4 words

Read this last week, and was reminded that in times of uncertainty, when we're filled with worry, or feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face ...

Leave God to order all thy ways,
and hope in Him whatever betide;
Thou wilt find Him in the evil days
Thy all sufficient strength and guide
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the rock that nought can move.
~~~

Thou on the Lord rely,
So safe shalt thou go on;
Fix on His work thy steadfast eye,
So shall thy work be done.

Far, far above thy thought
His counsel shall appear,
When fully He the work hath wrought
That caused thy needless fear.

- 'Behind the Ranges: The life-changing story of J.O. Fraser' by Geraldine Taylor


Four words came to mind... Hope, Patience, Faithfulness, and Trust.

Hope
In God who is all powerful, sufficient, more than enough, faithful. Who has, by His grace, seen us through these many years and will continue to see us through the years to come, no matter what challenges come our way.

Patience
Even if it takes days, weeks, months, or years to see any answers to prayer, or to see our efforts come to fruition. God's timing is not limited to our time.

Faithfulness
Knowing His faithfulness. To continue being faithful and diligent in doing the things we've been called to do, to keep praying faithfully for the situation, and to continue to love, wait, and be patient in the meantime.

Trust
Relying on Him, and knowing that if it is indeed His will (and not just praying for Him to do whatever we want), then even though we may not see any immediate results, trust that God is already working in that situation, for we may not know all the things that are happening behind the scenes, or the things that are already happening in a person's heart.

Something I need to constantly remind myself, not to be frustrated or worried unnecessarily, but to rely on Him, knowing His peace and joy that transcends all understanding.

' Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. '
- Romans 12 : 12

New York to London

Received this in an email recently. For those who are bored or procrastinating, give this a try. It's a laugh :)

---
1. Go to http://www.maps.google.com/
2. Click on "Get Directions"
3. Type "New York" in the first box (the "From" box)
4. Type "London" in the second box (the "To" box)
5. Click on "Get Directions" (to the right of the second box)
6. In the next screen, scroll down to step #21
---

The sheer 'genius' of it :)

1st Lecture

Kathy (my supervisor) went off for a conference today, and needed some people to cover her lectures for this week.

Therefore, (like the comic) I ended up giving my very first lecture this afternoon, which was a Basic Metabolism lecture on fatty acid degradation and fatty acid synthesis.

Although I was quite nervous, thankfully (unlike the comic) I didn't have any nightmares last night. Heh. In preparation, I looked through the slides for my lecture, as well as the slides for the next lecture, so that I wouldn't overlap the details for both of the lectures. It was a good thing I did so too... because I ended up giving both of them anyway :)

Initially during the lecture, I was rather nervous, but the nervousness disappeared after a while, and I started to actually enjoy it. However, having gotten into the momentum, I covered all my lecture materials rather quickly... very quickly... too quickly :) I finished my lecture material in 20 min... and it was supposed to be a 1 hour lecture (oh no oh no oh no! )

I paused, and asked the students, 'Am I going too quickly for you?' (obvious question... :) A few heads nodded.

'Okay, I'll take it slower' ... then continued on to the next lecture (and silently thanked God for looking through it earlier). This time, I went through the material more slowly and leisurely, pausing occasionally at some of the slides that I hadn't prepared before. A few of the students asked questions along the way, which were all rather straightforward, and I managed to answer most of them (again, unlike the comic :) . I also had an 'ultimate solution' in case of any difficult questions : ask them to look up more information about it, and go through it in their tutorial groups (while hoping very hard that the student doesn't come from one of my tute classes. Heh. ) But thankfully, I didn't need to do that today :)

Before she left last Friday, Kathy showed me the buttons and controls for the lecture theatre, and she remarked, "Oh, and this screen over here, if you look up there in the corner (pointing to a glass window at the back of the lecture theatre), that's where they'll be videotaping for the lecture videos, so don't worry if you see yourself in the screen every now and then. "

Videotaping?! No one had mentioned anything about videotaping !! Aaaaargh!

Apparently, she hadn't mentioned it because she'd guessed that was exactly how we'd respond :P Heh. Most people know that I get nervous standing in front of a crowd of people... let alone being videotaped while standing in front of a crowd of people... gahhh...

Overall, I think the lecture went quite alright (apart from covering 1 - 4/5 lectures in that 1 hour slot), and it was actually much like giving a really long presentation. The funny thing was that the class had actually been 1 lecture behind schedule before that, so now that I'd covered 2 lectures in one session, they were back on schedule for their lectures. Haha.


So, the experience was quite an interesting one, and the people at the lecture were also really nice and encouraging... Hopefully, they've gained something useful from the lecture (and not a headache, I hope ;)

Crystal will be covering Thursday's lecture, and I'll be joining Kathy tomorrow, to present a poster at the Aquafin CRC conference, which will be held in the Barossa Valley (for 3 days of talks and seminars related to aquaculture). All my things are packed, and ready to leave at 7.30 am tomorrow morning to get there *wince* . Off to more fishy business :) ...

Fishy Business

Yesterday, we carried out our third diet trial harvest of yellowtail kingfish.

People often ask me what kind of fish we carry out experiments with, and what they look like. To satisfy the curiosity of those who haven't seen the fish before, we've worked with :

Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Tiny aquarium fish with black and white stripes (hence the name 'zebra'). See how small they are compared to our fingers. They're superbly hyper-active though... it's not relaxing looking at them, you're more likely to feel exhausted watching them dart all over the tank. Heh.

Yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi)

Torpedo-shaped fish, about the length of your forearm. They are muscular fish, rich in fish oils, with firm white muscle. The flesh is sashimi-grade stuff (yum :)

Southern Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus maccoyii)

Big fish... that's right, they're huge. Hold both your arms apart, and that's approximately the length of an adult! Tuna aren't small fish, which is the impression that most people get because of the tiny cans they buy at supermarkets :) They have beautifully red flesh, and the quality cuts can sell for up to $60 per kg in Japanese markets, which is why we're helping to look into improving their flesh quality... To the fisheries people, it's all about profitability.


Therefore, we spent the whole of yesterday at SARDI's aquatic facility in WestBeach from 7am to 4pm, collecting muscle and liver samples from the kingfish for RNA extraction and enzyme analysis. Had to get flesh samples, histology samples, blood samples, white blood cells, and stomach samples from 120 fish, and we were all exhausted at the end of the day.


Which brings to mind another question that people often ask me :

' You're probably sick of seeing, experimenting, and handling the fish so much. Do you still eat fish? '

My answer?

I had fish for dinner on Wednesday, for lunch yesterday, as well as today :)

Few things can deter the carnivore in me. Especially when it comes to good quality sashimi ;) Heh.

Close Encounters of the Animal Kind

Today, while walking home from the lab, I happened to look up at one of the trees near our flat's carpark, and spotted a little grey bump. Curious, I walked closer, and saw that it was a possum! I'd seen its droppings on the sidewalks before (eww...), but hadn't seen it face to face until today. Excited, I ran home, grabbed the camera, and started shooting it (with the camera, of course).

Can you see the little fella?

There it is! It's supposed to be a pest in Australia, but isn't it adorable? :)

We've also shared the flats with many other animal friends, including :

Many hares

Several foxes

One of the foxes trotted across my path one night, less than 5 metres ahead of me, much to my fascination!

A mopoke (tawny frogmouth owl)

The mopoke stayed for about 2 weeks, then disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

We've also seen other bird species in the area, like the rosellas, parakeets, kookaburras, magpies, cockatoos, crested pigeons, and many others. Sometimes, when I stay up late in the night/morning, I can also hear the calls of a cuckoo just before sunrise, but I haven't caught sight of one yet.

A blue-tongue lizard

We had a resident blue-tongue lizard, until someone's car ran over it, which was very unfortunate... it was such a beautiful creature. What made things worse was that it happened in summer over the weekend, and the carcass just lay in the middle of the road and decomposed, giving off a very ripe and pungent odour... not a pleasant memory :P

And of course, no one can forget the resident stray cats and dogs.

I also came close to getting a pet carpet python too, after one of the lecturers let me handle hers (which she keeps in her school office!). Nearly volunteered when she asked if anyone could take care of it while she went away for a holiday, but Karen has firmly declared that if the python comes, I have to go. Therefore, since I still need a place to stay, I didn't volunteer ;) So, no pythons... Not for now anyway. Heh.

Mixed

When I stepped into the house today, the sweet aroma of pandan wafted into the dining room. There, sitting on the kitchen counter, was a pandan chiffon cake.

One strange thing about me (among many other strange things :) is I'm not actually fond of cakes. I'll eat a slice of birthday cake out of courtesy, or if someone has specially baked one. Otherwise, I usually don't eat any. Give me a cookie on the other hand, and I'll happily munch on it... I'm a cookie monster.

The only cakes that I really like are Japanese cheese cakes and chiffon cakes. Pandan chiffon cakes. It's silly, they're one of the cheapest cakes back home, but I love their light texture and pandan fragrance. So when I saw one on the counter, my eyes lit up. Karen's mum had baked it this afternoon, to try a recipe for one of Karen's catering jobs. Thus, she's become my new 'chiffon-baking-good-friend'... heh, just kidding :)

She's a really sweet lady, and came over to Adelaide to attend Karen's graduation in mid-April. Two days before she arrived, Karen and I spent the entire day cleaning and tidying the house. It's been a while since the house has been that clean :)

Thus, we attended Karen's convocation (graduation ceremony) 2 weeks ago...

The graduates : Karen, Jeannie, Amanda

Karen's graduation celebration dinner. Korean food!

Eileen and her beef hot pot... yum

Elisa's teriyaki salmon

Good food, great company :)

It's amusing listening to Auntie, when she recounts stories of her days as a primary school teacher and anecdotes of life back home, and it makes me laugh when she talks about wanting to go out to paint the town red. On the other hand, she finds it endlessly amusing when she speaks a string of Cantonese phrases, only to find me staring blankly at her. She does that occasionally, and always laughs at my response, then translates the phrases into English. Actually, my driving instructor used to do the same thing, and he always found it amusing when I didn't understand too. Hm...

The past 2 weeks have been scattered with celebrations, birthdays, housewarmings, and farewells. What a mix of occasions and emotions.

Amanda, Fangyi, and Jeannie have returned home to Singapore to work as nutritionists/ dieticians, and Auntie will be staying here for another 2 weeks before she returns to Singapore. Before leaving, Fangyi handed me a bookmark, which said :

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way" - Mother Theresa

True... we don't necessarily have to impact the world through grand gestures, we can do so through the little things. A smile, some encouraging words, a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, a prayer, a helping hand, and just being a friend... these little things can influence a person deep inside. And if you influence one person, that person could go on to change the lives of many others... So, even if we don't do great things directly, by doing the little things, we may still end up doing 'great things' and impacting the world in an indirect way. It is still God who ultimately changes each of us, and perhaps this is also one of the ways that He does so, through influencing the lives of those around us.