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marinefanatic's journal
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Uncle Kardil, the cleaner and keeper of St John's Island breezed into my lab today smelling of refreshing lemon tarts! It was such a pleasant change from the peaceful silence in the lab as everyone stays focused on microscopes, scientific softwares on the laptop and counting organisms with the coulter counter. He pointed his broom at me and Feng Yi, " Girls I have mangoes for you!" , such a beautiful surprise! We already knew our colleagues collected the mangoes and passionfruits from the grounds in St John's whenever they were ripe. But we never bothered fighting with them for those fruits. I guess we were waiting for someone to offer us one. haha. Happy waiting. :) Just grateful to have such a sweet caretaker who saved us mangoes for our trip back to mainland Singapore. He rocks! Feng Yi asked me how the 21st party went last night and I think my head was still in the clouds. It was an awesome, memorable night that made me love my family and close friends even more than I thought I could. The preparations, decorations , food management and logistics were all smoothly managed among me and my "team deco" group which included Michelle, Astrid,Jun Liang,Aishah, Christina and Danielle who came unexpectedly early to help out as we were about to finish up the decorations. The only regret I had was that I couldn't spend enough time with every single dear friend of mine and chat with them on a deeper level. But just seeing them physically present at my 21st was heartwarming. (: The 4 KG chocolate cake shared by us 3 birthday loves was a memory I will keep for life. I never expected Rong Yuan to choose a cake that I would love to death! Characteristics that meet my "awesomeness" factor in cakes: 1. 100% chocolate in and out. True blue chocolate! 2. Flower petals 3.Strawberries or Deep Purple/Red grapes The shared birthday cake was chocolate , had real roses adorning the entire 2 tier cake and pairs of strawberries around the cake rim. <3  Happened to listen to "Sunshine on my shoulders" after I heard Carly's "Call Me Maybe" yesterday.The latter song has a mono tune and beat but I somehow like the laidback, breezy feel of it. Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry Sunshine on the water looks so lovely Sunshine almost always makes me high If I had a day that I could give you I’d give to you a day just like today If I had a song that I could sing for you I’d sing a song to make you feel this way Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry Sunshine on the water looks so lovely Sunshine almost always makes me high If I had a tale that I could tell you I’d tell a tale sure to make you smile If I had a wish that I could wish for you I’d make a wish for sunshine all the while Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry Sunshine on the water looks so lovely Sunshine almost always makes me high Sunshine almost all the time makes me high Sunshine almost always
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Class grad dive trip last weekend was truly memorable. Pulau Dayang is actually a quaint and pretty island! I thought it'd be overcrowded and under maintained, but I was proved otherwise. The bunks we stayed in on the island were simple and clean and the shower stalls and toilets they had were accessible too. Plus well stocked with toilet rolls! (: After having been on 2 LOB dive trips, I really loved the idea of actually staying and sleeping on the island after every dive instead of being on the boat for 3D2N and no island in sight! Although we didn't see as many marine animals as we had hoped to, it was still a great experience being able to scuba dive once again, it's been close to 6 months since the last dive!  Pulau Dayang: 16-18 March 2012 Counting down the days to the upcoming road trip next month and its exciting just thinking about it. (: I feel there's just so many things we want to do when we're at this age and there simply isn't enough days in a year to experience all the things we want to do in life before we go to uni or before we officially start working. So many friends to catch up with, so many things to learn and explore, so many countries and cultures to experience.Time slips by so quickly.:0 Well, we can't stretch time but we can definitely make it a point to live each day in gratitude, with excitement and with positive anticipation. I hope going overseas to study won't isolate me from my friends here or make me drift away from the people I love. Thank goodness for Skype and email and facebook! |
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I was listening to Steve Jobs' 2005 inauguration speech held at Stanford Uni today and it got me thinking again about life and its nuances. HIs second story talks about love and loss. How he was fired from Apple. It was a bitter pill for him to swallow but I'm sure in our everyday lives, we've had a day or 2 where we might have experienced that same feeling. "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle." "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." |
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First off... TGIF! As Dr Guillaume said to me this morning, " Eh Hey! Thank goodness it's Friday, finally Friday! " he said this looking like a complete set meal. The words, the expression of utter bliss and pumping his fist in the air. Sometimes he's so lighthearted and carefree, I feel he's my peer and not my supervisor. Today was another long but awesome day on SJI. I was walking along the forest path towards the lab building and passed by a complete family of rooster, hen and baby chick! Yes, yellow and fluffy and absolutely adorable! Me: So cute! But why's there only 1 chick? What happened to his siblings? Dr G.: Ah... must have been eaten up by the cats! hehe. Me: Oh my, poor chick, so lonely. Dr G: Proceeds to bend down and stroke one plump, black glossy cat lazing on the opposite side of the foodpath. " tsook, tsook , tsook... how're you doing today Fluffy?" Then turns to me, his eyes still full of adoration for Fluffy, " Cute eh? She's got such silky fur.. mmmmm! Nice to stroke no?" Conclusion: Yep, he definitely loves Fluffy the black tabby cat more than the baby chicks. Besides that one new thing I found out about Dr G loving cats, this past week has been packed, but in a good way I guess. Been attempting to at least start packing my bags and getting organised for the Dayang dive trip next weekend as well as making sure I have enough clothes to bring for another upcoming road trip. But I'm still at square one - deciding which bag to bring! So looking through my cupboard of shirts, I found my favourite shirt! This yellow dry-fit shirt that says LIFEGUARD at the back. Unfortunately, I don't dare to wear it in public lest people think I'm on duty when I'm not. Back to ground zero with not a single clothing in my bag. :( Oh and not forgetting, I want to thank my FYP friend for making honey ginger lemon tea for me last week as I was having a bad case of sniffles. She's so sweet! She boiled the cut ginger, her brother squeezed the lemon juice then added honey and poured it into a giant thermos flask that I ended up bringing around everyday for the past week refilling it with my version of the hot ginger drink. Really should return her the flask though I'm kind of attached to it now! Tonight, when I got back home from work, my grandma came up to me, " There's corn bread! Take some to school tmr!" haha. Ain't she quaint. She's forever thinking I'm still in secondary school and that I go to school everyday. Including Saturdays. No matter how many times I tell her what I'm doing nowadays, to her I'm still a schoolgirl. Well, suits me fine! At least I get corn bread and bananas and swiss rolls. :D To end off, I realise this week's been filled with yellow all over. From the yellow chick I encoutered at SJI , to the lifeguard t shirt, to the corn bread and bananas and even the honey ginger lemon tea. Definitely a sunshine week. (: Cheers to another fruiful weekend to rest and recharge! |
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To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. We are led to believe a lie When we see not thro' the eye, Which was born in a night to perish in a night, When the soul slept in beams of light. |
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Was looking through French slang words out of curiosity. (: Check these out: Disclaimer: some terms aren't exactly friendly terms :0 1. c'est clair -- Pronounced "say claire." If something is 'generally understood', you use this phrase. example: "Le concert était trop cool!" (The concert was so cool!) "C'est clair!" (I know/ It's understood!) 2.ouais -- Pronounced "way." Slang for yes, similar to 'yeah' or 'yep'. Warning: be careful not to let this one slip when talking with shopkeepers and such... it's extremely familiar and considered rude with people in professional interactions. example: "Tu sais?" (You know?) "Ouais." (Yep.) 3.piger -- Pronounced "pee-jay." means "to get it" or "to understand." example: "J'ai pigé." (I got it.) 4.putain -- Pronounced "poo-tan." Similar to the f-word, but slightly less severe. Usage is similar to that of 'merde.' example: "AH PUTAIN!" And so many more phrases I found online. Sweet! (: |
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Halfway through memorising my japanese speech for tomorrow's final examination speech contest, my grandma plonked a plate of hairy deep purple tubes in front of me. She smiled and said, it's good! Very sweet, lots of fibre! And proceeded on with her very own plate of purple hairy cylindrical food, heading to the couch to sit. I simply stared at that plate of weird-looking stuff. Is it even EDIBLE?! I sneaked a peak at my grandma and saw as she gently peeled open the purple skin revealing the familiar yellow flesh japanese sweet potatoes. [ohhhhh... so the 2 hairy lumps on my plate were sweet potatoes! I thought to myself. Copying her, I gingerly peeling open the sweet potato skins on my plate, okay, not-so-gingerly did it, I practically tore out the skin and mutilated the sweet potato's soft flesh. Once that soft tender yellow sweet potato enters your mouth, oh golly, it is heavenly! It reminded me of the taste of sweet Japanese red beans in the MOF dessert cafes and of the snow shaving dessert I had in Tokyo. I discovered that when cutting up the sweet potato into circular slices, it resembles the sliced banana! The colour, shape and texture absolutely looks like oxidized banana slices. xD I wanted to take a picture of the sweet potatoes that I have "artfully" destroyed, but it really looks terrible, the whole mush of purple skin slices and yellow bits of the flesh mashed up. There is no camera angle that will do this wonderful tuber justice, even photoshop can't save its face. Thankfully, my future career isn't anywhere near a cosmetic surgeon, but I may have brighter prospects being a woodcutter chopping down tree trunks. hmm.. So here's a picture I took off the internet, of the cylindrical hairy tubers I have come to adore. All thanks to my grandma! (:  |
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It's the end of the month and graduation's in 4 weeks' time. Counting down the days to final graduation always seemed a hundred more days away, but now, it's practically 31 days or less! Today, as I was studying for yet another genomics test, I looked around at my classmates and wondered how they felt about their lives. About their future. About all the friendships they've forged with our fellow classmates and lecturers too. At the end of our test today, I looked around me, and with a pang of sadness, I realised that year 3 has been such a mad rush of proteomics practicals lasting 5 hours long each time, projects with groups of people from other courses we hardly knew and the bomb: final year project experiments and scientific journal readings. I realised I hardly had a chance to know my year 3 classmates and my closest friend was my fyp partner. We hardly had time to interact with all our classmates and I guess with fyp being the most crucial project, everyone mostly stuck to their fyp partners to do daily experiments and report after report tgr for most of the semester. Tonight, I had dinner with... yes, my fyp partner as we were rushing to print and finalise our fyp poster presentation. When we finished our meal, my fyp friend looked down at the table, silence followed. Finally, she said " After we graduate, we must talk to each other k, don't disappear yea! also, in Australia, we must have each other's backs k. Stick tgr!", I laughed it off but inside, I kind of understood how she felt. We both knew that the closest friend we had in the poly happened to be each other. Sad but true. So tonight, as I get ready for tmr's presentation rehearsal, I will consciously savour each and every moment of school life, no matter how terrible the workload or the stress. And more importantly, open up my eyes to the classmates around me and appreciate their company while it lasts. |
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It's approximately half an hour to Christmas and somehow, the first thing I'm thinking of seems to be firefighters. I have no idea why, but yes, firefighters were the first thing that popped in my head as my family was cruising down orchard road tonight. I was wondering how it felt to be stuck on duty in the bunks of a firestation , sitting together with the rest of your fellow firfighters and instead of drinking beer or making merry, they're crowded together in the common area huddled around a tv screen indulging in a moment of relaxation. In a minute or two, the silence would probably be broken by a phonecall putting them back in action again. The second group of people I thought of were the nurses and doctors. And then I thought about the book "My Sister's Keeper" and imagined what it would be like to have been the nurse taking care of such patients on a Christmas night. How the nurses are the ones who would be the "Santarinas" and "little elves" for the young kids as well as the caretakers for them. As my family's car made it's exit out of orchard, I thought about what I was going to do tomorrow for Christmas. Was it going to be another day filled with parties and more shopping and even more eating? Looking back at the news over the past few days, I realise how I've become once again apathetic to the plights of people in the Philippines, Christchurch, North Korea, Greece, Iraq ; in short everywhere in the world. I hate to be brutally honest, but it is emotionally draining to genuinely care about every single human being who has been hurt/ injured and sometimes, it takes so much energy just to love the people in your country, what more the world! I wonder how Nelson Mandela does it. How Mother Theresa does it, how Jesus does it. I don't wish to be a self-centered, materialistic girl and I hope I never become that in the future. But the lifestyle that I'm leading may eventually lead me there if I don't start making some serious resolutions and decide to get into the trenches and change some self-destructing habits soon. So a Merry Christmas can mean a thousand and one things but to me, cliche as it sounds, it means to love your family and your fellow Singaporeans with your heart and not your head, to showing care to all persons with your heart and not your head, to mean what you say with your heart and not your head. (: Have a blessed and warm Merry Christmas! |
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Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. Invictus I fell in love with this poem while watching Invictus, the movie late last night. I watched how a national game of rugby brought the new South Africa together, and it's strongly reminiscient of how the world cup brought together nations around the world. Less fighting, no racial prejudice, no finger pointing games, no killing, everyone just gathering around the nearest HD plasma tv screen they can find to watch the World Cup. It's a beautiful picture to watch and it was portrayed really well in the movie Invictus. I think I connected with the way camaraderie brought people together and just reminded me of our Singapore football team, Young Lions. Though I'm not an avid fan of soccer.... scratch that. I DON'T even watch soccer unless it's the world cup FINALS ; I still connect with the very raw human feeling of tension and anxiety just before a big game. No matter how hard you've trained, how much time you've put into something, there is always that nugget of fear and intimidation you'd feel as you struggle to block out and numb the deadly scenarios that threaten to play through your mind just when you think you've got the game covered. What made Invictus even more sentimental for me was a prior chat with a friend of mine. The personal story she shared with me about her mum and how she and her family are coping with the situation was admittedly too overwhelming for me. But I just bit my tongue and heard her out; you could see she was controlling her voice and trying but failing miserably at hiding her tears. When I came home from training last night, I was still thinking about what she had told me during training and I don't know what led me to take out the movie Invictus and watch it, but I did. And the Invictus poem that was read out in the movie at poignant moments in the film was like some kind of alcohol swab. I know it's weird to compare a feeling to an alcohol swab but it really felt that way. When alcohol is brushed against your skin, you feel a sudden light and cold feeling on your skin.Everything seems to evaporate from the surface of your skin and it gets a little numb. Well, it felt like that giant alcohol swab was on my chest and everytime the poem was recited, the swab was lifted and I felt a light and cool, strangely comforting feeling on my chest. As if someone had taken my heart out, have it a mini heart-wash and then gently inserted it back. ; And this stanza kept me subconsciously awake the whole morning : It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. And that's enough ruminating for today. Blueberry muffin- baking time! (: |
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