Sam's Scribblings

Makan makan Jan-Feb

2011-03-11T23:58:00.001+08:00

A chicken dish at Taiwan Dami, KL

Spaghetti carbonara at Mizi

Fish at Mizi

My cheesy birthday cake

Fish fillet with rice at Harvest In

Various dishes at Hai Boey Seafood, Gertak Sanggul

Mutton tandoori at Passion of Kerala

Passion of Kerala

Sweet sour pork set at Xian Ding Wei

Tofu dish at Xian Ding Wei

Choc banana of Secret Recipe

Black pepper chicken at El Casa

Cheese balls at 7 Bistro

Seafood paella at 7 Bistro

Set lunch at Yuan Izakaya

Steamboat at Sawara

Chicken Chop at Panorama, Taiping

Fried rice at Panorama, Taiping

Cheesy fish at Panorama, Taiping

Cendol at Bismillah, Taiping

Lamb at 7 Bistro

Bread crumbs fish & chips at Blue Reef, Straits Quay

Schnitzel at Kopi Cine

Disaster

2011-02-18T07:57:00.000+08:00

http://luvqiwen.blogspot.com/2011/02/disaster.html

Good post. Pretty much summarises what happened to us.

New year, final term

2011-01-11T18:06:00.003+08:00

To graduate

First rate

2010-11-20T15:34:00.002+08:00

It has been two weeks. Two weeks of intense walking and standing. Sick of the long bus journey to the hospital. Got tired of the rush hour crowd coming back from hospital. Sprawling campus. Nice general surgery team members, from the top to the bottom. Thanks to the housemen and medical students who got me oriented. They really carry themselves well. Valuable advice. Intriguing questions asked by consultants. Opportunities given in the OT to scrub in and assist. Very orderly wards. Proper clinics. Top notch facilities for a public hospital in a country this small. Large OT, proper changing rooms, TV screens in OT (no need to peer through gaps to observe surgery), HD cameras for laparoscopic surgeries, computerised medical records. Brain drain from Malaysia evident. So many Malaysian doctors working here. I wish to work here also.

First rate country.

Relentless

2010-10-21T22:24:00.001+08:00

Difficult times. So glad to have a 3-day break after the relentless back-to-back exams for days. Had a super, deep nap in the afternoon, with some weird dreams on going to buy strawberry drinks. Will just do some light reading tonight, seriously need a break. I am neither a sponge nor a robot. For the sake of everyone's health, this exam should end quick! All the best, conserve some energy to fight back!

Street View!

2010-10-01T23:29:00.005+08:00

I saw a tweet by Google this morning saying that Ireland is one of the new inclusions to Street View (Antartica and Brazil being the other two). Got excited and started exploring! Put the blame on the mundane-ness of revising. When is the Malaysian one coming up?

Our ex-house, 46 Taney Road. This pictures are clearly taken after we left. The two dustbins near the front door are missing. The grass is cut short, it doesn't resemble the dense vegetations that I remember vividly. And there are election posters on the lamp post. They must be for the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council election which actually took place in the middle of 2009.

Another ex-house, 3 Clonskeagh Road. No visible changes detected. Don't know to whom it belongs to now.

The car dealer next to Trimbleston on Goatstown Road is out of business! We used to pass by this place everyday and it was full of cars.

This building project next to the school is finally completed! Cement mixer trucks used to come in and out, and the bicycle lane was always polluted by the trucks' discharge.

End of PH

2010-09-24T01:25:00.002+08:00

The good: The end of PH, the day I have been waiting for. No more long hours, no more staying back doing rubbish. No more people who force you to travel 20+ km and stay in a room and do nothing, not even rubbish.
The bad: Big big exam is coming. Torrid, horrible, lonely time ahead. Sleepless nights? Pounding hearts? See any good things coming out of it? Inspire me, get me out of these doldrums and you will be handsomely rewarded.

Official photograph

PH farewell group picture

September Photo Essay

2010-09-20T23:07:00.005+08:00

Two weeks of DHO posting sandwiched a long-awaited break in the middle. One short trip to Singapore, filled with some drama and back to the days of taking public transport. Lazy to type. I am going to let the pictures do the talking.

The main reason I was in Singapore, Universal Studios. Missing the train home was not part of the plan.

Our district, Seberang Perai Utara. Freaking far, sick of the long journey.

Caught a slacking civil servant in KK Butterworth. I don't know what was he doing with a blank word document that he created once we walked in.

Paddy harvesting in action. Eat so much rice, at least must see how they harvest.

Water treatment plant visit. The best place to launch an all-out attack on the population.

Food premise inspection. Would you still dare to eat at this kind of roadside eateries after knowing the truth behind the scenes?

Confiscated expired food

Check bang! Invading the privacy of people's homes looking for baby mozzies. Interesting to see whether the kids in the houses were studying or not during school holidays. Bwahaha.

One dangerous-looking weapon

Topping up tummies before fogging starts. Lucky to have a pasar malam within 400m radius. Om nom nom.

With the vector control team after an evening of murdering mummy mozzies

Disgusting stuff. All the fats and oil post-hari raya.

Sailing back to Penang. What have we done for 2 weeks in SPU?

Growing up healthily...

2010-08-29T00:43:00.001+08:00

It's time to give something back to the community, after trespassing their territories for a few days during the survey. We had planned meticulously for the event, even forgoing the weekend to prepare for this so-called big day. As much as I hate to do artwork, I have to admit that our booth looked fabulous. Predictably, the deco on the board fell like flies. There were simply to many surfaces involved to keep them up. Board to velcro to double-sided tape to posters, etc. One of the components was bound to fail to adhere, in this case, the inferior quality double-sided tape.

Despite this minor setback, it was a huge success. The crowd was big, creating a carnival-like atmosphere. We had an impressive video on our monitor, but I don't think anybody was watching it, despite the painstaking process of subtitling it. Now I realise that subtitling is not easy, so never complain straightaway when subtitles on television go awry. We ran out of freebies (hand sanitizers and toothpastes) to give out. Some cunning kids managed to get more than one from us. Many more kids were disappointed at the end. One of the kids even managed to remember me from the survey. Haha.

Did we get our message across? Yes!

Hand & oral hygiene

Healthy eating & food hygiene

Mental health

Dengue awareness

Anti-smoking campaign

Me directing the traffic, enticing the kids with freebies

6-0

2010-08-22T23:03:00.002+08:00

Wow! One more 6-0 result tonight in the Premier League. That makes it three of such result this weekend and four in total after just two weeks of the new season. Goal fest. But my fantasy team is actually not doing very well. It's hard to know who will start and who will not. Big stars not starting, money wasted. Assign the wrong captain, opportunities missed.

I can't believe how much Public Health is taking up my time. Staying back everyday is draining. I have to eat canteen food everyday. Not to mention, most of the work are meaningless or mundane. I am no good in art, so I hate all those poster designing, booth designing and everything related to that. I can't wait to see the end of it. Seriously can't wait. Who say PH is the honeymoon rotation? It appears to be complete opposite. Even though the hours in O&G is long, at least I get to learn a lot. But in PH, long hours, but what do I get? Rest? No. Relaxing? No, in fact, it is more hectic. Making bookmarks? Yes, 1000 of them. So far, the only good thing I can see that is going to come out of it is the 1.5 weeks of free time at the end. But that's meant for studying for exams, not to laze around and enjoy life.

Difficult times ahead, feeling like the receiving end of a 0-6 drubbing....

The Heat Bay

2010-08-14T14:46:00.002+08:00

Unbelievable. Week 2 into Public Health and we are done with the survey part in Teluk Bahang. Everything goes at a relentless pace. It won't be long when the health promotion thingy is up. We started our survey even before the final questionnaire is printed. We tagged the houses on Sunday and we started right away without our equipment. It was inevitable that we had to go back again for more information. It was difficult to get everyone staying in one house to be present at any given time. But, we were glad that the villagers are super nice and very accommodating even though we bombarded them with endless private and some sensitive questions. We got plenty of free drinks and food from them. We were also lucky in the sense that our village is right next to our chalet. Very convenient. The survey officially started on Tuesday, with a packed appointment list. That means the next few days are going to be very free. Entering data into the computer was not a chore. True enough, I was bored to death, looking out at the sea. Good thing that there were Uno sessions going on, and also a bed to take naps. Visiting the butterfly farm and going boating managed to kill some time. Words can't describe the dinner we had on the last day at the End of the World restaurant. Simply amazing!

On with the pictures! This blog is slowly becoming a photo blog. I took some of the pictures myself, but nothing beats the official pictures taken by our official photographer Ihsan.

The view in front of our chalet

BBQ at Pantai Mutiara on the first night, even before the official survey starts

Our gigantic achievement map

Killing time with Uno

Dr Rashid talking about Angelina Jolie

The visit to Penang Butterfly Farm

Going for a sightseeing cruise

Lobster, yum!

Fried sotong

60

2010-08-06T00:01:00.002+08:00

I am just home from buying 60 tins of assorted biscuits from two Tesco stores. 4 trolleys. Boot full, backseat half-full with tins. Buying gifts for the villagers is considered as logistics ka? Not that I mind, but tiring. Freaking tired, after a mental torture of questionnaire development for the whole day and a rushed lunch. Good thing is that we are moving forward, in breakneck speed. Who say this is a honeymoon rotation? Freaking a lot coordination, logistics and precision is needed and all of them need loads of energy.

Enough of biscuit tins and questionnaire, on with the pictures from our group's special dinner with Dr Bharathy of psychiatry in Palace D India. Thanks Alex! Pictures courtesy of Ihsan.

Will write more after the survey in Teluk Bahang. Till then, enjoy life and take care.

Group 3

My patient is crazy...

2010-07-27T23:33:00.005+08:00

Got rid of the much-derided case write-ups that are worth so little compared to the time spent and fingers energy and brain power used in the process. Good riddance! But then it was time to mug for exams over the weekend. As usual, I was easily distracted, this time by watching Indycar and Nascar on Youtube. I even find videos on planes landing in some exotic airports amusing. Read St Maarten.

Written exam was ok, the usual feeling there. One or two questions brought joy to me, otherwise nothing to shout about. The long case clinical exam was the problematic one. Patient didn't run away, but the patient is crazy. I know he is crazy, that's why he is in the hospital, but somehow he is the craziest of all patients that I have clerked before. Upon questioning, he was not relevant at all. He kept beating around the bush which we call circumstantiality. I felt sorry for him, but at the same time I had to formulate a case by using those bare-bone information that I got from him. Freaking nervous, I would definitely benefit from a Valium or something like that. Oh well, at the end of the day, at least I know I didn't fail. Or not, I will be the one going crazy.

A few days of break before going on to the much-maligned Public Health rotation.

Can't seem to finish...

2010-07-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

Much-dreaded case write-ups, lots of last minute work. I hate it when even after hours of intensive typing, the work doesn't seem to end. You will discover more and more things to type. But, at least it is not EBM. Anyway, brain has to rest and here comes a post with the only pictures I have from the Hospital Bahagia visit in Tanjung Rambutan. I could have taken more, like the picture of my lunch which was prepared and served by psychiatric patients.
Oh ya, don't forget to catch Inception. Freakishly intelligent movie! On with the pictures!

The new forensic ward

My only good picture with people in it. The early arrivers at Hospital Bahagia.

It looks like a jail rather than a hospital ward. You still can call it a jail because it is really a jail for some people.

The surrounding actually feels 'bahagia' with lots of open spaces.

Ok, back to the much-dreaded work of typing. Endless.

Now what?

2010-07-12T22:18:00.001+08:00

After one whole month of watching football in the dark hours of the day, now what? It's over and that seafood is 100% correct in this World Cup, odds of 1 in 128. What a blatant animal exploitation, just to satisfy people's hunger for prediction. What psychic power (my foot!), he just got lucky each time and they were coincidence. Picking who to win is not difficult, unlike predicting the score. I want him to be wrong badly, just to send a message across. But... Sigh.

Now that it is all over, it's time to start on my case write-ups, apart from replacing my loss sleep from that tackle-filled final. I should be less irritable and moody by getting more sleep at night. Hopefully there will be no post-World Cup depression. The new European football season should come sooner then. Till then, I have to be contend with those ever present transfer rumours. At least no more vuvuzela, bzzzzzz bzzzzzzz....

Tweets

2010-06-30T00:58:00.000+08:00

There goes the excitement of watching a penalty shootout. Nothing to separate the two teams after 120 minutes of kick and rush. But, penalty kicks are not the best way to determine a winner. Winning on penalty kicks lacks the feeling and achievement of winning it the normal way. Twitter is down, again and again, throughout this World Cup. I managed to squeeze in two tweets before it becomes inaccessible again. I would like to tweet more, had it been running:-

'Referees in this World Cup can't differentiate what is deliberate and non-deliberate handball...'

'I saw a Japanese fan digging his nose, in front of the cameras, and hence the world...'

'The Japanese coach's affect is incongruent to his mood...'

Hopefully the coffee can keep me going for another 3 hours, if not more. A cracker! The Iberian derby! Better be worth it.

Crashed!

2010-06-28T00:11:00.003+08:00

Wooo! What a cracking game! This is the kind of game that excites neutrals like me. Lots of Malaysians will get upset by England's thrashing by Germany though. Malaysians are so obsessed about England (thanks to the over-coverage of the English Premiership), they look great on paper, but totally absymal on the field, average at best. And just after one fine game against lowly Slovenia, suddenly they say that they can go all the way to win the cup (and conveniently forgotten that rubbish Algeria game). Utter rubbish! You people seriously think that they will go through?! Not in another 4 years, I don't see any promising young talents coming up.

Prepare yourselves against stinging remarks from those British tabloids tomorrow! Have a nice flight back...

P.S: I still have a life outside football and psychiatry. Yummy porridge served with frogs and eels at Dato Keramat. On with the pics!

Plain white porridge

Eel

Frogs. Yum!

Sleep, laugh, eat

2010-06-20T21:57:00.000+08:00

The World Cup is really causing some sleepless nights and daytime somnolence. Can't help it, matches involving big teams usually kick-off at 2.30am. However, not all of them were worth the extra effort to keep your eyelids at all. Some were snooze-fest, the best example was the England-Algeria game. Even the irritating constant buzzing of vuvuzela couldn't keep us awake. It is a good thing that I am doing psychiatry posting at the moment, certainly much more relaxing than paeds. I just turn up at the hospital and let the patients drone on about their story of neighbours trying to mow them down. Sometimes their stories are so hilarious that I can't help but to laugh. But of course try to tahan and laugh at home. I feel bad though, it is not their fault that their brains are wired such a way.

Brazil playing again tonight! But please no snooze-fest ok!

After spending a whole day at the St John Ambulance HQ relearning first-aid, which was tedious to say the least, a nice meal with CZ is not too much to ask. I chose this place, Kochi Taiwanese Delight at Burma Rd as neither of us had been here before. Passed by numerous of times but never really wanted to try.

Bubble milk tea, original on the left and mango on the right.

My BBQ beef rice

CZ's noodle with herbal egg

Mid-year

2010-06-09T23:48:00.002+08:00

Middle of the year, two difficult rotations down. Here comes the so-called relaxing psychiatry programme. I am so so so relieved to pass my 'patient who ran away' exam. Less to worry about at the end of the year. Went home for a week, spent most of the time catching up with sleep and some movies. The break didn't coincide with the World Cup, wrong timing. No more living my life in the wrong time zone this time round, can only watch selected matches. Sigh. Don't ask me which team I support, I am neither a citizen nor have any emotional attachment to any of the qualifiers. Pity that Henry's hand prevented the Irish from making an appearance in South Africa.

A celebratory meal at TGIF after the traumatic paeds exam

My patient ran away...

2010-05-22T00:30:00.000+08:00

This can only happen in paeds, where patient can literally run away from you. Crucially, for me, it was during the short case exam. Not only he ran around the room, he ran out from the exam room as well. Lots of time wasted on chasing him around. Hopefully what I did was enough. Super nervous during waiting I tell you. Hate waiting like that. Not pleasant at all.

Time to finish my write-up. Not pleasant. At least it doesn't run away...

'Refused'

2010-05-18T20:51:00.002+08:00

This letter and the preceding news report caught my attention. I beg to differ with the views put forward by the author of the letter. The wording used in the news report has to be blamed as well, in my opinion. The word 'refused' has such a large connotation here. Was it a flat-out refusal or they 'refused' based on some sound reasons? I don't think it is a total refusal. Any doctor in the right mind would not hesitate to save a life, what more the life of a young child.

Then, why did they 'refuse' to treat? First of all, as some of us know, clinics in Malaysia are usually not well-equipped with the right equipments to save lives. Bear in mind that the equipments for paediatric age-group are very different from the adult ones. According to the report, the child presented with breathing difficulties, which I presume as either shortness of breath or tachypnoea. It must be very serious as the child needed to be warded in the PICU later on. Moreover, many general practitioners manning the clinics lack the know-how to resuscitate a child in this serious condition. Input from experienced specialist doctors is usually needed So, the lack of trained personnel and right equipment were probably why the doctors in the clinics 'refused' to treat the patient. There was nothing much they could do. The best and the right thing they could do is to refer the child to the hospital (where there is a well-drilled emergency department), which they did, citing his serious condition. The public need to know that clinics are not meant for medical emergencies.

So, is this 'irresponsible' as stated by the author of the letter? Oh, and one more thing. One of the clinics the father and the child visited may be the 1Malaysia clinic, where the 'doctor' is actually an MA. Remember it took place in USJ and there is a 1Malaysia clinic nearby. What can an MA do in this situation? Of course, he had to 'refuse' and asked the child to be sent to the hospital as well. I wonder why the father took the child to a few clinics before going to the hospital. Why didn't he heed to the advice of the first doctor?

The author of the letter shouldn't be too quick to accuse the doctors for not doing their job. The reporter also shouldn't use the word 'refuse' in the news report. This is just my humble opinion on this matter as I am not aware of what really happen in the clinics, and I based this on the news report that I read. Any other views are welcomed. Bottomline: Don't let this erode the public's confidence in our profession.

Headache

2010-05-18T00:48:00.001+08:00

I had no idea how hectic the life of a 12-year old in a Chinese school until I saw a case this morning in the paeds clinic. She goes to school from 7.30am to 7pm every weekday and until 2pm every Saturday. No wonder she complains of headache. Even adults can't cope with the long hours, what more a young girl like her. It's all for UPSR. Only UPSR.

Is UPSR that important? She thinks so. I don't think she looks happy after being told that she can be exempted from the afternoon extra classes. Type A, huh. Actually, I can understand her plight. I was just like her years ago, minus the headache part. I was well-drilled to think that the public exam is a do-or-die thing. Academic performance was paramount. Being naive at such age, I accepted those doctrines without much fuss. I was a good learner and able to pick up thing fast, exams were a breeze. Academics were never a stumbling block for me. And here I stand today, thanks to those days. That's the good thing that comes out from it.

Knowing the Malaysian education system, getting good results means that you are a good robot, a good regurgitator (don't know if such word exists). You don't need to be clever and intelligent to ace the exams. Pure good memory will do. Thinking critically is hardly needed. Probably that's why I didn't find school difficult at all. Looking back, I don't think I am clever. Just some good memory and repetitive robotic exercises did the trick for me. Quite stifling, it doesn't reward creativity. Too bad. Therefore, I am not a creative person. I did not have much life outside studying.

I don't view exam as the same as I used to. No doubt it is still important. But, I don't think it is paramount thing anymore. I don't think it is do-or-die anymore. Exam shouldn't dictate my life. There is more to learning than an exam at the end. Exam is just another fence to jump over along a learning path. If I am able to reach the other side, I am happy enough. It doesn't matter how high I jump, be it just millimetres above or metres sky high above, I will still be at the other side. Too simplistic, some of you might say. But, why make things complicated? Or I have lost my drive of my yesteryears? I certainly have changed.

Off-guard

2010-05-15T23:53:00.002+08:00

I was caught off-guard the last time round. And today, we managed to catch CZ off-guard. I am glad she likes the surprise party and I am happy for her. Hee! Totally unexpected, after all the warning that we should not do anything for her. We can't just sit down and do nothing, right? You did so much for me, I just want to do the same for you. Fair. Simple.

It is only recently that teaching in paeds has picked up its pace. Getting to learn more lately. It is all due to the scheduling. But unfortunately, exam is not too far away. Not to mention the case that I have to write up. So lazy to write. Playing with the kids is fun, but you must know what you are doing and that's the difficult part. Oh well, wish me luck and let me survive the short cases. As usual, written paper not as fearful.

Surprise surprise!

Feverish

2010-04-24T22:11:00.006+08:00

I have just realised that this is the only the second update of the month. Maybe writing tweets is just too convenient. Just flushed down some paracetamol, feeling better now after coming back from the clinical emergencies conference in Batu Ferringhi feeling feverish. Don't feel like reading any paeds now. No mood to start writing my neonatal case write-up. And don't know what mid-posting assessment on Monday, screw it.

I don't feel that I have learned much in paeds, especially in the morning. Too much floating around by ourselves without any concrete teachings. Motivation can go astray, mind wanders off to food, etc. Nobody there to push me. And the mornings are so different nowadays, not as they used to be anymore. Nothing to look forward to. I can't feel the joy. Sigh! So, will Monday be a disaster, even though it is just a 'feedback' session? I wonder if they (the department) can stalk this. Maybe they can find this blog by googling 'PMC paeds disaster'.

Is it really that hot nowdays? I have difficulty keeping myself dry, especially in the wards. Always need a shower and a change of shirt during lunch break. How come my girlfriend can keep it dry despite the trickiest condition? I am so jealous.

Of frisbee and paeds

2010-04-11T23:23:00.003+08:00

The skin still feels warm after a day under the sun in Bukit Jambul. Maybe it will peel in a day or two. Had some fun even though we got some sound thrashing from our ultimate frisbee opponents. I didn't really expect us to win with only one week of training, but it was a great exposure in competitive ultimate frisbee. Ended up with a couple of bruises, a headache and burning skin. I spent the next day sleeping.

Good thing that it is only the start of paediatrics rotation. I haven't opened the book for the whole weekend. Feeling a bit guilty though. There were two birthday dinners and food is never in a short supply. Next week is the start of the real thing and I will see how it goes. First week was so far so good. No major issue there. Pandai or not? Go in with an open mind and see how far I can go with it.

A bit of pictures in this post.

Neonatal resuscitation. Kinda fun, but I don't know why. Pandaiiiii...

PMC Leprechauns ultimate frisbee team

At Rashida's birthday dinner. Pink

Done

2010-03-28T21:08:00.000+08:00

Finally, after toiling for days, I have finished the dreaded case write-up. And they are not worth that many marks. I could have finished it earlier as Prof had advised, but you know me, I procrastinate and slack too much. And now the printer is acting up on me. It starts to print at a snail pace. One of the pages is printed skewed and I have to reprint that page as I speak. Argh! I seriously don't know what is wrong. But, at least my cases can be printed out, that's the most important.

After all the nap, it is time to get some revision done. Certainly not as stressful as preparing for clinical long case. MCQ, short answer and OSCE are fine by me, but I am terrified of long case. I cannot think well enough at the heat of the moment, under pressure. I easily forget things that I know under those circumstances. Still, I can't wait for Thursday to end.

Taking forever

2010-03-22T00:04:00.002+08:00

I am just back from a big match between Man Utd and Liverpool. Not a bad game I should say. The title race is heating up really well this season. We shall see how Chelsea fare, they are playing as I type this.

The O&G case write-ups are taking forever to write up. Why can't they write themselves up? I am getting lazier and lazier to finish them as time drags on. Sadly, it is important to do it properly for the sake of getting some marks in the bag. I have one more tutorial presentation to go. That is also taking me forever to prepare. Lack of gusto. Copy and paste is the way to go. Looks like I prefer to use the weekend to catch up on my much needed sleep. It was not my choice to fall asleep in class last week. It just happened spontaneously, couldn't control my heavy eyelids.

Another week of obstetrics coming up. Don't like the remote location of the maternity hospital. That means I can't fill my stomach with buns and roti canai at 10am. Grumble grumble, moody...

Cooler days

2010-03-15T22:42:00.019+08:00

Finally there is some respite from the heat wave over the weekend. A few sessions of rainfall really made a difference. And it makes me happier, among other things. No more nonsense such as losing my O&G attendance card, the Sri York access card that went AWOL temporarily and making people unhappy.

The things to cover in O&G seem to plateau at the moment, not much new things to learn apart from polishing up on existing knowledge. It doesn't generate much interest despite the niceness of its people. It is disappointing to note that the reluctance of the hospital staff to allow us to perform deliveries and episiotomy repairs has somewhat blemished the quality of our training. Not to mention we have to compete with housemen and student nurses for those procedures. As medical students, we are always on the losing side.

On another note, the first F1 race of the year last night was a bore-fest. Rules changes and the return of Schumacher from the dead didn't really spice up stuff. Overtaking was even rarer. The new teams were just make up the numbers, 4 out of 6 DNFs. The so-called 'pride of Malaysia', ran and staffed by foreigners, finished dead last, with almost zero TV coverage. But they are in cloud nine, they managed to beat the other two equally incompetent new teams, one of which had never turned a wheel prior to the weekend. Speechless!

Oohh, it is 26 degrees now, it has never been so cool for a long long time. Hope it stays...

Too hot!

2010-03-07T01:06:00.001+08:00

Why is it so hot every single day?! Even the nights are not spared. Where is the rain? Too many questions without an answer. Same goes for my O&G attendance card. It has gone missing without a trace. Where could it be? Another unanswered question.

I am actually sick from typing. Doing the slides for presentation is a tedious, clerical job. Legs getting restless, bum wet from sweating, eyes tired of the computer screen, always thirsty. My 100plus supply is dwindling fast. So tempting! Make special trips to the fridge just to get a sip or two. Average number of showers a day: 3. I melt whenever I am outside, and become icky instantly.

Winter, please come!

Return rantings

2010-02-24T23:29:00.002+08:00

Holidays over. Return to school. Back to slogging in O&G. I felt so lazy and reluctant to start class after a fabulous festive season back home. Too pampered. Definitely gained some weight and some abdomen millimetres (not centimetres, I hope). However, the return is made easier by the presence of my beloved. So, resuming college has its perks. Haha! Our group is doing gynaecology and antenatal clinics this week, workload is slightly less, but you end the day with tired feet with all the standing up.

I hate it when people say we, Malaysians, should be proud of Lotus F1 Team. I am glad it is called Lotus, instead of earlier conceived name of 1Malaysia F1 Team. And luckily the livery is not of our national flag (it looks disgusting on the car). Importantly, the car is not built by Malaysians, or in Malaysia! It is built by an Englishman in a factory in Norfolk, England. I remember our PM said that the team will be staffed by Malaysians. But just look at the pit crew/mechanics during the recent Jerez test in the picture below, I can only see Caucasian faces! Don't tell me they are naturalised Malaysians. Of course have to hire foreigners, where to find highly qualified Malaysian drivers, engineers, etc. Nothing to be proud of, all foreign expertise! The only Malaysian thing involved is the money. Eh dei, use the money to improve the public hospitals laaaaa.....

Enough, time to sleep....

Festive

2010-02-16T23:51:00.003+08:00

Chinese new year came and almost gone. It has been a happening three days so far. New clothes, nice food, abundance of angpao! Routines are routines, i.e. temple visit, receiving visits from relatives, visiting relatives, eating, eating and eating. Caught up with some old friends too! Festive! More to come, I hope. Without much ado, on with the pictures!

The annual family portrait

My sis and I at the temple in the morning

The lion dance troupe finally turned up late in the afternoon. It was a spectacle, complete with firecrackers and some elaborate rituals.

The main lion. The red one you see in the previous picture is the 'younger' lion.

Our first yee sang of this CNY. At home.

Tze Lun and I. Visiting relatives in Buloh Kasap

The second yee sang of the day, homemade version. At a relatives' house in Batu Anam.

My sis and I in Batu Anam

Our reunion dinner at a restaurant

Our third yee sang of the day! At the restaurant. Triple 'kat'!

The twins seem to be occupied, with food and drinks

Sis and Ashley are also occupied, with the outside world

Some old schoolfriends and our ex-class teacher

Our favourite tuition teacher

Friends...

And more friends!..

Homely

2010-02-13T11:22:00.015+08:00

What a good feeling to be back for CNY after a 3-year hiatus! I have been checking out the tit-bits that I missed out for the past few years and no time is wasted in tasting some of them. Like CZ always say, I am an eating machine. Crunch crunch! Yum! The deco is up as usual, as atmospheric as ever. The lanterns, the running lights, the flowers, etc. The weather is as hot as it can get, the new year weather as we call it. Like an oven in the house, and can't even step out into the sun, burning!

Oh, and we have just finished our super early reunion 'dinner'. Festive!

Tiring O&G

2010-02-06T23:05:00.042+08:00

School resumes. Tiring. No viva needed for my forensic and legal medicine, and result is satisfactory. Good enough for me. O&G schedule is very tiring indeed, and hungry too. I am usually famished at 10am, after the first round of teaching at the gynaecology ward. It is not that I don't take my breakfast. It is just draining. Then, no more long lunch breaks. So, food from behind the hospital it is. Classes in the afternoon, chance to doze off. But the seats in the seminar room are not ideal to fall asleep on, unlike the ones in the lecture theatre. And since the size of the class is much more smaller now, it is damn easy to spot a slumbering person. I appreciate a good night's sleep more and more now.

Can't wait for next Friday! Will be home for CNY! First time in 3 years! Suddenly, I feel that giving Friday's classes a miss is a good decision and it is all worth it. What is one day out of 8 weeks when this is the most important festival of the year....

Festive mood prevails! Shoo shoo obstetrics, go away...

Colourful holidays!

2010-01-30T23:33:00.022+08:00

There is only one day left of the blissful holiday. Going around helping to clerk patients/collect data in dialysis centres had been a small eye-opener to the plight of ESRF patients. Plus some Buddhist teachings too, it came in a package. Managed to explore some uncharted territories in the Georgetown inner city and also Butterworth while looking for elusive dialysis centres.

There was also a trip to Kedah: Sungai Petani and Alor Setar. And also the round the island trip of Penang, via Tanjung Bungah, Batu Feringghi, Teluk Bahang, Balik Pulau and Bayan Lepas. Not to forget, a visit to the festivities along Jalan Utama for Thaipusam. Colourful indeed!

This won't be complete without pictures...

Menara Alor Setar

The lush paddy fields of Kedah

Thaipusam in Penang. Festive.

A kavadi bearer

The chariot

Hike to Kerachut Beach

2010-01-25T23:21:00.001+08:00

My first 'real' holiday of the year, time to explore the natural beauty and the pristine beach of Kerachut Beach of northwestern corner of Penang island. It was an easy drive to Teluk Bahang where we ditched our car, registered ourselves at the national park office, and the nine of us were raring to go. The 1-hour hike through the jungle to the beach was not difficult. It was only steep in certain areas, a far cry from my previous hike up to Penang Hill from the Botanical Gardens (which we abandoned halfway). The trail is well demarcated and properly signed. Relieved and joy when we see the beach. White sandy beach with unswimmable water, as the sea is infested with deadly jellyfish. No complains there, didn't feel like getting wet. The time spent on the beach itself was valuable enough. This beach is also a known turtle landing site, hence there is a turtle breeding centre. A great boat ride back to Teluk Bahang sum up a good day playing tourists!

Ended up with a bit of sunburn though...

On with the pictures!

The entrance of the hiking trail to the beach

The trail through the forest

The white sandy beach!

Baby turtles

Heading home, by our hired boat

We are not allowed to be human

2010-01-15T23:06:00.001+08:00

It will be a lousy, boring and lonely weekend, foreseeing myself cooped up alone in the room, going through stuff on forensic and legal medicine, as well as medical ethics that say that doctors are not allowed to be human even though they are recognised as human. Monday will be the day of the ultimate test after two weeks of fairly intensive course. The lecture theatre is always freezing cold, it seems like the lecturer from UCD is trying to recreate the big freeze in Ireland. And I think he is a bit overqualified to teach us, to be honest. It was hard to stay in focus, in regards of my interest in this area of medicine. Get overloaded at times, and sometimes he was just putting things that we already knew into words. Good thing that I have my laptop as a necessary distraction. Oh, I didn't know until lately that the lecture theatre is a good place for torrenting.

It is good to remember there is a short break before I start with obstretics & gynaecology. No plans yet, blank, which I think is a bliss. But, get through this weekend first. It will not be pleasant, I know. Sigh....

Celebration

2010-01-10T23:35:00.002+08:00

Very surprised indeed! And a whole bunch of them! Not a norm for me to have a big bunch of people celebrating my birthday, perfectly orchestrated by CZ, and assisted by numerous others. My heartfelt gratitude to every single one of you! The timing was absolutely great, I was completely caught off-guard. Thank you for the presents too. I love all of them! Thank you to CZ for the so-called mysterious dinner last night at Mizi. Very impressed by your determination to get us there. Momentous & memorable.

Not to forget those who wish me well via texts, Facebook messages and tweets. Thank you all! :D

2010

2010-01-06T20:03:00.001+08:00

It was a low-key start to the year 2010. No more extravaganza like the ones in London and Berlin for the past two years. I was just lazing around at home, trying to complete the much-maligned emergency medicine portfolio plus plenty of lengthy breaks in between. At least, there was still some small scale fireworks outside by some people who managed to lay their hands on some fireworks, and apparently their new year arrived 5 minutes too early. For once it was early Malaysian time. So yeah, no more big crowds in big cities with stupendous pyrotechnics of the yesteryears.

Holidays had to come to an end and as usual, classes beckon, and exam is approaching. No choice about that. No use dreading it. Just go through the motion.

And I don't make any new year resolution. Don't see any point in it. Just be good everyday, no evil thoughts. Love everyone. That will do.

Happy 2010! Happy new decade! Hope that it will be as colourful as the noughties!

From home

2009-12-27T21:09:00.002+08:00

Home! Via Melaka and KL. Time to spend a proper week at home after out and about for the past week. From the private Christmas decorations in the Portuguese Settlement to the commercial ones in shopping malls. From satay celup to roast turkey. From shopping to flying fox. From movies to bowling to water park. It looks like a good ideal holiday and it does feel so. I haven't even touched the EBM quiz or the EM portfolio. What a bliss!

End notes

2009-12-17T17:23:00.002+08:00

No viva for everyone. And, how come the college's server is down whenever the exam result is supposed to be announced? I don't know if they are able to fix it today, tomorrow is a public holiday and that means the result will only be known on Monday?! So yeah, the longest ever semester (July-December) has finally ended. But, there are still assignments to be done. And the holiday is just 2 weeks long. Nevertheless, it is a long awaited one. Time for a good rest and no to forget some fun too. A buffet in Rasa Sayang Resort tonight is a good start to that. Thinking of it makes me hungry now...

*Update 18th Dec 2009* The college's server is up. Passed all my exams, including ophthalmology. Good riddance.

Dread

2009-12-13T21:56:00.001+08:00

The most dreaded exam is finally here. About 12 hours to go. Ophthalmology long case. Quarantine starts at 8am tomorrow. Why is it the dreaded one? Ophthalmology is so alien to me, unlike medicine and surgery. There were only 2 weeks of attachment. It is an oral test, in which I am uncomfortable with. Giving answers on the fly in front two intimidating examiners is not my forte. Looking into people's eyes and identify what's wrong with them is also not my forte. And, it is a barring exam. However, second chance is available via the viva. Hmmm...

Should I go to sleep now or study more? I don't even know whether I can fall asleep or not, having napped too much in the afternoon. Oh well, can't wait for tomorrow to end though.

SKED!

Sleepyhead

2009-12-08T23:45:00.001+08:00

Just finished having Christmas dinner with a bunch of medical professionals. Christmas comes early huh. Isn't it suppose to be exam period? Yes, it is. 2 papers are currently down, medicine and surgery. Just like last semester, the surgery paper is substantially easier than the medicine one. Too much thinking needed for medicine. It seems like I am liking surgery more and more. Black and white stuff looks to be more appealing. Or I am getting lazier and lazier to do all those thinking in medicine. Lunch beckoned after that. An enjoyable one too. =)

Ophthalmology and ENT to come. I woke up at 10am every morning and still manage to fall asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow at 3pm/4pm. Such a sleepyhead I am! Not to mention the naps were full of weird dreams. I was even aware that I was dreaming in my dreams. So, was it superficial or deep sleep? Or ophthalmology is putting me to sleep, since this subject is not my cup of tea. Not looking forward to the exam, but still I want it to come quickly so that I can get it done and away with it. Last minute mugging for exam doesn't really work for me. For those who know me, I am that type people who need to study consistently throughout. That's why you don't see me bury my head in books minutes before we are due to enter the exam hall. To me, mugging at that time won't make a difference anymore.

Ok, going to relax for a while before calling it a day. Not to forget, happy birthday Dad!

It's December

2009-12-01T23:32:00.000+08:00

It is already December. The year is ending soon. But this year seems to be a bit longer than usual. The memories of spending the New Year's Day in Berlin seem to be so distant away, it doesn't feel like it took place this year at all. What a challenging year! December, the dreaded exams are here. As always, I never feel prepared. The next two weeks or so won't be pleasant. I am so glad that our group is doing radiology as the last rotation, so much free time to catch up on reading. I was drowned in my ophthalmology reading when the radiologists were busy performing their cerebral angiography. I didn't bat an eyelid at what they were doing! Might as well stay home and read then.

Notable quote of the day - 'Radiologists are full of imagination, and sometimes we hallucinate' - Dr T on the names of various signs on radiological images.

So yeah, radiology is suitable for you if you have a bombastic sense of imagination. The ability to hallucinate is a plus point. And you got to love computers...

Good riddance

2009-11-24T23:52:00.000+08:00

The Moral Studies paper is finally over. Not that I care about it a lot, but I am glad it is off my back forever. I completed my essay, exam, as well as the presentation half-heartedly. Thanks to CZ who provided me the slides, so I just copy and paste. I recycled my Family Health project reflective writing for the essay submission. Good that this thing doesn't drag on. Good riddance!

Radiology rotation is pretty chill so far. In fact, I think it is getting boring, especially in the nuclear medicine department. It's waiting and waiting, and chatting of course. Oh well, as long as it is stress-free, I don't mind. As I said, neurons are saved for exam cramming purposes.

Good night world! Hope tomorrow will be a better day. The love grows by each passing day!

Radiology: Chill rotation?

2009-11-22T22:05:00.000+08:00

I have just finished copying and pasting my moral essay and moral presentation. Useless assignments. Good thing that its exam is coming next week and I don't even need to think about it. Surgical portfolio deadline is almost here. I really hate to compile my portfolio, but I think I am better off now if compared to the one last semester. Work is piling up in this final few weeks.

So, I really hope that radiology/diagnostic imaging rotation, which starts tomorrow for my group, will really be a chill one. Don't want to be too stressed over it, want to save so neurons for the impending exams.

Dashed!

2009-11-20T22:57:00.003+08:00

I am so full! I am just home from Mizi Bistro where we had a surprise birthday party for Yolanda. The all-you-can-eat ice cream is certainly a killer. The food is good, it doesn't disappoint although this was only my second visit. Great to see that the birthday girl is happy despite the fact that the presence of our cars at the wrong parking lot did somehow alert her. Many of us didn't park at the back where we should be. Instructions were received, somehow we didn't know what we were doing. What a giveaway! Oh well, how time flies. We still can remember the moment last year when we sang outside Yolanda's window in Taney. Now one year on.

I have just completed my ophthalmology rotation. It is a relief that I don't need to peek through people's eyes which I have been doing for the past two weeks with great difficulty. Half of the time, I don't even know what I am looking for. Half of the time, I don't know what am I looking at, even after being pointed out. However, I can console myself that I am still able to see the stuff described in the book. But still, my mind can go blank when I am asked questions. How am I going to fare in the exam? I am dreading the day. Positive thinking? More TLC?

I am so disappointed by the Irish's misfortune in the World Cup play-off against France. They are essentially robbed! Especially the handball 'goal' during extra time in Paris. And a deflected goal in Dublin. Two fluke goals. So close yet so far. It will be great if there is a team to root for next summer. Apparently now I have none. Just because of a handball. I might not be an Irish, but having lived there for more than 2 years, I come to like that country to a certain degree. Every now and then, I long to go back to Ireland. So it is no surprise that I want to see Ireland in the World Cup badly. How fun would it be!

With the birthday girl!

Trying to have some fun with CZ before gloom & doom descend on us in the next few weeks...

Baby steps

2009-11-11T23:27:00.001+08:00

You have to know what is normal to appreciate what is abnormal. This is no exception in ophthalmology. The problem is that, even to know what is normal, it is a painstaking process. What more to detect abnormalities. Fundoscopy is a big challenge to many of us, except those who apparently have some kind of in-born talent of using that piece of equipment.

I could see nothing the first time I tried it. Almost clueless on where to look and how to look. I am told to take baby steps and don't be disheartened if I can't see what I am suppose to see. But, the course is so demanding. We are supposed to learn from scratch and all the way until we can detect abnormalities in just 2 short weeks. Not to forget, there is a long case hanging over our heads next month. And yeah, it is a barring exam. I wonder if baby steps is going to help. It looks like we need to learn how to fly as soon as we can walk.

3 days into the rotation, I think I have marked improvement. Ophthalmology is not exactly my cup of tea, but I can certainly stomach it. There are only a handful of patients that can be clerked for presentation purposes, and there is only one patient that meets the criteria today. And language barrier stopped me from going further. Feeling a bit useless. Need help here. If not, there will not be a case for tomorrow. Getting tired, refuse to think of it now. I will only worry about it tomorrow...

300th

2009-11-08T00:12:00.001+08:00

Blog post number 300. I have came a long way since I started this blog. During the time I wrote my first post, I had almost never left Malaysia. I was not in medical school yet. I didn't know how to cook. And I was so ignorant about so many aspects of life. Fast forward to post number 300 and more than 3 years later. I am now more than halfway through medical school. I have been to countless countries, tasted different food, different cultures and I have found my love. It has been a meaningful journey so far, with ups and downs, as documented in the past 299 posts.

I am done with the short ENT posting. We capped it off with a so-called 'assessment' with Dr Z. The 'assessment' was unlike any other exam. It was more like a teaching session than an assessment. In the end, everyone gets the same evaluation. It was relaxing and stress-free on our part, but is there any point of calling it an assessment? Anyway, they don't put much emphasis on this subject, since it is a non-core subject. Nevertheless, I enjoyed ENT.

Next up is ophthalmology. Lots of work and preparation is to be expected. And not to forget, I need to master my fundoscopy examination.

Time to call it a day.

CZ and I at home

Dinner in Ingolf's Kneiper, Tanjung Bungah

1st November 2009

2009-11-01T22:47:00.000+08:00

The first week of ENT posting has been rather uneventful and aimless. Dr P was busy the whole week, but at least she promised to replace the teachings as when the schedule permits. This means that we are going to have a helluva of a week starting tomorrow. Talking about scheduling, there are simply too many lectures that make arranging a time for replacements difficult and at times, impossible. I realise, not for the first time, non-hospital work seems to predominate, which I don't think is the best way to go. You can't blame us for flunking the OSCE when the afternoons are filled up with sleep-inducing lectures on campus. Isn't the time is better spent at the hospital, learning the real thing? By the way, for the record, I didn't flunk my OSCE. Rather relieved!

Apart from being in love, the other thing that I enjoyed most was the emergency medicine attachment in the Emergency Department of Penang Hospital. My groupmates and I were there for the whole week, and we finished with a bang at 5am this morning. Don't perceive the place as you would have imagined based on portrayals by the media. Majority of patients actually come in 'only' with minor ailments. But still, I love to see how the doctors manage them as first-liners. And they are very nice people too, despite facing a huge backlog of patients waiting outside. Not only we were given chance to perform many of the practical procedures, we were given opportunities to go on ambulance calls which I did at 3am this morning. Nothing spectacular, the creaky old ambulance was quite cramped. It is good that the patient's house is not too far away from the hospital. All in all, a week worth of nights well spent in the department. We all enjoyed it despite the hours.

It is now November. As usual, time flies. A mountain of work waiting to be done. No matter whether you are in love or not, they still have to be done. It just makes things easier to swallow, especially with all the TLC. Hence, I am glad and happy....

:D

2009-10-25T20:20:00.004+08:00

My life has just changed overnight! Loving the moments! Sweeeet!

Taiping - surgery week 6 of 6

2009-10-22T01:09:00.000+08:00

Updating live from Taiping, Perak. Today is only Day 3 of our Taiping surgery posting, but it feels so much longer than that. I feel that we have been posted here forever. It seems like Penang is so far away. However, 3 days are all we have this week as our end-of-rotation OSCE is due to take place in Penang and we plan to travel up north tomorrow morning.

We divided ourselves up between the two surgical wards on Monday and clerked every single new admission that came in until 10pm. In a flash, we had became admission officers. Plus, we looked at every single case in the wards. The male ward is cool and comfortable, but the same cannot be said for the female ward. It is freaking warm. What a discrimination! We stayed until 12am for all the 3 days. In just a 3 days, I have fulfilled the quota for my portfolio.

The staff here are very nice to us and they really go all out to teach and guide us. Some of them are extremely dedicated and really expect us to put in the hard work by attending night teachings. Night classes are almost unheard of in Penang! Mr L attempted to shake us up and bring us to reality on the very first night, Mr A sat us down and patiently teach us stuff. We cramped into Mr L's clinic to learn some tricks, especially breast examination. All in all, it was a tiring 3-day posting, but it has been very fulfilling. Not to forget, I am having a helluva of fun with the groupies until we can't differentiate which are jokes and which are not!

OSCE is imminent. Ill-prepared, but giving my best. Period.

MBP: Meeting expectations

2009-10-16T22:52:00.000+08:00

It has been 2 weeks since I got my hand on this new 13-inch MacBook Pro. And I have my best computing moments in a very long time. My good old Dell has certainly served me well over the years, particularly during my time in Dublin, but it has shown signs of age. Some keys are starting to come off. Dead pixels are becoming more apparent. It takes forever to start-up, even from hibernation. It is also getting prone to freezes and crashes. Yeah, so, time to rest in peace.

In come the MBP. At RM4099 after student discount, it is just a fraction more pricey than my old Dell. I was contemplating whether to get the white MacBook or this MBP, the former being RM600 cheaper. My aluminium MBP certainly looks better than the white polycarbonate MacBook. The screen is thinner and what I like is the backlit keyboard that lit up when the ambience light is low. And I love the screen too. The LED screen just look so good and bright, without being too glaring. The glass surface feels and looks posh too. I am now a big fan of the touchpad. I don't feel the need of connecting in an external mouse. It feels great and it's abilities to do multiple finger swipes revolutionise the scrolling process. I have no regrets choosing this over the MacBook, which I think will get grimy pretty fast, being white in colour.

Being a lifelong PC user, I did have concern moving over to the Mac. However, I am never in doubt in my ability to adapt to a different OS, having being a computer user for more than 10 years. I heard it is user friendly, smooth and very stable and now I can say that it doesn't disappoint at all. It performs as it is expected to be and I have no complains so far. There are still a few things that are yet to be discovered, hopefully waiting to be discovered.

I am going off to Taiping again next week, this time for surgery rotation, week 6 of 6. Assessment looming.....

Life has to go on...

2009-10-15T22:45:00.000+08:00

I can see it coming.

Devastated, but life has to go on...

Aimless week

2009-10-11T22:29:00.002+08:00

What is the point of the orthopaedics week when half of the group didn't turn up? It was designed such a way that there is minimal supervision and students are left on their own to do whatever they fancy. Hence, the aimless nature of the week. I myself took one day off from the hospital to sleep in at home. Feeling guilty, but the rain outside was so tempting to sleep in. It is really up to us to learn as much as we can. The week to come in Seberang Jaya, hopefully, is going to be a busy one. Can't wait to be busy again. Being lazy for too long isn't the way to go if I am to do well. I have slacked enough in this 4-week old rotation. It is time to end it once and for all.

I heard too many stories on the emergency medicine posting. Sounds exciting! And I can't wait to start mine in 2 weeks time. And that also reminds me of the impending surgery exam in 2 weeks time. That's life, never-ending exams.

UCD is now at number 89 according to the new Times university ranking. Cool!

Exam, vascular week & many more!

2009-10-04T22:31:00.005+08:00

Slacking in updating this blog, that's what I have been doing since the end of the dreaded exam. And now I have to update everything in one go. Let's say some words on the exam first. I arrived at the test centre quite early. Anticipating traffic jam in the morning, I departed early, but the roads in KL were relatively clear. Obviously many people were still on holiday following Hari Raya. My mind was quite blank while waiting. The subsequent hours were tiring, I needed a break after every block. It didn't help when your tummy was not feeling well. The noise of keyboard clattering from other cubicles was quite distracting, but I coped, without the earphones, which heat up the ears. I don't think I did that well, if I ever to pass. The final two blocks were terrible. I didn't know what I was doing. Click, next question, click.... Totally exhausted at the end.

Aftermath, an almost complete rest for 3 days (not a complete break, I took 2 days to do the tutorial) before starting the vascular week. Sat in the clinic on Monday, learning how to fill in prescriptions, with Dr K looking like a hawk beside me. Unnerving. Tuesday was OT day.

6.30am - Bedside teaching with Dr E. I presented, with lots of missing points. Sigh~ Luckily, he was nice to us.

7.45am - Examine a patient's lower limb. Ulcers, pigmentation and varicose veins. Patient was very accommodating.

8.15am - OT duty. Scrubbed in to assist Mr K's surgery. Struggled with double-gloving. Struggled to lift up patient's heavy lower limbs. Developed back pain myself. Watched subsequent surgeries by Mr M. Sore legs due to prolonged standing.

1.30pm - We were let out for lunch for 20 minutes. We were due to be in the wards for bedside teaching by Mr M at 1.50pm. So, we rushed to have our meals.

1.50pm - After all the rushing, an MO sent by Mr M informed us that the teaching was postponed to 4.30pm. Trudged back to PMC for tutorial. Pointless rushing. Luckily no indigestion.

3.00pm - Prof L tutorial, palpitating experience, as usual.

4.30pm - Bedside teaching with Mr M. Asked to go for a duck race. Dang!

6++pm - Reached home.

A long day, but very productive. I am satisfied.

My vascular week ended abruptly there. Most of the time were spent at the general practitioners teaching conference in Berjaya Hotel doing menial jobs and be treated as cheap labour. However, there were many plus points. We got to mingle among doctors, some of them top doctors from all over the country. So, we get to hear some cool insights from them regarding stuff that concern us. They fed us well, there was not a single hungry moment. There were a lot of freebies. The organiser, MMA, rewarded us quite well. Not to forget all the freebies from the pharmaceutical giants. Bags of their goodies filled up my room. Now, I know how conferences are run. I know that they can't function without us medical student volunteers.

I am starting my orthopaedics week tomorrow. Hope that it will turn out well. Take care, people!

p.s - My first post with my new toy, 13-inch MacBook Pro :)

Slacking

2009-09-19T23:27:00.002+08:00

Today is the most slacking day I have been experiencing since a long long time ago. I shouldn't have done it, but I feel good after doing it. I threw aside my exam prep for one day and I just want to recharge after all this while. I don't think it makes much of a difference anyway. I don't want to feel guilty. Woke up for squash at 10am. Good workout, I need all the fitness that I can get for that endurance exam on Thursday. I had my lunch at home before dozing off. Next. I went on a date with my usual movie kakis and dinner afterwards. I decided not to be so anti-social today. It has been a while since I last join them for a movie date. Ending this good day by packing for the journey home tomorrow. And of course, writing this piece before calling it a day.

I also have been slacking in the wards for the past week, for an entirely different reason (no thanks to the exam prep). Thanks to my groupies for 'covering' me for the week and I hope to repay their kindness and effort when things are back to 'normal'. Have a good holiday people! It's time to recharge before we regroup again to face more of surgery.

Not to forget, Selamat Hari Raya to all!

Food + Unrelated

2009-09-15T22:53:00.009+08:00

Thanks to Alwyn (or his luck for winning the lucky draw), I get to enjoy a sumptous buffet in Traders Hotel at a reduced price. The menu is simply extensive, so much more better than the buffets I had in Taiping with the groupies (but that was so much more economical). The desserts, especially, are very well presented that make them look extra tasty. Oysters and mussels are some of the things that must not be missed! That meal couldn't be better.

Surgery has been going on well so far this week, despite not putting much effort into it (there are reasons for that). As usual, Prof L was at his best in causing palpitations among us. Nobody knew who is going to be picked on. Nobody knew who is going to be ridiculed. It was his protocol to ask us to start with writing down his infamous proforma, this time in 3 minutes. I remember it used to be 5 minutes last semester. Well, it was tense. Our fixation with the costophrenic angle in CXR didn't help much to alleviate the electric atmosphere. Today's posting with the urologists was very easy-going. Half of the time we were talking about life issues, such as racism and motivation and becoming a better human being in general. The urology department might be cramped (pity them), but it has been very welcoming and accommodating. I like. Listening to them talking on this kind of stuff is so refreshing and kinda entertaining, it gives me a perspective on what they think outside of medicine. Of course, we never forget to go through whatever we suppose to know in urology.

My messy workstation.
I am bored and fed up with this exam prep. I just want to get it done ASAP, so that things can go back to 'normal'.

['How can you expect me to remember your name?! Don't you have an easier name for me to remember?!' - Prof L to me]

['I quit smoking, just because of a single sentence in a book' - Mr A]

['We are all Malays!' - Mr D]
1Malaysia, huh, Mr D. Haha....

Surgery - Pampered?

2009-09-11T23:38:00.005+08:00

I am back in Penang and there goes one week of eventful surgery rotation. It is good to be back in my own room. I am not a big fan of living out of a suitcase although I can adapt pretty well to it, thanks to my Europe-trotting days. Early start to the day is expected in surgery, just like today's teaching. I am up since 5am and actually I am almost conking out. We have been warned by one of the surgeons: if we complain that 6am ward teaching is too early, then the whole surgery department of PGH is going to withdraw from PMC teaching activities. No joke. And we are described as too pampered and there is simply too much spoon-feeding in PMC. Too many lectures and too many formal teachings. Indigestible amount of information, on daily basis. And half of the class fall asleep. Too little pure ward work, he claims.

Well, I kinda agree to that to a certain extent. The quality of learning from ward rounds varies. It all depends on the one who leads the ward rounds. Not everyone is like the surgeon above, who I can say is dedicated in teaching. Some ward rounds are just too large, you will need to strain your ears to listen and you are not really welcomed to join them. Some of them are just too occupied to notice your queries. Oh well, I understand clinical work is their priority, and sometimes we can't blame them. Hence the 6am ward teaching. That's the only time that they can dedicate their time fully for teaching. Blame the system and also the students' attitude, complaining excessively. Out of comfort zone, eh. Pampered? Hmm...

I can't escape from that. I feel guilty.

And I think I am gullible too. Just like in the incident with the guy that allegedly needs a doppler.

['Name me three famous Chinese philosophers'
'You can't? Aren't you Chinese?'
'Just want to make sure you know things outside of surgery' - Mr P to me]

Taiping 'holiday'

2009-09-04T23:50:00.004+08:00

Writing live from my hotel room in Taiping, Perak. I just feel so lazy stepping into this sleepy small town. No motivation to do much. Exam prep going haywire. Lazy to go hospital. Almost fell asleep during the video-linked lectures. The surgery tutorial was fun though, if you were not the one picked on. It is like a holiday, except the fact that it is not supposed to be a holiday. Accommodation is quite good. Eating out is alright, nothing special I should say. No matter how sleepy this place is, it is still more lively than Segamat.

The long case assessment this afternoon didn't go too well. I could have done better. I don't know if the examiner was quite harsh on me, but certainly I was in the wrong end of his 'mean-ness'. But the hospital is quite a nice place, it feels better than the stifling hospital in Penang. It is just that all the disciplines are jumbled up in the wards. So, there are myriad of cases in just a single ward. No specialised ward.

Taiping Zoo and night safari is the best Taiping can offer. Not too bad, worth a visit while you are here. I am going back to Penang tomorrow. Only until then I can upload the pictures. So sleepy now...

Medicine rotation has been good, enjoying it at times. Dreading to start surgery next week. Not looking forward to it.

p/s: Pictures of Taiping can be found here.

Overloading

2009-08-30T16:20:00.004+08:00

I don't know how long I can take this anymore. I enjoy being occupied and busy, but this exam prep is starting to take a toll on me. The more I studied, the more I feel that it is not right. I am now having disillusion on why am I planning to take this exam at the first place. I am overloaded with information, but they are all jumbled up in my head. I know that the answers to the questions are all behind somewhere in my head. Sometimes, I just can't get them out and even if I do, my brain has to go on overdrive. Sometimes, I feel like giving up and do absolutely nothing for a day! Maybe my studying method is flawed or maybe I am just not good enough. The Type A in me many years ago is gone. Seriously, I am doubting myself. I am stressed out. Not to forget, I still have to face the demand of the current semester. Help!

If given the choice, I don't want to go to Taiping tomorrow. That explains why I don't have the motivation to start packing. This is not the best time for such distraction. I have been quite anti-social lately, I have stopped going to the movies, I have disappointed people by pulling out of events. Very sorry indeed. I will have to make amends someday. Now I realise that what I actually need is interaction, not isolation. I hope I know what am I doing. Don't waste my effort. Help me! Anything will do.

Hope things are getting better (tell me how) and don't deny me of my food! Frustrating indeed...

Needless to say, doing the right thing is paramount...

Meanwhile, happy merdeka!!

Of finger and aubergine

2009-08-22T00:21:00.003+08:00

Eueewww! I still can remember vividly how bad was the aubergine/brinjal/terung during dinner just now. Funny texture, funny taste and I can't understand why people like it. Just like people don't understand why I like bitter gourd. I can take one or two voluntarily. Being forced to eat is too much, isn't it? I should just refuse flatly and walk away or convince her that aubergine is good for treating bed bugs. Yucky!

Finger is so much better now. Almost regained its full range of movement without any pain or stiffness. I can clerk patient as usual now, particularly important for my respiratory long case assessment this morning. I don't need others to write for me like the other day. Poor me! Today's exam was so much better, in terms of everything! I wasn't as as stressed. I wasn't overwhelmed. I didn't panic although I think my patient didn't understand three quarter of the things I said. Respiratory medicine is more straightforward, nothing much to go around. Prof R was very accommodating and encouraging. A good experience overall, no complains even though I couldn't really remember ethambutol causes which specific eye disorder.

I want to get away from my exam prep badly. It has been weeks! Good choice, bad choice, I don't know. Help! Endocrine rotation next, certainly not as straightforward, but it should be full of logic. As long as it is not aubergine/brinjal/terung again...

CXR

2009-08-17T23:15:00.003+08:00

Something that jolt us up from a slumber-inducing respiratory rotation. I don't know how it got there. The chest ward is simply not happening enough, not many patients around. There are actually many patients, most of them in the infamous influenza ward which is off-limit to us. Occasionally, the nice intern will let us do some procedures. But, still, this chest rotation is not exciting enough. Hopefully the exam is not going to be too hard. I hardly touch this year's material. I am not looking forward to Wednesday, nasty haematology awaits! Taking a day off tomorrow from the wards...

Meanwhile, a satisfactory comeback in fantasy football. Mid-table in the PMC group after one weekend. Not too bad considering how rusty am I.

Different ends of the spectrum

2009-08-14T23:26:00.005+08:00

This marks the end of the first week of respiratory/haematology rotation. It was up and down, like a torsades de pointes. We don't have problems with the chest physicians, as they are nice to us and it is very encouraging. Their teachings were quite high-yield. Our first encounter in haematology was at the other end of the spectrum altogether. We were given some vague and dubious instructions on where to meet. The sprawling nature of Penang Hospital and its hospital-speak didn't help. There were just too many misunderstandings, and we couldn't escape from any blame on our part. The tutor and the supervisor just screwed us up badly, not a good start to the day. The worst, I can say, since I started clinicals. The tutor was so snappy when we tried to explain our predicament, and he couldn't take us that day as he was busy. So, we had to come back next day, thinking that we would get another torrid time from him. I was so tempted to skip and run away from the troubles. How chicken! But, it turned out not to be that bad after all. First, he was not nasty to us like the previous day and secondly he made some good remarks: 'we are not training you to become ah beng' Thirdly, he knows loads. Well, as long as we are not screwed, it is alright. Period.

Having said that, it will be worse when we reach nephrology rotation. I heard the other group got screwed every single morning with the jumping down the windows, bodoh, cacat remarks. Although I think nephrology is interesting, I am so not looking forward to the rotation.

My 'i' key is giving me troubles, annoying. And Michael Schumacher is not making a comeback, nothing to look forward anymore in Valencia. The good thing is that the English football season starts tomorrow. Publicity of the Yahoo fantasy football in my PMC email caught my eye and tempted me to play it again after more than 5 years of hiatus. No doubt, it brings back some nostalgia of the fun we had and not to forget, the bragging rights!

I have lost some momentum and motivation in my exam prep, I need some stimulants, in any form. They will be much appreciated.

Yun's birthday party in Tsuruya...

Palpitations

2009-08-07T22:56:00.003+08:00

The cardio ward is probably the best place to get palpitations. It was so nerve-wracking presenting my end-of-cardio-rotation long case and answering Dr C's seemingly impossible questions. He was nice, but it was still very intimidating. I couldn't wait to get over it quickly. It didn't help when I was the last one to go. Anyway, it is a pass and 'only' constitutes 1% of my final marks. So, that's the end of my 2-week cardiology rotation, capping it off with such a poor performance. But it is counterbalanced with some superb bedside teachings, especially from Dr M. He makes murmurs so easy to understand and appreciate. It is not really the end yet, I have yet to submit my case write-up and the mock referral letter.

It is respiratory/haematology rotation next. I think we only have one ward to cover, since the other one is the influenza ward. I am going to miss CRW's air-cond. Prepared to get punched!

By the way, I saw a Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome patient today.

Amusing

2009-08-01T19:16:00.004+08:00

This product was easy to burning, aloof the high temperature, please, because maybe beget any danger and the product's definition distort.
The product only befit measure and study, unable to do other definition's measure.
Needed the paterfamilias accompany, if the children haven't 3 years.

If you are curious, the said product is a ruler.

Breathless

2009-07-31T22:41:00.005+08:00

I had always wanted to update this blog since the start of my cardiology rotation, but then I seriously didn't have much time to do so until now, where I am stealing a few moments off my exam prep to write this. Another two more months to prep. The schedule in this new semester is packed to the brim. There is not much time you can catch a breather, no thanks to the additional exam prep. Only meal times, the best time to chill out a bit. That's why I am making sure that I use those time slot to fully recharge myself, mentally and physically. I usually shut down at 11pm+. Just can't keep my eyes and mind open anymore. Counterproductive if I am to continue on.

I love the cardiac rehab ward. One of the best place to be in the stuffy and hot and crowded Penang Hospital. It is the opposite here, it is cool and surprisingly calm. How I wish all the wards in the hospital is as such. I am so reluctant to leave this ward and assigned to the stuffy C8 next week of the same rotation. Argh! And the cardiologists have been very nice so far, especially today when our tutor was extremely nice. We don't expect us to be treated so well. And the lesson was the most holistic ever. Not so much science there.

My sister's med school has been closed down due to influenza A(H1N1). So, I am not surprised that it will be PMC's turn soon. We people go in and out of hospital in daily basis and assemble in class everyday. What an ideal setting for it to spread! It looks imminent. But, of course, I hope I am wrong.

On Michael Schumacher comeback, I am surprised. Now I am eager to see how the next grand prix pans out. Let's see what he can do.

Keep updated by following my tweets! Till then...

Back!

2009-07-26T19:05:00.001+08:00

I am back in Penang and I am now so relieved to have finished off that 23-page long surgery tutorial....

Weird holiday

2009-07-17T00:37:00.002+08:00

The holiday is more than halfway gone and as a matter of fact, I can't wait to start again. It is not that I hate this break. But, it has been very boring from the day I came back. It is far from an ideal holiday when I 'have to' spend most of time at home studying. However, the holiday is also long enough for a good study. It is just that studying is boring. Some people are telling me: why waste this longest ever holiday by studying? Unlike my previous holidays, there is no more jetsetting lifestyle to enjoy. Gone are the days where I spent the holidays trotting around Europe. Anyway, I don't want to call it a 'waste'. In fact, I have made some good progress in my prep. Nearly died re-studying biochemistry along the way though.

By the way, I WANT to watch Harry Potter. Useless, I am stuck in a cinema-less town. It looks like I will have to wait until I am back in Penang to watch. By that time, most of you would have already watched it. Dum dum dum.....

Post-exam

2009-07-03T23:29:00.012+08:00

I got to enjoy some post-exam fun in Penang before going home to slog all over again. Here are just some of the pictures. More in my Facebook albums, as usual. Many of the eating places we visited went undocumented. Quite a pity. Well, it is good to be home, but it will be a boring one, if everyday is like today.

Kek Lok Si revisited

Terengganu Road tong sui

Pre-flight Korean BBQ at Gurney

Leaving Penang, just for 3 weeks... And by the way, my first AirAsia flight after years of Ryanair.

It's FINALLY over!

2009-06-29T00:48:00.003+08:00

With the completion of the much dreaded surgical portfolio, the first semester in PMC is finally over. I can't believe I still had to slog day and night after the exam for this portfolio. Well, I regret not doing it properly as I go along. It is quite a 'sesal dahulu pendapatan, sesal kemudian tidak berguna' kind of situation. Point taken, no repeat of the same situation next year, I hope. And I realised that I am not the only in the same situation. Well well well.

I was accused being too 'drama' in my previous post. Haha. Point taken, but I was just too bored at that time and moreover, many people besides me were harping on that case write-ups and barring issue. Who knows they are going to take it seriously and bar me from the exam? There would be a hoo-haa if that were to happen. Of course, nothing happened, but I screwed up my medicine exam, I just got slightly more than half of the questions correct. It sounds disastrous, and it was no surprise to me, that's how I always perform, if you know me well. I hope the surgery paper will be much better, since it was obviously easier than the medicine paper. No post-mortem yet, so I don't know how well I do.

My long case OSCE can be regarded as so-so. The diagnosis was pretty obvious and I think I did alright for the presentation of history and examination part. It was not some weird case that everybody is fearing of. I was given more than enough time to clerk the patient, so the fear of not enough time didn't come true. Facing two examiners, firing questions at you, was very intimidating. I had palpitations throughout the Q&A session. It began quite well, but it went downhill towards the end. I was stuggling to answer the more advanced questions, even though I think I shouldn't be. Your mind can go blank in such situation. Now I know how it feels like, an eye-opener for me.

I don't know why am I still holed up in Penang. Why did I book the air ticket for such a late date? But, it is alright, food is good here. Life in Penang is actually not too bad these 3 months. Life is Europe was even better. As I say again and again, I miss the climate there.

Can I sit for the exam?

2009-06-21T12:03:00.004+08:00

So, technically, I am barred from medicine exam tomorrow. One of my cases is still left unmarked. There are about 20 hours left, or I will be left in a limbo...

Hazy sky, hazy mind

2009-06-19T15:55:00.002+08:00

The haze enveloping Penang Hill in the distance. Not only it is hazy, it is freaking warm as well. Hardly a conducive environment to study. My brain is as hazy as the sky now.

Boredom

2009-06-17T21:05:00.000+08:00

Nearly died from the boredom! No more supper trip for today...

End?!

2009-06-12T23:25:00.006+08:00

How come time flies so quickly in this GP rotation? I remember that medicine and surgery rotations took ages to finish. To mark the end of this rotation, our consultation skills are evaluated via another video session. It is good that I have learned my lessons. I think I did so much better this time around. It was easy as I knew what to expect. Muahaha. Forget about the inauspicious start. I have completed my not-so-long-compared-to-others reflective journal and got every 'skill' signed off by the nice staff in Perak Road. At least I don't have a 'baggage' to carry through the term break.

Official semester teaching has just ended today. All groups had undergone all 3 rotations. Oh, talking about grouping for next semester, it is status quo, save for two additional members. The much welcomed/dreaded study break is here again. It is welcomed because it is a long-needed break, no need to wake up that early and can now stay up longer into the night. On the other hand, it is dreaded because this will be the most boring period of the year, as usual. Sitting in front of books everyday is hardly exciting, isn't it. And not to mention the stress level.

Hmm.. I am contemplating whether I should publish my reflective journal publicly. Anyways, that is for another day. Happy studying!

P.S. - Pictures of latest food adventure in my latest Facebook album. Hint: right-hand column.

Sheer incompetence

2009-06-03T22:25:00.003+08:00

It looks like venepuncture to draw blood is the trickiest skill for me to learn. I always failed to anchor the needle properly when pulling the syringe. I think it caused some distress to some patients, and my poor colleague as well (Sorry!). Sheer incompetence, isn't it? There is satisfaction when I can do a proper one. Haha! When there is no patients waiting outside, we drew each others' blood and we managed to send them to the lab for analysis. Lo and behold, my MCV, MCH and MCHC are all low. It looks like I have thalassaemia trait after all, which I have already suspected. So, to the doctor I went to and she wrote me orders for further investigations: full blood picture and Hb analysis. I managed to ask her to squeeze in a lipid profile as well. FBP and Hb analysis are not available in Perak Road and the samples are sent to Penang GH.

Other skills are less tricky to learn, from the super lame urine dipstick to moderately traumatic (to my patient at least) IM injection. Blood pressure taking in Perak Road is another super easy task. For convenience sake, they are using the machine rather than the old-school mercury one. It takes a bit of courage and confidence to do some of these procedures, and I don't mean pressing buttons on that digital blood pressure machine. So, to sign off these skills is not rocket science. On another note, I also suffer from language incompetence, to be precise, the Penang Hokkien dialect. Problems arise when a patient who speaks/understands no other than Penang Hokkien walks in. First, the nurses and MAs can't understand him/her. Then, they usually ask for my help to do some translation. You know how incompetent I am with this dialect, so I can't help much with my Mandarin. I am lost, the patient is also lost. Another sheer incompetence.

As for the family health project, we found a young patient in the haemodialysis unit in Penang GH. It seems to be an interesting case to follow up for 2 years. The mother is willing to be part of our project, so there is no problem in getting consent. There are a lot of healthcare service contacts to report about and I think that the social and family impact of this patient is something that can be well explored.

Let's pray I improve my skills without distressing the patients too much. 2 more days~
I think this has already formed part of my reflective journal writing for this rotation.

Unnecessary distraction

2009-06-01T23:33:00.003+08:00

Out of the blue, I have to sit for LAN Malaysian Studies. It is tomorrow, and I have to read notes, much to my displeasure. Totally pointless, the content is exactly the same as what I did in Sixth Form years back. I am not going to care much, enough by using my residual knowledge. Essay and presentation had been done, with all due respect to my group members, were unnecessary distractions. There will be no more Malaysian studies after tomorrow. But, I can't bear the thought of having to do Moral Studies in the near future. It is that damn demoralising. I hate the thought of it. What rubbish regulations!

Anyway, the next few months won't be as smooth sailing. I have just signed up to do one of the world's toughest exams. So, it will be all about studying, forget the holidays. I hope I know what I am getting into. I shouldn't have any regrets though. I am the one who choose my own path. I am not under any pressure or coercion to do this. More on this as I go along.

Meanwhile, screw Malaysian Studies. I am not going to go through those notes again. Why do I bother? A pass is more than enough for me. Seriously, unnecessary distraction!

P.S. - Weather is so nice in Dublin! I want to be there! Penang is way too hot~

Spooked

2009-05-21T23:57:00.003+08:00

Things in family medicine/GP still not going any better. In fact, it was disastrous, judging by this morning's video taping of my Cambridge-Calgary consultation skill. I looked so unnatural, probably spooked by the presence of the video camera recording my every move. I think I started off quite well. Let the 'patient' rambled on without any interruption, then I used more open questions to let him talk more. I tried to show some concern and empathy but I stumbled in some areas by giving some inappropriate remark. And apparently I didn't elicit enough medical history and failed to summarise. I felt so inadequate.

Anyway, after having a good laugh at my groupmates' performances (with all due respect) during the video analysis session, I now know what went wrong. It is quite difficult doing it in real, it is so easy on paper. Multitasking is hard, certainly need more practice, but the video camera and the 'mock' environment made it awkward.

Inauspicious start?

2009-05-18T22:12:00.002+08:00

The lectures this morning for my new family medicine/GP rotation were so boring and long-winded. I wouldn't survive another day in this rotation if this is going to be continued on. It is not that I was falling asleep or something like that, it is just that I wanted to get out of there faster. Probably I was starving. Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms about the contents, I just hope that they keep it short and simple.

It looks like I am sent to Perak Road for my community clinic posting for 4 days and a private clinic for a day. We have to source a patient to follow-up for 2 years as part of the family health project. Not to mention I have to get all 25 clinical skills signed off as competent. And there is a reflective journal to be written. Isn't it like blogging?

Things will get better, hopefully....

End of one, start of another one...

2009-05-17T23:50:00.003+08:00

Great weekend! Angels and Demons outing was good and dinner last night at Dhir's was even better! The squash games were refreshing too. Most importantly, I still managed to get things done in between.

End of surgery rotation. And this is also when 2009 A(H1N1) strikes Penang. It is a good thing that my next rotation is family medicine/GP. Most of my group do not need to go to Penang Hospital for the next 4 weeks. Anyway, I heard that the respiratory ward has been closed to the outside world. Pity those who are going for respiratory medicine rotation next, missing out on the wards.

Apart from the early start, surgery has not been too taxing compared to medicine. It is still down to the individual, whether you want to stick around and make yourself useful or head home early after class. Some patients are still nice as ever, but interesting cases can be few and far in between. And I am sick of clerking alleged MVA patients, unremarkable history and I can't perform physical examination on them. I have only observed one surgery so far: appendectomy, and two procedures: OGDS and colonoscopy. I have also seen how DRE and proctoscopy are done in the clinics. At least these things made up for a largely disappointing orthopaedics week.

The next rotation has been labelled as the 'relaxing' one. I will reserve my opinion until I go through it. Sometimes you have take a pinch of salt when people say something. Can't wait to stick a needle into someone in the next 4 weeks.......

One year on...

2009-05-16T09:00:00.001+08:00

One year on, is it even worth remembering it?...........

While waiting...

2009-05-13T12:46:00.002+08:00

Snapped these pictures from the top floor of Penang Hospital while waiting for yet another rescheduled tutorial. Sigh! Our earlier class was cancelled too. The lecturer's car was broken into. All sort of things are possible...

Rescheduling Galore!

2009-05-12T14:14:00.003+08:00

It is 2.14 pm. Why am I sitting at home? PMC rescheduling galore! My group's classes have been pushed back to 4-6 pm. Why is it like that for my group almost every week?! Argh!

Meanwhile, I have a big decision to make..... (career-wise)

PoP

2009-05-06T22:57:00.005+08:00

Orthopaedics rotation. Pity the patients who need to put this on for weeks. Kinda heavy.
On another note, I don't think this ortho rotation, which is part of the surgery rotation, is very useful for us. The tutors are too busy teaching the final year students and we are almost neglected. So much for the enthusiasm.

The Return Of My Treasures

2009-04-26T01:22:00.004+08:00

The boxes from Dublin finally arrived safely last Thursday!! At least they are not hijacked by the pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Muahaha! It took us a few trips for the boxes to be transported home from PMC and almost got a hernia in the process loading and unloading. The boxes are that HEAVY! Memories flooding back when I opened my boxes. Like unraveling troves of treasure. The big teddy bear, books, clothes, my holiday souvenirs (picture above), my radio clock, etc. They are all back! It reminds me how different it was back then compared to the present. Huge difference!! Speaking of which, I am starting to miss those days. Don't you?...

The Killer Rotation?

2009-04-22T22:37:00.006+08:00

I have just ended my 4-week rotation in medicine, and I don't think that's enough. I know that I have learnt a lot of stuff, but the experience is so short. Still not very good in certain stuff. Now comes another tough and demanding rotation: surgery. I don't know how it will feel compared to medicine, but I know that many people are put off by the occasional early start (6am and 6.30am) in the hospital. That means you have to wake up at ungodly hours. It is good that we don't need to do that every single day. After 3 days in this rotation, I can say that the surgeons are more demanding in picking cases to be discussed. There is another hassle, as the group leader, I need to call up the tutors every day to arrange the time for bedside teachings. Being surgeons, there are always last minute changes due to surgery, etc and the session needs to be rescheduled.

Anyway, I still find it refreshing as it is quite different from medicine. I think it is more straightforward than medicine. Let's hope that it is not to be a 'killer' rotation like what some people say.

I will be back with more updates (when I feel like updating) soon. Meanwhile, stay healthy and enjoy life.

I will end this with pictures from Terh Ren's birthday steamboat buffet!

One month ago...

2009-04-19T21:41:00.023+08:00

A collection of pictures from one month ago, DUB-AUH-KUL.

Breakfast in McDonald's at Dublin Airport

Dublin Airport

The controller cum gamepad cum phone.

Desert of the Middle East.

Abu Dhabi Airport

Arabian salad and bread

Malaysia!

KLIA at last, after one full day since Dublin.

Soldiering On

2009-04-12T00:04:00.013+08:00

Wow! It's Federico Macheda saving the day for Manchester United again! What a start to his career. Oops! A bit off topic here. Haha. I hope that my start in clinicals is as bright as his. Having said that, I am actually feeling very good, even though I have backlog of stuff to be done. A bit early to have backlogs. But things are coming thick and fast.

As opposed to my colleagues who are doing their surgery rotation now, my morning schedule is not that crazy (FYI, I am doing medicine right now, one more week to go). I can go to the hospital as late as 8.30pm, unlike those unearthly hours for surgery. But, I realised that I know nuts when questioned during bedside teachings and my presentation is in tatters. It is kind of scary too if I get some scary tutors. I have to soldier on anyway. It is not all gloom and doom, I kinda enjoy this kind of lifestyle right now. I am starting to appreciate a lot of things. Having relearning how to swim is very satisfactory too and the pool is a solace after a long day at the hospital and college.

Some surprises happened too. First, Eddie Jordan made an appearance in PMC and secondly, in Jordan's entourage, was Hugh's (my ex-classmate in UCD) uncle. And he looks a bit like Hugh too. What a small world! He did a brief saxophone rendition and Eddie Jordan gave his inspiratory talk afterwards. It is amazing to see him in the flesh. However, attendance was very poor and it set off some controversy in college. Another big event was the PMC annual banquet in Batu Feringghi. It was a grand night overall but a bit draggy towards the end. The idea of the masquerade theme was actually very good. You can't expect more.

I am ending this with pictures!

A beautiful day in Penang!

Eddie Jordan in PMC!

Surprise surprise! Hugh's uncle!

A repeat scene from Casino Royale party in Dublin.

A Fresh Start

2009-03-30T23:23:00.002+08:00

It was quite a chaotic start with my life here in Penang. A sudden change in accommodation arrangements, due to an irresponsible individual, caused us to move in at the last minutes. After one big round, we ended up here in Sri York, which was our very initial place of choice before all those considerations. So, last minute it was. Very nice place though, but it comes with a price. Complete with a swimming pool, squash court, gym and cafeteria.

Adapting to the weather was surprisingly quick for me. I am surprised how well I coped, even though it is still sticky and stuffy and all those stuff related to the heat. The introductory week was quite laidback, with many long breaks in between, which we used to go makan and run some errands, not to forget, some shopping too. Just like in Ireland, we ended up buying the bulk of our groceries from Tesco. Same old routine.

Clinicals in hospital was overwhelming at first, seriously. We never had any real patient contact before and I really struggled for a day or two. However, I find it exciting. Far more exciting than sitting in a lecture theatre trying not to doze off. Slowly and steadily, I manage to get into the flow of clerking patients and follow the bedside teachings. Learnt quite a lot. The bad thing is that I need to get used to waking up freaking early in the morning. It doesn't help when you are posted to Seberang Jaya Hospital whereby you need to cross the often slow moving Penang Bridge every morning to reach in time.

It is frustrating when classes are postponed/cancelled at the last minute. Apparently, it happens quite often. I would rather use the time to catch up some sleep. I am quite fed up sometimes, it throws your schedule off-balance and I hate such disruptions.

No matter what, I am glad that I have this opportunity to start afresh in this new environment. Whatever I had learnt in Dublin should be treasured and whatever that should be left behind, I should left them behind.

Back online in Penang

2009-03-25T22:52:00.002+08:00

I finally have internet installed in my apartment here in Penang, but I don't have much time to write everything that I wanted to write. Just to let everyone know that I am alive and kicking! Another early start tomorrow. Sigh....

Last words from Dublin

2009-03-09T06:39:00.005+08:00

I am now sitting alone downstairs in my Taney Road house and I am due to leave in 10 hours. My previous long post which I have worked on for some time gives you some idea on what has happened. I know there seems a lot of omission, all the stuff there was written off the cuff without much planning. There are some aspects of my life that was not covered there. Anyway, that piece reflects and summed up pretty much my experience here.

People around here asked me: How do you feel of going back? I told them that I have mixed feelings. For one thing, I am glad to go back, since I haven't been back for almost 2 years. Everything will be so much cheaper in Penang where good food is abundant. And I have to go back to earn my degree, I have no choice. On the other hand, I am going to miss the laid back schedule in UCD and all the great facilities there. I am going to miss the people that I am fortunate enough to know, be those in my class or those in the years below me, and not to forget non-medical students too. I am going to miss the climate here, but not the weather. I love it when it is sunny with temperatures of 12-15 degree Celsius. I am going to hate the heat in Malaysia.

No matter what some people say about the unreliable public transport in Dublin, I think the services provided (Dublin Bus and Luas) has done me a lot of favours. I can not own a car here and yet I can move around resonably well. Try to do that in Penang - impossible. I am going to miss the bicycle lanes along Clonskeagh Road and Goatstown Road too. The lanes that make cycling resonably safe. In terms of personal growth, it has been a tremendous growth, from my own perspective at least. I have learnt a lot of things. That include cooking, looking after myself and how to deal with people in different settings, be it academically or personal relationships. I have learnt to take some form of criticisms and disappointments along the way. They tend to hit me hard, but I eventually learn to steady myself and go for the positive side. Sometimes, I can't believe I get into the mess in the first place. But, Dublin has taught me well to avoid these unsavoury moments in the future, hopefully.

Dreams come true. Traveling! Visiting the famous cities and sites of Europe (listed in sequence which I traveled): Belfast, Giant's Causeway, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Porto, Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, Cordoba, Cambridge, London, Windsor, Bath, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, Auschwitz, Salzburg, Paris, Barcelona, Athens, Delphi, Santorini, Crete, Brussels, Brugge, Venice, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Rome, Tivoli, Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle, Bern and Interlaken.

Before I end, I wish to say go raibh maith agat to everyone who make my stint here in Dublin a reality (that includes my family members who paid my way here and my friends for constant support and company). To everyone in Ireland: Slán.

2.5 years: A Recap

2009-03-05T02:56:00.001+08:00

September 2006
Everything began from this point, not knowing what was it going to be in the next 2.5 years in Dublin. I had some vague idea, but never the full picture. I tried to elicit more information from Jasmine and she was of great help and she still is. But, nothing really prepared me for the challenges ahead. There were some misconceptions and lack of understanding on some issues, most of the reality only surfaced after I settled down.

So, on September the 5th, a group of bleary-eyed raw students arrived in Dublin. One of the first impressions was that how small Dublin airport is. Haha! Not that cold. We were well taken care of by the seniors, a big thank you to them who went all out. We were showed where Tesco Merrion is and also around town. Academically, I struggled initially, especially in biochemistry. I had to adapt to a different type of studying system. I needed some time to grasp the system and exploited it to find ideal solutions. Understanding the accents of Irish lectures was not an issue. Settling down in Merville was also not a big deal. It was quite good, close to everybody.

I took my first trip out of Dublin with a trip to a farm in Co. Meath to experience some Irish culture, food, etc. It was fun, as of many trips that I would undertake in the coming months.

October 2006
My first continuous assessment was quite a disaster. I was still struggling to cope with the wealth of details that we needed to know. Moreover, I was not familiar with the format. Not surprising. Just going through the motions day after day. It could be quite monotonous. Some lectures are more thought-provoking than others who just mumbled through the powerpoint slides. I have my favourites and some are in my no-no list.

I recalled that I had a patient visit and a site visit for my CSI module. My partner, Sarah and I had to travel all the way to Rathfarnham to visit this particular patient who was kind enough to volunteer. We spent a good hour talking to her. For the site visit, I was assigned to a nursing home in Blackrock with Chris. It was a brief visit, but it gave us insight on how the nursing home is run and also the issues that concern the occupants.

December 2006
It was an exam month and I can say that the study week prior to the exam was one of the most boring period ever. I couldn't go out socialising to much for the fear of disturbing other people, and most importantly, I was supposed to study everything that might be asked in the exam. So, I had to hide myself in my room most of the time and trust me, it was so so boring. It was fun studying something new, but there was no fun in studying for exam. It was the complete opposite. I had to admit that the exam was hard and I struggled. It turned out to be a bad result but I still passed everything. Holidays came and most of the stuff were forgotten by then.

January 2007
My first birthday abroad was a great one. The folks organised a 'surprise' birthday party for me in Merville and not knowingly at that time, it turned out to be my first and last birthday in Ireland. They made a pizza bearing my name as the 'birthday cake'. Highly creative I should say. I really enjoyed myself that night. Thanks, folks! (even though that was two years ago)

I went for an overnight trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland not long after the party. I remembered that the weather was very bad, especially on the day we went up to the Giant's Causeway. Soaking wet from the trip, all the way back to Dublin.

My first holiday out of Ireland was Edinburgh, Scotland. It was just a short winter trip across the Irish Sea. Staying in a backpacker hostel was a first too. So, I would consider this trip as an eye-opener for me in terms of organisation and budget. I made a day trip to Glasgow too. It was great when you were seeing things that you had read before.

February 2007
The subjects in this semester were challenging, but I found them more interesting and engaging that the previous ones. Nothing much to elaborate academically, I had pretty much knew the structure of the programme, with its lectures, dissections, CALs and tutorials. Let's put this aside for a moment because I want to recount my first ever Malaysian Night! Every year, this is the time of the year to showcase everything about Malaysia to everyone. It is also the time to show off your talents in performing arts. Not to forget it gives people a chance to dress up. I did backstage work mostly and only made a brief appearance on stage to create the waves for the Chinese dance. I had heard of this event so much in the past, it was only then I knew it was such a grand event.

March 2007
After a bout of mid-term assessment, there was a 3-week Easter break. We already planned for a major trip, lasting 10 days. I joined the Aunties for a trip to Portugal and Spain, in which the cities visited were Porto, Coimbra, Madrid, Sevilla, Toledo and Cordoba. As it would be the case for all major trip lasting more than 3 days, there were a lot planning in terms of logistics, as in transport, accommodation, etc. And usually, everything is done before we set foot in our destinations. I was actually still quite inexperienced in this kind of travel. For instance, we overpacked and had to lug big luggage across airport terminals, bus stations and also on the street when looking for our hostels. We met some interesting people along the way and it was in Madrid where I learned how to play Texas Hold'em. Met up also with Rebeca who introduced us to some exotic Spanish food. All in all, it was quite a low budget trip. Everything went well, although the 5-hour bus trips from Madrid to Sevilla and vice versa were rather torturous.

May 2007
Another round of big exam. Got it done and it was time to go house hunting and move out of Merville. We found a house in Clonskeagh which is of an ideal distance from UCD. We booked the top floor. Since the contract would start only in September, we were able to save 3 months rent when we were not in Ireland. I put lots of my stuff in student storage and head back to Malaysia for the summer. En route, my luggage got stuck in Amsterdam due to a delay. But the most obvious thing that hit me was the heat and humidity once you step off the plane into the aerobridge in KL.

September 2007
I came back to Dublin with a new vigour. Six of us were now staying under one roof. We rented a car to complete the move, and also to go shopping in. That was also how I brought back my bicycle from the town. Although our house was of convenient walking distance from UCD, it was even more convenient and faster if we cycle all the way. Just a cheap bicycle, nothing fancy. There was only one thing that hit me, I punctured my tyres at least 3 times in the subsequent months. It caused some hardship: late for class, had to walk all the way home, etc. If you think of the bright side, I actually acquired a new skill: changing tyres of a bicycle, which I think I would struggled to do before this. The subjects this semester were becoming more challenging and yet more enjoyable. Stuff that you can relate more to, rather than dry stuff that need a lot of drawing pictures in your head.

October 2007
Oh ya, I should write a few words on Med Day. This time around, I chose to go collecting donations in Dalkey, a seaside town south of Dublin. So, I had to wake up super early in order to catch the suburban train, the DART from Sydney Parade. Some people were very generous (like a €10 note), but a small number were nonchalant. We were also stopped by the gardai asking for permit to collect donations. There were a lot of festivities during Med Day. It was just that I was not interested in joining all of them. But, I managed to watch the pom pom dance in town the year before, and also the dash into Trinity College. I was just too tired, wanted to just go home and get some sleep.

November 2007
Routines still dominated my life. Having said that, it was also a routine (as it would be for subsequent times) when holiday planning for the following month or so got into full swing. To give you a sense of the planning that we did, firstly, we always had a list of destinations in our head. This list, at this stage, was quite preliminary, subject to change and flexible. Then, we looked at the price of the flights, hunting for the best deal within the window. It was usually Ryanair. It is rare to see that other cheaper airlines. If we found some reasonably priced flights, we would draft out the itinerary (e.g. how many days in Vienna?). Once that was done, we would search for connections from one city to the other. Lastly but not least, we would book hostels. All these were done with the budget in mind. The trip we were about to undertake was quite complex as it involved a few cities in different countries with different currencies. Sometimes, it was hard to juggle and estimate the budget and timing, among other things. Nevertheless, it looked perfect on paper. Just need to pack and go.

I still took tremendous effort to go through the mid-terms and to absorb new things for the coming big exam. Understanding those stuff was not my main problem, I could understand concepts and facts quite well. I am motivated to learn new things. The only thing that bothered me was that I couldn't retain those information well enough in my head. So, it was more like a memory problem, and I had to go over the same stuff over and over again. I recognise that it is still my problem. Surely there is no shortcut to success.

December 2007
We sat for our end-year exam every year in the RDS, not in UCD itself. There is always a big hall for waiting and revision purposes, apart from the exam hall. Occassionally, the SU will hand out goodies like lollipops, drinks, bananas, etc for free. There is also a supervised cloakroom if you want to deposit your valuables. Personally, I would always arrive quite early to the exam venue, just in case. So, I would find a spot to sit down and start on my last-minute reading. It might be useful. But then, with so many people walking and mingling around the hall, I got distracted easily. I can easily say that I looked at people more than I concentrated on reading.

For the first part of my winter holiday, we went over to the UK, flying to London Stansted before spending one day in Cambridge. Then, we went down to London and stayed with Alwyn's friend for a few nights. We made day trips to Windsor and Bath. The Chinese food in London was superb, a far cry from the ones we get in Dublin. We ended up eating that every night in Chinatown. The climax of the trip was the new year's celebration. We had a good view of the fireworks released from the London Eye from the Westminster Bridge, in which we were practically stuck for a few hours. My most happening new year's countdown ever!

January 2008
We flew back to Dublin from London Heathrow on new year's day. Just a few days later, I departed again for the second part of my winter holiday. We flew to Prague, Czech Republic and instantly met with the cold weather. The wind chill was terrible, but no snow. We moved on to Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary. Budapest was particularly memorable. My travelmates threw me a surprise birthday party in our hostel room. Although it was simple, they had gone to great length to acquire the food as they struggled with the gibberish Hungarian menu. We went back to Vienna for the second time to take a short flight to Krakow, Poland. From there, we took the opportunity to visit Auschwitz and Wieliczka salt mine. Due to fog in Krakow airport, our flight back to Vienna was cancelled and we thought it would be detrimental to our travelling plans. We needed to find an alternative. At the end, we took the sleeper train to Vienna. A first for me, sleeping on a bunk onboard the train. We reached the next morning and travelled straight to Salzburg. Salzburg was the last destination. I didn't feel like leaving for Dublin at all, but everything has to end. Reluctantly, we trudged back to Dublin for the new semester.

I realised the world is quite small. Bumped into Jasmine and co and also the Aunties in Vienna. And also Joyce in London.

February 2008
Another installment of Malaysian Night. I can say that it was the most stressful one. Trust me, handling the spotlights with ultimate precision in timing was not as easy as I initially thought. So, please be grateful. Haha!

Since moving to Clonskeagh, we no longer shopped for groceries in Tesco Merrion. We did most of the shopping in the Tesco in town. It was usually a Sunday and we would spend a few hours getting enough supplies to last a week. It was convenient enough as the bus stop is right in front of the house. Occassionally, we would get the 25kg rice from Asia Market and it took great effort to bring that back.

March 2008
We had mid-terms before and after the spring break. So, we scheduled our getaway for only a week. One week was allocated for revision after we came back. Hence, just two destinations: Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain. One of the shortest trip. We had a lot of fun though, particularly in Disneyland. Disneyland was a dream come true for me. And Barcelona is a beautiful city, full of Gaudi's work. Las Ramblas was too crowded, but very happening. Have to be careful though, a few Taiwanese girls who happened to stay in our hostel got pickpocketed in Las Ramblas.

April 2008
Since I didn't plan to go back to Malaysia this summer, I would have at least 3 months to spare. So, I applied for the SSRA which enables us to do a research project over the summer. I was called up for an interview, but unfortunately rejected. Subsequently, I spammed every researcher that I could find in UCD. Many went unanswered and many were disappointing. It was a bit like job hunting. To cut the story short, I managed to get a position in the infectious diseases lab at the end after attending a short meeting with the supervisor.

May 2008
As usual, May is an exam month, which is already pretty routine for me. We decided to look for a new house as uncertainties arise when the landlady was mulling to sell the house. So, we searched high and low for affordable houses that can fit all of us. We stumbled upon this lovely house in Taney Road and the decision to rent it was pretty quick. We were due to move in at the beginning of June. Before that, I went off for my first trip of the summer, Greece. It was very warm and sunny in Greece throughout my stay. On the mainland, we visited Athens and Delphi. The Greek islands were breathtaking, especially Santorini. Water activities were fun too! It is very unfortunate that I came down with chicken pox during the last two days. Very uncomfortable, particularly during the flight to London from Crete. I also succumbed to cellulitis in my legs in Santorini. Quite painful. The trip was wonderful, except for the final days. I was in a bad shape. At the same time, I had to pack in preparation to move to Taney Road.

June 2008
With the help of Matt, the house moving proceeded on smoothly. Due to my medical condition, I had to postpone the start of my stint in the lab for a week. Stayed at home. Still, I managed to spread the virus around, particularly to one of my housemates. The learning curve during the first week was quite steep. Everything was new to me. So, I took down a lot of notes and everyone was very supportive, including my supervisor. I was quite careful to not make any mistake. I think I became more and more complacent as time went by, multiplied by the internal turmoil I was having at that time, I did quite a number of significant mistakes that actually slowed down my progress.

I learned to sail through this personal tumultuous moments and hoped to emerge from this unscathed. It was hard, but at the end I had to accept I can't everything I wanted and there is no point in remembering the negatives. I emerged from this experience wiser and I learned to look at the issue from different perspectives, curbing my emotions at the same time. It actually gives me some idea on how to deal with this in the future.

July 2008
I spent one of the weekends in Belgium, visiting Brussels and Brugge. The thing that stood out in this trip was the food. I like Belgian food! Brugge is very picturesque too. You will get the idea after you watch In Bruges (Bruges is the French spelling for Brugge, which is the Dutch spelling). Weekdays were spent in the lab, labouring to get some good results. It could be stressful sometimes when I failed to produce anything significant after slogging through some tedious protocols. Those were the times when I knew that the supervisor was not very happy with me.

August 2008
After the stint in the lab, I needed to go away badly before the semester starts. I wanted to get away from the lab. Having said that, I would say that I had learnt a lot during my time there, but I hate the work when nothing went according to plan. So, I refused to think of lab work anymore and wanted to enjoy Italy to the max. Most people that I know of start their trip by visiting Rome first, but we were doing the other way round, Venice first and worked our way down. Venice, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Rome and Tivoli. Weather was fine throughout and temperature was as high as Malaysia. A very good trip! It took my mind of all the troubles for a while. Too bad that I missed the opportunity to be the orientation guide for the newly arrived juniors.

September-December 2008
My final 'proper' semester in UCD went on pretty quickly with a blur. The good thing was that I pretty much overcame my troubles from the past few months and I could behave as I should be. Workload was quite high, no time to find fault and look for trouble. The days were rather routine, cycling to class early in the morning and back again after that. Quite a steep climb home, good exercise though. No more core classes in the afternoon. My final elective was quite simple, to the point of been overqualified for it. The exam at the end of the semester was tough, but still managed to cope although not very good.

Christmas was particularly great. We had a sumptuous lunch in some of my housemates' church members place. And not to forget a good game of Risk too. Haha!

January 2009
This was a highly anticipated trip, which happened to be my last major winter trip. Covering two countries (Germany and Switzerland) with a number of great destinations: Berlin, Potsdam, Neuschwanstein Castle, Munich, Bern, Interlaken and Europa Park. The winter in these countries is truly breathtaking, with scenes of unbroken pristine snow. It would be much better if the temperature was a little higher. I was marvelled by their trains (DB and SBB CFF FFS) which run on time with great frequencies, no matter where you want to go. The trains are fast and comfortable too, especially the ICE. Now I know how advanced Germany is. It would be light years before Malaysia can do something similar. Oops, almost forget this. I love my birthday celebration in Bern, Switzerland. A big thank you to my marvellous travelmates who AGAIN went to a great lenght in a new, foreign country to celebrate my birthday. So, in these 3 years I am abroad, my birthday was celebrated in 3 different places: Ireland, Hungary and Switzerland. Highly memorable indeed.

NB: Events taking place in February and March are too recent to be recounted here. Most of them are already up here, with more coming!

A few words...

2009-02-26T01:11:00.009+08:00

This update is long overdue. Quite distracted actually as I am still working on another piece, a long one. My last exam ever in UCD will take place on Monday, an MCQ first, followed by history taking and physical examination. We had our last clinical workshop today. So, we are expecting ourselves to practise on each other over the weekend. Hopefully this exam won't be much of a bother.

80% of my stuff has already been packed in two boxes which are now sitting idly in a warehouse somewhere in Dublin, waiting to be shipped to Penang. Both are overweight, blame it on the books. My room is almost empty now, only some basic necessary stuff left. Those that can be brought home in my luggage.

I had a few great nights out, mainly for dinner in KFC, Nando's and Oliver St John Gogarty's. One night stood out, our class rep Fran's 30th birthday party, Casino Royale in his place in Glenegeary. It was superb! He had a magnificently decorated marquee set up in the compound. Very impressive! Pictures to follow!

Francois, the birthday boy!

Frosty the Snowman

2009-02-06T07:02:00.002+08:00

Enough snow today to make a snowman! Not very big, but it is the biggest one we ever made. Haha! The upside of the extreme weather!

Snowy Dublin Day Two

2009-02-04T06:30:00.005+08:00

It snowed heavily again today for the second consecutive day, which is a rarity in Dublin. The swirling falling snow is spectacular to watch. The snow was heavier than the one I experienced in Germany. Winter wonderland! But then, the snow is fast to melt, so there is only a short time frame to get some spectacular shots.

*UPDATED* - It snows even heavier today, 5th of February. I have taken some pictures as well and they can be found here. There are also some pictures available on UCD's news website.

My front porch

Taney Road, towards Goatstown. Vehicles are moving slowly, the snow creates treacherous driving conditions.

Taney Road, towards Dundrum

My next door neighbour.

My house buried in snow.

On the way to Dundrum shopping centre.

A long-faced snowman.

In the middle of Taney Road.

Winter Wonderland!

2009-02-03T02:06:00.006+08:00

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! Well, well, actually I shouldn't call this a wonderland. It actually impedes my ADL. While snow falling and snow accumulating on the ground is nice to look at, the heavy snow actually prevented me from cycling to UCD this morning. I had to walk under the heavy snow to class, and worst of all, I arrived late, soaking wet with melting snow on my jacket and bag. That's the downside of snowing.

It is still snowing as I write this piece. Snowstorm. Windy. Some hail as well. And I should say that it is a lot of snow by Dublin's standard. For my past two years here, it never snowed up to the point where the snow can accumulate. That's why it makes today special. It seems that you can't appreciate how heavy the snow was by looking at the pictures below. Anyway, that's all I have.

On the way to class.

My Last Malaysian Night

2009-02-03T00:53:00.015+08:00

As you may have already known from my previous post, this is one of the busiest time of the year when Malaysian Night arrives! It is no different this year, probably busier in terms of preparation because I am on stage! My previous stage-time was two years ago, just a tiny role. I am honoured to be cast in the sketch despite having to go for practice in the cold for almost every evening for 2 weeks prior to the event. Apart from some tiny (probably unnoticable) glitches, we put up a great sketch! Thanks to all who made it possible. Not to undermine the other performances, they were all great, superb and classy. A marvellous night overall, but the food portion was too small for my liking. The dessert was good though. Haha!

I am now suffering from Post Malaysian Night Syndrome (PMNS). I am already starting to miss the practice sessions we had every evening, the fabulous props and my fellow cast and crew members. It was tiring, but very satisfying when you pulled it off on stage. And it gave me an opportunity to interact with some of my juniors who I rarely have the chance to speak to. It was fun to see people fooling around with the props, trying out some funny scenes and dialogues, etc. So, it is no surprise that PMNS will manifest once the event is over. It is too bad that some of the beautiful props have to go into the bin as we don't space to keep them.

Some favourite lines from the sketch:

To all my people, it's time for us to UNITE and fight for our rights. We must protect each other and no longer bow to FOREEEEEEEIIIGGN powers!!!
-Tunku Abdul Rahman, as played by Farhan-

Stop it....! we're in a war here!!
-Alfonso de Albuquerque, as played by Amin-

This TREEEEE!!
-Parameswara's guard, as played by Ryan when referring to the Melaka tree-

It's a Melaka tree, my HOLY HOLY Prince!
-Parameswara's guard, as played by Alwyn-

I don't have that many pictures this year. I was dead tired as the night went on. I have just put on whatever I have. Please also note that there are more pictures (plus some behind-the-scenes pictures) in my Facebook profile and album.

Enjoy!

The front cover of the booklet.

The main course

In action on stage.

The sketch's cast and crew group photo.
Kwang Ming, Alwyn, Elaine, Ryan, Robbie, Nazirul, Farhan, Xiao Wei, Shiau Hooi, Rachel, Yi Jiet, Ruyi, Jason, me, Sophie, Eugene, Grace, Fiona, Duo-Tong, Abraham, Ying Ying and Yin Ye.

Ryan and I with Yin Ye, our sketch's brilliant co-director.

The performers of the night with the ambassador.

Sophie, my on-stage 'wife'.

Sophie, Han Bing, Alwyn, Tim and Eugene.

With Sultan Farhan. Just look how realistic the keris is!

Alwyn, Kien and Ruyi.

Joyce, Malaysian Night overall coordinator.

Sarah

Alwyn, Tim, Victor, Eugene, Bernice, Sophie and Angela, the outgoing president of PMCSA.

Alwyn, Yi Jiet, Sophie and Sultan Farhan.

3rd Meds

3rd Meds

CNY: Lacking something...

2009-01-25T07:57:00.006+08:00

Chinese New Year is just a day to go. By right, I should feel happy and excited, as I used to. But, sadly this is not the case this time around. I feel emptiness in the air and it doesn't feel like CNY to me at all. The lack of atmosphere here in Dubs doesn't help at all. Well, this is my third CNY in Dubs and I should be aware of this fact, and I do. As you may have already known, there is no place called Chinatown in Dubs, unlike in some major western cities. The Chinese community here is so small, which I think is negligible.

It is so different back home, the festive atmosphere and the presence of family members which I sorely miss. I feel this more this year compared to the last, I don't know why. People say it is maybe due to the fact that I am going home soon. Hmmm.. I just don't feel like celebrating or doing anything related. Laziness creeping in. Maybe I will just join in whatever my friends plan for the day, like an eating session or a movie. Moreover, I have classes on Monday itself and Malaysian Night sketch practice on subsequent nights. To me, this year's CNY is just another day, with busy schedule coming up until Malaysian Night is over.

In other words, I miss the atmosphere. I miss the food. I miss the warmth. I miss YOU! Bla bla bla...

What I need this festive season is some warm feeling, figuratively and literally, of the supposely meaningful day. Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year to all! Enjoy as much as you can! Hope that I can too.

Day 1: New Year's Eve in Berlin, Germany

2009-01-12T23:15:00.005+08:00

It was a low-key start as always. Landed at the airport and searched for our accommodation. It was cold, but no snow in sight. The first destination was the Berlin Hauptbahnhof where we made train reservations and a late lunch.

I guessed we headed to the New Year's celebration site at the Brandenburg Gate a little bit too early. Most of the people were just milling around and patronising the stalls along the road. We took the ferris wheel and walked around to kill time, and also watched whatever was happening on stage via giant screens.

The fireworks were not as nice as the ones I witnessed in London last year. Didn't bother to take pictures as fireworks usually look bad in pictures. It was so crowded on the way home and there were explosions everywhere from firecrackers. The streets of Berlin looked like warzone to me.

p/s: More pictures from the trip can be found in my Facebook albums. The links can be found on the sidebar.

Berlin Schonefeld airport

The main stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The road is lined with food stalls.

The ferris wheel

Part of the crowd.

On the wheel looking down on the festivities.

Some act on the stage. I hope I can understand German.

Day 2: Walking tour of Berlin

2009-01-12T23:14:00.001+08:00

Our guide came by our hostel and picked us up for the free walking tour. We joined up with the main group at the Brandenburg Gate and the 3-hour tour started there. The tour was very educational, complete with history and stories of interest during each stop. The stories are actually very captivating, kudos the the guide. Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, museums etc. Best of all, it's free. The guides work only on tips, so we feel it is nicer to give a bit.

Our guide, Paulo at the start of the free walking tour at the Brandenburg Gate.

Snow flakes on my hair and collar. It was only snowing lightly.

The controversial Holocaust Memorial.

The site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. Now, it is a low-key car park.

The only Nazi building left standing in Berlin. It is now the Ministry of Finance.

Checkpoint Charlie, a tourist trap. Everything is recreated for tourism. Overrated.

The opera house.

The Berliner Dom. It was a gloomy day, the TV tower could only be seen slightly.

Currywurst and bread

Falling asleep in the Volkswagen showroom. Hiding ourselves from the cold too.

Day 3: Potsdam

2009-01-12T23:13:00.003+08:00

We decided to join the guided tour, which is offered by the same people who run the free walking tour, to Potsdam from Berlin. It seemed like more people were interested in the tour to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Our tour nearly did not run due to the lack of participants.

Potsdam is an ideal place for one day trip, with its gardens and palaces, and historically significant too. One event was the Potsdam Conference, the major post-war conference between the victorious Allies. Sanssouci Palace and its grounds look grand as well. Even though Potsdam is just a small town, but its public transport is well developed. Impressive!

Winter wonderland! The scene in front of our hostel.

A picture at the Brandenburg Gate before joining the tour to Potsdam.

Glienicke Bridge, linking West Berlin and East Germany, was used for exchanging spies during the Cold War.

Cecilienhof, where the post-WW2 Potsdam Conference between Stalin, Churchill and Truman took place.

Dutch Quarter

The Brandenburg Gate of Potsdam

Sanssouci Palace, meaning the palace of no worries in French.

The Chinese Teahouse in the grounds of the palace.

Neues Palais