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Thursday, 06 October 2011

So this is 3rd year..

As much as I moan about how you take over the bed, steal my blanky, and wake me up wayy too early in the morning, i missed you planting kisses all over my face in the morning (yes, now that its in black and white you DO seem like a little puppy), and i just missed waking up beside you every morning. Oh and the night time foot rubs helped too. I guess I'm done with the single life. For now at least! =P

Its the first day of lectures for Cantabrigians, and if any of you have had the misfortune to have known me during the transition from normal life to uni life you'll know that once term start, it REALLY starts. We're not talking induction day, introductory lectures kind of start. Heck, in my first year we had a full blown supervision the day before full term started, and at 10am on our first day, we were already elbow deep in dissection juice, being quizzed by a scary demonstrator (who I later learned was Malaysian so maybe thats why we were drilled so much lol) and the LOOK of COMPLETE AND UTTER WTFHAVEWEGOTOURSELVESINTO from everyone was just.. priceless (hilarious looking back, but not everyone would think so I guess). Second year was just equally as scary, less so due to the fact that we sort of already knew people around the course and college, but mostly because it was the infamously soul-crushing, life-stealing, all-in-all pure HELLISH second year. (Note: It's generally not THAT bad all year round - you could turn up to 2 hour practicals an hour and a half late and nobody cared. It was just exam week (read: exam everyday for 10 days or so including saturdays) that all those words apply to accurately). I think I blocked out my first day of second year. ignorance is bliss after all.

And so, on the first day of term, in my FINAL year as a Cambridge medical undergrad, at 9.38 am, I find myself.. blogging. AND the feeling is a mixture of 'HAH IN YOUR FACE 1st and 2nd YEARS' and 'SHIT I AM SO SURE I NEED TO BE SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW'. Mostly the second if I'm being honest. Because suddenly, we haven't got compulsory modules. Suddenly, we haven't got practicals scheduled for us. SUDDENLY WE HAVE A FRIGGIN RESEARCH PROJECT OF WHICH THERE ARE NO ANSWERS TO! and suddenly, we have time. (and also suddenly I have no Becca Frake to organise my chaotic academic life). suddenly I'm in charge of how much I learn, when I learn it, and how well I want to learn it.

And let me tell you 1st and 2nd years, forget exam WEEK, this YEAR is terrifying. Its 10 am. On the first day of lectures. And I am not entirely sure if I should be somewhere doing something more productive than typing a well disguised cry for help. Not a good start.

But if anyone's reading.. Help?

edit: Just text a friend to ask if we need to be anywhere today.. This is her reply:

"Woke up in XXX college and missed my first lecture. Great Start."

Lol, I love my friends! :)

This blogger knows its been ages since she last blogged publicly (and she apologizes for the MASSIVE absence of erm.. 6 years lol) , but hopefully (with 3rd year) she will be able to keep it up. (she hears herself thinking 'empty promises' already, but oh well..)
There are lots of private posts from way back when to be posted, if she does find herself with a lot of ample time and nothing to do.. it probably means something's wrong, but hey, at least everyone gets a good read no?

Friday, 14 January 2011

Its official. I HATE XANGA.
Why oh WHY did you hit save?!

Next project: Reconstruct the hideous-ness that is my blog. FML.

Sunday, 09 January 2011

Post 2. I'm on a roll?

Okay, so its been more than a week since my last post. I guess its been much harder slipping back into the habit of blogging than I thought it'd be.

Updates since the last time:-

1) Jack and I are now back at Cambridge, and we still can't figure out if thats a good or bad thing.

Pros: Work gets done (allegedly), and its nice to be able to spend some time alone playing house with just the both of us. Also, its a really relaxing (surprisingly) place when its just the both of us, like, its jsut really peaceful and you take things at your own pace. Of course, bearing in mind that this is out of term without deadlines and commitments and friends and the hassle of socialising. (Yes, I am a social retard, I put socialising on a to-do list.)

Cons: The GUILT when you don't work (and then go on to do silly things like blog for instance), they constant "why am I here when I can be spending time with my family" issue, and of course, there's the whole its just me and jack. again. HAHA (I love you baby if you're reading this)

Its been pretty good over the past few days though, not much to complain about. We've been living in his room, which is much MUCH bigger than mine (Though out of habit I've managed to rearrange the room and have all my stuff so that I only need to move in a space about the size of my room - coincidence?). We've even managed to make it slightly more homey, to the extent that (ohgodicannotbelievei'msayingthis) I really wouldn't mind living here after this term. Living like students again is a real challenge this time - we've made resolutions (or rather I've made resolutions for the both of us) to not spend over X quid on groceries each week. If anyone knows us they'll KNOW we're about the last people in college to live like students. I'm not saying we're silly with money, I'm jsut saying, when you eat as much as the both of us, and you love food as much as the both of us, its a challenge. Especially when you've just been given 3 recipe books for christmas (present to myself of course) and a new piping set (from momma). And been watching Julie and Julia! <-- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

2) The last few days in liverpool were pretty hectic - dim sum with the family on sunday as usual, all of us (once again) eyes bigger than stomach. Bloody good food though! :) Jack's chinese and malay vocabulary always increases during his stay in liverpool, especially after dim sum sundays. He can now say char siu pau and siu mai without making me cringe, and understands when my mom barks "chap dip" - put the plates away, and "tow lap sap" - put the rubbish out at us. Quote of the Danbury himself: Its alright I don't have to understand them, I just have to know how to say it to you! Sigh.

3) Went to Jack's for a couple of days on our way back to cambridge - spent the day cooking and baking for his family! :) Jack made lasagna, and cupcakes. I supervised (and assisted slightly with the cakes). It was pretty damn good, I'll have to admit. As I mentioned to Bex, its a bittersweet feeling when the student surpasses the master. And I'm not going to lie, its mostly bitter. LOL. Cupcakes turned out pretty damn good too - made flavoured icing for the first time (i know i know!!). I guess I finally got tired of people constantly asking me if the colours meant they were flavoured so I just made them flavoured this time - SUCCESS! :)
Must try it on geeps and robs to see what they think - mom will like the coffee variety of ANYthing lol, and mags will be indifferent. Like the time I made taro-flavoured cupcakes. -________-". Might just carry on with the flavours and leave the cakes simple for a bit now, though I've been getting restless and sketching lots of patterns for cupcakes the past couple of days (also because it might be a certain someone's birthday soon? :) ) instead of doing my pharm work like a good girl. fml.

Spekaing of work, I'm currently just sitting in Jack's room debating how I should spend the rest of the day. My options are sleep, hit the library for some work, sleep, tidy Jack's room, sleep, start dinner, or sleep. You have to understand, at 1(or maybe 2)pm today I finally handed in all my essays and MCQ's for pharmacology. Two days late! Lol. In fairness, those essays are MUCH harder to piece together than they seem - mostly because I think all essays can be answered with a sentence. Hopefully my supervisor will take pity on this poor, clueless student and still mark them, but yes, I have to admit its typical Late-Lena as usual. (I remember walking in to formal after they'd served the starters, and I could hear Pramin going "I love Lena" (and her punctuality in this case, taken out of context). OH on that note, I best continue shopping for Jack's christmas present - John Lewis in Cam is crap and has put the goods I need in storage to clear out other items. Sigh, at least I can order it online now and blame it on the crappy postal service. After my nap of course!

Pictures of pretty things next time!

Lena-Lou! :)

To-do list (read from my hand):

Make MedSoc Ball masks damnit!
Speaking of Medsoc ball, confirm the photographers! =S
Buy Red Pen.
Buy xmas/birthday presents!
Figure out how to take annoying song off my blog - don't get me wrong, I love journey, just not everytime I refresh my blog desperately to see if anyone is actually reading this.

Oh sense the efficiency! :)

Saturday, 01 January 2011

Greetings 2011..

Only 3 public posts in 2010? Shocking.

I won't beat around the bush, with everything that's been going on, blogging has been completely abandoned.
However, with the turn of the year and all I thought why not give it another shot? I won't make any bold statements about returning to the world of blogging because we all know what Lena's like, heck, I can barely finish a sentence without getting distracted! But anyway, I suppose to really give this a fair shot I have to change SOMETHING about the way I blog - so many unpublished (andcoughunfinishedcough) private posts to never be seen by anyone else but myself.

To be honest everytime I wrote something and didn't publish it it was mainly because well, I was always worried about what someone else would think.. I guess somewhere along the way I must've grown up (read: grown old) and everytime I DID post something it was always young (read: angry, adrenaline fuelled) Lena who didn't care what the world thought at that very moment. Everytime I wrote something, and then saved it for 'later', that was the end of it. Later would never come and that would be the furthest the post would ever get. So from now on, everything gets posted immediately, and hopefully in a way I'll not be leaving things for a later that, let's face it, will never arrive.

Out with the old, in with the new. But before that, (also, to compensate for my pathetic attempt at blogging last year) a summary of 2010.

2010.

I guess the biggest change 2010 brought was in the form of a 6'5" blondie (the big guy's way of making sure i'd always have a Blondie by my side?) who literally walked into my life one (drunken) March night and never quite left. To cut the long story short, we ended up where we ended up because I had a conscience and didn't know his name.
[Kids if you are reading this I want you to know that Mommie will KILL you if you EVER bring a stranger back to bed. ESPECIALLY if you don't know their names. Even Daddy won't be able to save you.]
9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days later here we are.. We've had some ups and downs, but are still going strong. :)

With 2010 also came that evil thing we call exams. First year medicine at uni - WHAT A SHOCK!!

That thing we used to do.. what was it.. cramming? Yeah. Doesn't go down quite as well at uni apparently. Who would've known huh? Lots of tears, red bull, and (literally) nightmares later, here I am on the other side of it all. Passed them (not too well though) without re-sits, thank god, and have vowed to work much harder this year. (Having said that, my Pharmacology notes are screaming at me as I type this. FML). Am still completely enjoying it, although I have to say I've still not completely ruled out catering assistant (which my anatomy supervisor suggested one supervision in first term) yet. I wonder why.

Besides Uni, 2010 also brought new hobbies, or old hobbies at new levels. Joined the Cougars in Lent term first year, and this year I'm in comp squad! Scary stuff - have only ever competed for NCD before, so this'll be a new experience. Have paid for my new uniform (Ouch!) but thankfully can still fit into my old Kaepa's. Also, have taken up rowing in 2nd year - I figured I will probably never get the chance to row after I leave cambridge, and who knows if I'll even make the cut to stay on here for clinical, so might as well right? Sides, doesn't involve too much running (which Ruth and I have decided is the evilest form of torture you could ever inflict on the female species) and you get to use all these new words (to make up for the lack of anatomy lingo this year). Have also decided to be more active in societies and gone back to what I like doing second best (after cooking of course) - organising parties. CU MedSoc Ball 2011! :)

With the whole growing up theme, I got a couple of jobs last year (and by couple I mean 1-2 jobs EVERY holiday - I hope my DoS doesn't find this), I even did some without pay (I prefer the term SLAVE LABOUR, but I don't think you're allowed to enjoy those kinds of jobs)!! Learnt a great deal, and some of it even felt very rewarding. Having said that, there were the jobs on the complete opposite end of the spectrum where it felt like I was selling my soul, and to quote one of my colleagues, "I feel a little dirty, like I need to be cleansed." Ah well, I learnt loads at each and every job, so no real complaints there to be honest. Sides, they've all in some way helped to pay for my trip back to MALAYSIA in JULY 2011!!

Which brings me to 2011.

Things to look forward to in 2011:-

1) Not doing as shit in 2nd year (fingers crossed)

2) CU MedSoc Ball!

3) Friends visiting Cambridge - Nad, Zhen, Belle, etc?

4) Cheer Comps (eeps!)

5) More Newnham fun with the BFF's.

6) More COOKING AND BAKING - and more food comas!

7) Corpus's MAY BALL 2011 (also paid by aforementioned jobs - the ones that paid at least)

8) MALAYSIAAAAAA TRIP!!! (No. 8 - very ong number lah!)

Okay so I haven't really looked beyond July 2011 - which means I haven't considered 3rd year options, electives, 3rd year summer hols plans etc. But heck HangieBlondie and I have been looking forward to this trip for AGES. We're going to start making the most fantabulous lists ever - LIST OF FOOD TO EAT WHEN WE'RE BACK!

You will only ever understand this if you have lived in Malaysia before.

We'll probably make loads of other lists as well because well, they make us happy. :)

In fact, I've just finished watching Julie & Julia (admittedly a small (read: MAJOR) factor why I have started blogging again) and am thinking about doing something similar - maybe not cook as much (I AM still a poor student yanoo), but more of a food experience blog - the Gastronomic Adventures of Jack & Lena? I kinda like that. Plus it'll serve as an excellent log of our relationship AND our trip to Malaysia (yes Jack is coming, for just over a couple of months) since let's face it, the Malaysian experience is basically a series of meals with some sight-seeing and lots of catching up in between. :)

So yeah, I think its safe to say, my dear (non-existent) readers, that while many things may have changed, the size of my eyes and my love for food has not (and will never) change.

Resolutions - this year I've decided to make more realistic resolutions, things that I'll actually be happy changing about my life instead of the usual 'stop eating stop swearing stop spending' crap because lets face it, I love spending (if only I had the money), I LOVE swearing, and above all I FUCKING LOVE EATING!

So baby steps to improve my life (and possibly lower the rapidly increasing risk of Type II Diabetes and Heart disease and all them other things our mothers read about all the time in the tabloids. Tea without 6 sugars, Weetabix instead of Frosties (also without sugar), No more Pepsi/Coke for Jack (i know its not technically a resolution if i make it for someone else, but its my resolution to nag him more this year), and only redbulls during exam term/serious deadline trouble. I'll keep adding to the list as we go along, but for now this seems reasonable. Things I actually BELIEVE I can do, and maybe even be good for me.

Till the next post, LOVES!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALLLL!!! :)

- etsy-still-a-freakyn-awesome-goddess! :) -