Finally its Over!

6 months of endless work, the thesis is finally ready!

I must say I dreaded the editing part of it...

Hard to predict wat I will get..... Hopefully at least a B+

Anyway, its now time to enjoy the rest of my holidays!!!!!!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008!!

Another year has passed... This yr seemed to pass by really quick. A look back at 2007, started the year at Hyflux doing my IA... It was ahem, to put it in a nicer tone "could be better", pay was pathetic and the job scope was boring.... But met many new friends tats one thing good.

The second half of the year went by even faster... Wat I remembered was spending "quality" time in the lab doing my FYP from 9 to 6pm almost everyday.... Perhaps due to this hectic pace I got hit by that unexpected illness.... Took 2 to 3 weeks to recover... Then came the exams... Then the Dec holidays tat doesnt feel like holidays at all due to FYP and the worse part of it is its my last sch holidays.....Darn...

6 months to go b4 I graduate.... And I am ready to welcome 2008!! 25 years of studying is finally coming to an end... At least for the time being.

Holiday Workshops

Time really flies... Its now 2 weeks after my exams. Been busy with fyp as usual but went for 2 different holiday workshops last week organized by NUS Career Centre. One of them was on leading image and the other on public speaking. Quite worth the money paid... Anyway the lunch and 2 tea breaks provided was enough to cover the fee paid... Thanks to heavy subsidies from NUS.

The first workshop I attended on leading image teaches u how to improve yr image as first impression counts. There's the business and dining etiquette.... how to choose clothes that matches yr skin color, the type of clothes, how to match yr clothes. What I like best was lunch...haha. A 3 course meal was served.... And the instructor will go around and correct yr eating and sitting posure... how u should eat, handle the napkins, handle the bill, call for the waitress, how to be a good host and so on.... didnt realize tat there were so many techniques to learn.... I love the dessert served, chocolate truffle cake. Great presentation and of course taste... At the end of the workshop there was also a farewell gift, a 1Gb flash drive and a cert!

Dessert

Table for 10

The second one was on public speaking.... I just find it so so... Though i must say the professional speaker was good. The participants were split into small groups and each person was given a topic and ask to give a 3min speech on the spot... main aim to teach u to think fast and overcome the fear of speaking in front of others... Overall both workshops were useful.

In Need of Exercise

Been eating alot of sinful food after the exams, wanted to exercise but the it keeps raining these days... So no tennis, no swimming, no rollerblading, no jogging....

There's the gym at the clubhouse but one thing abt me is i dun like going to the gym cos its airconditioned.... Tend to get a cold after the workout.... And I dun like running on a threadmill either, prefer running in the open getting some suntan and see the different sights and sounds of my neighborhood.

Sometimes I "try" to wake up like 630am (I know some pple might think i am crazy but tats me, anyway i usually go for evening jogs these days rather than morning, haha...) and go for a morning jog as it is much cooler and I get to admire the beautiful sunrise too.... So as u can tell I am more of a morning guy

FYP Lab: 6 months of Sweat

After spending 6 months doing my FYP, "Biodiesel Preparation via Enzymatic Transesterification of Vegetable Oil" (Let me translate it, it means to produce biodiesel from vegetable oil using a reaction method called transesterification in the presence of enzymes), I am pls to say that all this is abt to end soon on 31.12.07 Mon.

The main reactants for transesterification: N-butanol, Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB), Palm Oil

Rotary Evaporator to remove N-butanol


Vacuum Purge Oven to remove traces of water or n-butanol

Oil bath in which transesterification takes place in a reaction tube

View outside the lab of WS2

View of my lab

An Eventful Dinner: For all the Wrong Reasons

Ok PLS bear with this long story (Longest post i ever posted) but I wished to share this.... An unforgettable dinner for all the wrong reasons.... I will nvr ever forget what had happened last nite in my entire life. Let's just say I was damn paiseh and embarrassed.

The story goes like this. I went back to sch yesterday to get my NMR results from the lab so that I can include it in my report due end of the month. It just so happened that it was my prof's birthday. His PhD students decided to buy him a cake and surprise him in his office. So everyone, PhD students, Drs and FYP students who happened to be in the lab have to attend the celebration. After the mini celebration, the prof was so happy that he asked us to join him for dinner whereby he will treat everyone. So he asked one of his PhD student to book a table at Tung Lok Seafood @ Arena Country Club cos he said Tung Lok's food is good. I thought to myself "wa seh, how come my timing so good, got free dinner at Tung Lok sia". There were a total of 2 profs (his good friend came along), 3Drs, 4PhD students and 4 FYP students who went for dinner.

Ok, only 2 of us are Singaporeans, 1 Malaysian and the rest that went were PRCs. We were informed that dinner will be buffet style. But the person that booked the place didnt know it was ala carte buffet. As some of us have experiments to do, those who were free can make their way to the venue first. So at 645pm, everyone left the lab leaving the 4 FYP students (including myself) behind as one of us was waiting for his expt to end. We left half an hr later.

We called for a cab and made our way there... Its a wise choice cos 1) Its peak hr 2) We dun wished to be too late 3) We dun know the directions to the place cos nvr been there b4, so by calling a cab, the destination is known to the cab driver b4 hand.

And again the same funny thing happened to me again... which was I spoke to the cab driver in chinese (I know I angmo pai but somehow i tend to speak chinese these days) and I got like no reply... The reason was the cab driver was a Malay and I didnt know cos it was dark.

Anyway, thats not the impt point in this story. Once we reached there, I was surprised that they were waiting for us to arrive b4 they order the food (Surprise bcos I was expecting them to go ahead and eat without us first). How often do u get 2 profs and 3 Drs to wait for 4 FYP students to arrive rite?? But the lucky thing was one gp of PhD students in another taxi have yet to arrive (even after leaving half an hr earlier than us).... Reason was they tried to flag down a cab on the main rd outside NUS and it took like forever and that the cabby didnt know the place.

As expected, the place being quite high class is mainly patronized by business pple... But the place was not full cos its so out of the way. Once everyone was there, the prof passed the menu to his PhD students and asked them to order whatever they want. Big mistake. As host, he shld have taken the lead and order on behalf of us. Perhaps while ordering, he could have asked "Are there any dishes you guys would like to try?" (U know that kind of cliche thingy) instead of letting his PhD students order.

The problem here was they didnt know how to order, cos they didnt know what ala carte buffet meant. So they asked the Captain to explain. They took forever to decide what to order and I was like going Pls, just pick a few dishes from the menu first, after which can order again if its not enough. Then somehow half way while deciding, they suddenly decided to count how much the dinner will cost.... DUH??? One PhD student was like counting loudly how much it would cost and even asked the Captain how much the extra charges (GST and service charge) it would cost us. How on earth the Captain will know until the bill comes rite? Then another PhD student took out her hp to do a calculation.... Its bloody embarrassing... Cos its the prof thats paying and if u want to figure out how much PLS for goodness sake do it discretely. And count how much will it cost b4 ordering in front of the captain instead of at the end of the dinner is just so....ahem. (The dinner is like 34 dollars plus plus, so add charges and all its estimated to be above 40 dollars per head). I think the Captain must be wondering whether we could afford to pay for the dinner.

As we seemed to take forever to order (I cant possibly order for them cos I am the smallest fry there and the prof asked his PhD students to order, not me), the Captain suggested that she will help us order a few dishes and if its not enough, we can order more later. As we were having crabs, the waitresses gave a total of 4 bowls of water with lemon to wash our hands. Then the 1st shocker came.... One of the Dr asked whats that (Ok, its ok not to know whats tat but what happened next was kinda of funny), and the next shocker came, one of the PhD student sitting beside me said it was sharks fin soup.... I ALMOST FAINTED SIA!!!! How on earth does tat look like sharks fin soup??? I quickly said its for washing hands after seeing the DR abt to take his spoon to try it (Yes, tat happened)..... The worst part was she didnt believe me and asked the waitress what are those.... damn paiseh man.... can tell that the waitress was trying not to laugh.

Next, we had "Buddha jumps over the wall'. The PhD students were asking me what dish was that. I was kind of surprised that they didnt know cos i thought in China they have tat too so I just said its a dish with abalone. After a while, they asked me how come our table only have chinese tea to drink while the table next door had like soft drinks and wine. THE........ I replied "Pay more then can drink liao" in chinese.

Our table received poor service from the captain as i can tell she was kinda pissed with us. Its like when one of the PhD student tell her to get more towels for us, she went like "xinnnnngggggggggg (can)!!!!". But it nvr came.... Obviously bcos that would mean more charges for us (towel charges) and it seems to her that we cant afford our meals. The only waitress that was very hardworking in serving us was a PRC.

Towards the end of the dinner, we had desserts. The prof ordered honey dew sago. As there were different desserts ordered by us, the desserts were placed on the table and we supposed to take the desserts we had ordered. The prof then asked the waitress which one was honey dew sago..... I think he nvr tried honey dew sago b4 (its ok)... but seriously it was quite obvious which one was the rite bowl and i thought he could make an intelligent guess rite.... cos the rest were either red bean soup, green bean soup or guilin gao.... So tell me which one was honeydew sago?? Obviously the one with honeydew, the one not red, nor green nor black rite??

The next funny thing was that there was a fire alarm midway through the dinner... And guess what?? They thought that it was a signal to tell diners that they were closing soon. OMG!!!! How on earth did that idea came abt?? So they asked a waitress what time were they closing and what was the alarm for.....I was lost for words man..... Havent they heard a false fire alarm b4?

Towards the end of the dinner when everyone was full, my prof's friend, the other prof suddenly said he didnt know it was buffet...erm.......

Then the PhD students were wondering if the restaurant got give discount on pple's birthday, saying that this is possible in China. I was like thinking this is Spore not China for goodness sake... Though there are some places that do have such a promotion in spore, its is unlikely that such a high end restaurant would carry this kind of promotion.... Then, they asked the Captain if such a discount existed.....ermm..... The Captain said only UOB credit card got discount.

The dinner was damn long.... 3 hrs long to be exact, from like 730 to 1030pm.... I nvr expect them to sit until the restaurant was abt to close.... We were the last table to leave. Good thing we were the last cos what was abt to happen next was the most embarrassing thing I ever come across in my life. The prof quarreled with the Manager saying he was out to cheat him.... zzz..... I was utterly shocked.

It happened like this, Prof called for the bill, ok the bill came and amounted to over 500 bucks... Another mistake he made.... Passing the bill to his PhD students and told the captain that they will check if they calculated the bill correctly....He is a host, he shld have just take a glance at the bill, see roughly how much, then just pass the credit card over rather than passing it to his student and tell the Captain that he is letting his student "check if they calculated wrongly". Perhaps he was shocked that the bill was so high... i dun know.

Then the PhD student said why no discount (Good, he spotted it but.....) For goodness sake, u need to give them the credit card first then they will include the discount for u by reprinting a second bill.

Ok, the bill with the discount came.... Then all hell broke lose. Apparently, the discount was like every 4 diners, the 5th dines for free.... we had 13 pple so we were given 3 diners free... But as u know there are other charges rite? B4 any discount, they will calculate the total bill first and add GST, service charge and other charges and from there give the discount.... so 13 pple times 40 over dollars per head were counted first... That was what made the prof unhappy.... He said that shouldnt they charge him only 10 pple rather than calculate 13 pple then discount from there cos he would have to pay extra charges for the "supposedly 3 free diners".... ermmm.... Then he asked to see the manager....ermmmmmm...... Accused him of trying to cheat him....ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Prof wanted to see proof of such a policy, that is to add the cost of all diners first.... I wanted to explain that its correct but decided against it after his PRC students decided to help him argue with the manager... To try to explain to the Prof now that the manager is correct would be suicidal cos it meant the need to embarrass the prof and it might affect my grade for the report. And u know Chinese pple likes "face". So i chose to keep quiet and let the manager try to explain of course without success...

The final icing on the cake was when the prof told the manager in chinese "We are from NUS u know and all of them are my students, some PhD. All of us know how to calculate so dun think u can cheat us". I really really dun know where to hide my face man.... very paiseh.

In the end, as the argument went on for a long time, prof asked the manager to give him the number of the HQ of Tung Lok gp of Restaurants to complain...... Sheesh. And of course the Manager gladly did that cos he was nvr in the wrong.

Ok, first of all I wished to thank my prof for treating us to dinner. It was a nice gesture..... But I think last nite's dinner was quite an eye-opener for me, an experience i wont forget for all the wrong reasons.... I guess being smart with all the qualifications is not enough, u need exposure to the outside world too. Perhaps they spent too much time in the lab...... And too little time for themselves....

A Day of Spring Cleaning

A super tiring day today, been cleaning the entire house for hours...
Toilets, my own room, windows, curtains, aircon filters, mop, vacuum the floor, take out the trash.... Though I left out the kitchen to another day cos its the most shiong place to clean....

Come to think abt it, I supposed I have mastered every single household chore.

Exams Over Liao!!!!

Finally, 3/12/07 11am came.... Freed from studying for the time being.... Had been studying for the same, silly module for the last 6.5 days... I tell u its torture studying the same thing over and over again....esp when its open lecture notes.

Went kbox after the exams at orchard cine...haven been to my usual hangout for a long time... since Aug... Sang many new songs, some can make it, some cannot.... Tried wo bu shi F4 and rainie's 任意门, all cant make it....haha.

Had a Super scare from my Prof when i checked my email.... said i nvr hand in my term paper via email that was like due a month ago... He emailed me yesterday and told me to hand it in by 6pm today....Wa Kaoz..... I did hand in lor.... Started to search frantically for that precious proof in the "Sent Folder". Lucky nvr delete the items in the folder...Phew! Thank god NUS upgraded the account capacity to like 1GB (if i am not wrong), otherwise if we were still using the older version having only 15MB capacity I will surely have cleared everything liao.....

Forwarded this proof back to him to show the time and date which I submitted my term paper.... Now waiting for him to reply.... And now I know the importance of keeping important emails. Lesson learnt here.