on off heavy showers =(

Rainy day again and it's the on and off heavy showers kind. No fun.

Went in Uni earlier cos I wanted to borrow the "Fitness for Work" book from the Main Library. I've been to the Barnes Library ie. Medical Sch library but not the main library. Luckily I had looked for the book to see where its location is cos it's really many levels. So mine was at level 2...went up the stairs then into the doors and OMG...it looked sooooo eerie! I didn't manage to take a pic of it - it'll be quite funny cos there's obviously cameras around. The shelves were pretty close together and the lights were dim. And probably cos I was there early, no one was at tt section. The only "happening" place was the lower ground where the main counter and computer clusters were at. By the time I reached class, I was sweating! Oh, I realised that the time I take to walk and the time taken by the bus to get from High St to Uni in morning traffic is about the same! Cos I was just a few steps away from boarding the bus to Uni at High St then I saw it when I reach uni. But if for non-peak hr traffic, esp on Sundays, bus journey is very fast.

Went through practice questions. Then things were much clearer after the tutor explained. As for the past year paper's MCQ, I scored quite low :( Hope next one will be better. Finished classes earlier than schedule but I had planned to work on my dissertation (thesis) outline presentation. And I did. Draft is done but can't quite form my research question yet..cos I realised it's many areas I wanna look into but limited literature. 

Anyway, I booked my return train tickets to London 8-10 Nov!! Managed to get it for about £12 with the 16-25 Railcard and I also confirmed I can bunk in with my ST colleague! Main reasons for going there is cos I would've submitted my assignment by then and Dr Lee (Occ Health Dr) will be in London from 9-16th Nov so a 3 or 4 days course. Probably will be able to get some Occ Health tips from her! I'll be also sightseeing - as much as I can la! Else there's always next time since train tix is pretty affordable.

Oh..today I showed my 2 classmates, A. and N. my family photo..both said my niece vvv cute! Hehe! And A. couldn't recognise me without glasses..said look younger in photo but that photo was taken on 31 Aug. Hmm..wonder if I look more matured with specs or I've AGED?! So nice that N.'s family is joining him here in Dec till end of the course!! It must be hard for him to leave his family esp his newborn who was born after the day he left.

I ate my leftover soup for dinner and made potato salad for lunch for tomorrow and the day after! I guess I'll go grocery shopping on Thur or Fri. Wanna check out Selly Oak area too since I heard there's a korean supermarket there. I need to stock up on supplies cos next week likely will be 闭关修炼！

rain and strong winds =(

Rainy day again today...and STRONG winds!! Grrr...this kind of weather, no use carrying an umbrella. So I was opening and closing my umbrella when I was walking. Better off with just the hood on.

Notice the sway of the trees

the path I take - wanted to show the falling leaves but can't capture

Anyway today was 2nd day of SPSS and as I expected, we could finish after we were done with the exercises. Actually finished ard 10+am but spent some time figuring out why my hp can't connect to data (ends up I have to manually key in the APN) and also of course, doing revision. Then chatted with tutor to ask about thesis topic cos we have to give a brief outline presentation this Fri. So only left ard 12.30pm. Was deciding between going Aldi (Bearwood) or home bargains along Harborne high st (which I will pass by anyway). Then decided to just go high street and head home cos of the wet weather. Couldn't find my muesli (I swore I saw it on Fri when I popped by!!) nor leather protector..only sell leather wipes and cleaner.

Came home and L was painting the living rm..then C came back cos apparently his colleague gave some fish and they don't have storage at work. Worked on my "missed out" exercises and trying to think of how to narrow my thesis topic. In between chatted with L a little since she asked if I was happy here (I think is more like asking how I'm doing).

And so I had fish and prawns tonight! Then L bought mussels too! L and I helped with prep and C cooked it. It's cooked in C's style - he doesn't have a name for it. But it's definitely sinful with butter and oil in it. HAHA! The rice that C cooked in the microwave oven looked "grown" when he took it out of the oven...too bad didn't take a pic of it.

Oh yes, and I managed to catch R online and so we booked our rail tickets from B'ham to Glasgow in Dec! Just booking a one-way cos I'm still undecided if to go London with R after tt or come back B'ham..cos it'll be near Christmas and I don't want to be stuck in the traffic or weather. Anyway, it means I'll be lugging the stuff for R to help me bring back to SG to Glasgow and Edinburgh (aka Scotland) but I guess shouldn't be much. At Glasgow, prob will book a day tour to Loch Ness area (maybe we can see a monster there!) and likely Stirling Castle.

1st month here

Happy 1st month to me! Yes, today marks exactly 1 month since I came.

Was woken by at 2+am this morning cos of talking..and became a bit warm. Managed to sleep back. Went to nearby church today - a bit lazy to travel into Uni for the Lutheran "service". Service is in " " cos today is movie screening on God and Hitler. Anyway, today I finally met the PT whom the others told me about. She's been a PT for 40+ years!!! But she's working with children. And she lives just down the road from me.

Oh yes, yesterday I was revising and drew mindmap with my colourful marker. Feeling accomplished, I packed away everything. And thennnn...I saw that the big pillow case and my quilt cover have hot pink ink stains!! OMG! I freaked out cos both are white. Grr..I quickly dabbed it up with toilet paper and it smudged a bit. Went online to find how to remove stain and realised I don't have alcohol nor nail polish remover nor hairspray. Besides, bleach and detergents are all downstairs (kind of late in the night liao).

So this morning tried different methods. Put Vanish (for white) on the stained parts and soaked it.

Before (quilt cover)

After

Big pillow case - after 1st round of Vanish soak

Big pillow case - after 2nd soak

Worked on my thesis outline presentation, while watching "Sudden" online. Then started raining. It even hailed for a while - managed to take a video of it!

Heavy rain

Now it's a bit sunny again. Yesterday and today Poppy kept jumping up my bed! Yday almost messed up my notes and L shouted to her to get off.

Correction from yday's post. I meant to say I'm cooking clear soup, not stew. I should've bought parsnip to try. Also read that Swede is also used for cooking soups. Here's the product! Tastes quite good except I added too much cinnamon! And I thought L&C might wanna eat..end up L only tried a little bit so packed the remainder in container - L said prob enough for my whole week. Haha!

Chicken stew/soup

Tmr's the start of the final week of ESRM. More stats and SPSS tmr and then learn abt regression and revision before the exam.

stats and more stats and research stuff

Made mushroom swiss sandwich for bfast today. L lent me a toast bag...but it doesn't cook the mushrooms that well. Anyway, today didn't do much besides catching up on stats

Then in between L repaired my room door handle..said it's prob the 4th time she is doing it already..cos the hole is too big for the screw to catch on..so I said back home we use this plastic thing to secure the screw but I didn't know what it is called. Then she went to find something similar and fitted in. Did my washing after L did theirs..then she started painting some parts of the house. To me I saw diff colour but she said will be diff after it dries...but now she realised is diff colour...regretting painting only parts now. Oops. So she saw my messy bed with notes cos she also went up to the attic.

It showered quite heavily just now but a while later, one side was grey skies, another was sunny! V strange weather! Now it's all blue sky already!

Was planning travel destinations in Dec with R online too but I totally unsure where to go and do what. Only know I wanna go Scotland to see castles..like fairy tale..haha! Anyway R confirmed her trip to B'ham on my last day of exam! Quite looking forward to it. Everytime I'm at the snacks section of the supermarket, I wished I had someone to share fats with me cos so many snacks I wanna try! So for those who might be thinking of coming here, pls be prepared to snack with me..and DRINK as well. Wines are v cheap! I can't possibly buy a bottle and drink all by myself. L&C usually have their own liquor and beer esp C..on weekends.

Going to draw mindmaps soon..I spent almost the whole morning and afternoon just doing questions on 3 studies and the exam has questions based on 2 studies. Not sure how!!! The basic foundation knowledge to me is kinda hard to grasp...but I guess with more practice I will be ok. Pray hard!

L told me she brought back some lamb curry in a takeaway container..if I want. She said it's not a lot though. I guess I'll try and cook some spaghetti to go with my leftover pork strips. I guess I'll cook stew tomorrow..or at least how my mum usually cooks it with potatoes, celery, carrots, onions and chicken. Simple one. But I don't have garlic..haha! Not going to blend or add butter so will be clear soup. Prob can offer them but will say diff from their kind of soups. Haha! I'm tempted to cook bak kut teh too..this kind of weather, just want to have soups or roasts.

Tmr got to work on my research outline presentation for Fri..then I should be ok. More stats stuff next week :S Exam is on 1st Nov and assignment (based on SPSS) will be due on 8th Nov.

TGIF!!!

It was a very foggy morning today..though temperature was comfortable around 11°C...

Really TGIF today!! Why? Cos I expected to be in Uni Comp Lab for the whole day today but turns out that we can leave after we finished the SPSS practice! So most of us finished before we left for lunch..so in a way it was like a half day today! Of course, I made sure I understood what I was doing in SPSS...but I still need practice. Mon we'll have another set to practise on. Heng for A. and N. to be around again to explain...of course, tutor was also available to help.

In the end I bought bundle plan (£7.50) for 30 days for my hp beginning today (which gives me 200mins within UK, unlimited UK texts and 250mb Internet). I guess my number has been transferred over to giffgaff. Will decide if I want to continue after that or I will just buy any 30days when I think I need the Internet.

And so I couldn't quite decide where to go - West Bromwich to get boots or City to get thai curry paste. Both places I also can buy my leggings from Primark. In the end decided for boots since I wasn't intending to cook curry that soon. I'm thinking of cooking stew prob this Sunday.

West Bromwich Bus Station aka our interchange (the covered part is where we wait for bus but not entirely indoor)

 Went to M&S outlet to look for boots and narrowed down to these

Flat and softer leather (£35)

Darker brown with about 2" heel (£35)

Simple black one which looks like court shoes with pants over (£25)

Guess which I got in the end???? This pair of boots is my most expensive footwear I've owned so far!!! Hope they last since their upper part of made of leather! I was lucky to get yi's opinion via whatsapp..hah. Really enjoy such company while shopping! I don't feel alone! I also bought a pair of khaki coloured casual pants (but can be worn for my work) cos it was going for only £4.99!!

Then went to Primark to get my leggings..and also went to have a look at their boots. Realised their boots though designs some quite nice, they are not made of leather. Then popped over to Tesco..went to see their boots too.

Guess which one caught my eye or had caught my eye before too?

Took this pic to show how small these tropical fruits are when they are exported to UK!

This is the range of Asian food at the Tesco extra..there's Rabbit sweets, Yeo's and Asian Home Gourmet products

Popped by Aldi to check if they sold spare ribs. They didn't have. Saw at Tesco but seemed ex..small pack of prob about 6-8 for about £3 and they put that it's 5/kg?!

Reached home around 6.30pm and it was dark already. Heated up yesterday's half pizza. Then realised that L probably cleaned the carpets in my room and attic cos my shoes were thrown in the bin, stuff on bedside table was put on my drawer table (also my dressing table) and my luggage was not there. Checked with her when she came back...she had put my luggage in the shed (she did mention to me before that I could put there to make some room). Told her I'll prob need it in Dec (cos I put my small bag in there too..and the stuff to pass to mum via R when she comes in Dec).

Tomorrow I'll probably do some revision and work on past year papers, and also try out SPSS again (yes, I managed to download it to my laptop using Uni activation code - very thoughtful of the Uni, indeed). L said she might do somemore cleaning or painting tmr. She wants to get these done before she officially starts work.

Yay! Saw in my email that my Railcard has been dispatched! Paid £30 for it (1 academic year validity) but this will entitle me for discounts when I travel on rail (such as going London or Scotland or anywhere in UK)..and I checked..it's quite a lot of diff from full fare! See if Dr Lee still wants to meet in London..potentially can visit London in the 2nd weekend of Nov but I'll be as blur and I guess not used to it since London is a busy city, I heard.

Happy weekend, everyone!

quick one

Just going to keep this short cos I've readings to do. Finally we finished the last theory bit of the module. Tmr will be doing SPSS (Stats software). I'm already feeling the stress cos I still can't really interpret data from tables presented with stats in research papers and that will be the format of the exam 2 weeks later. Will try my best.

Today wasn't as cold so could manage with my pink jacket.

Look, that's the amount of bread I still have left after 4 days

Love the pic of the changing of colours

Sunny morning!

After Uni, planned to go ASDA supposedly nearest to my place. Thanks to data plan (which I used my remaining credits on), I managed to get to the place safely. Waited v long for my bus home though. Reached home close to 7pm. Anyway, bought some potatoes, onions, mushrooms, ham, honey, irish cream coffee, packet of chopped tomatoes with chilli peppers and frozen pizza (for my dinner). I bought this ham (or they call it pork and egg roll) cos not much price diff frm usual ham..looks cute with the egg in the middle huh? Haha!

Frozen pizza for £1

Btw, shops have been selling Christmas stuff already for some time! Of course, there's Halloween stuff being sold too..and those huge pumpkins!

midweek

Was woken up briefly at 1+am but managed to sleep back.

Another foggy morning today with temp less than 10°C. Wore gloves to keep my hands warm on my way to Uni. On my way back it was much better. I didn't need scarf nor gloves.

Ate bread for breakfast and heated up the cinnamon roll L let me try (frozen when bought I guess). The custard was a bit too sweet for my liking. Cos I bought wholemeal bread this time and the slices are thinner, my bread seems to be only half or 1/3 gone! Baked the chilled pie to pack for my lunch.

Cinnamon roll

Pic of the thermos food jar L said I could use

Anyway, lectures today was quite ok..good to have A. to explain to N. and I. I've returned stats to my teachers already!!! Then at lunch, H. (the girl whom I don't really like in my small group) asked me over to where she was sitting..then she took out a paper bag and asked if I put make up. Then I asked if I look like someone who puts on make up! Haha..cos I didn't know what or why she wanted to give me stuff. Then she said cos she bought stuff and was given make up foundation which are beige..not her skin colour. So she wanted to give to me if I use. Wah..I was a bit surprised la..so thanked her and accepted. I'm not the only fair skinned asian in cls, by the way! I guess cos she prob knows our small grp people better and the other lady is also black.

Did the group presentation with another member...it was ok cos I know what was going on. The group presentations were fun cos we came up with funny research questions and then discussed about our methodology as a group. This is in preparation for our individual dissertation outline presentation next fri. Yes, we have to come up with our dissertation outline by next Fri to present!! I guess I'll have to do it over the weekend.

Wanted to buy honey on my way back cos felt like body becoming heaty, throat becoming dry..so walked to supermarts along High St after sch. In the end bought a pack of celery for 50p from Iceland and I guess I'll get honey when I next go Tesco or other bigger supermarts where there's more choices. Thanks to ad, I'll be getting my supply of ikan bilis and tonic ingredients soon!

When I reached home, saw 2 things on my door...my door handle that (finally) came off and a pot. Asked L if the pot was for my plant when she came home and she said yes! Haha..I actually wanted to go to Home Bargains to look for pot but when I was there, I totally forgot about it!! Sign of ageing! As for the door handle, L says will fix it..explained that cos the doors are not solid wood..so screw can't stay in place. Anyway, the ambulance was here again and another was a National Health Service (NHS) equipment van..saw a man delivering a commode to next door neighbour. If only SG has such service..usually is the vendor..not govt agency. People get free healthcare services here. But I heard though seeing Dr won't cost $, buying medication can come up to quite a lot!