that aside, i had a wonderful time with ling~

alas, i didn't bother to get pictures from her. nowadays, everything gets uploaded to facebook that noone ever bothers getting (and giving) the original copies anymore. which i really dislike, coz it's so troublesome to click on each and every picture on facebook to save them, and the quality is compromised. i do want to keep these pictures for memories you know.

ah i drifted again. a LSM outing turned out to be a sisters outing with ling instead. and we did some really fun stuff together, planning out next meetings and communication networks with the rest of the hall divas. can't wait for CNY with them! our yearly meetings... wonder how long we'll last? hope it'd be looooooooong

and talking abt CNY.. that arzhou.. want to stay in Oz and not come back.. cause us to have to change our CNY reunion+anniversary lunch to another day. grrrrr. better bring back some good stuff from oz to make up for it!! :P

stuck in a bottleneck

wonder why a large majority of people walking the same path as me have to face this kind of bottleneck at least once in their lives. why is it just so difficult to do it? really envy those lucky few who go through it every so smoothly. the tremendous encouragement from everyone around, only made it seem like i was blinded all along. Seeing things through tinted glasses, everything brighter and accentuated when actually there's nothing much to be excited about. Maybe it's good too, that now i get someone totally unrelated to bring me back to reality. Rather than living my entire life in my own delusions.

With a spin, it’s December already. Did I even do anything much? Was talking to Tong and I had even forgotten what my 2008 resolutions were. HOW TERRIBLE!!

Fortunately, I have a blog. Hahaha.

New Year Resolutions 2008

1. To grow spiritually
2. To serve well in the new ministries I am committing myself to. (CG and Sunday School)
3. To maintain the enthusiasm in the lab, and not to slack. Hope to clinch an opportunity to go for a conference overseas, based on my own works.
4. To improve my health.. coz it’s been going down. I don’t want to die yet! >.< (Thank God for a fellow friend who wants to be more sporty this year too! =P)
5. To spend quality time with friends and family, and not let anything happen due to my negligence.

Did I do it?

1. Unwilling to say, I don’t think I have grown much in this aspect this year. Haiz.
2. Managed to survive the first year as an understudy at SS. Next year I’m promoted to co-teach with rose! ^_^ Thanks to Stan and all who’ve given me the encouragement, let me sit in their classes and learnt from them… This is definitely not an easy ministry to commit to, for the responsibilities of teaching are tremendous. Nontheless, it’s by faith that He will provide. J Had the chance to teach Thai for a couple of months too. ^_^
3. Did go for a conference! And a month-long collaboration trip too! Hehehe. Think I did progress relatively well. I definitely did not slack too much this year!
4. Health’s been going up and down, but I’m still alive.
5. Met up with a whole lot of long-lost friends this year! All the way to friends whom I’ve not met for up to 15 years! I’m really happy abt that. ^_^

New Year Resolutions 2009

1. To read more and grow more spiritually
2. To serve well in SS as I co-teach with Rose, and to be a good CGL as I lead the group this year. Really hope that footprints would grow as one in the Lord this year.
3. To keep up the rate of spending time with family and friends, maybe with a better temper
4. To read up more in the field and keep up the work, without losing the steam. Hopefully a paper would come up soon! ^_^
5. To successfully overcome the inertia and pick up a couple of skills outside of labwork.

So much has happened this one year. Good things, bad things, happy things, unfortunate things, exciting things, unexpected things. It’s another year I’ve survived, another year where I’ve learnt a great deal about life and people. The years can only get better, life can only get more joyous, for God’s plan for me is a pleasing and perfect one! ^_^

Christmas dinner@sentosa! ^_^

My dinner tonight... *drools*

Christmas awaits us!

It's been a really crazy 3 weeks upon landing back in Singapore. but amidst all the experiments and presentations and church camp preparations, i managed to slowly ease into the christmassy mood!

First was christmas party with the lab.deco on the wall..

and some gifts i made for each one of them... :)Since part of the lab was moving down to our level, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome them! of course, that's Mr Santa in red, and the rest of his little elves in green... hehe
Doesn't this shot look like we all just broke into some crazy singapore sale!?!? hahahaha

the food! with choc fondue! (originally a choc fountain but the fountain wouldnt work! so sad...)

many shots of microarray gals in green! plus our gifts from the gift exchange!

my gift from wyee..

read the words... such a meaningful gift on christmas...

big family shot!! ^_^

Ronald and Yen Nee's big day~

For the first time in my life, someone was daring enough to invite me as emcee for their wedding. haha. and in mandarin too! especially when the wedding was one day after i touched down following a month-long trip to London. A place with minimal mandarin spoken. haha.

Well, it was a good opportunity to do my hair though. haha. i loved it. I can always trust Ken from Monsoon to do my hair nicely. Which is why i have been going there for the past decade! =)

That's me after i did my hair..


The side view..

The emcees!
Sisters with the stars of the night

cg group shot~

tomorrow is PB's big day!!! ^_^

And i received a "postmaster" rejected email today. For an email that i tried to send almost a month ago. So i've been waiting for the reply in vain! What a wasted month.

So there were some very bad news. Oh well, at least that's what it seems to me now. But somewhere within me, something tells me i'd get something better. But I need to wait. and the wait will not be short, i predict. I just have to trust the people involved, and trust that God has the best thing in wait for me. In the meanwhile, i have to learn to live with what i have. =)

weekend with yingying and eujin

took a train to loughborough to find yingying, and we had a 2-day roadtrip around the area! went up to the peak district at derbyshire, saw the chatsworth house (home to some duke, with a garden half the size of singapore, went to some cavern where the helmet saved my life multiple times, celebrated Guy Fawke's day at loughborough with the biggest bonfire i've ever seen, with fireworks that could match those at disneyland, and then down to stratsworth where shakespeare grew up, and cadbury world, the place which smells heavenly! =)

it was a really fantastic weekend, being able to speak with singaporeans once again. both yingying and eujin had really great cameras that captures very nice pictures of the time together, especially eujin's camera, that made the pictures look so much more colorful than they were during the gloomy afternoons!

besides traveling so much, i also met some of their friends, who, coincidentally, were all phD students too! but they're not the boring science/engineering phD students i know in singapore. these are people who're doing things like product design, people management, green energy, media, even surgery robotic design! what a wide range! had a really great evening with these people. i wish there were more of these interesting peeps back home! will really miss the night we shared.. ^_^

at the chatsworth house. it was decorated with christmas lightings, which made it so beautiful!

at the garden, with an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G view

still in that garden! actually what i saw was mostly orange and red, but eujin's fantastic camera captured what the naked eye couldn't!

group shot, still in the garden! i really love the colors...

at the bonfire night! the bonfire was so hot, but we were still cold under the rain and winds

the girl in pink

i didn't realize that most clothes that i brought over are in pink. or even if they aren't, my jackets and coats are. so essentially, i'm in pink almost everyday. and i didn't realize it til friends told me they described me to their boss (whom i only met today) as the girl in pink! and today, coincidentally, was my first day NOT in pink. and i met the boss. hahaha.

spot me!

photos of london!

If you've forgotten how i look like in this 1 week of absence... haha

this is the street where i am going to be staying at for the next 3 more weeks

That's the street to work. autumn hues!

me with a street busker with ultra long arms. ^_^

Westfield shopping centre, during its opening. it's HUMONGOUS at 1.6 million square feet! i'm so gonna go there everyday after work. many brands that i have never seen before!

more other photos on facebook, but more on flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/31958478@N06/sets/ enjoy! ^_^

WESTFIELD, europe's largest inner-city mall

Today, 30th of october 2008, marks the opening of Europe's largest inner-city shopping mall!!

'With more than 265 shops from over 15 countries, and 16 brands that have never been seen in theUK before, you'll be spoilt for choice.'

and guess what? it's within WALKING distance from where i work!!!! lalalalala i am going over to check out DAY1 of this phenomenal shopping experience very soon!! totally excited!! show your enviousness please!! ^_^

look at the list of shops here. and that's just for fashion. can't imagine we were all so excited abt the opening of vivocity in singapore. >.<

West End!!

i bought tickets to Lion King and Les Miserables!! yayyy!! they're not as cheap as they can get, as i bought them really late! like only today, for les mis on saturday, and lion king next thurs. i didn't know they get sold out so fast! so i ended up having to get them for like £30, which is about 75sgd. it's not too bad a price actually, but les mis has tickets as low as £17 if i had booked earlier! Now i'm so tempted to book tickets for the rest of my trip here, but then again i want to check out tkts on saturday first, to make sure i'm really getting the best deals! up on the rest of my list are wicked, hairspray, grease, sound of music, dirty dancing, sangre flamenca. all of which i can get for about £10-30. i'll get them on monday. hope the deals are still available then! others that i want to watch but are out of my budget are mamma mia, cabaret and stomp. but i'm happy. 6 musicals and 2 dance shows are good enough for a 25 days trip! hahaha~ my card is so going to bust

(and that's still not including the $$ i'm going to need when i travel to cambridge, loughborough, oxford etc!! yikes)

24 on the 24th

oh and i forgot to mention, i'm now my favourite number 24! =) had to work that last day before i boarded the plane to London. had tonnes of work to clear and handover before i left, so it was crazy. even left a couple of hrs later than expected, OT-ing til 630pm on a friday night! then had to pack... so it was a nice night with the family. and yes, thanks to fsc for the wonderful personalized presents! love em. ^_^

it has to be post-bdae luck, coz i bumped into qling at the airpot! she was heading for perth, but she told me her friend was on the same flight as me. sure enough, i met her! and she shuttled me to an empty row for me to have to myself. woohoo! the last time i had a whole row od 3 seats to myself was on a 1hr domestic flight. this was 13 hr flight! amazingly comfortable. =) i've almost forgotten that SQ is more comfy because of more leg space, and yummier food n beverages. i had red wine with steak! (no haagen daz tho. humph.) the screen was further from my eyes (due to more space) thus i didn't get a headache from it. managed to catch 5 movies with good sleep in between! =) hope the flight back is as comfy. hehe

in LONDON!

it's cold, it's windy, it's rainy, but it's LOVELY. autumn leaves are beautiful. the family i am staying with is wonderful. There's no wireless internet there yet, but i finally got my dose of internet here in the lab, where i'm waiting for ym safety course to start. oh finally i can get in touch with people. =) abit of jet lagging (and thus waking in the morning at 5am the past 2 days), but i'm settling in real fine. serene's sis was really great bringing me around yesterday. i covered many places! london's roads are messy tho, just like singapore. so it'd take me some time before i can get around without getting lost. haha.

BIG PRIZES TO BE WON!!

discovered a really fun game, with high chances of winning big prizes!! go go play. it expires 25th oct so hurry! and do share your prize with me if you win, coz i recommended it! haha http://project.omy.sg/onegame/main.php

for at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold

Am so upset that my london trip would make me miss a picnic. i so very much love picnics, and i am going to miss it. am so so so sad!!!!! =( Well at least i am not too upset about not being able to make it to kusu island, after discovering that there really isn't too much to see there. but I STILL WANT MY PICNIC!! *wails* oh geez. i'll stop whining like a baby after this. London should be more fun than a picnic at kusu island anyway, right? =P

speaking of london, i am finally going! flight confirmed, lodging confirmed. i never expected the flight to be so cheap, less than $2k! i always had the impression that everything would be more expensive than going to the States, flight incuded. haha. ok suaku me, never been to London before can? Now it's my chance. And i'm flying SQ!! i wonder if qiaoling and the rest would be on that flight? Then maybe the 14 hr flight wouldn't be too boring, with friends who'd appear at a press of a button. hahahah.

I cannot help but remember what he said to me. Why must some people talk so dirty? I had such a hard time trying to understand what that joke targetted at me meant. Spent the next hour pondering over it, until i finally got it. and felt so offended. bah. you think it's cool? you think that chemistry would fly just because you speak that way? you're totally wrong man. so sorry. but that's the biggest turn off ever.

Sometimes it really is very difficult to read a person's mind via internet. there's so much less you can receive as compared to meeting the person physically. i don't know what is wrong, or if anything is wrong at all. maybe it's the overload of work recently. but i just pray that he'd be fine. he was a special one all along. to me and to others.

Wii Rockband rocks!

And FSC rockband rocks even more!! ^_^


Thanks FBmummy and daddy for buying the set, for having us around, for feeding us like pigs.... ^_^

Heroine in the making

can't believe it's over. finally. it had been on my mind for ages, but no time to prepare until 1 hour before the real thing. last minute couldn't find mouse, then my thumbdrive kena virus cannot use. whoaa.. never been so worried before. by then, there was a qhole big crowd and no speaker. then i was so stressed i plugged the wrong wire for the projector and nothing would show up. had to get the director himself to help me.. "sweetie, you got the wrong one!" >.< so embarrassing.

anyway, i was done speaking 15 minutes before my estimated time. as usual, i speak twice as fast as i rehearse, just because i am ultra nervous. everyone was very encouraging after tt, but i know i can do better. will train up my guts in this one year! *oomph*

during the discussion, he mentioned that "if this works, you'd be a heroine!" indeed, i really hope it'd work. not because i am desperate to be a heroine, but because i am genuinely doing this for a cause. an important cause for the cancer patients. let's all work together for the greater cause! (and for to be heroes and heroines. haha)

well he pissed me of early in the morning, and so i decided not to bring him up to the office. dumped him to find his own things to do in this unfamiliar area for the next 2 hours. i am not so soft hearted when it comes to manners. teach rude people a lesson.