Hello London, Bye Singapore

I am back in London - after a 3.5-hour flight to HK, 9-hour wait in HK, 13-hour flight to Zurich, another 3-hour wait in Zurich Airport and finally a 1.5-hour flight to London City Airport.

I have had a terrific 3-week holiday in HK and Singapore. Thanks everyone for making it special for me. :) I haven't really rested much when I was back - having lunch and dinner appointments everyday, going home late at night.

And sadly, I was down with stomach flu the day after I reached Singapore. And I haven't recovered from it yet. Hence, the lack of rest and the long return journeys had sort of aggravated my condition. I feel so tired and unwell this afternoon...

But I have no regrets because I have really enjoyed everyone's company. I missed you all so much.. and now, feelings of homesickness and loneliness have begun to creep in...

I pray that God strengthen me and give me courage to face the challenges ahead, and knowing that God is by my side and your prayers are with me, I will go about doing my tasks cheerfully. Looking forward to our reunion again.

Respond to GRACE

Hihi. Thanks brothers and sisters for praying for me. I am not afraid lu!. :)

This will probably be my last entry before I come back for Christmas. :)

I was very touched by something that the pastor shared with us during sermon yesterday. Every year, the Norwegians will send a huge Christmas tree to London as a gift, to thank the people of UK for their help during the years 1940-1945.

It is such a sweet gesture. Nowadays, people often take grace for granted and seldom receive it with a grateful heart. It is so nice of the Norwegians to remember and remain grateful after so many years.

How about us Christian then? We have received God's wonderful grace - the gift of Jesus Christ. Have we forgotten? Are we still grateful to Him after so many years? And shouldn't we share this great news with our loved ones?

Dear God, pls protect me and give me peace...

hihi... writing to all of you to appeal for prayer support. :P

Have been feeling worried and scared over this for the past few weeks...

A friend of mine, who stayed in the same area as I do, encountered something horrible a few weeks ago. She was walking home one night when she was being approached by 3 gals. They asked her for 50 pence. My friend refused and they demanded to see her wallet. Ignoring them, my friend went inside a nearby Chinese canteen, hoping that they will go away. But they didn't. They waited outside the canteen for her. After half an hour, a staff of the canteen offered to help her ask the gals to let her off. So my friend left the canteen to walk home, while the canteen staff went over to the gals to talk to them. My friend were merely 100 metres away from the canteen when she heard the canteen staff shouted "RUN".. and to her horror, the 3 gals were chasing after her! She ran all the way to her home (on the 2nd storey) and the 3 gals followed her to her flat (but did not follow her up to the 2nd storey). Then they cursed and swore at her, asking her to "be careful" coz they knew where she was staying... luckily for my friend, she was actually going to move to another place to stay that following week and hence she was not worried...

I told my housemate about this and she said she encountered those gals on Halloween. She met them in the Chinese canteen and they asked for money. She refused to give them. They swore and cursed but did not do anything to my housemate...

I feel very scared coz the place where all these happened is only 2 minutes away from my house and I have to walk past that place everyday. I think it will be a very traumatic experience for me if I were to be approached by them... when I first heard about this, I wanted to cry..

Then I realise that I can only rely on God for protection. I have prayed about this; I trust that God has the power to protect me and if indeed this happens to me, God is in control and He will carry me through. Why do I still worry and have so much fear in my heart? Is Satan trying to intimidate me with these stories? I need to place my trust in God and God alone. I need to have the peace of heart and mind that He alone can give me.. I need to pass my burden to God and let Him carry it for me.

The verse (my favourite song :) ) came to mind: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". (Philippians 4:6-7)

Fear go away!!!! My God is an awesome God and He will be with me!

"Dear God, please take this fear away from my heart. Instead, fill my heart with joy and peace from you and praises for you. Watch over me and guide me steps . Deliver me from harm. And help me be strong. Your little daughter praying in Jesus' name. Amen."

At the beginning of time...

Finally attended a proper service today. Have been travelling quite a bit these few weeks and I am really looking forward to worshipping God this sun. :) Being in London made me realise how privileged I am to have Grace Church. I have yet to find a church in London that can offer me the kind of teaching and opportunity for growth that Grace Church provides. Nevertheless, I recognise that I should not ask "what a church can do for me", but instead, "what I can do for the church/for God". However, I really have not been able to find a church which I feel affiliated to. This is partly due to the fact that I have been church-hopping; but also because I really don't feel like getting too attached/involved, since I will only be here for 1 year...

Anyway, after church, Kenneth and I went to Greenwich. Greenwich, the place where time begins... Heard of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)? Haha.. it's a funny feeling stepping with one foot on the eastern hemisphere and the other on the western hemisphere. It's a very nice place, but today was very cold and windy. My hands went numb with cold... nevertheless I must thank God for the sun coz it was raining the whole of last night and I thought I won't be able to enjoy the sun today... to my surprise, the sun came out the moment I stepped out of the house. :) God loves me so much!

There was an ice skating ring nearby and the place was lighted up at night. It was a pretty site.

And I also loved the Moon (You know, Cindy means Moon. :) I am as pretty and mysterious as the moon?! heehee...), hence, I took a few shots of it...

Let there be light!

Just a short update. :) My landlady finally came this week and had the bathroom light, toilet light and the light at the doorway repaired. Yay! We no longer had to bathe and go toilet in the dark. heehee... :)

It's already the 9th week of term. Next week will be the last week of School and I will be back in HK in 2 weeks' time! And I will be in Singapore for Christmas. I am soooooooooo excited. Can't wait for the holiday to come!

I went with Kenneth to catch Phantom of the Opera musical tonight. Very good show. Nice props, back drops, costumes. Good singing, though not fantastic. And I enjoyed it every much. Feel so blessed to be able to indulge in these little pleasures. :)

Actually there are 2 things that I wanna blog about for a while but didn't get to do it:
1) I heard from a speaker at the Lost in Translation seminar that France introduced philosophy in school to "counter" religion;
2) Where is God in modern church (in terms of architecture and interior design).
Let me make a note here and will write when I have more time. :)

Gaudi, Zara and Mango

I went with May Gee to Barcelona. Have been working really hard over the last week (as you can see, I didn't update my blog) so that I won't lag behind in my readings, even though I have been travelling. :)

I didn't have much expectation for this trip. I just wanted to leave it free and easy. Yet, it has turned out to be a truly enjoyable trip! I thank God for May Gee's company and also for keeping us safe in Barcelona (I was a bit worried and comprehensive at first about our safety. I thank God for keeping watch over us and thanks for your prayers too!).

We left on Sat morning..really early. Woke up at 4am to catch a 730am flight. Didn't get to sleep at all the night before coz I was staying over at May Gee's place and I was not very used to the bed. :) We reached Barcelona at around 1030am local time and then we made our way to our hotel. We had a bit of a problem trying to locate our hotel coz the Barcelona map did not show the names of all the streets and hence it made the search difficult. But thanks to God, we managed to reach the hotel after a few wrong turns and after asking a couple of uncles and aunties along the way. By the time we reached our room, we were tired and hungry. Nevertheless, after a short rest, we set off for our itinerary for the day.

Barcelona was hot (compared to grey and windy London). We first went to 2 of the works of Gaudi (Barcelona is very much about Gaudi and his architectural designs and works) - Casa Mila and Temple of the Sagrada Familia (the Church that never gets completed). Although I know little of architecture, I find Gaudi's style interesting - very different from the normal structured form of architecture, bold use of curves and imageries, leaving a lot of room for your imagination. :) The Temple of the Sagrada Familia is the icon of Barcelona, and the most well-known of his works. It didn't get completed due to lack of funding and also coz Gaudi died before he managed to complete this project... but today, the construction is continuing, though it is estimated to take another 40 years to complete. :)

Casa Mila

Temple of Sagrada Familia

After sightseeing, May Gee and I went shopping! The second thing about Barcelona to me was Zara and Mango! hahaha... and I am very glad to have made some bargain purchases there! You should see the big shopping bags May Gee and I got... We went for a walk along La Rambla after shopping and then went back to the hotel. We were dead tired by then...

So, we slept for over 11 hours and woke up at around 11am local time on Sun. We planned to visit the Olympic Village (Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games in 1992) and then go shopping in the afternoon. I was a bit disappointed when we reached the Olympic Village coz the Stadium was undergoing renovation. :( But we had a stroll around that area leisurely and it was a relaxing afternoon (we got to see the finals of a maranthon too!). We went to the Barcelona Cathedral subsequently. This time, it is a gothic architecture. I don't really like gothic architecture coz it often gives me an unexplained feeling of unease. But nonetheless, it was a beautiful piece of work. :)

After that, we were all ready to embark on our shopping spree! BUT... to our great horror and disappointment, we found that all shops are closed on SUN!!!! Sigh.. not wanting to go back to the hotel so early, we decided to do more sightseeing instead. We went to Casa Batllo, another of Gaudi's work and then to the sea front. There was an aquarium at Port Vell. We spent some time there before moving off to a large Entertainment Centre nearby, and we had a fun time there. I actually thanked God for the closed shops coz if not, we would not be able to visit these other parts of Barcelona.

Olympic Village

On the top of the Cathedral

Casa Batllo

Aquarium

This morning, we woke up at 8am so that we can do some last minute shopping at Plaza Catalunya before making our way to the airport (to make up for the loss of opportunity yesterday). :) On the whole, I think we managed to cover most of Barcelona and had seen what we have wanted to see. Barcelona was not as lively and vibrant as I thought it would be. I guess it's coz it's winter now. :) But I enjoyed this trip a lot and I hope there are more short trips to come! :P

I, Sea, Rainbow!

I went to Brighton over the weekend. It is a seaside town, an hour and a half drive outside London. It's actually a post graduate weekend retreat kind of thing, and I went with some of my lecturers and other students from the Accounting faculty.

I have had a lot of fun in Brighton. God blessed us with nice weather. I took quite a lot of photos at the pebble beach... and even though it rained, God blessed me with a chance to see a big big rainbow over the sky. I felt like God is smiling at me! : ) During meal time, I had the chance to chit-chat with my lecturers too and I am glad to find out more about them. Oh! Last but not least, I managed to find a dress, which I plan to wear on Grace's wedding! It's been a very frutiful weekend.

1) Brighton Beach

2) Royal Pavilion

3) St Nicholas Church and Rainbow

4) Brighton Pier - Fun fair and rides at night

Lost in Translation

Went back to school in the evening for a seminar titled: Lost in Translation, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. : )

How does language play a role in the formation of an European identity? Can Europeans ever really understand each other, or must languages defy even the most expert translators?

Speakers include:
Catherine Audard - Fellow in philosophy at LSE and translator of English book to French
Rachel Bowlby - Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL and translator of French books into English
Maria Fairwearther - historian, biographer and simultaneous interpreter for Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major in European languages.

I have often been intrigued by the apparent disparities and yet inherent commonalities of the different languages of this world. After all, the Bible said we spoke one language before the Tower of Babel. Now that we spoke diversed langauges, can we truly understand each other? When we cannot understand the other's language and we need to rely on translation, there are bound to be things lost in translation, though there will be things found in translation too!

I agreed with the speakers that to be able to produce accurate translation, one must have a good grasp of the culture behind the language. There are many nuances and subtleties in a language and a culture that one must be aware of when translating to avoid being offensive.

The speakers shared their experiences in translating English to French and vice versa. I am surprised to learn that there is no such word as "fair" and "fairness" in French. And that French philosophers have an aversion towards Americans, which makes the translation of an American English philosophy text as much a matter of politics, as linguistic. :P

Another difficulty faced by translator is that some things are not translatable, e.g. poems. It is unavoidable that the beauty of the phrasing and rhythm of poetry in one language will be lost if it is translated literally into another language. Subjectivity is involved when the translator decides on which words and phrases to use to capture the images and "feel" behind the poetry. I think translating our Chinese short poems into English is definitely no easy task!

One speaker mentioned about making English a common language for Europe. I guess, with the emphasis on a single market within the European Union, we may see a common European language one day, though not necessarily English. (English has become so powerful and so widely used thanks to the Americans.) After all, most if not all of the European languages originated from Latin! Nevertheless, the focus of the single market is currently very much on economic matters and hence, I don't think we will see a common European language in the near future.

Another point of interest that a person from the floor brought up was the translation of the Bible. In the Muslim context, the Koran is the Word of God and hence it CANNOT be translated (and should not be translated). However, for the Christian Bible, there are so many versions of it. Can the Word of God be translated? Is there divine revelation from God to the translator when he is translating the Bible? My view is, it is the work of God that the Bible can be translated to so many different languages so that more people can come to know Christ and be saved. There is definitely divine intervention involved. But I don't think the translator would have received any other kind of divine revelation that would allow him/her to add or subtract anything from the original word of God. :)

Economic Theory - Monetary Policy vs Fiscal Policy?!

Went for a debate on this topic tonight:
The Chancellors' Tales: Managing the British Economy

Food for thoughts:
1) Should economic policies be decided by economists alone? Is it true that politics always get into the way for the implementation of sensible tax and economic policies?
2) What is the role of Treasury? Should it control public expenditure or should it be the one who incur the public expenditure?

But actually the most important learning point for me is regarding presentation skills. The speakers who read from scripts tend to muffle and fail to engage the audience. The ones who can speak confidently without referring to prepared speeches, on the other hand, make people want to listen to them more! I am quite impressed by George Osborne. He is the current shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is eloquent and charismatic and humurous too. : ) ha ha.. must be because he is an MP.. and you know the kind of debate that can take place in the UK Parliament la.. he must be well-trained. :P

I want to learn! : )

Today was not a school day for me but I was in school from 11 am to 8 pm. Why? because I wanted to be exposed to new things (outside my normal classes) and hence...

I went for computer class in the morning. It was on Excel: Formulas and Shortcuts. I have always wanted to learn more about Excel functions coz I think it can be very useful in performing indepth numerical analysis. This is only one of the few classes that I will be attending. And I am looking forward to upgrading my computer skills. :)

Then I went for a lecture on Corporate Taxation. This is not one of the courses I have signed up for but I just want to sit in to learn more about the UK Corporate Tax system. The lecturer is again a QC! And he had this air of wisdom around him that made you want to listen to him. :) His presentation was clear and my main takeaways from the lecture are the concept of taxing true economic income and the interaction between domestic and international taxation of dividend. He will be talking more about the international aspect next week. Think I will sit in too!

Lastly, I went for another public seminar in the evening. The topic was: Protecting the Press of the People?

The speaker, Sir Christopher Meyer, had been a diploma for 36 years, He had been the Press Secretary for UK Prime Minister and also the ambassador to Washington. He is currently he chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.

Some interesting points he raised were:
1) Freedom of Speech and Expression is fundamental to any democracy. This entails freedom to offend and freedom to be offended.
2) The State should keep away from regulating the press. Since the Government has a clear comparative advantage over the press in the area of information, it is expected that the press will be probing and will try to dig for information.
3) The least bad way to balance the relatioship between the rights and responsibilities of reporters is to allow them to self-regulate. Instead of curbing the freedom of speech, allow people to debate on the issue and share different views.
4) It is unavoidable that subjective personal judgement will go into reporting. Hence, it is good for readers to be skeptical and read from different sources so as to get different perspectives.

He also mentioned the different between US and UK Press. The freedom of the US Press is protected under the US Constitution and hence they have better access to information and freedom to report. The style of reading is usually factual reporting plus commentary/editorial. In the UK, the press is not protected under the Constitution and the reports tend to be tainted with partisan views.

It's quite an interesting talk. Sir Meyer is witty and candid. What he said set me thinking: is absolute freedom of speech desirable? some remarks/expressions can be irresponsible, can hurt, can be discriminatory. Does freedom of speech means we can disregard other's feelings? And does the maturity of the society matters - must the readers be of a certain level of sophistication to see through the bias etc that will permeate in reports?

When Princess Cindy-rella meets Queen Elizabeth II

Today is Sun! God has been so good to me. Ever since I arrived in London, I have been experiencing very good weather on weekends so that I could go out and play! So yes, I went for a day trip with May Gee to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath today!

We started our day at Windsor Castle. It is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It is one of the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II and she stays there every Easter. At the castle, we toured Queen Mary's Dolls' House and the State Apartments. The miniatures in the Dolls' House are created in the ratio of 12:1 and they are functional! i.e. the piano can be played, the toilet can be flushed and the books can be read, despite their small size. The Royal collections - including paintings and procelain china, in the State Apartments are magnificant too! But walking through the castle made me realise something... despite its grandeur and magnificance, this castle for man did not stir within me the sense of awe that I felt when I am in the ancient churches.

I realise that only God and His presence can inspire humans to create buildings and architectures, write hymns of praises, paint great works of art that befit God's status as King of kings. And His greatness can never be surpassed by any beings on earth. Man can aspire to attain glory and power, but God is the glory and power, and we cannot help but to worship Him and bow before Him. : )

Our second stop was Stonehenge. It is a World Heritage Site. It is a prehistoric monument formed by stones. Why and how it was erected is still a mystery, until today. I managed to capture some very nice shots there. :) And once again, I praise the Lord, for the nature speaks of His glory and magnificence.

1) See the rainbow colour in the cloud!

2) See the rays from the sun breaking through the clouds

Our last stop was Bath. Bath is a city and what is there to see? As its name suggested, we went there to see Roman Baths - where the Romans built public baths over hot springs.

The day ended on another high note when we were allowed to be dropped off at Gloucester tube station. I have always wanted to go there to see the exhibition by a Japanese artist. He has painted the station and it looked very cute! Wah! I was so glad!

Fireworks + Christmas Lights = Sparkling Saturday

It's the weekend again!

I prepared herbal chicken soup in the morning and invited Kenneth and May Gee to my house for lunch. : ) After lunch, we went to Westminster Abbey for service. This is because May Gee and I will be going to Bath and Stonehege for sightseeing tomorrow and we will miss our usual service...

Worshipping in yet another ancient church (we went to St Paul's for communion some weeks back) made me ponder over who God is. St Paul's, Westminster Abbey, the chapel at King's College etc all looked grand and magnificent. Service was very formal and solemn. You are being reminded that you are worshipping the King of kings, Lord of lords, the creator of the world, the One who is worthy of all praises. But somehow, I felt a distance between me and this magnificent God. He is too high above, far out of reach. He is too big, I am too tiny in comparison...

But when I worship in more contemporary churches like All Soul's, Chinese Methodist Church at King's Cross and even Grace Church, I find God much closer to me. He is my Daddy in heaven! My loving Daddy in heaven, whom I talked to every night before I sleep, whom I shared all my happiness and sorrows with. He is in my heart. He is always there for me. He calls me His precious dearest daughter.

So my Daddy is actually the King of kings? Wow! I can't believe this. Does that make me a princess? :P I want to bring this great God close to my heart. To fear Him, because He is indeed the ruler of the universe; but also to love Him, because He loves me.

Back to my adventure today. After service, we went to watch fireworks at River Thames. There is a Lord Mayor's Show tonight. This is an annual event marked by processions and fireworks. I find the fireworks ok. :P Not too spectacular. I think the one we (the cell group) caught during National Day was nicer. :P

After that, we went to Oxford Street to see the Christmas lights.. again, not very impressive.. think the ones in Hong Kong are better. :P But I did some Christmas shopping.. again.. heehee...
Shall upload some pictures tomorrow. :)

I have a QC as my lecturer!

Went for class at 5pm today. I was actually a bit reluctant coz it is a make-up class... but well, I wouldn't miss lessons la, so I went all the same. And I didn't regret it!

Coz today, the lesson was conducted by an external speaker, he was (and still is) a Queen's Counsel. I find his lesson interesting because he was able to put across his arguments in a logical and systematic way and he also shared his own experiences with us - from cases he has handled. And they are big cases - ECJ cases (European Court of Justice)!

This reminded me of my childhood ambition - to become a teacher. To be a good teacher, I need to develope my analytical and presentation skills so that I can bring across concepts and ideas clearly and also add value to the class by incorporating my practical experiences into the subject matter. I wonder if this dream will be realise one day. : )

Are Power and Ethics incompatible?

Went for a seminar on this topic tonight. One thing I like about LSE is that there are always public seminars/talks on a variety of topics that are free for all the attend... and they are really "free". :)

The debate tonight was on: what is the relationship between morality and power and what can be done to raise the ethical standards in politics?

Speakers are: Satish Kumar (editor of Resurgence magazine - Indian), Geoff Mulgan, Julia Neuberger (a rabbi - Jew) and Shirley Williams (served as leader od the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001-2004).

I attended this seminar because I always wonder whether politics and christianity are compatible. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But I feel that there is a place for Christians in politics. Shouldn't we be the salt and light to this world? and isn't the most influencial way of doing so is to be the leader of the nation/world?

There is no answer to my questions but there are a few takeaways from the seminar:

1) Small is beautiful. Democracy works in small communities but it gets distorted when the community gets larger. There are limitations to democracy - it is inherently short-term, as parties are elected for a finite term and self-interest etc comes in when people want to maximise their power.

2) Government is like the thread in a necklace. The thread holds the beads together, but you see the beads only, and not the thread. Similarly, the people/the socitety are the beads and the government should facilitate the growth/development of the society, make it flourish but don't dominate it.

3) People in power should not always assume that they know what is the best for the people. Talk to the people. Listen to the people.

4) If Government is the servant and people are the leader, then the moral and ethical standard of the government depends on the moral standard of the people. The government is only as good as the people. Hence each of us need to play our part. We have power from within, and we can change the society in our own small ways.

5) Is there absolute moral and ethical standards? There seem to be no objective standard and it changes with time. Should we ask our politicians to disclose what their moral values and standards are?

It's interesting listening to the speakers debate on the topic and share their views. Because of their diverse background, each brings a different perspective to the discussion and I find it enlightening. Anyway, in my humble opinion, due to the sinful nature of mankind, we will never have a perfect government. But I wonder what the world will be like when we live out the biblical teachings of servant leadership, faithful stewardship and the absolute moral standards that are delightful in God's eyes. I guess, I will get to see it when Christ come again. : )

Rejoice!

I finally have internet access at home! :)

Was so excited that I kept surfing the net last night and even bought a chocolate cake to share with my flatmates to celebrate the arrival of the internet router! heehee... I admit it was just an excuse to satisfy my sweet tooth... :P

Nevertheless, the house is still in need of repair and we are still unable to contact the landlady. She seemed to have switched off her mobile now.. it's been a week since the leakage happened and I am not sure if she's ignoring us intentionally. Anyway, we will write her a letter and see what we can do to make her contact us. :) Luckily the stench is going away.. but i found a family of ladybird in one of our rooms yesterday. I am scared.. not sure if it is due to the moist environment... sigh... hope the problems can be resolved soon. :)

But I am still rejoicing coz I have internet now, I have bought a new hole puncher (heehee...) and the blister on my thumb is getting better. Yeah! Thanks to God for His protection!

Eternity

Where would you want to spend your eternity?

Went for service at All Souls Church this morning. The message reminded me of the existence of Hell and how horrible it is… I would never want my loved ones to be there… I thank God that I was born in a Christian family and have this assurance that we will see each other in heaven again. But how about other people that I cared for? I must be fervent in praying for the salvation of my friends…

Another reminder I got was how much have I cared for God’s creation – in terms of resources and other people in need. I admit that I am not a very environmental friendly person… and sad to say, I am also not very compassionate towards people whom I don’t know. But, God has given me so much… shouldn’t I do something to make this world a better place for others? I am not sure what I can do, but God has given me this little prompting and I guess, I need to keep a look out for little things that I can do to make this place a bit more pleasant and warm for everyone. : )

PS: Thanks Boen for bringing my winter wear and slipper over for me! So happy to have them with me, especially when it is getting cold in London. : ) But our carpets and lights are still not repaired because we are unable to contact our landlady. She is ignoring our calls. Hope my house can be restored to its original condition soon…

Cindy in Copenhagen 2

Have had a wonderful trip in Copenhagen. Thank God for the wonderful weather and thanks Jun Lin for hosting! Although it was freezing cold (around 0 degree Celsius), it had been fun.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so enjoy my photos…oh! I love the hat a bought in Copenhagen! :)

Itinerary for first day: Amelienborg – Marble Church – Lunch at Mediterranean restaurant Rizraz – Canal tour – dinner at Thai restaurant

Itinery for second day: Carlsberg brewery

Cindy in Copenhagen

Thank God for today!

After a depressing 3 days in the week, today is the beginning of my 3-day trip to Copenhagen (to visit Jun Lin).

I met with a bad start though. Was supposed to go to Victoria Station to take a coach to Stansted Airport. Victoria is not far from Waterloo and normally I could get there within 20 minutes. But when I reached Waterloo station, I found to my horror that there was severe delay along the line (Jubilee line) that I was supposed to take and due to over-crowding at the platform, the Station staff was restricting access to the station! I was very worried and I prayed very hard that I could get to Victoria on time…

Thank God that I was let into the station at 9:05am. But since there was severe delay along the Jubilee line, I had to take Northern line as the alternative, to change to District/Central line. Then, to my dismay, there was also minor delay along District/Central line due to signal failures! I prayed very hard. I was worried but I trust that God will watch over me. (Sigh… London tube was often unreliable…)

By the time I reached Victoria, it’s already 9:28 am and my bus was leaving at 9:30am! The bus stop is about 5-10 min walk away! I felt like giving up, but a little voice in my heart told me that I should try. So I ran from the tube station to the bus stop. It’s been years since I last ran.. my legs ached terribly… but I prayed as I ran and asked God to help me! Thank God! By the time I reached the bus stop, it’s just boarding and I managed to catch my bus to the airport! Praise the Lord..

But think I breathed in too much cold air as I ran, and I started coughing… that was another story…

So I caught my flight to Copenhagen too (with minor hiccups like I have to throw my tiny toothpaste and shower gel away coz they are not allowed in hand luggage…) and went shopping happily with Jun Lin upon arrival. The winter clothing is cheap, compared to London. I bought 2 sweaters and 1 cap! :)

Then it dawned upon me that there is something wrong with the way I am spending my money. I think so long before I buy antiseptic cream for my wound and a hole puncher for my notes, but I am so willing to splurge on clothes and accessories! My priorities are wrong…. Hmm.. I thank God for this realisation.

Oh! After shopping, I went for ice cream with Jun Lin. It’s 1 degree in Denmark (freezing cold) but it’s fun eating ice cream in the cold. :) After that, we went back to her residence and we had dinner with her Singaporean friend. He prepared curry chicken for us! I am so touched!

It has been an eventful day!

It has been quite a depressing week till Wed…

On Monday, I waited anxiously for someone from BT to come and install the phone line for our house. I have waited for this day for a month, coz our understanding was that once they set up the phone line for us, they will come down 2 days later to install the router and activate internet access for us as well… but to my greatest disappointment, the technician from BT told me that he did not receive any instruction in relation to the internet connection and when my housemate checked with BT, it seemed that our request was not registered… I felt so sad…

Then when I cooked dinner, I carelessly spilled very hot soup on my hands and scalded my 2 thumbs.. my right thumb was worse, and there is now a big blister on the right thumb. I hope it will dry up soon and I won’t carelessly break my skin and cause infection…

Then on Tue afternoon, the pipes in the flat above ours burst and water came flowing down to our flat. Our toilet, bathroom and kitchen were flooded. Carpets damaged and lights short-circuited… Till now, there is still a stench in our house coz the carpet didn’t dry easily…

Then on the same day, I carelessly broke my hole puncher too. Actually I am not sure how this happened, but it just snapped all of a sudden.

Hai… feel so sad…coz stationery is expensive here. I checked and found that a hole puncher costs at least GBP 1.6 (S$5) and antiseptic cream for my burnt costs GBP 1.3 (S$4). Sigh… don’t feel like spending this money when I have been spending so much on notes, books, food and rents…

And then, the temperature in London suddenly dropped below 10 degrees on Wed. The weather caused the city to feel gloomy and cold… Hai.. what a week…