Gong xi Gong xi!!

Happy Chinese New Year peeps!! Decided to post some of the more current events before continuing with the Rome trip.. Its Mickey Mouse year =) May the Year of the Rat bring lots of luck and happiness to all the people that I love..

Well well, with this time being the first CNY I am spending away from home, the atmosphere in a foreign land is awfully quiet and depressing as nothing beats the celebrations back home.. Although part of the town had lantern decors, I am still totally missing the family gatherings, sound of firecrackers, grandma's soup, traditional dishes, house visiting, collecting of angpows, cookies, cookies and more cookies!!

So here's a summary of my CNY celebrations in Aber!

To make up for the lack of CNY ambience, we started off by baking cakes and cookies to comfort ourselves and spice up the festive spirit. Next was having our very own reunion dinner on CNY eve at of course, a chinese reataurant!!

keropok for starters..

There were about 20 of us that night, other Aber friends either had their own session of reunion dinners in Aber, Cardiff or London.

I think we had about 7 dishes that night, food was pretty good, especially the roast duck and lemon chicken. Lack of photos of the food says it all.. haha.. There was even 2 bottles of red wine courtesy of Jessica's dad who came to visit her. I think we shocked some of the ang moh customers that night with the tossing of yee sang and prolonged cheers of YUMMMMMMMMMMM SENG!! lol..

yum seng!

third year mates..

crashing with the next table

szemin insisting she's a mamasan

to the people who coordinated a delightful reunion dinner.. thanks girls!

By this point, the alcohol started to kick in:

szemin conveniently became my camwhore buddy for the night

and this was only when i was barely half way through my glass!

Now, I shall demonstate how to enjoy the fortune cookie you get at the end of the meal,

step one: get a packet containing the fortune cookie

step two: open up the packet (watch out for fortune cookie predators =D)

step three: crack it open with one swift motion using equal pressure from both thumbs!

final step: take out the tiny slip of paper and presto, your fortune!

the wonderful company that brought CNY fun to Aber!

on the way home, with red lanterns decorating the streets of Aber

There were some CNY activities going on in the Arts Centre in my Uni that weekend. We stopped by to check it out on Sunday:

simple hintings of CNY festivities

The highlight of the day that we were looking forward to was the dragon and lion dance, and we made it just in time! The warm sun felt super inviting as we stood outdoors for the performances.

I gotta say that I felt bad with the way Malaysians were being slightly mean and laughed at the attempt by the whites putting up the dragon dance, albeit it being a really feeble display of what we are used to back home.

father and son effort

pretty impressive for amateurs

we even had a welsh version of the dragon dance.. hahah!!

After it was over, we went back indoors to the mini food fair being held in the upper area of the arts centre. Mingled a little before heading home..

This was on the 7th lunar day, cooked ourselves a pleasant meal that left us feeling happy and stuffed!!

Lo hei!!

All in all, it wasn't too bad eh..

getting there..

Heya... I am not sure if you all still bother checking whether I've updated or not.. Sorta disappeared for the month of December and January due to an assignment, exams, went away during the Christmas break, laziness and a million other lousy excuses.. heheh.. apologies..

Speaking of the Christmas holidays, finally got my act together to put this post up on my trip, my very first venture to a European country outside the UK.. I am still finding it hard to believe.. that I went to the La Citta Eterna~ friggin Rome people!!

Planning started way back in October over fears of having to stay in the deserted town for Christmas break and some how it blew up into a week-long Rome trip.. it wasn't easy deciding whether to splurge this way or just save up and rot in Aber.. After much consideration, since I'm already in the UK and its my final year, we jumped at the opportunity after getting a pretty good deal on air tickets and gratefully getting permission from mum and dad.. Omigosh, it felt super exciting!!

There's 7 of us, 4 lassies and 3 lads.. Our Rome trip started off with travelling to London by train one day before the flight.. alright, picture time starts here:

Having to switch trains in between, this is a nicer looking one..

Took a bus to Liverpool Street Station for another bus to the airport..

In the meantime, we had spare time and walked around the area..

That's the Swiss Re, some consider it an icon and some thinks it's the ugliest building in London


On our way to catch a bus..

We flew from Stansted Airport, London.. I suppose its the equivalent of Air Asia's LCCT.. had to put up a night in the terminal (another first!) but barely had a wink as we waited for our flight at 8am the next day..

can't wait to board it!

no idea where this is, but the Swiss Alps would be a wild guess... amazing view..

Ciao Roma!!

The adventure starts in my next post! =)

Ooh, btw Happy Pancake Day! Tomorrow's CNY eve!!

got through it... whew..

My exams are finally over! =) Just had my last paper this morning. Its really tough having the examination preiod co-inciding with the Australian Open, I'm sooo distracted all the time.

Well now I'll have the weekend to look forward to before classes start on Monday. There's plenty to do for now... to clean up the garbage dump that I buried myself in for the last month or so, do the laundry, return library books, grocery shopping, revive this blog and have a good rest...

i.am.sleep.deprived.

But at least I can cross something off my list before hitting the pillow tonight.. will continue the rest if I ever get out of bed tomorrow..

For all of you who don't know and feeling curious as to where I've been to during the Christmas break, fret no longer for you'll read all about it soon enough.. hahaha... And to those of you who know, its all coming soon in my next post!

Stay tuned..