Just came back from a jog along the Thames :) the last run in 2009 along the lovely river. A place where I've lived for the past 2.5 years.

NOTHING beats a cup of Teapigs' rooibos creme caramel tea, with a touch of milk and sugar :) Pure heaven

Spring clean

Spring-cleaning my flat today :) !!
Was chatting with Ardi on msn most of the time - as we were both equally stuck indoors today. Rainy day both London and Cambridge :(
And I miss East Didsbury already. Sometimes I think my introvert side is much greater than my extrovert side. I find myself to be my own best companion most of the times.

Christmas this year

I am back in London now :) Feel refreshed after a one-week holiday in Manchester. Stayed with Thia's aunt and uncle in East Didsbury. Chichi and Atom (thia's younger cousins) were there as well. They are both still doing their A-levels in Concord, so we compared Concord stories. Our daily routines were so relaxing.. woke up daily around 9am, then went down for breakfast. Usually me and the uncle are the earliest one to wake up.. then followed by auntie and the rest. They have this spacious kitchen with a huge glass window overlooking the backyard. Loved to stand there in the morning, watching the snowflakes falling whilst waiting for the water in the kettle to boil. Breakfast will be in the dining table, usually a bowl of hot oatmeal porridge with a drip of honey + tea... whilst listening to the morning news on the radio. Then afterwards Thia, Chichi and Atom will all come down and join us.. (Marks & Spencer's Triple Chocolate Crunch cereal + milk = our newest favourite. Polished off 6pints of milk and two boxes of cereal in two days!). Daily activities revolved around either all of us going out on a trip somewhere ..or going to Costa in the village and I'll read books, whilst Thia is working on her Masters application :) I found this secret gem, which is a second-hand bookshop just off the road from Costa. Found Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When we were orphan' yay!

We also went to Cheshire Oaks on Boxing Day, then Manchester Trafford Centre - for more shopping. I had resigned to the coffee shop whilst waiting for Thia to still continue shopping lol. Evenings are the most pleasant - as we all will gather around the dining table. usually Uncle is the one who cooks, then we set up the table. When everyone is seated, then we will say a short prayer of thanks before we started eating :) Dinner will usually involves Thia teasing Atom mercilessly, Chichi sometimes piped in as well. Added with the usual wise messages from uncle regarding various things in general. One night we had a discussion over films. what constitutes a good movie and what is not. Uncle said 'when you go to the cinema to see a film, you are prepared to suspend your belief during that hours spent to watch the film'. Which I think is perfectly true :) Mira has taught me to appreciate good films these days, too bad she is now back in Jakarta. Otherwise we can have more movie nights on days we were both staying in :(

After dinner, the four of us will wash the dishes. Then usually uncle will have an early night, Atom will retreat to his room to play computer games..leaving us the girls (me, thia, chichi and auntie) below to watch something on the telly :) or just having a general chat. The nights when snow fell heavily outside were the best - as we were all warmly snug inside the house, with the heater cranked up..watching the snow falling outside :):). What a pleasant Christmas this year :) very thankful indeed.

ps : We also helped auntie painted the kitchen, and roasted a turkey (had people over for the whole day during Christmas day! = tons of food hehe)

Snowy Christmas Eve

Another lazy morning today. It's the 24th of December = Christmas Eve!! I was on facebook with Juan earlier this morning - I suddenly miss horses back home SO much :(( !!! It's not the people that I miss the most, but Chief :((

I am still in Manchester at the moment, will be here until the 28-29th December. It's lovely here, I feel like I am in a warm family home :) And the white snow is preety. Me and Thia went to Costa in the village yesterday. I love the sound that our boots made when we walked through the snow layers.. its like this muffled crunching sound!

White Christmas in East Didsbury

I'm in Manchester at the moment, in East Didsbury to be exact. Staying here for one-week plus with Thia, her aunt and uncle, and two cousins. It feels nice ! like I am having three siblings at the moment now hehe.. Thia's two younger cousins (Cici and Atom) are both currently studying in Concord too. Both in their first year there. We swapped stories - and apparently now Concord has internet in each of their own rooms! (when I was there 4.5 years ago, we had no internet in our rooms, but we survived though lol).

It was snowing a lot when I arrived here three days ago, luckily my train made it through from London! I kept checking the train schedule in the morning cos I was so worried they will suspend the train or something....since the Southern trains were all cancelled that day (thankfully I'm heading North West. Manchester is up North from London, about 2 hrs train ride). Thia and Aunt picked me up from the train station, then off we go to Tesco to buy food... oh we bought like a humongous turkey, and five duck breast slices. Those were all for xmas day, as we'll have an open house and people can just come and eat. Mostly will be students (Thia's uncle is a researcher in Manchester Uni).

We had a relaxing day just chilling at home that day..cooking and staying in in the house. Then yesterday we went to town, to do a bit of Christmas shopping and getting last minute stuff. Went back home with a bucket of KFC lol - which was our dinner yesterday. Oh and we made our first snowman this winter too!! dressed it up with Thia's red scarf... looks like we will finally have a white Christmas this year :):)!

The first Christmas dinner in 2009

Just got back from Imperial riding club Christmas dinner :) at TGIF Fulham Broadway. same like last year. The ribs was fabulous!! realllly can't eat anymore though by the end of the night. I'm still awake now because I am too full to go to sleep! I think riding club has been a part of me for so long. For four years now, in Imperial, every Wednesday. I still feel a bit strange these days for not going riding on Wednesdays to Trent Park. It was a bit sad as Chloe is leaving London to move to Oxfordshire soon in January, so won't see her much anymore. Andre is still around, but Kathleen and Chloe are both not in the UK anymore as well. I think out of the four years I was in the first team in Imperial, I connected the most with my fellow team members was when I was in my first year (it was me, Kat, Jess Webster, and Lucy)..then again in my fourth year (me, Andre, Chloe, Kathleen and Charlotte). Back to riding-routine, when I was still doing my A-levels in Concord College, Shrewsbury.. it was also Wednesdays, at this little farm called Berriewood Stable. So for seven years now, my Wednesdays = riding. I still feel a bit strange with the non-routine activities I have these days. Because I am not really working, well I do work part-time at the hospital every Mon, Thurs and Fri. But it changes weekly too depends on what my plans are, and whether there is a course running at the hospital or not etc. I start to miss my life as a student already.

Tokyo Diner night

Thanks for coming down all the way to London from Cambridge for dinner yesterday :) ! it was sweet of you. It really was randomly planned last minute, but then again it proves how coincidences can usually turned out to be a pleasant event. Yesterday we must have walked a LOT. Starting from Hyde Park Corner (the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland), then down Oxford street to meet Carina for tea at John Lewis (tea and scones!)..then all the way down Regent Street, ended up in China town for dinner at Tokyo Diner. It must've been looked a bit funny, as both me and Vandy ended up buying rice in China town.. so on our way home, I was lugging 5kg of rice and Vandy 10kg. I think people on the tube were thinking are we going to cook for the whole army or what :p. Anyway, yes happy for you to came yesterday :) !

Norwegian wood

Sepertinya gw tipe orang yg terlalu cepat terbiasa dengan presence seseorang deh. Beberapa minggu ini, gw kangen dengan seseorang yg udah beberapa kali nginep di tempat gw kalau akhir minggu. Dan serius, kadang gw bingung sebenernya gw treat dia seperti temen atau lebih yah? aneh deh. Kalau dipikir2, seperti di buku Haruki Murakami, 'Norwegian Wood' - "We do not have much to talk to each other" ..tapi at the same time kita punya silence yang enak kalau lagi bareng2. Untungnya gw lagi sangat tidak ingin memulai apapun dengan siapapun sekarang2 ini..kenapa? karena gw sendiri pun lagi masi bingung gw akan kemana abis bulan January 2010. Sometime i do wish if only.

Gw tadi baru abis baca2 post gw di bulan Nov-Des dua taun lalu. Kenapa tiap akhir taun gw selalu merasa bittersweet yah?yg waktu itu lebih ekstrim sih,, karena kalau yg kali ini gw lebih bisa ngatur hati gw. Seperti yg Lydia bilang, keahlian gw buat ngatur si kata hati ini sebenernya sangat berguna loh kadang2 haha.

Warm porridge

Warm porridge and a good book on bright and chilly Sunday afternoon :) with plans later on to meet dear friends. I have a very blessed life indeed :) :) Had a long jog this morning to Battersea park, saw so many people running with their dogs! i feel like keeping a dog again.. perhaps when i have settled down somewhere then i will have a dog. One way or another, I don't feel as lost as I was a few days ago. I feel much more contentment these days, just about life in general. Its hard to describe, but you know when you feel like what you have is just enough? that kind of feeling. Which is nice.

All that matter is, chose the one option that you think will make you happy :). that's what he said. Thanks!

Smiles

Oh dear, i have not done any maths for the past 4.5 years. Now at my first attempt to do an online numerical reasoning test.. I was falling asleep after the first 20mins!! and 15 questions.. *yawn* *yawn*. This weekend is a quiet weekend. I reserve this weekend for myself haha. Well going out tmr night to have lamb skewer in Liverpool Street with Greta, Louisa, Sherry and a few others of the old gang from Bio. I started my xmas card writing today - I got like 15 cards down, 8 more to go.

Oh and the excellent news, yesterday Vicki complimented me on my riding! Ok, I was riding Louis - and she was training one of her horses piaffe/passage using the lunge rein and long whip. We rode past them, and Louis decided to spook and took off with me. Luckily I managed to calm him down, it wasn't anything major. Chief has done much worse spooking/running away with me before...thus why I managed to stay calm when Louis decided to take off with me.
Then when I got off from Louis after the lesson, I overheard Vicki talking to Janice (Janice is my trainer) behind me. Vicki said to Janice 'She rode Louis nicely. especially when he spooked just now' - and me (grinning but ya tried to not hear it). Janice then said afterwards to me that Vicki does not give compliments easily, so i shd be happy hehee =D
and it is the Vicki Thompson! British dressage national winner for a few times, represented GB in the Olympics, European Championships etc.
=D =D