In Christ alone, my hope is found

In Christ alone, my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live,

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a life's first cry, to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

God's blessings!

Hmm there's something wrong with my laptop/internet connection in my room, I can't access blogger with it... Shall try again next time..

but the key message is:

GOD IS GREAT!

I got awarded NASA! Basically, it's a S$2500 subsidy for my exchange from NUS! Means NUS will just transfer that money into my bank account.. I just have to write some review/do some survey when I get back.

Seriously I don't deserve it and didn't expect it at all. Because firstly, I did not apply for it. I simply emailed the in-charge when the dateline for application was long over (and I was leaving for exchange the following week already) to ask if I could, but they said I couldn't. Secondly, the awardees were all listed a long time ago! And I am already in my exchange, yet they were still giving out the awards!
God is soooo gracious and He really really blessed me that I cannot help but thank Him over and over again!!
How can I ever say enough how amazing God is!

And a second reason for rejoicing (something that seems smaller, but nonetheless I think God has really shown his favour for me, really!) - a module that I thought cannot be mapped, got approved! And I actually gave up hope on that already..

Thank God x 402356476787894665767587866988976464!!

Anyhow I'm in the library now, studying! (ok, taking a break now) Modules are just as chim, and assignments are all coming in.
Tmr I am going to Windsor Castle.. Hope it is interesting. I am actually quite lazy to go haha but it's all paid for already..

Till another time!

Enjoy now, regret later

love dark chocolate digestives x 309489234802348023489023

all gone in 20 mins.

regret x 932823094980358439058435093458230482304829304823048205974903248023.

Windy Days

I had my second outdoor run today! Hopefully it will be regular enough such that I won't make a big fuss out of it everytime I do so.. hahaha.

The simple story goes like this:
Wake up.
Howling wind.
Physical preparation for run outdoors - wore long sleeves and sweat pants.
Mental preparation to run on treadmill.
Left room.
Strong winds.
Head straight to gym.
But locked!?!? Aghhh.
Force to run around campus instead.
Wind blows left of me, right of me, with me, against me.
Still running forward.
And made it!
Tried entering gym again on the way back.
The door could open??!?! What conspiracy!
End of story.

So anyway yes it has been super windy the past few days, even though temperatures went up.

My week of school has been ok, trying hard to catch lectures and not drift my thoughts.
So far been to Nottingham Castle Museum, and the Nottingham Life Museum at Brewhouse Yard..

And yesterday, I made a day trip to Leicester! Less than an hour bus ride down south from Nottingham..
Went to the city centre (which doesn't seem to vary much with Notts in terms of look), but there was this market in the middle WHICH WAS AWESOME!
They sold many things, and the best part was the FRUITS!!
1 lb of cherries for 1pound = about 450grams of cheeries for SGD$2!!!
2 boxes of strawberries for 1 pound!
Pears, apples, plums, kiwis, lychees even.. etc.. all sold there so cheaply!
I wanted to buy EVERYTHING but i stuck to the cherries and strawberries.. and guess what.
I FINISHED THEM ALL ON THE SPOT.
the box of strawberries and the 1 lb of cheeries. YUMMY x3984032948023843349!

And i found a snack that I love, one box of 6packets for 1pound so I bought it immediately! In my school union shop they sell 1packet for 69pence.. so it was really cheap there!
AND I FINISHED THEM ALL BEFORE I COULD BRING THEM BACK.. :( :(
I love "go ahead!" x 89430438830298!

Had lunch at subway (boring I know.. but anyway it's like identical to Singapore's, even prices are similar when converted), then walked out of the city centre to this huge Abbey Park.
If only Singapore was big enough, we could have such parks everywhere! Many ducks and birds and doggies running around!

Then walked even further to the National Space Centre.. 11pounds for entry but it was not bad! It was very interactive, and learnt a bit more of the Space Race, "competition" between the Soviet and America.. and about using rockets for astronomy, watched a Space Theatre show, went for a simulation ride (with 3D paper glasses, haha), and did some "assessment" to see what crew position I will get as an astronaut.
I am an ENGINEERING OFFICER!
ok I cheated. I was a Life Support Officer, but I didn't want it, so I clicked "try again" and got engineering officer instead. hehe :P

Really thankful because I went with Sharon, a new friend I made, and even though it was expensive to enter the Space Centre, she didn't mind. Like what I wanted to do, she was ok with it! And thank God also that he kept us safe and brought us back safely, especially when we had no map of Leicester with us when we went. :)

No pictures yet, because I'm lazy to upload now.. AND I wanna study! Or start going through my notes. Yes, I am still a student.

Fireworks later over at the park, will go and see.. and will have my first dinner celebration for this CNY, with the Msian Sporean Society. Didn't do anything CNY related the past week.

London 19 - 23 Jan (Part 2)

Back trek again to London to complete my trip there..

Day 2: 20 Jan

Open Bus Tour
Went down to Picadilly Circus to buy tickets for the Open Bus Tour, it was a hop-on/hop-off thing, and they gave earphones to be plugged in to listen to the commentries along the way. We braved the cold and the wind to sit on the upper deck (otherwise it would have defeated the purpose of it being an open bus tour).

Frozen Smiles

So we passed the Courts of Justice, St Paul's Cathedral, City Hall, Big Ben, the London Eye..etc, and travelled across the famous Tower Bridge. Learnt that there was this Great Fire in London too. We alighted where Tower of London was, but we didn't enter because admission was quite costly. Instead, we went into the museum shop to defrost ourselves from the freezing bus ride.. haha.

Tower of London

And I didn't charge my camera battery, so by that time my camera battery was dying! :(

Greenwich

From there, we took a river cruise (just a ride on the boat along River Thames) to Greenwich. I enjoyed the ride just looking out, and not doing anything :) And I love Greenwich!!

We went into the Discover Greenwich Vistor Centre, which highlighted architecture. I fixed a floor pattern puzzle and learnt about the different types of columns too!

Then we headed to Greenwich Market to have our lunch.. I had Spanish Paello - rice with vegetable spices, chicken and seafood..

And then to the most awesome place (according to me) - the Royal Observatory! It was on top of a hill in the middle of a park - the park was so tranquil and beautiful! Explored Flamsteed's house (an astronomer) and learnt about Longtitudes, Lattitudes and the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) that gives us the different time zones. There was the Meridian Line, the Prime Meridian of the World = Longtitude oo'o" for GMT!

Prime Meridian of the World!

We didn't have time to go to the other part of the Royal Observatory where the astronomy section was though..

Headed down to the National Maritime Museum, to see a Toy Boats exhibition and a few other highlights - Maritime London (about Nelson and other marine battles), and the stained glass from the old Baltic Exchange.

By that time it was 4plus, and the sun was setting.. we took the last boat back towards Westminster, where Big Ben is.

Big Ben looked just as spectucular in the night as it was in the day! In the day it was beaming in the sunlight, and at night the lights made the tower glow. But my camera had no battery so I couldn't take a good picture of it. Anyhow, seeing it LIVE is better. haha.

Wicked!
From Westminster we took the bus to Victoria station - and that's where the theatre for the musical Wicked was held! Musicals somewhat have their permanent venues at specific theatres, since they are like performed regularly.

Yes, Wicked was wicked! First musical ever watched overseas, and in London! All the other musicals I have watched were in Esplanade.. But even though it was really nice, I was so somewhat super tired that my eyes just wanted to close even though I badly wanted them opened! hahaha.

But when we returned to the hostel I somehow couldn't fall asleep with "Defying Gravity" playing in my head.. and just thinking about the musical. :P

Day 3: 21 Jan

Not-so-open Bus Tour

Checked out a super large Sainsbury (like Giant!) and then continued with the Open Bus tour - but this time, we weren't brave enough to sit upstairs for long - we went down halfway because it was too cold! Took the bus to Marble Arch, and visited Primark for some shopping. Supposedly Primark sells cheaper stuff of everything! LY bought gloves and I bought a hat - cos it was sooooo cold and my ears were freezing off! But the hat is lousy because it was too big.

4 Pounds Oversized Hat :(

Took the bus again (sat downstairs immediately upon boarding, haha) down to Spitalfields Market for lunch and to look-see.. We were like "high" walking to the market cos it was really so cold (what's new!) that we chionged all the way there. Haha!

Spitafields Market

Science Museum
Went to the Science Museum - again, it was super huge that we didnt have time to see everything! There was a section on Space Travel, and on inventions, and airplanes.. and like a LaunchPad thing that was like Singapore Science Centre.. then wanted to go to this section "Who am I?" about like genes and stuff like that, but the museum was closing by then.. Too much to see already heh!

Airplane wheel taller than me

So we walked back to the hostel.. and we were supposed to meet Jinwen and LY's other friends for dinner.. But while waiting I was so tired (again!) that I fell asleep on the couch at the common area in the hostel. So embarrassing! But I really couldn't get up when it was time to go, so I didn't eat dinner that night.. Spend like the next 15mins still sleeping on the couch before I gathered enough energy to go back up, bathe and I fell slept immediately..

Day 4: 22 Jan


Buckingham Palace
Took the open bus tour hoping to get down in time for the changing of the guards (at 1130am), but the tour ride was taking too long a route that we had to hop off and take the tube.. And the train had to have some service failure that we had to take another train to get there!! Rushed to the palace, but by the time we arrived, it was super crowded that we didn't really get a good view of it. Was supposed to meet Joel to watch it together, but we were late - so we met only after!

Watching the guards through the gates

Couldn't see much because there was so many people.. There was this man who was running on the road - and he got scolded by a policeman on a horse! Haha.. Just spammed photos.. I remember it was so crowded that I was completely not cold at all, cos the people around just generated enough heat and blocked off the wind! But when everyone all left.. Hello winter not wonderland. HAHA. (I know I keep talking about the weather but cos it REALLY is ultra cold!!!)


British Museum
After finding Joel, we went to visit the British Museum together. BIG BIG BIG Museum again.. Saw the Assyria exhibit (hoping to see if I could link Nenevah and Jonah together!!) and the Eygptian exhibit. Then we went of a guided tour on the Predynastic Eygptian Period.. The concept of after-life plays a big part in their lives that they really put alot of emphasis on it..
There was this Bible Tour (but I think it's some special group?) where the guide was going through the history parallel to the bible timeline.. All the people were carrying bibles.
I wished I could be one of them too! It was so difficult to catch all the information in the museum, cos there is no head or tail about all the ancient stuff.. and it would have been nice if there was meaning and relevance to it for me!

Outside British Museum

We had time to kill, so we walked along the streets.. Went into a super huge Marks & Spencer.. Saw all the yummy goodies that were much cheaper than in Singapore.. and then we walked further and went into Lilywhites - a super huge sportswear shop selling items at cheap prices.. and the City was really crowded (it was a Saturday Night)

Chinatown Dinner
Met Melissa Woo (my crescent partner for half a year in sec3!) for dinner at Covent Garden.. Chinatown was nearby, but we went to Covent Garden Square to look around first. It's abit like Holland Village! But of course the atmosphere was wayyy livelier and more relaxed. There were street buskers and people having their meals around.

Convent Garden Square

Ate at Four Seasons in Chinatown.. they are famous for their duck, but I didn't eat that - had beef brisket soup noodles which was super MSG-fied! Then Melissa did some shopping in Chinatown - went into a chinese bakery and a few shops selling all the chinese stuff.
Then it was back to the hostel.. packed up my luggage and stuff, ready to check out of the hostel the next day for the next phase - Nottingham! (which I am in already! hahaha)

Day 5: 23 Jan

To Nottingham
Back to Heathrow Airport for the free coach pickup to London..
Met a girl from South Korea, some Malaysians from the Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and some girls from China on the bus..
and it's:
THE END OF LONDON 101. :P