Kiruna 07

See Sam's blog for more details.

Evidence that we saw the northern lights:

Momentous last few days of 2006...
Caught ManUtd live at Old Trafford on 301206...Manchester United v Reading. :)
Counted down at River Thames and caught the fireworks set off at the London Eye on the stroke of midnight.l.

London's fantastic; this is my 6th day here and I'm not sick of it yet. Prices are indeed high, but what's worrying is that Ive learnt to ignore it and stop converting. Coz if I do, I won't need to eat already.
Loads of good chinese food here (my friends have been bringing me to the "very good" places) so that cuts out the gian-ness for Singapore food.

Will post up photos (pictorial evidence of me having been to the Theatre of Dreams! hehe) and videos soon...

It's been a great year and hopefully, 2007 will be better.
Happy New Year!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Hello friends, this is a little late, but Merry Xmas to all! Hope everyone had a really nice and memorable Xmas celebration with your loved ones :)

I just got back from London last night (ok 2am this morning to be more exact), and will be heading off to Italy from 29 Dec to 9 Jan 2007. Jo's still in the UK, and will be back on 4 Jan 2007. I'm gonna leave photos and blogging about the Eastern Europe trip to Jo/ Adam and Cx, cuz most of the group shots are with them and also cuz i need to do my laundry before i fly off, but I think i owe my dearest friend Shaina and her bf Eric a note of thanks for their hospitality and generosity!

Jo and I spent Xmas in Sheffield with them (22-26 Dec), and this was one of the most memorable Xmases I have ever celebrated! The girls whipped up a storm in the kitchen for our Xmas eve dinner for 9 hungry adults (think hugeass 4kg turkey stuffed with chestnuts, 3 shepherd's pies, 2 kinds of salads, soup, 3 desserts and loads of drinks), after which we sang karaoke, set fireworks (not firecrackers ok...real fireworks that require you to keep a 25metre radius from the site!!!), woke up early on Xmas day to unwrap our Xmas presents, and spent the day watching movies and Brit tv programs.

Not forgetting, of course, the fun, laughter and friendship provided by Eric's corridoor mates Fiona, her bf Bernard, King and Phil, who generously shared their foodstuff and made me feel right at home. I had loads of fun playing Taboo, baking raisin and choc chip cookies when we were bored on a random night, laughing at/ with each other about silly stuff, and listening to Bernard strumming his guitar and humming and singing. On a side note, I feel guilty once i think about all the egg tarts and lao po bing and Krispy Kremes and M&S sundried tomato focaccia bread and chocolate flapjacks and teacakes and cookies and suppers i consumed...no wonder people grow sideways while on exchange!!! (The Eastern European leg of the trip with Adam and Cx was gastronomically satisfying but terribly unhealthy too- we had loads of fast food, BK, KFC, pizzas, fried noodles, cakes, biscuits, chocolates etc. Yikes.) But hey, its Xmas so i say heck the calories! (or rather, eat first and worry later) ;P

Other highlights of this megalong trip for me-

1. taking BA from London Heathrow to Stockholm Arlanda marked the first time since i came on exchange that i've taken a proper international carrier from one international airport to another and not a budget carrier (Ryanair or Easyjet) from one secondary airport to another. As sad as it sounds, the sight of complimentary meals and drinks being served put a smile on my face!

2. Being able to meet up (whether intentionally or unplanned) with lots of friends! It was nice seeing Shaina and Eric in UK, Adam and Cx, Terri in Budapest, Sheena Nick Angelina in Prague Vienna and Budapest, Farida Pam Zihua and Xunming in London, and Kah Hee in Prague! Seriously, the world is how small....

3. My first time ice skating in a non man-made rink in Prague! Ok actually, my first time ice skating ever. Haha. But i was clumsy and so slow that they called me ah mah penguin. Videos and photos with Jo/ Nick/ Sheena/ Angelina.

4. Then there was the dimsum lunch we had on my last day in London- hargow, cheong fun, pai guat, feng zhao, char siew bao, lo pat go, bean curd skin rolles, wu kok, fried squid in egg yolk etc...I was one happy girl after that meal!

5. And of course, the fireworks we set off in Sheffield (ok fine the guys set them off and the girls huddled together in a corner for fear that we would be disfigured by the blast from the dynamite) was nothing short of spectacular. I'll try posting a video of the fireworks, but im an IT idiot so gimme some time!

This has also been one of the most eventful trips thus far-

1. double (or was it triple?) locking our cabin on the overnight train from Krakow to Prague cuz Lonely Planet warned of thiefs gassing passengers (the incredulous look on the conductor's face was pretty funny when he saw our locks the next morning),

2. our flight from Budapest to London nearly got redirected to Liverpool due to the fog in London,

3. our bus journey from London to Sheffield was delayed by 4 hrs as we were caught right in the middle of a chain accident involving 4 vehicles and 7 casualties along a major motorway (we reached Sheffield at 2am instead of 10pm, and by the time we got a cab home and bathed and finished supper and went to bed, it was 5am. NB: we had to wake up early to get to York the next morning),

4. my BA flight back from London to Stockholm was nearly cancelled due to the fog, and we got a scare on Boxing Day cuz the security guard at Sheffield's Meadowhall bus station told us that no buses were scheduled for that day (then how the hell was i supposed to get to London to catch my flight home!??!!).

I guess Jo and I have become too 'pro' at planning trips- aside from the fact that everyone now sees us as travel planners and tour guides, we ourselves have gotten used to smooth, hassle-free trips and transfers since we always check out the schedules and timings for connecting buses and trains, directions to get to the hostels, maps of the city etc. But stuff like the fog and highway accidents are out of our control, so being caught unprepared was a different experience indeed.

Anyway, this trip was one successful one! Travelling with Adam and Cx was a breeze and really enjoyable, bumping into Sheena Nick Farida Angelina Kah Hee Pam Zihua and Xunming (all unplanned) was a bonus, and spending Xmas with a very treasured friend (and her friends) in a foreign land was the highlight of the trip for me! I'm so glad that this entire experience was shared with this bunch of lovely people, and im looking forward to spending NYE with my classmate Sol's family in Turin, Italy! :)

On a random note, my lactose intolerance seems to have taken a turn for the better! I've been slowly increasing the amounts of dairy products i consume, and so far so good! No side effects except for the pizza in Budapest! Yay for me.

Pictures below!

Thanks Adam and Cx for being such great and fun travel partners!

The highlight of the Krakow leg of our trip- the visit to Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp. Imo, well worth the trouble it took us to get to Krakow, and getting from Krakow to Prague later.

Yummy dinner at a nice restaurant in a mall in Krakow- 4 huuuuge plates of chicken, beef and fish with sides, all for 10sgd each only!! You'll never be able to get such prices in Stockholm, unfortunately :(

We bumped into Kah Hee and his family on Charles Bridge in Prague! Small world!

We found a really cheap Chinese place in Prague! About 6sgd for a huge plate of meat with rice or noodles. We ate there twice even though service was crap and the Chinese lady boss was nicer to locals than to us fellow Chinese.

We watched Romeo and Juliet at the Opera House in Vienna! A once in a lifetime experience! The grand interior alone made the entrance fee worth it. And these are but a few of Nick's many silly photos- he's taking a picture beneath the 'no photos' sign, i'm making a phonecall beneath the 'no using of handphones sign', and of course his trademark 'thinker' pose.

Cafe Demel- one of 2 cafes that we went to. Sheena Nick Angelina and I shared the house signature hazelnut with orange liquer chocolate cake, Vienna's famous sacher torte and apple strudel, a strawberry yoghurt creamcake, and a sour cherry cheesecake. Burnt a hole in our pockets but well worth the money!

Budapest! The last leg of our Eastern European sojourn, and also the time when we threw caution to the wind and consumed copious amounts of oily food. We managed to find KFC, but not the 'prata' thingamajig that Jo was telling us about. But all was good since we had Burger King for lunch and pizza for dinner one day, and KFC the next. Haha.

With Shaina! My primary school friend whom we spent Xmas with. Babe, im very impressed with your huadiao chicken with shaoxing wine! Shall try to cook that in Stockholm too :)

The food we had for lunch at Wong Kei wasnt that great (the food in London is disgustingly expensive compared to EE), plus we had a 3hr long bus ride to catch, so we bought 8quid worth of egg tarts and lao po bing, as well as 12 Krispy Kremes to tide hunger pangs! Eric (Shaina's bf) very generously shared his stash of Nongshin instant noodles with us for supper too! :)

Day trip to York on 23rd December. My 2nd time there, but i didnt mind cuz i couldnt remember anything about York besides the Minster and the Shambles. The Xmas market was disappointing compared to all the other Xmas markets we'd been to in EE, but the company more than made up for it :)

Midnight baking session cuz we were bored and had run out of games to play. The guys promptly went to bed leaving the baking to us girls.

Marinating our 4kg turkey with loads of herbs, salt, pepper and olive oil, and stuffing it with chestnuts!

Our Xmas eve feast! Turkey, 3 pans of sheperd's pie, salad, soup, cheesecake, ice cream...!!

The lovely people i spent Xmas 2006 with.

The fireworks we set off later in the night. I cant seem to put the video up- let's hope Jo knows how! Heheh.

Unwrapping our Xmas gifts in the morning. That's Shaina and Eric, our wonderful hosts.

Headed down bright and early to London on 26th for the Boxing Day sales! Gobbled a donut down for energy before hitting the shops...It was pure madness! Topshop and Mango and Zara especially, as expected. Kept bumping into Sheena Nick Farida and Angelina while shopping haha! See you next in Kiruna Sheena! :)

After fighting the crowds, Shaina, Eric, Ziqi, Jessica (2 of Eric's friends from NUS Architecture) and I headed down to Chinatown (again) for dimsum! Dimsum is one of the foods that i really really miss, so this lunch was money well spent imo!

Complimentary food and drinks on BA! Beats the 3euros lousy sandwiches on Ryanair hands down (not that i've actually gone and bought one of those).

And when i got back to my corridoor- a pretty tree and gingerbread house greeted me! :) Merry Xmas and an early Happy New Year everyone!