((^,,,^))

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!

from

AND all the other halls at University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus too!

P.S. they're Hallowe'en Oranges! Pumpkins are a trifle difficult...

P.P.S. The title is a pumpkin too!

MotoGP

BEFORE

In the Student Association building pre-departure, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

DURING

The Rains.

Using my "waterproof" bag to protect me from the elements, which surprisingly worked very well for the first half hour, after which I got so completely soaked that whenever I moved it sounded like I was wet-farting.

AFTER

The bus driver wouldn't shut the AC off ( for THREE HOURS) so we all froze our chips off.

Not a happy Dani.

10 Things I miss about England (in no particular order)

1) Cold weather
(and rain that isn't like being pelted in the face with handfulls of ball bearings)

2) Salt and vinegar McCoys Crisps
(genuinely salivating at the memory - they don't do salt here)

3) Meat I can trust
(NO idea what I ate earlier)

4) Doctor Who

5) Being able to drink alcohol
(without traipsing half an hour to the nearest bar to campus/being kicked off campus for having alcohol in my room)

6) Cheese

7) Logic
(they don't do logic here either. Or their jobs.)

8) Pork
(GIVE ME BACON!)

9) A fridge that doesn't smell of corpses
(Though the bag of rotting flesh previously inhabiting our fridge has been removed now: progress!)

10) Tea

So much saliva generated writing this post.

Going to break into my rations of Ritz Crackers; they numb the pain.

IKEA Meatballs

Definitely one of my favourite signs since I have been here: APPLE CAKE! Two words that they definitely need more of here, especially when they are together.

So we went to IKEA for meatballs yesterday - although I ended up having salmon with new potatoes :) - and I not only had Apple cake (omnomnom!) but I had CHEESECAKE as well! HOMNOMNOMNOMNOM! It was so good.

Definitely the best dessert consumed this side of Heathrow.

After food we goofed around in IKEA for an hour or two:

Then after IKEA we split up, those who were going to Penang and those who weren't. We said our farewells, exchanged custody of the three cacti (Matt, Rachel and Beth) and the orchid (Princess Julia) and went our separate ways.

Those of us who stayed behind went to a bar for drinks AND went to a cafe called Little Penang Kafe which totally counts!!!

And then we headed home...

As we were walking towards the car one of the malay kids mentioned to me that we should keep reminding the guy giving Sam and I a lift back to campus to drive safely. 

A malay person said that. 

So Sam and I exchanged looks and silently decided to get a lift back with the other driver. When we got to the cars however everyone had already divied up into lift shares and there was no room for us in the other car so we went with the orginal guy.

Mushamir got in the front passenger seat and Sam and I got in the back. And instantly fell backwards because the seats were angled like Lazyboy arm chairs.The two seats, might I add, because this was a four seater car!

Again, looks were exchanged, then we both simultaneously swung around onto our knees to dig for our seatbelts. Which was very naive of us because of course there weren't any. But the door locks worked, we were assured.

It was all we could do to laugh!

After a few scrabbling minutes and several increasingly disbelieving looks we lay back down and I began to think of survival tactics for a car crash:

I had my window open (in case I needed to get out quickly), I had one arm braced, casually, against the door (to push away from the floor/hold onto the door handle if we rolled - I could lose the arm and still survive I reasoned) and I was leaning far enough away from the side of the car to feel safe yet not be catapulted through the windscreen if we needed to stop (lol).

The boy driving also said how his car battery wasn't great, that it "lagged" and might cut out at any minute. After which Mushamir pointed out that his fuel gauge was almost empty.

Both of which I found delightful.

We heard him and Mushamir talking about the route home:

"Do you want the safe one or the quick one?" the driver asked, but they were then interrupted by a very impressive demonstration of the lack of suspension in the car as we drove over what felt like a kerb in the middle of the motorway. 

To which the driver said "I have suspension." Then seeing Mushamir's face exclaimed "WHAT?!?! It's a cheap car!"

Much laughter was had by all and, needless to say, we got back fine.

On a different note I got LOADS of work done today and went out for some great chinese food with Phoebe, Felicia and Mushamir.

Successful 24 hours I'd say old chaps!

Photo of the Day 4

Inappropriate spot.

Oh and Mom I know you are going to ask about my bags - it's because I have actually been working recently!
And I just got back from four solid hours of karaoke.
But mostly because of the work.

Sleepless in Semenyih

I didn't really sleep last night. Here are three reasons why:

1
There is a nocturnal family of birds that live in my corridor and like to squawk at random intervals throughout the night in an high-pitched, freakishly robotic way.

2
The only people who do things early in this country are the cleaners responsible for my corridor who regularly wake me at 7am emptying the bin bags (not replacing the bags mind you, just tipping out the contents and putting the original bag back inside my bin, because that is definitely the most logical method). This morning, however, they decided that the corridor needed a good power washing too. Which had the added benefit of making my morning trip to the loo an unexpected ten metre stretch of sopping wet adrenaline-filled tiles.

3
The three-lane highway behind my room seems to have no speed limit though does occasionally feature a drive-by tenor vocalist. 

Video blog from Tioman Island part 4

Here is the final installment of my Tioman Island vlogging! That's the end of my time in Tioman, I'm really grateful for being able to spend my birthday week in such an amazing place and to even have been here at all so thank you to everyone who made it as amazing as it was.

If you like my vlogging let me know and I'll upload some more on here to keep you up to date on life in Malaysia!

Video blog from Tioman Island part 3

Another installment of my vlogging from Tioman Island, hope you like it!

Photo of the Day 3

Yesterday two of the Malay kids in my French class took me and two other UK students out to one of the largest night markets in Malaysia: Taman Connaught.

There were miles of stands with clothing, pop-up cards, wall clocks, puppies, stuffed toys, "iPhones" and everything in between for sale, but most memorable was the food.
IT WAS INSANE! We ate eggs on sticks, waffle-lollies, octopus balls (not like that), squid cakes, japanese omelettes, green peanut-filled boobs, seaweed jelly tea, sweet tacos, durian fruits and so much that I can't remember but was equally amazing! 

Here's what I thought of the Japanese Omelettes:

Video blog from Tioman Island part 2

Is now up and running on youtube at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=672Bh7CXDjw&feature=plcp

but you can just watch it here because I have finally figured out how to do it! YEAH! Blogging win!

P.S. sorry if you get a bit dizzy - I couldn't decide what to have in the background so I, in a moment oh so full of fore-thought, decided to pace back and forth so that you could see as much of the island as possible. My apologies. Redoing the video in my used-to-be-white cell of a bedroom seemed a bit of a step down from a slightly dizzy-ing tropical island. Hope you enjoy it anyway!

Photo of the Day 2

So I'm just on a blogging roll right now and wanted to show you something else:

It is me with the cake and pina colada that I had on my 21st birthday on Tioman Island. 

Best Birthday Ever.

Bidets and Malays

One thing I have had trouble getting used to in Malaysia is the toilets, particularly the lack of loo roll that is a prevailing trend amongst them.

You see, toilets have hoses or bidet-type functions (or if you're really lucky; a bucket of water and plastic pan to "splash" yourself with) rather than loo roll and most public toilets have a big roll outside the cubicles by the sinks for you to collect on the way in (which I don't like as then, not only can people see how much you are taking and thus what you are planning on doing in the loo, but if you don't take enough you can't have anymore without leaving the cubicle and having to re-queue - awkward!).

Now I am a bit of a hygiene freak and to me, this not only seems gross (because you are spraying loo water onto your downstairs) but kind of pointless because you'll have to wipe your bum dry anyway! Why make it wetter? I am just one of those people who doesn't like to spray water up my bum!

BUT seeing as they are the norm in Malaysia and I am here to experience new cultures and broaden my views I decided that, while I was here, I would give it a go.

Yesterday in Kuala Lumpur the opportunity arose when the public toilet I entered looked like this:

Now naturally, my inner nerd awoke at the site of the CONTROL PANEL (!!!) and I was pretty in awe of this toilet when the thought popped into my mind that if ever I were to enjoy spraying water up my bum the chances were high that it would be on this toilet! So I looked at the instructions:

Being the Bidet Beginner I decided that, though I had only done a pee, going straight for a Feminine Wash might come as a bit of a shock so I would break myself in "gently" with an Anal Wash.

I pressed the Anal Wash button and braced myself. 

Nothing happened for a second though so I looked down through my legs at the metal spout where it looked like the water would come out. Then I heard a robotic extension-y noise and jumped up, a little scared, from the seat. A little "arm" was sliding out from under the back of the seat! All of a sudden there was water everywhere! It had an arc-like projectile from the end of the spout which happened to be aligned with my left cheek (face cheek that is), most of my hair, the left side of my body and the cubicle door handle. Everything got covered in loo water. Apparently someone had left it on high pressure settings.

Well then not only did I have to fight through the jet of toilet water being sprayed in my face, the Air Dryer setting didn't work so I dripped with loo water for the next half hour! And when I was finally ready to leave I opened the door only to find a flock of chinese women encircling my cubicle. I think they might have thought I was having a fit.

Verdict: I'll stick to loo roll.

BTW this is what the door looked like after I was done with it:

Video blog from Tioman Island part 1

The first video blog from Tioman Island is now up so check it out!

http://youtu.be/ufK1dhq5kf0

Photo of the Day 1

My internet connection is too inconsistent right now for any videos to load so I have decided to introduce a "Photo of the Day" segment. I will post a Photo of the Day when I can't do a proper blog (probably because my internet is too slow or I have too much work) but when I still want to show you something.

So here is my first Photo of the Day!!!!  The contents of my fridge! I would like to point out that you cannot see either the flies or the ants in this picture but they are there - nor can you smell the fridge, which makes me very jealous!
Turns out all the fridges are set to be cleaned tomorrow (although they said that would happen on the 6th too) but we shall see if the fridge is in more of a usable state on Sunday.

Righto - off to class!

little video

I've popped a little video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0doRm_IvCbY&feature=youtu.be
so check it out. It's not great - it was one of the first that I made - and the sound is terrible (sorry!) but you get to see where I live so yies!
Sorry about the lack of super-blogging too, I've actually been working instead! WOOP WOOP :D

Belated 21st

As you know, I had been planning on doing some major blogging tonight (I have some great videos to upload!) but my last lecture finished at 6 today and then Bethany, Jonny and I hung around for another hour and a half just chatting with the lecturer!

We agreed to meet at 8 for dinner with Mia and Amanda, so I went to get Sam and drop off my lecture stuff.

At 8 we got to the meeting place but no one was there so we waited until about 15 past when Jonny arrived with Bethany - Mia and Amanda had gone on ahead to look at the market stands that were up today (don't know why they were there but they were cool!) and I was really looking forward to getting my dinner from one but when we got there Mia and Amanda had walked on to another part of campus where there were meant to be more stands so we went there to go get them.

When we got there and there were no stands I started to wonder what was going on - today is Rachel's birthday so I assumed it was something to do with that but I didn't know why I wouldn't know about it - and then I saw a group of dark figures with pointy hats in the amphitheater... we started walking towards them and they all had party hats on! It was a joint surprise birthday do for Rachel and I!!

They sang happy birthday to us and we had pizza's from Pizza Hut a Burger Cake and giant party poppers and then we went to JJs for some drinks.

I had a really great night and I've got some really nice friends :)

I'll upload the vids for you tomorrow but in the meantime I've got French again in 6.5 hours so am going to get some shleep :)

Night night.

My first post guys!

I'm still sorting out my photos from a field trip that I just got back on but I'll get everything up for you by the end of tomorrow.
Today we met up with the rest of "Our Lot" (See below) (that's me at the back on the left!)

This photo was in Kuala Lumpur train station in case you were wondering.

Tomorrow SUPERBLOGGING will be happening but for today, night night!