Me and Singapore public library

A simple equation:-
CL + Singapore public library = no luck !!!

During my 1st time there, I intended to open an account.
Librarian : Are you a Singaporean?
CL : No. I'm a Malaysian but I'm currently a student at NTU.
Librarian : Then you have to pay S$57 for your first year of membership as a foreigner.
CL : ......

To be honest, before coming to Singapore, I was so naively equalize England and Singapore. In England, we do not pay to be a member of the public library (note here: public library is not the university library, therefore we, students, are not automatically the member of the public library)

That day, at the end, I still wasn't the member of this public library at my place. First, I wasn't prepared to pay S$$$ for the membership. Secondly, according to the librarian, NTU libraries store up plenty of story books ( hahAHA! you got me here. my aim is never the technical books!), which is quite "innocent" of her because everyone knows that university libraries only have technical books.

After pondered for a week, I decided to generously spend S$57 for a 6 month membership (coz I'll be here for 6 months only). That day started with me rushing to the Jurong Point shopping center to withdraw the money from the ATM machine. However, it again proved that Murphy's law is absolutely correct, "whatever can go wrong will go wrong", my 2 weeks old ATM card was eaten by the machine! !"£$%^

At the end of that day, with no money to pay for the membership, I still wasn't the member of the public library.

My 3rd time there, with a little help from Javier, I went home with 6 fictions in my bag!!! hehehe. A very big thank you to Javier. He came all the way to Jurong West planning to get a N6700 handphone from a promotion at the Singtel Jurong Point. He didn't get the phone he wanted but he did a good deed by using his never-being-used-Singaporean-membership to borrow the books for me. hehehe.

However, I still wasn't the member of the library. If I could get the books for free then why should I pay for it?

My 4th time there, which is this morning. I began the day very enthusiatically planning to do my thesis writing in the cosy public library; not-too-cold air conditioning, not-too-tensed atmosphere with kids around, can sit on the floor if I worked on the Japanese style table (my not-so-civilised habit, prefer sitting on the floor to a chair) etc. But when I was looking for a power socket for my laptop, Jeez! they are locked! Another privilege for member only.

So now instead of working hard on my thesis at the library, I am at home "complaining" about the public library in Singapore.

If you are still in England, hey! use the library there more often.

My one year and 1 week old niece in Penang

Wan Ching's gal, J-mie

When the two first met in my og house.....

Oh......

Our many first times

Our 5 first times in the Finland cum Norway trip.

First time #1: We were at the Santa Claus' Village in Rovaniemi, Finland. I would like to emphazise that this is the REAL santa claus village! If you want to send a postcard to the santa claus, you just have to address the postcard to Finland (something like
"To Santa Claus in Finland") and the postcard will be sent to this village directly. So, isn't it real?

First time #2: We saw herds of wild reindeers on the road. Sorry to say that we tasted the yummy reindeer kebab too!

First time #3: The Northern Light! My buddy said this is something must see before he dies.

First time #4: We reached the northernmost point of Europe, the North Cape. The sea is the Arctic Sea!!!

First time #5: We drove 2964km in 4 days from Tampere, the southern part of Finland, to the northernmost part of Norway. First experience with the left-hand drive and the GPS ( the small screen above the air-conditioner. GPS is so cooool! kekekeke.
Driver #1, Swee Ching and our sole navigator, Javier. Driver #2 is ME!

A very different way to enjoy it

There are 3 different ways to enjoy the Trinity Mall Ball.

(i) Purchase the May Ball ticket.

Pros:

- can show off to friends. "Hey I got the ticket to the famous Trinity May Ball ohhh!"
- can walk on the Trinity lawn. This is the only time in the year when we are allowed to step on the grass.

Cons:

- spend £££ on the ticket, £££ on the dress, £££ on a new hairdo etc.
- may not get the ticket even you are willing to pay £££.
- min. 2 hours of queue up outside the college waiting for the entrance to the May Ball.
- obligned to stay up for the whole night making sure that you get back what you have paid!

(ii) Work in the May Ball.

Pros:

- earn £££ instead of spend £££
- can see beautiful girls in beautiful dress ;p

Cons:

- work 12 hours from 6pm to 6am the next morning!! And no sleep for the entire night!

(iii) Punting to watch the fireworks show

Pros:

- it's FREE for us.
- I could still go to bed that night
- no dress up, no make up! yeah yeah yeah!
- it's fun! very very fun indeed!
- extra entertainment from other punters.

Cons:- None, from my point of view.

No doubt, I went for the last option.

Waiting for the fireworks of Trinity Mayball in the boats at the River Cam in front of Trinity.

At 23.15pm the fireworks began. 2 groups of spectators: (i) those sitting comfortably in the boats who watched it free, and (ii) those standing at the river side (do you spot them?) who paid a great amount of £££ to watch it.

Lucky of us. Our boat were right in front of the fireworks.

Members of our boat: Hon Tou, the main punter and Yunie, the main organiser of this outing. Another 3 members were not in the photo.

This was a hired boat, the punter was a professional punter contrast to our freeee boat and free punter.

I'm normal!

My buddy, who I haven't seen for months, out of the blue text me; he suspected he was in poor health due to his chronic tiredness. Brother, welcome to the world of PhD, a world which is filled with fatigue, stress, depression and frustration. Glad to know I'm not the only soul in Cambridge who is experiencing these symptoms. kekekeke (imitate Wanching's laughing crazily). I'm normal!

Spring has long gone. This and the next 3 spring photos are all for OiKuan.

The garden nearest to my house.

Punting, college (Clare) and River Cam. The 3 essential elements of Cambridge which make up a view you often see in the movies. However, this photo is CL's proprietary.

The biggest event in this spring. Prof. Tou, my master supervisor (left), Dr. Teo, my MMU lecturer (right) and Renbin, my MMU friend (not in the photo) visited me in Cambridge. My honour. Cambridge is Dr. Teo's alma mater, and this is his PhD lab back in 1996.

Birthday

Guess how old is Cambridge? Jeez! 800 years old! This night, Cambridge celebrated its 800th birthday with the Church bell ringing in Cambridge and around the world, together with the light show projected onto the Senate House. Watching the light show which reminding us about the history and contributions of Cambridge for the world over hundreds of years, I was immersed in the pride , and feeling myself was so insignificant at the same time.

Check out more about this event:-
http://www.800.cam.ac.uk/events/26/

The light show which was projected onto the Senate House.

The Senate House, the two buildings which 1209 and 2009 were projected on them, respectively. I like to watch and be in the crowd at this occasion.

A close shot of one part of Senate House. This hall is used mainly for graduation ceremonies. The building is originally in white. By covering up all the windows with white blinds, the entire building had been turned to a huge projector for the light show.

Light show displaying notable former Cambridge student, well-known Isaac Newton. The apples were falling animatedly in the light show.

Nobel Laureates who "found the secret of life", crackers of the DNA code, Francis Crick and James Watson from Cambridge. Could you spot the animated DNA helix?

Flying candyfloss

It is the 2nd big snow day of the week. Today, skip my weekly voluntary work at Addenbrooke's Hospital (god forgive me!), skip going to the lab and escape to CMS library compiling data (I'm still working!). Watching the big snow outside the window, it's so amazing! Big and small chuck of snowflakes, exactly like candyfloss, pouring down from the sky and flying in the air. Everything is white, it is like my childhood imagination of heaven. But I think heaven should have a blue sky instead of the grey sky in Cambridge. My housemate, Lisa, a 23 years old English girl, told that she has never seen such a big snow in England.

When everyone was crowding at those famous colleges for phototaking, I introduced Emmanuel College's rear garden to my friends.
Emmanuel College is the nearest college to my house and I visited it countless time before (borrow using the toilet most of the time! hehe), but this was the first time I really looked at its rear garden.

Emmanuel's main building. The students are really quick, it was the first morning of the snow and they already made a big snow duck.

Come to the reality part. Snowing is poetic, playing with snow is fun but when the snow melts and becomes ice, it is too slippery to walk on it. This girl was poouring salt on the snow and then shovel off the snow from the footpath.

King's Chapel. This is the famous one.

Coldest winter?

This winter is regarded as the coldest winter in the UK since 1996. The coldness has even ushered the arrival of the rare species of birds from other colder parts of the world. I don't like winter; because I don't like cold! But most of the people here hate it for different reasons, they hate the short day. The day is extremely short in winter. The sun rises at almost 8 am and at 4 pm, it is as dark as 8 pm in Malaysia. People get depressed and tired easily. This is my 3rd winter in the UK and surprisingly, I start to like it. I still hate cold but I like the short day in a very weird way; hey! I work longer hours than the sun! (as opposed to summer when I go to bed while the sun is still up there). This makes me feel that I am very hardworking! Apart from this, my growing fondness for winter also due to it marks the arrival of spring. It is a great feeling, a feeling of awaiting something wonderful to happen!

p/s: The scenery on my way (using Trinity College's route) to my lab during a winter morning; A departure from my house (the bottom one), cut through Trinity College that morning (middle 2 photos), at last, I reached my lab, almost there. (top 2 photos)

Cycle path near to my lab. It snowed very lightly last Monday and the ice didn't melt for several day. Which are my footprints? Anyway, don't play play! Walk carefully! It was very slippery on the road.

Precious moment. Sunrise on a winter morning at St. John College. Viewed from Trinity College.

Same as above. Spot the ice covering the grass.

Dawn broke outside my house, Parker's Piece. The square green was covered by a layer of ice that morning.