My Day Today

I've had quite a good and tiring day and I'm just feeling quite happy and energetic at the same time. So I thought I'd post (because I have half an hour spare because my lecture was cancelled). 

This morning, I woke up at half 8, then didn't get out of bed till 9am. My lecture was at 10am (ideally I'd leave around 9:40-9:45). But today, for some reason, it took me forever to get ready. I went to wash my face and brush my teeth, then I decided to use my to use my other facewash thing, so that wasted a bit of time. Then I had to do my make up and then I realised I didn't really have anything to wear. I haven't done the laundry in over a week but that wasn't even the problem. I don't know whether it's just me or does everyone else get this problem too? Finding clothes to wear, but you also have to make sure you didn't wear it on the same day last week. Also I've gained a bit of weight lately x_x I also had to prepare clothes for badminton today. So long story cut short: I didn't go to the 10am lecture. 

My next lecture was at 12pm, so I left a bit earlier to print of some lecture notes for the maths lecture this morning. Then I went to the lecture =] It was such a... what's the word I'm looking for... lecture. Basically, in this module, this term we'll have different people lecturing us and stuff... and today, it was this biology lecturer who lectured about sex, animal sex I might add. First, he told us we're squid - smart squid. Because graduates are like squid, only one in a million survives... so only smart squid, like us, will survive in the job market... all of our reaction were: oookkayyyy o_O 

Then here came the real biology talk, it was more or less about sexual selection and lots of other stuff that I won't go into detail about. It was funny though. 

Then we had about 45 minutes to kill before going to badminton. So we went to the IC (library) and a friend and I just went through our tutorial work to compare answers. Then we went to badminton, we had to trek all the way to the Goodwin centre which takes at least 15 minutes to get there (if you walk at our speed xD) Then we didn't know what to do, it was the first time I booked a court, so we just sort of tried to ask and the woman wasn't very nice. Then she sent us to another building to hire rackets/racquets (I never know which way it is, I always thought it was the latter but I could be wrong). We thought we'd hire racquets during the first week and see how it goes. If it goes alright, we'll buy our own for next week. I don't know where my badminton racquets are from home, otherwise I'd just take one from home, it'd be better than having to buy one. (I just Googled it, it can be spelt either way, both racket and racquet are correct... this just underlined 'spelt', either I spelt 'spelt' wrong or this is just being weird.) Anyway, then we walked all the way back to the court (well it's only like a 1 minute walk) then my friend pointed out that we didn't have a shuttlecock, so I had  buy one for £1.50, which is quite a rip off for just one but you need what you need. So we finally started playing and it was fun. I was crap at the beginning (and still am) after not playing for so long. But even years ago, when I did play, I still wasn't very good. But yeah, overall, it was fun. And at first, we were just playing normally. Then at one point, we decided to play points and first up to 5, then we'd swap round. Heheh once we started counting points, I think the competitiveness came out =P 

I had to leave badminton fifteen minutes early to get to my tutorial. Jeez, I wasn't even sweating from the badminton, but I was sweating from the walking to the management building (it's far from the sports hall). Then we made it on time which was good. Because my friend and I had decided where we want to sit (it's basically a small room with about 4 rows of seats) and I basically wanted to sit on the penultimate row close to the wall, because those seats, you get picked on less lol xD There's actually a lot into that kind of stuff: where to sit to not get picked on xD 

Then I had another lecture, we were meant to watch this 50 minute film but the video player (yes, video) didn't work. So she was like 'we can either cancel it and rearrange, or we could have next week's lecture now (but that lecture sorts of build on the video)'. She said to put your hand up if we should just cancel it and rearrange... and I've actually never been so eager to put my hand up... hence I've got some spare time to blog today. 

I still have to shower, wash my clothes, hoover, and everything else though. I could do the laundry and hoover tomorrow but I think it's just best to get it over and done with because my mum might be visiting tomorrow night. I'd rather do it now than rush tomorrow and then get told off for being so messy. When it comes to doing the laundry, they are the times that I wish I lived at home =P 

Choco Choco Cake

I feel slightly proud, being able to update twice this week - both of which, the main topic is food.

I present: TA-DAH!!! CHOCOLATE CAKE ♥

I have to say though, it looks better in reality than in does in this photo and tastes not too bad ^^ It's actually really difficult to take photos with the webcam. It's one of those built in ones and basically if you want to take a photo and it's at the wrong angle, you have to shift the whole laptop - or the cake; either way: it's difficult =[

I haven't really written much besides food. I'll talk about my oh-ever-so-interesting day T_T Well, here goes, I set my alarm for 8:30am, but I wasn't planning to get out of bed till 9am (hence the next alarm was at 9am). Then at 9am I was feeling like crap due to lack of sleep (two factors: I slept late and I had a bad night's sleep (there were quite a bit of noise... I think I recall at about 4:50am or was it 4:20am, either way, outside was noisy, so I looked out the window and saw something like a fire engine - but it may not have been a fire engine, it could have just been a truck - I'm way too sleep to remember the details)). Back to the getting ready... oh yeah, one of the reasons I slept late was because I had to write notes for my seminar at 10am (hence the waking up early). I actually had already written some notes during yesterday, but I felt like I should write more - so I did. Then I was all jolly (yet sleepy) going to this seminar, I just couldn't wait to get it out of the way. It was in a building called the Hicks building - there was a small problem: I didn't know where the entrance was, but that was quickly solved after walking round the building =D

So... this seminar, it was in room F41. I made my way up two floors to the F floor (by the way, the ground floor is called the D floor for some reason). Then I made it all the way to the end of the corridor and found room F41. I saw some people there, I smiled (since I couldn't actually recognise) and sat down, then I received a few more smiles. And then the girl in front turned to me and asked whether I'm in this maths seminar and I was like ... O_O... no...

Of course, it turns out that wasn't the management seminar... so I tried the bunch of people I saw waiting in the corridor earlier... they were also not management people. Then I tried all the rooms in that corridor. I started to think where I went wrong: 10am check, Hicks building check, room F41 check. What's going on?

I made my way back down and of course no one was at the reception. Then I stood there and tried to think. I made my way back up to see if there would be any other management kid as confused as I am. Then I saw this dude walking through the double doors from the corridor looking lost. And I was thinking: this is my chance (to know I'm not the only one being stupid and getting lost). And yes: he was lost too. Great. We went down to the reception (and of course someone is there now). Then we rang this woman and as I was explaining to the woman on the phone the man was still looking through the rooms timetable and he suddenly says 11 o' clock. And then the woman on the phone gives us the details of the seminar and location and time: 11 o' clock.

So the underlying story is: I got the time wrong and ended up waking up an hour early. There were lots more annoying details in there but there's no need to share any more bad parts of the day =P Mind, that was only the morning, but the rest of my day isn't too bad ^^

I hope you (yes, you, the person reading this right now) have an awesome day ^^

Vivienne isn't a word

I haven't posted for a while... Around six o' clock this evening I was planning to write a post. Then, let's say laziness prevails. Then as I was just about to start relaxing and lie in bed whilst listening to music, I received a text from The Happy Kiwi saying *looks for the actual message*: "Mwuahahaha!! Two updates in one night :3" That sort of woke up my conscience in a way, so here I am, writing a blog post at quarter to one in the morning. (I actually wonder how long it will take me to write this post... let's start timing >_<)

This post may not be very interesting... I don't have many photos to 'jazz' it up. I did take some photos a while ago, it was a photo of the scary tagliatelle (I can never spell that word... I actually had to confirm the spelling on google, but I was right this time - for some reason, the spell check on blogger is deciding to not register it as a word). Did I ever tell the story about tagliatelle? If not, I'll try my best to tell the short version: basically the first actual thing I cooked (cooked defined as needed to use a hob and not just microwave regardless of where the sauce, etc actually came from *cough*jar*cough*) was tagliatelle. My friend was round so I cooked half a packet... she had a plate basically... and I basically had a whole pan left that lasted me about four days.

Next part, I obviously have the other half a packet left. So I cooked half of the remaining half... and that lasted me for two days T_T I ate quite a bit on the first day. Then the next day I ate it for lunch (which was the photo I took) and then had to eat the rest for dinner. Anyway, the underlying story is, the photo of the tagliatelle doesn't physically look appealing enough to post - though the taste wasn't bad =]

I feel like I haven't posted enough so I may just give a short account of each day:

Monday: I can't even remember what happened on Monday. Oh... I had three lectures (boring, boring and boring). That day, for dinner, I had bread and soup =] On my way back I decided that I was going to have a can of mushroom soup. Sometimes I cook pasta and use the creamy soup as a sauce but I decided that I need to take a break from all of this tagliatelle and pasta business, hence I went to Tesco on my way home and bought a baguette. (I also bought pizza & garlic bread <3)>

Tuesday: trying to jog my memory that far back is incredibly difficult.

(Post post comment: at this point, blogger wrecked my Tuesday description... it basically got rid of the whole paragraph... I'll fill this bit in again later)

Wednesday: I heart days off. (post post comment 2: blogger cut a bit chuck of my Wednesday out... I'm a bit tired right now so I'll write about this bit maybe tomorrow... you're not missing much though, it's pretty much a rant about hangers)

Then... the parcel... I should have two parcels because I got a split shipment as I wanted things to come asap - bad idea. Deliveries nowadays are amazing, you can completely track your parcel... so I did. City-link said they tried to deliver my parcel to me at 11:18 but no one answered - not true. During that time, I was still at home, and no one ever even pressed the buzzer. So I rang them... (after being on hold for a million years), I spoke to one of the staff and explained the situation and she contacted the driver (whilst I was on hold) and then she said it was an error, the driver had not delivered it yet and he'll probably be here within an hour. This phone call was made at approximately 3pm. So I waited... and waited... and waited... at about 4pm, I was thinking that there's probably traffic or something. Half past four came (time for Jap social) and still no sign. Then at five I decided it was about time I stopped waiting for this parcel that clearly wasn't going to turn up. So I went to The Common Room. I spoke to some people from last week, and I spoke to some other new people. There's this guy (who was also there last week) looks like Jo Kwon from 2AM! But a shy version... it was weird, but he was shyly adorable. Seeing a shy Jo Kwon just doesn't work in my head xP But that was cool. Then I went to my friend's place for dinner (again) and I ate a lot and that's that.

Thursday: which is today, well not really since it's past midnight. I had a tutorial today, which meant I did the work late at night last night and didn't sleep till quite late (procrastination somehow is integrated into me) and I had a ten o' clock lecture. I wasn't actually sure whether I had it because on one of the time tables it says we have an ECN119 lecture on Thursday 10am. But on the module outline, it doesn't say we have any at that time. Nonetheless, I decided I should be a good student and attend - bad decision. So I struggled to wake up (it was my first early lecture - everything else so far starts at 12 onwards) and dragged myself to the lecture. When I got there, I didn't recognise the people (I thought I must be in the wrong place), so I tried to leave, and as I was leaving I recognised this guy from the first week who does straight economics, uncertainty + seeing someone you know = you must be in the right place. Not true. The alternative answer is: everyone is in the wrong place. There must be about at least 60 of us or so who turned up, but after a while, people started leaving and we were all discussing whether we actually have this lecture or not. Turns out we didn't. That was a great way to start the morning.

Still Thursday, I got home and started to read and make notes on this book. Then I went to this other lecture - it was okay. The lecturer is really funny though - he is actually crazy. Then I had a two hour gap so I went home and read some more. Then I had this tutorial which was boring and pretty much pointless (unfortunately attendance is recorded in tutorials). Then I had a seminar - fairly interesting. I liked it =] There was one point which was the advantages of backwardness! I really like this because I've actually tried to bring this up in the UNICEF J8 competition things Purple Peace had entered... I bought this point up two years in a row but no one seemed to really appreciated it during the discussions. But today when I heard about it, it made me proud. It wasn't just some crappy point I thought of, and it actually has a name: advantages of backwardness. I think this stuff was studied by this German dude called Khrushchev. (Omg.... the name Khrushchev isn't underlined with a red squiggle. It's actually acknowledged as a word? That's weird)

I'm rather sad and offended. My name isn't acknowledged =[

I'm now completely side tracked by the red squiggle under my name and can't remember what I was talking about. Nonetheless, the remainder of the day wasn't too interesting and I'm a little tired now. I'll try posting tomorrow.

P.s. The original title of this post was called 'To Post Or Not To Post'... but I think it needs changing to empathise the squiggly line under my name.

P.p.s. It now reads 01:30 on my clock. I've spent 45 minutes ranting... my apologies. I hope it doesn't take you that long to read =]

First Few Days

The first few days hasn't been particularly interesting. Besides the fact I was rushing round to view accommodation. Well the good news is: I now have a nice place to stay. It's about a 5-10 minute walk to the management and economic sections. And even the other building my lectures are in is only about a 10 minute walk - LG: life's good.

I viewed two places on Monday... The first place was close (5 minute walk) but I didn't really like it. Something about it, we just didn't click. The second place was nicer... I liked it. But I had trouble finding the place. Trams here are weird. It's like a bus, you have to press the stop button - I have never come across a tram that does that. So I was on the tram, like an idiot, I expected it to stop at my stop. Well, it didn't. So I had to walk back a stop... and there were so many roads and roundabouts - my orientation skills had a limit to them. But in the end I found the place ^^ Before I left, I asked if there was a quicker direct back to the city centre... of course there was ^^ It was this giant hill.

This place is full of hills. Good in a way... more exercise ^^ But sometimes I'd be like "Yeah... down hill baby" then on the way back I'm like "What goes down must come back up". Hopefully the next time my family/friends see me I'll be a little bit fitter and thinner =P

Then on Tuesday I looked at one other place and it was it. It was cheaper (cheapest, in fact), close (5-10 minute walk) and I liked it =] So on Wednesday, my dad came and took me shopping. This is a very important process: make dad pay for all the expensive stuff - students are allowed to be poor. So I bought stuff like washing powder and fabric conditioner (expensive); extra toothpaste (also expensive... well affordable, but might as well); water (parents have cars ^^)... I bought so much, I can't even remember what I've bought. But hopefully some time in the next week I can go to Ikea and get the rest of the stuff.

I'll upload photos of my room once it's more tidy.

This is the bread I lived off on Thursday, it was so big, I couldn't finish it... I had to throw about half of it away =[

Chocolate

I'm not sure when I will ever find that wire for my phone. Maybe I just should buy the angry octopus and take a picture of it on the camera. I think that will be fun. But I'll just be buying unnecessary stuff again. By the way, the angry octopus is a sticker =] 

Today, I went on this chocolate course thing my auntie bought my sister and I for our birthdays. It wasn't anything super special. But I'll give a brief outline anyway. First we tasted some chocolate, then we were told the history of chocolate. We then had to add some chocolate to this bowl of melted chocolate, apparently at thirty three degrees celcius (I can't spell that word), it's the best temperature to set the chocolate so when you eat it there's a nice snap and for the best shine/gloss on the surface. I'm not sure whether it applies to all chocolate, but it applies to Greens and Black chocolate. 

Then we made truffles with the dark chocolate. We had to mix in two shots of double cream and four shots of dark chocolate (shots, as in the size of drink shots... if that makes sense at all). Then we had to quickly scoop in into one of those squirty things (the stuff to use to squeeze the cream/icing out when decorating cakes) but we used those plastic disposable ones. Then after that, we let it set in the fridge. 

Next, we used the milk chocolate to make anything we want. I made a butterfly which was unfortunately smashed into pieces in the car =[ but when I got home my sister made me rebuild it. 

 My reconstructed chocolate butterfly

After that, we decorated the truffles. I didn't actually know what were we supposed to do with the supposedly truffle, so I just dripped it in chocolate and cocoa powder and all sorts. The photos don't look so good, but my camera was out of battery so I had to take the photo asap and didn't have time to experiment the best angle and stuff.