Day 70 - When Spring comes......

It's not only the trees and flowers that buds and spring out. Ice cream trucks too!

But it's expensive. £1.50 for a soft-serve ice cream???

Day 69 - First trip to Science Library

I spend more time at the Archaeology Library than the Science Library which is where the Geography Reading Room is at (Yes, Geography has its own room in the library). So today is the first time I've actually ventured into the Science library proper to borrow books! What to do, my ancient Egypt had so much readings every week, I spent more time reading about Egyptian things and researching for my essay than reading about Geography.

Anyway, after being exposed to low tech Archaeology Library, I finally get to see more high-tech things in the Science Library.

The self-service borrowing machine. No, you don't need to place one book at a time. Just dump the whole stack there and it will be detected by the machine.

The huge receipt that the borrowing machine prints out. See how big it is compared to my A5 notebook?

Trees are budding. Spring is coming.

Day 68 - Last Egypt Essay and Avenue Q

"I'm so tired that I want to sleep......"

I've finally submitted my 2nd and last essay for my "Ancient Egypt in London" course. So unlike NUS right? A 100% CA module? Just write 2 essays. Back in NUS, 2 essays will at most give you 40% of your grades. And at a higher word count somemore.

I find my paraphrasing skills and essay writing speed to be improving. Which is a good thing, given how submission in UCL can be quite a chore. All the uploading to turnitin.com for plagiarism checking and cover page submission etc. Well I'm glad I survived.

So to treat myself for the hardwork done, I've planned and decided to watch Avenue Q today. Well, it's likely to be my last musical in London. Yes, I deliberately chose not to watch it when it was in Singapore, and I have to watch Avenue Q soon as it is it's last week running at Nöel Coward Theatre, before it moves to another theatre and reopens in 3 months time. I'll be out of London by then!

Nöel Coward Theatre. You can't miss the Avenue Q sign.

The screen before it all starts

A smaller but more intimate theatre. Again, only a student in London - £25 for stall seats.

We all know the storyline and songs of Avenue Q, so I wouldn't elaborate. I thought the cast is pretty impressive, except for Christmas Eve, who leaks more of the actress Filipino origins than the character's Japanese roots. Anyhow, it was impressive how some of the actors pick up puppertering only through this show, and how the lead actor manage two lead characters for one person.

Anyhow, it was a really good laugh to treat myself and take a break. I'll restart researching tomorrow for my freshwater ecosystem presentation next Monday!


Here's "Avenue Q" characters doing a "Wicked!" number. Gosh if there is a "Avenue Q" version of "Wicked!", I'll watch it!

Day 65 - Put a Red Nose on

It's Red Nose Day today!
What day you say?

Frankly I had no idea either. But apparently, it's a day where people do things to raise funds for charity. So you have shops and supermarket chains giving a part of their takings to charity, and everywhere encouraging you to do something funny for charity. You see in the news that some celebrities don red noses (with their kids for some cases) to mark Red Nose Day.

The highlight of course, is a 2 hour entertainment programme by BBC, with celebrities performing to raise funds. I didn't watch it though - the only TV in the hostel is in the common room that-is-next-to-a-corridor-which-smells-like-pee.

I wonder if it is like the charity shows we have back in Singapore.....without the stunts of course.

Even Youtube put on a red nose for the day!

Day 64 - Les Mis

NUS London Exchangers (Can I shorten it to Lonchangers?) met up today for our 2nd musical outing. This time, to watch one of the longest running musicals in London - Les Misérables. From what I understand, it has been running since 1980s, and at the rate it's going, it will usurp "CATS" as the longest running musical in London.

When I was a kid, I used to pronounce it as LESS Mi-SE-rable, when it is actually pronounced as LES Mi-ZE-Rah. Pardon my french then. Didn't know much about Les Misérables, but I remember it being quite a hype in Singapore when they brought it there quite a few years ago. The Lonchangers were talking about it, how it created a buzz as there were auditioning for a Singaporean Corsette. Suddenly, "Castle in the Cloud" was played everywhere.

Anyway, there were only 4 of us. Heather fell ill, and Esther has watched it before with her boyfriend. We were a little late, so we had to be separated in our seating.

The iconic emblem of the musical - an illustration of Corsette taken from the book. The theatre screams "Les Mis" across the whole of Shaftesbury Avenue.

that's one miserable traffic light......

Only a student - Stall seats for £27.50

Need a binoculars?

Yes, our bags were checked for security. We were wondering if it is standard practice, or implemented recently because of what happened in Belfast.

The cast list.

What can I say?

No wonder it's a classic. It's like climax after climax, with memorable, haunting and earth-shaking songs. But it got a little draggy towards the end though.

I love the stage management. Basically there is a circle in the middle of stage that acts like a Lazy Susan. So the characters can just walk on the circles and the set will be slowly turned in or turned pass to give the impression that the character has walked quite a distance. It is also the "Lazy Susan" that allowed quick set changes (with the aid of lighting), and allow you to see both sides of the barrier when it was raised.

The obligatory group photo. :)

Here's some songs from Les Misérable for you!

My favourite sad song. No one does it better than Lea Songla.


My favourite "Earth-shaking-climatic" song

Day 63 - Object Handling

Scheduled with the Petrie Museum to have a object handling session today. Well, the 2nd and last essay for my "Ancient Egypt in London" requires us to write about an object in the Petrie Museum. So thought looking at the object up close would give me some insights to write about.

I was provided with a table, tissues, a foam, gloves (I'm the only one wearing XL gloves so far) and a nice lamp in case it was too dark to take photos, as flash photography was not allowed. The lamp actually produced yellow light, but I adjusted the white balance for the following photos. Eh, don't use this photos for any kind of publishing hor! Not allowed by the museum ok?

The top view of the object. The hole was probably used to contain some cosmetics. I theorised in my paper that it's kohl.

The back of the object.

Didn't have a ruler, so the penny became my scale.

Thanks to my traveller tripod, I felt so professional taking these photos lah.

The object. It's an image of Taweret, a household goddess that is thought to protect pregnant women, especially during childbirth. She has a crocodile back, a hippopotamus face, lion's paws, and human breasts with a pregnant belly.

Yup. Indeed I found some insights to research and write about. Yes, I don't just travel. I got do my work one hor. On my way out, I saw this crowd

It's Rag Week at UCL. They were playing dodgeball to raise funds. It's quite interesting - all the different clubs wore their attire to play. Like Karate in Karate outfit, hockey in their jersey etc. First time I see such a huge gathering at the Portico. The collective cheers and awws.

Day 61 - Marking 2 months with a slight scare.

Yup. I'm 2 months into my exchange already.

Had a shocker today. It's the start of the 3 weeks of student seminars for my "Restoration and Freshwater Eocsystem". When I signed up for the topic that I want to present on, there wasn't any dates on the papers. So I foolishly assumed that I'll present on the last week, since my topic is the 2nd from the last.

But it turns out, the lecturer had randomnised the order after everyone signed up. I was suppose to be the last presenter today!

But turns out there wasn't enough time to go through everyone. So I was rescheduled to present in the last week instead. Phew!