Liverpool new champions of Europe

AC Milan vs Liverpool

3 - 3(p) (aet)

Yay liverpool won the 2005 Champions league le hahaha....i bet jaron must be super happy now XD anyway it's a very good finals and im sure this remarkable feat will be told on and on for years to come well done reds hehehe Think have to wait till next season for more football action le XD

Estatic Steven Gerrad with Benitez holding to the Champion trophy. Question: Will Gerrad pledge his services to Liverpool for 3 more seasons to come?? Hehehe the liverpool fans will be dying to find out. Wah read the news today that more than 300,000 reds supporters turn up as Liverpool parade their trophy to Anfield.

Crazy Team Celebrations

Star Wars Episode 3 --- Revenge of the Sith

Today decide to catch the Star Wars movie - Revenge of the Sith. It was to be screened in the theatres on the 18th May but Win Win had exam on the 19th so we decided to watch it on the 20th which is friday instead. We initially asked yew keng along but apparently he was a very keen fan of george lucas films so we asked elena along and she said she would come after her exams on that day lor. But sadly she msg me after her paper that she was feeling very tired and she din do well for her paper so din have the mood to join us lor. So in the end me and win win went to the Odeon Cinema at the Gate. Hmmmm luckily the system here abit weird can actually get full refund for the ticket before the screening time so yea got the full refund for elena's tix lor (paid £4.90 per student tix)...sigh wat a pity tot will be a good chance to ask everyone out to unwind for the weekend. Coz like very long neva meet up wif elena le and then i feel shld at least catch a movie while in newcastle mah. Oh well...

Anyway another weird thing abt the cinema system is that it is totally free seating one so we have to queue up early to get into the theatres if we want good seats. We reached there at 8.30pm 30min before the admission times. Hahaha since we know the food sold in the cinema is super expensive like £3.20 for small popcorn(super ridiculous man), we bot some pop drinks in a nearby kebab shop before going lor. I bot sprite for win win and coke for myself. Once seated (we are quite lucky to get the middle row seat), thye showed like approx 30min of advertisment and sneak previews. Hmmm seemed like Batman begins is not bad and the other one is a walt disney film production on a fantasy like story. The fantastic 4 doesn't seemed to be very exciting to watch XD anyway after all the boring advertisments the show finally begun lor.

I was initially very excited coz i liked the star wars series since young mah last time ch5 always got telecast the trilogy series de. But think my expectations are abit too high lah XD so yea din feel anything special in fact i was pretty amazed by the pre series in Phantom of the Menace and the Clone Wars. Anyway i feel tat samuel lee jackson is like abit extra in the movie quite suay also genna chopped off the arm by anakin. but the jedi coucil really abit too 死板...shld have make anankin like acting master if they dun really want him to hold on to too high an appt mah. just like wat ns always do acting COS　XD (hahaha think this term will be very familar to u guys XD) then in this way can supervise on anakin mah and hoax him saying that now u have greater power u must have greater responsibility lor. So he wld guai guai listen dun anyhow have those feelings of greed, fear or wat crap...haha remind me of full metal alchemist the 7 sins of human--- pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth and envy.

Cutie yoda XD
Think anakin is a really a big victim of circumstance...u could say he's evil but i think he has no choice ah the impact of losing his mum, his onli loved one, since young was too deeply entrenched in his heart tat's why he feared alot of losing padme in the same way as he lost his mum --- could onli stare but do nothing. So yea dark side he turned. Abit silly lah coz he got swayed by the chancellor's words too easily but if there's anyhope not to let padme die he will cling on and follow it lor. Well his dream did came true sad to say but i was pretty amused by the fact tat he could survive from the first degree burns on his body after being like scorched by the burning larva abit far-fetched siah...but story are story mah XD the rest u know lah he later became the darth vader the infamous black armor-suit guy wif a respiratory amplifier that go whoosh everytime he expires XD

Padme then gave birth to a pair of twins the guy named luke and the gal named leia...and with tis the newborn kids are supposed to be the new hope of the galaxy heheh for more info pls refer to episode 4: The New Hope.

I should say some of the songs from the soundtrack are being recycled i was yearning to hear newer songs but think nth special caught my attn. Graphics is good as usual fighting between obi-wan-kenobi and anakin is so-so bah story wise think it captured the gist from the original story and i think the actor for anakin, Hayden Christensen, did really well can really see the twist of emotions all written on his face not bad :) Think i would give an overall 7.5/10 rating for this movie.

First Day of Exams (18 May)

Wah sianz man....today is the first day of my exams. Today's paper is Power Systems Operation and Control EEE411 equivalent to nus EEE4501. I was prepapring for this exams ytd nite...haha but then fell asleep after dinner woke up at 10pm then continue actually was quite sianz le...just re-doing past year papers again lor...to familarise the maths b4 i go into the exam hall. Din know wat to expect actually for my first exam but according to seniors and frens over here apparently, the past year questions get recycled once in a while so yea im trying to squeeze everything into my head the nite b4 lor. So after my late nap, woke up go to shower then read thru some of the notes i made myself did some more questions and i finished at ard 1am. But too awake to go to sleep again so i went online and chat wif win win lor until abt 2am in the morning hehehe she also quite sianz studying adi. Her paper is in the afternoon 2.30pm while mine is in the morning 9.30am. After win win logged out and went to sleep i chatted wif Zhangjun, Jianwen and Jaron until abt 2am in the morning then went back to my room.... but still too hyper lah think its the pre-exam excitement so in the end toss and turn in bed until abt 4.30am !! then went to sleep.

Woke up at 8.30am went for breakfast as usual then set off to the exam venue lah stood outside waiting like a scarecrow :p feel weird coz im the onli chinese ard. The paper was tougher than i expected as compared to previous years but still doable lah have to think for a while lor ....i din do as fast as the krazzzy guy beside me who is like scribbling furiously when the exam started XD lol. Haha din bring my protractor who will bring such thing from spore one rite? XD anyway i figured its not worthed it to buy a new one just for this exam lah so i waited for the ang moh gal to finish using for her question then i raised my hand to ask the invigilator if i could borrow the protractor from her lor. In the end i still comfortably finish the paper in abt 40min before time lah for the 2hr exam. Checked thru my answers shld be okay lah then just wait for the time to submit my papers lor ....din wanna leave early lah dunno why too XD

Anyway after the exam i was beginning to feel abit tired think maybe last nite sleep too less, anyway i went to the library to return 2 books due to next day actually but since im adi out must as well return it lor coz the library is quite near my exam venue if not will be a 15min walk from my hostel. I returned one book on electrical machines and the other book on digital signal processing. Then after tat i went to do some shopping in Eldon.

Bot a Johnson 2-1 shower gel and a tetrapack of ribena (hehehe my fave drink XD) then after tat do some window shopping in Monument and the Newcastle club shop. The new jersey for the 06/07 season arrived on the monday (16 May) but i was preparing for exams mah so din go lor anyhow went today and wasn't really fancified by the new jersey design in fact i think the old one looks nicer. The new one is quite plain besides the black n white traditional strips of course. The onli things they changed were the northen rock words which was orignally in blue and white not changed to golden somemore its not even protruding, look very obiang and damn 2D (its 2D in fact just printed on it onli) and then the second thing that changed is the sleeves and the sides of the jersey. Anyway one piece of jersey is priced at £40 definitely not worth buying at the moment :P The old season jersey now is being priced at £25 quite reasonable but still expensive for me to afford. In fact i bot the training jersey for £15 which i think is nicer and think not many ppl in spore wld wear tat since spore dun sell training jerseys for football clubs xD


New 05/07 jersey Old 03/05 jersey

Yea after my boring window shopping drop by a Kebab shop to have chips (£1) as my lunch then after that head back home to rest le too tired.....

ZzzzZzzzz

Newcastle United Official Club Store Opening (22 Apr)

I was happily checking the Newcastle United official website one day then happened to see that they have this official club store opening in St. James Park to replace the old one lah. The official club store opening is on the 22nd Apr 2pm. Haha my Optoelectronics lecture will end 3pm that day which is a Friday. Since its a Friday also nothing much to do mah so must as well take a trip down to check wat's in store maybe lucky will get some free gifts leh XD

Bird's eye view of the St. James Park. The one with the hooded shelter is Milburn Stand. I should say its a pretty big stadium with capacity of 52,000 think second to Old Trafford Stadium in UK.


So after my lecture me and win win supposed to meet outside the club entrance at St James Park mah since my lecture ended earlier, i went to queue up first mah coz up till this pt i still tot got free gifts one XD But then when i arrived leh, i saw like quite a long queue of ppl outside the club shop entrance which is lined with red carpert wor. So i was thinking wah so grand ah then asked ard got some ppl tell me they are queueing up to get the autographs of the first team players lor. According to them all the first team and reserves came for this official opening. Hehee then i also joined in the queue lor since here adi. Hahah think im one of the last ones to make it in the queue XD. While queueing up i was thinking i dun have anything for them to sign wor so when win win arrive i ask here to stand in the queue for me first while i rushed into the club shop to get this team photograph lor to let them sign. Will be more meaningful rather than sign on foolscap paper rite? XD

Anyway when its going to be our turn to go in, with like 10 ppl or so infront of us, the security guards say they aint letting anymore ppl in le coz they have only arranged the soccer stars for an hour autograph signing session only =( Shit man...after all tat long queue and i dun think the players mind to sign for another 10 ppl rite? the security guards are damn blockheaded haiz no point arguing with them some of the ang mor kids are scolding vulgarities and arguing with them but only to get brushed off. Hehehe on seeing this, i pulled win win to one side and we sneaked in from another entrance into the club shop and hun4 shui3 mo1 yu1 with the main crowd inside hahah shld have done this earlier le then no need to queue up ang moh system really weird i can confirm such thing wun happen in singapore deh XD

So in we go but once we are in Alan Shearer stood up and left for some interview with the reporters. Oh well we tot of getting the autographs of other players first while waiting for shearer to get done wif his press interview. Unfortunately i forgot to bring my digital camera along wah suay man so cant take alot of pics with the players. I only got Patrick Kluivert and Laurent Robert close up photos. Hehehe and a one which Win win took with Robert XD not too bad lah. But after his interview, Shearer was rushed off to the exit by some escorts and we were forced not to follow oh well tough luck man so near n yet so far. XD Anyway since we adi there, we spent some time to check out any new products in store lor sad to say there arent lah and they are like so expensive think have to wait till summer sales.

Haha team photo with the first team XII autographs!!!

Sending off Nelly, Dinner at Quayside Big Mussels (29 Apr)

30 Apr (Sat), Nelly will be going back to Singapore le. Nelly, Cecilia, Karen, Jason, Sandy and Liqi are the Ngee Ann poly students tat came here for exchange as well but they are doing research onli so which means NO EXAMS. hehehe tats why they got to travel abt so frequently very envious of them =p Nelly extended her stay her to help her supervisor continue some research lor while the rest they went back to singapore adi last month on 28th march. So yea time really flies man so fast yet another month have past. Then a new batch of poly students have just come over 6 of them and one of them is Nelly's brother Fendi. The other guys names are Jeremy, Wee, Binhong 2 others i forgot le. XD
Anyway as farewell to Nelly and welcome to the new poly guys we went to this Big Mussels restuarant at the Quayside which serves mussels of course XD This restaurant is abit funny. It opens at 5.30pm and closes at 11.30pm.

If u enter at 5.30pm u can get certain exclusive meals say the 1kg mussels pot which normally costs 11+ pounds for just 5.30 pounds XD sounds good eh? I had this 1kg classic mussels pot. The sauce for the classic mussels is mixed with white wine. Besides the main dish, chips and ovenfresh bread is also served lor so not bad. I had a raspberry ice drink too. Win win ordered mangese for her sauce which has fresh mango slices and some sweet sauce. Ah keng ordered mushroom n cream for his sauce.

Looks yummie hor? XD i love seafood alot one ^^

Win Win, Nelly and her 2 previous flatmates

The Sporean society gang ---- from the left: Xiuping, Yu Jin, Nelly, Jerome and Wanling

Win Win and Nelly

After dinner we decided to go to the quayside for a walk since its still early. hahaha dun be deceived by the daylight man believe me its adi 7.30pm le. Now in UK, the sun typically sets during 9pm pretty amazing but i kinda like it hahaha walking back from win win's house wun be that dark man at nite XD

Tynebrige

Sage Gateshead looks like our Esplanade without the durian spikes. It holds performances and concerts there too check out the acoustic system man.

Artistic shot of the Tynebridge

Looking across the Tyne river, we see a small little church and a big ship. During july each year there will be this tall ships race held in the Tyne river so it will be really an amazing sight ^^

One of the most fave structures i like in Quayside, the Millenium bridge


The Baltic Center. It was converted to an arts center from a Flour Mills Center previously.

Entrance to Sage Gateshead

Function Hall One

Twilight shot of Tyne Bridge and Millenium Bridge in the background

Twilight shot of Tyne Bridge

The championship race showdown (4 May)

Today wake up very gancheong, hahaha not becoz suffering from the hangover effects of liverpool winning chelsea in the champions league semis lah, but because today is the championship race of out EEE210 project car mah. Back in nus we are supposed to do this module EE2001 which is make a remote control boat lah but then here dun have mah so we bua chao (play cheat) map to this simplier module lah which basically requires us to make a self-guided car on a white n black track. The timing to pass is 1 lap in 2min. The max marks is 3 laps in 2min without interference. Hehehe we did it the full 3 laps in 1min 51sec that is avg of 37 sec per lap. This is the assessment for our module. For the race itself each team is given 2 tries to run a lap and the fastest of the 2 laps will be recorded lah. The team wif the fastest lap timing will win the race simple as tat.

The top 4 prizes before the race starts.
Winners : 100 pounds cash + 3 bottles of champagne + 3 nice nice plastic plagues
Runner-up : 4 cans of Newcaslte Ale
Third place: 4 cans of some ulu brand beer
Fourth : 1 box of Cadbury chocolates XD

Front view of our car (sensors below)

Closeup marco shot of our PIEZO

Top view of the overall circuit


Actually before the race starts we got callibrate it last friday and our best lap time is 32.9sec but then ah its highly non-reproducable lor no matter how hard we try to callibrate this morning, and we have to settle like 37-39 sec lap time. Before the race starts its really very nervous lah coz we know there are 3 teams that can beat us or rather very close competitors. We are gambling and so are they lah.

To my knowledge the car with the PCB deisgn is capable of 34sec , the one with the analogue closed loop feedback syst is capable of 35sec and the other underdog team is abt 36sec. So as u can see we are like quite underdog of the underdog lah @@

The race started even before we know it le. When its our main competitor the PCB design team's turn, all eyes all fixed on them coz its quite certain that they will do well onli difference is will they break their own and current record of 35sec. Hehee quite strangely when the car started moving it had a v slow acceleration i tot my eyes were playing tricks on me but then when i checked my stopwatch i was shocked coz i know wif this timing they wun even make close to 40sec then shock upon shock their car actually went out of track not once but 4 times!!! i was like confused siah wat happened? But inside our hearts we know that one competitor is out coz per intervention for out of track is a 5sec penalty. We know we got chance a small chance but still better than nthg.

Next up is the analogue feedback ctrl team their circuit is really intimidating man components that i neva even seen b4 anywayz while waiting for our module coordinator to start time we are like cursing them inside our hearts i know its bad but competitions are always liddat 100 pounds afterall mah xDDD . To our surprise and relief their car started off very well wif a nice acceleration but towards the midpoint it actually went out of track 2 times and their lap timing was like 46sec + 10sec so yea out of contention for the champions le but still they are currently leading can u believe it ?? XD hahaaz other teams fare so badly. Anyway after his race i went to ask him wat happened mah coz i tot analogue feedback shld be super stable one. He revealled to me he took a gamble lah coz he use a high speed which he neva callibrated n tested b4 lor but he says its okay lah. Althou he said tat i could see he's quite disappointed lah since his car is capable of 35sec last week w/o going outta track somemore.

The next team is us lor. So yew keng placed the car on the track while i stay by the side to take our own timing. The supervisor will take his also. So we started off quite depressingly when i hear the motor sound i know its not going to make it to the 35 sec mark we wanted. We had our lap time of 40sec on the first try. Each team is given 2 tries and the best lap timing will be taken lor. We decided to change a to a 'newer' set of our used batteries hoping can shave a few more sec. Hehehe expectedly we did well and we finished a lap time of 37sec which means we are currently leading for this championship race. Not a good timing but we know we tried our best and can onli wait for other teams' results le. There are 9 more out of a total 18 teams left. So we are halfway thru to becoming the winners if u put it that way xD

Teams after teams none of them can complete one single lap within the 45 sec mark and more imptly we seemed to be the only team today tat complete one full lap without penalties tat is with intervention when the car goes outta track XD Then came the last team, team 18. I know they had a chance coz our grp n his grp always stayed out late in the labs during the easter break they had a crazy algo which makes the car accelerates n pause the motor and accelerates again so its like quite fast on the average but onli difference is not smooth driving. Their first lap is shocking fast 40sec and tat makes them in second place. Its quite an enormous achievement for them because their car always have tendency to go outta track with tat algo since the easter break so i guess luck was shinning on them too. Then came their second try. They increased the speed which again uncallibrated coz its a do or die situation. This their onli and last chance of the whole race to snatch the champion from us since they are adi guaranteed of second place liao. Its 100 pounds or nthg champagne or beer mah XDDD And off they went. They started off superbly to a pt tat i was quite taken aback coz that sound from their motor it vvv familar its exactly the same rpm that we got the record timing of 32.9sec during our field testing last fri. When their caR approaches the finishing line with 30cm to spare i looked at my stopwatch....my heart sank immediately 32 sec !! with 30cm to go they are going to make it man....OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Suddenly i heard a massive awwwwwwww in the background i glanced up from my stopwatch mah and saw his car going OUTTA TRACK OMG!! i was like suddenly going up on a roller coaster ride man wahhahahaaha we won le we won le !!! they finished the lap in record of 34sec but + 5sec penalty = 39sec woOt we are the champions!! champions !!! XDD hahaahahah super happy man but also quite sad for them ah they came in so close threw in everything they got and so unlucky with 30cm to spare then go out of track. Anyway we cant hide from our estastic emotions hahaha first time i won such competition XD

Our prizes and our champion car XD :P

Posing with our prizes :)


After the race our supervisor approached us saying that the chancellor of the uni of newcastle will be visiting the EE dept tmr so he asked us if we could come down to do a live demonstration of our car to the chancellor and we would get a chance to take a photo with him for the dept photos. hehehe it sounded such an honor tat we cant reject so why not XD

Stayed tuned for more of tmr's pics and the live demonstration video.