Thursday, June 16, 2005
Rome! Rome! Rome!Got up pretty early to visit the Temple of Olympian Zeus! Sadly, after seeing so much of the same structures, they all kinda look the same. Nothing terribly impressive, the usual pillars that are randomly placed on a large plot of land. Well, it's cool that they leave the remains behind, cos' behind every pillar (standing/ fallen) has a history to it, pity that I didn't read up on all that before visiting it. Perhaps you guys can educate me!
So here it goes, more pictures!
The main feature
The fallen pieces of the pillar.
Acropolis from afar.
Both features in the same photo.
Headed for Rome in the evening. It was an eventful flight on a budget airline. The typical one in which everyone claps upon touchdown. Thank goodness it was only for 3 hours! =O)
Posted by Musicshen at 7:59 AM
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Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Acropolis.Well there's nothing much to say here, think the photos speak for themselves. Probably the highlight of Athens huh! Who goes to Greece and not visit the Acropolis?!? Well if you're contemplating, I say go for it! =O)
The entrance to the Acropolis. There's an open-air theatre where concerts are held.
Family shot.
Entrance to the Acropolis.
Nice photo of Ms Ngiamngiam and me!
The Parthenon.
The other structure beside the Parthenon, can't remember the name though!
Wendy and I trying to do a poseur shot.
Posted by Musicshen at 7:59 AM
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The Rest Joins In.Decided to head to the City Centre before the rest of the family came in from Copenhagen. Went to a nice cafe to have a late brekky, and the servings were huge!!! Here's the photo to prove it!! The Greek Coffee that I had was terrible lahh, it was way too thick and it had a funny taste. At least I know now.
Check out Wendy's portion!! Heh! And her drink, think the glass is really cool and pretty! We both had problems finishing our food and by the time we left, we were stuffed! My family came in at about 1130H and we had to rush back to hotel to recieve them. It was good meeting them again! Can always count on Rachel to bully me! Heh!! =O)
Funky shot of the Lins.
We were desperately looking for something to do in the afternoon, but couldn't do all the interesting stuff yet cos Mum was coming in the next day. We evenutally decided to go back to Aegina to take a look. But this time it was different, we got a car to bring us round, and thus were able to see some of the interesting sights within the island.
This was about the nicest thing we saw at Aegina, some ancient remains of what resembles that of the Acropolis, but smaller and less impressive. It is called the Sanctuary of Aphaea, built around 500B.C.
More photos of the place.
I love this photo!
We left Aegina at about half five and headed for Lycabettus Hill. It's suppose to be the highest point of Athens. You get to see the city in its entirety and the structural symmetries of all the buildings. Very impressive! Had to take a gondola up to the top.
My two lovely sisters and my daddy.
Some crazy shots we took up there!
Went back to the hotel at around 2100H. Think everyone was pretty tired from all that walking. We also had MJ's trial on TV to keep us company thru' the night. All in all, it was really nice, and we rested early for the night.
Posted by Musicshen at 7:59 AM
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Monday, June 13, 2005
Athens.Picked Wendy from Heathrow before boarding the plane to Athens! Arrived at 0425H the next morning, and painfully made our way to the hotel to rest for the night, or what's left of the morning.
Spent the day at Aegina, it's a little island away from the main city. VERY VERY beautiful. Didn't do much except to sun tan for the greater part of the afternoon, before heading back to the port BY FOOT which took us 45 mins and 2 pit stops later. We obviously didn't know how far it was and thus, just kept walking till we reached.
I'm very amused at the Greek language, so uncomprehensible don't you think? Funny part is, you DO recognise most of the symbols, but yet just can't seem to piece them together! You have all your friendly mathematical symbols like "summation", "omps" and so on and so forth ... you figure out the rest! =O)
I'm currently into all these cropping of scenery photos, heh! Always getting scolded for doing so! But this is a beautiful shot of the main port at Aegina. It was taken whilst journeying thru' the roads that started from Marathona Beach.
Marathona Beach. Where we spent the afternoon tanning and resting. You'd notice some people playing a game somewhat like tennis, can't remember what it's called exactly, but it seems pretty cool. In the background you'll see houses that people stay in. It's amazing how these people survive, cos' in the summer it is EXTREMELY hot, and unlike Singapore, there are absolutely NO air-cons there!
Ms Ngiamngiam.
Mr Dan the Man.
Dan and Wen.
Had a pretty sumptuous lunch before heading to the beach. I ordered Cod Fish and that was what I got. It's supposed to be their speciality dish! It's really good and yummy! Wendy kept telling me to remove the bones, but I thought they were fine so it was okay, only to realise after that the bones were actually pretty huge. That was after eating one whole piece!
Shot of Aegina from afar.
Piraeus. The port on the side of the main land.
Posted by Musicshen at 7:59 AM
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Saturday, June 11, 2005
Europe Trip.Finally the time has come to leave Bristol for good. It's been a LONG LONG ordeal trying to get all my stuff packed into boxes. Not funny mann, I've got SO many things to get out of my room. I've already packed 7 boxes, and still counting! Thanks to a good pal who offered to help me keep my stuff! If not, I'll be paying thru my nose to get all the stuff stored over summer!
Am really looking forward to moving in next semester! It's gonna be fun! 5 guys living together! Haha! Got everything sorted out. The HI-FI set, plasma TV, the state-of-the-art kitchen apparatus, casino tables, futsal tables, everything a guy can ask for!! (Erm, hopefully we can buy some of them, remember the 10 people theory Jon?) Heh!! Yeah coming back a week earlier to get all the stuff settled.
But for now, I'm off to Greece. Wendy just got onto the plane and is on the way to London!! YAY!! It's been the longest time, and finally she's coming up to visit me!!! YAY!! Catching her in Heathrow tmrw afternoon, and then taking the evening flight to Greece. The rest of my family will be coming in on Monday noon, and together we will be flying to Rome.
Haha, Singapore's also 2 week's away! Everything's happening so fast!! It's very exciting!! Yeah may not get to blog so much, but the next time you hear from me, it's gonna be lots of photos and stories!! Take care!
Posted by Musicshen at 10:27 AM
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Friday, June 10, 2005
London Part 2.The week with my family was so much fun! Managed to catch "The Producers" in the afternoon - A very very entertaining musical - must go watch if you can! Highly recommended!! =O)
I think the girls REALLY loved Monday morning. Haha! You should have seen them when they saw Krispy Kremes! Haha, it was like ALL their dreams come true!! Haha!! They were so happy, wearing the hats to prove their loyalty to the donuts! Heh!! Here are some pictures to prove it!!!
They LOVE doing these things
With Hats
Without Hats
Busy munching away
Anyways they left on Tuesday afternoon. And I'll be joining them back in Greece. Wendy's coming down to London on Saturday, so picking her from the airport and then catching the night flight to Athens. EXCITING!!!
Wednesday
Went up to Zone 2 to meet Shyan for lunch. Haha! It's a really nice town, quiet and totally unlike London Central. Had luch at this Spanish Restaurant which served excellent Tapas. Had sizzling prawns, cod fillets in tomato sauce, brinjal covered in cheese and garlic mushrooms! Simply yummy yummy yummy!!
Belsize Park. Very very far away from Central London
Shyan and I at the Spanish Place
It's really scary cos after weighing myself, I realised that I've put on 6 kg since January. I'm looking at the photos that I'm in, and my face! So chubby ahh!! Haha! Keep saying that it's the winter season so it's a good reason to eat, but now that summer is here, better start doing something about the weight. Anybody care to join me for runs back home?!
Chong Wee and I at Hyde Park
Caught up with Chong Wee at night for dinner at Four Seasons! It was SO good meeting up again! Haha! It's been so long since we last met. Headed to Hyde Park to chill the evening away, armed with a delicious cup of hot chocolate. Was talking and trying to get something together next Oct to visit Germany during the OcktoberFest. Yeah that would be fun!
Was totally knackered by the time I got back, but was with Ooi and Yanxuan cos she was leaving Bristol at 5 the next morning. So stayed up to accompany her in her last few moments in Bristol. Heh!! =O) Managed to get a few hours in before getting up to pack.
Posted by Musicshen at 3:09 AM
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Saturday, June 04, 2005
Long Long Entry.It's been some time since I last wrote in here! Yeah it's been so hectic trying to get stuff together, and needless to say, the traveling up and down to London is slowly taking it's toll. So here it goes, this is what's been going on for the past week.
Sunday
Jon, Yanxuan and Wei Lyn stayed over. It was quite hilarious you know? All theses jokers ALWAYS saying that they'll stay up thru' the night with me, and by 3 in the morning, all the monkeys are sound asleep! ARGH!!
We had almost 10 bottles of beer to finish up that night, and it was really funny!! Wei Lyn had this whole big thing about how many bottles make up a pint, and she kept blaming herself for being so lousy, so shocked that she couldn't even finish a pint! Haha! That was hilarious!!
Sunday marked the end of my recording week. I've already listed the songs that I want to do over summer, and the covers that I'd like to complete. Have a good 10 songs that have not been completed. Sorry to Junyang, (Bring Him Home, Music Of The Night) Jess, (Leaving On A Jet Plane) Rachel, (Especially For You) Jiamin, Wendy and Siau (Emotions) for the recordings that are WAY overdue! My bad!! They WILL be completed over summer.
Monday-Tuesday
OC addiction. Made the biggest mistake of starting on a new series. YES YES YES! I used to be such an anti-OC person, and now I'm a new convert. SIGH! I'm only at episode 15 of Season 1 and I know that there's a LONG way more to go! Heh! But decided that that's not the way to go mann, so stopped there (temporary) and started packing stuff to move out of hall.
Wednesday
Finished settling the housing stuff. That's one BIG load of my mind. Thank goodness my uncle in London was so accommodating, and went thru' so much trouble to help me get the forms done and signed! Really appreciate it!
Had a fantastic dinner at Zero Degrees with Jess and Jon after the MSSA meeting. That was simply fabulous! We were there from 7pm till almost 12am! Had the full works - Starters, Mains, Dessert and Wine! Of course the soothing jazz in the background added a nice touch to the whole ambience.
After having about a bottle of wine each to drink, Jon and I decided to do our road trip! We were FINALLY getting down to it! Didn't know where to go, what to do, but we knew that we wanted to go. So got home, and booked a car to get us round the next day.
Thursday
It was hilarious driving a 1.2 litre Vauxhall. I must have stalled the car at least 5 times in a span of 2 days. Yeaps, not all that easy driving a manual and I think Jon would agree that I must have broken a couple of traffic offences right? Illegal U-Turns, stuff like that! Heh! =O)
Well I hope the company doesn't find out that the clutch had been dramatically smoothened by the numerous ravings of the engine to get the car to start. It was pretty normal to wind down the windows whenever the RPM went above 5000. Haha, the smell of burnt rubber? I don't know mann!
Navigation without a map. That was the biggest mistake. Well it wasn't like we got lost or anything, but perhaps didn't manage to go to the places that we wanted to go. A wrong turn in the initial stages of navigation setted us South instead of the original route to visit the Coltwalls up in the North.
Our visit to Cheddar Gorge was pretty nice. Managed to see a couple of mountain goats, took some nice scenery shots, had terrible fish and chips and bought lots of sweets! We eventually left and headed north towards Cardiff to spend the night there.
Slept at the "Big Sleep Hotel" <-- How original! Where the 3 of us squeezed onto a double bed. But it was a good sleep, I think all of us were way too exhausted for our own good. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant was simply fantastic! It's been some time since I last got to eat great Mexican food!
Friday
Got back to Bristol at about 2pm and realized that I was leaving for London!! Panic! I've got so many things to do before leaving. Lots of admin stuff like getting stuff out of my room, changing addresses, packing for London and settling MSSA stuff.
Oh yes, Top (A hall tutor) is trying to get a whole radio station thing for international students. Am personally thrilled that I can be involved in something like that. We're basically in the preliminary stages of getting the core team together, brainstorming the programme sequences, sourcing for student deejays. It's really exciting!!
Anyways really excited to be meeting my family tmrw!! YAY!!!!
Posted by Musicshen at 6:26 AM
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