Where The Mind is Without Fear

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from depths of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward...into ever-winding thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom...
let my country awake."

-- Tagore

I got this off Prof. Tommy Koh's eulogy for our late foreign minister S. Rajaratnam, thought that it can serve to spur us on to acquire worthwhile knowledge endlessly without cowaring at any signs of difficulties and fear; to remind us about what's important when we sometimes sink into the humdrums of life.

Chocolate sponge cake with cocktail mixed fruits!!!!! Haha am pretty happy with this first attempt! Of cos couldn't have done without ade and ling ling.

Going to town for dinner and a jazz concert later.. should be a relaxing night out...

I think i need to get out of nottingham for a little while.... been feeling quite cooped up lately. There's a play staged by the UCL theatre company next friday in london, followed by the London Games on saturday. I really want to go!

And surely, we are approaching the start of spring? the tulips have started to sprout all over the campus, the "spring onions" look-alike which shocked me last year :) But the weather this week has been freezing cold, it even snowed last night! walking to school today felt like walking through this huge freezer, all i wanted to do when i reached the lecture theatre was to cuddle up and go back to sleep.

Tomorrow! Am gonna have my first attempt at baking cakes! Shall remain shush about it now, cos it might just end up in the toilet bowl eh? haha but at least it'll be fun.

And a sidetrack, im into Enya songs nowadays.. think her voice is one of a kind...the songs have this calming effect on me.

Currently telling my bullet train of random thoughts to "STOP right there". It's amazing how far and futile i think about the future.. years, years, down the road which i doubt would even turn out the way i am imagining it to be. My daily therapeutic conversation with mom puts things into perspective. It's great to have someone who is much older and wiser than me, and who understands me perhaps even more so than myself, to give advice and simply to hear my moans and grumbles on blue-y days. She says, to not be so crazy! Think ahead, but not until I can't even realistically paint a picture. That anyway, it's simply a waste of precious time by day-dreaming.

Good, necessary advice, eh? I must focus, focus, focus. Shan't be that wispy 木杩黄 (is it written that way?) which sways where the wind blows it to.

I lost that ability to be independent sometime in my second year. On hindsight, living with 4 initial strangers last year and in further proximity with fellow country man probably made me get used to being alone. I think, this year, seeing my friends 24 7 has made me so comfortable that i've started feeling ill at ease when alone! that balance, i strive to find it again.

and i'm yearning to be back home. 5 months is getting a bit too long.

Probably the nicest thing that happened to me today, i got the blog address that i wanted! so Hello all! to this brand new blog of mine. In a way hoping that by adopting the nick "Little Miss Sunshine" given to me by one of my friends here in Notts, i'll strive to be a happier person.. and have lesser bouts of sian-ness! Little Miss Tiny, is self-explanatory : )

So here's to a new start to my second semester here, throwing away some of the past, and eagering looking forward to what awaits.