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!

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.

Chinese New Year Is around the corner

Two more weeks to CNY!!!
Just like last year, the University and the Sunderland City Council will hold a Chinese New Year Celebration in the Stadium of Light on the eve. The picture above is taken by me (^^), from my block kitchen. I assume that each block will have one, since the RSA was the one who came and put it up in our block. Hehe... if you can read from the photo, there will be some traditional Chinese performance, lion dance and authentic Chinese buffer.
Hmm... not sure if I'll join the celebration, cause it's on a weekday, and I've been busy since the new term started, and no one that I know seems to be interested.
So how do I plan to celebrate CNY this year?
No plans at the moment, my block mates and I will think of something after our WebCT test next week.

Christmas update

This is my second year spending Christmas in the UK. Of course during Christmas I'll feel extra sensitive, and miss the church celebration in Canaan, miss spending time with my church friends and family, but it's not all that bad, since I've a bunch of friends here and we celebrate Christmas together.

We (a total of 19 people) organized a party on Christmas day, dressed up for the party and did lots of cam-whoring before the party begin.

Felicia, Chloe, Jeannie, Sarah and Me

We had lots of food that day (pot luck style).....haha.......so much that there were leftovers.

This is the before and after picture :)
We did manage to finish the most of it......

Other than food, we played games too... the Monalisa game.....we even created new moves of our own, mimicking our one and only Cathy aka Abunene.Like in all games, the loser is given a punishment. Here,for one of the rounds, Lai Yee had to drink a mouth-full of champagne as a form of punishment. Some may think this is mild form of punishment....well, it is actually.....we didn't want to sent anyone to bed at the early stage of the party :)

And we had gift exchange this year too.......but secret Santa style......the giver knows who he/she is buying for, but not the recipient. My secret Santa was Martin, he gave me 2 recipe books...... smart guy....bought it so that I'll cook for them, but I really appreciate it... 2 fully colored big cook books, currently sitting majestically on my book selves, maybe I'll whip up 1 or 2 recipes when I have some free time to spare.

Left: All the presents.... Right: Martin, Lai Yee (back), Jeffrey, Me (front)

Finally, this is our group photo ala Hello Kitty style

We had lots of crazy fun that night.... and disband at 2am in the morning.....yawn.....need to get some rest cuz' we're going Boxing day shopping the next day....hahaha....

So, this is my Christmas update.
It's too late to wish everyone Merry Christmas already....
So, wish you guys have a Blessed New Year ahead (^^)