It's 3pm in the afternoon and I'm AT HOME! How awesome and rare this is!
Today is Day 15 of school, 20th day since we picked up the tuning hammer and today we were taught how to set the temperament the real way! And we'll be doing this for the next 80 days till Christmas holidays. It's comforting to see the confidence all of them have in our currently non-existent abilities. Our two tutors and the other two technicians there are absolutely certain we'll all be tuning decently by Christmas. Don was so proud that he was giving us the temperament today. Apparently he says the temperament sheet appears earlier each year and so far that record is still ongoing.. One day they will get the sheet on Day 1!!! I guess it's like tried and tested... The programme has been going for more than 10 over years and they should know better.....
Anyway for those who don't know how pianos are tuned, the methodology makes sense. The hard part is honing the ears to hear what you want to hear, and translating that to the minute shifts in the hands to the tuning hammer. So what we do is use a tuning fork to tune a single note, and then using that note, we tune the other 11 notes in a chosen octave by listening to the beats of different intervals (2 notes played at the same time). A tuned piano is not perfectly in pitch (beatless). The piano has to be tempered (adjusted/made out of tune) in a sort of compromise so that whatever key you play in sounds okay. If it's perfectly in tune for a particular key, if you play it in another key it may sound awfully unbearable! So if you go to a piano and play 2 notes that aren't an octave, you should be able to hear beats produced by the clashing sound waves of the 2 notes. Band people should know when we tune! Once that octave is set, we use those notes to go up and down the piano, tuning octaves to beatless. So what we have done the past few weeks is the easy part - We assume that octave is already tempered and we just tune octaves up and down to beatless. Today, we learnt how to adjust the temperament. Not easy because each interval has different number of beats you need to listen and set it too! I still kinda suck at it, but FOR ONCE, after "tuning" the piano actually sounds decent when you play something on it! I AM AN EXTREMELY HAPPY GIRL. And I'm really motivated to keep trying and trying now till I can get it good! :) And then, playing time!
Carpenter's pencil! So cute!
This is a most awesome octave-playing contraption, hand made from random scraps in the workshop by Paul, the technician here! So cool!
It's been a warm day today. 16 degrees in the morning! I was actually hot riding to school! And 19 degrees out! But it's gonna be below 10 tomorrow morning ah well..... I'm starting to see the relationship between clouds and heat. Clouds = warmth = good. Just don't want the rain. Sunny day = COLD = bad. Especially during winter months, I heard that the less sun and more clouds you see, the better!
I guess it'll snow this winter since it didn't snow the year before and the year before that had snow storms. Hmmmm... Don't want snow because that means I can't cycle to school! Bummer......
The weather was indeed nice and warm today, with a high of 19 degrees (so warm!!) and I cycled to school in the morning at 12 degrees (so warm!!). Warm for another day or two then dipping again sobs..
School was awesome today, just because our singing class prof was sick, and so NO 7-10PM CLASS! The day had never seemed brighter! I'm quite tired of turning the tuning pins... I seem to be going nowhere :(
I went for a 60min run today. Running isn't as torturous as in Singapore. The weather helps tons but there're flies at certain patchy areas. I saw ducks today! They're so cute, especially when their heads are in the water and their butts are sticking up with their legs paddling madly! It's fall and the leaves are slowly changing but green still dominates though. Haven't ran since Thursday (which was officially still summer then) and didn't notice anything then. I had some pretty loud gas sounds while running today.... But like they say, if there's sound it's not stinky right? Ever since I got here, I keep wanting to poop at like 4-5+pm EVERYDAY which is annoying.... At least I don't have constipation. I think why running is quite a chore for me is because it's so mentally taxing when you don't have company........... But indeed the weather is so nice it feels like nothing except the calves and butt kinda hurt from yesterday's statics. There's this steep hill at the park where I do repeats and it seems like it does get easier the more you do it!
Did I mention I found swings nearer to my place? Heading to Metro from the house, instead of turning left onto Trott Dr, turn right and the playground's just there! Awesome! :)
It's nice being in a music faculty where you hear music sounds everywhere! We're beside the concert hall, recording studio and big rehearsal room (i.e. for band pracs sort) so you hear sounds all the time! Dislike the trumpeters or singers in our practice rooms though, it's so distracting! But I guess it trains me to concentrate and block out the sounds I don't wanna hear.
Oh and it's awesome that I get free very nice live piano music by our very own classmates when I'm working on the piano after school hahaha. They have like degrees in Music Performance and Anne has her Masters! And she's only the same age as me!
I was on facebook and found this P6 math question. As horrible as it is to be a P6 question, it is a cool one I must say. Whoever set this - pretty good huh!
Metro has these dinner deals every weekday evenings and Tuesdays are BBQ Mammoth Chicken days. So I bought one today and boy is it huge. I think it can last me a total of 5 to 6 meals............. All for $6.99! And on Wednesdays they have PIZZA!! 16 inch pizza for $6.99! Great cheap options! But since I'm on a healthy diet policy (hmmmm) I'm limiting that to once a month.. But cheap and convenient, except that it's hard to carry such a huge pizza box back on a bike, but now with the bag Dad gave, probably use that yay!
I finished Glee today. I need a new series! Any suggestions? And also where can I access it? I need 1 hour of dinner time entertainment daily please!
And guess what's the first thing I miss from Singapore?
Am considering coming back in December...... But I fear if I was to do that, going back in January would suck a lot. Plus the big weather changes wouldn't help in facing negative temperatures. Plus I'm paying rent for this place. And what would I do in Singapore anyway..............
Saturday morning was spent practising in school. I like how it's nice and quiet in the morning, and I can't wait till when we learn how to tune the entire piano so that I can make it sound nice and then play! Will start practising then!
In the afternoon, I took a little adventure trip down South West to meet the guy for the wheel. Twas an adventure indeed! Had to take two buses and then some walking. Since it was the weekend, the buses came only half an hour so the entire journey took me about one half hours! Out to get a wheel, then another one half hours back. It was a good way to see the place though! People are outspoken and friendly here. The guy at Metro bike parking area asked me where I got my bike light from. Singapore, I told him haha! On the bus here a girl asked me where I got my bus map from. This guy I met at the bus stop asked how long I've been waiting for and then when this crazy loud car came screeching around the bend he commented "he must've been really proud of himself for that". And the drivers are really nice too like they give way to you. I was riding on the pavement and this car was in the middle of the pavement, waiting for traffic so it can go out, when the driver saw me coming, she reversed her car so I could pass! My classmate was saying how the drivers are horrible though cause he was riding on the bike lane but the cars were zooming so close by. Maybe he met horrible drivers, or maybe he has to ride in Singapore before appreciating the cars here!!
A nice little park while waiting to change bus
This is how empty the place was!
Then I realised those fields looked like wheat fields. Since I was early, I crossed over to take a look.
HEY! They're CORN fields!
They're reallllyyyyy tall, like taller than me! You could get lost in them! Yes, I was wearing my pajamas out the whole day...
The wheel, at last.... I am pleased!
It was bad though. I caught the peepee bug from Wennie and my sister...... I wanted to pee on my way to waiting for the guy. Like real bad. That leaves me with a 2 hour wait to get home. I had to walk for 30mins till I found a toilet. So relieved..................................................
So that concluded my Saturday. Went to collect the package. Scotch fingers! And local delights! :) Thank you Wennie! :)
Today was another crazy day. Went to school at 8 in the morning till 10. It was like EMPTY! So I explored the second level practice rooms and the pianos there. The grands are cool, like they've all sorts! Mason and Hamlin, Baldwin, always wanted to try them! Left at 10 to head to church. Had a cupcake there today! Service was really good. They had a guest speaker and some sort of revival going on. It was really good. A small church, really outspokenly friendly people and yet the presence of God was realllyyyyy real in the house of God today. Amazing! Service dragged till 12.40pm and hadn't ended still! So I left anyway... The only other two Asians in the church came to introduce themselves. I carried this cute baby which kept leaning over to pull on me! Such huge eyes he has!
Back to school for a swim session at 1.30pm. Good swim, 3.4km! I choose Friday and Sundays as swim days as the pool's at 50m then. It's cool cause they split the lanes into leisure, slow, medium, fast and the lanes are CW/ACW and the lane ropes are the wave breaker kind. And the clock is big, digital and shows the seconds so it doubles up as a timer, no need for watches! And I'm getting into the hang of what to bring where so that I don't freeze so much when I'm out of the water. The hot water in the showers are pretty awesome. This guy from Iran started talking to me - nice, friendly guy whose English wasn't the best and he was trying to say I have good stamina because I kept swimming and swimming. Nice compliment! But twas cause I wanted to finish the programme (which was a long D one anyway) and I was behind time! So no time to stop and hang around! We talked for 2 minutes (because I was on timing and wanted to finish the programme so I can get moving asap!). It was quite weird cause he offered to help me if I needed any help in any Math or Calculus subjects and offered to keep in touch via email....................... I smiled and said "It's okay! I'll see you around at the pool" and headed off. So awkward.
Back home to put my wet stuff and then to school for a tuning practice and to meet my French friend Anne. After a short practice, we headed to her house for dinner with her and her boyfriend! Rather nice her place is. And we had a nice ride there! Got to see more of the country! I think if the weather's good, I'll spend Saturday afternoons exploring different parts of the town, a bus ride, or on bike in the parks! Good time spent. And then rode back home in freezing weather.
Twas a really cold weekend! Riding at like 5 degrees in the morning.... And the temperature only went up to 13 degrees in the afternoon! Say what! Gloves on, hat on (for the ears) but can do without a scarf for now. Should wear my boots if I'm cycling much cause feet gets cold! So the previous previous winter, it snowed, bad. The previous winter, no snow! I wonder what this winter would be like. It's not fair, the temperatures in southern Ontario are like below seasonal norms. But for the rest of the country (east and west) they're ABOVE seasonal norms. I want it warmer please!
But I'm quite pleased that my body temperature is not that low. Like I was in the house and everyone else was in a thick jacket top but I was in a shirt and feeling pretty normal.
And I'm pleased that I've my bike back, that way I don't have to run out of the house every morning at 7.20! Yay!
Okay, another tuning test tomorrow.... Sighhhhh..................................
Have a great week ahead everyone! Heading into the start of the 11th week to Christmas break!
That leaves me with 11 weeks to Christmas holidays yay!
My hands are getting pretty tough. And legs are getting sore from all the running but I'm appreciating the nice weather still. Today I swam 3.1km. Hardcore start to the swim "season" considering this is the second time I've swam in a month. The first being a 20 min lalala swim. I thought my arms were going to fall out. All's good though. Eating too much! My project partner (who is very nice and kind and has a funky sense of humour) calls me the Singapore chipmunk cause I like to stuff a banana (or water) into my mouth and then eat it slowly.
The clouds are so cute! Look! They look exactly like how I drew them as a kid! The type with the straight line at the bottom. Thank God that thus far, rainy days are days when we have school the whole day. But it seems next Wednesday might be rainy! Nooooo!
There are geese everywhere! I thought they were ducks. But I saw ducks in the park river too. So I heard they are migrating from the north and are just passing through and will end up in USA. They are currently EVERYWHERE. And they poop green poop all over the place. Quite gross. Apparently they fly in the U formation and this morning I saw a pack in a rather untidy U formation going by. But they were stopping so I guess the untidiness.
The wheel situation is rather frustrating. Hope it gets solved soon.... I wonder why God let that happened....
Anyway we are still brainstorming ideas for fundraising. And the guy from the USA (who saved me the other day giving me a ride home from school with the bike) actually used a spoon to beat a copper coin and shaped it into a ring that he's wearing! How awesome that is!
School is not too bad, settling down. We aren't doing 60 to 70 hours as forewarned (maybe not yet). About 50 plus hours though..... My hands are getting a lot more manly with many cuts and calluses appearing! And the friend from the Yukon tells most interesting stories about grissly bears, mooses and shooting guns! And I got invited over to dinner for the weekend! What should I bring along for dessert..... Hmmmmm!
It is actually quite relaxing here over the weekend! Besides practising in school for about 5 hours, and cooking food and swimming just a little, and cleaning up, I have quite a bit of time!
Hence, I was on cyclingnews.com, (besides following Wennie's ongoing race) and reading some of Jens Voigt's articles and his take on Armstrong and doping etc. and I so totally agree with him. It's so long ago, let's just everybody leave it and move on...... What's the point of looking back and digging and digging into the past? Even if he's found guilty and you strip him of all his TdF wins, I don't think it's gonna make the other 7 new TdF winners any much happier. It's so long ago and any benefits from their win can't be reaped either anyway.......
After the rain over the weekend, it's been pretty warm this week. Hot and very windy! But according to the weather forecast it seems temperatures are going to be dropping over the next few weeks as we head into autumn!
Today cycling home, the clouds were so cute, they looked like... marioland?
There are ducks EVERYWHERE! Today, in school, sitting outside eating lunch, there were ducks there! Wonder where they came from...... Somedays we sit on the grass. We have lockers like those you see in TV shows (you know... like Glee....). There are tons of ducks at Gibbons Park in the water. And tons of ducks in the park where you head south. The park connectors make really good running paths! Except for the party of flies........ But the tracks connect all over! I may have been running too much though, shin kinda throbs.. Not sure if it's from the running or from all the activeness in class and might have had some blue blacks at the front!
Took my tetanus shot yesterday..
Class has been good so far! I like the sense of humour and how awesomely good our instructor is... I like his constant reference to Nike:
Thanks to the sister, I am rather Nike-fied here... 3 Nike tops, all socks and shoes are Nike, backpack too..
Our classroom
My toolbox
Corridor of the practice rooms for us to practise
Work-in-progress
Iconic tower of the university
It's been one week since class started. It ain't so bad yet.... Good fun so far.. On Tuesday we had our singing elective where we met students from other courses. The Prof was amazed that we only knew each other since Thursday but yet were already such good friends! I guess cause we see each other everyday and do all sorts of things together like dismantling the pianos and going through all the tuning madness! I am becoming more of a technician! Away with the "dainty" hands as my project partner calls em! Piano wires are really tough stuff, after a few hours of playing with them our thumbs hurt so bad that we masking taped our thumb! It works.......
The loops we made for stringing pianos
We have our first piano concert to attend tomorrow!
During class while practising various repairs/regulation, we were brainstorming for what fund-raising activities we can do. Lotsa trips for us! We'll be heading down to Toronto to visit the conservatory and some shops there. And there's the Convention in April. And also our New York trip where we'll be visiting lotsa cool places including Steinway! See the factories, and production lines, supply shops, etc! Hence the need for money! So anyway, the best idea so far, is to let people pay to take a sledgehammer to a piano. Thus far, we have 3 donated pianos for our course out of which 2 have been taken apart for our usage. And on the classifieds there are lotsa old pianos going out for free! I mean, how often do people get the chance to smash a piano up no? Haha! Other ideas were to have a concert since we have so much talent among us - degrees in Piano Performance, masters even! I like how this course is so practical, and she tells us how we can make some of our own tools from this/that!
I have a friend - Anne, from France! And I'm learning new french words everyday! It's amazing how good her English is considering this is her first time living in an English world! She did her Masters in Montreal but in French.
All in all, it's been tiring but fun, learning lots. Don't feel homesick, YET. I guess because the weather is still warm and they haven't started drowning us, YET. I think I'm enjoying myself here 40%, and the other 60% wishes the 253 days are over.....
The weekend has been good!
Rained on me a little here and there.
Legs getting stronger from the off-saddle riding style.
Visited a church.
Temperature's dropping.
Nice running weather - got lost yesterday but tried again today and found the connector!
Toaster still not working up to optimum.
Bought lotsa fruits, currently have - 3 bananas, quarter watermelon, bag of grapes, 4 oranges, 4 apples.
The watermelons are really yummy!
Fruits are rather expensive.
Found a new friend in cherry tomatoes.
Lotsa snacks stocked up, probably won't eat them, just good to know I have them around in case hunger kicks in.
Waiting for the dryer to finish so I can sleep.
Good thing is that the dryer dries things pretty solidly dry.
Advice from the cycling coach to do overgearing.
Legs are tired folks!
Decided I'll probably not join the triathlon group for a couple of reasons.
I really don't think waking up early in the winter will work for me.
Firstly, I'm not quite an early kind of person.
Secondly, I don't think I can take the cold.
Thirdly, I think I'll just do my own runs and swims and gyms and biking.
Fourthly, to join all three disciplines you pay $125 (excluding tax of 18%) for the whole semester.
After all, the usage of the SRC is free.................
Decided not to join the International Students for their trips.
My Project Piano partner has a car and drives back to Toronto over the weekends, and he offered to bring me out on one of the weekends so I don't have to stay in London every week!
And I decided I'll have enough on my hands keeping up with the weather, not growing fat, making sure I've enough healthy meals, housekeeping, making sure I don't get flabby arms, keeping strong (thanks to the back muscles I'm doing fine so far with the hours of tuning), and managing all the school work!
So I'll work extremely hard to get all my skills right and then have an awesome holiday when the weather warms up again before heading back to Singapore to ride my bike and Mr Beep!
Or maybe a mini holiday during December with my HUSBAND!
Husband = I love you forever!
My arms are getting flabby, I haven't swam in 3 weeks!!!!!!!!
I'll head to the pool the day after I get my swimsuit!
The buzzer rang! Clothes are dry! Goodnight folks!
Here's to a crazy week ahead......
This is not going to be the norm. But anyway...... How's my day you ask? In short -
The bad:
- the toaster seems to work only on the underside this morning, hence no more gushing about the toast/toaster hmmmm
- my bike seat post and saddle was stolen
- I met and chatted with some Mormons, pretty scary
The good:
- learnt how to tune for the first time and am glad to see that we have a whole bunch of pianos to practise on!
- love the tuning hammer, the stability and control is pretty awesome!
- I don't seem to be the most hopeless student there, so...... there's hope!
I will work hard! Aim to tune 4 pianos each day over the weekend, grand and uprights mixed! But my tuning is rather chim chay at this stage. Don't quite know if I'm doing it correctly but just getting used to it and trying it out!
I think I posted too many pictures in the last post I can't scroll down my blog - too laggy. Hmmmm!
My awesome tuning hammer
Entrance to school
5 girls in the class. All Canadians except for an American and myself. I feel this really weird out-of-place feeling. But everybody's really nice and I find myself at a loss of what to talk about with others when small talk goes on. So much small talk.... Bahhhhh.......
We had to pair up. 2 to a bench and that will be my partner to work on our Project Piano. I ended up pairing with the oldest guy in the class - he looks 60+. Anyway, he used to either play/fix organs or something. Can't quite remember - was zoning out quite a little during introductions. And then he went to work as an airport controller or something for 10+ years? Anyway, good I guess, always good to mix with older folks, gain more insights!
Nobody here seems to know Singapore and sad to say I don't think they're getting quite a good impression of the country by me! I think I find it easier to talk to my roommates than to my class peeps. Or maybe just because I only just got to know them. But the guys seem a little ego-istic? But they ask good questions I must say! So anyway, besides XiaXue, I've been asked about the Singapore Girl (by the ex air controller) and about Chairman Lee (by our tuning instructor who is apparently, VERY good). Thus far the number of people that have been to Singapore = 0! And it slipped out that this guy was impressed by my fluency in English. Surprise! It's my first language!
My lunch sandwich was TASTY! It's just that it's easy to get hungry again real quick................ How does one get full on a sandwich......... Think I'll bring an apple along or something..
It seems most everyone else with a family brought their familes here :( Our course instructor's husband is also working in the faculty. This other girl from Montreal is here with her boyfriend. This girl from North Canada (she tells interesting stories where they shoot/kill/club anything for food, including porcupines!) is here with her husband too. Another guy is here with his family. That's so not fair............... They're not really far away anyway, all in Canada.
The only comfort is that the course instructor seems very confident that we'll all be amazed at what we can do by Christmas. I hope so.................................. I really wonder if there are people that were impossible to teach. But I guess they've seen all kinds... I mean hearing his stories of back when the programme was in George Brown.
Oh I remember there is ice cream sandwiches in the freezer!
I miss my bike............................................................................
I'm so gonna be extremely nooby when I get back on my bike in June.
And I miss riding Mr Beep.
I miss Amber.
And most of all, I so miss Wennie :(
The watermelon here is extremely sweet though. Apples are nicer too. I've tasted better oranges in Singapore though. Can't compare cherry tomatoes - don't eat them much in Singapore. Besides the toast being awesome, the chocolate milk's pretty good too. Haven't drunk milo at all yet - saving it for the cold rainy weather as comfort food. Chicken's tasty and big! Ice cream sandwiches! And I like the nice new frying pan.
Oh, we are going to the PTG's conference in April! 4 whole days in Philadelphia! Besides our New York trip to Steinway and the other makers! But that depends on how good the class progresses by then. I hope I'm not too unteachable......
I've nothing else to be here for. All this away-from-home and money better be worth something. So........ I shall work my ass off. There's a fridge and microwave in the Piano Shop! So I can bring food in there, how handy!
Okay I've rambled on a great deal, time to organise my school stuff and then.... Glee?
So folks, Wennie left early this morning at 2.30am and I must admit I teared walking back into the house and cried my way to sleep and I woke up this morning with that sick feeling in my stomach again thinking about how I won't see him for so long.....
But at least today was a good sunny day, but a really foggy morning. But I heard it's not always foggy every morning. I sure hope not! Don't fancy being run over by cars when I ride to school in the morning. Due to the late night, I decided to only get up at 11am! After my quiet time and blogging the morning's post and sorting things out online, I took a little run towards the church I wanted to go to 4.3km away (according to Google maps). It's only about 10 minutes away to Gibbons Park and I must say I like that place more and more! While the weather was pretty sunny and warm, I didn't sweat all that much. The church is rather far though. Trying to find one nearby hmmmmm...
Gibbons Park! On my way back I stopped by to sit on the swings for a bit... WHeeeeeee! And then dropped by Metro. Oh me oh my, never seen it this crowded before! I knew I forgot to get something........ T'was the sunflower seeds! Mama has made me like them toasted with salad leaves! After all I have a whole bottle of balsamic vinegar to use up!
Came home and did some cooking, socialised with the girls a little (and was told by one who followed XiaXue for a short while that I have the same Singapore accent as her - not sure is this positive or not for me.. Never heard her before.............). Sorted out my tools and prepared for school. Did the accounts and feel terrible looking at how much money has been spend :(
So anyway, Toronto airport is one of the nicer airports after being in SF. It's almost posh like Singapore's. They were so efficient there was hardly a queue and we got out in like 15 minutes? Luggage came out first due to Wennie's Krisflyer Silver status hence the "Priority" tagged bags. Hence the long wait for the shuttle to bring us to London.
My first impression driving through London was "Wow, this is really old school". The buildings were single/double storeyed. Each having their own front and back space. Everything looked so old and really country-style!
The house looks like this:
The road outside the house
Houses to the left and right of the road
The side entrance which is our entrance
The little porch where I lock my bike. The window there looks into my room and the ledge on the top left is for the kitties to go in and out! Real cute!
Backyard
Kitty! Everybody loves how it is so affectionate! It climbs onto the owner's lap!
Entering the door leading into the basement
Video of my room:
It's a little different now. Neater for one. And the microwave went onto the desk table and the induction stove onto the fridge (under a cork mat for safety) and so the kitchen area is pretty spacious now!
As we only had half day left on Thursday (arrival day) we did a shopping trip at the little village mall which is about 12 minutes brisk walk away. Will take pictures some other time. It has a 24 hours Metro which is about one half times the size of Clementi mall's NTUC. Has most of the things I need so... yay! There's a pretty large Drug mart too, about the size of Clementi mall's Guardian. Bank and some shops and eateries.
Friday was spent settling in, cleaning, packing, cooking meals. Saturday was a little wasted due to the bike-buying incident. Suppose to meet this person at 10am at the village mall but seemed to have missed him and so we met again at 1pm, which was pretty late already by then. But we headed out to Hyde Park about 15km away on my new bike! There's a Canadian Tire (which is like a Walmart). There's also a Walmart. And it's like those big open spaces with shops like factory outlets but not factory outlets. Got more cool supplies such as this cutesy little rice pot for 10 bucks!
It even comes with a measuring cup and rice scooper! I got a cute little campbell soup cup for my toothbrush mug too!
I love two things about this cosy little house - The new frying pan and the toaster. The toaster is amazing. Either that or the bread here is. Toast is like the BEST ever! Just the right amount of crunch outside and all nice and airy-type crunch! Plus the tosater goes "DING" when it's done so I don't have to watch it! Milk cartons are old-school type:
A bus park full of yellow school buses! Random shot on our way around. Beep Beep!
So we came back really late after the Hyde Park trip. Got to see a wheat field and a PUMPKIN PATCH! Weather was good, lovely countryside! Only thing was the bike was in a really uncomfortable position. Thank goodness it works wonderfully now that Wennie fixed it with his magic tools and hands! I even have bike fenders and lights too! With a clipper to carry the lock. And all at a very cheap price! Sell sell when I'm gone yay!
We headed to downtown London on Sunday. Here's what it looks like:
There's nothing downtown!!!!!!
But there's plenty of these little creatures all over the country!! Like, everywhere! They're huge and furry and real cute!
SQUIRRELS! :)
Lots of Wennies around then! :)
I went to school on Monday while Wennie was out riding his bike. Collected all my documents, spent a good time looking through the millions of stuff and sorted out into "throw" and "keep" piles. Visited the music faculty, met a percussionist who explained the building and the location of the various rooms to me. Visited the Sports and Recreation centre. It has a HUGE gym, a cool warm indoor pool, and a very cold ice hockey ring!! I want to watch a game!!!!!! Some hilly hills in the school but it is indeed really tiny, about one third the size of NTU I'd say.
Oh yeah the bad thing about living in a basement is that you can hear people walking above and we do have a rather large sized sir living on the main floor. And so his steps are rather...... loud. But other than that I do like this place and the space I have. Worrying about the fact that they let the house get to 14 degrees during winter though............ Oh, surprisingly this place uses degree instead of Fahrenheit and km/h instead of miles! How odd...... But their coin system is equally confusing and boyyy does one get many coins.....
And... it's close to impossible to buy swimming costumes here or in the USA! Ended up ordering a very nice looking Speedo suit online, and due to all the discounts and sales going on, it's only USD 34! Shipping to papa who'll ship up to me. Thank goodness! :)
Okay sleepy time for boys and girls who have school tomorrow. Rather apprehensive I'd say and please don't rain! Goodnight everybody!
Okay folks, now that I've some time on my hands to kill, time for an update!
Wennie and me left for SF on a SQ flight on 22 August, 6pm. Honestly, taking off on the plane, I felt terribly sick in the tummy.......... at the thought that I won't be home for the next 9 months........ But the flight was pleasantly pleasing, caught many movies and only slept a little bit which was suppose to be the plan to counter jet lag. Always hope to see Deanna or Jeffrey Adams or anybody I know as the crew on board, but.......... nope never happens does it!
We reached SF in the night at 9pm and only got out of immigration at 10.30pm!! Thanks to Wennie's planning, we reached downtown the cheapest and fastest way - via the bart train.
At the train station:
But we got a little lost at our other end and the walking in the dark, cold, dropping pants (didn't wear a belt), and heavy luggage wasn't exactly the best experience on earth. But thankfully we found our way to our cosy little posh "home" for the next week. It's a pretty cool and cosy place!
The red sofa is really comfy to sleep in:
Do you see my two little friends?
The gym
Indoor pool!
The next day we went a-walking around the nice neighbourhood next to fisherman's wharf area. Lots of walking............. Till the feet was rather painful! But it was nice to check out the less touristy areas and see the neighbourhood - really pretty houses and rolling streets! Apparently the trees in front of the houses along the pavements are the responsibility of the respective house owners!
We walked all the way to Coit tower:
T'was a pretty chilly and foggy day - check out what's left of the Golden Gate Bridge!
The streets are really steep and rolly!
Supposedly the windiest road in the world!
There we were at Fisherman's wharf! Have to take a picture all touristy areas too right......
We took a walk in the evening to Safeway for some supermarket shopping and walked by the AT&T park. There was a baseball game going on that night and so many people wearing "Giants" jackets were heading there! And many people selling tickets on the way too. As interested as I was to catch a game, I think I might possibly have been too bored....
Look what I saw on sale there:
Didn't get it though.
The next day, we hit downtown San Francisco - Union Square and Chinatown. The Chinatown part was so that we could get a wok as a gift for letting us stayover at the apartment. Chinatown wasn't nice, at all! Union Square was just too commercialised and over populated with tourists. Nothing new or interesting. A waste of time! We then took the bart down to 16th Mission street in our attempt to find the motorcycle apparels shop. It was rather dodgy and pretty scary with a lot of locals, poor people hawking wares at the side streets and loitering around. We turned back around to get out pretty fast ha-ha. Stopped by a Mexican looking place and had the best tachos ever.
Went back with feet that almost couldn't make it back from the tiredness of all the walking!
And then had a most horrible night where I couldn't lie still and ended up puking and having diarrhea in the early morning. Only revived just barely at 11am and headed out to the farmer's market. As much as I was dying, I'm glad I went as the produce was MOST AMAZING! Wish I was alive to enjoy it more and taste more food..........
I went home and slept the whole afternoon away, reviving in the evening to attempt to find the best Vietnamese food. On the way, look what we found:
Beard papa originated from SF, so Wennie says. Had to try it no?
The Vietnamese place was actually at the edge of Tenderloin. And walking there in the growing dark was pretty scary! Apparently, the Vietnamese place was forced to close by the authorities. Health issues I think according to the sign. On hindsight, that was probably a good thing. We headed back to the "safety" of main downtown for food then home.
Well well well, the next night was Wennie's turn. And so, we were both food poisoned! Spent the entire next day sleeping................. I suspected it was the tachos we ate. Wennie thinks it's the chicken we bought at Safeway. Hmmmmm......................
After all the sleeping, we both felt better the next day in the afternoon and so we went to rent a cheapo bike for me and we took a little cycling trip to the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf again. The weather has been getting warmer and warmer every single day we were there. So on this day, the weather was realllllyyyyyyy nice! And it was such a clear day! Wennie said the winds were the mildest he has ever experienced on the bridge!
TADAM! The PACIFIC OCEAN!
The next day, we rented a car. It was a very very nice KIA car! Sooooo white! Wennie drove us out to Gilroy to the factory outlets and we are such terrible "shoppers"...... But we bought some stuff which we're both pleased with so, good day and good trip out on the roads!
Our last day there was spend at our favourite place again - the Ferry Building. Also, spent the day packing and house cleaning! And headed to the airport at night. The walk to the bart station this time round wasn't toooooo bad........
All in all, San Francisco was a really nice place with nice weather, except that it got hotter every single day we were there............. But the memory of the all the sickness isn't quite as awesome............... Good fun!
The UA flight at the last row was atrocious. The seats could not be reclined! How can we sleep that way! That's not fair, we paid the same price as others..................... Ah well, lesson learnt on seat choosing, not that we had much of a choice to begin with...
Will blog about Canada soon! And Wennie should have touched down at SF by now!
