2014-12-31    UK   22:00

Special say today, particularly at this moment, we are ready to say goodbye to the year 2014 and warmly welcome the New Year’s coming. There is a lot of memorable things happened in the whole year2014, year 2013 as well. Herein, I am going to recall them to fulfill my dream.

Actually, when I started my PhD career,nothing else has ever distracted my attention a lot as I just keep my focus on the research projects. All done is to push myself to go forward and finish the degree early. To be honest, I never thought the sort of things in academia goes well so far so as I can accomplish all the tasks in about two years’ time. Some people around are jealous of me since maybe they didn’t realize how hard I have been working. I am never regret of what I have done even though maybe due to this I have lost some opportunities to make more friends and enjoy the beautiful sightseeing in a foreign country. So, ‘cause of this, it is becoming my weakness in the communicating with other people since it is not my strength to do socialism due to the long time in academia. Even worse, I have been called bookworm of which word I hate so much. However, it is never too late to make a change.Oh, oh, it is obviously out of point. Let’s start the beginning of the year 2014. There were two projects initially which were given priority to take care.They were particularly important based on the observation we took so subsequently they are composed into two research papers submitted to high-level journal with high impact factor. To do this submission needs a lot of patience and all materials firstly needed to be processed following the rolethere. Unfortunately, one of the journals rejected our work after they werereviewed and commented by the referees after one and a half months. It was a little bit annoying one of the referees did not realize the most selling points in our work. It was useless toappeal. We transferred the paper to other journals and tried again. The other paper undertook the same fate. Finally, both of them were accepted in the last.

In May, I was happy to fight to Singapore to see my girlfriend studying there. When the flight was landed there safely, Iwas very excited when facing a new environment. I couldn’t wait help claimingmy baggage and passing the security check. Quite impressive of the international city, peacefully and beautifully, all things in great order which make people feel happy and comfortable. It is worth noting that the greatplaces I have visited with my girlfriend, Sentosa, Marina bay, Clark quay, Eastcoast and Orchard road. It is brilliant experience there where I want to go back again. The great multi-culture from local, Malaysia, China, Indian, andsplendid food from different countries with Asian cuisine taste touched me a lot. I was also surprised by the good relationship they kept in the co-existence.

Interestingly, I was late to catch the fight to Xiamen in my last day in Singapore. The service said that the door had been closed atomically 45 min before the departure. Anything worse than that?Even worse, the ticket I booked was from an agent in UK, that’s to say, I haveto try to call, explain and argue with them to delay the flight schedule. Aftera long phone call, all done was ended with good news.

One more night in Singapore!!

I appreciate the old lady who picked me upand arranged me in an accommodation when I arrived at Xiamen University. It wasvery dark and raining then but I was so hungry, in particular, being away of Chinese food for so long time. The day after was my time to walk around and deeply falling love with the city and the campus in a short time. It is said that Xiamen University is themost beautiful campus around the country. People there I met were very nice and also working hard on the research. I was impressed by the places of interests,such as Nanputuo Temple, Gulangyu Island, Botanical garden, Hulishan Canon Platform, et al. By the way, the sea food there can be comparable with the foodin my hometown. So nice.

When I was back to UK, time is a little bit tight for me to start the writing of the invited review papers. Then, Iimmerged myself on the hard work of the design and draft of the papers. Also,it was good chance to supplement my thesis based on the review for theintroduction. Period of time, occasionally, I was feeling depressed and falling into trouble when reviewing so many papers stopped me thinking of the furtherwork. Thankfully, under the guidance of my supervisor, all cloudy was cleared and we fulfilled the task successfully.  

In November, the International Conference onMolecule sensors and Molecule logic Gates offered me a chance to talk with topresearchers in this field from all around the world. The most important event to me was a formal meeting with my potential supervisor from America. It was definitely a big day in my whole life. I was so nervous to talk with him what kind of feeling I never had. More happily, I was offered a postdoc position there soonish starting when I finish my PhD in Bath. So excited.

I visited Hongkong then after the conference for business issues. It was not easy to pass the security check onthe condition of certificate with permission entering. Deep night when finding and entering the hotel we booked in advance. As one of the prosperous cities and also financial center internationally, we were shocked by the things we saw and experienced after settling down. Victorious harbor, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok wereall nice places worth seeing and enjoying sufficiently.

After submitting my thesis few weeks ago, now in apreparation for the coming PhD viva, wish all people good luck in 2015.