I really can’t believe how fast time flies by. Term 2 is almost ending. There is barely 3 more weeks left before Easter break and then “exam” Term 3. In other words, I have only 3 weeks before freshers year in UCL ends. But I’m really glad I’m going to so maximize my fresher’s year this week. There are so many things going around it’s going to be crazy.

Starting with yesterday, I met up with Winson and Yi Rhu for lunch. It was one heck of a crazy lunch for me. I really miss my Malaysian cuisines. I had nasi lemak, milo ice, dim sum, prawn chee cheong fun in 2 separate restaurants near Chinatown for my lunch. It’s been such a long time since I had proper Malaysian food it felt so good to do such crazy things once in a while.

Now as I’m typing this, I’m waiting for a whole group of friends to gather in my room before we go for midnight bowling and bumper car in London Trocadero. Most of the guys are telling me they do not want to go to the casino tonight but I’m not so sure how strong their determination are on this. I have not gambled on a casino but have seen these guys do. I do not see it interesting but well it’s exhilarating according to them. Anyway if you are up for gambling online, there are always Free Online Casino Games that you can entertain yourself. It is by Quicksilver Games and I’m sure you will enjoy yourself playing there, but really, do know your limits and gamble responsibly.

Tomorrow, it will be Amin’s birthday. Amin is this cool Iranian dude who lives in the hall neighboring to mine. Will probably jam around at his hall for awhile tomorrow night before everyone else goes clubbing.

On Wednesday it is Aga’s birthday. This is going to be one sick party with a huge crowd. Aga is one of my closest friend here in UCL. Since she is Polish, she is expecting flowers from everyone who comes to her birthday party. It’ll be pretty interesting seeing how many flowers she will be getting this Wednesday.

Thursday is my Econs pub crawl. I organised this event to get to know more people from my Econs course. There are simply too many people and everyone just simply leaves right after lectures. What is worse is people tend to stick to people of the same nationality. Hence I hope with this pub crawl, we can get the Econs people to mix more with each other.

Friday is supposedly Aga’s second birthday party to cater to Matthias and Mia who can’t attend on Wednesday because they have a test on Thursday. Well there isn’t a solid plan for this but I will see how things work out.

Saturday and Sunday are still free and I guess it’s going to be my work days for this week (unless some other plans crop out of course). I want to go check out a gig in London, visit Tate Modern soon. Who knows I might just do them this weekend.

Brussels and Dublin was awesome. Wait. It should be super duper amazing. Yeah that should be it. That’s how it’s supposed to be done. Reading week. Travelling all around. It’s supposed to be a week where I relax and unwind, but I use it to travel. There’s not much work to be done hence all the travelling.

Brussels was great at Joao’s place. Truly fun time in Brussels with Joao, Agnes, Ines. One can really feel the center of European power play there. Dublin on the other hand was pretty normal. But Yi Jiet was great company. So did the chance to catch up with old friends Zahidah, Peng Yit and Hamiza who came from Galway to say hi.

But honestly I’m pretty much tired of all the travelling. I’m exhausted from travelling. As such I doubt I will be doing anything during Easter. I’m too lazy to travel nor to plan. As it is I’m going Egypt with a great bunch of friends met during Khazanah interviews on my way home for summer. That’s a great enough trip for me.

Also I have all my exams concentrated right after Easter. I played enough for my first year and it’s finally time to concentrate on studies and ace the exams.

Now there’s 5 more weeks to go to the end of the term. One major essay to write for my Principles of Management module, one project for my German language module and it’s high time to start revising and polishing Maths and Econs problem solving skills.

Uni’s starting tomorrow again and it’s going to be one good second half of term 2.

I love UCL. We get reading week in the middle of our 10-week term. And I almost never do any reading during my reading week. It’s my Travel Week. This time round I’m going Brussels for the first part of reading week and Dublin for the second part. There’s the UCL Malaysian Night Production on Wednesday night which I will be attending too! I plan my holiday perfectly. I’ll be going Brussels with Joao, Aga and Ines while I will be meeting Yi Jiet, Peng Yit and Zahidah in Dublin. It will be awesome. Perfect way to de-stress from the increasing work load in university.

This time around too Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day will be on the same day. I will be spending CNY away from home for the first time. I will have great company in Brussels and I would have to admit I will miss the CNY spirit here. I will miss the cookies big time. Hopefully my sister will collect my red packets on my behalf and bank them into my bank account back home. I don’t want to go back home without any cash.

Before I head off to Brussels, I would like to add something here. Online shopping for gifts is awesome. Matthias had his birthday last week and I had no idea what to buy for him. I went online and browsed around a few sites and found a perfect gift for him - a construction beer hat. So do consider shopping for women’s clothing if you are a girl. You get a wide selection online at better prices. I never thought I would propagate online shopping but I am really a pro-online shopper now. It’s just too convenient.

Well people, I know how you guys talk a lot about me not doing any studies here in UK. Guess what guys, I’m finally starting to study here!

My microeconomics module, though the concepts are pretty much a repetition of A-Levels, are not as simple as it appear to be. There is a whole lot of calculus involved now that is missing from A-levels. Feeling confident that I already know all the concepts, I left out reading for a good 3 weeks and found myself lagging a little bit behind for this seemingly easy module. As for Maths, there are not enough practice questions given and I am starting to worry a little bit and hence am looking forward to putting more effort into it soon. Besides that, I am also taking an extra Management module this term and I have a big essay to hand in at the end of the term while my German language module is getting more complicated with the introduction of more grammar rules.

See people, I know when I need to start working. I breezed through the whole of Term 1 and pretty much the whole of the first quarter of Term 2 because I know I can afford to. It’s the end of Week 4 of Term 2 and I know work is piling up for me. But then again I already anticipated this happening. Reading week is down the corner at the end of Week 5. I will be getting 1 week of holiday, but me being myself, I planned trips to Brussels and Dublin during that week. I will play the hell out during that week and continue the rest of Term 2 devoid of the study mode I am currently in. It will probably take me another few more weeks to get back into study mode and by then it’s the end of Term 2 and it’s Easter break again!

I always wanted a reading week to de-stress while in Singapore. But it’s actually pretty much a double-edged sword. I lose momentum for my studies! LOL. But seriously people, I know what I am doing. I appear (Note the word appear!) to play hard, but really I work hard too! (Really? haha)

Anyway guys, here’s a story about casinos that may interest you. A few weeks ago a few of my friends went out for clubbing in London. They went to the club, saw a long queue and decided that instead of waiting an hour or two just to get into the club, they should try something new. There was a casino nearby and spontaneously they agreed to go into the casino. They played roulette, slot machine, poker etc on that night out. Some lost money, but a few others won quite some money playing. They told me it was an exhilarating night out. They were treated really well that night, being served cookies and hot chocolate throughout the night. And they were given some money to bet upon entry too! Pretty good deal right? Some were so excited they wanted to go back again, but those that lost money said they would not want to go back again. They told me the trick is to set a maximum amount of money that one is willing to lose in a casino and once that threshold is reached, it’s time to go home. I suppose it’s best to go with friends to restrain one if one gets too carried away. Also important is to keep a level head and be rational. As long as one is responsible it would be exciting. Check out Quicksilver Games if you are interested but just remember to be responsible!

Last Monday night, I received a phone call from Seira asking me to go to Oxford for the weekend to find Ten, Marianne and Darrel. Well it was really unexpected but me being myself, I just simply said yes to a travel opportunity considering that I don’t expect to have much work over the weekend anyway.

So Friday afternoon right after lecture, we went to Oxford. Seira took a 4 hours bus ride from Manchester while I took a 2 hours bus ride from London. We reached about 2pm and seeing how the Oxford people are all busy with classes, we ended up doing shopping around Oxford at Zara and FCUK. It’s ironic that we chose to shop at Oxford seeing how we could easily buy these brands back in our respective cities but it was sales season and the deals were really good.

Met up with the rest later in the evening for dinner and had a good long chill out session in Ten’s room later at night. The next day was a sunny day but we woke up late. Nevertheless we still managed to walk around the Oxford colleges and sight-see.

The next day Marianne had an appointment with Grace in Reading. It is a 1 hour bus ride from Oxford. Seira and I decided to go Reading to join them for buffet lunch. It was indeed worth the time, effort, money. Took a train back to London to catch the Arsenal-Man United match in hall with my mates but it was not worth the rush. Arsenal was playing badly and we got beaten 3-1.

Anyway, for all you guys looking for an interesting weekend getaway, you might want to try Shepherds Bush. It is a busy London destination where you can spend your time with loads of interesting games. Do get into the arcade there for fun Quicksilver Games. At least it beats sitting at home doing nothing!

If there’s one interesting thing to do in life, it’s to go take a look at a map with a friend, point your finger to any random city and then decide to go to that city the very instant by bus, train etc. The spontaneity in deciding to go to a random city is just exhilarating. The explorer and discoverer in you will come out. Perhaps you might not find the city interesting, but it’s really the process of getting there and planning on what to do the very instant it is unfolding.

Well, if you happen to point your finger to this very city called Chesterfield located at the north of England, I might just suggest you do the following. Get into a casino and play the slot machines there. That’s something interesting to do in a random city. You never know how much you will earn or blow in that night. Either way, one thing’s for sure. It’s going to be great fun with a friend together.

Otherwise if you are lucky and happen to get to Chesterfield on match day, get yourself into a football match and watch Chesterfield FC play. They might not be the best team but at least you can say you did some really random crap for the day.

Pardon me for the last 2 posts. Well it’s some extra cash that I could always make do. Well, the first one was on travel which I don’t really mind anyway since it’s something that I like talking about. Heck, it’s part of my life now - travelling around! If you don’t understand what I’m blabbing on for the first few sentences, then just ignore it and move on to the next paragraph.

Basically, I’m really guilty for not keeping this blog updated. I’m such a bummer. Yes I know it. I always tell people I am busy here. Well not exactly busy with academic work, but with all the other social aspects of life which makes uni life interesting. So far I would say I am really living out my uni life. It is what it is supposed to be. Maximum fun while keeping a balance with studies. I’m probably really lucky to end up in UCL instead of the States or in Oxbridge. I’m positive that I would be so much more worked out anywhere other than UCL where the workload is so much more and there are so many more tests. I really hate tests. It just stresses me out for no reason. Well at least here all my exams come at the end of the year, so I really just need to concentrate and focus on studies for the last two months or so and I will be alright. Besides the weight for my degree classification for the three years of uni are in the following order 1:3:5. This basically mean my first year only counts for 1/9 of my overall degree, which really mean I can really play and still graduate well at the end of 3 years.

Life is really sociable here. I enjoy being around with people all the time. My room, so conveniently located near the entrance of my hall is practically a common room for the hall. Everyone just jams around here all the time. Elston, my British roommate here brought a PS3 and it’s permanently on Fifa10. We play Fifa all the time with friends from all over UCL. We have movie nights here every fortnight or so. Everyone just pops by our room whenever they passes by the entrance. We practically have no private life here. But I’m cool with it. It’s quite fun considering that you meet lots of new people and some end up being really close to you.

London is interesting in the sense that you meet people from all over the world. I’m really lucky to meet so many people from diverse backgrounds in the first few weeks of uni. London is also filled with Malaysians and Singaporeans. Some say it’s good, some say it’s bad. I won’t deny that it is really possible to spend 3 years of your uni life in London without hanging out with any non-Malaysian/Singaporean. There’s just so many of us here you, especially so when you are doing a subject like Economics.

I have no idea before UCL that Economics is such a popular course among the Malaysians. Almost all the Malaysians here in UCL are Economics students. The same is for LSE. Basically in my course, it’s really all filled with Asians. Half of my coursemates are Chinese - Malaysian, Singaporean, Hong Kong, China, British. Another quarter is Indians - British, India. The rest are white people from Europe.

Economics in UCL is really a course for international students. This is the course where UCL actually milks all the international dollars from students. We provide so much revenue for the university to ensure its day-to-day running. A case in point. Local students pay only about £3000 per year on tuition fees while international students pay 4 times more at about £12000 per year on tuition fees alone.

Well that’s the price we are paying to get an overseas education and by that subsidizing the local students. If you are going to compare academic quality with the price you are paying, I would definitely say it’s not worth the money. But really uni life in Britain is not all about studies. It’s the whole experience. And to many people who are not taking the opportunity to travel around Europe while in UK, you are really missing out a lot on uni life.

Well so far I would not say I have travelled much. But this is my target. I plan to visit all the countries in Europe (or at least most of it) plus Turkey and Egypt before I finish 3 years of my studies here. It’s really manageable if you plan your trip well and manage your financials well. Also a lil bit of creative thinking on travelling plans DO help in saving a lot of money.

Yes, I’m still alive. I’m still very much alive here in London. I just had been lazy updating my blog here. I am simply more active on Facebook as it is easier and less time-consuming. Well, basically the main reason why I do not update my blog here is because I rarely have any time to sit in front of the computer alone in my room.

I lead a hectic lifestyle here. I would really say I’m blessed to have a really active social circle here. That’s what I always thought I would lead my life here in London and I am actually living it out now. I live in a shared room and I have an awesome roommate who brought in a PS3. So basically my room is the common room for my hall cause everyone just hangs out here playing Fifa10 on the PS3. Whenever I’m not in classes, I’m at home in the afternoon doing some work or just resting from a late night. At night, whenever I’m not out chilling with my friends, I will be in my room and there would most likely be a Fifa tournament going around. I like this lifestyle. I never feel lonely, I always have company and it’s great. So that’s really the main reason why I don’t have much time to update this blog cause I really hardly spend any time in front of the computer any more.

Anyway, it’s been really a wonderful journey so far. I just completed a reading week aka holiday after just 4 weeks of study here. I feel so lucky to be in UCL instead of Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial or any US colleges. I think the lifestyle here is so much laid-back. Perhaps it’s because of Singapore. After the stressful 2-years of A-Levels in Singapore, everything just pales in comparison. But perhaps it has to do with the way classes and exams are structured in UCL. Somehow things just feels more laid-back in UCL as compared to other universities but it might be just me taking the stress and workload easily, looking at things in a positive way.

I haven’t really been travelling much in UK before the reading week. Heck, I haven’t even explored much of London yet. It just takes me forever to settle down. Luckily for the reading week, I had the opportunity to travel quite some bit. Somehow it brought out the need in me to travel again.

I did not really plan my reading week, but it turned out pretty well in the end. Turned out to be pretty adventurous too. Let me share the story. I was fed up that my reading week plans are not turning out well. By Friday lunch I had my last class and I am officially on holiday. I am lucky the Econs department did not give us any assignment or test during the week. I was looking for things to do during reading week. I got fed up trying to plan up a holiday in the last minute, I decided to simply go to Manchester and find Seira, my really good friend from Singapore. So I bought a one-way ticket to Manchester on the morning of Sunday, 8 November. At night, a thought occurred to me that Edinburgh is not exactly that far away from Manchester; it’s halfway through from London. Everyone in London seems gung-ho about going to Edinburgh I had no idea why I thought I should go give it a shot. Called up Xuxin to see if it’s alrite if I bunk in over her place a few nights. It was really spontaneous and random and she said OK. She was kinda surprised to hear my plans of coming over to Edinburgh in a few hours. She was really hospitable and nice. In Edinburgh, I saw 4 other UCL kiddos on 2 separate groups coming for the free tour of the city that day. I know 2 of them, 1 from each group. You see, Londoners have a fascination for Edinburgh I have no idea why! Came back from Edinburgh on the 12th of November to Manchester and slept over another night at Seira’s. Went back to London the following morning and rested for a few hours in my room. Later that evening I met up with Ruben and we went up to Cambridge. Spent the weekend there at Geoffrey’s and basically had one heck of a time in Cambridge with the people I met at Khazanah’s. Super awesome time there. Practically know 6 of the 20 odd Malaysians who made it to Cambridge for the year. Really cool meeting up with so many buddies there.

Here’s some very little photos from my short trip during reading week. Sorry I could not post up more photos here. I really am a bummer in resizing photos and all for the blog. It’s all up on my Facebook, so you could only check it out if you are my friend there.

Anyway, till then, I hope to update this blog again soon with some other happenings around. I can’t believe how fast time is passing by. It’s already mid-November and Christmas is coming soon. My mom is flying over for Christmas and my aunt, who is working near Shanghai is also flying in to London to meet me. We are all going to meet my uncle in Prague before going for a really ambitious road trip in Central Europe. I am excited! :)

Old Trafford at Manchester

Some old structure in Edinburgh

The 1 million pounds clock in Cambridge

Some college in Cambridge

Ruben and I after punting in Cambridge