Birthdays

It was a series of birthday celebrations over the last few weeks. First, it was Kin Fei's birthday. It was a post-dinner party at his house. The pouring rain earlier on the day did not dampen anyone's spirit to attend the party. Unfortunately, the birthday boy was not the only spotlight of the nigh. Another friend was more in the centre of attention =P

The crowd

The birthday boy

(p/s: hopefully you still remember cutting the cake)

Then, it was Amy's birthday. A celebration that lasted almost a week for her. Haha.

Pool...

Beer...

= pool and beer and pizza party

And there was Ernest's 21st as well. It was very touching when he dedicated two songs to the seniors. He played piano and sang. He was good. Awww... Thanks a lot. I felt nostalgic after. Can't imagine what is going to be like end of this year. I don't wanna graduate yet!!

Lab work

Finally, finally is over. I am finally done with my lab work for my honours. Yahoo!! It is worth a celebration. Haha. A two weeks lab work was extended to 5 months!! How can I not be excited that is it all over.

Nevertheless, only the lab part is done. Now working on analysing the results. And then, there will be the writing up part. That will be another nightmare, but that is to worry later. Hehe.

5 sets of results were obtained with slight modification from one to another set. 2 were useless. So, the other 3 sets were being analyzed and they gave the same conclusion which is good. Now we gotta decide which set of data to use as the results in my paper, which one will look better in my paper. It was seriously a waste of time repeating one set after another when the conclusions were all the same. I guess it will give better support to my results. So what was the conclusion from my research work? There is variation in beta-carotene content between Kensington Pride mangoes. Duh... Everyone could have guess that without needing a research on it. But I did a 5 months lab work to prove it. Sigh. Not sure what contribution or significant my research will be. Oh well...

At least is over now. I did learn some research techniques, some instrumentation procedure. Really learnt time management because I always try to squeeze in some time for lab between lectures, tutorials, group discussions and work. Trying to maximize all the possible time I had. Learnt to multi-task, accomplish a few goals at one time but also not to be too greedy (had a few lessons to teach me this). It also tested my patience and strengths. And finally it changed me to be a morning person. Hehe. Can't really sleep in much anymore. Just automatically wake up and more productive in the morning.

Placement

Today is the last day of my placement at a community pharmacy for this semester. I have done a series of placement since first year; community, hospital and rural. Yet, of all the placement, this time is the best. I really enjoyed myself every week at this 8 weeks block of placement except for one. I shall not further describe what happen in that one week except for my preceptor was not around. The staffs are all very nice and easy-going people. My preceptor is absolutely a fabulous guy. I just love the environment around the pharmacy settings. It has always been enjoyable and no tense moment. Laughter always fill the air. Jokes are being made. I was even being conned by the owner of the pharmacy into believing that he was a pre-reg. It went on for about 2 weeks before I knew the truth. It became a joke around the pharmacy. Singing, dancing can be seen from time to time. Besides all the fun part, I actually counselled more patients in this 8 week block than I had over the past 3 years. I have always been afraid to counsel patients and usually hide myself behind the dispensary. The fear however subside this year. I was much more confident in serving and counselling patients. Maybe is my fourth year now and the confidence level has slowly built up. Maybe is also the settings of the pharmacy and the pharmacy staff that helps me boost my confidence. I am glad I am of help during my placement. Although I served as a free labour, it didn't matter much. I learnt something after every placement and enjoyed myself. Therefore, as a token of appreciation, instead of writting a letter to my preceptor thanking him for his time and effort of teaching me, I bought a box of Krispy Kreme for him and the staff. At least everyone get to enjoy it rather than a letter which I reckon will end up in the bin. Everyone enjoyed it over their morning tea. What touched me the most was that I even got a present at the end of the day. One of the pharmacy assistant was really kind enough to put some things together for me. Although they are mainly free samples, it the thought that matters. I wasn't expecting anything at all as all that I have done was part of my duty. I doubt anyone else would get a box of gift for doing their placement. We even exchanged some hugs before I left. Thanks a lot for allowing my to do my placement there. I am sure to return next semester. See you guys soon.

Pictures courtesy of my housemate and his 'baby'

Continue...

And the busyness continues. It was until the extend of me leaving my laptop at my friend's place as we were having group discussion day and night. There was no point bring my laptop back home as I did not have the time to use it. Hehe. It was just one night though. Then lappie got back to where it belongs. There are four members in my assignment group and all 4 of us are working. So whenever we want to decide when to meet up, we gotta take into consideration each others working hours. As a result, we do not have much flexibility on the timing for discussion. Whenever everyone is free, no one is working or gotta go lab, we meet up straight away. Haha. It is always hilarious seeing us trying to squeeze out time for the group discussion. What makes it more interesting is that out of the 4 members in my group, 2 of teammates' birthday fall on this month. So there are birthday celebrations to organize and attend. Therefore in the midst of all the assignments, breaks in between is what everyone need most.

Busyness, Craziness, Madness

Gosh. It has been an incredible busy month. Assignments, group discussions, lab, presentation, logbook, case studies, work and the list goes on and on. Studying for exam is not even included in the list yet. And on top of that, a couple birthday celebrations going on this month.

I think I spend more time anywhere else except my house. The lastest time I woke up was 9am. My day sometimes starts as early as 6am. And I would be all dead by night.

I couldn't even chat much with my mum on Mother's Day. But she made my day when I could hear her all excited over the other side when I called. Furthermore, I only called my god mother a day after May 11 and wished her happy belated Mother's Day. Anyway, I would like to shout out "Happy Mother's Day" to my mums. I love both of you.

And things aren't going smoothly. The UPLC machine that I used for analysing my mangoes as part of my honours work is giving me problems. Not enough with the standards keep on crashing out, this machine always stopped running when I was not around. An overnight run could be dragged up to 2 days long. I really had to 'baby-sit' the machine to ensure that it was running properly. Blardy hell. Really testing my patience.

Then assignment was not being done correctly. So what else, gotta redo.

I am seriously trying to keep a positive mind despite all this incidences. Trying to prevent the work piles from driving me insane. This madness does not seem to ease anytime soon. Being fatigue and tired all day long, the only thing I look forward everyday is a cup of coffee. Hee.

Kuih Serimuka

Since it was another long weekend and I have not been baking for so long, it was the perfect timing. I decided to make kuih serimuka. It has been one of the favourite nyonya kuihs and I used to eat it a lot back home. This was my second time making it and it turned out much prettier :P. I got the recipe off another blog: Lily's Wai Sek Hong

Rice Layer: 300g glutinous rice, wash and soak in water for 4 hours, drain 180ml coconut milk 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp sugar

Egg Custard Layer: 3 large eggs 4 tbsp flour 4 tbsp rice flour 350ml coconut milk 150g castor sugar 1/2 tsp pandan paste 1/4 tsp salt

Green coloring

Drain rice and steam on 22cm tray for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff up the rice and pour in the coconut milk, sugar and salt. Mix well. Steam for another 20-25 minutes or till cooked. Using a spoon or spatula,press cooked glutinous rice firmly and use another tray to level pressed rice.

Sieve the 2 flours mixture and add them to lightly beaten eggs. Strain mixture. Add coconut milk, pandan paste, green color,salt and sugar. Cook on high in the microwave, 1 min at a time until mixture is slightly thicken.

Pour 1/2 of this egg custard over the steamed glutinous rice and steam for 10 - 15 minutes until cooked. Use a fork and scatch surface, then pour in the balance of the custard, steam further another 10 - 15 minutes until cooked. (steaming time varies depending on the heat of steamer) Cut kueh into serving slices when cooled.

At this stage, I choose recipes that are easy to make and do not require a lot of ingredient (or uncommon ingredient). Haha

Rambling about random thoughts

When one claims that he/she understand another person well, how sure are you that you actually understand them well? There may be some underlying issues that is going on with that person that you may not know off. And by claiming that you know the person well, how well is well? Sometimes when one claims that he/she can predict how a person react or feel to a certain situation, how sure are you that you are not actually pressuring them to be like that. Unintentionally, you may confined them to be like that and not allowing them to show the actual side. They will be forced to pretend that everything is alright which the actual fact is not. They have to keep everything to themselves and just afraid that one day they can not take it anymore and explode. They may also be offended by you making such a statement. Do not say that you understand a person well when maybe you only know them around 30%?? Sometimes you may hit the right button but that may not be the case all the time. So do not claim that you understand everything without giving them a chance to explain. Always give a person some space. Note: It is just a thought and not refering to any particular person or situation.

Buddha Fest

Buddha Festival was held at South Bank in conjunction with Wesak day celebration. It was another good opportunity to go out as it was another long weekend. Although I have been to the festival for the past two years and it was nothing superb, it was still a chance to meet up with some friends and catch up.

I met up with Pey Weon, Kev and Ernest (they were there earlier to watch movie without me, hmphh =P). We went to grab some food; sesame ball, tempura, carrot cake, popiah etc and found a spot at the stairs. We just shared out all the food that we bought, with some 'operation' going on and feeding around. Haha. Then we started chatting. It was just the warming up session. Went to grab more food, dessert this time and found a different spot on the stairs. That was when the conversation started to heat up. All emotions, thoughts and advices were being shared. What was being mention stayed in the air of South Bank. Haha.

We chatted so much until everything was closed. The whole area in front of us which was once packed with people were now empty. Lol. We didn't even had the chance to go and look around at the stalles and performances. But I guess there's nothing much that we missed out.

It was a great time. Never thought that I would share so much with these people. Thanks a lot guys. Small groups are always good.