Happy New Year from Sydney

Yeap. It was spectacular!!!!
We waited 10 hours to experience this!

It was crazy hot then when the sun went down, the temperature dropped dramatically so we were all cold by the end of it all.

Enjoying my short holiday in Syndey so far!!

Wishing everyone a happy new year!!
Goodbye year of the rabbit, hello year of the dragon!!! ROAR!!~

Aussie Blogger Kris Kringle ♥

So I participated in an Aussie Kris Kringle for bloggers recently. At first I was kicking myself because I always get a little stressed when I have to get something for someone I don't really know, but after going through my Kris Kringle's blog, I kinda had an idea of the things to get her :3

I will reveal to you who I got at the end of this blog entry ;)

Anyway!! My Kris Kringle arrived a couple days ago and I found that it was the awesome Jen from QuestJen!!

I felt like she really made a lot of effort into putting my pressie together.I got some nail items; lace nail deco and a nail polish, plus an eyeliner, makeup palette (I know right!!) and a L'occitane hand cream sample.

I even got a card from her!! I didn't send one to mine +___+

Jen wrote such sweet things in the card, made me feel warm and fuzzy inside :)

I was so pleasantly surprised to find a makeup palette inside. Very useable colours! Love it!

So sparkly and pigmented! I used it immediately!

To create this!

Looks so yummy huh??

I loveeeee nail lace designs! Thank you so much!!

I got such great items that I felt ashamed of the things I purchased for my chosen kris kringle, Teresa from myteeefine.com [clicky here to pop over and have a look see ;)].
Fortunately for me, she seemed to like the items :)

In all, it was a very good experience because I had never participated in blogger activities/events. It was good fun and I'm glad to be introduced to new bloggers.

Can't wait for next year!!! :D

♥

Maru and his antics

I am officially obsessed with this cat.

I first spotted this cat on cuteoverload.com and am hooked since.

Its a Scottish Fold and is called Maru; pronounced as "Meh-ru" which
basically means 'Round' in Japanese. How apt!

With a set of inquisitive eyes, and a playful nature,
this cat won me over in this video.

I have never ever seen a cat do that before!

I prefer dogs over cats but if all cats are as cute as Maru,
then I wouldn't mind getting one!

Maru is really curious but intelligent. At first, it may seem like a silly cat as it sticks its head into paper bags (with a hole in the other end), bubble wrap and the like.

However, it begins to walk around the house in a routine manner and taking its time looking at its surroundings through the bags, which suggests its intelligence.

If you're interested, you can follow Maru and its antics through its owner's blog at http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com. Although it's predominantly in Japanese, there are English translations in the blog entries.. or rather Engrish translations.

There's an archive of blog entries in the top left corner of the blog and you can scroll through past entries at the bottom of the blog. And best of all, it's updated fairly regularly ;)

Isn't Maru just too cute?

White fluff

I didn't get the job. I think I was more relieved than disappointed by that.

It's a good thing I still kept applying for jobs while waiting for their response. It certainly took them a lot longer than they predicted. Like my previous interview feedback, they'd like to keep in touch as they were "very impressed" by me during the interview and would like to me to join them if they have another position available.

And again, I won't put a lot hope into it. Nonetheless, I still feeling pretty optimistic about things. I'm sure that it won't be too long before I get another interview so as long as I keep applying for jobs :)

In other news, I am in love with Samoyed dogs!

Cute Samoyed puppy doing a head tilt! Awww..

Apparently they grow really quick and become quite large. They're like the fluffiest dogs I've ever seen!

I saw one for the first time while having coffee at cibo when a Samoyed dog and its owner stopped by for a quick bite.

It resembled a Husky but with a shorter snout, rounder eyes and way fluffier. It was so cute that I couldn't take my eyes off the animal!

The fluffiness seem to differ from dog to dog.

From the fluffy...



To the fluffier...

and the fluffiest!

O_o
Damm, that dog is like a fur ball.

Don't you think Samoyeds are just the cutest too??

When Love Story meets Viva la Vida

If you love 'Viva la Vida' by Coldplay and 'Love Story' by Taylor Swift, then you should check this out! :D





AWESOMOUS!

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower

So I braved the cold and stayed up all night so I could catch the meteor shower.
If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, read my previous post. NOW.


Anyway!

Accompanied by a friend who enjoyed star-gazing, a star watching program running on the laptop and a compass, we sat out and watched.

Unfortunately, despite getting information that it was going to be a great night to watch as the moon won't be too bright, it was ............. extremely cloudy.

12 AM

1 AM

2 AM

3 AM

4 AM

I used a white balancing option on the camera which gives me the ability to capture in the dark but sometimes I'd capture objects in an eerie glow of green.

As you can see, it was pretty cloudy all night. BOO.

However, I did spot a total of three meteors going by! They were so brief that you'd think you were imagining the sudden sparkles in the night sky. Luckily I had someone watching with me so I know I'm not insane.
Each of them were sudden and unexpected as we didn't really think we get to see any through the clouds but were patient enough to wait in hope that the clouds would go away.
The last one stunned us as it was accompanied by a huge streak of light.

Unfortunately it was still really cloudy by 4.30 AM
With only an hour to go before the end of the meteor shower peak, it didn't seem as if the skies were going to clear so we decided to quit.

It was pretty cool to be able to be able to catch a glimpse of the meteor shower, even if it was just three meteors streaking by. It would have been better if the those pesky clouds would go away but hey, I've got no control over mother nature.

After spotting each meteor going by, each of us fell silent, clasped our hands together and made a wish. Yes, there's no way these massive rocks can grant wishes but there's no harm trying.
And fortunately for me, I had exactly three wishes ;)

Sorry guys. I was really hoping to catch something on video, but I'm just fortunately not to catch a cold instead :)

Meteor Shower!

If you're living in Australia (or live in the southern hemisphere) and always wanted to see a meteor shower then you're in luck!

You may be able to witness one of the best meteor showers if you don't really mind staying up all night or walking up really early.

As it's an annual occurrence, it's thought to happen sometime late April to early May of every year. According to the blog of the Sydney Observatory, the best meteor showers will occur sometime between 3.23 AM and 5.37 AM (GMT +10:00 Sydney, Melbourne time)

So that means it'll happen sometime 2.53 and 5.07 AM here in Adelaide.

I checked out another blog (aptly named the 'Meteorblog') which says that during the peak, we may be able to witness up to 60 meteors per hour! That's like an average of one per minute. That ain't too shabby aye?

It also says that you should search for Venus, which will appear as a large non-twinkling star. Ideally you should watch it from a dark area but the moon will be bright tonight so it might be difficult to see.


So will I stay up and watch?
Hmm. I might. Heh.
What? It's cold!
I might sit out all wrapped up with a hot mug of milo. I might.


Well, if I miss it, there's another one in October.

If anyone manages to see it, I would so love to know! :D






Credits and Links:
Picture: http://media.katu.com
Sydney Observatory Blog: http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/blog/?p=2048
Meteor Blog: http://www.meteorblog.com/

It is done.

It's all over.
Done.

Surprisingly the seminar I had to give yesterday went well :)
I am extremely relieved. (Despite not being able to answer some questions correctly and getting flustered for a bit)

Locky and I had a practice run on Monday in front of the other lab members and our supervisors.
Unfortunately, I didn't do really well that day, particularly with the questions so you can't blame me for being extremely anxious the whole day and not being able to sleep well. It was haunting me! In addition, Dr. John Hayball (our Honours course coordinator) insisted that we arrived by 8.15am to load our talks into the computer so I had a mere three hours of restless sleep before the presentation.

It was great to see everyone again, although we were all feeling a bit sick and anxious.
Well, at least I was. I tried to eat a banana, which I usually devour (Love banananaaas! Happy fruit/herb) but I had no appetite. It tasted terrible but I had to eat something or my brain will be deprived of sugaaaaar.

Fortunately I was the first to present at 9am :)
The academic staff turnup was quite poor. There were several students coming and out, families as naturally, lab members for support as well as examiners who were there to question us and grade our presentation. I think at least 30 people attended my seminar.

While I was presenting, Andrew (my supervisor) kept nodding encouragingly at me which was great but sometimes distracted me a wee bit. Hehe.
Surprisingly, 20 minutes went by really quickly.

Fortunately for me, my examiners (this chick with a British accent and a chinese man) were really nice to me. They didn't probe me or ask any tricky questions. Other audience members asked uncomplicated questions as well. So yay for me!

Some examiners were a little mean as they persistantly asked difficult questions. Most of us managed to answer questions well, so it was all good. It wasn't like our examiners were out to get us or anything. But it's often hard to think that way, especially when you're put on the spot light. For me, it was a horrid 10 minutes of vulnerability.

In all, everyone's talk went well. One of my examiners sought Hayball to ask for my contact details. Turns out, he's interested in taking me in as a PhD student.
This to me, was a surprise. Flattering but unexpected.

Hayball thinks I should consider it. Long said I should go for it.
And my supervisor Andrew said I shouldn't.
We both know how difficult Honours was for me. I struggled.
To be honest, I don't think I've got what it takes to do the same thing for three/four years.

Andrew advised me to take a year off and if I wanted to do a PhD, he would be more than happy to take me under his wing. He's awesooome, isn't he?
I'm truly thankful for the wonderful people I've worked with. The people in the lab were a bunch of supportive, intelligent and genuinely lovely people.
After our seminars, they took us to the pub to toast us. And we're going to have a lunch gathering on Thursday as well to celebrate.


I can't believe a year just went by. The past several months were just emotionally draining.
There were days when I felt like I couldn't go on. I cried endlessly. I panicked every couple hours. Conjuring sentences took me ages, making me feel it was almost impossible to complete my writing. It was not a pretty sight.

But I've done it.
It's all over.

It's time to move on to the next phase of my life!



PS: I may be getting a bunneh!! Hehee!! :D

O__O

Completion of honours in less than 12 hours.

.

.

.

.

.

.

*silent scream*