See taw bae lay

Its strawberry season!! Glorious ! I can easily gobble an entire pint in one seating. At 2.99/pint, we are only starting the season so I'll be hoping for cheaper fruits soon. The fruits get so large, they are almost 3x the size of the pathetic Camerons variety. And, I found a great way to enjoy them....

...dipped in chocolate custard! Yummilicious! Just don't look at the fat content.

My Avian Weekend

The past week, my old high school friend Cheryl decided to bunk at my place while attending an event in Sydney. We went out to the fish market for lunch on Saturday to fulfill my long awaited craving for sashimi and oysters. Oh, and of course to bring her on a city tour too. While enjoying the beautiful sunshine, gorgeous view of the Anzac bridge, my 1/2 doz Oysters (which i swear, were so fresh I could taste the saltwater!), 400g of tuna and salmon sashimi, a platter of other cooked seafood, a resident seagull decided to swipe a piece of my Grade A sashimi from my plate! Needless to say I freaked out and made a small scene , waving my paper napkin around like a top notch sissy. How embarassing.

Ah well, still was a great day to be out and about.

Bone Biology Unit, Anzac Research Institute

Last week, the entire lab had a celebration for some who had recently published papers and going for oral presentations in New Zealand. I can't wait till I have some nice data to publish and present, hopefully in a swanky international conference. Defintely feeling the pressue to get good work out since everyone in my dept. is doing such a good job.

We took some nice pics to put into the official website so I thought I'll put it up here. People-wise, it really has been great, everyone is super nice and helpful and made my transition into their workspace so easy.

Lunch Dim Sum/ Yum Cha: (Sitting L-R) Gang (visiting scientist from Ireland), Hong, Janine, Colin (my boss), Markus (new dude from Germany). (Standing L-R) Yu (my immediate senior), Mystie, Markus Seibel (HOD), myself, Robert, Colette and James

Markus wanted a nice portrait of everyone for the website. Looks nice eh? Surprising enough, it's just on a skywalk in the mall. Must be a good camera. (L-R) Gorgeous me, Mystie, Janine, Hong, Colette, Yu, Markus S, Colin, Robert, Markus and James.

Our unit has been growing alot since I came, we'll be receiving 3 new additions within the next 3 mths. Grow BBU grow!!

The Big ADDiKtion

Hi, my name is laine...and I'm a DKholic. To be a DKholic is a little bit like having an alcohol addiction, only that drinking makes people go "It's your birthday...Gonna party like it's your birthday, drink Bacardi like it's your birthday" and my K Diddy makes everyday feel like my birthday.

It's been a year since I've played the emotional Road Runner, and having not won anything more of level 2 of Super Mario Bros. by some strange luck and fate on Monkey Island, I've gone and won Donkey Kong! Kudos to me! I swear I didn't cheat. Just plain smiles and laughs, shits and giggles.

Which is better :
A)winning the lottery
B)being in love
C)being the boss

Survey says 57% chose A. 23% chose B and the rest chose C. Wanna know what I chose?

D) All "D" above

Now am I smart or am I smart? *wink*

Its on the map!

Since my daily routine consists of a daily viewing of movies and shows, be rest assured I have seen many hours of both since Ive been here. In my many hours of couch potatoness, this is a first for me. View dialogue:

The movie: Reno 911: Miami

The scene: Baddie played by Paul Rudd caught by the Reno sheriff's dept. for drug conspiring.

Baddie: "I really don't wanna take over Miami, I'm originally from around Denver. More specifically, Fort Collins. Business is easy there, really big on mushrooms and acid."

So, there's actually more than 1 person in Fort Collins!! ---- Danny and the guy who wrote the script! HAHAHAHA...

sorry babe, was too funny, couldn't resist.

Rare babykin sighted

What is a babykin you might ask. Well here is my simple explanation. Recently discovered by one young scientist in the cold rockies of North America, a non-indigenous species of mammal of primate descent given the nomenclature Honeysnookum babykin. Morphologically, the babykin resembles the modern day human with the exception of a distinct vocalization similar to a Wookie. Data suggests that this sound may be a vital mating call, with audible signals detected up to 8,000 miles away.

With little known of the biology of this creature, we can only guess its role in our ecosystem. Its been shown to possess inate skills in cuddling, hibernating and foraging. With only 1 reported case so far, it is absolutely crucial to improve efforts towards the capture of this animal such that PDA studies can be carried out to test the canoodling limits of the babykin.

The amazing race

Sometimes I feel like im in the geek edition of The amazing race. Only I'm not running around the world solving road blocks and looking for Phil, I'm somehow always running around solving one problem after another. There's beginning to be sad realisation that the rest of my 3 years in Sydney will be filled with these real-life road blocks, laced with troubleshooting and topped with a giant bright red "head-scratching" cherry. I could spend all day complaining about work, the long hours, the over-weekends, the 20min lunch breaks. But when things go right, and you see black and white evidence of the fruits of your labour, I can vouch for that feeling being the top 5 best emotions one can experience.

Today, I got fancy-scmancy X-rays of my experiments which look fantastic!..Phase 1...Complete! Now I hope my next clue box will bring me somewhere nice...and would be sweet to be Team No. 1!! Oh, and don't forget to gimme my prize!