The only person…is…

My lovely younger sister came to me the other day when I was back home. She said she realised something that day. That the only person that can make yourself happy is yourself.

That’s so true in so many ways. So many moments in my life, I’ve felt terrible. I crawl into my own little shell and tears flow down my cheeks and I think to myself thats not fair or thats not cool, or I don’t like it, make it go away. Whereas in reality, its just how I make myself feel, how I perceive the world and the actions of others and I let it get to my head. 

I often blame. Blame the obstacles, blame the load, blame my back pains, blame this and that. When the only person who can make it work is myself.

Like right now, I’m facing this problem. That’s not even a problem. But I’m making it one. I take many things too seriously. I dont know why I tend to take things seriously. I have been told before by others that I tend to do that. I can’t help it though. *pout*

I dont want to be this way.

All that’s left are memories

Last night, I got to Yafyaf’s place late for dinner due to work commitments. The girls had finished their meals (very yummy) and were watching a korean drama series dubbed in Mandarin. I’m not a big fan of drama series cos I don’t have that much time to follow through something for so many hours. I prefer watching movies or short series like Scrubs. Anyway, in the show, there was an old man who was critically ill and doctors and family were worried he wasn’t gonna make it this time. But there was one person he longed to see before he leave: his longlost grand daughter (whom he abandoned or gave away or something I’m not sure, and he felt really guilty and was afraid she has died already). The grandson of this old man promised to find her (his cousin). In the end he brought an acquintance (a girl who is very good at lying) to pretend to be the grand daughter. When he finally saw the “grand daughter” he was so moved and emotional. I felt my heart wrenched to see him so. And he looked like he felt ready to “go”.

It was then I thought of my grandpa. And I know it sounds emo but Mariah Carey’s song “Bye bye” almost truly reflects how I feel about my grandma & grandpa.

This is for my peoples who just lost somebody
Your best friend, your baby, your man, or your lady
Put your hand way up high
We will never say bye (no, no, no)
Mamas, daddies, sisters, brothers, friends and cousins
This is for my peoples who lost their grandmothers
Lift your head to the sky ’cause we will never say bye

As a child there were them times
I didn’t get it but you kept me in line
I didn’t know why you didn’t show up sometimes
On Sunday mornings, and I missed you
But I’m glad we talked through
All them grown folk things
Separation brings
You never let me know it
You never let it show because
You loved me and obviously
There’s so much more left to say
If you were with me today face to face

[Chorus:]
I never knew I could hurt like this
And everyday life goes on like
“I wish I could talk to you for awhile”
Miss you but I try not to cry
As time goes by
And it’s true that you’ve reached a better place
Still I’d give the world to see your face
And I’m right here next to you
But it’s like you’re gone too soon
Now the hardest thing to do is say bye bye

And you never got the chance to see how good I’ve done
And you never got to see me back at number one
I wish that you were here to celebrate together
I wish that we could spend the holidays together

I remember when you used to tuck me in at night
With the Teddy Bear you gave to me that I held so tight
I thought you were so strong
You’d make it through whatever
It’s so hard to accept the fact you’re gone forever

 

nana = beach girl

Our saturday beach outing was fantastic… as usual… beach outings are almost always fantastic unless it’s the wrong weather. Which sometimes do happen. Like that time we chose a 20 degree day to go fishing at the beach. I know 20 degrees celcius doesnt sound really cold/warm, but most of the time, Melbourne get southerly winds = cold winds from the Antarctic ocean  side. That day I was determined to jump into the water, cos if I don’t, then I can’t really consider myself as having been to the beach. Anyway, the waves were so strong I only tried to swim for 20 seconds and for the next 10 minutes just tried to stay afloat by trapping water. We didn’t catch anything on the hook as expected but it was fun nonetheless. Not fantastic, but good enough. 

Soooooo anyway, back to saturday’s beach outing, which was fantastic. Just us girls. Nimnim & Taxi didnt’ bring their bathers so that just stayed on the beach reading & playing Nintendo DS respectively. Yaf, Oj & I spent about 20 minutes waddling about in the clear water and we realised our limbs look really white underwater and pondered on how fun it would be if we had a waterproof camera. It wasn’t long before Nimnim & Taxi had to leave to make it back to the city for their other dinner/party dates. Yafyaf brought an extra book so I read 2 chapters and listened to some music before I fell asleep, under the warm summer rays and cool breeze caressing my skin. I must have dreamt of something… and woke up and made some weird noises that I make when I wake up but don’t want to wake yet. It was so nice laying there on the beach; it wasn’t too crowded (& not to isolated either). My weird noises woke Yaf & Oj. We sat there for a few minutes, dazed and stoned and not really willing to make a move. We wanted to savour the summer sun for just a little longer.

I’m just daydreaming  nightdreaming about my next beach outing now. Saturday’s go-kart day. We’ve been planning this for a few months now (the last time we were to go too many people pulled out at the last minute and the whole thing was cancelled 45 minutes beforehand & the place is actually an hour drive away and had already paid a deposit). Sunday’s Sustainable Living Festival. So can’t really do beach this weekend…  BAH! But its’ such lovely weather these few days! Maximum of 24-31 degrees celcius all week!

bumblebees

It’s 7pm now and 5 out of my 12 lab members (including myself) are still working the clock. Are we hardworking or are we hardworking?

 

hehe…. love to be busy though… but darn those two deadlines are on the same day (friday) and there’s that thing I wanna volunteer for on friday.

 

Shouldnt have drank that coffee at 3pm, my fingers are still shaking. I’m not very good with caffeine. Alright, back to work.

Thirsty bear

I was feeling a little down this evening until I saw this beside my bed:

come back

I thought I’d write a long post for this long awaited come back from my half-a-year-MIA. But its 12.40am and I have to get up in 5 hours and 20 mins so I shall make it a quick one. Well, a lot has happened since my last post so I don’t know where to start. Talking about “come back”, I just got back from Singapore for a 2 week holiday. It was certainly one of the best holidays ever because there were so many things to be merry about. Most importantly the whole family was together. 

I’m currently suffering from a semi-serious bout of homesickness. Its so bad I dreamt about it last night and it made me feel nauseous during my sleep. I dreamt that I have a ticket to fly back to Singapore next week. I was panicking so badly cos there is no way my supervisors would be happy with that. Hence I was trying so hard to get the flight dates changed but the airlines kept refusing it. So I felt so sucky: I wanted to go back so badly, people I wanna see again, I have a ticket back, I know I shouldn’t but somehow the circumstances meant I had to go back or forfeit the ticket all together. I’m missing everyone so dearly already.

I really don’t know how everyday of my 2 week break went by so quickly. 5 days of crazi-busy in Hongkong where I spent some quality time with relatives and the remaining of the time I was totally pigged & shopped out. 8 days totally devoted to family time & Lunar New Year celebrations (& preparations) and 2 days for meeting some dear dear friends. Why are holidays never long enough? Never long enough to do what I wanna do, to relax, to spend more time with loved ones, so many things left undone, words unsaid. Somehow every time I’m on holidays away from Melbourne, I feel like I’m removed from reality. Like everything’s a dream and unreal and that when the holidays are over I be thrown back to reality, my “normal” life. Each holiday is so short yet so packed with memorable experiences. 

Thankfully I have friends here who know exactly how I feel. Reunion with them tomorrow ;p

I know I said this was gonna be a short entry… so I shall end it here.

Phillip Island here we come!

Two more weeks till the annual St Vincent’s Postgrad Student Society retreat. (1-3 Aug) This year it’s gonna bd held at Phillip Island (the last 3 years were in Portsea). Me and KM have been conveniently and happily distracted from lab work to get things organised from t-shirts to speakers. Fingers crossed for good weather in the middle of Melbournian winter. 

Bon dropped by Melbourne for a few days. Lovely to spend sometime with my favorite younger sister.

Labanana

5.45pm wednesday

still in lab

signed up for gym today

on campus at the hospital

convenient, 24 hrs

classes- yoga, pilates and ur usual pump, combat, aerobics etc

cheap

 

experiments going okie

i’m feeling….okie….

ciao

How did I let it happen?

How did I let it go out of hand? The apartment (okie..didi mimi don’t get angry) is in an absolute state of mess. No surprise eh?

I’ve been cleaning last night and since I got up this morning at 8.30am! 

Wanna shower first and go to Vic Market to buy those tubs of various sizes for organising stuff.

Will bring Miko out the whole day today (after I finish tidying up the place). I miss Miko!

Anyway, feels good lately–> going to the lab early in the morning makes me feel like I can accomplish a lot! Sunrises ~ 7.30 and sunsets ~ 5.30 nowadays. Shortest winter day of the year coming up in a few days. I miss long days in summer!!

thanks miko

I’ve finally gathered enough courage to let Miko off the leash in the park. She’s loving it and I’m loving it to see her so happy. Now I know she will come to me after she’s had enough of smelling of this tree and that pole. I love to see that she’d look around to spot me, then come running at top speed to me. 

And for today…. Thank you Miko for running with me across the park when I was looking for my phone. Love you. Top chick You melt my <3.

 

 

love saturday mornings :)

thats if i do wake up  before noon…

I usually do.. hah, well, sat day’s my day to sleep in. But I woke at 6am this morning, found a missed call on my mobile at around 2am. And figured it must be Lingshan. So I called her. She’s in Austria and leaving for Germany tomorrow morning (her time). And then she’s travelling to Turkey for a few days so I can’t talk to her for FREE on the Three network till she get to Denmark on the 19th. Hence I didnt mind waking at 6am on a sat day morning. 

 

ANYHOOOOOs update time hmmm HEAPS has happened since my last post. Let’s see. Mom was here briefly, around 12 days? Had a lovely time with her. Though more then half of it was spent over my confirmation process for my PhD. The report was submitted. No dramas for that. A week later I gave my confirmation presentation over at the Department of Med…. a few of my pictures didnt show up on the powerpoint slide… its the Mac to PC to Mac transition problem. See I use a Mac…..and the presentation laptop that the department provided was also a Mac, so technically all pictures should show up fine. But the thing is, the administrative person who was in charged of putting the three students’ presentations for that day, she uses a PC. And hence the screw up. But didnt matter, those pics werent really that important and I could get my point across easily without those diagrams and it also meant I could show the audience, or more importantly the panel in the committee that I can cope with silly stuff like that. Hah. Following the presentation I had a short “interview” with the committee. I heard that in past years only 3 or 4 committee members are in the room. But that day I had 6! But they weren’t tough on me. Just clarified some more points from my report and made some suggestions and directions I could take on my project. Then they asked me to leave the room and asked my two supervisors to go in for their turn (yes, they interview the supervisor too!). After around 5 minutes, I was asked to enter again and everyone in the room signed off a form saying that I passed the confirmation process and I’m now officially a PhD student! (well, one year into it, but now it is official!)

Basically I spent 3 weeks working on my report and presentation. I barely had enough sleep the whole time. And when it was all over, I spent a few days with mom (not entirely cos I still had to go to the lab). After mom left, I finally got back into routine but I guess the lack of sleep for the 3 weeks + the bug that’s been going around just knocked me out. Thankfully I wasn’t toooooo sick. I’m okay now

What else happened? There was one afternoon when I was still feeling sick, I thought to myself : “okay, I should go home now” (it was 3pm). But I didn’t listen to my instincts (feeling guilty that it was only 3pm and so decided to do some work on my laptop. But then….I “shorted” all the powerpoints on one side of the student area. And burnt the adaptor to the charger of my laptop. Don’t ask me how it happened cos it was really just a random thing. I’ve done the same thing for the past 2 years, plugging in the powercord for my laptop to the powerpoint on the wall beneath my desk. I told the institute manager, whom at that time was pretty occupied with some other important things. I had no choice cos I actually caused one of the other student’s computer to switch off when she was in the middle of her work. wooooooops! The electrician (in-house from the hospital) fixed it up, changing bits and pieces, and I got a new adaptor from the institute manager :):):).

Another thing related to my laptop happened: I have a laptop lock that I use to secure my lappy to the desk in the student area. After I switched to my Mac, I realised that this lock (which is pretty expensive, cost around A$180 that was purchased by the institute), was somehow pulling apart the casing of the Mac cos it was quite big. So on thursday, I asked my fellow student KM if I could switch a lock with him. His was a combination lock that he bought for 30 bucks. So he didnt mind switching with me. I didnt change the combination cos I thought I dont really like the idea of fiddling with combination locks. I locked my laptop with this combination lock and it wasn’t pulling on the case so I was happy. BUT then…. I couldn’t unlock it!!!!! Haha… I was pretty sure, like 95% confident that I didnt change the combination on the lock. But I tried a few possible combinations anyway. I spent around 1.5 hours trying to unlock it and even with KM’s help, we couldn’t. He said it must be a mechanical problem cos there was one part that’s usually loose was stuck. So again, I called in the institute manager (initially I called in IT, but it wasn’t really an IT problem but he tried to help anyway). The manager resorted to using a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer to pry open the whole lock. It was pretty cool. Hahaaa………. 

Oh! Tightened braces again! And this time the rubber band’s extending all the way to the molars! Trying to close the big gaps (when the 4 teeth were removed to create space). YAY!!!! 

Alright…should I get out of bed or go back to sleep? I only had 4 hrs of sleep… hmmmm……

Nice mice rice

The following just occurred..and involves Post-docs A and C, students B, D, E and other students in the student area of my institute….

 

(A walks into the student area)

A: “Did someone just come back from the mouse house?”

Me: [thinking yes, I did, but a while ago, and feeling sorry for B at the same time, didn't say anything]

A: “Cos it really smells of mice in here”

B: “I think its my lunch”

-End of conversation-

___________________________________

(A walks to mail room, beside the student area and where conversations can be overheard, and chats up with C)

A: “Don’t you think it smells like mice?”

C: “Yea it does”

(C looks around the mail room, totally oblivious to the fact that it was indeed the smell of B’s lunch)

C: “Are there cages here or something?”

-End of conversation-

B: -_-” “Does it really smell like mice?”

D: *nervous laughter* (implied “yes”)

___________________________________

Another student, E walks into student area

E: “Smells like mice in here!”

Everyone in student area bursts out laughing (excluding B)

Oh poor B… her fried rice really really smelled like mice apparently. (I didnt think so…)

Rove was…what else but good! :) + Musica Viva 2008

I loved it. (refer to previous entry) Though my hands were sore from so much clapping of half-pretence-excitement. It was really cool to be in a TV studio and SEE MY FAVOURITE TV PERSONALITY! Hehe… those couple of hours was so worth it. Though I should have spent it on writing my report that’s due in 9 days… I’d prefer laughter over work anytime! (and I should be drilling my ass of writing that report now yet I’m here telling you how it went). So anyway, it was pretty tedious clapping so much and woo-ing and ah-ing… There was around 200 in the audience. Haha.. I’ll be looking out for myself for this upcoming season of the show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” for more details visit: http://ten.com.au/5thgrader ……. I’m not supposed to tell you how the contestants went and who the contestants were. You’d have to see it for yourself when the show comes on air later this year. Lots of cameras rolling around, Rove cracked so many jokes during camera shooting and between takes. Awesome loved it so much!

I just subscribed to Musica Viva’s National Concert Series 2008. I subscribed to the Gold package which entitles me to attend all 7 concerts in the series throughout the year. Unfortunately I only found out about this a few days ago cos I only got this letter from Sof the other day when I met her for dinner. (cos I moved out of her place 2 years ago but I didnt notify Musica Viva of my change of address). This mail was sent out October 2007!!!! Haha.. http://musicaviva.com.au/concerts/concerts_2008 Glad I could get the student discount!!! So I ONLY PAID $98 bucks for the remaining 6 concerts!!!!! Wooooot a deal!! Heh… Yea so I’ll be going alone but I dont mind. I’m just going to appreciate music. Unlike rock concerts which I’d hate to go alone. It’s probably better to go alone to such concerts anyway. :):) So excited!!!!

Okie…its 11.43pm now… I should do a little bit of my planning of my experiments.. which I’d need to include in my report. Love mua (by the way this is my confirmation report which is to “pass” the first year of my PhD…gosh I cant believe it’s already almost a year since I started! Not good at all, it means I only have ~2.5 years left! oh slow down time!) okie love mua again bye

saturday!

Firstly, let me say how proud I am of Lingshan. She’s in Europe now and she will be there for the next 3 months. She planned her whole trip, trains, flights, hostels, everything! Hope she’ll hv a smashing time there! And I’ll be missing her so much cos we practically call each other everyday when she’s in Australia. Though she’s in Sydney and I’m in Melbourne, we rant about our respective lab life to each other a lot. 

Anyway, its saturday and its supposed to be market day for me but I have to make this market trip super short cos I’m going to see ROVE later! Well, not his “Rove” show but the game show he hosts “are you smarter than a 5th grader”. I Love ROVE! SO YEA!!!!!!

Alright, gotta rush to market now. Hv a lovely weekend too… I’ll try to write another update super soon…

so you think you can wiggle

You know the show “So you think you can dance”?

ERm….everytime the contestants are doing a solo and the songs always end with the sound “so you think you can dance”….the dancers always do a little wiggle then pose… Can I say I dont like that wiggle?

It’s silly!

-1hr

Yay… daylight savings over! Wound the clock an hour back last night… happy tt time difference with singapore is 2 hrs now instead of 3.

Ling came to Melbourne over the weekend. Met up on both sat and sun. Started off with a nice yumcha at shark fin inn with Ling, Jen (ling’s cousin), May (ling’s gd friend), Tiff, and Jen’s two housemates …lunch was good.. I didnt eat much though.. omg..my fav EGG TARTS!

Yumcha was followed by walking across town (window shopping on the way) to Degraves St for the yummiest little cupcakes ever!! ever ever! Doh! Should have taken photos of them. Tiffy bought one for Evie (coffee mocha oh so yum!! the icing is not icing-sugarish, but a creamy mocha icing…so yum). And I bought 5 mini ones for Bryce and his family to thank him cos this morning he drove all the way to my place to give me his old set of drawers. I chose two with teddies on top for his two cute twin daughters. But too bad with all the bag swinging while we were shopping ytd (not blaming Jen… if I were the one holding the bag I would have swung it too), the teddies toppled over. No wonder the cupcake store had a little warning saying that the cupcakes should be handled with extreme care.

Anyhooooos….. yesterday had a haircut. You know the feeling of wanting a haircut real bad? I always get that feeling. See I really loved my last haircut. It was the best cut in my WHOLE life. I loved it so much but its been more than 3 months and its getting out of shape. My fringe is weird and I thought I needed a cut. I;’ve always wanted to grow longer hair but I’m never able to cos I’m too impatient and I just want a new cut everytime. So yesterday I decided to get a cut. My fav hairdresser went back to Korea for a few months so I had no choice. Now I’m regretting. I always do!!! Haha… I always regret when I cut my hair. But bah! Its okie.. I’ll get used to this cut. So that was last evening.

After the haircut, we went to Jen’s for hotpot dinner. Havent had one in a while so its good… Food was great. And!!! Jen’s got a puppy!!!!!!! Super cute… played with her the whole night.. I never had a dog in my life.. so whenever I get to play with one, I’ll get so happy. And since my lab’s just a few minutes walk from Jen’s house, I asked her if I could walk the dog sometimes and she said yes. YAY! Haha… Jen dont usually take the dog out cos I think she’s too busy and also cos she said its quite dirty outside. So I said I’ll bring her on the days she wants to shower the dog. HAPPY!

Got to spend some time with Evan today. He’s been busy with uni, work, building a new computer for his dad and his latest blue-green-red laser matrix. Haha…. Last week only saw him on monday and tuesday…. This week hopefully can see him most weeknights for dinner together. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Gonna FINALLY start setting up an experiment that I’ve been meaning to do so for the past 10 months. GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This experiment is “of utmost importance” (quoting my supervisor). Ya… hope I get it to work. Fingers crossed.

Two members of the lab are leaving soon. There goes two more boys…  decreasing the male:female ratio to 7:9. What used to be a testosterone-fuelled lab is now becoming a female-dominated one !

Currently trying to prepare my lab meeting presentation on monday. Havent started yet actually.. I was conveniently distracted by wanting to post an entry. I shall get on with analysing my results…then hopefully get started on the presentation soon…

Love mua!

The orange, the tree, the sea and me

Took that photo on top of a tree, facing the sea.  

Have to start writing my confirmation report! Must start soon! Must!

Congratulations to Singapore for being chosen to host the 2010 Youth Olympic Games!

I really wanna go to the AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) conference this year at Copenhagen. But firstly I’d have to generate enough (interesting) data, then submit an abstract, then (hopefully) get accepted then apply for a travel grant. That’s the plan. Whether it’d work out or not, I’m not sure. Hope so! Fingers crossed.

Weekend again! Yay!

This week Dr KD taught me how to use the mouse blood pressure monitoring machine and now she’s happy for me to use it whenever I want (this machine is in animal facility “A”). Coolios. Wanted to measure blood pressure of some of my mice before I go back to Singapore in mid-March. But I don’t have the time to cos I’ve got some experiments in another animal facility “B” and there’s a quarantine period of 48 hours before I can step into “A” again. So I can only do it when I get back from Singapore. Then again, I really wanna do it sooner than that.

You know what you are a scientist/geek/nerd when you:

• Say the word “aliquot” even at home (for example when describing to your sister that maybe you should dilute out the air freshener because its quite strong)
• Write a detailed report of how many holes you drill into a container to make your own plant pot, the shape and material of the container, how much soil you pour into the container, how many seeds you sow and the distance between them, the amount of water you water your plants, the genus, family and common name of the plant and the date you expect to see seedlings (this is way overboard)
• Dream about doing experiments
• Blog about the lab, your lab, your experiments and your lab all the time

I admit to having done all of the above and I declare myself a total geek. It’s friday night, its 12.48am and I have a stack of papers and notes beside me. Am I a nerd or what? Or maybe I’m just plain-committed to my studies. I’d like to think I’m the latter. Yuhooo!

Still enjoying the “Butterfly Catcher” album I mentioned 2 entries ago. Love it love it so!

Oh! Tightened my braces again. Actually that was supposed to be around end of March till I changed to this thicker wire with the plastic band. But my previous wire snapped from the last tooth on the left (probably from my chewing almost exclusively on my left side most of the time). I went in to see Dr Tracey yesterday and she said I might as well change to the next wire cos the teeth looks like they’re ready. This time she used this tiny strip of plastic consisting of a line of 6 holes and looped it around the bracket on each of the 1st 6 top teeth and did it for the bottom ones. (see photo below) So anyway, it was soft foods again for me today. I couldn’t even bit into a banana, that’s how much it aches when my braces get tightened. But it’s good cos it means I have to chew slowly (and hopefully eat less).

Apparently the strip of rubber is called a powerchain as I learnt from another wordpress-orthodontics-wearer-blogger http://whatsinasmile.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/power-chain-squeeze/

And a website she linked to that describes the power chain http://www.archwired.com/power_chains.htm

 Can you see the white rubber band being stretched around the wires and between the brackets? :) That’s my teeth. The bottom front two teeth started having this small gap. But I think it’d close up now that the rubber band is fitted on. I only got the rubber band yesterday but I can already feel that my front 6 teeth are being held close together when I use my water jet to clean between the teeth.

Here’s the two of the four big gaps I have from having four teeth extracted (two on each side) to make more room for other teeth. The gaps are already starting to close up even though the 1st two wires I’ve been wearing were not to close those gaps but were to rotate my teeth. There’s also the small gap opening up meaning my teeth are moving to the back of my jaw which is good :):):):).

So erm……tentatively around 1 more year to go for my braces for the whole jaw to remodel and the big gaps to close but I’m happy!

Alright, time to hit the sack! Good night world ._.

22 days to SG

I have 22 days till I return to Singapore for a holiday with Evie!!!!!!! It’s gonna be his first time overseas so he’s pretty thrilled.

In the meantime, I’m trying to do as much as I can in the lab cos my PhD confirmations are coming up in a couple of months!!! That usually marks the end of the first year of a PhD student’s life and involves a report including research aims, progress, timeline, hypotheses…etc… (2000-5000 words), a 20 minute presentation + 10 min Q&A by both the confirmation committee and general audience (i.e. other researchers). Then the committee will assess as to whether they think I’m “fit” enough to carry on my PhD project and become an official PhD candidate.

So… hv to start my literature review (shd have started a year ago! bah!). Okie….it’s already 9.08am… hv to rush experiments so that I can go to the orthodontist today cos the wire came off my last tooth!

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAPP!!!!!! :)

You might guess from the title that I’m pretty happy now.

Well, you are right cos I am! Finally got internet! And its mobile meaning I can bring my lappy everywhere and hv internet connection! At least in metropolitan Melbourne and major cities in Australia. But at rural areas it’d drop to dial up speed and at unpopulated areas there’d be no reception. But it’s fantastic!!!! 5GB for 39 dollars a month that’s enough for me!

(This is gonna be a super long post for make up for my lack thereof in recent times)

Yay! Everything’s been well since my last update. Still loving my new place (rented). Lingshan’s over from Sydney. She stayed two nights, then left for a week at Lorne for the Lorne conferences (she went for the Proteomics one, then the Protein Structure and Function). She came back on Thursday to Melbourne city. I spent today (Saturday) with her and she’s returning to Sydney tomorrow (sob!). I’ve been trying to convince her pretty much for all the time she’s in Sydney (which is a little over a year now) to come back to Melbourne for good. But I think her mind’s pretty set on embarking on her PhD journey in Sydney instead. Well……………. I’d definitely continue missing her but I guess it’s good for her career development there. Lingshan photocopied a stack of piano scores of the songs she loved to play most when she was younger and bound it up for me. It’s so nice of her. So I’ve got more material to play around… and hopefully get back to the (low)standard I used to be…. just to pick up where I stopped so many years ago.

Evie’s new term started the week that just past. I’m sure he’d do well this semester! He surprised me with a ring on V-day. Considering that I accidently broke the opal ring that he bought me a year ago while I was moving house recently. I wasn’t expecting any gifts on V-day but it was so sweet of him. He picked it out with his best buddy Adrian (who’s expecting a baby in a few months!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and its gonna be a girl!) Evie’s so excited cos he’s gonna be an “uncle”.

Tiffy’s back from her 2 week annual leave in Singapore. She’s been back for a week and it was quite flat out for her. She worked quite long hours this week but good thing she got friday half day ! She bought a tee-shirt for me which reads “Mr Messy” and said that it totally describes me (except for the “Mr” part). And I agree

I miss Dad and Mom. Can’t believe its already 1month+ since they were in Melbourne. And I miss Bonsi too….. miss you meimeiiiiiiiiiiiiii… And I love you all….

Today I saw the blind and deaf guitarist busker on Swanston Street. I haven’t seen him for a long long long time!!!!!!!

A blog entry I wrote 3 years ago about the same man:

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Saturday, April 16, 2005

blind

Reading Dan’s latest blog entry about a blind musician performing on the streets for a living reminded me of what I saw today.

Since my first year in Melb, I’ve seen this blind man in the city. He’s bald, and has a beautiful guide dog (golden retriever? I dont know) that accompanies him, sitting patiently on a low elavated mini-bed, quietly, waiting for the master to finish the day’s work.That man sits on a stool, upright like how my dad sits.

Today when I walked past him, I saw something different. The dog was still there, the man was still playing beautiful melodies, but there was a white-plastic-coated-metal cage. The cage was covering the bag into which passer-bys put coins into.

Why did he do that? Well, obviously, someone must have/tried to steal his earnings.

TimeStealing a blind man’s hard-earned cash. WTF. -Nana at 09:52 pm

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It made my heart sink a little when I saw that the guide dog had black hair instead of cream colour. It meant his old guide dog must have past away or had something bad happen to him. The new black dog laid down behind him just like his old one, except that this one didn’t have that folding bed.

The man still has a metal cage over his “money bag” and now to think about it, it’s probably to prevent to wind from blowing away (potentially) any money notes that kind passerby’s give him.

There was sixty cents in his money bag. I saw him having a A4 size poster advertising a CD for sale for 20 dollars. I came back half an hour later with 20 dollars cash so that I could buy it from him and I saw that he still had 60cents in his money bag.

Noticing the hearing aid in his right ear, I leaned close to his ear and asked if he have any of the CD’s. He said yes and reached into his bag to grab one. I told him I havent seen him on the streets for such a long long time and he replied that he’s been away to different places. The CD had a picture of him with his guitar with several butteflies around him. The CD was called “The Butterfly Catcher”. It looked kinda “homemade” but it looked beautiful. I told him the cover is so pretty. And with my new CD, I walked away happy. It was 20 dollars I was more than glad to part with. When I first came to Melbourne 6 years ago, I would occasionally sit on the steps of a building and listen toThe  him playing songs on his guitar. My friend and I even had the bizarre idea of following him home (more like stalking) because we were so intrigued by him. He always sat so straight and played so well and patted his dog occassionally. He’s one of the few people I’ve met in Melbourne that I think I’d never forget. And now I’m home and listening to his CD and it warms my heart. He dedicated this CD to the love of his life, his wife whom he calls the Butterfly Lady and hence the name of the CD.

The following picture is a cut-out from a Newsletter from the Bionic Ear Institute in Melbourne, Australia Spring 2007 (around October last year). This is Graham Teague aka Graham Trevor.

If you would like to purchase the CD as mentioned in the text above call (03) 9667 7500 if you are within Australia, or if you are overseas, call +613 9667 7500.

Alright, its time for me to clean up the apartment. Haven’t cleaned ALL WEEK!

Love!

:) happy

Alrighty J time for another long-overdue update! Kinda finally settled into my new place (though not totally…cos I still have a couple of boxes hidden in my wardrobe that needs to be unpacked). But oh well!!! I can finally laze around at home and feel comfortable at the same time! My friend didn’t believe me until I showed a picture of my old place and one of my new place. Then it was pretty clear how I cant really relax and chill at the former cos its too matchbox-sized and cramped..etcetc…. But anyway, I’m LOVING THE NEW JOINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lab’s been going really well. I mean… the last six months must have been the least productive six months of my entire life. And the more I look back thinking how sucky a time it was, the more I feel I’m doing better right now. For once, experiments are running well (not to say they work, but at least their getting on), the animals are coming through and I have millions of experiments planned. I feel so psyched. Following the advise from my beloved supervisor, I got another organizer just to highlight blocks of periods highlighted in pink, blue or orange when my major experiments are running. And thankfully (and coincidentally), nothing’s gonna fall on the 2 weeks I’m going back to Singapore with Evan. I still bring journal articles home everyday thinking I’ll read them but I never do. Except for last night when I felt so guilty that I decided to read them at midnight till 2am (well I had an evening nap from 7pm-9pm) J

 

Having a grow-my-own-beansprouts-phase now. Have grown 2 batches and they’re yummy as!!! J Very different taste from what you can buy cos 1) its so fresh if you grow ur own, 2) no chemicals/gases when growing them! I’ve also started my very own vege patch too…well….kinda…. on my balcony. I haven’t bought one of those longer trenchy looking pot/tub thing for my plants, so I’m just using make shift ones that I made out of takeaway boxes and CD-stack covers and drilling holes in them with Evan’s cordless drill. So far I’ve planted tomatoes (though ZP thinks it’s the wrong season to sow, the packet says its fine to sow now…but what the heck! I’ll just try my luck!!!!!!!! ), parsley, cress, heartsease (flower)… also have poppy flower, lettuce and basil seeds that I haven’t sowed yet cos I ran out of “pots”.

 

I’m so loving my new place!

 

Alright gotta pack up and catch the city circle to get home before its too late and they stop running……… would love to write more but haven’t gotten internet at home yet. I WILL TRY to get the shop before they close tomorrow after lab. I promise I’ll try!