Day Trip: Norwich

I didn't know a city in England can be as beautiful and charming as Norwich! Having been to Birmingham, London, Chester, Oxford, I've almost assumed all British cities would be somewhat gray and dull-looking. I was wrong of course. Ok it's not fair for me to pass the judgement because I visited those places in winter, can't expect them to look cheerful nuh? And summer is just the peerrfect time to see Norwich in its most likable state!

Things that I saw/tried in Norwich 

1. Cathedral of St John the Baptist 

2. The Golden Triangle 

3. River and bridges 

4. Cobble-stoned shopping streets 

5. 1000 year-old Norwich Market 

6. The Royal Arcade 

7. Many many street artists 

8. The Norwich Cathedral

9. Food: traditional plain old chips and Chocolate-orange Mango!

Things that I love about Norwich 

1. It's community vibe 

2. People!

3. Accessibility 

4. Its rich history and culture 

5. Clean and pleasing to the eyes!

6. lastly, it's liberal spirits

Cheap chips for sale at the central market place. Only 1.5 quid!

Yes, it's the river that melted my heart..

天空

有些歌，并不能说你爱听，你也并不想常常听。它们只在你望向窗外，望向云端的那一刻，突然奏响在你的耳边。因为这首歌饱含了很多回忆，它有种特别的你表达不出来的感觉。你会不知不觉地在脑海里哼起它的旋律，随后脑子里就会浮现一些画面，是现实的，是过去的，是想象的。但是每一个画面都有属于它的感觉。

虽然说不出，但是每次旋律响起，同样的感觉总会触碰你的心。

这就是音乐美妙的地方吧，就像一种气味会带来回忆一样。人们把回忆，那些美好的，伤心的，痛苦的，快乐的，不仅存在脑海里，更多的被我们储存到感官里。特别是听觉。我们每个阶段听到的歌曲，都寄存着那个阶段别有的记忆。

听得到的回忆更加触动人心。

听着《天空》，让我想起90年代。我的童年，在中国的日子，在云南的日子。简单、淳朴的生活。不是无忧无虑，不是特别特别快乐，不会特别怀念小时候的日子，也不会想回到曾经。但是那时的生活，因为简单，因为淳朴，因为年纪小，还是非常值得回味。

歌曲带来的悸动好宝贵、好难得。所以不想因为常常听它而破坏它的涵义。在适合的时候拿来小小的陶醉一下，就已经满足了。^_^

我的天空

為何掛滿濕的淚

我的天空

為何總灰的臉

飄流在世界的另一邊

任寂寞侵犯

一遍一遍

天空

劃著長長的思念

你的天空

可有懸著想的雲

你的天空

可會有冷的月

放逐在世界的另一邊

任寂寞佔據

一夜一夜

天空

Closet Favorites: Pure Whiteness

I have been in love with this white splitting-sleeve chiffon top I bought last week, that I decided to introduce it to the wider (imaginary) audience. I have never owed a single piece of completely white clothing. Now thinking about it THAT IS UNFATHOMABLE. Never a white clothing was put on me that I still fail to realize its absence in my life in any way odd. My mother believed in functionality and apparently she also had zero trust on my ability to preserve a white outfit (I was so tomboyish!), so there goes my possible affair with whites. 

So the first time I laid my eyes on this baby, I was in awe. I guess this is one of the pangs that I go for, in online shopping( this favorite pass-time of mine surely deserves a separate entry of its own, soon). It was on sale on Miss Selfrige for £ 10 (used to be £ 39 ,fantastic!!) with a chic look and good review, basically all it needs to tip the beam and tada! I snapped it, like with the snap of my fingers.

I'm glad I did!!

After an extended wait (over the weekend)on my part, the parcel came promptly in Monday morning, delivered to my doorstep! It was an amazing and pretty piece of thing ! I am extremely pleased with it, so much so that I switched on my laptop and immediately gave it a five-star rating plus 200 word review on selfrige's website! despite the fact that my exam was in a few hours' time. These are my original words: "delicate trimming around the shoulders where the split starts, all the way to wrists where the materials then gather nicely. The sleeves flow beautifully with movements, while maintaining this airy and bouncy space around your wrists." 

How wonderful! I plan to wear it with a black hugging pencil skirt or a pair of cutie blue jeans shorts. 

Also I decided to give it a special treat along wit a few white stuffies I've got. Together, they've made my days and nights! 

Bought this beautiful white bust in a local charity shop (British Heart Foundation, cost me 4.95 but this artistic piece is totally worth it! ). It has this clayish white which I found strangely therapeutic just to look at.  With intricate carvings and mounted on a nice, sturdy deep-blue stand. I was actually looking to buy something local and British, so that I can bring it home as a physical piece of my British memory. So I bought this bust, which completely fits my liking. How nice a thing to have on my vanity! 

Besides the beautiful bust is this crystal dome jar I thrift, again, from BHF. It was simply so pretty and elegant and everything that I had to get it! The lid fits very nicely and gives a light clink when I place it on the bowl, by the sound of it the quality of crystal must be darn good! (you can tell by its weight! gosh I lugged it home from town). I used it as a container for my necklaces and things that I tend to wear regularly. I had a separate jewellery chest but the jar is way more convenient. 

The tissue box at the back (forgive me, I had the shame to bring this into the picture! you see I have nothing else that is white and I love!) is a gift from a beloved aunt. It is such a nice little thing with simple embroidery.  It really brings out the coziness in my room and hides the ugly plain tissue box! I'm glad I brought it all the way from Singapore.By the way, this is exactly how I place them in my room as they are just so nice being together! 

Guess I will be collecting more white stuffies in the future! 

A Miser's Luxurious Life

Recently my bank balance has dwindled to the lowest imaginable - 111 Pounds. How pathetic. But I didn't feel so except for the very moment when I first looked at it. It was fine, and I feel as empowered as ever when it comes to snapping up goody deals online. 

So guilty to say but I just cannot allow myself to miss such sweet-oozing-tantalizing-too-good-to-be-missed deals! To make up for that I  make most of the cuts on food and travel. In any case I haven't been shopping for two to three months, so it is easy to let myself get away with that and let my conscience off the hook soon after I grabbed those deals!

Having said that, currently I am happily living on vegetables, bought lots of roots and leafy greens. Oh yes! Potatoes is the greatest student food ever! So much starch and glucose packed into one kg! yet it costs a miserly 69p per kg! (The cheapest of the lot, as I always go for regardless of what I am buying, and Yup! I am a budget queen!). The only recent splurge on food was getting Domino's pizzas (how ironic!) for late night revision. Nishie and I ordered three freaking medium-size cheese an tomato which lasted a total of THREE days! (once again, did that to qualify for 50% off!).

Apart from food, I am hardly making any expenses. Johnny's watch and German refreshers' course burned a collective hole in my purse though. These, considering my love for the language and yearning for my bro Johnny’s love, are absolutely necessary. As far as exams are concerned, it’s a huuuuge blessing on my bank balance! Even grocery shopping is a chore now and there is hardly any chance of me buying anything!

Coincidentally, recently I have been very into small space living and home design. Seeing them changed my concept of living. Living is not merely existing and taking up foot print, but a total realization of your worth, creating value and maximizing functionality. Hey that works just the same as my miserly (but nutritious) diet ! To maximize!

Initial interest turned to the curiosity to know more, which then turned into obsession (yea, that escalated quickly). One thing led to another and so far I’ve had my nose in a series of things, relying mainly on online reads as my source of info. These include renovation blogs, interior design magazines (for small space), HDB webpage (and other general info on buying a HDB flat in Singapore), tips on choosing renovation materials and ways of budgeting by sourcing for materials from China. I find the whole process surprisingly therapeutic. The same but better feeling I get when I scourge through shopping sites for nice(and CHEAP! cheap is the magic word) apparels. I guess it’s the subsequent brain-storming (or wishful fantasy) that makes the whole indulgence so addictive.

I love fantasising about my future house, down to the tiny teeny details of what to do with kitchen wash basins. I watch videos for inspirations during the day, whenever I can, and go to bed full of ideas. You feel like you’re in a secluded dreamy world of your own throughout, and that endless fantasy is something I can relish every moment in a long time to come.

Anyway, I have side-tracked. The main point is that, making the most out of your space, your budget, and getting more bangs from your bucks inspired this blog post. I do want to extend this belief into the future. And guess what, the blueprint of the master plan has been laid: for my future tiny house, I am getting my carpenter dad to build all closets/ shelving units/floorings, and design the layout  myself! Very miserly yet luxurious indulgence indeed!

Simply. Can’t .Wait.

感谢生活

每一天 我都活在我的梦想里

这里是现实中的仙境 当心情在粉色的花簇中飞舞

我看到春天的影子 我们互相追逐、嬉戏

在阳光温柔的目光下 感受青春与梦想的交织

春天带来了鲜红欲滴的草莓、娇嫩的樱花和雍容华贵的山茶花

我看到 白玉兰 像一盏盏通透明亮的瓷灯

照耀着原本已经无比光明的天空

当风儿 吹落轻柔的花瓣

当花瓣无声无息地飘落

我卸下的是沉重的期望

我写下的是全新的生活

这个我曾经只能幻想的生活

Two Weekends of Wandering Away!

I would like to think that both trips have been great, sadly this only applies to the second of the two. YES! Chester is a great great charming little place. A place where you ooh and ahh and time flies unknowingly..FAST. I think the best time is those spent when you lose conscience of time itself, when you care for nothing but to enjoy to your heart's content. 

First, Oxford. 

Everything I want to say about this place has probably been told millions of time. Oxford itself is associated with prestige, with the far fetch dream of higher education which has beckoned to generations of people. It's worn out and cliché and deprives me of a chance to take great glee in revealing its mythical beauty to the (imaginary) readers of this little blog.

Nonetheless,I constantly had this feeling of disbelief welling up in me whenever my eyes met a student-like person. To put into words what was going through my mind will be something like this: "OMG OMG, look at him! he made to the f**king best university in the world!! OMG so this is how a typical Oxford student looks like??!LOOK! LOOK! he's not using a smart phone! I bet he must be spending a lot of time reading...Ohhhh look at that girl, she's dressed so fashionably, clearly a winner!! with both sense and brains!"

So while my eyes were overwhelmed with magnificent buildings and the intricate carvings on marbles and stones, my mind was never a second at peace too. Much of the time I was fancying how it'll be like if I AM ONE OF THEM, going around the cluster of universities with books in my hands, a satchel over my shoulder that carries a sandwich, a bottle of juice, a few pieces of stationary and a library card that proudly entitles me the entry to any of the libraries there..which are mostly out of reach from us commoners/visitors of course. My fancies went as far as being hopelessly torn between walking along River Thames or sun bathing on the extended balcony in one of the houses along it, as a pass-time activity. I also struggled to decide which will be the best place to stay in: a house along River Thame with that extended balcony from which you can feed wild ducks, or a typical student room in Harry-Potter style accommodation clusters (with Junior Common Room and meandering pathways between brick buildings). 

River Thames viewed from a bridge. This picture alone shows how much the underlying colour tones of cities differ across UK, due to their characteristic architectures, density of woods and plants, and natural endowment:)

Radcliffe Camera (which means "room" in Latin), is one of the most distinctive piece of architecture in Oxford. Accessible to authorised scholars though.

At the out-skirt of New College

Me inside New College. 

This fancy was bitterly sweet, and mitigated only a week later when I visited Chester. 

Chester..Chester...I hand my heart and soul to this quaint little city, like a man surrendering his heart for a handsome gal. For I can rest in utter satisfaction of its ability to enchant me, to amuse, and make lastingly good memories :)

Grosvenor Museum: a small-sized museum dedicated to the culture, lifestyle and re-enactments of Romans. It also displays real and replicas of articles relating to Roman settlements found in Chester.  A complete tour will take 20 mins to half an hour. Admission is free and suitable for families with young children. 


St John the Baptist's Church: 

Gift ship at Grosvenor Museum

St John the Baptist's Church

复活节我回家

3月份，英国大学借用复活节的名义又一次放假了。我临时取消了德国法兰克福学习之旅，选择了回到南洋，我的家。

这次的行程不局限于新加坡，在岛国短暂停留后，我还会飞往缅甸，呆个12天。南洋这个名字在我听来，它代表着骄阳烈日和海洋。还有啤酒瓶树、犀牛鸟、热带雨。这个色彩艳丽、热闹喧哗的旅游胜地的另一面，却是闷热、压力、烦躁、物质和金钱主义。

当我发现这个国家的麻木和无感排在全球第一的时候，我才意识到，南洋的这一面并不单单让我一个人失望和抓狂，它也并没有悄悄潜伏在那光鲜亮丽的外表下。南洋的这一面，其实一点也不善于隐藏自己。它的无知、无礼，它的偏见、自私，它的傲慢、气焰，在岛国随处可见，它是那么刺眼。

那是丑陋丑陋丑陋得无法忍受的模样，每一次让我看到了，我会把头扭开，眼不见心不烦。或者加快脚步匆匆离开。但是当我走不开的时候，我恨不得地上蹦出一条缝把我吞灭。然而它偏偏像瘟疫一样在你面前张牙舞爪。那种逃不掉又躲不了的无奈逼得我只拿起电话拨通一个号码，借聊天转移注意力。走不起还躲得起吧？

可能当一个人在特定环境中生活了一段时间后，他就会适应、接受甚至殷勤地模仿它的举止和神态。

但是如果你从另一个时区飞到南洋，那么这一切都不再难以察觉。没有一样丑态是隐秘的，它是如此强烈和刺眼，敲撞着异地客的眼帘。我尝试稀释这个饱和的丑陋，即使我一个人的存在起不了什么作用，但我还是会时不时地微笑、和人们主动打招呼、聊天。即使只是一个人，我还是会面带微笑。只是希望，这样的我如果成为某个游客的风景线，那么他或她或许会把友善和轻松与这里联系在一起。

如果我短暂的离开就如此地打开了我的眼，那等我两年半后学成归来、当我对这片故土接近完全陌生的时侯，我将如何忍受它的无知无礼傲慢和狭隘?

舒适的生活只有一种，就是你完全同意和享受身处的环境和大部分的方试。要么我离开南洋，去寻找属于我的地方。要么我改变自己，像其他人一样迎合它、崇拜它。因为它是不会被我改变的，而我是彻底厌恶和它同流合污，彻底的彻底的厌恶。

我希望学会无视，因为我不屑于改变自己迎合整个环境。我知道自己一定要学会坚持己见。我更要学会保留人性最天然的善良。

我要学会不。随。波。逐。流。