I tried to cook rice and ended up with one week's worth of porridge for breakfast lunch and dinner. I will try again once I finish the porridge.

It snowed today. I was having a lecture at King's Manor on the second floor. The window was behind the lecturer. When it started to snow, everyone just stared happily outside the window and the lecturer thought that we were suddenly all very interested in what he had to say about Cultural Resource Management. But sadly, it was too warm for it to remain snow on the ground so there were just puddles of water where there should have been snow. We were very disappointed.

I had a fun time cycling back though. Imagine little bits of ice smacking your face as you cycle uphill whilst trying not to breath so as not to fog up your glasses and be rendered effectively blind. And the howling blizzard wind threatens to blow you into the path of a truck. I felt like a cycling icicle. Have I mentioned how big trucks seem to appear from nowhere behind you on the coldest, wettest days and how car drivers seem to think it is necessary to be reckless on such days?

Sad times for Jun and Wen. My condolences. And a big hug that reaches across land and sea, from Britain to Singapore.

Song Change! Enjoy a classic. Ballet Music From Rosamunde

I woke up today in a fantastic mood. What a NICE, HAPPY day! I made some hot tea with milk. Cooked some pasta with carrots. Taste so good. I'm just very happy for no apparent reason.

I had an interesting chat with the ever-amusing Azeena on MSN. Tried to sell her on my Iranian neighbour again. She seemed a lot keener this time. We talked about strange stuff like revealing clothes in Bollywood films and what sort of girls are attractive. I think she is really repressed.

Chatted with Ah Boy too. She hates it when I swear. Fuck. Opps! Damn. Opps! Shit. Opps! Gosh?

I also made Christmas plans with my sister. Planned the menu, decor and theme. She thinks my mummy is not in good shape to handle the preparations so we will have to do it.. Fantastic. The theme for house decorations this year is angels and stars. We have conceptualised a classy look. Foodwise, it is going to be pretty. The turkey will have those frilly paper things attached to the legs. Garnishes will be used liberally. It is going to be a busy kitchen on 24th December. Exciting. Here's an idea of the menu:

Starters/soups/salads:

- Hors d'Oeuvres. Pretty little things. Sweet ones: fruit topping. Savoury ones: smoked salmon/caviar topping
- Prawn bisque
- Waldorf salad
- Caesar salad
- Prawn cocktail

Sides:

- Escargots
- Mussels
- Tinned oysters
- Smoked salmon
- Boiled quails' eggs
- Grilled potatoes
- Satay

Sauces/dips:

- Pesto
- Traditional tomato-based pasta sauce
- Salmon mouse

Main courses:

- Turkey with herb stuffing
- Baked pork chops with rosemary. Garnished with herbs and caramelised onions
- Chicken risotto with avocado slices
- Fish casserole
- Baked crab
- Olive rice

Desserts:

- Chocolate fondue
- Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream
- Berry crumble with hot custard sauce
- Trifle with berries
- Cheesecake

Drinks:

- Chocolate milkshake (frothy and low in fat!)
- Red wine
- Bailey's Irish cream
- Water!
- Assorted soft drinks

Junk food:

- Potato chips
- Assorted chocolates


Doesn't it sound exciting? I will be the master chef, of course. I have taken over Christmas dinner since last year. I'm raising standards. It is going to be a crazy kitchen this year. I will have to work hard to keep things in control and to keep track of the time. Planning planning planning. I will have to make sure food gets served hot and cold stuff gets served cold. And so many of the items have to be prepared from scratch. Things like the prawn bisque (peal prawns, flambé prawns, boil stock, etc) stuffed turkey that has to be defrosted the night before. All the main courses as well as the Hors d'Oeuvres, salads, trifle, crumbles, baked potatoes, quail eggs and sauces have to be prepared for scratch. I don't like to use too much ready-made stuff. Laziness does not produce gourmet Christmas dinners. Yeah baby!

Winter has descended upon York. The green fields are now sprinkled with frost. Sprinkled? Blanketed, more like.

It is completely foggy outside now. I can't see the grass on the ground from my window on the second floor.

On Sunday morning, I was on my way back from Mass. Being sleepy-eyed and in "Holy Bible" mode, I thought I was witnessing the miracle of walking on water being performed by gulls. Then I whacked myself on the head and realised that what appeared to be a miracle was just most of the lake being frozen.

I bought the nice leather gloves. Keeps my hands at just the right temperature. I also bought furry blue socks for sleeping in. They look really funny. And I bought ker-nee high black socks to prevent calf cramps. Yes, a socks shopping spree.

Oh yes. On Saturday, I had a cold but had to go out to buy groceries. I cycled there and bought my stuff. Then, I discovered that the stuff I had bought wouldn't fit into my backpack. So, intelligently, I packed the remaining stuff into two plastic bags and hung one on each handlebar of the bicycle. The thing with having a free-swinging weights on each handlebar is that they keep swinging. In different directions. And there are these things Physics students study known as Momentum and Force. So, I was on the road and every time there was the slightest bend in the road... WHEE!!! I was honked at by so many cars and I can't remember how many times I almost died on that cold Saturday afternoon while cycling like a drunkard with a bad cold.

I think I'm falling in love.

The frost is so pretty
Oh the cold. The Cold. The COLD, COLD COLD

To Boon & Jun: I hope your grandmother is ok. Two of you, please take care.

Hello readers! I've had a really relaxed week. One of the lecturers was on medical leave so there was only one lecture and one seminar this week. I've been doing a lot of reading to make myself smart and knowledgeable although I'm already very much so. My first essay has been marked and I got a good grade. My only mistake was a citation mistake but that was only because I didn't know how to cite a source that was a lecture according to the Harvard style of referencing. The evaluations for my seminar presentations so far have also been quite good. It would appear that I'm not as useless at Archaeology as I first thought. We shall see how it goes.

Scottish salmon has been on the menu all week. I bake it in the oven with pesto sauce and it's super delicious.

It's getting very cold now (below zero at night) and it is going to get colder. According to someone who has a farming background, you can tell that it's going to be a cold winter if there are a lot of berries on the holly bushes. The bushes are absolutely covered with berries! The squirrels have also been hoarding nuts like nobody's business. It's going to be a cold, cold winter.

When it gets too cold, I will probably camp in the kitchen beside the oven. For now, camping beside the radiator in my room stops me dying from hypothermia.

I was checking out gloves on thursday. The sports gloves looked nice but they were too bulky. I saw this black leather pair that was tempting but really expensive. Maybe I will buy them as a birthday present for me.

My Cypriot flatmate was cooking a really interesting soup in the kitchen. A porridgey concoction made from wheat, barley and cheese. She gave me some cheese to try and it tasted like mozzarella but saltier and had mint leaves in it. I've never seen a soup like that before.

My Iranian flatmate was telling me about how one of the Electronics lecturers had brought a prototype head-controlled wheelchair for a demonstration in class. Tilt head back to go backwards, lean forward to go forward, look left to turn left etc. And I asked, " What if the person in the wheelchair wanted to look left while turning right?"

I am writing another essay. Terribly things, essays. Being the chronic procrastinator that I have always been, I decided to explore hiding places in my small room when I was supposed to be writing the essay. I made the great discovery that I can fit comfortably in the wardrobe, close the door and sit down in the comfortable darkness that smells of clean clothes. I also went to the kitchen in search of distraction and found the Iranian fella cooking his lunch and randomly discussed imaginary numbers in electronics and the use of cement to make casts of the carbonised bodies in Pompeii. I also checked out the weather forecast which says that night temperatures might go as low as 0 over the next few days. And then, I came here to write this post.

Procrastination is essential to the production of good work because good work can only be done last minute due to the need for deadline pressure to stimulate brain cells and encourage concentration. Long live last-minute work!

Oooh... fun things.
On Saturday, people over here celebrated Bonfire Night. For those who don't know what it is, google "Guy Fawkes".

I went caving again. This time, it was a much bigger and dryer cave. We changed outside a church and one girl wondered if it would be wrong to show her bum to the church. Then, we descended into the cave using a rope. I was dangling on the rope over a deep, dark hole in the ground (about 12m) when my hair got caught in the rack (metal friction device attached to rope). The people already at the bottom tied a knife to the end of the rope but by the time I managed to get the knife up, most of the stuck hair had already torn off. Adrian, the guy who helped with my hair, is apparently considering a career in hairdressing now. One of the guys lent me a balaclava later and thus saved me from becoming increasingly bald.

We crawled through miles of muddy tunnels and descended another 30m (no hair problems) to arrive at a huge chamber that contained a fabulous waterfall. The chamber was as big as York Minster and the waterfall was huge. Google "Gaping Gill". Beautiful, beautiful water. Splashy splashy.

When we finally emerged from the cave, it was already dark. Because we were in the Dales, it was also foggy. I though we were still in the cave and stupidly asked one of the fellas how the plants managed to survive in a dark cave.

On the drive back, there were blazing bonfires and spectacular fireworks on both sides of the road. Imagine driving along a dark road flanked by pyrotechnic displays. Pretty Pretty.

On Monday, I decided to go jogging to think about stuff and kill time. It looked sunny so I went in t-shirt and shorts. I wasn't too bad while I was jogging but when I came back, I realised that my skin was almost frozen. Imagine me red from jogging but frozen from wind. One thing I really appreciate is that you don't get sweaty and drippy like in Singapore. Very comfortable jogging, except for the frozen after-jog.

Yesterday night, I went to a cake and pudding party at a caver's house. Cake for dinner was good. Then they started playing silly games like twister and stuff. There was one particular game that showed everybody what a freak of nature I was. It involved picking a cardboard box up with the teeth with both feet on the ground, hands and knees off. Every round, the cardboard box was reduced in height until it was a just a piece of cardboard on the floor. Then, books were introduced and you had to put your front foot on the books as you bent down to pick up the cardboard. You know me, I have short legs and I'm dead flexible. So, I was just stretching a little and bending a little to get the cardboard, wondering why everyone else couldn't do it. And everybody thought it just wasn't natural. When I reached my limit, they actually got out a tape measure and announced that the pile was 7 inches (17cm) high. I was asked to join the circus along with a few of the guys who were also pretty good. I was very amused.

The dysfunctionality index of my family is sky-rocketing. Things are going way crazy back home and down under.

I'll tell you all about it if you're a close friend and contact me personally.

I'd like to say I'm sorry but I can't deal with problems when I'm a few thousand miles away from them.

Am I whining?

I heard a good quote today. Applies to people who whine and self-pity a lot.

"Get off the cross, sister. We need the wood."

A wonderful feeling as I write the 565th word of my essay. I haven't written anything academic in such a long, long time. I am determined to finish the essay tonight. As it gets later and later, I write better and better. I have always been a night person. There is no use trying to write in the morning. It's like trying to do a side parting on my permanently centre-parted hair.

And tonight is the most ideal night of the year for writing. Why? Because tonight, clocks go back an hour! I am so excited! It's my first time experiencing daylight savings time in person. So starting tomorrow, I will be 8 hours behind Singapore time instead of seven. Not that it matters to anybody back home. Nobody calls me anyway. Skype is the way to go if only because it is free.

I find myself looking a lot at the mirror these days. Just to see a face. (see previous post) I don't think it is very healthy. Living alone will take some time to get used to.

There was an unusual conversation between the half English-half Swiss guy and the Iranian guy in the kitchen this afternoon. Topic of debate was whether Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear capability. The Iranian used the analogy: Cars lead to accidents but the main purpose of a car is for transport. Should you prevent people from having cars just because there are accidents? He also said something along the lines of how it wasn't right that countries like US, China, India have nuclear capabilities themselves are trying to stop Iran developing its own. The other guy's line of argument went somewhere along the lines of: if Iran were to be able to develop nuclear technology, the situation in the middle east would become so unstable that a single pin drop would most likely result in nuclear Armageddon. Still, it was quite a calm "conversation" throughout which I was silent and sat eating my bread. I find these fellas very interesting.

I sit in my lonely little room and try to write a 2000-2500 word essay. Is archaeology useful to society? The more I research, the more I'm disenchanted with the subject. I'm in deep shit. I need to talk to my supervisor soon.

Over dinner last night, I asked one of the fellas in my flat about interesting things to do in this city other than going to the pub. He suggested the cinema, or taking a train down to another city like Leeds or Manchester or London. That appeals to me but being all alone means I have no one to go with. I felt sad and pathetic and so retreated to my room to watch a dvd.

The room is warm and cozy. It is quite and peaceful outside. God, this is boring. My headphones in my ear talk and sing to me but we've never had a satisfying conversation. I open the door to my wardrobe to look at the face in the mirror inside. I know you will call me mad if I talked to my reflection but can you really blame me? It is the only human face I've seen today. (did I say human?)

The English value their privacy a lot. I'm beginning to realise that the line between Privacy and Isolation is very fine and subtle indeed.

Today is such a nice day. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. Funny how I hate sunshine in Singapore and look forward to it here. The city was busy with holiday school kids. There were street stalls and entertainers. There was even an opera group singing in one of the city squares. Wonderful wonderful day. How can I possibly do my 2000-2500 word essay (due on Monday) on this beautiful day? I have no choice but to procrastinate. I'm going out to look at some sun now.

Poetic Moment

Sometimes, when I'm too tired, I get the urge to write poetry. This feels like one such moment. So, here goes!

Give me a penny for my thoughts
One shiny coin
And I will bare my mind to you
Though not my soul
For I do not know where it resides

The Body
The Mind
The Soul
The Essentials
One soul so elusive
Like the penny that fell

Behind my altar to you

And was forgotten
And left there
Until it was
Shiny no more

With a hidden soul
So hidden be
Faith
Love
Joy
In the dusty crevice

Behind my altar to you

- Audrey Teo. 27 October 2005. 12.31am

Please feel free to comment, critique and criticise and also to call it a load of sleepy-eyed crap

Song Change! Sun Years by Scotland Barr and The Slow Drags. The other song had been up for far too long. Hope you like this one. Tell me when you get bored of it and I'll find another.

The Cave, the Damsel in Distress and the Baby on the Road

Life has become exciting once again. Exhilaratingly, shockingly, exciting.

I went caving yesterday. The experienced members of the club thought it would be fun to bring us to one of the wettest caves in the area for our first trip. On the way there, the brake pads of the minibus we were in caught fire and the smell of burning rubber prompted us to stop. The thick black smoke coming from the front left wheel informed us that the minibus could go no further. Alternative transport by car was arranged but there wasn't enough space for everyone so we had to draw lots. Four people went back. I didn't. (maybe I should have)

When we reached the cave area, it was raining heavily. We had to strip to our underwear in the open to get into our caving gear. How fun. The cave gear consisted of a fleece under suit, an over suit, wet socks, Wellington boots, knee pads, a battery belt, a battery, a helmet and a light attached to it. We looked like extreme miners as we trudged up the hills to the cave entrance.

Imagine a river. Imagine a dark confined space. Put the two together and you might have some idea of the cave I went into. It was very cold in there and breath was misting all over the place. When I scrapped my hands on the rock, it bled for a while and then stopped because it was too cold. Thanks to my great height, I was completely submerged in some parts. There where also parts that were so narrow you had to go on your belly with your head turned to one side to get through. Remember the muddy shitty water of the Yorkshire dales I told you about in a previous post? Yes, I was walking, crawling and swimming in that. And just to liven things up, I did a lot of girly squealing. Wasn't really scared, just felt like squealing. LL will remember how my good squeal sounds like. Why do I go caving? Obviously because I have very strong survival instincts. I mean, nobody with a death wish would submerge themselves underground in cold, dark spaces in rushing water on slippery rocks, right?

When we finally emerged from the cave, we once again had to change in the open. Trying to change your wet underwear in the open, on muddy, sheep shitty ground, holding a little towel for modesty was a fascinating experience. It is not polite to stare.

On the way back, we stopped by a pizza takeaway. On the way back to the car, we decided to jump over a chest high stone wall to get back to the car instead of walking the long way. Cold, dark and wet night. What better time and place to go jumping over stone walls right? One girl slipped and whacked her elbow. After being on the road for about half an hour, the pain became too much for her to bear and we had to make a detour to a nearby hospital A & E. I went with her and spent about an hour and a half being Florence Nightingale to a girl I barely knew. It's not the first time I've impersonated Florence Nightingale. I always seem to be doing things like that for injured people of all sorts. It turned out to be a hairline fracture. She was given a sling and some painkillers. We drove back to the University where I took her up to her room. (the Florence Nightingale inclination again) Then I walked back to my college in the rainy night. I arrived at my house at 11 pm, dead tired, dripping wet and shivering and aching (from the caving) but nobody was around to give pity so I had to self-pity.

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed to go to mass. Am I stupid? Not really. I had motivation. I went to confession on Friday and I clearly remember the Father saying to me," See you at mass on Sunday" (translation: I'll be keeping an eye out for you so you better be there) Well...

After mass, I walked back to my room along the busy road that cuts through the university. On the way, I met a Chinese girl who was lost. Luckily, I had my trusty map (one of the three I carry all the time) and was able to show her the way. She was heading in the same direction as I was so we walked together. On the way, she got a call from her friend who was waiting for her, so we walked faster. Suddenly, I saw a baby crawl out of an open gate from a house beside the road and onto the road in the path of an oncoming car. I started running. Luckily, the car was going quite slowly and the driver managed to stop in time. I picked up the baby and walked through the open gate. The mother had just come out of the house and was looking for the baby. When she saw me holding him, she realised what must have happened. She was so shocked that she only remembered to say thank you when I turned to leave. Not that I minded. The baby was cute and blond.

Strange happenings, don't you think? I don't know if they are coincidences or just Somebody trying to send me some incomprehensible message. I wouldn't have become Florence Nightingale if I had drawn the lot for going back (it was a 1 in five chance). I probably wouldn't have gone to mass today because I was so tired out from the Florence Nightingaling last night. But I somehow decided to go. I wouldn't have been there by the road at the crucial moment the baby crawled out if I hadn't been walking with the Chinese girl. It's all been so strange. I assure you it's all 100% true and I'm making anything up. I'm not even exaggerating like I usually do. The actual events are more exciting than anything I could make up.

Coincidence? What do you think?

Today, I collected my bike from the bike shop where it had just been serviced. I cycled back to my house. All on my own, my first time cycling on the road with big scary cars and trucks whooshing by me. I was terrified and petrified. The last time I rode a bike, I was about 9 yrs old. And I fell and injured myself. So you can imagine how absolutely frozen with fear I was. I had to keep reminding myself not to give in to the urge to close my eyes as it would most likely be the last thing I ever did.

I eventually reached the house alive and breathing. I went to put my bike in the bike shed where I met the Iranian guy who had just come back too. And he said, "Congratulations! You made it!" And I replied, "Shit, I'm freaking terrified" I had to go to the kitchen to drink 2 cups of water and a cup of hot chocolate before my heart rate started to return to normal. Shit man.. being all alone in a strange land doing scary things alone really scares me to death. I need to get some heart attack medicine.

Dear people,
I shall indulge you with these lovely photos. They were taken about 2 weeks ago when my parents were still here to drive me around the Yorkshire country. The first few aren't very nice because they were taken with my father's 3.2 megapix camera. (so last year...). The later ones are nice cos they were taken with my trusty little 5.1 (so last month, I know).

I went to a Castle Howard on a foggy day. It was too foggy for any photos of the castle itself to be any good. Luckily, photos taken in the castle gardens turned out just fine. I walked down the passageway into the Secret Garden.



Here are some flowers that you don't get to see alive in Singapore.








Roses always look better alive and attached to a plant rather than dead and wrapped in some shiny paper.


Here's the famous Whitby Abbey which was once the lair of Dracula, if you believe Bram Stoker. The day I was there, it was misty and clammily cold. The dark imposing facade of the gothic ruins were truly impressive. Very atmospheric. As my watch ticked dangerously close to sunset time, I hurried my parents out of the place. Just in case the undead Count was still hanging around the place. You can never be too careful.





I also visited a waterfall somewhere in the yorkshire dales. I'm particularly proud of this photo. Looks like one of those waterfall calendar photos. I must be a real genius to make shitty brown water look so good.



The Yorkshire Dales is a beautiful place. Here, you can see the shade of green that grass was meant to be. You can see the little stone wall that you've always read about in story books. It's so beautiful that it makes you really contemplate Creation and Creator. No wonder cows go mad.



And in some places, heather lends the hills fiery colours.



Here is a picture of just 0.09% of the ducks on campus. It is believed that duck shit holds up the bridges crossing the lake.



This is York Minster which located very near King's Manor in the city where I have my lectures and seminars etc. It's too big to capture fully in one photo. Buildings like these were built to impress.





An ancient city wall surrounds the city centre. You can walk on it. These structures play a very important role in my navigation system. As long as I can see them, I can tell whether I'm in the city or outside it. This is significant as I spend 60% of my time being lost.





This is also a very important landmark. It's Clifford's Tower. I know it as The Thing On The Hill. When I see it, I know that it is time for me to get off the bus so that I will be on Clifford's Street. Getting lost is really a pain in the ass.



This is King's Manor, the medieval building in the city where I study. Tourists visit all the time but only students and university staff have access to all parts of the building.



Ok. That's all I'm prepared to upload for your viewing pleasure. It's too tedious. Of course, I have about a million more pictures but these are the pick of the lot. Regarding requests for pictures of my room, I'll think about it. Maybe when I'm bored.

I've just come back from the Sports Centre on campus where I attended my very first Caving Club training session. It was quite fun. The best way to describe it would be like rock climbing without the rock wall. I went up this rope which was attached to a beam near the roof of the sports centre. Because you don't have a wall like in rock climbing, you have a much higher chance of spinning round and round on the rope so I was a little bit seasick after that. I'm going on a caving trip this saturday. I'll tell you all about it.

I skyped with doggy before I went for the caving training. Doggy is a lousy gossip person. She doesn't know any juicy rumours at all. LL, where are you?

Oh, and can somebody like LL please check up on XY? She seems to be getting into all sort of uncomfortable and (in my opinion) not very safe situations. Maybe some good advice on how to avoid trouble would be useful. No offence to XY, but when it comes to putting yourself in risky situations, you haven't learnt the power of "NO, fuck off"

Yesterday, I went to mass for the first time in many, many years. After mass, which was held in a lecture room, we walked over to the village church where the ladies in the church fed us with pizza, salads and the yummiest apple and berry crumbles and pies with hot custard sauce and cream. My Iranian neighbour accused me of going only for the food. Hee Hee...

I signed up for the mailing list for the Islamic society during freshers' fair. Actually, I signed up for so many mailing lists that I can't remember what I signed up for. So, I got an email saying that there was a meeting at 5.30pm for muslims and non-muslims of the Islamic society. It seemed a bit wrong to go to church in the morning, then to an Islamic meeting in the evening. I was also afraid that they might be the pushy sort who would try to get me to wear a tudong. So, I decided not to go.

Today, I had my first lecture. It was quite good but the lecturer flashed the slides really fast. I don't think he meant for us to copy down everything but most of us, including me, did.

I forgot to tell you a bit about the location of my course. My course is situated in King's manor which is a medieval building in York city, near York Minster. I live in the university campus which is outside of the city. To get to King's manor, I can take an hour-long walk, ride a bike or take a bus. Because my bike remains broken for the time being, I had to take the bus. A return tickets costs £2.30 (that's about S$6.90). How fun.

I also met my supervisor today. Every student has a personal supervisor who performs a role not unlike that of a form teacher. Mine's an Aussie woman. She had 2 dogs in her office. When I stepped in and sat down, the dogs came over and tried to lick me. Just to be polite, I patted them in a friendly, non-aggressive manner. I imagined that I was patting Grace the Dog.

My lecture ended at 11.30am and my meeting with my supervisor was at 3.30pm. In the four hours in between, I wandered the city aimlessly. Normally, I enjoy wandering aimlessly in new cities (like I did in Perth) but this time it wasn't very fun. I think I'm still homesick.

I bought some microwave meal thing for dinner. Just pop it in for 3 minutes and it's ready to eat. Haha, never thought I'd be eating this sort of crap.

And now, after my microwaved meal of mushroom rice, I sit in my room and try to decipher my lecture notes of the day. I can't really understand my writing so I give up and stare at blue bear-bear. Yes, he appears to still be homesick. Come on, blue bear-bear, I bet a nice shower will cure everything.

Homesickness hit yesterday. Ouch! I went to sit in the common kitchen because the light was brighter and less depressing and also because there would be people coming and going that I could talk to. I found out that I am the youngest person on the floor. Everyone else is over 20. Damn! An Iranian guy showed me some card tricks to cheer me up. Quite funny reallly, I'll show you when I get back. He also advised me to go out and explore to beat the homesickness.

Today, I packed a little bag, locked up my room and started to walk home. I walked and walked and walked for many, many miles. Then, suddenly, I realised that I had reached the sea. The weather was too cold for swimming so I turned back and walked back to my room. I talked to my blue bear-bear and he was homesick too. I talked to my geranium. It wasn't homesick because it had grown up in this place so I put it out on the cold window ledge since it liked the cloudy, wet weather so much.

Then, I went out and joined the caving and potholing club. I just want to die in a cold, dark place.

Btw, boon just wrote a very good short story thing on her blog featuring Pooh and piglet. It is a work of art. I don't think she realises that it is very good. Good structure, suspense and surprise. She probably thinks it's a bit of random rubbish but I think it's a masterpiece. I'm not going to copy it here so go to her blog and read for yourself. Fishbones.blogspot.com

Hello from York! Yes, this is very, very far away from everybody. Kids in aussieland are literally on the other side of the world, thus the expression, down under. I won't be posting any pictures up yet cos I'm lazy but I'll write about random interesting things. There is no chronological order because my brain doesn't really like numbers and dates are numbers.

I went to see the ruins of Whitby Abbey. Gothic Lit. students should remember that Dracula hid in Whitby Abbey and the Van Helsing gang went there to look for him. It is really a fantastic place. The ruins are exactly how Bram Stoker described them. Seriously gothic stuff. I stayed there for a long time, trying to find the vampire's coffin. Then, suddenly, I noticed that it was getting dark so I faster siam. The photos are in Steven's camera cos my poor camera died that day so I must wait for them to be emailed to me before I can post them up. Please wait with bated breath.

From the Abbey ruins, I looked down and saw the river Esk. Again, Gothic Lit. students will remember that this was the scene for the river chase in Stoker's Dracula. Whitby is really a fantastic place because other than cool ruins, this seaside town is also the place where super yummy cod is caught.

I also visited Scarborough. You know, the song that goes : Are you going to Scarborough Faire? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Bullshit. Maybe a long, long time ago, it was a charming little seaside town. Sadly, today, it is the charming little commercialised seaside town of casinos and dogshit. There was so little beach because there was this whole casino belt with neon lights built all along the beach. And the floor was filthy. Dogshit everywhere. The evening that I was there, it was so foggy that I couldn't really see the floor (I'm serious) and was so scared of stepping on the dogshit. We quicly had dinner at a restaurant away from the beach and drove back to York even though we originally planned to stay the night in Scarborough and it was about 2 hours' drive back in the dark fog.

After the trauma of Scarborough, we decided to be closer to nature. So, we drove to the Yorkshire Dales. It's this very large area of land that is protected National Park which has gentle hills and lots of farm and natural formations like waterfalls etc. There was a very interesting formation called the buttertubs. In a sort of valley place with winds that can push you forward if you don't hold on to something, there are holes in the ground. When you look down the holes, you can see water flowing down rocks at the side. Like a mini waterfall in a hole. And right at the bottom of these 24foot deep holes, there are caves. I shouted hello to any aliens or undiscovered lifeforms that might be living down there before I rushed back to the car to defrost.

Steven and Mummy went back today in KiTTY. KiTTY is the name of the rented Ford car which had a license plate number: K05TTY. It just looked like KiTTY to me.

So now I'm all alone in this foreign land. I'm a stranger in a strange land just like Dracula was in England.

On my floor, there is only one other first year undergrad. He's an Iranian and just now in the kitchen, we were having communication problems. Every sentence had to be repeated 2 or 3 times because I couldn't understand his accent and he couldn't understand mine. Do you think it might be because I was deliberately doing a very strong Singlish accent? I could be subconsciously homesick.

I'm slowly accumulating people's christmas presents in the storage area that is under my bed. So far, Doggy has something. Are you happy Doggy? The rest will be added over the next two months and hopefully I will have a complete Santa Claus bag in time for when I return for Christmas