darling's 24th birthday

before it's way overdue, happy 24th (+ one month) birthday to my darling! =P

so happy that darling came over, to allow me to celebrate his very special 24th on the 24th! once in a lifetime! i love you, and wishing you the best, especially for this last quarter! jiayou! -muack-



Went to the rather famous kanki's jap restaurant... eh... food was ok, not bad, but not fantastic lah... i guess based on american standards, it's pretty good... but the money for the hibachi cooking show, not too bad... =)


the hungry group at kanki... waiting for our seats... waiting time was 20 min!!!


finally... time to eat!


the chef and his performance...


back in the apartment... yummy chocolate raspberry cake! (haha. aren the crayon candles cute?)


happy birthday to my darling!





big breath darling blew out all 24 candles in a go!


eh... we kinda waited too long to blow the candles out... but the melted candles were quite an artpiece!!! haha.


hope u had a great time, my dear... happy birthday, with love...

a return to love - marianne williamson

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"

inspiration to go on... simply beautiful...

To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

- The Impossible Dream-
Lyrics by Joe Darion
"Man of La Mancha" Broadway Musical

excursions to the "island-on-the-lake" and the "butterflies-on-the-hill" !

we really covered the major natural elements in this mexico trip... following the 'fire' fury of paricutin volcano, we cooled off in the waters of Lake Patzcuaro! pretty place, with truly picturesque scenary, beautiful clouds... and as we sat in the ferry to get to the island in the middle of the lake, all the seagulls were tailing us! (hoping to get some food i bet!)

Arent these pictures simply amazing??!!






The main island Janitzio that sits in the middle of the lake. At the top is the statue of Jose Maria Morelos in honor of one of Mexico's greatest revolutionary heroes (from Mexexperience)


Surrounded by waters, and so naturally fish! Many stores were selling these small fried fishes, of cos again... complete with chili powder and lime, as all mexican food are served... =)


Which would you like? The plain fishes (left) to add chili later or those coated with chili...


and not surprisingly, the restaurants on the island were serving all kinds of "fish dishes": fried whole fish, fish omlette, fish queso, fish everything!


The view from the top of the island

Next up: Morelia
First impressions - the small posh city, good restaurants and bars line the main streets. busy crowds of people milling around... nice little city!


The cathedral


My darling's all-time favorite taco stall in the whole of mexico! the meat was juicy and tasty, and they were generous with roasted onions, which darling simply drooled over... =P


a nice relaxing evening... sitting at a cafe, having some dessert, hot chocolate and mocha frappacino!

the next morning, we were picked up by our guide for a one-day monarch butterfly tour! these butterflies display an amazing phenomenon every year, migrating from canada down south to mexico in morelia! literally swarms of butterflies come down here from nov to march to seek warmth, away from the cold in canada... we drove up this hill and trek for a short distance to the hill where the butterflies meet for their annual gathering...


up close and personal with the monarch butterflies!


simply beautiful...


can you see the flocks of butterflies? yes, they are NOT falling leaves!


trying to coax one to climb up on my stick... =P


my darling blessed by a butterfly! =)

to the fury of the inner earth - Paricutin Volcano

did u know that some people consider the Paricutin volcano to be one of the seven wonders of the world? ooh... so we actually went to one of the world wonders! (wikipedia)

Paricutin volcano resides in the Mexico state of Michoacán, near a village called Angahuan. it was certainly an amazing day, complete with good sightseeing and great horse-riding! sweet! first horse-riding ever for darling and he went straight up to pro-level galloping! woo-hoo!




my horsey's name is chi-ka-ching, 6 years old... the oldie was simply amazing, knowing exactly where to go, what to do, and tunes her pace exactly to my wants!


our destination...


off to the adventure! at these large plains, the horses will be so happy, galloping away... shiok!


my dearest prince charming, on a white horse! truly a 白马王子！


looks cool eh...


graciously trotting up the hills


i love this pic! the solitary horse under the tree, against the beautiful scenary...


so glad we had horses for the trip... but making our way was... *pantpant*


grouchy darling... i need a lift up!


and finally... the crater! (thankfully, paricutin is a cinder cone, and so it wun ever erupt again...)


look at the 'sey' of my darling....

its official

im completely and utterly BURNT OUT by sch work.

public speaking requires hard and detailed work almost every week, im averaging a C for acting, my prof for RNA class is pregnant and the replacement cancer bio prof hates molecular work, the quarterly research updates (lab presentation, thesis writeup) are due end of this week. i cant put in the time necessary to push my project into the next stage, at a time when a colleague requires fast results as she's leaving the lab for good.

and i completely and utterly WASTED my weekend, unable to concentrate and put pen to paper.

3 years of intense college is too long. pray my singapore-trained last minute bia-ing skills will save me once again and give me a full Speech to Persuade preparation outline in 2 hours tmr morning. give me a lab or a darling's hug for me to sink into, pls. i'm tired. ARGHZ...

an update on senioritis - tenting for Duke-UNC bball game!

so it's almost the middle of the final semester of undergraduate life! time simply flies... a good and bad thing...

having a not-too-bad semester, taking random seminar courses, and labbing... frees up a little more time for play, but time never seems to be enough... =P

so a bunch of us decided that it's now or never to be a true blue devil! 12 of us formed a group, to try to snatch one of the few white-tenting places. exciting! so every year, duke students camp out on the field outside the basketball stadium, for the home game against our arch-rival, UNC (university of north carolina) just neighbours to us in the regular season. only those who tent get to go inside to watch the game (there're also some very very few places for people who queue up for the game the day before). but it's THE game to be at.

so there are people who started tenting from the start of the semester, so they get better spots in the stadium. but for pple like us who din wanna tent too long, the white-tenting is only 10 days before the game! so the fight of the few tenting spots goes like this...

1. early in the morning at 8am, the clue will be released online. The clue is a location on campus that the person-in-charge will be stationed.

2. once u know the location, run for ur life to the location!!! only one person of the team needs to be there, so we all spread out all over campus. and so there will be a mad rush of people running to the venue, forming line to register. and ta-dah! we got our spot! tent #94! (max was 100) heng ah....... =)


the campus map and our game plan of positioning ourselves strategically to get that tent spot...


setting up the tent... this was the hugest tent i ever set up!


woo-hoo! our tent-house (literally!)... yay!

3. so we rotated, taking turns to be at the tent, to make sure that when they call for tent checks, we are there to report. and the weekend before the game, we had to all be present for personal individual checks. so when the whole crowd is out, the partying begins!


when we first gathered on the first personal night check... slowly warming up towards the nighttime craziness!


tent #94 in full force! personal check #1 cleared!

k-ville (the tenting grounds - named after the men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski) was simply crazy, crowds of people, drinking, playing beer pong, shouting, screaming, few pple even doing wild stuff like running around topless in the freezing cold!!!


the partying goes on thru the night...


day 2 of personal checks... cleared what we needed, and off we went, escaping from the freezing cold!

so the hoard of us went over to someone's apartment, and continued our games (and alc..)


playing late into the night, until 5.30am!!!! all the drinking games... haha. everyone was so tipsy/drunk... and tired... couldn tell which was which =P

game day! all the 10 days of tenting for this very day! all the blue devils dressed in royal blue and white!






a picture with the blue devil (duke's mascot)!

and finally..... we were in!


the cameron stadium filled with the sea of duke blue...


the intense game between the arch rivals... the crowd looks and cheers on...


this was funny... the blue devil fights with the north carolina ram (their mascot) and captures and ties it up... hilarious!!


well, we had led for more than half of the game... but eventually ran out of steam and let the opponents catch up... losing 73-79 in the end. oh well. but nevertheless, the whole tenting event was fun! at least i can say that i graduate being a true blue devil! =)