凍冰冰

hmm, my little world is so great these days. just got home from long chat on the freezing street with sijia, 5*C, face frozen, but nice nice. Replied two long due emails... Had a great class, on oh my love, picturebooks! 絵本. They are such amazing stuff. And class tea party, like the tiger who came for tea, with mince pie and gingerbread cookies our professor baked! nice coffee with gabs this 'morning,' the pic shows his moleskin & handwriting which I am desperate to steal lol. sent a lot of xmas cards. happy happy, can't wait to bring my beautiful picture storybooks from hk back. can't wait to know what I will be researching for my coming term, and my thesis. :P can't wait to beautiful tomorrow. :P so cold now.

今日

today, is a happy day, for no reason, or for many different reasons. awww, why is today so great : ) happy happy, なんとなく楽しい。笑 Received a big parcel from Goldman Sachs, which turned out to be homebaked cookies from lovely roomie, in midst of essay and christmas cards writing/drawing : ) spent the afternoon 'moving books' to ames library, then went to Law library, it's so much like the airport, designed by Norman Foster, booo. Dinner with my loving family : ) Then xmas Carol service. hmm, must correct my essay, send to supervisor, and wake up to beautiful tomorrow : ) in theory there's still a lot of ppl i shd meet before xmas, but maybe gotta wait till next term :|

青黃

Joanna Wang's version of Vincent never fails to transport me emotionally and visually, the rawness of her voice, like the heavy stroke of paint of provence's landscape, dreamy.

Almost never cooked properly since I came here. So today, I shopped a whole bag of yellow and green lemony limey food, made buckwheat crepe, half with sweetcorn and tuna (without mayo) and another half with lemon, lime mousse, banana, and blueberry. first savory, then sweet. with iceberg lettuce. thankz betts mama for cinnamon, next time I can add cinnamon in the flour/egg mix : )

Met up with UWCers for brunch, and bumped into Alicia. Spent a nice quiet little afternoon at Jocalatte. saw some nice people in college. now, write xmas card & work!

蝴蝶

今日はちょっとよくない、ずっど図書館にいった、頭がずっと痛かった、だから七時家に帰って、休むつもりだ、簡単な晩ご飯を作って、おくりびとを見た、もう一度ですか？そう、何回見ても感動する映画です。映画を見ながら、絵を描いていた。ここに来たら、絵がぜんぜん描いていなかった、絵を描くこどが大好きだけど、私にとて簡単じゃないと思う。今朝、長い時間見なかったhousemateと会った、いつもアフリカの森中、蝶についての研究をしてる、今回もとても特別な蝶を探した、いろいろを見せた、面白い！

今天在圖書館很久，七時後決定休息，做了簡單的壽司，一邊看禮儀師的奏鳴曲（又睇？今次睇比上次更好睇！）一邊畫畫。畫畫是我做的活動中最難的之一，七年前的我說，因為那是我唯一perfectionist的事。早餐時，什少見的生態研究員同屋剛從非洲帶了很多稀有蝴蝶回來，粉紅色長尾巴的叫moon moth真好聽。

冷戰

post-supervision trauma totally faded away with an interesting night with the east asian studies crowd, that just came out from their 'Cold War in Asia' class, but can't take their minds off the drunk thoughts of Confucianism influence on the hatred between East Asian countries, well into midnight. These historians and politicians also shared a 'taste of Communism', (the cigarette i mean) brought by a North Korean student who just arrived cambridge 2 days ago, the first ever North Korean student here! Mulled wine and heated dialogues clearly wasn't warm enough on such a cold night outdoor by the river cam, had to act like a turtle with two huge blue blankets! but real heart-warming thing was the postcard I got today! izzie love! doesn't mean i can take my mind off my work, intense work required

紅莓

May secret hideouts remain unknown to the world. Excited to be shared with this beautiful room, hidden in a quiet courtyard, with red berries on the tree outside the windows, old curtains, christmas tree, fireplace, sofa, tv, pantry, and a grand piano.... well, kind of reminds me of The Secret...

Went to a talk 'Mao's Forgotten Successor: the Political Career of Hua Guofeng,' pretty interesting.

can't believe it's week seven!

静か

My room is flooded with golden sunshine. Sunday is so peaceful, and no one could resist from going for a walk on such a beautiful day.

唱k

今日も晴れでした、楽しいね。香港からのmasterとphd学生たちと一緒にカラオケに行きました、面白くて楽しかった : )　古い歌もたくさん歌いました。

そして朝はnew hallに朝ご飯を食べに行った、とてもやすいね。陽光がいっぱい。明日、本当にたくさんを書かなくちゃ...時間が飛んでいます、信じられない。

[写真提供 sijia]

缈缈

the realization of how little i know once again shocked me to the core. especially from this week on, all the topics are ones that i anticipate. it also makes me think, given that I am an Asian, with already some knowledge and experience of Japan/China, I still feel perplexed upon the readings, how would people who doesn't know the cultures feel?

Watched Hiroshima mon amour today : )

Trying to watch 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこfor class, which I have not watched before. Once again encountered people emailing me with the preconception of me being sick of reading critical text, and looking forward to graduate asap; reality is quite the contrary, though I feel extremely unknowledgeable it sometimes hurts my heart, but I also love everything i'm doing, the intellectual challenge, or else I won't even give a x to think... lol . I miss japan very much tho, esp onsen.

黄み

sunshine, crepe, eggnog, nothing beats that.

徐志摩曾說離美國後，仍一如草包，但住在劍橋時，每天忙著散步、划船、騎自轉車、抽煙、閒談、吃五點鐘茶、嚐油烤餅、看閒書，回國時發現自己原先只是一肚子顢頇。他在《吸煙與文化》 一文曾說：「我的眼是康橋教我睜的，我的求知欲是康橋給我撥動的，我的自我的意識是康橋給我胚胎的。」I wish I were in cam in 1922 for one reason - it must be less scary to cycle back then. need to bake a little sunshine crepe suzette cake as the day gets shorter. i seriously, desperately need to work now. i spent the evening - literally - listening to music... it could be so engaging even without words, without image

白莓

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.
-- Walter Benjamin

Autumn is a great time to find beautiful plants, today, the little white berries/flowers that I am always curious in appear just in front of me on the pavement. brightened up my otherwise very gloomy day. They told me it is possibly a mistletoe! This is the first time I felt Xmas might be on its way. told by nature. I love it so much. What more can I say? How often do you lie to yourself without knowing?

朝霧

日曜。きれいな一日、朝からずっと晴れていだ、温かいので、川の隣に本を読んでいた。でも週末の街は大勢の人で溢れる、大嫌い。朝は本当に一日の中一番すばらしいと思う、霧の中から太陽が顔を出して、どこでも静かだ。

夜はちょっと変なレストランへ行った、でも新しい友達が会った、一緒にbubble teaを飲みに行くことにした : )　

おなかいっぱい、明日美味しい朝ご飯を作ろう。

今、癒しの音楽を聞きたい？もうそろそろ寝なくちゃ

深藍

first mulled wine of 2011

raspberry and fig in dark blue sky

why do we have to start a day with a song like that? why?

encountered so many books that I want to buy, beautiful rare copies too.....

午夜

University Library/UL is really a sight to visit, the little staircases, tiny corridors and that insanely abnormal lift lol. Doesn't seems to be something that exist in 21st century.

I managed to find somewhere that I really like in this strange library. It's cozy, the ceilings are low, books are small, with a window, and rarely anybody walk passes :P

Yesterday, I felt too tired to walk home, today, i felt impossible to walk home, with the many books I borrowed, all hardcover... ventured through a new path, walked through some pretty gardens, and saw a fat little white cat, almost surreal.

tired.

time for some self-criticism for my essay

提灯

I feel too tired to walk home.

done tonnes of walking and meeting people today, been to Uni Library, AMES library, met sijia, betts, alyona and erica, separately. went on bookshop crawl, while carrying 6+ books + laptop. it's so great to sit down in solitude now.

the sky was beautiful today, the coffee I made was great. but now I just feel tired. And after my serious reading-indulgence, it's once again time to revise my previous writing, and email my supervisor.

I came to an answer to my previous struggle.

I like the sofa, lighting and the old books here, I wanna have a nice home. Yeah, just finished email to supervisor!

I cannot let myself to write anything that is second-rate in my heart, and cannot let myself to just say it without materializing it anymore! edited/21:14, i started off feeling extremely tired and annoyed 3 hours ago, now feeling calm and happy, a nice way to spend the evening, on my own, reading, and finishing at least some work.

秋空

I wonder if I particularly enjoy here, or do I always just enjoy where ever I am at. But think about it, when was the last time, I re-emerged myself into thinking/speaking fully and comfortably in English only, not have to turn on the computer for days but just enjoy real life, the present, cultivate relationship with people around me, indulge actively in activities in the community, read with delight and sense of awakening... today- lunch with Faye;class; seminar on history of illustration of ABC; Love Art After Dark @ Fitz museum; dinner with faye and gab. tomorrow. continue to work.

蜂蜜

Well, we jumped in the air, the squid, shrimp, salmon, catfish etc. all got really dizzy inside our stomaches, as if they were put into a tumbling washing machine. not to mention the shock puppy face felt after walking through soho lol, maybe the chinese food comforted his soul, where as renoir comforted ours. regained confidence, gabby climbed up the lion of trafalgar square, and betts overcame her fear so she didnt' had to stay on the plinth in the cold : )

happy day in London, and now - study hard! hopefully coming week won't be way too eventful but have lots to look forward for the weekend. n i m actually looking forward to my lemon yoghurt in ceramics pot & oatmeal for breakfast.

つき

It is hardly worth the effort to try to grow up into - and live fully within - a world that is not full of wonder. - Bruno Bettelheim, 'Children and Museums' It's our dept's open day today : ) look at our home-baked cupcakes featuring beatrix potter's characters! It's also guy fawkes night, could have been to a home thai cooking party, or a spicy hotpot party... but I chose to read in the library... Felt like there's no point going if my throat doesn't produce sound. and we are going to London tomorrow!

橘子

aw, what a nice night.

疲れたけど、本当に楽しかった。新しくて面白い友達があいました。seems like it's harder to meet new friends (not juz fb frds) as one gets older, so it's especially great when we do. had a very fun night at trinity college formal dinner, with gab, julian and scarlette. then we visited julian's room, which had to be accessed through a near complete dark wood, his room is obviously very nice with HUGE L-shaped windows facing some sort of creeks or lake, his collection of rolleiflex, films, and books is even more impressive. passion gleams as people talk about the things they love and care, Scarlette too loves movies films n take beautiful photos, she used to b an archi student like all of us, but quit in the middle, to study what she thought was right in Netherlands n germany :) and it seems that the more people know the humbler they are, regardless of age. have to meet my supervisor tomorrow. aw, this is a little magical place. i wish i know more.

紅色

and the red cups are back!

going to trinity college for formal dinner tonite, hope it'd be fun.

畫畫

so you wonder, what does this boring girl do when she's not feeling well, does drawing little cards and watching little women (1994) for class, in bed cures? most of the time confidence, belief and determination solve all my problems, do you think it solves issues like getting well sooner too? you know my childhood dream? as if things aren't close enough, now that i am suffering from temporary physical deficiency, i want everything right around me.

神秘

First of november.

we had a really nice lecture on modern poetry today.

everybody looked so happy with dessert