Daft Ramblings

Ramblings...musings...

2009-02-19T21:11:00.009Z

Post-CNY, back to work in Newcastle. Feeling homesick la. Especially more when I only got to spend a full week at home, minus travelling days.

So what did I do back home? Well, lots of cooking and baking for one. Permed/curled my hair, of which the curls are only vaguely visible now (yes i know wasting money right but oh well). Met up with my bestest gal pals and other high school mates. Didn't really 'bai nin' a lot lah. Just went to my grandma's house on 1st day as per tradition, and went to a couple of other friends' houses. 'Gambled' a little bit, won a little too :)) Went out yum char a couple times. Watched Aussie Open (all throughout except to miss the majority of the men's final coz I was blardy at the airport b4 i could find a pub which was showing it in the airport just in time to catch Fed's downfall in the last set) with mom & dad - special precious moments with parents k. Heheh.

Since I got back to Newcastle, did my 2-week stint on ITU, and am now on my 2-week stint in Anaesthetics. Woohoo(-not!), 1 whole month as a glorified medical student, with better cannulation skills and a computer log-in, but not much more. Sigh. Can't believe that I actually looked/look forward to my on-call days where I get to actually BE a 'real' doctor.

Come March, I will be a whole month on the medical admissions unit. Am actually looking forward to it, surprisingly. Prolly coz I'll get more chances at doing Mini-Cexs and CBDs, fingers crossed. I super-super hate the £"$&*(!)*!"£$%^ e-portfolio, but have to do, wat to do. At least I finally got audit projects going now!! Woot!

Happy CNY...again!

2009-01-24T21:15:00.003Z

Gosh, it's been a year since I last wrote something here. Poor blog...sorry I neglected you *hugz* Gawd time flies. And hell, have I been lazy or what. Lol. Shit loads happened since 06 Feb 08 though - completed final year medicine, graduated (praise the heavens above!), started working as an F1 trainee, lost abit of weight and dropped a cup size, went to Morocco with my darling, then put all of the blardy weight back on again post-Christmas/New Year/birthdays makan-makan. In a nutshell.

And now I'm back home to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family, 1st time in 6 years! 1st time in 6 years that my face will be in our annual family photograph. 1st time in 6 years that I'll get to be at my grandma's annual open house on 1st day of CNY. 1st time in 6 years to eat reunion dinner at home. Can you feel the excitement? Lol.

Have been doing nothing much productive since I came home. Still not very used to the change in time, hence why I'm still awake at 5am now, having baked 2 types of cookies in the middle of the morning just now. Well, couldn't sleep anyway, thinking about upsetting unhappy things, thinking of what's going to happen in the future. Would have just ended up tossing and turning about on the bed. Might as well bake, don't you agree? :D

Met up with Cyn earlier today for yumcha. Missed having my best friend around to girly-talk and do crazy things like we used to...it was so nice seeing you again chabo!! >.< Here's hoping that we get to meet up with the rest of the old school gang at some point during this CNY week!

Hope I get to update more soon...

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!

2008-02-06T22:18:00.001Z

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It's the year of the rat this year (which means I'm officially >24 years old :P) but it's another year pass us by so quickly now. Anyway, should be thankful that I'm alive, healthy and well another year gone, and wish for everyone around me to be healthy and well physically and emotionally for the year to come :)

Called home earlier, was quite quiet back home. It's been a quiet CNY here too, not much of a festive mood. Or rather, none at all. LOL. But nothing too unsurprising lah actually, to be expected. We had a nice 'reunion' dinner at home tonight, everyone contributing at least a dish each:

Starting with 'yee sang' to 'loh hei', wishing for a prosperous new year to come

Followed by a yummy pretty realistic pseudo shark fin's soup minus the actual shark fin, by Su Ann

Then we had our own version of longevity noodles with a mixed seafood soup base courtesy of Dipak

THEN only came our main course dishes (which of course, at this point, we were all already saturated and full...but that's besides the point. It's CNY so you have to eat, regardless of how much your stomach capacity can hold normally lol)

My first-time trying to cook a crab dish [chilli crab] and it sorta turned out ^.^ Was quite pleased, and it was actually relatively easy to cook. I bought a whole crab + 1/2 dozen crab claws from the market for about £5.50, which wasn't too expensive actually. Had to whack the crab shells with the cleaver myself beforehand though coz the shells were a bit too tough for our teeth to crack. But it jadi-ed in the end anyway :D Yeay..can attempt to cook this back home next time eheheh. Got the recipe off kuali.com (as usual >.<)

The other dishes that we had were steamed ginger fish by Carolynn and chicken + rice ala chicken rice by Dipak :) All in all, we only managed to finish the yee sang and the shark fin's soup LOL. Wat to do, the amount we cooked was probably enough for 6-8 people, and we only had 4 of us ;p We've got enough for tomorrow's dinner, so all's well.

Will be going for a pot-luck CNY thingy at Edwin's place this Sat evening. Should be more people there :) What to cook?? Anyways, Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone, wishing you all a prosperous, healthy and happy year of the rat!! ^.^

A quiet weekend

2008-02-03T21:13:00.000Z

What a quiet relaxing peaceful weekend it's been. Lol, not that having some excitement isn't nice, but once in a while it's nice to just chill out and not do anything useful except for things that you like and that destress yourself, body and mind :)

It's been just like that this weekend. My boy, KY & Luke's back in Msia (*tinge of jealousy* haha), Su Ann's down in London and Dr Wai's working long days the whole weekend. So it's just me & Dipak really. Woke up late both days, read manga, watch American Idol, watch movies, ate meals, watch more movies, read more mangas, ate more junk food & slept. Aaahhh that's the life lar ^.^ Only time I left the house was to watch 'Over her dead body' at the cinema, and to the chinese supermarket earlier today.

I'm wayyyy too lazy. Gotto start revising very very very soon :p

Will probably in the near future write about all the interesting mangas/animes/live action dramas that have come up my alley recently >.< Edited some photos from earlier:

Before leaving for Malmaison's on the weekend before my birthday

Dinner at Malmaison's ~ I had lobster and scallops sheperd pie...yummy!

The poser posing at a very nice sofa-like chair at
Malmaisons' lobby while we waited for our cab to arrive

The lovely presents I got for my 25th birthday from minna-san...Arigato gozaimasu ne!! ^.^

Revived?

2008-02-02T13:29:00.000Z

5 months + since the last time i visited my decomposing blog. lol. Am I making a comeback? Hmmm maybe, maybe not. It's just that quite a lot has happened since last, erm, August (lol!), and it's my first proper quiet weekend since...since way back when...

Well, for starters, I'm more than halfway through my final year as a medical student now. (omg, reality just sank in...not much time left now). I've somehow managed to scrape through all my essential senior rotations (o&g, paeds, psych, gp, n not least, p4p!! lol) and literally yesterday was the end of my 4 weeks of medical rotation. I'll be starting my 4 weeks in acute/critical care next Monday, and am quite looking forward to it :)

I've also had my F1 job interview last Wednesday. Before that I had to apply for my deanery (Northern) via MTAS, for which I scored horribly on for the questions :P 25/50 (minus the 5 points for not having any previous degree or publications etc :P), which brought my total score to 70. Thank God I made it into the 1st quartile to start off with. Barely though. My score was just on the lowest borderline of the first quartile.

Nevertheless, I managed to get Northern, and then we proceeded to rank our trusts in the deanery. Thus the big dilemma on where to apply. Was I confident enough to try for Newcastle as my first choice, since it is quite popular and loads of really good (re: good at ~~bullshitting~~ talking and have loads of confidence) people were bound to apply there as their first choice? In the end, I thought, what the heck lah. Just give it a try, got nothing to lose, since I put South Tees (Middlesbrough) as my 2nd choice (i.e. backup) anyway. Don't try, don't know, right?? Plus, the experience would probably do me good anyway.

And look what happened?? Woohoo!! ^.^ Someone's really looking out for me and looking after me somewhere *^.^* I scored an F1 job in Newcastle (just found out yesterday after nervously clutching my mobile the whole morning..well, not literally lar, but you get the point), and I think the most unbelievable thing was that I was ranked 17! Unbelievably unreal!! Lol. And all this is thanks to all my fav ppl in F1 and F2 being my tips-giving angels and of course everyone else for their support!! You guys know who you are *lovely big hug for all of u*

So now I'm confirmed staying in Newcastle for the next year, with Dipak at least. Don't know if we might end up just the 2 of us in Newcastle and moving to an apartment like Edwin's (~drools~ got the professional feel to it eheheh) or just end up staying back in Kingsley if got more people :) We'll just have to wait and see!

What else has happened ah? Ooohh, I've finally turned 25!! Ripe old age of 25. Mid 20s. Yecch :P Sometimes I wish I were back in high school (but mostly when I'm reading shoujo mangas..should stop reading so much of them O.o) Had 2 lovely meals chia-ed by Dipak (crab..yummy) and my fav darling at Malmaisons! Poshy feeling hehehe. Then our house went out for dinner at Sagawa on the day itself, which was coincidentally the same day Dr Wai sat for her MRCP Part 1 exams. Results in 2 weeks time and she'll of course ace it!! ^.^

The weekend was perfect too.. Cyn came all the way over from Dublin for the wkend, and even though it was quite hectic and rushed for her, she came. Chabo, you rule lah, as the bestest friend!! >.<>

Eeps, this post is getting too long. Will continue writing more later lah. If i ever make it back here. Going to watch 'over her dead body' later...sounds like a good fun comedy!! signing out~

1 wk to go...

2007-08-20T04:34:00.000Z

My poor blog. It has been abandoned for over 2 months now. So why have I returned to post an entry now?

Well, I've only got a week left to be in Malaysia, and am feeling downright moody right now. Having mixed feelings about wanting to return to Newcastle, you see. Half of me really wants to be back in UK already because I'm honestly missing my boy, my friends & housemates, the new house, and partially starting final year, believe it or not. Being in KL can be quite lonely at times, and I think it's starting to take a toll on me. On the other hand, the other half of me will be so totally depressed at leaving my parents and family in Malaysia, leaving my car behind, leaving the mostly gorgeous weather here to face the utterly un-summer-like British summer, and I also will be missing my bestest friend, who's going back to Ireland a week or so after me.

SIGH.

I've had a relatively good summer actually, with lots of nice photos and good new experiences, but in some ways, I do miss Newcastle and everyone there quite a bit. Ironically, once I get back to UK, I'm pretty sure I'll be missing Malaysia and everyone here quite a bit too. Why is it that one is never fully satisfied with what we have ar? Geram!!

I'm pontenging today lar. Feeling a bit depressed and sorry for myself, but with a teeny bit of guilt for skipping today. Going to makan with Such and her friend in Section 14 (if I don't get lost first). More updates later if I can manage it!

2nd week, day er..2? 9? or 11? do weekends count?

2007-06-18T23:59:00.000Z

Do I look like my mom? Lolz...not really, rite?

I've got so many things I want to write about. So many things in my thoughts. But i'm just too lazy and a bit brain dead to post anything now. *groan* Not even like I went in the whole day also. But still feeling tired nevertheless. Maybe it's the slight loneliness I'm feeling. Missing home, missing friends, missing chilling out in Newcastle actually. Lol. And a certain someone's gone to Turkey for three bloody whole weeks, so no calls during this period of time as well. Sigh.

Will I be more receptive to writing a proper entry the next time round? I hope so.

Packed weekend

2007-06-17T18:25:00.001Z

It's been a busy but enjoyable weekend, with 2 long full days of walking around and shopping.

Mom's gone back home now. (sob sob)

We managed to get a few good bargains >.<

Very tired now.

Need to start at 8am again ~~tomorrow~~ later (in a few hours time).

Will post more of what happened later la when I've got more free time.

Fingers crossed.

The Great Singapore Sale '07

2007-06-16T16:33:00.000Z

Weekend's here, Mummy's here, & so is the Great Singapore ~~Downpour~~ Sale!

My first time out properly for shopping since I came a week ago.

Mom arrived at 5.30a.m. although I had expected her to arrive 1 1/2 hours earlier. Though that I would stay up waiting for her to arrive, but gave in to my sleepiness halfway through lol.

Re-slept from around 7.30am til 11.30am.

Went to Chinatown first. Lotsa quaint little shops selling all sorts around the area.

Bought some chilli pork bak kwa for dad (mmm yumm!) from Bee Cheng Hiang.

Bought a sweet little top, Sha too, and mom bought the skirt. All for SGD60 after quite a bit of haggling. Sha & my mom are pro bargainers la lol. Mom bought a few souvenir tees, and we bought a few trinkets too. Cheap cheap (relatively)!

Ate at Da Dong restaurant for lunch. Dim sum stuff. Not bad la. Quite big portions. Ate one zhong (zhang) too. The dumpling festival is just round the corner, I just found out! Then ate fried carrot cake with egg and dried prawns...tasty! (We went back later at night to ta-pau some back for my dad lolz)

Started raining :P

Then we went to VivoCity (MRT stop at HarbourFront), which is a huge new-ish shopping complex not dissimilar to Midvalley.

So big, dunno where to start lolz. Randomly walked into Tangs first. Bought a new ring (courtesy of mom and her credit card lol, well, she bought two!). Quite like it. Dainty rose-coloured ring with a few dainty diamond-like swarovski crystals on it. 40% off!

Walked around the whole mall. Realised there were tons and tons of UK brands here. Nice...but some didn't have sales though (like Zara and MNG...may not be UK-origin brands, but you get them in the UK too lar).

Went for lunch at the food court upstairs. Very nicely decorated to make it look hawker-ish. Food was decent, normal kinda food court price la. But there was definitely lots and lots of varieties though. Mouth-watering ones too!

In the evening, went out to the top floor's outside of the building, where it's literally overlooking the harbour front. You can see Sentosa island from here, and all the cable cars and ferries heading towards/from it.

We actually didn't over-buy or over-spend, me thinks! Not bad not bad. Very disciplined, I must say lol.

On our way back, stopped at Chinatown again where we went to get the carrot cake.

It was pouring. Not even dogs and cats ar. It was raining elephants and rhinos I think! Serious downpour of rain man. Really bad for the people doing business there me thinks.

In the end, we also ta-pau-ed the peanut soup that was mentioned in the Wikitravel article. It wasn't peanut-cream soup as we had imagined, but literally peanuts boiled in sweet soup with tong yuen (glutinous rice balls with filling). Quite nice!!

Came back half soaked. Rain rain heavy rain! One umbrella definitely not complete coverage for two people! On the bright side, at least it's not freezing cold.

Feet are achingggggggggggggggg now. Quite sleepy dy, but still have to go shower :P

More shopping and walking tomorrow! Woo hoo + groan altogether lolz.

Lost in time and place? Lol...

Where to go, where to go la?

Our dear ice-cream man! >.<

Oh, learnt about Argyll-Robertson pupils from Dipz while chatting to him just now. ARP = PRA, or prostitute pupils, apparently. Lol. Accomodating but not reactive! Hah!! With regards to the neurosyphillis that I had mentioned earlier.

Eyes half closed now. Soooo sleepy. Will try update more pics tomorrow lah! In the meanwhile, my facebook seems quite quiet and lonely. Poor thing!

Day 5 and the weekend's here!

2007-06-15T17:12:00.000Z

It's da weekeeeeeeeeeeeeeend now!! Woohoo! I survived week 1 of my electives!

No more snoozing man. No more lying in bed after I turn off the alarm. Damnit. Woke up the LATEST today out of the whole week. Didn't even have time to shower. Only managed to wash my face and brush teeth. Darn!

Still managed to get to the CDC before 8am. Not bad not bad. Lol.

Ward round this morning as usual. Got asked about transaminases which I knew shit about. So read THAT up during the 'free time' that I had around lunch time. Ask me all about it now lah!!!! Muahahahah.. I can probably answer, erm, 50% of your questions...?*sungguh memalukan la* :P

Went for research meeting at 11am. Gawd I so cannot do lunch-ish time meetings la. Everytime also soooooooooooooooo bloody sleepy. Tak leh tahan!

Ate a Fuji apple for lunch coz it's the only thing I sempat grab this morning while I was rushing rushing rushing. No time to prepare bread. Oh well. Still filling anyway.

Sat in on another consultant's outpatient clinic in the afternoon. (wow i'm too rajin la here. could have gone back but i didn't! so proud of myself lolz. Must be the Sporean spirit! hahahaaha) Was really good to see another consultant's consultation style.

Saw a variety of cases, although all were HIV patients la. Just that everyone had different issues to bring up.

One was about terminal care (and making sure the relatives were prepared to some extent, but the irony was that this particular patient had a very very good CD4 count, and would die in the near future not because of HIV/AIDS but due to severe damage that his lungs had taken from previous TB infections and bronchiectasis), another was about getting pregnant with HIV (and that was coz the mother-in-law who doesn't know about this patient's HIV status wanted a grandson eventhough she already had a granddaughter), yet another was about syphillis and the possibility of being infected in the CNS (with issues of informing other people that you are HIV +ve before having sex with them, and the possibility of being sued and jailed if you did not), and there are the usual lot with financial problems la.

Learnt about MediSave, MediShield, & MediFund.

Learnt about various options for getting pregnant and giving birth when you're HIV +ve.

Stayed til 6pm. OMG. 8am til 6pm. i.e. leave the house at 7.25am and arrive home at nearly 7pm. Wish I was that rajin in Newcastle man. Have to learn how to be this rajin in 5th year! Lol. Have been inspired by my housemates to attain their achievements in final year man! Pressure!!!!!

Had instant noodles and a slice of kaya bread for dinner. Lolz. Then went out with Sharon to the salsa club we went the other day.

Ladies nite tonight. We got in free w/o having to pay cover charge, then from 9.15pm til 1.30am we had this whole list of drinks that we could get free (although the cocktails and mixers were pretty much quite watered down, but still!). Had a couple of really 'light' mojitos, which was okla, but since it was free, I'm not complaining ;P

Finally tried a teensy bit of dancing tonight. Simple cha cha, but pai seh lah. I cannot dance also lolz. But still it was quite fun la. And the guy had good patience :P Sha had a pretty good time though, from the looks of it ;)

Left just before midnight (like Cinderella lol) coz our 'pumpkin carriage' (i.e. the MRT)'s last train back runs at 12.05am. So was back home by 12.30am dy. So 'kuai' huh lolz.

Mom's on the bus now on her way to Singapore. Shopping time this weekend!! Woohoo!!! >.<

Elective Day 4

2007-06-14T10:29:00.000Z

Day 4

Lesson of the day - I shall never ever ever ever forget that loin-to-groin pain = renal stones. How stupid of me to forget. Damnit.

Anyway...woke up a wee bit earlier today, so left about 3 minutes earlier than the last 2 days. Whole lotta difference that made *note the sarcasm*

Still, was lucky enough to catch the train immediately when I arrived at the station so saved about 5 minutes there.

Damn, need to get in around 7.50-7.55am la. The MO always start ward round before 8am. Damn Singaporeans ~~so rajin~~ have to be 'cepat dan cekap' (fast & effective) all the time.

Consultant joined us halfway through. So basically all the patients have to be poked and prodded and woken up twice within an hour at 8.30 in the morning. *sweatdrops*

Had few more new dengue admissions. One girl who had been in the last couple of days was now classified as DHF instead of DF (re: dengue haemorrhagic fever vs just dengue fever) 'coz she was a lot more poorly and fever lasted a lot longer (plus other criteria which I should know but can't recall now. Die. Memory soooo gone. Dementia liao). She had SOB last night (that's shortness of breath for all you non-medical-terms-inclined readers, not son-of-a-b**** fyi) and was given some O2, but was doing a lot better today. Her CXR showed a right pleural effusion and ?bilat consolidation. Most interesting case in the dengue side of the ward.

Other half of the ward was as usual la. 5 chronic HIV patients.

Followed the MOs and Reg out to McDs for a drink (and their breakfast) after that. Asked and learnt abit more about Spore healthcare system compared to NHS.

Also asked and learnt about Spore med students' lifestyle. It's literally not a life. Lol. UK med students will sooooooo die if they have to live the life of a Spore med student. No Friday nights free out drinking, no Saturdays to do as they wish, no Wednesday half days, no starting after 8am (as everyday starts as 8!), no skiving if you don't wish to fail out of med school...tak boleh tahan! Lol ;P

Came back at 11-ish. Had nothing to do til 11am so parked my ass in the air-conditioned doctor's room (which became abit like a freezer after a while) and tried to read the Infectious Diseases chapter in the Oxford Handbook. Yeah, right. "Read". IF reading meant glancing at the page with eyes three quarters closed and mind in dreamland already. Yup, I did some 'reading'. For 1 1/2 hours til 1pm. Lol. Oh well, ate my gooberPB sandwich in an effort to try and stay awake. Stayed awake alright, for about a whole 5 minutes. Bollocks.

Went for the MO's teaching session then. They had free lunch which was pizza but I didn't dare take any in case there wasn't enough to go round between them. Better not lah, in case they resent me later for eating THEIR barely-enough lunch. At least I didn't fall asleep this lunchtime. Must be the 'reading' I did earlier.

Went for clinic at 2pm with my consultant. A pure HIV clinic la. Quite interesting actually.

Showed me how different the HIV community is here compared to in the UK. Here, people of all sorts of races, ages, sexual orientation, background, & socioeconomic status could be infected with HIV. Which basically means any random normal-looking person on the street could be HIV-infected. You would've never guessed. Whereas in the UK, the HIV community that we see in clinics are generally either African refugees/asylum seekers, or gay.

Nevertheless, patients in the UK have it good la. Patients here have to scrape money everywhere to pay for the cost of their anti-retroviral drugs. At least the doctors give them alternative places to get cheaper versions of the same drugs from Thailand (re: not bootleg drugs, but merely the generic drugs w/o having to pay for expensive drug-company names). UK patients only need to pay a standard prescription fee, and there they go complaining about how expensive everything is. Bollocks la. Wait til you have to fork out all your savings to pay for your medication, til you have to declare bankruptcy. See if you wanna complain somemore.

Clinic finished at 4.30pm which wasn't too bad. Got more reading materials which I have to look through later (should I take a nap first? and wake up at 6am to read? Lol).

Went to the Novena shopping mall, bought some sushi and bread. Back by 5.30pm, ate sushi and showered. Everyday come back hot sweaty and sticky. Gross.

Ate a slice of bread with kaya. Ate a packet of the mini cup instant noodle. Ate a pear. Ate a Fuji apple. Lots of random stuff huh lol.

Watched a few vid clips from SYTYCD season 3 which were posted on Rickey.org...I like Hok & Lacey!

Feeling so sleepy dy now. And it's only 8.30pm. Not good.

Still so happy for the ~~final years~~ new F1 doctors! Hope they'll enjoy their last holiday as a student before venturing into the work force...and hope I can do as well as they did next year. Finger & toes (& eyes) crossed!! ;D

Must go and catch up on the last 2 weeks of bleach and naruto. Toodles~ (=^.^=)

Midweek

2007-06-13T17:51:00.000Z

It's Thursday already! Looking forward to the weekend when mom's coming down to Spore...some serious shopping time! Yeay!!

Great Singapore Sale, here we come (in a few days time! lol) !!!

Day 3 of electives

2007-06-13T17:26:00.000Z

First of all, before anything else, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all our official F1 doctors now!!! YEaY!!! Congrats Charles, Dipak, Luke & Chia Ying!! Double congrats on the Distinctions and Merits. YOu guys are good lah!! Celebrationnnnnnnnnnnnnnn time..!! >.<

Back to today's highlights...

Woke up LATER than I wanted to, AGAIN. Luckily lunch was packed before I went to sleep the night before (or rather, a few hours before at 3am). Rush rush rush, still managed to arrive at CDC before 8am lah. But realised that I forgot my white coat whilst at the MRT station. Damnit. Always have to forget to bring something.

Went for ward round which started at 7.55am. No sane NHS doctor starts medical ward round that early la. But was joined by my consultant supervisor, Dr Lee, a bit later. There were another 4 new dengue admissions the previous night. All staying in dengue hotspots. All foreign workers (from China/Bangladesh). Learnt about Chikungunya virus (which is quite similar to dengue and even spread by the same vector, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, but is usually not fatal), felt a few cervical lymph nodes, and felt a systolic thrill in a HIV patient. Wow. 1st time feeling a thrill.

11am - MDT meeting. Went on to some case presentations and later talked about any deaths for that week past. Then had presentation on Medical Writing by an invited speaker. Tried very very hard not to doze off somewhere in the middle. Really need more than 3-4 hours sleep at night lol. Finished at 2.30pm. Had free buffet lunch though. Definitely nicer than sandwiches :D

Left after that and skived the afternoon. Lol. UK habits coming into play here. Went home and found out that Sharon was back too. Haha. Took a cold shower coz was soooooooooo sweaty. Not even funny the humidity here (and in Msia for that matter). Read a little bit of the reading material that I had (been asked to) photocopy earlier, then went to snooze-land for a good 3 hours!

Had goober PB sandwich for dinner (which I didn't eat for lunch) and went out with Sha to meet her cousin at a salsa club in Tanjong Pagar. Personally I don't dance, but it was quite nice doing some people watching. Everyone seemed to be having loads of fun. Guys were queueing up to dance with Sha and Jac lol. But there were a lot of people dancing salsa, merengue, bachata, rueda etc. Had a few drinks (gin lime soda of which the klutz part of me spilled half of it :P, long island, mango delight) and took a few pictures and vids of Sha n Jac dancing with different guys. Fun!! Although a bit intimidating for beginners though I think. Lol. Everyone seemed to know how to dance pretty well already. Definitely more difficult for guys, coz they have to know how to lead.

Nearly 2am now. Have to go sleep! But CONGRATS again to all the 5th years-now officially doctors!! So proud of you guys! Hugz all round >.<

Day 2 of electives

2007-06-12T18:03:00.000Z

Shit. Y am I such a slacker? Was meant to wake up at 6 smthg this morning so that I had ample time to shower, eat breakfast, pack lunch, n maybe have a glance through the oxford handbook on HIV or something. Damn you snooze button. You are too evil. Woke up at 7.10am when I wanted to leave the house at 7.20am! Left at 7.25am with a packed goober peanut butter sandwich lol. It's 2.30am now and I have to wake up before 7am again. I'm so dead. So gonna sleep at the 11am-2pm meeting later. Gone lah. Lol.

On the other hand, ward round in wd71 was good. Met the best medical officer around lah. So friendly and chatty. Good good!! The medical officer was very fast and pretty efficient lol. Half the ward were dengue patients, the other half consisted of 'uncles' who were HIV-infected. It's a Class C ward, so the government subsidises 80% of the hospital bills. But you only get fans, and 'natural ventilation'. No air-cons, no carpet, no 5-choices on your breakfast menu. That's only for Class A1 patients.

There's a 'check-list' for patients admitted with (suspected) dengue. Rash? Tick Yes or No. Bleeding? Tick Yes or No. Fever? Tick Yes or No. Day # what of fever? What is the platelet count? What is the haematocrit %? What is the TPR? (temperature, pulse, respiration, although no one does respi rate la). What is the blood pressure? sitting vs lying, any postural hypotension? Got abdo/back pain? Pain anywhere else? Bleeding anywhere, especially from gums/nose? Got nausea/vomiting/diarrhoea/dizziness/difficulty breathing/cough/appetite? Classified into dengue fever (DF), dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Make sure no 3rd space leakage - pleural effusion, ascites, hepatomegaly, transaminitis. What do you work as? Where do you stay? Anyone else around you ill? Travelled anywhere recently? Can walk can eat? Serology/PCR only done after day5 or 6 of illness when fever breaks and platelet increases/haematocrit decreases. Severity of rash not an indication of severity of illness. Management plan - rehydration, monitoring, symptomatic treatment. Simple basic stuff. Inform ministry. Post-viral syndrome lasts for 4-6 weeks. Malaise, tiredness, weakness.

Went for part of my supervisor's outpatient clinic. Haven't even discussed properly with him what my elective outcomes are lol. He really 'sayang' his patients la, although he can be quite moody/temperamental with his staff, apparently, from what I heard. His special interest is in HIV. Shit have to read up about it loads. Will be good for final year though. Took pic of PPE - Pruritic Papular Eruption (learnt something new!) Compliance to medication can be checked through viral load. You can get Kaletra (a kind of protease inhibitor) via Thailand for 1/10th the price you get it normally (in Spore). There are 2 patients who were infected by HIV through blood transfusion (about 10 years ago). Ministry of Health pays for their treatment now. However, ART (anti-retroviral treatment, i.e. drugs for suppresing HIV) is not subsidised by the government, so all the other unfortunate patients have to fork out every single dime and penny to pay for these expensive drugs.

Pruritic Papular Eruption in HIV patient - caused by insect bites/staph infection

Attended and observed a family conference in the afternoon. Talked about limitations to active medical care (for a end stage-ish HIV patient), and discussed palliative care. DNR. End-of-life issues. Very realistic and pragmatic, I think. What to do, when to do it, what NOT to do, who will do what. Picking up lots of mandarin words here and there, fast!

Got off at 4.30pm. Nothing to do and damn sleepy. Went out at 7.30pm with Sha to meet up with her cousin for dinner. Wandered around for awhile whereby everyplace was full! S'poreans really love to eat out huh. Lol. Finally ate at Crystal Jade Restaurant. The aubergine (egg plant) with mince pork was nice, so was the fried prawn with salad sauce! Yummy. Thx Jackie for the treat! >.< Then met up with her colleagues (they are all SIA air stewardess). 'Toured' the east side of Singapore in Jacqueline's car (i.e. missed a turning and ended up on the CTE and then the PIE, reached Bukit Timah before finally heading back towards Orchard Rd) and had some drinks near where we are staying...lychee margarita...sedap! Thx Vanessa for the treat! Meeting the girls again tmr nite to go to a salsa club...Sarah will be envious! Lolz...

Vanessa, Tammy (gomen ne if i spelled ur name wrongly), meself, Jacqueline & Sharon

Anyway, got to go sleep now. Got my fingers, toes, eyes, hair crossed for the final years for their result tomorrow...but I'm sure they'll all pass with flying colours! I have faith in you guys! >.<

Electives in Singapore

2007-06-11T15:11:00.001Z

1st day of Elective

in Singapore

doing 4 wks of Infectious Diseases

at the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC) near Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)

MRT is 3 stops away from where I'm currently staying (Somerset - Novena)

staying near Orchard Rd...woohoo!

ppl at CDC are very nice, so far so good!

went for outpatients clinic today, 95% HIV patients.

mostly sexually transmitted

15 patients seen today, 3 DNA...and that was from 2-6pm!

languages used - Chinese (about 2/3rds), English, Malay

amazingly interesting to see how doctor breaks bad news +/- try to explain what HIV is in Malay

patient was more amusing. seriously in denial. had to bite my lips to keep from laughing. totally unprofessional, but couldn't help it LOL...I'll try better to be more understanding nxt time

quite sad to see some of the young people affected with HIV. One guy was just 19. and the biggest fears young people have is how to hide the news from their parents. Especially those who are being heaped with high expectations.

British people who are patients are so lucky lah. no need to fork out a fortune for hospital bills. antiretroviral drugs cost anything from SGD 100 - SGD 1500 per prescription!

earlier in the day...met other students starting their electives in S'pore today - including 3 ppl from Newcastle too (OMG how small is this world!), 1 from Cambridge & 1 ABC dude from Virginia Uni (NOT Virginia tech which is 100miles away!). cool & chatty ppl :) probably won't have a chance to see any of them again though during this elective. oh well.

Sharon & her cousin & his wife have been very hospitable.

Really nice house.

Very close to Orchard Rd, & near MRT station.

Survived on 3 pcs of sushi + 2 pcs of bread with goober + 1 can of guilingao + 1 small pear for dinner LOL

Tomorrow nite going out for dinner with Sha & another of her cousin.

Spent SGD 15 on EZ-Link card, of which only SGD7 worth of travelling money was given. !"£^&*(%

Bought a prepaid sim card too.

Bought notepad too.

Going to sleep soon...ward round at 8am tomorrow. Have to leave the house latest 7.20am. Groan.

Hope tomorrow will be as good and interesting as today!

Fingers crossed (=^.^=)

Good luck for the OSLERs you final year peeps! Gambatte ne!

Two beds & a coffee machine

2007-05-14T19:41:00.000Z

Two Beds & A Coffee Machine

And she takes another step
Slowly she opens the door
Check that he is sleeping
Pick up all the broken glass and furniture on the floor
Been up half the night screaming now it's time to get away
Pack up the kids in the car
Another bruise to try and hide
Another alibi to write

Another ditch in the road
You keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on
And the years go by so fast
Wonder how I ever made it through

And there are children to think of
Baby's asleep in the backseat
Wonder how they'll ever make it through this living nightmare
But the mind is an amazing thing
Full of candy dreams and new toys and another cheap hotel
Two beds and a coffee machine
But there are groceries to buy
And she knows she'll have to go home

Another ditch in the road
You keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on
And the years go by so fast
Wonder how I ever made it through

Another bruise to try and hide
Another alibi to write
Another lonely highway in the black of night
But there's hope in the darkness
You know you're going to make it

Another ditch in the road
Keep moving
Another stop sign
You keep moving on
And the years go by so fast
Silent fortress built to last
Wonder how I ever made it

- by Savage Garden, from the Affirmation album

Beautiful song, touching lyrics, randomly found on youtube.

You need not give birth to be a 'mum'...

2007-05-14T13:20:00.000Z

In lieu of mother's day, the NST had a column about a 'mother' and her 'child' with cerebral palsy, who was actually a care-giver to this 22-year old woman whom she had taken care of for the last 17 years. Aside from the lady's personal sacrifice, the article does give some food for thought regarding the social and welfare system back home, and how INefficient or ~~well~~under-provided it is. Especially compared to the social services available here in the UK. Makes you wonder...

MOTHER: The Webster’s online dictionary defines the word as "a woman who has given birth to a child".

Then what about Roxanna Lim — never married, has not delivered a baby, is not in a relationship but for the past 17 years has devoted her life to a "special child".

Lim met Wong Lee Foong, who was then 5 years old, at a centre for handicapped and abandoned people in Rawang in 1989 where she worked as a social worker.

The cerebral palsy child was unable to walk, sit or communicate, and had to be fed and bathed.

Lee Foong was at the centre temporarily after her father died. After several months, she was returned to her home. By then Lim had become attached to the child and decided to visit her.
Lim was appalled to find the child in a shack filled with fertilisers with flies swarming all over her. The child was crying but there was no one around.

Lim discovered that Lee Foong’s mother had gone missing and the child was left in the custody of her grandmother, who eked out a living planting vegetables in a small plot of land.

"The grandmother was at her wits’ end, stuck with a child who needed constant attention and had to work to put food on the table. The grandmother lamented that she did not know what to do and when she died, what would happen to the child.

"My decision to take care of the child was not an instantaneous one. There was much soul searching, visits to the shack, prayers and bouts of crying. I was unable to make up my mind. Somehow, my prayers gave me the strength to take on the responsibility," she says as she cuddles the 22-year-old "child" at her home in Klang.

Lee Foong gurgles and raises her stiff hands to touch Lim’s face, breaks into a huge smile and then thrashes about.

"See, she is happy. She likes visitors. Isn’t she beautiful," says Lim as she takes out a towel and wipes Lee Foong’s drivel and kisses her on the forehead.

What price has she paid for the sacrifice? Ostracism by her family for "throwing away her life" and being branded a "mad woman".

Her family members said they were ashamed she decided to "adopt" someone who was not an "anak sempurna (complete child)".

She lost her friends who were not comfortable with an additional companion who followed her everywhere and her social life came to zilch.

"Who wants to marry me as the man will become an instant father to a 22-year-old who needs round-the-clock attention? What privacy can we have?" she laughs.

Surely there must be kind Malaysians who appreciate her sacrifice?

"Yes, some offer help as they know I am unable to be employed as I have to take care of her. But most Malaysians are only good at giving advice. Don’t carry her this way, take her to that sinseh, give her herbs, make some money taking care of more handicapped children — they are all consultants but none will do the work," Lim says bitterly.

She says the word "care-giver" which should have an exalted status has been degraded to standards lower than a maid.

"Everyone wants to be a trainer, a therapist and a consultant. But no one wants to brush the teeth, bathe and clean these people who are unable to take care of themselves.

"That is why many centres for the handicapped and invalid are closing down because there are insufficient care-givers. Furthermore, those who do such meaningful work are paid a pittance."

She is also unhappy with the welfare system, which she describes as having "no eyes nor heart".

"This child used to receive monthly government aid, which was paid through me, and that too after I made countless applications and appeals. It was approved after several years. But when she reached 18, they told me that since she was a major the payments had to go directly to her.

"None of these officers, despite my explaining and begging, realise that Lee Foong cannot possibly go to the bank or post office to cash money. Anyway, since it was the ‘procedure’ I agreed. After four years, not a sen has come her way.

"When I read the newspapers that government servants wanted a pay rise, I laughed and laughed, because they could not even channel assistance, which the government had provided, to an invalid woman but wanted more money for themselves."

Lim says she has given up on the welfare system.

Lee Foong is often invited by companies and organisations to test the disabled-friendly systems that have been put in place. Lim believes that God has prolonged Lee Foong’s life so that she can contribute to making the lives of future generations of disabled people better.

Lee Foong has come close to death many times but has miraculously pulled through. She is constantly on medication for epilepsy, takes muscle relaxants and her minced food is fortified with vitamins.

Lim is often contacted by parents of handicapped children and organisations that deal with special people for advice. She can be contacted at roxlim7@yahoo.com.

Women who celebrated Mothers Day yesterday had their children give them greeting cards which they had made, were showered with gifts, and some dined at expensive restaurants.

How many remembered the countless others who assumed the role of mothers to orphans, the handicapped and special children?

In this world of abandoned babies, neglected and abused children, it is heartening that the likes of Roxanna Lim walk this earth giving a new meaning to love, caring and sacrifice, and I would like to wish them all A Special Happy Mothers Day.

by K.P.Waran, NST 14/05/2007

Roxanna Lim gives Lee Foong a cuddle at their home in Klang

Chilled weekend...

2007-05-13T17:16:00.000Z

Happy Mother's Day, Mummy! And to each and every mother out there in the world who endured all the pain, sweat & tears alongside all the love, joy & pride of giving birth to and bringing up their sons & daughters.

Thank you, mom, for being there for me always. There's no one else in the world quite like you, special like you. Love you, ma! *hugs* >.<

Had quite a chilled weekend (i.e. non-productive), which I'm not complaining about ;) The week went by quite quickly, and before I knew it, it had been a week since we'd been to Alton Towers! Time flies...

Chilled at the guys' house on Friday night playing monopoly (well, I was the banker and batu api for some negotiations lolz) after a scrumptious lasagne dinner made by Carolynn (with all the ingredients bought by Luke :P see, I remembered to acknowledge your contribution this time lolz).

Woke up Saturday morning, had lunch, watched 6 episodes of anime (catching up on Bleach & Naruto which I had missed the last couple of weeks), read this week's manga scans, went out to buy eggs, cleaned and scrubbed out our smelling-like-rotten-garbage fridge, showered, went to the guys house & had a nice (but charred, mostly :D) BBQ dinner with satay, chicken wings, sausages, & nasi lemak, topped off with Nit's banana cake & a Tesco cheesecake bought by Sarah. To cap off the night, Vix & Alvin bought yellow roses for all the girls who were there that night...a very sweet gesture, although they claimed that it was for no particular occasion or reason. Thanks guys .>_<.

Woke up this morning, had a nice hot long shower, ate hot dog made by Dipak, called mom to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, and am now chilling in the living room listening to really nice songs ('Mellow Magic 100'...quite sappy but really lovely songs) while waiting for porridge (chicken congee) and more lasagne prepared by Kah Yin & Carolynn ehem ehem... lolz :)

Ah...if only everyday could be like this relaxing chilled weekend. With sunnier days, of course. It has been awfully drizzly and gloomy these past few days. I want sunnier & slightly warmer days!!! But you can't have everything in life, can you? Oh well, win some, lose some...

All the lovely fragrant petals are falling off!! Nooooo.... ;p

Three more weeks til I fly home to Malaysia. One part of me can't wait to go home, but another part of me is dreading or nervously anticipating: (i) packing up my things in boxes to move to the new house, and (ii) starting my electives in a 'foreign' place...excited but nervous! Right now though, I think I'm more stressed and worried (in a way) for the final year meds in our house who'll be facing their final exams (OSCEs) on the 1st of June! Scaryyyyyy......thinking about how it'll be for me this time next year. Am feeling superly incompetent right now. Sigh.

Anyway, try out this link if you're bored or looking for something to distract you for awhile: http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/escape.htm My best time so far is 19 20.9secs, while the best times I've known of so far are Seak Chiew's (at 23+secs) and Alvin's (at 21 22+secs). Or go and listen to Carrie Underwood's I'll Stand By You (she's so prettyyyy! >.<) or Kelly Clarkson's new single Never Again (she rocks!!). Love them!

Carrie Underwood - I ll Stand By You
Uploaded by Wonderful-Life

Kelly Clarkson- Never Again [TODAY SHOW]
Uploaded by thesweetescapeblog

She's so good live!! Go check out the music vid too...the guy in the MV looks a bit like Wentworth Miller from Prison Break, I think... lolz

Need to go sleep...

2007-05-11T02:30:00.000Z

I've been told that I'm getting fat/putting on weight so I need to go exercise and eat less. Blek :P WTF.

On the other hand, have been perusing Aizat's blog @ http://daylist.blogspot.com/ Haven't been there in quite a while. Lots of interesting past entries. Lol.

Going to sleep now @.@ 8.30am neuroradiology meeting tmr. Goodness, if not for u Imaan, I'd still be in bed being a lazy ass. Thx babe, appreciate ur enthusiasm!! ^_^

Oyasuminasai minasan ;o)

Update on latest happenings...

2007-05-11T01:20:00.000Z

Wow. I've been lazy in posting new entries. Again. Lolz. So what else is new right? ;D

Quite a few things have happened, including Malsoc's M-nite volunteers bbq party, & Malsoc's bowling tourney, which I didn't go for because I went on a road trip in a 7-seater car woo-hoo!

Went on road trip last weekend with all the others who either (i) have no exams, i.e. us 4th years hehehe [Imaan, Vix, meself, does Jas & Alvin count too? lolz]; (ii) are working so got extended weekend due to bank holiday weekend [Edwin, Sarah]; (iii) have not been to Alton Towers b4 [all of us!]... Alton Towers had spring sale so tickets were going for only £18 online, which were decently cheap lar. Went on a grand total of 9 rides in the 7 hours that we were there, so each ride averaged around £2 each. Not too bad actually! My fav rides were Air and Rita Queen of Speed (although the latter did make me ever so slightly nauseous lolz). Of course, having fantastic company and fun people to hang out with definitely helped!

On the way down south from Newcastle, we stopped at Sheffield (met up with Sharon, who looks really healthy and chilled!! ^_^), then went to Buxton, one part of Peak District (where we had Mr Solomon Mycock of Buxton's surname as the word-of-the-day lolz), then finally stopped off at Notts to spend the night, where we met up with Mun Yan & Seow, just to name a few ;) Barged in on their studies for exams a couple of weeks away, but we were quite desperate lah for place to stay. It was quite cool I felt, managed to meet up with all these people who were supposed to come up to Newcastle during Easter but tak jadi (re: Sha & Mun Yan). Fate has a way of intervening eheh..if it's meant to be, it's meant to be >.<

KMYSians reunited at Peace Gardens in Sheffield : Viks, Sharon, meself, Jas & Imaan

7 - lucky number? Viks, me, Jas, Imaan, Alvin, Edwin & Sarah

5 pretty maids in a row? Winter gardens in Sheffield - Imaan, Jas, Sha, me & Sarah

Beautiful day at Peak District

KMYSians reunited in Notts - that's where all the babes are! >.< (Clockwise from top L): Maya, Mun Yan, Imaan, Jas, Sarah, me, Seow & Elina

Nemesis behind us - slightly overrated, me thinks! Air was nicer!!

The happy people before Ripsaw - dry!

The same 7 after ripsaw - soaked! & cold! lolz

Having fun drying off in the haystack! A bit too much fun...? .>_<.

For more photos, go to my facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19737&l=85dd6&id=742425601

Doing my 3rd and final SSC in Neurosurgery now. Quite relaxed and chilled, both the rotation itself and my supervisor lolz. Quite free and easy, and we only go in for half days on most days ;D Plus, we get to see brain surgeries too. Although they probably sound more interesting than they probably are, for medical students at least. Sure, we get to see the odd bits and bobs of brain or spinal tissue, but most of the time in theatre we just tend to observe and try not to get in anyone's way lolz. It's too complicated for us to do anything so we don't scrub up anyway, and the surgical incisions are mostly quite small, so you can't really see anything until the surgeon 'beckons' you over to explain what he's done or what we can see at that moment in time. AND it doesn't help if you're short...like me :P Last Wednesday's surgery was quite nice though, as the surgeon used a microscope halfway through the operation, so we could actually see everything happening on the big clear tv screen projected from the microscope. And this particular patient had Von Hippel-Lindau disease, whereby she gets multiple benign tumours in her head and some other parts of her body...this is her 3rd time having brain surgery to remove a tumour from her cerebellum in the last 20 years! And all by the same neurosurgeon lolz!

(Later -->[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Hippel-Lindau_Disease] wiki is soooo useful!)

Cooked dinner for my housemates + 1 today (+1 = extended housemate = future housemate) to give them a good dinner while they're busy studying for their finals now. A wee bit ambitious, but everything turned out decent and only about 15-20mins late! lolz. We had 'steamed water egg', fried fish with nyonya-styled sauce, fried chicken with breadcrumbs with plum-sauce (which turned out remarkably like lemon chicken...-ish...), stir-fried spinach with salted fish, and jeng jeng jeng, curry mutton!! My very first ever time cooking mutton (well, sheep shoulder, in this case :D ), and it turned out, well, edible! lol. And best of all, most of the food was finished!! With a little bit of mutton and 1/3 piece of chicken left. Yeay!! Too bad no pictures to record this 'feat' of cooking all done in a span of 2 - 2.5 hours, alone! eheheh... But have to thank Kah Yin for bringing cake and helping to wash up some of the dishes :)

Ooh, also went for 2-for-1 mussels at Bar Luga this afternoon for lunch with Imaan, Alvin & Viks. Yummy yummy yummy!! The boys organising BBQ this weekend me thinks. Wah...need to exercise liao. All the weight I 'lost' during my 3-day diarrhoea marathon last weekend has been piled back on! Nooooooooo...................

My seduction style? lol...

2007-04-26T00:36:00.000Z

i've been bored. and lazy. and extremely mou-liu.

lol .>_<.

post m-nite volunteers bbq this friday nite at burnside. more work to do. *hooray* ;P hahaha...get ready for my totally simple vege fried rice!

clubbing after that?

Mood swings

2007-04-24T00:54:00.000Z

I was in such a good mood the whole day.

But now I feel like crap.

Fk.

Can I just wish to be emotionless for a moment?

.
.
.

Weekend weekend!

2007-04-20T12:36:00.000Z

Early start to weekend yeay!! .>_<.

Have been listening to Linkin Park's songs the whole night and whole day. Love them!! Very good for destressing me thinks :) This is their latest single 'What I've Done' off their newest album due out next month, 'Minutes to Midnight'.

Blast ur speakers & enjoy!!

My pathetic attempt at drawing how I felt last nite LOL

.....

2007-04-20T01:05:00.000Z

So listless
So bored
So lethargic
So moody
So frustrated
So annoyed
So tired
So 'mou liu'
So uninterested
So geram
So bothered
So perturbed
So angry
So apathetic
So indifferent
So impassive
So unconcerned
So dispassionate
So aloof

So disturbing yet so calming

Yume...

2007-04-19T23:53:00.000Z

Yume...['yu-meh']...the Japanese word for 'dreams'.

Do you ever have recurring dreams? Dreams that occur every now and again, but are similar, giving you a sense of deja vu, of a "I've been here before, seen and heard that before" kind of feeling? It's not so bad if they are nice pleasant dreams, but it's really freaky and creeps me out when I get the kind of disconcerting unpleasant dreams which I can only remember patches of when I wake up, leaving me feeling really unnerved and uncomfortable. More often than not, these dreams occur when I'm sleeping outside of a normal sleeping time, e.g. in the afternoon or something like that. And somehow or rather, they usually (but not always) involve people that I know, my family & my friends. Many a time they're not people that are directly around me, but people that are far away from me in real life. Maybe a subtle reminder to myself that I should keep in touch better...? Hmmm...

I do have a couple of dreams that have recurred a few times over the last few years. Never back to back, the time between each recurrence could be over a year, or after a few months. One of it involves this horrifying dream of my tooth/teeth falling out, usually for no particular reason, and me bleeding all over in my mouth. But somehow, I always seem to be not really bothered in the dream, although I will wake up with palpitations and feeling really disturbed. Very very disturbed. And double triple checking that ALL my teeth are still intact in my mouth without any signs of blood around me. And I can't remember any specific tooth that has fallen out more than once, though I know that different teeth have fallen out in different dreams. Ughhh..!! Gross to the highest level. Must be that creepy movie 'The Dentist' still lurking somewhere there at the back of my mind. Blehh!

Another on and off recurring dream that I have is of me in this particular house, or rather, wooden-like haunting mansion-like building with many different levels and different rooms, and always with people that I know, be it family members or friends. And there's always this creepy feeling that accompanies me when I'm in the dream, and after I wake up from the dream, although I can never remember the particular circumstances of what makes me feel creeped out and scared and nervous. And I'm there watching people, talking to people, running around from one room to another, getting palpitations even in my dream. Weirddddddd........ :P Ackkkk hope I don't get any dreams tonight. Already getting a bit freaked out from trying to recall these dreams.

On a happier and cheerier note though, we celebrated Luke's birthday a few times this past week ;) And we had good news from him too!! Yeay!!! So glad for you Lukey!!! Wishing you all the happiness in the world ya!! *hugz* A few photos from his birthday celebrations (these are from the Sat nite dinner):

The double-decker 'Death by Choc'

The Birthday Boy

The Housemates

The Married Couple

The Pseudo-married Couple?

The 4 Babes

Having a good time :)

Will post more pictures later lah. Lazy now. Or you can go to my facebook to see more uploaded & edited pics .>_<. Courtesy of Mr LeeSC's camera...oh yeah, congrats on your job in London!!! May it be a stepping stone to a much brighter career in the future ;)

'Self touch 13 orphans or 13 waist...?'

2007-04-13T05:26:00.000Z

Proof of my self-touched 'Sap Sam Yiu!!' Wah...so proud! ^_^

I got 'ji mo sap sam yiu' today at mahjong!! (a.k.a. Thirteen Terminal Hand / Thirteen Wonders)

RE--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Mahjong_scoring_rules

十三么 (8 fān + any tile in the same set)

Known in English as the thirteen terminal hand or the thirteen wonders, this occurs in 13-tile variants when the winning hand consists of one of each one, nine, wind, and dragon, and a 14th tile that matches any of the other 13. Because the hand is so greatly divergent from the standard hand, this hand is generally considered the highest scoring hand of any kind (although it is not the hand that is least likely to occur - the nine gates is said to be some 450 times more rare), barring criteria that are probabilistic in nature. Thus, in scoring systems where a maximum point value is imposed, this is often an automatic maximum-point hand.

Wahhhh so happy! Made up for my deep fall into the abyss the other day. Although I didn't come out top (which Viks did in the end), I didn't end up rock bottom. A certain lalachai ended up with -50 points eheheheh... kesian... This is so so bad for my body's biological clock. For the last week and the half, I've been sleeping at 6 or 7am and waking up at 1-2pm. Really doesn't bode well for starting hospital work again next week. Die die dieeee...

Well, at least #1 on my to-do list is done, for now

Back for good...?

2007-04-11T19:10:00.000Z

Wow...I haven't written in here for so long that I forgot which username and which password I used for my own blog :P Which can't be a good thing. Early signs of dementia? I hope not... I had gotten a few comments from people who asked 'Eh, y so long never update your blog wan? Everytime only see the February post...what la!!' Oops....gomen nasai mina-san... Lazy mar, what to do. I have attempted quite a few times to put in a new post between Feb and now actually, but after a couple of sentences, I always left it for some other time to complete my post...which obviously never happened :D Oh well.

It's Easter holidays now, and I'm already halfway into the 2nd (and final) week of my ~~very~~ ~~short~~ decent 2 weeks of holidays. Can't complain, knowing how some other people only got the weekend off! My first (and maybe last?) Easter hols that I've not gone anywhere, done any travelling, or spent shit loads of money. Well, maybe I did spend some money...but not as much as I would have if I had gone travelling. Spent loads of money eating out this last few weeks. Ahhh..but worth it la. Dim sum, sushi, otoro sashimi (the best!!! yummy!!), chinese, english, italian, more chinese food... If i haven't put on any pounds (in weight) I'll be very happy liao :D

What else have I been doing then? Had planned to go to Notts, but that didn't happen. Wrong timing, too expensive, procrastinated too much. On the other hand, have been hooked onto Korean dramas though the last couple of months. Discovered a few streaming sites which are really good eheheh --> crunchyroll.com, dailymotion.com, peekvid.com (don't really like this one), veoh.com, and of course, when all else fails, there's always youtube to turn to. Although ~~some~~ most of them have quite predictable storylines, and loads of them have crappy endings (crappy endings = people die and lovers don't end up together living happily ever after...I like fairytale endings, so what ), I'm still liking it!!
Many of the Korean actors and actresses are quite cute/pretty/good-looking (whatever you want to call it), but loads of them seem to be very tall though, compared to the average Asian. Most of the guys seem to be 180cm+, and many of the actresses are 170cm+. Damn. I want to be taller too. And slimmer. And weigh lighter. And prettier. Ahhh...I can just keep on dreaming... dream dream dreammmmm.....Well, at least I picked up a few Korean words... kamsahamnida = thank u (although they have about a hundred different words to say tq as well), mian (or mianhamnida) = i'm sorry, saranghamnida / sarangne = i love u (sarang = love, sarang = nest in malay... love nest? hmmmm) and a few others which I can probably say but can't spell! My new obsession? Maybe... Below is one of my fav songs currently from the many K-dramas that I watched...It's called Perhaps Love ( i thk) from the drama Goong a.k.a. Princess Hours.

Howl - Parrot (Goong MV)
Uploaded by sunshinerain

Went mahjong-ing in Aspers a couple of times til 6am in the last 2 weeks. Wah..now that's definitely something for the holidays heheh =) Had really really bad luck yesterday night though, as I lost about 80% of the time!! Luckily no money involved, don't worry! Whew! But it was still good fun :) Think this Pig Year is definitely not going to be good for me lah. Was sick on my birthday, sliced my finger on CNY's eve, was sick (literally puked) on CNY, have been ill quite a few times since especially during my paeds rotation (yes i know i skived quite a lot, but half the time i was really sick...honest!), having sneezing fits now, tripped and fell a couple of times in the last week, and being really amazingly lazy. Ok, the last one is just me being me hahaha, but the rest does seem to add up to quite a crappy year at times...and it's only April!

But putting that aside, most of the other times have been really good, and good fun too. With my housemates and with friends. It's been decent with my studies too (although I must give myself a D- for effort sometimes :P). There have been ups and downs, frustrations and misunderstandings, but hey, what's life without some interesting events to spice it up right? I just hope that in the end, all will work out to be how it's supposed to be. Maybe something for another post another time. Don't feel like elaborating now.

We've had Edwin's and Vik's birthdays last month, and Nit's 22nd just on the past 8th of April. Bet she's enjoying her time back home in Msia eating all the yummy food. ;) There's another person's birthday coming up some time soon...hmmm wonder who that is? What to get for the b'day present ar? Maybe the £10 juicer from Argos huh... :D we'll see!!

My little effort at making an orange-butter cake for Viks...with frosting that I myself don't eat :D

Obscene? What do you think...?

Birthday boy + the girls...well, mostly :)

Surprise! .>_<.

Spent the whole day today in bed. In my bed clothes. Dang...! Doing absolutely nothing productive except check my emails a hundred and one times while playing freecell when the £^&*("£$* router is d/c (yeay!! both my electives have been approved..so happy!!), eat my lunch and dinner, poke KahYin in facebook, and look for houses for next year. *groan* Fingers crossed that there'll be something good and reasonable left for us at this point in time! Ooh, I nearly forgot. And how could I have...(must have really wanted to put it behind me now)...we also had Malaysian Nite '07 last month!! Haha...Had been so busy and tired with it that it totally slipped my mind to post something on it. I'll post some pictures la! A picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words right, so a few pictures could amount to a few hundred thousand words? Right....

Pre-Malaysian Night - Des Rangila dancers (from L to R, top to bottom):
Carina, Nits, Yvonne, Sarah, Iris, Such
Maz, Jo, Grace & Raneesha (our fantastic choreographer!)

The airport crew (from L to R) - Dipz, Imaan, Su Ann, Sarah, Charles & Viks

This daft rambler with her pubertal-ridden boy (full of acne ;D)

Random pic with random peeps:
Yvonne, Charles, Kah Yin, Sarah, Nicholas,
Nits, Dipak, Grace, Joanna

The modern dance crew:
Luke, Su Ann, Yvonne, Kah Yin, Jia Yi
Raneesha, Dipak, & Sarah's M.I.A.

Me & my hardworking ~~slave~~ stage manager, Alvin
Arigato gozaimasu! .>_<.

Two great singers (Iris & Imaan) with their crappy accompanist...sorry girls!

My feeble attempts at playing the guitar...

...and ~~the piano~~ Iris' keyboard! :D

In the spotlight

My humps revisited - bigger, better, firmer!

Modern dance - final pose

Des Rangila final pose

I love this picture! Picture perfect for the ending ;)

Next thing(s) on my to-do list? (A self-reminder before my dementia kicks in!)

1) Get even at losing in mahjong...must rise up from the deep abyss!! Revenge revenge!!!
2) Birthday card for my bro... he's turning 31 this year! (yech, don't remind me...I know i'm not young anymore either :P)
3) Buy and lovingly wrap up a juicer for someone's birthday present :D
4) Watch Wild Hogs!!! Trailer looks hilarious!
5) Clean up my rubbish-dump-of-a-room and do my mountain-load of laundry before the hols end
6) Contact my 3rd ssc supervisor!!
7) Break-a-leg? Sounds too painful...maybe not ;P
8) Bake cookies!! Bought all the ingredients ages ago. Hope they can still be used...oops!
.
.
.
.
.
100) Make peace with my bloody-blasted-annoyingashell-of-a-router. Stop d/c-ing man!
101) Post something new on my blog.

I'm sure I've got tons more stuff that I need to get done. But one at a time lah!

Another weekend gone by...and it's February already!

2007-02-04T22:19:00.000Z

Time passes wayyyyy too fast for my liking sometimes. Especially when you're a procrastinator like me and have not accomplished anything on my list of to-do things in the last month! I've still not kau-tim my KL electives yet, got my audit to do (which is currently URGENT and at the top of my list), have wanted to put captions on the photos that I've uploaded in the last few entries but keep putting it off juz cos' I don't feel like it, having a look through the many anaesthesia books that I've borrowed, but have a sneaky suspicion that I'll end up returning all of them w/o touching the books, among other things!! IN just a blink of an eye, it's already February of 2007, and we've only got 11 months to go before it's 2008! And that's the year that I'm supposed to graduate and start working as a health professional!! Mannnnnn....too fast too fast. Need to make the most of the remaining time I have as a student!!

Had quite a laid back weekend. Cooked for my housemates today, 4 simple dishes, but I had to make do with whatever I had at home. But I must say my powers of estimation has gotten a wee bit better, as all the food was just about finished (with me sapu-ing the remaining piece of chicken so that it doesn't go to waste or go into the refrigerator...alang alang!). We still had a bowl of rice leftover, but that was because I'd cooked extra 1 cup of rice initially anyway, intending it to be for tomorrow's lunch. It shall be for tomorrow's dinner then, since there's no meat/vege leftover!! yeay!! ^_^ Tried my hand at baking egg tarts yesterday...the egg custard turned out pretty well (as long as you don't overcook it, otherwise it becomes a bit dry and forms air bubbles on the surface), but some of the pastry kinda stuck to the paper-thingys though. Shall attempt it again sometime soon in the future!

Malaysian Nite '07 is coming up soon, 14th of March to be exact, in the Student Union's Bassment! I wonder if I committed myself to too many different things.. :P hmmm...I will have to work it out somehow, but I'm pretty excited about it!! And it's a good time to put my 'powers of persuasion' (re: forcing people to join a performance) to use as well!! Hahaha..Will write more about it later, when everything's clearer and more decided!

One last week in anaesthesia, but I have enjoyed myself pretty much so far. Wonder if this could be an option for a career path in the future?? Hmmmmm.....

61 Dilstoners --> Cheerleaders?

2007-01-25T21:18:00.000Z

Chink vs Paki? In the nicest way possible...no racial slurs intended :)

2007-01-24T23:06:00.000Z

More pictures on the way...solo ones

2007-01-24T22:17:00.000Z

I just love mugshots...don't cha?? .>_<.

More pictures...this is becoming more like a photo blog .>_<.

2007-01-23T16:33:00.000Z

2007-01-23T16:06:00.000Z

Best Birthday!! THanK You everyone!!

2007-01-19T19:05:00.000Z

Once a day --> Once a week?

2007-01-12T21:13:00.000Z

Waaa....can only post once a week ar on this blog? Cannot cannot, must be more hardworking. (Yeah, right!;op)
To mahjong or not to mahjong tonight? Wind is blowing like crazy. Weather is crazy. I'm going crazy. Arghhh. Thank goodness for Bleach ep 110. Now if only I could get my hands on more new Nana with subs & Gokusen Vol 9+!! Damn Am Idol, I thought you were starting this week! Have to wait one more week!!!

I passed, I passed!! Yayyyy!!!

2007-01-05T14:27:00.000Z

I passed my December exams!! Yeayyy! Whew!Thank goodness...after the horrible horrible 2nd exam paper, I made it. S for my 'What' strand, M for my 'How' strand (super surprising, honestly!) God is good lah, seriously :) Thank you everyone for putting up with my un-ending whining about how cruel the exams were.

That aside, we started our SSCs this week. I'm doing Perioperative & Critical Care now (i.e. anaesthesia, in a nutshell). Haven't really got around to being a lot in (operating) theatres yet, coz we went for this CCRISP course the last few days. (CCRISP = Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient) It was meant for SHOs or F2s or ST1/2s, but 2 nurses who were supposed to be there as observers couldn't make it, so me and Viks were lucky enough to get the places. Learnt quite a lot of useful things, and most of it weren't too far above our heads, so that we managed to understand most of what was taught and told. Very interesting, useful & pretty enjoyable too, except that it was pretty long days la (finish at 6pm, start at 8am = LONG DAY).

The communication skills part of the course was scary lar. How to deal with patients, how to break bad news, how to deal with your (sometimes frustrating & grumpy) consultants and peers!! Arrrr...not looking forward to this next time. Other than that, it was basically alot of drumming the system of approaching your critcally ill surgical patient into your head, which by now I can regurgitate too --> ABCDE, Full Hx & Ex, Chart review, reassess --> stable/unstable -->daily Mx plan vs Further Ix & getting senior help.

ABCDEs basically stands for -->
A-Airway (patent airway? O2 sats, give O2),
B-Breathing (RR, depth of expansion, symmetry,percussion,air entry),
C-Circulation (PR&Rhythm, BP, Temp, Cap refill, ?ECG, Fluid input/output, BMs, ?Bloods, ?ABGs),
D-Dysfunction of CNS (AVPU, Pupils),
E-Exposure (Wounds, stomas, bleeding)

See, I learnt (and remembered) something! ;D We also learnt about pain management & sepsis & SIRS & renal fxn & etc....but I shall leave all those for another day .>_<.

Oh well, enough of blabbing today. Here's a 'joke of the day' I got from one forward mail...enjoy!

Subject: Joke Story: Boobs & Willies


A family were sitting around the supper table.
The son asked his father, "Dad, how many kinds of breasts are there?"
The father surprised, answered, "Well, son, there are three kinds of breasts.
In her twenties, a women's breasts are like melons, round and firm.
In her thirties to forties, they have looked like pears, still nice but hanging a bit.
After fifty, they are like onions."
"Onions?"
" Yes, see them and they'll make you cry."

This infuriated the wife and daughter, so the daughter said:
"Mum, how many kinds of willies are there?"
The mother, surprised, smiled and looked at her daughter and answered,
"Well, dear, a man goes through three phases.
In a man's twenties, his Willy is like an oak tree, mighty and hard.
In his thirties and forties, it is like a birch, flexible but reliable.
After his fifties, it is like a Christmas Tree."
" A Christmas tree?"
"Yes, of course, dead from the root up and the balls are for decoration only."

"Ooo... what a pity.... Only decoration, Dad?"

Happy New Year everyone!

2007-01-01T06:37:00.000Z

Happy New Year 2007 peeps!

Another year has gone by, and another new one has arrived. Time passes quickly, especially more when times are good. Looking back at the past year, was there anything significant that I had achieved, I wonder? What were the highs and lows of my past year? I really can't think of anything, except that my eldest brother got married recently, and it's been 3 whole years since I got together with my darling boy (an achievement for both of us! hahaha). Everything else seemed pretty much the same in life. Nothing much changed around me. Don't think I changed much either.

Have I matured any since 01.01.2006? I really don't know, but I do think that I try to be a little bit more pragmatic, a little bit more realistic, a little bit more optimistic & a little bit kinder to people around me. I have tried to be a better daughter in my own little ways, and I have tried to be a better person. But I have my ups and downs too, and every now and again I get a little bit depressed, a little bit frustrated (a whole lot when I'm driving at home), a little bit ill-tempered & a little bit bitchy. But I suppose that's life lah. Nothing's perfect, nobody's perfect. Such as in the Lord's prayer, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'.

What hasn't changed? I'm still the lazy procrastinator that I have always been, my weight is still the bloody same, and I seem to be lacking in motivation & increasing in clumsiness. So I suppose my resolutions for the new year remains the same as it has done the last few years --> Try to be more punctual, more hardworking, must take initiative to do things, lose some weight & tone up & get in (better) shape!! Will I be successful with my resolutions this year? Only time will tell. Wait and see!! .>_<.

Turning 24 in 3 weeks time. Not happy at all about getting older :/ Can anybody cheer me up on this point?

Artistic pics from New Year 2007

2007-01-01T04:51:00.000Z

Our living room wall

Artistic take on a coke can

Absinthe - 60% alcohol burning

Chinese chess

Nicely done, very tender beef for dinner

More alcohol

Our little Christmas tree

Dr Goh - all the way from York

Peng Yi...

... & Jia Yi

Joanna

James...

... & Fang En

Yee Xian

Albert

Eng Wai - deep in concentration

Lukey - chef for the night

Seak Chiew - owner of this fab SLR camera & posing like L from Death Note .>_<.
This daft rambler

Charlie boy enjoying his whisky

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil ---> in 2007

Uweh!! I dowan to go back to Newcastle to face my exam results!

2006-12-29T16:39:00.000Z

Shiattt...the last time I posted, I said I still had 2 weeks to go (of my holidays). In a blink of an eye, I'm back in KLIA already. Uweh!!! At least the wifi connection's pretty good this time round. So sad, I don't want to leave home. Don't want to leave my parents. (Hmmm I sound like an anak manja haahaha)

Oh well, shall brace myself for whatever's coming in the new year.

Expect more updates when I'm back in Newcastle!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2007 minasan!! .>_<.

More wedding pictures

2006-12-29T16:16:00.000Z

Family photo @ photo studio...I like! .>_<.

With mummy & 2 sis-in-laws

Yee sou (2nd sis-in-law) & me by our very unused baby grand ^_^

Bride & Groom with cute twins-flower girls & ring-bearer boy

Wedding over

2006-12-18T08:34:00.000Z

Hmm, I thought that I would post about my exams once I got home, but now I don't feel like thinking about it even. So I shall just post about happier things lah ;)

Have been back for a week now. Gosh, time really flies. Too fast too fast! Have been busy the past week helping with some of the wedding preparations for my eldest brother. Wedding was last Saturday, and everything went pretty well lah, if I should say so.

Our family photo, with grandma and eldest uncle+wife as well.

2 more weeks to go now. I don't want my hols to finish so soon. How leh how???

After exams, going home

2006-12-10T22:26:00.001Z

I'm actually writing this from my laptop while waiting in transit at Dubai Airport (2.30 am Dubai time). Free wireless connection, quite nice ;)

Exams are over, will write about them when I'm back home. In a nutshell, they were disastrous. 'Nuff said for now.

Will be back home for 3 weeks, and 2 of 'em while the other chabo's around as well. So happy!

But missing my darling boy though. Good in a way to be apart for awhile so I get a little bit of my own breathing space every now and again, but not-so-good because I miss having him to hug and cuddle at night, every nite.

Connection's not very good, so shall sign off here. Good luck 3rd years for your OSCEs! Gambatte ne!

countdown :: one week to go ::

2006-11-30T00:11:00.000Z

One week til exams. I'm so very dead.

Started revising

2006-11-20T13:22:00.000Z

It's a beautiful, sunny (albeit deceptively freezing cold) day outside with bright blue skies ;)

I've finally worked up the mood to start revising liao. Thank God!

Hopefully I still have enough time to finish most of my revision, even if it's just about enough. Keeping my fingers crossed. Wish me luck, people!

One of those days...

2006-11-19T03:37:00.000Z

Have you ever had one of those days where you just felt like crap, no matter what?

Have you ever had one of those days when you were just being a bitch bitching about others, but felt so incredibly lousy about what you did afterwards?

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing just seems to interest you?

Have you ever had one of those days when you wish you were just a teenager all over again, without worries and responsibilities that adults have to bear?

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt so alienated by the whole world, but still made no initiative to approach anyone else?

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like a stupid, lousy friend (if you can even call yourself a friend) who makes presumptions & assumptions, and takes for granted what other people thought without finding out what they actually thought or felt?

Have you ever had one of those days when you just felt like being alone in your own little cubby hole without feeling guilt-ridden or unworthy or crappy, without a care in the world, without being a bitch or feeling the need to bitch?

Well, today I felt like the friend from hell, unable to stop feeling frustrated about petty little things, unable to be more carefree, unable to be more open about everything.

Today I felt like a teenager no more, realising that it's only over a mere two months before I reach the age of 24.

Today I felt unable to be a good friend, a good partner, a good housemate, a good person.

Today I felt like the bitch-of-a-friend that no one should ever have or need to have.

But through it all, I feel that today is like a lesson in life to be learned for me.

I feel lucky to have friends that I can talk to, friends that I can feel happy with while I'm with them, friends whose company makes me forget all my feelings of unworthiness while I'm with them, friends who distract my troubles away even if it is momentarily, friends who are exactly who they are - my friends.

I feel blessed to have loved ones surround me. I feel blessed to have hugs and kisses whenever I'm feeling lonely or down. I feel blessed to have someone to grumble to, someone to cuddle up to, someone to keep me warm at night (well, besides my duvet and bolster lar.)

I feel blessed that I'm given a chance to live another day, to make good what I have made bad yesterday, to make up for my bitching and bitchiness, to cherish the bonds I have with my loved ones, my friends, my housemates, my family, myself.

Sorry, everyone, for my unworthiness. Arigato gozaimasu, minasan, for your understanding and patience with me.

The Drug Song

2006-11-15T00:22:00.000Z

Oh one more post. Before I forget. During one of the CPT presentations today, one of the groups ended their presentation with this song --> ?The Drug Song (I dunno what the song's called). But it's very interesting and especially funny at the end lah. And most of the drugs (when I say drugs I mean medication drugs in this context, not recreational drugs!) are actually pretty common...which is to say, I've actually heard of most of them before. ENJOY~

Lunatic rantings

2006-11-14T23:39:00.000Z

As I re-read my previous post to see if there was maybe anything that I shouldn't have written (and no, 'fuck' doesn't count), a thought came to me. Maybe I should change the title of this blog to 'Rants of a Lunatic', or 'Lunatic Rantings', coz I think I pretty much sounded like one. Do you agree? (And no, I'm not really asking for an answer. It's more like a rhetorical question.)

On a side note, I tried making some onde-onde (with fake green colouring, and fake pandan flavouring), as well as 'emperor rolls' (which is like a swiss roll, but using glutinous rice flour and red bean paste & sesame seeds instead) the other day. Edible lah

On another side note, we had a CPT therapeutics clinical quiz-thingy today. Damn, I don't know anything. Die die die die die....

Unbelievably high annoyance level (if it makes any sense)

2006-11-14T23:33:00.000Z

I had the utmost unbelievably annoying & frustrating day today. Seriously man, my 'annoyance' level was at its peak today. I've never felt as annoyed & frustrated as I did today. And it was all to do with the stupid CRB check & the frustratingly annoying lady that insisted on me producing another form of ID besides my passport, e.g. driving licence, birth certificate, or national insurance number. WTF lah. I don't work here, so I don't have an NI number first of all, and secondly, what's the stupid point of showing her my driving licence or birth cert anyway when they're not even in English! Tried explaining to her that the instruction form didn't specify that we needed TWO forms of identification, but she still insisted I get it today as well. Fuck lah.

Had to troop ALL the way back home to get my driving licence, 2o mins uphill, and this was after walking 20 mins to the med school and waiting in the bloody queue for 1/2 hour! Cussed the whole way back home, and cussed the whole way back to the med school. Tried to run part of the way to blow off some steam, but when I got back to the boardroom, THAT particular lady who took my half-filled form wasn't there, out of everyone possible that could have not been there. WArghHhhH! So annoyed.

Had to go for my seminar then so had to rush off anyway. Couldn't wait for her to come back. Still felt quite pissed during the seminar so I just shut up for the better part of the hour and did not contribute to the group discussion. Finally spoke up when my patience pret-ty much ran out when the discussion was draggin along oh-so-slowly. And they only had TWO facilitators for SIXTEEN groups, out of which, 2 groups probably monopolized them for most of the 1 1/2 hrs of our seminar. Geram geram!!!!

Went back to the undergrad faculty office after seminar to look for the other lady in-charge when I was told she would be out for lunch, and only back at 2.15pm. Great, when I have a lecture at 2pm. Apelar. Nevermind, I thought. Can go during the break in-between group presentations and the next CPT thingy. So, I went then, bringing along my passport, my driving licence, my IC, & a photostat copy of my birth certificate. Stoopid me thought they only needed to see one of those since the earlier lady already saw my bank statement to compare the address. But ooohhh nooooooo was I ever so wrong. The part of the CRB form where they had to tick stating that they referenced the address in the form to my current address on a bill/statement had NOT been ticked yet, so I had to go allllll the way back to the lecture theatre to get my bank statements.

As you can probably imagine, I was right about ready to keel over/break something/scream at somebody, but thankfully and luckily, the lady-in-charge, Angela was a really really nice person with such a smiley cheery disposition that I calmed down a bit. When I asked her why other (international) students only needed to show their passports earlier and not another form of ID, she said, actually the passport and a bank statement was already sufficient, but it's better to have 3 (i.e. passport, driving licence, & bank statement), just in case. WTF? JUST IN CASE? Just in case what? Just in case they send the CRB form back? WELL...she said that they do that occasionally anyway even when no errors could be found on the form. !!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHH!!!

And when I come home, and see the kitchen counter cluttered, the utensils not in the right rack, the pots in the dish drainer instead of the pots rack/stand thingy, the sink clogged with spaghetti, the dish-washing liquid diluted, the sponges stuck with filth from someone's food, the trash overflowing...warghhhhkkhhh! TAK BOLEH TAHAN I tell you!!! Since I don't own this house or the kitchen, and no one else seems to be really complaining, I don't feel like it's really in my place to say anything more than I've already done previously lah. Otherwise feel like control freak liddat. Always said that if you wanted something done (unless you've been put in-charge and have the power to delegate other people to do it for you), just get it done yourself. It's the fastest and most efficient way of getting something done.

So since I can't really do anything about the kitchen, I shall post here what MY ideal kitchen rules would be like (if I ruled the house, which I don't la in reality, so don't take this the wrong way...I just want to rant abit.) :

First and foremost, don't behave like your mom's living in the house and will clean up after you. You're an adult now so behave responsibly like one! Don't expect other people to always clean up your mess, and please pitch in to help keep the kitchen clean.
Don't clog up the bloody sink with your leftover food waste. The strainer serves a purpose. Put it to good use and just throw the leftovers away after you're done with your washing. Not a very difficult task.
The dish drainer is there for dishes to drain. Put all pots and pans back where you took them from (i.e. the pot stand/rack thingy or above the cupboards) after you've washed them as they take up too much space on the dish drainer and other people have no place to dry their dishes later. That, or people just stack and pile dishes on top of each other until they're about the height of the Eiffel tower. (And I'm guilty of doing that as well, I must admit)
There's a reason why the utensils drainers/rack-thingys have compartments. So that you can separate the spoons & forks from the knives, the other sharp bladey stuff from the ladles & scoops. And since it's already been done for you initially, all you have to do is put your ONE knife, your ONE spoon, and your ONE ladle to their own draining-thingys. Don't have to chuck everything together and mess everything up!
STOP BLOODY DILUTING THE BLOODY DISH WASHING LIQUID.
Wash/Clean/Rinse the sponges after you've used them to scrub your pots & pans. It's damn yucky when other people want to use them and they've got rice and vege and raw chicken membranes still stuck on it.
Try and keep the kitchen counter as clutter-free as possible. Of course you can use it, but clean up after yourself lah within the next 1 or 2 days. It's an eye-sore when there are a thousand and one things left on the kitchen-top for days on end.
STOP BLOODY THROWING RUBBISH INTO AN ALREADY FULL RUBBISH BIN, so much so that when the next person tries to lift the rubbish bag out of the bin to change it, the bag either spills over or rips. Not pleasant at all, k?
Throw your expired food out of the fridge. And close the fridge/freezer doors properly.

Whew! That was a mouthful. Ahhhh...feel so much more relieved and calm now. Peace!

I feel sick.

2006-11-12T16:51:00.000Z

Acgkkk.

My blocked/runny nose is getting worse. Plus I've got a sore throat building up. How many more pills do I have to pop before I get well/wasted? How many more boxes of tissue paper do I have to go through before my nose gets some relieve?

I just don't feel like doing anything. Lethargic & moody. *Sigh*

On a side note though, last week's Desperate Housewives' episode 'Bang' (season 3 episode 7) must have been one of the best episodes ever in the show's history. Full of suspense, thrilling & a tear-jerker at the end. Really good episode.

House on the other end...hmmm, so-so lah. I've seen better episodes.

The weekend is here...again!

2006-11-11T03:47:00.000Z

Hmmm...times flies. I still remember posting last weekend with the title 'Weekend' like it was just yesterday. Eeeppp...maybe time flies abit too fast la. This means exams are approaching soon. And I'm soooo not ready for it yet. Macam mana leh? Matiiiiii....

Went to watch The Prestige on Wednesday with my kaypoh-kong, Sarah & Dipz. We got tickets for only £2.65 each using the Orange 2for1 thingy. Quite worth it la. Definitely worth the watch, but only if you have the ability to pay attention for 2 hours 15 mins or so. And I mean continuous attention, coz if you miss a minute of the show, you pretty much get lost in the storyline/plot. Cannot go tandas if you're watching it in the cinema. Not recommended for people with short attention span (or poor bladder control, for that matter).

The movie is based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Christopher Priest, and follows mostly the same storyline until a certain point, where it takes on a slightly different direction. 'The Prestige' is actually a term made up by the author, coined from the word 'prestidigitation'.

Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation ('quick fingers') or legerdemain (from the French for 'lightness of hand'), is the set of techniques used by a magician(or card sharp) to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly. Sleight of hand is not a branch of magic, but rather the means used by a magician to achieve magical effects. The techniques involved are sometimes difficult and may need months or years of practice before they can be performed proficiently. (source: Wikipedia)

What's it about? It's about 2 magicians (The Great Danton vs The Professor) and their obsession with finding out how the other person does his ultimate illusion/trick, 'The Original/New/Real Transported Man'. And their obsession drives their rivalry to no ends, including secrecy, sacrifice, sabotage & death. Talk about 'misdirection'. Who lives and who dies in the end? Whose version of the Transported Man ultimately predominates? Who was right and who was wrong? Who made the ultimate sacrifice in The Prestige, (the final stage of the act after The Pledge and The Turn)? You'll leave the cinema theatre discussing all that and more. Very intriguing movie. Highly recommended! Don't Wikipedia it unless you don't mind spoilers for the show! You have been warned!

Oh, by the way, we got allocated our Base Units for 5th year today. I got my first choice, which is Tyne. That's one thing settled. Now where is Charlie boy gonna apply for his F1 post leh? Only time will tell. Have to look for new house/housemates in the near future. Argghkk. So malas to pindah. But have to la. Dowan to continue staying in such a big house (although I love my housemates...well, most of them, most of the time. Hahahah...). Any offers out there?

Su Ann will be cooking up a storm over in Brighton Grove tomorrow, while Chia Ying is already cooking up a storm now for dinner tomorrow (well, technically it's already today) night in our kitchen now (now = 3am!). Feast! Yum yum. But I haven't been to the gym the whole week. No gym, no swimming, no badminton. Damn. Too lazy. Next week HAVE to go. Well, at least I still went for the dance sessions. That should count for something. Right? Right...! ;D Hmmm...I don't sound very convincing, do I?

My *@%$"£ stupid nose still gets blardi congested EVERY SINGLE night. Pengsan!! Benci benci benci. And it gets dark so early now every day. I can feel SAD coming on already soon. (SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder, i.e. feeling down & in a depressed-like mood when the seasons change, when it becomes gloomy, cold & dark all the time *sigh*) Cheer me up, somebody?

Kay Poh Kong

2006-11-08T01:08:00.000Z

My boyfriend is a masochistic kay-poh kong who doesn't read my blog because he claims that "why should he find out about his gf's thoughts from her blog when she should be telling him everything anyway!" Yeah, rite. Talk to you about Britney divorcing Kevin, talk to you about what's going on in Bleach and Naruto, talk to you about Desperate Housewives. Ex-coo-zeh muah (excusez moi)!!! Soooooo not on the same wavelength k. And besides, I've got 'better' things to talk to you about besides all these random, rambling, daft thoughts anyway hehehe. Plus, how to manja on a blog leh? Dohhhh!!

NB: I don't torture you k. Neither do I 'execute' domestic violence. Don't exaggerate!!! ~~Slap you baru tau!~~ Oops...Hahaha...

Stop sigh-ing damnit!

2006-11-08T00:56:00.000Z

Why am I sighing so much? Stop sighing! Stop being lazy! Stop procrastinating! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start working your arse off coz exams are in a month's time! Stop feeling in awe at other people's determination & hard work, and use it instead to motivate yourself to start working! Work damnit work!!!

Britney's divorcing Kevin...finally!

2006-11-08T00:36:00.000Z

[http://uk.news.yahoo.com/07112006/323/britney-spears-files-divorce-court-documents.
html] Oh well, old news is better than no news huh. This marriage just seemed like a time-bomb ticking away, waiting to explode. And it's gonna. Soon. Oh well. I suppose Britney must be thanking her lucky stars that there's something called a prenuptial agreement, as she's apparently estimated to be worth USD 123 MILLION...wowweee!! That's A LOT of money! Celebrities..! I like her sons' names though -- Sean & Jayden. Very nice. At least she didn't name them weird names (e.g. Apple, Dweezil, Satchel, Tiger Lily Heavenly Hirani <--that's ONE person's name, Fifi-Trixibelle, Jermajesty etc.) [http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-5-2005-78233.asp] & [http://www.rateitall.com/t-21102-strange-celebrity-baby-names.aspx]

Had a little KMYS/KYUEMians gathering with the current headmaster, Mr Small, the Board of Gov guy, Dr Ikmal, & Mr Foreman ( I think that's how you spell his name...?) at the medical school earlier this evening. The number of KMYSians coming to Newcastle seems to be increasing every year. 1st ever KMYSian to land in Newcastle was Huong Nai, who's now an F1 doctor already. After that was Charles (the only one coz apparently there was some cock-up with the UCAS application forms, coz the other forms got misplaced or something), then our year had 4 of us, following year had Iris ++++ (I dunno how many, but definitely >4 people), then the current 1st & 2nd year juniors have 8 or more per year I think. Wahhh Newcastle becoming more popular. Yeay!!!

Free day tomorrow. M.u.s.t. s.t.u.d.y....! 1 month to exams. Arghhhhhkkkk WHY AM I SO DAMN LAZY? Shiattt...sigh.

SLR vs normal digicam. Sigh.

2006-11-07T23:43:00.000Z

Pics from previous post - my old olympus camera. Such amazingly chinchai-taken photos, such craptastic blurness (noooo focus whatsoever), such a lousy photographer (i.e. me lah, who else).

Pics below from Seak Chiew's SLR camera (Bonfire Nite). Such amazing sharpness, such amazing clarity, such amazing colours, such a good photographer. Jeles! Haha..jkjk. Respect!

Bonfire Night @ Fenham Field

2006-11-05T22:01:00.000Z

Half the weekend gone + annoying congested nose!

2006-11-05T03:29:00.000Z

Wow, "blink an eye", and half the weekend has disappeared just like that. It's 3.20am Sunday morning right now, and I'm still not asleep coz I'm waiting for my decongestant medicine to kick in and clear my beladi congested nose first. Otherwise it's superly uncomfortable to sleep breathing through your mouth with one nose blocked. Can't imagine how people with COPD or any other lung diseases sleep lah. Even congested nose already I cannot tahan. Don't even talk about obstructed airways or restricted airspace in your lungs. (I got very low threshold for discomfort eh )

Hmmm, so what have I been doing for the last couple of days? Goodness me, I have to sit and think hard what happened 2 days ago...my memory must really be going...going down the drain liao. Ah yes, Friday night I attempted to cook curry fish head (Charles bought a couple of huge salmon fish heads some time ago for 50pence each) with the help of a nyonya asam fish curry packet. Turned out not bad la My standards not very high, so pretty easily satisfied lar.

Then slept til the wee hours of Saturday morning and went for lunch with Dipak @ Bangkok Cafe. We were joined later by Lukey, Dr Wai & her sec school friend who's an F1 in Dundee now, Dr Yong a.k.a. Michael Simon. Long story about how his 'a.k.a. name' came about, but...nevermind. Too lazy to explain. And btw, that's not really his name la. Ate some chicken tomyam soupy dish + masaman (kinda like chicken curry + potatoes + nuts) which was not too bad lah. I think the food Dipak & Luke & Carolyn ate the night before sounded better lar, especially the super hot & spicy green curry. Plus, they had this really pretty Thai waitress too, which Luke & Dipak couldn't stop gushing about after dinner hahaha.

Went to buy a few things after lunch to make sushi for later (my little contribution for dinner). You can't believe how bloody difficult it is to find mirin to put in the sushi rice. Finally bought some rice vinegar for sushi thingy (plus alot of other unnecessary nice stuff hence spending unnecessary money). Made sushi later with altogether SIX cups of japanese rice + smoked salmon/japanese-styled eggs/cucumber with the help of 'Master Chef' Lee SC in cutting the sushi into pieces, coz I sucked at cutting through the nori sheets without destroying the 'isi' in the process. Tooked some over to the guys' house while the rest started a karaoke session in Dilston. Played some foosball (& learnt that I sucked at playing YET another game ), had a gin+coke, a few sips of whisky+coke (gave the rest to Nits...thanks Nits!), and watched them play a bit of Risk before deciding to head back home.

Got home nearly a couple hours after I arrived at the guys' house (had only intended to stay 15 minutes initially!!), & they'd already finished their karaoke session. So fast! Had a chitchat session with Lukey for awhile on various stuff while EW & Charles battled it out on the chinese chess battleground :D And finally, here I am. Oh, and I've also been busy figuring out how to change the layout on this blog. Very interesting, but also quite difficult to figure out what is what in HTML language/CSS stuff. And I also didn't realise until KahYin told me that the fancy-fancy fonts that I changed on this blog can only be seen from my comp coz they're not the core fonts that the blogsite or web or something has. Sigh, so disappointed.

Argkhk. Just had ANOTHER sneezing fit. So sien already. NB to my nose: Stop acting up everytime the weather turns cold already. ANNOYING!!

Photos galore

2006-11-03T21:44:00.000Z

Lemon Cheesecake & Death by Choc by ME!

The 5 heroes from 61-63 Dilston Road after Est Est Est

Est Est Est - Hooi Sze's farewell dinner
(Our house + Seak Chiew's gf Felice + Dr Carolyn Wai - Luke who went to the loo I think, but you can see him in the pic above or below, partially)

Deeparaya potluck @ the girls' house - oodles & oodles of a variety of food; those currypuffs were made by yours truly

Sarah & myself smothering Imaan with a smooch-wannabe

My glutton-wannabe darling boy @ Burnside's open house with yummy char kuay tiaw-like macaroni & all-original ayam masak merah, among other things

One among the dozen beautiful roses from our 3rd anniversary in this relationship

Back from hiatus (I hope!)

2006-11-03T12:07:00.000Z

Chibi Byakuya Taichou - kawaii!

Man..it's been what, 3 weeks now that I've not blogged anything. Quite a lot has happened during that period of time though. Finished my bleach marathon (am loving the filler arc, better than I had expected--> especially luuurrve the Byakuya-Kariya-Ichigo 3-way showdown!!), then we had Deeparaya ala pot-luck style @ the girl's house on Brighton Road, more Deepavali/Diwali food at Raneesha's place (where I got pretty lucky in Monopoly, + vegetarian food never tasted so good before ^_^), Burnside's open house which had fantastic food, went out 'clubbing' a couple of times (improvement from previous years, coz I normally only go out once a semester! ;D and I even managed to get a mini hangover the first time! Hey, wait, I blogged about that already.. oh well.. whatever!), celebrated Iris & Eng Wai's 22nd birthdays, Cyn's & Zhe Hui's birthdays were remembered too, celebrated my very own 3rd anniversary with my darling boy (an achievement for both of us, 1st time both of us lasted this long in a relationship heheheh), had a couple of farewell dinner thingys for Hooi Sze who's back in Malaysia now, had our first Malsoc meeting which went pretty well I thought, and had immense problems with our internet connection disconnecting frequently at night. (I'm sure I left some stuff out which I can't remember now, but blimey, I'm getting old(er) anyway so I've got an excuse to not remember!! ;p )

Whew, what a mouthful! Will post up pictures later. All is well now except for the fact that I'm already flat broke a month before Christmas; and my nose is beladi congested constantly causing me loads of discomfort and lack of sleep; and the fact that I STILL haven't got around to start studying yet. WHY oh why am I so bloody damn lazy???!! Isn't there a cure for procrastination and laziness?? If anyone knows of one please let me know. Called home yesterday after 2 1/2 weeks (yes I'm just lazy and procrastinating, so sue me :P). Mom was pretty excited about the list of things I'm supposed to do when I'm home, which includes baking cakes (very specifically, a chocolate log cake for a friend's housewarming! Am I supposed to have taken baking lessons here??? Fill me in...) and cookies for CNY. Hmmmm....lemme just get through the Dec exams first....eheheh. And see if I'm still alive after that.

Went for Latin & Ballroom dance classes yesterday with Such. Loving it! Fun, funny, & fab songs to boot, what more can I ask for? And we get to learn various different dances too, which are generally divided into fast or slow, and latin or ballroom dance (duh!). So far we've gone through some basics of Waltz, Tango, Paso Doble, Rhumba, Sidestep, Chacha & Jive (which is really fun!) Looking forward to next week's class! ;) I've also been swimming a couple of times, which is always a nice change of scene from the treadmill and weight machines. Felt like I've achieved quite a lot this semester in everything EXCEPT my studies. HeLP!!!!!!!

Blogging Hiatus

2006-10-14T03:15:00.000Z

On a Bleach marathon. Do Not Disturb.

Busy day cooking tomorrow as well. Again Do Not Disturb.

@_@ Panda eyes already.

Ban Kai --- Tensa Zangetsu!

Byakuya-Ichigo-Kariya 3-way fight is the awesomest!

And Nova too. He's just too cool. ;D

I'm a goner. Need to sleep now.

Jazz & Hip Hop Dancing

2006-10-10T06:32:00.000Z

There's a saying that goes, "That which does not kill you can/will only make you stronger."

Attending the jazz/hip hop dance class at the sports centre yesterday with Imaan nearly killed me, but it didn't. So, will it make me stronger? I hope so. Otherwise, I don't think I can last the whole semester before fracturing some bones or straining some muscles. The vid above shows two separate jazz and hip hop dances (just to give you an idea of what jazz/hip hop dancing is all about, coz I myself had nooooooooo idea whatsoever what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this class!), and this was the best choreographed group I could find while searching for jazz/hip hop dance on youtube. (Well, that, and also that I sieved through only the first 15 videos or so down the list. Lazy mah.)

It's that beladi time of the month again (both figuratively and literally speaking), and I'm feeling all flu-ey and sneezy and sore throat-ey (is there even such a word?) and bunged up, AND I'm on the verge of dying from anaemia now. Oklar, just being a drama queen. Maybe not dying from anaemia, but I'm certainly not jumping around for joy or anything like that. Besides, I had my fair share of pimples popping up on my face last week, so I'm allowed to be dramatic & unreasonable for now I'm TATT (that's tired all the time for all you non-medics) and have been dozing off in a couple of lectures. Sigh. Give me STRENGTHHH!!!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I haven't been revising or studying, but that's not entirely true. I have been revising a little bit, unfortunately it's just not on the subject that I'm currently being taught about My dearest roomie is doing his paediatrics rotation now, and I was erm, 'roped in' to revise with him a little a few days ago. Lemme regurgitate what I learnt/revised the other day:

5 organic causes of FTT (failure to thrive - us medics just lurve our acronyms, don't we?)

Reduced (or inadequate) intake - e.g. any neuromuscular or mechanical disorder that affects the oral/peri-oral area hence obstructing feeding (which may also cause aspiration), poor diet/nutritional imbalance
Reduced absorption (malabsorption) - e.g. coeliac disease, CF, pancreatic insufficiency
Reduced utilisation - e.g. endocrine problems including diabetes insipidus, hypothyroidism
Increased energy requirement - e.g. hyperthyroidism, infections, malignancy
Reduced potential for growth - e.g. genetic/chromosomal abnormalities which results in stunted growth, fetal insults including FAS and drug-addicted babies (due to the mothers being on cocaine etc. while they were pregnant)

Oklah, enough for now. Can't think anymore. Woke up too early this morning (6am) to go pee and didn't feel like sleeping again after that. I want my bed and bolster now. (But I'll most probably just continue watching the Bleach double-episode that I was watching halfway last night). TTFN!

Satisfying weekend

2006-10-09T01:25:00.000Z

Nope, I didn't manage to do any revision or 'homework' or anything like that. Surprisingly, I didn't do any shopping whatsoever either the whole weekend. Wah, achievement! My satisfaction comes from:

the fact that I had a great Friday night out...
...and a mild hangover on Saturday morning as a result!
a great Saturday nite Tandoori dinner at the guys' house (plus discovering that I suck BIG TIME at foosball :P)
a really nice Japanese tempura set lunch on Sunday at this relatively new Japanese restaurant in town called Sagawa, not too expensive
a fab dinner cooked by Sarah at her house Sunday nite, which included a dish called Jambalaya (remember the song?), paprika chicken, cous cous & vege casserole

Wah. Kenyang sudah! But because I'm such a glutton, I'm still munching on McVities' HobNobs at this unearthly hour in the middle of the nite. Someone smack me please!

glut‧ton1 [gluht-n]
–noun
1. a person who eats and drinks excessively or voraciously.

2. a person with a remarkably great desire or capacity for something: a glutton for work; a glutton for punishment.

[Origin: 1175–1225; ME glutun <>glouton <>gluttōn- (s. of gluttō), var. of glūtō glutton, akin to glūtīre to gulp down]

—Synonyms 1. gourmand; gastronome; chowhound.

Wah, so fast another week gone by liao. I still remember blogging about the GNR last weekend. Time really does fly by sometimes! And have I been doing anything productive? I doubt it, unless you consider reading other people's blogs as productive. One of my favourite blogs is kennysia.com, who blogs about ordinary things in daily life with an interesting perspective and often with a sarcastic sense of humour as well. Today (well, technically speaking it was yesterday) his blog entry was about part of his recent trip to New Zealand, where he got to see a performance of a Maori Haka dance, which he video-ed as well:

If you listen intently and carefully enough, you can just about make out the words 'urukhai', 'f*ck me', & 'gambatte' in the Haka song...hahaha... and don't confuse Haka with Hakka, the latter being one of many Chinese dialects. Different, k!

Now compare it with a Haka done by the All Blacks (NZ's international rugby union team).

Cool eh? What a way to boost team morale AND intimidate your opponents (in this case, the Aussies) at the same time as well! Just a little bit of info about the All Blacks from Wikipedia:

Rugby union is New Zealand's premier sport, and selection for the All Blacks is considered the highest honour that a Kiwi rugby union player can achieve. The All Blacks have always been a formidable power in international rugby union. As well as winning the Rugby World Cup in 1987 they have been Tri Nations champions seven times and have twice (in 1978 and in 2005) completed the Grand Slam (wins over England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland) in tours of the Home nations as well as being current holders of the Bledisloe Cup which is the trophy in an annual series against Australia. They are currently the number one ranked team in the world.

Great North Run 2006

2006-10-07T16:32:00.000Z

Here are some random pics I took during the Great North Run in Newcastle this year:

Runners at the beginning of the Tyne Bridge

I think there were 9 jets here. Awesome view!!

Man, woman, clown, or mad British person?

It's all for a good cause - people running to raise money for various charities whilst baking in those full-body suits!

Hungover

2006-10-07T11:12:00.000Z

*groan*

headaches

nausea

thankfully no vomiting (must be a first! hahaha)

thankfully no abdo pain of any sort either (unlike last last last time, and this time i had my Buscopan ready as well!)

and surprisingly i was less flushed than i thought i would be, and a lot more sober than i expected, especially having not done anything like this in quite a while now. maybe just a teeny bit tipsy.

would i do it all over again? you betcha i would, but not anytime in the near future. the headaches attacking at 2 hours post-alcohol consumption (was it 6 or 7 shots? watever...) is just too much to bear on a regular basis. *groan again...reaching for a couple of paracetamols and a glass of water*

on the other hand, i did have a pretty good time. thanx guys, for making it an enjoyable nite. plus the place we went to, called Blue, was actually more decent than what my initial impression had given me. the songs they played were fab - pretty recent stuff to the 90s and 80s, our generation's ('growing up') songs. and thankfully the DJ didn't blast continuous unbearable techno-ish stuff. and i'm grateful that i had the opportunity to leave a little earlier. it was probably good for me. at least i didn't pass out at that place.

earlier in the evening, didn't get the opportunity to actually play with the tanglungs, but hung around at the juniors' house for a bit. very meriah! very nice oh but i heard that the 'walking around the neighbourhood with the tanglungs' turned out to be pretty enjoyable as well, despite the cold and the wind. seronoknya! ^g^

Nooooooo.....

2006-10-06T18:19:00.000Z

*Please ignore this post if you don't read or haven't read this week's Bleach & Naruto*

Asuma's going to die? Noooooo....

On the other hand, go Rukia, go Renji!!! Alright man!! Don't they juz make a nice couple, R&R?

It's da weekend! ;)

2006-10-06T17:33:00.000Z

Yes people, it's the weekend again. And soon it'll be Saturday nite, then it'll be Sunday, and before you know it, a new week has started again. (shit, talk about being super-pessimistic! hahaha)

No la, actually I'm not as pessimistic as I sound, I think...I hope! I would prefer to think of myself as more of a pragmatist (i.e. a practical person) and sometimes optimistic. Hey, who am I kidding, I'm just a damn lazy procrastinator who can't be arsed to do anything until the very last minute. Agreed?

Anyway, what have I done today? Woke up around 9-ish, checked e-mails, watched three-quarters of 'The Devil Wears Prada' (Anne Hathaway is so pretty! Well, so is Adrian Grenier la, but gosh, he doesn't look like he's already 30! ), arrived at Base Unit Lecture nearly 10 minutes late (but there were many who were later! ehehe). Then, went to the BIG Tesco @ Kingston Park with Such. We had free one-week metro passes that was given out the other day. But then again, there was not a single metro inspector in sight throughout our whole journey there and back. (Pointless!) Finally bought a pair of white jeans for £7.50 (ahhh just soooo worth it! on sale summore) and a blouse. Then went shopping in the rest of Tesco. Would have spent more than I did had Such not ~~dragged me away kicking & screaming~~ said 'Let's GO!' to me. Thank you Such!!! Who knows how much MORE I would have spent if Such hadn't done that.

Then we went back for the Case Round-Up at 4pm ( I tell you they timetable this slot at this 'graveyard hour' just to torture us...4pm on a Friday afternoon!) . Haematologists are quite fun & interesting doctors, aren't they? No I meant that honestly, not with any sarcasm la. Most of them were quite interesting. Makes haematology a lot more appealing than before.

Came back after lecture. Finished watching Devil-Prada, and going to prepare dinner later. (Ooh, I also bought some salmon and trout at Tesco earlier). Later popping by the juniors' house to play tanglung (lantern). It's the Lantern/Mooncake Festival today, if i'm not mistaken! Sadly, I finished eating all the mooncake that I brought over liao. Then, even later, may or may not go out with the others. Depends on my mood and the weather lah. Jangan marah if I don't go out ye...

Suri Rumah Habis Ikhtiar

2006-10-04T13:13:00.000Z

a.k.a. Desperate Housewives
or Suri Rumah Putus Harapan, or Suri Rumah Nekad?
(http://www.terjemah.net.my/kamus/kamusOnline)

or even better, "Suri Rumahtangga Berani!" (http://www.wisdom.com.my/wisem2/Em2.asp)

Have just watched the 1st 2 episodes from the brand new 3rd season of Desperate Housewives. Hadn't intended to start watching it initially, but since House M.D. is on a beladi one-month hiatus due to some Major League thingy showing on US tv or something, I decided to download and watch DH instead. Watched the whole of Season 1 previously, but only watched a few random sporadic episodes of Season 2. Didn't particularly like season 2, but I did read episode recaps online to catch up with the storyline though. I must say, Season 3 is looking much more promising than season 2. They've brought in a few new characters, and taken away a few old characters. The plot twists are neverending, and some are just hilarious. The one that had me in stitches (although it was a smidgen predictable) was the part in episode 2 (DON'T CONTINUE READING THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS! DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!) when Xiao Mei delivered Gabrielle and Carlos' baby...well, it didn't end up being their baby, that's for sure! Hahaha...unless either Gabby or Carlos or both of them underwent some serious skin bleaching ala Michael Jackson!

Thumbs up for DH Season 3. So far so good, keeping my fingers crossed that it'll keep on being as or even more interesting and entertaining throughout the rest of the season!

Day off, day off. Ahhh seronoknye! Here are the men of DH S3~ Enjoy!

Sick/Weird/Interesting stories from the news

2006-10-03T16:55:00.000Z

SICKO NEWS
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/penn.shooter/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/amish.shooting/

http://news.yahoo.com/ (and search for: amish shooting)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6121896,00.html

Some excerpts from this news:

Monday, (Charles) Roberts (a 32 year old father of three) walked into the one-room school in the Pennsylvania countryside carrying two guns. He let the boys and adults leave, tied up 10 girls and shot them, and then shot himself to death, according to police.

"It appears that when he began shooting these victims, the victims were shot execution style in the head."
Roberts had walked into the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School with a shotgun and handgun, then released about 15 boys, a pregnant woman and three other women with infants before barring the doors with the girls inside.

The girls were lined up along a blackboard.

"He had wire ties with him and flex ties, and he began to tie the girls' feet together,"
It was the nation's third deadly school shooting in a week, following the killing of a 16-year-old girl by a 53-year-old man in Bailey, Colorado, and the shooting death of a principal at a school in Madison, Wisconsin.

WTF. What a sicko psychopath! What possessed him to do such a thing, I just cannot comprehend. My gawd, the girls were only 6-13 years old, and did no wrong against him. This kinda shit things happen when you live in a nation which permits ownership of guns and weapons la. Shite.

ON to some other WEIRD & INTERESTING NEWS

Forget airbags, silicone breasts will do

Mon Oct 2, 2:11 PM ET (Yahoo News)

SOFIA (AFP) - A woman in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse survived a car crash thanks to her silicone breasts which acted as an airbag, a newspaper has reported.
The 24-year-old ran through a red light and crashed her car into another vehicle at a busy
crossroad in the middle of town Saturday, the daily Standart said.

"The two cars were crumpled past recognition in the crash but the woman's silicone breasts acted as airbags and saved her life," Standart wrote, citing eyewitness reports.

But survival as well as beauty comes at a price as the woman burst her silicon implants in the crash.

Now what do you think of that? Silicone boobs as cushioning airbags!

And the most requested funeral song is...
LONDON (Reuters)
1 - "Goodbye My Lover" - James Blunt
2 - "Angels" - Robbie Williams
3 - "I've Had The Time Of My Life" - Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley.

4 - "Wind Beneath My Wings" - Bette Midler
5 - "Pie Jesu" - Requiem
6 - "Candle In The Wind" - Elton John
7 - "With Or Without You" - U2
8 - "Tears In Heaven" - Eric Clapton
9 - "Every Breath You Take - The Police
10 -"Unchained Melody" - Righteous Brothers.
Songs like "Danny Boy" (number 11 in the list) tended to be played at the funerals of the elderly while S Club 7's "Reach For The Stars" (number 20) was more usual at children's funerals, the survey showed. Others in the top 20 included "Knocking On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan and, perhaps unexpectedly, Fame's "I Want To Live Forever."

Hmmm...what song would I like to be played at my funeral? Oops, choi! Tai kat lai see! (i.e. something like bad omen, have to spit back out what I said) Better think what song I would like to have for my wedding hehe...but then again, that's eons of years away. So no point thinking about it now also lah. But all the songs in the list above are very nice songs, in my opinion. Not necessary only best for funerals.

Yum yum. Savouring a peach crumble that I made just now to satisfy my craving Not the best mixture of crumble, coz I simply campur only, but I've got peaches to eat, so I don't care. I leave you with James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful', MadTV-style!

What a weekend!

2006-10-02T10:52:00.000Z

Oh yes, what a weekend it's been. Busy, tired, but satisfying! Dinner turned out pretty well I think (or at least I hope). Time for my 'Oscars-wannabe thank you speech' now:

Thanks to everyone for turning up and finishing nearly all the food
Thanks to Alvin for blistering his arms & hands while helping me to fry ALL the chicken, and to Luke for chopping them up. Ganas! (Oops, I meant chopping the chicken, not Alvin's hands)
Thanks to the rest (you know who u are) for offering to come help, but Alvin was first to offer and there was nothing much 3++ people in the kitchen could do at the same time anyway (blame it on the limited stove space...there was only so much we could do at any one time). As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth ya.
Thanks to my housemates, both past and present for helping to wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen. It really took a load off my mind and gave me some time to rest.
Thanks to everyone else ~~who~~ ~~whom~~ that I didn't mention (coz I'm getting old and have a poor memory you see, so don't blame me. I am turing the grand old age of 24 in less than 4 months time you know!*Hint hint!*) that helped sedikit sebanyak as well (pre-, during & post-dinner). Arigato gozaimasu!!

Yesterday was the big day for my darling boy. He managed to complete the GNR's 13 miles / 21 km in about 2 hours 15 minutes! Yeay!!! Congrats darling! You did it!! ~~Thank goodness it was faster than my time! Hehehe.~~ We then went for fish & chips after that at Colman's. The lady waitress wouldn't allow me & Sarah to order 2 kiddy-sized meals for £2.95 each, so we ordered one adult-sized fish'n'chip meal for £5.50 to share. The restaurant rugi only lah (£2.95 x 2 = £5.90). Not our problem! Going to & from South Shields was an experience in itself though. We were packed like sardines in a can, literally, and we waited an hour and a half to get on the Metro to get back to Newcastle. Whew! The only down point for the day was that my boy lost his beloved green waterproof jacket though. Poor thing.

Earlier in the day, after going to the Tyne Bridge, ~~me &~~ Imaan & I went to Next's sale. Then we went to get Imaan some lovely ear piercings (sakitttt...not! ;D). Then went to MK One. Bloody hell, just like that I spent £33 on clothings liao. Darn it. Keep me away from the eviiilll sales!!

Oh well, a new week has come, and with it comes new unknowns for us to live through...e.g. you never know what your bloody PMS is gonna put you through for that day/week (but that's another topic for another time! like, maybe tomorrow. )

Personal time...

2006-10-02T10:37:00.000Z

Many fears, many worries
Am I boring, am I unsightly?
Many doubts, many insecurities
Feeling sad, upset, angry, & lonely
Many tears, thru the nite
Distancing myself, wondering why?
But come daybreak, all is right
Words of reassurance, hugs & kisses

Cooking day

2006-09-30T13:57:00.000Z

Have offered to cook this Saturday night's dinner for ~15-20people later. Viks is missing out on this! Haha.. Menu for the night:

Black pepper fried rice + some other kind of fried rice coz I don't have enough black pepper seasoning I think
Two different kinds of fried chicken - one with cornflakes, and the other with hopefully what will turn out as some nice batter ;)
Fried spanish-ish omelette (Spanish-ish coz I don't think it's exactly a spanish omelette)
~~Fried~~ salad with some weird & wonderful dressing
~~Fried~~ Tiramisu (new ingredient added to the old recipe...don't know how it will turn out)
~~Fried~~ Chilled strawberry cheesecake - my very very first attempt at any sort of cheesecake. Hope it turns out alright. *Keeping my fingers crossed!*

Ambitious huh...hopefully everything turns out alright lah. This dinner gathering is also partially to wish my boy gambatte for tomorrow's Great North Run! Let's hope he ~~finishes faster than 2 hours 40 minutes coz that's what I managed last year~~ crosses the finish line!!

Need to call home and start cooking soon. Love cooking & trying new stuff. Just don't like to clean up afterwards. Damn.

Ponteng kelas

2006-09-29T13:54:00.000Z

I'm such a bad medical student. Don't study, now I even skip lectures. Oh what is to become of me? *guilt ridden like hell now but too late to go for the 3pm lecture anyway...shall I go for the 4pm one?*

*update - In the end I didn't attend the 4pm lecture. Instead I went shopping for tomorrow's dinner --> fried rice, fried chicken, ~~fried~~ salad, & desserts.*

Photos

2006-09-29T12:43:00.000Z

This is a photo of my/Cyn's/Alvin's feet at the beach in front of Swiss Garden Resort back home. (yes i know i've got big ugly veiny feet, so what!)

That's the middle finger that Cyn gave me while I was trying to take a nice photograph of her lying down on the bench exhausted and half-dead after climbing 40 mins up a hill before dawn during our summer holiday. Cyn's my best friend from back home, who's currently in Dublin suffering worse forms of torture as a medic student there ;D

That's the rat that one of my dogs hunted & brought into the
house from the garden, dangling it from her mouth.
Gross, but fascinating! Haha...

Oklah, enough for now. Very slow to upload the pics. What, you thought that I was going to upload photos of myself? Forget it! Wait til I lose about 10 kgs first or something ;D

Annoying people who talk too loud in public places

2006-09-28T13:23:00.000Z

In the computer cluster in the library now. (1st time blogging from uni!) Finished my seminar in 20 mins (which they timetabled us for a bloody 1 1/2 hours!). Got 2 lectures later at 3pm-5pm. Then hopefully later go out on a dinner date with my boy²! *g* Plus it's late nite shopping tonight. Hehehe...Haven't gone out for a date in like, the longest time man. You'd think we weren't even paktor-ing or something ;P Aih, whatodo...this is what happens when you stay together, or have stayed together for a couple of years now. So girls, before you commit to anyone, make sure he pampers you enough beforehand, and if you're one of those lucky ones, then he'll pamper you til you're 80 and using a walking frame ^g^ A girl can dream, can't she? Haha.. Anyway, our 3rd anniversary since we got together is coming up in a month's time!! Yippee!! How time flies huh. (Don't remind me, I know I'm getting olddddd...)

My 'getting annoyed' level was steadily rising just now as this ~~idiot~~ bugger ~~(hmm, that rhymes with fucker)~~ who wasn't even using the computers stopped by the computer next to mine to chat with (or maybe chat up, who knows what his true intentions were) this girl for the last 15 minutes or so. Talking is fine, since we're not technically in the library per se, but then again, talk softly lah darn it! These people ar...talk so loud that the whole cluster can listen in on their conversation about which phone are you buying lah, if you buy phones from 3 you can only get them 'unlocked' from the dealer la, whether or not you're going for medsoc later lah...isshhhh geram! Want to chat up a girl, go do it somewhere more private la dude!

Mmm...hungry hungry. Ate my lunch for breakfast this morning before I went out. Too kiam siap & lazy to get any food now. My stomach shall have to wait til dinner time. *growl*