DAys in Glasgow..

Finally got our access card to the lab. We no need to wait for the supervisor everyday outside the reception. Everyone will be wondering why are these 6 Asians doing everyday sitting on the couch every morning! In Malaysia, we always look at Ang Moh like we never see them before. Now I know how the Ang Moh felt already.

This is the place I will be working for the rest of my days in Glasgow. It is very spacious compare to our lab back in IMU. Maybe because the people here is lesser and there are only phD students in their lab. What is good is that we have a specific place for us to do our work and we don't have to always shift our stuff when we need to go off. Hopefully everything will go on as planned and finish on time. *fingers cross*

Look what I have found outside our hostel!! Pink roses!! Very huge pink roses!! I have never seen such beautiful roses in my life! Can you imagine if the whole garden filled with all these gorgeous roses. That will be my dream for the perfect wedding deco. HA! 

The roses are half as big as my face! Pardon my messy hair! The wind was so strong! Once it was so strong it almost moved me when I was standing. Scaryyyyyyyy.... I shall eat more!! To avoid being blown away in Glasgow!

This is a typical weather of Glasgow.. Sprinkle rain, they called it. It is not like in Malaysia, they called it pouring rain. Glasgow has the worst weather in the UK. It can be sunny and raining at the same time or sunny in the morning, sprinkle in the afternoon and sunny again in the evening. So, it is always wise to bring a waterproof jacket or umbrella along whenever you are out. 

Herbal chicken soup with button mushroom. When you are far far away from home, that is when you will be forced to know how to cook. No matter how bad your cooking is, everything will turn out to be edible in the end! But fortunately, Janet brought a lot of packet soup and we just need to prepare the ingredients, then throw everything inside the pot, add in the packet herbs. Woahlaa!!! That is what you get! and it tasted good too! So nice to have a pot of hot nice soup in a weather like that. 

Ben & Jerry's Ice cream is quite famous here. I have never try that before so we bought one and have a try. It cost 1 pound more expensive than Haagen Dazz. Somehow this flavour still tasted okay to me. Not amazingly tasty. It tasted very milky though. Not so sweet compare to Haagen Dazz Belgium Chocolate. Will try other flavour when this one finish. 

Another view from my room during different time of the day. It is nice to stay high from the ground because you can just sit there and admire the breathtaking view from the room. During the night, you can see the city light shimmering from the windows, and I will be wondering what the city people still doing there? Partying? Chilling? haha I will never understand because I have curfew. Yes I have curfew and I have already used to it. I miss home actually and really hope to get back soon. I thought I can live alone far away from home but actually I'm not. Even I have friends with me but I still miss the company from close one. Maybe because too free I guess? If very busy, things might have different. 

Anyway, Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim Friends! Wish you all have a happy holiday and have a safe trip balik kampung! 

Edin-bera

Edinburgh, actually pronounced as Edin-bera. Interesting ei? First trip over to another city in Scotland. Edinburgh is almost the same as Glasgow. But the buildings are way more authentic and old. It really feels like we were at the set of Harry Potter's movie. 

The famous Scott Monument 

Bagpipe everywhere. With their famous kilt. According to a friend of mine, every surname have their own kilt and their kilt can be as expensive as up to few hundred pounds. 

They having this Fringe Festival which happen annually in August. So there are performances, small stalls and streets acts. It is really happening and we really got lucky! 

A view from the park. I wished the park in Malaysia is as beautiful.. 

Fake statue. Hugging a Japanese tourist. They are everywhere on the streets! If you throw a coin in the money box, they will become "alive". At least better than begging right? 

This is one of the crew of their musical, which I find is very creative. Fringe festival mainly showcase thousands of musical and play in Edinburgh. So if you are into art and music, you will definitely enjoy yourself here. 

Close up of the musical crew. Every musical or play have their own promoting act. They don't just pass out flyers but collaborate them with creative moves, dances, costumes or singing. 

This is another crew promoting their play and apparently they succeeded in attracting my friend's attention so we decided to watch their play. 

While waiting in line for the play. 

This is the place called Augustine United Church where we watched our musical "Armada". My first time ever watched a musical. Not bad but not impressive. I'm not sure whether is it really bored or I do not know how to admire the play. haha. Few "fishing" moments. Oppss... 

Opposite The Augustine United Church we accidentally found the cafe where famous J.K.Rowling first wrote Harry Potter! It was really fascinating for a Harry Potter fan like me. Not a die-hard fan but still I collected the full series of the novel. You will be wondering whether did we try out the coffee house right? Nope we dont. Sorry to disappoint Harry's fan out there but it is consider pricey to have a light meal for 9 to 10 pounds. Maybe it is considerably cheap for the locals but for me after conversion rate, it will be RM 50 for a sandwich. 

I took a photo of this elderly couple because you seldom see this in Malaysia. I found that is really sweet and loving scene because it makes me envious to see them just sitting there side by side watching the crowd. By that age, there is nothing more that could make you happy beside having a companion that you can share your everyday with. 

After exploring the streets of Edinburgh, we went up to Calton's Hill. I actually wanted to go up to the Arthur's seat which is quite impossible for everyone to have the same desire as me. I figured since we already here and the travelling fees is not consider cheap, why not just make full use of the 12 pound? But then again, you cant always get what you want and you need to follow the majority. Not everything need to goes like what you want. Maybe if I'm a guy, I will have licensed to be cool and do whatever I want. 

Dandelion!! So huge and pretty.. It is everywhere on the grass. Why is it the grass here so pweeettyyy??? 

Isn't she looks lovely with the scenery and dandelion? haha.. 

Lying on the grass and snapped a memory at Edinburgh before we left. Will miss Edin-bera. 

Day Out In Other Part of the World..

Today we took the train for the first time from Glasgow to Edinburg. It was a just an hour away from Glasgow. Amazed by the beautiful buildings and nature, especially along the train ride. Too tired to blog about the trip so I will keep it suspend for the next blog. 

DEPARTURE

For my semester 7 of Bachelor of Pharmacy in IMU, I have decided to choose to go overseas for my research, since I have been given a choose to go overseas.

The destination is University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. 

I departed on 6th of August 2012. 

Surprisingly, my fellow uni mates came and gave us a warm farewell. Although we will be there for 3 months, but they still come and send us off. How nice right? 

Aren't they sweet? We miss you here. 

We arrived at Schipol Amsterdam airport after 12 hours of flight. Didn't manage to sleep well on the plane. Ended up watching 3 movies: The princess and the frog, Twilight: Breaking Dawn and This is War. I have never seen these 3 movies before but I wont be reviewing because this is not the purpose of this post. Short comments is still fair enough. 

The Princess and the Frog: Disney never fail to bring back my childhood fairy tales dream. 

Twilight: Breaking Dawn: OMG. Half of the story show us about the honeymoon of Bella and Edward? That is porn man! 

This is War: Best of these 3! Reese Witherspoon is still an awesome actress. 

A Dutch told us that Amsterdam have been raining so quite some time. Therefore we were not surprise by the gloomy and cold weather when we touched down Amsterdam. 

But it is summer when we fly to Glasgow from Amsterdam! It is like Glasgow welcoming our arrival! How sweet is the sun. Amsterdam to Glasgow is only about 1 hour 35 minutes. But we were quite exhausted after the 12 hours flight, so some of us actually dozed off. The plane to Glasgow was quite small though. 

We were greeted by our assistant supervisor which is very friendly and helpful. He took us to the University of Strathclyde by train. But we can't get right infront of Uos and we need to walk quite a distance from the bus stop, with almost 30 kg luggage! First time! Luckily the weather is nice to us. We hardly sweat a bit under the hot sun. 

Upon arrival to UoS, we started hearing bagpipes echoing all over. We really thought Scottish play bagpipe all the time in their leisure at one point!! It turned out that they are having some sort of festival where there is a huge bagpipe competition this Saturday at their famous George Square just walking distance away from UoS. 

Now is 12.02 am in the morning in Glasgow. Gotta get to bed. Will have more update soon! 

Have a great day ahead peeps. <3 nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

Flu

Have no idea how I catches the flu. Might be due to the weather I guess? Flu is not a sickness to me until it causes dizziness and teary eyes when the mucus started to block your airway and sinuses. I have not gotten the chance to rest completely. Instead I played captain ball and make myself more exhausted. Thus, there goes my endless sneezing and nose blocking the whole day. 

Went to The Gardens today with lovely friends. Saw this cute bacteria plush toys at a shop name "Action City" 

This is called the flu bacteria. So cute rite? Make his sin forgivable. T.T Because of you, I felt dizzy all day long! 

After that we went Tong Pak Fu for dessert. Went few times and the desserts was okay. Lacking of the "wow" factor in terms of the taste. But it is still quite a place to go if you are into snow ice. A bit pricey though. 

Went to Watson to buy a new cleanser and decided to try Naruko brand. The founder of Naruko is a famous beauty expert: Niuer from Taiwan. He has been to numerous beauty show on television, magazine etc. I have heard about this product few years back but it was not easily available in Malaysia back then. You have to buy it online. But now it has been taken in and sell in Watson as over the counter product. I bought the Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Foaming Wash. 

This is the packaging and i love the simple yet gorgeous design of it. This series is mainly for hydrating purposes and is suitable for dry skin. I have combination skin but since I will be in Scotland for 3 months, I figured my skin would thirst for water due to the weather. They have other series for normal and oily skin too. You can check them out at Watson outlets. Their packaging is very environmental friendly too. There is an instruction leaflet inside the box on how to turn the box into a pencil holder! How creative is that. The price is affordable to most female out there. I guess I will have to use it to see whether the this product suits me or not. Hope it wont fail me! 

I dislike changing facial product after product because it is a waste of money and also resources! How I wish I have natural beauty skin like the Koreans! Nahhh~ Dream on Elyn.. Their food and weather are the vital factors for their porcelain skin! Which I cannot control!!! 

Leaving

In another 2 weeks time, I will be leaving to Scotland for my research. Funny, I actually don't feel like leaving homeland to somewhere where people say is a nice place. 

Home is always the place you go whenever you feel lost. 

Home is always the place you find comfort and safety. 

Though sometimes the people inside may be annoying. But somehow they are the people that you can rely on most of the time. I will be missing them dearly when I'm alone out there. 

I will be missing each and every single person here. It's not like I will be there for years. Yet, I'm more to a person who prefer to stick to places I am more comfortable at. 

Maybe I'm afraid of missing things after I left. Maybe I should learn to look more to the positive side. People do not have the chance to see what is happening there. Some who can afford cant have this chance just because their other half could not live one day without them. 

I need to be more contented like what my friend kept telling me. 

Try to more positive. 

Learn from mistakes and do not be afraid to ask. 

All this might be a tips for me when I'm out there in a foreign land. 

Hopefully my team mates would not fail me and at least be responsible of their own. I would, from now on, be nice for whatever reason in order to make this a pleasant trip. Many concerns always run through my mind before bed. Whether my money would be enough? Whether anything might be shorted? Whether I would be able to finish my work in time?

 Guess I should just passed all that and think of it when it really happened? 

All is well my friend. 

Tension

half way through preparation of presentation script. 

although there is still time left but the exhaustion after working makes me feels like there will be little time left for everything to be perfect.

I will be working at Beauty Expo at PWTC for 3 days. There are 3 brands namely Alissi Bronte and Alqvima from Spain and Phytomer from France. Will update more on what I have learnt from the experience of explaining beauty products which I myself couldn't imagine using it due to its overwhelming prices. (but what you pay is what you get because of its quality, which you can truly see its results in less than few minutes!! No kidding!!) 

These are the essential oils from Alqvima. They have special energy though, like some sort of "Qi" due to its 100% natural originality. (will research more on that.. )

That is a quick and short update. Gonna have a good night sleep for another full day at work! Ciao.