Nottinghill crazy

YES!!! This year's festival is much better than the last...

Reasons being:
1. Weather is superb - sunny, unlike the drizzle the year before.
2. Crazy companions. This time I didn't go alone, I have at least 2 friends ;)
3. Nok, my Thai friend lives in Nottinghill (off the carnival route), we can always go back up for a tea, and rest.
4. We got freebies from the carnival - even though they aren't really anything useful, they are something worth to preserve the memory.
5. Great music, great crowd, nice food and most importantly it didn't take us ages to get home!!! I'm surprised it's pretty orderly.
6. I managed to snap lot of beautiful close-up photographs *.*

Thee Solo adventures to the irish towns II

~~ If you're Irish come into the parlour ~~
~~ There's a welcome there for you ~~
~~ If your name is Timothy or Pat ~~
~~ So long as you come from Ireland ~~
~~ There's a welcome on the mat ~~
~~ If You come from the Mountains of Mourne ~~
~~ Or Killarney's lakes so blue ~~
~~ We'll sing you a song and we'll make a fuss ~~
~~ Whoever you are you are one of us ~~
~~ If you're Irish, this is the place for you ~~

THE GOOD WILL FOLLOW

I think I'm getting some irish luck now... Thank God for that!

Things just get better, on the first night in Galway, I joined the fellow travellers for dinner. It was a beer and food night, I had Smithwicks. Oh yea, I was very hungry - it's my first meal since! I met the tour guide, Eric, a bald funny Irish man; I was introduced to the tour mates whom were very sympathetic with my misfortune. A lot of females, I would say... Australians, Americans, Spanishs, Canadians, Italian, Singaporean (just me) <-- Note: Named in order of number of people, so you can probably guess the majority are australians eh! 3 married couples among them, and a few unknown nationalities... lol

The next day was packed with activities along with my great enthusiasm, it's my official first day of the tour afterall!! (We have a couple of stops over the 2 days, but I'd mention only the more memorable ones...) The weather wasn't permitting, we went to the famous Cliffs of Moher filled with unfavorably white fog. Luckily though, we managed to take lovely pictures of The Burren - the limestone landscape or nicknamed "Moonscape". <-- My favourite!!

I'm not fascinated too much by high cliffs and mountains, I think I've a little fear of extremely high height. Castles are OK, they are high but at least its in a confined environment, just need to be careful with the stairs. Blarney Castle was lovely, just didn't have enough time for it. I didn't kiss the Blarney stone which was said to bless you with the gift of eloquence. Look, and tell me if you'd do it - when you face down, you see the height of the castle!!

On the second night, the last night apparently for 7 of us whom are on 3days tour, the rest will continue their journey for 3 more, we had a drink and party night in Killarney. I had a Long Island tea but I couldn't resist to buy myself a Guinness - so I did, just half a pint. We were really out late (though I really wanted to go already at 0130am, lol)... by the time we got all cosy in our beds, it was 0300am. As I'm writing this, the rest on the tour should be home or somewhere else around the world ;)

I have to say IT'S SIMPLY WICKED (in the english way of expressing) - even it was 1 day short for me. I bet the others have twice the fun - whole loads of fun!!

My last day was spent in Dublin alone (well in the morning, Chris* was still around), I met another 6 italian guys whom were sharing the dorm. These guys are mad (in the good way), they drove from Rome to Ireland - incredible. I wish I could join them, their 10 days around Ireland, camping and hostelling!! Woah! But sorry, I've got my flight back :( I visited GUINNESS storehouse (was worth the pricey admission!), Trinity College, outside of Dublin Castle, National Portrait Gallery and History Museum... I walked around quite a bit, got lost and started asking lots of people - very friendly and helpful Irish!

The street looks identical to Amsterdam's, just not as much "porn" industry going on... but traffic is horrible horrible horrible. Getting out of Dublin on a bus is like the bus going down Bond St in London - it stops every minute, bad jam!!

I love Ireland (not very much of Dublin though)

*Chris - an American guy I met on my Paddywagon Tour

Thee Solo adventures to the irish towns I

Exactly the same title as the email I mass-mailed to friends... Hold on, as this will be a much longer one for those interested about my holiday to Ireland.

A NIGHTMARE BEGINNING

A disastrous start to my first "solo" travelling, I was almost freaking out. Let's exclude coming to London for working holiday alone - that's not really travelling, is it!! Here's what happened... I decided to book an overnight coach to Dublin where I will start my tour at 0800am as it will probably save a night accomodation and a good experience to get there on the ferry. The bus journey was supposed to be 12 hours, I could sleep in there, somehow I got bus-sick on the way because the driver was making too many turns, slowed down then sped up... It was awful, imgaine I took 5 travel-calm pills onboard.

I was drifting in and out of sleep, when the driver finally stopped at a Park & Ride station. He stood up in the centre of the front, and announced,"Sorry guys, but we are going to miss the ferry." That's it! It was 1230am, our scheduled ferry was at 0100am. He couldn't make it in time - BUMMER!! Everyone was in shock, some thought it was a joke, the others just started panicking, like me!! Of course, I have a tour next morning and now the next ferry is 0900am - FUCK, but yes I'm going to miss my tour! I was stressed out, I couldn't possibly sleep now... I needed to talk to someone. So I called my bf in the middle of the night, should be 0130am in Germany. I was almost on tears... :( Some people are lucky to be not on my speed-dial ;)

After some minutes of settling in and calming down, I decided to speak to the driver. He advised me to hook up with the tour (which is going to be somewhere on the road) when I arrived in Dublin... I figured that would be a better idea than missing out the whole thing, which I paid! The following morning before 0800am, I rang up the hostel notifying of my late arrival, the bus was supposed to pick me up there, damned!

On-board the ferry, I was sea-sick - crap!! This is really a lousy start, for 2 hours on the ferry, I kept walking rounds and then I went to the deck where I felt less stuffy. I was trying to stay positive,"It'll be OK when I get to Dublin..." I was very displeased with the bus service which provided no help to the affected passengers - we're fucking 6 hours late!!

Later on, I realized I need to take another 4 hours bus journey to Galway where the tour group will stay for the night. I missed the first day totally :( Strange, but I began to believe everything will be running smoothly after I get to Galway, and it did - I'm so glad. After 22 hours of travelling on bus, FINALLY... The first thing I did when I checked into the hostel - shower!!!

**to be continued***

Ooo la la

Back from beautiful Ireland, I'll write more descriptive entries soon... in the meantime, enjoy the pictures (check out my links).

Say goodbye

Tonight we have a last dinner with my South African mate, Riyaad, I met nearly a year ago - right here in London. I'm the one supposedly to be leaving after him, but due to unforeseen circumstances, it's the other way round. He has a job offer back home which requires him to start in September, he is not in love in London anyway, which is a sufficient reason to leave. We had some memorable time going out here - I guess I'll miss someone just randomly calling me up and asking me how are things going!

Another German friend, Markus has since left after his studies in London. Just nice, when I arrived for a superb Japaneses dinner together... Now it is getting lonely again. Oh well, I have nice colleagues at least :)

In 6 more weeks, I'll leave for Germany for a holiday... I can't really see the road ahead, but I want to pack it with a Scotland tour and maybe do a language course in Germany - let's see. Maybe it is my turn saying BYEBYE to London and oh, poor Angela.

Down it goes...

Venezuela crash, Cyprus crash,...

I've been hearing a couple of plane crashes these days. All passengers killed. Co-pilot unconscious. Pilot missing. What is happening to this world - scary!

What is home??

Is everyone out there, away from home, supposed to be thinking of home?? Missing home?? Should we be getting all the warm fuzzy nice feelings when you think of where you belong to...??

I am having doubts about how I should feel. So does a lot of people I see around me. People who don't miss home, is there a problem with them, or with their home?? Do they not want to return; do they fear to be going back? I think I am beginning to dread of the idea of going home once again.

Love. Parents. Siblings. The flat. My bed. My tarot cards. My book collection. My... I can't think of any more things. Aren't they supposed to be lovely?? But all I get is a lot of pressure about returning home, about a huge responsibility to carry, and that horrible life of being stuck in Singapore forever!! It is not that Singapore is not the place for me, I can imagine myself there... but not being burdened with responsibilities towards my home for the rest of my life.

I can't possibly imagine my dad retiring at 56 and sits at home for the rest of his life, not going out. I do not want to think of my mum playing mahjong for the rest of her life. My sisters and me, will be earning hardly enough to pay for ourselves and everyone's expenses. And to do that for the rest of my life, no way! I want to support them, so does every children... but not the idea of "leeching" and totally dependent on us to survive. I can't imagine.

Is it me, or is it cultures?? Is Singapore really like this - so traditional, so close-minded!! Or is that just my family?? It is horrible to say so, but I don't look forward to life back in Singapore again! Not anymore...

Feeling disturbed

I had a very good sleep which I considered it very sound, except for the fact that I had a very bad dream with it. It was very disturbing, and it made me even wearier when I woke up - later than usual!! I dreamt about my work contract being terminated suddenly and the company has hired an agency instead to do up the design. I haven't been lazy, how could them do that!! So scary dream:((

It must be all the stress and the really busy weekend, I can't even find time for myself to breathe properly - relax.

Friday to Saturday was lot of traveling on the buses; Sunday was a good day to The London Mela festival. Good weekends are always packed with meaningful activities like these, but they wear me out easily... The weekend was wonderful, with the exception of the very temperamental weather. The coming one, I'm off to Ireland all by myself - how exciting!! I hope I don't get nervous breakdown :))) **Relax a bit, take it easy**

I've been spending a bit of £££ again on days out like this... oh man! Curb it, curb it, curb it....

Oxford and Christ church

For those whom love Harry Potter, we have made a trip to the little town called Oxford. The place where they filmed Harry Potter in Christ Church University and also where the legend of The Adventures of Alice in the Wonderland ((which I really like when I was younger)) started out.

Oxford is an old town, rich in history. There are many famous universities, stories and history behind them. It might not be beautiful as Bath/Cambridge, but it holds its own kind of charm!! Just a day trip to its city centre, I can't say much... But I believe there's much more beautiful sights and greens around. I'll love its nature ;)

Stress.stress.stress.

I can't stress enough how much stress I've this week...

Is it those hormones, or the bloody hag I have to face back home, or my workload, or the upcoming travel planning, or the nasty people I've encountered of recent... It is all coming at once, and it gets quite scary. I just feel so exhausted everytime I lay on the bed - I could just doze off in minutes...

God, can you share part of my load... can you grant me an easier way out??

One old hag

Hag (hăg) n. An old woman considered ugly or frightful. A witch; a sorceress. Obsolete. A female demon.

There is one living in my houseshare. Ugly. Old. Disgusting. Rude. Hostile. B****. The more I see her, that seed of hatred in me grew rapidly, almost like a Jack's bean stalk. I need to chop it down, and to do this, I need to deal with this evil old woman. I don't want to name her a witch, she's too fat to be one - too big of an ass to sit on that poor tiny broom!

Monday is supposed to be a nice start for work, however her charcoal black face has ruined my beginning. I tried to greet her nicely, and was taken invisible - how rude is that! Her words of "Hello" are miserably stingy and only to people whom she seems to want to share her very bad English with. Who cares - maybe she can't even understand my English and it would be such a waste of time/saliva to speak to her. Old hag!

This evening onwards, I shall make her invisible for the rest of my stay...

Welcome to the world where the eyes never meet

My MSN block list has increased to 40, just two recent members, and quite disappointingly these were the people I never thought will be reduced to that category. Well, at least with their disappearance, my day has less risk of being ruined - so does my good mood! Get off, sometimes there are certain things you just need to get rid of, and it makes a whole world of difference :D

**back to hippy happy me***

I'm bit stressed out

...from the f****** I met recently. Where are all the nice people, good people????
SHOW UP!!!!!!!!!!!

La la la la la...

We're watching Charlie & The Chocolate Factory tonight. This is officially our first movie in London since my return!! It's not as cheap as Singapore, but you know, I think it's free seating over here :))

I hope it will be Good & Chocolate-y, like I love the book!! Gotta bring some nice chocolate-y biscuits to go with it!!

Arrghh...

I'm in the shopping mood!!!!!!

One of a kind Singaporean guy

I am not going to penalize all the men in Singapore, but just pinpointing to this 'friend' of mine. Actually 'friend' in fact is too nice a word to be used on him, I rather call him an acquaintance... Or in fact, not knowing him might have made my life easier.

It is disappointing to meet or know someone from home whom can be such tactless and selfish. Hey men, are you all like this, or hey Singaporean men, or even just you??

I have had this holiday-making friend right here in London. The kind of man whom keeps the good things to himself, comes chat with you with his fucked up problem about girls, only wants to hang out if he's bored to death and can't think of anything else to occupy himself, gets green with envy when you share nice things with him... I still recall trying to send him job links and tell him all the temporary jobs I was applying, so he could get his ass on something and earn some pathetic bucks. But he was all the while secretly keeping those he had to himself - such a stinking bastard! When he has no need to speak to you, he will brush you off with his tactless remarks.

He has to go to hell... And I hope he will. *Don't never return to Singapore and disgrace the male population!!* Right now, off my list, lesser a pest, my life will be better.