Ha... what a long time since I last entered an entry... This much deservered long weekend has been fun-filled one... Too bad it's coming to an end. Let me just recall and update what I have done over the past few days.

Right after CA3, I did not, (surprisingly) went out with my med friends because I had to prepare some solutions for monday's experiment. Since there's a break of three weeks before our next ca commences, I have decided to complete my second phase of experiment... The first part of the experiment was fortunately quite successful, despite many errors made on the way. For example, I centrifuged at 2000g when I should have centrifuged at 200g, reason being that the previous user centrifuged at 20,000 g... Sigh, I guess one has to be extremely mindful of what's one is doing when carryng out experiments. Preparation of solutions, as usual is extremely boring, having to weigh solutes with a weighing balance that fluctuates like crazy and pipetting out solutions and molar calculations. Tomorrow have to go to the Animals LAboratory, The first time that I went was about one and half months ago and I saw many interesting things: Rats were screaming aloud (very eerie) when chemicals 9some poisonus... for eg chemicals which can induce cancer, liver cirrhosis) were injected, mice killed by breaking their spinal cords. I remember feeling squeamish and uneasy witnessing the killing of mice but in retrospect, felt that after all, animal testing is for the advancement of science...
Went home at about six and watched some tvb shows and then slept at ten.

Friday was initially reserved for an OG outing to Sentosa. But I decided against going to Sentosa as 1) there was a slight drizzle 2) I am too tired to crawl out of bed at nine am in the morning 3) I am not very close to my OG and do not wish to end up entertaining myself there...
But I did go out with my friends, SW WL and KEL to Tampines Mall. Unfortunately, we didn't get to catch a movie as two of my friends had dinner appointments with their families and had to go home early... Also, there weren't any great movies showing besides Kill BIll which we won't allow to watch. We sat at Coffee Bean and talked for two good hours and went to Challenger for a while to look at computer games.
at night, I went online and signed up for friendster after hearing from SW that most ppl have friendster. Also, can get to connect with friends that u have lost contact.

I went out on SAT to Yishun SAFRA as my friends wanted to do some rockclimbing. The journey to Yishun took me one hour and thirty minutes... I have never done any Rockclimbing, so wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, after paying the money at the counter, we didn't get to rockclimb because the 2 ppl in charge refused to let us rockclimb without a qualified belayer, despite the fact that my ocs friend had learnt belaying in ocs as he did not have a proper certificate. We were quite pissed off with the two guys as we felt that they were being really inflexible. Moreover, when we asked them whether they can help us belay as they weren't doing much there, they declined giving a lame analogy that lifeguards dun teach ppl how to swim but to monitor any safety breaches. We wanted to argue further but knowing that it was pointless, we then asked them to credit the money to a later date. That means that we can rockclimb the next time when we find a belayer but the period of validity is only for two weeks.

We then walked to the community centre , wanting to play badminton. Once again, the courts were booked throughout the night. We then left for Orchard... The only consolation was that we got to know Yishun better. Ha ha

At orchard, we played LAN for two hours... THis was my second time playing LAN. It wasn't as bad as the first time when I ended up feeling nauseous and having a splitting headache. Afterwards, we wanted to dine at the sushi bar offering a buffet. But it was too crowded and there was a queue. Knowing that everyone would definitely stay for a whole two hours to make their money worth, we then went to BREEKS at Marina Square. Ate a lot and talked a lot .. Were among the last to leave BREEKS. After returning home, I went online for a while and chatted till one am.

Down with Arsenal! Hope they lose today's match....

Quotation of the day: The only permanent thing in life is impermanence...

Last weekend has been a busy one. Besides mugging for the upcoming CA, I went out with my friends for dinner at EDO sushi. I ordered a set meal (Unagi) which cost around eleven dollars in total. Too bad didn't get to watch Infernal Affairs 2 but heard that it was as good as Infernal Affairs one. Did anyone catch the scene when Eric Tseng pat the backside of Carina Lau. I heard that this was done spontaneously and Carina was so shocked that she stared at Eric Tseng. But fortunately, being old friends with Eric Tseng, she did not pursue the matter and just laughed it off. As for the performances of the two newcomers, I heard it was better than expected...

Speaking about movies, there are so many good movies coming up, one of which is the final sequel of Matrix which I think most people would give it a miss judging from the fact that not many could understand Matrix Reloaded was all about, including myself. (But I managed to get bits and pieces of information from my other friends... Still not willing to give up on this hard-to-comprehend movie.

And Of course, who can miss out LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!
I love the music played in Lord of the RIngs ... How majestic the music was...

Sunday was spent mugging, as well as watching tv... There's a great tvb show called fa2 wang2 yi1 ren2... Basically it 's about how A- Shen (my all time favourite actress Guo Ke Ying) became a lawyer... What I like about this show is 1) the actress herself and 2) the jokes. Any shows by A-list actress Kuo will hardly be bad! Believe me: just watch it and you will find time passes so quickly that b4 you know, two hours have gone)

Enough of movies.. gotta get back to snelling... Good Luck to all medicine students for CA3

The prospect of going up the mountains of ChangRai, Thailand excites me!!! For those who have not yet known of my plans for the December holidays, I will be visiting the Akha tribe in Thailand with one of my friend, a humanitarian aid worker to help them. The details have not been finalised yet but I am determined to make this trip a success!

Just some prelimary information about the akha tribe to those who are interested in finding out more about the AKha tribe... THe Akha tribe lives on the mountain tops, north of Thailand, near the fringes of Thailand and Yunnan. Their plight is somewhat like the Kurds who have yet to obtain autonomy from the Thai government.there is a quiet policy of cultural genocide, where as little is done to help these minorities who are dying quickly of Aids,
drug addiction, illiteracy etc. They are not allowed to work without an ID card, cannot go to Thai schools etc.so there is virtually nothing for them except being trapped in the mountains.

It seems the Israelis have been buying fields and farmlands
from minorities hard up for cash. And now owning almost the
entire ridge and valleys, they are now growing grapes and
vineyards,using > > up all the water from the rivers. What is the greatest
disgrace is that they are employing the self
same folks who sold them the lands in the first place at
the exploitative rate of 100 baht a day to work in fields sold
for next to nothing. If you take USD1= 42 baht, you can imagine,
they are being paid a little more than
USD2 per day.


Basically I will be going there for a period of eighteen days.... The tentative plans are

1) Teaching the kids English
2) playing with the kids
3)together with another NGO, teach them how to grow other crops!!!

The soil they have is very fertile. Unfortunately, they do not know how to grow other crops besides rice! Currently, logan and poppy seeds have been grown... Though, I am not sure why they need poppy seed????

The prospect of going up the mountains of ChangRai, Thailand excites me!!! For those who have not yet known of my plans for the December holidays, I will be visiting the Akha tribe in Thailand with one of my friend, a humanitarian aid worker to help them. The details have not been finalised yet but I am determined to make this trip a success!

Just some prelimary information about the akha tribe to those who are interested in finding out more about the AKha tribe... THe Akha tribe lives on the mountain tops, north of Thailand, near the fringes of Thailand and Yunnan. Their plight is somewhat like the Kurds who have yet to obtain autonomy from the Thai government.there is a quiet policy of cultural genocide, where as little is done to help these minorities who are dying quickly of Aids,
drug addiction, illiteracy etc. They are not allowed to work without an ID card, cannot go to Thai schools etc.so there is virtually nothing for them except being trapped in the mountains.

It seems the Israelis have been buying fields and farmlands
from minorities hard up for cash. And now owning almost the
entire ridge and valleys, they are now growing grapes and
vineyards,using > > up all the water from the rivers. What is the greatest
disgrace is that they are employing the self
same folks who sold them the lands in the first place at
the exploitative rate of 100 baht a day to work in fields sold
for next to nothing. If you take USD1= 42 baht, you can imagine,
they are being paid a little more than
USD2 per day.


Basically I will be going there for a period of eighteen days.... The tentative plans are

1) Teaching the kids English
2) playing with the kids
3)together with another NGO, teach them how to grow other crops!!!

The soil they have is very fertile. Unfortunately, they do not know how to grow other crops besides rice! Currently, logan and poppy seeds have been grown... Though, I am not sure why they need poppy seed????

Very sorry that my blog does not have any column for comments. Still finding out how to go about doing and finding timeto add in newer features. Just read the papers today on my way to school and I guess everyone should know by now about the tragic incident involving a SAF man. I am extremely glad the government has been transparent about the recent events unfolding in SAF and has decided to investigate to improve on the safety measures in the SAF...

As for today, I did nothing much except driving. I have just completed my stage one, proceeding to stage two the following week. Looking through the modules set by BBDC, I realised that many of the modules are repeated... I really regretted enrolling in a school instead of finding a private driving instructor... let me see, By now, I have incurred close to nine hundred dollars.*gasp*

Tomorrow will be PDP... Sigh, have to make an extra trip to nuh...

finally fixed my msn... realised that I have to set up a hotmail account b4 i can use msn messenger... JL, what you told me was wrong!!!nvm, finally got this thing settled. Jack, as for the Stephanie Sun 's mini concert, I watched it on SCV in the morning at my friend's house and I suppose it's much better than the usual channel u/8 mini concerts which usu end up cutting footage... I knoe you are a great fan of hers and I must admit this gal has lots of potential. Her voice is unique and she can actually sing live... I was quite impressed by her rendition of "gan lan shu" ...

Really sad that the censorship board hasn't agreed to show Sex and the city...

I had my driving lesson just now, from 2.45pm to 4.20 pm. I am very pleased with myself as I got two chops from my instructor who is usually very "neow". Perhaps it's because for my previous driving lesson, I had deliberately hinted to him that my progress was really slow, compared to my other peers and one driving lesson costs a lot...

After yesterday's gathering with my seniors, I felt much better. We had two hours of discussion on the beneficial and adverse effects on meditation, after which we proceeded to ALumni's restaurant for dinner. For those who are new to meditation, meditation is an extremely powerful tool used to improve concentration and allows the mind to observe things as they are, without being judgemental. During the time of meditation, everyone is supposed to let go of what has happened and whatever anticipations we have of the future. Being relatively new to meditation,I have initially encountered some problems which are not uncommon even to experienced meditators. Over the weeks (or should I say days) of meditation, albeit irregular, I can feel myself becoming better-tempered, less irritated and calmer. The feelings cannot be described in words unless one experiences meditation oneself. (p/s it may seem that i am promoting meditation, but these are just some of my personal thoughts which i wish to share...)

A few days back, I felt extremely miserable, having to study chunks of useless notes for the upcoming test. I kept on asking myself: what's the point of working / studying so hard when all achievements/failures are ultimately impermanent? I guess these thoughts arised because of my increasing contact with the teachings of Buddha. The truth is that everything that is subjected to arising will also be subjected to cessation. But when I discussed it with my friend, she told me that the thought I had in mind was perhaps due to laziness... I have, in the hope of enjoying myself, gave myself a convenient excuse so as to make myself less guilty... She went on talking some more about the *noble eightfold path* and I felt that the nagging feeling that was weighing me down disappeared instanteously. I wish to thank her for her advice...

This morning, I woke up feeling very depressed for no apparent reason! I think it's because it's the start of a new week and I dread the days ahead.

Nothing much happened for the past few hours. We had one hour of boring lecture by a china lecturer on lipid metabolism and two hours of respiratory lectures by a female lecturer who likes to repeat herself...

The only interesting thing today was anatomy pratical on heart... Learnt many things and realised that what we learnt in jc and sec school were erroneous!

Will be staying back in school for mdc... (medical dharma circle)
Today's topic is MEDITATION... Any serious meditators out there?

the end of one ca heralds another ca.... the thought of it really makes me fruastrated! And though Jack proclaimed that the ca was easy, I made many mistakes. Sigh! Just hope that I won't fail ! Enough of cas!!!

THis weekend has been extremely fun!!! Together with my goup of secondary school friends, I went to watch soccer at my friend's house. I must confess that I was never an avid football fan. The only football players that I am more familiar come from Man U. BUt this England- Turkey football match was really good, though no goals were scored!

Turkey players really turned me off with their lack of sportsmanship. It's a good thing that Beckham did not lose his cool but my friends and I caught him scolding **** off to another turkish player when he tried to touch his head.