To Urs, For Urs, From Ur

Happy 21st, Elvin!

2008-02-17T16:42:00.011Z

Well actually his birthday is not today, it’s the following day. But since me and him have to go to Manchester to apply for Schengen visa (Europen visa) in Spanish Consulate early morning the next day, all of us decided to celebrate after dinner today. We were still kinda ‘tired’ of cooking during the CNY, so we decided to take away Nando’s this time. Last time he wasn’t able to eat it, so now we gave him the chance. Yee Tat, Serene and Mina were still in their return trip from Edinburgh (Scotland), so they couldn’t join. Instead, I invited Juanda, still remember him? =D

Our surprise was successful because obviously he didn’t expect it to be today (even though our Nando's dinner had already finished), and the theme for his unforgettable 21^st birthday is PRINCESS!

The princess cake...

The princess 'tiara'

The farting birthday card

All of his 'wives'....

And Juanda! xD

MY and Su-En gave...

And from me, JQ and Carol... They are bowl, mug, and lunch box. A bit lame, but they are NECESSITIES!

Last but not least, the URs gift (passed to me before I left to UK)
And finally Elvin got 4 ZARA T-shirts for his bday....

Fri 8Feb08: Nottingham Light

2008-02-13T23:27:00.010Z

One distinctive thing that I am fond of developed country is that they are well-organized and well-planned ahead. In UK, besides promoting those places of tourists’ interests, each city council has been very active in organizing shows, attractions, offers, special occasions, etc in attempt to make their city eventful. Furthermore those events were planned in yearly-basis, and eventually the brochures and other form of publications could be disseminated to locals, institutions, and tourists, free of charge. Tourist information centre, usually located in the heart of the city or easily accessible, is the place where you could find all the information that you would like to know regarding the city. The officers will be glad to help and guide you kindly, with maps or booklets provided, and again free of charge. Of course the information could be easily found in internet too, but sometimes you could just get more updated and complete ones in these information centers. Getting answers directly from a person will be more convenient and straightforward, do you agree?

We received a copy of the events held by the Nottingham City Council from the International Office during our first day of registration day. That is how all of us we were aware about this “Nottingham Light”

Not really knowing for sure what we were going to see, 5 of us (Su-En departed to London today) went to the Market Square, city centre around 7pm. While approaching our destination, we were so surprised by a glimpse of a big Ferris wheel we saw from inside the taxi.

When we reached, we can’t help our mouth from forming ‘WHOAA’ because there’s SUDDENLY a NOTTINGHAM EYE in the Market Square! There was nothing, absolutely nothing in that place, and all of sudden, WUSH!, there’s an Eye there. This is so exciting! We were quite late though, because apparently there was a musical performance that had been going on, and the place was quite crowded. The performance was, I would say, more to a classical or easy-listening using some traditional instruments. We enjoyed it so much!

Nottingham City Council building

£5 per person to ride on the eye, anyone?

But we can let ourselves enjoy too much because there has been a strike in our stomach: we haven’t had dinner yet.
And so we decided to go to Nando’s to eat, since the restaurant was just opened. I was told by my ex that the Extra Hot Peri-Peri sauce here is more spicy and delicious that the one in Malaysia, and so I was so eager to discover the truth. And you know what? IT IS! IT IS INDEED MORE SPICY!! I LOVE IT!! Hohohoho~~~~ Poor Elvin, he couldn’t enjoy it since it was his fasting day. Too bad! =p

When we nearly finished our dinner, Yee Tat, Serene and Mina joined us: they just arrived after having their dinner in the campus. It was so coincidence that when we were back to the Market Square, lots of fireworks had been shot!!

Oh, so glad that we didn’t miss it!

The 'stunned' people...

Nice shot, Elvin!

Thurs 7Feb08: CNY Part 2

2008-02-13T23:25:00.003Z

You mustn’t deny that WE ARE SO PATHETIC!! Yes, it’s Chinese New Year today, but there’s no holiday in UK. It is just like the other ordinary day, classes are still on as well as other normal activities. Ohh~~~~
So envy with you’all having a-week holiday! So sad!! :’(

The ballroom dance class was running as usual too, so three of us (including Carol and JQ) went to Trent Building, Great Hall for exact, where the class was conducted. That was where these pictures were taken. Seems like there was sort-of Chinese New Year celebration held for the counselors or other respective people of the university, therefore the decoration was purposely made.

All of sudden, Yee Tat, Serene and Mina, to express their gratitude for the last night’s dinner, contacted us and proposed to hold a drinking session in our flat (note: they are staying in the catered halls of Jubilee). Of course, we were very happy to accept their ‘good’ intention! Let’s ‘share’ our pathetic Chinese New Year and have fun! xD
Thanks to Carol for taking most of the pictures.. She's the only alcohol-free in our flat, hahaa..

Thanks to UK for its easy access in getting alcohols so that tonight's plan could be on!

A lil chit-chat before the fun starts

Wont be fun without our new playing-cards

Jia Qian and her super-red face

Having a break, what to do? Camwhore! lol

....and plenty more

One down... there's an 'interesting' video also ;p

Wed 6Feb08: Pre-CNY Dinner

2008-02-13T23:23:00.000Z

We’ve come up with the decision to organize a small gathering tonight to substitute the pre-CNY dinner that we usually had with our own family back home. We’ve been so busy in the preparation as we were expecting around 10-11 people to attend. The preparation started from the previous night, where we had to mince the pork meat by ourselves with a lousy chopper, marinade with some sauces (not telling ;p) and some vegetables like carrot and finely-sliced cabbage.

Meei Yunn, our main chef.
Give applause to her for her hardwork!

Me and Carol are making dumplings
(I was having a bad hair day!)

Being not used to organize this kinda gathering, we started the dinner 1.5 hours later than the planned time, even though we’ve been spending the whole day preparing the food. The last-minute jobs are too much to handle, not to mention the unexpected errors or failures occurred. But, anyway, we still make it though! Here are some of the ‘very few’ pictures taken on that night…

JQ brought 'lap-chiong' from Malaysia and so she cooked the rice with it (no wonder her luggage was so huge and overweight) =p

The other dishes for the night
A LOT isnt it?

Meei Yunn and See Toh

Mina and Yee Tat (exchange students from Melbourne University) and JQ

Rene (exchange student from US), Serene (exchange student from Melbourne Uni) and.. you-know-who

Carol, me, Meei Yunn, Jia Qian

Su-En and Rene

Kanpei!
Toast!
Cheers!

Sun 3Feb08: We've Improved!

2008-02-13T23:22:00.001Z

You might find it a bit lame, but we aren't! We were so glad and proud to ourselves that we could make such a 'decent' dinner by ourselves. After 2 weeks coming here, we've started to notice that there were a lots of things and stuffs that we could try, and where to get the cheaper ones.

Our flat 36 (plus Elvin) has 2 division: Chinese- and Western-cooking. Chinese-cooking people are MY, JQ and me, while the Western-cooking are Elvin and Su-En. How bout Carol? She's middle, non-block person.. Hahaha... =p But regardless of the division thingy, we still help each other during the preparation :)

Anyway, here was our dinner for today, starting with the Carbonara sauce (plus ham, broccoli, and carrot) for the Fusilli:
Accompanied with curly fries..
Plus garlic bread...
And voila! Here we are, enjoying our home-made cuisine! xD
Argh... So full!!!

Sat 2Feb08: Cadbury World, Birmingham

2008-02-13T23:20:00.000Z

Last week, we met the pharmacy girls (Pui San, Li-Lynn, Ei Lyn, Kae Shin, and many more) that came here since last year, and they invited us to join them visiting Cadbury Factory. Yes, it’s true, it’s the Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate! Not solely only due to the-more-the-merrier reason, but also the-more-the-CHEAPER reason for the entrance fee per person.. xD

Woke up in the freezing morning, we didn’t notice the weather (bcoz it was still dark until 7.30am) until we were outside, getting on to the taxi that we booked: It was SNOWING!
Yes, it did, though it’s not heavy, this time exceptionally we could see the soft piles along the road. Argh! If only we came down earlier! (which I doubt will ever happen)

Off we go by train that departs at around 8am, the sky was already bright, and we were excited because we could see the piling snows during our journey! Snows are hardly to be found in Nottingham. The ‘snow’ here will only last for few minutes and will eventually gone by another seconds by the sunlight. That’s why we were so excited by it! I wish the stop in each station could be longer for few minutes for us to take pictures… Hahahaa…

After the 1.5-hour journey, we took another train to go to our destination. After that we still have to walk for another 25-30mins to the factory. It’s really not far, and the weather actually encourages us to walk faster.

Finally after the long journey, here we are, at Bournville village, where Cadbury chocolate was born!

While Pui San was our EO for the trip, she had to queue in order to get our tickets. Well, either did we, in order to take this picture!

- And then we visited here…. It was TRULY THE BIGGEST!!

Upon the entrance, we received few ‘free’ chocolates (not exactly free right?). Having no idea what we should expect in this chocolate factory, first of all it started with the origins of chocolate.

- No history lesson, so first page will do right? -

- Not only texts, they also visualised the history... -

After that, they showed us the history of Cadbury family who invented the first dairy milk chocolate and their business with a very interactive way, some with ‘life shows’. They were divided into several stages, and during the interval they gave us different chocolate (=D). We were also told about process of making each type of the Cadbury chocolates. It was not boring at all as they presented it somehow so that we felt that we involved.

Next, its PLAYING TIME! The ‘games’ and attractions are not only for children, some are for adults too!

-Dear chocolate, play with me!-

- We use LOTS of chocolate to play! -

- Recognise someone here? *blink *blink -

- Jump on it, and it'll break! -

- Er... Charlie Angel's? -

- One of the demonstration -

We really had F-U-N, and didn’t realize that half day has gone! Finally now we came back to the shop and grab the chocolates! I bought some too, sharing with JQ and Carol. But of coz i didnt buy the 5-kg chocolate! =p

- Finally came out of the building, but the fun doesnt end yet! There's still playground! -

The very last chocolate treat that we have. It's a REAL CHOCOLATE still in liquid form, and we could choose the fillings: marshmallow, rice grain, jelly, etc... But have to eat fast, unless you wanted to find it hard-rock!

We took the train again to go to City Centre to find some food. Instinctively we were led by our feet towards the China town.

- Taken while deciding where to eat... (my fav group picture!) -

Following the pharmacy girls group, we ate in Malaysian restaurant (pic: Ma-lai-xi-a, Truly Asia). Before entering to the restaurant, I swore myself not to convert the price to Ringgit or Rupiah, or else I wouldn’t order anything but Chinese tea. Sad, huh?

Now, do the food look as what they are? ;p

After the late lunch, we separate ourselves with the pharmacy group since they went to shopping centre while we preferred to walk around the city.

Well, not exactly walk around, because in the end the so-called city centre was surrounded by shops too, and we can’t help going in when there’s a SALE sign! xD

PS: The 'Pavilions' were take for fun purpose only.. =p

And here I present you, the historical Victoria Square...

Not clear? Let's ZOOM IN!!

- Oops.. not ready yet! -

- 1, 2, 3, action! -

- Shop til drop and dark, we did... -

As if we were not tired when we were back home at around 9.30pm, me, Carol and JQ still had the strength to ‘display’ our chocolate shopping. Those are REALLY cheap since some of them were nearly expired, and some others are the chocolates that could hardly be found. Yes, this is our lil Cadbury shope in Flat 36:

Last but not least, I learnt an important lesson today,as quoted:

And.. Good night everyone! Ciao! xxxx

PS: The pictures in complete will be uploaded to Facebook soon...

Fri 1Feb08: Hailing!

2008-02-13T23:15:00.000Z

It was Friday, so it was the time for us to do our weekly grocery shopping. We could either choose between Friday or Saturday since we want to catch the Fresh Market that sells cheaper and fresh vegetables and fruits. They are indeed cheaper than Sainsbury’s, thanks to See Toh for informing us this!

And on that particular day, it was extremely cold (of course don’t compare during Winter time), and guess what.. It’s HAILING!! We were so excited yet feeling so cold til all of us can’t help trembling. Unfortunately it was not heavy enough that it couldn’t pile up along the streets or roofs or trees. So instead I could only show you by ‘catching’ those hails by our hands :)

University of Nottingham: Photo Tours

2008-02-13T23:14:00.012Z

It’s been one week since our arrival but we cam-whored a lot! We are getting familiar with the buildings and our surroundings.

So I think it won’t be a wrong time to show you’all the pictures of where we are ‘supposed’ to hang in most =)
Of course cant be ALL of the buildings okay! It's just so big and has too many buildings!

University Park

As I've included in the previous pictures, here you are once again, Trent Building, serves as Malaysia Campus' Block A, complete with the clock tower.

Portland Building, where all the students activities are centered, so it's like Malaysia Campus' Student Association Building.
The food court located in the top floor, is said to be the nicest of all.

The Blackwell's Book Shop and Student Union Shop inside the Portland Building. There are also Natwest Bank, HSBC Bank, Pioneer Travel that assists in travelling including bus and train tickets, and Endsleigh Travel Insurance.

Still inside the Portland, where all the Student Union's offices are located.
They have executives of all positions that you will never think of: Equal Opportunities officer, Environment & Social Justice officer, Democracy & Communications officer, Intersite & Residentials Associations officer, etc.
And as you can see, the announcement board is fully utilised - the uni has never-ending continuous events!

Another important building, called Coates Building. It is seriously the longest building in the campus (has 5 entrances, I think). Very often to get lost, as every part looks similar! It houses most of the engineering faculties.

Hallward Library, probably the main library in the university, entered with card-accessed system. The other one is George Green Library, for science and engineering schools. Sometimes business book can be found in these two libraries, although it's not that complete.
Besides the facilities that a normal library have, this library also provides video conferencing room, projector room, silent study areas, laptop-hiring, and STARBUCKS!!

Looking for Biology Building? Just search for the highest chimney in the whole university.

But don't get cheated by its appearance, Biology Building hides a beautiful garden inside! Fyi, we are having one of our Applied Algebra class in this building Still in the same place.

I know that this picture is irrelevant, but cant help to post it along! xD

Jubilee Campus

There are 5 main buildings here: Business School North Building, Exchange Building (besides lecture halls,there are also Natwest, Student Union Shop, Blackwells Book Shop, and a coffee shop), Djanogly Learning Resource Centre, Atrium Building (consists of CSIT department, Restaurant, and Education department), and lastly Business School South Building (lecture halls, computer labs, lectures offices, and Business library)

The Djanogly Learning Resource Centre, the CSIT students library with card-accessed system. There is a quite large computer lab in the top floor, so you can study while enjoying the view!

Well, this is ONE of the VIEWS that I was referring to... Nice right? Should be nicer when spring comes.. Oh, cant wait!

Mon 28Jan08 (cont): Lake Side, Uni Park

2008-02-13T22:54:00.005Z

Yo! This is our second week!
And four of us happened to be in University Park for some reasons (can’t remember) after our morning class. So, as usual and always, pictures worth a thousand words…

- The overall view in the Lake Side. Yes, its the one I used for this blog -

- Duckssss everywhere -

- Focus on the background, not the person! =p -

- Different case for this. Focus on the people, not the scenery! -

- Mobility kids are cam-whoring -

- I dislike Su-En! Hahaha... -

-A random joggers that is sneaking to my picture-taking turn -

Mon 28Jan08: Computational Finance

2008-02-13T22:02:00.003Z

I found myself sitting in Lecture Theatre 3, Exchange Building just before the Computational Finance class starts. Me and the rest already missed the first lecture (totally not our fault!) and therefore I think we should pay more attention. Feeling anxious on how difficult the module will be. Indeed when we took the lecture notes that looks familiar to us, but there are some other terms that we have never heard of. There are some ‘funny’ and ‘complicated’ formulas involved. Judging from the lecture note itself, I could be pretty sure that he divides the lecture notes based on topics. So the last week’s topic, the Money Market, will still proceed for today’s lecture.

Let the lecture begins as the clock ticks at 10am sharp. When I heard the first few sentences of the lecturer, Dr Weimin Liu, I told myself, “OH MY GODNESS!!”. I tried to understand him, tried to listen to him. But it’s very hard! And I’m starting to wonder: ‘IS HE SPEAKING MANDARIN OR ENGLISH??’
Looking around the class after 10-15 minutes, half of the class look so serious and they seem to pay attention. While the rest, I’m quite sure, already gave up to listen to him, not exceptionally me.

For the entire lecture, I’ve been letting myself digesting from lecture notes, hopefully I could get more clues rather than listening to him solely. I tried to reread from the beginning, the part that we’ve missed from last week’s lecture. I failed. Even it took me 5 minutes to really understand the notation or variables that he used for a simple one, such as “Simple Rate = B_T,t = 1 / [1 + r_s(T-t)]” What’s t and T? How could it differ? Is this the one that I knew, or something else? And this is even the starting, the next ones, are the Discount Rate, Discretely Compounded Rate, and Continuously Compounded Rate. Of course they are not new things, but when all of them do have T, t, and m, you can’t help saying ‘W-H-A-T?’ And that’s one part of the last week’s lecture.

Today’s lecture starts from Forward-Forward Rate. While explaining he’s been using all those ‘distinctive’, ‘unique’ variables that I swear I could hardly understand. This is a NIGHTMARE!!

I still remember during my first year second semester, where the whole class complaints about Dr Ee Mong Shan’s (Business Finance lecturer) communication skill, as she just came back from Japan and didn’t speak English fluently. She made loads of grammatical errors, and some of the pronunciations are wrong as well. At that time I seriously thought that she really needs to improve her English, if not it will be hard for her to get respect from her students.

BUT NOW, AT THIS POINT? Dr Liu made Dr Ee as if SHE WERE NATIVE IN ENGLISH. And I pity myself to have him teaching the similar subject, in Finance area, something I have interest in most… ;'(

Sun 27Jan08: A Week has Passed

2008-02-13T21:31:00.001Z

Shopping! Wo-hOO!!
And it's non-groceries one, of course! Finally had an enjoyable time, after the hectic week! Yup, me and Meei Yunn (or me dragging her to be exact) went to Victoria Centre to explore the shopping centre. The rest, including MY had their time in exploring the place in the previous day when I went for Cambridge trip.

-The shopping area-

-Some stuff are quite cheap here...-

-But not here!-

-The Trem in the Victoria Market Square-

Well, overall, I would still think KL as a better, more pleasant place for shopping compared to here. Not only because of the prices, but also the choices. Last but not least, the CLOSING TIME! I missed the time when I used to shop-til-drop in Malaysia. Over here, most of the shops are closed around 5pm, everyday. So sad, huh?

During dinner, we suddenly decided to come up with the idea of having a drink. Yeah, man! We are in UK! Alcohols are relatively cheaper! So Elvin and Su-En went to the shop nearby and came home with a bottle of Chivas. And the story goes… ;p

-Our honorary 'guest' tonight, Chivas, and its partner Ginger ale -

-Before 'the game' starts -

-One of our games, the 'Blowing'. We didnt have playing cards, so we used name cards! Cant u imagine that?? -

-After the 'game'. Look at JQ's face! xD -

One week has passed, lots of things happened. Some are barriers and problems, some are joys and cheers. I'm so gonna enjoy my only-5-month time here!
Good nite, URs!

Sat 26Jan08: IndoSoc Cambridge Trip

2008-02-12T03:02:00.002Z

Actually me and Elvin received email regarding the trip few days ago. At first we were hesitating to go - especially me since I’d been there - but, well, finally I did go. It would take this as a first step to be introduced with the Indonesian students currently studying here. Overall, though visiting the same place, it could give you different 'impression' when going with different people.

- 1st rule of becoming Indonesian: Be Narcissists! -

- Elvin posing in front of King's College. Entrance is not free -

- Group Photo 2 (with some people missing), in the central market -

- Streets in Cambridge city -

- Inside one of the college -

- Cant resist in preserving this scene -

- Found a good spot to take picture ;p -

- The panting place. Dont leave Cambridge without it (?) -

- The renter is explaining the basic technique of panting -

- Elvin and Me, in the 'dangerous' boat of 7 (supposedly only 6) -

- It wasnt easy and tiring, so we take turns. No exception to girls! -

- You can tell the difficulties by looking at Elvin's face. All of the 'Pant'-ers hands were wet by cold water. Brr!! -

- We laughed on each other's 'stupidness' since none of us could really properly do it. All of us kept on 'crashing' with others coz we were not able to 'drive' it properly. It was fun though! -

- The bar where we warmed ourselves -

- Inside the bar -

Honestly, I found it a bit hard to take pictures since the weather is still cold, especially my hands. And taking the experience, I think it's still better to do panting in a warmer weather, so that you could enjoy the sceneries of colleges from the river more relax, and I think it's more beautiful too. These are the pictures of my previous trip in 2006.

- Look at the traffic! Oh, meet my Mom and my Bro at the back =D -

.... and many more

Fri 25Jan08: UK Campus isn’t that Superior After All (Part 2)

2008-02-11T01:27:00.001Z

We were going to have our first Applied Algebra for Engineers class in University Park today. We just received email from the UG office yesterday, informing that Chew Ging had allowed us to take some math subjects that we asked earlier: Calculus for Engineers, Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, and Applied Algebra for Engineers. And so we left earlier since we were not familiar yet with the venue and buildings, some more the class starts at 9am..

We arrived there on time, after being lost in the longest building in University Park: Coates Building. However, the class was empty. There was nobody. We also found few people who looked as bewildered as us. But apparently, all of us that present there have one similarity: we missed the Tuesday class. We tried to ask the staff, but they seemed to be uninformed about it too. So the only logical reason appeared is that the lecturer must have informed the students that there was no lecture for today. Wake up early and rush in the morning for no point at the end, in other words.

And so we went back to Jubilee Campus. The rest went back home, while I stayed to go to UG office (again) to settle about my record error in university system. AGAIN, I was disappointed by the lady’s answer. She couldn’t do anything; she couldn’t modify anything in the central university’s network. She suggested me to go to International Office.

YEAH RITE. If so, why should I wait for you in the first place? I could’ve gone there if you just told me earlier yesterday. Now you are telling me to go to University Park again? I was just from there, for goodness sake! GOSH, THESE PEOPLE MADE ME SPEECHLESS!!

Second lecture of IE was in the afternoon (IE is separated into 2 one-hour lectures per week), so I could only go back to University Park afterwards.

Jia Qian accompanied me because she has some stuffs to settle. When we went there, the staff-in-charge already guessed on who I am and what I was there for, and all she said that everything was already corrected, and she apologized. The next thing I have to do is to demand for new University card in the Security Office. Fiuhh, finally it’s right! And most importantly, finally I don’t have to deal with these people again.

Oops.. The story doesn’t end there. You should know this interesting part! When I went back home and opened up my laptop, MY EMAIL WAS SPAMMED! These people – UG office, International Office and IT department – included me in the emailssSS (as CC) they sent to each other in resolving my problem. Can I infer this as their way to prove themselves? xD

Oh yeah, since I’m grumbling about UK life so far, I wanna include another problem that I forgot to put in the earlier posts. Well, we did pay a deposit of £250 before our arrival in UK to our accommodation provider, Derwent Living. And when we arrived on Sunday, the staff said that we could pay our rent the following day. Seems that they understood we were so tired after the long journey. The next day, we went to the office to pay for the rent of the month. The lady said that we only had to pay £1000+ at once as our first installment (until April). Of course we were shocked by the amount. The thing is, they never state about the basis of the payment. They only gave us the breakdowns of the monthly rental as well as the total amount, so logically we would think that the payment is in monthly-basis. And now only we were told differently… I really don’t understand how this could happen in UK..

We tried to ask for compensation, as it was only less than 24 hours since our arrival, we didn’t have that much of cash, and we haven’t had any bank account opened yet. Well, they couldn’t do anything though, rather than asking us to pay as soon as possible…

Thirdly, about our bank account. There are some banks in our campus. In Jubilee, there is a small office of Natwest bank. Whilst there are both Natwest and HSBC bank in University Park. Since we will be around Jubilee the most, we chose to apply at Natwest. Soon we were told by the staff that we had to ask for bank reference letter from the Student Service Centre, and so did we. Apparently it took 5 (five) working days of processing for that single letter. Fine. If we get the letter, can we have our bank account instantly? Yes. Can we have our ATM card at the same time? The answer is NO. We have to wait for another 2 (TWO) WEEKS to get our ATM card ready for collection. In other words, we DO will have our bank account, parents can transfer money to our account which we can withdraw – but we will have to deal with the clerks during that period until our ATM card is ready.

Back to 2.5 years ago when I opened my bank account in Maybank, even in Semenyih, where all things were done all-in-one day. The bank reference letter was obtained on-the-spot as well. In UK, it took a total of 3 (THREE) WEEKS. Once again, I’m SPEECHLESS~~!!!

Thurs 24Jan08: My Course Officially Ends TODAY

2008-02-10T00:10:00.006Z

“According to your record here, your course finishes on 24^th January 2008”, said the librarian to me. I questioned her after realising that my borrowed books only last for 3 days instead of 3 months for ordinary loan. Yeah right…

I suspected that the university just never bothers to update my status as spring semester mobility students from autumn semester. Indeed I was initially offered autumn semester, and I admit that I received their official offer letter. But I didn’t confirm about my coming. Instead, in the starting of semester 1 year 2, I proposed to switch the offer to spring semester coz after Ningbo’s late notice and yet causing deep disappointment, I think spring semester period is longer than autumn due to Easter holiday and the summer holiday at the year end. Still short, but at least still longer than autumn.

The librarian couldn’t change it for me coz the error is from the main system in which they couldn’t modify. The first place I went is UG office. I was reluctant to go there, but, well, do I have a choice? But… Once again it disappoints me. The office is CLOSED for general requirements since it was currently busy with student transcripts. No exception for my case, as I did try to speak to the lady. Gosh! This sucks…

With my current false record, means that books that I borrow will last for few hours only in my hand, my requested books will never get to my hand and so I have to requeue from already-long requests list, and I would not be able to enter some libraries or computer labs that require ID identification to enter. Not to mention the fact that my last name is spelled incorrectly. This is not the first time happening, to be honest, “Leonardi” instead of “Leonarni”. Considering the fact that I’m completely a ‘foreigner’ in this country and students have lots of discount privileges here, student ID is quite vital, at least for me. And, who likes their name to be misspelled? Sigh~~~

Ohya before that I had the ‘seemingly-interesting’ DDI (Database Design and Implementation) class finishes at 11am. Why interesting in the first place? Because my first impression of him is: FUN and FRIENDLY. Simply because he had his own blog (for the module information purpose) and recommends us to ADD his MSN... Hahaha..

Anyway, today’s weather is excellent for photography: it’s sunny. This is considered as the first day we saw the sun shines so brightly. We were in the University Park to ask about making bank account, and intuitively decided to walk around the lake. It was quite adventurous because initially we couldnt find the path to the lakeside walk. Our time was limited since the FAM students have Accounting Information System (AIS) class at 3pm at Jubilee Campus, which turns out to be boring in the spacious lecture hall..

These are some of my favourite shots (after hours combining, selecting and 'intersecting' pictures from 5 cameras). Hopefully they do represents the scenes of our 'beloved' University in UK campus. Enjoy!!

- Su-En and Me, with Trent Building behind -

- Su-En and Me, (still) with Trent Building behind, after going down further towards lake -

- And so the view starts-

- Me & Elvin, Guess how old and how tall the tree is? -

- After having a bit obstacle in finding the way down, it paid off -

- Blending with nature: huge lake, clear skies, lovely wind, and birds voice -

- My 'lucky' shot with G600 -

- 'Forest' everywhere unexceptionally inside the campus -

- In which 'he' lives -

- Elvin sitting on the bench (like old man =p) -

- 'Lucky' shot no 2 -

- 'UK' ducks that fearless of people -

- 'Lucky' shot no 3 -

- A seemingly main gate, but doubtful whether serves its function -

- The so-called 'lame tourists' -

Wed 23Jan08: UK Campus isn't that Superior After All

2008-02-09T01:17:00.007Z

My first night of good sleep brightened my day today! I woke up early again coz I still slept very early (compared to my ‘normal’ sleeping time) the previous night. Must have been due to both jetlag and the darkness that came earlier made us feel so tired faster. But I’m sure this will not last long, hehehe… xD

Anyway, Me, MY and Su-En are having the same thought of taking math subject from Engineering School instead of other business modules (some are available in Malaysia Campus, some aren’t) and modules from other various schools offered to Business School (around 100 over). Three of us had a bad feeling about the last exam results, so by taking a math-based subject we hope it could pull up our average. Some peculiar subjects are Animal Form and Function, China in the 21^st Century, Criminal Law, Freedom and Determinism, Housing and Society, Human Rights and Global Sex Trade, Introducing Deconstruction, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, Introduction to the Roman World, Issues in Feminist Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Oceanic and Atmospheric Systems, Psychology & Social Influence at Work, Practical Archaeology, Selected Work by Pushkin, Self, Mind & Body, The Ancient Greeks, The Buddhist Tradition, and many more.

So after the first class of Introductory Econometrics (IE) - in which I was amazed with the most detail & compact notes I've ever seen since high school - we went to UG office. The admin staff said that she had to reconfirm whether or not we are eligible for these math subjects to Chew Ging first. Fine. But when we asked about WHERE we were supposed to get approval from for taking the subject, she was not sure. Don’t even know WHICH SCHOOL these subjects belong to, therefore where we should go to. Yeah right…!! **Lesson earned: the staff is not knowledgeable about the university system itself, much better and more efficient to ask your friends around **

The other ironic thing is that all the core books were borrowed with long requests behind. Diana, who are transferred here under Petronas scholarship, said that they knew the required textbooks BEFORE the FIRST CLASS COMMENCED through Nexus – sort of WebCT dedicated for Business students, with more features and information such as forum discussion and assessment feedback for each respective modules. ARGH!!!!

We cooked Chinese food for our dinner, finally! Thanks to Su-En for kindly bringing her rice cooker. Never knew MY is such a good cook, we are so lucky to have her here! Anyway, I believe pictures give better explanation here :)

Hoamm… it’s only 10pm and my eyes can’t take it anymore. Hm, later than yesterday’s night, so I guess I’ll just let time to normalize me. Cya URs!

Showroom time!

2008-02-08T04:20:00.003Z

It's not necessary to put this, but... whatever!!

- The hallway, the first scene after opening the main door (my shoes is there xD) -

- My comfort zone, Room B, a second before I stepped in -

- Kitchen & dining room (oops, who's there?) -

- Compare and contrast: 1st and 2nd day -

- The amount of sauces: only beginning, trust me -

- Our toilet & shower room -

- Finally, the view from my window-

Tues 22Jan08: Refreshers’ Fayre

2008-02-08T03:27:00.012Z

BRR!! Freezing again! Couldn't have proper sleep again! Woke up extremely early again! T_T
Nonetheless, I showered and felt so warm inside the shower box that I wish I could just stay still there.
Hm, the agenda for today is.. let’s see.. replacement registration session at 9am at University Park. Nothing much of importance said in the session, and it was very empty compared to yesterday, probably because the session clashed with some classes. Afterwards, me, MY, Su-En and Carol went to Portland Building (UK’s “SA Building”) to check out the Refreshers’ Fayre.

I have already heard that there were loads more of societies in UK, but didn’t expect that it is REALLY A LOT (total of 170 societies). They have societies of ANYTHING of ANY SORT – you name it! – ranging from hobbies & interests (such as Chess, Creative Writing, Fashion, Film Making, Jazz, Travel), world affairs (Stop Aids, UNICEF, People and Planet), course (Archaeology, Business, History), cultural (Hindu, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Brazilian, Lebanese) and others like International Students Bureau (ISB), Women’s Campaign, and…. last but not least: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans Association (LGBT). No comment on this ^_^ (hint: look at the last pic carefully)

Another very significant difference is also about the publication, where all the societies do provide us with pamflets, brochures, booklets, or posters. Most of them own their club/societies websites as well, and not to mention facebook. Their societies are really wealthy, huh?

I joined IndoSoc with £3 (it hurts hiks hiks) or the reason that I am craving to be introduced with the other Indonesian students; and Latin, Ballroom & Salsa Society (LBSS) with £13 (even more deeply hurt) to fulfill my hidden interest in ballroom dancing (heheh xD). The rests couldn’t join the Malaysian Society since they didn’t open the booth. In fact, indeed not even half of the societies turned out for the fayre.

With last-minute decision, we finally went to Sainsbury’s to have another groceries shopping spree, guided by See Toh, Carol’s friend from Malaysia Campus who had been here since last September.

- Still manage to camwhore in the middle of the journey -

Sainsbury's wasn’t really far –from UK people perspective, I should say–, exiting from other Park campus' entrance, passing through houses and shops. It is located in area called Beeston, a small ‘town’. There is an 'Asian' shop where it sells most of all Asian-made products in various ranges (a bit pricy though). Beeston has everything, from cafes, restaurants, bakeries, post office, stationary shops, clothes shops, pharmacies, banks, butchers, etc, basically almost everything that we need. Other than groceries (so heavy!) we also bought other kitchen utensils, and most importantly, I BOUGHT MY BLANKET! xD

Taking away our lunch of Subway’s Sub-of-the-Day (Meetball Carbonara), we went back home in rush, stuffed the things inside the fridge and our own cupboard, and walked to Jubilee for our FR (Financial Reporting class. Not a good timing of a class, I should say, as theit only starts from 4-6pm. Furthermore, during this winter night will come faster.

Not long after, we took a Hopper Bus (a university-provided bus to transport us from Jubilee to University Park & around) to attend some sort of welcoming session for exchange students for all universities organized by International Office; finally something that sounds good and beneficial. The other main point why we bother to attend is this line: ‘light refreshment is provided’ written in the invitation card. Asians are just Asians, huh? Hahaha.. Anyway the refreshment was okay: chips, mineral water, red wine. Basically what the international office does is to gather us in a large hall, and let ourselves interact to each other freely. Most of them are Asians (dominated by Ningbo people), and minority is from Europe and USA. After spending few hours and getting bored, we decided to go back home and order cheap pizza as our ‘real’ dinner together with Faiq.

Another day has passed, but workload arrived yet. I slept very early again, but this time with my warm, pricy blanket! Good night, URs!! *hugs*

Typing speed test

2008-02-07T00:16:00.002Z

Hope this will motivate me to write the sky-high piling stories into posts.
93 words

Speed test

Mon 21Jan08: Spring Semester Commences?

2008-02-06T02:27:00.012Z

It was the first night we arrived; I had no blanket. I was freezing til I kept on being awake for dunno-how-many times to wear more and more layers. There is a heater in my room and in the hallway, but the hallway heater is not functioning at the moment, and the room heater is being on and off in certain hours by the accommodation management. Having no choice, I finally woke up at 5am – such a healthy lifestyle that I have never done in my life, especially considering my sleeping time during the exam period – and showered. All of us wake up almost the same time, but luckily there was no cramp in queuing for the bathroom. Anyhow you could just opt for not showering since the weather was so cold (around 6-7⁰C) and dry =p

We were told to be present in a particular building in University Park at 9am, and so did we. At first we were finding a bit difficulty in where the building is (we did have map but it was a bit confusing coz there are loads of building around), and there we found another lost guy from Malaysia Campus. His face was so familiar that I was quite sure I saw him before but I wasn’t sure. I even saw him the previous night when I was searching for the exact location of my flat – I passed by his kitchen located in ground floor where he was chatting with his flatmate. Instead of calling him, I ‘stared’ at him for few seconds right after they realized my ‘spying’. At that time I just threw away that thought, convinced myself that I saw a wrong guy, and prioritized myself in searching for my flat. So there I saw him again, and only after Elvin greeted him I knew I was not wrong! His name is Faiq a.k.a Faizi.

As I had expected, the building was quite old-fashioned, and the hallways are narrower than they are in Malaysia Campus. Oh yeah, one significant thing that distinguishes the two: UK buildings have LOADS of doors at least one in every 10 meters, I think. This is purposely done in case of fire emergencies so that the smoke will not spread too rapid to the entire building. Anyway, back to our story, we found out that exchange students from Ningbo Campus were totally outnumbered the Malaysia Campus (50+ vs 10 people), as they were cramming in the hallway, not to mention the local students who were going to attend their classes next to suppose-to-be our venue. Why suppose-to-be? Because, surprisingly, it was later found that ‘our’ venue clashed with the other class schedule, and it was us being dumped in the end. Never imagine this kind of thing could be found in so-called our Top 10 University in UK. Having no choice, we were told to gather in the common space, and we collected our university card and brochures about the UK campus and Nottingham City. It was then decided to postpone the compulsory induction in the following day. Plenty of us asked plenty of similar questions to the International Office staff but most of them had disappointing answers – such as regarding bank account (it would be on Wednesday), commence of spring classes (it was THAT day, yeah, I missed it already), the nearest department stores (good news is they PROBABLY know what they are, bad news, they do not know WHERE exactly they are neither HOW to get to the city). So much for a helping offer by the International Office – SIGH!!

After Jia Qian was done with her university card, and me & Meei Yunn with banking thing, we (6 of us plus Faiq) decided to find our way to Tesco by asking people around. Apparently it is in the Victoria City Centre, and off we go by bus. It was not that far though, and the place was quite easy to recognize – could see some clothes shops, banks and restaurants/cafes. We went inside and let ourselves in to Tesco Metro – smaller Tesco, but it was a drop of water in desert for us since we had ZERO at the moment. Then we bought some kitchen utensils in other shops since this Tesco didn’t sell. In the end, we carry stuff like crazy – toilet rolls, duvet (Jia Qian’s), pillows, bread, oil, cooking utensils from pans and knives til plates and cups, and some food stuff & drinks. Unfortunately our hands were too full that none of us could preserve this rare particular moment in a picture… Too bad!

Rushing back to put all the stuff in the fridge, we walked to the Jubilee campus for our Module Selection session at 2.30pm. Again, we witnessed the contrast in numbers of Ningbo and Malaysia students. This was quite useful session for us as we were given our module entry form, introduction from the director of studies and from our respective tutors, as well as the administration staff and personal tutors who would be in charge of all mobility students. Also, we received our university card (for those who didnt get this morning) and timetable: MY CLASSES ARE SPREAD FROM MONDAY TO FRIDAY! This is so pathetic! And, yeah, well, the modules for FAM students this semester demand for more contact hours because each of the 5 compulsory subjects has labs/tutorials, not to mention the 2 group projects and 2 individual coursework – what a contrast to last semester. Pity Elvin that he has classes at 9am, Monday to Friday. Since we are having classes every day, it’s quite hard for us to have ‘small trip’ during weekend to explore UK. Oh, I miss Malaysia Campus!

Cooking preparation starts at around 5.30pm – guess we have nothing to do so at the moment that we just decided to cook.

Fusilli Carbonara is tonight’s dinner. It was considered a successful first-home-made dinner for us, noting that we haven’t had an appropriate, complete ingredients and tools to do things. And it tastes nice! Slurrp!! Yummy!

Starting early, finishing early. Nothing much can be done, there are still lots of doubts and questions around my mind. We didn’t attend any class yet so we have no lecture notes to stare. The only thing can be done is to lock ourselves in the room, do a lil bit of tidying (di-di da-da in Tse Tyng’s language) and experience the high-speed internet connection. Life seems to be very boring and eventually I fell asleep around 9.30pm, having difficulties in visualizing what will surface to us soon. This is when the journey begins (Lord of the Rings 1, lol)

Sun 20Jan08: Leaving on a Jet Plane [The Longest Journey Ever]

2008-02-05T02:23:00.003Z

++ Hui Yan, Wei Han, me, Pris, Kiki, Elvin, Tse Tyng, Tony++

The clock ticked to 12.45am, time for ‘UK girls’ and ‘UK guy’ to be ‘officially’ out from Malaysia. But me and Elvin seemed to be not ‘permitted’ to go without FINAL session of picture-taking by the URs and other Narcissists. And for Kiki, I HAD IT! I HAD YOUR “3 MESSAGES”!!!!

After going through the never-ending blitz (I had them since Friday night!), and the continuous huggings & cheek-kissings, off we go. Finally… YOU WISH! Not yet! Haha... Well, after we went downstairs to the immigration section, there were echoes from them. Only after we had our passport chopped, they started to leave quietly.

Now, I dedicate this paragraph to say ZILLION THANKS to those who had sent me (and Elvin) off – Kiki & her Myvi 3431, Tse Tyng & her Toyota Rav4, Priscilla, Steffi, Wei Han, Ken Seong, Hui Yan, Oliver, Tony, Sue Ann, David, Yo Mei – as well as those who called and texted. I know supposedly it was the time to celebrate the end of exams, not to drive up to KLIA to say good bye. Sincerely, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Anyway, although Boeing-777 is quite big, and offers various entertainments such as music, movies, radio, and games through the touch-screen TV, I must admit that the seat was not as comfortable as I expected it to be. Elvin who sat beside me grumbled because the seat was cramped. With the fact that I had a window seat and another ‘big’ guy in the aisle seat, it was quite uncomfortable for us both in case we wish to come out. Indeed, the flight was seriously full. I didn’t see any unoccupied seat. Another annoying thing was the long, continuous announcements made in 3 languages (English, Arabic, and Indonesian), in which during those times any entertainment activity would be suspended. Overall, flight EK347 to Dubai was on time (roughly 2.10am), and the food served was edible. And I finally had the chance watching Rush Hour 3 finished (yeah, I had not watched it!)

Reaching Dubai International Airport at dawn after 7 hours journey, we had approximately 2.5 hours to explore the airport. It is undoubtedly smaller than KLIA, so it looked more packed everywhere. The duty-free shops in the ground floor are designed pretty much like those shops in malls. But the overall interior was nicely designed, I like it. Well, saying that, I should omit the fact that there were people sleeping on the floor covered in their sleeping bag (seems to be well-prepared, eh?) ~_~

There were no many things to see, so we headed to the departure gate earlier – you would prefer not to go outside the airport due to the local temperature, trust me. This time we took EK1 to London Heathrow, another 7 hours journey with a better seating since Elvin finally got aisle seat and me next to him (again). The flight was also full; the announcements were long as normal, but only in English and Arabic. Here, I enjoyed my meal while watching Game Plan – a hilarious comedy movie – and continued sleeping.

We arrived London Heathrow at around GMT 12pm, 25mins behind the schedule. We had to rush in order to catch the university pick-up coach at 1pm. Fortunately and strangely, the so-called the most busiest airport in the world had not much queue in the immigration section, foreign passport. I went it through quite smooth (with big smiles and polite answers to the officer =p) and rushed to claim our baggage. Well, I was so delighted that we could make it on time in that such a short time, because based on my past experience I had a very long queue at 5am in the morning, took me around 30-45mins. Yes, things changed. Some of us went to the shop to buy some sandwiches & drinks and, quite predictably, got shocked with the price – a must, common symptom for Asians like us. A bottle of orange juice was my first spending in GBP which cost me £1.80, and so I depended on my Cadbury chocolate (given by Kiki) in case of I was hungry.

Until now I just couldn’t understand why the university charged us extra of £10 for bringing more than 1 big luggage and 1 small luggage, when they rented the so-called VAN (‘their’ van is ‘our TRUCK). Indeed we had been given notice before our departure, but they never mentioned the size of the small luggage, so some of us eventually had to pay (note that their definition of small luggage is smaller than cabin-sized luggage). I was lucky, because my heavy backpack was just right to ‘their standard’ of small luggage, but not to Carolyn, Meei Yunn and Jia Qian. As a matter of fact, why did they still charge us for that ‘oversized’ baggage, when no more than a quarter of the van was loaded? Sigh.

Indeed I purchased a new SIM card in the airport. Soon as I activated it during the 2-hour journey from London to Nottingham, I wish to inform my number by mass-messaging the URs after my family members. However, the moment I found out that the international sms cost £0.20, I changed my mind. It literally means that I had to rethink 6.3 TIMES before I typed the sms because it was only RM 0.20 for the international sms in Malaysia. And so I decided to announce my new number via msn. Truly deeply sorry for this, hope that y’all understand.

It was 5pm – but the sky is already as dark as night – when we reached the Raleigh Park (our self-catered accommodation) reception to collect our keys. Flat 36 Sillitoe Court is the 5 girls’ cribs, whilst Elvin stays in Flat 18 Madison Court. Me myself occupies Room B; and currently Room A is empty since Hui Yan, the supposedly tenant, cancelled her leaving to UK due to some reasons. So, the 5 girls are staying together in one flat with 2 shared bathrooms and 1 kitchen. Thank God that Sillitoe Court has an elevator because apparently our flat is on the 5^thlevel, which is the top floor. The lift is so small that we had to divide all of our ‘large’ baggage into two times lifting.

Oh yeah, there’s an interesting issue about our key. At first I was dazzled bcoz the reception only gave me one key. But, whatever, my brain wasn’t really functioning well at that time. When I found Block 4 (Flat 27-36) it was locked but I successfully unlocked it with my key. Up to my flat, I used my key again, it was open. Into the flat, I used the same key to enter my room, and it did. Well, the point here is that each Block 4 tenants must have a ‘common-shape’ key that enables it to access the main entrance, same flat tenants must have ‘another common shape’ in their keys to open their flat door, but each tenant can only unlock/lock their own room – all with ONE SINGLE key.. It’s cool isn’t it? Compared to the bunch of house keys that we all possess!

Shortly, we had our pizza for dinner (two 12”s for £9) in the Raleigh-Park-owned bar ‘Beach Bar’. I never expected much of the taste, and I was lucky I didn’t. It was only 6.30pm when we finished our dinner, so we decided to walk around and find ourselves the way to Jubilee Campus so that we would not get lost and miss the 9am compulsory registration session in the following day. We did take some pictures, but they were quite blurred. Sorry for being incapable to share the wonderful night sceneries of Jubilee Campus ;p

I guess the effect of the dark and jetlags simultaneously had caused 6 of us fell asleep at 8-9pm, soon after unpacking our clothes. To summarise, it took us at least 24 hours from KLIA to Raleigh Park, Nottingham (no joke!). What a long, long day!! ~phew~

Sat 19Jan08: Last Day of Autumn Semester

2008-02-05T01:33:00.023Z

Exam had just finished the previous day, yeah, finally. But it didn’t mean that I could lean my back. I still had an extremely vital thing to do: packing. Indeed I did part of it during the exam period, but there were still masses of things that couldn’t be packed yet. Until it had done, there was no way for me to relax. Argh!!

But amazingly, despite the rush ‘stuffing’ our things to our respective luggage, me and Elvin could manage, somehow, to watch movie with Tse Tyng, Kiki and Steffi. Where to? Obviously Jusco Cheras Selatan, the currently nearest place to watch movie. And what to watch? (You don’t wanna know how we decide~~) SWEENEY TODD!! Yes, that Johnny Depp’s first Broadway-musical movie. Overall I like to movie, as well as the music compositions. For your information, Elvin has been fancy over the soundtracks. He kept on humming the songs titled ‘No Place like London’, ‘Pretty Woman’, and 'Pirelli's Miracle Elixer'. All of you can keep a secret right? *blink *blink

Reaching home almost 7pm, I showered quickly – for the sake that I would not have that chance to bath in the next 24 hours! – and finalized the double-packing (all my stuff are either in the boxes which I would left in the house or my baggage). Thanks to Steffi (Mummy!) who helped me to pack some of my going-to-dry clothes since they were totally out of my sight until she pointed out upon our leaving to KLIA

++ 10 hours before being Far Far Away ++

(around 10pm). Honestly I was so nervous at that time, and I was so afraid that I left something behind. At the same time, I was also fear of overweight baggage (only 30kg allowed after extension). Not that I didn’t weight it at home using Kiki’s (it showed 27 kg), it just happened quite number of times where my baggage could ‘miraculously’ become heavier when it was measured in the airport.

Nonetheless, luckily the check-in process turned out to be smooth, it was 26.9kg (fiuh~~). Six of us (me, Elvin, Meei Yunn, Su-En, Carolyn and Jia Qian) wanted to have same-row seats, but it was not possible since the flight was full, and some seats were already taken by the passengers from Jakarta (it was a connecting flight to Dubai). And somehow the check-in staff said that all of us had different reservations, so that we couldn’t check-in together, EXCEPT me and Elvin… (I just don’t know why I always ended up sticking with this guy?!?) It was quite strange, though, since all of us book our tickets in the same travel agent..

Anyway, we were heading to KLIA’s Mc D afterwards. We were separated into few groups since there were just too many of us. If I were the passersby, I would have thought that KLIA had been invaded..LOL And, as always, picture-taking activities couldn’t have been missed during ‘last supper’.. LOL again

Foreword

2008-02-04T22:04:00.003Z

Indeed I had the thought of creating this blog before my leaving to UK as a mean to communicate with my precious friends and fellows back ‘home’ in Malaysia – no else and no other than URs. This is one of the best alternative solutions to encounter the problems of time difference (7 or 8 hours) and high cost in using text messages or phone calls to every each of them.

In this blog, I shall posts my ‘diary’ consisting of daily activities, trips and travels, as well as personal thoughts; pictures will be undoubtedly posted along, dun worry <^o^>
It’s already the 3^rd week since I arrived UK, but no post has been made yet. Deep apologies for this, but I beg for your understanding and high tolerance as there are loads of things to settle here: starting from registration, bank account, shopping for necessities, groceries, cooking activities, running errands around campus (so won't get lost) plus minor trips & activities. But not to worry since I’ve already planned on what I would write, and which pictures to be added in. All I ask of you is to be P-A-T-I-E-N-T!! Bear with this 'virgin blogger' please!
For the pictures and images in full, they will be available in my Facebook as soon as possible. Again, your patience is highly appreciated as I’m now still figuring out how to operate it at the fullest, and I’m currently collecting and sorting them out from other cameras (it's not that simple you know!) =)

All in all, I’m so thrilled that this blog can be presented to the URs. Wish it will be able to achieve y’all expectations. Oh, I miss them so much!!!

With love,
The UR,

Widya
xxx