Monday dash

It is 00:13 UK time and I was supposed to be working on my presentation since at least an hour ago. Oh dear, well I thought rather than me kept browsing through facebook numerous times - it is better to spend my procrastinating time writing in my blog haha.. Today is such a LONG day. The usual catch phrase of "so many things to do, so little time" do seem to suit my schedule these days. To begin with, I was in London this morning to submit my passport at the Schengen visa application center. I, however, did one really stupid mistake by going to the WRONG address .....errr... ok let me start from the beginning... So, me having been living here in the UK for awhile equals to me having experiences the process of applying for a Schengen visa numerous times. This time I wished to apply for the visa via the Netherlands embassy. The NL embassy (and several others EU countries, such as Belgium, Germany, Italy etc) have now started outsourcing a company called the VFS Global , which is basically works like an agent to process visa applications from people like me who needs a visa to visit one of the EU countries. My appointment was scheduled to be at 08.30 am this morning (Monday) in London. As I have no longer lived in London, I thus decided to stay overnight at Yaya and Lala's place over the weekend.. so I don't have to wake up insanely early and catch the first train out from Cambridge on Monday. This morning, me, the ever-always on-time one, of course woke up early and was there about 45 mins earlier from my allocated appointment time. By 'there' I meant I was at the OLD visa application center building - near Soho, Oxford Street..... Apparently the VFS Global have MOVED to another place... Actually, Ryan has notified me the night before as he said "hey tris, the visa application center has moved, isn't it?". My response was "really? (opened the website, copy the address, then enter into google map - ta da the old place in soho appeared) .. so I though nah, seems that it is still the same place. However when I got there this morning, what made me realised I was in the wrong place (luckily!) was that they posted this letter on the door which said basically that they have moved! I was like, shit, I will never make it there on time..aaaa... literally ran to the tube station, hop on the tube to Paddington and then rush out again in Paddington and basically ask people where the hell is this place called the Battleship Building on 179 Harrow Road. It really doesn't help that Harrow Road is LONG.... and the building is located in a pretty obscure place to find if you are a pedestrian (it is sort of underneath the Marylebone flyover, note the word 'sort of'). Anyhow, managed to find it and still on time for my allocated appointment date. PHEW.. so yeah, lesson learnt today : never assume! check and re-check, don't assume you know where you are going just because you have been there before..


Ok back to my presentation :)

Third year PhD ..oh dear.

Hello everyone. I almost forgot that I still have this blog haha.. Anyway, here I am, still living in Cambridge. Currently in my third year of PhD (and at this exact moment are procrastinating..so much). Life's been good, hectic (very) but I am loving every minute of it. I just got back from riding Millie, she threw me off this evening but am allright. Sometime I really think that time is just too short. Can't believe it is Thursday again already...aaahhh 14 days until my third year seminar... 

Those times

Sometimes this world is full of "What if(s)". I seriously wonder from time to time.. there are many "what if's" i can go on and on about if I want to. But do I want to? Really? Sometimes yes.. but when those times come, I diligently remind myself that I am already so very blessed. In many aspects of life, I cannot ask for more really. Supportive parents, loving friends, horses and ponies.

Pilates

Went for my first-ever PILATES class today with Lydia and Murphy ;)

It was good, but I wished it is more aerobic rather than just doing lots of stretches.
Will give it a few more tries I think :)
Murph and Lydia are great company to have as well..
I love the people in my lab and in our department - feel so blessed to have nice colleagues!!!!

..ok I reeeeaaalllly neeeeeddd to FINISH my poster for the conference!
my first-ever conference! and in Arnhem, Netherlands as well!!
yipppeee :)

3-7 September , so looking forward to it :)
and we are all going as a whole lab (minus our PI because he is away in China for another conference that time). So it equals three-day in Amsterdam with just the 6 of us (me, Jack, Lydia, Niels, Zheng, Zhiyou)..then 3 days of conference. Woop!

Procrastination

My God..
I have been procrastinating. SO SO MUCH.
It's unbelieveable.
Damn!!!

Currently poster-making progress : 0.000001 %
Bench-work in lab progress : 1000000 %
I reaaaaally should work more from my desk! and stop doing bench-work ...

on another note, I am SO looking forward to the pilates class with Lydia and Murph tomorrow!!!!

Greetings from Cambridge

Hello all !
Can't believe I have abandoned this blog since January ! Today is 22nd of August.. therefore it has been about 8 months of me not writing anything here. Okay updates :

January 2010 - moved out from our old flat in London February - April 2010 - back home in Indonesia (fantabulous time with the horses! had a 50-50 heart to go back to the UK because I do NOT want to leave Kim, Chief and Zinnie *sobs*) April - August 2010 (current) - started my PhD in Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. So now I have moved officially to Cambridge :)

To sum up in a few words ..
Cambridge is a LOT different than London. It is so small - EVERYWHERE is near. Literally. Oh and I cycled to work here. well, to be precise, I cycled everywhere here. And you can be..wherever you want in about 15 mins max. The most important thing is that so far, the majority of people (and new friends) (and new housemates) (and new lab mates) that I have met are lovely :)
Having moved around for the past 7 years has taught me one thing well : it does not matter how crappy your room is, your house is, etc. as long as there are friends to share things with at the end of the day. Good friends are rare, and for the precious few that you have - you should hang on to them :) . Oh and do NOT ever take anything for granted. full stop.

Okay back to Cambridge...
well to be honest the first few weeks I was here, I missed London a LOT a LOT. I missed my old life. Damn how I missed my old uni, Imperial! and THE LIBRARY. My lovely library corner..
..but as weeks goes on, I started to get used to my new life here. Working 8-6pm in lab Mon-Fri, Sat-Sun usually either in London or in Cambridge :)
My house here is lovely :) . I am sharing a graduate student house, that belongs to my College (Newnham College) , with 7 other girls - so in total there are 8 of us girls in the house. One kitchen and dining room, two bathrooms (thank goodness lol), and the best thing : one laundry and drying room! with spacious area to hung our clothes out to dry :) I love doing laundry so that explains.

New housemates : Adele :) a British girl who ALSO RIDES HORSES - enough said. lol. She is great, a real easygoing person. Even though her and my sense of direction are both REALLY bad. We go to this stable, Hilltop Equestrian, once a week to have riding lessons. Guess what, we got terribly lost the first time we went there! and in addition, we also got lost on our way BACK to Cambridge ..lol. Managed to arrive in another completely different city (nearby though, phew).

Marina, a Masters student from Uzbekistan. She is nice too, sadly she has moved out now.. went back home to Tashkent. Then Crystal, a medics student from Singapore.

There are loooooaaaaaddsssss moreee that I want to write here..
but sadly..
I have to go back to my stats!!

oh on another note, earlier today - I went to a pool party + volleyball + bbq at Christ's College (thanks Ardi and Miranda for inviting!) , it was fun !!!! Never thought I can actually withstand swimming outside in this kind of weather lol. but its great :)
Okies good night people xxx

Start of the year hotpot

Hotpot yesterday at Sherry's place :)
This is my last morning staying at Yaya and Astari's, flying back home tonight on the 10pm flight (London - Singapore - Jakarta as usual). Went to Borough Market yesterday for lunch with Astari, the chorizo burger is exquisitely delicious!! yum. Afterwards went grocery shopping for the hotpot with Sherry's mum, Louisa and Kim in China Town. We bought a LOT of stuff!!! Can't believe it has been ten days since I stayed over at Yaya's. Time seems to just flew past reeeealy quickly these days. I lost track of dates/days lately! Anyway, I'm going to take shower, then did a bit of grocery shopping...then off to meet Carina and Simon for lunch.