Brighton in a day!

hello there! finally have the time to settle down and get back to blogging again. Currently posting this from my new place in soton, was previously camping out at senior's places. Moved in to this new place for more than a month now but been busy with day trips every other weekend and also with my parents down in the uk 2 weeks ago. Not forgetting assignments to be completed which I just did this afternoon, like finally. So cheers!

A while back, probably a month ago, a group of us headed down to brighton for a day trip. Mostly did sightseeing and eating of course. It is a rather beautiful place with a unique beach that of small rocks/pebbles rather than sand. 

walking down the streets

street market selling lots of vintage stuff

some Japanese fair was on at this area so we decided to walk in to have some jap food. As expected, there weren't that much variety of food and they were pretty pricey but its a fair after all, prices are bound to be increased..oh wells.

the beach/pier

first time seeing this, arcade and theme park at the pier just above the sea

headed to fishy fishy for lunch which was one of the recommended places

had fish and chips but they weren't that great. The fish was really oily and towards the end you will just end up feeling sick from all the oil.

semi-seafood platter that we all shared, not very spectacular. Personally, I don't think I will recommend the place. The food ain't that great, the service wasn't that good either and for the price you pay, I am sure you can get better food elsewhere.

Went back to the beach area to get some photos taken after lunch.

Honestly, this area where I was standing having this photo taken smelled terribly of pee.

mandatory pathway on pebbles shot.

and since we were getting a bit bored, I decided that we do some nonsense modelling shots. hahaha.

obviously not cut out for modelling. HAHA.

I see some potential, ah-ha!

you can always rely on dr martens. 3 years on and they are still great except for a few scratches and dirt. Wish I could get another pair!

now you get what I mean by the arcade and theme park is literally above the sea.

Yup, so that was about it from Brighton. Wish I got to take more photos though. Been getting a little lazy to take photos despite the new lens. Next up will probably be another set of photos from london. Didn't really get to take much this time because we were mostly shopping around since that was our main motive other then to visit my cousin and parents. Hopefully I can find time to edit my photos and blog them out though I seriously need to get some studying done now that my essay is done. 

On a side note, weather is getting a bit depressing lately with daylight saving ending just yesterday. Now it gets dark by 5pm which was the time my friend and I went out to head to the gym, seriously felt like it was 9pm...haha. This also means, by the time I get out of hospital, its dark...the sad truth but yeah. Surprisingly the trees are still very much full of leafs and pretty green in colour too. Yes, I know its soon to be november, the leafs should have at least all turned yellow-orange or have dropped by now. Then again, the news have reported that we are on for the worst winter in a decade, basically a long and cold winter. To top that up, the first predicted snowfall is in November. I know it has started to snow in cleveland, US already, pretty early uh? This is what you get with global warming...sigh.

Should head off now for some studying, gonna be a long day tomorrow. Till then!♥

Singapore >> Southampton

Yes, the title says it all, this post is basically going to be about my journey from Singapore to Southampton and what I have been doing in Soton as they call it so far. Took malaysian airlines with a transit in KL where I got out and managed to meet a couple of friends and then it was a direct flight to london heathrow which was approximately 13 hours. It wasn't exactly a smooth sailing journey here with obstacles along the way like how our arranged uni transport didn't turn up when we arrived at heathrow airport and all but I am glad everything is getting better as the weeks pass. :)

So the first week in Soton was alot on familiarizing ourselves with the place, visited the campus and hospital a couple of times to get some administrative matters settled. Also, visited the city almost everyday, from West Quay shopping mall (probably the only thing to do in soton...haha) to IKEA and all. It was a long weekend with bank holidays falling on Monday where we headed to London for a day trip which I will be doing a separate post on next time. Yes, so that is pretty much what we did in our first week.

A couple of farewell photos, so happy and grateful that my friends came all the way down to the airport at 5am when most of them had to work the next day. ♥♥♥♥♥

the ac peeps. fluffy unicorn was from celestine to bring to uk...hahah.

the secondary sch peeps. its been 10 years since we have known each other!

of cos, not forgetting, the choo family :)

at klia

at heathrow airport waiting for our cab

think this was in the unilink bus

best pasttime - grocery shopping at sainsbury's. Grocery shopping has never felt so awesome!

Portswood road where sainsbury's is located. Weather has been awesome since we have arrived actually, not particularly hot or cold.

Ikea! the meatballs here are so much better compared to those back in Singapore.

Ikea ice cream which comes with flakes chocolate and chocolate syrup.

with evon, was our junior, now batchmates..haha.

the street where all the shopping is in Soton.

Of course we did some shopping despite being tight on budget. Bought a pair of spike studded high tops from topshop for £20, it was on 70% sale?! Besides that, got a couple of tights from Primark, probably the cheapest place to get tights and basics or even shoes.

I guess thats about it about my journey to southampton, surely was a long and eventful one but the experience has been great thus far. Classes are officially starting next week and placements the week after. With so much work in for me, I hope I will still manage some travelling plans! After all, we still need to strike a balance between study/work and playing don't we? 

Ciao!

Joo Mak Korean Restaurant & Udders

hellooo there! Greetings from Southampton everybody! Its my 7th day since arriving in UK, weather has been great so far. Been held up by quite a few issues which have been resolved which is good and still trying to settle down though I guess it will be a little difficult to since we can only move into our permanent house for the next 1 year in mid sept. Hence, we are currently bunking around seniors place at the moment, so thankful for them! :) Will be posting up photos from around southampton soon, though I didn't really get much time to take any photos.

Alrights then, back to the topic. Headed down to Joo Mak korean restaurant at beauty world a few weeks back before flying off. Made a reservation the day before, I guess you have to especially if you are planning to go on public holidays or weekends cos it gets pretty crowded after 7pm. Ordered 4 dishes for 6 people and it was way sufficient, ended up filling really full and satisfied.

Part of the restaurant..

focusing was a bit off, still getting used to the new lens

this is budae jigae aka military stew which contains ramen, sausages, luncheon meat, pork belly, veggie, mushrooms, etc. Its a must try! How I wish I could have this now...

as usual..photo snapping of the food comes first!

ddukbokie aka spicy rice cakes with fish cake and raw cabbage. I wouldn't say its that nice but was just craving for it so we decide to order it. Otherwise you can cook this at home too, ntuc sells packs of rice cakes and sauces and its really easy to cook! Its a really good snack :)

the side dishes served. Especially loved the radish kimchi which had a tinge of sweet taste like pickles..tasted awesome.

jajangmyeon aka black bean paste noodles. Ordered the family size portion to share. This is actually my first time having jajangmyeon and the taste was superb, but then again, its my first attempt trying it so yeah, need to hunt for good jajangmyeon when I visit korea someday.

Kimchijeon aka kimchi pancake, it was good, not the best I have had though. Maybe I will try the seafood pancake the next time round..

yup, so basically that was my reviews on the food. One of the more authentic korean restaurants I have been to in Singapore so far. 

Headed down to udders thereafter for ice cream! Still one of the best places for ice cream no doubt. Can't really remembered what we ordered, only remembering taking home 1 pint of mao shan wang ice cream which I only managed one cup of it because was battling a sore throat after having mao shan wang durian. Oh wells, better than nothing I guess...needa wait 1 more year before I can feast on durians...roarrrr.

LOL. sorry yun. HAHAHA.

That is all at the moment, London bound tomorrow for the bank holidays! *excited* First time in london!

Ciao!

Prive Cafe & SEA Aquarium

Just realised that the last time I blogged was more than a month ago?! Didn't know that time flew by so quickly. Been either out meeting friends who are back from overseas or bumming around at home lately after resigning from my part time job! Oh and of course settling all the visa application and all before I head to the uk in aug. Anyways, this post is probably back dated from the month of May...hahaha. Headed down to Prive Cafe at Keppel bay and also checked out the SEA aquarium at resorts world.

So my friend, celestine and I decided to try out the brunch at prive cafe which is located at keppel bay area. Took a cab in from harbour front mrt but realised that it wasn't very far to walk out to the bus stop which we did after brunch. I would say it is certainly a nice location for brunch, with a nice view of all the yachts and the fact that its pretty quiet makes it so peaceful. We went during the weekday so it was really quiet but I think it is quite crowded during the weekends though! Enough said, let the pictures do the talking..

 this is the view at the side

mandatory glass cup filled with water photo...hahahah

in front was the reflections at keppel bay buildings

eggs ben. not exactly a fan of eggs ben so I don't really know if it is fantastic or the best or anything like that but it tasted good.

pancakes with bananas, strawberries, honey comb, whip cream and maple syrup. The pancakes are like any other pancakes, but the honeycombs were really nice!

After brunch, took a cab down to resorts world to visit the SEA aquarium. Thankfully being a weekday it wasn't crowded!  

despite having card discounts, found out later that there were student tickets which were cheaper....

entrance

in addition to the aquarium which will always be there, there were some other cultural exhibits around

entrance to the sea aquarium!

definitely not a conducive place to take photos...

some sucker fish that was below us

pretty interesting..looks like a lizard though

starfish anybody?

seahorses 

stingray

a type of cuttlefish

can't remember what is this called but don't you think it looks like the worms from the game worms

like this photo because it probably one of the best photos in my entire photo collection of the sea aquarium. It is definitely not easy to capture pictures of all these creatures when they are moving so fast.

small jellyfish

extremely huge octopus! didn't manage to capture everything cos I only had a 50mm lens at that time...so restricted!

more jellyfishes

looks like something you will see in black and white science textbooks from years ago..haha

loving the bright yellow on this jellyfish

shark egg!

too bad this photo is blur but I found it a little creepy but hilarious at the same time.

Seriously, every creature on display looks like a type of seafood being served in restaurant. Sad but true. Personally, I wasn't that much fascinated by the sea aquarium. I would have preferred the underwater world to this. For this aquarium, it was just glass exhibits after glass exhibits and it was quite a long walk cos after reaching the extremely huge glass display, I thought it was the end but actually it was only halfway. So at the end of the entire walk we were almost half dead...haha. But then again it was a nice experience, at least I think I came out gaining more knowledge about the various species of sea creatures. haha.

That is all for now, about a month left before I head to the uk, so not prepared for this! A new life, a new chapter, a whole new country and place...