC because I wasn’t able to get a debit card for free because Barclays actually offer free debit card. Felt kind of cheated and wanted to close my bank account with HSBC after going through all that.

We then went to buy sasa’s shoes which cost 2 pounds lor! Sasa is exclaiming that this is the cheapest shoes she has ever bought even if we converted to SGD. I can’t get that pair of shoes because my feet are too big =(

We then went to shop for groceries and hangers (need to hang clothes) and we are going to make salad later on. Hopefully everything goes well and we will have a very good meal later! will update later on how dinner went!!! keke….

Back, dinner was filling! Only the eggs were imperfection as we didn’t fully cooked it. I still love my brussel sprouts and think that I prolly will get them more often than I thought of!! the marinated potatoes is very fragrant and I think I might just forget about peeling my own potato in the future! Feeling sleepy but stopping myself from falling asleep since I don’t want to get fat as I think to wear many layers when winter comes.

The clothes didn’t dry at all and we had to bring them back into our room. I figured it might be better if we brought it in our room so that we can have more moisture as it’s very dry out here.
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We moved our butts to the rented room early next day and we told Tina (my supervisor) that we would be coming on Monday to start our work. After putting our bags in the room, we went to shop for rags, plastic containers and chicken (for dinner). It went fairly well and we cleaned up the area and started unpacking our things. You will get to see the picture of the amounT of milo we had in our drawer lor! I slept in the afternoon since there was nothing much I can do and read “the other Boleyn”. I am reading this book because Anne Boleyn (Mary Boleyn’s sister) was beheaded in Tower of London and I want to know why is that so (prolly because she said the wrong thing~~~) It was kind of sad when I read this book and actually didn’t feel like reading anymore since I know that Mary (main character) is not going to have a happy ending with King Henry. But I would say that the book is captivating because I read till 100 plus pages that night.

The other tenant is an Indian and he is quite okay except that I can’t really fathom what he is trying to say because of the british accent. We asked about sharing the wifi but apparently, he is too nua to do anything. I really hope that we can go online soon since I want to contact my family and friends!!!!

Nothing much happened actually, just a little worried for Banedon since he didn’t pick up my call when I called him in London and also for the job the next day.
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After waking up, we went to Castle Dunnington to find accommodation since it is the nearest VILLAGE. It is really a village because there is only one street that has shops and all the others are houses. It was hard to find rooms to rent because the agents only rent by the apartment/ houses and we figured out that it wasn’t worth the money,

We went back to Premier Inn and acted kind of pitiful so that more help will be given to us and fortunately, one F&B staff offered to bring us to Loroughbrough to look for rooms. She told us that the chances are higher because Loroughbrough is a town (bigger than village) and it is a university town (students coming back to school now) Thus, we headed there to just check things out.

When we reached Loroughbrough, sasa and I knew that this was the place for us because there are more people (we are more used to having people around us) and there are more shops around us (it’s a good way of killing boredom). We went to Cinocafe (Italian cafĂ©) and had some drinks while sasa and Rachel(F&B staff) start calling landlords. (The hot choco they made are really quite nice, I would say). Anyways, we had two potential places to see since many of them are unwilling to rent to two people or do not want to rent for a short period of time (3 months).

We walked to the first place and waited for 30 minutes before calling it quits since it was rather long and we didn’t want to hang around stoning away. When we were walking to the other house, the landlord called and we met him along the road. He said that he would be dropping by the other house to pick us up (apparently, both landlords know each other and are friends). We went on to go to see the 2nd house and didn’t really like the place. Firstly, the stairways are really narrow, there are 5 people in the house, the kitchen looks dirty, the loft (attic) has poor ventilation and we had to bend our heads to get around. I think the last point is really the reason why I didn’t want the place. After looking around, the other landlord came to fetch us and we were glad that he made a trip down to fetch us because we prefer his room. Reason being it is nice and cosy, we don’t have to bend our heads, it’s not situated beside the main road, the landlord is very nice, there are only two tenants currently and the rent is 80 pounds cheaper. Everything is good about this place and we decided that we shall rent this place immediately.

After handing the money and stuff, we went to get linens, pillows and quilt (very cold lehs) and luckily Rachel brought us around to buy them cheap. It’s about 25 pounds in total and we are happy girls!!! Oh ya…. the other landlord was damn fierce and seriously, I prefer my landlord!! we went back to our room after the purchase and started to get our linens and stuff on our bed. We even tried to vacuum the place but it ended kinda disastrous. HAHA…… We then went back to our room at Premier Inn to get ready to move in the next day.

One more thing, we met one of the tenants and she don’t look friendly. BAHZ………….
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I suppose I slept too early last night and woke up like 5 plus in the morning. Since I have not much to do and the sky is still dark, I decided to lay on my bed and stone. Just a while later, the guy that is sleeping above me started snoring and the other man woke up and sweared “F*** you” and I think he can’t go back to sleep after that since he decided to wake up and shower. Another thing that I note is the guy slept naked! I didn’t actually see him naked but he was wearing their boxes and stuff while lying on his bed. I woke up to wash up after sasa woke up since we need to catch a bus to Premier Inn (our working place)

Breakfast was provided so we were eating cereal and bread. Sasa was toasting the bread and suddenly, she realized that the bread is stuck in the toaster. We tried kinda hard to get it out but to no avail and we just left it there =p. It’s kind of bad but we didn’t want to be involved in any sort of trouble. hurr hurr…..

Anyway, we headed to the Victoria Coach station and I think sasa is a little tired since she was trying to catch up with me (her bag was heavier than mine and I felt bad about it actually) Anyway, we got on the bus and travelled to the Derby and the journey took around 4 hours. When we asked the bus driver where we should take our bus from to reach Premier Inn, he gave my friend a “what the hell are you doing here?” look. When I asked her later, she said that the bus driver said that we should have alighted at Leichester because there’s a direct bus from there. Being left stranded on the bus stop, we popped by a tourist centre to ask for more directions. We successful got onto to the bus we wanted and travelled to Premier Inn.

Upon reaching Premier Inn, we were greeted by the receptionist because she was kind of expecting us (not many Asians travel there apparently). We then sat down with the F & B manager and the housekeeping manager and interviewed us (actually it is more like talking than interviewing since there is not much skills involved in housekeeping). We told them that we didn’t have accommodations for the night and they gave us a room for three nights immediately. We are really grateful that they are able to make such arrangements since we were quite lost at that moment on what to do.

We went to our room to put our stuffs and the receptionist actually printed some rooms from rent in Loroughbrough (pronounced as Lufbrurrr) As we didn’t have internet access, we actually wanted to try asking whether they can let us use the net for a while since we needed to contact our family but apparently, they can’t allow that. As the night gets darker, we also became hungry and the F&B staff actually recommended some takeaways from some pizza place and we ordered Hawaiian pizza, garlic bread and some peach and mango drink. It turned out not bad although it was kind of expensive but we figure that we didn’t have much choice since they were expecting us to order rather than let us eat our biscuits in our room!

We turned in the night rather early since we are not used to the time there.
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Just arrived in London today!!!! We were actually very excited about it until we saw the queue for the customs! I think there were 70 or more people before me and we had to wait for one hour before it’s our turn. Just when we were relieved about having to reach the counter, the person directed us to the health control department. We were like *^&%&#@#@$#%@ because we had to wait for another hour before we finally pass through the customs. While we were complaining about having to spend like 2 freaking hours before passing the customs, some funny people approach us and ask us funny questions like where are you from, why are you here, which flight did you take, etc…… When we reached the baggage retrieval place, we couldn’t find our baggage since we have been stranded at the customs for 2 hours and decided to approach the customer service. Seriously, I think that they are really kind of racist or should I say that they have the super bo chup tone I have ever heard lor! Anyway, we found our baggage being placed outside the conveyor belt (I think it has been circulating for too long a period of time) and realized that my bag was kinda dirty. I’m just glad that they didn’t attempt to cut my bag up and my straps are still intact.

Anyways, we went to buy the oyster card and boarded the tube (aka mrt) Everything was good. The train didn’t contain dubious figures, no urine or feaces on the floor, seats have cushion and even armrest.
p/s: It is more comfortable than Singapore actually.

We headed to our hostel first before going for the interview since our backpack was rather heavy. Sasa’s one was 16kg and mine 11kg thus we figured we can’t walk much if we carried them along. We got bad news that we can’t check in cause we can only do it after 2pm but LUCKILY, we can deposit our backpack till we check in later.

The interview didn’t go as well as we expected since the first thing the interviewer asked was whether we had experience in the first place and when we answered no, he became kind of reluctant to employ us. Another minus point is that he wants us to run all over the place to get to the venue of the catering place and it’s as if we know how to navigate around lor! He asked us to think about it and get back to him after we have discussed because he even suggested that he might only take sasa since she has experience in serving tea and coffee. I’m thinking “Does it take a full range of training to train me? Maybe they need us to remember tea names like Earl grey and fermented tea and stuff like that…” Anyways, sasa and I discussed and decide to forgo this offer since it’s gonna be very hard to navigate, only one of us might get employed, they don’t provide accommodation and the jobs seems to be a little unsecure since it will be very dependent on what kind of assignments they have.

We then decided to walk around London since we are already out and went to see the map. While trying out to figure where the hell are we, a staff from starbucks offered us a sample of mango+orange drink and seriously, it tastes nice~!!! (we may be a little thirsty to care about how tasty it is. keke) We started our walk to Tower of London and London Bridge since they are located next to each other and I am kind of excited to see the London bridge. What I actually know is that the Tower of London is a place where Queens are executed, princesses were murdered, they make mint (coins) there, there are a lot of traitors being brought in there (they even have a traitor’s gate for it!!!) and they store a lot of jewels inside a room). We didn’t bother to buy tickets and go in because we reached there at like 5 plus and the place looks too huge for us to finish exploring.

We then moved on to the London Bridge and it was painted blue! OMG!!!!!!!!!!! It was kind of gross~~~~ but I figure if they didn’t bother to reconstruct it, the song that we always know will be become  London bridge has fallen down, fallen down ……..

We decided to search for the Monument which commemorates the fire that engulfed London a long time ago and apparently, the structure is so insignificant that we totally missed it. Maybe we would be going back to London in search of the Monument! We then head for the London Eye since there is so much hooha about it. Before heading for our destination, we crossed a millennium bridge that allows only people to walk across it and we saw Tate Modern collection. It was a power station before it was converted into museum and we didn’t went in to explore since we were quite eager to see the London Eye.

Personally, I did not see the Singapore Flyer up close but they looked exactly alike! 0_o|||| I know that Singapore is the one who copied the idea but I didn’t expect it to be exactly the same. Nothing much about it that I could blog since everybody has seen the Singapore Flyer. Across the bridge, we saw Big Ben!!!! It was marvelous and there’s nothing I could use to describe it. I think the Big Ben is the iconic structure of London since everybody is telling me to see the Big Ben when we’re in London. Haven’t read my guide on what it is used for and stuff. Once I do, I prolly will update in the blog ( that is if I even remember it at all!! HAHAH)

After that, we head back to hostel since it’s getting late and everybody tells me that London is a dangerous place especially at night and we figured that we shall not take any risk if it is possible. Back in hostel, we just bathed and ate a super duper big burger for 2.70 pounds, it was very filling and I fear that I might get fat when I come back to Singapore. so please don’t be shocked if you can’t recognize me when I come back to Singapore.

September 20, 2008

Hi guys, still alive and kicking. HAHAHA.>>>>> more updates later

September 10, 2008

Guess this is the last post for the months to come cause I'll not be bringing my lappie over because my backpack is freaking heavy and I really don't want to add more weight to it. HAIZ>>>>>>> I really hoped that I get to bring my lappie and I am still itching to do it. So yea lor.... I guess no updates from me like for 2 months unless I bother to go internet cafe and pay money to go online (which i prolly won't even consider)

Things I will miss:
1) banedon
2) family
3) friends
4) food (actually, this will be the major thing that I will miss man)
5) singlish culture

I'm really glad that qi lu organised a farewell party for me at fish & co. it's kind of last minute but I enjoyed it alot (cause I laugh like madwoman) and hope that you guys like it too

I want to apologise to michelle that I didn't get to eat our last lunch today as time is really tight for me over here. You will forgive me de hor, lao gong?? I will miss you!

I'm just getting very worried about how things will go today and tomorrow. hope that it will turn out okay and if I manage to go online, I'm sure to write a blog entry. Stay Tune!

September 03, 2008

I guess more and more people are making their blogs private.... maybe it's because they want to be more open of what they want to say rather than being scared of being backstabbed or gossiped( like wrong spelling). Just that it's rather sad that I don't get to know how are they getting on.

One more week and I'll be in london at this time. So Super nervous about what is going to happen there and coincidentally, it's on 11th of Sept ( seriously Not very auspicious) Still tonnes of things to sort out and I haven't even started buying my stuff. Think I will need to get the things starting from tomorrow. It seems a little late now to go down to lavender to get my backpack. *Pondering Pondering* I am also thinking of how much clothes to bring over there. Guess I have to gauge for myself what will I need over there. Will come out a checklist by today so that I would know what to bring over there. Thinking of buying a 50-60L backpack since it's gonna be freaking cold over there lor. Also need to buy stupid camera. this trip is going make a big hole in my pocket lor!!!! ALAMAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If blogger has problem with the uploading of pictures, I might just go to my wordpress to blog. so stay tuned and remember that I am gonna miss everybody!!