Wine Gourmet

Started off my new week with a blast! Missed the first 8am lesson and caught up with the Thai music lesson. Had a good time with my friends singing, playing music and just gossiping about others. hahhx.
Today is so far, the highlight of my week. I had a interesting time in my Applied Microbiology Lab, where we actually had a free wine appreciation course by my Prof. We had a one hour lecture about processes in food biotechnology, followed by an hour of wine talk. Learnt alot about how to drink wine properly, what kind of wine to drink and HOW TO GET DRUNK! hahh where can u ever learn that from??? I supposed you can only learn this from Applied Microbiology! We also got to sample both red and white wine, which tasted quite nice actually. The red wine was rather smooth, and the white wine was sweeeeeeeet. =)
And i guess some of us got rather tipsy cz the guys began spilling the experiment solution, adding in the wrong amount of solution, etc. Overall, GREAT TIME! =)
On a brighter note, I had a good time during CNY, and below is a picture of a really lovely dog that i saw at Nix's relative house.
P.S. Like my new blogskin?

despondent

random tv shows, occasional walks around the place, that's the highlight of my day.
however, i am feeling rather tired and don't feel like moving at all. or rather, i feel like my limbs are giving up on me. tirednessss....
exams are coming, with the first CA on 20th feb. I haven't touched any of my books yet and so far, have no decision to do so.
on the side note, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all!

dreams

can be defined as the images you saw while u were asleep, or something that you hold dearly to your heart for it to happen. How many have woke up in the middle of the night, awoken by terrible dreams, or refusing to wake up from the sweet dreams in the morning?

Despite the double definition, dreams are actually something you hold dearly to you, which are portrayed during your sleep. It may be something that you fears deeply, or a hope you have been clinging on for your dear life.

I have been dreaming lately, with fears and hopes. Yet, these are not a direct interpretation of my hopes, nor fears. It is the pressurizing atmosphere of school, of my own goals to reach, of my own insecured inner status.

a tinge of hope shines brightly above. so near, yet so far.

A moment of amusement

Being the first week of school, most of the students came here all happy and ready to start school. Me, however, was rather depressed about school. hahx. which i think all the Year 3 students should be too. Despite that, 2 occasions have made me very amused about what is going on around the school and I hope more amusement will be coming soon~

I had a lecture called Infectious disease at 12pm yesterday. As it was the first lesson of the day, i came to school half an hour earlier, bought my favourite yogurt at the bazaar and walked into the nearly empty lecture theatre to look for charissa. Within the next half an hour, more and more students begin to pour in, and that's when the amusement starts. To our common knowledge, this lecture was supposed to have only 100 odd students, but by 12pm, there were about 200-300 students. And there were 3 LECTURERS in the lecture theatre. hahhx that was when the fight starts for which lecturer to take over the class. We continued watching the fight for about 5 mins, with many commotions going on. One of the lecturers finally went to look for the source of this chaos, while the other lecturer ( which is my lecturer for this module) begin scrowling about the person who arranged the venues for the lecture theatres had the IQ equivalent to that of a "demented cockroach". What an interesting way to describe a person's IQ. hahhx. The two classes were quickly separated after the other lecturer came back with the correct venues.

And today, i had to wake up at 6am to attend a lecture called Neurobiology at 8am this morning. Halfway through the interesting lecture about how our brain and neurons operate, i begin to hear raindrops. At first, i REALLY thought that it was raining outside. To my amusement, water begin pouring down to the front of the class from the top of the theatre. THE LECTURE THEATRE WAS FLOODED. hahhh and it was a great sunny day outside. I am not sure where the water came from, but it definitely kept us amused for a while before continuing with the talk on how brain works. hahhhx.

Side note. I found this interesting latin aerobic class and have the intention to take it. =) + there is a travel bazaar next week at the central library. Yipeeees!

compromise

Had a unexpected visit to the showrooms at bukit batok and guess what i found? A PRETTY BEETLE! This car is like so vintage with the SB movie theatre sign on the left side and a picture of one of the older movies on the right side of the car. unfortunately, this is a manual car and i cannot drive this. For this vintage car, i shall consider learning to drive manual cars.

After the unexpected twist of events, i went to nix house with him to paint his balcony bluee! The rabbits were let out of the cage, and were fearing for their fur that we will turn them blue as well. hahx. Mahjong sessions were going on at nix's house, with the brother taking over the morning mahjong sessions and the mum following up by continuing the afternoon session. After painting the balcony, we moved the fishes to the balcony and waited for dinner.

On the way home after dinner, we started to argue about our future home, whether to have sofa or not, to have what type of cupboards etc. Hahx, how silly right? Yet it was also through this that it once again dawned upon me that we are a really weird couple who have totally different character and personality. It is just like the the north and south end of a magnet sticking to each other, yet not being anything at all like each other. I supposed this was what attracted us in the first place. However, I, or rather we, have already anticipated more problems to arise in the future. Things between us hang on a single thread, in which the breaking of this strand of thread will result in separate futures for the both of us. There are many methods of breaking this strand of thread, with only one way of holding it together. That's it, compromising. As easy as it sounds, I believe this will be very difficult to come to terms with due to our very different natures. Let's hope i will grow more mature and embrace this concept with an open heart.

Cleaning Spreee

Whoa. Just finished cleaning up my room and found many interesting things that i only see once a year. lol. I think i have enough ornaments in my box of treasures to decorate my entire house in the future. lol. Found quite a number of picture frames, cups and other decorative stuff such as key chains, bottles etc. And many of which are rather useless now so i kept them away in a pretty big box for future use. =)
Oh, and i found tons of my bro's kindergarten graduation pictures. he looked so cute and round then. hahaax and he really wore one of those grad clothes that graduates wear. how i envy him... -sighs- i wish i got one of those when i was in kindergarten...
And i finally put my pretty earrings all together in a clear box that separates every pair of them. feel so satisfied after managing to put them properly and this also means that i can find my earrings easily. yeah! =)
now, i am left with putting away my cosmetics properly... here i go!!!!

Kota Kinabaru Trip! =)

My last holiday in 2007 was the wonderfully fun trip to Kota Kinabaru. Took a early morning flight to Sabah, followed by a flight transfer to our prettily designed hotel, which is right in the city heart! After which, we took a walk around the city of Kota Kinabaru and had our breakfast at this coffee shop that sells pork! hahx I thought i will never see such a store in malaysia. In the afternoon, we went to this river to find monkeys! unfortunately, the rain was pretty bad and we couldn't see much. Luckily for us, the monkeys still decided to stay out and let us watch them. hahaax. however, the rain deterred us from watching the fireflies. =(
On the second day, we went to do water rafting! yeahhhhhhh! it was great fun! hahhx, and i got pushed into the water twice. =( evil water-rafting guide. And we went to the shopping centre and played arcade! hahhaax we sorta won lots of tickets but in the end didn't redeem anything for the day.
Third day. we went to climb mount kota kinabaru. It was another fun trip! Got to see the different species of plants, which was a total eye opener! We saw the smallest orchid found!!!! yeahhhhhhh! And we went to the tree canopy walk thing, where we walked on the hanging bridges in the middle of the forest! However, we didn't get to go for hot spring cz there were too many ppl. =(
Fourth day. A TOTALLY WONDERFUL DAY AT THE ISLANDS OFFSHORE! hahax we were sooooo lucky and honoured to be able to go to such pretty islands and view such pretty fishes!!! The sea was clear and blue, with beautiful fishes in the water swimmiing lazily around. Our tour guide bought two big packs of bread crumbs for us to feed the fishes with! hee and the fishes crowded ard the feeding area. pretty viewww! After which, we headed for the seocnd island, where we snorkelled around the corals to look at the different species of fishes in the water. Bringing along a bottle of bread crumbs each, the fishes followed us as we dropped food into the water. heex. By the afternoon, we were quite tired so me and nix just took bottles of bread crumbs and stood on the stones and fed the fishes around us. hee and the fishes began nibbling on nix legs. haha it mus be due to the hair on his leg. hahax and they have misunderstood it for food. =X
Fifth day. We went to this adventure park and spent the rest of our day in sabah there before heading for the airport. First, we played the kayak, where my kayak capsized twice. =( but it was still great fun riding against the waves! yeahh! Then we played the flying fox which was not as fast as expected, but climbing up to take the flying fox was damn scary! we also played mini golf which i lost badly. hahahaxx.. yeah and we onli managed to do this among of things on the last day.



Pic 1: My First day in Kota Kinabaru, on the way to the hotel!
Pic 2: A misty view of Mount KK
Pic 3: The pretty Fishes in the water!

A whole new Year!

2007 is finally over! It was definitely a crazy year with loads of ups and downs. Let me reflect back on the wonderfully crazy year of 2007 before i buzz off this new year of 2008!

5 Best things that occurred:

1. Continual wonderful relationship with my bf and family =)
2. Trip to thailand, really had tons of fun with my "Happy Tree Friends", who are my bf, caren n chris.
3. Kota Kinabaru Trip - Had one of the most wonderful family trips ever!
4. Finally passed my Level 2 science modules!
5. Entering Singapore Science Centre as a worker and understand how a coporate works!

5 worst things:

1. failed 2 sciences modules in the first half of the year
2. still can't manage my own finances -.-"
3. didn't managed to keep in contacts with many of my old friends. =(
4. couldn't juggle between work and school well
5. getting fat!!!!

Now that i have named 5 of the best and worst things that have occured, let me continue to talk about the new year! I spent the last day of 2007 and the first day of 2008 entirely with my Happy Tree Friends. hahx, with the last day of 2007 preparing for the last dinner of the year, Chinese Cuisine, with 2 movies as desserts! And started off the first day of 2008 with a string of sporting events, namely Mahjong, Table-tennis and Badminton!

As for the rest of the new year so far, nothing much have happened and i am too lazy to elaborate. Meanwhile, EVERYONE HAVE FUN!!! I will update on my Kota Kinabaru trip another day when i found my pics. =)

Thailand Holiday =)

Recently came back from a holiday in thailand and it was WONDERFUL! =) We went to both Pattaya and Bangkok in the last 5 days (13th dec - 17th dec). It was my first trip to thailand with my friends, nix, chris n caren. =) Fun Fun FUN!!!!

Day 1

On the night itself, nix n chris gamed through the night and i was just tossing around the bed trying to sleep. hahh and i slept barely 4 hours before i had to wake up to prepare. We went to Changi Budget Terminal at 430am as our flight was at 630am. Slept on the flight, which was surprisingly smooth even though it was a budget flight. =)

Upon arrival in the bangkok airport, we took a government bus to pattaya which only costed us 5 dollars each! =) It was surprsingly cheap and good service on the bus too. However, we weren't so lucky in the city. Had to walk quite a bit of distance with our luggages before we could get on a lorry-like taxi and we got fleeced! Had to pay 40baht each to get to the hotel even though it costs about 20baht per trip. The hotel was VERY PRETTY, even though we had to book 2 rooms in the end, the room was big and pretty! Service was good, with a pretty pool on the top of the hotel and good breakfast. *yumm*

We went to Ripley's believe it or not and it was funn! Got scared like crazy in the haunted house, and had lots of fun in the mirror maze!

Pic 1: his eyes were following us everywhere.... and we thought he was fake! but he is a real personnn.. AHH!



Pic 2: Our first stop! the four of us at Ripley's!

After Ripley's, we just went for a walk along the Walking street and noticed alot of bars, pubs, etc. Now i know why pattaya is so infamous. lots of ang mohs walking around, most of them being single guys. hahh i guess you should know what i mean. Had dinner in one of the seafood restaurants and i guess the food is not too bad!



Pic 3: our wonderful dinner at the seafood restaurant


Day 2

Woke up early in the morning to get ready for some wacky watersports! Took the ferry to Kolan island which was wonderfully pretty, except that the beach was sorta destroyed by the overwhelming numbers of umbrellas on the sand. sad to see that sight but nevertheless, we had fun! Took the banana boat, in which we were flipped at least 3 times into the really salty water! and played Jet skii which was very fun too! heex was riding against the waves which ended up leaving bad scratches on my knees. *sobs* Then caren and chris went parasailing while me n nix sat on the boat that sent them up the sky! heex funnn...

Pic 4: The pretty beach of Ko Lan Island. can see how blueeeeee the water is?

Pic 5: me n nix on the pretty jet skii.. =)

Pic 6: Parasailing. I think that was caren who was in the water. hahahx

After the watersports, we had lunch and headed back to hotel for a nice afternoon in the pool area. Went to the beach road for dinner and some minimum shopping before we ended our night by drinking and playing mini mahjong in the hotel room. =)

Day 3 and 4
Went to bangkok early in the morning, and had pretty tough time trying to locate our hotel. It wasn't a very nice hotel, but was okay for us to stay in. Went for shopping straight away in MBK center and had a nice jap lunch. =) Then went off to Platinum to do more shopping =) Spent the next day shopping as well, in both platinum and Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Hahhax i wun talk more about the shopping but we definitely got ourselves quite a bit of stuff. =)

Pic 7: our victory at the shopping malls!

battle mode

I am really unsure of what i should name this post as, thus i called it battle mode since i am fighting against the cold and exams. Still feeling rather unwell now, with minor headache. -sighs- its interfering with my studying and making me sleep all the time.

Already had 2 exams, and one of them went pretty badly. Really hope i can pass that module. -sighs- Now, i have to focus on the next 2 exams as they are VERY important as well. So, i have to try to study even though my head is spliting from the reading.

On the brighter note, I have a new phone! Well, its actually nixon's phone. It's a brand new N95! ANd i think it looks pretty. Time to get back to my studies.

utterly sick

My cough got worse on sunday morning, with me coughing my head away in the wee hours of sunday morning. argh, it was so hard for me to fall aslepp. -sad- Thus, went to the doctor in the morning. I must say that i was rather shocked with the amount i had to pay for the medicine. It was 74bucks! hah. i have never seen a doctor that i have to pay so much for except when i had to go to the hospital for intestine problems.
After eating lunch, i took my medicine and continued my preparations for exams. Halfway through, my heart was beating fast like no one's business and i thought i was just nervous for the exams, so i didn't look too much into it. Took a little nap and continued studying till night.
Had my second dosage of medicine and the whole thing happened again, with my body feeling numb and practically impossible to move around. -sighs- so my mum told me to stop eating the medicine and see my family doctor today.
So after exams this morning, went to my family doctor with my medicine. She told me there were steroids in the med causing my body to react that way. So, i stopped taking the medicine and took some other ones instead. hahh which caused to me to spend a total of up to 100bucks for medication in total. Oh well. my dad would be the one nagging. haha..
I think i better get back to stoning at my notes...

utterly sick

Study Week

As the title of my post and my msn nickname suggests, it is the study week. -Sighs- I guess this only depresses people cz nxt week is the start of the exams!!!! But no worries, cz i think i won't do too badly (hopefully). Now, my brain is all about holidays holidays and more holidays. haha i know this doesn't match the atmosphere in the air. Ah well.
Nothing much have been going on, except that i have been staying at home, studying, playing computer game and pacing about in the house. Hahx. Let's @@.. The MOST interesting thing i have done so far in the week.....

1. Prawn Catching- It was the ultimate event of the week! I went to Kranji Reservoir with nix, my bro and nix's NS friends to catch a couple of prawns! They are pretty big and interesting to catch! The biggest i caught was probably about 14cm long in body length, with thin and long arms. so interesting. We caught a total of about 7 big prawns, with many mini prawns. Brought back 2 big ones and placed them in nix's fishtank. so pretty! Ohya, I heard that nix's pretty fish got its tail bitten by one of the prawns.. Poor thing...
2. Touching up my favourite rabbit - I have 3 rabbits at home, one of them being white and furry. So, i went to trim its fur ytd. haha it was so funny. i feel like a really bad professional furstylist now. She look like a little sheep by the end of the trimming session. hahax. and of cz, pretty upset with me. hah.. now she wouldn't let me catch her. Oh well...

I guess those are the only interesting highlights of my week so far. Now, back to my studiees! Viruses, Protozoa, Innate immunity and adaptive immunity!

a little piece of me

Looking back at the past, I've come to realize how time passes by so quickly. Within a year, i will be graduating from NUS. From studying in beijing, to finishing my high school in singapore and finally furthering my studies in a singapore university. Many things have happened, many things have changed.

And i have come to realize how much i have changed over the years. from a constant active girl, to one that sits at the corner of the classroom hoping that she was never there. From a girl with constant smile on her face, to one with smiles that shows the world that she will be fine. From studying overseas to coming back to a familiar hometown that no longer feels familiar.

Sometimes i ask myself, how did u manage to come so far? How did you even managed to make it to university, even though you are struggling to keep afloat now? And, what do you intend to do with your life? For that, i am glad to have you in my life.

No matter how hard life is getting now, how much tantrum i throw nowadays, you are always there, never giving up on me. For that, i thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Cz of you, I have a direction in the future. Happy Anniversary, my dear.

mOrE on FooD MiCroB

I just had a lab on food microbiology. Hah. It was oddly interesting. Last week, we tested mango pudding from one of the food stalls in school. Did gram stain, etc and we thought that the mango pudding was one of the cleanest food around since there were not much funny bacteria moving around under the microscope.
However, interesting information were discovered today. In our agar plates, we found TONS of bacteria colonies, with gram positive and gram negative bacteria!!! Upon further calculations, we found out that our mango pudding has 8.3 x 10^7, which was very high!!! For safe consumption, quality of the food has to have below 1.0 x 10^6 bacteria. well, i am not sure if it is 1.0 x 10^6, but definitely 10^6 is correct! so yes its way too high for consumption. So ppl, think twice before you eat the food. Look at how food is prepared, the environment, etc or you might get into trouble with your stomach!

Food anione?

Talking about food, have you ever thought of the handling, packaging, etc processes? Just take a little stroll along those hawker centres and you will probably find alot of things that will make you feel disgusted.
I was eating my self-cooked noodles this morning and my mum was watching this television show about fat people trying to cut down weight through different methods such as exercising and plastic surgery. I am not talking about normal fat people, but those who cannot even walk and I do emphasize with them. However, watching this show during my lunch wasn't exactly appetizing. Looking at their body weight, the flappy skins after losing weight, etc did make me a little nauseous. All my appetite just went down the drain. not to mention that my cooking wasnt exactly fantastic either.
After this session, i had a lecture on food microbiology in class today. hah. i think that only make me lose more of my appetite. The prof showed pictures of organisms that may be on your hand anytime and its actually thousands of colonies of bacteria and fungi! ahhhhhh... and talk about how easily food can be spoilt, the process of slaughtering chickens and cows. I don't think my appetite will ever improve today.........
looking forward to my mum's handmade mashed potato... hope i will be able to eat somethign!

OuCh!

woke up this morning with a stiff neck. yikes. couldn't turn my head to the left. so i think i am to keep turning my entire body to the left if i want to look left for the rest of the day.
Other than that, morning was rather uneventful with lots of things i need to study etc. Feel that my life is rather empty... huhhhh....

Uncertainty

A wave of fear just overcame me. amino acids, keto acids, tyrosines, GABA, glutamine, glutamate.... these terms are driving me crazy. Been trying to memorize the different pathways and enzymes for the class test tml that is worth 20% of the module's grade. it's the second time i am taking this module, so i really wanna do well. but i am worried.
I don't know if i can take this anymore with stress piling up on other work as well. studying immunology was really hard as well. feel like tearing up all the books and just set fire on them. I dun even know what i am doing now. I feel totally out of place.
If not for nix, I will never be able to take anymore of this. thank you dear. for always being there.

Afternn Tea

Sitting at a little corner on my own, sipping on hot swiss chocolate, enjoying a plate of potato salad and busy typing away on my blog. Just the type of life that i like. It's 12pm now, which by right should be lunch time, but i had too full a breakfast to eat something heavy. Had a lecture on Immunology this morning and i was half asleep. hahax. didn't manage to absorb much in so i guess i have to study eh?
This weekend is gonna be so monotonous, with me studying and flipping notes. Hah. How ironic when one is supposed to enjoy weekends right? oh well, at least now i am enjoying my lunch. Time to get back to my work and look at hotels for holiday again! =) one of my biggest interest in life right now. heh. motivation as well.

Awaken

Sudden realization that i've been living in my own dream world these two years. A talk with one of my labmates yesterday pulled me back into reality. I haven't been studying much and thus resulted in my current academic results. A sudden realization that i'm not as capable as the others and i would have to study much harder if i am to survive in this university. Everyone around me works hard and no doubt, are smart too. And what am i? Not smart, nor working hard enough. huh.
The sudden urge to end university life has been on my mind these few days. Yet, I know that if i jus ends it like that, it would be hard to find a decent job outside with burning questions from employers asking why i dropped out from school. Everything i've been yearning for in the future will be ruined by myself if i put an end to my university life now.
Yet, the stress and the utmost pressure is making me feel utterly depressed about university. who said that university life was gonna be easy? Whoever said this was definitely nuts. But i know, i must perservere. jia you shuqi!~