My 25th birthday

Very late post, i know. and i also find out i never do a birthday post on this blog before, this is the first time.
Had two birthday celebrations, first with my family and second be with my UNIMAS lab-mates.
This year birthday i’m no more a girl but a wife of somebody because i just registered as legal wife and husband 2 days ago of my birthday. My sis, the one that makes cakes and cookies very well, made a two tier cake for me.




We had the traditional red wine chicken soup mee sua (long life noodles) for dinner at home. And the one having the birthday, traditionally must finish that bowl of long life noodles and the two eggs. That’s a must.



After two weeks of my birthday, another celebration with my lab-mates. They bought a cake for me too, and it’s quite delicious. We continued gossiping about everyone’s movement and updates in that gathering. Glad to have this bunch of friends (that full fills my inner need just want to be kepo-ing). =p

Again, i never forget the wishes from my other friends, ex-coursemates, ex-colleagues, relatives that not around in Kuching. Thanks a lot!
And my birthday wishes this year, is always the same: Everyone is healthy and the world is peaceful. God bless everyone that surrounds me. =p

very rude short talk

i spoiled my last kit of ELISA, this time was just want re-dilute samples and re-accessed their actual protein levels, but i made a terribly mistake, i diluted the samples with diluent concentrate. i hate myself! i hate myself! i got no more kit to run liao.. k fullstop and unpleasant memory to end my ELISA works in this project. what i can see from my thesis is whole bunch of stupid, silly, lousy data with poor technique. grrrgh…..

Some pictures and introduction about the Bau district

Bau is about 45 mins to an hour driving trip from Kuching. It’s well known as former gold mining town. Things should not be missed in Bau:

(1) The Tasik Biru (Blue lake) – this is the abandoned gold mine. It was named as Blue lake because the water in the lake appeared greenish bluish due to reflection from the green plants around and the blue sky. Swimming is prohibited as it contains lots of arsenic minerals that are poisonous and may cause fatal if exposure to it, left untreated. (this sounds scary, but we still can spot some fishes swimming happily there, maybe arsenic not poisonous to fishes)

(2) On the way to Wind and Fairy Cave, there is a mini cafe cum zoo named as Turn Red. The design is more on landscaping style, as you can see from above photo, the owner making use of those wood to make the tables and chairs, then decorated with some wild bamboos. Quite a nice place to chill out at night, and the zoo is just next door of it is operated daily, admission per adult is about RM8-10. For more info about this zoo, check my previous post: http://wennitiong.blogspot.com/2008/10/trip-to-bau-and-sematan.html

(3) Fairy and Wind cave. Above photo is the fairy cave. Fairy cave is now more famous as rock climbing activity, over the weekend, there is a group of rock climbers and some are foreigners will do their rock climbing there. It has been quite long i never visit this cave but all i knew was the cave still quite poorly maintained. Rubbishes can be seen before the entry, and there is no guard or forestry staff around. We can smell the urine at the staircases before the entrance! *Sad

(4) Paddy field opposite the Fairy cave. This is the place that worthwhile to pay a visit, even though just do a pass by, the scenery is awesome-ly beautiful!

(5) The trees on the way to Wind cave. This is another spot not to be missed, the trees grow along the way grown and bend to center, that makes a good shelter from the hot sun. It could be a nice spot to take wedding photo. lol

(6) Air Panas hot spring. If you are too free and got plenty of time to waste, maybe you can follow the direction sign starts from Bau-Kuching T-junction, that shows to you the way to get to this Air Panas hot spring. On the way of searching it, you will realize the direction signboards get smaller and smaller font size, then eventually you will spot this little piece of paper hiding somewhere inside a very small village. Then you will see this:

The poorly or never maintained Air Panas hot spring!

It’s hot spring and warm. Just like the Malaysia government always do, make big advertisement first before turns the thing into something that can be used. Like my bad experience of hunting Bamboo village, we were also lied by this so-called big direction board, in fact that supposed-to-be-tourist-spot hasn’t exist! Anyway, enjoy this kind of adventure if you’re really free like us. =p

Nightmare begins

I finally can sense how stressful of writing a thesis, yesterday i dreamt my thesis got two comments from both examiner: One said - “Not enough data, do more"!”, another one commented - “i think it is adorable the way you write your thesis”. Frankly speaking, i don’t understand what on earth “adorable” means for this. But the first comment was shocking, especially now i am struggling that my data isn’t sufficient (i think some of them are quite poor quality, but shortage of reagent not allow me to repeat some of them) though my supervisor said enough. And, i just receive an order that my deadline of finishing thesis should be by 15th April, that’s the order on behalf my another boss in SGHHC. Then.. then .. then.. i started looking at my data, duhh.. why so messy!!! And i got to help some staffs to make phone call to patients, and i got no more leaves to stay at home to focus on writing only! That’s what i say the nightmare begins.. ok! Wish me luck =p

一点感想

两年的硕士科研生活即将过去了，我算是过了满久才进实验室，因为刚开始这个project时，大部分时间都待在中央医院等病人。一方面也是因为那时候，正拿一份KL CRC 的薪水，所以无法避免要待在办公室做一些琐事。09年末，无端端被KL终止了合约。那时心想，完蛋了！好在我和心脏科部门有另外一个五年的合约。条件是我在五年内，替他们做科研，一方面他们也供我去读硕士。换了合约后，我可以自由的做我想做的，所以大部分时间，我都躲在实验室。说实在的，我挺喜欢在实验室的生活。少了面对一些办公室琐事，人际关系，心里也比较舒服。一年过去了，实验也差不多完了，想必我可要回去以往那种面对阶级比较高的要打招呼，跟同事之间要有沟通，还要时不时出现在某某人面前，就是要露脸而已，这样才不会被讲成“看不到人，白拿薪水！”无奈，尤其是在这新的一年，我被调到新的医院工作。虽然大部分的同事，我都见过，可是如果讲相处的话，还是头一次。以前最多只是经过打招呼，现在可要一起工作。头大的是，我好像招惹了一些护士，听说他们挺不爽我时常在实验室，而不去帮他们做事！天啊，一大清早听到这种消息，顿时给我压力。不过在职场里，闲言闲语是难免的。我不是在投诉，可能因为我太享受这一年来的实验室学生生活，现在要回去工作是有点不习惯。其实我跟的这个老板挺善解人意的，他常说“Speak less, do more”. 我算不错了，过了一年，实验快要完时才听到他们要我帮他们做一点事。我还有剩下十巴仙的实验没完成，所以还有十巴仙的时间享受剩下的自由。说真的，做学生还是最好。

my travel list 2011

i love travel, so do my spouse. we have plan for three visits of Vietnam, Beijing/Tianjin and Hong Kong this year. These will be quite hectic trips, because we’re short of working leaves but still eager to go so many places. First destination for this year will be Hong Kong (HK), i will be travel part for my working purpose, and will spend one day eating tour in HK. Second destination is the Hanoi, we grabbed a considerably moderate air fare for this trip and our plan is to visit one of the “must-go places in your lifetime” – the Halong Bay. Because it was AirAsia promotion, we didn’t do research of information before we tried to get the cheapest ticket, we only booked for 3 nights stay there and actually it’s not enough, as Halong Bay is 4 hours drive from Hanoi! And one night stay on the Halong Bay Junk is surely not enough to see the best beauty of it. I can foreseen that i will regret why i don’t stay longer in Hanoi. Third destination in our travel list is the Beijing and Tianjin, going to stay 10-12 days there and it’s a family trip with my spouse’s family. That will be my first officially trip to visit real China, i hope the weather is not too chilly on the end of September month, and i can’t wait to see another “must go places in your lifetime” – the Great Wall of China! LOL, i am a little proud that i had visited some “must go places in your lifetime” – from Angkor Wat to Grand Canyon, then this year’s Halong Bay and Great Wall of China. All thanks to AirAsia, it does help me save alot, but enjoy the max in travelling! I gonna start saving now and should make all my trip cost less than RM3k per person. Lets see.

January 2011 updates

i finally met up with my supervisor and discussed my progress. it was such a relief when he said “unless you’re disagree with me, i think after you finish your current work, you can off and start writing your thesis”.. well, it is a good news, ain’t it? i start compiling my results now, and hopefully there is nothing to repeat. i probably need another 3 to 4 weeks to finish my stuff, if i am not playing excuses of being lazy, i should be able to finish them quite soon.

another thing, i moved to new hospital of sarawak general hospital, which turn to be the Pusat Jantung Hospital Umum Sarawak (PJHUS) or Sarawak general hospital heart centre (SGHHC). Glad that my other boss in cardiac department didn’t put much pressure on me, they ask me to focus on writing. How nice they are!

just submitted two abstracts to APCC 2011, hopefully there is some good news. despite lab works, there is more lab works and writing in progress.

new year is just around the corner, while start of this new year, my main focus still lab work and writing, i just found out my house is so dirty!! should have find one weekend to clean the whole house, or else Mak Mertua will faint down (as they like to come to visit us without our notice, i actually got to ready by all the time). =p