here's to you

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!

tickets, check!

Haha yes Chyi we do spend (quite) a lot.

Speaking of which, I just spent HEAPS on air tickets alone: my parents' fares when they come here during my graduation end of this year and my tickets to Wellington/Hawkes Bay trip during Easter. Feeling very broke aside, I'm excited!!! =D *waves to May & the Pancakes yesh I shall bug you guys very soon get ready* hehehhee yay for free accomodation!

Searching here and there for the cheapest air fares can be quite frustrating as well. No wonder ticketing agents charge so much at times. Thank God for budget airlines though, without them we'd be paying at least twice as much.

I've been stuck in the lab pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Running experiments, waiting for results, analysing them, researching blah blah very boring stuff. People are still trying to convince me to consider taking PHD next year -__- I usually just reply "not interested. more keen on working and earning money!" =P

I had my flu vaccination taken this afternoon. Costed me $18 at the student health. Highly recommended since I tend to get the flu at least twice a year especially during winter. Staying in bed and feeling sick is not what I want to be doing this year.

Oh for you guys who are not in Dunedin this year, the new mall (Wall Street) just opened earlier this week. Nothing much, seriously. I find it quite amusing that the stairs and walkway at the 2nd and 3rd floor is semi-transparent. Wouldn't be a good idea to be wearing skirts/dresses eeks.

Janice the lenik, if you're reading this, I was so touched when you sent me that text =) You reminded me of the crazy good times we had- from the 1st time we met at Cikgu Png's car to being neighbours for 3 years (technically).

My ipod was on shuffle and it started playing this song- Follow Love. It was the song I chose to go with the video I compiled for Lighthouse last year. GAHHHH it just brought back a lot of memories... I probably would have teared if I wasn't at the lab hehe. We all remember how much everyone cried that night, eh? ;)

I'm gonna miss the simple town full of memories
I'm gonna miss just hanging out with all my friends
The rainy days and summer nights
Skipping stones by the river side
But i know.. it's time to go

So here's goodbye here's so long
I must go and follow love
I feel my heart moving on
I must go and follow love
Carry on while I'm gone
This is what I've been dreaming of
I miss you so
But I must go, go and follow love

I've got a heart that's full of dreams
and a little bit of crazy
I can feel it pulling me to somewhere I have never been
I'm packing up and leaving home
To travel into the great unknown
Its time, I have to go

So here's goodbye here's so long
I must go and follow love
I feel my heart moving on
I must go and follow love
Carry on while I'm gone
This is what I've been dreaming of
I miss you so
But I must go, go and follow love

Were not guaranteed tomorrow
So we must just keep on living for the day
and make the most of every moment
every step along the way...oh

So here's goodbye here's so long
I must go and follow love
I feel my heart moving on
I must go and follow love
Carry on while I'm gone
This is what I've been dreaming of
I miss you so
But I must go, go and follow love

I must go, go and follow love

~Follow love by FFH

and it's probably a few more months to go, but I've already been thinking of what it'll be like actually leaving Dunedin after graduating end of this year. *gasp* It's a scary thought, leaving this place I've called home for 4 years, and settling down in another town again, God only knows where.

Anyway.
18 days to go WOOOOOOOOO~!

lost in wonder

Back to Kota Kinabalu trip posting: day at the Tanjung Aru beach, white water rafting, and the famous Sunday morning Gaya Street market.

I was SOOOO glad we had time to go to Tanjung Aru beach. Sunset there was amazingbeathtakingsuperawesomely WOW. I was so happy and content with my camera the whole time- approx 30 minutes, just clicking away every minute or so and gasping at how beautiful creation can be at times when we really just pause, look, and admire.

I prefer sunrises over sunsets. But I never wake up early enough to take photos of sunrises =P

6.06pm. still blocked by clouds
still lovely

6.19pm. move away, clouds!

6.20pm. zoomed in on the rays
gah i need antiglare lens. but I'll need a new dslr first ;)

6.23pm. I love how the sea glistens in the sunlight

6.24pm. and then, this dude just blocked my view! I think he was taking a photo too
but I decided to take a photo anyway

6.25pm. SO. PRETTY!!!

6.26pm. sunset over the horizon!
*happy sigh* now I can tick off 1 more item from my "to-do-before-i-turn-25" list

6.27pm. happy, contented me

Kiulu river white water rafting: the day before we went back to Kuching- Valentine's day!
RM150 per person if I remember correctly. We probably got cheaper prices as my cousin's friend works as a freelance tourguide and was able to get *ahem* special deals for us.

The guides were so funny and sporting! We set off in 2 rafts, 8 in each raft. The main instructor in our raft, a funny-as Filipino dude who can speak so many Chinese dialects even dragged me into the river while I wasn't noticing. Then I got pushed into the river once again when he "saved" me by pulling me over the other side of the raft. Good fun, though. He tried to overthrow our raft on purpose many times but we were just too pro in rafting haha. Crazy dude even jumped off a suspended bridge over the river, and I spotted him smoking while swimming after that. I secretly envy his job.

the beautiful Kiulu river. It's graded level 1&2, the more challenging rafting course is at Padas River. The weather was beautiful that day, so we took 2 short breaks, went swimming, and took photos. To me, it was the highlight of the KK trip. Highly recommended for anyone travelling to KK.

spotted: girl fanning the cute baby @ Gaya street Sunday market

I found this quite... amusing.

It means "hit also cannot die" when directly translated from Mandarin. Apparently it's a traditional herbal medicine thing (they even sell the tree there at the market) mixed with wine- the uncle who was selling it said it can cure pain aches. Sounds magical and totally illogical to me anyway. But mum bought it anyway to test it out -_-

The yummy Hainanese Mee, recommended by my cousin

BIG as billboard at a traffic junction.
Super rich couple or just an ad for a bridal studio? I doubt the latter since there was no visible sign of any company logo/number on it.

This week has been a LOOOOOONG one. I'm glad that tomorrow's Friday. No wait, I do have to go back to the lab even on weekends now =( Looking forward to the "got talent" night at Southside tomorrow! I was supposed to play the keys for Jo who was performing a song, but change of plans. I'm now turning the pages for Michelle (keys) and Emily (viola) for their duet! Yup, that's an important role.

need vs want

Things are just coming all at once and they're stealing my beauty sleep away- I feel like booking the next flight to Italy and stay here and meet a hot Italian dude...- well you get what I mean. I need distraction, desperately.

All that's keeping me moving forward now are:

1. the possibility (I say 60% confirmed now, but eeeks looking at airtickets) of my easter trip to Wellington/Napier to visit May and the Pancakes =D I don't know how I'm going to survive this winter without you guys' warmth! *awwhhh* hehe
2. the Yeo's baby, be it boy or girl, though of course I'm rooting for a baby boy. The name has been set already for both genders, and I can't wait to throw a baby shower, buy baby stuffs, and ~~erm compare diaper prices~~, look at cute baby face and take cute baby photos :)
3. graduating. 9 more months to go, and it's scaring me out. I'm happy being at my lab, (though experiments might fail) which is good considering I was miserable, well, not-so-happy during my attachment at GIS Sg.
4. a graduation trip the end of the year. I'm still very keen on doing a volunteer program for 3 weeks, but still doing research on that and listing down my other options.
5. friends that stay true to themselves.

My supervisor talked to me about intense IP (intellectual property) stuff: about how if I do discover something significant and has IP value (including patents), it all belongs to the uni. It's sad in a way, but I guess the uni has to make us sign contracts like these to prevent going bankrupt if we do get smart and claim royalties etc compensation. Which also means I will be legally restricted in the things I say to people outside the lab- and he did specifically mention about not discussing about the project in blogs YIKES.

A trip to the Santorini Islands would be so nice now.

...and I want this bag.
Who cares if it's a NZ brand and no one outside the country would know how much it actually costs.

I want my nose back

GAH I've caught the nasty bug that's been going on around campus lately. I feel like yanking my nose out and sticking it in an oven. Trying to focus on journal articles have never been THIS hard especially when all I feel like doing is crawling under the sheets and stay in bed whole day.

Thanks though to Mich who gave me the manuka honey and 'be well' tea. =) and the random walk-around-town with Chyi yesterday though I'm sure I brought that grumpy/tired face of mine into all the stores we window-shopped at.

I'm TRYING not to use the "I'm tired" excuse all the time. I feel annoyed when people use that all the time, so I'm trying not to let this bug affect how I feel/how much things I get done.

So March is apparently the month where heaps of birthdays occur. Sharon, my flattie honey, celebrated her 20th on the 9th of March- Monday. We bought a choc muffin for her during lunch after church, then surprised her with dinner at Etrusco for some pasta and delicious port wine. The next day during her actual birthday, the crazy trio (Val, Ping, and Bernard) decided to come up with a semi-striptease for Sharon. Poor her must be so traumatised. I was, for that night at least. The whole thing was recorded on video, and GOSH how R18 that was. haha!

Things are getting busier by the moment at uni. I'm just trying to keep my head up and endure this- hopefully with grace.

Some of the photos I took recently: