My preciousess...

Got 3 important things today!

1) Employment pass. Now I can start work next week without fear of being deported! Got up at 7am to be one of the first in queue, only to be told that I lacked one form. Thus had to travel all the way back to my workplace, get one, and back to the Ministry of Manpower. Wasted time: 2 hours. =
2) Phone line! Finally connected to people. Feel very lost and isolated without a phone line.

3) My bed! Arrived a few minutes ago, it's a simple wooden one with a spring mattress. A bed's important to me, for crawling into when you want to escape from the stress of the outside world (I get sleepy when stressed). It's the one with the floral bedsheet (forced upon me by mum). The other bed next to mine belongs to a GUY; will ensure sufficient space between our beds.

Tried walking to workplace from home as well, an easy 25 mins walk. It's the heat that's bothering me; don't want to arrive at work everyday all hot and sweaty. Would walk for sure in the cool Cambridge air... will try it out for a day or two at first here.

I'm in Singapore!!

Just arrived this evening...I can see my workplace (Biopolis) from the apartment! Thinking of walking to work...

My apartment's on the 16th floor, sharing it with 2 other friends (guys!)... a lot to do to settle in, went to order a bed just now! Still looking around for a mattress though, and tomorrow I've got to go get my work permit and a phone line, amongst other things....

But I wanna see all my friends in Singapore! Staying in Commonwealth, haha no number yet, but give me yours!

Transplants

Busy busy busy...

Just got back from Redang yesterday, beautiful place! Never saw waters that clear, and the fishes that swim around you, the coral forests that cover the floor, not to mention the friends!

Going to Singapore tomorrow, finally starting on my 1 year attachment, another milestone....hmmm wonder what lies ahead...

Still packing now, a lot of things to bring to create a mini-home or Sanctuary for oneself (ala A Series of Unfortunate Events), need more than just clothes and documents; photos, mementos etc that you can run back to during wistful moments, that remind you of the path you've walked, to provide a grounding for the journey to come ...will write more when I've settled down in Singapore!

Images of days past

Just had Dim Sum for breakfast... =( no Dim Sum girls, only Dim Sum aunties...(Dunno what I'm talking about? Listen to "Dim Sum Girl" by The Notorious MSG)

Anyways was just looking through some photos of Cambridge...


Garden party at Selwyn College. All the happy post-exam faces =)
Young Lee's attention seems to be focused elsewhere though...










Graduation at Senate House. Finally earned my wings! (think the white hood looks like angel wings from the front)








Post-graduation travelling. The Louvre, Paris. From left: Mum, brother, some couple we met there*. The statue behind is called the Winged Victory (ironic for a decapitated statue).














Another Norway picture! The town of Flam at the start of the longest fjord in Norway, Sognefjord. My current desktop background. I
need to go back to Norway again someday.








And finally, my home for the past 3 years. Christ's College, Cambridge. Where the adventure happened.









*otherwise known as Teresa and Ryan =P

While I was stoning...

Random stuff I've done the past week:

Went to KL to see some friends...Ming Yeong before she left for Cambridge, supposedly Adrian as well but he was busy at a hotel (hmmm)....later met up with old ACS friends, went overnight computer gaming (midnight till 8am, Warcraft III DoTA map), haha 23 and I still haven't grown out of it....

Discovering more and more shows on TV. Picked up on all three CSI shows (CSI, CSI: New York and CSI: Miami), Worst Case Scenario, Amazing Race (dunno which season), and started Desperate Housewives! Intriguing show, now I see what all the hype was about. Teri Hatcher is quite good! From a power woman in Lois in Clark to a softer-type of character, no wonder she won an Emmy.

Reading The Chronicles of Narnia, halfway through it right now. Trying to finish the book before the movie comes out. Kind of disappointing, finding it more boring than most of the other fantasy books I've read, probably as it was written for kids. Then again so was Harry Potter; bookstore in front of my house is sold out for the 6th book, sighs...

Confirmed my attachment at the stem cell lab...they gave me 4 papers to read T_T wasn't too long before the papers start coming again was it....Pubmed here I come again....

My apartment in Singapore has broadband! =D Hooray! (staying with 2 other friends in a rented apartment in Singapore during my attachment, in Commonwealth)

Songs I'm looking out for on MTV these days: "Best of You" by Foo Fighters, "Helena" by My Chemical Romance....wow the music I've been missing out on while in Cambridge...

Just found out that the full song name for 'Time of your life' by Green Day is Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"....kind of a less poetic name for a blog now isn't it?

Countdown: 6 more days till Redang, 10 more days till Singapore.

I am stone

4th day back. Been doing nothing but sleeping, eating and playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. Why go out when you can be saving the universe as a Jedi swinging your big retractable stick around? All without breaking a sweat.

Yeah, between the MTV playing in the background, the mindless violence on my computer and the hot weather, I can feel my brain melting and running out through my nose. Wait... nope actually that's my hayfever.

Man I've been watching more TV in this half a day than I have in my entire 9 months in Cambridge. Actually only the MTV channel, and to my comfort I still like at least half the music on it, so I've not gotten THAT old yet. Was doing fine till Akon's "Lonely" music video came on, then I suddenly thought of Norway and the Norway bunch...man miss you guys! And also transported myself for a moment back to Flam (a town at the start of a Norwegian fjord)....



Out of nowhere strangers pop out to ruin my photo =P Can't believe that I was there just a month ago. Surreally beautiful.






Have also been getting emails from biologists in IMCB (Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore), telling me about their labs and asking if I'd like to join them. Apparently A*STAR (my scholarship board) emailed some of the investigators there, asking if they'd like a student (read: free labour) for a year. Still, it feels good to have all these Dr so-and-sos inviting you to join their team....almost strokes the ego, except that you remember that all the other scholars have probably snapped up the more in-demand labs already. Deciding between developmental biology with Drosophila, a structural biology group (eeek!! most of us have phobias about structural biology, but I thought it might provide good training), and tissue engineering with stem cells. Am leaning towards the tissue engineering lab actually, but will decide for sure by this weekend. Starting my attachment in early August, and I've gotten my work permit already, so won't be working as an 'illegal immigrant' like I was doing last year anymore....

Some of you might know that this was my biggest worry in the summer of 2004:

















Now that leaves 3 weeks of holiday left. Will head to KL (one hour's journey) to meet friends next week; such a difference from in Cambridge, where friends were just a few metres away. Redang for snorkelling from the 24-26th! Yay crystal clear waters and tropical beaches!

Endings and interludes

It's 5am and bloody hot. I'm back in Malaysia.

Arrived this afternoon, and while walking around in the airport I heard a shopkeeper speak to someone in Cantonese. Somehow that really struck me, and reminded me that I won't be hearing many British accents for a while. No "you're alright" or "cheers". No more Boots or Sainbury's (though there's a Tesco in Klang, but it sells local stuff).

No more cool weather; I'm going to be sweating, which means walking around will not be as enjoyable. No more 10pm sunshine; night descends fully by 8pm here. This especially jarring as I just went to Norway, where it never really became dark.

No more Cambridge, Christ's College and Staircase 4. No more barging into someone's room to chill; most of my friends in Malaysia live at least an hour away. And the great friends I've made in university are halfway around the globe. No more them.

Sitting in my living room I feel somehow detached from the fact that I will never be sitting in my room in Staircase 4 ever again, as if it hasn't really fully hit me yet. The 3 years in Cambridge were one of the best and most magical times in my life, and I can't believe that I will never relive them again.

A significant chapter of my life has ended. People keep reminding me that there will be other adventures in the future, other wonderful experiences, and I realise the absurdity of a guy in his early twenties dwelling upon endings, when his life is really only beginnning.

But nostalgia is my poison, and Cambridge has produced an exceptional vintage. So let me indulge.