Happy New Year!

If one more person asks me what I am doing for New Years, I may shoot them. I am not doing anything. Nothing. Sleeping, watching a DVD, anything but going out to stand around in the cold, spend lots of money and realise that it's just another night. Yes, it's the end of the year but the Gregorian calender was only invented by man and the end of the year could have been any other time that they chose it to be. Space-time paradoxes and such like. And unless you're a real life physicist who has can prove me wrong by quoting some big man in the history of mankind, that's my explanation and I'm sticking to it.

So yes, New Year. Whoop dee doo. I think it's overrated bullshit. But that's just me. Feel free to go out and enjoy and have a good time ending the year.

And if you're sad like me and have not much else to do, feel free to go on the links that I've kept myself entertained in the past few days...

Take a quick quiz to see how well you know me..Thanks to Annie who started it up.
Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

So, learn something new, 100 things we didn't know this time last year.

More useless information, The meaning of tingo and other words.

The best place to discuss meaningless things, Last Word thanks to New Scientist.

Very important when you live in a country that can't handle 2 inches of snow, the BBC weather website, with up-to-date, state of the art information and such like.

And somehow, strangely fascinated by this book trying to understand the place where I live, it's like moths being drawn to the light even though they know it's bad for them, Watching the English.

Although I actually bought this book, as a joke, naturally.

I am so sad, I spend way too much time on the Internet. I have a photo on hotornot, as a joke but my rating has gone way down. Perhaps that's a good thing. But that's up to you to decide.

I'm done here. Surely I should find some motivation to get up and go to work tomorrow?

Oh crap, who needs this?

bad dreams

I've been having a recurring nightmare lately, it's scary. Oddly, I am starting to remember some parts of it. Those who know me will realise that this is odd. I never believe in my dreams and can never remember them.

The time of the year is to be blamed for the lapses. This is often when people reflect on what they've done the past 12 months and look forward to what they hope to achieve in the next 12 months. It's strange how people measure their lives, what is often an achievement for you doesn't mean anything to anyone else. In a way, this is what makes each of unique. However, when comparing what you've done in your life with someone else, sometimes you feel a little short changed and wish you could step into their shoes, even for the briefest moment.

I've had a pretty momentous 12 months. I've changed a lot in the space of one year. Maybe not as much as some of my friends would like to think but there's a lot that you don't see!

Remember the question you were asked once, where do you see yourself in five years time? And from that, you planned what your life would be like, to as much detail as possible so that what you imagined would become reality. You always went with the popular choices, the stable jobs, the ones that would keep you in good health and the one without any risks. It's strange now that I think of what I would have said five years ago, it's so different compared to what and how I am living my life now.

Earlier in the year, I broke up with my fiancee. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to do in my whole life. Sometimes, I wake up wondering which day of my life I will spend regretting ever doing that. And there are some days which I wake up in sheer fear that he was the love of my life and the ship has sailed for me. Other days I wake up hopeful that it was the right thing for me to do in my life now. Some days I just wake up, with no thoughts, feeling happy to take on the world.

In October, I found out to my surprise that I was starting the third year of my PhD. It did creep up on me, maybe because I had spent a lot of time running the college bar! The realisation of that hit me like a ton of bricks, spurring me to work harder. Also the fact that I would be able to go to conferences and network with others (or have free holidays!) and would need something substantial to present.

Friends have kept me sane throughout the year. I've made friends from more countries in the past year than ever before and some of them have returned, increasing the number of places around the world that I can travel to and crash with. I am going to especially thank some people who have had to listen to my neuroses and deal with it. Inevitably, I am going to miss out some of you but I figure you already know in your heart how special you are to me. My best friend, Nom, who deserves special mention for having the heart to tell me things I don't want to hear. The same goes to Kath as well, you've been great this year. And Jean-Marie, I've only known you for a year but it feels like much more than that, don't leave! Mary, who takes me into her home and lets me hijack a family Christmas. She also listens to my doubts about my faith and belief in God and keeps me on the straight and narrow, most of the time. You can't win them all. Frischman, you know how great you are!! Sarah & Kathryn, you come as a pair because I met you both as a pair, especially since my fondest memories is of our crazy girly moments! Evelyn, Eveline and Valerie, I've known you three since college. We don't live in the same places anymore and in fact we don't even see each other that much but everytime we catch up we can speak for hours without even thinking about it. Good friends, which come up in the unexpected places include Elona, Phil L, Gav, the indispensable Mark K, the one who makes me laugh so much Ketan and others!

So, what do I want to achieve next year aside from the usual spiel? I should pretend to do some of this exercise malarky, I've been told it's good for you. I should stop smoking, but then again, I don't smoke very much at all. But that's another story for another day.

But I think my new year's resolution is probably to enjoy what I've got and not to worry too much about the future. Life is much more rewarding that way.

Took me a long time to say that huh?

The great piss up

So yesterday was the last day of work for the University. It's also the tradition for GU to have the biggest piss up of the year. Celebrate the end of the year in style, right?

Gav organised the thing, we kicked off at the Kings Arms at 1230, with a few people from the unit. People came and left throughout the day, including me. I went to meet Sarah on her last working day in Oxford, she's got lots of exciting new jobs for next year! There was a short break in the early evening for half-drunk people to go back to labs and then we went back to the Kings Arms.

Numbers dwindled but we made it to Bar Risa. Finally, me and Gav danced the night away at The Bridge. Shock, horror, shock, he preferred the downstairs urban music room as compared to the house/cheese upstairs. I had the most fab time dancing and grooving with one of the most toned boys in the room. Had the most amusing text conversation (wonders of modern technology) where I got asked to be a friend with benefit/fuck- bunny. Would have been fine if he was more attractive than he was. LOL.

Gav then walked me home and I fed him pasta. Sent him on his way once he was fed. Shame he's such a trainspotter, he was very excited to see a Class 66 Freightliner train go by.

Another night of my life whiled away not going very much but damn it was fun,since I had intention of staying out the whole night!

-aL-

Also getting excited, it's almost Christmas. I've stopped being bah-humbug-ing the whole season as the presents from Amazon finally arrived. 3 more days to the big day.

Let's celebrate the birth of the big man in style.

Another magical night

So it's been like a whole week since I posted something, which is unusual to say the least but then again, work got in the way last week. Bex came to visit me on Friday, it was so nice to see her again after like almost two years! Lots of exciting things happening in her life, and she's doing well. We talked about the summer we spent in America a lot and it's so long ago now. There's been more travelling since then but we're still friends, how cool is that. We went to Living Room, this hot swanky rah-rah bar in Oxford (just for a laugh, we're really not like that) then spent Saturday hanging out.

Pier surprised everyone by showing up in Oxford in Sat so we went out for a few drinks, he's trying to settle in Berlin, learning German and working for a new company. Guess the shock of real life after so many years at a university type environment doesn't go down to well. I wonder what it'll be like for me.

Sunday was blah, I made my Christmas cards for the year, unable to put it off anymore. Then Chad came up with a plan to have Christmas dinner for tonight, we had a wonderful night. Chad, Harith, Phil, Allyn and me. So much food, goose, chicken, all the attending vegetables and then dessert to top it all of. Let's not forget the mince pies as well! Yum yum.

Pictures from tonight. There are a few random ones as the boys got hold of the camera and decided it would be fun to piss about. It's great when you have a digital camera.

Everyone at dinner tonight

Chad and a bird (well, one of them)

Hungry man.. eat meat

Harith and Phil, best buddies (wow, Harith you look good in pics)

Our special guest for the night, Delilah (aw..isn't she cute)

Me and Chad in a nice picture (strange, one of the few ones where I'm NOT trying to kill you for some stupid comment that you make, love ya babes!, in a totally platonic way, of course)

Allyn and Alice (where Annie in this picture? Come back, we miss you)

And on a completely random note, please listen and buy the jcb song by Nizlopi because I think they are quite cool. You may have to remind me that I ever liked this song in the first place, but, this is right here, right now.

Amazon's great free legal music downloads

Now, you all know my fascination with Amazon from my great amazing Christmas wish list but I have just spent the past 3 hours downloading legal music for free from Amazon.

YAY!

It's the best promotion in the world. You let people download one or two songs from an album and if they like the artist enough they'll buy the album. Well, I would. What an inventive way of asking me to try obscure and unknown artists!

Go forth and download, baby.

A warped sense of humor

(Picture of Ed Southern, the man of Southern blotting fame) Shrine to the gods of molecular biology in general,the god of blotting in particular. Please do not disturb. Devotional offerings welcome

Oh this cracks me up so much and yet, I know it shouldn't. Insider jokes are bad.

-aL-

My Christmas list

I love Christmas. Not only do we get to celebrate the birth of Christ (who is obviously top man, the rock of my life kind of guy) there is an unabashed show of consumerism.

So, to join in the festivities of the season, here is my Christmas list. Not that I'll get anything of it but hey, a girl can hope for the best, no?

Top of the list is an Ipod. Mmm..mama! Black, 60GB for all my personal music needs and I can back stuff up on it as well. See, practical and useful. And so good-looking..

Followed closely by the Elgato Eye TV. Entertainment on tap. That's what life is all about right?

And my Mac needs includes the ever so beautiful, so sexy Harman Kardon Soundsticks

That would make my digital life complete. For the moment.

Other random things that would make me happy include but of course would never, ever be limited to the following items, in no particular order.

CSI Season 5 Although it's not released in the UK just yet. Hurry up!!
Rob Thomas' album Something to Be I know, I am such a sucker but I love Matchbox 20 and I'm just keeping up my collection.
Nelly's album Sweat/Suit There are some seriously sexy grooving tunes on here.
Kanye West's Late Registration Some more grooving and loving.
Lynne Truss-Talk to the Hand She does it again. Although moving on from punctuation.
CSI Miami Do you get the idea that I like CSI, just a tiny little bit? Not that it's an obsession or anything like that.
Espresso machine Just to complete the set of caffeine producing things that I own.
Jamie Oliver's Flavor Shaker So tacky yet I want to own one. Maybe not?
Panasonic Breadmaker I accidentally threw away the kneading arm of my breadmaker and since this is a complete fantasy in my mind, this would be a nice replacement for my crappy old machine.
The Gimp Oh, this is on here solely for the sake of asking someone to buy me a gimp. ROFL. *to those not in the know, roll on the floor laughing* And it's another accessory for my Powerbook. Because I always need another one.
La Creuset Shop Anything cast iron from here. You know I'm not fussy but a nice casserole pot for these cold winter evenings?
Pressure cooker Starting to feel like a wedding list instead of a wish list yet? Maybe I should add something more student like and less adult.

Insert random anecdote. Was having a chat with a friend the other day and the one thing that pissed us off was that when we fill in forms we no longer check the box that says "18-24", we've moved on to the next one "25-34". How the hell did that happen to us? Getting old!

Wine by the case Or the truck load. Whichever you prefer to splurge on me.

I'm done for now, only because I can't be bothered to think of what else I want. I will invariably add some over-priced,under-used items that I want and therefore think I need.

Life is so tough.

-aL-

12 hour days

Been a bit mental this week. Panic hit top note last wekeend when I looked at the total collective sum of my two and a bit years of work in Oxford and realised, "How the hell am I going to get PhD out of this?"

The force of that raw fear instilled some work ethic in me. So the past week, I've actually got my head out of the sand, stopped having a life and worked my ass off.

Hopefully I won't have to stay here much longer than I planned.

I think maybe it's time to get the hell out of this country. I miss coffee shops, mamak stalls and cheap takeaway food. I miss the food so much, beef noodles, chicken rice, laksa, mee, roast duck, roast pork, nasi lemak, tosai, roti canai, tomato kueh tiaw, and more. I miss my friends, my crazy "kaki's" in KL, I miss my friends from home. I miss hanging out with them, I've missed so much of their lives. The number of weddings that I've been invited to and have had to miss out because I live on this little rock of an island is making me too sad.

Maybe it's just the fact that I've been listening to the Rent soundtrack too much.

"525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?"

Rent the movie

I clicked on a link this morning and got excited. No, I'm not often like that. I do have a life. But I found out that Rent was already released in the states.

I absolutely love this show. It started life as a Broadway musical. I fell in love with the show when I picked up a cheap CD on sale,oh, about 5 years ago at least and now it's in a movie. Oh yes. This was the only Broadway show I watched when I was in New York. It was really surreal for me then because I had just travelled across the country and got back to New York. I popped in to get tickets with another girl I met in the youth hostel and bumped into a couple of girls that I had spent the summer working with. If you don't get this story, you need to read the synopsis for the film, or watch the musical!

Unfortunately for me, the movie isn't released in the UK until April 7. *boo hoo hoo*
Anyone wants to pay for me to go to the States *just* to watch a film?


I didn't think so!

My first Christmas dinner..

of the year. Thanks to T&J! I made the turkey.mmm..

Insomnia

"The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to." F. Scott Fitzgerald

Have not been sleeping properly the past few nights. Man, I am tired.

Went out last night with K, AM, AW and MAK (who got back especially for the evening! We started off at the The Duke with a few pitchers of cocktails. Mmm... Then we moved on to Jamal's for dinner. Tried to get into the new hip spot, Living Room but got turned away because one of the boys was too casual. So we ended up at The Bridge instead, that makes 2 Saturday nights in a row for me. It was fun, M left in July and we haven't been out since then. The boys, a different set yesterday, was plenty of fun.

I get to make a turkey today! YAY! We are having an early Christmas dinner because C is leaving for Berlin in a few days time.

As I am now not sleeping, I've spent the past few days organising my iTunes library, I am finally adding all my CDs so that I have a 'complete' collection of my music. Not hit the my so-called magical 3000 tunes barrier yet. But I have discovered that a few of my CDs are missing. I hope they are somewhere among my things, as I am not the neatest person in the world..

And now a whole selection of random pictures,




JM's birthday dinner. That was a good night of food and wine. Another dinner soon as Akua is having her birthday soon! How exciting.





Lab dinner followed by night out. Few notables were missing but we managed to get pretty much everyone.





Ah...last night.

Did I mention how damn tired I am and wish I could sleep?

I'm never ever drinking again ever...

until Saturday at least.

Went out with the lab last night. We had nice formal hall* at University College, thanks to P and C. It was cheap and cheerful. Then we wanted to go to Park End as it was their Christmas Party but didn't manage to get in. So we went to Bar Risa instead..