Another cause for alarm?

I was woken from my precious sleep due to a loud persistent noise that resembled nothing like a bell or alarm. At first I thought there was something wrong with my computer, as it sounded like an error message coming from a dysfunctional PC. Getting off from bed and in the dark, I placed my ear close to my laptop and realized the sound didn't come from there, and I don't own a PC. When the annoying buzz went on for 5 minutes, I began to suspect it was a fire alarm. It hadn't occured to me earlier as the alarm sounded different from my lab's. As I opened my door with a slight tinge of fear, I smelled smoke and a slightly haziness down the corridor. Suspecting that there could be a real fire, I took a couple of seconds to decide which was the safest exit to take, when I passed by the kitchen and identified the source of the smoke. This time it was someone trying to heat up the oven, perhaps to bake something, but which *%#@&! would do that at 4 am in the morning? Being sure that there is no threat of a real fire, I went back to my room and put on my jacket before getting out of the building. I expected it to be a long, cold wait outside before someone came and switched off the alarm. When I stepped out of the building, two grumpy looking guys with "Security" labels on their fluorescent jackets yelled at me, "You just came out? The alarm has been going for 15 minutes now!" Being sleepy, I wasn't in the mood to argue with them and even offered to unlock the main door for them. As I patrolled outside the building, I saw a group of my neighbours clustered together in the dark. My head resident too, yelled at me, "Where were you?!"

Again trying hard not to argue with her, I simply replied with a dead look on my face, "I just got out of the building and had no idea where the fire assembly area was." After another 15 minutes, the fire wardens managed to knock every single door and get everyone out of the building before their investigation. A couple of guys who completely ignored the fire alarm was harshly reprimanded by one of the fire wardens, who told him "we've seen people DIE from assuming it was a fire drill." Being dramatic, he continued, "do you want to DIE? This is serious boy, I need to take down your name and report you. You are going to get into DEEP trouble!."

I instinctively knew that he was just being melodramatic and absolutely nothing will happen to the student, but the fire warden seemed to have scared the shit out of him. I bet he's never going to ignore another fire alarm again in his lifetime..

Smart fire warden. :)

Pizza Sat

Am I pampered?
Am I spoiled?
Am I satisfied with a plain pizza with only cheese and pepperoni?

The answer is no to the final question. I managed to swindle this 'buy one get one free' pizza from Way Cherng but it is awfully plain. Still, I should complain right? Cause it's free and a change of taste from my self-cooked pasta. Hmm.. if I liked pizza and pasta so much, I should have gone to Italy. Maybe I'll plan travelling there during my vacation.

Earlier in the day after the rain had stopped, I went cycling with Way Cherng (my bmt buddy) through the English countryside. We cycled through green pastures where dairy cows roamed, and as the autumn wind rustled through the yellowing leaves, we saw some anglers cast their fishing rods into the river, competing with the ducks and geese for their fishy dinner. We stopped by a pub called 'The Trout Inn" and ordered a crispy duck salad, fries, and a pint of beer each. Relaxing beside the river watching the green headed Mallard ducks swimming with glee. Quite a relaxing Saturday huh.

Nothing to be alarmed of

Dear Bloggie,

Today I triggered off a fire alarm. I was trying to dissolve some EDTA powder in water using a heater stirrer. It seemed relatively safe and harmless since no naked flames were involved. EDTA was non-toxic and not flammable, the bottle I used was made of glass and therefore would not burn. Never did I expect that the surface of the heating block was contaminated with some unknown substance that turned brown and produced plenty of pungent fumes. And so the story ended with the ENTIRE building evacuated and realizing it was a false alarm, triggered by yours sincerely. It wasn't intentional. Really it wasn't. Gosh, it is only my second week and I'm already creating mayhem.

Introducing...

My FIRST cooked meal!


Spaghetti with baby corn, brocoli, carrots, honey-baked ham and salami, stir-fried using olive oil and seasoned with basil, chilli powder, garlic, sea-salt, soy sauce and white pepper. Hoho... I'm gobbling it right now and this has got to be the best dish I've ever had since I came here (no offence to the Linacre Chef). After eating British food for over a month, I suddenly have a craving for my own cooking. No joke. So I cycled out today and bought all my ingredients needed to cook this. Although there are better cooks out there (like Shifeng), it just seems empowering to be able to customise the food to perfectly suit my tastebuds. Just the right amount of salt, the optimum amount of spice, the fragrance of healthy olive oil, and the equal proportion of meat and greens exemplify the perfect meal. Hohoho.. Need week I'll try to cook some rice and stir-fry some side dishes. So shiok. So happy.

Freshers' Dinner

Wine, gown, sumptuous dinner, conversations with intellectuals from various disciplines and nationalities, describes my first formal event at Oxford - The Freshers' Dinner. I left work slightly earlier and took a bus back to my cozy little room to wash up and dressed myself up nicely. It was easy putting on my suit and tie, but it took me quite a while to figure out how my graduate student's gown should be worn. There were loose flaps at the side that didn't serve any purpose, and in my opinion, didn't serve any aesthetic purpose either.

The dishes were served sequentially, with bread-and-butter at the beginning, followed by fish with white sauce, chicken steak with peas and spinach, roasted baby potatoes, lime and white chocolate cheesecake, and chocolate tuffles for dessert. There were bottles of red and white wine to choose from and I kept drinking the white one cause it tasted great, but had an alcohol content of 17%. I drank like an equivalent to 3 cans of beer, but these days the flushing subsides much quicker. Guess I'm building up some tolerance.

It seemed that everyone sitting at my table were reading differing disciplines. The British chap that sat across me was a doctor researching on the immunology of the gut, the Austrian lady on my right was a material scientist working on solar panels, and an old British Professor on my left was in the field of early childhood development. There is so much to learn listening to their conversations. I was of course very happy to share what I knew about cancer biology, although I didn't dare to go too deep. I kind of started with the cell theory and stopped after explaining the fundamentals of the cell cycle and didn't continue further because it would take me another hour of explaining about transcription factors and promoters before I could start explaining my work in the post-transcriptional modifications and regulation of E2F1 levels and activity. Should I try out teaching? I might develop an affinity for it if it pays well... But right now my focus should be on learning the other half of the molecular techniques that I didn't pick up during my year at GIS. *regrets*

A full moon starts my D.Phil journey

It's mid-authum festival and the moon is especially round and bright tonight. Seeing that the sky is clear and not wanting to miss the opportunity, I bravely opened my window and took a snapshot of this. My room temperature dropped to 18 deg after that. Brrr...

I'm about to start my toughest journey yet and the full moon tonight marks the start of my long, weary road ahead. In time, I may ask myself why I choose this path? Why put so much stress upon myself? Is all of these worth it? But not tonight... Gloom and despair is not how I want to start my long march towards scientific enlightenment. The full moon represents hope, a bright beacon of light shining through the dark emptiness of the night sky, just like how knowledge illuminates the ignorant mind.

Tomorrow is a fresh new start, my first day in a new lab, and my first day as a PhD student. I need to open my mind and be curious. Revive my past self and dare to ask questions. If I stop asking questions, I will cease to become a scientist. Jiayou.

Heartbroken kid. So sad..

Henry the Vacuum Cleaner

As I did my area cleaning this Sat, I happened to chance upon Henry the Vacuum Cleaner! I know it's very bo liao, but it's so cute that I just HAD to take a picture...


Now my room is free from lint and dirt all thanks to Henry!

First visit with Prof Nick La Thangue

The weather was fantastic today. Bright sun overhead, cool and windy with no sign of rain. Putting on my helmet and fluorescent jacket, I cycled 3.5km from Linacre College to the Medical Sciences Division at Old Road Campus (check Google Maps). The ride took me 30 min; it would take the same time if I had taken a bus. I had, however, no idea how the bus system worked at Oxford, so cycling would have to do for today.

Prof Nick La Thangue was friendly and caring, but I was shy and did not dare to speak up. After spending some time introducing what his department does, basically translational medicine and cancer research (my favourite subject), he showed me around the lab. It was all very unfamiliar to me. After being introduced to a few lab colleagues, a Taiwanese girl showed me her work and they were surprisingly familiar to me. That seemed like the only thing that I feel at home about, the science. There are a few more techniques I would like to pick up, and Prof Nick had assigned a post-doc to teach me how. When I've been properly trained, I will finally get the chance to design my own experiments, a chance to use my brains, a chance to first author my own paper. This has always been my dream.

I'll be officially starting work on the 5th Oct. Before I left the lab, Prof Nick warned me again about the dangers of cycling. He wanted me to go back to the lab in one piece, and I promised him I'll make plans for rainy weather. So now I'm looking at bus concession passes; it looks like I can get a one year pass for £330.00. That's less than £1 per day. Seems reasonable enough.

1st week anniversary

It has been a week since my plane touched down and it seems I'm surviving quite well. I went to Sainsbury (Oxford's equivalent of NTUC Fairprice) and bought myself enough food to last through the next week. The Linacre dining hall does not serve breakfast and closes on weekends, so I've to stock up on my combat rations. Let me see here.. I've got sliced bread, blackcurrant jam, cheddar cheese, canned tuna, hot chocolate, apples, digestive biscuits, tomato soup, cup noodles and pringles. Hohoho.. so happy.

I love my room. It is nice, peaceful and quiet. A good place to do my work. However, my lights are quite dim and makes me sleepy after a while, which is maybe why I naturally sleep early. Showering can be both the most enjoyable and the scariest thing here... On one hand the hot shower is about the most comfortable and relaxing thing around; on the other hand, stepping OUT of the shower is a nightmare. I had learned to wipe myself dry in 30 seconds to prevent becoming an icicle. It hadn't rained all week, thank goodness, but I heard from the locals that England is famous for its terrible weather, so I bought myself a set of waterproof jacket and trousers. My lab is 3.5km away from my college, And if I were to cycle there daily, I need to keep myself dry.

I'm going to visit Prof La Thangue for the first time tomorrow and I'm feeling quite excited. What will he tell me? What will he ASK me? I wouldn't want to be presumptuous, but neither do I want to appear as an idiot. I hope I don't give him a bad first impression...