Signing off

I am sure lots of people will sympathise with me over this!

I have been finding that over the last few weeks I have had to write a lot of emails to various people. I have been trying to get a few things organised and have had to submit various applications. I am finiding it very hard to find proper signing off signals!!! I find "Yours Sincerely" too formal and quite superficial. I don't like using "Cheers" because I never actually say "Cheers".

I end up using "Regards" or "Thanks" and after a while it really starts to get to me! I sometimes find that my emails read something like:

"Thanks for your immediate reply. I will look into it. Thankyou!!. Thanks, Vidya"... That is just weird!

Anyone have any proper signing off ideas that I can use???

Also, this problem is not restricted to the office environment! I find it just as hard to find proper ways to end emails to friends too! I guess that's why with friends, I no longer sign off...

Over and out,
Till later,
Bye now!
Tuduloo!
Ta,

Vidya

PS: FOr future reference, people who sign off with simply the first letter of their names like "-V" really annoy me too!

AIYOO!!! *forehead slap*

Sunday the 18th of September, 2005. Vidya goes to the Hospital. Starts an experiment. Decides to get something to eat. Locks lab door. Goes to tea room. Has breakfast. Comes back. Can't get back into lab as door is locked! I have locked myself out!

I called up security...

*TRINGG TRINGG*

Me: Hi. I am calling from the Clinical Sciences building. I have locked myself out od my lab... Could someone please let me in??
Sec: Sure *chuckle*. I will send someone over.

A few minutes pass.

A tall English man walks in.

EM: So you have locked yourself out have you?
Me: *nod*
EM: Ahh. It happens to the best of us. Everyone except me - cuz I am perfect.
Me: Yeaaahh...
EM: COuld I ahve your name?
Me: Vidya - V I D Y A.
EM: It's just so that I can say that I have opened the door for you...
Me: You mean so that you can add me to the "REALLY STUPID" list???
EM: Hey! That's a good one. We might start one of those! Nah. You aren't on the list yet - only if you do it a second time...
Me: Ummm I may have done this allready....

Thank god we got to my lab door by then! Otherwise I may have embarassed myself even more!

Anywys, my pellet should be dry by now! Going to book my tickets to India today. Will update you guys on the dates tonight! :D

Bullets

• My last post was written very badly...
• My PCR decided to work yesterday - but it wouldn't work today :S
• I have to hand in stuff for my annual review in about two weeks time *biting nails*
• I have been procrastinating with my Lit Review!
• I wish the people in Perth would hurry up and give me a date!
• I am leaving for India in about 5/6 weeks:D:D:D:D
• I am hoping to see a friend of mine from Sweden in India - go figure!
• Uni is getting "mildly" stressful
• I can lift my own body weight on the leg press now:D:D:D:D
• Thinking of joining some kind of a hobby course - preferably sketching or painting - any suggestions?
• Have to start buying pressies to take to India...
• Christmas in 12 weeks - where has this year gone???????
• This post is worse than my last one!

Hope you all have terrific day. KEEP SMILING! :D

Do you cry when you are hungry?

Honestly, DO YOU??? I do!

When I get hungry I get quite snappy and emotional. When I was younger (less than 10...), I used to cry because I didn't know how else to express myself. Even now, when I get hungry I find that I get quite down and I am really on the edge...

Is that normal?????

Is it seriously very wierd?? If it is, what is your wierd behaviour??? I dont want to be the only one!!! :P

I am thinking about the other wierd things I do...

- I don't like drinking softdrinks that are green in colour (usuallylime flacoured stuff)...
- I write with my book held at 90 degrees to my hand...
- My glasses sit about half-way down my nose so they only ever cover half my eyes...
- I always eat crust first...

Hmm... I am sure there are lots of other wierd things I do. I am sure everyone has little wierd things they do... please tell me I am right and that I am not just generally wierd!!!

Dumb moment of the week
At morning tea on Tuesday morning:

Heading of magazine article: "I used to have $2000 a week coke habit"

Me: How much coke would you have to have?? (Calculating in my head) About 270 cans a day! How can you do that?? That has got to be wrong...
(Everyone looks at me strangely...)
Me: Doesn't that sound wierd??
(Everyone still looking at me strangely. I do calculations in my head again to make sure I haven't done anything wrong...)
Me: They must be giving some away or something else...Imagine the caffeine! The sugar!
SW: Ummm... Vidya... its a different kind of coke...
Me: Ohh... (thinking) OHHH!!!! (finally clicks!)

Apparently "coke" is short for coccaine!

Seeing the Big Picture...

Went to a symposium last night that I had been looking forward to for a long time now. I got to listen to Sydney Brenner talk - again! I heard his Nobel Laureatte speech at Uppsala in 2002 and yesterday I heard him present a talk entitled "Humanity's Genes", in which he spoke of the new genome project.

Sydney Brenner is a great public speaker - he is not only extremely intelligent, but also VERY funny! I loved his Nobel speech and I had to skip a Microbial Genetics prac to listen to it... I told my Microbial Genetics Lecturer (another great but crazy scientist!), that I thought Prof. Brenner was soo humble. My lecturer laughed at me and he said "He is SYDNEY BRENNER!! HE IS NOT HUMBLE!!".

When I heard him talk yesterday, I kept picturing the Swedish Scientist saying "He isn't humble!!". Brenner isn't humble - but he has no reason to be. He has done amazing things for Science and has a lovely way of presenting his ideas and is critical about things most scientists take for granted and gets his views across in a truly charming fashion.

There were a series of talks yesterday - presented by various people I truly look upto in the field. I saw Robin Holliday present for the first time yesterday and while everyone else used flashy powerpoint slides, he used the good old over-head projector! He was like a teddybear and I just wanted to go down and give him a hug! (I didn't offcourse - It would have been a tad odd :P).

It was a great day though - sometimes it is necessary to see the big picture. I am only working on one verrrryyy small protein and as excited as I can get about it, I can't and I don't expect the same amount of excitement from everyone else. When you get bogged down on all the little details of your project like primer design and Mg concentration in a PCR reaction, it is lovely to hear from people who have gone through all that and are now able to look back and see and tell you that that one PCR truly revolutionised the way they saw everything else.

Hearing a few people yesterday, reminded me of why I am doing all this in the first place. Why am I subjecting myself to low pay, long hours, dark labs, tedious experimentation and repeated failures?? As much as I can joke about it being the easiest way to avoid "real life" (although there is a degree of truth to it), there is another reason which I need to be reminded of once in a while.

The reason is simply that I actually do believe in what I am doing and I DO enjoy it!

Sound of Music!

Even the title looks out of place on my site! For a Tamil Brahmin it is very odd (and quite unacceptable) that I can't sing, dance or play a musical instrument!

I left India when I was 5/6 and so I didn't think it odd that I couldn't sing - until maamis started pointing it out to me. However, I am no longer finding questions like "Nee paaaduviyoo?" (Do you sing?) or "Dance kathinduirukiya?" (Have you learnt to dance?) neither odd nor rude.

I did learn Carnatic music for a few months - I got upto "Vara Veena" then stopped cuz the people I used to go with left the country (If they hadn't I may have become a second Sudha Ragunathan:P). TO be honest, I don't exactly have a great voice and I sing very badly - I guess its actually a good thing that I dont sing! I am also too uncoordinated to dance so its just at well that I didn't learn that either. :P

Despite all that, I do enjoy carnatic music. Especially in the last couple of years because I find myself going to recitals by various musicians. When I go to a kacheri, I love watching the crowds as much as listening to the music! It also makes me realise just how big music is for the Brahmin community because 99% of the audience are Brahmins and the other 1% are Sydney Uni Arts students...

I am helping organise a music festival for next weekend. Its for little kids and some of you might remember that I did the same last year. I guess all the discussion about the music festival that I had today got me thinking about how "unmusical" I am and has evolved into this rather pointless post!

Getting Healthy...

I work with some extremely health conscious people. By extremely, I mean people who ride their bikes to work and those that go for power walks during the lunch break. Most of them also play sport, go bushwalking and do cross-country skiing! In comparison, I am pretty much a bludger - but you all knew that allready :P.

I have never played much sport outside of school and while I used to go for walks, I did very little other exercise.

Today, one of the girls I work with decided to go bike riding instead of power walking. I just causally mentioned the fact that I cant ride a bike and of course now I have everyone in the lab volunteering to teach me! When am I going to learn??

So next week, I am going to learn how to ride a bike! I don't know why that is going to help me though - its not like I own a bike! :P

What was the point of the above?? Well, I guess that even if I don't learn anything or discover anything scientific over the next few years, I will at least have a healthier lifestyle!

PS: I can push almost 90% of my body weight on the Leg-press at the gym!!! Very proud of myself :D

Incompetant Scientist?

I gave my presentation today and I cant say that it went too badly. I was second up (I was supposed to be third, but the girl who was supposed to go second didn't turn up) and so everyone was still awake.

I had all the big-guns from the uni present at my talk.When I say "big-guns" I mean REALLY BIG!!! All the heads of the Department were there and the mode of titles was "Professor". Apparently my talk was VERY clear, and so I got asked HEAPS of questions! Most of the questions were "Why" questions! I despise "Why" questions! That's because my answer is usually "Cuz that's what my supervisor thinks I should do!".

I dont think I handled them too badly though. However, I was listening to other talks and I must say, I was starting to feel really bad. I think I am quite competitive by nature and I don't know if it shows but I was feeling very stupid by the end of the day!

I know I will get over it soon enough. Perhaps I am not being serious enough about my work...

Time for me to change my atitude perhaps?? I shall ponder my handling of this whole PhD thing late into the night...

One crash or two?

On my way home from the hospital I stopped over at a florist. After buying a bunch of flowers, I got back in my car and was about to drive off. It was around sunset and as a result it was very hard to see because of the reflection. I checked and rechecked and when I was ABSOLUTELY sure there were no cars, I swerved to the right to take a 3 point turn.

Anyways, this grey Commodore comes from out of nowhere and I hit it! I moved back to where I was parked, put on my yellow sneakers (note to self: dont wear yellow sneakers with lime green socks!), and walked over to the P-plater and apologized. I asked him to make sure his car was ok. He said it was fine and that I shouldn't worry about it. I yelled "SORRRYY" from across the road and he drove away.

Then! This old man came upto me...

Old Man: That wasn't your fault was it?
Me: Yes it was...
OM: I think you hit the car in front though...

There happened to be a dent in the car that was parked in front of me. It was a Nissan Skyline and a pretty old car... (Khush - I hope it wasn't your car!). I didn't think that I hit that car. I told the guy that I had hit the Commodore, but if he thought that I had also hit the car in front then I was happy to leave my number - in case it was my fault!

I was looking for a pen and not finding one, I decided to go back to the florist and ask for a pen. In the mean time, the old man was explaining what had happened to the florist. The florist then asked me what happened. I told him how I had hit the Commodore and perhaps it was my fault that the Nissan had also been injured...

By this time I was starting to feel really guilty!

He came out...looked at the damage and said, "Nah! It couldn't have been your car. Your car is too low. Its not your fault. Dont bother leaving your number!"

I asked him if it was his car. He said, "No. But I don't want you to pay for something you didn't do."

I didn't know what to do. The florist then said,"Just keep the pen..."

I thought he was giving me a subtle hint to have his pen back and so I said, "I am SORRYY!!! Please take your pen back..."

He goes to me, "Nah! Keep it! You might need it - just dont use it to write your details. That old man is a big mouth - don't worry about him."

I thanked him and apologized (I don't know why!) and drove off!

How wierd and confusing is that???

Did I do the right thing???

After possibly hitting TWO cars...I got a pen to keep!

*No Appropriate Title*

Before I say anything else, I would like you all to know that nothing even remotely exciting happened today! (Incase you were waiting for some nail-biting or heart racing goss:P)

I did however give a practice talk today. I have to present at the student conferance next week and thought I should practice in front of my supervisor - it seemed like a great idea at the time! My supervisor is sooo lovely! He has been all booked out for most of the week, and still he made time for us - despite having a really bad cold!

I thought my pictures were fantastic - I then did this silly thing of showing it to a post-doc who works in a different lab to me. He looked at my pictures and said, "Hmm... you seem to be getting some unspecific staining!". I said, "Ummm... I am?". Oh well - hopefully the pretty colours and funky powerpoint tricks will keep everyone distracted from the actual content of the slides!

I am noticing all these little things I say and do now that I never used to do before. Its just little things like the way I narrate things or the way I say little words like "maaaayybee" in a different way to how I would normally say it. Its a sure sign that I have been spending a lot of time talking to the people I work with and so I have picked up little things they do and it seems to have found its way into my own manner of speech and actions!

I am upto Page 130 with War and Peace! Its the furthest I have ever read and I do like it! Its just that I read it before going to sleep so I am often reading it lying down. The book is quite heavy and as a result, my arms and wrists start aching! Maybe I should invent something that will hold the book in place as I read it lying down...*brain thinking up several theoretically possible but practically impossible, simply stupid or majorly flawed ideas!* (Sounds rather like my experiments actually!)

PS: URL to Ridhish's blog for those of you who have not yet discovered it : oppiniongalore.blogspot.com

Early signs of Alzhiemers....

Let me now narrate a few incidents that have occurred to me in the last two days...

1) I completely FORGOT that I had taken my car to work and at the end of the day started walking towards the station to catch the train back home! (I realised after I was about half way to the station...)

2) I FORGOT completely to add a control tube containing my "vector only" for my ligations!

3) I FORGOT to put on my glasses in the morning!

4) I FORGOT that it was Jeans for Genes day! (Quite ashamed of that actually...)

5) I walked all the way to the station this morning, because I didn't want to wake my brother, then I had to ring him, wake him up and ask him to bring me my wallet because I FORGOT to take it with me before I left home!

Ok - is it crazy for me to worry about myself after all that??? That is seriously not normal - even for me!!! It has me quite paranoid actually and I was convinced this morning that maybe I am going slightly cuckoo!

Anyways, with that aside, I met my first ever Rett child today. We had some funding people come and they came for a tour of our lab. The girl was only 9 and she had a very mild mutation and so had a fairly mild phenotype. I wouldn't have been able to pick her out had it not been for her mum telling us...

Its amazing how distanced the lab environment is from the clinical setting - so much so that I sometimes FORGET (:P) that what I am doing is ultimately going to significantly change someone else's life. I guess I can only hope that this change will be for the better!

A few little things today helped put life in perspective for me - even if it was only for a short while!

PS: Rett Syndrome is the disease I work on for those who were wondering what I meant by "Rett child"...

My stance...

I did say that I would express my opinions about the two things I mentioned in my last post - so here it is!

The first instance involving the policeman annoyed me greatly. It annoyed me because to me it looked like the man was simply stopped because the policeman assumed he was a terrorist because he was a muslim. If that was true then to me it was wrong. Ofcourse there is every chance that I am looking at the situation totally out of context and that I am the one who is actually showing racial tendencies by assuming such a thing - it is just as likely that he was an old man who had just lost something on the train and was simply appealing to the policeman for help. I am quite ashamed to admit that I would assume such a thing. A point to work on...

On the second incident...

"Freedom of speech" and "racial villification" seem to be on either side of a blurry line. I haven't heard the whole story properly and so I don't truely have a stance. If Andrew Fraser says "I have proof that black populations increase crime rates", I want to see that proof. Statistically, his argument seems flawed to me. Sure, you might find a correlation between crime and race, but I am sure the correlation between poverty vs crime and poverty vs race are just as statistically significant. I just want to know if his research took all of that into account. As a former student from Macquarie, what embarasses me more than Andrew Fraser expressing his opinions, is the fact that he would base those opinions on very poorly conducted research!

Andrew Fraser is entitled to his opinion - he is 61 and I can excuse him for having opinions that are different from what most of us beleive in. My opinions differ from my parents! To me it looks like he is using statistics (and a poorly designed experiment) to reinforce his beleifs - this unnecessarily draws the university into the picture because now it looks as if the university is supporting such experimentation when in reality it may not be...

I guess my stance on the issue is still not set simply because I don't think that I know enough about it to say "I believe strongly that...".

Scary...

I have been noticing subtle things that are starting to worry me just slightly...

This morning as I got out of the train to get to the hospital, I saw two policeman at the station. They had with them a man who was dressed in an Afghani traditional dress - cap and all. To me he looked like a perfectly harmless citizen, however, he was stopped by the policeman and the policemen were on the phone.

The man looked extremely embarassed by all this and it made me feel extremely sad and not to mention annoyed to see this.

On a related but different note, I was listening to the talk about Andrew Fraser yesterday. Andrew Fraser (I think I remember his name correctly...), is a professor from Macquaire University who apparently expressed a few opinions that were quite different to those held by the general public. He claimed that the growing "black" population in Australia was not healthy and research shows that places with higher black populations tend to have higher crime rates. The University first allowed for him to express his opinions on the basis of "freedom of speech" and later asked him to tone it down a bit or retire as the university seems to feel that it's reputation is at stake.

Just two random things that have got me slightly worried... I am yet to express my stance on both these incidents and will do it later today once I get home!!

Finished reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" (by J.K. Rowling). Reading "Angels and Demons" by DAn Brown and attempting to read "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy (again!)!!!

Better get back to my cells!

Bye Bye

My parents are both in India now... and I miss them very much :'(

Update: 11:00am on Saturday morning... and I am at the hospital! This experiment had better work!

Caught Texting!

I chucked a Shane Warne last week! I have been having some problems with texting! :P

One of my students - Alan, is 50. I am teaching him how to read. The thing with my new phone is that if I lock it its a real hassle to unlock and so I don't lock my phone. The other thing with my phone is that once I send a message, it retains the last sent message in the display...

NOT A GOOD COMBINATION!

I got a call from my students coordinatior today and he said, "Hi... you have been messaging Alan. I am sure it was an accident. I justhought I should let you know..."

So basically I have been accidently sending all sorts of wierd messages like, "I need to buy Srini's pressie", "you should sleep on the photoframe" and "I'll take care of the lymph tom" to a person ho probably thinks I am testing his reading!

I felt like a complete moron! I called up Alan, and spoke to his wife and said, "I AM SOOO SORRY!! I have been accidently messaging Alan and I really didn't mean to!! I am really really sorry."

She was so nice about it! "Its ok Lydia... accidents happen. We are not worried about it."

How much of an idiot am I??? DONT ANSWER THAT QUESTION!

And this is for Shobhsie!

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
- Vidhu
- Gayu
- Veg
And there is many more! :P

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
- Veg_v
- "When you breathe you inspire, when you don't, you expire"
- "Banga Banga BAnga. OI OI OI!

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
- hmmm...is this a trick question??? :P
- I have been told that I have a "straight" nose - that cant be taken too badly!
- My teeth are white!!! (I brush them :D)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
- Not so much "don't like"... but my eyebrows annoy me!
- My arms are weak :(
- I have frizzy hair

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
- I don't get what this qu means... I guess it means "Things that are one with me..."
- My uneven eyebrows, my glasses and my "pottu" / "bindi".

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
- I get scared by just about anything and everything!!! At the top of the list... Snakes, Babies and live animals...

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
-Watch
-Glasses
- Sneakers

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
This is a hard one!
- Want it to be lasting
- Ability to be myself
- and just be comfy...

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
- I sleep with a teddy
- I was in this terrible accident that caused me to acquire selective amnesia, a high IQ and loose the ability to count...It also lead to several issues with with uneven eyebrows...
- I nearly drowned as a kid.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
- Tall is good
- a smile that wont make me feel like the only colgate advertiser!!
- a straight nose! (Sounds like I am just waiting for a taller version of me doesn't it???:P)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
- Go home!
- Have chocolate!!!
- Gather motivation to go to the gym!

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
- If this whole PhD thing fails, I reckon I wud just become a science teacher.
- If I get stunning results and my research is simply awe-inspiring and nobel prize winning then I might just become an academic. :P
- If the above two don't happen, then I'll just be a student for as long as the uni will let me.

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
- India - now that my daddy will be there!
- NewZealand
- Sweden - and actually travel around Sweden!

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
- I used to have a huuge list! I don't anymore.

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
- GRADUATE!!! :P
- Learn to cook - properly!
- Construct a detailed Family Tree

The people I would pass this on to...

I would like everyone who reads this blog (all 4 or 5 of you:P) to do the above questionaire!

A moment in time...

I have been wanting to have a proffesional photo of the family taken for a very long time now. It finally happened yesterday!

We had a family photo taken with everyone, plus one with just my grandparents, one with just my parents and one of my two brothers and myself. My family is impossible in situations like this! They have to make every little thing difficult! I don't think that I am asking for much when I ask them to wear decent clothes! *Breathe in breathe out* - I have whinged enough about that... I will put that aside and move on now.

It was quite funny when the photographer asked my grandma to place her hand on my grandpa's shoulder and bring her face REAL close to his. My grandma simply wouldn't do it because it made her very consious. She was sooo embarassed! It was sooo cute to watch though! After finally getting her to stand as close as we could dare ask, we told the photographer that that would have to do!

After the photos were all taken my grandpa told the photographer, "After Forrty Eight years of marriage, this is our first photograph." I think she was quite shocked - as was I!

Overall, I was quite satisfied with myself for organising it :D - even if everyone else seemed to consider it a painful chore!

In news this week...

• I cooked stuff and noone died!
• My cheesecake was a hit!!!
• The stuff I did at the hospital last year is FINALLY going into a publication (eventhough I am like the 9th author in a 12 author paper!:P)
• Three out of four of my students cancelled on me this week - am I really that mean?? (The fourth didn't have a choice:P)
• I was intimately involved in the thesis binding process of a friend
• I know where to get my thesis "bound" (thanks Ashwin!)!!
• I am addicted to "hexic"
• Have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow about my progress
• Both my parents are leaving for Bangalore in two weeks - my mum is going for two weeks and my dad for three years :(
• I am planning a trip to NZ and India at the end of this year
• Going to uni today
• Going out to lunch and dinner with family
• Started Cross-stitching again

AND FINALLYYYY

BANGLADESH BEAT AUSTRALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I COOKED!!!

One of my friends at the hospital is leaving for Boston on Sunday and we are having a little farewell morning tea for her. I said to some of my lab members "One of these days... I am going to cook and suprise you!" - never say something like that! I have been asked to cook "from scratch" (i.e. - no packet food) and also been told not to ask for assistance from my grandma or mum.

I cooked today:D I have made TWO cheesecakes and a potato cheese pastry thing :D How good am I??? I tried the pastry - it is quite bearable! I haven't tried the cheesecake yet - but with that much fat in it I can't go wrong on the taste (the texture and shape is a whole other thing though!)

Anyways, I'll let you guys know if I get asked to cook ever again or if my colleagues just say "Ask your mum to make something!"

I also have to get some digital photos printed tomorrow morning and then make sure everyone has signed the farewell card then I am taking my colleague who is leaving for Boston to get her thesis binded!

Tomorrow should be a fun day!

Lab Wars

I have told you all before that I absolutely love where I work. I honeslty do love the people I am working with. I did however have a bit of an issue with one of my colleagues last week. I guess I am quite sensitive and so the issue probably seemed larger to me than anyone else.

However, things are fine now - I still get along with everyone in the lab and I have learnt that if you know you are going to have to spend the next couple of years with someone, then you might as well learn to accept them for what they are.

Its interesting how knowing how long you are going to be around certain people really affects the way in which you act towards them.

End of May allready???

WHAT IS THIS??? I can't believe that May is almost over! 2005 is half gone! Is the Earth spinning faster?? I sometimes think that I am part of some wierd experiment in which *they* are trying to work out just how fast they can make me go before I start to work backwards! I don't think I could cope with things going much faster than they are.

I think Mondays and Tuesdays are the only days of the week that I am actually conscious off. After Tuesday, I seem to skip right on to Monday again!

I should just calm down now...

It was Srini's Birthday yesterday:D HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARI-LU!!! I can't beleive that he is 20! Both my brothers stopped growing for me from when they were about 12. They will always be 12 for me. I woke up a few minutes before him, avoided looking at him and dashed off to the shops to buy him a pressie!! PHEW!

Yesterday was a busy day - but busy in a nice way. Lots to do this week...