no frills

2007-02-17T23:29:00.000+08:00

okay now.
i know my header pic looks pretty darn ridiculous, but it doesn't matter now.

i'm switching to LJ!!
so go here

2007-01-27T00:02:00.000+08:00

i have cat fur all over me.
and dog fur.
i have chocolate stains on my beige tank as well as my puma.
i'm stuffed with all sorts of junk, seriously:
swiss rolls, gummies, chai tao kuey, satay beehoon, our cakes ...
and i'm totally, and completely pooped.
(why on earth am i here blogging?
oh right. cuz i'm ecstatic about my friday night.)

so instead of being at forensic science, i popped myself into car's mum's car (pardon the pun) & headed off to serangoon gardens to finally see her kitties & to bake! like lawsh put it, they were doing 2 of my favourite things: cats [fine, that's not exactly an activity] and baking.

oh yes, i might've forgotten to add: i bumped into car, laysh & lawsh outside coop while waiting for forensics to start. the former 2 were crashing, & were about to head to car's place.
missing forensics was totally unintentional, but at the suggestion, i thought - yeah, why not. frankly, i'm thankful for spontaneity such as times like these .. can't take school too seriously sometimes, i feel.

and it was totally worth it -
i got licked loads, got to see the kitties & made really delish, albeit unexpected, molten cakes from the recipe i remembered from nigella .. all on a cold, rainy friday night.

i am content.

2007-01-08T00:11:00.000+08:00

so while dinnering with the cousins friday night,
cousin #1 says to go watch 'stranger than fiction' - something about "little did he know".
so i check out the website, and i hear emma thompson's voice talking about the cursor.

i'm hooked.

thus to cathay i head, to catch it before my impending nus prisonage (say pree-zon-nahge).

missed the front because i was waiting for my toast to be done,
but the most captivating memory of the show, personally, would be -

ana pascal.

miss ana pascal.
who went to harvard law. just barely, but they let her in because of her essay on how she would make the world a better place with that degree.
miss ana pascal,
who brought snacks during study group, and baked them herself.
miss ana pascal,
who after 3 years, had 27 study groupmates, 2 non-law groupmates, and a dminus average.
miss ana pascal,
who decided then that she would still make the world a better place, but with cookies instead.

can i be miss ana pascal?
please?

2006-12-17T22:30:00.000+08:00

have been watching a fair bit of grey's lately - since i got season 2 for my birthday.
which intrigued me to get the soundtrack yesterday.
popped it into the system, the first song plays.
it was one of the tunes i found memorable from the show, but then the lyrics came ... & my heart broke a little.

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

The Fray - How To Save A Life

2006-11-30T15:07:00.000+08:00

somebody buy me a kitty?

2006-11-13T18:37:00.000+08:00

it's been a long arduous webcast journey since this morning, in prep for my medchem paper tomorrow. and this is not a last-minute-hug-buddha's-leg attempt for not attending lessons, it's relistening to GML for revision. i truly believe she's a nice person, but good grief - only pharmers would know the terrors of listening to GML, one webcast after another, @ 1.7 speed. as if 1.0 aint bad enough.

and so today while studying, i thought of good ol' inny .. and how she told me back then that she wanted to pursue pharmacy next time (maybe). at that time, pharmacy wasn't even in my head.
and so now i miss her. sometimes i wish that she could have done pharmacy too, and then i'd have her to be in this together too. and when i messaged her, in the midst of my misery, she tells me she's having scones at manchester.

d'uh.

(well, at least she said she wished i was there)

it's back to climbing mountains (oh Lord, give me strength) and then after tomorrow's paper, to fighting monsters known as anti-tuberculosis, anti-fungal and God forbid, anti-viral.

2006-10-19T05:55:00.000+08:00

it's 5.50 am and i'm up studying for my pharmaco paper @ 830 am.
armed with my tehpeng and charsiewbao.
just so we're clear, i don't do such things.
(mumblemumble) good grief, what has NUS reduced me to.
and i think i'd better be back after the paper to sleep, and then back to school again.
then it's time to hit medchem, cimetidine and pcmodel for tomorrow's paper.
jeez, & this aint even the finals.

2006-10-03T23:53:00.000+08:00

phfft.
got off work at 11.30pm and got back at 11.32pm - one & a half hours OT.
at least transport's a breeze.
time to begin on patho. groan.

2006-09-27T12:27:00.000+08:00

this was so much fun -
our mooncake festival @ serfoo's 24sept06.
there are some missing .. in em's cam.
but my stomach's killing me now, so i'm just gonna go.

2006-09-16T23:53:00.000+08:00

i had a really nice evening tonight.
thank God for it, really.
was initially totally not in the mood and thought maybe i should have some time alone. it's a good thing i shoved that aside. the weather seemed kinda wonky, so we decided to watch a show instead. devil wears prada - having wanted to watch; sneaking forbidden food into the cinema & eating in front of the tv (albeit a huge one) - one of my loves. then we headed back to dump our stuff and go for our run since the weather seemed to have cleared. i wanted less-polluted air, so we ran at the twists&turns of what i'd call the maze to eton hall. it was a cool night to run. came back all in good timing, and turned on the tv. got hooked to watching sharks on animal planet, and then family man on channel 5. that's why it's 11.55pm and i'm just starting work. but it was such good time off that i don't have the usual guilt that comes along with just plain ol' bumming.
the sweetest thing, really, was the bag of chocolates (yoghurt & dark - i like) that came with a note in attempt to cheer up my completely sucky week.
God knows i really, really needed a nice time off.
really, really thank you God.

2006-09-15T01:03:00.000+08:00

you know stress has reached new heights when conversations start like this:

swi. a happy draw! says:
swei
let's go burn down nus okay

swei. says:
YAY
okay set

swi. a happy draw! says:
great
u brg the kerosene
i'll bring the lighter
tmr night okay
tonight let me sleep
ahhaaa

swei. says:
unfair
im smaller, so i shouldnt carry heavy kerosene
exchange lah

swi. a happy draw! says:
wah
to quote dear old mrs leow
the world isnt fair
hahah no exchange
nothing doing!

swei. says:
she said that? haha.
my world is something else thou

swi. a happy draw! says:
ha
okay fine

can i crumble, just for a minute.

2006-09-11T17:10:00.000+08:00

i was just telling bird it's 9/11 today. i didn't even realise until i scribbled down the date on my lecture notes just as the professor was about to begin. i remember at our usual 6.30am breakfast on 9/12/01 (US style. hey, coincidentally my bday UK style), inny was distraught about it the morning of our prelims. i was clueless about what had conspired while in my bed. it's been 5 years since.

last night wasn't a nice night.
school's causing my emotions to head off on a roller coaster ride on their own accord, very much without my permission. they veer from anything to everything. and @ pharmaco today, as he was going through the symptoms of depression, i mentally ticked off very single one as i thought about last night. good grief. bird's right: i (we) need God's grace. to keep our focus on the bigger picture i.e. him.
and thank God for friends too.
bird knew exactly what i was going through and that in itself was a comfort. yelling 'i love you!'s, albeit across MSN, helps one remember we're not alone.
sam couldn't do much, but he said he could pray + talk + buy food for me. it was an awfully sweet thing to say, but i had to tell him i was already getting fat from sitting on my arse 24/7.

and that's the way the cookie crumbles, folks.

2006-09-09T21:54:00.000+08:00

i left the house having one of those fat-days, but today actually turned out quite .. nice.
today was not bad a day.
only downside was being unable to take a nap, and my books still beckon from the table - that and much more. fine, make that downside(s).

i got the clinic assistant job, and 1st 2 hours of training was this afternoon.
there's alot of administrative mumbojumbo swimming around the grey matter @ the mo, but i guess it'll all settle once it comes with routine. i'm quite psyched about what i'll learn (hopefully), but not so psyched at the idea of "work". i'm a bundle of inconsistencies, i know. the pay's nothing, unfortunately, but the point was to gain relevant experience in the field. actually, it's been a thought playing in my head, so when i saw that they were hiring, i jumped at it immediately (in retrospect, probably without thinking). but it does seem like it's God's idea too, so i'll let you know how that goes. i'll know it is if i learn heaps.

and then there was sam's commissioning parade.
it was nice windy, cloudy, not-so-humid weather over @ safti. i had a nice time talking to arr-mily. watching the parade was nice too, considering the weather was okay, it started punctually, it didn't feel draggy, and of course it was nice that sam was in it & a happy day for him too.

but frankly, 2 things struck me from my conversation with arrm.

1) i was amazed at how just after 4 lectures of sociology, it has shone light on certain issues in a very unconscious way. like, concepts would suddenly just crystallize when i realize certain things. it's hard to explain, but its the same effect as when i did philosophy - for the lack of a better word, enlightening.
for eg, when wen was talking about her friend keeping mum despite being mistreated, it brought to mind about how sociologists established that people tend to obey authority despite not being obliged to. and also when i was laughing at the OCS songs, i remembered that they are part of the plan, among other things like uniform, symbols etc., to imbue comradeship and patriotism while in an unfavourable situation (guys don't do NS volunteerily). eric confirmed that by saying his fondest memories were in OCS.
such is the education i love.

2) i realized i actually do have aspirations for my future vocation. that came a little as a surprise to me. not that i've been wafting all this while, but .. it's hard to put words to it.
anyways, here it is .. my aspiration as a pharmacist is to be able to play a significant part in devising the optimal/most advantageous/basically, the best medication profile for the patients. i acknowledge counselling is another important responsibility, but in concordance with this would make my education worth its while. and for this reason, arrm(doctor)+bell(nurse)+i(pharmacist) would want to go to africa (or some underdeveloped area) where we can truly translate what we have to what we can. one thing that dawned on me when bell came back from acheh was that where there is genuine need, all that red-tape bureaucratic crap can be tossed out the window.

one of them preachy posts, huh. but welcome to my world.

2006-09-08T01:11:00.000+08:00

it's 1.07 am & i can't sleep yet because i'm waiting for my hair to dry. meanwhile, the french soci lecturer is going on in the background, and nothing's going in. pushing past all the "zee"s & "joir"s to get to the english behind them is something that requires full attention.

it's been one heck of a week, a myriad of things all mixed and splashed over the past 4 days. oh wait, that means it hasn't technically been a week yet. sure feels like it though. in bold would be #1 efficient day @ starbucks, morning run @ macritchie, unproductive nights, watching judging amy, pathology paper, formulating Ethanolamine oleate Injection BP 1999 in ampoules, being interested in a clinic assitant position and finally getting to eat @ hog's breath cafe.

i was motivated to have my stuff at my fingertips beginning of the semester. it's still there, i guess. but somehow, seeing pharmacy literally hitting the books (they'd swallow it if they could) in a manner that appears to be more for getting that big, red A+ on the paper, rather than genuinely wanting to prepare for the profession, well, kinda spoils it a little.
(& sue thinks i study too hard.)

by the way, 07/09/06 spells the death of my black starbucks flask. groan.

2006-09-03T22:04:00.000+08:00

i'm so bad at updating, i know. but then again, i don't even know if there are people that come to update .. so, oh wells.

my favourite pharmacology teacher, Katzung, & i have been spending the entire afternoon together. don't be impressed - it means hesistant progress. with nickelback's 'far away' on repeat and chad kroeger belting out 'you know, you know, you knowwwww'. but it's not bad accompanying music, so there it is. studying at home's a little scary, the munchies come at a higher frequency .. wonder why. all my pongpias are gone. i was just lamenting that uni students are just an unhealthy bunch for most - i mean seriously, i don't even have the luxury of running as much as i did back in jc. actually, that's not true. i could do a 30 minute sprint or something, but where's the fun in that? i used to be able to study in school, get bored, chuck the books and go run with friends. this is ridiculous: why am i not in america already? lawsh, if ure reading this .. help me scout for potential colleges okay?

wow. all in one paragraph. exactly how i can't stand it, i believe. but, ahh ...
and so, monday it is again.

2006-08-20T23:33:00.000+08:00

2006-08-11T22:25:00.000+08:00

day 2 of cookie corporation in the works:

the pardner&i finished 2 of our premium flavours (strawberries&cream + espressogood).
not too shabby.
stamina's dropping, but efficiency may be increasing.
the p's are starting to fall into place .. the product, the packaging, the pricing. all of which cannot be done without all the lovely people who had no business doing this but helped anyway - sue, ads & the folks (for major kitchen invasion).

my 2000 word report is shrieking at me.

2006-08-11T00:40:00.000+08:00

i open the storeroom to grab the screwdriver, and the lingering waft of baking cookies surprises me. food smells really do permeate every inch, nook & cranny of my home.

anyone who knows me ought to know baking confectionaries that delight both tongue and stomach is an absolute love of mine. hence the ready agreement to set up our cookie stall with fellow shi.
however, today's 6,7 hours was sufficiently tiring. and i had help from the capable ade! imagine labouring without her. 600 cookies baked, packed, taped and labelled down. er .. another 2400 to go (yelp).

with the afternoon having whizzed right by, it was off to iks for din with the brother & sue. thank goodness it wasn't that rowdy mess as 2 days ago. seriously, singapore - there's life OUTSIDE ikea.

now i'm zonked, room's begging for added orderliness and a 2000 word report along with a logbook that's yet to be completed.
sigh.
procrastination is such a bane.

2006-08-08T23:44:00.002+08:00

had a premature demise from our annual get-fun-and-fat chalet this year round because the flu bug had to hit - twice. actually, i'm beginning to suspect it was the same influenza virus from the 1st time round, only dormant. viruses - you just gotta hate them. right along with bugs & all things scaly.

happy photos i like

stupid but funny photos

just plain stupid

2006-08-08T23:44:00.001+08:00

i just realised it's so easy to blog about teenytiny things, but so hard to blog about things truly significant/that really matter. maybe it's because the enormity of the task to express fully the complexity of episodes combined with emotions simply overwhelms me, and i'm left just staring at a blank screen not knowing where to start.
i'll never be a journalist at this rate. nor do i intend to, i suppose. but perhaps i ought to start. (not being a journalist; penning down things that truly matter)

2006-08-03T14:57:00.000+08:00

good grief.
i really hate myself sometimes -
i left a pen in the pocket of my white blazer and did my laundry.
along with my other whites.
and some of my favourite clothes as well.
some might say, "oh, that's too harsh .. maybe 'hate the things i do' instead."
no, it's because of me that i do the things i do.

!!!!!!!
dang it.

thank goodness no one else's clothes was harmed in the process.

2006-08-02T10:40:00.000+08:00

and i'm back!
serfoo asked if it was a trip "that was so good that i would not want to have missed it in the least" - or something to that extent. i gave it a thought, and said yes. frankly in my opinion, there are many experiences i've been through, both the tears and the cheers, that i would not have wanted to miss for the world. this one had it's share of down sides, but all the fun, friends, cold weather & stupid pictures more than compensated.

2006-07-12T01:23:00.000+08:00

okays, peeps.
i fly to australia tomorrow, no wait - today, for IPSF (international pharmacy students' congress).
congress is for 10 days, and then a bunch of us will be heading to sydney for 5 days.
the amount of luggage required for the congress is ridiculous, so as much as i like to play santa claus for each trip, this might prove to be somewhat of a challenge.

i'll be back in 17 days.
till then.

2006-07-11T12:36:00.000+08:00

as usual, i finished the last (we were done in that order). although part of the reason is that my stylist was hardly in a rush and so by the time law was done, my head was still cocooned in that steamer-bowl thingy.
pity though: i had my mind all set on purple and fuschia/ash (weird combi, i know) but apparently you need bleach for purple, and that kind doesn't last anyway. oh wells. same thing for lawsh because she had thought of purple too, but hers turned out purpler than mine. (i had kinda tossed the purple idea out of the window already)

dye job, down. packing, to do. and then down under we go!

2006-07-08T18:58:00.000+08:00

girl coussies hopped by for our tiramisu-tryst.
there we are:

in fact, it was after that particular dinner that our decision to was made.

so anyhow,
they came by @ 8am in the morning, where i had to drag myself out of bed because i had slept past midnight previously. cold storage wasn't even opened yet, so we sat around, climbed my bed (they did), surfed recipes and chatted over nanah's italy photos.
then 1030am came, and we trooped off for ingredients.
came back, and did the best assembly we tiramisu greenhorns could.

that tiramisu up there? wish i could tell you our tiramisu looked like that.
unfortunately this was no gourmet restaurant, but ... it was g-ooooh-d.
3 of us agreed that much.
now my brain is ticking on how to get tiramisu-making a)cheaper b)easier c)healthier.

2006-07-07T01:09:00.000+08:00

and so i've got 2 hours on hand before i sink myself in front of the telly for lost.
out comes the chocolate, butter, eggs, flour and .. kahlua!

this was definitely a pass considering the miserable failure of the first try:
i didn't split the batter into 2, so the thickness was just right.
i found plain flour and used it instead of self-raising.
the top crust was crispy! you could hear the faint crunch when you break the surface with a fork.
it was gungy - i like brownies to be dense, rich and totally un-cakey. can't tell from the photo's angle, thou.

life is good where there is food.

2006-07-03T02:28:00.000+08:00

the curse of the insomniac is a serious bane.
and i got it last night - bad. i looked as though i had been up the whole night watching soccer when really, i was just trying to get myself to sleep. wen informed me that they were @ noy's till 6am, and i think i should've just gotten myself over. afterall, insomnia with company is preferable to without. and i would've, if i had known.

so looks like tonight might be yet another attack. this is not looking good. clock's gone completely haywire now, i feel.
but i have liang to the rescue @ the mo: i'm watching cable via msn .. will wonders never cease.
or maybe i'll take back the rescue part - after channel surfing, he's making me watch F1.

past 2 days, not too bad.
cookie baking, reach service seemed rather eventful. my ywav tee was purple! wen knows me well. worship rehearsal @ night, then insomnia struck, seeker service the next morning. half-dead as i was, service was good. back home and straight to bed for a 4-hour knockout and woke up starving. dinner @ liang court .. good food, cousins for company, meidi-ya shopping and milk tea gelato.

okay, time to tiramisu recipe search. and oprah primetime with grey's anatomy, finally.

2006-06-30T19:46:00.000+08:00

for some reason, i'm feeling a little out-there today. i did get 8 hours sleep though, so i wonder why.

maybe it's the humdrum of the day's events:
woke up, cooked dinner, left the house to meet noy for coffee, curled up into a starbucks sofa with an oreo cheesecake and my john grisham novel for a good 2 hours, headed to jelita to get my dvds & grocery shop (where i almost walked into li nanxing because i didn't see him).
on my way, fudges called to catch superman in like, 45 minutes' time. i didn't mind and was bordering on 50-50, but the scales tipped 51-49 and i had to say no.

so now i'm distracted from writing my preceptorship logbook, and i haven't even gotten round to penning the report yet. if i don't get it done soon, all that mental storage will just go wooshing out the window and i'd be doubly stuck with getting it done.
in my opinion, procrastination really is the worser of the two evils.

2006-06-30T01:33:00.000+08:00

clean space.
i had to delete all my past entries to get it. going thru some of them was certainly nostalgic - which was why i didn't linger for too long before i got stuck midway.
i think i don't like much myself being sentimentally attached to things. many people sink into nostalgia and never make it out.