Take care!!

Today is my last day in the lab....
Surprisingly (to me)... i felt sad to leave NIE, and all the ppl there...
before that, i always looked forward to weekends coz don't need to work... but now... haha..

And today, there is another poly-student who came to attach in the lab, had her last day in NIE too. so Irene gave 2 of us a 'speech' on behalf of prof who is too busy..haha... she talked abt her experience she went through in the life science pathway... made me think quite a lot abt my own future. I even questioned myself whether Biomed is the right thing for me! anyway, I still don't have the answer.

Oh ya... we observed the results from the experiment that we did on Wed. It was...well, not too successful but we still manage to get one positive result, out of the 5 that we did. can feel the happiness and (some) satisfaction when we saw the +ve result. well, the 'some' for me is coz... mayb coz the experiemnt.. although is interesting, fun, but not that 'big' to me. so.... hmm...am i sounding too.... having too high expectation?! yaya... i know... i'm only a first year kid... can't expect something too big right?!

at abt 1145pm, 7 of my frens in NTU brought supper to my place. this might be the last time i see them before i go back to Melb in Feb. dunno when will i see them again.... end of the year? next year? few years later? ten years later?! who knows?

after one month i've been staying in S'pore....
I think that...well, S'pore is quite a nice place to stay... despite the fast pace of this city-like country. and so far, ppl that i've met here are nice (well, not that i've met many new ppl), not as bad as wat i expected.
other than that... if compared to those studying in other overseas countries, S'pore uni students (who are fighting to stay in the campus) are packed with activities everyday! that's why when i saw them, i think they all became much thinner than they used to be in high school... (not like me...aih)

as for my high school frens in S'pore.... some of you had changed ... some are still the same old you ....
although we din manage to get together too often when I'm here, i know that you all had tried the best to make time out to get together. thank you all!
Thanks for all the time we spent together, even like having lunch in can A for that short while, or sometimes when you all are chatting in those short forms that i don't really understand (well, another thing i found out abt the ppl here is that they like to use short forms).

well, take care you guys! eat more arr! Study hard and play hard! till the day we meet again...

I've learned my lessonssss

Wow... wat a day I had today!
firstly, learned that Malaysians can only stay in S'pore for not more than 14 days with the normal visitor pass. secondly, learned that read the protocol carefully! Every single word counts!

Well, went to the Immigration and checkpoint authority office today to settle my problem, paid fine, wrote a 'I regretted that....' letter. Then... phew.... feel much better now.

before that, in the morning, I was doing plasmid extraction from E.coli . and because of my carelessness, i ruined the whole thing! after someone's hard work of inserting the gene, transforming, and growing the bacteria, all gone.. because of ME!! felt so sorry about that! the thing is... can't repeat the whole thing again coz no more genome to be used! :(
Anyway, the person incharge in the lab is so nice that she din scold me at all! she explained to me and let me do another batch of plasmid extraction.
so sorry to the proff that brought the genome back from some other country.

well... last Sunday, me and 4 other NTU friends went down to Chinatown (they call it niu2 che1 shui3 in chinese) to meet other friends from NUS.
It was so crowded and packed with CNY stuff! U can really feel that CNY is just around the corner! all the stalls are so red!
then we had lunch there at a food court. I had loh bak (hope you guys know wat's that... well, cherry actually said that she actually din know wat that is) and ais kacang. yum.... never been eating those for almost a year already!
later, went to this cake and dessert shop recommended by SiaoBoon. we all bought ourselves egg tart there. another yummy thing that i wanted to eat so much! haha... in melb, it's AUD1.20 per egg tart, and it's S$0.60 for one here! such a big difference! and the egg tarts in that shop have the special pastry... the thicker ones that looks as if have many layers (hope it's well described. haha).

after that, walked pass this stall that sells 'bing1 tang2 hu2 lu2'... the one we always see ppl eat in those HK movies arr... 4 reddish fishball-like thing on a satay stick that kind leh.... haha...
anyway, it doesn't taste as good as we expected. but, that's experience.. haha!

then went back after looking into some of the shops. oh ya... we who came back to NTU ate the egg tart at MRT station. haha! Yummy!! I want more!!

Durian heads

Today.... good hot sunny weather in S'pore!
So, this morning, went to visit my friends' halls and their rooms in NTU
then after lunch, went to the Esplanade.... that's where the 'durian heads' are.. haha!
It's actually an architecture...like Sydney has its Opera House; S'pore has this Esplanade 'durian heads' haha! there are 2 of them! the 2 durian looking things on a not too tall (4 storeys high) theatre building. so, u can imagine... 1 durian... super huge ones... cut into half.... one half placed on the left, the other on the right... haha!
and it's silver colour. it looks even nicer in the night, when u can see lights coming out from the inside... .coz under the thorns of the durian are transparent glass (or fibre material?).... cool right? haha!
and around the esplanade, there are 5 huge black statues by Botero...who is a Colombian sculptor and painter... each of them are abt 1.2ton, made of bronze.
So, it's 21st of Jan now! abt one more week i'll be back in KL. and abt one more month from now i'll be back in Melb! How fast!!!

It's my B'day!

Happy b'day to me,
Happy b'day to me,
Happy b'day to Sze Chern,
Happy b'day to me....

haha! yup, today's my b'day! (same day as JayChow by the way) and oh no... i'm ?? years old now! aih... time flies... (that phrase again)

last nite at 10 plus, when I was watching tv, my big bro called and said happyb'day to me... :) 'WHERE'S MY PRESENT?!' (anyway, anyone who have any suggestion of wat i should ask from him for my b'day... pls tell me.. haha..thanks!)

at around 11, one of my sec school frens in NTU called me out for supper... but it's too late dee, so with certain reason, can't make it ... although i wish that i could go with them
then later at 11 plus, someone pressed the doorbell... and there they are! 13 of them outside my door, with a b'day cake, a b'day card, a b'day gift, and 13 smiley faces! haha! How nice of them!
Well, ya... this is the first time that i cut my b'day cake at tepat-tepat 12 midnite! Wow.. is that a new history?! haha! and since last year i din have any b'day cake for my b'day... i felt even happy for this b'day!!
Thank you very much!! You guys are so nice!
and the thing is... most of them are having 8.30am class the next day... and KH haven't even prepare for his presentation tomorrow.
a fren who went to study in Taiwan (but she's now in KL) even manage to get my hp no in S'pore and sent me b'day greetings....
then, they left at one something... after chatting, eating (my b'day cake), taking photos...

then when I was on my bed.... thinking back those moment.... and having thought that... I've been on this world for ?? years!! aih.... really.... 'old' liao lar... haha! well, i don't mean to offend those who are older than me... hehe!

and so sorry that i can't have dinner with u guys today coz promise my aunt to have dinner with her dee... anyway, sure have to go for dinner together with u all before i go back to KL!
ok....till here....

A trip to Orchard

It's Saturday!
Well, before that, my best sec school fren came over to my aunt's place to overnite. she came at 12 something... and we chatted till 3 plus ... Long long time din chat with her (face to face) dee...
Then on sat morning, there's this 3 on 3 basketball match goin on in NTU SRC (Sports and Recreation Centre). My frens are playing. So I went to watch despite the 'looks like goin to rain but turn out very sunny' weather. But I left before they got into semi-final.... and they got second! Congrats! it was really a good game.
Then at 2pm, met SinYee and she went out together with me and my aunt... sat this long long bus and mrt and got down at Bishan (which took us 1.15hours) and went to this shopping mall called Juncti8n (they call it junction 8). then at nite, went to Orchard road to see the CNY decoration. aih... wanted to see the christmas decor but it's too late... they've changed into CNY's... :( many many many ppl in Orchard! actually it feels like u're in KL city centre but only that KL has more malays while in Orchard, most of them are chinese.
then, went back to NTU campus at 9 something after another long mrt journey.
and... that's my day!

I'm in S'pore

Hi all! long time no updates from me right?
now, here i am ... in s'pore since 31st Dec 2004... and it's 2005 now! so fast man!

Ok, so.. for now, i'll be working here till end of the month. Will be goin back to KL on the 30th Jan.
I work from 9am to 5pm, Mon to Fri. but not really ends at 5pm everyday, coz have to clean up and stuff... and we have unfixed lunch time everyday as well... coz it depends on the things we're doin.
At first, I was working in this lab... doing soil analysing... like... find out is there certain different bacteria in certain soil that affect the growth of the vegetation or wat.... There are also 4 other polytechnic students who are on their attachment in that lab. Polytechnic in S'pore is like... college in M'sia i think... at the end of the course, u'll not get degree but only a diploma. My first day of work (3rd Jan) is super sien!! just help them to fill empty bikar (dunno how to spell in english) with disposable pipet tips so that can be brought to the autoclave machine to be sterilised. Anyway, i went there first day after my lunch... so first day of work wasn't that long.

My second day was not too bad... got to know them better....there are..... few ppl in that lab... one PhDstudent (who is basically the 'head' in the lab, besides her supervisor who is the proff that i got my job from), and the 4 attachment students, and another master student. They are all friendly, especially the 4 attachment students. well, the PhD person is a bit... well, not that fun lar..haha! But later one... I found out that... she's not that bad to get along with...anyway, learned quite many things there... see how they prepare the gel for electrophoresis (err.. means... the gel to run the DNA on... know what i mean? saw those strips on a film on tv? that's a 'photo' taken on the gel after running the DNA on the gel).... and found out that they can actually search the posibilities of organisms (bacteria or watever) by entering the DNA sequence into the net (a specific one lar) and click 'Blast'... then there wil be a list of those possiblities. haha! Hope it doesn't sound too confusing.

But 3rd day onwards... I moved to another lab... a molecular genetic lab.
There're only 3 ppl (including me) working in this lab. one is the PhD student, and another guy who is like me... on holiday, so come to do 'volunteer work' in the lab.
Well, wat we doin here is ... orchids, and lettuce.. haha! for the passed 2 days, I did tissue culture, which is went into a tissue culture room, and transfer the small little tiny orchids from their flask into another flask. Ohya... before that, have to prepare the medium for the to grow on in the conical flask. It's called the banana media.. haah! obviously, ya.. u're right... the medium contains banana. interesting right?! haha! and today, din do much things before lunch time, just helped to put back the cleaned, dried conical flasks... cut the foils (for wrapping purposes in the future use). then after lunch, grined the lettuce and add methanol (an alcohol).. blah blah .... as a part of some extraction (or abstract?) to be done tomorrow. So, basically, that's it in the lab for the time being. Although there're only 3 of us in this lab, i'm quite happy with it.. coz the PhD lady here is more friendly..haha!
And since 3 of us are or used to study in Australia, we had some common topic during lunch time.
And yesterday.... there's another new (well... he's new to me) guy came (came back) to work in the lab. Plus today, 2 ppl from the first lab i worked in came over to use the stuff here... so today, our lab is quite crowded...haha
and the 'new guy' is trying to find males whose sir name is Tan to do some research. so, anyone (male) willing to 'donate' some of their cells? pls inform me...haha!

And..ya... abt my fren (SinYee).... she actually thought that she met the wrong person that day when I saw her (and she saw me) in NIE. haha...
aih... should have went to her room on Monday (her b'day) and give her a big surprise. well, I din do that... i just sms her at 12 plus on sunday midnite and said that i'm here in s'pore...aih.... ruined all my 'hard work' haha!
anyway, went to her hall and met her on Monday after my dinner... chat a bit... then came back to my aunt's place with the last internal bus in NTU.

k, till here... my eyes are half closed now...
nite...