Fish's Underwater World

Totally clueless

I am such an idiot when it comes to fixing up things. Watched the demo on how to set up the bioreactor for the cell culture run but i still could not succeed in learning it. Looks like i dun have the gene for machine construction. Terrible. Felt embarrassed with the instructor eyeballing me and i was doing somethings stupid. First, i tried to unscrew the impeller. I was actually attempting to remove the shaft (which could not be removed). I started turning it clockwise and then anticlockwise. Erm, gal, the shaft is supposed to rotate remember? Obviously, it could not be dismantle with my turning it around and around. The instructor watched me battle with the bioreactor pathetically and eventually asked me what i was trying to do. I explained to him my predicament.
He walked away and came back.
*Da dah*
Instructor:Here is the spanner for loosening the impeller from the shaft.
Me: (speechless). Thank you.
Later, I proceeded to soaking the air exchange silicon tubing basket within the vessel of the bioreactor. Before i could do that, I needed to lift up the heavy lid. This lid was entangled with many probes. I forgot to remove the probes and ended up trying to balance the heavy lid and clearing the probes which were sticking out and inserting the basket. After several futile attempts, i asked my colleague to help me. Both of us girls were poking at the probes and trying to clear a path for the basket. In the end, i decided i should have removed the probes. That was when the instructor came over and removed the darn probes. Gosh, so embarrassing. I wondered how long he had been witnessing such a drama.

posted by sunkissfish @ 10:44 PM