Uni-6-disaster Sum-UP

I don't think anyone in my course would disagree that this semester is one of most difficult semesters, comparable with the final semester.

While trying to settle in a whole new world, we were presented with 3 subjects:

1. PP3 - Gotta be very efficient in time management and familiar with UK pharmacy laws.
2. FMT1 - Probably the easiest of the three but can't be taken lightly.
3. FMT2 - Gotta think and solve issues instead of memorizing facts.

Fortunately, I managed to crawl through this semester and pass all the subjects. So it is time for a little intermission and travel around during the short break. So far I've only been around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Scott Monument, our first stop.

Attended the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo

my first time planning an excursion

I wouldn't say Edinburgh is more beautiful than Glasgow, just more well spread.

I also visited Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park

haven't seen some of them for almost a year

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Museum side

Art Gallery side

Riverside Museum

I haven't seen such a large transportation museum

 Living in Glasgow is really delightful with so many friends getting so much closer then we were in Malaysia.

It is so nice to live with great cooks and best buddies!

Celebrate happy occasions together

Meet up with old friends and get to know new ones

study and live together.

I hope you enjoy these pictures. It is 3am in the morning now and my brain is kinda lazy to think of stuff to write. I'm going to Italy very soon, so I shall be writing about that trip in the next post. Till then... arriverderci!

lalanandaFRY
3/9/11

Uni-6-disaster week 4 & 5 report

Now is when the stressful time starts. After looking through my lecture and exam timetable, I realized 2 things:

1. Unlike IMU, there is NO STUDY BREAK for semester 6 here.
2. I'm in DEEP $H1+!

hardly any lectures left, only tests, tests, tests and exams!!!

So what I did was to open my books and study. That enthusiasm lasted only 5 minutes. FMT 1 and 2 are really boring. I tried studying everywhere, from my room to the living room, from the open garden to the laundry room *while waiting for my laundry*. I seriously need a system.

On a lighter note, my flatmates and I have been performing many experiments in the kitchen to cure the gastro-intestinal disease known as hunger... hahah! It was really fun preparing and cooking dishes here with friends. It is also nice that my housemates are really good cooks!!!

Meals from H4 kitchen

it is like having party everyday!

Recently I had FMT2 labs for sterile, tabletting and emulsions. Sterile lab is a whole new experience for me as I had to put on *space suits* when moving from different grades of clean environments.

I don't know these people, but I know how it feels to be in those suits

In tabletting labs, my partner and I made paracetamol tablets and tested them. Tests were interesting and some are actually "cute"!

this machine was used for disintegration testing

this machine was used for dissolution testing in gastric and intestinal fluids

There were two more machines to test friability and tablet hardness but I didn't take photos of that.

tablets by me and my partner

batchmates discussing the calculations

I guess that's all for the past two weeks. Now is time to get back to my books and notes.

lalanandaFRY

17/7/11

Uni-6-disaster week 3 report

So far, Glasgow has been treating me quite well with comfortable weather and convenience of shopping. However university work is building up, class test is approaching and I'm still trying to manage everything well.

Master chef Gary cooking carbonara

The nice part of being here is that I get to cook and eat anything I want. Call me stingy or boring, I made a rule for myself that my lunch must not exceed £1. To achieve this, I improvise a little with the limited lunch time I have, which is one hour for preparation, cooking, eating and washing. Despite setting this rule, I still get to make simple yet delicious meals.

my Pork Spaghetti in special tomato mix costs only 50p

Glasgow is a beautiful city with wonders everywhere, especially those nearby as the university is situated within the city centre. I made a point to explore a wee part of the city when I'm free. So far I've made several solo 'adventures' with my P&S camera, this includes Glasgow Necropolis, Glasgow Cathedral, George Square (evening walk), The Lighthouse and Glasgow Green (with a few friends).

Glasgow Necropolis

Glasgow Cathedral

George Square

The Lighthouse

Glasgow Green

After a month away from home, I'm in the midst of adjusting myself to the weather. With sunrise at 4.30am and sunset at 10pm, the average daily temperature is ~15°C now. Just last Sunday, I was actually drenched in my own sweat while walking along the street when the temperature at that time was 22°C!

this is the view of the sky from the room on Sunday 

Now is time to leap into the huge pile of overdue notes and try to understand those 3 tough subjects of Semester 6, probably the toughest semester of all.

lalanandaFRY
5/7/11

Uni-6-disaster week 1 & 2 report

It has been slightly more than two weeks since I took my first step on Glasgow soil. The journey from KL to Dubai to Glasgow was quite a torture. The flight from KL to Dubai gave me a claustrophobic feeling since it was a 2am flight and everything was dark in the cabin throughout the whole flight. I forced myself not to sleep by watching movies, TV shows and listening to music.

The transit in Dubai was another weird experience. Dubai is a very very hot and dry country that values water more than oil. That latter statement means that I was dehydrated for the 3 hours transit time, but fortunately or unfortunately due to the @#$%^ delay, we were given a bottle of water and some snacks.

After another 7 hours and 45 minutes of non-stop food from Emirates, we finally reached the destination.

Glasgow Airport

Then we were brought to our halls (that's what they call hostels here) to settle down and the university also prepared a light refreshment for us *which I didn't eat bcos too full from airplane food*. My first impression of my room was *why is it a triangle?*.

The shape of the room was not the worst part, the living room which is shared with our neighbor smelled like a rubbish dump. Just when I was about to vacuum my rooms dirty carpet flooring, the vacuum cleaner gave out the same rubbish dump stench too!!! What else can go wrong in this tenement? Somehow I managed to settle and survived till today.

Glasgow is very different from KL... duh! The currency difference released the "x5 multiplication calculator" every time I see a price tag. Despite the *£1 is RM4.97*, lots of stuff are actually cheaper here than they are in KL. Nevertheless, I still feel a little guilty for being slightly more extravagant than I was in KL.

I'm starting to love Scottish food

Scottish Summer daylight *even at 9.25pm*

Glasgow architechture

the cooking?

but starting to worry about my hair... hahaha!

and also worry about Sem6

It was a nice experience anyway. I just hope I can survive this short and unpleasant semester so that I can enjoy my holidays in Autumn.

lalanandaFRY

23/6/11

Uni-6-disaster on the way #4

Eager (6 points)

Excited (17 points)

Exhilarating (23 points)

46 points is the score for the anticipation I'm having now using Scrabble scoring without premium squares. I've been playing a lot of online Scrabble lately (after watching all 8 seasons of 2 1/2 Men) to make my brain reboot after being dormant for the past few months.

Guess what? I'm going to the place where these people were born:

Clockwise: Gerard Butler, Sean Connery, Alan Cumming, Robert Carlyle, Dougray Scott, Shirley Manson, James McAvoy, Gordon Ramsay, Craig Ferguson, KT Tunstall, Franz Ferdinand, Tilda Swinton, Ewan McGregor, Susan Boyle.

I think I'm feeling super "high" now...

The final week before I leave NasiLemak-land is actually giving me mixed feelings. For a person who has not been away from his family for more than 10 days, I'm taking a great leap this time. I'm starting to worry about the probability that my brain isn't ready for a new semester in addition to the new unfamiliar environment I've to live in without the comfort and warmth of my parents. *I admit I'm a bit of a momma's boy* Hopefully the next 3 semesters will go by swiftly with a kilt-convo... :D

CRAP!?!

lalanandaFRY
4/6/11

Uni-6-disaster on the way #3

Now it is down to 11 days and almost everything is ready.

The last and most important thing to do now is to pack my stuff. It feels like moving from my old house again, but this time with only 3 new bags and a bag pack instead of boxes of old stuff. By the way, did you notice that all are BLACK? Yup! As a colourblind fellow, black and white are the safest colour. So now you understand why this blog is grey and most art made by me are mono-chromatic 'looks a lot like abstract art right?'.

This is what I meant by *colour disaster*.

I can't wait to lose all those calories from my slightly puffier tummy from the recent excessive consumption of Malaysian cuisine, I heard many people got thinner there.

Last week my family organized a house Dana, the first since we moved to our current abode. Memories of previous house Dana are quite faint since the last one was around 10 years ago. To be completely honest, it wasn't very 'fun', but somehow the whole exercise was satisfying.

I also got to invite my friends from IMUBS to join this joyous occasion. The best part of the event was the chance to meet so many relatives and family friends, especially those I've not met for so many years.

Recently I have been obsessed with orchestrated soundtracks and orchestrated songs. Listening to powerful songs like Michael Jackson's Thriller performed by the London Symphony Orchestra through my "cheap" headphone in a slightly higher volume is still very enjoyable. Why not have a try?

lalanandaFRY
29/5/11