Yes, it's official. I'm officially diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. Not that it's anything obviously amiss when you see me, probably I look all normal to you. But to me, my face don't feel the same anymore - my facial muscles are no longer symmetrical during contraction,I can't smile without feeling awkward, it's blur vision in my right eye, and I feel even more dejected when I start thinking about no longer being able to play the flute.

I guess you're wondering what's Bell's Palsy,here's a short excerpt from Wikipedia:

Bell's palsy is a paralysis of cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) resulting in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side. Several conditions can cause a facial paralysis, e.g., brain tumor, stroke, and Lyme disease. It is thought that an inflammatory condition leads to swelling of the facial nerve. The nerve travels through the skull in a narrow bone canal beneath the ear. Nerve swelling and compression in the narrow bone canal are thought to lead to nerve inhibition, damage or death. No readily identifiable cause for Bell's palsy has been found.

Prognosis: 33% full recovery, 33% partial recovery, 33% no recovery. Which one will I fall into?

I spent a day at the hospital yesterday getting my eye probed into and myriad of muscle checks by doctors and eye specialist. Menacing microscope-like apparatus that shines bright light into your pupil is something you would never want to try. But then again it's the thought of not being able to play dizi again that really makes you feel..

I need to ease my fears.

Coincidentally, while travelling on the bus home today, I saw this short clip on TV Mobile featuring Paralympic Equestrian Bronze Medallist Laurentia Tan (who had cerebral palsy and profound deafness). Her will to be speak despite being deaf and courage to stand and start walking is something really inspiring. Hmm, maybe Bell Palsy don't seem so bad after all.

I'm back! and my bio-clock's all jumbled up after a long flight back home, which explains why I'm blogging at this hour. There's so much to blog about on this London-Langollen-Cardiff-London trip, where shall I start?

Oh, I might as well start by declaring two casualties of this trip:
-my camera(with a broken lid cover after it slipped out of my hand at the National Gallery)
-my luggage bag(all the plastic parts are broken after I stuffed more than could be fitted into the luggage bag)

UK's actually quite a nice place to be in if you've endured great humidity and high temperatures(such as those in Singapore) for the weather is cool and dry over there even when it's summer. Apart from the Tube trains,you hardly sweat at all. But seriously,their trains are nastily hot and cram and stuffy. You hardly get any ventilation in the train unless you stand at the cabin's ends. So if you ever feel any wind in the trains, it's probably 'cause someone just broke wind.

If you thought Singapore's MRT system was getting complicated with the addition of Circle Line, wait till you check out the tube.

Not to add that their cars are surprising smaller and shorter than what we have in the cabins of MRTs, I wonder how the bigger-sized ang mohs manage to get into the trains. The most interesting part of their tube is the lift, where the lift will announce "Please do not obstruct the door" like any other lift would. However, when the doors fail to close, the lift will start repeating itself incessantly, "Please do not obstruct the door. Please do not obstruct the door. Please do not obstruct the doors!" with a growing impatience.Maybe someday you should hear it for yourself, I'm sure you'll agree with me.

11days in UK allows you to experience much of the difference in cultures. A more liberal country,you get to see anti-fur trade protest in front of Harrods, Iranian democracy demonstration at Trafalgar square, and the Pride Parade by Lesbians Gays Bisexuals and Transvestites (LGBT) down Oxford street. I had a 'good' time trying to squeeze my way through gays and lesbians in front of Hamley's when the traffic slowed to a crawl of almost 5cm per second. Haha, and how could I forget some gay shouting into the crowd "stop pushing me, or I'll sleep with you!"

The 1st Prize performance at prize winner's concert.

During our last days in London, I spent most of my time catching up on the places which I didn't manage to visit while I was having fever at the beginning of the trip. Here's some photos that I took,

From top to Bottom(left to right) : Tower Bridge, Royal Observatory at Greenwich, a Church at Temple area, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square( National Gallery in the background), Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, Big Ben, British Museum, Westminster Abbey.

Most importantly, the London Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican was the most memorable part of the trip. With Daniel Harding as the conductor and Frank Peter Zimmermann on the violin playing Sibelius Violin Concerto, the strong musicianship and great music of the orchestra made the concert hard to forget. I've never watched a concert better than this! Not to add, I actually paid 25 pounds(S$60) for the tickets, [that's 3 times the maximum amount I would usually spend on a concert ticket]. No wonder a normal LSO concert like this enjoy almost a full house - it was a great concert!

In the revered notebook contains handwritten summaries of four core A level subjects, inclusive of SPA notes. (GP not included, which probably explains why I didn't get an A for GP..)

Haha, it has come with me a long way since I started schooling at VJ. Where my memory fails me, there's always this rather giam cai notebook for me to refer to. Jon's grabbing a copy too!

Not too long ago, I was talking to Te online about her journey to singapore and how she cope coming here alone. I must say she's one who's probably more mature than someone her age. wah, the kind of hardship she goes through, I don't think I'll ever get to experience any of it. On another note, I start to wonder if I'm being too greedy trying to get myself involved in everything to make everything better. or I should just not care so much about things around me and let nature takes its course, instead of wanting to squeeze every joule of energy out of me and tire myself like a workhorse. Oh well, everyone has a place in society, I think I shouldn't exceed that capacity of mine so often after all.

Anyway, I've discovered a new joy listening to western music. Seriously, I always detest listening to symphonies and concertos, especially for someone born and bred in a culture of Hua Yue (Chinese Orchestral music). Western music never fail to put me to sleep few minutes with the strings playign the theme incessantly. So did Bruckner's 4th symphony sound to me, so naggy until I started listening to it a few more times. Music's like coffee, you'll probably come to enjoy it when you spend some time getting acquainted with it. The conclusion: listen a few more times and you'll grow to love it!