nottingham 2.

we spent the next day trying not to be too hungover and got up at 2pm to explore more of this gorgeous city. we got lunch at the timeout cafe which can be found by a small door in a busy high street. when you open the door, you only see a flight of stairs, but once you go up.....

...you discover this little gem!!

this place sells affordable gourmet food such as carbonara rice cakes along with drinks such as pandan tea and taro milk tea. we also had a blast playing with the board games they provided amongst the pretty aesthetics.

yina took us around this shopping centre which looked absolutely stunning.

we then stopped by some artwork and graffiti along this wall where loksze found a light switch and was warned by some guys smoking on a bench not to press it as he'll get electrocuted. 

nottingham is mostly cute houses along the streets, extremely hill-y and quite clean for a town. or perhaps that is the case because i compare it to london which is so litter filled.

visiting the arcade.

in the evening, we went to a thai restaurant which also had beautiful aesthetics. the atmosphere was so calm and we chose to sit outside to enjoy the gentle evening breeze though it was already 9:30pm and the waiter was telling us the kitchen is about to close.

nevertheless, the food was top notch. perhaps the best curry fried noodles i've ever had.

even if you're not dining, this restaurant is great for grabbing some drinks and chilling on the rooftop with some mates. plus there is student discount!

the night ended with some gentle strolls around the town square..

 ...and this underground beer pong place!

before we got our pint and ping pongs however, we decided to cop some ciders instead and jam at a house party - just when we thought we weren't gonna be hungover.

nottingham.

summer started off with a bang as i headed up to warwick to visit loklok and then travelled to nottingham together to visit yina who's currently studying there. exploring a town when you have someone studying there is seriously the best because it means your accommodation and tour guide is covered.

after running to the train station and catching our train by a mere 1 minute, we spent our journey watching zootopia. once we stepped out into this cute town, we were welcomed by the heat and sunshine. good choice wearing black and black, right?

it was so hot kids were literally swimming in the water fountain!

loksze happened to throw on the same tee as me and we didn't realise we
were matching till we ran out the door - matching cringes me out so much.

yina picked us up with her friend joey and gave us a tour around nottingham's famous landmarks including the "fresher's" lion, which all freshers leap across on a night out, and this funky donut wall (yes they're real. it's a waste of donuts.)

loksze got a quick haircut then we went on our way to grab some pub food for dinner at slug and lettuce (50% off mondays are banging). loksze and i got a asian platter which was definitely well worth the price!

as night time dawned on us, we got into our clubbing gear, and after lining our stomachs we walked for half an hour to get to jane's flat for pre drinks.

from there, loklok and i headed to our first ever abacus event as we never really went clubbing with an asian society before. it was a new experience for one with the speakers booming gangnam style and the whole dance floor going tip top crazy.

we decided to head back to yina's halls ourselves that night as we didn't want to go to the after party. but dudeee catching the taxi back was manic to say the least as we couldn't find a taxi rank and we were unsure of the best taxi rates. at least all the fun hit us and we conked in seconds.

year uno.

First year of law school is done! (9 grand gone too.) 



As I wait for my exam results, regardless of whether I passed with smashing marks in still thankful for this experience as it has been a real learning curve for me to figure out how to survive. 

I remember it was the day after my sisters birthday in September last year that I officially moved into uni. I was scared and felt homesick even before I left home but I tried to appear as excited as possible and look forward to it as much as I could as everyone says it will be the best time of your life.



Though I did not come to this conclusion in the first week where I truly relied on Skype and FaceTime to make my new home 'home', the following time I spent in this little town became the most fruitful and colourful.






I hacked my first all-nighters here after all for one - something which had seemed impossible at first given my love for sleep and naps; law really pushes you to go above and beyond your limits. 



Food wise, mummy's cooking tips which seemed irrelevant at one point now became golden rules. Who knew salt made your beef chewy, and sugar made your tomato and egg dish taste less sour? When I was so ill I couldn't eat anything, mummy taught me to make congee (a watered down porridge) in a rice cooker which helped save my life.








Independence. As a mummy and daddy's girl, I hadn't been spoilt as such, but I had my ways to make mum call up the dentist and book an appointment for me, or explore new churches with the company of my dad. But since starting uni I had forced myself to drive that independence out of me. I enrolled at the local hospital myself, booked a doctors appointment when I got an allergic reaction, even called 999 when my friend was half-dying, signed my first housing contract, found two new churches and a fellowship by myself and travelled to and from London and Warwick every now and then.








Independence is good, though I've also learnt to rely on God a lot more this past year. When I'm ill and there is no one to look after me, I could only rely on prayer. When I felt as though my law books were literally crushing me, I asked God to lift these burdens off me. When I cried because I felt so homesick, I nestled in Gods hands till he put a backbone in me to face university life. I've learnt to worship God in a different environment and met a larger Christian family as well as connecting with another Chinese community through my faith - something I had been struggling to do as most Chinese people were internationals who preferred to stick to their own cliches. 

Uni life stands as a time of flexibility and freedom, however I have also learnt to stick to a routine and open up to the Bible every morning before I lived my day. Have to thank God for giving me air to breathe right!








And lastly, meeting new people may just be my new favourite thing to do! Growing up as quite a shy girl, the one thing I was afraid of was making new friends. Apart from family, my friends help me to get through life and become comfortable in my environment. You could have the highest paying job but being a lonesome lady wouldn't bring you much joy. Uni turns out to have THE most craziest and wackiest people (who even has time to set off the fire alarm once every hour four times in one night?).






I believe that God had placed me in my particular flat and halls for a purpose as I wouldn't have otherwise met these wonderful people. The mixture of S block is perfect and crafted so well by God. There's a lot of people from London and more specially, my area. But there are also people from around the world - international students - coming from India, China and Costa Rica, who I've gotten to know very well and will also be sharing as house with too next year! Every day there will be a different cuisine roasting in the kitchen and you get continually amused by people's accents.






Uni has been one heck of a whirlwind but it has really moulded me into a better character.

coming home!

s block - where memories were made.

a day after i finished my exams, my parents' 3 week holiday in hong kong came to an end and they flew back to england. the following saturday, once they had rid their jetlag, my dad and sister drove all the way to southampton for my big move out of uni.

i still can't believe first year has gone just like that! 

and when i say big move, i mean BIG. living on the top floor has been great, but when it comes to carrying boxes and suitcases worth of stuff it becomes not so great. it took absolutely ages to shuffle my years worth of random things, clothes i didn't even wear, pots and pans, heaps of books and 2 printers into the car. we ended up finding an abandoned trolly at the bottom of the stairs which we used to carry everything to the car. 

i had also promised my friend to carry some of his stuff too as he is an international student so couldn't possibly bring back everything with him - but i could only end up carrying his duvet and printer as the car was so jam-packed!

rice rice babyyyy

uni life had been the most amazing to say the least, but it's good to be home especially with mummy's cooking waiting for me! life is good when you get an array of deliciously marinated and fried up dishes every meal time with your rice. 

girls

the next day, i was back in central london for church. i met up with minnie and karen to catch up at breakfast before going to our service.

mum got me a new fish eye lens for my phone camera from hong kong!

for lunch, the parents took the family out in chinatown where dudeeeee, i ate dumplings to my hearts content.

yumcha remains my favourite cuisine till this day.

i got a quick haircut in chinatown after that for the summer and then popped back to church as my parents wanted to chat to some friends.

i had missed a spot of pamper during my revision and party days at uni, so when i returned home i threw on this face mask to find it being the most amusing thing ever.

mummy then later presented me the gifts she brought back from hong kong including this beauty of a laptop case,

and all this high-end makeup from my auntie!!!

i am a spoiled egg.

party till the sun rise.

exams are finally over!!!! we are free birds!

law gals!

with the lawyers-in-the-making being one of the first to finish their exams, we have no option but to party with ourselves. before we had even started our first exams, we had already planned this party.

our cute group of law flat mates in s block.

we all headed to our friend carlo and teresa's place for pre-drinks on the monday where we took pictures galore and drank till we forgot about the stress and worries, and the homeless lifestyle we were living for the last month.

nikki, my best gal friend in southampton

this first night of returning back to the party life became one of the messiest nights in the end. nikki and i ended up leaving early to take our drunken friend home. bear in mind we are two tiny girls and the guy we had to take home was quite a large chunky guy.

as we walked up the stairs to his flat, he lost his balance and toppled over me - we ended up falling down the stairs together, except i also cushioned him at the bottom. our mate ended up passed out on the stairs and we had to bang on his flat door at 2am for a guy to come out in his boxers to rescue him.

catching our chicken mayos became the highlight of our night

needless to say, this was a night to remember - especially as i woke up with streaks of purple bruises and 3 cuts down both my legs the next day.

the next night, we were out again. although i was officially a cripple (yes, the bruises are still here after 1 whole week), it was my flat mate divyam's last night in southampton before he flew back to india for 4 months and so of course i had to come out.

^pre drinks with my two cuties from my ends. we are soooo going on a double date when we get back to london.^

we decided this was going to be a chilled night - we didn't drink much and just spent the evening talking, bantering and cutting shapes together.

zack, on the other hand, got a bit too out of control and got extremely drunk...

^know what i'm talking about now??^

of course, another mcdonalds meal to end our night out. we all voiced how incredibly sad we were at the fact we wouldn't be close to a mcdonalds next year as we move out of halls :(

we love you, tasty cheese balls especially at 3am.

making full use of the week i had left, nikki and i partied at the city centre, buying bags worth of clothes which, of course, we needed not wanted.

and to end my last afternoon, i caught up with my girlfriends over some student-friendly mcflurries after we kind of broke our bank from all the shopping we had done. 

oh southampton, you've been good to me. time to rest that liver of mine!