Thursday, November 25, 2010

My Japanese Name

I always wonder what Japanese name I could have. It seems such a nice type of name. And out of boredom, I found this website that translate my name into Japanese.

Hamano Kumiko

Sounds nice?


^^


My authentic japanese name is 浜野 Hamano (seaside field) 久美子 Kumiko (eternal beautiful child).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Welcome to my little dwelling for the next few months in UK

After a brief (ok, not-so-brief) post about my typical day, I just realised I still haven't properly introduce my little room to you all.

So, here's it is.

I put effort to clear all rubbish before snapping picture of my room you know.. haha.. So don't complain that it is messy k.. ^^"


This is the road leading to Victoria Hall (the place I'm staying). 

Forgot to snap photo of the front gate though, but there should be enough photos to give you a rough idea of my home. Haha


This is behind Victoria Hall. 

Not quite sure who lives there but it seems quite nice as well. The more modern building is the GlassHouse, another student accommodation. Down the road at the right side, is a shop operated by Malaysian, selling oriental food stuff. A little expansive though.

Victoria Hall, side view

The exterior of Victoria Hall. Very easy to recognise since it is all brick. LoL..

The right side bottom is the front gate and the stairs leading up

We pass through the front gate with a 'key' and up 3 flights of stairs. A nightmare when I first arrive with my damn heavy luggage. =.="

The 2nd flight of stairs

Finally, the 3rd flight


This is what you see after climbing the stairs

The Blue arrow is Flat H or Block H, which is where we do our laundry. There's a room of washing machine and dryers for us to use anytime, paid of coz £1.50 each.


Another view 

There are many blocks here.. er..did not count them though.. haha.. but it's pretty neat place. However, at times, it tend to get a bit noisy when people party. You know what I mean. Haha


The corridor leading to my flat

Out of the corridor is this view

Same bricks, same colour

My block

Block F

And luck is, my block is the furthest away from the stairs. Which means I need to walk more when it's raining or when I'm lugging something heavy with me.. like back from Tesco. Haha.. We need the key to get in here as well.

Alright, this tend to be a super long post again so I decided to skip the stairs part leading to my room AGAIN..(actually, I forgot to take photos of them.. ^^")

My flat

So, this is basically my flat. It is through just now that big door, up 2 flight of stairs, through another 2 doors, and this is what I see after opening the 2nd door. Right side, 1st door, is the kitchen. I already show that in the previous post. ^^


The kitchen door

My room! 

This is my room. Room 5. In the previous previous previous picture, it is the door on the right side, after the kitchen door.

The Key 

This whole bunch is provided by them. I did not add anything to them yet. Haha..There's a black key behind tat blue key chain.. it's not shown here though, but that black thing is the key to all the other doors beside my room door. I guess everyone have the same black thing to access all the doors except our own room.

Sneak peak at my room

Ta-dah!

After clearing some mess and making it look good in photo, here it is! My little room. Complete with bed, bedside table, study table, rack, wardrobe, mirror, noticeboard, heater, en-suite and blue carpet.. Which means I need to vacumm them everyweek.. =.="

Mirror and notice board
 The big poster is actually a planner and since I have nothing to pin up, I just put it up there.. Btw, this notice board is also actually my clothes hanger.. Haha.. I hang my towel and etc etc up on it as there's no other place for me to hang.. I couldn't hang them wet inside the cupboard..right? Haha..

In order for the picture to look neater, I have taken them down.. Haha.. to save me from embarressment.. LOL..

My study table

Right infront of the window. However, at night, it is really dark as the light  is behind me and it's orange.. t_t

I hate orange lights.. anyway no choice, I bought a lamp. Spot the black lamp on my table? But, it is also orange.. but at least it is brighter..

The racks are on two side of the table, one side filled with files and books and medicine and keys. The other side filled with foods and plates and lotions and hairbands and comb and make-up.

These are books from library.. 9 loan altogether..

Did not manage to read them YET though.. haha.. been putting it off since.. I borrow them.. about 3 weeks ago.. lol..

We can renew them through the Uni website. We as student got our own homepage where we can access the notice boards, email, timetable and etc. I just realise last 2 weeks that we can renew books there as well. And stupid me have been carrying that thickest book around to renew them.. =.="""


My bed and laptop

Well, the bedsheet obviously brought from KL. Oh, and the bedside table is not positioned at there initially. It was by the wall. But I have decided to sleep this way after 3 weeks cause that wall is the toilet wall which is not that good.. according to my family. So, just terbalik and sleep..and because my laptop tells my bedtime story, it has to accompany me to terbalik also. Haha.. I quite like the arrangement though.. And the drawer can be extended to put my mouse. Perfect! ^^

Books at the foot of my bed

Since there are empty spaces at the end of the bed, I decided to put some books there. Save space. Haha.. These are books that I bought from Amazon.com. I just found out that it is a lot cheaper to buy books from Amazon as the price is about half of what the bookshop sells. And within UK, it is free delivery. ^^

The Pink arrow shows my academic reference books..mostly on materials and product design
The Red arrow is The Time Traveler's Wife which I brought from Malaysia (finish reading) 
The Blue arrow is You are The One That I Don't Want by Alexandra Potter (finish reading)
The Green arrow is A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore (haven't start to read)
The Yellow arrow is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (reading currently) 

The coridor leading to the door

The left side is my wardrobe. And towards the end, is the en-suite.  In case you are wondering what is en-suite, it is actually toilet or bathroom. Haha.. I don't know at first and when I'm browsing for accommodation, I ignore the en-suite thingy..then only I know it is that important. Haha..

The en-suite

Shower

 Yup. My equipment for bathing. Note the numbers of shower thingy I have? Haha.. I alternate between 2..so at least I can choose according to my mood. Lol..

Shower cubicle

Quite small as I keep knocking into walls while turning. Or maybe I'm fat???

I tried to keep it clean

This part of the toilet doesn't have an outlet and the floor is level with the carpet. I forgot that and the first few weeks, when I tried to clean this part of the toilet, I spray some water on the floor and without noticing, the water flew to the carpet right till the wardrobe area. When I notice, it is already a mini flood. Panic.

I spent 2 rolls of tissues and 1 whole day cleaning that stupid carpet. And using my hair dryer, I kept blowing them to make them dry. It smells as well. Luckily, after 1 whole week, it dried completely and the smells gone.. Thank goodness.. It is a nightmare I tell you... Terrible experience.

I was so afraid that I ruined the carpet.. Wondering what would they do to me if I really ruined them.. fine me? ^^"

Anyway, I think that it is damn stupid that the floor is level with the carpet and no water outlet. So, they don't expect people to clean this part of the toilet???

----------

So, that's the end of our little tour here. Any question? You have been very patient with me, reading my craps.. Haha


Cheers..

ps. By the time I finish writing this post, it's already 1.30am. Starting to feel a bit sleepy. Maybe I should sleep. I have French on 12pm.. Night guys. Muaks!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

13th November 2010 - Saturday

This entry is all dedicated to the stuff I did on that Saturday. I thought I would write a post on what I would be doing during my weekend/free time. 

But this Saturday is a bit special..or rather, a little different. Cause the night before, I drank Cider for the 1st time, in my entire life, and getting pink pink face and a hot cheek. With a terrible terrible terrible headache in the middle of the night. Gosh! I don't know why people like alcohol so much. Don't it make their head throbbing like mad? It made mine like it's going to burst anytime. That night is so terrible. Luckily in the morning when I woke, I feel better. I shudder thinking of the night. Really pain you know! (FYI, I did not even drank the whole tin of cider, just half only...) 


This is the culprit that make my head pain until crazy 

My 1st tin of alcohol drink.. 

Well, this pear cider doesn't taste very bad actually. I don't taste the bitterness of the alcohol and it's not really sweet. So I quite like this drink. But since it's making my head so damn pain, I will give it another thought whether to drink or not.

Waking up in the morning, still a bit dreary from the terrible headache few hours ago, I suddenly had the urge to draw something. I grab some pens and my sticky pad and draw the image from my water bottle. Haha.. and I sure have fun drawing it.

My little sketch in the morning

After a weird start, I on my laptop and go on Skype to see whether my family is free to chat or not. This is basically what I do every morning..the Skype part okay.. not the sketch.. Haha..

My 2nd box of cereal. My previous cereal, it took about 40 days to finish. =.="

People who knows me knows that I don't take breakfast before going for class or work. But coming here, I am a bit curious about their cereal and so I tried them. Luckily for me, I found that the milk does not have any 'milk' taste so I can enjoy my cereal. Haha.. But it's only once a while.. not everyday. I couldn't take cereal everyday. So sometime, I go without breakfast.

This Saturday, I try the new cereal that I just bought. It's cocoa and quite ok. I think I prefer my previous cereal, the Honey cornflakes.. it's sweeter and make the milk sweet. This doesn't add any taste to the milk. haha..
My beloved laptop

While eating my meals, how could I not have my laptop on with PPS on? All my meals is accompanied by either a book or this PPS and more often it is PPS. Currently I'm watching 老公万岁. ^_^

The Orange arrow show the drama.

The Pink arrow show the sweets I bought. Various types of mint sweets.. very nice.. and mind you, the sweets here are big in size. Put it inside your mouth and it would double the size of your cheek. Haha..

The Green arrow shows that beside taking just grapes everyday, I do occasionally get some prunes also. This prune not very sweet though.

The Blue arrow show my recent craft. The love love thingy.. Can look at it clearer in my facebook. Haha


Deserts after meal

After each meal, I would have some fruits, more accurately, some grapes. No exception for breakfast.


This is my 1st ever pair of NIKE sport shoes

I'm really in love with this NIKE sport shoe, it's so comfortable and what I love about it is, the Colour of the shoes! ^_^

However, if want to be more trendy and look smarter, this sport shoe is a no-no. A boots will be a better choice. Therefore, I get 2 pairs of boots but I found that if I want comfort, I would have to abandon the boots.. haha.. remember the saying 爱美不要命。。

My 1st pair of boots. Nice to see Nice to hold, Not really nice to wear though. The sole is too thin so after walk a while will start to feel the pain.. Haha..But when I'm wearing leggings, I would surely 爱美不要命

This one is my favourite. Only £19.90 but the quality really not bad. However, wearing this really 100% 爱美不要命. As you all know, I sucks at wearing high heels.. and this pair of heels really can kill me.. Haha.. I tried wearing this to French class. Walking to class, I can feel myself muttering "please don't fall" again and again for the 30mins. Normally, I would need about 15-20mins walk to class, and with this pair of 'angels' I walk for about 30mins. In class, 2 hours. Walk back, another 30mins. Altogether, I have wear them for 3 hours, and when I'm back at my room, I collapsed on my bed with a sore feet. =.="

Ok, I digress. 

Back to my Saturday activity, after a chat with my mom, I decided to cook something nice to eat. 

This is the living room + kitchen share by 5 people. Quite spacious. 

The kitchen part. Quite well-equipped actually. An oven, microwave, water boiler, cutlery, stove, fridge, lots of cupboards, sink, and preparation counter.

It's quite messy at times and I did my part to keep it clean everytime I finish cooking though. But sometimes, my flat mates don't.

This is often what happened after meals. It's not that they dun clean up but they leave it until overnight or 1 day, and then only clean them. Mind you, there isn't any of my stuff in the sink. Therefore, today, since I'm going to use a lot of stuff and these dirty plates are blocking my way, I decided to be an angel and clean them all. Which is not the 1st time already.. =.=


This is the large fridge. All full of things of 5 people. The top part is all shared.. we all dump our things everywhere.. which I suppose isn't a good idea. I always tend to forget what I have in the fridge cause there's too many other people things there and sometimes, they move my items in order to make way for theirs.. The freezer part is better. At least we each have our own compartments and I can dump things inside without worrying whether I will forget about them or not. FYI, at the top part, my items doesn't even claim 10% of the whole space... =.=


This is my part of the cupboard. Pack full of things as well. Haha..I have to be careful when opening the door as things will drop. ^^" 


This is another part of the cupboard that I manage to reserve. This is where I put all the cooking stuff.. 

Alright, let's start cooking already.. I'm crapping a lot here.. Haha..


This is the mess of the counter while I'm preparing to cook.. Don't worry, I will clear them up! ^^

This is the stove and over at the bottom. Quite convenient!

The pot and pan I bought them as I feel more comfortable using my own things.. Haha..


This is the little corner where I prepare to cook. All my stuff's out! 

Peel some onions and defrost some frosted prawns

Thought of dicing some garlics as well for more flavours, but I'm really lazy.. No..really.. cause the knife here is blunt and I couldn't find any knife sharpener around.. so, forget about it.. haha

The meal of the day is MeeHoon Goreng

Yup! This packet is Buatan Malaysia. Bought from a local store operate by Malaysian. Funnily, I never tried this back home.. ahaha..


My mee hoon

My chicken well marinated with sesame oil, sugar and some salt

Time to grill my chicken

Put some oil and throw them in and start avoiding all the splashes of oil. I keep my distance. Haha


This is my beloved flavouring. I use the pepper almost for all types of food..haha.. salt..rarely. 

BTW, that's my rice cooker behind them. It doesn't really cook well though..maybe I still haven't figure it out..


Done chicken
 To keep the story short, I've grilled them about 20mins and finally decided that they are cooked! Scooped them up to my plate. Pink! ^_^

Now, to get started on the Mee Hoon

First, heat some oil in the pan, then dump the onions and sauté it until it turn brown. Then throw in the prawns and cook it until they are, well, cooked. Then, put in the packet of sauce, and add in some water. Sauté them until they are boiled and throw in the meehoon. Stir them until they are even and cook a while more. Taste them to see whether you need salt or not.

Done meal!

My mee hoon with prawn

My grilled chicken

 Sounds simple hor?

But imagine the work to be done before and after.. the after is more terrible. I hate washing dishes!

Anyway, at first, I plan to have the meehoon for 2 meals, lunch and dinner. However, after they are cooked, I don't think they are enough for 2, so I ate them all for lunch. Hahaahah..

Mind you, I leave 2 chicken for dinner k..

So, my dinner is maggi mee with chicken. Quite ok also lor..

After that cooking session, I spent the rest of the time watching PPS and FB-ing. Time flies and it's dinner time. Not really hungry so ignore the time and continue watching. Eating grapes and watching drama. Been sitting on the chair for hours. Haha..

My workstation

Therefore, it is there and then that I decided that I have to get some activities soon or I will watch drama until...

So I decided to go photo-shooting the next day. Shoot something nice, just walk around. After deciding that, I went for my dinner. Then PPS again. Bath and then PPS again until Mr Chow 公 called me.

^_^


ps. Stay tuned for updates on my photo-shooting session around Nottingham on Sunday!