Rattling while waiting for my gel...

This is my first Saturday back in the lab! Had wanted to do it previously, but 'cos of various reasons like incubator down etc, didn't manage to come back till today. My plan for the day was simple: to come down to lab in the morning to do my colony PCR to screen my colonies, and then go off to Chinatown ard 11am to 'yum cha' with my lab colleagues, and then back to my lab again after that to continue running my gel. But Argh! I finished off my PCR only at ard 11.15am, and while I was waiting for bus 372 to Chinatown, I have to have a bad tummyache!!! Fragged! I have no choice to but to go home, since the bus stop I'm waiting at is in Belmore Road. By then, it's already like 11.40am, and I would be extremely late even if I rush down after that. So, no choice then, but to ask them to go ahead without me! I was so looking forward to go 'yum cha'!! Fragged. So, stayed in my home till ard 2.30pm then come back to the lab again to load my gel... What a day.. I'm gonna eat KFC later on to make myself happier! haha..

Anyway, lately my expt has been starting to make a bit of progress. Yeah! Out of the 2 PCR prod that I wanted to clone, 1 of them is successful! Yeah! After weeks of bad luck and unsuccessful streak, the dark clouds are finally showing signs of dissipating! But I don't mind it to be totally gone! hahaha..

By the way, I saw Charlotte's Web yesterday, and it's a truly great movie!! I used to read the book, by E.B.White for my literature lessons in my lower secondary school days. back then, I already find the story to be great! But after seeing the show, it serve to enhance the goodness and the moral that the story is trying to put across. True friendship should be like Wilbur and Charlotte, not asking for returns and make good promises that are given. True friendship sees through appearance for it is their heart that counts. It's really very sad and heart wrenching to see the scene where Charlotte dies after her last ditch effort to save Wilbur, and laying her eggs. The spirit of Charlotte, where one goes all out to fulfill a promise, is truly inspirational and for us to learn. Wilbur, for his credit, has thought us how to see beyond the appearance, for even the ugly spider has a beautiful heart that eventually save Wilbur! I love it!

GST credits up for grab!

Yup, the title says it all! The Singapore government is giving out 'GST credits' to all Singaporeans above 21 years of age, as a buffer against the upcoming GST hike from 5% to 7% come this July 07. As with all 'kiasu' Singaporeans, I have signed up for it as soon as the clock hits midnight on the 15th May 07! LOL... kiasu right?! So, by signing up, I will get SGP$200+, as well as an addition of SGP$100 for my NS contribution! Best of all, I will get this GST credits every year for the next 2 years! Whoo hoo! For those who have yet to sign up, just go to the GST credit webby with your NRIC and Singpass and your money will be sitting there in your bank come this July!!

Some people have been complaining about the tax hike etc, which I have no qualms about. To me, as long as it's reasonable, (under 10%) I'm fine with it. The tax down here in Australia is like 10%, so comparing Singapore to Australia, I see no reason to complain. But I think Singaporeans, being Singaporeans will complain that the GST credits that they are receiving are not enough! Haha.. come on, when will money ever be enough!? But I think that it's pretty good, in that at least the government are still giving us money to buffer the inital tax hike! I don't think governments in other countries will be doing these kinda stuffs. I might be wrong in this, so just drop me a tag or comment if you happen to know that other government are doing similar giveaways to their people. So, it looks as though I'm pro-government huh.. haha.. well, comparing ours with others, I think ours is still better then others, and so what more can I complain about?!

My only regret is that, I can't buy stuffs before the July onset of 7% GST! By the time I go back to Singapore for a short break this Dec 07/Jan 08 period, the GST would have been 7%! Argh.. I must try to get my air tix to return to Oz from SIA before July!!!

Trival: The word 'Kiasu' has been added to the Oxford Dictionary!! Now who says singlish can't be a language?!

Catching up with phased out flims e.g. Barbel & Blood Diamond

I have been catching up with lotsa of films that is no longer shown in the theatre recently. These films are those that I would love to watch in Singapore, but for some reason or an other, didn't managed to catch it. After all, watching a show these days doesn't come cheap as it used to be. I can still remember when I was like 8-9 years old, the only time when I'm able to see a show is during the Lunar New Year. My mum would bring me to the cinema in Clementi where they tickets were like $5-6. That was really a long way back. Now, it's a hefty $9-10! Wow.. unless I'm a working adult, how the hell am I going to afford it, especially when there are so many good shows around!!? haha.. Yup, as much as I like to go to the movies, I simply can't afford going for each and everyone! So, just gotta give up some of them..

Luckily, I managed to catch some phased out shows online such as Barbel and Blood Diamond over the weekend here in Sydney. I'm absoluted puzzled as to what the characters in Barbel are talking about since there's no subtitle at all! Just have to use my imagination I guess.

Anyway, Blood Diamond is really a great movie. Both very entertaining and educational. What is the show about?? Simply put, it's about a father's love for his family and son; about the predicaments of children as child soldiers; about the so called rebels who thinks that the end justify the means; the mining of diamonds in exchange for weapons; about the fact that such sales of conflict diamonds are indirectly encouraged by the females of our species! So for those who have yet to catch the show, I would strongly encourage it. To those who happens to read this, and are loyal fans to the world of diamonds, take heed - the next time you buy a diamond, ensure that the diamonds comes from the list of countries under the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme!; otherwise it wouldn't look good with all that blood on your ring finger!

Finally managed to catch Mr. Bean's Holiday!

Salut! Haha.. it's an informal way of saying 'hello' in French! Can't help but feel inclined to learn French after watching the show Mr. Bean's Holiday! Haha..Finally, after so long, I managed to get the show and watch it. Yeah!

It started off with Mr. Bean (played by Rowan Atkinson) coming in lucky with the first prize of a raffle - A trip to Cannes, a video camera and €200. As quite expected, through some sheer bad luck and hilarious actions, Mr. Bean managed to put himself into the unplanned route to Cannes. In the railway station, he unwittingly separated a father-son team who are going to Cannes as well. Being our good old Mr. Bean, he took up the responsibility of reuniting the son and father. Along the uncharted path, Mr. Bean hitchhiked an exactly identical yellow Mini cooper as his, driven by the beautiful Sabine (protrayed by the pretty Emma de Caunes)! Much more bludders followed, but quite expectedly, they make it to Cannes, played out his video recordings during the Cannes Flim Festival and recieved standing ovations! But for Mr. Bean, nothing beats more than reaching the beach in Cannes! =)



'Oui'! It's really a great show. Though I felt that the humor in the beginning is abit dry. Moreover, some of the earlier scenes were reminescence of the TV series, which really makes me wonder if they (producers etc) had run out of ideas! Nonetheless the show made up for it towards the end. It really came as a suprise to see an identical Mini cooper as Mr. Bean's appearing in France! Haha.. And you can really see the glow in Mr. Bean's eyes when he sees the splitting image of his car! Hahaha.. Really enjoyed that scene. I especially like that ending of the show, where all the characters in the show come together on the beach in a musical style, singing 'La Mer' (Beyond the Sea). Haha.. I like the song very much, which really makes me wanna learn french!! Hahaha... Anyone know where I can get that song??

Goofs on the show - The items on Mr. Bean's seafood platter move around on their own a few times!

Au revoir!

A disappointing week yet again

As the title goes, this past week has indeed been disappointing. I have yet to get white colonies from my transformation/cloning experiments. Argh! We had got a new tube of dATP on thursday, and hence I decided to try out the transformation/cloning once more. Did the A-tailing reaction, ligation, transformation etc and was hoping to see some good results on Friday. But, fate has it that I must not get any results in the past week. There was a major accident in the common 37-degrees incubator room where I put my culture plates in. Apparently, the two shakers and flasks on them dropped onto the floor, smashing the flasks and spoiling the shakers completely! They had to decontaminate the whole room, and my plates were thrown away!! Frag!! My work just gone! Though they managed to decontaminate and fix the area, it can only be use on Monday afternoon! Arghhhh... Felt like banging my head on the wall! Anyway, I decided to do the transformation again, and just leave the bacteria culture plates in room temperature to grow till I go to the lab on Monday. Haiz.. what a streak of bad luck and happenings. When will it end??! About 1 month into my experimental proper and I have no results at all! Argh... Frag!

On something different: my 2 weeks Mobtv trial has expired. So I decided that I shall continue the subscription. It's pretty ex I think - $29.90 per month. However, if I pay for 3 months of subscription, I get 1 month free. So, $89.90 for 4 months, which is like $22.50 per month. Still on the expensive side, but I like Singapore productions. So, I went ahead to subscribe it. Would be nice if someone can share the cost with me! haha..but haiz.. wasted money again..

The only thing that make me smile again for the week is a wonderful dinner that I had cooked up. Went to buy some frozen pork & chieves dumplings, and pan-fried it. Yum Yum.. it's been a long long time since I ate something so crispy and nice..Reminds me of being in Singapore.. And I cooked the can food (containing bamboo strips, pork strips etc) with more of the pork that I bought from Coles. I had banana as well, and the banana is quite strange looking! Hahaha.. a bit huge I think! The width of the banana is almost width of my palm! What a big fat banana!! Haha.. I truly enjoyed yesterday's night dinner. =)..

Haiz.. still.. what will the coming week hold for me? More disappointment?? When will it ever end?!

Wow! Irresistable!

I was recently introduced to the website 'Bid4Prizes' and have been totally blown away!! If what it had claimed is true, it's simply fantastic!! You're not going to believe this - We get to bid items that are on auctions in the website. However, unlike normal auctions, the lowest bids win! Well, not really lowest bid, but rather lowest unique bid wins! So meaning that, if 2 person bid $1, another person bid $2, and a forth person bids $3, the person that bid $2 will win because it is the lowest unique bid! What's even better is that, according to the website, the amount that you bid is phony. Once you win the auction item, you do not need to pay any amount at all! It's totally free! Hmm.. too good to be true? Might be worth a try!

Hmm.. now, what auction prize do I like? I think I prefer the $500 Starbucks gift card! haha.. while some of you might think I'm crazy to choose this over the LCD monitor, ipod, or the DVD theater system, I think not! I love beverages and cakes etc from the Starbucks! With the $500 gift card, it will be like an unlimited access to the beverages etc! Furthermore, all the other systems or prizes depreciates once you got it, and over time its value drops further! But with the $500 gift card, I can still get that much cups of beverages in future as compared to now (unless of cause Starbucks decided to increase the price of the beverages in future!). So, why not $500 starbucks gift card?! =) Too bad that this auction is only open to US residents, else I might be so tempted to take part as well!

Bug for your life!

“Bug” by Lionsgate flim, produced in 2006, kicked off its debut by winning the FIPRESCI Prize in the Cannes Film Festival. This bug movie is set to be released on the 25th May 07 in the US, featuring a strong cast which includes Ashley Judd (twice nominee of the 1997 & 2005 Golden Globe award, and various other awards) who plays Agnes White, and Michael Shannon who plays Peter. Living in a run-down motel in Oklahoma, the waitress lives in the shadows of her violent ex-husband but is soon consumed in a romantic relationship with Peter, a war veteran, a lover, and more importantly a protector. However, Peter comes with a ‘tiny’ problem – an eccentric paranoia state of mind that seems to usher in something more sinister. Bugs.



What really captures my attention to the show is the tag line on the poster, written “First they send in the drone… then they find their queen”. Coupled with the face of Ashley Judd on the poster (especially the one with the face on the body of the bug), it really makes me wonder if the queen is her! It might be, or it might not! Being a psychological thriller, there might be a twist towards the end of the show, which really makes me interested to find out what the tag line actually means and how Agnes White is related to the ‘queen’. Is Peter the drone? Hmm… I can’t wait to see how all these piece together in the bug movie! Meanwhile to be on the safe side, I think I better stock up on some insecticides!

All I need is a white colony!! Is it fragging too much to ask?!

Argh... almost 2 weeks wasted on the fragging cloning work.. and I still have gotten a white colony! This is getting extremely frustrating and demoralising. I simply can't understand why this is so!!?? For some strange reason, the white colonies will become blue when I streaked it out on a selection plate! Frag! Argh.. This time round, I'm repeating the cloning once again, following as much as possible with the protocol.. like using SOC medium, using new competent cells, and new dATP for the A-tailing reactions.. Argh.. I'm gonna bang my head on the wall if it still give me blue colonies tomolo!!! Frag!

Anyway, been playing ard with my digicam and photoshop again.. the top pic is the normal pic of today's dinenr taken by my digicam.. (I'm getting gd at taking pic of food! haha).. the bottom pic is modified with photoshop.. the bottom pic sure look like some drawing from an artist! haha..

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Work visa finally...

As the title goes, I finally got my work visa!! Well, technically I have the electronic version of the work visa like a few days back. However, I need to go to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural affairs (DIMA) to get this work visa sticker on my passport to verify that I can truly work. So, I did some research on where the place is, and off I go! Took 372 from my place here in the afternoon (went to lab in the morning), and reach railway square like 30 minutes later. The bus passes by the Central Railway Station before terminating at the railway square, which really brings back memories. I saw a greyhound bus park right in front of the Railway Station.

Yup, it's this place alright. The very same place, about 8 years ago, when I alighted in Sydney after 24 hours of bus ride from Adelaide. I took the greyhound bus then as well. Back then, I had contacted KK (together with Suelyn, and Grace) to meet me at the central railway station. I remembered arriving in the morning. As the bus was coming to a stop at the station, I was apprehensive and scared, as that was the first time I've been to Sydney. What if they weren't here yet, or a miscommunication and waited for me elsewhere? Where do i go? What do I do?? These thoughts really did come into my mind. But luckily, they were already there when I arrived. It's great to really have someone you know in a foreign place.. =)

And when it was the day when I had to depart Sydney back to Adelaide, I will remember that very day as well. I remember we had gone to this market inside some building (can't remember the name), and I think I bought a packet of macademia nuts. haha.. I love macademia nuts.. I think that is my first exposure to the nuts, and I love it since then. I remember feeling very sad, on the verge of tearing as I had to leave my frens and board the bus back to Adelaide, on my own once more, after all the fun we had in Sydney. If I didn't not remember wrongly, I believe they had bought me some food to let me eat during the journey. I was really sad that time. =( And only other time when I felt this way was when I had to leave my beloved and on my flight to Australia a couple of months back. I almost cried everytime I call my beloved from within the Changi airport! haha.. I wonder if the same thing will happen again when I'm coming back to Oz next year, after my short break back in SG. haha..

Me goofing around with my digicam.. trying to see how best to take pictures of food...

Me again.. took pic with digicam, and enhancing it with adobe photoshop.. turns out to be pretty nice I think! haha.. what do u think???

The waiting game...

It came as a shock. Really a shock! Quite unbelievable, but not impossible. hahaha.. We (this household) has exceed the 20Gb/month limit of our internet access! hahaha.. Before this, we were like thinking.. hmm.. 20Gb! So much! how on earth are we ever gog to finish it? But apparently we did far better than that - we exceeded it! haha.. 'Cos my housemate and I have been watching lotsa videos lately. For me, I have just been granted 2 weeks trial for my Mobtv, while my housemate got his live streaming of M'sia's show as well. Guess all these data really adds up huh..

So, right now, we still have unlimited use of the Internet, but our speed is no longer broadband speed after we exceed the 20Gb. It's been reverted to standard dial-up speed of 56Kps. haha.. so, it's gog to be a waiting game from now on.. waiting for pages to load, and waiting for 19th May where it will be the start of a new month, and broadband speed once more!

We are so spoilt by the conveniences of everyday life, that most people might actually go through withdrawal symptoms when such conveniences are removed! For one, I think I will! LOL..

要长乐就要知足

Argh.. m feeling pretty stressed up lately, cos my lab work has been seemingly proceeding forward, put on the reverse gear, forward again, and back to square one again.. It's not so much of the process that stress me off, rather it is the time that I had spent in the process. Probably I've have gone through the honours year, and other lab experiences, I know that time is never a luxury in my PhD studies. 3 years to some, is a long long time to go. To me, realising the importance of time, thinks that 3 years is never too long. It could just past by in a matter of eye-blinking. I know that this kinda stress is quite self-inflicted, especially so since I'm only into my PhD studies for only 2 months so far. People tell me that I still had a long route ahead of me, and not to worry, and things will turn out fine. I too, certainly hope so. But I can't leave it to chance. I have to ensure that things done within the shortest time possible to generate maximum result. Argh.. this stress is kinda making me depress, questioning my choice of continuing a PhD..

Maybe I should be contented.. yah.. I just be contented.. that I got myself a scholarship; that I can come over to Oz to study; that Rick is willing to take me in as a PhD student; that things are meant to be as they are; that whatever time I lost or wasted in my failed experiments are lessons to strengthen me for the future hurdles.. yeah.. lessons.. maybe I should write down all the lessons I have learnt so far, so as not to let history repeat itself.. Some things are easier say than done.. to be contented.. is analogous to a fish swimming upstream.. but then, salmons made it to their spawning ground.. but at what cost? To be contented.. requires a complete change of mindset.. to lose my competitiveness, to sit back and relax, .. something which I longed for, but intrisically not possible.. To be contented.. 知足长乐. Prob I should go see a shrink!

Well, lets move on to a lighter note, i was eating bread yesterday night, and towards the end, I realised that I have bitten off the bread to a shape of Australia! haha.. I think it's really like Australia.. prob the Ozzies will beg to differ! haha.. so Cool..

Anyway, I was scratching my head as to what to eat for my dinner.. I didn't have much idea really.. just know that I have to starting eating my beef cos they are going to be expire soon. Also that i still have half a salted duck egg left, and some spinach.. So, I just go ahead and cook up something.. and ended up with beef rice! hahah... it looks those one will get to eat back in Singapore if you go to the '煮炒' in the hawker center! haha.. I can jolly well sell it off for like $8 a plate in Oz! hahaha... Anyway, it taste very nice as well! It's really unexpected!

Hair cut day and yummy food

Well, finally, plucked up my courage to have my hair cut! haha.. It's been 2-3 months since I cut my hair, and that was back in Singapore. Reasons that I have so reluctant to do so here in oz are mainly that it's expensive for a haircut, as well as I have no idea what to tell the barber. I mean back in Singapore, I will just tell the barber: cut slope, don't want sideburn. And the barber understands straight away.. I doubt the barber down in oz will understand what I'm trying to say.

So, since today my work in lab do not occupy me for the full day, I went over to the bank to deposit the Ang Bao money my mum gave me for my birthday. Then, went over to the cheapest haircut shop that I can find, "Ben's Salon". There were two people before me, waiting as well. Finally, it's my turn. I decided that I will just sit there and let the barber work her wonders. Yup, it's not wrong. The barber is a female! Oh man, the first time in my life to let a women cut my hair! haha.. I'm not a sexist or what, but all the barbers in my life so far are males. And back in Singapore, I don't ever go into a salon, cos it's expensive and there's no need to waste such money on my hair. Anyway, I think that the female barber treats my hair a bit rough..haha.. I prefer the other female barber instead.. much more friendly..haha.. But luckily, my hair turns out fine. The rate is still AUD$12 for guys though it is considered the cheapest around!

Anyway, went back home straight after that to wash my hair, and start to cook my dinner. Hmm.. .. I think I saw a dish something like veges + salted egg or something like that somewhere before in my life.. so, I decided to cook my own variant of it. Spicy salty spinach.. so spinach is the leading role, salted egg is the supporting role, and chinese dried sausage, fried onion and chilli as the background, and chicken broth to round it all up! Turns out to be pretty nice! So as you can guess, I enjoyed my dinner a lot! Maybe I'm cut out to be a cook, just like my dad! haha..

Spicy stir-fried beef & spinach

Yup folks, I tried out new dish yet again. After looking through the webby for the beef & toufu stir-fried recipe.. I decided to try my luck with it as well. However, I had to deviate from the recipe and improvised on it as I did not have toufu and some other ingredients. Quite obvious, toufu is a must, but I didn't have it..

Oh well, just have to make do with what I have. So, I cooked spicy stir-fried beef & spinach instead. And overall, I think it taste good in general. However, i think what is lacking is the uniformity of the cooked beef. Most of the beef are rather tender but there are some which is a bit tough. So, probably, if all the beef had turned out to be tender, that would be great! Cooking the beef with spinach, and making it spicy with chilli padi and pepper is a nice combi as well I think. And you know what, now then I know that the stem of the spinach is hollow! As I was cutting the stems into smaller pieces, I saw the hollow stem. And I went ahead to test out if it's really hollow or not..hahaha.. I use the stem as a straw, place one end in water, and suck into the straw. Water really got suck up! hahaha.. seriously, I wonder how a plant can hold itself up with a hollow stem! Interesting....

Well, this is my dinner for today! My new dish! Spicy stir-fried beef & spinach. Yum yum...

Fragging hungry...

The title says it all! I was fragging hungry by the time I reached home today. Went to school quite early today, at about 8.45am without taking any breakfast. I saved up a bowl of green bean soup, meant to be my breakfast, but I woke up like 8.30am and am supposed to reach school at 9am. Thereafter, I was busy with my work, learning how to prepare media for my archaea, doing my PCR, run gel, and ligation reaction etc, ended at ard 6pm. Well, not that I do not have time in between, I did have like 30 mintues break. But then, it's a waste to eat in school, cos the cost of a meal here in oz is like $7-8 for a meal... or so I heard! Yup, hasn't been eating in school since I got here.. gotta save up! A piece of bread or two will be my breakfast+lunch everytime I need to go to school early.. till dinner time! Gotta save up! Suprisingly, I still hasn't become thin. =( I was hoping my weight will drop to 60kg! The last time I weight.. it's still 65-66kg. hahaha..

Anyway, after going to coles to do my groceries shopping, I went over to buy KFC for my dinner. Yup, it's been a month plus since my last KFC. Well, I wasn't going to buy it anytime soon, till I gotten KFC discount coupons in my letterbox.. Yeah! So, I go ahead and buy myself a 3 piece meal at AUD$7.45, which includes drinks, whipped potato, bun, fries, and of course 3 pieces of chicken (original flavoured)! Without the coupon, you will only get 2 instead of 3 pieces of chicken for the approxiately same price. Yup, pretty delicious, and worth it. Not hungry anymore!

The past couple of days didn't go very well, especially yesterday (Monday). Got my sequencing data of my PCR product, and the sequenced are basically in a mess for a couple of them. It is most likely that the PCR products are heterogenous even though I have gel purified them.. Argh.. all my work wasted! Thought I could just PCR from the genomic DNA, purify and sequence it and do gel shift assay from there. But I was too naive.. So now gotta spent another 1-2 weeks PCRing out my DNA again, ligate it into a vector, clone it, sequence verify, exicse out the insert, PCR and sequence it again. Argh.. if only I had gone through the long way in the first, wouldn't have wasted so much time! I should have known! What was I even thinking!! What an idiot I am. Sometimes I just feel like quitting my PhD, go back to Singapore and get a routine job in a lab, and just be contented. No stress, just follow protocol, and do my best. Get to have salaries to take home, save enough to get marry, travelling etc., and enjoy life as it is.. Doing research is stressful, especially when things don't work out. 100% effort is never enough. Even if you put in 200%, there will always be room for you to put in more effort... haiz..

On a lighter note, I tried cooking green bean soup for the first time in my life! =D Well, it turn out pretty ok i think, but I still think that I put in too many beans and sago. I put in the whole bag of beans, all ~300g of beans. haha.. As for the sago, I must have put in too much, cos after putting in the sago, the whole soup becomes very thick. Never know that sago has this kinda effect! Hahaha.. overall, i guess i would have given myself a pass as a first timer.. hopefully, will do better the next time round!