DAY 299/300/301

Jun 27, 28, 29

1) The past week has been rather taxing on me. Having to pack up and shift houses is something new for me, and I grossly underestimated how much effort it would require. Thankfully, I've (almost) finished packing, and the weekend is coming too.

2) For the most part, my past three days have been spent in the labs as usual. Counting today, we've set up eight experiments so far, all of them related to some form of bismuth complex which we're trying to create. The two earlier experiments had failed due to contaminated DCM/ methylene chloride solution, but the third one we did (with a better batch of DCM) turned out fine. So it's all systems go, as we seek to combine that product with another ligand, to form Deferasirox, an iron chelator. So the idea is to combine Deferasirox with bismuth (chloride, nitrate etc) to form an organometallic complex. This delivers a double-whammy to the bacteria (iron chelators bind iron so bacteria can't take up iron from the surroundings, and bismuth itself is an antibacterial/ antimicrobial). Hopefully, we'll get there soon haha...

3) Yesterday I bade goodbye to my good friend and housemate George. George hails from Cyprus, and we've been really close friends ever since I met him last September. His mom and brother came over the other day, and they brought some lovely treats from Cyprus - soutzoukous (churchkhela) and loukoumi (Turkish delight). I'm really grateful to have met such a kind and sincere friend in George. Wishing you every success in your future endeavours! :D

4) Today's story has pretty much been the same. Dr. Griffith came himself to work with us in the labs, and I started a new experiment using PBT2 - an experimental drug candidate intended to be a successor to clioquinol and a potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease and Huntington disease. Only time will tell if it's yeay or nay, so I'll just have to be patient then. Anyway, that sums up the past three days here, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for visiting, and have a great day. Cheers!

George and I

"loukoumi" or Turkish Delights

Soutzoukous- a traditional, chewy sweet made from grape juice,

that has a unique appearance (it looks like a candle!), and is popular at traditional festivals.

Burrito from Pablo Picante for dinner

DAY 130

Jan 9

1) Today I woke up much later than usual (around 9.00am), most likely because I slept at around 3.00am haha. Took care of breakfast, before reheating a very special Greek dish called makaronia tou fournou, specially prepared by my housemate, George's mother, who hails from Cyprus. It roughly translates to "oven macaroni", and is usually eaten during festive occasions. In this case, George gave this to me when he came back from Cyprus, in conjunction with my birthday! I was so excited to try out authentic Greek cuisine haha. I had to reheat it in the oven for 1.5 hours though, so I stayed downstairs typing out the previous two blog updates which I had conveniently neglected.

2) Left for the library at around 11.30am, and unpacked everything at my usual spot in the middle of the library. For lunch, I had the macaroni and gosh it tasted amazing! It fascinates me that every country/ region has their own adaptations to dishes, and it is this variety that makes our food so unique. I can't wait to try dishes from all the different nationalities ^^ Anyway, my afternoon was spent finishing the animated movie "Children Who Chase Lost Voices", another masterpiece by Makoto Shinkai. A quick nap later, and I was chatting with some friends online.

3) In the evening, I took out my homemade "oyakodon" or chicken-and-egg rice dish, a Japanese staple. Okay I admit the one I made looks nothing like the actual thing (Google it!), but at least it tasted all right to me XD. At night, I was busy watching some videos online, and also sorting out files and folders on my desktop. I have to start preparing for the next semester (called JC2 or Junior Cycle 2), which promises to be more challenging than ever. As if JC1 was not tough enough already. Oh well, I guess there's but one thing for me to do: survive. That was my blog update, and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks very much for reading, and goodnight. Cheers!

My morning toast

"Oven macaroni" made my George's mom!

(The Greek writing reads "makaronia fournou" )

Lunch

My "oyakodon" XD

Operating Theatre in the 1890's

(Photo taken at Mercer Library, RCSI)