Dimsum at the House of Peking

Woke up at 6+ am to furnish parts of 3 CHEM 3210 lab reports. I realised that I left my CHEM 3310 Experiment 4 lab report in Adam's office, need to go get it back on Monday in order to finish up the small section on deducing the oxime stereochemistry. I had gone to approach him yesterday to clear some doubts. Seriously, I have never been so proactive in seeking answers to questions from lecturers before. But I reckon that it is better late than never to become more brave to speak to people of higher seniority.

The highlight of the day was the dim sum buffet at House of Peking with Rachel. It cost $20.30 per head and the tantalizing bite sized Hongkong cuisine left us all so full and satisfied. We had xiaolongbaos, coconut butter buns, har gaos, coconut pudding that came in small dices, fish congee, egg tarts,carrot cake and guo ties. Took a few photos at the restaurant too. It has been at least a couple of months since I last visited House of Peking. And I never knew that they offered such a wide variety of dim sum delicacies there. Meeting Rachel has become a weekly outing now. The more time we spend together, the better our friendship and understanding of each other progresses.

Went for grocery shopping at Woolsworth as usual, and I got more frozen food for breakfast,diced chicken,some bananas and a Nivea strawberry lip balm. My old lip balm broke off on the way home from Tasmania. In addition, my lip gloss is finishing soon.Bananas turn from yellow to brown within a few days, despite putting them in the fridge. Thus, it is imperative to finish them up within 3 days,ie. I purchased 3 bananas. I wanted to some dory fillets as well, but there was no stock.

The last stop was Newsagency to get a birthday card for Aili, whose 20th birthday is on 9th June. I hope to organize a successful birthday gathering for her, together with Rachel,Eva and Melissa. I experienced this sensation : Once you leave your teenage years, you grow older at an increased rate thereafter. Growing older means having to meet higher expectations that people have of you, in terms of maturity and capibilities. To be honest, I do not think I am that matured for my age. But I hope to be better, especially after having undergone an exchange program in a totally foreign country.

Walked home for the very first time from Jesmond Stockland Mall today. And I am proud to say that I can remember the route despite not walking there for at least a couple of months. For people who are closer to me, you all would know that my sense of direction is below the average standard. All along, I had been lazy, because I would rather spend $1.50 to hitch a 5 minute bus ride than to save money and take a 15 minute walk there and having to overcome all the uneven gradients. Passed by Durrah's new offcampus, Kindra Street. She lives really near to me, just turn left from the beginning of the Faulkner Crescent road sign and walk no less than 100 metres and I will have reached.

Cooked green bean soup for myself and Rachel before she headed off for a short nap. Started cooking dinner at around 7 pm, this time it was egg noodles with frozen vegetables,mushroom,garlic,onions and fish fillets. Every Saturday is the day of the week where my tastebuds get tantalized and stomach gets filled to the brim. Studied a few chapters of Geoff's CHEM 3210 lecture notes, with a nap in between. Lying on the bed to study is bad for the eyes,elbow,shoulder and neck muscles. But, my bed is just too inviting to resist. Now it is 2 am, and Rachel has yet to come back. I still remembered how she stayed up until 4 am last Sunday to finish her models.

On an ending note, bus 108 takes a really long route to Jesmond, because it has to circle within the houses in Birminghan Gardens and pass by Shortland. I got a fright when I sat on it for the first time, but thankfully, my fears were unfounded when I saw the familiar Stockland building from the bus's window.

Finally some progress

I have 2 friends whose birthdays fall on today. It's Kelly and Marcia's 23rd and 22nd big days respectively! Sent them my birthday wishes over the Internet and hope they will enjoy themselves thoroughly on this very special day. Woke up at 5+ am this morning to do my CHEM 3310 assignment. Finally, I have slotted it under Ian's door before I left school at 4+ pm.

Went for Heat Exchange Network consultation with Geoff in the morning. And I must say that it has been quite a fruitful session, although I still need some time to digest the facts he fed me with. He is very patient and his office is spacious and big. Not to mention, he has a vast collection of reference books on Chemical Engineering as well. Then, I proceed to Mamaduke for lunch, where I purchased a big pizza bread which cost $5. The steep prices are typical of the food that is being sold there. But since I am leaving in just 5 weeks time, why not splurge a little on the food here. It is a form of enjoyment and I know I wouldn't be coming back to Australia in the next one year.

Handed up 2 of my CHEM 3310 lab reports and my library assignment to Adam. The time that I invested in finding the particular paper for a complex tosylaziridine compound had finally paid off, for Adam said that I could just hand up the printed paper to him without writing down the spectroscopic data and synthesis by hand. How kind of him! Anyway, I did not do too well for my first lab report, only 8/15. Let's hope I will fare better in subsequent reports. CHEM 3310 lab reports constitute 40% of the final grade, and I need to pass this component in order to pass the module overall.

Finally, I feel that there is significant progress in the clearing on my academic workload. Now, it is just a CHEM 3310 lab report and 2 CHEM 3210 lab reports. Met Robert in the library today, and he very patiently showed me how to look for articles on prostaglandin A2 synthesis. Among my friends, I am considered very lucky in terms of the distance between our homes and school. Faulkner Crescent is only 15 minutes walk away from school. Most of my friends need to walk longer distances, cycle, take buses or even train to school. Just to think that I used to complain that my current accomodation is very far away from school. But, I think the journey by foot to school will be much easier if there aren't any uneven roads.

Alas, the official school term has ended. But I still need to go back for 2 days next week. What a dampener! Nevertheless, it is better than 4 days! Time to start serious revision for exams, the first paper is on 19th June. On an ending note, honey waffles with butter taste heavenly! =)

Hiatus

I won't be blogging so often now,since I am rushing numerous assignments and haven't really started proper preparation for the exams. So, I take back my words when I said that there might be 31 entries in May. Shall devote as much time as possible to resting and sleeping now. So far, my grades have been fairly okay, scoring from 58-100%. For your information, I only need to ensure I get 50% overall for everything in order to pass. except for the miserable management essay which I scored less than 40%. Tony has agreed to see me next Monday to discuss about it, lets hope that it will be a fruitful session.

Finally, I have completed Experiment 2 and 3 of CHEM 3310. But I am stuck with the oxime stereochemistry question for Experiment 4. Feel so lazy to look for the answers at home, all thanks to the slow Internet. And there is a slight dampener. Alan will be shifting to Edwards Hall in the University campus on Friday. That means that I would have one less buddy to communicate with in the house. Frankly speaking, my terms with him are the best among everyone here. Nevertheless, we still be staying in contact since I got his MSN address already. Although he is only 19 years old, he demonstrates an impressive level of maturity and sensitivity. Kudos, mate!

I wonder why Ding's "cousin'', Suz, asked me to vet nursing assignments for her. And I foolishly agreed, now I feel like thinking of an excuse not to help her. It is not because I am mean, it is because I am bogged down by heaps of assignments. And I found it bizzare when Ding mentioned that Suz is not her cousin. Ah well, never mind. Should think twice before agreeing to help people so readily next time.

On some ending random notes, 4 cheeses marcoroni tastes delicious, with milk and butter. Cleaned the cooktop today, after Hongjun told me that Simon might be coming for a spot check ( but in the end, he didn't come. :P ). Tomorrow is the last management tutorial, hope to score as much participation marks from it as possible, so to whoever who is reading this post, please pass me all your luck! ( provided you do not need them)

Long therapeutic sleep

Tomorrow is the last day of the official school term already! But I need to come back on Monday and Tuesday afternoons next week. =( For there is a last session for both CHEM 3210 tutorial and CHEM 3310 retrosynthetic workshop. Speaking of the latter, the questions posed at the workshop yesterday were so difficult. The methods that Adam used to cut the complex molecules seem so different than that of Dr Bates'. And there were barely any retrosynthetic lectures that taught us how to break complex compounds into the appropriate synthons. Guess I got to use my intelligence and diligence to do these kind of questions in the exams now.

Made 2 new friends at the Shortland canteen yesterday. Finally met up with Durrah face-to-face and she introduced a new friend called Ika to me. Both malay girls are really friendly and amicable, and I felt at ease throughout the 45 minutes we spent together. Exchanged numbers with Ika too. She stays in Pasir Ris, which is definitely "light years'' away from Jurong East. But the good thing is, her location is within walking distance of Downtown East, where the holidays chalets are located. But given a chance, I rather stay in my own home, because all the daily necessities are within an arm's reach. Ate a small but hearty portion of spaghetti bolognease for an early lunch. It was bursting with cheese flavour and I really like it. Ika stays in Waratah West, which was where Durrah used to live in. Both of them imprinted good impressions in my mind, look forward to meeting them once again before leaving in 37 days time.

Gave Kelly a towel which I had gotten from Tasmania as an advanced birthday present. She was really thrilled and gave me a hug in return. That was a very sweet gesture , because I am really glad that she liked what I gave her. Could feel her sincere thanks from the heart, especially when she mentioned that she did not expect me to remember her birthday. Kelly, like Catherine, may be a new friend, but she can make one feel really comfortable with her reassuring words and ready smile.

Did my CHEM 3310 lab reports with Catherine for about 3 hours after lab as well. We alternated between Auchmuty Library and CT Building because there was a lesson going on in the former's computer lab. Got to discover an useful spectral database website, all thanks to Catherine. She really knows how to look for the information she needs online. If not for her, I wouldn't have discovered Google scholar, Chemspider and SDBS. Managed to wrap up both Experiment 2 and 3, and will hand it in on Friday, hopefully, Adam will be in his office. I feel the mighty burden lightening significantly when I pass up my assignments.

Reached home at 7.30 pm, paid Hongjun the money I owed him and proceeded to cook dinner. Fried mushroom omelette and managed to fold it into a nice shape again. Remembered to add soya sauce to the raw egg mixture this time around. The end product was good, but not perfect, because small portions of the eggs were still quite watery. Dessert was an apple, but its size was a far cry away from the apples I got at Jesmond Fruit Barn. Fell asleep before 9 pm and woke up at past 6 am today. That is more than the usual duration of 8 hours.

Sigh, since I am not going to school today, I will try to make good use of the time today to complete my CHEM 3310 lab report and start on Ian's assignment which is due on Friday. Wish me the best of luck,everyone! For I have a huge tendency to waste the day away by lazing and slacking.

True UoN blues

I foresee that the stress level will increase at an exponential speed in time to come, for the deadlines are creeping closer and closer, as it is already the final week of the school term. Bits of lab reports for both CHEM 3210 and CHEM 3310 are still undone, not to mention the tedious CHEM 3310 assignment and literature review. There are feelings of insecurity and worry churning inside me as well. IRHR 1001 management exam is closed book instead of open book. Which means that I have to force as many concepts and theories into my head as much as possible. To my utmost shock and horror, I flunked my 2nd essay, pretty badly in fact. I have just emailed the head tutor, Anthony. Hopefully he will agree to have a consultation with me, so that I do not repeat the same mistakes in my essays during the exam.

I was quite surprised that I actually scored 60% for my Pinch Technology cum Heat Exchanger Network assignment, because I had left a major part of the question blank. It was too late for me to seek for help back then because I did not want to copy wholesale from my coursemates, and I just did not feel like asking me to teach me how to do that portion. All the assignments for Green Engineering have been completed and handed up. Pray for a pass in the pending two assignment results. And, a fruitful consultation session with Geoff on this coming Friday, 11 am. On a more positive note, I scored 17/20 for the 2nd organic chemistry assignment. It is nothing to shout about for all the 3 CHEM 3310 assignments only constitute to a mere 20%. I need more luck and intelligence in the lab reports and final exam which carry 40% each.

Went to Jesmond after school to purchase a bottle of body foam and bee hoon dinner from Oceanic. It is the first time I stayed in school to attend the last management lecture. But the session was indeed disappointing, as quoted by Shaun, for past year exam papers will not be issued to us. We have to write 4 essays of 2-3 pages within 2.5 hours. Needless to say, time allocation is of utmost importance. However, Shaun only spoke to us for 1/2 hour, so I left the place at about 6.30 pm. Something embarrassing and unexpected happened while I was walking out of the school premises. I stumbled and fell on onto the pavement. Luckily, my jeans cushioned my fall to a certain extent, otherwise I might have gotten knee grazes.

This post is typed out in a random chronological order, for I do not have the mental capacity to organize my thoughts out. Alas, I have gotten all the melting points for the compounds in CHEM 3310 lab. But the downside is, I haven't answered those challenging questions. I owe Hongjun a hefty sum of money, for he has paid the rent for May and June in advance. Must go and withdraw somemore money tomorrow. There are many more things to be done, and I want them done as soon as possible. To everyone who is reading this, please bless me! Thanks!

Made of Honour

Turns out that I did not lose my past year papers and lab manuals after all. Because I found them in another compartment of my pink Billabong bag. It was indeed a huge sigh of relief. Spent a couple of hours in Auchmuty yesterday morning, to look for information to do my assignments. It was rather fruitless as usual, but something inside me said that I should not give up, for these assignments will be taken account into the final overall mark that I would get. At night, Catherine gave me a glimmer of hope when she told that she had found the alternate name for the elusive deoxybenzoin oxime. Hopefully with that piece of information, I can its melting point on Sci Finder Scholar on Monday.

Boarded the Glendale bound 101 bus to watch the movie, Made of Honour with Rachel. The buses on weekends only arrive on an hourly basis. So, if we didn't board the same bus, catching the 2.30 pm movie would be impossible. Discovered something really intriguing when the bus passed by one of Newcastle's suburbs, Elermore Vale. It had a lot of road names that were named after the 12 constellation signs in astrology. To be exact, 8 out of the 12 constellation names are used. They are Aries Way, Pisces Avenue, Gemini Avenue, Libra Close, Virgo Street, Leo Close, Taurus Street and Sagittarius Close. Taking the public transport will allow passengers more time to look out for new road names and landmarks, because buses travel more slowly than cars, and they stop periodically. Wouldn't it be cool if I lived in Aries Way? ;)

Reached the bus stop outside Greater Union Cinemas at 1.41 pm. We proceeded to buy the tickets, and I got myself some nuggets and fries, together with sweet chilli sauce. After getting the tickets, Rachel decided to head to the hardware store in the vicinity to get a large reel of thin wire. I felt that the proportion of the nuggets were too small compared to the abundant strips of fries. And the meal cost $6.50. But there isn't much variety for heavy meals in the cinema, only fast food. They also have a candy shop, and I was particularly amused by one type of the sweets, which appeared to resemble human gums and teeth!

Made of Honour is a romantic and light hearted comedy, and I really enjoyed it quite a lot. It is about a pair of best friends who met during their school days and fell in love with each other. Ironically, their first encounters with each other weren't pleasant, for they got into a petty fight because a young Hannah sprayed perfume on Ben, for she mistook the latter for a troublemaker who tried to get fresh with her. However, a decade down the road, they became really close friends. In the end, after a major incident, they tied the knot. The ending and plot are very predictable and simple, but overall, the show gave me a sense of satisfaction after watching it.

Since the next 101 that leads us back to University Drive only comes at 5:51 pm, we decided to make use of the 1 hour allowance to go grocery shopping. Although I had lost my shopping list, I think I managed to get all the edible food that I wanted. However, I realised that I have ran out of shower foam this morning. Guess there ain't any choice but to go get a bottle tomorrow. Rachel thinks that the variety of food at Glendale Woolsworth is wider than that of Jesmond. But I barely notice the difference between the two. Maybe it is because I always managed to get all that I want at both venues without fail.

Rachel has finally found the recipe to making real carbonara sauce. And she prepared it for our dinner yesterday night. She used french onion instant soup, ham, mushroom, chicken and a parsley like vegetable to make the sauce from scratch and drizzle it over Vietnam macoroni. Initially, she was skeptical about whether the macoroni could blend well with the carbonara sauce or not. But her doubts were unfounded when we both enjoyed the final result of her cooking experiment. Fried fish fillets and chicken sausages were our side dishes. However, the chicken sausages looked unappealing after the frying process, for they had disintegrated due to high heat. Nevertheless, both us enjoyed the food and company as usual, on a cool Saturday night. =)

Before we slept, Rachel did up some of her models using cardboard, while I made a rather frail attempt on my CHEM 3310 assignment, all thanks to the distractions outside for Weifun and Oiyin had popped over to cook for the party of 4. Staying with so many people under one roof is no easy feat. I certainly crave for the comfort of my own Jurong East home again. Just another 40 more days to go only, endure!

Yet another careless act.

Spent several hours in school yesterday,doing a myriad of things. Finally got to meet Adam and he told me to use Sci Finder Scholar to find the synthesis of the complex looking compound which I had been assigned too. However, I have yet to master the art of using the computer to draw molecules, so I can't use the structure to look for the exact compound. I have gotten all the melting points for CHEM 3310 lab, except for that of deoxybenzoin oxime. Wonder why is this organic molecules so elusive online. Got my CHEM 3210 and CHEM 3310 past year papers, will definitely look through them and attempt some, if not all of the questions. Hope the lecturers re-use the questions, so that I do not need 2 struggle with the tedious process of memorizing so many equations.

The Mysun club seems a lot more active than Insnewie. They are going to have a "lepak'' gathering at Barahineban today, which starts from 7.30 pm till late. The last event for Insnewie was before the 2 week holidays.Definitely would not be going for it since Rachel would be coming over for a sleepover and we agreed 2 start mugging hard together for my exams and her practical assignments. So shocked to know that the requirements for an Australian PR to enter UNSW is so much more stringent than that for foreign students. Nevertheless, I believe she will succeed, since she is so disciplined and conscientious.

When I was doing my CHEM 3210 lab report, I ran into difficulties again. I can never complete anything fully, ie. being able to do all the components. Thus, it is inevitable to seek help actively from friends and lecturers. And I rarely, or even never, do all these back in NTU. I finally experience the true meaning of being out of my comfort zone. But the worst realization was, I left my CHEM 3310 lab manual, past year papers and other academic documents in Auchmuty library. Chided myself for being so careless again, and not having learnt my lesson after losing my thumbdrive. Will be going back to the library to retrieve them later, hopefully, they are still there.

Noodles, both udon and thick yellow noodles, taste great with honey,soy and garlic sauce! Love the nectarine taste of the honey. Savouring good food takes my worries off my mind, although it is only transient. Wish that the hectic and hellish period passes by as soon as possible, I can never be truly enjoying my stay here if I have to worry non stop about undone work and challenging exams. 41 days till I return back to the sunny shores of Singapore, can't wait ! And, it's high time for another round of grocery shopping, running out of fruits,noodles,eggs,fresh vegetables and breakfast food.

Tired and busy days ahead

These days have been really hectic and panicky. All thanks to the inefficiency of Auchmuty resources and things not going smoothly. Called Adam to fix an appointment bud he was only free during the time when I was having CHEM 3210 lab. The perception that Australian is an advanced and efficient country is so untrue now. Couldn't log into Sci Finder Scholar whenever there are too many logins concurrently. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Google Scholar and Google provide me with a lot of irrelevant information, except for the exact compound I am looking for. Tell me, how atrocious can things get? Since time is running out, I have no choice but to drag myself to school today to meet Adam, provided he not on leave. Last but not least, it is still impossible to print out PDF files from the library's computer terminals. I can only do it in the Engineering Building. So many things to do and yet I don't know the correct way of getting to complete it. But by hook or by crook, all my assignments must be of a passable standard before passing up.

Yesterday's IRHR 1001 tutorial session was the best one for me ever, for I have never spoken out to give my opinions to Tony and my tutorial mates to such a big extent before. Although, it is still a far cry from the outspoken caucasians. It is the second last tutorial session and want to make up for my poor performances for the past few sessions. Feel more secure if I pass all the components in this module. I must attend the last Monday lecture next week, for Shaun might give tips on the exams. I have only attended his lectures twice, because it is late at night, 6-8 pm. In addition, I can do the readings on my own.

Saw a polarography machine in the first time in my life during CHEM 3210 lab today. Progress was very slow, for I only managed to get 2 polarographs and UV-vis spectras for the macrocyclic complexes. A lot of time was wasted on waiting for the machines to become available. And making up the correct concentration in the volumetric flasks is very tedious, although the calculations might seem simple. Went to Auchmuty library to continue searching for literature, although it was futile, sent an email to Ian requesting for help and blog-hopped until 6 pm.

Had a really late dinner at 10+ pm, because the food required time to thaw despite being soaked in lukewarm water. Also, I was so caught up with work that my hunger pangs vanished. The last time I ate before dinner was at 8 am, more than half a day apart. But I do not feel lethargic or anything, for it is most probably due to my sedentary lifestyle. In a good way, I can go on a diet. Recently, I read about an article about a special kind of program called the Gabriel's Diet, which is about a man who lost more than 100 kg within 6 months without dieting. And he claimed that you can lose weight without controlling your diet by deactivating the fat switch in your body. And one incredulous way to turn off the fat switch is to spend 5 minutes sitting in the sun. In my frankest opinion, I think the degree of difficulty to lose so much weight is to good to be true. Call me old fashioned or traditional, but I firmly believe in the saying: no pain, no gain.

A rainy day after a long while

Had ham and cheese omelette for breakfast this morning. It was the first time in a long while that I had 3 eggs, instead of the usual 2. Managed to fold the omelette in a neat way this time around, and I am proud of this little achievement. However, I forgot to add soya sauce to the raw egg mixture and it ended up quite tasteless. So, I had to add the sauce manually to the fried eggs themselves.

Went to Auchmuty Library to continue to source for literature melting points. But using the Sci Fi Scholar is such a hassle. If too many people are using the program, you will not be able to log into it. As a result, I could not use it for the entire morning. Plans always deviate from ideality. I had intended to find Adam personally to seek his help in locating chemical literature, but it was a total failure. I knocked on his door, only to be greeted with silence. Tried calling thrice on his office phone, but no one picked it up. Looks like I have no choice but to attempt to call him up tomorrow again. It is imperative that my lab assignments get done, for the exam dates are looming closer and closer.

Today is the last formal lecture for Green Engineering, and Michael lectured about the case study of the FCC unit, which was 100% descriptive. He will be posting some past year examination questions, and I certainly hope that they will be reused, so as to cut down studying time. Went to Auchmuty library again to print a reference for CHEM 3210 lab and continue searching for literature melting points. I managed to find the melting point for one compound, seems little, but it is better than nothing right? It was raining when I was strolling back home from UoN. Cannot even remember when was the last downpour. Previously in late April, there were many intermittent and unpredictable showers in a day.

Have been feeling really chilly these days, so much to the extent that I wore my woollen socks to school today. That helped to a significant extent, at least my feet no longer shiver from the cold air. I must really take extra good care of myself now, for the winter season and examination period are approaching. Cannot afford to fall sick! On a totally unrelated note, I had no choice but to waste 2 fruits yesterday. Both my last banana and apple had turned brown. Heart aches but I cannot risk getting food poisoning at this crucial period.

Difficult Retrosynthesis Workshop

Yesterday, I managed to sleep at more appropriate time at 1 am. But somehow my body refused to remain in a deep mode anymore and here I am, awake typing this blog entry. Two blankets aren't enough to keep me comfortably warm, I need my woollen socks too. Using 2 blankets,gloves and woollen socks will be ideal, but the gloves are so chunky and restricts my hand motions. Nevertheless, it is just another 44 more days more before I return to Singapore.

It was another fruitless day searching for information to do my CHEM 3310 lab reports and assignment. Still have yet to receive an email from Adam, think I have to go knocking on his door and ask him personally for help. Having so many undone pieces of work weighs a ton in my mind. Not to mention, I cannot have absolutely full 100% in my exam revisions. To add to even further damage, I cannot comprehend what is going on during CHEM 3210 lectures recently. The professors seem to be mumbling most of the time and I still cannot catch their accents completely. Desperately require a miracle now.

Retrosynthetic workshops will replace CHEM 3310 wet lab sessions from now. And the questions Adam posed to us are so difficult! The molecules are so complex that I do not even know how to cut them into appropriate synthons. We are expected to memorize more than 100 kinds of reactions, including their reagents and conditions for the upcoming organic chemistry exam! This is so depressing, for my memory capacity seems to decrease as I grow older. UoN's workload seems to appear even more demanding than NTU's now. So much for saying that overseas education is much less stressful.

Went to the library with Cathy to source for our melting points after schoo. She introduced a new website to me, called Chemspider. It is even more comprehensive than the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and according to her, you can find the melting points of very complex compounds there, albeit the fact that they may be given in a different name. Took a photograph with her for memory purposes. Hope I have the chance to take one with Kelly and maybe Renee as well.

Only revised Warwick's set of alkene and alkyne lecture notes yesterday, which is nothing much to shout about. Today, I have an agenda to fulfil, seek Adam's help personally on searching for literature, doing IRHR 1001 readings and doing up bits of my lab reports. Speaking of reports, I handed a couple of them to Adam already. Pray that I can pass them despite not putting in my best efforts. * cross fingers

Oily sausages

Fell asleep at 9+ pm and woke up at 2+ am just to blog and brush my teeth. But I forgot to put my laptop back on the table and switch off the light. As a result, my sleeping position was really awkward. This explains the aches on the upper part of my body. And, I noticed that I am prone to sustaining blue blacks here, which is not a good sign.Blue blacks take at least a week to heal.

There are many species of birds in the vicinity of North Lambton, and they like to perch on the maple tree which is almost bald and the overhanging telephone wires. I saw birds that are yellow and red in colour on the maple tree when I was strolling home from school, Also, there was another species of birds resting on pink roses that are blooming beautifully. Previously, I have seen unusual birds with a horn like structure on their heads. This feature reminds me of a unicorn, which is an imaginary horse with a long horn on its head. Unlike in Singapore, I rarely see sparrows and mynahs.

Tried the food in Shortland Building's canteen for the first time. Ordered kway chap with chicken and vegetables for lunch. The gravy was tasty, for chinese herbs and spices were added to it. But the kway chap was far too little, compared to the generous helping of the side ingredients. Furthermore, a small bowl of noodles,vegetables and meat cost $7.50 ! I finally understand why everyone has been saying that Chinese cuisine in Australia costs a bomb! Since I was still a little hungry, I went to buy a fish fillet, which is also very expensive at $3. Guess I will stick to good old Subway the next time round.

Bumped into many familiar people today, such as Eva in Auchmuty library, Zhaowei before Green Engineering lecture in the computer lab, Kwang and Linkooi. Interestingly, I saw Linkooi and Kwang two times in a day! Today's Green Engineering lecture was about the case studies done on the Chloro-alkali unit. The contents remind of me of CBC 931. Still remember it as a module which puts your memory capacity to the ultimate test. The questions were mainly descriptive with little application. Michael wants to have an extra lesson on Week 14, hope he changes his mind because all of us need that period of time to study!

Had indo mee, cheese and garlic sausages and a banana for dinner. The sausages are so fattening, the oil started oozing out after I warmed them in the microwave. Luckily, they were chicken sausages, or else the oil content would be even higher. Decided to save the last two sausages for Saturday, for Rachel's cooking experiments. :P I reckon that she will make a sumptuous side dish out of them.

Start of Revision

Woke up at 8+ am the morning to have breakfast together with Rachel. I had bought half a dozen instant pancakes from the Woolsworth in Glendale Stockland for I wanted to finish my box of butter. Felt a sense of deja vu when we stood at the kitchen table eating and chatting simultaneously. That was because there were not enough seats at the dining table the evening before. Bidded Rachel goodbye after breakfast, and off she went to church and then straight back home.

Since the Internet was throwing its usual tantrums again, I decided to utilize the start of the week productively by starting my examination revisions. Managed to study all of Adam's lecture notes, which consist of 4 sets. The contents were relatively simple to understand but a significant amount of memory work is required, such as the reagents and the conditions used. Still contemplating whether to go for CHEM 3310 lecture tomorrow, for I do not have the lecture notes with me. Also, I dislike the idea of being pressurized to wake up early for lessons, no doubt that the campus is only 15 minutes walk away.

Bowie is going home with Weifun on the 29th June, which means that I have to spend almost a week shivering, because I wish to return her blanket personally. Rachel says that July is the Newcastle's coldest month in the year. Chatted with Agnes briefly online and I am happy to know that she and Lijuan have decided to enrol into NTU as direct 2nd year students. Which means that we are fated to meet each other again, despite having left JC for 4 years. Although they have taken the long,ardous path to University, it is definitely worth the wait. For they had excelled academically in NP, compared to JJC.

I need to go grocery shopping on next Saturday, or else I will have to eat plain noodles for lunch or dinner. The supply of frozen condiments deplete at a faster rate than expected. Boredom always leads me to think of food,food and more food. Can't wait to eat a couple of pancakes with butter spread tomorrow morning. =D. On a sidetrack, North Lambton is a suburb in Newcastle, to be most precise.

Bar Beach and Iron Man

Today was terrific! Finally fulfilled my long awaited wish of going to watch Iron Man with Rachel. Before that, we went to Bar beach for a couple of hours. Let's recount the memorable events that happened today.

At about 10.15 am, Rachel arrived at my house. After some chit chatting and preparation, we proceeded to take bus number 101 to Bar Beach. The journey was about 40 minutes and we had to walk for a long time before we reached our exact destination. We encountered a drunkard in a car's passenger seat who ranted at us in a jokingly fashion. Seems that outrageous antics like these are very common in Newcastle. Nevertheless, we just ignored him and continued on our walking. The weather was sunny yet cool. There were a lot of individualistic looking houses in the vicinity of Bar Beach. They came in many hues and designs, which probably stemmed from the owners' creativity juices. Interestingly, we saw many miniature sunflowers on the grass. I must say, they look really cute!

The first we did when we reached Bar Beach was to satisfy our cravings for seafood by going straight to the food kiosk. We ordered a seafood platter for $22 and it was quite worth the price. The variety of food on the platter was rather wide. We had fries, calamari rings, prawns fried in batter and large slices of fish fillets. And of course, not forgetting the tartar sauce and the lemon juice that enhance the taste of the mouth watering seafood. Both of us really ate to our hearts' content. But I felt that the number of calamari rings was far too little, there were only 4 of them. While we were tucking in, we saw several seagulls perching on the tables and walking around. For a peculiar reason, I was really fascinated by them and a fleeting thought passed my mind : I want to keep one of those cute white birds as a pet! But I know that it is not possible, because seagulls are wild and they may get aggressive if you don't satisfy their famished stomachs.

After the satisfying meal, we rested on the cool and sandy shores of the beach. We saw several long and thin ships from afar and families treading in the inviting blue waters. The appearance of Bar Beach, in my opinion, looks rather similar to that of Nobbys Beach. But all beaches are relaxing getaways from the hustle and bustle of the city. Just admiring the crashing waves and the blue hues can have a therapeutic effect on one's mind. And of course, the company does wonders too. Every weekend outing allows us to understand each other better, for we share new things about our past and current lives.

We could only spend a couple of hours there, because we had to leave 1t 2.30 pm to catch Iron Man at 4 pm in Greater Union Theatres. The frequency of the public buses is really low on weekends, which sounds really ironical. Because the streets should be more crowded during on Saturday and Sunday. The journey back to the bus stop seemed shorter, compared to that of from the bus stop to Bar Beach. The breathtaking sights at the beach and the tantalizing seafood platter had probably rejuvenated our spirits, giving us an outburst of energy.

Thankfully, 363 goes to Glendale, otherwise we would not be able to catch Iron Man, yet again! In fact, there are several buses that reach Greater Union Theatres, including 101. I treated her to the movie and each of us bought an ice-cream. The chocolate coating of my raspberry ice-cream is just so addictive, I can never get enough of sweet food. Ironman is an awesome Marvel blockbluster movie. The fast paced and heroic actions kept us enthralled for the whole 2 hours. No wonder so many of my friends gave it good reviews. The ending is great too! Shane, the traitor perished. Pepper and Stark ( Iron Man) became a couple after several emotional tumults. I have set a new record for the frequency of watching movies - this is my 3rd movie in 7 days. Previously, I had watched When It Happens in Vegas and 21 on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

While waiting for the 6.51 pm 101 bus which stops directly outside the cinema, Rachel and I decided to some quick grocery shopping at Woolworths. I ended up buying more than I had expected. Such as hair rubberbands, cheese and garlic sausages and a dozen pieces of cheese slices. I had lost my thick yellow scrunchie on the way to Bar Beach and I need to tie my hair up for CHEM 3210 lab sessions. The almost biting chill from the wind that blew in our direction while walking home was barely bearable. It is becoming more and more obvious that winter is approaching with each passing day. At Bar Beach, we discovered that the sky looked unusually dark at only 3 pm! Usually in the mid afternoon, it should be blindingly bright instead.

Rachel has never failed to create a storm in the kitchen every weekend, thanks to her overflowing creative juices for experimenting on food "concoctions''. She marinated the chicken dices with garlic,wine,soya sauce and pepper, fried fish fillet and a couple of cheese and garlic sausages with spring onions, stir fried Singaporean noodles and frozen condiments with teriyaki sauce. The end products of her culinary experiments not only smell aromatic, they taste just as good as well! I can never get enough of her cooking. Luckily she only cooks for me weekly,instead of daily, for I have an unusual voracious appetite for her food. And that will result in a happy but chubby Yvonne. Good riddance, as if I am not fat enough already!

For dessert, I had a really fruity tasting yogurt. But for Rachel, she had a boiled apple with cinnamon sticks. This is my first time eating such a dessert and it probably would not be be last. Time sped by when we were joking, bursting out into guffaws, and singing literally any random songs that came to our minds in my room. Before we knew it, it was already 12 midnight. Rachel was kind of exhausted by then, due to the lack of sleep. She is really as busy as a bumble bee, with seemingly endless models to make and assignments to do. So, we can only meet on weekends, until 2nd of June when she will be completely freed from the shackles of academic related matters for the semester. Till then, I shall strive to utilize the time of weekdays to study hard, so that I can unwind and relax without worries on the weekends.

Lazy Friday

Today was quite a lazy Friday, for I did not do much work due to sheer laziness. Ironically, I have decided to start revising for exams on 19th May, which is exactly a month before my first paper. There is an urgent need for me to master the skill of multi tasking, finishing up the heinous lab reports and revising through the lecture notes and textbooks. Adam has yet to reply my email on the lab enquires I posed to him, hopefully he will reply by Monday. Dislike the fact that I cannot hand up a complete lab report due to so much "lobangs'' in them. So far, I managed to do the mass spectroscopy question in Project 7 and type up the introduction and experimental sections of Project 2.


It is my first time frying beehoon with Malaysian Satay sauce for lunch today. Had to soak the beehoon in warm water for a few minutes before stir frying it. The end product was delicious, but the sauce wasn't evenly spread out on the noodles and ingredients. It reminds me of the satay beehoon back in the Chinese Garden hawker centre cum market in Singapore. But their satay beehoon contains cuttlefish and kangkong. Mine contains crabmeat, vegetarian chicken, fishcakes, brocolli and carrot slices. I regret buying the red grapes from Woolsworth at Glendale Stockland mall, because they contain seeds! It is so troublesome to spit out the seeds every now and then, instead of chewing the fruits leisurely.


The Aarons have started utilizing the cooking utensils in the house recently, instead of depending on instant food for meals. Initially, I was taken by surprise when I saw Aaron frying an egg yesterday. Instant food may be convenient, but it is not healthy in the long run, due to the amount of preservatives and artificial flavourings that the food manufacturers put in. I choose to eat fruits like apples,bananas,grapes and prunes when I am feeling peckish, instead of potato chips and ice-cream. This is really strange, for I had never once bothered so much about my diet. My afternoon snack was the usual helping of green bean soup, this time I boiled it for 90 minutes instead of an hour. But apparently, the duration is still not long enough for all the beans to rupture completely.


Spent quite a lot of time smsing and chatting with Edward on the phone today. Seems that he's really stressed over the upcoming exam preparations. Look forward to sitting the Singapore Flyer with him when I come back, and of course go and visit yummy food haunts together. Speaking of which, I just only have 49 more days left in Newcastle, in other words, 7 weeks. I foresee that I would have a lot of catching ups to do with my good old Singaporean friends. Being overseas has endowed me with the confidence to cook a simple meal for myself. Back in Singapore, I rarely ever cooked on my own accord. Suddenly, I find myself recalling the food that we prepared during Home Economics lessons in Secondary 1 and 2. And I vividly remember that potato salad was one of my favourites.

Rachel will be coming tomorrow morning, her presence signifies another fun weekend ahead. Look forward to having tons of fun at the beach and I keep my fingers crossed that we will be able to watch Iron Man together this time around. Speaking of the movies, it will be the 3rd movie that I watch this week! But I ain't complaining about it at all.

21

Today's IRHR 1001 tutorial was quite interactive; we were asked to work as a team to rank a list of 12 items in order of importance based on this scenario: Our plane crashed and we managed to survive the accident. However, we landed up in a dense jungle with thick bushes and seemingly endless rivers. The temperatures will go below freezing,regardless of day or night time. However, we managed to find some things that may be useful for survival in the wrecked up plane. So, as a team, we must come to a consensus on the relative importance of each individual item. The purpose of this exercise was to determine whether a single person or a group of people will come to a better consensus, in comparison with the rankings of that of a survial expert. As usual, the Caucasians were very outspoken and could participate actively in the discussion centre. Isabel, a Korean tutorial mate and I kept silent most of the time, because our group mates have echoed our sentiments already, before we could speak out.

Bought a chicken sushi roll for an early lunch, before another futile session of literature research in the library. It really dampens my morale. Was a bit late for CHEM 3210 lab, and luckily, the session went on rather smoothly. Renee and I have decided to do a couple of reports individually each. This will minimize the hassle of sending numerous attachments for counterchecking purposes. Bob showed me how to operate a really intriguing machine, which could compress powdered KBr into a small transparent disc which was to be used for IR. The KBr disc is analogous to the NaCl salt plates we use in NTU. One of the parts of the machine resemble a gear level of a bus. And the pressure required to "manufacture'' the plate is an astounding 10 tons!

I had a slight headache when I reached home. Tried to take a nap after putting my clothes in the washing machine, but did not fall asleep because of the tightness in my entire face. I hope that I do not come down with a full fledged flu! I need the energy to enjoy the weekend with Rachel. Dinner was udon again, but I added sugar to the coconut curry paste, in the hope that it will mask the sour taste of the noodles. And voila, it was a success.

Went to watch another movie, just after a mere span of a couple of days. It is called "21''. The storyline is very original and it showcases a MIT maths genius, Ben who was lured by his corrupted professor,Micky into the world of gambling. Who would have expected that his well-respected Maths professor was actually the leader of an illegal Blackjack team? Apparently, Ben had made a big mistake by choosing to follow in Micky's footsteps, for ultimately, he had to surrender all his winnings to a casino security guard, Coles. Coles had been suspicious of the Blackjack team for a long time and spared no effort on keeping a close eye on their movements at the gambling table. The team had used unscrupulous ways to win excessive money in the casino, depleting its funds rapidly. This movie requires the audience to pay attention, for it takes some time to understand exactly what is the plot about.

Visit to Aili's house after a long while

Today is basically quite an insipid day, with the exception of visiting Aili in the late afternoon. Went to C238, which was the lab where we do our CHEM 3310 experiments to get Cathy's IR spectrum and TLC drawing in the morning. Took a few photos of the lab for remembrance purposes. Must remember to snap pictures with Cathy and Kelly before I leave Newcastle as well.

Michael's horrible handwriting continues to infuriate me, though it is not going to change things. Just hope that I can understand the lecture and tutorial contents on Kinetics and Catalysis when I start serious revision next Monday. Speaking of Green Engineering, there is still one more assignment to complete! I hope I can do a better job out of it. There are only a couple of long questions for the final exam of this module. However, I highly doubt that they would be that easy to tackle.

After a long break, I finally stir fried udon again, this time with coconut curry sauce. But the taste wasn't as nice as expected, it is hard to mix and match sauces with udon because of the latter's sour taste. Thick yellow noodles will be a better alternative. Ate a coffee ice-cream from Weight Watchers as a dessert. The bottom part of the ice-cream always seems to be frozen, and I feel a biting chill in my gums whenever I bite into it. Guess I am too impatient to wait for the ice-cream to melt completely.

Went to pay a visit to Aili in the late afternoon. It has been a few weeks since I last saw her. Although she was ill with flu, we still managed to have an enriching chit chatting session which lasted more than an hour. In Taylors University College, the Biomedical Science, Nutrition and Dietetics and Biotechnology majors attend similar lectures for their freshmen year. That explains why all my Malaysian friends and acquaintances seem to know one another. They really make up one big,united Taylor's College family ! Aili showed me her family photograph, and I noticed one interesting trait. All of her family members possess the same eyebrow shape. Gave her a chocolate orange fudge which I had purchased from Salamanca Market as a souvenir, hopefully, it will suit her taste buds. I realise that I interact with people better on a 1-to-1 basis, rather than in a big group. Must hone my public relation skills and be able to talk at ease in the presence of a group of friends.

When It Happens in Vegas

Skipped CHEM 3210 in the morning and only went for the tutorial for the later part of the morning, because I devoted some time to search for the melting points of the compounds synthesized in CHEM 3310. However, it was to little success, like previous attempts. For the first time, I used the Sci Finder in the computers to search for the melting points. But like the handbook and Internet, it has a comprehensive list of information, except for the compounds that I am looking for. I never had such a tedious time searching for melting points before. Indeed, it poses a big challenge for me now.

Today's last CHEM 3310 wet lab practical session was the most relaxing one ever. Adam rendered me a lot of helping in recrystallizing my amide product. I yelped for joy in my heart when I finally saw the cream coloured crystal like flakes appearing in my conical flask. Although my yield was very poor, I had enough product to do my IR and melting points. Adam was urging us to hand in our lab reports by the end of Week 13, because up till now, he has only received 4 lab reports in total. Well, that was because most of us have yet to finish a lab report completely, especially the parts where we have to intepret the spectral data and quote the melting points from literature.

Cathy and I went to the canteen in Student Hub to organize our lab reports before heading to the Auchmuty library to continue searching for literature melting points. Bought a M & M chocolate cookie from Pinkies. It is actually the provision shop where I used to purchase my pre paid phone cards from. If not for Cathy, I would be still be in the dark of its name. Despite being a white skinned Australian, she is not racist at all, contrary to popular belief. She is really helpful and very pleasant to interact with. We stayed in the library until when her friend, Shannon, came at 7 pm. Despite spending a couple of hours at the computer terminal, we managed to find the literature melting point of only 1 of our products. However, I did get to fill up bits of my lab report, albeit not a lot, but it is better than nothing right?

After a fortnight of not watching movies, party of 4 and I went to catch the comedy " When It Happens in Vegas'' at 8.30 pm. The main stars are Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Both of them have attractive appearances and have good on-screen chemistry, despite Cameron being older than Ashton. Joy ( Cameron ) and Jack ( Ashton ), used to hate each others' guts after being forced to get married to each other due to debauchery. But they end up falling in love with one another. The ending is predictable, but the part of the plot on how their hatred blossoms into love could be further developed. If you wish to relax after a stressful day's work, go watch this movie!

Went to Woolsworth after that, where I got myself some fruits, sugar sachets, mushrooms and a few miscellaneous groceries. My friends as usual, bought a lot of snacks, such as big bottles of fruit juices, instant noodles and biscuits. Mummy was so right, overseas undergraduates have a tendency to cultivate unhealthy eating habits. Stress is probably one of the factors behind it as well. I experience it too, whenever I feel stressed or upset, my cravings for unhealthy food are exceptionally strong. In order prevent myself from unpredictable snacking, I choose not to buy anymore chips or huge tubs of ice-cream now. It is much easier to exercise self control when you buy small cups of ice-cream and yoghurt instead.

CHEM 3310 3rd Assignment

Much to my consternation, Ian has posted up the 3rd CHEM 3310 assignment on Blackboard. I thought that were only 2 assessed assignments according to the course outline. Looks like Kelly isn't far from wrong at all, Adam is so disorganized ! The course outline doesn't reflect what is going on in reality at all. And if he didn't tell us, we wouldn't have known that this Tuesday was going to be our last lab session. This assignment is due on the 30th May, which is the end of Week 13. I reckon this assessment which involves literature searching will stir up moans and groans from most of the students.

On my way to school yesterday, I met Robert, my CHEM 3210 and 3310 coursemate, who had decided to go for lessons by foot instead of cycling, due to the shower in the early hours of the morning. He is a very friendly guy who like Jefri, has a strong interest for Chemistry. And he told me that I could go source for the melting points of my organic compounds in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics in the reference section of Auchmuty library. Up till now, I still do not know how to fully utilize the various sections in the library. It is never my habit to visit the library to look for hard copy references.

Ian's lessons were monotonous as usual, and the attendance was poor, probably because of the Monday blues my coursemates were facing. I left halfway through his lesson to search for the reference book. But it wasn't very helpful, for I could the melting point for only one of my compounds. The compounds that we synthesized have too bombastic and long looking names. Had a toasted tandori chicken wrap from the Bytes Cafe for lunch. It was crispy and delicious, but quite costly at $6.50. The wrap certainly tasted way better than the tandori chicken wrap I had at the Hub Cafe.

Met Kris and Zing before Green Engineering class, and I made another attempt to retrieve my thumbdrive, which was yet again unsuccessful. The administrator at the School of Electrical Engineering only found thumbdrives which were lost a couple of weeks ago. I came to a conclusion that it is not uncommon for undergrads to leave their thumbdrives behind in a moment of carelessness. Michael's lecture was delayed for 1/2 hour, because there was some technical fault with his laptop. Nevertheless,he was a tad nicer than usual and released us at 3.55 pm.

Dinner was Indo Mee and an red apple. Hongjun and Weiming had tidied up the kitchen area and it looks very much neater now. I guess they do not wish to invite any form of trouble, especially from the long-winded and money-minded Simon. I start to believe that the purpose of his fines was to line his pockets, because I have yet to hear of landlords who impose monetary penalties on the tenants for parties,sleepovers and disregarding the duty roster. And by right, we could argue against paying the fines, because it is not listed in the contract. Must learn not to be so submissive and stand up for my own rights now.

Fell asleep before 10 pm again, for I was mentally exhausted from extreme moodswings and the heavy workload burdens. Today, I am going to stay back in school with Cathy after CHEM 3310 lab to bring our lab reports closer to the point of completeness. Wish us luck!

Fettucine and potato mash

Today is the 3rd day that I spend with Rachel, after she came over for a sleepover yesterday. This time, we switched our sleeping positions, she slept near the edge while I slept near the wall. We chatted for quite a while before dozing off, and our conversations as usual, range from jokes to narrating about each others' lives, past and present. I believe all these bed time chats will strengthen our friendship bond as time goes by. Each conversation allows us to understand each other more, and I really love such in depth chats, with little or no stress.

Lunch was fettucine with campbell soup and potato mash with butter and cheese. The mention of these names is enough to send me salivating, almost literally. Rachel can be a qualified food critic, since she is so discerning about the various aspects of food, such as the texture and aesthetic appeal. It is a great blessing to have a friend who is more than willing to cook for you. Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined that I would meet such a special friend, after 21 years of living on this Earth. However, I am not one who will ditch my old friends for the new, and vice versa. All my friends will always have an irreplaceable position in my heart and memory.

I can't help but feel sad whenever she has to leave every Sunday. Whenever we are together, I just wish that time could come to a standstill, because the feeling of parting is sometimes too great for me to bear. Loneliness overwhelms me whenever we have to bid farewell to each other. No more laughters and girl chit chat sessions, at least for one week. One week seems like a year instead. Feelings of anticipation and longingness have never been so acute before. And I start shifting the blame to the workload that UoN burdens us with. Sounds very irrational and immature, but I really need an outlet to voice my thoughts out, and the best place to do so is my precious blogspot. Saturday Saturday, please come quick!

After she left, I enjoyed a close to 4 hour afternoon nap, after chatting with Deanies on MSN. My uni clique is going for Jolene's house next Tuesday for a steamboat gathering. How I wish I could be there too. And the atmosphere will definitely be exuberant, since Jefri will be going along too. He never fails to brighten up our gloomy and stressed study days with his optimism and constant encouragements. I still remember his peculiar hobby of mixing food together, for example, a chocolate bar with soya bean dessert. This reminds me of the deliciously sweet chocolate tau huey at Chomp Chomp. I made a special trip there after being influenced by one of the Singapore Idol finalists, Jasmine Tye. It is her favourite dessert and I have to admit, she has good taste!

All of a sudden, I am craving for all the Singaporean food which I sorely lack in the last 3 months. Hokkien mee, carrot cake, kway chap, chicken rice,duck noodles, chicken satay, cheese prata, ban mian.... And of course, not forgetting Mum's cooking. And I promised Mummy that I will prepare a belated Mother's Day meal for her. Believe that I will have more confidence in accomplishing this task now, after cooking rather actively since the day I arrived in Newcastle. Gave my stomach a rest for dinner, by just eating a Weight Watchers peach and mango yoghurt with a banana. Bananas can't be kept for too long, otherwise it will turn into an repulsive looking brown colour. I need to buy more fruits, I only have a few those big,fat and juicy apples remaining.

Tomorrow marks another cycle of a brand new studying week and I hope that it will be a more smooth sailing, and most importantly a more productive one. On a happier ending note, I want to thank Rachel for forking out time to read through every single of one of my lengthy blog posts. =). It is comforting to know that there are people out there who are genuinely interested in wanting to understand you better.

Wharf Road and Market Square

It was a fun-filled weekend with Rachel. We left her house at around 11.20 am, only to miss the 231 bus which stopped at Jesmond. In order to save time, we decided to take a leisurely stroll there instead. Rachel told me that the names of streets are named as such for a reason. For example, street names that end with the word "close'' usually means that this particular street leads to a dead end. Street names ending with the word "crescent'' probably means that the street has a long winding road. Street names ending with the word "parade'' may mean that the street consists of a long, straight road. Interesting facts for thought, aren't they?

Both of us shared a refreshing coconut ice blended shake at Gloria Jean's, for we were feeling thirsty after walking a longer distance under the blazing sun. After the cooling treat, we proceeded to take the bus 101 to Wharf Street, where Blue Water Pizza was located, for our lunch. The bus journey lasted for about half an hour. It was Rachel's first time dining there, and according to her, it was a gourmet restaurant, for the food was really costly. One small plate of calamari rings cost more than $11! We ordered 3 dishes, a wood fired pizza, garlic and cheese bread and the calamari rings. I was quite disappointed by the measly servings and the exorbitant prices. Nevertheless, we still had a nice chat over lunch. I still remembered that I went there during Cherlyn's 22nd birthday celebration more than a couple of months ago. As usual,there were many seagulls flying in the vicnity, for there was a harbour with a panaromic sea view.

Since our hunger pangs were not completely satisfied after lunch, we went to buy ice-cream. I tried an unique ice-cream flavour, called Triple swirl. I have never seen such a colourful scoop of ice-cream before, for it was pink,green,blue and yellow in colour. I could not figure out the exact flavour of the dessert, but its sweetness was heavenly. We took several photos on the mid position of the lighthouse-like tower which was just a stone's throw away from the restaurant. Our plan was to climb right to the top, which meant overcoming 180 steps before reaching an elevation of 40.3 m above ground level. Unfortunately, the second half of the spiral staircase leading to the summit was locked.

Next, we crossed a bridge and reached Market Square, which is an open air shopping centre. There were many items which were on sale, especially clothes. Ironically, I seemed more fascinated with the trees which had yellow and red leaves that surrounded the place. In addition, I wasn't in the mood to shop as I had forgotten to bring my wallet out with me the previous day. But, my moodiness was significantly lessened when Rachel brought me into a bookshop. She recommended several books to me, such as " Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'' and books by Danielle Steel. To be honest, I haven't been reading actively for at least a decade. But self help and motivational books are still appealing to me. The books are expensive, so we could only afford to browse through instead of buying them.

The bookshop closes really early at 4 pm, so we had no choice but to head for home. This time, we took bus 108 back to my place. The setting sun illuminated the sky to a mystifying orange hue. I have never paid so much attention to the sunset back in Singapore. Rachel has an excellent sense of direction, for she has always managed to lead me to the exact bus stop which could bring us to our intended destinations. As for me, I am quite hopeless in directions, especially in a foreign country. Interacting with new friends make me realise that I actually a lot of life skills to master. But, I am really thankful for the golden opportunities to widen my general knowledge.

All these while, I have also been learning Malay and Cantonese words from Rachel. And, I have also taught her some Singlish words. This is literally like a cultural exchange. It makes me even feel more blessed to be the 1 out of the 2 chosen ones to go for an exchange program. The experiences that I have garnered, regardless of good or bad, serve as invaluable life lessons. Hopefully, I will become a more matured girl after my exchange stint has ended. Plus, having more self confidence and a higher level of emotional quotient.

As usual, Rachel cooked up a storm for dinner, after her 2 hour beauty sleep. This time, she whipped up hokkien mee with Chow Mein sauce, together with the usual dose of frozen condiments. The amount of food was quite big, but we managed to finish all of it nevertheless. The noodles were tantalizing to the tastebuds and leaves you craving for more. The two of us share a common interest, which is savouring delicious food. However, Rachel is more adventurous with experimenting with new recipes, while I am just too lazy and would prefer to rely on instant food instead of preparing the ingredients from scratch.

Although I have only known Rachel for less than 3 months, I feel as if I have known her for a few years, for we could talk to each other about anything under the sun, no matter whether they were serious issues or just cracking childish and hilarious jokes. Feel totally at ease in her presence, in comparison with the involuntarily feelings of apprehension and nervousness when I come into face to face with the party of 4. It sounds totally absurd but I cannot help it. Hopefully I will be able to manage my emotions better after Rachel's sincere advices of goodwill.

Stayover at Rachel's house =D

I am typing this post at Rachel's host homestay house right now. His name is Chris and he is an amicable and generous man. He has a really adorable 7 year old son, Jayden who is very outspoken for his age. Chris cooked spaghetti for Rachel and I and it was awesome. He added an exotic mix of ingredients to it, such as lemon juice and raspberry flavouring. Needless to say, I had a lion's share. It is my very first time staying over at a friend's place in Newcastle. And it is indeed an exhilarating experience. Everything that my eyes took in yesterday was just so breathtaking. My 5 senses were never stimulated to such a great extent before. The design of Chris's house is so intriguing, he actually built it from scratch and it took him a few months, which in my opinion, is very fast. The rooms are so elaborately designed and hues of the house never fail to exude a cosy and therapeutic aura to visitors. In a nutshell, it is a stark contrast to my fuddy duddy house in North Lambton. But the downfall of the house will be its location, Rachel and I had to undergo an ardous 40 minute walk from Faulkner Crescent. In addition to the distance, we had to overcome steep gradients which made me sweat, pant and itch.

But all the tiredness was definitely worth it, for I got to admire the lovely sunset and the picturesque scenery surrounding the house as well. I felt as if that I have stepped into another realm, instead of merely stepping into another part of Newcastle. Now, I disagree with the common saying that Newcastle is boring. There are numerous pristine bridges, beautiful parks, shopping haunts and food that tantalize your tastebuds. You just have to more adventurous and go all out to explore this tiny city, which only has a land area of less than 300 km square. Will be going to Blue Water Pizza for lunch and watch the blockbuster movie, Ironman at Glendale. This will be the first time I travel for long distances on my own, without depending on Aaron's car. And that is enough to get me all excited. Not to mention, the awesome company from Rachel. We had a heart to heart talk for several hours last night, and found out much more things about her, such her past experiences and life and her opinions about random issues. From the chats, I realised that we have quite a lot of experiences and personality traits in common. It is liberating to interact with someone whom you can connect with. Because that person would accept your personality wholeheartedly, instead of judging you by your actions. We also listened to many songs on youtube. Which brings me to another point, her Internet Connection speed is very much less problematic than mine. Songs stream at breakneck speed and it only takes a jiffy for webpages to finish loading.

Rachel's bed is really inviting, with respect to the warm brown hues of the pillows,blanket and the size. It is a queen sized bed which could accomodate 2 people, and still have space allowances for turning and tossing. She even has a personal toilet, which was very spacious and had an intriguing design, with black and white tiles. Chris is indeed a very hospitable host, to provide her with such a lovely bedroom. The price she pays per week might be quite a lot more expensive than mine, but the level of comfort she gets to enjoy definitely makes up for it. There is an infinitely big difference between a house used for rental purposes and for a home. It is such a pity that my camera batteries went flat, otherwise I could have snapped numerous photographs of Chris's magnificent home. I hereby declare that the fruit cum nuts and banana bars are absolutely awesome, for they are sweet but yet healthy.

All of a sudden, I crave for numerous materialistic things, such as the mouth watering calamari rings at Blue Water Pizza, a manicure cum pedicure, nice funky boots, cosmetic contact lenses a new hair colour and exploring the nooks and crannies of Newcastle. I guess deep down inside, I want to shed my boring, plain jean exterior. It is perfectly natural for a young woman to want to look pretty, isn't it? On a total unrelated note, I discovered that Rachel has the interesting ability to sleep through numerous loud handphone alarms. Her Dad will be coming to Newcastle on the 21st June, which means that I should try to spend as much quality time with her possible for the next upcoming weeks. However, that does not mean that I would not devote time to study for my examinations.

I got one wish before I depart for Singapore. Which is to go Nelson Bay, one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Newcastle. And maybe Anna Bay too, because there is a new sport which I can try, sandboarding ! Apparently, a majority of the Malaysian people I know have tried out that sport and they seemed to enjoy it, which is evidenced from the cheery expressions in the photographs they put up on their blogs. Reading others' blogs can be considered as one of my interests now, for it can aid you in broadening your horizons about new places, albeit in a subtle way.

An unlucky week

My body clock is really screwed up. I slept at 9+ pm and here I am, wide and awake at an odd hour at 4.30 am. Lying on the bed and using my laptop really makes me tired. Not to mention that I had the most horrible week ever in my life, since Monday. Tried to go and retrieve my missing thumbdrive yesterday, but was all in vain. Someone had unplucked it from the computer terminal and probably kept it to him/herself.

I did not expect the loss my this small and important device to have such a big impact on my mood. I was so upset that I did not have the heart to eat a proper dinner, ie. I ate a bag of barbequed rings and a banana, and start on my work proper. Retyping CHEM 3210 Project 6 is inevitable now, since I saved the file in the thumbdrive. Called Mummy on the phone to vent my frustrations. Feel that the distance between the party of 4 and I are getting further and further apart each day, since Sunday, because we barely meet face to face in the house. It is so awkward behaving in such a stranger-like manner to friends whom you used to go out with.

My hunger pangs also become more intense when I am low spirits. For lunch yesterday, I ate one sweet cookie from Gloria Jeans and a ham,cheese and tomato croissant from the Hub Cafe. The sweet cookie was really costly at $1.95, but I felt that satisfying my stomach takes priority of the price at that moment of time. Went to the Engineering building and that's where I met Zhaowei. It was then the big blow of losing my thumbdrive came crashing down on me. All hopes were dashed when the lady at the Chemical Engineering administration office said that no one had come to return a lost thumbdrive.

There are just 3 more CHEM 3210 lab sessions to go. Finally, Renee and I have handed up 1 out of 7 lab reports. Aim to hand up Experiment 6 by next week. The other 5 experiments are still unfinished. The lab equipments for CHEM 3310 is more sophisticated than that of CHEM 3210. All the IR machines in CHEM 3210 lab are very primitive looking. On a totally unrelated note, there are 3 more tutorial sessions to go for IRHR 1001 as well. I must remember to go for the last lecture on Week 13, for it is the day where Shaun will give tips about the examination.

Look forward to Rachel's visit after her lesson and cooking green bean soup later. From there, we will take a bus to her house. Expecting an eventful weekend again, which will probably neutralize the negative effects of the past bad days.

Lost thumbdrive =(

This is the 2nd time in a week that I leave my belongings behind! First, it was my student ID. And today, I left my thumbdrive at one of the computer terminals at the Engineering Building. I had forgotten to take it after photocopying my notes. Let's hope that the thumbdrive will still be there when I go and try to retrieve it tomorrow.

My right shoulder and neck muscles are so painful! :( I think I must have exerted too much pressure on them while sleeping too much on one side. My physical appearance is suffering in a few ways as well, dried and itchy skin, small pimples appearing near the mouth and having lips so dry that they crack and bleed. So many misfortunes seem to befall on me simultaneously. I have been applying dollops of moisturizer and lip gloss daily now. Hopefully, they will give me adequate protection against the cold and dry autumn air.

Michael's lessons continue to baffle me. Up till now, I still can't get used to his style of writing and lecturing. He seems to expect us to understand the concepts while copying them at the same time. The fonts on his powerpoint presentations are so small that we have to go right in front to copy his notes. And the way he writes letters is so alien looking and it never fails to evoke feelings of irritation in us. Worst of all, I do not understand what he is talking about in lectures at all. I am just merely copying things off the slides without processing the information. On a more positive note, Kris came to talk to me during the break. He would be going back to Indonesia shortly after the exams. And I got to find out that Garuda Indonesia is notorious for its appalling safety standards. No wonder European countries banned their airlines from flying there.

Had an afternoon nap that lasted a couple of hours after a lunch of instant Asian fried rice and grapes. It has been yonks since I last took an afternoon nap. Did some IRHR 1001 readings after I woke up. Poring through the seemingly never ending pages of small fonts makes time pass by very slowly. I just couldn't wait to get the readings over and done with. Cooked vegetable soup,which consisted of baby corns,beansprouts,a tomato and a mushroom for dinner. Handling baby corns is definitely much more manageable than the huge corns on the cobs. I am simply too lazy to cut vegetables, so I had always purchase frozen pre-cut vegetables, tomatoes and mushrooms only. But thanks to Jesmond Fruit Barn, I now have a couple more choices; baby corn and beansprouts. :P

Finally, I have paid off all my "debts'' today, after activating my Netbank account. Pray for all my misfortunes to be gone in the shortest possible time. I want to lead a neutral lifestyle again.

Failed Experiment :( = 6/5/08

Had CHEM 3210 lecture cum tutorial in the morning, but I was building castles in the sky most of the time. Just couldn't manage to focus on the lesson due to short attention span. My mind was flooded with a lot of random issues, basically anything under the sun except for academic material. I seem to have this mentality that I can catch up with my studies later even if I do not pay attention during lectures now. Ironically, I ain't even sure whether I can do that.

Today's CHEM 3310 lab session was the most disappointing ever, for I lost all my alkene product while rotary evaporating the petroleum spirit. In other words, I had zero yield! Luckily, Adam didn't make too big a fuss out of it and consoled me by saying that I would only lose a mere mark for not having the product. I was allowed to take the IR spectras from Cathy and analyze them from there. But deep down inside, I was upset with myself for being so undiscerning towards the amount of liquid left in the round bottom flask. Next week will be the last organic chemistry lab. Afterwhich, the time will be devoted to lessons on retrosynthesis. Wish me luck in successfully completing the remaining hanging bits of my experiments!

As winter approaches, the day gets progressively shorter due to a couple instead of just 1 factor. The sun rises at a later time and sets at an earlier time. At the rate the day is shortening, the sun would rise at past 7 am and set at a few minutes past 4 pm on the day I depart for home. There is some delay in receiving an email regarding the IA interview schedules. And the feeling of being kept in suspense is a stressor. Hope it comes soon.

Cooked udon soup with tomatoes,corn,mushrooms and beansprouts for dinner. Unfortunately, the end product tasted horrid, because of the overpowering sour taste that resulted from the combination of the tomato slices and udon. Initially, I tried to force myself to finish the whole bowl, but it was a futile attempt. I gave up after finishing only half a bowl and discarded the rest away. Since the hunger pangs were not satisfied, I microwaved an instant chicken with potato dish. Let's hope that history does not repeat itself with regards to wasting food.

Did some parts of my CHEM 3210 lab report, but I still lack a reference. Need to undergo the hassle of going to Newcat to hunt for it. If all goes well, Renee and I can pass up our first completed lab report on Thursday. But 1 out of 11 lab reports is barely significant for me. Still have more than 90% to do. This big percentage is very daunting. I just have one wish now, which is to shut out all distractions and think of nothing but finishing up my work.

Lunch with Zhaowei

Fell asleep really early at before 11 pm yesterday, due to an overwhelming wave of tiredness. And the cool weather made sleeping more conducive than usual as well. Barely completed any work, either than pasting figures onto my FCC assignment. And I am proud to say that it is finally completely done, although the deadline is on 12th May.

Had a change of CHEM 3310 lecturer again, this time to an elderly balding man called Ian. It is quite hard to understand what he is teaching because he mumbles at some points of time. And his speaking pace is also very slow, and that really induces drowsiness. Went to Auchmuty library after that to top up my student ID with credits so that I can print my notes. I got a momentary shock when I realised that my student ID wasn't with me when I went to the CHEM 3210 laboratory to borrow some references to do my lab reports. If one wishes to put the references on loan, it is mandatory to give the lab staff your student ID as a guarantee.

Thankfully, I managed to find my card on one of the computer terminals in the library. Heaved a big sigh of relief for if I had really lost my card, I would need to pay $20 in replacement fees. I wasn't so lucky the previous time, when I lost my NTU matriculation card after the Astronomy exam. It was never recovered and $21 was wasted as result. Shall resolve to be less careless in the future.

Met Zhaowei at 12 pm outside Subway, where we purchased a six inch long sandwich each. We headed to the tuckshop in Student Union where we started munching on our lunch. I was surprised to find out that we know several common people, such as Linkooi, Kwang, the Aarons, Fritz and Kangyuan. Speaking of the devil, both us spotted Linkooi and Kwang in the tuckshop as well. Kangyuan was Zhaowei's mechatronics engineering coursemate in SP. And coincidentally, both of them went through training at OCS as well. It is such a pity that I got wind of the UoN Singaporean Society too late, for their last activity was held in March. And the next event would only be held in October; by then I would have already been back home. According to Zhaowei, there are only around 40 Singaporeans on the UoN Callaghan campus, and not all of them have come forth to join the society. I reckon that some of them are like me, not knowing about the existence of the club.

Linkooi came and sat with us for lunch as well. I couldn't help but feel that his voice and style of speaking is so similar to that of Sherwin aka Fido Dido, my outspoken and sometimes sarcastic senior cum friend from JJC's Science Society. Despite Linkooi's nonsensical and straightforward nature, he is actually very intelligent! Currently, he is pursuing his Honours and will study all the way up to a PhD. He stays in Birmingham Gardens and his weekly rental fee is only $100, inclusive of Internet and other house bills. That makes me quite envious, because on top of my $120 weekly rent, me and my housemates have to split other miscellaneous bills among ourselves.

The chat between me and Zhaowei lasted for almost a couple of hours and I really learnt a lot of things from him, especially about Simon and his life in Newcastle. I am glad we have some common opinions, such as agreeing that home is the best and that living with strangers requires a basic level of tolerance. UoN's school fees are several times more expensive that than of both NUS and NTU. Each year of studies cost more than $20 K and each module costs a whopping $2000+. So if you fail any modules, retaking it will definitely burn a huge hole in your pocket. Thus, I am really thankful that my A Level results were good enough to secure me a place in both NUS and NTU. Up till now, I still find it ethereal on how I much I had yearned to enter NUS, due to its prestigious sounding name and established track records since secondary school. And ironically, I am proud to say that I am a NTU student now.

For the first time in UoN, I handed up an incomplete Green Engineering assignment. Guess I can afford a borderline fail for this assignment and still can pass overall since I have gotten more than a passing mark for all the past assignments. And contents from only 3 chapters will be tested in the examination. So, I will have a lot of time to study for the paper. Sounds really relaxing, doesn't it? Geoff set an optional assignment on Units and Material Balances for students who wish to pull up their marks for the first 2 quizzes of the semester. Thankfully, I have gotten good marks for them,albeit not perfect scores. Thus, there will be one less academic burden off my mind. :)

Met Rachel's friend, Haan while on the way home from the Engineering Building. I was kind of surprised that he could recognize me,but we still exchanged friendly greetings nevertheless. It is intriguing to note that a vast majority of my friends are linked to each other, all thanks to social functions, such as Bar on the Hill Latin Night and Mysun, in addition to mutual introductions done among all of us. Haan, Jian Wen and Rachel are Weiming's juniors in Architecture. Jonathan and Weiming are doing common majors, and the former was surprised to find out that the latter lives under the same roof as me. And of course, there are many more links. In a nutshell, it such such a small world!

Had enjoyable chats with Aili and Rachel when I got home. I think it's going to be quite hard for 3 of us to meet up, due to our conflicting schedules. Even so, I am just as happy to meet both of them individually. Another link to note, Rachel and Aili know each other as well, through Mysun gatherings and sleepovers at IH. Have yet to see how IH look like, but I am just too lazy to walk long distances just to explore the vast UoN campus. The time factor is also another hindrance. So much things to do but so little time!

The 11 incomplete lab reports are weighing heavily on my mind, but I have yet to muster up the momentum to start doing them properly. I keep thinking that there is a lot of time, when actually there is not. When will I learn to draw a clear line between studies and play? Really dislike the feeling of not being able to fully concentrate on either aspects. Sigh, wallowing in self pity is such a waste of time. But I still do it. In a nutshell, studying life is a misery. =( I need a time accelerator that will bring me straight to the future, the time when exams are non existent in life!

Darby Raj and Newcastle City Council

Today was another enjoyable day with Rachel. We slept between 12 midnight to 1 am and it was the first time I shared a single bed with a friend. It was a little squeezy but I still managed to have a good night's rest. Had pancakes with butter for breakfast. The pancakes I bought this time around taste better than the previous batch. Gave Rachel one of my organic fruit bars before she rushed to attend Church. And she said that it was one the nicest bars she had ever tasted. Guess the hefty price of $2.50 is quite worth it afterall.

Rachel came back from church at 11+ am and she helped me comb and style my hair again. The feeling is very therapeutic,analogous to a massage. She said that I should experiment different hairstyles on my thin and smooth textured locks. Shall try that when I get back to Singapore, because I did not bring any beauty accessories to Newcastle. Rachel really has a lot of songs in her external hard disk, and I transferred more than 60 of her songs into my computer. From now on, I would not need to be so dependent on the Internet to listen to music anymore. And, the bandwidth has just been renewed. But I reckon that it will be used up within 3 weeks from past experiences. Hopefully, it will be an exception this time!

Got to find out a lot of fascinating facts about Rachel. She was actually born in Paddington, which is a suburb of Sydney. All along, I thought that she was born in KL. And she may get an Australian citizenship in the near future, since her HK born mother migrated to Australia when she was a teenager. Not to mention, she has great taste in clothes, wide knowledge on fashion and really good with hands-on activities, such as cooking and giving me exotic hairstyles. I feel honoured about the fact that she shares a lot of insights and innermost thoughts with me. I dare to say that her maturity level is no lower than mine, if not, higher.

We took 108 for lunch at Darby Raj at around 1 pm. As usual, we chatted almost non stop throughout the whole journey. Rachel's presence really brings out the humourous and cheerful side of me. I haven't laughed so hard and felt so optimistic in the longest time ever. Most of the time, the acute loneliness and apprehension did nothing but fuel the negative thoughts in my mind. Like Weiming, she has no exams, and will go back to Malaysia on 24th June. =( But I believe true friendship can withstand physical separation, for we still can be around each other spiritually.

We shared a wholesome lunch of butter chicken,beef and vegetables with rice, garlic naan and chicken samosa. And the price was very reasonable at $9 per person. But the variety wasn't that wide, for there were no thosais,roti johns and roti pratas. The afternoon was chilly despite the sun rays penetrating through the trees. And the sun showed signs of setting although it was just 4 pm. After eating to out hearts' content, we adjourned to Newcastle City Centre where we took several photos of the serene looking parks and other structures with intriguing designs. The large patch of grass looked very inviting for picnics. I felt as if that I had been transported to another realm, and that gave me a feeling that was oh-so-surreal. It is probably due to the fact that this one of the rare times I get to explore more of Newcastle city with such fantastic company. And I could take my own sweet time to enjoy the subtly wonderful surroundings that Newcastle has to offer.

As the saying goes,all good things must come to an end. We left the place reluctantly and took 101 back to our respective homes. A natural smile never fails to curve up on my face as I reminisce of this eventful weekend. So many unexpected and pleasant surprises and incidents have happened. I have never envisaged that I would get to know 3 more Singaporean friends and chat with some of them on MSN so comfortably, in a mere span of 2 days! Zhaowei and Durrah are the other 2 Singaporeans I have befriended and both are committee members of the UoN Singaporean Society. They are from Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering respectively. And Durrah was allowed to enter the 3rd year of her major directly. Back in NUS and NTU, she was only allowed to go direct into 2nd year, with her diploma. It is indeed an ecstatic feeling to make more friends, especially with your fellow countrymen. :)

Colourful Saturday :)

Once again, I went back to Auchmuty library to recharge my handphone with credits and surf the web. There was barely anyone in the school premises on a Saturday, but the internet connections were still as slow as yesterday's. And I could not print my IRHR 1001 readings for there were some problems in opening the PDF files.

After leaving school, I boarded 108 opposite the Maths building, with the intention of going to Jesmond to do some grocery shopping. I got quite panicky when the bus did not pass through Jesmond after 5 minutes. Instead, it made several rounds within the housing areas in Birmingham Gardens and Shortland. These housing areas looked really unfamilar and I was afraid that I had taken the wrong bus. Thankfully, my fears were uncalled for when the bus did a U turn and stopped just outside Jesmond Fruit Barn.

Jesmond Fruit Barn sells a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, even more that than that of Woolsworth. Organic products are abundant on the shelves as well. But an organic fruit bar is really costly at $2.50. Despite the hefty price, I bought 3 of them, for they only expire after July. For the first time, I bought baby corn and beansprouts. Got a few types of fruits as well, such as apples,bananas and grapes. The apples are really huge and rosy red. I got to discover a fact about apples: they can be kept for up to 1 month if stored in the refrigerator.

Next stop was Woolsworth,and I blew $86 on the groceries there. Bought several packets of sauces for my stir fried noodles, more packets of noodles,pancakes, low fat ice-cream and yogurt,together with the other usual groceries.Initially, I had intended to buy even more groceries, but decided against doing so for I do not have the strength to carry so many shopping bags. Last but not least, I went to House of Asia where I purchased some frozen fishballs,fishcakes,beancurd and some instant noodles. In total, I have spent more than $100 in shopping today! I guess the amount of food is sufficient to last me for 2 months. It is an exhilarating feeling to go on massive shopping sprees.

Met up with Rachel at 1 pm for lunch at Oceania. Ate white rice with chicken,vegetables and omelette this time. The meal cost $7.30, but I was not indignant about the price at all. The white rice was piping hot and the side dishes weren't as oily as the creamy chicken rice which I ate for the first time. It has been 2 weeks since I met her and we had quite a lot of catching up to do. And chatting with her is always entertaining. We took 226 home after Rachel had purchased her lunch from KFC. Lugging several heavy plastic bags between us was barely manageable, for more than one plastic bags showed signs of breaking or have already been broken. Interestingly, a trolley that we saw on the way home saved us from the difficult predicament. We put all the grocery bags in it and pushed it all the way home to my house's doorstep.

In my room, Rachel helped me comb and style my hair. It was such a pampering feeling. According to her, my hair is really fine and thus, it gets entangled easily. And it is very difficult to disentangle it because I cannot see the back of my head. We also had our usual dose of heart to heart talks and joke cracking. I feel as if I have known her for years,instead of a mere less than 2 months. Time whizzes past when you are having so much fun, and soon it was time to start cooking.

This time, Rachel marinated 3 chicken drumsticks with herbs for deep frying and cooked carbonara macoroni. I only helped her in boiling the macoroni until it was soft. From the standard of the taste and aroma of the food she prepares, it is almost impossible to believe that it is merely her first time cooking. I guess my compliments for her cooking will encourage to continue experimenting with food. :P. During our dinner, Wilson came back with his friend, Jonathan, who is a Singaporean. He is a 3rd year Architecture student and stays in Ang Mo Kio. Got to find out some shocking things about Simon Lee from him. Our landlord actually tries to squeeze as much money as he can out of us! And he committed an illegal act by leasing houses without a proper agent! Wilson advised us to look at the house bills before paying any amount of money that Simon requests for. I guess it is natural for businessmen to possess such calculative personality traits. Jonathan used to be the treasurer of the UoN Singaporean Society and he gave me the contact number of Zhaowei, who is the current president of the club.

My long awaited dream has finally come true, which was to know a Singaporean from UoN. Had a chat with Zhaowei on MSN and we agreed to have lunch on Monday together. As from today, I am part of the UoN Singaporean society. :) Although I only get to be a member for a mere couple of months, I look forward to attending activities organized by the committee and getting to know even more friends.

9 more weeks left =]

I realised that I blog less frequently as the months go by. Hopefully, I can make an exception this month and post up 31 entries, for there are 31 days in May. Life has been pretty boring these days, for I seldom get to go out with my friends, as they are tied down by assignments. In another 3-4 more weeks, the school term will officially end. Exam period is from 10th-27th June.

Went to school in the afternoon to print my CHEM 3210 literature review and start working on my lab reports. To my annoyance, I could not locate the melting points of the compounds in CHEM 3310 lab, probably because their names are too long. And I do not know of any scholarly chemical website that could be used. Guess I have no choice but to ask my friends for help. I decided to leave at 2 pm instead of 3 pm because I was also getting frustrated by the long waiting times for certain webpages to load. Adjourned to CHEM 3210 lab at the Science building to hand up the literature view before going home to cook lunch.

Lunch was stir fried udon with chicken satay seasoning which was in powder form. I felt the slight sour taste of the udon does not blend well with the flavour of chicken satay. The overall product ended up tasting rather strange, but nevertheless, I finished everything up. There is still half a packet of the seasoning remaining, guess I would have no choice but to use it again tomorrow in order to get rid of it as soon as possible. Dessert was the weekly serving of green bean soup. Hopefully, all the beans can be finished before I leave.

The assignment on Pinch Technology is due on Monday, but I absolutely have no inkling how to go about continuing from where I last left off. And the motivation for completing lab reports keeps going on and off. I keep getting distracted by the Internet and MSN. I know that I should draw a clear line between studies and relaxation, but reality never fails to deviate from ideality. ( hey, that rhymes !).

Decided to skip dinner tonight, due to the heavy lunch cum dessert. But I just ate a slice of cheese. Dairy products are rich in calcium and will lower the risk of getting osteoporosis during the later years in life. Finally finished my large box of cornflakes this morning, the menu for breakfast can be changed to garlic bread and Milo.

Okay, I shall sign off now. Shall make another attempt on my lab reports.

Labour Day

If I were in Singapore, today would be a public holiday because it is Labour Day. But in Australia, 1st May is just another ordinary working day. I do not really feel indignant over this fact, for I have had 2 weeks worth of mid semester break instead of a mere 1 week recess break that my NTU friends had :P

I skipped CHEM 3310 yesterday morning, because I was awoken twice in the dead of the night due to acute abdominal pains which led to diarrhea. I had to grope around in the dark for I did not want to wake my housemates up. Due to the disrupted sleep, I decided not to wake up early to go for lecture. But I went for Green Engineering lecture at 12 pm. Michael went through 4 questions for the Kinetics and Catalysis tutorial and many of us found his handwriting illegible. We often had to ask him to explain what he was writing. To be brutally honest, I have never seen such horrendous handwriting from lecturers.

After the tutorial, I went to Auchmuty Library with Jon, and I got to find out more interesting facts about him. He has a Bachelor of Biotechnology from UNSW, but has decided to do another degree in Chemical Engineering because he could not tolerate the mundane job scope of a biotechnologist. Jon preferred a job that could stimulate his thinking and unleash his creativity skills. And according to him, the course on Chemical Engineering involves a lot of critical thinking for they have to constantly design new processes to improve the current state of affairs in the industry. I can't help but be awed by Jon's determination to pursue his interest, although I find that is such a pity that he spent a hefty sum of money studying for a degree which he ended up not liking.

Went home after printing some relevant notes for my FCC assignment. Cooked instant savoury chicken rice for lunch, with the addition of some butter. And the meal tasted great, for I absolutely adore the taste of dairy products. I also love to add milk to campbell soups. Went back to school at around 5 pm for I wanted to print articles for my CHEM 3210 literature review and enjoy the privilege of having a faster Internet speed. I proceeded to Auchmuty Library after meeting up with Renee at the Geology building to get her intepretations of the various spectra for Experiment 5 of CHEM 3210 lab.

I spent around 3 hours in the library, but did not manage to get a lot of work done as I was distracted by the Internet SMS and random web surfing. Doing anything related to school bores me out. Yesterday was the first time I walk home from school in complete darkness. It was quite a refreshing experience, but I still prefer to go home in broad daylight due to safety reasons. But I am not scared darkness!

For the first time, I marinated my frozen food with a myriad of spices and sauces for dinner before stir frying them. The fragrance and taste weren't as good as expected, for the taste of the sauces had neutralized the fragrance of the spices. I should not add both sauces and spices together in future. But cooking involves a lot of experimenting, doesn't it? And the saying " practice makes perfect'' is oh-so-true with respect to this life skill.

Today, I woke up at quite early at 8+ am for I had fallen asleep before midnight the day before. Spent most of the morning working on my CHEM 3210 assignment, which quite tedious because I had to put on my thinking cap and analyze the experiment. Time really whizzed by and I was late for IRHR 1001 tutorial by about 10 minutes

Attendance at the tutorial was exceptionally bad today, for there were only 8 of us in the class. The discussion topic was on managing change and as usual, I was more of a watcher than do-er. I felt that my ideas weren't in tandem with my group mates, and my brain felt empty despite doing the assigned readings. Everyone who was present expressed their opinions spontaneously to Tony, except for me. I only spoke out when he prompted me to do so. If I continue showing such passiveness during all the tutorial sessions, I will most probably fail for the 15% allocated for participation. And it is kind of demoralizing when you always feel tongue-tied but yet, you do not know how to overcome it.

Went to the Student Hub to try to finish up my literature assignment, but it was a futile attempt for 1 hour is not sufficient for me. Bought a pistachio and chocolate coated meringue, which was tasteless on the outside but sweet in the inside. Nevertheless, I still prefer cakes, cookies or wraps.

Although there were no major hiccups during CHEM 3210 lab, I felt that it was rather unproductive and disappointing. Despite 2 attempts, ie, 1 by Renee and myself, we did not manage to get the orange pink product for Experiment 3 for the cobalt complex had decomposed even though we did not heat it to 90 degrees celcius. Worst of all, even Geoff could not point out exactly on what had gone wrong. So, we were left with no choice but to utilize the samples from the fridge for our reports. And, I did not have enough time to use the rotary evaporator for Experiment 7, for a lot of time was spent waiting for the thermometer to show a reading of 90 degrees celcius, for the lab manual stated that the complex will become plum coloured at that temperature. And afterwhich the complex will become brown if heating is continued. Ironically, the complex decomposed and turned brown, even though the solution had not reached 90 degrees celcius.

Looks like I have no choice but to make a special trip down to school tomorrow just to hand up my literature review. In order to make the journey more worthwhile, I might just stay in school to complete my lab reports. It is already Week 9 but I have not submitted a single report for both CHEM 3210 and CHEM 3310. This weekend shall be spent devoted to lab reports, for the allowance time for procrastination is getting lesser and lesser at an alarming rate!

On the way home, I realised the leaves of the maple tree have turned from yellow to red. It was an intriguing sight, for red maple leaves are non existent in Singapore. This colour change indicates that autumn will turn into winter soon. For me, it is my maiden time experiencing the distinct differences in seasons all my life. What Liyun said is so true, living in overseas can enrich one's life.

There is something to look forward to this weekend. Rachel will be coming on Saturday for a 3rd round of cooking session and a sleepover before she goes to church on Sunday. I believe that the carbonara that she intends to cook will taste great. If your friend prepares food for you wholeheartedly, it will taste exceptionally good, even though it might be psychological. Anticipate a lot of fun and laughter. It makes me smile when I think of the excellent chemistry between the both of us. :) Hope our friendship will continue to blossom, even when I depart for Singapore.