Exams over!
Happy New Year!
Exams are over now, so restarting work on the site - the next semester at university is going to be so busy! Ah well, work hard, play hard...
Almost…
Slowly getting there.
Just finishing up the design and staring on the PHP within the next few days... whoopady doo!
Been busy with 27+ page report for university. Ow.
* Li * says:
MYSELF is soo small!!
Leg, revision and website
Well, a lot has happened since my last journal entry! Main thing I've been doing in my spare time is working on the site, the plans are to allow other people the opportunity to add items to the site (journal entries, photos, etc.) and some other major stuff! 
geeky, but fun. Getting there slowly.
I've also got exams coming out so been doing some reading, grah, we have exams every few months, but I guess that's better to have more, less important exams than having few important ones ^.^? Been also relaxing a bit, but a month ago went into hospital from breaking my hip (sounds grandad-like..) but I guess it was expected since I feel onto my side on concrete from a height :-/ but it was my fault and im fine.. hospital food isn't all that bad! My friends and family have been so great in looking after me, I really appreciate everything, thank you so much guys, I wouldn't have recovered so quickly without you!
Been seeing Becka a lot too, she's been looking after me a lot although she'll be disapearing around Europe for a few weeks this Summer and then Russia in a year's time, geeeez. Hopefully, while she's in Russia I'll be quite busy - everyone in my year at university is due to graduate at the beginning of that year so I'll be employed or bumming around..!
Plans for Canada in 2006 are materialising nicely, I don't think I'll be able to go to Canada this year, although I haven't given it much thought. I'll probably be visiting Southern Europe to visit Becka while she's on her trip and get some sunshine myself. Murt, Enio and Bhav will hopefully be joining me, if Enio doesn't miss the flight 
Anyways, short but sweet, just how I like it (Becka) 
University, Canada?
Woo, exams are over (for now), they seemed to go okay. We're about 3 weeks into the new semester, the modules are just about as boring as last semesters 
. Luckily we only have one and a half days of lectures a week. Although the full day is pretty intensive it's good since it takes me around one and a half hours to get into university on average.
The free time's given me a chance to work on my web site a bit more - got the media section running again and am soon to be integrated a "related items" thing. Also completed work on two other web sites (http://www.solar-winds.co.uk and http://www.cyranomusic.com) which went live today, so been quite a busy bunny
Valentines day is approaching slowly, been working on a present for my gal but got a lot to do to get completely ready - will be doing that over the weekend! Valentines day also kinda represents just over a month we've been together, seems a lot longer!
I've actually written out a todo list since there's so many random things for me to do, but the tasks are slowly slimming down, thankfully. Over the weekend got some reading to do as well as applying for some more internships for the summer break and cleaning up some stuff I haven't unpacked from living in halls last year (!). At the moment I've applied two two firms, one web design and one consultancy, and may already, *hopefully*, have a placement elsewhere, but don't want to get my hopes up!
At university we also have a group project work on in groups of 6 or 7. My group is great and it's actually turned out we're using PHP and mySQL to complete our task - quite handy for me. We have a meeting tomorrow, I think there's a lot to cover. It's quite insane really, the project assigned to us is to create a management system for bell ringers, I guess at least it's original
Looks like I'll be returning to Canada most definitely in 2006, perhaps this year too. Next year me, Ainslie, Lecy and perhaps others (;-)) will be going on a full road trip of most/all of the provinces of Canada for one or two months. Looks like I might be doing some driving, I feel a bit sorry for them!
Hmm.. ^.^
Exams & new year
A new year, a new update to a new site! Happy new year to all.. 
Since last time a fair amount has happened. At the beginning of the holidays me and a few old school friends went to the pub to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other for months since we all go to universities in different parts of England. It was great to see everyone again, and, most of all, I ran into a friend from kick-boxing. She's a lil dark blonde girl called Becka who, although I've known of for a year, I've never really had a proper conversation with her since she always seems to vanish after each session. We finally talked and I introduced her to my friends, most of all James who goes to the university she's interested in attending. At the end of the night I offered her a lift home to which she accepted, silly girl . We swapped numbers and the next day she flew off to Estonia for a short holiday.
Meanwhile me, Andy, James, Johnny, Nick and Nigel drove down to Nigel's house on the coast were we spent a night a few minutes walk from the sea. We had a good time watching a few movies, one of them being "Shark Attack III: Megalodon", a cheap version of Jaws with classic dialogue (my favourite line being "How 'bout I take you home and eat your p*ssy?" ). In total we made two night-time excursions to the beach and then, after everyone was seemingly tired of drunk homo erotica (of which I wasn't a part of) we made for bed, the next day returning to the safety of our warm homes.
Christmas was good fun - all the family were round our house this year and Cho, my little adopted sister from Burma joined us as well. It was nice to see everyone again, although I was a bit sad to see that my great aunt Lucy couldn't join us due to ill health, and a few days later passed away in hospital . She had a good, long life, however, and it was good she wasn't in pain for long before passing away. I felt bad I couldn't attend her funeral, as I had exams just a few days later, but apparently it went well and most importantly I hope my family are okay and my deepest sympathy goes out to all of them .
Becka, not being satisfied with her short trip to Estonia, then departed for Disney World, Florida for a week, but not before we met up for a long coffee. It had been such a long time since I'd had such a good talk with anyone and missed her while she was away, to which she was completely oblivious to !
New year rolled on in and me and a few friends met at a local pub to celebrate. It was good fun, although one of my friends got quite drunk and hit me in the nose accidentally, since which I've been a bit more careful of drunk people! A few days later Becka returned from her (second) holiday and joined me and a few friends for pool. Although telling everyone she was really bad, she actually was a bit of an expert and was good competition for everyone. I, on the other hand, didn't pot one ball the whole evening.. I guess physics failed me . The next day me and Becka met for a quick coffee since I had a little surprise for her. I remembered that neither of us had seen Finding Nemo, we had two be two of the last people in the world who hadn't, so I managed to get my hands on a copy for her and we headed off to her place to enjoy it.. that is, after meeting her family which was no easy matter!
Finding Nemo was a great film, although I missed most of it because Becka insisted on distracting me all the way through . Afterwards we talked for a few hours, under a pile of pillows from her sofa. The worst thing was I had left my phone in my car and my parents got worried since I was mean't to be home 3 hours prior. I ran to get my phone and found seven missed calls, and upon phoning my dad found that he had been out looking for my and my parents had been worried sick. I felt SO bad.. I just found out more recently they'd phoned a friend of mine to find out if they knew where I was - oopsie! I guess it was just Becka's bad influence rubbing off on me, again .
Later that week I invited Becka around for dinner and a little surprise. I cooked spaghetti for her, under supervision of course, and we ate under candlelight. We then watched "The Incredibles" after which I said I unveiled her surprise. After asking her to keep her eyes shut I found a conveniently hidden bouquet of roses which I then placed into her lap. She then opened her eyes and I told her how happy she's made me feel and asked if she'd be my girlfriend. She grabbed me and, in a fit of craziness, accepted. I haven't stopped grinning since. I haven't met anyone quite like her and I haven't been this happy for a very long time .
Well, since then I've had one maths exam and have another three yet to go later this week, so revising hard! Then this weekend I have work and then back to lectures next Monday, but on Saturday I'm going to have a well-earned sleep.
That's all folks!
Uni, travel & party
Another month, another entry.
So this month.. got used to commuting to university 5 times a week, it's such an ass! It's okay when I get a seat on the train though. The last few train journeys have been fun, you run into some interesting characters. I ran into a French mother with her two sons, was fun trying to translate what they were saying from French into English...
Every weekend has been busy. Each Friday or Saturday or both there seems to be something going on, some kinda party - kinda fun . This week there's a Halloween party at a friend's house then next week two parties - woo. Then when when I'm not studying (!) or busy I'm at a special friend's house . Ah, happy days. University's been okay, the work's piling up a bit and I'm not quite motivated to do the coursework just yet, but will have a bash tomorrow. Got two web sites on the go with a possibility of a third which should be interesting... none of them are paying (except perhaps the third) but it'll be a good edition to my list as they're for businesses.
Right now Ainslie (Canadian lady) is trying to talk to me on MSN after taking 2 1/2 sleeping pills, so she's not having much success...
Just started up sport again, trying to get fit - kick-boxing twice a week and rock-climbing once! Yay! I feel so weird if I don't exercise so I make myself . Money's short but I'm gonna disconnect both my phones and switch to prepay so I can budget myself - I'd save so much money which I can spend on myself... .
Our house is in a bit of a mess right now. The kitchen's just been redone, had a doorway removed and the heating system redone. I had to have two cold showers (or else go to university smelly...) which was painful . I've tried to make myself visit a new place each Summer. So far on target, well, I mean I did explore different parts of Canada for the past two years. In two years time I'm doing a trek around almost all of Canada with Ainslie hopefully. Although next year I'm thinking of maybe going to Japan if I don't go to Canada - a new place to explore with Japanese women, just kidding Cho... well kinda...
Anyways, until next time...
Canada, Amsterdam, BBC
Wow. So much has happened in the past three months. I finished working at the BBC Technology for the summer - my contract was extended till my birthday (August 20th), I had an awesome time. I was lucky enough to get sponsored (yay! ) and perhaps asked back next year when it'll be part of Siemens.
On the 21st I had to work all day, then I came home and got ready. I thought I'd celebrate my birthday with a house party, it turned out great - so many people who mean so much to me came, especially one girl . Only problem was I lost my credit card, which was a bit of a bummer, but hey, it was found the next day lying outside .
The following Monday I left for Amsterdam for 3 days with two good friends from uni - Murt ("you guys") and and Enio ("I'm only 20 minutes late"). Only problem was I didn't have a chance to rest and catch up on some sleep . Me and Murt met at London Bridge in the early morning and made our way to Paddington from where we'd take the train at 10am to the harbour. We were meant to meet Enio around 9:40 in Paddington - well within enough time to get on the train without the worry of missing it. Enio arrived 9:59, with 30 seconds before the train was due to leave
We were soon well on our way to Holland. Most of the day was spent traveling, it took it's toll on Enio. Part of the way there on the ferry he curled up on one of the sofas into a strange foetal shape, earning himself the nickname of Enio the Embryo ever since, of course me and Murt took many pictures to entertain ourselves while he lay asleep...
On arrival in Holland my first comment was "It's so flat..." (I always had a habit of stating the obvious ). We hopped on a train and headed off into Amsterdam where we checked into a hostel with an R&B crazed owner before heading out to grab some all-you-can-eat pizza.
Unfortunately we didn't have enough time in Holland, but we did manage to check out the Heineken brewery (Yes, we had our priorities straight!) and visit a friend of mine from university, Dianna, who was a little surprised to see us. We also payed China town a small visit for some good old seemingly innocent Chinese food (I was yet to learn how addicted to China town I would become later in Canada...).
We then moved onto Rotterdam where we stayed on a houseboat hostel which proved interesting - every single one of us knocked our head when getting in or out of our bunk beds. Unfortunately we didn't have much time - we had a good meal and looked around a few shops before having to grab the train & ferry back to England.
A couple of days later me and my good friend Gordon left for Canada. By this point I was pretty darn tired, but hey, it's all good! Me and Gordon set out early to Gatwick airport where we hopped onto a plane to Montreal where we arrived around 9pm and realised we hadn't organised anywhere to sleep. One darn thing about Montreal is they don't really label their Metro system, well, least to unsuspecting foreigners - it took us 20 minutes alone to find the Metro station! We then found our way to a hostel, which seemed to be closed for the night - but got a lift from a helpful guy who dropped us off at another hostel - Hotel de Paris, a name that'll scar our minds forever. Sure, it seemed okay on first inspections, and it was full of friendly Irish folk, but when you get squeezed into small room jam packed with bunk beds for 12 people it gets a bit messy! We were too tired to care - we grabbed a kebab and promptly fell fast asleep.
Over the next few days we managed to visit quite a bit of Montreal - a ball game (Chicago Cubs versus Montreal Expos) - Gordon was mesmerised :-p, an Olympic swimming pool (Gordon did a full lap in just under 3 minutes), a biodome, old Montreal, Mount Royal (where Montreal was founded), L'Oratoire St-Joseph and, of course, a few bars. Although I usually don't like cities, I loved Montreal. It was relaxed, friendly, cheap and had everything you'd need, especially chocolate milk which me and Gordon got addicted to over the course of our trip...
I have to say I loved Montreal's China town... the food was gorgeous, the girls were beautiful, and it was like wondering around.. China... believe it or not
Then we moved onto Quebec City which was a lot more tourist orientated but still good fun. We went to the changing of the guard which sported an interesting goat as a mascot. We then got a tour round the fort where the changing of the guard took place and I was interested in two Japanese girls who insisted looking at me and giggling. It's funny - the one day I spend around Japanese girls is the time I wear a t-shirt with some strange unknown Japanese symbols on it. Eventually Gordon approached them, they went very red and explained my t-shirt was advertising some house moving company.. hmm! While in Quebec we also visited the largest waterfall in Quebec - It's meant to be taller than Niagara Falls.. it was *kinda* big.. . Also went out with a few Englishmen who enjoyed pole dancing, oh dear.
Next stop was Ottawa where we visited the Civilisation museum, the parliament houses and went to a bar till 2:30am where the night ended with a rather drunk Englishman (not again) collapsing. The next day we sprinted through the rain (actually the perimeter effects of one of the hurricanes that hit Florida) to the bus stop after Gordon was accused of being a spy by a conspiracy theory lady.
Niagara Falls. Half way there I realised I'd lost my travelers cheques - to this day I don't know where they went. Luckily I was able to get refunded the $300 they were worth in a Travelex, thank you Thomas Cook! We checked into a curiously inexpensive but luxurious hostel, concluded it must be haunted or the many Japanese guests must indeed be vampires and will try to suck our blood at night. During the night heard two strange men in same room talking about killing people who stole some software from them. Hmm, decided it would be best to forget the whole thing and go back to sleep. Woke up with neck in one piece and made our way to the falls. Gordon was in awe when he first saw them, we promptly made for the Maid (scuse the pun ) of the Mist and took a closer inspection. We also visited the Casino (HUGE!), Dairy Queen (mmm...) and of course the other touristy parts.
Time for Toronto where we met up with Ainslie, our local friendly Canadian. She introduced us to Lecy, a mad (:-p) friend of hers who introduced us to Bubble Tea and took us along to Canada's Wonderland where we visited as many rides as we could, one being a 21 story free fall drop. Yup. 21 stories . We then went out that night till 3am to a club where I promptly fell asleep on the drive home, along with Gordon... oops! The hostel had a good BBQ at the hostel and I talked to a Japanese girl who also started staring at my shirt...
"Do you know what your shirt says?"
"Yeah, House moving company..."
"You speak Japanese??"
Ah well. Our hostel was in China town, which was quite fun... . Ainslie and Lecy are quite mad with the Camera - the evening before we left we had a bit of a mad time with it... oops.
We then jetted back off to England where I've been since. The day after I got back I had to give a presentation back at the BBC which means I had very little sleep again. The day after, however, I slept for an extremely long time. The following week I had to enroll at university and started shortly after - well, life isn't perfect :-p. I'm now commuting which takes up to an hour and a half door-to-door which isn't too bad, but can be a bit irritating. The modules are a bit boring, but they'll be useful, I'm sure. Most of all it was really, really great to see my university friends again! It's also meant I visit London most days - I've also been getting close to a friend of mine who lives there. She's really great, but I just want to know we're right for each other before anything happens, we'll see...
Work, play, love?
Hey, so how you doing?
Things here have been extremely busy. Last weekend was awesome. I had a Canadian friend come stay for the weekend - enter Ainsley. Gonna go see her when I'm in Canada early next month! :-p First we had a BBQ on Saturday evening and watched Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Sunday me and Ainsley ran up to Amir's house for a house-warming party which was real good fun. Monday me, Enio, Gordon, James, Dan and Ainslie went to Thorpe Park and had an awesome time, mucho thanks to Abbas suggesting it. I was pretty darn scared to begin with - I haven't been to a theme park since I was small, and then I was so scared of any remotely fast ride.
So, my loving friends tried the one ride in the theme park which is in the Guinness book of records. Great. I climbed into the ride quite nervously and the ride attendants came and checked all our straps. Mid-way between thinking of an excuse to jump off the ride (perhaps an allergy to heights) and feeling a bit queezy the ride suddenly jolted to a start. Frick. You think it's all okay when you slowly go up the initial climb, then it all goes wrong.. the first decline seemed okay, then it got crazy and for a few seconds I was wondering why I'd a theme park of all places to go to on a nice sunny day, but then something funny happened. I enjoyed it, and quite a lot - enough to go back on the same roller coaster another 2 times, twas fun! The scariest by far was a ride where the seats are around a huge circular column. After being strapped in the seats slowly rise to the summit, a *long* way up, and then dropped at complete free fall, all the way down to the ground. That scared the begeezus outta me - I had verbal diarrhea for the few milliseconds I was dropped for. Eep.
Also been getting real close to the friends in the bookshop, they're all so great, almost like family! Gonna arrange a party for my birthday which is gonna be so fun! Hope it all goes to plan though
I'm slowly coming to the end of my placement at the BBC. It's going to be sad leaving but I do have so much to do when I finish. Also wanna have a lie in and also go out a bit more! Last night I went out to a club with Amir and Salvador and had an amazing time, most of all because of the company I had. We went to Long Island Ice Tea and just relaxed. Met some cute Americans, but they seemed just to want to have drinks bought for them, ah well, I think one was trying to rub up against me on the dance floor... didn't know what to do so just watched... oops :-p Afterwards we went to Crispy Duck for a good chinese meal, then went to Amir's.
Also, I think I might be falling for a girl... hmm.
Welcome back
So, finally, a new entry, eh?
Well, lots has happened in the past year, where to start.
First of all I've been at university for a year studying Computer Science. It's been great - met *lots* of great people and really, really had a good time. To begin with I was quite shy but I gave it my best effort to get to know people, which I really am glad I did now, they're so many friendly faces in my class. I lived in halls for the first year about 15 minutes away from the lectures. To begin with I left myself 20 minutes to get there, then towards the end it was more like 5 minutes to sprint there. Oops. I blame my friends though, they corrupted me.. I used to be so good in the first semester, then in the second semester I went downhill :-p Either way I've apparently passed my exams, although I'm not sure what grades I've got.
One of the guys I met I now work with... Enio. He's also introduced me into clubbing and teaching me to dance.. now him and Murt are trying to turn me into a pimp. Hey, it's all good . I work with Enio in a bookshop in London which is quite a trek when I'm not living in London. Right now, as it's holidays and I haven't yet found a house, I'm commuting all the way there each Saturday, as well as the other 5 days a week for a full time job as a vacation trainee at the BBC again like last year .
Also me and my girlfriend split up. To be honest, it's definitely for the best, only afterwards did I realise how she was treating me. A lot of my friends and family saw what she was doing to me well before I did, but I didn't listen, I guess love is blind. Well, I learnt a lot and hopefully will be more mature for a new relationship .
Right now I'm looking for a flat in London to move in for the next year at university. It's strange - I only have 2 years left! Moving in with Dianna (my Brazilian flatmate from last year), Menisha, Anisha and Ria. We're looking at a flat at the moment, but we're not sure if we'll get it...! Everything's been hectic. I've also been arranging my trip to Canada with me good mate Gordon - I'll be in the Canadian vicinity from 29th August till 14th September working my way around the East Coast, tis gonna be a laugh . From the 23rd till the 26th I'll be on holiday with Enio and Murt, that's gonna be rocking... still planning that though.
What else... had a lot of good times at university, gonna miss not being in the first year. One of the good experiences was sleeping 16 hours solid after my exams, that was soooo great. But then I always seemed to be staying up late... I stayed up almost all night once then Raj came over in the morning and she sat on my bed doing part of our assignment while I continued programming a huge friggin address book in Java on the computer. Good memories, but kinda tiring - caffeine comes in so handy.
Also been enjoying going to the clubs. Enio and Murt have introduced me to many.. one of my favourites being Ministry .. a bit of a tradition now :-p. Hopefully again this Friday...