Three happening months

Alright, there have been too many things happened for the past three months, I have graduated, I have moved from Nottingham to Liverpool, I have started working, I have been on europe trip with family, I have changed my work place from Wallasey to Prenton, I've been off for holidays and now I finally get to slow down a little and have my own time to do loads of other stuffs which have been accumulating since then. Every single event has been the greatest thing ever happened and it just happened all in a roll. At some point, I felt really tired but actually, contented. I'm feeling really thankful for having my mum's company throughout this critical time, it's a transition from student life to working life, she's been pampering me with her more than excellent cookings plus 'intensive care' and my dad's visit for the past 3 weeks has been the highlight of the 3 months. Just gonna say less but show more pictures now as I'm really tired...physically and mentally! =.=


right after dad's arrival, we've been touring london for 3D2N, i was dead tired even in the beginning of the trip. I'm half an expert now for london's tubes, buses and even cruise! :P


Glasgow, there's nothing much this city can offer really. trust me don't waste your time. We were there partly because we flew from Gatwick airport


Scottish tapas and whisky, not my cup of tea, the haggis and shrimp salad were the nicest of all, the others were a little too raw for me, still fancy cooked food. Oh the famous scottish whisky, the waitress asked 'what kind of whisky would you like? I gave her the ??? look, and she immediately replied 'Are you a whisky drinker? (guess she knows I'm not but just for the sake of asking), then I said 'oh i'm not could you please decide for me', I didnt know what kind of whisky I've drank that day to be honest, she just told me it was something sweet. In fact, it could burn your eosophagus with just tiny little sip!


It has been raining the whole day in Edinburgh, the castle didnt look as spectacular as I expected, everything seemed to be dull probably due to the bad weather, but I like walking along the Royal Mile thou, love the old buildings and roads, it makes you feel like you have gone back to the past of scotland. Edinburgh is much more worth a 2nd visit than Glasgow for sure.

The trip to Sweden and Denmark with my parents has been the most memorable trip I've ever had (not saying formally here but I really mean it, it really was an experience you will remember for life!) I have to mention here, we really appreciate the 5 stars hospitality provided by Marie and Mark, she and her husband have been such a lovely couples making sure we feel at home, they have been a very good tour guide throughout the trip. Thanks for the warm welcomes and goodbyes!


The building behind is called the lipstick as its look, one of the landmark of Halmstad. It was cold in Sweden, well..of course it was. It's really expensive to travel there, you've to pay for the toilet everywhere even when you're dining in the restaurant. As their government tax is really high (higher than UK, around 30% and you pay tax on utility as well) hence the high living expenses. The life of the people there seem much more relaxed than British, slower pace I supposed, and they live in big houses and have huge backyard gardens, how lovely the life would be but the weather kind of put me off immediately I think about it :P


On the way from Gothenburg, we drove past an IKEA, its originated from Sweden! We actually went in one of the IKEA and tried the real famous Swedish meat balls, a must try during your visit! Also don't forget to nip in a copy of original swedish IKEA catalogue, it's a souvenior for people like me who doesn't want to pay but still want to keep something as memory HAHAH although I serious don't know how to read apart from looking at the pictures in it :P


An expected disappointment was that the famous mermaid in Denmark has been moved to display at Shanghai EXPO 2010, hence the big screen there playing live video of the mermaid in the hall, to cheer the tourists up a little, well...just a little mermaid.


Tell you what, this is a must try in Denmark, a long slim red sausage! I forgot what it's name but taste fabulous!!! Very chewy and elastic outer skin, the meat is really juicy and yummy too, you can have it with mustard or ketchup as you like. It's the most amazing sausage I've tasted so far. I love to recommend good food, this one has to be top of the list, its even better than german curry wurst trust me

and many more photos at:
http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/snapfishuk/projectshareewelcome/l=2037732010/p=340191287512273829/g=2832354010/cobrandOid=1007/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

right...I can hear my stomach's grumbling now at the time of nearly 12am, it's about time to feel hungry and to sleep over so that you won't be over-feeding. So good night everybody, I shall update a little bit more about life in Liverpool next time as I'm now moving into the 2nd phase of settling down, hope I will be fine =)

HOT!!!

Unbelievable! It's been nearly 2 weeks, I feel itchy all over my body especially limbs ever since landed on the land of Fire, I don't think the temperature has ever gone down to less than 30 degree celcius since I touched down, I doubt I'm having some kind of prickly heat symptom, it gets better when I'm focusing on something and forgets about the heat, gets worst when I'm doing nothing and feel the burning sensation right above my skin, strange...I miss UK's weather so so much!

A prescription for myself, I need to shower three times a day, drink water when necessary, stay cool at all time. This afternoon I wanted to have a cold water bath, so I turned on the shower without turning on the heater, SHAAAAAAHHHH a stream of warm water splashing onto my hot body *deeply disappointed* the water from the tank has been heated up by the bright sunshine throughout the morning and the water was still warm eventhough it was not heated =.= Another solution, I cut my hair!!! I told the hairdresser (yun's mum) to cut it as short as possible, every time she surprised me with her excellent hair cutting skills, I love each new hair style designed by her, thanks so much auntie~~~


my hair stayed straight and flat on the first day, it curled and bounced a little thereafter. But still, love it.

Anyway, the past weeks have never been better, rest enough, play enough, sleep enough, eat enough, paktoh enough (never enough for this :P), watch TV enough, walk enough, wash enough (been cleaning the house). Life is so good, a truly summer holiday for me, the only worry is to think about how to entertain myself to past everyday, being at home is so so great despite the extremely hot weather :D


Birthday celebration at home the home home


Birthday celebration with Airen *muakss*


Second bouquet in my life, surprised by Airen. oopps I still havnt chosen my present >.<


Cher really came to Penang (not for me of course), gave me a belated birthday hug as promised, thank you!


Beach girls, taken beside the hotel where Cher's family has been the loyal VIP customer for years, even the doorman sees her growing up from a little girl to the pretty lady today, LOL.

Met Juli, Chong Ngie, Natasha and Jasmine yesterday and day before, just realised that even I've been away from Uni life and all have splitted and back home, but uni's friends are still always there. *touched* One more thing, it seems that everyone is complaining about the same thing 'it's too hot!!!'

Why I brought so many jeans back home?!!! wasted my luggage weight! Anyway, SIA was too good to say yes to my 26kgs baggage when the limit was only 20kgs. Another thumb up for Singapore Airline!

Nobody can stop me from going British Musuem this time!

A pictures walk-down of what happened in the 2 days in LONDON, a place where you can not stop finding things to do.

Great weather, passed by these huge chimneys which could normally see from far only

the pretty lady was posing for me, and the SNOG yogurt indulgence! a must-try in London

the long known Trafalgar square, nice place to hang out on sunny days

this is an interesting fact to share, the centre point to measure the distance of main cities from London, thanks Ngee for the info.

The Apollo Victoria Theatre, where we watched wicked witch of OZ

Nice interior design, the musical was quite good, very colorful stage design...very magical at some point...

The couple Kelvin&Eunice spent their night with us, thanks for coming really

Another couple Hong&Ying spent a night with us in Russel Square without prior notice, I can't resist myself from taking this photo, not supposed to be publicised, well at least not in FB. nobody will read this anyway hehehe

Finally I made it to British Museum, one of the greatest achievement really, thanks to Ngee for insisting to go.

Camden Market was really like petaling street in KL, but a better renovated version. Every corner of it seems to give you different feelings and inspiration, highly recommended to everyone =) Ngee seems to know lots of good place to go in London

Here it is, the High Commission of Malaysia in London, passport renewal process was quite efficient, apart from the machine broke down issue which made us waited for nearly 2hours, it could have been faster. Overall, you get the feel of being in Malaysia as you hear the familiar acccent, the small kitchen selling nasi lemak and kueh, friendly malay staffs who can speak hokkien with you if he found out you are hokkiek lang LOL Another extra point to mention is that, on your new passport, the place of issue will be ' High Commission of Malaysia, London' COOL MAN >.< 50GBP spent worthwhile :P

Can't help smiling

YES! finally our europe tour has been finalised and the only thing left is the anticipation for it come, I'm so happy! I'm currently in the excited state, it's so hard to keep it from people how happy I am now, I even made my Nasi Lemak this way...


I think I will just keep on smiling like my nasi lemak did, can't wait to go home to sink my teeth into a proper authentic nasi lemak and everything else!

Just hoping that the Iceland's Ey......something volcano (Eyjafjallajoekull is the right name) will stop erupting soon or the wind will change direction, then my trip to go HOME will be secured =)

Recently I've resumed my work on flowers' photo collection again, continuation from last Spring. This deadly Spring, kinda disappointing because of the inconsistency of the rain and sun, flowers are not bloomed to it's prettiest and under the best nurtured way, even blossom on the trees have been late.


A week after taken this photo, the flowers have all died because of the return of the cold


A week after taken this photo, all petals have dropped to the ground because of strong wind


I was arguing (well...discussing) with someone about the name of this plant, and I was too stubborn and being denial that it is the BUTTERCUP. It's a fact, there's no point to argue and got angry about myself for not knowing the name of this little plant. In the end, I was awaken by 'you always want to be right', thanks for saying that :/

Botanical knowledge of the day: Buttercup is called bouton d'or in french.

It's almost going to the end of thesis writing, and London here I come, be wicked, am going to watch Wicked! ^_^

Subway Awesome

A quick view of liverpool's blossom

I like SUBWAY, and now I like it even more! There's a reason why subway has such a long history in their fast food franchise bussiness, having to survive under the competition of so many fast food restaurants, but stil growing stronger and bigger. Not only it's freshly served sandwiches, but also it's thumb up-ed customer services.

I myself have had a bad Subway moment on Easter Monday in Liverpool, but it quickly regained my trust as soon as I made a complaint. Out of my expectation, the area manager has done a great job in sorting out this issue as soon as he could and I'm completely satisfied with it. Just a little small matter which involved a small amount of money, at least I'm impressed with how good the UK is, in being a country where people are free to speak and feedback and reflect.

If you have time, please read the incident below (conversation between me and the Subway Manager through email) and be more positive of making any complain in the future =)

I'm SS, your customer who has used debit card for a transaction to pay a set of meal deal on the 6th April in you branch of Subway at the exchange street, Liverpool. I just realised that I've been charged twice in my account, one 3.48GBP and another 4.79GBP. It was like this, after I chose to get the meal deal and paid 1GBP extra to get the subway refillable cup, I was told by the cashier to pay 3.48GBP at the till, so I did. Then, I went on to eating my meal and the cashier came back to me saying that she did not get the transaction through and asked me to go back to pay again. Hence, I paid at the till again using my debit card, and realised that it was supposed to be 4.49GBP because the meal deal itself was 3.49GBP and 1GBP for the cup. However, the cashier and the manager said there were some new settings in the cash machine that they could not manage to charge the meal deal and the cup accordingly, so they put the transaction total as 4.79GBP and gave me 30pence in cash for change. I agreed without realising that they did actually charged the first transaction of 3.48GBP until I saw my bank account history today.

So, would you please sort this out for me by refunding 3.48GBP, your attention will be very much appreciated.

Thank you for your comments regarding your visit to our SUBWAY, Exchange Street.
All SUBWAY Restaurants strive to supply our customers with excellent service, great tasting food and 100% accuracy of orders. We know this is an awesome goal to consistently reach however comments from our customers ensure that we keep our goals on track and we appreciate customers taking the time to advise us if they are less than happy.
Please accept my sincere apologies, if you would like to go into the store and ask for the manager we can organise a refund?
Please be assured this matter has been taken seriously, and your comments have been addressed with the Area Manager, who will endeavor to ensure incidences such as these do not happen again in the future.
Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for your upset.
Regards
XX

Thanks for your quick reply. I will not be able to visit the store in Exchange street, Liverpool as I'm already back to Nottingham now. Would it be possible to refund it in the Subway store in Nottingham, or refund me through bank transfer is fine for me.

Unfortunately Subway is a franchise owned business and we do not links with other stores outside of the North West, in addition we do not have any outgoing payment facility.
I can send you vouchers for 2 free Meal Deals, each voucher is to the value of £3.99?
Please accept our sincere apologies.

Thanks for your offer, yes that is a great idea to receive the vouchers for compensation.

Can you please confirm your postal address and I will get them in the post this evening.

These series of reply happened in one day, I'm impressed by how fast the manager acts. Then, two days later I've got my free meal deal vouchers in my mailbox! One word to describe this, EFFICIENT ^.^

OKAY I'm so so hot, it's spring but it's almost like summer. I just realised that I've got only one Hacks left, only one left!!! I'm going to eat it now and start craving for it until I go back to Malaysia in 4 weeks time YEAHHH

GLP two

The first sign of Spring...taken one week ago.

It's already the end! It's the end of my practical work in the CBS, C35. But that doesn't mean I don't have nothing to do anymore, in fact there are even more things coming towards me, the writing up of thesis seems to be an annoying part of doing a research, especially with chemistry paper as you need to include all your hard-work-analysed data of each compound as an appendix in the dissertation, and probably nobody bother reading it, it's just a supplementary, I won't even get merit for that. How sad...

Easter, lots of plan with lots of mission, the most important task being hunting a room in Liverpool, second being renewing my passport in London, 3rd being completion of my final year project. well, actually the last one has to be prioritized, so lets get cracking on the writing up first(quote from task supervisor).

Thanks to the anonymous who left a very encouraging comment on my previous post GLP one. Because of this, I make this 2nd post in the same month, exceptionally just for this time, hope it helps in your college assignment again =)
I don't know how many chance in your life, you would ever encounter using Benzyl Bromide, probably not even once, maybe it's quite a rare ingredient in chemistry synthesis. But for the only one time that I used it, I've totally got the taste of it. It made me cry! As in tearing uncontrollably, tears just welled up in your eyes and pouring out like rain. hahaha, kind of exaggerated but it's almost as if there's something really sad happened to me. Think about it, it's been ages ago since I last cried, it's actually not too bad as I got to wash out my eyes little bit and re-activate my tear glands making sure that the biological function is still working properly :P

Initially I didnt know that it was the benzyl bromide which caused me to cry, I thought it was because of my cold and that sort of congested my nose and that's why tears were flowing towards the eyes (you know the nose and eyes are connected by a 'tunnel'). I realised my theory was wrong when I was weighing up to the 3/4th tube of the 7 tubes altogether, something's really strange as I didn't feel my nose block but the tears were still flooding out. I tried to close my eyes and rest it but it didn't help. Without being alert to any safety precaution, I continued weighing it till the last tube. And then, my task supervisor came in and noticed that I was 'crying'. Well...he should have told me the fact that benzyl bromide is an irritant compound and should be weighed in the fume hood not in the open air. However, it's all my fault for not doing the risk assessment before the start of my synthesis. So, I had to suffer it...I was shoo-ed from the lab to get some fresh air from the outside for 15mins, actually I was feeling fine after 5mins and insisted to go back into the lab again as there were still many tasks left to be done, but I was shoo-ed away again. So, I waited the time to pass, while my tears getting lesser and lesser...went back in and continue my work with a strange feeling that I actually cried for nothing for the first time ever.

So, Good Laboratory Practice 2: Revise risk assessment for each chemical used prior the start of your practical.

okay, that's it for today, need to go CBS now to finish my last bit of NMR analysis!


Hope to see more flowers, bloom for a longer period please

Good Laboratory Practice

Unbelievable, it's already the 8th week of my practical for final year project! It seems like it was just yesterday when I first met my task supervisor, first day having fun in the lab playing with chemicals, oh dear...so many things have happened and solved and settled and now many more things are coming to be done, ENDLESS work to do man! But, I have a feeling that I will be reluctant to leave the lab on the last day, the lab is like my 2nd home now, I've been spending most of my time there synthesising and taking care of my beloved chemical compounds, we have formed strong chemistry bonds already...I will cherish my last week in the lab =)

Anyway, ever do something this stupid in the lab before? If you havnt, then learn from my mistake.

One fine day, I was tyring to clean my lab specs and thinking that using some solution would be a good idea, so then I grabbed the ACETONE which is used to clean glassware, splashing it onto my specs and started rubbing it with a piece of tissue. As a consequences...


the more I rubbed, the blurrer the lens become, the more scratches on my specs! I was wondering what the hell was happening, so I showed it to my task supervisor and I gained a round of laughter from my colleagues, Oh yes I wasnt the first dummie who have done that, at least someone used to be as stupid as me (doesnt imply anyone one here :P) Unfortunately, it was my only lab specs that can fit nicely onto my 'big skull' and doesnt put any pressure on the side of my head, I just murdered it under my hand on the second day I brought it to the lab -____- Anyway, I was lucky enough that my task supervisor was ordering a new one for me, a brand new one which I could choose from a nice catelogue! *touching*

So, Good Laboratory Practice 1: Do not wash plastic-made items with ACETONE, use METHANOL instead.


It was so clean and clear back in Malaysia Campus, huge contrast to the terrible state now.

stay tune for GLP chapter 2 ^.^