Summer 2016

This is almost definitely my last long summer holiday of my life, because I am graduating next year (wait what?!). Just thought I'd have a recap of what happened this summer! Technically, summer hasn't ended, but I don't think I will bother to write a blog post in a few weeks' time so I shall do this in advance instead, and pretend that summer has ended. :P

1. In my 2 weeks right after exams ended: Salford Quays with some coursemates. Afternoon tea @ Teacup with some girlfriends. Met up with Maria my Moldovan flatmate from first year and she drew me a portrait at Whitworth Park. Went to Fletcher Moss Park with Joyce Cheng. Had Sarawak Laksa (brought the paste back from Kuching ages ago but never used it) with the Best Investment Girls. Afternoon tea @ Richmond Tea Rooms on my bday with my Jesus girls. Potluck at home with the Singaporean and Malaysian Optoms to celebrate Jit Ming and my birthday. Last lunch with Amanda Tan with other girls @ Didsbury where she gave us a really cool mini Linguistics lecture. Had Pizza Hut lunch with Chia Hui, someone I became friends with through the Malaysian Night Props Team. Archie's with Chloe Yinn. A bible study at Sabine's house for people interested to find out more. Solo IKEA trip (more like solo-bus-trip-to-make-use-of-bus-pass-before-it-expired). Went to a BBC Philharmonic because I got an unexpected free ticket online. Met up with Kunju, a Korean friend I made through another Korean friend. Catch up with Theresa Lau at Al-Taiba where we had my favourite Chicken Al-Fahm With Rice (Grilled chicken with rice).

2. Specsavers Placement (20June-15July)

Shin Yi, Jit Ming and I arrived in Portsmouth. Specsavers provided us with accommodation: Harry Law Hall (a Uni of Portsmouth student hall). We made some new friends: Liz, a Canadian doing her pHd; Vivian, a Dental Nurse; Angela, from some French-colony island. I enjoyed my placement. My colleagues at work are very nice: Leanne, Wendy (with her dugh-dugh-dughhh!), Marianne,..Shin Yi, Jit Ming and I visited Bristol (hosted by lovely Serena Chew), and Bath. We also went to London twice: First time was a food trip, we went to around 6 different places. Second time was to watch Phantom of the Opera, which was my first theatre (it was more like an opera though..duh Angeline).

4. Came back to Manchester and hung out with Ally Suen and Veronica quite a lot. Went to iCafe and as it happens every summer, I get a few new Chinese friends on my WeChat hahaha.

This was when I was cycling back home using Joyce's bike and Ally & Veron called out to me when I passed by them on Oxford Road ahahaha

3. Greece (3Aug-12Aug)

Went to Greece with Serena! Had various adventures. I'm really lazy to type it all out again because I've told people about them, but I feel like I should, for the sake of keeping a record. Before the trip, I realise that I didn't buy tickets get to London because I was so sure the past Angeline must've done it half a year ago. Then we realised that we didn't have a flight from Santorini to Athens because it was refunded due to schedule changes and we thought it only applied to another flight. In Greece, Serena almost got pickpocketed on our first day out but I was wary and we managed to get away before the person got anything. I started getting very bad rashes which made my whole body itchy and red. Went to the hospital, and the doctor said it was bug bites. I had to wash all my clothes in hot water and try to vacuum my suitcase and iron clothes. We accidentally burn the host's floor. We decide to be honest and tell our Airbnb host. We communicate with our host through an online translator (she could only speak Greek) and she is frustrated at the end because we don't understand each other (technology fails sometimes). We pay our compensation. I try not to think about it. Serena is great though, she tries to laugh off things and it makes everything a lot less worse. Then in Santorini, I couldn't unlock the combination lock of my suitcase. That sums up our adventures hahaha. When I was in Manchester, I broke my new spectacles because I tried to fix a problem myself. Then, I wasn't happy to pay the price of a replacement frame and tried to fix the new problem with superglue. It didn't work for long (in fact, the glue wore off on the day of flight to Greece), so I took it back to the store, but realised that I had to pay double the price but because my failed superglue solution to the problem caused another problem. I pay the price. I try not to think about it. In fact, I think these things are probably there to train me to not have a tight grip on money. Some people say "think of it as paying for a lesson", and I only hope that I have really learnt the lesson of being careful and not try to be too smart.

4. Hospital placement
Went to the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital for a week of hospital placement! I really enjoyed it. There were so many things to see but too little time! Went to clinical imaging department, corneal imaging, macula treatment centre, operation theatre (watched trabeculectomy), A & E, and Withington cataract centre.

5. Eurolens work experience
Had the opportunity to have a week of experience at Eurolens. I helped Maria with video analysis which involved a lot of clicking with the mouse. Watched 2 clinical visits. Overall, I thought it was a good exposure to see what they do and it was a good use of the 1 week (also managed to do some revision for 3rd year using a Clinical Ophthalmology book lying around in the office)

6. Sheffield alpaca farm with Selina, Lu Fang and Estelle!

  To-do list: Touch (and feed) an alpaca. Check!

7. CU Forum
Will be going in a week, hope I will enjoy it, because I really..dislike...camping..
8. International Freshers & Freshers Week
Right after Forum. May God use the CU events mightily and work through them and let us see people coming to hear the good news that brings life, and relationships being built where friends will actually have their eyes opened to see the light of Jesus!

8. THIRD. YEAR. STARTS. BOOM.