- Which bus numbers I need (only moments of doubt so far).
- How much water I drink and how little I pee (too much information?)
- How beyond hot it is.
- How I have a shower when I come in from school.
- How much I love ‘30 Rock’ (I can’t think of another TV programme that has the ability to make me laugh out loud so often. Tina Fey = comedy genius).
- How much I hate early mornings (so much so I have gotten up an hour after my first alarm).
- How you need to put more money on your EZ Link card for the bus in order for you to be able to get on buses.
- How long seven hours really is.
- How absolutely terrible school lunches are.
- How ‘Oprah’ moved to primetime, meaning I don’t need to skive school or ‘break’ my hand to see it.
- How much I walk.
- How much I love emails and Bebo.
- The Singapore National Anthem and Pledge which gets sung and said every day (not that I say it, still a subject Your Majesty).
- How the humidity wrecks my hair and negates any straightening I do. (Alright already, I concede defeat I will not needlessly straighten my hair.)
- How much I miss home.
So it’s officially an extra long weekend for me. Tomorrow I’m off to the hospital re. 'broken' hand and Monday is Youth Day, therefore a holiday. Ya ho.
[Might I suggest Youth Day Committee that you have Youth Day, a holiday that only affects schools, further into the term than one week after a four week holiday. Not that I am complaining mind you. Keep up the excellent work. Why stop at one holiday a year? Think big, go for two or three. Or an even four. Better yet, how about a 'Youth Week'? Clearly I need to get me on this committee, shake things up a bit.]
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I’ve never liked the name Gordon
As I type Tony is in with HRH resigning his position as President Prime Minister. Ten years with Tony. I was busying learning my French Oral when he started. Time flies, eh Tony?
I don’t know what you think of him, but I think overall he’s probably left the country in a better state than he got it in. I mean, sure, there is Iraq…tuition fees…cash for honours… but then again, London has the Olympics, Fantastic Mr. Fox is safe to kill all the chickens he likes and nobody makes a speech after a national event/emergency like Blair can.
There was a boy in my class in Primary School called Gordon. I never really liked him (although I’m sure he’s grown into a charming young man), nor the name so to think that our new Prime Minister is called Gordon makes me wince a little bit. Well that and I don’t do well with change. [Incidentally, Gordon had a brother called Kevin. What was their mother thinking?!]
I’m watching all this on the magic that is Sky News, with helicopters over Whitehall and Buckingham Palace. It’s no BBC but it’ll do.
So even though I don’t like your name, good luck Gordon. Handle us with care.
I don’t know what you think of him, but I think overall he’s probably left the country in a better state than he got it in. I mean, sure, there is Iraq…tuition fees…cash for honours… but then again, London has the Olympics, Fantastic Mr. Fox is safe to kill all the chickens he likes and nobody makes a speech after a national event/emergency like Blair can.
There was a boy in my class in Primary School called Gordon. I never really liked him (although I’m sure he’s grown into a charming young man), nor the name so to think that our new Prime Minister is called Gordon makes me wince a little bit. Well that and I don’t do well with change. [Incidentally, Gordon had a brother called Kevin. What was their mother thinking?!]
I’m watching all this on the magic that is Sky News, with helicopters over Whitehall and Buckingham Palace. It’s no BBC but it’ll do.
So even though I don’t like your name, good luck Gordon. Handle us with care.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Is this jet lag?
It's 2.30 or so on Tuesday morning. I'm awake. I have been awake since around midnight. I want to sleep, I just can't.
Absolute rage.
Absolute rage.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Back to it
I’m back in my apartment in Singapore. I can’t believe that two weeks went so fast at home, yet out here they can go so slowly. Tomorrow I’m back in school for another term. The work I brought home to do still remains undone so I will be playing catch up for the first week or so. Ah well at least I had a good four weeks off.
I didn’t take many photos while I was at home, but here are a few I did.
Having lunch on the way down to Cork. Nicky promised us a lovely park to stop at. Little did we know he meant a business park.
I had a lot of meals out, more out than in. This was hot chocolate with Pam. She insisted my area was picture and blog worthy. I don't see the problem myself.
I didn’t take many photos while I was at home, but here are a few I did.
Having lunch on the way down to Cork. Nicky promised us a lovely park to stop at. Little did we know he meant a business park.
I had a lot of meals out, more out than in. This was hot chocolate with Pam. She insisted my area was picture and blog worthy. I don't see the problem myself.
I finally mastered (again) parallel parking. This was definitely worth taking a photo of.
Oh one more thing, my wireless now seems to work. I have no clue what is going on with it. It must somehow be configured to only work here. But how do I change that? It’s not like it was just me looking at it, I some of the finest computer minds on this and nada!
Right, work to be done. Last minute Tina strikes again!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Ch-ch-changes
I’ve been home over a week now, can’t believe the time has gone so quick. This time next week I’ll be getting up, ready to start a brand new term. Rage.
Five months is not an inordinate amount of time but I’ve noticed a few things different, things like:
- adverts are all different.
- there’s a new traffic island in Kilroot. Purpose unclear.
- packaging on Quavers.
- the aisles in the Spar in the ‘Head are all different.
- The Outlet is up and running.
- there’s a new/second entrance at the Primary School.
- there’s a tool box in the back of my car. (I think my dad thinks it’ll help me in a roadside emergency. He should know better.)
- my ability to parallel park went as quickly as it appeared (when I came home from NC I could, when I came home from Singapore I definitely can’t).
- Belfast Tech is now called the Metropolitan College. Fancy. (Although you can dress it up any way you like to, it’ll always be the Tech, just like the UUJ will always be the Poly.)
- I left town at 5.00pm on Thursday thinking I’d get stuck in major traffic. Nothing. I didn’t even have to move out of 5th gear.
- smoking* has been banned.
However like the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same:
- June is still no guarantee of good weather. And it can change at a moment's notice.
- Ant and Dec are still kings of entertainment.
- YF still doesn’t start on time. (In fact, it doesn’t even start in the vicinity of on time.)
- a Rinkha ice cream is still hard to beat, especially dipped and with a flake.
- Fern and Phil are still daytime TV gods and have the ability to laugh for three minutes at the slightest fluffed line. This still makes me laugh.
- my room is still untidy.
- Sox is still the most spoilt cat in the world. (I feel a rant coming on about this one which I might save for later.)
The saddest change I have to report is nothing to do with being away or coming back, but my wireless on my laptop has ceased to be. Heartbroken.
*You shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you.
Five months is not an inordinate amount of time but I’ve noticed a few things different, things like:
- adverts are all different.
- there’s a new traffic island in Kilroot. Purpose unclear.
- packaging on Quavers.
- the aisles in the Spar in the ‘Head are all different.
- The Outlet is up and running.
- there’s a new/second entrance at the Primary School.
- there’s a tool box in the back of my car. (I think my dad thinks it’ll help me in a roadside emergency. He should know better.)
- my ability to parallel park went as quickly as it appeared (when I came home from NC I could, when I came home from Singapore I definitely can’t).
- Belfast Tech is now called the Metropolitan College. Fancy. (Although you can dress it up any way you like to, it’ll always be the Tech, just like the UUJ will always be the Poly.)
- I left town at 5.00pm on Thursday thinking I’d get stuck in major traffic. Nothing. I didn’t even have to move out of 5th gear.
- smoking* has been banned.
However like the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same:
- June is still no guarantee of good weather. And it can change at a moment's notice.
- Ant and Dec are still kings of entertainment.
- YF still doesn’t start on time. (In fact, it doesn’t even start in the vicinity of on time.)
- a Rinkha ice cream is still hard to beat, especially dipped and with a flake.
- Fern and Phil are still daytime TV gods and have the ability to laugh for three minutes at the slightest fluffed line. This still makes me laugh.
- my room is still untidy.
- Sox is still the most spoilt cat in the world. (I feel a rant coming on about this one which I might save for later.)
The saddest change I have to report is nothing to do with being away or coming back, but my wireless on my laptop has ceased to be. Heartbroken.
*You shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Not Thailand
So here is the story of my Not Thailand Adventures. I'm back home now and had a few adventures since getting home including a roadtrip to Cork! I finally made it to the far end of the island. More on that later. Maybe.
Anyway, on that first Monday, instead of being at the airport at the butt crack of dawn (4.00am. Actually this is a comfortable three hours before dawn in Singapore) I was lying peacefully in my bed sound asleep. But soon enough I was up. I had things to do.
I decided that I needed to be a tourist for my 10 days before I went home. I knew I couldn’t change my home flights so short of lying on the sofa and watching Ellen and Oprah, fun and all as it sounds just wasn’t going to cut it. Off I set to see if I could book tickets to Kuala Lumpur and Bali and as I you know I was successful. But there was still tourist things to be done in Singapore.
East Coast Park
This is a large stretch of reclaimed land in the, yes you guessed it, East of Singapore. You can hire bikes and rollerblades there and so off I set. I thought it best to stick to the bike given my tendency to fall in shoes, imagine the carnage if those shoes had wheels.
This is 'Rainbow Astroid' (named in a similar vein to the bikes at Camp – 'Red Thunder', 'Purple Rain' and 'White Lightning')
I had so much fun the entire afternoon, I cycled the entire length (and back again) which I think is about 10km (not 100 miles a day I know). Fun but sore butt and sweaty beast on the sweat levels.
KL
I got up early on Tuesday morning to get downtown to get the bus to KL. There was pretty much only one thing I wanted to see in KL (and that’s mostly because we have ‘Entrapment’ on video), the Petronas Towers. But World Traveller that I am, I have the Rough Guide to South East Asia and it was able to point me the direction of a few other things of note.
On Tuesday afternoon I braved a KL buses and rode out to Batu Caves to a massive Hindu Temple there. It might be in the same class as the Giant’s Causeway, worth seeing but not worth going to see. But the big gold statue was impressive all the same.
On Wednesday I went to the ‘Skybridge’ which was so well worth it. It takes up two floors. Well I suppose to they need two, one for people who work there to actually cross towers without going all the way to the bottom and one for the tourists like me.
In the afternoon, not content with my 40 floor height I went to KL Tower to see the view from the top. NB It's not actually like Pisa but perpendicular to the ground. I was probably walking at the same time as taking this like the tourist I was.
Bali
Friday saw the adventure begin to Bali. I won’t lie to you, I was slightly nervous about going. I had researched it too much and read too many things about dodgy food and water, unsafe airplanes, terrorist attacks and thieving pickpockets. So I took precautions:
- Bottled water
- No spicy food, well cooked meat
- ‘Wedding’ ring on my finger
- All extra cards removed from purse and camera, mobile etc left behind when I went out.
But hurray, all was safe and I wasn’t sick, didn’t get mugged, planes landed ok and terrorists left Bali alone while I was there.
My hotel was about 400m from the memorial from the bomb in 2002.
Most of the time was spent either on the beach or at the pool which was relaxing and probably something I haven’t done on a holiday since the glorious days of Majorca in the early nineties.
About three seconds after I took this that wave wiped it!
The highlight of the whole trip though was Sunday. I had researched enough to find out there was an Elephant Safari Park so I thought that would be fun. Then I found a company that runs a bike rides in the morning and elephant safari in the afternoon. Steve Irwin even said this Elephant Park was good and David Beckham has been there. How could you not go?!
We cycled down from a volcano (active apparently) to the Safari Park, a distance of 26km (but the key word there is down) through rice paddies, past temples and children ever keen to practice their English with shouts of ‘Hello! Hello! Hello!
Our guides were really good at stopping and showing us thing. This is rice harvesting, but we also saw coffee roasting, coffee beans, chilis and other things I can't remember.
I think my face says it all.
Anyway as you can imagine I took rather a lot of photos so thought I would try to use my new video editing skills and show you them this way as it takes ages to upload otherwise and you might get bored but in a video you might watch it and think it interesting. Although it is a bit like a slideshow. But there is music. Oooh.
Quite proud of my first 'video'. There are no moving images because Quicktime and Movie Maker don't get on. Oh and this will probably be my first and last 'video' as they take too darn long!
Anyway, on that first Monday, instead of being at the airport at the butt crack of dawn (4.00am. Actually this is a comfortable three hours before dawn in Singapore) I was lying peacefully in my bed sound asleep. But soon enough I was up. I had things to do.
I decided that I needed to be a tourist for my 10 days before I went home. I knew I couldn’t change my home flights so short of lying on the sofa and watching Ellen and Oprah, fun and all as it sounds just wasn’t going to cut it. Off I set to see if I could book tickets to Kuala Lumpur and Bali and as I you know I was successful. But there was still tourist things to be done in Singapore.
East Coast Park
This is a large stretch of reclaimed land in the, yes you guessed it, East of Singapore. You can hire bikes and rollerblades there and so off I set. I thought it best to stick to the bike given my tendency to fall in shoes, imagine the carnage if those shoes had wheels.
This is 'Rainbow Astroid' (named in a similar vein to the bikes at Camp – 'Red Thunder', 'Purple Rain' and 'White Lightning')
I had so much fun the entire afternoon, I cycled the entire length (and back again) which I think is about 10km (not 100 miles a day I know). Fun but sore butt and sweaty beast on the sweat levels.
KL
I got up early on Tuesday morning to get downtown to get the bus to KL. There was pretty much only one thing I wanted to see in KL (and that’s mostly because we have ‘Entrapment’ on video), the Petronas Towers. But World Traveller that I am, I have the Rough Guide to South East Asia and it was able to point me the direction of a few other things of note.
On Tuesday afternoon I braved a KL buses and rode out to Batu Caves to a massive Hindu Temple there. It might be in the same class as the Giant’s Causeway, worth seeing but not worth going to see. But the big gold statue was impressive all the same.
On Wednesday I went to the ‘Skybridge’ which was so well worth it. It takes up two floors. Well I suppose to they need two, one for people who work there to actually cross towers without going all the way to the bottom and one for the tourists like me.
In the afternoon, not content with my 40 floor height I went to KL Tower to see the view from the top. NB It's not actually like Pisa but perpendicular to the ground. I was probably walking at the same time as taking this like the tourist I was.
Bali
Friday saw the adventure begin to Bali. I won’t lie to you, I was slightly nervous about going. I had researched it too much and read too many things about dodgy food and water, unsafe airplanes, terrorist attacks and thieving pickpockets. So I took precautions:
- Bottled water
- No spicy food, well cooked meat
- ‘Wedding’ ring on my finger
- All extra cards removed from purse and camera, mobile etc left behind when I went out.
But hurray, all was safe and I wasn’t sick, didn’t get mugged, planes landed ok and terrorists left Bali alone while I was there.
My hotel was about 400m from the memorial from the bomb in 2002.
Most of the time was spent either on the beach or at the pool which was relaxing and probably something I haven’t done on a holiday since the glorious days of Majorca in the early nineties.
About three seconds after I took this that wave wiped it!
The highlight of the whole trip though was Sunday. I had researched enough to find out there was an Elephant Safari Park so I thought that would be fun. Then I found a company that runs a bike rides in the morning and elephant safari in the afternoon. Steve Irwin even said this Elephant Park was good and David Beckham has been there. How could you not go?!
We cycled down from a volcano (active apparently) to the Safari Park, a distance of 26km (but the key word there is down) through rice paddies, past temples and children ever keen to practice their English with shouts of ‘Hello! Hello! Hello!
Our guides were really good at stopping and showing us thing. This is rice harvesting, but we also saw coffee roasting, coffee beans, chilis and other things I can't remember.
I think my face says it all.
Anyway as you can imagine I took rather a lot of photos so thought I would try to use my new video editing skills and show you them this way as it takes ages to upload otherwise and you might get bored but in a video you might watch it and think it interesting. Although it is a bit like a slideshow. But there is music. Oooh.
Quite proud of my first 'video'. There are no moving images because Quicktime and Movie Maker don't get on. Oh and this will probably be my first and last 'video' as they take too darn long!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
T minus 4:10.38
How many pairs of jeans?
Flip flops?
What t-shirts do I have at home?
Toothpaste? No. YES! Parents use that Sensodyne crap.
School work?
Time to stop at school?
Passport(s)?
How is it that the day I have been looking forward to for so long is here and I'm not ready?
[Note to Father: Best bring my winter coat to the airport. And maybe my ski trousers. They're upstairs in David's room. Don't bother with the wooly hat, wouldn't want to look stupid upon arriving back in the motherland. Thanks.]
Flip flops?
What t-shirts do I have at home?
Toothpaste? No. YES! Parents use that Sensodyne crap.
School work?
Time to stop at school?
Passport(s)?
How is it that the day I have been looking forward to for so long is here and I'm not ready?
[Note to Father: Best bring my winter coat to the airport. And maybe my ski trousers. They're upstairs in David's room. Don't bother with the wooly hat, wouldn't want to look stupid upon arriving back in the motherland. Thanks.]
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Quick turnaround
I'm back, although only for a short while as I leave for NI tomorrow and once again I will be denting the earth with my (no doubt) huge carbon footprint.
After getting back into my apartment, it took me approximately:
-2 seconds to turn on the air con
-5 seconds to turn on the TV
-10 seconds to turn on my computer
-10 minutes to start the washing machine
Can't help but think these things will do nothing to help my footprint.
So while I was away Paris has gone to jail, Bebo has changed to Trebuchet and Oprah has moved to primetime on the Hallmark Channel. Plusses all round I think.
Anyway I had a great time, full report, photos etc will be forthcoming.
After getting back into my apartment, it took me approximately:
-2 seconds to turn on the air con
-5 seconds to turn on the TV
-10 seconds to turn on my computer
-10 minutes to start the washing machine
Can't help but think these things will do nothing to help my footprint.
So while I was away Paris has gone to jail, Bebo has changed to Trebuchet and Oprah has moved to primetime on the Hallmark Channel. Plusses all round I think.
Anyway I had a great time, full report, photos etc will be forthcoming.
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