'Tis the season to be jolly - Lah lah lah lah

To all my Malay friends, I'm sorry about the appalling use of "lah" in my title, I just couldn't resist the reference.


Peeling away the soft foil casing, satisfyingly scrunching it up into a little ball. Now the pastry is free. Sitting there gloriously, the fresh smell enticing you to just take a bite. Or maybe two. Heck, the whole thing, revision is going well, you've earned it. Lifting it up, you can feel just how soft it is, threatening to crumble if you apply any more pressure. Perfect. As it crumbles under your bite, the sweet spiced mince mixture inside gives way with it, adding a depth of flavour to the unassuming, and allover plain (but not to say boring!) taste of the pastry you're already enjoying. Mmmmmm. Delicious. Are you sure you want yours Jed? I seem to remember hearing you moan about how you're fed up of them, it's not a hassle, I'll have it for you. It's what brothers do for each other. Don't worry about it.

No, you're not reading Nigella Lawson's food-porn blog (I definitely haven't been doing cocaine for decades, or any amount of time for that matter). I miss mince pies.

Almighty Mince Pies, for those of you not in the know. If you're not, and in the UK next festive season, I'd love to introduce you to them over a coffee. I might even learn to bake them myself, if you're lucky. 

And real Christmas Trees.

Decorating Christmas Trees.

It really doesn't feel like Christmas here! We finished term yesterday, and aside from seeing Christmas decorations in the big shopping centres in KL, there's nothing to suggest of the impending seasonal festivities. Given that Malaysia is a Muslim country, I guess that's not hugely surprising. It's just weird, not having advertising like the John Lewis Christmas one, or radio channels permanently shoving Christmas songs down your throat, it becomes easy to forget that you've actually celebrated this holiday for the past 19 years. As of the time of writing, I'm listening to "We Three Kings," on somewhat of a Christmas Carol binge. I'll make myself realise that it is actually happening, one way or another. I'll be spending the day with Mother, Jed and Joshua in KL, and to say I'm excited about their imminent arrival (nearly 7days!!!) would be an understatement.

Being the massive party animal that I am, I've had two Christmas parties this past week. The first was PharmNotts' Party. Not a bunch to disappoint, it was a thoroughly enjoyable night. Not the standard party fare by any means. Nights event's included a quiz, SeniorsVSJuniorsVSLectures. Don't worry, us seniors one, couldn't have it going any other way... Various songs (christmasyy in nature of course,) which included Ollie dragging the rest of us UK lot in attendance to (attempt) to sing Santa Baby. We're sorry for the assault on your ear drums, and I'm hoping there's no recordings of said performance. The food was done by a local catering company who brought their van onsite, and although it wasn't Christmas dinner with all the trimmings,was good. It was another night that highlighted to me how just getting involved with events and their proceedings, even if it's something you wouldn't find yourself doing back home or is a little out of your comfort zone can be so rewarding and enjoyable. I really don't think I'll ever be running around a room in a large conga line singing Christmas carols again, but then again, I never envisioned I would do that in the first place.

Next on the social calendar, was the Cheerleading Christmas Social. The night was planned as a meal in KL, followed by clubbing, The club we intended to go to was on a helipad, but due to rain during the day, was closed. Ended up going to one in the same building, but not on the rooftop, the floor below. In KL, entry to clubs is done one of two ways typically - either by buying a ticket as is standard in the UK, or buying a bottle(1L, of some sort of spirit), which then gets you entry for X people. If you're going to be drinking, and there's a fair group of you, like we had, then the latter option ends up being far superior, as drinks out in KL are horrifically expensive - RM 25 for a pint (£5...) After leaving at about 3am, in true night out fashion, we went for another meal. In non-UK fashion however, it wasn't a kebab fan, nor McD's but a small restaurant/cafe thingy that served Malay food somewhere in KL. Got back to campus at about 5.30am. Somehow managed to drag myself to 9am lectures.

What a good looking bunch

 Rest of the day was spent in a semi-zombie state, as we went to "Big Bad Wolf," which is the worlds largest book sale, at a nearby exhibition centre. If you're a bibliophile, this place is your heaven. The convention hall is about 200m long, by 50m wide, and is just covered and filled with books. Fiction, Autobiography, Reference, Language, Images, Young Adult, Junior, Manga, Comics, Cooking, you name it, this place had it. AND ALL SOOO CHEAAAP. Most books were priced at RM8 - £1.30 if you're back home. New hardback? Yup, same price. In an alternate life, where I'm not doing Pharmacy, I'd like to imagine that I'd live my years out in a cave (with heating of course), surrounded by books, so so many books.

Today was Anna's Birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY IF YOU'RE READING), so we went to Mid-Valley in the afternoon to watch The Hobbit pt2. Well worth a watch, if you're reading my blog for film recommendations  (I've got it all pretty much, food, film reviews and travel writing.) If you're lucky Jed, perhaps I'll drop you and Joshua into a screening as your Christmas present <3

Hope everyone back home is feeling suitably festive, and not too worried about Jan exams.

Much love,

Jacob xx

Gold Rush, Pangkor, VLVN and the Travel Bug.

Hello!

Sorry for the rather uninspired title, I've got a fair few things to say today, so I couldn't come up with some all encompassing (and doubtlessly witty beyond all belief) title. Been a little over three weeks since my last blog, so bear with me.

First up, is the topic of "UNMC Nations Cup," which I mentioned in my last entry. This is campus' mini olympics, and a chance claim bragging rights in the name of Queen and Country. Although the UK didn't place for the overall cup, we got a few medals for 'Lizzie, hopefully to her approval. The swim team of Hector, Amy, Reema and I entered the 4x100 freestyle relay. With national pride at stake, we entered our heat all pumped up, visions of Phelps like domination in mind (excuse the poetic licence here, I'm having too much fun to stop,) as we saw off the competitors in our heat (Malaysia and India), comfortably. The overall winner was to be determined by time, so with our time already locked in, we had to wait by the side, and hope the next heat wasn't any faster than us. Sadly, it was, and we ended up taking the Silver, second to Sri-Lanka. Please don't exile me to the colonies your Majesty.



In true Olympic style, the Nations Cup had an opening and closing ceremony - with the closing ceremony featuring a performance by the Cheerleading team. We don't have a name yet, although votes are closely tied between "Storm All-Stars," and "Beast All-Stars." Here's hoping we get a stroke of genius and come up with something a little more catchy. I'm fairly sure neither of those two will actually be the team's name...  The practices leading up to our performance were a tad stressed, what's meant to be 2hrs turned into closer to 4hrs on more than one occasion. It's ok, Pharmacy can wait

. If you want to see the performance, it's here: http://youtu.be/lKdtLsqEZVc

Last weekend was our second island getaway of our time in Malaysia, this time we were headed to Pangkor, a smallish island to the north. Due to various timetabling issues, the main group (comprised of 5 people,) left on the Friday afternoon, and then Vicky and I left on the Saturday morning. However, things didn't go quite to plan - what we thought was a 4~ hr bus trip, ended up being a 6hr bus trip due to the stops the bus made on the way to the Port town of Lumut. This culminated on the two of us arriving on the island at about 4pm in the end, and by the time we found the others, it was closer to 5pm, and we were absolutely shattered. Didn't end up doing a whole lot other than chilling and eating by this point. Sunday, Vicky and I left the main group as we had less time on the island (our bus was leaving at 3pm, theres 9pm - by the time we booked it, that bus was full,) and went off to do a whistle-stop tour of various touristy attractions - Fu Ling Kong Chinese Temple, the Dutch Fort, and a spot of looking around Pangkor town. Whilst it wasn't perhaps the truely relaxing weekend we were looking for, it was good to get away and try forget about the mountain of work piling up behind our backs.  The weather wasn't complying either - most of the weekend was rather drizzly, as it has been of late. In a way I kinda like it - it's like being back home, only 20 degrees hotter! 

Travel Bug. Infection has now gained traction on the host's body. Not responding to conventional treatment methods. Long and intensive course of travelling recommended for treatment. Please counsel patient on travel destinations to try alleviate symptoms. So, the Friday before Pangkor, Vicky and I went to the computer labs to print some work off. All well and good there. Until we started to talk about travelling. Then I opened google maps. Then Vicky opened AirAsia. Twenty minutes later, we've now somehow booked flights to Australia next summer. A tadge spur of the moment for sure. Not sure what the plans are just yet, other than flying to Gold Coast Airport, and probably staying with my dad for a bit.  Fast forward a week - Yuenling from our course has invited Anna, Vicky and I to go to Bangkok for her birthday, so we figure whilst we're there, out and about, we might as well go somewhere else as well.. uh oh... We start trying to plan things out at 10pm after a Tesco trip in the kitchen on my floor, trying to contend with painfully slow internet. Bangkok gets booked relatively easily, and then we start to think about where else we want to go. Hong Kong? Cambodia? Laos? Vietnam? Indonesia? A fair few places, some get quickly crossed off, and we're left with potentially Cambodia and HK. By this point, it's probably about midnight, and I'm quickly flagging (not exactly a late night bird!) Then the next hurdle - flights between places, and how on earth to link up the various places. Cambodia isn't the biggest hub for flying in/out of, and Bangkok/KL are probably the two biggest places you can fly in/out of Cambodia from. By now, I've already given into the urge to lie down, half on the sofa, half on the coffee table... Let's just close my eyes for 5 seconds... Five seconds ends up being what was 30-40minutes, and upon waking up, Vicky and Anna inform me they've sorted it out - although it's complicated, and I can now go to bed. So I wasn't the biggest help... Shuffled off to my bed in a zombiefied state. Yet to manage to speak to either of them to see what they came up with, that's gonna be today's suprise. Looking forward to getting out of Malaysia now we have passports :) 

VLVN Viva La Vida Night, PharmNotts' annual performance fell this year on the 5th of December. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this - I'd heard it was one of the biggest events on campus every year, but beyond the theme of "Cowboy Town," and the "Fashion Show," Yasamine had roped many of us UK students into doing, I had no idea what was happening. It ended up running for over three hours, and was better than I ever would have guessed it would have been! Nearly all of the performances were put on by Pharmacy students, the only exceptions being a few bands. Our Fashion Show was first up - entailed walking down the middle of the crowd with your partner (in suitable cowboy attire of course,) onto the stage, posing, then off. What Yasamine didn't tell us when we signed up, was that the guys after the "catwalk," had to perform a small dance... ah... dancing.. Not my forte by any means. It was only 6 or 8 different steps, didn't involve moving our arms, and lasted about 90s - but for me, that's more than enough! 

All in all, it was an amazing night. The sheer amount of work and effort my colleagues had put into it was astounding. Many people did many different dances, songs and even a comedy sketch. I'm also super jealous of some of you guy's ability to dance - *cough* Eric, Darren and Sum *cough* Not to mention Eric dropping into the splits during a meaningful artistic dance show called "No Hands." So glad I was part of the night in a small way, and being able to watch everyone from the heights of the VIP balcony (reserved for performers :p) was great. 

That's my last few weeks about wrapped up. Hopefully off to Singapore next weekend, and there's only one more week of lectures before we've done 50% of year 2! Crazy! 

Hope everyone back home is well,

Love, Jacob xx