I attended the 1st lab session for the Yr 2 Chemistry lab module yesterday morning.

I woke up late and ended up rushing to lab without taking breakfast. Lab session was held at the new CBC building and each of us were assigned to an individual fume cupboard for individual experiment.

Having lost touch with lab expt for near to 4 months, I was totally blur and did not know what to do for a start. It was only slowly and eventually that I picked up pace and started the experiment. There were 5 different experiment such that the person beside me is doing a different one from me. So it's very difficult for us to discuss about the steps to take. My experiment was to synthsize the compound, paracetamol.

Lab session was from 9.30am to 3.30pm. We were allowed to take small breaks whenever required so it's sort of own time own target within that 6 hours. However, everytime a grp of friends asked me along for lunch, I'd be busily correcting some mistakes and in the end, I actually survived without food till after 3.30pm. I was amazed by myself for being able to do so without fainting spells! LOL.

I'm not sure whether photo-taking is allowed in the lab, but yea..

Just a peek into the scene at the lab...

Went back to hall for a power nap at around 5pm plus as my body battery was really dying. Got to realise only later that I was actually down with fever. I skipped dinner but fortunately, my hall mates are nice enough to buy me sandwich to fill my stomach before I went for NIE band practice.

It was the 1st time attending the band session there and I felt really nervous due to the unfamiliarity. There were many other flute players, YET I was the only flautist taking the band module as an elective. All others are regulars, meaning graduates, JC/poly players and even professor who is currently conductor for school bands. Naturally, I felt even more nervous and worried.

During the combined band session, we played 5 out of the 10 repertoire pieces and unfortunately, it was my very first time hearing and playing all of them. I was totally lost and couldnt catch up. There were lots of running notes and most were fast pieces. I could say that almost 80% of the time I was just faking through. I'm so sure the baritone player beside me could see me through! So embarrassing!

After the practice, Prof Ho asked whether all the students taking it as our general elective whether we are positive about our choice and I guess I've already got an answer. Although it's tough, but I just feel like playing in the band again. I voiced out my concern to Prof Ho, that I felt very stressed about being unfamiliar with all the pieces, but being the kind of nice old man, he consoled me not to worry as the other flautists have already played those pieces many times before tt's why they're familiar with it, and said that I just needed more practice.

I'll definitely be practising hard for the assessment at the end of the year, but pray hard that I won't be given a lousy grade which will drag my GPA down... =S

Anyway, we've updated the blog for our Hall 8 Dinner & Dance'08 Pageant activities. Do take a look if you're interested to find out who the contestants are: http://www.hall8dnd0708.blogspot.com/

I'm now back at home le..

Gonna have a proper dinner now! Mum's cooking! =D