It was an eventful day. I played mahjong until about 3.30 am this morning and then woke up around 11.30 am in order to start preparing the food for the BBQ. Unfortunately I couldn't get to sleep until 5 am although I was quite tired.

I woke up to cook lunch for the guys who were coming over to help me with the food. As I was about to start cooking, my friend called and I had to go down to meet him and return him some money. We ended up chatting for a while, mostly about school and honours stuff. He's already settled on a supervisor and had just met with the guy to confirm all the formalities. How lucky! I was really envious that he had this burden lifted off his shoulders while I still had to carry mine.

I went home to cook and feed the guys. After lunch, they helped me put the meat on satay sticks. They also fried the rice and cooked chicken curry even though the curry was actually my job. But I was running a little behind schedule. I had to meet with a potential supervisor at 3.30 pm.

I managed to get down to the lecturer's office 5 minutes early. He was still busy doing some work so his secretary asked me to wait. I sat there and waited for about 10 minutes when he finally came out carrying his briefcase. So I was thinking, "What the hell? Is he running away from me or something?" He couldn't have forgotten about the meeting since I was sitting right there. Anyway he told me that we could walk and talk so I assumed that he was in a hurry to finish this with me and take off. Fortunately this was not the case. Here is roughly what happened:

RB: Let's do this over coffee. I've been rushing up and down all day.
Me: OK sure. (what else was I supposed to say?)

RB: Do you like coffee?
Me: No actually I seldom take it since it makes me feel like vomiting sometimes.

RB: Oh ok....*laughes*

RB: So I see that you are from Temasek.
Me: Yup.

RB: I went there a few years ago.
Me: Oh so do you remember any of the lecturers whom you met while you were there? (trying to make small talk)

RB: Erm....(couldn't think of a name)

...meanwhile I had no idea where he wanted to go since there were so many places in the school where you could get coffee...

...suddenly his handphone rings and he spends the next few minutes chatting to the other person. I still didn't know where we were headed and since he slowed down (as most people usually do), I had to slow down too. So we ended up "slow marching" to whereever he wanted to go...

...finally he gets off the phone and leads me to Wordsmiths, the cafe at the main bookshop. We meet up with one of his Masters students there and they talked about casual stuff and a little about their projects. I was not included in this conversation at all although I was introduced to the lady in the beginning and I shook her hand very professionally. The rest of the time I spent smiling and laughing...

...we got into the bookshop to sit down and he gets cups of water for the both of us. I asked him why he wasn't getting coffee but he said, "Not this time". Maybe he was paiseh after I told him about coffee and me??? Here's a summary of what we talked about for the next 30 minutes...

RB: So your grades from last sem are pretty good. You also had 32 credits coming into UQ so your poly results should have been quite good too. I currently had these students under me...goes on to list the students' names, their status (ie. phd or masters or honours) and their projects; he had about 8 students under him at the moment...

RB: I think XXX is handling her project on Flavivirus diagnostics quite well. However YYY might need some help on his Influenza A diagnostics...tells me about the Influenza A projects and I impress him by correctly naming the 2 different subtypes of this virus as well as the number of subtypes in each category. However, I did a small write-up in one of my courses this semester which gave me this knowledge and I explained this to him very modestly. He still looked quite amazed that I knew this stuff anyway but honesty goes a long way, haha...

RB: I think I have about 3 projects that you can do on Influenza A...explains explains explains...

RB: Hmm...I am very tempted to accept you based on these results but I do have to look at this semester's results. However the results will not be out until the first week of December. But you do seem to be very interested in this project. Hmm....ponders and ponders and meanwhile I am feeling so anxious because he can't make up his mind on whether he will take me or not...

RB: Have you worked in any labs before?
Me: Yes. I was on a 5-month attachment during poly and I worked in the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory.

RB: Oh? Yes I have been there on a tour before. There is this lady who is in charge of TLL.
Me: Oh is it an Indian lady?

RB: Yes I think it was and there was also another Chinese lady in charge as well. They have very nice labs there. What sort of work did you do there?
Me: Well I can't remember about the Chinese lady. I was attached to a plant lab, working on Arabidopsis.

RB: What sort of techniques did you use?
Me: Oh PCR, Northern...(thinking hard about what I had learnt and what I can say to impress him)

RB: ...interrupts my thoughts...How was your Northern results?
Me: ...a little lost...oh they were alright, a little dirty though.

RB: How good was the RNA extraction and yield?
Me: Oh err...I don't really know because I didn't have time to do that. You could see the spots though they were a little faint.

RB: I see. Because Influenza A is and RNA virus.
Me: *smile* (no wonder he was asking me about all this, finally I see the relation)

RB: Well I really cannot decide based on these alone. Although you did get 32 credits which means you must have done pretty well in poly and I was the one to access this. I just can't remember your case. Hmm....(well of course you can't remember since it was like a year ago)
Me: Yeah I understand that it's quite hard to make a decision based on just 1 semester's results. Would it help if I gave you my poly results? (trying to be nice and understanding when I am already bursting with the agony of his indecisiveness)

RB: Yes that would be good. Pass AAA your results tomorrow and I'll go over them. I'll try to give you an answer as soon as possible. Do you need this honours booklet?
Me: OK I'll zap a copy and drop it at AAA's. I don't need it, I already had it but I lent it to my friend.

RB: Oh so you have already gone over and know all these details. That's good. It shows that you have initiative which is why I am so inclined to take you.
Me: *laughes* (then why can't you just make up your mind quick?)

...we both leave the place and I feel happy because he kept praising me and giving me high hopes but at the same time, I wish he could give me a definite answer because all this indecision is torturing me...