Weather has been rather mild for some last few days, it's been sunny today, I finished class at lunchtime today and holidays starts just after tomorrow. Can't think of how things could be better at the moment ^^!

Monday was puppy's birthday. Couldn't have it at Sh's and since the flatties didn't mind, we just had our little celebration at this flat. And now puppy's got an 021 number, finally! Tuesday was the start of abdomen dissection series. Tiring. Puppy switched streams to attend Sandy's funeral mass. I had com. skills filming at 11.30am which I'm not quite sure wether to think of it as good or not. By the time I got to HN, it was more than halfway into the service and had to creep in through the back door. It was packed with people. Heard cool stuff about Prof Sandy, though I've still no idea where 'Sandy' came from. Quite a few classmates were there too. Wednesday was Clinical Biochem with Mr Reddy. He's back from his travels apparently, and there was lots of time allocated for discussion which somehow seemed pretty pointless. Skipped PDS project presentations in the end after realising that I didn't have to go. And curiously, succeeded in making fried rice that didn't turn out mushy or clumpy! Yay!! Macaroons came out of the oven as well, despite not following a recipe and not realising that the egg whites were meant to be beaten. LOL. Today was another dissection. Most of the work was done on the right side. After everyone else from my team left, XM and I decided to try and get out the other testis. To our horror, after a couple of slices into the scrotum, it started gushing some red-tinged clear liquid enough to soak completely two paper towels! *wince* In short, the left one wasn't 'normal', it being 'upside-down', with a cyst and fibrosed 'capsule'... :S

Holiday holidays coming!!!! Can't wait!!

RCA rat race over and done, and results were out yesterday. I passed, which I must say was something lucky, considering that at the end of the round, just before handing in the paper, looking through and tallying the number of questions the answer to which I was unsure or didn't know, it was almost half of them. No thanks to the blown up CT and radiograph images of course. And a couple of random stuff that looked as though it should have been in the B&B rat race at the start of the year. -_-"' Who cares anyway?! I passed, and so did the rest of my friends, so here's to a stress free holiday! Yay!

Holidays are in a week or so. Though I've still got another lab or so, which I'm sure is going to be headed by MZ again, and the final mock patient interview, and a pharmacology lab, and a clinical chem tute to get through beforehand. Not that it's that bad I guess, the timetable is looking rather empty for next week ^^!

I've got the flight tickets for the end of the year at last. Though certainly not without much worry. For some reason or other, the lady, while told to book it in Dec and gave me the impression all the while that that was what she did, actually booked it a month before and realising her mistake only at the last minute when she decided to print the receipt out for me to look through and sign. Then it was come back tomorrow and we'll change the tickets for you, ok? Rigt, back next day. Just as well that the prices hadn't really changed, otherwise I'm not sure if I would want to listen to those stupid Asianic values my ancestors left me. Nod nod nod I went, and inside I was furious and would have loved to just slap her silly, but what did I do but play the Asian who shows not her anger in public or to people older than her and smile (albeit painfully). I feel pathetic, a loser somehow. Arrgh, I need attitued re-engineering.

And news just came that poor old Sandy had died. So I guess Miss Brookes had no idea how accurate her remark that we won't be seeing Sandy for the rest of the year would turn out to be. It's somewhat nearly unbelievable. Just a couple of days ago Prof Griffin was just telling us how Sandy was telling the docs what sort of antibiotics to give him for what bugs and what not. Feeling a bit empty at this news somehow. Too bad that from now on no one's getting his lectures anymore, but rather boring old Brookes instead. May you be at peace wherever you are then Sandy.

Students have been coming in and out of the flat lately to have a look through. It's been listed now since none of us are staying there next year, and it's a bit annoying at times when they choose to come around times when people are not at home. I rather they turn up on weekdays than on weekends. But then again, I guess it's not a big deal anyway, at least then I'll have motivation to do a bit of cleaning up I guess.

Trying out a bit of music yesterday was a wake up call. I've slacked too much now and should really knuckle down and get a bit of practice down. I've lost my sigh-reading skills and I can't find the keys as readily without looking down. I'm a little heartbroken by what I've lost though there's no one but myself to blame. I must, must, must visit the piano more often during this upcoming holidays. Come to think of it now, my hopes of getting a piano, my own piano, next year is more or less gone now. There's no way I'm getting one in a flat, not when there's a possibility of moving about every year, and there's even less of a possibility when in a 'studio room'. And there's not going to be a club and socs in Chch next year too. You owe me a kick in the bum now Wormy! Grrr.... I guess I'll figure out something by then. IF only I had oodles of money, then I would do it like how Vitus did - hire a studio for one sole purpose. Should I invest whatever I have in the shares now?? But which one?!

I suppose when one wants to buy stuff, one should consult with experts first. I bought a bar of chocolate at NW sometime earlier this week at a price close to 3 bucks, and thought to myself then, huh, this is cheap. Fastforward to yesterday afternoon, a trip to CD proved me wrong, for the same bar was being sold at just 2 bucks. ~ToT~ Sigh. I promise myself, next time, when I'm gonna get chocolates, I'm gonna get Sh to come along, even if I'll have to tie her up and carry her along. Sigh. Lesson learnt I suppose.

If only my salted eggs would look like these...

It being close to a month now since the little eggs were put into their little coatings of salt, I thought it would be good to have some of them with porridge for dinner yesterday. Didn't turn out quite like I hoped it would. For one, it's chicken eggs that I'm using, not Madame Duckie's of course. And it's certainly by the conventional method that commercial salted eggs are made with. And would using sake instead of Shao Xing wine make a difference? I don't know. So how did it came out then? For one, the whites are quite well salted, though slightly less salty than commercial ones... I think, but well enough to make me happy. The yolk however was a different thing altogether. It was hardly salted, that eating it alone I barely tasted any saltiness to it. And this is where Madame Duckie's eggs beats Mrs Cluckie's, and not just in size, but also in terms of how much fat there is in the yolk. Mine didn't acheive that beautiful orangey red colour, except a light tinge of it around the rim. Sigh. Next time, I shall try it with brine then. Sighs.

After yesterday night, I'm still somewhat feeling somewhat flabbergasted. Some I didn't anticipate, some I guess was already somewhat obvious since some time ago.

Grr... all my worrying and planning is somewhat wasted I guess. Perhaps I should reconsider those uni flats near the hospital then. Sigh. Which isn't altogether a really bad thing perhaps, since it's something easier to settle than to search for some other form of lodging. I doubt if my choice of clinical school can be changed now, seeing as it's a case of people being balloted out from Wellie into Chch and Dud. Not that Wellie would have proven to be a much better choice I guess. But I prefer to be closer than further. For one, it's purely a sentimental thing, secondly bus trips are certainly cheaper than flights. But nothing is confirmed yet, so I guess I'll sit tight and see how things pan out.

I know that I do practise double standards of course, but then perhaps some things that I do have double standards for didn't appear to be obvious to me until yesterday either. What some people do with their lives or chose to have in their lives can only be considered of interest and no more than that. But when it comes to people whom I love most and care a lot about, it does. I suppose I'm old-fashioned in my thinking in some ways, as Wormy accused me of yesterday, but then for crying out loud, the person in question is someone I care about! Of course I'll be putting my guards up! But then am I being a wee bit silly and being over-protective I wonder? Wonder what sort of reaction I'll be witness to soon?? I'm somewhat curious as well.

Last dissection for the thorax area today. I'm quite pleased at how it went actually, in that I feel like we've covered at least most or all of the steps involved (not all unfortunately, since some of the structures were already lost to previous dissections). After that, I couldn't really be bothered looking at the prosections, resorting instead to just standing around and listening to Demonstrator L whizzing throught a few of the slices. Didn't feel like leaving the lab early since there wasn't anywhere to go to before my next SI tute anyway.

p/s Oopsie, burnt my swede chips and pumpkin not as well roasted as I wanted it. Forgot about their difference in sizes -_-"'

First time I've heard of Henrietta Lacks. Rather cold and calculated of the researchers, but then it seems that most of kids my age certainly have benefited from their research and her misfortune, since without her cells we might not even have the polio vaccine yet.

http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/01.html
http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3426

Went to watch Med Revue's Med School Musical. It was hilarious, though the bulk of it was insider jokes... and *ahem* jokes meant for those 18 and above. Personally I think it was quite a good night of entertainment overall (the band was quite good, the vocalist had a good voice, the order of acts flowed, more or less, smoothly, if one doesn't mind that there isn't much to the main story and that the show was bulked up by funny stuff in between), but I think they could probably cut down on the cruelty factor.

Yes. Cruelty factor. It's funny (we're still kids, aren't we? still cruel deep down, loving to make fun of the odd one out -_-"') if one doesn't think too much about it, and would be not that bad if it were secret and the persons being 'attacked' weren't going to know about it. But that's not the case. It's like last year's end being played out, albeit simplified. I don't see what's that horrid about 'Pep-Daddy'. Sure, he speaks with a funny accent, but so? It's not like the standard NZ accent is all that great either ('oh hell yeah, look at me... my tone goes up at the end of every sentence'... smaart). His notes are good, and if one cares to pay attention, his lectures aren't that bad (if you fall asleep, who's to blame? If others can keep awake, why not you?). Seems rather cowardly and under-the-belt if you ask me, to attack him as some did last year, and now again this year. Or perhaps I'm being too sensitive? Same with poor lil N.D. And what the heck is up with some people? Calling demonstrator L queen/ mum? Where the hell did that come from? And ok, so she knows her stuff, but so? My impression of her from labs is just so-so, like any other lab demonstrator and lecturer. A tad bossy as well come to think of it. Over-rated if you ask me.

Dissection today was mainly on the heart and the great vessels. Odd that a person can be so skinny and yet have a huge helping of pericardial fat. Scraping it off, my forceps became covered in something that looked sickeningly like cream. Wonder if mine is just like that as well?? *hmm* Got the sleeve of my lab coat covered in some dried up blood as well *eeks* and have to send it for washing. Darn. But just as well I rolled up my hoodie's sleeves, otherwise they would have gotten the worse of it instead. Didn't get a chance to look at any prosections or plastinated slices today, not that I would have wanted to either after that long dissection. It went till quarter to before stream A would be coming in for their turn *faints*.

Weather is still nasty as ever it seems. Worm says she wanna talk about the scholarship papers but didn't specify what. Curious and curiouser. One thought that came to me today as well... how possible is it to hang someone outside the window of the toilet or my room? Jumping out the window here with a hangman's noose well positioned, I betcha a pound of my fat that one'll get a hangman's fracture if anything. Scary...

Made some rojak cake on Friday and have used up the remaining flour and margarine, sunflower seeds and ground almonds at last, and also returned the hand mixer and rack back to Sh. So that's one part of the stuff cleared out now. That bag of sugar still looks just as formidable though!

So the pig never came about because D couldn't even get hold of the owner. I wonder why. After 3 voice mails and 5 texts, one would normally expect an answer of some sort at least. I suppose the owner really didn't want his porky to end up as someone's dinner or something LOL. D's round of bad luck continued right into the whole of Saturday. The guys been meaning to have a good round of Diablo together, but instead poor D had to spend the whole afternoon and night trying to set up the game on his laptop. The others enjoyed themselves quite a lot too. Someone who wasn't keen on the game at first appeared to be overjoyed, screaming, shrieking and laughing non-stop (wonder if my ear-drums are still intact!). Diablo convert now?? Someone elses laptop, being overloaded with stuff decided to not cooperate, though it didn't stop her playing all the same. And poor Q had to do some translation work for Woori today, a whooping 5 pages or so of stuff that she had to translate. Not an easy job as well, for it seems that Koreans use a lot of metaphors (I think that's what it's called) in their 'normal talk', which certainly doesn't translate easily at all into English. I certainly cannot imagine the sort of image the non-Korean speaking congregation would have upon hearing the phrase 'run to heaven'. By the time she was done, Q looked so tired with her eyes barely open, and hair all ruffled.

And for some reason or other, the weather has been really good, except for a few days where it chose to rain of course. But it's weather that's quite uncharacteristic of winter, especially now that it's already early August. Not that I'm gonna complain of course. Hopefully this warm turn of weather lasts until the end of the year then. I can't wait for the day I can't just leave the bulky jacket at home and run about in just one or two layers of clothing.

I've yet to get the return tickets from Melbourne. Haven't really been bothered about it really, partly because they don't fall within the sales period. I will though, just when I'm going to start the application for the visas.

I've cooked dinner for next week as well. Mostly vegetarian and tofu based. Yum yum yum, tofu! And I've still not worked up a good enough reason to splurge on the gluten flour... miss grandma's seitan...

Just as well I was online and talking to J... just got a call from home. Mumiak and nana aren't too pleased at the idea of homekill. Especially mumiak. I was half expecting this seeing as fishing was already deemed a horrible cruel act... nana was more concerned about what might happen if it turned out to be against the law, especially since that back home it's actually illegal to have them killed at abbatoirs. True I guess, since who knows what nasties are in the ground...

Seems like drug reps here work just as much the same way as the ones back home. I have no idea why they would work differently, perhaps because of the lack of mention? Or perhaps I was too naive and thought perhaps after being pounded with all that crappy ethics stuff we might become weird enough to not even be tempted by anything? LOL.

Lady from the renting company told me to check back by Oct and hopefully there should be two rooms for rent by then. Sigh. I don't want to wait till then. All the uncertainty is rather frustrating. On the other hand, turns out a classmate of mine is still looking for flatmates but I daren't really approach her yet simply because I don't want to end up not being able to deliver on a promise of flatting together later. Plus I can't think of any other way to not make a promise on that though if I talk to her. Plus, no idea if I'll be able to walk around Chch later knowingly I left her high and dry. But if I don't, and if the rooms don't turn out... I suppose in the end flatting isn't something I'm very keen on anymore, especially when there's family around. Somehow it makes it rather odd. Perhaps I should set the worm on the lookout for those hire-purchase homes? :S Fingers crossed then that those rooms are good and that I get them. *naive/ stupid-person alert!!*

Having time to think about it, should I even worry that I might not be able to polish off all those stuff in the pantry? Come to think of it, I'll be having to stay until close to the last month anyway and that's still quite some time away too? Especially since most of the flatties are running super early this year *sob*. Stupid, how many people even think about such banal issues?

Made the batik cake according to the recipe that Shu gave me. Come to think of it now, where on earth did I put it? Perhaps one packet of the Marie biscuits was too much? I would have preferred more of the fudgy chocolate stuff... actually, I rather just cut it all out :P! Wonder what's the reason behind the use of Milo and cocoa powder when one can just use cocoa powder?? I think I might be actually spending too much time around Sh, her chocolate addictions must be catching or something... is it too late to be vaccinated? *hopeful look* Now that that one's down, should I ask Shu how on earth she made that ayam masak merah?

With RCA coming up and then holidays and then who knows what next, I'm starting to wonder how much more time we have left together as a group. I'm kind of glad even for the suggestion of a pig-slaughtering 'adventure' (according to a certain someone, I have a perverted morbid sense of fun -_-"'). But somehow the thought that there might be rules surrounding killing a pig is somewhat beyond me. Ok, perhaps not so. I can see perfectly reason for having it around, but I'm not really in the mood to be rational. But then I suppose then again there are always other excuses that one can come up with. Is last minute bonding counter-intuitive I wonder? Is it just setting oneself up for frustration later?

I suppose I should go over and book my return flights for the end of the year soon. I keep forgetting. Tomorrow would be a good time I guess to do so, though I keep on wondering if perhaps I should instead wait for the possibility of another specials?

Somehow I feel like I have quite some stuff to do, but I don't know what. I dropped by the library in the afternoon today, after having fixed my specs (costs 10 bucks for one pair for 'feet' for them glasses *wince*, makes me wish I'm back home) and looked around for something raincoat like. Found ponchos being sold in the 123 dollar shop, though I might get them tomorrow or never. Some other stuff that were so darn pretty and enticing (more evidence of my hoarding tendencies??) but have to keep my hands off for. *itch itch itch*!! Thinking about it makes me wonder when's best to look at how best to move as well.