photo week 17

One of the university halls :)

Decided to take advantage of the unsually dry, warm and sunny British weather.

Being cooped up in my room is not healthy..no no.

Sunlight increases serotonin levels *ka-ching*

There were bunches of dandy lions everywhere, like delicate foam in bubble baths. But all bubbles only had one fate - they had to pop. The recurring wind was all that was needed to leave the dandy lions dandy no more, leaving naked axes.

I watch the seeds cross my path, I couldn't help but to feel feather-light too.

I better get some sleep now. Or else I'm gonna get eye bags like the sith lord.

chef = chemist?

Was watching MasterChef 2011 finals last night and yes Tim deserved it! Sara and Tom were superb but Tim blew them away with his final 3 course meal with pronounced creativity.

The contestants only had 3 hours to impress the judges.

Somehow I associated the 3 hours to my lab sessions..and I started to wonder..chemistry isn't that all different to cooking.

Here are some similarities -

Chemists need to add chemicals at the right time (e.g right temperature) or else the reaction wouldn't work properly.

Cooks need to add the sauces and things at the right time too!

Cooks need to wash pots and pans after use.

Chemists need to wash apparatus!

Multitasking - While leaving a pot of whatever on the stove, cooks chop onions and things.

Chemists, while waiting for a reflux reaction to finish we could measure the melting point of the product we just made.

Washing gloves, apron.

Lab gloves, lab coat.

Spatula.

Glass stirrer.

one of the ways to tell whether the food is cooked or not is to judge by the colour change of the food.

And oh..so do chemicals :O

There are a few 'subtle' differences.......

Chemistry is dangerous. Things can go BABABOOM

and the most obvious one is....you can't eat your product.

Conclusion?

Cooking is edible chemistry :)

Looking forward for summer hols to learn how to cook (no more daily pasta!)

cmon, spring on the insects!

It is the time of the year when everybody starts squealing from the invasive little winged beings.

One little fella decided to victimise me.

It started with the window.

*tap tap tap*

?

*rattytaptap*

*draws curtain open*

and KAZAAM the most horrifying thing greeted me

I opened the door wide open for it but nooooooo...instead it was darting at me occasionally and just simply whizzing around

It hovered around my cough drops and my shampoo and finally settled in my book shelf between the books (this lasted for like...5 minutes???)

And then my prince came and rescued me from the evil buzz which was gone forever and we lived happily ever after. The end :)

And here a few fun facts about honey bees after all that drama mama -

They have been around for 30 million years

The only insect that produces food eaten by man

Wings stroke 11400 times per minute

They are not born knowing how to make honey, they are being taught by the more experienced bees!

a quote from Einstein

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live”?

Okay enough of black and yellow. Time for black and white!

photo week 16

Mr Waffles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <33333

we were trying to start the fire for the BBQ and Mr Waffles stuck his whiskers in our bustles

I'm proud of myself for not carrying him and swinging him around like I did last time hehe (aahhh but he's just too cute!)

Art

Modern art at Tate Modern.

The middle picture shows Ai Weiwei's work (from china) - 100 million sunflower seeds made of porcelain (the white lines are hand painted!!) Although the idea is from him, hundreds of people helped him with his art (not sure what message he's trying to convey there..same goes for all the other modern art pieces!)

My fave ones are actually not here because we were not allowed to take any pictures!

It's the exhibition by Joan Miro - The Ladder of Escape. He paints surrealistic art.

Miro's 'Dog barking at the moon'

Miro's blue series

Of all the art in Tate Modern, his works are the only ones I get (except for this big white canvas with a black line on it)

Or maybe I just have an unsophisticated mind on modern art.

Right now I think Miro can be counted as one of my fave artists with Marc Chaggal, for their art is very vibrant and colourful..full of life.

But no it's not just random swishes of colour which makes me happy, it also makes me wonder what was on the artist's mind when he paints, pretty intriguing!

Marc Chaggal's 'I and the village'

Will I ever get modern art?

If I can get modern music and classical music I'm sure there's room to appreciate modern art as well :)

of fruits and science

Studying could make you go crazy.
I resort to meditation, by watching things levitate.
This was actually shown in my lectures.
We were studying diamagnetism. Water possesses this property hence it levitates. Same goes with anything which contains water eg strawberries, tomatoes, and........FROGS.



That frog's alive. Ethical issues on animal welfare? I don't wanna go into that now.
Point is..........


It made me laugh :D

more on czech

Okay so maybe pictures are not worth a thousand words and I feel somewhat guilty for not being a good blogger, sharing my views to the world yadda yadda

So here are some random things I've learnt about Praha -

1. Praha is a quiet city. We had to hush ourselves in public because we seem to be such a loud bunch.

2. Food is really salty. However, the more expensive the food is, the less salt there is! (yep found out the hard way)

3. Sorting out the bill is always a pain..calculating the 10% service charge thing. Now thinking back, I'm not sure why was it so difficult at that time.

4. The beer is awesome. I am generally (being a typical girl) not a beer person at all. But once I had a taste of Pilsner Urquell, it has earned back its reputation on my list of reputable things.

5. A peddler on Charles' Bridge was more of a Malaysian than I was. I didn't know whether I should be embarrassed or impressed!

6. Things are not really cheap. I spent about 1200ck a day paying for entrance fees, and mainly on FOOD. Transport was pretty cheap.

7. Never been so in love with buildings. The architecture of each framework captivated me down to every detail.

8. The city is pretty clean. The buildings look like as if they had a fresh coat of paint, the streets free of any litter, public transport spotless (oh except some advertisements on the door mainly on DJs and x rated parties)

9. Praha is a compact city. It only has 3 metro lines (very pleased with it as London has crazy 11 lines) and I quite like the metro lines! very very efficient! Two thumbs up!

My dad said that Vienna and Venice are much more pretty than Praha. I've already found Praha very beautiful, and this makes me wonder how much more beautiful can a place be???

I know where my next holiday vacation would be at :) and I'm looking forward to it!

What I regret not doing in Prague?

Buying their famous Bohemian crystals. That would have been the best souvenir!

Being a typical tourist and going on that boat ride on the Vltava.

Alphonse Mucha's exhibition

Walking along Charles' Bridge at night

Random shots of Czech -

Pretty flags on the entrance of Charles' Bridge

Konopiste castle! I think this was the highlight of the trip. A must go.

Praha had modern buildings as well such as the Dancing House.

An interesting looking lamp near the Loreta.

One of my fave tourist attractions - the astronomical clock. Unfortunately it's not working anymore :(

and to finish off this post, a video taken on the first night in a restaurant around old town square :)

They are playing Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 5

ahh I miss Praha alot :(

Czech!

5 days 4 nights well spent.

Here's a summary of the trip in category :)

Statues etc..

Ceilings

Exterior architecture

The sky

Signs

Lamps

Night

Nature

Stained glass

and now to do some serious studying.

38 days left till the week before my first paper

D: !!!!!

photo week 13

A gorgeous magnolia tree at the hall :)

it created an air of glorification opposite the laundry room :P