All 4 seasons in a day

It was a clear and bright morning, the sunny and warm feeling tells you that it's Spring.

Out of nowhere, it started snowing...

(The white specks are snow)

Continued by rain...

Followed by hailstorm...

(Hails are not that visible from my camera though...)

And a whole lot of wind...

It's already LATE MARCH, for GOODNESS sake! Well, the snow doesn't really bother me but it's the hailstorm that's really problematic. Very painful one ler, try getting hit on the head with ice and see!!!

Well, it's sucky but it IS the English weather: UNPREDICTABLE

So, I need to be prepared for sun, rain, snow or sand the next time I go out. HAHA!

The "Creativity" of Future Scientists

Not in the field of applied science though. I overheard part of this ingenuous discussion during last week's EXTREMELY boring project day between Scott (group mate), Gary (supervisor), and Steve (lab assistant). (Couldn't get anything done when everyone was fighting over that few miserable PCR machines available, 5 to be exact...)

Anyway, I only heard bits and fragments of their jokes, so didn't really pay attention to it.

Until today, that is...when I saw this paper stuck on the white board in the PhD. lab.

What it says:

Baby, I’m so into genes

There’s more to genome than it first seems

Baby, when you’re over-expressed

I love your protein, from restriction digest

Every time you show your band

My heart is jumping, cos you’re so grand

When you’re amplified, you don’t half appeal

Cos then you’re ready for your LIC anneal

You drive me CAZy

I just can’t sleep

I’m so excited, I’m in too deep

Ohh…CAZy, but it feels alright

Baby, thinking of you keeps me up all night

Tell me, you’re so into me

That I’m the only one you will see

Tell me, I’m not in the blue

That I’m not wasting, my feelings on you

You drive me CAZy

I just can’t sleep

I’m so excited, I’m in too deep

Ohh…CAZy, but it feels alright

Baby, thinking of you keeps me up all night

CAZy, I just can’t sleep

I’m so excited, I’m in too deep

CAZy, but it feels alright

Every Day and Every Night

You drive me CAZy

I just can’t sleep

I’m so excited, I’m in too deep

Ohh…CAZy, but it feels alright

Baby, thinking of you keeps me up all night

You drive me Crazy (You drive me crazy baby)

Ohh…CAZy, But It Feels Alright

Baby thinking of you keeps me up all night

Baby thinking of you keeps me up all night

Looks or sounds familiar? Think again...

Anyway,here's what the PhD. students have to say about us:

OK...

Before anyone of you think we're really out of our minds, our project so far is about molecular biology and that's just pretty much what we did, and we're still doing it. It starts to bore people out after sometime, and I think what Scott did was just another way to "spice up" another stale day in the lab. Hehe...

P/S: CAZy stands for Carbohydrate-Active enZYmes, LIC stands for Ligase Independent Cloning

Return of the Pineapple Tarts: With a Vengeance

After the first dismal attempt at pineapple tarts before new year, I decided to try out this new recipe to see if it's more suitable. (Actually the first time it would be ok if the pastry is for open tarts instead.) But just in case (didn't really want to waste my limited pineapple jam), I halved the required amount so even if it did fail again, I won't feel so "heart-pain" to have wasted the ingredients.

The steps are pretty much the same but surprisingly, just substituting stuff here and there can make the outcome so different! Anyway, here's the end product...

Looked pretty much the same as the first time I did that, but the texture is SOOooOoOooo different. (Someone actually complained so much so that when it's his turn to make cookies, it actually turned out to be harder than METAL...mine's not that bad, only described to be as hard as stone. Karma, my friend...HAHA)

Not that bad, I'm actually pretty satisfied with this batch of pineapple tarts. MUAHAHAHA.....

Cooking is a form of de-stress for me :P

Rotiboy!!!

Yeap yeap...it's Mexican Bun a.k.a. Rotiboy back in Malaysia...

Never really tried making bread before so first time experimenting with it. All I can say is that, it's not as easy as using a bread-maker and there are lots to do...what's more I'm a slow worker.

Anyway, this is the final results of the Rotiboy~!~~!

Okay..............

Not very impressive, but the taste is still acceptable lar. Not comparable to the one in KLCC though. (No wonder they're so popular, NOW I know...)

I had too much topping so didn't really wanna waste it, then became a bit over-ambitious and put on too much topping than I actually should have. SO...the topping melted and covered the WHOLE of the bun instead. And the fact that I didn't really seal the bun properly, most of the buns ended up "smiling"...no no, correction..."LAUGHING" after baking. Presumably laughing at me... Or, it's just a representation of how I behave normally...HAHA!

But still can eat lar...if u're not picky that is.

A Reminder of Home...

Seriously, didn't really expected much when Victor sent me this link. (cos he's usually interested in weird stuff anyway...)

This IS weird, this time...but in a good way. Because it reminds me from home...and a friend. HAHA...(private joke)

But anyway...just something entertaining, so I thought I'd post here anyway. It's really funny! Feel free to go watch it:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v370/haizong/?action=view&current=get_video.flv

BUT...

It's been removed edi...but can find it on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6M8fnjPLx6k

Last Day of CNY 2007

Marks the end of all the celebrations and partying. Time to get serious!!!

Anyway, before I get on to that, had a nice dinner at home and tried out some new dishes. Turned out REALLY out of my expectations!!! (in a good way of course...) Everyone else cooked up a storm as well.

Everyone's busy...

These are the chefs for the night! But there's another one not in the picture, taking the picture... It was really CRAZY~! When all 4 of us are cooking separately, and each of us are making more than 1 dish at a time, the normally large kitchen seemed really small. And imagine the heat, when all 4 hobs and the oven are fully working at the same time, not even opening all the windows and the main door helps that much...

Finally!!! After 2 hours of cooking, 4 tired and very hungry girls are ready to enjoy their dinner.

Let's see what we have...

Jesmine made fried vegetarian balls, with potatoes, carrots, celery and chinese mushrooms.

This is the chicken that is going to be used in the fried rice that Muse made. (Sorry, forgot to get the single shot of the fried rice. It was REALLY yummy btw. Muse's fried rice always ROCKS!!!)

Samantha prepared some cured meat as one of the side dishes. Complements either white rice or fried rice very well!

Hot and spicy soup that Samantha made, with chilli padi, eggs, chinese mushroom, tofu, and some vegetables. (Shiok betul!!! Spicy enough ler...)

I made char siew (sweet roasted pork) for the first time and it turned out beautifully!

Tom yam soup with prawns. I know, I know...can't see the prawns. Well, trust me, it IS there...

Taste? Not too bad, not too bad at all...(floating and bobbing on the ceiling following self-praise)

Final presentation of the main courses...

See, the prawns are there!!!

Now, what's up next?

Dessert????!!!???!

Samantha bought & made some rice dumplings. Together with some pandan essence, it tastes exactly like the ones I have at home!~!~ (Now I know what's missing all along!)

I made some kuih lapis too! (To satisfy my cravings, that is...) There's more than that in reality. But for picture purposes, I just arranged 3 of each of the 2 different flavours I made, original and chocolate flavour.

My god, we're all damn stuffed even before dessert itself. So wasn't really in the mood to take pictures anymore. Hehe...

Overall, it was a good night for everyone...

And now, it's time for WAR~!!~

Nights of Baking Fetish

Yeah yeah~! It's true...2 nights in a row.

First night, it was cookies.

Second night, it was chocolate cake and brownies.

All turned out ok...but the fun part is actually the baking process...and when people tell me it's pretty edible. HAHA~!