cut-ed hair

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today's last quote of the day is by jim morrison: some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.

yeah i went to cut my hair yesterday and it looks kinda weird now. think cuz i asked the person to just chop off two inches and don't bother re-layering it. i kinda want unlayer hair back, but as of now it's just horribly layered from the top and straight at the end. oh wells. time passes, hair grows.

shopping last evening, finally got some skirts for work. i do feel quite weird dressing with jeans because i'm the only one that does that in the office. even though i have permission to la. but you see, i go for lunch with them, and i end up making them look like my babysitters. when in rome, do as the romans do, right?

which means i need more shoes. can't be wearing my court shoes for work everyday. saw this nice purple pair though, but it's not heeled. not that i really need to be taller since i'm not the shortest there(:

i think i'm geting fat. need to start running.

disappointment felt by an alumni.

i might have told this to a few people, but i think it is time i really make this official. i am quite disappointed with the level of discipline of nan hua students nowadays.

this, coming from a nan hua alumni, would be quite embarassing. and i do foresee that somebody with authority might request for me to take this down.

but let me clarify, this is my personal website, even though today's edition of mypaper stated that what's online's never private. what i'll be stating is purely personal opinion, and i fully understand that this may be a biased observation since i'm not looking at the nan hua cohort as a whole. but please let me state my stand.

i'm going to talk about two aspects of recent observations of nh students: hair and uniform. more specifically, (the lack of) plaits and (untucked) shirts.

confession: when i was a sec one student, when i go to moelc for german lessons, i untie my plaits, untuck my blouse and ankle-fy my socks.

but after awhile i realised i'm in the midst of elite students who don't care if you look "cool" with bad attire, so i saved the trouble of doing myself a makeover twice a week and reported for german class like how i report to school. nice plaits, tucked in blouse, relatively high socks.

dance seniors had very strict rules on plaits. only start bunching them at the end of your head, i.e. no scorpion/french braiding styles. and no layering of hair. so that your plaits look really neat.

but if you belong to some other ccas you don't have those rules. as long as your hair is of tie-able length and adults see you in two plaits, you're safe. same with uniform, as long as adults see you with nicely tuked shirts/blouses, you're safe.

i would like to believe all the bad examples i see on the roads of singapore are really good students within the campus.

because more often than not when i see long haired nh girls around, they're in ponytails. thing is their hair's still curvy-ish, so you know they untied their plaits.

i understand plaits make you look very cheenapok. two plaits somemore. i didn't appreciate them in school. but it is a nan hua identity i embrace upon graduation. it is what makes nan hua nan hua. it is what makes us so special. i know some may think dr foo's substantiation for plaits may be very shaky.

because plaits are hard to retie, girls won't spend much time in the toilets trying to retie their hair like they will if they had ponytails. less time beautifying yourself in the toilet=more time spent on studying=better results for nan hua.

i used to think it was crap. but it is true if you think of it. how many girls in other school spend so much time retie-ing their hair during the multiple trips to the toilet each day. as long as you tie your plaits neatly in the morning, you don't have to worry about them looking like shit in the middle of class.

but on fll day i saw this bunch of nh dancers in ugly layered scorpioned plaits. one weekend i went to the market with my mom and saw this nh girl (who colleced her edusave scholarship) in ponytail. and today i saw another nh girl with a curvy ponytail.

has the new principal mrs tan relaxed the hair rule? then i think she's not an old girl. or she has not fully embraced the nh vaules. and i think no outsider has the right to change anything that concerns the school identity. especially since he/she hasn't felt the sense of belonging before him/herself. especially since she's new.

nan hua is a chinese school. one characteristic of chinese schools is that we value culture. we appreciate our roots. we carry on the legacy.

i've never realised the importance of properly attired students until i saw for myself nh juniors in untucked shirts.

mrs lim's trademark line: you are a walking advertisement for the school.

but i think this untucking of shirts is a very common trend across all schools. perhaps taking up the idea of elastify-ing the hem of shirts/blouses (e.g. in fuhua sec) will help. or just allowing students to shoelace their shirts/blouses. i don't think it really matters how the students do it, as long as their hems are not showing.

i know this shirt thing's a weak argument here, but just felt it should be part of this post. of course my main point is about having stringent rules on plaits.

culture erosion's inevitable in this globalised world where we are influenced with ideas all around the world. but i hope nan hua's trademark plaits do not fall victim in these transient times. one really appreciates something when he loses it. it is only when i no longer have to tie plaits, when i find myself donning another set of uniforms that i truly embrace the nan hua identity. and i think school would be a much more fulfilling experience for current nh students once they learn to appreciate their roots. dated all the way back to 1917.

alarm during art

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hahaha my mom set an alarmed reminder on my brother's phone to say it's his thirteenth birthday and it went off during his art lesson. thought it was somebody calling him non-stop, so asked the teacher for permission to view his phone. teacher said let her see, so she discovered the reminder and passed it back to my brother to turn the alarm off. major lol.

still getting used to yahoo messenger as communication within the office. two meetings today so at least i did some writing.

went to the ladies and remembered the wrong pw to the office so i got stuck outside until i gathered my guts and pressed the doorbell (cuz it's really embarassing). E came to the rescue and didn't recognise me, asked me what i'm there for lol.

"come back lor."

now i'll have the pw stuck in my head forever.


can't wait to start calling people. i want to join the gang of phone call snatchers. today S snatched a phone call and the receiver slipped out of his hand everybody laughed like mad.

saw gen while waiting for the bus this morning! so surprised to see someone i know.

love friends!(:

the dad's concern

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you know your dad's concerned about your brother's future when he seriously objects to him joining shooting as a cca but doesnt say anything when mom gets bro a nerf gun for his birthday. instead, he's barking tips on how to shoot accurately.

i like spotting heartwarming but annoying moments like this.

like how mom never explicitly expresses love for bro and constantly says he's a mistake to begin with but gets all flustered on his first day of secondary school. such that i became kind of invisible.

first day of work today, i'm thankful we've not started on work proper. mind was entirely somewhere else. but of course glad that it's sorted out.

are compliment letters really that important? why does the number of compliment letters one receive set the standard of service one provides. what happened to noticing the loyal customers. those that don't come unless that particular someone's behind the counter. but those that just happen to not write compliment letters. and what's with managers who cannot differentiate a true compliment letter (from a satisfied customer) from another written by the desperate employees thenselves.

i know someone who should be the champion of "can you serve?" .

and i'm annoyed at people who use Der Untergang (esp that portion) to make stupid parodies. just because they think nobody understands what hitler's screaming.

the weekend

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yet another sunday. but this time, after a relatively busy saturday.

swissotel with liwen yesterday afternoon. saw familiar faces of zhongming, shiru, issac and ranika. maybe i should get to know issac better.

"hi simun sec-gen, do you happen to recognise me? i was the political ambassador to ukraine, was seated at the first row but horribly squashed by our usa counterparts. i remember you screaming into the mike, 'house, PLEASE COME TO ORDER!' and asking us to stop passing notes with the likes of 'new zealand--land of the frolicking sheep'. oh and i heard you're an intern at mfa!"

wunderbar. i've been using that alot.

yes after that i underwent an identity change and went from smart-casual to totally casual.

megan: do you have a red shirt?
me: -tugs at my chengdu shirt- there!

class bbq was so-so. but i'm definitely grateful for the arrangement. i didn't expect so much junk food from an all girls' class gathering. fire was started thanks to eeshaun. haato ice cream courtesy of shannon.

so we kinda got a table to ourselves (while the rest took the next table), whispering sweet nothings in an entirely romantic backdrop. ignoring the gossips behind our backs, not participating in any camwhoring activities. just the two of us. =D

agnes: why would anybody get a fake coach? it's not even expensive!

i like roasted marshmellows. liquid-y and hot in the middle, nicely crunchy outside.

half of today has been spent being horribly sleepy. still am sleepy actually. but going shopping later. for cny.

bored ramblings.

wanted to set up the router but i can't find the cd so i've got time to burn online. there're no nice tv shows on friday afternoon. sunday afternoons also.

oh the time's 12.34 lol.

shannon said if you catch the time at 11.11 am or pm, it means somebody's thinking of you.

i want to start work i want to start work! so i can so constructive things and get money from it lol. i hope ye laoshi calls me today.

friends are getting less active on fb. must be the start of jc.

i miss jj, but i don't feel like going back now that there's a change of principal. gag nan hua also. no mr foo, no nh. no mr koh, no jj. rv-ians please take time to appreciate mr koh. he's a really good man.

what to wear what to wear!!

cs.

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yay i've mastered the art of colour splash. using some other person's photo though.

and i can't post videos of fll outing on fb!

i always knew that sg had a flagging birth rate, but i didn't know it would be this bad. the rate is at 1.28 as of 2008, and only 39654 babies were born here last year. i'm not surprised with the rate, have seen it a couplla times, but only 30+k babies?!? that's very little.

averaging a hundred plus babies born a day. veh little can. no wonder we need so much imported talent. to make the rate near 2.1 (the rate needed for the sg popn to replace itself), it's like getting one foreigner for every baby born!

yeah so now i've kinda realised how wrong i was to advocate my stand that i don't want to be a mom. turns out i don't have a choice actually, unless i want sg to be filled with non-sg people. and besides, if you don't have kids, you can't be president. and when (not if) i become president, singapore should have only singaporeans. okay la, and a small fraction of true foreign talent.

accomplishment!

smellements credits

updated the links. read alot of blogs in the process. think i miss some friends.

broken hearts/broken minds

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i could be ris low's relationship advisor. number one, when you're famous and nursing a broken heart, you do not tell the whole world his name. but i think someone else was offered the job already, because the post's gone.

went to visit xtina with joy and zhengyao yesterday, and we only ended up with a photo of zhengyao reading women's weekly and zilch photos of xtina.

but it was a nice catchup session, since we haven't really talked since like a thousand years. i see joy in school but we don't exactly sit down and talk. besides, the girl has long long hair now!

i think it was interesting how we could spend like more than two hours just sitting there and talking. didn't even switch on the lights lol. and xtina has food stashed in an ancient-looking wooden box.

curious cats who want to know why we went there in the first place, xtina had a dental surgery. which involved removing her two front teeth and her wisdom teeth and gaining access to her jaws and what not. read the more elaborate story at cphy.bs.com.

hisdaddycooks.

ahhhhhhh mydaddycooks.com's damn cuteeeeeeee.

go watch go watch! it's a series of cooking videos by a father (nick) and son (archie). the son damn cute!! two years old and he can crack eggs/pour milk!

archie: i want to taste the celery!
-and takes a cube of raw celery-
archie: it's not nice..
nick: it's not great when it's not cooked.

nick: we need to wait maybe two to three minutes for the vegetables to cook, you think you can wait? or not.
archie: not.

omg how can two year olds talk like thatttttt so cute can.

maternal instincts knocking. shitzxzxzx.

lack of inspiration

is it miley cyrus' song that goes "everybody needs inspiration..."

well i don't have inspiration right now, so this is a patronising post.

yesterday was fll outing, the above is the most complete group photo of everybody. no sentosa but vivo/icecream/dryice/birthdays will do.

scare of the day: andrew messaged me at 8.49am and said results will be released on wed.

turns out it was jae posting results lol.

i hereby proclaim sunday as the most boring day of the week.

personality overhaul

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did the mi and personality type test again. after what i think is eons. guess what, steph is quite a different person now. and the pt test says i can be a politician! wonderful. first step towards becoming the first female president of sg: having the right personality.

and i'm 100% interpersonal look at that. i'm refering to the blue and orange thing at the sidebar btw.

am blogging at studio 27 of block 27 of np. awesomeness. quite impressed by the level of patience the students have. could never display the same attitude teaching my dad the very basics of the computer.

to chingay or not to chingay? that is the question. still damn bloody tempted, yes.

regrets?

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i just turned down mr pandian's request for me to go back to relief teach.

was that a stupid decision?

i was soooo looking forward to relief teaching during this long hols. so much that i went down to see mr lam even before a's ended. and i brought up the topic to mr foo even before mid years.

i was quite upset when in dec mr pandian said they found an experienced bio relief teacher and hence didn't need me to go teach. but when his sms came just now, i was very very tempted to say yes.

going back to my alma mater, teaching the subjects that i love, being in a very familiar environment...

but i had a job offer with jobscentral. it might not pay as much, but it's regular office hours. and i don't need to go shopping for workwear cuz the hr says i can wear shirt and jeans.

besides, i've been coaching my brother on his homework these days and i find myself very impatient. definitely won't work well with the kids. and also mr pandian mentioned it's going to be just two mths. before i get used to the job i'll be whisked off somewhere else, how sad is that. even though there might be a possibility of an extension.

the little voice in my head tells me i'm looking for excuses for this decision that i've made. that it's actually wrong and i should really have accepted mr pandian's offer.

but i already rejected him, though i've asked him to keep me in the loop.

oh wells. decision made, so it's time i step out of my comfort zone. new environment, new people, new tasks to fulfill and my very first paycheck.

this post serves to let me put down all my thoughts, think through this decision, wipe out all regrets, and allow me to promise myself that i will work hard for the new job.

don't look back steph.

white horse

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never thought i'd actually get some relationship advice from jessica's blog.

until the latest entry.

and teenage's quiz says i should move on.

tanning without the sun

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i think my wireless mouse is cool it has a magnetic detachable cover.

yesterday i felt like swimming/tanning, and the sun was nice. so i got everything packed, dug out goggles and opened the door. then something hit me and i thought i should check out the opening hours. alas, the swimming complex near my house is closed every tuesday. for changing water i guess.

which means today they'll have very clean water, so i headed out again. the sun wasn't as strong as it was yesterday, but i harboured some hope. but clouds decided to play catching so it was sun now, no sun later, and the cycle repeats.

there were so few people in the swimming pools and so many lifeguards it looked like everyone of us hired a personal lifeguard each.

i went alone, so i had alot of thinking space. one china family there, a young couple there, and wait! two dark figures at the end of my lane. looked like two squatting people, but i didn't have specs so i couldn't confirm, so i stayed at the other end of my lane until one of them finally moved away, proving that they were really people. but i was still a litle freaked out, not knowing what to expect if i swam to the other end, so i switched lanes. the two people were part of a group of three.

then the water got cold idk why, and goosebumps began to appear on my skin. so i jumped out and went to the lazy river. always has warm water there. i think i had the whole lazy river to myself lol. until the second round this bunch of guys came in. i think their average size is twice of mine so i got intimidated and got out. and went back to the usual swimming pool. went a few more laps and guess what, the guys jumped into my lane. annoying shit so i got out and went back to the lazy river for a couple more rounds and went home.

there wasn't really any sun, so i was quite surprised to spot tan lines in the bathroom. but they're less obvious now, i prolly just turned a quarter shade darker. praying for good sun at sentosa on sat!

the problem with fb

fb relationship statuses are there to make the ex feel bad. you know those that say xxx is in a relationship with yyy, then a week later it says xxx is engaged to yyy, then another week later it says xxx is married to yyy.

wth?

i'm glad we can tag people in our fb statuses. the one that looks like twitter i mean. but my generation of people seem to be too busy now to check everything out. tagged fifteen (in three different messages because can only tag 6 at once) and only one sad reply!

but i guess when i land myself a job it'll be pretty much the same for me. oh hey why am i saying "land myself a job". i've already got one! starting feb(:

went to the library yesterday. to borrow magazines because they've run out of books that i read. there was this poster that says free coffee/tea voucher with 12 loans. i borrowed six ytd and still had the receipt from the prev six loans, so i went to the counter to get the voucher. so auntie right.

well so there i was anticipating like a starbucks/coffee bean voucher, then the librarian handed me a toastbox kopi/teh voucher. comical ttm!

okay. to ensure that i utilise that voucher, who wants to go on a kopi/teh date!

yayness for hw

figured out since i'm relatively free i might as well blog more. so that i don't get alzheimer's.

you know the thing with me finding a job is, with no prior experience in the work world, i've got nearly nothing to put in my resume. so to make it look more juicy, i put down all my volunteering stuff into the document.

and guess what, the employers really do read them. my first interview, bulk of it was spent describing chingay, cssp, connect sg and fll. the interviewer's first qn regarding my resume was, "you like to play lego arh?"

but the next interviewer didn't seem very interested. jumped straight to my leadership qualities and so we chatted about cdc.

honestly, after being a relatively active volunteer, being part of cdc is the next thing that makes me proud of myself. i mean like, who else gets promoted in the exco? usually you get a position, and you stay with it till you leave the club. for me, one month through my membership with cdc, i got my assistant head of admin post, and one year after being part of cdc, on a fateful sunday, mr lee promoted me to vice president. how cool is that.

but of course those positions came at a price. it was friendship. one of my very first friends in jj, somehow took a twist of fate and we hardly talk. maybe it wasn't intentional, idk, but i never dared to bring up the topic to thrash out. she brought me into cdc, ie i joined cdc because after bring a council reject i was an abandoned kid so i just joined her cca. then i climbed up the ladder and she graduated still at the bottom. but i did try to bring her up, so there's nothing against my conscience. though i am at a position of some power, there's still the almighty one that we have to take orders from.

so yes, friendship is a touchy topic for me in jj. everyone seems to know everyone and can work with everyone, but deep down knives may be poking in all directions. we're growing up too fast. why all the backstabbing and betrayal and hypocrisy when we are barely 20 years old.

volunteering does take my mind of things. even though mom kinda objects to it. because there's no material reward at the end. there's no transport remuneration. you contribute your time, you contribute your money, you do the work, you get a tshirt, you come home late, that's it. but to me it's alot more. even though now i definitely feel a little heartache thanks to adult fare. it's the friends. it's the experience. it's the very cliched sense of satisfaction you derive from witnessing a successful event. it's knowing that you're part of this cause. even though at the end of the day you might discover that there are people playing rough, people going through loopholes, but that's what it's all about, isn't it? to learn from past mistakes, to make the next project better.

i don't do orphanages or old folks' home. those have schools to take care of. why i volunteer with hw is cuz it offers me a different volunteering experience. different from what i got from visiting jamiyah home in secondary school. the people in the homes stay there. they could be your friends, but they only stay there. hardly get out. at heartware everyone's young. gatherings are always possible, with that only facing the obstacle of clashing schedules since we come from all over the place. but the optimism in me says something will be done.

what moulded me into such a person, i often ask myself. and i look back, and come at the same conclusion. nan hua for instilling the values, jj for giving me character, heartware for giving me experience.

siloso hooha

what's more of a waste of resources? the singpost vandalism thingo or the siloso beach "molest" case?

i'll say the latter.

so many articles on it, so many videos of it, so many people interviewed for their two cents' worth, but the case will never be settled. i don't have to be clairvoyant to know that. the woman herself didn't even make it into any article/video. if she has a blog, she'd prolly have written about how much the guys suck, how horribly horny they were, and secretly bask in pure enjoyment of the precious few minutes. after all, what are the chances you'll get service from five men at a time?

if she's really a transsexual, just too bad for the guys.

if they're really friends, it's even more of a waste of resources. they may just think they're stars of the sg version of dirty dancing.

okay that aside.

have been doing alot of thinking nowadays. nothing much else to do during this long hols and fb does get boring after awhile. because all friends are busy. not many jobless counterparts left.

so yes, have been thinking of friends i've had, how many are friends, really good friends, but just for awhile. how i don't actually initiate to catch up. how all of us then drift away. the counters on fb don't tell anything. so what if i've got hundreds/thousands of friends there. doesn't mean i know all of them inside out. like true friends should.

need a personality overhaul. need to get friends back to who they're supposed to be.

first post from a bigass monitor

honestly, i'm getting a leetle tired of my blog layout. like, its cleanness and straight lines and everything.

but besides that, 2010 has been okay for me so far. maybe cuz i haven't seen my a's results.

old comp died and was replaced by a new comp with a 24-inch monitor (bigger than my house tv). yeah my tv's small. but better than lhl who didn't have a tv to grow up with.

adult fare sucks though. would love to volunteer with hwn more but it's so far (and hence expensive) and i'm not working! yet.

by now you should have realised i'm just typing in whatever random thoughts i have in my head. therefore the short paragraphs.

and this actually means i really have alot of stuff in my puny brain, but i have to sort everything out and slowly ponder over whether it's really suitable to be on thig blog for potentially everyone in the world to read.

should resize my huge ego. my readers per day can be counted by one hand. and i have a normal hand with five fingers, including the thumb. yeah i have friends who insist that the thumb is not a finger.

so many things have changed this year. esp in the education world where i'm concerned. nh principal change, jj principal change, someone's promoted to vp and there are new rules concerning types of uniforms to wear on particular days of the week. you just do not barge into a school and remove the identity of the students. it's just wrong, imho. makes them hate you way before they get to know you.

i'm just glad plaits are still preserved in nh. very very important part of the nh culture. no plaits, no nh. srsly. any juniors reading this and you're hating the plaits rule, you'll embrace it after you step out of 41 clem ave 1. even if during your four years there your mom was the one tying your plaits for you. well that was what i went through.

g 6.20 chalet ytd. i'm from 5.10 but the moelc's so small everybody mingles (in deutchland) and ends up under the same blanket in front of cameras. invitation to crash rocks.

okay obviously i'm dodging the topic of fll because i don't want to infringe any clause in the confidentiality document. but you'll find out on fb anyway. if you're really interested.

i'm bored. but i don't add a "listen" and a link and so i won't receive an invitation to an audition like wuyang did. but i have no talents anyway.

the next al gore.

the end of the world might arrive sooner than 2012, an environmental expert claims.

and that expert happens to be me.

it's not difficult to arrive at such a conclusion. just as the new year fell upon us, look at what's happening around the world.

particularly, the vast amount of snow bringing much calamity in china, south korea (i'd guess north korea too, only great leader kim's too ill to acknowledge anything), britain, and across europe.

i've not watched 2012 the movie, but i watched the day after tomorrow. and imho, the storyline seems to be rather similar to what we're facing now, only we have a (relatively)longer period of time before we all turn into snowmen. al gore has presented the inconvenient truth. aren't we facing much inconveniences from the freak weather now? isn't anybody with power gonna do anything?

well, not that anyone yielding power would come across this humble blog of mine, but i believe my opinion is shared by many large organisations with strong influencing power.

copenhagen ended with nearly nothing. the worlds' superpowers aren't willing to give up economic successes for the sake or the human being's future generations. they only want the best for themselves. third world countries want the best for the earth, but nobody's listening to them.

but i believe god is fair. maybe the developed nations really have to resettle to the third world nations when only their territories freeze beyond living conditions.

and then, who else to blame but ourselves?

egoism needs to be abolished. humility should make a comeback. i want to live longer.

below: news reports courtesy of channelnewsasia.com.

SEOUL: Heavy snow grounded dozens of planes at major airports in South Korea on Monday and caused havoc in the centre of the country, including the capital Seoul, officials said.
The weather office said it issued a heavy snow alert for Seoul and surrounding areas, where just over 17 centimetres (almost seven inches) of snow fell in just four hours.
Gimpo airport in Seoul, a hub for South Korea's domestic flights, was forced to cancel a total of 90 outgoing and inbound flights because of the snowfall, airport officials said.
Incheon airport, the main international airport west of Seoul, also reported four cancellations and 40 delayed flights, they said.
The snow also disrupted traffic on the streets of Seoul and other cities and roads and highways elsewhere in the country.
Some ministers were late for a cabinet meeting, which was forced to begin later than scheduled because of traffic chaos. Snow was expected to stop falling later in the day.
The Seoul city government said it was mobilising 3,500 civil servants and 1,200 vehicles to remove snow from all major roads and streets.
- AFP/so

LONDON: Some 60 revellers were forced to drink beer and play cards for three days after they became stranded in a British pub cut off by snowstorms on New Year's Eve.
The guests had booked in to celebrate the new year at the Tan Hill Inn, England's highest pub, standing 1,700 feet (518 metres) above sea level, in the northern Yorkshire Dales.
But the heavy, relentless snowstorms that have swept through parts of Britain trapped them inside, unable to get to their cars and leaving the roads home impassable.
"There was a lovely, community atmosphere despite the fact nobody could get home," said landlord Tracy Daly. "I suppose there are worse places to be snowed in than a pub."
A gritter and snowplough finally broke through the seven-foot snow drifts that had sealed off the hotel on Sunday, ending the revelry, dubbed Britain's longest-running New Year's Eve party by newspapers on Monday.
Daly, 45, said she, her husband and two staff had kept the guests entertained and fed, and offered rooms for a knockdown price of 10 pounds (11 euros, 16 dollars), per night.
"We had the rule that the bar could only open at 5pm, the guests were all very well behaved though," she said.
The landlady added: "The guests were lovely, we were pretty under-staffed and they kept giving us breaks so we didn't get too tired."
Nathan Martin, 26, one of a group from Leeds University cross-country club stuck in the pub, described the experience in the Guardian newspaper as the "ultimate lock in".
- AFP/so

BEIJING: Schools were shut down, flights delayed and traffic snarled in Beijing on Monday following two days of heavy snow in north China, with even more frigid weather forecast.
Up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) of snow fell in the capital and nearby Tianjin on Saturday and Sunday, the Central Meteorological Administration reported – the biggest snowfall in January in the region in more than 50 years.
Although snow was not forecast in the capital in the coming days, snowstorms were expected in northeast China and eastern Shandong province on Monday as people returned to work following the New Year holiday, the administration said.
A Siberian cold front meanwhile could bring historic low temperatures of between minus 20 and minus 32 degrees Celsius (minus four and -26 Fahrenheit) to Hebei province and Inner Mongolia on Tuesday and Wednesday, it said.
Temperatures in Beijing were expected to drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius on Monday, the coldest in the capital in decades, the China Daily reported.
In China's coldest region of Heilongjiang province, the mercury has already plummeted to minus 36 Celsius, the paper said.
More than 3,500 schools in Beijing and Tianjin were forced to shut their doors on Monday, giving more than 2.2 million students an extra day of New Year's holiday, state media reported.
At Beijing's international airport – where nearly 1,200 flights were cancelled or delayed on Sunday – workers had cleared the runways and the situation was returning to normal, an airport spokesman told AFP.
More than 100 flights on Monday were delayed and two dozen cancelled as of 9:00 am (0100 GMT), the spokesman said, adding that workers needed to de-ice the snow-covered planes that were unable to take off over the weekend.
Up to 30 highways in Beijing and the surrounding regions were still closed to traffic or only partially opened on Monday, the China News Service reported.
Inner city roads in the capital remained icy and covered with snow on Monday, but traffic was flowing, albeit at a slow pace. The city has mobilised 300,000 people to clear the snow, the China Daily reported.
The nation's rail network was operating normally, but long-distance bus services in north China were disrupted, the paper said.
The frigid air from the north was also expected to send temperatures plummeting below the freezing mark in much of central China, where heavy fog could cause problems for air and road travellers, the weather bureau said.
- AFP/so

PARIS: A cold snap across Europe killed 13 people in Poland over the New Year as avalanches and skiing accidents left at least 10 others dead in the Alps, police and rescuers said on Monday.
As temperatures plunged to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) in Poland at the start of the year, the number of cold-related deaths rose to 122 so far this winter, police said.
Most victims were homeless men aged 35 to 50 who died of hypothermia while drunk, they said.
In the Swiss Alps avalanches killed at least five people with three others missing, emergency services and police said.
The first avalanche hit on Sunday in the central Bernese Alps, killing one skier. Emergency services were searching survivors from another avalanche that struck half an hour later.
Eight helicopters carrying doctors, rescuers and avalanche dogs were despatched to the disaster site and pulled out eight people alive.
Some of the survivors were in a critical condition and three died later in a hospital, including a doctor who had arrived to treat people following the first avalanche.
Rescuers also found the body of a hiker buried in the snow while three other people - two Swiss and a German - were reported missing, police said in a statement.
Emergency services were unable to restart the search on Monday amid the difficult weather conditions, said Theo Maurer of Switzerland's mountain rescue services.
In western Switzerland's canton of Valais, a mountain guide and his client were hit by an avalanche on Sunday, officials said.
The guide was able to get out alive but his client died, with the body found buried under 80 centimetres of snow.
Steady snowfall overnight and all day on Monday led to several road accidents and caused rare delays in the Swiss public transport system.
A 32-year-old German tourist was killed in eastern Switzerland's Ofen mountain pass, after her motor home collided head-on with a car that skidded on black ice, police said.
Several accidents were also reported on the busy motorway linking the cities of Lausanne and Geneva.
A metro line in Lausanne was disrupted for two hours on Monday while in Geneva, public buses were running with delays.
In western Austria rescue officials said they found the bodies of two German skiers, aged 18 and 19, who had fallen into a ravine.
Another avalanche hit mountains on France's border with Italy on Friday, killing three people, French police said.
Western Europe is shivering through one of its coldest winters in decades with heavy snowfalls causing serious disruption to road, rail and air traffic over the Christmas and New Year holiday periods.
In southern France a number of high-speed trains were delayed for up to two and a half hours near Cavaillon and in the Lyon region, state railway operator SNCF said after France's second city was blanketed by 10 centimetres of snow.
At Lyon's Saint-Exupery airport 13 flights were cancelled.
The nearby Alpine city of Grenoble recorded 20 centimetres of snow, a figure unseen since November 2005, causing serious disruptions on roads.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand was in hospital overnight on Sunday after skidding on black ice with his scooter, the ministry said, but he was expected to resume his work later Monday.
In Britain, some 60 revellers were stranded for three days at the Tan Hill Inn, England's highest pub, standing 518 metres above sea level, in the northern Yorkshire Dales after snowstorms on New Year's Eve.
A snowplough on Sunday finally broke through the more than two-metre snow drifts, ending the revelry, dubbed Britain's longest-running New Year's Eve party by newspapers on Monday. - AFP/de

BEIJING: Heavy snow has brought more travel chaos to north China, stranding thousands of truckers for two days on a Beijing highway and 1,400 rail passengers in Inner Mongolia, state media said on Tuesday.
The snow that blanketed the region at the weekend has ended in Beijing, but the national weather centre said the mercury dipped on Tuesday to minus 15.6 degrees Celsius (four Fahrenheit) – the coldest temperature in more than two decades.
The freezing weather was expected to continue until Thursday for the Chinese capital, nearby Tianjin and Inner Mongolia, with temperatures forecast to fall as low as minus 32 degrees Celsius, it said on its website.
On the outskirts of Beijing, truck drivers were forced to sleep in their vehicles for two nights on a highway when snow made the road impassable, causing a 20-kilometre (12-mile) back-up, the Beijing News reported.
The newspaper, citing transit police, said the highway would only be cleared on Tuesday – after two chilly nights for the drivers, some of whom said they were afraid to sleep for fear of dying of exposure.
Others said they were prepared for the traffic mess.
"We brought food as we expected the jam," said one trucker, who had two cases of instant noodle and one thermos of water on board.
The heavy snow and freezing temperatures have led to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays in Beijing, shuttered schools on Monday and snarled traffic throughout the capital.
In Inner Mongolia, a train hit a wall of snow more than two metres (6.5 feet) high on Sunday, leaving 1,400 travellers in the dark and without heating overnight before they could be evacuated, the China Daily reported Tuesday.
"Though snow stopped yesterday, the temperature was minus 28 Celsius, freezing the doors," the paper quoted Zhang Jianwen, a police officer involved in the rescue effort, as saying.
Nearly 2,000 people including police and local farmers were mobilised to dig out the train, which was heading from the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province to Baotou in Inner Mongolia, the report said.
Central China was now under a snowstorm warning until Wednesday, stretching from Henan to Hunan provinces, the national weather bureau said on its website.
- AFP/so

and all these reports are just from yesterday and today.

think of the past earthquakes, floods, hurricanes. and the snow now.

i should really be called to be interviewed as an end-of-the-world specialist.