A Journey into the Realm of Self-realisation

The title might seem a little misleading/vague/ambiguous but what it really wants to convey is the joy and memories that I experienced when I was on my trip across 6 different countries with 4 different types of comrades. Journey from the dual-continent of Turkey (Istanbul) across eastern europe and finally ending in the minute-breathtaking Malta.

The breakdown of the overall journey is reflected below:
1. Turkey (Istanbul)
2. Bulgaria (Sofia)
3. Hungary (Budapest)
4. Austria (Vienna)
5. Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome)
6. Malta

Before the start of the journey dated on the 24th of July 2012, I had the final paper of my undergraduate degree ever and was extremely exhausted and even had the thought of that I should postpone or cancel this trip. But, if I did postpone or called it off, it would be the worst decision ever I'd ever made in my entire life so far.

To KISS (keep it short and simple),

All in all, this journey has brought myself to understand people better especially my fellow comrades. I would  like to thank each and everyone of you that has made this trip an unforgettable one which I will definitely cherish for the rest of my life! All of us might be heading to different paths in the future in our lives, but rest assured, we shall definitely keep in touch!

Last but not least, I know I might have talked too much or uttered words which could had or might had hurt the people I travelled with (That's just me I guess). Therefore, I would like to apologise if I did offend anyone of you. Peace!

My first attempt to construct a poem since I don't know when. Hope it doesn't sound shitty :D

First time we meet,
All looked as if it was Greek,
We joked as if we're on weed,
It was then an absolute kick,



The journey was not an abyss,
Where goodbyes will always be the beast,
Out of sight, never out of mind,
Memories of this journey will always be with my heartbeat.


Signing off with a blast,
马志勇

PS - I'm officially a motherf***ing chemical ! XD

Back in UK

Been back in the UK for nearly 2 months now! Believe it or not, I just had my last lecture of my chemical engineering last friday! So, I practically have no more classes till exams next May/June.

But, I do have my Design project and reseach project going on at the same time which contribute a cumulative 80 credits! Whoops. Not so free after all!

Glad to be back in the UK. Good to see all my friends here and great to make new friends too! Enjoying my time here at the moment. Job applications on the way. Already applied to 2 companies and more to come hopefully. Not too sure will I be able to get them as they mostly want students who have the rights to work in the UK full-time and I'm not one of them. Anyhow, I will just try my luck. No harm trying!

A very chilling weekend really. Just lazing around in my room. Did some minor revision. Quite a productive weekend I feel. More design project stuff coming up next week and I guess it is back to research mode then! :(

Research project topics almost sorted out. Really interested in COMSOL modelling though haven't really got the topic yet! Hope I will be able to cope with the incoming tasks! Been doing shopping these few weeks and really feel great with what I bought. Should be taking-off to Belfast in December for winter holidays. Tickets yet to be booked and most probably will go there anyways!

Till then, got work to do..... So, ciao first! xx

Long holidays in Penang

Year 3 of my degree ends and it is holidays again. How fast can time fly? Too fast if you ask me. Can't even believe me eyes that there's only 1 year left in my university life. Many of my secondary school classmates will also be graduating the time I graduate. Some others have already graduated and even working already! Wow that is swift fast and I can't comprehand either. Well, we can't turn back time and go back the the good old times can we? We can just make full use of the current situation and make it as great as possible.

It is always great to be back home. Nothing beats home. The food, the bed, the people, the toilet, the environment. Nothing in the world beats those. Departing from Singapore was not as easy as it seems. I was telling myself when my final exam ended in NUS that phew am going home already! Wooooooooo, leaving kiasu land hahahhaa (no offense la) :P. But when it came to saying goodbyes, it was pretty hard and I was very reluctant to do so (and I'm not very good at expressing myself). I have met many friends here from many countries. I might not be very close to most of them but knowing them have been a great pleasure, especially my housemates for 2 semesters. They have made my days while I was in Singapore. Talking gibberish and laughter together have been of great entertainment. I'll miss them to be honest and it was hard to say goodbye to them knowing that it will be a very long time before we do meet again. Nevertheless, it is great to be back home in Malaysia.

What have I been doing since 5th May? Well, nothing much! Most of the time been resting and slacking my ass off in my room; catching up with my beloved secondary school friends. I wanna get a part time job but transportation proved to be a problem as I do not have my own transportation. But I do hope to do something useful :P

Things to accomplish in the next few weeks.

-Get documents for my UK visa extension (the shittiest thing to do EVER)

-Try to get a job

-Get fat? (Prolly)

-Complete reading some books left pilling up in my room

-Meet up with more friends!

Screw it, let's just do it!

Untitled

NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering FYP posters were displayed on Friday! What's up with them? Nothing much to be honest. Posters only larr. LMAO. Approximately 200+ posters were on displayed at the Engineering Auditorium and I was there to 'steal' some ideas for my own FYP next year. Well, it was a goner attempt as wherever I look they were all the same (at least to me though). Met up with some Singaporean friends who were also there with their posters. Didn't dig in for the free meal provided though which I should had lmao.

I was told by a friend that they had 2 types of projects. One was computational simulation while the other is laboratory experiments. Both have their pros and cons. Well, to be honest, I would want to choose the simulation type as I am quite interested in computer simulation but again I'm pretty weak in Matlab so it might not be the best choice :( She also told me that some even required Java which they had no basic background to it when they took the project and had to start learning from square one. Tough luck mate. Really need to consider many factors that would come into play next year. :(

Congratulations to one of my friend, as he won 2 prizes for his poster. Best poster voted by fellow colleagues and best poster by the panel of judges (lecturers etc). He's a real hardworking fella; all the best to him and the other 4th years who are graduating this end of semester. As for me, I still have 1 more midterm this Monday; Petrochemicals and Processing Technology; so much too read, my brain's reaching saturation point :( and I have not really looked into other subjects because I'm focusing on this midterm and also partly slacking lmao. Most of the midterms I had I think were average not too good neither too bad. So, have to step up during the finals.

I had one of the best chemistry subjects ever under him. Really enjoyed it. :P

Hmmmm yeah remembering one of my chemistry mod lecturer last semester. As he said:

"Education is not for the sake of examination only. Education is to open up the eyes. But we live in a world where one needs to have examination unfortunately."

I had one of the best chemistry subjects ever under him. Really enjoyed it. :P

Reality check 1 2 3

Yes! Reality check! Hmmmm... Let's see recess week over in 3 days and 4 mid terms coming up. *Sighs*

Had one mid term before recess week and was an easy one but I think everyone else also found it to be extremely easy. :P

Took sometime off uni work and travelled to Langkawi with my roomate to chill for abit. Now am back in the tensed Singapore mugging for next week's mid terms starting from Wednesday till Friday. Pfft. Dang, can't sleep till late already :(

Well, there's nothing much in my mind which I can write down now. Just trying not to leave it too empty :P So, yeah will be back prolly after midterms? or perhaps after the 2nd semester ends? :P

Ciao ~

3 weeks of hell officially begins!

Kick-starting this hellish 3 weeks would be a project presentation by your honourable Mr. Ma to the whole class (FML). The very last ever ever project/presentation for this semester. Because I studied 2 years in UK, so I was assumed to be the best candidate to give the speech for our group. Hahaha. Oh well, I'm the noble man loh to sacrifice myself =.=.

Actually I started revision already but 2 weeks of revision of 5 modules is kind of tight if I don't get it started. So, yeah nearly done with 2 modules already although past papers are yet to be attempted so far. :) I wouldn't say my life in Singapore is as bad as first thought although it's just fucking insane here how people do their work hahahaha. But again, I think if you could really work efficiently and management time properly I think it should be fine. But then again, probably engineering students face a more hectic situation as they do more modules and stuff in my opinion (not saying that the arts side is easy!). Every course has its own difficulty I believe! :)

So here I am sitting in the living room, after 2 sets or self-rehearsal for tomorrow's presentation publishing this post. I don't really like presentations but well I think it will be a very common thing in the near future when we work. My dutch housemates thinks reverse. They think presentation is the easiest job in a group project. It's because they say you don't have to do anything but just talk (but with sufficient understanding for the matter of course) or not you'll just be talking gibberish all the way trying to smoke your way through the presentation. Hahahaha. But I think it's the asian culture in general; I stress in general to dislike presentations. Although there are people I know which are extremely well-trained to give public speeches and presentations. I really admire them. I do strongly agree that presentation in an extremely important aspect of life which one has to get use to it.

Apart of that, I have been catching up with Bleach in terms of the animation. Hmmmm, not really impressed by the animation because as usual they have this freaking 5 minutes recap of previous episode and the bloody actual episode is less than 20 minutes. Real bull. And sometimes just shows some insignificant scenes hahahaha.

Well, wondering why I'm doing this when exams are just 2 weeks away? Hmmmm, I have no idea too! Probably because I have this presentation to accomplish. I think after tomorrow 11am, I will be on full time mugging mode as I will only have the exams to concentrate on and nothing else. So, do wish me luck for my presentation tomorrow, although I doubt anyway will see this post by today hahahaha. Goodluck to everyone who is having exams or are going to have exams and yeah looking forward to going back to Malaysia in December as well as Cambodia!!!

Peace-out :D

Exams are coming, so are the holidays

Yea i think in about 6 weeks or 5 i will be having my 1st semester's finals. FML. and to top everthing off, we're only given 1 week of study break to revise 5 modules before exams start. Aiks. So, revision starts now I presume! :D However, I still have 2 projects to go and 1 more class test. Damn it man so so so lazy somemore... Kiu mia ar... :(

On the bright side, at least, I'll be having 5 weeks of long holidays to enjoy after that and to think of what appropriate modules to choose for sem 2. Hopefully not any modules which require intensive and mental mathematics which requires me to pull my hair off my head again :(

Now it's 15 minutes to 11 am and I'm goin to start doin some research which I have to discuss with my group mates on Wednesday as well as completing a tutorial due on Wednesday too and revise for a class test on Friday TOO ! XD

Totally awesomeness! :D FML :D

Life in Singapore so far

Hectic piece of shit! :D hahahahahahhaha... A lot of mental workload for me to complete and they are starting to pile up. Let me see currently I have 4 group assignment/tutorial, 3 individual assignments. 3 assignments/tutorial due next week and haven't done them yet although started a bit on them already. They seem to be never ending wtf?! lol 5 more weeks till my first semester final examination damn it man so fast lol.

Actually to be honest, workload is fine just that more stressed-out on the fact that I need to learn more mathematics. Probably I might have forgotten or was not taught in Birmingham about these maths. Probably taking further maths in A lvls' students might have got it anyways but I didn't take further maths though. So, yeah have to learn solving unsteady state 2nd order partial differential equations with initial and boundary conditions by separation of variable (might have learnt it in 2nd year though I still can't recall any memory of it) :( Honestly, that's the biggest problem this semester. Next semester when I choose my modules I'll look meticulously at the pre-requisites required and make sure no tough mathematics knowledge is required lol.

The other modules are interesting and fine to me. Project Management all about building theory and stuff. Not really concerning chemical engineering but yeah good to learn something new from my point of view. Chemistry so far yeah nothing on chemical engineering either but soon it'll be going into something related to my course ie about surfaces and interfaces. But now it's mainly regarding pure chemistry such as solid state chemistry. Quite fun though. Then Genes and Society is all about biology. A lil bit more in depth compared to O lvl biology. Probably those who took biology at A lvls or stpm would have no problem at all in it. Process safety, health and environment is also okay just that there're alot of equations to use in final examination. Drug delivery is the one I'm talking about extreme maths. The math component consists about 50% of the final examination marks. Wooohoooo! But I think as long as I stay focus should be able to do it. How well though remians to be seen very soon! lol.

I'm already looking forward towards december for my 5 weeks break yeeha. hahahaha. I'll practically do nothing but chill at home. well if I have the chance might find a job lah but unlikely la; unreliable public transport + i have no car to travel to and fro. lolz. If can't then I'll just be playing computer games and read other non-academic related book ( self-improvement related books i hope). Anyway ciao gtg revise work :( Fucking hell :DDDDDDDD

Modules for Semester 1 done... Hopefully

Finally, I've got 5 modules which I need to take. Overall, I am pretty happy with them modules. I have attended 3 lectures so far and they are pretty decent. There isn't much difference between lectures in NUS and Birmingham in my opinion. Probably in Birmingham the lecturers speak better english that's all I guess (no offense to anyone or party)! :D

Below are the modules which I will be taking for Semester 1; might seem Greek to a lot of people I presume.

1) Physical Chemistry of the Solid State & Interfaces (Department of Chemistry)
2) Genes and Society (Department of Biological Sciences)
3) Process Safety, Health & Environment (Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
4) Engineering Principles for Drug Delivery (Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
5) Fundamentals of Project Management (Department of Building)

Another thing which I observed so far. Every class I attended so far, there are more girls than boys :) The ratio of boys to girls is about 1:2. ^__________^

Best Ever Meal in Singapore so far.

Was at Queenstown. Somewhere near the IKEA store. Had one of the most satisfying meal in Singapore so far. Seafood man! Chilli crab, sambal fried kang kung, Sting ray and Sotong! Fuyoh damn shiok man. And to top it all of a glass of Tiger beer. LOL. Full and nice! HAHAHAHAHAHA...

Singapore

Yes, I'm in Singapore already and still relaxing and slacking since term has started just yet. Pretty much added most of the modules which I want to take for my first semester here. However, haven't decided which ones to drop yet though. Might be interested in taking some modules which are not in my main chemical engineering discipline; very interesting indeed. Found a few modules from the physics and astronomy department. They were about how physics impacted life as well as some of einstein's theory of relativity. Pretty interesting but not sure yet because I need to write essays! Bummer. No final examinations though! :D

Hopefully will get the payment of my hostel and other misc. fees done asap. Still pretty amazed by the spacious and large campus of NUS. It is definitely way bigger than University of Birmingham. To be honest I haven't even fully explored my faculty. probably only been to one tenth of it :D
Haven't met any Singaporeans or Malaysians doing Chemical Engineering but I'll defintely get to know them when school starts on the 10th of August right after National Day of Singapore.

Oh ya got a few lecture notes for one of my modules by the name of Physical Chemistry of the Solid States and Interfaces. Wow, first chapter about A-Level chemistry which I forgotten most of them; atomic orbitals, molecular orbitals, electronic bands etc. Holy crap! Really need to brush-up on these basic or not I might be in trouble :( In addition to that there's another module named Molecular Design of Drugs. There are no lectures at all! This is because, the 3rd year Chemistry students taking it are all in companies around Singapore doing their internships. So, it is and "independent study" module which might have some risk taking it since I have never done it before ie reading lecture notes without a lecturer guiding or teaching me. Anyway will get that sorted out soon.

Lonely Penang Island

Penang oh Penang. Why do I feel so lonely and bored here even though there are abundance of cheap food around me. I don't usually have this kind of lonely feeling but I'm really having it right now. Why? Why? Why? I thought UK was bad but it is even worse here :( Friends from overseas haven't reached home yet and those who are here are leaving one by one back to their universities. And I have been quite relaxed since coming back home except the fact I needed to review the modules I chose for my NUS year. God bless! :S

When my friends are back in Penang, I'll be away in Singapore. So, the only way would be for me to return to Penang to meet them or for them to come to Singapore to visit me! How unfortunate this is. Unfair huh? Oh yes it is! Life goes on though and I'm ready for the life in Singapore! Even though many question my decision to go there (even I myself question it now, lol); I think I will be fine there as long as I have faith in myself. Oh yeah baby! I will miss UK (can't believe I'm saying it right now) but yeah I will and all my friends there but definitely we'll be able to meet up again.

As for Singapore, I hope to make new friends and hopefully my room mate's a great person and hopefully he/she doesn't like the air cond because I don't like air cond! LOL. I will be closer to home and definitely will be cheaper for me too! Meaning I can spend more! LOL.

Back in Malaysia

Yes, I'm back in Malaysia... So, what I'm I doin at the moment? Nothing much except catching up with football... Got my results for second year and it was okay... Just preparing my important documents for my Singapore Student Pass. Damn annoying thing to start with. Caught up with some friends and yeah had some great time out with them catching movies and some football matches. Anyone with any great ideas of what to do with my 2 months holidays? Travelling? Learning a new language? Learning a music instrument? Play PC games 24/7? I think the 4th choice would be most likely xD.

2 more papers to go!

Yeah 2 more papers and I'm done with second year! Yeeehaaaa... All the papers have been well until yesterday when Reactors and Catalysis was a real killer. Many people complaint about it and even emailed the lecturer and tutors complaining the how difference was yesterday's question to past papers. Well, to be really honest, it was not that hard. It's just that no one paid attention to the tutorial questions. It was all from the tutorial. Sigh. I'd done it before but could only fully complete one of the questions. The other one was okay but the another one was totally crap. Probably due to exam pressure and time constraint, I was not able to derive the proper equation to obtain the correct answer. So, quite a huge some of marks were gone there I suppose. Actually I derived the correct formula and material balance out already but I don't know what was with me yesterday I didn't spot that I inserted the equation wrongly! Even though I might get marks for working, but there was not much working to begin with! :D

What to do, luckily was only a 10 credit module and not a 20 one which accounts 2 times more than the former. Anyway needa do well in the next 2 papers... Toughest and most important! Anggong popi popi :]

Revision term starting soon... Means exams nearer :(

The dawn of a new semester is approaching and it ain't a good sign at all. It literally means the examination period is fast approaching and yeah stress days are coming too. Since the start of second year I've been constantly staying up late night either revising or doing nothing but staring blankly at the laptop screen. But these few weeks, I've been working till 2 or 3am and yeah it's not the best thing to do to be honest. Stayed up whole night till 6 am several times in the Learning Centre mugging. I need more Coke man I desperately need it LOL. I really need the energy boost hahaha.

Apart from revision, I still have another coursework to be handed-in when school reopens. A group thing wth. Sei lor this time, I can't bloody get any response from my group members. WTF! Asked them through uni email as well as FACEBOOK but no replies. Dulan ar... And this shit ain't some easy exercise. Been trying to solve one bloody question for 2 days and can't even be 100% sure it's right. Oh almighty Dr. Robbins, why do we need to do this coursework over Easter T_T. But I still respect your intelligence all the way from Cambridge University! You are still one of my favourite lecturers :D

Al-Duri's coursework nearly done (said this many many times) because I keep procrastinating one small question. Haha. Typical me I guess. But was a good exercise to revise her subjects. Hope the exam is similar to those in the coursework. Fingers-crossed xx

Revision

Yah... alot of stuff to revise and yeah time is running out!

Just listing down the progress of each subject I've got to sit exams for this year.

Process Systems/Principles of Process Control - 85%

Liquid Mixing Systems - 90%

Membranes and Adsorption - 50%

Distillation - 100%

Sustainable Development - 50 %

Heat, Momentuma and Mass Transfer - 10%

Drying/Crystillisation - (probably not attempting)

Reactors and Catalysis - 0%

Still have past papers to do though. :[

Break and NUS Application

Easter break is here and yeah holidays but that does not necessarily mean I can rest 24/7. I have loads and loads of work to catch up and do. Yeah! Started a bit of revision and hopefully to be able to complete a coursework by this weekend. Fingers-crossed! Then might take a break from revision before attempting the other one.

Application of my exchange to NUS is gathering pace knowing that the online application deadline in on the 15th of April while the submission of hardcopy supporting documents is on the 1st of May. That gives me a little bit more time to consult my tutor to discuss the modules that I need to attempt while being over in Singapore. On the top right are the modules I have chosen. Hopefully they make sense.

Random Happenings

Arrived home in Birmingham on monday 1st February 1pm. Rushed to university to attend the first presentation session for the Project Design Exercise. My group wasn't presenting that week but we were there to witness how the other groups present. All the groups in my opinion did fairly well except for 1 or 2 excellent ones. Gosh, I don't know how am I going to handle the presentation when it reaches my turn which could possibly be in the next 2 or 3 weeks perhaps.



Okay, let's talk about Cambridge. First on reaching the train station; Ordinary UK city only lah! After further venturing north heading towards the colleges; Oh my god! Awesome! Yes! It is indeed an awesome city. In my opinion it is a quite boring city but nevertheless a beautiful city. There are about I guess 31 colleges in total? The architecture of the buildings especially the colleges is really the olden days' architecture, more to the medieval ages. Damn, I was seriously impressed. There is a very distinctive difference between Cambridge University compared to University of Birmingham.



Met ah Liang's singaporean friend, Premchand who lives in St. John's College (one of the famous colleges there). Took us to venture around his college and his accommodation. Well, they pay dirt cheap for their accommodation man. I can't believe it. He lives in a hostel/apartment/accommodation which rent includes internet (>50 MBps) and unlimited heating and electric and he pays less than what I'm paying to rent a private house. Shit! First night there, we went for this Asian Food Festival or something organised by CUMSA (Cambridge University Malaysian and Singaporean Association) though most of them are Singaporeans. The food wasn't that great although I liked a few dishes which I haven't had for ages since coming here to UK. 11 pounds for that dinner. LOL



Next day, went roaming around the city with Premchand going to church. Went for lunch at a Japanese restaurant with Singaporeans and a few Malaysians. After that, went back to apartment and talked cock and played some computer games. At night, we attended a formal dinner at St. John's college formal dining hall or something. They have the formal dinner 6 times a week excluding Saturdays if I'm not wrong. Awesome food and had wine too. The dinner was 8.50 pounds and I think it was a great experience to be there for once. Arrived home and went to bed straight haha. Then the next morning took off back to Birmingham. :D


Back in Birmingham accompanied Leet Liang until early morning on Tuesday before I headed for labs. Leet Liang then went back to Leicester probably before 11 or 12 in the afternoon. The rest of the days in the week was fully pre-occupied with Project works and studying sessions. Boringggggggg. Me and Tim decided to go for a Quiz Night organised by BUCES (Birmingham University Chemical Engineering Society) on the Thursday night. However, we were so unlucky as we missed the 1 pound dinner and the quiz itself too. We missed it because we were playing Bejeweled Blitz on facebook in the cluster. :( I reckoned that quiz to be an opportunity to meet new people but it wasn't meant to be though. Went to Goose (a pub) to have curry before heading back home to do my project work. Ahhhhhhhhh finally weekend arrived and yeah i literally enjoyed the whole Friday night without doing work but definitely need to do them on Saturday and Sunday as I need to prepare some stuff for my group member to work on. Stress again sia :(

Another new week domintated by work and stress awaits... XD

Free for the week!

Hah, handed in coursework on Thursday and hell yeah I'm free of assignments for now. That was the most tedious assignment I've ever done before in uni so far. Since I started doing it, I've been waking up early every morning and sleeping late after midnight doing it. The day before the deadline, I actually did it till 4am in the next morning before going to bed. Woke up at 7.45 am and went to class. Had sleep only for like 3 hours 45 minutes? lol. Omg fucking stress that time serious. lol

When I handed it in, I was so relieved. Finally, I can sleep early and wake up late again for the weekend. Everyone was rushing it and yea was quite fun haha. Had dinner at home and guess what? I actually went back to the library to save some files into my U drive which I didn't save when I handed in my assignment. Well, hopefully they haven't extracted the files from my driver yet.

Hope to rest as much as possible before starting next week's classes again. :(

Start of 2nd Term

Its already the 2nd week of 2nd semester and loads of work are starting to pour in. Sounds shitty but pretty interesting and exciting though. Simulink report due Thursday and Project Design Exercise taking place currently. Phew damn stress sia. Today just solved the 2nd Order Differential Equation for the Simulink Coursework and hell yea I'm going to start writing the report itself tomorrow and run the simulations required. Tedious work though.

Yea, it is not that cold already now. Snow stopped and it's back to those gloomy wet days in Birmingham. PS: Foggy too! Nothing much to say now as I'm pretty tired and sleepy to be honest. Going to beed soon after I've written down some important points for my group meeting taking place tomorrow. Decent gourp I reckon for the Project and yea pretty confident of working together and getting some potential high grades for this module to patch up for my above average Conputing for Design module.

Oh well, that's all I suppose. Chinese New Year is coming eh. Another year abroad without CNY celebration with my family and friends back in Malaysia. What can I do though?! huh. lol.