17th Sept 2007 - Sweet Donuts

My day was rather mundane, did the usual stuff like going to the library to use the internet and a little window shopping. Realised there's a small department store which sells rather reasonable priced clothing, it's the same as one of those I've seen in Newcastle. My day begun with going to Old Shire Hall aka University Office. I wanted to try register for my course so I can get my internet access up asap, but looks like it isn't possible at the moment. Anyway it was quite frustrating to be directed to 3 different places, all on different levels and different corridors. Had to climb the stairs and walk to and fro the building, rather silly of them. The exchange coordinator knew who I was the moment I mentioned I'm from Singapore. Think I'm rather popular? Haha, I was told that I have to register with Durham police and when I saw the cost of it, I nearly fainted. You have to pay 34 pounds to register with the police! Gosh, that's bloody expensive... luckily the exchange student advisor saw my passport and my VISA didn't state that I have to register with the police, so she said I didn't have to do anything. Phew, if not I would have to make an appointment with the police at this funny far away place, I have no idea where that place is, and still have to foot a 34 pound bill. How ridiculous?

After that I went to get breakfast which was donuts. I wanted to try their donuts and boy were they superbly sweet. I had a fudge donut which consisted of a chocolate fudge layer on the top of the donut. The surprise was when you bite into it, there's actually custard. It's like a donut and custard puff merge into one. Buy 2 for the price of 1? However, after a while, it gets too sweet for my liking. My other donut was a sweet icing donut, I think that's what it's called, it's a donut with those rainbow bits that you see in ice cream. The sweetness of both donuts were overwhelming and I decided to peel off the top layer of rainbow bits and just eat the plain donut beneath. By the way, "normal" donuts coated with sugar above are called jam donuts over here (Edit: I found out that jam donuts are donuts with jam fillings inside, normal donuts are called sugar coated donuts, my bad). I got complimented during lunch by the burger shop uncle! His wife gave me an extra of 5 pence change and I told his wife her mistake. She thought I wanted to change 10 pence into 2x 5 pence coins... till I explained that she gave me extra change. "The boy's an honest lad" and smiles were the result of my honestly haha! Dinner was cheap, it was a 1 pound ready meal aka 7-11 meal. Guess what, I can't even prepare that properly, left it in the microwave for slightly too long and the edges were all burnt and harden. I really suck at cooking eh?

Oh ya, I had a funny conversation with my mom as well while I was at the public library earlier. Here’s short excerpt from my conversation with my mum which made me laugh! The way she emphasized drinking milk is quite comical, I think the man sitting opposite me at the library would think I’ve gone bonkers because I just burst out laughing. And I was trying hard to surpress my laughter, after all, no noise allowed in the library right?

rosalind says:
dad said he will get angry if you dont drink milk daily. whatever kind. not enuf $$$ draw from hsbc, ok?
rosalind says:
uk diff, cos u have cold weather. moreover uk food is not tt balanced.
rosalind says:
dad get angry then u know. cut yr $$$
rosalind says:
milk, milk, milk, and milk. YOU MUST DRINK
rosalind says:
daddy get angry, angry, angry !!!
rosalind says:
ok now. mum gotta catch the last TV series at 9pm. chat with u tomorrow. make sure u dont catch cold in this cold weather.

Finally in the evening, I shifted into my permanent room and spent quite some time arranging my stuff and cleaning up the place. The table and wardrobe were already clean, hardly any dirt when I wiped them. The cleaners are really on the ball, doing their job with pride. Haha, in fact, the admission officer for my college (hostel/hall) told me the cleaners are trustworthy and very friendly. They are the ones that take care of sick students since they would inform the office that a student is sick. Have I mentioned that the cleaners would enter the rooms once/twice a week to clean the place up including the toilet? After settling my room and dinner, I headed to the postgrad bar. I'm really glad I did, I made several more friends from India, Mauritius, Bangadesh etc. These people are all MBA students, most are around 28/29 years of age with work experience. One is even a businessman and talking to them is really great because they're insightful. It's a good networking opportunity as well - I love bars and pubs haha! I didn't drink though because they left early, didn't want to spend money on drinking yet. Things are finally brightening up for me? I managed to get internet access in my college as well, though not in my room. I'm currently typing this post in the college's IT suite. I like the way they name things here, the English way of calling stuff haha. Alright, my fingers are getting tired from typing this post. The keyboard buttons are kinda stiff, so it requires more force to depress them unlike my laptop keypad. Gonna head back to my room for a nice hot shower, signing off now.