Count down to Manila

My alumni profile

2011-10-21T11:14:00.002+01:00

Hello people,

After putting this off for a long time, I've finally managed to get my profile published on the LANCS MBA alumni site. I do need to change my photograph whick makes me look as if someone pulled the desk from under my hands !

Most of it is true :-) except for the often visits to Lancaster part, <> well atleast it wont be entirely false after next week ;-)

http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/alumni-profiles/postgraduate/mba/23357/

Love
Fiona

New Years Eve 2012

2011-10-15T20:44:00.005+01:00

Hello my dear Lancaster-Family,

first of all, I request that you come to Bonn and we rename our family to "Bonner-Family". In short: I miss you here! And I wish we could hang out more than once in a year.... that we could have our Saturday-Night-Kitchen-Discussions more often.

So here I come to the next point on my list: We should start planning OUR New-Years-Eve-Celebration / Reunion. Since the last new-years-celebration was a bit split. Jay in Manila, James in China, Richie in London, Pat on some mountain in London, Fiona at London Bridge, Keerti and Jo at a subwaystation .... So this year I recommend some more structure. The more the merrier it would be a good time to catch up with the news from the last 1,5 years. Of course I also have a suggestion/plan (It would be mortifying if the German fraction of the party wouldn't have a structured plan.) So here I announce New Years Eve in Austria: loads of snow, Cheesefondue or Fondue chinoise, sledging at night with flambeaus, houseparty. Next days skiing, snowboarding, sledging, playing in the snow......
Logistics is not a problem either. Apply to ShengenVisa, fly to Salzburg/Austria, pick up arranged by Jo with private limo to mountain resort ....

Have I caught your attention??? Who's with me???

Please say "Yes" to my plan or have a better one ;-)

Message in a bottle

2011-10-08T00:38:00.002+01:00

Remember the messages you folks put in a bottle for me, complete with scented candle shavings and satin ribbons, to remind me of the child in me and the endless possibilities ? Yea, the same bottle that I had to break in my sink minutes before I left uni to manage weight. Guess it’s time to reveal that while I’ve demonstrated some remarkable will and restraint in saving those messages ( clap clap); the score is now – one down.

It was a cold January night. Bon Jovi was playing in the background, I was perched on the edge of my bed, by an electric heater that made too much noise and gave less warmth. There I was - head in my hands, feet in my suitcase, wondering if it was the end of the world. To read or not to read... It was less than a year that I had them with me, and I was already in need !

It seems quite comical now, but for a split second I wished I had not broken the bottle in uni. Breaking it on the day would have been so much more dramatic, almost epic. But well, all I had to do then was open my suitcase's 'secret' zip and pick a scroll. There was this tiny voice in my head that kind of mocked me ‘ what if the message in the bottle was errrr...bland and cold, even worse ... sarcastic ?’ The latter I dint have to bother about as thankfully I dint write any message to myself. Thank you moderator/s ! Anyways, good point it made - that cheeky voice. But I would not know unless I gave it a try.

At first I was hoping for one of girl’s messages, well assuming girls write better (no offense boys, but I would have been devastated if I had three words like – ‘OK Good bye’! – Kidding, I am sure even that would be perfect in some situation! ) So, I closed my eyes, and ran my hands through the scrolls, taking all the time in the world, hoping a suitable one would somehow push itself through.

I pulled the pink ribbon off, took a deep breath and thought to myself ‘this better be good’! My first instinct was to go straight to the bottom of the scroll and see who had signed it. But did I mention before – I am a master of self-restraint (M.Rs.). So, I read on slowly and nervously..... I must have a shed a tear or two, okay five, well maybe seven and a half.

It quite amazed me how you thought of the music I would have been listening to, and boy you got it right, it almost made me laugh! Well, you hoped for a more cosy picture, while reality was a bit distorted then, but still close...in some ways. I can’t begin to tell you how comforting those words were, (well I can tell you actually - better than hot chocolate and cinnamon cookies). It was such a worthwhile effort. All those drafts, all that wondering ‘what the hell am I doing !’ - trust me it saved my day, made me feel warm despite the noisy useless electric heater. Made me feel I must have done something right for you to write all that. By the time I had read it for the third time, (sub-consciously) my pedantic self was beginning to surface, and so in order to save the way I felt, I decided it was time to put the scroll back, and tuck it safely in my suitcase.

Thank you, and you know who you are! I’ve been meaning to do this for long, but better late than never.

The score is still one down – five more to go. I’ll let you guys know when it changes.

My Trip to In-di-YEAAAAA

2011-02-27T20:36:00.000Z

Right, let me try and recall what happened chronologically...

25th Jan - My sister's birthday, and joy I remembered it without being reminded. Brownie Point! It was also the day my contract at the terror home with Lauren ended. Oh she said I was her best housemate and that if I wanted a place to stay (when I return from India) that I should ring her... imagine my shock. Now Jay, I know you know this one.. but what's a polite way to say HELL NO?!.

Anyhoo, that night I was all set to head homewards. I had travelled with Emirates this time as oppose to British Airways, so had a stop over at Dubai. Honestly, when my dad booked these tickets I thought this was some sort of test... I mean who in the right mind would let their shopaholic daughter linger about at a shopping festival for 5 hours?...Ans: my genius dad. But he did well. I was so exhausted from my lack of sleep, carrying about my lil luggage and my need to ensure I was going to catch my connecting flight that I couldn't think about shopping. Ok, that wasn't the ONLY reason. I was just surprised by the prices- I had this irking feeling that I was being cheated cause I didn't have a clue of what's the running rate of a commodity was. And the stuff I saw wasn't any cheaper from clothes I saw here in the UK. What are they calling a sale?

26th Jan- I kissed the ground when I landed. I hate long haul flights and air food. I was so happy to be home and on ground level.

I was really happy that weekend, had attended a program that Green Shield had scheduled. I met with some of my juniors and teachers. My dad and sister came down from Singapore and showered me with attention and stuff to carry back to Lancaster. Later during their visit, we headed to Kerala, a south western state in India. I was really looking forward to a nice massage, some sunshine, sand and water. I was elated with the first place we visited called Kovalam.

We stayed at a resort just by the beach. It was perfect! I loved every moment of it. My mum decided to pull out this kite she bought during the kite festival in Singapore. It was fun watching the kite flying about going crazy with the sea breeze! The wind was so strong it carried the kite into a distant coconut tree. My dad managed to let a nearby coconut vendor know and requested his expertise to help us get it back... You see, in Kerala, there are many coconut vendors who are trained to climb up the tree with no equipment- just bare hands! They learnt the trick of the trade from monkeys- no joke! It's really skillful you know, made me wanna do it... and I tried but cracked my nut in the process. Ah what's to loose, it was half cracked already!

Further from there we went to Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala where we ate some authentic Kerala dishes. There's a thing in India where we can order a "meal" in a restaurant for lunch and dinner. The meal constitutes a three courses of rice (in south India, Indian bread in north India) with approximately 8 side dishes. The meals are well liked because of the variety and of course the unlimited refill. (There's a google image for your eyes to feast on).

The capital was interesting. There was a clear Arabic influence in the shopping malls. For those of you who don't know, a lot of malayalies (people from Kerala) travel to Saudi Arabia to earn a pot of gold. Umm.. Gold, that reminded me. My mom and aunt went berserk with the amount of jewellery shops there. I don't understand why...but its a prestigious thing to own jewellery and stuff. To add to my misery, because I hate gold, the jewellery shop had a sale. So my mom's eye struck gold and my dad felt his wallet burn. I think I pretended to have a heat stroke just to get my folks out of the shop. So we are back to our resort to catch dinner and a cultural performance called Kathakali. A little fact, this dance usually narrates a story in exaggerated facial expressions and dance moves with consistent drum beats. The good character has green painted face with a rice ground paste beard that takes half a day to shape and dry. The evil character has a red and black painted face. I am freaked out of my mind when I see them all dolled up with that exaggerated make up. Worse, the women characters in this classical dance performance are sometimes men. Yikees! But I was distracted by a platter of food and I felt so much better.

The next couple of days we ventured out to the other beaches dotted around the coastal region of this Spice trading state. We travelled further south until we reached Kanyakumari. The tip of the peninsular sub-continent where the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean meet. It was a bit saddening when I learnt that the tsunami in 2004 affected them in an adverse manner. The water ate into the coastal region affecting the fishing industry. Many families were lost as well. It was all a bit sad but the young fisher boy tells me that they get big fish from close to 50 m from the coast into the sea/ocean!That's a good thing! We then hopped into a boat that sailed us to two famous spots further into the water, The Vivekananda Memorial and the Thirukural statue. Story has it that the two statues helped break the high tide during the tsunami that spared many. Local residence believe they were spared by the grace of the highly spiritual Vivekananda. The next morning my family packed our bags and headed home.

I loved my trip, but I was elated to be back home in Bangalore. I had caught up with my friends and the Bangalorean trend. I really missed home, was happy to be back. A week flew past and it was time for me to head back to sleepy Lancaster. It was a fabulous trip back. I flew business class because the officials gave my seat to another passenger despite my check-in receipt stating otherwise. Ha! Well business trip was grand till Dubai. Then flew economy from there to Manchester. It was lovely to have Pat greet me from the airport. I knew a royal pampering had been planned. Yay!

The end.

Los experiancas centroamericanos

2010-12-03T18:45:00.002Z

Hello my dear Lancaster Familia!

Como está mis amigos? It`s difficult for me already to remember my English after so much Spanish and Caribean-vibe here in Bocas del Toro, but I´ll try my best. Bocas is a group of paradise islands with loads of Rastafaris, Hippis and Americans who got stuck here in this beautyful spot. It feels like I´ve been here since forever, but in fact it has only been two weeks. I do like the vibe here though, very tranquil and laid back with good food, nice beaches and very nice people (muchos guapo chicos latinos, mmmh, which means: lots of beautiful Latin-guys). However, the rain in the last couple of days has given me soar throat and cold-like symptomes. I sincerely hope its not Malaria, since I didn´t get a shot against that and the mosquitos are like little monsters who are just celebrating a feast with all that foreign blood . But we will see. Maybe I´ll have to proove myself in an only Spanish-speaking hospital. Well, I´ll keep you updated on my state. Classes are going well and I feel comfortable speaking the language, however, u never know what the locals think of me mixing the words and conjugating incorrectly. But I think for the most part they understand me.
Last week I´ve been going diving and saw loads of colourful fish, but the sad thing is that the waters here are very much poluted as well and corals have died. Did you see some pics on facebook on my trip to the remote island???
My time here in the internetcafé is running out and I have to prepare for my telephone interview on Monday! Yes, you´ve heard right. Six Senses Hotels and Resorts want to interview me for a Social and Environmental Manager position in the Malidves. Laamu Atoll. Isn´t that near your place Jay????? Maybe half way already. And to India it is not far either. Waaaaahhhaaa. Please hold your thumbs for me because it would be soooooo exceptional if I could get that job.
Although I have met sooo many nice people here already, I miss you guys a lot and I am really looking forward seeing most of you on New Years. We´ll keep in touch and I´ll post some photos soon (since I forgot my camera this time). Anyhow, I am sending A BIG HUG TO EACH OF YOU & muchos besos. Hasta Luego!

2010-11-07T14:31:00.005Z

My Halloween Hangover

So it was my little flatmates 7^th birthday, and her mom announced that we’ll make it a Halloween themed costume party. To be honest we (Rupal and I) weren’t that excited and Rupal quite reluctantly bought some masks the previous night. Since I sit at home and listen to radio the whole day long while making those terrible applications, I was sort of inspired by the RJs talking about Halloween costumes, and I thought of getting my lazy bum off the chair and make myself some costume. I thought for a while and settled for the tried and tested ‘catwoman’. But after looking in my suitcase and around the house, the only useful material I could find was foil paper. So I had to water down the idea and settle for just ‘cat’. Hahahha. So, I made myself some ears and a tail and painted some whiskers on my cheeks. I thought it was going on pretty well. The kids were getting excited, and I just thought to myself –

‘Thank God for putting some enthusiasm in me’! Rupal came in by then, and she dressed up as a witch complete in black, a complementing hairdo and cap, broom stick, and red lipstick. However, the ‘halloween star’ of the evening was one the guys whom I painted as ‘The zombie joker’. The real star of the evening was of course Cris – the seven year old ‘pretty lady’ ... well actually no ... ‘hot bombshell’ is what she is prefers being referred to as ;-P

We even managed to fit in some divali celebration (divali is just round the corner – 5^th November) by bursting crackers and lighting some fireworks. There were rockets and flowerpots and hand glitters. After that we came on top and played some kiddy party games which is always fun especially when washed down with some wine ;-) Aha... enter wine, and now begins my real Halloween ! So, apparently I had a bit too much. Well, Rupal claims that I had some of her glasses as well.. so I don’t have a count now. But I know what followed was sheer horror.. like the real one. Well, not immediately of course. I do have evidence of dancing around – thankfully pretty composed.

I don’t remember having any dinner, and the next thing I remember was lying on the floor in my bedroom with Rupal standing over me and blabbering something ‘are u okay ? ... what is happening ... fi get up ... what are u doing there ?’. That must have been in the middle of the night sometime. The next thing I remember was waking up in the afternoon with a massive headache and the whole bedroom being messed up. There was a really odd odour as well all round (well ... uh... yucks I know), and I just could not figure out what was happening. With my head still spinning, I tried to sit up but could just not do it. Rupal woke up as well, and she seemed pretty okay – well not as bad as me, and she was still rambling about me having her wine. Hahahahah. She made me some coffee which I could not even sip. Well, I was living a nightmare. We pulled apart the curtains for some light and then realised that the whole room was a mess. I seriously have no memory of what happened and felt so embarrassed. There was no way we could let the kids enter the room - which they do very often ! And with me having a head as heavy as a hundred pumpkins, it was upto Rupal to do the honors of cleaning around.

After feeling miserable for another couple of hours, I finally got the strength to get up from the bed and get all that poison out of my system. Horrible, terrible. I thought I was dying – seriously. ! hhahha I’m laughing now, but it was the worst I’ve ever felt, well almost ! After talking some nonsense for some more time, I finally slept relieved and got up at eight at night. What an utter waste of an entire day. I’m just glad I am alive and fine, it got really scary with me getting breathless and pale and with Rupal suggesting we should go to the doctor. I almost thought I was poisoned. It is now officially in my book – No more white wine for me – Never Ever ... No NO NOOO.

Well, it was a true Halloween night for me, and I am still nursing some cuts and bruises on my feet. And I have no idea where that came from! Hahahha... well something like the movie ‘The hangover’. I’m just glad I have all my teeth intact and there was no tiger in the bathroom ;-)

Well, phew ... so that’s it from me. A bit gross I know, but that was as “happening” as it gets (pun intended).

Hope all of you had a lovely... errr.. scary... Halloween ! Take Care. Eagerly awaiting New Years !

Love

Fiona

When the Irish met, a party broke out

2010-10-12T18:50:00.000+01:00

Carrie-Ann and Lorna arrived on the 6th Wednesday. The two good friends that Pat meet at UCC during his undergrad. They were classmates, doing chemistry of some sort. Anyway, Pat had been excited about their arrival for a while now, and had been freaking out about what touristy things we could do- Classic Pat Moment! Of course this was about when I took my cue. I seem to have an inclination to event planning and organising fun things to do. Maybe I need a change in career direction... erm. Nevermind about that for now, lemme tell you all about the what went on during their visit.

Wednesday night, Pat made some dinner- famous oven baked crispy chicken with pepper sauce and mashed potatoes on the side. Delicious! James, one of Pat's work colleague, someone I am not necessarily fond of and I shall refer to as Creepy just for convenience... So, Creepy decided to come over to check the acoustics of his guitar in the living room at Pat's place. You see, Pat had organised a house party on the Friday and Creepy had been psyched about it- wanted to play his guitar, drink Absinthe and sing away to his glory. Oh and of course do what he does best, creep the girls out with is creepy stare. So while Pat, Carrie-Ann, Lorna and his housemates were conversing and dining, Creepy decided to sing away and strum his guitar like he was some talented one at a jazzy restaurant.

The next day Carrie-Ann and Lorna had a tour guide of Pat's "fantastic" lab. Freshers week was on, so they were entertained with some stalls and sales. I, meanwhile, needed to unwind and look into what we could do the following days.

Friday night was finally around, people were buzzing in the house. Pat's housemates, colleagues from work, friends from Cork and me were on the guest list! That night was memorable on several levels. The drunk drama- always so amusing. Everyone has their own version of the same incident. The Absinthe story wasn't the best one. It got the best out of few, fruits thrown about in the kitchen, Creepy sitting out the house in the cold for 40 mins, bit of drama here and there. But it was great fun! Came back home after a aching hour and a half of dancing at The Lounge at 5:00 am the next day! People were asleep on the floor in different rooms. Man, what a night!

The Saturday we decided to take it easy. Went to town, walked by the canal, popped in at White Cross, because a band was playing live there. There was a Lancaster Music Festival for the weekend, so there were bands playing at different avenues. The town was buzzing! Plus, the new comers at Lancaster have arrived by the thousands. So, a lot of new faces. Reminded me of my first week at Lancaster... :') *sniff*
We then headed over to Lisa's, (the man-girl I was talking about earlier- check the recent FB pictures) where we watched X-factor.

The Sunday, Lisa and her somewhat boyfriend, Matt, the Irish girls, Pat and I went to Windermere. We had breakfast at The Lighthouse Cafe, and strolled down to the lake where we took at cruise around. We stopped by at this aquarium. Where oddly, we found a special variety of tiny monkey's, a snappy small croc, amphibians that creeped me out, Asian otters, among fish and tiny sea creatures! Someone should have told them that aquarium is derived from "aqua" meaning water and "rium" meaning place/ room, therefore only water bearing animals should be there. But the mammals were an interesting twist!

The Monday morning they left, I headed into to Stopford with a heavy head and the need for sleep. Pat and I have a cold and sore throat. I took a day off to well, not do anything but pamper myself today... by cleaning my room up!

Man what a week! I'll leave it to Pat to let you know the details of what happened when and where. Or maybe he would cover the next story about Sheehan's visit this weekend. Which reminds me, Fifi, you could come down the weekend with Sheehan if you'd like, lemme know!

I think I hear the ice cream man by the corner of my street, time for me to race up to him!

bye for now!

Sick, so I finally made it here.

2010-10-10T05:27:00.004+01:00

That sums up why I'm here. Believe you me, it's Sunday and I had planned last night to be back in the office to, well, catch up on many things relative to my thesis. Fortunately or otherwise, I woke up with sore throat and a throbbing head . With nothing else to do, I finally found the time to make my presence known here.

In other words, I do miss you guys, don't get me wrong. It's on days like these that I get to reminisce the Lancaster experience with nostalgia.

Perhaps a comprehensive update on the one month since I arrived in Singapore: the heat is despicable.

I have no idea therefore how Caucasians (how white Westerners are called here, rather inaccurately - so Pat prepare!) get to enjoy the tropical sun in Sentosa when it is in fact hovering around 35 celsius. The one thing I have always been concerned about is how to avoid getting even darker and developing skin cancer along the way.

I got a fantastic place on the 37th floor of a high rise residential building in this area called Queenstown. By bus, my office at NUS Bukit Timah Campus is accessible in less than 30 minutes. At night though I choose to walk home which normally takes me an hour, that is if I don't pass by the local market.

A brief digression: If you hadn't known yet, Spar at Lancaster was my hangout place after a full day's workload. For some reason I find joy and reprieve in carrying home a piece of banana and a can of tuna but only to decide later on that I wouldn't eat them anyway.

Well, walking home justifies my lack of exercise in this country. The first time I went to the gym I had to compete with Law undergraduates who were taking turns in using the treadmill and crosstrainers. Little did I know that they were reserving those for other friends of theirs who were to come much later. I had no choice therefore but to stick to this rowing machine which I grudgingly used for the next 45 minutes. And that was the last time I was at that gym. It's simply immature to scold those Law undergrads. They might bring me to their moot court on campus and have death penalty pronounced on me on the spot. My ultimate aspiration is for my body to decompose in Philippine soil.

The view from my place, I must say, is simply gorgeous. From here one can have a glimpse of Bowland Tower at Lancaster, if my sight serves me right. Well, any of you guys can stay here. I have a nice flatmate (there are only two of us) who is the Vice President of SwissRe, a global reinsurance company. He always gives me a treat. Invoking the hardship and poverty of being a student always works, I must say. I don't know how I would behave once I finish the PhD.

I may have more to say but this has been getting longer than usual already.

It's good to be here and to be reading everyone else's entries. So shall we start counting down to Manila already? I will be home for Christmas!

The Mainland European Times

2010-10-09T16:30:00.004+01:00

Hola amigos!

Cómo es? Bien??? Yo soy muy bien! Yo tengo mi una clase de espanol. Comprende?

From the above you can notice that I have had muchos clases de espanol (many Spanish classes). It's tough having 3 hours of Spanishness all over you, but I have to admit that I am loving it. Spanishness, I define as a flood of emotions and RRR's which is a rrrrrr-sound but made with your tongue in front of your upper front-teeth (try it, please, so I can see that I am not the only Spanishspeaking-retard). This said, I also have to admit that I am probably the slowest learner in the entire group . If that has to do with the busieness of the rest of my day, or if it has to do with my language abilities, is for somebody else to judge. So my weekdays are filled with attending classes every day for 3 hours, then have a Lunch on the go in the beauty of the subway, and then start working at my dad's company at 1pm till 8pm. My day finishes with Spanish deberras (homework) and dinner (which my mom is a specialist in preparing it), then I fall into deep sleep at 11pm and wake up at 6am again. Uff, telling you this is even tiring to me.

Anyhow, my weekends are splendid!!!!
Right now I am sitting in the mountainhouse in Austria, the sun is setting, the tiled stove crackles with a warm fire and I am enjoying a hot milk with honey ..... well, it all sounds pretty cozy, ey? But all these blankets wrapped around me and the three layers of clothes is because our heating installation doesn't have any more oil. I guess this is how it will be when the world will run out of oil eventually / or how the mountain people felt 200 years ago. The greatest challenge was taking a shower with ice-cold water which felt like it had just sprung out of glacier mountains. After a power-shower which left me with blue toes, I felt the appreciation for not being born a century ago.

This reminds me that, 200 years ago there was a bavarian King called King Ludwig I, who held a horse-race and festival with free food and beer for the entire city of Munich. Now, the Oktoberfest is no longer a horse-race, but a 16-18 day beer festival, attracting 5 billion people from all over the world per year. You can imagine it just like Blackpool's venture/fun-park but 5 times bigger and aimed mainly at drinking beer. The autoscooters, rollercoasters and haunted houses are just for entertainment after the drinking madness. So this madness I dared to go. My first visit was with my parents where we met my brother and his girlfriend. In the first picture you can see my brothers gf, my mom and me in traditional bavarian dresses. It was just such a beautiful day because we strolled from beergarden where we had roasted chicken with potato salad to booths with glaced almonds, cotton candy, chocolate glazed fruits - I felt like I was in Cockaigne!

Besos y hasta luego,
Vuestra Johanna

The buzz at Lancaster CIty

2010-10-03T13:25:00.000+01:00

So although I've not been doing something solid, I've been finding out details about things and socialising quite a bit... Where do I begin?

Job wise:
Been applying for jobs... I'm going back to the company I had been interning with on campus, starting Monday. Just to while away time and keep an eye out for the current environmental news. That sorta thing. I'm considering a part-time job at Lancaster City. Will keep you posted on that when it's finalised though.

Social wise:
The past week, I've been avoiding spending the evenings at my place, simply because I dislike having to deal with my live-in landlord, who is undoubtedly immature, inconsiderate and OCDfied. So, Pat and I have been hanging out with Pat's housemates friends, Lisa (the big girl-boy), Matt (her boyfriend of some sort) and Anna (the lesbian). We caught up on X factor at Lisa's place yesterday, had a couple of drinks the previous week and had dinner the week before that. Lisa and Anna are really nice to talk to. I always did like Lisa for some reason.

We hung out with Mike (Pat's colleague from work) and his girlfriend, Sam's place on Friday. Well, Pat and Mike were playing the new FIFA game, then after realising Sam's and my bored face; we watched Rush Hour 3 and the Planet Earth series. Speaking of movies, Pat and I watched The Other Guys and I think it was really really funny. I loved it!

Lancaster news updates:
Return tickets now cost GBP 2.25 as oppose to 2.15 while single ticket cost GBP 1.50.
The new students moved in on Saturday, campus recruit was busy accommodating the new batch of freshers. Common Room is cleaned out, I think they put in a new sofa set though. Lancaster City night clubs are back in business having noisy drunk fools strolling about. The weather is grim, raining some days sunny the other days.

My rendition of the International Student's reception '09

2010-09-29T12:53:00.002+01:00

I wanted to get this in for today, I was a bit confused whether it was today last year or yesterday... anyway, I remember writing this in my private blog.
____________

I scurried off to The Great Hall at 6:00pm yesterday, worried that I was so darn late for the International Students' Reception. I panted my way through the very very chilly evening until I arrived at a huge gathering of people. I walked in lost and claustrophobic. It was the first time I felt warm at Lancaster without a heater in the vicinity.

I bumped into a couple of people, randomly exchanging smiles and quick hellos.

I bumped into an Indian, "Hi," I say deliberately, eyeing the empty glass of wine in her hand," Umm... Is this the international student reception?" She smiled at me, "Yea, I guess so..." We quickly introduced ourselves. Fiona is from Mumbai and is doing her MBA here. She's been in and out of UK, doing corresponding courses and jobs. 7 years of work experience! How about that! But her face defies her age. That's for sure. No sooner I met her flatmate, Jay, a Filipino-Singaporean doing his PhD in Sociology. He's quite a character! Very funny and easy to get along with. Or maybe it was just the wine I'd been sipping on. (Kidding Jay) Oh by the way, red wine tastes amazing! I finished half my glass when I realised I was already a little light headed and my cheeks flushed a bit. Oh gawd! That was embarrassing, considering normal people don't get drunk on half a glass of wine. Oh well! I'll work on that! *wink* (I sure did work on it over time!)

I met Jay's friend, Ritchie, a Malaysian and his finance management classmate James from North China. Talk about being six degrees apart! So the five of us were around the place talking about a crazy number of things, before the pro-vice chancellor of the university shared a few words and welcomed us all for the umpteenth time. (we're not complaining as along as the wine kept coming.)

After a dizzying half glass of wine, I quietly placed my glass away and headed out of the hall with the others. There was some Chinese food on the house at the Common Room, very close to Graduate College (where all PG students stay)... Now things get interesting, you see none of us knew the route to get back. So we were roaming about aimless chatting up on stupid miscellaneous things. It turned out most of them couldn't pronounce my name. And suggested names like Kate and Katie and Kitty- oh that one got everyone laughing. "Hello Kitty!" James made a funny bunny face (was supposed to look like a cat, he added later). I threatened to fight him with chopsticks if he said that again!

The place we ended up in, was deserted. That's when we knew, we were in the wrong place. We hiked back and pulled a couple of people up to help us with our way. James spoke to a bunch of Chinese people who spoke in Cantonese and it didn't look like he understood it. I cursed the campus map 'cause it's not really comprehensive. Really now, the map doesn't coincide with the place, they've got their scale and proportion all wrong. After aimlessly strolling by, we see people. A mob. A crazy mob. Chinese aroma filling up the room. YUP! this is about right. We all knew, but were worried if we didn't get any food. We came up with all sorts of things to get the crowd out of our way, but the best was James' flatmate, Patrick, an Irish "lad" doing PhD in Nuclear Engineering. "Oh nowt a problem," he says calmly while scanning the crowd then looked at us,"Step back peowple, lemme explowd this place!" he said in an Irish accent, I'm certain I can't imitate.

So we inch our way to the table with pathetic Chinese food,(which we were out in the cold and starving for), when we meet a comical Russian, Sergjy aka C.J. I just tried really hard not to look surprised at this alarmingly natural orange hair. He was talking something about Borat... Umm.. I wasn't really listening. But anyway, after dinner we bid our good nights and headed for some warmth and a good night's rest.
______________________

The following week I met Jo... I'll write about that soon!
Cheers to that night! :)

Jab (when) we met !

2010-09-28T16:52:00.007+01:00

I am not particularly good at remembering dates. Am notorious for forgetting birthdays, anniversaries, and sometimes even important once-in-a-lifetime occasions. I do need reminders, and so far my mom has been super helpful reminding me a day ahead of any special day in the family. I also do have a few fantastic friends who accept this weakness of mine and message me ahead of other friend’s birthdays. I remember a year back, I had a hard request to all of them to please please please remind me of even their own birthdays! Why am I telling you all this ? Because, today must be really special - as I remembered!

What? Today is the 28^th of September 2010. Remember what happened a year back ? We met ! I know Kiki has a super write up of the exact order of events complete with time stamps, and she was so kind to print a leaf from her diary and put it in my scented message bottle! I haven’t read it yet (well just a bit here and there, when I was breaking the bottle!).

How time flies! Was it only a year back on the 26^th of September that I was standing at Mumbai airport saying farewell to my friends and family who had come to see me off. It must have been the nth time I was flying to the UK, but probably the first time I was ever worried. Not knowing what to expect, whom to meet, and how to live on campus for a year! I remember putting up a very happy face, but being extremely anxious within. In my moments of weakness I would often wonder why on earth I’d left my secure and cosy job, blown up my savings, and was putting myself through all this ordeal. Well, I knew the answer within, but I guess it is difficult to suppress such thoughts especially when you see your mom and friends leaving you the airport.

On the flight, I couldn’t sleep a wink nor could I read a line from the book I had got along - ‘Making globalisation work’. Guess I should have carried something more light hearted like say Nancy Drew or the Famous Five ! Reaching Manchester was okay, but the journey from there was nothing short of a nightmare. Try dragging 60 kilos from the airport terminal to the bus station. And then up to the campus, and then up to a flat on the second floor of a building with no lifts. After having travelled for 16 hours all I wanted to do was dive into my bed and get a good night’s sleep.

The next day was my first at the management school. I got up in the morning completely refreshed, and it was as if I had a new burst of energy. The first day was induction, and it was wonderful in its own right. But, this is not about what happened at school. This is about what happened afterwards. I came back to the flat and met my first flatmate - Jay. We both introduced ourselves and agreed on going together to the international students welcome at the Great Hall. On the way to the Great Hall, I remember Jay telling me that he was a Phd exchange student from NUS, and I told him that NUS was actually one my choices for doing the MBA ! So much for commonalities between us, and we walked on !

The wait at the Great Hall was long, with the pro vice chancellor running late. So, we helped ourselves to the free wine and tried to make some conversation. Well, we didn’t struggle much, because out of the blue Ms. Kiki came up and introduced herself. So, we said Hi ! made some small talk and then, I actually thought she would go on her way and say Hi to someone else. Hahhaha . But no ! Ms. Kiki had no intention of leaving, not that night, and not for the rest of the year as we’d realise later! A self-confession from Kiki later was that it was probably our positioning (next to the wine table) that attracted her to us and made her stay put!)

So, by then it was Jay, Kiki, me and actually there was another girl doing her undergrad who had joined our little circle (we lost her in the next 15 minutes though!). It must have been my second glass of wine, when James and Richie entered the scene. They were Jay’s acquaintances (well, later that year we would know that Jay is a self-confessed introvert who is actually Mr. Popular; he knows just about everyone, he knows someone from all corners of the earth, and he has 1500 FB friends !) I gathered that James and Richard were doing a Masters in finance, and I remember nothing from the rest of the smooth conversation – well blame the wine! After waiting for an hour, we were officially welcomed by the pro-vice chancellor, and then we (by now, kiki, Jay, James, Richie, and me) headed off to Graduate college where students were being served with a free Chinese meal ! The first perk of having oriental friends! – (you get to know about free Chinese meals – only a bit too late in our case ;-))

At the graduate college, outside the common room, we stood at the back of what seemed to be a never ending queue. Students from all nine colleges were there to get their share of free Chinese food, and we were the last J We were cold, hungry, and extremely worn out. Aha – Perfect setting to meet Pat – another of Jay’s acquaintances who had the pleasure of experiencing Jay’s ‘drumming feet’ all the way from Manchester to Lancaster two days before. I gathered that Pat was doing a Phd in nuclear physics ( well, for my ease – I kept relating it to Atom bomb!), but what was more interesting to me at that point was the bowl of Chinese food in his hand. It was filled to the brim with different things, and while we were still awaiting our bleak chance to get our free plate, Pat was ready to throw out the food in his bowl which he didn’t like. Hmmm... a lesson on how life is not fair ! Well, later during the year, we also learnt that no one messes with this man’s food and what he does with it ;-P !

As fate would have it, by the time it was our turn, the food was over, and we had to make do with leftovers! So, with an empty stomach, but after having met this cocktail of wonderful people, I went back to my room and got ready for my next day at the management school. To be honest, I didn’t think I would ever meet any of the people again (except for my flatmate - Jay). To me it was just random, and one-off. I considered it the end of the evening, but little did I know that it in fact was the beginning of a year with this very set of random people. The very same people, that in a few days time we’d be referring to as ‘friends’ and our ‘Lancaster family’. If I had any concerns of being away from friends and family (the horrible things I felt at the airport), well this was the answer to my concerns. Super fast right? Who could ever think of it!

Many times during the year whenever we met up for one our family dinners, at the grad bar, or even after a night out, we couldn’t help musing about how we met and stuck together despite being from different courses, age groups, having varied interests and commitments. It’s amazing, isn’t it ? Jojo – I know you don’t feature in that evening, but you know what, that’s because whoever is the master planner behind this all realised that something was amiss, and so had to put Kiki back to work meet you and complete the picture !

And so dear ‘lancaster family’ members ( Jay, Kiki, James, Richie, Pat & Jojo), here’s three cheers to that one evening that made the rest of the year so much eventful and filled with love. Here’s to – Jab we met !

One year on.

2010-09-27T17:00:00.005+01:00

Hello everbody,

A lot of pressure here, Fiona, your blog read like a top class English essay. Trying to think of last time, I saw everybody. James, it was the day I left for Ireland on the first of September. I hope you're having a great time in Beijing with Yoyo. I miss our football chats and games. I brought my PS3 over to Ireland and am going to buy FIFA 11 on Friday. please visit so we can play! Fiona, was great seeing you in London, but it was too long ago. I'm in the midst of organising new years in London, trying to see if my friends from Ireland are up for it. Are you planning to stay for the holidays. Jay, I was so emotional after your going away dinner. Probably because you were the first person I spoke to in Lancaster, my oldest friend here. It's a year to the day that you, James, Ritchie and I arrived on the same bus from the airport( well it was when i started this entry!). Oh, and congrats on the thesis chaper being published, I can't say I'm surprised.

So it's been all change here. Before all the stress of moving and people leaving I took a trip home to Ireland at the beginning of September. Daragh, I and some friends attented a music festival called Electric Picnic on the east of Ireland. It's one of the most popular festivals in Europe and it was my first time attending. The first day of the festival was beautiful, I actually got a (slight) tan! We set up camp, relaxed and drank some beer in the sun during the day and in the evening headed to see some bands. Modest Mouse were fantastic and I urge you all to look for them. The music finished at midnight, but the differents events (slient disco, DJ'S, Merry go rounds, raves in the forest etc) stayed on all night. One bad thing from the first night was that Dargh and decided to have a wrestling match. He dropped me on my head/shoulder. Really injured my shoulder, couldn't move it at all the next day. Another two days of drinking, partying and but torential rain followed. Was a great weekend. Best band I saw were The National. Jo, you would definitley like them.

I spent the rest of the week relaxing with Friends and family. The highlight was my Friends beating Daraghs friends at Football. Thanks to 5 goals from yours truly (sorry, Keerti I had to get that in). So I arrived back at Lancaster in the midst of the moving madness. To everybodys surprise, including mine, I was one of the more organised people when it came to moving out. I'll never forget looking into Ritchie's window 10minutes before we had to vacate our rooms and seeing it in the exact same state as the night before. Fiona, I donated the fridge to charity, we had some good times together but I guess we just grew apart, I'll never forget what we had though.

My new place is pretty cool. It's an old house on Blades Street, near the train station. It's a 3 minute walk from to town, which will result in me getting EVEN PUDGIER with so many nice places to eat so close by. My room is massive and I've already made it quite homely. My house mates have yet to move in, I'm starting to feel like it's my house alone. Keerti and I made a list of this we want to do before Christmas, the best of which is attending a Chelsea match at the end of October. If any one has any suggestions on some great stuff to see in Britan let us know. Work is going fine, I'm offically a Second Year now..time to do something!

Missing you all loads.
Pat

A leaf from my salsa diary

2010-09-22T17:23:00.004+01:00

Okay, so here is a confession. I am a hopeless dancer. Not because I have two left feet, but because I can't follow! And being a lady I must be led ... sigh! I remember, years ago, at my aunt and uncles anniversary party, there was this guy who asked me to dance and while I thought I was doing pretty good, barely a few minutes later he asked me rather sarcastically “ Well, do you want to lead ?” Gosh! Since then, it’s always been like that. It’s something I have to be very conscious about. The slightest sign of weakness I sense in my partner drives this huge urge in me to twirl him around!

Right, so anyways, yesterday was day 2 at the salsa class. Now, I am not really doing this because I seriously want to learn anything. (I think) Am just doing it because 1. I'm jobless and 2. I need a break from the kids at home! (I love them, they're little darlings and I spend so much time with them. But that’s exactly what's worrying. I actually see myself as becoming a fulltime nanny sometimes! And... Pat - I blame you for putting that in my head now ;-))

So, yesterday we got a new guy who joined the beginner’s sessions. And that was good, because it meant we got a break from dancing with our instructor! It being his first time, we obviously had a slight advantage over him. So, our instructor started rotating us girls to dance with him and ‘help’ him out. Now, for some reason I found the way he danced to be weird. And every time he danced with me I just couldn’t stop giggling, well actually laughing. I know it’s really mean, but there was nothing I could do to control myself. There was something seriously strange in the way he moved his hips, and his footwork was also all to ‘jumpy’. Oh and yes, of course this was real easy prey for me and I guess my natural instincts took over, so I ended up dragging him around.

Well, but my joyride was short-lived as our instructor came in and told the guy “Don’t let the lady lead you, take control.” Arghhhh... it’s as if someone told him be a man ! Because I could see he was really pissed! So, he took off the silly bandage with which he had wrapped his hand (as if that would instantly transform him to a salsa king), gave an ‘i-mean-business’ look, and started over again. Well, I must say, there was some positive difference, but then Miss Control-Freak in me was getting anxious, and unknowingly the whole thing was turning out to be a struggle for power! After wrestling through a bit of routine, we ultimately ended up all tangled. The nail in the coffin was the instructor’s line “and that is exactly what you don’t want to do on the floor”. I almost wanted to yell out ‘yea right- tell that to this clown I'm dancing with!’

Our instructor has a way of teaching through demonstration, which she thinks is very effective. Well, it’s all good as long as you are not the specimen. And this time, that was exactly what I and Mr. Clown were. So, she started with her long feedback based on what we had done, while the rest of the beginners nodded and looked as if they were just presented with the bible on ‘how not to salsa’

Well, we ended the session with a warm-down. That’s when we beginners get to mix around with the others( improvers, experts) on the floor. This time it was to be ‘merengue’. Unfortunately, another dance form that needs a partner. And guess what - after going round in circles trying to find someone new, I end up with Mr. Clown. But I guess there was divine intervention, when one of the other instructors came and took me away saying two beginners together would be too clumsy! Haha – well he had no idea.

After class, the walk back home was time for a little retrospection. How did I do today? Was Mr. Clown really the ‘clown’, or was it someone else? After a brief tryst with the radical feminist organisation lodged in the left corner of my brain and the realists that occupy the right corner, I sort of concluded that – next time I’m going to have to put Miss. Control-Freak on a time-out, and let’s see how it goes from there!

The moving out of campus madness

2010-09-22T11:50:00.001+01:00

The previous weekend was packed with a large portion of fatigue and sadness, a scoop of insanity and a dollop of fun. I really don't know how Fifi, Jay and James did it!

It all started on the Friday when it finally occurred to all of us that we have a matter of hours before we were kicked out of campus accommodation. Pat, Jo, Ritchie and I have been having such a good time together (yes, without you all) that the 10:00 am on Saturday morning deadline seemed a breeze, until we were jolted into reality.

By Friday evening, the bins on campus were not visible! You couldn't distinguish between the recycle bins, and the demand for cartons were well above what you'd imagine... People even took out cartons from the bins! Well I did. I picked a clean, plastic wrapped carton folded out carton, placed outside the bins. So, it was alright. Green Lancaster landed themselves with a big mess, when they promoted "Exodus." All electrical appliances, nonperishable food, bed-bedding's, clothes, stationery and what not were dumped in the common room. You'd be lucky to find the floor! The two pool tables were filled with junk, the vending machine had stuff on top, the sofas and bar stools were wearing bed spreads and held electrical items! WHAT A MESS!

It must have been 10:00 pm when Jo had a mini auction for her stuff, Ritchie and I were rummaging through it, like scurrying rodents while Pat giggled like a GIRL! I think it was because, I picked things, in spite of my 3 medium cartons, 2 big trolley bags, 1 small one, a laundry bag full of stuff, and a Sommerfield basket (that Daragh nicked from the store, and I nicked from him).Never mind. We headed down to Pat's place where he had a tearful goodbye... when the mini-fridge was dragged out of his room into the common room. Ritchie's place like his little hamster, JiJi (yes, he does have a pet that none of us knew until awhile ago) had a room full of things! I really don't know how you managed to pack it all, Ritchie!

With a wink of sleep, the following morning was dreadful. The weather grumpy with a shimmer of sunshine and continuous drizzle. UGH! There was heavy traffic on campus, with taxis driving in and out of campus. It so happens to be the uni's visiting day as well. So swarms of people were all over the place- population density so high, I almost felt like home in India! *wink*

The taxi driver drove me to the place in town, where I live. It's 12 minutes walk from the train station, located on this street called Willow Lane. Rumours had it that the place was known for knackers. Of course, it was no good knowing all of this when I had already signed the contract. But nonetheless, the lane I live on is very residential. There's a primary school nearby and some really posh estate bungalows around here. There is a very misplaced Victoria Pub that perhaps is the only source of trouble, but otherwise, it's really nice.

While I unpacked, I realised that my laptop and some small items were retained in the taxi- I had one of my typical Keerti moments where I panicked, and punched numbers on my phone that was dying and out of credit! My taxi driver was not really one that I had called, there was a mix up on campus. So the service that I called had blatantly told me that I had to call the other taxi service that was in charge. After a massive mind explosion and a near heart attack, my taxi driver arrived at my doorstep with my things! Phew!
I started a bit of unpacking when my stomach grumbled so I caught up with Pat in town and had lunch at Varsity- do you remember that green board, with words in white, on a lane parallel to Hustle? Well, it's seems like a really nice place, dunno why we never went there. I think by this point Pat and I were used to the idea of walking into town. Surely, that implicates, more interest in town events and perhaps less excuse for heading out at night!

By Sunday, I had realised that I was uncomfortable living in this house, because it turns out that my 24 year old live-in landlord, Lauren had some issues with guests over. She has a no visitors allowed rule. Strange. But I can't argue with the probation officer aka my landlord, as past experiences of misplaced and damaged articles had her doubts on guests. In knowing that my housemate, Emily and me are liable to all articles within the property was comforting for her.

Emily is from a place in France, just at the border of France and Germany. She's a 24 year old doing her PG course in French, and aspires to be a french teacher in England. She's surprisingly talkative, but nice to have around- sometimes. Lauren was a bit feisty over the weekend, but I managed to talk to her on Sunday, and it turns out that she's nice to talk to! A bit of a relief! Lauren has a dog, Bullet, a pain-in-the-butt type of dog that loves to jump on my bed and follow me everywhere. The dog in my opinion has serious issues of Attention Deficiency Disorder! It comes no surprise though, the poor painful thing has been locked up in a house from 9 am - 5 pm. The owner doesn't give it much attention after work...

Anyway, I'm happy now, after a weekend of madness and disorientatedness. I think I've managed to settle in alright. Just need to iron out what I am going to do in the coming months.

So, what's your story? How's very one else?

Welcome aboard!

2010-09-22T10:44:00.001+01:00

Hello lil goosies! :)

Finally I have this thing up and running. Here are few steps that would help you get around blogger.com
Step 1: Accept invite and log into blogger.com.
Step 1.5: You might come across a "Dashboard" where you will notice "Count down to Manila", Click on it!
Step 2: Click on 'New Post' on the left top corner
Step 3: Type up what's been up with you, what you're doing, whatever you want
Step 4: Click on "Publish Post"
Click on "Preview" for a glanee at what your post would look like on the blog.
Tada! And you've got a post up! It's as simple as that!

To edit your post, you can click on the little yellow pencil at the end of each post.
You can change font sizes, like in a word document, put a picture if you'd like. Just follow the instructions, it's very easy!

The moment you accept the invitation, you are entitled to be the author of the blog, I will then promote you to admin so you have access to the design of the blog as well!

Have fun!

Well hello there :)

2010-09-21T20:49:00.002+01:00

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