Saturday, July 31, 2010

TARC 'bosses' visit Sheffield

July 28 (Wed): TARC delegates reception & Hallam Special Achievement Scholarship

This was another event that took place last week. Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, Dr Tan (TARC Principal), and Mr Chan (Vice Principal) came over to our university...yup...all the way from Malaysia to UK. All course reps were invited to this reception. They also took this opportunity to present the prizes for the Summer Blogging Competition and Hallam Special Achievement Scholarship Award. :) 

Josh, Shal, WeyShin, & I attended this reception together. The top left pic turned out very wrong...hmm...J & S? :p

The VIP for the day...Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting

Play this if you're interested to listen to his speech

Taadaaaa...this was the great news that I received last Thurs!! :) So glad to receive this scholarship...thanks to the university!! Yeah can save £300 for my parents! :p Convert to RM...this is a lot of moolah! This is definitely a great encouragement for me to achieve more in the future. :) Here are some of the things that I've done over the last few years. 

There are 3 recipients this year...another guy left earlier so only the 2 of us took pic with Tan Sri.

As we were leaving, we saw the principal recording a video I guess.

LONDON!!!!

Oh no...I'm running behind on my updates again! It's been a pretty eventful week and I've got more to update but I'll start with my London trip first! :) It was quite a last minute decision to travel down last weekend (July 23-26) coz our test on Monday was postponed to August. So I decided to go to London alone and meet up with my cousin before she go back to M'sia. It was a short but relaxing trip...not too much sightseeing (coz I'll be going again in Sept)...beautiful weather...had some good food...and best of all awesome hospitality! :) Thanks to Audrey for being such a great host!! :) Not many pics of me coz was exploring the city alone half of the time. :)

July 23 (Fri): Sheffield-London

Bought my National Express return ticket for £10, could have been cheaper if I got it earlier but it's still pretty cheap I guess. The journey took about 4.5 hours coz of Fri evening traffic.

Arriving London!! So many people and cars...felt like I just got out of kampung!!

Yea I know I'm a bit 'sam pat' to get excited over crowd, people, and hecticness...but trust me it's normal to get this 'culture shock' after being stuck in a kampung for 6 weeks!

As I said...I was 'sam pat'...so took a video of the busy Victoria Station while waiting for my cousin.

In the tube station...a.k.a. Underground. It's just like New York's subway...but the trains here are cleaner. Imagine the entire London built on these underground.

Around Bayswater station where my cousin live. Quite a lot of chinese restaurants around that area. Both Four Seasons and Gold Mine were packed with people so we decided to 'ta pao' our dinner from Gold Mine.

Duck rice...yummyyyyy!!

July 24 (Sat): Strolling around central London

Guess where all these people are heading to??

Answer: To see the Queen!!! :) O-M-G...sooooo many people at Buckingham Palace!!!! Everyone wanted to catch the 'Changing Guards' at 11.30am...of course can't really see much coz 'people mountain people sea'! Look at the 2 adults in first pic...we thought only kids do this...wrong...this shows how desperate people can be to see the guards! :p I would definitely do this if I was at Beckingham Palace...haha! :)

It's so fascinating to see such huge crowd...oh yea...welcome to London!! These are all tourists from all over the world...it's summer break + Saturday...no wonder la!

Trying to crop out the people

Buckingham Palace!

The Red Guards with their 'mo mo' hat!! These guards' job is to 'perform' everyday at 11.30am...it's more like doing a show instead of for procedural purposes.

Feel the atmosphere

Along the way to Big Ben

Hey Ben!!



The Houses of Parliament

Another video

Thames river & London Eye

The 'original' Eye before all other Eyes popped up.

Had lunch at this noodle place. They serve asian food and it's interesting coz they used the US take-out box concept. That was my Singapore Seafood Noodles.

Trafalgar Square & The National Gallery

People here, people there, people everywhere! Quite a lot of Europeans I guess coz I didn't understand what the people around were talking most of the time.

Picadilly Circus. Big bro asked me to come to this Lilywhites store to get him some jerseys but my mission failed. ;p

Spent an entire afternoon walking along Oxford Street. The street is just like a mall...the busiest and the most dense shopping street in central London. You can find almost all the big brands here.

Summer sales was still on so it was definitely a good time to shop. Rachel would have spent a lot of moolah if she was here..hehe! As for me, I didn't shop much but instead was observing the what shopping bags people were carrying. ;)

There were so many tour groups walking around...and they either have the same fluorescent bag or wear the same t-shirts. Definitely not easy to lead a tour here.

Her Majesty Theatre where Phantom of the Opera was showing. As usual, many people queuing to watch. I may watch this when I go again in Sept.

Planning to watch these 2 musicals too in Sept...hope I'll have enough money for these.

Dinner at Gourmet Burger Kitchen...it was gooood! :)

July 25 (Sun): Strolling around central London (cont)

The streets were already busy on Sunday morning. There were a lot of red buses everywhere. People were waiting outside Primark for the shop to open...crazy right?

Took this video from the bus

Went to All Souls church with Audrey for Sunday service

Chinatown in London.


Dim Sum lunch at Imperial China, Chinatown. Another yummylicious meal!! :)

Thanks Audrey for hosting me over the weekend! :)

Visited Audrey's school...she's studying medicine in University College London (UCL).

Yay...my turn to be in the pic! :)

UCL hospital, biological sciences, and anatomy dept. Erm...these are for smart people...I only see 'stars and moons' if you tell me about science. =.=

Walked from UCL to the British Museum

The British Museum. They had this South Africa Landscape exhibit outside the museum...took some photos for flowers lovers.

Inside the museum...it was huge!

The museum was so big...and I'm not really a big fan of museum...so didn't walk much. If you want me to describe about this museum...I'll say it's a museum that exhibits random things 'stolen' from all over the world...haha! :p

July 26 (Mon): Byebye London...I'll be back!! :)

Boarded the bus back to Sheffield from Victoria Coach Station at 8.30am

And what a coincidence...I bumped into ChinSuey at the bus station and he was also taking the same bus to Sheffield! I haven't met him since first year of diploma and he went on to study in north London...and of so many places to meet...we actually met in London..what a small world!

So this wraps up my London trip. Proud of myself coz I managed to survive exploring London alone with my hand-drawn map, tube map, backpack and the Oyster card (from Audrey). :) Overall this was a very nice trip...mainly due to the warm hospitality...hehe!!

To sum up, London is just like New York...metropolitan city with many many people from all over the world...sometimes you don't even feel like you're in UK...but the great mix of people is what makes London interesting! :)

Friday, July 23, 2010

The 4th Runner

I'm now in the library waiting to catch my coach to London at 2pm...just finished my presentation...losing my voice coz talked too much just now...haha! :p Been busy preparing for assignment all week, finally get to relax a bit so thought about blogging something. :)

So what about "the 4th runner"? This word randomly came across my mind yesterday and immediately reminds me of the video below. I'm referring to 4th runner in a relay race...not 4th runner-up. :p Found this explanation on google..."The most popular strategy for running a successful relay race is running your best runner last...this strategy of saving your best runner for last is used mostly because that runner will know what they have to do in order to win the race by the time they receive the baton".


This was 10 years ago...don't think many ppl can recognize me here. I was the 4th runner for Red team. :)

You don't have to be an athlete to be a 4th runner...in fact, this 4th runner role applies to many aspects of life...especially when you're working in a team or with a group of people. There's always someone who'll take this role...so ask yourself...are you a 4th runner in life??

Looking back, I realized that I've been very lucky to be given a lot of opportunities to play this role over the years. No don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that I'm the best. 'Best' is a very subjective thing and it depends entirely on who you're comparing yourself to & the environment that you've been put into.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with being a Leo...or is it just the typical 'kiasu' attitude...I usually find myself playing the role of 4th runner in relay races, assignments, groupwork, team projects, etc. In every small circle of people...there's always a 4th runner...and apparently, my flatmates are all 4th runners as well. ;)

Some ppl may say that we're 'kiasu'...and yes I admit that I'm 'kiasu' to a certain extent but not to the extent of "accumulating too much food on one's plate during a buffet lunch in case there is no more later"(wikipedia). Lol! I think the better word to describe is 'competitive'...this attitude is actually good coz it helps us to achieve more & keep learning in life. The more I do, the more I learn...that's why I don't mind giving people a free ride (you know what I mean). :p I'm open to ideas and suggestions...and I know a lot of people are not dumb...the question is have you tried your best?

So what's your view about being a 4th runner or kiasu?

Monday, July 19, 2010

I'm crazy :p

Haha...this post is very random. Was browsing through WuChun's pictures and spotted myself in one of the pic that he took at Tropicana City Mall from the stage. :p Yes I know I'm a lil' crazy.

http://www.fahrenciti.com/blog.chun.show.140.70#/img3/895d27b4826c61bf75339de0e7f2ea2f.jpg

Friday, July 16, 2010

Couchsurfers Dayout

Continuing with my 'ang-moh-tized' weekend post... Apart from the tea party, we also spent the entire Sunday with some couchsurfers here in Sheffield. "CouchSurfing" is a pretty cool network that brings people who enjoy travelling together...google if you wanna know more. :)

One of the CSer, Valeria organized a 'sunday badminton' at Endcliffe Park so we decided to meet up with her and get to know some people in Sheffield. We weren't familiar with places here & had no idea where the park was...only passed by on our way to the tea party the day before. So here comes Google map to the rescue...

My version of GPS/Google map...old school huh?? Works well though...at least we managed to find our way to the park...haha!! :p

According to google map...it takes about 40 minutes to walk from our dorm to the park. Very accurate indeed...oh I love google map! :)

So we walked...and walked...and walked. Ecclesall road was looong!! The lower left pic is another part of Sheffield Hallam Uni. But I must say this part of the town is really more happening with more shops as compared to Charlotte.

And we finally made it to the park...woohooo!!! :) Everyone was out in the park enjoying the sun & wind, playing all sorts of sports.

There were ppl picnicking, playing rounders, cricket, football, kite, etc...definitely a great place to spend a relaxing Sunday. :)

These group of people were playing with water balloons...they really came well-equipped. :)

Valeria brought a badminton net but our badminton plan totally failed coz it was soooo windy!! So we ended up chatting, played football & rounders instead. There were more than 10 CSers who came...Valeria (Italian), Joe (German), Chris & Anna (British), Harry (India), etc. Valeria was such a funny & nice person...she was telling us about how relaxing life in Italy is...people usually take 3 hours lunch break to go to the beach...are u serious???

Anna brought a rounders set...but 3 of us totally had no idea how to play this...not even sure how baseball game works. =.= So they spent 5 minutes explaining to us and we started playing. Trust me...I was blur 90% of the time not knowing what to do. I was kicked out of the game even before I managed to figure out how to play the game...and I didn't even know I was out already...haha!! Anyway, it was still fun...especially watching Josh play...haha!! :p

Chris also invited us to his place to watch the World Cup finals with his friends. Saw a newly wed couple as we were walking!

It was pretty cool to watch the WC finals with some locals. Can't believe 13 of us managed to squeeze into this cozy lil' living room. :) Chris & his friends were supporting Holland...that's why there were no cheering in this vid when Spain scored. Well...Holland won...by the number of yellow cards...haha!! :p