1) So that's basically it. If you've not been following my updates recently, I've officially taken a gap year from medicine, to intercalate a research Masters in Clinical Neuroscience at King's College London. I'll be starting in three weeks (Sept 23rd), and should hope to finish by next year - to come back and finish off my two years in medicine thereafter.
2) The past two weeks have been really busy for me. First off, my friends planned a lovely farewell dinner for me at Waterworld Seafood Buffet Steamboat - recommended by my good friend Zi Yan. The buffet was really worth it, as it was all-you-could-eat seafood, cooked in one of three types of steamboat broths (chicken soup, tom yum, or laksa). But what was more worth it was enjoying the company of my friends, some of whom had just finished their end-of-rotation exams that same afternoon.
3) Of course, this was not the last time we would see each other (for a year). I came back the following week for an MPU presentation with my group mates. Also, in between coming back for the presentation, I (obviously) returned to my hometown, and made two trips to Kuala Lumpur. The first was for the UK Visa application, and the second for the visa collection. During our first visit to KL, we put up at Uncle Tuck's apartment, and had dinner with his family and Uncle Hor's family. It was a fancy Chinese restaurant called Paradise Dynasty (famous for their eight flavours of xiao long bao) that we had a lovely dinner, before getting dessert shortly after.
4) On our second trip, only my mum and I went to KL - for a day trip. We basically spent the whole day at Suria KLCC (the shopping mall sandwiched in between the Petronas Twin Towers). I had a nice browse through Kinokuniya bookstore, while my mom went window-shopping. We then had a light lunch at Umaiya, before getting our sugar cravings fixed at Cafe dal.komm (that's how it is spelled :P) At 2.45pm, we walked over to Wisma MCA (the location for the Visa collection), and I went up to wait for my visa. It turned out to be an almost 2-hours long wait - as the queue increased in length, and no one receiving their visa yet. Turns out the passports (containing the visas) had not arrived yet, and only did so at around 4.15pm, in two large locked suitcases.
5) Once the line started moving, the collection was relatively fast. Just pick up, sign, check details, and leave. And that marks the end of my KL trip. More recently, my mom bought me a nice new handphone - a Xiaomi - to replace my trusty Samsung which was constantly overheating. I've been wanting to replace it sooner, but as I'll be in UK for a year, it would make sense to change it before I leave.
6) Coming back to Ipoh has been bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I'm leaving soon to explore uni life in London, and on the other, I'm leaving behind my friends who I've grown to know (mostly) over the past 2.5 years in Ireland. I can only hope and pray that I'll make many more new friends over in London, and that I will assimilate well when I return to join the Class of 2022 next year. Till then, I'll cherish the last two weeks of my time in Ipoh with my family, and to do the things we enjoyed doing before I left for university. And that's a wrap for today's blog update, I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and have a lovely day. Cheers!
So grateful for them coming :)
Back l-r: Sim, Su Wei, Khee Heng, Jing Er, Kuhan, Zi Yan
Front l-r: Melvin, Melissa, Myself, Esther, Denise
Waterworld Seafood Buffet Steamboat - a collection of seafood ready to cook! :D
Tom yum soup
Completely blacked out
A very nice farewell meal indeed
Reunited with my family!
At 163 Retail Park, Mont Kiara
Mother nature inside a shopping complex
Paradise Dynasty @ 163 Retail Park - famous for their xiao long bao (soup dumplings)
Lettuce roll with homemade sesame sauce
Noodles with pork and prawn dumplings
Mom had the plain noodles
Dessert with the whole family
Sizzling brownie with ice cream was a delight :)
A different type of brownie with ice cream
Waffles in three different chocolate sauces :)
Wisma MCA - to apply for UK Visa
Breakfast at Wisma Sentral
Lunch at A & W
Nothing beats a nice root beer float on a hot, sunny day :)
Back to Penang - Loo Kee Chicken Rice for lunch
What we ordered - mixed combo, which comes with char siew, siew yoke, and Chinese sausage
Can't wait to dig in
Back to Moody Cow for some cake XD
Their humongous cakes never fail to astound me with their size and general outrageousness! XD
I've made my decision
Chocolate heaven (left) for me; durian (Musang King) (right) for my mom
Quick trip to BookXcess :)
Merdeka coming soon - @ Gurney Paragon :)
Back to college for MPU presentation
Harvest Times Cafe
Baked fish with chilli mayo sauce
BBQ chicken with mushroom sauce for mummy
Dessert to finish off :)
Lok lok for supper
Packing up my stuff to go back (to Ipoh)
My room - one final photo
I lied - this be the last photo XD
A newly discovered satay place near Kg. Simee Market
Satay (meat skewers) weren't bad, but would have preferred the peanut sauce to be hot rather than lukewarm
Kaya toast and tea/coffee for a lazy Sunday afternoon
Always a nice time for tea at Coco Cafe, Aeon Klebang
Thosai masala
Back to Kuala Lumpur for visa collection - at Suria KLCC
One half of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers
Suria KLCC
Top floor of Suria KLCC - on the right is Petrosains
Back to Kinokuniya bookstore for some book-hunting
On to Umaiya for lunch - asari (clam) soup for my mom...
...And a nice grilled fish bento set for myself
Lunch was great
Decided to share the chocolate lava bingsu at dal.komm cafe
