food poisoning or was it me?

I have very low tolerance of stained food. Just not too long ago I suffered a terrible stomach upset and that put me to feeling extremely lousy for a few days. I still remember I lost a few pounds from that. I can traced that incident back to fish that was not properly coooked (OK my fault as I can't wait for my fish to cook). And this week similar, though less severe, incident re-occured.

I was at the ICA building Tuesday waiting to collect legal documents when I bumped into Jon and decided to have lunch together. I ordered fried noddles. It started to feel funny even before I finished my plate and it disturbed me the whole afternoon. It does not take an expert to tell that the noodle was stale... (but edible). That night, I vomitted and sat on toilet bowl a few times. Bad. The next day I felt so lousy that I cancelled dinner appointment with IJ and stayed at home doing absolutely nothing. Even now it is still feeling funny but my appetide has improved though not completely. Could it be because I picked it from hometown last weekend?

I noticed that I get sick easily from food. Like the Chinese proverb goes "you get illness from what you eat, you get into troubles from what you say," - I can testify to that. Do you have similar problem?

I was at Suntec earlier attending a SUSS roadshow. I cut it short after lunch - partly sick, partly because the topics didn't really interest me a whole lot.

This is TGIF and I have low appetide. Need some love here.

Oct 26, Friday, 10:41PM

Dr. CS Tan, finally!

This is going to be a rather long winded one considering that it was three weeks ago I posted in Cupertino CA, so please bear with me. So I have concluded my US trip and returned to Singapore about 1AM Monday morning (Oct 15). Some highligths:

Sept 22 - Sept 29 (Bay Area)

I decided to cut my stay at VMIC 2007 short and to skip Thursday lunch. I just did not feel I was in the right condition to join in. Ron told me later in email that I missed a very good talk by Eric Beyne of IMEC (damn!!!).

Noubar returned from his trip from China (he too decided to cut it short because he could not take it any longer there!) and he greeted me as soon as he arrived. I thought he was such a nice person - Mocha at Starbuck to kick off the session and later drove me north for Lebanese food (my first real experience, though I have tasted middle eastern food before).

Over the weekend, they showed me around coast area before heading to Stanford to meet George and Ming Lee (just married). I took a red eye for Boston - was very much looking forward to.

Sept 30 - Oct 10 (Cambrigde, MA)

I must have slept on the plane so well that the next thing I knew I was in Boston!!! (Welcome home). I cabbed it to MIT Edgerton Hall and JH was already there waiting for me. After lunch, he took me to Mass SPCA... the way I see it, he will go far, very far. He has a good heart down under him. He seemed stressed out juggling between school and job, but hey, he managed it well I thought. That Sunday night, I slept like I was deprived of it for ages.

The program in Boston began with lunch with Linda at Qingdao since the vegetarian place (Mass Ave) and House of Tibet were close. That evening, I met Andy in his new bio lab. He was having fun there although I can see that he was completely swamped. I always respect and enjoy talking to him - he has potentials, real ones. I would always credit him for Cu-Cu bonding. That night we dined at Koreana and he insisted on sharing and walked me home.

Tuesday was a very formal day. I met Carl in the morning and later Charles briefly. I headed to the State of the Institute. I could see Rafael from far. Lunch with CH after some photo shooting in the Killian Court. The real fun began when I went to the Office of the Provost. The happiest person in the office was none than Susan (oops... Susan K, not Susan H, if you know what I mean :P) - She gave me such a big huge!!! We could not wait for the Chairman of the Board to leave and there things just turned very casual. The agenda was photo taking with Rafael - a mock graduation ceremony. My regret was I never attended the commencement ceremony and a petition for postpone was denied (I still take it quite emotionally). Anyway, so finally Rafael handed the diploma to me and we were gowned very properly. I feel that I have finally graduated from MIT. Congratulations, you are now Dr. CS Tan, Class of 2006 (EE, PhD). This is a life time achievement. As Caijun (then at IME) said, you carry it with you your whole life. The sense of achievement was beyond words - It was a real sad thing that Dad did not live to see this. Thanks to Susan, I spent about 1h in the Provost Office.

I later visited Lieber's lab at Harvard and dined with Swee Peck at Wagamama (if you wanna know this is westernised Japanese food, very popular in London).

Wednesday was MTL day!!! It began with Gary who was kind enough to show me to the SiGe epi in Hoyt Lab. When I was a grad student in MTL, I passed by her lab many times but never bothered to take a closer look. Dennis, Leo, Dee, Acia, Debb, and Sam were glad to see me too. Dae-Hyun drove me to Koreana for lunch (thanks!!!). I met Dimitri briefly before Jae-Kyu came in for their weekly meeting. Finally Jesus remembered who was this person he had an appointment with.

The day ended with dinner at the Blue Room with Susan, Stephen, Andy, and Katie. They won't let me pay, so... I highly recommend Blue Room.

Thursday started with lunch with Sam. I met with Leslie briefly early, she could not leave her job. He shared with me his new invention of bio-fuel. Not everything got into my head, but I could make some sense out of it. The visit to Cambrigde Nanotech was great - I know the ALD system much better now. I met Liang-Yu in her office as soon as I saw her message.

The highlight of the evening was buka puasa at the Lin's. Alex walked me and Arafat from Harvard to Union Square. Lin has a cosy place!!! And the chicken rice was delicious! Alex offered to give me a ride back.

Friday I went lunch at Mulan (my 3rd time) with Albert, Charles and Ken. I then met Anantha at 2PM. Margerat was as sweet as before. Anantha brought in chances to MTL and he proudly presented to me the newly launched newsletters, the Micronote. Nice story about DAA...

I then went to Linda's house. She was almost done with cooking when I arrived. That nigth I met Lyssia and Hardy again. The last time I met her was at IEDM 2005 in DC. The are such a loving couple - they found an apartment in Andover now? WOW!!! The discussion centered around Myanmar, Singapore/Malaysia and human rigths. I didn't get to interact a lot of Phil, though. Again, I got a ride back and a big big huge!

I waked up Saturday morning not feeling like moving in with Arafat - pure lazy. JH was cool about it... so I camped there! I showed Arafat around Cambrigde Mall. I met Liz for dinner later. She broked her foot and had difficulties walking. She insisted on walking with me despite doctor's advice against adding weight to her foot. Nice dinner with lots of sushi/maki and catch-ups. Take care Liz - you are always strong.

On Sunday, Tony and his family bought me dim sum lunch in Chinatown. Then I met Suzan at Starbuck along Church St (Harvard Sq). She is so much happier now... good to know that. The highlight of the day? UNION OYSTER HOUSE of course. Four of us - JH, CH, Arafat and me dined at what was presumably the oldest restaurant in the United States! (Seriously the food was as great as it sounded, but the ambient was five star, a must-have Boston experience).

The Columbus Monday was spent in Wrentham factory outlet - met Peggy and George for the first time. TK drove and Mich was forever lovely.

Finally I get to spend almost one full day on my own on Tuesday. As promised, I got Irene little niece a bear she asked for. Hope she will like it. I had lunch at Fuo Guong Shan on Mass Ave. The Ven still remembered me and gave me a book as a gift. I had such a peaceful vegetarian lunch. Met DC later in Harvard Sq. The rest of the afternoon was spent in downtown Boston. I didn't know that Hardrock cafe has moved from Copley area to Quincy Market area.

The last night ended with dinner at Joel/Ari's place in Westgate and meeting Arafat for kopi.

I left for South Station at 10AM - thanks JH for being such a good host. I made a stop at Hardrock Cafe. The bus ride to Albany was a smooth one though it was raining. The leaves are preparing for Fall, I can see that.

Oct 10 - Oct 13 (Albany, NY)

I arrived on Wednesday about 3:30PM and cabbed it to Hampton Inn. The taxi driver was thrilled to know that I came from Singapore.

Thursday morning I visited Ron as planned (was delayed by 15 min as the cab driver picked up another guy). We discussed on plan to move forward with the book. Ron is helpful and very genuine. He showed me around RPI campus (small and neat) and brought me lunch. He insisted on driving me back to hotel (thanks!!!). That evening, I met some old faces and new faces in the 3-D world! The highlight was tour to Albany Nanotech - I seriously think this place is going to be very happening when it is running at full force. Any opportunity for me?? I met this group of people from Seagate, Air Product, Tessera and Stanford at Red Lobster for dinner - was very cohesive I thought!

Friday was very intense! I didn't quite catch most of the presentations on designs... but looks like university 3-D research is more towards design now. What is left for technologists like me? I presented my stuff, it was OK, not great.

I didn't sleep Friday night so that I can correct for jet lag when I get back to Singapore. The flight was early at 6AM and I bid Bob Patti farewell at Ohare. I arrived in SFO and I get all procedures done - the same officer who checked me in checked me out - he could not remember me, but he remembered his own writing! Good bye America, I will be back again soon.

I got a window seat all the way, so it was kinda of uncomfortable but I pulled it through. I think economy class is a torture for long distance flight. To my surprice, someone came up to me and call my name at Incheon during transist... Eric's wife, on her way back from assignment to Micron at Boise. Small world.

Now I am back in Singapore. It was indeed a very refreshing trip. Thanks RSO for supporting this trip.

I plan to go home Wed night. Pei Qi grandpa passed away and it would be helpful if I go back earlier to look after the house. And looks like we are one more step closer to our new house!

Oct 17 (Wednesday), 1:50AM