Day 135 - SEA Music Social

SEA Music, the group whom I play Thai music with, planned for a social karoke event today at Soho. Well, I thought it would be a good opportunity to gather with this bunch of wonderful friends I made in London and to see a side of Soho that I wouldn't know as well.

The gang who turned up.

Nan doing a "Dancing Queen"
Yes, the only non-alcholic drink on the table is mine (coke)

Thanks for telling me how long the intro is.
The most literal MTV for "No woman no cry"

Soho is still alive at 11pm. According to Roy, its the only part of the city that never sleeps.

And yes, I got approached by a "lady on the streets" quite directly. It's Soho, what to do. But I had a great time with the SEA Music people. Too bad I'm leaving London soon.

Day 118 - 2nd Paper and rest!

2nd Paper - Coastal and Estuarine Environment. This time, the paper is at Bishopgate Institute, which is a lot more obvious than the previous location. The paper was quite challenging, as it take quotes from very very specific readings among its list of more than 10 readings per lecture. Obviously who has the stamina and time to read all? Hopefully the smoke bombs I've thrown into the answer booklet worked.

And I think I'm getting old. Bladder cannot survive a 3 hour paper anymore. Haha.

Met up with Ming Li and Heather after the paper, as we've decided to try the vegetarian buffet that I chanced upon near Warren Street station at Euston road.

Nope not this buffet.

Though we wonder if it was deliberate to contrast against the vegetarian buffet (red sign)

The spread was not bad, just that it has a lot of mock meat dishes (which will delight many). Chinese and Thai cuisine - a little watered down, but nothing like the oily and bastardised Chinese food you see in those "Chinese Buffet". For £5.50 per head, it's pretty worth it. They have several branches around too.

SEA music decided to end practice early today and hang out at a pub, as a reward for the hardwork and successful gig at Cambridge. I asked for Coke, but they don't have it. Only Pepsi. Frankly I can't tell the difference - just gimme my non-alcoholic carbonated drink!

Saw this on Larry's bottle. The pregnant woman sign is just so funny.

These brown stuffs are the flying seeds of some trees. It was flying all over the place this afternoon, prompting me to cover my mouth and nose as I walk. Roy, Larry and Nan referred to them as "Fairies". It's like macham bigger dandelions flying around.

Day 108 - SEA Music goes to Cambridge

It's Singapore Day today! But I've decided not to go for it, as SEA Music is having a gig at Cambridge. Singapore Day happens every year, how often do you get to perform in Cambridge? Besides, I'll be back in Singapore in about 2 months time anyway. So yes, all the food I crave can wait.

We drove up to Cambridge and arrived at Jesus College early. We're suppose to perform during the lunch time of a conference on cultural exchanges in Southeast Asia during the 18th and 19th Century.

Most of the photos here are taken by Larry!

Preparing for a early run through.
Looking for my soles after our run through.

We had a quite a bit of free time before our performance, so we walked around a little.
In performance gear. It was pretty good, and I ching-chapped at the right places. Guess I'm more used to these pieces which were unfamiliar to me at the start. Perhaps I have the confidence to start playing these pieces on other instruments already. Anyway, the audience was fantastic. We thought we were just background music for their lunch, but they were really attentive and appreciative, even though given their background, they are clearly not ethnomusicologist. Was told that the organisers were very happy and impressed!
Our lunch from the organisers!

Wolfing down. Eating sandwiches never felt so shiok before.

The aftermath.

We continued to explore Cambridge
Camera shoot-out competition. Went to pay Keng Rui a surprise visit at his room before we meet for dinner in the evening with Royce.
Having a picnic at one of the few areas in Cambridge where you can walk on the grass. They bought drinks from the pub, but sorry I don't drink!

CRASSH - what an acronym for your research centre.

The rest of the gang returning to London first. I went on to Royce's place and talk cock with him till we met Keng Rui for dinner.

Saw this when I returned to Kings Cross.

The new location of Platform 9 3/4

Day 28 - My first perfomance in UK

The SEA Music Group, which I played with every Tuesday had a gig at Imperial College's Thai Night. So I joined in as the Ching Player. The Thai Night is an annual event which was organised by the Thai students in Imperial College.

The Group




In Performance.

We were served dinner after our performance. Strangely, it came in plastic containers for every one, including the guest. Da-baoed from Thai Square apparently.

Koong?

After the whole thing, I went around Imperial taking photos. It was my first time in Imperial after all. And with the tripod I just acquired, it's a good tiem to put it to test.

The long endless tunnel back to South Kensington station. The distance was like walking from City Hall MRT station to Suntec and back.

Day 5 & 6

Lesson started on Monday. So far so good, just that most of the physical geography has a lot of co-lecturers, and that many of them are from the research centres/institutes that is under UCL Geography. And of course, they are really young!

There was some hiccup on Tuesday's coastal lecture. On schedule, it says 9-11am. Yet on Moodle (the much lousier version of IVLE), it says 11-1. So the lecturer didn't appear at 9, and we all decided to leave. Then she emailed us at 10+ that it was a mixed up and there will be a make up lecture later in the day.

"Geographies of Security" was right after coast, and it seems pretty interesting. It's not just geopolitics nor a sub-field of it, but it embodies mainly the idea of "securities". Yes, Dr. Carl's work appear in my reading list for "Geographies of Security".

Being a sunny day, I took the opportunity to take photographs.

The view from outside my room.

Yes, my room over looks the park. Now don't rejoice yet......

I suspect the extractor fan from our toilets lead to this pipe.

Yup, windows open at the top, not at the side. The first time I opened the window, I thought it is going to collapse on me. Perhaps it prevents us from putting things outside of the window as well.

The street that leads to my residence. Can get a little too quiet at night.

The park which my hall overlooks. I thought it was pretty nice, till I saw old grave stones stacked or placed at the side of the park.

My Hall. Former nurse hostel apparently.

Have something new on my Tuesday night - SOAS Thai music ensemble, thanks to P'Roy. When I stepped into the music room, I was shocked. So many variety of musical instruments in one small room!

Javanese-styled Nagas on the gong and kempul stand of the SOAS gamelan set, as compared to the Chinese dragon for the NUS one.

Fellow Jammers.

That's P'Roy in front of me.

There isn't a Ranad Thum Lek, and there are already 2 very accomplish Saw-U players. So I settled for the Ching for that night. But it was fun nonetheless.