fact from bbc news about business in Tesco today:

Bananas were flying off the shelves at 625 per minute.

today,
i did my boxing day shopping at oxford street
saw selfridges being mobbed by chinese shoppers, who surrounded the entire building even before the sale started
watched a black woman arguing with an asian woman because the latter apparently pushed her
saw two men being arrested on the streets
watched a busker at covent garden balancing a bike on his head and jumping through another man's arms
ate ice cream from the same shop (rendezvous) that we ate from last year in leicester square
saw a restaurant called Eataly, which i think is a clever name
forgot to bring my camera, unfortunately
saw very pretty christmas lights at regent street (the lights are strung up in huge star shapes and hang overhead, like a hammock, i feel like i could sleep on them)
saw LSE, which is really quite interesting because it doesn't look like a university at all and looks like a part of the city. i do think london is a nice place to study, there are so many things to do, shows to watch, etc
was out from 8 am to 5.45 pm and as a result walked a lot
spent a lot of money
attempted to cook aglio olio for the second time, it was an improvement, but still bad, because there was not enough garlic
saw about two H&Ms, two uni qlos, ten pret a mangers (seriously they are everywhere), two dorothy perkins, four accessorizes, and more. all around oxford street. orchard is getting to be like that.
today,
i am also amazed at the number of people who were on oxford street today (tens of thousands, i'm sure) and correspondingly, the number of bags used and items bought. (and items destroyed at the same time, there were a lot of things on the floor)

everyday,
the hole in my pocket is growing bigger and the money is falling out more quickly.

today,
i have sore arms and am bruised all over from yesterday's go karting. which was a lot of fun, and getting bumped around.
today,
i am also staying at home to (hopefully) write my supplements. ):

yesterday,
i took the most expensive cab ride ever (6.30 pounds for a 4-minute trip).
yesterday,
there was a crazy lady on the train (drunk, maybe - to which my brother's friend said that in this country, people get drunk at noon) who was shouting, and telling everyone her father's name, and swearing, etc.

the day before yesterday,
i observed the following about the UK: it's a country where strangers on the bus can have casual conversations, and where someone on the street will ask you 'can i have the time, please' or 'can i have forty pence for the phone, please', and where someone on the bus will turn around and ask 'anyone got a newspaper they don't want?'
i also saw shakespeare's birthplace and shakespeare's grave. and for most of the people in stratford who have become tourist attractions over the years, their only claim to fame is that they were once related to shakespeare, haha. i don't think they did anything really groundbreaking in their lives other than marry into shakespeare's family / get born into shakespeare's family.
i took a short tour through warwick; for those applying there, the campus isn't anything spectacular (i mean i would rather study in really ancient campuses like in durham or cambridge, haha) but if you like modern buildings then i guess it's a nice place. there isn't a law building though so the law students kinda just drift around. they have a nice arts centre. and oh, the student residences overlook a really pretty lake that is completely frozen over now, but when the weather's better there are geese and swans and ducks, etc, haha. and the place is called heronbank so maybe there are herons too
i also went to birmingham's frankfurt christmas market; the snow was beautiful and the flakes were about the size of 50 cent coins. i had a frankfurter (have never eaten such a long sausage) and deep fried jalapenos and cheddar cheese UH HUH they were really good.

the day before that,
we climbed coventry cathedral's tower, and on the way down stopped at the bell viewing platform to wait for the 4pm bell; the noise almost knocked me out, but THE BELLS DIDN'T MOVE at all, so disappointing. it was quite a creepy experience cos we were the only two standing in this vast chamber that was making huge noises as though it were alive and screaming GET OUT I DON'T WANT YOU HERE

the day before that,
we went to camden lock market in london, which was a lot of fun because they sell a lot of rubbish, like Instant Inflatable Gay Best Friends (which are not that exciting really my brother bought one for his housemate, it's just an inflatable man with a creepy face) and How to be British postcards (okay they have those everywhere) and oh, the food market was great, i had a moroccan chicken tagine and couscous (Y) and there were chinese people everywhere trying to sell us chinese food, there are chinese people EVERYWHERE with their chinese takeaways, etc

the day before that,
i arrived in england, haha. the entire country was nothing but white.

okay even idgi anymore hahahaha tell me again whats the point of having 2 blogs at the same time?? anyway .. . way overdue but here're photos from prom haha strangely being in heels kind of made my aches from the 21k slightly better. and i guess prom turned out pretty fun in the end even though 1) eyelash curling fail so i guess my small eyes are here to stay hahahaha 2) hair fail but that was fixed.. in the middle of the city hall train station hahahahah people were looking but thanks rachel for taming my unruly~ hair 3) clubbing fail because by the time we headed to rachel's place and then to helipad it was closed L O L so we had supper instead. i only grabbed 2 hours of sleep before zooming over to swissotel the morning after but everything felt nice and at least i got a bit of everyone that matters squeezed into those few hours so.. i guess all's good :> everything else here

ridiculous, i cannot sleep even though i am half sick, and i came back here to edit my essays.

anyway, thank goodness i made the decision to go back to icyl as a facilitator last year, it's been taking up a lot of space in my applications (:

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE
19TH MARCH 2010, FRIDAY
ESPLANADE CONCERT HALL 1930H
$40*, $60**, $80
*limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens at $25 and $40 respectively


65DAYSOFSTATIC
13TH MARCH 2010, SATURDAY
HEINEKEN MUSIC CLUB 2200H
$40*, $48 ON SHOW DATE
*with one complimentary drink, all patrons to be above 18 years old


THE GO! TEAM
17TH MARCH 2010, WEDNESDAY 1930H
18TH MARCH 2010, THURSDAY 2200H
$40*, $48 ON SHOW DATE
*with one complimentary drink, all patrons to be above 18 years old