date: 7 Aout 2010

After a month spent in wilderness, I fully appreciate the little joys of life: a warm shower, conditioned hair, a proper flush, comfortable bed and duvet and fresh fruit and vegetable. And of course I can't resist having my dose of pretzel, scone, muffin and ben's cookie!! Speaking of Honduras.. I'll do a week by week update of trip soon :) For now it's bye London! top

date: 22 Juin 2010

It's only in London that I can listen to Love Songs on 95 FM and non-stop music all the way through Singapore's night until Morning Express :D In fact I just heard the National Anthem played at 6am lol. :) Or rather I should say it's only when I'm studying for the exams and perpetually glued to my seat. THE END IS S O N E A R N O W. top

date: 21 Juin 2010

It's the last shot it's MY LAST SHOT. It's my final hope!! I can only cross my fingers. top

date: 16 Juin 2010

AH the sun! and the people! And the green green grass. And i'm merely 5 metres and a glass away. :( Or rather 1 more week away. Have faith man I need to have faith.

I dreamt about my good humanities exam results the previous night (probably because I was too nervous) and I got my A! Maybe I need to dream about the Immuno and Genetics paper... top

date: 12 Juin 2010

Oh dear i feel like i'm losing steam already. And come on it's only 6 more days!! I tell myself everyday that i need to and will do better the next day, but it never really happens! And i end up sleeping late not know what i'm doing and it just makes me feel even more shagged out the next day -_- plus i can't stop keeping up with the exercise and can't reward myself with the usual exam treats. Oh gosh i need to do better before i regret it. top

date: 7 Juin 2010

I thought this was really really touching...


"Among the three, being Mrs Goh has been the most trying and frustrating because I was constantly fighting for his needs, his comforts and his convenience. For myself, I don't need anything. So what next? I don't know. Some people who visited said now I can take a long break. I appreciate their good intentions but I'd rather have him with me than go for a break. I think people have the impression that I was undergoing great hardship when caring for him the past 12 years. On the contrary, I was happy to be able to give him comfort and contentment.


If you do things out of love, it is a pleasure and not a chore. I find it difficult to accept that many people today pay others to take care of their loved ones, be it their spouse, parents or siblings. Some don't even visit the parents when they are sick, wheelchair-bound or bedridden. My generation of people, we don't always think of ourselves. We think of others. My elder sister has a heart problem. She cannot travel. If she cannot travel, I won't travel, too. Will I miss him? What do you think? I've lived the past 20 years of my life just for him. I don't know what will happen next." top

date: 5 Juin 2010

What it's JUNE already?! Though it's intensive revision period I've been having loads of visitors around! Jing, junhua, aaron and carol... Well i guess it's a nice chance to have some good meals and take a short break from the books. Would have loved to caught up more though if not for the exams :( It's so sweet seeing aaron and carol together :P ...and so different. I guess we're really growing up aren't we?



And my May Bank holiday run was not too bad :) Well I didn't manage to achieve my target time but I know I could have! And at least now I know I can manage a 10k more much easily than in the past :)

ARGH 13 more days!!! top

date: 30 Mai 2010

My concentration is getting much better now. 19 x 12 more hours in the library. And my run is tomorrow!! ARH. Doesn't help that i'll be alone :(

Omg where are you... like seriously :( top

date: 24 Mai 2010

Worriedddd. :( I'm so worried now and I have a tonne of things on my mind to deal with. =X top

date: 18 Mai 2010

Omg I've been in the library for 6 hours straight =S It's exactly a month till my exams :( It's so long before you're coming back, yet it's so fast that my exams are coming soon. Argh! I have to work work workkk ... top

date: 28 Avril 2010

Spring is here!! :) The flowers are blooming! And when I stepped into the Wildlife Garden after a month away I was so amazed at the greenery of it all and the lawns filled with flowers :) I feel happy knowing I played a part in this..painstakingly clearing the plane tree leaves and the weeding and what not. Well even though the weather is still rather crappy now. It's still below 10 deg C hello?? :(




Well amidst all the revision I've been enjoying couple of good breakfasts and teas :) Been to Muffin Man with Wen and Jas already. Lovely warm scones with jam and clotted cream :D And scrambled eggs and toast! Love this sweet little teashop just round the corner.




This morning Jas and I went to Wholefoods for breakfast and some shopping too! They have the most awesomest scones I had chocolate chip scone and hot chocolate yummmyyy. Took a photo of it but my picture editor screwed up and the photo disappeared :( Jas had scrambled eggs and baked mushrooms! Wholefoods never fails to brighten up my day regardless of how many times I've been there. Ooh a few months ago I tried their Mexican food too! Interesting stuff :) I really have to go back for more burritos and baked pizzas and sandwiches :)




And we had wonderful home-cooked Kangkong last week! I think we're going to make mexican fajitas tmr :) Gosh what am I doing here I'm supposed to be doing work. I appreciate the occasional joys of life, but no not too much. Can't afford too much!! On a side note, election fever around here is pretty interesting. Weird huh, we talk more about UK's elections than SG's elections.


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date: 28 Avril 2010

Holiday was awesome while it lasted. Seems almost like a retreat as i zipped to Singapore and zipped back here now. Barely made any progress with immunology revision but I guess it was definitely well worth the sacrifice. AT LEAST dissertation's all done with now yay! :D rejoice! had early afternoon tea and cakes with jas at the muffin man :) lectures start tomorrow boo :(


wow i still miss singapore though. it feels like such a repetitive cycle i can't get out of. Going back home after a long while away, feeling like a tourist and every meal a satisfaction of some random craving, squeezing the most out of the last few days, sometimes some sort of pressure builds up, then flying off again and getting a little emo after the parting, spend the first few days thinking and getting back to reality, after a while you get so used to the routine and things get so busy that there's no time to be bothered or to catch up, which may manifest into more problems, and when the end draws near you're just counting down to the next time home again. i wonder how many more roller coaster rides i can take. it's not that i don't like this place. i love london, but some things just aren't the same. :) top

date: 13 Avril 2010

To a little bit of my surprise, I've been spending quite a fair bit of time at home, and haven't been eating out that much. But I still can't seem to concentrate on my work :( I think i've only been working effectively for about 2-3 hours a day so far? Terrible! =S My attention span is literally just 10 minutes for everything I do gosh. I neeeeeeedddd to get going on my dissertation! I HAVE to reach at least 3000 like by NOW!!


Why is everybody only free at nights :( I only have this many nights to spare... Meanwhile, I've got something exciting brewing in my mind! Haven't got down to working my hands for a long while now. :)




Missing the cool sunshine and peaceful sunsets too. top

date: 8 Avril 2010

Easter so far has been really good. The holiday in Greece was really really enjoyable - the scenery, the most sunsets seen in a week, the road trips, the food, the locals, the company of course. It was all very chill :) I never imagined myself setting foot on a country such as Greece. Just like the many myths people know Greece by, the experience felt really mythical and surreal. And for wen whose lifetime dream is to visit Santorini, how is it so easily fulfilled at the age of 20? Then again, we're just a few months away to our 21st..


Well I am really proud to say that we've conquered greek food! a really wide range of stewed and grilled meats and seafood, salad with lots of tomatoes, olives and feta cheese, plenty of nut and sesame products, easter biscuits and honey cakes and baklava too :) the composition of our travel group was somewhat eclectic, but thankfully every one of us hit off really well and i love how we all had such a relaxing time. With every travel group brings deeper connections and fond memories for recollection. :)


Now that i'm back home and ditched wen at my place (haha), i just want to take a break from that life and get back on track. Well i still feel that demon around me at times but fewer now. Hopefully, at the end of this 3 weeks i'll be all well and fit, spiritually enriched (haha), with a stronger relationship, and done with my dissertation, some revision and all ready to face a new term. :) top

date: 27 Fevrier 2010

It helps a lot to talk about it, i'm feeling much better now. :) thanks jas :) now i need to get back in shape... top

date: 22 Fevrier 2010

After getting back the bad results today, everything just came crashing down again. I thought i was always someone who's strong and independent, but increasingly, not just recently, i realised just how weak and lonely i've been feeling. Everyone's just too busy i guess.

omg I just want to go back soon and hear mum tell me that i'll be fine :( top

date: 07 Fevrier 2010

I don't think things are really going that well with me right now. Today was really bad. top

date: 08 Janvier 2010

Believe me when i say i miss you guys a lot a lot.


happy birthday eric and lujie :) sure you'll have a smashing time :) top

date: 05 Janvier 2010

Probably not the best time to think so much in view of the coming exams, but i can't help being affected and a little sad, that i had to go out for a run even though it was cold as hell at almost 0 degrees outside =S I must admit i'm starting to feel a little selfish for the decisions i can't help but make, after all they're really just for myself aren't they? it's so difficult, but i know it's even harder for you. i so want to say sorry. a friend told me that i've got to learn to make sacrifices and choose what i really value. i know i can't make up for the lost time, i can only make the time available worth every minute. and stop being so selfish :(


really, really not a good time to think about this. top

date: 01 Janvier 2010

Just a list to surprise myself with how much good food i've eaten in 8 days while wen was here:


Ben's cookies
Bak chor mee from Kiasu (okay this was pretty bad..)
Fish and chips
lots of christmas candies
Italian pasta at Strada
Sponge cake, green tea pastry from Chinatown
Cheese and poached egg crumpets
Salmon and mushroom lasagne
Blackberry cheesecake
Mince pies
Falafel wrap from Pret
Panettone
Belgian waffle with nutella
Cheese crepe
Chocolate chip brioche
Thin waffle with coconut filling
Potjevleesch (cold meat mix consisting of chicken, pork, veal and rabbit in jelly)
Croque madame
BIG passion fruit macaron and small green tea macaron
The ever-classic croissant and pain au chocolat!
Galette des rois
Canele
Choquette
Blueberry scone
Chicken and mushroom cornish pasty
Tyrell's parsnip crisps
Century egg congee with you tiao, chee cheong fun at chinatown :D
German sausage bun
Candied mixed nuts!
Portugese codfish crepe at Kensington Creperie
Chocolate brownie from Borough market
Cashew baklava
Seafood stew with rice
STEAMBOAT!


Brand new start to the noughties.. new resolutions to be made :) top

date: 22 Decembre 2009

First week of term break. Pretty cold and lonely day with the guys gone on the ski trip and sent Jas off to Egypt this morning. I do miss having the activity and chatter around the house everyday, but I guess I could appreciate such peace and quiet for a while. A short while. Exciting holidays await us and i await wen's arrival to brighten up my holiday :D can't wait can't wait! Snowed really heavily just now all of a sudden. The evil cold only makes me want to sit and do nothing and eat all day long. When I don't feel so fine I exercise or eat to make myself feel better too. More of the latter actually :S Please don't let the ice affect any of our travelling plans!

Do you know how much you're missed? top

date: 29 October 2009

What a rare update. It's nearing the end of October and everything has kind of just fell into place and into a routine. There's been quite a bit of birthday and housewarming parties recently, especially in the very big houses! I always used to say my flat is very small.. but it's new and pretty and cosy :) This year I'll be spending my time with quite a bit of volunteer work - Foodworks, National History Museum, tutoring English, and maybe even a Habitat for Humanity project in Liverpool during the holidays! I've gone down to a park to build a play structure with logs and cleared some shrubs too. It's quite an experience volunteering here because there's just so wide a variety other than the typical tutoring, taking care of elderly and children etc.


I also tried horseriding for the first time!! It was really fun and i grasped the walking and trotting quite quickly.. but sadly i probably wouldn't continue taking horseriding lessons because it is SUCH AN EXPENSIVE sport and the travelling time is terrible. :( I had a very obedient white female horse called Trudie, so adorable! :) Oh and last Saturday i achieved my personal goal with my first 10km run, and done under an hour! Kind of in conjunction with the Nike Human Race, but there's no venue in london for the race, so it was such a low-key event unlike the hyped up affair in Singapore with over 7000 runners. The next few weekends are also all kind of filled..there's Halloween Party to look forward to tmr!! I'm gonna cook pumpkin rice for the potluck too :D Thankfully, my module Applied Molecular Bio is pretty manageable and is coming to an end. The A*STAR attachment helped a great great deal :) top

date: 4 October 2009

Last week was mainly busy unpacking, settling down in the new house and investigating clubs and societies to join. Lessons have started too and i foresee more time needed to spend on revision and reading up. Humanities is starting next week - even more work! And i'll be engaging myself with some volunteer work and more singsoc events in the coming weekends. All's well though and the weather has been really good these days. Cool yet sunny :) The new home is a bit on the pricey side for 4 of us, but well i like it and the household and neighbours are great, so i can't really say much else can i? Except that the shared wireless internet is a pain for now and 1 month ahead and we might be better off getting a broadband ourselves. Less time-wasting on the internet could be a good thing though. Ah i really gotta be much more prudent with my spending from now on. And holy, i ran my longest distance yet today! i'll try to do a 10k next weekend! :) top

date: 4 October 2009

Time's up, people have been asking me why i'm still here already. Here's to another year of discovery.. top

date: 1 October 2009

With just 3 more days left in Singapore, this has to be the week i'm feeling the most freedom in the past 2 months! Finally no more work, no more projects, little appointments to go for, more time to exercise and chill at home! :) i've gone to fitness first for 3 days and got a taste of their step, dance, yoga and pilates classes! might just consider membership next year :D


This summer break has been much busier than i expected, or should i say a bit busier than i would have liked. While i mostly enjoyed what i was doing, at times i got quite stressed trying to accomplish too many things at once and ended up upsetting myself and some people around me. Well, i tried my best. A significant part of my holiday (2 months) was spent doing my first ever research attachment at A*STAR. Fortunately and very thankfully, i had not just a fruitful and meaningful experience, but a very, very enjoyable one too :) i count myself extremely lucky for picking this lab, with lab supervisors who were eager to teach me and very patient with me as well. i learnt so many skills in the wet lab which will be very useful for my next academic year and my future in research. And the best thing must be meeting all them research fellows and officers who are so fun to work with because they can be so crazy at times :D i didn't know the lab could be filled with so much laughter :P Of course, i shouldn't expect all labs to be like that, but i'm glad because this first research experience was important for me to discover whether i'm ready to face this path which i jumped into too quickly and recklessly one year ago. I was sadder than i thought i would ever be, to leave behind the familiar smells of the lab, the frog room, the agarose, the cysteine; to bid farewell to the fellows and their endless jokes or attempts at singlish, knowing that i might not see them again. On the last day, it hit me hard when he said to me, 'don't leave without saying goodbye.'


I got over that quickly, for i really craved a deserving break, a REAL HOLIDAY though only left with 2 weeks. i was happy to spend more time with home and family, who are the only ones i truly regret not making enough time for over these months. during the rare moments we do get to spend quality tension-free time together, i really felt that warm and fuzzy sensation and part of me wanted so badly more time for us to talk.


And then there was Kuching, which turned from what i thought would be a venture into the wilderness into patronising of hawker centres. haha. :D but i must say the food was unexpectedly REALLY GOOD. must be the tastiest kolo mee, beef noodles, carrot cake and sarawak laksa i've eaten! the trip was a very short gunshot getaway that we thought we could only dream of. well worth it :) enjoyed the time spent in a world of our own, talked things through, and lots of photowhoring :) don't be upset, because we've made the most out of this little time we have. of course, a big thank you goes to Phoebe for being such a fantastic host!


How much i love this Singapore of mine. The things that i didn't get to relinquish this time, the people that i didn't get to meet, i will next year, though what's gonna happen next summer is still unknown to me...


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date: 15 September 2009

7 nights in 1 week never felt so inadequate


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date: 10 September 2009

Something from The Sunday Times:


Turning points often involve some form of uprooting. They love the freedom of foreign lands, of doing their own thing and of being free to be critical of anything they wish. They are happy to get away from the materialism of Singaporeans, the hierarchical nature of the Singaporean work ethic and the national obsession with academic grades.


It's nice to have the option to head off to possibly greener pastures. It's exciting. But I think it's even nicer to be able to reject those options because you are happy right where you are, you are happy with the life you have, you are happy bceause you are in Singapore, and you are happy because you are home.


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date: 6 September 2009

Am i ultra glad that Lush is finally over :) It was really successful, we achieved our target, the programme flow was really smooth and the media coverage was better than expected :D Boy was that event very very long and hard work indeed! To think that we already began our preparations in June and we never knew it'd become this big. It was hard having to manage marketing and sales during the last few weeks, plus balancing full time work at the same time. I'm pretty sure i publicised to practically the whole world but the sales didnt really reflect the tremendous effort the committee has put into publicity and programmes and sponsorship, as much as i wanted it to. After a while i just gave up hardselling, i so need a break from marketing! But i'm sure what we've done has once more laid a stronger foundation to pave the way for future UKBounds. And i really am proud of the committee for having organised a successful pageant, with absolutely no prior experience!


As of yesterday, i've exactly 1 month left in Singapore, with 2 more weeks of work to go. There's still so much I want to do and enjoy! But i guess i've been doing quite a fair bit on top of all the organised events. I've been baking almost every single week; i've ran 5 km at the Singapore Cancer Run and another 4.5 km at the marina bay race circuit during Run Singapore today; i've tried 2 yoga classes for the first time ever; i've watched Michael Learns To Rock live at Fort Canning and they were awesome!! Everyone rocked to the classics! What's in store next? I need to meet up with a few more old friends, spend more time with family and with myself and i'm looking forward to my brother's commissioning parade this Saturday (:


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date: 2 September 2009

First it was Student Network Forum, then HC Alumni, then Sojourn, and then this, Lush, which is finally my last event of the holiday. Kept me more than sufficiently busy indeed. Well, though there's been crap loads of work to do, I must say I've been looking very much forward to each and every event! Especially when there's always this very dedicated and inspiring group of people who take pride in what they're doing and give it their all. Regardless of the sales worries that we're having now, i think Lush will be really exciting. :)





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date: 16 August 2009

A long awaited revamp to the blog! Not an entirely original template, no time!! though i love its colours and simplicity :) But there's still some troubleshooting i need to do for this messy code :(


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date: 16 August 2009

Just keeping a record of something pretty relevant and thought-provoking i read:


Amidst the annual scholarship fever and the flurry of applications, what the newspaper ads don’t mention, and what people don’t talk about enough in a meaningful way, is that the three or four years spent in university can change a person quite profoundly, all the more so if that university education is conducted abroad. I don’t mean having a British- or American-sounding accent, or having visited half of Europe in one summer backpacking jaunt, or learning how to cook the food you get homesick for. I’m talking about the kind of deep-seated change that can leave a person wondering how to reconcile what her old self agreed to do, with what her new self now believes.


Quitting is a bad word in Singapore. It implies failure, or an abortive attempt that didn’t go anywhere. It goes against the grain of perseverance, forbearance, fortitude and other hallmarks of a good Confucian spirit. But sometimes you need to quit. You need to tell people that I need a break, or enough is enough. Or sometimes: that this is enough for me.


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