an important decision

i have made up my mind. i am going to pursue MISE instead of doing my PhD. I hope i can get and i hope that my parents will not say anything about it. =)

well, the reason for this decision is mainly because MISE has an age limit while PhD does not. To quote liyong: if you like MISE, you can make a career out of it. If not, you can still come back to science anytime.

Now, i have to get down to writing my resume and cover letter first. Argh.. i hope i get it. really really hope to. Pray hard for me. =)

on a side note, i realised that most of the people ard me who are taking or considering PhD are those who only took bio in uni. Whereas people like me, who have been taking bio for all my life since sec4 is not considering it. *grinz*

Dilemma

where should i go after my degree? aww... i am finally at the phase of my life when i finally have to decide what do i want to do.

sigh.. at first i was quite sure that i do not want to continue research. However, when i thought of the fact that i am not gg to touch eppendorf tubes, pipettes, flasks and all those rubbish ever again after FYP, i felt a bit sad. Kind of like cannot bear to leave them behind. sigh. now i dunno what to do.

The fight is now between PhD and the MISE (an entry level trainee program offered by Maesk). To add to my woes, my dad think i am wasting my education if i do not pursue science after graduation. Argh!! but i really want to try for MISE. It really sound like a great and exciting career. Plus shipping has been my interest, ever since working for YML. But i also want to get my PhD, since it has been my dream from young to study all the way to the top.

Sigh, headache headache.... deadline for PhD is 28th Feb. MISE is 10th Mar. What should i do??

Welcome to the year of the pig!

I cannot resist copying this picture from hm's blog coz its so super cute.. kawaii....

And I know that it is a bit late to post this now but I still want to say: Happy Chinese new year to all my blog-readers! Welcome to the year of the PIG! My favourite horoscope of all. =). Maybe everyone live, play and work like a pig. *grinz*

I know I have not been updating my blog regularly. Well, lab work and tuition tires me out all the time. Whenever anything happens, the lure of my bed is always much greater than blogging. Now I resort to blogging in the office when I have spare time in between experiments. But still, this is getting hard, since there are only 3 computers in the lab and it isn’t very nice for people to see me blogging when others are using the computer to read papers. Yet, here I am, sitting in front of the computer, blogging, when I should be trying to figure out how to spend my little time when I have so much things waiting for me to do.

Actually I seriously wasn’t looking forward to Chinese New Year this year. The period before CNY is damn hectic. I have to finish up some experiments, take time off to bring my brother to buy his clothes and to find my own shoes. Not forgetting, I have to pack up my super duper messy room and my desk in the living room. All to be done before Fri, coz me gg manicure on Sat den I dun want to spoil my manicure. >_<. Plus valentine day is in the same week, so I have to rearrange my tuition schedule so that I am available on vday. Aiyo, so stressed up.

However, it turns out that hz is not free on vday. He actually had a meeting on! His explanation was that vday got a lot of people so dun want to go out. *bleah*. Ended up I spent vday with my dear proteins in the lab.

As for my spring cleaning mah, I only managed to pack a bit of my computer table before I concussed on Sat morning at 6am. Alas, I have to continue packing my room on Sat after my manicure. =( On top of that, I still have to return to lab to spin down and keep my dear cells. Luckily my manicure was not visibly damaged. In fact, it is still quite nice from far. Haha… But still I did not finish packing all the stuff I wanted to. My clothes and my wardrobe are still in a big mess. What a way to welcome the new year.

CNY actual was not any better. The only good thing was the ang baos. =). First day was boring as usual, 2nd day even more boring. I went out to meet hz still gena his black face coz I was late. 3rd day was much much much nicer. Morn was my cousin’s bday party. He is 3 years old already! Here’s the bday boy:

After he cut the cake, I flew out of the house to meet my SJ gals for ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. Here they are:

Eww…the ice cream was very nice but sinful. And we had a super nice chat, ranging from wedding, kids, to GST and politics. So funny…. Really misses this bunch of girls. I hope we get to meet up more often. =) Well, lab is still boring as usual. So I think I shall not bore everyone with boring details.

Today is the 6th day of new year. Another 9 days to go before new year ends. ENJOY!

i hate irritating parents!!!

*ps: this post is very offending... for those of my good friends who are in stupid nerdy clubs but are not nerds nor idiots, please forgive me*

I HEREBY VOW THAT I WILL NOT INTERFERE WITH WHAT MY CHILD DO IN CCA UNLESS IT IS CAUSING UNDUEd PHYSICAL HARM TO MY CHILD!

argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hate all the stupid irriating parents out there who have their children in st john and yet still try to control what we do in school by using the school and MOE as a shield.

TO ALL PARENTS OUT THERE! who have a child in st john. ST JOHN FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE is an UNIFORM GROUP!!! what do you expect them to do in an uniform group? sit indoor and do first aid all the time? In St John, you are supposed to help people. If i do not make you go out and train up your own physical health, you think you can help other ppl when your child is out on duty? He/She will collapse even before we have casualties.

If you think that st john is supposed to sit indoor and learn first aid, minus the footdrill and PT sessions, way, please ask them to go join some silly club the school churns up for nerds and idiots. Do not even try to join cultural group or any sports as these require your child to put in a lot of time as well. Later you decide that your child cannot afford the time coz he/she needs to spend 24/7 studying as you think he/she is so damn stupid they need to spend ALL their time studying.

Good results does not equate to good personal development. Why cant parents just understand that? Where have their brains from years of education gone to?? Having good academic performance is NOT going to get your child far. And I am so damn disgusted by parents who are do damn educated and yet nurture kids who are so snobbish, stuck up and have totally no EQ. My parents have only p6 education and i believe that they have taught me to be a much better person than those kids who's parents are super-highly educated. And mind you parents, I have good results even though they might not be fantastic. But at least, i know that i am learnt something about life that school work can never teach me.

ARGH!!!! i m so damn pissed off.....

Announcement!

i hereby annouce that (not tt i m getting married)......... i love kickboxing classes!! tues, woodlands amore, 730pm. wah lau eh.. tt class is damn power.. i haven ache in so many places for a long time already...

and who says yoga was easy.. omg.. the yoga class i tried at fitness first (hatha yoga) was damn power lah.. my butt and my tighh ache loh.... wah seh...

but exercise so much not much use, coz i go back to eating rubbish.. jus hope i dun look too fat in my chinese new year clothes....

long time no blog...

wah!! It has been more than a month since I've last blogged.. hmm.. so many things happened, so many pictures to post and so many things to do. Which explains why I was so lazy to blog.. wahah.... hmm.. so where should i start?

I think I should start with the thing that have been taking up all my time during the holidays and which will be taking up most of my time for the next couple of months, school! Well, last semester had been a total madness, as I have already complained to a lot of people. I have 5 PEs, 2 core, 1 GE and a biz plan competition. Add to the list tuition, exams, homework and st john, you have hell of a busy girl. And to make things worst, I had terrible exam timetable. BUT I made it all through. And when results came out, I expected something bad but my results really surprised me coz they are the best that I have ever gotten so far. I hope it does not mean that I am not going to do well for my FYP, hope for the best.

And talking about FYP, it has taken up my holidays and will be taking up a lot of my time. Yesterday, I actually clocked a 12 hr day in the lab. I reached at 830am and left at 830pm. I wanted to start early so that I can leave early but it turns out that I cannot leave before sunsets. Sian… And I started on my protein since I came back from China but I have yet to get my protein after nearly a month in the lab. All because my protein would not dissolve!! Sigh… So I have to try out all kind of induction conditions to try and dissolve it. If all else fails, I have to try and express a truncated one. I hope I get it soon. Without a protein I cannot do anything at all!

But at least I did something interesting this holidays. I went overseas on a plane! After my last flight in 2000 to Melbourne, I finally took the plane again! After 6 years. This time I went to China, Hainan. We landed in Haikou where it was super cold to pay a visit to my uncle, following which we headed down to Sanya where it was much warmer and we ended the trip by going back to Haikou. This is the first time that I am visiting China. Well, it wasn’t totally a pleasant trip but it is a new experience.

The most memorable incident is definitely the fireworks that we got to play. Oh my.. they are so pretty.. it is really so unlike in Singapore where we get to play with the pathetic sparklers. I also got to soak in their hot spring. We tried 2 versions, 1 was the normal ones which we got to try at this hot spring resort where I even have my own hot spring right in my hotel room. The 2nd version was the ones with the fishes where the fishes were supposed to bite your dead skin off. Aw….. so itchy.. I could not take it after 2 or 3 fishes came along. We also went to pay a visit to Nanshan where we offer prayers to the Nan Hai Guan Yin and we had vegetarian food. The hotel there was very good and the staffs were really the best that I have met in China. They say that this Guan Yin is very ling and I guess maybe that’s why my results turned out pretty well. I think I should go back when I have a chance to.

Well, what’s a holiday without good food and shopping? Their seafood is super fresh and wonderful. But too much of it will also get sick. And their food is super salty.. not really very nice. And we always eat a lot for every meal. There are like 13 dishes each time when there are like 13 of us? With so many kids… I put on so much weight while I was there. And shopping was wonderful, coz the stuff are really cheap. Except the fact that they are selling majority winter wear, if not I think I would have bought quite a bit of stuff. But I bought a couple of stuff and managed to help my friend bought winter wear for super low prices.

Well, life does not end after my holidays. Normal life resume back in Singapore where I went to the same swensons twice in a row for dinner until the manager could recognize me and when I left, he actually said see you tmr. >_<. Christmas was spent fighting with hz but it was nice coz I actually got to stay at home for 2 entire day (minus my family BBQ on Christmas eve).

New year’s was more happening. GoDiva (my uni clique) went to Marina Square to look at fireworks but we lost each other so I ended up joining my family. Well, the fireworks were really wonderful, even though I was partially concealed by a wall. I wondered how much of my 5% GST went to this. After the fireworks, while everyone is scrambling to go home, my clique returned to the hotel that we have booked. The interesting thing about this hotel was that it is supposed to be a red-light district hotel. So the topic throughout the night revolves around this fact. And we actually had a silly game that managed to last us through the night despite the alcohol we had. A pretty nice way to start the new year. After long holidays, it is now back to work.

Today is one of the very rare times that I have spare time on hand so I am typing this at work but only managed to post it at home. I shall end here and I will be back with more photos. =)

back from chalet, started fyp

Chalet

wow.. i went to a super awesome chalet and bbq. Even though it was a really short one, only from Sun to Mon, it was a really really great one! I will never go for chalet again without thinking about this. Thanks to all the GoDivians who turned up!

It was really nice crapping all night, having a bbq that with super good food (of which we managed to finish nearl 95%) and which ended at 930pm. How can i forget all the super lame jokes, the dumb photos and the horrible singing. Not to mention the wrist band designed by me and jo as well as the memorable incident of throwing "mark" into the fridge. I guess even timing ourselves as we bath was great! It was a really great example of teamwork and co-operativity. I really love u girls. And it is just too bad that it took me so long to find out that I am actually living with a bunch of superb girls all my 3.5 years. I really hope that we can keep in touch after we graduate ok?

FYP

Well, right after a super happening chalet, followed by a ktv session plus a trip to the hospital (my dad was admitted to hospital for an operation coz he fell down on sat, 2nd dec), i finally started FYP on 5th Dec. First day was spent doing nothing, except to read papers. And i dunno fell asleep how many times trying to read all the papers. ARGH! But the thing is that i have handsome guys to look forward to in lab. haha.. my boss is one and my supervisor is another. BUT i've heard that my supervisor is a workaholic who comes to work at 9am and leave at 10pm. OMG.

Anyway, today was much better, since i got to learn some new stuff despite the fact that i did not get to touch stuff. I've learnt how to see HPLC graph and lyopilisation, which is basically freezing something in liquid nitrogen den using a vaccum to dry it by allow the liquid to sublime.

I wonder what is tmr going to be like. I hope it will be another learning experience. I hope things get exciting a bit coz I am bored with reading papers. haha...

no more exams!

wow... i finished my exams on friday and i actually did not feel anything after that?? what is wrong with me? And it was supposed to be my last examination ever. And i really mean it unless i am going to take PhD. Next semester I am not taking any modules and I am going to face a handsome Prof in the lab everyday. Wow!!

sigh.. but the scary thing is that i am graduating. Yucks.. scary.... but i am really glad at least i do not have exams.. i really cannot stand exams anymore. i need a break from them! But i really hope that my modules will turn out to be good. This sem will determine my honours loh. sigh...

This is going to be a real short one coz I m feeling super tired. I haven recover from my exams and i have a chalet to go for tmr. I will update some other day ba. Till then!~

short updates

well.. jus a real short one before i have to go back to reading cell bio. i realised that reading the notes is more interesting than reading the papers... at least i dun have to read the entire paper.. i only have to look for figure legends and the corresponding text. wahaha....

anyway. i will be starting my fyp right after my exams.. sigh.. upsetting.. totally no life.. but its better than rotting at home lah. i probably will be spending money anyway... so go into lab earlier oso can save money... And the best part is that......... i am working under a super charming and young professor.. haha... my fav prof coz he is such a nice guy and such a gentleman. He makes lab work during the holidays much more endurable. haha.... i hope my dear will not get jealous.. i still like my darling more..haha..

back to exams.. i still have 6 more to go but this time next week i will be left with 3... wish me luck and good luck to all who are taking their exams now! Jia You!!

it was a nice day..

it is amazing how compliments can do to a person's self esteem. I felt loved and wanted today coz of an sms that my tutee sent to me. so sweet...... and it made the day prettier despite the rain and made up for me having to spend a beautiful Sunday with virology.

inconsiderate BS students

I have been studying in the resource room for the past few days, jus the way i always do during the exam period. And i am damn pissed off by this group of girls who like to sit at the table behind my favourite table. They dun want to study den i dunno wat are they doing in school!! They jus talk and talk, on and on.. and they do not bother to lower their volume. They do not scream at least, but they talk normally when the resource room is so damn quiet. Totally pissed off.....

And the worst thing is that when ppl ssh them, one of the girls even have the cheek to say "ssh what ssh. So rude. I will talk louder" OMG!! You call this a university education? What have our schools been doing? To have produced such students who call themselves educated and yet talk like the "lian" on the road. The best part was when she complained to another friend (not at that table), her friend actually said that they were really very noisy mah. haha....

sigh... i hope they do not get the table near me tmr.... if not i will really go mad lah! ARGH!!

counting down...

8 more days to my final exams! And i literally mean finals coz unless i fail (touch wood), i will not be having any more exams for the rest of my life!! (driving not counted and PhD 另当别论).

Please pardon me for the lack of updates. I have been real real real busy ever since after BPC finals. I had cell bio presentation on 26th Nov, a genetics presentation, Biz essay and presentation on 1st Nov, AND an immunology quiz on 2nd Nov. After that, i spent a lot time trying to figure out how am i going to get money to put back into my account.

Sigh... i went to see the doc on 2nd Nov for the marks on my skin. Huimin bluff me.. she say she only spent $70 the first time she was there. But i spent a whole whooping $282!!! Ouch... really pierce through my heart. Sigh... there goes all my savings.... But its not huimin's fault lah.. she dunno will cost so much oso. So dun feel bad ok? Anyway, i PROMISE that i will not scratch my face and leave it so many marks again. I really do not want to spend that kind of money again. I will really die if this goes on.

And I went to cut my hair yesterday and colour on Saturday! Well.. the colour is very nice.. but the hair cut mah... hmm.. i regretted asking Dor to cuy my fringe shorter. Now its TOO short!!! I cant tie my hair or do anything basically coz the fringe looks damn weird. I look like a cockroach when i tie up my hair coz it looks like i have 2 feelers.. yucks... but the good thing is that i no longer need to depend on hair bands liao. coz my fringe do not fall on my face and maybe it will do my face some good?

Okay.. 8 more days to exams.. i really need to study coz my timetable this time sucks. No time to study jus before the paper coz i have many back to back papers. I need luck!!

Final updates on BPC

Well, the BPC was finally over. It was disappointing not to have won anything. But i am not upset... coz i 输得心服口服. The teams that won were really good. We have been really lucky to have even made it to the top 12 and i am very grateful for that. On top of that, the competition had been a real learning experience. I really might consider going entrepreneur-ish in future. (",)

And I really want to thank all the people who have supported us and have given us your love! Especially to my darling, who took half day off to be at the event. To the Godiva gang who was with us the whole day and who helped us quite a bit. To all and everyone one else who came down and cast their votes. Last but not least, I want to thank the management team of ZEED! You guys were great!

Well, here's some photos to share with you guys...


<---- This was our wonderful booth. But 一山还有一山高。 There were prettier ones but I think we did a pretty good job with it.

Here i am with my creations:
That's me busy rehearsing for the presentation. I still messed it up in the end.. sigh...







And here's my teamate who's explaining the posters to the audience. And the VC fair was a real battle...

And presenting to you... the management team of Zeed Pte Ltd

Invitation to BPC finals

(click for a bigger picture)

Dear Friends,

Your are cordially invited to attend the BPS finals. Including everyone not in NTU. You guys can still come and support even though u cannot vote.

Do come and give me your support ok? Esp for NTU students, remember to come (and get your friends to come too) to vote for the most favourite team! My team is Zeed (but it was Zeeds on the poster).

Since my team is the 10th team, i think my presentation should be at 2pm. Come n support so that i wun feel so scared. You can also come and visit my booth.

See ya!

Yan Ling

happy birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to Yan Ling.
Happy Birthday to me.

Thanks to my BS friends for their really creative present. But i am so sorry that i din have much time to celebrate with you guys...

And thanks to my sister for her creative cake, thanks my dear and everyone who have wished me happy birthday.

Old liao.. gotta come to terms with it. Happy birthday to me...

Sumatra is so nice to me...

Sumatra is lighting forest to celebrate my birthday with me! I am so touched but i hope they will not be so nice to me again. The candles got the entire Singapore bathed in haze and no one seemed happy to celebrate my birthday with me....

I think the people need to be educated.. Now i cannot stand the smell of the haze.. terrible.... Its so bad that i cannot even see M'sia from my house. How to see the moon?? And the moon is supposed to be the roundest in 7 years.

hmm.. more present ideas

i am a total facial product freak and i was looking at xiaxue's blog today and she receommended this product. Thought that it is worth trying and its not too expensive.

This is called the Cellnique Pro Sebum Gel. Selling for 69.90 at Sasa. anyone wants to buy for me?

BPC updates

wow... the semi-finals is finally over. It was really quite an experience. And before i leave for KL later this evening.. i want to share a real good news with everyone.

YES!! WE GOT INTO THE FINALS!! WOW!!! getting more and more exciting..

we got into NTU BPC semi-finals!

haha.. my friend always complain that i have nothing good to say on my blog so here is a super big and super good news that i want to share with everyone!!

My team got into NTU Business Plan Semi-finals. well.. yeah.. its only the semi but i am already very happy.. coz we did not expect to get into anything at all but we are now top 40 out of 154. good yeah?

But that also means its the end of my recess.. the presentation is on friday so i am not going to have time to rot at home and have some private time. My schedule for the next few days is packed to the hour (coz i have to take bus from 1 place to the other) and i realised that i do not even have time to pack my bag for my trip on friday. well.. dunno whether to be happy or sad...

anyway.. i hope we make it through and we can get to the finals. exciting...

recess is here!

YEAH YEAH!! finally.. TODAY is the first day of my break. It will probably not be like a break at all but i am jus happy that i have an entire week without school. My week is packed with activity but i am going to give myself some free time to read storybook and rot. ARGH.. i miss my novels... Anne just recommended me an author today and i am going to try and find her book at the library tmr.

Anyway, looking at the ticker countdown, my birthday is exactly 2 weeks away. Sooo, to prevent my dear friends from troubling over what presents to buy, i have came up with a list of things that i want.

Ettusais products
I am a pretty big ettusais fan so i kind of love some of their products. I have shortlist some of the possible candidates that you guys can consider buying for me. But I am a member of them so if you want to buy their products for me, rmb to ask me along so that i can clock stamps. I still got 9 more stamps(90 bucks) to completing the card. And it will be the best if can get it from metro den i can accumulate points for my metro card too. (",)

The ettusais night protect powder refill ($30). Oh.... i really love this night powder. It is really good.... unless you tell me every morning i haven wake up yet so my skin looks better.

Alternatively, can get me the puff at (NT210). But this has to order online from their official website coz its not sold in singapore, which explains why the price is in taiwan dollars.






Ettusias acne whitening mask ($48). I have been using this for a long time and i thought this product is pretty good. However, recently i was very broke to buy so you guys can help me out by buying it for me yea?

Day Protect Powder (natural beige, $63). Since the night protect was quite good, i thought i can try their day protect powder... Jus remember to buy from metro and ask me to go along....

Medicated Acne Concealer (natural beige, $35). Well.. i am a fan of concealers so i guess this work for me.. hehe..

More skincare products....

SKII Facial Treatment Mask (~$90 if you get them from chinatown, ~$114 if you buy them from the store). I am also a member so get me to go along if you want to buy. And get them from metro too ok?

Ampule from my beauty Salon, Touche (Dermadefence) at $262.50. But i have $75 bucks voucher so can use oso...

Some random stuff....

Goodwood park durian moose cake (~$7/slice). I simply love their durian cakes.. yummy.. or any of their durian products oso can.

A nice treat for me at any nice place... I am a glutton.. so food is for me! But i dun want to eat buffet ok?

Earpiece. I want a earpiece coz mine's spoilt and i using my brother's. I just need a normal one but it will be a plus point if it looks good.

Bracelet. I broke the bracelet which my junior got for me last yr. All because i was too dumb to have worn it while doing CPR.

Bluetooth adapter. I want bluetooth on my lappie coz poor lappie got no bluetooth...

Sony Ericsson Memory Stick Duo 1gB (~$70). Not a need.. jus a want coz my poor phone only got 64mb now...

Xerox Phaser 3110 toner. I seriously do not know how much is this. Xerox just went to the doctor and have yet to come home. but he is oso out of toner so come home oso cannot use....

Even more random stuff...
Can also consider giving me cash (to help me pay for my birkies that are coming), birkenstock vouchers (coz i still want to buy another pair) or metro vouchers (so i can buy all my ettusias products).

Alternatively, things like jackets, keypouch, bags and clothes are also very welcomed.

Spa treats, facials, pedi n manicures are also very good ideas. (",)

If you guys got unlimited budget, can consider getting me a digital camera, colour laser printer, new laptop etc...

Actually i really do not mind anything that you guys get for me. No need to buy anything oso can.. jus a small gathering with everyone is good enough for me. BUT i want a card ok? I love reading what you guys write for me.... hope you guys will find something tt will suit ur budget here.... If there isn't.. let me know again den i think of something else again...