Sunday: Family Day Out

Today is Mum and Dad's wedding aniversary. It is also Russian Easter. To celebrate Mum and Dad's aniversary I took my family to Regal Chinese Restaurant in Wellington. This bought back memories of the restaurant outings with Anita and Jasmine that I used to have back in 7th form. Oh I wish Anita and Jasmine were here! For a moment a wave of sadness came over me.

But this time it was my turn to 'educate' my family on Chinese dishes (after all I've learnt from Anita and Jasmine!). Livia and Gary came also and sat at a table next to us. Afterwards Livia was leaving for the airport to fly back to Australia. This time I got to try several new dishes-mostly meat ones because Dad likes meat. And of course there were my favourite prawn dishes! ...and a bunch of others...

Linda and Mum drinking Chinese tea, when Livia and Gary (behind) arrived to join us at a table "next door"Chop sticks! Dad was our tea pourer this time... ...Me and my prawn dumplings which are so the best!What I really like about Chinese restaurants is that every time you come there is always a new dish that you haven't tried.

When we finished lunch (So full! Don't want to eat again until tomorrow!) we said bye to Livia and then went for a walk around the harbour. The day was so warm and beautiful! We went to see a French ship that is visiting Wellington harbour. We went on the ship and even got to walk around inside to see all the cabins and interior decorations. It was really fascinating especially since this was was the first time that I've been inside a real ship (usually if ships come in to the harbour you are only allowed to walk around on the deck). I think it was a military ship because the deck had this special place on the deck for helicopter landing.

Brochures that Linda picked up about the ship

Linda, Mum and I on the deck *(Dad taking the photo). After we finished touring the ship we continued our walk along the harbour, and eventually made our way back to the car. I could have spent the whole day around the harbour, but it was time to go home. So sad!
It had been a great day, and I'm hoping to take my family to a Chinese restaurant again some time! :)

Awesome Holidays

On Wednesday as promised, Mum, Livia, Linda, her friend Nicole and I went in to Wellington. I went to Dymocks and got my Jane Austen book with my gift card! Yeeaa!!!! Only it was too big to carry around Lambton Quay so we decided to pick in up on the way back to the car. I stayed in Dymocks while Mum parked the car. Heavenly! I just love that shop! Then we went around the shops with Mum and Livia while Linda went off with Nicole. Not surprisigly not long after I started to get a bit grumpy because we kept going into all these clothes shops.

We were supposed to text Linda at around lunchtime to tell them to meet us somewhere, but I did not have my phone, (typical me!) Mum's phone ran out of bateries and Livia's phone was about to run out of batteries also! And when we tried to call Linda there was no answer. Luckily just before all of Livia's batteries ran out we managed to call Dad at work and asked him to call Linda on her cell phone and tell her to meet us at the cafe near Dymocks. While we waited for the girls we stayed at the cafe and had a snack. Dad came down from work and met us at the cafe (his work is cvery close). Shortly the girls arrived also. Dad and I went to pick up my book, and then Dad took it to work with him (we were going to continue going around shops). So then we spent the next 2 hours or so going shopping. Mum got me some pants which I liked. Whew! Don't have to worry about pants shopping anymore! Linda also got a top.

By the time we got back to the car it was almost 4pm. Then we went to Pizza Hut, got some pizzas and other food and drinks, picked Dad up from work and went to Oriental Parade where we had a nice picnic dinner! The sun was setting and the view of Wellington harbour was amazing! Before heading home we went for a long walk down Oriental Parade. It was beautiful! What a great way to spend the day! That night when we returned home I began reading my book...On Thursday Sonia invited me to come swimming to H2O Extreme Pool in Upper Hutt. We had an amazing time!! I haven't been to that pool for ages!!! It was so much fun! Appart from the old zoom tube there was a new zoom tube which was fully dark and a slide which seemed to be almost vertical!! (too scary) I had forgotten how much fun the river ride is and the slide... I loved the new pitch black zoom tube!!! I went on the zoom tube a gizzilion times until finally I felt sick! I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun! Time flies when you're having fun and before I knew it was time to head back to Sonia's house. Just in time too, I was feeling a bit green from overzooming on the zoom tube (and running up the stairs!). We had dinner at Sonia's house, and Sonia helped me start on my genetics essay.

I felt a bit guilty about not starting my genetics essay so I bought the assignment along with me. The essay is on genetic diseases and I was hoping Sonia could help me with her many nursing/medical text books. That day I finally decided what disease to study from our list-DiGeorge Syndrome. We found a nice introductory definition of it in Sonia's medical dictionary so I decided that's what I'll study. It sounded interesting. I went home not long after. It had been the most fun day I've had in a while!!! It felt great!!! :)

That night I thought about Anita, and how it was sad that she couldn't be here to spent time with us because she's in Otago. I miss her heaps. Wish she was here... After 5 years of going to college together and hardly ever been appart I really miss not having her around at University. If I could change one thing about university life it would that my closest friend was there with me.

On Friday I had a very productive day. After all the fun I had previously it was time to do some work. So that morning I went online and found 13 articles and 7 webpages on DiGeorge syndrome!!! So now it's only the matter of combining all the information and turning it into an essay...which is NOT the size of a novel!!! There is a word limit of 1000 words! Grrr I'm guessing that's going to take some effort!!! Satisfied with my findings, I went and did some gardening with Mum (with my new garden gloves and rake that I got from Sonia for my birthday!). It was a beautiful day outside! I spent that evening reading, and watching 'So you think you can dance' competition with my family. We've been watching it every week and it's so exciting! The search for Australia's top dancer! Every week contestants are eliminated and now there are only 2 couples left! Who will be Australia's top dancer? ...I hope it's Kate...no Jack...no Reece...!!! So hard to choose, they are all so great! (Unfortunately my favourite dancer Vanessa got eliminated in the last round :( ): Afterwards Mum and I baked kulichs (buns) for Russian Easter on Sunday. Yum!

On Saturday I spent the day reading. Since classes were starting back on Monday I wanted to spend the last two days of holiday doing pleasurable activities. So I read 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (in Russian) and finished it. Also continued reading 'Sense and sensibility'. Did a bit of this and a bit of that. Watched a bit of TV. Mucked around. So nice! I love these holidays!!!

My reading. The book included the novels 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Emma', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Persuasion', 'Mansfield Park' and 'Northanger Abbey'. At the moment I'm reading 'Sense and Sensibility' which is my favourite Jane Austen novel...

Holidays

I love this wrapping paper! My birthday presents from Christina and Tanya were wrapped up in it!

Holidays are great! For the past week I have been doing heaps of reading, watching TV, spending time with family and mucking around! Last week I also nearly finished my bio lab report and revised 6 weeks of lectures for media! (well there were only 6 lectures in total since we have only 1 lecture a week but hey!) Since Linda and Mum’s holiday started a week later than mine, for the first week of my holiday I didn’t really have much of anything interesting to do so I worked on my bio lab report, and have nearly finished it. Started thinking about my genetics essay... As for my reading, I’ve been reading heaps. At the moment I’m reading my birthday presents; ‘Arsimov’s New Guide to Science’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ by Arthur C. Doyle (in Russian).

A couple of days ago Mum, Linda and I went to Queensgate. I had some vouchers for Dymocks, Whitcoulls and Nature’s discovery that have accumulated after some time and I wanted to spend them before they expired. First we went into all these clothes shops because Mum wanted to get me some pants. Well I am allergic to clothes shops, they make my head spin and ugh I just don’t like clothes shopping very much, and usually get really grumpy. So after about half an hour my mood had gone stormy, so then Mum and Linda continued their way through clothes shops while I went to Whitcoulls. Yippeee! My mood instantly improved! I just love looking at all the different books!

As I was going through the classics book section my eyes fell upon something…very big! It was a gigantic book of Jane Austen’s most famous novels!! All in one gigantic (and I mean gigantic! It was the size of an atlas from 1960s!) hardcover with red material woven covering and golden edges! It looked amazing! Like the atlas from ‘Sense and sensibility’. I was so amazed! The print was great and it even had pen drawn illustrations! I have never seen anything like it! I fell in love with it immediately! But I only had a $30 voucher for Whitcoulls so I decided to go and check out Dymocks. I also wanted to buy the DVD of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ but Whitcoulls out of stock! Grrr! But they said there will be more stock coming in shortly so I will come back in a few weeks time.

So I took down the ISBN number of the book and went to Dymocks. But no luck. They didn’t have it. But the Dymocks in Wellington did, so the really nice guy at the counter rang up and reserved a copy for me! Yippee! So Mum and I will probably go in to Wellington tomorrow and get it with my vouchers! I can’t wait!!! …But then I’ll need a bigger bookshelf…

Mum's friend Livia also arrived last week from Australia. She got me a set of pants with a top as my birthday present (she also got me a book about Australia) Yesterday we went to the farm in Waikanae to pick fruit and vegies! It was so much fun!

Today Melissa came over to my house and we watched Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version). Linda and Mila were here also so it was pretty crazy! But we only ended up watching some of it so I'm hoping to watch it again. I'm so glad Melissa borrowed it from her friend! I couldn't find the BBC version of it anywhere! I also found out that Melissa also has Sense and Sensibility so now I can just borrow it off her! Yea! Personally I like Sense and Sensibility more!

This Sunday I will be taking my family to a Chinese restaurant in Wellington-Regal for Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary wedding . I booked a table and everything! I'm so looking forwards to it!

So this is my holiday so far-Yea! And there's more to come...!!! Yippeee!!!

Friends

(photo taken by Mum's friend)

But for every memory of friendship shared,

Even for a short time is like treasure,

Like sunshine and warmth in our lives,

Like a cool breeze on a humid day,

Like a shower of rain refreshing the Earth…

(was written on a plank that Wendy gave me for my birthday)

Go Fish!

On Sunday Mum and Dad went on a fishing trip out to the harbour and beyond into the open sea for the day! Every several months dad's work organizes a fishing trip and this is the second time Mum and Dad have gone. They love it!

Lighthouse -reminds me of the story 'The Lightkeepers Lunch'

Dad!

Dad and Mum on the boat

Seagulls- competition for fishing! Heheheh!

When they went out into the open sea there were lots and lots of dolphins! Their boat was surrounded by dolphins! Wow!!!

One of Dad's many catches!

A liner ship boat going past

While Mum and Dad were out fishing I spent the day mucking around and doing pretty much nothing! (Hey I'm on holiday!!!) Linda spent the day working on a project for science. It was so amuzing because it was exactly the same assignment as we did in yr10! You had to choose an organ and a disease that effects it and create a poster about it. I remembered my project on skin cancer and how I got a Merit for it because my planning stage wasn't that great. I really hope Linda does better than me!

Mum and Dad bought home lots of fish that day! Consequently I created a new toastie combination that has become a favourite of mine; fish, cheese and sweet chilli sause! And by the way I now have a toastie addiction! Been having them almost every day since the holiday began!! Christina R first introduced me to them 10 years ago... and now since I got the toastie maker I'm 100% addicted! ;)

Holidays just around the corner...

Photo from my birthday

Yippeee!! Holiday time!! This week sure was a long week! This time we had 7 weeks of university before break and by the 7^th week study became exhausting!

On Monday my new genetics course began on human molecular genetics. Waahhhhh I miss BIOL341!!!! We had a lecture on immunology!!! I haven’t done anything on immunology since first year biology! It was a bit overwhelming really, and I greatly missed chromosomes and heritability!!! Good old 40 formulas that we had to memorize for our test! At the beginning of class time our lecturer came in and we got our test papers back.

I didn't realise how much I worried about my genetics test until Monday morning when I put my pants on. Ok I'll tell the story. On Saturday me and Mum and Dad went in to Wellington and I wore my new pants. They fit fine. Then on Monday morning put them on...and they could barely hold on my waist! I couldn't believe I lost weight that weekened from worrying about the test!! I didn't realise I worried so much about that genetics test! ...now I wear a belt with those pants...

Anyway, I got an A- for the test and a B for the overall genetics course! Ok so I officially broke my New Year resolution about getting straight As. Sigh. Oh well, nobody’s perfect. And a B is good too so I’m pretty happy! Yea!! …But I’m just so sad that the course is over! It tops the chart of being my favourite course taken at University! (up until now my favourite course was BIOL116-Human reproduction, sexuality and evolution).

The good news was that our BIOL341 genetics lecturer would also be teaching a part of this genetics course BIOL342!! Yea! It felt so strange on Monday getting a power point presentation by our new lecturer. I was so used to overheads by now (what our genetics lecturer used) that a power point presentation seemed incredibly foreign. Basically I spent the day complaining about how much I missed genetics. The good news was that the immunology lectures would not be examined. Thank goodness! It was all so foreign to me!

On Tuesday I had my media lecture, but my mind was in the wrong place because I kept thinking about my lab assignment that was due on Thursday. It was so confusing and it gave me so much worry! Grrr I really don’t like PCR! I never want to do it again! For our assignment we had to design a PCR experiment…evil is all I say!!!

On Wednesday we had another lecture on immunology (it was ok, I was kind of getting used to it…sort of anyway), and then I spent the remainder of the day pounding over my assignment. Sigh. Then on Thursday we had the lab which was very short thank goodness. I was so sick of PCR labs, they were not very fun at all, So much to do, so many calculations and in the end nothing worked! Our evil evil evil assignment was also due that day, and luckily I finished it. We also have to write a lab report for PCR but luckily that is due in after the holidays, so I haven’t started worrying about it yet.

So now that I’ve passed genetics and finished my PCR assignment you’d think I can relax. But nooo I still had a media studies essay due in the next day! Spent the entire evening and Friday morning writing it! But compared to the lab assignment the essay was actually enjoyable to write! We had to write a close reading essay based on one of the articles from the course reader. Our tutorials this year are actually getting quite productive, and I’m starting to enjoy them. I think it’s because of our tutor, he is very good at explaining ideas and concepts and this makes the tutorial interesting. He also told us what he expects from us in our essays so at least we have guidance. Unlike last years English course where we were never told anything useful in the tutorials! Media is not like that and I am glad!

On Friday we had our final lecture on immunology. After the holidays we would have our lecturer from 2^nd year genetics taking us so we’re used to his lecture style already. That’s good. We also got an essay to write over the holidays on genetic diseases, to compensate for not having the immunology unit examined. That’s ok, I don’t mind writing essays! At least it's not calculations. Should be interesting!... That would mean that in the holidays I would have a lab report and an essay to write, and I also have to catch up on my media lectures. And of course relax and do nothing! That day after my genetics lecture I handed in my essay and went home. Yippeee!!!! Holidays have officially begun!!! JJJ

My genetics course has just finished- and I already miss it!

...loving what you do...

Wahhhhh I miss genetics already!!! This week was the last week of my genetics 341 course. On Monday I had my genetics lecture where we covered QTLs and more heritability, and started talking about human intelligence (IQ). How much I love genetics!!! Went home and studied genetics all evening! Good old cue cards!!! On Tuesday I had media studies where we discussed music and how it relates to the identity of an individual. Interesting but not as great as genetics. Then I spent the rest of the day studying genetics (surprise surprise!). Wednesday was another day of genetics. Yippeee!!! But it also very sad because it was the last lecture for the course. On Friday we would be having our test covering quantitative genetics and that would be it! How horrible!!! I felt so sad after the Wednesday lecture, I wanted to cry almost.

Next week I will start my 2nd genetics course on humasn genetics but I'm sure it won't be quite the same. We will have a different lecturer, so I'm not sure what that will be like. Our current lecturer was perfect! Perfect precise notes, interesting material, great lecture style, everything was just really great! Wahhhh!!!! The material that we covered is so fascinating!... Take a wild guess as to what I studied all Wednesday night???!!! Starts with a G.......!

On Thursday I had my biology lab. My head was so in the wrong place that day. I kept thinking about the genetics test that was coming up the next day. Unfortunately the lab was very intense and there was a lot to get done. This was the 3rd week that we've been working on our experiment, preparing samples and stuff. Today we did PCR-the polymerase chain reaction using our extracted samples of DNA and RNA. I tried to concentrate on the lab...at least I finally figured out what was required for our assignment that is due next Thursday... will spend the weekend doing it since I haven't really touched it yet...genetics study too important! Media tutorial went by in a flash and I before I knew it I was back in the kk701 bio lab, continuing PCR and running products on agarose gel...finally we would see the fruits of our labour for the past 3 weeks! We got our stained gel and took it to take a photo....and we saw....nothing except a 1kb+ ladder! (which was a standard sample) Ohh nooooooo!!!!!!! All that preparation! And nothing in the end!!!! Nooooo!!!!! That was disappointing. Although really we did muck up our RNA sample the previous week by overdiluting it, so it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise that we couldn't see much on our gel. The PCR procedure is very delicate and requires great precision. Oh well. Some other groups didn't get anything either so... hey it was our first time! Everything needs practice! That day we finished everything practical that needed to be done so our next weeks lab will be very short! Just to talk about our lab write up and clarify anything that is needed. Our lab reports are due after the holidays, so there's plenty of time!

After the lab I went home feeling exhausted! Studied a bit more genetics and then went to sleep...with my genetics notes and cue cards under my pillow...
The next day-Friday was the day of the test. This time I came in to university 20 minutes before the test (so I wouldn't have to pace around waiting and going crazy). Did the test. Unlike last time I didn't come out feeling like the world was about to end. Answered all the questions. Pray that everything will be well.

...Waahhhh I miss genetics already!!!....