* Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock *

If you were given an opportunity to choose ONE thing in this world (absolutely anything, dead or alive, solid or abstract) to SELL to the entire human race..... what would YOU choose?

What would not only rake enormous profit but also play an impact on people's everyday lives?

I would choose to sell TIME ......!!

Show me someone who doesn't wish he/she had 72 hours in a day and I'll show you someone who doesn't like Haagen-Dazs ice-cream. EVERYONE craves for more hours in a day, be it to accomplish the to-do tasks listed out in their organizers, to take a nap between hectic schedules, to shop, to spend time with their loved ones, to complete the novel that's been collecting dust on the shelf, to try out that new egg tart recipe, to have lunch in the park and enjoy the sun....etc...the list just never ends. Sometimes one wonders whether there's really not enough time in a day or are humans just coming up with more things to do within a short time frame?

It might be both.

We often take for granted how fortunate we are to be in this era. The next town is often just a bus/train ride away. A friend is only a phonecall away. E-mailing is instantaneous and so is online chatting. Masterminds have even come up with the idea of an internet phone i.e. Skype. Takeaways are quick and easy, food deliveries come straight to your door and a microwaveable dinner is merely a press of a button and 8 minutes away. Homemade popcorn even come in microwaveable packs. Shopping can now be done in front of your computer - eBay, Amazon, Tesco, Argos, RyanAir, Ticketmaster, Dorothy Perkins... whatever you want, you'll find it online. Who needs to go to the cinemas when you can rent DVDs online and have them sent to your door? Or cheaper still, download it! Remote-controlled TV, DVD player, camera, video camera...even fans! The fact is...technology has advanced so much for the sake of helping us safe time and effort in doing errands that would conventionally take double the amount of time. Yet, we still find ourselves rushing to get things done!

Last 2 weeks were killer weeks for me. There was just so much to do but so little time, which crazily lead me to the idea of 'we could rake great profit if only we discover a way to sell time'. No doubt, all my tasks were eventually ticked off the to-do-list with some accomplished in time, at the expense of others (with no harm done, if I may add).

Personally, I think the secret to time management is knowing how to prioritize. Time and again I'm brought to face the truth of working SMART, not hard. It does, as they all say, save a lot of time. Pay most attention to what really needs to be done first. Divide the remaining time proportionately for the other less significant chores. Also, it helps not to worry about your workload, which just adds on to the burden that's already there. Nonetheless, some might rebut that it's easier said than done.

I think one of man's greatest weaknesses is the wanting to see, try, do and experience as much as possible within a given time. It has taken me a few hectic cycles of work & play to finally realise that one can not venture it all. You need to know the limit. You need to be flexible.

~Are you flexible with time?~

I think the chaotic period has mellowed down for the moment. For now, I have only one important task to work on, the one aim I have gradually pursued for the past 3 years, to be finally accomplished.....and I'm getting there. It's all good... *smile*

Nevertheless, I'm still finding the idea of 'selling time' very amusing...

Trust me on the sunscreen....

While at work one day (very recently), BBC Radio 1 was playing this song (which is really more of a rendition than anything else) on air. I have never heard it on air the past 2 1/2 years of working in the very same lab. Yet that day, Colin & Edith decided to put it on amidst the usual contemporary pop music routine. I wonder why...?

The song sure brings back fond memories of the good ol' school days. Have always found the lyrics to be amusingly rational and smart.

So for those who share my enthusiasm, this song is dedicated to you:-

(by Baz Luhrmann)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 97...Wear sunscreen

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...You're not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don't be reckless with other peoples hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind...the race is long, and in the end its only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still dont.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary...whatever you do, dont congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either - your choices are half chance, so are everybody elses.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you'll never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths, price will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time its 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...

An A-moo-sing affair

I was over in Edinburgh one weekend to visit the so-it-seems biggest public art exhibition, CowParade. As its amusing name suggests, CowParade is an exhibition of life-size cows made of fibreglass, meticulously designed and decorated by various artists. The event first took place in Zurich in 1998 but due to its encouraging success, went on to travel round the globe to places as far as Chicago, Auckland, Tokyo and Moscow. Last year itself, the parade was hosted at nine separate locations throughout Europe. Fascinatingly, I came across this event 4 years ago while making a short stop in Brussels and again last year (in Monaco), while I was touring through Southern France.

The CowParade combines both art and charity, with corporate organisations and business companies commisioning artists to design the cows they sponsor for the event. The cow designs usually take on a theme, which are either painted on directly or presented as collage or metal work (some ornamented with various accessories, e.g. hats, chains and clothes). The beauty of the event not only lies in the sparkling creativity delivered by each cow design(I know it doesn't sound too impressive at the moment but wait till you see the photos below!), accompanied by witty names adapted from world renown references.

94 cows were erected all over Edinburgh city centre with some located slightly out of the city. I was told that each CowParade adopts the art and culture of the host city, displaying designs created by local/foreign artists. Unfortunately, time and weather did not permit me to explore all 94 statues but here are some of my favourites...




Thistle Be the Cow in Edinburgh - showing designs of the thistle, the prickly-leaved purple national flower of Scotland.

Nightmoo at Blair Street - guess the reference, anybody?

Festival Cow - stood on stilts in front of the Edinburgh City Chambers, a symbol of the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Top 3 favourite cow designs:-

1) Robocow - I just love the fiesty red eyes, horns and hoofs!

2) Jones Lang LaFriesian - I'm a huge fan of the original painter of this cow design (The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano, who incidentally is a fellow Scot!)

3) Brave Moo - if there was ever a competition for the best cow design, this will definitely be the top of my list of nominations. What could be more Scottish than a bovine version of William Wallace? How utterly impressive!

Apparently, there was also Cowzan, the cow version of Tarzan, and Moo-ball, painted like a football in conjunction with the World Cup fever.

The story doesn't end here. It seems, at the end of each exhibition, a number of cows are auctioned and the proceeds are channeled to various charitable organisations. It has been reported that, till date, CowParade from around the globe have raised over £9 million.

I thoroughly enjoyed the art display, though I wished it was held in Glasgow instead. It would have been great lunching or shopping alongside a cow every other day till the end of the exhibition. For those who are keen on finding out more about this unique display of art, visit the official websites http://www.cowparade-edinburgh.co.uk/ or http://www.cowparade-eu.com/.

....hmmmm....will the event ever set foot in Malaysia? I'd sure love to see a cow in batik sarong.

Write, write, write, write and...write!

After disappearing for absolutely ages, I felt a sense of duty to reincarnate my blog. Although I won't even attempt to promise my enthusiasm will last (for obvious reasons, i.e. previous experience...), I will at least give it a try.

So why the sudden urge to re-blog? some of you may ask...

Simply because at the moment, I'm tired and bored of the scientific writing I have been composing day-in-day-out for the past two months. There.....I have successfully completed the last section of discussion for one of my results chapters for my thesis draft. If anyone is even interested in what I have written, that is.

"...The current study has been the first to demonstrate that LPPs are able to exist as homodimers and heterodimers. Additionally, dimerisation may serve as a means of regulating LPP activity since only the multimeric form was catalytically active whereas the monomeric form exhibited no activity. It is speculated that LPP may adopt two or more dimeric arrangements of different conformations (domain swapped and non-domain swapped dimers), in accordance to previous data demonstrating LPP to exhibit both cooperative and non-cooperative kinetics. The different conformational states of the LPP dimers are probably constitutively in equilibrium with one another and the tendency for either conformation to predominate depends on factors such as substrate type and concentration. Indeed, findings from the present study have clearly disclosed the complexity of the molecular arrangements of LPP although the functional significance of the heterologous nature of LPP dimerisation (ability to form homodimers and various combinations of heterodimers) and the factors contolling its dynamics remain to be understood. "

Can you believe it took me an hour and a bit to write that paragraph down? Well, never thought I was much of a fast writer anyway... Anyhow, it's all still good. I can slowly feel my excitement surmounting as I gradually complete my thesis. Only keeping my fingers crossed that all will turn out well without too many bumps along the way.

Right-o, time to grab some beauty sleep to rejuvenate my dry eyes. Good night--ey!