Thursday, March 29, 2007
back in cam
22 March-24 March07: Twyfordnai nai and yeye are in england!
so i went to aunty lilian's place to stay for a bit.
dinner at a pub
didn't do much on fri- went out for lunch then stayed at home the rest of the time.
on thurs we went to london for a treat- lunch at Harrods!
aunt and uncle; cousins and i; aunt and her parents;
sign; we ordered a cup of coffee and got this selection as well; nice car outside harrods.
yandao; nainai!; uncle ian
food! buffet lunch.
25 March- 27 March: Londonleft twyford in the afternoon, arrived in london at abt 6 pm.
met up with xiaoen (YAY) and went to her apartment.
went to visit amanda (at last). nice catching up w u :)
had dinner with the whole household before most of them left london.
sat around the dinner table chatting with xiaoen, diane and jamin as the other 2 prepared to leave.
stayed up till 3 am to talk to xiaoen then went to bed in charlene's vacated room (thanks!)
on saturday, xiaoen and i went shopping!
along oxford street.
had dinner at a thai restaurant, then went to tesco's to get Ben & Jerry's ice cream :)
went back to her apartment, and watched Love Actually (thanks diane!) on her laptop while eating Phish Food. whee!
watching a british film in london feels.. different somehow.
and we were commenting and commenting on the film. like how superficial their love was.
should be renamed Lust Actually.
nonetheless it was a nice accompaniment to icecream.
stayed up till 330 am (again!) chatting.
about life, love and religion.
tuesday:
had lunch at the four season duck restuarant (yum!)
bought musical tickets at Victoria, then went to Covent Garden to walk around.
at covent garden watching the buskers.
coffee break! and we bought fantastic cookies too :)
went to charing cross to hunt for some books then had dinner at a sushi place. ate an excessive amt of salmon sashimi.
and the highlight of the day, the musical Wicked.
was really really amazing :)
i loved the plot- how they managed to dream up a prequel to the Wizard of Oz and link it all the way to a twist after the end of the original story.
my fav song was Defying Gravity, which had fantastic audio and visual effects ending with Elphaba levitating against dramatic lighting, set-off perfectly by her powerful vocals that led the song to its spine-tingling climax.
the artiste who played the lead role had such an amazing voice. sigh.
after the musical, we rushed back to say goodbye to xiaoen and to collect my luggage before heading to the coach station.
thanks for a lovely time in london dear :)
got on the coach with sometime to spare (phew!)
then attempted to sleep on the coach but to no avail.
was freezing as we walked back from the coach station :S
shifted rooms yesterday.
my new temporary room is more than twice the size of my old one.
but the shower is so far away!
and so is the kitchen.
but the room is nice, so i shouldn't complain :)
shifting was a nightmare cos the room is on the top floor of house with narrow stairs.
but we did it in the end!
thanks for ur help :)
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
supervision reports
at the end of every term the supervisors write a report of their students' progress that term, and most will predict the student's grade for the tripos (1/2.1/2.2 etc).
the reports don't really mean anything- they are just there to let our DOS and tutor know how we are doing- its more for their sakes then ours.
the predicted grades are more for show then for anything else- thought a lousy predicted grade can make me feel quite shit (although it doesn't count for anything).
last term (michealmas) i had a terrible report from my CDB supervisor even though i worked my ass off for my supervision work. was rather indignant abt it.
this term (lent) the cdb supervision report improved. whew. after all that flywingene business.
highlights from it:
"....The most improved part of Agnes' performance has been her participation in supervisions, which is getting better and better." like duh. when i have one-on-one supervisons its a bit difficult to not participate."....She grasps the overall messages of the paper and is able to summarise them concisely and accurately. "
yup. the answer to the question "what is this paper about?" is "flies,wings,genes.""....as long as she stays focused (and makes sure that her handwriting on the exam is big enough to read! It has a tendency to be very small). "have had this complaint since secondary school. i blame it on primary school, where somehow the trend was "the smaller the handwriting the better". so yeah.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Norway
just got back from norway last night. or rather, this morning.
went there from 17 march- 19 march.
very expensive place- spent a lot on transport.
we saved money by eating cheaply for most meals, and splurging at restaurants twice.
we had seafood at both restaurants, cos norway is famous for its fish.
i had salmon the first time, and cod at the next place.
both were amazing. whoo. worth every cent. or rather, kronnor. (cos they insist on keeping their currency)
the ppl there are friendly and v helpful, and most speak english, so getting around was easy.
it was cold there- it snowed on sunday. that was nice. and cold.
17 march 07
London-Oslo-Bergenwe spent most of the first day traveling.
flew from london to Oslo, then from Oslo to Bergen.
outdoor iceskating rink in Oslo. it was closed.
at the Oslo airport waiting for our flight to Bergen. sandwiches for lunch! cost about S$15.
stayed at a youth hostel in Bergen. decided to buy food from the supermarket and cook dinner cos there was a kitchen in the hostel.
group photo! joshua, sam, ee mae, me, william, mei sheng, daniel.
18 march 07
Bergen- Fjords-Oslo
woke up early in the morning to go to the fjords, which are
"very long inlets from the sea with high steeply sloped walled sides.Typical characteristics of a fjord include: a narrow inlet, a bottom that is eroded significantly below sea level (allowing deep-draft vessels to navigate easily), steep-sided walls which continue to descend below the sea surface, greater depths in the upper and middle reaches than on the seaward side, and communication with the open sea." (according to Dr. Wiki)
we took a
train from Bergen to Voss
bus from Voss to Gudvangen
boat from Gudvangen to Flam (the boat was took us on a 2-hour cruise of the Fjords)
train from Flam to Myrdal
train from Myrdal back to Bergen
had dinner (salmon!!) in Bergen
then took an overnight train back to Oslo.
whew!
meisheng, me and eemae waiting for the bus down the hill. the hostel was situated on top of a hill in bergen. it was snowing so it was freezing.
on the train from Bergen to Voss.
as the train travelled further from the city, the scenery gradually changed from built-up areas...
... to Narnia!
view from the train:
pure white.
william, the provider of quotable quotes, said
"whoa. it feels like i can't see colour anymore. its like every thing is in black and white"
"this is like a plant graveyard"
"do you think the trees will be resurrected in spring?"
on the bus from Voss to Gudvangen. white outside!
waiting for the boat at Gudvangen.
footprints in the snow.
on the boat cruising though the fjords.
the boat took us to Flam.
we had to wait 2 hours for the train to Myrdal, so we took photos while waiting:
from Flam, we took the train to Myrdal.
we were marveling at the view from the window, when suddenly the train stopped.
we were told that we were allowed to get out for 2 mins and take photos.
we were like AHHH!
snow!!
the snow was very very thick and inviting to we had to lie down :)
the station at Myrdal was covered in snow. and it was still snowing.
the train, me, joshua, snow.
there was a mountian of snow, so i climed up.
and the rest joined in!
sunbathing.
catching snowflakes!
finally the train arrived and took us to Bergen.
Bergen! where it was snowing. and then it rained.
ee mae and me on the overnight train to oslo. they provided blankets and pillows. so nice :) we took the train from 11 pm to 6 am.
at about 5 am i was awaken by some noise. i looked out of the window and saw this:
no idea where we were. but i thought it was amazing.
19 March 07
Oslo-London
had breakfast at the train station in Oslo, then went to explore Oslo.
the Oslo's landmark- the castle/fort.
at the port.
lunch!! COD!! price: a lot.
at the Viking museum. this is one of the 3 Viking ships found in Norway. we spent about an hour there- it was enlightening. finally know more abt the Viking Age (about 900 AD)
that was the last photo my camera took before the battery died.
after touring the Kon Tiki musuem we went to the shopping district.
but no one had any money left by then.
we were all counting coins to see what we could afford for dinner.
but i still managed to buy a belt. whee!
had a burger for dinner- a double cheeseburger from macdonalds, which cost me S$6. for the burger alone.
then we flew back to england.
where everything is cheaper.
Friday, March 16, 2007
belated halfway hall (15/2/07) photo which i ordered sometime back- this is the candid shot.
just received it this week.
lunch break
i usually have a lunch break between lects/ in the middle of prac.
then i'll hunt for food and wander around.
on tues i went to st cats with tianyi for lunch and we saw a magnolia tree in bloom in her college.
so pretty :)
on thurs i went to boots and met yifan on the way there.
so we got sandwiches tgt and went to the zoology dept to sit down.
and lo and behold, we found this on the seats in front of toilet:
a random skeleton sitting there on its own.
so we had to take photos.
term has finally ended. ish.
still have 3 essays due today.
SO ANNOYING
i wanna rest and i can't.
wats my supervisor's problem man.
no energy left liao.
pooft.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
1 Corinthians 13
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
old bio pick-up line immortalised, not on stem cell lines, but on t-shirts that u can buy off the net:
if i could be an enzyme i want to be DNA helicase....
...so i can unzip your genes.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Robinson nat sci formal
combined bio and phys nat sci formal at robinson.
quite fun :)
sat beside by best brit friend, tania, who got rather high on 2 glasses of wine. haha.
me and tania
ed- the whose friends decided to penny his butter. so here he is downing butter. haha.
at the table
some of the 3rd year phys nat scis decided to tilt ed upside down so that he will be in the opposite orientation to his gf and then they will attract. sth lidat.
then they decided that i should be upside down as well. !
updates!
the past week was pure madness.
left off on thursday...
Friday 9 march:
CDB lab ended at 4 pm, cooked dinner for a friend who stopped by, went for cg, mugged spanish till 3 am.
Saturday 10 march:
went for CDB lecture 5 mins late.
but apparently in my absence, i got niaoed by the lecturer:
"for the xenopus animal cap experiment that some of you did yesterday, one group produced results that were as expected- well done. they are agnes and tianyi- are they here?"
and then there was absolute silence in the LT as ppl looked around trying to spot these 2 ppl.
and it soon became apparent that they were, in fact, not there.
so the lecturer said "well, i guess they don't need to go for lect"
wattt.
and i walked into the LT in time to catch the ppt slide with our names on it declaring that our expt worked. didn't think much of it until i was told of wat happened by someone.
yikes.
then went for the Spanish written exam after that.
amazing experience
didn't know wat the heck the passages meant.
so too bad.
anyhow do
mwahaha.
Pienso que voy a fallar pero no me importa!
then went back to robinson for the May Ball auditions on behalf of the salsa team.
then went to Corpus to watch kelvin chan's piano concert. he is an incredibly talented painst.
woo!
audry, me, kelvin
finally went for the a.* sponsored dinner at Chez Gerad.
free food. yum :)
sheila, me and tianyi! yay!!
did some reading in preparation for the path essay due on sunday then went to bed at 230 am.
sunday: 11 march
ooo! i can describe it in spanish.
El domingo, fui a la iglesia por la manana. En la tarde, me quede en la casa para trabajar hasta las cuatros horas.
and i'm stuck.
went to church, did work, went for dance rehearsal, went reached my room at 6pm.
chionged my path essay till 830 pm, finally completed it, got ready, left the room, handed the essay in at 915 pm, then went for the Spring Salsa Ball at the uni arms hotel.
by that time i was brain dead.
in fact i was brain dead the whole day but i still had to write the stupid essay.
the team (or at least part of the team) performed our routine.
it went really well- one of the most synchronised dances i've ever done.
and it was well-received too yay :)
social was ok- same old camb ppl.
some of the s'porean/msian freshers came for the ball.dunno why also. i think most of them were quite bored.oh well. i would never invite non-dancers to such an event.
slept at 230 am.
monday 12 march:
wah fun day.
had 2 lects and 1 supervision
and the CF handover at night.
handed over my post at CF evangelism secretary to Clara.
my handover gift from clara!
then took on my new post as Higher Ground CGL.
go Higher Ground! yay!!
the whole thing ended quite late- abt 1030 pm.
got back, showered, did my biochem prac essay and read the paper for the journal club.
slept at 330 am. whee!!
tuesday:
i'm trying to function.
aunt and uncle; cousins and i; aunt and her parents;
at covent garden watching the buskers.
coffee break! and we bought fantastic cookies too :)
outdoor iceskating rink in Oslo. it was closed.
at the Oslo airport waiting for our flight to Bergen. sandwiches for lunch! cost about S$15.
stayed at a youth hostel in Bergen. decided to buy food from the supermarket and cook dinner cos there was a kitchen in the hostel.
me and tania
