hey chocolate lovers out there. Not sure if this research is well-validated. But here's what the studies show:

"Chocolate craving when depressed

A study by the Black Dog Institute, published in the October 2007 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, has found a link between chocolate craving and personality.

It found that people who rate highly on personality styles of irritability, rejection sensitivity, anxious worrying, self-criticism and self-focus crave chocolate and use it to sooth their anxiety.

The researchers found that for people who engage in ‘comfort eating’ or ‘emotional eating’, eating chocolate has no real or lasting psychological benefit and can lead to mood worsening. Others crave chocolate when in a ‘dysphoric’ (anxious, stressed, depressed) state and say it helps their mood.

The Black Dog Institute is an approved HealthInsite information partner and has a media release and a fact sheet with more information about the study and about the association between personality, chocolate craving and its effects on mood.
HealthInsite has major topic areas on depression and mental illnesses.

Created October 5 2007"

hehe.. better don't depend on chocolate for that kind of euphoric effect :P

g r a c e
8:31 PM



Shared with a few friends about this thought from last week. "Is it a good reason to use a bad word when something bad happens?" Not just when my toast gets burnt to black, or when I forgot to record a nice show. But really bad. Maybe when it seems like erm.. A very dear friend or family is lost, or when oh well, in the case it just seems really really bad.

Can I say it?

Initially, I thought that yea! Why not. After all, I didn't use it loosely. I used it in a time when things were really bad.

But then after some time, I realised that this was just my thinking in a sort of a way when I was looking at the present problems in the small view. It's really so because all I see at the difficult point was just the problem, but I failed to realise the bigger picture.

Ultimately, God is still in control of all things. Who am I to say that those situations are so bad that they are beyond the control of God. I can't think that way. There's nothing beyond He who created all things. So, I believe that even if things seem really bad at the present, it is going to be only temporary.

And thus, I've decided, it would be wrong to use a bad word even if things get really bad in life. It'll all work out eventually. I guess for most of us, as long as we've lived for more than 15-16 years we'd know that..

Here's some of my own examples:
When I was 10 yrs old, I lost my maths workbook. For that age, it was a crisis. But my mom found it after a long search. hee

12 yrs old, got back my PSLE results. I almost went to the normal stream because of my bad results. But made it to BHSS in express stream. After that I even went to the best class by sec4. (Ah wells, but we were a neighbourhood school so there was only 2 express classes. hehe)

13 yrs old, first time I experienced the feeling of being left out. One of my long time friends kind of found new friends so it was then that I felt rather angry about it and almost didn't want to believe in friendship anymore. But it wasn't very long before someone came into my life and started to become one of my close friends in secondary school life. cool huh. She came in just about a few minutes after I thought of never having friends again. haha..

15 yrs old, I got to sec3. By then I had just gotten to the best class. But the subjects were superly tough. I remember that my parents could not understand my situation initially as I'm the first child. So they didn't know why I was not doing well then. It seemed dim, it also almost was as if I won't make it past sec3 to get to sec4. But I did. Most of us in my class did. And some of those things that I thought I would never understand are now my favourite topics. Eg: the mole concept. hahaha. But then of course, there are quite a number of things I've forgotten from sec school work.

16 yrs old, just before my O levels, my dad said to me that I won't even be able to make it to ITE. I guess, I was quite discouraged then. But I remember working hard. And actually, this was the year where I came to truly believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. I graduated from secondary school with really good grades and made it to a polytechnic. Today I'm in university studying pharmacy. And my parents are also amazing people today.. having been changed in heart by God, they're not as pessimistic as in the past.

There's lots of times where things seem bad and dark. It has only been by the grace of God that I've made it to this day at where I am. There's much more ahead to face. I'm going to start my final year soon. It'll be tough. That I know. But great things will happen too! :)

Praise God for all that's past, and all that's to come!

And I thank God too, for the colourful life I've had. ;)

g r a c e
10:35 AM



Here's one way to eat your bread!

One slice, tear up cheese and put it all over the top of the bread
Then for the fun of it, I added (of all things) some broken up mamee noodle crumbs on top. This sort of sticks to the cheese after the cheese melts.

Then in it goes to the toaster.
First time it was great man! woo..

But then second time I did it, I came to look at the com and after the toaster rang (which was 5 min later), I returned to find all the cheese had become black. And mind you, that was not chocolate. Arrgh! my toast. But the chao da cheese was nice though. the bread haiya. It was gone. All black! =P

So learnt my lesson. Next time you toast something. Make sure you don't get distracted and do other things. Unless you want to eat really black and burnt toast. hehe

g r a c e
12:12 PM



Have something interesting to share.

during my attachment, my friends and I were given this amazingly difficult assignment to do. That is, we had to collate information of all the injections found in the inpatient pharmacy. Please note its not the "impatient pharmacy". It's inpatient. Meaning that this pharmacy supplies medications to patients who stay in the hospital.

Anyway, we split the job, and made lists of the medications. To give you a clue to how tough it was, it was basically 100++ medications split among 3 people. And not all the injectables had an available patient information leaflet (or PIL) that we could take for reference. So for that, the list of medications we had was really important.

Time was at hand. We had only one week to complete the assignment with the fact that we were all so tired at the end of each day for every day different pharmacist will ask us to search for information each day.

One week passed, and the pharmacist who gave us the injectables task said "Tomorrow I'll go through it". That night, I went home and finished up my part. To my horror, I could not find the list that I had made. I had all the PILs that I had collected with me. But no list! So by memory I tried to key out the names of all those medications that were on the list but had no PIL.

I guessed that I must have left the list in my pharmacy jacket that I've been leaving in the hospital (We don't bring our jackets home all the time). So the next day, when I arrived at the hospital, that was what I checked. huh! no list in the pockets of the jacket either. So I guessed I must have left it at the inpatient pharmacy.

So when work began, I went there and searched for it. Could not find it at all!

Then I walked to my friend and told her I give up finding it. I've lost all hope. Then I decided to start packing.

For those who have never been to a packing room before in a hospital, there's many yellow boxes that we call "bins". This is not rubbish bin, but the box contains different medications. And each bin has a label on it. This is the code number for the medication in the box.
Just when I said I had lost all hope, I happened to dip my hand into one of those bins. I still remember it was prednisolone (steroid). And guess what came out of that bin? My list!!!

Who would have known? I must have left it there the day before when I had to pack while holding the list in my hands. I was so thankful when I saw it all I could say was "thank you! thank you!" Thank you Lord! It was as if my list had just fallen down before me from the skies!

That really made my day. :)

Labels: expect the unexpected

g r a c e
10:46 AM



Thank You God for skies that look so beautiful. They light up in patterns even I cannot imagine on my own. They speak of how limitless You are, and they remind us all that there is a Creator above us all and in control of all things.

Thank You Lord for being everywhere, everytime.

For providing help when I need it. For giving me courage to face all kinds of trials. For bringing wonderful friends into my life when I was most lonely.

Else, I may not be able to keep a light and cheerful attitude at most times. I may even have fallen into depression. For life has never been easy.

Thank You God for everything. Amen.

g r a c e
9:13 PM



The greatest miracle I've experienced in the past few months was....

not that I had made it (or at times barely made it) through the tests

not that I had survived the exams (though the results are probably er... hmm.. I don't know what it is. Feels scary to see it this friday)

rather, it was that I've learnt that even at times when friendships seem impossible to be healed, they still can be patched back. It's not worked out just by a few sessions of heart to heart talk. But its also through a journey of accepting each other and working with each other co-operatively with lots of appreciation and encouragement for one another. Even when disagreement comes, it is not dealt with in anger. Sounds too idealistic? It happened to me. And it happened pretty unexpectedly. The result was that it really freed me from bitterness and resentment.

I think the past week of attachment has been wonderful for the simple reason that my peers doing the attachment with me at the outpatient pharmacy have been encouraging towards one another. We all know we're still learning, and we are also sharing information with each other. For that, I'm grateful. Even if I have made mistakes, and at times do not remember stuff (In fact, its many times), and come home tired.... I'm thankful for wonderful friends...

If there's anything I could thank God for that I'd say is a miracle at this point, it would be to build long-lasting, and loving (the selfless and unconditional kind) relationships. For that would simply be like what God had intended all human relationships to be.

Because I love God, I ought to show it by loving the people around too.
It's not easy all the time. That's why its a miracle.

g r a c e
6:48 PM



Just another one of the funnies from long ago. It's now the exam period, and I'm reminded of something that happened last semester. We were preparing for pharmacology (Basically it's the study of what our body does to the drug, and what the drug does to our body).

And during that time, I wanted to sms my friends to check what properties of the drug we needed to know. Instead of sending "Just to check.....", I sent a message saying "Just to cheat...." Haha! That incident still lingers in my mind. It's quite funny. And no, I didn't intend to cheat.

Yea, my exams are in less than a week! arrgh! How fast. I do not know how, but God sure has brought us all through yet another semester. One that's filled with lots of reports and projects. To a certain extent, I feel rather accomplished. Yet, I don't know if I've really learnt anything. Maybe the greatest lesson I had learnt was human relations.

And in the midst of all these, I'm thankful that I've gotten to know some friends better. Some of these are what I'll call a miracle. Why is that so? I can't explain here. But lets just say, it's always much, much better to forgive, and learn to accept one another than to make enemies and hold grudges the rest of our lives.

Well, have a blessed week! And all the best to my dear friends taking exams too!!!

g r a c e
10:31 AM