Thursday, September 30, 2010
Day 9. Time seems to be passing slowly, like how I wished for it about 3 weeks ago. But I didn't want it to pass slowly in this way. I want it to pass slowly while my sup is around, so that I can learn the most from her. Be careful what you wish for.
Today is the third time I'm eating from exactly the same traditional prawn mee stall within a week. And it's just thursday. I'm not sick of it yet. It's pretty good actually, and it's all but $2! On Monday, I bought the prawn mee alone. On Tuesday, I brought 1 friend along with me to buy the prawn mee. Today, I brought another 4 friends along, making it a total of 6 people eating prawn mee! I think the uncle was a little shocked but happy that so many people were buying from him. Uncle, please continue on this pretty good and cheap prawn mee! (I
think he opened the shop not long ago. The flower basket is still there.)
Oh, and another obsession I have, is the traditional ice kachang. It's the one with the gula melaka (black sugar) on it! YUMMY! $1.20 only at Chinatown. 2 stalls that I found selling it. Both are fantastically good! Nothing beats Chinatown food I tell you. A hot and spicy bowl of dry traditional prawn mee which makes you sweat and lips bulge, then a cool and sweet bowl of traditional ice kachang! All for only $3.20 in total! Now, tell me, is there a better deal out there????????? ROCKS MY SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel damn satisfied and happy after eating these two items!
Just came back from a Public service division networking session in NTU, with all the public service ministries setting up booths. A mini career fair. Had a meaningful talk with some of the public servants, especially with the police officer. Got some good info out of them. I found out that I'm too kanchong with my job search. The person told me I shouldn't apply too early too. Roger! Won't be so anxious now.
Tomorrow would be the end of the work week. Anxiously awaiting the return of my sup! 7 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Day 9 without my supervisor - Ice Kachang madness
by snoopy_lim @ 11:29 PM
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Haha, ok as the title says, I am indeed the slacking queen. I literally did nothing today. Other than leveling up on my iphone game and editing some sticker labels and printing them. Oh, and helped with a little underlining of some stuff. Please give me some work tomorrow!
Got to know one of the LOs a little better today with some gossiping in the GCMS room. It's kinda funny hearing her talk about the lab manager and some other stuff. I sincerely conclude that all working in the lab are a little 'sot', after breathing in too much methanol, ethanol,
ethyl acetate, etc, etc. She suddenly turned to me halfway during the conversation and said, "Dr Kee is potassium chloride." I gave a weird and 'raised eyebrow' expression at her. Then she said, "He's KCl mah," referring to his name initials. I rolled my eyes halfway around the world but laughed to appreciate her lameness. Thanks Shea Mei for entertaining me on such a boring day. I truly truly appreciate it a lot! =)
Remember me telling you about our food intake for these few days? Damn, we missed out on the first one already! Couldn't find the Ngoh Hiang stall that is supposedly very fa
mous and good! Called mum and she didn't help at all. Thanks mum.... But we found a little gem. They have really nice food at the Tanjong Pagar food centre! Rocks! Must go back there someday although it's super super crowded and small!
How do you guys feel about lending someone your shoes? I personally don't quite like it. I mean, it's kinda weird. Even jackets. I don't quite enjoy the feeling of lending people such stuff. It's just a weird feeling. Something personal and close to the body. It's funny. I wouldn't really like to borrow such stuff from others, even if I am freezing or my feet are killing me. I lent my track shoes to my friend today, because her shoes were killing her. (The worst feeling you get from lending people things is when they complain to you about it, even though it's just something small. But that's besides the point I want to make today.) But when I put it on later on before running, it felt slightly bigger. I just had this little feeling that the shoes don't really belong to me anymore. I can't explain it. It's just there.... But don't get me wrong. If you're really in need of something, I'll still lend it to you! Just ask. =)
A run around the Ngee Ann Poly track really felt good today! At least made me sweat a little, under the slightly cool weather (almost looked like it would rain)! At least I did feel that the shoes belong to me again. Poor shoes, I love you loads still!
Truly awaiting the return of my supervisor! Come back soon!
- Day 8 without my supervisor - I am slacking queen!
by snoopy_lim @ 9:32 PM
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Basically did nothing much. Luckily, one LO gave me something to do for tomorrow morning. I'm gonna do it so sloooooooooooooooooowlllllyyyyyy so that it can occupy more time!
The only thing that kept me alert today was the visit of 2 professors from NTU. One of them is going to grade me for my internship, and she sort of already told me the grade. Pass/Fail..... "You know what you're going to get. No one really fails for internship."
I went to the meeting room without my 'temporary' supervisor at first. She came only about 15 to 20 minutes later. The 2 profs, one french, one japanese, started chit-chatting with me. The French prof, Dr Linda, who is supposed to evaluate me, came pretty unprepared. She got a chiding from the Jap prof, Prof Yamane. "See, you are so prepared. Look at me, I've done everything before I came." In that heavily Jap accent. That got me laughing even before we started.
Dr Linda then said, "How's your supervisor?" I replied that she's really nice. Then she said, "Don't worry. There's no mic or camera here! Since your supervisor is not here, you can tell me whether she caned you, scolded you, beat you. We can sue them if they did that you know. You can tell us. NTU will stand by you." I laughed and said, "No, no, she's really nice." And ended off with a big hearty laughter.
Other bits and pieces of the meeting included the two profs being in their own world and suaning each other. It's like a live entertainment show right in front of your eyes, live! We then trailed off to Dr Linda asking me whether I'm looking for a job now, and what kind. I said, "Probably something not in the Chemistry industry." And she gave that huge big clap saying, "OH, who doesn't know that 99.9% of CBC students don't want to work in the industry." I quickly added on that I am considering the police force and both of them sat up listening intently, with Prof Yamane punctuating my sentences with "Doh" and "Soh". Just when I reached the basic training part, my temporary sup came in and I was out of the room in 5 minutes after that, with Prof Yamane hitting his hands twice (at the watch area), indicating that we have gone overtime.
A little entertainment a day keeps the sleep bug away. I have very very very interesting NTU profs who makes my NTU life a wee bit more fun!
Oh by the way, I ate the traditional prawn noodles at this stall in Chinatown for 2 days in a row already, and I'm kinda addicted to it! It's only $2! Freaking cheap. And my friends and I have already planned out our eating schedule for the next 3 days. Ngor Hiang at Tanjong Pagar tomorrow, and Chinatown for thurs and fri, either prawn noodles or this super long queue yong tau foo!!! Someone please tell us we're mad!
- Day 7 without my supervisor - Entertaining professors
by snoopy_lim @ 8:47 PM
Monday, September 27, 2010
Hello! And I'm back with my daily report of what I've been doing while my supervisor is away.
Well, I literally did nothing again today. All seems to be quiet in the lab. The only exciting thing of the day is that I received a call from my supervisor from overseas!
Ok, ok, the call wasn't really intended for me. She called to look for one of the lab officers who wasn't around, but since I picked up, she decided to be concerned about me. I'm surprised that she still recognises my voice after one week! Haha. I updated her on the visit of my NTU prof coming down tomorrow and she generally agreed with who I asked to represent her and to evaluate me. Initially, I thought I was hallucinating when I picked up the call, because it sounded so much like my sup. Then she 'self-introduced' and I giggled. My friend commented that I
am very formal when I speak to her. I replied that maybe when she comes back, I'll have the urge to stand at attention and salute her because of the 'infamiliarity' that built up while she is away....
I had a fantastic Saturday! It was my church friend, Sharon's wedding! Oh such a beautiful beautiful wedding. As my friend said of the church wedding in the afternoon, the wedding is simple, but made beautiful because of Sharon. Yes indeed! It's the emotions that built up and welled up inside of me throughout the whole Mass, and the true happiness for a lovely friend, that really made the wedding so so so beautiful! To wrap up the day, we spent the evening at East Coast Mana Mana Beach Club for the Wedding Cocktail Party. The wonderful atmosphere, sea breeze, and most of all, the great company of friends, not forgetting, the bride and the groom, made the night PERFECT!
Me, Sharon the bride, Pris and Bev at the cocktail party
My fellow interns asked me how the wedding was. I said it was so beautiful that I feel like getting married also. My friend immediately commented, "Anne, you are very confused. Just last week, you said that you are probably going to remain single, and today, you say you want to get married." My reply, "I said I FEEL like getting married mah, but THINK that I will remain single!" The power of English words!
It is sometimes really scary how tongues wag and rumours spread in a community/organisation. At the wedding, I was hanging out mostly with my St Iggy's friends. But somehow, the catholic community is rather small, and I met many more of my other friends around, like NTU's Catholic Students' Apostolate. That night, every now and then, I would drift to the NTU CSA community and chit chat with them, particularly this guy, John (whose nickname is Hia Hia) who is a rather good friend of mine. My St Iggy's friends then started winking and giving me cheeky smiles. Haiyoh, wanna talk to friend also so hard. They even almost went up to ask him to invite me for a dance in the later part.... But I'm really someone who's guang ming zheng da and not afraid of tongues wagging, especially when you know you're innocent. Gave him a great big hug, which is an expression of close friendship to me, just before I left.
Oh, oh, oh! And one thing that really puzzled me is the issue of me wearing a dress. As I commented to the bride, " Haiyoh, life is tough man. Don't wear dress, people say. Wear nice nice and wear dress, people also say! Alamak!" To me, I'll just wear whatever is more comfortable for me lor. On special occasions, I don't mind slipping into a dress, if it does fit into that occasion. Then there can be more of an element of surprise to me right??!! =)=)
- Day 6 without my supervisor - A call!
by snoopy_lim @ 8:53 PM
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wow wow wow! I survived an entire week without my supervisor.
And I didn't die of boredom!
I'm truly impressed! Truly impressed you know! =)=)
Managed to keep myself busy the entire day all the way till 5+pm today.
Creating inventory list of quarantined chemicals for Cos Lab in the morning. Some of the chemicals are much older than me, even older than my brother. The oldest dates back to 1972!!!!! Scary.
Wrote my logbook (which I am damn happy to complete till week 8!). Did housekeeping in the afternoon. And tried to save money for the lab in the late afternoon, by trying to use scotchtape to stabilise inserts for vials. (just ignore this part if you don't understand).
Haha, I found out something really amazing today. And it really made me feel: Oh Gosh!
I was just chatting with my Cos Lab interns after lunch about me hating people spelling my name wrongly. I like my name the way it is. ANNE! ANNE! ANNE! Some people really love to spell it as Ann, and even after I've told them a few times, they still spell it as Ann....
I received a call at about 4pm. An LO asked me to go up to the advanced instrument room to change my solvent bottle sticker or discard the solutions if I do not want it. When I arrived and looked 2 of the bottles, I realised that someone had spelt my name as 'Annie'.
And guess who's the person who wrote that? I think it is my supervisor.... Yes my own supervisor can't spell my name. Oh! Such a tragedy!!!!
Anyway, after work, I went shopping with 2 of my fellow interns, Adele and Natalie. Really enjoy shopping with them. There's some similarities and differences between our likes and dislikes, and it makes shopping with them really interesting and fun! I also realised that I may be having a fashion shift. I'm starting to look at more dresses now. A little of the girly shoes as well, but not too much yet. The main aim for myself today was to get a bag which is relatively similar to one I saw at Topshop (costs $83 there, but I really love it!)
To my disappointment, I couldn't find one that is close enough to this one. =( Instead, my friends ended up buying stuff for themselves, other than me who went home empty-handed. Oh gosh, should I just buy this bag? With my friend's topshop card, I get a 15% discount and it would be $70.... Darn! Hope one day, I can find a bag just like that!
- Day 5 without my supervisor - Oh gosh!
by snoopy_lim @ 11:15 PM
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Incredibly close to the end of the week! Can't believe it. Am really looking forward to the return of my sup! 11 more work days!!!!
Today wasn't really that bad once again. I was kept busy from morning all the way to the late afternoon, close to 5pm.
The dumb things I do at work. One more to add to the list today. I was carrying an entire tray of chemicals in both hands, and it was rather heavy. When I reached the end of the corridor of level 1, I had to press the white button which is pretty near my chin level, so that I can release the door to open it. I did not want to bend down to place the tray on the floor, so I decided to use the nearest body part to press the button. Yes, it was the chin.
And little did I know, one of the scientific officers saw me doing it! Gosh. And she's one of the stricter SOs around. She walked towards me, half am-chio-ing, and as she walked closer, she broke into a big smile. Such embarrassment! But anyway, she asked me about what I've been doing for the past few days since Tan Jing isn't around, and asked me about the last day of my internship. FYI, she's about 6-7 months pregnant, and will be going on maternity leave soon. Take care, Dr Zeng Yun. May you give birth to a healthy chubby baby!
Everyday is really a journey for self-discovery. Just like today.
My 2 church friends and I went shopping at 313@Somerset today. We wanted to get dresses suitable for another friend's wedding dinner, which is going to be at the beach! Interesting!
But anyway, I was trying on a dress, and when I came out, both of them had weird expressions on their faces. Then both started laughing. They thought that I had worn the dress wrongly or weirdly. "Why is the shoulder padding so big?" One of them asked.
To their surprise, it isn't a shoulder padding. It is just that I have rather broad and square shoulders. To tell the truth, even I was a little shocked. I know that I have rather big arms, but I never knew that it was because I have shoulders too broad for my size. Now I realise that I can only wear certain kinds of dresses/tops, and definitely not other kinds. I used to do a little swimming when I was young, but definitely not the aggressive kind. I have no idea why I have rather broad shoulders as well.
But actually, it's really fine with me. I have no tendencies for those fancy dresses/tops which has the kind of cutting that reveals a lot of my shoulders in a weird way. My body is suitable the way it is for me. =)
In case you were wondering, I did find a dress that all agreed looks nice on me, and is my style. One more dress to add to my wardrobe (yes I have very little dresses).
One more discovery to add to the list of Anne.
- Day 4 without my supervisor- Getting used to things
by snoopy_lim @ 11:28 PM
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Got a rude shock last night when I opened my NTU email.
My NTU tutors are coming to visit us in week 10 which is next week! Gosh. I thought they weren't going to come at all! And of all times, my supervisor has to be away these 3 weeks. Boo!
I replied to my NTU tutors and one of them asked whether I have a mentor or co-supervisor assigned for these 3 weeks. Think it's quite paiseh to say no, since if there really isn't one, they probably have to come down again when my supervisor is back.
So guess what, I got a replacement supervisor. It's really kind of pointless though, since she doesn't really know me, barely knows my existence in the Cosmetics Lab, and really really doesn't know what I've been doing the past 9 weeks. Hmmmmm, it's gonna be an interesting meeting. Two of my other Cos Lab interns are also in the same boat as me. THEIR supervisor (the same one) has been on study leave since 2/3 weeks ago and no one has any idea when she is returning. Not even the lab officers.... haha. So we are all gonna have the same replacement supervisor! Poor replacement, she has to meet the same NTU tutors THREE times.... And she's gonna try to get to know us by reading our logbooks.... Hmmmmm....
Today passed by relatively quickly. Wrote my logbook at work, plus, Cos lab needed help to label all their chemicals and standards and acids today after the safety people came for internal auditing. Also, helped in the process of discarding expired chemicals. There's a long SOP to follow for that. Gosh. Talk about working in a government organisation.
Anyway, today, I suddenly remembered something else the psychologist, Dr Puspa Kikkert said yesterday. She mentioned that, "You have very high standards for guys as well."
Come to think of it, I think that's really very true. I told her that I might just stay single after all. If you guys are wondering, that may really be one of the reasons why I'm still at the evergreen status up till now. But you know what, I might just be embracing the thought of remaining single, of course, not without at least being attached once.
Maybe only one person is suitable for me. God. Who knows, I might be walking on the religious path. Life definitely holds many uncertainties, but I am just going to keep my options open. There's a long way ahead of me and I am going to face it positively!
- Day 3 without my supervisor - Thank God for work!
by snoopy_lim @ 9:20 PM
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Well, when things get boring around my work place, we love to communicate with our phones (play with it), or the best thing is to just sit around and chit chat. Today, my eyes were on the itchy side, so I rubbed, and the teary eye started forming. A friend then randomly commented, "OMG, Anne. You can blink damn fast. It's like your eyelids are fluttering. 100 blinks per minute! A normal person like us can only do 50 blinks per minute."
Haha, somehow, I was really intrigued by that comment. I never saw this "hidden talent" of mine before! And I just kept asking them to try, because I seriously taught it is a very normal thing to blink very fast! Can you guys blink fast too? They just kept saying that if they blink fast, their eyes will probably get spasms.... Weird. Really weird.
Anyway, I went for my Toastmasters Club meeting today. It was a contest once again. I took part only in the Evaluations speech contest. I really wasn't gunning to win this time, and just took part for the sake of it. Apparently, everyone commented that I should have won, if not for the "overtime" of my speech. Yup, in Toastmasters, TIME is everything. I think I've lost my time grasping skills whenever I give a speech. Almost ALL the speeches I've given so far in Toastmasters ever since I came back from US has been overtime.
But anyway, I met an almost completely random Toastmaster today. She's a psychologist doctor in Tasmania, has dual citizenship of Australia and Singapore, is in the Australian Armed Forces as a Major, has a very interesting life thus far and has even more interesting kids.
As we were leaving the meeting, she just randomly said to me, "You should be a lawyer."
And I was like "what, no way."
She repeated that to me a few times after switching between talking to me and my friends.
Then she said, "You're a perfectionist. You're an OCD in the making."
I replied, "Huh, no one has ever ever made that comment about me before. And I don't think I am."
Even I have never ever thought of myself being that before.
She said, "Look at your clothes, so properly ironed, so neatly folded..."
Again, she said, "You should be a lawyer."
I told her, " You know what I'm studying?"
"What?"
"Chemistry."
She just shook her head and said, "You're gonna have a life change, you're gonna have a life change."
Before, I was rather skeptical about what she had said about me. A psychologist doctor at a Toastmasters meeting, who had only seen me speak for about 3mins+ on stage, never ever chit-chatted with me, but is reading me like she's reading a book. After all, she is a psychologist and probably know quite a lot about body gestures and the mind.
Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
However, to tell the truth, as I reflect upon myself, I think I do have some perfectionist and OCD tendencies, hidden well within me. I don't think anyone has really seen that side of me. Not even myself. But once in a while, I do get hints of it as I do stuff. We'll see about the life change thing. Somehow, her words are having a little impact on me....
Cheers everyone!
- Day 2 without my supervisor - The funny things said at work
by snoopy_lim @ 11:28 PM
Monday, September 20, 2010
YAWN!
This was how I looked like this morning at work. Thank you very much.
Yes, and it's day 1 without my supervisor.
My supervisor went to Belgium for a conference, and decided to shun bian return home to China for a while. It's gonna be THREE weeks without her.
And nope, I'm not happy. Not at all.
Friday (via SMS)
Me: Dr Tan, do you need me to help you with anything when you're not around?
Supervisor: Not at this moment. Pls help others who need help.
So basically, I had to go on a mission to find my own work!
Interesting right???? NO! Not when you hear these:
Issue 1:
A few weeks ago, my friends had nothing to do, so they decided to help one friend, who was printing stuff, to flip paper at the printer (the old printers can't print double-side! Manual flipping required!). In the meantime, they chatted, and looked very free, so much so that the lab manager complained to the lab officer in charge of my 2 friends. "Why need so many people to print things?"
So I lost one job.... Can't even flip paper for a friend.
Issue 2:
I decided to approach one of the nicer lab officers (LO) to ask if she needed help in anything. She brought me aside and whispered to me, " You know what, I just heard from Jessie (another LO), that one scientific officer (higher in rank) complained about LO asking interns to do sampling (basically a simple job consisting of opening capsules, pouring out its contents, and weighing 1g of the contents into a test tube). So we cannot really ask you all to do such things anymore leh. I see how later ok?"
And there goes my other job....
So I ask you, how ah? Want to do work also cannot. Don't want to do work, want to sit one corner and slack, also scared people complain.... Alamak!
Think when my supervisor come back and ask me what I did over the last 3 weeks, I can only tell her, " NOTHING!" No one allow me to do anything at all.... Boo...
But I rather be at work doing nothing than be at school mugging, unable to do anything else lah!
- Day 1 without my supervisor - The funny things at work
by snoopy_lim @ 9:02 PM
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Argh, the back of my hands are itching like mad now.
Have been since last night.
Hhhhmmmmm, I think I might have a latex allergy.
I was wearing latex gloves almost the whole of yesterday, although with frequent changing of the gloves (about 4-5 times). But my friend did notice that I had a lot of sweat under the gloves.
Will continue experimenting and see whether it's really the gloves or something else....
Well, at least a latex allergy gives me a reason not to work in the lab in future. ;)
- I may have a latex allergy
by snoopy_lim @ 9:13 PM
Monday, September 13, 2010
You see, I've been queueing to run my standards/chemicals on the GCMS (Gas chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) since last Tuesday. And guess what, till today, I have had no opportunity to run it yet! No choice lah, the perm staff likes to cut my queue, because my project has less priority over their samples. And every time there's an opportunity, something has to take place. Like on Thursday, they had a power shut down at night, so I cannot leave my standards running overnight. Then today, thought I can run, but turns out, there's some problem with the machine and they need to change ion source. Boo!
I really had nothing to do at work today though. But I really have fun hanging out and just chit-chatting with my fellow interns lah! Hurray!
Time, please just pass slower....
- Waiting and patience is in my job scope
by snoopy_lim @ 8:26 PM
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
To tell you the truth, I still look forward to going to work everyday and I am pleased that after going one big round during my application process for internship, I ended up at HSA.
I have only God to thank for this.
After my epic arrival at work at 7.30am yesterday, and leaving at 6.05pm, today was a much slacker day. Yesterday, I had to weigh close to 15 standards and had to do dilutions to my stock solutions. I did around 80 vials of standards plus dilutions yesterday! Amazing! My busiest day at work yesterday.
Well, I was telling Ann, a friend, yesterday that sometimes I feel stupid at work. But I get to learn things out of the stupidity I make. I have this theory at work: You can slack, but don't get caught! Another theory: Always act busy even when you have nothing to do!
But as Murphy would like it, his law came into play today....
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!
Do take note that I had finished all my work before lunch and have nothing to do as yet at 2 plus pm.
After lunch, my friend and I had nothing to do, so we were doing a Crossword Puzzle found on The Catholic News happily in lab. Murphy decided to pay me a visit and my supervisor walked in at that moment. My friend whispered, "Tan Jing is here."
And knowing me, with my big aggressive actions, I swiftly folded the newspaper in half and threw it in front of me. Immediately, I picked up the magazine "Cosmetics and Toiletries", which my supervisor had given me to read, and flipped it to one of the centre pages to pretend I was doing something useful. (In my mind, it was just "Shit, shit, shit"!)
"PA, PA, PA" went the sound of my actions! My supervisor heard and caught sight of everything. When she reached my side, she laughed for a whole TWO MINUTES! I have never seen her laugh so hard before! I couldn't help it but laugh along too, and my friends around me as well. All of us were in laughing fits. My supervisor even had difficulty giving me instructions on what she wanted me to do next.... She told me "不要紧的啦" and continued laughing.
Throughout the rest of the day, she kept am-chio-ing at me....
I really have to count my lucky stars that I have such a nice supervisor (maybe she's scolding me in her mind lah, but let's not think that far)!
Really hoping time would not pass so quickly and that I may be able to just savour every minute of work now, for it will be soon before I return to NTU and start work in less than a year....
- Funniest day in my life as an intern- can time just pass slower?
by snoopy_lim @ 10:11 PM
Friday, September 3, 2010
Just 6 weeks into it, I have made a mistake which I think is relatively huge. Probably forgivable, but I just can't forgive myself just yet.
My sup didn't scold me, but I think it's because she's super nice lah.
But to me, an employee who 'wastes' a company's money is not a good one.
Someone, please just slap me.
Let this be a lesson learnt. Never assume anything. Ask someone even if you have to be irritating.
I put this entry up to remind myself to learn from my mistakes and never make them again.
Jiayou!
- We all make mistakes- especially me
by snoopy_lim @ 8:46 PM