4th day in indianapolis

it's been a couple of days since my arrival in the states, been really busy sorting out stuff and can't find the time to blog... anyway, without my own pc off office hours, it's also quite a challenge to blog.

Let's start with last friday, where me and johno had our farewell gathering at brewerkz. Initially I made a reservation for 15 folks and was on time at 9pm, as usual everyone else was late and I was too damn pai seh to go sit down alone on tables meant for 15. jk was the first to come down and we did go get the seats (brewerkz called me at 9pm sharp to ask if i was ard) and it was kinda funny to have like just 2 guys occupying an entire row. Anyway, the folks started trickling in one by one, it was nice to see that somehow everyone knew someone else from another group in some here. I was pretty concerned that some of them might feel out of place cos there were some groups that were bigger and some with only 2-3 folks. Managed to catch up with some frds whom i haven't seen for a while too, which I thought was quite neat.

Had quite a few beers that night but was still doing ok. Gotta say a big thank you to kiat for helping me block some of the drinks... He was commenting that that night was machiam my wedding night and he was one of the blockers. Well, I must say he sure help me a bit here and there if there sure gone at brewerkz liao. We went down to Forbidden City after that and that's where the madness began. The chaps ordered a waterfalls and flaming lamborghini for me and johno and we down them one after another. I was ok for 10 minutes after which was totally conked out and was like puking all over the shop.... haha I'm still in the midst of getting the pictures and will put them up once I get them. Anyway, it surprises me that johno was totally sober after all that beer and cocktails, it's especially surprising after seeing him being knocked out after zouk the previous wednesday. At least I didn't wake up with too bad a hangover and managed to finish packing my stuff and had a decent meal with my family. Was pretty sad at having to leave me grandparents and the rest but this is wat I had to do for my career. 18 mths will pass by pretty quickly I'm sure. :)

The next day (19th Sept, Sunday) was spent flying to indy, I'm surprised I came out of it alive, the 20+ hours flight was no joke man. When I came to work on monday, my knees felt quite stiff. I sure am glad I don't have to fly to the states for work every now and then, the flight here is really insane not to mention the jet lag(which is still affecting me till today). Most of the way here was rater unevenful, I was pretty excited that I'd be finally reaching indy after the long flight and managed to pick out the nascar track from the air. One of our colleagues picked us up from the airport and we made our own way to the hotel. We wasted no time in exploring downtown indy after checking in. Unfortuntely, as per what our coleagues haf said, indy IS a bloody boring place. At the heart of downtown at 7pm on a sunday niht, it looks like a ghost town with few folks on the streets. We tried to walk around abit but most of the malls were closed only some restaurants were open. We headed back to hotel not too long after and began our daily ritual of sleeping before 10 am for the next few nights!! I can't remember the last time I did that but well at least I'm getting the rest that my body deserves until in sg where I usually sllep 6-7 hours a day.

will try and do more updates, gotta knock off liao... pics will also be up soon...

Only one word to describe my state of mind now, WhIrLwInD.... It's like not too long ago when I was offered this position by LNUS and in 4 days time I'll be off in the states. The craziest thing is I haven't packed my luggage yet! haha, it's one of the last second things that I always do all my life. The last 2 weeks were spent mainly catching up with friends and I will set aside the next couple of days mainly for my family and to finish up my packing.

Having mixed feelings now, really sad that I have to leave my beloved grandparents and it is obvious that they don't want to see me go. I have been trying very hard to reassure them the last few weeks that I'll take good care of myself and will call back often. I only hope that they will be healthy and not worry too much about me while I am away. Having to leave all my pals here is also kinda sad, but I know this is just about the last chance for me to take lower pay and go out and pia, any later and I probably won't take up such an offer. On the other hand, whenever I think of the things I could do there like pick up skydiving(finally!), snow boarding, climbing again plus all the travelling that I can do makes me really excited. It helps that I've got a travelling companion, I'm only keeping my fingers crossed that we dun get on each others nerves.

Come friday night, me and johno will be having our farewell gathering. Hope it'll be fun....

Last 2 weeks in Singapore

Finally reported to lilly today, I can basically start counting down to the day I leave Singapore. To be precise there's like 13 days plus a few hours before I leave for the states and will be there for 18 months. Anyway, I was told that my supervisor was this lady call Park SM and apparently she's was described as a PAL by my colleague, i.e, pretty aggressive lady. :S Hope everything will turn out fine..... I'll be specializing in endocrinology over there, the main focus will be on diabetes and new treatments for it. It's pretty exciting to be in a real pharmaceutical company and be involved in the actual development the drugs. Just imagine the day when one of the drugs you're working on being marketed and that it is deemed a breakhrough in terms of response and little side effects, think that'll be the day. : ) Just a quick fact, from the drawing board to a drug being actually being shown to be safe and efficacious, it takes about 15 years and a whooping US$897 million buckaroos by today's standards!

Was taken on a tour of the LNUS center and I was pretty impressed by the fact that the center was pretty much self contained enough to do P1 trials all in one floor. I thought the way things were done looked quite professional and most of the folks were quite friendly. Hope things stays like this in indy. The most weird encounter of the day was that my teammates tried to push me to be the team captain for this friday's sports day! Geeze, today is like my first day and I kenna such a big arrow, I was like #$*(@*(#$. Luckily, they changed their minds later, possibly cos I don't even know all their names, so how the hell am I supposed to lead them? Finally, I hope to get my camera this weekend and can start to put up some pics real soon.

Took the motorbike test today and failed miserably, got 54 points, thrice what is allowed for a pass! Maybe the test was doomed right from the start, we were split into 10 groups of 9 and the testers came by to verify our ids, after ALL the other group got their id checked, the tester in charge of my detail finally came by after waiting for a while. I have to admit at that moment I told myself 'Hey screw it, this is NOT a sign of bad luck".....
Now all of us were assigned a bike and you have no choice whatsoever over it. I happened to get a new bike and thought 'sui liao, hehe maybe today's gonna pass one time.' 10 minutes later, when the tester waved to me to signify the start of the test, guess wat, the bloody machine stalled. I quickly recovered and moved off, but the stalling was not the only one of the day. In total, I think I stalled almost 10 times or more during the test. The problem with the bike was that the clutch was pretty sensitive, let go a little and the bike moves. It handled very differently from the old bikes which I was used to and I must admit I wasn't ready for it. Anyway, after the test ended, I told one of the intructors about it. He tested my bike and admitted that yes the bike was more sensitive as usual but I could have told them about it and they could adjust it. Like how was I supposed to know when I didn't have a chance to ride it beforehand. Anyway, it's just a little stroke of bad luck, at least I'm still alive to take another test. I'd probably just do it in the states instead....

Been hit by the lazy bug, after handing up my thesis I've been super nua. Weekends are spent perpetually kooning except for the usual chilling out at nights. I think I really should be spending more time prepping for the big trip, it's only 17 days away!! Haven't been updating the blog also, the plan now is to be more active when I'm away and sorta change this into a photo blog cos I'm lazy to type stories regularly. Actually, there's always things popping into my head but it's hard to 'write' things down. It feels kinda like writing GP essays, very hard to get started but it's usually ok for me once I get into it. Hopefully the next update won't be too long away... In the meantime, check out vs.jonaize.com if you were once a victorian and stumpled here somehow.