Bittersweet Symphony

Ahh... Sunday night was one of those "My first time" moments.. It was at my first time at a real ORCHESTRA! (Well.. back in school we did kinda have an orchestra.. but this was the "real deal" No offence to former members of the orchestra and dear Mr. Lopez!) The university's orchestra performed at the Uni's great hall and it was quite an experience! They played 4 pieces that night.. 3 of em were by 2 separate modern composers. (Early 20th century) and the last piece was Taichosky's 1st Symphony..er.. something.

So how would i describe it.. well.. back in my piano lessons, each time my music teacher plays something modern i'll always describe it as.. "It sounds weird." Heh. But that's modern isn't it? Lacking a melody or direction.. But the 1st piece was good.. it even had a hint of jazz at one point... it was depressing but ended on a hopeful note. Somehow, it made me think of "Planet of the Apes." When i read the programme, apparently the composer wrote it when he was trying to defect to the west during the cold war. That pretty much explains the emotional motive behind the music.

The next 2 pieces were not bad. Amazing how the orchestra is in sync with each other in movement, direction and poise. It's one thing to listen to classical over speakers and another to listen right there and then. It's like umm.. you're right there! Err.. well not quite, i really is overwhelming and interesting how they generate different effects with their instruments.

Taichoksy was brilliant. This piece was really Russian.. at certain parts, it made me feel like jumping up and doing a lil Russian folk dance.. except... you dont wanna do that and end up in a strait jacket eh? Lol. It was divided into 4 separate movements and each had a different motive. Typical Taichosky.. ending with a built up to a grand finale!

Wow.. reading what i've wrote.. would really make my past piano teachers proud. Lol. Guess it's compensation for a difficult student i was...

International Week Reunion Pics

Hard at work.. Must keep that poker face...

A breif interlude for a picture..

Aftermath...

Rather happy group pic huh? lol.
Top L-R (Aik Kuang, Valerie, Moi, Julie, Jevariah, Angus)
Bottom (Farid, Vincent, Amelie and Eileen in pink)

Mmm.. Highlight of the night.

Mmm.. Yeah, you guessed it! Steamboat dinner (or like the ppl here call it.. Hot Pot!) Friday night was a night where all of us who stayed in Sherwood during the 1st week(international week), gathered around for good food and good company. Played Cho Dai Di & Bluff to wrap up the night...

Post on Pictures

Pictures Galore.. 'Nuff said!

At the NMS Link Party (R-L: Julie, me, Jessie, Seng, Justin, Hseng and err.. some random girl whose name i didnt get)

(L-R) Yours truly, Wee Vein (my ballroom dance partner!), Priya(the gracious person whose
camera is taking these pics) and Justin.
Rutland Posse. Seng, Justin, Me and Ben..

Dilemmas...

I'm taking a brief reprise from my reading as i post this. If there's a recurring theme for this day, it has to be dilemmas. The first one is a "straighforward dilemma" (straightforward in comparison with other dilemma's i'm about to mention). Do I celebrate friend's birthday with my hallmates and forego a long term committment to a friend for a ballroom dancing class or the other way around, go for ballroom dancing class with her (committments aside.. i paid 11 quid for the course!) and let down my posse?

As a lawyer-to-be, I can probably argue this out. It's not every day a friend turns 20, and enters her 2nd decade of life. Then again, I'll be skipping out on a long term committment which preceded even before I knew of this event of celebration. Or should i go to by the utilitarianism method? I'll be making more people "happy" by going for the birthday girl's celebration (in a manner of speaking) against one friend's happiness. Yeah.. Cold hard logic! The Vulcan way!

As the day went by(not to mention the amount of button-pushing i had to go through and amount of guilt put on me), I stumbled onto more dilemmas.

For tommorow's Seminar reading, i have to read the hyphothetical case of "The Case of Speluncean Explorers." You can read it here .


For those who are too lazy to read,

It involves a case of a group of explorers who went exploring into a tunnel and are trapped by a landslide. To keep it short, in the process of the rescue 10 workers are killed by other landslides. The landslides hamper rescue efforts and they only manage to pull them out in 38 days time. They discover that one of the explorers, Roger Whitmore is cannabilized by his fellow explorers. However, ironically.. it was Roger himself who had proposed to cast lots (or dice to be precise in this case) to decide who is to be eaten for the survival of the rest. Then, the survivors are put to trial post-recovery. They are found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The facts of the case are then followed by separate opinions of fictional high court judges. Each with their own methodolgy in reasoning out their decisions and with even one judge, redrawing from the case on the basis of emotional involvement and his disablity to decide as a "private citizen".

Another judge states that being trapped underground and separated from soceity enables them to act according to the "Law of Nature" as they are not in the "civil state of society" but in a "state of nature".

The different lines of argument by each fictional judge is given by the writer, L.L Fuller to portray the different opinions in intrepreting law. Do we inteperate the law iterally? Take in account public opinion? Do we take into account the "deterrent" and "what if.. in the future?" factor? Each argument has its flaws and strenghts as articulatly put in the article.

However we look at it, there's no simple answer? If we sentence the men to their deaths, wouldn't the lives of the rescues be in vain? Yet, we can't toss that imagery of cannabalism out of heads, can we?

Hmm.

Leaving that aside for a bit, I discovered something. For my further reading i had : A. Bradney,"
Choosing Laws, Choosing Families: Images of Law, Love and Authority in "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer".(You can find it here) And i went...

WAHEY! Something lighter to read... Lol. After all, Buffy's one of my guilty, geeky pleasures in my life and it's law-related!

Besides brushing up my Buffy-logy, it made me realise that Buffy (God bless, Joss Wheldon!) is pretty much about (not just about love triangles, stake-wielding hotties, and heart-gripping storylines) http://turbulence86.blogspot.com/. None involving cannablism thankfully.. but the life of a loved one against life of many.. and questions about law, authority, and family.

It all leads me back to : Life's pretty much full of dilemmas. I see the road ahead paved with them. As cliche as it may sound, There aren't any easy answers in life. Cases with decisions which can go either way like in the "THE CASE OF THE SPELUNCEAN EXPLORERS".

A point brought up in the Buffy article was ,"Those who apply law formulated by external authority can feel themselves absolved of personal responsibility for their decisions".

Kinda makes mwish that there was a law saying, "If it ever is you friend's 20th birthday, you are held by the punishment of death to attend her brithday celebration!"
Then, I can probably go, " Sorry VW, I can't go to tonight's dance class coz if i don't.. Off with my head!" Or vice versa. Lol.

But then it made me think...

Will I ever reach that point in my life? Where I become so.. "Numb" and I distant myself? Hiding behind law and rules and obmitting facts? Losing my humanity? I kid about losing my soul as a lawyer... but how far is it from the truth?

Where does this all leave me? Right back where i started. Facing each dilemma as they come. But I know one thing, (call me an idealist if you want) I'll hold on to every ounce of humanity I have. Isn't that why we're all here on this earth on our two feet?

Personal reflections aside. It makes tommorow's night's dilemma pale in comparison. Ah.. I wish i could have my cake and eat it. An ideal world, anyone?

Heh.

Darn...

I spent Sunday night reading up for my constitutional tutorial.. reading about the political consitution and other material. It was quite interesting as the writer's opinion that was by using the judicary as a check against the government was not the way to go. Political decisions should be left to the politicians as they removable from office and can be held accountable after all. But i digress.. this is not my point of my post.

I arrived at my tutorial room.. feeling prepared.. and then after taking our attendance, our tutor suddenly mentions " 1 in 5 students fail Contract but last year it was 1 in 10.....etc" And I went like in my head, " Why the hell is he mentioning Contract in a Consti tutorial..??" I looked at my fellow tutees (is that the right word) and see if they registered the same look of bewilderment which i had on my face. Then, i started to look around the room.. and wait a darn minute.. why arent there any Consti books around?? *Whamp* It hit me like a sledgehammer in my chest.. I prepared for the bloody wrong tutorial! Haih... then.. I just had to play a poker face and keep it together i thought. THere were 7 of us to choose from to answer the questions. So, for the 1st case, he picked out one girl.. So phew.. lucky me.. and then for the next case, i was thinking hah! There's a 1 in 6 chance i'll be picked! Kept my poker face.. "Could we have Joachim tell us the facts of such-and-such case" and *Double Wham!* The sick twisting feeling in my stomach..argh.. and i sheepishly told him that i had prepared for the wrong tutorial. *sigh* Bad start for my 1st tutorial...

In other news, looks like i'll be running Snooker instead of Table Tennis. Mm...

It's been one month here...

It's been a month here. When you're really far away from home, you realise you take lots of things for granted. Guess it's the tradeoff for independence, huh? Well, this post is specially for one of the things i've missed.

I miss you.. Your smooth body against my flesh... The warm feeling.. the Euphoria i feel when i see you.. Taking all of you in.. that sweet, hot sensation i get.. Yes, i miss you. Thai Chilli Sauce. >.<

Post about Nott's Games and Nuts

Hey Hey Hey!!

Nott's games will be held on 12th of November which is a Saturday. It'll be held for one day and among the sports played will be: badminton, netball, football, scrabble, snooker, chess, table tennis, badminton and volleyball.

So, if you're around the UK.. Pop by Nott's! I'll give u a tour around the campus.. accomodation and all.. well.. err.. we'll see bout that later.

If you're in Nott's and you want to volunteer, go to Leanne or George.. Our 1st year reps. You don't need to be a M'sian to volunterr.. And you'll get a free lunch, free dinner (TQ dinner the following week after the games) and a free t-shirt.

Ahh.. I volunteered.. and they put me on Table Tennis!! A sport..which i know nuts about. I mean.. if they put me on netball (which i know nuts about either) i wouldnt mind too much! Lol.

Talking about nuts, here's an idea for making a card for a special someone. Cut a shape hearted card and stick a peanut shell on the front. Write on the front : "I know nuts about making cards..." and in the card: "But i'm nuts over you!" Heh. Made one of these for sell for a fund raiser back home.

That's all for now.. Gotta rush down for breakfast.. Ahh.. BACON!! *shudder*

2 weeks in Rutland!!

Ahhh.. I've decided to move on to a blog. Much easier this way.. Well, it's been two weeks in Rutland Hall. Catered food's still bearable. If it wasnt, my wallet wont bear ordering takeout! I only get 1 pound 50 a day! That works out to.. 10.50 a week? One or two nights out and i'm gone! *sigh* Just to recap what has gone on since my last email.. Well, there was an Asian Clubbing event on Tuesday night. (All the Asians Socs: Malaysian Society, Malaysian Singaporean Society, Korean Society, Chinese Society, Thai Society..etc) It was held at Faces in Notts City. It was jam-packed.. so packed that this girl dancing behind me.. her ass was rubbing against mine! The dance floor was really small.. the drinks were expensive(had a redbull vodka..which tasted purely like redbull and a something coke.. which tasted like cough syrup) and the music was sucky IMHO. (More RnB...Arghh!!) Anyway, but it was interesting coz i was hanging out with 4 of my hall mates, Ben (Korean guy doing pharmacy.. resident "stud".Lol.), Seng (Bruneian guy doing Mec Eng.. great at bball.. hes on the uni 2nd team!), Justin (3rd year Eng student from Malaysian Campus) and Han (fellow law student from Shanghai). One of the funny things we did was try to get Ben to chat some girls up.. coz before that he was boasting how the girls go to him and not the other way around! After much scouting and missed chances, there were these few girls taking pics of themselves and I nudged him to help time take it. He did so and we ended up introducing ourselves to them. Next, Ben started buying drinks for all 3 girls! (3x3=12 quid!) Ladies.. Take note, if you ever need a free drink.. you know who to go to. Lol. He talked to them a bit but that was it.. man.. Ben.. you really have money to burn!! Anyway, it was a good night with good company.

Mm.. the next highlight of the week was the Goosefair. It's a funfair with rides, games, food and knick knacks.. It's like the European version of a Pasar Malam.. except it's held once a year for 5 days... with glaring lights, loud music, and things cost 7 times more! Basically, i lost my original group and ended up hanging out with Leanne and Co. We scouted around.. looking for the least rigged games and watching and learning other people play. We tried a couple of games but weren't too successful.. I personally tried Horse racing..where you get two red balls (no pun intended throughout this paragraph) and u toss it into these holes.. If the balls went in the holes, the horse would move faster. I was leading but lost in the end..argh.. Ended up 2nd. Next up, was this basketball game where you need to enter 1 out of 3 shots into a tiny hoop.. but alas, yours truly failed in scoring and didnt get a furry friend at the end of it. It was the pressure of 5 girls standing around i tell you!! It was..!! Lol.

We did go on some rides.. The 1st one was Wild Mouse which is basicallya rollercoaster and a teacup combined. Before the ride, I slyly said to Leanne not to hold on me tightly and she said, "Yeah, as if.." When we got on.. it was going uphill..the tension building up..then we downhill..we started zipping down and taking sharp corners and the teacup thingy holding us starting turning eratically. I don't recall screaming much but i recall Leanne clutching my jacket arm like her life depended on it. (yeah. you did!! Hahah) At the end of it all, there was a picture taken of us and up for sell in the form of a cup/keychain.. but being the kiam sap people we are (among us.. was 4 Singaporeans, 3 malaysians...nuff said?) we took pictures of the picture of us on the display monitor!! Ahh.. saved 3 quid by doing that.. Gives that nice warm feeling inside, you know... Lol.

The 2nd ride was Move It.. which I went on with Teong Weng.. this ride flips 360degrees and hovers like 15 metres in the air. All i can say.. was... Loud techno music+ strobe lights( made it like a night club in the air..lol.).. and add flu to that and rapid movements in mid air.. is not a good combo. Felt like puking and disorientated. Oh well. it was one of the cheapest rides around.. 2 quid. Pay peanuts.. you get monkeys? Wait.. in this case, pay expensive peanuts(14 ringgit in conversion nights) and get a complimentary headache and nausea! Whoopeeedo!

The night was passing quickly.. and i felt unsatiated... so i snuck away to try to win something soI would look less pathetic once I got on the bus. There was this darts stall.. Where u needed to score above 15 to get one prize at least.. So i thought, " Hey.. you've gotta be half-blind not to win something!" Went there... and lady luck was on my side and i got a small cuddly bear.. hahah! But once i got on the bus, my euphoria turned into humble pie.. with people carrying man-sized soft toys of Tigger and Eeyore. *sigh* But i consoled myself with the fact that... I had something to give away. Lol.

However, on Sat night.. I went back to the fair.. This time with Ben, Seng and Justin (Rutlanders till we die!! Yeah!!) Ben came back with a laser pointer, a furry rabbit and a giant bear holding a heart saying "I love you". It was really big so we each took turns carrying it.. Kinda funny when you think of it.. It was like.. the 4 of us were surrogate mothers for an inanimate object for the night. Wierd. We named it "Lil Benny" while waiting for a cab. Ben's gonna keep it till Febuary.. I hope no girls who he's thinking of giving it too.. reads this. Lol.

Well.. that's all for now.. I'll be posting the 3 emails i sent out.. Sorry, guys.. if I didnt add you guys to my list. Can't keep track... Cheers.

Salsa, bellydancing, beer and kebabs...

Note: 3rd email i sent out...

Hey all..!!


Some rather British word/phrases i've gotta integrate into my vocabulary : Massive, Bird(british equivalent of Chick..), Quid (pound), Random, "cheers,mate!". Been hearing these words tremendously often these days! About putting on a British accent, i wouldnt consciously know if i do put on one when i talk to the locals..But i've got a post-grad friend who British accent becomes perfect after a few drinks! Lol.

The locals are really good.. Except on Thursday night, after the Red, Rude and Raunchy Party (where everyone wore red, dyed their hair red, painted their faces red and one bloke wore a red nurse costume!) yeah.. anyway, after that party, some guys got really drunk and wild.. going about the hall corridor banging doors and chanting. And someone set off the fire alarm yet again! Bloody hell! Couldnt sleep that night...

Ok.. anyway.. back to the topic above. SALSA. Well.. You see. On Thursday night, there was this salsa dancing thing on which was only 1 quid! So, i was darn bored and just wanted good fun. But it was like a totally random thing at the last minute, so i ended going there alone.. Overdressed, and the only Asian male there! (Last week(internationalweek) there was another salsa session.. so that explains why. But then it was 5 quid!) It was all fun.. Noone was willing to the Asian guy who had two left feet except this nice british girl whose umm.. breath smelled of beer actually. Sad huh? Lol. Anyway, it was good fun and she was quite fun. Now.. If I only could remember her name!!

Bellydancing? yes. I bellydanced! Laughing yet? Well, umm.. kinda.. You see... on Friday night was the 1st meeting for the Nottingham Malaysian Society and I was nominated as a 1st year rep with 4 other guys and 5 girls. So, we were asked to speak, perform(either to belly dance, umbrella dance, propose or sing) So yours truly, did a belly dance.. with a sash.. I shallnt go into details what exactly i did but apparently the video should be circulating the net pretty soon! Lol.
I didnt get the position in the end but this Nigerian guy whos Malaysian at Heart (in his own words) wowed everyone with his Bahasa and his slick style.

After the meeting, we headed into Beeston for a drink. It wasnt a subsided student bar so drinks were freaking expensive!(2.50 for a pint of lager, 3 for a cocktail) Thankfully, on the way there.. we found a 10 pound note on the ground in the rain! So we split it among the 6 of us when it came to paying for the drinks. After the drink, we had kebabs.. which were heavenly! Nothing like hot, spicy, meaty kebabs on a cold night after beer! On a sidenote, my wallet cant take this!! ARGHH!!

Life in hall is great social-wise.. everyday, I get to meet people in the JCR (Junior Common room) where there's a pool table and a giant screen TV and during meals in the dining hall. Oh yeah.. in my hall, there's this 7 ball rule..tradition thing... where if you dont pot a single ball you have to do a naked quad run! But so far.. noone has been penalised. (One guy nearly got it tho!)

Arghh.. i've got sorethroat today and my glands are sore. Looks like i've got a flu coming. Fresher's Flu!!.. at the beginning of week one, they said it was inevitable. I didnt believe them.. but it looks like its true.

Well, today's the end of week one. There's a finale party at Rock City in Nottingham City. Tickets were 15 quid so i opted not to join.. But this coming Tuesday there's this joint club night between the Malaysian Society, The Malaysian Singaporen Society, the Korean Society, The Thai Society, and the Chinese Society. Looking forward to that day..

Tommorow, the work starts. Mm.

Hope you guys are doing great and God bless...

Joachim L.