whirlwind london

just a keep post, before I need to go pack.

The past few days in London have been pretty fun. I must say, I'm pretty lucky that Tracy was also in London, as I would've not had half the amount of fun I've had with someone to share it with. Not only does it provide motivation, but also helps with picture taking and appreciation of what you're doing.

So I've seen more of local London, eating some pretty good food and drinking some unusual drinks (pimms & green is good smoothies). I've seen more famous landmarks, including the royal parks (got lost in hyde park cause it's that big), buckingham palace, pretty fountains etc. etc. Went to the British museum today, which had so much history, I couldn't keep my attention span long enough to appreciate it all.

The Tube system. I originally thought it was brilliant. Gives quite a bit of access to anywhere in central London, unlike our crappy City loop. Also, the Oyster card works quite well..in terms of performance. However, it's SO EXPENSIVE. I've already eaten through 30 pounds on my oyster card. Sadness.

Saw the LION KING MUSICAL yesterday. And man, it was worth the flight over. It was AWESOME. Brilliant. Best thing I've ever seen. Beautifully done. I can't really describe how good it was. After the first act, with all sorts of animals and the music coming together, I was so satisfied already by the end of Circle of Life.

Anyway, I've been so tired, I decided to take this afternoon off. But now my sister is making me go pack, for my whirlwind tour around Europe!

hope everyone is well back at home.

teoh,

I have arrived

So I have arrived in London OK. No luggage lost, passport still on me, things are still good!

The flight and transit times are death though. I am already cringing at the thought of the return flight. My travels to London was broken into three sections: Melb to Brunei, Brunei to Dubai (which is catchy) and Dubai to London. Each transit was about 7-8 hours. Each.

The first flight was okay, as I had all three seats to myself. It still takes a lot of trial and error to find the best sleeping position though. Dad, I don't know what's so good about these new planes. They may be new, but they're using old entertainment equipment. No touchscreens, just tiny screens couples with the old handsets I remember from Malaysia airlines. The movies are not that recent, although I watched Unknown which was pretty good.

It was easy to know that I was in Brunei when I stepped off the plane (besides the captain telling us we had arrived in Brunei) because the humidity smacked me in the face as soon as I walked off the plane (and into the bus that then drove very slowly to the airport). I bought a magazine and read until it was time to get on another 'new' airplane (which had the exact same old equipment and movies, yay). The second and third part of the flight was pretty hard to take. I sat next to these nice Brits/Indians ladies, who had come back from a jungle trek in Malaysia.

I decided to try and talk to them, made some nice conversation and got some advice about London. One of the sisters was a underground attendant, and rewarded my slightly exaggerated enthusiasm for riding the Tube for the first time with a exclusive Oyster card, which was one of the 25000(?) made to commemorate Prince whatishisname and Kate's marriage. Pity it doesn't work. But apparently I can sell it for 45 quid (which apparently is slang for pounds) on ebay. At this point, I felt like I was in an RPG. Hit X to interact with the character next to you, and some NPCs may reward you with random loot. Yay for my video game training.

Anyway, I arrived at the airport, pretty scared as I had no idea what I was doing. I realised I had not written down Tracey's apartment address, just memorized the station I needed to get to (which was so (not) helpful). I bought a sim card from a VENDING MACHINE??? Did not realise it did not come with any credit and didn't see a convenient way to top up. So I called Tracey on at a payphone, and said to meet me at the station in however long it would take me to get there.

If you're thinking this sounds like a very vague plan, then you are correct. Luckily I managed to get to the station and Tracey was waiting for me and saved me. So now I'm in her apartment (after cooking and cleaning her breakfast!?), typing on her horrible ACER laptop, half deluded with lack of sleep / sleeping in a upright position during my TWENTY FOUR HOURS travel. Like really? People keep saying how it's a small world. LIES. Otherwise I would've arrived YESTERDAY.

Anyway, as you can see, no anger has left me yet. I might grab a nap and then plan with Tracey where we're going to go exploring. Yup.

teoh,

btw, my phone number is 07554615693. For all those who miss me so much. :D

my holiday aims

so, two sleeps away from going to europe and these are my aims for my holiday.

1. decrease amount of anger inside of me.

2. decrease employment related stress

3. forget about worrying and focus on enjoying

4. make some new friends

5. experience as many new things as possible

if I can achieve these five things, this holiday will be a success.

teoh,

unshackle those chains

Okay, so it's been a while. Let's update.

I am currently a free man, finished exams so early that almost none of my friends want to talk to me. That's cool guys, no hard feelings AT ALL (caps for emphasis, not subtle hate). What am I using this free time that would've otherwise been used to stress continuously for multiple exams over the next two weeks? Stressing out about other things of course!

At the current stage of my life, I have come to realise that there will always be something to stress about, plan about, something unknown to come. My carefree university life is rapidly coming to end (at least I hope so anyway) and the next step is into the bigger world of not just the workforce, but boundless opportunities of things to do. Move overseas? Travel overseas? Save for a house? Buy a new car (because I've once again scratched poor SAM on the right side bumper =( )? All of those things are now possible (technically), whereas I'm used to dusting my hands of the final assignment and settling in for some holiday fun.

These fairly mundane thoughts aside, I am actually just working a lot and planning for Europe/Snow. In case I have not mentioned this in the past few blog posts, I am actually leaving for Europe on the 22nd of June for around three weeks, flying back to arrive on the 16th July, and then heading off to the snow for three days on the 18th. Currently, I'm more excited for the snow, most likely cause it's with my close friends and I get to do snowboarding which I've never done before. Though I must say, booking accommodation and transport has been the bane of my life for the past few weeks. To prevent any misfortune on the actual trip however, I will wait until AFTER trip to write my displeasure.

But don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to Europe; I guess I'm getting pre-departure jitters as I usually do. Europe is such a far away country, it's almost more like a concept than a real thing to me. I'm a bit worried about how the tour will be, but I think as long as I'm open minded, I should have a blast. Seeing my sister will also be fun =] and LIOOOOOOON KING!! I've been sore about missing out this musical since I missed the high school excursion in year 9? And now I get to see it in the best place ever (well apparently LA was the best, butlookoverthere!).

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll survive 6 days straight of full time work. I think the greatest motivation of finding a job is so I can quit that place at the end of the year. Yes, the location is great, the job is pretty easy, the money is good, I understand all of that. But you don't understand the frustration, the crap that goes on, the way the place gets to you while you're there. I do not feel respected for my three years of loyalty, I do not feel valued by my employers. Please let me find a job soon. Otherwise I might strangle myself with my headset.

I've seen both X-men First Class and Super 8 since I've finished exams. I won't bother to do a proper review, bar saying that they were both entertaining and not too bad. But I bring it up because neither movie was worth the expensive tickets we paid. In fact, I'm pretty sure no movie will ever be worth the $15 dollar ticket we all pay at the movies now. Food, yes. Oil, yes. Why the heck are movie tickets going up for!? You are driving me into piracy or bankruptcy, either way we all lose. I'm thinking of creating Teoh Cinemas and bringing back old ticket prices and making a fortune. I'll set it up next to our hospital that we're going to make. And I'll sell pies for <$4.

I am sorry for the lack of exciting pictures.

teoh,