Home!

I'm going home tomorrow!! home home home home sweet home...

Can't wait to go home... but i dread the travelling that i need to go through to reach home...

Happy Birthday Puisan!!

Happy birthday you crazy fella...

Missing

Arrived in London yesterday by train. When we went into the coach we were in, it was quite full and the baggage compartment (which was small) was left with minimal space for us to squeeze our bags there. When the train reached St Pancras, we let most of the passengers go first before we made a move towards our bags. Mine wasn't there.

I started worrying and wondering why are there such people in life wanting to steal my bag which contains nothing except clothes. Went out of the coach looking up and down, then back into the coach looking up to see if anybody put it there for more space. It wasn't. Until one of the passengers saw me jumping up and down with my worried face and asked me if i lost my bags.

Guess where the bag was. It was beneath someone's seat. And since the bag was brown, it kinda blended into its environment.

Travelling

Will be off to London tomorrow. 5 days of being in the city.. wonder how would that turn out? Then it'll be home in 8 more days!

Cooked laksa (Sarawak Laksa for all you people who think the only laksa is Penang Laksa) again yesterday, this time it was nicer than the previous time I cooked it since I put less water this time. A good thing about cooking one meal and inviting others is that you get invited back for meals! I didn't cook a single meal today, except to heat up laksa for breakfast. Had lunch at Hwee yin's place (fried leftover pasta) and dinner at Yan Leng's place (Nasi Lemak!), which was good since I didn't have to think of what to eat.

I've been packing my stuff up and it seems like the bag I want to bring home is quite heavy. Will need to weigh it after I finish packing and take some stuff out. (SARAH, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. YOUR VIOLIN STAND IS VERY HEAVY!)

Having a terrible headache today and I have no idea why. Maybe it's (the brain) is too free so is dilating and constricting its own blood vessels. Exercise....

Yay!

How is it I go to bed at 2am and still wake up before 7? Maybe it's the sun shining in... or maybe it's just my stomach being empty.

Well, it's the end of Pharmacy year 3.. How fast time flew. I can still sort of remember walking into the first day of year 1, and now it's already the end of third year.

We went out to celebrate yesterday at Las Iguanas for Latin food, but basically I think they only served Spanish and Mexican food (or they the only two Latin countries?). The food was ok, not that great.

Then we dilly-dallied in Tesco waiting for Goh to buy everything he needed for the picnic later, so that we can help carry them back. It's a bit funny when you see so many girls waiting for a guy to finish shopping.

Came back and started helping him prepare the food. We peeled, cut, boiled and mashed potatoes for his shepherd's pie. Made scones (it was in two trays and the tray on the upper side of the oven was nicer than the lower tray), and since Rachel wanted to learn how to make Banana Bread, I made that as well. Well, in the end, poor Rachel didn't get to see what I did as Puisan kept her busy making scones together (it was more of a puisan making and a rachel being helper.. poor rachel).

Time to go find some food now.. as I have been smelling Banana Bread while I was sleeping and when I woke up.

And picnic later!! Sun, friends, food and frisbee!

I PASSED!!!!

I PASSED!! I PASSED!!!

Last one of the year...

So, there's another paper left.. and it's the last one for year 3, Toxicology on the 19th May. That is also the day for when we know if we pass or fail our Law exam and our dispensing exam. I'm pretty confident that I did quite well in those two.. but life is always unpredictable, where things I am confident about don't really turn out as expected. So fingers crossed.

Anyway, back to toxicology. I started studying this module fairly early on, and the past few days I was wondering if I had forgot everything that I spent so much time revising. Turns out I still have some space in my brain for toxicology, and that because I understand what I am studying. If I were to blindly memorise something without understanding it (like yesterday's Quality in medicines design and usage), my brain cannot handle that.

My brain is split into two compartments - the understanding part and the memory part. The understanding part takes up the majority of the space in my brain. The memory part is just a tiny spot really. It's just there because everyone has to have a memory compartment. It's like a pendrive storage space... Mine's still outdated and using 56mb instead of the new ones which can store up to 8Gb (or more?). Hmm.. maybe my memory compartment is still a floppy disk. And my brain's running on really low RAM.

I really need to improve my English... I find that it is really deteriorating. Maybe I should start writing stories again (or tons and tons of factual essays) or start reading the dictionary and thesaurus. I found myself using the same words over and over again in the essay yesterday, and I couldn't even crack my brain to find another word to substitute those words, which made me cringe when I was reading through the essay again. It read like a broken disc player, where the same thing was repeated several times.

Or maybe it's just writing factual stuff that makes my English go down the drain?

I think I need a brain scan to determine if I actually have a language spot in my brain.

I just realise I veered off topic after I posted this post. I was talking about toxicology. And I cannot remember what I wanted to post about it. So, short and sweet, good luck everyone on our last paper of the year.

11.32am

I'm still waiting.... why do we have to have exams in the afternoon... they should just put all in the morning... esp the last paper.. which is at 4.30!! OMG! I won't be able to sit still the whole day....

Quality in medicines design and usage

It's 9.15am now.. and it feels like I've been awake for ages. Trying to study for the abovementioned module which will be examined on later on. Just to test my memory, decided to test my memory on how drug development is..

Normal drug development is done in a few stages. First comes drug discovery by various methods, such as natural product sources, targeted drug design, random synthesis and high throughput screening.

Then, the chemical process development. Here, bulk quantities of the drug is produced and the most cost effective synthetic pathway is to be discovered. Then, the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) or collectively the pharmacodynamics are studied. Toxicology is also being done on that chemical compound. In vitro testing on cell culture or Ames test (which tests for bacterial mutagenicity), acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, and reproductive toxicity are being done.

Then comes pharmaceutics. The form of the drug has to be determined, taking into account the physicochemical properties of the drug and aiming for an oral formulation.

Next comes the clinical trials. This is in 3 parts (or 4 including post marketing surveillance).

Phase 1: Clinical pharmacology and toxicology

This is being done in health volunteers (males age 18-45) to find out the smallest effective and highest tolerated dose. The metabolism and pharmacokinetics of the drug is being observed. Any side-effects are also recorded.

Phase 2: Clinical investigation of therapeutic effect

Assesses the bioavailability of the pilot formulations and also the therapeutic effect of the drug.

Phase 3: Full-scale therapeutic evaluation in patients

Determine the dosage form and also the regimen. The efficacy, benefit, long term tolerance, adverse side effects, contraindications and interactions with other medicines are investigated in this phase. If everything is up to par, the documents can then be sent to the appropriate regulatory agency for approval and registration (MHRA in UK).

Phase 4: Post-marketing surveillance

The drug is already sold.... more research will be done to find out - long term side effects, efficacy, toxicity, and maybe find another indication for the drug. The dosage regimen can also be optimised for better effect.

So.. will I get 100 marks for all that? Cross my fingers that this question will come out and that I can actually remember everything that I have read through.

Sorry to bore you all with all this... It just seems more fun to study this way. (I hope all my details are correct though, I kinda took all these from my notes and paraphrased them..)

Update @ 1546: it was a lousy paper... I was just writing anything and everything that came to my head and I realise that my english is getting worse.

Side effects

Side-effects of exams:

1. Gastro-intestinal disturbances
2. Nausea and vomiting
3. Tremor
4. Sleep disturbances
5. Tachycardia (Increased heart rate)
6. Restlessness

Other side effects may be experienced by other individuals.

These may be alleviated by open spaces and fresh air.

One down, three more to go

Finish law!! yay! Somehow it's going to be over very fast. Then it'll be freedom... Off to visit Manchester and also London!

Anyway, bout today's paper, it wasn't that bad. Since it's an open book test.. but the time seemed to go by very very fast though. 2 hours just went pass without any extra time.

Next.. Disease and goals of treatment.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! Esp to my mum, my sa ee, my two Grandmas, my aunt, and my dear godmother Liz. Hugs and kisses to all!

Exam Exam Exam

2 more days! Then I'll have to tackle Pharmacy Law and Ethics...

It's so hot these days... up to 25 degrees each day! Good thing I got my mini-fan... my window is open throughout the whole day regardless of the bee that seems to like to visit my room each morning and evening to say good morning and good night.

Ok, good luck everybody with the exams. It's only 4 papers anyway, no worries... (yea, right)

Sunny day

It's a sunny day today and quite warm. Actually it has been warm for the pass few days as well, just that only today that I got myself out of the house for a walk and a break from studies.

Since a lot of people come to my blog to see food, here's dinner. Sweet and sour fish and beans fried with egg.

Nearly cut off my thumb again. That's twice in 2 days. Thank god we have nails to protect the poor thumbs and fingers.

Guess what I got?

I recently won a competition! yay! I won the above 4 cds (Lizst, Mozart, Mahler, and Rachmaninoff), two orchestra tickets for this Friday's performance by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and also two orchestra tickets to BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's performance on Brahms and Schumann in Manchester in June. Am I lucky or what?

Well, I have a feeling not a lot of people joined this competition that's why I won.... hehe..

Just photos

I saw this er.. crane-like bird in the drain.

Experimenting with different modes in my camera. Sepia.

The tree outside my house is growing its leaves again.

The leaves in black and white.

Blog earnings..

Well, I've turned my blog into earning me some money and I've been cashing in 3 pounds per month since a few months ago. I put on Nuffnang ads and I have never ever ever earned a single penny. But when I look at my account today, I finally have RM0.50! Now, all I need is 100 times that amount for me to cash out...

In the meantime, I'll just continue receiving 3 pounds a month (click here).. :D since there is no revenue from Google Adsense and not a lot from Nuffnang..