Death note

Ok. I’m not really into manga/ anime films as I haven’t really had many opportunities to watch them. But I came across this movie and well… I really liked it.

You can see Ryuk flying in the background

I just enjoyed the story; the whole premise of the movie, the actors etc, so much so much so that I just had to go and download the second part and watch it before I go to bed. My favourite character was the shinigami, Ryuk; the angel of death. Err, I don’t know how that reflects on my medical aspirations but if it’s any consolation, Ryuk turns out to be a good guy towards the end. Phew!

It’s funny how I watched part one with my mother who is my usual movie partner at home and she just wasn’t that interested in the movie. Part two I watched with my father (which is very rare occurrence!) and he ended up really liking it. It reminds me of one of the funny things that my father does. He doesn’t really like us watching TV too much or Bilal playing on the playstation and yet at the same time, he’s the only one that buys us numerous DVD’s and games on a regular basis. Aah, I love my dad :)

Anyhow I’m wondering off the point. Deathnote – I’d definitely recommend it, if you don’t mind watching movies that have been dubbed into English or reading the subtitles etc.

My Birthday

Have you heard about how the human body can replace itself in its entirety over your lifetime. Basically everything that you were born with will not be the original article when you die. For some things this is expected, for example red blood cells have a lifecycle of 120 days and so they are continually replaced, in order to keep up with the body’s demand. The skin (upper epidermis) is replaced every 2 weeks or so as the dead skin cells are sloughed off and replaced by the newer ones pushing through from the bottom. The liver takes about 300 to 500 days to renew itself and in fact the entire human skeleton is completely replaced every 10 years... which sounds great except that the replacements are aged versions rather than brand new ones – sort of like second hand bones so to speak lol. Weirdly there are over 500 different bacterial cells (some are good, some are bad) compared to human cells; that’s approximately10x more than human cells. For some reason, that last fact about bacterial cells reminds me of parasites, as in the kind of people that leach off you over your lifetime. Ok, I am aware of how harsh and random that sounds, lol. Anyway the point is the human body is a funny old thing isn’t it?

All this biological change makes me wonder if I have changed. I know have aged biologically, but have I changed on the inside as well? Is there certain period in our lives where we shed our old self and develop a new you. I often think of it like those Russian dolls, where each layer is removed to reveal a different version of the doll… a different version of you. As we grow older, we shed those layers over time. Some get recycled and reused whilst others get discarded as they are not longer any use to us.

I always find it weird, how many of the dolls don't exactly have the most cheerful expressions on their faces... these blue dolls being the exception of course.

In my mind, I know that change is inevitable, but I’d like to think that my core is still intact and hopefully something that will not change. My core layer is linked to the beliefs, morals and values that my parents have instilled in me. The next layer up is where I retain the good qualities and discard the not so good ones i.e. anger, hate etc. Sometimes this particular layer may go unchecked and build up to such an extent that the core layer gets a bit diluted. Yet I’m still optimistic that in an ideal world, the core will hopefully manage to pull through and remain strong. The outer layers are linked to everyday occurrences and experiences that colour my moods and daily outlook in the short term. These outer layers wax and wane as time goes on and the years get added on.

As I approach the completion of the quarter of my life next year (this is me assuming I’ll live to 100 years old!), I often find myself reflecting on my birthdays. With my weird OCD kicking in, I find myself making lists of what I’d like to achieve by a certain age. Currently I’m making my ‘things-I’d-like-to-do-before-I’m-25’ list. Some things I’ve done, some I’m doing, some are in the works and close to the horizon and some I feel like are nowhere as close as they should be. At times I think I’m exactly where I want to be and other times I feel a bit disillusioned and wonder where I’m heading. I wonder if you guys ever have doubts like me or are you totally control of everything. Do have different layers or are you the same through and through – sort of like a stick of rock, lol.

Anyway the point of this post… 25th February; my birthday!!! (Yes I still get excited by it... well a little bit). Also I discovered I share my birthday with Shahid Kapoor (I’m 5 years his junior!)... and the 12 yr old me just fainted! :P

I love how the different online services wish me happy birthday every year... in rather unique ways. Just when you think they’re wondering off their usual agenda , they get back to the ‘Oh and have you tired our latest product/service?’ lol

My baby brother can be really sweet at times. Though I’m pretty sure that my mum has chose half of the gifts… hmmm.

How beautifully wrapped is that? I snuck a picture when Saba wasn't looking :P

Dr Who box set – this is one of the many reasons why I love my cousins Saba and Sara! They love fuelling my obsessions. And no, I haven’t opened it yet, as I’m waiting till I get the bulk of my work done and watch it when I’m a bit more relaxed.

I can safely say none of the other packages has this name on them. Thank you Imran bhai ;)

My birthday was excellent! I had a lot of fun and thank you to everyone for their lovely messages and presents :) The birthday party is sort of delayed at the moment, due to other family stuff going on and what not, but I’m pretty sure there will be some sort of family get together at some point in the future – it’s not like we need much of an excuse :)

Morag or is that Megan?

Morag apparently. But how would you know any different? Lol

I know how odd this looks but this stuffed sheep actually represents a very important piece of scientific history. Most people assume that Dolly was the world’s first cloned mammal in 1996 and this is true to some extent. Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult stem cell, however prior to this there had been other attempts. The world’s first successful attempt in 1995, gave us the twins Morag and Megan (shown above) produced from embryo cells, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.

The cloning of the sheep did allow us to witness numerous complications of cloning, most notably the premature ageing, severe lung disease and arthritis that Dolly encountered. However the fear of cloning humans and the issues associated with it (i.e. ‘the 6th day’ style)... well there is still a while to go.

Anyhow if anyone happened to be in around the area and did want to go see the sheep, (Dolly will be joining them later on, lol), they are on display at Edinburgh’s Royal Museum. Seriously I’m interested but I am not going to travel over 200 miles to see some sheep!

Tweetclouds

What can I say? I was procrastinating (!) but I did find my tweetclouds quite interesting to analyse. Hospital, Family, Bilal and Saba seem to my favourite words – not necessarily in that order.

I hardly ever tweet during the morning and this may be because I am hardly able to function normally let alone tweet at this time of day. Midday is by far my preferred time to start tweeting as I have usually done the bulk of my training/ patient list/ lectures by then. After I hit lunchtime (if I’m lucky to have a lunch!) I get a little bored heading home so I tweet then and then study again! Quite a boring post to be honest but I felt like sharing it anyway.

Disney Cartoons

A bit of fun, but I have to say, somewhere along the way these cartoons do have some sort of hidden message. And we grew up watching these cartoons, hmmm...

SRK on Friday night with Jonathan Ross

I don’t know if this is the first time if a Bollywood star has been on 'Friday night with Jonathan Ross' but it is definitely the first time Shahrukh Khan (SRK) has been on any British terrestrial television show. Judging by the tweets on the night, a lot of people were excited by his appearance on the show. It actually made the trending topics list in the UK so very cool I suppose.

A bit nervous to start with, SRK soon relaxed, talking about his new movie ‘My name is Khan’, the recent (and unnecessary) controversy and other life stuff. My favourite moment has to be when Jonathan Ross asked about his home life and how it works out for the kids and what religion they belong to as he belongs to the Muslim faith and his wife is a Hindu. With everyone expecting a deep and meaningful reply (to further fuel recent controversies as mentioned) it was refreshing and very funny when SRK replied with ‘Well we’ve confused the shit out of them, that’s for sure!’

Other guests included Lorraine Kelly and John Barrowman (love him, he is such a funny guy!). The exercise machine with all the guests trying it out was hilarious and the Copacabana karaoke at the end with Barrowman singing was very funny. A genuinely good show and it was nice to see that everyone loved it – asian or not! Friday nights just won’t be the same without Jonathan Ross seen as he’s decided to move on, but here hoping he finds something equally fun to do. Also I may not be a huge fanatical fan of SRK but at the same time I would like to see more SRK appearances over here as it makes a nice change :)

'Friday night with Jonathan Ross' can be viewed in the following part one and part two.

SRK on Twitter

Clearly a hit with the British public :)

Really like this one tweet of SRK's. Good, don't you think? :)

Babysitting extremes

Now this is what I call extreme babysitting! I can understand his fear over losing another child but it just seems a little bit too extreme!!!