Reading Week

Right. Reading week. No one really reads, honestly, but this time, I believe I'll have to.

The to-do list:
1. Econ 2004 Problem set + readings (since when did anyone have "readings" for econs? since now, the answer is. Hello, printing room.)
2. Econ 2001 Problem set, provided I manage to figure out the yet-to-be-taught content
3. Econ 2007 Problem set, once it gets published on moodle. noodle. moodle.
4. French homework. quite a bit of it.
5. Go to the chambre de commerce française - and beg
6. Go to the franco-british council - and beg, again
7. Wait for the reply from ESCP - remember to let Teresa know, go, and beg; remember to say hi to Terence if he's there.
8. Wait for the reply from ESSEC - and hope for the best.
9. Wait for the reply from Dauphine and Polytechnique - hoping, as well, for the best
10. Wait for the reply from the Lexington - remember to ask for a bill split, let LeMag team know once that's confirmed.
11. Talk to Nick and French Dept about accommodation
12. Fill KCL FrenchSoc in on the conference
13. Talk to Nick, Douglas and Victor about LeMag launch party. £2 per entry per person, members free, provided Lexington okay - refer to item 10.
14. Ask Sara about Monday.
15. Remember to go to P&G on Tuesday.
16. Look for the person interviewing Sapho on Thursday - do I still need to go? Yes
17. French Revolution XVII on Friday!
18. Jimmy Choo for H&M Sat morning. Night out. yea.

I guess that explains why I'm staying in London for reading week. Perfect.

Oh yes, I forgot to include the most important of it all.

WATCH MUSE AT THE O2 AND IT WAS AMAZING. FANTASTIC. INSANE. I'VE LOST ALL VOCABULARY, BUT WHAT WORDS CAN EVEN DESCRIBE MATT, CHRIS AND DOM, LIVE?! NONE! :D

E

and here we go again

Having gotten rid, quite ethically naturally, of a microecons tutorial, some French exercises (a few more to go) and the last vestiges of flavor from half an infuser-full of Mariage Frères Tea (it's pretty good, I must say. The uncertainty regarding the trip to Paris leaves me hesitant as to the rate of consumption of the remaining half-tin of leaves), I should give myself an interesting welcome back to writing posts on blogger.

As it happens, the old template had to go. The div tags used to look decent but owing to the evolution of perspective, they don't look too good no more. So they had to go. Apologies to Jiaming who worked on that design around 5 years ago - I was mangling it beyond recognition anyway.

So, yes, welcome back. What's new, some ask. Lots, I'd say. Second year in London now, new address, "new" bed double the size of the old one, "new" desk, 2/3 the size of the previous. Well basically a decently furnished room, far from the decadence characterizing the Ritz, but given how the cost of living here is lower than what it would've been if I'd spent another year in Commonwealth Hall, I'd say it's a good deal.

And yes, the society - reestablished, rebuilt, refurbished, reconstructed. New committee - really proud of the entire team, I must add. Considering the start point (for convenience, we'll just call that point "nothing"), and where we are now (would've called it "something" but it'd be a horrible understatement of what the team has achieved), it's some damned good work done in the last four weeks. It's been four weeks already?
Thought on the side - seriously doubt anyone reads this page. But if anyone does, then a huge thank you goes out to the following people:
Teresa and Zoe, for work on LeMag; Krzysztof, for the wonderful photos; Niro, Francesca (for purposes of disambiguation, all mention of "Fran" refers to Fran Barrie unless explicitly specified), Yves-Lang and Arpinder, for running activities and keeping things going; Adam, for the workshops and for helping me get my cash back; Pierre (Beniguel. Another disambiguation statement, ditto the above, modify with some common sense) for the advice and help and Mathias, for the website that we can unfortunately no longer use.
And to everyone else who's made society activities outstandingly successful - you know very well I can't go listing everyone here, in which case we'll never get on with business.

This is a very unstructured post. And I don't intend to structure it.

Did I mention how murderous year 2 economics is? I think I didn't. I shall do so now. Very murderous.

Add that to running a society and the work it entails, and I doubt even a stupid insurance company would refuse to insure me against the risk of insanity.

So, coming up: French Kiss Tour (Claire Denamur, Zaza Fournier and Oshen) on the 3rd of november. If you're in London, and you want to watch three really talented musicians play for free, then drop by. Ciné Lumière, L'institut Français, South Kensington.

This coming week, Housse de Racket at Heaven (on the 29th) and the Lexington (on the 30th) - CATCH THEM. They're GOOD.
www.myspace.com/houssederacket


Also, if you were somehow at The Borderline (off Tottenham Court Road, into Manette St, then into Orange Yard), you'd have heard some very very amazing music by Kid Bombardos. So if you're from Bordeaux, be proud. Because they are too.
www.myspace.com/kidbombardos


If you're wondering where the sudden onslaught of gigs at horribly expensive places is coming from, given my reputation as being equally horribly particular about expenditure, fear not, for nothing has changed. A huge thank you goes out to BureauExport for the kind opportunities to watch these amazing performances at affordable cost! Of course, we do our part in return - LeMag covers these gigs, and I leave their tracks playing all day on Winamp. almost all day at least.

Right. Time to wash the glass before the tea stains it.

à la prochaine fois, from London.
E

28h30 to econ 1002.
52h30 to stat 6202.

xh30 to math 6401
x+24h30 to lcfr 6045 french

yh to econ 1001
y+28h30 to math 6402
y+30h30 to the end. for now. good enough. ça suffit.

survive. vindicate.

now since i hate these irritating things, i shall post on my horribly lonely blog such that no one reads it but i still post it. it's amusing, in any case.

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the game as well as the person you got the game from.


If someone says, "Is this okay?" you say...
Queen - Seven Seas of Rhye [righto.]

What would best describe your personality?
Velvet Revolver - Dirty Little Thing [no, no, not true.]

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Tryo - Le Temps [je crois que je n'ai JAMAIS entendu cette chanson..]

How do you feel today?
Les Enfoirés - Et dans 150 ans [no really, i don't think so far ahead.]

What is your life's purpose?
Elton John - I guess that's why they call it the blues [someone got THAT right..]

What is your motto?
Santana - Smooth [ah.]

What do your friends think of you?
Iron Maiden - Flash of the blade

What do you think about very often?
Steve Vai - For the love of God [well. i didn't know that. haha]

What is 2+2?
The Killers - Jenny was a friend of mine

What do you think of your best friend?
Christina Aguilera - Come on over baby [er. wrong best friend.]

What do you think of the person you like?
Dead or alive - You spin me around (like a record) [yeapp]

What is your life story?
Edith Piaf - Bravo pour le clown [bravo pour moi..]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eric Clapton - Reptile [scales, anyone?]

What do you think when you see the person you like?
Goo Goo Dolls - Cuz you're gone [this is not working..]

What do your parents think of you?
Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler - Tears [this is REALLY not working.]

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Guns N' Roses - Mr. Brownstone

What will they play at your funeral?
Jazzcafe - But not for me [i don't believe i've ever played this song]

What is your hobby/interest?
Wang Chung - Let's Go [really. let's go.]

What is your biggest secret?
Iron Maiden - The Wickerman

What do you think of your friends?
Patricia Kaas - Les hommes qui passent [it's winamp's fault. it lies.]

What's the worst thing that could happen?
Jet - Are you gonna be my girl? [????]

How will you die?
Iron Maiden - The unbeliever [er..]

What is the one thing you regret?
Margie Adam - Something about us [??]

What makes you laugh?
Zade - The beauty of her soul [ =) ]

What makes you cry?
Queen - Radio Ga Ga

Will you ever get married?
Jean-Louis Aubert - Voilà c'est fini [right.]

What scares you the most?
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

Does anyone like you?
Iron Maiden - Another Life [depressing...]

If you could go back in time, what would you change?
Pink Floyd - The happiest days of our lives [eh?]

What hurts right now?
Goo Goo Dolls - Broadway

What will you post this as?
Iron Maiden - Prodigal Son

La liberté c'est l'enfer quand elle tombe sur un coeur prisonnier
Enchaîné comme aux galères
Au coeur de son âme soeur, de sa moitié
Les chaînes se sont brisées
Et mon coeur n'appartient plus à personne
A quarante ans bien sonné
J'ai peur qu'il ne soit perdu à jamais

Coeur à prendre, pas à vendre, à donner
Un peu naze, un peu d'occase, un peu cassé
Coeur en miettes, en détresse, en compote
En morceaux, en lambeaux, au fond des bottes

Il a aimé bien longtemps
La plus belle de tous les temps
Il a chanté,
L'a battu pendant vingt ans
Pour un amour à présent
Envolé
Il a eu plus que d'aucun
Du bonheur au quotidien
Chaque seconde
Il a pleuré en silence
Pour l'éternelle souffrance
De ce monde

Coeur à prendre, pas à vendre, à donner
Un peu naze, un peu d'occase, un peu cassé
Coeur en miettes, en détresse, en compote
En morceaux, en lambeaux, au fond des bottes

Qui voudra bien ramasser
Ce petit coeur abandonné, à la casse
C'est pas un cadeau ma belle
Il est plein d'idées rebelles
Mais hélas, il aura du mal un jour
A croire encore à l'amour
Si tu veux
Je t'offre ce coeur perdu
Qui n'aimera jamais plus
Ou si peu

Inner peace - "for the lulz"

the quote is highly appropriate, i believe. credits to david huang.

in my last msn conversation before i proceeded to subject myself to 45 minutes of self torture at RPM class, i was asked a pretty unexpected question:
"How do you entertain yourself so well?"
to which i responded, admittedly without much thought,
"you have to find inner peace.. lol"

but isn't that what it was always about? I've spent the last few days here, in London, almost alone. The rest of my batchmates are either in Singapore or somewhere in Europe on holiday. The ones left, I can count with one hand: Bobo, Eileen and Jess.

Well, alright, we could include weijun who was here last week, and is currently frolicking all around the united kingdom (rightly so. i, on the contrary, am financially limited and hence confined to the domains of well, arbitrarily, London).

It is, however, interesting to note how the last few almost-solitary days have indeed been enjoyable:
30 Dec - Victoria & Albert Museum £0.00, Notting Hill in search of the travel book store. obviously didn't find it.
2 Jan - Dirty Dancing @ Aldwych £22.50 (originally £62.50. hmm. good deal)
3 Jan - The 39 Steps @ Criterion Theatre £15.00 (originally £22.50. not that good a deal).
4 Jan - Oedipus @ National Theatre £10.00 (originally.. £10. good seats nonetheless.)
5 Jan - sleep. tired you know.
6 Jan - Tate Modern £0.00 (freaked out by viennese actionism. no really. go look.)
7 Jan - Saatchi Gallery £0.00 (not bad at all. and you thought chinese art was about mountains and rivers. okay yes, there were mountains and rivers)
8 Jan - sleep
9 Jan (today) - RPM class. and i don't dare to sleep, lest the aches emerge when I wake.

fulfilling.

would've been impossible without "inner peace", non? :)

hey you..

someday, when i'm awfully low
when the world is cold
i will feel a glow
just thinking of you
and the way you look tonight

oh, but you're lovely
with your smile so warm
and your cheeks so soft
there is nothing for me
but to love you
just the way you look tonight

with each word
your tenderness grows
tearing my fear apart
and that laugh
that wrinkles your nose
touches my foolish heart

lovely
never never change
keep that breathless charm
won't you please arrange it
cos i, i love you
just the way you look tonight

just the way you look tonight

bonjour, monde :s

it's been a pretty long time since the last post, apparently. and because exact dates don't make sense to me that much anymore, i conclude that the reference to le PQP implies sometime while i was still doing french at l'alliance française.. probably while pascal was on holiday, with janet.. so that'd be somewhere about a month before my last day at MHD.

quite a lot has passed since then - 5 months or so? just in case anyone's wondering, french is still very much a part of my daily life, manifested in music, the news on tv5monde and homework. oui, les devoirs. ne te trompes pas en croyant que j'avais arrêté d'apprendre le français, d'accord? :) en fait, maintenant, il fait une partie bcp plus grande qu'avant - une unité sur quatre, les quatre unités que j'ai besoin de finir cette année academique à UCL.

so that's brought us conveniently to UCL - i'm not counting days since I left (or since the last mambo or the last chicken rice, wanton mee or mee pok. or 菜饭 meal), however. it's not exactly a sad event, although to say that it was emotionless would be a horrid lie. Life here has been good - it's hard to ask for more when most things are indeed going well, by objective standards. of course, perfection cannot be expected, neither can absolute coherence with personal goals and desires. there have been pleasant surprises, of course, but also a handful of not-too-pleasant ones, although one would stop short of condemning them to the "to be forgotten" bin.

oh yes, i remember the can of redken mousse falling on my keyboard and the resulting need to replace it. damn.

family came for a visit, left just yesterday night. in a whirlwind 180km/h (on average) holiday, chasing TGVs once every 2 days, from St. Pancras to Gare du Nord, to Gare Cornavin, to Gare St. Charles, back to Gare du Nord and finally St. Pancras. 3 cities in a week, more walking on french speaking soil that i've ever done in my life, and a greater percentage of thinking and speaking in french than even in class. if anything illustrates the magnitude of the effects that experience had, then it must be how i said "bonjour" to the fitness first receptionist, "merci, au revoir" to the waiter at the malaysian resto on charing cross road, and "pardon" when i bumped into this old lady on the way out from st. pancras. oh, and possibly, how i suddenly notice how impolite we sound when we don't use le conditionnel heh - "would I happen to be able to have a little more water please?" heh.. well.. "est-ce qu'on pourrait avoir un peu plus de l'eau?"

if it weren't for the fact that the only french word in my vocabulary last year was bonjour (not least thanks to the bread brand..), i'd have thrown in applications to study in france. then again, we never know how things would've turned out, do we? it does feel good to always know that UCL's no shabby institution, as much as this city.. cette ville.. elle est TROP laide en comparaison avec la belle Paris heh. at least the weather's good..

pour exprimer les regrets

there must be a million things in life we regret, wish never happened or wish we could've changed. then again, it's necessary to remember that today exists by virtue (or by fault) of days and events gone by. If it's a good thing that we have the wisdom (albeit of hindsight), then this goodness must be the value of those mistakes made.

so let's value our mistakes well, for to learn, we must first learn how to fail.

now, let's try that in french. seriously, it's pretty clear that from "it's necessary...":
mais, il faut souvenir que le présent n'existe qu'à cause du passé.
okay skip skip too chim heh

donc, vaut bien des erreurs; pour qu'on sache comment réussir, il faut savoir comment échouer.

Belvedere BEAT

it's the last day of belvedere BEAT - after many bottles of pure, cytrus and pomerancza, several others topped with moet or VC.

the impending inactivity disturbs me - the month has been great, couldn't have asked for a better month of june. working on BEAT has also left me with superb memories of the people I work with: in no order of preference, Marie and Esther, Pierre (bien sur que oui!), Sam, jeremy, cherine and kelvin, dorothy and sebastian from creative forte, amanda and cassh from attica, eugene lim (yes.. arrete) from indochine, jeffrey, shahmil and umm from china one.

oh and how can anyone forget the St. Pierre Experience? The food was great, admittedly, although before and after wasn't exactly comforting.

well it's monday soon, and hopefully, not a day spent sitting waiting for an email or two to come in so i can have something to do. much rather study for french test on friday - mention tres bien, please.. how bad can my conjugations get?

pretty bad, actually. study.

La Mer

La mer, qu'on voit danser
le long des golfes clairs
a des reflets d'argent
La mer
des reflets changeant sous la pluie

la mer, au ciel d'été
confond ses blancs moutons
avec les anges si pur
la mer: bergère d'azur, infinie

voyez, près des étangs
ces grands roseaux mouillés

voyez, ces oiseaux blancs
et ces maisons rouillés

la mer, les a bercés
le long des golfes clairs
et d'une chanson d'amour, la mer
a bercé mon coeur pour la vie

Enfin.. heh.

sometimes, i wonder why i feel so vindicated. especially in recent days when i read the newspapers. guess it's right to listen to people who really know the world and how it works.

le monde, et comment il marche - c'est une grand mystère. mais, quand on écoute de les experiences d'autres, on peut découvrir ce que a raison et ce que a tort. à ces temps, on saura ce qu'on doit faire pour réussir.

c'est ça, non? on doit être d'accord.

Just went to take a look at two other blogs, courtesy of some free time and no alcohol today. Loh's and Sherwin's. Last posts dated 5th nov and sometime in august, respectively. Well, I won't go so far as to say I miss army life and all that, but what I will say is that I miss the memory of the way people were back then.

Then again, logically speaking, memories are always missed. by default. I can barely say that I'm thrilled by the way some of us have turned out (for others who've always been that way, what can I say?). For one, Sherwin's a miserable drinker. So am I, I suppose, although I must add that I was at it for 1.5 hours before his grand arrival. Not so elegantly wasted eh.

So there they are - memories of what used to be. I kinda liked the many sleepy afternoons with the cool air in the bunk being blown around by the fan that's directly above me (and sherwin frequently requests to have lowered. how low, i wonder. low enough to scratch our noses? hahaha) immediately after the 3pm hot shower. natural water tank heating. somehow you wonder how the water can get so hot but the bunk remain cool.

It's pathetic how some relationships have went the last few months. It's so awkward between some of us who used to be the closest of friends, thanks to one happening or another. So this is what the "real world" does to people: scares us, degrades us to our primal instincts and leaves us deprived of the intangible, non-profitable (yes, isn't it?) aspects of life that are, without doubt, the very foundations of our relationships.

maybe it was the apparent hopelessness of the entire ns affair that left all the "oh i want to make some money for so and so purpose" thoughts all the way till the end of our.. sentence. and with our meagre possessions, some of us strove to make a fortune mountain out of a financial anthill, and attempted to make up with time, effort and all things intangible what we lacked in cash and more importantly, credibility and experience.

yes, if you ask me, it's something regrettable. not completely, but at least to some degree.

Alors

thought of the moment. Completely random, probably completely isolated. might not be another heh.

It's ironic that people value Money more than Time, even though the latter is the one that is irreplaceable, while the former is very much the reverse. It's a pity how people don't see beyond the glaring highlight of saving/earning lots and lots of money and realize the true cost, opportunity cost if you would, they're paying.

There're easier ways. Yes, you were right when you gave these lines:
"Let's talk about the risk factors. 1. Time; 2. Effort."

Risk, indeed. The biggest of which must be time. Having your time leveraged on for remuneration - that's probably the second saddest thing to selling your soul. Wouldn't cost much to throw in the effort as a free gift, while you're at it.

j'ai vu le commentaire de Zhiheng.. eh merci bcp, mon ami :s tes remarques sont si compliqué que j'ai pris au moins de 5 minutes pour les comprendre complètement..

while i take another few minutes to figure out what's in that really long comment, here's what i initially wanted to post. just for fun.

leverage? what leverage when you spend the bulk of your time defending (rather than deriving benefit from) the organization you're associated with?

compare that with perhaps, just perhaps, "oh yes, hi. enchanté. I'm from moët hennessy diageo singapore.. and you?"
now that's cool shit leverage. :)

champion ou champignon? c'est la question. :) vraiment, non. je plaisante.. haha.. à propos, j'ai changé la langue de Blogger à Français. Pour l'instant, cela est maniable. Un peu pénible quand je doit utiliser le dictionnaire mais, le plus grand défi est quand j'essaie d'éviter d'utiliser Babelfish.

alors, parce qu'il est si difficile de créer ce message complet (bien que il est très simple..), je le publierai et vais lire Tintin :) Objectif Lune! Apres ça (oui, j'ai preparé), je vais lire l'episode suivante, "On a marché sur la lune"..

au fait, n'importe quelles corrections sont l'accueil.. je sais que je suis mauvais à cela..

important, but not urgent.

first off, let's give my marketing manager, fanny, some credit for this wonderful if not completely all-encompassing system of classification :s no, it's not SWOT (as in, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), although i believe it does come in a similar format of a big square cut into smaller quarters.
important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important and not urgent and not important ("then don't do la", says cynthia)

while that was totally pointless, i just had to put it up, for in itself is a tongue twister. important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, not important and not urgent.
just like "les chausettes d'archi-duchesse sont seches et archi-seches." seriously, must try. it's worse than peter piper and the pickled pepper. literally, the socks of the arch duchess are dry and extra dry :s which reminds me of nature brut, extra brut, brut, sec, demi sec, doux..

that's it for the rambling. today's incendiary post was instigated by Anna (yes, the ac arts anna wang) after she stole my quote from the god delusion - it's got nothing directly related to the justifiability of the existence of religion; rather, the irritating nature of what we can safely term "lazy christians". Notice, then, that lazy christians are a subset (proper subset, actually) of christians in general, so if there's any one group to blame for the existence of the following incendiary opinion, please, hunt down those particular lazy people.

Lazy - the entire idea encapsulated in this fable of sorts I heard:
once, there was this farmer who was immensely pious, details of such behavior I have no ability to describe. one day, there came a flood in his village, and the government ordered an evacuation due to the threat to villagers' lives. Rescue vehicles went to pick villagers up but when one stopped in front of the house of this particular farmer, he goes "no, don't worry. God will save me". Despite the pleadings of the rescuers, he desisted. Days later, flood waters covered the entire first floor of his house. A rescue boat came along outside his second floor window where he was hiding from the waters and offered to rescue him - again, "My god will save me - don't worry!"; a week later, he's found taking refuge on the roof of his house, with everything below submerged. A rescue helicopter comes along and offers to pick him up "Sir, you have to leave or you'll die!" again, "Don't worry about me - God will save me!" Eventually, of course, he dies (causes of which are irrelevant), and assuming, for fictional purposes, the existence of spirits, he turns into a very angry ghost. One day, he meets God, and questions him "I believed so firmly in you, but when I was in need, WHY DIDN'T YOU COME AND SAVE ME?!"
God tells him "I tried to save you, but you refused. First, I sent the rescue vehicles; then I sent the boat; then, I sent the helicopter. All three times, you refused my help. How can you say, then, that I didn't save you?"

the point, essentially, is that there're so many incidents where people do have the chance to take control of their lives; instead, making a false claim to "faith" and in an occurrence of divine intervention in a self-conceived stereotypical form (i.e. light from the sky, angels coming down and picking you up vs. angels in blue riding in cars, boats and helicopters) as a reason to be effectively (rather, ineffectively) lazy and wait for things to happen.

If anything, I'd think that the central purpose of religion associates itself with the human mentality - in times of difficulty, we have the ability to go against natural circumstances and be proactive against the conditions that prevent us from progressing. It's what makes us human, and even objectively, based on the idea that religion in itself is a human construct, there can be no benefits from believing in the existence of divine beings who set standards of morality and performance for us to meet. It's all in the process of raising the bar for human evolution and progress - while the actual bar may not exist, believing that it does lets us know that we've failed when we hit it (supposedly) and we've succeeded when we've crossed it - hence the idea that the sky's the limit.

here's my take on religion and belief - it should be our impetus for further, accelerated progress; divine purpose is very well the intangible manifestation of the cumulative effect of long periods of rumination into a seemingly illogical but emotionally acceptable decision. After all, people make emotional decisions and fill it up with logical substantiations; logic is secondary, and when we find that no logic can explain what we've decided on, at least we've got the entire notion of divine purpose/calling to back it up. and it's perfectly fine. for them, at least.

damn you lazy christians. you give the entire bunch a bad name - god gave you an existence so that you could make the most out of it in a allocatively, if not socially, efficient manner. by being lazy and waiting for things to happen, you throw nothing but insult back at the hand that fed you. thankfully, you're a minority. better remain that way.

whee - finally got this off my chest. feels good :) sounds familiar? think prison break.

just for the fun of it :)

La première loi de Newton déclare qu'un objet reste dans son état de reste ou de mouvement à une ligne droite à moins que ne suivi par une force externe.
La deuxième loi de Newton déclare que le taux de changement de vitesse linéaire d'un système est directement proportionnel à la force externe nette y agissant et la direction de changement est dans la direction de la force externe nette.
La troisième loi de Newton déclare que quand l'objet A exerce une force F sur l'objet B, l'objet B exerce une force-F, de l'étendue égale, mais la direction opposée, sur l'objet A.

and physics, for a moment, became 100x cooler. just for that little while.

a tidy disappearing act

for most people, less the few that either live with me, live near me or work with me, that's what it's been. poof. not into thin air, thankfully.

so things have been going on, despite the lack of visual evidence. for one, the decision's out. to UCL we, or rather just I, will go. let's try that in french. À Londre j'irai. heh aside from the ucl decision, i will return to L'Alliance Française on monday and see if i actually passed that horrendously pulled-off test last friday. merci to alvin (oh, i didn't introduce him? ah yes, i didn't. obviously. Alvin Natanael Kumarga or something like that. bizarre name, marginally less bizarre than the fact that he looks uncannily like LUCAS LI haha. seriously.) for doing the je suis desolé, mais tu ne me donne pas ton numéro téléphone thingy haha. let's hope we pass and get pascal again for the next class.

let's see, what else. oh yes, the moët hennessy internship. well it's been good working with pierre, celia and fanny. and marie and esther, naturally - thank you for even the opportunity. like they say, it's not WHAT you know but WHO you know that counts in this (i hesitate to say "brave" but well) brave new world. many flutes of champagne have gone down, well appreciated I must add. the maisons will be proud if they knew. i hope.

and for the guys, well, let's just say the thing that i finally realized moved my decision to the many other opportunities (seriously, be fair! we had a good one, but there're others that're equally good, if not better. really.) was chester's story about the man who wanted god to save him in the most bizarre and obvious manner. let's just say i take the opportunities that come by as they come by - certainly ain't hoping to strike toto or something by virtue of a ticket i find on the bus. plus, in jason's words - long term, no? i'll cya guys, maybe not so soon again, but certainly in the future. don't commit me to anything, for goodness' sake.

alors. that seems to be most of it. seriously, you can't expect me to write a post just for the sole purpose of telling people what i've been up to right. i came here with a purpose heh. i need the experiences of previous batches of london bound individuals - packing lists, if you still have them, envoyez-les-moi, s'il vous plait. as with the other important and essential information you may have. in fact, either important OR essential. I know i've been playing the "yea, it's important, but it sure ain't essential" phrase a little too often for my own good, but this time, it's OR. mathematically, anything that touches those 2 categories.

c'est tout. simple, non? :) merci beaucoup! il me semble que ce n'est pas très facile.. mais.. :s

it's the chase for the impossible that's keeping me on the move. ironically, if all that i wanted were right in front of me, i'd stop moving. right away. just, stop.

so as much as possible, keep moving; keep moving away from me, so that i may not stay still; stop only when you deem me fit.