I'm collecting birthday wishes!!!!!! HEEHEE Kayan was the FIRST to wish me.. on the DOT! Both by sms and on MSN! Then there was Jing and JX and Jialin and Shihong and Venus and Shiqin and Beng and Wingyan and Peiru and Best Friend and Wandai Wang Wang and Huijun... all between the time of 12am to 2am!!! Then there was Ja... her sms all the way from UK!! And then by sms, there was Kenneth, Meifeng, my aunts Yanbin and Gail, Ting Feng, Tien Fun, Made (my AIESEC senior!), my daddy and mummy, househusband Wen Hann, my dearest and sloooowwest lab partner Wani, Raymond, Jac.... And after that on msn again that night, there was Guan Qun, my xiao shuai ge UY, Shiyan, Wanqing, Chen Chun, Huimin, Tie...... and THEN.. 1 minute after 12am... brother Fox became the FIRST to wish me happy BELATED birthday. Followed by KYL and study buddy.

Haha popular ger is liddat.. Budden hor... can u all like, take back ur bday wishes and rewish again?! I dowan that kinda wish like.. "all the best in your future endeavours" etc etc.... I wan more SPECIFIC and TANGIBLE wishes!!!! K I wan u all to wish me like, "Get 3 Dis and 2 As for the exams this sem" or "Get 2 Dis and 3 As for the exams this sem"!!! I not so greedy lar.. dun need ALL Dis... SOME Dis can already. Too greedy the gods will not grant you your wishes... so muz ask for a bit less mah.. haha

Anyway... shucks.. I'm like, half-dead. Down with a slow-acting strain of food poisoning bacteria. All those intermittent tummyaches and nausea and lack of appetite... bloated stomach and cold spells... my parents and grandma have been bugging me to go to the doc for sooo long but I just kinda brushed it off. Muz be due to that gassy drink I drank juz now.. or muz be cos I ate too much during lunch.... etc etc. Or maybe cos I ate those cherry tomatoes on an empty stomach.

Until the doc measured my temperature juz now and told me I got a fever... and then after that he knocked around on my tummy and told me I got food poisoning...... AHHHHHH!!!! He told me it was a slow-acting bacteria.. and the toxins accummulate slowly. Probably by next week, I would have been terribly ill had I not gone to see him. WAH thank god my daddy dragged me there juz now!!! I was still finding excuses not to go see the doc.. waste money wat!!! If I hadn't gone, next week you all can say bye bye to me. Sobzz so scary hor??!??!?

So after that the doc was asking me.. how long had this condition lasted, and whether I ate anything that didn't taste right during that period. I sit there and think for a while... eh... seems like this condition had lasted for a few weeks now.. on and off. WALAU as if I can remember what I ate a few weeks ago lar!!!! So I was gonna curse and swear at the doc... when suddenly I remembered something. I was doing lab report at the NUS Central Library juz now... and it was a microbio lab report. We did a lot of experiments involving E. coli and we played around with a lot of other bacteria as well. So I asked the doc, "Uhh for the past few weeks I had been dealing with some E. coli in the lab. Do you think they could have caused my food poisoning?"

Doc, "Yes! Why not?"

Me, "Uhh cos my prof told us the strains were non-pathogenic lab strains?"

Doc, "E. coli is a very opportunistic bacteria. Yes the lab strains could have been weakened.. but as long as your immune system is weak and the bacteria manage to get into your body, it can cause food poisoning! Why not? Maybe cos it's weakened, that's why it's slow acting. But that doesn't mean it will not act!"

Me, "Uh oh.."

Doc, "Next time after dealing with such bacteria, ALWAYS wash your hands thoroughly! Take ALL necessary precautions! Probably you never washed your hands properly and then went to eat lunch or something.. and that's how the infection occurred! Be very careful next time you are dealing with bacteria! Wash your hands!"

Me, thinking back of all the times I carelessly handled the bacteria thinking it was fine cos they were non-pathogenic, nods sheepishly at the doc. "Ok doc. Thanks!"

SHUCKS! I suddenly recall something! Many of the lab strains of bacteria were ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT!!! DAMNIT! I sure hope that one that infected me was NOT antibiotic resistant!!! At least, NOT bactrim resistant!!!! If not you all can say bye bye to me liao.... sobz... the real-life example of why you should always be very careful in Bio labs. Especially microbio labs... they should use my picture to put up as display somewhere in ALL bio labs.. the girl who suffered the ULTIMATE punishment for her carelessness in handling dangerous microbes. SOBZZZ