looks nice when you don't think about e months without potable water (one institute issued a bottle of mineral water to all staff everyday), e water heater that was implicated in some fire, e false ceiling panel that collapsed in a lab, e soap dispensers that fell off e walls (staff recycled empty shampoo & bath foam bottles before e dispensers were finally replaced), e glass panels that shattered [170306 update: 11 so far, & e cat's building has been having more than its fair share *gulp*], e auto-sliding doors that kept getting stuck & trapping everyone in e labs even after their sensor systems were entirely replaced [040406 update: e doors got stuck again, this time leaving a little gap perfect for cats - but not bigger fatter colleagues - to squeeze through =P], e toilets that kept flooding, e aircon system that plunged e labs into 16'C (verified by lab thermometers) winters, e auto-doors that never worked despite endless repairs (one was given handles & reincarnated as a manual push/pull door =P) [170306 update: e remaining 3 auto-doors have had their sensors dug up from beneath e ground & new handles attached, & have joined e first one in its afterlife as a manual push/pull door], e fumehood ventilation systems that frequently go on strike, e power failures that brought e entire place to a standstill, e dI water taps that have e habit of running dry [100306 update: finally fixed, or so it seems], e lift that has plunged several stories a couple of times [100306 update: cat kena once], e stench from e waste disposal centre that wafts through e complex whenever e air is still, e staircase doors that could not be opened (including a card access door that failed during a fire drill), [100306 update: rats spotted scurrying out of their hiding place in one of e buildings in broad daylight], etc =P 500 million to build, how much to rectitfy/replace/repair?
but e landscaping is nice, despite e months & months of stepping over 'fainted trees' (why plant puny saplings in e super windy & stormy NE monsoon season, of all times?) =P with Calliandra & Galphimia & a koi pond & a water feature (that quite a no. slipped & fell into =P) & big fat trees decorated with large ferns - cat like =)) & e yellow saraca makes e cat think of e monkeys it studied for its very first uni project (they loved munching on e fruits & flowers) =P
& although e interior layout has e occupants walking around in circles (or rather, trapeziums), pushing heavy trolleys loaded with dangerous stuff & gas cylinders around blindspots & weird corners, & gives new employees & visitors a hard time finding their way through e maze, e architecture sure looks impressive from afar =)
reincarnated Colbar:
Portsdown Road is nice & quiet with many nice trees & black & white bungalows. never knew e Judo Federation was located there....
Normanton Park - cat like e roof design:
[110206] sometime last month e cat made e silly discovery that it can do 舞花剑 wu3 hua1 jian4 with both paws simultaneously....JL tried it out today & indeed it seems to be a 'byproduct' of learning 双剑 (double sword) =P
CNY dinner @ Clementi Blk 445 kopitiam with some of e SPS regulars: Kuan, shrutik, non-wushu QF, LKY & wife, brain cramps guy & gf, Caixia & soonpei =)) great to meet up! & came home to find a long email from Huge who has disappeared off e radar screen. scary when your juniors talk about how scary it is that their juniors are now seniors....but very gratifying to see how some of e kids who first stepped into e SPS room as newbies starting out on their undergrad life (some still overwhelmed by their first days away from home in a foreign land with a very different pace of life) have now graduated & gone on to postgrad studies, e love for Science still going strong =) doesn't seem so long ago that you were interviewing some of them =P
[120206] so much to do, so little time:
[upper left] set of 10+ VCDs of an entire Japanese TV drama (j-dorama) serial [upper right] Mizoguchi Hajime's Espace II from JEUGIA@Shijo in Kyoto [bottom left] e CD version of e Israel Philharmonic + Zubin Mehta recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (big fat 10-Q to Pig-pig & her fwen for getting it in e US & sending it over to Singapore!!) [bottom right] VCDs of a movie + lemon cheesecake flavour kitkat
[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + labrat ]
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