Backward In Coming Forward

Better Together (Jack Johnson)

"I'll tell you one thing - it's always better when we're together"

 This afternoon, I met up with my group mates to discuss our VPL project (the one where we had to come up with a new drug for a given disease), and in particular, talked about the questions we were going to ask the "investors" (simulated bosses of this project) when we meet them next Monday.

After a seemingly positive reply from the BOD on our ideas for hepatitis C last Friday, my groupmates seemed to have taken their feet off the pedal. One even came to the meeting and said she didn't know what we're meeting up for.

You don't???!! Well my dear, I suggest you read your own emails the next time before sending them out to others because it was YOU who said this...

"I think before tuesday we should research this idea further and look at the other aspects regarding this idea and then when we meet on tuesday we can discuss it."

That's why, Miss H. That's why we're meeting up today.

It was as if people were clueless about what's going on. Either that or they underestimated next Monday's session with EJK and co. Let me tell you something my lovelies, we only get one chance, and nothing more. Next Monday is the only opportunity for us to clarify our doubts and concerns with the investors with regards to proceeding with either idea 7 (or 8) for which they have previously given the go-ahead. It is our only chance to seek advice from the experts and use the new-found knowledge to solve problems that we - the amateurs - are currently facing (amateurs may be too generous a term, actually). It'd be a complete waste if we turn up for the session ill-prepared!!!

"Speak now or forever hold your peace".

How I regret not injecting my take on this subject at the meeting earlier. We spent 30 minutes (or maybe even more) beating around the bush, going back to square one when common sense dictates that the outcome of today's meeting should be a conclusion on which idea we wish to pursue. I didn't want to sound too school-marmy by telling others what to do, and therefore thought it was best for the other stronger characters to hint it out but in the end, they too weren't sure themselves.

So here's what I have to make peace with - the tedious task of doing something completely not worth our time, and most importantly, something we have already DONE for the submission last Friday. All because I was backward in coming forward.

Sigh Munny dear, just never learn.

One Sweet Day

Listening to: Pour Some Sugar On Me (Def Leppard)

Me and the birthday girl

Went out with some pharm mates last evening to Chiquitto's for Darsh's 21st bday do. Good night out it was, made complete by a sweet revelation :)

Just want to say congratulations to the new love birds and hopefully someone will circulate the pictures around v soon...

It was a sweet surprise indeed. Lily said I reacted like an overjoyed mother (haha). Nah, I'm just very happy, both for the 2 of them, and the fact that I picked up the right vibe, some point in time!

My Dream Team

Say What You Want (Texas)

"You can say what you want but it wont change my mind"

Laminated list.

Have you one of your own?

This topic (made popular by Friends) cropped up several times during offhand conversations with my girly pals, and upon reflection, I realised I've always given different answers each time I've been asked. Tsk tsk, how typical :) The thought of making it official is hence the reason for this post. Except I wouldn't call it the laminated list, seeing how I don't quite agree with some technicalities of the definition...Anyway, I'll just name it the Dream Team. People who make me dream my life away (and hence should be prosecuted by the Time Management Inspectors for seriously damaging Miss Tan's productivity =P...)

Oh Adeline, just cut the crap.

In no particular order, they are:

Michael Vartan

I mean, seriously, what was Jennifer Garner thinking when she dumped him for Ben Affleck?

Ethan Hawke

He comes, he sees, he conquers...my knees!

Matthew Metzger It wasn't just his choice of song ("When I See You Smile") at the American Idol (season 3) audition that had me. It was his personal goal in life - "To someday be the best husband and father the world has ever seen" - that swept me off my feet.

Aww, isn't this is sooooo Adeline???

David Robert Joseph Beckham

He needs no introduction, nor pictorial justification.

But here's how sweet a couple we would make if I know how to super-impose my face onto Posh's one...

Jose Mourinho

Yes, okay, I know. I'm an Arsenal fan, I'm not supposed to be looking at Chelsea players. But that doesn't include the (ex-)manager, does it?

Dermot Mulroney

Like how wine tastes better with time, Dermot looks finer with time...

Alex Yoong I defy any hot-blooded female not to be moved by this heart-stopping picture...phoawar!

Shia LaBeouf

Please Shia, drive me home in Bumblebee, every night!

Sean Penn

You wouldn't have understood it even if you tried, so don't bother ;)

Fredrik Ljungberg

Erm, yeah. The man, is, erm ________

*pls insert the highest superlative you can think of for I have been rendered speechless*

Pierce Brosnan The dream team is NEVER complete without an Irish Charmer!

All pictures are sourced from www.google.com

Alright alright, I know some of you are gonna argue that it's double the number of what is "allowed" on the laminated list, but hey, that's the beauty of the Dream Team you see. No restrictions, no bumping off the list, no order or ranking... :)

OK FINE. I'm fickle. I'm indecisive. Happy?

Namesake

I supposed you can call it a strange habit. Or just plain weirdness. That I tend to look out for my name as the credits roll at the end of a movie...

So, someone shares my name. Big deal huh?

Oh yes, especially if you're not Jessica, or Emily, or Sarah.

I guess I just like the coincidental, light-headed thrill of chancing something uncanny :)

Time and time again, I've been on the lookout for another Adeline, but I haven't been close. The nearest hit was probably Adele, of which there were a few.

This evening I watched "And I Hate You So" on Veoh.com, a HK rom-com that has been around for ages (I'm sure). I don't get to watch as many Chinese movies as I do Hollywood ones, so naturally, I didn't pass up the opportunity of viewing one when it's totally on the house. =P

Cheesy, predictable, but entertaining is what I thought of the movie. Not your average "boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl have conflict, boy and girl end up happily ever after" romantic comedy. Something a little different.

And there. Just when I wasn't expecting any familiar names, I saw 诗敏.

Hmm, I should have bought lottery today...I reckon I'd strike big :)

7 Days

In the last 7 days...

I bade Theresa goodbye. She left for China to do a short course on Traditional Medicine and I wish her all the best.

In the last 7 days...

I experienced real muhibah-ness when I joined in Raya celebrations at a Malay friend's house. Was swept away by the kuih batik he made. Damn, I can't even bake anything and I'm a girl...pah!

In the last 7 days...

I attended a birthday do for 2 of my coursemates and had a marvellous time eating yummy Mexican food, acting silly and discussing about cute guys in MPharm IV (namely 'loceng', 'Kaya BaikMenang' and the new kid on the block...shoot(!), what's his name?)

In the last 7 days...

I experienced a choking feeling as deadlines got the better of me.

In the last 7 days...

I was drawn away from my comfort zone time and time again and I don't like that.

In the last 7 days...

I wished I could punch her bulldog face and tell her to take her rotten who-do-you-think-you-are attitude away with her but I'm glad I didn't. Haha, I could actually sabar...not bad not bad :)

In the last 7 days...

I slept for less than 6 hours on 3 occasions and I snoozed my alarm clock 3 times the following morning. How I still reached class on time is a wonder.

In the last 7 days...

I became someone I wasn't. Maybe in my dreams I was that, but in real life I know I am not.

I 'defended' a 'criminal' 'in court' and was later told I gave a moving closing speech. The truth is that I was only putting up an act. Literally.

In the last 7 days...

I kept thinking about this which have no answer.

You said it right Des'ree. Very right.

Listening to: Life (Des'ree)

Thankful thought of the day: That I'm Alive. And Kicking!

www.davidbeckham.com

I am serious. No joke. He really has an official website!

I googled Becks a while ago for an upcoming post (hehe) and found myself at his website, reading his blog!

Well, nothing fancy. Just short and sweet messages for kei po chis like me :)

Here's one of the latest posts...

Hello everyone,

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for not updating my blog over the past week or so, but as I’m sure you understand, with my dad being taken ill the only thing on my mind was to get to him as quickly as possible.

Thank you so much to all of you who sent messages of support, flowers and cards to the hospital. They were greatly appreciated. Along with my dad and my family, I would also like to thank the doctors, nurses and ambulance staff who were amazing in their care of him. I’m back in the States now and will be continuing my treatment on the injury.

That’s all for now - I’ll update you again soon.

Thanks

David


Oi Becks, what about pharmacists?

When I read that Beckham senior had been admitted to Whipps Cross Hospital following a heart attack, I wished I had applied there for a training place. Who knows maybe in the future I'd come into contact with Beckham senior himself, advising him on his medicines? And in return for my excellent patient care, he'd introduce me to his son and and and...

Okay, time's up. Enough day-dreaming for the day. o.O

Happy Raya

Was told by my classmates that the Muslim community here celebrate Raya today (whereas it's tomorrow for those back home), anyway, regardless of dates, here's me wishing all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, or Happy Eid-Ul-Fitr!

Looking forward to open houses and yummy food ;)

Stye

I have a stye in my eye
And all I can do is sigh...
I'd very much like to bid it goodbye
I hope the time is nigh!

Woke up this morning and my left eye felt gritty. There's this uncomfortable feeling everytime I blink. Went to the mirror to have a look and saw a tiny red bump on the eyelid.

Having learned about styes in my first year, I didn't feel so panicky at the sight of one. For those not in the know, it's essentially an infection at the base of the eyelids. Nothing damaging, as it's all external, but the accompanying tenderness and pain is definitely not welcomed either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Stye02.jpg

Styes are self-limiting, fortunately or unfortunately. It'll go away on its own without medication.

I sure hope it'll disappear entirely by tomorrow evening as I'm out for dinner with some friends, and am very likely to have my beautiful face captured on cameras...hmm, maybe I'll just stand rightttttttt at the back so that no one can see my "weird" eye... :(

Trial Run

I went to the courts today. Cardiff Crown Court. For a trial.

Ooohh...

Witnessing lah, not trying! Choi choi choi.

It's all for our Expert Witness assignment. My friends and I figured that since we are so pathetically clueless about the judiciary system here, it'd be good to go and sit in on some trials, since the Crown Court is a stone's throw away from Redwood. And it's free. :)

The first trial we witnessed was so anti-climax. The guy pleaded guilty barely 5 seconds into the whole hearing and the next thing we know, we were out of the courtroom. That quick.

But that wasn't what we're here for, I exclaimed! We wanted to see lawyers cross-examine witnesses and present their case so that we know what to replicate in 10 days time. In front of the whole class.

Completely unsatisfied, I told Jinal I was staying put. I'm not leaving until I saw another trial. 2 of other friends had commitments so they left. We went back to the drawing board and checked out the other trials that were in progress. The next available trial was in court 5, and so we went.

This time around, it was a series of preliminary hearings, which is a bit like appointment-booking if you ask me. Basically, the prosecutors gave a background to the case and asked the judge for x amount of time to service the paperwork before proceeding with the case. The judge then looked at the present schedule and fixed a later date to resume the trial.

Full stop. All rise.

What???

Nooooooooo, that again was not what I woke up early for! (We agreed to go at 10am).

This time, Jinal wasn't staying. She had a group meeting back at Redwood at 12pm and she left.

Still unsatisfied, I stayed back at Court 5 antiticipating more action.

I want to see fights! I want to see heated arguments! I want to be wow-ed!

True to form, the next hearing was indeed a trial. 3 guys were tried for assaulting someone... or er, something like that. The jury were called in and they each took their oaths.

I rubbed my hands with glee.

The prosecutor stood up.

"Your honour, I am Ms X, prosecutor for this case and may I introduce my learned friends, Mr Z, Mr Q and Mr R who are representing the defendants."

...
...
...

She said some technical stuff I couldn't remember, and then my worse fears were confirmed.

"The witnesses were originally told not to attend the trial until tommorow. I'm afraid there won't be any provision of statements from the them today and would therefore like to ask Your Honour for this case to be postponed till tomorrow."

*&%#!!!!!

But I have a class tomorrow at 10am! And I'm booked up for the whole week! I won't have time to poke my nose in the Crown Court till next week, which will be too late for my assignment!

Sigh, my whole morning was wasted. If I had seen some cute lawyers then I wouldn't feel so bad, but this? Totally unacceptable.

And later on when I recounted the incident to my friends, I said our 'outing' was a bit like trial and error. We just have to try enough times to get the right case!

Yes yes, I like puns ;)

Humpty Dumpty? There's one right here...

I last heard: Melodi (Sheila Majid & Lin Yu Zhong)

I am reading: The Expert Witness (R H Mildred), The Expert Witness In Court: A Practical Guide (C. Bond)

I am thankful for: the herbs mama dearest packed for me last month...so that I could reconstruct her "Luk Mei" soup 6600 miles away from home...although it's nothing like the real McCoy!

Whenever nosy people asked about my middle name, I'd almost always say gorgeous, or stunning or some other similar superlatives, but the truth is, it's klutz. That is my (unspoken) middle name.

I can't begin to describe how clumsy I am. I can walk with most confident stride you'd ever see and the next thing you know, I'd be bumping my feet against the edge of the rubbish bin as I take a swerve away from it. Ask my sister, she'll tell you.

Just this week, I've had 5 clumsy moments.

First, I jammed my index finger between the shower door and the hinge (if there's such a word). How the hell I managed that is beyond comprehension.

Then when I was working in Aberdare Hall's kitchen, I dropped the huge plastic dish-washer rack onto my feet. Imagine the ouch.

On the same day, I accidentally brushed my fingers against the metal food container before I put on my gloves to take it out from the dish-washer. OOoohhh.

I hadn't even recovered from all that and I injured myself again. This time, I bumped my head against the kitchen sink as I got up from picking some residue on the floor.

5 minutes ago when I was in the shower, I noticed a blue-black patch right below my knee.

You know what? Don't ask.

Just don't.

Don't You Read The Papers?!

I went to the library to do some research at 4ish this afternoon. On a Saturday. All for that expert witness thingy. Hmph!

As I walked down King Edward VI Avenue past Redwood to Bute, I saw rows and rows of buses parked on the streets. Ah, must be a match going on at the Millennium Stadium down town, I thought.

A few bus drivers were standing around, chatting among themselves to kill time as they waited for the passengers to come back up after the match. Which won't be till another 2 hours or so.

One of them saw me walking past, and out of boredom (I guess), he greeted me.

"You alright love?"

Ah, my favourite term of endearment.

"Yeah not too bad."

I decided to be friendlier.

"A match going on is it?"

He gave me a scary look. Like he was going to kill me. Oops, what did I say?

"Don't you read the papers love?" He bellowed, and the rest followed.

"Well, yeah but..." Actually, it's no.

He cut me short. "It's rugby my love. New Zealand vs France!!! Rugby World Cup!!!"

Oh...I see.


What? It's the world cup again? So soon?

Where has the last 4 years gone?

Searching My Soul, Tonight

So, I am now officially back in uni.

Completing my final year.

Ya-hoo!

Well, not exactly.

First day back and I'm petrified. The introductory lectures really did the trick the proprietors wanted them to. They've successfully reduced me to a bunch of fray nerves.

Presentations. Group work. Group project. Individual presentations. Class test. Exams.

Break?

None.

Our major major (have I said major?) assignment this term will be VPL. Actually, it's not called VPL, but we are essentially doing a project for VPL - Venture Pharmacy Limited - a venture capital company set up by lecturers to fund bright, feasible projects.

Hypothetical, obviously. There's no such company, but we have to pretend as if it's real.

Our task? Form a biotechnology company to research a drug for a given disease.

Each group consists of 8/9 students, 2 representatives from each of the research group ranging from chemistry, drug delivery, pharmacology and health and medicine. In lay men terms, there'll be 2 chemists, 2 drug formulation-ist, 2 pharmacologists and 2 clinical staff in the biotech company, and it's designed this way so that we each bring our respective expertise into the team to work this thing out.

My group? We're looking at developing new Hepatitis C treatment.

How?

NO CLUE.

Next up, it's this thing called Expert Witness. As pharmacists, there will be instances where we will be asked to go to court to provide, as the phrase suggests, expert opinion to help with criminal or civil cases involving the use and misuse of drugs. To prepare us for the REAL WORLD, they've designed an assignment in which we have 2 weeks to research and prepare for a 15 min presentation, which is supposed to mimic the adversarial situation, ie like how it is in court - complete with judges, jury, prosecutors, plaintiffs / defence.

How?

NO IDEA.

Just this evening, I bumped into a long-time-no-see friend at the hall. She came to visit a coursemate and knocked on my door on her way down. We got chatting for a bit and being a law graduate, I sought her opinion.

"You want to know about the judiciary system and law stuff ar?"

I nodded my head with so much vigour it almost broke my neck.

"Haha, er, I guess you can watch Ally McBeal?"

It doesn't take a genius to figure that she was actually kidding, but I took her words seriously anyway. Anything that would help me get a better idea of the LAW.

So I did. I watched Ally McBeal. Right from the start. The pilot of Season 1. Courtesy of a very generous veoh.com member. And I'm hooked.

It's all Lu Yee's fault!!! :)

But hey, don't roll your eyes at me...

As Ms McBeal herself said...

"I am admitting a difficulty. It will get easier in time."

How much time do you think?