Manchester & London here I come!

A few more hrs and I'll be off to my Manchester!! Old Trafford baby! A few days after, I'll head to London for NYE's. I hope it'll be an awesome one. It's my first time to seriously explore England.

Before that, a 5 hr++ bus trip first hahaha..

Daymm, may there be great views to entertain me throughout the journey! (Coz my mp3 player(one of the those 29 bnd for 2 GB ones) only has an awesome battery life of around 20 mins when fully charged? LOL )

God bless you and me. An advanced Happy New Year & Happy Holidays ppl! :)

PS: Happy Birthday Bertman! May God bless ya with more of ur "brilliant" Einstein-ness ..

Old Trafford here I come!

Its official now! My tickets had just arrived, thus I'll be at Old Trafford to watch the Red Devils play vs Middlesborough in an EPL match! AHH! I guess it's a dream for every logically/mentally/spiritually-right football fan on this planet.

The long awaited tix. A lil' disappointed thou, they did not print my full name. There are so many Lims in this world la, angmo! But anyways, this would definitely be framed or something once I get home hahahah.

Yea yea.. hahahha.. I thought you were Arsenal! LOL.. True, but honestly, something about Old Trafford always attracts me. The place just looks good on tv. And I have to admit, it is the homeground of one of the most successful clubs in the world. Their style of play is attractive at times too(exception: disappointing previous match vs LDU). It'll be plain foolish to not visit other stadiums coz u ain't supporting em! Haha.. What's in store? I might be able to catch the current world's best player in C.Ronaldo in action (providing he'll not be injured or rested *fingers crossed*). Possibly England's best player in Rooney. The Argentine beast in Tevez. The legendary Ryan Giggs and gangsta Gary Neville. The Asian Pride in Park Ji-Sung. The most-capped Dutch player in van der Sar. Possibly my fav. Man Utd player, Paul Scholes (due to his humbleness, coolness on ball, pinpoint passes and nastily ferocious long shots). And possibly one of the world's most successful gaffer in the gum-chewing Sir Alex.

Phew.. Shyt, Sir Alex please play all of em against Middlesborough! No resting of players please. Ronaldo please do some nasty ankle breakers on the whole damn Boro squad. No 0 - 0 draws please please. I don't mind 7-0 routs. Or better still down 0 -3 at halftime, and ending at 5 -3 or something. You still lost to Arsenal. Its a fact Hahaha..

God bless me, may I have a super safe trip to Manchester so that I can fulfill one of my dreams!
Pardon me for my hypeness and ecstaticness..

Cheers! =)

Molested!

No kidding! I was MOLESTED!

HAHAHA..

No, Im not drunk. Yes, I might be a exaggerating a bit..

So what happened?

It all started out as a normal night, except the fact that ahh.. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Glasgow for the 1st time ever! For the 1st time ever, we decided to ignore those prices n just go makan!

Hoho... Guess how much was it? 39.70 pounds! After conversion, 87 BND ?! And what did that include? Shark fins? Abalones? NO.. Maybe scallop? No too! Hahaha

We had emm a duck in plum sauce dish, that had about 9 small sliced pieces(I think 3 were just mere duck skin) that cost 9.20 pounds! Phew...

Well what to do, that's life in the other countries. Plus its food! Emm.. It is under the 'wants' categories, like you learnt from 3 yrs of Commerce from F1 to F3. Thus, penting lar! Besides, one of Bernard's theories is that he does not save very much on food. Well that does not mean its right to go into a posh restaurant for dinner every night. Once-in-a-while pampering does no harm.

Oh, back to the molesting thing. Haha.. It happened after dinner when we decided to do some grocery shopping. Well, what do you get when you live in a place where alcohol is legal and where alcohol/liquour whatever you call it, is the MUST drink thing for em? You get drunked ppl all over the streets, everywhere!

When you mix around drunks who can roam freely along the streets with the innocents, something is bound to happen. Well, I was at the till when suddenly this 2 lao ang mo zhar bor just barge in. Walao.. Scary la. Those 2 singing so loud somemore. What the hell? LOL.. They paid for their stuffs when the casheir was halfway working on our stuff. Wow.. this is the first time I saw such a thing. Thought that was the end but NO!

Before leaving, one of em, just went "Wow, gorgeous hair" and sort of played around with the back of my hair. Walao, eww gali la.. Cilaka, si beh soi. Its a fact already. The first chabos that touched me in Glasgow are drunk lao char bos! AHHH! Hahahaha

Anyways decided to seek console from a good buddy of mine who happened to be on MSN. Here's what he said:


Oh noes!! Huatz might have a fetish for old women!! AHH! Beware ppL!

Nites..

What you don't know about me (Tag)

Tagged by Cao Ge and Geok Yi

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves

3. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names

Starting time : 11:26am

Name : Bern

Sisters : 0

Brothers : Lots!

Shoe size : No idea LOL!

Height : 1.70m +-

Have you ever been on a plane : Yepz

Swam in the ocean : Nope

Fallen asleep at school : Who doesn't?

Broken someone’s heart : Think so

Fell off your chair : Of course

Sat by the phone all night waiting for someone to call : Never

Saved e-mails : Lots.. one of my bad habits

What is your room like : Extremely messy

What's right beside you: A shelf cupboard filled with snacks, textbooks and papers

What is the last thing you ate : Wafers

Ever had... Chicken pox : Yepz

Sore throat : Yepz

Broken nose : Choi.. touch wood

Do you Believe in love at first sight : I think there is such

Like picnics : Depends on d company. Sometimes it is just plain boring if you go there just to sit and hear ppl talk

Who was/were... The last person you danced with : hmm.. Husky?

Last made you smile : Xiao Zhu (Yu le bai fen bai show)

You last yelled at : ah Tan I guess hahhaha

Today did you... Talk to someone you like : Its been ages

Kissed anyone : Of course

Get sick : Who doesn't?

Talk to an ex : ...

Miss someone : Yes, I miss her(Brunei is a 'her' eh?)

Who do you really hate: LOL! Is this a smth for 10 year olds?

Do you like your hand-writing : ahh.. Not really.. Really ugly

Are your toe nails painted : Never

Whose bed other than yours would you rather sleep in : My bed back home!

What color shirt are you wearing now : White

Are you a friendly person : Yeah I am, but I tend to think some do not look at me that way. True False?

Do you have any pets : Yepz

Do you sleep with the TV on : Nopz

What are you doing right now : Trying to call my landlord, as instructed by Ah Tan

Can you handle the truth : Yeah.. I hate ppl telling lies, just like in those stupid Chinese dramas where they always do that. It just causes so much problems in d end.

Are you closer to your mother or father : Mom. I love both of em thou'

Do you eat healthy : Don't think so.. haha

Do you still have pictures of you & your ex : .....

If you’re having a bad day, who are you most likely to go to : My games!

Are you loud or quiet most of the time : Depends on the company I am with =)

Are you confident : I guess it depends too

5 things I was doing 10 years ago

1) Hmm.. watch Scooby Doo after school

2) Always wished I had a proper game console

3) Was a fanatic Chicago Bulls fan

4) Super quiet

5) Super shy

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire

1) Buy season tix of the world's top football clubs

2) Buy Ahbert an England jersey

3) Open up a recording company and sign CK up to make more money(agree guys?) ahahhaha!

4) Buy Hadri Arsenal jerseys (Home,Away plus Third kit)

5) Sponsor Chee Huat to Old Trafford to see grass

5 of my bad habits

1) Thinking that sleeping before 12 am is uncool

2) Needs to have a daily dose of gaming session

3) Regularly not tidying the room

4) Sh*tting a few times a day ahahah

5) Eating supper before sleep

5 places I am living in
1) Glasgow

5 people I tag:
Anyone who wants to be tag =)

Equations n penguins ?

Is it true that an equation can only involve numbers, variables and symbols?

Hmm.. Lets try to prove otherwise..

Equation 1

+

=



..

A Penguin + A computer = A penguin with a computer

Ahh.. that's so simple to solve. OO.. Great start, mate!

Now time for a more complex one.
This is the one question whose solution has eluded mankind ever since the time humans discovered Mathematics, until today...

Guys and Gals behold on what is about to come..

Take a gulp of water, clear your thoughts..

Now FOCUS and think hard.

Now, answer this:

Equation 2

What do you get when you add :


+


+

+

=

An evil Jessica Alba?

emmm.. possibly.

But what about the lobster and the squid. It is impossible there is a link!!

This equation just cannot be solved!!

You sure??

You very sure??

Okay, a clue: Use the first non-numerical equation to solve this second equation

Get it already?

Errmm.. Nah, you can't substitute anything in equation 2 with equation 1. There is just no link.

Okay, alright.. My mistake here.

Wow wait.. Actually no. The key here is to think out of the box.
Think beyond what you are thinking..

Come on.. try again...

.


.


.


.


.


.


.


.


Yes I know it is a very hard one to think about.
Don't worry, you're not alone.
As I said, the solution has eluded mankind for so damn long already

BUT NOT FOR TODAY...

So what happened today?

I came back from uni, and thought " ahh .. What if I added both eqn 1 and eqn 2 together "
I decided to go online for some inspiration for the solution and guess what?


And it just hit me.. (when I happened to drop by Facebook =) )



I HAVE FOUND IT!!!




Can't see it meh??

An enlargement.. hahaha

IT'S EVE !!

On this very day (9th of November) around 2+ (or possibly 1+ years ago, whichever you prefer) haha.., a lady called Eve popped onto Earth and there it is!!

The solution to : Penguin + Computer + Sotong + Lobster + Evil + Jessica Alba ..
OMG.. History has been made!!!

Thus in order to appreciate the existence of Eve, I would thus like to say
"Happy Birthday Eve!"


--Have a great day and may I hope that this lameness doesn't dampen ur day --

PS: Btw, Special thanks to ur Facebook page for giving me all of these ideas haha

Make a vote!

Ever since I've been here, there is this new hobby or emm habit that have sort of emerged in me. Ohh what is it? Trying my best to learn the Scottish accent? Hahah.. No, oh, nah.. partly yeah. I love impersonating different accents! Hahaha.. Ok ok that new habit I meant was photography/-ing. Those who know me know I am not a fan of taking pictures. Oh well partly it was because I hadn't had a proper camera back then. Nah, the damn main reason would simply be because I was too shy to pics in public! LOL.. Yes, Im a hopelessly shy person..

Anyways I guess that is sort of overlooked ever since Im here. Nowadays, Ill just snap at anything that is new and different. Well, I received this e-mail from my advisor a few days ago, that there is this photo competition that I am eligible for. All I've gotta do is to submit a photograph taken whilst I am here...Prize is an Amazon.com 50 pounds voucher.. oo.. Why not?

Thus, I figured I could use some help here. These are the selected pics that I think are "better" looking as compared to the tons that I have taken. Better, as when compared to my own standards of course. I find it always dissapointing when reviewing the photos I have taken. So many beh sui eh! Haha .. Thus, anyways yeah.. question now is which one should I submit? I don't much about photography thus here comes ur part, vote for the one that I should submit. Help Bernard win the 50 pounds voucher! Hahahaha

Pic 1

Pic 2
Glasgow Fireworks with Nelson's Monument

Pic 3
Evening by River Clyde with Glasgow Tower and Science center in backdrop

Pic 4
Taken from the base of the Glasgow Tower

Pic 5.
A random tunnel-on-an-overhead-bridge

Time flies~

Today can easily be considered the coldest day ever since I arrived in Glasgow about 2 months ago. The fog was super thick,and not to say, the cold was certainly merciless, it just ate right through me. I guess every part of my body was more or less covered from the cold except the face, thus my cheeks felt like someone was pressing ice on it! hahaha... Not even the cars were spared, there were thin ice layers on car tops and windscreens! Its only November though, which means more weather nastiness certainly to come.

It seems like everything out there suffer from the cold, except 1 thing, the 1 thing that amazes me, the dogs! They don't seem cold at all. Dogs do not have thick jackets and hoods. How can they withstand the cold? Yeah, they have fur and such. If their furs were thick enough to shield them from the cold, then Im sure there wouldn't be any dogs left in the tropical countries such as Brunei la LOL. Ohh, if you haven't know yet, its very normal for people to walk their dogs in the streets, in the city, whereever it is here. Dogs along the street?! No, it is not how you are envisioning it to be. My guess is that you will be thinking, dogs barking at random strangers, digging on leftovers on the floor or possibly being thrown stones at. Nopzz.. It ain't the case here. Amidst the large no. of dogs I've seen roaming around, I have yet to hear a bark or seen a dog chasing someone! I guess there is possibly a rule that dogs here must be well-trained or smth..

Hmm... Anyways, tomorrow will be start of the last week of my semester already! Super fast ain't it? It is just like I just came, and whoosh... the first sem is gone. Oi boss up there in the heavens, please please slow down the time a wee bit for dear Bernard down here whose yet to seriously explore this place. hahaha..

Ohh, so what are the places that you are longing to visit during your time here Bern? Those who really know me would get this right I suppose. It'll be the football stadiums! Those that you watch week in and out on ESPN every Sat night back home. Celtic Park, Ibrox in Glasgow, then down South, Old Trafford, Emirates, Stamford Bridge, and across the seas, Nou Camp!! So far, I have yet to step foot onto any of these places yet thou'. Sheesh, Celtic recently got knocked out of the Champions League, which means no more Champions League match to watch. One of my biggest regrets will be missing out on the recent Celtic-Man U match here. DAMN.. The tix were sold out even before I knew it. My next target would possibly be the Glasgow derby match between Rangers and Celtics. Oh, may God bless me on this quest. Ticket sales have yet to begin. Thus hopefully, luck will be on my side this time around =)

Hmm.. I'll just share a few random pics from around campus before ending this post ..

Main entrance.
My dept. ain't inside, thus I don't go through here often though.

Cloisters, I guess this is one of the must-take pics in this uni

I don't know why, but I like this pic.
I think has a "the Lord has arrived" feel due to the light?

The Bell Tower - The pinnacle(highest point) of the uni
which I guess is another must-take pic in the campus.
Should be the most photographed structure in this uni

24th Nov..

Its d 24th of November!

which reminds me of a new day.. duh..

a weekday.. duh..

another bread day.. nah..

ahh.. a Monday.. "..."

its a good ol' pal's birthday!! BINGO!

Its 12+ am here in my place, which means that it'll be around 8+ am in ur place,
which most likely means that either
ur ass is outside the Chancellor hall holding those notes ready to face those papers
or
stuck in front of the monitor re-reading those notes..

Anyways main point of this post,
"Happy Birthday Keong!"

Copied directly from his blog..

No Chris Tucker weirdness this year la,
However I can get u an original head-to-toe Arsenal football kit/set if you want hahaha..
Any number any size any color, mei wen ti! LOL
If you still don't know what I'm talking about, just look below..

Ohh, btw Arsenal is a football club if u still happen to be lost.. oops

Ok ok, bah bah stop cursing me liao eh.. I know what u want..

"Pui pui, oi oi , te te" de chabo! (oh shyt)

Hoho.. no problem la if I happen to find one here.
I send it instantly over to u, use DHL.. "kao tua, kao kin, kao lat!", according to Tony's theory
We can skip Vietnam liao! But leh..
Problem is most of em taller than u lah brader..

Bah eh stop cursing me liao lo..

Most importantly, just make sure u sayur/sayured those papers today man
May God bless u n ur l*n to be intact and fully functional..
Eh tang ki tu ho, mai hiam choi.. <-- I mean for these exams, and not what u think what I might mean hahaha.. Ok, enuf of these $hyt la, i've gotta sleep liao lo..

All in all, Happy Birthday.. Take care, and all the best

tagged..

Tagged by Ing (PS: U shud be studying instead of tagging!!!)

1. Take a recent picture of yourself or take a picture of yourself right now

2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture

3. Post that picture with NO editing

4. Post these instruction with your picture

5. Tag 5 people to do this

The facial expression of being tagged whilst eating breakfast lol

work work work!

Hey folks,

Just a follow up on the previous post, yeah, I've managed to ignore those "give up" calls and plough my way through thus 1st assignment was successfully shot down(possibly 20 marks in the pocket)! Just as recent as yesterday the 2nd one was also shot down(10 marks hopefully!) Yay! A free Saturday coming up!

However thou, we were presented with another one yesterday. DAMN.. which means more ploughing to be done!!! Ahh!! 'Perseverance' is the keyword at the moment.. To be honest, life's hectic here in Year 3. Heard from a mate, Year 2's workload wasn't like that. No wonder, the Head of Year 3 group once said that Year 3 is going to be a really demanding year for us all..

I find that life here is not the same as back home.(duh of course.. haha) Besides the weather and the food, the mentality of people here is different too. Well there's the regular group of slackers in class but, majority of them are simply hardworkers or simply brilliant! I have this coursemate who seems to have this super-brain which enables him to answer simply any questions thrown to him by the lecturers. Heck, he even sometimes corrected the lecturers!! Mind you, I have lecturers which are book authors(which means that should be expert in their fields) themselves. Walao.. But strange thing is this dude doesn't seem to look every single bit like a "smart student" with his super long hair and such. However, of course, it ain't right to judge one that way, I just think he's just super brilliant! Btw, I have a lecture with super long hair too! hahaha.. He's a professor btw. LOL! Summarising all in a sentence, competition in this part of the world is high..

Anyways to the UBD-ians reading this, make sure you chop those papers into bits in the upcoming exams aight! All the best n good luck!

SmilE!

Frustration

The title says it all.. Frustration!

I've mentioned in the previous post about the work thrown to me .. The one I'm currently on involves programming..

Those who have done it will certainly have experienced this. Solving a programming problem which you are stuck on for quite a while would give you the best damn feeling in the world. On the other hand, getting stuck in a problem for a long time, is super frustrating and hair whitening(is there such a word?) !

I'm currently facing the latter! "HAHAHA". I've been dedicating hours and hours(a few days in fact) typing code just to get an algorithm to work right. I've failed to solve it till now.. Deadline's looming, whilst more work piling.. sheesh.. I can't remember the last time I got stuck in one for so long. Its just only a question! Oh my.. One which is carrying around 10 marks for my whole course! Gosh.. My patience is seriously wearing thin at this moment. There are even thoughts of giving up and just turning the half-baked code..

God bless me, God bless you. May I get over this hurdle asap!!! (cause I've have to deal with other stuff too!! eek..)

Friend .. sudah update!

Ahh, hello ppls, I've didn't realised that the last post was around 9 to 10 days ago until last night?! Even sampai ada orang bising arah CBox sudah *ahem siapa yang bising2 atu huh? I've wanted to do one last night, but got lazy and went to sleep. HAhaha... Anyways, don't worry here goes a break down of what happened from the last post:

A lil smth significant 2 Sundays ago:

I dumbly thought that something was going wrong with my laptop as it wasn't showing the right time. The kitchen's clock was showing 3.30 pm whereas my laptop is only 2.30 pm. I dumbly adjusted my laptop's clock, and tried to figure out what went wrong! HAHAHA.. If you don't know it yet, you should after reading this para. It is the Daylight Savings Time aka DST. You can read how Mr Ang went ecstatic about that! Oops... ;)

What happens is our time gets turned back 1 hr starting from 2 a.m of that particular day(The day that DST starts). Our computers also changes its time automatically btw, which thus explains my laptop's actions. Napa Brunei nada? Hmm.. Not sure bout that, but I remember reading that only industrialized nations do practice that. Or maybe only places which have 4 seasons? Time will return back to their original state once winter officially ends I suppose..

As we get closer to winter, the sun's presence will get shorter and shorter. Thus this fact combined with the fact that time gets 1 hr slower = 5pm sky that looks just like 7 pm sky!!

The sight of the moon and uni's Bell Tower

A lil smth significant last week:

Around Tuesday and Wednesday last week, according to the weather forecast, Glasgow's temperature went below 0 degrees for the first time since I was here! No joke! Of course I was excited, 0 degrees meant possibly snow flakes!! The news even reported that the north of Scotland was already snowing. So is parts of England. But unfortunately, all the anticipation dampened as there seem to be none in Glasgow.. =( Hahaha.. According to the seniors, Glasgow is a place that is not a snow-prone area. I guess that explains it. However, I hope this would change once the real winter comes.. lol.. I want snow!!

A smth lil significant last Friday night:

Halloween!

The Brunei society in Scotland aka BruScot organised a Halloween party for us all. As expected of course, we would have to dress up! So here was the 'ghosts' and 'monsters' of the night:

Wasssssuuppp??

Why so serious?

Shh..

The supposedly 'dark'(blame the cam's flash) house littered
with cobwebs and a thing hanging in the middle..

And more 'ghosts' :

[PS>> Which of the following of all the pics am I in??]

And of course, enough of them for now, as uploading pictures here is such a pain(when you have 2 housemates who are download freaks I suppose.. Oops.. LOL). Just so you know, more pics are on my Facebook acct. =)

Anyways, the so-called Halloween's party, wasn't exactly a party, as it even involved electing who the next BruScot admins were! Who does that on Halloween's night huh? Haha.. But of course ,we did have some fun! There were games played and of course had food, of which the best was definitely the Brunei-styled Mee Goreng.. How great was it? Bernard had 6 PLATES!!! Hahaha.. Small small plates of course, those 10 cm in diameter super-thin plates.. Ohh, that was done around 2 instances of the night lah.. No social manners I suppose, if you eat freaking much at a place where you aren't the only guests. LOL..

Anyways, we planned to leave the place at around 11pm as the last trains were finishing at around half-past 11 if I ain't wrong. However, we sort of lost track of time, and there you go, missed it! Nah, not to worry lah, in such a modern city as Glasgow, there'll definitely be great public transports!! NOT!

I ain't kidding! NO! Its not because the taxi standard is as 'great' as in Brunei's. LOL.. Its because the taxis are fully booked on Friday nights! Taxi business is brisk on this night. Our seniors told us the taxis will only be available at 3 am. WALAO! Of course, I tried to call the taxis in the hope that there will be 1 available for us. Nah, instead, I was shouted at!! Yeah.. I think the telephone operators suck! In my opinion, tel. operators here ain't very customer-friendly. Their brains left out the simple fact that "Not all people are used to hearing the Scottish accent". LOL.. Thus ask for repeats, and risk being shouted at.

Well, we then decided to not call anymore, and thus waste our time lazing around playing board games, and some were 'scaring' themselves by treating themselves to a horror movie. The first train of the day will begin operations at around 6+ am, thus, yeah we decided to go for that.

On the way home, a few pics around St.Enoch's..

Deserted as it seems, but this wasn't the case just a few hours ago! The whole place was even more livelier than Gadong!! You can get to see all sorts of stuff, from "Hollywood characters", to half-naked ladies, drunk people, people smooching, etc etc.. LOL.. Well that's the way life is in big cities I guess..

A smth lil significant today:

A new assignment!! My brain just can't keep complaining enough! There is just so much work!! I've got 3 assignments, which weighs around 20% of total course marks. I've 3 team projects (no joke!) going on concurrently. Today, lecturer presented us with a new assignment. Nasty eh.. I suppose it is now really time to pull my socks up and start working.

Okie dokie, guess that's about it for now. There you go.. an UPDATE! =)

Wet, Gloomy, Dark and Windy

Today's weather is definitely the gloomiest amongst the days that I was here. Not only that, the wind seems to be in full force too. Not to say, accompanied by rain. Reminds me of the 2nd day after I arrived, where I was greeted by a dark dark morning.

source

Anyways, I had an early break from school today (because class was cancelled!). Ohh, the early break I meant was 2 pm right after a team meeting session. 2 pm!! I believe that isn't the case back home (applies to my year+course only I guess). If this was back home, 2 pm meant going to Lee Loi Fatt for ABC and Rojak liao. My classes schedule has been nasty so far.. lol.. My classes end at 4 pm on a daily basis! Just like those year 1 days where my schedule seem to be super packed. Anyways good thing is, majority of my days start at 11 am. Heh, even the earliest class in the whole uni starts at 9 am. 8am is an obsolete time for classes here Haha..

Right after school, I rushed back excitedly as I had a DATE.

source

No not with some Scottish hottie la.. Blame Chee Huat, he too hiong liao.. LOL. The DATE I meant was a video call back home! It was a first for me and my family as our house's Internet has been successfully restored ever since our house's modem broke down. It was great being able to see them in motion and not only in images and sounds. Besides, this was the ideal time to be able to chat, as it was around 9pm at that time, and I'm rarely home during this time.

Besides, interacting with my family and all, I also tried calling for my beloved pet, Husky(that's his name) to see if he still remembered me. You know what? He did! From the webcam, I saw him jumping up from his sleep, run towards my door, and looked around for me, just like how he always welcomed me when I return home. His tail was wagging wildly too. Mom also told me that he even skipped his meals for the first 2 days I left. He's one of the most manja-est, cutest and smartest dog I have ever known, and of course I miss him badly. Sobs..I feel sorry for him for giving him false hope that I was already back. I hope he doesn't miss me too much, just like how I missed him. I just can't wait for the day I return to squeeze him in a hug. Sorry ppl for the eww-ness in this para, I just can't help it. I love dogs! Just seeing em, is a major joy to me already. I dunno why, but it just brightens my day! Thank you God for them..

Its 6.37 pm already. What else? Dinner time, before that, cooking time.

source

If you're a non-cooker and you're abroad alone(w/o family that is), one of the damnest thing you'll realise and learn is, appreciate the food your mom puts on your table! Do not complain! No no.. Need more emphasis.. DO NOT COMPLAIN!! Its not the easiest of things, to take trouble to go out to buy food, buy the right amount that you need so that you don't go back to the supermart every 2 days or less(just like what me and my housemates are always doing.. ), think what you're gonna eat for dinner, how you're gonna cook it, the ingredients, how long so that sudah 'masak', correct proportions, cook already nyaman or not, so on and so forth..

Anyways to cap it off,

Moral of the story:
Appreciate Rojak and ABC if you're going to the Western World
Learn how to use Skype, cause video-caming here is far better than MSN
Appreciate the food, your parents put on the table for you.
Cooking is one of the most important skill you should acquire in life, you'll need it sooner or later.

Dloading went berserk!

I decided to download a 400 mb file when I got home around 4+ pm just now.

Typical dload speed is around 300 kbps hehehe.. but it was a surprise when it managed to reach 1.1 MBps throughout the dloading!

Thus, it took only less than 10 mins to dload the whole file!!

WALAO.. yeah sakai me, first time ni haha..

to the land of the Scot'Ish (last part) and on the land of the Scot'Ish..

Dum dum dumm...

Anyways from the airport to the landlord house we went. We got our keys and then went to our apartment. A journey like that already costed us 20++ pounds! Just in case, at that time, the conversion rate was around 1 Pound = BND 2.60. Thus if you still rmb 'Direct proportion' from Secondary Mathematics, all you have to do to convert is just to multiply that 20++ by 2.6. Roughly estimating it is around, maybe around BND $50++ ! This was just the beginning. Hahhaha.. welcome to a place where EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE!

Left right straight, top or bottom, everything is definitely more exp. than back home. My first made-in-UK sandwich from the airport costed 2.6 pounds if aint wrong. Around BND $6+? The hot chocolate was 80++ pence, meaning around BND $2? Shyt, take that money(around BND $8), go to 'Overseas Restaurant' and order Buttermilk chicken plus Teh Tarik special and you still got change!

Whoa.. off track once more. One thing I hadn't prepared was what was about to face all of us... Hmm.. or maybe me la. What is common in Brunei is nice houses with big compounds where their house is repainted every year esp before their festive(either Hari Raya or CNY) .. Hahah.. We maintain our houses very well? We promptly repair our houses if there is anything that needs maintenance? Ohh.. and the average ages of our houses might be emm.. lets say 10 yrs ++. Ok.. oldest 30 yrs. Foolishly I was expecting something similar here! LOL.. Bad expectation..

A side view of our building

Our apartment is on the 3rd floor btw. Just have a glimpse at the stairways towards our place.


Emm.. 10 yr old building? Err.. nah .. plus 10? Hahaha.. I think definitely more than 30 yrs. Maybe close to a century-yr old kua.. At first, I was like.. what the heck? Why did we pick such an old place? It certainly gave me the creeps when I first stepped into this place, it was cold,dusty and dark somemore.. LOL..


(The door to our apartment creaked open)... Welcome to my home for the following 9 months or so..

What welcomed us shocked us all.. The hosts on that very day were lots of dust, dirt, oil stains in the kitchen, a brown shower curtain, cupboards that cannot be closed, creaking floorboards, creaking doors, dead insects and even live worms! The condition of the place was appalling! It did not look like anything similar to what we seen from the pics that were shown to us before coming.

Maybe this was how the previous tenant looked like source

Ew.. This was just a small part of the house.

It definitely wasnt the ideal condition for 3 tired souls who were drained from the extremely long journey we undertook to reach here. It was however the ideal condition for these 3 souls to do MASSIVE cleaning!!!

source

No maids, no mum, no dad here.. which means the simple equation of 'clean if you wanna live in a clean home' .. cialat!

However on the first night, it didnt matter whether the place was clean or not for my case. I was so freaking tired, I did not even have dinner that day. I remember lying down in a noisy room where a few of them were playing Counterstrike... yeah.. guess who? Clue: the Counterstrike King from EE group. lol.. Anyways, the next thing I know is I was the last among them to wake up the next morning..

Where we all slept for the first night.. haha..
we're all straight so no worries.. nothing wacky happened

The "wonderful" weather that greeted us the next day..

Sights from out our house windows.
Dayymmm... Where's the sun?

Good morning Glasgow!

The first 2 days were freaking cold. Cold wind plus rain. Very unforgiving indeed. No hot water to drink somemore, as no kettle. The 1st 2 days were days of excitement, fatigue and also some misery to an extent. At times, my mind was "why did I come here? Why not choose some place warmer?" <-- no kiddin'. I did not feel very well. In half of my head, bad thoughts were running thru' my head. I wondered how I'd survived this sort of weather where there it is supercold plus no sun. What if this is how it'll be like everyday? However another half of me was anticipating what was coming =) Anyways after we woke up, we planned to head to the city. Stock up on stuff, open up a bank acct plus of course, see & experience the city! We headed off by subway[called SPT] its very similar to Singapore's MRT..

SPT tickets..

Destination reached..

Some random glimpses of the city..

Once back home, it was cook dinner, then cleaning. We (me and my housemates) endured a very similar cycle everyday for around a week I think. We 'work' aka cleanup the place till close to midnight and will then head to our beds.. It roughly took around a week to make the place livable! LOL

Anyways.. God somehow heard what I was craving for, sun! And miraculously, Glasgow was blessed with 1 week of sunshine starting from the very next day(from the very cold second day)! No kidding!

First sun in Glasgow!

Entrance to our building. This is how it works here.. Thus you need 2 keys.
One to open the main door, another for the one to your apartment.

Out my window
On one of the evenings..

OK.. A lil' abrupt stop.. but till then back to work for now.. Till then =)