random

BIRTHDAY
so, what is the meaning of birthdays
if you search for 'birthday' in wikipedia, here's what you get...
well here are the keywords: 'party' 'cake' 'candles' 'making wish' 'presents' 'bday song'

party - well yes, gatherings over meals are counted.
cake - yea mostly.
candles - yea if there's a cake involved, but usually with a candle without the 's'
making wish - i never believe in 'making wishes' guess i'm too practical, as far as i rmb, i never believe that by making wishes in front of a bday cake, the wish will come true miraculously. so if it doesn't, then why think so hard/ waste time when everyone's waiting around you and pretend i'm making a real wish?
p/s: i would make a wish when i see a shooting star :P
presents - yes, usually but not always. but that's ok, to me, what's more important is the company, the thought and the feeling of being special around ppl.

in high school, there's one other classmate with the same bday as me, although we only shared the same class for one (or 2?) years in highschool. but anyway, bday celebration is not a big thing among my classmates
then during undergrad, my bday falls into uni holiday.
in honours year (ie 4 years after leaving high school), there's a colleague whose bday is 2 days ahead of mine,
then the next year up till now, there are 4 of us with bdays 4 days in a row.
among 2 (of the 3) different circles of my friends, i'm not the only special person at my bday celebration

aww... see i'm always sharing my special day with other ppl. mayb that's why i'm so excited about my uni graduations. haha! can't get enough with them one after another lol!! but this year i'm going to have my last graduation day in my life!! i promise.

dear friends, if you happen to read this, don't get me wrong. i'm not complaining abt sharing my bday with other ppl. just so happen to know so many Capricorns :)

for my parents, that's the day my parents longed for the day i was born. like every baby does, brought joy and happiness to my parents on that day.
wish i can have my parents with me on my birthday, with me physically, every year. I guess every day is my birthday when we live together. because I'm always the special one, feel their love everyday

coming back to the question: what is the meaning of birthday?
it's a day which i can feel special abt myself, feel loved and remembered
______________
'默默耕耘'
i remember that is what my primary 6 class teacher commented about me in our class book.
and now, i'm still doing the same thing!! it would be nice if your superior see and acknowledge your hardwork :(

Happy new year!!
Wow, it's been almost 4 months since my last post. Yea kind of becane bored wondering who else is reading my posts here, so stopped writing new ones. Nevertheless, feel like writing one tonite.
Had too much food at dinner for a hungry stomach, hving tummy-ache now. But it was a good dinner, for my bday :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
电视上看到'flashpoint'，好怀念那些熟悉的建筑物和街道
看着CC的reciept，就想到那些需要付小费的日子
躺在两个枕头上，就想起住饭店的18天
所以我是真的爱上了多伦多，还昰只是想换个新的地方?新的环境?
可是一个人生活在全新的国家是还蛮需要勇气的
好矛盾哦!

最近我妈告诉我theage有我们 institute 的招聘广告
是在暗示我留在这边吗？?

不会吵架的事

不善于吵架 是件好事吗？
有时会很气自己为什么当下忍气吞声，事后才在那边懊恼说为什么刚才没告诉他我有多不满，他有多不对
可是我在想，一旦吵了架，隔天要当没一回事的跟对方讲话，我可能很难办到
所以吵不起架可能是件好事

临场反应慢，不止发生在那种时候，
连在工作时也是如此
往往要让我自己好好思考后，或是冲凉时，睡觉前，等tram时，才会想出有建设性的点

又一个人生大道理

我们为什么会依然活在这个地球上，能够平安活着，绝对是种幸运

你说不是吗？

谁知道哪一天哪一个时刻，一倒霉，不幸的事可能会发生，

可能患重病、发生意外，

好好的一个人就可能这样走了。

人生无常，一点都没说错，

没有人知道自己能活多久，

也没有人知道，人一旦离开了，到底是去了哪里，

还能有喜怒哀乐吗？还能有亲人朋友吗？

多数人需要工作，

因为需要赚钱，才能养活自己，才能维持基本的生活条件，

需要有各种不同的行业，才能互相满足需求，

虽然地球还是会照转，时间还是一样不会停，

人们还是需要工作，社会国家才会运作，人们才能生活

干活是为了过活

但可悲的是，不是每个人都喜欢自己的工作，不是每个人都享受做工

所以，难道说这些人是在浪费自己的生命做着自己不喜欢的事情，只为了能够活下去，

这太矛盾了吧？

想想古时候的人，

种种菜，养养家畜，

满足自己，互相交换，

简单的过着，不要求太多，只要求温饱，还是一样活得好好的

古时候的人比较快乐吗?

所以呢，

人生短短几十年，

‘...明日何其多！ ’
好好享受我们的幸运，把握生活，快快乐乐的活！

也不要 ‘明日复明日’

今日不知明日事啊！

i'm just tired of dealing with the plumber!!
last monday, the hot water unit got replaced, since then the plumber came back 3 times to fix the leak around the hot water unit. friday was the last time he came. over the weekend, it seemed to be fixed but when i checked again this morning there's still a small leak, it's so tiny that it doesn't actually drip on the newspaper i put underneath, but when i touched it with a tissue paper, there re water droplets. sien!! thought of checking it this morning for the last time before i pay them for the job!!
and my unhelpful flatmate told me not to get the plumber to come tmr morning (they usually come at 730am) because she wants to sleep in! she has her day-off tmr. !!!!! wth!
i'm so sick of her! when is she getting married?!?!?!

~~~~~~~~~
looking for the accomodations in canada in october. not cheap leh. and the plan of travelling there on my own feels a bit scary. Need to avoid dodgy areas and accomodation. well Toronto is one of the safest city in the world, so it shouldn't be that bad. but on the other hand i'm excited, it's a nice country to visit! and i decided to make a trip to see the Niagara Falls!! woohoo!! always thought the NF is in the US, but it's actually not far from Toronto, at the border of Canada and NewYork :)

no more chips for me
this new found fav of mine shall replace my chip-ing habbit when i'm in the bad mood. it does make me happy :)
since i'm back from holiday, i've been eating well at home and been cooking a lot more often. good on me!

i just learnt what is stress,
that's when i realised when i don't handle them well it affects my health/well-being. i know since highschool that it'll make my 'old problem' worse (this problem was completely gone for a year while i'm in trinity college!), but then now there are other problems too

i actully wish that i'm sick *touchwood* so that i can get away from them for a moment, although i know that i still hv to deal with them later.

sigh...

I want...

to finish my experiment
to finish my thesis
to graduate

to get a job
to move to a new country
to run away from some ppl in melbourne

to have a place to stay on my own
to have a car

以前呢，有事不想面对，觉得有压力，就会想埋头睡觉，什么都不要想
现在呢，反而不想去睡，因为不想一觉醒来就要面对事情，想再拖一下
唉

享受了 18 天的客厅、沙发、电视，明天开始又要回到房里的书桌了 :( 好惨哦 哈哈
再过两个星期，连在房里都不得清静了
好享受一个人在家，可以为所欲为

——————————————

好想逃跑！
第一次觉得这么想要跑掉
这次不是在怀疑自己的选择，或许是因为知道离开终点不远了

压力加上累了
四年了，真的够了

So, what happened in my 2010?

I watched 13 movies in the cinema,
3 concerts,
and 4 musicals.

Been to Sydney twice, Brisbane+GoldCoast once.

Saw fireworks in Syd for the first time in my life.

Went to the rehearsal of the Carols by Candlelight by Vision Australia.

Attended 1 friend’s wedding (3 other friends got married in the same year).

Be part of the postgrad student association of mcri.

Gave my first ‘public’ oral presentation at the ASMR student symposium in the Ella Latham theatre (the biggest theatre hall at rch/mcri),
Gave my first oral presentation at a proper conference (Aussiemit in Garvan Institute, Syd)

Attended 2 scientific conferences (Lorne and Syd), 1 student symposium.

First paper published, a middle authorship, Am J of Hum Genetics.
Countless experiments completed, successfully or not.

Ate a lot of yummy food in melb and Sydney, thanks to the foodies who were there with me.

Had 3+1 friends and 2 groups of relatives visiting melb from msia/s’pore.

2 new babies from 2 cousin/cousin’s wife.

Had 2 wisdom teeth removed.

Went to the dentist for the first time here, and had my first ‘scale and clean’.

Said ‘I love you’ to someone in person for the first time (she’s my very very nice colleague la).

Had 2 haircuts.

‘burnt’ my hand with dry-ice (at work) and got a hand full of blisters for almost a week, learnt my lesson in a hard way.

Got my driving licence eventually.

Had my first outdoor moonlight cinema experience.

It rained+hailed+flooded in melb city and it all happened in front of me.

Went up to the Eureka tower for the first time, the view was great.

Had my first Coke zero, it tastes better than the original Coca Cola! less sweet.

~~~~~~
looking fwd to more exciting experiences to come in the 2011!!

wow! i just went back to my old blog post to see wat's my year 2010's resolution
and here's what i said:
i should learn to be more forgetful on things i shouldn't rmb;
i should learn to look at certain things with one eye closed;
i should learn to enjoy my life more coz it can be very short;
i should learn to be more talkative to 'strangers' (well not random ppl on the street lar, but more like ppl at work for example, ppl whom i'm not close friends with).

how similar to this year's!!
hmmm not very good huh... means i hvn't achieved much
and also i hvn't changed/grown much :S

The fireworks are one of the best invention in the world, don't you agree?

i love fireworks,
everytime i see fireworks i'm 感动-ed
was watching video snaps of the 2011 new year celebration fireworks around the world on the BBC website, for some reason, i'm almost in tears.
seeing it on the tv screen is different, you need to hear the noise of the fireworks which is like .3 sec behind (light transports faster than sound you see),
and if you're close enough to the source of the fireworks, you need to feel the light on ur face (although there might be ashes and smokes coming to your face too but who cares)

can't imagine how depressed and dissappointing i will be if i'm not seeing the fireworks with my bare eyes when i'm in the city that celebrates with fireworks!

hope that one year i can be in sydney or taiwan for the NYE
syd for the fantastic fireworks, top2 in the world in terms of NYE celebration.
taiwan for the live NYE countdown shows.

____________

new year's resolution(s).... hmm...
the first one is very straight forward: to finish my PhD!!
then, the others are:
be more forgiving to certain ppl (of course, those who deserve la),
be kind to ppl who are kind to me,
live for myself, if ppl don't care then just be it, be more care-less
love myself and my parents more, life is shourt!


Happy 2011 to myself! :)

礼

从今年十月份到现在，一共合送了5份生日礼物，各人送了2份圣诞礼物，还买了2份准备送出去的圣诞礼物

挑礼物是一门学问，是用心思修来的学问

而收礼物也是学问，是用EQ修来的学问
当你收到一份你不喜欢的礼物，要抑制自己脸上出现‘我不喜欢’这四个字，还要称赞送礼人，和表现得感动感激，我承认我不及格

人家说，‘有心就好，送什么都没关系’
我，还在努力的体会当中

how i lost my wisdom... teeth

i lost my money, my wisdom and my teeth, all at once on wed morning...

Firstly, a good breakfast before the surgery

then to the dental appointment, accompanied by a kind friend of mine :)

the procedure wasn't as bad as i thought.

from cutting my gum to letting me bite on the cotton thing, took less than 25mins i recon. felt like 15mins or less.

started with a few injections of the anaesthetic drug, was quite worried when the surgeon's hand was shaking when he's giving me the injection to my top jaw! he's a reasonably old man, experienced surgeon. haha. it's probably my jaw bones la.

and he still remembers what i told him in march, about i'm a phd student doing research on mitochondria.

After the injections is a mouth-rinse, then i was left alone in the room for 10-15 mins, felt like 15mins, flipping through the Gourmet magazine a few times back and forth, read abt macaroons, blue cheese, all while half of my mouth (including half of my tongue) turned numb. the nurse/assistant came in once or twice to get the tools prepared.

when the surgeon came in again, he got me to put on a pair of sunnies (this is what they do before they turn on the bright light on my face/mouth), adjusted the chair, they quickly put on their gowns gloves and face masks, then start cutting my gum. i couldn't feel anything at all.

then he warned me abt the 'vibration' before cutting up my embeded wisdom tooth, felt tiny bit of pain at that time,

then he warned me again for some snapping sound. then one by one he picked up pieces of my tooth/something else? from my jaw. i counted up to 4 or 5 (can't rmb now) pieces. then he quickly sew the gum, saw the 'thread', i closed my eyes when he did the stitching, didn't want to imagine that.

then to the next tooth, upper jaw this time, warned me abt some pushings he's abt to make. yes pushing, not pulling tho.

tried with the smaller 'plier' thingy, didn't work, the assistant passed him a bigger tool, few pushes and here comes my funky looking tooth, 'this can be made into an earring' is what he said to me -_-

got to bring the teeth (one funny looking tooth and 3 pieces of tooth fragments) home as a souvenior. went to buy some pain killers and Nurofen before heading home in the rain.

popped those tablets into my mouth, did some emails, analysed some data, felt super sleepy coz of the pain-killer. so went to bed woke up 3 or 4 hours later, still feeling tired. numbness pretty much gone. had some food then slept again.

didn't feel much pain, was bit irritated by the bloody smell in my mouth that's all. very careful with brushing.

the next morning, woke up with a swollen cheek :(

a 'lopsided chipmunk' is what my friend said. very little pain, but bit stiff with my muscle. spent the whole day on the couch watchin twnese talk shows, shouldn't hv checked work email coz it made me think abt work again, had a nap, went to bed before 10pm.

the next morning (This morning), less swollen but instead, a bit numb :( decided to go back to work in the afternoon after lunch. before heading to work, went to the private health insurance to get some money back, then found out i can only claim half as much as i thought i could :(

what i've been eating since wed:

just found this in the brochure the nurse gave me that day:
'repeated jaw movements (eg increased talking upon return to work may cause jaw and muscle discomfort) which can be controlled by resting the jaw and taking pain-killers'
hmm... so mayb i shouldn't go back to work so early huh. i've been talking quite a bit today, and laughing too. is that why my cheek and lips feel numb now? :(

ok, less talking from now on.

i put an ad on Gumtree to give away my old CRT tv for free.
in 4 days, i had 72 views of my ad, 1 email response, 3 sms reponses.
and i managed to give it away at day 4, to someone who needs the tv more than i do
:)
gumtree works! or rather, who doesn't want free stuff?

seriously, why can't ppl plan their lives earlier?
i mean for things such as when to hv dinner gathering with their friends, and when to get married, those things that you need other ppl involved. i do'nt care when you want to hv dinner if you're just having it by yourself.

well unless it's a random gathering, if ppl missed it, they don't hv to wait for long for the 2nd gathering or it's something easy to reschedule. but if you're only coming from overseas for a short visit, can you at least tell me how long you'll be in melb for? the exact dates please? don't you have that on your flight itinerary?! and when i told you i can't do this day then don't make me sacrifice my long-planned plan for your last minute plan!

and if you're getting married, well unless it's a shotgun marriage lor, you defintely need more than a 2 months notice right? unless you don't expect ppl overseas/out of the state to come. o well, too bad. i've planned my life too early and i just have to convince myself that it's a shotgun wedding, it'll make me feel more comfortable

15 years of friendship...
does that worth more than $800 + 2 days off work when i'm suppose to be at the busiest time in my phd (although i can easily make up for that on weekends) + not able to spend more days holiday overseas while going for a conference (well actually only involves 2 days difference)

a friend who have been my classmate for more than 6 years, a friend whom i've known for more than half of my life,
is getting married in jan next year.
is it worth my effort time and money to fly back just to attend her wedding?!
we don't belong in the same 'group' of close friends but she's one of the friends whom i'm still in touch with since we finished high school.
it's more of the 'quantity' than 'quality' when it comes to describing how close we actully are. we've known each other for so many years but we're not each other's best buddies.
it's a tough call!!

在这里都差不多八年了，但最近才真正领悟到家人的重要
是自己长大开窍了，还是 postgrad student 需要的 moral support 远比前几年多，还是跟朋友越来越疏远了，还是纯粹因为在外这么多年累积起来的
爸妈会时时刻刻都想到你，他们可以随时听你，永远把你的事放在心上
也只有对他们，在你需要帮助时毫不客气地要求

一直以来是打算毕业后再工作个几年，‘玩’够了、甘愿了、失望了，才去新加坡找份工，离家较近
最最近有两股冲动想一毕业就干脆去新加坡好了
对现在的生活太失望了，
对自己能否在另一个国外找到工没信心了

还有一年多，我会撑得住的！

am excited about going to work on weekends/public holidays because i get to have yummy takeaways as a reward for myself.
that's pathetic!