I have always prided myself in having a range of good friends from various walks of life and varying interests. This usually means that I sometimes spend my weekends doing attending events which absolutely contradict each other,but they are all good friends and I believe that one should go for anything with an open heart and a broad mind, and besides when the company is right, you can tolerate almost anything right!?! So yeah, I come home today and realise how soo different my past two friday/weekends have been and I’m mildily amused and proud at the fact that I managed to enjoy both.

Getting down to the facts…

Anne Summers Party
Rachel, a very close firned of mine from class threw an Ann Summers party tonight.I’m quite a prude when it comes to things such as these and I have never been to a proper Ann Summers party before,so I went more as a curious observer for a good laugh than anything else; and besides, Rachel is a very good friend and my flat is right opposite to her’s.

To, begin with, Ann Summers parties arent as half as wild as they are made upto be,they are quite interesting to say the least and are quite a good laugh.Basically a rep from Anne Summers comes over to the venue of the party carrying ‘appropriate’ items for the event,usually ranging from sexy pyjamas and lingerie to vibrators.Apparently what she brings, varies accroding to the type of people who are attending the party. So a few ‘rude’ games are played, a few more even ‘ruder’ prizes are distributed and some really disgusting objects are shown around.

Catalogues and Order forms are passed around and anyone who likes anything that was shown around can order it and it would be sent to you, with apparently full confidentiality.

Edinburgh Zoo
I spent the a major part of last weekend,(friday night and whole of saturday)with another group of friends,who are as close or even closer,we had a nice innocent girly sleepover like what we used to do back when we were 13,with loads of chocolate,a horror movie which had apparently turned out to be not so horror and a good old chick-flick.To be honest, I was absolutely knackered last friday after not sleeping properly all week thanks to assignment deadlines and visiting friends,I just passed out on her couch after dinner and was literally dead to the world for most of the night.It was quite freaky when Anji sent me all these pictures of me,fast asleep,being wrapped up in a sleeping bag that I have no memory of,no I wasnt drunk..I was just very tired and couldnt keep my eyes open any longer.

The next day, we took the train down to Edinburgh to visit the zoo.My last memory of going into a zoo was when I visited the Singapore Zoo with my family when I was about 12,so it was cool in a strange nice way.The zoo was,absolutely brimming with little kids and families,going out to enjoy a rare warm day, it was ok more or less,but, disappointing in the sense that I couldnt see an elephant and that they had one animal of certain species,they looked so indifferent and bored,I just couldnt help thinking about how lonely they must be.

The highlights of the trip were the gorgeous bongos,I just cant imagine why I have never noticed this gorgeous deer before, I also saw a peacock dance after a long time and it had this absolutely huge tail and it was just absolutely gorgeous, a bit scary though, coz the peahen seemed so indifferent to him, he seemed like what we would brand as a stalker in human civilisation. wonder what happened at the end..!?!?

So there…very different weekends, but both very enjoyable and fun nonetheless.With just 4 weeks for end of the year exams and some very dear friends graduating this year,its a bit scary to think that four years may not seem as long I thought it would be and considering that I took 5hours of my wednesday evening reading and deciding which modules to take next year,I’m sure what lies ahead would be rather interesting…!oh well…might as well enjoy the moment and have fun while it lasts..

Very few things give me more satisfaction than the feeling that I’m actually making a difference in someone else’s life. Be it spending my sunday evenings with cancer ridden kids doing handwork and eating chocolate or taking prospective students around the university or talking to orphans about the importance of career development,I know that I will always return home with a kind of elation and europhia knowing that I have made an impact,even for a moment, in someone’s life.

Being a natural extrovert I got into charities and volunteering,quite early.Be it little friends or girl guides or interact or charity society or welcoming new students over freshers week..I was there or I will be there. I’m currently an University Ambassador which means I don the traditional university cloak every visiting for 12 wednesdays of the year and welcome and advise prospective students,this is however a paid job; also a current charities volunteer I help out at university charity events,I also hold a few other committee positions in other societies, some which are charitable.

Speaking of charities I think I would be lying if I said that I liked it from the start,having regualrly visited orphanages that my parents frequented, I was familiar with them and understood their plight, but, I remeber going to the cancer hospital as a ten year old through a brownies visit and being completely freaked out about the state of the hospital and the depth of the disease. A couple of years later,as a teenager, I visited the cancer hospital both as an interactor and on my own and realised that I was now more in terms with the disease and its after effects and that spending time with these people brought me a lot of satisfaction.A few of us,after our ALs, regularly visited the childrens’ward on weekends,doing hand work and giving them sweets.It was such a nice feeling to hear them say about how much they looked forward to our visits and scarily enough, the kids would totally love us.The knowledge that we managed to bring a smile on their faces for at least an evening was great europhic feeling. This is somehting I intend to get back to doing when I go home this summer.

I feel the same satisfaction when people tell me that I’m the first person they met when they came to uni,as I was a freshers volunteer helping them settle in or as an university ambassador talking to them about the university. Maybe it was inspiring,maybe it was freaky, or maybe they saw me and thought ‘oh well if this freak can settle in,so can we’, but whatever the reason that it may have been, the knowledge that I did make that first impression on them,which, in most cases turned out to be a positive one, is what makes a difference to me inside,it is that bit of knowledge that gives me the europhic feeling that I have indeed made an impact on somebody’s life.

I was recently, randomly fingering through a sunday magazine when I came across this article that blares the headline ‘the sense of smell’, unfortunately I couldnt learn much about it, coz it essentially went into this whole story about how each different perfume brand affects your partner or something not too substantial like that, but it did get thinking… so I google it up and stumble upon this

Total loss of the sense of smell, known as Anosmia, results from various causes and can
have a profound effect on a person’s quality of life. Olfactory damage is a significant sensory loss that affects 1-2% of the American population.Patients suffering from smell impairment, whether it is partial or total loss, ordinarily report problems associated with safety, eating, and feelings of insecurity since they cannot detect their own body odors (Hummel, 2003). The sense of smell serves to determine the flavor of foods, beverages, and is a critical detector of hazards such as natural leaking gas, smoke, pollutants, and spoiled foods. Changes in the sense of smell can also weaken a person’s immune system and contribute to digestive disorders.

I could say beyond a doubt, that the sense of smell is probably my most highly developed sense,smell is something that my body instantly reacts, it can relax me or revolt me,but strangely enough I’m not into aromatherapy….I spend hours in perfume shops,before ultimately deciding on which perfume to buy,public toilets are a general no-no, I hate onions in almost every form possible,I cant even bear to sit next to someone who has just eaten onions, I could eat the most boring and blandest food just because it smelt nice when it was being cooked,naturally I tend to wear a lot of perfume before I leave the house,I always wonder if I smelt fine when I meet somebody and I’m naturally attracted to guys who smell generally nice.(this is clearly not a primary factor,but it is just a plus factor )

So this is a randomly formed list of some of the smells that I love and hate,

Some of the smells I love,in no particular order:
1) The fresh scent of Sri Lanka,(doesnt apply if you live near a canal :p) just after it rains…

2)The smell of clean fresh fruits,esp. fruit stalls here

3)freshly baked bread and croissants

4)freshly brewed coffee,I hate coffee as a drink but I love the smell

5)the salty musks of the beach in Sri Lanka, British beaches are always too cold for me to actually enjoy them…

6)clothes washed with baby soap

7)most bodyshop products:because they actually resemble the smell, and sometimes the taste of what their products are made of….

8)freshly cut flowers:I’m always disappointed that florists never pay enough attention to the smell of the flowers,the most gorgeous bouquet could have no scent whatsoever, sometimes

9)Certain stirfries,cooked with proper chinese sauce..

10)Smoked salmon

11)Roasted garlic

12)Citrus, esp. fresh oranges

13)Mint

14) Dark chocolate, esp melted ones….

15)JD and Coke:I hate the taste, but I love the smell..I’m hardly a drinker, my drinking habits dont go beyond the odd alchopop or martini, but when any of my friends drink JD and coke I’ll be hovering around, inhaling their drink..it is mostly definitely NOT a turn on, but I do like the smell: very scary

16)Certain mens’ perfumes like bulgari(cant remeber how to spell it) and Cool Water..there are a few more, but I just cant remember..definitely most aftershaves..

Scents I hate, in no particular order:
1)the smell of fake leather

2)my grandma has this perfume called english yardley and she would wear it all the time, probably was in fashion during her time,but it would completely revolt me,especially during long distance trips.

3)onions

4)B.O.

5)The disinfectant smell of hospitals,i think it subconciosuly played a role as to why I would never choose a career in medicine

6)The smell of garbage, the smell of a canal after it rains

7) Vinegar

8)raw meat:esp. when passing through a butchers

9)certain types of cheese: when passing through the cheese mongers

10)houses that have been closed down and not aired for awhile

11)The smell of most perfumes when I havent slept and eaten enough, esp. when I have to start a journey early in the morning.

12)SriLankan kids’ panadol about 10 years ago

13)most stuff that you would find in a chemistry lab

Afterthought: no smell is better than a stink

If there is one human trait that I can say that I absolutely detest, it has got to be people not being themselves. Actually I cant understand it, I cant relate to it, I dont know why people cant be what they are,I dont understand why people have to ’spice up’ stories and hold incorrect suppositions in order to portray themselves as ‘cooler’ individuals.

Actually it is understandable if they are trying make themselves cool,but when they drag other individuals/faiths/issues into the picture and make some false allegations about them,it annoys the hell out of me.no, actually it infuriates me and no correcting the statement later, is not about satisfying me, it is a matter of principle,making some statement about something that isnt true is not funny,april fools’ jokes apart,it is a wrong accusation and yes it is a lie,a layman who doesnt know the background of the topic/person concerned can have a whole different impression on the subject in question.

I have never been the coolest or geekiest person in town, there are times when I have gone with the flow and there are times when I have refused to do so,because I’m uncomfortable with it, but in everycase, I have always been myself,and looking back I realise that my friends and everyone else who knew me, despite thinking that I was a freak, respected me for my genuinity.

Living on this planet for 19years, I have come to realise that while trying to act cool and falsely portraying yourself maybe a short phase for most early teens,for some other adults, it may actually be a chronic disease. It will always piss me off,it will always annoy me and I doubt I will be able to keep me my mouth shut, but I will try to tolerate their pathetic behaviour. yes I swear I will try….

I would be doing great injustice to the place if I didnt mention the people and social life of Greece,esp.Athens.A very much tourist oriented city, greek people are some of the most friendlists people I have seen,the tourist touts could be annoying but the people in general are very helpful,genuine and sweet. It also distinctively lacks, asians or maybe asian tourists, so when the three of us, girls went there, the attention that we recieved was…let me call it ‘a short weeklong dose of ego boosting…’

Greece, as we have all heard is a very open and fun country, but never in our lives did we expect that kinda attention, the men check you out and flirt with u openly,they straighten up, the wink they tell u, you are beautiful, they kiss your hand…the whole works..the women eye u up like you are some kind of predator..none of us have ever recieved that kind of undivided attention everywhere we went,be it a shop, a club, a cafe or just walking down the street. The attention actually would freak me out sometimes, and ordinary day to day things like pulling money out of a cash point got a bit freaky for me, coz I always knew someone would be watchng me…

The shopping in Athens was very much in par of any big city, I’m not much of a shopping person, so it didnt affect me much, but it was definitely good, ranging from a wide variety of huge malls to tiny quaint little souvenir shops(these did manage attract my attention,resulting in me buying a wide variety of various greek items, including a greek priestess dress)consisting of everything you would ever want, ranging from designer goods, high street stores, departmental stores, quaint little cafes to big hotels, to the famous athens flea market.

Greek food, proved to be very different from british food and towards the latter part of the trip I’m ashamed to admit that I was actually wishing for the bland,ordinary taste of british food.Basically it didnt take us long to discover that greeks add oil,sunflower and olive into everything, including baked potato, greek cafes,however big or small they may be, offer a bread basket before the beginning of each meal,earlier we thought that this wasnt charged, as they are usually not charged in most british/SL restaurants, but we later discovered that they were charging something between 3-5euros for this, and once we decided to refuse the bread basket later, coz we could obviosuly think of better things to do with the money, upon finishing dinner and the waiter bringing in the bill,which was incidently written in greek, even though they are quite fluent in english, the bills esp, in eating places were all written in greek, says that we are still charged for the bread which we didnt even touch, and apparently this is custom in Greece, to add an extra 4 euros for bread irregardless of the fact that the customer would want it or not..

Athens,is very much a thriving city in terms, of pubs, bars, clubs and social life in general:one alchohol mixer is probably equivalent to about three drinks in the UK,but as I’m not much of a drinker anyway, this barely affected me, although T who ordered JD and Coke said that she felt like she was drinking triple JD and Coke.Wanting to experince,the night life of Athens, we asked our hotel reception for any recommendations for clubs,this club which they recommended,was situated quite away from the hotel and when our taxi got there, they discovered that it was closed and the taxi driver promised us to take to another place that he knew,which was much closer to the hotel.

By this time, it was past midnight, we were very tired and literally, after sightseeing the whole day and it was obvious to everyone that we were foreigner tourists who didnt know our way around the country. So, when he suggests that he takes us to another club, we agree but I silently and relatively panickingly hope that he is honest and wont take us to some random place and kill us. The club called Envy, to which he did take us to, proved to be absolutely amazing,it was posh, gorgeously decorated,unfortunately a bit expensive and absolutely full of contract soccer players. The DJ was brilliant, 5 hours of smooth pure r n b,there wasnt even one song that we could pin point and say that we disliked it, the soccer players proved to be the usual men that u’d find in any club, asking for our numbers, the hotel we were in etc etc and K and I had to take soo much of water breaks,just to escape from the men..annoying but flattering nonetheless…the club overall was really great!

Starting off with Athens…….
An unique big city,Athens just about strikes the balance between the modern and the old, prohibited by law, to build any building above 12 stories, it lacks the standard ‘concrete jungle’ feel of an usual big city,infact it was a mix of maradana,nugegoda,the orchard road in singapore(it is the main shopping street in singapore,very developed and very sophisticated)and some of the lanes resemble Paradise Road in real life .Interesting facts are that taxis are actually cheaper than the metro,the electrically operated busses and the appaling number of well fed and disciplined stray cats and dogs.

The main sights in Athens include the Acropolis(our hotel was at the foot of it),the Agora, the temple of Olympian Zues,Hadrians Arch and the first modern olympic stadium.

The Acropolis
Popularly known as the sacred rock of Athens,it is believed to be one of the most important architectural monuments in the western world.The rock itself must be around twice or thrice the size of Sigiriya and is completely made out of marble and limestone thus even in the scorching hot mid-day sun,it still felt really cool when you touched it.

Most of the temples in the acropolis were built to honour the goddess athena, the patron goddess of athens,these include the temple of Athena Nike(”victory”),this temple stands at the part of the rock which is most vulnerable to enemy atack and is thus believed to protect it it,Nike apparently means victory in ancient greek.
The magnificent Parthenon,also called the temple to the virgin is regarded as the epitome of ancient Greek Classical art.
The Acropolis also houses the Herodus Atticus Theatre,which is a later addition to the place and hosts the athens festival every summer and the Dionysus Theatre,which was the site of Classical Greek drama competitions,where the plays written by Aeschylus,Sophocles and Euripides were first performed. The theatre is said to hold 15000 and apparently the engraved seats reserved for the preists for Dionysus are still visible.

The Acropolis is being renovated right now, partially funded by the UNESCO and the Greek Government is due to be finished by 2009.The museum holds most of the statues and other treasures of the Acropolis that have been detroyed by wars and other battles.

I have always been a greek mythology freak and I was in absolute heaven.

The Agora
Onto, the other side of the Acropolis, you find Agora,founded in the 6th century BC,Athens’ ancient market place and heart of the city for 1200 years.This is where Sophocles addressed his public,where democracy was born and where St-Paul preached.

Walking around the ruins of Agora now, the resemblance they hold to the ancient capitals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa is uncanny and it hurt to stand there and ponder that beautiful intellectual property,the world over, have been destroyed so callously and indifferently for petty material reasons.

A few sights of Agora are the Odeon of Agrippa,a theatre built in AD 15 by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa ,an official with the first emperor Augustus.Those of us who live in the UK must know the cinemas called The Odeon, well, now u know where they stole the name from.To me the highlight of Agora was the Temple of Hephaestus(hercules),a classical temple built jointly devoted to Hephaestus and Athena,it is probably the best preserved temple of the lot, where the original roof of the temple is still intact.

The other places in Agora consist of the altar of zues, the agora museum(which is definitely worth a visit), the stoa of Attalos, Tholos and of course the Roman Agora, which is situated a little away from the Greek one.

The Temple of Olympian Zues and Hadrian’s Arch
To quote our trusty guide book…”The majestic temple to the ruler of the pantheon was the largest on mainland Greece. Inside stood god,wo colossal gold and ivory statues; one of the god, and one of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Though the temple’s construction began in 515 BC, political turmoil delayed it’s completion nearly 700 yrs. To thank Hadrian for finishing it, in AD 131 the Athenians built a two storey arch next to the temple, whose inscription announces Hadrian’s claim on the city..”

When entering Athens from the airport, this is one of the first sights you see amongst a crop of palm trees and that picture is absolutely breathtaking.The pillars in the temple have been made in the form slices all stuck together by huge metal rods, I’m a layman when it comes to architectural technique but I’m sure that was a big deal..

We also visited the first modern olympic stadium in which the 1896 Olympics were held at, its a massive stadium made out of marble and limestone with the seating capacity of 70,000(i think?!?) and sighted the greek parliament which is guarded by security dressed in the traditional male greek costume of short skirts, tights, pompomed shoes and tassled hats,the gorgeous University of Athens and official residence of the head of state.

After alot of uncertainity and last minute planning we did proceed to Greece. I’m still debating as to whether I should write a day to day tour or write in several sections.Day to day somehow seems easier and less research demanding right now and anyway I seem to have more or less struck a balance between describing the place and writign a sortta diary… I have tried my best to not drone and leave the boring parts out.

Day 1: 26-10-06
K, T and I met at the London Gatwick airport and boarded the easyjet flight to Athens at 0630,for those of u who have never used easyjet,DO NOT ever use it for a flight that lasts more than an hour,an easyjet flight from edinburgh to london is fine, coz it lasts for something like an hour but the flight from london to athens which lasted for 3 hours was just absolute torture,the food which had to be bought didnt consist of any real food beyond a baguette(we had already breakfasted, so this wasnt too much of a problem)but then the seats couldnt be reclined,which resulted in me falling asleep in some weird ass postion and spraining my neck and their flying, especially the landing wasnt smooth,on both the outward and return flights,which in turn, affected poor K’s sinuses and the poor girl couldn’t speak/hear for the rest of the day.

My first Greek Experience
Greece uses round pin plug points and my cell phone charger has a square pin plug,so I called the hotel reception requesting for a multiplug converter for square pin plugs, five minutes later he calls back and tells me the plug is outside my room,upon opening the door I dont find anything and then i notice something hanging on the door handle, to see they had thought that the wash basin was blocked and they had sent me a rubber wash basin stopper instead…apparently the hotel doesnt have converters and I had to wait till the next day to buy one…

Better things to follow……