The Aftermath... *(edited and con't)...

As far as partying goes, it was a long time coming.

Been out for dinner with John Ong and Mikey and Clarence for dinner, the day we received our results. They were the first ones who congratulated me, John, having waited there for an hour for me to show up to look at the results. =)

But anyway, this has to be delayed. Coz my sister is calling me to watch DVDs now. =p They are here, btw, to attend my graduation ceremony tomorrow. And it has been sort of an upheaval. With parents and family here, my lifestyle has been drastically altered. More later...

:+: (con't)

John and I just stayed there and talked after dinner, till the Chef One pple subtly chased us out (that was after he was so lovely to buy me dinner and get me drunk on wine). Heh. It was a gd time. After that, I headed to the school disco. The finalists' disco. An event long awaited. Haven't been out in ages (that shows how long I've been hibernating, doesn't it....). It was great (as if all things, after you haven't had them for a while...). My housemate, M, brought a bottle of champagne for the household to celebrate all of us passing. After we toasted and all, I was whisked away by Sharon (my darling babe HO from Epsom) to dance in the R&B room. and boogie, we did! She rocked, man... like a pro dancer! you wouldn't believe that she's a doc at all! Then went around mingling with friends and chatting throughout the night, interspersed with bits of dancing and drinking. Then Stan and I headed back to my place, where we conked out on the couch, both of us. till 2 hrs later, when we realised we were still on the couch (it'll be weird if una comes in and finds both of us concussed on the couch when I have a room upstairs), and so headed up to my room and concussed for the rest of the morning.

Spent the weekend actually letting the fact that I passed sink in. I mean, yeah, the likelihood that I'll fail is slim (but possible), but yet, it feels like a normal exam, just that my title is changed. It feels weird being called DR. Yeah, we've all worked hard to earn that title, but somehow, with my friends and juniors congratulating me, and calling me Doc instead of the usual C_, it just takes some getting used to, I suppose. Thanks for all the well-wishes, guys and gals! It's duly noted and greatly appreciated. *wink+grin*

The following week was a whirlwind of half-packing, meeting up with friends (SF and Merv who are going back home for good!, and Tim whom I haven't seen in ages!), doing up stuff for my US trip. Decided to throw majority of my books and papers away, sorting out which are good or useful to give away to juniors, or gd to sell. It's so amazing to see how much $$ one can spend on medical books, and never open them in the 5 years that you study! Thank goodness, most of my books have been used or referred to, one way or another, and they are all still in good condition! =D Spent one of the afternoons teaching the juniors as well, then I had dinner with Cheryl and Clarence at one of the infamous indian curry houses, where we bitched abt the people and the world, and talked philosophy. Lovely, ain't it?

:+:

Dance Classes

The highlight of that week was the dance classes which I went to. Sharon brought me to her dance classes, which she usually goes to on Thursdays, and since I always had an interest in dance, I tagged along. We went to Pineapple, the well-known dance studio situated in Covent Garden. Boy, was it fantastic! We went for 2 classes - Jazz Tap and Street Hip Hop. The Jazz class was taught by this gay man, whose routine was absolutely awesome and hilarious! Really kicked some ass with attitude with that one.

'.... I want to see your tight butts, ladies, if not, I'll pinch them for ya!' Tummy-boggling hilarious, I tell you. =)

The hiphop class was of a longer duration, but I didn't enjoy it as much. The routine was just as good though, and the guys in the class, and some of the girls (including Sharon) were quite amazing. However, when you get old and creaky (like me), jumping around and twisting and turning gets a little harder than when you were younger. Great thing to go to, especially when you have limitless money (as it is quite pricey for entrance and each class when added together), but I think it's well worth it. Not to mention, the workout was great, and there were some really good-looking pple there! =P

:+:

Graduation Ball

The day of the Grad Ball, went around like mad to school to return labcoat and locker keys, etc to get some deposits back, then the library, then around Tooting, meeting pple for different things. Mad rush continued till later that night, when my housemate SB and her bf Rob and I decided to have dinner in, coz it costs too much to have dinner outside before the Grad Ball. And so, we had good food, lots of cheap wine, and were a little pissed, all for just 5 quid per person!

Well, I was actually supposed to meet Sharon and Jen for dinner before Grad Ball, and she brought KM along (apparently to hook up with me that night), but when I cancelled the last min (there wasn't enough time that day!)... I didn't realise that KM was coming along, so promised that I'll meet him with when I'm back from Europe (haven't contacted him yet...=p)

And so, I got ready for Grad Ball, with a slinky black dress (there will be photos up on my webphotos page some time soon), my new earrings which were an impulse buy from Oasis (they are gorgeous, btw), and the usual, heels. By the end of the night, my feet were killing me, esp with all the standing and walking (to the tube after missing the bus to the hotel, and the walk down the concrete grounds beside the Tower of London to the Dixie Queen).

It was a night of glitz and glam. Champagne galore, it was. People with tuxes and ball dresses, and amazingly high stilletoes (my feet got jabbed by Sabrina's one that it bled profusely, but it's fine now, thank you). It was an unforgettable night, with dancing, mingling, making out, saying goodbyes, spending time with people you've seen for 5 years and may never see for the next 5 years It was a good time. We took buses back from Tower Hill baco to Tooting at 4am, and I got home with Stan at about 5am. I just crashed for half an hour, before having to wake up at 5.45am to take the tube down to Heathrow to pick up my parents (their flight arrived at 7.15am), whilst leaving Stan still asleep on my floor (he refused to take the empty bed in SR aka the ex-housemate from hell's room).

And so I survived on 45 mins of sleep for the whole day, while bringing my parents and sis (yippee!) around Tooting, and letting them get home to rest early coz of jet lag. While mei and I spent the night watching the first season of Sex And the City!

:+:

Graduation Ceremony

This year's Grad Ceremony was held at Logan Hall, Russell Square. Spectacular event, considering I've not graduated before. Even before K and I got our gowns, lo and behold, who is the first person I ee when I walked through those doors? JTI. We got our gowns, and while wearing them, apparently JTI went up to my parents and introduced himself to them (hell yeah, now they have this impression of him being a well-mannered boy, etc etc... dear lord, help us all), and my sis. I didn't even know it, till I walked out! Well, he was nice enough to help us take a family pic. Thanks for that. =)

And so the ceremony preceded without much ado (clap clap clap, then when it's your turn, go up the stage, shake hands, smile lots, then go back to your seat), with lots of rushing around and taking photos before and after the ceremony, then the mad rush for champagne and strawberries (they all disappeared by the time we got there), then the return of the gowns. Throughout all this, thank heavens there was air-con. Do you know that that day was one of the hottest, at 33 degrees Celsius?!

Then K and I headed with our families to Royal China at Bayswater for dinner! The food wasn't particularly good, but it was nevertheless Chinese food filling enough for 7 of us. Went back home, and packed some last minute stuff for our trip to Europe.

:+:

Europe Tour

It's more for the benefit of my parents and sis, as they haven't been to any of the European countries before. So I booked this tour, where we went around the various place by coach. And so, we journeyed from London, passing the white cliffs of Dover to take the ferry across to Calais, France. Then we got onto the coach, and sat it all the way to Brussels. Tried out the Belgian cuisine of waterweiss and other bits of rabbit dishes (which I didn't dare to try), and the beer.

Then we headed to Boppard, Germany, where we took a cruise down the Rhine Valley, went to Frankfurt, Rothenburg where we tried 'snallenballen' or snowballs for lunch, Innsbruck, Austria for a tyrolean dinner. Other places we headed to was Brenner Pass, Italy, where we took a boat ride from the mainland into the heart of Venice. It was lucky that I'd been there before, so I knew where to go to get the gd and cheap stuff in Rialto, and what to see (Palace Ducale & St Mark's) in that limited time frame. Verona was also in the picture the next day, where we saw the balcony where Juliet was supposed to call out to Romeo with the famous phrase 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, oh Romeo?'

Switzerland was just breatakingly gorgeous, with their lakes and mountains and tunnels through the mountains. We went to Lucerne, via the St Gotthard tunnel (used to be the longest tunnel at 17km in the world, but that has noe been replaced by one in Norway at 24km). Went up Stanserhorn mountain via railway and cable car, then hiked up a short distance to the summit. Gorgeous alpine view from the top. Then we headed to Dole, and Paris in France, where Mei and I travelled to the city from our hotel for some adventure.

All in all, it was a good time spent, mostly with mei.

More later.

That week was really temperature hot. Seriously. It was close to being very dehydrated despite the fact that we were drinking water like camels.

| Zena caught a falling star on 10:05 pm.