army of me

*deep breath* wow. where do i start??? there are several reasons that orchestrated my being able to blog today. firstly, my class was cancelled this afternoon, and i only found out when i was at the outpatient reception. secondly, i am finally myself again after a protracted, at times unbearable, week or so, because i got 7 hours of sleep last night. thirdly, the arrival of a blogworthy event : i'm going to get my hair cut soooon. pardon le narcissism. fourthly, the unexpected protracted visit of an italian musician has left me too relaxed to want to delve into 'immunity and beyond' just yet...

also of note.. the cutest mittens in the world are in town... i now have the urge to dissect anything with fur.... i'm totally loving autumn.

medicine men

so despite the fact that i should be blogging about more ecclesiastical things, the little devil in me still can't forget the rapture of the sweet sweet conversation i had with my medicine men last thursday evening.

alas, it is true, as pointed out by my dear flatmate, Amy, that there are only so few 'cool' people in medicine. and i am soo utterly grateful to God for dropping these lovely men in my lap... for those of you who know my comings and goings in my wee university life, u know the two men of whom i speak of...

so anyway, it was such a respite from the new people and faces i meet in my new course.. the loveliness of familiarity, of unforgiving bitchiness unrestrained by the antiquated social-norms demanded by the sense of propriety required when meeting new people. so the merry three of us were reunited in the SL (study landscape) on that merry thursday evening, our insides acheing from all the giggling and laughing and utter taking the piss... oh my life in medicine is made so much merrier with these men...

also of note was my very stress-relieving time spent last night, post-Confident Christianity weekend, ensconced in the newly created niche that is my digital-tv-equipped kitchen, watching America's Next Top Model season 6 with Amy and being totally..... blase.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

on watching angelina jolie drop the last piece of the puzzle on a biplegic denzel washington and attempting to pick it up with a pair of tweezers in 'The Bone Collector'...

richard: do u know you can still get an erection if you have spinal injury? you just have to stroke the feet.

issaam: yeah, but doesn't that cause the urge to defaecate as well? kinda loses the mood, u know?

richard: yeah, but some people like that.

sojourn

brilliant..

a more robust , all-out impressiveness and in one word, spectacular. 15 hours on and i'm still in recovery.

attrition tears

you know that feeling that you need to jump out of your skin? when there's an inner something in you that needs to get out and needs to get out? i'm feeling like that right now. when i'm surrounded by all the things money can buy, all the friends and banter a university student in the uk can have, when work's piling up beyond what i can manage and deadlines are looming in the near and present future - when i've got ALL THE THINGS IN THE WORLD TO DO... i feel like there's not one of them that i feel like doing. that's how i'm feeling right now.

but what do you do when you want to burst, but there's noone lurking around to mop up all the pieces and sew you back together? absolutely nothing. you keep it in, you wrap yourself up with another layer of woolly fleece, you sip up your peppermint tea and study the autumn away.

but all the trees will clap their hands...

• and this is a typical day in the life of an intercalating student....

	Monday 9/10
0900-1000	0900-1015 IHD Lecture (403) - Intro to Chemokines - G. Graham
1000-1100
1100-1200	1100-1215 IHD Lecture (403) -Neutrophils, Mononuclear Phagocytes - JAG
1200-1300
1400-1500	2-5 FRS (403) - Nature of Immunity & Immunopathology - M. Thomas
1500-1600
1600-1700
1700-1800	5-? Immunology students social	545-700 CMF meeting (Rob's flat)
1800-1900			630-10 girl's bible study (Gill's flat)
1900-2000
2000-2100
2100-2200

statistical bias

so.. amidst studying statistics, carol took the opportunity of boredom to surf for her good old friend's band on myspace.... and found it! and laughed at their lyrics and was very entertained for a while... she also reminisced of how anachronistic her wee drive to tesco, maryhill earlier that day in her colleague's car was... full on 70-80s classics blasting throughout byres road, queen margaret drive and maryhill... pure funny like.. she also found this interesting piece of news:

• sweet success for 'oldest' brand...
  
• carol once had to pour this shit all over all her carrot cakes just cos she couldn't finish the stuff.. (but man they made them carrot cakes taste sooo goooood.)
  

speaking for herself : it has come to my attention that non-Christians (and Christians who aren't born-again (whatever your intepretation of that may be...)) complain a lot more than Christians.. it's something that makes sense when you think about it, but something i've just recently noticed. hmmmm...and so... i shall take this opportunity to tell all you complainers out there that...

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." - C.S. Lewis

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - Jesus


yup yup yuppers... meanwhile, here are some snapshots of fun-tastic Christian idiocy :

unfortunately, there has been the recent exodus of the above-photographed-good-ginger-man from the glasgow crowd... :( we'll misssss you simmooonnnnnnnnn!!!!! xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

a life less ordinary

after running away from this for the last few months, i have finally realised, to my unease... that life is settling into mediocrity again. it's funny how my life as of now seems more ordinary than it has ever been in the last few years... studying in the library at night, carrying groceries back in the rain, grilled chicken breasts, cream cleansers for toilet tiles, housewife pillows, scaling ladders, changing lightbulbs, hanging out the laundry, furniture catalogues, social novels, cooking for one, kitchen conversations : i have become the one thing that i have feared most of becoming... but at the same time, it seems my resistance is futile.

dancing in the freedom we know

the uni today

bounce with me.. because it is one of those moments. sleeping with monkeys, going in the buff, detuning and retuning, driving to swedish soils, unravelling a curtain lady, flipping swatches, climbing, walking, waxing (lyrical about epithets, portmanteaus, metonymy and eponyms) jogging, cooking... and dancing (lots of dancing!)... maybe i'm too settled or maybe i'm lost, but really, i am just putting things in their place. As You open my eyes to the work of Your hands. For what is the point if we do not give thanks to God?

so, back in glasgow and recreating my niche! la la la la la la la la la la la*

(*to the sound of the music in ur heart)

butter makes it better

i reckon i've drank more in the last week than i have in the last 6 months... like for example last night...

what else i've been doing in my remaining days left in singapore...

• hanging out loads with the craziest bunch of girls...
  

shen! (who will be misrepresented by a hamster until she passes me her photos...)

junice... everyone loves a junice.

prissssssssss! i'll love you foreverr!!!!

• skirting around a lot (and being terribly vain)
  

• packing (not so fun)
  

• eating butofcourse... because deep down inside there is a stomach.

• disturbing the peace of every public place we're at...

these include : lavender street market, a spiritual-yoga-zen-themed cafe, the new NUS law faculty, Tampines basketball courts, etc...

• playing silly drinking games (please click here for Lester's amazing drinking game!...and when i say here, i don't mean here.. or here.. or here..)

what can i sayyy... carol is living it up real hard with everyone here in singapore. what more can i ask for? great friends, great food, great banter. sleep? who has time for that.. (sharing a bed with two other people is not advisable.. especially when we go to sleep when the sun comes up) money? we thrive on a communism-based fraternity.. down to the last S$2... (right, pris?) medicine, law and our careers? (a good research team is based on their ability to hypothesize... and we have ours... *drumrolll........* 'The Right Hand is Slower than the Left'.)

it's okay if you don't get it. you're not meant to... you just had to be there...

the body of Christ

to seek You first and to love You and to be loved. to fall freely into the arms of grace that want to bless me more than I pray. alex, your want to prophesy for us in your penultimate prayer has culminated in the most Perfect blossoming in the most Perfect timing : His. for it has always been so, whether we had the eyes for it or not. acres of hope.. and we will sing together. :) i am allured.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matthew 6:33

home

i am home at last... and i've lost the will to blog... or eat, or sleep, or do anything productive.. now that the music has stopped, i've realised that :
a) i'm dark
b) i'm tired
c) the last 4 weeks seem like a dream.