Les Amis D' Aida... Friends of Aida :)

Guess who i met in Paris? Ivy Lam Huiling! Was ecstatic when i saw her walking up the stairs trying to exit Cite Metropolitan. Had such a lovely time, pity it was only a day. John met us there too (an equally short time cause he was too excited about the French Open). This entry will cover two places i visited with Amirul (along the way, met many others) - Paris and Rome. To start off, maybe this picture will intrigue you to read on / see see more.

Eiffel Tower at night. The white sparkles is switched on for about twenty minutes from 9.30 p.m. Catch it at that hour. Do not go up there during that time for you cannot see the Eiffel Tower sparkling if you're on top / in it.

Heh. Digress a bit la. Amirul, Ivy, John and me had a little picnic with our kebabs while waiting for the sun to set (was late at 10 p.m.). I love sitting on the grass.


Ivy sketching. Please look at her blog to see her sketches. They're all so pretty. :)

We had some French food in a nice cosy restaurant in a busy street. Amirul tried his hands on escargot (pronounced ass-car-go). Pretty tasty i must say.

We took our time and sat down at a cafe which charged us a minimum of 4 Euros per drink.
"Nevermind. Just sit longer," Amirul said. I'm so proud of him for being totally Singaporean.

River Seine.

Along the famous Champs D' Elysee is this huge arch. Champs D' Elysee fascinates me because it is where Louis Vuitton originates from. The LV boutique there is huge. Of course, we passed it without contemplating about going in.

Below: Louvre. Musee D' Louvre in French i think. I should stop trying all the French phrases and leave it to the experts. By experts, i am strictly referring to French people... original ones that has grown up in France ;)

We saw the Mona Lisa there. All protected.


There are three pyramids there - 2 small ones and a huge one as shown above. Louvre is really big. Prollie need two days to cover it. Amirul and I went on an accelerated trip. I've more pictures of the Louvre but it is too big to upload. Very pretty. I was amazed.

Below: Concierge. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned here before she was executed.

Below: Notredame! Go to the top most floor to make friends with Gargoyles. We didn't enter because of 1) the queue and 2) we planned to visit Eiffel Tower whose view is superior than being on top of this church.




This church acknowledged Joan of Arch as a Saint.

Below: View from the top of Eiffel Tower. Notice the amount of green spaces. Hausmann's input into the development of the city is evident.


The walk to Eiffel Tower:




I love love love the picture above.

One of the rare occasions.. ice-cream.

The photographer of the holiday.

Above: The product.


Picture of Ivy busking at Eiffel Tower. I've got a video of her singing. Real funny. I should upload soon.






Next destination for this entry: Rome

The ruins of Ancient Rome. If there is one thing i admire about Rome, it'll be their conscientious effort into ensuring that those ruins (no matter how ruined) is preserved for the future generation to see and admire. Authentic stuff i tell you.

Above: Vatican City! Didn't manage to see the Pope :(
Wanted his autograph and a picture with him. For the fun of it, of course.


Magnificient pillars... countless.

St. Peter's Basillica.

I loved the picture of the confession box taken by Amirul. Light falls on it so nicely. It's like, feeling a lil more free after the burden is lifted. Okay, too poetic. Quit liao.


We visited The Vatican museum next to Vatican city. Went to the Sistine Chapel to see Michaelangelo's famous work. The queue was horrible.


I am a lil' vain by nature. This candid pic turned out rather pretty.

More ruins of Ancient Rome. You know what they say? All Roads lead to Rome.

Inside the Colosseum. The Colosseum is undergoing repair and according to the tour guide, it has always been opened for the public since ancient times. Only in 1996, did they start charging people. The walls aren't exactly smooth as there are traces of rocks being cut out. We were informed that those small rocks were used to build the Basillica. What a waste.


Basically this is it. I've got many other pictures that i am willing to share if you are interested in seeing for a small price of tea at some nice dining place. :)

Before i go though, i must put up this picture because we actually paid TEN (blardeee) EUROS to take this picture with this pseudo- gladiator whose body convinced me that he'll be the first to die in a real match. Anyway, TEN (blardeee) EUROS to take pictures from our own cameras minus developing. The Italians sure now how to make loads of money.


Okay I am done. More to come... On my last few days in the UK before flying back to Singapore.

Of studying, Slumber Party, Liverpool FC, Cinderella & missing Singapore.

Last week turned out to be rather eventful. No doubt i was tired from the amount of essays that i had to complete in addition to the tragic coughing with phlegm. I should really stop there.

Let's go in order, shall we?

First up, Friday's slumber party. Pictures are with Mel but i shall upload it soon because it was really so much fun. It was really unplanned. Started out with Yushan missing (she went to the library the WHOLE day. What a nerd. haha). She came back with this sudden burst of desire to bake. We surrendered to her request and coincidentally, Alwyn suggested drinking Bailey's together. Living up to the sorority mantra, we ended up calling everybody. Surprisingly, everyone came and we ended up playing funny games which, if you happen to look at Mel's blog, you'll definitely agree. We also played Polar Bear, where i sucked as polar bear, villager and God. BUT..but, Xian and me won the last round. We rule!

Didn't manage to sleep in the end. We finished all the games at 4 a.m. and then i decided that if i were to go to bed, i'll miss my train to Liverpool at 7.54 a.m. Jeremy, Alwyn, Yushan and me ended up watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. My back was killing me so i ended up lying down halfway. Got up an hour later to prepare sandwich and walked to the train station.

I slept in the train.

Suddenly, like isostacy, my seat jumped up and i woke up with a start to see John Kong beside me. Grrr...

Off to Liverpool we went. The aim was to make people like Wesley Hum envious.



St. George's Hall.

The mighty crest. :)


Outside the stadium.


I really really wanted to buy this metal plate (8 pounds) but John was nagging away. In the end, i had to give it up. It is not really practical anyway. Just wanted it for the sake of having it.

In the Liverpool shop.

It was a Saturday. The shop was pretty packed. In preparation for the finals against AC Milan, the whole city is pretty much decorated. We passed some houses with major LFC decorations and cars drove passed us with mini flags.So cute.

You know how bad things happen to bad people? Based on Karma, what goes around comes around? If by now you're starting to wonder why there's no INSIDE pictures of Anfield, here's why! Tickets were sold out and the earliest we could enter would be on Monday. I was really upset. Lesson learnt: Never try to make people envious. To think, Wes was nice enough on the phone telling us to have fun and take many pictures. :( So upset. VERY upset.

That is the main city of Liverpool. Liverpool is celebrating its 100 years next year.

Liverpool's Chinatown. Very sleazy actually. Aaahh well... globalization. tsk tsk.





We went to the Pumphouse Inn to watch the Man U vs. Chelsea game. Thank God it ended during the extra time. Otherwise, we would have missed our train. I was cheering when Chelsea scored. I like Drogba. He is good.

I better be nice. I know a lot of Man U supporters. They might send viruses to me.



This is the second bad incident that happend (after the stadium issue). Right before our eyes. Poor car. :( Okay, and the people in it too. Hopefully, no one injured.

We left Liverpool at about 7 p.m. on different trains. Bad incident #3 happened in the train station at Loughborough. I was locked in the train for about fifteen minutes because they were waiting for the police to come and investigate some case. Just great. It was already 10 p.m. then and the train station isn't exactly near to the university. The police came... strolling. I was boiling mad. Worse, the person ran off and they were frantically trying to look for him. In the end, i saw the guy going up to the police on his own. Enough of adventure.

The weather wasn't very nice to me in Liverpool too. Black clouds followed me. I could see the blue skies to my left and right but it had to rain and hail on me. Pain pain. :(

Sunday was stay-in-finish-contested-countryside-essay day. I didn't manage to in the end because the medication made me drowsy. Last Sunday was the Butler Ball. Mei, Joan and Gerentt went. I REFUSED to go because 1) they probably serve more beer than water, 2) heard that the dinner was gonna be sandwiches and 3) I had no dress. :(

I stayed in my room all alone and lonely on a Sunday after Joan and Gerentt came up to bid farewell. Like Cinderella, i tell you. I felt the desperation to just get out. Luckily, my fairy god-mother was around on msn last night ;)

If I were to go for it, it would probably be for the Nottingham cruise.

Anyway, here's a pic of the two of them. They looked gorgeous! Better in person than picture. Seriously. Where was Mel when we were busy snapping photos? She went Lala land.

So exciting. Like Grad night! Joan's lucky. Gerentt was flown all the way from the US to be her date.


Mel played 'Home' on the piano that made me feel so sad. I recorded a video but being the technophobe that i am, i have no idea how to upload to the blog. I'll try with Multiply soon. She was my piano teacher for the day. As you can tell, she played the Grand piano.

I, on the other hand, had to settle for the smaller one. *sob*
It was really nice just hanging out in the music room listening to songs played by the greatest pianist amongst us.

This is Stewart Mason Building (SMB) - study room. On good days, I study here. It is really like THE area for PRC scholars. Shall scare all those Brits by looking intelligent. They can't tell anyway. I'm from China.

A cell in the library. This miserably small room with no windows made me rush through my last Geography essay in five hours from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. I was high after that. One thing good about the library is that it is opened 24-hrs during the examination period. Unlike NUS, the floors are all accessible even in the wee hours in the morning. The early sunrise at about 4.30 a.m. makes it really safe to walk there that early.

Less than a month more to Singapore.
I miss my Victoria. :(