Almost all of my current crew were together this afternoon, a cause for celebration as we are scattered in several locations, and always on field trips, lectures, meetings and practicals everyday.
Honours light sabers and freshly 30 photos
We came close today but were missing two of my students during a presentation review of the Evening of Biodiversity for the seniors. The small mammal ladies (Amanda Tan & Chloe Tan), civetgirls (Xu Weiting & Fung Tze Kwan), Meryl Theng (Ottergirl) and Marcus Chua (Catboy) will be making short presentations, and we need to prep for coherence.
In the middle of it all, three tubs of ice-cream appeared for Marcus’ 30th birthday including a magical tub of Avocado ice-cream! That was certainly a step up from Avocado milkshake and I eyed it seriously but birthday boy had dibs.
Soon, very soon, I shall be reunited with my tub!
The honours students, Germaine (mangrove horseshoe crab) Leng and Iris (slender squirrel) Ng also celebrated completing their rite of passage that morning in MPSH at their honours poster exam. It has been a hectic time up this morning and the pain of preparation was alleviated by the joy of discovery!
I was unable to join the honours students at MPSH due to my animal behaviour lecture that morning. Instead, my three examinees trooped in this afternoon, one by one, to the office pantry for their session with me. It was an enjoyable exchange and I learnt a few more things about our birds and marine environment.
Joys (monkeygirl1) Tan was here just hours after harassing me questions on email the night before about sampling methods. The other monkeygirl, Lai Chui Ting, was missing from the fray, as was Liyana (fishtail palm) Omar. Liyana and I would have a fruitful fishtail palm discussion that evening about some 3,000 fishtail palms on Pulau Ubin.
Just two hours sleep, but a fruitful day. There are deadlines galore (seven ominous missed calls on my NUS phone) and this sure was lovely relief!
Eventually we will get a photo of all of us together. For now, we were surprised at the iPhone 5’s ability to keep us all in. Keeping all of us together though, is something else entirely!
Thanks FTK for Marcus’ big 3-0 photo!
Otterman speaks... 