Salut !!

Right, I'm not sure how many of you know that I've moved to Cheshire more than week ago for my internship but yep, I'm four hours away from London now!! 

This should explain why I've been so quiet after exam and Greece - so much of packing ups to do, moving out from the old house as contract expired, storing winter stuff in the warehouse and shipping some stuff back to Malaysia. 

Reminds me of balik kampung journey for raya, hehe.

And also saying goodbyes to all my favourite places in London (Basir's house for the karaoke, Harrods for its massive sale, Westfield for its cinema and all the Msian restaurants!!).

Although I think I've been here long enough to survive on pasta and pies, which has reached a plateau now, I still find nothing beats the richness and spiciness and deliciousness of fried kuey teow, nasi lemak and chicken satay.

Nyuumm!! :)

Anyway, moving up north means I need to adjust myself to the new suburban life, the north-west accent and the one-every-hour public transport.

Life here is, of course, very different from the one I'm so used to. I can now understand why some friends who study outside London cannot stand the city for more than two days. They get lost among the swift activities between Londoners catching the train and running into buildings.

There's none of those here! It's so peaceful and calm. You see mums with strollers chatting by the hedge in the evening, old men reading novels on rock chair, and housewives trying to figure out the lawnmower. Just like the relaxed ambiance of Wisteria Lane, sans dramas and back-stabbings. A typical English village, I must say.

Anyway, I'm now living with a lovely lady who is really chatty and she makes me feel at home instantly. Her house is far more comfortable than my previous flat and I'm so glad I'm here. She's been in the village all her life so you can imagine how much information I need to absorb about the new place in a day. She'd start taking out all the booklets, information leaflets and show me internet pages to answer my three-word question, "where is xxx?" (I have a personal tourist guide, at least hehe).

Well, my landlady may have all the bus timetables and guides printed out, but with no bus services on Sundays, they're no use!! I overlooked that fact and came back from London last sunday to no means of transport to go back home. No bus, no taxi, no tube - I ended up walking for 3 miles. So that's not a good experience and definitely something for me to learn about this place.

As for halal meat, I haven't found any shop that sells it yet. However, I've found one halal Indian restaurant 10 miles away.

I've been living on vege as there's not much seafood in the local store. Can you think of any Malaysian vegetarian dish? I only have nasi goreng cina in mind. Plus, I haven't met any Malaysian yet here, and I'm the only intern in the department. So yep, haven't had Msian food for quite awhile now.

*shouting out loud* I need kuey teow goreng!! ThankYouVeryMuch.

Silverstone 2011

I was at Silverstone last weekend for the Formula One Grand Prix. I don't watch F1 but when anyone watches it, I'd just join in. So, some names are quite familiar and the terms are not total strangers to me either.

Anyway, It was not an ordinary trip (although it was my first F1 ever), but it was one of those days that I'd keep in my memory all my life. I was shortlisted for a one day - yes, just the qualifying day - experience to be among the spectators right above the pit, who receive free earplugs and flowing food. I see them on tele all the time, but last saturday, I was one of them!!

I love how the tag says "A guest of Mercedes GP Petronas", hehe. Makes me feel so important I wanna sleep with it.

Speaking of free flowing food, we were greeted with variety of food as soon as we arrived. I saw people having breakfast and networking at the same time. Me? I was busy stuffing my stomach with salmon and salmon and more salmon, my favourite. Oh, and cakes. I'm still growing, so you can't blame me for being hungry :)

Then we were taken to the pit. Yes, you heard it, THE PIT. It was about an hour before the race, we could see teams assembling the cars. 

Our national hero and Malaysia's F3 driver, Jazeman Jaafar was also there. Very nice kid indeed with big dream too. I tried to go close to Ferrari but it was so crowded. One man even whispered "you chose the wrong team love" when he saw my Mercedes tag. Haha.

The best part of the day had to be the viewing gallery, situated at the back of the each team's garage. It's got two rows of seat, with a clear screen overlooking the garage. You'll be given headphone where you can listen to the team conversation. Only a number of people were allowed to visit the viewing gallery and I was lucky!

And while I was down in the gallery, Nico Rosberg came in to change tyres. So cool !! Oh, photography was not allowed sadly.

So I went to the office this morning and told my colleagues about Silverstone. They all thought I went with the Ferrari team. I have totally forgotten about the company. And to be professional, I could only nod.. hehe :) At least Alonso won the race.

And lastly, who is this person on my left??

Lewis Hamilton is on my right.

What Next?

For some people, SPM was their longest exam period ever. But not for me!! I lived on Maggie and everything instant for about one and a half month and shed a few kilos off the tummy, with ten brain-eating-monsters (or papers) altogether. Crazy, I must say. And.. err, welcome to Imperial to whoever's thinking of coming here? It's been like this for three years, so I'm quite used to it already.

Anyway, soon after I finished exams, I went all out going to every event that was in the city, crashed everyone's house and just tried to visit every inch of London. But the highlight has got to be Britain's Got Talent's 2011 Finalist concert at Wembley Arena. If you know what I'm talking about, Ronan Parke is the bomb! Listening to him took me away to the moon. and Jai McDowall deserves the crown, definitely.

Btw, I didn't watch previous seasons, so I believe I'm not in the position to compare the current winner to the previous ones. You can watch Jai here though. I really love his version of My Immortal, better than the original singer (Evenescence right?).

After BGT, I was in Greece for five days. It was undeniably hot in the country, with temperature reaching 34C on the day we arrived. People were sweating like animals, so were we. Ha Ha. Mind you, we were in a low humidity region of the world, so the scorching summer sun was unbearable.

Does this look familiar to everyone?

(Mamma Mia baby!!!) Eheh.

I'll put up more pictures soon. Toodles and lots of love xx

p/s : I was part of the protest in Athens (albeit very briefly) and it was actually rather peaceful, unlike the nasty scenes shown by media. The Greeks are quite patient, I have to say.

23rd

aHaaa...

It's exam period, if you're wondering why.. =|

When Four Seasons Collide

I don't need an entertainer or a performer to sing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (link) because everyone in this tiny little world knows it -the lyric- by heart.

It's not a song, it's a hit.

It's been remade, remixed, reproduced over and over again. It's non-absence at almost every wedding reception is gradually killing us all. And what's worse, it's been playing in my head since yesterday.

But the question is : who is the original singer?

My first memory of the song is Heath Ledger (rest in peace) singing merrily on the stadium steps in 10 Things I Hate About You. Then it was in Bridget Jones Diary. Years later, Muse did an awesomely impressive cover version of the song.

But the question remains, who introduced this extraordinary piece to us?

For some reason, it never occurred to me to wiki. But God heard the cries inside and He sent my little friend Laila to bring the answer. When she was in London, we went to watch Jersey Boys.

The documentary-style musical is about a 1960's rock & roll group called The Four Season. We were taken through the different stages of their career path, the ups and downs, and the behind-the-scenes.

One of the group members is Frankie Valli. And as you could've guessed, he's the original singer of the above-mentioned song, when he decided to go solo to boost his career as a singer and to help his problematic friend. Believe it or not, the song was almost never released.

It was the best theatre I've watched by far, ironically. Second to none, not even Les Miserables, not even Phantom of The Opera.

The group consists of four young lads who met in Jersey (hence the name). Their journey to become one of the most successful rock&roll group was no bed of roses. It took them two names, a long list of temporary members and numerous quarrels.

Finally, in the first half of 1970s, the original members of the group gradually dried up.

Anyway, the songs are all so sing-along and catchy, they kept me up all night. The actors were all so good too. At this rate, I can say that one of them is going to be a star one day, or maybe all of them.

o0ooh, did you guys know the song Beggin' by Madcon is originally The Four Season's?

That Crazy Thing We Call Love

Okay, so I'm a bit late to write about Katie and Willy.

That's because I was quite disappointed that the police decided to block the streets leading to Westmister Abbey and Buckingham Palace an hour before the procession started.

And, they also did the unthinkable - barricading Trafalgar Square.

It looked all safe and delightful on tele, right? With thousands of screaming fans along the streets and the waving flags (oh did you guys spot the gigantic malaysian flag?). The truth is, thousands of more people we denied access to those areas when obviously there were still spaces. Frustrated.

It was actually my fault too as I left home late. But a company decided to hold a phone interview on the very same day as the wedding. Who did that, right?

Anyway, I ended up hurting my neck looking this little screen, courtesy of the cafe's owner.

However, while the officers were ooohh-ing and aahh-ing over Kate's dress, we managed to sneak into Trafalgar Square to watch the service on the big screen.

We even had confetti shower as the couple left the church.

I have to say that to be able to watch the wedding in London is incredibly amazing, and to be part of the historic moment was beyond imaginable.

So, now, enough with all the emotions and let's talk about the wedding.

The Bride looked absolutely stunning on her big day. She had that lovely smile on all the way from the hotel to the church, gracefully hiding the god-knows nervousness she must have had inside.

And I think the veil was perfectly placed on her head, held by the marvellous tiara lent by the Queen.

However, when I first saw the dress, I thought it looked rather simple for a royal wedding. It'd be undeniably splendid for my wedding or yours, but for a wedding viewed by billions of watchers all over the world? The picture of Lady Di's puffy dress with the longest train in the history of royal wedding kept flashing in front of me.

(I love her maid-of-honour's dress though)

But anyway, let's admit it, we all hate her now for taking prince charming off the market and get to don an Alexander McQueen wedding dress. Hehe.

On the other hand, the guys are complaining - why do we girls talk about the dress more than the wedding itself?

Because I can't even think of two genuine sentences to write about The Groom's Irish Guard uniform. Can you? Hehe.

Anyway, I soon learnt that all the simplicity and unpretentiousness embedded in the atmosphere was purposely done to remind people of the future that this wedding took place after an awful economic downturn, and that some of us have not recovered from the devastating impacts yet. They didn't think it's fair to use taxpayers' money to pay for their lavish wedding.

For me, it's more of a reminder of the moment the world took a break from all the chaotic events taking place around us today, from the natural disaster in Asia to the political unrest in the Middle East to the fights in Africa.

Half a day is what we all need to celebrate.

Friendship Dance

Lately, I haven't been in front of the computer long enough to write.

I've been enjoying the gorgeous weather instead! :)