DAY 340/341/342

Aug 7, 8 & 9

1) It feels like everyone has gone away. All three Principal Investigators (Dr. Griffith, Prof. Bennett, Dr. Cahir), my host family (they're gone on holiday for the week), most of my friends etc. Of course, this is but temporary, since everyone will return when the next semester begins in September. Most of them anyway, as some of my friends are going to Bahrain for an exchange student programme with RCSI-Bahrain.

2) For the most part, I'm preoccupied with my own work at Beaux Lane House. Today I've finally finished packing all the questionnaires to be sent to patients, and after this I'll be calling them up to check if they have received it, and if they required assistance in filling out the questionnaires. Also, I've been reading up a bit on breast cancer, in line with my research on how certain drugs (aspirin, statins) may affect outcomes and quality of life in breast cancer patients. It's all a new experience for me, moving from lab work to statistics and literature reviews.

3) On Monday, after having buffet at Ten Thousand World (believe me, this is only my second buffet in like six months, as it was a Bank Holiday), I was walking back when I passed a stand allowing passersby to dress up like a leprechaun - complete with walking stick and beer! Gave the man in charge a small donation, and got someone to take a pic XD It's little things like this that add dimension to my otherwise mundane lifestyle, and I thoroughly appreciate them. There have been many other instances of random acts of kindness that really moved me, and I plan to write about them next time (when I have nothing to write for my blog!)

4) In twenty three days, I will have stayed in Dublin for one whole year, and the next academic year will begin. Until then, I hope to complete more fruitful research, and to make full use of the time here to do something worthwhile. That has been my blog update, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Have a great week ahead (I'm getting more generous with the well wishes I think haha), cheers!

Work space for now...

With San Kim (3rd year med student) on his last day of the job... :'(

"Leprechaun Yourself"

Sláinte! (Cheers! equivalent)

Paperwork...

DAY 297/ 298

Jun 25 & 26

1) I've been quite busy these past two days. Mostly because I'm packing up to shift houses this Saturday. So yesterday, I met Erika (the exchange student from Hoshi University, Japan) near RCSI and I decided to show her around, as she's only been here for three weeks. So we went on a walking tour to Trinity College Dublin, before walking past the Ha'penny Bridge to Dublin 1. While walking towards the Spire, we made the acquaintance of a fellow student from UCD, Patrick "Paddy" O'Grady.

2) Together, the three of us walked around Dublin 1, passing Penneys and the Ten Thousand World Buffet and The Savoy. As we were about to double back, we met Melvin, who sadly was in a rush to go somewhere. So we continued our way back to the bridge, before walking along the River Liffey to Dublin Castle. That's opposite the Queen of Tarts shop where I bought some lovely pies on my second day here in Dublin. How time flies...

3) But I digress. We found out more about each other, especially Paddy since we had only just met him haha. After spending some time in the St. Stephen's Green Park, it was time for dinner. I brought my friends over to Wok In, and got the beef curry with rice. By this time, it was getting late, so I had to excuse myself to finish my packing at home. That was the gist of my day yesterday :)

4) Today was back to the labs for me. I spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon finishing off the second product (now labelled KC4), only to find out in the end that it wasn't the product that we were looking for! We've now followed two different sets of instructions to synthesize this compound, yet no luck so far. So using Reaxys (a web-based tool for the retrieval of chemistry information and data from published literature), Donal and I found another published article detailing the process. We've set up the experiment as described, and left the intermediate on stirring overnight.

5) Hopefully the product will turn out fine when we finish up tomorrow, as we've run out of the starting material already. Anyway, that's been my day today, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Have a great day, cheers!

Me, Erika, and Paddy at Dublin Castle central square

Posing in front of the Spire

(which is completely overexposed haha)

Having dinner at Wok In ^^

Need to filter ppt tomorrow...

Note to self: When they say add SOCl₂ drop by drop, they really do mean that

(case in point the balloon on the right burst because of the pressure build up due to the sulfur dioxide gas produced - gave me the shock of my life!)

DAY 255

May 14

1) The first day after our exams feels a tad strange. The hours spent studying, replaced by a void of complete freedom to do whatever we want. Well well well, time for me to explain everything in detail. I've a couple of announcements to make. Firstly, regarding me and my friends' summer trip. Zi Yan, Kuhan, Melissa, Melvin and I are going for a 13-day trip in which we'll cover a couple of cities in Germany (Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Nuremberg), Austria (Salzburg, Vienna) and Croatia (Split, Zadar). This was all done before/ in between our papers so you can imagine all the hassle involved haha. We're meeting up tomorrow to finalise all the documents and make sure everything is in place.

2) So a bit of a disclaimer: if subsequent blog updates are a bit sporadic during this time period (May 16-30), that just means a) there's poor Wi-Fi connection in the hostels, b) we're taking overnight trains so we need all the sleep we can get, or c) I'm just way too tired after all the walking haha. Worst case scenario, I'll return and upload all the photos and comments on each area we visit. This is unlikely, because I will most probably continue with my usual daily postings.

3) Secondly, and here's the bittersweet part I guess haha. Previously, I had informed many friends and relatives that I'd be returning for the summer. Unfortunately this would not be the case ): The reason being that I've secure two research placements for the summer. The first research is in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, under Dr. Darren Griffith. The second is in the Population and Health Sciences (in Beau Lane House), under Professor Kathleen E. Bennett.

4) These are both part of the RCSI Research Summer School, and I've been really lucky to be awarded a scholarship grant of €2,000 to carry out my research. Great experience, plus a stipend to boot- what's not to like? The only downside being I will be not be coming back as I initially thought I would. Believe me, I had a long chat with my parents regarding this, and they were really supportive of me staying. After all, here's a golden opportunity to dip my feet into the field of research (Malaysia is less well known for research, unfortunately), so they advised me to take it.

5) So that's that folks. That was basically what I wanted to tell everyone for quite a while, but I never found the time to do so. Tomorrow I'll be really busy, packing my stuff, printing out documents and also exchanging for some foreign currency. Anyway, that's the end of my blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks for reading as always, and have a great day. Cheers!

For those days when I crave a bit of home haha :p

Some really nice juggling/ balancing acts,

 just in front of St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre

Ross the performer

A rare indulgence for me

(€13 for a nice pair of trainers, just in time for the Europe trip ^^)

DAY 121

Dec 31

1) Today was a really really exhausting day. In the morning, I woke up super early as my friends and I were going to Bray to visit our good friend Andrew. Among the places we went to in Bray were Bray Head, the famous McDonald's (rated one of the "coolest" McDonald's in the WORLD), Bray Bowl (where we played an hour long game of snooker), and the Coastal Walk, which took us all the way to the next town, Greystones, around 6km away. 

2) At Greystones, we stopped by a famous cafe called The Happy Pear, where I ordered a salted caramel cake and dark chocolate. Walked down to the station, and we said goodbye to Andrew at the next stop, Bray. Then we came back to Dublin, where Khee Heng and the rest started cooking for the New Year Countdown.

3) Zi Yan, Kuhan, and I went to watch the 3D light projection display - Luminosity - at the Custom House Quay. In addition there was a Sky Dance, featuring some really talented performers performing mid-air, hoisted by cranes. After the spectacular event, we went for buffet dinner at Ten Thousand World Buffet, before finally returning to Esther's apartment, where we had our New Year Countdown. By the time I returned home, it was approaching 2am, so I couldn't think straight haha. Anyways, that's the blog update and wishing everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! CHEERS!

P.S. LOADS OF PHOTOS DOWN THERE. KEEP SCROLLING! :D