Fml entry

Today, I was at the innate immunity workshop, EMBO Meeting Amsterdam where speakers were talking about bacteria and virus. Then, during Q&A a woman asked “I just recovered from swine flu recently, could you please tell me more about the difference between…”. Bacons are my life but I have not been eating pork since swine flu outbreak. The woman was just sitting behind me. FML.

This is a test of posterous power….. (Last Supper)

Life without Em…

Almost 2 weeks without Em liao and I realised quite a few things, 8 to be exact…

1. I tend to eat more meat, coz Em is not here to control my diet

2. I don’t feel like drinking beer even though Em is not here, strange but dunnoe why also

3. I pack and clean up less in the house, dunnoe if I’m lazier or the house dont need much cleaning/packing (em can be quite messy at times)

4. I sleep later when em is not around, dunnoe why also. Maybe coz when em is around I have to sleep first so as to get her to sleep, else she stay up too late

5. I dont feel like going supermarket at all for groceries, I just want to buy ready made food

6. I tend to work more. Without em, I go to lab on weekends since its the same at home. Lab is more comfortable in this period because its AC is stronger than the one in my house.

7. I miss telling em to be ready, be fast, be careful, and I miss making the bed to be ready for em to sleep, feels werid that the bed is so neat everyday (em is very messy).

8. Finally this is the most important one, I realised how hard em has been working to cook, clean dishes, wash clothes, dry clothes, fold clothes, iron clothes. Having said this, I hope em will be back soon to take over these duties

Animals of Iceland

One of the should see things in Iceland is Puffins – they are black and white with colorful beak, some say comical, some say cute, some say stupid, and some say delicious (yes they eat them). Anyway, we went to look for these animals and there were plenty in Summer!!! Didn’t had the opportunity to taste them, also because em didnt want too and I am already alittle disgusted with eating whale meat.

We saw many other animals too like seals, funny ducks, whales, lambs (everywhere), and Icelandic horses. Icelandic horses seem to be more handsome than normal horses, or at least thats what we think.

Roads of Iceland

Driving in Iceland is totally different experience. Only the ringroad (1 and only highway I think) is paved. Rest is gravel. Sometimes you have to go on mountain roads too, these roads are super bumpy and cannot go more than 40km/h! Most rivers (even glacia rivers!) are unbridge, meaning you have to ford rivers and its pretty scary for the first time. I am glad that we took a 4WD.

Roads are often v v v v empty – 90% of the time we are the only car on the road EVEN in summer where tourism and activities are at its peak. Always seeing lava fields, and more lava fields and more lava fields but no people or car. Sometimes you see some lambs but thats about it. For the 1st 2 days I was damn scared coz if anything happen to us probably our corpse will only be picked up 3-5 days later.

Iceland Summary

3273km around the country on unpaved, gravel, mountain roads, and RIVER CROSSING! (Thanks to the Lada Niva)

Clean, quiet, and minimal civilization – almost 100km on the roads without seeing 1 other car!

Beautiful landscapes – numerous lava fields, volcanos, craters, waterfalls, hills, mountains, geysirs, steam vents, mudpots, glaciers, ice lagoon, desserts, black beach, rocks formation, fjords, rainbows etc

Tons of cute animals – shan yang and icelandic horses are everywhere, puffins, kittiwakes, seals, etc

Natural hot pots and of course the commercial blue lagoon.

Loads of hotdogs along the way, BBQ at carpark, pinics, and eating whale meat (looked, cooked, and tasted exactly like beef)

Pictures will come later, words don’t do justice!