Stepping into the ‘real world’

As most know, I’ve just finished my final year exams. Results were released last Friday, and I’m really happy with it. Was worried sick before that, coz I was getting news of other ppl’s results. And I thought I wouldn’t do as good as them seeing that I did not really study 24/7. I was half gaming, half studying during exam periods!! But thanx to Geoff, he actually barred me from playing games, was like 5-6hrs of studies, 2-3hrs of games, which was reasonably good.

Everyone was pretty happy with their results, LLJ even burst into tears, tears of happiness of course. We had a mini celebration on Friday, well actually, we’ve been celebrating since Wednesday, before the interview + release of results. We were just taking turns to cook for each other, and Friday was my day. Had everyone over my place, had some really nice dinner,  teriyaki chicken + sushi + onigiri + tamagoyaki.. And on Sunday, headed over to Geoff’s parents’ place for Sunday dinner, and got £20 + a very lovely card from Geoff’s parents ^^).

And that’s that for the celebration bit. As for now, I’m just in placement under Brewlab. Lots of works to do, everyone was like, ‘Wow, u’re gonna be a bz girl this summer’. Oh well, I don’t really mind tbh, rather than just staying at home, I rather spend some time w/ yeasts + learn some stuff off Keith. I’m in the progress of completing my CV as well.. I know.. I should have finished it like months ago, but I didn’t want to start it seeing that I didn’t have any proper results. Doubt any companies here would accept result which I obtained back in Malaysia. So what’s this placement about. It’s basically continuation from Marie’s project, the previous placement student. I’m pretty much enjoying it, altho it’s kinda quiet in the lab, w/o the bunch of pasar malam peeps =p.

After this placement, it’s real world time! Gotta step into the society n look for a new job! UH! Do i really want that? xD! Well  don’t think I have a choice eh, seeing that I wanna take my PhD.. so ye.. gotta work hard..

So that’s it really, nothing much happened lately, apart from academic point of view. I haven’t been anywhere YET, will prolly travel to Alton Towers some time next month. Mom is coming here on the 5th! Woohoo! and yup.. gtg now, work xD! toodles

Day off

YeY! A day break for me.. Been working lots for the past few weeks, mainly my fault for delaying my assignments. Right now I’m free from assignments till 2weeks later - molecular biology & industrial microbiology practical report. Industrial microbiology practical is rather fun, it’s like we’re going to design our own experiment to maximise alcohol production by Brettanomyces = yeast wine, very much like a final year project. I’m dealing with yeasts a lot lately, brewery and winery. Pretty interesting I’d say, although it can get dull at times doing the same stuff in the lab.

It’s nearing Chinese New Year, I was amazed to find out that there’s going to be a CNY celebration in the Stadium of Light ^^) Mom is making me feel at home by sending me CNY yummies ;D I hope my parcel reaches me today..& woot, my Japanese books.. やっぱり日本語の勉強が諦めたくないだ<seems like I’m reluctant to give up Japanese studies>. I’ve been watching jdramas during breaks lately ie during dinner time. Hotaru no Hikari[ホタルノヒカリ] was rather funny especially when  Amemiya-san roll on the floor with her whale （ヘ＿ヘ） フハハハ. Hanazakari no Kimitachi e [花ざかりの君たちへ was so-so, typical high school life sorta drama, Tatta Hitotsu no Koi [たったひとつの恋 was pretty nice ^^) well, I'm pretty much into romance-drama + Kamenashi Kazuya  performance in here has changed my views towards him. I didn't think he was that good of an actor back then, but hey I was wrong ;P Jarod recommended this My Boss, My Hero [マイボスマイヒロ it's lol-icious esp Nagase Tomoya's expressions ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ ウヘヘ. Hm. I just realised that, every drama starred by Johnny's seniors, there's always some Johnny's juniors in the cast.  Except, dramas starred by the smappies. I don't think there's any of Kimura Takuya's dramas with Johnny's Jrs in.  I'm currently watching Brother Beat [ブラザー☆ビート] I started this drama like months ago, but just managed to watch the first few episodes, so I’m just finishing it off now.

Yey, Saturday tomorrow, going to watch Cloverfield in Metro Centre.. Talking bout that, Pavilion-KL has been opened for months ow, 6-7floors shopping mall, can’t wait to shop there when I go back home

Life as a science student, possible future scientist?

Hey, I’m back! Haven’t posted in ages, *points at title*. Been so busy lately, projects/reports/assignment/reports/projects. I have classes from 9am mostly everyday, and usually get back home at 5-6pm. Like even when some days my lectures end at 12pm or 2pm, I still have to stay back in the lab till 5pm for my project.

So we’ve progressed into the 7th day since we started w/ our projects. And just recently, we found out that our methods were inappropriate O.o So we had to start from fresh using a new method. Ughhhh frustrating? well slightly. But it’s always good to have mistakes, like what Barry said, the more mistakes we do, do more we understand.

The horrible thing was that, every time after getting home, say 6pm, well when I was in Malaysia, I had my dearest mom to take care of me, I didn’t have to care bout food, it’s always there whenever I needed it. This time, all I can do was look at myself n push myself to cook. But lucky me, I don’t have to hover the house and stuff. Geoff does those ;). It’s good to have a bf who is tidy ahhaha, every time I mess things up he’s here to clean up. Only at times where he gets really fussy n whiny bout me putting my bag on the sofa.

We’ve moved things around a little in the living room. Bought 2 desks a couple of days ago, took us the entire saturday to build them >.<” + It’s like a month more to Christmas, but Geoff seems to be already in the Christmas mood, so am I. This is the first time I’m going to have a proper Christmas celebration. We have Christmas tree up and some Christmas lights, but I’m not going to post the pictures just yet. Geoff’s dad did mention to put it up like 9 days before xmas, but Geoff himself is being impatient =p. I need to learn to cook turkey, ugh, need to lookup for recipes ^^;;

Tomorrow we’re going to Durham for a study trip to some brewery. Durham, =P it’s like my 2nd hometown ^^

Lonely Meow-meow

There’s this stray cat in our neighbourhood.. well, Geoff and I called it Meow Meow. We came back from Metro Centre and saw Meow Meow sitting on a car.. So I was like ‘meow-meow’ and he responded by jumping off the car and went to the door to our apartment. Like he was asking us to open the door for him. And like usual, we did. Meow Meow seemed to know the place well, he dashed up to our floor, and sat on our neighbour’s door mat, like he was waiting to be let in.

 

We sorta lured him to our apartment, and let em looked around.. fed em some water, he didn’t seem to like our apartment that much. 

 

Mins later, neighbour came out of his house and Meow Meow went to his door  , so we asked him whether is this cat his, he said no and sorta kicked Meow Meow like shooing Meow Meow away.. =( I was like %$@#~ poor Meow Meow. He’s probably very lonely and missing his owner or something… Too bad I dont have the time and money to take care of him. I hope he’s not freezing out there…

That’s that bout lil Meow Meow. As for me, I’ve been pretty busy lately, assignments and practical report and journal readings not to mention my project just started this week. I have an assignment due this Tuesday..

 

Well it’s pretty complete-ish, left 2questions which I’m gonna do after this. Apart from that, I haven’t started revising, I think I will when I’m done w/ assignments and reports

Malaysian society gathering

The whole bunch of us including the odd Geoff attended a gathering organised by the Malaysian Society. It was just a rather simple dinner in Leisure Centre, pretty much like Chinese styled restaurant, few round tables-a stage.. Tbh, we were there for the food only. Well, we paid £4 for registration, we’re obviously not there for the performances, what else do u think we, poor students were there for =P. Both Sheryls, Sarav n I had our plates piled up =P.. The food was so so, obiviously not as good as back home, but still edible.. Performance was.. I don’t know lol.. the stage was kinda pathetic..  then they had some games, just like the usual gathering agenda. We left rather early.. like 10pm-ish.. Went to look for a pub to play pool. Jesus christ, pubs here r like Canteena =P Old-man pubs… we passed by The Point, we wanted to go out, but Geoff doesn’t like clubbing, so we ended up in Sunderland.. something.. Sunderland Bistro or something.. That pub *bleh* was pretty much like Coliseum back in KL. Too bad I didn’t manage to take any pictures, due to the fact that I do not have a camera =(

I’ve been scoping around for digital cameras lately. Check this out Fuji Finepix S5700, 10x optical zoom =O 7mp, for just RM700 + delivery! =P well slightly cheaper than Malaysia, I think this camera costs about RM1000. So certain things like mobile phones r cheap that’s if u sign contract which isn’t very beneficial to us 1-year student. Food, no way… shirt, winter wear yes.. strawberries? definitely. I bought 2 boxes of strawberries for £1 this morning

I went to the Chinese shop again after class.. well it’s actually called Aroma.. something lol, we called it the Chinese shop. Bought chinese soy sauce, sweet n sour sauce + black thick sauce.. for £3. Gonna fry rice sometime soon. I’m definitely improving in cooking. These are what I’ve made for the past few days.

2 sirloin steak for £5 in Tesco. Bought some seasoning to marinate the steak + potatoes. Walaa, a perfect meal.. ish.. Geoff said it was really good.. I like bloody medium rare steak, this was bloodless well-cooked steak =/

First attempt on making sushi. Turned out ugh, the rice was too soft again.. What is wrong w/ the rice cooker!! I guess this time, I’m just gonna put 1table spoon of water for 2cups of rice. HMFT! The egg however was good, =D I kinda like it, I’m gonna try to make more n put in the fridge for breakfast =>

Then yesterday, went over to Sheryls’ place to eat nasi lemak. That was how we celerated our Hari Raya. The rice turned out pretty ok, the curry was like Chinese styled watery curry ahaha, but nonetheless still a perfect meat. After that, Geoff n I went over to his parents’ place, coz his dad needed help to get his laptop connected to the router. So, it’s Mr.Wade’s birthday on the 22nd. =D Going out for dinner.. yey yey!!

Now I’m gonna prepare dinner, just boring hamburger + chips. Toodles

Got my project title today

Keith gave us 6titles, Sheryl One n I are doing the same project - Growth & survival of brewing yeasts and development of a bulk culture scheme. Sounds boring? maybe, but it sounds pretty exciting to me =p. Well, the project is fairly simple. Our objectives are to grow and cultivate few types of yeasts for brewing, making sure that we can grow big sum of them in like 3-4days and finding an optimum condition to cultivate them so that they could last for weeks-months. I like microbiology myself, so I’m pretty much looking forward to this project. If it’s successful.. I could prolly work w/ Keith after graduation =P. Just found out that Keith was one of the founder of  a brewery company in England > Darwin Brewery. Gotta work hard from this very minute! Yosh¬

Study + Play = Me

Just downloaded L’Arc~en~Ciel’s  latest single, My heart draws a dream.. was pretty good, but like what Geoff said, it’s the same old typical laruku-sorta song. O and I heard from my friend that they’re going to perform in Mexico..O.o GrR! When r they going to perform where I am! I waited for 3years when I was back in Malaysia, and now I’m all the way in the other side of the globe hoping to see them perform here, but no! =( o well, one day I’ll step foot into Japan I guess.

Ppl who knows me know that I’m pretty much into concerts, well of course not just hoolaa-beeloo’s concert.. I only attend quality concerts =p cough, ahem.. bands that I like, and lucky me, most of my favourite bands are English bands =D. yeye, I know I’m here to study.. not to enjoy.. >.<; but hey, all work and no play makes JU a dull girl! agree? Next week, there’s a tour by the University to Beamish.. where the hell is that? Beamish is North England’s open air museum, located in county Durham. It costs £8 to go for gold-card members, £12 to be a member. Well, I’m intending to go but I haven’t paid for my card.. reason? Coz my damn cash/debit card hasn’t arrived ie I-am-broke. I wonder what’s taking Barclays so long to send my card over.. geezz..

I haven’t been taking lunch in quite a while, prolly for like a couple of days. Imagine if Geoff wasn’t here.. O.o Juppie would have died in starvation.. >.<;; + I need to stop shopping for clothes xD. I’ ve been grabbing cheap autumn/winter wear lately.. like £3 for a top.. £20 for a coat or so.. The other day Geoff brought me to Next… Next is like the branded boutique here, unlike the one in KL. Well, u know me.. I never looked at price when shopping in KL.. had my dear..cough.. mom by my side.. =X and I bought a long sleeve shirt + jacket.. shirt cost £12 O.o and jacket was like £50 or so… That’s like RM400 or so.. meh still cheaper than winter clothings in KL. Then the following day Sheryl brought me to Peacocks, saw long sleeve shirts there for £6 ea! half of what I bought! damn… =/ It’s like, I complained so much bout £4 lunch meal but not £12 shirt..bleh >.<

No more shopping for me, unless I feel the need to.. since winter isn’t here yet, I do not know how cold it could get in January. Probably need to wrap myself up or hibernate at home.. So that’s that bout the fun bit.. Now the study bit.. I’ve been studying quite seriously despite just being my 3rd week in uni. Im gonna start gathering info for my project. We were given few titles for our final year project. I submitted the titles which interest me to Keith. Hope I get what I want.. Btw, Keith is my personal tutor/lecturer. Well, if I was still in KL I’d prolly address him as Dr. Keith. But apparently it’s weird to address ppl politely here, so Keith it is. Even when addressing Geoff’s parents.. I used to call them Mr/Mrs Wade… *no such thing as auntie/uncle here*.. they were like, na just call us by our names… hm.. feels weird.. but I shall go w/ the flow eh.

Woops, Geoff is almost home, gonna prepare dinner now. I’ve been having dinner at around 5-6pm lately =D healthy eh! Gonna make sushi tonight! Ganbatte to myself. Toodles~

Back from Sunday dinner

yum! I *heart* Sunday dinner at Geoff’s parents’ place. Beef-mashed potato-broccoli-carrot-beans-yorkshire pudding + gravy as main course, and dessert was profiteroles + milk + chocolate & trifle. *slurp*  I met Mark’s gf, she’s Irish, Kristy, she’s a lovely lady, was talking to me a lot and she loves Cantonese food =D. Dinner was as great as usual, Geoff’s mom was talking to me a lot as well, she was like “come over anytime u feel like to, and if u do need help don’t be shy to ask” ^^) Feels very warm, lots of hugging and kissing too, something which I’ve never done back in homecountry, Asians r shy I guess. As we were talking, his mom asked whether am I coping alright, then I went “yea very well, apart from when Geoff bullies me” Then she went, “ahh.. the Wades, slap him if he does that again” =D

Oh n Geoff’s parents are coming over to our place sometime soon, hm.. I need to learn to cook some Chinese food, coz she wanted to try them.. hm.. tuff task =X.. need help from mom XD.. Then there was a part where they were talking bout grandchildren, I was somehow lost. The conversation started when Geoff’s mom said she would like to have grandchildren soon.. then Geoff went, “What are you talking about, we’ve started trying already”. Geoff’s mom was like O.o… “u serious, u’re not kidding right?”. Then she looked at me, .. I was like blur.. I didn’t understand bit of it, and I went saying “maybe..”..  Then his mom’s eyes went even wider O.O… lol.. grandchildren… hm too soon =P …

Erm… we didn’t do much next.. We left the place kinda early, like right after dinner.. Coz Geoff had some work to do, and I needed to study.  Since I didn’t have Immunology back when I was in UCSI, I’m doing some self studying.. I couldn’t understand a thing Dr. Anne was teaching on Friday =( pretty frustrating to be honest. So I borrowed like 4books from the library, and hoping that I’d understand her lecture next week.

K time for bed now, have to go in early tomorrow, and electrician coming in the afternoon to fix non-working lights in house.

No classes on Thursdays!!

WeeE, classes on Thursdays are canceled. How cool is that?! I was complaining bout Thursday lectures from 9am - 5pm. Due to lack of students for Environmental Biotechnology, that module has been canceled and students who chose that module has no choice but to take Medical Microbiology. It didn’t quite affect me, since I chose Medical Microbiology & Industrial Biotechnology. I was supposed to have 4 modules this semester, but Industrial has been deferred to next semester x2 woohoo. So this sem, 3modules, 1 project/research, and my personal tutor is Dr. Keith. nice man I love talking to him.

We spent a couple of ours in the seminar room, and then I went to Bridges (small shopping mall) with Sheryl, Sarav & Melissa. Melissa is the only European in my class.. the others r.. Malaysians hahaha =P I had fish n chips again today for £3.80, pretty cheap I’d say. After lunch Sheryl brought me to the “Chinese Shop”.  Oh my god, I was so happy when I entered it… so many familiar soya sauce, instant noodles, frozen dumplings/spring rolls, yeo’s can drinks.. bihun… bla bla. I was basially jumping in joy. But stopped right after I saw the price tags… jesus christ! £1.0 for Yeo’s green tea.. O.O Melissa bought lots of stuff, fish sauce, oyster sauce, bihun bla bla bla. She’s French but she loves Asian food. So I was *cough* being a Miss know it all, teaching her how to make spring rolls. =P Hey I don’t get to do that in front of my mom =P. As for myself, I bought sushi vinegar & soya sauce = £3.80. Come on, rice cooker, come already!

O, and guess what, Geoff was desperate for Chinese food yesterday, so we ordered take-away from Ming Dynasty. He ordered egg+duck fried rice, n I ordered chicken fried rice + 2 cans of coke = £10. Fried rice was HORRIBLEEEEEE.. MOM COME OPEN A RESTAURANT HERE!! Jesus holy molly christ.. >.<;; Sorry I can’t help but to convert =P I’m a poor student here.. *sobs*

So last night, did a lot.. went to Dav’s place to play Halo 3 till 10.45pm ish. Halo 3 was confusing for me =X. As usual, Geoff’s score was sky high compared to others. Ian , hehe the funny one among them was the lowest. He’s like the pitiful one among Geoff’s friends, everyone was teasing him a lot. =P We then went to Tesco. Hooray for 24hours Tesco. Bought lots of grocerries, I’m as usual always checking out the ‘buy 1 Free 1′ sections or ‘buy 2 for £3′ kinda stuff.

OMG.. the weather today is crazy.. crazy waves.. I almost got blown away when I was walking home

Pre-departure preparation pt.3

yey! I got my student visa at last, got it on Monday waited from 4.00pm till 6.00pm. Man, seriously, British Embassy needs to change! They had those lousy security guards to call us up. The moment I reached there, I asked the guard, where was the passport collection gonna be. He mumbled.. thref flur or something like that. So I thot he asked me to wait.. So I stood there waited for 1-2m, then he said again, thirt flur .. only then I realised it was 3rd floor.. So at the 3rd floor, it was an auditorium, more like a waiting room. Waited for a couple of minutes and another security guard came over to grab all the receipts from ppl who were there to collect their passports. That dumbass security guard was so cheaty, some student came and spoke with him in their language.. that damn security guard then put that student’s receipt above of everyone else’s who reached there earlier than him.. >.> I just sat there waiting patiently, and walaa I was called up earlier than him. Grabbed my passport n zoomed off to Zen Japanese Restaurant for dinner.

Next day, went to get my medical report, not any fancy report, just a letter from doctor & chest x-ray. Then I went to buy coloured contact lenses, got a spare glasses, went to Mrs Ngan’s Pharmacy to grab some supplements and then to Midvalley to get some sterling & US$. US$ is for me to use in Dubai, but I doubt I’d be using any since I’m only there for 2hrs transit. And now it’s time to pack my luggage, boy boy boy.. so many clothes >.<