An update

For anyone that were left puzzled on what's going on after my last post about the proposal thesis outline writer's block.....well, am glad to say that am still breathing! :) Three days of fast-drumming heartbeat really have put me on the top adrenaline and all the energy I've got left for the thesis proposal presentation! Allow me to say... PhD experience does exhaust me a lot and with the 'mood swing' changes every second (instead of 'monthly' or weekly) it does actually even worse than the infamous PMS! My life expectancy has been reduced by ten years now...

On the other hand, had decided to run away to London to 'keep my feet on the ground' and after all, it's Wimbledon (we decided to queue overnight for the Saturday's match) and summer sale!!! Really need to get some stuff for the new flat! (one more week to go!!!!)

Have a good day, everyone!

Thesis Proposal Deadline

Help! Help!! I am stuck! My Thesis Proposal deadline is coming up but for some reason I feel that my aim and objectives are still blurry! If you, reader, have any input or advice, please feel free to give me a comment! Anything and everything to build up my thesis proposal will be greatly appreciated!

Channel Tunnel Folkstone-Calais

A very interesting experienced I had encountered during our journey to attend the DURABUILD Conference in Rouen, France in May 2005. I've just realised that not many people know about the Folkstone-Calais Channel Tunnel and in fact our coach driver got nervous as it was his first time going through the tunnel with the coach as well! So here is the shots I took just for future interest

More can be found at my flickr

countdown to my new flat!

I can't believe it! it's only a month left before my official move to the new flat! I know..some of you might be thinking how sad I am for counting down so far in advance..but believe me, if you are living in a dumpster place like my current flat, you wouldn't be surprised!

the story of my new monitor - update

Now, maybe I had been punished more for complaining.. anyway, on our way to the post office (last another half an hour, cos the only one that has parcelforce is located in the town centre), Jon had came up with a bizarre idea that it might not be any problem with the monitor and that it might probably be something to do with my graphic card (one thing that I tried to let him know in the first place, but he kept refusing to believe!) anyway, we were then in a 'battle' whether to send it over to amazon or not and thinking that if it is actually something to do with our graphic cards, there is no way we can get back our money we spent for sending it back to amazon!

So, we decided to go back to my flat (leaving other people in the post office looking confused to both of us, they might be thinking what are we two weirdos doing in the corner of the post office seriously discussing something for about 15minutes and than flee out again!), and walk to my office to download the most up to date software for my graphic card!, went home, use my old monitor to upload it, finish installing, then swap back to the 'troubled' monitor. and YES! we made it! it works!!!! and YES! we also did burn calories!!! 'what a day'!..*deep sigh*

the story of my new monitor

I might have been punished for my laziness and lack of exercise this past few days...

Apparently, I had ordered a new 19" monitor acer from Amazon few days earlier and having told that it will only arrived a week later, I decided to go to my office as usual yesterday morning around 9am only to receive 'supposedly' good news from amazon that the item has been despatched the day beforehand and has arrived in Brighton branch that morning at about 8am! (5days earlier than anticipated!) I called the courrier and rushed (basically 'running') home praying that I won't miss the delivery guy as I really am excited to get the monitor up and running in a tick (I had used my old 17" monitor to do my AUTOCAD drawing and it strained my eyes completely). Waiting for hours at home is quite a pain, luckily I have brought home the last batch of student courseworks that I need to mark with me that time (even that doesn't really entertain me enough!). Waited and waited from 9.30am to 4pm-ish, I realised that I need to go back to uni for a meeting with my supervisor! luckily, I'd managed to drag Jon to cover for me while I ran back to uni for the meeting. However, a very sad news indeed though as for some reason, right until I had finished my meeting at about 6pm, still no sign of the monitor coming!! So then I went home exhausted after running here and there and 'ready' to face the challenge again the next day.

Now, to cut the story short..this time I decided to call the courrier customer service twice just to make sure that the delivery will be done today and yes, it did! So we waited and waited and waited and it comes at 2pm!!! In fact I might have scared the delivery guy as I managed to open the door just a second after he knocked! (he might be thinking that he is the little red riding hood and we are the wolf waiting in the bush for the victim to arrive!) yay! so we unpack the packaging, plug the monitor straight away and....*deep sigh* there is another problem that for some reason the monitor keeps flickering every 10 seconds! everything has been checked proof, cable, connection, power..etc...still we see no solution...gutted and gobsmacked...we decided to return it and to do this, again, we need to go to school and let amazon know about it, print the return label, go back home again to pack it back to its original packaging, and gone out again to send it back to them!!!!! what a lovely day we have for the past two days!

NB: it took about 15minutes (normal walking) single journey from my flat to school, or make it 10minutes when running...OR 20minutes when the wind blows in different direction! So, maybe I dont need to do my fitness regime for another week then ;)