Oxford Part 2 - April Snow

It was a sunday, got up late and opened my window and woopee!! Snow in April!!! Hurray to Global Warming???

Faculty of History

Courtyard of the Faculty all covered in snow.. Was it cold? Honestly? i think my skin had became so thick over time, i felt the cold was bearable le..

Seeing that this was the first snow in Oxford after so many years, I ran out of the door without shower none food just to capture as many beatiful views as possible..

Beautiful scenes huh? but alas when midday comes, the snow all melted and everything turned wet and yucky...

Oxford Part 1 - where i stayed le?

Ok la let's go back to April this year when i was in Oxford Uni for a month long internship.. i know i know that's a long time ago but i am a very busy woman bah..he he he

Throughout the month, i stayed in one of the apartments in George street. the apartment was situated on top of a posh italian restaurant, and next to the Faculty of History, Oxford.

From the toilet i could see the faculty so clearly, and sometimes when i did my business, i would wonder can people inside the building can see me or not one le??

There's a nice kitchen i the apartment, well equipped and all. THE QUESTION IS DID I COOK? ah if you called boiling water, put maggie mee inside and stir as cooking then YES I DID.. he he he

But hey i washed my clothes regularly when i was in oxford ok. so i am not completely helpless one ok!!

WAS I ALONE in the apartment? The answer is.....................................YES!!! my roommates got married to each other and were on honeymoon so i had the house all the myself for the first 3 weeks of my stay.. Real fun exploring things by myself and talking to myself most of the nights.. go gaga after a while bah..

This is the restaurant where my apartment was situated.

Our balcony where friends would come for drinks and more..

The bloody narrow staircase where i had to drag my luggages up on the

first day and down on the last day!!!!!!!!!!

To Sungai Ingei yo..

Hey peps.. how did this topic ever come up? Let's go back to Lanjak in July 08.. the brunei team was tired and exhausted due to poor mammal richness in that place. So i suggested to the brunei team leader Dr Joe Charles why don't we have an expedition in our own country where the forests are so much more pristine than what we saw in Lanjak. So everyone was excited but as everyone was busy, the idea was not pursued further.

Then came Dato Dr Mike Kavanagh.. He's the Brunei HOB coordinator, and one of my mentors. He approached Dr Charles and said about what Brunei can do as the first projects for Brunei HOB, and that's how the Ingei expedition was formulated.

So what's my role here le?

Well as usual, i will be involved in helping Dr Charles to plan, manage and execute his part of research. We are going to foucs our research on small mammal trapping, camera trapping, primate and hornbill surverys. I will personally be involved in the primate & hornbill surveys where i will have to walk for 2km everyday from dawn onwards and record my observations. Personally i am pretty worried as i have never done this kind of work before. BUT i must learn this technique from Dr Charles if i am going to be working in wildlife conservation later on..

At the moment Dr Charles and myself are busy with selecting the undergrad students who will be coming with us and we have discussing the same topics for the last 2 weeks. there are certain people we are very sure of bringing and some that we can't make up our mind on. Just too many factors to consider you see.. things like leadership quality, seriousness in work, willingness to learn.. ah ya too many things to consider la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gila man!!!

Metis and Bon were sweet enough to come with me and Dr Charles this afternoon to survey camping gears, and we spent about 3 HOURS in the shop just discussing the stuff we need to put in the budget.. oh that's one of my job too.. preparing budget for our team.. see i am a multitask superwoman!!!!!! very stressful one le..

will update more once i have all the details of the expeditions.

met is this post long enough for you?

what to post le?

That's the main question in my mind since metis wong kuan lee (ah wong's son) keep siao liaming me about updating my blog。should i talk about my internship? should i talk about the upcoming ingei trip and what preparations we have to do? ok la i think that's a more interesting topic, or better yet, why don't do both? you never know i just might.. in order to shut people up about updating my blog. yes my dear moi i am slowly doing that..

My beloved volunteers - now and then part 1

God has always been kind to me- sending me good people to help and love me..



I want to pay tribute to all the people who have helped me in my research - the ever precious oldies..


I called the whole gang as lina's group because Dr. Charles introduced her and faye to me first. I remember when they first came helped me in Site C (i think..) i told myself let's see how long can this two tahan.. (sorry ladies.. had too many bad experiences with previous so called volunteers..). Well they survived and brought more friends with them next.. then came mad, faisal, rosli, ham, salwa...

This is the first group of people that have worked so closely with Joe and myself, both in the field and also in conservation projects. With them and Joe, I set up the Biodiversity Conservation Programme (BIOCOP). We did so many researches together, ranging from hornbill surveys to extensive camera trapping in kerangas forests.

We've done so many crazy things together. Guys remember in Belalong our canopy traps? and what i saw?? he he he..

Where are them now? What are they doing? Well let me give you a summary below:

Haslina - Research assistant in IMedicine. Going off to Sweden soon for her MSc. degree- well done girl.

Faye - Our future educator - she's so organised..

Salwa - She's now in Brisbane doing her MSc. in Conservation Biology. She's always happy..

Faisal - My God he has matured so much now that he'a a public health officer in the Ministry of Health.. Chill Man!!

Rosli - Now in London doing his MSc. entomology. Strong Smart man

Ham - A officer in the Agriculture Dept. MIPR.

Mad - married and ...

To all of you. I am grateful for all the help, love and companionship you have showered me.. I hope one day we will have the chance to work together again.. May God bless you and give you all you want..

Bye bye Lanjak

I am finally back from the expedition in Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary. Still feeling the strain of not enough sleep and constant worrying.

Well i gained a lot of experiences from this expedition, ranging from coordinating transport and equipment to babying team members in lanjak itself. Everything is worth it and i had great fun!!

sleep...

have been busy with work since my return from oxford. will update the blog soon. Will be going for an expedition to Lantjak Entimau in late June so looking forward to that.