Blackout

Date: 24 Oct 2008
Time: Approximately 6:40pm
Place: The Precinct, University Accommodation

The whole Precinct (excluding only 2 blocks out of 36 blocks) experienced power failure for about 20 minutes, and its my first experienced in the UK after being here for 2 years.

It happened when I was tidying up my room, and suddenly the room turned pitch black. The only light I have was from my laptop screen. Everyone in the block started finding their way around the darkness, using whatever means they could possibly find, e.g. mobile phones, torch light, and the best was Adrian, he used his laptop to shine all the way to the kitchen.
As for me, I went straight to my drawer and got the mini torch light my sis gave me last year. Sadly, it did not work, might be because the batteries had been in there for too long. So in the end I relied on my mobile phone light to shine my way downstairs.

It was really lucky of us that Jeffrey and Hui Sing were almost done cooking, the soup and the meat, all except for the vegetables. So, though we didn't have light, we have dinner. They were unable to cook the vegetable since there was no electricity. Here in the UK, everything runs on electricity, including the cooker (Malaysians use stoves) , the heater and hot water.

Just great, no electricity, no heater and no hot water.

The power failure lasted for 20 minutes, but after it recovered, the boiler was still not functioning, so still no heater and hot water. Lucky me I've showered around 6pm, some of my block mates brave the cold water, while some others went to other blocks and took their bath.

Candlelight dinner

Adrian, checking if the chicken was fully cooked with the limited light we have.

The boiler was still not working the whole day today, my block mates and I took turns to complain at the reception and seems like 2 other blocks were having the same problem. They assure us that someone is going to fix it tonight.

Kitchen window view
Left: Usual view, Right: Blackout

Edit: 25th Oct 2008, 8:17pm
Just received news that.....the boiler is faulty!!!!!!!!!!!
The technician will only come in on Monday
No heater, No hot water for the weekend.

Beauty and the Beast - Birmingham Royal Ballet

I'm so excited, and I've bought the tickets for the show.

The BRB will stage the performance in the Sunderland Empire on the 12th November to the 15th Novermber 2008.
It will be my first time stepping into the Sunderland Empire Theater Hall (heard that it's not that big) and watching a theatric ballet performance...... I know I sounded very ulu.

The tickets for the performance are selling £24, £18, £10 according to the seating, with students and senior citizens having £5 off top price.

At first, only six of us (my course mates and I) wanted watch the performance, but after much persuasion by Alison, another 4 more joined us. That's makes a total of 10 persons, so instead of getting individual tickets, we would be able to book as a group that entitle us to £5 off top price + one extra ticket free.

Lucky, lucky us wanted to watch the Thursday evening show, which is having a special promotion for schools and dance schools. Since we are all university students, and had a group of 10 people, we were entitled to the special price whereby all tickets were just £5 each.
As the price now much lower than expected before, another 4 more joined in, making the total number of people 14.
Haha...... cheaper tickets attracted more audience.

Looking through the information leaflet and the BRB website, it seems like it's going to be a spectacular performance, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Here, I share a short clip of the Beauty and the Beast posted on Youtube by the BRB



For more info, visit the BRB website.

The renovated lecture theater

Been back to Sunderland for 3 weeks, but was just too lazy to update my blog.

In Malaysia, you'll always drive to your destination, but now that I'm back in Sunderland, I have to get use to walking and carrying my own groceries again (T_T)
Hmm... maybe I should learn from Jeannie, order from Tesco online and they will sent it over :P

Anyway, this post is suppose to be about the new renovated lecture theater!
The Murray Library lecture theater was renovated since last April when we were having our exams, and now I present you....Tadaa.....
University of Sunderland newly renovated Murray Library Lecture Theater.
It's so shinny.... and nicely carpeted.
Look at the light that light up the stairway, it looks like those airplane aisle.

The new comfortable seats are in shades of red,very nice, it feels like I'm in a cinema more than a lecture hall. Some friends of mine commented that the seats are so comfortable that we would fall asleep during lectures more often as compare to the old green seats. Oddly, after 2 weeks of lectures, none of us doze off when the lecturer teaches.

I came up with 2 conclusion from that, it's either that we are too enthusiastic to strive better in our 3rd year, or the new lighting in front of the screen is just too bright for us to loss our focus ;)

Picture credits to Jeannie @ livingmylife.blogspot.com