Get artsy.....

Well, not really.....
Just spend some time moulding play dough - chilling out after a tough week (three presentations in a week).

My art work

Time to get busy again tomorrow with my final year project.
Sigh.... it never ends.

Give-aways

I've spotted some blog give-aways yesterday and thought that I'll share some with you.



First up is a Valentine day give-away from Stephanie of Julu Jewelry. Click HERE to check out the details. While you're at it, do have a peek at her jewelry pieces too, they are super pretty :)

The second one will be a Urban Decay Alice in the Wonderland palette give-away by KarlaSugar. Clicky HERE. All you need to do is to comment about what's your favourite thing about your look today.This giveaway ends at 5th February, midnight.

Both giveaways are opened worldwide, so do check them out.
Hope you enjoyed this little sharing :)

A little bit of here, there and everywhere

Shame on me
It's already February and this is my first post for the year.


Was suppose to blog about the Christmas party
Was suppose to blog about Angela and Serene's visit to Sunderland
Was suppose to thank Birkie for her generous giveaway
Was suppose to blog about my first Graze box
Was suppose to blog about my new Uni term
and the list goes on and on......

I was suppose to blog about so many things, but didn't
Why?
I was busy
Busy again..... I've been typing this word out so many times that I myself finds it annoying
I think it has already become an excuse rather than being really tied up
Or a reflection of bad time management


I think it's too late to share about Christmas and my friends' new year eve visit to Sunderland.
I'll give a little update of things I really want to share.



First and foremost, I want to give a big thank you shout out to Birkie of BirkinBagBeauty.
Birkie had a Pink Giveaway for the new year, and it was really a surprise to me that I've won.
I'm not the lucky type that wins lucky draws or contests, so I'm really excited about it - my first ever giveway prize. Birkie was very generous, she added in few extra things that wasn't listed in the giveaway. Thank you gal for the sweet giveaway!

Hurray!
I've got my first graze box
It's FOC, thanks to Alison who gave me the code for a free graze box
What is a graze box?
The graze website describe it as "healthy eating by post"
It's a box packed with all things healthy - nuts, dry fruits and fresh fruits, sufficient to help you to fulfill your 5-a-day portion.
It costs GBP 2.99 (incl. postage) per box, which I think it's worth it.
It's delivered weekly, but you can set your own settings.
For me, it's a monthly order.

For my first box, I've got:
Cheeky monkey (banana, cranberry and walnut)
Whole hazelnuts
Himalayas and beyond (pineapples, macadamian nuts, and goji berries)
Cajun seed mix

These were send to me according to my ratings of the selections available on the website.

I was surprised that I didn't like the dry bananas (I eat fresh bananas on a daily basis)
But liked the dry pineapples (which I'm not so fond of)
Ha ha... so I had to went back to reset my ratings for some of the selections.


As for Uni life,
Well, no pictures of it. lol
Been doing a lot of things - society activities (designed posters and menu for the up coming Chinese New Year Party), the usual lectures, seminars and assignments.
5 more months and I'll be graduating, seem surreal but it's the truth.
After 4 years of studies, I'll be joining the pharmacist work force soon.
Wish me luck :)

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?
-
-
-
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

-------



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.

Term break?

Term break is finally here.....
but I don't feel the slight excitement at all,
all thanks to the pile of assignments waiting for me to complete:
1. Critical Appraisal of a Journal
2. Professional Placement write ups
3. Current drug treatment of Depression and Epilepsy write ups
4. Sulfomamide synthesis report
5. Japanese mini project
6. Japanese portfolio

All which are due after the break.
Why did they name it as term break?
Assignment weeks would be more appropriate.

There are also notes to read and some society work to complete...... Christmas race on the coming Monday and preparing for Chinese New Year party on the 23rd January.

Christmas is coming very soon, but I'm feeling so numb at the moment.
It's my third year spending Christmas away from my family and away from Canaan Church, I should be accustom to it by now.
But no, I miss home more than ever this year.


Some will say that I've caught the sesonal depression, however I will not used this as an excuse to feel unhappy, no way.
I don't want my parents to worry about me,
I'll get better, I know I can with the help of the Lord.



Trust in the Lord with all of your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Blackout

Date: 24 Oct 2008
Time: Approximately 6:40pm
Place: The Precinct, University Accommodation

The whole Precinct (excluding only 2 blocks out of 36 blocks) experienced power failure for about 20 minutes, and its my first experienced in the UK after being here for 2 years.

It happened when I was tidying up my room, and suddenly the room turned pitch black. The only light I have was from my laptop screen. Everyone in the block started finding their way around the darkness, using whatever means they could possibly find, e.g. mobile phones, torch light, and the best was Adrian, he used his laptop to shine all the way to the kitchen.
As for me, I went straight to my drawer and got the mini torch light my sis gave me last year. Sadly, it did not work, might be because the batteries had been in there for too long. So in the end I relied on my mobile phone light to shine my way downstairs.

It was really lucky of us that Jeffrey and Hui Sing were almost done cooking, the soup and the meat, all except for the vegetables. So, though we didn't have light, we have dinner. They were unable to cook the vegetable since there was no electricity. Here in the UK, everything runs on electricity, including the cooker (Malaysians use stoves) , the heater and hot water.

Just great, no electricity, no heater and no hot water.

The power failure lasted for 20 minutes, but after it recovered, the boiler was still not functioning, so still no heater and hot water. Lucky me I've showered around 6pm, some of my block mates brave the cold water, while some others went to other blocks and took their bath.

Candlelight dinner

Adrian, checking if the chicken was fully cooked with the limited light we have.

The boiler was still not working the whole day today, my block mates and I took turns to complain at the reception and seems like 2 other blocks were having the same problem. They assure us that someone is going to fix it tonight.

Kitchen window view
Left: Usual view, Right: Blackout

Edit: 25th Oct 2008, 8:17pm
Just received news that.....the boiler is faulty!!!!!!!!!!!
The technician will only come in on Monday
No heater, No hot water for the weekend.

Beauty and the Beast - Birmingham Royal Ballet

I'm so excited, and I've bought the tickets for the show.

The BRB will stage the performance in the Sunderland Empire on the 12th November to the 15th Novermber 2008.
It will be my first time stepping into the Sunderland Empire Theater Hall (heard that it's not that big) and watching a theatric ballet performance...... I know I sounded very ulu.

The tickets for the performance are selling £24, £18, £10 according to the seating, with students and senior citizens having £5 off top price.

At first, only six of us (my course mates and I) wanted watch the performance, but after much persuasion by Alison, another 4 more joined us. That's makes a total of 10 persons, so instead of getting individual tickets, we would be able to book as a group that entitle us to £5 off top price + one extra ticket free.

Lucky, lucky us wanted to watch the Thursday evening show, which is having a special promotion for schools and dance schools. Since we are all university students, and had a group of 10 people, we were entitled to the special price whereby all tickets were just £5 each.
As the price now much lower than expected before, another 4 more joined in, making the total number of people 14.
Haha...... cheaper tickets attracted more audience.

Looking through the information leaflet and the BRB website, it seems like it's going to be a spectacular performance, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Here, I share a short clip of the Beauty and the Beast posted on Youtube by the BRB



For more info, visit the BRB website.

The renovated lecture theater

Been back to Sunderland for 3 weeks, but was just too lazy to update my blog.

In Malaysia, you'll always drive to your destination, but now that I'm back in Sunderland, I have to get use to walking and carrying my own groceries again (T_T)
Hmm... maybe I should learn from Jeannie, order from Tesco online and they will sent it over :P

Anyway, this post is suppose to be about the new renovated lecture theater!
The Murray Library lecture theater was renovated since last April when we were having our exams, and now I present you....Tadaa.....
University of Sunderland newly renovated Murray Library Lecture Theater.
It's so shinny.... and nicely carpeted.
Look at the light that light up the stairway, it looks like those airplane aisle.

The new comfortable seats are in shades of red,very nice, it feels like I'm in a cinema more than a lecture hall. Some friends of mine commented that the seats are so comfortable that we would fall asleep during lectures more often as compare to the old green seats. Oddly, after 2 weeks of lectures, none of us doze off when the lecturer teaches.

I came up with 2 conclusion from that, it's either that we are too enthusiastic to strive better in our 3rd year, or the new lighting in front of the screen is just too bright for us to loss our focus ;)

Picture credits to Jeannie @ livingmylife.blogspot.com

Take a look at this...

This is so cute....
A cempedak in a shape of a shoe.

My dad and I joked that it could pass off as a Nike shoe, Malaysia Special Edition (^o^)

Shogun..

It's been a tradition in my family, that for each family member's birthday, there'll be a birthday cake and dinner. My birthday passed by 3 months ago, while I was in UK, so I missed out in my birthday cake, but my birthday dinner still stands.
My request this year is Japanese buffet, so Dad took me to Shogun in Sunway Pyramid.

The place looks really nice.

Great wall art beside our table.

The food was good, and there were a huge selection of cooked Japanese food, soups, tempura, shashimi, and various types of shushi. After tucking in till our bellies are full, we helped ourselves to the cakes, fruits and ice cream available. My sis, Sarah adores the chocolate fountain, and the green tea ice cream. For me, I tried all the shashimi available, tuna belly, swordfish, and snapper, but my favorite is still salmon :)

Look at the pretty colors.

Chilled cha-soba.

The hot pot, filled with seafood.

Sarah enjoying her chilled zaru-soba.

Damage done, RM50++ per person, not bad at all.

M.I.A.

I have not post anything on my blog since my summer vacation started, hehe.... been quite lazy.
It's not like I'm going to abandon my blog, it's just that I was in no mood to blog.
I really admire those who update their blogs everyday.

So, what did I do since I got back to Malaysia?
My daily routine involve just 'makan', watching tv programs, surf the net, and sleep for the whole month of June.
But of course I did do other things too, like meeting up with my friends, helping a little with house chores, and baking biscuits and cakes.

I've met up with my secondary school friends, (namely Chee Yuen, Sai Lei, Yen Hong, Stella, Wei Keat, Alan, Mun Ping, Ying Chi, and Lee Fu), a couple times before they started their new semester in July. We met up and talked about our schooling days, and we sounded so old reminiscing our not-so-long-ago younger days. We also interrogated those who are attached on how their boyfriends courted them, how's their personality, etc. Meeting up was fun, but we all won't be able to gather together at least for another year, cos' some of them study in different states, while Sai Lei and I are overseas. I'll miss them so much.

From L-R: Chee Yuen, Sai Lei and I

Yes, and I started working in July, in a pharmacy as a assistant pharmacist.
The Malaysia pharmacy system is so different compare to the UK, but I've learn a lot, from Miss Joanne, Miss Lina and Miss Lau.
I'm currently under their wings, they are very helpful and never hesitates to answer my doubts. Other than helping to dispense medicines, Miss Joanne (pharmacist and store manager) also lets me experience some store administration and stock checking.

I'm also partly in charged of the chasing machine at the dispensing counter, and it was a total headache to learn how to use it, there's a code and process for everything:
How do I do credit card transaction?
How do I give employee and senior citizen discount?
Oh no, double scanned.
Alamak, I've scan the item but the customer doesn't wants it anymore.
How to give special rebates, promotion, wrong price tag, price override, etc.
Thankfully, the staff there are very friendly and taught me bit by bit everyday, some of them even know where the medicines are kept better than I do...so 'paiseh', but I'm getting better at things now.

Standing for most of 7 hours, it's quite tiring (I'm not complaining, maybe I have low stamina), but rewarding (experience wise) at the same time.

And the best thing that happen to me during this holiday so far was:

I've passed every single paper and coursework for my MPharm Level 2!!!
The results were out this Monday and I was so happy.

I was dead nervous when I was accessing the website to view my result. My heart was racing like a horse, especially with my mom standing behind me. But I passed everything!!! Hurray.
I've obtained an overall of 60++ and 70++ for my modules.
Yea... they are not tremendously wonderful results, but the marks were satisfying from the amount of effort I've put in.
All glory to God for carrying me through.
And I must say, Block 20 pre-exam group study was a success!
We ought to carry on the good practice, and I really need to study consistently for the next Level.

So, that's all for now :)

Regards,
Deborah.

Post exam thoughts

Phew...
Finally, it's over!!!
Well, at least for some time before the results are out.
And hopefully, I really really hope and earnestly pray, that I pass my second level. I don't feel like resiting the test.

I think i did quite well in each of the test, all except for one, the last paper - Pharmacy practice.
This is due to, sadly, some lack of revision on my behalf and some open questions in the exam which asked for our personal opinions. I did all I could, answering each questions fully, hopefully the lecturers are satisfied with my answers.

Truthfully, I'm feeling quite down after the test, unlike my friends who are overwhelmed with excitement because the exam is finally over. Although it's no use crying over spilled milk, I can't help but to think about it over and over again, calculating the marks I need to pass the paper (btw, it require 50% passing mark)
Being sleep deprived and worried, I nearly drove myself insane.

During lunch, Adrian, being hyper over the 'after exam party' told me, " you should assume that you have pass all the exams until you are notified that you fail."
Those words were so optimistic, and yes, it did helped me to feel better. Instead of sulking over things that cannot be undone, I should look forward to things that awaits me in the future and prepare myself for it.
IF there's really a need to resit the test, I'll take it when it comes.
The mean while, pray and pray that I do not need to do so.

Cherry blossom updates....

As promised, here are the cherry blossom photos (^^)

There are some white flowering tree in front of Gateway, but not really sure about the species.

Hope you all like the pictures.
It's time to get back to the books, I've still have 2 more paper to go.
Wish me luck~*

A month long battle..

Current mode:




2 papers down, 4 more to go...

9 May 2008 - MPH215 Medicines and Analysis
15 May 2008 - MPH214 Pharmaceutics II
19 May 2008 - JAL 141 Japanese Language
23 May 2008 - MPH213 Pathology and Therapeutics
27 May 2008 - MPH212 Pharmacy Practice Paper I
29 May 2008 - MPH212 Pharmacy Practice Paper II

Hope I stay sane at the end of it.

Back to class....

Yippee.......
Took my dispensing test this afternoon, and I have a very good feeling that I'll pass (hopefully, keeping my fingers crossed).

Spring break officially ended last Sunday, and it's back to class again...well it's not like there's much class to attend other than 1 poster presentation and Japanese classes.

It was raining so badly since the second week of April but it clear up a bit this week. Flowers are blooming healthily everywhere after weeks of rain fall, so things are looking quite cheerful now in Sunderland.

Share some pictures:

This is actually a weed.... a flowering weed.

The flower buds of the cherry blossom trees in front of Foster Building are now visible, I will be sure to put the picture up when it blooms.

snow..... again?

Spring was officially here last week when the daylight saving time kicked in. The weather was warm and cozy the whole week with nice sunshine and cool breeze. The only window in my room that was always shut-tight for the past 4 months to prevent the bone chilling air from sneaking into my room, was finally drawn open to allow fresh air to ventilate the room.
But I could never comprehend the weather here, just when it was all warm and nice, it started to snow again yesterday.
It did snow in March this year and last year, but it's Spring, we're already in April. With temperature peaking at 14 degree celcius during the weekdays, all I need to put on during outdoors was a short sleeve cardigan. However, it's snowing heavily now with longest time record for the year - an hour long and counting.....
I have to admit that that scenery I'm seeing now is beautiful - white fluffy feathers are floating down from the heavens, but I have been so accustom to the warm weather that I dread to have the chilly air back again.

I still can't fathom why it's snowing when the sun is shining brightly, the snow melts immediately when it touches the ground.
The only reason I could think of is Jac - she must have wished for snow on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Jacquelyn aka snowjac.