Wish came true...

*****drumroll*****

Alas, the long waited ice-skating outing took place last evening on the grounds of the National History Museum. =) It was unusually cold and wet yesterday, with snowing and sleeting in teasing amounts thoughout the day. I am glad we made the decision to schedule our ice-skating outing nearer to chirstmas, saving something special to do over the long holiday weekend. I would stop and watch people having fun in the ring everytime I walk past NHM for the last 2 months and wished that Christmas will arrive soon.

Well, that said, the ice-skating party arrived late due to some understandable distractions over at Oxford street but we still managed to grab our skates and bravely ventured onto the ice to start our adventure. Novices at ice-skating, we first hand-walked ourselves along the perimeter railings, but faced with a massive perimeter human traffic jam decorated with flying dagger-feet and white snowy bums, we decided to be more daring and started moving away from the railings. Jo discovered her natural aptitude for uncontrollable spinning and I did a pretty good imitation of a scrambling duck down the sides. CR is the self-taught pro in our group, and shared with us her secret of balancing and how not to fall down (Look forward!! Never Lean Back!!) before zipping off to join the more advanced level skaters. After a few rounds I started to enjoy the retro blue lights, the festy music, and was delighted when snowflakes started dancing and floating down from the sky. Such a romantic surprise! It was my wish come true, skating in the snow, and I never wished more than ever for MX to be in London to share that moment with.

Other than the skating 'highlight', this christmas break has been really good to me. Managed to find time to do my laundry, washed my bedsheets, cleaned my room, cook for myself, put on a mask, spend a whole day in bed reading storybooks (3 1/2 books in fact), go through all the past issues of Times and Newsweek that had been piling up in the corner of my room since the beginning of November, sleep 12 hours a day, go to a party, go shopping, get new specs made with 25% student discount (hope that solves my terrible headache), caught 2 out of 3 movies which I have been wanting to watch, recharge and not think about work for 4 solid days. I wanted lots of personal time and I got it and it felt so wonderful actually having the energy to do the chores for once and not dragging my tired mind/body to do them. Completing the low piority businesses that has been queuing on my mental 'to do' list for months because of other more pressing work has also brought on a sense of relieve and peace to my mind.

I am happy that I've managed to catch the Constant Garderner before it dropped off the big screen, as it is quite a rare occurance nowadays to find a movie with substance, one which has an important message and no flashy stuffs. I totally enjoyed it. March of the Penguins was quite alright. Enjoyable, educational, and makes one marvel at the sacrifices the king penguins have to make to procreate and to survive on one of the harshest faces of the earth. There is just one more movie that I'll like to catch, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, just for the laughs.

Well, got to defragment my college PC now, one of the many things I planned to complete today so that I can start working properly tomorrow. My working companion has been hanging on me lately and hopefully it'll behave itself after this holiday. =) I have a feeling that the new year will be good. My now almost empty mental baggage and energised body and mind is brimming with
positive energy that should sustain me till the 20th of Jan.

abc...xyz.

Nothing much.

Didn't feel like working today. Thought I was pretty late coming in at 10am but there was only 1 other girl in the office. By 11.30pm the office was 80% girls and 1 lucky chap. We joked that anyone who complains about the sex ratio in our department should walk into our office now. Looks like it's only Ruth and me coming in tomorrow but I'll be off after lunch to catch Narnia or March of the Penguins with YS. Haven't caught a single movie this month. I think Penguins will be really good.

The stomach flu virus was still giving me problems till Tues night. Anything I consume which is not bread will toss and turn in my stomach, refusing to be digested. Maybe my stomach or intestine enzyme production is still calling in sick. Anyway, after having that bowl of noodle soup swimming in my tummy for 3 hours, I decided to stop fighting the inevitable and just threw up so that I could go to sleep, which was probably the best thing. I had some veg and rice for dinner yesterday and it seemed fine. Kept telling people that I'm hungry and I'm sick of bread, which kind of surprised myself too cos I'm totally a bread person. I adore sandwiches and baguettes and pastry and can live for weeks on it but right now I'm really sick of it. Gonna try having some rice again tonight.

The taiwanese drama 'Prince turns Frog' is really good. The storyline is simple and predictable but the screenplay, music and the acting in combination made it a very enjoyable romantic comedy. Thanks to SF who made sure a copy got delivered to me, otherwise I'll never get the chance to watch it. =) Fell in love with the male lead and the music, especially the one by 7F called 'wo zhi xiang yao' (I only want...). Some of the songs by 183 club are quite nice too. Too bad the music stores here don't sell chinese pop. Thinking of getting the drama's music cd when I get home and also the 1st drama that Ming Dao acted in.... something about Emperor's clothes..... but since that was his first drama, acting won't be as good.

Sold 3 pairs of earrings yesterday. Didn't feel too bad actually. Kind of sad to part with them but seeing how much my friend likes them, a sense of warmth and satisfaction crept into my heart too. Well, got to think about when to post them online cos I suppose it's kind of late now since most people would have gotten their chirstmas shopping done, so it'll be pointless paying the listing fee if no one is going to search for gifts.

Thought I'll just write a few lines before I meet up with CR but seems like I've just overshot the time and gonna be late. Have become habitually late when meeting people recently. What happened to my time management?!? Must make a new year resolution to kick this habit next year!! *LOL* But I know I won't be late for King Kong later though.

OK, Merry Chirstmas and Happy New Year!! =)

Autumn Collection '05 : Dilemma

My 2005 Swarovski crystals handmade earrings.


It's theraputic making them.
They give me something colourful and pretty to play with when I'm stressed.
Some shades are quite rare to come by, a tinge of metallic grey on purple, a matted yellow-based green, etc
They bring me joy everytime I see them.
Love them to bits.
But I made them with the intention of giving them away or selling them on Mirage since I don't wear earrings often.

Dilemma...
It brings me joy if other people appreciates them too but I can't bear to sell them.
For the moment that is.
There will be a potential buyer tonight.
And I'll be saying my goodbyes.

Christmas Dinner @ Loch Fyne

We had our own mini christmas dinner last friday at this lovely scottish seafood restaurant at Covent Garden. 8 turned up (CR was wasted, well I won't be surprised since she was drinking with her colleagues since lunch and Charles was hit by the flu bug, poor him) so it was a nice little group where everyone could sort of see and hear each other across the table. SR had to make alot of calls to get the bookings and menus sorted for us and thanks to him the evening ran smoothly. He even made a list of who ordered what to eat, which was brilliant, cos the sotong queen in me forgot what I had ordered, as usual. =P

The earlybirds met at the Leicester Square funfare before the dinner to catch some rides on an empty stomach. Jo and I went first for the washing machine ride, under the misconception that it is quite mild, because the platform was turning nice and slow but it turned out to be our worst nightmare because we forgot to factor in the guy they had positioned on the platform who spun us round and round manually. The spinning went so fast that Jo and I who were initially sitting beside each other ended up sitting right opposite each other in the donut-shaped seat with our hair in disarray and our neck aching from the ride. Well, next time I'll try to go later in the night when the 'spunner' was less full of energy. *LOL* We took the Merry-go-round horse/chicken rides next and then everyone went for the Bumper cars which was madly fun and reminded me of the bumber car rides I used to take with my cousins at Genting Highlands. =) oooh... i missed those times...

Well, here's a sample of the christmas dinner I had at Loch Fyne all for 30 pounds (incl. drinks). The restaurant gave us 1 bottle of free champaine and complementary crackers as well. =)

Starters: 6 fresh Loch Oysters. They actually taste better than sea oysters, less of that strong fishy sea smell, and the most important thing was they are fresh!!


Main: 1 whole grilled sea bass.... yummy.... well, I tried not to imagine the korean skin shredding suana treatment that Joan was sharing with us before the main course, using my (erhm..) table as an example....
Dessert: a slice of apple tart. As you can see, it's literally a slice... hahah... but it's nice. And there were toffee and coffee after that which I do not have pictures of.
And there we are, enjoying our dinner, and also the secret santa gifts that we've got for each other. Everyone had to pick a card and gets the present with the same number card placed on top.

Well, it was a great evening all in all, and a wonderful weekend up to saturday. I caught the stomach flu on sunday and threw up everything I ate, including my panadol, until I drank the lingyang cold/flu/fever herbal tea that 21 gave me when I visited her in May. I'm okay now, just a couple of days late for my blog updates. Anyway, I'm sure it wasn't the food on friday cos I was still alive and jumping on saturday but the fatigue over the last 2 weeks and being out in the cold on Saturday certainly took its toll. I look forward to a good rest this christmas holiday. =)

e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d

And...

Headache
Headache
Headache
Headache
Headache
Headache
Headache

Does this help?
http://www.headaches.org/

Animal fur trade

I wanted to cry when I watched this...

 

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=jcruel_china_dog&Player=wm&speed=_med

Ramblings of one stressed woman

I am so stressed that my new colleague saw me and exclaimed "This is one stressed woman!!" and my supervisor had to agree and said "I've never seen her truly relaxed before" and then I realised that other than my non-college friends who have seen me laughed or relaxed outside uni, it is not difficult for people who have only seen me in college to have the impression that I'm one uptight soul. Well yeah, I admit I'm one 1000% bloody stressed woman right now but it hasn't always been like this. I don't smile or laugh when I'm working seriously and born with a stern face, it's no surprise that I look fierce or stressed when I work. And I only see my supervisors when I run into problems or when we have our 4-5 hour group meetings every 1-2 months. Who wouldn't look stressed?

Maybe I'm upset that people can see that I'm stressed because I AM STRESSED. I'm stretched so thin and feel so hopelessly exhausted that I had to call MX for help on Monday. So, instead of heading back to the office after today's conference meeting, I spent two hours window shopping along Knightsbridge. It was jolly good. OK, ok, I did some shopping therapy as well, to make myself feel better but it's not some pair of expansive shoes this time, just a hand embroidered shawl from Tie Rack.

Actually, despite having to come back to office to make up for lost time tonight, I did enjoy today's conference very much, because all the speakers addressed something that I can relate to and I learnt something useful and important from each one of them. Other than the regular academics who talked about their work, we had representatives from Airbus and F1 who addressed the issues and challenges they faced with using composite materials and adhesive bonding as well. Their talks were informative and enlightening and I can go on and on about was presented at the conference here but I think this is the most important message I brought away with me today:

We fear not the strength, but the weaknesses of the materials employed.

Personally I fear the use of polymeric composites by people who only see the benefits of the material but are ignorant to their vulnerabilities. In fact, we all are. There is not one conclusive study that guarantees the long term durability of these materials and we are already employing them in critical primary structural applications. Is it a risk worth taking? Application without full appreciation and understanding of the material behaviour which by the way is unique to every composite system, is not only a highly dangerous activity but also an irresponsible one because it's failure will put millions of lives at risk. I just feel that the knowledge we have is insufficient for producing good system designs and the engineer in me just cannot trust my life on some guesswork regardless of how brilliant or experienced the designing team is. Furthermore, we are not talking about small one-off prototypes. We are talking about ambitious commercial products which themselves are prototypes and objects of experimental studies-in-process as it transport humans around the globe. Can we afford to trust a material that we know so little of, that is still being studied and characterised by labs worldwide, to last the 35-40 years like the good old, albeit heavy metal birds? I certainly do not wish to be a guinea pig on a commercial experiment.

Christmas drawing near...

LP was craving for some Jap food yesterday (so was I actually) and we went to have our fill of sashimi (and I also ordered oyaku don) last night. Feeling quite stuffed, we decided to walk off our dinner and came across the Chirstmas funfair set up at Leichester Square.

Check out those human size cuddly bears to be won!! Aren't they gorgeous?


And also this year's christmas tree at Trafulgar Square.

Stressed!!

The severity of my backlog at work has just dawned on me.

 

27 test cases,

8 sets of test conditions.

minimum 3 hours per case for extraction of data and analysis,

5 hours to summarise each condition,

lets forget about the report and other parallel jobs for the moment,

 

I need 121 hours to go through everything, that's 5+ days without sleep but I'm not crazy so maybe 8 days if I put in 15 diligent hours each day, leaving 2 days to submit my meeting report on time. 

 

Great. No wonder my subconscious has been bugging me that something is not quite right.

And I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO exhausted.

Enough already. 

 

 

 

SA deficiency (SAD?)

I was told by brother many years ago that my SA (short for 'situational awareness', some army term I presume) is very poor, and since I'm sort of staying alone overseas, I made a conscious effort to pay more attention to my surroundings to improve my SA level.

I thought I was doing a pretty good job until recently, I was told something that most of my colleagues figured out long ago. After sitting beside my charming singing friend in the office, THE PHONE, for 2 years and 7 months, I finally learnt how it communicates the source of the call. Apparently, if it is an internal call, the ringtone will be longer than the calls coming from an external source. I experimented with it and true enough, the ringtone was not only longer for internal calls, it was painfully, obviously, distinctly, ridiculously twice longer!! I have no idea how I failed to notice something THAT obvious in the past. :P

Well, well, well. I admit defeat. My brother has been right all along. (Oooohh.... I see someone grinning away!!) My SA is indeed hopeless. Maybe it is something that just comes naturally to some people. I was always impressed (I still am actually) with my brother's ability to remember routes, roads, junctions, locations, that sort of thing from a very young age. On our road trips to Malaysia, he could tell my mom if he has passed a certain place before, or if we have taken a detour at some junction before, etc etc, at the tender age of 4, while I, being much older and have taken more trips than him, still remember those roads simply as hours of never ending drive with either rubber, durian, palm oil or pineapple plantations on either side of the road. Now, that's REALLY pathetic huh?

What to do? I guess I will always be hopelessly ignorant about my surroundings... *LOL* It's just me. =)