Block 6 Family Photo :)

Miss our Block 6 family loads. We're missing Archi Boy & Archi girl here. :P

Things That Happened in December

Note: View available pics in my Facebook profile. (Not a complete set.)

Swee Yee's birthday celebration

It was a bomb of a birthday celebration with sparklers and surprises. Too bad all my pictures were blurred because of all the smoke we created. Birthday girl was very overwhelmed.

Tangled movie date.

A must-watch. Free tickets thanks to Jon's MNO award :p Funny and sweet enough for a Disney movie, but I have this feeling that it could have gone further. Watched with Boss & Wing Mei too.

Farewell lunch with my supervisor

Was treated for lunch at Jurong Point. Super nice! Also learned not to take anything at all for granted. Every chance you get might be one deprived from someone else when resources are scarce, and it doesn't mean that you're more deserving of it all the time. Be grateful, and make the most of each opportunity, for yourself, and for every person the opportunity was denied of.

Mind Cafe birthday celebrations

Went to celebrate Alex & Piang's birthdays. Free games for girls because it was ladies' nights. Had fun especially when viewing everyone's expressive artwork during Pictionary. Loved to see Alex, Li Wei, Phea and Shu Lin again.

Pill inspection

One of my current projects at work. It's actually sai-kang work, but the people made it so fun. Love the lab chemists in the lab I did this, because they were so inclusive. Played table soccer with them. I'm bad at it, but it was a good bonding session. More people I will miss in SP!

A New Identity

I thought I was going to leave SP soon, but SP left sooner than I did.

This morning when I was taking the internal shuttle bus to Merck (or MSD South), I saw the SP logo and name at the entrance of the Biotech Facility being taken down. The one on Tablet was still intact. On the way back, I noticed that the API Facility which I worked in already had the Merck logo up with its new address at the grand entrance.

SP had officially become part of Merck (in business terms) yesterday. Hence, the entrance logo changes and the address change.

I don't know why but I felt a bit sad when I saw the logos being taken down. SP may not be the best of the best pharmaceutical organizations out there, but it had a wonderful legacy, and it had made its distinct mark and contributions in the industry. On the internet, it had very good reviews from its employees too. Most people who worked there loved its culture. And they gave suggestions for improvement, but ended their comments saying that there's no point for suggestions since there was already new ownership of the organization.

So officially starting from this month, SP is no more. There is only Merck International GmBH. It would be hard to wipe out SP entirely from the buildings though. I looked at the door puller of the DPI entrance and saw that the handles were elegantly shaped 'S and P'. I wonder how they are taking that out. I saw our walls are still colored yellow and red. The corridors and office layout were very much different from that of MSD yet. The people are kind of in between - some using the new green MSD lanyards, while others still keeping their red ones. Everyone works extra hard due to staff shortage for the new combined company, but I still hear the terms 'we', and 'us', versus 'they' and 'them', on and off. There is still much cultural and artifact harmonizing to be done.

In a business module I did last semester, Prof. Kai did mention that people need time to grieve when there is change, and we must give them that time. I'm not sure whether people or they just take merger in their stride as this flux is getting common at this day and age; panicking only when it affects their interests. But having worked half a year in SP, I do feel a lot for its legacy, although I like the Merck legacy as well. Hopefully these two organizations would progress to greater heights after they wed, for the welfare of its stakeholders and the development of the local and international pharmaceutical industry.

Last Day of November 2010

I know these blog titles are pretty pointless, but I'm not feeling creative at the moment.

And oh! I simply have to blog about this! I have the awesomemest supervisor! (And by the way, 'awesomemest' is not a word because words cannot describe how nice she is!) She asked her husband who was in Australia to get me a nice Christmas present! I really appreciated this because firstly, I'm just a temporary intern; secondly, the present is super nice and not mini-sized; and thirdly I'm not even around for Christmas so she needn't have bothered in the first place. But she brought it over to office today and said she wanted to give it to me this week because I won't be seeing much of her for the rest of the week. Argh I will never ever get a Boss as sweet as this again ever. Touched to the max.

And today was quite fun because Mei came over to SP for a plant tour, and we had lunch together! Thanks Mei for enduring SP food with me, hehe. Really enjoyed her companionship throughout the semester, taking exactly the same modules, doing exactly the same research, and complaining and discussing the same stuff. And I found out where the SP clinic is today. At least I know where that is before I leave.

And did I mention I'm already missing SP already? I think I did in my last post. :p I hope one day I will get the chance to go back, and then the people, and the culture won't change. But then I don't think that will happen in near future. There's only one mistake I regret making in this place (and that's apart from all the typos I made in my work). Once, at the first few weeks of my internship, I was walking under the sun from one plant facility back to the one my office was in, and there was this kind and sweet lady in a yellow car who purposefully stopped to pick me up without asking who I am! She was driving from that plant facility to mine. After chit-chatting with her all the way, I went back to seat realizing one thing: I forgot to ask her name! Therefore, I shall henceforth severely remind myself, when talking to someone, especially your colleagues, ask and remember their names. I never forgot this, and I never forgot too the lift that was so kindly extended to me.

I remember someone said since people have to part, why meet (In Chinese). But I'd rather have many meetings and partings than no meetings at all, even though partings can be very sad. This SP experience really made me think a lot - and I make up my mind that every time I meet people, I would take something away, and leave something behind. There are so many lessons we can learn from people, even the worst of them. And there are so many ways we can contribute to their lives too, again, even to the worst among them (and again how much better are we ourselves?). It's not easy to always remember to make a difference. But if we do take the effort to do it, you won't know how much it means to another. Just like that lady who gave me a lift - she might not know but it is going to be one of my fondest memories of SP when I leave.