Updates

Don't complain I never update lah. Here it is.

Barcelona was fantastic. Nothing significantly great or exciting happened, but it is actually one of my best trips ever. I never had such a good balance of everything in any of my trips, ie, I had the sun, the sand, the sea, the shops, the money, the tourist attractions, travelers, locals, parties, food, weed.

Being a typical tropical girl, sun is taken for granted. I was like shrieking (inside lah) OMG OMG SUN SUN SUN and then open my arms, lifted my head up and embraced it. I sat at the balcony of my host’s friend for like 2 or 3 hours on a comfortable armchair and people watched while being sun-kissed.

Oh and something quite amusing and potentially educating: to note my observation that the Mediterranean Sea is absolutely calm! It is SO CALM there are hardly any waves. And there are no tides!

Viva la shopping! Apart from the indispensable Zara, there are also some quaint little designers which are either too expensive or a little too weird. Also, another of those Zara/ Mango kind of shop includes one call Bershka, where I bought a pair of skinny denim jeans for just 25 Euros and also this shop that I really like call Stradivarius (after the musican!) where I bought a striped shirt dress, an ultra short black skirt and the cutest leggings. But hey I spent what I saved on the hostel mah!

After doing some research by reading the latest fashion magazine, the 70s is here to stay for autumn/winter 2006-2007, but not as glitzy, not as loud. Some gold, some glitters, some prints, lots of opaque leggings and tights. And if you have the legs, go with a shirt dress (like long tee) and wear black opaque tights with a pair of ballerina flats.

But having said that, it feels great to feel empowered again. It’s like us going to Malaysia – everything is cheap! Even though it’s not really. I remembered when I first came, I took my S$1k to the exchange and got a miserable 300q back. I almost cried.

And I still think it’s justifiable to say that it is absolutely necessary to look good in London. It’s frigging LONDON. How can you walk around looking like crap? Londoners look great, dress well. So I have to, too! (BLEH BLEH)

I stayed in the hostel for the first 2 nights and after that I moved out to one of the Couchsurfers’ place (www.couchsurfing.com). In essence it is a website just like friendster and myspace, less dodgy, more specific. It’s for people to surf for a place to stay when they are traveling, and in exchange, offer their homes (or couches) to others.

So I went to this gathering (how lucky was I that they had a gathering on the day I arrived) and met some locals, some travelers, some people working in BCN, some there to learn Spanish. And this guy offered his home to me, and I checked out of my hostel the next day (and hence saved 96 Euros, which went to my shopping budget – yeah!).

So, I had the authentic backpackers’ experience for the first 2 days, hanging out at the common area, met people my age, went to the tourist attractions, ate the typical Spanish food. Then I had a Spanish host, which was like a homestay really. He brought me to meet his friends, went clubbing at places the locals go to, had a BBQ at the balcony. And one of the days, I basically slept in, woke up, nuah at the couch, watch TV, and did shit the entire day. Damn shiok.

And since I'm back in London, I have been entertaining this guy from Singapore who really really came on a mission to club every single night. So basically I have been out everyday, not been home at all. And yesterday, I slept from about 2am to 1pm.

Anyway, since I am still jobless now, I decided I have to make full use of my time and do all the touristy thing that I have yet to do in London. Not even really touristy things, but going to the museums and art galleries (which are free!!), wonderful markets that sells those very vintage things at very low price, and comb through those charity shops (I just bought another copy of Sophie's World for 80p today!)

So far, it's still exciting and fun, except that my slight withdrawal symptoms are making me a little void of happiness. But I'd be fine soon.

What should I do tomorrow? Heheehehe. I love London! Forever got things to do one!

I have to admit. Sometimes when I blog, certain entries I write is deliberately written for an ego trip. The way people try to subtly boast about certain things, like shaking their wrist to show off their watches.

But this post, is not an ego trip.

On the plane back from Barcelona, I was feeling slightly miserable at the thought of coming back to London, which 1. is cold, dark and gloomy now, 2. I have no job (yet) 3. I have no one significant to return to - no boy, no family.

Then once the plane taxi-ed I whipped out my phone and texted the people I now call friends. I text them, they replied and plans were made for the week.

I get home, checked my email and find out people are missing me.

Today this wonderful smart girl who was his friend who I now call MY friend, said

I love you. You're so much fun. You really deserve much better than him Hui.

It warmed my heart. I genuinely appreciated that. It wasn't even like oh yeah baby feel-good-factor 100%! And coming from someone who was on his side, who shared his side of the story, it meant a lot to me.

And then this other girl said

Yes that is so true. People tell you you are great, and you know it, but I think you're not sure. But you are, and that is why everyone at work loves you, for who you are. And I can see why you are so picky when it comes to boys now. You deserve to be picky anyway.

You'd probably be reading this. I can't say I'm sorry for writing this, and even if I did, you'd say don't be sorry. It's about time we come to terms with it. I didn't deserve those last few months. You knew what you did. I knew what you did. Don't say you were trying to protect me. It's too convenient. And adds to the romantic dramatic effect.

I don't hate you. I'd always love you. Like you'd always love me. For just who you are. Still.

Something great still came out of it all. You as a catalyst for my departure. I still think I did the right thing by leaving. For someone who has never taken the plane alone, stepped right out of my comfort zone, travelled all the way here not knowing what things are going to like (and still don't know), I think I did pretty okay. I've now flown alone from to San Francisco and back, to Munich, from Frankfurt to Rome, Rome to London, London to Barcelona and back. I can live alone, eat alone, take the bus/ train/ plane alone, and I am honestly okay with it all. One year ago if one tells me this is what I will be doing next year, I'd probably just laugh it off.

But now, I'm making huge plans for my own life for myself. I will go to Canada, to USA, back to Singapore, and then back to London next summer.

Journey to self discovery? It begins.

¡Hola!

From Barcelona, Cataluña.

I´m having loads of fun here.

But, when my phone rings,

I realised something-

You are still in control.

I start to panic and forget what I was supposed to do and just go to the phone booth thingy to make the call,

after much rationalising with myself to not use my mobile to ring back.

Donch like it.

Gold

Thank you for coming home
I'm sorry that the chairs are all worn
I left them here
I could have sworn
These are my salad days
Slowly being eaten away
You just another play for today
Oh but I'm proud of you
But I'm proud of you
Nothing left to make me feel small
Luck has left me standing so tall
Gold, always believe in your soul
You've got the power to know
You're indestructible
Always believe in
'Cause you're gold
Glad that you're bound to return
There's something I could have learned
You're indestructible
Always believe in
After the rush has gone
I hope you find a little more time
Remember we were partners in crime
It's only two years ago
The man with the suit and the pace
Knew that he was there on the case
Now he's in love with you
He's in love with you
My love is like a high prison wall
And you could leave me standing so tall
Gold, always believe in your soul
You've got the power to know
You're indestructible
Always believe in
'Cause you're gold
Glad that you're bound to return
There's something I could have learned
You're indestructible
Always believe in (...sax solo...)
My love is like a high prison wall
And you could leave me standing so tall
Gold, always believe in your soul
You've got the power to know
You're indestructible
Always believe in
'Cause you're gold
Glad that you're bound to return
There's something I could have learned
You're indestructible
Always believe in
You are gold

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I just did a massive spring clean of my room, by effy's standard.

I vacuumed the floor. And i put everything where it should be.

I moved my air mattress elsewhere so that I can put my



Against the wall and do my Yoga poses.

All thanks to the lovely Ping, who got me not just that, but a Tiffany & Co cufflink & TAM TAM! And it's all specially delivered from Singapore!

Which is why I say, who needs Diamonds if they have Ping as their best friend?

Supposed to be sleeping but I figured, since I am jobless, might as well stay up right?

Sunday TV is actually pretty decent. I watched Dirty Dancing, some make me a supermodel reality tv, S.W.A.T (Colin Farrell - yum), and then CSI.

Now that I am a thief stealing network from the neighbours, I don't really sleep early anymore. There is always something to do someone to talk to on MSN. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that for the past 4 months I did not discover the free wireless.

Anyway, I efficiently planned out my trip and striked out a few to-dos today. Managed to buy a pair of boots which is flat, therefore easy walking. Not good quality leather ones I already own, it's a pair which I think I'd throw out after next year.

But for 10 pounds, it's nothing lah.

The only reason why I want to sleep early is because I want to go buy this bag from one of the charity shop for 3 pounds. I actually had NO MONEY with me and I was at the shop when they were closing and they refused to wait for me to run across the road to draw money. So I must try to chiong there in the morning in hope that no one bought it yet. It's a nice white River Island bag that is falling apart. But it looks damn vintage and I want a white bag like that to carry to Barcelona. It matches the clothes I'm bringing there.

How bimbotic. That's Hui.

Yeah!

I finally can do this!



It is quite a feat. I had to huff and puff and train my arms and shoulders up.

Known as the Scorpion, or otherwise, Vrschikasana

Anyway, Barcelona here I come!

Had one of my many first - drunk grocery shopping.

Okay I wasn't exactly drunk. I felt a little tipsy after 4 Smirnoff Ice. Which I shouldn't have had. But I had to meet this friend of mine to borrow an obi (I'm going as a Geisha on Friday's end of season party!) from his mum (a cute half Jap half Irish). And where else can we meet but a pub?

So after 4 drinks, I looked at the time and realised it was only 9.40pm, that I could quickly run into Tesco (which closes at 10) since I don't have any food at home (Which actually isn't true - I just ran out of meat, but why would I need meat in the middle of the night?)

So anyway I walked in and walked out in 10 minutes. But in the end, my purchases were

1. Swedish meatballs (Why the hell did I buy swedish meatballs)
2. A pint of milk
3. Minced pork
4. Beansprouts

What was I thinking about???

And then I got home, cooked a tipsy meal of Soup with spinach, cabbage, beansprout and mincemeat in Knorr Seafood soup packet with an egg; slurped it down and fell asleep 10 minutes after, with my TV, light and makeup on.

effy, you never learn.

I feel like it is a necessity to pay some tribute to the important people in my life, halfway round the globe, 8 time zones away (+1 daylight saving hour = 7 time zone at the moment), who relentlessly put up with my must-try-to-talk-for-one-hour-more-worth-it rants about my life, going non stop and most of the time boring and/or confusing. Yes, you.

I’m sorry I don’t do emails anymore. I really hardly have time for it.

Anyway, don’t think your effort is going unnoticed. I love you for that, for always being ready to talk to me, asleep or awake, boyfriend or no boyfriend. And if you are always ready to hear me out, I’m always here for you. Just a text message and your phone will be ringing. You don’t even need to call me.

I don’t suppose this is trying too hard to stay connected to home. Too hard is too harsh, in it?

Anyway, I love you I love you I love you for that.

And to finish off this warm and fuzzy entry, here is some light hearted tales from the new friends I’ve made so far:

Asians? Oriental?

See the last time I recall, Singapore IS part of South East Asia. Besides calling ourselves Singaporeans or Chinese, we can also call ourselves Asians. But here, Asian is generally reserved for people from the Middle East and maybe from India. Well, mainly (pardon me for not being exactly very politically correct) the darker ones. Chinese, Japanese and perhaps Koreans (who I have started to detest because they are really annoying) are more affectionally known as Orientals.

Pants? Trousers?

Basically, pants IS underpants. Underwear. Knickers. Panties. Anything that covers your legs, no matter what material it is made of, ranging from corduroy to denim to leather to nylon to latex, it is trousers. It also doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman or in between.

Tights? Stockings? Leggings?

Singaporean understanding of stockings are well, stockings. Here, they call it tights. What we think are tights (like bicycle tights) are known as leggings.

The banning of the chewing gum

Nobody seem to understand why chewing gum is banned. Whilst I tend to agree that it does indeed sound like the stupidest thing on Earth to ban (and it seems like we are the only country in the world who does that), I look at the walkways of the streets of London with all the chewing gum stuck and turned black like failed patterns on the ground on what should have been beautiful stone pavements, I convince myself that there is some truth in the ban (nodding my head silently at the excellence of our government, spitting the gum on the pavement, leaving my permanent mark on the street).

Crime rate is zero in Singapore

Some ridiculous bloke asked me if it is true, that there are no crimes at all in Singapore? Then, rumours has it that people who are so so restrained from these laws kind of exploded with rage and formed gangs who chop people up into pieces (which must then mean, that it cannot be zero crime rate, right?)

Capital punishment and drugs

The death penalty is such a debatable topic. Some wished England (and Ireland) has such laws, some couldn’t believe at this day and age there is still the death penalty. And when I mentioned how if you traffic drugs it’s the death penalty, they just shook their heads with a mixed look of surprise and disgust.

My comments? I think having such strict controls may be stifling, and fact is if you have never been through experience, you wouldn’t know what innocence is. Perhaps you can say if you have never lived in a country where freedom of speech is so highly regarded that they do not ID the people who lives in this country (there is no such thing as an ID card, or IC in our local context, apart from driving licenses), where binge drinking is number one in Europe, where drugs are almost legal, you probably wouldn’t think of what you have had your whole life is stifling. When there is nothing to be compared with, you wouldn’t know. Which also means don’t know anything about the world at all.

I have met people who started taking drugs at 15, sold them illegally to make money to take more drugs, got busted by parents who raid their rooms and found packs of Es, and that makes me wonder if this is the kind of lifestyle you want your kids to grow up in. Not that these people I’m talking about are now scums of the society who lives on benefits – they managed to get a decent Bachelor and some are onto their Masters and earning at least thirty thousand a year – and if I may say, contributing quite a bit of tax to the scums of the society – although still drinking and getting drunk every other day of the week.

And at the end of the day, you still get doctors and lawyers and engineers and architects and policemen and firefighters from this crazy city. The society does work (even though their food sucks). The square mile I am working in is still the richest square mile in the entire world; London is still a place many people want to live and work and visit.

So there, welcome to England.

Ping

effy misses you too. don't smoke so much lah

Moments of reflection

10th of June was the day I arrived in London. It is now some 3 months since I’m here and it only seems the right thing to have a moment of reflection of some sort.

So it all started with staying at my cousin’s place. Having a relative to look out for must be the biggest pain on Earth. Except that I was the pain. I must have caused him so much trouble I feel bad. I can even imagine him complaining to his mother my auntie (here they say auntie too, not aunt, like the Yankees) about it but blood is thicker than water. One day I will tell him how sorry I am.

Then there was this other Singaporean who was a friend’s friend who I waited for to find a place to live together. Turned out she back out last minute and is the main cause of why I am staying where I am. But I guess it is a blessing in disguise because we wouldn’t have been the best of friends anywhere – we probably wouldn’t get along that well, especially the staggering home on Fridays wouldn’t go so well with her. Besides, I love the privacy of having my own room now and wouldn’t give it up for anything.

The bulk of my life so far is work and I know I have said this a million times but I really really think that I have been so fortunate to land in a job like this. Perhaps this is just how all offices in Central London are like, but I doubt every office brings 30 twenty-something smart and fun people together at the same time. Just last Saturday when I was out with my mates having what I think has been the best night so far since I’ve been here in London, (I don’t even want to call them colleagues because they are so much more than that), we were ranting about how fantastic it has been. More often than not you’re lucky to get 1 good friend at work – but here I can name at least 10 people I really love, people I wish I lived with, people I will stay in touch with and go out frequently after we leave this job, people I will go visit at their home countries, (mainly Aussies and Kiwis if they are not English) people to bitch and gossip with, people to bitch and gossip about, people who I am more than happy to throw my hugs around, for these people are my family away from home, people who have seen me drunk and silly and love me for that, people who goes as drunk and act as silly as I am and I love them for that, people who loves me as a little China doll and thinks I am so small I needs to be taken care of all the time and always, always on the lookout for me, people who knows exactly what I am going through right now, who are as stressed and as busy and as no life as I am because of the workload, people who can go out at 8pm to get a pint of beer after seeing each other for 11 hours just to rant about work. It’s incredible how much I have grown to love them – and yet retain a certain level of detachment at the same time.

I’ve also came up with a sort of vague plan for the rest of the months. I reckon I will soon get bored of London especially with the fact that my next job will be nowhere as fun as the one I am having now, and the fact that the harsh infamous weather is coming – sun now no longer sets at 9pm but starts to get dark at about 7pm. Soon it will be about 4pm. It’d be too cold to get around and depressing – I can anticipate that. So I decided I’d probably go to Canada to look for my other family and be a pain again for Christmas and New Year, then perhaps head to California again if I find it too cold and stay there for a while if I like it (this colleague of mine stayed in Hollywood for 11 months and loved it – so I might go check it out and see if I’d like it too), come home at some point before May for a visit, then head back to London for the next season at the same place I’m working, doing a big one or two month Europe trip in May-June or something if I have sufficient funds at that point, or else, do it in October after the season ends. But I’m definitely going to come back to Europe. I have not yet seen it at all, and it is quite stupid of me not to I know, and go transatlantic but then again, I’ve considered this hard and long and I sort of think that this is the best plan yet.

And maybe, I may bring one or more inspired souls along from Singapore with me next year. Who knows?