and so concludes the theme for our Easter potluck gathering --- "Animal Socialization" 

I am in love with the dog already 

Here's Brian who is clearly besotted with dogs 

We all wanted to take photos with it... 

Named Chimes, it's supposed to be a cross between fox terrier, blue heeler and a chihuahua, but looks like a golden retriever pup to us 

And there there was the pup with its new owner 

Up close and personal, but unfortunately the photograph here does not do her much justice 

Val's recent new pet kitten - Bakie 

Easter 'celebration'

On Easter sunday, we decided to hold a potluck gathering for our batch of vet students, and also take the opportunity to get Kelvin to bring over his new puppy. Too much food as usual, I made popiah, Brian grilled some chicken wings, and Val & William cooked up some fried rice. The favourite 'dish' of the day went to Sharon's semi-freddo ice-cream- a Jamie Oliver recipe that is really quite yummy. Suddenly everyone is asking her for the recipe, but I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of ice-cream cooks around even so... it's too much work! Although, it WILL be interesting to invent all sorts of different flavors in ice-creams...

Photos of the gathering as follows...

Who would have thought...

I'll be silly enough to choose the 'hottest' day in Perth since school started to clean the kitchen? The weather hit a high of 41.9 deg celsius at midday. By the end of 2 and a half hours of cleaning, I was steaming hot and my blood was boiling... :P Every single time while doing these cleaning chores, I feel like I must be doing something inefficiently, after all, how could it take so long just to do some housework? Conclusion: live in a really small house == minimize chores that need to be done. I don't like becoming a grouch, but the oven stains really drove me mad, and I don't even use the oven.

\("~")/ Grumpy..

Looking on the brighter side, at least now I can enjoy relaxing over the following week since I've completed my part of the housework. Had a great time yesterday following our microbiology practical exam singing karaoke with the others. Easter long weekend is coming up (and one third of supermarkets are now dedicated to selling easter chocolates?!?) and we'll be holding a garage sale to sell off our now-covered-in-cobwebs-furniture. And I received the most belated bday present ever in history today (thanks kelvin! :) ) plus there's no animal practical session this afternoon to stress myself over and the kitchen is now satisfyingingly clean.....sooo...

it's all good. still.

Just give me a normal cow tongue

I give up trying to find anything useful and relevant to my studies on the Internet nowadays. Like for the past half hour I was attempting to search for a decent photograph of a normal cow tongue. All I got was ONE cow photo, with hundreds of other links pertaining to recipes for cow tongue, and the cow-tongue cactus species. I wonder if the Chinese eat cow's tongues, because I certainly haven't been thinking of food ever since we were given the diseased cow tongue picture for assignment, not till Mayu informed few days back that yea, the Japanese eat cows' tongues, so yum yum for her. I suppose its texture should be really bouncy or crunchy, knowing how muscle there is in the tongue. The poor animals. I won't be surprised if parts like the cows' eyes become some sort of a delicacy in certain countries as well. Why not? After all, eating the eyes is definitely more hygienic than eating the intestines.

Despite these frustrations I get from trying to figure out what is wrong with animal organs/tissues, I have to admit that I am beginning to find it really exciting to look at histological slides of animal parts in the microscope. It's kind of like a treasure hunt. Before the assignment is due, nobody knows what exactly is the problem or disease that give rise to the weird looking cells and tissues. This makes it all the challenging to try to figure it out before others do (oops, competitive streak exposed). And then we would be comparing the pathological slide with the normal histological slide, which reminds me of playing the "find the difference between 2 similar pictures" game...

Back to writing 'intelligent' crap about the fibrous cow tongue. I 'm glad it doesn't look at all appetising in its current state.

Just thinking

4 weeks into the new semester and I haven't written a single blog entry... I ought to be ashamed of myself ;) Can't say that I've been busy when I'm not. And as procrastination would have it, I decided to write my first blog of the semester on the eve of my first test on Animal Nutrition. 16 hours and counting down. I wonder if I should skip lectures tomorrow morning before the test, but that doesn't make sense when I'm contemplating a morning jog to clear my mind... it would seem that a 20 minute jog has gained priority over a 2 hour lecture?

I've been pondering if I should go back home in July. This questioning indecisive mind had kept me up for at least an hour last night when I needed my sleep most. I was telling my friend how much I wanted to GRoW, or at least get a sense of achievement from doing something I've never done before. Somehow I don't think I would achieve that by simply staying at home or going out with friends during my holidays. Yet, family is undeniably very important to me, and I don't want feelings of guilt and selfishness to surface upon making any decision. Either way, am I only going to end up judging myself?