Archive for December, 2008
Busy @ WORK
December 23rd, 2008 by Doris
My project here is to looking at the gene expression changes in one particular cell in Huntington’s disease compared to the normal. In order to do that, I use a technique called Laser capture microdissection (LCM), amazing technology. However, this is a very time consuming and require a lot of hard works. Every session (one section – need 7-10 sections per case) takes about 2 hours – and I have 26 cases to do!
So, for a long day – I came to work at 7:30/8:00am in the morning, probably only half an hour break and go home at 7/7:30pm. Thank God that the metro is very convenient and it only takes me half an hour to get to work from the moment I step out from our home. Sometimes… i really feel exhausted but thank you very much to Leo to make things easier for me. He is not only working from home on his own freelances, but he also do the house works and prepare dinner when I have a long day. Today, by the time i left the lab.. it was 8:30pm! And Leo cooked me pasta! Yummy
Another necessary part of the project is to test the quality of the cells captured. This is such a scary thing as the whole project based on it. Really need to pray for God’s merci and have faith that everything will be fine!
Saturday
December 23rd, 2008 by Leo
My wife’s work is getting real busy and tense. Hence usually during the weekend (if we don’t travel) we would come to her office. She would then work in the lab and I use her computer to surf the internet and do some work. I cannot connect my laptop in her office and hence I can’t really work on my projects.
And as I am managing a few blogs, I intend to use this time to do some work on them.
And I also would use this chance to do some research which I usually won’t do at home.
Just found that ebay UK has LOTS of rare batmobiles! Um… Hope I can quickly get a job and earn some money…
After viewing 80+ pages of job search sites, I can only find 3 jobs that I am ‘barely’ eligible to apply.
But thank God that I have obtained the B permit. Or else, it is close to impossible to look for work here.
If we decided to go to Boston 2 years ago, I guess I would be jobless for 2 years. It is just extremely hard to find job without a work permit.
Now, get onto blogging. Writing a PHP/MySQL tutorial.
I have already sent the project to the client to assess. Basically they are very happy about my efficiency and the quality of work 
He sent me some comments to refine it. Hopefully i can finish it in a very short time.
I usually would work for this client 15 hours a month. This month I have worked 37 hours and he is happy for me to keep going as there are a few outstanding items that we would like to do. I hope to be able to obtain 50 hours.
This client employed me not as a web developer, but as a consultant for his web business. Hence, apart from working as what he has told me, I am actually supposed to provide him advice of what to do to improve his business. Although he is not paying me a lot, but I am glad I have such opportunity.
First Sunday service with the Swiss
December 15th, 2008 by Doris
Once a month, there is a combined sunday service with the Swiss. Although we could not understand much French, we thought we should go anyway. The service is run in French obviously by a female pastor and It is very much like an Anglican service. We sang along with them in French when singing the hymn and a thought came into my mind. No matter where we are, what language we speak, what culture we have, we can still praise the Lord! There is not many people at the service, in fact the number of Swiss is less that the number we have in the chinese service. It is a sad thing to say not many Swiss go to church anymore. Please pray hard for this country!
Montruex
December 15th, 2008 by Leo
Montreux was about 20-30 minutes train ride from lausanne. On the way, we could see mountain on one side and field on the other side. Every year, there is a christmas market with over 100 stalls – great Christmas spirit. The sausage that we tried were delicious but not cheap though – 6.50 Fr for one sausage and one bread.
We finally tried the cheese fondue.
Afterward, we took a bus to Chateau de chillon (castle). Chillon Castle was built on a rocky inlet near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. During the sixteenth century, the castle was used as a state prison and was the setting of the English poet Byron’s “The Prisoner of Chillon”
Then, we decided to walk back to Montreux from the castle which took about one hour. It was a great walk along the lake. the water was just so calm and peaceful and the scenery was magnificent! More photo on http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=647057650#/album.php?aid=65917&id=647057650
Before we head back to Lausanne, we also bought some cheese for 5.30 Fr- yummy!
Since the shops here are closed on Sunday, we quickly rushed to the supermarket after we got back to get some food for the week. We saw something interesting and since it was on half price, we bought it!
It is called boutefas – vaudois sausage. The name of these sausages comes from the patois for “Boute La Faim”, or “end to hunger.” It can be eaten slided cold or boiled. It is actually quite yummy but so fatty! Probably won’t get it often, haha!
