another eventful week!

Day after day, there are gatherings and dinner meetings with friends. (: I am loving a lifestyle like this, which is attributed to me still not having much to do at work. THAT WAS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, how about me not having any work at all being assigned to me? Yes, that is the correct description of my state at work. Joanqiqi doesn't like it when she gets to slack too much when she is supposed to be getting the most out of her internship. It shouldn't and must not work this way. She doesn't feel good that she is not doing anything and getting paid, she doesn't feel good when she there is no sense of satisfaction out of what she is doing. She is one who needs to be constantly doing things to show herself and others that she is useful to the society, and her actions are being appreciated. In other words, she (wants to) feel(s) egoistic at times, and loves to challenge the impossible.

Acting busy everyday has came to a halt, it became trying hard to keep myself occupied with something to do for as long as it takes. Meaning, I would decide on what I want to do for the day, for example, labeling of the files, then, I would double and triple check things, make sure that the alignments, font size, logo size, label size, and every other minor details is perfect before I print it out. Even the task of cutting up the pieces of labels was done so meticulously, that it takes me forever to cut out one single label. Effort was also put into making sure that all the clear folders in the files are intact. As reinforcement rings were not available, I would do it the manual way, paste scrotch tape (the 3M brand, made in USA one) over those torn and tattered holes, punch them manually, and file them back into the files. Some of those documents must have aged over the years as they turned yellow and has a stench of "antique"? Hence, that manual reinforcement rings task would take forever to mend up every single aged documents. As you have guessed it, I am just trying to stall time. Doing things to full perfection, which brings along one dis/advantage, me living up to my old name of a perfectionist - a name which has departed from me for years..

Despite all that delaying, I finished all that by late afternoon. Thinking that I have two hours more, I decided to slowly make my way to the filing room with TWO files sandwich between my arms and elbows. I meant slowly, I tried to take my own sweet time to stroll across the lab, get the key from the keybox, stroll out of the lab to the room, open the dehumidified filing room, arrange the files a little though they have all been alphabetized, and numberized by ME last week. Gosh! I can't even stand my own walking pace! I don't walk particularly fast, but I can't stand slow walkers (reminds me of CupWalkers! YUMS! sorry irrelevant!) I hate to waste time getting from one place to another, I hate travelling slowly, I hate waiting, that explains why I am a fan of SBS iris. Afterwhich, I start to feel the dryness and the heat in the filing room becomes unbearable, I made my way out of the room, and get TWO more files and the cycle repeats itself. There were about 2 rounds of 6 to 8 files. Whatever, call me inefficient, which I think might be infecting my brain cells and making them think that this is the way to go! No way man! I told myself to be more efficient starting from the next day, as I do not wish to continue living in a world of inefficiency.

That was the story of yesterday workload and inefficiency. Today, I woke up telling myself that I need to brace myself up and gain something more valuable than purely labeling of files. So I went into lab, started staring at all the protocols and trying to combine all the knowledge that I gained from my endless trainings and figured out how to write a protocol myself. I did a few pages of my own protocol (they are just notes/methods you should follow in layman terms, but I wanted to sound professional) on how to write a protocol. Am I cool or what? I feel so proud of myself, I analyzed the various protocols, looking up various Quality Standards, tried to figure out how the calculations are done, got my brain thinking hard as a list of questions are being generated onto my protocol. I felt so proud of myself the whole of today, I learnt so much more. Rather than sitting there and complaining of having nothing to do, and randomly surfing around, at the same time being afraid of getting caught, I should have taken the initiative to learn on my own. I know that this protocol that I am doing for myself would be useful in future, even as I am typing this out, I thinking about my protocol, and how I should continue improving it tomorrow. I will try and explore around more to find those answers to my questions. Maybe when my supervisor is free, I can bombard her with that list of questions. As for tomorrow I will continue with my protocol. I will begin with the evaluation of calculations and try out some calculations on my own, making sure that I am capable of performing them. This part is tricky, I tried it once before, but I failed. Tomorrow, I am going to make sure that I get it done, if not I am not going to go home! joking!

Are you readers thinking that joanqiqi is such a sensible and hardworking intern? Just a little secret to divulge here so that I don't appear that angelic to all of you. I am not that hardworking at all times. There are times (quite a lot) when I am just too bored to continue reading my protocols. These are the times when I start emailing friends (thank you to these friends!) with my NUS email, messaging from my phone gets too obvious, so emailing is a better choice. Furthermore, the only email that I can access is the NUS email. (rahhs!! ) which in fact is a good choice as emailing from the NUS email makes it less suspicious that I am in truth "enjoying myself". It serves as a façade as though I have some important school stuff to settle. However, the ploy exposes itself soon after, as I am well known for the overuse of emoticons. Seeing all the symbols/smileys floating all over the email messages, you are bound to decipher that façade, and understand that my emails are not for formal school/studies purposes. Sadly.

That best friend has been telling me that he is busy at work, and I have been replying that I hope I can be as busy as your are. I am gonna tell myself "Be careful what you wish for". I liked that song (:

certain someone seems not that bad after all, stop passing judgments so soon, I am not so sure if the bad has turned good though.

it has been three weeks

three weeks, out of the 24 that I am supposed to accomplish. Merely 1/8 of the total. Ask me if I am passionate and excited about the internship, Yes, I could bravely admit that I WAS. That is not the end of the story, because I believe I WILL.

I am glad that I chose to get out of my comfort zone at times, I chose to take the initiative to do things, I chose to interact and take the social route. After three weeks of "work", I finally see the direction I want to head towards, values that I want to gain out of this internship. Today, people start looking for me, in fact too many people were looking for me; some were good news others bad. Nevertheless its still good news to make my presence known.
joanqiqi gives herself a *pat* on her shoulders. (: smile like you mean it, sincerely.

There were some problems/ situations faced at work. Things that irritates me, not that much of irritation, just a bit upset by the way things go. Alrights, at least I have people whom I message straight away to talk to them about my problems. Thanks baby and best friend!

Looking backward, I think it might be the circle of life at work, I have lent a helping hand to two aunties, and one watermelon army guy today. Maybe that's why things are starting to perk up a little. (:

My beloved Enfant left for Laos, hope those reflective glands in brain work themselves out, I am looking forward to an interesting narrative. And me being an obedient friend is doing what she has instructed, DON'T MISS HER! :D no worries, I am not missing you a bit at all.

Baby, is sick. ): He looks tired just now. ): hopes he get well soon!

My supervisor is sick too. The colleague sitting behind me is sick too. Xuejiao seems to be falling sick too. My brother too! Please flu bug, go away and never come back. I hate you, I am gonna develop some new drug to kill you!

the story behind that little tablet you pop into your mouth (:

After one week of work at a Pharmaceutical Company, it sets me thinking about how serious and meticulous one needs to be when working in a Pharmaceutical industry. Quality departmentshas to conduct checks very carefully to ensure the safety of our customers taking the drugs. Every little step is not to be belittled. Checks are so thoroughly done that every single ingredient, be it the raw materials to synthesise the active pharmaceutical ingredient(API), the crude API, the purified API, the API present in the final drug form, the excipients (other ingredients that make up the drug besides the API itself), all these have to undergo various stages of testing. Failure in any one stage, depending on the magnitude of deviation, would trigger investigations and reports to account for the failure. Double checkings, with initials and dates are required for each and every step, such that no errors are tolerated. They even have special manuals and protocols to follow when washing/using/storing the apparatus. All the procedures they have to go through, and all those mentioned above constitutes only a small portion of the quality control department.

What about the manufacturing plant itself? Where conditions are even stricter as the drugs produced are to be released into the market for sale. Even the storerooms that issues safety equipments to employees are not spared, every single piece of information needs to be documented and accounted for. This is part of Good Manufacturing Process and Good Documentation Practice. This is the power of logbooks, logsheets, and MPS (Merck's Production System, something like the famous Toyota Production System), which summaries the complexity of a MNC at work.

For every action you take, keep in mind that the final product made is going to be released markets all over the world, and eventually someone is gonna take the tablet, in hope of improving his/her quality of life. This patient is putting full faith in the company that the tablet has been produced under stringent conditions with all the requirements met and that his/her health would improve after taking the tablet.

Purchasing a drug is not like shopping for clothes. You will be able to see a loose thread on a skirt, or a missing button on your shirt, but physically it would be impossible to tell if a drug is safe to be consumed just by looking at it. The safety lies in the hands of the company producing it, and that responsibility is huge. Always bear in mind that someday, your loved ones might be taking those drugs produced by the company, you would not want those drugs to hurt them would you? Every little step, no matter how tedious it is, matters.

Next time, before popping in a tablet, think about all the combined efforts that have been put together in order to produce that small little tablet. A lot has to be done. Do appreciate it. (: