Post Graduate Conference

Lagi dua hari nak kena present, power point tak siap lagi. Nervous gak...mau nyer tak, first time present kat negeri orang putih ni....dia orang tak per la, bahasa dia...

dalam duk prepare untuk presentation, tekak rasa semacam nih...jangan takde suara masa present...kacau...

Post graduate conference ni adalah annual event in Medical School's postgraduate programme (PhD only). First year students and third year student kena oral presentation, second year, poster (tak aci..), involving all student within medical school, Dundee U. Setakat ni yang tau, ada tiga malaysian first year (mungkin ada lagi, tapi tak tau), sharun and amal.

Still Standing

This month sibuk dengan conference and meeting. Next week is my first monitoring committee meeting. Suppose kena hantar literature review 2 minggu sebelum meeting tapi less than seminggu nak meeting ni tak hantar lagi.Nak kena present lagi. Tambah pulak ada post grad symposium, lagi la kalut. Dalam pada tu keje lab tak kurang banyaknya. Hari tu duk sibuk nak dapatkan protein, dah dapat nak kena buat protein pull down assay la pulak.

One thing kat sini dia orang punya philosophy...work hard, play hard. Weekend...non-academic activity. Kononnya kalau keje weekend ni bulihlah cepat habis, tapi tak jugak....memenatkan lagi ada. So, sekarang ni weekend adalah carboot sale, picnic, BBQ, shopping or just stay home.

Two weeks ago attend generic skill course, Research Management. Menarik jugak. Yang paling best, dua hari tak yah g lab..hahaha...

Course ni berkenaan bagaimana kita nak handle PhD ni...Menurut fasilitator, PhD is trying to find everything about nothing....that's interesting. maksudnya, makin banyak kita tahu, makin banyak yang kita tak tahu...so just keep asking and looking. PhD is about a journey, not a destination. If we can sail thru the journey, destination is crystal clear.

Protein Business

Lebih kurang dah 6 bulan kat sini, rasanya dah semakin selesa. My first review just around the corner. Still struggling but one thing I understood very well is that this kind of work need tremendous amount af patience and passion at the same time. Work hard is unquestionably a must thing to do. I spend most of my time in the lab trying to raised the protein and find out whether it useable or not. Sometime determination turn to boredorm as it needed to to it again and again.....well that's why they call it re-search.....

Sometimes I miss my old work, no sterilization, never worry so much about contamination and just can leave if need to take days off....

PhD@Dundee

It's been a while since my last post to this blog. To begin...2007 was a very strange and full of uncertainty year for me and family. It was a year that I had to decide whether to embark in PhD 'things' or being a stay home mom. And eventhough I decided to take the chances and go for PhD, finding the right place and the right project is not a fun thing to do and not the thing that I wanna do again..it's though..

Anyway, after endless discussion, thinking and rethinking..we finally decided that Dundee is the place to go. To be honest, I still don't really know whats really brought us here in this cold...not so cool corner of planet earth.

Well, here I'm...formally registered graduate student of Biomedical Research Centre, Medical School, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland. By rating (2007), University of Dundee 's Medical School ranked third in UK (Cambridge is fourth) and I guess this research centre is an excellent ones. I just never imagine myself in this kind of 'place' but I'm glad to be here. It's a greatest opportunity that God gave me, minggle around big brains from around the world. My group is very international. We have Helen from Manchester (post-doc fellow), Anne from German (PhD), Pai from Thailand(PhD), Maggie from Arberdeen, Scotland(PhD), Fred from Sweden(PhD), Malcom from Manchester(PhD), Jamie from London (Med) and my supervisor Prof Paul Clarke (not so sure, but UK). I'm the first malaysian ever...but there will be more to come.

Marine world

While finishing my thesis, I took up a job as research assisstant at University Malaysia Terengganu (KUSTEM at thet time). The project...marine natural product....something I know nothing about. After some serious readings and taking up diving course, it is not bad at all. In fact it is very fun.

We went sampling on the island around terengganu waters and collecting sea creature called marine sponge. They are in various shapes, colours, sizes and smells. It is said to be a simplest marine organisms but as far as I can see, nothing simple about his animal.

Collecting sponges is fun but a hell lot of work when we get back to the lab. During the sampling trip, the hard work goes to the divers. Me...most of the time photographing. The most fun part is while waiting the the surface, we never short of activities...snorkerling is the most popular...

Master Science Pharmacy

I have three babies when I start my master. This is the time I came close and personal with herbal research. It is a very interesting field of research and very useful as well...

My thesis is about standardizing herbal material to be used as herbal medicine. Not something new but most of the time people overlook the very important issues. Taking Java tea (Orthosiphon stamineus) as case study, the project went well and I successfully defend my thesis last year.

Things I like to do

Its academic, but it's not boring