stolen BAG

great loss!

SNIFF --> was enjoying a beer and pizza with some friends in a restaurant. Some one, just took my bag away without me realising it. i left it besides me, on the floor.

LESSON LEARNT.

i lost my phone, my wallet, my keys, my NEW digital camera, my pencil case, my memory stick, my money.. and most importantly, my handwritten french notebook.

SNIFFFFFFFFFFFF

but i got over the pain, and picking up pieces and moving on. Iman's mum was very nice, she gave me a pretty black wallet which she has used before, iman supplied me a new set of pens and pencil case. *SO SWEET OF THEM. Tomor, i need to go apply for my ID cards, my buspass etc. OH WELL. I definitely will be even more protective of my belongings. (i do pride myself for being very careful.. *GRUMBLE)

zzzzzz

1 yr 4 mths --> not too long, not too short

KISSES

X is where you can get away by looking cute when you fart stinks.

X is when you stare in one's eyes for 5 min, it still seems normal

X is when its more than ok to sound incoherent at times.

X is when you can whine all you want, you know that one still listens.

X is when one waits patiently for you to form sentences in french, and always correct you gently, if mistakes happen.

X is when one has a exam in 2 hrs time, and is still willing to make time out to hear your woes, to make you smile again.

X is when one will cook dinner for you, before you get home - cause you complained you are hungry.

ohoh! X is when you can call at ANYtime of the day, and know its fine. (even if it steals sleep away)

.................meow................

SHITTY DAY

My bread of the week: butter zopfe (i made it, a swiss speciality bread) Abit on the dry side, but its my first attempt. tastes GOOOOD. BIEN!


First, i crawled out of bed feeling sore on my back at 9.30am>> There is no classes, but its my habit to wake up by 930 in the weekdays.

Next, i debated whether to study spine (disc nuclear displacement developments) or to read up on protein detection via FRET or BRET. (go find out yourselves on www.wikipedia.org)
In the end, i ended up washing up the leftover dishes in my sink, and making a strawberry jam for myself. *ophs

TADA! my homemade strawberry jam! (think i didnt cook it long enough. still abit watery..)

Next, i decided to go lib to read up on my spinal stuff, with my labtop. at 1130, i went out of my apartment, and realised i LOCKED myself out. *GRRR. SO, i had to hunt my landlord down to open the door for me.

Studying went well for first hr. the second hr, i decided to be 'smart', and set a password for my comp. 1 hr later, i realised that i have FORGOTTEN the password. i spent 2 hrs typing different combinations, and gettin rejected from my OWN LABTOP, getting stressed out!. I was ready to DIE when an inspiration struck. WHEW. <<>

next, i met up with a friend to start on a review paper project (the spinal paper); it went well. UNFORTUNATELY, i was in a rush and left my phone in the library, when we left. I didnt realise until 1 hr later. I was panicing and calling my phone in VAIN. *Sniff. It was actually time for french, but i really COULDNT settle without my phone. So i delayed my french class, n went phone hunting. LUCKILY, it was still there, inconspicous on the table in the library. *WHEW.

GRUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

preview of holloween

pink actually does suit me
haaaaa

SHE LOOK SO GOTHIC..

i bought a costume with caroline.. NOT TELLING YOU WHAT WE HAVE. BLEH. here is the preview of hairdoes.... hee

update later.. *I LOOK SOOO CUTE!!!!!!! in the costume.. and the hair. maybe i should highlight them ;D

i am staying at home today, a SATURDAY NIGHT. and!!! i am going to STUDYYYYYY*****

chirp

kt

autumn is arriving

NOW

BEFORE
zzzzz..

Look: autumn is coming.. the leaves are changing color... THere is a maple tree that i walk pass everyday. It is changing its color slowly, turning from a beautiful velvety green to a warm red shade. i was always meaning to take a picture of it weekily for self comparision, but i never gotten down to it. *thats life

anyway, today is friday, i am tired. just the whole week i guess. I have finished one of the term papers, on the uremic patients stuff. The next paper is on nucleus replacement therapy. (Something about the spine).. At least i am learning hell lots.

This is my lunch today. A nice pizza, with hotdogs, oats, veges.+ prawns. Forgot to take a picture of it before devouring it away... ** it shows that pizza can be healthy, IF YOU ADD LESS CHEESE.

]

Tomorrow i will be going with caroline for halloween party shopping.. my first costume... yeh.. Noon, lab (last one for this yr i think), evening, grocery topup and perhaps erm.. study.. heeeeee

boston vs montreal

THE STADIUM WAS HUUUGGGGEEEE.

pretty me... and unflattering view of iman (in my opinion)

Caroline and co >> somehow, the guy screwed up in painting the colors of the flag... he drew a french one instead of the local Quebec one.. *HAAAA
Our cheerleader
Bruit!!!! --- NOISE Vague!!! --- WAVE!!! Olê!! ..>????

GO HABS GO >>> GO habitants go. habitants is kinda the french word for saying go locals go. enlightening.

Today is the NHL league. spent 25 bucks to get a 4th level seat. hrmp. heard that the first level seats go up to 200 bucks. *_* This game was really cool. The atmosphere was INTENSE. Everyone was just jumping up and down, screaming their heads off. We even had supplied cheerleaders to motivate us to make more noise. hee. Occasionally, someone wins a free drink for cheering the loudest.

I would spend sometime expaining the rules of hockey, if i had the energy. Am too tired. Anyhow, worth the experience, not worth the time and money to watch again. (maybe i will, who knows. its really fun. keeps me at the edge of my seat) EVERYONE was dying when boston led for the first 2 segments of the game. Fortunately, the tide turned and it was 4:3 in favor of montreal. *WHEW.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

pictures of last week

the beer keg is empty and Cyril is thirsty...

Singh's first performance...

my accomplishment... (healthy, no sugar muffins -used honey, oat, banana, milk and whole wheat flour)

the banana's made it look warty.. haaaaa *tastes good thou

its good to be a weather forcaster

new weather projection

COMPARED WITH the projection just 2 days ago, it seems like the progession gets colder AND WETTER.. WHAT A CHANGE. How unpredictable weather can be.. SO how come there is a job called weather forcasting???

You wouldnt believe how busy i am, SUDDENLY. lets see, i have 2 assignments due next week, 3 term papers & 1 presentation due at end of november, together with exams in december. IN ADDITION, my formal lab experiments are just starting. I have to do paperwork for the approval of using animal trials (SORRY ANGIE, required for benefit of greater good *HEE), in addition attend to my baby bacterias weekly, process them to make capsules.. (god knows how frequent that will be), make solutions.. *SNIFFFFF. (MAYBE i will lose weight due to stress????!!!!)

I have been lacking of exercise. I am so sure i wil be SOOO FAT soon. *SNIFF. I think i need to add exercise into my routines.

sniff.. working on one of the papers..

Kittie *looking pitiful...

running for classes

Just had lunch. Am writing a review paper on treatments for uremic patients. Still in progress. Thanks to kind souls like coni, meiting and wenlong, they have facilitated the organisation of my thoughts by clarifying some doubts. *KISSSS.

On a grumbling point, there goes the days of summer. here is the average temperatures now...

Montreal weather

The day is always fine, but at night it does get abit annoying, with the strong winds they have, usually below 10 C low. With the winds, my legs freeze, even with jeans. Will be starting to wear stockings on daily basis if this continues.. (maybe the wind will slim my legs down further...? higher metabolism on legs?!)

A big thanks to my mother, cause be bought this pretty, white thick jacket from CHINA for me. It is my life saver these days.... Will post a picture of that soon.

k, classes at 1430..

MOI

my first thanksgiving turkey

The queen of the night (vege tofu turkey!)

The king of the night

It was so nice to be invited over for a thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was like.. HUGE! the real dimensions is approximately 80 cm X 50 cm X 50 cm. It had lots of stuffing (tasted weird.. if u ask me).

Anyway, the host is the tall, handsome black guy - a yr 2 biomed guy. (the darkest in the picture) All the people you see are year twos. (meaning they are either graduating soon, or they are phDs). All of us contributed by bringing a dish, and i made mash potatoes... (i learnt! it is OSOOOO FATTENING!!!! GOD)

Dont be fooled by the proportional guy:girl ratio. The girls have been artificially boosted by alot. only 4 of the girsl in the picture are genuine biomed engineers. *winks* I am really glad that i went, cause i got to know the people in my department alittle better. (YES, i am emphasizing the fact that we are so little)

As a graduate student, I find it much harder to create ample oppotunites to socialise, even within your own faculty, because everyone is so busy with their research, we are in different labs, different supervisors, different courses etc. I also realise that time flies as a graduate student. I think its just because i am soo busy juggling research and courses. There is sooo much i want to learn.

US

A wonderful cheese platter decorated by one of the guys.. it looked soo professional!!!! *we engineers arent that dull huh.*i could hardly bear to eat it...

sicky friday

MEOW..
am alone today, on a cold, rainy, friday evening -- sniffing mucus at home. *WHIINE. only my darling gerbie is with me... *kiss. I was suppose to go clubbing today. there is a nice club called altitude737, apparently the best view in montreal.. *squirm
i am down with sore throat, phlegm, horrible coughing fits.. and of course a dripping nose.

darling gerbie

Here is a bag of rice i bought recently. I think i caught on the indian taste right.. the long rice taste good.. especially with abit of olive oil and salt... *from iman...

I bought this breadbook recently. it has EVERY kind of bread i want to make. it devided the breads over the world into different regions, and they gave specific reciepes for it. UNFORTUNATELY, it didnt give any that of chinese ones.. this weekend, i need to make some bread..

I need to rest. hope i recover tomorrow. i wana enjoy a nice saturday and sunday. I have to go lab again tomorrow to discuss the animal protocol for my project thou. *sorry guys, some rats are about to be test subjects...

In addition, this blueberry jam that i made a month ago (when blueberries were everywhere) is finishing.. whine.. seems like the berry season is over too.... *HOW!? i dont want preserved ones...

random thoughts from a already shutting-down-mind..

SICK SICK SICK

*SNUFFLES>.... medicine time....

btw, for those who have violently protested on these animal stuff.. i felt bad too.. but i needed to pass the test. Else, i cant do my experiments.

In addition, come one, most of the medicine you have taken in your life required the minimal sacrfice of at like 60 animals before they can be even passed on to clinical trials...

*COUGH COUGH
*i need rest... ZZZZZ

ATTN: NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED

HELLOW MATES!

had a rat handling workshop yesterday. SEXING THE RAT:

Female and male, it is the difference between the anus and the vagina/penis length

First i learned how to catch a rat, YES by the BASE tail

Next technique: feed rats with my new cocktails.. the nicer term --> gavage.. (forcefeed?)

the CORRECT needle size: from the mouth to the end of ribcage..

Cardiac puncture prior to killing the rat (for post mortem purposes) By the way, cardiac puncture is just a fancy term of saying poking a hole in the heart to drain its blood....

Killing the rat: There are many ways to put it too sleep. It must be done as HUMANE as possible.

1: carbon dioxide poisioning

2: 3X anaesthetic dose

3: General anaesthesia + preceding physical euthanasia (cervical dislocation, decapitation,
exsanguination) --> I had to do a cervical dislocation = breaking its neck.. *

4:Gas anaesthesia overdose

NON acceptable ways of putting a rat down:
• Decompression
• Asphyxiation
• Air embolism
• Freezing (rapid freezing permitted under anaesthesia and with protocol approval)
• Carbon monoxide
• Methoxyflurane
• Ether
• Nitrogen flushing
• Nitrous oxide
• Chloroform
• Chloral hydrate
• Poisons (strychnine, cyanide)
• Household products and solvents (acetone, alcohol)
• Drowning
• Burning
• Physical Methods

HAHAHAHAHA.. some of them are atocious. ANYONE still wants to do research?

kisses..another day...

Monday monday

I FEEL BORED. Mondays are my 'free' days. (if so you call it) I went to buy my groceries, a book - the blue pocket book of french VERBS and a day cream from yves rochers. I got to know of Yves rochers while i was in switzerland and i was really impressed by their products. ALL their ingredients are botanical based, hypoallergic blah blah. IN ADDITION, today i realised that they offer FACIALS!!! *I DESPARATELY NEED ONE. oh well oh well. soon soon. I decided to help them do some free advertisment --> www.yvesrocher.com <--- quite a pity that singapore does not have this brand.. yet?

Yesterday (sunday) i wasted my daylights cleaning up my room, recovering from my slight flu and baked chocolate-oat chips cookies. (YUM YUM). In addition, i went to my lab at 7pm and stayed till 11 pm for abit of hard-core studying. You know, i thought i would be the ONLY one in the building, considering the fact that it is a SUNDAY and NIGHT. NO..... there are still a few people milling around, even in my lab there was 1 guy. *faints. Guess i will be joining the crew of night-roamers in the Duff medical building... =)

I was sooo touched that my microcapsules finally turned out after the 5th round of encapsulating polymer beads in 200 & 300 micron sizes.. ARGH. I kept the PIONEER batch in a bottle, with CaCL2 (calcium chloride soln) in the fridge.. (MY beads of prespiration). PS: i will take some photos of them using the microscope we have in the lab (SOON).. then i can SHARE my 'achievements'...

Did i tell you i bought hockey tickets to watch boston vs montreal? it will be on the 18th Oct.. *looking forward to it...*

tralala.. i gota plan for my next experiement... probably starting tomro... i shall let monday be monday...

MOI

TRANSLATION TOOL

HIHI

this is especially for my MUM::: one the right hand side, there is a translation tool -- click on the chinese flag, and MY webpage will be translated to chinese.



FOR others who wish to read my webpage in spanish or german etc, click on your respective flags. DO NOT expect pefect translations, of course... but in general, it will work.


have fun...
caroline