Hello 2011~

http://danniedannie.blogspot.com/

Man PK-ed

On Monday, me and Fai were just walking on the pavement about to cross a main road, then a middle-aged man who was crossing the road PK-ed right in front of us. I didn't know what to do! There were plenty of people about. I'm not exactly big, and it'd look stupid if I tried to pick up this man. Fai was like "are you alright?". He was OK, but then he gets up and reveals that he squashed a bunch of flowers he was holding! Silly me thought the squashed flowers were funny, and started laughing. I was so sad for him {T.T} awww~

Radio Lollipop Weekend

I've had a really good weekend this week. I'll start from Friday:

Friday:

Met up with Kit and his friends for his birthday thing. We went to winter wonderland! It's so pretty. I didn't take any pictures though, so will have to go back just for that. For my birmingham readers, it's like a really big version of our German market and mix it with a funfair. It's in Hyde park and you walk in, and it feels like your in some christmas village. Really can't wait for christmas {^^} Kits friends are really nice. There were about 15 of us altogether. I didn't know anyone, although I had met this guy Will once before (he teaches at Kings). We went on two of the rides: one like Air from Alton Towers but sitting & another like Apocalypse from Drayton Manor; and Kit is such a joke!! Such a baabbyyy {^^;} TeeHee~

Afterwards, they went bowling. I would have, but Becca and the crew were out and I hadn't seen them in ages {u_u} So met up with them in Montague Pyke for a catch-up. They'd just finished dinner, so ending the night with drinks. It was Becca, Tina, Iris, Mark and Becca's friend (can't remember her name!) Being with that lot is always so funny {><}

I had to leave early from them too because I went to watch Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows at the imax with Gillian and her lot. Felicia had bought tickets something like over a month in advance! {><} and they were really good seats! Right in the middle and row G. The film was good (they seem to get better with every film) but to be honest, it was like a lead up to the last film. I really want to read the last book again though - can't really remember what happens. Oh and how could I forget, I somehow scratched the cornea of my eye or something and so it was watering throughout the film and I couldn't open it. And if I move my other eye, the injured eye rubbed against my eyelid and really hurt. I had to take the contact lens out of that eye and so basically I watched the film with difficulty and with one eye {u_u} . . .

Saturday:

My eye still hurt! Its a little better, as in I can move it but I still couldn't put contacts in. I left to go to Oxford St for 1pm to help out with the Radio Lollipop tube collection. You would think that collecting at Oxford St in the afternoon is like peak time for fundraising, but its actually a lot harder than I thought. So many people just walk past you. I was there from 1-3pm, and my strategy was to make eye with people and basically ask them directly "do you have anything for the children of Great Ormond St Hospital?". Doesn't always work though. I said it to this one guy and he smiled and said "take care" and walked away without giving any money {==;} Another strategy of mine was to lure kids in with stickers lol which was quite cute actually, although again this didn't always work. There was a group of 2 kids and 5 adults. The little girl pointed at me and asked an adult "what's that?". I heard her but I didn't want to start explaining to an 8 year old about sick kids in hospital, so I said "would you like a sticker?" She looked up at the adult who looked over then ignored the girl?! Then the girl looks back at me and shakes her head. I was like {oO} . . Overall, it was a really good experience. Its really heart-warming when people donated. A chinese man put some change in the bucket. I said "thank you" and he said "its all I've got" in a little chinese accent and walks away. Awww~

Afterwards, I went to the gym. I was so cold that I just went jacuzzi, steam room and sauna and did't actually do any exercise {^^;}

Sunday:

I had a Radio Lollipop treasure hunt today. It was so much fun. My team was called Dream Team and consisted of me, Bart, Alice and Joyce. So we go around all over central London and answer the questions that we're given. For example, one of our questions was about one of the statues in Leicester Square: something like what year was some guy elected for something. Problem was that the gates were locked so Bart jumps over the fence and shouts over "yeah this is the guy. He was elected in 1768" lol by-passers must have thought we're so weird {^^;} Another example, the question directed us to the western end of Gerrard St, telling us to look near a large timepiece where there is a reference to a wig and costume make in the 17th century. What was his first name? We wasted time on this question, even almost giving up. We walked up and down reading every plaque on the wall. In the end, I just accidentally look up and said "hey! is that it?!" His name was Willy. The thing wasn't actually on Gerrard St, which misled us. The treasure hunt took us about 2 and half hours! We must have been so slow because the group after us caught up with us! (we were 15 minutes ahead of them). I thought we were going to come last, but in the end, we came 2nd! {^^} and got a silver radio lollipop medal. TeeHee~

The Spark Has Gone

I don't really know what it is. Maybe its because I've been really busy. Maybe its because I haven't seen you in too long. I don't really want to over analyse this though.

Its been a couple of months. I really thought that we were going to give it a really good go when you came back. But I'm not feeling it. It felt like something before, but now . . . the spark has gone. I wonder if it was really ever there in the first place.

I don't know how you feel about this, but I sense that you might be thinking the same thing. I'm not writing on here for you to read, its just to get it off my chest~

Dannie in Surgical Theatre

I sutured a woman's neck after a thyroidectomy {^^} Well I only did a little bit, but still~!

That is all lol

I'll have to write more detailed blogs later, because I'm just too tired nowadays {==} Zzz~

Never Let Dannie Do Anything IT Related!

So finally we get someone from Virgin Media to come and install our broadband and wireless. Yay! The man said we needed to secure the network and then leaves.

I put the disk into my macbook and nothing happens. So I googled how to do it and followed some online instructions. Didn't really know what was going on, because what was in front of me wasn't the same as online, but I just went with the flow. I changed the wireless name and password . . . or I thought i did.

5 minutes of having internet, and suddenly we don't have it anymore!! It was a frustrating 4 hours! On the phone to various people (Virgin have really crap phone service) - one guy was really annoyed at what he thought was incompetence, but actually virgin hadn't left us anything, so we didn't have any codes/numbers etc. He told us that he's going to explain one more time, and after that we have to call again and someone else will deal with our problem. Wtf?! We couldn't see this passkey thing or whatever, because it wasn't there!

Suddenly, we get a buzz at our door and "virgin media" . . . I was like huh?! Ran to Kim and was like "why are virgin at our door?" It was two scruffy looking guys with a virgin media polo on. We let one of them in and he couldn't really help, so then we called his manager and said that he was coming over {oO} Kim was like "are these guys for real? Like are they real virgin media people?" How can their phone service but so crap, but then they have random extra people free to come around so promptly, when we didn't even ask for them.

Anyway, after a very long time and a completely wasted half day (I woke up and 9am to do some work!) the manager fixes it!

Virgin Media man: "Well theres nothing wrong with the wireless, you just complicated everything"

Me: "So I just won't touch anything from now"

VM man: "yeah, don't!"

*Kim comes in*

Kim: "So is everything working now?

VM man: "Yeah, blame her, she just messed everything up"

Kim: "Well, I blame Virgin media too, because we didn't get any instructions"

VM man: "You don't need instructions"

Me: "I do"

VM man: "All you had to do was put the disk into a PC. But we've got Miss Mac Genius over here"

{==} . . .

Still no internet in the new flat!

I haven't been updating because we still don't have internet. I'm in the library at the moment. Lots has happened, and I'll try and do a big summary when we do get internet on 9th x

Dan is like my Big Brother

So I've been staying with Dan for 5 days now, and its come to an end already! He's like a big brother to me:

~ Every morning, he'll knock on my door to wake me up

~ He'll make me a Ovaltine and leave it in the kitchen next to the cereal and milk

~ He'll call me in the evening and tell me that he's about to cook dinner

~ He cooks yummy Nandos-style chicken

~ He provides me with stuff that I've forgotten for uni - pen and paper {==}

~ He listens to my boy problems lol

Thank you NG for letting me stay at yours! You were a great host and I hope I wasn't too much of an inconvenience {^^} xx

~Quotes~

Lecturer: *points at photo of a patient* "Look how wasted he is"

Everyone in lecture: *LOL*

Lecturer: " . . . is 'wasted' still slang for being completely hammered?" (He was referring to wasting of the muscles)

Professor Ellis

Professor Ellis is one of the most notable British surgeons of the past 50 years (I wikipedia-ed him lol). He taught us a little bit in our previous years; but we seem to be seeing more of him this year. He's 80-something and I quite like his teaching~

~In Nervous Systems class~
Prof. Ellis: "What does the facial nerve go through?"
Me: "Umm.. I don't know" . . .
*starts growling and baring his teeth at me*
Prof. Ellis: "Come on. You need to know how to think under pressure"
*continues growling and baring his teeth at me*
Me: . . . {oO} "I don't know"
*looks at the next person, who also doesn't know; then at the next person, who also doesn't know; then to the 4th person down..!*
Guy: "The parotid gland"
Prof. Ellis: "Don't tell me, tell them!"
Guy: "Eeerr.. Its the parotid gland"
Prof. Ellis: "Did I teach you anatomy?"
Me: "Yes"
Prof. Ellis: "Write a letter to the dean telling him to sack Prof. Ellis. I mean its not your fault, its mine . . . She'll be a psychiatrist"
~lol

Prof. Ellis: "I live in East Finchley, and people say to me why do I work at King's. Is it because Guy's is such a renound hospital? I say, no its because its on the Northern line"

Prof. Ellis: "You came to me a boy; and now I have turned you into a man"

Prof. Ellis: "I'm just going to be really rude and say I don't recognise any of your faces"

Anyway, he makes the class fun (or funny at least); but you could see some of the GPEPs just didn't find him at all amusing and sat through the class like they had twigs up their bums.

~Quote~

Consultant: "What's that ticking noise? Come on. This is logical. Medicine is easy. Its not physics. They're much brainier than us"

I Regret Not Saying Hi

Yesterday (14/9/10) was a really long day at uni. Afterwards, we went to Charlie's birthday meal. It was at a place called La Cuenta, and they do really good spanish food. I really like paella, and it was the last thing to come out!! By which time, I was already too full on olives, cheese, ham, chips and little fried thingies! GggrRR~ The atmosphere and the people were really nice though..

The following story is what the blog title is about. I don't actually know who I've told about this, its hard to explain fully anyway (I'm not going to use names), but you probably won't be able to understand or relate to this situation if you're not me or a family member. . . (N.B. This entry is more for my own sake)

Coming back from Fulham Broadway, I was supposed to be heading towards Bermondsey (I felt really bad at the time, because Dan had called me asking what time I'd be back! I didn't realise that I'd be getting back so late). Me and Gillian weren't really concentrating on what tube we were getting on, and we got on a district line tube that was branching the wrong way. This significantly delayed us by about 15 minutes. So then we changed for the circle line, and after that, we'd go our separate ways. I went onto the Jubilee line and sat down in the middle of the carriage, just listening to music, wanting the tube to hurry up.

A couple of stops later, a chinese woman came on at the end of the carriage. I recognised her bag, I have the same one (its a cloth bag from a HK shop); but then I realised that I kind of recognised her face from somewhere as well. A chinese girl followed her on; and that was when my heartbeat quickened and I felt like it was stuck in my throat! And then I was actually having to put effort into slowing down my breathing rate {oO} No joke. I have no idea why my body reacted like this. It didn't take long for me to chill out, but then I didn't dare look in their directly incase they recognised me (well that's what I was thinking at the time).

I was thinking loads of things: including what if I made myself more obvious, so that they'd see me first, to see if they initiate anything; or that I could just pretend I never saw them, get off the tube, and pretend I never did see them. What are the chances?! Never did I think until afterwards, that I could have approached them and said something.

I looked over at them again. KM was sitting on the same side as me, so I couldn't see her very well; but DB was sitting opposite her. She looked so different! She has long, shiny, black hair that goes down to her waist, and she was wearing a dress {oO} I didn't say anything. And I don't think they saw me. When I got off the tube, I looked back at them, and it was definitely them.

A moment later, I called my mum and told her. The jist of what she said was basically that I should have approached them, just to see what would happen. And that its to do with her, not me - I know that I haven't done anything, but I've still been directly affected as if I have. Well, if this ever happens again, I'll know what to do. Not that it will happen, because I wasn't even going to get that tube and it was either pure coincidence or fate. Out of all times, tubes, and of all the carriages on that tube; we were on the same one. That's not going to happen again . . .

Back at uni . . .

Quick catch-up:

~I'm living on Dan's floor at the moment
~Today's my second day back at uni (Thank you for the 4 How was your first day texts x)
~ I have post-holiday blues. BooHooo..
~My hair is completely black again (looks more professional)
~I'm tired all the time (not too surprising when uni starts at 8.00am and finishes at 5.30pm!)
~I've taken blood from a fake arm

~Quote~
Me: I'm obedient. Like a dog.
Dan: Do you think that's a good thing?
Me: What..? Being a dog?
Dan: {==} No. Being obedient..

Brummie Catch-up & Salt

Met up with Yimon & Yanny to eat at Frankie & Bennys, then we watched Salt at AMC - Evelyn Salt is played by Angelina Jolie. I'd seen the trailer and it looked good. Its like a spy/action film . . . which may be the reason I didn't like it as much as I thought.

Hadn't seen Yimon since before Amsterdam I think; and Yanny . . . can't remember the last time I saw her {oO} So basically, I don't see them very often~ so was nice to finally have a Brummie catch-up. Yimon (especially!) brings out my inner child~! Evidence:

ps. Yimon says I look tanned~ I'm still tanned from the cruise!

~Quote~

Yimon: Hahahah! Look at that boy's hat! Doesn't it look like a condom~?

Tea for Charlie's Birthday

I'm still running on NY time~! I wasn't tired and so I stayed up until 6.30am {oO} so mo liu~ So I only had 2hours sleep, and felt like a complete zombie.. (hope I hid it well!)

Anyway, its Charlie's 21st birthday! Happy birthdaaay~ We got dressed up and had afternoon tea at Swisshotel the Howard in Temple, London.

~Quotes~

. . . just random talking in street. . .

Gillian: . . and we like Justin Bieber!

Random group of guys: *turn around* Really?! {oO}

~On the phone

Me: I'm a bit reluctant to stay with Gillian, because I don't want to bother her family..

NG: So you thought you'd come and bother me instead.

Ever had your feet nibbled by loads of little fish..?

I have lol

Trafford Centre in Manchester have this new shop called Appy Feet - its like a foot spa. Here are some self-explanatory photos:

Tanks of Garra Rufa fish

Fai getting his toes nibbled Hahaha~ {><}

It was so tickly! My toes are like clenched~

Apparently I have tasty heels lol

The fish eat the dead skin, which supposedly exfoliates and improves circulation . . .

New York & Washington

New Yooorrrkk.. concrete jungle where dreams are maaade of..

Got back this morning. It's been a very full and tiring, but mega fun 9 days (30/8/10 - 7/9/10). I hope the photos will do most of the talking for me:

Day 1 (30th)

I don't know what was wrong with me, but even when I was on the plane, I still didn't feel like I was going anywhere - it actually took a couple of days to sink in. When we (me & Fai) got to NY, we worked out the transport system and got to Novotel, which was right next to Times Square. We had a really nice room (kings' suite)!

That's the view from the hotel's balcony

Me & Fai

We explored some of Midtown and 5th Ave, with Lonely Planet help. Here are some photos:

The 5th Avenue

The yellow taxis . . .

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The statue of Atlas, outside Rockefeller Centre

Outside Rockefeller Centre

Inside this lego shop - you put a box in front of a camera, and it shows you on the screen what the 3D model looks like

NBC - The shop is so cool~

View from the 82nd floor of the Empire States Building - You can see the Statue of Liberty in this photo . . . but its tiny~

Just a breath-taking view . . .

Thank you Fai {^^}

Little Korea

Feast of Korean food - such yummy BBQ

The following are photos in and near Times Square. They really do it no justice - just imaging actually being there!

Back at the hotel, we sat on the balcony for a couple of drinks. The view onto Times Square was surreal and amazing. I was so sleepy!

It all looks so different at night

Day 2 (31st)

This was such a tiring day!! We went to a diner for breakfast. I had pancakes and bacon (credit to Gillian). It was really yummy, but there was just too much! If I lived here, I would be sooo fat!

In the early afternoon, we ran into the naked cowboy!! Didn't manage to get a photo with him though {u_u}

Do you see us on the big screen..?

We started off the day quite chill. We visited the King Tutankhamun museum, which was quite interesting. We got a free audio tour as well, because of a leaflet we'd picked up. Main thing I learned was that originally they thought he was murdered, possibly by Aye (his senior mentor). Evidence includes the fact that Aye actually took the tomb that King Tut was supposed to have, and King Tut was entombed in a tomb for normal people. However, now they think that his death was due to an accident, when we fell off a chariot. His mummy is found to have a fracture of the left femur, that happened before he died. Another possibility is that he died as Malaria, which they found out from analysis of DNA from the mummy. The End~

Anyway, back to why it was such a tiring day. We walked from Times Square to the World Trade Centre!! That's about 5 miles in 30 Celsius heat, which made it feel twice as long! We walked along Broadway, but got a little sidetracked along the way. We passed Soho, New York University, Chinatown (where we ate).

The NYU campus is quite pretty

Looks kind of cool~

Approaching Chinatown - the photo's a little small, but you can just see the chinese characters under the McDonalds sign

Chinatown~

The food wasn't anything special . . .

This is Columbus Park, where the older Chinese generation gather and play games. So cute!

I'm so easily amused lol

Next to Chinatown, there are some basketball courts. Omds the chinese guys are so tall~!! {oO} There was a group of chinese and black guys playing basketball and they were all similar in height. . . Why do they not make them like that in UK?!

The World Trade Centre from where I was standing just looked like a construction site . . .

But there was a memorial part, where they had peoples' names on a wall. There was notebook, which I thought could be signed by visitors. I opened it and omds, its just paragraphs of really racist remarks {oO}

Afterwards, we went to Wall St to see the NY stock exchange. Its just a road {==} The evening was really nice. We walked across Brooklyn bridge to Brooklyn, then across Manhattan bridge back to Manhattan. The view was amazing~! It kind of reminds me of Hong Kong! In fact NY even smells like HK {oO}

We taxied it (in a NY yellow taxi!) to Grand Central Station. Now this was surreal! In Madagascar, the clock that Melman the giraffe gets his head stuck in looks exactly like it does in the film. The whole place just looks like the animation {oO}

Also, whilst we were there, they were actually doing some filming (for something called Arthur)

Day 3 (1st)

We left the hotel at 8.20am. Subwayed it from Penn Station to Washington, which I think was just over 3 hours.

Inside Washington's Union Station

Washington was so hot!! Our hotel was called Courtyard Marriott and near a metro station. We did a lot of walking. It wasn't as much as yesterday, but it felt like so much more because it was just so much hotter!

It was mainly a day of sightseeing, so here are some photos:

Library of Congress - the world's biggest library

The Supreme Court

Capitol - where the US government unites laws

The Capitol and National Mall

Washington's Chinatown

Fai eating food~

Chinatown Starbucks lol

FBI building

This was in George Town. No idea whats going on {oO} But Fai's 3rd..?

Waterfront looking onto the Potomac River

This are called the Exorcist Stairs . . . Fai needs to exercise more~

The Lincoln Memorial was stunning~!

Its like in Night at the Museum 2

View of Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial

Day 4 (2nd)

We had a Pentagon tour in the morning! It's quite surreal (I'm using this word too much) to think that you're walking in the US department of defence {oO} Fai had arranged it far in advance, which is why we got to do it. We walked 1 and a half miles in the building. The tour guide was really funny. He spoke like a robot and walked backwards the whole tour without looking backwards {oO} No pictures were allowed inside or outside, except for with this:

This woman offers to take a photo of both of us. She had really shaky hands lol and took this {><}

Then we went to Ray's Hell Burger, which was where Obama ate with the Russian President. It was quite difficult to find, but completely worth it. It was so crowded and small, but the food is yummy!

The rest of the day was left for exploring the Smithsonion museums. My favourite one was the museum of natural history. I think Fai's favourite was the air and space one.

This plane was in Night at the Museum 2 - the one that Amelia Earhart flew

Afterwards, we did more sightseeing:

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Monument close up and Fai

The reverse of yesterday - view of Lincoln Memorial from Monument

The Whitehouse!

Day 5 (3rd)

The Smithsonion museum of air and space has a separate building for its bigger aircrafts. Its kind of out the way by Dulles airport. So this day was dedicated to seeing that museum. Its actually where Transformers 2 is filmed - the part with the Blackbird - Jetfire (the decepticon). Its so cool in there! I don't really have any special interest in aviation, but I can say that this museum is worth a visit. It actually took us ages to get there because Fai can't follow clear instructions {==} TeeHee. Well it'd have taken us over an hour anyway.

Space shuttle

Me and the Blackbird {^^}

There's a floor where you can watch planes land at Dulles Airport lol

The bus drove past the Pentagon

Then we went back to the hotel and watched Transformers 2 lol

Day 6 (4th)

Train back to NY!

Outside Union Station

We got back at about 3/4. We did a harbour lights cruise in the evening, around sunset time. It was so nice. The Statue of Liberty was an amazing sight (I wanted to say surreal, but I've exhausted that word), as was Manhattan at night.

Empire State Building is the one thats lighted blue and white~

Afterwards, we had a mega Korean meal!

Day 7 (5th)

We had brunch at this really cool diner. The waiters/waitresses sing (really well)!

Naked Cowgirl~

Then we went to the Intrepid (this ship that served in WWII, Korean war and Vietnam war), a BA Concorde and the Growler (a submarine).

Afterwards, we to the Natural History Museum - the one where Night at the Museum is set.

We looked around, and I was a little disappointed because I didn't recognise anything from the film. When we came back out, we saw a poster of Dum Dum! So, we sneaked back in through the backdoor, 15 minutes before closing time and found it!

Then, we went and chilled in Central Park for a bit, which is really cool and really big.

In the evening, we went to this comedy show at the Comic Strip. This is where Chris Rock started out!

It was a really good show. My favourite comedian of the night was Jermaine Fowler. We shared our table with a group of guys who worked in the Navy, and the comedians kept picking on them lol.

Day 8 (6th)

We had a really big brunch.

Then, we went to Central Park Zoo. My favourite was the red panda! So cute. The place didn't look anything like Madagascar though, but I guess thats because Alex the lion and his mates all escaped.

Cutie red panda {^^}

Afterwards, we went to m&m world, where we both bought loads of peanut butter m&ms. They were so expensive, I feel robbed!

The naked cop {==}

Then we went swimming in the hotel pool. Fai's new camera is waterproof, so we tested it out:

In the evening, we watched Chicago at Broadway.

I wanted to watch Promises Promises, because its new and the original cast has Kristin Chenoweth (April from Glee) and Sean Hayes (Jack from Will & Grace); but it wasn't on because apparently Mondays are their day off. It was OK, not the best. All That Jazz is probably the most well known song from it, and it was the opening song. Too many solos I thought. I really liked the set though: the orchestra was actually on the stage and a part of the acting.

My personal pizza boy {><}

Day 9 (7th)

Last half a day! We did some shopping in Times Square.

Wearing my staff Comic Strip T-shirt {^^}

I bought an LA Lakers basketball jersey from the NBA store. It was such laughs! lol. And a coat from Forever 21. Then off to the airport {u_u} . . .

~Funny Quotes~

In Starbucks~

SB Woman: What's your name?

Me: My name..?

SB Woman: Monet..?

Me: ..what..? *pause* My name's Dannie

SB Woman: Oh lol. I thought Monet was a bit of a funny name.

. . . *She writes Donnie on my cup* {oO}

In NBA store~

Fai: Get Kobe Bryant. He's like the next Michael Jordan

Me: But his number 24. I do want an LA Lakers one though.

. . . the only other one is number 16 . . .

Me: Who's number 16? Gasol? Sounds like Gas Hole!

{==} I bought it anyway~

In McDonalds~

Fai: Can I have a large Coke?

MD Woman: We only do it in one size

Fai: Oh OK

. . . He gets an ice-cream cone LOL

Thank you Fai Sham for a lovely 9 days xx

Back at home now.. and obese! I'm finally getting the holiday blues {u_u} BooHooo~!!

On a high note, we have that flat that I spoke about in my last blog now!

- - - This blog entry has taken me absolutely ages to put together! {oO} ~