<3
i cant wait for the nxt outing!
whatever.whenever it is!
(:

<3slam

let's go house hopping (:

we stay on melmel's house for the first night
then if its still not enoughh, you all can come to my house for open-sky sleepover

in any cse, there is a gym, pool, pool (billard) tennis courts, ktv room and yeah, 4th floor sunset watching.

we had a great friday night out (: thankyouu

hohoho!

hello hello hello!

i'm supposed to be mugging now.

but the thought of this week being surprise week keeps crossing my mind. thanks to crystal soh harn wei, i already know bits and pieces of the so-called surprise (if there is one!) hahaha.

anyway the past few weeks of having little reunions in the mini canteen/lecture theatre (for h3 chem) have been awesome! i think the laughing and screaming aggravated the condition of my throat 'cos now i have a cough AND a sore throat AND a blocked nose. like crystal would say, SIAN DIAO.

yup so decided to be random and nice (as always) and post something here. just wanted to say thanks everyone for easing my cambridge-withdrawal symptoms the past few weeks. i dare say school's been a lot more exciting with you guys around! can hardly wait for promos to be over so we can have that stayover! (:

looking forward to The Surprise hahaha. study hard guys!

Making Liben a big firm??

What liben shld do to bcome a big firm:

1. Set ambitious goals.
2. Set the right priorities.
3. Develop a strong strategic foundation.
4. Build assets u can leverage.
5. Take enormous, focused action.

Step 1: Set ambitious goals

What r ur revenue goals for this yr n nxt? What r ur goals for this quarter? If u dont hav specific goals, u're unlikely to achieve impressive results. Goal setting is not just a cliché or a technique used in tacky motivational speeches. If u want to achieve great things, u really do need to hav a specific vision abt where u wanna end up.

1stly, u needa hav confidence in urself. True entrepreneurs set ambitious goals without worrying abt their current resources to achieve those goals. Entrepreneurs figure out what they want to achieve first, n then set out to make it happen, even if current reality seems to be in the way.

So, what r ur most ambitious goals? Where do u want it to be next year?

Step 2: Get ur priorities straight

First, make development ur top priority.

The most creative firm in the world will make less money than a mediocre firm who invests faithfully in business development. Tts cos good marketers reach more prospects, identify solutions tt matter to them, n develop compelling marketing msgs tt influence prospects to respond.

Meanwhile, less successful firms almost always wait for the phone to ring. They know they hav a solid product to offer, n r frustrated tt prospects cant figure tt out. They wld rather b self-righteous than successful.

Second, view ur business as a professional practice.

Dont b vendors, jumping from gig to gig. Rather, seek to develop long-term relationships with ur client. Position urself as strategic advisors who help ur client succeed, not as mercenaries who bid on one job n then the nxt. N focus on getting specific results to help ur clients succeed, not on completing a set of tasks in a work plan. Who wld u rather hire -- a designer with a professional practice, or a vendor who completes projects?

Third, they focus on comprehensive solutions, not tasks or piecemeal jobs.

The most successful firms provide complete solutions to their clients' problems. They stay with their clients to ensure tt specific increases in awareness n conversion actually happen. Tts a solution!

Finally, big firms have a positive, proactive attitude.

They know tt building a firm takes patience n resilience, n r ready to weather setbacks along the way. Their philosophy is to move forward, keep learning n improving, hav fun, n never look back.

In contrast, less successful firms give up during trials n tribulation. They dont persist. They seem unable or unwilling to learn n try new approaches n ideas.

So do u offer deep, comprehensive solutions tt get results? N how wld u rate ur attitude?

Step 3: Develop a strong strategic foundation

The nxt step in thinking big is to develop a strong strategic foundation. Ur strategy answers key qns abt ur business n how u will grow n compete. These qs include:

What is ur solution? Ur solution shld solve ur target market's complete problem, from A to Z. Many firms fail cos they only offer a partial ans to their clients' problems.

Why r u unique? The most successful firms can fill in the following sentence, in a way tt matters to their target market: "Unlike other firms, i…" (Egs: manufacture well-designed jeeps as all different dimensions r calculated flawlessly to specifications)

Which r the other big firms? U hav to know the other competitors in order to win them.

Step 4: Build assets u can leverage

The more these strategies u use, the more successful u will b:

Develop a marketing system. With a consistent investment in marketing activities, u can ensure tt pple contact u in good n bad times. So tt u can obtain the optimum information abt ur client.

Elements of your marketing system shld include a variety of ways to gain visibility. Stand out n make urself known. Most of these approaches dont cost much to implement, but will improve ur visibility in ways tt ur prospects appreciate.

Please dont claim tt u lack the time and expertise to do more marketing. If u wanted to find 30-60 mins a day to do more marketing, u cld. And there is plenty of material out there about how to market. U probably just need more confidence.

Step 5: Take enormous, focused action

Dont always say tt u "know" what to do, but cant seem to take action to do it. Wld u rather be smart, or successful? If u choose the latter, knowing isnt enough. U hav to take action.

For instance, here's a plan to get started right away using a marketing system:

Design a marketing message that clearly explains the problem you solve, your solution, its benefits, and why you are unique. Include proof in the form of a few testimonials.

Set a goal to reach ur entire target market in as short a time as possible, in the following ways:

• Offering a free assessment tts not a hidden sales pitch.
• Writing a couple of articles in publications targeted to your market.
• Speaking at venues where ur client goes.
• Going to everyone else in ur network n developing ways to exchange referrals n leads.
• Conducting research in ur target market abt ur clients presence, n other information tt u wld like to hav. This tactic is a great way to get in front of competitors.
• Test what work n dont, n keep moving forward.

Conclusion: Stop thinking small, once n for all. B confident n think big, to bcome a big firm.

Note: Liben is a music publishing company.

On a largely different note, Pluto is officially no more a planet. Dont worry liben, TITAN, is still the 2nd largest moon in our solar system.

oops, did anyone speak of the missing 2-L gigantic orange milk bottle tt was bought from malaysia for RM13 n the reason for its high value is due to the fact tt it can b found nowhere in sg? lol...

Oh ya, dont worry, like i once said, og is different from cambridge. We spent 336 consecutive hrs (or more than tt) together, which equate to 2 weeks of precious memories. Thus we wont die out so easily, or at least we ourselves can ensure tt tt doesnt happen. N i miss u all too much to allow tt to happen. Crap, cant make it too mushy, if not sharon will start calling me SNAG again...

So, the slpover will tentatively b at crystals place?? Maria n sharon will b in charge of bringing mahjong sets, clara n eechong cards for pomelo n bridge, n do u all want booze? I dont mind bringing or we can just buy the cheap $9.95 tinto from shop n save. Haha...

Woohoo, tmrs fri, which means tt we will b meeting again!!! Yay, so happy. Oh, n do u all wanna go bukit timah for dinner again? Cos someone is craving for Ritz apple strudels...

Yup, cya all tmr=)!!! Shall turn in soon after drinking some 47.3% dry gin. Sheesh...

no i dont think we'll be like ogs (: i pray not.

ogmates had one week together, we had two
ogmates do not think about each other all day, we do
ogmates never relate eggs and every other single thing to cambridge, we do
ogmates never blog like this, we do
ogmates never stayed up till 2 playing bridge we do
ogmates dont surprise you at your house after piano lessons, we do

you guys were my family for two weeks
it will stay that way (:

i have never truly loved going to school that much in the morning
nor have i truly integrated into rj
until that is
i met you all

p.s: liben, dont get pissed k- it was with good intention that surprises were started. and the orange bottle wasnt hidden by me (:!!

friends

perhaps i wasn't as cambridge-sick as i was cos i was homesick. i really missed close friends and family and just conversing with them... 2 weeks is after all, e longest time i've been away. maybe some will see this as a weakness? lolz i dono personally i view it as a strength that i miss home...

but as for the 12 of us. i'm just really glad that we're still going out and all and maintaining contact with each other. after all it was a great experience we shared and a great bonding. and in all this, i envision the whole group of us just cliqueing together into one huge gang, separated by so many barriers yet not only just keeping in touch, but being a close-knitted group of friends.

lolz i think it'd be so great if it can come to pass. if we can take comfort and take pride in the fact that a year from now, we're still good friends. so put in effort everyone :) and let's all bond together to form a clique that we will be proud to tell our family and other friends about.

SIAN DIAO NO MORE

hello

looks like the cambridge withdrawal symptoms has slowly subsided and i've been seeing a more cheerful chinyue, yayy goodd

you know they have been announcing cambridge talks (: i wonder if we'll all appear next year and find 11 other familiar faces sitting in our midst during the cambridge talk.

i cant wait for our surprise too, and our proposed trip to where-ever! (:

at the same time, im like super super fearful that one day we'll become like those ogs that stopped meeting at their zcove, the outings stop, the chattings stop and everyone will just be anyone.

that seriously scares me
more than anything

when time heals all the withdrawal symptoms, what stays?

(:
heck
but for now,

i still miss you all
and i still scream when i see maria
and smile like an idiot when i see qianhua
and chinyue, he still roams around looking for people
still sms-es liben to say " hi, i see you in the lt"
still TRIES to come early for our meeting
and still show some signs of withdrawal.

or maybe some things cannot be forgotten afterall. Forever inscribed, an indelible memory

WAHLAO, I CANNOT WAIT FOR OUR SURPRISE

crystal

I miss...

Before everyone tries to complete my sentence, I have to add a qualifier - it's really not what you think it is! I don't miss locking myself out of my room (though Pamela evidently thinks I derived some peverse pleasure from doing so, I don't miss the food (though many can attest to what a glutton I am), I don't miss the rooms (I saw some dead moth on the floor once, and Li Ling found quite a few dead bugs in her room, so, erm), I don't really miss the lessons too (though some were fun and some sleepy escapades are amusing in retrospect)... I really miss the people.

I don't cry easily... For this trip, I didn't cry (haha) because I am not as emo as you people, but I don't think I've ever been on such a learning journey or had such an irreplaceable experience with such an amazing bunch of people. I think it's so amazing how all our personalities, despite being so disparate, really fused together. Charming conglomeration, if I say so myself, hehehehe. =P

Nah but seriously, contrary to what Xuhui said, I'm not that good with words, especially not when it comes to writing or articulating emotions. Especially not the emotions all you guys have blessed me with, this opportunity has blessed me with, and especially not the fondness I feel for this trip as a whole and the people that I have been so fortunate as to have crossed paths with, that which is larger than life itself! And that's really what makes it so utterly beautiful huh.

And okay so it's late, and I should really be sleeping, but I really wanted to post something and say THANK YOU to all you people for being so supportive everytime I locked myself out (pamela not included, joking ;)), for being so wacky, for being so caring, for being such an amazing bunch of people, and just for giving this trip your best. =) Really had a BLAST, and hope the memories LAST, and that we go on another trip FAST, let this not fade into the PAST! Okay I better stop my deranged rambling, but thanks for making this trip memorable everybadiiii. =) You guys rock, sediment,...

And yah it's not the end of the world, the pragmatist in me thinks Keeping in touch, with the advent of so many different forms of new technology, IS POSSIBLE. Impossible is NOTHING. Rawr.

Memories Top-40 EDITED! (i added another 10)

okay considering my last (and first) post was so unemotional and uninfluential, i shall be nice and blog about the top 40 memories we took away from this trip!

1) the scenery at the dining hall (hohoho by the way some guy from my class told the whole class so now everyone's asking me for pics of the hot italian guy, OH MY GAHD)

2) my classic fall right smack on my bum which pretty much entertained everyone for the rest of the evening even though i couldn't exactly walk properly after that (not like i normally walk properly, haha which brings me to the next point)

3) everyone's attempts to walk/waddle like me (and you-know-who, haha) so much so i think we're all getting it, the whole world's gonna walk like pamela loo!

4) "i'm sure lah!", "sian diao!", "oh my tian, tian my oh!", "titan is the 2nd largest moon in our solar system", "MARIAAAAA!", "who's dna is this!?" etc etc

5) suat's classic act: locking herself out, which pretty much went like this:
BANG.
"AHHHHHH!!!"
pam's door opens and pam peers out, asking,
"suat, did what i think just happened just happen?"
suat laughs hysterically and begs liling to make her daily visit to the porter (her newfound best friend) with her, hahaha.
pam goes in and reports the incident to crystal, who laughs along.

6) ee chong's many attempts to serenade people (more like traumatise them)

7) mel's ability to turn anything into a song (including three empty glass bottles!)

8) the countless times i had to sit through listening to 'when you tell me that you love me' and 'phantom of the opera' (thanks to crystal and chinyue/liben/mel respectively)

9) mel-aria, mar-iben and OH MY GAHD i'd rather not mention anything else

10) our dares to each other (for eechong to take off his shirt - a sight to behold omg who am i kidding!)

11) rounds and more rounds of indian poker, bridge, POMELO!

12) 86p lunch packs, tiramisu, raspberries and ORGANIC milk

13) clara's many attempts to stop us from eating koala biscuits

14) our many attempts to squeeze the magic letters out of liben's mouth (though it shall not be disclosed on the world wide web)

15) *chinese pledge...* ping2 deng3 *hysterical laughter*

16) the shakespeare play director's many visits to our rooms ("excuse me, would you mind closing the window please? thanks.")

17) "QIAN HUAAA! ARE YOU AWAKE!?" *sharon bangs on door*

18) suat's occasional sputtering of nonsensical expressions or random outbursts of laughter

19) the heart-to-heart conversations with crystal in the room before sleeping (sounds wrong, haha)

20) our many attempts to dirty chinyue aka cleanfreak's room, upon discovering that he uses a torch to look for breakcrumbs on the floor and writes notes to the cleaning lady

21) trying to guess what LCBF calls miss chua (someone guessed 'xiao sai' I'M SURE LAH!)

22) LCBF's crude comments (e.g. to qian hua,"ni jing tian da bian le mei you?")

23) qian hua and all the tricks up her sleeve! (our classic prank on miss chua! video's with me by the way; plus mel mel's attempt to look innocent)

24) recalling disney songs in sharon's room (liben's sudden "and a 1, 2, 3, 4...*elephant trumpet*)

25) mel's performances on the piano!

26) our trips to the fellows' room to kope cookies, so much so mr sze even joined us!

27) clara's caught-red-handed act (openly taking photos of a certain someone!)

28) our not-so-dignified trips to and fro the cafeteria while the cashier was away/wasn't looking (some people even went to the extent of drinking juice at the juice counter before going into the dining hall to avoid paying!)

29) all the horrible dares we did (asking chinyue to kiss a soundly asleep liben, asking liben to take off his shirt and let mel smell it!?)

30) "let me show you de see-see-tee-vee of my stall.
first, you point to de mee pok.
den you say dlai.
den you point to the jeelee.
and you sake your head.
but you newer say dat you nowan ter kua.
so you eshprain to me, why you say dat you say dat you nowan ter kua when you newer say dat you nowan ter kua?"
(crystal soh's obsessed with this she made me repeat it like 2093467042 times! liben don't break this number down to analyse it haha)

31) derrick from MJ's hilarious jokes (he doesn't actually have to try to be funny! he just is, right guys? hahaha)

32) our afternoon games in the soccer field/basketball courts against the guys from MJ (i just realised it was always warm-up games, did we ever get to actually playing?)

33) sharon's super sophisticated conversations with her mum on the phone (full blown cantonese!)

34) the almost-fight in the cinema plus the attempts of the couple behind us to get into our photos after they were done with their private business haha

35) mr sze's many many maaaaany pleas for us to start blogging (and we did!)

36) our many attempts to kill/drown in coffee/enclose with glass/run away from bees in the dining hall, but then thankfully maria the maid somehow managed to get them hahaha (grins)

37) trying to laugh/gossip/play pomelo/bridge under hushed voices so the kind lady next door won't come screaming

38) cleaning the oven in the guys' kitchen (getting rid of stains on the sides left behind by our explosive 86p lunches, shall not comment about the upper surface)

39) kachiau-ing mel about his sitting in first class on the plane to and fro (the poor boy missed his caviar/foie gras; "aiyoh, business class ah? POOR THING!")

40) AND OF COURSE, THE LESSONS WE ACTUALLY HAD!

k it's getting late i was supposed to be in bed an hour ago. you can add on to this list, my brain isnt's exactly functioning now so my scrub jay episodic like memory isn't working either!

NIGHT WORLD. i miss you guys!

ok im nt gd w words
cant type tear jerking entries lik the others
really touching!

or at least nt nw

nt gd w photoshop either
so here goes




i miss you all to bits! ):
really
<3

anyway!
on a lighter note


welcome all the mj ppl who just joined our blog
do blog soon and often!!

tata later!

Excellent idea!!!

What a wonderful suggestion, mel. Y didnt any of us think of it earlier?? U dont know how relieved i was when i saw ur post n at the same time, was laughing at myself for not coming up with this fantastic idea. Lets hav a z'cambridge z'cove then. But r we going to meet everyday? If its only for 1 day of the week, i suggest we hav it every mon cos mon is normally the only day of the week which i dont pon sch. N it can make sure tt i reach sch early on mon instead of the usual 740+ times at which i step into sch. Seeing u guys early in the morn can also wipe away the mon blues tt engulf me quite often. I wldnt mind meeting every morn though. Hey hey, confirm what we r going to do n i shall send a mass sms to tell every1 abt it (for the benefit of those who dont read this blog). I dont care, i m going to get every1 to go for this small gathering we hav in the morns. I m going to drag every single 1 of them there, by hook or by crook.

N crystal, if u think roaming the bio labs is ridiculous, then i will b some freak. Cos i was wandering n loitering around the entire sch today after sch to find familiar faces... anyway, thanks mel, ur suggestion really helps n i will make sure it work. btw can we get more pple to come to this blog...pple like liben, chongee, liling, xuhui n qianhua aint really involved here

dispatches from the heart

day three away from cambridge

i left the house today, thinking that i have sort of recovered from the cambridge-sickness, yet the moment i saw chinyue, it all came back.

and when i reached home, i just had to see this message from paul

Dear all,

It was our pleasure to teach you, and trust me, your behaviour was brilliant. I shall pass on your message to the other lecturers. Remember,if anyone has any questions about coming to Cambridge or anything Sciency,do not hesitate to drop me a line. Whatever the case, I look forward toseeing you again in January. By that point we'll have devised a way ofgiving students more choice regarding the subjects and levels of thecourses they want to take!

All the very best,

Paul and Reach Cambridge

what the heck.

basically this is what i did during school. i bounced a ball to remember our basketball playing in cambridge, i roamed to the bio lab to see familiar faces, and this is just some of the ridiculous things i did. hey, my mom told me to let it go, but she doesn't know, to let go of cambridge, is to let go of my heart, and then ill be dead.

this is sian diao to infinity.

i even miss eechong's bigmouthed-ness, now how weird is that (:

all the other hand, i hope everyone is doing well (:

and maybe if i see a happy you in school, i would be happy too.

this is what you all taught me, life's precious, most precious lessons

1) drawing circles with autoshapes
2) saying the pledge in chinese
3) and ah, yes- titan is the second largest moon in the solar system

oh gawd, i laughed through tears at clara's post!

bonding

hey... all of us are separated by so many barriers some of us don't even see each other in lecture theatres and stuff and at e rate things are going, we're just gonna end up with hi-byes and memories of great times, instead of having great times. lolz ok maybe not so drastic but u'll get e point...

so why not we meet regularly? like every mon and tues mornings, or any other day for that matter. we can just all sit together and chit chat, do work if we want but basically just keep things going. of course it's a lot more convenient to plan outings if we see each other regularly also yea? lolz we just need one morning to say 'hey let's have an outing on 25th september (incidentally is e 1st day of promos)' and we can all discuss our schedules instead of having to use a blog or egroups to meet up regularly or discuss stuff.

just a suggestion :)

Dying from cambridge withdrawal

Here i m again, ranting abt the cambridge withdrawal tt has really affected me greatly. Saying tt i m dying from it is definitely not an understatement. Haiz, i shall admit tt i m currently sinking into a state of depression. Immense sense of longing. This shall b the zillionth time i say, I MISS CAMBRIDGE!! Ahhh... i miss everything tt had happened n every1 tt had been in cambridge. I really dont mind u guys dirtying my room if we can still b in cambridge now. Still can remember every single specific detail of our daily schedule in cambridge.

I miss waking up at 7am (london time) to brush my teeth, back to my room n coming out to the chilling corridor at 730 to shower, passing by libens room with his alarm clock ringing n seeing mel finished brushing his teeth. At around 8, mr sze wld b knocking on our doors n we wld appear one by one at the corridor, normally with eechong being the last. We wld then stroll down to the dining hall. Once we entered, brown trays on the right n green trays on the left. We wld then b greeted by the same usual breakfast we had every morn. Bacon, sausages, harshbrowns, sunny-side-ups, mushrooms, baked beans, croissants, choc pastries, toast. To the left of the juice dispensers wld b 1 big basket of fruits including our fav oranges n bananas. The juices wld b arranged in the following order: orange, redberry, apple, multi-vitamins (except for our last day there when it was redberry, multi-vitamins, apple n orange). It wld then b the 2 coffee machines from which ms chua wld get her cappuccino with half a teaspoon of white sugar. There were 9 choices on the coffee machines (starting from left, top to bottom): espresso, doppio espresso, latte, hot water, cappuccino, mocha, americano black coffee, milo, hot choc. There wld b white sugar n brown sugar (1 bowl each) n tea bags lying in a basket. To the right wld b the machine tt dispenses water. It has 2 taps in which the right 1 works better than the 1 on the left. In the middle there wld b 4 different types of cereal n 4/5 jugs of milk with jam, marmalade, honey n butter lying around. B4 walking past the door, there wld b a few stacks of serviettes which i always managed to fully utilise. After tt, we wld find our seats together n enjoy our breakfasts, eating n laughing like mad at the same time. 1st time i hav laughed so heartily n so much for so many consecutive days. Building our abs as we once said.

After breakfast, it wld b lesson time n a few hrs later, we wld meet for lunch together. Since lunch wasnt included for the trip, we the cheeky ones wld always try to sneak our food past the cashier if we r not having microwave food for lunch, especially the smuggling of desserts. But either way, i still enjoy our lunches together, whether its microwave food or stolen food. N as usual, we wld laugh while eating. Suats cackle wld then b the most contagious. Other than laughing n eating, we wld also b 'sight-seeing', especially mariaaaaaa who wld b searching for her erhmm...beckham, aka alberto.

After lunch, we wld return to our respective classes till evening when we wld meet again. Tts when all the various activities begin. Basketball, soccer, pomelo, bridge, etc. N b4 we realised, it wld b dinnertime. Same dining hall, same pple but uber fun nonetheless cos the laughters were always there. Still remember liben n i once had our dinner with the bursor of cambridge. After dinner, we wld b preparing for our night-time activities. Other than 2 special nights when we went out to watch movies, we wld normally play card games (bridge, most of the time) till the wee hours. Of course, we did hav phy n chem lecs on some of those days but with the company of this grp of pple, those lecs didnt seem to b boring at all.

This was basically how we spent our weekdays as we had different activities on weekends but i shant go into tt since i blieve someone has blogged abt them b4. I really hope u guys can blog more regularly cos i really really hope tt rj cambridge'06 can always keep in touch. Otherwise it wld b very wasted...all those memories... For me, this wld truly b unforgettable. Ok, shall stop here b4 i start crying again *sobs* Shall force myself to fall aslp to stop me from thinking too much abt it. Hope to cya guys around in sch more often!!

yes, chinyue is despondent

oh my my, i just realise tt i miss cambridge really really alot. Today i went to sch with this weird feeling of melancholy, longing for the past 2 weeks when we had sooo much fun at cambridge. Such a nice huge college with tt xcellent weather which mimics natural air-conditioning n not to miss out, the wonderful company we had. Every1 in this trip just adds on to the fun. N today in sch, i received comments like, 'chinyue, y do u look so lost today?', 'chinyue, y r u so dazed?', 'chinyue, u look sad today', 'chinyue, r u ok?', 'chinyue, r u very tired?', 'chinyue, i think u need some rest'... Argh, i just miss cambridge too much. Everything from this trip, from the college itself, to the lecturers, the canadians, the jordanians, cambridge town, london, the pple from other jcs, all the rafflesians in this trip, basically everything n every1 in this trip. I know tt i miss cambridge but didnt know tt it will b so obvious to the rest. Some even said tt i looked depressed. Ahhhhh... i really really miss cambridge. Guess i will never forget this trip...

today i trudged to school. There was no coldbreeze or english breakfast waiting. (: yet my day was brightened right after i saw chinyue, mel, maria, liben, qian hua, clara, sharon, suat, xuhui! (: withdrawal symptoms truly at its worse. i dont know if you have this automatic instinct to rewind your mind's watch by 7hours, and take moments to imagine what would it have been like if we were still in cambridge. i can believe i miss even the messy room me and pam shared. today i said sian diao like a million times, stamp chop gurantee like ten times and im sure lah like another million times. sian diao times a million times now. i just look through every picture, and yeah, some of us shared same sentiments. i promise (i cannot swear) that i've never see a more despondent chinyue ok! well, i miss you all already.

(: thoughts

i already miss cambridge (:

boo

i miss pomelo, bridge, bball and soccer, luxurious dinner, long talks, jokes and everything

i could have stayed there forever
if i wasnt homesick

nonetheless, you guys have been a great bunch of people, truly

it feels like home in Girton (: because of the bonds we've built

SIAN DIAO
CRYSTAL

punting!

my first time blogging here with much enthusiasm. "I'M SURE LAH!"

anyway we went punting in cambridge today! quite an eventful trip. set off after breakfast and sadly it began raining right after we got onto the boats. most of us got a go at actually holding the stick and punting. obviously i didn't bother cos if i did, i probably wouldn't be able to blog now. we'll all be at the bottom of the river hahaha. okay enough nonsense.

it was freezing outside today. we had lunch (or mini lunches, rather) at some fancy restaurant cos dear qianhua brought us in by persuading us that the food was cheap. we only realised why it was so cheap after getting our food. the servings were more like appetisers!

after that was shopping around for last minute stuff. quite a fruitful trip this time (:

then we all met at sainsbury's to pick up dinner (just me actually) while some of the others stayed for dinner in cambridge. came back to pack, and now we're waiting to go to miss chua's room to check in online and play POMELO! heh okay time to go!

hopefully this won't be the last post. we return tomorrow! ):

(:cheerios

hello hello one and all

according to the name list i'm suppose to blog today, so here it goes

started the morning off with a bundle of nerves as it was our critical review presentation day! it was rushy but it turned out well. Suat's group got second, although i thought they deserved better.

lunch was next, some freeloaders, some paid a bomb, we ate our fill nonetheless

free periods thereafter was spent eating ben and jerry's and playing pomelo. truly hilarious.

Next up was the cambridge science quiz. The two Raffles team took top two positions, beatin the teachers and other jcs. how cool.

the guys are out for movie, miami vice while im here blogging

that's all

hello all in singapore, parents, readers, teachers
we're safe here
see you all soon

Happy post-natl day!!!

This came kinda late but i guess it wld still b wise to at least say something abt this occasion even though we r not in sg n patriotic wld b the last word used to describe me. Ytd our country celebrated its 42nd bday, wait no, 41st bday n although most singaporeans r celebrating this special event tts very impt our little red dot, theres a grp of rj students who didnt really do any celebrations. N our dear chongee is supposed to b singing natl day songs, expressing with pride, his utmost respect to our country but unfortunately, nothing much happened in the end. But well, guess its ok since we r enjoying our time in cambridge now... guess our friends r all having a nice time in sg as well, since the govt has generously given 10th aug as a hol...

N crap, we missed this:

the day with 4 lecs (tue)

woohoo!! we actually had 4 lecs today, namely experimental psychology, bioinformatics, gravitational waves (black hole), insights into biochem in cambridge... i shant elaborate more on experimental psychology since someone has already done tt though i dont really rmb whos tt. All i can say is tt Maia was going on n on so enthusiastically abt critical thinking, reductionism, depression n all. I think tt her lec is rather beneficial to me since my PW grp is doing something on critical thinking n philosophy hence i believe i can make use of some of the materials learnt in this lec n apply it to my PW proj.

After tt, we had some bioinformatics lec by this friendly, interesting n cartoon-looking lecturer by the name of Thomas Kabir. Even though he has the looks of bugs bunny, his lec wasnt some warner bros joke n in fact, was done very professionally. Some of u may wonder whats bioinformatics so let me provide a brief idea of this relatively fresh concept. Basically, bioinformatics is quite a vast field of analysis tt consists of many things. Its can mean one thing as well as another thing tts not really linked to the original idea tts first thought of. It encompasses sucha wide area of knowledge tt it can more or less mean any scientific perception tts available. However, it can b phrased roughly as an analysis of protein structures n sequences using computational methods. It may not necessarily b on proteins but tts the most covered area in bioinformatics.

In short, the lec was abt:
- protein-binding (ligand or dimer)
- the Kendrew n Perutz => myoglobin n haemoglobin
- complete genome of phi-x174
- databases tt include GenBank, PDB
- protein-protein interfaces, protein complexes, protein analysis
- HIV protease (Nelfinur)

Yay, nxt up was lunch. We had microwave food which was dilligently brought back by our dear friends from the red grp. Haha, thanks dudes. Its the 1st time the entire grp had microwave food from sainsburys together. After we filled our stomachs, we trotted back to the old hall n had this astrophy lec. The entire lec can more or less b explained by the following 2 pple:

Newton

and Einstein (some extremely famous guy with messy white hair)

Nxt was a talk abt taking biochem in cambridge. After all the lecs, we decided to play basketball in the field since the weather was excellent. We managed to hav a match against mj, didnt win in the end but it was fun though. The match lasted till dinner n after dinner, it was back to work as all of us continue working on our upcoming presentation. Yup, tts abt it. Cya!!

hello hello (:
finally became a member of lybf/cambridge blog
so am blogging ere for the 1st time
aiyah but my disc with all the pictures are downstairs leh
lazy to go get it nw

at the comp lab w 2 brats
guess who
aiyah obvious la
one singing non stop brat
and .. the other... duno hw to describe eh?
haha
ok la
chongee and chinyue

waiting for 11am lesson nw
gona be a very long day today
last lesson starts at 530
AAHHHHHHhhhh
loooong day

jeep and co. getting us lunch gfrm cambridge
yay!

alright uplaod photos another day
tata!

slam

ROCKET SCIENCE (: the blast!

rocket science rocks [2/8/06]
the lecturer was tobias, he is a phd student and he makes one hell of a teacher

the lecture began with a hilarious video from Japan, in which a man was sent flying just by pumping the bottles of water attached to him, and this provoked gales of laughter. well, more than that, it gave us an introduction to what we were going to learn. Newton's third law and the propulsion of a body. we learnt about fluid dynamics, and how it enables basilllisk lizards to skid though water, and tornados to take place. we all know how flight is enabled by benoulli's effect, but Tobias provided us with another insight, where we had to consider a particle moving in circular motion around the wing, and the centripedal force is provided by the net pressure acting per unit area. New insights are always pleasent revelations. then, we learnt poiseuille's law in which flow rate though a 'pipe' is determined. with the surface tension (force/length) equation, we were able to derive pressure. we used an ultracool cool equipment to measure surface tension. It turned out to be Tobias's own invention, using yogurt cover, his girlfriend's hair and stapers. he should get a patent or nobel prize,i thought. After a series of implicit differention and integration, we derived an equation relating the diameter of straw and bubble, the time taken for the bubble to empty and the length of the straw.finally we derived a value that was pretty close to the textbook reference. yay. using newton's second law and the conservation of momentum, and integrating somemore, we derived an relationship between change of velocity, initial speed and In (Mi/Mf). We also calculated the force one would experience while being propelled by a dozen pumped up bottles. shocking finds. our human example, chinyue could have flown off, accelerating at 96.6 m/s2. thereafter, we had fun with Tobias's vortex launchers and we had a chance to make our own! we went around 'popping each other'. good fun! (: it was fun and interactive, interesting and short, concise but not complex. the lecturer is always eating, mars bars and chocs. i think he is a genius or something.

alright, after lunch, we set off building our rockets. it was super cold and the winds were like ultra strong. we had to brave the cold to make our rockets. we faced some difficulties, including having our cg too far behind, thus affecting its flight. we tried everything from streamers to sharp heads to straw-stick lauching pads. we tried showing our creativity and coming up with some novel stuff, but in the end, it was practicality that made the rocket's flew. still, i think we should get a nobel prize for adding streamers to our rockets since ours is probably the first. i used socket the rocket to practice javelin and throws, what a laugh! ours manage to flew a respectable height, but Tobias rocket was like ultimate. it felt like a real rocket!

physics lecture after dinner, superposition

bridging and poka-ing after lessons to destress.

good life here

tata
crystal

sunday :)

sunday. sunday sunday sunday!! sunday's like the day of rest so that's what we did.

we stayed at home the entire morning to do tutorials... try as much as possible to catch up on work so that we don't have that much to do when we get back. 5 of us (sharon, clara, ee chong, chin yue and me)gathered in one room and the rest gathered in ms chua's room (if i'm not wrong... pls correct me if i am) to do tutorials. tutorials are so much more efficiently done in groups... the moment u don't know anything, just have to turn around to one of your friends and ask for help. study groups are so effective.

in the afternoon (after a rather long decision-making process) we trooped to cambridge and toured king's college. the chapel there is... wow. beautiful. really archaic and grand architecture... the moment u step in u can feel its grandeur and magnificent aura emnating off the walls of the building :) ok maybe i'm exagerrating but it was really nice. churches in singapore really can't compare at all.

oh we took taxis for our journeys today... and stupidly discovered that taxis were cheaper than bus despite splitting ourselves into two groups for to take two taxis. but they're definitely much more comfortable.

after king's college we only had time left (cos shops close around 5) to go to sainsbury to get instant food for dinner... cos dinner wasn't provided for some reason... think it was cos they had a wedding or something can't really remember already. weighted by tons of shopping, it would have been torture to stand on the bus back or *gulp* even walk back and so very fortunately we caught cabs again :)

uhh... that's pretty much for the majority... 5 of us tho (mr sze, liling, suat, qian hua and i) had a 15 min walk to a church down the road to attend servce. it is a sunday after all remember? why am i having a monologue with myself -.- ok so anyway, it was a puny church with around 20 ppl inside only altho it was probably cos it's an evening service. still the church is puny... hmm seems a little sacrilegous to describe a church as puny. make no mistake tho the building itself was still really victorian-ly grand and all, as most buildings in england are. and after service we had a lift from a super nice guy albeit a very cramp ride.

isit too long-winded? congrats if u made it thru e post :)

5/8 - Our London Excursion

The sun finally came out of hiding today as we hopped onto the coach heading to London. We were told that the trip would take over an hour. For the record, it took over 2 hours to Buckingham Palace. The Palace totally SWARMED with tourists waiting to watch the change of guards. Anyway,we headed off towards our first shopping stop, Covent Garden, cutting through a park and Trafalgar Square on our way. At Trafalgar, we clambered up to take pictures with the lion statues- inluding Clara, who had sprained her foot.We helped her down carefully later, of course.The cameras were then stowed away as we began our shopping sprees. There was some interesting stuff to look at...including the prices of the aforesaid items (we are getting really good at multiplying values by 3. stupid exchange rate).Next was a quick bite of our packed lunches followed by a brisk walk down to Oxford Street, a major shopping district in London. We had 4 hours to make our way down the entire length of the very long street lined with shops.4 hours later: We met at Selfridge's ( very big, very expensive), along with our bags and bags of newly-acquired stuff. For convenience's sake, we had dinner there before walking down to our coach pick-up point near the marble arch at Hyde Park.Yup. That's all for today, then.

2/8 - DNA (A Blue Blue Point of View)

Today started off on a note of malaise. Everyone was generally very exhausted because we stayed up late playing card games. However, the blue group summoned all the energy they possessed and faced a new day with exuberance and undeniable enthusiasm. Today our module was DNA (otherwise known as The Secret of Life) and a practical session which included making a necklace out of our own DNA material.

The lesson was rather pedantic and boring because the beginning was highly repetitive and we had covered a lot of Life Sciences in school, of a much greater scope and depth. The style of teaching also didn't deviate much from our school's mode of teaching, and didactic knowledge is after all very homogenous throughout the world, especially when it comes to such permanent and cold hard facts. That bit was quite a letdown. We also watched a video about the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick. The video offered us many different insights into Watson's life and how goal-oriented and resourceful he was, whether or not it was regarding the personal or scientific epicentre of his life. It also presented many different perspectives about research, and allowed us to see how often those who do most of the background work are often unrecognized, thus initiating us into the dark and murky nature of scientific research - the selfishness, the thirst for fame, the undermining of the process and the general subjugation of the true value of scientific research. Nevertheless, the video did evoke some sentiments in me, particularly regarding my sympathy for Rosalind Franklin, who was truly a brilliant scientist with fervent passion and drive, as well as the mettle - because she passed away from ovarian cancer and was not able to receive the Noble Prize. Also, I think we lost quite some respect for Watson and Crick because they seemed more avaricious to gain fame, and did not do much wet work themselves, but pilfered a lot of scientific results and research from Franklin's tedious and dedicated hours spent at the lab. To be acerbic, that's just being optimistic actually, the video quality was not exactly brilliant and it got a little dull at some points, especially when dabbling in the irrelevant. There were lots of draggy moments which I felt could be shortened, however the saving grace was the encapsulation of the final discovery, which in retrospect can be considered as -quite- inspiring.

Lunch was ... quite delicious. =) After lunch, we went for a practical where we were asked to isolate the DNA of the Kiwi fruit and the cheek cells. We were already very familiar with the process, from denaturing the protein to preparing washing buffers, using ionic detergents like SDS, etc. However, the entire process seemed rather dubious to us as it is quite unlikely that DNA can be so vividly visible and isolated with such ease. What precipitated out was most likely to be protein, not isolated DNA. Also, the necklace turned out looking quite hideous, and only Eechong wore it, can't for the life of me imagine why, except to engage in more amorous escapades...! We all had varying amounts of protein from diffuse wisps to concentrated lumps that resembled tissue paper.

Okay that's about all that happened today. Now physics tuition from Mr Sze is already midway through, and some of them are soon going to play basketball or croquet. We all lead a balanced life. Happy medium *AUM*.

Shalom!

SUNDAY

trooping onboard our BA flight, saw stylo reverse business class seats and super sardine cramped economy class (world traveller HA) seats... lallala but flight wasnt tt sian slept a bit though mad chin yue slept like half an hour only GG but the rest of us had a cool time watched the city-lights of Europe thru the door window too quite fun and silly movies like the ultimate chick-flick no lifer show AQUAMARINE which i watched solely for emma roberts, julia roberts' niece (emma's WAY chio-er). i was suitably admonished by the girls sitting with me ie sharon the honkee and qianhua the odacian. but emma's worth it.

chin yue kept complaining about the absymal lack of legroom so it was a relief 14 hours later to walk off into the typical rainy summer dawn of london heathrow. terminal 4 did have a nice starbucks, so after a speedy customs thingy we were enjoying nice pick-me-ups and playing bridge infront of a lot of British who must have been startled by our early-morning antics (it was FIVE am)... then mel came over frm terminal 3.

came over after taking SQ instead of BA with us.

TOOK SQ INSTEAD OF BA

TOOK SQ not economy NOT business but

FIRST CLASS. shock and awe.

plus he slept thru dinner. haix

waited for anderson to arrive then got onto the bus together for cambridge. un-used to wide open spaces a la the English suburbs and wide rolling fields, everybody started taking pics of the fields along the motorway. everybody was having a lot of fun doing that listening to MAGIC 105.4 FM radio too (EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING) which a yandao boy asked the nice driver to put on until the yandao boy suggested we play uno so we started this 7 a side game which our dear ms chua LC (BF) decided to join in so we had a fun time owning each other with draw4s and finally poor ms chua got assassinated and got LAST. ooooo better luck nxt time m'am!!

so got to girton college nice place nice smells nice old rooms and corridors and buildings and stuff. nice games in our OLD HALL and we had a tour of our college, followed by a nice tour of cambridge the town itself great fun had a yummy bacon chicken baguette and CARLO'S banana ice cream which was a shockingly artificial bright yellow but tasted nice. saw all the big colleges ie walked by and ooohed and ahhhed and started taking out cameras and acting like japanese tourists... then we went to sainsbury's and raided the mineral water. yandao guys also bought some fruits and juice and loadsa milk to stay health and fit =]

so stiff and tired, we were waiting for the bus when the guys decided to go make some new friends. after all, what could be more impt haha besides geting to know ahemms xP so we made some new Canadian friends who were really cool smart and sporty hahahaha names Ovo and Andrew. later on we got to know their pals Dan and Paul too real sports they are. got to know this Guatemalan girl Verena and Britney frm NJ of the US of A. come on everyone we gotta make more friends, rite?? lets put those social skills to work and do our college (raffles not girton) proud hehe. more on these canadians and other international funkey friends another day...

so went back ate our first dinner in the dining hall which is really nice like RI dining hall only older dinner wasnt too bad too lamb was pretty gd. starting to notice ppl AHA =D

tired we went back to our rooms took our showers . yandao boys discovered the computer room 2 metres frm their rooms so were very happy. as were totally zonked we conked out soon (one yandao boy fell asleep listenin to his iPod and was jolted awake suddely 20 mins later by a disagreeably loud song which he will remove from his playlist. chio girls well they fell asleep in the shower just kidding but they really no stamina couldnt take it anymore so conked out before the yandao kias did.

is this too long? ladida

yandao boys, OUT