Month: October 2002

York, England 2002

York is located an hour away from Sheffield. York serves as a very important historical site for England. It signifies the presence of The Roman Empire, The Vikings and lastly the ancient political scene in England.

MASSOC organised a trip down to York today. My friends and I had to wake up in the unearthly hours of Saturday morning where it was freezing and raining heavily. But it did not break my spirit of travelling. Frederick was the only one who couldn’t make it. He decided not to go after waking up late even though he had already paid for the trip.

It was still raining heavily when we arrived in York. Despite the unappealing weather, we still had to continue with our itineraries. Our first destination was York Castle Museum. The museum used to be a fortress for centuries. The entry fee was 3 pound and it took me a while to realise that we’ve been conned. The exhibitions were boring. The first section was all about the world of interiors of Englishmen ranging from a Moorland cottage to a Georgian house. It looked like an early version of IKEA.

The second one was about the story of life from cradle to grave of English culture. All I could remember from there was just the immortality rate of children. Before the Parliament passed an act to regulate mid wives on childbirth, the death rate of childbirth was extremely high, especially in suburbs where 1 in 4 children will die. The last one was the most interesting of all. They had a replica of a Victorian Street. We walked down the cobbled street and peered through the windows of shops long gone such as toy shops, candies shop, saddle shop etc.

My friends and I wanted to take a picture and I tried to set up my tripod. However, one of the security officers came by and forbid me to use the tripod. I begged ‘Just one, please!’ The officer was nice enough to let me take one but I had to be quick because his boss will be around soon. We got everyone together and posed in front of a horse carriage.

Opposite the museum, on top of a hill, lies Clifford’s Tower. Once the central stronghold of York Castle, Clifford’s Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror to secure the unruly north. I climbed up the stairs and took a closer look. Its diameter is pretty small but its walls are quite high. However, visitors must pay another 2 pound in order to enter it.

Dreadfully disappointed with the museum, we headed to The York Dungeon. York Dungeon was almost the same as Dracula’s in Melbourne. It has interactive staffs to scare the hell out of you and base their design on gruesome things. The York dungeon brings more than 2000 years of gruesomely authentic history vividly back to life and death. The path to the exhibitions was pitch dark and no one knows when one of their interactive staffs would jump out to scare you. The first exhibition was the effect of Bubonic Plague to York. Dead bodies were thrown together and left to rot; unprecedented and rather unreasonable treatment of patients (ie by draining out the bad blood in the body); isolation of patients.

Rats caused the plague that swept throughout Europe and wiped out millions of people and no one knew until the very end. Some thought it was cause by black cats and they started killing them. Obviously as a result of that, more rats roam the streets.

At the end of each exhibition, the interactive staff would try to scare people. They would usually give an innocent speech and all of a sudden, something pops out suddenly.

The last section was the torture section. All sorts of torture that was used for the past few centuries were on display using dummies and a little sound effect. The most gruesome of all was where a cage was laid on the body of the victim. Then the torturer would put a starved rat into the cage. The rat will then eat the flesh of the victim in order to feed itself and to escape.

I had a traditional English meal for lunch. I had a Giant Yorkshire Pudding with Beef. Yummy, it was much better than the one they served at my previous hall.

Khai Fei, Su Ween, Michelle, Mindy and I headed to the York Minster. It’s the largest medieval gothic cathedral north of the Alps and a treasure house of 800 years of strained glass. We didn’t bother to enter the cathedral. All we did was just took couple of pictures.

The girls wanted to shop. Chuo Ming, Han Choong and I decided to have coffee in Starbucks (there are 3 Starbucks in York, but there isn’t one in Sheffield at all!) The Starbucks we went is located in a few century old huge ballroom-like-room with high ceiling and chandelier. Starbucks amazingly preserved the interior of the building. All they did was just set up counter in the middle of the room without even touching any of the walls.

While Han Choong and I were enjoying our coffee, Chuo Ming slept. Since both of them were happily seating on a sofa and I was sitting on a wooden chair, I moved to another table with a sofa. Han Choong moved to my table and left Chuo Ming sleeping alone on the sofa. While we were happily reading the newspapers, 2 gorgeous English girl sitting opposite Chuo Ming started shouting ‘hey, sleeping boy! Wake up!’ I looked at their direction and one of the girls started pointing at Chuo Ming. I laughed out loudly. They asked
“Is he your friend?”

I answered “yeah”
“oh, I thought his friends abandoned him and left him alone there”
I replied “yeah, we’re going to abandon him soon’.
Han Choong suggested to the girls to take a picture with Chuo Ming while he was sleeping. Unfortunately, they declined otherwise it would be the one of the funniest prank we even made.

We left at 6pm and by that time, I don’t feel well. It must be the rain. I’ve been walking under the rain for the whole day. I feel a flu coming soon.

I slept throughout the journey back to Sheffield. By the time I reach Sheffield, I found that I’ve been drooling all over my hand and shirt. hehe

Japanese classes

Waking up in the morning could be horrible sometimes. My room temperature drops to 18 degrees in the morning.

Japanese class was good. We learned about numbers. It’s pretty hard especially when you had to translate your phone numbers into Japanese.
Since we learned couple of sentences for the past few weeks, Miss Nagai (our lecturer) urged us to converse with others in the class again. However, the conversation lasted just 2 minutes. We ran out of things to say in Japanese.
– 12:41PM

Missed Japanese class and Linked Home Network

I finally set up a computer network in 16 Watson Rd after numerous tries. I’ve been consulting Wei Chen about it for days and finally today I linked 8 computers in 16 Watson Rd.

There were 2 obstacles while we were installing the network. Firstly, it was the set up. Every computer has to be set up manually in order to connect to the network. There were loads of problems in the beginning but I manage to solve it all.

Secondly, it’s the LAN cables. Thanks to Chuo Ming’s brilliant calculation, we had excessive cables and it was lying all about. All of us had to organize them so that it doesn’t look messy. It took us couple of hours to fix and sort out the cables.

In the end of the night, everything is done. All the computers were connected to the network but the only thing that is missing is the Internet connection. It will be set up next Monday.
– 11:50PM
Missed Japanese class today. I couldnt get myself to wake up. I guess i’ll attend the replacement tomorrow.
– 12:00PM

Japanese exams

I’m still not sure whether I could take Japanese this year. I already handed up the application form with the Japanese Language modulator�s approval signature on it. However, it�s not decisive. The department still could reject my application. And now, I�m stuck. I�m don�t want to drop my current subject, Law and Medicine, it�s boring. If my application for Japanese is rejected then I�ll take Forensic Medicine. The problem here is that the uni�s approval will only be given in a week�s time and therefore if my application for Japanese is rejected, I have to reapply for a module change again. Furthermore, this means that I have to attend the Forensic Medicine classes in the meanwhile so that i wont be clueless in the class when i�m accepted into Forensic Medicine.

I went for the Forensic Medicine class today. It�s really interesting. Today we learn about the process Death Certificate and the Timing of death. The timing of death is the interesting one. There are many things that affect the timing of death ie the weather, predations (ie maggots, flies, spiders), body size, location, and clothing. The timing of death is usually done using the body cooling method. The temperature of a dead body will decrease during its death. However, it�s not true sometimes. Events like decomposition will increase the body temperature. Furthermore, the body will be floppy right after it�s death. 6 hours later, the body will be stiff. However, 36 hours later, the body will be floppy again. This is caused by the chemical reaction in the muscles. There were many more things the lecture taught us. He kept on saying that the bodies were gruesome, smelly and horrible. He had to face with it all the time.

Frederick cooked dinner today. Charles went to London last night and Siew Lee is sick hence Frederick and Mindy had to take over the place of the cooks of the house. Dinner was really good. Frederick and Mindy�s cooking were superb. However, I screwed up the rice. I put too much rice and too little water. The whole thing turned out dry. Khai Fei and I tried to save it but unfortunately, it was too late. The rice was inedible.
– 11:50PM

London – One Day Trip

I almost missed the bus to London this morning. I waited 10 minutes for a non-existing bus to the train station and only realise it when there is only 20 minutes left before departure. I rushed to the main road and search for a taxi but there was not even one on the street. Panicking and desperate, I called a taxi. Few seconds after I put down my phone a taxi came. The taxi driver sped all the way to the train station as soon as I told him that my train is leaving in 10 minutes.

Fortunately, I got there on time just few minutes before departure. The trip to London needed me to take a bus to Derby’s train station. It only took me an hour and it seems shorter cause I dozed off few times on the bus. The train to London took about 2 hours. I arrived in London St Pancres safely.

I somehow ended up in the London Underground. Totally no idea how and where to go, I consulted the tube map. I’m meeting Gin Yew and Claudine in Victoria station at 1:30pm and therefore I searched for the word Victoria station. The blue line on the map indicates that the Victoria line goes to Victoria station. Once again, totally no idea where and how to use the tube, I took a risk by taking the Victoria line despite the uncertainty I was having.


St Pancres Station

London Underground reminds me of Melbourne’s train system. People rushing, high-speed escalators and the gushing wind caused by the train on its arrival. The trains here look pretty good. It has seats with comfy sofas and it’s much smaller. The train takes an average of 1 minute to its next station.

I was early by 1 1/2 hour. I wandered around, took some pictures and even had the time to take a look at the toilet. I needed to pee badly and searched for the toilet. A payment of 20p is required in order to active the bar that blocks the entrance to the toilet. As I got out from the toilet, I was famished. Auntie Anne’s Pretzels was literally calling my name. I stopped myself from buying it (2 for one) so that I wouldn’t spoil my appetite for lunch later.

Claudine arrived on time, exactly on 1:30pm. I passed her the carton of cigarettes she wanted and she introduced her English boyfriend, John and her friend, Gan (Malaysian). She was pretty adamant on asking me to join them for lunch. I told them I would call them as Gin Yew arrives.

Gin yew was 20 minutes late. I passed him the credit card that his parents passed to me. However, it was crooked probably because I put it on my back pocket for too long. Hopefully it still works.

We headed to Leicester Square next. We arrived totally no idea where we were and walked around searching for Chinatown. Fortunately, we found it within minutes. All we did was just walk straight after we got out from the tube.

London’s Chinatown is huge and much different. Most of the shops there are Chinese restaurants and even the arch is much different from others. Gin Yew and I were supposed to meet up with Claudine and her friends for lunch at Four Season restaurant. According to her, it serves the best Duck rice in town. Gin Yew and I searched the whole Chinatown for that restaurant. Claudine said that it’s opposite Pizza Hut. It seems that the restaurant is on the other side of Leicester Square. Frustrated and tired, we settled down in Crispy duck restaurant instead.

We ordered a set lunch (fried squid, sweet and sour ribs and fish) and added half a duck in that 3 stories high restaurant. We ate and chatted for an hour. Gin Yew is currently studying Engineering in Portsmouth Uni. He was supposed to get into 2 year but apparently the uni rejected his foundation he did in Malaysia because the uni claims that it wasn’t strong enough. Barely 2 weeks of staying in Portsmouth, he already made plenty of friends. He is staying with 5 other Caucasian in his Uni’s flat and as usual all of them drinks alcohol everyday.


Chinatown

Initially, we had no plans at all. No idea where to go. I looked at the map and suggest that we go to Westminster, where the Parliament is. We took a tube and as soon as we got out from the station, we were astonished. We didn’t know the Great Ben and the Eye of London (Ferris wheel) were located in Westminster. Never once in our life that we though of being in London, looking at the great Architecture of Englishmen together.

He hurried onto the bridge that crosses the River Thames and started snapping pictures. Across the bridge, lays the London aquarium and the Eye of London. We vowed visit them one day.

We then walked around the Parliament. It was closed to public and barricades were deployed to deny entries. Feeling unsatisfied just by walking around the Parliament, we rubbed our hands on the building to please ourselves.


Gin Yew & I – Eye of London


Westminster


Side Walk of River Thames

Buckingham Palace was our next target. According to the steel engraved maps located on the streets, the palace is somewhere nearby. However, the map wasn’t very clear and we wandered around for quite some time until we asked a policeman for direction.

‘Excuse me, where is the Buckingham palace?’
The policeman turned and gave me a big smile ‘Just go straight and turn left, you’ll see a big arch on your way and then go straight’
It was the first time a policeman gave me a sincere smile. Back in Malaysia, the policeman only smiles when say, “Datuk..boleh tolong aa?? (Datuk, can you help me???)”

We had to walk though a huge and long avenue as we passed the huge arch. The road was paved in red probably to symbolise a red carpet. Buckingham palace was a disappointment. I was expecting some palace guards dressed in the Red Coat to be standing in front of the gates. There wasn’t even one on the entrance.

Gin yew and I were very much tired by then. We barely rested and walked non-stop. However, it did not dampen our intensive and compact London tour. We headed straight to the London Bridge.


Buckingham Palace Arch


Buckingham: Gin Yew & I

The station for London Bridge is called London Bridge. Once again, we had totally no idea where the bridge is. Fortunately, there was a signboard that shows the way to London Bridge. We arrived upon an empty bridge. It was just a straight bridge with cars innocently crossing it. The word London Bridge is engraved on the bridge. It is not the bridge we wanted to see! We wanted the bridge that is always featured in post cards and advertisements!

We stood on the middle of the bridge and found the real London Bridge we wanted to go. Tower Bridge (the real name for the bridge we wanted to go) is just few miles from London Bridge. I found out that the London Bridge was the first bridge that crossed River Thames. It was build by the Romans during its occupation of England.

It was sunset when we arrived at Tower Bridge thus it gave me great photos opt. We took couple of pictures, headed back to the tube and rushed back home.


Tower Bridge : Gin Yew & I


Tower Bridge

I almost missed my train again. I ran as soon as I got out from the tube and made it just in time for the train. Damn, my time management is really bad.

The train took me 2 hours again. I had to stop at Derby to take a bus back to Sheffield. The bus ride was unpleasant. Even though the bus was amazing stuffy and hot, the driver turned on the heater.
I arrived in Sheffield exhausted. I bought McDonalds for dinner and headed straight back home. Despite the lovely sceneries and clean streets. London is polluted. I cleaned my nose when I got back from London and found that all the substance was black.

I complained to my housemates that the Buckingham Palace guards weren’t around. Frederick told me that the guards would only appear during ceremonies!
– 12:56PM

Japanese class and Muay thai

I’m off to London tomorrow morning. It will take me 3 hours to get there. I’m meeting Gin Yew at 1:30PM in Victoria Station and then we’ll have lunch and walk around till 7pm.- 11:54AM

Yesterday’s blog
Muay Thai class was great. It’s our first class today and it was packed. We divided the class into 2 sessions; 6pm to 7pm and 7 to 8pm.Our gym is located at a new place and it’s twice the size of our previous gym.

I got there at 7pm and the first class was already packed. Simon (treasurer) and I set up our payment counter to collect membership fees and training fees. We made 500 pounds from today’s class but we had to pay 100 pounds for the instructors and 20 pounds for the rental of the place. I didn’t need to do much. All I had to do was just help Simon (our treasurer) to sort out the payments.

16 Watson rd cooked roast leg of lamb for dinner today. The roast leg of lamb was huge till 6 of us couldn’t finish all of it.
– 11:50PMJapanese class was again, fun! Our lecturer, Tanaka-san is a silly looking Japanese man with messy moustache and beard. Despite his silly appearance, he is absolutely cute and fun. He made us run around the whole class asking each other’s name in Japanese and then he would pick one of us to recite everybody’s name aloud. He picked me once and thank god i remembered everybody’s name (there were about 20 of us).

I just found out that 2 of my Caucasian classmates could speak Mandarin. Really fluent Mandarin! Apparently they studied in Nanking University for 7 years. I bet their Mandarin is much better than mine.
– 4:56PM

Japanese class today.

Yesterday’s blog
I attended the Japanese language class today. It was absolutely brilliant. They taught us how to read and write Japanese. The Japanese written language is divided into 3 categories namely the hiragana, katakana and designated kanji. The hiragana is the most formal style (ie in Acts of Parliament) while the katakana is least formal used for conversation etc (i might be wrong, probably is the other way round). The katakan consists of 46 alphabets. We are required to master it within 2 weeks.

Our class consists of an equal mixture of Asians and Caucasians. The sensei (lecturer) divided us into groups and required us to converse with each other in Japanese. Since all we learn today is just asking basic conversation, we could only form 2 sentences (we sound like babies trying to put words together).

I’m trying to drop one Law and Medicine so that i could take Japanese. However, it seems that a lot of people has been rejected from taking it. I talked to the head of the Japanese language class about it and she accepted my application. However, i don’t think it’s enough. I heard that I have to get an authorization signature from the Dean. *fingers crossed*

The class was held in the Art’s Tower. Apparently it’s the tallest building in Sheffield. But to me, it just an old building barely 16 storeys high. The only cool thing is the moving lift. It could only fit 2 people and people have to jump into the lift while it moves. Even though it looks cool, the lift section is the worst place to be. During peak hours, the place will be congested and everybody will be fighting for a place in the lifts.

I’m off to London on Saturday! The ticket cost me 26 quid (fucking hell). It will take me more than 3 hours to get there. Unfortunately, i have 2 problems. Firstly, my dad hasn’t transferred any money into my account yet. I think i still have less than 100 pounds to survive. Secondly, i dont know my way in London. I hope i dont get loss there!
– 4:34PM

Classes starts today

6 reasons to keep a diary http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2289919.stm

I was sick of our garden last night. It’s full of weed, not maintained, dirty and filthy and therefore I decided to clean it up today. I bought a pair of gloves for a pound, went to the garden and started pulling weeds. Charles and Alex joined me later. Wen Dee wanted to join but the earthworms that started crawling out from the ground grossed her out.

Cleaning the garden isn’t an easy job. We had to brave through the thorny weed and disgusting insects. While cleaning, our neighbour popped by from his wall. He introduced himself as Dr. Right. We borrowed a clipper from him.

We were totally unprepared for the job. All we had was just a pair of glove, a penknife and a kitchen knife for 3 of us. Each of us had to take turns to exchange tools.

I stumbled upon a stack of wild blueberries (maybe it’s not), I popped few of them into my mouth. mmmm, sweet.

We stopped late in the evening. However, we still have another quarter to clean, guess we’ll continue it tomorrow.
–4:01PMHello again

I went home and took my diskette back to the faculty’s computer lab.

Our house owner dropped by 16 Watson rd today. He fixed the fire alarm and inspected some of the faults in the house. I had a short chat with him. He said that this house is expensive to maintain. They bought it for a quarter of a million pounds and it’s about 120 years old! I asked him what happened to the previous owner. He said, ‘oh don’t know, probably buried in the basement” mmm, that explains the spooky feelings I had this couple of days. hehe

30 September 2002 Sunday
Cooked breakfast this morning. I made myself a ham and egg sandwich.

Frederick and I went out the whole day together. I initially planned to follow Frederick’s car to our Fifth court in the Uni to register but we ended up in the city shopping. I bought myself a duvet (I was freezing last night, all I had was just a thin blanket), groceries and a present for my mum (her birthday is on the 10 of October). Frederick on the other hand spent a fortune today. He got himself a new pair of glasses, a new television and a second hand table.

Frederick wanted to renew his road tax before we register at the Uni. We drove all the way there and waited for an hour for the whole process to be done. At the beginning, we had trouble parking the car. It’s not like back in Malaysia, we cant park anywhere we like. Policemen here are bloody efficient. We saw two muscular policemen on bicycles patrolling the place for illegal parking.

After that, we headed to the Uni to pay our fees. Fifth Court is one of Sheffield Uni’s oldest buildings. It was built in the early 1800s and its designs are impressive. The main building is covered with plants sticking on the wall. The best part of it is that, every season, the leaves will change colours. In autumn, we’ll get a brownish design, in winter, it’s totally blank and in spring, the flowers bloom all over the wall.

Next destination is the city. Parking wasn’t a problem. Fred parked in a parking area. However, it’s not cheap, it costs us 60p an hour (we were in the city for 5 hours, 4 x 60p = 3 pounds!!) We ate lunch in McDonalds. The funny thing about McDonalds here is that they charge you for the ketchup but barbeque and chilli sauce are free. There is a small desk with a level for you to pull to squeeze out the BBQ and chilli sauce.

28 September 2002 Saturday
Melody and I had dim sum early in the morning. I fetched her back about 2am last night and I slept about 3am. I was supposed to wake up at 7am so that we could go for early dim sum but I ended up waking up at 8am.

After dim sum, we went back to our place and slept till 1:30pm. I felt that there’s something wrong. I checked flight details and I got all my timing wrong. I thought I was supposed to leave at 11pm from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore but it was the other way round. I will be leaving Singapore at 11pm and my flight to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur is at 8pm. For the past week, I’ve been telling my parents and friends that I’m leaving at 11pm. I didn’t realise it until later in the afternoon on the day of my flight! I ended up leaving home 2 hours before departure.

Dad didn’t send me off from the departure gate. He dropped Melody and mum at the entrance and gave me a handshake wishing me goodbye.

My luggages were overweight by few kilograms. I’ve been removing loads and loads of stuff from my bags but it was still overweight. By the end of the day, I couldn’t be bothered removing anything else more. My friends told me that they charge rm113 for each extra kg (students are given 30kgs, I think mine is about 33kg). Fortunately, the lady who weighed my luggages waived the charge. She said, “Your luggages are overweight, but I understand you’re a student, therefore I wont charge you anything.”

Melody cried again when I was about to leave. Mum was steady this time. I gave her a hug before leaving. sad..

I met up with Frederick and Han Choong in Changi Airport, Singapore. We had to transit in Mumbai (formally known as Bombay) for an hour. As we arrived, we were greeted with an amazingly huge airport. It also has a huge fire station on it. Even a middle aged Caucasian man sitting next to was pretty fascinated with it. Our first impression was Mumbai’s airport must be in a state of the art design.
Mumbai’s international airport is a disgrace. Never in my life I’ve seen such an airport like this. Even though it looked huge from the plane, it’s very small. As we got out from the plane, a mustachio Indian guard stood behind a huge fan greeted us. The place doesn’t seem to be fully air-conditioned. I walked to the waiting area, sat down and soon I caught the attention of an elderly Indian family. They kept on looking at me, probably because they have never seen a Chinese before.

The airport lobby looks like a huge corridor with shops on one side and the entrance gates on the other side. There wasn’t any thing special about the place, everything seems to be newly built. There were only one duty free shop and 2 small cafés. The queue into the gates were amazingly long probably due to the fact that one gate consists of 4 to 5 gates.

I’ve been trying to collect Coca Cola tin cans from every country I’ve visited. Feeling dreadfully thirsty, I headed to a small café, took a can of Diet coke and asked whether could I pay in British pound. The waiter replied yes in surety but it cost me a outrageous 2 pounds.

The amazing thing about the airport is smoking is allowed everywhere. Frederick and Han Choong, wasted no time, smoked few cigarettes before heading for the gates.

We decided to have a drink at the café I bought my Cola. Frederick ordered a Pepsi, I ordered a cup Masala tea while Han Choong ordered glass of ice lemon tea. The Masala tea tasted horrible. It tasted like curry (Masala is a spice to make curry)!!! Han Choong’s drink was also horrible. We ended up drinking Frederick’s Pepsi. Fortunately, the manager offered to change my Masala tea with a cup of English tea.

Initially, the manager requested us to pay with British pounds but Han Choong was smart, he handed the manager a piece of 5 Singapore dollar. The cost of our drinks was already more than 5 US dollar. My Masala tea already cost me 1.50 US dollar. The manager grabbed the money without hesitation or enquiry. We took our luggage and head straight to our gate. Surprisingly, Kok Hoong, a well built (he was in the Singaporean army serving as a weapon specialist) Singaporean, I knew from Sheffield was there. We used to stay in the same hall and now he’s going back to Sheffield to finish his engineering degree. We barely chatted. All of us were standing and stoning for few minutes. Suddenly, the manager of the café approached us. He said that the money we gave him wasn’t enough to cover the bill. He requested another 5 Singaporean dollar. I took out Ringgit Malaysia 5 (Malaysia riggit’s currency is much lower t
han Singapore’s) and gave it to him. The manager paused for a while and examined the note and left as soon as he says ‘thank you’. Both of these notes were green and the size of it was almost the same. I guess the manager was confused. That’s what you get for charging me 2 pounds for a can of diet coke!

The security was amazingly tight. Luggages are required to be x-rayed and then followed by a body search and if you’re unlucky, the custom officers will search your bag. The body search was divided into 2 sections namely the male and the female section. The female section is covered with curtains but the male one was openly done.

The journey to Manchester took us 9 hours. I was totally nervous with my cigarettes smuggling plan. I even asked my friends to go through the customs first and then only call me to inform me of the situation. However, I got my luggage early and decided to go through the custom. There were about 6 custom officers standing outside the green lane door but none of them were checking anything, all they did was chatting with each other. I stuffed my cigarettes into my backpack and walked straight into the green lane, by passing the custom officers and there I am, outside the arrival gate, with 10 cartons of cigarettes on my hand whispering, “I am rich!” to myself.

I don’t really like my new room in Sheffield. It’s located in the basement and therefore it’s bloody cold. My room was in a total mess when I arrived. Everybody left their stuff in my room and we don’t have a vacuum cleaner in the house yet. I had to clean the place up for few hours. Furthermore, my room has only a bed, a table and a chair. The wardrobe hasn’t arrived yet. I had to store all my clothes in the luggage bag.

Our place doesn’t have internet connection yet. It will take us a while to register one. sigh
– 3:26PMHello people

Sorry for the late update. My new house doesnt have Internet connection yet. I had to go online in my faculty’s computer lab.

I typed out the blog for the past few days on my laptop and transferred it on a diskette. Unfortunately, i forgot to bring it out with me. fuck man!!

Classes start today. My first class was Intellectual property Law. It’s amazingly interesting. I thought it will be a boring class. Our lecturer is an English woman with a heavy English accent. She is so full of expression. There was once she was talking about Barbie doll. She took the doll, played with it and talked about it. And there was once she played a music cassette to demonstrate something, she danced through the music. I’m going to love Intellectual propety law!

I was thinking of dropping one of my subjects and replace it with Japanese language. I heard they’re the level of the Japanese language is very low. However, it seems that it’s not easy to take that subject. Some of my friends were rejected from taking that subject. Someone told me that the bloody department forbids Asians to take Japanese because they’re afraid that Asians might already know Japanese.

I just found out that i have only 100 pounds left in the bank. I thought i had plenty of money in the bank before i left Sheffield. Damn, i forgot that my bank paid 800 pounds for my accommodation. I just mailed dad requesting for some extra pocket money. Hopefully he’ll bank in enough money for me to travel around. hehe I just love travelling.
– 11:15AM