Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!
Especially to friends and family which are far far away in Malaysia, USA and Russia......

I'm coping with 'Christmas loneliness' well this year.
That's probably because I've been so busy with school work that I didn't realize that Christmas was around the corner. Well, I knew that Christmas was coming, but not as soon as I thought it will be - first week into December and I have not posted any Christmas cards yet *panic** *panic**

So, what was keeping me busy?
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Lab work, to be precise final year project lab work on dissolution of gelatin and HPMC capsules in HCl and sodium phosphate buffer solution.

I've been in the lab from 9am to 5pm, twice a week for 3 months to complete my labwork. On top of that, there's still seminars, lectures and other assignment to hand in. Time literally flew without me knowing.....

But praise the Lord, I've completed all lab assignments, the remaining bits is to wirte up a paper on my work.


xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo


It snowed for intermittently for 3 consecutive days since last thursday, a new record since I've been in UK, there was sufficient snow to build snowman.
Ha ha...... My friends and I made a 'Malaysian snowman' - red chilli as his nose, and two small onions as his eyes. lol

I know it doesn't look great, but we did out best :)

That was the fun bit, but the weather is getting colder and the snow is not metling at all.
It's also causing lots of traveling problem. A friend of mine who is returning to Malaysia for holidays got stuck in Amsterdam airport for 24 hours because her flight was canceled.
Another friend only managed to arrive in New York to visit her relatives after having her flight canceled/re-scheduled 4 times, delayed for three days and waiting at the airport for 18 hours.

Having flight canceled/delayed is really nerve wracking, I've experinced it and it's not pleasant.
But it's all good now that they've reached their destination safe and sound.

There are still many who are finding ways to get back home, I pray that everyone else will be able to reach home to celebrate Christmas with friends and family.

Merry Christmas!

Under construction....

Bye bye black background


Current status : not complete - Brainstorming new blog layout

O~mochi O~sushi <3

Oh my, oh my.....
I never knew that savoury mochi tasted so nice :)

I was craving for some snack in the afternoon, so I flipped through my Japanese cooking book and saw this recipe for savoury mochi.
Instructions:
Grilled the mochi, slit it into half and sandwich it with Cheddar cheese, then wrapped it up with nori sheets. Easy, rite?
The grilled mochi will forms a crispy outer shell, while the inner part is soft and chewy.... yum!
The nori sheets is optional, but it does add some aroma to the snack.

As for dinner,Tadaa~~~~~
Smoked salmon and tamago sushi, and spinach miso soup.

Ha ha....
I'm eating well here in UK, rite?
Daddy, you can't tempt me with your sushi picture :)

Not again.....

Why does it always snow when I have community pharmacy placement?
Why, why, why......

Back in early December when I had my first placement, it snowed way early in the morning till afternoon, causing some roads to close down because it was too dangerous.
I WAS expecting snow this week since the weather had been bad, and it snowed last week.
However, there wasn't any snow the past few days, the weather forecast I checked shows no sign of snowing, there was also no snow this morning.....
but, it had to start right after my seminar at 10:30am....
and it was the heaviest snowfall I've seen in 3 years of my life in UK.

It's not that I hate snow, it's just that in Sunderland, rain always comes after snow, turning the snow into slush, which is really slippery (I nearly fell last sunday on my way to church) and dirty, yuck!
It would be all fine and dandy if there was sufficient snow to play snowball and build snowman, but the rain would surely come and ruin everything

Fortunately, my teammate, Waqaas has a car and he drove us there.
The road was slushy and dirty, Waqaas had to drive real slowly (20mph at some point) to avoid danger.
I really grateful to have a teammate like him!

The typical build-up image: Pure white snow.

The ugly: Slush. This picture is considered 'pretty'. Most roads and walkways look worse.

Christmas 2008

This is a very late update on Christmas,
wasn't around the past week to update the blog.

Well, as usual, the whole bunch of us from Block 35 and Block 20 gather together to celebrate Christmas, but we have few guests this year, namely Steven, Ronald, Quan Bo and Kelly.

We had steamboat for Christmas this year, and once again there was too much food. At times like these, food becomes the penalty for losing in games we play during the party, but I was not involved in any of the games, instead was chatting with other friends who also prefered to stay out of the games.


Then, we had a karaoke session using Cathy's laptop and speakers. Alison started the session with F.I.R.'s Fly Away, the song which she intended to sing in the Chinese New Year Party which the HKMaS is going to organised and ended around 2am in the morning.
Haha.....We were lucky that other residents in the neighbouring blocks were away in their respectively hometown, if not, we would have been reported to the residential manager for being noisy.

Our Christmas party wouldn't be completed without Secret Santa....
Haha....
We had fun last year, so we decided to have it again this year. We draw names a week before the party to know who we are buying presents for and present it to them on Christmas day.

Presents (within or around £5 each)

This year I'm the Secret Santa for Li Pei, and I got her Body Shop White Musk travel set body shower gel and lotion, I hope she liked it.

As for me, my Secret Santa was Lai Yee :)
She got me a hand wash and lotion set and a mini reed diffuser which is very cute, I've already opened and used it. The aroma was quite strong is the beginning but now its quite subtle and nice.

Gifts from my Secret Santa - Lai Yee

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This morning, I was surprised to find a parcel collection note for me.
If I remember correctly, I didn't buy anything online or was waiting for any parcel from my parents.
Curiously, I quickly collected it from the reception.
As soon as I received the parcel, I knew who it was from, my address was hand written
and the hand writing was recognisable.
A flip to the back of the envelop comfrims that it was from a friend in Malaysia.
A friend which I've known since Form 3.
A friend who with we had our happy moments and arguments together,
did our homework and prepared for our major exams together.

The girl who live in Taman Usaha Jaya....
Yen Hong...... No wonder you asked for my address previously.

Thank you for your gift.
It's a very beautiful and special gift which you've made on the 25th of December, mailed it the next day and was meant to be my New Year's present.
Thank you for encouraging me with your thoughtfulness and kindness.

Thank you

The special gift from Yen Hong.