Weird Wednesday

Yes, it was a weird wednesday today. And this is gonna be a long one.

For a start, it was another round of spring cleaning in the morning. This time in another of our lab rooms meant for the research students. But this time, there is a renovation due tmr so every farking single piece of movable item in the room has to be temporary shifted to the adjacent one. Includes every set of workstation, cables, wires, metal cabinets, books and bookshelves and furniture. Oh, did I mention that there were only 2 of us guys left to move the heavy stuff? Almost everything can be considered heavy stuff. First there were a few unused workstations, so those were to be stored in another room. And then those which were in use by students are shifted to the temporary student's lab. Next were the furniture... and I managed to find the only wastebasket to which one of the students (who soon came to help with the moving) exclaimed,"Oh! We finally have a bin in the room! But we're moving out already.." Nevermind dear, you'll get to use it when the room is all fixed up nice and new.

At this point, the admin manager (the other guy in the moving team) had to show a guest prof around, so I can't move the metal cabinets until he got back. I gone to pack up the files and such while waiting... dumped away a thick pile of old notes and magazines. Found a few interesting artifacts (which were also slated for disposal) and decided to bring them home check if they are of working condition. So the rest of the heavy stuff finally got moved when the admin manager got back... and that was around noon when we finally got all the things done.

Had instant noodles for lunch. And finally got back to proper work... while chatting on MSN at the same time. (Hey! I was still working as I chat! Juz a little slower at work that's all) Added a few friends I gotten to know during the wedding to my MSN list. The funny thing was that one of the guys is working in the new lab that had moved into my research centre. Basically we are juz diagonally situated across each other in different rooms. Lolz... talk abt small worlds.

Had a short briefing in the evening for the upcoming trip. Finally ironed out some inconsistencies in the schedule for the visits to the camps. My fren and I got the feeling that the coordinator was trying to push the blame onto us for the mix up.

Wait... you were suppose to be the coordinator to help us plan the trip. You had no objections when we gave u the key dates of the trip, we worked within those dates and did no changes. YOU did not update us when there were amendments, and when there was a mix up, you simply push the blame to us without asking us on our end. True that we booked our tix ourselves coz YOU wanted to leave it to us to do our own itinerary for the days after the visit.

Well, whatever... One of my friends said to me (when I was telling her abt the messy arrangements) that even if it's a false accusation, we dun have to worry since we aren't guilty of any crimes committed. Afterall, there are always black sheeps in every organisation. How true. In any case, since this voluntary work is done in the name of God, He'll know about the truth behind it all.

Last 2 weird encounters to end the day. Went to have a quick dinner b4 the briefing... so wanting something fast and simple, I had the chicken rice at the food centre nearby. There wasn't a queue, so I reckon the lady would be able to whip up my meal fast. But I was wrong. Being a Hainanese Boneless Chicken rice stall, the lady took pains to intricately remove all the bones from the meat. Presentation was zilch... the meat was simply stacked onto the rice. But that was not my concern. I just want my food! She finally brought the food over. And whoa! was the chicken soup oily. i noticed that the rice was not plain but was yellow (ala brayani style). Then she mubled something about the soup being good and all, to which I juz nodded. (I just want my food!) She came back with the change and a laminated piece of newspaper article. And she proceeded to tell me that the sop had no preservatives and MSG and all freshly and lovingly boiled from chicken bones and herbs. Prevents cancer, etc etc... But the amt of oil in the soup from the chicken.... I wonder wat else would one contract if not cancer. And then there was, too, the reason to why the rice she made had the yellow ginger in it. Again for health and anti cancer purposes. Well, the rice was nice... juz that the soup was way too oily. She was glad I enjoyed my dinner (coz I was hungry and I just wanted my food!) and ask me to patronise her stall the next time I m there. She even has other kinds of soup available in the menu. Hmm.. i wonder...

The final weird encounter was the one with the taxi driver who drove me home. He asked about the youth group which we went (since he picked us up in front of the church) and juz some distance b4 my stop, he said he goes to this 'church' in expo (I wonder which one is that... ) and always very happy to sing when he was there. And this is when, while returning me my change for the ride, he belted out a few (well, actually 2) chinese oldies in 7 different octaves from tenor to soprano. "Good eh? Good eh?" he kept asking while I was trying to alight from his cab.

Well... I.... suppose so. But I just wanna head home and rest. And to cool myself down from the briefing which seemed to have invisible fingers pointing at us for the problems. Anyway, I managed to get myself out of the cab b4 the driver got carried away with his singing. But I guess he's being friendly. But I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to be in.

Good eh?