mini update

Two hand drawn cards for my cousins' twenty-first birthdays! I've another upcoming project in about a month's time that I'm pretty excited about. Can't wait till exams are over so I can start doing some research and draft that out too. It'll be another two weeks of continuous self-study and preparation till then. The final year of uni is just breezing by all too quickly.

In the meantime, it's proving very hard to stay away from hand lettering and typography inspiration as well as DIY crafts! What started out as a random desire one night to try making a tissue paper pom pom lead to four white fluffy pom poms now hanging from the ceiling. Definitely looking to make several more when I can, they're such pretties! Love watching them spin/float about while lying in bed :3

Words to remember

image source: x

"Make sure you’re thoroughly passionate about what you’re starting so that it doesn't feel like work but more like play. Make sure you work with equally smart and driven people. Care to do the best work possible (whatever you are, be a good one)."

The quote is by Tina Roth Eisenberg of Swiss-Miss on what the top three things someone should consider before starting their own business. This is definitely something to keep in mind! Life should be about achieving the best in terms of one's interests. In the meantime, I shall refocus all my attention to school work to build a better foundation for a stable future. Let's never forget to work towards our dreams :)

my laptop's life story

A story of what happened when my laptop suffered liquid damage, and what you should do if it happens.

First, the back-story! The birth of this new laptop arose from the need to replace my old fujitsu S6510 which has faithfully served me for the past 5.5 years. The old laptop was half a decade old and still working really well- save for a creaky fan whose whirrs where akin to the persistent snores of a person sleeping with a blocked nose. The noise easily creates embarrassing situations, such a third of the lecture hall’s population turning their head towards me the moment the creaky fan started spinning rapidly within the machine’s body when I turned it on. Anyway, the laptop could be considered a grandma in people-age and it was due to be replaced with something that didn’t emit excessive heat, noise and embarrassment. 

After weeks of research, I finally put my finger down (literally) and ordered a MacBook from Apple’s web store. Everything went smoothly enough- the order was processed quickly and I was also happy to get a small student discount! The new laptop was sent to my doorstep within 5 working days, which is really quick. Tinkered with it for several days and then brought it out for its first excursion to school. 

The second time I brought it out, which is just six days after receiving it… disaster struck. I remember collecting my lunch from the Yong Tau Foo stall in Makan Place when Kingsly apprehensively approached me and carefully said, “Don’t panic, but I’ve something to tell you”. The first thing that crossed my mind was that my entire bag got snatched/stolen from our table along with the new laptop nestled within it. It was a plausible fear since my bag was stolen several years back when it was left unattended along with some friends’ when we were jogging at Ngee Ann’s. But that’s a story for another day. 

He then continued, “Your bottle leaked and your entire bag is drenched”. 

• When I returned to the table, my friends were already helping to wipe down all my belongings. This included my new laptop, which they first rescued from the sopping wet backpack. Apparently when they helped to stack up all our bags onto a chair, the cap of my bottle (which was inside my bag) clicked open when the bag got tilted and its entire contents, which is about 400ml of water, spilled out. But because I wasn’t present when the laptop was fished out and cleaned, I had no idea how much water had been in direct contact with it. 

This caused me to make several decisions that could have indirectly led to the damage of the laptop. Firstly, I decided to have lunch first before checking on the device since I knew that I wouldn’t have any appetite if it really ended up being spoilt. And that was precisely what happened after lunch. The laptop was totally unresponsive. That was when my heart sank and reality set in. 

We then sat stunned for a moment and did what regular people would- we googled for help. After reading through several forums, it was then decided that the best thing to do would be to head home and put the laptop in a bag of rice. That’s something I won’t recommend anyone to do, by the way. Unless you’re absolutely sure that all optical ports are covered and safe from the danger of rice bits entering the device. 

After keeping the laptop in a large gallon-sized ziplock bag with about six cups of rice and several packs of silica gel meant for camera gear, we waited. A week. When we retrieved the laptop again and tried to switch it on, nothing happened. The light indicator for the charger had no response when turned on and plugged in as well. The funniest thing is that some rice managed to make their way into the body of the laptop although I made a conscious effort to tape up all the ports on the sides and we could hear it when shaking the device, It was one of those moments where I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

Anyway, I managed to get it fixed by sending it to an authorized service provider (QCD @ Tradehub 21) for repairs. The verdict? Visible corrosion on the logic board that had to be replaced entirely. And the worse thing is that it wasn’t covered under warranty since the liquid contact indicator had changed colour. I tried calling up all the other service providers listed on Apple’s site but the prices they quoted for pretty much the same. Even contacted Apple’s customer service (the call got routed overseas) who couldn’t help me out as well. 

The final cost ended up to be $941.00- a hefty amount for a student who just paid for the brand new laptop and an expensive lesson to be remembered for a long, long time.

TL;DR 

Brand new Macbook Air 2013 suffered liquid damage after unintentional water spill 

Kept it in bag of rice and silica gel but didn't work. DO NOT put your laptop in rice!! 

Not covered by warranty because liquid contact indicator was exposed to the water

Had to pay full amount for repairs 

Tips: Immediately after spill, put laptop on its side to drain out excess water. Keep laptop in airtight bag with appropriate drying agent (silica gel should work). Wait as long as possible before attempting to turn on laptop again. If it's really damaged, pray hard that the indicator wasn't exposed to liquids! Good luck!!

#funfilledweekend

Hello, hello. Been really busy and updating this space has unfortunately been one of the last things on my mind. The past weekend is the most eventful one I've had in a long while.  We did so many things it feels rather surreal that it was all all happened in merely three days!

On Friday, I attended two bbq sessions. One in the afternoon at the newly-opened Ssikkek Korean Grill BBQ outlet in Junction 10 and another in the evening at a friend's place. The entire two and a half hours at Ssikkek was spent eating non-stop- value for money! It costed $16.50 including GST and service charge which is reasonable for the spread offered. We made a reservation for lunch and it would be good to make reservations too if you're dining in for dinner. I've passed by several times in the evenings during weekends and there's always a queue! 

The BBQ dinner later in the evening comprised of sashimi grade salmon and scallops, plus a whole load of other good food like cheesy butter garlic mushrooms, prawns, stingray, variety of ciders, etc etc. It was an awesome day foodwise :)

Saturday noon was spent at the bird park hanging out with some lovely featured creatures. It was a bit of a rush as we only had about two hours there. Still, we managed to cover good ground and see everything that we had wanted to save for the horned shoe-bill (one of my favourites!) whose outdoor enclosure seemed to have disappeared into thin air. I think it got converted into the kids playground area :/

Lory Loft was really fun! It's a walk-in flight aviary where the birds can freely interact with visitors. They have lories and lorikeets who are quite playful and aren't afraid to get up-close with everyone. People feeding them had such a good time that it was hard not to be gleeful when watching them interact with these feathered friends. I saw a tourist who tried taking a self-shot on his iphone with a bird on his shoulder, as well as others who wouldn't stop laughing (panic response, I reckon) at the birds who perched happily on their shoulders + head. 

After that, it was the MP3 Experiment event by Improveverywhere at Sentosa. It's basically a flash mob and people participating are supposed to wear headphones with a particular mp3 downloaded. Everyone plays this mp3 at the same time and it gives us instructions on things to do. It included kooky stuff like playing tag with other participants and having balloon swordfights with others, all done in the presence of unsuspecting passer-bys.  My first time partaking in such an event so it was really fun! But quite tiring though, because we were running all over the place rather haphazardly for much of the entire forty minute duration.

Later at night I partook in my first clubbing experience coupled with some drinks, dancing and watching how people of opposite genders got it on while they were high. Shan't elaborate much but yeah, it was highly amusing. Pretty good for a first-time experience I think. Especially since the nuns are always joking about how personal space is so important to me and that a hula hoop would be required should I ever step into a club. Haha.

Sunday was reserved for The Addams Family Musical which ended my weekend with a high note (literally!). Amazing, amazing show. We caught their final show in sg and it was more than I had expected it to be. Beautiful props, goosebumps-inducing singing, quirky dancing and a handful of laughter/comedy thrown in. It left the two of us humming and singing along to their songs ever since. We were able to get their autographs on the programme sheet we bought and took a photo with Wednesday and Lurch (my fav!!!! He was hilarious throughout the show). Our photo with them even got re-instagramed by Dan, the guy who played Lurch. Pretty darn exciting~

fishnfries.livejournal.com

Hey guys, I'm attempting to clear out my wardrobe so some clothes are now for sale for cheap! Selling mostly because they're too large for me and don't fit well. Gla and I took part in a flea last Saturday which was held at *Scape and I managed to clear some pieces of pre-loved clothing along with my sister's. But sales overall were a big disappointment. The stalls were pretty much squeezed into a small area and there was very little walking space along the aisles, so the conditions weren't ideal. Hopefully luck for online sales will be much better! Please help to take a look and let me know if you see anything you like. Drop an email to limecreme@gmail.com for enquiries. Thanks! :)

Visit my selling post here: http://fishnfries.livejournal.com/41361.html

swansea, wales

Here's three photos of Caswell Bay in Swansea, Wales that's postdated two months. Wales is such a beautiful place. Since the country is surrounded by water on three sides, it offers a great deal of gorgeous coastlines and scenery. Of the coastal cliffs I've visited, all of them have footpaths along their sides and are surprisingly easy to ascend. There's not much work to be done (by foot) before you are rewarded with warm sunshine, strong breeze, soft fluffy grass and views of the sea and sometimes even of sheep in the distance if you're lucky!

Oh and YESSS, I'M HOME!!! Couldn't be happier to be back on familiar soil. Now that my first of three assignments due this holiday break is submitted, it's time to relax a little before embarking on the next report. In the meantime, I'll be slowly but surely sharing my overall UK experience and Europe trip. Just keep a lookout here! :)

Twenty-two!

Had a lovely pre-birthday dinner and surprise celebration with my classmates on Saturday night ♡

Am also just back from a 5D4N camp at Keppelwray at the Lake District here in England, which commenced on the day of my 22nd birthday. Gorgeous place with loads and loads of sheep! Feels like my kind of heaven. And now, we're only left with the last two nights here in Birmingham before heading off for our Europe adventure. Home is nearing and I'm glad :)

Hanging in there

Spring's officially here and almost all the snow's gone. Experiencing winter and seeing snow for the first time in my life was lovely but I'm all ready to embrace slightly warmer weather and pretty flowers! Bright yellow daffodils have been growing in the vast grass patches in school and it looks beautiful. Been itching to go for a stroll or jog along the lake since the temperature's been great. It's now down to the last 4 or 5 days stay here in the hostel on campus ;( This coming Sunday, the entire batch of SG students will be off for a camp at the Lake District. Selection for next year's overseas study placement is due end next week too. In the meantime, there's still an assignment that's due on Sunday. Our stay in Birmingham is coming to an end soon but it'll be a mad rush till then!

I had a wonderful time during the Easter break, travelling to Edinburgh and Wales with the nicest group of friends. Travelling about so much does make one feel disillusioned after some time. In Singapore, people usually look forward to short breaks and overseas trip very much. Even trips to Hong Kong or Thailand for example, which are simply 3 to 4 hours away, are greatly cherished and anticipated. Over here, 5 day trips to other cities/countries feel so normal. 

Then again, I remember our lecturer Jon previously asking us during dinner if we preferred UK or Singapore. Everyone agreed that although we prefer Singapore (it is home, afterall) but UK's lifestyle is something we really love. [Side note: I loveeee the supermarkets here so much that I wish I can bring them all home] Somehow it feels as though there's a greater sense of peace and freedom. Moreover, it isn't as crowded. Plus the locals here seem more mild-mannered in the sense that they don't talk as loudly and complain as much.? Sometimes we joke as we are as much of annoying foreigners to the folks here as the foreigners are to us back home; chatting loudly (in comparison to them), clustering in groups and all.

And from 20th April follows an entire month of travels to:
LDN ➤ France ➤ Switzerland ➤ Germany ➤ Austria ➤ Italy ➤ Spain ➤ Amsterdam ➤ Netherlands

before returning back to UK again for several days before catching the flight home. It's going to cause a huge hole in my pockets but I'm sure it'll be well worthwhile :')

typical day

Good afternoon! Woke up at around noon and was lazing about in bed (yes, that's what snowy days are about. Being lazy!) when the fire alarm rang. My second time in 2.5 months being jolted out of bed due to the fire alarm, zzzzz. The first time that happened, I was still fast asleep in bed. Talk about the best alarm to wake one up, ever. Hrmph.

Anyway, standard protocol calls for everyone in the block to evacuate our flats and assemble at a gathering point in a nearby carpark. We never bother with going all the way to the gathering point but usually stay right below/outside the block cause we're aware that there's no actual fire going on; just the fire detectors being sensitive again. Another reason for this is because the fire alarm goes off so often that we find no cause for alarm (#puny).

throwing snowballs at windows!

As you can see, we weren't totally prepared for it so there were some who are in shorts, braving the cold. Tracy's forever and always in fbts in the flat so whenever we have to evacuate the flat, she's very gamely decked in shorts. March marks the start of spring but apparently the cold decided to stay for a little longer this year. It's a rare snowy spring day so some of us decided to play in the snow by the lake! I just trudged along and watched others make snowballs cause it was coldddd. Been snowing quite heavily for the past 2 days and it still is right now. The first time I witnessed the tiny white icy flakes floating from the sky, back on my second day here, I was so happy I kinda danced about in excitement. Nowadays, snow's grown to be a rather common sight but I still enjoy it very much. It's just so so beautiful ❤

Live happy

With the whirlwind of events which happened lately, something I noticed about several of my friends here is that they tend to think. A lot. Like the kind where you spend quite an amount of time and energy delving deep into your thoughts in an attempt to find out the reason why a particular person chose to act in a certain manner. And they coincidentally happen to be of a younger age as well. This led me to think back about the days where I was younger and loved to blog a lot more. (I know you're probably going to look at my archives from 2008 to check and see if there's any evidence of such behaviour from those days! But nah, what I'm referring to dates way back before that).

When I was younger, it seemed that emotions easily overwhelmed me and my brain loved to go into overdrive doing what it does best- thinking. At times it's pretty much over-thinking. This is what one would call "emoing" which was a common term used back in secondary school. You know, those times where it seems like the entire world is against you, your friends and family don't understand you, so much inner thoughts but no one to express them to, yadda yadda yadda. But right now, it feels like my mind is so carefree and happy at times, there really aren't much unnecessary thoughts which run through it anymore. This led me to wonder if I became too detached from situations in which I couldn't care less about the world and what went on around me :/

So anyway, I asked someone about it and came to a conclusion. It's not because I've became insensitive or thoughtless about things. Nor is it because empathy has became absent in my life. The reason this has happened is because I've grown up and matured. Simple as that.

And I've found that I'm much happier and at ease with myself nowadays! It's hard to describe in words right here but I'd say that the closest thing it can be likened to is inner peace. Not the "ohmmmm and sit in a cave like master shifu in kungfu panda" kind of inner peace, mind you. More like being aware of and knowing that little things don't bother you anymore. Or looking at the big picture instead of the minute details which don't matter. When attention's directed towards the right things in life, good things will result as well :)

Reflection time

It's now March, time for a belated update! Almost two months in UK and this month has presented so much to be learnt about about life and its lessons. I can now honestly say that whatever life presents you with, be it challenges, happiness, or pain, there will always be something to take away from it. All you have to do is to embrace the lessons learnt from it all. Ultimately, one will stand to gain if you approach life with a positive and rightful attitude.

And right now, I can finally say that I'm happily at peace with myself and my surroundings. Each passing day is 24hrs closer to being back home and meeting with my loved ones again (yes nuns, this includes you all. i know you're reading this!). Plus at the same time, it's also another day's worth of memories experienced in beautiful UK! So why not make it a good one that's as enjoyable as possible? That makes two things to be happy about every day :)

travels

Am suddenly feeling a tad nostalgic and craving for a bit of something familiar. It always seems to be the case. When one's home, wanderlust sets in and new experiences, sights and sounds is craved. And when away for extended periods of time, a wee bit of nostalgia can set off an entire search for something which seems familiar and comforting. For me right now, it's a little of both. It was especially hard to leave Singapore when something new had only just begun. While I'm here taking in brand new views, I can't help but wish that the special someone is here to share these memories together.

Birmingham diaries,

Just got back to the hostel after a trek back from the train station along a frozen canal. It was snowing and the surroundings were absolutely beautiful. Someone even commented that it looked like Narnia. To me, the scene appeared to be straight out of a postcard. :)

Earlier on in the afternoon, I was still freezing due to the crazy strong wind which was blowing snow in our faces. You should have heard us complain about getting snow in our eyes and accidentally inhaling/swallowing snowflakes! Luckily, the weather was more pleasant in the evening which made the walk back so lovely. Some of the guys were commenting that it's quite sad that a bunch of us are here without our better half(s) cause the wintry weather is so romantic. I agree, it really is. Imagine a scene where you're quietly strolling hand in hand on a crunchy, snowy path with light snow falling in the dim light. Or playing/trying to catch the falling snow. Awww.

Anyway, it's been a pretty long day and I'm super tired. So here's just a few words to sum up my stay in Birmingham thus far: cold weather / lots of walking / always thinking of food / grocery shopping = heavy bags *sadface / sales and lovely cheap shopping (think Primark!).

Will be back soon to post more!