Housing! And more random stuff

I just deleted 12 comments from my last post...was initially pleasantly surprised that so many ppl wanted to comment on my lab pic..haha...but it turned out to be 12 essays (by bots, prob) criticising the Malaysian government's policies....

Anywhere else I'd have been very interested, and I agree with some points even...but not on my blog!!! It's a place for friends to comment, not for ppl with agendas to spam!! Urgh...

Anyways I've survived one week w/o my supervisor! Haha he and most of the ppl with PhDs (postdocs, principal investigators) are in Canada for a symposium, and lotsa skiing....scientists often organize symposia at vacation-y places...I'm wondering how many scientists go for these things (which are paid for by their employers) purely for fun..haha...

And yup it's been exciting and challenging trying to do stuff yourself...designed and ordered some primers to amplify DNA, which worked! Wow! Haha small thing, but good enough to give you a minute sense of acomplishment...And I must say it feels sooooooo good to have your own workstation (I've taken over his for these 3 weeks)....have your own computer, your own desk....waaaaah after 7 months of being a nomad, it's good to have a home!

Interestingly enough, disaster after disaster has been raining down on our lab this week....first out -80 degree Celcius freezer goes up to -60 degrees without warning (it's a VERY BIG thing...we keep precious cell samples there which need to be kept very cold)....and this morning we arrived in the lab to be told by maintenance ppl that a pipe burst in the pantry next to our lab...resulting in a 2 inch flood throughout the lab...This shorted out several computers (including one of the PIs! And all his files on the floor)....flooded our tissue culture room (water level dangerously close to our incubators on the floor where we keep our growing cells)....

Wonder if that's a sign....

In the meantime, I've been looking at housing in Singapore...considering that I'll be living here when I finish my PhD I thought I might as well check out the options while I'm here now...Hmm there are several options, in order of increasing price:

1) Government Housing Development Board (HDB) flats. Cheapest, roughly averaging around S$250,000, but if unmarried, I need to be 35 years old before I can buy one :

2) Government HDB Executive Condominiums. Roughly around S$300,000 to S$400,000....sort of in between a flat and a private condominium...

3) Private condominium. These are where you get nicely designed units, fully air-conditioned, with lotsa facilities like 24-hour security, swimming pool, gym, BBQ pit etc. Of cos, the most expensive too, ranging from S$500,000 to S$650,000 to up, up, up!

4) Landed property. Forget it.

All things considered (price and quality of life), I'd like (2) or (3), but the government isn't building any new units for (2), so I'll have to wait till someone sells, and (3) will have me paying off my housing loan when I'm 50. Doesn't help that I would like to live near my workplace (Biopolis), but this happens to be one of the most pricey areas for property.

Maybe I'll buy a car and live in it.

Haha I guess I'll have to hope that my investments pay off! Else I win the lottery, which is very very hard to do, even more a challenge considering the fact that I don't buy lottery tickets...

Or maybe I'll rent somewhere for 5 years, till my bond is finished, then emigrate somewhere....

At least I've housing for the next 5 years in Boston settled; I just mailed in my housing request form...dorm-style rooms for the next year! haha I miss living in a college...

Some stuff

Nothing much happened during the last month, so haven't been posting for a while...but I just watched the Miss Singapore 2006 prelude show, showcasing the 25 contestants who made it to the semifinals...

I'm seriously impressed...

...by the director, who, given 25 of the most beautiful girls in Singapore, can make a show so boring it feels like a cheap karaoke video....it was so tacky and slow, the hosts lacking any enthusiasm whatsoever, and most of the contestants sounded so timid and boring....at least Juliana was good!! =P Go MSU20!!!

Haha my institute (Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology) must be the company in Singapore with the most employees in Miss Singapore...we've got TWO!!! (The other one is Weng Yi Fei....go to ch5.mediacorptv.com/2006) How many does YOUR company have?

Anyways finally got a picture of my lab..tada!


My supervisor's the guy in front, in the gray shirt...French Canadian guy, fairly crazy but damn smart and funny, haha...bottom left is one of our two principal investigators...his surname is Cool, so we're like the Cool lab...hahahaha....wel actually the Nurcombe/Cool lab, but that doesn't have such a nice ring to it...

The Duke of Edinburgh's coming to Biopolis on Thursday...yet another VVIP visit...haha...