Day 29: Great Day, Today

Good News 1
“I just want to congratulate you on your successful PCR. First try and you have such nice bands. What are the odds?”
- PCM Clone (Mangus) at SLU, 2006

What are the odds, indeed. The last time I did a PCR was eons ago, and the first time I tried it, I didn’t even get any products. I was kind of worried yesterday that my first PCR would fail, and ‘lose face’, especially since they explicitly asked if I did these things before. Yah. I did. But that was a long time ago. I graduated to work on simpler things like on synthetic oligos.

I was so eager to start on the molecular work that I dug up the old PCR protocol that I had saved somewhere within the dark depths of my hard disk. Good thing I did that too. They didn’t even show me the recipe. Goodness. So many reagents, and of different concentrations, do you expect me to remember the ratios I should use for each of them? After such a long break? It would be embarrassing to ask for their protocol. Luckily I had the foresight to find mine. Heng sia. And it worked! Woohoo!

Phew! I still have my ‘face’ intact.

But I have to admit that it’s not all because of me. I do believe that the primer sets they designed were excellent. That’s why it was so easy to achieve positive results. So humble, I am.

Good News 2
Remember how I complained about my rosary breaking? Well, one of the persons I asked if she knows where I can buy one was Jana.

Guess what. She gave me one this evening. Handmade.

“When someone wants to pray, especially Rosary :) there should be done everything to help him :)”
- Jana from the Czech Republic, 2006

Don’t mind the grammar. English is not her first language, okay. She even took a 3 month stint in England to brush up on her English one year ago. That’s how eager she is to learn the language. She’s going to be such a great teacher for her primary school students in future.

The Rosary was made of coarse rope, aluminium foil and pieces of stick. And you can say it’s not very well made.

But it’s the thought that counts.

Cliché as it may seem. But this is the first time in my life that I truly felt this in my heart. I said the phrase to countless of people, and to myself whenever I receive something I don’t like or need. But not once did I ever really feel that way. This is the very first time I truly felt happy receiving a gift like this. It’s not the cost; it’s not how beautiful it looks. But it’s the thought behind it. She actually took the trouble to make one.

I’ll appreciate this all my life. Really. I love my new Rosary.

My new Rosary, its box, and the note.

On the back of the box, it says “Some things are different than they seem. :)”.

So this has been a great day! Here’s to more days like this. Cheers!