TODAY! was the day of the cancer research presentation. scout day they called it. according to Dr. Tan.. it was.... to... erm... look for potential A*star scholars. but what the freaking heck. i was too nervous just thinking of the stupid presentation to bother with such stuff. so the whole day my hand was just like vibrating... (ok. MAYBE it has sumthing to do with that cup of tea that i drank during... erm... morning tea.)... and yeah.. i was nervous cuz i saw on that sheet of paper that the chairman of astar will be coming.. before my timeslot.. so i thought he will be sitting in on my presentation as well... THANK GOD he left.

but before that.. let me talk about the tea.. when all the judges and the chairman was looking at our wonderful poster done by allister and meiyan. it was quite nervewrecking cuz everything u do is factored into the scoring.. like the presentation of the poster... and the powerpoint. and yah. he was like asking us questions... very... commercial-like ones i must say. basically questions like... what did you learn from this. did you learn anything from the conference? that sorta thing... and i say its commercial-like because.. it freaking obvious that the agency is organising this whole thing to raise interest in research. they said so themselves! so of course we all chipped in and gave him the kind of answer that is... "politically correct" per se. DIDNT seem too convinced though.. so thats why i was even more jittery when it was david and my turn to present the powerpoint... but it had to be done.. like duh. but that part flew by real quick for me cuz all i know is that i was talking... my heart was pounding and i was trying to keep my voice steady. and remember all those PW OP tips... signposting... erm.. audience awareness esp with the judges...and clarity. and that was over... real quick.. and then it was david's turn.. and my hand was vibrating as i clicked the slides for him. but then that blew past real quick.. and it was OVER! allister said he could tell i was nervous.. but it was ok. ok... so i was like.. whatever.. its over. yay. and i tried to stay awake for all the other presentations. i gotta say.... RJ really did a good job. yes. gotta acknowledge that they are good.. but that so doesnt mean that they can be all snotty and conceited about it.

ANYWAY... then we had lunch... the food was NOT GOOD. so i was just nibbling bits and pieces here and there. and the bunch of us just stayed to ourselves.... well.. so was everyone else... so its ok not to mingle with the judges.. cuz they already decided on the winners... and THEN...... it was the prize presentation thing.. and as a surprise.. they annouced that all participanting schools except for the top 3 schools will get 200 bucks. cuz they thought everyone did a great job. and so they were handing out.. big envelope.. for the cert.. and smaller envelopes... the cash i presume. so when its our turn... they all ask me to go get the prize for them.. so i did.. and i only saw.. the big envelope... hmmmmm.... but JUST as i was gonna take the pic with the head of genome institute of singapore...... they annouced that there is a REAL FIRE in the building and we had to evacuate. (the alarm has been going on ever since the prize presentation started) so.. we all scurried out... and saying that THAT was the REAL surprise... suddenly haf fire. and that they pulled out all the stops... to show us what happened when the research building has a fire. and that was enormous fun... i think mrs lam was on her caffeine high.

so we relocated to another building..... and... continued. and then they started to annouce the winners.... then i was like... oooooooooh... we din get the cash.. so we're prob in the top 3! and yes.. we tied with pioneer JC. so we both got the cash prize. extra 90 bucks for me to spend in HK!!! YAY! well.. that was SUPER SUPER unexpected for me at least.. i din expect to get that... but i'm happy... haha.. cuz allister and i were saying from the beginning that its the first comp.. we must win something! and we DID! we were all really happy... SUPER SUPER tired.. but happy. and yah... hwachong got second.. and RJ got first... big surprise there... *rolls eyes* .. but like i said.. they did a good job.. so its expected. oh.. and where is the other 2 jcs from the top 5 jc? erm... they got mentioned. but no prize. (in other words.. we beat.. *ic**ri* jc and na****al jc..) yay!!! good job people!!!!! it was a wonderful job done.... they really made the poster amazing... well... lets have a ego moment and say... the presentation's not half bad either! YAY! hahaha.

so after that.... they had a presentation by 1 of the scientists... was dozing off when he got all technical.. tho i tried so hard to stay awake. yeah.. but after that.. we went for a lab tour... we were practically dragging our feet and shuffling along.. zoned out at all their presentations. stoned there.. even mrs lam! hahaha... so funny... and we went back.. and crashed on the couches.. before they said we can all go.. and then we did... ahhhhhh....

at least we got 3rd place.. its not the first.... or the second.. but its still sumthing...... i think that made me delaying my trip to HK slightly.. just... slightly... VERY slightly.. more worthwhile..... :)