Cooper Hill Memorial Race and the Hypnotism without Hypnosis

On Sunday, me and Edwin went with Jianyao, his friend Marion and the Aberdeen Lairig Club (climbing) to Loch Muick for the Cooper Hill Memorial Race which was organised by the Lairig Club to remember the 2 members of the club who passed away during a winter climb in 2006 in the Cairngorms Mountains nearby.

What started out as a sunny day became a very windy day with sleet flying into our face. Trust me it feels like  ants biting your face if you face the wind... but halfway throught the race which I walked (LOL but I never bring running shoes what!) the weather turned for the better and became so sunny that I had to remove the 2 jackets I was wearing and just continue walking in my polo T. Great Scenery all around that is typical of Scotland!

Crazy Weather!

Halfway point!

And then there is the Hypnotism without Hypnosis show by Martin S. Taylor who claims that hypnosis the way we know it is not real and an illusion. All that is required are:
1) Suggestion
2) Peer Pressure
3) Obedience
and there is no trance involved, people remember what is happening and you cannot do something that you do not want to do. In fact sometimes people claim that the hypnotist made them do something stupid and embarassing and it is a very easy way to get out of doing the silly thing that they are fully aware of doing.
While I feel it may be true, it made the demonstration really silly as it would not work on everybody and it feels kinda forced. Not my favourite show definitely, but he was quite the comedian with all the jokes (especially sexual ones haha)

Mass hypnosis! Making everyone unable to bend their arm!

In the mean time, I'm planning for summer trip around Scotland and Eastern Europe and also continuing to study for the upcoming exams. 

And really can't wait for Isle of Skye trip this weekend! WEEEE!!!!

Aberdeen Whisky Festival

Can't believe I forgot to blog about this event! It happened on the 19th of April!

The Aberdeen Whisky Festival is only in its second year is organised by the Aberdeen University Malt Whisky Society which was voted the best society last year. The first Whisky festival was also voted the best event of the year and this year the event is event bigger as it is held in the Elphinestone Hall which is very grand and spacious.

First to show you what a normal whisky session on Wednesday fortnightly is like:

The different types of whisky you can try for 3 quid for 4 drams. Extremely cheap for good whisky~

The area where we have our whisky session. In a student association building in school where this section usually sells secondhand books and also hosts events like this and others.

And we have to buy our tickets before hand as they are really popular especially among exchange students.

The festival ticket is for 8 quid for students which gives you 12 tokens which can be exchange for a dram of whisky. Some better older whiskys require 2 or 3 (a 30 yro whisky which was really flavourful) tokens but most were for 1 tokens. So....it meant i probably drank 8 or 9 whiskys that day which is double what i usually drink in a single session. And there were so many varieties from all the whisky distilleries all over Scotland! Wooo! Felt really woozy afterwards but at least it was whisky not some cheap lousy alcohol. Strengthens your body haha! 强身健体~

Whisky tasting glass all ready for the festival to begin!

And this is Elphinestone Hall!

Which got so crowded later on that people inside had to leave to let more people in! Most popular event in UoA!

Acidentally photobomb this group haha!

They sell whisky cider actually which was really good as well as the handblown whisky glass decanters which I bought one!

Free chips and oatcakes to eat with whisky so that you won't feel too nauseous!

Really awesome event that showcase the national drink of Scotland. Well done!

St Patrick's Day

Its Saint Patrick Day!

Long story short, its to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland and celebrated all over the world by people who are of Irish descent (estimated at 100 million which is 15 times the population of Ireland itself)

A brief history of St Patrick is that he was born in GB and was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave. One day in his sleep he had a dream where god told him to get to the shore where he would be rescued by a ship and brought back home. After returning, he became a priest and later went back to Ireland to spread Christianity (apparently with the shamrock as seen above to explain the Holy Trinity)

And to celebrate today, its time to go to another ceilidh! St Patrick Day theme! (which means you have to wear green!)

Herding Calls!!!

This week pass rather peacefully by exchange terms...

Skiing lesson went exceptionally well! I am progressing to the higher slope now and able to edge better.
We had a new teacher this week. And he was really great with his instruction!
I can totally see some of the ICP qualities in his teaching. The praising, using the analogy of wanting to clamp someone's hand on the tongue of the boot to showcase the kinestatic part of learning, the touching foot technique, thumper technique, followed by the proper technique explanation, and the last part of playing a game by asking us to follow his action! Together with his praising to reward us, giving us an extra run, correction of technique, assessment of our individual skills, he makes another model for me to aspire to be a better coach!

Whisky tasting was good to me as well!!! Won a rocking glass that will never falls at whisky tasting! First time lucky!

Went to many talks this week as well. There was the ExploHub talk about this place for the masters level student to engage in real life simulation of exploring for oil and gas reserves, the Arctic drilling talk about how its so much rubbish, a talk by a wildlife TV show presenter about her experience diving around UK region. They were all really insightful and showed how vibrant Aberdeen is despite the small town that it is.

Nice place for the sharing session with wildlife expert! With mic for everyone!

I also went for this Scandinavian Singing Workshop that was SUPERB. We played many fun singing games that could be very good orientation games and it also stretches my vocal cords alot!!!!
Eg. Singing a pitch to the person next to you and passing it on,
Shouting the person's name in a loud manner and emphasizing on the syllable to transmit the word 20 miles!
Dancing while singing while twirling around!

Unbelievable fun! I never imagine that with my lousy voice I could do all this in a singing workshop. Totally dispelled whatever notion I had about my singing voice!


I also heard kulning from our teacher! It is simply out of the world. Basically it is the old way of herding live stock (in the middle of north Sweden) and of communication between herding women on mountains and between them and the home places down in the valley. This was a way of for instance crying for help, telling the family that a sheep had gone missing or crying for the hearding women to come home.

Hearing it live is 100000 times more mindblowing!

One of the songs that i learnt!

Love the room at King's College where we had the workshop!

This weekend is St Patrick's Day! Should be quite rowdy everywhere! Shall try to study a bit and do my assignment also!

Ciao!

Zombie Apocalypse!!! Life in a student festival week...

My Skiing video in which i fell twice is out! Have a look!!! HAHA



This week is apparently the student festival week where there were plenty of events from tuesday to thursday.

On tuesday, I went to the International Foooood Festival to have free food but I was 45 minutes late as I was in a Society of Petroleum Engineering talk and it ran late. NOOO MOREEE FOOOODDD! I was soooo saaadddddd.........:( Only some popcorn to take to the next event at MacRobert Building for a movie screening of DRIVE by Ryan Gosling who was so good! Now I know why the gals dig him! The movie was excellent and simple. Didn't watch the next movie (Pan's Labyrinth) as I didn't want to stay too late.

On wednesday, my class was cancelled so the first event of the day was ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!! As a survivor, I was given checkpoints and had to run there without getting attacked by a zombie. If I was infected I would become one myself. I'm gonna bring this game to Singapore for Halloween!!!

THE ORIGINAL ZOMBIES!

I became one too!!!

The aftermath: 90% zombies 10% cheaters

Act sei only haha!

In the end I was caught at before every checkpoint LOL. I am gonna die in a real zombie attack. Became a zombie in the 3rd round. By that time there were zombies EVERYWHERE in school. DAMN FUN!

In the evening, I went to the Jazz and Swing Dance performance at Butchart Centre and sat around to chat with some friends from our neighbour Malaysia and to watch the Jazz band perform with my friend Isaac Swing dancing with his other friends. Swing dancing is quite cool. I used to think that they are very obiang, but its not! Wished I didn't have 2 left feet haha.

Swing Dance + Jazz = (Y)

Jazz + Mugger = Chao Mugger!

Me and edwin left halfway to go to the Performing Arts Variety Show at Tiger Tiger, one of the clubs in Aberdeen. and IT WAS FANTASTIC. For 3 pounds only, we watched a capella, stand up comedy, improvised theatre, improvised dance (my favourite!), monologues, hip hop dance for 3 hours. It was all really good!!! And we sat in the front row lol. Apparently very few people other than the performers and some of their close friends turn up, so we 赚到！

MEOW!

We were early and chope the first row!

Here's another video of some idea of the show!

Free weekends...only for this week!

Gonna spend this weekend studying and resting after the sickness episode...

Had a really cultural enriching night yesterday after I went to the Celtic (pronounced with a K) Society's jamming session at a bar near city centre.

We followed my flatmate Isaac to the place on a whim and found this group of 10+ people squeezed in this small room in a bar. One by one everyone took a lead in playing or singing a song. The musical instruments that I saw in the room include guitar, harmonica, violin, viola (slightly bigger than violin but lower in pitch), bagpipe, recorder, accordion. Everyone seems so confident of their playing skills and could just pick up and follow the lead in accompaniment of the music piece. Definitely an experience hard to come by in Singapore where at most I see people jamming in a room. Over here we get to perform in a cosy setting with beer as well! Awesome!

I decided to cook tonight my favourite dish. Luncheon meat and potatoes in tomato sauce!!! Ma pride and joy!!!

Ski and whiSki

Had a little food poisoning scare yesterday after eating some bad soft boil eggs. x.x
Had to spent the entire day and night tuck in bed willing myself to recover asap and it worked!
Though I thought alot of my mom and home and how she would sayang me whenever I fell sick T_T.

Managed to rustle enough strength to travel to the Aberdeen Snowsports Centre the next day for my first ever skiing class!!! and Oh boy the weather conditions were terrible with this snow like rain and crazy wind! I learnt that my windbreaker wasn't waterproof but it was still great fun!!!

Our Skis! no poles yet!

Edwin going down the slope!

And back up again for another round!

Although it was a small beginner slope, it was great for learning the basics and we had a good teacher Eloise from the ABDN SNOW club from where we had a discounted price! One hour a week for 6 weeks for 36pounds. Cheap compared to going to the mountain to learn! We are intending to learn a bit first before going there haha.

After a hot shower after the ski lesson, we had a small dinner by my flatmate who made some veg stew and then went for our first malt whisky tasting! Apparently the malt whisky society was voted the best society last year. WOW!

For 4pounds (non-member price), we get to try 4 drams (25ml) of different types whisky but i donated some to Edwin so that my stomach wun complain too much

We could take these nice glasses home for 4 pounds! but we didn't haha

More whisky?

Tomorrow's valentine's day! so probably just gonna continue my bromance with Edwin planning for our next journey haha!

XOXO
Roy Coo (that's how the people at the ski centre spell my name LOL)

Edinburgh: Capital City of Scotland

IT IS CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!

Its my first time celebrating away from my family. Luckily I have no lack of activities to do so in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

On friday which was 2 days before cny, all the singaporeans and malaysians in Aberdeen and some other friends were invited to the Manchurian which was an authentic chinese restaurant for cny dinner. We had Lao Yusheng (brought in by the singapore society ppl:) and lots of yummy chinese food. 

Lao Yusheng! Yum!

The next day (Saturday) in the early morning, we (me Edwin and some of the SingSoc Ppl) walked (Yes walk) to the train station and embark on our trip to Edinburgh: the capital of Scotland.

Our purpose there was to join the Singapore Food Fest organised by the Edinburgh Singapore Society. At 7pound only, we got to eat a portion each of Chicken Rice, Chee Kueh, Tau Huay, Hoon Kueh, Popiah, Muah Chee, Kaya Toast, Laksa and drink some Milo. All were made by the Singaporean Students over there, so that was really impressive! The event had about estimated 400 ppl attending in 2 sessions and has been a tradition every year in Edinburgh! Wow!

Laksa!!!

Tauhuay that can fight with Laoban!

More Food at the Singapore Food Fest!

Anyway me and Edwin decided to stay one more day in Edinburgh so as to explore more of the city as one day wasn't enough (Of Course not enough!) Hence we went to book a bed in a 20 bed bunk dorm at the Caledonian Backpackers for 15 pound. Ha talk about being spontaneous after finding out that our ticket was open return!

We also booked for the night after the food fest a 'ghost' tour at The Real Mary King Close which was described as one of the better ones of the many ghost tour in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is supposedly one of the most haunted cities ever as many criminals were executed during the medieval times. 

Well the tour guide roleplayed as a maid from 500 years ago and brought us into the underground of Mary King's Close which was a real place that was used for living and working purposes in the past and has now been built over. She told us some of the stories of the incidents that happened like the plagued and murders. Haha I guessed as an Asian we have been accustomed to greater scares than some spooky telling of stories. I was constantly on the guard waiting for something to jump up to scare me but atlast none did. It was nonetheless an interesting tour to see what the old Edinburgh was like.

Then.....Happy Chinese New Year! What a drastic change in mood haha!!!!

The next morning at 6am we rose early and left for Arthur's Seat. The highest peak in Edinburgh I think at 250m (about bukit timah hill's height) we had a nice panoramic view of the city. Initially we wanted to get there for the sunrise but it was too cloudy :( It was really exhilarating (and windy) when I reached the top and saw the amazing scenery. Despite feeling cold, I felt really accomplished to reach the top of the world (in Edinburgh).

Early in the morning at 7am

Lonesome figure (me!) at the top of one of the hills.

Where King Arthur sat....or so they say 

Great view of Edinburgh!

Back at the bottom of Arthur's Seat! Can't believe we climbed so much in the early morning!

Then we went back to check out and then to join the Free Walking Tour by the same company in London. We walked for 3 hours around Edinburgh and heard more stories about how the buildings are built on a hill and can have 5 stories on one side and 12 stories on the other (kinda like NUS), stories about philosophers like David Hume, literary greats like Sir Walter Scott and  Robert Burns, as well as stories about the monarchy, freedom fighters, criminals, etc. It was a good tour and this time we tip her haha (even though it was 3 pound only for both of us!)

Edinburgh Castle! Too expensive to go in!

The guy in the centre looks like Jeremy Renner!!!

Walking around the Royal Mile from the Edinburgh Castle! Tourists everywhere!!!

Statue of David Hume. Do you see his right big toe? Its a good luck charm apparently and people rub it all the time!!!

The story of  the loyal Greyfriar Bobby who guarded his master's grave after he died.

After that we had a nice lunch of haggis with neeps and tatties and Fish & Chips.

Haggis!! with neeps and tatties!!!

<3 

We coincidentally saw Zhexi who came over from Dublin to visit Scotland during the weekend. Haha apparently my Singlish alerted them to our presence.

Before we went back to the train station we spent the remaining of our time finding Thomas Riddell's grave ( who inspired He-who-must-not-be-named real name) and exploring the huge and excellent National Museum of Scotland.

You Know Who!!!

Even the journey back was eventful as the train was overcrowded and we were standing initially before we found some seats and had to alight midway to change to a replacement bus as the track was undergoing some engineering work (DUN BLAME MY PROFESSION LOL)

We had shared some kebab near union street before sharing a cab with some strangers who lived in Hillhead also to get back home.(cheaper than bus!)

What an eventful weekend! :D