Chinese New Year 2012

It's now the 4th day of Chinese New Year. And it's finally that I feel it's going to over. Lol. Yes, because I don't get to celebrate it, I want it to be over as soon as possible. It was kind of depressing when it was approaching it, and the first couple of days. To be honest I don't remember feeling so down in the past few CNYs. But perhaps one of the things is that I had to complete two essays due this week (later today). The only thing made me better is to Skype with my family, and I think we did it 3 times on the first day, so I got to watch the fireworks through my sister's Iphone, the kind of thing we always do passing midnight since I have memory. I missed home that I felt I was going to cry on the eve. :(

It's time to go home!

Anyway, I completed my essays today! Just now! So I'm giving myself a brief holiday. Then I realized I have been so tensed, that I do not know how to relax, what I should do to relax. The thing is those ethical form, other assignments etc are still crossing my mind. I somehow lost the ability to relax, sadly. :( Even my entertainment now - watching drama, I'm watching "In Treatment", recommended by a Clinical Psychologist in his visitor lecture. Now I have visitor lecturers every week, twice a week. I quite like this, we get to see different professionals, who come in and tell us what they do, how they do it etc.

I was going to end my post by saying 新年快乐. Then I suddenly recalled the news that I saw, a man passed away playing fireworks on CNY eve. He's just got married last Dec, a father-to-be, he was also the only son at home.. I can't imagine how it's like for his family to lost him in a day like that, that way.. Guess we should just be grateful and treasure what and who we have with us!

What you need to know to travel to Barcelona

The Barcelona Card is worth getting. It saved us a hell lot of money on travelling (especially on Metro). And of course, some entrance fees too, though most are just 2-3 euros discount.

When entering the ticket into the machine at the Metro station, sometimes it's on your left, other time on your right. Weird!

Check their sales period before going! They don't have boxing day in December like most other countries. :(

The weather in December is not as warm as you imagine. The temperature up the hill is not as cold as you think.

In general they have all their meals 1-2 hours later than us. You might think this doesn't matter, but we went to a restaurant at 12pm and they were trying to serve us breakfast..

The Txapela restaurant is the only restaurant that I'd like to recommend. It's very close to one of the Zaras in the town. Though, I suppose people go there to eat "for fun" rather than treating it as a proper meal, otherwise you'd end up having a bill like ours.

Zara is not really "everywhere" like the guide book says. Though the price is also not as low as what most people say (well, at least compared to those in the UK, blame the pounds sterling!).

The only name I came to know after my trip is Antoni Gaudi. And Barcelona is the city of Gaudi. He honestly did very brilliant art work in this city. He's Gaudi!

Bring someone who reads maps brilliantly, if you can't do it yourself. We spent most of the time walking the complete opposite direction while we're looking for places!

Don't sleep with someone who likes to put his/her arm on his/her head. The elbow will be waking you up all night. (note: I wasn't the victim).

Overall it's a beautiful city (thanks to Gaudi). Most of the entrance fees are a bit costly. The food in general is good, and is usually reflected through the price. It's many people's favourite European city, though not mine!

Note: Can't find a proper picture of us 4..

New Year, again

It's hard to stop myself from saying it's again, another year. For the past few years I summarized what happened in that year and wrote a post at the end of the year, but not the 2011. It isn't that I haven't achieved anything worth noting, but I haven't got the time to do it. I was at work from 22nd to 26th of Dec, then went to Barcelona on 27th and came back on 30th late night, at work again on new year eve. Other than that I've been trying to work on my addiction essay, linear models exam and preparation for dissertation, and of course, some "necessary" entertainments.

That kind of summarize my life..

It has been quite a year for me. Let's talk about work first. Though I'm not going to talk about the content of my work, but the people I'm working with. I learnt so much, and realized how blessed I'm. I must had done a lot of good deeds in the past to have known some very nice people, for example one left me with her flat keys for me to stay in when she's away for holidays, and a lot of very nice colleagues. I don't think I believe in karma, since I was brought up, being told by my mum that we shouldn't do bad things, but we don't have to do good things too. And I can see where that comes from (it would take few hundreds words to explain that). Yet for me to have received all these kindness, I have to do something to pass the kindness and love around, I think. I don't know how yet, though. Ha ha. Perhaps I just dont like this "owing" feelings, I want to return the favour, but I can't, not yet.

Another major change in the year 2011 must be enrolling myself into a clinical psychology postgraduate study. That's like back in Hin Hua, that's what I call study, and what I realized I've lost - the ability to work so hard like nobody's business. It's way too different from pursuing my undergraduate degree. But I guess I enjoy it, I guess, most of the time, if it's not all the time.

It has also been more than 5 years since I came to the UK. I see how much I've changed, then I wonder if anyone else sees that. There are certainly changes that I don't want them to be, I suppose we human don't always have choice (is free will an illusion? there will be few thousands words discussion..).

Other than that, I went home twice this year. My eldest brother got married in June. I became an aunty in July. I moved to a beautiful city in September. I said Good Bye to my 5 year old Dell and welcomed my Macbook Pro. I started to go to church occasionally. ... ...

New Year resolutions is not something for me. And I think I have so many things to do that I do not need more to have myself fail doing. The most important thing now is to look for my motivation, to pull myself together and study. (Now I'm going to watch drama..)

P.S. I aim to write more about my trip to Barcelona if I have the time!