Tuesday 30th August 2005

Soukana

Kazumasa Oda's "soukana"

Went for another of my shopping binges yesterday. Bought 2 series, 3 cds and a cake. The cake was chocolate peppermint flavoured. Yummy...I like the mint feel it leaves in the mouth, and the chocolate has the right amount of moisture and texture. Hehe, fell in love with it when CW gave us all a few slices during his b'day. Thnx again CW!

4 reasons i'm so happy today. 1)Happy coz the new series, Sweet Love (Korean) tht I bought yesterday was nice 2) The songs fm the soukana cd (see pic above) is v. nice. It's so nice, I'm bobbing my head to it as I work. The power of good music. 3) Haven't seen my boss these two days. 4) Did some work.

Currently reading:A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne - Usually, I can quite easily figure out whether a writer is a male or female. (beside looking at the book cover lah) Let's just say i was wrong in my guess this time round. She's a nice writer. I like. v. cool.

Just finished reading: comic - Ultimate Warrior (korean) (no 8); K?? Circus (Shirogane) (no 20) - think this series is almost finished

Thursday 22nd July 2005

Julian Beever

Wednesday 24th Aug 2005

holiday souvenirs

One of the joys of taking a trip is looking around for the gifts to bring back for family or friends. Hehe... and this works both ways. It's always fun to get a little momento or souvenirs fm friends or family members who went for a holiday or business trip overseas. A little token tht represented the few days of break they hv had, & hopefully spread the fun on.

Some of the cool stuff I got these few months. Clockwise from top left, earrings fm HongKong gifted by SF; keyring fm Harajuku temple gifted by LB; piggy coin purse fm Notting Hill flea-market gifted by LP; & Gucci mobile phone accessory fm China/Taiwan (can't remember) gifted by L.

Wednesday 17th August 2005

2 days 2 Hindi Moives

Whee... hadn't watched a Bollywood film for such a long period, I decided to treat myself to 1. I watched Sajid Nasiaswala's Mujhse Shaadi Karogi with actors Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan. Hehe, with 2 of my fav actors in one movie, it's no sweat persuading myself to get it. The light romantic comedy directed by David Dhawan is pretty funny, though the ending is abit abrupt.

Monday 15th August 2005

Phoeb & Me

Phoebe, my niece, is such a bundle of violent cum bubbly energy that we usually end up wrestling or laughing at each other like hyenas. Of course, bully that I am, I also enjoy our fights (whether verbal or physical) immensely coz what with her size (< than half of me) and age (10), I usually hv the upper hand. *evil cackle*

I flat out refuse to let her call me aunt or auntie, so, she had always been calling me or hollering "Ah Yi! Ah Yi!" when I'm within earshot.

I recently found out what that term meant to her when she drew one of her infamous potraits. Underneath something resembling a caricature of myself were written the letters...

A E

Friday 12th August 2005

Wat? Friday already?

Have been itching to blog the whole week, but kept putting it off for one thing or another.

Today, in another of our occasional 2-hour long lunch with our advisor, we chat on a myriad of topics, like, ???, will the extermination of the mosquito species effect the world in any way? haha...

We also chewed over the dangerously high level of haze (API of >500) in Malaysia brought on by the forest fire in Indonesia. And there was some suggestion of going for a short nature loving trip, maybe a hike through one of the rain-forests or something. *will need to check out the toilet situation 1st. *nod nod*

Anyways, everyone was remarking how time seemed to be zooming by faster as one gets older. Like, we are somehow racing to our death. How depressing. Hmm :( . That topic was brought up b'coz some of 'em recently attended a talk on How to Build A Time Machine. It's said dat travelling forward in time is theoretically more achievable than travelling backward. How apt.

Rattling off, i'm thinking, maybe the are actually 2 ways us non-physicians could approach time travel. All black hole theory, worm holes (big, small, medium), witch spells, broomsticks and cryogenic freezing aside, i'd say, One, is to do things right the 1st time & live the moment, so tht there is no need of any such machine. Or, Two, to actually simply, start over again. Why wallow in past regret when u can move forward? And why the constant longing for some past pleasure when u can go and get some new ones?

Thursday 4th August 2005

Full House

Brrr! What a cold day this is. After getting soaked in the rain today, I am now bare footed in the lab, confined in my seat until my socks & shoes dry up. Phuuh!... wat a smell... haha...

Just completed watching this series yesterday nite. Light & funny story, bout an actor and a writer who made a marriage agreement & lived together in a house called Full House. The actor (Rain) is always making the writer (Song Hae Gyo) clean and cook for him. He is also frequently calling her a variety of insulting names, like, Idiot, Chicken-Brain, Bird-species, Alien, Koo-koo, Rice Cooker,...She naturally got her revenge at the end. I'll recommend it to all weep-free drama buffs (yes ru, u.). K... unlike the previous drama, where we concentrated more on the male, in this drama, it's more about watching the girl. Boy, she is such fun. We can't just get enough of her smiles and antics. Way better than her previous drama (Autumn in my Heart?)

There were some reports saying that the drama birthed many new phrases, such as, 'A Jay Jay Fighting', and the nick-names mentioned above. Hmm... I guess bringing some phrases out from a nice movie/drama is our little way of remembering wat fun the show was.

Monday 1st August 2005

CROWDed

When the semester begin, not only are there classes to torment us, there is also the omnipotent "CROWD". Puuf puff, and there they are. Everywhere.

Gone are the days when we graduate students reign supreme as Kings and Queens of the passageways and corridors of the school, lording over our favourite spot in any canteen of our choices. Once the semester begin, we are now merely dispensable foot soldiers. The lowest in the hierachy. The unsophisticated wierdos who overstayed their usefulness in campus.The 1st (oh well, maybe second, if we include the freshmen) to be given the Evil Eye if we walked a tad slower or too fast. We are now consigned to lurking in unwanted corners (our rats and spider infested labs & cubicles) and finding paths where lesser beings walk. *sigh*

And I haven't even begun on the transportation. Forget getting a seat on a bus. About 5 busses passed me by this morning, all fully packed with the "CROWD" like sardines in an expired & rusty can, threatening to spill out through the folding doors.(Ya, boy, am i feeling poetic today!). Finally this brilliant freshy suggested we (4 of us) share a cab(Ouch... $$$). I'm thinking really hard along the lines of owning a car someday. The major problem in THAT equation is the license. Hmm...

Though, complains aside, not all things are gloomy and grey. There are some extra-curriculars to get our feet wet in & when I settled into my tutorial seat last week for my 1st lesson, after a 2 month hiatus, I was pleasantly surprised. I was prepared to start nodding off or doodling on the fresh crisp note papers in front of me, but ended up, actually listening and concentrating in class(like wow...). It feels kinda good learning something new, or, relearning something old, finding dat one is able to be on the same frequency with the ol' guy up front, enjoying the buzz in the synaps (or something). O.K., I was one of the first to head for the door when the prof. finally let us off, but it's nice to noe dat..

....YES! I still love studying. *jump with joy*

Currently reading: Conqueror's Moon by Julian May - It's still pretty draggy so far. A not so exciting fantasy book. (Aug 12 remark: After completing the book, I've decided to rewrite my 2 cents opinion of the book. The writer actually took the effort to make each character stand out, dedicating at least a line or two to remark on each character's attitude, or style, making each one special in his/her own way. Normal fantasies like to simply group the nasty underlings as dumb, or, loyal allies as ... well... just that, but, this guy gives each individual a possibility to be a hero. Or villain. And, unlike normal fantasy story, where u get swept away by all the grandeur of things, this book somehow makes everything much much more believable. Maybe i'll read the 2nd book. Hm..)

Just finished reading: No Going Back by Jayne Ann Kretz (or Jayne Castle) - A 2 in 1 book. 2 romance cum adventure stories, written by a writer using two pseudonym.