Dear friends, I'm okay.
No longer in needy mood cos I did managed to talk to MX and my mom last Sunday.
Just too busy to update.
How busy?
Since Monday, I've been waking up at 6.30.
Start work at 7-7.30am. Stop work at 10-11pm.
Lunch sometime between 11-4pm,
Dinner is sandwich or biscuit around 8pm.
I'm on my feet 13-15 hours everyday.
Must have unbonded, rebonded and filed >120 endblocks this week.
Painted and broken >60 beams.
I haven't had proper dinner for a week.
My brain is so active at night that I can't sleep.
But that's ok. Cos it's just 10 more days.
I'm motivited because I consider this my final round of testing.
And the loaned camera is GOOD. Very good indeed.
It's not temperamental like our departmental one.
So far I've only lost 2 images (<5% of total tests) and it was because of triggering problems with the lazer.
I can still capture 30-40 images for a fracture event of less than 2 milliseconds.
And I've gotten my test rate up to 45km/hr, and hopefully by tomorrow, 60km/hr.
This week alone, including tomorrow, I'll have finished 50% of my tests.
Quite happy with my progress.
I did pamper myself a little by taking tube to and fro college though, even when it is only 2 stops.
Of course I felt guilty at my indulgence but by the 2nd day my swollen feet easily convinced me otherwise.
After standing all day and running in and out of labs on levels 1, 3 and 5, and, my feet will probably take 40 minutes to ferry me back to hall instead of the usual 25mins.
And taking tube saves me from waiting for the bus at the shift changing hour too because if I miss the bus at 11pm, the next one usually comes around 11.20-11.30pm.
My lab partner and I are planning to have sunday off for recharging so that's something to look forward to. (coz college regulations requires 2 persons to be present at all times if working outside college hours)
So I just have to put up with 1 more day and I can sleep all I want on Sunday.
As for not being able to fall asleep at night, I've found the solution.
I read myself to sleep.
Shear exhausion will take over once my mind is off work.
The book cannot be too interesting of course, so I'm reading The Last Templar.
And tonight, I'm all fed up with working.
I'm going to get myself my 1st proper dinner for the week - NOW.
Must be something with rice. I miss fragrant white rice.
So I'm signing off.
I can gain an extra hour of sleep tonight cos we're starting at 8-8.30 tomorrow.
At least it's something small but nice for my 3rd year anniversary.
It's no April fool's joke.
I did reinstate my student status again on April's Fool's Day 2003. Honestly!!
Well, should have paid more attention to my starting date then.
Heh.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Saturday, March 25, 2006
The need for pampering (a wish)
Every girl has a moment in time when she needs pampering and to be taken care of in every aspect of her life, and I mean every aspect.
This is my moment.
Either I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, or I'm just so exhausted that I felt the intense need for someone strong and capable to lean on.
I need someone to volunteer to take total care of my well being.
I need someone to say
"Come dear, take a break and let me handle this."
Even when I refuse, owing to my pride and inherited stubborn streak, or maybe just a habit of saying no, I wish for someone to be more stubborn than me and more insistent to come along make me do whatever’s best for me and never give in even when I put up a good fight.
And because I’ll be feeling too guilty take that break alone, I wish for that someone who is responsible for my guilty trip to keep me company and keep my mind off work.
Sigh. That basically sums up what I felt the moment I opened my eyes this morning. Sometimes, having sufficient sleep during a rough time is not good. The freshly rested brain will only alert me to the emotions and needs that I’ve neglected over the busy days. The ones that are usually swimming in my subconscious as more important issues jam up my limited neuron pathways.
Living away from home for so many years, the status quo of independence that I once enjoyed has become a rather tiring situation. The downside of being a grown up is that we can't run home to daddy or mummy to ask for help in something trivial. We can't撒娇 to just anybody or anytime we like, and expect to be taken care of without question. And our parents no longer preach the ‘absolute family laws’ which we have to obey or be punished, but laws that were made to ensure that we grow up to be good, healthy, all-rounded individuals. I guess here is when people start looking for partners, somebody who can fill the role as a friend/ lover/ companion/ parent/ child, all at once and vice versa.
The harsh reality of a LDR is that there is nobody there even when you need a shoulder to lean on, no one to give you a comfort hug or to do a special ‘dinner delivery’. No one to detect what you need by just taking one look at you, who can easily do something, just for you, because I care, because you deserve it, and you don’t even have to ask for it. After spending 12 hours at work with people that gets of your nerve, there is no one at the end of the day whom you can spend time with that you don’t have to pretend to be nice to, that will let you rant or sulk at all you want, then forgive you and still make the effort to lift your sprits. Someone who’ll make you smile and make everything worthwhile. The worst reality of LDR is that when you are busy, the appropriate timing for you to receive some of these special care will always inappropriate at the other end of the globe. The person who will make a difference either cannot reach you or cannot be reached and both suffers neglect.
Well, there are always weekends where calls can be made at comfortable timings for both but as luck would have it, I was swindled by the phonecard shop which I have been most loyal to for the past millennium. The two £20 phonecards that I diligently stocked up before my busy test period had actually expired and cannot be used. Bloody hell. I’m stuck in college between 8.30am-11pm everyday and I don’t even have the time to run out at the appropriate time to get that some of those bloody adhesive labels for my test specimens. How to get phonecard?!? Why is it so inconvenient to hear someone's comforting voice, even for a few minutes? If I’m too busy to make calls, why can’t they call me? And there are other matters of course but the most dispiriting thing that happened to me today is I can’t reach the persons I needed to seek comfort from.
This is my moment.
Either I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, or I'm just so exhausted that I felt the intense need for someone strong and capable to lean on.
I need someone to volunteer to take total care of my well being.
I need someone to say
"Come dear, take a break and let me handle this."
Even when I refuse, owing to my pride and inherited stubborn streak, or maybe just a habit of saying no, I wish for someone to be more stubborn than me and more insistent to come along make me do whatever’s best for me and never give in even when I put up a good fight.
And because I’ll be feeling too guilty take that break alone, I wish for that someone who is responsible for my guilty trip to keep me company and keep my mind off work.
Sigh. That basically sums up what I felt the moment I opened my eyes this morning. Sometimes, having sufficient sleep during a rough time is not good. The freshly rested brain will only alert me to the emotions and needs that I’ve neglected over the busy days. The ones that are usually swimming in my subconscious as more important issues jam up my limited neuron pathways.
Living away from home for so many years, the status quo of independence that I once enjoyed has become a rather tiring situation. The downside of being a grown up is that we can't run home to daddy or mummy to ask for help in something trivial. We can't撒娇 to just anybody or anytime we like, and expect to be taken care of without question. And our parents no longer preach the ‘absolute family laws’ which we have to obey or be punished, but laws that were made to ensure that we grow up to be good, healthy, all-rounded individuals. I guess here is when people start looking for partners, somebody who can fill the role as a friend/ lover/ companion/ parent/ child, all at once and vice versa.
The harsh reality of a LDR is that there is nobody there even when you need a shoulder to lean on, no one to give you a comfort hug or to do a special ‘dinner delivery’. No one to detect what you need by just taking one look at you, who can easily do something, just for you, because I care, because you deserve it, and you don’t even have to ask for it. After spending 12 hours at work with people that gets of your nerve, there is no one at the end of the day whom you can spend time with that you don’t have to pretend to be nice to, that will let you rant or sulk at all you want, then forgive you and still make the effort to lift your sprits. Someone who’ll make you smile and make everything worthwhile. The worst reality of LDR is that when you are busy, the appropriate timing for you to receive some of these special care will always inappropriate at the other end of the globe. The person who will make a difference either cannot reach you or cannot be reached and both suffers neglect.
Well, there are always weekends where calls can be made at comfortable timings for both but as luck would have it, I was swindled by the phonecard shop which I have been most loyal to for the past millennium. The two £20 phonecards that I diligently stocked up before my busy test period had actually expired and cannot be used. Bloody hell. I’m stuck in college between 8.30am-11pm everyday and I don’t even have the time to run out at the appropriate time to get that some of those bloody adhesive labels for my test specimens. How to get phonecard?!? Why is it so inconvenient to hear someone's comforting voice, even for a few minutes? If I’m too busy to make calls, why can’t they call me? And there are other matters of course but the most dispiriting thing that happened to me today is I can’t reach the persons I needed to seek comfort from.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Designer Coffee
You know how obsessed I am about coffee...
Or rather, how obsessed with how not to have too much coffee....
Anyway, here's a new meaning to designer coffee
http://mplay.donga.com/dkbnews/2005/11/latteart.wmv
MUST SEE!!
It's a visual art, so enjoy!! :)
Or rather, how obsessed with how not to have too much coffee....
Anyway, here's a new meaning to designer coffee
http://mplay.donga.com/dkbnews/2005/11/latteart.wmv
MUST SEE!!
It's a visual art, so enjoy!! :)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Rosy Thoughts
Shows how busy I have been. Dear countingpigs have been home for a week and I just saw the packets of Twinnings Rose she left me!! Thanks gal, really loved the rose tea. Kept me going strong till this morning. The tea is light and soothing, body tastes like Earl's grey but instead of the lemony fragrance, it has a tint of rose in it. And as I sipped the tea, a familiar and homely feeling came over me but I couldn't quite pin down where that deja vu feeling was coming from. So my mind wondered over my associations with roses over the past few years and here are some memories that have stayed with me.
- Receiving my first rose patterned jewellry box from my uncle.
- 1st champaine bouquet for my 15th birthday
- Ceramic Ballerina figurine with tiny roses on tutu. It was given to me as a thank you gift from a school friend whom I've unknowingly helped to run away from home for 1 night. I naively thought that it was a simple stayover but my mom sensed otherwise. Her parents were going through a divorce and she didn't want to go home. She was coping well when I last saw her in school but sadly we never kept in touch.
- single red rose from WF. Actually I was more attracted to the natural country style wrapping with strings and all and i even dried it but didn't bring back in the end. Maybe I didn't want to.
- Barbara Rose KJH. Intellectual class joker. Famous in S7. Came up with funny names for our bio teacher on several occasions and didn't stop even when she started calling him the names he had suggested. There is supposed to be another prefix that was added during our 2nd year plant reproduction lecture but I can't remember what it was. Anyway Barbara Rose stuck cos that's the name our teacher used to call him.
- NYP Biotech competition. Used rose extract to facilitate visual identification of soured LHT milk. Won 2nd prize, lost to an egg membrane filter system. Luckly we didn't pursue the idea of breaking down hair proteins. Most enjoyable part was actually joining the competition with my secondary school girlfriends.
- Favourite rose window in Notre Dame. Went back to see it twice.
- colour coded roses from MX, 45 and counting :)
Anyway, memories aside, I finally figured out where the wave of familiarity came from.
The rose flavour tastes like the pink bandung drink I used to have at home! Basically it's just concentrated rose syrup mixed with suger, water and carnation milk (click on link for more complicated recipe) and it tastes great when served chilled. So I was having tea with bandong. I quite fancy hybrid drinks hah? Let's see, coke-sprite-lemon, tea-coffee, soya-chocolate-coffee, honey-camomile-lemon-chestnut, milo-hollicks, hollicks-white chocolate mocha. I wonder if I can simply add rose syrup to my tea from now on to UP the flavour. Hmmm.... got to find the syrup first. And it wouldn't taste the same if I add it to earl's grey coz the citrus will ruin it. So got to find a proper light tea that tastes just like tea.
- Receiving my first rose patterned jewellry box from my uncle.
- 1st champaine bouquet for my 15th birthday
- Ceramic Ballerina figurine with tiny roses on tutu. It was given to me as a thank you gift from a school friend whom I've unknowingly helped to run away from home for 1 night. I naively thought that it was a simple stayover but my mom sensed otherwise. Her parents were going through a divorce and she didn't want to go home. She was coping well when I last saw her in school but sadly we never kept in touch.
- single red rose from WF. Actually I was more attracted to the natural country style wrapping with strings and all and i even dried it but didn't bring back in the end. Maybe I didn't want to.
- Barbara Rose KJH. Intellectual class joker. Famous in S7. Came up with funny names for our bio teacher on several occasions and didn't stop even when she started calling him the names he had suggested. There is supposed to be another prefix that was added during our 2nd year plant reproduction lecture but I can't remember what it was. Anyway Barbara Rose stuck cos that's the name our teacher used to call him.
- NYP Biotech competition. Used rose extract to facilitate visual identification of soured LHT milk. Won 2nd prize, lost to an egg membrane filter system. Luckly we didn't pursue the idea of breaking down hair proteins. Most enjoyable part was actually joining the competition with my secondary school girlfriends.
- Favourite rose window in Notre Dame. Went back to see it twice.
- colour coded roses from MX, 45 and counting :)
Anyway, memories aside, I finally figured out where the wave of familiarity came from.
The rose flavour tastes like the pink bandung drink I used to have at home! Basically it's just concentrated rose syrup mixed with suger, water and carnation milk (click on link for more complicated recipe) and it tastes great when served chilled. So I was having tea with bandong. I quite fancy hybrid drinks hah? Let's see, coke-sprite-lemon, tea-coffee, soya-chocolate-coffee, honey-camomile-lemon-chestnut, milo-hollicks, hollicks-white chocolate mocha. I wonder if I can simply add rose syrup to my tea from now on to UP the flavour. Hmmm.... got to find the syrup first. And it wouldn't taste the same if I add it to earl's grey coz the citrus will ruin it. So got to find a proper light tea that tastes just like tea.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Bugger's note
Look what I found on my office desk on Monday....
I've almost forgotten how easily this young friend/bodyguard/pseudo-brother used to make me and YS laugh (sometimes, no, mostly in exsperation) while he was still studying here. It was really sweet of him to drop me a surprise visit and left a note that left me in no doubt of the identity of my visitor. =) Got to meet him almost everyday and he is still pretty much the same I must say, just 200% cheekier and articulate 400% more colourfully than before.
Wanted to post this on Monday but blogger.com was having technical difficulties with uploading pictures and thus the delay. There will be more pictures to come, as countingpigs and I did quite a number of touristy things last weekend. But that will have to wait coz I've got some equations to solve and I'm obviously skiving right now. Boo hoo hoo. Till next time!
Monday, March 06, 2006
Oh Pandan!
My JC classmate is here!! =) And her mum actually packed me pandan cake... mmmumumum
I know I have just been back home but I 'forgot' to have my fill of the lovely light fluffy green cake, being distracted by the other new year goodies of course... LOL...
So I was so excited when I saw the loads of green stuff she has brought over and I had 3 slices already in the past 12 hours... oh dear... so sinful... hahaha...
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