the Fat Kid

third from left, second from right.

Just So Awesome!

to PhD or not to PhD?

days ago i was discussing with my supervisor about some work stuff in her office. after the conversation ended and i left her office, a thought came through my mind all of a sudden.

i wondered, if i should continue doing a PhD once i finished my Honours? this question set of another question, whereby; if i were to continue doing a PhD immediately, should i do it overseas or should i do it in Singapore?

i don't think it's too early to ponder over such things, after all, i should have an idea what my next step would be once I've stepped out of Honours. not that i dont have an idea of my next step, if doing a PhD was out of the way, my topmost priority would definitely be to search for and start on a job. got killer loans waiting for me to pay off.

if i would want to continue a PhD, i potentially have a spot with the group i used to do my internship. reason being: i went back to GIS (Genome Institute of Singapore) when i was back in Singapore during June, and visited my ex-supervisor and colleagues. after the visit, the group principal investigator offered me a place in his lab to further my PhD if i wanted to do so. lucky me...

i've also been looking at the A*star graduate scholarship (overseas) provided by A*star themselves, and i must say that the scholarship is pretty attractive, thou it ain't gonna be easy getting it. on the other hand, i've also contemplated to stay on in UQ to continue my PhD. if i were to stay on for a PhD, it's gonna be another 4 long years. i'm gonna miss everyone, and everyone's gonna miss me (i hope). plus, i'm not too sure if my family is able to continue support my living expenses here. highly doubt so.

there's a part in me that hopes and wish to be able to start earning asap.

well.... gonna leave this for now to ponder about in the future.

Oh Bugger!

lost all the pictures of teresa's birthday i uploaded due to a certain glitch.
DAMNED.
all 40+ of them.

will try to do so again, slowly.

truth

the truth will come out. it always does.

sleep

wants to sleep for >12hours. uninterrupted.

a few entries...

it's been so so long. i'm sorry.

haven't been blogging since kelvin's parents were here, hence i'm gonna squeeze in a few entries from few weeks ago altogether in one sitting.

things got busy for me ever since i handed in my proposal. now, daily 9-5, i'll be in the lab working on my honours project. occasionally, i'd squeeze in some gym sessions after lab work. by the time i'm home and done with dinner, dead tired.

but no matter what, i'll still try to blog on snippets of my life here. thou i can foresee that there won't be much interesting stuff coming along for the rest of the year.

so... back to the time where kelvin's parents were here about 3+ weeks ago. one of the days was a trip to Harbour Town for some shopping.

grabbed some breakfast first when we reached there. we were slightly early, and most of the shops aren't opened yet.

there wasn't much to buy, so most of the time at Harbour Town was just window shopping. but nevertheless, i bought a nice Monroe poster for myself.

fine ice cream is hard to come by in around here. there's always Cold Rock ice cream, but i personally don't really like it.

therefore, when there's a choice of alternatives, i definitely would get one. and this ice cream is not just any other flavor. it's Martell cognac V.S.O.P!!! die die must try for me.

introducing the chauffeur of the day: Mr Kelvin. thanks for driving dude.

horses along the way to our next destination.

our next visit was a vineyard some where at Mt. Tambourine.

portion of the vineyard where the grapes supposedly grow.

at the vineyard, there wasn't anyone to introduce us to the place nor bring us around to tour the vineyard, thus all we could do was to roam around on our own.

the place was pretty boring except for this beautiful lake somewhere at the side.

there was free wine tasting. free, only if you try about 2-3 kinds of many wines they produce. any more, you'd have to pay $3.

after trying some, kelvin's dad bought a white wine.

we left the vineyard to try go for more sightseeing.

but we didn't really know where to head to...

so we just ended up at some lookout. i took a few pics, and we headed back for home.

on the way home, we stopped by everyone's favorite Swedish furniture shopping centre, IKEA.

the wine bought from the vineyard. sweet tasting.

kelvin and parents.

something you can find in abundance in UQ, are the birds.

bread, a staple food for most of us, especially poor students like me.

occasionally, in spring time now, bread turns stale and mouldy slightly faster than in winter. and when you have an excess of mouldy bread, abundant of birds, too much leisure time, add them altogether and you get bird feeding.

these birds will dance and flap their wings for bread if they have to.

even the eels come and fight for a piece of bread.

and there are birds that don't just come from the water but from the air too.

a while later, these chicken/turkey looking birds come lurking around behind us looking for scraps of bread.

separate night. kelvin's mum cooked dinner and we invited the others over.

got 'cheng teng' for dessert.

september 12th was the day for brisbane riverfire. just like every other year, it is the day of fireworks display at Southbank, up and downstream of the river.

that day, we decided to stop by the korean table bbq that opened just one or two months ago to have our dinner, before catching the fireworks.

charcoal BBQ.

appetizers.

background: seafood pancake. foreground: egg soup.

BBQ combination platter: pork belly and some others i can't remember, but i know it costs Aud$65.

was trying to take a pic of the pretty korean waitress who showed us how to table BBQ like the koreans do, but she shunned my pic.

absolutely fantastic, melts in your mouth.

after dinner, we paid up and quickly strolled to a great place to catch the fireworks. where we stood, we had a great view of the whole Story bridge.

once the fireworks was over, the 15000 strong crowd proved difficult to catch any mode of transport back home, and most of the roads were still not opened. hence, we decided to walk to Westend to get some desserts at Freestyle cafe.

brioche dumplings in liqueur soaked berries and white chocolate, and vanilla ice cream on berries.

flour-less warm chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet.