Thursday, October 28, 2010
There is this Chinese saying: Walls have ears.
Today, I became the ear on the wall. I spent the entire day (plus yesterday and tomorrow) sorting out the data files of the adulterants ran on the instruments. It's a rather painful process, but I do not mind. At least, it's better than sitting around in the lab the whole day doing practically nothing at all. So I watched and heard all the happenings in the scientific officers' office today. There were some rather interesting events which occured:
1. I could not go to the toilet. My supervisor went upstairs to the lab. And in order to go to the toilet, I had to leave the office and come back in with the access card. My own temp card cannot access this office, so usually, I would call my sup when I come down to meet her. Today, she left me there for 3 hours in the morning and another 3-4 hours in the afternoon. Luckily, everytime she comes back she will ask me whether I want to go toilet lah.
2. Heard some gossips flying in the office! Apparently, the staff have this dislike for a certain head of department. Now that she's on study leave for 5 weeks, tongues wag loosely. Heard words like bootlicker, etc.. haha Anyway, the big boss is also on leave. And before big boss went on leave, miss bootlicker is super concerned over her flowers. Now that both are on leave, one of the scientific officers was told to take care of the flowers. She mentioned being afraid of the flowers dying. Another scientific officer casually said, "Then you can blame miss bootlicker..." Such politics! -.-"
3. This is something quite lame that brought a smile to my face. My sup went to ask another SO about a template for sending some emails. That SO asked my sup whether she needed it now. My sup hesitated and said, "Errrr, if now also can." Then the other SO, who was chatting with another SO replied, "Don't want. I want to chat now." The three of them burst out laughing. I giggled silently at my desk, and the smile lingered for a minute.
I have noticed that my sup is one who sort of doesn't like to gossip and just quietly does her work while being involved with her colleagues. As another intern said, she has really high EQ for someone who has such high educational qualifications. And I really agree with that. She is also super polite when asking others for help, myself included. It is these things which I must really learn from her so that I can survive when I go out and work in future! Extremely important!
- Walls have ears
by snoopy_lim @ 10:40 PM
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Today, she tasked me to go to her office to help sort out some data and files. It's kinda crazy the number of files I had to sort out. Before long, it was 5.50pm. She came over and gave concern over what I was doing. After clarifying some doubts, she went up to the lab to do some stuff.
6pm came. She did not come down.
6.05pm came. She did not come down.
6.10pm came. She did not come down.
6.15pm came. She did not come down.
6.20pm came. She was still not down yet!
However, I started packing up and putting the files back in order, as I had to return my friend's laptop to her, since I didn't bring my own today. Moreover, my access card could only work till 6.30pm, so if I continued staying, I may get stuck outside the lab and not be able to reach my bag.
When I went up, I placed the laptop down (my friend left already) and immediately went into the GC room where she was sitting to tell her that I already came up to return the laptop to my friend. I started talking before she spoke and did not stop until I finished my story. She gave me the perplexed face and calmly said in chinese, "Actually, I already SMSed you to tell you that you can leave." I was stunned for a moment, gave a shy laugh and replied, "Oh, I left my handphone in the lab to charge...." And awkwardly left the room, while she said "Thanks" behind me.
Super embarrassing and I felt super guilty as well that my friend had to leave her laptop in lab because of me....
I stayed till 6.30pm for nothing.... -.-"
- Accidentally Ovetime
by snoopy_lim @ 9:30 PM
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
When I turned back, I saw my supervisor staring at me.
I stared back at her.
There was 5 seconds of silence, other than the music playing in the background.
She looked as if she expected me to do something about it.
I continued staring.
Just then, she fished out her handphone from her jacket pocket and said, "Oh, I forgot that it is my handphone alarm." And she turned back to the screen, acting as if nothing happened.
I stared on for another 5 seconds and turned back to the screen as well.
-.-"
The red one is exactly my supervisor's phone.
- Handphone woes
by snoopy_lim @ 8:41 PM
Monday, October 25, 2010
Today, one of them randomly asked me, "Anne, are you from a girl's school?" I was quite surprised at that question. There have been few who have ever asked me whether I was from an all girls school. Someone even mentioned to me once that I totally don't look like I come from an all girls school. But when I said to that colleague (Charmaine) a hesitant
"Yes" with a perplexed look, she said, "Can see. You got the 'seh'."
In my mind, I was wondering what that means. Is it the way I talk? The way I dress? The way I work? The way carry myself? Hmmmmmm. Compliment or otherwise?? Last time when I was in JC, I found it quite easy to recognise IJ girls or girls who would probably come from a girls school. When people ask how you know, I would just say, "look like." Then the reply would be, "how does an IJ girl or girls school girl look like?" I didn't have a proper reply. "Look like means look like lah." But right now, I'm in the position of the questioner. What did I do or how do I look in order to show that I was from a girls school? What do you guys think? Especially those who were from a girls school?
Moving on, I was sitting at an instrument printing some data, when I suddenly heard something pop very loudly. I turned to look, and saw my friend pressing the bubble wrap thingy. Those who were around (Chian Sing and Shea Mei) turned to look at her too. But she didn't realise or bother enough to see whether anyone was looking at her. And she continued to pop 2 more of those bubbles. Chian Sing just turned to me and giggle. And so did I! Immediately after that, both of us turned back to doing what we were doing, and all was peaceful again. It's really a very funny scene, and you have to be there to realise the laughter point in that scene... Just thinking about it makes me laugh!
Talk about laughing, I would laugh whenever this scene pops up in my head: Yesterday at the Carvivor challenge (no, we didn't win the $10,000), we had this task to wheelbarrow each other to the other side to pour water into a bottle and fill it up. Hilda wheelbarrowed me, but on our way back, both of us were moving very very very quickly and I fell flat down 3/4 ways through. In her excitement and unable to stop that quick tempo, Hilda continued dragging me across the ground till I reached the line. My shirt rolled up to my chest and when I went home, I found bits of grass in my bra.... But thinking about the dragging scene really makes me laugh! I
n fact, while I'm typing this, I'm laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Colleagues....
by snoopy_lim @ 9:44 PM
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Follow me @annelimhh
Let's see what random tweets I can come up with throughout the course of the day! =)
- Twitter
by snoopy_lim @ 3:50 PM
Monday, October 18, 2010
She actually asked me to translate this piece of abstract from a certain journal article.
From CHINESE TO ENGLISH! Not the other way around.
I was really stunned when she showed me the abstract. Here's how it looks like:
利用电气石的热释电性、压电性和自发极化性产生的荷电效应,对卷烟烟气有害成分中的带电物质进行有效吸附原理,本实验研制了一种含电气石复合功能涂料的成形纸并将其用于卷烟减害降焦中.结果表明,含电气石复合功能涂料成形纸可降低卷烟危害性,焦油、CO、NOx、亚硝胺、羰基化合物、氢氰酸、苯并芘类物质降低率分别为12.6%、15.O%、25.2%、12.5%、12.2%、30.4%、19.4%,且卷烟感官质量评价较好,没有明显影响卷烟的抽吸风格.
And yes, I am as perplexed as you are now. It is extremely cheemology!
The worst thing is, she should know my chinese standard when I speak to her right? I can even take a long time to figure out how to say "By what time do you need this?" right in front of her, and burst out in laughing fits when I really can't think of what to say, and eventually asking my fellow intern to translate for me to her.....
But anyway, thanks to the amazing technology of Google, there was this translate button which I could click when I searched for the article. Although the translation was horrible, I managed to edit it to something reasonable, although it took me about 45mins to 1 hour. Thank you very much and DON'T LAUGH!
Here's how it turned out:
Using tourmaline’s properties of pyroelectric, piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization of charge generated effects, and the principle of effective absorption of charged particles in harmful substances of cigarette smoke, this study developed a tourmaline composite materials coated cigarette paper to reduce the harm of tar. The results show that tourmaline composite materials coated cigarette paper can reduce harm of tar, CO, NOx, nitrosamines, carbonyl compounds, hydrogen cyanide, benzo[a]pyrene substances, by 12.6%, 15.O%, 25.2%, 12.5%, 12.2%, 30.4%, 19.4% respectively, and gives a good evaluation of the sensory quality of cigarettes, with no significant effects on the smoking style of the cigarette.
This is like so super cheem lah! I don't even understand what's pyroelectric and piezoelectric!
Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering why I think that this translation is a very strange request to me, let me remind you that my sup is a China Chinese....
- Strange request
by snoopy_lim @ 8:58 PM
Friday, October 15, 2010
I think it's really ironic that although my supervisor is back, I am doing much more stuff for other people, rather than my supervisor. And when I say more, I really mean MORE! Yesterday, I worked non-stop from 9.30am to 5pm (other than the 1 hour plus lunch break), and today, I worked non-stop from 8.15am to 5.15pm (other than another 1 hour plus lunch break).
Sometimes, I really feel like I'm a 'bao ka liao' worker, or someone who 'da za', meaning, I do all the "loose" work which a LO is not free to do, and the aunties (who does glassware washing plus wiping of stuff) can't really do. Oh well, at least I'm occupied! I spent the past 2 days stock-taking the 1000++ standards in the coldroom and fridge and dessciators. Was so shagged by the time it reached 4pm! I think the greatest thing I'm learning from this internship is really patience. Patience to sit down and do repeated things for hours, patience to wait for people to give me jobs, patience to handle some people. At least one good thing about working is that you really go home without the worry of tests, and homework and assignments and projects. Phew. Total relaxation at home! Let me go get some mindless TV now!
- The irony of things
by snoopy_lim @ 9:06 PM
Thursday, October 14, 2010
I think I'm a really weird person. I was really affected today just by a simple gesture of someone. I find myself very laughable. I was trying to control the angst in me, but I couldn't suppress it too much. It's all written over my face! I am someone who can't hide my emotions too well. And I think pride is really one of the things that might ever bring me down. I am just a person with so much pride, wanting so much face, that I can't stand even a moment of embarrassment or shame. It's really kinda dumb that I can be so easily brought down by pride. Just feeling down....
I think one of the worst feelings that one can experience is that of non-recognition. Again, 'face' and pride comes into play again. I just hate this feeling. Hate this feeling. Someone, please just take it away from me....
- Pride hinders me once again
by snoopy_lim @ 8:30 PM
Friday, October 8, 2010
It's finally day 15. That wraps up the 3 weeks without my supervisor. I have no idea how I managed to survive it. Thanks to some Harry Pottering, rubbish chatter with my fellow interns, beating high scores on my iPhone, and random jobs from random people, I managed to get past these 3 weeks! Woohoo! Hopefully, my supervisor won't extend her stay overseas. :S Praying hard!
I really love sleeping on buses. Really really do. And I sleep like a log. Especially after work, while coming home. I generally have a very very good sleep. It's those kind of sleep where you feel that you have slept a long time, and have slept enough. That's one of the good things of public transport. You have the time to think about things, catch up on things (especially with a smartphone where you can access the net), or just watch the world go by around you. Once in a while, you get to see interesting things, or crazy conversations people have with friends, or on the phone. It's the little entertainment for the day. Usually, when I take the morning buses, I don't get to sleep well, or even get to catch any sleep at all. It's the same thing when I went to NTU on 174, and now, on 970 or 75. Don't know why. But I get a little sleep at times in the morning, and by the time I reach my workplace, I feel really refreshed and ready to start the day. Bus rides is just one of the things I missed when I was in the US, because, my house was just 5-10mins away from school. Sure, there are times when I get frustrated with public transport because of the irregularities in schedule, but generally, if you are early, you can get to your destination on time.
So fellow Singaporeans, don't just criticise our public transport system. Learn to embrace it and see things from a different perspective!
- Day 15 - Final day without my supervisor
by snoopy_lim @ 9:46 PM
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Today was really an uneventful day. The only exciting thing of the day was that we travelled down to Tanjong Pagar to eat the famous Ngoh Hiang my mum introduced to me. While waiting in the queue, I saw someone. That someone is HILDA CHANG'S COUNTERPART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha, it's really quite an amusing scene. Well, the thing is that we've never really ever met each other before. But both of us being close friends of Hilda, and frequent visitors of her blog, we've somehow gotten to 'know' each other! Thinking back at the coffee shop we met, I really feel that it was a hilarious scene. The stares we held at each other for 2 seconds, the slight bend both of us had in our bodies as we began to speak. "You're Anne right?" "Yah, and you're Hilda's friend, Qiling, right?" Hahahahahah, if Hilda had been there to see it for herself, she would have gone hysterical, laughing and clapping in the air as she normally would in funny situations. The world is really small. Really really small.
And I really see the power of blogs and the internet. Just some photos of each other posted on our friend's blog and we can recognise each other. Somehow, it was like meeting a primary school friend whom I haven't met in a gazillion years! Anyway, nice to meet you Qiling!!!!!!!!!!!! =)=)
- Day 14 without my supervisor - Boredom is diving me nuts.
by snoopy_lim @ 10:30 PM
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Random thoughts:
1. I think humans really have very complicated minds which are hard to interpret. For one, I find myself being contradictory at times and being really OCD about certain things.
2. A friend smsed me and we discussed about LKY's behaviour at the funeral. She told me that this is the first time she saw LKY talk about his wife and himself. The kisses he gave and the eulogy he presented made him seem more human, less of a semi-god....
3. I just watched all the eulogies given at the funeral of Mrs LKY. Although I don't know her personally, my heart felt heavy and I felt that I have somehow lost someone close. Such a pity that Singaporeans did not get to know her better while she was still alive.
Rest in peace Mrs LKY. You will be forever missed by Singaporeans!
- Day 13 without my supervisor - Complex minds
by snoopy_lim @ 10:13 PM
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Every now and then, I still get my laughing fits at formal occasions, when it is just wrong to be laughing non-stop. But most of the time, it is beyond my control! Like today, at my Toastmasters meeting, I just found a member's face extremely hilarious, while she was so engrossed in the speaker on stage at that point in time! I pointed it out to my friend, and she too, started laughing. Before long, it was my turn to go on stage. As I gave eye contact to everyone, I accidentally landed my eyes on her face, and it was exactly that same hilarious look which she gave the earlier speaker. At that point in time, I just laughed non-stop. I'm so horrible lah! But i really really can't control it....
Anyone has any suggestions how to stop myself from these laughing fits???
- Day 12 without my supervisor - book club
by snoopy_lim @ 11:10 PM
Monday, October 4, 2010
I literally did nothing today again, other than my Catholic News crossword puzzle, playing expert level of sudoku on my phone, checking emails again and again, and trying to run my standards for the third time!
My intern friends and I (in fact, only 4 of us), went to Ion Orchard to have dinner. There's this restaurant called Canton-i, that is having a promotion! It's their first year anniversary and they are selling Soya Sauce Chicken for only $1 if you pay by POSB card. No criteria! The only one is that you need a minimum of 3 people eating! No minimum spending required! 6-9pm on weeknights. The chicken was quite good. In the end, each of us only spent $11 for a very full meal of noodles, chicken, fried toufu and egg!!!!!!!! Fantastic!
After dinner, my pocket sustained a big hole. Not because of the dinner itself, but because we walked into Topshop. I've been ngiam-ing to my friends everyday about wanting the Topshop bag, and claiming that it must have been out of stock already, given that Topshop bags with nice designs run out rather quickly. So I told them, "If I see it, I'll buy it." I was actually quite confident that the bag was not going to be there in the shop anymore, therefore I said that sentence.... But lo and behold, the bag was hanging on a mannequin, waiting for me to buy it! I was still holding on to the hope of not buying it (cause it's still rather ex), and told my friends that if they had no new piece, I won't get it. The staff checked and brought me a bag. Then, I realised that it's the bigger version! I was secretly happy that I didn't need to spend that $70.55. But I got the staff to check anyway, and they managed to find the one I want. So, in the end, I went home with a big shopping bag, and $70.55 less in my wallet....
But I am still happy lah. It's one of the most expensive bags I've bought (in fact, I think it is the most expensive one I ever bought for myself, save for the Coach bags I bought for my mum in the US), but I really really like it. Hard to find a bag which you really really like nowadays!
Now I shall go think about how to earn this $70 back....
- Day 11 without my supervisor - i spent $70.55
by snoopy_lim @ 9:44 PM
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The thing that has struck me the most thus far, is not about how great this woman is. Yes, indeed, she's the woman behind the very successful man. But what has left a deep impact in me, while watching the news reports, is the LOVE shared between Mr and Mrs Lee Kuan Yew. I really love the video, which I saw on TV, where both Mr and Mrs Lee were under an umbrella, and Mrs Lee was sharing about Mr Lee. What she liked about him, how he was like when they were young, how Mr LKY was such a handsome man. And when Mrs LKY commented on the handsomeness part, Mr Lee gave a real hearty laugh. A laugh which somehow made me see the soft side of him. A laugh which stripped the political Mr Lee 'skin' and revealed the real genuine side of him. What an amazing sight that is.
The Love that is between them is so full, so real, so perfect. I started wondering whether I will ever experience that kind of love. One that keeps people going and loving each other till a ripe old age. One which has hardly lost any parts throughout the years of a relationship, despite the ups and downs of life. One which is sustained and continues to be nourished, gently and lovingly by both parties. It is really amazing to see such a Love existing in this world....
Hopefully, someday, I'll get to experience it and that it will be able to last till the day I die....
- Will I ever?
by snoopy_lim @ 10:23 PM
Friday, October 1, 2010
YES! It's day 10 without my supervisor! That's 2 weeks down, one more to go! Can't believe I survived!!!!!! It's amazing how I survive doing nothing. Other than to play games on my phone. Job scope of an intern: Beat your high scores in your handphone, chat with other interns, pick up random jobs from LOs. That's the job scope when my supervisor ain't around. I get paid to do these!!!!!
A morning standard would be to read the My Paper newspaper which I obtain from outside the Outram train station. Today, I read about Moleskine (very expensive notebooks) releasing Peanuts notebooks to celebrate the 60th Anniversary (which happens to be tomorrow!)!!!!! How exciting. When I saw it, I set my heart on buying it already. It costs $27 for the smaller one, and $35 for the larger one! I told my friend that I would rather buy this than the Topshop bag anytime and they were totally surprised. Come on, you're talking to a Snoopy fan here! I searched Amazon.com and found it to be cheaper!!!!!! $25 for the larger one, inclusive of shipping costs. Confirm buying it! Anyone wants to buy any Amazon stuff can tell me. Here's how the notebook looks like by the way:
Met up with Ann Gomez for dinner today at Bukit Timah Market. Happen to see my division director walk past swiftly. Think she stays around here. But she's pretty fierce. Never talked to her before. But anyway, Ann and I went to Island Creamery after that and finally, FINALLY, I got to eat my Kahlua Latte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It still rocks! Funnily, Ann ordered that Blackforest for which I taste alcohol in it and she doesn't, while she tastes alcohol in my Kahlua Latte, but I don't. Oh well, we've got the same name, but different taste buds. I really enjoy chit-chatting with Ann during our dinner meets. We've met each other since Primary school, but never really got to know one another till now. She laughs at my stories, and I laugh at hers. Probably it's the Ann/Anne telepathy. Same name, same game....
Today, I accidentally revealed to my intern friends that I drunk a milk bottle till I was Pri 6. They laughed at me like mad. I knew it was kinda abnormal. But guess what, guess what?!?!?!?!?!?! We found out that another of my intern friend, Adele, also drunk milk bottle till P6!!!!! High 5 there Adele. The worst thing was that she thought drinking milk bottle till P6 is a norm for kids.... Talk about abnormality....
Looking forward to tomorrow and sunday. I'm going jogging with a friend at MacRitchie Reservoir tomorrow and gonna picnic with Hilz and Ting on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!
- Day 10 without my supervisor - I get paid to....
by snoopy_lim @ 11:11 PM