Quick jot to just get off my chest. Frustrated .I really felt that yesterday And all because of tiny minute little living things in this world called bacteria. I know I am not supposed to overreact but there you go for I did. I have been for the umpteenth time trying to get my research project off the ground and for the umpteenth time have been faced with challenges. For one, the RM10 grand that is parked for me in IPB for me to use has hit some snags in the form of red-tape. Then my seed-fund project of another measly RM10 grand is also somewhere between the sea and the sky, likewise with my FRGS of RM130 grand (small money, small research only la). I have two MSc students constantly wanting to know when they can start their projects. Finally after so,so,so much patience the initial 10 grand is released.Hurray.
Then the unthinkable happened.
The bacterial strains that I have been asking from Korea for weeks on end: Got an e-mail from Prof Hae-Yong Kim that oh sorry Zarina, we have loads of it here but we are prohibited from sending them across to you. Bummer. The same not two minutes after with Prof.Williams from Nottingham who was symphatetic but could not help either. I think this has got to do with post 9-11.They are scared we were going to make terrorist weapons from these little tiny things.
Fair enough- it is after all a Class 2 pathogen.
So I decided to contact ATCC and HPA in UK to see if they can help. Initially it looked hopeful as they requested for an institution profile to verify my intentions as legitimate for research purposes only. I quickly prepared one..and then..oopss..sorry, we cannot send it to you because...?? no reasons given. I think its probably of laboratory facilities and access policies they are a bit sceptical about.
I could have torn all of my hair out yeterday out of frustration as I took SUCH a long time to prepare the profile. Then I decided to go for a bit of God-searching to try and calm myself down.Truthfully my life these past three weeks is entirely dominated by anxiety due to these darned bugs. And then somehow or rather after the calm, En.Aziz'z face came into my mind. En Aziz is SJMC's Senior MLT and an expert in microbiology.We have been friends since I was in ITM. I rang him up to ask whether it would be possible for him to maintain such a strain in his collection. It really was my last shot and was already expecting him to say..sorrylah Zarina,tak adalah...
But what did I hear?? "Oh..yang purple tu ke? Saya rasa adalah, saya check dulu nanti call saya next week?"
If not for the fact that he was not in front of me I would have hugged him ...regardless of the fact he is alim..hhm..now that I mention it, I might probably never see my bacterial strain if I did that..so good job he wasn't.
Thank God for little things. The thing I want to say is sometimes we are so awed by the strains other depositors have in their respective countries we miss our very own collections right here in ours.
No Post 9-11 problems, no money required. ATCC charges 300USD per ampoule of bacterial strain.En Aziz: Free. But of course when I eventually take it from him I will belanja him makanlah kat someplace nice in Subang, then debit it from my grant. Yes!
Like last week, this week is NOW good. And did I tell you why last week was good? Because my life is surrounded by the people and the things I love and without the people that I don't.
Have managed to do most things this week esp with my Science Fund application. The only thing I need to do is ring Aree as I really owe him a phone call. Aree when you read this know you r on my mind and I WILL ring you okay then we chat ?
Another good week . Syukur alhamdulillah for that.
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