Called home at 11.55p.m. last night to say Happy Birthday to Evon. Could hear the bustle of the Tay family morning routine - Yi Ling's sleepy voice (was still before 8a.m.), Evon's chirpy voice (was already after 7.30a.m.), the general hoohah that Snoozy causes, and strangely, I could smell Milo over the phone as well. This was a very nice end to the night/start to the day.

Woke up just before 7a.m. and thought I might as well do some work since I was up. Went for IPE practice session with Dr H who is a nice, fatherly old man who has the ability to make everything seem so simple and not make anyone feel stupid. He is one of the best teachers I have had, even amongst the many good teachers I have met in KGH. Suay suay because of a combination of factors like feng shui, strategic positioning, eye-contact etc. Sania and I went last i.e. had the worst examinations to do (in front of everyone!). I KNEW we would end up getting the shitty ones to do. But again, I will take this as a good thing coz even though we were caught off guard and had to do something relatively unfamiliar, the fact that we could still do it to a quite good standard certainly gives me some consolation. I was slightly miffed by the armchair critics, but Hilary (a nice girl we met doing Cardioresp block) was so sweet and whispered to me, "I thought you were really great, to be honest." Hm. Does it make people look cleverer when they are able to nitpick?

Went to the ward and was really enthusiastic. So as a reward for my enthusiasm I got to do my 2nd PR exam in this block, which is also the 2nd PR I have ever done. Shows a lot about Kettering... I was a bit disappointed that my finger is so short and therefore cannot deduce anything much from the few cm that actually manages to get into the rectum, but I did not want wiggle about too much/stay in there for an awkwardly long time. Dun think I felt anything sinister besides an enveloping warm softness, which turned out to be... I would say Grade 5/6 stools.

Just missed free lunch today so got my 1st ever hot meal from a hospital canteen coz the food is cheaper and nicer in KGH. Discovered that even the canteen staff here are unbelievably nice. I have a strong suspicion that the giant chimney in the middle of the hospital emits some gas that makes everyone in KGH nice. Instead of getting pissed off with Sania and I for standing around and not being able to make up our minds, the nice lady offered to give us samples of both the things we could not decide between. And not just a 意思意思 teaspoonful of the dish sauce, she gave us about 2 mouthfuls each on a paper plate! And she continued to be so pleasant and smiley even when we faffed our order up a bit and made her take plates when we wanted takeaway instead.

Because of a combination of my late night/early morning and my very satiable lunch, I was comfortably woozy during teaching with careful reg. Good thing the others were there as well this time so I did not have to answer so many questions. I did not know most of them anyway. Sania is so funny. She confessed to me later during our shopping trip (Morissons and Lidl) that during the teaching she wanted to go up to careful reg and give him a pat on the head.

We had to cancel a precious teaching with the super-nice, sweet clever reg who had arranged for us to do that GI presentation in front of everyone. She had specially prepared a powerpoint presentation with lots of cool pictures for us and was so disappointed that she had not been able to open it in any of the computers after running around the whole hospital yesterday. Instead we turned up for another teaching which frustratingly, did not happen in the end. Could have had teaching with clever reg instead. Now we have to allocate more precious free time for 2 sessions which were supposed to happen today.

I have probably said this many times but I am really grateful for being posted here so strategically (in terms of block and timing). I now have a newfound enthusiasm for being a medical student and all that "betterment for patients" determination we all had back in our medical interview but which had evaporated over the years in med school is starting to make sense again. To be honest my decision to choose Medicine had always been somewhat wobbly in Phase 1 and I always told people that it "just happened". Still I thought things would get better once I saw the practical side of things in Phase 2, how I could actually do things, how our actions can impact the outcome of someone's health... However, none of that happened and if anything, Phase 2 had merely become even more frustrating coz I felt we were not learning very much and worse still, we had forgotten a considerable chunk of what we had learnt in Phase 1 and had no time to catch up on all of that. We had always wandered aimlessly about in Phase 2, occasionally bumping into good people/opportunites by luck. At least now with this whole environment of good people, good teachers and the many scenarios and situations we have been put into, this constant reminder that we are expected to be able to handle the unexpected makes me feel way more able to handle things that are spontaneously sprung upon us. This place actually makes me feel happy to be busy and happy to learn and show off and apply what I have learnt.

Ok. So much for sleeping early :/