:: my little box ::

Monday, August 27

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

haha i tried this... Acutally i there were some equivocal answers... The first time i was

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

haha...

oh and by the way I'm

Which HP Kid Are You?haha...

*Me to You*
Tatter teddy posted at 4:50 pm

Sunday, August 26

I chanced upon a picture of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh today, called:

A wheatfield, with Cypresses... It was painted in 1889 while he was staying in a St Remy mental asylum... It looks like this:

I like this painting alot. I'm not exactly an arty farty person but I just like this painting... :) While we were in Europe we went to alot of art galleries, including the National Art gallery in Edinburgh, the Lourve and Musee d'Orsay in Paris. I enjoyed Musee d'Orsay the most, especially the paintings by the post-impressionists like Van Gogh. At the time, I preferred Claude Monet's paintings cos they all have this dreamy quality about them... Very hazy looking, like somehow its all out of focus...

But after seeing this painting I'm a Van Gogh convert! I like Monet but this is my favourite painting so far... I like the way everything swirls into place... Ok i'm not exactly describing it very well but haha this is my blog... haha... I've come to the conclusion that I like pictures showing things rather than humans... I don't really like those paintings with Greek mythology creatures or lotsa people... I like scenery i guess...

Another reason why I like Van Gogh is because we managed to pass by Arles while in Provence and visited the areas he painted! So cool... They set up boards around the places he depicted in his paintings. There was one painting featuring olive trees that looked just the same...

This picture is on my desktop now! :)

I was searching the net for a picture of the painting, and i realised that the actual painting is being kept at the National Art Gallery at Trafalgar Square, London! ARGH!!! I travelled halfway around the world and even stopped in front of Trafalgar square and I didn't go in to take a look! ARGH... worse still, Admission is Free! :(

I hope i get a chance to see the painting in person...

*Me to You*
Tatter teddy posted at 10:27 pm

Friday, August 24

I've been using Derrick's Toshiba Tecra for the last month or so and now I've gotten a laptop of my own! Its an Acer TravelMate 6292... I hope it serves me well!

I got it from IT Co-Op on Monday, and i refused to connect to the net before buying an anti-virus software, so i bought one yesterday and installed it in school... And i managed to check my email in NUS...

So i tried connecting to the net at home yesterday night but i couldn't! It was supposed to be easy! (I tried with my PDA after i set up wireless at home and it worked so i expected it to be the same) I entered the wireless password but somehow i had a limited connection. Tried all sorts of things but still it didn't work... Tried for almost 3 hours and I even called Ah Ma's brother cos he bought the same laptop too but he didn't experience such problems...

Sigh... And worst still I've gotten a URTI so i was sniffing and my nose was running and i was exercising by climbing up and downstairs to check out my desktop... Initially i thought i was my antivirus-firewall which was too "powerful" so it prevented me from accessing the net... So i uninstalled still cannot... Sigh...

Called up Singnet this morning... The poor guy who happened to pick up v suay... Started at 930am and ended close to 11! but i realised Singnet has this very cool thing whereby they can "take over" ur com via the internet...

I plugged my laptop into the net via the cable and so he could see what was going on and had full access to my com! Interesting right? Sorry I'm so sua ku...haha

Anyway he managed to fix the problem and i'm currently using wireless! It was something technical, some problem with the numbers and the IP address... Think the numbers were wrong...

Thankfully he managed to fix it cos if i can access the net in NUS it shouldn't be the laptop that has a problem. And since i can use my PDA to connect to wireless at home it shouldn't be the wireless that has a problem but rather the internet configuration... so all my hopes were on singnet... Phew... Sigh of relief... At one point he suggested i contact the vendor (acer) for help... Wah, i don't even have their number... we're supposed to go back to IT-Co-Op for support... But of course i hope that i'll never need support! Jia you laptop!

I hope my laptop's alright! :( Been through so much in its 1st few days of life... Jia you laptop! You can do it! Prove your worth ok? And serve me well...

Ok, that's all for now... Wasted almost 12 hours meddling with the internet! ARGH... Recess is almost half over! :(

*Me to You*
Tatter teddy posted at 11:22 am

Wednesday, August 22

We saw this on our 1st day in Edinburgh! Got lotsa people wearing kilts and playing bagpipes... I can still remember the tune of the song...

Our 1st proper day in Edinburgh! We were walking to the bus office to buy bus passes.. Above us is North bridge which links the new town to the old town.

This is at the elephant house where JK Rowling went to before... We shared a pizza and i called home.. wasn't feeling too good... I think i left my stomach back on the plane.. ;(

This is the door to our 2nd apartment, along Blair Street! It took me ages to find this self catering apartment online man...

The following photos were taken on the day before we left Edinburgh... I was really really sad to leave...

One of the many monuments in Edinburgh. This one is located on North bridge i think. I pass it everyday on my way home because our bus stop is on South bridge.

Princes street, view from the Scott monument. This is part of Edinburgh's new town. It used to be a loch/swamp that was drained to accomodate the increasing number of people in Edinburgh... At the end of the street U can see Carlton Hill with monuments on top as well... Princes street is like Orchard road... Lots of shopping to be done! On the right you can see the glass panels of Waverly Train station, which is where the train from London stops.

This is the view of the other side of Princes Street. On the left you can see Princes street gardens.

This is James Heriot's school... I think its a veterinary school so it holds special meaning for me... In the distance you can see Edinburgh Castle on the hill with the sun setting in the distance. (Its already about 9pm at night)

This bar is located near the Medical school... haha..

This was my dinner on the last night we spent in Edinburgh... We were all exploring Edinburgh with the little time we had left and I decided to walk around the new town... I ate at the Mussel Inn, which is mentioned in the Lonely Planet and also recommended by Huili's friend (A malaysian student studying in edinburgh).

Interesting street...

Photos taken at other times...

We went to visit Rosslyn chapel after school and I'm posing with Huiting's Da Vinci Code... haha...

WGH photos:

This is Western General Hospital! I was posted to the Cardiology department for 4 weeks! Its a smaller hospital than RIE but i learnt alot and the people here are SUPER NICE!

This is me standing on the pavement in front of the Anne Ferguson building. Each time i need to go to the student lounge i have to cross the road behind me and the road in front of me. And since i'm too lazy to wear my coat I just run across the road in the freezing cold... haha... In Sleeveless... Huili said she wanted to photo me in action... haha but i got her to take this instead..

This is the Dean bridge, which i pass everyday on my way to school. It makes the journey real worth it, because if you look carefully, beneath the trees you can see a little river meandering below and the houses are lining its banks... Its a real serene place, right smack in the centre of a bustling city! When Geraldine popped by for a day we went to walk there...

A better view of the river below...

Family renuion for the family of ducks! The little duckling got lost for a while and mummy was so worried she kept quacking... Alls well that ends well! :)

Food photos:

Post dinner while we were staying at St Mary's Street... Look at how clean the pot is! Yummy chicken porridge! I think it must be towards the end of the week when i regained my appetite... During the first few days I had LOA but i soon went into rebound and ate so much it scared everyone... haha... :)

Cheesie's Chow Mein! Team B Specialty... haha.. ;)

Dinner! This is oven baked fish and fish coins! :)

This is a cheese-tomato-ham-onion-whatever we have in the fridge omelette... haha

These are oven floor muffins from Tesco... Puffier and less dense compared to normal muffins. I only discovered them towards the end of our stay in Edinburgh... If not i would've ate more of them! They make good packed lunches... Blur me didn't know there was a cafetaria in WGH, so i thought we only had the 'cafe' to buy food from... sigh... only discovered the staff cafeteria on the 3rd last day of my posting... :( But packing lunch saves alot of $$! And you can make all sorts of yummy lunches! I had lotsa egg and ham stuff... haha...

I forgot to take a photo of Tesco so i koped Huiting's... Look at the stuff in our trolley! And we go to Tesco like every other day! Scary right? This was on the 1st day Huili and Huiting came to Edinburgh... :)

This is West Register Street! Ring a bell? if you guys don't remember, its mentioned in Talley O'Connor, when you test cerebellar function if U suspect a cerebellar lesion... I dunno who the guy is, just some guy trying to be funny... haha its q funny lah... :)

*Me to You*
Tatter teddy posted at 6:54 pm

haha, look who we met on the plane on the way there?? :)

The top photo shows Arthur's Seat at Dusk... Don't let the Sun fool you! Its actually already 10pm at night... The sun sets later in the Northern Hemisphere... The 2nd Photos shows some flowers at the foot or Arthur's seat... Arthur's seat is the tallest peak in Edinburgh and its very near the heart of the city... We could walk there from our house! :)