Gabriel's shared items

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Back!

Just returned in the morning after 2 weeks of traveling... loads to consolidate - pictures, the trips, my belongings, my work, the internship.

Airport experience was interesting. Checked in rather late, though still within the stipulated time, but was held back by immigration due to an increased alert level (perhaps because of the bomb scare in London). Queued for immigration till past the flight timing of 12, and was given an "advance to go card" soon after 12pm.

Thankfully was able to check in my slightly over the weight limit baggage, perhaps because the airport staff was concerned with the above stated more pressing matters. Upon check in, we were instructed to go straight through security and immigration, and not to loiter in the shops.

K, lots to do now. Trip pics to be up soon (hopefully).

Thursday, June 21, 2007

sigh... 2-2 ;(

in austria now..

just found out my result... not good at all... but guess that means there´s more room for improvement next year... tough year this one was... :(

hope i can still do theoretical physics... ok time´s running out...

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Ok, this is it...

moving the remaining life support systems out of my room soon - my laptop, fan, bedsheets. Will be down to my bare traveling necessities.

wont be able to access the internet so frequently til i reach home, but there should be internet cafes along the way.

Departing tmr morning at 3, and my itinerary is as previously posted.

Will be contactable on my sg number.

Also, just realized that I'll be exceeding the weight limit by a lot (my luggage weighs 35 kg, and that's not counting the laptop, and traveling baggage), from all the goodies I'm carrying home. Daddy, can help me ask SIA for extra baggage allowance? thanks.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Back from portugal, with a bottle of Port!!!




Just returned from Portugal this morning - visited Porto, Lisbon & Sintra.

Quite a packed trip... felt like we accomplished a lot in the short span of 4 days.

The highlight was perhaps visiting a brewery in Porto. Sandeman, the brewery name was.

Appreciated how Port is actually grape juice that is partially fermented (as compared with wine which is fully fermented grape juice), to produce alcohol yet leaving some sugar to give it the sweet taste. Bought a bottle, for everyone back home to try! So prepare to get drunk :P

Also learnt that Port wine is named after the city of Porto, which is so named because it's a port. And a port is a gateway or entrance.


Will be packing up, and leaving in the next few days for Eastern Europe.

Also, got the reply from astar, and will be doing an internship with them again over summer. Quite looking forward to that...

yup, not too long now, will be home in another 2 weeks! see everyone soon...

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Leaving for Portugal in a while

Consuming simple ovened dinner and leaving for portugal in the wee hours of the morning. Will be gone for 3 days, back for 3 days, gone for 12 days, back for one night, and finally departing for home!

Here are my itineraries for Portugal and Eastern Europe.


Was reading through my post exam posts last year. This time last year, Chai Seng gugu was here! Took them round cambridge, and drove up to kings lynn.

Went to London with ken, lionel and serene for a few days the following week, packed up and left for Italy on the 21st, learned of my result on the 24th, and was home on the 29th. Coming full circle this time round, with London replaced by Portugal, and Italy by Eastern Europe.


And... My room looks like a warzone!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Consolidation

Have been done with exams for close to a week now... And have been quite productive since then...

Sorting out stuff, packing my room, looking into travel arrangements, buying goodies to bring home, just consolidating my two years in Cambridge. I'm quite glad to have the time to do these leisurely...

Lets see, since the exams ended on friday morning, i've...

Friday, 1 Jun:
slacked friday afternoon away, recuperating.
Crashed garang sheep, helped them cook. visited joel's place after cg...

Saturday, 2 Jun:
Slept til late. went for brunch, think i slacked the afternoon away, prob listening to bbc and cbs podcasts. Had dinner with keng rui and irene. Went to Shawn's place to watch "Troy". Daniel was there too... "War is young man dieing, and old man talking". Stayed til 1.30 am.

Sunday, 3 Jun:
Brunch at 9 with joel, su-ann, celene. Made french toasts and pancakes.
Church, lunch, didnt really do much the afternoon. Dinner with keng rui.

Monday, 4 Jun:
settled errands, returned the library books, booked formal hall tickets, practiced a little for cf worship. Went to town to leave guit with WS, did some banking. was listening to bbc podcasts. Went to help with the food prep for cf at 1630, got some boxes from sains, had worship practice at 1800. CF til late, went to play com games at daniel's place after til around 2am.

Tuesday, 5 Jun:
Sorted out travel arrangements, went to print documents (hostel bookings, maps) at the CMS... Attended focus, went to visit aloysius to do maths. Thought of traveling on a cheaper airline here next year, emirates, say. And thought of going to Greece, Cyprus and Turkey next Christmas, and France, Germany and Belgium next Easter.

Wednesday, 6 Jun:
Did some packing up, bought goodies to bring home, found out about national express tickets, going to buy them soon. Suddenly felt like i was spending a lot of money. Now trying to keep track of all my expenditure.

For the goodies,


The big boxes of cookies were 2 for 5 pounds. (5.00 x 2)
Short cake was 0.79. (0.79 x 2)
Milk chocolate butter, the one on the left was 2 for 2 pounds (2.00 x 2)
Shortbread was 2 for 3.50, i think. (3.50 x 1)
McVites Boasters was 2 for 0.99. Bought 6. (0.99 x 3)

Spent 22.05 on goodies to bring home. You guys back home, please tell me if the bargains were good and if i should buy more of them back. But my luggage is already half full with the food. Going to be hard to squeeze more in it.

For the packing, thinking of getting a plastic box for my "lever arch files". They cost 10.99 pounds. Need to get more boxes too. And transport to caius will cost another 11 pounds.

Then there's money to be changed, and tickets to be bought.

Kinda looking forward to going back in summer to work, and make a little living for myself. Also thinking of all the other things i need to do in summer - go through the materials for this year and next, gre's, tuition, playing - all the movies to catch, and showing sam what i've learned this year :D

Towards the near future:

Tomorrow:
Continue with all the preparation and packing, and going for a briefing for a demonstration i'll be going for on friday.

Friday:
Taking part in a school visit to do some science demonstration. will be interesting, and will occupy my mornings and afternoons.

Saturday:
Preparing for the trip on sunday. Make sure all the errands are run.

Sunday to Tuesday:
Will be in Portugal.

Wednessday to Saturday:
Will be back in cam, attending garden parties, and packing up for good.

Sunday, 17 to Thursday, 28:
Will be in Eastern Europe.

Thursday, 28:
Arriving back in cam.

Friday, 29:
Departing for Singapre!!!

Saturday, 30:
Will be sleeping on my bed for the first time in 9 months!

Wow! that was an entire month in one post!

Friday, June 01, 2007

Done. Phew!

An update on the exam:

a couple of bad papers - Adv Physics Paper 2, Physics Paper 1.
a few not too bad papers - both math papers, Adv Physics paper 1.
and a good paper - Physics Paper 2, a little miracle, i must say...

feeling average, on the whole...


About Physics Paper 2, had read up the part 2 quantum mechanics and found the first 4 lectures a very good summary of the stuff we need to learn for first year, plus got inspired to the rationale behind some of the calculations, and was able to do the 2 questions required quite fully during the exams... :)

Thank God for that...


Now there's so many things to do... Had a bad post-exam start today... cg formal didnt work out... they changed the schedule, so now we'll have to take stock and see what can be done about it... Sigh.. think i'll go cg first, have a good rest tonight, and start to see what else needs to be done tomorrow morning...


To those still mugging away, jia you!
To the people back home, I'm on the home stretch! See everyone soon!