The Specimen. (below) Not sure, what it is...look like a corn though... Me, stamping away happily! :D :D
Friday, June 23, 2006
See, here's how the stamping looks like. :)
What goes inside the box?
And, here's Shandy! Up on the ladder.
changeme.
11:34 AM
Monday, June 19, 2006
Cluny Road: yup that's it, the road that Shandy and I walked along all the way to the herbarium every morning, it's a lil' dangerous though with all the cars speeding by. Thank God that he's there to watch over us!!
....all the way to the top! Here's those boxes that the specimens are kept in. There are stored in compacters that can be moved when you turn the wheels on the sides.
Look at all those stamps! haha, Yup here are the country stamps that we use. we have all the way from Solomon Islands to Laos. :D
changeme.
8:50 AM
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Day 5 9/6/06 Friday
It rained so heavily in the morning and Shandy and I had to work along the road up to the new Herbarium. It was like really dangerous cos the cars were like 'zoom- zoom-splash-splash' by us. Whenever a huge bus passed by, we will stop first before going on. Shandy had to fold up her jens whenever it rained or else it would get wet, then she complained that she looked like a construction worker. haha! :D Any way when we reached there, we were shivering, the office was soooo cold. Brr! We helped Yujun to fold some paper pockets that were meant to contain the seeds in the general collection. It was rather mundane but relaxed. haha. It felt like we were doing so origami: fold-fold-paste-paste (why am I talking this way all of a sudden?) The time passed quite quickly as we chatted. Then we went up to see if the computers at the Education room were open so we could type the lists for the carpo collection, sigh, but it was closed. So we went to paste the labels on the specimens again. I don't why, but somehow the specimens really smell like stinky dried tea leaves. And though I was still down with flu (for a whole week now!!) and constantly sniffing I could still smell it. When we were done, we went back to the 'origami session'. We were sort of slacking, haha, ;O. After lunch,we started to work on the carpo collection, putting the fruit specimens into those glass IKEA bottles. it was fun! We had kind of a tough time squeezing in some specimens though cos they were in a awkward positionand we just couldn't find the right size! And I, being so chor lok (rough) I tore a few leaves cos they were so brittle, all the water has been taken out of them so they wouldn't rot, and broke some seeds. Sigh! Hope the Hassan woudn't notice. We managed to finish them. Oh, we would pour some nice blue silicon gel in too. Thye looked really nice with the specimens, like blue sand, haha, I thought they were sand at first. Bet some pple will think likewise at first too! I'm not the only one ok! Yup, that ended our day with Shandy doing a little bit of the typing cos Juriah's computer was already set up.
After work, i took a trip down to Borders. Wow! It was huge and had like sooo many things! I couln't resist...so I bought this cute pnk shoes mechanical pencil at $4.oo. wanted to but a pen cos the design was nicer, but I was thinking the after a while the ink would run out, and there wasn't any refill, not worth it so I bought a pencil. iot's so nice. yay! Now I've got a new addition to my pencil cas. welcome, pink shoes pencil!! hee. I'm being silly.
changeme.
3:08 AM
Friday, June 09, 2006
Yup yup yup!!I'm attached to the Singapore Herbarium for 2 whole weeks! :) Here's a little journal of these four days so far. Enjoy!
Day 1 05/06/06 Monday
It's our first day there, And guess what? We got lost. We entered from the Minden Gate then asked directions from the park ranger, it was all the way at the other end of the park!! Anyway, if not for Shandy, I wouldn't have pushed open the large green metal construction gate and found out that the old herbarium was there. Phew! We were only, yes only about 10 minutes late. There ppl there were really kind and understanding about it. Our first task was to paste labels onto the specimens. The lables contained their scietific names and familt and a short description of the plant. It was really interesting to read them. The specimens were really nice to look at too! They were collected from everywhere; around botanical gardens and even from Perth, Australia! Cool huh? The working atmosphere was really relaxed and the pple there were very friendly as well. We took a long walk along the Red Brick Path to have lunch at Food Haven before passing through the rain forest to reach the new Herbarium. The New place is much much much nicer and cleaner than the old one. the specimens are put in these huge shelves that can move when you turn the wheel. We worked at this huge wooden table ( that is regarded as an antique) is this 'secluded' corner in the General Collection area.
Day 2 06/06/06 Tuesday
We learnt to classify the different specimens into groups such as shrubs, herbaceous platns, climbers and creepers e.t.c. And learnt quite a bit from looking through the short notes attached to the specimens. We then had to make colourful lable for the folders that were to contain the specimens. The folders were to be shown to the public when the Public Reference Library opens in July. we had fun cutting, pasting , laminating and even trying to save the laminating pockets! haha. :D
Day 3 07/06/06 Wednesday
We got to visit the National Orchid Garden today adn had a really great time there!! big smiles* :) We got to see many different kinds if orchids, and some really colourful ones, There were even some VIP orchids that were named after celebrities and lings and queens! These orchids were really 'powerful'; there was this sign that says that these VIP orchids were used to strethen ties between countries and all that. When I read that I was like "Woah!" We even wen to the Cool House and had a little spicnic with the packed lunches we brought in the pavillion. haha. It was a really nice lunch. Then, back at the new Herbarium, we stared to pack the the carpo collection ( glass bottles of dried fruit specimens ) into the huge wooed cupboards. it was rather tiring and needed a lot of effort but we managed to pack 'em all!
Day 4 8/06/06 Thursday
Jun (she's our 19-yr-old colleague) didn't come today as she had to attend smth in the sfternoon that's why we were left alone. We had to write down th specis and family name of the carpo collection, grouped according to their sizes. The task was okay, the difficult part was arranging them according to alphabetical order adn shifting then out of the cupboard and back again. We had lunch with the other ppl there. Ohoh, ya know there's this old man Samsuri, we call him Sma. He's got this really reallt fantastic memory. Shandy adn I were having out Lunch Part 2, she was eating an apple and I was having my pear, Sam was like telling us the Scietific specis and family name. It was rolled off his tongue like a machine gun. And, I'm not kidding at all!! Woah! He was really good. He even told us that when he sees a plant from afar he can already tell what izzit and all that. Cool old man! :) After finishing the carpo collection we had nothing to do, so we sort of lazed around a bit. Hee. ;) Then after that we diecided to see if the ladies need help so we helped them unscrew that screws and dismantle the metal racks. The cleaner uncle helped us and he was really efficient and all. But, I hurt my toes when the metal bar fell onto my feet. Aiya, I reacted too slowly that's why. but it doesn't hurt so much anymore now. Hassan, he's our second supervisor is leaving tmr, he's going to Germany for vaction, I think. Bo hoo, we cant see this fun man anymore. haha. But it was really fun working with him!
changeme.
12:36 PM
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Was set out to make this week the best week of my life...but my oh my, what a twist of events did I have. Ok, it did start out great. My Grade 6 ballet exam went unexpectedly smoothly cos God was watching over me; not that for the rest of the week He didn't. I wasn't coping well with the weather changes I guess, with all the sunny-rainy weather. A really terribel headache struck me on Monday during the prefects' camp. I had actually spent quite a bit of effort and time preparing the games I was charged of, but the throb in my head was sooo bad, I just wanted to go home! I seldom have headaches, so that one really hit me hard in the head. :( So ya, we didn't get to play any games at all, but it was quite a fulfilling day: we did a lot of evaluation and planning ahead. A lot of our sec 3 prefects were falling ill too, and we were like so worried cos we had a 4-day camp on wednesday.
By tuesday, I was running a fever and contemplating with the decision to go or not go for the camp. I went to see a doctor by myself for the first time (woah.) cos my mom was babysitting and wasn't free. Anyway, the doctor wasn't much of a help. She just prescribed some cough misture, cold medicine and lozenges. I haven't recovered at all by Wednesday morning but I was looking forward to this camp for as long as I can remember, I wasn't going to miss it. So I reported to school on Wednesday at 7:30am. My mom let me take a taxi there, considering that I was ill and the weight of all my barang-barang.
I managed to survive through the busride to Raffles Marina, the tent-pitching, the carpark lunch, rafting....and then pulled out of rock-climbing. I was by then, totally unwell to engage in any sort of physical activity. The whole time I was there sitting in the shade, watching my friends climb the wall, I was tossing the idea of going home in my mind. I wanted to kayak...maybe, just maybe I can survive till the 2nd day before I decide to go home. But my condition took a turn for the worse. By dinner time my temperature was a high 39.2 degrees Celcius. Three if my teachers immediately brought me to the air-conditioned room (the billiard room) to cool down. My temperature was way too high. For the next few moments before my dad came by to pick me up, they tried to ways and means to cool me down.
Now, after 2 whole days of resting at home, I'm much better! Yay. :D But I still haven't really gotten over the enormous amount of regret I feel about missing the camp. sigh. But thank God I'm safe and sound at home, imagine what would happen if I continued with those vigorous activities with my fever and all. Thank God for keeping me safe.
changeme.
9:19 AM