[Mood: Great] [Mentally: Tired] [Physically: Tired] [State of Mind: True]
I had a great day today. Lolz. Finished class at 1PM, and went to my MLS clubroom. We were having a talk at 3:30PM, but unfortunately, I couldn't go because my supervisor from Japan is transiting in Singapore before going to London, and my group have to entertain him while he is here. But before I left for the airport, I dropped by LT6 to have a look at how the committee was doing.
By 3:40PM, the lecture theatre was almost full. Must be because of the great job done by the publication side. I have to hand it to the committee. They sure know what to do and how. Looks like the future of SPMLS is in good hands.
At 3:45PM, I met up with 2 of my group members at Dover MRT to go to Changi Airport. We reached there approximately an hour later, and before dropping at Burger King to have lunch, we had a look at the Arrivals board. To our horror, the plane our supervisor was on would be landing at 5PM! We checked the SIA website the previous day and it was stated at 5:30PM. No time for complaints, so we had a VERY quick Burger King meal before rushing over to the Arrivals hall. It took him an hour to get out of the plane and into the hall, inclusive of all the checking. Dang, we should have taken our own sweet time with our lunch.
As Yaomin and I were looking towards Belt 31, we saw Sugimoto. And we were stunned when we saw that he brought along a friend. Quick mental calculation, a taxi will NEVER fit the five of us (Daniel, the group leader was there too). Not only that, we were beginning to wonder if the $100 budget will be sufficient for this. We had a short introduction about his friend. He is actually Sugimoto's supervisor, Shinichi Kikuchi.We know that name. He wrote one paper on 'Dynamic modelling of genetic networks using genetic algorithms and S-system'. It was a very comprehensive paper. We had to take 2 taxis to Lau Pa Sat, with Yaomin sitting alone in the other one. Lolz. Tracy and Novia (my two other group members were already on standby at Lau Pa Sat.
The journey took us 15 minutes. When we reached there, we asked Sugi and Kikuchiwhat they wanted to eat. It dawned on us that Kikuchi is married to a Chinese, and both of them didn't want to try out Chinese dishes. So we tried to order most non-Chinese food. My friend ordered some spicy stingray, I asked for satay, laksa and 'Nasi Pattaya'. Daniel got them 'Ice Kachang'. Once the food arrived, Sugi first tasted the stingray. He nodded in appreciation, then reacted in a funny way because the stingray was too spicy for him. Luckily the 'Ice Kachang' was there to cool him down. He then tried the laksa, which was spicy too, and the 'Ice Kachang' as there to the rescue again. "Very useful, this thing..." he said while pointing to the 'Ice Kachang'.They were not too used to spicy food. But they liked the satay. Halfway through the meal, our lecturer, Dr Ng, came and joined us.
Above: Sugimoto's the one holding the cup. The one on his left is Kikuchi.
After the meal, we walked all the way to the Merlion. Sugi and Kikuchi were quite sporty, as they tried a posed where the camera will show in such a way that the Merlion is spruting water into their mouths! They asked me what a Merlion is. So I told them, "Merlion. The 'Lion" is the head, as you can see. The 'Mer', actually stands for 'mermaid' and it is seen at the lower body part." They looked at the Merlion again and they went, "Oh! Wah!" It was fun to see their reaction. Then I had to tell them how Singapore got her name, and I went into the story of Sang Nila Utama, where he saw a lion and named it 'Singapura', meaning 'Lion City'. Sugi then joked what would the island be called had Sang Nila Utama seen a monkey!
Above: View of Merlion at night.
After that, we went walking around Esplanade, before heading towards City Hall MRT to make our way back to Changi Airport. As Sugi, Kikuchi and Dr Ng discussed about bioinformatics, the rest of us had nothing to do, so we took some random shots in the MRT.
Above: From left: Yaomin, Nurazhar (Asst Project Leader), Novia, Tracy, Daniel (Project Leader)
Above: From left: Shinichi Kikuchi, Dr Ng Yan Hong, Masahiro Sugimoto, Daniel
Upon reaching the airport, we saw them off into the departure hall. After that, we claimed our cash from Dr Ng. It seems that we only spent $118 on both our visitors! When Dr Ng took his leave, my group dropped by Burger King for some ice cream and drinks, before heading home via MRT.
I have to say, it has been a great day. Video-conferencing with Sugi will never be the same again. And Team DYNASTY (Daniel, Yan hong, Novia, Azhar, Sugimoto, Tracy, Yaomin) will be looking forward to the completion of our FYP.
Above: Team DYNASTY + Kikuchi
It's gonna be one helluva great semester!