The sightings and recordings log for my trip to the Botanic Gardens today, surprisingly, fills up a greater space than that of my day at Sungei Buloh.
I saw the Black-crowned night heron, a species not so commonly seen, and digiscoped it. Other birds seen and scoped were the bulbuls and Blue-tailed bee-eaters. The Blue-throated bee-eaters' season is over; taken over by the Blue-taileds. There were also more Yellow bitterns around Eco Lake than usual (the norm sighted being nil).
Another highlight was a juvenile Green-crested lizard. That was my first-ever sighting of a Green-crested juvenile that young. It was so small and cute!
It would also do the cicada injustice if I didn't mention it. Walking back towards the Visitor Centre from the Eco Lake, I noticed an extra silhouette below one of the numerous empty cicada shells on a tree trunk. I took a closer look -- a newly-emerged cicada! We (not forgetting my companions for the day - my sis Jane, Kris, ThiHa and Yu Chung) went closer, and it fell from its spot onto the ground! Jane picked it up -gently of course- and placed it back on the trunk. We whipped out our cameras again and clicked away. I had a headshot of it while it was in my hand... that one turned out so clear that the three simple eyes on its forehead could be seen.
An most interesting observation concerned a Straited heron. I trained my scope on a particular individual, thinking that it had a fish in its beak (and it's always a good idea to try to take a pic of it feeding), but saw that it was bread instead. Expecting it to swallow the bread, I kept an eye on it, and saw it hop a little ways towards the water edge, look in, and drop the piece of bread. Very clearly, it knew what it was doing; and it didn't drop the bread by mistake. What ensued was a frenzy of movement in the water - ripples caused by the fish which were attracted to the bread - and very quickly it dived in and came out with a small fish between its bills. I was elated by this... discovery. That a heron has such an advanced, so to speak, feeding strategy? I've heard of the classic case of Great tits pecking open bottle caps to get to the milk inside, but not of herons using baits to catch their prey. :)
More than 200 pics taken in all today; more pics are up in the gallery (an upgraded version!) in the Arthropods, Birds and Herptiles exhibits.
Just checked the tide tables for Changi for Dec. Can't find the 2004 one yet. Sniff sniff... doesn't seem to be any low-enough tides these months. And I've been wanting to re-visit Pulau Sekudu so much. Ria and her kakis have recently gone to P. Hantu and the Sister Islands... must've been fun.
It's good to know how popular
Chek Jawa has become with the general populace. Hope this awareness and enthusiasm will turn into something good for the long run. All available public tours are fully booked till March! I'll see if I can't sneak past 'public' tours through my contacts... time to bug some people... *g*
The Pacific swallows have gone, and so have the Blue-throated bee-eaters. All that's obvious in the skies around the East Coast are the swifts and martins... and there's no way I'm gonna take pictures of
those zitting little twitters.
I spent an entire hour, just before dusk, at East Coast Park playing 'catch-me-if-you-can' with a Common kingfisher (for you non-birders out there, this tiny kingfisher is not at all that common). By the time I had set up my scope and placed my camera to it, it had flown over to the other side of the lake. I would trot over, closer to where it is, and it does the same again, flying to the opposite bank. And vice versa. A few times. I played the part of a mosquito blood bank, and managed to take almost 100 shots in all. But... there's always a big BUT... only 1 frame was 'ok'. Just 'ok'. Poor lighting conditions, a strong breeze, me constantly stamping my feet, and soft soil did not help.
While going home at after dinner in the car, my sis caught sight of the moon, "Look! It's an upside-down moon!" I've digiscoped mars before, but not the moon. Here was my inspiration. The moon this evening was curiously-oriented, like the mouth in a smiley face. I could see the craters and everything on the moon through the scope... and I hope to digiscope a full moon sometime.
Apparently the 90% 'aye' has turned into a 'nay', through no doing of mine.
I owe my Aussie friends big time. Shall be making some overseas calls soon. I had better prepare my defense.
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Christmas eve dinner last night was at a -church- auntie's house. Usually the unspoken dress code for dinners at her place was *ahem* dresses and a dolly-ed up appearance. Thanks to the bruises on my legs from fencing and bite scars of bed bugs and mozzies, I was saved from the torture of wearing a short skirt.
Had a Christmas dinner today at a family friend's place. Played nearly two hours of chess while waiting for the dishes... and played a rather discouraging game of Monopoly after that. There's not much of a Christmasy atmosphere though, or at least I can't feel it here in S'pore. This year, it's just not there. I haven't taken to unwrapping my gifts with as much zest as I used to in years past. My church doesn't even have a proper Christmas service! Just a lunch...
Ok. No more 'bribes'. We're going to Taiwan and HK. It's a 90% aye. Mom wants to see my grandmom. So there goes my scope... wahh. But at least I'll get to see my friends. Grrr I don't know. This isn't a holiday for me. I need to study. I really really need to study. Exams in Jan. I don't feel like going anywhere. Scope or no scope. But I want to see my friends too. Gaaahh...
Anyway, ho ho ho, Merry Christmas all.
Received some good news from the Outreach Officer:
"
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve has been declared as an ASEAN Heritage Park with effect from 18 Dec 2003. This gives SBWR regional and international recognition as a conservation site.
On behalf of Singapore, Minister Lim Swee Say signed the ASEAN Declaration on Heritage Parks during the 9th Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Environment (AMME) held in Yangon, Myanmar recently."
Accomplishment after accomplishment; well done Sungei Buloh staff and volunteers - we've worked hard for it. A nice way to send this fruitful year off.
Went to watch
Love Actually with Tania yesterday. At last! It had some good humour in it, and lots of erm, love. It's heartening to see an uplifting, lighthearted film once in a while. I've also come to appreciate the scenes at Heathrow and the quick shots of Oxford St and Trafalgar Square... makes me feel so fortunate to have been to (and be studying in) London. Something like the special feeling that I get when I see the Sydney Opera House in movies.
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My sec school classmate Lydia held a party at her place last night... allowing me to meet up with a few other old schoolmates. Talking about which degrees they'd like to persue... which universities... in which countries... Stayers or quitters? lol. Now it's their big step.
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With all that SARS scare, flu virus and whatnot hovering above the greater Eastern Asia region, my parents have expressed an unwillingness to... go there. We had originally planned to go to Taiwan and HK, where the main highlight for me would be to reunite with my Aussie high sch friends, and visit relatives. I'm not sure now. We're afraid that something might crop up and later the UK mightn't allow me back in time for my exams in Jan but that would be extreme
kiasuism. As an added incentive for me
not to go, my parents have promised me my dream scope - a
Swarovski scope (I have given myself 5-8 years to save up and get one of these) - if we stayed in Singapore. Bribery!
The best of British blogging - seems that all those mentioned have it. Humour I mean. It eludes me. I'll stick to my non-humourous tone thank you; attempting humour will only... (end in disaster?)
Get what I mean? No? Bah, never you mind. Anyway, go take a look at those. Interesting reads.
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Went to watch LOTR:RotK just now with ZF (I've learnt my lesson and bought the tickets online this time). It was good! The best out of the three... impressive impressive. The cinematics is simply breathtaking.
And oh, I bumped into Zi Ming on Orchard Rd! My Imperial hallmate... I was expecting to run into people (old friends, mainly) along Orchard, but not my 'new' friends, esp when only 3 or 4 whom I know are coming back this hols.
Tues the 16th of DecLast day of bio lectures... ended the term with a bio of organisms tute! Got my essay back... results were good.
Was supposed to go back and pack up and settle the last bits of pre-hols sponsorship stuff. Instead, went to Sainsbury's for grocery shopping with a few other bio mates... and went to Southwell for dinner. Xiao very kindly offered to whip up dinner for us, but of course we helped! Ate, chatted, sung, and had some interesting chats about various topics - ranging from the Queen and our President, to hrm, other... stuff...
The dishes were humble but nice. A welcomed change of taste from the hall dinners. Pics
here.
Went to visit Kai's room in the neighbouring Bernard Sunley House... and saw the 'Halflings' flag that we made from the orientation camp Sojourn in Sentosa. :) Go Halflings!
Val was on bar duty... but we reached Linstead a few minutes too late to witness her in action behind the bar. The rest were still playing cards (or Diablo) at the bar so I sat down for a while to... socialise, all the while muttering how I really should get packing.
WedTook a cab to Heathrow. The journey to the airport took 1/2 hour faster than expected. Heathrow terminal 3 is a mess of people, luggages, trolleys, long queues at Burger King's, screaming toddlers and very unexpectedly lax security procedures. Efficiency is close to nil. People there work at a rate just-quick-enough-for-a-passenger-to-not-miss-his-flight.
13 hours of flight. Watched
Seabiscuit, bits of
Alex and Emma,
Matchstick Men and
Open Range and tried hard to grab some sleep. One of the most uninteresting trips in an airplane - it was totally bumpy-less. I suppose that's a good thing.
ThursArrived S'pore 8am. Sleepy. Regretting my decision to sacrifice so many items (ie. not bring them back) since my luggage weight barely hit 23kg, a first. Should have just piled up on more things, but was lazy to carry an extra suitcase. Slept a bit in the arvo. Drank S'pore water. Yummmm... home-cooked dinner. Mmmmm.
My site has been down. Some business involving a migration of servers, and hackers who replaced the site's contents with pro-Pakistani propaganda etc. Databases down. Annoying.
FriForgot what I did in the morn. I think I slept it through. Was supposed to have an APYEN meeting to elect our Ex-Co. and stuff but it was cancelled. Went down to Orchard in the late arvo to have dinner and watch
Love Actually with friends. Guess what? Tics were sold out again. This is the second time I've been deprived of a chance to watch that movie. I don't understand... it's been showing for a very long time now in S'pore, and tics are still selling fast.
Spent some time at home packing up my gear for tomorrow... cleaned my tripod, my scope lenses etc. Dug up my things from the mess in my room which has again turned into a warehouse.
SatSee below about the day at Sungei Buloh.
SunLunch with an auntie who came over from Paris... dinner with another auntie from came over from HK/London... squeezed our way around Orchard Road. Haven't seen this many people at one place for a long time - it's tedious having to weave your way through throngs of crowds.
Sungei Buloh today was... like the usual.
Had two trainees tagging along, plus a group of 30 or so people from Infineon Technologies for the 9am tour. It was raining for most of the 4pm one, but the church group I was guiding was not discouraged. Having travelled all the way from Pasir Ris, they decided to brave the rain.
SL our Senior Manager has returned from her study leave. I think it was 2 or 3 years since I last saw her there. She asked me how I was doing, etc etc. and was glad that I'm doing Ecology. ;) She treated us volunteers and the rest of the staff to a pizza lunch.
Spent some time in between socialising with the staff, getting briefed on recent developments, and taking pics of -mainly- spiders. It's most definitely the spider season... there are so many different species of spiders occuring in huge numbers, many of which I have difficulty in identifying. There were so many Whip spiders, and they've migrated to a spot 50m away from where they're usually found. Saw and digiscoped a Yellow bittern.
The waders are around, but not in full force. Instead, the resident egrets have taken over.
Saw the otters too... out in the rain. Couldn't see anything from the main hide so I decided to talk a stroll to the sluice gate by its right, and that's when I saw the brown heads popping out of the water about 100m away. Couldn't digiscope them for fear of getting my cam and scope drenched. Besides the visitors were fighting to see them through the scope.
Played a little with a Cotton stainer nymph... it reminded me of my bio practical.
Ended the day with only 50 shots taken, numerous mozzie bites and a sandfly bite.
(More pics are up in the gallery.)
A few things...
1. Details of my last day of term 1 are coming up real soon, plus more pics.
2. The server's been migrated to a new home, and I've yet to re-upload everything on my site. Databases aren't ready yet, so the photo exhibitions and ALL forums are down.
3. I'm now back in Singaaapooore! With a very screwed-up internal clock.
I received an SMS from my sis on Saturday night, when I was fencing in the dining hall. It was regarding our pet hamster, Sugar. The mother (and grandmom and great-grandmom) of all our dozens of hammies... her time had come.
An Ode to Sugar
Sugar, Sugar, small and white
Running forward on feet so light
Living in your two-storeyed home
With your families, never alone
Wonder what it's like for you
Nothing much in there to do
Nuts to store inside your cheeks
A water bottle which sometimes leaks
A squeaky wheel in which to run
Can't imagine that's much fun
Asleep all day, up all night
Doing backflips with little might
Pepper, your loving caring mate
(Makes you reproduce at such a rate)
You tend to all your tiny ones
For them I say to you, "Well done!"
You've overcame the steepest bend
Now rest in peace my little friend
~ A highly modified version of Loulaloui's Ode
Last night - more carolling!
A humble group of us gathered at Pembridge Hall in Notting Hill, where we feasted on pizzas, chips (fries), and tubfulls of ice-cream. And watched BBC's repeated broadcasts of the capture of Saddam Hussein. We watched as Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, addressed the conference room with a calm, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." It sounded so funny under the circumstances that we laughed. Some commented that Saddam looks like an Iraqi Santa. The media says he's an X'mas pressie for Bush. Being *cough cough* scientists, we questioned the integrity of the use of DNA to identify him - how and where did they get
his DNA? Are they 101% certain that it is
his DNA? And yadda yadda. Politics. America... What's up next on their list?
Most of the night was spent singing Christmas songs... those that we sung in the choir, those that we heard being sung by the HTB choir, plus more. Our 'chief musician' Zi Ming was simply wonderful with the piano... he played so beautifully and effortlessly! It was fun. The hall's common room was so cosy and warmish... and there's the smell of pine from the Christmas tree.
Besides those, we also sung... erm... Singapore songs... like
Home,
I will get there,
Together,
Stand up for Singapore... and some others. If we did this back home, we'd have felt it so silly. But here, *waves S'pore flag* there is such a strong sense of national identity and belonging. We really feel united as one. *mutters something about 'propaganda' in schools... instilling patriotism...* Singing theme songs from long-ago local Chinese TV series also brought back memories.
When the residents had gone back to their rooms, we few who were left, all Christians, spent some quality time fellowshipping in singing hymns and praises. The peace and the lightness of heart that we felt... good stuff. :)
The atmosphere is so 'Christmasy'. Bright decorative street lights, a rather cold weather (but still not cold enough for London I reckon), X'mas songs in shops, in halls... just about everywhere.
Attended my second carol service for the week last night at
Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church just 3 minutes away. The songs they sang were so similar to those that we did for
our carol service! But their church choir is sooo good! Impressive... the orchestra too. Most of us who went were in the IC Christian Union choir and we were grinning and exchanging looks at each other when we heard their songs. Their Christmas Messages were meaningful as well.
For dinner we went to the 'kebab place' (nobody can ever remember its name) past the tube station. It was not bad... but for most of that dinner we were busy planning tomorrow's dinner - more about that later!
I thought that I would have a quiet weekend but no...
Not when I'm surrounded by craaaazeeee people! I'm becoming one of them myself (which is unfortunate).
After dinner, upon our return to Linstead:
Endless rounds of mahjong in the dining hall - they played it last night too, until 2am, but I wasn't there.
Another fencing showdown - Amar and I decided that we'll have one last game before we leave for the hols.
More entertainment from the talented pianists - plus more requests from Alex for 'Polly put the kettle on'
Talks and exchanges of advice for levelling up in Diablo - I need to catch up!
Mad Brits taking pics of a naked friend who regularly runs laps around the Prince's Gardens outside - the guys clapped and cheered while the girls looked away... and I donned my mask.
Fellow S'poreans and M'sians from the Beit and Southwell halls came over to Linstead too! Come... come to Linstead... where everything's happening!
But do not expect to leave before 3am...
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HTB Carol Service: Outside the kebab place: The crowd in the dining hall:
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*yawns* I wonder what I'm doing up so early. Gonna get some shut-eye later. Lab report due tomorrow... first things first.
Oh. Forgot to mention. We had the fire alarm go off -again- last night, or rather, this morn at 1am. Some guy was cooking sausages in the kitchen and the smoke went into his room through his open door... and so... sigh... we had to waddle into the cold outside, the majority of hall residents in bathrobes...
I hate it when it happens. It's ok if it's some topic that I dislike (like biochem)... I can miss all the lectures it has and couldn't care less (hmm... putting grades aside for the mo). But not when the lecture is on amphibians!!
My alarm didn't ring. I overslept. Arrrghh... there goes my vow of attending every single lecture this module has. That's not the point though. The main point is that it's on AMPHIBIANS! One of my fav groups of animals... and when I got the notes, guess what's the big pic on the first slide? An axolotle!! Ahhh~~ AXOLOTLE!! Go do a search on Google for 'axolotle', and look at that cute face! Oooooo I miss Abbotsleigh's lab pet Aristotle the Axolotle. I hope the new students are catching enough tadpoles for it to eat.
The second lecture was on REPTILES! Lizards! Snakes! Even the famous tuatara (apparently nobody here has heard of it before?) from New Zealand was featured, albeit a cameo. Learnt about the evolution of reptiles as well - which includes the dinos. So just like yesterday, we went to the Natural History Museum to take a peep at the displays of extinct marine reptiles. Visited the arthropod (insects, spiders etc.) section as well.
I absolutely love what we're doing now. Worms, spiders, insects, crustaceans (crabs and such), more insects... :) My lecturer for the invertebrate section is so enthusiastic... telling us about 'Frisky' -if I recall the name correctly- the friendly tarantula at the bar at Silwood Park (the faraway Imperial bio campus), about the 4-feet-wide pet giant crab which he used to bring to the crustacean lectures (but "unfortunately, somebody stole it!")...
We moved on to the vertebrates today. Learnt about... fish. And the evolution of vertebrates. Discovered the truer truths of where we humans and other creatures evolved from. Pretty interesting stuff! Our new lecturer is quite humorous too... one of the best lecturers we've had so far. Hopped over to the Natural History Museum during lunchtime to take a look at the fish and invertebrate exhibits to see what we had learnt.
Prac today was fun too. We worked on the cotton stainer bugs... w00t! Something relating to their selection of food, and an examination of their mouthparts to see how they feed.
Pics of cotton stainers (
Dysdercus decussatus) from Sungei Buloh:
... and those that we worked with in the lab:
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Tonight was the
Christmas Carol Service. My, how we sang! I'm going to have a sorethroat soon! Us 6 miserable sopranos were nearly drowned by the tenors. The instruments were way too loud... we hadn't rehearsed with them before, so it was a worry. But otherwise, it was all good. The turnout was better than expected... we had an audience of perhaps 300+? Many of our friends turned up. Chatter all around after the carolling... free mince pies and hot choc. The vicar's address and reading was not bad either. He talked real fast though. :P
Mmm. Mission accomplished. >2GB of space cleared. Mmm... Diablo...
But by the time I managed to 'boost my laptop's performance', I was too late for last night's scheduled multiplayer game. Next time then...
When you've just handed in an assignment and have gotten rid of a great chunk of sponsorship stuff, and your hallmates invite you to play Diablo with them, you just can't refuse.
But it's no use if your laptop is left with only 400MB of free disk space, and about 950MB is required for a decent multiplayer game.
I have been sitting here for the past hour or so, getting rid of all my unwanted programs and music files. I have cleared 200 Mama Bears, and now I'm stuck. I really need to get a higher capacity HDD.
Thanks Lu for taking the pic. Fencing in the dining hall:
I wonder how long it'll take us to complete a whole tour of the Science Museum. Let's not even talk about the Natural History Museum - that'll take eons.
We went there during lunchtime... the
nth time for many of us. Just the exhibit on medicine and medicinal history - a tiny fraction of the whole museum - took us more than 2 hours.
Sent out most of the sponsorship letters and email today. *fingers crossed* There's an ExCo meeting tonight but I think I'll give it a miss. My essay is due tomorrow... gotta work on that.
Blogger's site was down today. Couldn't post. Also decided that I'll use people's names in my blogs, unless they erm... ask me not to. Adds a touch of interactiveness (?) and is more personal.
Shakespeare's birthplace! The
Stratford-upon-Avon that you read about in his biographies! That's where we went yesterday! Thanks to ICSS! >> Pics
here Actually, it's just like any little English town, made popular only by the fact that Shakespeare once lived there. Well after all, it *is* just an old English town. Little sweet shops, souvenir shops, bars and pubs pepper the walkways, and signs worded with bits of Shakespearean phrases are found at every corner. One of the major activities we did there was to try out the
Falstaffs Experience... a walkthrough of a 'genuinely haunted building' to discover bits and pieces of Britain's past... from the days of the Reformation, the bubonic plague, to the dark arts of the witches and an exhibition of unusual antiquities used in those days. It should have been a rather 'frightening' experience had not the bunch of friends I was with kept speaking in ghostly tones, blinding each other with camera flashes, and giggling at each other's antics. I adopted Gollum/Smeagol's style of talking and hrm... it kinda stuck with me for the rest of the day.
We managed to get a peep at the churchyard in which Shakespeare's grave is in... and walked along the banks of the River Avon while having a brief debate on "how do you know those are geese, and not ducks?", and also while Jingye tried to catch one of them.
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You might have thought that we'd be tired after a full day of fun and a 154km or 2+ hours' bus ride back to London, but no. Fong May was on bar duty, and so we loyally trotted into the bar to support her. A few of us hardworking ones (yeah right!) brought our laptops down to work on our assignments.
After that was table footsie *again*! S'pore vs M'sia, both men's and women's. The ball's... speed... during the... women's match... was just... like this... slow... delicate... what a... laugh...
That was 11+pm.
But the day wasn't over.
I went back into my room to get my fencing kit. Yupz... Amar and I decided that we wanted to have more fun at poking each other. Our supporters came along. Watched a while, then turned their attention to the piano. Ee-wen, Charl and Alex took their turns at playing their equally hmm... songs... childhood songs (like "Mary had a little lamb", Sesame street", or "Polly put the kettle on", no less!), S'porean and M'sian national anthems, and X'mas carols. We sung, fenced, sung some more, and laughed at ourselves and our jokes. I risked stiff fingers and piano-score-less-ness to 'tickle the ivory' to come up with the first part of "Two beds and a coffee machine". Sigh... I should practise more... and bring my scores with me the next time.
We're as madde as madde hares, I tel ye. We went backe tu our roomes at three o'clocke in the 'morne.
Went with my friends and hallmates to watch DramSoc's play
Maskerade, based on the book by Terry Pratchett. Boy, the witches' heavy cockney accent really strained my ears! At first I hardly understood a sentence of what they said, the intonations and pronounciations sounded far too alien! It was a hilarious play, even if it tended to slip into 'corny-ness' at times, or when there where obvious glitches in the production. One must also not forget the genuine fire alarm that went off in the middle of the first act, forcing everyone to evacuate the building "in the interest of safety".
My fellow hall- and landing-mate has a role it in - as a chorus girl! *grins* Well done Charl, that was a wonderful performance, and brought about many a giggle.
Upon our return to Linstead we were treated to a heated game of table football (again) - M'sians against S'poreans. More than 10 people crowded around to watch and cheer for their country. "For Dr Mahathir! Think of our water!" or "Think of Changi Airport!" Hahaa~ we won in the end.
We examined flatworms today during prac. Looking into the microscope for almost a continuous 3 hours is tiring! The first specimen was cute... it was like a miniature slug.
There are a lot of this:
in this:
!
Attended the Christian Union worship session, and had carol choir practice after that. I'm now in soprano. Heehee... can't reach the high notes, but nobody cares. Carolling *is* fun. The actual carol service '
Emmanuel' takes place next Thurs. We're all really excited! Praying hard for that day... that the turnout will be good, that everything will run smoothly, that we and everyone else there will be filled with the Spirit!
Had a crazy night. Just came out from the shower. Was fencing with A--- for an hour and a half from 10.45pm! During yesterday's dinner he 'challenged me' (haha, just using some swordsman's term) to duel with him tonight, so...
This time we had less spectators, but L- kept shooting pics of us fencing. He kept complaining "You're too quick!" for many of his pictures had just an arm or a blade in it - we had moved away from the frame by the time the shutter clicked.
Got whacked, and whacked in return, and the bruises on my sword arm are starting to show again. I haven't perspired so much since I came... the back and front of the shirt I was wearing's dampened, and my gloves, jacket and plastron now need washing, or they'll stink. Feels good though. Am de-stressed now, or I haven't had much to begin with, since I did not perform up to my usual standard. :P
Had two rounds of table football with them chaps, and only then did we retire back to our rooms.
Hmm... I feel so refreshed and awake that I'm just gonna study.
Sponsorship Comm meeting today... deadlines and more deadlines. Went through what went on during the ExCo meeting, came up with a rough budget and quotations... and settled more stuff. Letters to the companies shall go out this weekend. Really hope the response will be good... all else lies upon the generosity of those organisations...
Spent another mini-bomb on one of the textbooks for my current module. It's on invertebrates. That's the thing I hate about the courses here... every module within has its own subtopics, each with its own textbook(s). And each textbook nears SGD100. Ouch again.
Tried doing the laundry... went up twice, and both times all the washing machines were being used. As usual, I've no luck with laundrying. Decided to hand-wash some socks.
Gonna start researching on my essay topic now.
My period of relative freedom is shortlived. Today our tutor slammed on us yet another assessed essay. Since it has nothing to do with genetics or microbiology, I'm happy enough to stay happy. I chose to write about human diseases caused by protozoan parasites, which should be easy enough given the wealth of existing information and what I did in high school. Good 'ole malaria (as in the topic, not malaria itself!) must be the most-commonly described disease by students to date.
In other news... the
Op Wallacea people came down today to 'market' their projects to us... I am sooo very tempted to join, along with many of my friends. But seriously, the expedition fees are *cough cough* uhem and it does sound... rough. Imagine: that you have to go through 5 days of jungle and survival training before carrying out the project proper. Sure does sound fun, but will my (or indeed our) parents allow? Perhaps not just yet. Maybe in our third year, when we can use it as our main dissertation project. Sigh.
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Today's post-dinner activity was, as usual, table footsie among the guys, with the girls spectating. :P Some are planning to go shopping on High St Ken. tomorrow, but I shan't be free. Bio students have a whole day off tomorrow, but I don't!! I have a useless make-up cell bio tute (thanks to the poor timetabling skills of the bio dept)... and comm meeting.
A sample of what we were up to during yesterday's prac -
These are live protozoans, or mostly one-celled organisms. These include the infamous amoeba. We're working with these first, then gradually up the ladder towards the bigger organisms.
Taking photos helps me lots with my diagrams... really!
See that new tag-board to the right?
Do make use of it. Unless... most of my friends *are* rather shy? :P
This page has been receiving so many visitors but they leave no trace... 'cept for their IP addy. :P The origin of the IPs? Australia tops the list, followed by my local network, then the UK, then Singapore... and other countries.
I feel so freeeee!!
But... the practical write-ups done, here comes other stuff.
I sacrificed dinner tonight to attend the main comm meeting for the ICSS major event. So for more than 3 hours straight, I did what I've always been doing 3 years ago, which is, basically, being in a meeting.
We decided that *classified*, and that the people who *classified* will be *classified*. There shall not be any *classified* due to *classified*, but a *classified* will be guaranteed.
Okok... that's not quite what it was about. :P
But I'm just glad I'm not in ops or logistics... or publicity. Heh... doing the sponsorship stuff means that I can get away from all that stress that piles up later on.
We came up with an ingenious name for the event...
drumroll... it's "Flag-GEL-lah"! Most other names were 'corny'. So now it's all in the name - we're making a FLAG out of GELly and the LAH adds the local flavour of Singlish to it. This suggestion came from my bio senior in a moment of sudden inspiration, no doubt from the biological structure 'flagellum'. Which, coincidentally, was what I did today for prac.
Ooo I am loving my new module - biology of organisms. :)
Am having pizza now. Thanks L----- for the pizza! You're too kind!
