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date/time Thursday, July 02, 2009,4:25 PM
Swedish Meatballllssss
I think I've posted some slice-of-life photos in Sweden before... but I never got around to finishing it up. So dish of the day: VALBORG. Spring Fest in Sweden. And no prizes for guessing where the celebrations are centred in Sweden, judging by the crowds thronging the streets in Uppsala!
Oh yeah. People from all over Sweden, gee, people from all over EUROPE come to the sleepy town of Uppsala just for this! So the highlights...
 They come to watch man-made floats survive the treacherous currents of the Fyris river! Okay. Maybe it's not as simple as that. These people are from various different institutions in Uppsala. Like maybe a certain faculty in the University, etc etc. So this Valborg thing is a chance to show off their boat-building skills (and also design, definitely, the Scandinavians have these thing about combining form and function :)) You could call it the dragon boat race of the west, except there are no dragons. OK, actually there was one, the Asian Cultural Club or something? I spotted one dragon like boat floating past, I think. Well, you get my drift.
 And this is where the participants go 'ahhhhhhhh my boat's not made for this!'. This is the supposed climax of the boat race. Seeing whether your man-made boat made of scrap materials can withstand the sheer strength of the rapids in the Fyris river. Heh heh. Most boats break into pieces by this point, and the ones who get through usually get to the finish line.
And they have this really strange ceremony. The chancellor of the University is somewhere amongst this crowd. Current and previous grads of Uppsala University are supposed to wave their caps at people at a certain hour. It's all very strange actually. But it's cool to see the really old students come back with their own caps and waving for all their energy's worth!
So here are all the Uppsalite Singaporeans, with the addition of people from other parts of Europe who came to visit (yes, just for the festival). The guy in the front is someone who randomly decided to hijack our photo.
What's spring without a picnic under the long anticipated sunlight? I love picnics in Europe. Or actually, picnics that are held in places that aren't anywhere near the equator and during Spring and Summer are amazing. It's sunny, yet its also really cooling!
And on this day only, the Uppsalites love to celebrate in a really unique, close to decadent, way. They call it the champagne gallop. And what is done there? Basically, student clubs bust out their best champagne and people pay to get in - and get this - buy a bottle of champagne, shake it really really vigorously, pop the cork, and start spraying at random strangers (who paid to participate of course). To lots of trance music, of course. hahahahha. Here you see the aftermath of us having the cheaper version of the champagne gallop - the BEER gallop. We bought cans of beer, shook it up a lot, and started spraying at each other. I know, such cheapskates we are. But we did have fun and that's what matters!
 Can't call it Valborg if you don't check out what's going on in Uppsala at night. We were at Saluhallen, apparently one of the clubs catering to the more mature, working crowd. And it was obvious it was more high end - the stupid cover fee and alcohol were at least 1.5X the usual price charged by the rest of the student clubs. Anyway. Saluhallen is Swedish for 'Market Hall'. And this place is pretty interesting in that in the day, it really is a market hall selling meat, fish, and what not. But at night, it turns into a nightspot. So one of my friends was joking that Saluhallen was apt indeed, 'cos it was Uppsala's 'Meat Market'.
 And we were all dancing happily in the R&B cramped room (with lots of making out going on around us but by now we were allllll numb to it. We kinda just elbow them out of the way somehow.) Then suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. So we were all shooed outta the club and we were standing there in the freezing Spring air. The girls all grabbed a smelly blanket and wrapped ourselves up in them!
So that was Valborg, in a nutshell. Exciting stuff :) And now that I look back on these photos, there's a part of me which misses my long hair. Heh. Labels: events, exchange, friends, photolog, sweden, travel
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date/time Tuesday, June 24, 2008,6:34 PM
Some way overdue photos!
Spinning: Duffy - Stepping Stone Hehehehhehe, unlike Nessa, I say 'watch this space' and this space really gets filled with photos! :P Anyway, 35ers - here are some of the photos that were taken at our last gathering. The rest is with RJ, I think.
It's cake from Amande! (Who couldn't come!) Anyway the squiggly pink things were written all by her so MERCI BEAUCOUP Amande! If you look carefully, yes, every 35er's name is there.
That's about all the photos I have. Fini!
Anyway, as a sidenote, I'd love to recommend Juno and The Spanish Apartment/L'auberge Espagnole. I watched both in a movie marathon and I have to say both are really great movies. Jumper was a stinker though, so don't bother watching that.
Labels: events, photolog, recommendations
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date/time Friday, July 27, 2007,2:10 AM
Potluck Friday
Spinning: Maroon 5 - Little of Your Time
EDIT: I added some lovely, lovely photos from Raf. Go visit her blog for more! I also pushed the date up 'cos I know there are lazy bums out there who don't like to scroll to the bottom :)
OK. I should be sleeping in a bid to reset my body clock; but I couldn't resist. Here are the photos which tell one heck of a story of what happened on July 20. Amazing day, that was.
So Amande, XT and Zhu came over to cook up a real storm. We made Amande's Potato Salad,and my Deep Fried Chicken, and there were the fruits and hotdogs that XT and Zhu pre-made, respectively.
And so, we were all ready to go; armed with big, metal trays filled up to the brim with delish food. Yes, I am praising our own culinary skills, ha!
No prizes for guessing what we did there. We played board games:
Card games (the usual Bridge and Dai Dee, what else. Oh, and Asshole Dai Dee, very Medieval, if you ask me):
Very proud of being a bona fide Bridge player, she is:
And, psst, we are all closet Mahjong Aunties!
I wasn't really one of them (I'm more a card person), but I heard the sounds of the tiles being 'washed' (shuffled) on the table, and some random exclamations of "Peng!", "Hu!" and whatnot. Yes, we were very noisy. Like how true blue Mahjong maestros should be.
OK so RJ's house was a mini gambling den (sans the money actually. We were playing more than gambling) But apart from that we also photowhored as USUAL:
Yes, those are polaroids. Amande brought her talking Polaroid camera which was a hoot. The resulting photos looked nostalgic, really. I'd like to develop that photo and look back on it again, 10/20 years on.
Hooray, more camwhoring.
I'm a supporter, too! And I end up looking like one of those pseudo-cute tweens. Hehe. It was meant to be a "I'm so insane my eyes refuse to look at the camera" pose. Bah.
Raf brought her humongous monster of a camera. And we all were soooo fascinated with it. Here she is teaching us how to use her fantabulous camera. It was really fun, and a lot of us took it and rushed around clicking away frenetically.
A good part of the evening was spent chilling, and catching up:
At some point of time our eyes were glued to the telly. This is my personal favourite, for some reason:
The power of the telly does not hold for long. We soon turn back to whatever it is we were doing. Mahjong, Bridge, and Dai Dee. Our class is a real winner.
The evening soon passed, and a whole lot of people made their way back. The remaining people, however, were game for a round of Twister. And twist we did, to the sounds of Earth Wind and Fire...
I was giggling away at poor Zhu's plight. I was out of the tangle by then and was happily snapping away at the poor sods. Haha!
Sister and her butt ruled the Twister mat, they did.
RJ declares some lurve for the Twister game. Of course she loved it, that perv. Heh.
OK, I don't know exactly what Elks is smiling at, but I assume it's cos she's happy about NOT being in a tangle, for once.
And here I have some really random pictures of us having fun. I'm not done with this post yet, though, cos I await some really great photos from Raf and Pam T. EDIT: First two photos from here are Raf's.
This was completely candid. That's what I love about it:
 OK RJ's really fond of sticking cards to her face. And Raf loves to eat... money?! 
Here's one going out to Milkshake, RJ's pooch. Gotta love that snow white fur!
Labels: 3505, events, friends, photolog
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date/time Wednesday, December 06, 2006,11:26 AM
Pre Prom Blues
Spinning: Hadaka no Mama - Free Trans Ensemble All right, I'm in the midst of making some final preparations for prom (read: last minute!) and I've got to say the process is getting on my nerves. If only I could go straight to the hotel with everything done. This better be worth it! And those stupid heels are killing me... Post prom I have various plans - learning how to drive, taking on various short-term part time jobs, then it's off to HK with my pals! Yay. The holidays are sweet. Labels: events, random thoughts
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date/time Saturday, August 05, 2006,2:53 PM
Of (Wo)men and their best friends
Spinning: How Insensitive - Olivia
Pets' Day '06!
Most of the people who read my blog would know that I have pets at home. 2 dogs and 10 odd hamsters (belonging to my mom). My 2 dogs are a Jack Russell Terrier (JRT) named Chasey, and the other one is a mixed breed (suspected terrier and Schnauzer cross) named Lucky. 2 Wednesdays ago, my college initiated a project called Pets' Day - where all students/teachers are invited to bring their pet - it could be a dog, a cat, a hamster, a gerbil, fish, (I think even iguanas were allowed.) - to school. So I kinda got excited with the whole idea of bringing my dogs to school - and I had to choose between the 2 of them. I ended up choosing to bring Lucky because I thought he was the milder one. As all stories go, I was so, so wrong. More on this later. The response to this project was just average, with about 10 odd students and teachers bringing their pets to school. 3 other people I knew brought their beautiful dogs along - RJ brought her Spring (kee), Clara brought her Lassie, and Pam T. brought her Brownie. Introducing the stars of the day: 
Springkee And Miss Kee!
So that elegant dog you see above is called Spring - apparently a suspected Spitz-Pom mix, and dareisay very well mixed indeed :). Was given to RJ by a neighbour (What Luck!). She's a very well-behaved dog, and she can't stand Lucky. Plus, Isaac has a thang for her. ;) 
Lassie, the lazy Shetland
And here's Lassie, the 'xiaojie' (dainty woman) of the group! Her fur's really impressive, and she's quite the loyal dog, always whining when Clara's out of sight. She's a little lazy though, and if she doesn't want to walk, she really doesn't walk. Forget trying to pull her along. Also another anti-Lucky. Bought by Clara's family, I believe - correct me if I'm wrong. 
Brownie - Silky Terrier
That's Brownie, Pam T's little timid dog! The only other male in the group besides Lucky, and he's a very mild-mannered boy. One of the friendlier ones with Lucky, but Lucky that bad boy keeps growling at poor Brownie. I suspect its a Alpha Male thing going on between them. Adopted by Pam T.'s mom - was abused (Pam T. says) by his previous owner. 
Scruffy Lucky
And lastly - The mixed breed Lucky! I suppose besides Spring, he's the only other mixed breed. :) His history is pretty sad - He was abandoned at a petshop I frequented (in hopes of getting a puppy) by his previous owner - on the excuse of sending him for grooming. Under normal circumstances grooming is quick and the owner may collect the dog after a day. The owner never came back, however, and left false contact details. To cut a long story short, my mom and I ended up adopting Lucky. He grew to be pretty adorable - but under that cute facade I think he has an abusive past. He gets agitated when people raise their hands to a certain angle, and starts barking/growling at them. Lucky's also rather territorial and possessive... which is something I've been trying to change for months. Anyway, Mr Ivan (who has a pom of his own that goes by the name of 'Jackie Chan'), nicknamed Lucky the 'Suicide Bomber', because basically Lucky was creating chaos and according to Ivan, 'colliding into walls repeatedly.' At home he is normally mild mannered, but when I brought him to college, he was quite an embarassment indeed. He'd tried to get fresh with the female dogs there, and basically made a new enemy out of one schnauzer. Hopefully with enough patience and training, Lucky's aggressive side will be quelled :) I've a lack of other photos, and I went into a photo-taking frenzy when Lucky was asleep, so enjoy the rest of the pics! 
My all time fave. Photo was taken by Ivan. Thank you Mr Chan!
Sleepyhead
Sleepyhead exerts his influence!
Labels: dogs, events, photolog
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21 year old student still trying to find her way around the world; like any other :)
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