Happy New Year!

Wednesday 31 December 2008

Roughly this time last year, I was frantically trying to finish my new year resolution post because many other bloggers are doing the same. It seems that sadly, this year I am probably the only one. Seems like we are pretty much influence by the behaviour of the people around us, I myself am not very motivated to write all these. Nevertheless, i find that it's a good thing, to set your goals and to reflect upon what you have achieved in a year.

First of all, the most obvious thing in 2008, I turned 21! It's such a magical number, some see it as stepping into adulthood, to me, it's also one of my favorite number! The way I see it, it's the changing point (pardon my lack of eloquence, somehow I just can't think of the words I wanted to use) of my life; moving from on phase to another. Looking back a few weeks ago, I realised that I have achieved all that I set out to do last year, helped by the somewhat easy to achieve targets I set. Nevertheless, it was what I really wanted to do and that's good enough for me. Here's the list of some of the major stuff I achieved:

1) Turn 21
2) Graduate with First Class!
3) Got a good job!
4) Traveled around Europe!
5) Finished FF VIII


Other minor stuff
i) Stayed in the UK the whole year!
ii) Experienced Summer in UK!
iii) Parted with so many friends from Sheffield
iv) Gaming "therapy" in Sheffield during Christmas
v) Bummed around for a month or so !
vi) Live in Reading lol
vii) Reached end of disc 2 of FF VII!
viii) Realise that I am not sociable and confident enough
ix) Live a more balanced life, exercise and dietary wise
x) Experienced being a Publicity officer

There are of course, some negative stuff as well:
i) Failed to prevent my friend from trying to do something foolish



Already I'm starting to feel old at 21, not having achieved anything remarkable. Nonetheless, time passed by. Thus, i shall make new goals/resolutions for the new year! What I did not achieve I shall put myself to it!

Hence, I proudly present to you my 2009 New Year Resolutions!

1) Live life to the fullest! (Which includes trying my best to achieve all the other resolutions and not wasting time feeling down and being lazy)

2) Be more sociable and confident!

3) Perform exceedingly well in my job

3) Don't be too materialistic

4) Get 8 packs and a well defined muscular body

5) Finish FF VII

Last but not least,

5) Experience true love! Walalal!
Get Laid.
Master singing skills.
Defeat someone in a real fight with martial arts


Treasure friends and family more =)

Announcement

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Dear readers,

Due to a number of reasons, I have decided to set up a password for this blog in the near future. If you intend to continue reading please send an email to leejunxue@yahoo.com and I shall inform you of the password after you sent me a cheque for 20 quid, no make it 300


Jun Xue

Lincoln trip and lots of other random stuff

Well guys, this is turning out to be a pretty depressing christmas. Here I am, all alone in a house for 8 on Christmas Eve with nothing nice on TV and no one to chat to online T__T

I tried uploading some christmas tree pics from my handphone but for some reasons my laptop is refusing to detect my handphone.

Usually, despite the cold and gloomy weather, Christmas has always managed to lift my spirits when I'm in the UK although it is clearly not happening this year. Not even the cheerful christmas songs I put on help. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm....

Well, it wasn't all doom and gloom. I saw a half hour Shrek Christmas special just now and it made me laugh a bit lol. And oh! Three little girls knocked on my door and sang a christmas song. As usual, i don't know how to react to the situation so I just thanked them lol! I thought about giving them something, but wasn't that supposed to be Halloween?

Anyways, let's talk about my Lincoln trip.

As some of you might be aware of, I went to Lincoln to visit my dear cousins Jasmine and Joanne.


Streets of Lincoln. looks very nice doesn't it? very.. rustic.
Poor picture I know, I was experimenting with the manual dial mode and I didn't want to snap tooooo many pictures of them again and again till I get it right. Alan and Jasmine
(Deep?) Fried Potato skin
The starters was very promising, perhaps way too good that the main course couldnt compare.
Lincolnshire Sausages!
Fishcakes
In action
The's this road called steep hill which, like it's name suggests, is very steep. This was just the beginning of the slope. I think it's about 40 degrees, maybe more.
Posing for the camera man lol
Sea gulls!
Joanne!


Reach out

Notice the skating ring outside the shopping mall
Joanne in front of the Cathedral. To be honest, I didn't know it's a city until I saw the Cathedral. And, it was so freezing cold and windy that day that we decided to just stay at home and chill out
Ko lo yok! Jasmine the chef prepared this
And the next day... laksa!

Indeed, lots of good food.



Anyways, I am too lazy to put this on a seperate post. I am still considering going London to experience first hand the infamous boxing day sales craze. However, there are very few trains running in between that day and that kinda limits my time in London. If I still feel kinda ... sien tomorrow I might just go.

Oh, I'm going to Sheffield on the 27th to meet up with friends so that's something I'm truly looking forward to (more like the gaming part... my desire to Dota and Warcraft was ignited after watchign a few games my Malaysian colleagues played.... )

There are other random stuff to talk about but.. it's too random. HAHAHAHA I'm even feeling lazy to write now... hopefulyl there's something nice on TV later tonight or I shall watch Ironman and go to bed early. Tomorrow I shall endevaour to complete FF7! Then, I can continue to FF9! Then FF10! Hopefully by then the bloody PS2 will not screw up and still work properly... or PS3 actually has backward compatibility that'll be great as well.

Aaanyways, I found out something! Paratha, which can be found readily in most shops, is the closest thing to roti canai you can get here! And it's pretty nice too! It's like those frozen roti canais back in Malaysia... wuuhuuu!!!!!!!

I shall post a picture of it in the future lol.

Right, that's all folks

tag

Monday 8 December 2008

Tagged by: Kenny Yeoh



Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you. 連結回點名你的人。

2. Post the rules on your blog. 寫下你的規則。

3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. 分享屬於你個人六件不怎麼重要的事情、習慣或癖好。

4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. 在文章最後去隨機點名六位朋友。

5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. 去留言讓這六名朋友知道他們被點名了。

6. Reply to me when you finish. 回覆我你完成了吧。

Yes that's what I see when chinese characters are displayed...T___T

anyways,

i) I'm gradually gaining the eight muscle in my abdomen!

ii) Occassionally I will scratch the back of my head when I feel slightly embarrassed.

iii) I like to sing but I have no talent

iv) I sometimes touch my chin as though I have a long beard when I'm thinking (habit from Primary School lol)

v) I only managed to do a full front split once in my life =)

vi) I enjoy looking at the sky

ppl I tag are: Ee Von, Su Lyn, Joanne, Adelle, Wai Tuck, Michelle Khaw



Pictures

Sunday 30 November 2008

After all the trouble of uploading these photos, I've lost my mood to.. share my thoughts on a certain subject. Nevertheless, some pictures finally!

It was a suprise birthday party for Yong Kah, at Thai Corner in London.

Eng Ee looking adoringly at Yvonne... muahahhaha!

Everyone busy chatting. The table was too long so we were kinda reduced to chatting to the ppl sitting around us.
Paying close attention to other people babbling
I couldn't capture the movement because there was too little light, despite putting ISO 400 (well.. I wanted to use a low apperture as well... ahh greedy me)
Birthday boy posing for camera haha! Before i took this picture I told Michelle to act natural but somehow Yong Kah noticed my camera at the last moment lol


Finally! A picture of me!
Another.. i look pretty tired, but so was everyone because we came straight from work..
Yvonne and Edwin

The food was... so so lar, and definitely not worth how much we paid for it. After the meal we went to the club below the restaurant. There were at least 4-5 bouncers, and they searched our body for weapons as well as scan our identity cards before allowing us in. I was expecting some sort of huge underground dancefloor with a rave party going on behind those huge door.. but.... ai the people didn't really start dancing till quite late. Further, with the exception of Michelle, Yvonne and Edwin, the rest weren't too eager to dance... lol

Oh, a few of us spent the night at Michelle's place and I met up with Yein Shiang the next day. I woke up so late that it got dark soon after T___T

Don't know what she's doing here but,

I think she was talking to me when I ignored her and took this picture. hahah!

Anyways, I think I really have to limit my spending.... gah which reminded me that I haven't bought my train tickets! GAH! I've got all my weekends planned ahead of me until.. perhaps one in January, before i go back to malaysia.. oh no, I need that to do shopping. Oh crap....

*Ilalalalal!

Anyways, I think I slept too much that I'm actually slightly eager to go back to work tomorrow.
It seems that whenever I sit in front of my laptop, I waste most of my time so easily. From today onwards, I shall refrain sitting in front of my laptop unless I have something I really need to do.

Ja~~

lol

Thursday 20 November 2008

In order keep the readership high, I've decided to post his extremely boring post about basically nothing.

It's not like I don't have much to talk about (after talking so much just moments ago with Yvonne), but... I just can't find the energy to write it all out again, especially in "proper" English, not Manglish.

Here's a link for you to read if you're interested: Click HERE

Other than that,well, work is pretty fulfiling. Yeap yeap boring stuff. Sometimes I wonder who the loyal readers are; I know of a few as they often leave comments, but are there any silent readers out there?

Oh, I just remembered that I have to send out emails to a couple of ppl about Christmast plans... or rather, potential Christmas reunion with the possibility of eating a huge turkey again.

Another random thought: The lack of pictures must bore a number of you guys, but it is really hard to find the opportunity to take photographs. Firstly, I can only travel on weekends, and even that, I don't always do. Secondly, it gets dark by 4.30 nowadays.

Yet another random thought: I won't be taking any great photos during the christmas company dinenr cuz my camera is too bulky. I want to have a great time and swinging my camera around my hips when I'm dancing/eating/getting drunk/doing crazy stuff with my colleagues/ in a formal dinner is not exactly my idea of fun.

Ok, that's enough random thoughts of the day. Another interesting but useless info: Apparently the punching bag in the gym is actually filled with small pieces of cloth. That explains the light weight and the softness (hence it's so hard to condition my shins)

That's all.

Video

Tuesday 18 November 2008

I wanted to post something about the ImechE event I attended yesterday and more thoughts, but I kinda lost the feeling to blog about that kind of serious stuff now. So, instead, please enjoy the first video I ever posted on my blog, Can we kiss?:

My thoughts

Saturday 15 November 2008

There isn't much to blog about these days, no pictures, so I shall share some of my thoughts today. I'm not in the mood to write properly so it might sound very boring, be warned.

Lately I've been thinking quite a bit about my relationship with friends. I found myself often giving advices to friends and people I know .. you know, those typical advice like, calm down, don't get angry before you find out the thruth and don't wrongly accuse people, work hard, study hard, you will regret it later, don't waste too much time doing unproductive stuff etc; all the advice that makes me sound like a cranky old man.

I know that I myself am not perfect, and still do all those stuff I spoke of. However, I welcome advice from others. Although I might felt aggrieved or slighted by unexpected comments, when I calm down I tend to think carefully about what they said and try to follow the advice, most of the time. (actually that brings me to another topic... always thinking about other ppls' advice hence lack of confidence but i shall leave it for next time)

So anyways, I kept asking myself.. is that the right thing to do?

On one point of view, they are your friends and they would definitely love you to accept them as what they are. Usually, ppl who share common characteristics find it easier to get close to each other. What I do might be pushing ppl away. I know the feeling of getting like 20 advice everytime i talk to someone.... it kind of kills the conversation. Further, not everyone can truly comprehend the advice. If you've experienced the consequences you will understand the advice. Otherwise.. it's just... so.... hard......

On another hand, occasionally I do feel very strongly and feel that I have to speak out. Although I do try to keep in mind that everyone are different and have different way of thinking, some actions or intents are so against what I think is right I can't help but to say something. Worst, I give lots of advice to my friends for their sake.. just like what parents do XD. It's not good to do that.. it's good for you if you do this..... But it's all out of wanting the best for them.
Sadness.

Why am I acting this way!?

WHYYY

Any thoughts on this?

London trip and more

Monday 10 November 2008

The reason I post this up is mainly because I was waiting for the washing machine door to unlock itself. A piece of... err.. string/rope got stuck betwee the door and consequently water leaked out. Fortunately, my housemate switched it off for me.

Anyways, moving on. Halloween! is past. I didn't really do much then... Nonetheless, I snapped this picture:
Cute right? I wonder what's the significance.

Also, it snowed! In October! And in Reading! That was really unexpected. The last time it snowed in October in London (area) was more than fifty years ago! The weather is indeed unpredictable. Perhaps I should say mother nature.

Snow!
I expected it to snow maybe only once in March since it's warmer in the South of UK.

Anyways, moving on, I went to London last Saturday to collect my flight tickets; which brings me to another topic: I've confirmed my plans to go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year! So, anyone who wants to meet up with me please drop me a message so that I can try to arrange something. My schedule seems to be pretty packed since I will only be back for a short period of time.

Ok, where was I, London! On that day, there's also this London Mayor's parade (thanks Yvonne for finding this out!). No idea what it's about, but that doesn't matter anyways lol! There's supposed to be the biggest fireworks display of the year (well, after the New Year's fireworks display) so I thought it would be a great chance to try out my photography skills.

Anyways, here are some photos of the parade:

Guess who I met there:
Santa Clauses! Standing miserably in the drizzle munching cold sandwiches, they are quite a sight to behold.

I also bumped into........









Superman! A timely snap captured him in action before he flew off.

Yvonne with some Roman soldiers

Me and 2 ladies from the..er... late 19th century?
The Mayor's carriage
That's the ... royal.. something... court. Looked like a cathedral to me
Yeah ex-housemates FTW!
Our photogenic Yvonne is quite in love with my camera =D
err.... nvm. lol
Right.. from this point onwards the photographs are kinda messed up and I'm too lazy to susun them. Basically, after i took those photos, it started raining very heavily; probably the heaviest rain in the year. I was bloody soaked wet. We finally met up with Michelle and the others... okok Yong Kah, Chee Yong, Yong Boon (forgive me if I spelt your names wrongly) and Eng Ee for steamboat! (well not before Yvonne bought her REAL LEATHER boots) lol!

We took our own sweet time savouring the food untill we missed the fireworks =(. (I think we ate for about 2 hours or so) It was expensive but it was kind of our lunch and dinner so it wasn't that bad. It was also the first time I had lobsters! Wahhh damn sweet man the meat!

This photograph is kind of out of place. View from my window
Group photo before we all went home. Michelle seemed displeased in this picture.. I wonder why lol
LOBSTERSSSSSSSS!
Michelle busy snapping away

And after that, we went Karaoke! After so long, i finally had the chance to sing my heart out (some alcochol helped me do that). The placed looked really dodgy from outside though.... it's like some underground gambling den T___T but it's allright inside. Ahhh I gotta train my vocals!

All told, I didn't had any chance to really try out my photography skills. I did some experimenting but nothing fantastic came out of it. Nevermind, there's always next time. Oh, it's about time I restart the washing machine and go to bed. I can afford to sleep late tonight because I'm attending the internal training course tomorrow which starts only at 9.



I shall end this post with the strange, out-of-place picture of Robin trapped in a telephone booth to escape the rain.




Smile!

Think think

Wednesday 5 November 2008

I'm contemplating putting a password for access to my blog.
Sometimes, it's just not safe talking about everything.
Oh! I can create another blog with password haha!

Hmm. People....... What can you do about them? Sigh.

I'm back!

Monday 3 November 2008

gah! Finally! Internet! But yet, still as shitty as before. Sigh. Now I feel unsafe making online transactions.....

JX

My new camera

Sunday 26 October 2008

This post is dedicate solely to my camera.

In case you are wondering, no, my camera did not go kaputt. Some of my dear (dear?? dear!?) readers seem to have not noticed that I have gotten myself a new camera for the Europe Trip with my parents (well, my dad got it from Malaysia actually) so this post is to officially introduce all of you to my camera!


It's a 10.1 megapixel 18X zoom Nikon camera. It is not a DSLR camera, but there's more options with regards to exposure and apperture compared to most digicams. I got this because I didn't want to go straight to DSLR until I really prepared for it.
It is quite bulky, but well, I have not fully utilized this baby, so we shall see if it's really worth the money (well so far it is haha)

Random photos, Pizza

Hello people!

Yes, another post.. suprisingly. I shall start off with updates about my life. I'm getting more work coming my way, and I welcome that. Life is pretty satisfying now, actually, more balanced. Work and exercise... and keeping myself healthy! The next step would be to develop myself in other areas... say, public speaking and socialising. I've not registered for the fellwalking club as well!

There's so many clubs/society both in and outside the company I can join. It's almost like university again, just that this time I have the money to join them! MONEY! AHHAHAHAH!

What I meant was, I'm going to make full use of it now. To experience more things in life!

Right right, I'm getting carried away, but what the hell let's delve into this subject while we're at it. I find that my "interests" are too diversified now. Photography, cooking, martial arts. All three (well, I can't think of anymore right now...) require time and effort to be good at. I was thinking to myself the other day, well, if I just dabble a bit in everything, isn't that quite a waste of time and effort? Where does my real passion lies?

Also, I was thinking about the drawbacks of each activity. Cooking actually costs more than you can imagine... almost half of my weekly grocery shopping went to just one dish I was trying out T____T

Martial arts could have negative effect on health on the long run if not done correctly. Why do I pursue martial arts? The spirit? Beat people up? Self-confidence? Fun? Something deeper?

Photography.. there's yet so many things I have to learn. I finally accepted using software to modify photographs. It suddenly struck me as a type of art as well. Expressing your way to a certain extent, because everyone would modify a photograph differently... or am I wrong?

Right right, enough of self reflection on my blog. Yes people, I often think about things like this when I keep quiet... Do you?

Recently, I have also discovered the importance of babbling away to keep the conversation going even though you don't particualarly feel like talking. Well, at least that's what you need to do to socialise better. I've always thought that it's prudent to keep quiet and speak only when you need to. Too often have I encountered people who like to talk on and on about things they aren't sure of or have no idea at all.

Ok, back to the topic. Oh yes! Life is quite fun. Working each day, and exercising often makes you tired and sleep early. Nowadays, I seldom watch anime/movies or game (gah... I must finish my FF7 before I die... one of my goals in life =)] That is good, I believe.

Right, now that I have bored most of you who actually took the effort to read what I wrote, let's move on to the photographs! Now, I read in BBC somewhere that this year's autumn colours will be very beautiful, because of the cool/wet summer (can't remember). Now do I know that weather can affect the leaves' colour when they wither. More intersting facts! I do notice that the leaves are redder, but I'm not sure if that's only this year.

Red!

One day, I was sitting on my desk calmly reading some stuff when suddenly! Some guy dangled infront of me in all rock climbing gear! No, it was no SAS crack force arresting me for picking my nose. These guys were hanging around tapping the structure, and I'm guessing they are just testing the structural integrity (what a scary thought actually). I was too shy (yes, shy... Sigh none of my friends believes me when I say that) to open the curtain bigger to snap a photo of that guy.
"Gahh! This is so exciting! *tap tap tap*"

Another thing that I forgot to mention long ago, I got a great desk! Where i'm sitting, I get to enjoy the view of sunrise everyday. It is nice to see the clouds roll by when you're taking a short break from work, as well as to just admire the sky. I think I'm not supposed to snap any photographs inside the building, but since this is just a view outside, I guess it's ok?

Yeap, that's the reflection of myself ruining the photo.

This picture is dedicated to one of my best friends.

Right, this never-ending post is goin on about fog. I came back from my colleague's housewarming party one night to see lots of fog. The street lamps cast beams of light through the mist with some help of the thick folliage. Quite a beautiful and mysterious sight to behold.


But poorly taken by my Phone's camera

This is a sample of the type of food I cook for myself everyday.
I am of course, just joking. I got this lamb with red wine thingy in an italian restaurant.

More sunrise. By now, you should have noticed that the reason I have all this disjointed stories in one post is because all these photographs were taken with my handphone; all of which I have neglected to upload until today.
The last part (finally!): Pizza! I had some fantastic homemade pizza courtesy of Elias. Traditional Italian recipe. He said that he'll open a pizza restaurant if he fails as an engineer lol!
*For some reasons, the pictures I have posted came out the other way around. So, we shall backstep from the final product:

Peperroni!
Master Elias serving the square pizza with his deft hands
Actually, all pizzas started of as squares. That, my friend, is the original pizza. Okok you are tired of my lame jokes now, I get it. Don't worry, we're reaching the end of this incoherent post.
Elias hidding his secret recipe. Saim is busy snapping away. Oh, he was sent to Abu Dhabi for an assignment, so this is some kind of a farewell party for him as well.

Last photo of him preparing. I am truly honoured to be invited to have those fantastic pizzas!

Last of all, the daylight saving time has just been reverted today. Although I did get an extra hour of sleep, I will be going back in the dark everyday now. Gradually, I will see less and less sunshine and become moodier. LOL let's hope not.

Ok, signing out for now.

 
Jun Xue's blog - by Templates para novo blogger