Happy New Year Malaysia!

May 2005 be a blessed year for you and your loved ones!

Worms World Party

First they discovered the torch and the pneumatic drill and then they discovered girders. This is how chickens play Worms. There's almost more terrain than they started out with. Mountains have been hollowed out and all kinds of shafts, even with protective shoring, have been constructed throughout the map.

It's early early in the morning and I'm waiting for them to finish. I'm not bitter about getting kicked out first, just that Darren threw a frickin Holy Grenade and wiped out five worms in one shot, two from Team Swoosh, Two from Han's Team, and one from K9, which left me completely exposed, after which the true carnage started.

Oh good, sudden death has just kicked in. Finally.

New Year Disillusion

What with 2005 right around the corner, we're still reeling from the sheer number of lives snatched from this very Earth four days ago, so I'm not sure there is much to reason to party away this weekend.

I suppose we could celebrate that the world has come through sort of intact, if you consider a heightened sense of fear something to be pleased about. We've spent the whole year looking over our shoulder for the next terrorist attack, incendiary or biological, and now we can quite happily stroll down the street ready to dart into the nearest door way ahead of the next raging wall of water or earthquake that comes along. We're still waiting for Vesuvius to erupt and now the Mediterranean is at risk of tsunamis as well. I think the paranoia is building so quickly that we should all live in bubbles, indestructible, titanium-reinforced plastic bubbles.

I'm actually not completely ungrateful for the world in which we live. I mean my family and friends have come through the year healthy and well and I'm very thankful for that. I still have all the limbs I started out with, all my fingers and toes, and my psyche's more or less intact.

Actually, I'm not sure there's much direction in this post, it's just that I'm still really mad that there wasn't any kind of warning system, not even a few tin cans and some string.

Woe is me

The hot water and heating has died again on what feels like the coldest day of the whole year. I guess everyone deals with it differently. Weng looks like he's about to embark on an Arctic expedition, there he is, making his 'To-bring' list, and Darren goes into hibernation. Yes, Darren really is under there.

Yiddish 101

What started out as fluid mechanics revision has turned into a crash course in a foreign language. Darren's back from Manchester with a heavy bag but very light wallet. He's not the only one who's struggling with a short term (I hope) cash flow problem, but that's just depressing, so we won't go there.

All the guys in our flat will be sporting a cropped look by tomorrow evening. The only one not yet on the bandwagon is Lawrence or Hanwen - I don't know what to call him anymore. Weng's gone for a Calvin and Hobbs look while Darren's tried to go 'Almost Army' but it's really more like 'Very Primary School'. We'll see what Hanwen comes up with to match these obviously cutting-edge New Year hairstyles.

It's back to blogging for entertainment. I've given up on Rome, it's lost its appeal for me, so I guess it's back to Gunbound or Text Twist until something better comes along. Oh right, studying.

From London with love

I'm finally home, we managed to muster the will power and energy to scrape ourselves out of the comfortable butt-shaped dents in Tishen's couch and at his dining table to come back to London. So I guess it's back to meal-planning, grocery shopping, and endeavouring to do work.

Ran into Young and Hsiang at Waterloo, totally random. They look good after a week's romp in sunny Spain. Hsiang's place is now kinda like the rest of his life, predominantly female, what with his 'in-laws' and Young's girlfriend visiting. +lol+

I can't believe I'm due back at school in less than a week. The holiday barely started! I'm even more afraid because I haven't done anything remotely productive... mg, you must be as tired of it as I am, hearing me gripe about work all year around, so I thank you for your patience. It's back to football right now though, yay for Soccernet Gamecast.

Tomorrow: Join the Covent Garden shopping melee.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

I spent four hours being bumped around, drifting in and out of shops to the tune of the crowd. There was no other way, it was like a diffusion experiment gone berserk, and trying to forge your own route across the packed highstreet often meant that you had to spend five minutes standing on the other side waiting to regroup while massaging a kicked ankle.

Hanging out with Tish and Weng in a shopping arcade in the middle of the biggest sale of the year is irony in its purest form. I think that's why we should shop alone. I felt bad for even thinking about going into shops because they'd stand around the ladies department, fighting for air, and generally being useless. Shoe shops were even worse, and they quickly caught on and refused to let me drift towards them. So the day ended with Weng with a bag of Gap stuff, Tish with three birthday cards, and me with nothing. So come Wednesday, I'm going again.

I think this is how England's economy survives, the twice a year mega sale where enough money is spent to save the entire African continent but instead goes to flouncy tops and garish coats (that you wouldn't normally touch with a three foot stick) because they're such a bargain.

Then got talked into staying another night in Weybridge because it's not good to go home in the dark. I knew it was going to happen +lol+

Mother Nature scores 8.9

Before today, the idea of earthquakes never really crossed anyone's mind, especially in KL. Looking at the devastation in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Madras, you start to worry about the obvious lack of preparedness in all these countries. The pictures coming through tonight are frightening: the injured, the dead, the rising death toll.

But who would've thought? Earthquakes? In KL? Nah, you must be joking. Earthquakes only happen in Japan. I mean S.E. Asia sits right next to an enormous fault line, and no one ever thinks about this. Everyone's worrying about national security instead, against terrorists, against manipulating diplomats...

I guess it goes to show how little we can take forgranted. My thoughts are with so many friends right now who've been hit even closer to heart and home.

Gluttony

I've never eaten so much. The meal took about three hours, and it looked like we hadn't made a dent in the spread. So essentially we've had one meal today, and after messing around with their home-casino set, we're up in Tishen's room setting up his new tv. By 'we' I mean Weng and Tish. They're rearranging his stereo and subwoofer and all that stuff.

I'm exhausted, I think from eating, and I'd like to think that I've burnt more calories eating than what I've actually eaten. Ha ha. Fat hope. According to Jonathan Ross, you'd have to walk from London to Calais to work off the 'average' Christmas lunch/dinner. With what I managed to get down, I'd have to walk all the way back to KL. I know for sure that my next webcam conversation with my mum's going to start with "Oh my gawwd, you're so fat!", exactly the same way the last one started, which sent Shiv into fits. In my defence, the chubby cheeks are inherited.

Christmas Day Lunch 2004

To start:

Seafood Platter
Waldorf Salad

Main Courses:

Traditional Roast Turkey
Roast Gammon
Green Curry (Turkey)
Chicken Satay

Accompaniments:

Wild Rice
Roast Potatoes
Chestnut, Cranberry, and Forcemeat Stuffing
Bacon & Liver Croutons
Vegetables

To Finish:

Mascarpone Trifle
Yule Log
Mince Pies
Carrot Cake
Iced Fruit Cake
Austrian Coffee Cake

Tea & Coffee

* * *

We just stopped eating.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a beautiful day filled with all the love and happiness possible. Stay safe, tell everyone how much you love them, and give to your heart's content! God bless!

6 degrees

It's such a small world, and this is what Christmas is really all about. I saw some college friends again. Priceless, just like the ad says. I suppose it takes one guy from Canada to bring people who live in the same city together. For all the public transport services available in London, I haven't seen my college friends in close to a year and a half, and now that I talk to them, it suddenly turns out that my network of friends seems to be growing tighter and tighter. Someone recently met someone who's going out with someone who I went to school with. Things like that, which makes me think that the 6 degrees of separation is now more like 4 or 4-1/2.

It's technically Christmas Day in 25mins, I'm at Tishen's with Weng, and, as is tradition in our family, my sister texted from Singapore at four o'clock in the afternoon and told me that she'd taken second-by-second photos documenting the opening of my Christmas present from my aunt (my aunt gives awesome presents) so it'd be 'like I was really there'. I'll be getting the pictures on Monday. So sweet.

Presents chalked up so far: Gap jumper, from Weng. It's ousted the AX sweater from its number one spot. I shall wear it all the time!

Feeling: Glad to be at Tishen's because it's forced us away from Rome for at least the next 48hours, and this is as close as it gets to home over here.

Christmas Eve update

I'm sorry I haven't been posting with my usual fervency, Weng and I have been playing Rome for the past three days, taking turns to conquer as much as we can in two hour slots. It's not as bad as it sounds. When I've been forcefully wrenched from the computer after my time's up, I go straight to work before kicking Weng off two hours later. He, on the otherhand, plays for two hours, then watches me play for another two hours.

You can see why girls are so much better at handling addictions, we can switch right on and off so that we're not totally incapacitated by a game 24/7. (I'm taking up his precious Rome time right now.)

Anyhow, you can probably imagine that by one thirty in the morning, it's an effort for him to uncross his eyes, so we go to bed, only to start the vicious cycle all over again 10 hours later.

Oh, except for today, when we managed to make it past Sainsbury's and actually do some Christmas shopping. Lasted all of four and a half hours before Rome withdrawal symptoms (RWS) kicked in.

Okay, I have to go, I'm being whinged at for taking up his precious Rome time...

I should be working

So this is how the week's been going:

It's 90-10 to Rome:Total War. I can't believe I didn't do more to stop him installing it at Tishens. You don't need to be a psychic to know the chaos it'll cause in the work schedule (work schedule? what work schedule?).

Every morning, the instant I've gotten up, my thoughts start marching infront of my eyes

1. Work, ah shiet, still haven't done anything. I'm going to die come next week, should've started earlier...
2. Laundrylaundrylaundrylaundry...
3. What's for breakfast/lunch/dinner...
4. Damn, it's cold outside...
5. Rome: Total war, I still have to take that Gaulish town...
6. Gotta tidy up, so messy already....
7. Get Weng outta bed, gotta get him out of bed...
8. Still no work done...
9. Have to buy Christmas presents...
10. Gotta do work +sob+

It's supposed to be a holiday. The stress is creeping up already.

Worn to the bone

The first weekend of the Christmas break and we were up til 3.15am from Sunday night... was it a good party, you ask? Yes, if you like detergents and Weng going 'Huh?! You call that clean?!' for four and a half hours.

It took the three of us that long to clean and arrange the kitchen, our tiny corridor of a kitchen, and since we've put so much effort into it, no one's to use it, ever. The same goes for the toilet too.

I single handedly braved the limescale, the drainhair, and the waterline (in the bathtub!!) to get the place spotless.

Neurotic? No. Not us. The place is finally habitable. Last week's trash is no longer hanging out with the invasion of shoes, and the corridor actually smells...okay. No more embarrassing "yea, we're supposed to clean up last week..."-type excuses when friends come around, and no more being able to keep a dietary record using the kitchen stove.

I feel good. Oh, and it's four days to Christmas!

@Tishen's

Friday night at Tishen's: It started out as Dead Gin but quickly degenerated into making towers with bits of fruit and nut.



Saturday night: Love Actually (what a soppy movie) and a lot of Rome: Total war and football, omg, the football +sigh+

Sunday: Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-1

Monopoly madness

"But I don't know how to play," She claimed, before trouncing everybody. I thought Darren would run away with it at one point, or that Weng and Tish would K.O. early on in the game because they didn't have anything, but oh, how the tables can turn, and Fong May quite happily sat there on all her money.

Played taboo from about one half, then monopoly until five. For me anyway, after getting knocked out an hour before everyone else. +lol+

Lack of sleep made this morning's rush to catch the train to Weybridge not so much a rush as a stumble across London to Waterloo. We missed the train twice, I mean while waiting at Waterloo. Random stuff.

Wrapping presents in top secret and watching t.v. for most of the afternoon has got us to this point. Going to play Yahoo Graffiti now, so tired! But there's chicken rice later! And the Chipmunk's album is on, kinda reminds me of Ben Ng at the 2000 prom, the '01 prom, our graduation prom... that was a lot of helium.

Txet Tsiwt

We're hooked on text twist. I guess it's because after I whomped Weng TWICE in monopoly and started to win in Taboo as well (and everybody knows I never win), we've decided to stop playing against each other and work together instead, so we stayed up late with a hot cup of mocha and a bunch of grapes trying to beat our highscore.

Which brings me to right now. I've climbed the 68 stairs to his room four times already, and about to head back down to walk to the station in five minutes. Going to watch RatPack tonight! I'm so excited, it's been ages since I watched a musical here!

Probably going to follow Tish back to Weybridge *again* tomorrow! (Hey Tish, I just thought I'd let you know!) I love that place. I love being there, so it'll be another unstressed weekend! With a bit of work, because I'm from IC, and a week wouldn't be right without some work. (I actually forgot how to write after last weekend.)

Also going to say bye to everyone leaving tomorrow and this weekend, most of them going home, a few of them going to Spain, and while everyone else heads south for the winter, we'll also be saying bye to the only one who's heading north this Christmas, to Manchester. +lol+

To my ohana

There's something heartwarming about emails coming in at the most random times from the most random people you once knew long ago. People who've made such an impact on your life but many of you whom you left without ever expecting to see again.

The KSIIS mailing group brings back the sultry nights, the gorgeous views, the hauntings, and all the laughs and sharing of three incredible weeks in an incredibly beautiful place. Then it gets you wondering about where they all are now, all over the States, all over Asia, having fun, stressing out, everyone looking forward to going home. I miss the smiles and the aloha's, I miss my ohana. I look at the pictures every so often, but not too often because it only seems to remind me how far away the memories are getting, how difficult it is to recall the music, the voices, the very people I promised to never forget. Everything feels so long ago.

The same goes with old friends who've headed south to do their degrees or decided to take other paths. Paths that lead away from the rest of us. It almost makes you want to cling tighter to those around you, so that they won't leave too.

But they're all still in my thoughts, no matter if they're five miles or five thousand away from me. I feel honored to be able to call such special people my friends. They may be far away, but they're most certainly never forgotten.

Back in Southampton

Oh, you'll never guess where we went today...wait for it, wait for it...Toys 'R' Us (!) Total boredom drove us to it, because it was about four thirty and we had run out of things to do. Weng's sense of freedom was renewed after handing in his assignment, as was his hyperness and good mood, and we were pretty much looking at each other like those two idiot vultures in The Jungle Book. So we walked to Toys 'R' Us and came away with The Simpson's Monopoly and Taboo. (Cheryl, are you jealous?)

Naturally, on the way there and back we ran into virtually everyone Weng knew in So'ton, so there was a lot of shuffling of feet, trying to manoeuver the huge, ungainly polythene bag behind our legs.

Taboo's SO fun though! And we're definitely bringing back all the games to Flat 8 to share with the rest of them before the term's out. It feels like Christmas already, and I know we need a boardgame back home. Endless rounds of gin and tai-di pushed the point home last night.

How'd the computing test go? What computing test? Forgotten about it already! Now I just gotta get rid of all those holiday assignments too...

Sharing the joy of Christmas

There's no real way to say 'Merry Christmas' than with toilet rolls and a radiator, and no way to really appreciate the thought than to have to sit there and look at them for want of a book or other reading material. 'Tis the season to love, give, and recycle.

Created by Shiv.

My point exactly

So Darren and Fong May are braving the cold in an effort to hunt and gather. Therefore, Han Wen's been unanimously voted as washer up for tonight, only we haven't told him yet. Flat 8 is a republic, just like the little island most of us hail from, i.e. everything's put to a vote, or else.

There was a discount coupon lying on the kitchen counter, and I'm being generous calling it a kitchen counter, because it's more like 50-square-cm of faux-slate formica laminate half covered in bottled sauces and sticky stuff that glues all the bottles into their neatly arranged rows. Not sure what the sticky stuff is yet, haven't had the guts to find out. Anyhow, this isn't about the horrors that inhibit our kitchenesque corridor, so we'll get back to the discount coupon.

This coupon gives you a discount of 50p on Dolmio pasta. Not a bad deal when you're buying um, maybe enough for your hamster, but naturally, there are conditions, which are as follows:

"To the consumer:
Hand in this coupon (not a copy) at any participating Sainsbury's store where it will be accepted as part-payment (50p) towards the bona fide retail purchase of one 220g pouch of Dolmio Filled Pasta. Only one coupon per transaction. Please do not attempt to redeem this coupon against any other product, as refusal to accept may cause embarrassment and delay at the checkout. Valid until: 31/01/02."

Talk about a disclaimer.

Five days more

We're finally in the last leg of the Autumn term here at IC. I won't talk about Warwick, Cambridge, or Oxford who all broke up a week or two earlier. But oh boy does this Monday bring a sigh of relief. Only a short one though, seeing as it's been cut short by the five assignments we have hanging over our heads this holiday.

Urgh, time management. Out comes the planner again. There's something totally zen about going crazy with a read marker pen on little white numbered boxes. It makes you feel like you're doing something useful even though you'll forget where you've put it by tomorrow and that it doesn't really consitute as work. Oh well. You know how it goes, an afternoon of alternative fuels will be swiftly replaced by an afternoon of iceskating, shopping, dinner, and watching a movie...

I think we're going to have to start drawing straws for the honour of going grocery shopping and washing up. Everyone's more than happy to cook, but not so enthusiastic about heading out in 2degree weather to buy the food to cook with. And no one ever wants to wash up.

A quickie

I'm out at Weybridge again, at Tishen's, which is the nearest thing you can get to home on this side of the world. Hsiang, Young, Cassie, and Junlinn made the trip out this morning too.

I absolutely refuse to talk about the Merseyside derby, so moving swiftly onwards, his puppies are growing so quickly. They've almost doubled in size since I last saw them. So everything is pretty much ow owned by a couple of terrors that spend half the time sleeping and the other half crashing around, chewing plants, and generally making noise. Now you should ask whether I was referring to the puppies...

I might actually get to watch The Incredibles later. They're watching Bridget Jones 2 right now, but I'm here listening to Weng stress about his group project. I thought he'd like some company.

Slightly worried about the computing test on Tuesday, but I can feel that melting away somewhat. It's hard to stress out here, it's all too peaceful.

On the doorstep of Saturday

And so the saga continues. It's become a daily thing. Weng and I'll check the tag-board three or four times to see if there are any more highly creative tags that need to be deleted, and then to hypothesize on the identity of the freak. I think s/he's too embarrassed to come out in the open about it now because of the level of purility to which they've sunk. But oh well...

I can't walk to school today because of an absolutely crippling stomach ache. How convenient that the pain demands that I sit up hunched over to stop it, so I am, at my computer, and Weng's looking after me and going grocery shopping and cooking lunch.

Erm, otherwise, Cheryl's bugging me to download Skype. 'Why?', I asked. 'Because it's free,' she said, in true Singaporean fashion. Actually more so that I can talk to everyone at home, after they come back from watching Polar Express on IMAX, but yea, essentially for free.

I'll be back later, have to go call in the Biological Weapons Squad to exterminate the seething mass of microorganisms that started out as a week-old bag of bananas.

For the anti-ash

If you hadn't noticed by now over the last week or so an absolute coward has started a kind of one-way slagging match on my tagboard. I've gathered, from the overall tone of the tags, that saying s/he doesn't really like me is kind of an understatement. It's so completely random.

I mean fine, I know I'm not a saint, and I'm pretty sure I can be quite a bitch, but I was also pretty certain that those days were behind me, like way behind me, and, like a lot of people out there, of course I'm trying to be a better person. I don't mind resolving any issues if s/he would actually come out and explain what they don't like about me, but it's hard to apologise for anything if I'm just getting a whole bunch of obscenities hurled in my direction.

So you see, at the moment's it's become a kind of deadlock. S/he'll usually make my day with at least three posts in reference to the canine species and intercourse, and I'll delete them. It's not like I have anything better to do, and I'm quite happy to keep on deleting them, but whoever it is is starting to really upset my friends.

If you really hate me, my blog, and my 'oh-so-prettyness', then why do you keep coming here? If you really need to slag me off, why don't you give yourself a bit more room, set up a blog at www.ihateash.com or whatever, and post to your heart's content? You even have my permission to link my page, I'd appreciate the hits. I'll even tell you that harboring all this maliciousness isn't going to give you good karma or get you laid, so it'd be a lot more positive to just let it go.

And no, I don't want to kiss your ass, thankyouverymuch.

The beautiful game

Liverpool rock! They're through, baby! Omg, I can't believe it. I had all but given up hope when Olympiakos scored. What a come back! Epic match! We Win! Yay!

Photo courtesy of Soccernet.com

From the tallest tower

I think that the best Pringles flavour ever invented is Sour Cream n Onion. It's such a classic, but while it's all good for breakfast and everything, the breath it leaves you with is enough to make sure that you'll be walking alone for a while or at the very least not talking. People might even ask you to refrain from breathing...

So anyway, I've spent the morning surfing, blogging, in the shower, eating, and blogging, oh, and also dodging the guilt of skipping class and not working. I hate that my Jimminey Cricket comes with a sledgehammer instead of an umbrella.

I feel like watching a cartoon. Weng's Winamp has hit the Disney tracks. Haven't had the chance to see any new ones lately, but right now The Emperor's New Groove would just about hit the spot. Still can't wait to see The Incredibles...

Ah bugger, I knew it's never a good idea talking to Tom +lol+, our conversations always leave me with more work to do, or at least the threat of another deadline. It seems that while our pump designs (and ours is all wrong) are being approved and CNC-d, they've decided to give us another group project due the third week of next term on swing bridges (what are swing bridges?) just to keep us occupied. Like there's not enough work as it is. +Grr+

And then there were two

He was in shock, and so was I. I couldn't believe that I had made it right to his door. I couldn't believe that I had got on the right bus, walked down the right street, and that he didn't have to come and rescue me from the docks or something. I couldn't believe that I had gotten on the right train out of Waterloo. He couldn't believe I was actually here.

I know, for once, I managed to surprise someone perfectly, even if it did involve fighting the constant urge to call or text him and spring it early the whole way here. Awesome stuff. I managed to bang on the door and catch the attention of a couple of his flatmates who let me in, and they were just as excited as I was about surprising him. So we knocked on his door, he very cautiously stepped out, and he just stood there in complete silence, the complete personification of 'Huh? What?'. And for sooo long too! But that's okay, because the silence was followed by about twenty minutes of 'Oh my goodness'.

So anyway, here I am, in Southampton. With the way he talked about how cold it is here, I though it'd be snowing, but um, no. They do have really big colourful birds here though, not just pigeons, and you can hardly hear the traffic above the sound of the subwoofers.

Feels like Tuesday

This is my third attempt at posting. My previous two posts were almost exactly the same and about something that actually wasn't totally self-centered or whiny, for once, but they got brutally rejected and deleted by an "Internal error" message from blogger.com. Anyhow, hopefully it'll be third time lucky...

We're trying to make our last deadline of the term at the moment, trying to get together a complete set of drawings, a bill of materials, and a report before tomorrow. Apparently it's supposed to be up to standard and comprehensive enough that if the shop packet was faxed to another country, they'd be able to make the pump without hesitation. I have to tell you though, I'm pretty damn hesitant about us being able to make that thing next term, but we'll cross that chasm when we get to it. I think my group mates are great though, they're so dedicated that I felt really guilty leaving at 9.20pm, but I had to get home. Nothing to eat all day was starting to really take it's toll.

The last computing tutorial of the year is tomorrow. Yay! I'll happily admit that I'm crap at programming. Hopefully I can pull a miracle during the test next week; just a pass, that's all I want.

Seventeen days and counting

So we saw Cassie last night. She'd pretty much just got in from Heathrow before was out the door again to Chinatown for dinner. I think she'd been in tourist mode from the airport, because it wasn't long before she was posing next to the bustop sign in anticipation of catching a picture with a London bus. Took a break at Hsiang's after dinner, and was going to wait for Young to arrive at about 11.30, but couldn't take it, had to go home and sleep.

Last night the London Underground was completely owned by large groups of rowdy guys and tipsy girls, making everyone else cower in expectation of a high-spirited drunken riot amidst staggering bodies and crushed toes, especially since the train driver was just as anxious to get his round over with.

Spent Friday night at Evan's in Richmond. That was fun, right up to about Monopoly, because Tish and I were disposed quite quickly, and Evan battled gallantly before conceding defeat. Weng was too lucky...or was he? Actually enjoyed British television prior to that, although I wasn't too impressed with Jonathan Ross, who's uniqueness is completely dependent on his inability to pronounce his 'r's and his awful awful mullet, which actually doesn't make him all that special I suppose.

I'm absolutely desperate for the holidays to start, but for now I'll take comfort in a pint of BnJs chocolate fudge brownie and some strawberries. I can't believe Aaron's on the way home, that he'll be in beautifully warm weather surrounded by good food and a car by this time tomorrow.

New addiction

Halo's taken over our flat. I feel like throwing up. I, of everybody on this earth, am the most poorly suited to such 'run around and shoot everybody' games. Therefore, after the first night of comprehensive carnage, the kills stand at

Ash : 2 (Both of which were Darren)
Weng : 8
Han wen : A gazillion (Me)
Darren : A gazillion and three (Me, me, and me)

I spent more time rejoining the game than actually trying to kill people. It's so hard to make out what are trees and what aren't, and how are you supposed to shoot someone in the head when they're jumping around like moon men. The only decent chance I have of lasting more than 20 seconds comes in the form of those little hover crafts that have unlimited ammo or something. But the second I pick one up, someone's either shot me in the head or Darren goes and gets another and guns me down.

I don't know how these guys can aim at anything. Climbing ladders and jumping off hills makes me feel like I'm on the spin cycle of a green-grey wash, and even after I switched from a shocking pink suit to something more camo-y, like grey, they STILL managed to unerringly pick me out every time. 'K9 killed Ash', 'Han killed Ash', and 'WENG killed Ash' flashed on screen at regular intervals of, oh, about 10 seconds.

Fantastic adrenaline rush, but I spent too much time dying than actually enjoying the game.

Skiving

Yes, I feel really bad, and I felt really bad through the whole night, so bad in fact that I did not sleep well because my conscience was shatting on me, and actually woke up half an hour earlier than the alarm. Tried to oversleep, but with similar results, so finally scraped myself out of bed half an hour later, by which time it was too late to get ready for the nine o'clock class.

It started last night though. I was trying to 'conveniently forget' to set my alarm clock, but I felt guilty and caved. Then Weng was talking to me about skipping class, and he endorsed the move, I guess to make him feel better for him skipping his class earlier this week...

So anyhow, I've justified it with the promise of doing work. But I don't think that's working either because I'm here blogging, and my sister's MSN bar is flashing like crazy about some guy or another. Our once weekly conversations are usually filled with news about some poor sod who she's rejected or messed up. She dishes out so much counselling that she needs it herself, but that's what a big sister is for, that and being a punching bag.

Christmas is coming, and while it's great that I'll finally be able to spend my first Christmas with Weng, I really miss home and my family and my dog.

Newsflash

Man Utd is 1-0 up on Arsenal which means poor Vikas might have to see them lose another time in seven days. Liverpool and Tottenham are still 0-0.

Darren and FM are cooking and it smells wonderful. Boy, do they know how to get Brahim's just right! Oh and omlette too! We go through about 25 eggs a week. That's pretty scary stuff right there. We managed to account for it though, and it's not as bad as it sounds, but we still haven't found out who's been eating the toilet paper or all the butter.

Weng's been rendered mugless, which makes my Christmas shopping a lot easier. His GIS (crappy crappy) mug cracked when he poured hot water into it, so now he wants something bigger (so typically male) like Hanwen's massive Starbucks tankard-thing. He also wants something cooler. I guess his highschool branded mug didn't quite stand up to the likes of LSE or Daffy duck.

I can't wait til he comes in tomorrow!
Oh and Cassie's due Saturday too. She's bringing winter supplies, thankfully. The Yorkian and a few Warwickians are also coming in this weekend. It should be great, if only I didn't have a deadline...