My 27th Birthday cum Taronga zoo walkabout

27 years ago, on this faithful day (18th Apr), I was born!! Wow, 27 years on this earth, that will be like slightly more than a quarter of a century old, and approaching 3-tenth of a century soon. Damn. It's always a mixed emotion when it comes to my birthday. I mean, yeah, it's a time to celebrate, an excuse to have fun, gluttony etc.. but hey, I'm one step closer into my grave as well! And come to think of it, what has this 27 years been for me?? Seriously, no money, no career, a miserable student in debt. But who to blame?? I chose this route for myself. I mean, after my university or even polytechnic education, I can venture into the work force, and like what the then EDB director Phillip Yeo guy said: wash test tube! Yeah right!

So, I don't want to wash test tubes all my life, borrowed some money, and got a god-sent scholarship to go overseas to pursue my dream to be a scientist, starting off with being a PhD student first. Sometimes I feel like I'm like an artist. Artist draws but might not be recognised, ending up generally being poor in their lifetime. Well, their only consolation is that they are able to do what they like during their lifetime - drawing! For me to pursue my dream, I have to give up having a stable income early in life, forming a family with my beloved, bread and butter issue, and rely on aids eg. financial etc be it from those that cared about me, or institution. I can only hope that my future wouldn't be like an artist. An artist's value only increases tremendously when he pass away. He can never see his true worthiness.

Ok, enough of this pessimistic talk on my bday.. I can't just help it sometimes.. Anyway, I took the day off from my lab, and went to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. It's really nice. I took a bus from my place to Circular Quay, where the ferries are. Took a ferry from circular quay to the Taronga zoo wharf. As the wharf is located at the bottom entrance of the zoo and that the bottom entrance is only for those with skyride access, I took the free connecting bus all the way to the top entrance of the zoo. Well, something really nice happened to me while I was queuing up for the ticket.

Foremost, since today is my birthday, and in conjunction with the 90th anniversay for the zoo, I can get into the zoo for a mere 90cents! Ok, but guess what, I gotta into the zoo for free!! haha.. Well, the connecting bus let us alight at this gate 2 & 3 at the top entrance. So the whole load of people just crowd themselves at these two gates to purchase tickets etc. Then I spot that a couple of people went to another direction, heading towards gate 4. Apparently the crowd is so engrossed in what's in front of them at gate 2 & 3, that they didn't realised that there are other gates as well! So, I quickly headed to gate 4 and started queuing up. Then, a surprise came!!

The man in front of me turned and asked me, and a mother and her kid behind me if we had bought our tickets. So we said no. Then, when it was his turn, he just flashed out this 'gold pass' and told the ticket seller that we are together, and wolah! We got in for free!! Somehow, his 'gold pass' allow him and accompanying people to enter for free!! hahaa.. It's really a godsend! I expected to pay 90 cents, and ended up nothing at all. But, the mother and her kid behind me got the best deal. Cos, an adult ticket would cost like $32 and a child $17.50! So, they really saved up a big deal of money. Thank you kind Samaritan! =)

I took like 100 over pictures as well as videos, and so can't possible include all of them here.. so here are just the teasers to what is to come. I will be putting up the link later on... so meanwhile, enjoy the pictures below!!

Me, getting ready to go to the zoo! I'm gog to the zoo zoo zoo, lets all go to the zoo zoo zoo.... lalala

People boarding the ferry, to go to the Taronga zoo.

View of the Opera house, and harbour bridge on the ferry.

The main top entrance of the Taronga zoo

This bird... I think it's a cookabara? (think my spelling is wrong)...

The tasmania devil.

The famous Australia koala bear

Cute little wallaby..so cute..!!!!

Giraffe...

Me with the giraffe

Colourful birds...

The Meekarts! Cute little creature

Well, on my way back from Taronga zoo.. and that concludes my bday !!!

A dim sum Sunday!

Attack of the dim sum dollies! or rather, dim sum goodies! Went to Maroubra for a dim sum brunch with Sabine, Cat, Huifen and Martin. Yup.. generally speaking, the food is nice, esp the egg tart and 'siew mai'. Yum yum.. But this HK dim sum resturant really has alot of variety for dim sum! There's even crabs, prawns, vegetables, and even squid (calamari)! Wow.. I seriously don't think authentic dim sum has all these seafood haha.. must be tailoring the food to the taste of the ozzies. however, I find some of the dim sums to be a bit lacking.. such as the steam prawn dumpling.. the prawn filling is nice, but the dumpling 'skin' is a bit too thick. Also, their lotus glutinious rice is a little bit bitter.... arising from the lotus leaf I suspect. Prob it's just me, cos my frens don't really find it bitter. Anyway, the resturant is supposed to be very popular I think, cos there are actually people queuing up at the entrance as all the seats are full!! Gosh. Anyway, spent about $20 on the dim sum session.

After the brunch, we walked ard maroubra, and went to Eastgarden as well. Eastgarden is a big shopping complex, kinda like the size of jurong point in Singapore. Seems to sell alot of shoes, clothes, and have lotsa supermart as well! But I must say, some of the stuffs like shoes etc, are nice. But no money to buy! hahaha.. Eastgarden also has lotsa cheap goodies as well, such as the big loaf of bread that I bought for only $1! And, one of this stalls that sells milkshake and prezelts is like having this milkshake promotion, where milkshakes are sold for $1 btw 2-3pm! haha.. how can I miss such an opportunity?! Normal price is like $3.20 I think! Well, must thanks Cat for bring us ard and intro all these cheap goodies to me...



Well, there's this pet shop in Eastgarden.. the puppies are so cute!! Can I exchange bubbles for them??


Well, saw this nice female luggage bag that they sell for only $70! I think it's pretty cheap!! Liminy, you interested?? but even if u interested, how to buy and send to u? haha

It's the weekend again!

It's been a week since I last blogged. Seems as though an eternity! This week past pretty quickly though, 'cos of the previous long weekend. Therefore I only go back to the lab on tuesday.. and now is the wee morning of Saturday!! Now, what did I do in this week?? Hmm... pretty much nothing I think.. let's see,...

Went back on Tuesday, but since it's a lab meeting day, the whole afternoon's spent on the meeting.. so no work done. Wedesday, what did I do?? I think pretty much nothing as well. Spent the day in the lab, surfing ard the net. Now thursday, went there pretty early, ard 9+ in the morning, thinking that Dom will be teaching us how to make the media for culturing M.burtonii, but didn't go through with it 'cos Huifen was late I think. Again, spent the day stoning away. So finally, friday, friday the 13th, I manage to see some action. Like I said, I only 'see' action, didn't actually do it! haha.. 'cos the media that I need to make is the MFM media, while Dom was showing us another type of media. Nonetheless, it's good to learn how the media is made, and get acquitanted to the equipments etc.

Anyway, back then, I had contemplated on running a TUG-PAGE (essentially urea gradient gel) to see if my protein lysate is in its native state or not. But then, Davide was advising against it, with valid reasons of cos. Foremost, TUG-PAGE is normally used to analyse a single protein, and it need like 20ug of protein. Imagine now I'm using lysate, I will actually need to load in a lot more lysate to view it at the end. Secondly, he asked me to trust the sonication protocol that it will generate proteins in the denature state. He cont'd saying that if the sonicaiton protocol is doubtful in generating non-denatured proteins, then years of hard work by others in the scientific commuinty that uses sonication will go into the drain! Well, this is quite true as well. I mean, I checked some references, they used sonication to get their protein lysate and use it for gel shift assay as well.. so, am I just being paranoid!!?? Then again, I also found a good article that shows that sonication can increase the beta-sheets level within protein. Argh.. headache..

In addition, using TUG-PAGE to look at the nativity state in a heterogenous protein lysate is novel! How do I even begin to interpret the data to determine how many percent is in its native state? So much effort, and yet so much uncertainty, is it worth the effort? But, my primers ain't arrived yet, and I can't do work as well. Use this opportunity to try it out and see how it goes?? hmm.. questions after questions.. Are there any easier options?? Or just a leap of faith?! Any advise??

Everytime I think abt work, headache.. anyway, spent alot of time online watching this US drama called 'Heroes', when I come back home..haha.. it's a very interesting show, and dare I say, even better than 'Lost'! It's a bit similar to 'X-men', but much better. Haha.. I have attached a fan-made trailer here, so enjoy!



Anyway, I tried cooking the braised chicken wings again.. (my second attempt), and this time, it's much better, much more delicious! Just that I added abit too much olive oil! haha.. but overall, it's very nice.. Yum yum..


My second attempt in cooking the braised chicken wings,.. looks more professional now..haha

The product of my cooking...

Well, bought banana cake as well.. yummy. However, i find cakes esp. chocolates ones in Sydney is very sweet!! Too sweet for my liking.

Other dinner menus... Fried seafood eggplant...

Fried rice..

And, Calamari!! My favourite.. yum yum..

A rainy Saturday...

It sure is a rainy Easter weekend.. it has been raining on and off since yesterday, and really sucks the life outta ppl, at least for me! LOL.. don't feel like doing anything, just slacking away at home, watching shows, playing online chess etc.. at this rate, think I'm gonna be fat after the weekend! haha.. doing nothing, but sit in front of my labtop and have dinner when it's dinner time. Haha..

Anyway, I went over to the Sydney Fish Market with Jim yesterday. Well, probably its a wrong choice of time to go over on a Good Friday, cos it's loaded with people! Argh.. had a hard time finding seats for a meal.. and so many people! We walked all the way from circular quay, across the pyrmont bridge, and further down to the Fish market.. it's a case of the blind leading the blind, as Jim has never been to the Fish market before. I, though have been to the Fish market like 7-8 yrs ago, can't remember how to get there! haha.. So I just rely on my memory of a satellite map of the Fish market which I downloaded the day before, and navigate our way through! Anyway, enough talk, and here are the pictures

Waited at the St. James station for Jim. Since he's late, wonder to the Hyde park which is just behind St James. Saw these guys playing this hug chess! Cool.


Walkway leading from St James to the Hyde Park (north side)

No idea what this building is, but the architecture looks like victorian times.

Who can resist the call of ice cream?? yum!

Autumn is definitely in the air.. leaves are turning yellow!

Past by this Martin place, and saw these performers there.. wonder what they are up to. Trying to ask ppl to go in and shop? Oh, Martin place is a hotel retail.

Architecture of Martin Place

Along the Pyrmont bridge

Yup, that's me, with the Sydney aquarium at the backdrop

Battleship and submarine docked at the darling harbour.. obviously it's just for a show. Ppl can actually go into the ship and submarine.. but that will be another day for me..

Finally, Sydney Fish Market

Seafood Cafe and Oyster Bar. The cafe where we had our luncheons, where I lost my hp pouch.. sob sob.

Seafood platter for 2, at AUD$25! Ex, but I love the oyster and scallop with melted cheese on them! The fish is fresh too, and the squids are soft.

In the fish market.. loads of people..

What a big fish for sale! And I saw big crabs etc as well! Should have come on weekdays, where it ain't so much people! Then can see more stuffs!

Some of the seafood stalls.. Wanted to try their sashimi.. it look really fresh, but its ex.. so ended up didn't getting any. Well, next time perhaps.

That's me again, outside the fish market. It's drizzling when this picture was taken.

My futile attempt at still life drawings

Every time after seeing Jim's blog, I'm utterly speechless, and amazed by his artistic talent. Like what I had told him earlier, I think he might as well make a living off his paintings! Truly a young budding artist, and I'm really fortunate and glad that I have such an artistic friend!

This time round, I'm inspired to try to draw a still life drawing of an apple, after looking tru his sketches... haha.. but sadly, as you can see, didn't managed to rub off some of his artistic talents on myself. Argh.. what a ugly look still life of the apple.. didn't justify the succulent and juicyness at all! What an injustice to the apple! I've never been good at art.. haiz.. I'm not a artistic person at all! What am I even thinking when I try my futile attempt, knowing damn well that it will be futile?!

Well, prob a kid can draw better than me!

Thats the apple model...

Happy Easter holiday everyone!!!

Happy Easter holiday everyone!!! Especially those in Australia... it's gonna be a long long weekend.. Long weekends are hard to come by in Oz... yeah! The locals in my lab was like distributing Easter chocolate to us.. haha.. was a bit suprised.. didn't quite see it coming, since back in Singapore, we don't celebrate Easter all at. Apparently, since the locals are mostly christians (?), Easter would be quite a big thingy to them! Else, why would there always be a long holiday associated with Easter (Good Friday, weekends, followed by Easter Monday)?

Anyway, today I was supposed to go to this sushi making session organised by the what Jap student society from my uni.. I did reply to the International Student Service (who send us the email) as requested, cos as they said, "spaces are limited". But they didn't replied me to confirm my attendence.. Oh well, what the heck, I just went down to the sushi making venue anyway. Well.. I'm totally disappointed when I reached the venue. It's supposed to be a sushi making session, where they teach us how to make sushi?? or did I interpret wrongly? What we saw were bunch of ppl sitting ard a table and eat sushi etc.. doesn't look as though some one is going to teach us how to make sushi at all! What a waste of my time. Moreover, it's disorganised! No one confirmed my attendence, left me hanging in the air and wondering if I managed to squeeze into the 'limited space' available. When my fren and I reached the venue, no one tell us anything, or indicate to us that we need to mark our attendence etc.. basically I think you can just walk in and out without anyone really noticing your presence. Oh well, didn't stay for more than a second, and off we go. Sucks.

Today is the first day of my bench work for PhD as well. Did sonication of the archaea cells to get the protein lysate in the native state. Followed by Bradford quantification. yup.. so finally, a small step into the lunar terrority.

My 300Gb external hard disk drive finally came yesterday!! haha.. it's really worth it. I bought it online on Ebay, for like USD$85, with shipping charges like USD$30. But I think overall, still very much worth it, for 300Gb of disk space. yeah! Definitely a bargain.

Well, can you believe it?! I took this picture at ard 6pm Sydney time, and it's that dark!! Looks as though 7+pm in Singapore! My gosh, we are really moving to winter huh.. where the night is getting long.. and I think that probably after spending a year in Oz come this Dec, I might not be used to the Singapore's way of life?!

My dinner today! A bit sian of eating rice, so I just boil the 'mee sua' and eat it like that with the canned pork. Added some boiled brussel sprouts together with the canned pork as well. Taste really nice.. Bought the fried onion and put them on top on my 'mee sua'.. taste great! With the sambal anchovy chilli.. simply heaven!

Brussel sprouts craze!

Was suddenly hooked to this brussel sprouts craze!! haha.. silly me! Who have ever heard of brussel sprouts craze??! duh! Anyway, I like to eat brussel sprouts, so crunchy, tasty, small and cute! As I was buying these little fellow, I was wondering: how does one grow these?? Does it grow in the soil as a single little thingy by itself? Or that, when that grow up, they actually become the cabbage that we eat? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm a city boy! And, it's really suprising and amazing to see it acutally grows on a plant, like a bud! Cool... wish someday I can visit the brussel sprouts farm or something.. Wonder if Australia has such a farm? Anyway, some pic of the brussel sprouts farms for those who are equally ignorant.

Wow.. didn't know that the sprouts actually twist and turn like a double helix DNA!! Amazing!

Oh.. now I know that the sprouts actually grows on the stem!! Really never seems to stop amazing me. Can the leaves be eaten?

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Farmers harvesting the sprouts.. Hmm.. do they just pluck off the sprouts or what? what happen to the plant? Can the sprouts grow back on the plant, if they left the plant alone on the ground?

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Wow.. never knew the brussel sprouts plant can be used in deco! hahaha..

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Oh well, if you're a brussel sprout expert, pls help me out with my burning questions!! Really interesting.. but meanwhile, a pic of my dinner for today, for the folks back home. The herbal chicken is couteasy of JM, my housemate. It's delicious, and thanks JM!

Looking forward to long weekend!!

I'm really looking forward to the really long weekend here in Australia! LOL.. public holiday from fri to Mon!! 4 days! Woo hoo! 'Cos it's the Good Friday cum Easter Monday.. so that's why there's this long weekend.

I'm planning to go either to the sydney fish market, or go for the bondi-coogee walk... yeah.. can't wait to embark on my walkabout again..hahaha..

Tomorrow I have a presentation to the lab.. it's this weekly lab meeting thingy, where the ppl take turns to present their work. Well, I haven't really started on my work, so nothing much to present, except to talk abt singapore, me, my honours project, and what's install for my PhD! I also included quite a bit of pictures depicting everyday life in Singapore as well,.. so hopefully my presentation will not be a boring one!

Oh! Anyway, today I was supposed to go catch Mr. Bean with my housemate, OP.. 'cos he has a 1 for 1 tix coupon, so each of us will only need to pay AUD$4.. but guess what? Mr. Bean is under no free list and hence we cannot use the coupon! Argh! Spent the AUD$4 on ice cream in the end, at sugar plum in the spot. Ate macademia ice cream.. it's nice and rich.. similar to the one in swenson back in singapore. But, the portion down here is like 1.5x that of the swenson! Was like quite full after the ice cream.. haha.. esp when I had it after my dinner... haha


Well, what's for dinner?? Pork fried brussel sprouts and calamari for dinner... nice! too bad no tar tar sauce.. must go and get some...

Double shocker!!!!

Wow! what a shock I got after gog to this webby: http://www.topuniversities.com

I registered, clicked on the ranking under Life science and biomedicine category... and wolah! guess what? ranking for 2006 for UNSW is 52!!! Come on! UNSW science community, what do you think you are even doing?? Even NUS is way above us, and I seriously consider us to be somewhat on par with NUS!! Then again, I haven't been through undergrad in UNSW b4.. but is UNSW really that bad in terms of their life science and biomedicine, that we lag so far behind??

You know what's worst? back in 2005, UNSW was ranked 40 in the world in the same category as mentioned above. 40 in 2005, and 52 in 2006?!! Wtf! What are these ppl in the life science and biomedicine discipline doing!!! We are like devolving from 2005 to 2006! I can't imagine how it will be like in 2007 rankings!! My gosh!

Come on UNSWians, esp from the life sciences and biomedicine community, wake up your idea!! If NUS can do it, I don't see how and why UNSW can't! Be competitive, and reach for the stars! Being in 'Group of Eight' is no big deal. Put on your battle gear, sharpen your wits, wake up your senses and push forward!

I still can't believe my own eyes!