Miss J's Farewell Party

6 December 2008

I couldn't believe it. Today was the last whole day Miss J would be in Cambridge. She's actually leaving tomorrow afternoon! I feel so sad as we are very close here, like sisters...

I cooked some food for this event. The food was not really that fancy as I was busy lately with the genome sequences and spent most of my time 'playing' with bioinformatics software. Still struggling to figure out the best way to process the sequences.

The normal vegetables salad and my rose chicken, suitable to have with briyani rice....

I took a taxi to go to Mdm Zett's new place, Southacre Flat at 12 pm. Too lazy to cycle as her place is quite far from my college and I'd to bring the food.

The hostesses - Mdm Zett and Ms Zee were busy preparing some drink. Miss J was trying to join the fun...

Mr Izud was the first to arrive, and then me. Mdm Zett's place is quite spacious and nice. Check out their living room....

And they have a very nice garden outside which would be perfect for BBQ in summer. And a large tree which I would die to climb! Perhaps in summer....

More people came after 12.30 pm and more food was placed on the table.

The guys were so deeply engrossed in their interesting discussion....


And the girls...somehow they always manage to give a pose even though the were heavily talking just before. So responsive and alert to cameras!!

Main dish :

Briyani rice, beef kurma, Rose chicken, pajeri nenas, jelatah (two version-mine and Mdm Zett!), nasi himpit and peanut sauce.

Dessert :

Bread pudding, tiramisu, muffins, peach pie and ice cream.

Peach pie brought by Mr. Khairul


Muffins brought by Mr. Izud

Bread pudding made by Mr. Hef and Mdm Zett


Miss J was given the honor to start the eating session. Bon appetite!


The girls and food...What a combination! With me in my Christmas mood (so red ya). Hehe!!

Then, the cake session! Mr. Hef's belated birthday.

We sang him the "Allah Selamatkan Kamu" song. He was so surprised of our birthday song selection (Mr. Kimi fault actually!) but made a joke about it.

Chocolate cake from Fitzbillies

Check out Mr. Hef hands when we sang him the "Islamic" version of his birthday song. So very the like when we sing nasyid la....

Many Happy Returns Mr. Hef. May You Be Blessed with Your Life - a Hubby and PhD Student!!

Miss J and her farewell cake...

And it was from Fitzbillies too...

Wish You All The Best in Your Future Undertakings. No Matter What You Decide, We'll Be Behind You All The Way....

We watched Mdm Zett and Mr Hef's wedding DVD, the one that took place at Mdm Zett's house in KL. Everyone cheered Mr Hef for succeeded in saying his wedding vow (akad) only once! Excellent job bro...

Everyone was so focus watching the wedding DVD.....

Miss J received a number of farewell presents from some of us. She was very happy (and sad too as she's leaving us and Cambridge).

A cute Cambridge grad teddy bear from Mr. T!

And a nice love-shaped pocket mirror from Mdm Airina which will definitely lift Miss J spirit as she's obsessed with mirrors - of any size and shape!

Mdm Zett, Mr. Hef and Ms ZZ gave her a nice green pendant and a bracellet but I didn't have the pictures. I stole the picture from Mr. Hef's album in Facebook! Hehe!

Miss J gave us (closest friends of hers) a red bracelet each as her farewell gift. I love it and will always treasure the bracelet with my heart....

And we couldn't resist to pose with our bracelet (tried to pose like pro model but it didn't work!)

Photo session followed before most of the people left the place :

All the credits should go to Mr. Hef for all the nice pictures below.....

Ms ZZ, me, Miss J and Mdm Airina

Circle of friends...

And a few more...

The people that came to this event..

Our last hugs for Miss J before she leaves...

And my favourite among all!

Our 'pandang-pandang, jeling-jeling' (Mr. T gave it this title!) picture

Ms ZZ, me and Mdm Zett waved Miss J our last goodbye...

And my potrait picture which I adore so much. Thanks Mr. Hef!

Then, the rest of us watched Mamma Mia together and sang together at the parts when the lyrics were given. Everyone seemed to be enjoying ourselves with the songs.

Then, we all left for Wolfson (Miss J's college) as we had to collect our thing from her room. She sold/gave away some of her belongings.

Then, we parted as Ms Fatimah and I took a taxi back to St Ed.

I bought an acuostic guitar from Miss J. Hopefully, I'll be able to play something after some practice...

Now, time to sleep. ZZZzzzzz.....

Christmas Happy Hour Genetics 2008

5 December 2008

We were supposed to have our Christmas party today. Since only a few members of the department bought the tickets, the party was sadly cancelled. To replace that, we organised a Christmas Happy Hour instead. Whatever food or drinks that had been bought for the party were used in this Happy Hour.

The price you had to pay to attend this event. Only a pound, not that very much ya...

Mr. Chris, the organiser of the Happy Hour of our department initiated this event. We all helped him in preparing the place and food.

The boys were resting after finished decorating our tea room for the Happy Hour...

Ms Chih and I prepared some fresh vegetables and cut them to sticks to go with the rest of the food..

Food and drinks :

All kind of titbits and drinks especially the fermentation products (alcohol drink and its derivatives)!

And all the minced pies, muffins and others....

Ms Chih was very happy with all the food especially when it was free and you can eat as much as you want!

And this was what I had for the night...

The event started with the Part 11 students activity. We had a pantomin presented by the Part 11 (Third Year students in Malaysia) entitled : The Wizard of Cosmid. This year, the panto was very entertaining and creative. I really enjoyed the play and the story line...

One of the boys turned into a sexy girl and was on a quest to look for indole! And all of them each play a character of a lecturer in the department. A bit synical but more of a laugh!

They didn't just act, they sang too. Apparently some of them have very good voice!

We continued to enjoy the food and chat with friends. Everyone was really happy and enjoyed the event.

Ms Maria (I couldn't remember her full name) and me. She is from Spain

Me and Ms Claudia and she is from Portugal.

Merry Xmas Everyone, Happy Eid Adha and Happy New Year!

Research in Genetics

4 December 2008

It was Research in Genetics Day today, from 10.30 am till 5 pm. I submitted a poster (an old one actually!). My labmate Ms Chih submitted her poster too, which she presented in Poland in October this year.

Me and my old poster (done in May this year!)

With Mdm SA, Ms Nish - my departmental mates

Ms Chih and her cute poster



Mr Chris presented a talk on his work, 'Indole Inside : The Alternative Dimer Catastrophe Hypothesis'. Mr. Chris talk was very impressive as he's very smart, confident and good in delivering his speech. David Summers, his supervisor must be very proud of him.





At 3.oo pm, the result for the most impressive poster was announced. I knew that I wouldn't win as my poster is not really that good. Matthew Savoian from Fly lab won, congrats to him. But the most unexpected thing happened. After the winner was announced, the judging committee announced that, there was a very tough decision in deciding the winner and guess what?? My poster was the first runner up! Haha! Who would have thought that they would considered my poster among the shortlisted ones. Ghee..... I was glad and happy.



The secretary of RIG circulate email to everyone and congratulated the winner. Not just that, she even mentioned about my name as one of the runner up!


The clause in the email :

"Thank you to those who submitted a poster and well done to Matthew Savoian , who won the most impressive poster competition and the prize of £15.00 cash and a £10.00 voucher. It was a tough decision and the judges, Alfonso, Cahir and Steve had their work cut out choosing a winner, with runners up Noor Azlin Mokhtar, Remy Ware and the iGEMteam"


This really lifted my spirit!! Abg John, Ms Marissa (a lecturer in yeast), my HOD and a few others congratulated me. And Abg John was really proud of me. And all that for being a runner up. If I won, hemm... they might have done much more. Hehe! Bestnyerr.... hari ni.

A pose with the lab members -Mr. Chris, me, Abg John, Ms Chih, Mdm SA, Mr. C, David Summers and Mr. Anthony

And especially, a hug from Ms Marissa for my achievement (even though I didn't win!)

Eating Fiesta!

2 December 2008

My labmates and I (especially the ladies!) had been planning our lab activity since a few weeks ago and decided to do it today. This was not our first time for such event. We had done it at least once every term. But this time, our eating fiesta involved more people as the number of the lab members had increased to 14!

We discussed about the food and I decided to make some beef dish. Most of us decided to bring something of our specialty ( a famous dish from our respective country!).

We started heating all the food at 12 pm and prepared the table and other thing.

Mdm Silvia and Mdm SA were preparing the table while I was heating the food.

Main Dish :

I've prepared two dish, my Malaysian food : beef rendang and manggo salad.

Mdm SA prepared some fried salmon in her Bangladeshi way. So lovely in taste...

Mdm Silvia made some vegetarian Mexican dish that went well with nachos. And some stir fried mushrooms whch I forgot to take the picture. Sorry...

And Ms Chih made some mixed vegetables in oyster sauce in her Taiwanese style and used gluten instead of real meat in her dish, some fermented bamboo shoot, tofu, Chinese mushrooms, carrot and others. Tasted very different and nice. I loved it especially the tofu.

And Mr. James, our youngest member made some falafel.

Dessert :

Mr. Chris is not only smart, he is a good cook too. He prepared minced pie and was kind enough to made some 'Halal' minced pie for Mdm SA and me. It tasted good...

And Mr. Nick brought some Chelsea buns from Fitzbillies. My favourite. Yummy!!

And some cute marzipan from Fitzbillies brought by Mr. C.

We really enjoyed the event. Everyone looked happy and full. Uncle Philip joined us for only 15 minutes and left as he had a lecture afterward. They all thanked us (Mdm SA, Ms Chin and me) as the main organiser.

Most of the lab members

Mdm SA, me, Abg John and David