Getting That Study Mojo Back

I should really have been doing hardout study for my OSCE (oral exam) tomorrow, but I've been taking it too easy! It must be what happens when you get all your hard written exams out of the way, and it then feels like your holiday has already started.


I even spent all last night watching those Halloween movies like Scary Movie 2 and Scream 3, but I have to say I was quite let down as they were quite bad!


Anyway today I was meant to be doing a lot of study to catch up for yesterday's lack of study. I was going to study during the sermon at church, but Aonghas, who had been working on a 'year in review' video for the church's AGM, stayed up all night working on that video and we all woke up late. My mum was too ashamed to go into church late, so we just went to Pak N' Save during the service and went to church after. 


A few of us were going to sit in on the AGM so we could watch Aonghas's video being played, but we were told that the whole thing was in Chinese and would just be about the church's financials, so Jireh and I just left for the teens' Sunday School which was a bit more entertaining!


I TRIED to get some study done when I went home, but I really don't know how to study for this oral exam! Maybe I'm just pharmacotherapy'd out. Hopefully it'll go OK tomorrow!

The Final Written Test

This morning was hopefully my last ever written exam - my pharmacotherapy exam! Pharmacotherapy is usually the toughest subject, as there's so much to study for! We also usually have the oral exam before the written one as well. 

I wasn't sure how prepared I was, so I wasn't overly confident, especially after Thursday's exam which didn't go so well! 

I was originally going to catch the 6.50 bus (yip, early for a Saturday morning!) but I missed it, so my dad drove me in. It was quite deserted! I just sat outside reading my notes before having to catch the uni bus to the Tamaki campus where the exam would be held.

I actually wrote quite a bit in the exam! We had to answer four short answer questions and write up four pharmaceutical care plans. One question was 

'Discuss the pathophysiology of meningococcal disease'

which I had absolutely no idea how to answer! I ended up trying to think of some creative way to answer that question that would sound remotely plausible!

I actually wrote quite a bit for the cases, but obviously not as much as James, the guy sitting behind me. One of the exam supervisors would regularly go over to him to hand him extra answer booklets!

By the end of the exam, my hand was cramped! We all went outside to see each other and talk (or avoid talking) about the exam, as well as to get our 2010 Pharmacy t-shirt! This year I actually remembered to buy one, which had a 'Pharmopoly' board game on the front of it.

My friend Natalie then offered to give me a ride back to Grafton along with Kunsala and Anisha.

When we got there, Kunsala said she had a spare train ticket and that I could catch the train with her! That was nice of her! We got to the train station to discover that the next train would be arriving in an hour's time, so we walked back to Subway for a bit of a feed before returning to the train station to catch the train.

Even though I have an oral exam on Monday, I don't think I've done too much study all day since the exam! I'll have to get back to it tomorrow...if I can!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxqgOjZBNqE)

He's a Eurasian!

I spent most of today in the Henderson Library, trying to study for tomorrow's big Pharmacotherapy exam, and I'm even going to miss out on youth group tonight to study!

Unfortunately though the Henderson Library closes early at 5pm on Fridays! When I had to leave, I was quite hungry and decided to reward myself with some food for doing all that study! I went into the bakery and bought a sausage roll and apple pie, and as I was paying, the guy at the bakery asked me

"You're mixed aren't you?"


After I explained to him my ethnic make-up, he started asking me more questions about whether I could speak any other languages, or if I had ever been back to Hong Kong before. He even asked me what kind of girlfriend I would get!

He told me I looked more Asian than European, but if I dyed my hair then I would look more European!

That was kinda cool. A lot of people think I look more European than Asian!

Off-Count

I had my first written exam today - PHARMACY409B, which really means Professional Pharmacy Studies...which really doesn't mean much to anyone!

Anyway I spent all of yesterday studying at the Henderson Library, which almost froze me towards the end of the day!

Whenever I try studying in the library I always seem to start off half falling asleep before finally being wide awake and able to do some proper study! I guess I have to plan ahead and allocate some dozing off time before I ever do any study in the future!

The library closed at 8 and I ended up taking a little 'dinner' break (mainly just to avoid the noisy school-kid period) and ended up buying a cheap bag of chips!

Anyway, I thought I was more or less prepared for today's exams, except for a few lectures such as wound care and skin cancer (why do we even need to know about incisions and biopsies?), and OTC...which I probably should know...

The exam was over at Tamaki, and got off to a rocky start for our room. We were sharing the theatre with another group of students sitting an exam for another paper. All of us pharmacy students at the back though only had question booklets, but no Scantron sheets for the MCQ section, nor any answer booklets! While we had our 10 minutes' reading time, the exam supervisors tried to get it sorted out and ended up giving us one extra minute at the end of our exam!

I had to make up a lot of stuff and guess quite a few MCQ questions in that exam.

After the exam I did something I usually don't and shouldn't do...I went back through my notes to see if what I wrote was correct in the exam, and it turns out some of the stuff wasn't!

Now I'm a little scared...As my friends have tried telling me though, I've got to move on and focus on the next one!

The Big Presentation

Today was the big day of our pharmacy research dissertation presentations! There was greater pressure on me compared to others though as I was the only person in my group speaking.

I spent the night before practising the speech with my cue cards (instead of studying!), and freaking out over the fact that I couldn't get the speech within six minutes. According to our guide, it was recommended that the speech was six minutes to allow for four minutes of question time and a total presentation time of ten minutes. My group and I eventually decided that we'd just stick with what we had rather than cut things out as everything was kinda important.

The very next morning I got to uni, wearing pretty much the same clothes I usually wear for dispensing lab plus my old school (Rutherford College) tie, not that you could really see much on it since I was wearing a vest!

I did a quick run-through with my group members in the IC before we all went into the Lewis Lecture Theatre to begin presentations. Our group was at 10.30am so at least we'd get it done early on. While we were all asked to stay to watch all the presentations, there was some talk that some people would leave after their group had presented their own presentations so that they could go and study. I guess at least by being early in the morning, at least most people would get to hear about our research!

I set up a camera to film the research presentations but I was later told I wasn't allowed to upload them anywhere as they contained details on unpublished data.

Some of the presentations were quite interesting. There were quite a few pharmacy staff in the theatre, either watching the presentations, marking presentations or asking questions. 

It was finally our group's time to present. We didn't have a chance to check if the sound in our presentation worked though as we had to start pretty much straight away. As it turns out, it didn't work! We originally had a few quotes read out in our slideshow, but I don't think the sound files were attached, so they didn't play, and Becky (one of our group members) had to read them out instead.

I was relieved that the presentation went smoothly! Maybe it was because I was standing behind the lectern that made me feel more confident and able to speak more fluidly. 

When it came to question time, we got quite a few questions from students in our class! I guess they were interested in what was being taught in pharmacy schools. Becky answered all the questions really well. Professor John Shaw, the head of the pharmacy school was sitting in the back and spoke last. We thought he was going to ask us a question, but instead he explained to everyone how there was a bit of discussion on our research topic, how he was interested in watching our presentation and how impressed he was!

I was surprised afterwards at the positive response from everyone about our presentation! Everyone was complimenting me! I suppose I don't really do much public speaking in pharmacy these days ever since I left high school. Even our group's supervisor came up to me afterwards to say that she thought she had heard me speak more in that presentation than in the whole year! 

Straight after our presentation there was some finger food for morning tea provided for the pharmacy students.

 After morning tea we went back to the lecture theatre to watch more presentations, right through to the afternoon. We were also provided lunch too which was nice!

Once presentations were over, we all got together for another class photo, the one that would be sold to us. We took several photos before we all dispersed.

(Thanks to Ravnit for taking this photo!)

It was a great feeling knowing our research dissertation was finally complete. At least one paper was over! Now we just have a couple of written exams and an oral exam to go till we all hopefully graduate!

A Farewell to the Dessert Club

Tonight was the Dessert Club AGM...I know, we actually had one this year! In the past we've had our Dessert Club AGM in the park, but this time we actually a full-blown AGM in one of the Engineering School lecture theatres with proper speeches, and some of the aspiring committee members giving speeches as to why they wanted people to vote them to the positions they were going for.

As for me, because I'll (hopefully) be graduating at the end of this year, it marked the end of my four years in the Dessert Club, with three of them being in the committee. I was fortunate enough to be asked to give a speech about my experience in the club towards the beginning of the AGM, after I was presented with my certificate to certify my Senior Advisor and Web Manager positions in the club this year. They also gave me this little figure saying 'Cool Dude' which was pretty..cool too!

 Here's a transcript of my speech:

A lot of you outside the committee may not know me as I haven’t been to too many Dessert Club events this year, but I’m Calum and as probably the most senior committee member I’ve been asked to say a few words about my time in the club and the committee, which is sadly coming to an end.

I remember my first year of uni. Quite a few of my friends drifted towards a certain Kiwi Asian Club, but being the cheap person that I am, I was lured to the Dessert Club’s stall in Orientation Week by the free Dunkin Donuts they were giving away. While I was slack at attending events, for some reason I managed to make it to more Dessert Club events than others, probably because they were either cheap or they were offering free food!

It was not till later in the year after I competed in the club’s Amazing Race that I considered being in the committee.

During my time on the committee I’ve held all sorts of positions, from web manager to senior advisor. We’ve organised and run all sorts of events which have given me many memories I’ll never forget – people stuffing their faces in cream pies at the Pie Eating Competition, teams screaming at me in frustration at the Amazing Race Competition, that girl who ate over half a litre of ice-cream in less than a minute at our Ice-Cream Eating Competition, the security guard coming to shut down our Ice-Cream stall when we tried to sell leftovers, and people stuffing their mouths with marshmellows in the Fluffy Bunny Competition after our Easter Egg Hunt. Not everything has gone according to plan but that’s what makes things interesting.

There has been much more to the committee than just organising club events for me though. I’ve enjoyed the great friendships I’ve formed with many past and present committee members and all the social stuff we’ve done together as a group. We’ve been out to many restaurants and dessert places I never knew existed!

This year has probably seen the biggest change in the Dessert Club at least while I’ve been involved with the club. A lot of last year’s Dessert Club Committee members had been involved with the club for a number of years, some having been there since the club’s establishment. Almost all of them left for one reason or another and the job of keeping this club going was passed on to Suzy and Xinny. I have to admit to feeling like I had just joined the Dessert Club committee for the second time, not knowing anyone else in the committee! Despite this, Suzy and Xinny along with the rest of the committee the committee this year have done a great job this year, having stepped up to the plate by not only continuing this club’s fine tradition of providing its members with a lot of excuses to eat dessert but they have taken this club to a whole new level with membership numbers and event turnout greater than ever. This has been acknowledged by our club finally getting the recognition it deserves by not only being nominated but actually winning an AUSA Club award this year. It’s about time!

I never thought I’d say this but I’m going to miss being associated with the Dessert Club. I won’t be drifting too far away next year if I do graduate though, as I’ll be interning at the Campus Pharmacy in the IC where you can come see me and I’ll try not to kill you. Hopefully the club will let me renew my membership and attend some events!

I thank the committee of 2010 for being such a great bunch of people, and I wish the committee of 2011 all the very best. May you continue making Dessert Club the sweetest club on campus.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x_u0z_SmXw)

After my speech, the aspiring committee members each gave their speeches before we all voted, and they all pretty much got the positions they wanted, so congratulations to them all!

My time at the Dessert Club hasn't come to a complete end though, with our Mulan Rouge end-of-year event still to be held, so I'll type more about Dessert Club then!

Last Ever Class

(Thanks to Jacky for this pic!)

Today was the last ever lecture we had! It was given by a paediatric specialist at...Starship Children's Hospital...I think and it pretty much only lasted for half an hour before he tried getting us to ask enough questions to fill the rest of the hour! 

Sadly we had to end our last ever lecture with a short multiple-choice question quiz on the paediatrics module. I originally didn't think it'd be too tricky, but it turned out to be quite tricky! 

After the quiz though we all got together to take a group picture with all (or most of u) in our leavers hoodies! I wish I brought my camera, but I only had my video camera with me, so I just tried filming random stuff!

It's been really weird this week thinking about everything potentially being the last we'll ever have, like our last lecture, our last workshop, last lab...I wonder if we'll actually come to miss them in a few years' time, just like how we sometimes look back at our high school years and miss those days.

Tag

I should be studying but I thought I might as well kill time...

So here's the thing. Go to your search bar and type in the letter, and answer the three questions about the first person on the list, then tag them. [Skip yourself when its your name in the box]

A. Aonghas Anderson

 1) Do you love this person? I have to, he's my brother!

 2) Is this person your enemy? Sometimes haha naah

 3) When is the last time you saw this person? Right now, he's sitting a few metres away from me in the lounge

B. Ben Wong

   

1) What do you really think of this person? He's a pretty cool guy

 2) What's their favorite colors? I'm not too sure but I'd guess black!

 3) Have you seen this person within the last week? I last saw him on Sunady

  

C. Diane Chen 

  

1) Do you have a crush on this person? A long time ago!

 2) Did this person have a crush on you? I have no idea! haha

 3) Do you know the same people? We know some of the same people!

D. Daisy Hsu

1) How long have you known him/her? I'd say for three years 

2) Biggest regret? Suggesting she should be tied outside to a pole...she'll never let it go!

 3) Do you hate this person? Course not! I could never hate Daisy!

  

E. Eva Zhu

1) Have you ever met their parents? I don't think so, 

 2) Worst thing about this person? I can't think of any!

 3) Best thing about this person? She's quite mature and is open to me :D

F. Fiona Ho

1) Has this person ever made fun of you? I don't think she has!

 2) When is the next time you will see him/her? Probably at church this Sunday!

 3) Does this person love you? Probably in a friendly way

  

G.  Grace Wong

1) Are they a good listener? Yip! She listens to a lotta rubbish I tell her!

2) Have you ever lied to this person? Nope!

3) Is this person funny? Yip!

H. Angie Huang

1) What grade are they in? 3rd year at uni

2) Is he/she your friend? I sure hope so!

3) Something you have in common? We....go to the same church!

I. 

Ibrahim Al-Mudalla

l

  

1) How'd you two meet? We both do pharmacy and he was in my formulation project group last year

2) Any siblings? I'm not too sure

3) Ever done something sexual with this person? nooooo

  

J. Jenny Wang

1) Do they have any siblings? Nope

2) Do they like to dance? I haven't seen her dance much

3) Whats his/her favorite color? Hmmmm....I probably should know this! Pink

K. Ng Kee Sean

1) Is this person older than you? I think I'm slightly older!

2) How do you know them? He joined the Dessert Club Committee this year

3) How many times do you talk to them in a week? Not that very often!

  

L. Anthony Albert Liu

1) How old were you when you first met? This year so...21!

2) What's his/hers pets name? I don't know about that one!

3) Love this person? Man love!

M.  Phillip Mobberley

1) What would you do if you had never met this person? I would be half the man I was today :O

2) Do you like him/her as a friend? Yip!

3) Would you go to Disneyworld with this person? Yeah we'd have heaps of fun!

N. Namida Verasche

1) Is this person your boyfriend/girlfriend? Nope!

2) Have you seen this person cry? Nope!

3) Do you know this person's middle name? I don't think he has one? I know his old name before it got changed!

O. Joon Suk Oh

1) Are you related? Nope! 

2) When is the last time you saw this person? In person would have to be... at the airport when I was farewelling him forever! :(

3) What school do they go to?  University of Virginia 

P.  Paul Wu 

1) Have you been to the mall with this person? Nope!

2) How about a sleepover with them? in the park? Not that either!

3) Does this person have a job? I'm not too sure, but I think so!

Q. George Qiao

  

1) What classes do/did you have with him/her? I don't think I've ever been in his class? We did go to the same school though!

2) Does he/she have a good personality? It's unique ;)

3) What's his/her best quality? He's very persistent!

 R. Min-Ran Cheng

1) When will you see this person next? Tomorrow night at the Dessert Club AGM!

2) Does this person have any siblings? Yip Xin-Yan!

3) Describe them in one word? Happy!

S. Szelin Yap

1) Have you heard this person sing? Nah I haven't actually!

2) Do you think this person will repost this? She probably won't even know I've done this ;)

3) Is she/he awesome? Uber awesome!

T. Winston Tan

1) What kind of music do they like? I think he likes quite a variety!

2) Do you consider him/her a friend? Yip!

3) Have you ever spent the night with them? Not the whole night, just stayed late at his house with his family

U. Talila S'au

1) Funniest moment with this person? I can't think of one! (sorry!)

2) When did you meet them? At high school

3) Do you like this person as a friend? I think so!

V.  Vanessa Tsang

1) Is this person loud or quiet? She seems quiet, but not when you talk to her!

2) Describe this person? She is friendly! I want to get to know her better!

3) What color eyes does this person have? Dark brown!

W. Andrew Wong

1) Is this person close to you? I would think so!

2) Have you told this person a secret about you? I can't remember! 

3) Favorite place to go with this person? Youth Group!

X. Xin-Yan Cheng

1) Is this person close to you? I'm not too sure if we're that close?

2) Have you told this person a secret about you? I don't think I have!

3) Favorite place to go with this person? Dessert Club meetings? hahaha

Y. Micheal Yang

1) Does this person wear make-up?  I don't think he does!

2) Does this person play any sports? I know he plays basketball and goes to the gym!

3) Is this person smart? He's very smart!

Z. James Zhu

  

1) Are you related? Nope!

2) When is the last time you saw this person? On Sunday at church I think

3) What school do they go to? Avondale College

The Serious Stuff Starts

I only had one lecture this morning and then spent the whole day studying...well I tried to anyway! The library was so full in the morning so I just sat in the Information Commons reading a psychiatry book.

In the afternoon my research dissertation group wanted me to practise my speech in front of them. Fortunately they liked it! 

We then put together a little modified cartoon of our group that we're going to get printed on a couple of lolly jars for our supervisors as a present! Jess accidentally deleted our first version, but the second version we did didn't take too long to do! The expected arrival time is the day after our presentation though, so hopefully it arrives early!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YO0URH9qr0)

Getting in Trouble

I got myself into trouble with some girls at church today. I admit it might've been my fault but I'll let you decide...

1. After I led children's worship, I teased Ruth about her new haircut...OK my fault! I did feel bad about it and apologised and told her it looked good afterwards...

2. I brought my depression notes to study at church during the service (forgive me God!) and after the service I approached my good friend Daisy and went through the symptoms to see if she had experienced any of them, and she accused me of thinking she was depressed! OK that's probably my fault too...but I was just revising! If it makes her feel any better, I left my notes in one of the new classrooms while I went out to carry some old tree branches to a big rubbish bin as part of church cleaning. When I returned to get my notes though they were all gone! Fortunately it's all on the internet so I can just reprint it all!

3. OK this one I'm pretty sure wasn't my fault! It actually started on the previous Friday night during supper, when Joylynn, one of the girls in my youth group asked if she could look at my phone. I gave it to her, thinking she was just going to play games on it like she usually does. I then noticed her trying to get into my inbox, and so a chase ensued!

Once I got my phone back, Joylynn asked me how many girlfriends I had or have had in the past, and that Antonia wanted to know! When I tried to dodge the question, they cornered me and kept trying to ask them! I managed to avoid telling them long enough that they eventually had to go home before I had to give them an answer. I did tell them to check out calumanderson.com though! ;)

In the morning before children's worship though, Antonia asked me again and I promised I'd tell her at lunch. I managed to avoid her till after singing practice. Once Gabrielle (one of the leaders) left for choir and it was just me and the girls, they cornered me again but this time they were armed with...hand sanitiser! They squirted hand sanitiser all over my clothes! I smelled like coconut!

I eventually told them though. I still have no idea why they were so interested to know, but we'll see what happens this Friday!

Is This Normal?

Does anyone else think this is a little odd? I was teaching one of my students today, and she brought all her Bakugan toys with her. She took them all out of her bag and placed them alongside her and then told me the story about all of them, how one like the other but another one likes that one...

I tried to get the focus back on playing music, and just as I was counting her in, she turned to her toys and told them to stop distracting her!

What a Game!

What a game that was! Lately I've avoided netball, as I don't really rate it much as a sport, but I have to admit the NZ vs Australia Commonwealth Games gold medal match last night was quite exciting!

Aonghas was screaming like a girl, I was dissing everyone and my mum was in disbelief as NZ came from behind to take the lead and then blow it to finish full-time tied with Australia.

The two extra halves were also tied and so went into sudden death mode. It just kept going on and on and on, and so I thought I'd have time to get myself some dinner.

Finally NZ stretched the lead to two goals and won the game! It's about time we beat Australia to win a gold medal!

Congratulations Silver Ferns!

Lasts

These final two weeks of uni are a week of 'lasts' for us, with the end coming up quite soon!

We had our last Pharmacy Practice lectures on Tuesday, which were on pharmacist prescribing which is kinda exciting, and the other one was on...I can't exactly remember...I skipped that one to work on slides for my research dissertation that I was supposed to do the night before (I fell asleep early!). 

Yesterday we had our final law workshop EVER! We have our final ~25% law test next Friday, and so instead of having an end-of-workshop quiz, we just spent the workshop revising.

I really should be doing more study in these final weeks before the exams, but in the past few days our research dissertation groups have had to prepare our presentation slides to hand in by today. My group has decided that I'll be presenting on my own, so I've been getting the slides ready and trying to give them 'high visual impact' and doing my best to make them 'entertaining'. We spent some time in the Information Commons creating caricatures of our supervisors to put on our slides, and other students would come by and ask us what we were doing!

We finally handed in our slides on a CD to the office during our final pharmacotherapy workshop this afternoon after having a quick test in the tutorial room.

In our final pharmacotherapy workshop we did cases that were based on paediatric patients, and instead of presenting our case like usual, our group decided to be different and do a roleplay!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR7oX4T9ECY)

I also got my Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy assignment back, which I wrote on prostate cancer, and I was surprised to get a good mark! I spent the holidays working on it and thought I wrote a load of rubbish, but they obviously thought otherwise!

Oh, and we also got our leavers hoodie today as well! What a great day! The sun was shining too, so I treated myself to a trumpet!

Chicken and Higgins

With this week being a week of lasts, today was the last time I'd catch up with Angie for lunch for this semester, as she will be having two tests next Tuesday.

After I wagged my last class, I power-walked my way back to the city to meet up with her outside the library before we walked through Albert Park down to Queen Street for our usual stroll to a food shop.

We wandered around aimlessly for a while before deciding to try Mrs Higgins cookies! They have a wider range than Subway, that's for sure! For once Angie let me buy food for her, so I bought her a cookie!

Before we went back up to the park, I also decided to try this place called Country Fried Chicken. I bought this snack box with a piece of chicken and chips. It probably wasn't good for my health, since I've had chips and Burger King for the past three days in a row! Oh well, I suppose one more day wouldn't hurt!

We went up to Albert Park to eat by the fountain. Angie threw a few crumbs to some nearby sparrows and pigeons, and soon we had all these birds gathering around us fighting over scraps of food!

It was a good last lunch together. I've tried quite a few different food places this semester which has been cool! I'll have to try them out again next year!

Baking Night

We did some baking for youth group tonight! We got into groups and each group baked something different, including brownies, Reeses Squares, chocolate bugs, chocolate chip biscuits and muffins.

There were so many of us (some people must've known we were going to do some baking so must've decided to show up tonight!) that a lot of us just mucked around and helped out where possible.

I had a little incident when I was going to the toilet to wash my hands when a couple of evil girls dragged me into the girls' toilet and blocked the door and wouldn't let me out! I just locked myself in the cubicle, but weirdly enough they could unlock it from the outside! When I came out I think I surprised one of the other girls who came in to wash their hands!

Anyway back to the food! Most of it turned out well! The muffins were really great, but then again we used muffin mix to make that. The cookies joined together to form one giant cookie and we ended up having to cut it up like a cake. The brownies weren't too bad (even though some thought there might have been a bit too much salt in it, but I couldn't taste it!) and the Reeses Squares...well...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1yJcVJJu9c)

By the end of the night though I had definitely had enough chocolate!

Big Bun!

Today we only had a one hour class early in the morning, so I was done by 10am! I went over to the city to get my own copy of my group's dissertation project printed. It ended up costing me $9 to print the whole thing, with the copier machine jamming twice!

Angie and I were to have lunch at 1pm, the first time we've had lunch this second half of the semester which I was looking forward to. I was starting to miss having our weekly lunches! I sat in Albert Park eating my breakfast and doing a bit of study when Angie surprised me by telling me she was going to skip class and meet me an hour early! I thought I'd try go to the toilet and beat her back to the park but I bumped into her as I left the park!

Anyway after my toilet trip, we went over to Midcity to check out some Asian gift stores so Angie could find a birthday present for Ruth, her younger sister. After a bit of thinking, she finally decided on something and we then went down Queen Street looking for something to eat.

I wanted to try something different, so our first stop was Dunkin Donuts! The girl working there happened to be someone from our church who recognised both of us! I think she's in the choir with Angie. I decided to get six of those munchkins!

We were then walking back to the park when we made another stop at the Korean pancake stall. It was too busy though so we just dropped in to the nearby Rio Kitchen, where I bought this massive bolo bun for $2! The girls at the shop were laughing at me and comparing its size to their heads!

Angie wanted an ice-block so we stopped by a dairy and then went up to the park where we just sat for the remaining time Angie had and just ate and talked. I could only get through a bit of the bun before I got full! I got mocked for that.

When it was time for Angie to go to class, we were walking to her class when someone called out to me, and it turned out to be Zippo my neighbour! She was also Angie's intermediate school friend so we had a bit of a catch-up before Angie went to class and I went with Zippo to the library to do a bit of study (or should I say sleeping?).

Reunion with Japanese Food

Tonight I met up with some of my high school friends for dinner at Moto Japanese Restaurant, which was probably the first time I had seen some of them since Jane's 21st or my 21st birthday!

I drove myself there, but missed the turn-off when I drove past the first time so I went around the second time. I almost missed it the second time as well but did a U-turn!

I was one of the last to arrive but that was OK! It was really good to see everyone again! We all ordered our food. Some of us ordered an entrée's and a main, while some ordered the large Japanese meal box. I ordered some mini won tons as my entrée and Teriyaki chicken. It was funny when Evan told the lady from the restaurant that he didn't want the sashimi. She first asked if there was something wrong before taking back and if he wanted it cooked. Later on she asked him if he preferred a different type of fish. I think she might've been a little hurt!

We updated each other on what was going on with our lives, and talked about what was happening with some others in our year - who was getting married, who was getting pregnant, who came out of the closet...It's amazing how much we've all grown up!

We left just in time for me to drive home (I'm still on a restricted license!), but I can't wait for our next catch-up!

Helping People Give Up

We had a smoking cessation workshop today which I found really insightful! We practised motivational interviewing and different ways of encouraging people to give up smoking, and did a few role-plays. I found all of this really useful as I have a few friends who smoke, and I really don't like seeing them sending themselves to an early grave.

I did try some 'motivational interviewing' on a friend after the workshop, and it did help me get an understanding of where my friend was at and what they were thinking at the time which was good.

You can't really give help to people until they not only acknowledge they need it but are willing to accept it though, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up! I'm just waiting for that moment ;)

Blackout!

Tonight the power went out in our house! I was in the middle of...studying...or trying to...when it just went pitch black! Admittedly the first thought that ran across my mind was...did we pay the power bill?? It turns out that power was out throughout the whole neighbourhood!

It just happened to be dinnertime for us, so we tried to light up a few candles so we could see what we were doing and eating.

iPod and iPolish

I've been constantly checking the Dick Smith website for the past few days to find out when the new iPods will be coming in. The date of expected arrival has always changed, but today I had a feeling it would be coming today, so straight after getting dissertation completed, I caught the bus back to Henderson with Chen (and saw Angie too!) and visited Dick Smith, and guess what? They had just arrived today! Finally!!

I have to say that despite being quite anti-Apple, the iPod Touch is pretty cool. It's quite thin and the user interface is easy and smooth. The video camera is decent but the photo camera isn't the best, but that's OK. I'm still looking for a lot more apps and music to load onto it though as I have hardly anything on it right now! 

I'm a little afraid to take it with me too since I'm afraid of breaking it! I should get Aonghas to buy me a case for it just for peace of mind.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should get the iPhone now. My plan is to pass my iPod to my dad once I buy my dream phone, I'm not too sure when that will happen though! It's a little annoying only being able to connect to the internet through wi-fi though.

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While I was walking through West City on my way out, I passed a beauty stall where a lady approached me, giving me a little plastic pottle with some cream in it. She told me not to eat it before she grabbed my thumb and started buffering or polishing or filing or doing something to it! 

She was trying to persuade me to buy this nail set for my special lady...in this case my mum! I wasn't too keen and told her I'd have to talk to my brothers, since we usually buy gifts together.

After being impressed with my shiny thumbnail, I asked her if it was normal for guys to have shiny nails and she said she got her boyfriend to do it! I was going to ask her to do my other thumbnail, but I thought I better not since she's doing it for free!

Research: Complete!

After spending a whole year together, our group finally got our final year dissertation finished today! Our final research totaled 16,300 words (including appendices and references!) and 71 pages! I don't think I've ever handed in a project that huge before!

We had stayed at uni till 7-8pm for the past few nights, sending in revised versions to our supervisors to check each time. We came in early this morning to correct the final changes made by our supervisors. They hadn't sent us their changes by the time we arrived though, so we went over to their office.

Jessica and Becky pretty much rewrote the results section in the final few days and were afraid that a lot of changes would have to be made, but luckily the changes that needed to be made on the final day were minimal.

We went back to the pharmacy resource room to make the changes. I made the final changes to the reference list, and it was finished! Our final document was aptly named 'FINAL This is It'

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDCwiJm2ryE)

We went over to the Information Commons computer room to hang out since we had nothing to do for a couple of hours. The time we had booked to get our dissertation printed was at 2pm. It was quite refreshing to be finished while everyone else was stressed out and rushing to get theirs done!

We heard quite a few stories about people crying after being told they had to rewrite a lot of their project in the final weekend, arguments between members...a lot of drama! We managed to avoid having too much drama within our group!

There was a free sausage sizzle outside which helped pass the time away.

2pm came, and we went down to the pharmacy office to get our dissertation printed. What a special moment!

We didn't hand it in at that time since Becky was going to get it ring-bound at her husband's work.

At least we've got all the writing done now and don't have to worry about doing any dissertation over the weekend like other groups, and only have to do a presentation and one-on-one interview with the assessor.

Now I have no excuse not to be studying!