I am unable to write much post until the end of July since I do not have the time to sit at home for blogging until then. Too much travelling, which also mean a lot more upcoming post to be written soon. Anyway, I will try to insert as many pictures as possible into this post.


Caption: my brother and Liz at Heathrow


Caption: Liz and mom at Heathrow

My brother and I went to pickup my mom and Liz at Heathrow Airport. Happy! Happy! We were probably out of luck when there are some major delay in the Hammersmith tube station. Somehow, I have a bad and weird feeling when I could see no one waiting for the tube to Heathrow Terminal 1, 2, 3. Finally, we realized that the tube is not going to Heathrow airport due to maintenance :( So, we spend an extra hour travelling to Heathrow by bus. Therefore, if you are planning to travel to the UK, try not to travel during the weekend since I heard the TFL is planning to have service maintenance until the end of year 2012. Finally we reached Heathrow. As usual, I took some pictures for them. I will try to summarize their life in the UK. Due to jet lag (a psychological condition in which will consequently alter the circadian rhythm, related to sleep disorder), they spend a night sleeping at home.


Caption: some event at Westbourne Park

It may sound funny since normally, a person who first visit the UK will ask to visit the tower bridge. However, my brother brought Liz to Oxford street instead. Probably she is some kind of shopaholic? Sorry Liz, lol. I do know she love shopping. Anyway, we spend approximately 5 hours in Oxford street. A very very busy day on that day. The main reason she travelled to the UK is to attend my brother's graduation. On the other hand, she could only apply for 2 weeks leave. Therefore, she treated travelling around London as a complement. Besides that, we have no intention to travel too many places in UK due to the widely spread of swine flu disease. It was mentioned by the BBC news, stating that there were at least 100, 000 cases of swine flu around the globe everyday, and 8, 000 cases only in the UK. I have a little worried of this. Besides that, there is this deliberately sad news, stating that a similar kind of disease to the H1N1 is spreadingg, not through pigs, but through dogs. I assume puppies were included in the list :( Basically, there were lots of types of influenza disease (click HERE) So, the best solution is to stay more at home instead of travelling around at this time.


Caption: the original structure of Stonehenge


Caption: Liz at Stonehenge


Caption: Daryl and Liz at Stonehenge


Caption: somewhere near Stonehenge


Caption: city of Bath


Caption: Liz at Bath


Caption: Bath

Truthfully, there is nothing much to see in the UK. You may probably only need 3 days to travel around those famous places of interest in London. So, the forth day, we booked few tickets to Stonehenge (is a one of the seven human-made wonder or monumen located at Salisbury in the UK) and Bath (is a traditional english town in the UK where you may find the roman architecture and buildings such as the ancient roman bath). The original structure of the Stonehenge was build off a combination of stones, producing a circle form of rock. Due to the acid rain, the entire Stonehenge was nearly demolished. Some believed that the Stonehenge is a place where ancient human uses it for prayers. Anyway, it remained puzzled until today. I did not follow them to bath though, since I have been travelling to that 2 places for more than ten times.

We went to hyde park on the following day. Before going to hyde park, we met Ka Ka (one of my musician friend) shopping around Bayswater (somewhere near hyde park). I managed to take a picture with her on that day.


Caption: Ka Ka and I


Caption: at the front of Kensington Palace


Caption: the pool in Hyde Park

Hyde park is the largest park in central london, UK. Hyde park covers 350 acres (around 1.4 km). There are approximately 4,000 trees, a lake, a meadow, and a horse ride in the middle of london. The park is opposite the Queensway tube station in London (central or red-coloured line). You may find the Kensington palace in the middle-west section of the park. I have been visiting the hyde park for more than 50 times but could not get near to the Kensington palace. This means that I have approached the inner building of the Kensington palace until that day. So, I think Liz is considered as a very lucky person.


Caption: Happy Birthday Liz


Caption: this is what they brought, envy envy


Caption: mom posing with LV bag and sunglasses


Caption: mom enjoying her pizza portion

By the way, it was Liz's birthday on that day. Coincidently, she shared the same birth date as Princess Diana. What a coincidence! I also heard she had a really great day with Daryl (my brother). They came home with some birthday presents. They unwrapped them together. Later, mom loan them for picture taking. Both of them also brought some pizza from Bella Italia (an Itallian restaurant) back home for mom and I.


Caption: opposite the four season chinese restaurant

Before the end of this post, I would like to recommend two chinese restaurant for people who love eating duck (1) Four Season and (2) Gold Mine, opposite the Whiteleys building, located at Bayswater. The duck is really tasty and 'juicy'. Try it yourself and you will know it :)

I am a quite chinese typical minded person who would spend some of his free time reading on chinese astrologies, that is the compatibility of the 12 animals in the chinese calendar. Coincidently, a friend of mine (her name is Ka Ka) and I have discussed about this topic based on her understanding from the 'Tong Seng' (a book that provide thorough understanding of every aspects related to the chinese astrology). Here is what we found:


Caption: the 12 animals and its elements in the chinese calendar

The zodiac sign and birth time: I was told that the order of the zodiac sign were originated in the Han Dynasty (206 - 220 B. C.) based on the 12 animal-time periods in a day. The birth time is of important in the chinese culture where it determine the person's futuristic life (this is what I understand so far). On the other hand, some people would even match their birth time to choose their life-time partner. If it is not matching, then they are considered as not compatible.

1. If you were born between 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.: the time rats actively seek food;
2. If you were born between 1 to 3 a.m.: a time that oxen regurgitate;
3. If you were born between 3 to 5 a.m.: tiger hunt prey and display their fiercest nature;
4. If you were born between 5 to 7 a.m.: based on tales, the jade rabbit on the moon was busy pounding medicinal herb with a pestle;
5. If you were born between 7 to 9 a.m.: dragons were said to hover in the sky to give people rainfall;
6. If you were born between 9 to 11 a.m.: snakes start to leave their burrows;
7. If you were born between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: the day is flourishing, as vigorous as an unconstrained horse;
8. If you were born between 1 to 3 p.m.: it was said that if sheep ate grass at this time, they would grow stronger;
9. If you were born between 3 to 5 p.m.: monkeys become lively;
10. If you were born between 5 to 7 p.m.: roosters return to their roost as it is dark;
11. If you were born between 7 to 9 p.m.: dogs begin to carry out their duty to guard entrances;
12. If you were born between 9 to 11 p.m.: all is quiet and pigs are sleeping soundly.


Caption: the chinese astrology chart for animals

I am also going to note the compatibility of different animal based on the chinese calendar. Of course, I would not know how much should we believe on the astrology below, but based on Ka Ka and my observation, this is relatively accurate and should be used as a general guideline in our live when necessary.

The characteristic and compatibility of each and every animal in the chinese astrology:

1. Year of the Rat – (year of birth) 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032, 2044

Best match for the rat : dragon, monkey, ox
Worst match for the rat : sheep, horse, rabbit, rooster

2. Year of the Ox - (year of birth) 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033, 2045

Best match for the ox: rat, snake, rooster
Worst match for the ox: dragon, horse, sheep, dog, rabbit

3. Year of the Tiger - (year of birth) 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034, 2046

Best match for the tiger: horse, dog
Worst match for the tiger: snake, monkey

4. Year of the Rabbit - (year of birth) 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023, 2036, 2047

Best match for the rabbit: sheep, dog, pig
Worst match for the rabbit: rat, ox, dragon, rooster, horse

5. Year of the Dragon - (year of birth) 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024, 2036, 2048

Best match for the dragon: rat, monkey, rooster
Worst match for the dragon: dog, ox, dragon, rabbit

6. Year of the Snake - (year of birth) 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025, 2037, 2049

Best match for the snake: ox, rooster
Worst match for the snake: tiger, monkey, pig

7. Year of Horse - (year of birth) 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954,1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026, 2038, 2050

Best match for the horse: tiger, sheep, dog
Worst match for the horse: rat, ox, rabbit, horse

8.Year of the Sheep - (year of birth) 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027, 2039, 2051

Best match for the sheep: rabbit, horse, pig
Worst match for the animal: rat, ox, dog

9. Year of the Monkey - (year of birth) 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028, 2040, 2052

Best match for the monkey: rat, dragon
Worst match for the monkey: tiger, snake, pig

10. Year of the Rooster - (year of birth) 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041, 2053

Best match for the rooster: ox, dragon, snake
Worst match for the rooster: rooster, dog, rabbit

11. Year of the Dog - (year of birth) 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030, 2042, 2054

Best match for the dog: tiger, rabbit, horse
Worst match for the dog: ox, dragon, sheep, rooster

12. Year of the Pig - (year of birth) 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2020, 2031, 2043

Best match for the pig: sheep, rabbit
Worst match for the pig: snake, pig, monkey

Look like it is a difficult task to look for a life-time partner if you were to look for one based on the justification from the chinese astrology, lol. For me, I think I should better trust the chinese astrology based on the depiction of some relatives' life, and have proven that the compatibility of animals may seriously influence their future :)

The receipe of this dish was modified from the original chicken and mushroom chinese dish. It tastes really good, so please do try to cook this dish if you like chinese food.


Caption: herbal chinese mushroom

Initially, we called this as the chicken mushroom but since I uses some chinese herbs for the sauce instead of plain water, this chinese dish is known as the herbal chicken mushroom.

Ingredient list: dice chicken, some black mushroom, chopped garlic, onion, ginger, salted chopped carrots (optional), LKK oyster sauce, salt, LKK chicken marinade, sugar, shaohsing rice wine, sesame oil, pepper (optional), grounded white pepper, and corn starch.

Herbal list: dried longan, wolfberry, dried dates, some dried almond

Instruction:

Before cooking this dish, make sure you wash and soak the black mushroom into cold water for a night (or soak into warm water for few hours) to make it softer.

Buy any chicken that you like (i.e. chicken with bone, dice chicken, drumstick, tight etc.), slice them as you wish and marinade it with some sesame oil, some LKK chicken marinade and ground white pepper. I would suggest you to keep the portion of marinaded chicken into the fridge for couple of hours or a day.

Before cooking the dish, first boil some water with the chicken bones. You need to add in some msg (monosodium glutamate or Ajinomoto) to make the soup taste better. Then, place those herbals into the boiled water, and continue boiling the soup for approximate 30 minutes. You only need a small amount of of herbal soup to replace it as the sauce of this dish so need not boil a bowl of herbal soup.

While boiling the soup, on the other hand, you need a frying pan in the next stove. Put some oil into the frying pan and heat it. Then, fill the frying pan with some chopped garlic, onion and ginger and cook it till it turn brownish in colour. Remember, do not overcook the garlics/onion/ginger. Then, remove the mushroom from the bowl and slice each mushroom into 3.

Put the sliced chicken into the frying pan and cook it well. When the meat is around 70% cooked, place those mushrooms into the frying pan and cook it together with the chicken.


Caption: the chinese dish

Transfer the soup boiled (only the soup) with the herbs into the frying pan. Stir everything in the frying pan well and cover the frying pan with a pan cover for 5 minutes. This is to fully heat the uncooked portion of the chicken if not cooked well yet. Remove the cover and add some shaohsing rice wine, LKK oyster sauce and some LKK soy sauce, and stir them well with the chicken. Finally, add some corn starch to make the sauce starchy.

The herbal chicken and mushroom dish is ready to be served. Try it and let me know how it tastes for you :)

The famous US pop star Michael Jackson (50 years old) was pronounced dead this afternoon (May 25, 2009) from cardiac arrest at 2:26 PM Pacific Time (US). The doctor pronounced his death when he was sent to the UCLA medical centre in Los Angeles in coma condition. Michael was not breathing when paramedics arrived.

Here is the video from the news.


Watch CBS Videos Online
Caption: video from the news

Most cognitive psychology journals have stated that the emotion component in human cognition is difficult to understand due to the difficulty level of understanding a person's emotion / behaviour / characteristic. These aspects were all interrelated. This also lead to the understanding that a person will mostly never able to change their attitude / behaviour. I have forgotten which journal that I read, stating that the maximum tolerance level will not exceed 10 years. For example, if a person tell you they have changed their attitude in order to get married with you, please do not trust entirely since covering up his attitude will normally not exceed 10 years.

Okay, back to something really funny to me. In fact, my research involved looking at cognitive factors (related to emotion) of human when doing conducting different activities, such as playing games. It is a very interesting topic. My brother has recently send me a video that was closely related to human emotion and behaviour, which I think is extremely humorous while watching. Therefore, I have decided to post it here to share with all of you. This is also a relatively old video, so people who have watch this video may just ignore watching it again :)


Caption: German guy when playing maple story (an online-game)

Lol! However, do not think this is just a video since the changes of human behaviour may cause all these at some critical moment. For instance, the maple story game is so important for the German guy and hence, the stress factors possess him (disconnection, banned of account etc.) will usually cause significant changes to his emotion, and may lead to frustration and whilst throwing his keyboard :) Consequently, human can be a very dangerous species at certain time.

I have been complaining to my mom for nearly a decade that I have genetically inherit her DNA due to the amount of white coloured hair I have. You will not believe how annoying to have massive amount of white colour hair before age 30. Somehow, it is not always a disadvantage to have white coloured hair growed all over your hair, lol.


Caption: grey hair

I have been reading new scientist, and found something really interesting there. Some researcher suggest that the production of grey hair within us may protect us from the cancer disease! I was thinking, grey hair or white? I am not sure with that since they have not specify in detail but I am assuming it to be white hair. I am also not making anyone or myself happy, but this was proven by experts in the Harvard medical school in the US.


Caption: hair turning white in colour

In brief, there are cells which we called it as pigments that produces hair colour. The number of cell production depends on something known as stem cells. Hair turned grey in colour when number of stem cells in hair follicles declines. This has led to fewer melanocytes (also known as the skin cell that produces the pigment called melanin), as it meant there were fewer stem cells capable of increasing the number of melanocyte.


Caption: grey mouse

As an evidence, the researchers in the Tokyo medical school conducted some minor experiments. They exposed mice to the radiation and chemical that would harm the DNA or perhaps damaging stem cells and / or transforming them into melanocytes permanently. The mice went grey. Then they relate the same concept to older adults since the reproduction of DNA will damage as we age. Afterall, maybe I should feel proud for having less black hair colour, should I? Lol.

This is absolutely a new discovery, using a hybrid heart to solve transplant crisis. (many people died from transplanting to a new organ, and this latest discovery has solve such problem).


Caption: a video on the heart transplant

This synopsis of this beautiful research is to transplant a temporarily organ as a replacement in different living beings. First, they replaced the heart of a dead rat to another rat and the tissues from one rat to another rat's stem cells. The experts from University of Minnesota in Minneapolic is trying to achieve a much larger scale of such transplantation processes not only in the hearts, but in other important organs such as livers starting from different animals such as pigs and try replacing them into human bodies.


Caption: pig heart seeded with human cells to create a human-compatible organs, and also a heart before the decellularisation process


Caption: a decellularised pig heart

These experts who tried working out in a team first tried implanting the reclothed hearts into the abdomens of rats. They found out that the rat survived temporarily whilst the rat's body was not rejecting the temporarily implanted heart :O Isn't this an extremely important discovery if this approach could be applied to the transplantation in human organs since many human sacrifices during the process of transplanting.


Caption: a stripped down pig heart to solve transplant shortage

The next step is to see if the transplants could replace an existing heart and keep the rat alive and healthy. So what they did was to repeat the experiment, and perhaps enhancing the experiment in different styles. They keep the rat alive with pig hearts and liver. According to the experts, this could be easier since pig organs are initially larger and easier to handle than tiny rat hearts.


Caption: a re-celled rat's heart

Afterall, the experts in indicated their ultimate goal is to decellularise human, not animal, organs for transplantation. Using animal is just a part of their testing before trying on human. If only animal organs such as pig's heart could be used temporarily as a replacement heart in the process of heart transplantation for human, then the success of this discovery will produce significant changes to the medical field in the history.

It's definitely my fault for not writting this post earlier. Thanks to the 4 person who have been reminding me for this update. I really appreciate your concern regarding to my sister's wedding. Thank you very much (my sister should be very happy if she know this). Anyway, I just reached to the UK again. This means a more interesting but hectic life :) I believe this would also slow me down in blogging. Theres another thing which I think I should feel proud, that is the examination results were released a week ago. I have around 19 friends (including my brother) were jstudying in the same University for their bachelor degree, most of them did very well. I just found out that their final grade will be based on one chart. Based on the chart, my brother suppose (suppose, but never know yet until officially receive the results) to get a first class honours for his degree :D

Q1: The grading scheme (since April 2009): The grading scheme will be based on the degree calculator (the degree calculator has been verified recently as the estimation calculator of student's overall grade by the assessment board of Middlesex University, click HERE for the degree calculator).

There were two calculation methods for students based on: (1) 30-credit point modules at level 2 for students who have attended at Middlesex University for year 2 and 3, and (2) 30-credit point modules at level 3 for students who have attended at Middlesex University for year 3 ONLY.

For method one (1): eight modules were used in the calculation

a. To get First Class Honours, you need at least: 4, 4, 4, 4, 12, 12, 16, 16
b. To get Upper Class Honours, you need at least: 8, 8, 8, 8, 12, 12, 16, 16
c. To get Lower Class Honours, you need at least: 12, 12, 12, 12, 16, 16, 16, 16
d. To get Third Class Honours, you need at least: 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16

For method two (2): eight modules were used in the calculation

a. To get First Class Honours, you need at least: 4, 4, 12, 16
b. To get Upper Class Honours, you need at least: 8, 8, 12, 16
c. To get Lower Class Honours, you need at least: 12, 12, 16, 16
d. To get Third Class Honours, you need at least: 16, 16, 16, 16


Q2: How to calculate the degree classification then?

1. Requirement for Distinction: 50% of your graded credit at level 2 or aove must e graded 4 or better, ut with no more than 25% at 13-16 (based on the scale point of 1-20).
2. Requirement for Merit (Upper second): 50% of your graded credit at level 2 or aove must be at 8 or better, but with no more than 25% at 13-16 (based on the scale point of 1-20).
3. Requirement for Pass: The grades are too low to meet requirements of a merit.


Caption: double happiness

Anyway. three days after my brother-in-law paid the deposit to the chinese restaurant, they called up and asked us for food testing, of course, for free :) However, the person in charged told us the foods were only meant for 6 person, and we have around 8 or 9 person (I have forgotten the exact amount of people attendeds, lol) joining the lunch on that day.


Caption: candit (i)


Caption: candit (ii)

The foods are seriously very tasty :) I would strongly recommend people to try eating at the chinese restaurant in Tropicana if you have not tried eating at he restauran yet. Okay, time to introduce the foods, SLURPPP :)


Caption: the first dish

The first dish is the four seasonal 'something'. I always miss the name of the first dish. This dish is extremely tasty. They have a combination of chicken and seafoods for this dish, and some vegetables. Yummy!


Caption: the second dish

Okay this dish may look like normal, but the amount of starsch and fresh crab meats that they use when cooking it is a lot, and that makes the shark fin tastes better. Although they suggest the dish were only cooked for 6 person, but we have 2 smaller bowls of sharkfin each on that day.


Caption: the third dish

Caption: the fifth dish

This is the oat prawn. By definitely, the prawn should not taste any better since oat is originally tasteless, at least to me. On the other hand, I do not really like to eat prawn unless someone would help me to peel off the skin, lol. This is why I would not feel excited when I see this dish. However, I feel extremely impressed the moment when I start eating the prawns. Actually one of my mom's friend told us that she have tried eating in this restaurant before. We asked her whats the best dish and she said the oat prawn and laugh :O


Caption: the sixth dish

We ordered the lotus leaf but they served an entirely different dish :( Anyway, this glutinous rice is just okay to me, which means, moderate.


Caption: the seventh dish

The seven dish is a vegetarian dish. They mixed different kinds of vegetables, including brocolli and and chinese black mushroom into this dish. The taste is really well, I like it very much :P I think I have forgetten to capture an image for the last dish. It is the fried and golden lotus bun, or something like that, etremely beneficial.


Caption: sister with wedding outfit (i)


Caption: sister with wedding outfit (ii)

Few days later, my sister was asked to try on a few wedding outfits to measure her size of waist etc. Not bad looking isn't it? :D So, Roy and I captured a few images for her. The lady also brought us to the second floor to choose some wedding gown for my sister for her wedding. If I am right, she should be able to pick either 7 or 8 gown of her own choice.


Caption: the lady helpinng her to choose some appealing wedding gowns


Caption: Roy was choosing his wedding outfit

At the same time, Roy was busy choosing his wedding outfit whilst I'm busy taking photographs for them, as usual :)


Caption: mom was choosing some nice outfit for my sister

I think this should be one of the wedding outfit for my sister in her wedding dinner. However, I am not sure if this is right. Some chinese believes that pink wedding outfit is not appropriate since pink colour represents the colour for concubines :O Whether or not, I have already told my sister about this, but she seem to 'not' believe it entirely since initially, she love pink dresses.


Caption: they were still discussing which outfit to choose after hours


Caption: busy choosing wedding outfits


Caption: some examples of traditional chinese wedding outfits

Busy plus tired should come in fatigue. I still could not wonder how girls would have the patience to walk around the same place for hours when choosing a dress :) Probably marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime thingy and therefore, have to spend a little more time in choosing it properly?


Caption: wedding outfit from different rack (i)


Caption: wedding outfit from different rack (ii)

That day was fun, since they were busy choosing wedding outfits, I walked around the TOMS bridal shop (in SS2) and took some photographs around. Their staffs are really nice, friendly and were good at entertaining people. So instead of only capturing photographs around, I did messed and flirt with some of the girls :O lol.


Caption: some sections in the bridal shop


Caption: the entrance of the bridal shop


Caption: miss 'friendly', sorry forgotten her name


Caption: ground floor


Caption: the back of the shop