The semester ended with studio presentations in room 15.9A. I still have my portfolio hand-in, mind you Right after that, was time to focus on Christmas! How exciting! Christmas tree shopping!And not to forget, Christmas decorations around the Peak. Some quite gaudy, but it's the effort that counts.

And lastly, a hearty meal with the Malaysians, many of which I've never seen before.

of MacDonalds and Campbells

By now, you guys should have realized that if there are no posts for a long time, it jolly well means that I'm somewhere on the road. Teeheehee. Took a Virgin train on my virgin solo tour to Scotland! The moment the train crossed the border into Berwick-upon-Tweed, my gaze got fixed onto the vast North Sea. The change in landscape was simply amazing. When the train pulled into Edinburgh's Waverly station, my soul was sold. Edinburgh is lovely, lovely, lovely! Was suppose to meet one of my old schoolpal but I didn't managed to in the end, so I decided to go further north, to see Ben Nevis, to see the locks and lochs, to see the highland cattle, to see men in kilt and bagpipes, to hear the tales of the Scottish heroes, to experience the castle ruins, and to see the land of Gaels. If I could, I'd spend a lifetime here travelling around the UK.

Anyway, I shall put up photos later. I still have backdated ones from Cornwall to post. Zzzzzzz... Oh, and part 2 of my backpacking trip with Jes and Zq which we did in Aug... Hmm... no point looking back right? I'll just put up the latest ones as soon as I can. I've been busy with my Christmas shopping and baking, but the real shopping comes only during boxing day sales! I'm still waiting for the snow to fall although the temperature dropped to -2 yesterday.

Oh, and my first Christmas present arrived today. From the shopaholic queen who is the first student on SEP to return back to Singapore. She knows me too well because she got what I like and I must say, he is handsome and manly ( what do you expect from a KMT leader and the father of modern China?). Thanks CHERYL!! I love my presents a lot! Hee... a nice addition to my collection, specially from HK!

Lastly, thanks Hui Lian for the Christmas card!!! I didn't expect to receive any here.All the best for your trip to Indo. Hope you'll return to Singapore enlightened and moved by the experience, and do show me how to build a building (kinda scary having an architecture student saying that isn't it?)

Oh, and I saw that castle that was made famous in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Doune Castle . EW, does that ring a bell? Killer rabbit?

Ahh... hope everyone's having a great holiday.

France has created a "Kafka index" that measures the complexity of a project or law against its usefulness to cut red tape.

The index - referring to Franz Kafka's The Trial, which describes one man's fight against a nightmarish bureaucracy - is a scale of one to 100 measuring how many hurdles, from forms to letters or phone calls, are needed to win state permits or aid for a project.

"It is an indicator to measure as objectively as possible the most complex procedures so that we can then simplify them"

This is what I found in Brussels. I thought it was interesting but my tutor dismissed it off as an art installation until I did more research. It's a really cool concept and it started in France. They have a Kafka building in Brussels and the index is displayed to the public. Hmm.. wonder if they'll have one in Malaysia

Of coves, smugglers and cornish pasties

The 3 images above were taken at Land's End, the tip of Cornwall

Now, I've found a love for lighthouses. They're simply so romantic!

Oh little town of St. Ives
A sneak preview to where I went last weekend

More photos after I've cleared a pile of work. Counting down the days to Christmas!