Biohazard

A very familiar sign in my work place.
This picture was taken in one of my labs.

Lobsters for Lunch

Sorry dear, just when you are not at my place today. We had steamed lobsters for lunch. There are two types here. One type costs USD $60 per kg and the other costs $40 per kg. The $60 one had softer and more tender meat. The $40 one had more springy meat texture. I prefer the cheaper one though...

Most of the meat were already eaten before I can even take a photo...

Working Life

After coming back to SG last year December the seventh, I started job hunting only a month later. Sent many resumes, attended a number of interviews and gotten a couple of offers. Below is a list of the interviews I went.

Biomedical Research and Support Services Pte Ltd @ Ubi
Institute of Medical Biology @ Biopolis Buona Vista
SIMTech @ NTU
PharmaLogicals Research Pte Ltd @ Biopolis Buona Vista
Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory @ NUS
Schering-Plough LTD @ Tuas

Ultimately, I took up the offer given by SP as a Quality Specialist. Signed the papers a month ago and started work on April Fools. Since I am double disciplined, I will be running around from BioAssay to Chemical laboratory. The reason as to why I choose to take up this offer is simple. It pays well. Research pays are low. I have a passion for science, a passion for research, but more passion for money. Therefore, being a person that "do something and love it" rather than "love something and do it", I am perfectly fine with the less exciting and less intellectually challenging career. But thats not to say that its going to be any less satisfying or rewarding. If the job satisfaction is not up to par compared to doing research, I can always find my satisfaction else where.

Being in a Pharmaceutical company has its challenges. Everything you do there, you need to be trained and documented. You need to adhere to very stringent protocols and strict safety rules. After all, we make drugs for human consumption to improve health and extend lives. TO EARN TRUST EVERYDAY! To be sufficiently trained in BioAssay alone will take me 3 months. But so far, I am LOVING it, though still trying to get use to working life, getting up early at 0530 hrs and reaching home too tired to do anything else. My goal is to learn as many things as possible within the shortest time and increase my value within the company. And in order to do that, I will need to get my car soon. The only drawback I find so far is that I have to leave the company everyday on the spot, else I would have difficulty finding a transport back home. But anyways, it is still not crucial as I am not fully trained yet. Besides, I think it would be safer and wiser to get the car only I had been confirmed a permanent full SP stuff at the end of my 2 years contract. Till then, I just have to give it all I have got.

Got Pasta?

Yesterday I met up with my dear at Parkway Parade since she will be going back to Johor this weekend. Sobs. I got her a surprise when she reached the meeting place at Borders since I was more than an hour early.

Hope she likes it.

After that we headed for Pastamania for our dinner. The food was relatively expensive and ordinary. Thank Haruhi I had my dear sitting opposite me which spices up the meal :P

This brought back memories of my last few days in Perth. Myself, Dave and Yunyen actually went for my supposedly last dinner (if not for the missed flight) at Ciao Italia. The food is superb, ambiance is captivating, service is excellent and prices are reasonable. The chance to have a meal with friends? Indescribable. Here are just a few shots we took during the meal.

The pizzas were great though I would prefer Little Caesars Pizzeria anytime if not for the long travelling time...

Very Italian in taste, very different from Broadway Pizza, which is American.


Chilli mussels. Yummy. Comparable to Concas Pizza Restaurant and Young Joe's Pizza Bar. But still a tad behind Dave's Pinewood Kitchen's one. lol


A big bowl with big mussels...


Tiramisu? Reminds me of the one Yunyen made. Slurp...

Piano Black PSP Slim

Ok, finally I relented and got myself a PSP at Game Connection. I was torn between getting the red one or the black one. In the end, I decided to go for the timeless look. Why now? Well, since I started working, the long commuting time is really boring and a mental drain. Everyday reaching home too tired for anything else except to have dinner, bathe and a phone call for my dear. So with a PSP in hand, I can watch all my anime while on the move during the travel to and from work. Games come in pretty handy when I get bored as well. One nick picky thing, which you may think that I am being a pain in the arse is that I cannot stand the very very very small stuck pixel near the side of the screen. I ran a pixel fixer for hours but to no avail. Game Connection claimed that it is a very common thing to occur in all PSP units. Mine was considered very minor. But still, being a perfectionist, I cannot stand it sometimes. I did spend a bomb on it you know.

This set cost me SGD $410.

Now my next project is to get a Asus Ultra Portable Laptop at close to $3000. This will be my laptop replacement as well as my platform for the upcoming, very much anticipated Starcraft II. I am going to get the 12 inches, 1.5 kg one. Mobility is the key for me. With that, I can bring it along to work as well. But this project will only commence after SC2 is out. So no rush :P