Archive for January, 2009
Home and Work
January 29th, 2009 by Doris
HOME
It has been more than 2 months since we landed here. Life are pretty much settled. We have moved into a new apartment and is not likely that we will move again at least till the end of the year. The apartment is equipped with basic furnitures. Although we wish to buy a few more things such as a new bed and a shoe rack/cupboard, it is rather expensive to invest especially not knowing how long we can stay here for. The rent is much more expensive- 1800 Fr per month for a one bedroom aparment, however we especially enjoy the fact that power and water are included in the rent and that the apartment is centrally heated. We will always feel warm, never run out of water and the best part is no need to worry about how “big” the bill is at the end of the month!
WORK
Working 10-12 hours is my daily routine. Sometimes I do feel exhausted after getting up at 6am for a few days in a row and/or when I didn’t have a good night sleep. Other postdocs and students tend to work from 9am to 7/8pm but I prefer to start earlier so that I could go home for dinner. The first two months was challenging but things are more settled now. However, there are still many steps to do and I won’t know the results until the end. Due to long hours of repetitive works, my right arm and hand is getting sore. Even though it is tough, but it is God’s blessing to be able to do research. Doing research may not earn a lot but I enjoy doing research especially when its aim is to help the patients perhaps it is not now, perhaps it may take over 10 years, but every little contribution bring them hopes and that motivate me to move forward.
Leo has some ongoing clients from New Zealand and Australia, so it has kept him busy at home while he is looking for a permanent job. With the current economy crisis, it is not easy to find a job especially in a foreign country. It is already a very good start that Leo has a job interview after 2 months considering there was a Christmas/New Year break in between. Many people still couldn’t find a job after 6 months in this current economy crisis. WELL… just leave it to God. There is nothing to worry about. If He takes care of the birds in the sky sure it is up to Him whether we can afford a bowl of rice or porridge 
. There have been much harder time in the past and He kept us.
UK Trip Over the New Year
January 22nd, 2009 by Leo
We flew to Birmingham on boxing day! No presents from the plane though.
We visited 4 places in UK – Manchester, Birmingham, Cambridge and London.
First Stop – Manchester
Wai Ching (Doris’ friend) picked us up from the airport. We had lunch at her place with her husband, Dave, and her daughter, cutie Zoe. Then they drove us to catch the bus to Manchester. We only spent one night in Manchester, but it was a relaxing evening. Nice dinner (well, actually steak was a bit dry but not too bad) with nice French red wine. We also watched a movie in the comfy hotel room. It was so nice to be able to relax.
The next day we walk around Manchester city. And of course we started the day with a nice big breakfast. Coffee was okay – of course never going to be as nice as Italy. We arrived at Chinatown a bit too early and all shops were closed.
Second Stop – Birmingham
We took the bus back to Birmingham. However, there was a traffic accident and hence all buses were late. We ended up waiting for 2 hours for the bus to come 
And it was really cold. But anyway, thank God it finally arrived.
Wai Ching came and pick us up again. It is so great that we can stay at her place. Such comfy and warm feeling.
Again, we walked around in the Birmingham city. The road system is very complicated indeed – giving us the excuse of getting lost about 2 million times. The malls here are huge, but because it is the end-of-year sale, it is always crowded. It was so crowded that people have to queue to get on the elevator!
Wai Ching also took us to the University of Birmingham to have a look. There was a small lake and Zoe was feeding the ducks. Nice place to study – if you are indoor. It was just far too windy and cold.
During our stay we cooked for Wai Ching’s family for 2 evenings. That’s the only things that we can offer. Thanks for taking care of us 
Third Stop – London & Cambridge
I met Chung in Sydney when he came over to travel. Doris introduced him to me and we became friends.
And this time, it is my chance to annoy him hahaha… We stayed at his place for our whole London trip. I must say he is such a professional tour guide. We didn’t even have to take a map with us. He just showed us around with routes well planned. He even took us to the spot that we can take the best photos.
On New Year’s Day Chung drove us to Cambridge. And because it is a public holiday, we can enter the colleges for free :p
Not sure if he is really moving to Beijing. But if he is, then we can surely have an easy Beijing trip as well
I was so glad that I have the chance to have lunch with Scott. It is always good to catch up with good friends.
Doris & I watched 2 musicals – We will Rock You & Les Miserables – and certainly makes our day. As usual I would purchase the program. And hell they know how to earn money – they have another booklet called ‘brochure’ and sold seperately. The story line of We will Rock You is a bit dumb but it is a musical produced by Queen (the famous band) and Ben Elton. Music was so good. At the encore section the whole cast sung “Bohemian Rhapsody” and it was so great! And the guitar solo is just awesome! (FYI “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a song by the English rock band Queen. It was written by frontman Freddie Mercury for the band’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera.)
My second time watching Les Miserables, although it is Doris’ first time. How lucky she is to watch such a magnificient musical in a theatre in London with the London cast!
To view more photos that I uploaded to facebook, visit here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69704&l=1e09c&id=591917272
More photos on Doris’ Facebook profile:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70343&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70683&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70851&id=647057650
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71054&id=647057650
Our New Apartment
January 22nd, 2009 by Leo
We moved into the new apartment just before Christmas. It is a big apartment!
Sorry the living room is a bit messy, as I have to put my desk here. There is a small balcony that we can have our breakfast there.
Bookshelf without books They are being mailed to me.
Nice and bright kitchen!
Most utensils are already there when we moved in.
This is our bedroom. Again nice and bright. If we look out the window we would be able to see a part of France!
The apartment is already furnished. We only bought an extra desk and shelf for the kitchen and that’s done!
White Christmas
January 11th, 2009 by Doris
On Christmas day, all the shops were closed and we decided to go up to the mountain for a change. So, we took a train from Lausanne to Les pleiades (ALT.1348m) via Vevey. When we got there, we were overwhelmed by the scenery and the snow around us. This is our first winter Christmas surrounded by snow! 
And since we didn’t have time for breakfast in the morning, we thought we would treat ourselves with good lunch up the mountain. It was such a relaxing lunch! After we were energized, we thought we should visit the ski field even though we were not skiing. The snow on the ski field were hard so it was easy to walk about. However, when we were going back up from the other side of the ski field, there were spots where the snow were soft and without realizing it, we were sinking! And it was so tiring walking up too!
Then, we thought to do some thing more adventurous. Instead of just waiting for the train, we thought it would be fun to walk down along the rail track to the next stop down. And we saw couple old ladies walking up from that stop while we were going up on the train. So, if they could do it, we sure can do it especially we are now walking downhill.
It was very fun but scary too. Some spots could be quite slippery and the snow were too soft to step on. I fell down a few times and so my pants got wet! HAHA. There was a few times when I stepped on the soft spot, the snow was up to my knee!
More photos on http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67805&id=647057650