I am a stem. Are you?

2012-02-10T03:17:00.000-08:00

Hello bloggy. Haven't seen you in a while.. Hummm-dee-hum. Waiting to do GMC registration now so just wasting time. Hence the floating jellytopus.

2011-11-16T03:54:00.000-08:00

ENT in Lincoln now. Not as chilled out as I thought. Our consultant is quite a character though. Very very warm person. A bit too emotional and close for comfort for a conservative stick like me but I guess he is nice at the end of the day. I wondered if it crossed the boundaries of professionalism when this sweet, nervous old lady said something that must have been very endearing, coz Mr C pinched her cheeks and went "... Youuu are sooo cuuooote! *Iggoowiggiegooieieieie..!*" and happily turns to us to say, "Isn't she cute???"

Finally seeing some blurry optic discs and stuff. I really suck at examinations in general. I can never pick up anything. Opthalmoscopes and otoscopes really take it to another level with me.

Got a cool room with weird flatmates. I like the double bed and alarm clock radio and personal electric kettle tea set, which just about makes up for the weird flatmates and daily hike to the hospital.

Listening to muttons on the move now. Nice and nostalgic (: I like how they manage to speak well without using a Western accent. They still make me laugh :D

2011-09-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is really the longest week ever. Feel like I have been here for ages even tho I only arrived the day before having spent it lao-saing and getting jelly legs.

Not that the people here are not nice. And to be fair I feel like a real pro (--,) talking about kidneys and fluids and all that now... which I guess means I have achieved my aims for this block.

Dunno wat to expect tomorrow. I guess it should not be as aimless as today in any case. At least I know there is teaching at lunch and that I'm going to pon the rest of the afternoon to let the accommodation people check my room.

I miss home. At least I can go home and complain over a plate of rice and kang kong and... belly pork. Mmm... belly pork is nice.

2011-08-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

See. I feel sleepy already. It is 12.39a.m. in Homedom.

I was called a child in clinic today.

2011-08-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

Back in UK for the longest 5 days ever :/ Was telling Yi Ling how these 3 weeks in Lincoln feels like an extended wait in Dubai airport alone, where I am stuck in the airport and cannot/don't dare to go out to play.

The last 4week holiday was 1 of my most awesome Uni holidays so far (: Everyone being home again and all that. To be honest it actually did feel long enough. Made full use of my time to stretch the 4 weeks to its maximum enjoyment potential. Made the same mistake as always of bringing home too many books to study. I'm driven by this keen enthusiasm at the end of every academic year, telling myself (and the people around me) how this time I have planned it all and I AM going to make good use of the abundance of spare time I would have over the holidays to catch up on my work. Definitely. I never learn my lesson...

Anyway.

Lincoln is nice. Ish. A bit anal in terms of paperwork but I've managed to creep past the 1st week without anything being flagged up (--.) I know I was pushing it, arriving in Leicester and leaving for Lincoln on Sunday after a more or less 24h journey, but every day spent at home counts. At least I got to eat pseudo-steamboat before I flew. The 1st week here, therefore, has been spent desperately trying to settle everything back to pre-holiday conditions while trying to blend in amongst those who have had a normal, uninterrupted August, and spending the remaning time hibernating.

Still getting lost in the hospital. But I'm learning to read the signs :/ 1st day back was a stack of bloods (and 1 cannula) waiting to be done. A bit of a shock seeing as I was still in transition to normality (still am actually) + I hadn't done any in my previous block. But the doctors were nice. And I used the usual "I am just a stupid medical student" defence to give myself a bit of a leg-up 1st. At least I had free lunch that day (: Which is good, judging by my very sad food rations I brought along from Leicester to tide me through my 1st week. But now I'm starting to wonder if I overdid it, because everyone seems to have really low expectations of me, and are assuming that I don't know stuff/are bringing me back to basics :/ Dunno if I should feel offended/relieved. Only the Leicester graduate seems to be grilling me (somewhat).

Wish the next 2 weeks will shoot by! Although the people here are really nice so far and my consultant is super cool and super funny. I need to be in contact with civilization again.

2011-07-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I want to become an assassin. I want to kill time. 10 more hours to boarding :/

Almost finished reading shopaholic.

Hum dee dum...

2011-07-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

Ngeh. I swear time in Dubai passes way more slowly compared to the rest of the world. Arrived here at 7ish with a good 24 hours to kill and yet, surprise surprise, the queue at arrivals was abnormally swift and the suspicious questioning person-at-counter was unusually indifferent.

The story is that Yuv spotted this awesome flying option where my transit time is only like 45min + the ticket was relatively cheap and me, thinking I had seen the same thing, had swooped down and grabbed the ticket. A good month later or so, I was in disbelief when I saw

Arrive Dubai Int 24th July 0700hrs
Depart Dubai Int 25th July 0745hrs

Shock shock horror.

That was why I was particularly nervous when the arrivals guy asked

"Where you fly from?"

tgo: Huh? Um. Er. Ummmmmm... UK...? Yea. Yea. From Birmingham.

arrivals guy: What hotel you stay in?

tgo: Ahm... No hotel

arrivals guy: *raises eyebrows*

tgo: Uh. Oh. I mean. I'm just transiting, but for- a long time. 24h I mean.

Ouch.

Normally that would have warranted a fairly high degree of suspicion, or at least I would've thought. Luckily the person just shrugged and said something like "Ngh." and let me through. Phooooo...

And this explains why I don't do well in OSCEs/when consultants are all nice and chatty and suddenly shoot, "So. Tell me everything you know about atrial myxoma."

So... I was kinda aiming to have finished checking out by... 9a.m. Earliest. But for once everything (even my luggage on the carousel) was quick and when I checked the time it was 8bloodya.m. :/ I had even taken the extra step of slowly going into the toilet, letting others walk before etc. ://

So for the past 4hours (omg it is finally 12p.m. 19 more hours to kill. oosh.) I have taken my time with checking back in again, hoping for a queue but again, no luck there. Check in person was being friendly and said, "So your flight is...... later this morning at........ nnnnaaaaiiiinne..?"

(polite smile) tgo: no. 7 something tomorrow morning. I know. I saw the date wrong.

And then it was 8 twenty bloody seven so I shopped. And the shops are really zzzzz. Milka chocolate? Random dunno what perfume? Wth?? I was done in about 3min. And I had made the effort to pick everything up and convert all the dirhams to pounds too.

Didn't realise how tired I was. I guess I had barely slept on the plane. Was feeling quite nauseous and almost vomited when I tasted the casserole. Which is strange because I usually have an exceedingly wide resistance to weird tastes. Plus I was starving 2hrs before boarding. Anyway, I managed to get internet (but not Whatsapp) and did the usual hotmail/fb etc. checks --> read shopaholic after that and kept falling asleep. Quite embarrassing coz I dunno if I am allowed to splay myself out at the main departure hall and sleep properly so I kept waking up. I was determined to stay at each spot for at least 3 hours so I wouldn't run out of spots and so I finally left for another long toilet trip at the furthest toilet and am now all settled in burger king with chicken fries (SIX pieces -.-), an apple pie, and the coffee that I need but spilt onto my pants. At least it dried up pretty quickly. And my pants are kind of coffee coloured. Thank goodness I decided to wear my long 3 random cats top.

Ah. I better go to the power charging point. Acer is dying again...

2011-07-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

I like Oovoo :D

2011-06-18T02:36:00.000-07:00

Ngeh. Of all things I got excellent for the blogging component of my A+E block O_o Leicester really does appreciate reflections. And to be fair, I really think I had reflected my socks off for that block.

Went to Alton Towers last week

Bought a bear and called him 中黑 coz he was black with flecks and coz I already have a 大黑.

Now on elderly care which I was really anticipating because Paula is working on the elderly ward and my plan was to velcro myself to her and learn loads. Reliable rumour says that teaching is quite good/hard-core + regular too, which is so rare in an inblock. I guess geriatricians do make really good teachers coz they are generally very patient and they have to have wikipedian knowledge.

BUT. Some smart ass went to suggest that we do 3 community weeks in Loughborough + 1 more week with Pharmacology students. Which leaves 3 weeks left (12 days after taking away weekends and Friday lectures and random talks) to do our workbook plus the manymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymany innocently hidden tasks within it. And also only 3 weeks to go on the wards and shadow Paula and get good teaching. The outblock people esentially get 7 whole weeks to chill out.

Community attachment is good... and I think we do have to know it particularly for elderly care... but we had done most of it before and it really was not worth spending 5.70 on trains + 3.20 on the bus every day + several hours travelling there for repeats of GP and home visits and specialist nurse clinics. POUNDS! That is like $20 man! Which is the amount I use to top up my ez-link card. Honestly... all that could have been done in a week :/ The Pharmaco thing sounds good actually but even then... I don't think we need a whole week allocated to that D:<

Ok Lilian Too says I should lie low and control my temper this month. And Yi Ling says I should take deep breaths.

But still. I have only seen... 1 patient in the past 2 weeks.

2011-05-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Meant to blog about Bath and show off some of the pictures that I had taken. But with Facebook, I no longer need to do that! Just upload your whole life onto 1 website and the whole world will know all about you, Wherever, Whenever... at a click of the mouse. Yes I am promoting Facebook because it is actually a website of awesomeness. It keeps you updated about family and friends all around the world and it is good not only for social networking but for intellectual purposes (e.g. news about GE) too :D

Nevertheless, I will still post some pictures here because my printer is still not installed so I still cannot scan my other pictures.

Stonehenge

Keewei + Paula + Me at the Roman Baths

Outside Sally-Lunn which is famous for Sally-Lunn buns. Food was quite nice (: They had duck.

This is the full crew including Patheodore Sammy-Lunn my new bear

This is how I look if I grow fat

2011-05-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

This is the new book I am reading. I say new, I'm actually almost at the end of it. It is about an actor who has really random and whimsical ideas and sets out on weird expeditions when he has nothing better to do. In this book he sets out on a journey to find out where jokes come from and attempts to follow the trail of a joke. Super bo liao -.- But I like the weird ideas and quirkiness of the story :D It is keeping me entertained.

Cough almost gone now.

2011-05-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

My cough is getting better. Whoop dee doop! Only had 2 coughing fits today one of which was in the library when I was attempting to have a whispered discussion with Sania. Went all pink and teary and snotty whenever I attempted to whisper-reply Sania. She just got back from Pakistan 2 weeks ago and got me.............. an Emirates teaspoon and toothbrush! The toothbrush is actually really cool because it comes in a little clear dome with a tiny cylindrical tube of toothpaste which fits into its own groove (:

Chloraphenamine seems to be doing the trick I think by making me have really deep long sleeps rather than by any antihistamine action. It seems to stay in my system a lot longer than is ideal, though, which makes me feel really drowsy and unwitty the next day. Unfortunately I did not realise that my 2 days off today and tomorrow were not real days off after all, cos I found out this morning that we had radiology teaching today and PUBLIC HEALTH DAY tomorrow O.O So I wandered into radiology in a rather dreamlike state and learnt about chest xray, abdo xray, pelvic xray and c-spine xray. Drifted off happily to Morissons after that :D

2011-05-05T05:18:00.000-07:00

Into my 3rd week of A&E at the moment but technically only day 4/5 coz our group had blocks of offdays in a row at the beginning of the block and now we have all the shit in a row. We had started off in AMU and coz it was my 1st 2 days I was very law by law and basically only went for the ward round after which my shift was over. The FY1s were quite nice. Found a good case for my case presentation later this month. It was a classic upper GI bleed guy who presented with PR bleed. The smell of malaena wafts around AMU quite frequently which is good practise I guess for medical students to recognise it immediately in the future. It is roughly the smell of burnt rubber with a kind of sharp quality to it.

Had about whole week off after that whereby it was the royal wedding so stayed home and checked out the pictures on fb. Had the fever and post-karaoke I think pharyngitis over the weekend and missed 1st day in A&E paeds. Had a demoralising past few days where I failed all my bloods and cannulas. ALL. Even the bulging great big man veins. Yesterday was better coz at least I felt I was of some use presenting cases. Got a cannula in more comfortably but the poor old man was very very dehydrated (that is my excuse) so the blood stopped halfway and I did not feel comfortable having another go so got a doctor to do it :/ Ugh. So paiseh to admit I am final year. I cannot even do bloods and cannulas. And most people are going to go in with shitty spidery collapsed veins when I cannot even do healthy man veins. Have not had the guts to try ABGs either. I need more confidence man.

Guess there were quite a few cool cases like gaping wounds with ruptured tendons and hypos and pneumothoraces. At least I have something positive to blog about for my A&E blog. Yea we have to write in blog entries for this block :/ it is very IT savvy. No workbook. Everything online. We even have a virtual ward. Which is actually really quite good and will potentially be made into an iphone app.

Should I go in later? I have green sputum today.

2011-04-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ugh. For the first time in my UK life I am falling sick S: I cannot help but wallow in self-pity because I have never fallen sick here before. Here. Away from home. With no family to fuss over me and make me "Take your medicine and go to sleep early. Ling/Bon feel her forehead in the middle of the night hor". Gosh, how pampered. On hindsight, getting sick at home was a really big thing and a sore throat used to bring on the full works of plain porridge/soup, leng yong and "Go and sleep! Go and sleep!" No wonder I would drag myself around the house slurring, "Ngeh... I feel saaaaack..."

Here whenever someone tells me they did not go to hospital because they are not well I either think "Really? I know what "not well" means... I invented the general malaise excuse..." *wigglewiggle eyebrows* or, if it is an honest, conscientious student I just give a superficial "Awww. That sucks!" or if there is a social obligation to make small talk/sympathise more convincingly, add in "Yea you should take the day off! Go home and have a good rest!" but really thinking they are fine.

Now I remember what it is like to fall ill :/

Hai. I had thought it was the overnight living room karaoke-ing last night that had caused my sore throat and the ngiam ngiam feeling in my mouth today. But as the day went on my sore throat has progressed from just sore to the painful-lump-when-you swallow feeling. I've also got a deep and mysterious voice now. The muscle pains (and my favourite excuse of general malaise) just started about an hour ago. Which makes me more and more convinced that my resistance to UK pathogens has finally been breached after my proud 4-year record of not falling ill (here). Will measure my temperature tomorrow. Good thing I earned 150pounds + a thermometer from my bird flu trial.

2011-04-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Ptoomb and Ptiu have died. Huey Ning dug them out from behind the taps using a plastic spoon and wrapping paper roll and we never saw them again. Sania told me that slugs got into houses by climbing up water pipes. I am worried that more of them will come.

2011-04-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

There are 2 slugs on my bath tub. The big shit-coloured one is quite active and seems to be growing and has the ability to alter its colour gradient. The tiny diarrhoea-coloured one seems quite lethargic and has not moved from its corner. After a night's consideration, I have decided to name them Ptoomb. and Ptiu! repectively.

2011-04-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last day in Norhampton. We should be going out for a picnic but the beautiful weekend didnt last and it is now cold and grey and gloomy again. Which is baseline English weather I guess :/ We had a leftovers party in the end. Which turned out quite fun! Played the A to Z game (each of us took turns singing songs from A to Z) and found out that my song vocabulary still lies in the 1990s.

2011-04-07T22:25:00.001-07:00

The early days have started... Which is generally nice because long sunny days make me happy and when I am happy I function. But here I am awake at 5.45a.m. because my body is still on sun dial-time and believes this is the appropriate time to be up and ready to face a new day.

I passed my exams a few weeks ago but it seems I am never satisfied. I got over passing really quickly and am now worrying about being an FY.

Today I go back to Leicester for a genetics workshop. Seeing as they are generous enough to have a 10a.m. start I am assuming this means they can afford to end early (: This week has been a fruitless week. No work done + No jogging + No entertainment + Ran out of oranges. No entertainment except that I watched the champions league match with Xinyi yesterday. I think I should watch football more now I am here since there is no longer the need to stay up till 3a.m. to catch them. Not that I ever did that in Singapore. Just that now they are readily available in the doctors' mess/iplayer at the perfect afterdinner-time so I can watch them and and tell my friends back home "Oh yeah I forgot you have to stay up till 3 to watch the match! Shame." And when you are among people who are not ashamed of going "G- g- OH. Ok, ok.. G- goa- AwWwWrraaww. Shithead. Hehe." watching football is really really fun.

Spent the week running away/being scared by our consultant. I am convinced she has Graves. Or at least has some degree of hyperthyroidism. She is skinny + female + middle-aged/oldish + very anxious + uptight + has proptosis and exophthalmos (I checked from side view). Her eyes do scare me. They are So. Big. And they stare at you as if to pop out of her head. I think they are trying to escape from her too because they can't stand the stress either. Last week she walked in on me talking to her patient (on purpose) and went

Fake smile, "Hi! Hi! Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt!"*stare*

She then smiled more and nodded, "I just wanted to check how you were." *starestare*

I have a picture of her in that scene but my scanner is still not installed.

To be fair, she stares at everyone though. It just scares me.

2011-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I get worried when computers start going "ooohhmmmmmm..." for no reason. Like what the 1 I am using is doing now. It makes me think that I am doing something wrong. Perhaps library computers generally disapprove of non-academic sites like Facebook :/

Had Dermatology clinic today where the dear, sweet consultant from Malaysia gave me an Excellent grade for having good manners and being interested in Dermatology. I think she either saw that the entry above had given me an Excellent for no apparent reason (jolly old Pam the nurse :D) or she felt obliged not to dash my apparent dreams because I had told her that Derm is (or was) the 2nd most popular choice of speciality to get into in Singapore and that only the best people could get in. And that my parents wanted me to be one. Apparently it is very different here. Everyone seems to have a very discouraging impression of Dermatologists and seems to think they don't do much work. Apparently there is much talk of scraping it as a speciality altogether and letting GPs do more of the work :I I don't really know what to make of it... But I think Dermatology did become a specialty for a reason..

Recently found new entertainment in 1) The Black Magician trilogy and 2) The Office. I love random humour (: I also just found a new book called The Roaches Have No King. But I'm sure that with the restoration of an internet-available room next month, my old interests will be rediscovered. Ah but I probably really should give in to a DNR (Do Not Resus) request for my Acer now. Sad that is :( Thought I would have been able to stretch it out to when i graduate but it has arrested on me more than a handful of times in the past year so.. I think I need to let it go. Meanwhile, I shall indulge myself on pretty-looking laptops. Yi Ling and Evon and Papa can help me with the technical bits.

2011-03-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Halfway through my 2nd 2-week leg at Northampton. Why does everyone not seem to have to study and yet know stuff?

This week was spent in plastics/derm/maxfac. I still think plastics is possibly the coolest speciality there is. Too bad I don't want to be a surgeon :/ You see the craziest things in plastics - people walking through glass doors, people getting their faces sawed open by accident, crazy people sticking batteries into their skin... Plastics is really not the glamorous speciality everyone makes it out to be. If anything, they see the most revolting stuff and have the most morbid party stories to tell.

Nothing much achieved this week. A lot of waiting around and people not turning up to teach us when they should, a lot of time-wasting. Overall a rather unproductive week apart from the fact that I went jogging TWICE so far! Will go again tomorrow.

2011-03-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

It has been several months and my printer is still not installed so have not been able to express a thousand words for a while. Anyway there hasn't been any time, or rather, mood to draw happy doodles of myself...

Everyone is now back in their respective countries (with regards to both friends and family) and life is starting to chug on like normal. Have not spoken very much to people until the last few days. The worst exam that I have ever experienced has just finished and there is this sudden sense of senselessness like the aftermath of an earthquake where a part of you is relieved that it is over but the other half does not know the extent of damage to expect. Again I am up at the crack of dawn (6plus) and so am twiddling my thumbs coz there is nothing particularly constructive that up to doing as yet. And believe it or not.. I am waiting to sit for another paper soon (although it is not counted). Oh well everyone (who had finished yesterday) had taken the day off to do their nails/go clubbing anyway so I guess really, no one is too bothered. No. No one is bothered at all about what the fake paper today entails. Until the day before I had been under the impression that we were going to be sitting for a completely different paper too -_- Trust me to be the blur one who is always out of the loop.

This is the first time I actually want the results to be out quickly instead of running away and wishing for it to drag out like how I normally do. The feeling of not knowing how you did is so... disruptive. I really think that GP block has left a scar. All ang mohs are so fake and I do not trust my feeling that I have done ok when I have just finished a station anymore. Oh need to get ready for my fake paper now.. Wish everything will really be over soon ><

2010-12-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Had a Timtam explosion today. Made me feel energetic for a while. I think I should not dip my Timtams in boiling hot Milo.

2010-12-19T15:28:00.001-08:00

However, I think the non-stop adrenaline high that I have been running on since Tuesday has finally caught up to me and therefore I will blog about it another day. I know that because even after a cup of Costa hazelnut latte, I still managed to fall asleep at the foot of Qin Yi's bed an hour later. In the meantime, though, here is the gist of what happened:

The Thank You email I sent to everybody -

YO EVERYBODY. I WANT TO SAY A VERY HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY FOR YESTERDAY (even those like Yuvanaa who only turned up to eat the cakes and criticise). Much as I was shocked an embarrassed by the train station stint, more than that I was very touched that all of you put yourselves through that to shout such a loud chorus of Happy Birthday for me and all the other commuters. It does take a lot of skin to do that.

Great thinking on the organisers' parts too, to make use of my very convenient plans to think up this scheme! It was very cunning and well-thought out. There was no way to suspect that I had planned all this myself :/

And then, thank you to the hosts, who were very professional hosts in terms of layout, entertainment and clearing up. I have to say again, Qinyi, the steamboat stuff that you arranged on the plate was so professional! Haha! Like my mother! And the food was great too, although I claim credit for the novel idea of using curry for steamboat, even though Yuvanaa disagrees. The 3 cakes were great too! And so was the candyart. It did fulfil my criteria for coffee-flavoured teh tarik (milk tea) cake (: (yes, keewei your oreo cheesecake was reeaaally nice too! not ni4 when I ate (:)

In addition (haha like writing compo), thank you for the very novel way of making me choose my presents! I'm glad I gave a good wishlist hehe. Really happy with my presents and I'm sorry that I ripped Victoria's present before she got to, but in all fairness it was your faults.

Keewei, help me thank Josie and your sister and your brother for coming!

In conclusion, Thank you for everything again. It was an awesome party.. Despite looming Phase 1.. So sweet of everyone for managing to chill out and hee hee haha with the rest of us (:

Cheers
Yilun

2010-12-19T13:26:00.000-08:00

Summary of Since Tuesday...

So. Tuesday was officially my birthday. Many people asked me what I planned to do/what I did for my birthday and I honestly did not know and scarily, I cared a lot less than usual! D: Perhaps it was because I had many things on my mind at that time, what with it being the end of my favourite block and all. In summary, I spent Tuesday staying up to finish my workbook and had 4h of sleep. I spent Wednesday feeling like shit in clinic, finishing off the remnants of my workbook, going late for Dr H's teaching, going for the nice SHO teaching, and finding out that we still had our silly screening programme to do. Got back at 7.30ish and Sania had to finish this ridiculous e-learning that we all had to do. We then had my birthday dinner (takeaway pizza, garlic bread, chips, onion rings and 7-up) at 10p.m. while watching the apprentice. It was really enjoyable and cosy, and Sania was so sweet for remembering.. Ended up sleeping at ~1.30a.m. though, despite the previous 4h-sleep night :/ Somehow, I managed to jump out of bed at 7a.m. the next day feeling extraordinarily cheerful and chirped my way through my last day at KGH with a really good Endocrine clinic, followed by card-giving and thanks-saying. Got to interpret an ECG and blood gas result as a farewell present from the Endocrine ward.

Not surprisingly, Kettering decided to snow heavily just as we were leaving. Had some trouble reaching the same place at the same time as the taxi and inhaled way too much snow for my own good as a result. It all ended on a good note though, when we found out that the undergraduate coordinator (the coolest 1 we ever had) had ordered the taxi for us and that we did not have to pay for it (:

Got home and finished my e-learning shit within 2.5h! XD Ok actually it was quite useful overall but I had been rather stressed thinking about it when some people had told me how long and tedious it was :/ Thought that meant I could squeeze in a spot of renal studying but I had decided to print off my e-learning certificate in Paula's room, so that meant we ended up talking, which meant that I ended up sleeping at ~1a.m. again.

Had to catch the 7.50a.m. bus to get to my assessment the next day. I jerked awake at 7.20a.m. and somehow managed to grab a copy of Metro and stride in coolly just as the bus pulled up at the bus stop *smirk*. Sat for the Endocrine assessment, which was okish but a bit tricky and did not know a few of the conditions. Had THE screening debate after that, where we shockingly managed to garner a whopping TWO votes. I believe they were out of sympathy. At least we did not get zero votes. Had lunch and renal assessment after that, which, while not easy, I somehow quite enjoyed solving. That is not to say I will get full marks or anything. Ended off with the poster, whereby Sania and I (and everyone else) waited with bated breath and found out..... that we were not chosen!!! Sania stole a half-glance back at me and we gave each other a :D and thumbs-ups. I think many people were secretly hoping that they would be picked though, because of some contradictory reactions I observed. Sadly, we did not know (well I did not, anyway) that besides the punishment of having to present the poster, there was also the incentive of getting a certificate for being 1 of the top 3 :/ Oh well, I do not think we would have done it much better even with that added carrot dangling in front of us anyway.

And then... Shuang Ning came! Walked a bit, talked a bit. Went with her to the Bham German Christmas market the next day which, despite the snow storm, was actually a really good market. If anything, the blizzard made it all seem even more Christmassy. You know how, when you take pictures of snow scenes they often end up just looking like a rainy day? The snow yesterday was so heavy and the snowflakes so fat that you could actually tell that the snow was snow from the photos! Got some hot German cake things and German sausage hotdog. The German sausage went 'Piak!' each time we bit into it. Did some more shopping, more eating, had scones and tea, and found out that Shuang Ning is a really fun shopper because she takes all the clothes she likes without looking at the price, tries them all on, and leaves without buying anything.

We arrived at the train station to find out that the previous train had been cancelled because of the snow and were all 得意that we had decided to spend that previous 1/2h shopping instead. Our smugness was short-lived however, as the next train still did not show up and the train station continued to swell with commuters. It got to a point where it got rather chaotic and little Shuang Ning and little me were in danger of being lost in the stampeding melee of frustrated commuters. Well, I say stampede, it was more of... like, squeezing toothpaste out of a very small hole. Train was delayed by a total of 1h in the end.

I think the continuation of my update warrants a new post.

2010-12-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

Heard an interesting conversation in the toilet cubicle next to mine yesterday. Hm. Rewinding back... I was in the toilet at Bullring (Birmingham) and there was a toddler in the cubicle next to mine, and his/her mother was standing outside the door, keeping watch.

So. Heard an nteresting conversation in the toilet cubicle next to mine yesterday.

Child : Do you need to use the toilet?

Mother : Sorry?

Child : Do you need to use the toilet?

Mother : Yes.

Child : Why?

There was a stunned silence whilst I went about my business next door.

Mother : Huh?

Child : Why do you need to use the toilet?

Mother : Why do you need to use the toilet?

Child : I needed to wee.

Another brief silence as i flushed the toilet.

Mother : Well, I need to wee too.

I finished doing number 1 and left the cubicle.

2010-12-13T12:22:00.000-08:00

Today is almost my birthday but being 8h behind Singapore it almost feels like I have 2 birthdays because I get wishes from the East today and wishes from the West (and late people from the East) tomorrow XD

Flew yesterday so since today is my 2nd day I was flying really high. Felt really exhausted but dragged myself out of bed and had a feeble attempt at making my workbook look a little more substantial. Felt really anaemic and weak today because of said condition. Unfortunately today is the day where we had decided to squish in loads of things including part of our assessment for this block, which involves signing off of ONE out of THREE of our OSCE assessment forms. The ticklist included taking a history, summarising a history, doing an examination, summarising our examination findings, problem solving, discussing management, some other things along those lines, and surprise surprsie, ethics. There were many really good/interesting patients on the cardioresp ward and I was really enthused about speaking to a heart transplant patient, but by 10.30a.m. I really felt like I had to sit down so I pretended that I had forgotten about the heart transplant person and just presented the other 1 I saw. Stupid me forgot to summarise (it was the only time I forgot to summarise) and got a C for forgetting even though I did it in the end :/

A bit surprised that we were asked to do a combo of cardio/respi/GI Ex merged into 1. A bit messy but went ok-ish I guess. By that time my shaky legs + adrenaline rush had made me shakier than ever so I guess I should be happy that I did not do too badly.

Clever reg managed to give us the AXR teaching she had prepared specially for us! It was useful coz I did not know anything that she taught us to begin with. Went to speak to a patient whom a few people had recommended to us, and he turned out to be psychotic :/ Typical. So... Not very useful talking to him, although it was, nevertheless, interesting.

Had an extremely good teacher who taught us fluids and sliding scale insulin today. He teaches in a lot of detail and is quite nit-picky, but he explained the details so well that he made us understand what he taught. I feel like I do not have to study these 2 topics ever again. Unless I become an anaesthetist. We may have been pretty drained by that time coz I think we were rather slow at picking some things up but he kept checking that we were at his pace and reassuring us that he could repeat anything as many times as we wanted until we understand. How many doctors like that do you get?? Will give him a good feedback form for his CV (-:

So... Tomorrow is my birthday... But does not feel very birthdayish coz everyone is so stressed. People are studying for Phase 1/end-of-block/IPE/finals and to be honest I am not that keen to celebrate, myself. But I dun wanna be a wet blanket so I have agreed to order kebab delivery for dinner tomorrow.

2010-12-11T12:46:00.001-08:00

Met the most cheerful cashier ever at Morissons yesterday. Then again, it was a Friday after all. I had stocked up well on Reese's PB cups since it was potentially my last trip to the Kettering Morissons (also good "hi I'm back" presents for the Leicester people) and so a substantial porportion of my groceries was made up of the PB cups. So the cashier could not resist commenting, "Oh my god this is all for yourself isn't it?"

Me - "No." Then on further thought, "Honestly."

Cashier - "... You're lying."

I raised my eyebrows.

Cashier - "These are the BEST chocolates In. The. World."

Me - "Yea... And I've only found them here so far so..."

Cashier - "Have you tried the peanut pieces though?"

Me - "Hm. The peanut butter cups are still the best, I think."

Cashier - "Yea I always get my friend to buy loads from America. I didn't know they had them here. Did you get those from my till??"

Me - "Don't think so. I think it was from... another till."

Cashier - "Cool. I'll probably finish that lot in 20min."

Amazing how he could sustain a conversation throughout the course of my grocery paying. I do envy people who can sustain conversation so effortlessly.

2010-12-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

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 :/

2010-12-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

Another weekend is here. Boy does time pass quickly when I am in Kettering. Missed pizza again yesterday. Had an early day but did not make use of my time. We finally got round to finishing and actually sending off the silly poster we still have to do for this ridiculously busy block. Honestly. At this stage we should be focusing on doing as much of the basic simple things like being able to pick up basic signs on examinations/on investigations and being able to do basic procedures for when we become the bottom of the medical chain (house officers). I really do not think it is necessary to make students spend so much time and brainpower on these kinds of research things that we only need to know at reg/cons level. Still, Leicester being Leicester, I am sure they would still insist on grilling us on "no right answer" things like ETHICS while assuming that we will sort out things like what are the 1st steps we would take with a deteriorating patient doing into VF by ourselves/by magic.

Next week we still have to submit our screening programme. Goodness knows how this will benefit us.

I suspect I am potentially autistic. I find it hard to work with people and do not know how to tell people that my way is better. Yesterday when I was doing the poster with Sania I think I annoyed her quite a few times. I do try my best to discuss but I find it so hard to verbalise what I mean to say and it always comes out as something like, "Your idea is stupid. Pick mine. But I cannot explain why. Just pick mine." So finally I kept quiet and edited bits in the privacy of my own laptop and actually managed to express what I had wanted to express verbally. I wish I could have improved it more but I really do not want to appear like an ass. Same thing happened with the brief discussion we had about the screening programme. I got the impression that everyone thought I was being too anal when all we want, really, is just to get it done and over with. Still.. when there is a flaw some geek is going to pick up and question us about, I would rather pre-emt this by being the geek who spots these issues 1st. I think I did succeed in making myself the perfectionist, nit-picking, ocd geek D:

2010-12-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of feeling stupid. Realise there are many things I do not know/forgot. And somehow, when it is not my turn to answer, I tend to know the answer. I feel so gutted (See, I am immersing in British culture and language).

For the past few days I seem to be getting quite a few hypos too. This makes me a bit unsteady in general (but still functional) and makes my hands quiver. As a result I can never aim at things (veins, for instance) properly and always end up completely missing, particularly when everyone has loose, wobbly skin. This is not good for patients, who therefore have to be subjected to my stabbing them twice or more each, and is really demoralising for me too. My excuse is my recently shaky hands and poor upclose aiming, but who knows? :(

2010-12-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

No eventful dreams last night. Thank goodness for that.

Attended a clinical skills workshop that was supposed to be for midwifes and nurses and thought it was a bit irrelevant during the morning session, but there was a fancy free lunch! And in the afternoon we did some really cool and practical stuff that we NEVER get taught. It was not just giving IV drugs, which, in practice, is really actually always the nurses who do. Each scenario evolved to include a medical component as well (had anaphylactic reaction, did an IV insulin sliding scale and had a respi depression following IV morphine), which was unexpected and so was really good for keeping us on our toes. They were so nice to keep including us even though we were not scheduled to be there.

Had a spot of teaching with an enthusiastic FY. It was very practical and very realistic because he used to be a Leicester student and so could tell us what we needed/did not need to know. In a very informal and swearish way. I guess that promotes more active discussion from us, in a way.

Stole the pretty Christmas napkins and the last cheese bun left from the free lunch. It was such a waste to just leave them there. Got a free 3M pen and cannula documentation stickers too (-:

Meh. Have to finish our poster by tonight just to get it out of the way. Also have to finish designing a half-hearted screening process which obviously will have many major flaws, if not other people would have already thought of and implemented it by now.

2010-12-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

This morning at 4.49a.m. was the 1st time I ever woke up with a scream (more of a pitiful cry really). And that was because it was the 1st time I had ever consciously experienced the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. I remember learning about it in sleep physiology, whereby in stage 4/REM sleep, we are in our deepest state of sleep and that it is in this deepest state of sleep where we experience the most vivid dreams which we are able to recall after we wake up. It is also in this stage of sleep where our bodies become flaccid and paralysed. Sometimes, not uncommonly, this state of paralysis lingers even after we have woken up and we find that we cannot move despite being awake. When the lecturer asked if anyone had experienced this phenomenon before, I was surprised to find that more than a few of my friends had. Still, I did not think much of it seeing as I had just been given a very logical explanation of why this happens. BUT. When you experience it yourself, it is bloody freaky.

Because of certain things I had watched and read, I had had a nightmare set in my old house, whereby I had walked into the living room to find all sorts of ghosts (animal, human, deformed...) swirling around the room and having a party. I was not supposed to see them, and apparently the house was usually "clean" and the ghosts had only come out (apparently there was a portal from the ghost world in my living room wall) because it was my uncle's birthday and they were there to celebrate just for 1 day. So this also meant that my uncle whom I always thought of as normal and alive was a.) 1 of them (i.e. dead) or b.) dibbled in the supernatural. It was all very real so I did what I would have normally done in real life and quietly left, hoping that I had not been noticed, and went to find a real living family member at home to interrogate. (That was how I found out that our house was normally "clean")

Later that night I was sleeping on my old pull-out bed and Yi Ling was sleeping on Evon's bed directly next to me. That was when I felt an invisible being restraining me and holding my mouth shut (clever). And that, I think, was me experiencing sleep paralysis because I could not move and could not shout to alert Yi Ling/the whole house. It was a pathetic struggle on my part, in all honesty, and I was very ashamed of not putting up a more decent fight. Anyway, my larynx struggled to get more than "hurk-" out and I finally managed to make an audible sound --> the pathetic cry.

So, that was the highlight of my day.

I did not get to present my case today. We were caught off guard and asked to examine a patient there and then instead. Wish I had gotten respi instead of cardio but oh well, all went well. The new junior doctors are nice. The old doctors are still nice. Nurses were nice. Cleaners were nice. Patients were nice.

Took blood from a deaf old lady with wispy veins and skin that was looser than a shar-pei's. Most of her accessible sites were very very bruised too and I suspect she is on some anticoagulant that made her bruise so easily. I am ashamed to say that the 1st time, because of her many many folds of skin, I had completely missed the precious vein I had finally located D: To my credit, I was very calm and got Sania to get me another butterfly while I acted as if this happened all the time and shouted conversationally to the patient while still looking like I was carrying out some procedure. I had another go, this time anchoring her skin, and obviously got the vein because a drop of blood blossomed healthily but not into my needle. Oh well. Got there in the end with a bit of tweaking and more conversational shouting. Sadly, I only got 1/3 of a U&E bottle before my butterfly tube hissed and started drawing up nothing instead. I suppose that was too much for that wispy vein to cope with. Neverthelss, I should take this positively because normally I would have just freaked out after the 1st try and passed on the job to the FYs but at least this time I refused to accept that I couldn't do this relatively simple task and got the bloods I wanted in the end. It was enough. I just feel more shiok with a full bottle.

Did a few more bits and bobs. Posted my letter to MOHH today. The stamp costs freaking 1.46. I used the Wallace and Grommit 1 because I did not want to lick the 1 1pound, 2 40p, 1 5p and 1 1p stamps in public.

Went to Msons (1 of my favourtie places in the world) and Lidl. Msons had lots of buy 1 get 2 free offers (XD) so we got the free chocolates for the nice nurses, doctors and cleaners on the ward. Also shared 3 boxes of cadbury fingers with Sania. Hm. I am actually not thaaat much of a chocolate person so I wonder how I am going to finish all of that.. I guess I will share with my housemates during Christmas as a generous contribution from me. Got my 25p 2L water from Lidl and some 19p decent-looking brand maggi mee. Spent 63p in total ;d

2010-12-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

Am back in Kettering today. Did not get as much work done as I had anticipated so more work for me next week when I go back to Leicester!

Dear ol Halimah drove all of us back to Kettering. A few things happened along the way and made us 1h later than we had hoped. Still. Saved me 11pounds... All the Muslims that I have met so far are so nice. Perhaps it is a stronger community spirit. Everyone openly shares useful things they know and readily offers/agrees to help... I have been so used to the "be protective of your knowledge" culture in crazily competitive environments (Singapore) and feel ridiculously touched that quite a lot of people here actually do extend their help unconditionally. And it is (generally) true that how you treat others will come back as how others treat you. People are generally eye-for-an-eye, both in the good and bad sense. If you help people, most people are usually decent enough to feel grateful, or sometimes guilty, and repay the favour in the same way (either way it is to your advantage); if a person does not like to share, even if he does help people once in a while to get their help back for something else, somehow, people around that person reciprocate in the same way via instinct. It is kind of weird how these things work out.

True enough, when I remembered my friend and asked her to join us for the teaching we had arranged with careful reg this Tuesday, she told me about a nice SHO who was asking for students to give him a list of topics we want to be taught.

It does not take much to give help in a particular way to lots of people at once. If you give the same help (call it X) to 10 people, in future you get A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I and J back from the 10 different people.

Hm. Went off on a bit of a tangent there. So. I'm back in Kettering. Did not have much time to defrost my food (reached at about 5p.m.) so I hacked away at my frozen curry to retrieve a decent portion of it. The frozen fried cabbage was not as bad coz I could peel them off piece by piece without having to exert too much force. We have no toaster here, by the way. So we have to grill our bread. The grill was making minimal changes to my adaptably thin bread and so I turned it on to 6 and went back to my room for 3min, only to return to the kitchen to find that my thin bread had caught fire. Haaaaah.. I was not keen on grilling more of my bread, so I threw the little ball of fire into the sink and doused it in tap water and decided to eat normal, non-grilled bread instead. Alamak! I forgot to bring maggi mee for these 2 weeks! Mehhh... What a waste... I guess I will have to buy some frozen food from Morissons this week.

Searched my entire GI notebook for a passable endocrine case I might have seen in my 4 weeks here and I still have not found a case to present to my cool consultant tomorrow.

2010-12-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

Took some professional shots of the cakes we made for Sook Yeen and Elaine last last week.

Elaine's carrot cake...

Sook Yeen's butterfly cake...

Ok it was a lavender opera cake... But from the decorator's point of view, it should be called the Ultimate Sookyeenish Butterflies Flowers and Swirls Lalala cake...

Not to show off or anything, but by the way, the butterflies are not bought. And neither are the chocolate pieces fencing the cake. Because of the ridiculous cold and dryness here, my chocolate kept hardening and so my flowers turned out so lumpy D: I know.. The swirl turned out wonky too.

Too bad my cake-decorating enthusiasm has to be put on hold for now, what with the ever-impending IPE and OSCEs looming over me. Everyone says "it is still 3 months away" but when you break it down, this translates to 2 weeks per rotation to study and that is not full-time studying either. We have 2 weeks to study each rotation, on top of still having to attend placement everyday. So, it is not "still so long away".

Did loads today (-: Did all my laundry before the morning was over, finally took down my sketch from my wall, and finished dementia + delirium! All before going to town!

Got my cheap Christmas cards from Card Factory. It is the place for cards and party things. They have cards going at 29p (!) and nice cards at 5 for 1pound, not so nice cards at 7 for 1pound and cards for not close people/politeness cards at 10 for 1pound! Giant cards also only cost 99p! I remember clearly that in Singapore, a normal card cost me over $4 several years ago and a good musical card used to be $10. Wth? AND Card Factory has cards for every occasion, to every kind of person (to mother/father/sister/brother/family/the house across/the family/neighbour/niece/cousin/fiance/husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/friend/both of you/all of you/someone special...) and from every kind of person (from mother/father/sister/brother/our family to yours/our house to yours/neighbour/niece/cousin/fiance/husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/friend/both of us/all of us/cat/dog/pet...)! I am not joking about the cat/dog/pet, by the way. We discovered something cool too. They had cards "from across the miles" and next to that, a series of "from Leicester"! How cool is that? Suffice it to say I got good cards at very decent prices. Ok I got 2 boxes of pretty cards for 99p each *squee* ><

I decided it would be more economical to give the lovely people at Kettering Christmas cards with a Thank you message in them instead of getting them Thank you cards. Anyway 1. Thank you cards are ugly 2. Thank you cards are not sold in boxes/packs 3. Every student and patient gives a Thank you card to show their gratitude so mine would just camouflage with the pile and waste my ink and money. Christmas cards, however, are more heartfelt and unique.

Got some overseas stamps from WHSmith. They are Wallace and Grommit so I might keep 1. Freaking expensive though. I'm sure I very recently successfully sent a biggish card home using a 90p stamp.

They have 99p baguettes in town! Sure beats the 2.50 coronation chicken baguette I

had in KGH :/

Meant to do more work upon returning from town but I ended up turning on my acer and going on facebook then checking my email and one thing led to another... and here I am posting up photos and blogging. Supposed to have left for AJs (I need my meat. I will be half-vegetarian on Monday.) 20min ago but no sound from Paula. Hm. I had promised to go for the Medics Oriental Dinner tonight too but... it is cold.. and wet... and dark D: and I need my meat. So, giant kebab it is.

My housemates left cake for me in the freezer!

2010-12-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

Yay! Got my pictures from Xiaomeng yesterday. Looking through them, I realise that I have lost weight since starting Phase 2, although I still have a muscular face.

So, here is my gingerbread establishment...

Now to make it look as tacky as possible...

There is the fallen fence, the brown lady with cup G-ummy boobs and her black husband in his swimming trunks. We were very racially-balanced. You can see The Saurus at the front of the gate and the mailbox too. Ah. Even from this distance I still see the piece of cowpat at the front gate...

This is the Yuvanaa&Bingbing flatwarming cake..

The final cake minus 1 strawberry.

2010-12-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

Back in Leicester today. I now appreciate the warmth of my frumpy Kettering room. I was surprised and upset to find Leicester ground covered in a uniform layer of ice. It had snowed quite heavily in Kettering and I didn't think it could be much worse in Leicester. My lips have been cracking and sore since Tuesday as I still do not have the habit of using lip balm (or any other beauty/healthcare products for that matter). I have been putting moisturiser though, ever since the new wash-your-hands-after-seeing-every-patient-even-if-you-don't-touch-anything-within-a-10metre-radius-of-them rule.

I have no more food and so turned to my freezer for something instant. I had planned to go to Morissons today and town tomorrow, but when I actually think about it, I think I can still survive without cooking for a while longer. I will get more frozen food when I am back in Kettering.

I recently discovered something awesome. It is called the Triple Whopper. I will definitely conquer it 1 day in the near future.

Finally discovered how renal ward round runs without a renal unit. We went on quite a good tour of Kettering General Hospital to visit the various renal patients scattered around the compound. Wanted teaching immediately after that to save time but another part of me wanted to go for the infallible Friday free lunch. Sadly, there seems to be something wrong in KGH these days as even my ever-dependent free Friday lunch failed to materialise. This forced me to spend an unreasonable amount on a very mediocre coronation chicken baguette as I had, in anticipation of a free lunch, not packed any food of my own.

We arranged teaching with careful reg for 2p.m. instead. It was very distorted because he got bleeped every 10min and had to go away for considerable periods to answer the bleeps, after which he would return and jot down another job to do on his growing jobs list. I even had time to go to the toilet during 1 of these intervals. Shamelessly, Sania and I pretended not to see the growing list and pressed on for the teaching. Although it was somewhat an incomplete tutorial, I guess we should be grateful that the reg was nice enough to be cornered by us to do a 1-on-1 session and to attempt to press on with teaching us despite the numerous bleeps. Still, being enthusiastic medical students, we had to be thick-skinned again and asked for another session for next week. I think Sania and I have accepted the importance of taking advantage of people and hardened our hearts against guilt/paisehness of repititive requests.

Met our cool consultant on the way out and he asked why we did not turn up for the teaching that we did not arrange with him. I insisted that we had NOT arranged a session with him but oh well. You can never have a victorious argument against your superiors. I stupidly suggested a session on Monday although I do not have a single case to present.

The grand plan (after sacrificing morissons and town) is to get some work done tomorrow. We shall how successful that plan is. In the meantime here is Victor, my new (free) usb drive

... and his twin, Gilbert.

Had 2 bouts of diarrhoea ?cause today. My working diagnosis is diarrhoea ?sour vegetables.

2010-12-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

Today was, again, a waste of time. Turned up for Endocrinology clinic as stated in our timetable but my cool consultant had gone to the wards instead. This just shows the status of "Medical Student". We are always the last to know everything. We went to look at the haemodialysis machines instead then went back to do some reading in preparation for Nephrology clinic in the afternoon. I took the chance to have a power nap.

We turned up at Nephrology clinic only to find the venue had been changed to Corby and of course, silly us should have known -_-

Went to doctors' mess as it is supposed to be Free Pizza day today, but no such luck. Slumped in defeat, and having missed the free MDT lunch as well, we buried ourselves in our workbooks and demoralised ourselves by doing some of the renal cases. There were no more cups so we could not make tea at the mess either. After some good, hard work we gave up and went to get some food (using our own money) and found that the restaurant had closed. So we lolled about and got some cheap food from the upstairs cafe(still more expensive than the hospital restaurant). I had Eccles cake, which is my new favourite cake coz it reminds me of very English Tau-sar piah. I miss Ethel's bakery back in Leicester.

After we were well-filled (somewhat) we went for our dinnertime teaching and it was on Asthma & COPD. Again. We must have had at least 5 teachings on that by now (at least 3 of which were in Kettering). I (and I think Sania did too) wondered why everyone else really wanted to do it. Again. We didn't do it in the end because Sania politely pointed out that we had done the topic at least 3 times in Kettering.

It snowed heavily today. Large snowflakes floated into my mouth and eyes despite protection from my spectacles. I really wanted my hot, 2-week old Japanese curry even though I was not that hungry after teaching. Sadly, to add to my series of unfortunate events for the day, #1. the microwave here freaking sucks and did not heat up my food even after 8min and #2. my cabbages and the other vegetables in my Japanese curry had gone sour. The microwave had also somehow managed to selectively only heat up the soured cabbages well, but had left the meat at room temperature. My wonderful cheese-covered bread stick had also gone hard over the week.

I just remembered. Careful registrar had said, "Yep. So read up on nephrotic syndrome." 3 times to me on Tuesday and I had neotiated a teaching session out of him for tomorrow. Whether that was a silence filler/my renal knowledge was so dismal it scared him/I had to read it for teaching tomorrow I do not know. Any way I had better be well-equipped with nephrotic knowledge for tomorrow just in case. It would be quite embarassing if I have to admit that I still have not read up on it. Will go to sleep now so that I can read up a bit more tomorrow early tomorrow morning.

Yay. Free Friday lunch to look forward to. The 1 infallible free lunch of the week. Hopefully they will have packed sandwiches/wraps/salads and other foods. They are really useful for storing for times of emergency (like when my food goes sour).

2010-12-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

No time to post pictures lately. Also, as many will know by now, my acer had crashed again and I am now using asus for more serious stuff and I have yet to install my printer into either of them. In addition, I am stuck in Kettering. I say stuck, Kettering is really a lovely place with lovely people and lovely patients. I must have gushed about it to everyone who reads this by now.

It has been snowing for the past 5 days even though it was only still November. Apparently it is going to get heavier over the week. That hopefully will be the end of the cold spell for the year although I doubt it.

Today was a bit of a waste of time. Spent 1.25h getting to Northampton in a bumpy taxi and only spoke to 3 patients and watched 1 renal biopsy. The 2nd one was the guy with CREST syndrome/?SLE we stalked over the course of last week and finally did our big presentation on. I think he was horrified to see us appear again even after he'd been transferred from Kettering to Northampton. 1 patient was trying to push us to talk to him instead but he gave a flat, "Oh they already did me" and gave a half-smirk :T In total we saw him 1. During the ward round 2. When we persuaded that other patient to talk to us 3. Later along a random corridor 4. Outside the building smoking. Imagine his consternation when he was wheeled in for his biopsy (which he didnt want in the 1st place) only to find us there, again.

Because no one was free to entertain us today (all the FYs change rotation today) it was somewhat a wasted trip and so we vented our dismay on a box of fries each on the taxi back to Kettering. So.. we went back to Kettering and were late for teaching. It was on topics I had felt relatively confident in before entering but which the tutor (and most of my fellow coursemates who should have been less familiar with the topics seeing as they were doing other rotations) had soon successfully managed to deflate. I felt rather shitty and worried after that session because other people know more than me. Good thing I am good at hiding my feelings.

What else this week... Yesterday was nephrology clinic. I kind of wanted to be the consultant because he is a Tan and I strongly suspected that meant he is Malaysian/Singaporean and felt it would be nice and familiar to sit in a clinic with my fellow continentman. True enough, the blunt features of a Singmala uncle poked through the door and the mixed English/Unidentifiable accent boomed through the supposedly soundproof walls. Unfortunately because of strategic positioning and having to feign nonchalance I had shrugged my shoulders in a "I'm cool" way and gone into the room nearer to me - with the registrar. I guess I got the better deal in the end coz although I saw a significantly fewer number of patients than Sania did with the consultant, I seem to have gotten a lot more teaching as well. And we only saw so few patients because consultants are paid more and should therefore do their fair share of the work. Nah, actually coz the reg was sooo careful and had to ring up and check everything before he made any decision. He was nice enough though, and showed me his i-phone with the protocol for treating vasculitis. Unfortunately, being a proud Singaporean, I seized this golden opportunity and began to explore the site for further mangement protocols to copy while he was distracted and so held on to the phone for rather longer than was appropriate, I think. I assume he will never show me useful protocols on his phone again.

Another long day ahead tomorrow. I miss my consultant so we are going to attend his endocrine clinic tomorrow. Actually coz we need to get signed off for attending it. Following that another nephrology clinic probably with the careful registrar. I think Sania is gonna get him tomorrow though. It's only fair.

2010-10-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to put up the post about my lemony butter cake that got invaded by the 2nd-most vile creatures in the world (ANTS). But... I am ever so lazy to upload my pictures :/ Oh well...

I always had a fear of knives and other thin, sharp things. A high-pitched *squeeee* plays in my mind when I see cutty things and I keep visualising myself being cut. I remember how, when I was young and stupid, I always wanted to help to cut the vegetables, just because. I guess it was the most immediate-results thing to do in cooking. Every time I did though, EVERY time, I ended up cutting my index finger. Perhaps this was how my fear was generated.

Having had to look after myself for the past 3 years, the knife was an unavoidable tool I had to wield for my survival. Surprisingly (I just realised) I had not gotten a knife cut in all my 3 years! Until yesterday. I think, really, I should avoid the kitchen and other dangerous places whenever I am in a semi-conscious state. I was rushing through my sweet and sour pork (yum! by the way) and hacking away at my pork shoulder like a professional. Alas, my left index finger was not nimble enough to dodge my oncoming right arm and its weapon O_o and unfortunately, often in life all it takes is 1 mistake for the milk to be spilt and the damage to be done. Good thing for the Withdrawal Reflex though, which saved me from chopping off the tip of my finger and allowing me to escape with disproportionately large quantities of bleeding from my tiny cut instead. Then again, it probably wouldn't have gone through because it was so freaking hard to get it to cut the pork too.

I am starting to suspect that I have a bleeding disorder. My cut had refused to stop bleeding for a good... long while. And had continued to rebleed intermittently even until this morning. I found blood on my pillow too, and my finger was in a plaster. Perhaps I should stop my ginko biloba for a bit.

2010-09-23T04:34:00.000-07:00

I am enjoying Elderly Psychiatry, despite overwhelming fears of not having my clinical partner to rely on during the week because she is off in Rutland doing our normal timetable and having early days. So :D

Normally I choose to run away from these things and almost believe I have a stomachache so I can take a day off. However, it is almost better to be alone when doing psych coz you can say all the crazy things you want without your fellow med student/doctor giving you strange looks. Each time I have to do something alone i.e. talk to a patient without the help of a fellow friend I trot off in trepidation while trying to appear comfortable and confident at the same time. I guess I am scared of the unknown. And I realise that much as I like to be different, I am still a fish. I hate to be alone unless I am safe in my home.

This week has been a real eye-opener for me. We were told in intro week to always tell someone when we were speaking to a psych patient and to always bring an alarm with us and blah dee blah... and perhaps I will for General adult Psych and Adolescent Psych, but old, supposedly crazy people are really not scary and probably not dangerous at all. So far I have spoken to sweet, harmless and gentle people (sounds like I am describing some huge but docile animal. like a whale) and it has been great fun! I had a really engaging conversation with a happily confused old lady and was quite reluctant to leave when it got late (the bus only comes every half an hour). She answered about two out of all our questions but it was super fun talking about her confabulated elephant(s). It was mentally stimulating too, trying to challenge her fantasy. And she told us she was in her forties, bless her. It is like listening to a story and watching it unfold as you dig deeper and deeper and try to see what they see. It got to a point where the elephant had a mother and father and could speak to her when He was hungry. Then we ran out of time. Hmph.

I do take back my previous misgivings and generalisation of psych patients. They are highly dramatised in books and TV shows and I must say I was influenced. At the start the really happy and chatty registrar was all like, "You should go talk to XYZ! He tells you all about his cat and it's really interesting! OH and PQR! She tells you the most amazing stories! It's really good entertainment! Sometimes when you get a bit low just go talk to ABC and after about five minutes you feel much happier..." I thought it sounded a bit wrong, the way he said it. But it is true, if you have the time. I think the old folks kind of enjoy the company as well. Particularly when many people do not really listen to them go on about things they want to go on about. Why not listen to some of their stories and stretch my imagination a bit? It is really great fun.

2010-09-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw a pretty rainbow outside Morissons. I couldn't help but stop to let out a "Wah..." while blocking the exit. Funnily enough, this very pretty half rainbow triggered a memory from a long time ago, when we were still staying at 736. I remembered how Mummy used to like imparting scientific wisdom, particularly when they related to everyday events like rainbows and making your own glue. We were also often made to think of why things happen the way they do and to try and find out the problem and fix spoiled/broken things before giving plumbers and electricians a go. Ok I only thought of the rainbow and glue part when I saw the Morissons rainbow but now I am riminiscing.

One day, the topic was "Rainbows", which were a new, rare and magical thing to us back when we were young. And Mummy said,

"Do you know that you can make your own rainbow?"

And we (or I) was all,

"Whooaaoaoa... Like, paint the sky?"

I was not a bright child.

Mummy started explaining about reflection and refraction and light and water and things. So we trooped down to the grass patch downstairs with a bottle of water to watch our mother produce a rainbow out of a mouthful of water. We might have gotten a tiny shimmer of colour at one point but all in all, I learnt that even rainbows are not magical and that science can explain everything.

Unfortunately, the memory of Mummy walking around with a mouthful of water searching for a good, solid ray of sunshine to experiment on, with 3 excited girls in tow brought a bubble of giggles to my throat, which I initially managed to control. But when I thought of her forcefully spitting each precious mouthful of water in order to achieve maximal spray effect (and 3 mesmerised girls staring intently at the mixture of water and saliva droplets), I burst out laughing at the Morissons entrance. And my nice housemates who had mixed expressions of surprise, bewilderment and concern were nice enough to chuckle along politely when I explained my unprovoked laughter.

Ah. Fond memories. You know you are getting old when these things start to make you gaze off and smile for a while.

2010-08-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

I think that people should stop thrashing Phua Chu Kang. Sad as it is, it is still the funniest Singapore sitcom, well definitely one of the better ones anyway. And PCK & Co. are still rather effective and representative ambassadors of Singapore..

Take the SARS and MRT courtesy raps for example. While they prompted some eye-rolling from humourless, critical people, the huge presence did make its points, and the messages were effective. Seeing PCK and Rosie standing warningly next to the MRT doors/squatting above the reserved seats reminded people that it is only basic courtesy to not pit ourselves against the outflow crowd or pretend to be engrossed in a book/smsing/playing nintendo DS while a papery old man sways dangerously in front of us. And I didn't realise this until my recent summer holiday back in Singapore.

When the courtesy rap first started, and I was back in Singapore for my summer holidays in my 2nd year, I was pleasantly shocked by my fellow countrymen standing aside to give way at the MRT doors. Of course, it didn't take me long to get used to it, and I thought, "Hm. Singapore IS becoming a more gracious and affluent society." So this carried on for some time, even during my last last holiday when the yellow boots no longer squatted over the reserved seats.

Like I said, I had gotten used to queueing to the side of the MRT doors behind fellow passengers who had arrived before me and had also kind of gotten used to the sight of empty reserved seats. So during my most recent summer holiday back, I automatically stood aside to let the passengers get OFF, only to be stupidly bypassed by people behind me getting ON.

Wth?

And it was not just once. It happened everytime during that last holiday back in Singapore. So I think much as people are sick of/critise PCK, he actually does exert quite a strong influence..

2010-08-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

Nice Lyrics

Circle me and the needle moves gracefully

Back and Forth

If my heart was a compass you'd be North

Risk it all coz I'll catch you when you fall

Wherever you go

If my heart was a house you'd be home

(pardon the Paint drawing...)

I was recently influenced by Mei Yun to listen to Owl City songs and I must say, it was a good recommendation (: Then again, I have to warn all unimaginative people that the lyrics are all really whimsical and do not make sense a lot of the time, and that's what I like about them! I read some criticisms of how the lyrics do not make sense and I couldnt help feeling a bit irritated at those impossibly practical party poopers...

It works really well before bedtime coz then you think of dreamy fantastical things like moonlight spilling down to earth and a strawberry avalanche cascading down with it. (Yes, it is another one of his songs) I remember drawing a picture of Happy Land once and I think Owl City songs will be the perfect background music of Happy Land (although the version I drew was a bit sadistic). Think the chorus of this song appealed particularly to me in this time of homesickness what with all the talk of compasses and directions and home.. Quite a quirky way of expression, as opposed to the traditional "You are my air/life/water/carbohydrates and other nutrients" and "I love you deeper than the deepest ocean" and all.

2010-08-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

*Grumblegrumblegrumble...leicester...grumblegrumble*

2010-08-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

In the past week since I have been back, I have been bored to the muscles. That is not to say I have not been enjoying the autonomy of sleeping and waking up whenever I want and wasting however much time I want just doing plain ol nothing. But it is tinged with gloom and guilt as well. Kind of. While school has been kind to start us off at a mercifully slow pace, it has, nevertheless, started. And this makes me a few steps closer to proper term starting, assessments starting and exams at the crack of spring next year. Which means I should be encouraged to start picking up on my studies which I have happily filed and shelved for half a year now.. And I know the sooner I start, the better. Why then, am I procrastinating? Terrible discipline I have.

To be honest, clinicals have not exactly been stressful (except for the guilt that I have, as a result, been neglecting my studies), but they can get physically tiring. No, I correct myself. They can get quite exhausting. This was particularly bad towards the end of my 3rd year, where

1. i was doing my peri-op block which = standing for hours in the very cold OTs

2. long days + ITU days

3. mei yun came to visit

4. went to london with meiyun

5. went shopping with meiyun

6. had alot of fun shopping and eating while meiyun was here

7. slept for ~3h per night while meiyun was here

8. paula and xinyis graduation and the excitement of families visiting and the prospect that i was witnessing my future in 1.5 years

9. there was the excitement of packing and flying home

10. i had prepared nothing for my periop exam, considering the above (plus i had a blocked and inflamed ear)

and in the midst of it all i kept having a vision of myself, the moment i had nothing else to worry about, doing this

which did not happen, because of #9 and #10. Still, I'm sure that in a matter of months, when the grey gloomy winter is here coupled with the notion of having to study in the grey gloomy lack-of-distraction leicester, this picture of my anguished self reaching for my bed would keep popping into my head again.

This year is supposed to be a productive year! I had the aims of learning a. photography (if I can join the society without actually owning a camera) b. photoshop (which I installed on my 2nd day back! ha!) c. a muscial instrument (if ebay guitars are still going at 99p) d. not being tempted to join volleyball again e. making better use of all the time i spend watching random shows on my laptop, reading repeat storybooks, sleeping and doing nothing. Better use as in pick up my books and notes. I could achieve so MUCH.

Soo... Cross fingers to a more accomplished year. I am so bored my right shoulder + back muscles have gone all stiff and achy from inactivity. Or maybe it is my sleeping position. Or maybe it really IS my 31.9kg luggage ++. Ha. Homehome IS the best. Want wind get wind; want rain get rain. More importantly want sun get sun. Haha Pa Mi you still owe me my moon. I asked for it 3 weeks ago already :D

Meh. So gutted to be back (must speak like ang moh now that I am here). I feel sooo forced and fake all the time. No wonder I always feel tired. I've had to summon up all the enthusiasm I could muster to convince people that I am fine, that I had a fundertastical! holiday, to laugh at not very funny jokes, and to suppress my urge to say stupid things. Ha. Have to get used to it again..

2010-07-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

2010-05-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

My Next Weekend

morning...

...day break

...evening break (胡夏won by the way)

...oh shit.

So. This is my average weekend in a nutshell. Terrible I am. I guess I generally do get some work done in the morning but after that I feel so accomplished and think I can take a short break and do the same amount in the afternoon then take another short break and finish off my aim at night but I never get such 2nd winds. Once I take a break there is not turning back.

So many committments/obligations so little time D:

2010-05-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

My Weekend...

2010-05-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

I think this is the 1st time I am experiencing the emotional side of Medicine. The part that appears in dramas and the stuff that appears in 'Ethics Week' and where I think, "obviously I know and accept that this is part of the package in Medicine, why the hell is everyone harping on about such obvious stuff?". But cliche and emo though this may be, mad/denial/sad/sick/dying/know-they-are-dying people are always sad to handle and none of all that warning and drama serials and Ethics Weeks can prepare girls for this until we experience it for ourselves. Frankly, I pride myself on being able to become a robot at will and really, being quite emotionless and stone-hearted when I need to be. However, I guess having the knowledge of how badly damaged a person really is does get to me.

I told a few people about a recent incident where we saw 2 grown men cry when their father was diagnosed with super late stage cancer. The old man was a frail little twig who was by then, too weak to walk on his own, but he was still so funny! Ok I think I found him funny coz he had my sense of humour where he would make stupid comments but with a neutral tone and a completely straight face and people had to take a few seconds to register the sentence. Or maybe he was actually a bit confused. Or was too weak to be more expressive. Anyway. That made the scene all the more sad because his sons were crying, but were also half-laughing at his comments and patting his head at the same time. I felt I had to become as invisible as possible but then I also wanted to watch. To generalise, I always thought ang mohs were not as close to their parents as Asians are. Like, they move out as soon as they can and think going home once a month is already a good show of filial piety. So seeing the ang mohs sons knowing so many details about their father's health and seeing how protective they were over him was very heartwarming (: The half-crying, half-laughing scene was also the first time I felt heavy-hearted and slightly teary in such situations so I felt it was memorable enough to ensure that I plant it somewhere where I won't forget it.

I must admit, though, it was a combination of everything that made that particular case so sad. There was actually an exact scenario that I had witnessed not too long ago, except that it was a youngish couple and it was the wife crying about the husband's diagnosis. What Sania said is true, it does make a difference seeing big, grown men cry and seeing women cry. I felt more sorry and sympathetic than anything else when I saw the woman cry, but I was able to stay as robotic and blank as ever. See, told you I am heartless and well-suited to this field.

Unfortunately, I am sure I have not seen the worse yet. Next year in cancer care and elderly care there will surely be many chances to see patients 1 day and find them mysteriously missing the next. Or, in the case of A&E, just deteriorating on the spot. My emotionlessness is going to come in handy next year...

2010-05-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

This week was a good week (: We went to Burton late Monday night coz we only started on Tuesday. So had 1 more day in Leicester :D You never realise that absence makes the heart fonder until absence makes your heart fonder. While good ol' quiet Burt is a nice place nothing beats the familiarity of 2nd home, except for my 1st home. Despite human (or maybe just my) tendency to complain about what they've got, I actually do find Leicester quite a nice little place and appreciate it a lot more now.

Another yay point about the week is that we got to go back to Leicester today instead of tomorrow! And Sania came with us this time coz we have PPD day at school tomorrow. And everyone was in a good mood coz we were going back to Leicester early and coz everyone was excited about seeing their friends the next day at school (I dun quite share their excitement to be honest but of course I smiled along excitedly). So I had someone more familiar to talk to on the train ride home, which is always nice. The others are very nice people but 1. different wavelength 2. not so close. And I happened to be high on coffee as well so I was able to converse very brightly and naturally with everyone this time (ignoring my shaky hands and restless legs). Sania didn't let me have another Wether's original cos she said it would add sugar high to my system ):

Although it was a relatively chilled out 3 days where we didn't pack our timetables and try to squeeze as much as we could between 9a.m. and 6p.m. somehow it was more productive.. I guess we were more focused on what we wanted to get out of the day. Today we started off our day by being stood up by the radiologist, then being rejected by the phlebotomists, which is stupid because we had been running around the past 3 weeks taking bloods already, yet when we ask for supervision they say they are not allowed to let us do it. So we are allowed to take bloods without supervision, but not with supervision. Hm. Anyway. We asked the nice teddy bear FY for nice patients and went off to take 2 very very long histories for the morning. In our defence, the histories were very detailed and the patients were bored (and old) so they chatted with us half the time and answered our questions the other half. I still haven't mastered the skill of interrupting patients. After that we thought, since they were so nice, and so bored, we should take advantage of it and examine them. Which was lucky because we got to hear/feel good signs in both :D We felt an AF pulse, heard a gallop rhythm, basal crackles and a good murmur today. I must write all this down while I can still remember them.

We also got to perform ECGs this week. But to be honest, a lot of the time I just pretend to be measuring but really just estimate and pray hard that I roughly got the right places. Quite lucky so far cos I got all males (but to be fair each one was progressively older and fatter so it was like Level 1: Beginner. Young fit man. Level 2: Senior beginner. Middle-aged plump man. Level 3: Intermediate. Old fat hairy man.). I bet the next time I am going to get a woman. Shit and then there's OLD woman D: Then old plump woman T_T

A lot of times knowledgeable old people brighten when they hear that I am from Singapore. Their eyes light up with recognition and they say, "I went there 60 years ago during the war" or "My husband used to go there on business and he stayed in...". I used to appreciate that recognition, but then sometimes these bored people get a tad enthusiastic and start showing us photographs =O There was this nice old man who showed us pictures of the ship he sailed on to Singapore, and another nice old lady who showed us pictures of her house and garage. While I find that quite endearing and somehow quite enjoy the easy chats (as compared to more reserved patients) it also makes it reeaaally hard to stick to the relevant stuff. Ok I sound like a bitch now. Next time I will tell all patients that I was born in.. Cornwall. Or like, Gloucesterhamptonfordshire.

2010-05-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ahh... 星光 is sooo addictive! I wonder if it is purely because of nostalgia that I find any oriental show nice. I have recently been finding myself hooked on watching 小猪 as Dancing King 哥 in 娱乐百分百 too. Very funny!

So. 星光 is now into the final hurdle so my new source of entertainment will soon be gone. Until 星光7 starts, that is. In the meantime, I shall continue to support 胡夏 and Dudu every Saturday when I am back in the privacy of my Leicester room (: I really like 胡夏's voice! Very clean, like Pin Guan but slightly higher range, and no patten pattern when he sings. Ha, some people just have naturally pleasant voice... There was another girl in top 10 who actually could sing very well but her voice is naturally a bit geng so she kept getting faulted. You can tell when the judges have a fixed impression of someone. No matter how well they sing there will always be some flaw to pick on and if there is no flaw the 'emotion is not there' and somehow no matter how many mistakes the 'good ones' make the performance will always '真的感动到我'. Then again 胡夏 and Dudu are among those that always get high marks even if they make mistakes so I won't complain (:

It is so weird when you realise these almost-idols are about your age or younger than you. About half the contestants left are younger than me! Make up and dressing really do wonders man.. Hehe 胡夏 really reminds me of Yi Ling when she was young! Look tut tut (ok not like I looked damn good) with bugs bunny teeth :D I wonder if I can vote online for free...

2010-04-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Pa, Mi! I can cook!

Ha. I couldn't resist. Perhaps people with lower self-esteem feel the need to boast more. Anyway, no matter. Talents, or rather, significant accomplishments should be shared... Things like these don't emerge from the 27 West Street kitchen all the time. Except from Xiaomeng. Hm, she's a really good photographer too. I will get a canon digital camera if and when miser yilun decides to get a camera.

Ok, the cake was made last year, actually, when I had a sudden craving for soft, spongy cake that looked a bit more than ordinary. I think it is all the anime with their pretty cake drawings that always always look so perfect. I wondered where my money went during that period.. Then Paula made me realise all the baking stuff (flour, self-raising flour, cake flour, brown sugar, DARK brown sugar (-_-), baking powder, bicarb, cream of tartat...) cost a fair amount. So I made the spongecake, which both recipes PROMISED would turn out light and fluffy, and it turned out with a rubbery texture. It was edible, at least, like egg cake/wah koh kueh but the texture was closer to... rubber tyres than they were to cake. Obviously I wasn't going to finish it all... But Xiaomeng was very encouraging and kept assuring me that she liked the very eggy taste. Still, WE weren't going to finish it all. So the smart plan was to disguise the cake to make it look branded, like a made-in-China bear in a Paddington Bear's clothes, although the Paddington Bear and his clothes would most probably have been made it China too. Ah, tiredness makes me ramble. Anyway, that was the end result, and the cake was gone really quickly! Yay! Under the disguise of all the fruits and agar agar and custard and icing no one could really taste anything else anyway...

The sio bah was the nostalgic craving for Mira's mix mix since... last year. But I was never motivated enough to research the true technique of making the sio bah skin crispy and randomly tried frying it, baking it, and not doing anything to it. I have bought belly pork 5 or 6 times now and this is the 1st time I have actually made the effort to do it properly from start to finish. Well not exactly start to finish because I didn't have ginger for my mix mix and so it tasted different anyway. Ha.. Imagine my mixture of dui-ness (at how such a simple procedure took me 6 months to take the trouble to do it properly) and delight as my beautiful belly pork materialised... I realised that when the recipe said 'charred', it REALLY meant chao da. Coz I burnt mine by accident. Vinegar really does make the skin bubble and turn crispy alot faster too. Only when it is chao da den it means the entire thickness of the skin is crispy, not hard. It was surprisingly easy using a serrated knife to scrape of the chao da skin (literally the entire surface of my precious belly pork was black) and I could see the crispyness extend till the inside. So. Hahahahahaha... TGO does it again!

2010-04-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Procrastination

Every evening when I get home from the hospital feeling like this

I tell myself that tonight is the night I will start afresh, have a (maximum) 1h-long dinner, make notes for the day, and have an early night so that I will wake up rejuvenated and ready to tackle the new challenges of tomorrow. Yet every night, a vicious cycle repeats itself, like the song that never ends

and I end up like this for the rest of my hospital-free night. Needless to say, I end up being an owl, and wake up later in the morning looking like one. So, I admit that I have been exhausting myself and having insufficient sleep, without the satisfaction of having something substantial accomplished, therefore explaining why I have been looking more and more like this over the past 7 weeks.

The truth is, it is really almost impossible to get out of this cycle. After having the whole morning and afternoon taken away, one would feel that one warrants a long hot shower, followed by a long hot dinner (+dessert +snacks) in front of the laptop watching random shows, with the heater blowing in your face. The thing is, shows are made to be addictive. Also, when you are curled into a ball (albeit on an old and squeaky swivel chair) in front of your fantastic Argos heater after a satisfying shower and meal and feel all comfortable and snuggly your brain naturally quickly grabs the chance to go into screensaver mode and it is just so hard to wiggle the mouse to get it running again. Even if, say, I could tear myself away from the computer and roll myself to the desk, I cannot really imagine my brain being able to effectively process any information at that point.

Another excuse I have come to realise is my need for sunlight. This is because these past few days when (Spring is here!) the days have become really long and warm and sunny ^-^ I have also started feeling my seasonal happy-for-no-reason moods. Feeling happy does do wonders to the soul and I believe it to be a self-regenerating cycle. Somehow good things happen when you are happy and that makes you happier which somehow makes more good things happen, which makes you even happier. So, after orthopaedics ended and the sun began to shine I have actually been feeling much more perky and motivated and do manage to function well during the day. Unfortunately all things come to an end and so my unexplained energy levels, erm, set with the sun. And I spend my nights looking and feeling like shit again.

Ah.. We should have lessons and/or social gatherings at night so that I can reserve my sunlight for doing WORK. Now all I do at night is tell myself that the next day will be different as I click episode after episode on my laptop. But as we all know, 'The Plan" never works.

Anyway. I made a random decision to go to Morissons yesterday and felt very unsatisfied with my purchase of half a cucumber so after some good thinking, I decided to buy... butter! Its versatility, durability and low price won me over. Besides, when I thought of all the baking stuff that I got last year during my bout of enthusiasm in baking just sitting all over my kitchen unused, my cheap side told me not to let them expire like their many other buddies in my kitchen and so I got the butter with renewed motivation to bake.. anything. So I went home and googled around for an idiot-proof chocolate chip cookie recipe (no more fancy famous amos and joyofbaking.com coz I now realise that the level of the recipe must match the level of the baker) coz that was what I felt like eating and made the spontaneous decision to bake them there and then as a post-ortho/rheum reward. Thank goodness my theory proved right and the humble recipe reproduced tubfuls of kick-ass cookies. They even have a hint of famous amosness in them. In all modesty, I modified the recipe alot just because I felt like it. It seemed a fantastic idea to add in oats, random coffee powder (inherited from Michelle) and melted chocolate bars at the time, so I did. Ah, sod the modesty. It was pure genius.

Gonna make sio bah next! Stay tuned for more trumpet-blowing~

2010-03-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

Oh and my anaesthetist looks like Richard Geare/Gear/Geere!

2010-03-09T13:42:00.001-08:00

Homesickness does not get any easier. Everyone says, "Ha but you 3rd time already still like that?" and I don't know how to reply except to give the -_- look. How unsympathetic.

Yep so the past 2 weeks have been the sort of homesick spate. I did mean to blog then, when I still had the emo-ness. However, laziness got in the way. I guess coz the past 2 weeks have been relatively slack so I have had time to think too much. Now that Phase 2 has officially started for my block I should revert back to my long disappearances in no time.

Sooo so far has been introweek... 1st week of MSK block was only lectures that ended early.. blah dee blah.. And TODAY........ was my official 1st day wearing smart clothes and going to the hospital as a Phase 2 student. Eeks. I suppose it is not really counted as a day of looking smart coz I had started for only 10 minutes before I was told to strip to unflattering blue gowns and shower caps :( So much for looking cool and chic in Phase 2.

It was a full day of theatre today, which I knew and so should have expected. Not exactly overwhelming but not the biggest confidence booster either. I still don't know how to make friends with ang mohs :/ The consultant and registrar and anaesthetist were quite nice but it was still a generally awkward 1st day coz I was a wooden block in the way of all the busy people in theatre. Once I crossed the red line into the forbidden zone and another time my gown brushed past the sacred blue sterile cloth -_- It really isn't as easy as I thought, keeping away from the sterile zone. It is a bit like playing a video game, whereby once you touch an invisible force field, you lose. Good thing I milked my 1st day 1st block new baby medical student status for all it was worth and got a few 'awww' s when I shyly announced that it was my 1st day coz although the people gasped and shrieked a bit when I crossed the force field they recovered quickly and nicely told me not to worry after that. Normally they take it really really seriously and people really do get scolded for that.

I don't think I can keep up the bluff for much longer tho. While some staff were taken in by my innocence and as a result asked me relatively basic questions and explained relatively basic things to me (to which, of course, I feigned ignorance and fascination), I have a suspicion that the main people in charge of my academic life for the next few months know what we know and so are gonna challenge us more.

Tomorrow is another day in a foreign land groping my way around in Phase 2 after which I will be (happily) off to Alice In Wonderland (2D) with Tim Burton and gang. Wish I won't be such a stone tomorrow.

2009-11-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

The day I bought my sportscard... The Saturday I used my sports card for the 1st time...
Bloody sports card cost me 55 pounds. I know, I know. I do the stupidest things (like missing trains and flights). I had managed to get away without a sportscard for the past 2 years. The trick was to 1. Arrive fashionably late (~30min) 2. Look harrassed like I was a really important person on the team and rush in while avoiding eye contact. But this year a smart-ass I dun really like but who unfortunately is actually an important member in the club said, "blah blah blah..... and you WILL be checked this year." They do say things like that every year, but somehow this year it sounded more convincing and so I was convinced to consider the option of getting the card. While I was in the office making the card I was having a flu and so did not look very merry. Annoyingly, ang mohs have this habit of trying to get Asians to look/sound more enthused and so whenever I interact with one they like to stare at my face in great wonder and using an index finger on each side of their face, drag the air upwards in a 'U' shape. And I always think to myself "You look idiotic. Stop it." or "I was born with a serious face. Stop making fun of it."

Anyway like how life always goes I found myself swinging the other way the moment I decided to make the sportscard. And so I was a picture of regret especially after paying for the card.

Pictures speak thousands of words but I will add a few more sentences to mine. After regreting my 55 pound loss, I made a firm decision to make sure my card was utilised to its full 55 pound potential. The first thing, of course, was to make sure it was, as I was warned, 'checked this year' every time I went for practice. Thus the effort made to stroll in in as conspicuous a way I could to make sure the front desk girl saw me. Obviously that didn't work. I considered doing the cool thing and continuing my confident stroll to the court but at the same time, I was determined to let my 55 pounds fulfil its purpose. So I slowed down a bit to give myself a few more seconds to decide if I wanted to be cool or suaku. I opted for a compromise between the 2 and tried to casually flash my card while walking past the counter. However I couldn't stand that silly girl not even looking at my card so I thought "To hell with it " and stood there holding my card in front of her face as a silent way of telling her that she should be doing the job she is being paid to do.

Ah. Stupid ang mohs. Always make me look stupid.

2009-10-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

People should not show off. Unfortunately, people who like to show off/act seh (like me) tend to be the kind of people you simply cannot drum this fact into. It stays in for a while, but when the confidence returns it just flies right back out again.

See, last year, cycling back and forth from home to the sports complex every week (about 30min cycle) up and down the curbs, dodging pedestrians, fellow cyclists and lamp posts, and smoothly checking my watch once in a while had given me the confidence that I am a reasonably.. fluent cyclist. No I still hate cycling, and I do look pathetic and wimpy on a bike, but it just never has been a terrible problem mounting curbs and pedalling furiously along the road. On my 1st cycling attempt after a considerable period, I was 1. late and 2. on a bicycle that was too high for me. Or rather, I was too short for the bike. Anyway, with the ease that I assumed had been ingrained into my cerebellum, I confidently swerved past a pedestrian onto the road cycling track. That was successful, but when, with equal confidence, I turned to mount myself back onto the pavement again my bicycle bucked and flung me flat onto my intended destination without it :(

I was just a few metres ahead of the person I had overtaken too :(

I try not to think how, if I were that person, I would feel 1. really sorry for the poor person and pity her embarrassing plight 2. smug about how that idiot tried to overtake me and ended up falling flat on her face and try to think 3. ignore her. she is just a child.

Lesson #2. Believe in Feng Shui. Oh I might as well do some promotion for my feng shui book. It is really quite a good book. It is by Lilian and Jennifer Too and is called 'Feng Shui for the Dragon 2009-2010' or something like that. The book has been so far so good.. I mean, not to follow it to the letter, but generally it has been pretty accurate and given me advice that actually seemed to work so far. Anyway, this month it told me as a side note that if I am involved in any sports or games to avoid them completely because if I were to engage myself in sports I would be sure to meet with nasty injuries. Ok, to qualify, I am still fit enough to blog and go on facebook, and I was only thrown off 1m from where I started. Not too bad la. Only ended up with scraped palms and bruises at all sorts of funny places I did not know I could land on. I always hear about my friends or their friends flying off bicycles before and think, 'What an interesting experience to share'. I now realise that is very shallow and stupid thinking.

People who are proud and scared of embarrassment really do end up with more of such loser incidents. Falling down in front of the whole LT? Check. Falling down for no reason in front of cheering crowds? Check. Having an entire match stopped because my shoe sole came off? Check. I cannot help wondering why these things always happen to me. I was talking to Evon about how people always complain about why everything happens to them.. Well I suppose not everything happens to me, but a considerable proportion of them do seem to. Like my eventful journey home. Laptop crashed > Airport caught fire > Flight delayed > Need to pay for trolley > Took wrong train > Arrived at train station late > Raining > Reached home to find dog shit on my doorstep. The poo was a classic comedic ending to my trip.. They are still in the midst of disintegrating, but shit is still rather prevalent on my street these days.

Which leads me on to think about what Yiling said about my affinity with flies. I got 緣 and I got 糞 and so I got flies. This year, because of the stupendous amount of shit along my street, I no longer walk on the pavement but stick to the side of the road. Firstly to avoid the shit and secondly to avoid the flies that come with it. New experiences have taught me that. 3 times already this year a fly has flown into my left eye despite my spectacular (I wear SPECTACLES. hahahahaha..) protection. That means the fly(ies) deliberately dodged under my lens just to poke me in the eye. I felt a bit consoled tho when my friend told me about how a fly had flown into her mouth while she was yawning. She then choked on it and coughed it out but I think it had already died.

Many thought accumulated from the month I have been here...

2009-10-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

PJ Pubcrawl

Yes this is the kind of costume that gets you photographed at PJ pubcrawl. Another is a spongebob outfit. That got alot of people queueing up for a personal picture. Unfortunately mine got lost somewhere in the melee of photographs that were taken that night.

This costume IS actually really cool. It is supposed to be a mother giving birth and all the babies that have already been born are kinda loitering around in the background in diapers and having drinks. The 1 featured in the photo is on his way out and not in a very sociable position. Ah. Typical medic-wear. No one can resist showing off at a get-together like this. I overheard the people talking about their costume the next day on the way to school saying "... depends on how much money and effort you want to spend on your costume, really". How much could they have spent tho, seriously? It was a really smart and cost-efficient idea. The stretcher was made of a Morissons trolley with its back pushed inwards. The baby went inside the trolley head-1st and kinda poked his head out at the appropriate location. Den there was a support on the trolley for the mother to lie on with alot of white cloth and red dye on the diapers and bedsheets. And each time they went into a pub everyone got out of their way coz there was the whole stretcher paving a way through for them. So there was no problem with crowds.

I have to admire their spirit and the effort they go into dressing up and planning their costumes. There were silver statues, members of Kiss, power rangers, toy soldiers from toy story (those were really convincing but really embarrassing when they stopped and stood still in the middle of the road or like when they tried to direct traffic), ribena people, pacman, THE MARIO FAMILY (that was so cool..) and silly me in my bathrobe. Man I really want to put in more effort into dressing up next time the occasion rises. So fun! Really expensive tho... But still. So fun!

2009-10-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

I've got the sniffles

Someone in my class was suspected of having swine flu but dedicated as he is, he still turned up for hospital teaching. And lessons in school afterwards. The next time we had classes, 1/2 that group was missing and there were flu-bitten students dotted about in several other groups. My group had 3 including me.

Turns out he did not have swine flu tho. But this flu has been going on for ages.. Yet it is not serious enough to warrant a journey to Freemen's medical centre.

Ever had the experience of blowing and blowing and blowing your nose and successful or not, still always have something dribbling down 1 nostril soon after? I always wonder if, by blowing, I am encouraging my goblet cells to heighten their productivity to make up for the mucus deficit.

I do not have the habit of using tissues. I think it is the bother of walking over to the other side of the room to pull 1 piece out, thinking that that will be the only piece I will need, only having to walk over again 5 minutes later. 'Bring over the whole damn box to where you are, you potato' many voices tell me. However, somehow after wiping my nose dry on that 1 piece of tissue, the comfort of having a clean dry nose always convinces me that my nose has, this time, truly decided to stay still and stop running. And so after my 4th-ish piece of tissue I decide that enough is enough.

'Enough!' I tell my nose and my tissue box,

and on reflex just reach for the nearest, most convenient piece of wiping equipment I can find, which is, of course, my jumper sleeve. Do not cringe your noses in disdain and say 'ee...'. I know many of you secretly do it too, when you casually sweep your hand across your face to swat away a fly or brush back your hair and casually slide it into your trouser pocket when you are done. Now 2 surfaces (the back of the hand and the trouser pocket) are contaminated with body fluid. Fortunately, I just use my sleeve and I do wash my jumper alot so the rest of my belongings are clean.

I have now found an obvious coping strategy, which is to utilise the 34 packets of tissue I have in the drawer beside me. That way I can stay at the same spot and have unlimited excess to my tissues. The drawback about using tissues in general tho (and many of my tissue packets contain 3-ply tissue. why??) is when your airways are obviously blocked/nose is obviously dribbling but the bulk of the mucus does not wish to leave its nest and you end up using a whole piece of perfectly good 3-ply tissue to absorb just a few drops of fluid despite various styles of angling the tissue to maximise its potential. I am not a huge environmentalist person. Hm but I am a bit of a cheapskate. Anyway, I believe that each ply deserves to be maximally utilised and so when it is just a minor leakage, I still instinctively depend on my handy old jumper for its absorptive properties. Reusable and Recyclable. And I reduce the amount (yes amount. not number) of tissues I have to throw away on a flu-ey day.

2009-09-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Into my 3rd week of school already. That makes 3 lessons of BSL (British Sign Language). The 1st lesson was pretty easy so I got cocky and thought I would not need to practise. Ha.. but good things (like feeling clever) never last. The 2nd lesson was harder but could still get through without practising and for the 3rd lesson I had forgotten half the things by the next morning.. Oh dear.

Anyway BSL lessons here are really cool. Even though the people I know are all in the other class and so I have more or less no friends in my class the lessons turned out surprisingly entertaining so far. Our teacher is a deaf person so he teaches us by signing. Which I thought would make things really really slow but surprisingly it does not. It is actually amazing how he hardly writes anything on the board and yet manages to communicate with us, teach us and on top of that, still manage to be funny and jovial. Heee and he is fat and chubby like the faceless person in the drawing (on top) which makes him all the more jolly and likeable.. Sad thing tho, I find it hard to interpret additional things that he teaches coz I do not understand the sounds and signs that he makes. The ang mohs are really perceptive tho. They always manage to understand what he is trying to say. Last lesson I thought I was improving coz I was pretty confident of something I had interpreted all by myself and it turned out in the end that while I had thought he was saying 'reverse' he actually meant 'university'.

Really wish I will improve more...

2009-09-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

This is what I wore on Thursday. Nerdy nerd nerd. I carry a nice bagpack tho. However somehow on me it becomes shell-like and boxy. Anyway this is my 'look'. Round-faced and geeky with a child-like charm.

2009-09-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhh... Just had a scary lecture about Phase 1 exam format. I guess the written part is ok coz it should be more or less like what we have been going through so far. The OSCE tho.. OMG. It was like listening to a lecture called 'Everything you suck at'. Honestly. She was reading off a powerpoint with like all these bullet points about everything that I am worst at in med school. Shit. Now I am all stressed and flustered and think I really need to get cracking on revising past sem practical knowledge. Eeps.

2009-08-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Frame of mind

2009-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Eeps. My blog taskbar is not appearing again. And my brilliant laptop is being slow on purpose coz it knows I did not do enough work today. Pleh.

Was looking at the sg blog awards most lol blog and I like these XD

http://uncleatforty.blogspot.com/

http://stickgal.blogspot.com/

Hm but being a singaporean i must act like one and criticise everything within my senses' reach. The nominees were really not thaat funny.. Perhaps i had high expectations seeing as it was a LOL competition but still.. I've seen funnier blogs (like evon's). Now i know ling is gonna pout and do an exaggerated 'what about meee..?' but i shall be blunt and rude and tell her straight that u haven't blogged in longer than i haven't. Which is saying something.

Speaking of yiling, we sometimes like to talk about life and human nature and singaporeans and other philosophical things like that. One day we talked about all three and concluded that many singaporeans have blogs that go something like this:

'Sianz. Last nite did proj until like 4am in the morning. After dat had 2 wake up at 7am 2 go 4 lec. Then had lesson e whole day n after tt did report until 3am. Wtf. Didn't even hav lunch. Haiz.. Sometimes I find studying in singapore really no life..' ....... 'But so glad to haf all my frens: Sisi, wenwen, fangfang, jj, ah girl, mickey, theodore, anaestasia, bingbing.. u noe i luv u guys to bits!! If not for u guys i cannot imagine how my life in uni will be like!! Ah-mick, good luck for ur presentation tml!!! Jiayoujiayoujiayou!'

Looks like everyone in singapore has the hardest life in the world with the best friends in the world that keep them motivated enough to keep blogging despite their extremely packed schedules. Kinda gave me the, how you say, eebiejeebies, typing the 2nd part.

Although this is pretty much a lone blog and sisi, wenwen, fangfang, jj, ah mick and co are not gonna read this, I shall just entertain myself with my opinions anyway, seeing as I rather enjoy my own company. I am not a loser tho, just a bit of a megalomaniac.

Somehow I keep getting the feeling that many singaporeans seem to enjoy the glory of being seen as busy. I suppose I can see how it makes people feel important.. but more or less every singaporean has quite a hectic lifestyle too. Perhaps it is insecurity that makes people unconsciously buff up their schedules to make us feel like we are always wanted somewhere.. Anyway, I find it annoying and it would be nice if people stop publicising their self-pity, to be blunt. Self-pity at home and whine to your family. And maybe cloooosest friends who won't get annoyed with you. But broadcasting it makes me instinctively want to counter their claims. And these tend to be the 'You mean you don't know?!' *Shockshock* =O people..

2009-07-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Condos and HDB buildings can have strange names. We drove past 1 called Linear Green last week and I told Yiling that I wanted to build a condo with triangular shaped buildings on a square piece of land and call it Pythagoras Square.

I don't want to be a loser and explain my own joke but I should probably risk it here coz this was 1 of the rare times even Yiling did not get the whole meaning of my nonsense.

Square has a double meaning. Square as in the maths square coz it is a square plot of land (and the irony of it being a square when it should be a triangle coz it is pythagoras) and square as in traflagar square leicester square and city square. And Pythagoras sounds funny. Especially when you pronounce it like Mr Hia: Py-tah-gor-rahs. Ok now I have effectively made it not funny.

2009-07-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

There is an error on my page and therefore I am unable to change my font and size. I have been missing from the blog scene for a number of weeks but now I am back! Because I am finding every other thing to do besides work and after an uneventful trip to hotmail and facebook I have now run out of options. Hm. My sentences do not flow. Just like in my dissertation. But no matter. I suppose it is because my brain is very messy.

So far.. I have not been doing much in Singapore but have just been enjoying being here P: It feels like I am more selective in choosing where to go and what to eat this time so that I REALLY enjoy every bit of it XD That said, I have met up with friends a few times such that I dun get sick of going out and window shopping and meeting at mrt control stations.. Just the other day I went for cable skiing too! Never thought anyone would want to go with me that's why I really pounced on the chance to go when Meiyun asked me. Unfortunately the cool images I had of myself gliding across the water surface (somehow with sunglasses, a cool cap and typical beach wear. and i had nicely-toned limbs) were not to be. We had to start of as beginners kneeling down on the kneel boards but oh well. Laypeople looking on at the side still had that amused yet slightly impressed expression on their faces when we crawled out of the side of the pond and coolly swung out boards over our shoulder and plodded back to the startline. Ha. I say laypeople. But by that I mean passers-by, not that I really looked sporty and professional.

Anyway, I managed to go a whopping 7 rounds! Ok. Actually it is not that great despite the exclamation mark. Sadly though, each round I fell further and further away from my target because I couldn't steer right enough. Finally when I had tried to lean so far right that my body was almost parallel to the water I continued in that clockwise momentum and smoothly rotated right into the water. That was the furthest I landed and I decided never to land at that spot again even if it meant I couldn't pass the last checkpoint because the exit at that side was SWARMING with mini centipede-leech mutants. So I waded the circumference of the pond until there were few enough for me to not contact them. Anyway, despite breathing in a generous quantity of saltwater (probably swallowed some centipede mutant debris/faeces along with it) and testing my biceps, triceps and other associated muscles beyond anything they had ever dreamed of, it was still a memorable experience and I would defo go again maybe.. next year. Even till today I still find it a bicep-numbing experience to carry out actions like pulling up my pants and washing my legs.

Oh. I might as well announce this as well. I put on my helmet the wrong way too. I was buckling the helmet under my chin and the instructor calmly said something like, 'and while you are waiting to get into the water you need to scan the barcode on your wrist on the blue cylinder and your helmet is the wrong way round.' That did not do much to boost my confidence.

The next next day I fell ill with indigestion. The food tat4 diao2 at my stomach-small intestine junction coz when I finally managed to vomit everything out at 5 or 6 something in the morning they were all in big purple lumps. Maybe it was the a-boh-leng. Maybe it was something(s) in the pondwater. I will never know.

Unfortunately the next day was Yiling's convocation. Which explains my fake-smile-series in the photographs that day. Papa told me I should try to look more natural when I smile. But I will not listen to this anymore because the last time I did everyone asked me what happened to me in my IC photo. The convo was another memorable experience but me feeling queasy got in the way. Still, there was free food and I just couldn't resist not taking any so I did. Anyway the highlight of the event was the 5 minutes spent reading out the psych dept names where we recognised a few names and took pictures of the names we recognised. And the 15 seconds that Yiling went up and Mummy and I whoopwhooped and I said 'There there!' and my video shook violently.

Now I am just enjoying being in Singapore even though I dun go out much. It is just being here that is nice! Bloody weather tho. Can't decide if it wants to be hot or cool.

2009-07-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

I am dissertating in NUS library now. Or so I claim. Home is full of unintentional distractions and so in the boring (but air-conditioned) world of librarydome I find myself looking for distractions: toilet, sound of rain, hotmail (which I only succeeded on signing in after I had given up the 1st 3 times and continued with a few sections of dissertation.. my computer KNOWS..), facebook.. And I have now run out of options.

I seem to have packaged by drive, motivation and enthusiasm and shipped it away to Leicester coz I was still all pumped up at first but these days I am constantly feeling not just normal tiredness, but exhaustion from grocery shopping and generally stepping out of the house. (A small girl has just walked past my table in a polo T and PE shorts and I am wondering how she is not feeling cold) Due to my fatigue, I have taken to speaking in a soft, calm voice and showing little or no facial expression. It isn't deliberate, my body just seems to be rationing my energy: morning 1000kcal for the useless 1h spent brushing teeth, rolling out of bed, changing, breakfasting etc. after which I grow tired, afternoon 1kcal to be used for napping, night uses a few more kcal to totter around the house aimlessly before deciding it is late enough to sleep. It isn't even that time of the month.

Shit. I know there is something I want to blog about.. Oh. I was thinking how I felt like a deflated potato, because I seem to have used up all my starch and yet need more and more energy coz of more and more things to do and think about. Like how Dumbledore felt about sometimes having too many things to think about and your head feeling too full. Today when I was starting my disso there was a something nagging in my brain that distracted me. 'Just 1 of the many small things which I have not done but will push to later to do' I thought. Turns out it was a twinge of annoyance at people who did not reply messages/emails that needed replying. Hai. I call this retribution. I am like that too. Getting my own desserts. Desserts reminds me of dissertation. Which is what I should be doing. I want to desert my dissertation.

Anyway, after that I got back to writing and luckily, decided to finally check my school mail. And horror of horrors, shit of all shits, there was yet another library notice telling me this time that they were concerned about my overdue book. I distinctly remember forgetting to return that book and so remembering to return it in the end so I have no idea what the hoolabaloo is about. Even if I hadn't, I renewed it.. last week and the email today tells me I haven't. I think it is an international secret library scheme (SLS) that libraries randomly pick students with convenient traits and accuse them of not returning books. When the poor students insists helplessly that they did return the book nobody is going to believe them because there is conveniently no proof, no reliable witness and the video camera does not span the book drop slot. Anyway, that is another thing that has been niggling at me and preventing me from giving my utmost concentration to my more important tasks. I really wish I will receive an email of apology from the school library soon, telling me that they viewed the video footage on 13th June Monday at 9.50a.m. and saw me slip 'systemic pathology' into the bookslot and that they are sincerely sorry and will allow me unlimited book access and library privileges for the rest of my undergraduate life to compensate for their accusation.

2009-06-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

I have a fly

His name is Bobby

Annoying me

Is his hobby

2009-03-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Knew it. Still cannot sleep well without my bolster. Had a rather restless sleep last night and woke up at 9.30 only coz Shuang Ning's alarm had rung and we were to set of for the grantchester Orchard at 10 if we were to make it for lunch at least. The Orchard is a quaint little place near the riverside with pretty overhanging trees serving typical English food and more classically, tea/coffee with scones. Well, our main aim for the hour plus walk there was the scones and tea anyway.

So. We walked by the back of the colleges of Cambridge where we could see the river, countryside and cottages. I did not know English houses were traditionally named not numbered. No wonder I have been seeing houses with 'Pendragon' and such on the outside. Walked past a pretty and Enid-Blyton book-ish house wth a wooden sign that read 'The White Cottage' outside its little white picket gate. How English is that? Anyway, pretty houses, pretty fields, pretty river. The walk was over an hour long but it was surprisingly not that tiring. We walked through the fields by the river instead and saw many old people and their happy bounding dogs.

Finally we smelt smoke and saw some brick buildings so it looked like we were headed towards some sort of civilisation. Whoopee-doo.

Bought our scones and tea for 4 (unfortunately not served in a pretty floral porcelain teapot but in the chinese restaurant kind of metal teapot :/) and chose a seat under a tree. It was a big field with a wooden hut which was the cafe and the tables and chairs were scattered throughout the field. They had simple square wooden tables painted green and 4 beach chairs with each table. Sooo 3 of us ordered a fruit scone and 1 person ordered a plain one. No one got the cheese one :(

The scones were MASSIVE and were really nice! Of course, the prices were comparable with its size too. Still. The experience was worth it. We had a selection of tiny potted jams (raspberry strawberry apricot blackberry), tiny potted honey and small disposable container clotted cream to eat the scones with. Of course, had to pay for that too but I liked the pots! So we shared and got the clotted cream, rasp and blackberry jams. The jams were actually nicer than normal jam! I would like to bring Papa Mummy Yiling and Evon to that part of Cambridge 1 day. Fantasised about Snoozy rocketing happily through the fields and being chased by geese too but for obvious reasons that won't be very plausible.

Den went back to change money and found out that the money shown to me in my bank account is not the actual amount? Why? I do not understand. They said certain payments were still being processed but on my internet banking that amount had been deducted and I still had the amount I thought I had left! Why? Hm. Anyway, the point being I couldn't withdraw enough money to convert coz the said I only had 1.25 left in my bank. Shockshock. That is NOT true by the way. I think the branch here just has a different system of counting the money.

However, I do plan to cut down my spending probably by hermitising myself again this Easter and working more den can see the figures go up. Yay I did earn a bit more than I calculated, which is always good. Ah. I must say I do feel rather ashamed of myself tho. Still, I did see this coming seeing as I had been shpping for 4 (La Senza, Pimark...) ALOT. But the things here are really much much cheaper here! How was I to not broadcast it home?

Off to porto tomorrow. Am keen to try port wine (and get some if it is affordable), portugese toasty thing and portugese egg tart. Okok. I should stop showing off. Showing off somehow always ends up with something ad happening for me. Sai.

2009-03-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Haha I said I would blog about this.. Friday night. Last day of term. Archana, Qy and I decided to go to the union. Qy came back all the way from Northampton just to get drunk! Hoho. Me I had heard from Xy a few days ago that archie had planned to go so I hopped on board coz I had been wanting to go but the people I usually hang out with do not go clubbing (minus xy and paula who work there). Wanted to find someone as new as me plus someone somewhat experienced yet won't make me feel toot to go with so that was the prefect chance to finally go.

Did not expect the queue to be sooo freaking long. Was about half the length of the $6million Toto queue when we arrived at 10.10p.m. Which is never the case and the bar opens at 10 anyway. They had sold out of the cheap advance tix too! Which is never the case. Hai. Advance tix lets you saunter in like a VIP while glancng carelessly at the poor pathetic people queueing outside in the cold.

So we finally got in, got our 3D glasses (which were useless) and I got a bit intimidated by the expressionless bouncers. The floor was already sticky and it was reasonably crowded despite it still being early. Drank quite a considerable amount. Dun like any of the coke mixes. Bleargh.

Kim and Vicky came, said well done for coming (that is what I heard over the likr, ultrasonic music) and took a picture with me (for evidence? being friendly?) which I did not look very nice in.

Took quite a few photos with archie and qy tho. I look nicer in a few of those :D

Did some head bopping and leg jiggling so archie won't be dancing alone. Learnt some things off her too. Made qy go onto the dancefloor too. I felt stupid dancing, obviously but the drinks and the loud noises people were dancing to covered the voices in my brain so I could not hear my brain very well. Actually, I just could not hear very well. Anyway I thought since we were there might as well do it properly. Wanted to wear nicer too. Haiya. Next time next time.

Drinking so many mixtures of drinks was not a good idea and we all knew that but we wanted to try as many as possible lah. Heh. I know I have mentioned this any times, but I love apple sourz! I still prefer drinking shots in 2 gulps instead of 1 tho. Maybe I just have a smaller oesohagus. Ah. So cool to have friends working at the bar. Alamak! Can only enjoy the provileges until end of next year! Ehhh

Yup so left the place a bit woozy (at least I was and I admitted it so it means I was still sober) and very deaf. To be honest.. it was a bit hard to walk in a straight line. Was left deaf for half an hour so tink the 3 of us were talking rather loudly. It is not because we were drunk! It was the music! Well I say music, I really mean noise.

Good thing qy walked back with me. I was bloated to puking and was kinda sick of the alcohol taste. But we thought it would be a good idea to have a kebab after that. Kinda to absorb the alcohol? So yay finally tried the AJs outside opal court! Mmm. Fresh hot kebab with extra sour chilli on the fries P:

We den settled down for a super dramatic jap hospital drama but I was too woozy to read the fan3 ti3 zi4 fast enough so I just nodded and chipped in random comments like 'Oh so that is the bad guy right' and 'Haha this doctor very cute' and 'Mm. The chilli quite nice' and 'Ha so drama' to sound like I knew what was going on. And for once I couldn't finish my food. Well, 2nd time actually. 1st time was the szechuan huoguo where the pot took so freakin long to boil that I just kept eating rice while waiting and felt like vomiting at the end of the meal again. Not very smart I know. Ah well I was full to puking to begin with but I happened to think it was a good idea to eat opal AJs. It was still very nice (and unhealthy) nevertheless. So I threw down my fork and surrendered and stumbled to bed with my hugely distended tummy :( Not very wise seeing as I still had a Primark appointment with Paula the next day.

Woke up bright and early and lai4 chuang2 til 9.30a.m. and although 3 people asked me if I was hungover, I am proud to say I was not. At least my brain felt ok. My digestive system was not agreeing with me however and I spent the morning releasing loose watery stools. From the general feeling of my gut, however, I conclude that most of that was credited to the chilli from the kebab and less to drinking. Hai. Seems my body cannot tolerate hot food! Everytime I take hot food have been getting stomachache the next morn. Shit lah (no pun intended). But I still take :D Worth it lah.

Mm den spent the day happily in Primark trying on clothes with my bloated tummy :(
Bought many nice pretty clothes and spent more :(
But no fear! I checked my bank account and found that I earned a bit more than I thought from work! (:

Daylight returning so slept 1h later coz had to turn the clock forward. Which means I ended sleeping at 3 plus instead. After which I slept for 4h upon reaching cambs and now here I am sleeping late again.

2009-03-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

I know.. It sounds pathetic to get so stressed about computers but that is one of the things that I am really stupid at. Another is directions. People will go 'Ha? I cannot believe you are really that bad at it haha!'

Ok well they don't. But really, I have amazed a fair few people with my lousiness at these things. Just the other day I admitted to the friend I was cycling to training with that I don't like cycling and that I'd honestly rather run. You'd think people will be more sympathetic and say 'no lah! you are not that bad at cycling wad!' but no. People have graciously accepted that I am not a very good cyclist too. Ah. It's true tho. I have no stamina for these things. Looking at computers makes me extremely tired. I just don't like technology.

2009-03-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Eeks. My computer has a mind of its own. Hm. Not very smart of me to be blogging bad things about my computer (t.G.c) using my computer. Speaking of being not very smart, it all started with me doing some not very smart things with tgc.

Tried to download Inkheart online. Again. Why 'again'? you ask. Coz that was the first downfall of my computer this year. Attempted to find Inkheart online --> Kena virus --> Beyond help --> No choice gotta reformat --> Hell. This time, same thing, same movie, same situation all over again. I am The Computer Spoiler I am.

Back to my main musing, I really do think my laptop is alive. It can sense my fear and unfamiliarity with IT and it. Even after reformatting, bloody virus was still hanging around! Why? Why? I really dislike technology. Everything I touch gets screwed up somehow. Papa understands. He thinks he is like that too. Anyway, got super stressed over my laptop again coz even after reformatting everything kept going wrong. Every programme/software I reinstalled/upgraded... It was like a curse. Finally with 20min to spare before I had to go off to school (yes I spent the whole morning and woke up early for this too. how sad am i?) I cried out in frustration and reformatted it. Again. But not before I admitted defeat and finally smsed Paula to tell her that I may need her help saving tgc again. And then, miraculously, everything started going ok! Tgc KNEW I had complained to Paula. I am sure of it.

The last time when everything went wrong when I reformatted it I remember stressing over it for the whole day and finally asking Paula for help again. The moment she sat with me to handle the installations and things (I still did it myself she just sat there to monitor) everything went fine! Erk. 邪。。。

2009-03-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Made heh bi hiam springroll yesterday! Hence the colour. This is the closest colour I can find to the golden brown of my heh bi hiam rolls. Mm mmm. Turned out ok too. Not as hiam as I would like them to be and rather too salty (should I have added a bit of sugar?). The ones at the bottom of the container are coz that's where all the chillies are. The chillies did not get mixed in very wel while I was frying them. Anyway, I HAND-CRUSHED Xinyi's heh bi coz we didn't have any suitable apparatus to do so. Not very smart I know, but I was determined to make the rolls. Hee hee. I am bigheaded with success. Just shows how often I cook properly. Yes. Never.

I found a recipe for molten chocolate cake which actually looks quite promising. At least, it looks easy. I doubt the cake will stand tho coz it does seem more liquid than solid. Ah but who cares? Will just eat it from the container :D

Watched xiao yuan superstar and totally think Ai Jia should win man. In all fairness, I think the judges are clouded by their impression of Jia Min. Who is good, but so normal.

Broke my bruising record. I now have a new bruise on my arm measuring 8cm by 6cm.

Yupp so that's my update till now (:

2009-03-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

I blog best when I am at home. And now I am in the library. But oh well.

Been suffering from bouts of insomnia and high-ness followed by fatigue. My other symptoms include reduced concentration and staring off into space. The diagnosis: homesickness. Hm. Should invent a cooler name for it. Homeaemia. Homerrhoea. Familitis.

This year homesick syndrome seems pretty bad. Keep spacing off and emo-ing and finding myself fantasising about what I am going to do and what I am going to eat when I go home. Yesterday after a sluggish me had a valiant attempt in the library I dragged myself home and fell asleep at 7p.m. Then I woke up (properly feeling high and all) thinking that if it was still 10 or 11 o'clock I would start studying since I was so awake. Unfortunatley it was 12 and so it made no sense to start at that time and end at what, 4? So I thought to myself that it was probably more logical to go back to sleep and wake up at 3 or 4 like last year and start then. Surprise surprise. I couldn't go back to sleep. I tossed and turned and almost fell asleep a few times but my body has this irritating mechanism of catching myself whenever I am about to doze off and say 'eh. wat u doing' In the end I think I probabaly fell asleep at 2 or 3 smt. No chance of waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning after that.

I was kept awake thinking of what I was going to do when I went back to Singapore. This was the feeling I was having during the last few days of last year just before I was due to fly home. The feeling of 'haiya going home already. nv sleep oso nvm' Ahhhhh. Cannot believe I still have another bout of revision to go through and clear the next round of exams before I can truly be entitled to such fantasies again. Oh man. Another 3 months to go.

2009-03-02T05:31:00.000-08:00

X-fly has passed on.

Found him in my kitchen sink all drowned and soggy. He looked smaller than I remembered him too.

2009-02-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

Am emo-ing these few days.. I guess it is a weird sense of calm after the exams. Of course there is always the persistent niggle in the back of my mind worrying about results. I guess that contributes to some emo-ness. However, calling home more often after exams were over and (kind of) witnessing almost the whole family at home made me feel like how I felt before flying home last summer. On 1 hand I keep having random bouts of home sickness; on the other hand life is going on without me and I do not know what to expect when I go back. Hm. People are nicer to me when I go back. Hardly any disagreements/quarrels. I suppose generally people are more accommodating coz I have been away and they only have to be accommodating for a few months? Hm. Perhaps I have grown more mature too. Hee.

Hang on. JJ is a bit loud and I am getting distracted. I probably mentioned this before but JJ 陆 does have some very addictive songs (:

Ah. Listening to JJ ballads and watching the snowfall might have something to do with my sudden bout of thinking too. Ok snow is not actually falling now (or yesterday come to think of it) but the grounds still have patches of snow and the view from my window on the 2nd floor garners me a pretty view of snow-caked rooftops across the road. It snowed pretty heavily for the whole day on Monday. A comparative account with Yelin (in Glasgow) showed that Leicester is, for once, snowing more than Scotland. Maybe it is relative seeing as it hardly snows here and it is freaking cold in Glasgow --> This bit of snow seems alot to me and nothing to Yelin. Yelin told me that children were using bits of cardboard to go sledding. No slopes that I know of tho. Perhaps I will sled down the slide in the Nelson Mendela playground. I suspect the slide is too narrow for me tho. Silly me. Declined 2 offers to play in the snow coz 1. I did not believe it was thick enough 2. I was attempting to be consistent with studying after the guilt of Sem 3. Owell.. Apparently it will snow again tomorrow and Friday. Den I WILL build a life-sized snowthing. The Malaysians managed to build a 3-tier snowman that was taller than them in 30min. They said the snow in NM park is better flufflier and can be rolled. Tch (irritated noise)

There was a mutant of a housefly (X-fly) in my room on Monday when it was proper snowing. It was there since the night before, slapping itself around my IKEA booklight. Laziness overruled my slightly dimmed nervousness and so I let it stay the night. Anyway on Monday morning as I watched the scenic picture of the heavy snow somehow managing to drift daintily past my window with the wind blowing so hard X-fly suddenly made its presence apparent and continued slapping itself against my window. Being the compassionate person that I am, I did not let it out to die in the bitter cold and left my door open for it to wander as it wished through the house. Either the fly is stupid, or it felt complied to be loyal to me because of my greatness and kindness, but when I returned that evening I found that it had decided to stay in my room. And so the same thing happened the next morning. It is gone now tho. I found a random black mass on my carpet the next morning rather like oreo crumbs and wondered if X-fly had gotten itself fried in my heater (possible seeing as my house is not much warmer than my fridge and X-fly might have been seeking warmth). Perhaps it really was oreo crumbs. Anyhow X-fly is gone now and my room is no longer interrupted by the disturbing sounds of it slapping itslef against the surfaces of my room.

2009-01-23T05:07:00.000-08:00

Yo

It is 3 days after exams and I am into my 2nd day of school. Talk about taking a break. Yesterday had school from 2p.m. to 5p.m. Today from 9a.m. to 4.30p.m. Break now. To be honest I feel like I am just here to sign the attendance sheet. All introductory lectures on consultation skills and nothing very useful. Well nothing I will remember anyway.

Welll after exams many activities planned ahead. Which is not a good way to start off the new semester seeing as I was fervently promising to be more consistent and all during the laststudy break. The excuse is that it is CNY and after this bout it will all be over. Still. Guilt is a-looming. The exam being sai has alot to do with it. I feel like I do not deserve to enjoy until the results are out.

Honestly. I have not eaten the leftover food from my fridge since exams ended. Went to eat sushi on the day we finished coz got 40% off. Next day ate at nixon coz we made pineapple tarts (which are really nice btw). Yesterday ate at nixon again coz Tamami bought choya for me den we were all to share it over dinner. It is in a cute little carton not like the normal bottle ones we buy. Hm. Dun tink I will wanna throw the carton away. I will store water in it if I have to. Apparently we have been drinking choya all wrong too. We are supposed to drink it before a meal, not put it in the fridge and not drink it alone. All of which I never did. Anyway, we drank it with soda water so the alcohol taste was masked and clever me happily drank it like soft drink coz I could not really taste the alcohol. Felt sleepy for a little while after that.

Which brings me to today. It is nearing the end of the break. I feel I have more to type but I guess I need to think properly. Tonight we are having a house meeting. Making jap/korean food. Den still need to springclean. Tomorrow going to Birmingham to eat and shop. I really need working clothes. Got a few but if I am gonna have to wear it every week for the rest of the year I believe I need alot more variety. need shoes too. I only have 1 pair of black shoes which is cheapo shoes and is really not very good. Okok lecture starting. Byebye

2008-12-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

That is the cool new David Wilson Library
Queen

Haha Paula and I gave up halfway guess why? Coz we were hungry. Hahaha bu4 kui1 shi4 wo3 de4 makan kaki. I did get a few photos of the Royal Car tho. Also shot random pieces of the sky in the process of aiming blindly above the crowd. I was trying to follow the genral direction of the cameras but I guess I am just not very tall. These photos were stolen from Xiao Meng's facebook, by the way. Must give acknowledgement for her efforts.

Anyway, the top picture shows the modern-looking new school library which £32 000 000 of our school fees went to. All glass and steel. Pretty cool.

The picture at the bottom actually appeared in the news! Why is it exciting? Ok, you see ah, firstly, it is a clear shot of the Queen and.. um.. the guy behind. Also, if you look closely at the crowd you can see a clear view of Xin Yi, Ning and the crafty old lady who battled her way to the front! Not so clearly are Qin Yi and Xiao Meng in the 2nd row. Haha da jie do I sound like someone you know? (Haha inside joke)

2008-11-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

Notts games 2008 with 'Singsoc' netball

A picture speaks a thousand words. This picture shows the Singsoc netball team at Nottingham Games 2008 with our foreign talent. Yay foreign talent!

Let me start from the start. Nottingham Games is an annual singsoc/msoc event at Uni of Nottingham where singsocs/msocs within out region all come together for the day to meet up with friends and compete in a variety of games and sports. Unfortunately, I did not get to go last year (last year being my freeest year) and was still too toot to organise anything. This year though, I was bent on going. However suay suay alot of hiccups. Burps actually. To the point where I was quite convinced that some higher being was showing signs to stop me from going. Perhaps coz there was going to be a train crash/ 1 of us was goign to get killed.. I did not know. Or maybe it was just character building.

Anyway, we stubbornly went ahead with it and there were no crashes, no accidents, just a small cut on 1 player. So. All's not well that ends well.

Initially it was just 7 of us exactly (Paula, XY, Xiaomeng, Keewei, Tamami, Cat and me) so there were no subs. On top of that we had never played together as a team before (and we all just got to know Cat the night before). We had 2 quite miserable trainings of which people were usually too busy to attend. And also I only organised them in the last 2 weeks. Hai. Just my luck that this is a busy year for most people. Still, I guess this is a blessing in disguise coz we got to meet more new people and make new friends! Alamak that sounds so.. Barney. The team played better than I expected and we all got along extremely easily, which was a huge huge relief coz I was a bit worried about awkwardness and all what with our international team. Hee I think Paula was a bit shocled when I blatantly said, ' I think the team is playing much Much better than I expected.' Heh. Talk about diplomacy.

We played like sai in the 1st game coz everybody was runnign around blindly and I tink most of us were not sure of the rules and it was also the 1st time playing for some. Basically it was just a very messy game and I was still experimenting with positions at that stage. Though our foreign talents arrived in time for the 2nd game onwards (whew) and we could start subbing people in and out it was still a messy game. Funnily enough, our individual players are actually really good but we just kept playing very messily. After Kim went through tactics and all we managed to win the other matches. Just shows. Not that we are lousy. We just need to lose 3 matches to warm up before we start playing really well.

Pretty heartwarming to see everyone's enthusiasm. Like I did not really expect anyone to care about tactics and positions and thought most (I know it is not everybody) people just went there for the experiene and to heck and get it done and over with. However.. there you are. Sports really does bring people together! Now I kinda wish we had an inter-group sports competition in med schoo den perhaps I will be closer to my group :D

2008-11-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Ok. I feel a sudden responsibility to blog. Being alone does actually make one more responsible. By one I mean including the great one. Ok really not funny. Anyway today I did alot of being-alone-so-no-choice-have-to-be-responsible things like taking the rubbish in and out.. calling britishgas.. testing out my internet phone coz my paypal finally got set up.. and all that. Well I haven't been blogging not because life here is sucky and boring. Quite the contrary. Many many things have been happening and there isn't much time to breathe. Got time to watch online shows tho.. Anyway, plus the workload of this sem, I had to downgrade blogging on my priority list (priority is a really hard word to type).

Welll shan't talk about workload. Mm. We had a Halloween dinner the other night. It was really fun! Not a big group but that made it easier for everyone to talk and be included.. It was quite an interesting day. In the morning we were all stocked up with leftover savoy cabbage, 1.5 packets of minced meat and... chicken stock cubes for the sumptuos meal that was planned for that night. Funny thing all of us went out that day and bought food we thought we would need and surprise surprise, we had too much food! Which, of course, is always a good thing. Just short of QY's 15 different types of marinated chicken. No matter. She compensated with B & J's (on offer £1.80!! XD) Phish Food.. plus my caramel chew chew which wasn't as popular. Anyway we carved a pumpkin (Jie Kou) who was a chinese pumpkin coz he had small eyes and lit a candle inside and had spooky jaffa cakes and a lava lamp and cool music.. Told ghost stories which I must admit (though it was my idea) was not the brightest suggestion coz poor Zihui still had to walk home..

The next next week was Medics Oriental Dinner, which I shall only blog positive things about since my year organised it. Quite happy that many people thought it was really good. Well the food REALLY was not bad! It was really easy-going and everyone mingled very well for some reason. Yay me XD

Dennn we had a group meal at Pizza Express. Not a very cheap place so I cleared every scrape if pizza I ordered (had to eat with FORK and KNIFE wth). Oh and dough balls. Which were really nice in the garlic butter though of course, it was like the £2 bowl of rice situation. Stupid conversion. It was quite a pleasant dinner.. Service was really good.. Din really wanna go at first coz I was lazy but yea turned out quite nice! Den Sania described this famous cafe that sold really nice cakes that sound like the cakes in the Shopaholic wedding book. I am determined to make my way to birmingham to try that cake. Oh and Tamami made nice soup! Which I had before the dinner. Haha

Which brings me to today. Just got out of a psych lecture, emailing Ling and Bon and am now feeling very drained. What lies ahead issss Notts Games this saturday.. Town on wed.. I need glittons so I can use my hands while still protecting them from the shit weather. By the way it HAS snowed. Once. But still.

Yup so basically I have been a busy person. I guess life is fun when it is happening. Keeps u slightly more awake too. Exercise is great too! Really full of adrenaline and u feel healthy for a few hours. Sadly my pride in having exercised always leads me to eat all my biscuits and chocolates and carbo in the thought that they will preferentially be stored as glycogen instead of fat after exercise. Unfortunately I love food and food likes me back. They find that I provide a comfortable and homely environment for them and tend to like to store up inside, even when I try to burn them away by increasing the metabolic activity of my tissues. See. What people learn in med school does not always apply to real life.

2008-09-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Topicless. I have nothing to blog about..

My foot is still swollen. I walk normally with an ankleguard but otherwise still with a slight tilt to my right.

Mm... Work is ending. School is starting No pressure as yet coz I am resolutely ignoring September the 27th.

I am currently casting about my bored mind for something blog-worthy that happened...

Ah. MRTs. Taking the MRT always makes me bad-tempered and impatient. I was going down the escalator towards the MRT platform one day when the swarms of passengers squirming about made me suddenly picture ants wriggling about aimlessly in their clusters. Ew.

Anyway, I hardly need to explain why taking the trains (particularly during the rush hours) make me more shit-temepered. However, it just so happens that MRT windows, especially when underground, are wonderful for checking your reflection. My point being how hard it is to decide whether to keep scowling because of my bad mood, or to maintain a pleasant expression during the reflective ride.

Today, on a relatively empty train, all of us boring grey passengers were heading off to a typical boring grey day on a boring grey ride on the MRT when at Raffles Place MRT we suddenly heard a loud ' 'Scuse me!' and turned only to find a woman hurtling towards the only available seat in the carriage. Well, she wasn't hurtling but she wasn't walking calmly in like the rest of us do either. She dodged in front of the lady who 'Scused her to settle proudly in her plastic seat.

Dunno why these few days the train keeps stopping in the middle of the track. Especially in tunnels.. Each time that happens I worry about a cunning terrorist who managed to sneak a bomb into the City Hall tunnel. My colleague said it's because of F1. I dunno.. Are trains affected too? Just a random thought, which is faster, F1 racecar or MRT? My guess is F1, though someone once described the MRT as being able to go 'faster than a cheetah' :/

I think... I am getting used to the new young MRT announcer. The voice of the nice old ang moh lady who used to tell us not to eat or drink in the stations and trains seems to be fadin away. Or maybe it is just my poor memory. The new girl is quite pleasant, in a heartland kind of way. Just that sometimes, when whoever is in charge forgets to adjust the volume of the speaker when the volume of passengers change, it gets a little annoying. It's ok if the volume remains soft, coz most of us can see the station we're at and most of us are ok with not being constantly reminded to be on the lookout for any suspicion person or article and to please report to staff or call 999. When, however, the crowd suddenly shrinks, without a corresponding shrink in volume of the announcements, I always want to box the announcer who keeps shouting over the bloody speakers even though she is just a recording.

And there u have it. MRT gripes.

2008-08-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today my bad luck continues. What is the probability of 2 bad days occurring in a row?

There are 3 types of days (Good Average Bad)

Probability of a bad day occuring (theoretically speaking) = 1/3

Probability of 2 bad days happening in a row = 1/3 x 1/3 = 1/9

Following this logic, chances of 3 bad days occurring in a row are? 1 in 27.

Ok. Stop grumbling. To make my bad day seem not so bad, perhaps listing out the day's events will put everything into perspective :D

Today I was late for work. Partly because I was genuinely late, but I could have rushed in 10min late instead and still pull it off as 'a few minutes' difference' if the train I was on had not had to stop in the middle of a tunnel. Apparently there was an oncoming train. Puh. Coincidentally, my being late for work had to be today, when I just asked for a 3 day leave yesterday. Not a very good impression maker.

Had an active bladder at work. I do not think anybody notices, but being a self-conscious person, I feel self-conscious making my loyal visits to the toilet. To make matters worse, my gastrointestinal system has been showing subtle signs of disagreement for the past week, and decided to protest more insistently today, making my visits twice as frequent.

Lunch was early. Feeling bored coz I currently have 1 supervisor less to give me work, I made an enthusisatic stab at socialising to da-pao something from Amoy with the rest. Of course, I had my sandwiches with me so I settled for a pack of dessert, which is on the 2nd floor, which means I had to climb stairs. Horror or horrors, as I daintily made my way down to meet the rest upon successfully securing my 2 packets of soup, I had my second spectacular fall of the month. To put it mildly, I fell down the stairs. However, since this entry is about my bad day and this is the highlight of my bad day, I ought to credit more detail to my fall.

I walked down 1/2 the flight of stairs holding 2 containers of hot dessert (I wear heels to work by the way) and slipped, in a most comical, I assume, given my history of not-very-pretty falls, way. My shocked brain could only register the many many many steps as I briefly counted them on the way down. Nope, instinct could only grant me a sprained foot, as my brain could not react fast enough to teach me how to regain my balance on heels halfway down a flight of steps carrying hot dessert. Well at least my neurones react more quickly than some others. Many passers-by only had sufficient capacity to stare and gasp in horror at my spectacular fall. A few could add 'Oh Dear'. I normally would prefer to camouflage into the background and slink away, unnoticed, but my leg, intestines and brain were all in a bad state [and I still had to pick up the desserts (which miraculously, unlike me, landed the right way up)]. The results of the incident were a sprained foot, grazed knee, queasy stomach, dazed mind, blackness and bruises on my foot, ankle, knee and pride. I think 'Ouch' hardly covers it.

Someone did help me, eventually, but my bodily functions were too messed up and I could only mumble 'Thank you. Sorry. I'm ok' in a vague slur as I tried not to vomit on my savior. Ungrateful, I know, but I was glad to be left alone to control the contents of my stomach. Then came another problem. After successfully hobbling my way to the banister without throwing up, I attempted to steady my condition. Leaning over the banister made my stomach feel worse, but made my leg feel better. Not leaning, however, meant that my bad leg shook visibly under the weight of me and 2 packets of dessert. I eventually did make my way to ground level and luckily I looked pale and pathetic enough to get 2 free plastic bags from the kway teow stall. Pathetic though I was I only needed several minutes for the embarrassment of the fall to overwhelm its physical effects and I chatted gaily about everything I could think of except the fall. Too bad my swollen foot was to much of a highlight to be ignored so my efforts of topic diversion failed.

The silver lining in my cloud, though, was that everyone had to go for a presentation somewhere else that day so I could go off early without feeling guilty. Made my way to Queenstown to meet Papa and mumbled randomly when he asked if I wanted to drive. We ended up going to the old turf club Giant where I then had no choice but to re-tell the story of another spectacular fall.

Surprisingly, Papa made me push the trolley. I did not show any reaction despite my surprise because I wanted to act brave. Then he said

'Hehe. So you can use that as a walker.'

I thought that was pretty smart. I had flailed my way around before I had had a walking aid. So unglamorous.

And that sums up my bad day. Still looks bad to me... but I guess it could have been worse.

2008-08-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work I went to watch Money No Enough 2 with Papa and Mummy. I reached surprisingly early (6.50p.m.) so I bought myself a Kiwi Gren Tea with pearls and treated myself with a visit to the loo before meeting them fashionably early. I reached the entrance of GV TM and there they are. We smile and wave happily as if we've never watched a family movie before. I have a suspicion that a fair bit of that excitement was credited to the movie being free.

We joked and laughed as we made our way up to our hall. Surprsingly, we were the first to arrive, That never happened before. We had a brief debate on whether we were in the right theatre or not, then settled back to listen to the 12 Lotus soundtrack that was being played as we chatted genially and commented on the 'Ji Ba Ban' song.

The movie was nice! Typical Jack Neo style, I think. Definitely equalling or bettering its prequel, unlike most sequels. Funny and touching and eyebrow-raising as always. Makes many of us shift guiltily in our seats while maintaining a neutral expression.

But it gets to the point. And digs at various parties are made blatantly obvious, so everyone understands and are able to laugh at themselves and others. Call me uncultured/unartistic/distasteful, but I just don't enjoy artsy films as much, no matter how many times I have tried appreciating them. I presume it leaves room for imagination and inference, but I do not much enjoy being left hanging to guess whether someone has died or not, or wondering what some mysterious flower petal falling dramatically to the floor signifies. :/

Going out with family is fun. Suddenly I can really relax and feel safe. No tissue paper/umbrella/plastic bag/plaster/panadol/water, just turn to the right. Want to eat curry puff/popcorn/apple pie/famous amos, turn to the left. No complaints. Ah. This is the life.

2008-08-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I just realised my 'Links' was was being displayed as 'Darlinks'. Talk about corny.

Anyway, not many random thoughts have, hm, occurred today, except

I want to have a marble fish pond. Is black marble or white marble nicer?

as I walked past that posh black marble pond surronding tanjong pagar exit F as usual this morning.

Is it strange to hear yourself thinking? I think in words, then I try to answer my thoughts. Sometimes, like now, when I am doing nothing, I hear

Bzzzz....

in my brain.

I think I am easily rattled. When I do my work calmly I can do it properly. However, take today for example (haha da jie,suddenly this organised manner of writing reminds me of kok yong), I did something at work that was not wrong, just not exactly perfect.Then I just had to call up again to refine what I had told the few people. Just because of that, now I am feeling all unsure and thinking that I do everything wrong and must be the blurest worker possible to have. Owell... My boss just called me clever this morning. I just need to balance the good and the bad.

My boss reminds me of Mummy. I can't help thinking motherly figures have a natural instinct to baby talk to me. Must be my child-like, innocent charm.

2008-08-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

No, you have not unknowingly wandered into the wrong blog. Yes, I have blogged again and on a new blogskin what's more XD I quite like this skin. :D

PLUS I did not have to rely on Evon to change it for me this time! Cheers to me... *Cheers*

I always wonder if I am weird. Take for instance this instance: Whenever I see the word 'Cheers', I hear a cheering crowd in my head. Which gets a little bit inconvenient, because in the UK (and increasingly in SG) where people sign off or bid farewell in this manner, the cheers and whistles in my head just seem a bit in-apt. Then I want to giggle.

Why do people say cheers? Cheers is to salute with shouts of approval, congratulations, triumph etc. a.k.a. 'Woohoo!'

So when someone 'Cheers' me or vice versa, that roar of approval comes to mind.

How do these random thoughts come to be in my brain? Hm.

2008-07-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hmhm back in sunny Singapore... Everything seems to have gone well, no obligatory work, no lack of good food, no worries, the sun shines brightly everyday... I have enjoyed the past 3 weeks, but I realise I have been enjoying the past 3 weeks settling down. Gah. Cannot quite put my finger to a certain unsettling feeling. Hmmmmmm...

I think it is the shock that life is happening and is happening to everyone. I think so far I have only noticed my own life coz the people in UK are not people I grew up with and did embarrassing things in front of so they do not appear to have changed much. Back here everyone has grown up and have busy, tightly-scheduled lives. Appointments have to be made 1 week or more in advance coz of work, school, projects, hall activities, CCA(s), primary school catching up, secondary school catching up, jc catching up, colleague catching up, random friend catching up..... Bah.

Why do people have to grow up...

2008-06-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yo

Forgot to record my OSCPE experience. Kinda rushed around since it ended. Damn bloody worn out already...

Station 1

Hip examination. Of all the joints.. Explain Trendelenberg Test. Explain Thomas Test. Why I palpated the greater trochanter to which smart me just said dunno without even trying. Shit. Another irritating thing is that the guy wore like 2 layers of tops and 2 layers of bottoms. Had to instruct him like piece by piece which ones he had to take off. Felt that was kinda waste of time. Nvm I finished before the time ended. Should have passed.

Station 2

Blood pressure.

I SCREWED this one up man. I guess at least I figured out how to work the cuff and machine slightly faster than others. I knew I wasn't supporting her arm at heart level the right way but dunno why did not make the effort to correct that. Dunno why I do the stupidest things in exam conditions. Got the BP readin wrong. Nvm that is like 1 point. Asked if I could do it again den the clin dem (dun really like her) was like, u can if u hav enough time but u still have questions to answer. Den she stared at me expextantly. Chose to answer the questions.

1. Name 2 incorrect techniques in which blood pressure can be falsely elevated.

2. Forgot... Dun worry. Got it right.

Attempted to take BP again. So close to finishing. Meaning I still ran out of time. I can only console myself with the knowledge that I was not likely to have gotten n accurate reading again.

Station 3

Rest station. Great thanks. Leave me to hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3.

Station 4

Saw what was DEFINITELY a humerus in front of me den a lower limb prosection next to that.

1. Show the bony landmarks of the distal part of the femur.

Showed every damn thing I could remember. I was staring at the humerus next to me thinking he said the question wrongly at first. Humerus got so many things to show lah! Den a whole bone for me to show. Anyway, I asked like 'on the prosection?' just to make sure.

2. Boy had fracture in distal femur. Why is distal fragment pulled upwards? What group of muscles does this?

I KNOW this lo. Just blanked out. The clin dem was nice. Guided me like idiot-proof guide. Guess Paula is right about if dunno answer just talk it through.

3. What do these muscles do? What other muscles carry out the same action?

I should have gotten this correct. There are only like how many muscles that flex the knee right?

4. Show what position his leg will be like.

Kinda jiggled my leg about abit. Clin dem practically told me the answer. To which I was like, yea that was wat I meant. Wth. See in front I know is flex this question I could still not know how to do. How stupid can I get.

5. Pierced popliteal fossa. Damaged an artery. Why might the muscles in the leg be affected (or smt like that)? Cannot remember the exact question. Quite proud of my answer tho. Pretty well-structured I must say.

6. I tink there was another question about popliteal artery.

7. Gestures to the humerus and asks me if it is the right or left femur. To which I was like, is this not the.... humerus? Left humerus? Response "Well done. I was just teasing you." Kns. The one question I was confident in in the station.

Station 5

Musculo again. I see a bony hand and a prosection of the upper limb. Gasp. Ah well. This was to be expected.

1. Show and name the attachments of the flexor retinaculum (on the bony hand).

I could name the bones. Could show the bones. Just did not know which was the front and back of the hand. Figured the side facing upwards should be the front. Anyway he looked satified. But then again, u never know. Shit.

2. Find the median nerve (on the prosection).

Smt I was confidently teaching my peers (lateral to palmaris longus tendon) but was bewildered at when I stared at the brown mass of stringy things in front of me. I tink I managed to find it in the end. Coz the clin dem nodded. I tink?

3. Find the FDS proximal and distal to the flexor retinaculum.

Ha! Brilliant me pulled the muscle to see wat will move. I tink it was kinda obvious tho. Haha

4. Causes of carpal tunnel syndrome (no prizes for guessing this question)

Blundered my way through. Thank goodness I got it in the end. My fault for brushing TRAMP aside lah. I should SLAP myself for that man. However I got it right. Shan't slap myself then. Haha

5. Why ppl with carpal tunnel syndrome have difficuly holding a pen?

Rattle rattle... Clin dem had to get me to stop.

Station 6

Hip bone and hip X-ray.

1. Position the hip bone on yourself. Right or left hip bone?

I THOUGHT I got it right. However the guy was expressionless. He kept checking and doing things to make sure. so that made me wonder whether I got it wrong.

2. Boy riding bicycle. Fell off. Identify the damage on the X-ray.

Heng I found it after a bit of hard staring. It was blindingly obvious but I was staring at the nitty gritties as usual and missed the big picture at first. The point is I found the fracture.

3. Classify this tgype of fracture.

INTRACAPSULAR FRACTURE. That was like the first thing I said. The guy did not hear and made me tink I got the wrong answer. Den I started describing everything I knew about fractured neck of femur. Den he was like, yea but, ok, what are the classifications of fractures of the femur? Den i just got frustrated den asked is it not just intracapsular and extracapsular? Den he said yea so which is it? Den I repeated my answer again. -_-

Station 7

Presentation

Station 8

1. Girl cycling (again. haha) fell on shoulder. Neck tilted sideways from shoulder. Which part of brachial plexus damaged?

2. 2 groups of muscles supplied by C5.

3. Define myotome.

4. How to test for abduction and supination in patient.

I KNEW how to do it. Dunno why I was so disorganised. May have screwed it up. Shit.

5. Show C5 dermatome on patient.

Poor thing the patient was not bad looking but looked so awkward. Dunno why he sign up in the first place. He did not even kena the more intrusive examinations lah. Ah well. When u are examined by a good-looking person... ah! Understandable...

6. Show C6 dermatome on patient.

7. Wat is the best test to carry out for sensation?

Got this question wrong during exam coz I thought too much -_-

8. Are you an international student?

9. Are you from Malaysia?

Haha just kidding. Small chit chat with the guy.

Station 9

Communication skills

Policeman with paraesthesia in leg and foot. I should have done better for that. Dammit. Usually quite good at talking if I say so myself. Bleahhhhhhhhhhh

Station 10

Rest station. Left me to mull over what had happened so far.

Station 11

Explanation.
Woman with hyperthyroidism. Symptoms of loss of concentration, emotional, palpitations, appetite increase but lose weight, hot and sweat more.

Station 12

Medline. Find review article on woman with elevated thyroxine levels with increased heart rate.

1. State the publicaion details of the article.

2. Why do we use synonyms?

3. State 2 uses of BNF.

4. Give example of synonym.

Somehow I seem to have gotten more questions than others.

Station 13

1. State 2 bony prominances of ankle joint.

Wah lao. Nobody else in the previous days got all these weird musculo questions lah! Dammit. Rambled on... got it.

2. State actions which occur at ankle joint.

3. State 2 ligaments which stabilise the ankle joint.

4. Smt about anterior compartment of leg.

5. Find nerve that innervates this compartment.

Named it as well for good measure. It was glaringly obvious. Was digging around the fibular head for ages. Den I also said out the exact location of the nerve. Thought I found it den went on to the next question.

6. Show muscles which evert the foot.

7. Ok we will go back to the question. Where does the nerve that supplies the anterior compartment start from? Blah blah blah... Den FINALLY I went oh! It is this one! Nice guy. They better pass me.

2008-05-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yo

Decided to ripple my blog a abit, seeing as it has been stagnant for a considerable period. Life has been passing by. Nothing fantastic, nothing horrible. The days are whizzing by and exams are ever closer. I am now in the library, having another stab at late-night studying.

Anyway, enough about depressing topics. On to non-academic life.

Leicester Day was just over and we appeared on the news. We had interactive activities which were educational and involved the family. The highlight for me was the fun fair at Vicky Park tho. Me and my big mouth said 'Ha. Ya I will go if it is like 50p.' Surprise surprise. The entrance fee was 50p. Went and won, or rather, lost a patrick toy which says 'I am with the dummy -->' coz you get a small spongebob toy if you lose and some huge ugly toys if you win. Of course try to lose right. Had toffee apple for the first time in my life, coz that was 50p too. Went again today (Bank Holiday) coz it is the last day of the fun fair. Had (ahem) 2 lame attempts at the milk churn throw where we get 6 baseballs to throw into a milk churn. 1 ball win £10; 2 £20; 3 £100; 4 £200. Was pretty confident of getting at least 2 or 3 in (what is more we have been practising) but the ball just kept bounding off even though it should have gone in. I am sure the opening had metal borders which sloped in so you have to aim directly in the middle for the ball to go in. Shit man. Wasted so much money. Bloody stall. Had a go on the bumper cars where I refused to drive and let XY chauffer me. That was really fun.

I realise this entry sounds like a news report.

Ah well. More updates about things besides academic life. Been more active in volleyball, which is great. Get my exercise and feel more energetic and not so lethargic all the time. Funnily though, I seem to feel anaemic at weird times. Been more enthusiatic about going for matches and things too! Which serve as nice distractions I guess coz kinda like have more things to... live for (?) besides studying here. This June many things are happening (besides exams) meaning post-exam plans. 7th June will be a fun-filled day with many things happening. Had to cancel and rearrange things quite a bit coz everthing seemed to want to happen on that day. Will be having THE BIG LEICESTER PICNIC on that day to celebrate XY birthday. Gonna have a bbq cum potluck cum games on the daisy-sprinkled grass in Vicky Park when the sun will (I tink) set at round 10p.m. Before that, it will be sun, grass and nets at a Notts vball tournament! Also, Yelin (maybe Wing Yee) and Shuang Ning will be visiting and Yelin and XY are going for the tournament with me! Ah. What a happening day. Quite exciting.

Den it will be back to studying den off to Belfast (ryanair had free less than £5 tickets) and Cambridge den back to school den move house den back to Singapore. When will the day arrive?

2008-03-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

1. Playing ball

2. Buying presents home

3. Eating nice food

4. Bears

5. The sound of music joke

6. Making people laugh :D

7. Playing in the snow. Taking photos in the snow. Building Mr Snowman. Throwing snowballs at the back of Nixon Court. Making snow angels.

8. Reading emails

9. My healthy eating sleeping living spending patterns. Which recently have not been working out so well..

10. Actually when you are generally happy and positive everything makes you happy right?

Dun make me tag 5 people again..

2008-03-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

Yo...

Haha I am guesing the font is going to appear super large again even though I am innocently using the usual size I use, which is large.

Anyway anyway... The topic for today is... enlightenment. (I kinda haven't quite figured out how to put a title of my choice.. Ok, remove the 'kinda' and 'haven't'. Whatever.)

I realise I get enlightened by the strangest words. Here are the 3 that I remember:

1. When I was in primary school I was always grey. Meaning I just never stood out. Even if I got good results nobody would notice. :/ It never occurred to me that I was good at anything. As a result, I never tried to be good at anything (besides sports). Happens, doesn't it? Children don't get noticed > don't get praised > don't realise potential > don't try to aim for better coz they don't know they can or are supposed to (or is it just me..? hm.)

Anyway, one day I heard Mummy telling... Yi Ling (I think. Coz she is the only one who will be talked to about academic work/result/studying kinda things) that

"Science is just finding excuses."

and I thought, "I can make excuses. That's easy. I am THE BEST at making excuses." and so that triggered the drive for me to do well in Science coz I refused to accept that I was worse than other people in making excuses. Childish, I know, but it worked! Next Science exam tgo got highest in class. And the next. Bet nobody remembers. Hai~ Told you.

Anyway, my point is, that random sentence made me kai qiao. All the way until quite late in academic life that sentence somehow made me... kai qiao.

2. In JC everyone hated Gas Laws. Coz it was e-learning? Coz there are a lot of equations? Coz everyone else says it is hard?

Whatever it is, so did I. Until one day, I realised that Evon took Chem as well! Oddly enough, her teaching effectively consisted of one sentence,

"Haiya... Gas Laws you ONLY need to know PV=nRT lah.."

and I just, whoah.

3. Most people know about my ex-unhealthy sleeping pattern. Shan't reveal them. In any case, I am now a convert :D and am having a healthy sleeping pattern of 12 to 6 (a.m. for both, in case some people are thinking of suanning me. ha!) followed probably by an afternoon NAP. To the people who are raising their eyebrows: Ha! again! This sudden healthy change was brought about, again, by a random sentence, this time from t.B.o.

One night when I slept at... 12? I forced myself to wake up at 3 a.m. to do work, which, on hindsight, is ridiculous and irritatingly kiasu and obviously won't be effective studying, which, coincidentally, it wasn't. Basically, at that time my sleeping times were all over the place. As one of my groupmates described, 'basically messed up my whole sleeping pattern' (I know the sentence structure doesn't fit but it's a quote so...)

Like I said, the studying wasn't effective so I was online and met tbo there. She said,

"Wah, you like to wake up at 3 a.m. to study one ah?"

to which (to be honest) I had no answer. BUT that was yet another random sentence that (bet tbo will be so proud to see this) enlightened me! Now I am a healthy convert of the 12 to 6 sleep cycle! Congratulate me man :D

Ok, part of the conversation was what made me try out my new cool sleeping pattern. But it is weird how these random sentences made me 开窍 about so many things!

Still, I think I still have to attribute some of it to positive thinking. No point people telling me things if I hold a negative attitude.

Hm hm. Just finished baking egg tarts. Am eyeing the Qin Yi Pineapple Tarts next XD

Damn tired. I think the last part doesn't make sense or will not make sense if I carry on writing. Ok I KNOW I cannot study like this. Must. Sleep.

BUT before I go... For the sake of updating, I will be going to the hospital tomorrow to see if the consultant will allow me to watch the knee replacement surgery on Monday. If he lets (cross fingers man!) I WILL PON SCHOOL ON MONDAY. Wah lao, how many first year students get to watch this lah. OF COURSE I pon man. If I miss any teachings... well teachings occur like once, sometimes twice, everyday:/ A knee replacement surgery (which I might get to watch) occurs... well, has never occurred before.

Ok really really must sleep to maintain my healthy sleeping. Spring is here! But is bloody cold! But got pretty flowers! And weeds! And trees! But is still bloody cold! Ok. Stop it.

2008-02-28T09:44:00.001-08:00

Dear fans,

This is the second time this week I had a nightmare. If dreams are opposite from reality (who invented that?) does this mean it is a good sign?

Anyway, despite being rather freaked out by the second dream and getting that unsettled feeling even after waking up, on afterthought it is really rather a funny dream. Not that I want to go back to that nightmare, but when I was telling Paula about it I thought it had the effect of sounding ridiculous and funny instead. Like my dream where my friend served me and 2 other ppl bittergourd on a silver platter while we were designing a hotel.

In my nightmare we were in a war and I was involved coz I wanted to fight as well and for some reason i think I was a guy so no problems with wanting to fight in the war. Then there was my mother, who was this typical 好公民 (OMG I forgot how to write) woman and this other typical 贤妻良母 kinda kampong girl who gets married at 16 at always seems to look brown, who were stayed at home to sew sweaters and jumpers for us. So I went to war with Papa, a few other extra ppl (might have been Yi Ling and Evon) and apparently, my girlfriend. Wahaha... SO FUNNY RIGHT.

My girlfriend was Nicole Kidman or someone similar. Can't really remember the details of my dream. Or nightmare. I was trying to think what essentials I would need to pack for war and started unpacking the backpack which I always carry to school. I think this part has something to do with my not packing my bag for school everyday and bringing everything for the week. Hence, the repacking bit in the dream. BUT since dreams are opposite from reality I shall not repack my bag. Hahahahahaha....

Anyway, the essentials for war were: handphone, small water bottle, wallet and my Leicester medics card. And my girlfriend didn't have a bag I think so I told her not to worry coz I was wearing my 'Whatever' jacket which has great pockets which can hold everything. Then we went out and on the way, like after passing by quite a number of scary Jap-ish guards I realised that I forgot to bring my jacket. Then had to double back to get it.

And here the dream kind of becomes too boring to mention and then fades away.

What a puzzling dream.

2008-02-20T03:47:00.001-08:00

We had a stooooopid talk at the Infirmary today. But on the way back as we cut through Nelson Mendela Park this girl suddenly suggested something which I had been quite tempted to do since I got here but was worried that I would look mad doing. SO PAISEH I talk to her so many times but I still do not know her name =O

Anyway, she suddenly asked whether we wanted to swing in the playground (which we were walking past and which, incidentally, garners us a fantastic view of the looming side wall of the prison). That was one of the reasons that had been putting me off swingning there. The bloody playground is just in the middle of nowhere. Like it is there on purpose to 整 the prisoners. Not that anyone ever plays there. It is, after all, extremely exposed to the cold.

So 3 of us went to swing! Was kinda embarrassing at first coz people we knew were still passing through the park. But no matter. I bet they also want to swing.

Hahaha... The swings are quite good quality, actually! They are really high off the floor so you dun have to bend your legs outwards in a V shape each time you swing back down, unlike in Singapore. Can just swing your legs anyhow (ok it helps that I am vertically challenged as well. The main drawbacks were the location and the cold. The chains were metal and I was too lazy to wear my gloves.

After that we did something horribly childish but was great fun too! We went on one of those typical English merry-go-rounds where you have to push the thing yourself then hop on. And the merry-go-round is children-sized so 3 of us were staring at each other's faces upclose while spinning. Surprisingly, it actually spun really fast and for a pretty long time as well and I actually got quite dizzy from that.

THIS should be Uni life mannn. XD

2008-02-15T05:55:00.000-08:00

Haha. Thought this email from Mummy was quite funny:

ur email for me or papa. dunno why he doesn't want to use his account. We came bck from Song on 22/1, we ate lots of durians n deers rib curry. It was too heaty for me, so i had migraine for a few days.Still not stable yet. I feel flu is coming but it is under control. Work is overloaded, just finished my marking n next week i will be away for 3 days for SPA course, another lot of marking--aiyah, very sien. Now, if i strike 1 million, i will retire. In the past, I din want to. If i do strike that, i will give tuition to supplement lor. Next Tue evening, force to attend the sch band performance. 4 eveings in sch till 10pm for meet the parents.

Hahahahahahhahhahahha......................

Anyway. Results were officially out today. Didn't do too badly, considering the number of questions I didn't do/ didn't read/ panicked. Still, I must have complained to many ppl, I feel kinda suan that about half the cohort has managed to get excellent. I am mean.

My group is so nice! They were so happy for everyone who got excellent and there I was heh-heh-ing. Hm, actually I DO feel happy for them, for some reason, but I kinda wish I was happy WITH them. Ah, greed.

!"£$%^")*"*^"(&$"&"@"@"@~"&%"*%*&¬(*¬&¬(*^"&@"(&"(&)"&)")".................................

Haha I got some of the foreign signs like '£' on the keyboard. Cool eh?

I wanted to blog about smt, but somehow I can't seem to remember what. Crap.... I tink I have been too ji dong today.

Hm. Using the school comp now. So much faster. My computer is so slow. It is fast for websites like the school website and webmail but slow pn purpose for useful websites like hotmail, blogger and facebook. Ok. Really can't remember what I wanted to blog about.

Ta!

2008-02-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings! I am procrastinating again. But for the sake of family-updating, I shall continue, not that I'm not eagerly anticipating having to start studying again or anything like that.

Apparently Nixon Court is going to have water-rationing today from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (shit means I must wash my dishes now). I would've thought paying so much for accommodation justified not having water-rationing, heater-rationing and erratic electricity and internet.

Being ever the Singaporean, I went into full swing and started planning what I will need water for the next day. To be honest I dun even use alot of water here. Morning, brush teeth... that's about as far as it gets until 4 p.m. at least. But still. Good thing XY reminded me that I needed water to brush teeth otherwise I will really think that I can survive the 8 hours without preparing any spare water.

Still, I went overboard and filled a whole bucketful of water to tide me through the crisis. But I had my reasons. I initially filled it about halfway, which is actually more than enough to last, but I suddenly looked at it and thought of the phrase 半桶水 and decided that leaving half a bucketful of water in my room was not a good way to kick start a new sem. Besides, it is still Chinese New Year. Better believe in these things. Plus my results are gonna be out today. Plus my viva will be next week. Plus this sem is bloody hard.

Ok. Got an event-filled day tmr/today. Results... Last day of the week... FINALLY collectin my hoody/hoodie (I'm sure it's the second one but the ang mohs spell as the first one)... Water-rationing... Friendly match (which, I honestly didn't intend to go but if I dun go now ehen will I go?)... Uh, study for viva...

2008-02-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

Yo...

I know I am not supposed to be online now and should be STUDYING but I seem to still be in a state of shock. I innocently fell asleep at 7ish, planning to take a revitalising short nap and set my handphone alarm at 8.15 p.m. coz 1. I didn't have my watch with me and 2. My watch got no more sound

However, because I had just managed to fall asleep when the alarm rang, I decided it was perfectly reasonable to take a proper 1h nap or so to replenish my energy to start studying (I finished making notes. HA!). So I slept and woke up several times, thinking the lastest I couls wake up was, wat, 9? Horror of horrors, after forcing myself awake, stumbling to the toilet to bathe and settling down and all that, I SAW THAT IT WAS 2 A.M. Dammit.

Goes to show the importance of a watch. And how accurate my biological clock is.

Wahhh, this is the second time I have fallen prey to my watch (I think), the first being during prelim Bio prac. Ok shan't dig up unpleasant histories. It is, after all, still CNY. Today is... Chu 9.

2008-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

Still about life last week. Pretty eventful. I went for Teddy Bear Hospital on Thu, which was great! The aim of tbh is to dispel the fear children have of going to clinics and hospitals in a fun and interactive way! The children bring their sick and usually injured teddies and play the role of parent or doctor whereby they go to the various stations (heart, bones, operation table, history taking and.... smt) and we treat their bears (haha i typed beard at first) like how they would be treated in a clinic. This clears their misconception they might have of scary and unfriendly hosptials and educates them about general healthcare and makes them all want to be doctors. Ook... That's about as far as the advertisment goes.
So I went and got freaked out by the ang moh children at first. I eventually got the hang of it (I tink) but as usual, my patience did not last long and by the time I reached the 4th group I gave up remembering all the names and stopped asking the names of all the bears. And there were some awkward pauses where I had to consult my sheet but still. The children were quite sweet and said "Thank you very much! I really enjoyed working with you!" even though I dun tink they really did. Or maybe that is just me being paranoid. Ang moh children are so good-looking! And so I spend a meaningful afternoon..
Also, I finally went for training again! Felt so fit and exercised after that. Was fun even though I played like shit. And the gigantic ang mohs always take pity on me and ask if I'm all right with doing 10 pushups and tell me that every ball I serve over the net is good. Ah well. Always nice to be pampered. I guess I look really itsy compared to them.
Speaking of which, I went clothes shopping before CNY and realise shopping in Western countries is good for your self-esteem coz you feel like all the weight you thought you gained was, in fact, imaginery. Hahahahahahahhahaha.....................
Really going dry dock now. Like all my new things I got for CNY! XD

2008-02-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

The Hokkienlang blog is really funny! A cliche topic about student life which would normally sound whiny and typical in English sounds so much better in Hokkien! Ok most people probably know the Hokkienlang blog already but fot those who do not, it is on Links.

Life here is... floating by. As usual my life is full of ups and downs. Last week went to use up the 20 pound Mac voucher with my group and hardly uttered a word. Today during tutorial suddenly talked normally again. Perhaps that was because I did my homework and so was providing answers (again).

Last week was pretty eventful. Like life has picked up pace again. Had 3 CNY dinners in a row, all of which were surprisingly enjoyable. The one on Tue was with my flatmates (3 of us -_-) where we all got a bit overenthusiastic and each cooked about 2 to 3 dishes for 3 people to clear. In the end the amount of leftovers was pretyy unimaginable, all of which I was delegated the responsibility of clearing. After I had done my 1week plus worth of cooking. And done loads of grocery sale-shopping. Now I am all stocked up and ready for WWIII. Ok CHOI.

Surprisingly my bread had lasted me faithfully 1 week plus after expiry. I shall stop buying Bettabuy bread.

SO MUCH FOOD TO CLEAR. BUT! I dun have to cook for weeks! BUT! I cannot go out and eat. Ah, dilemmas.

Not that I eat out alot, but I have been trying a few outside places, which are obviously nicer than the same food I cook everyday. I have now taken to some lame attempts at throwing garlic, ginger, chicken and whatever else is small enough into my rice cooker together with my rice to cook and wishing that something that tastes vaguely different from my usual cooking will emerge. The rice cooker is a wonderful invention. It can cook ANYTHING. Which is why I have also started throwing meat, veggie AND rice into it at one go and voila! My cooking for the week is done, albeit being not very tasty.

Ok back to the topic.

On Wed I went to Peking for the Singsoc dinner, which was nice too! I was pretty lost initially but after that was ok. The food was really not bad. I suspect they make the food over-tasty to suit the ang moh tastes tho. If not for that, the simple dishes like fried veggie had the fire-come-out taste, which is a pleasant surprise. Den we had roast duck, chicken and chao shao (WOW), steamed fish (WOW), fried pork thing, another similar fried pork thing, a beef thing with gravy, lotus root soup, mushroom and cabbage, fried tauhu (weird but not bad), keropok, orange, smt that looks like mini butterfly and tastes like a doughy, sugary biscuit and red bean agar agar (sounds abit duh for dessert but I liked it alot!). There was Lion Dance (abit annoying, to be honest), contortionist and fire crackers (really cool).

On Thu we had a Nixon Court steamboat and the attendance turned out poorer than expected. :P
Good thing XY decided to go for our dinner if not EVEN FEWER PPL. We started off with 6 and I tink there was a point when it was tennish. Den went down to 8, 7, 6 and we ended up with 5. Was ME, XY, QY, Jian (groupmate) and Franklin (her friend), which is a pretty weird combination. Again, surprisingly, it turned out funner than expected despite my nearly setting off the fire alarm. Brilliant me made FONDUE (which has slightly more steps than melting a bar of chocolate over a pan) with banana, apple, strawberry, pocky, doughnuts and spoons to dip into. I realise milk chocolate fondue might actually be nicer than dark. Quite alot of chocolate left so I have been having chocolate spread with my expired bread for the past few days, which is not too bad, and half-boiled eggs before they spoil. Again.
Am about to go for this Vday thing at the dry dock (Boaty Bar) coz u get a free cocktail and drink for 1 pound. Hm that doesn't sound right. No matter. And I haven't been to a pub or bar here before.
Shall stop this entry before it gets too long. Cheeeers maite! Uh. Still can't do it.

2008-02-10T18:38:00.000-08:00

Yo! I really do mean to blog but I keep having no mood or no time. They seem to be antagonistic. Now that I suddenly got "feel" it is 2.42 a.m. and I have school tomorrow. I always do that. Whenever there is school on the day I always manage to sleep past 2 a.m. no matter how determinedly I convince myself to sleep early (especially when I wake up in the morning). Shall keep this short coz I know I must sleep. Will blog and (maybe) post the remaining pictures.

I thought the name thing was pretty interesting! It seems quite true. After I started using t.G.o I seem to have drifted more to that side than the Tay Yi Lun description. Fine. Maybe I am imagining it but when I tried typing in my real name after finding the t.G.o one rather accurate I found it too true and the pattern too interesting to be ignored. It really does seem like the t.G.o and Tay Yi Lun patterns are similar but that I have changed slightly right? Ok I just repeated myself. Which means I should really go to sleep. Ta! Yucks that's like the Spanish people farewelling me. I have recently blocked another few. Dunno why they seem to be invading my life again. They are slowly infiltrating my facebook now. And now they are from Mexico. WTH.

Ok. Stop it.

Goodnight! Happy LUNar New Year! Get it? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha.... Ok I'm really tired.

2008-02-10T18:37:00.001-08:00

What Tay Yi Lun Means

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life.You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home.You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.
You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.
You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.
You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.
You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way.And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life.You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it.
You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

2008-02-10T18:32:00.001-08:00

What T.G.o Means

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?