Holiday!

And to acknowledge the fact, the Internet connection decided to go on strike.

So cool. It cuts me off the cheapest way I can find friends to do things and plan stuffs. When I finally got the time to do them.

Now the telcos can smile all the way to the bank after ripping me off my SMS fees. Mind you, its not one cent here as in M'sia.

Nevertheless it was a fun day today as a few of us managed to get together and play a game of Frisbee. Albeit the wind is not really helping at all, making the Frisbee turns and twists at awkward angles.

But I find this game very special as I guess it is the first time we had pharmacy students from three different year levels (plus a PhD student) having fun together.

It something I guess I will cherish a lot, because I never got to do this with my seniors and in fact only knew a few of them. I guess one of the reasons I took such an initiative to know the juniors and help them whenever possible is because I wanted them to have a richer Uni life, to make sure they have what I don't have when I'm still in the first year.

Later in the evening, some of us had a meeting with the Senior Principal Assistant Director of pharmacy in Malaysia. After me complaining of the don't-care-much attitude of JPA, it is good to know that at least the Pharmacy department cared about us. She gave us quite a good picture of what to expect in Malaysia and some of the options we can take. She told us how the training will be like, what exams we had to take and how much our salary will be (We will be really earning RM3800 per month).

It was quite enlightening to find out that the pharmacy profession in M'sia is not as 'backwater' as first thought. That they really do more stuffs then just counting and dispensing pills. That they are here to learn more about stuffs like Home Management Review.

The future is not as dark as it seems.

3 course meal

Saturday special column on food:

A food critic sampled and weld his mighty pen on the flavours of the current exams.

 

Starter:

A nice mix of fresh taste and tried and tested flavours. Too bad the waiter was too hasty to clear the plate before the last morsel was eaten. Or else it would be near perfect. 

Main:

The portion served was fit for a hungry family of four. However, rather ruefully it was not matched by the freshness of the produce. It also suffered from a lack in imagination and not worthy of its exorbitant price. Nevertheless a satisfying feed.

Dessert:

Hmm.. still waiting for it. Seems like a long wait already. Hopefully it will be something to be fondly remembered...

That's what a food critique will say. In layman's term, there was not enough time to finish the starter, which consisted of a combination of fresh questions and past years.

The main was an insult to intelligence because the bulk was rehashed past years. To think I had studied for it till the material crept into my dreams and gave my a sore back for sitting on the chair for too long. Even though I think I can do the questions well, it was just not challenging enough nor worth the effort.

The dessert had not yet been served. But really hoped that they waiter bring it out now and cut this painful waiting. I want my holiday! It had been such a long semester..

Mumblings

I am sinking amongst tons of notes, which packets of chips and tubes of ice cream to get me going. It's a monstrous subject, 53 lectures and all, and it seemed that I can't finish them all. I should be scared and running hard, but yet there is this calm in me - a defying move to show the exams who's the boss - that it can't rule my life; a stubborn streak to prove that studying is only a part of life. As important as spending my time cooking a slow dinner. Or watch a movie. Or have a meandering walk around. Or a ten hour sleep. Or play badminton. Or waking up in the dead of the night to watch Euro 2008.

Is it an act of short-term satisfaction for long-term gain? That will be lived to be regretted? If study for one more extra hour might get one more mark. Who knows.

Just hope that I wouldn't crash and burn.

Oh yeah, actually just wanna write something to wish my Dad "Happy Father's Day". Time to live a life like this. I just don't really like sending e-cards, Mum.

Its all about the exams

I'm sitting right here in front of the laptop, thinking of something to write while enjoying a delicious piece of lemon cheese cake (still eating it, sis - nearly half gone). Seems that my whole head is preoccupied with the oncoming exams. So might as well rant something about it.

My exams start on Monday, so there's still a few more nights to go and try cram it all in. I'm always interest in how to study and get really high marks in exams - something that I had failed to do consistently. It is better by just to understand the concept behind the text? Or just try to memorise everything? Or is it that my exams answering technique are not up to scratch?

Alarmingly, I discovered that my memorising skills are deteriorating by the year. Once I can memorise all the key points and have some photo memory of the lecture notes. Nowadays I am lucky to get 75% of them in. Must be due to my advancing years.  Now that's a good excuse for getting low marks.

Since I got a good measurable diagnosis criteria of my problem and had diagnosed it, I decided to subject my brain to some treatment. As my brain doesn't believe in the first line therapy taking health supplements,  I decided to try some unconventional non-pharmacological treatment: web-sudoku tds; adding up numbers on cards bd and using my non-dominant hand to move the mouse. All these have anecdotal evidence in  promoting better brain function. However, the duration needed for this therapy to work is not documented. Hopefully its not too late.

Perhaps the best thing to do now is constant remind myself that marks are not important at all in life. It's meaningless once you start working. It's not that you will get a higher salary and faster promotion if you get high marks. High marks are just for personal satisfaction.

Moving on... just wondered why we often wish each other "Good luck" before exams. Now in what way does a person need luck in the exams? Luck that what he studied will be on the paper and what he didn't does not? Luck that his shooting accuracy will be spot on in multiple choice question? Luck that whatever he do, he will get high marks? Where does luck comes in?? I only ever got lucky once in exams, and that's real luck because one of the essay I memorised was on the exam paper. That's 1 in a million chance it will happen again.

Okay enough ramble. Next post should be between my first and second exam. I had 9 days break between them. Very considerate of the lecturers because the second subject had 53 lectures (others around 20).  One last thing: Wikipedia is getting indispensable for studies.

The Birthday Chronicles

Birthdays are the time when your friends and you come together to say "hey, glad that you were born!" (I hope).

This year's birthday was very special to me, partly because it is likely to be my last b'day celebrated with this current bunch of people, partly because I have more then one celebration for the first time, partly because my sis got to celebrate it with me here.

The first celebration was a real surprise. I have no idea it is a birthday celebration - thought it was a routine post placement catch up dinner with my pharmacy friends. Some people just have the ingenuity to have my birthday celebrated exactly 13 days before the actual date because I like the number 13.

And someone had the gall to put "uncle" on my cake. Thank you for reminding that I'm getting chronologically advanced.

One day before my real birthday, when out to celebrate with my sis. Went to this place called Laksa King where we need to wait nearly 1/2 hour to get a seat. The laksa was okay, but the ingredients were quite fresh. Then we had a drink at Starbucks and she presented me with a self-made birthday cake. This was the very first time I knew she can make a cake. It was a real yummy lemon cheesecake.

 

Then on the actual day itself, I went to celebrate with my JPA friends and associate in Hallah, which is a Korean restaurant I liked a lot. Nice change of scenery after having the last two birthdays celebration in Thai restaurant. It was quite bittersweet, as it is likely to be the last year we came out eat as a group. Next year everyone will be everywhere pursuing their dreams. Time really flies.

 

Blowing my 23 candles on the cake.

A birthday post wouldn't be complete without some spiel about presents. Someone actually read my blog and brought me an ipod this year..wee~ next time better draw up a wish list.

I received four bottles of wine this year. Okay I got the hint. I am somewhat an alcoholic already? Didn't realise. Better change my image. Thanks for the chocolates, perfume, books and Lego figure too.

I would also like to thank all the people who sent in their greetings via card, sms, facebook, ecard, friendster, msn etc. I felt so touched. You always need friends and family to make your birthday special. Thanks for just doing that. =)