Labor's Day Dilemma

Haih...at last its the holidays. Well to be more precise - its A HOLIDAY. One Day Only. Sigh.

I forgot to turn off my alarm today. So at 7 a.m. sharp I could hear Lady GaGa singing Just Dance....dammit. Aiyah, cuti oso terpaksa bangun awal kah? Too late. Once woken up, I am woken up. I can't activate my sleep centres again.

So I got up, and slowly my eyes accomodated (sorry - too much ophtalmo this week) to the dim lightings of my quaint room. Uh-oh. Luckily I got up early.

I saw what a mess my room was in. Books here and there. Papers. Snickers wrappers. Oh - and what are those? Some moth-balls. Thought they were candies. LOL.

I saw what a huge pile of unwashed clothes.

I saw what a great number of plates, pans, bowls, and pots that has to be cleaned.

(...all thanks to last night's party. Our friend Daniele came all the way from Lecce, Italy to this forsaken desolate place to meet his darling Girl - so we threw a welcome to Kursk party for him. Me and my big mouth - promising Girl that I would cook Volcano Chicken which was quite a daunting task. So there you have it - Volcano Chicken.

I still can't forget the moment when I rushed out of my room to Arveen's house for the party. I bumped into my neighbour accidentally - what a klutz I was. Then it was catastrophe. Almost all the chilli dip was literally dumped all over her! She was screaming "Oh my god, oh my god" - HEY! I was the one supposed to say that because

1. I was already 45 minutes late.

2. HEY - I have no chilli dip now. How its going to be Volcano Chicken without the "Lava" sauce??

3. My white moccassins are now sambal-flavored. Dang!)

Oh-okay. Back to the MAIN STORY. LOL. So, the main point was: on a holiday - you should not be doing anything. Just do nothing. Keep the holiday HOLY. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - I have a lot of things to doooooo.

Sigh. At last I've done all my chores. That's why I have time to bitch about all that work here. (Hey - blogging is so fun. You can write almost everything, and nothing is talking back hahaha)

Now I'm thinking about something. Isn't it funny:

On normal working days - you will feel VERY BUSY. You can't cope with all the workload. Plus all the additional tasks. And not to forget all times you procrastinate. Result = You think you have no time to do anything.

[ON THE OTHER HAND]

On a holiday - you will be feeling DAMN BORED. You have (apparently) nothing to do. (Well actually you DO, just that you don't see it yet :P) Suddenly all your workload is gone - just like that! Result = You think you have too much time, and you are bored. You don't know what to do with all that "extra time"

Think about it.

Students' Festival 2009 Awards Ceremony

Every year during spring time, all students across Russia will be celebrating the annual Студенческая Весна (Student's Spring Festival). The festival usually lasts for a month - basically its a month of talent competitions. Students from all over Russia compete in different categories and the main aim is to grab the Laureate Honors awards. In Malaysia it would be the equivalent of a "Festival Ko-Kurikulum" or something like that.

Last year, me and my friends (my music-band mates) competed in the Instrumental Music and Vocals category and we managed to get the 1st Degree Laureate Honors award. This was a first time in the festival history that a group of international students took the top award.

This year, we competed in 3 categories and the results were as follows:

1) Instrumental Music & Vocals - 2nd Degree Laureate Honors

2) Contemporary Classical Music - Festival Diploma Award

3) Original Genre & Illusion - 2nd Degree Laureate Honors

For the Original Genre & Illusion category, we performed a Sarawak-Sabah cultural fusion dance which was the opening performance for this year's festival (WOW - talk about being honored up to that level)

If you are interested to see our Original Genre & Illusion performance, you can go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1BFnk7w9iI&feature=channel_page

For next year's festival - we will surely do our best again!

Instant Cure for Flu - Терафлю!

I never thought that the common cold could be treated in less than one day! Before this I used to intoxicate my system with a maximum of 8 paracetamols a day taken in 6 hour intervals just to relieve the catastrophic symptoms of flu - and in most cases, I usually don't feel any better after that hepatotoxic regime. I'd still be sneezing, coughing up phlegm, plugging my nostrils with tissue paper and stuff like that for the next 2-3 days.

But now, thanks to Терафлю (pronounced as te-ra-flyu) I got better (seriously better) even after taking only one packet! Wonders of Russian pharmaceuticals.

Its easy to take, just dilute one packet of this "healing elixir" in a cup of warm water and just gulp it (although your taste buds will scream in agony)! Best to be taken before bed (as per written on the instructions) GUARANTEED - you will have a sound sleep, without any blocked nose or headaches or nausea or anything.

Comes in 3 "lovely" flavors - Lemon, Forest Berries, Ginger (although I don't think it would make a big difference, I guess they all have the unpleasant after-taste)

For the concerned pharmacist/physicist:

Contents: active ingredients include 325 mg paracetamol, 20 mg feneramine maleate, 10 mg phenylephine chloride (plus flavoring, sugar, this that this that lah)

Effects: Antipyretic, anti-oedematic (?Did I translate this word correctly - противоотечным?), analgetic, & anti-allergenic action.

Pharmacologic group: non-narcotic analgesics, alpha-adrenomimetics, H1-histamine receptor blockers.

Indications: fever, chills, headache, flu, stuffed nose, sneezing, malaise.

After this, flu is no more a big problem. Just take a packet of Терафлю! And smile the whole day :)

Volgograd - The City of Heroes

Suddenly, I missed Volgograd. My 3-day stay in that beautiful city had really made quite a strong impression in my mind.

I remember that in Malay we have such a proverb that says "Hujan batu di negeri sendiri, hujan emas di negeri orang - lebih baik lagi di negeri sendiri" - which is loosely translated as "Although it rains stones in your motherland, and it rains gold in a foreign land - it is better to be in your motherland". I don't really see where this proverb is coming from or going to - back home we NEVER had stones falling as rain to begin with. Anyway - comparing Kursk and Volgograd (in this case it rains stones in Kursk and it rains gold in Volgograd), I pretty much prefer to be in Volgograd.

Remembering Volgograd also means remembering Volgo Games 2009. My experience participating in the annual intervarsity games was a very exciting one as it was my very first time representing my beloved university KSMU. Sportswise - I used to do well in tennis back when I was in secondary school. But this time - being a part of the athletics team was a different thing altogether. Middle distance runner? Haha. I never thought that I was a middle distance runner. I never even thought that I could run 400 metres non-stop. And the most astonishing thing is that I was able to bring back a bronze medal - now that's cool! (I was eyeing on the medals this year, just because they looked pretty and unique - see the medals below!)

It was a great experience to meet new people here and there, and to get to know people from your own university even better. I mean, I don't know about other universities but here in KSMU, you can go through 6 years of studying without even knowing that this particular person even existed! So that means more friend requests in facebook - YAY!

Hope that next year in Kursk, the intervarsity games would be better, packed with more fun and excitement! (And hope we will take back the overall champion trophy from Volgograd LOL)

Syndrome of Intoxication

All the while in case histories I've been writing "Syndrome of Intoxication" as a diagnostic syndrome. Its possible symptoms include fever, general weakness, malaise, chills, rigors, body aches and probably some more can be added to this list. Basically, in layman terms it is called by the phrase "I think I am feeling sick." Usually when patients present themselves with any kind of infectious disease (e.g. the common cold) - there you will find the manifestation of this particular syndrome.

After coming back from Volgograd for the annual 6th Malaysian Students Intervarsity Games, I immediately succumbed to the grasp of this troublesome and somewhat incurable disease (you can only at most alleviate your symptoms, that's all)

Now I think this disease is at its peak. Why?

1) Terrible headaches haunt me almost 24 hours a day. And I can feel as if my brain is moving in my skull whenever I turn my head in different directions. No, more like its being pulled here and there. I wonder how Jean Grey cou deal with all the mental stress O_o

2) My nose apparently has more supply of water than the Amazons. Its leaking like a tap with a faulty valve. I might as well fly over to Africa and start nourishing the Serengeti. And there goes another roll of toilet paper.

3) My body aches as if I've been building the Great Pyramids of Giza for the past 20 years - ALONE. Whenever I move a muscle, it hurts like hell.

4) I am working more efficient than a standard Russian heater. I can feel heat emanating from my body to the environment. If I were to wear some wet clothing, in 30 minutes it would be drier than your udang kering. Maybe if I tried, I'd be able to shoot fireballs from my hands!

5) I've been eating more than what I usually eat everyday. Sign of increased metabolism due to this troublesome disease. I have no idea how these ultra-tiny viruses can cause so much havoc in my body system.

I don't have the strength to even open a book - and obviously studying is out of the option. My brain is shouting "No More! No More!" even though nothing was inside it 24 hours before O_o.

So much for being sick. Now I understand all the patients who lie in the wards, suffering from their respective diseases. No wonder they are so grumpy and prefer to keep to themselves. I am now feeling exactly the same way too. Just bearing a day with this common cold is a torture, imagine others who are suffering from more serious diseases?

Panacea - will we ever discover it?