Friday, June 17, 2016
Day 7: V&A Museum, Les Misérables, and Hyde Park
I go wherever I want, wherever I pleaseI look forward to the day where this is just a memory
Come on, come on I gotta get away
Save all the bullshit for another day
Get me a ticket and an alibi
There's nothing holding me down so teach me how to fly
Here we go, up up and away
Up Up And Away - Newton Faulkner
Day 7 was spent all day in London. The plan was to go to Victoria & Albert Museum then take an 1 hour or so break in Hyde Park before going to Queen's Theatre to watch the matinee performance of Les Misérables. The V&A Museum opens at 10 am so I didn't have to get up so early. Managed to get there without much trouble because the sign was clear from the tube exit. It's actually quite a long walk through the tunnel. The V&A Museum like many other museums in the UK are free. It's seriously really nice of them and imagine living in a place where you can see amazing collections and don't have to pay a single cent or penny as they say in England.
The V&A Museum is very big and it has such a varied collection. So varied that there were times when I was surprised finding what they have in their collection. Here are some of the different things I saw there. This below is a french board game about love. It's made of ceramic and I'm not sure if it's played with a dice. My french was too awful to understand how to play this.
You might think after doing so many things alone in the past few days, I would have enjoyed the company and the chance to have a conversation. I actually didn't. Walking and talking, I feel it made for a rather distracted visit and one that wasn't effective especially considering I didn't have the whole day to spend. In Raphael's room I was curious to find where the Raphael Cartoons are. I couldn't find it then. We both agreed perhaps our understanding what the cartoons are is quite different from the actual thing. Now reading that link above, I think perhaps what I thought were just paintings by Raphael are the actual cartoons. So anyway, I actually just wanted to get off her, but I couldn't tell her. Then we kinda have circled the same area again and I said I was going up and she said okay perhaps she should start heading to the airport. At one point, she said she should ask for my Facebook. I told her that I don't use Facebook anymore, so that's just that. We said goodbye without making any attempt to stay in touch. I know it's very bad of me and I should be thankful that God gave me a friend for a short while and I should appreciate it. I hope she didn't feel that I was rude or anything. She was a really bubbly chatty girl. I wonder if it's because she's young and since I'm this old, I'm just so jaded. However I think I'm always jaded regardless which age I'm in, perhaps not when I was a toddler or in my teens. High school onwards I think I have a more tired look of the world :(
After we separated, I quickly explored the rest of the museum. The sections that I kinda missed or didn't see much were the Asian and Britain sections. There were so many things to see that I scrapped the plan to go to Hyde Park and I just stayed at the museum until it's near time to go to Queen's Theatre. I almost arrived late again. Oh my God, it's so bad of me. I arrived like 5 minutes before it started. I got a really good seat for this. Stall section, 4th row from the stage. It's not cheap, at 79.92 GBP, but it's much cheaper than in Singapore for the same section and I think it's one of the reasons why I chose to watch this in London. Another reason is because I have heard a lot of good things about it. The theatre is still kinda small if compared to Singapore, but I found the seat to have more space than Her Majesty's Theatre. Les Misérables was really really good. I love it so much more than The Phantom of the Opera. I actually have a new found appreciation for the 2012 movie and thought yeah Anne Hathaway did a really good job. Hearing On My Own still broke my heart like when I heard it for the first time sung by Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) in Dawson's Creek. It was really really good and I'm glad I went to watch it. I was on the fence about it because of cost and such and thought there were many other things I could be doing, but truly I'm glad I made the decision to watch it. Good job Eka. Oh, forget to write this before. One interesting thing about these theatres in London is that during intermission, inside the theatre, they sell snack, like Häagen-Dazs ice cream and you can eat it inside the theatre. I just can't imagine this being allowed in Singapore.
After it's done, since the sun was still out and it was still quite early, I thought I should go to Hyde Park next. Reading about this park, I found out that there are cycling paths that connect to Kensington Gardens and there are a few Santander Cycles stations nearby where you can rent a bicycle. So I thought that would be fun. Exiting the station, I couldn't find the docking station which my map told me should be there. Eventually I did spot it from across the street, but it looked empty for me and I didn't feel like investigating more, so I just walked in. You can't cycle in some places like the rose garden and Diana Memorial Fountain so walking has its benefit. There were quite a number of people there, tourists and families, enjoying the nice day with the sun. I saw this cave like tree which is so cool. A lot of kids were playing inside it and some were climbing up. I heard one of the kids shouted, "This is the most awesome tree ever!" and that kid was right :)
It took awhile for them to use the machine and then I understood why. Let me explain a bit about this Santander Cycles. In London there are a few of these unmanned Santander Cycles stations where you can rent a bicycle. Santander is a bank currently sponsoring it. With the many dedicated cycling paths in London, this is actually quite fun. You can also cycle on the roads, but I don't trust myself to do so. To rent the bicycle is quite straightforward. You need what in the UK is called a cash card. Basically if your ATM card or your credit card has a chip on it and you activate it for overseas use, I think you can use it. You go to the machine and follow the instruction and read the many disclaimers and information; there are really quite a number of pages hence the process is quite long. Using your card, you will pay 2 GBP for a 24-hour access to a bike. So this means for 24 hour you can take a bike in any of the docking station. Once you are done with the process, the machine will print out a slip with a number on it. You go to the bicycle that you want, I chose the one with the lowest seat possible, enter the code in the keypad and take the bicycle out. You suppose to check if the bike is okay to use, but what do I know about these things. The bicycle felt much bigger than what I thought it would be when I saw people using it. Though it was already the lowest seat I could find, only my toes managed to touch the ground. You can adjust the seat, but I didn't bother. You can also adjust the gear. When I started it felt super light and I was going much faster than anticipated going down, but I decided to keep it.
The first 30 minutes ride is free, but after that you will get charged. I forget the rate, you can check the internet if you're interested. The advice on the internet is to dock the bicycle before 30 minutes is up and then take out a new one if you still need it. This way you don't have to pay anything aside for the 2 GBP access. I actually don't know how the process to take out a new bike after docking works. I guess if you insert the same card then the system will notice it and you don't get charged again. Anyways, my plan was to just dock this bike before the 30 minutes. If I had followed my original plan, I should have cycled up to Kensington Gardens, but I chickened out on it because to do so I have to encounter cars as I navigated the Serpentine Bridge and the road around it. It is a shame but I think public safety is important. I don't trust myself. The last time I rode a bicycle was in Moerenuma Kōen back in 2013 and even then in an empty park I think I was a bad cyclist. In the end, I was just proud that I didn't kill anyone or anything like a bird. Yes there's dedicated cycling paths but there were many pedestrians as well. One time there was this toddler who just ran and almost got into the cycling path, luckily she didn't get hurt.
I basically just cycled back to Hyde Park Corner tube station. It was a really short route. I had fun and wished it could be longer. Okay let's put this in the list if I ever get a chance to go to London again, to try more of their cycling paths. I returned the bicycle at the docking station near Hyde Park Corner tube station. I know I should push the bike into an empty place, but I was a bit confused if I should consult the machine again upon returning. There were a few guys using the machine and as mentioned it takes a while, so I just pushed the bike into the docking station until the green light was on and it's really locked. I did it correctly because when I checked my bank transaction history, I was really charged only for that 2 GBP. It's really fun people, I suggest you give it a try when you're in London :)
:) eKa @ 4:51:00 PM • 0 comments
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Day 6: Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath
we sit together, foreverby the color TV glow
telling stories, allegories
letting ourselves go
Stay in my corner, babe
Stay in my corner, please
Stay in my corner, babe
I will fight for you if you fight for me too
Stay In My Corner - The Arcs
I have many favourite songs and this one is definitely one of it. So well written. By the way I noticed that I listen to male singers more than I do of female singers. I don't have the statistic, but I think it will be 85% : 15%. I wonder why this is so with me. Okay enough random thoughts, let's get on with this post.
Day 6 was a a Friday and I took a day tour that included Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Really all I wanted was to go to Stonehenge. I wouldn't forgive myself if I had come all the way to England and I didn't go there. The meeting place for this tour was at Victoria coach station, a really short walk from the hotel and so I thought I didn't have to rush. When I got there, things were very chaotic. There were so many people and I didn't know where I should go and the information wasn't clear. At one point I waited at the wrong gate, but then I found the correct one and I was just glad that I wasn't late. It was quite a touristy season when I was in London so there were many tourists. The Monday of the following week was also a bank holiday in the UK, so there could be more people taking Friday off to make it a long weekend and they contributed to the number of tourists. As far as I know, there were 3 groups doing this this same tour and there were like 50 people in a group. Yes it's a big group, one that can make things rather difficult. The chaos didn't just end that morning. It carried on until the end of the day. Our guide was an ex-soldier, lecturer, author, and of course a tour guide. He's a great guide and I think it's really because of him we all had a satisfying trip, well except for a few people. He loves history so he knows this stuff. He's had a lot of experience so he knows useful things like the route to take to avoid traffic. His military training means that there's a certain discipline in him that benefit all of us, again except for a few people. The only things that really weren't within his control that day was the amount of people travelling to these places and the traffic.
First stop was to Windsor Castle and already there were many people here. Queuing wasn't fun and we had to queue quite a while :( but we finally got in. You have to go through airport security kinda check to enter Windsor Castle. The queen wasn't in when we're there. Inside the compound, I visited the Queen Mary’s Dolls' House, The State Apartments, and St. George's Chapel. Time was limited, so I didn't really linger in each place. You can't take pictures inside these places which I think kinda helped me to get through all these places within the time allocated. Here's a picture of some part of the castle from the outside .
Anyways, here in Windsor we left some people in our group. It was my first time ever leaving people for being late. I think my guide has done this a few times before though. My guide with his military training just had no tolerance about it. I think we waited less than 10 minutes. He was like, they're adult, they should be responsible and it's unkind to the others who made it on time. He tried to look for them, but he said he couldn't even see them walking out to the bus so they most probably were still inside and didn't even bother. Of course he's right. The day had proven to be quite hectic with the many tourists. We may need to wait in queue again at other places, so we should use our time effectively. While it may sound harsh with the driver asking him a few times, are you sure, he was making the best decision for the rest of us. Usually the plan for this trip is to visit Windsor Castle, Bath, and then Stonehenge, but he made a decision that we should visit Stonehenge first because with the crowd and traffic, we might not make it if we leave it to the end. There was really traffic on the way there. Luckily our guide knows of another way, so we were able to avoid traffic in the commonly used road. It was a pretty smooth sailing drive for us to get there.
Stonehenge is surrounded by fields. In fact to get to the stones, you need to take the provided small bus. I suppose you can walk there if you want. Also if you have the time, you can walk to the burial mounds that are located on the fields. These burial mounds are like little hills. Our guide gave a thorough explanation about Stonehenge, many of which I have forgotten. Some things I remember was that the stones were transported by glaciers and the reason the tribe of people who built it eventually left the place was because their source of water was getting bad and so they had to move. It is quite an interesting feat of engineering, especially considering how the people managed to get the heavy big slabs of stone on top and this is still quite a mystery.
When I came back to the bus, I saw this one guy talking agitatedly to our bus driver. I thought our bus driver was in trouble maybe for parking wrongly. Turned out, he's not. This was a tourist who was left out by the other groups. I think what happened was he's very annoyed that he and his group was left there and then he got very confused when our driver was telling him that we're going back to London after this. I think his groups was following the usual itinerary and so he was expecting to go to Stonehenge. He was also very agitated and rough when he finally talked to our guide, but our guide isn't the type who takes this kind of treatment and he just roughed him back and said he wouldn't be talked to this way. That shut the guy up. Finally he accepted the situation and got on our bus. Lucky for him actually that we had spaces for him and his group. We found out from our guide that the other groups didn't make it to Stonehenge. I googled, the last entry for Stonehenge is 2 hours before closing time, so I think because of the traffic and stuff, they didn't make it and I felt truly thankful for the decision that our guide made that we made it.
On the drive back, we had bad traffic. I was actually calm in all of it. I guess it helped that I had a filling meal so I wasn't hungry and also because I didn't have to wake up early the next day. Also considering what happened to the other groups, we had a fabulous day so there were much to be thankful for. It got quite worrying for the driver because by law their shift is only 15 hours and his time was running out. The worry was if we couldn't make it to London and he had to stop. Luckily we made it and the guide made another decision to stop at only one stop instead of trying to get to the different drop off points because the traffic was just not cooperating. He chose a stop near Gloucester Road tube station thinking it's the best considering where were were and that's good for me because there's a direct tube line to get to my hotel. I arrived in my room at 9 pm plus. Tired for sure, but truly thankful. Our guide might be tough for some people, but really it's because of him we got to see all we wanted to see :) For pictures, you can go here.
:) eKa @ 5:23:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, June 12, 2016
No sweet nothing could ever be turned into something newNo grand gesture could ever be made to measure you
What You Don't Do - Lianne La Havas
Day 5 was the day I left Edinburgh for London. My hotel is Edinburgh was very nice and very near the bus stop where I can take bus to the airport. So there's no issue on getting there. The airport was quite busy. The security queue was very long. By the way, in America right you are requested to take off your shoes and get them scanned. Aside from the US, I have never been asked to do such a thing in any other countries. The thing is Americans are so used to it that they do it like everywhere even though they're not asked to do so. It's slowing the queue and the part where I don't like the most is, they will put the shoes in the tray and though perhaps there's no visible dirt left there, I don't feel good putting my things into the tray, especially jacket and stuff :( So that's one reason why I always put my clothing items into my bag instead of putting them directly into the tray.
Anyways, I chose the flight that landed in London City Airport because I had decided to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel. With my luggage it will be hard trying to use public transportation to my hotel especially since I didn't know exactly where my hotel was even though I have studied the maps. So I needed the nearest airport possible to the city center so that I don't go broke on taxi. London taxi design is one of a kind. There's a lot of space on the passenger side and I was very surprised where the taxi driver just put my luggage there. I thought that made sense, now I get why all this space is there and it's also great because you can just spread out your legs. Compared to the New York taxi that I took last year that felt cramped, this one is definitely much better. As we went along, I noticed that the meter was not on. However I didn't tell the driver because I thought maybe what I thought was the meter was not the meter. Turns out I was right, the driver noticed it and told me sorry, he forgot, he didn't usually drive this taxi and said the drive so far should be around 10 GBP. I said okay because really the main thing was me getting there safely and he didn't drive me in circle which I think he really didn't. It was quite a scenic route he took, I saw a lot of London during the drive from the Tower of London to the Big Ben. Heard the Big Ben chime too. Of course it was around this area we got into traffic. He said it's all because of the bicycle lane taking up the road. He didn't seem to appreciate it because he told me, see there's no one cycling. Well there were only a few people cycling and a few people jogging. I told him it's nice, people get to jog there. His comment was pretty funny for me actually because that's the same comment drivers in Jakarta would make about the already busy roads having to be made smaller to give way for busway. Unlike Jakarta, the drivers in London do really have to stay away from the cycling lanes. With the bicycle rental stations around these lanes, I think these dedicated bicycle lanes are really fun actually. Anyway arrived at my hotel, the driver said to pay him 40 GBP, which I think it's correct and fair. In fact it may have cost a bit more. I could check in straight away but the room wasn't great. As usual I got pretty demoralized especially after coming from Edinburgh where my hotel room was great. Well like in New York, location can really allow hotels to charge more but provide somewhat adequate rooms. I put my things and then I headed out.
The plan for this day was actually this: go to Chelsea Flower Show in the afternoon and then go watch Billy Elliot the musical in the evening. Then 2 things happened that caused me to be quite demoralized. Chelsea Flower Show tickets get sold out pretty fast and as much as I had confidence that I would get UK visa for this trip, I just didn't want to buy the ticket before visa was out. When finally I got my visa, the afternoon ticket (03:30 pm) for the public was already sold out and this was more than one month of the actual day of visit. There are actually not many days where the public can go to the show, members get more days and flexibility and cheaper tickets. Anyway then I also found that that Billy Elliot the musical was finishing its run before my trip. So yeah I was sad about it, but as mentioned in previous post I prayed so that God helped me make good decision. Well He did and things may have worked out for the better. I got the 05:30 pm entrance for Chelsea Flower Show and it was 17 GBP cheaper than the 03:30 pm entrance. It was not ideal because the show closed at 8 pm, but I had to make do with what's available and I really really wanted to go. Chelsea Flower show was the reason I scheduled the trip on this period, it was really so that I can go to it. Not being able to watch Billy Elliot, I decided to watch another British product and so I settled with The Phantom of the Opera. As luck would have it, on that day there's a matinee that started at 02:30 pm and there was a promotion for seats at the stall level and I got to buy it for 42.50 GBP. Considering how much these seats usually cost, that's like really cheap even by Singapore standard. So God made everything work out for me.
I was still quite early when I arrived in my hotel room so I had time. Of course there were some things to sort out first, figuring out where I was and understanding Victoria station and most importantly getting Oyster card to use the tube. That settled, I went first to visit Shake Shack in Covent Garden. I don't know how it happened but somehow I found out that Shake Shack has a branch in London. I had fond memories of it when I was in New York and I really don't think I get to eat it anytime soon and when this chance arrived I thought I should go for it. It's been a year and I felt like it's sooner than I thought it would be. I found it easy enough. I was worried about not finding place to sit. Lucky me after I placed my order, there was no queue for the seating area and I found an empty seat right in front of me as I entered. As in New York there were many people at Shake Shack. There's actually a staff who tried to get people seats in the sitting area so I was lucky to find it on my own. Being alone, I had to ask a German dad who was dining with his fellows German mom and dad tourists to look after my bag for awhile while I went to collect my food. There are times where you just have to put your trust on strangers right. When I came back, it was really cute of him to be putting his hand on my chair and made sure my bag was okay. I didn't even know if he understood me when I asked him for help :D So anyway, I ordered the standard ShackBurger, peanut butter shake (which I adore and it's not easy to find peanut butter shake anywhere and Shake Shack does it just all too well), cheese fries (even though I knew it would be too much for me but I was rather hungry). I made sure to make the peanut butter shake malted because I was curious about what malted meant. I still don't know what it means, but it felt milkier for me. It was still heavenly, but I think next time I wouldn't want it malted. As expected the whole meal was too much for me and I couldn't finish the fries. Other observation about Shake Shack: I was surprised to see some muslims eating there because I didn't think it's halal. I googled, I was right, the ones outside Middle East are not halal. Well maybe because these people came from the Middle East and they have Shake Shack there, so they thought it would be halal in London too. It's a curious thing that Shake Shack has a lot of locations in the Middle East, while in Asia they only have 1 location in Tokyo, in an area I'm not familiar with.
Around 2 pm I made my way to Her Majesty's Theatre thinking that would give me enough time. It would if I actually knew the way. Figuring where it was was harder than I expected. It's just you know how sometime when you exit a station, you don't understand which side of the station you are, so even though you have a map, it still gets confusing. Thank God, I made it on time, really just on time. Luckily the show started not really on time, but a few minutes later so I didn't miss anything. The theatre reminded me of Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center last year. It wasn't very big (by Singapore standard) and the seats don't have a lot of leg space. Even though my seat wasn't quite at front, I still had a really good view of the stage. It still felt very near. I thought the staging was wonderful. The sets and the costumes, all the many details were just amazing. Story wise, I wasn't that satisfied, but overall it was still pretty cool and I'm glad that I got to watch it. It finished at around 5 pm and so I made my way to the Chelsea Flower Show.
Arriving at the Sloane Square station, again I was confused on which street to take. Finally I figured it out and managed to get there. One word to describe Chelsea Flower Show is insanity. I'm really sorry and I really mean no disrespect to the organizers who I am sure put a lot of hard work into this. It's just there were so many people, too many people. This made the visit not a super pleasant one for me. It's also sad because for me the ticket price is not cheap. If you're not a member and you cannot get the time slot that you want, you can get an all day ticket price for 100 GBP. Imagine that. It must be some really rich people forking this out, like perhaps celebrities whom I didn't manage to spot any (Dame Judi Dench was there!). Perhaps the British are just polite people that if you ask them about it, they will just answer, "Oh it's lovely", everything is lovely. There were many well dressed people, guys in suits, it made me feel rather under dressed for the occasion. People can eat and drink while going around the exhibitions and they can also smoke, something I really dislike, but I guess this complain of me annoys smokers who feel they have the freedom to do so. Anyway like Singapore Garden Festival, the Chelsea Flower Show had the indoor and outdoor exhibition. The outdoor one shows different garden designs which I'm pretty sure I didn't see all because of the crowds. The indoor one shows different arrangements of flowers and some vegetables and it was really amazing. There were so many varieties of flowers. Sometime in shades of colours I have never seen before in a flower. Comparing this to Singapore Garden Festival, well there are differences. The varieties of flowers in Singapore Garden Festival may not be as much as the Chelsea Flower Show, but well we live in the tropics, some things just wouldn't grow well here. I took so many pictures, many of which I dump here and if you want to see more, you can go here.
:) eKa @ 10:31:00 PM • 0 comments
Friday, June 10, 2016
Day 4: Arthur's Seat and National Galleries of Scotland
And one thing I love about youYou follow no leaders
You go your own way, your own way
Be yourself
Be yourself
Nobody does it better than you
Be Yourself - Jay-Jay Johanson
Day 4 was spent all in Edinburgh. I had plan to go hike up Arthur's Seat, which is this hill in Edinburgh. When I told people what I did and what happened when I tried to get down, they asked why I went to hike up a hill? I answered, for fun? Going for a laborious hike doesn't sound fun and I guess they wondered why I would do such thing :D I'm such a lazy city girl. I often take a bus even though my destination is just one bus stop away and I could easily walk there. I don't exercise, so I guess I just don't strike people as someone who likes physical activity. I guess sometime after living in a city since you were born, you kinda like the idea of just walking somewhere where the city disappears. That being said, I was very nervous about going up Arthur's seat. I poured over maps and instructions before this trip and though some people wrote it's not difficult, I wonder if I was built for it. When I woke up that day and it wasn't raining, I thought I shouldn't chicken out and I should do this.
First order of business was getting a sufficient breakfast. I had pancakes, bacons, and a fried egg. Couldn't finish the bacon because the whole breakfast was just too much for me and because I didn't enjoy these English bacons much (to my dismay). I guess I love the fattening American kind more. Breakfast done then it was a walk down to the start or the bottom of Arthur's seat. It was a much longer walk to reach it than I thought it would be but the elevation was going down so it wasn't so bad, but I did think this might get annoying on the way back. Arriving at the bottom, I found the direction to one of the recommended path easy enough. So nothing confusing here, it was a nice walk. It's not so hard yet and I was loving it so much and glad that I did this. By the way, this is a picture of the surroundings on my way up.
So anyways, the sky was getting dark and there were more people coming so I thought I should go down. Off the peak, we went down to an open grassy area. I seriously think with steep places going down is harder and scarier than going up. Again nothing in my life prepared me for this, so my instinct just told me to go backward, face the rocks and go down like you would going down a ladder. I felt that way was more comfortable for me. I tried to find the way back from here. Based on the maps I have I should go a different route than when I came from, but I couldn't find any easy way :( So I thought let's just hang around this grassy area and wait for people to go down then follow them. The problem was I felt some drizzle so I was getting worried. I didn't want to be stuck up there navigating steep rocky paths in the rain. When the 2 guys headed down, I thought good, now I could follow their way down. Unfortunately I don't think they also knew which way to go. They were some distance away from me and them and as I followed their way down I saw the photographer one of the two was having problem with the steepness and he almost fell. However I was already on their path so the only thing I could do was just to commit to it. Going back up was just as hard. It was really bad that I resorted to just slide my way down. Seriously when I thought trying to go down was impossible, I just packed the camera into my bag and slid down. There was another guy behind me and he then was doing the same. I said, "Do you think this is the right way?". He said no and laughed. I said something like well the point is as long as we don't die. The 2 guys in front heard us and said something like, "It must be our fault that you all are following us". It was quite scary that at one point I just stand and look down and the guy behind me caught up to where I was. I told him to go down first because I wasn't ready yet. I forget if he asked if I was sure. He went ahead and since I couldn't stand there forever, I then slid down again. The guys were now in front of me and I think they kindly looked back at me 1-2 times to make sure I was okay. I don't know if it's to make sure the Asian girl didn't die. I just like to think they did it to make sure I was okay and I was comforted with that thought. After a while, the path became much better and I could continue walking. Thank God. The only injury I got from the whole ordeal was a really tiny tiny cut on one of my left finger, it was totally negligible :)
Now I then did something stupid. After some time walking down, I saw a paved road for cars down below there and instead of consulting the map I had, I decided to go down to that road. The right way to go actually was to take another path which would give me nicer view of the hill and end up where I started. With me going down that road, I ended up getting confused of where I was and how to get to where I started. Then it became the usual thing I always do when I get confused and lost, I walked up and down the area a few times before stopping, looked at a nearby map, and set to the correct direction. It is embarrassing if people see me, but there I was, still a really directionally challenged person. I didn't feel like going up the hill again to go back to the hiking path, so I just followed the road which circles the hill. In the end I was again where I started but this walk is not a scenic walk at all. So if one day God gives me the chance to go to Edinburgh again, I promise I will go up Arthur's seat again! Promise. *Providing the weather is cooperative :P All in all I think I only spent 3 hours or so going up and down.
After that I made the walk back to town. Made a stop to St. Giles' Cathedral. I didn't take any picture because while entry is free, you have to pay for pictures. There's a service going on, but there were not many people attending service. I always find it awkward when there's service going on and there are also tourists milling around. So I didn't stay long and as planned I made my way to Scottish National Gallery. Scotland is really cool, the National Galleries of Scotland is this group of 3 museums: The Scottish National Gallery, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, all located in Edinburgh and all are free!!! They have really nice collections and they're not very big. While we also love big museums, smaller museums are also great especially when they are free (very important) and have good collection. With smaller museums, you get to see everything and don't feel overwhelmed and tired from walking its rooms. There are 3 floors in The Scottish National Gallery and they have things from Italian paintings of Jesus and the likes, to Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, and the rest and also of Scottish art in the basement.
Other note: When I talked to mom about this trip and she found out I was staying at 2 different places, she asked if they both use the same money. I said, "Of course, they're the same country!". I thought my mom was silly until I started getting change in Scotland. The notes I received were issued by the Bank of Scotland and the queen is not on the money! Suddenly my mom didn't sound so silly anymore and I was actually the silly one for saying they're the same country. I started googling if they can be used in London. By right, they should be accepted but some wrote that there's no legal requirement to do. So I kinda made sure to use all the Scottish pounds I had before leaving.
:) eKa @ 2:31:00 PM • 0 comments
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
my days now end as they begunwith thoughts of you
and I think of you
and think of you
I Think of You - Sixto Rodriguez
Day 3 was spent taking a day tour that features Loch Ness. One of the reason why I chose to stay a few days in Edinburgh was actually for this, to visit Loch Ness. What I did there was most probably confusing for you all, but let's recap this from the beginning. This tour was different from the day before, so the meeting place was different. I found it without any problem. There were many people doing this tour too, but we're divided into smaller groups. The group was smaller from the day before and I kept pretty much to myself.
First stop was to this stop point by a lake or was it a river? I can't remember its name. It's to use the toilet and get some snack. I had the best scone ever there. It was fluffy on the inside and I love it so much. Maybe because it was fresh from the oven hence why it was still fluffy? I don't know. Anyway, the place was so tranquil and we're pretty much the only people there. The water was pretty still that it reflect all the trees and hills. A really really nice peaceful place.
After that stop in Fort Augustus, we continued on our way. Made a stop to this place overlooking Ben Nevis, which is the highest mountain in Britain. There's a commando statue there overlooking the mountain. If I'm not mistaken it's because they do their training there.
PS: I really need to watch Searching for Sugar Man, a documentary about Sixto Rodriguez. His voice is so distinctly his.
:) eKa @ 5:28:00 PM • 0 comments
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
Day 2: Scottish Western Highlands
Babe, there's something tragic about youSomething so magic about you
Don't you agree?
Babe, there's something lonesome about you
Something so wholesome about you
Get closer to me
From Eden - Hozier
I have tweeted some verse of the song above before. I just love it so much because I think (narcissistically) that this songs kinda describes me well. I chose this song today because today someone asked me how the trip was. Then she proceeded with saying that it must be boring because I was alone. I can only sigh as I am sighing now. Here's what went in my head after that small conversation. I am perhaps the unlucky one to not be living surrounded by loved ones or to not have many loved ones and friends whom I can take on trip like this, but trips like this have shown me what a fallacy it is to call me unlucky. Though I don't think I have travelled to that many parts of the world, I have been very very fortunate to see and experience many wondrous things. So much more than perhaps many people have. I stand by my argument that I can be all sad and lonely not having people to do things with me or I just can go and do the things that I want to do even though I am alone in doing it. Yes, there were times when the loneliness and the fact that again over and over I couldn't get anyone or ask anyone to do these trips with me bothered me because it's like a big jeer from the universe that I don't have any friends, but I think for the most parts, it has been a nice experience simply due to the fact that I was alone. This year's trip for example, despite of the anxiety pre-trip, I think I have truly enjoyed the alone time. The time when I was not in charge of anyone, not having to answer to anyone or assist anyone, and I just have to take care of me. It's all been so nice. I really had wanted to be away from people.
You know how you shouldn't care what people think. I think the fact that I wrote a whole paragraph based on a short conversation showed that what people think do bother me. Yeah I can't deny that. Sometime I think I am even making things up in my head as I wont to do. One thing that sometime pop into my head is if people think I have no friend, like why is she always alone, why she never goes out, why does she always eat alone, why does she always do things alone? I hate the pathetic feeling that they may have of me. However when I think of it, it's not like they're doing anything to remedy the situation if they think that way. So it's like yeah I shouldn't bother about people's opinion if those people don't care about me. I don't know why I am writing all this out actually. I guess to just put it out there that yes I don't have any friend and yes I am so alone. I wonder if there's a survey carried out on the whole population of the world, what is the percentage of people who think they're so alone. I actually think it might be close between the people who feel that way and don't. We can't change the cards we're dealt with. If it's a lousy solitude, it shouldn't stop us from entertaining ourselves. Okay end of rant.
So day 2 in Edinburgh was the day that I took a day tour through Scottish Western Highlands. I only took 4 day tours in my trip this time, 2 from Edinburgh and 2 from London. This one had the best size I think. Not many people, enough to just hide myself. So first order of business in the morning was to find where the meeting place was. The topography of Edinburgh old town where my hotel and this meeting place are located is very interesting. The meeting place is like on the street behind my hotel but that street is like 2-storey higher than the street my hotel is located. Following google map, I took the staircases that would lead me to that street. I got confused at one part and almost got panic. The stupid me tend to backtrack when I think something is not correct, luckily this time I didn't. I persevered and didn't get lost and found the meeting place easy enough :) First stop was actually to Glasgow to pick up some other tourists. Glasgow seems to be more city like than Edinburgh. We passed a square which reminded me of Union Square in San Francisco. Anyway, after that we're off on our way.
First stop was this village called Luss where it's just a short walk to see Loch Lomond. It's very big and by the shore there were many ducks. I thought it was very pretty and peaceful. There weren't many people. By the way Loch is Scottish for lake and Scotland has many lakes. I have passed a few in this trip that sometime I don't even know what their names are.
:) eKa @ 5:24:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, June 04, 2016
Now I'm on the roadKnowing not which way to go
Is it yes or is it no?
I don't really care
For the golden sun
Has washed me away and I've become
Just another vagabond holding my head
Yellow Eyes - Rayland Baxter
Isn't Rayland such a nice name? When I first heard that song I just love it and thought that I want to use it to begin my playlist for my next trip. In the end I didn't. It's still in the playlist but my playlist for the UK trip is started with Hozier's songs because I fell for his songs and lyrics too. Anyways, hi guys, so I am back. Got back on Wednesday. It was an okay flight in which I sporadically slept that I only watched 1 movie, The Hateful Eight, even that I didn't manage to watch from beginning to end in one sitting. Since I couldn't easily sleep if not on a bed, I decided to really tried to sleep if I feel sleepy, so I stopped watching halfway when I was sleepy and continued watching when I felt like I really needed to start to be awake, around 4 hours-ish into the end of flight. The Hateful Eight is not bad. I thought the beginning part was quite promising, but towards the middle and end, it was so-so. The flight back was my first time in an Airbus A380. Upon checking in, there was an option to choose seat in the upper deck, but somehow I thought keeping it traditional would be much better and I chose the lower deck. It didn't seem like a full flight so when I checked in I chose an aisle seat in the left row where no one was sitting yet. I was disappointed to find a lady sitting by the window when I boarded. The flight was not full but the empty places around were already claimed by other Asians who I think are just fast in doing this. Anyway this lady who I think don't speak much English was not in her seat when I came back from the toilet. Some of her stuff was still there. She didn't tell me that she was going to change seat so like a moron, I stood there waiting for her to come back, because I didn't feel like sitting and standing up again and the last time she needed to get out she did it quickly without any "excuse me" or prepared me for it. When she didn't come back after some time, I decided to sit. Worried that she might come back, I tried to sleep sitting. After many hours she didn't come back, I decided to just lay on the 3 seats. Should have done that much sooner instead of the 2 hours or so I got to do it. Darn that lady, so annoying. Another annoying thing was that the seat arm rest couldn't be lifted all the way. I don't know if it's like this in all A380. They protrude like spikes and make it hard to adjust your body. I don't know why they design it this way. They don't think it's torture enough for people in economy class to endure long flight that they have to take away whatever respite we may have? Anyways overall as mentioned I sporadically slept and I was quite amazed at that. To drown the noise from people talking and the Indian guy snoring quite loudly on the row in front of me (lucky him getting the row to himself), I put Joey Alexander's My Favorite Things on loop.
The flight to the UK on the other hand was full that I couldn't get an aisle seat. I was in the middle seat of the right row. I think I managed to sleep a bit too that I also didn't watch many things. I watched Straight Outta Compton (which was good and very interesting), Concussion (the doctor the story is based on is remarkable), and The Lady in the Van (which I found to be quite boring). On arriving, I was just relieved because these days I get tense with any turbulence and with the recent Egypt plane crash where it disappeared from radar around 20 minutes to arriving, it make you think that even though you're near, anything can still happen. Arriving in Heathrow, things weren't that straightforward for me but eventually I found the big screen which showed the flight departures schedule. I found out I needed to take the internal train to go to the zone where my next flight would be. That was also where I had to pass immigration. Since we arrived very early (before 6 AM), it wasn't a very busy queue. I was quite worried about having to get my fingers scanned because this is always problematic for me. I saw that a few people in front me were questioned a lot. However when it came to my turn, there weren't many questions. The questions were what my purpose of travelling was, where I'm going, when I was going to London, and if I was travelling alone. I was asked to scan 2 fingers and apparently they worked (thank God!) and that was it, easy peasy. The man and lady in front of me were Malaysian. I wonder if they got more questions because they didn't have to apply for visa. Maybe because I had to apply for visa beforehand, the immigration officer thought that I had gone through enough pre-security check that it wasn't that necessary to grill me anymore. Either that or it's me really a low level threat. I'm really seriously curious what kind of training an immigration officer get. Anyways after that immigration check, we passed another officer who checked our boarding pass and there's a machine that took our picture. Then we're really done.
I had more than 3 hours wait. I spent it by exploring the terminal then I shopped (which is so unlike me) and then I just sat around. Before boarding the flight to Edinburgh, again we had to stand and looked at the machine that seemed to take our pictures. The flight to Edinburgh was pretty full and the plane wasn't very big, but we all arrived safely. Arriving in Edinburgh, I waited quite long for my luggage to come out that I actually became quite worried. Will it be my first time that my luggage didn't arrive, I thought. I had reason to be worried. Back in Changi when I checked in, they couldn't check me in for the flight to Edinburgh and so I had to do online check in and since I was worried they wouldn't accept the boarding pass on my phone, I actually had to find a place to print it out. There's a place in Changi where you can do so and it cost SGD 2 for 1 sheet of paper :( Anyways, luggage finally came out and then I had to find where the bus stop is. I had booked the bus transport to the center of town and I do recommend you to book things online if you go to the UK because you often get discount. Rather than walking aimlessly, I asked a staff of the airport and finally found it easy enough. In Edinburgh, I was worried that my hotel would actually be quite a distance away from where the bus stop and I would get confused on the direction to walk, but thank God I saw it as the bus was stopping. It was very very near and though I arrived before check in time I could get into my room straight away. So high five all around. The hardest part was like done :)
I arrived like around 1 pm and the plan was to go to Edinburgh castle. I have actually googled the direction to go there but at one point I got confused and it started drizzling so I asked a man on the street who kindly pointed me the direction. The good news was I was in the right direction. The bad news the drizzle wasn't that light. I actually packed an umbrella for this trip but at that moment I haven't gotten it out of my luggage. The castle is actually quite interesting and I immediately thought this is what castles in Game of Thrones will be like. It's also called Castle Rock by the way. It's located on a rocky hill and it's actually more impressive if you look at it from outside a distance away on street level. It's like you understand why they built a castle up there. You can see the view of Edinburgh from there but I didn't stay out much because it was raining.
:) eKa @ 8:00:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, May 21, 2016
The moths outside on the porch are waiting for meto flip the switch by the door and set them free
and return them, back to the night
searching through the city lights
I know you can't hear it
Dusty wing spirit ride over my head
Somebody's looking down on me
Somebody's looking down on me ...
Dusty Wing Spirit - Adam Torres
This post is composed over several days due to the fact that I don't have much time to write it all in one go and this is caused by my inability to really just sit down and do something from beginning to end. Really it's a deadly habit I've been having these days. I get distracted with things and then find myself running out of time to do the important things. My discipline level has gone really bad. So anyways, this post began with the song Dusty Wing Spirit by Adam Torres who for some reason doesn't have the song lyric on any of the song lyric site online. He's not famous enough? I guess, because I didn't know who he is either. The video clip is rather dark and strange. The second part of the song actually fits this post really well, but I think it might be bad luck if I put it here, so I choose the first part of the song which I thought was very nicely written. This song is part of a playlist I made. The playlist has quite a few of Hozier's songs too which I really love and I did have a hard time choosing a song to start this post, which in a way can be seen as post 0. I didn't choose any of Hozier because again some of the lyrics read like a bad luck if I put it here in light of what I am about to do, but I'll definitely choose his songs on later posts because he really wrote beautiful lyrics.
You see guys, I reckon I'll be posting this on Saturday (May 21st) which means in a few hours I'll be starting on my yearly travel. This year is to the United Kingdom and it's my 5th time travelling alone. It's kind of a milestone hitting 5, though I realized that I actually have traveled to foreign countries alone more than 5 times. My first trip to Singapore which was my first trip out of Indonesia ever was alone too, but I'm not counting instances such as that. I counted the number of times I was alone travelling to countries I've never been before to discover things and myself and have fun. The discovering myself part is overrated I guess. I mean it's hard listing down what I have learned on all my travel alone. I just know somehow it changes me, maybe not a lot, maybe a lot, I don't know. I want to say I have that confidence in me that I can always find my way and be able to take care of myself, but as the past few months have shown whenever the thoughts about this trip came to my head, I am often gripped by a big sense of nervousness.
You would think that after all the places I've been on my own alone and after going to USA last year alone (the farthest I've been), I'll be like all cool like a cucumber (why cucumber people? I don't get it). No, I'm still swinging. There were days where I was like, I'm so ready to go, I can go now. Then there were days where I was like, have you figured out this and that, what if this and that happens, what if something is much further than what google maps show, what if you don't know something, all that running through my head and gave me anxiety. Earlier in the planning process, I was thinking what if I'm in the middle of a terrorist attack, pretty much the same fear like last year going to USA, what with the talk after Paris attack that London is an ISIS target :( darn terrorists! I can only hope all will be okay, lots of prayer for sure. Right now (Thursday morning), I am still anxious, but there's also that certain feeling of surrender (pasrah in Indonesian) that have started to creep in. I know I'll feel more of this on the taxi ride to Changi. It would be like, it's go time, ready or not we're gonna go through this. Another feeling that I was also having was the sadness knowing that just as I start, the end is coming and I know this trip gonna go by pretty quick. When it's over, I know I will be so sad about coming back to real life. All the different emotions. I'm for sure not cool as a cucumber :P
So far I have to say things have fallen quite into places even though there were moments where I was rather frustrated planning this trip. I prayed so that God help me make good decision and there were moments where I really felt like He's showing me the way to go. Talking duration wise, it's perhaps the longest planning process compared to my previous trips. I booked the hotels last year when it was just a thought and no final decision was made and then I only exchanged money this week. So throughout it's been months. Here I am, going to a new country. I do feel blessed with all this opportunity I have to explore the places I've been, but I have been thinking that I have been taking it easy. South America and Africa are definitely places I want to go and yet I don't have the courage to go at it. I'm not counting on going with people anymore because as it's shown over and over when it's time to really do it, people back out and it's really disappointing. Seriously I really feel like I'm done asking people. People should ask me and they should come up with the concrete plan.
So anyways, today (Saturday) being a public holiday, I have no class. I don't know why Vesak (Waisak in Indonesian) always differs 1 day between Singapore and Indonesia. I did my ritual of praying before a trip this morning. Tried to take a nap and I couldn't really. Bags are packed and locked. Gonna call my parents now and off to the airport. Each time it's been alright and yet I am still worried. I don't know if I annoy God by asking over and over to make it alright. I guess it shows my lack of faith. Anyways, first stop would be Edinburgh where I'll spend a few days and then it's London. I will definitely write about it when I come back. Ciao for now everyone. Hope all is well with you guys.
:) eKa @ 7:47:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Okay so this is the post to fill in April. I thought I do it now just in case I get lazy in the last week of April. The title is because I noticed I have been making audible sighs and arghs. Someone or 2-3 people once commented me when they heard me sighing. I forget what they're saying but I remember not feeling so good hearing what they said. Remember people can forget what you say or do, but they will remember how you make them feel. Anyways, these days, I think ... whatever. You hear over and over to just breathe in a difficult unpleasant situation, well here I am breathing. As for the arghs, I guess I've been impatient more so these days. This one, when I caught myself doing it at a cafe counter upon finding out there's no more chicken noodle soup, yeah I did feel I was being very childish, so this I do think I need to watch it. I have to watch my behaviour.Anyways, there nothing interesting to share actually, as usual. Since the last time I wrote, life has its shitty moments and then it went better. I am okay right now. I don't know if I'm still going to get into trouble, but for the immediate future, all seems okay. I hope I don't jinx it by writing it. Now that I think about it, there is something interesting that's going to happen, but I don't feel like talking about it just yet. My feeling about it has been swinging between excitement and nerves and right now I am in the nervous swing. Perhaps it's fate that today I saw a post from Shane Lynch's instagram. He's my cousin's favorite Boyzone member. I googled a bit and I think this is the fuller version of what Shane posted: "Don’t wait, make your move now. The conditions will never be perfect. It is when you start that you set the perfect conditions for you. You’ll never have enough time. You’ll never have enough money. You’ll never have enough knowledge. Do the best you can with what you have and the process of doing it will teach you everything you need to know!". More googling showed that perhaps these lines are inspired by a bible verse. This below is from what the internet told me as the living bible version. I seriously don't know which version of the bible is most used by English speaking Christians. Perhaps this living bible one was created to make it easier to understand.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 - If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
Then going down, there's this:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 - Young man, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it! Do all you want to; take in everything, but realize that you must account to God for everything you do.
A good reminder to be nice. I think many people perhaps do try to not be bad, but then they do not bother to be nice. Anyways, here are some thoughts about what I've been feeling recently. They're so random perhaps.
I've been feeling demoralized, perhaps more and more in my Japanese class. I've been trying to learn Kanji. I coded a small programme to quiz me on random words and so far I think I can recall around 300 words, but then like at class today, there are so many words that I don't know and I felt very embarrassed when I had to work in pair with this Korean lady who for some reason knows all the words :( Not just that, I feel that my comprehension is very low. I don't understand what my sensei is saying most of the time. A lot of it is guessing :( I am thinking if I have felt this much despair before when I'm learning a language. A moment that I can think of was when I was in Mr. C's class when I was learning french. It then went much better when the class size was smaller and then when we're off his class. My current Japanese class have a few smart people, they're in a different league and the smarties are always difficult because I feel like I need things to be simplified or at least more time to think, but these people kinda make things go faster or complex. I guess they should motivate me to go to their level, but right now at each class I feel like I'm drowning. Am I the worst in class? I don't think so, but I think I am in the bottom half. As usual, perhaps I am judging myself harshly, but point is I am really so demoralized. I wrote about this before, that though it's hard, I shouldn't quit, but I guess at a certain point I have to think if moving on without adequate knowledge and skill is the right thing :( I hope I can get better :(
Speaking about being at the bottom. There's this situation in which I feel like I am at the bottom of the totem pole or as I like to describe it, the last chain in a zombie apocalypse. The bright side about being here is that I kinda have an ally. He's feeling he's also at the bottom and we both actually feel demoralized about it. The thing is I don't think we're the worst. We're pretty capable, but it's like we don't have any protection and our defensive capability is not very strong so when the zombies come, we might get eaten first :( When I was talking about this with this ally of mine this week, I kinda joked that perhaps we should start thinking about our exit plan. He said he's been thinking about it and that actually made me feel rather sad and worried. This whole thing becomes rather bearable because I have this ally. If he's gone, I think I'll be feeling much worse than before I have him as an ally. Again perhaps I'm underestimating my capability to walk as John Mayer put it, one man army. It's just when you're fighting zombies, it's always good to have an ally :(
Speaking about army, so I forgot to tell you guys. Finished my first book of the year some time ago, The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham. Also watched the movie. I have mix feeling for both the book and movie. Reading the book, it was hard for me to picture things because I don't know some of the fabric or clothing style mentioned. The movie showed beautiful dresses, but I was expecting more. So anyways, currently I am reading Rain by Barney Campbell. It tells the story of a British soldier in Afghan war. I also have difficulties reading this book because I don't understand the military terms. Sometime I took the effort to google things, like what a scimitar and mastiff are, but overall there's so many things I can't really picture. I'm close to finishing the book now, but this week when I read someone died, I wanted to stop reading altogether right there and then. Perhaps this is a sign that I need to interact more with people, but it's just it hit me hard when a character in that book died. I think it's because I've read the book for days now and in each day I read the book, it's like I'm meeting him and I kinda care for him, I want all the happiness for him. So I was really sad when I read he died and then reading his funeral, I wanted to cry. However since I was in a public place when I was reading the book, I had to hold myself. There were still tears and I had to dab my eyes. It's mind opening reading this book. There they are these soldiers fighting in a foreign land for reason they may not quite understand and whose result don't seem to be visible to them as well as their fellow country men. It's not something that their country men can relate to because the war is very far from their country. It's not even noticeable perhaps most of the time, but there they are these men, having to risk their lives and be brave every day they're there. Very often we overlook people serving this way, but truly they are remarkable and I have much respect for these soldiers.
Moving on to my other idiosyncrasy. I have to just admit that changes are not easy for me. There are 2 changes recently that caused me to be quite flustered. First was when there's some road work on the pavement I usually take every evening. Because of that I have to take another way which would lead me to pass this old shoe repair man. Let's pause for a second and think of where is the nearest shoe repair person to you that you can think of. You most probably cannot think of any because at this day and age people just easily throw things at the slightest defect. So it's a job that's going extinct and this old uncle as we like to call them here in Singapore is pretty much just sit in his spot waiting whenever I walk pass by him. I've only seen him work 1 or 2 times. Maybe it's just me imagining things, but there is this certain sadness whenever I see him and my heart breaks a little or quite a lot that I couldn't bring myself to look at him, to the point that I tried to take another road to avoid seeing him. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he's not sad and lonely, maybe he has a family waiting for him at home, though one time I saw him eating alone. It's just I don't know, I think maybe because I am often sad in my restlessness and loneliness, so somehow I feel like I see the same sadness in him. It's not a sadness I wish on anyone, terrible loneliness and isolation. One would think that would make me want to walk pass him every day just to keep him company for a few seconds or to make sure he's alright, but it's really hard, really, even as I write this, I feel sad thinking about it. I know I will feel sadder if I walk pass that spot and I don't see him, but it's just hard for me, really hard.
I am weird that way. Just like I am weird in feeling rather safe whenever I saw another uncle waiting for the bus at the end of my every weekday. I think of him as an anchor. If he's there, all will be okay. If I don't see him, I feel a bit lost and I don't even know him. Perhaps it's my slight OCD that I need things to be in certain order or form. So anyway, the other change recently that kinda bothers me is DBS ATM changing its interface. Yes it is so much nicer, but the layout is all different that it takes me longer to figure out where things are and it kinda annoys me. I think they should have put up notice at the ATM saying that they're updating their interface and so the queue may take longer to move as customers are trying to get used to it. I feel quite burdened of having to quickly figure out how to do my transaction with the new interface. I guess it's because I get annoyed at people who take a long time to do theirs. See I do judge people hardly, but I apply the same judgment and perhaps even worse on myself.
Speaking on judgment on people. I had the chance to meet Whisky some weeks back. It was so coincidental. She was free so she accompanied me for lunch and we talked about people we know and putting all the stories together, I guess now I have less regard for someone we know. It was really good meeting her and I'm glad that she's in a good place now. I'm sure there were many times when she annoyed me back in the days, but I really do care for this girl and thankful to have known her in my life. I think I like her best because we can talk about God and I really do miss having someone around with whom I can talk openly about God and faith. Anyways, I've actually been social this week. I met up with Gascoigne and la Gioia separately and of course the usual me, after all that I was ready to go into my hole. By the way I imagine my hole or rock to be like Patrick's (the starfish) house :P Okay, I guess that's about it. I have a medical problem this week, which was quite bad in my opinion :( I have had it before so as la Gioia said I should perhaps not worry so much, but I'm worried. I haven't seen the doctor because I'm scared of what he's going to say or prescribe so I'm waiting it out. I'm waiting until tomorrow. Hope it will be really alright. Buonanotte tutti, I hope things are going well with you guys too.
:) eKa @ 11:56:00 PM • 0 comments
bluesky.
photos.
archives.