DAY 307/308

Jul 5 & 6

1) So I'm slowly but surely settling in to my new environment. Not just my new home, but also the new academic building! It's so convenient to pop by the library after work, and make a cup of coffee/tea before lazing into one of those oh-so-comfortable chairs...

2) And just like that, it's been more than a month since my research started. Yesterday, we confirmed by mass spectrometry that my tenth experiment, had finally produced the ester product that we were looking for. This can then be used as the starting point for our reactions with various bismuth compounds to form novel complexes. At least that's the plan...

3) Which is exactly what we did today. Dr. Griffith came himself to carry out the reactions with me and Donal. It is the first time that I've handled liquid nitrogen with my own hands, and it was fascinating to watch all the insulating nitrogen gas envelope the reaction vessel as we poured it out. We carried out two new experiments today, before leaving it to continue stirring overnight.

4) That sums up the past two days, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Have a great day, cheers!

RCSI Academic Building at night ^^

The €52.00 for 30-day LUAS (tram) tickets are such good value!

Mixing things up a little: Full Irish breakfast at AK. Henry's

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 287/ 288

Jun 15/ 16

1) The past two days have been very fruitful for me. Yesterday, I was in the lab from 9-5, synthesising various reactions and managing different experiments. I've performed Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) for the umpteenth time, in addition to learning how to prepare an NMR sample for analysis. Not bad for my first week on the job I reckon. Anyway, for now at least, my project targets two separate experiments, both involving bismuth as the starting product.

2) The first experiment has been ongoing since the day before, but yesterday we found out how to synthesise the starting compound for the second experiment (hydrazinobenzoic methyl ester). We only got so far as the reflux bit, as that is a projected 15 hours of waiting. So we'll leave it till Monday before continuing. Mr. Keogan has another experiment himself that we'll begin next Monday, so they'll be a lot to do at the start of the week.

3) Today was our first trip to Beaumont Hospital, to attend a lecture series by Dr. Emer Reeves, Lecturer in the Department of Medicine. Her talk was entitled "Critical Reading: the Ability to Appraise and Evaluate a Scientific Paper". I enjoyed her talk as she took us through step by step on how to get our paper published for Research Day, ICHAMS etc. After the lecture, my friend Zi Yan and I went for a walking tour around the Smurfit Research Centre. We will visited some of the wards (just the corridors) to get a clearer picture of the environment we'll be studying in next January.

4) After some time, we took the No. 14 bus back to Aungier St. I bought dinner from Wok In along the way, and proceeded to walk home. Took a nice nap and spent the rest of the evening chilling at home. That's been my past two days, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks very much for visiting, and have a splendid day. Cheers!

Beaumont Hospital

Entrance to the Hospital

Smurfit Research Building, Beaumont

Dr. Emer Reeves

Me preparing to give a speech to a non-existent audience XD

DAY 283

Jun 11

1) Today has been a leisurely day well spent at home. I'm just taking it easy before my 'work' starts tomorrow haha. Anyway, that doesn't mean I have nothing to do. For starters, I've tried my best to start packing up a bit, as I'll be moving house in a couple of weeks.

2) I've started sleeping quite late at night, so that's a habit I'll have to kick before starting research tomorrow. I daren't say what time I sleep because it really is quite late. But to be fair, that was time well spent preparing some points for the Antibiotics Debate which I am arguing for.

3) In the evening, I went over to Wok In for some authentic Thai food. I accidentally ordered the prawn curry instead of the chicken, but turned out great. I stopped by Mercer Library, thinking that today's the last day before it closes. But turns out tomorrow is the last day since it closes at 11pm. Returned home to enjoy my dinner, and spent the rest of the night just reading up a bit on the research project that I'll be undertaking. That is all for my day, and hope you had a great one too. Cheers!

A lovely walk along the canal ^^

Was feeling peckish for something Thai

DAY 278

Jun 6

1) So today marks the beginning of the RCSI Research Summer School. It's interesting to note that we have a 2-day Skills Workshop Programme, accompanied with the Friday Discovery Series. The Skills Workshop essentially introduces us to the concept of research, as well as guiding us gently through the various skills and knowledge required to present a good piece of research.

2) For this morning, we received a warm welcome by Dr. Sara ONeill, Director of the Research Summer Programme. Next, we heard a lecture from Dr. Maria Morgan, on the topic of "Project Management for Research". This was followed by Ms. Yvette Moffat giving a talk on Health and Safety.

3) After a short break, it was Ms. Lorna Flannery on "Library Skills on Research", accompanied by Dr. Finbarr Leacy on "Statistics for Research". Just before lunch break, Dr. ONeill returned to present another interesting topic entitled "Don't Believe Everything You Read: We are on The Brink of the Antibiotic Apocalypse".

4) After lunch, we were split into three groups: red, green and blue. Each one of us had chosen different time slots to attend three workshops in the afternoon, namely Introduction to Cell Culture (Dr. Tatyana Devine), Techniques for the Analysis of Genetic Material (Dr. Olga Piskareva), and All About Proteins (Mr Gerard Higgins and Ms Lauren Mohan). Unfortunately, the last one had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

5) In short, the entire day was really productive and I gained a lot of insight into the exciting world that is research. The rest of my day has been productive too, with me going out for a nice 5km jog at St. Stephen's Green. That has been my day, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Until the next one, cheers!

Welcome :DD

Those are neuroblastoma cells 

Peering into the lens of a microscope

We were introduced to various cell lines of breast cancer (this is just one type)

DAY 272

May 31

1) Today we return from Zadar, Croatia to Dublin. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable 16 days, with great food, awesome weather, and even better company. Some of my friends ask me why I take so many pictures, and sort of miss out on experiencing the moment? My answer is simple - I do it for the memories. Twenty years down the road, I will look back at all these pics that I took and relive the experience in my mind.

2) Anyway, we started the day by finishing packing, then going to the bakery opposite our house to stock up on food for breakfast and lunch. Next, we went to the designated pick up point, where our pre-booked taxi would bring us to the airport. There was a bit of tension when the taxi did not arrive until 10 minutes later, since we needed to check in luggage before the gate closed.

3) Luckily, the taxis arrived eventually, and brought us to Zadar Airport in time to check in. We found out later that our flight had been delayed by about 45 minutes. So we sat and waited. It was a three hour flight back to Dublin. Once we touched down, we were greeted by cool weather (seriously, does Dublin EVER get hot?!)

4) From there, we checked out and went our separate ways. I boarded the Bus no. 16 back to RCSI, where I spent some time at the library. For dinner, I went over to Wok In, where I had the duck noodles. It felt so good to taste something Asian after a continuous diet of sausages and bread XD. Anyway, I packed up early and returned home. That concludes our 15 day trip across three countries, and tomorrow things get back to usual. Thanks for reading as usual, and have a nice day. Cheers!

Final group selfie before parting :'(

DAY 111

Dec 21

1) Today was a very fun day as well! Woke up and had breakfast, before coming over to the library. After some surfing the net, I went to have my free haircut at the Dublin School of Barbering. For lunch, me and my friends decided to have lunch at the Buttery, at Trinity College Dublin. Turns out it wasn't all that I'd hoped it would be; just a small cafe at the basement in a secluded area beside the tennis courts.

2) We decided to go somewhere else for lunch, and ended up going to Hot and Chilli's. After a filling chicken shish kebab meal, we returned to Kuhan's apartment to get our daily dose of anime XD We were preoccupied with finishing "Attack on Titan" and managed to finish it by night. For dinner, me and Khee Heng went to Wok Inn, which had some tasty noodles. Got the student combo for €6.50, which included a can of soft drink.

3) After "Attack on Titan", we are planning to watch another anime, called Fate/Stay Night. Then we might move on to animated movies, like the usual suspects from Studio Ghibli. Can't think of a better way to spend the time than hanging out watching movies with my bros haha. Anyways, that's all for this blog update, and thank you for reading. Cheers!

Breakfast

The Green Rooster Barbershop, home of the Dublin School of Barbering :)

Me after the haircut XD

Menu at the Buttery, TCD

Chicken Shish Kebab Meal

Wok In Noodle Bar

Me and Khee Heng enjoying noodles for dinner