eeeeeee-YEW

OMGosh.

Click at your own risk. No, this isn't a spam (my blog didn't get hacked), but I just saw some disgusting photos and thought I had to share it.

This guy defines 'ah beng'. Well, him and all the other contestants and this so-called "Mr. Photogenic" contest on facebook.I'm not even wanting to look through the girls' categories. It's simply just too painful to see how this Y-generation is giving into the peer pressure (seriously?!!!) of dyed golden hair, pouty expression, fake-but-make-it-look-like-it's-expensive jewellery, incredibly DUH names (the link says it all), and damn broken English (ok fine Manglish but those don't even qualify for Manglish; more like 'Bengish'). Or maybe, it's nothing to do with pressure at all- now that's equally depressing.

On a cheerful note, mum announced to me that my birthday has just recently been declared as a public holiday starting from next year! In Malaysia, of course. Woohoo! They're finally making Malaysia Day official. Read the news article here.

I'm surviving. Supplied with caffeine and armed with a can-do attitude (I try).

gearing up

Blog inactivity is predominantly caused by the dawning of the exam season. Oh wait, the FINAL EVER exams ever to be undertaken *big fat smile*

So the stakes are high. Even more determined to do my best ever in my 4 years of uni life. Definitely a huge sigh of relief when I saw the 'A' written on top of my BIOC453 assignment- which I didn't have much time to complete after micr oral exam and all. Interpretive exam was last Friday, I think I did terribly :( Praying for a miracle to be honest; crossing my fingers that my crazy-as answers about Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA will somehow make sense to the markers.

And of course, the hype of having Alexander Yeo being born into this world :D He's definitely a big boy, doesn't cry much, and sleeps in the cutest way (he has his cute little hands curled up to his face). hehe. Ray looks so proud as a dad and Michelle, you're just so amazing to have gone through all that. :) Not going to post photos on blog or facebook for now due to privacy requests.

My first exam is next Thurs, next and last ever on the next day Friday eeks. But yay I can't wait for all this to be over!

this is IT

I'm handing in my MICR490 dissertation tomorrow!!!

13,588 words (68 pages) per copy, 4 copies = over $50 in printing of the coloured pages to show my pretty graphs haha. It better be worth it. Thanks to Agnes for the b&w printing and the many drafts (and to all the trees that were chopped down to make this possible).

that's how thick the unbound copies are!

weeeeeeeeeeee :) *high 5 Ron*

oh, and just in case you're wondering what the heck my dissertation is about: the title is
"use of inhibitory agents to facilitate entry of antisense molecules into Gram-positive bacteria" :P not that you'd even know what Gram-positive bacteria is without prior science bg but nyeh the title deserves a mention here ok

for intellectual property reasons I can't show you guys how the pretty graphs look like

99.9% done now! 0.1% is to bind the 4 copies and hand them in before 5pm tomorrow.

All in all, I'm surprised at how organised I've been about this. This year in general. The exams and assignment due dates can't be helped, so considering all the super crammed schedule, I'm still happily sane!

For now (till end of October), just need to keep studying + doing assignment (1 more stupid biochem left) + keep applying for jobs/scholarships + drinking coffee + more studying. No rest until I see that "1st class honours" printed on my certificate.

Ok, back to my daily routine of studying until 6am and waking up at noon.

Chaos, once again

Nobody's surprised anymore: undie 500 never fails to create such chaos and make the majority of Otago university students look, well, stupid and short-sighted.

Click here to watch a video of the riot.

Coming from a student's perspective, some might find it odd that the fires started all because someone caved in to peer presure.

1st of spring!

(copyright from Sharon): No, I haven't lost my mojo! (in blogging, of course).

Ok fine I admit it. I'll definitely miss flatting with the girls this year: Sharon who can make millions with her pweeeety cupcakes (see photos below) and other bakery products + her random hyperness of jumping up and down singing "I'm a little butterfly/teacup/squid...etc animal friends"; Amy and her super organised routines/being the mum of the house (besides me, heh) and her awesome ciabatta & seafood chowder YUM-ness; and Mae Ann, who although is not home often, brings laughter whenever she's home.

The 4 of us did something we never had a chance to do: had a flat dinner! It was GREAT; plus the food was SOOOOO good at Eureka's tonight (so maybe we were just famished heheh). Oh, and cute waiter too ;0)

OOOOOOOH and I had a haircut today!!! :D Goodbye semi-long hair, hello short hair! I like it: what better way to enjoy the 1st day of spring with a new haircut? I still need purple/red heels to go with my dress for birthday party. I can't believe it's so hard finding a decent pair here in Dunedin gah :(

Oh, and baby shower for Michy/Ray/baby Xander was held last Saturday. Headache and stress that went into the planning for the baby shower was finally rewarded: awesome cupcakes as made/decorated by Sharon+Mae Ann, and people willing enough to play the baby pictionary game, as embarrassing as it was. Though I do agree that some were too easy, especially the ones we picked for the guys.

Planning was hardcore: I found it even more tiring than planning for the Yeos' wedding last year. Weddings are straightforward; while I had no idea what makes or breaks a baby shower. Choosing the colours for balloons alone for centerpiece even took both Becky and I more than 15 minutes. Tip: go for bright colours! And now I know so many baby terms and facts: do you know that a baby cot mobile costs up to 300 dollars (it plays soothing Beethoven/Mozart/Hayden music when a sensor detects movement made by baby -_-), and baby spoons change colour if food reaches a certain temperature? Gosh. And I'm not even a baby person: I don't coo and do baby-talk. Love the cake and the saying on it too: "happy minus 6 weeks Xander" :)

WOW he really is coming soon. Very very soon.

Anyway some photos from the baby shower if you haven't seen it on facebook already.

the cutest of them all: mini blue elephant
next on the cute scale: mini octopus

how can anyone eat them?!

baby pictionary; hehe the puzzled looks

"labour pain" ;P
guess who drew this?

Michelle opening the presents

We did it! *high 5*

Hmm apart from that, District 9 was ahem... weird. Less action/more drama than what I had anticipated, slight dizziness after the movie as it was shot in documentary style. Saw the trailer for the movie "2012", another one of those end-of-the-world movies I'm a sucker for, considering "the day after tomorrow" is one of my favourites. Awesomeness.

I have finished all my drafts!! *surprise surprise* This happens when your supervisor is super organised and give deadlines for each section every other week. Now I have 1 whole month to do slight corrections and polish it up. Oh, and study for other papers meh.

I'm still not too worried about how next year will be like: when I'll move, where I'll work. Not yet, anyway. Mum on the other hand, is more worried than I am. It is a weird feeling: knowing that uni life will end in 2 months' time, and I will (highly probably) leave this town/people that I love/treasure after 4 whole years.

Oh, and I bought new batteries for my camera (been idle for quite a while); just in time to capture those pretty spring blossoms! :D anyone keen for photosession?

being a slave to deadlines

random art around uni

I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeaking out!!!

3000 words a week- that's what I'm freaking out about. Due this Monday are methods+materials and results, next Monday discussion. I'm aiming to squeeze 3000 words into intro, 3000 into methods+materials, 3000 for results (maybe 4000) and the rest (up to 6000) for discussion. Plus or minus, leaving space for references, which is already 60 ish for intro only.

Imagine writing a loooooong lab report- instead of writing up work you did for 2 days, this is covering all the work I've done during the past 6 months. I'm estimating methods alone will add up to 20 pages or so. I'm 90% done with methods though, only 30% or so on results :(

On top of that, other papers are demanding that I start studying for them. Another paper to discuss/present in class on Wednesday. Oh and the exam timetable is out. I found out that 2 of the papers I'm taking will be examined back-to-back on the 29th and 30th October!!!! That's like, less than 1 month to concentrate on 2 papers after I hand in the dissertation (on 2nd Oct).

And my left eye is red and irritated; not from the lack of sleep but rather from the long hours of staring at my laptop screen typing and editing graphs.

I need something/someone to help keep me sane. To help me compartmentalise all the commitments I've agreed to take part in. Even if it's just a shout out for lunch/coffee break to snatch me away from my laptop for half an hour, but please don't be offended if I really can't and have to say no.

Argh. Ok anyway just a short update on what I've been busying to, in case you wonder. I'll be "free-er" after the 24th of Aug, which is after I hand in my draft for discussion. Well, not really, the full draft is due the Monday after that, but yeah FREE-ER, I hope. Urm providing that I'm not too busy planning for Michelle's baby shower and my own birthday dinner party ;) More details on that soon.

huh what study notes? :P

something random

I haven't been THIS nervous since- hmm I can't even remember when I last felt nervous! Probably during my Grade 7 piano exam in 2004? Or first time ever playing the keyboard at church here back in 2006? First kiss? :p Or whenever it was when I had my last bloodtest for a medical checkup & the fear of suffering from another panic attack.

But YESH HIGH 5 everyone who prayed for me/texted me good luck/encouraged me in any way at all- my oral exam is over and done with! Well, for this paper anyway. 2 more orals next semester GAH.

Anyway, having to sit through 15 minutes of interrogation-style oral exam by 3 of your lecturers (in a room with you sitting on one end, 3 of them on the other) was so nerve wrecking!!! Clammy hands, fidgeting, babbling, erm-ing and ahhh-ing, talking too fast that I don't even make sense, forgetting basic stuff that I SHOULD know, waiting outside the room while a straight A student is having her turn before me: *phew* big sigh of relief!

Results were out (yeah so fast!) at 6pm ish when I checked my email (my orals was at 3.50pm by the way)- I'm not complaining about the B+ but yes it could have been better. 3 questions: I think I screwed up the answer to the last question by being too specific and hence not really answering the question :P Congrats Ron on the A, you totally deserved it after not having slept for days haha! No matter how stressed I am, not sleeping is NOT an option.

Right in the middle of the exam, got a text from Chyi- haha random. Walked around town for a bit- I was still hyperventilating/suffering from post-traumatic stress then, then bought tickets to go see Terminator 4 tomorrow night :) I checked out IMDB, and realised that the 1st Terminator movie came out in 1984- even before I was born. oh wow.

P.S. Sharon my flatmate bakes really nice almond biscotti. See, I'm so nice to you! winks

another P.S. I've found a link to download the mp3 version of the Love Story/Viva la vida medley by Jon Schmidt here =)

pricier than gold

Found this auction when I was browsing through trademe. Hmm 'creative' but does it really help with the bids?

Finally, did something different with my experiments today. I'm being vague again as I'm bound by an intellectual property agreement. I finished the experiment and was about to throw out this particular reagent since the amount left in the tube was around 50 µL or less. So yeap tiny amount but then I was told to keep it aka store it back into the freezer as that would cost, I quote "a few hundred dollars".

FYI,
the price of gold per GRAM = ~NZD50
the price of X reagent per 50µL = estimated NZD500
and as 1000 µL = 1mL, price of X would be an estimated of $10,000!!!

OKAYYYY. All the more pressure to score this experiment. So I took the precious leftover and put it back into the freezer, which would cost even more with ALL the expensive materials etc. in it. GOSH I know that research is expensive but this really opened my eyes. Which means one single day of running experiments (from now on, pretty much) would cost thousands. Now that's why I'm paying 27K for my yearly tuition fees...

cold, vicious cycle

There was so much hail at the North Island that it actually looked like snow!

The weather's going crazy; winter's arriving much sooner this year... all these contribute to:


YET I still have much to be thankful for-

...the fact that I'm healthy, unlike a friend who has to undergo surgery on Thursday and is incredibly stressed about, well, everything. You'll be in my prayers.

i need positive results!

GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

My experiments are not working, one way or another. The next run will be experiment number 8, with slight modifications. Frustration. making. me. wanna. pull. my. hair. out.

May, I'm glad you're blogging more often than me now. haha. 4th year isn't fun at all; I don't even have time to have lunch most days. Weekends aren't weekends anymore when every day is a day to go to the lab. Had a chat with a friend doing honours as well and she's much worse: going to the lab 6am and leaving at 9pm every day! O.o And it's only been 1 month doing this- yet I've already lost weight (including those I'd gained in Singapore/Malaysia). =(

Speaking of which, May's latest post reminded me again of the good times we had =) And will STILL have, of course! =D In exactly 12 days I'll be seeing you guys again!!!

Sien-ness. I spend $18 on the influenza vaccination last week; and found out THIS WEEK that the micro department is giving FREE vaccinations for postgrad students and staff. GAH. again. Could this be the disadvantage of always being too fast to grab hold of something?


I went to the Earth Hour mini-celebration with my flatties at the Octagon last Saturday night. Bumped into A&D there as well. Nothing grand- some Green MP lady gave a speech on the whole climate change issue, and there were some performances: dance + drums by the Pacific community & cool fire performance. I recognised one of the crazy fire performers as a fellow classmate doing biotech as well. Not all the lights went off though- the art gallery and railway station was still so brightly lit. The news even showed a guy who turned on ALL the lights in his house and even his car headlights -__-

Oh and do remember that daylight saving ends THIS Sunday. Turn your clock 1 hour backwards. ie we would have 1 extra hour of sleep! woohoo!

Think positive! =P

I admit that I was so disappointed after finding out I didn't get my 1st choice of project/supervisor. The bad dream just before I woke up confirmed that.

OH WELL. It's not the end of the world. I'll just have to suck it up, be content with my allocated project/supervisor, and get through this year.

Had an introductory tutorial today for about 1 hour and that was the only official class I had the whole of this week. No more slacking around after this. The first presentation is next Friday, and for each paper, there's a presentation due every 2 weeks. No more nice, comfy lectures where skipping class is an option. Now the lecturers know every single one of us by name. I'm trying not to freak out yet about the 25% oral exams at the end of each semester where we'd get asked questions by 4 lecturers.

The sun decided not to shine today. Hence the cloudy, slightly warm weather. Had lunch with Chyi, then met up with Michelle and Rebekah for some shopping. We went to the new "mall". I bought a pair of Country Road black jeans- retail therapy to comfort myself and as I'd ruined my last pair of black jeans by dumping it in the drier and it shrunk 1 dress size.

Ah the last (relatively free) weekend. How I wish I can grab you tightly and never let go.

So long commerce papers

Management 303 exam was not as bad as I thought it would be. The lecturer, being lazy uncreative as she is, just took past year questions and compiled them together. Thank God I looked through the past year exam questions and tried doing some. 3 hours of writing while trying NOT to sneeze too much was surprisingly not that difficult. Thanks for all your prayers, guys. =)

Going to bed at past 5am every day for the past week has taken its toll on me. For the past few days, I've been feeling lethargic. My nose feels like the elephant below: only that the peanut butter feels like a big block of ice cube, keyword being ICE. I can't stop sneezing, have to breathe using my mouth 24/7 (not even panadol with decongestant + lemon helped), using up my 2nd box of tissue in a few days- now the only way of feeling slightly better is sticking tissue up my nose. Seriously. Don't laugh.

I'm never THIS desperate to get better. Bacterial/viral infection or serious hayfever/other allergies or just burnout? I wish I had my own lab now so can plate out the bacteria/virus and see which of those little rascals are causing me this discomfort. GRRR.


But for now, I'm grateful for advances in finding accommodation in Singapore. I MIGHT settle for a twin executive room at Evans Lodge for S$470 a month. Seems like my best option now since all single rooms are fully booked.

I've gotten my long-awaited reply from the Genome Institute of Singapore! =)

The working hours are Mondays to Thursdays 8.30am to 6pm (5.30pm for Fridays)!!! Thank goodness for no dress code; I was told t shirt and jeans are fine, but I was thinking if I should wear smart casual on the first day of work. First impressions count, right? But will need to buy more comfy closed toe shoes soon.

The majority has spoken. I'll blog about my 21st very soon!

Countdown: 90 days to hot weather

I keep reminding myself that winter is ALMOST over. Not liking the feeling of wet jeans sticking to my skin at all.

Anyway, Ron got a job at SG too! I think his is at the Bioprocessing Tech Institute or something. Also part of the biopolis, few mins walk to GIS. So unfair, he's getting paid more... and the person in contact even asked if he needed accommodation and helped him apply for a working visa. -__- And yet I have to apply for a visa myself and find accommodation myself. Oh well, the thrill of it.

Been posting many ads on property and real estate websites, looking for a room for rent. Gotten quite a few replies too, actually. None that stood out yet, either too far away or too pricey. I know shouldn't be that picky, but then I dread the thought of spending 100 bucks a month on transport and waking up super early to catch the mrt. We'll see. God will provide.

Thanks guys who're helping me with this task. Chyi, Julianna, Davina, John, Greg, etc.

So yeah, can't wait to get there.

Out of the cold weather for once. Into the land of good food and shopping. Ahhhh....

Plus, a few people would be there too. Janice, Greg, and Chyi. hehehe.

And of course, looking forward to the trip to Philippines. Still working on the exact dates or travel etc, wondering if there'll even be time to go home to Kuching or not. I have a feeling I'll only spend a week or less back home, probably during Christmas or Chinese New Year. I know it's un-daughterly of me to only go home for such a short period of time, but what to do? Time is unwilling. Oh well, I'll just have to make full use of it, however short the time may be.

***

Cell group last night was... INTERESTING. and that's an understatement.


We had a "music concert" last night. Which just means a whole night of praise and worship, and good food of course. We started jumping a lot toward the 2nd and 3rd song... (Alex's suggestion). Then I got a tap on the back by Greg, saying there was someone at the door wanting to get in. I opened the door, and there stood a Kiwi guy explaining how our jumping has caused the floor (his room's ceiling as he's staying downstairs) to CRACK ("it's very unsafe", and I quote). I mumbled a quick sorry and got back, shocked at what we just did. Goodness, CONCRETE floor can break so easily? Well, maybe it's possible as last night was absolutely packed- 30 I'd say- and the impact of us jumping altogether probably generated enough force to crack the floor/ceiling. OOPS. So yeah, we stopped jumping after that :P

Sang the "Dessert song" by Brooke Fraser/Hillsong too last night as part of the cafe style session. Love love love the song. Love the lyrics, especially the bridge.

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

Alex had the random idea of putting together a video of our beginnings. Of how lighthouse fellowship started- at Arana Hall, 2006, with just the 7 of us- Raymond, Alex, Sam, May, Janice, Rebec, and I. Compared to now- regulars totalling to 30+ (and counting). It was so fun making the video, even FUNNIER watching it, and seeing people laugh =)

Below is a snippet of the video (unedited). *upload failed. lazy to upload again as taking up time* Scene is when Ramon was making some food for us to eat after cell. Note that Greg is narrating as Ramon lost his voice. We all laughed sooooooooo hard- ah, the good times. And yes, I do like eating "chao-ta" (slightly burnt in hokkien) food hehe.

Am I really that forgettable? A primary/school friend just asked me who I was after I sent her a message on friendster. I AM 100% SURE SHE KNOWS ME. Either that or I changed a lot since sec sch. Which is more likely?

`1 more month and winter's over!

view from my bedroom window
the fog and Dunedin.

This week sums up WINTER the best.

Rainy, windy, gloomy, sun-hiding-behind-stubborn-big-clouds, foggy, temperature below 10 degrees etc. The list goes on and on. Oh, and a season to buy new umbrellas (again). I somehow lost my previous Kathmandu one and had to buy another sturdy one (automatically opens with one push of a button, so high-tech rite?) for half price. It's a good thing the flaps don't face the other direction when the super strong winds blow too.

I have a lab report due tomorrow. (progress: 50%?)
A 2000-word essay due in 2 weeks. (progress: 5% eeeks)
2 business plans to come up with, 1 with presentation.

Envy, envy those first year students with only terms tests and 3-hour labs to worry about.

Finding accommodation in Dunedin is hard enough. People rushing to get the flat list once it's out (August 11th I think), signing contracts with greedy landlords eager to make money out of us poor students. I'm still yet to view the flat on Frederick St, somehow the tenant "forgotten" to text me back on Saturday to confirm time for viewing. Someone needs to ban 027 numbers.

But it's not as hard as finding accommodation in another COUNTRY. I've been staying up late these few days searching in real estate websites/property finding websites about rentals in Singapore. Gah stupidly high rental rates. Very frustrating especially when real estate agents want to grab half a month's rental for their "fees".

On the other hand, quite excited that Shine '08, Lighthouse Fellowship's first ever camp is coming up! It's going to be held from 28th to 31st August (hopefully when the weather is nicer and sunnier) at Wairoa Scout Camp, about 30 mins drive from town. So much planning and thought have been put into it, I'm sure it'll be a camp to remember.

I've been spending precious time googling about travel tips to Philippines. hehe. It'll be something to look toward to once my parents give me the OK sign. If all goes well, will travel to the country with over 7000 islands right after my work placement- mid Feb- with Jaq and Ron. Airplane tickets are surprisingly affordable, return from MAS costs RM500++ including taxes!!! So I guess I'll have to scrap my Goldcoast/Brissy plans for a Philippino trip (sorry Jess...). I'd rather spend money sight-seeing another place I've never been before- plus Ron has offered to plan our itenerary and be our tour guide, haha!

Another thing to "look forward" to. Resigning from my job at ACC. Should be sometime in early Sept as that's when all my assignments are due. It's been an insightful experience, now I know how working in an office environment is like. Which makes me even more thankful that I'm studying towards a degree to work in a place where ROUTINE doesn't exist. Where it's all about discovering about something new then win the Nobel prize , not about doing data entry & staring at the computer screen for 8 hours a day.

For all who are still working there, I salute you. Such discipline needed to NOT go crazy and complain every 5 seconds.

Thinking as positive as possible

It's not a YES (yet), but still, it's a positive response.

THINK POSITIVE ;P

I'm not superstitious or anything like that, so I don't care if blogging about this is going to jinx my chances of getting the work placement.

Ok. So about a week ago, after being frustrated not having heard back from potential employers, I decided (well, Michelle helped in making sure I did that hehe) to call one particular investigator (researcher) which I was interested to work for in one of his research labs.

Problem was: he was in Singapore, I was here. Also, I'm terrified to speak (over the phone especially) to people of higher importance, especially if it concerns my future. I started to think about the what ifs. What if I say something stupid, eg mispronounce his name, or mention the wrong institute, or worse, stutter and not manage to get any info through? Or what if I sound TOO keen, aka desperate, or not interested enough to want the job?

So many factors on the line, ok.

And it's not like I'd never handled (important) phone calls before. I've had experience dealing with grumpy, racist, drunk customers calling to Domino's Pizza, and more recently, having to call dentists to settle claims/payments at the office.

Anyway. After 1 week of no reply, Mr (Prof/Dr?) Seielstad of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) (part of A*Star) finally replied my email/cv/letter of endorsement. It wasn't a yes, like I said, but just another email to ask about the dates of my attachment (Singaporean term for internship -__- ), and who/how the report would be assessed etc info.

So yea. I have been stressing over the past few weeks (still am) over this. Only 3 or so months to go before it starts, so scary! I don't even know whether we would get paid for this, and trying not to think about the loooooong report we have to complete to pass the APPS499 paper. And also other details to consider: booking air tickets to/fro, accommodation (super expensive walao), whether or not I have enough lab skills to prevent from looking dumb to the researcher/other students.

Hopefully can get an answer soon, then start consulting people on accommodation (near uni preferably), book air tickets, plan a possible traveling trip (Taiwan/Philippines/Brissy- yes I am being a bit ambitious) before uni starts again early March.

***

Chyi: you owe me coffee sessions for making me answer this. In BM some more! *faints*

7 fakta tentang saya:
01. name saya kalau ditranslasi kepada bahasa Cina jadi "sayur dengan udang"
02. kawan-kawan saya panggil saya KAKAK
03. saya suka menyanyi semasa mandi- syoknya
04. saya selalu pergi ke "restaurant asian" sampai orang yang kerja di situ sudah tahu muka saya
05. rumah saya sama sejuk dengan peti ais
06. saya patut tulis repot sekarang
07. saya "tengok depan" pada malam esok- ada makan malan fancy! woohoo

7 perkara menakutkan saya:
01. lelaki kacak tertengok saya mempersiasoikan diri.. tak ada muka
02. orang yang ikut saya pergi sini sana (stalker)
03. komputer saya hangus
04. balik malaysia- tak pandai cakap BM lagi lah
05. orang "buat letak sama" (matchmake) saya dengan orang lain
06. kawan-kawan saya hilang dari dunedin
07. terpelanting apabila jalan di uni

7 lagu buat sekarang:
01. langgar (collide)- Howie Day
02. peeeeter-pet (pitter pat)- Erin McCarley
03. anak kuda (pony)- Erin McCarley
04. bodoh untuk kamu (stupid for you)- Marie Digby
05. cinta kamu sampai habis (love u til the end)-the Pogues
06. itu hanya hayat (it's only life)- Kate Voegele
07. lagu desert (desert song)- Hillsong

7 perkara yang selalu disebutkan:
01. kamu tahu tak...
02. OHH. saya tengok
03. lapar lah. ada makanan?
04. pergi mana makan?
05. sangat sejuk
06. saya mahu tidur
07. saya mahu beli barang

7 perkara yang amat bernilai:
01. tangan saya
02. mata saya
03. kawan-kawan
04. lagu
05. memori
06. air
07.minyak

7 "pertama kali" dalam hidup saya:
-__- pertama kali buat quiz yang bodoh macam ini

7 orang bertuah (JAWAB TAG INI BALIK)
saya sangat baik hati. tak payah jawab balik.

***

Finally. GOSH. No more BM for at least 4 months.. phew.

Anyway, a special Happy Graduation wish to bunny aka Chok! Wah everyone's graduating soon already, feeling a bit nostalgic knowing I'll have to leave uni after next year.

P.S. weekend's over

"P.S. I love you" was surprisingly a good movie to watch. I didn't expect it to be a tearjerker, but my table ended up with a few wet tissues. ;P

Still no reply yet. Oh well, it is the weekend anyway.

Patience. I'll keep reminding myself that.
"It's not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting."

I went a little camera crazy this morning while walking back from church to Unicol and snapped a few photos of scenery around uni. So few people walking about on Sunday mornings, a lot of them must have hangovers (grieving from All Blacks' lost last night maybe?).

River behind commerce building.
Always loved walking through this area, so calming and pretty

The arch thingy- on last year's student ID card

Love the shadow effect

a view of Richardson building- law, commerce, geography, etc.
also known as Chyi Chyi's 2nd home ;P

another random pic.
i must have walked through this path over 100 times already for the past 3 years

How photogenic is Uni of Otago compared to other boring-looking universities?

Exams oh exams

I absolutely love Erin McCarley's music. No album yet, but she's discovered through One Tree Hill- her 2 songs Pony and Pitter-Pat are REALLY worth listening to.

***

Anyway, been burrowing my head into books journal articles and barely readable lecture notes (did I write THAT?) lately.

Exam timetable:

6th June (fri)- BIOC352
7th June (sat)- MICR335
11th June (wed) - MANT301

MANT is the odd one out, I know. It stands for management, for you non-Otago people. Part of the points to fulfill my commerce requirement- writing business reports are so different from writing a scientific one. Neither is easy, just different format and all. Never having taken any 100 or 200-level management papers before, I completely blew my first 30% research report. So sad. THEN, my lecturer mentioned about clear headings and highlighting the key points. I tried my best not to scream at her; I had thought business reports should be as smooth-flowing as possible. Thank God I got 18 out of 20% for my 2nd assignment.

I've been here for 3 years now, but still didn't know where the surveying department was. That is, until I found out one of the exam locations would be there. FYI: it's between Hayward and Cumberland halls. Next to department of marine science. Weird.

Worked for about 4 hours today. No more scanning for me to do, woohoo! All the scanning are to be done by the business support people from now on. It feels nice to be able to go to work whenever I feel like it am free, thank God for a super cool manager. And also for my new super canggih contour-fit mouse which I requested for. Too bad I couldn't sit at my workstation today as someone else was sitting there; my fault really as I was supposed to come in yesterday instead of today. The backlog of work at the office is terrible: just proves that so many people are having accidents every single day!

Went with Michelle to a florist today to discuss flower arrangements etc. So surprised to find out the money you have to spend just for flowers: around $300!!! So if you're wanting to get married, make sure you budget at least that much for flowers (more if rose petals are needed ;P) If not, marry a florist and save lots of money.


Back to my late-night studying session.

Gambate every one. =)

My life so far

Goodness- it's been almost a month since I last blogged!

I've been busy, which is good since eat and sleep was all I did back in Malaysia.

Celebrated Canai's and Luvani's birthday, which makes 3 straight days of celebration including Valentine's. Bought cameras for both of them, planned surprise dinners and even a surprise treasure hunt ala Amazing Race style for May. I had never texted so many times before ;P. Planning events are never easy, when you see that smile and satisfaction on people's faces, it's well worth it.

During that time, I also took up my 3rd job that time working as a temporary uni staff helping with course approval. The pay is gooooood, and I'd prefer data entry to serving grumpy/drunk customers anytime. Just today, I worked my last shift for the motel, my longest job so far here in Dunedin (Dec 06 to Feb 08). I felt so bad quitting, as Michael and Sally are just the best employers EVER, not exaggerating at all. But I'm putting my health first; my nose is blocked more than ever, having to grab a tissue off every unit I go into. I have no idea why I'm getting more and more sensitive to dust.

Just 2 weeks or so ago, I was asked to start working for Domino's Pizza. That came as a surprise, as I'd passed up my CV before I went back to Msia and haven't heard from them since. Work has been erm... interesting :P The occasional drunk people can cause quite a scene, some funny and some just darn silly. Racism is a sure thing; I'd answer calls and get those harsh comments, but I just brush those aside. This particular (drunk?) guy even offered me his number and an invitation to his place in exchange for cheaper price pizzas. Thank goodness for a super awesome store manager who came to the rescue everytime. haha. Too bad he's leaving soon. So we're stuck with a Chinese manager after next week. Sigh. We'll miss you, Chris. I'll remember you as the manager with the prettiest blue eyes ever.

So uni's starting next week for most of us. Timetable's out, and I'm surprised it's a pretty flexible one. Labs involve more group work than ever, so I'm quite anxious to see how those full day labs would turn out to be. Can't believe I'm a 3rd year uni student now; seeing all those first years enjoying orientation week (drinking, puking, burning couches etc.) makes me wish I could somehow knock some sense into them. Til now, I still don't get what people get out from seeing couches getting burnt (and getting arrested then)...

My parents were here for a week during CNY, so we took a few days to go on a road trip to Queenstown and Te Anau. Milford Sound was amazing, though I wish I'd remember to bring my seasick pills. We even saw bottlenose dolphins, seals, and a double rainbow about 2 metres away just in front of a waterfall. That was the closest I'd ever gotten to a rainbow, and for me, that was the highlight of the whole cruise. The prices were really cut-throat though; $140+ per person for the cruise plus cruise connection. We also visited the glowworm caves at Te Anau, it was actually really good. Imagine getting into a small boat, floating into the deep depths of ancient caves. All is silent, except for the sound of flowing water. Darkness is all around, but when you look up, you're surrounded by hundreds of twinkling fluorescent lights. It's like stargazing on a boat in a cave. haha. Well worth a visit. Plus, the sunset view back home was sooooo pretty, I must have taken 50 pictures alone of the sun disappearing behind the mountains.

I <3 sunsets.

Hundreds of vineyards along the way.

Rainbow(s) sighting.

Clear-as stream. It's actually purer than mineral water.

A mini avalanche in action- snow falling down.
During the winter those baby snowfalls turn into huge avalanches.

I'm all settled into my new big-as room. hehe. Having a couch for visitors and my own tv is a luxury I didn't have last year. Also, my own bathroom! *jumps with glee* I'm very proud of my ensuite bathroom, ok. Amazingly, though the room is quite big, heats stays in, and I'm actually gonna sell one of my heaters I'd bought last year. Either that or I've grown more accustomed to cool weather now.

New flatties too this year- Yan and Sharon. So here we are, 5 girls flatting together. hehe. With really cool neighbours too, might I add. Plus those in unicol, of course, we'll come by often enough for dinner. =)

I can't wait for this year to actually BEGIN. I know it's end of Feb already, but everything's just starting to fall into place. Home cell is about to begin again, I'm all set for 3rd year, and I can't wait to see how year will turn out to be. Eg, where will I work at the end of this year (for my summer work placement, I'm hoping for either Spore or Oz), whether or not I'll be doing the long or short (hard or easy) honours paper next year, etc. Also, a Queenstown ski trip that I'm looking forward to mid this year.

Chyi, if you're reading this: can't wait for you to get back to Dunny. Your stuff is still here (safe and sound), don't worry we didn't sell but half your stuff. haha!

Very long-winded, but oh well since I don't think I'll post very often now this year, I'll just make my posts long and less frequent.

Neverending exams

Genetics exam was surprisingly, not that bad as I thought it would be. Hopefully the results would be good, too. Thank God I spent a day doing past year exam questions, though not all of them were repeated, but I'm happy with what I did.

Biochem (the hardest due to crazy amounts of pathways) is next Friday, 1 week to cram all those info into my head. Plenty of time considering terms tests were 1 day apart. Note to self: do plenty past year exams even if there isn't enough time to finish revision. It sure helps as Otago lecturers are always too lazy to come up with new questions.

Studying in the library/link made me more disciplined. Heh. I'm easily distracted by ANYTHING if I study at home, which translates into not studying at all and wasting time.

Distracted by Sam's phone.

Self-explanatory. Yeap, those are sunflower seeds.

Caught red-handed.

Vandalism or stress-relief?

1 more month to go.

1 more month to go.

1 more month to go.

1 more month to go.

Endurance, guys!

Pink for Oct

As some of you might notice, I'd changed links from blue to PINK, in support of the Go Pink for October campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer. Don't worry, I won't start wearing fluorescent pink clothes.

***

I'll just bombard this blog with pictures for now, this probably means that I can't be bothered typing 1000 words every day. I marvel at those who do that, though.

Anyway, last Friday night, we attended a performance by Michelle's band, "Soul Deep". They play mostly blues and soul music, think Stevie Wonder and Prince. $20 a ticket, quite pricey as a "special guest" was specially flown in from Wellington. Though I still prefer the lead singer's skills, I was NOT the only person who thought he really sounded like Stevie Wonder (he even wore black sunnies!).


I have to admit, the band was AWESOME. 12 members altogether, coordination is super hard to achieve, plus they had to play over 50 songs by hard in a span of 4 hours. Now that's something I look up to. Poor Michelle, she looked so tired after the 4 hours, but still had more gigs the next day.

The singers; the one of the left sings beautifully.

Go Michelle!

The audience enjoyed the music thoroughly. Believe me, Kiwi folks can dance. I'm not talking about the youngsters dancing in clubs type of dance, but that night all the 30 to 50 year old Kiwis displayed their dancing skills on the tiny and very packed dance floor. One 40-ish lady wore a bold red dress with matching red boots, impossible to miss. I was quite hesitant to dance at first (Chinese culture ma, paiseh), but was literally dragged by this 30-ish lady (man, she was STRONG), and had no choice but to dance along. The others noted how "keen" she was to me, kept asking me to dance with her bla bla. It got quite scary towards the end, so I kept my distance from her. haha. But all's good, it was an enjoyable night.

So here you go. Excuse the quality, all photos were taken using my phone.

There's even an arcade room in Victoria Hotel.

Today was so sunny, couldn't resist not taking a pic of the registry building. heh.