I love my job

There is nothing more frustrating than to fight against a life long enemy and yet not place a face to it. Today, my girlfriends, let me remove this frustration from your life, once and for all.


Let me present to you your worst enemy.







Mr Adipocyte, a.k.a Fatcell



I figure out that adipocytes are male because like guys, they :
1) take over your life without you realising. You are obsessed with removing one and retaining the other.
2) stay on forever. The more you try to get rid of them, the more stubborn they become.
3) are the imperfections in girls' lives.
4) are the reason why girls bother going to the gym.
5) are the reason behind the stock market crash in the world of girls' self-esteem.




Still, isn't Mr Fatty cute!!! Those tiny droplets are oil droplets. Make me feel like pricking each one with a pin. And see the oil oooooooze out from the cell. And LAUGH!!! We differentiated these from mesenchymal stem cells. Really, I have so many fat cells, there's really no need for us to create more in the lab... *SNORT*


I reall love my job. There was once when my friend and I decided to paint our nails in the office during lunch hour. We were hesitant initially, because if the painting was not done properly, we didn't have any nail polish remover to clean up the mess. However, it didn't take us long to figure out that we can always make our own remover in the lab. It's really great working in lab huh? Fancy some ice cream? We have liquid nitrogen. Having a flu? We have masks readily available.


Me love me job:)

Graduation

I've finally graduated. I recall stepping into the plane on 26th Sept 2006, reminding myself to remember how I feel, so that when I look back in the future, I would not feel that time flies. Despite that, TIME BLOODY FLEW BY!!! There is a twinge of pain as I hold on tightly to the present, afraid that all these would be wrenched from me as 10yrs of my life fly me by. 30 years old. I wanna look back with no regrets when I am 30 years old.


Housemates



Returning to London for my graduation was a bitter sweet experience. Leaving college was different compared to leaving other educational institutions when I was younger. In the past, when I leave a school, all my friends left with me. The sentiments associated with the school were practically washed clean, because it no longer contained the elements which made the stay memorable. Moreover, all my friends would still be around me. Friends in London however, remained in London while I left. Some remained because they are still studying. Some remained because that is where they belong. I returned to where I belong, yet it's difficult to be whole again, because a part of my memories and lifestyle have been left behind.


Biomedics


Still, seeing familiar faces in familiar settings eased the pain a little. It helped to see that life in London still goes on without me and I should move on too.


Biomedics


On a separate note, I am rather indignified to find out that pubs actually serve half pints. For all 3 years of my life in London, I always end up giving my unfinished pints away. And these guys NEVER told me that I can order just half the amount!!!! Makes me wonder who my real friends are...:(

Thanks, my dears!

Met up with my primary school friends, Joanne and Wendy. They were one of my best friends back then. I was rather afraid that things would be awkward between us. Amazingly, the chemistry was still there and we talked non-stop. When we left the meeting, there was this happiness flowing within me, the kind whereby you feel good about yourself and your friends. Haven't had such a feeling for a long time. Perhaps it is indeed time for class gathering.

Good Old days

I seldom have a picture post. Make that never. All of my posts depend on my words. Today, however, is an exception, because I just uncovered some pictures in a forgotten XD card. They were taken from my fresher year in Imperial, and brought back tons of memories.





Rugby Christmas dinner 2006
The one on the left was my vice-capt:)




The 2 girls whose names I ALWAYS mixed up. Now I remember. Karen (left), Helen (right)



Jess, the girl who gave me a HUGE bruise on the very 1st training. For that, she received a placement in kangaroo court. Kangaroo court is an annual event whereby we get "punished" for the stupid stuff we did in the year.



Familiar scene here...



Another familiar scene...



John (Coach) and Borja (who started from being Rugby girls' most popular guy to most hated)



I didn't post larger pics of me, because most of them were not focused. Seems that I was the only one who could focus that night. Hur hur...






My first snowfall in London! With my best friends from hall.




The next time the camera was used, it was for Vday. That was my present, perfectly preserved, shipped all the way from Sg. 3 years on, it isn't the same anymore.



Gggrrrr.... The last pic my cam took. On the way to Spain. In fact, the only pic the cam took for that trip:( BOOOO:(:(:( Damn Evian bottles.

Sigh... I can barely accept the fact that I have graduated and returned.

Is 22 considered too old for everything?!?!?!?1

It has been a long time since I last blogged properly. Since the post in April, I have taken my final year exams, finished my final year project, returned from London, gotten my results and started work. It is amazing how it is possible to summarise what happened in the last 4 months in just 1 sentence. How sad have our lives become, as we pursue the luxuries in life, and lost track of the details. Everything we do becomes condensed into just the outcome. My six weeks of sweat and tears and fun reduced to just a normal phrase of "finishing my final year poject". Whatever happened to the process? I guess this is what happened as we grow old and life becomes less structured.

When I was young, my life was mapped out for me (i was supposed to follow the conventional way of life). Go to kindergarden, enter primary school, fight to enter good secondary school, wrestle into desired junior college, then enter college to wither. All my goals were set for me and I just have to make the slightly less important choice of which school to go to, what subjects to take. It was never an option of "let's go fashion school instead" or "let's start work, study later". This worked very well, because there was no need to work hard to prove that the unconventional choice I made was right, unlike those who bravely trodded down those unexplored paths; there was no need to rack my mind on setting goals, because I just had to follow the default pathway and I would be safe. I was indeed sheltered.

However, recently, I find myself in unfamiliar territory. My default pathway has come to a deadend. I have dutifully finished my college degree (and even the goals were not set by me! It was set by A*, which asserts that all scholars should attain 1st class. So I was pretty much guided by that their policy.). But no one told me what is next. Yes, I am supposed to do a year of research attachment, then embark on my PhD overseas before returning to serve my bond. But this is not exactly conventional. I have many other choices awaiting me. I can do my PhD locally, if I am brave enough. I can choose between UK and US. I can choose to do a mix of local and overseas PhD. Hell, I can go into management and not finish my PhD. Then there is the issue of what should I specialise in. There are gazzillllions of options.

No, I am not upset that I have too many options. Rather, whilst I am still trying to find an answer, I find myself floating aimlessly in life, trying to find stable ground. Yet, this is not possible without knowing where I am going. Already, I feel like I am wasting my life away, as I am just living day to day, instead of spending the time productively towards my goals. The worst thing would be to live till 30 and wonder what I had accomplished in my past 8 years. I know the answer "receiving my doctorate" would be insufficient. Still, the search is on for the missing element. Is it being a good mother (doubt so)? Being the oldest ah ma to dance on bar tops (highly so)?

Unfortunately, this problem would not disappear just overnight. In fact, I foresee it getting worse, as I age and the things I used to want to do go unaccomplished and the regret sets in. As work gets busier and friendship circle shrinks, I hope that I would not end up just leading day to day and lose track of the big picture.

BIRD BOMB

I think God has the same sense of humour as me when he sent a torrent of bird shit raining down on me right before my interview:(

Singaporean Love by Singaporean on Singapore Day 2009

It's 2 days from exams. Or rather less than 2 days. So I couldn't go to Singapore Day 2009, which was held in London today.


But Yijun, who was volunteering at the event saved me a curry puff, a Yeo's drink and even the goodie bag. SOOOO SWEEET of her right?!?!?! Nothing can express how touched I was by her kindness. Thanks, girl!!!! Thanks for even bringing it all the way to my house, when I should be the one going over to collect. You indeed"brought a piece of home closer to my heart". No, not through the curry puff, but the "piece of home" being the care shown by a fellow Singaporean. It's always sweet to know that wherever Singaporeans go, we look out for each other=D (Esp when it comes to food.)




The curry puff and drink... UMMHMMM!! Old Chang Kee!!! :):):):) I wanna go home where there's endless supply of Old Chang Kee. Incidentally, Jin Yang also brought back the same drink for me:) Heh!!!! Loved! Loved! Loved!!!


And Gabe who was jealous of all the love I received, insisted that he did bring back food. Only that they were in his tummy.



Gabe's (soon to be) TUMMY!!!! hehehhe!!

study observations

I was rather entertained by two Drosophila (scientific name for the flies species) doing the mating dance in my room.



Until I realised that they would end up mating on my bananas.



Then I stopped being amused.

Proud to sing this...

Can't seem to get secondary school song out of my head...


From High Olympus flows to us the glory
On us the sacred fire descends.
Rise, sisters, rise, the world is all before ye
Fear not to grasp what fortune sends.

Chorus:
Sisters in learning, and sisters at heart
Life lies before us,
Here's luck to the start.

A little while the sun shines high above us
And youth's elixir fills our veins.
The magic fire that wills the gods to love us
The fire by which the will attains.

(Chorus)

So heart to heart, we'll scale the heights of learning
No mean desires our days shall shame.
Whole-hearted, true, with pride and ardour burning
On, sisters, on to life and fame.

(Chorus)

21-turning-22

You know age has caught up with you when you dread your birthday instead of the usual anticipation and exhileration. The dread might have been amplified 10x by the fact that 19th March marks the countdown of 40 days to my exams.

Still, I am extremely thankful to everyone who had taken the time out to celebrate for me. It is strange how last year I wanted a birthday with a bang but I spent the day alone and this year, I thought it was gonna be a quiet birthday but I spent the entire week in celebration.

The week started with pancakes at "My Old Dutch". All pancakes are 5pds on mon, which makes any girl's day. It was an all-girls affair, with Ade, Elaine and Catherine. If someone told me a year ago that I would be eating with these 3 girls, I would think that the idea was absurd. Fortunately, we would all be graduating this year, and hopefully we will continue forging the friendship in Singapore. After pancakes, we went to Patisserie Valerie for some desserts. By we, I mean I ate while Elaine and Ade nibbled. Cath watched. That's what gym is for right???


Can't believe I ate these pancakes and was still not satisfied!

When I reached home later that day, I saw the package my family had sent me=)

On Tues, I received a beautiful handmade card.

On Wed, my housemates surprised me with a cheesecake and an mp3 player. It was absolutely crazy, because we had not spent time with each other for a month. The house has deteoriated into a hostel in the past month. The joy and laughter that night made the house whole again. Really nice when I thought that everyone was too busy to celebrate that week. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule, dear housemates (eh Gabe, I still need e pics).

Thurs, the actual day itself. One word. ADE. Ha~!!! Sweetie pie bought me Macdonald breakfast coz I told her I hadn't had any Mac in London before and that I liked the Mac breakfast. Given how much she loves sleep, waking up early to pop by Mac would be akin to doing coursework (ok, strange analogy). On top of that, she bought me a pile presents w a most lovely card. And if that wasn't enough, we went to cafe rouge to have dinner. It had a one for one deal, which she treated me for. Such friends, you never lament why you didn't meet them early; you would be too busy thanking God for placing them in your life.






The fries were YUUUUMMMMY!!!!



Pretty Ade... Damn...

And of course, there were various other friends who made the day even brighter. Ela1ne who met me specially to give me a card. Dav1d who took the chance to show off his culinary skill. And loads and loads and loads of sms and fb msgs (took 1 day to reply all. I am not trying to emphasize my popularity. Ok, maybe a little).



Mango glutinous rice, which incidentally is my favourite Thai dessert. Or is it red ruby... Hmmm... Tough fight there...

On fri, it was Ela1ne who showed off her cooking skills. Despite her "don't expect too much hor", dinner was exceptionally good. And FILLING. Jiaxuan and I had to force stuff down her throat so that we wouldn't waste any food. Glad to finally see her in stress-less mode.

Post dinner. Elaine refused to take the pic initially coz she thought she looked unglam after sloughing away in the kitchen.

Saturday was crazy. There was an intra-singsoc touch rugby tournament, in which my team won 1st place. That night, I had dinner w Ela1ne and J1n Yang (I am beginning to feel Ela1ne overkill even as I type this entry). Then I went home, only to receive a call from X1ufang to go her place, coz she had something exciting to show me. Well, you probably can foresee what came up after that (it seemed like a perfect plot written down but I didn't guess it at all!!!). To cut the story short, there was a cake outside the lift and everyone was hiding on the stairway landing. =) Kudos to my housemates and the rest who helped plan it. I think I must be the least observant person around, because 3 bdays in London, and 3 times I had been surprised. 1st one was a pseudo meeting to plan our Spain hol. 2nd one I planned my own party but was outdone by a surprise video made by my hsemates. And saturday marks my 3rd surprise. To think that most bday surprises turn out flops...

Too bad I don't have any pics to show, because I was obviously not prepared for this!



Present that Caroline got for me. Really pretty (for the guys' sake, this is an eye shadow palette. It is the thing you put in the space between your eyelashes and your eye brows).

On Sun, I received some really girly presents from Yvette and Xiufang=) The surprises never stop huh???

The bag the presents came in! Sums it all!

And finally, on Wed, my housemates and I went to this rather highend restaurant "One-oh-One" for dinner. It was embarrassing how we didn't know what this round plate thing the guy placed on the table was for and we even guessed it was for tips (but it was placed when we just arrived, so it didn't make sense). Turned out it was a stand for bottled water*oops* I need to up my knowledge of posh eating. Still, the food was good (only because it was 50% off the price). Really enjoyed myself, because the previous time I interacted with the guys was exactly 37 lines above this sentence.


Posh Nosh~~!!


Just wanted to put this in, because I wanted to show off the dress I just bought!! hahahahha!!


It is indeed sad looking at the other side of the 21. But for every second spent dreading it, I would spend 2seconds in the future regreting for dreading it when I could enjoy it, and I would then spend 3seconds in far future regretting wasting time regretting dreading it...
For the sake of the future, I would enjoy my life now.

Thank you for making 21-turning-22 easy.

What more can I ask for?

This weekend has to be the best I have had in weeks. The past 2 months have been busy with pole-dancing and work. Now that pole-dancing has been put on hold for the next 2 months (for exam prep:( ), my weekends are freed up again. It is not that I don't enjoy pole-dancing, but there is just this thing about having time for myself and just spending the time with friends.


Yesterday, I had a spontaneous outing with Ch1n J1e and L1pen to The Peacock Bar/Club/Pub to watch some pole-dancing action. Unfortunately, the performances were not exactly what was said in the description and we ended up watching a Samba and belly-dancing show. I can only imagine the disappointment felt by the guys. Sorry guys, that just warrants a 2nd time!! After that, we returned to Chin Jie's place for supper (which I didn't have, may I emphasise!!). Now, I know I am describing the most boring outing to you, what with a below expectation performance and a closing finale with just supper back home. But that is deliberate. Despite the lack of stimulating (in more ways than one) activities, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of these 2 guys. I haven't spent a lot of time with them for a long time, not to mention when we do, it is in a large group setting, where the dynamics of friendships are so complex, it's mind-boggling. Just having a more intimate group makes my day:) Thanks for jioing, CJ!

This is a photo taken off their website to give you an idea of what we watched last night =x


Today saw me at hydepark for a touch rugby session, followed by a netball session. Both sessions there were only 7 people, which I did think would be too few to play a proper game. Both times I was proven wrong. 4v3 touch rugby can be just as dynamic and since all present knew the game, there were some spectacular play:) Even J1n Yang, the least experienced of us, enjoyed himself thoroughly. Speed netball is soooo much more fun when there are only 3v3. The game is much faster and there is more space to play with. Ha... it is probably my own noob-ness that I can't play proper 7v7 netball. Still, it was a blessing in disguise to have so few people, since I was rather apprehensive on how we were going to play with 3 a side. Today might just be best session of sports I have had this academic year.

Tmr, I will be going to Franc1ne's place for dinner. What more can I ask for?

Yep, life is good. But it probably won't last, with the upcoming exams and termination of future sports sessions. Hai~!!! Where's the rainbow when u need it???