fml

In 35 hours' time, I'll be on my flight to Hong Kong, my home for the next 6 months and I haven't even started packing.

My throat's feeling a little 'bo ho say' right now. Really worried that it'll be inflamed when I wake up later, and I'll be heading to HK with a sore throat.

Switzerland - Zurich and Lucerne (most expensive city of this trip)

From Rome, we boarded an overnight train to Zurich (after a one-hour transit at Milan). A cool breeze greeted us when we got off the train at the station and it was definitely a nice change from the crazily warm hot weather in Italy; sort of like the weather we had in UK just before we left.

Zurich was the 'neatest' and most organized (in terms of layout) city that we visited thus far in Europe; badly vandalized train carriages were few and far, streets looked clean and litter-free and the place just seemed to be giving off a healthy glow despite the occasional chilly breeze and mist. Oh, but it was definitely the most expensive city too.

We met the friendliest old man at the tram-stop when we were buying tram passes; there are different types - per-day passes, per-trip passes, half-day passes etc but all of them were in German and we were at a loss deciding which will be a better option for us. The old man came over with his walking stick, asked if we spoke English, and went on to describe the different passes that were represented in German words even before we asked for any help. What a nice uncle!

Of all the places that we've been to in Europe and UK, we had the easiest time finding our hotel in Zurich; and that's probably why I said Zurich is an organized place earlier.

Most expensive Big Mac meal I've ever eaten in my ; that's about S$17, we didn't even ask for up-size and this was shared between F and me.

I've been reading some food blogs and French pastry brand Ladurée's always been greatly raved for its sweet treats, macarons especially. While wandering, I spotted Ladurée in the corner of a street soooo, we headed in excitedly and got ourselves a few pieces of these world-famous babies.

Sweet (but only subtly so) tastes bursting in your mouth when you take a bite into any one of them. Loved them!

Continued to take a walk down the streets with F and here are a few pictures of our wandering:

This reminds me a little of the Grand Canal in Venice hur; only it's much emptier - void of boats and signs of activity.

 

On our second day, we visited Lucerne, and paid for the golden round trip that included a cruise along Lake Lucerne, a ride on the world's steepest cogwheel railway to the top of Mount Pilatus and a cable car ride down from the top. My very first visit to a Swiss mountain (okay any mountain for that matter)!

F & I on the ferry.

b&w.

in colour.

it was quite a long ride and there were quite a few stops along the way.

My impression of the type of houses and places Swiss live in; this picture looks like it's come out straight from my social studies textbook in secondary school.

I wonder what the people living here do for entertainment - definitely not shopping, probably trekking/mountaineering... and making rosti?

the spectacular view that greeted us when we finally reached the top.

I am swa-gu max, this is my first time at the top of a mountain and I wasn't expecting the temperature to be very different from ground level, but oh dear, that was a big mistake. It was freezing! I wish we had our Primark coats with us.

Beautiful view. There were people trekking along the trails you see above; thumbs up for their effort! I hope I'll be one of those trekkers some day.

Descent, cable-car ride; the trees remind me of enchanted forests that I used to read about in Enid Blyton's fairy tales.

And we spotted another shop selling macarons; Luxemburgerli's a Swiss brand though.

These were much lighter and 'fluffier' compared to Laduree's; I'm talking about both the filling and the shells. They look really cute here, but looks aside, Laduree wins hands down in terms of taste - I'd very much prefer the firmer texture.

Nonetheless, I'll never say no if you were to offer me one of these cuties.

Zurich was over for us in a mere 2 days but I hope I'll be back in Switzerland someday to see the Matterhorn and the Bernese Alps!

Up next: Paris!

Life after exams

Exactly a week now since the last paper, it's not exactly the most interesting period of my life but that's okay, because... I say so lah hur. 

Rob got into Female magazine's 50 Gorgeous People of 2010 and we headed down to National Museum (where the grand finale was held) to show some love on Tuesday night, but nah, he didn't win (bet it was one great experience for him nonetheless). Anyhow, if there was an award for the most under-dressed supporters of the night, I'm sure we would have won hands down.

Floating giant dick balloon spotted!

and there's our handsome luobin.

Neh, no more pictures from the event because it was awfully crowded.

In other news, my lens from Amazon.jp arrived today! I am very happy because I can finally has a matching red lens for my camera that is not a kit-lens! 

Corn soup.

Met up with some of my secondary school friends today at Plaza Sing and we ended up back at my place for.... *drum*roll*.... Mahjong! And I won a cup of Gong Cha from ZL :p

I'm at the 4th day of my nearly-all-liquid diet since Monday, and I feel horrible. Here's a boring blow-by-blow account of everything that I've been consuming after my wisdom teeth extraction: Monday - minced pork porridge and two servings of instant mash from 7-Eleven. Tuesday - Plain porridge with 5 pieces of pickled chye sim (that I spent forever chewing), Szechuan spicy and sour soup from Crystal Jade and Frolick froyo, Wednesday - Super instant oats with banana milk and chopped up banana cubes, Campbell's garlic roasted mushroom soup, Thursday - Marigold yoghurt, Instant oats with banana milk (again), corn soup from MOS, Gong Cha (I attempted to chew the pearls, but ended mostly swallowing) and finally, Campbell's Szechuan spicy and sour soup. I'm perpetually feeling hungry but I'm too chicken to eat anything that's more solid than what's been mentioned above for fear of breaking the stitches that are holding my gums together and bleeding gums.

I'm craving for everything that my mind can think of at the moment, everything! :(

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

The most exciting scary thing that's happened to me since the start of holidays so far, has got to be my wisdom teeth extraction. I had it this noon at Lucky Plaza and it lasted close to an hour? Can't be too sure since I was drowsy from the effects of anesthesia.

The only pain I felt from the entire process was from the injections; the 3 injections on my right hand (to make me drowsy) and the four on my gums (these were really bad and I teared). There was drilling, lots of it because my two bottom wisdom teeth were growing in a horizontal manner (bottom left in picture below) and the dentist had to break them into smaller pieces before he could remove them. So other than drilling, I also heard cracking sounds inside my mouth; I had no idea how he cracked them, but I'm guessing he used pliers of some sort?

Something stupid happened to me. After exiting the clinic, I headed straight for the nearest toilet to pop a painkiller before the effect of the anesthetic wore off, and since my entire mouth was in numbness, I didn't realize I hadn't swallowed the pill and it got stuck on my teeth instead. Tasted a horrible, bitter taste in my mouth when I woke up in between bouts during my sleep and after I woke up for good. It was blearghhhhhhhhhh.

Fortunately for me, the bleeding's stopped after my nap, and I even managed to have some pork porridge that Dad bought for me when I got home. Maybe it's because of the bitter taste that the painkiller left in my mouth that for the first time ever, I thought cold (put out to cool for 4 hours) porridge actually tasted good. Oh wait, maybe it's because I haven't had any food all day hurhur.

My jaws are still feeling a little sore, but I can finally feel my lips and chin again! I still dare not use my tongue to probe around the back of my mouth, kinda worried that my tongue's going to get caught under of those stitches and rip them out :x

Hehe, okay lah. Enough scaring you guys (who haven't gone for your wisdom teeth extraction). Like what everyone else say, it's really not that painful (cept for the jabs!); okay actually not painful at all apart from the jabs. I guess it gets scary only when you try to visualize what the dentists are doing with their equipment in your mouths... so, stop doing it!

I had Siao to accompany me home after and thank goodness for her, if not I'd have fallen down on the escalator or slipped or something if I were all by my own. Thank you Siaooooooo I love you!

My mum was super annoying earlier on, she said she's "going to buy all the nice food because I can't eat them for now". And that's why I think my mumsy's the best :p

Bad end.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be sitting for the final exam for the module that I've been whining about so much all semester. I never really felt like I understood what my tutor was telling us about in the tutorials, and I don't know how I managed to get a B for my individual assignment. I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to pass this module, and I'm so scared that I might fail an exam for the first time in university that I'm shitting bricks right now.

'Wildest' encounter in school so far

looks like someone's just had lunch

Audrey spotted this cute, little fellow on her way to the toilet and when she first shouted "snake!", I didn't believe her at all because she's been pranking the girls and me a fair bit for the past few days/weeks. Let's hope we'll have more of such encounters in future!