Sunday, 9 November 2008

Uncle Philip's Birthday

9 November 2008

My advisor, Dr. Philip Oliver turned 60 today. As his birthday fell on Sunday, we decided to celebrate his day earlier on Friday.

Uncle Philip, as old as he is, still look healthy and energetic at 60! We bought him a birthday card with everyone in the lab signature and a big chocolate birthday cake from Fitzbillies.

He received balloons from some members of the Genetics department and a huge badge with dancing light which he wore on his left chest. So cute!

Me, Mdm SA, Uncle Philip and Ms Chih



Happy Many Returns of The Day Uncle Philip. May you be merrier and happier in life!!


Wednesday, 5 November 2008

Bon Fire and Ladies Nite

5 November 2008


Bonfire Nite

Remembering Guy Fawkes and what he did years ago, we are having bonfire nite every year. Excited about it, just like last year, Mdm Zett, Ms ZZ, Miss J, Mdm Airina, Ms Zee and I met near Subway at Emma Street and walked together to Midsummer Common.

The four ladies (excluding me) were really into this bonfire spirit and enjoyed themselves very2 much. Check them out in their additional cute gears!
Four pink, furry bunnies and me! All happy......Bunny style!


Fireworks started at exactly 7.30 pm. It was nice but not as nice as the year before. We found out that the City Council has less budget this year and had to downscale the amount of fireworks used. And we stood at the very wrong place. We saw more smoke than fireworks and the wind blowing in our direction made it worst!! Hemm......



Thick smoke blocked our sight and caused tears in our eyes...


And the piled wood was only torched after the fireworks ended. Huge flame was started and legal!


After spending almost an hour in Midsummer Common, we walked back to City Center and walked further up to Asia Restaurant at Regents Street. I'd booked a table for 5 at 8.30 pm.


At least the food was good. We ordered different dish.


Starter :

Tom Kha chicken


Tom Yam prawn soup


Seafood soup



Main dish :

Tandoori lamb chops
Masala roast lamb shank
Garlic chilli murgh
Briyani Lamb

Bhoona lamb
Kai Krob


I didn't have to ask for the discount (which I eligibly get) as the staff know me already and gave me the discount straight away! Bestnyerr!

Ms ZZ and Ms Zee

Miss J and Mdm Airina
Me and Mdm Zett
We really enjoyed ourselves tonight, the fireworks (and of course the ladies with their bunny ears!), the food and the companions. Hope we can all do it all over again next year!

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

Wolfson's Formal Dinner

4 November 2008

Uncle Wolfson!


I attended a Formal Hall in Wolfson a few hours ago. Miss J is leaving Cambridge soon. So, she invited six of us to her Formal. Sort of celebrating her almost completion of MPhil and for being here in Cambridge for exactly one year.

The Formal Dinner started as usual time, 7.30 pm. I love the layout of this college. The hall is nice too.

The beautiful chandellier!

The food, even though we were informed that the chicken is halal but we sort of 'Hawas' (short form for halal but was-was!). We ended up having vegetarian option instead.

Starter : Melon and ginger cocktail

Main course : Roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary+seasonal vege

The bubbly drink that accompanied the meat!


Vegetarian option : Vegetarian pastry+seasonal vege


Cheers!

We couldn't have any wine but still wanted to pose with the bubbly. With borrowed glasses from Mr. T, Mr. Mike and Ms CL...


Dessert : Chocolate tart


Tea/coffee : Which we had again in the common room (CR).

Mdm Zett and me after the meal...

Fruits and drink :

It was a bit strange here. We had our tea/coffee first in common room. Then the hall staffs let us in the hall again for dessert. We had some fruits and had some share in passing the drink (wine of course!) from one end of the long table to the other end a few time!

White and red bubbly drinks....


Mr. T was all happy especially after gulping glasses of those bubbly thingy!!

We continued our photo session after the meal. Check out us in action!

The girls - Oppsss! Our Mdm Zett of course!, Ms ZZ, Ms CL, Miss J and me

The gentlemen-Mr. Mike and Mr. T

The 'never-forget-us' pose :


Walking away from the hall in our formal gown (like in Harry Porter movie we were!!)

Taraaa!! Dark flashers of Cambridge (as what Miss J called us!). Weren't we looked a bit scary? By the way, we were not drunk! Heheh!

In Miss J room for another round of fruit (grapes-sweet and juicy!)

We left Wolfson about 11 pm. What a lovely night! Thanks Miss J for the treat! And have to cycle back to St Ed's. Cold and a bit wet from the light shower....

ZZZzzzzzz....

Saturday, 1 November 2008

Corpus Christi Clock

1 November 2008

I've been meaning to add an entry about this amazing clock. But I just couldn't find the time to go and take picture of the clock until today. The clock was engineered by a team of researchers from Engineering department. It took a team of eight engineers and craftsman five years to mould the 24-carat gold-plated face and completed it and cost them GBP 1 million!!!


The strange clock has no hands or numbers and was revealed at Corpus Christi College. Dubbed the strangest clock in the world, it features a giant grasshopper and has 60 slits cut into its face which light up to show the time. The clock face is gold-plated and almost 4ft wide.




The news about this clock was broadly covered in BBC and Guardians. Check the link below to know more about it :







Professor Stephen Hawking, the famous mathematician, cosmologist and theoretical physicist of Cambridge unveiled the Corpus Clock on Friday 19 September 2008.




Ain-Ain and most people including my labmate, Mdm SA thought this unique clock looks ugly and scary. To me, I found this clock to be interesting and impressive even though it doesn't looks that nice....

Visitors from Sheffield U

1 November 2008


The weather was not really good today. It was not sunny at all, quite cold and a little shower from now and then. A bit grim for outing day....


It was Poppy Day as well. Everywhere we saw people wearing poppy flower on their left chest. It was a day to remember WW1 and WW2 victims. People gave their donation and wore the flower....





As planned, two visitors from Sheffield U came to visit Cambridge today. 10 minutes past 11 am, Ain-Ain called me to inform her arrival. She and her friend Mr. Ghani were to meet me somewhere near Trinity College.


Ain-Ain and Mr. Ghani struck by Cambridge beauty!


I walked quickly from my college, through St John College and met them inside King's College. She looked very happy to finally be here in Cambridge. I took them around King...


The famous King's Cathedral from front view...

River Cam passes through the back of King's College

The famous activity-punting

Model-photographer caught in action! Smile....Haha!


.....and we even went inside the famous King's cathedral!


Impressive architecture.... and beautifully crafted tainted glasses!


We moved from King's to Senate House...

Cambridge congregations are held here...



Then to Gonville and Caius College...


I have my group meeting here almost every Thurday....


Later to Trinity College...the most well-known and richest college in Cambridge!




Then to St John's..


St John cathedral

St John's garden always look great in autumn.....


We walked through bridge Sigh and back entrance of St John. I took them to my college, St Edmund's. My not so famous little college.....



The main Norfolk building


And showed them my 'famous' apple trees as Ain-Ain was so excited to see the trees!

Mr. Ghani couldn't stopped himself for a pose and insisted Ain-Ain to take his picture...

But 'floating Ghani' pose???? Heheh!


See for yourself.....Magic 'floating' pose by Mr. Ghani.....


We didn't just ate the fruits but Ain-Ain and I climbed the tree together. Frankly (not really that proud though!), Ain-Ain will never beat me in climbing as I had years of experience and she barely made it. Haha!

Me and Ain-Ain on my favourite apple tree....

Ain-Ain and I ate some apples freshly plucked from these trees. The apples were so fresh, juicy and sweet. Ain-Ain enjoyed the fruits very much and was so happy as her wish to pluck fresh apples came true. She behaved like me!! Haha! Now she knows where my unlimited supply of apples comes from. She felt sad about the fallen apples on the ground though..... Free apples anyone??


Then, I took them to New Hall college. Mr. Ghani was very excited as it is a all girls college, just like Mr. T. Hehe! We took some photos near the grape trees. We even ate some of the grapes as anyone is allowed to have them...


After New Hall, I brought them inside my college and they posed in my Combination Room. And some pictures outside the main entrance of St Edmund's too...

St Edmund's front garden

We walked back to City Center through Magdalene Street and stopped near Quayside, the punting place. As it was too cold to punt, we just stood there for a while and watched people punted. We bumped into Mdm Zett and Mr. Hefni. Was glad that Ain-Ain and Mr. Ghani met both Mdm Zett and Mr. Hefni, their old time friends.

Mr. Ghani and Ain-Ain in the City Center (Sidney Street), one of the busiest place in Cambridge


As we had not had our lunch yet, I took them to Wagamama at Regents Street. Both Mr. Ghani and I had seafood ramen and raw juice.

Raw juice

Seafood ramen

Ain-Ain ordered Prawn green curry with rice and raw juice as she was hungry.

Prawn Green Curry with boiled rice

Mr. T joined us later and ordered himself some chicken starter and sky juice.

We chatted about places in UK as Mr. T is quite knowledgable about places as he did his MPhil here in Brighton and did quite some tavelling before. Through the chat, we (Mr. T and I) decided to reciprocate both Ain-Ain and Mr. Ghani visit some time this month.

Me and Ain-Ain

Mr. T and Mr. Ghani

Mr. T left and went somewhere else after lunch. I took both my guests to Emmanual College.


We walked further inside until we reached the pond. We fed some wild ducks and took some pictures. It was fun feeding the ducks but Ain-Ain and I were a bit scared of the duckies!

Emma pond with wild ducks...

Ain-Ain and I fed duckies with cookies crumb...

I brought them inside DowningCollege and walked through Downing to New Museum Site, and showed them Miss J department (Biochemistry), my department (Genetics) and Mdm Zett's department (Plant Sciences).


Mr. Ghani and Ain-Ain infront of Plant Sciences-just to show Mdm Zett their present!


Then, I took them back to King's Parade as they would like to find some souvenirs to bring back. The weather was getting worst as it started to rain quite heavily.....Sooo cold!!


Mr. T reminded me to take them to try Chelsea bun, the most famous buns from Fitzbillies; the only one outlet in UK. I bought them a Chelsea bun each to take back. Hope they like it as much as we do...

The famous Chelsea buns from Fitzbillies


Then, we parted as they left for Queen College where they were supposed to wait for their bus. I wish them a safe journey and may they come again to visit my lovely university....



Walked back to St Edmund's through Magdalene Street in heavy rain.... I was quite wet all over even with my coat and an umbrella. What a wrong time to come visit but I still hope they enjoy their time here in Cambridge......


And the Chelsea bun became my dinner....

Got to take my shower.... and an early night. ZZzzzz......