Hey, I've never developed before and I'm a bit puzzled, what is wrong with my syntax here? private static $instance; //holder of Mongo_Wrapper public $connected = true; private $mongo = null; // The mongo connection affiliation private $database = null; // The database we are working on with this function: public function mongo_connect($db_name) { if (! self::connected) { $this->mongo = new Mongo; //TODO: error handle this whole sharade: throw new Kohana_Database_Exception('Cant connect', NULL, 503); $this->connected = true; } $this->database = $this->mongo->$db_name; //set the database we are working on return $connected; } I'm sorry, wmd-editor is giving me hell posting the code. Thank you!