Random thoughts

only one hour left in montefiore hall and we’re goin off to the coach station.. got nothin to do now.. should start to think about school work, but i just can’t be bothered haha.. got physics and chem test next week, and MI too.. so fun!!! haha.. better read my MI book in the plane…

will miss this place man.. with all the fun we had, haha.. but i miss HCIBS too lah.. can’t wait to go back.. but i dun want to go to school!!!

hm.. lots of things coming up next weekend.. ASEAN dance, should i go??? it means i will miss national day rehearsal in the hostel.. dun think i should miss it.. HOW??? then if we really having BBQ on that day.. that’s it lah… i can’t go to AsEAn Dance.. cannot have the BBQ on sunday also, coz got guitar farewell.. hm… really dunno what to do now.. i dun want to miss another rehearsal, i mean i wasn’t even there for racial harmony day and i want to miss another one??? dun think i should do that.. and the exco has been working so hard.. can’t wait to talk to them also.. really wants to know what’s happening..

THIS IS THE LAST NIGHT IN SOUTHAMPTON!!!

it’s 2am now.. haha.. we’ve just cooked some pasta (leftover food) and drank our last bottle of limade.. and we ate outside.. haha, it’s really cold.. and i was wearing bermudas.. so fun..

still got some stuff on the table, guess will pack everything by tomorrow morning.. and we’re eating instant noodles for lunch.. just to finish it so we dun have to bring anything back..

three weeks.. it’s really2 fast.. it’s really2 fun.. real FUN!!! really a great experience.. the culture here is quite different.. the ppl are really friendly, as in when you board the bus everyone says hi to the bus driver, and most of them said thanks when they got off the bus.. that’s really nice.. and Southampton is a nice place to study, becaue it’s a small city and it’s very peaceful.. aniwae havent got to see the football stadium here.. oh.. and didn’t get to go london.. well.. at least i’ve been here in UK.. feel very lucky..

and i had lots of chocolate and all those nice food.. guess i look a bit chubby now.. haha.. must go back and excersise… dun mind going back to singapore, but we hv to go school on monday n iguess i’ll be sleeping the whole day.. haha.. actually we can sleep in the plane the whole day tml.. but i still have so many movies to watch..

hm.. after talking to some ppl today, i realise that i dun really know what i want in life.. still searching.. i never thought so much about it.. yeah better start thinking now..

oh no.. the enrichment week is going to end SOON!!!! we’re leaving southampton this saturday.. three weeks is really2 fast.. but somehow i feel that we’ve been living here forever.. haha.. as in we know our way around and all that.. i think it’s because Joe and they all orientate us v well since the beginning.. so we adapt v fast.. haha.. so sad we’re leaving.. well let’s not think abt it now.. still have 5 more days to go.. must make the best out of it.. haha..

currently listening to In a Rush by Blackstreet.. nice song..

It came over me in a rush
When I realized that I love you so much
That sometimes I cry, but I cant tell you why
why I feel what I feel inside

How I try to express what’s been jugglin’ my mind
But still can’t find the words
But I know that something’s got a hold of me

Baby, some day I’ll find a way to say
just what you mean to me
But if that day never comes along
and you don’t hear this song
I guess you’ll never know that…

And when I say inside, I mean deep
You fill my soul with something I cannot explain
What’s over me

haha.. nice lyrics as well..

well today we went to buy seafood.. there’s this father and son who always come to the area behind burger king (Southampton city centre) every monday.. then all the ppl are already waiting there.. mostly asians haha.. then once the truck comes everyone just crowds around it.. waiting for the father and the son to take out all the crabs, squid, lobster and all that.. once the stuff are down, ppl will start to fight over it.. haha, not really fight but still ppl are v kiasu to get the seafood haha.. quite exciting to watch, especially when the truck just came.. then went back to the hostel with the guys also.. and they help us clean all the seafood. Nope wrong, actually they cleaned all of it and we just did a bit of it..  They showed us some demo on how to kill and clean them.. v pro ppl.. haha.. funny seeing all the guys cooking.. i mean they are PhD student and all that.. but they can cook really well haha.. going to have a dinner together on wednesday.. can stil smell the squid and sesame oil on my hand.. (hm no link.. haha)

yups, the highlight of the day is supossedly the Stonehenge.. (although i am not so sure what it is.. ) haha i mean.. until now no one really knows waht are those rocks doing in the middle of the field rite? haha..

It was 1 hr coach from Bath, this nice little city that has v. nice gothic buildings.. I was expecting the stones to look somehow grand or something, but when we got there.. it’s really just stone.

I mean yeah it’s true that it’s amazing to have those stones there, it’s said that the stones weigh 5 tons each, and they’re brought there in rafts from some other part of UK.. dunno how many thousand years ago.. wow.. i bought this poster, Stonehenge in a nutshell that tells you about the history.. but the actual thing isn’t that amazing lah.. because not all the stones are.. only like half left from the original thing i guess.. then you can’t even go inside (the centre) or even touch it.. you can only walk near it.. and that’s it.

hm.. but i still feel quite lucky that we’ve been there, i mean it’s one the worlds’ wonders isn’t it? guess not so many ppl have this opportunity..

muz go n sleep ard.. tml goin Bath.. supossed to be a nice place.. but still quite dissapointed can’t go London bcoz of the stoopid bomb.. huh.. v smart.. just bomb anywhere they feel like it.. haha.. well i guess one cannot be so selfish.. must think abt what others will feel as well. coz we all live in this world together.. and yeah.. just got to be good to one another.. haha.. (inspired by Pay It Forward.. quite a nice book.. the movie also not bad.. v inspiring.. )

hm.. almost 1 here.. but tml dun hv to go to uni.. hahaha.. they’re having graduation.. quite lots of things happen today.. hm not really lots, but some.. shall write later.. want to sleep ard.. and a v. funny thing happened.. hahahaha… but shan’t write it, in case some ppl read this.. then it’s not good.. haha.. not for me but for others..

niwae, just read this v.interesting thing in the office of ecology and evolutionary biology:

"It is the choices you make, not the chances you take, determine your destiny"

i find it quite cool.. n i guess it’s true.. everything depend on you!! so.. always try hard.. guess everyone can always do better then they think they could..

haha.. listening to Accidentally in Love.. what a nice song.. hahahaha…

we grew some e.coli today… they really STINK!!! oh, i can still smell it now… luckily we only had to deal with them for abt an hour… huh… today we also looked at some machines.. NMR, mass spechtometry (uh i hope i get it right..)

yesteday we also looked at the X-ray crystallography.. and the guy is trying to explain how we can use the image to get the structure of protein.. and he started explaining about how we have to get magnitude and the phase of the image.. and he explains it using the example of cat and a duck.. huh.. not v sure though, hope i get it right.. haha.. oh and there’s fire drill!! so we all went down.. and it’s raining.. wow, the first rain i experience in UK haha.. lucky we had the fire drill.. coz i almost fell asleep listening to the guy..

it’s kinda cool to look at all the research they’re doing, all the experiments they do and all those vv expensive machines.. i mean, it’s really cool that they can actually weigh the mass of myoglobin which is the protein expressed in the muscle… haha.. and they can find out the structure of a protein, which is v complex with all the alpha helix and all that, just by shooting X-ray.. but you’ve got to crystallise the protein first, and that’s the harder part i guess.. uh. how come I STILL SMELL THE E.COLI!!! uh…

yeah like i said what they’re doing are really nice.. but i dun think i would want to spend the rest of my life doing research (especially if the research has got to do with E.COLI).. i mean.. if you really have the passion then yeah.. go ahead.. but i think there’s more in life then just spending your day in the lab.. haha.. well not sure what i’ll do in the future..

hm.. just got the news that the EXCO is coordinating well for racial harmony day.. huh how i wished i could be at two places at the same time.. really2 miss our meeting.. and everyone there.. really want to be there for the rehearsal and all that.. at first i was kinda worry.. coz they IC doesn’t seem to be coordinating v well with the team.. but yeah.. i guess now everything is alright.. hahaha. well done everyone!! wish them all the best for the actual day.. WISH I COULD BE THERE… yups and national day celebration is coming also.. the proposal looks v good.. just glad that i have everyone ard.. 17 of us.. feel that every single person is v important to the team.. i guess everything will be different without anyone of them.. yeah..

feel quite hungry now.. hahaha.. maybe we’ll start preparing our food soon.. i wonder what we’re havin for dinner today i guess it’s either our frozen set meals or fish n chips.. haha..

went oxford today.. took train from southampton, it’s only abt 1 hr plus.. well it’s sooooo nice.. the city is quite small, in fact, today we walked around the city and just wander around, looking at the map without taking any bus… we really2 walked around the whole city.. the university is all around the city, they have many colleges there.. i never knew abt that.. i always thought that it’s just one university.. but actually there are many parts of the university..

the shopping are there is quite nice also.. there’s this street where there’s no car and lots of ppl just walk along the street and shop.. today there’s quite a lot of ppl coz it’s summer holiday.. and i bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Borders there.. hahaha… got it on the first day!! but actually they have lots of copy here.. you can get it even in the train station or in the supermarkte (asda) in southampton.. haha..

the architecture there is really cool.. all the buildings must’ve been there for at least hundred years.. and it’s just so amazing.. it’s really2 nice and it sort of inspires you.. haha.. we were saying that we’ll get a scholarship and be back here in oxford in two years time.. haha yea right.. as if i can get a scholarship to oxford hahaha.. but nothing is impossible rite? hm.. must study hard.. haha..

but the place is really2 beautiful.. the flowers there are just so nice.. and the churches, chapels and cathedrals are all so grand.. when you enter it really gives you a sense of peacefulness.. really want to experience a mass in the cathedral of Mary the Virgin one day.. that’ll be cool.. haha..

well v.tired now.. and tml will be another tiring day.. going brighton.. actually not v sure what they have there.. haha.. got pebble beach.. hope it’ll be nice..

oh and I’VE SPENT SO MUCH MONEY!!! everything here is quite ex.. but i still spend anyway haha..

it’s already 23:49 here.. but dun feel lyk sleeping… played card games just now.. v funny.. haha.. life here quite fun.. it’s just that i end quite late everyday, ard 5.. and i can’t really go out alone.. oh yeah, and the shopping centre closes ard 5 everyday.. so can only go out on weekends.. but tml we’re goin oxford.. so cool.. haha.. and tml is the release of the new harry potter book.. will get a copy here i guess.. it’s a bit cheaper, 10 pounds, so ard S$ 30..

hm.. today say the mouse embryo again, quite cool, coz we stained them with flouresence.. and the microscope was v col also, we can see the blue colour of the nucleus and the green colour of the protein in the tight junction.. haha.. even though the green wasn’t very apparent.. It’s just so cool what ppl do here.. the other day we did DNA sequencing.. we sequenced a plasmid.. but it didn’t really work also.. guess i wasn’t really careful with the 1 micro litre things.. haha.. but still can see some other results from other ppl’s work… Those ppl in the lab are really2 v dedicated to their work.. lyk the lady who work the mice, i think she’s been working with the embryo for ard 12 years.. wow.. research it’s actually a v long process and guess it could b v boring.. haha.. even though it’s quite cool if you get some nice result.. however i dun think i would want to spend the rest of my life going to lab and everyday.. dun think it really suits me..

well, i better go n sleep now, even though still dun feel lyk sleeping.. dunno why suddenly i just can’t get things out of my mind.. hm.. shall go to bed now.. hv to wake up at 6 tml coz we’re goin to take the 6.50 bus and the train is ard 8..

well, just hd dinner, we didn’t eat outside since there are so much food, and the table outside isn’t v big.. so we just drag 10 chairs ard the table in the pantry, not really a big table, but it can fit the 10 of us, 6+4 more guys who are studying in UoS.. yeps they’ve been really2 nice to us, fetch us from the bus station, brought us ard, and cooked for us.. haha.. yesterday was v funny, they just came for abt half an hour, prepare the chicken and everything, then cook for a while then they left.. haha.. guess everyone, and ms.chee is feeling quite bad since they’re v nice to us.. hm guess if we don’t have them ard we’ll be eating our instant noodle by now.. we won’t even know where Asda is.. btw asda is this big supermarket, where everything is cheap.. well not really cheap, ard the same in singapore, but yeah, guess it’s cheap for UK standard…

oh, aniwae we had chicken rice, carrot n potato soup, n stir fired veggie for dinner.. v nice, the guys here can cook everything haha.. they said some ppl even make dim sum, chili crab, laksa, and stuff lyk that.. haha.. funny, it’s quite funny looking at those ppl, i mean Ph.D students cooking laksa sounds funny rite..

just settled the money matter with everyone.. so confusing, owe Shawn 16.70 pounds for phone card and food… paid 39.70  pounds for train ticket to brighton and oxford this weekend.. hm.. everything just seem to b so ex.. but actually we’ve saved quite a lot, since we always share food for breakfast and dinner.. lunch we always have in UoS, so it tends to be more ex.. but it all depends on what you eat also.. yesterday i had chocolate cake and apple. so i spent only ard 1 pound, but today i had vegetable pasta with chips and garlic bread (haha, it’s really a lot..) so it costs me 2.85.. but the food was really nice though, haha. hm how come i keep on talking abt food here?

well, just talked to e ppl just now.. haha, they’re really2 nice ppl n v fun too.. at first i thought it’s not going to b that fun, since i didn’t really now everyone and all that.. but it turns out that they’re really nice ppl to be with, haha..