life's been all about labs, commercial workshops and not missing out formalling! did so many formals these 2 terms cos got so many friends to invite and it's really fun! well, after lamenting continuously on not being able to find close non-sg friends, i guess i finally found a close non-sg clique. =) I thought I would nv have one in cambridge cos it's just a year unlike in london when i had 3 years to familiarize and befriend the ang mors. and i got to know my close non-sg clique through labs actually and also not forgetting some people from corpus! oh gosh, come to think of it, I think i will miss cambridge after all. and i guess i'm already missing it. so i will cherish the remaining time we have now and yes though cliche, frens foreva indeed.



Thomas who's my flatmate! Thank you for all the curries that u've made for me. unlike dennis, i always see u around and enjoy the times cooking together! wow, time flies and soon we'll be back in our countries. do come to singapore and visit me alright!


Dennis who's my other flatmate! been nice talking to u everytime i bump into u in the kitchen or toilet (u shave n i brush my teeth) at times HAHA! cos i don't lock my door. though i rarely see u at home, it's still really nice to have u as my flatmate!


Blesyn from corpus! I will miss you Blesyn when i leave corpus! Thanks for introducing me to your friends and i really enjoy the times we go for formals together! we will definitely still keep in contact. kudos to our friendship!


Sammy from jesus! haha, thought we all could clique well when jess got him to jesus formal with me cos he's also a foodie like me! I hope to get to go to your restaurant one day! and yes, i enjoy conversing in canto with u! haha, that's what i like to do when i meet cantonese ppl.


That's Jess from my lab and from jesus! Thank you for the company for the past 2 terms! Really appreciate it and love all the dinner gatherings we have together. It would have been unimaginable without u around. i would just be doing and mining my own business if you are not around. We definitely have to keep in contact! I believe someday, somehow we would meet again.


Yup, thank you! Love you cambridge friends!

wow! i have not blogged for a long 5 months. felt compelled to blog today after being through an amazing 3 months. the past 3 months have felt like being a dreamland apart from my lab work. being in cambridge is really different from living in a city. i love going to formal dinners here as i always feel like i'm starring in the movie - harry potter and i never get tired of it. College life and bonding is so strong here that it's almost possible to have seen everybody and recognise everyone's face. and also it's the college events that allowed me to make many new and good friends. kudos to corpus christi college and i really love this college a lot. and yes, i feel really lucky having the current flatmates that i'm living with. really love talking to them and being around them. so i just had like 4 christmas dinners - corpus christmas dinner, lab 354 christmas dinner, sg chemists (+1hk) dinner and just finished a 21b cranmer christmas dinner. i really enjoyed them a lot, esp corpus's and 21b cranmer. For corpus, it's my first time watching a pantomime after a christmas dinner. it's my first time singing christmas carols after dinner. it's my first time having such an english christmas night. really love that a lot! couldn't imagine myself being here for 3 years and all these events are actually my first times. for my flat dinner, i just love being comfortable around them and dinner just feels cosy. and actually i've been taking so many pictures in cambridge when i thought that it would be a boring small town initially. it actually is not and really it has its own charm. been a fantastic 3 months and yes i'll be going to have a scandinavian trip this winter. going for 10 days to denmark, norway and then sweden and i'm meeting my swedish buddy for lunch at stockholm. am really looking forward to that. Indeed, it's a short yet eventful 3 months. can't wait to see what next year would be like!

wow! i guess i haven blogged for 2 months and it has really been a while. *wipe the dust away* I was super busy with work the last 2 months that i did not have much time for myself actually. After completing the last 1% of the course today, and at this hour of the dead quiet night, i actually had some time to reflect on this academic year.

It has been a terribly fast year, with no time to stop and ponder at all. first, we had to juggle our course lectures with labs, and then the 3 weeks hol to study 10 modules for the jan exams. after which, we had to juggle lectures with our research project whereby staying in labs till 9pm and going in during weekends is a commonplace. and i had a thorough 2 weeks break travelling to russia, yorkshire then cyprus. revision again before the after holiday exams. and then we had to do a lit review, followed by year 1 orals and then, the fyp poster presentation held today marked the end of this Chemistry BSc course. it was actually quite a sweet ending as i surprisingly managed to get the best poster prize for physical chem posters. it really came to me as a pleasant surprise and i did not expect myself to get it at all. i humbly thank the judges for believing in my work and also my mentor who has helped me greatly.

and then ks, kc and i had dinner with antonia n machi which was really fun. it was quite a farewell dinner for ks. i did not really feel sad becos i'll still be back in UK next year. so i can still get to see them. but as i looked at the fotos, i'm feeling quite nostalgic, esp when the night is so dead quiet and i'm listening to some slow and soothing songs. I miss these frens really, the cypriots as i think i may not have much of a chance to see them after this year and they are flying back tmr. i am really glad to have made these frens. though overseas studying has made me miss home, esp this year as this year is terribly busy and tiring and 1 can really feel homesick when u need to return home and cook, wash ur own dishes after a long tiring day. but now that i reflect and realised the frens i made, i may think that it's all worth it. thank you machi n antonia!

anyway, i'm going back sg on 15th july alone. and it's my first time flying such a long haul flight alone and i'm quite excited about it. and i always feel like i'm at home whenever i stepped onto the plane. can't wait to take sq!

Yup. I just came back from Russia; touched down yesterday actually. it was a really amazing trip filled with intriguing architecture, plush lodgings and awesome company. russia is unexpectedly much safer than many other countries, ok, maybe the cities like moscow and st petersburg at least. st petersburg seems to be really safe at night, even when we went out at 1130pm and ppl there are actually quite orderly although the rush hour metro can be quite atrocious. To my surprise indeed that these cities are much more safer than cities in developed countries like spain.

think i would not describe the many different places of interest that i've been to. facebook has done the job, so will just upload some well-captured pictures of both cities. but i must say i'm really proud to have been to st petersburg which is one of the pit stops for amazing race 17. somehow when i was there, i felt that i was 1 of the teams. taking an overnight train from moscow to st petersburg. then going to the main attractions which are also the checkpoints. then moving around in a cab-like minivan.

St Petersburg!

Moscow!

One of the main things that i took home from this trip is to get to know xy better. i really respect him after this trip cos he's 1 of the rare few whom i feel is very insightful yet modest. never condescending but always so patient to teach. and he's some1 who strongly believes in what he does and kinda influenced me to want to know more about my own religion - buddhism. i will always remember what he said about buddhism allowing him to understand and respect other religion without losing faith in one's own. somehow, i feel that not everyone is able to not feel that his/her religion is more superior than others. thus, i really look up to him in this case. perhaps buddhism has taught him quite a lot of stuff which allows him to believe in the things he does, making me want to know more as well. i believe i will put in effort to know more and yes, xy shall be my role model.

Haven blogged in a while cos I have been just too busy. like 9-8 everyday cos labs are really demanding and there's a lot of waiting time for my project. Well, over these few weeks I think i've been through some ups and downs. apparently, i think i have yet to find my interest. after 6 really busy weeks of fyp, i felt that i seem to have lost interest in research. have no idea what i really want and am a little frustrated about this right now. after talking to bq yesterday, i think i would like to read more books to gain more exposure. i should just try doing things without always having the notion that i must get something out of it. writing it down here to remind myself that i will have to do this. currently, i think my greatest interest is in going around looking for good food and taking good pictures and then now i really want learn how to write descriptive captions for these photos and not just it being "nice, delicious, yummy". made a small effort in my facebook photos. but i wonder if i should read more to know how to describe food better. hopefully, after reading some books, gaining exposure, i will know what to try out. fingers crossed.

Anyway today was dinner out at hendon central which is at zone 3/4. a little crazy to go so far but that's where u can get really good sushi! it was really delectable! and the pictures i took were pretty. can see how well each rice bit is soaked in vinegar. then we went down to golden green to get some bubble tea and asian green tea cake at this taiwanese shop which is good, esp love the yam bubble tea and unexpectedly, the pearls are really springy. wouldn't have expected such a quality in london. but apparently though goldens green is zone 3, it's actually a rich area where many jews live in. wow, din know of that. no wonder that place looks quite pretty. i think we can only get good food out of zone 1!

wow~ been writing every week! seems like i'm quite free. actually yes as i've not started writing my report. but i shall try to revise some modules every now and then so that i can go for a 2 week break in easter.

yeah, happy cny to everyone! there wasn't much mood on cny as usual but i still had a nice reunion dinner at sw's place on wed! despite a really hectic week, i still had fun on wed! ate till like 12am and then slept at 2am and woke up at 8 for the usual 9am lecture. was super tired but worth it. Steamboat was really nice and the other ppl really whipped up a good meal. boy, these ppl can cook better than me! there were carrot cake, herbal chicken, lor duck, lor egg and everything tasted so authentic. love to have steamboat on cny, it's just a great culture symbolizing reunion. talked quite a lot to huijin and ky. somehow i do enjoy these company, and not to forget kyodai. haha! then chu yi and er were spent in the labs but it was fine.

yes, and then today was dinner at gold mine with pat, terrence and sam. the plan was just dinner initally but when i saw black swan trailer on facebook i thot of watching it and we all went to high street to watch there after. was a really nice movie, very intense throughout and a little psychotic. a movie i would not want to watch twice as i think i may go crazy but yeah i think no1 is perfect in this world and it's not healthy to be too much of a perfectionist. yup, anyway dinner was really nice with sam. enjoyed his company and it was like a reunion dinner with sam. cant wait to visit him in yorkshire in easter! woots! yeah so 2 more outings this coming week. reunion dinner with dsta ppl on fri and then with chem ppl on sat n i think with machi the following week. for now, my easter plans are 1st 8 days in russia, then 3 in yorkshire then 4 in cyprus then study for exams!

Yeah yet passed another busy week filled with almost 7 hours of labs everyday. finding fyp quite hard now as my sup are both very busy and i have to plan most of my experiments myself. But luckily my sup has been agreeing to what i'm doing, my way of approaching the problem. need to be quite creative when it comes to research, set the parameters yourself and doing it in a trial and error way. but to me, it's really slow and i can only move inch by inch (or maybe less) as there are so many variables and sub variables i can vary. well, nvm... guess i just need to slowly do it, change the variables and set a tentative direction for now; have to be focussed as well cos i need to know what objective do i want to get out from each experiment, so that i do not do unnecessary measurements. I believe that's how research should be like. luckily, i'm more into the development part in future.

anyway, so this week ks, me laya and alice celebrated kc's bday on thurs by treating him to C&R - singaporean food. it's cheap and the servings are just huge! of cos incomparable to singapore standard but is good enuf i feel.

then fri was a cookout session at laya's place at parson's house. shane cooked his mediterranean fish, ks bak kut teh, alice and laya dumplings while i made lor ba. cheated a bit cos i used premix. it tasted weird initially as i added too much sugar but alice managed to save it by adding more soy sauce. and it actually tasted very good thereafter and shane found my dish the nicest. wee! sounds like i'm having loads of life now huh. yeah kinda as i need to relax after every week of never ending labs. yeah for this week, i'll look forward to the hotpot dinner at ant's place and then maybe dinner with sam n sam n terrence on sat.