hello!
i'm back from Ireland.
its very green.
even the stamp on my passport is green.
we touched down in Dublin International Airport at abt 10 am on monday, 27/3.
we spent the day touring Dublin.

we concluded that Dublin looks just like any other European city.
except for the many many Ireland flags that are displayed everywhere.
and the many gift shops selling souvenirs- most of which were green.



we first visited Christchurch cathedral (just the outside), followed by Dublin castle.


Me and Ee Mae outside Christchurch Cathedral

Dublin castle


we didn't go into Dublin Castle, cos it didn't look very interesting :)
and we were rather sick of old buildings- cambridge is quite old leh. so we didn't go to any musuems either :)

so we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral.
the gardens surrounding it were really pretty.
we went into the Cathedral cos St. Patrick is so Irish, so we had to find out more.


in the gardens of St. Patrick's cathedral

inside the cathedral. read the inscriptions! :)

we went to Trinity College, part of Dublin Uni and home of the Book of Kells- ancient illuminations, which we didn't have time to see cos the library closed at 5 pm.

Trinity College.


we then walked to St. Stephen's Green, where there was a famine memorial to remember the Irish potato famine in 1845 caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans (physio notes! )

Famine Memorial.


and then there wasn't anything left to do so we went to Grafton street- this popular street with shops and buskers. ie we went shopping :)

then we went for dinner- Fish and Chips from this really famous little shop. there is this list of names outside the shop displaying the names of famous ppl who had patronised it before- U2, Tom Cruise etc. so of course we had to try it. it was a take-away only place so we had to look for a place to sit.
we couldn't find anywhere to sit. to make things worse, it was drizzling! so we stood under a bridge and ate.
food was good. oily but good :)


Fish & Chips shop! :)


we then went to Temple Bar.
Temple Bar is a bar. but it is also the name of network of streets housing pubs and bars, collectively named after the most famous one of them all.
so we had to go in.
and we ordered (what else) Bailey's Irish Cream!! :) fantastic stuff :)


me and Baileys :)

i'm off to Ireland tmr!
to the land of little green men and guiness stout.
will be back soon.
whee!

in lent term i was asked 2 questions i couldn't answer. (obviously there were many more, but they were insignificant)
one in a restaurant over dinner and one during supervision.

during supervision:
What is heat?

looks like pri sch stuff but the three of us just sat there and stared at our supervisor. so he gave us the answer:

heat is energy in transit.

over dinner:
What is a vegetable?

when i asked someone else after that i was told "a person lie down there then cannot move one"
but obviously we weren't refering to that.
we spent quite some time arguing about the answer.
quite amusing really, 5 cambridge undergrads debating over the definition of a vegetable.
and we couldn't come to a conclusion.

have a think about that :)
(and yes, there is an answer, which i later discovered)

i'm homesick.
i miss my old room
:(
boo hoo hoo.
went for a big salsa party at the guildhall on sat night.
danced from m 930pm - 1am
whee!
the floor was incredibly smooth- my first dance as with this guy who just arrived as well, and we were both sliding around and trying to keep our balance.
but it got better as the night went on.
i had a fantastic time- i'm really really pleased.

went to club salsa on wednesday and it was terrible.
i mean i was terrible.
couldn't spin, couldn't follow, couldn't balance.
left the place feeling utterly depressed.

but today was different.
for one all the good salsa dancers in cambridge were there.
and ppl from the Latin Collective from london were there as well.
so there were lots of good dancers to dance with!
plus the floor was ok once i got used to it.
so i danced and danced and danced.
and i danced with this guy.
i didn't know who he was, but i knew that he was a v good dancer.
and after we danced for a bit he started correcting me.
"keep your arm at a right angle!"
"only step forward on 5!"
reminded me of justin.
i was terrified.
was quite stressed during the dance.
but it was good cos i realised how terrible a dancer i had become.
forgotten all that justin drilled in liao.
reminds me of that time at union sq when justin pulled us out mid-dance to correct our basic step.
its that sort of crashing down to earth feeling.
but it was a good thing.

overall it was great.
i only danced with one guy from the team!
don't seem to be able to have chemistry with most of the other guys- they don't really ask me to dance much.
so thats a problem usually cos they are good so if i don't dance with them there are not many other ppl left to dance with.
but tonight!
there were so many good dancers around that it wasn't a problem.
got to dance with this guy. i think he is indian- not too sure. it was really fun cos he really interpreted the music when he danced- he didn't just do the moves.
so that was fun!

but.
as i left the place and walked towards my bike i realised that i had to return to my new, temporary room- not my old one.
and i felt so sad.
i miss my old room!
i'm homesick.
haiz.
i miss the familiarity of my room and the location of everything.
:(

on the whole it has been a good day.
i'm happy.

i'm now in a new room
cos i got kicked out of my old room in college- everyone who stays in robinson over the hols will be relocated.
so i'm living in a house behind robinson.
the room is huge, so thats good.
but there is no mirror, the shelves are really narrow (can't put books on them) and there is no place in the room where i can hang my towel up.
my old room in robinson has a full length mirror, deep shelves and hooks everywhere.
but its also smaller.
so i guess its a trade-off.
quite pleased with this room nonetheless.
nice and big big :)

waiting for the chicken to defrost now.
i'm hungry :(
i don't trust the microwave's defrost mode so i'm using the old fashioned immerse-in-hot-water method and its taking ages.
bahhh

i think Spring is here at last.
its 16.4 deg C!!!
i walked out in shorts and a t-shirt.
incredible.
yay!!!

YAY
the sun is shining
and it is 7.2 deg C.
i don't have to wear my thick black coat!
yay!

i woke up today cos i heard the sound of someone vacuuming upstairs.
so i thought the bedder was coming to clean my room.
so i shot out of bed, got dressed and got ready to escape from my room once she came.
i went online, checked my email, surfed around and she still didn't come.
could her here bustling around the other rooms but not mine.
in the end i gave up and went to get breakfast from the kitchen.
and waited in anticipation for her to come.
and finally there was a knock on the door.
i said "come in"
and a guy poked his head in.
"hi i'm here to check the smoke detector"
and he put up this device to the detector, and the device made 2 bleeping sounds and the guy left.
so that was that.
no bedder.

when the bedder cleans my room i try not to be there cos i don't like the idea of someone packing my room while i stand there and watch. or worse, make small talk, which she is very fond of.
which is why i had an escape plan this morning ready for when she came to my room.
i would hide in the kitchen.
don't get me wrong, she is a lovely lady, just that i don't like making small talk and i cannot ignore her cos its rude.
yep


i am hopeful.
that spring will arrive soon.
today the sun was shining brightly
and there weren't many clouds.
so i was like "yay i think its getting warmer"
so i checked the temperature
4.4 deg C
...
when oh when will the temperature reach 10 deg
when that day comes i will wear a skirt to celebrate
haven't worn a skirt for ages :(

harry: good salsa songs evoke emotions
me: i agree.. our performance piece brings back a whole flood of memories.

and so i had to play the song.
no idea what its called
its "track 4 on the barnone 2 cd"
once the music started i was transported back to xenbar, to actfa on mhd sultan rd, to the room with the sloping roof at xen and the nice big room with big mirrors.
how we trained and trained together for so many months.
melvin, selene, jy, me and many others.
and now the 4 of us are in 4 different continents.
asia, america, australia and europe respectively.
its pretty amazing.
and quite sad... was nice chatting with selene when she came over, remininscing abt chinatown and salsa.

club salsa played the song once, and i was like "ahh!! i must dance to that"
and this guy asked me to dance so i agreed.
and i could remember all the steps that justin choreoed, but of course i had to follow the guy's lead.
and when the time came for the shine i was hoping that he would break free to shine. but he didn't.
i was so tempted to let go and just shine!!
but i didn't la.

looking forward to dancing in s'pore again.

helped out at the chem dept today cos its the cambridge science festival!
so there were many experiments for the children to try out.
i helped at the red cabbage indicator booth with tianyi
brought back memories of pri sch- when i did some experiment with red cabbage indicator too!


us at the booth :) in the part IA chem lab


note the colourful indicator spectrum! so pretty :)

it was interesting.
as in how do u explain "what is pH?" to a 6 year old?
it was an enriching experience, to say the least.
got a lot of free stuff too :)
a t-shirt (very colourful) and a lab coat (fantastic stuff.. it has "department of chemisty science festival" sewn on the breast pocket in bright colours :)
the royal chem society sponsored lots of random things.. such as pens with glow-in-the-dark barrels and holograpic print pencils.
and of course the furry things that we stuck on our lab coats :)


funky labcoat!


i got 2 furry thingys! the red one is called Fluffy. the purple one is One-eyed bandit.

most importantly, we got a free lunch there
hehehe :)
quite a good buffet lunch
then we went to the main LT to attend Wothers' lecture.
fantastic stuff.
its like all the wothers' mid-lecture "its time for a pause" demonstrations combined into an hour-long lecture.
a lot of bright lights, explosions, loud sounds, glowing things and generally very entertaining stuff.
the chemistry of it all was lost in the midst of the excitement hehe
i particularly liked the flame tests, where he sprayed different metals onto the bunsen flame so we could see the colour of the flame.
potassium burns with a pretty purple flame :) ok its liliac, to be really accurate.
there was the barking dog demo (CS2 + NO), luminol (much brighter than when Keeler did it!) and of course the exploding sheep! :)
so no need to go for lects anymore- all the exciting things have been condensed into one super-lect!


the LT was packed- we sat at the sides on the ledges by the wall. this is half the LT only- its huge!


a solar panel attached to a row of light bulbs. the children were given laser pointers and they shone it at the solar panel in a bid to cause the light bulbs to light up. quite cool :)


phosphorus! glowing away in the giant flask.


the chemistry celebrity in action! u can just make him out in the bright yellow lab coat. note the floating molecules hanging from the ceiling :)

its saturday today.
and i woke up earlier than i've ever woken up before even when we had sat morning lects.
but it was worthwhile cos it was really quite fun :)

i am so pissed.
with the (*&^ ang mohs.
or rather one ang moh in particular.

while i was out in the afternoon, my neighbour invited her fren over.
and he shaved his head in our shared bathroom.
so there was hair all over.
and he used a piece of cloth to wipe it up.
and left the cloth, with lots of bis of hair stuck on it, in the bath tub.
and that was how i found it.
and that piece of cloth belongs to me.
i bought it from The Body Shop cos its an exfoliating cloth and i use it to scrub my skin when i bathe.
and now it filthy.

so i asked my neighbour "is this yours?"
she said "no its not mine"
i said "its mine, but i have no idea why there are bits of hair stuck on it"
she said "oh he shaved his head just now"
and that ang moh guy in her room was like "oh i used it. do u want me to wash it"
i was like "no its ok i'll do it"
cos i was in a state of shock.

and now that i've recovered from the state of shock i'm fuming.
i'm so pissed.
stupid ang moh.
argh.

today is officially the last day of lent term.
but we still have supervisions till friday.
so i have to do work
argh
i wanna scream
its not that i don't wanna do work.
its just that i want to do it at my own pace, not that of the supervisors!
bleh.
so now i'm just slogging through it all.
the joy of learning is fading.

on a happier note.
today has been a good day although i've been feeling like crap (slept at 4 am on monday and 3 am last night)
but first i need to apologise to hk for being such a lousy lab partner today- was really horrible- sorry! :(

for cells lect today the lecturer sang us a song "Lecturer's lament" from his cd "songs for the cynical scientist"
that was really amusing

and my QB supervisor explained the whole of the regression lectures to us again and made it much clearer.
that was good

and for physio prac we got to experiment with a 4 cm piece of rabbit gut.
that was pretty good.
the gut was immersed in McEwans solution and suspended on a transducer which was connected to the computer.
and due to its intrinsic pacemakers, the little piece of gut tissue contracted rythmically on its own!
we didn't even have to stimulate it externally (like the frog muscle)
so it was really amazing seeing the transducer move cos of the gut's contraction.
i spent quite a lot of time admiring that.
the Creator is awesome.

and i met my DOS today
he was quite pleased.
"this has been a good term for you"
and he revealed my chem mock exam marks.
yes, its the one we sat for on the day before sch started at the beginning of this term.
just got the marks for chem today- the last day of term.
did better than i expected
was quite amazed really.
so much so that i told him "but i didn't do so many marks worth of questions!"
then he said "well thats the grade i've got from the marker"
so i guess its correct.
God does work in mysterious ways.
i thought chem was really really bad and that cells was quite good.
in the end my grade for cells was the lowest :( and chem was second best.
for me, that is. have no idea how everyone else did.
don't care either.

its a timely reminder not to depend on my own strength, but to depend on Him.
and that not all hope is lost for chem.
even though i'm currently quite lost in the sea of thermodynamics.
nonetheless i'm sure i'll surface soon.
not by my own strength but with His.

now i can look forward to my friday supervision at the botanical gardens
to look at venus fly traps and mimosa pudica.
even though the weatherman predicts that it will snow on friday :s

there was an international student's formal last night at Trinity college.
*whoaaaaa*
their formal hall is big, old and grand. cos it is Trinity.
the only light in the hall came from a few table lamps and the picture lights above each painting.
the elaborately carved wooden paneling, ornate gold gliding and high ceiling made for a truly harry potter, cambridgey experience.
oh yes and the massive, probably life-size painting of king Henry VIII added the finishing touch to the whole thing.
since the formal was at Trinity
we all decided to be properly attired.
so all of us who owned gowns wore our gowns.
that was fun :)
got to compare college gowns.
st cats has nice pleats, corpus has felt, trinity has a blue gown
robinson has a plain black gown
i think they just decided to not have anything on the gown at all to make it special.
at least its made of that nice shiny silky material :)


all of us! from s'pore, m'sia and hong kong. the fortunate few who could get tickets, that is.


i'm taller than hk! :) king henry VIII is on the wall behind



sat beside this lady from estonia. apparently there are only 10 ppl from estonia in cam. i wore the earrings that huiling passed to jianen to pass to xiaoen to pass to me for Christmas. yay thanks :)


me and michelle! we are both in cheongsams again :) we both wore cheongsams to the fitz formal as well :)


paul and i! note the difference in gown material. mine is nicer hehehe :)




and so this marks the end of the massive blitz of social events that took place in the last 2 weeks of lent term.
2 march- Christ's formal + club
4 march- london trip for a.* dinner
5 march- Magdalene formal with first year natscis
7 march- Robinson nat sci formal
9 march- cumsa lent bop
11 march- Downing spring Ball
12 march- Trinity international student's formal

literally every other day!
for all of u who are green with envy at the fun we're having here at cam, know that a lot of things are not shown.
such as:

saturday lectures that last till 1 pm;
bio of cells prac that lasted 5 hours, most of which was spent peering down the microscope at locust testis and pulling out the head of maggots;
sleeping at 4 am to complete my essays (when i club i sleep at 3 am);
assessed QB practical that we must study for cos certain ppl *ahemyfahem* get full marks all the time effortlessly;
supervision work that pour in continuously- including mcq questions that are thrice as difficult as the hc bio ones (read: impossible to do);
of course there is also the chem prac and physio prac;
lectures that are 50 mins long and involve insane amounts of info;
and doing laundry, grocery shopping and cooking dinner somewhere in there as well.

went for the downing spring ball last night.
the ticket costs 75 pounds.
but i got in for free cos i performed with 2 other couples from the salsa team
originally my partner couldn't make it so i couldn't go.
but in the end there was a pull out and switch-around and i ended up partnering someone else.
so i could go to the ball :)



me and enrico! fantastic italian dancer. who is doing a phd in neuroscience. scary.


the dance tent we performed in. we had an hour-long slot so we performed then taught the audience some basic steps

then we changed out of our costumes and into gowns or tuxes.
and enjoyed the ball :)
but it was so cold.
at 9 pm it as -1.2 deg C.
so by the time we were done with our item and got changed it was abt midnight and was probably much colder.
so the girls wore our coats over our gowns
so did pretty much all of the other females present at the ball.
cos lotsa things we outdoors and there weren't enough heaters around.
and it did snow in the afternoon.
thats how cold it was.


food tent!


this cool wine- chilling thing. the wine is poured down the thing in the middle and u collect it at the bottom.


there was a free flow of food and drinks so we eached picked up a bottle of cherry vodka to celebrate after our performance.


then we went indoors and had more drinks. sam and i in our gowns :)


then we walked around and admired the lights.


went into the building and who did i see but beng beng! he won a fish soft toy which he was carrying around and insisted that i held it while he held my vodka for the photo :p


then we went to the bumper cars. so fun! it was interesting seeing ppl in tuxedos and gowns driving bumper cars.


sam and i in the bumper car!


there was a band playing in one of the tents


michael jackson impersonator. fantastic performance! she was really good. yes, its a she. we all found out when we spoke to the organisers and we were so shocked!


nice ceiling :)


we left at 4 am cos thats when the ball ended.
went back to my room and just crashed.
zzz

the robinson bio nat scis decided to hold a social.
in the form of formal hall last night.
wanted to sit with the freshers.
but ended up sitting opposite my DOS and ex-physio supervisior.
really nice guy, but he just has this way of speaking that makes me want to fall asleep. i thought it was only cos we used to have supervisions in the evening and we were all tired.
but no.
we were wide awake and eating dinner (which was v good) and discussing part Ib and Part II courses and the strike that took place earlier in the day.
rather interesting topics.
but his voice was just so soporific.
that, together with the white wine i had (which was not good), just really made me v sleepy.
but it was a good formal.
plus i got to wear my cheongsam.
with the college gown :)


the first year robinson bio nat scis! there are more of us. but the rest couldn't make it.


a taiwanese from my college had a birthday formal so all of the china chinese were invited. "i wanted to invite u but i was worried u would feel out of place amongst the chinese" yes indeed. i do not want to spend the whole of formal hall conversing in chinese. they are nice ppl though. the 2 guys in the picture are in my college. they hang out with 2 chinese girls, and i talk to them quite a bit. find it easier to talk to them then to talk to the brits.

some of us in yijin's room after the formal at Magdalene. i think this photo is v cute. i dunno why. it just is. hehe

after 6 weeks of inactivity, everyone suddenly decided to organise group dinners at formal hall.


Christs' formal on thursday


first year Nat Sci formal at Magdelene on sunday.


the Magdelene hall is really old and traditional. we ate by candle light! so romantic. couldn't really see what we were eating. but it was fun :)

been really busy.

cg was at my place on friday.
so i cooked for everyone.
then once they left, i had 20 mins to breathe, then
xiaoen, diane, charlene and yvonne came to my room.
and we talked and ate remnants of cny goodies till 1 plus
and we slept at 3 am

on sat, we dragged ourselves out of bed.
xiaoen and charlene went shopping.
i went for lectures.
till 1 pm.
yes my life is sad.
then we visited john's


us at johns


xiaoen and i at johns!


pretty river scene at johns


daisy! its almost spring. almost.

and went for lunch.
then we visited king's college


us at king's

and stopped by at the fudge shop, dropped yvonne off at jia hui's room, then went to visit queens' college.
en route to queens we saw some pple dressed up in black and white. for a cause. but we couldn't figure out what.




xiaoen and i at the mathematical bridge in Queen's


en route to sainsbury's to buy groceries, we passed by king's again and saw some old ppl wearing funky hats and gowns.



then we went back to my room to cook dinner.
so i cut the pork with a pair of kitchen scissors.
and cut and cut
and cut my finger.
and it wasn't that shallow
so i washed it under the tap
and tried to remain calm
all the while aware that the scissors were stained with pork... microbes.
the i felt like fainting.
so i informed the rest of them in the kitchen
and i walked to the steps outside to sit down.
and then at some point in time i suddenly just lost co-ordination and banged my head against the wall.
ouch.
but the pain sort of helped to keep me concious.
so i was in a state of semi-conciousness
and was aware that the 3 of them from london decided to carry me up the stairs to my room.
no mean feat cos i'm so heavy.
but they did it anyway
and put my down on my bed to rest.
and after some time blood flow to my brain became normal again and i didn't feel so faint.
they even went to knock on my neighbour's door to get antiseptic and plasters for me.
so nice :)
then they prepared all the food.
and i went downstairs after resting for a long while and cooked the sweet and sour pork. only cos the recipe i had was only comprehensible by me cos its one big lot of scribbles.
so we managed to get dinner ready in the end.
yay :)
really felt so well taken care of during the whole incident.
thanks :)

and after dinner we decided we wanted dessert
so we went online to the sainsbury website to choose desserts.
3 of them went to town to get the desserts while diane and i stayed to wash up
and as it turned out, they bought 6 different desserts. to share amongst the 5 of us.
hehehe
didn't quite manage to finish all that
but close enough :)

we went to church on sunday
then went for lunch at a chinese restaurant
yay~
then we went shopping
and all of us managed to find nice cheap stuff.
i finally bought a new pair of gloves after i lost one glove at blackpool.
i have decided that gloves are meant to be semi disposable cos they are so easy to lose. so i got the cheapest good quality ones i could find. which were a pair of black leather gloves. they were 10 quid but were reduced to 5 cos winter is almost-but-not-quite over. been surviving on acrylic ones which were just useless.
happy~
then they went back to london and i chionged chem sup work


monday
no chem prac!! :) :)
web cammed my family for a few hours
haven't web cammed for a long time.
spoke to my little brother for almost an hour.
that was nice.
at some point he said "u lah.. go england.. now i have science questions i ask who"
and i felt like crying
i promise i'll help u when i go back in july.
and u can ask me over web cam too!

went for cccf agm.
and now i'm in the cccf committee
look forward to working with everyone in the com to plan and organise stuff for the cf. yay :)

tuesday
chionged a physio essay in an hour
was almost late for physio sup as a result.
asked my supervisor a question regarding guard cells and ABA.
and he couldn't really ans cos apparently the ABA receptors haven't been discovered yet.
then he said "if u are really interested u could ask my supervisor. he is regarded as the world expert on guard cells. especially the effects of ABA on guard cells."
then i was like "no its alright"
but i was rather amused
hehehe
can u imagine wat it must be like for him
"hi, i'm a world expert on guard cells"
...

tuesday
went to fitz to watch shenglong debate.
ee mae went too! so we had company.
he is a scary debator, albiet a very good one.
the debate was boring though.
sth abt nuclear power.
bah.
went for drinks after that though, and that was fun cos the guys were quite entertaining and ee mae and i just sat there and tried to understand their cheem jokes.

today!
physio prac
was fun
mwahahaha
cut off the blood supply to hk's arm for half an hour.
his skin turned blotchy, cold and his nails turned bluish.
cool stuff.
poked him but he could still feel it.
nofunone.
nerves too powerful liao.
then i stimulated my ulnar nerve using electrodes.
quite fun
a bit scary watching my arm jump
interesting experience.
hehe