Awesome Ireland!

Sorry I've been away from my blog for such a long time, I'm cutting down my blogging frequency from at least two a month to just one a month, as you know, uni has just started and I don't think I'll be having much free time on this anymore...the nightmare is starting soon...GOD BLESS ME

okay, as I've promised. I'll be talking about my trip to Ireland in this post. It was a really great time spending with my best friend -XinYun who has been such a wonderful tour guide thoughout the trip, she brought us around Ireland, not only Dublin but also Northern and South Ireland! Eventhou its just a one week trip but we have made used of every little moment to look for fun, haha...thanks XinYun for doing the well planning...I hope I can visit you again before you go back to Malaysia, thats very soon...early next year right. It sounds abit hard for me to see you again in Ireland or somewhere in Europe, anyway...we will try, arent we?

The trip can be separated into three parts which are Dublin, Northern Ireland and South Ireland. Dublin is the temporary home of XinYun for 2 and a half years, her college is really close to the city, no no no...I should say its inside the city, just a couple minutes of walk to all the shopping streets and tourist spots. Dublin is a vibrant city, and I bet you don't know about the birth of Guinness Stout is actually from Dublin! yea, thats true...the guinness that you find everywhere in the world is from Dublin!!! and yes...I've got my first taste of Guinness in the Temple Bar which is the oldest bar in Dublin. It was not as nice as expected but at least I've tried Guinness at the place of its origin, hahaha...nothing to be proud of. The traditional Irish cuisine was also the highlight in Dublin., eventhou the Irish Stew and Smoked Salmon is a little bit pricey but I think it worth the money to have a try, its really yummy thou.

Drunk siu after drinking Guinnessssss

Irish stew and Smoked Salmon!!!drooling...
Xin Yun's medical college located in the city centre

Tell you what...Giant Causeway is a place you definitely don't wanna miss if you've ever thought of visiting Ireland. Its listed in the world heritage and its really really as giant as its name...I'm really impressed by the spectacular view...imagine all the stones in hexagonal shaped are all come from the nature, and they are in abundance not one or two!!! Its really unusual...so lots of nice pictures have been taken there and I'm still craving for more nice pictures after coming back to Nottingham because XinYun didnt transfer the complete album to me...gonna wait til the next time we meet which its a date not known >_< style="text-align: center;">Carrick-A-Rede the hanging bridge

nice people everywhere

what im going to share now is about a few nice people that i've met in the UK in just the 1st four weeks since i arrived here. its really grateful to have met them and received their helps and cares in this new environment. They just made me feel warm!

The first person that i wanna talk about is my boss in my pharmacy, OMG...he is the kindest boss that i've ever met. im wondering is it because of us being the same race (he is a BBC) and thats why he takes extra cares of me? but no matter what, its a fact that he is a very good example to be learnt from, his professionality in his pharmacy career, his bussiness-mind as a branch manager and his attitude in doing everything...he is so close to perfect but haha...nobody in this world is perfect! well, i sincerely appreciated that he allows me to go to the pharmacy late and go home earlier just to match my time with the bus schedule (and if you dont know, the co-operative pharmacy in selston is about 1 hour bus ride from the city! its a superly remote place), im really touched of what he has agreed. Because of his special allowance, i've got to work less hours but getting the same paid, what a good deal rite! also because of that, i even get home earlier than Christine who is working at Wollaton which is only about half an hour walk distance from our house in Dunkirk, that kinda makes me proud of the branch that i've gotten eventhou its so far away, haha. and...my boss is a really nice tutor because he is so so knowledgable and smart. I've got this summer placement workbook to be completed and he guides me alot in doing it and always inspiring me in whatever pharmacy-related issues. One thing im not quite get use to is that he always emphasise the importance of Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P) and that makes me feel really stress while working with him. maybe thats the way he likes to stay with, thats how he has made til the person he is today...*respecting by bowing* other than his professionality in the pharmacy, he is also very good in promoting chinese restaurants and groceries shops in Notts (lol, does this count too) im really appreciated for all the nice places he has recommended and i'll definitely pay a visit when im free, i can probably do it this week since im having a one week break and next week im going to visit XINYUN in IRELAND!!! OMG...cant wait to see her!

the one hour journey to selston, passing by a huge farm land where u can see cows n sheeps

the co-operative pharmacy is just next to the Selston Surgery, doing lots of POM

My dearest colleagues Dawn to my right and Andrea to my left

take a closer look of my badge, see de strange thing? thx Gimms for de special allowance!
My boss aka the branch manager, the one who always follow the rules except the last day, haha
me in my formal working attire, transitting at Nott's city
me in my "cute" working attire says christine

okay, u can check more of my working pictures in facebook. and now im going to talk about the 2nd nice person, nono...probably de 2nd nice gang of people, they come in a group, aha. u must be wondering who am i saying...well, they are the bus drivers! Rainbow 5 and Rainbow 1 are the buses that i took to get to my work place, and because Selston is out of the boundary of the multiple ride access card, i had no choice but to buy FRio which gives me 3 free trips when i buy 10 trips at a time. so the good thing was, i didnt actually get to finish using all my trips in the bus tickets because of all these super duple nice bus drivers who purposely didnt want to punch a whole on my ticket and just let me onboard the bus. They wud either blink their eyes or give me a warm smile to show that they are being kind to me...well, i sincerely and truly appreciated their kindness....i hope i didnt cause any trouble to them with their company after that.

SS pic on de bus, u cant do anyting on de long journey bus except doing stupid thing like this

another ss pic, ss= siusien/shiok sendiri

yea, probably the nice person that im going to talk about now is not the last nice person that i've met but dont you be surprised that there are really lots of nice ppl in the UK! there is this saying in mandarin 出门遇贵人, and now i totally understand its meaning. Just two days ago, me and christine went to Birmingham to visit my neighbour back in Penang, our house are just few units away. They are Susan and Peter whom i seldom met in Penang, one of the reason is that most of the time i was in kl the semenyih kampung and the other reason is that they are staying in Cotsall, Wolverhampton most of the time. Out of our expectation, we have received a super V.I.P treatment from them, we were too surprised with all the care that overwhelmed us for that 2 days, it was a fabulous trip for me! They brought us around Birmingham City (i just found out that Birmingham is the 2nd largest city in the UK), not only that but also a few nice old villages around Birmingham one of which the history is more than 500 years old, with the name of Bridgnorth, and the other village named Lichfield where the spectacular Cathedral is. i must mention here that Peter is definitely a good cook, he made a really yummy wantan mee for everyone and we have a family dinner with his son Josh and Chris. Its been glad to know them and especially the friendliness of them and the feeling of warm as if im back to my home! Besides that, we were being treated with delicious DIMSUM in a pretty elegant chincese restaurant in the chinese town, we even have our 1st fish n chips in the uk for our dinner, it was a really memorable one! wat was even more surprising me is that, Susan gave me lots of her winter clothes and Peter kept giving me his cooking paste and flavouring powder and also some cooking utensils like wok, pressure cooker and rice cooker....OMG, he even wanted to give me his TV but luckily i rejected it. Josh just made a joke that his dad would even give the car to me and the whole house will eventually belong to me, thats really laughable, LOL. well, I'vent finished praising their kindness, they even fetched us back to Notts and visited our university and treated us ice creames which me and christine have been craving it for so long. It was such a wonderful time being with them. I have gained lots of knowledge from them too,things like how to use ebay and do online bussiness...im planning to learn further about it and find a way of earning $$ online! its really tempting me for now when i really need cash $_$ how nice if you can earn money by just sitting infront of the computer, isnt it easy money?!

the selfridges in Birmingham city, one of the newest shopping paradise

the canal which can lead you to London or Manchester by boat! how nice if we sail it one day

the historical english village Bridgnorth as old as 500 years

this house was built in 1580 and stil standing firm, nice pattern of the house created by the wood

the old railway station in Bridgnorth, like those we can only find in de 15th century english movie

cooking fun in Peter's well-equipped kitchen, the birth of the highly recommended wantan mee!

the spectacular Cathedral in Lichfield, looks really gigantic and holiness

the wedding gharry rides the bride and groom to the church for a happy ending love story

the muzium of the Samuel Johnson who was the creator of the English Dictionary, now you know who has caused most students to buy it compulsory.

Peter and Susan's home sweet home, the warm living room with a warm cup of wooloong tea, wat a simple but heavenly leisure.

well, thats all for now. cant finish uploading all of the photos, you can find the rest in facebook, as usual. haha ^_^ i guess my next blog will probably be talking about my trip to Ireland, yea...just another week to go and i'll be there!!! YUN im coming!!!

jus luv Nottingham!

As you've seen from the title, yea im now in nott already!! its been one week and i cant belieave that im coping so fast and so so well than i've never expected! its actually a really nice place here in nott, as for now i meant, beacuse the weather is just nice for the human being to stay and the one thing that i must mention here is that i've met quite alot of really really super duple nice people within this week! and I realised that British is probably one of the most polite race in the world, erm...yea maybe Japanese is top in the list but British is definitely not far away from Japanese. They just love to say "thank you"...and even the public transport bus drivers also play their role in a very professional way, kept greeting "byebye goodluck thankyou x100" when you are getting down the bus and never get bored of saying that! I guess maybe i grew up in the kind of environment that the government does not really emphasise on the practice of good morality and ethics but instead they think that getting an A in pendidikan moral is more important...and so im now learning to be more polite in this brandly new environment, its really a lecture of life...

For the 1st 3 days, I've already explored to many places around Nottingham. It aint that big after all, just a few sites in the cities to be visited, we've seen the statue of Robin Hood and the Nottingham Castle, its really nothing great, but it worth a go if you are new in nott...just like me, LOL. Shopping is one of the nicest activities now because its now summer sales and I've bought my hand bag and wind breaker in the victoria centre with a super cheap price! Broadmarsh centre is a lower class shopping mall (but, victoria aint that highclass anyway...not as nice as Malaysia one) which you can find 99pence or 1pound shops! Dunkirk-the place that im currently staying now is really far from the place to shop for groceries, walking to Beeston for 20minutes is ok but when you are going back while carrying bags n bags of groceries, aha! u'll know how it feels when u try to walk back to Dunkirk. the only way to reduce the burden is probably taking Rainbow 5 which charge you 1.50pounds once onboard, not economic at all! im feeling lucky that im going to stay on campus when the term starts and Beeston is just 5/10 minutes walk from my accommodation hall, and all the bills like electricity, water, gas and internet are included in the rental which really worth the pay for sure. ^^

the old market square where i walk pass everyday to get de bus back 2dunkirk.

shopping at de city, its summer hot sales now!

tats de trent building of de university of nottingham

de nite of nottingham is when drinkers' life jus begun

i've uploaded more photos in my facebook. u might hav a visit if u r interested. ahaa...those are most importantly for my parents n relatives, and i beg u cant belieave that my dad is using facebook too, how modern-minded he is rite ^^

I’m ready to go!!

Yes yes…I think I’m mentally and physically ready to go UK! I’ve got everything prepared and I’ve done everything I wish to do before I go…but only one last thing, I haven’t cried yet. Yea, that’s the last thing that I will do before walking into the departure gate waving to my beloved family or even after stepping out from my home in Penang…ish, I know I can’t control my tears, as always…hmmm…what to do, just cry la don care even I will look stupid in front of them…

All these while, I’ve been trying to make the best of everyday, been trying to make use of the remaining time I have before leaving. I took every moment so preciously as if it’s the very last time I would do it…Yeee…how come it sounds like I’m not coming back anymore, indeed I’m really not coming for 2 years…I mean TWO years!! OMG…I just plan to do that but I don’t know whether I can do it…I think I’ll miss home till sick…choy choy choy!!

What I have done during this summer break is actually nothing special but being a little good girl in the house has made me feeling so so good. It was like long long time ago when I was always in the house helping mum with the house works, helping dad with his bakery, doing my homework on time…oh, that was nearly 10 years ago when I was a primary school kid…time flies wei >_< st="on">UK!

And then, yea I went Sarawak with my ex-housemate/future housemate (hah, we plan to stay together in the forth year in our targeted backyard dream house, don’t we?). It was definitely a memorable one especially the night stays at the Iban long house in Kuching Cultural Village and so coincident that it will be the venue of the world musical festival that Denise is visiting in this July!! One thing that I must mention in this trip is that my beloved friends (hmm, how could I forget to shout out loud their names here, they are all poppies wei ^_^ so proudly present DIANA SONG, PEK SAN, CHIEN HUI, YOKE KIM!!!) they gave a real surprise when they visited my partially home town (Penang la I mean, and you know why it is partial) They presented me a big box of pressie with 21 gifts contained inside and it was 99% HELLO KITTY’s items…*big eyes* I suspected that they could be among the members of the secret agent la, how could they manage to cover up everything until they came to Penang?! How did they do it?!! It’s so amazing yet touching!! And Chien has to bear with the checking of the immigration clearance officer for hand-carrying iron made products such as HELLO KITTY’s nail cutter…ahaha pls bear with me for typing HELLO KITTY in capital letters. Thanks and sorry to Chien for having to suffer (or enjoy >_<) the “merabah-rabah” treatment. Don’t you ter-LOL …aha, my vocabulary has gradually improved because of you guys!

the Titto Trip Part II's itinerary designed by me!!

the housemates n the surprising box from them.

the view of Sibu Town with sungai Rajang.

the Hee garden at Sibu aka Diana's home town.

the skull was hung on the....silling!

The stage of the World Musical Festival was just right in front of our window!

Traditional dance by Orang Ulu in the cultural village.

The South China Sea!! x3

Kuching the cat town.

Tr. Maling's Long house where we tasted yummy Tuak (rice wine).

the back of Diana's daddy- the great tour guide of our trip.

hmm...sorry I dont have the patience to post up all the photos especially those nice sarawak's foods that we've tried. the one person that really contributed alot in this trip is Diana's great daddy who brought us around makan main dan minum not even in Sibu but also Kuching where he purposely took a flight to there to meet us and treat us with five stars VIP services...m so touched! Thank You Uncle! oh yea, and I got to practise my hokkien with him throughout the trip, haha.

After the sarawak trip, it was followed by Penang trip where I was the unofficial tour guide. Hopefully they were not bored by me for all the activities that I've arranged, aha. However, I've got to practise as a tour guide in Penang for the 2nd time when my friends POH LING and PEI YEE visited me right after the first batch gone. We went to exactly the same places, imagine me having to visit the same places (eh Ling, we actually went to more places) and eat the same foods within one week n giving the same tour briefing...ahaha...but to the different people la. so that was the fun part for being the tour guide as you are getting familiar with the introduction, LOL.

Ling n Yee at Khoo Kongsi.

Beach walk...isnt it romantic if u r wif someone special?

Francis Light's statue inside Fort Conwallis.

Lov this one!! by LING

arr...again im lazy to post up so many nice photos taken by Ling. I wish they enjoy the trip too. Oh yea, I remembered I told Yee that Penangites were trying very hard hoping that Penang can be listed into the world heritage by UNESCO, they have been kept trying the application for 10 years...and I was moaning to her about this sad things during the heritage walk. MANATAU, jus few weeks after that, Penang has finally n officially a WORLD HERITAGE announced by the UNESCO!!! m so touched n proud eventhou im not a pure penangite...at least or hopefully the economy of the tourism industry will be getting better n better in penang.

Penang is a world heritage! so im ready to go on...ahaha. non-sense...

Hmm...actually more and more gatherings would just only accumulate my reluctancy...yamcha taihey chiongK (cantonese) just make me feel like I want it more here...but I know I can just only get it here...those activities are so pricy in the UK, once in a while can la...but not every weekend anymore >_<

HAIHZ (sigh...) for the last time, so now Siu Sien is ready to face the new life, new people, new challenge! wish me luck pls...LOL

a place far far away...

ish...the day is approaching...the day of leaving n loads of crying...leaving my best place in the world-home!!! arrgghg....i hope that i have a magic to pause the time, or just slow down the speed of the time...oh no...i cant i cant...pls stop dreaming...no matter what, i know i have to face the truth one day. im excited but quite worry of what is going to happen in this coming new life...new environment...meeting new ppl...the more i think, the more acnes popping out from my little moon face (this explains what happened to my use-to-be-fair-n-smooth face lately..lol). alrite, the solution is, i've been trying lots of different brands of facial cleaser, from haneko to st.ives to garnier to gerneve to clearasil...to i doono-wat-coming-soon....but the outcome seems disappointing. GOD...pls return me my suisui face...lol

okay, lots of ppl don know about why am i going uk so early, same questions i was asked when i told them that im going to uk on the 22nd of july. so here, the answer is "I'm going for summer placement in a pharmacy!" I was so lucky enough to be offered a job in the Co-operative pharmacy in Nottingham for 4 weeks, yes...4 weeks only! but its better than nothing la rite, at least i can get some experience while earning pounds..wuhaha!! What i wanna emphasize is the location of the placement, it is at Selston, Nottingham road. Alrite...maybe you will think its pretty near since its located in the nottingham, BUT...haha...you are absolutely wrong...after few million times of research on the internet and kacau-ing the seniors...the diagram below summarise how shall i get from my accommodation in Dunkirk, nottingham to my workplace in Selston. Pls have a better look before feeling shock...

the dotted purple line shows the direct route, also the quickest n shortest journey found from Dunkirk, Nottingham to Selston Pharmacy,137 NottinghamRoad,Selston,Nottingham,NG166BT.

it looks just a short distance from the map, BUT...see the truth below, the real transportation route which will take me about 1 hour 15 minutes to get to my destination by doing WALK-BUS-WALK-BUS-WALK activities every morning and evening for total of 4 weeks...except weekends la of cos. i personally recommend everyone to use this website http://www.transportdirect.info/Web2/JourneyPlanning/ when you are feeling lost in the uk as it gives detail information of your journey and it LOOKS reliable...looks only...haa.so yea...

so you know whats the negative side of getting a summer placement, for those who cudnt get, at least u will feel glad after realising that you don need to spend your time and energy looking for accommodation and finding out cheapest and most efficient way to get to your pharmacy...for me, i feel better after knowing that Susan (seniors) travelled to her placement for 45 minutes, at least mine only half an hour more than hers, not very over rite, lol. ohyea, jus for you information, i just found out that the pharmacy that im going is not actually Co-operative pharmacy by its name, but its P William pharmacy, which i suppose/suspect is the sub-company of Co-op's company...haihz...profitable world, as u know Co-op is really a big company which does not only open bussiness on just pharmacy but funeral, foods, insurance, bank....etc...as well...Shock no.2?!! lol...don be surprised...

well...a place far far away, UK is so far away from Malaysia/Australia >_<
also...a place far far away, Selston is so far away from Dunkirk
im finding my way to explore the new challenges awaiting me...im coming no matter how far you are!!!