Thanks, But No Thanks / Harry Potter

Had my second last Pharmaceutics lab today. Something must have gone wrong in my brain. I was talking too much with people, barely concentrating on my work, could hardly pipette the (damn) anise oil into the cylindrical measure - thus an hour flew by without my completing a single preparation.

I know it is my fault. I should and could have done better. When I was on my last prep, it was 11.20am. Checkout time was supposed to be 11.30am.
I was thinking: "Hey, just need to get this damn thing filtered!"
But wham! I forgot to get a scheduled ingredient (aka poison) checked by the supervisor. Well, I simply called Supervisor A and he was being -

Let's forget the story. I am beginning to forget the real reason behind this post. Not going to badmouth someone who is potentially going to mark my lab work. And so it happened. I didn't have time to finish the prep and I was fighting back tears when I was told by the supervisor (yeah, the one mentioned above) that I should stop filtering (but the reason I called him was to ask him check the weight of the poison. =.=lll).

I simply poured the solution into the bottle and labelled it - without filtering and knowing fully well that it was under volume. Supervisor B saw what I did but Supervisor C (a stern but nice lady) marked my work instead. She gave me full marks because she didn't check the volume of the mixture in my bottle. Well, can't blame her when the lab was full of growling stomachs and everyone (yes, including lab supervisors) wanted to have lunch.

So, Supervisor B came over (he is the supervisor assigned to my bench) and told me straightaway that he saw what I did. I was like, "Yeah, I am not supposed to have that mark. You can go ahead and give me a zero or something." Honestly, I could not care anymore. I was still fighting back tears and it hurt to say that kind of thing out loud myself.

But I knew that my prep was not great. I do not want high marks for something I don't deserve, okay? You can give me a zero because I deserve it. I don't mind it at all. But Supervisor B, being nice, just took off 10 marks from my prep. And do you think it made me feel better? No. I didn't.

So to sum up, things weren't that great in the lab. Sigh. (Reminders to self: Should not talk to people too much, or look at what other people are doing. Concentrate!)
On the walk back to Vickery House, I was being very black-hearted (is this the right way to express it?). I was miserable, you see. And all I could do at that time was to vent my anger to someone else (in my Inner Mind Theatre, of course) - and that person was AG.

Yup, he was the target. I honestly hated the way he keep coming around borrowing my prep papers to copy, asking me questions about the lab when he always, always finished his preps earlier than me. What the hell is wrong with him? If he could do that well in the lab, he shouldn't keep copying my prep papers!

Okay, on a bright note... I talked to Harry Potter today.

His name is Duncan but unbeknownst to him, we nicknamed him such because he looks just like Harry Potter. Nerdy-looking, skinny frame (but actually a little bit taller than me) and with a surprisingly deep voice, he has been the subject of our adoration for the longest time. MI, in particular, wanted to talk to him so desperately. However, she gave Duncan a bad impression in their very first conversation - all because of AG. MI asked Duncan for his name but AG intercepted, saying that MI probably wouldn't even remember his name. Yeah, what a great way to give a good impression to innocent-looking Duncan right?

Anyway, Duncan is always slow in the lab. He is the Master of Accuracy and Precision. And that is the main problem why he is always slow. He tries to measure every single thing as accurate as possible, when other people (like me) would just go, "Hey, what the heck. As long as I get out of here ASAP. The supervisors aren't even looking anyway." I admire this quality of his. I think he is being very brave by working at his own pace. Even when the supervisors are telling him to stop his work, he continued to do as well as he can. In the future, if I wanted a pharmacist to compound (aka make from scratch) my medicine, I would go to him. Because he tried to do things to the best of his ability. I can be assured that my medicine is a 'pharmaceutically elegant product" (Lab Supervisors 2009).

Well, Black-hearted Missy here (I mean, myself) is sometimes comforted by the fact that there's someone slower than me. Which is really bad, I know. Anyway, thank god for what happened today because I had the opportunity to talk to him. During cleaning up, we are supposed to put used bottles into a crate, which was missing today. So, I saw Duncan at the corner of my eye and thought, "Well, a good way to approach him!" So I went over (he was at another bench, LOL) and asked him about the crate. But he was clueless as well. So I continued to clean up the mess I made in the lab and he cleaned up his mess. Seconds later, he came over and asked for a tissue to wipe his glassware. I said, "Sure," and he took a tissue from my box. Well, that was it. But he approached me for a tissue! Isn't that something?

I hope I don't sound like a bimbo because I am really not interested in him romantically. I think it is great to have an angmoh friend. Haha. Typical Asian mentality: Angmohs are cool. Hopefully I get to introduce myself to him in the next lecture... hhmm...