Memories

Deepavali Lunch

Deepavali Lunch

Deepavali was 2 weeks ago. Happy Deepavali! :o) Smita, one of my group members, invited all of us to her house for lunch today.

She and her mum made lamb briyani, kurma chicken, fried-boiled egg (hmm?), curry prawns and mango chadney. I am not familiar with culinary jargons, but in actual fact, they are a much better than how they sound like. Ten times better than Petaling Maju or even Murni's. And the best of all - they are home-cooked!

Smita is a professional in traditional Indian dance. I can’t recall the name of the dance, but it is the one Dr Radha and Minoo performed - lots of tapping with bells around the ankle. She graduated last year; after ten years of training. The graduation was a 2.5 hours of intense solo performance in front of a strong 650 people crowd. It was a very formal event as it was attended by a Brahma, whose rank is the highest in the Indian social hierarchy.

Every facial expression was intense and elaborate. I never knew dancing could be so meaningful. Every dance carried a story - one was about a lady who was searching for a missing child, one was a man who was trying to win over a lady's heart and more. All by herself. Amazing!

Han Lim's Medical Mission
After that, I left with Marriane and Lee Yong to attend Dr Han Lim's presentation. Dr Han Lim is one of the cardiology registrars in Austin Hospital. He went for a medical mission trip in Yunnan, China recently. Here, he shared his testimonies and experiences he learned over there. :o)

How wonderful are these people! I'm really glad to be surrounded by motivated individuals! I believe that the world is spinning because of them. The world out there is so huge that it's exciting to even think about exploring it! Everyday I am being challenged to learn something new. :o)

March on! 21st century children!

Updates

The 5 days I spent in Adelaide was one of my highlights in this year. I was really thankful because in midst of our busy schedule, the clinical school has thoughtfully decided to give us a long weekend. After 15 gruesome weeks, a timely break is quite essential for our viability.

I’m really glad to have spent the break with Steph. Who else would I prefer spending my hols with? After all, we haven’t seen each other since July. That’s a little too long for comfort. :o)

However, my main concern was her exam which is on this coming Monday. I have to justify that my stay there was not a mere nuisance by claiming that we spent most of our time awaked studying. The rest of the time is eating and answering nature’s call. I also served as an SP for her to practice OSCE on. Besides, I was preparing for my exams too which is on the 28th and 30th Nov.

To all Adelaide people, all the best for your exams and have a safe trip home! :o) Can’t wait for the food!!! *drools*

Now, I have a good news to announce. I am attending Kelvin Lawrence’s wedding dinner!!!!! Woohoo!! Thank you dad and mum for all the effort in trying to get me an earlier flight. When I called MAS on my own one evening, the lady told me that the tickets are full from 23rd Nov till 6th December. That was my second attempt, so I didn’t really feel much about it. Unexpectedly, I received a call from my dad during dinner time that day and voila!! 1st December 0045 flight!! Most likely I will get to meet up with Steph too when she returns from China. So amazing! Praise the lord! Thanx for answering prayers!

My tentative summer schedule is as follow:

• 1st Dec         Morning - Arrival in KL; Afternoon – ?Steph back from China; Evening – Kelvin’s wedding
• 14th Dec       Steph and family coming to KL
• 16th Dec       Steph’s bday
• 17th Dec       Steph and family leaving
• 21st Dec        I’m flying to KK. Steph’s dad’s bday
• 25th Dec       Merry Christmas!
• 31st Dec        New year eve! Party!!
• 1st Jan          Happy new year!
• 6th Jan          Back to KL
• 19th Jan        Steph coming to KL
• 20+ Jan         Steph leaving for Adelaide
• 7th Feb         Chinese New Year
• 9/10th Feb     I’m leaving for Melbourne

Missions to be accomplished this summer:

• Learn cooking. (I’m staying in New Building in IH next year. We finally get a functional stove which does not need GAS! – c/w Vista Komanwel.)
• Read up a bit on neuro. :o)
• Play some guitar. Learn a new song at least.

Updates

My cousin was diagnosed with Myasthenia gravis about 6 months ago. She's only 25 years old and has 2 little children. She has severe weakness in all her muscles. About 10 days ago, while she was chatting with her family, she seemed to have overexerted herself and her breathing muscles suddenly stopped functioning. She was immediately sent to the hospital and has been in ICU till today. Hmm.. Please pray for her.

On a happier note, i've received an email from Kelvin Lawrence! After 8 years. And he's getting MARRIED!!!! Woohoo!! He was my english and PE teacher when i was in form 1 till form 3. He was the one who brought volleyball into my school and nominated me as a prefect. :o) The day during assembly when the principal was announcing that he was leaving, my tears just came gushing down.. haha.. involuntary lo!

He invited me to his wedding ceremony on the 1st December, but my scheduled flight home is on the 6th. I understand that it's very late to change my flight now, but I hope God will provide! :o)

PS: I was banned from his classes for 2 solid weeks!

Birthday

I love birthdays!

To me, birthday signifies the birth of someone really important in this world.

Important? Many people will feel that the word 'important' has always been reserved for somebody else - be it someone who has received some form of recognition based on somethings that they have done or having social position or distinction.

As a medical student, we often feel unimportant because we are in the lowest rank in the hospital hierarchy. We may think: probably I will get more important when I'm a doctor. Maybe, but when you finally become a 1st year intern, there will be 2nd and 3rd year interns, registrars, fellows and consultants, professors and so on..

We often spend too much time and effort trying to achieve recognitions by the society. So much so that we neglect the meaning of our existance and forget what really is important.

The definition of 'important' is not always set by the society. It is more often defined by those who take you seriously and bother to have a second look at you.

So what makes you important?

Love does. Remember that you are always important in somebody's eye - your mother, father, siblings, partners and even friends. Therefore, it is necessary for us to spend quality time with the people who are important to us and whom we are important to.

So should I. I treasure my birthday because I understand that there are people out there who care for me. For me, it is these people who proved the importance of my existence. I wish to celebrate the day of my birth, the most important day of my life, with them and thank them sincerely for making me important.

Thanx, Steph. For the jackets and the book.

Dangerous book for Boys?

Green Jacket. And a black formal jacket which I have not posted.

JiaWei, Frankie, Adeline, Teresa, Jo In, Yun Xin - thanx for coming down to Bendigo! This weekend will never be so exciting without you guys!

IMU ppl :o) - thanx for the shirt!

And a big thank you to those who called, sms, messaged and emailed. :o)

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo

I have just step into the most beautiful cathedral I've been - the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo.

Sacred Heart Cathedral is one of Australia's largest churches and the second tallest after St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. It is the last gothic cathedral to ever be built in the world. It is also exceptionally large for a country Cathedral in Australia, and its construction was made possible chiefly through the estate of Dr Henry Backhaus (1811-1882), a German from Paderborn and the first Catholic priest on the Bendigo goldfields. Backhaus was very skilled in financial matters and accumulated considerable property - not least through encouraging his gold-mining parishioners to contribute some of their findings to the work of the church. Backhaus left his wealth for the benefit of the church and enabled the Cathedral, among other things, to be built.

The construction began in 1895 and the magnificient building was completed in 1977. It is 75 metres long and has a ceiling height of 24 metres. The main spire is 87 metres high.

I couldn't help but stand in awe, totally swept away by it solemnness. Everyone whispered, instinctively our breathing turned shallow and quiet.

After some franctic photo-taking, I sat down in silence for a moment. A sense of peace started filling me up. I am thankful that admist all the hustle in our busy life, we know that there's a place we can seek refuge in.

Time did not seem too important when I was in there. I could not recall how long I stayed in there, but I do remember that I felt refreshed.

Thank you for such an amazing architecture. May this building continue to inspire and be the beacon in our dreams!

Life in Bendigo

This is my first blog since I was posted to Bendigo 2 days ago. This is a cosy little city where everything is close to each other. We have KFC, Pizza Hut, McDs, Safeway and other shops within walking distance!

Bendigo hospital isnt the best hospital to do our rotation in, especially when our block now in orthopaedics, rheumatology, dermatology, plastics and anaesthetics. Because they only have orthopaedics here! That leaves us plenty of free time, such a contrast from the cardio and respi block in Austin.

And the docs that we met here aren't exactly the most friendly ones. We are scheduled to join the ortho ward rounds this morning and guess what. The docs did not even look at us when we introduced ourselves. And when they need to examine the patient, they drew the curtain right in front of us!

Well, guess in order to learn, we need to organise our own schedule.

So, we went for an ED tutorial. The case that was discussed was regarding a 93 year old man who presented with 2 bout of fits in the past hour. He is demented and could not recognise any of his family member. He has been living in a nursing home for 3 years. The doctor's decision was to sway the family members into accepting the decision of withdrawing treatment. She mentioned that it was more worthwhile spending the bed on a patient who is 55 with a heart attack. Hmm.. I understand where she's heading towards - about quality of life and practicality. But it kills of the idealogy of Sanctity of life and all life are born equal..

Day 1 clinicals

Today was my first day of clincals in Austin Hospital.

We had to wake up at 630am to catch the 713am tram and breakfast starts only at 7am! That left us exactly 2 minutes to spread butter on the bread, 2 minute to toast it, 4 minutes to eat it, 2 minutes to clear our plates off the table and 3 minutes to get to the tram station.

And guess what! We missed the that tram. The next one was scheduled to come 4 mins later, and it did. (Something which Adelaide's bus couldn't afford.)

Some confusion happened when we were to board the train which would take us to Heidelberg, where Austin Hospital is located. Like many larger cities with extensive train network, we have a city loop which goes round the city. For some reason, the morning train goes in the opposite direction compared to the evening train!

We used to walk to uni, 15 minutes and free. From now on, we have to take a tram and then train, which is 1 hour per trip. That's 2 hours per day! Everyday!! On top of that, $5.30 for the tickets! x 3.03 now! Arrgghh!!

Still, we got there 10 minutes early. All we see are new faces. We left sem 5, and we're joining sem 8 now. A whole new batch of students.

These are the people whom I will be working with! I prayed that I would be able to fit in and learn as much as possible from everyone around me. :o)

Darren's my buddy and there are 4 other people in my group. Co-incidentally, one of them is my neighbour in Sunway Damansara! I met her and her buddy in the train back to the city and they all turned out to be wonderful people! :o)

Back to the lessons, the whole morning we had lots of intro lectures, proper lectures and and intro to cardiovascular system PE. Started from 830am all the way till 1pm, with only 15 minutes break in between. Since I only had 5 hours of sleep yesterday and 2 hours the day before, I could hardly keep my eyes open.

1pm to 5pm. 'Tag a nurse' program. I was assigned to a nurse and my job was as described in the name, tag along her!

I was assigned to the Peads wards! I have always had a special spot for Paeds in my heart. And voila! Peads wards! My first rotation! :o)

And the nurse, named Catherine, was amazingly hospitable. Besides bringing me around and teaching me new things, she introduced me to all the staff in the ward. It was such a friendly environment. Everyone from the doctors to the ward clerk to the cleaner-lady know each other very well. Thank you Catherine.

In his Intro lecture, the Dean said: If Austin is your first choice, congratulations. If it's not your first choice, you have been put into a very good choice.

So true. My first day has been a very pleasant one. I'm looking forward to the many days ahead!

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Winter in Adelaide

Wenhao (Uncle Jon), Layin (Shirlyn) and Seyin (Emily) came to Adelaide on Saturday, the jackport date 7-7-7!

Happy birthday Wengsoon and Hsiulye!

It was nearly six months since I last saw the girls. I'm glad that they were here! All of us sprung into action almost immediately. We've totally utilised the short period of 4 days to the maximum.

Shortly after settling down in the ever famous Village, we went to the Central Market for brunch. And our story kick started from there!

Hahndorf, the German Village, was the next station. We went into almost every shop because Chuen's idea is that every shop is good as long as there's heater in it! True enough, that day was so windy and to make things worse, it was raining. We went into a Chocolate Shop, Fudge Shop.... and finally we met this shop that totally blew Steph away - Fairies in Your Garden. As the name suggested, it was full of FAIRIES! :o)

We rested for a while before having dinner in Dumpling King. A word of advice: dumplings good, rice and noodles bad, except Shanghai noodles.

Day 2 (Sun)
We went to Steph's church - the Edge. We then spent the whole afternoon in Glenelg. Chuen and Wenhao were all up for Boost juice! The got the rest of them into it too! Then we came out with a brilliant idea - 'tapao' our Fish n chips and yiros and eat outdoor. In the end, Chuen literally turned blue! I've never known what cyanosis was until that day.
Dinner at home was good! The girls showed off their culinary skills (erm.. Chuen?). Then was when I really wished Layin and Seyin could stay till Sunday, when I leave. :o)
It was Poker time after dinner. Texas hold'em. James Bond. The slight difference was that our chips were made up of sudoku number tiles, rubber bands, hairbands and boggle cubes. And I lost all my chips in the first game. :p

Day 3 (Mon)
The Adelaide ppl went for classes. Thus, I stepped in as a temporary tour guide! :o) We visited Cleland Wildlife Park. Funny things happened in the park. Some kangaroos were sunbathing, some scratched their armpits, some their private parts. Wenhao talked to a kangaroo and trying to make it shake his hand. Hmm..
We stayed in the city after that and hung around in Rundle Mall till dinner time. We had Italian food in Amalfi.

Day 4 (Tues)
Christine prepared us breakfast as her class was only in the afternoon. We went marketting in Central Market to buy ingredients for tonight's steamboat! :o)
After that Steph met us in the city and brought us to Harbour Town! We waited for more than an hour for the bus! But shopping was good!
We got back to prepare for the steamboat. It was such a huge night. Dramas happened: the soup overflowed, the fuse tripped.. But on top of all that, we had a wonderful dinner!

Layin and Seyin left this morning! :o) All the best to you in UK! Take care!

Cairns Trip

Day 1

The first impression I have on Cairns (pronounced as Cans) was 'Wow! The weather is so wonderful!' Indeed, I was very lucky that the day I arrived in Cairns was the first sunny day after a long spell of showers.

Coming from Adelaide (in Southern most side) to Cairns (in North-eastern side), the weather was fantastic. The temperature was at a high of 24C to a low of 16C, compared to Adelaide which was 5C to 15C.

I was first greeted by a gush of warm breeze as soon as I stepped out from the aircraft cabin, followed by rays of gentle sunlight. After collecting my luggage, I couldn't resist the temptation to stand under the sun while waiting for my bus. Never in my life had I appreciated the sun so much. It was all gloomy in the south.

I met the rest of the group who had been there since 3 days ago. Since they did bungy jump in the morning, we had decided to chill out at the man-made Laguna Beach. This is my first day - beautiful weather, beautiful beach and beautiful scene! What else can I ask for?

Dinner was at Barnacle's Bill. In Cairns, most of the restaurant gave a 20% discount if you settle your bill by 7pm. Of course, for a low budget group like us, we took the offer. We still ended paying nearly AUD$20 each.

Day 2

The next day was dedicated to White Water Rafting in Tully River! We were all excited as none of us had done it before except me. I had tried Sg Padas in KK (grade 3). But this river was grade 4, which aggravated the anxiety tenfold! :o)

Our guide, Dino, adopted a very safe mode. Every time we challenged a rapid, he instructed us to stop paddling and hung on the ropes. It killed off some of the excitement, but we definitely enjoyed his jokes and each other's company down the 4 hours river ride.

Our backpackers’ inn (Cairns Beach House) is affiliated with Rhino Bar. We are entitled to a free dinner or we can upgrade our meals with a very reasonable price. I’ve got a steak in mushroom gravy with chips and salad for only AUD$10.

Since it was still early, we visited The Reef Hotel Casino. It’s only about a quarter of the size of the casino is Crowns or Conrad, but the interior was very well designed. Steven tried his luck and got a handsome return of $1!

Day 3

We woke up at early today to get to the jetty because today was the day for sea kayaking! We took the 830am ferry ride to Fitzroy Island. By 1030am, we were covered in thick layers of sun block lotion. Our guide showed us some basics of paddling and off we go! We did some snorkeling and we stopped at Little Fitzroy Island for lunch. Our guide also gave us some history of Australia during the colonization era. I did some research and learned that there a beach called Nudey Beach (clothes are optional :p). How I wish we could stop by there, but.. Oh well, at least my partner and I saw a huge bull ray which glided pass under our kayak on our way back. Good trip!

Dinner was at La Pizza. It was quite a disappointing one as the food smelled so much better than it tasted. The restaurant was also overcrowded due to the holiday season. On the positive side, we dined alfresco accompanied by the perfect full moon, which was supposed to be blue according to the newspaper. :o)

Day 4 & 5

We spent the next two days in Cape Tribulation, the northern most point of the Australia continent. It was a heavy biology lesson as we visited the:

1. Wildlife Park. We fed more kangaroos and wallabies. But this time, with a guide.
2. Exotic Fruit Farm. We learned terms like sapodilla and carambolla, which just meant ciku and star fruit. But also some new ones like atemoya, breadfruit and Davidson’s plum and also their life cycles.
3. Jungle surfing. Five flying foxes that swung us from tree to tree! Wee! :o) We even did the last one head down! But it was a bomber that cost us AUD$80!
4. Junction between tropical rainforest and mangrove habitat. We heard lots of tree jargons which I doubt I remember any of them now.
5. Daintree River cruise. The guide took us on a 1 hour river cruise looking out for crocodiles while explaining their life cycles to us. According to stats, 95% of the crocodile will not survive their first two years! And most of the crocodile-attack-human cases are due to human feeding themselves to the crocodiles, such as swimming and fishing in croc infested river. He left us a take home message: When in doubt, stay out.

That’s all for my trip to Cairns. It’s been amazing. Not to mention heavily over-budgeted. Thank you everyone for your company - Pat, Kimi, Grace, Kevin, Jia Hui, Jia Yun, Adrian, Jac, Jeannie and Steven! Hope to travel with u guys again! :o)

Another take home message, from Pat: Anything fruity and colored, stay out!

Cheers!

Formal Apology

In my article titled 'Sydney', written on 25th June 2007, Shiau Cern's name was wrongly spelt as 'SiauCern'.

I hereby express my sincerest regret and seek for her forgiveness.