a strictly casual conversation

2010-01-11T06:13:00.000+08:00

have i mentioned how much i HATE neuro? now every fricking time i make a movement or see something or hear something or remember something i get distracted by what it takes to make that movement, or see or hear that thing or remember that thing. and i start thinking of the motor cortex, visual and auditory organs and cortices and how you make and recall memories.

so much so that i get distracted when reading my textbook on other topics. how ironic.

if i haven't said it before, or have not made it clear, i say now...

I HATE EXAMS.

I HATE NEURO.

2010-01-06T00:28:00.004+08:00

snow snow snow snow snow snow! we went for lunch at a korean restaurant and on the way there and back had loads of fun in the snow...

spicy pork stew!

i can't believe we got this much snow in one night. more to come! :P

2010-01-03T11:17:00.003+08:00

IT'S 2010!!!

new year's was fun! i had 2 places to be at for dinner on new year's eve, so it was quite a rush around manchester, and with infrequent bus services, it was quite overwhelming, but it was a lucky thing that i managed to get around pretty well, so it turned out alright in the end.

following a day of completely unproductive attempts at studying, i went to edwin's to help cook paella. i was supposed to bake dessert, but i got lazy, and there were desserts already anyway, so i went over early to help tim and edwin prepare for dinner - paella and steamboat. dinner was supposed to be at 6, but in true rubber time fashion, people only started arriving at 730 and some even had food to prepare, so i helped make and fry spring rolls etc. it was really fun though. and the food was yummmmyy :p i need to learn to make spring rolls and get the recipe for the paella.

then off i went to sarena's house for okonomiyaki with sarena, yc and ryo. there were mounds and mounds of cabbage because they cut two heads of cabbage, and apparently it was really dense, so they ended up with loads of it. we had sweet potato soup too. yummm :) such guilty pleasures.

at 11pm we went to exchange square to watch the fireworks and join in the countdown. got there at 11.45pm, and the atmosphere was really high. and there was a 10 minute firework display, which was really nice, especially since i haven't seen fireworks in ages. (i can't wait for national day, so i get to watch more fireworks. heehee :p) and then amazingly, we all wanted dessert... okay, well, not all of us, but sarena, yc and myself, so we went to a tai wu for dessert, hoping to have some hot chinese desserts, but all they served was western desserts, and what was more, we had to spend a minumum of 8pounds per person if we wanted to have the desserts in the restaurant. so we decided to take away our food, and went to piccadilly gardens bus station to have our desserts in the cold. it was crazy cold, but fun (:

and that was how i spent the last day of 2009 (:

happy new year! <:o)

2009-12-30T09:59:00.003+08:00

apparently my promise to blog every week is failing. haha. but at least im doing so more often than once a month. must be a good thing, no? on the other hand, i don't think my blog is getting many readers, so i don't really think it matters that much anyway. hee.

so we didn't get to go to germany. because of the STUPID snow. our flight got cancelled, and apparently the whole of europe was "on lockdown" (tim's phrase). it was really unlucky, because the previous day and the following day, i think most of the flights were fine. but i think the weather on that day was particularly bad, because when yc and i were on the way to the airport, we heard that the trams and trains around, in and out of manchester had all stopped or were serving sporadically. and then when we finally got onto a bus on the way to the airport, we stopped on an incline and the bus SLID SIDEWAYS because of the ice. omg. it was such a weird and then scary sensation. the double decker bus LITERALLY SLID SIDEWAYS.

anyways, after we queued for like an hour to check in, they decided to cancel the flight (-.-) and we instead tried to search for other flights out of manchester to munich, but apparently all the other airlines were not operating. moreover, flights till after the new year were all fully booked and we had no choice but to cancel the trip altogether :(

then we headed back to manchester city centre and home to put our stuff down before going out for a good japanese dinner to drown our sorrows. and then we watched avatar. i must say, that was the highlight of an otherwise disappointing and boring day. someone (AHEM) PLEASE send me the movie? heehee :P

anyways, in the week, we had a christmas eve dinner, complete with turkey. cooking it was rather fun. and the dinner too. basically the whole thing.

and then it was back to the studying. study study study. mug mug mug. exams coming. then hopefully a trip *crosses fingers. that's all for now i suppose.

2009-12-19T10:34:00.008+08:00

first snow in manchester! that was yesterday. and today, it continued. really really nice.. (: this is also part of the reason why i love staying in ardwick, even though it’s practically on the other side of manchester (it is LITERALLY on the city edge. haha.) there’s hardly anyone or anything to spoil the snow here. well, there ARE people/things that spoil the snow, but not as much as the main roads/areas of manchester, and the result is waking up to a brilliantly white car park (outside my window) and schoolyard (outside the main door of of our building), making footprints in the snow (not sand) and slipping on icy surfaces. haha. but by far, the best thing is having a warm drink and snack and being nice and cozy in my room. hee :)

but in a few hours, we are going to be heading off to munich and vienna where the temperature is like sub zero. and quite far subzero. like -7degC. and snowing. palaces and christmas markets here we come! should be really fun. i WILL update after that. definitely.

anyhow, we are going to be away for christmas, so before i forget, happpy christmas everyone!

moving on... ashley has sent me on a mission of sorts. let me give you a bit of background on this...

a few weeks ago, i asked ashley to buy me some bak kut teh mix and send them to me so i brew up some bak kut teh goodness over in manchester. so he got me a HUGE bag of mixes (which made his room smell of bak kut teh) and asked me to review each one of them to find the best bak kut teh mix of the variety available in giant in tampines.

so my housemate, henceforth known as yc, and i, went out to get some pork ribs for our bak kut teh. and we got 4 ribs, which we split into 2 portions so we could try two brands of mixes. i’ve been a bit laggy with this, so forgive me, please, but here goes the reviews...

note: i will be grading this against the bak kut teh sold at the hawker centre near southpoint because 1. that’s the one whose taste i can remember best 2. i love that type of bak kut teh - clear peppery soup (vs. dark herby soup)

attempt 1: yeo’s - 2.5/5

herby, not too peppery. not very garlicky. dark soup.

attempt 2: ILC brand - 3.5/5

REALLY PEPPERY AND GARLICKY. VERY nice. clear soup. burns throat, not only because it’s hot but also because it’s peppery. very warming on a cold winter night.

apparently i’m not a very good reviewer. haha but practice makes perfect, so im not giving up now. bak kut teh here i come :D reviews here are subject to changes and editing. so are the scores. soon i will be the very best pre mix reviewer out there! and i will be famous with all singaporeans overseas students who are looking to buy premixes before returning to their country of their study :P

2009-12-07T10:24:00.003+08:00

recent activity and going-ons have made me wonder what sort of person i am and how people view me. well actually i've been wondering for a long time already, but just decided that today was a good time to bring it up. i don't know why.

i feel i am a very shallow person. i know what i feel and think, but i have no idea why i feel or think that way. or maybe i just don't want to see the truth as to why i feel or think that way. or maybe i know why i feel or think what i do, but just can't put it into words. or maybe i am just a very irrational person trying to be rational. or maybe it's the other way around. anyway, aren't emotions supposed to be, by the very nature of emotions, subjective? why should there be a reason to what i feel? but then again why not? according to the Jung-Meyers-Briggs Typology Test, i'm an ESFJ - extraverted, sensing, feeling, judging personality (which hasn't changed much since jc) and apparently i have "strong, contradictory forces" that consume me.

sigh. i have such a weird personality. need more time. boo.

2009-12-04T09:48:00.002+08:00

i know i haven't blogged in almost a month. so shhh..

anyway, tonight we had dinner with a friend and his mom who came over from hk. let's call him... T. i got to know T from hall last year, and he was a mild mannered, quiet guy, whom a lot of people seemed to be pretty much okay with. we willingly included him in our clique, and we got along pretty well. well of course, there were little things. but friends aren't perfect, and we were able to overlook those flaws of his and accept him as a friend.

this year however, something seemed to change in him. he became louder, more crass (his word, not mine), intrusive and basically it was an almost 360 degree change in his attitude towards uni life. he drank (though not until he was wasted), talked loudly and made rude comments, and we were all taken aback by his manner.

to cut the long story short (and to generalise all of the small incidents that led to the conclusion), we figured that there must be something really wrong with T. he claimed that he was depressed last year, and it wasn't really himself that we knew, instead, this was the real him. after consulting with a doctor, we deduced that T might have a psychiatric condition. hypomania (which can result from/lead to depression and bipolar disorder). all the symptoms fit.

T's friends seemed to all hate him, and be putting on an act in front of him (we, ex hallmates, certainly were). his academics seemed to suffer. not only did he have to see the senior tutor after being summoned due to complaints from his pbl (tutorial) group, but he also had a three page report written by the gp from the gp's practice he was visiting on his unacceptable manner and unbecoming behaviour.

all this led to his mom coming over from hk to make sure everything goes okay and i guess to generally take care of him for a bit. they went to see the programme director, who offered T a year's interruption of his course so as to get his affairs in order before concentrating on his studies. in reponse, T called him a jackass for not wanting T to take his exams, and even lodged a complaint against him.

while T said all of this, his mom just sat there with a passive face, as though she could accept all of this, although in her heart, she might have felt quite dismayed as to her son's behaviour so far. she even asked us to be more patient with him and give him more understanding due to his condition. watching her take care of her son like that, and even flying all the way over here, it made me realise how much parents must love their children. no matter how irritating or annoying they can be, even if it is to them, parents stick by you, no matter what.

on a separate thread, i wonder if i will ever be able to do that. show such calm while my child behaves like such. or would i just fly off the handle and like, strangle him/her. anyway, this isn't a matter i have to sort out now.

other than that, i've just been really busy. the singsoc's DnD was it's final event and is over. it was a huge success, and i really think everyone who attended enjoyed themselves. it rounds up a year of events that have been both successful and some only partially successful, but a year which i wouldn't exchange for any other person's year. agm is our next event, and we will be stepping down and handing over to the next committee, whom i honestly don't think, but sincerely hope, can do a better or as good a job as we did. heehee (:

germany/austria trip is coming up! can't wait! then it's exams and before i know it, second sem will be here. which means.. spring is coming up! and then SUMMER! :D i need some plans for summer!

okay, i will make a resolution to blog at least once a week. haha. i hope it works out.

study study study! get honours! :D

2009-11-03T09:30:00.002+08:00

mannnnn... this is SOOOO bad. it's only monday and i already know that this week has been and is going to be an INSANE week. pbl is tough this week, i have 2 anatomy sessions and a physiology practical, and the nottingham games team list to finalise on top of everything else. oh.. plus DnD ORGANISATION!!! AHHHH :(

i have been sleeping at 430 for the past 2 days, and i'm still up stupid o'clock (stupid o'clock... i like that phrase. haha) on a monday night. rawhhhh pbl :(

i HATE the brain.

on the other hand, we're going to watch chicago the musical tmr! but not before i get through the INSANELY busy day which consists of a patho signup at MRI for cytology, an anat pract, and pbl. RETARDED pbl. why would anyone want to know so much about how you maintain your balance anyway. i mean, i get it, we need to know it... but ugh *pukes. doesn't seem like such a bright spot anymore, does it?

oh well. preston on wednesday. free on thursday, which i will probably use to complete my pbl. and stupid med stats. and friday... friday, we start a new case.

see, insane isn't it?

oh well, friday and saturday we are having housewarming for the hulme hall folks and sssm respectively. should be fun. we are going to have takoyaki (courtesy of ryo, the jap dude) and red bean soup and stufff.

i can't decide whether i like being so busy or not. but that's for another day. right now, i'm being incoherent, and it's a sign that i should go back to pbl... at least i don't really have to do any deep analysis.

2009-10-27T09:27:00.004+08:00

oh wow. i can't believe that about 3 weeks have passed since my last post. yet it seems like last night that i wrote that. now, not only have we done intradermal injections, but also examined the eye using the snellen charts etc. this semester has been pretty cool, even though it's been crazy busy.

in school we are doing ENT now (ear, nose and throat). it's really quite interesting to see how our special senses work and develop, and you just BEGIN to start appreciating how amazing our bodies are. there are a crazy number of types of cells that do a crazy number of different things just simply so we can see, hear or taste, etc. and how they work seamlessly with each other so we can complete basic functions, which really don't seem that basic after you learn about their mechanisms.

as for the singapore society, we have a really huge project on our hands now: organise a dinner and dance in 24 days. is that impossible or what -.- well, somehow or another, we are going to make it happen. it has to. our swansong. go out with a bang. not only that, we also have to organise the nottingham games, which, speaking from the sports secretary's point of view, is seemingly impossible, because NO ONE is paying me on time, save those really conscientious ones. which is like. one o.o rahhh. PLUS, weekly sports. which is really irritating me because i can't get a good slot during which i have no lessons, so most of the time i rush down to the sports centre halfway through the hour, when really, i should be there for the whole time.

the new pbl group is alright i guess. my clinical partner is a really

nice person, and i really enjoy working with him. he's so on the ball. i should learn to be like him.

on the cooking front, it's really been very good. been eating pretty well. food pictures coming up soon. when i have some time to upload them. haha. it's really been on the go non stop since i got here. barely have time to complete my work.

recently i've been thinking. how amazing it is to have the huge range of personalities we have in the world, and how it's so rare to be able to find a friend who understands you so well, a housemate who shares so many of your own values, and a partner who compliments you so well. i am so thankful that i am one of the lucky ones who have all three. i shall stop myself before i go on with an emmy award winner type thank you speech. but really, my musings go way further than that. shall elaborate if i have the time (again).

and back to the mundane things my mind has been dwelling on: retail therapy on wednesday after pbl!!! :D :D :D frankly, i've had enough of the freaking ear o.o i was telling chop, my housemate (it's a nickname) that i would be happy even with a pen or file. whatever. as long as i get out of the STUPID library and am able to do something else than stick my head in a book.

i really love this picture btw, it's sooooo darn cuteeee :D for those who find this picture horrible, i apologise for the doctor style morbidity and sense of humour/what's cute.

2009-10-07T06:14:00.002+08:00

injecting and getting injected four times with lidocaine and adrenaline tmr. hoho...

instructions from the practical manual: "...inject the solutions intradermally at positions well spaced over the forearm. this route of injection should raise a blister. if there is no blister, you have probably injected too deeply. repeat the injection at a different site. next, draw a line around the margin of each blister and label them. carry out the tests by applying 6 pinpricks within the blister areas using the sterile lancet provided. count the number of pinpricks felt as pain (not pressure). record the time when at least 5 of the 6 pinpricks are first felt as pain. work out the duration of anesthesia..."

so looking forward to it.

2009-10-03T09:30:00.002+08:00

wow. this is so unbelievable. a few days ago, i was blogging about how i was homeless, and now, i've found a place and moved in, and experiencing what i've always wanted to experience. yc's and my new home is not at your conventional locations. not near that near the city, not that near the uni either. it's about a 5 min bus ride to the city and 10 min walk to uni. it's in a quiet residential area that can be quite creepy at night, but is really quite nice during the day.

okay. other than that, i can't really describe anything else because i'm toooo tired to do so. after a full day at school, we had to meet the landlord (who didn't come and didn't tell us he wasn't coming till we called him 15 min after the appointed time - typical british efficiency), buy sheets and disinfectant etc move, clean the whole house and unpack. zzz. now my eyes are literally drifting close and i'm making more typing errors than should be permitted. update another day (:

2009-09-29T01:32:00.006+08:00

haven't updated for more than a month! haha.

well, i'm now back in manchester (and currently homeless, staying at a friend's place), and lessons have started, and should be doing my truckloads of work, but am instead blogging. work, is of course, as usual, last priority (which is bad). but first, let me update you on my life for the past few weeks... just the major things...

you mei's birthday was (: it was great to see all the classmates again after such a long time. cindy, liyana, ashley, weilun, kokboon, roger, andy, justin, and even shaun were there. we got you mei some baking apparatus for her gift... hope you like it, you mei (:

comex was on, as i'm sure many of you guys know. and for quite a while now, i've needed a new laptop, and was deciding between a vaio and a mac. so, being the usual me, i deliberated till the last hour of the last day of the last it show before i had to come back to manchester to get my new macbook pro 13"! heehee (: so now, i am a proud new owner of a shiny new macbook pro 13"! hahaha. there was a hiccup on the way to my now smooth operation of this lovely machine. when i turned on my laptop for the first time, i found the snow leopard cd in the box as well, so i thought i had to install it myself. little did i know that it was already installed. so, the first time it attempted to restart, my laptop failed to start up because of some stupid thing i did (this is one of the reasons i got a mac. who'd expect that i couldn't even do something so simple correctly -.-) it was already 3 am by the time i realised my laptop was not going to start up and i couldn't call the service centre so i turned to ashley for help who didn't know what to do (i guess that's why he wanted me to get a mac - so that it would be perfectly justified for him to say "i don't know" when i asked for help. heehee. just kidding). and then, i panicked. lucky thing ashley was there to calm me down (: thankewwwsss! so the following day, i called the service centre, and i finally rectified my problem and now i am loving the mac (:

the day i was supposed to leave was a huge rush. literally. the whole day was a rush. rush to wake up, rush to bishan to get my stuff like contact lens solution, shoes, etc, rush back for lunch, rush to pack (that was ONE BIG RUSH - i hadn't packed anything before hand. lucky thing i am used to this sort of thing -.-), rush to ashley's house, rush home to shower and get my stuff, then rush to cindy's party (more on that in a while), rush to eat, rush to cut cake, rush to take photo, then rush to the airport and rush to check in. the only time i wasn't rushing was when it was time to say goodbye to singapore. my parents had gone to jb, so it was just ash and me and i really have to thank ashley for helping me out to the airport and stuff. THANK YOU (: it was also cindy's 21st. everyone's having their 21st parties.. and the theme this time was purple and/or hat. in the day, i rushed (last minute, as usual) to get all my stuff before leaving for manchester, including a purple dress thingy. again, i met up with all the classmates, and it was really fun.

oh well.. now i'm back in manchester, and it's house hunting time. school's started, so i've got lotsa work. and it's a bit tricky juggling work and house hunting, but i should be fine.

so i leave you here now. hopefully you get your fill of my life for the next few days while i look for a place.

2009-08-26T02:11:00.004+08:00

we went to the singapore flyer today! finally! haha. after nearly 2 years of waiting. well okay, one and a half. it's close enough.

waiting for the funvee! (simply put, it's the shuttle to the flyer)

the best thing though, i thought, was the fact that we managed to get the student prices for the tickets, which was a considerable amount off the normal price. i was actually quite surprised that i managed to get a student ticket because i thought they wouldn't accept a manchester student card. but apparently they do. so if anyone wants to go, go before the student promotion ends. hahah.

it was pretty fun and we managed to see a lot of stuff. and i learnt that there was places in singapore like little india, little philippines (lucky plaza - HAHA), little myanmar (peninsula plaza), little thailand (golden mile), etc. and we saw the IR! and marina barrage and... well, a lot of stuff. i'll probably spoil it if i continue. haha.

i love being a student :) hahaha.

2009-07-26T19:08:00.005+08:00

so here are more pictures of diving...

me and ash during our dive.

some things we saw during our dive...

and after our dive.

2009-07-20T01:13:00.003+08:00

so i went diving! like, finally! hahaha. after 5 years of waiting, i finally had my chance and jumped at it, and i completely do NOT regret it.

the diving madness started 2 weeks ago when ash and i paid up for the course (well more like a few months ago when edwin first brought up the idea of going diving, but yeah, i was referring to the real madness) and collected our dive manuals. then it was followed by a week of slacking and then crazy studying/cramming (literally) over the weekend just before our theory lesson (last monday). then there were the pool lessons where we got used to gearing and suiting up and breathing through the regulator and stuff and did some simple drills on the surface and underwater.

all too soon, the weekend came and on friday night, we headed up to pulau aur with the rest of the divers from planet scuba. it was a 4 hour bus ride and a 5 hour boat ride (on the dive boat, which wasn't the most comfortable nor fast) to the island, which we reached at 6am on saturday morning. took a nap till 9am then breakfasted and had our dive briefing and FINALLY went to dive in open waters.

our first dive was to about 7m and we did mainly drills. managed to see a few fish here and there but was mostly concentrating on the techniques. second dive was more fun, i suppose, because we got to swim around a little after the skills. and we saw more marine life. third dive was definitely more fun. we went deeper and saw more stuff than before, so it was really an eye-opener. PLUS, we got to play with a pillow star fish. hahaha. our last dive was today at 7am. it seemed crazy to get up for a dive at 6.30am in the morning, but i think it was worth it. because we got to see huge fish and swim into places normally inaccessible by snorkelling and all. i think the freakiest part but the mosst exciting was the swimming through a school of mini jellyfish as we surfaced, though. i guess we were mostly scared of them, but throughly fascinated as well.

in the end, we all managed to pass our open water diver certification, and we all got our open water diver temp cards! heehee. doesn't take much, does it? then we headed back on the boat and bus, tanner, tireder but having experienced something that not everyone can or would be willing to.

looking up at the coral and rock formations from under the surface really gives one a perspective of how small you are in life. our last dive was at reiner's rock, a rock that protruded from the surface of the water during low tide. when you see it from the surface, you don't think there's much stuff underneath, and you kind of take it as though it's just a random protrusion from the water's surface. but when you're down there swimming around it with the fish and look up at it founfrom the other way, you are completely surprised as to the sheer size of the rock and life it can support. additionally, seeing all the marine life really is quite amazing. the variety of the species found in just that small area of sea is astounding, what more, the entire ocean.

you know how that saying goes: "tip of the iceberg". i really think it applies perfectly here literally and metaphorically. well maybe it's more like "tip of reiner's rock". haha.

more photos when i get them. from someone on fb or something. haha.

2009-06-25T15:56:00.003+08:00

okay so i haven't blogged in ageeess. that's because i'm too busy playing in singapore. hahaha. yes. i got back on the 11th and it's been go go go the whole time. time passes tooo fast, and it's already the 25th. i guess what motivated me to blog today is that results are coming out tmr. AHH! i can't believe it. once results come out, the first year of my medical education will be well (only if i pass) and truly over.

how scary! i still remember the start of first year like it was last week. the whole leaving singapore and settling into manchester, making new friends, getting used to having to study again and so on. well the year itself passed by so fast, i can't even remember how i got to know some of my group of friends. it seems as if it just happened. like we were always friends and really, there was no introduction and getting-used-to-being-around-them phase. and then there were the trips out of manchester to sheffield for robyn's birthday, york trip, and leeds trip, and of course those out of the uk itself to rome/venice and copenhagen/stockholm. now we're even planning for the trips this december and easter next year to germany and turkey respectively, and hopefully even greece next summer.

before i know it, summer is going to be over and i'll be heading back to manchester to welcome the new freshers and embark on the second year of medical education.

time has a funny way of passing us by without us knowing it.

2009-05-24T03:58:00.001+08:00

sometimes i don't know what singaporeans are trying to do...

see more Fail Blog

maybe trying to ruin their good name? hahaha.

2009-05-23T02:30:00.000+08:00

ACK! EXAMS :(

2009-05-13T04:56:00.001+08:00

1 day to mock osces ):
6 days to progress test ):
14 days to osces ):
23 days to semester test ):
31 days to going home (:

2009-05-09T01:30:00.002+08:00

so today was the last day of lessons for the first year. wow. end of first year. i mean, excluding the exams and study leave. i can't believe that in 2 weeks, exams are going to start, then 2 weeks after that exams are going to end, and that'll be the end of the first year, and i will be going back to singapore for the summer holidays. and then in spetember, second year will start. SECOND YEAR! omg. i really don't think i'm ready to be called a second year! i don't think i KNOW enough to be called a second year.

anyways, it's exam time now, and everyone's stressing out about the OSCEs (objective structured clinical exams). anatomy, clinical skills and portfolio exams are in 2 weeks, and i'm not ready! damn, i really need to work in the following weeks. I WANT MY HONOURS POINTS!

1 week to progress test
2 weeks to OSCEs
3 weeks to semester test
4 weeks to HOME :D

2009-04-30T22:47:00.002+08:00

don't really know why i'm blogging so much suddenly. haha. anyway... following in kokboon's post, here are some pictures to amuse those really bored ones who have nothing better to do than read about my boring life, like myself, who has nothing better to do than blog about it (well actually i have to do pbl, but whatever.. HAHA)

HAH.

2009-04-29T23:59:00.002+08:00

DOUBLE FAIL.

see more pwn and owned pictures

2009-04-24T19:09:00.004+08:00

it's been a long 24 days since i've blogged. haha. in those 24 days, i've attempted to study but been only mildly successful, gone to copenhagen and stockholm and come back and attempted to study again.

here are some pictures of the copenhangen/stockholm trip and the fabulous people i travelled with, which was funny as much as it was fun.

the little mermaid! it was commissioned by some rich guy who had watched a play about a mermaid and was fascinated by the character and the actress who played the little mermaid. hans christian anderson (a danish, by the way) was inspired by it and wrote his story "the little mermaid" using the character as the main character in his story. her birthday is on 23 august, and every year on that day, it is a tradition for young women to dive into the water to celebrate (or something).

denmark is a really nice country. it's a monarchy so there's like a lot of palaces and museums and treasuries etc to visit and you can even see the crown and the crown jewels.

jumpshots at a UNESCO world heritage site.

stockholm is also a monarchy. very interesting indeed.

visit to copenhagen and stockholm highly recommended. now time to study for exams :(

2009-03-31T08:00:00.002+08:00

okay, so it's now the easter holidays. hall is so quiet cause everyone has gone home... except a few sad people, including me. and to make it all better, it's the perfect environment for studying... except i can't get myself to concentrate. sigh. AND, the weather is so much nicer than it has been for the past few weeks. it's sunny and warm. warm as in 10degC kind of warm, where you can actually feel the heat of the sun's rays.

easter holiday has started (4 days ago even though it feels like a week) and catering has stopped, so we've had much better food for the past 4 days than we've had for the past 3 months eating in hall. friday: pizza hut (courtesy of timmy) and pearl milk tea; saturday: DIMSUM; sunday: fried chicken and ice cream; monday: fried rice and a chicken dish (home-cooked). YUM. and oh my... soya bean milk. and we have bak kut teh to look forward to tmr(: see what i mean now? haha. i feel like a prisoner of war who's been deprived of food for months on end. hahaha.

yes, but anyway, i'm really excited about the upcoming week(s) because we are going for jason mraz concert, which should really be interesting. and then next monday, timmy, edwin, yc and i will be jetting off to copenhagen, denmark and after 3 days there, we're gonna head up to stockholm, sweden, by train and spend 4 days there before heading back to manchester (and another week of studying). we have a pretty packed schedule/itinerary for the denmark/sweden trip, so we're going to be on the go for the whole trip. plus, when we get back, we are going to glossop for cycling (somewhere in the peak district, which is like the lase district, only, with peaks). then after that will be yc's ballet performance, which we are going to watch. and then school will start, but not before celebrating a friend's 21st at a japanese restaurant. more good food (:

okay, i guess easter's not going to be that bad after all. heh.

and what's more, there's only 74 days till i go home. can't wait. really, truly, honestly cannot wait (:

2009-03-16T06:51:00.003+08:00

i realisedi haven't properly blogged in ages. for more than a month, it's been nothing but song lyrics, and one or two sentence posts. oops. sorry to whoever actually reads what i blog on a regular basis.

i've been really busy with my school work. pbl cases are coming at me like speeding bullets, and between pbl, going online to catch up with friends, sssm stuff and ssc, i hardly have any time to do anything else. speaking of ssc. the ssc is like a 5000 word report on a particualr topic, and it's part of the finals (besides osces - objective structured clinical exams - the progress test and semester test).the deadline is next thursday and I'm no where near done, which is quite worrisome, although i'm hopeful that i can finish before then. i think the problem i face with this report is more of staying within the word limit rather than trying to reach it. my report is on helicobacter pylori and stomach cancer, which if you don't know, was discovered by an australian scientist who drank a sample of the bacteria to prove that it could infect the stomach (you would think that the acid in the stomach will kill the bacteria, but it has developed a few characteristics that help it survive. it really is quite interesting.

anyway, this weekend has been quite a good one. i had had a bad week before this weekend, and i was really thankful that this weekend was a relatively more interesting one than others. me and yc went for meatballs at ikea on friday. a 45 minute bus ride for ikea meatballs. haha. crazyness. then yesterday, we joined the sssm for laser quest. it was really fun. although my thighs are now aching like hell. and today was our hall mate's birthday. so we went to nandos to eat and it was OH SO GOOD. i think it's the past 4 weeks of bad bad bad hall food -.-

coming up: jason mraz concert on the 3rd of apr. kobenhavn and stockholm over easter. more posts. hahahaha.

89 more days!(:

2009-03-06T08:03:00.005+08:00

Scars

Papa Roach

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

My weakness is that I care too much

My scars remind me that the past is real

I tear my heart open just to feel

Drunk and I'm feeling down

And I just wanna be alone

I'm pissed cause you came around

Why don't you just go home

Cause you channel all your pain

And I can't help you fix yourself

You're making me insane

All I can say is

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

My weakness is that I care too much

And our scars remind us that the past is real

I tear my heart open just to feel

I tried to help you once

Against my own advice

I saw you going down

But you never realized

That you're drowning in the water

So I offered you my hand

Compassion's in my nature

Tonight is our last stand

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

My weakness is that I care too much

And our scars remind us that the past is real

I tear my heart open just to feel

I'm drunk and I'm feeling down

And I just wanna be alone

You shouldn't ever came around

Why don't you just go home?

Cause you're drowning in the water

And I tried to grab your hand

And I left my heart open

But you didn't understand

Go fix yourself

I can't help you fix yourself

But at least I can say I tried

I'm sorry but I gotta move on with my own life

I can't help you fix yourself

But at least I can say I tried

I'm sorry but I gotta move on with my own life

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

My weakness is that I care too much

And our scars remind us that the past is real

I tear my heart open just to feel

I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut

My weakness is that I care too much

And our scars remind us that the past is real

I tear my heart open just to feel

2009-02-25T00:31:00.001+08:00

promises shattered into tiny pieces.

2009-02-13T03:49:00.000+08:00

i learnt a new word again today.

deride.

2009-02-10T08:16:00.005+08:00

i am so tired from today. from the anger, from the trying to get to you, from the explaining and the endless analysis. tired of acting happy, alright and normal when, in reality, cold, hard reality, nothing is that way. yet the exhaustion doesn't extinguish the anger. it doesn't cause the hurt to fade. it doesn't make the feeling of insignificance in your life go away.

the anger eats away at me. every single moment, it gnaws away at my fingertips, my toes. my stomach churns at what you did. what hurts a lot, i would even go to the extent of saying the most, is the thought of what i confided in you the previous day and your seeming not taking it seriously only makes it worse and i want to hide away from you. shy away from where ever you go or have gone, what ever you do or have done, what ever you say or had said.

remniscent of what you did when i was back in singapore: refusing to tell me something and watching me make a fool of myself. the disgust, hurt i felt when i finally knew what you were thinking is overwhelming. the disgust. pure, unadulterated disgust.

do you know what the feeling of unwantedness is like?
do you know what the feeling of insignificance is like?
what about the feeling of unimportance in someone's life whom you thought felt otherwise?

do you know the feeling of looking forward to something so much that you hope and wish for time before that to go at light speed, only to find that it was not to be? and because of circumstances so controllable yet so stupid at the same time?
do you know the feeling of abandonment?

i know your answer to those questions. your answer is no. no. you never did, you never will. i will never let that happen.

thank you, weilun. thank you chris. for your confidence. for your advice, for listening to me, hearing my side of the story, agreeing with me, making me laugh, feel better. however, nothing can put out the anger. yet.

don't try to convince me to let it go. because i've let it go before, made what i felt known very clearly. even gotten a promise that things will be different. and yet i am still typing this post.

don't tell me "shit happens". becuase shit like that can be avoided very simply. but shit like that happened because of what? carelessness? forgetfulness? nothing that i care for when it comes to someone i say i care for that deeply.

how to put into words how i feel? i don't know. i've run out of words becuase i've used too much of my vocabulary on this topic too many times today. a picture, then.

this cannot end here. there are too many things unspoken that has to be spoken. too many things yet to be said that has to be said.

2009-02-04T07:49:00.003+08:00

i learnt a new word today, courtesy of timmy ng. it's catharsis. it's a good word. it means the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music. or in a more medical context, discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.

i recently experienced this cartharsis thing. well twice actually. it's a really really good feeling. anyone who has experienced it will know what i mean. i shall not go into details here, lest someone who should be reading this is reading it.

school has started. work has started. i need to get over this intertia and start studying if i want those honours points. we are doing pneumothorax now. and i understand the mechanics of ventilation. it combines physics with anatomy and physiology. which is waaay interesting. i got to use boyle's law! in medicine! okay. now i just sound like a geek -.-hahah but yeah, it's really interesting. when i finally understand the whole case, i might explain it here, unless it's too lengthy. then i'll abridge it. hahaha. might be good for my own learning too.

medics in primary school, which is a scheme in which medics go to primary schools and teach the kids about health starts next week. i'm excited and apprehensive at the same time, but i want the experience.

and! we had loads of snow yesterday! like bucket loads. it was quite fun playing with the snow but really cold too -.- anyways, need to sleep. dissection tmr. and badminton! yays.

HI TIMMY NG, WHOM I KNOW IS READING THIS! HAHAHA. TAG!

2009-02-01T09:31:00.005+08:00

It might be hard to be lovers
But it's harder to be friends
Baby, pull down the covers
It's time you let me in
Maybe light a couple candles
And I'll just go ahead
And lock the door
If you'll just talk to me, baby
Till we ain't strangers anymore

Lay your head on my pillow
I'll sit beside you on the bed
Don't you think it's time we said
Some things we haven't said
It ain't too late to get back to that place
Back to what we thought it was before
Why don't you look at me
Till we ain't strangers anymore

Sometimes it's hard to love me
Sometimes it's hard to love you too
I know it's hard believing
That love can pull us through
It would be so easy
To live your life
With one foot out the door
Just hold me, baby
Till we ain't strangers anymore

It's hard to find forgiveness
When we just turn out the lights
It's hard to say you're sorry
When you can't tell wrong from right
It would be so easy
To spend your whole damn life
Just keepin score

So let's get down to it, baby
There ain't no need to lie
Tell me who you think you see
When you look into my eyes
Let's put our two hearts back together
And leave the broken pieces on the floor
Make love with me, baby
Till we ain't strangers anymore

We're not strangers
We're not strangers anymore

2009-01-30T17:21:00.004+08:00

so i just came back from italy. it was fun! (: the medics finished exams on 21 jan and on that night itself, we headed for our long awaited holiday to rome and venice. long awaited because for one, the exams were over, and secondly, a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into planning out the details for the holiday. okay well, i'm exaggerating a little about the blood, but we did spend quite a bit of time planning for it. and it was all worth it.

on the night of the 21st itself, we headed to liverpool airport to take the ryanair flight to rome the following morning at 6. we got to rome in the early afternoon and after settling into our accommodation quickly, we headed to the colosseum, palatine hill and the roman forum. bloodsports and politics. it was really interesting to see for ourselves what the colosseum, palatine hill and forum looked like and what's more, we had a guided tour, so the explanation of the whole thing was really really good. the colossuem is huge. it can sit like more than 75, 000 if i remember correctly, and the games held there would last for 90 days each time. also, did you know that many of the words for palace in western languages comes from the word palatine? that's because the palatine hill (where rome was supposedly founded by romulus) was the place where all the rich people stayed in ancient rome. the ancient romans really liked their marble. apparently all the houses and structures in the palatine hill was covered in marble. and the colosseum too. and i'm not talking about just the floors. i'm talking the walls as well. it's incredible if you just try to imagine the amount of marble they used to decorate their houses.

then on the second day, we went to visit the vatican. it was really interesting. i would say that it was one of the main highlights of the trip. again, we got a guided tour of the vatican museum, sistine chapel, st peter's square and basilica and also the tombs of previous popes. i think the two things that made it so interesting, for me at least, was the facts that 1. i got to see alot of the artworks of the great masters during that time like michaelangelo and raphael and 2. i got to see many of the things mentioned in angels and demons and 3. the sheer awe-inspiring-ness of the scale of the whole vatican and of st peter's basilica etc.

i now know why the masters were called the masters. their works and also the number of their works is just incredible. did you know that raphael died at 37 and the number of artworks he did for the vatican and in general makes you stare in disbelief that he managed to complete so many works in such a short time. and michaelangelo and the sistine chapel is just a whole other story. i think a lot of people are under the impression that he only designed the frescos. well that he did. and he originally hired a crew of people to paint the thing. but after seeing their dismal work, he fired all of them and re-did the whole thing himself in 4 years. and he only got a measly payment for his work (and materials) so he did some funny things to insult the vatican very subtly in his work. and the last judgement painting behind the altar was just breathtaking.

anyways, the vatican is just like in another league completely. definitely worth the time and money spent on the tour.

after that we went to piazza navona and fontana de trevi, which was really really nice as well.

on the third day we just wandered around by ourselves to find via claudia (near the colosseum), piazza, the pantheon, piazza spagna, piazza popolo and some villa. it was just a nice slow day that we used to explore the rest of rome.

then the next day, we took an early morning train to venice. arrived right in front of the grand canal. then went to check out glass factories, which were closed, so we went to our accommodation and walked around for the rest of the night. went to st mark's square. and had reunion dinner at some weird chinese restaurant. reunion dinner with the medics... (: it was warm and nice.

the next day, we woke up early to head to the glass blowing factory and finally got to see some glass blowing. then went for lunch and a gondola ride and then to check out of our accommodation and look for masks and then home. home home home (: the time in venice was quite short, but i think it was sufficient. learnt some intersting facts from the gondolier like venice is made up a few islands/islets which are connected by more than 400 bridges. 400. -.- and we also saw marco polo's birth place. how interesting.

italy was fun(: but all the same, i'm glad to be back.

full range of photos are on facebook here and here.

as for my holiday in singapore, i don't think there's much to actually say, so i'm just gonna let the pictures do the talking. general photos in singapore, ZOO and Volvo Ocean Race.

2009-01-20T15:18:00.003+08:00

finally a post! haha. but this is only going to be a short overview of the past month, cause i have an exam tmr, so i will update after that. maybe after italy too.

first, i think i should explain why i haven't been blogging for the past month or so: i was having too much fun and was too busy studying in singapore to come online to blog. haha. well i didn't exactly have like zero time to come online, but whenever i had a little bit of free time, there always seemed to be something else to do which i couldn't do here, so i'd go off and do that. also, there won't be pictures this time because i had to reinstall windows for my computer and that wiped out my hard disk, so i haven't dared to dl my pictures yet in case i had to install windows again. but now my computer seems to be stable, so i'll be doing it soon! (:

secondly, I HAD A GREAT HOLIDAY IN SINGAPORE. well it was kinda spoilt by the fact that i had to study for the stupid exams, but i still did manage to get quite a lot of things done, eat quite a lot of things, buy quite a lot of stuff, go to quite a few places... but i think the best part was that i finally managed to catch up with friends and family again. some of the things i managed to do: 1. meet up with family, 2. meet up with friends, 3. EAT EAT EAT (yay. haha.), 4. go to the zoo! that was fun! haha., 5. go to the volvo ocean race village! FUN (: , 6. found a study lounge in the national library (5th floor), 7. etc etc etc. more stuff that i can't remember. haha. more detailed update in a short while.

thirdly, progress test yesterday was HORRIBLE. but oh well, i guess it was expected. i think we are all going to fail -.- it's quite stupid actually. i mean the concept of hanving a progress test.

fourthly, I'M GOING TO ITALY TMR! heeee(: after the semester test, that is. yup. with yenyeen, edwin, jonathan and leonard. to rome, the vatican city and venice. whoopee! can't wait!

i'll see you soon!

2008-12-19T20:26:00.001+08:00

Daniel Powter - Next Plane Home

I woke up early to baby blue eyes from the afar whoah whoah
And when the sun comes through and lights you like the angel you are whoah whoah
I know I do you wrong when I’m with you I’ve been gone

With every season change, it looks the same November to June whoah whoah
And don't these empty streets skip a beat the flowers don't bloom whoah whoah
I can’t believe I missed your birthday again
And I wanna come back but I just don’t know when now

And I’m so lonely your not here with me
That’s why I’m gonna be on the next plane home

The road that never ends around the bend I see your smile whoah whoah
I’d swim across the sea to be with you for a while whoah whoah
Cos I’m made a life would be gone
Now the way that I feel is I just don’t belong here

And I’m so lonely you’re not here with me
That's why I’m gonna be on the next plane home
And you’re, you’re the only face I wanna see
That's why I’m gonna be on the next plane home

Stand around try to make every moment
And be somebody, yeah anybody
It seems the whole world is taking me over
I need somebody to help me get back to it

And I’ve always been a million miles away
but things are gonna change
I just wanna come home

And you’re, you’re the only face I wanna see
That's why I gonna be on the next plane home
Yeah I’m taking the next plane home
Now I’m getting the next plane home
Now I’m taking the next plane home

2008-11-29T08:49:00.002+08:00

We may feel caged, we may feel trapped, but still, as humans, we still find ways to be free. We are each other’s keepers, we are the guardians of our own humanity, and even though there’s a beast inside all of us, what sets us apart from the animals is that we can think feel dream and love. And against all odds, against all instinct,we evolve. -Grey's Anatomy, Season 4 Episode 12, Where The Wild Things Are.

true to the highest degree.

2008-11-24T08:43:00.001+08:00

some random posts since it's the first sunday of symposium week. and ezman started watching gray's anatomy, i got started with it too (dammit ezman).

"Cristina, I could promise to hold you, and to cherish you. I could promise to be there, in sickness and in health. I could say till death do us part. But I won't. Those vows are for optimistic couples, the ones full of hope. I do not stand here on my wedding day optimistic or full of hope. I am not optimistic. I am not hopeful. I am sure. I am steady. I'm a heart man. Take 'em apart, put 'em back together, hold them in my hands. I am a heart man. So this, I am sure. You are my partner. My lover. My very best friend. My heart. My heart beats for you. And on this day, the day of our wedding, I promise you this. I promise you to lay my heart in the palm of your hands, I promise you... me." -Preston Burke

2008-11-24T08:12:00.003+08:00

first snow in manchester: 23 nov 2008, 4.30 am.

photo courtesy of edwin ong, who, with jonathan foo woke up to play in the snow.

2008-11-18T23:41:00.002+08:00

my boyfriend says i suck ):

sad, isn't it.

2008-11-16T08:53:00.003+08:00

okay this is going to be a short one. nice long one maybe next week during symposium week.

been really busy, but managed to fit in a trip to york last saturday. here, here and here are the pictures.

york is a really nice place. very historical. it used to be a fort, if i'm not wrong, so there are these high city walls surrounding it. really nice. we went to cliffords tower, really nice place, the york minster really grand, majestic, and the shambles where we had the most delicious hot chocolate ever (it was literally chocolate melted in steamed milk. YUM.). it was really worth the time going there and looking around. please go look at the pics on fb becuase i really have no time to upload them.

school's been alright. i think we're going to have our first dissection on monday, so i'm really exicted. pbl's going okay. didn't do much for my second and third cases, so i think i'll have to revise those during symposium week. now we're on our fifth case. it's a sign that i'm going home really soon (i go home after 8 cases), so i'm really excited. the motivation is there to study. dance has also been really fun. going for nottingham competition on the 29th of this month. hopefully we can at least make it to the second round.

time's passing really fast. half a semester is about over. it's literally just flying past. the days are getting shorter, colder. and in 34 days, i'll be heading home(:

in the week to come: jason visiting on wednesday. symposium week starting on friday. SKYDIVING! (adds more motivation for studying) .

that's about it. more studying for me. exams coming up!

was a really short one, wasn't it. haha.

2008-11-13T08:00:00.002+08:00

i know i haven't updated in the longest time.

patience is a virtue.

i'll update soon.

2008-11-01T23:45:00.002+08:00

why do i care so much? why do i give such a fucking shit when you don't?

i care so much that i bother to inform you when i'm late before you ask so as not to keep you waiting but you don't care to do the same for me.

i care so much that i think so much about your feelings when you don't give a shit about mine.

i care so much that i explain myself, repeat myself so many times to try to get you to understand what i'm saying but you don't get it. instead you pretend like you're sorry to just get out of it. and when i ask why you're sorry you say i don't know i just said it to make you feel better, to get out of this. you say sorry and promise to try to change when you're just going to do it again and not even try. and just do the same damn thing again the next time.

i care so much that i want you to do the right thing instead of just what is easy and you don't give a fuck.

i care so much that i try as much as possible to let you who are waiting for me know as soon as possible what i'll be doing and what time i'll be done for the very simple fact that i know you're waiting for me and i don't want you to wait because that's just basic courtesy and instead i get paid back by you not informing me, letting me look forward to something and then bringing me harshly back to the reality that you're going to be doing something else. do me the fucking courtesy and tell me asap so that i don't look forward to nothing.

why the FUCK do i even give a shit.

it's draining all the energy out of me.

so.

i say whatever.

i say do what you want.

i don't say anything.

i tell myself not to give a shit.

i can't.

i can't go on much longer.

i can't give much more.

2008-10-26T22:08:00.006+08:00

skydiving! going skydiving! omg i'm finally going skydiving! this is going to take place on 21 - 23 november! and i can't wait! :D sometime last week, nicole asked if we were interested to go skydiving, and i was in almost immediately. the only thing that prevented me from saying yes was mum and dad. so i told her that i'd ask. and when i did, they said that they didn't think it was a good idea and that i should use the money for something else (it was 180 pounds). what a spirit dampener. then on thursday (the day which we were supposed to tell nicole our final answers and pay up), i was too overwhelmed by the desire to go that i smsed them saying "i've decided that i want to go skydiving, as i've been wating to do it for a very long time, and this is an oppotune moment". i waited with bated breath for their reply, but they didn't. so i just paid and registered. i felt a little sad that they didn't really see it the way i did. but anyway, i was already committed. so the next day when i got an email from mum saying that since i had paid up, that i should enjoy and take many pictures, i was ecstatic. I'M GOING SKYDIVINGGGGG! the 11 of us singaporeans who are going are going to drive up in a caravan together with the convoy of the other skydivers. fun fun (:

and then yesterday we went to alton towers. FUN! rollercoasters galore! hahaha.

alton towers itself.

we first went on this pinball ride thing, in which the car spun round and round while moving on the track. then there was oblivionn (aka the hole to hell). 16 people, 68mph and a 180 foot drop at 87 degrees. HUGE adrenaline rush. i don't think the reality of what actually is going to happen hits you till you're queueing up for it. and being strapped in and moving up towards the drop. the worst thing is that they hang you at the edge of the drop at an agle of aout 45 degree angle for like 3 seconds before it actually drops. and you see this huge gaping black hole (it goes underground) and then... woooooooooosh. you get the gutless sensation for 4 seconds. then the realisation that you've survived kicks in and you have this huge urge to should whoopee and go on the ride again. here is a video (no taken by me though):

next up was a really weird random ride, and the corkscrew and flume, which was a wet ride. tim volunteered to sit in front and he got soaking wet. then he blamed us -.- anyway i had extra socks so i lent it to him if not he would have probably frozen. then was nemesis. another huge adrenaline rush. and then air. this one was quite fun because the seating was quite cool. it was like leaning forward on your belly. when it comes to the drops, it really is quite thrilling. then there was this ride called duel where you have to go through a really dark room and shoot stuff with lasers. i got knocked on the head just above my eye by the back of a gun because nadia who was sitting next to me smacked it right into my face in her attempt to shoot something. hahaha. it was so funny. then the last ride was a rip off becuase it was just soemthing like a pirate ship but in a building. it was such a waste of time.

all too soon, our day at alton towers was over and we headed back for chinese food. the rice (a central big bowl for 8) cost us almost 11quid and the minimum order for each table was like 40 pounds. which is ridiculous. we were wondering what would happen if 2 people came to eat. anyways, it was a good day, all-in-all.

now, to study):

oh, more photos of alton towers here!

2008-10-20T06:51:00.005+08:00

mild cheese!

well the week since... uhm... tuesday (or wednesday, singapore time) has been quite uneventful (except for dance, which i shall tell you about in a bit). wednesday and thursday were my last free days for the rest of my life till retirement (sounds really really scary - and sad - doesn't it) because pbl hadn't started yet. so i just bummed around after lessons and so on. didn't bother to pre-do my pbl research or anatomy, becuase i was just too lazy. hahah and just enjoying the last few free days of my life until retirement. wednesday was ballroom/latin and it was so fun! we learnt the waltz, tango, chacha and rhumba. then there was a call for people who wanted to join the team, and yeong chyn and i went and we plan to join the team!

i know it's weird that i suddenly join ballroom/latin dance, but i've been wanting to do it for a really long time already. since last year, before mum and i started the bs salsa class with the old woman teacher in amk cc. i can't wait for the first meeting on wednesday (: i think it's going to be really fun.

then on friday we had our first pbl. our first case was about a pregnant woman. (jonathan's freaking me out about what we are supposed to learn and what we aren't. he just finished studying the whole of the first trimester and i barely scraped the surface) i'm mostly done with the learning objectives now. only left with impact of the media on pregnancy which i plan to do tmr. and memorise the stuff. after dissection, which should be interesting. oh my. the inability to form coherent sentences because of fatigue is kicking in now...

friday was also a shopping day. hahaha. how terrible, right. immediately after pbl, i went back to hall and then yc, yiling, lisa, tim, edwin and i headed to primark/city as yc had heard that there was a sale. but all we (yc, yilng and me) was an oneill lanyard for our keys (which i smartly dirtied that night itself). oh and some plain tees to wear to sleep and im my case for pbl outing this wednesday (on which we are supposed to write in marker pens "24"). then after that went back to hall for dinner and then rushed to the city campus for a malaysian/singaporean meet the neighbours session. met shangneng there and quite a few other people. it was pretty fun. after that we went to some casino to play mahjong. well in my case, to learn to play. some people tried to teach me, but failed miserably. haha. i don't think i will ever learn or want to learn.

saturday was a mugging day. literally. i spent the entire day in my room doing my pbl learning objectives because i had done nothing on friday. and today went for a run with yc in the morning. it was really refreshing. the weather was nice, the park we jogged in was REALLY nice. there were trees lining the path, and it was all red and yellows because fall is here, and there were leaves falling all over and leaves on the side of the path. like something on the back of a postcard. or you know... that windows wallpaper. hahaha. then came back for brunch. and did NOTHING in the afternoon. but made up for it a little in the evening, ie, just.

sorry, i know the picture sucks. but this is a really good representation of what we saw this morning. it was really beautiful. even the title is autumn in manchester! haha. except we weren't in longford park. we were in birch fields park. i'll go take some pictures when i'm free. link to the picture here.

mild cheese!

will update soon, hopefully (:

2008-10-15T04:35:00.002+08:00

i've changed the title of my blog! hahah i love the new one.

whoopdeedoo was getting a bit old and when a classmate mentioned "...a strictly casual conversation..." today, i just thought to change my blog title to that. credits for this goes to jonny(: haha.

so let me tell you the story of how my blog title came to be. we were supposed to be interviewing a stimulated patient (sp) today as part of early experience/essential skills. so as part of the introduction, we are supposed to tell the patient that what he/she (she in this case) says during the interview will only be shared with the gp and medical team. so jonny (and tiffany) had a particularly difficult character to deal with. this patient was really guarded and didn't open up much at first because she was afraid that her previous medical records was going to be brought up and the gp was going to kick her off his list(of patients). so she kept bringing up the confidentiality thing (sorry, i know i'm sounding repetitive, but that's what happened) and in an effort to reassure her, jonny said "don't worry, this is a strictly casual conversation, just to find out about how you are settling in." haha. it struck me immediately how weird it sounded, but anyhows, he got away with it and the patient was alright with it after, so i guess he was pretty successful. haha.

my patient was alright. she was a retiree. blah blah blah. what was funny was that i only managed to ask 2 questions cuase my partner is this really tall, big sized dude (robbie) and he was sitting between me and the patient and basically cut me out. not that we noticed it at all until after the interview when the tutor told us to change seats and see how it looked. hahahah. that was so funny. then she went on to say that how he sat (with his legs quite far apart and dominating the space) was not "not the right way". she came back to it afterwards when a classmate asked how the guys WERE supposed to sit. she went "well, at least we all know the way NOT to sit." hahahaha. that was just funny.

yesterday went for salsa! it was so so so fun! it was good to be back dancing salsa after a looooooong break. the music was good, the teacher was good, the company was good. can't wait for next monday's salsa! tmr going for ballroom/latin! can't wait! :D

2008-10-13T19:26:00.002+08:00

you know that autumn is here/coming when you look up from under a tree and see green progressing to yellows and reds and you know it's not just the sun becuase it's a cloudy day and the sun is hiding behind heavy rain clouds.

the poor leaf sweepers though. they have millions of leaves to sweep up only to be greeted by more leaves the next day. maybe they don't sweep the leaves. maybe they just leave them there.

2008-10-13T06:55:00.007+08:00

23 days since i left singapore. 68 days till i go back.

do we look that much alike? people have been asking me if the person in my dp

and phone wallpaper (for those who have seen it)

is my brother. i'm like uh. no -.-

i miss the people whom i wouldn't have to explain this to.

but i am so thrilled with the people i have to explain this to.

like just yesterday, we had a cookout at fallowfield becuase the poor people had no catered food on weekends (same with dalton ellis people) and it was so so fun. though we didn't cook. haha. in the end, we just bought pizza and chicken and salad and dessert from sainsbury and had that for dinner. the food was so-so. the company was brilliant. we had a mini-karaoke cum roll on the floor laughing session after dinner with justin and jonathan impressing us with their piano playing (and accompanying actions in the case of jonathan) and then pool, bridge and foozball.

photos: not yet. sorry.

2008-10-09T07:32:00.001+08:00

it's been 19 days. since i left singapore.

so had a few talks with a few friends(well more than that, but i mention these particular ones because, well, they're relevant to today's post). most of whom saw the wallpaper on my iphone(well it starts with general fascination wtih the phone. and when they see the wallpaper, which i've changed, btw, they ask if that's my brother) . about ldrs. one friend is now blissfully in a call to singapore with... well, let's just say a really good friend. this one asked what it was like being in a ldr. a landmindish question, it was called. i answered the question as follows: you have your ups and downs but eventually you'll still go through it. i think i'm finding this easier because i know what to expect. it was hell the first time around. (it was misunderstood for referring to a previous relationship and in response i said "no i was referring to the being away though now that i think about it, that doesn't come in far behind.")

every one of my thoughts just flew out of my mind. weird, isn't it. i will blog tmr.

2008-10-08T01:54:00.008+08:00

ooh i got a hat from ted baker at cheshire oaks. one that i've really wanted for a really long time. and one that didn't make my ears stick out like some monkey. and one that doesn't make my head look like it's going to explode. and one that doesn't make my hair stick out weirdly. so even though it was 25gbp i got it anyway. haha.

well this one is the right one...

my boyfriend is an ah pek. those who sit in the coffee shop and drink stout at 10 am in the morning. see the leg on the chair? well i guess it's a bit too small but it's there alright.

2008-10-06T04:18:00.002+08:00

oops. a bit late with the update. sorry. was pretty busy. i don't even know why i'm doing this when i'm supposed to be doing anatomy or sleeping.

i have a session in the dissection room (DR)tmr morning at 9. and they're going through the bones of the skeleton and joints. and i have still a couple of pages of the anatomy notes to fill in. urgh. lucky thing all the answers can be found in the textbook. so all i need to do is copy. haha. anyways, pbl is coming along good. i think it's different but really fun. you aren't restricted to studying what they want you to, but rather decide what you want to study for yourself. i think that gives students a sense of ownsership of their education, and really motivates them to study because it feels like you're actually working on a case. which is fun since we're only first years and don't really expect to be doing such stuff.

and it's funny. i just got an email about free chlamydia screening. and how people who take part are entitled to a free bag of condoms. bag. how many do people use man?! and and!! i want to go see an autopsy! haha. which is on 27 november or 2 december. stupid timetable doesn't reflect all the lessons so i can't decide which one to go for.

anyways, went to sheffield on friday stayed till saturday for robyn's birthday. it was really good meeting up with her again.

and today felt a little sick. but went for cheshire oaks shopping trip. i feel completely guilty now ):

now i'm fully sick. and i still need to do anatomy. dammit. update another day when i have more time. hee.

2008-09-30T07:38:00.002+08:00

i'm loving my widget counting down to my return to singapore (:

really tired now. there will probably be an update on wednesday if not tmr.

2008-09-29T04:24:00.003+08:00

do you realise how my blog entries are mostly always happy and cheerful and once in the blue moon grumpy with schoolwork and exams?

i met up with mayee when we were both back in singapore. and being the good friends we were, we talked about almost everything with regards to school and life in general. school in particular because we both knew how it was being overseas and away from friends and family. soon enough, the conversation strayed to our blogs and how we used it to keep in touch with our friends and family back in singapore.

again, being the good friends we were, we shared the same thoughts on blog entries. (we're such good friends, we HAVE to share some sentiments, right?) how we use them mostly to convey the happiness and good experiences that we have and not the difficulties, sadness, loneliness or shit that we have to put up with and get over while we are away.

why? because there's no point, we thought. why share unhappiness with the people back home when you want them to know that everything's fine? why post unhappy thoughts when you know people at home can't really do anything about it and worry them unnecessarily when you can perfectly well live with it? i think one point that we didn't mention that we might have thought of, though, was that it's just a huge hassle to post something that's unhappy and explain everything in a massive chunk of text that is on something as impersonal as a cyber space and then have to explain the situation to everyone who asks about it.

for anyone who cares and means it would actually ask and not just take things at face value.

2008-09-28T06:39:00.004+08:00

note: i will not be uploading photos (especially for times that there are loads of photos) if i can help it because it takes one **** of a long time. i will post links to where you can view the photos though. (i got this idea from mingfei. thanks! :D)

airport photos here.

i've been wanting to blog for a few days now, but just haven't gotten around to doing it. but now i'm finally blogging! yay!

this week has been pretty much about introductory lectures, introductory pbl sessions, introductory library sessions, introductory etc. etc. etc. so when i heard that we had to bring lab coats on friday i was pretty excited because that'd mean that we were actually going to DO something. but it turns out that the other half of the groups were going to do something with the labcoats (go check out the dissection rooms), but not our group. we were allocated the second session on monday instead of on friday. which was quite a let down. (photos here - freshers week)

on the other hand, i've gotten my swipe card, which makes me feel like a real, actual student of the university finally. haha. i felt more of a temporary student before i got my swipecard, like they could at anytime deny that they had actually admitted me into the medical school. haha. sadly, my photo on my swipecard is horrible. i wasn't even looking at the camera. grr.

and all too soon (i'm not too sure if this phrase used here is actually accurate), the weekend came. saturday and i had nothing to do. in the end, i went to old trafford with a friend (yiling) and her mom. it was a match day: manchester united vs bolton wanderers. we had actually wanted to go into the museum, but it was closed because it was a match day. anyhow, it was quite fun to be able to see old trafford again after 8 years. not much has changed, i think, except that the carpark is now more obviously marked out. or maybe i was just not concentrating the last time. and then yiling and i got a hotdog each because they smelt sooo good, and it's been such a long time since i've had a hotdog like that, and it was lunch time anyways. haha. yiling got some manchester united collar pins and then we headed to salford shopping city and then home. played bridge with another friend (yeong chyn) and another friend (justin). and then another friend (tim) came over to get some movies from me, and then, the highlight of the day: DINNER.

why was a simple thing like dinner the highlight of the day? because we HAD CHINESE FOOD. in fact, we had pretty good chinese food. yiling's mom treated us as she is leaving on tuesday. yeong chyn was practically drooling over the plain white rice. haha. we had soup, lobster noodles, roasted pork and duck, some tofu thing, some beef thing and some chicken thing cooked sichuan style. absolutely yummy :D especially after having western food for a week straight, and once TERRIBLE chinese hall dinner. one of the many perks of living at hulme hall: quite a few parents treating you to good dinners before they leave their kids with you. haha. (photos here - old trafford + dinner)

i'm not sure if i should be announcing it here but after we got back i was helping tim with some stuff and yeong chyn called me to say that she was locked in her room. haha. unbelievable. anyways we figured out that it was because of a small rock that was in the groove so you basically had to force the door open and close. thank goodness we didn't go call the tutor before checking it out.

another thing: i'll be coming back on the 19th of december, tentatively confirmed! yay! on airfrance via paris arriving in singapore 1835 on the 20th. yay yay yay (:

2008-09-23T22:56:00.002+08:00

okay i finally have some time to do my stuff.

the flight to manchester was pretty alright, since i slept most of the way, waking up only to watch made of honour and some other shows. i got here at 0625 and had to wait an hour for the transport to the hall and another hour to do hall registration and collect my keys before finally getting into my room. the hall is quite old, but the room is really quite nice. it's pretty big as compared to the other rooms i've been to. so that's good. after settling in a bit, i went for a walk to get a pillow and some other stuff. i ended up walking to the other end of uni where i met jonathan and julian who were on their way out. since i had a lack of better things to do, i went with julian to meet tim and shangwei who helped me to set up my internet and then tim and i went to the city to get my pillow and some of his stuff as well. walking to the city from uni is no joke. and walking back to my hall is no more a joke than walking from uni. and then after all that walking, we did more walking by walking to weston and to a senior's apartment to celebrate his birthday. by that time i was so tired that i nearly fell asleep while walking. everyone who saw me that evening was like omg claudia you look to tired. stupid jetlag and stupid travelling. but when i finally went to sleep i was so glad the day was over and i slept really well.

the next day there was no time for playing as we had to attend an introduction to the medical programme and also to meet our pbl groups etc. also went for freshers fair which was interesting and really crowded. the hall was completely packed and it was almost impossible to move. it was another long day and i still had a little of that stupid jetlag so i was pretty much zoning out for the later part of the day. thank goodness the jet lag is wearing off. met shang neng on the way back to the hall. was completely stunned. he said he quit med in unsw to go come to manchester to do law. was completely, completely stunned. timothy's parents treated the hulme hall people to dinner as they were leaving this morning.

today we had a talk on safety/security and healthcare provision. then after that went to the city again with pbl group to get pyjamas for the pyjama pubcrawl on thursday. (i have no idea how i'm going to survive a pyjama pubcrawl in the cold with like shorts and a tank top.) and then came back and went online. later going out for a curry dinner thing with pbl group again.

hopefully the weather stays nice like this. haha.

since leaving home for the second time, and alone this time, i've thought about a lot of stuff. more so than when i went to australia. i think that this is going to be a major turning point in my life. from here on out, i think that a lot of things are going to change. how i behave, conduct myself, how i view things, how i respond to various situations, etc, the list could go on forever. in a good way or bad, i don't know, though i think in a good way (which also depends on your point of view). it's hard to put what i've been feeling into words, because i don't think you can actually understand the full magnitude of what you think is going to change/what's going to happen until you actually experience it for yourself.

i was apprehensive and yet at the same time excited that i was leaving. well actually it was more of a (to use a way too overused term) rollercoaster ride. sometimes i was sad (which btw, is an understatement) that i was leaving: leaving home, leaving family, friends and so on, to the extent that i thought of reconsidering going overseas. but at the thought of staying in singapore, not getting a degree and not doing what i really want to, and being completely dependent on someone else, i just could not even start reconsidering.

then i thought of what i could do if i came overseas: grow as a person, have a whole new experience of life, have a broader view of the world, gain a degree and do what i really want to. and the excitement would creep back, and i would feel completely resolute in my decision to go overseas, sometimes even thinking that i would breeze through the 5 years and that they would be gone before i knew it.

being in manchester compounded that feeling. when i was riding in the bus on the way from the airport to the hall, i was looking out of the window and thinking to myself: i'm in manchester in the uk in europe, going to study medicine. i cannot believe it. i don't think the disbelief has worn off yet. even with friends, lecturers and other random people speaking with an accent i can sometimes barely understand, and the buses that have only one door for entry and exit, and the fact that i have to multiply the cost of everything that is priced in gbp by 3 to get the cost of it in sgd.

yet i know i will have my ups and downs, and i can only pray that i will be able to overcome them and have a great 5 years here. as they like to say (and they do. very much so.) it's a new chapter of my life. it is. i feel like this is the point of no return. even if i wanted it to go back to the way things were, they wouldn't. i wouldn't allow it to, and neither would others. it's a huge mixed bag of feelings. on one hand, i don't want to let go of what i had before this, but on the other, i want to grow up. time moves on and waits for no one. ( i just realised how many cliches this post has.)

the point of no return.

2008-09-22T01:21:00.001+08:00

i'm in manchester! haha. updates... not now. much stuff to do little time.

2008-09-11T18:06:00.007+08:00

i baked! lime tart cupcakes, recipe from the cupcake baskeshop.

yup they came with a ginger/biscuit crust at the bottom, something like a cheesecake, and lime cakes, and also lime pastry cream.

they turned out really nice, though the cakes themselves were slightly hard. they actually look and taste like those strawberry muffins we baked for edwin/teacher's day last year. except without the red oozing out.

cake batter with lime zest.

3 batter filled cups and 9 non-filled.

lime pastry cream! really really nice and tangy!

now just imagine the pastry cream on top of the cakes... because i have no picture! haha. it's still yum anyways (:

went skating with ashley at east coast yesterday. and had dinner at the east coast food centre and also sang hey jude and yellow submarine and yesterday on the beach. yay (: yesterday was a beatles day.

today is a UB40 day. haha. unemployment benefits form 40...

and today met up with you mei. it was fun fun fun(: hahaha. she asked me to crash her organic chem lecture but mom was waiting for me for lunch so i couldn't catch her prof lai's water molecule hydrogen bonding thing. hahahaha.

2008-09-04T00:01:00.002+08:00

this is what we do when we are bored...

and in case it's too small for the apparently hard of seeing people (who also happen to be my bestest friends) read my blog to see...

why do i love my boyfriend? it's little things like this (:

2008-09-01T12:43:00.004+08:00

another long non-blogging spell. but i'm alive and back to blog, so that's good. haha. though i did recieve a sunflower anyways... haha.

so 24 aug was the run. woke up at 5.45am to get there at about 6.45am cause the run flag off was at 7.30am. after getting a bit lost at the padang/esplanade, mayee and i finally found the starting point and at 7.30 we started running. ran the first 5 kms and then started walking cause my shoes were giving my feet blisters. i met kok boon and dekai and a few other people i recognised but couldn't really stop and chat. then after the run, mayee and i and an ren met for a brunch sort of thing. but also just because. and i realised i haven't seen some of my friends for a really really really long time. it was good to get to know them again.

on monday and wednesday went out with ashley.

on tuesday met up with kian tat after his exams. we were supposed to go for fish therapy but when i saw the fish i was totally disgusted cause they looked like leeches. so instead went to watch meet dave (mingchang). hahaha. it was pretty good, i think. and then back to serangoon gardens for chomp chomp food for kian tat. had hokkien mee, carrot cake and stingray. yummmmmmmmmmmmm (:

then fianlly managed to submit my visa application on thursday and also went for the MUSSS camp at pasir ris. i was late cause i had bak kut teh lunch with mom first but when i did get there they were having free and easy time. which was pretty good cause then i could just talk to people and we started playing cards and soon everyone was playing. haha. then had dinner and some games. yeah the seniors were like "this game is to get you used to the culture in uk where there's a lot of drinking, so we're going to teach you some games so that you'll know what to do when you get there." excuses. anyways it was quite fun especially since people who were playing were pretty much crazy. haha. it was a stay over camp but i didn't cause i was lazy. haha. so instead i went back home and on friday joined them for the amazing race which turned out not to be a race at all because we just slacked the whole way and we didn't even complete half of the given tasks. haha. we even went to eat when we were suppsed to be running -.- and then went to a senior's place for a barbecue dinner. left pretty early though, cause was just tired. was really fun though.

saturday had to work till 5 at the skate shop and then had a class gathering at home. oops. i just remembered that i forgot to take pictures. haha. people who turned up: liyana, ashley, youmei, roger, cindy, anthony, liyana's azhar, and justin. 10 people, three pizzas, some side dishes, 2 movies, a scrabble game and a few card games (including mao, rat race and bluff) later, you get a well fed happy claudia wanting to do this again (:

then on sunday, i got the sunflower. on this day, a year ago, ashley asked me to be his girlfriend. after some convincing from my really effective friends phoebe and youmei. hahaha. unfortunately for him, the scheming he had done for the previous few days came tumbling down as did the rain from the sky. so instead of going to kent ridge and sentosa and where ever else he had schemed to go, we went to watch wall.e which was really interesting and cute and for dinner at clarke quay at the same place we ate exactly a year ago where the nepalese waiter thought i wasn't singaporean but japanese or korean. it was fun (:

i finally have some free time this week. with which i plan to bake. and i WILL take some pictures. and start packing to leave for manchester ):

oh yes. and a hello kungfooh pandah:

2008-08-23T22:24:00.003+08:00

yesterday my dog almost ate a lizard. hahaha. he kept clawing at it because it was scampering around trying to get away, and then it dropped it's tail but interestingly my dog ignored the tail and still went for the lizard. it was hilarious. i'm not sure if he was scared of the lizard or actually trying to attack it, but whenever the lizard scampered towards him he jumped out of the way before going for it again. funny.

then went to sam with ashley and saw some artwork from the artists of the artists village. too bad we didn't see the 1993 bottle of pee though. but otherwise it was pretty fun at sam. the artworks were quite nice, but apparently he was rather disturbed by some of the pieces they called art. dinner at shokudo marche style which was quite interesting. we had this matcha drink thing and it was really really nice. and since like there's no minimum spending i told ash that i'd go there just to get the drink and then pay the $2.90++. hahaha.

also attempted to make chocolate cupcakes with banana ganache filling and chocolate ganache frosting but the cupcakes fell flat on their faces, so NO PICTURES. haha. they taste alright although the chocolate ganache is a bit too chocolatey and not sweet enough. enter the saviour - powdered sugar. haha.

anyways today was a lazy day. and tmr going for the safra bay run with mayee. if i don't come back to blog after that, i'd like sunflowers and dasies at my funeral. thank you.

2008-08-17T01:06:00.004+08:00

okay i should update before i get scolded any more.

well 2 days ago i went cycling. from serangoon to bishan and toa payoh and potong pasir and along the kallang river to somewhere around kallang/paya lebar station. then took a wrong turn and landed up near the esplanade. cycled past the future F1 circuit then the singapore flyer then the esplanade then the merlion park and then through the cbd towards keppel road took a turn towards ecp but couldn't find a way onto the actual ecp. and then went around marina south. but still couldn't find anyway to the other side of the bay. so ended up cycling in the other direction towards vivo. and then ended up at vivo. stopped for a rest. and then cycled home via alexandra road, farrer road, adam road, lornie road, braddell road and finally into serangoon gardens.

wow. that was a mouthful (or handful?).

all 50 kms of it.

cycled from 1245 to about 2200 therefore got pretty sunburnt. and learnt to find out exactly how to get to my destination before actually starting to cycle. hahaha. but it was fun. it was really fun(: wanna do it again. except this time, i want to actually get to my destination. hahaha.

then today went to jb to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. it was quite fun even though there weren't many of us who went in. relived some past memories. which was really fun(ny) cause we watched some videos of when my cousins were like 1 going on 2. they were really cute. no idea what has happened to them.

anyways. i should go now. update... soon. hahaha.

2008-08-13T01:27:00.003+08:00

yup so here are the rest of the photos:

see what i said about paparazzi -.-

oh and we saw a dying rat too:

2008-08-12T17:07:00.009+08:00

there really isn't much stuff to be blogging about. except that people have been bugging me to update, so here it is. august so far has pretty much been about singapore and national day. ryan, ash and i went out on the first to vivo and watched the mummy. it was funny, really. ashley had come over but just as we were leaving, ryan called and asked if we were heading to vivo with absolutely no prior plans. so we gave him a ride over there cause he was going there to meet... uh someone. then after she went home he joined us for the movie.

robyn and i went to see the national day parade preview on 2 july. well the fireworks at least. from marina square. it was quite nice. but of course not as nice as the ones on national day. which i shall tell you about in a bit.

on thursday i met up with cindy to catch up. and i wore the stuff me and robyn bought a while back. i think she was quite shocked though she didn't show it. then she gave me a tour of her shcool and the broadcasting studio she worked in and so on. then we had this weird discussion with anthony about how she should dress more feminine and less aunty. not that aunty is not feminine. haha. so in the end, i brought her to the shop where i got my stuff and she got a dress! heh. so i told her that she shouldn't tell anthony about it till saturday (national day) and she should wear it to surprise him. haha. and she did. apparently he dropped his keys when he saw her. hahaha. and since we met up on national day, when ashley saw her. he practically shook me to make his point: "omg. cindy's wearing a dress (shakes me)! DRESS (SHAKES ME AGAIN)!" and then. we saw the national day fireworks. and... some other things. hahah.

i don't have many photos this year. i have a really long video but i don't think i will put it up here.

i have no idea what this is. ash and i thought it was a baby snake but really, it looked and moved weird.

then yesterday i met with ashley and i wore a dress and he was so amazed that he kept harping on it for the whole day -.- i made a black forest cake for him and wanted to go over to his house to surprise him but apparently the cream melted so i couldn't do anything and had to wait at home ): and then since it was chris' birthday which his best friend totally forgot, we brought a slice of cake over to his house. and then went out from there. it was so weird cause when we were in esprit looking at stuff he couldn't recognise me as i walked towards him and got a shock when i stopped right in front of him. hahaha. yesterday was fun. i don't have any photos even though ashley was snapping photos like the paparazzi -.- i will get the photos and put them up soon. haha.

worked in the skate shop last friday and sold a few pairs of skates. i was so tired. but really happy that i managed to get those sales. strangely enough, i had more money than i was supposed to have. better than having less money that i'm supposed to i guess. hahaha.

2008-08-01T00:03:00.002+08:00

today i baked almond biscotti and brownies! yum :D (no pictures though.) biscotti was ridiculously easy. and fun too. and the best thing was that it turned out really really nice. sweet, crunchy (a tad too hard. i think i baked it for like a minute too long), and almond-y. haha. brownies were from leftover batter, but it was still yummy :D

and then when dad came back we took the dog for a walk. and there are these two huskys called snowy and rocky that live somewhere near us. and they had run out of the house unleashed just as we were walking past and when they saw axle they dashed across the road and rocky got hit by a car! the maid who was chasing after them, me, dad and some other people who were there screamed. it was so scary cause we all totally saw it coming (except the dogs of course). thank goodness the car had already slowed down so even though rocky got hit he only got a butt burn from the road because he squatted down and slid like a metre before coming to a stop. the car couldn't do emergency brakes either cause there was a minibus behind it. rocky is a lucky lucky dog.

then after that continued on our walk and i found a mango that had dropped from the tree. it was largely unbruised so i picked it up and smelt it and it smelt so good! so i took it and quickly cycled away in case the owner of the tree came out and caught me. haha. dad said he was sure it was full of worms but apparently not. well except for one little part that hit the ground first. we had it for dessert and it was really nice! it's not of the kind that are like sickly sweet and sticky but it was all tangy and a little sweet and really nice :D YUM.

i love my doggie wheel and axle, alx rose, whatever else you people wanna call him and i love walking him(: it was fun. hee.

2008-07-29T14:53:00.006+08:00

people have been bugging me to update. and i don't see why because they don't update that often either. hmpf. anyways, i haven't really done much since that outing with the girls. mainly going out having fun and enjoying singapore and friends before leaving again. oh and also trying to find time to do the uni stuff like settling accommodation and the visa and banking stuff.

we went cycling to east coast with ash and weilun on sunday (19 july) to visit cindy and her sandcastle building mates (including jerrold) and were joined by you mei and oon kee later. maybe it was a bad call starting to cycle to east coast when the sky was really dark but we did anyway and got pretty much drenched. funny thing, that. one more thing, weilun went on a plastic bag hunt because he did not want his bag and stuff to get wet.

that's weilun asking a someone for a plastic bag. he had his waist pouch slung around his shoulders around chest level so it was sticking out in the wrong places (especially since weilun is so skinny). hahaha.

and then had dinner at east coast hawker centre. again. but it was nice all the same :D yum yum. almost took the long long long way back by the park connector and changi village etc. but i think i would have died. speaking of death, i cheated death once that day. so did weilun. stupid rain stupid taxis.

then went for the band concert on 24 july with liyana, oon kee, you mei and ashley. school band + japanese band. they were really good. yes yes. those who didn't go missed a really good thing.

then on 25 july went to the night festival with ashley. and met cindy there for a bit since she was in school at 11 pm on a friday night (but was heading home. she's not THAT crazy). we were at the national museum which was lit up by a light installation. there were really nice designs. and then since there was free entry into the museum till 2 am, we went in for a look. it's really quite interesting.

hair ornaments that are made of kingfisher feathers! the turquoise stuff is actually kingfisher feathers!

handy hannah! the hair dryer that comes with IT'S OWN STAND! hahaha.

my pink love!

and the many facades of the national museum.

and that's it for this update (: more pictures on facebook.

2008-07-17T16:49:00.005+08:00

went out with the girls again on tuesday. at phoebe's request, we had a small gathering at breeks/zingdo at takashimaya. with cindy and you mei working, we could only meet up in the evening, so it was dinner or nothing. liyana, oon kee and i met up first since we were the bummers and had nothing to do (well oon kee and liyana had to go to school first to settle some stuff, so i guess that makes me the only bum), and phoebe and you mei joined us a little later, and cindy was late. i wish this girl would take some time off her stupid work...:

typical cindy. splitting the bill. see what i mean by i wish she'd take some time off work for herself? 1. it makes the rest of us look bad. 2. she needs rest and time for herself.

result of boredom whilst waiting for phobe, you mei and cindy.

phoebe left early for a movie and then the rest of us went to buy a pair of shoes for cindy. and then dessert at the coffee club. yum (: and also also... we met oon kee's bf! heh. and then when we were going home, me and you mei met cindy's... uh... potential bf! hahaha.

i love this bunch of girls to bits :D

2008-07-15T14:48:00.006+08:00

okay i know i haven't blogged in a LONG while... so here's an update. i'll just let the pictures do the talking, shall i? haha. here goes:

sunrise at coogee on the day i left.

shoes hanging on telephone/electrical wires. a common sight in sydney.

thanks to gerahahahahard for giving me and dian a ride to the airport, and adeline and rahul who came to the airport to see us off and helped me with my luggage crisis.

bananas reunite!

back to our scrabble ways. these 4 months have done nothing to improve the scrabble skills of b2. obviously.

last day of interschools with kian tat. he says i look like a filipino maid here -.-

PRATA IN JB. YUM(:

the human cat. scarily flexible.

dinner thing at penny's place.

andrew's first mangosteen.

and the look on our faces if i had to go back to sydney next wednesday:

haha (:

2008-07-07T14:05:00.003+08:00

back back back back back backkkkkkkkk hahaha.

i know it's been almost a week but i've been too busy playing to blog. hahaha.

the day of my leaving was hectic to say the least. i slept at 4.30am and woke up at 6am cause i wanted to go see the sunrise at coogee before i left. it was really worth the waking up and all at that crazy hour. so anyways after that went to get the cheeses for mum at the supermarket and then went back to clean up the room and vacate. vacuumed and wiped and by the time i was actually done it was 8.40am when i was supposed to leave at 8.30am. gerard was supposed to pick me and dian and go to the airport but by the time my luggage got into the car it was almost impossible to imagine dian's luggage fitting in there too. but somehow, miraculously, we managed to fit everything in and move off to the airport. thank goodness.

but that was not the end of the trouble.

when we got to the airport, we went to check in but as expected my luggage was overweight. see, i had one HUGE luggage and one not so HUGE one. the HUGE one weighed 44kgs while the other one was about 20 odd kgs. so when i put the HUGE one onto the weighing thing, the person at the counter told me "we can't handle that. it's too heavy." i nearly died. my heart literally stopped for like 3 seconds. she said that it was a safety and occupational hazard and that the austrlian baggage handlers weren't allowed to handle more luggages of more than 32kgs so i HAD to divide the weight up or something. even then, she said she'd have to charge me for overweight baggage which i fully expected to pay. what i did NOT expect was that it came up to 700 dollars. so she said that i had another option which was to send it by freight which would arrive 3 to 4 days later and whose charges was less than half that of the airline's. so i went to do that. but i was told again that i had to split my luggage becuase the baggage handlers did not handle luggages of more than 32kgs. so then i had no choice but to go get another bag and split my luggage. in the end i paid 200 odd aussie dollars to ship my luggage home. thank goodness i had dian, gerard, adeline and rahul with me or i think i would have just broken down in the middle of the airport. so then went to get my krispy kremes and then boarded. i think me and dian were the last to board. and i think i was the cause of a 45 min delay cause i forgot my phone at the handcarry screening thing. hahaha and they had to go back for it.

when we were boarding there was this ground staff who joked that he was supposed to confisicate our krispy kremes and he was the one who brought my phone to me. and when he saw me he said "oh it's you again." and i was like "uh yes it's me." and then he asked what my wallpaper was just to confirm that it was mine. and when i gave the answer he said he didn't expect that i would admit it. cause my wallpaper was of cookie monster. POO. but all was in good nature, so it made it not so bad. haha.

and I FINALLY WENT HOME (:

and then another fiasco was collecting the luggage. god, it was so retarded. so let me start from the beginning. the cargo people called me on friday saying that my luggage was there and i had to collect it by saturday 7.30pm and it was not a problem at all. so i went down on saturday with ashley to get it. and i didn't want to go by myself since the luggage was like 44kgs. and there was no way in the world i was going to manage to get that into the boot of the car by myself. so anyways it's a restricted area to we had to exchange our ICs for visitor passes. and apparently... people with green ICs aren't allowed in! hahahahaha. anyways after that it was one big wild goose chase from court N to B to H and back to B. had to pay a dollar for 2 minutes of parking just because some idiot directed us to the wrong court thing and gst on an application fee for a gst permit. and almost got into an argument with the gst dude. and well, just not a very good experience at all. but i finally got back my luggage. yay. in total paid about 450 SGD to get my stuff back from aus.

and well other than that i've just been playing and playing. went to sentosa with cindy oonkee youmei ashley weilun kokboon edwin yinglin and glavin yesterday and it was fun! andy and boonhow ATUALLY joined us for dinner. and ice cream. fun (: gotta wait for the pictures from galvin though.

haven't eaten much hawker food. but i fully plan to. after i get used to the sweltering heat. have just been trying to hide in air conditioned areas for the past few days. and so far been able to do so quite successfully. haha. strangely (or not) i'm perfectly okay in a 19 degree airconditioned room while everyone else is like OMG WHY IS YOUR ROOM SO COLD. haha.

and now i'm working. this creepy indian customer just asked if we could be friends.

really good to be home though (:

2008-06-29T21:26:00.002+08:00

please check back for photos.

so today was the day of a once-in-a-lifetime-experience of buying a huge luggage bag from paddy's and dragging it through the city and on the bus home. WITH DIAN :D this girl is seriously funny. hahahaha. luggage bag shopping with her is FUN. so anywayssss... here's what happened...

woke up at 1030 and found that dian had messaged me asking if i wanted to go out. so i said i had planned to go to paddy's to get bernard's jeans and a luggage bag since well i've packed only my clothes and one luggage bag is already full. and so we went down together. and started looking for luggage bags. and it was such a mistake to go down on a sunday since it was SO CROWDED OMG. so we battled our way through the throngs of people and found a few shops selling luggage bags. but since i knew i'd look like an idiot carrying it all around upstairs to look for jeans and stuff we decided to go look for jeans first and eat. so we went upstairs and i found jeans in jayjays.

and i had to try it on because BERNARD INSISTS THAT THEY MUST BE TAPERED NOT SKINNY AND DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HIS OWN SIZE. so i tried 32 which is the higher range of what he gave me and i just fit ): I FEEL DISGUSTING AND FAT (pukes). so one was straight legged and one was skinny. and i figured that if he didn't want the skinny then i could just wear them. hahaha. but i didn't know whether or not to buy so we went to eat first. but after that i sitll hadn't decided so i just though i'd get them tmr since we had planned to go to bondi junction tmr.

and then we went to get the bag. haha. thank goodness dian asked me to check the bags first and like the insides or i wound't have noticed that the first bag's inside zip was spoilt and broken and the zipper tracks weren't sewn in properly and that the second one was missing a screw. hahah it was SO FUNNY. anyways so i happily got my bag and went home. on the bus looking like an idiot.

so that's it for today. as for yesterday... went to bondi beach and opera house and chinatown and star city! haha. well it started off with me asking manuel to go with me to bondi on friday night since i wanted to go but not by myself and i knew that gerahahahahard had his friends over and etc. so we met at bondi junction for lunch at 12, and gerahahahahard and his friends managed to join us. so we ate and then had to endure gerahahahahard's terrible driving to the beach. but it was fun (:

and then went to the opera house and took like a million photos. and then went to climb a tree. and had dinner. and see darling harbour. and star city. and ICE CREAM. and then i came back to pack. HAHAHA.

and that's a very shortened version of what happened lol.

yes. gerahahahahard is FUNNY.

2008-06-26T22:09:00.003+08:00

TIME FOR A MUCH NEEDED OVERDUE POSTTTT.

BECAUSE THE EXAM IS FINNALY OVER.

AND I HAVE FREE TIME TO BLOG.

AND EVEN THOUGH I'M STILL THINKING IN MED TERMS, I DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT THEIR DEFINITIONS/EMBR/ANAT/BIOCHEM/HISTO/PATHO/ETC IS.

AND BECAUSE I'M SO DAMN TIRED OF STUDYING AND MEMORISING AND ASSOCIATING AND I'M SO TIRED OF THE LIBRARY.

haha for the past few days i've been studying in the library in an attempt to ACTUALLY get some work done. and it's been sunny and nice all week. and the first year med students have been the only ones stuck in the stupid library all the stupid week.

i think the exam went alright though. i neglected to study for the cystic fibrosis part, so i had only the vaguest idea what it was about. so i decided (a very smart move i must add) to skip that part of the question totally. and i barely had time to finish the paper. so when i went back to read through what i had missed out after they called time, i realised i could have gotten some marks for the stupid symptoms of the stupid cf part. grr. oh well. at least it wasn't a major major part. but in all an easier than expected paper that was answerable.

geez why am i analysing it to death. i should stop.

anyways so after that went to the city with penny and chris and met up with chris' friend and had gelato and korean barbecue and then came back and now i'm falling asleep trying to type this up.

i have no idea why, but i'm so physically tired. i think it's accumulation from all that stupid studying. i think i need to go sleep now. i wanna go to the beach tmr. bondi maybe. and i need to settle other stuff too which is just a PAIN IN THE YOU KNOW WHERE. or in pheobe's words, ischial tuberosity illness.

heh. yes, cheers, anatomy.

NO MORE EXAMS :D

2008-06-21T23:13:00.003+08:00

histology/anatomy/physiology/biochemistry/... (well you get the idea) of my room:

and another cross section...

2008-06-20T21:22:00.002+08:00

i've been so busy omg with exams coming up and all. update when i can. maybe after exams.

no bananas for the week. none tonight. maybe tmr...

2008-06-16T22:12:00.005+08:00

stupid blogger doesn't want to upload my pics. so another day? check back! meanwhile...

today was a good day! that's why i decided to wear my blue pyjamas. hahaha :D

first of all, what made it such a good day was that i finally handed in my ivf assignment! YAY NO MORE IVF FOR A LONG LONG LONG LONG TIME. final word count was 2100. which is pretty much a record since the initial word count was like 3000 :D

i got a piece of cake for t-yunn today. but i forgot that it was jannah's birthday too! anyways, i just wished her. hmm... yeppers. but other than that it was pretty normal. most people didn't know and those who did knew through facebook. hahaha. t-yunn got a brownie for me too! and loads of people gave me their wishes. so THANKS EVERYONE :D

and when i got back, i had millions of notofications on facebook saying that people had written on my wall. haha. and and and... I GOT PHOEBE'S CARDDDD! thanks phoebe :D i love your handwriting. if you see my notes, you wouldn't believe i made them. gahahahaha. i was so thinking that i miss your neat typerwriter style handwriting before i even opened the envelope and you actually thought of the same thing! lol. love the card :D

gerard says i get a wish every birthday regardless of whether i get a cake with a candle on it or not. can't seem to think of anything to wish for though. i guess i have most of the things i want in my life. lucky me :D oh and daddy says he's gonna get me an iphone! yay. see, how can i have anything else to wish for? hmm maybe i can accumulate it and have lotsa wishes for when i actually think of something to use them for :D

and then me, t-yunn, shamini and chin leng went for dinner at a thai restaurant at the spot. it was quite good. and then we had icecream! yay :D

funny how it it just became so real that i'm already 20. it seems only yesterday that i was becoming a teen, and i'm already 20! enough of reminiscing, it's the beginning of a new stage of life. can't wait :D

2008-06-11T14:00:00.005+08:00

yay, finally a day which i beat the sun home. hahaha.

so anyway i wanted to blog yesterday but it was so late by the time i had gotten home and eaten and showered and all that i decided to do it today instead.

so yesterday i brought a piece of pomelo to school and was eating it during break when the group had to meet to put finishing touches to our project. and harleen saw me eating it. and she was SO fascinated with the pomelo, because she had never seen one before, it was so funny. and then we went on to talk about life in asia etc etc. and then somehow or another we started talking about how we were so clumsy when walking around. and in general. and then harleen said that she was so clumsy that kicks into random stuff in her own home sometimes. so then chris went: "next time when you get married you should have no furniture in your house." and then harleen went "next time? what do you mean 'NEXT TIME'?" haha and i know it's stupid and trivial and whatnot, but you can totally see how singlish has brought down the standard of standard english in singapore. what harleen meant was why was there a need to say "next time", whereas chris and i were totally lost when she said "what do you mean 'NEXT TIME'?" which, if you think about it, is very true. what need is there for "NEXT TIME"? sadly, my english has been affected too since i was giving her the blank look when she responded to chris' first statement. or maybe it's just me that is reading too much into this incident. ah well.

and then yesterday i met michael from manuel's sg. he's a chinese (i think) and he's living away from home because his parents wanted him to move out. it's not a bad thing, and i can understand totally why his parents might have wanted him to move out, but it was kinda weird cause it's not like their family home was very far away from school, and also because i just cannot see my parents wanting me to move out. mainly the second reason actually. yeah, i knew that people actually want their kids to move out of their family home when they're really young, but i don't think it really hit me hard how real and normal this was till yesterday. even when one of my sg mates told us that he is living away from home with his gf (and he's only like 18), i didn't really have this sudden realisation that it was so real. and yes, i know this might be normal for some here, but really, i don't think it really makes any real impact on you till you are in that position yourself or are away from home and people tell you that their parents wanted them to move out. maybe it's cause people in singapore normally stay at home till they are married (some even after they are married. or never.) because of the shortage of land and housing, so we don't really get it about how it is to move out at a young age. or maybe it's just me. again. it's funny how these things just suddenly hit me.

and then we had to submit our group project. which was this HUGE fiasco because we couldn't submit our group members' names. but eventually we just submitted it and went to the dean's office to inform them. turns out that everyone had the same problem. and yes. i got my life saving cert! hahaha. i can save lives now -.- haha.

speaking of submitting our group project, we went to watch sex and the city yesterday for the rahms fund raiser. also to celebrate the submission and riddance of the group project. haha. i think it was quite a good show. well on the surface it seemed trashy and i guess for the most part of it, it was, but it was also really nice to see the group of girlfriends support each other like that. it made me think of my girlfriends back in singapore (and one in aus. and one in the uk.) and how thankful i am that i have them cause i'm sure we'll be there for each other like them in the show. i miss you people(if you are actually reading this)! must must meet up when phoebe and i get back (: and of course with ryan. and robyn. for hm!!! would i recommend it? yeahhhh.. maybe. if you are pretty open minded and can take vulgarities etc etc etc that kind of thing welland also if you're a fan of the tv series i guess. and yeah if you have a free movie ticket too. hahaha. not saying that you shouldn't pay to watch it but it really depends on what you like. unless you'd rather watch kungfoohhhhh pandahhhh. not that i've watched it. i just included that line cause i wated to type kungfoohhhhh pandahhhh. heh.

when i got back i watched more shows. haha. there was this mongolian family who had camels. one of the camels had a particularly difficult birth to a white camel (it was so cute) and thus rejected it. and it didn't want to suckle the colt. so they family tried to reconcile them but to no avail. so as a last resort, they called in a violinist to come in and help calm the mother down and reconcile the camels. and they managed to! with tradtional mongolian music and singing. the camel was initially very agitated because the humans kept holding it down and forcing the colt to suckle. but after they sang to it, it calmed down and actually started shedding tears. i kid you not! it was so amazing. and in the end it acutally let the colt suckle and like they managed to reconcile the mother with her baby! it was so so sooooooo amazing. (i know my vocab is really limited, but i'm still in awe.)

well back to starting to finish my assignment now! hahaha.

camels' humps are floppy when they are first born. really.

more pictures are going to be added but my camera battery is dead now. so i'm charging it before i dl the pics. check back! (:

2008-06-06T21:49:00.001+08:00

i love having a physio friend. she teaches me about anatomy. hahahahaha.

onward with IVF assignment...

2008-06-05T23:13:00.003+08:00

shit i feel so drained.

it's not like i'm working like crazy. it's not like i'm working OUT like crazy.

just so physically and mentally drained. like you know how i lose it after a while and just laugh non stop. well it happened twice in the past week. perhaps more.

my assignment is killing me (as i've alluded to in my last post), my project is going fine but i'm so freaking out that i'm going to let my group members down. i'm so behind on the revision, and i have no idea whether i'm going to pass my exam and i need to absorb all i can from now so i don't have as much to revise as hard for just before the exams. and in between all that i think about manchester two thirds of the remaining time and the rest of the time i'm just preoccupied.

not good. need to buck up.

2008-06-05T22:46:00.002+08:00

I HATE IVF I WILL NEVER HAVE IVF EVEN IF I BLEEDING CANNOT HAVE A KID. GRRR.

oh geez i'm so tired. but i feel like it's such a waste if i go to sleep now cause tmr is a late day and i should do my work now cause i don't have to wake up early tmr. but it's not like i'm doing it anyway, right. ugh. okay now i'm just whingeing. so i will stop.

stupid ethics lecture today made me realise how screwed up my assignment is. well the lecture was not stupid, it was actually really helpful. but the fact that it made me realise how screwed up my assisnment is, is stupid. i have to finish it soon. really. i'm not looking forward AT ALL to working up to the last minute.

i wait wait wait. and am disappointed disappointed disappointed. but i think it's unreasonable. so i will try to stop stop stop ): i am left here alone alone alone.

i am not the poet kok boon is.

26 days!

2008-06-04T16:24:00.002+08:00

HELLO UNSW FRIENDS (:

i had clinicals today. and we were in the lift with a usyd physio student. it was a STRANGEEEEEEE sensation standing next to her. to think that i was supposed to be in her place in that usyd physiotherapy tee instead of in the place i'm in now.

not saying that physios aren't as good as drs, but you know, it's just that i wanted to do medicine SO badly. and then i didn't get accepted to any unis and instead got into usyd physio, it was kinda disappointing but i accepted it. and then i got this place. and then suddenly when i'm having clinical tutorials i find myself standing next to someone whose place i would have been in if not for unsw medicine, wondering what i would have been thinking if i were in her place in that lift. not sure any of you will ever get to experience that, but it is VERY weeeeeirdddd.

and now i'm just so thankful that i am doing what i originally wanted to. and that i have two options even (:

2008-06-03T22:25:00.003+08:00

oh man, my cough is getting so bad. and what's worse, i got up at 9.10 today and i forgot to take my waterbottle out with me as i ran out of the house (again).

i saw no point in trying to rush for the first lecture so i just took my time to walk to school in time for the second lecture. this oversleeping thing is really bad. i better wake up properly tmr. school was pretty boring today. except... during my break, we went out to get subway for lunch (again). heh. subway's NICE. and did you know that there are more subway restaurants in australia than macdonald's? random facts. sg was BORING.

omg my eyes feel like they're gonna pop out whenever i cough. and it's not a relieving cough. it doesn't relieve the itch in the throat. it's just like a vehement expulsion of breath. oh shit. tmr's clinicals. i'm gonna be coughing like mad during clinicals. i wonder if they'll admit me.

on the bright side, my cousins started sailing lessons today. yay. i'll have more people to capsize when i finally get back and finall sail again. hahaha. i loved seeing them in their bathtub boats (and will consequently love laughing at them in their bathtub boats). well at least i'll have more people to go sailing with when i get back :D

speaking of which... IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN 29 DAYS! can't wait(:

2008-06-01T18:13:00.002+08:00

god, it has been such a boring day. i know i'm not supposed to be finding it boring because i'm supposed to be studying/doing my assignment. but i'm not. i'm such a bloody bum. UGH. my assignment is due in 2 weeks. project in 1. but at least my project is done. mostly.

and i still haven't decided whether or not to go to manchester although i most probably will. strangely enough (or maybe not) i'm now starting to not want to go. it actually comes in waves/phases. like whether or not to go. the urge to stay usually comes after an sg. or some lesson that i throughly enjoyed with some of my sg mates. and then i come home, brood over it, analyse it half to death. and then when i'm standing in the shower thinking more about it, i start to think that i definitely want to go to manchester. and then the next day i go to school again and AGAIN, i start to think that i want to stay. but i still have my doubts about staying. like whether i'm going to get what i wanted from an overseas education.

this is so bloody brilliant. i just realised that i have lessons on three days this week from 9 to 11 and then 3 to 5. that means three 4-hour breaks. and one day in the hospital. plus another which i have lab from 3 to 5. I HATE MY TIMETABLE. on the bright side, however, next monday is the queen's birthday holiday (i wonder if the queen's birthday holiday changes with every new queen. i suppose it does. i mean, not all queens can have the same birthday, can they...). which will probably be used for studying. since the exams will be upon me in 3 weeks and 4 days. counting this week. and we'll be having lessons and new content right up till the friday before the exam. how are we supposed to master whatever we just learnt before the exam, i do not understand.

so counting today, in:

1 week and 1 day - queen's birthday holiday
1 week and 2 days - group project due
2 weeks and 1 day - individual assignment due
3 weeks and 4 days - BGD A EXAMINATION
3 weeks and 4 days (after the exam) - FREE FROM BGD A FINALLY. also, have to decide whether or not to stay. if deciding not to stay, have to settle stuff, like hp, rent, internet, etc. (sorry if this seems more like a checklist of things for me to do. haha)
3 weeks and 5 days to 4 weeks and 2 days - play, play play, pack, pack, pack.
4 weeks and 3 days - HEAD BACK TO SINGAPORE (:

and somewhere along the way, try to start exercising, get my acommodation allocation, break the news to aunty yoon and friends (if and when i decide to leave). it all seems very close right now after listing it out like that. and 4 weeks and 3 days really doesn't seem very far off at all(YAY!). even more so, 3 weeks and 4 days does not (which is not a good thing.). the funny thing is that if you say something like "i'm going back to singapore in a month" it seems like such a long way away. which if you think about it... isn't. okay. now i'm just going round and round in circles.

sometimes blogging is a pain in the ass. i know there are people who read my blog and i feel an obligation to blog for them, but i don't know what to blog about. and yet after forcing myself to blog, i find it therapeutic. i know it might seem strange that i find some therapeutic value in blogging, but i just get this urge to blog more and leave more entries. well all the better for people out there who actually read the random bits of information floating around my head that i bother to put into words (: you get bits of uh... juicy information (at times) and just plain boring stuff at others. but all the same, thanks! (:

2008-05-30T23:04:00.003+08:00

haha right. so. flashmob in unsw. 26 may 2008

and for those who don't know what a flashmob is, go here.

2008-05-28T20:55:00.003+08:00

like real... -.-

2008-05-23T23:49:00.001+08:00

hahahahaha. the things we do... (:

in case you can't figure out what we were doing, i was in my brand new blue pyjamas with doggies on them and ashley was taking mug shots of me. LOL.

god, we're so strange. hahaha. but that's what i love about us (:

2008-05-23T12:43:00.002+08:00

a whole week since i last blogged. wel actually i planned to on monday seeing that almost everyone did. but i just didn't get around to finding the time to blog. plus the fact that i realised that phoebe did not actually read what i blogged. i lost my motivation ): but i figured that i still have other people. hahaha. AH well.

it's been a really busy week for me. as always. assignments are due in less than 3 weeks and i have yet to complete them. moreover, there's exams coming up in less than 5 weeks. you know, it's as if i've just finished one exam and before you know it, you have to start studying for the next cause it's creeping up on you like a sneaky little something. but on the other hand, time really flies and it'll not be long before i go back and see all my friends (:

so yeah there wasn't really anything that really stands out n my mind about this week. well we had natural family planning sg on tuesday and that was funny. let me not go into THAT though. haha. people have finally started to realise that the white band i always have on my wrist is my watch and during human rights tut on tuesday prav was just staring at it for a few seconds and when i realised that he was i looked at him and he went you have a strangeeeeeee watch. hahaha people are so fascinated with it, it's amusing, really.

and then on wednesday we had clinicals for the first time in BGD. it was alright... just talking to patients and getting a history from them.

i realised on monday that i hadn't done anything at all for my individual assignment, so i frantically started to research and write my report. but alas, i couldn't find any information on the eligibility criteria and funding for ivf in nsw. well see there's a 2000 word limit to the assignment, which works out to be about 300 words per section of the assingment, ie, 300 words to describe the eligibility criteria and funding, 300 words to describe PGD, gender selection and procedure for ivf and 300 words for response to scenario and reflections (which if you think about it, is really ridiculously few words. so i was wondering, since there was practically NO information for eligibility criteria and funding, maybe that's why they gave us so little allowance. hahaha. so i had to ask around for hints and it turns out that there is no legislation for ivf in nsw. except for guidelines (which, incidentally, ivf practitioners HAVE to adhere to) for ivf in nsw. still nothing for the funding of the ivf programme though.

group project's coming along. i have 100 words to describe how to implement a campaign through mass media. i wonder if that is even possible. trying to finish up al my assignments and projects so i can actually study over the weekend. for the exams. which WILL be counted this time ):

updates... soon. i hope. heh.

2008-05-16T19:05:00.001+08:00

okay, so, three main topics here today. let's go in chronological order...

1. last night's med revue was so good. the band was really good the singing and dancing was really good the everything was really good considering that they managed to put everything together in less than 2 months. including al the logistics, costumes and sketches and rehearsals and everything. there really are some talented people in school and and i wanna learn to play the drums! haha. or the saxophone. hahaha. oh right... you know now it's fall here right. so all the leaves ae turning red and yellow. and falling to the ground. yesterday when we were on the way to med revue we saw that someone had picked up some of the red and yellow leaves and made a "i (heart) you, mum" and the words were in yellow and the heart was in red. was really nice. and then when we were walking back we passed by again and someone had changed it to say "i (heart) my bum". grr.

2. we had a really interesting pract today. well we had 2 practs. one was on isozymes and electrophoresis. which was alright i guess, but the highlight was the physiology lab which was on female hormones and their effects. in which we had to dissect a rat! haha. well we had to take out it's uterus to see the effects of various hormones on it. so there were like 6 of us in the group. two girls and 4 guys. and then we had to first do a vaginal swab and then fix and stain the samples of the cells so we could observe them under the microscope. and one of the guys was like well, seeing as how it is a female rat..... i think one of the girls shoud do the honours lol. so i did it first (we had to do 4 slides). it felt really wrong to put the cotton bud into the vagina. but yeah you kinda just have to do it. and then when i was halfway through one of the guys was like is the rat having an orgasm can you hear it moaning. and i was like omg so wrong. i mean... it was dead. or well, recently deceased. apparently they euthanised it earlier. but it was still warm and flexible.

pass! says:
do a viginal swab of rats
(not) cheeky says:
yup
pass! says:
somehow tats not very right
(not) cheeky says:
why not?
pass! says:
i am not gonna answer tat
haha wth
(not) cheeky says:
why not?!
seriously?!
oh come on...
i've described the female reproductive system to you! there's NOTHING i can be shocked at right now. what with oon kee and yesterday's med revue and today's lab
pass! says:
the part of havin the words rat vagina and swab in the same sentence
pass! says:
oh
poor rat
killed and then violated

thank goodness we didn't have to kill it like manuel described yesterday... he said it was just sedated. lucky thing it turned out that we didn't have to kill it after all. anyways there wasn't much to be seen on the slide. but it was fun staining our own samples too. the funnest lab so far. heh.

3. (and the most recent - that i've found out, that is.) oon kee has a bf! of cindy, you mei and her, the person i would have least expected to get a bf is her! omg haha, i'm so happy for her though. she's such a nice girl who i think deserves someone nice. so her bf better treat her well and nice or i'll come after him! haha.

today has been a good day in all. sent my health questionnaire and letter of good conduct off to the uk too. good day (:

yay to those who read till the end :D haha.

2008-05-14T20:29:00.003+08:00

yay finally had a relatively free day today, so yeah blogging before i go back to the notes.
today started bad. bad like how i woke up only at 8.43am for 9 o'clock lectures. and for those (who are reading this and) don't know, i take about 25 minutes to walk to school. when i saw that it was 8.43, i literally jumped out of bed and rushed through the morning routine (i think making a huge amount of noise and perhaps waking aunty yoon in the process) and ran out of the house at 2 minutes to 9. without any food ): haha. anyways so i was running to school fully expecting to miss like half the lecture. but thank goodness as i ran past the bus stop, the bus had just arrived and i hopped on! hahaha.

so then on the bus there were these two people who looked like they were uh destitutes? yeah there was a man and a lady. and the lady was shouting for the guy to get her some money. and like halfway through the journey the bus driver got so irritated that he got out and told them to shut up because he was trying to drive and the people in the bus didn't want to hear it. he was so right. so he proceeded to separate them and told them off.

what a bus ride. and on a day i was late too.

so when the bus got to my stop i jumped off an ran the rest of the way to school. and when i got to the auditorium there was this huge lcd screen with the message "HOW DID YOU GET TO SCHOOL TODAY?" i was like wtf. i got to school in the record time of 12 minutes today, reaching the lecture venue at ten past 9 and didn't miss much of the lecture at all, thank goodness.
so i had no breakfast and a 5 hour block of lessons. 2 hours of lectures and 3 hours of clinical communication skills. so i got a raspberry muffin between them. had to find my way to the CCS place which was outside campus. and i (and john) was late again.

anyways after all the lessons and all, came back, had a late late lunch and then did maternal physiology and then went online.

we had a attachment and bonding (as in emotional) tutorial the other day. and after attending, i feel like maybe i'm not so close to mom cause i was not given the chance to bond and form an attachment with her during the first few hours and days of my brith. thanks to the nice dr who put me into isolation because of the cut he gave me. ah well... at least i'm not dead now, so i guess i have that to be thankful for (:

and the fact that i'm perfectly healthy. just knowing about the birth defects a baby can have, i just feel so lucky to be perfectly healthy. well maybe not perfectly, but mostly. on the other hand, the fetus is such a parasite, literally leeching off the mother. a loved parasite. a parasite in which people rejoice when born. which is strange if you think of it in terms of it being a parasite. hahaha.

i think my mind is so saturated with school work now (though it's not necessarily absorbed) that i started asking dad about whether i was an accident or whether he and mom planned to have me and how far along mom was before she found out that she was pregnant and whether i was a test tube baby and he refused to answer me. grrr. and instead he tells me about how he thinks one of his colleagues might have had a shotgun marriage and then he goes on to tell me about the durex survey that was published in TODAY last thursday. i was like wtf?!

anyways so i went to read the article. pretty interesting.

singapore, apparently has an ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom-use) campaign. and mr khaw said in parliament that many parents will be upset with it as they are afraid that it will promote promiscuity. well there's a reason that A is first. just like the five rules in sailing, you know (1. boat on a starboard tack has the right of way over a boat on a port tack, 2. the leeward boat has the right of way over the windward boat, etc.) you go with the first rule first and then go down the list. so you see, people should really abstain first, so BY RIGHT, promiscuity should not be promoted by this. i think anyway.

wow, but mean age at which singaporeans lose their virginity is WAY low. 18.4 years?! do they not have anything better to do?!

And do the sexuality and parenting programmes we have equip parents adequately to talk to their children about condom use?

i just CANNOT imagine dad and mom trying to talk to us abut condom use. can you imagine yours doing that?

and this:

Promoting abstinence and faithfulness is effective in keeping HIV under control, but more focus is needed on efforts to educate sexually-active teens about sexuality and condom use, said volunteer group Action for Aids. How will the authorities get a chance to help teens when premarital sex is emphasised as a moral wrong?

so true.

sigh. the state of teens in today's society.

hopefully no one pro-premarital sex reads this or i'll get shot down again for sure.

all abstracts and statistics:
MediaCorp Press Ltd (2005) "Hot News // Thursday, May 8, 2008" (8 May 2008) Retrieved, 14 May 2008 from http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_open.asp?id=0805NSL006

practice good citing habits people, APA style. heh.

oh and...

Singtel Online SMS service:

96622593: I should have gone to a polyclinic. Why do they call it poly clinics anyway?
Claudia: uh... because there are POLY clinics?
96622593: Haha. So what does POLY mean?
Claudia: you know like POLYgamy, POLYspermy and POLY uh... clinics?
96622593: Lol wtf. What's polyspermy?
Claudia: it's when many sperm fertilise one egg.
96622593: Lol... right. In army terms it's just called charlie foxtrot.
Claudia: why?
96622593: You know, like cluster f*&$...
Claudia: oh. haha. but i think in this case charlie foxtrot is not really appropriate. CF in this case is more like cluster fertilisation.
96622593: Lol. That is so funny. There you go, blogging material.
Claudia: haha, sure thing. i already have blogging material...
96622593: Haha. Good for you...

see what i mean about my mind being too saturated with school work? and how good things always come at the end. for all those who managed to put up with my shit till here...... :D

anyways med revue tickets are for tmr. everyone who's been yesterday says it was really good. can't wait!

and finally, to end off... here are some pictures!

2008-05-13T22:16:00.001+08:00

omg -.- this course is so hectic. it's the second week of lectures and i already have a backlog of stuff to do. and i even forgot to blog. time's just passing me by and there are so so so so so so many things for me to do. if i can finish doing most stuff by tmr then i guess i'll blog tmr. so until then... tata (:

10oth post!

2008-05-09T22:28:00.007+08:00

each day she waits patiently for night when she can contact him. eventually darkness falls and she feels comforted, happy that she will be able to talk to him again. the time nears and the anticipation mounts. bursting to tell him what she has done and to find out how his day was, she is in front of the laptop, her hands are at the ready, poised over the keyboard, waiting for the alert.

but it never comes.

instead, a message on her phone. he'll be busy. sadness seeps into her like a noxious gas, filling her up with something akin to lead starting from the gut and reaching far to the extremeties. if colours could represent moods she goes from an excited, happy yellow-gold to a disappointed blue to a dull gray and jet black within a matter of seconds.

and so it continues day after day for the whole week. everyday she tries to wait up, to see if she can get the little chance there is of talking to him online, perhaps having a video call. but there is none. everyday she goes from that yellow-gold to the jet black, nothing alleviating the dull throb of disappointment that pounds in her head.

monday busy.

tuesday busy.

wednesday out.

thursday tired. he doesn't want to talk.

friday. they've been messaging each other for the day. short messages flying across the miles between them, bridging the distance for at least the few moments everytime she receives a message. her heart leaps when he says that he'll see her online, finally thinking that she can talk to him properly for the first time in almost a week. to be able to just shut out the world and be however close to him that is possible.

but that was not to be.

no right whatsoever to be mad. and she isn't. so what is this feeling in her? it is an undefinable heaviness that just refuses to leave her. tears threaten to materialise and leak out the corners of her eyes. why? is it all the stupid crazy hormones that she's been learning about? or is it perfectly reasonable?

not wanting to analyse it anymore than was really needed, she decides to put it into words, hoping to let him know what she's feeling, hoping it will lift the weight that has settled upon her. she continues to do other things, trying to postpone the moment that she has to relive all that has happened. but the time finally comes, knowing what she must do, she settles in front of the laptop and starts to write, feeling increasingly vulnerable with each word that appears: "each day she waits patiently for night..."

2008-05-09T22:15:00.002+08:00

hahaha omg. you should see the fail blog. it is HILARIOUS.

2008-05-07T22:33:00.003+08:00

OMG WE HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL PASTA DINNER TONIGHT. SIMPLE RECIPE (WELL THERE WASN'T REALLY A RECIPE, AS WITH MOST OF AUNTY YOON'S COOKING.) YET WITH COMPLEX FLAVOURS. IT WAS REALLY GOOD. IT WAS A LINGUINE WITH LAMB, SWEET POTATOES, MUSHROOMS AND ROCKET. YUM YUM (: I WILL DEFINITELY TRY TO RECREATE IT...

DON'T ASK ME WHY I'M CAPS-ING I JUST FEEL LIKE SHOUTING. HAHAHAH.

2008-05-07T20:07:00.000+08:00

today was the third day of bgd and we already have a task to do for tmr.

yesterday was the second day of bgd and we already had stuff to study.

monday was the first day of bgd and we had stuff to study, and an assignment to choose, which,
by the way, is due on my birthday, and a group project to choose.

O.M.G. that's why i've not been blogging (excuses, excuses). hahaha.

we met out new sg's on tuesday for the first time during contraception tut and they were quite nice i thought. then during sg. and they showed that they were really nice. really funny. and we had to do some task thing for sg 2 (which is tmr) and i got sorted into task 2 with prav and fiona. they seemed nice. yeah so we split the assignment and i had to do something about the stolen generations of the indigenous people and the reduced accessibility and utilisation of health services as a result of that. it's... interesting reading but irritating as an assignment (isn't it always?) . grrr. anyways i'm done save for some improvements that i have to make but i just hope i don't freak out tmr when we're suppsoed to give the presentation.

other than that, it's just been really hectic with days with 4 hour breaks and all. it's really
irritating. i plan to come home during the breaks the next time i have one (which is tmr). but i'm not sure it'll work out. we'll see how it goes.

anyways i found 2 people with the same birthday as me and one whose birthday is on the 17th of june. haha. what a coincidence. i still feel really old cause most people are either 17 going on 18 or 18 going on 19. can't imagine how the singaporean guys feel. hahaha. god, i can't believe i'm turning 20 in less than 2 months. actually it's more like in 1 month and 2 weeks. geez. BUT let me not go on about it now.

EIGHT WEEKS MORE! before i come home! before i can bake! before bananas reunite! hahaha omg that sounds so corny. haha. but on the not so bright side, I NEED TO DECIDE: MANCHESTER OR UNSW?!

i'm in such a muddle now, i ACTUALLY asked MR AIDIL for advice. and he, being so "biased and an anglo phile" told me straight off that he'd think manchester would be a better choice. there's some reservations holding me back, but i really cannot put my finger on it. i feel like i would be making a mistake if i didn't go but i also feel like i MIGHT be making a mistake if i go. what do i want? a good university experience and education. what are my priorities? no idea. i might seem too idealistic but i dunno... i don't see any wrong with trying to get what i think is the ideal. i might be disillusioned at the end, but i don't see how it can get any worse (not that it's very bad now). sigh. i need some help. some advice. some direction. well maybe direction is the wrong word. but some sort of SIGN as to whether i should move! HELP!

2008-05-01T21:49:00.004+08:00

this is pretty much going to be a let-the-pictures-do-the-talking kind of post. well except maybe the last part.

so on tuesday we went to palm beach. meeting point was circular quay. then we went by ferry to manly wharf which was a half an hour ferry ride away. it was cold-ish but the sun was out so some of us sat outside to enjoy the uh... weather and scenery:

we went to manly beach for a bit just to look around. and play around for a bit. haha. it looked really familiar. i'd gone there on holiday before:

and then the next leg was taking the bus to warringah mall and then lunch. and after lunch we headed to palm beach on l90 where we played around. andrew went swimming and we buried him. made him into a mermaid. hahahaha:

and then we took a walk around the area. really nice houses with really nice views. and we watched the sunset (we lieterally waited for it - top row middle photo) from palm beach wharf:

and then we headed back the same way we came, ie, by bus and ferry. it was SO cold on the ferry but we wanted to see the harbour bridge and opera house by night, so we just went on the ferry. i guess it was pretty worth it:

it was pretty fun.

yep and the next day (yesterday) i woke up at 1130 for lunch at 1300 with sandra, who was leaving for canberra, and aunty yoon. then went to bondi junction to get my shoes (yay finally) and then went to kevin's place for dinner. it was really good. i was helping him serve the food so he had finished dishing out the portions and i was about to take it out when he said "waitwaitwait. need to add olive oil first." so i was like "okay nice." and then after he had added the olive oil i was about to take it out again and then he went "waitwaitwait. there's still the garnish." hahaha. by this time i was like "wow you're really meticulous." but no regrets. it was really good with the olive oil and garnishing. there was salad too with some other toasted (homemade) bread and salsa-ish thing. and dessert was a bread pudding with pineapple. and it took (literally) 5 minutes to prepare and half an hour to bake. it was SO easy. i'll need to make it soon. and the best thing? I FIGURED I CAN USE THE TURBO FAN OVEN TO BAKE AT HOME SO YAY I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT TILL I GET BACK TO SINGAPORE. hahaha. well okay more pictures:

yep, so today was the lifesaving course. i think it was pretty interesting and useful cause they taught us how to perform cpr and all that stuff. we ended at 2 (it was scheduled to end at 5). same thing tmr. we'll probably end early too though. yay (:

sorry, pics are a bit small. hahaha. oops.

2008-04-28T22:30:00.003+08:00

hahaha yay the foundations exam is over! so this afternoon and the next two days are for slacking. before beginnings growth and development starts. oh but before that, the life saving course thing. so after exams today we waited for 3 hours for sg, which was quite useless cause all we did was mark our papers, and get back out assignments. and then we went to goldstein college and had cake made by francesca. oh wow i can't believe i'm going to say this, but i think i'll miss my sg. even if it's not much, they're equivalent to the first classmates i have in uni, and no matter how much i think some of them i think are slackers, they're good fun and really nice. (well, most). at least some of us will still be together for the next course. heh.

so so so... i've been talking to friends today(since i had nothing else - no studying for now at least - to do), and here's what benedict had to say:

(not) cheeky says:
HELLO BENEDICT
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
HI
haha
is that ur bf?
(not) cheeky says:
haahh whattttttttttttttttttttttttt
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
benedicttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
wait...
who
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
the one on your display la~!
(not) cheeky says:
..
hahah benedictttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
omg -.-
haha
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
hahaha
what do you think
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
erm..
let's see...
(not) cheeky says:
see what??
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
hmm..
yes.
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
hahah omg where have you BEEN
-.-
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
singapore?
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
..
-.-
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
who's that? lol
(not) cheeky says:
who's who? my dp?
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
yeah
(not) cheeky says:
hahah my bf la.
-.-
hahah
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
i'm sure claudia LOL
(not) cheeky says:
really! you don't believe me??!
you yourself said it lor..
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
that's why i dun believe you
cos i was jokin LOL
(not) cheeky says:
?!
fine.
joke lor.
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
think what you want to lor.
do you even know WHO it is. haha.
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
no. LOL
aiyah why are we having such immature conversations LOL
(not) cheeky says:
.. omg are you serious. ahahahahah
cause you're the one being immature..-.-
do you honestly not know who that is -.-
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
yeah la
(not) cheeky says:
hahahahhahahahahaha omg yoiu're hilarious.
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
ur bf. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
(not) cheeky says:
..
ya laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
but who laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
omg-.-
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
ash
(not) cheeky says:
hahaha did you really not recognise him
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
no.
yes..
i think so...
(not) cheeky says:
can you make up your mind -.-
hahah
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
this is more fun
(not) cheeky says:
geez. -.-
nutcase
you are SO strange.
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
haha u just knew?~
(not) cheeky says:
hahah can you make up your mind whether or not you recognised him -.-
i knew a long time ago but this episode just gave new meaning to "messed up"
(ZONE-D)) Ben 2.0!! [c=4][b]39/104[/b][/c] says:
LOL
(not) cheeky says:
..

yes, disturbing isn't it. classmates for two years. and this is the result. ahhh well...

so tmr we're going to palm beach in 18 degree weather with wind. it's the northern most beach in sydney and we're gonna take a ferry (in 18 degree weather and wind) to manly and then bus over to palm beach. this time i'm going to BE PREPARED for the cold. like wear jeans and shoes and bring a jacket. hahaha.

i got this paranoia cause this morning when i woke up i looked out of the window and saw that it was sunny and nice, so i decided to wear a skirt. and i had to get to school early, so after breakfast and all i locked up and left in a hurry. but they first thing i felt when i stepped out was regret. it was SO cold. and i had worn a skirt(a pretty short one). i thought it would get warmer as i walked and as the day progressed, but BOY WAS I WRONG. thank goodness i was mostly in enclosed spaces for most of the day so i didn't really feel the wind and was not FREEZING COLD like when i walked out.

not sure what i'm doing for wednesday though. probably just staying at home. going out for lunch with sandra (postgrad law student who stayed with aunty yoon for a while at the beginning of this teaching period) and also to bondi junction to get my shoes (which i send for repair).
and then thursday and friday we have some lifesaving course. should be interesting. we're supposed to be getting some sort of cert after that, so i guess it's worth it to go. yeppers. that's the plan for the next few days. and then after all that, BGD will start. and after that i'll be going homeeeeee yay (: to my baking and cooking and bouncy bouncy b2 ((:

and then maybe to manchester? heh.

oh right yeah, i cooked! last weekend. but the presentation of my meal has been horrible, so i guess pictures will come later when i get a good picture of what i've cooked lol.

and yeah, benedict, you might be kidding, but i'm not. hahahaha. have you been hiding under a rock or something?! lol.

2008-04-24T20:57:00.001+08:00

oho my. as most of you know, i've been having to cook my own food on weekends, and it's led me to search numerous cooking sites for recipes. i've discovered SO many delicious things, and i'm itching to try them out. but it's hard here cause i don't have my own kitchen and my own oven. and it doesn't help that i've (as i mentioned in the last post) been thinkng about my baking spree when i get back to singapore. so i've added some links to foodie websites that i think are really interesting and yummy. hahaha. for people's (mine, most of all, and friends who will get some of the stuff i'm gonna make. haha.) benefit. yay yay yay (:

i will make sure that when i move out of here i get a place with a well-designed kitchen. AND AN OVEN.

2008-04-23T22:25:00.004+08:00

the painted veil is definitely on my to watch and to read list. well actually to read comes first. i always find that reading the book before watching the movie is better. cause usually the book is better. so. i will try to get the book. here's a sypnosis:

The Painted Veil
Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people.

Based on the classic novel by Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the tale of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along.

Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.

Kitty is an upper class London socialite closing in on an age when a proper lady must find a husband. To remain unwed much longer would be highly unbecoming, not to mention humiliating for her exceedingly socially conscious mother. Bored with her privileged lifestyle anyway and yearning for escape, Kitty accepts a proposal of marriage from Dr. Walter Fane, a quiet, serious bacteriologist who moves the new couple to Shanghai.

In the strange city - which is blooming into the center of popular culture, political intrigue and vice in China - the Fanes venture out into British colonial society, where they are introduced to English Vice Consul Charles Townsend. While Walter dedicates himself to his work and to his new wife, Kitty embarks on an adulterous affair with Charlie.

After Walter learns of her indiscretion, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by the deadly cholera epidemic, and forces a despondent Kitty to accompany him.

Following the Fanes arrive in the village of Mei-tan-fu, the couple's wintry isolation continues. Kitty befriends a neighbor, Deputy Commissioner Waddington, and the emotional trappings of her former life slowly fall away as she begins to confront the reality of her surroundings.

Amid the human wreckage of the cholera epidemic, which has given both spouses new purpose, Kitty and Walter discover forgiveness, understanding, even tenderness - and rediscover each other.

yep. i think it'll be nice.

anyways raspberries aren't berries, they're compound fruits. i've got this sudden craze for raspberries since the other day when i ate this whole tub of berry yoghurt (which was not aptly named at all seeing that most if not all the fruits in there were NOT berries). which had raspberries! and then i thought it'd go well with chocolate and i went online to search for raspberry brownies. and and and, i'm going on a baking spree when i get back to singapore! so friends, you will have lots of raspberry-chocolate goodies to eat. if i can find raspberries that is. and also other yummy things (:

today between lessons we had an hour's break and me and two of my scenario group members went for hot chocolate (it was raining and cold) and it was really good! yup. i had tiramisu too but it was not as good as some i've tried.

no lessons tmr and friday. friday is anzac day (australia and new zealand army corps - to remember the troops who fought in the second world war) so no school, yay. tmr also no school. yay. but monday is exam! and after that it will be all work and no play. i just got a generic timetable, and it's seriously packed. oh well.

can't wait to read the painted veil! hahaha now i can't stop thinking about it. i will go look for the book.

2008-04-21T22:15:00.005+08:00

another day closer to the stupid exam.

and another day of zero studying.

and i'm supposed to do the expert tutorial report too. oh geez...

oh well. do you know what i did today instead? i went to bondi junction. yeah. garrrh. after lectures in the morning (which ended at 11), i had to go change the stupid ownership of the stupid vodafone stupid account for the stupid internet. and also to repair my novo slippers (which won't be done till next monday. what happened to the "cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe, get it done by half past two..."). and to look around bondi junction. haven't really had the chance to look around even though i've already been there twice. anyway, so i walked around and ended up spending a whole lot more than strictly necessary. i shall not go into details here...

and then i took a bus back and got coffee and a gluten free brownie at cafe japone. it's this quaint little cafe near home. it features work from local artists each month. i chatted with the owner (this japanese lady - i guess that's why it's called cafe japone) and she told me about the opening of the new exhibition next month and asked me to come along since i was living so close and i had done art before (i told her). might just go down to take a look. the coffee and brownie were so good! next baking project thingy is gluten free brownie. that will be when i get back to singapore. hahaha. oh yes, this cafe's also where i saw the book on un-useless japanese inventions.

god, i think i continue eating at this rate, i will need a whole new wardrobe by the time i get back to singapore. i usually breakfast at about 8 in the morning, make my way to school and then get hungry by about 12. or earlier. and it's not like my breakfast is very light... usually it's some sort of mixed oatmeal (just mixed some just now - cranberries, rasins, oatmeal, some muesli things and seemingly a thousand other things aunty yoon insist on putting in) and bread. aunty yoon insists that it's because i use my brain more ("brain food") but i doubt it. and then after i have lunch and more lectures, i don't feel hungry, but i eat anyway ): snacks and usually a coffee (latte with 2 sugars! and latte is mainly milk. and TWO sugars.) and snack snack snack. ugh i disgust myself with my eating habits. I WILL RESOLVE TO STOP SNACKING SO MUCH. YES.

i don't blame you if you're bored by now. so i guess i will be blogging about something more interesting. like. i've been doing a 5 grid sudoku. it's called a samurai sudoku. for the past two days. well not continuously, but enough. and i still haven't solved it. it's pretty much the same as a normal sudoku except that the corners of the grid are overlapping, so you have to solve all five puzzles concurrently. much much more interesting than the normal sudoku. well my camera died so i can't really take a picture of it. so i guess no pictures for a while.

haha i don't think that is much more interesting, eh. anyway yes yes. i remember what i wanted to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BERNARD (18TH) AND OON KEE (20TH)!

enjoy your special day, both of you (:

oh wow, i cannot believe bernard is already 18. and OON KEE IS ALREADY TWENTY. that means... that means... I WILL BE TURNING TWENTY SOON TOOOOOO ): and leaving my teen years behind. 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20. it always seemed like a distant reality that we would eventually turn 20, but now that it's here, it's is SO unbelieveable. it seemed only yesterday... well 4 days ago that i was becoming a teen, 3 days ago that i was turning 16 (i remember that one), 2 days ago that i was turning 18 (this one not so clearly) and yesterday that was my last teen birthday (hahah yes, i remember this one very clearly, for other reasons that it was only last year) !!! all the important teen birthdays. and i didn't even treasure most of them. i just dismissed them as one of those painful teen birthdays where i was... oh well, let's not go into it.

and now, 1. bernard is celebrating his last major teen birthday, and 2. oon kee is celebrating her first post-teen birthday (whenever i think about it, i think about myself not being a teen anymore this year too. and it makes me sickkkkk ):) omg omg. i want time to stop now. because I WANT TO REMAIN 19. garrrh. and then next year, i will be TWENTY ONE (and still studying) and that is THE point (of no return) and THE age.

okay okay i should stop now before i drive myself over the edge thinking about turning 20. (cue heaving a huge sigh now)

image courtesy of tbrooks-omgz

you know, it's true what my lecturers have been saying about communication and making sure the patient has a chance to speak: the important things come last. haha.

2008-04-19T16:23:00.004+08:00

i think this need more pictures...

look at the funny volkswagen. hahahah.

chicken scampi. haven't tried it. will do later (:

2008-04-18T22:16:00.000+08:00

the individual asignment, draft portfolio and group assignments are FINALLY over with today's oral presentation. finally finally (: on the not so bright side, there's still a lot more sets of these to go. it's only the end of the beginning of the true horror where everything will be counted. ugh. oh well. then at least we'll be working our asses off and not doing our work only half heartedly.

today was a pretty eventful day... i guess... we had sg. and then a 2 hour break. hahah during which i fell asleep when i was supposed to be studying in the library. then we went for the two more helicobacter pylori lectures. the first one was the immune response to helicobacter pylori by andrew collins (he's pretty funny, really good lecturer actually). we went to clb (central lecture block) 7 and waited there for like 30 min before he ran in saying that he didn't know he was supposed to give that lecture. and within that time, people managed to turn clb 7 into cl(u)b 7. they were playing music from their hps. into the mic and into the lecture theatre and dancing. they were surprisingly successful in their endeavour of turning it into cl(u)b 7 until andrew collins came running in apologising and "pleading ignorance". that was that.

and then i came home and was supposed to cook for the weekend, but i put it off till tmr. oh well...

2008-04-18T16:23:00.002+08:00

Right Here Waiting by Choo Kok Boon (editing by claudia)

Since the day you turned and smiled at me,
I knew deep in my heart what I wanted to be.
To be a knight with a burning soul
to protect you from all harm is an oath that I swore.
To be your wings that frees you from all chains,
and be with you no matter how the world may have changed.
So please nod your head while on the platform's edge,
and say that you wish to be with me through all age.
Decades has flown and our youth may have passed,
but in my heart you are still as beautiful as you were in the past.
To see you in white and hear you say the word "YES",
it is an answer I will wait for till my hair turns to ash.
So please be happy and give me a true smile,
and let me know that my waiting is worthwhile.

awwwwww isn't that SO sweeeeeeeettt... hahah but SO SUSPICIOUS. hahaha. the sweeeeeeetttness of it negates the suspicousness lah. haha.

2008-04-16T12:22:00.002+08:00

another of kok boon's poems (with my editing again)...

we stroll along the beach seeking a sea shell,
and made this journey a memory that we share.
though imperfect the sea shell might be,
it's just like you and me.
special in the eyes of the beholder,
just like how you shine brighter than the others.

(claps)

2008-04-15T22:02:00.001+08:00

we had embryology lecture today. intro to embryology. we learnt about the menstrual cycle, fertilization, implantation and so on and the development after implantation. well to cut to the chase, i feel now that life is really miraculous. first of all, the egg has to be fertilized (not that it is very difficult), and then the timing has to be just perfect (for a whole variety of reasons) so that it can get implanted into the uterus wall and them develop into a human being. and then there's the development itself. there are so many things that can not happen and that can go wrong, it's really something of a miracle that we actually exist and have really good health.well, realtively good health. that's why i say we should treasure life. and outlaw abortion. but then again, there are many sound arguments for abortion. like what if the baby has a disability that will affect his/her quality of life severely, or what if the parents cannot afford to give the baby the needed care for him/her to grow up well.

i'm digressing. i will stop here. more when i learn more.

2008-04-14T20:24:00.001+08:00

i'm blogging more often than usual. this is due to the severe lack of interest in studying for the upcoming foundations exam. which is really not a good thing at all. and i still haven't thought up of any questions for the expert tutorial. except maybe "how are the salivary glands stimlated?" which i don't see any relevance to the scenario at all. and the thing is, i came up with this question as i was walking to school today.

i woke up really late. like 8 o'clock. so i made a sandwich and rushed out of the house. and i was on my (not so) merry way to school, and had just finished my sandwich and i realised that i was really thirsty. there was no saliva in my mouth, and so i drank from my water bottle. but so occupied was my mind with the stupid scenario and the stupid expert tutorial that i somehow wondered how salivary glands were stimulated.

i seriously doubt it has anything to do with the stupid helicobacter pylori in the stupid scenario.

and i was so bored in the phamacology lecture today i actually drew a house with a picket fence. well not so much a house as a square with a triangle on top and two small squares and a rectangle in the square as windows and a door respectively. it even had a yard with a flowering tree and a mailbox. psychiatry lecture was more boring. didn't really learn much. i wish i had bipolar disorder. or maybe i already have it...

anyway after lectures i went to the library for a while to dl the ppt and then came back but didn't do anything to it. instead i did my draft portfolio. so i guess today cannot exactly be said to be wasted on pointless activities. hmm...