Southern Ireland.

After almost going mad preparing for exams, we took a well deserved break. We went on a short 3-day tour of Southern Ireland, more specifically Galway and Killarney. Both towns much quieter as compared to Dublin. A great escape from crazy uni life. Very relaxing I must say! Enjoyed it very much! Here are some shots we took of amazing Ireland!

* Some pics are in because they look nice! Sorry, some might have no captions!

First stop! The Papal Cross. Located within the immensely huge Phoenix Park! The Papal Cross was specially erected for Pope John Paul the 2nd's visit. 100 000 people attended the service!

Free-roaming deer inside Phoenix Park!

Clonmacnoise Monastery!

Us! Under the Whispering Arch at the Clonmacnoise Monastery!

Green? Red?


Galway.

Another one of the many castles all over Ireland.




Ah Girl making her wish at the wishing well! For the wish to come true, one must hold a coin in his/her right hand. Then, facing forward, throw the coin over your left shoulder. If the coin lands inside the pool of water, your wish will apparently come true!

The pool of water where the coin must land in for the wish to come true!

Can you spot the face of a smiling Goblin? Try!



Baby! Standing on what was the sea bed 270 million years ago!

Me!

Us!


The Irish countryside. Calm and quiet!

The breathtaking Cliffs of Moher! You have got to see this in person one day! This is a must-visit! Must must must! Simply magnificent!

Baby!

Me!

Another shot of the Cliffs of Moher!

The Cliffs of Moher from the other end!

Another one!

A closer look!

From atop the Cliffs of Moher!

Last one! :P

Gypsy! On our third morning, we went on a horse-carriage tour to the
Killarney National Park. Park was a disappointment but this was our first horse ride!

At the Park.

Small castle within Killarney National Park.


I like the reflection on the surface of the lake!





Blarney Castle! Once you make your way all the way to the top, you'll get a chance to kiss the Blarney Stone which supposedly gives one the gift of the gab for 7 years! None of us did it! Imagine the number of ppl who have kissed the stone already!

View from atop Blarney Castle!


Group pic atop Blarney Castle!

The Rock of Dunamese!

View from atop peak where the Rock of Dunamese sits on!

Likewise! And so are the following pics! So calm and soothing!

My personal favourites are the shots of the Cliffs of Moher! In my opinion, those are spectacular sights! A must-see-for-yourself! All in all, a great trip. Short, but great! If there was gonna be a complaint, it would definitely have to be the lack of variety in food. By the third day, we were so so sick of bar food. Damn I miss Penang! Hope you enjoyed this post! Cheerio!

Results.

Are out! JC1 (1st sem) results are out. We both sailed through. Thankfully! We both did pretty OK in my opinion. And 2nd sem is gonna start in 3days. Bummer.

As I sit in my chair listening to Kenny G on his sax, I can't help but think. Is it really worth it? Having to toil for what seems an eternity to score the best we can, only to do it all over again 2 months later, with the results from the previous sem meaning no more than some alphabets and numbers put together. And it continues. Results from 1st yr don't contribute to 2nd and 2nd don't mean anything in the 3rd and it goes on till the 5th (final) yr. In all eventuality, we are all gonna end up as doctors. White overcoats, stethoscopes, patella hammer bla bla. You get the picture.

Two scenarios.
Scenario 1.
Student passes all the way till 5th yr. Studies like mad for 5th yr and scores firsts across the board. Gets kudos. Goes on to become doctor.

Scenario 2.
Students pushes every step of the way. Scores firsts/seconds across the board for every single examination. RISKS burnout. Continues studying in final yr. Burnout might cause loss of focus/desire. Screws up a module. Fails. Does not become a doc.

If it were you, which would you opt for? Note the "RISKS" in Scenario 2. Scratching my head as I ponder on this. Before uni, I told myself that I would not be TOO obsessed with getting firsts as it would mean absolutely nothing in the following sem. That plan didn't go too well I would say. But why should I not be obsessed? We have one life. Why not push to test our limits? Why not live it to the max? And if I do burnout, I would like to believe that I can pull myself back up and have another go at it. Been living this way ever since young. Why should that change? Fuck it! Sem 2 here I come!

"yippie-kai-yea m*tha f*cka!" - Bruce Willis

Scotland.

Edinburgh and Glasgow to be exact! And boy it was cold! Way way colder than Dublin! If I'm not wrong, temp. never topped -7! Brrrr! Had our first experience of snow! And the snow was heavy too! Blanketing most of Edinburgh! Left for Edinburgh almost immediately after classes ended. Much needed reprieve before stepping on the gas all the way till our last paper! I'll upload pics! They say a picture says a thousand words. I concur. Enjoy!

A view of Edinburgh Castle from behind! I like this shot!

Covered in snow! Edinburgh Castle in the background!

This was when snow started coming down! :)

Left to Right : Derrick, Stephen, Me. Buat bodoh trying to taste snow! Typical Malaysian lah! xD

A random street in Edinburgh! Rich architecture such as these are in abundance throughout Edinburgh!

A view of Edinburgh from inside the castle!

Us with Edinburgh city in the background!

Edinburgh Castle upfront!

Baby with castle's canon! These were actually used a LONG, LONG time ago to protect the castle!

Another shot with a canon! This one's much bigger than the rest tho!

Me peering into the canon!
Within the Castle!

Me! Playing guard! Serious eh?!

Friendly guard! :P

Stoned guard! xD

Pretty window panels! Would have been nicer had the sunlight been a tad stronger!

A shot of Edinburgh in the evening!

Another shot of Edinburgh! I'm just in awe of the architecture on display!

One of our meals in Edinburgh! I had a Roast Beef order while baby had Chicken with Haggis! For those of you who don't know, Haggis is Scotland's traditional dish. Wouldn't wanna scare you off from trying Haggis! But if you wanna know more, there's always wiki! ;)

A closer look at Chicken with Haggis!

Our dessert! Damn this was good! I'm hungry now! :(

Ah Girl on the Royal Mile!

Derrick and Stephen showing their disappointment post-haggis!

Picture 1. Us about to begin the whiskey-making tour!

Picture 2. EngKeat and Eleanor about to start theirs!

Picture 3. Derrick and Stephen beginning theirs! Still not over their disappointment about their haggis experience I guess!

Inside the Scotch Whiskey Experience! A whole room full of whiskey! Spectacular would definitely be an understatement!

A closer look at some of them!

Girl with her whiskey!

Me with my whiskey!

The two oldest bottles of whiskey in the collection! They can still be drunk in case you were wondering!

Us at the bar after the whiskey tour was over!

The signage at our hostel! Creative!

Us when the snow came down really really heavily!

Group pic before we left Edinburgh for Glasgow!

Not to be completely outdone by Edinburgh, Glasgow has its own architectural works of art! This used to be the City Hall? Or Bank I think!

From inside a church in Glasgow!

The best meal in my opinion throughout the entire trip! Dinner at Glasgow! Had half a kg of mussels! It was simply magnificent! How I wish Dublin has one!

A shot of their oysters! Taste superb too!

The Mussel Inn! Yummy!!!!!!!!

And that concludes our Scotland trip! Hope you guys had fun looking at all the pics! Will be back with more! Lots more! For now, I'm off to bed! Selamat malam! xD

Holla.

Hey all! Another long long hiatus! A thousand apologies to those who have patiently clicked on the link to this page over and over again hoping to have something to read! Some updates on what has happened since the last post (which was a long long time ago!) :

1. We went to Edinburgh and Glasgow for our Christmas Break! (more on this in the next post!)

2. We STUDIED! ALOT! (I couldn't believe the amount we were made to study in just 3 months! I'm pretty sure I have not done this much studying in such a short time - ever!)

3. We SAT FOR OUR FIRST MEDICAL EXAMS! (Outcome still pending! Results out this Friday! *crosses fingers and prays for the best*)

4. We went on a tour of Southern Ireland! Galway and Killarney! There are some really scenic shots we took that I'm sure will make you go "Ooooooo!"

5. We had our 2 week end-of-sem-break! And 2nd term is gonna start on Monday! :( *sigh!*


Just in case anyone was wondering, yes, we're both still alive! Barely! But still hanging on! :) Med sch ain't easy that's for sure! Then again, which course is easy once you're in uni? To all those about to enter uni this year, welcome to hell! :P

16 months!!

hello :) lots of things happened today.

1. 16 months :D

- was woken up with yummy toast + egg + milo!!

2. last day of sem 1

- holyshit. 25days till exam :O

3. received RCSI sweater from hubbie!!

- precious!

4. hailstorm in Dublin

- raining ice!! hit wai kit's eye :P

hmm.. what else.. did I mention that I cut Kit's hair a few weeks ago? started at 12am.. finished at 1.30am :P and there was class the following day. it didn't turn out bad! prove :

erm.. gonna go to Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow) this coming Saturday!!! heard that it's snowing! ^^ I guess our next post will be about the trip :D byee byee!