~Permanent head Damage~

So what have I been up to till now? 

Derh.. research of course. Nama pon PhD ye tak? 

I'll explain what kinda research I'm doing, and I'll try not to make it sound too technical. You have all the freedom to skip this entire part.


Research

I'm in the computational modelling group, and my project is to study on the formation of soot during a combustion process. Soot particles were proven to be formed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and my main focus will be on modelling the formation of these PAHs. So wth is a PAH you might ask? We'll break the name into parts and we'll find the meaning from there. Hydrocarbons are just molecules with hydrogen and carbon. Poly- means multiples of something; more than one. Cyclic means that it forms a ring; the structure cycles back to the starting point, and aromatic means that it contains double-bonds as well as single-bonds in the molecular structure.
Graphics are always a good way to explain this kind of thing. Examples are shown below:

At the top is a cyclic hydrocarbon, cyclohexane, and at the bottom is the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon, benzene. A PAH is basically many of benzene-like-structures attach together to form a huge molecule, as can be seen below:

So what I need to do is to make (more like improvising) a model for the reactions leading towards formation of PAH molecules such as the one above that can predict the outcome of the reactions and the resulting PAH and program it in a computer and run simulations to get the results, and it has to be as accurate as possible.

In order to do this I need to learn and apply Quantum Chemistry, Stochastic Models, Matlab, C++ and a lot more. Oh and the quantum chemistry software is run in a Linux environment, so I had to learn how to use it.. kinda like MS-DOS.. type out commands like 
"$ cd Y:/workfiles" .. 

@_@


and that's the basics of what I'm doing now.

To the readers skipping the part above can continue reading at this point.


It had been fun being here from the first time I arrived. Although it's starting to get boring as I ran out of things to do. I am thankful I can still play bowling here though, something I thought I no longer will be able to here..
My daily routine is waking up for subuh and then start cooking for that day's lunch and prepare breakfast. Then do some morning stretches and exercises before breakfast and showered right after. Pastu pack up and go straight to the lab. My lab is basically an office where I sit 8 hours a day in front of a computer reading journals, running calculations and simulations and figuring something out.

~A picture of my lab~

Sometimes we have meetings with other groupmembers to discuss our work and its progress, or report to the supervisor (we'll call him MK), even when he frequently drop by our lab to check on us (at least once to twice a week if he's in the uni. He's a nice man, but he will shout at us if something is not up to his expectations.

One thing I like about being here is they serve free tea everyday at 10:30 and 4:00, just naik atas to the tea room and bring your mug or take away in a paper cup and bawak turun pegi workspace. x) 
Free English tea man. Just how good can it get?


Cambridge


One main concern in a muslim-minority place is always the food, but Halal food is not really much of an issue here (though agak susah nak carik). Along Mill Road to the east, you can see halal restaurants and shops here and there, though you still might want to check the menus. One I saw has a halal sign (and it's a kebab restaurant), but inside they serve bacon as well. Hmm.. tempting no? Although we can't be too picky since it is not easy to get totally uncontaminated zabiha food and can make some kelonggaran, the thing is when there are other alternatives a walk away which you can trust more, you should opt for the latter. Effort for the sake of Allah, isn't it better?
I also realise I eat quite a lot here, ...well more like the same amount as back at home. That amount is not really needed in this climate, in fact I've gained weight =3

I got my weight (back) to 53.1 kg, my weight before bulan puasa TAHUN LEPAS (sejak bulan tuh memang tak naik2 dah... stayed at 51.7 - 52++ kg). But I DO exercise here (the routine morning exercise I mentioned above), we frequently organise badminton weekends, and I cycle everywhere in Cambridge. It's good that everything is accessible by bike, and cycling here is so much different than in Malaysia. Where in Malaysia can you find bicycle lanes on the roads? Where in Malaysia can you find bicycle parking spaces?



Have I mentioned it's spring at the moment? Up to now I've seen two seasons already, winter when I got here and now it's spring. Both have their own attractions, you can see them in the pictures below (though some were taken from my Facebook photos. Oh well this is for the sake of some people who don't have Facebook accounts):

Winter:

~Winter as can be seen outside my window~

  

Spring:

~Sakura =D~

S

~More cherry blossoms, close-up view~

~The Lee Library~

~Tulips~

So far the experience had been amazing. I have to be very thankful for being here and having the opportunity given by Allah to live in a totally different environment. It is so much different and I need to make use of all the time I have here. Alhamdulillah.. I hope my semangat here will everlast.. InshaAllah.