SORRY THIS IS THE SECOND POST OF THE DAY I KNOW BUT ARGH I JUST WENT ON FACEBOOK AND REVISITED MY SENIOR'S OLD CANOEING PICTURES FROM LIKE YEARS AND YEARS AGO AND I USED TO BE SO TANNED AND FIT AND TONED

AND NOW I AM LIKE SOME SORT OF FAT SHIT AHHHHH
I NEED THOSE LEGS BACK NAAAO

/INSECURITY.

amazing days abound! i've realised that every single weekend i've been here, i've gone off campus. truly blessed to have the opportunity to study overseas and see what's going on up north! (: all the same, had a pretty great couple of days haha.

had movie night with rcb on thursday, and then afterwards a bunch of us s'poreans hit the korean society party at the copper rooms. it was a bit weird to go to the copper rooms and only see asians, who tend to be a bit more insular (read: group together in an unbreakable circle to dance). though it was really quite funny when we ended up dancing with these two random korean people. it's quite true that when you're high (i won't say drunk because i don't think anyone was drunk), everyone is your friend (: got high again, was pleasantly buzzed, ended up doing silly things again but only with a different person (how reminiscent) but oh well whatever. (suet: "are the two of you together? no? you should totally get together!" me: O_O) and then tabi tried to foist some guy off on me because she has a bf (tabi: "do you want him???" me: "no thanks haha i've got ____ already") but after i said no she had to entertain him some more haha. and that was that for the night.

the day after, went to birmingham for the rocky horror show! SO GOOD. the audience was so awesome, everyone was so participative, and the actors were pretty good at improv (: this kind of thing would never happen in singapore because 1) the rocky horror show is quite bawdy so i'm not even sure it would be allowed in singapore. even if it was it would be very heavily restricted and 2) the audience at home would never be so participative. really. it was such a great show though! definitely one of the best. then we discovered a singaporean restaurant and nom-ed on too-expensive food. but it was quite authentic! so we were all rather happy. one of the seniors happened to meet his housemate and his family there, and his housemate is filthy rich apparently and his dad is quite well connected so via that arrangement, we managed to get 20% off our bill O_O i want to be rich and influential too.

which brings us to today! spent the day at stratford-upon-avon, shakespeare's birthplace. got 50% off my entrance ticket due to the fact that i'm a member of the RSC key (: that stands for royal shakespeare company btw. and it was totally free membership so teehee (: it's only for 16-25 year olds though so my membership expires in 2017 when i turn 25. bought quite a bit of stuff unfortunately. i think i really need to start some proper budgeting instead of just shopping on a whim. got a tudor ring which has "amore vole fe" engraved on the inside. that means "love cannot exist without fidelity". apparently. it was quite cheap too, only £1.25. then i got a shakespeare shirt, and a book, and groceries from marks and spencers and lastly, VANS SNEAKERS. officially a happy tiff, because my sneakers were falling apart so i really needed new ones. and got my raspberry viennese from M&S and they had a discount so the price went down from £1.79 to 99p! fyi, in singapore, one darn packet costs like SGD 5 something please.

ok and done. church tomorrow, then movie screening at night with singsoc I REALLY NEED TO GET DOWN TO DOING WORK LIKE NOW. NOW. NOWWW. one more week of school til reading week! which is actually good because i'm quite behind on my world pol reading.

/edit: eh sorry did my research. apparently rocky horror show came to singapore in 2003 for the first time after being banned for 30 years by our government. and apparently they are coming to singapore again in january 2011! tix are from SGD 68 to SGD 148. all i can say is LOL because i got my tickets for £16.75. tix go on sale in november so go get yours now!

CLICK HERE
here is the proof, and the picture shown on the link? yeah that is the SAME EXACT CAST I WATCHED IN BIRM. AND I CAN ASSURE YOU THEY ARE SO GOOD.

so i'm sitting here in front of my laptop, and i'm supposed to be doing actual work but in typical tiff fashion i am slacking my ass off. and procrastinating. which is like the story of my life so far. but still, the last minute pressure actually allows me to get my work done in a timely, efficient manner. and the work produced tends to be of decent, above average quality (though of course not as good as it could have been if i had started earlier but like whatever) so i guess that is kind of awesome.

anyway i say this because i have a newspaper project due next week. a project which i've known about since before school started (since UK universities, warwick in particular, tend to give out such magical things known as Module Handbooks, which encompass the syllabus for the entire year and all the work and essays that need to be done). the Module Handbook states specifically that i ought to have started on this project in week 2 or 3 as significant research apparently needs to be done. (and i am sure that there are crazy people who have started on it in weeks 2 and 3 koffpresidentsscholarkoff.) but in typical tiff fashion, it is now the tuesday of week 4 and i think, oh guess what i have a thingything due next week in week 5, i really ought to get started on it now.

i guess i should be grateful that i actually started on it a week and two days in advance instead of like a few days before or something.

all the same, i come back from canoe polo (yeah, work is secondary to keeping my body fit and toned...LOL) and start the slogging. the task is to gather not more than 20 news articles and then write a commentary of 1500 words. woah so simple sia. why do we need so many weeks to do this? even my grandma can finish in like 2 seconds. (haha i wish.) we have such a thing known as the internet what right?

suffice it to say that the last 2-3 hours (i give this rough estimate because part of the time was spent cooking supper and drinking orange juice and generally doing a few procrastinatey things) has been spent gathering SIXTEEN news articles from an array of sources. this is just gathering ah, i haven't actually read them yet. 41 pages of reading awaits me whoohoo!

or perhaps i should be proud. my friend at canoe polo informed me he spent like half the day at the library (tsk the library. why should i shiver and walk down when i can do work from the warm comforts of my 21 degree heated room) and he got the grand total of seven articles. moral of the story: arts kids are way better at blagging and doing this kind of shit than science kids.

so now i am procrastinating again, drinking more orange juice, and attempting to read about ethics and political research (one of my readings for thursday's seminar) but then i got bored and came on. anyway, aiming to finish the stupid project by this sunday. i know 1500 words isn't particularly long and i really ought to finish it by like, friday or something...

...but unfortunately, life sucks like that because on wednesday evening (that's tomorrow) i have to go for singsoc meeting plus prep for thursday's seminar (hence the spamming on ethics and blah de blah), thursday evening its movie night at kenneth's place and friday night we're going to birmingham to watch the rocky horror picture show & then afterwards i still need to skype my parents, and saturday we're going to stratford to celebrate halloween and sunday there is an evening horror show at some senior's house.

hence, during the pockets of time in between all of that stuff, i have to finish my newspaper project! sorry lah i'm obviously too popular >.< and if all else fails, MONDAY (when i only have one hour of class the entire damn day) shall be the last ditch trump card where i shall slay the project for good, and it shall be ready to hand in on thursday. MUAHAHAHAAA.

also have a presentation due next thursday. but it's not that important so like, whatever. i'll fit it in somehow. wheeee.

it's strange. sometimes i feel that who i am here and who i am back home are two completely different people. and sometimes i wonder how to reconcile the two. here, i am someone unfettered by restrictions, the world is my oyster, i can do things that would be frowned upon back home or things beyond what i dreamt i could do. it's not just a matter of going wild (though that is part of the fun as well) but it's more a matter of trying new things and being open to new experiences.

like just over the past weekend i went to wales and did some whitewater canoeing. admittedly it wasn't super terrifying or challenging because i was a first timer, but going down the rapids did give me an adreanaline rush. although of course getting stuck on rocks wasn't as fun. back home this might have been constituted dangerous. making late night trips to leamington spa and back to eat curry might also have been seen as crazy, as would going into random seedy bars and getting chatted up by random guys. (guy in my case, really. singular.)

and really. for the first time in my life, i am actually free. outside of schoolwork (where of course i have responsibilities to keep up and be a good student, which i actually do fulfil), i can do whatever the hell i want. and this feeling is just intoxicating. nothing beats being able to stroll out of your room at 11pm, head down to the party and stagger back at 2am or so. (or later.) this is the college experience.

perhaps this is the catalyst that will make me join jailbreak society (: you only live once, eh?

All the crazy shit I did tonight
Those will be the best memories.
I just wanna let it go for the night
That would be the best therapy for me.

Meanwhile, the objector who wants to define democracy by observing democratic states still awaits an answer. She is evidently advocating an empirical approach which would supply the general principles of democracy by investigating its organisational features. The obvious drawback is that to analyse the idea by examining countries or institutions which are reputedly democratic leaves us with no independent criterion to judge whether they are so or not. And how would this approach cope with non-Western, self proclaimedly democratic countries which seem authoritarian to the Western observer, such as Singapore and Tanzania? It has no obvious justification for excluding them from its analysis. To define 'democracy' through a study of existing, so-called democracies begs the question of what democracy means. A theory so formed can only mirror observed phenomena, whereas a theory which is to have critical power needs to make reference to the ideal composition of democracy.

-An entire paragraph from my textbook, Using Political Ideas by Barbara Goodwin, Chapter 1 'What is Political Theory?', page 6.

(if you're too lazy to actually read an excerpt from my textbook, just focus on the bolded sentence. i say, LOL. BURNNNN. :D)

...because i could really use a wish right now.

have been naively wishing on the first star i see every other night or so, for various things. foremost is for a first class honours (lol) and to get into a good university for masters (another lol). sometimes when i'm feeling a little more idealistic, i wish for world peace (possibly outing myself as a liberalist right here) and the eradication of poverty, and occasionally i wish for other more immediate concerns like what's for dinner tonight/to finish my readings by tonight/etc.

and other times (rarely) i wish to not be so konfused. in all areas of life and in all senses of the word.

ah well. spent my entire afternoon after my seminar ended at 1pm, taking a long nap and then waking up to do my readings. didn't manage to clear my sleep deficit over the weekend because i had to wake up early over the weekend to go to cheshire oaks/alton towers. so yeah, cleared it today and then finished up the readings for IRM seminar tomorrow. slowly settling into a routine, only gripe is that it's too freaking cold in this country sigh.

oh and i love my iPhone. i know i've said this before but i really really love it teehee.

An excerpt from my mother's email:-

Funny thing, I dreamt about you yesterday night. You wanted to change course and surprisingly to medicine ... very strange indeed

You were discussing with some guy which is not familar to me ... haha !!!

Who is this guy ??? Hah Tiffy ... some boyfriend that you "kept" from me ... haha !!!

Anyway, the alarm clock woke me up afterwards to go to work ... sigh

someone's apparently really obsessed with the idea of me having a boyfriend...? >_>
sorry mom. still single. relatively available. lol (:
and for pete's sake, medicine? O_O

CHESHIRE OAKS! :D
bought quite a bit of stuff. i love outlet shopping! however my two main coups of the day are as follows:-
1) £112.50 Green Karen Millen Spring Coat! (original price on the price tag was £250, yikes. then they slashed it to £175, then down even further to £125 and then i got a further 10% off yay!)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250-Karen-Millen-Spring-Trench-Coat-Black-Yellow-CJ010-/280573707195?pt=US_CSA_WC_Outerwear&var=&hash=item870b5303bb

2) £43.20 Michael Kors sunglasses! (original price was £48 then i got my 10% off again, website below shows they're selling for USD103.)
http://www.coolframes.com/?fid=19102

lurrrb <3

if people asked me what's the craziest thing i've done in uni so far, i'd have to say the pyjama party where i started out pre-drinking and culminated in drunken puking. which wasn't cool. so hence i am cutting out pre-drinking from my life and avoiding drinking with some people who don't know how to freaking mix alcohol properly. or, i could name the multiple times where we'd just randomly introduce ourselves to people on the dance floor, like hi this is my name this is what major i'm doing and this is the accomm i live in HOW ARE YOU LIKING THE PARTAAAY etc etc etc.

yeah, until last night that is. freshers party, the event of the month. promised to be the biggest bash of freshers fortnight. they got Eliza Doolittle to come perform, and Example, and various other big performers in the UK. they even got a fake King Kong, i don't know why. so i charged out with the full intention of getting wasted (but not to the point of puking) and i fully succeeded after an apple vodka, an orange vodka, a redbull vodka, a Purple and a tequila shot.

i don't want to say too much about what happened, due to this being a public forum and all, but i have no regrets about what happened and i don't think things will be awkward? it's just well, your arms around me felt nice. and your lips on mine felt great. and falling asleep/waking up to you gave me one of the most contented feelings i've ever had in a very long time. we're both confused on whether we fancy each other, but all the time i'm glad we're (still) friends.

no lasting consequences, and my conscience is clear.
and that's all i'll say on the matter (: