Livingasitis

2006-08-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

My first day of surgery posting and I'm elated!!

My surgical tutor was actually my csfc surgical tutor as well!
I couldnt believe it. I was like talking to him in the morning before I had my first session of briefing. And he still recognises me... ahh..the feeling of being in my comfort zone.

I think my morale's been boosted a lot because of this.
I really liked this tutor's teaching. I think I did once tell myself I wished he would become my surgical tutor whilst i was still having my CSFC.
And now, I got my wish....

Although he was like telling me he was not going to be Mr Nice Guy anymore because I was already year 3, I dont think it's a bad thing at all. He does have a point. I know myself i learn better by humiliation. And I wouldnt mind being humiliated by him. After all, he only wants us to become proficient doctors. So... blast me however you want.

Somehow, i also feel like I dont want to let him down. And I really want to make this surgery posting happen. I want to make it a good one for me

Alright...so onward I go!! go! go!

2006-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

End of Medicine posting examination is coming

There is so much to do
There is so much to read
There is so much to remember

And there is this constant bothersome worrying that things may not go your way
And in doing so, you begin to neglect wat's happening around you.
And by the time you realise wat's going on, it all seems so twisted and shocking.
And who is to blame?

It's been 8 weeks. And I must admit it has been a tough 8 weeks.
It's been a difficult time for me.
It's drained me real good, to the point i think I've changed in some ways.
To the point I've changed in ways I never thought would possibly happen
Perhaps this is my life's challenge in a series of many even greater challenges to come.
Perhaps I'm already being tested and I've learnt my first lesson in life.
And I feel it takes a lot of courage and humility to accept and learn it, even when you think you may be too mature to do so. But I think that's arrogance in a way and I should be slapped on the "mature" part. heh. Everybody has their bad points no matter how good they are.

What's to become of me now?

I miss Max buddy boy......

2006-07-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

medicine posting. Sometimes I wish I could do surgery first since it's a lot less demanding than medicine. Just right out of the hols and wham! right in your face Big Kumar and Clark, lots of diseases, lots of criteria, lots of protocols, lots of procedures, lots of questions. And then people stressing me out when they shoot off answers like they're shooting an MG-42. pppphhhrrrraaaatttttt....... and then i realise..maybe I'm just not reading enough.

Everyday seems to pass so fast. I can hardly catch up on my reading because I'm too exhausted to do so. I cant last beyond 12 like I used to, and I suppose coffee does not help anymore. I wish my body can turn off and turn on refreshed in 4 -5 hrs or sth...but no..it has to be 7-8 hrs. Anything shorter than that, and I'll be a walking zombie.

And the travelling doesnt give much encouragement either. Go here, go there..go back here...and then go back there.. i wish I had teleporting abilities.

I suppose I cant expect things to go my way all the time. Sometimes, i do doubt my abilities to become a doctor, but sometimes, i think its takes to know what is wrong with you to become a better one day after day. I'll just have to endure and endure and endure and hopefully, the sun will shine once again. For now, it's like looking at a solar eclipse, but at least u can still see that bright rim of light and you know that it is still there.

I miss my boy max. I still cant forget those days I would run with him, play football, play catch, do the "helicopter puppy", pretend to bite his paw and listen to him plead for mercy, feed him.... clean his excrement..... Maybe during the hols I shall spare a few days at Down Under and then I'll feel refreshed again. A few days is better than none.

Ah well..i dun feel so sleepy now. haha... back to work

2006-06-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

2006-06-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

One week plus of holidays have gone passed. I think it's still early to say school is coming. So I'll hold that thought for a while.

I've been spending my hols in Australia. It's like a sanctuary for me; a retreat, away from my "office" at the hospitals. Not as if I dont like being at the hospital, just that I wanted some time not thinking about it.

I flew off to Australia once eclinics ended because I wanted to utilise as much of my holidays as possible. I know that after this, holidays will become a legend. My first stop was in Sydney. I spent a week there. The weather was cold but it did rain for most of the week, which made travelling quite an inconvenience. I stayed at my brother's place at Darling harbour. We watched a lot of movies and reality TV shows (Jerry Springer is one hellava wierd wierd show). We also played our first games on the X360, which was incredible; the graphics, the sound... I bought this game called Blazen Angels(it's like Crimson Skies) in Singapore and brought it over to sydney to play. Games in Spore are sooo much cheaper than in Australia. The best part about X360: Watching my dad play "Need for Speed 2 underground". The way he handles the controls; somehow his arms seemed to do more of the controlling than his fingers, jerking about left and right in tandem with the direction of the car. And as you may have guessed, his car still kept slamming from wall to wall, sometimes moving off in the wrong direction. lolz. What a comical sight! And then my dad would try to impress my mum with his "driving skills" but my mum was nonetheless unimpressed with the thought that many people would have died the way the car was going.

Food was DE-LI-CIOUS!!! I can still remember the huge, live, lobster sashimi I ate. It was still moving a little when we gobbled up almost half of the meat. heh. but i tell you it was very tasty; sweet and crunchy. They would then cook the remaining parts of the lobster in miso soup. It was just as good...... :) Thanks bro. Hope you make more money so I can have more lobsters...haha.

I also helped my mum do some cooking because my brother was terribly missing homecooked food. So we would go to the victoria market to buy some fresh produce and cook it in whatever way possible. Honestly, I aint that hard up for home-cooked food, probably because I eat at home a lot. But I realise that the chicken tastes much better than the ones in Singapore. Maybe it's the weather that maintains it so well in its freshness.

After a week, I'm here now in melbourne to stay with my sister. Melbourne appears to be much much colder than in Sydney but I think I like melbourne more because it has a more laid back atmosphere to it. On the other hand, sydney appears very hectic. Anyway, I came to melbourne to pay a visit to my little buddy pal, Max. It's my first time seeing him and he's soo adorable. He's a Jack Russell-cum-Maltese and to me, he's a like a little child. He always wants to play ball and on days I would become extremely exhausted just playing ball with him. What intrigues me is the way he behaves; it's like he's almost human. I could read his expressions of frustration, sadness, happiness, cheekiness, anger, confusion, etc. he's sooo cute... and everynight, he would sleep with us on the bed, and at times he would rest his head on my thigh. In the morning, he often wakes me up by making squeaky noises using his little ball, and he would climb on top of me, waiting for me to wake up and occasionally shoving the ball into my face... sigh..too bad..he's going to be staying in melbourne permanent.

World cup fever is here! I thought the most impressive match was between Australia and Japan so far. They made like 3 goals within 10min or something. Btw, i supported Australia during the match. So i'm very happy for them. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!... Oi! Oi! Oi!

Today I witnessd a minor accident involving a motorbike while driving. The rider tried to act cool and lifted the front wheel of his bike as he accelerated and turned at the same time. As a result, the back wheel spun so fast it swivelled the bike and caused it to slam onto the tarmac, bringing the rider along with it. I could see fragments spewing out from the bike. For a moment, i thought he was seriously injured but thankfully, he got up and carried on walking. He sure was pissed by the way he threw his scarf forcefully onto the ground. I suppose that's a confirmation that he's alright. ah well, for me, i guess it isnt time for me to use my eclinics skills yet....

2006-04-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

My first week of eclinics has JUST ended. Yes, if you're looking at your watches and thinking "but it's sat?", you got that right. Tutorial on Sat. Nevertheless, it was no surprise to see other CGs also succumbing to the same fate as us.

That aside, I feel that so far, eclinics has been one of my most refreshing moments, which rekindled my love for medicine; not totally, but it has up-ed it to about 50% now. History-taking and physical examination still feels kind of new to me, but inside my head, I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. My tutors have been really kind and helpful, and always there, to the point that sometimes, I feel I need more time to myself to go and practise. However, the teaching and the advice given has been really really essential to my understanding of being a clinician. I really like them. I would go back every night, just sitting down and thinking wat they say, and it all becomes so clear.

Eclinics has been a real eye-opener, not only in terms of learning the art of medicine, but also when it comes to meeting different ward patients, whose lives are so varied, each with their own unique story to tell. The patient who made me become most emotional was this patient who became so depressed over his illness he started tearing in front of the doc. The doc kept reassuring him that despite the failures of treatment, there is still hope, but all that reassurance seemed to mean nothing to him. I could sense that hopelessness in this face. And as I looked at his face, I could imagine myself in his shoes, in his agony. I wouldnt blame him for how he is feeling ( i may handle it much worse if I were him ), and he made me feel like I wanted to do something to help him but I couldnt because, I'm just a student...still.

When the doc asked me to look through the nasoscope to see his vocal cords, I felt kind of distracted cos the patient was definitely in pain whilst the scope was inserted through the nostrils. I quickly looked. The doc probed further with the scope and asked me to look again, and I was like thinking "sheesh, the guy's in pain! Get it over with already". I suppose from this experience, I can say I'm still very much an amateur "doc", because sometimes I let my feelings get the better of me rather than my head. But I'm sure in time, I'll learn.......

It's been a really exhausting but eventful week, and I enjoyed it very much. Every day is like stepping into the unknown. There seems to be so much to explore.....so much more....

2006-04-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

it's been nice cooling weather these few days. But I wish it wouldnt rain as much because going out can be quite troublesome.

Yesterday, a bunch of med guys and I went over to Stanley's house to play badminton. Played for like 2 hours. I've never felt more physically exhausted, but I knew I had to push myself to regain my stamina to the level of my "glorious army days". I think badminton has some advantages over tennis. One, you dont need to worry about the weather because it's played indoors. Two, you probably wouldnt have to run as much because the court is smaller, and the lighter racket and shuttlecock means you would use less strength with each stroke. Three, you dont have to worry about hitting balls over the fence.

Anyway, it's been so long since I last did any form of aerobic exercise. I found that I couldnt move as fast as I could, and I'm not as agile as before. Perhaps it's due to all the inactivity and studying rather than age. 23 is still young. I'm sure I'll catch up in no time at all. We wanted to play some tennis but just too bad, it started to rain. A day has passed, and my whole body is aching right now, especially my butt (it's like it's about to explode). I guess I used alot of my gluteus muscles.

Stanley's place is real nice. The public changing room has a sauna! lolz And it's fitted with a radio tuner too. so cool. But we were all so hungry after the game so we wanted to quickly change and then eat.

I think so far, I've been playing a lot alot. So much that I think I've got my things mixed up. Like for eg, i thought the casualty exercise was going to be held today, but i just found out from mc the night before that it was actually next week. phew! i would have gone to school for nothing. And then, I thought MC was going to be baptised to be Christian, but it's actually to be Catholic. And I thought he was Catholic initially. Oh man, maybe I should slap myself so my mind's back to normal. Anyway, congratulations on your baptism that's coming! I wish you all the best with the Catholic faith.

Well, it's just over one week before school starts. I think year 3 is going to be a totally different new curriculum altogether. I'm excited yet apprehensive because I dont know if I'm going to cope well. I'm still excited because it's what I've always wanted to do as a kid: walk around with your stethescope, wearing formal clothing, white coat, talking to people, examining case reports, trying to come up with a diagnosis. Hmmm.. i think it can be fun. Rather, I think it will be fun, less all the stress of trying to pass the exams.

2006-04-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

Well, the official viva list is out. And I am relieved to say I'm not in it. Although now there's still a teeny weeny bit of chance for direct supp (touch wood). But I really hope not...

Now I can really start looking forward to the clinicals, or as I would say: getting down to the real stuff. Something which I have once dreamt of doing when I was a little kid. Hmm.. I'm tempted to say fantasised...

I came to school at around 11 plus to begin my stake out. I saw the rest like zhong yang, hui min, sam. They have been staking out since early morning. Lol. wat madness! Those long hours sitting, waiting, occasionally comforting each other. It seemed like forever. I got so bored I started playing Warcraft III at the medsoc. Odd as it may sound, it's the first time I've touched a pc game in 3 years. At least I now know how to play one of the games which requires you to build lots of towers, thanks to sam. Started out rough, but I slowly got the hang of it.

Bought some of my books today. Some books really sell out fast, So i bought a fair amount just in case they sold out and I would have to wait for months before fresh stock arrives.

So much time for now. It's a good time to catch up with friends..... Treasure it now cos soon, we'll be struggling to catch up with our work...

2006-04-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

2006-04-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, M2 is over! Hmm.. on second thought, perhaps it's over only after I have word that I wouldnt need to take any vivas or supps. I'm praying real hard. Pls have mercy on me.....

I must say M2 is was a really traumatic year for me. I guess it's the year which made me become disillusioned with exams. I used to think exams were really important, like we're gonna need it to prove ourselves that we're good doctors. Now, I think it's a load of crap. Well, not all of it but a significant percentage is totally ridiculous. Memorising countless bacteria, viruses, drugs, etc... memorising pathways. How much of it can I retain? I guess this kind of exam is to prepare us mentally for what lies ahead, which is probably going to be much tougher and much complicated. I'm sure present consultants and senior consultants would have encountered the same problems that we M2 students faced when they were students themselves. So, it's not like our situation is unique. It's just a passing phase. Eventually, I'll become a good, highly desirable senior consultant (I sincerely hope so).

These past few days, I've been watching a lot of tv. I came across a lot of interesting shows. I watched Patty Hearst. It's a true story about an heiress to some media industry, who got kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a terrorist organisation. Interestingly, she joined the SLA and participted in a number of bank robberies and killings. Doctors had diagnosed her as suffering from Stockholm's Syndrome. It's a psychiatric condition in which the abductee or the hostage would feel sympathy for his/her captor and hence, help the captor in his objectives. To put it simply, she got brainwashed. Apparently, Patty Hearst was locked up in a closet, blindfolded for 50 days. Can you imagine that? She would have lost complete sense of time. She would have been totally disorientated. I guess it was one of those SLA tactics to make her so, and then put their influence on her. Today, Patty Hearst has long been released from jail and has even starred in a number of films.

I caught this show "Jack" on cable. I thought it was a really touching. I got kind of emotional after watching it too. LOLZ. It's a story about this kid suffering from progeria, trying to adapt to his environment. Progeria is a clinical condition in which the child ages 7-10 times faster than a normal child. Caues of death are associated with aging such as heart disease and stroke. Normally, they would die by the age of 15. The longest recorded survivor is at the age of 26. It's due to a gene mutation, but it isnt inherited, which is why progeria is so rare. I think ever since it was discovered, just over a 100 cases have been reported. I believe there's an official name for it called the Hutchinson-Gildford Progeria Syndrome, named after those 2 people who first described the condition. Anyway, I felt there were some inaccuracies to the film. Thing is, people with progeria are very stunted, very little subcutaneous fat, macrocephaly, very little hair, and they all look quite similar with very distinguishing features. However in the movie, the child, played by Robin Williams, was hairy, tall, pretty plump, etc. haa. Nevertheless, he portrayed what those progeria patients went through very well, and I was deeply moved by it. Especially the last part when Jack finally graduated and all the students around him, who had initially ostracised him, now respected him for his courage and his optimism to live a fruitful life as much as possible, no matter what. And I can imagine what progeria patients in real life are going through.

There's a song written for this movie, and I thought it had a lot of meaning to it. I guess it's about getting by all the trials and tribulations of life. Whenever you feel helpless, or depressed because you just cannot seem to have things as planned, the one thing that's left which stands between failure and success, is faith. We all know how it is pretty rare to see a shooting star, so rare that people have claimed if you see it and quickly make a wish, your wish will come true. So, if we associate our desire to find success, to finding for that shooting star, if we have enough faith and determination to do so, to hope that we may one day find it, when we eventually do, our success will be as bright as the shooting star, so bright that the other stars seem to stop in their tracks..........and just watch.

Anyway, it's called "Star" by Bryan Adams.

What cha wanna be - when you grow up"
"What cha gonna do - when your time is up"
"What cha gonna say - when things go wrong"
"What cha wanna do - when you're on your own"

There's a road - long and winding
The lights are blindin' - but it gets there
Don't look back - don't give up

There's a silver linin' - it's out there somewhere
Everybody wants an answer - everybody needs a friend
We all need a shinin' star on which we can depend

So tonight we're gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (gotta find what you're looking for)

There'll be times - in your life
Ya when you' be dancin' n' shit - but you ain't gettin' it
But don't get disillusioned - no, don't expect too much

Cuz if what you have is all you can get
Just keep on tryin' - it just ain't happened yet
Everybody wants ta be winner - everybody has a dream
We all need a shinin' star when things ain't what they seem

N' so tonight we're gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before - (gotta get where your heading for)

Everybody wants some kindness - everybody needs a break
We all need a shinin' star when things get hard to take
N' so tonight we're gonna wish upon a star
We never wished upon before

Back to reality, I've been doing a lot of exercising of late, trying to get back in shape. It's pretty tough but I'm sure I'll get back to the times when I was in the army. Haaa

I'm back

2006-03-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

Ah well...it's been a really long time since I last touched this blog....

I was away on a busy mugging fiesta, trying to catch up with work which I think was a little too little too late... so i think this ca was kinda not my best shot...although I did work very hard to salvage whatever I desperately could..heh. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed....i really hope the grades will be good. At least so far, 1 is satisfiable.

Anyway, in about 3 wks time, the "BIG ONE" will come again... (gosh i hope ppl wouldnt mistake me for a terrorist or something).. the "BIG ONE" is the part 2 professional examination...the finale... the do-or-die mission... the one that will surely drive me insane.... Sigh.. seriously...i dont think all of it will be of use to me when I do the clinicals.. but ah wat theheck....i'll treat this exam like a "phase" I have to go through. A phase, something that's unavoidable, like the phases of a menstrual cycle...comes and goes......up and down.... riding the waves of a stormy weather..

I spent my post CA with some guys. We had a great sumptuous lunch sponsored by Jen's dad. Send my gratitude to your dad jen. Then, we decided to go watch a movie "Date movie" which I thouhtt was really just many spoofs combined together. But it was really hilariously stupid. hmm.. u know I still cannot believe took like half an hour to settle on a parking lot, and it's not cos there were no parking lots. Boy, u should have seen the look on MC's face when he was at the wheel. I would say he looks more relaxed on a day of an exam....

Stayed at home for the weekends... watched more movies, running some household errands, eating.. blogging... things I havent done in "eons".

2006-01-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

Chinese New year is abt one week away..which means..harvesting time....heh
$$$.... I really need the cash...totally cash-strapped....

I watched Black Hawk Down on cable today. It's a true story abt US Rangers going into a hostile area in Somalia to capture key personnel. Thinking it was going to be a quick one, they ended up putting up a hard and long struggle trying to stay alive as the whole city starting coming down on them.

I was really moved by how those soldiers just kept on fighting not for the sake of the mission, but for the sake of keeping their buddies and themselves alive. And I felt really disturbed when I saw those Somali militia strippin a dead US soldier, and carrying it, like it was some prize, disrespecting it... What's really more disturbing is that it actually happened (I remember reading it in the newspapers).

And from the movie... I learnt one importat medical-related thing : bleeding in the femoral artery is sure death unless something is done to stop the bleeding. And I think I remember being told that before by the profs.

Sometimes I wonder, if I was facing a situation like them, being pinned down and my fellow mates are all injured, leaving me alone to fight.. would I stay with them and fight till my last breath? or would I run and leave them there? I guess at this point in time, obviously, I would say staying would be the honorable thing.... but i feel when we're really in such a situation, we dont really "think" what is honorable or not, or wat is heroic. We just do what we do. I guess it's like letting our fundamental instincts take over our mind. Everything seems to come on naturally. For some, it's to run. For some, it's to stand and fight. I hope I'll be the latter, though I hope I will not be forced to be in such a predicament, because war is hell.

Celebrated Kok wei's birthday on thursday. It was a big one fer sure..haha.. and I thought the party went very successfully. There were sooooo many people there. I joined a group of people playing monopoly and played "fund manager" for ernest. And I'm glad to say, we were the winners..ahah...think we got like 2000+ cash and many assets after we made shao hui bankrupt when he landed on our property with a "hotel"..ha..sigh..if only these were real... I wouldnt be mugging my butt-cheeks off.....

2006-01-09T22:53:00.000-08:00

CA 2 is over! yay!

I can take a breather finally.
For a while at least...heh
The life of a medical student seems horrible
Always so much reading and understanding.
And pointless memorising (the part I hate most)

Sam was commenting how much we have to study for the rest of our entire lives and yet, our starting pay is pretty low for so much effort that we have to put in....
and the other people in law or engineering have long breaks and graduate faster and may even earn more than us.
I couldnt agree more, but I guess if you wanna do medicine, ideally, money shouldnt play a big part. I mean...money is important of course..but...I guess I wouldnt feel right thinking about it so much....

For me, I suppose I may still be trying to find that "inner passion" to do medicine.
I mean all the mugging and trying to pass and trying to get good grades...as a result, at times, I do get lost trying to find that "inner passion". Then I would give up finding for a while to concentrate on what's practical.

But I believe I would find it someday, maybe not during my schooling days, maybe when I start working.
And when I do..........hmmm.....

2006-01-06T23:44:00.000-08:00

Friday is gone mannn!

Game over man...

GAME OVER!!!!

:(

kkz..i shall calm down....
Everything is gonna be just fine...

heh...."gonna"
sounds like..."gonner" to me..
"calm"...hmm....is it actually derived from the word "calamity"?

argh.
better stop all this negativity.
I'm such a pain in the neck..
wait..isnnt that...cervical lymphadenopathy? oh oh.. like infectious mono-nucleosis like illness?? ohh ohh..wait.. wat causes that? hmmm..shit shit
ermm...oh...it's neorickettsia sennestsu..it's the only one which they mentioned abt IMS ....damn.. (i was looking at the paper typing this)

uh oh...brain's fibrillating right now....
feels like a running washing machine up there...
wat to do...wat to do.......

somebody tranquilise me now.......

2006-01-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

CA2 Day minus 7

So many facts; so many concepts
So many names, so many variations of names
So many side effects, so many symptoms
So many "may-nots", so many "sometimes"
So many "usually", so many "rare"
So many so many......

There is one thing which isnt so much right now..
And that is

Time......

2006-01-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006

2005 was filled with a lotta tests (literally I think)..haha. but no..i mean i think I've survived pretty well despite all the difficulties I've had; all the disappointments, emotionally; all the stress... all the expectations. But I shall work harder this year. I hope this year will be much better than the previous one. Though I have my doubts. But I shall be optimistic.....hah. yes. 2006 will be a better year for me.

Studying on new year's eve. The library closed earlier than usual. It's the first time I've heard someone talking over the PA system. It's the first time I've stayed until the lib closed..haa..despite my regular visits to the library.

I still think they shouldnt replace the library with some computer center or something. Why would they wanna make it smaller? I would gladly pay extra if they make it as big as the central librarry (haa..if i have the money) And now we have to go to Science library?? SO saddd... :( Where will I go from here? Where??!!!

U know..maybe we could all gather in front of the main entrance of the library and block the path of the bulldozer so it cant tear the building down. If they wanna tear down the library, they HAVE to go THROUGH us... literally. Who will join me?? (guess not...bahh)

Anyway, went down to Orchard Rd. Yes... go back and read the 2 words "Orchard" & "Road". And i din just pass by it k. I went down to "settle" in it. There were a lotta ppl there..but the lights of orchard wasnt really tat spectacular..... budget cut maybe..or like wat Jayne said, so they could use it for Chinese New Year as well (tear it down and bring it to chinatown). I saw a black Lamborghini there...mann..it looked so "poser" & "arrogant" on the podium lahh..but seriously....it had every right to be. It was really really very beautiful..aerodynamic.... everybody was like staring at it..aha... maybe..just maybe I'll get my hands on one. I'll be this Cool doctor..lol.

Accompanied Jayne to find her W&G merchandise, which was much of a disappointment cos we couldnt find any. Not even in this big toy store called Toys R Us (first time went there too!). And not only that, the staff doesnt think the merchandise would come in at all. Seems like nobody gives a damn about W&G...which is saddd. Maybe it's cos not many ppl can relate to the unique British humour in a cartoon setting. So it isnt vert appealing. Maybe after this big W&G movie, ppl will start to take notice of it. I think it has actually been around for like wat.. 20? 30 yrs or sth? I mean I saw the short films and the picture quality reminds me of the 70s era.

Ah well...reality strikes again. CAs looming. I'm feeling as jittery as a chicken about to lay an egg. But I shall be strong........cos I still love medicine.

2005-12-23T01:12:00.000-08:00

Today was quite a productive day. Had a fair share of tv, com and some book-reading.

Yesteday, went to Siwei's gathering, which I tot was very fun. Played tennis for abt 2 hrs. Had lots of good food. Eg. brownies, very very cheesy shephard's pie ( i nibbled on the chicken and potato and tried to avoid having too much cheese), sausages, steamed egg, etc. We played some "fear-factor" style games; those who guessed the right number had to eat some horrible concoction. I had... steamed egg + lemon + a touch of beer...yucks. hmm.. We played other fun games and I think I lost my voice as a result (feels better today). We ended at ard 11plus. and I managed to catch the train. I think it was the 2nd last train or sth....

Today I caught Terminator 2 on cable. Somehow I never get sick of it. Think it was released like 10 years ago or sth. And it isnt about the huge fighting scenes and the big guns and violence. I really like the plot..and it's probably something that everyone had thought about...our Doomsday, ending in a nuclear holocaust. Well basically, it's this terminator who got sent back in time by a leader. Terminator's job is to protect this boy, who is in fact the leader in his adolescent days. Why? because the artificial intelligence lifeforms are sending this other terminator to kill him so that he would cease to exist and there would be no more human resistance against those artificial lifeforms.

Compare this to reality, I think we cannot say that a nuclear war is impossible. I mean countries have amassed nuclear weapons to be used as a deterrant. But there can be no telling if they wont be used at all. After all, the destructive effectiveness of a nuclear bomb can be very tempting for somebody trying to kill as many people as possible. And what's the only retaliatory action against the aggressor? nuclear strike of course. And then there'll be this vicious cycle..nuking each other...in the end, we'll all be killing ourselves..and there'll be nth left on earth...it'll probably become another Mars. Why would scientists bother to create such destructive weapons (atomic bomb, nuclear bombs)? What's its purpose in this human civilisation? Destroy it? That doesnt make any sense if u ask me. Is it to show their creativity? To glorify themselves so people can look up to them and say...."wow ure pretty smart!"? I dunno...

I certainly dun wanna see myself ending in a nuclear holocaust. The thought of ur flesh burning and vaporising...it's really horrible. I can really understand what those people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki went through......i hope history doesnt repeat itself. But I believe that's something we, as the people of the world, can work on, to prevent a similar occurrence. After all..."there is no fate, but what we make".

Similarly, my ca2 is coming up..."theree is no fate, but what we can make"..so I better stop crapping right now.. and start revising, or my fate will end up with a single digit on my score sheet. That'll feel like a nuclear holocaust in my brain....:(

2005-12-19T00:43:00.000-08:00

The start of my M2 holidays. Or rather...my study break. I dunno which is which...but I dont realli care. Holidays or not...still is pretty much the same to me..

Weekend was pretty laxed. Watched a lotta tv, surfed the net, packed up my room. aha.. now I feel so organised.... i get this therapeutic effect when I see everything neat. I dun think it's obsession with neatness....but I do like it when I can find everything so easily. But somehow, some people prefer their rooms to be messy and wouldnt really want people to arrange it for them cos they claimed they wouldnt be able to find their things after that.... the contradiction....

I was dropped a bombshell this weekend..and bombshell after bombshell I got. Felt like World War II really..lol. In retrospect, the more I think about it, the more i feel.... I think it could have been all avoided. I just felt it happened too late and too slowly. We have to be practical people...and we must be decisive. Trying to appease one and trying to appease the other and many others complicates matters too much and as a result, it takes too long to come up with a solution....and in that period of waiting, like anything goes, i think that's something that can be avoided. If losses have to be cut they have to be cut fast... Delaying it...would only aggravate the impact of the loss. I think that's certainly one thing I truly understand this weekend. Decisiveness. It's probably the most impt thing I'll have to keep in mind when I'm a doctor. Cos a second missed can make the difference between life and death.

I'm only a human being, not a robot. I cant pretend like everything's ok all the time. Of course I feel bad... it's cos I cant possibly keep dwelling on the past...that I tell myself.. i need to stop being such a baby and find a god damn solution.

On a happier note, I met up with my JC friends for dinner. Been a long time.. They havent really changed. And they're pretty smart...doing much better than me i think..haha.. bah.. i need to work harder......HARDER!! I shall get to my books now........................................... I love medicine.

2005-12-14T05:09:00.000-08:00

It's going to be the end of Semester 1 already. Time really flies... And it's going to be Christmas! The time of the year when u meet up with people whom you havent seen for a very long time.

Yesterday, the fac. held a pre-Christmas celebration. I think it was rather good. It's refreshing to take your mind off the books for a little while. Just before the event, I helped Jen make this mash potato dish. Hmm..I can remember there's salt, pepper, butter, mushrooms...and.... of course..potatoes. I thought it was very easy and quick to make. To be honest, it's the first time I've ever helped make this...lol. To the guyz who ate it...you should be very honoured..i dun make this often..hahaha.... *thick-skinned*

Anyway, ruxin, el and I put up this mini-spoof type of performance for the class. It comprised 3 Christmassy songs. We changed the lyrics (very medically-oriented) but the tunes were the same : that of "silent night", "Jingle bells" and "Rudolph the red nose". It was great fun watching them laugh. I mean, we were a little nervous the joke wouldnt work out. We were afraid everything will turn out to be ...... ..."RX-like" corniness. But in the end, everybody had a good laugh over it...which was exactly as planned...hahah....the only thing unplanned was my singing..... bahh..

Watched Love Actually, which I thought was really funny. And the English subtitles like "dog barking in the distance" and "people walking hurriedly"......wat on earth is that for??? lol. it was really hilarious but romantic in some ways.

Merry christmas everybody........ :)

Dr Tolkien Speaking....

2005-12-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

I feel a little relieved that the last week of school has already approached. Frankly, I think it's the constant trudging to lectures early in the morning that's taking it's toll on me. The lectures themselves are certainly interesting. But attending lectures....somehow I've got a huge inertia trying to accomplish that.... And this coming week..it's back to back lectures non-stop starting from 8am and not 9am, which i think is pretty tiring. And I doubt there're breaks between. I dunno if I'll be able to last that long.... maybe if I can treat every 1 hr lecture as a 1 hr comedy show...like "Who's Line" or "Everybody LOves Raymond" or "Seinfeld"... I'll be able to concentrate for a longer period of time. Then again, How do u do that??

Yesterday, I went to this small gathering, together with Tian Hong, Victor and Jieli to JinXi's place. It was sort of an NJ get-together across 2 generations... And no...if ure thinking it's a get-together-mugging-session, URE WRONG. We're human beings , not machines. hmm.. come to think of it, have u ever wondered how when a person tends to study too too too much, as though the book is a crown jewel, he/she can somehow behave sortta like a machine? or a robot? I believe I've seen some before...i dunno..not exactly a robot..but u kindda get a different feeling talking to them..u know..like... u feel quite tensed up while talking to them...the rigidity kind of feeling. Anyway, we went over to watch some movies, ate pizza and played with the dog. Basically, chill out.

Watched Madagascar and Chicago. I thought Madagascar was very funny, especially the penguins, but the plot wasnt really that impressive..somehow it didnt really link well to the funny bits. Chicago was a pretty long show, but I thought the plot was very creative. Kindda reminded me about Shawshank Redemption, but this was a romantic story....basically about this lady Amelia, who tries to make a lotta ppl happy and then find her true love. I think I wouldnt mind somebody like Amelia...lol. she's very pretty but kindda freaky with all her wierd antics, but I guess u can call it being creative, and it showed when she was trying to get hooked up with this guy.

We played with JinXi's dog, which was a very very hugggee dog. I think when it stood on his hind legs, he was up to my lower costal cartilages. Anyway, this dog was very horny. Cos it did that "humping" action on all 3 of us. It would wrap its paws around our legs and just start doing it. Mann...good thing the 3rd leg is waayyy too short and hidden to be reachable. AHa..but it was fun... I love dogs..I'm gonna get one soon myself...but it's a small one....which I think is good...

I'm gonna "volunteer" to go for my second ICT. Thattt's rriighhtt. "volunteer". U must be thinking I'm insane..but u know what... I had given it a lot of thought. Nothing beats going back to see the familiar faces again. I think in the whole of my M2 batch, I'm the only freakshow who would do this sortta thing, volunteering to put on my greens. But u see, I dread of being transferred to another unit because I'll have to start all over again. Then again, i think the larger part of the reason for me going back is.... as someone put it in a way, "it all comes down to one thing --- $$$" ...

2005-12-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the weekend is drawing to a close once again...sigh.. and the week ahead is crammed with lectures; most of the days last till 4pm.

Went out for a gathering with my army friends. I just realised the marathon was today cos I saw alot of people at suntec in their runnning attire....bah..feel guilty for not exercising. I was there to eat..haah. Anyway, it's amazing to see how they still look and behave very much the same as when I last saw them. Except for the added paunch here and there..haa. Most of them are already working, one is engaged, and a few others are studying like me but they'll be finishing much sooner. Makes me kindda feel as though I'm young again..aha. But i think being a medical student, you are more or less working already..it's just as though you're "on course" right now, after which you would be heading back to a hospital to begin your work. Anyway, we ate at kushinbo at Suntec, and I thought the food was fantastic. Never ate so much in my life cos it was a buffet...and I definitely made sure I ate the money's worth... targeting the sashimi, the prawns, the scallops....u get the idea...

We reminisced about our army days, and made fun of those guys who havent ORDed....hhaaa.. somehow I had momentarily forgotten what ORD means already.. I only know what ROD means now... I dunno what ROD stands for actually... but i sure do know what it means..haha. Anyway, i feel like I've passed through one huge hurdle in my life everytime I see them. We always used to see each other in our greens, with our gear, working together, eating together, sleeping together even....and now...we're in civilian attire and leading very very different lives.... and as I look back again, it feels like so much time has passed between us...but i know it's just 2++ years..but it feels very long...... then again on another note...i think i'd rather pay $5000 had I known better ..lol...

After lunch, we went to watch Aeon Flux. which i think....wasnt very nice cos it was too sci-fi. It didnt make a lot of sense at the end...esp about the part when they were saying through cloning, we can die and live and die and live again, because our clones will sortta become us when we educate them about our lives.. and apparently they would be exactly like us physically, emotionally, mentally, including remembering the times spent with their gf and feeling so emotional over it.... which i think doesnt make a lotta sense. I mean..how would they feel for their supposed gf if they have never met and interacted with their supposed gf?

After the movies, we walked and walked..to bugis..looked around...and then walked and walked to Sim Lim Square to look at games. After which, we all shook hands and parted our ways...haaa..i look forward to seeing them again.....

And now...back to reality...my books beckon...screaming for attention...they're such spoilt brats... I guess I'm too nice...ah well..i only want them to be happy... :)

2005-11-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

Well....i just woke up. Feeling a little crappy. I've been having a splitting headache since yesterday night. It wouldnt go away even as I lay down or after I've had some sleep. argh. Now I think I feel a little better but there's still a little dizziness. Could be food poisoning. I've had some diarrhoea and I totally lost my appetite. Definitely not meningitis or something...lol... that's very serious...

Exam's over. Everybody feels more or less relaxed now. Everybody is so keen for lectures to end, so that they can go out and have fun fun fun. I wonder What I'm gonna do. Man, I wanna enjoy, but I dun wanna spend too much either...lol. gonna be meeting up with my army friends very soon. It's been 7 months already. I'm very amazed that we all still keep in touch despite our very diverse lifestyles. I really have to thank Paul for making all the effort. 30 bucks on a Jap buffet is friggin expensive...but ah well...for old times sake huh... let's enjoy ...since we dun get to do so together very often.

Received 4 out of 6 of my test grades as of today. It's not very very good, one was particularly disappointing, but I cannot say it's extremely bad either. Just that...i expected a little bit more is all. Ah well...i guess it's best not to dwell in the past and look towards the up-coming one in January. I believe that in anyone's lives, there are bound to be setbacks. It isnt a matter of if there is gonna be one, but when there is gonna be one. And i think it's these that help to nurture us into real adults in the future; make us stronger. Then again, it depends on how we react to the situation. If we get depressed and feel helpless, it isnt gonna salvage what's left to be salvaged in a lose-lose situation. It only makes us feel worse, and for nothing. Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but I think that's what we need to survive and eventually accomplish our dreams. I've had my fair share of personal failures, sure it hurts like hell.....but what the heck..... there's plenty more "to play for". I recall a phrase that was once mentioned in a movie: "It's not that it's impossible; it's just difficult". Just as how when there's a beginning, there'll be an end; bad things will too come to an end. But to be frank, it wouldnt come naturally. It still depends on our desire to make it end and to start afresh. For me, I believe that end is now. And tomorrow, I shall wake up to a brighter day. I know it isnt gonna be easy nevertheless, but i know it's not impossible... just difficult..........

2005-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Finally.... the first CA is over... It was a long, draggy one, i think it approximately lasted close to 2 mths, although only 3 days were actual test days. The rest were mugging days. And within that period I experienced an eclectic mix of emotions, ranging from hope to despair; anger to happiness; sober to crappiness....etc...like being in a roller-coaster ride... but all that is gone..for now.. I feel very relieved..i can breathe again..but i know before long, it'll all come back again to haunt us......... so i shall make do and enjoy wat's left of my recreational time.

After CAs, I got back home to get some rest and prepare for the coming event at Sam's house. Mann...i've never enjoyed driving home that day. Back then during the CA period, I would be in quite a rush to get back home...but after CA, was totally different..lol...that's right...smooth, slow drive.....:)

Sam's house: I got to "stayover" at Sam's place. Sam held a post-ca celebration for a lotta people. There was a buffet, mahjong....people started playing music..and qin yong's very good with his piano... I tried my hand at guitar..bah... I think my fingers are too thick and short. ..

Went over to el's house to watch movies. We saw The Ring and The Shawshank Redemption. The Ring was kindda scary...but I guess it's the music which made it seem eerie more than the picture or the plot... and not forgetting those girls screaming "pre-emptively", just before the scary part comes out.... which made me kindda traumatised a little. And it's still not cos of the movie..it's the screams......heh.. anyway..i liked the Shawshank Redemption.. I think it has a lotta meaning to it... "Get busy living or get busy dying"..aha.. I guess in my context..it's "Get busy mugging"....... i wonder which category it falls into... "Living" or "Dying"...
I shall go on a limp here and sayy... "living"...hhahaha... but seriously..I think the movie was great..the plot was very good.... Morgan Freeman is such a good actor.... :)

After movie, we all went back to Sam's house, washed up a little and then went to McDonalds at East Coast Park. There, we ate and yikkity-yaked, talked some crap..we saw some odd people, which is probably of no surprise to us at 4am plus in the morning...lol...and on a friday night too..

Then we took a walk along the beachfront...before I headed for home to catch up on sleep... I left at around 4.41am...a record for me..hahaha....record that beats the previous one by like how much.... 8 hrs?? haaa ... Thanks Sam for ur hospitality... :)

Sat: Played tennis with Sirui. It was quite exhausting...the air was pretty humid... But it was a great workout..haa.. havent done so in like 3 weeks.

2005-11-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

Ah well...tomorrow is the start of lessons again. A bit of an update....

Microb and Immunology exam was....well.... kindda disappointing. It's probably the prof's fault that we do badly.. thhaattt's riiigghhtt...Prof's fault...( all fingers and toes pointing at them..) I mean..the questions are like.... mann.. let's just say I studied the wrong things.. I wasted my time.. so many viruses and diagnostic tools to remember. How am I supposed to know which is gonna be coming out? ah well..i guess they have every right... since they are the Profs lol..they probably had it worse as students themselves.... I hope Lady Luck is on my side. Every question is a 50-50. So I'm holding my breath... scrinching my nose...waiting in anticipation... i hope everything will be fine... :)

Watched Tom Yam Goong. I thought it was a very nice show. About this guy searching for his 2 elephants and he killed and broke the bones of like 200 over people doing it. woowww.. can u imagine... me getting multiple fractures and dislocations over 2 elephants... mann..just take it dude... I dun want it.. I'd give the whole zoo if u want....

I had a movie marathon weekend.. Watched : Day After Tomorrow, Behind Enemy Lines, Starsky and Hutch, There's Sth About Mary, and classics (those in black and white) entitled "Ojective Burma" and "Air Force" which were about WWII. I havent watched those AT ALL... So i guess it's a nice catch-up....

One more major exam day to go.... I'd give it my best shot this time even if it's gonna kill me..haaa.. just this last stretch..... dun give up now JR... not when it's coming to an end...... It'll be over soon....very soon....

argh...I need a vacation....

2005-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today's the first day out of 3 days of CA. The next one would be one week away, which gives me a little breathing space. I guess I did fine today, though I felt there wasnt a lot of time to write whatever I wanted, so I just scribbled down whatever I could... I hope I'll do fine....

Anyway, I went out with the og mates today after the exams and ate an assorted range of cheese cakes: blueberry, marble, chocoloate mud, New York...things unheard of. At least for me.... It was pretty filling for me I had to forgo the routine lunch at the food court later on. So I settled for a nice cold cup of lime juice. I felt very relaxed actually, as though everything is over....but I know it isnt really over ...YET.

hmmm...wat to do after CAs. I could catch up on my heavily incurred exercise debt. I could go out more and enjoy life. I could meet up with friends I havent seen for a long time. I could try something new. I could eat a lot....so many things... but I think one thing still remains at the back of my mind.... i mean.. the second CAs are just right after our 3 week holidays.... ..yes yes..i can hear the groans and moans..... anyways.... I just feel time really flies..I can almost smell my clinical years already...

sigh...looking ahead...the road is long.......

I aspire to be one of the greatest doctors in the world....the greatest.. :)

2005-10-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

It's approximately 2 more weeks to the first M2 CA. The library's fully packed most of the time, forcing me to find some place elsewhere to do my studying. I kindda miss the good 'ol days when there werent a lotta people and you could walk around, as though the 2nd level was your room or something. How things change.......

Studieswise..well..as usual, so much info, so much to know, so much to memorise, so much to read, so much to do....it's a perpetual cycle of learning, reviewing, learning, reviewing, learning. It never ends. I guess there is just no other way to get around this hurdle. Medicine's like this.... I'm starting to get used to it....heh.

CG groupings really suck. I really hope they revise the system and use a computer to randomly assign us into groups. That way, there wouldnt be so much politicking and misunderstanding going around. It creates an unhealthy atmosphere...... Nevertheless, sometimes I do wonder what the hell is going on inside everybody's minds. I bet their minds are like working much more furiously than it looks on the outside... it's crazy..but i guess..this is human nature...it's natural for things like this to happen. We are all crazy people living in a crazy world....hah

ah well....talking abt the more interesting things in life...hmmm.... I realised that the M2s and M1s are really bonding very well in a special kind of way...lol..and I really mean bonding permanently..heh. I can easily think of 6 or 7 inbreeding cases already. Well...... there sure is alotta good chemistry between the 2 batches..hah.. It's like the mad gold rush.... :)

2005-10-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

yawnz! I'm about to sleep so I guess I should do my long overdue blogging....

Last Sat, I played intrafac tennis. I lost pretty badly and I did feel a lil embarrassed...haa. But I guess it's all in the name of good fun. I played mixed doubles for 2 games and we lost 6-1, the other 6-3. I'm quite pleased with myself on the other hand because at least we managed to scramble a point...haa. It was very funny on the whole... I had to explain to my partner the rules of the game before it started, as well as DURING the game..haa.. so it's like.. "erm you're supposed to stand here" or "I'm serving this side so you have to go to the other side". And we had trouble trying to keep track of the score... But i still love tennis. I got a bad sunburnt situation and I'm still peeling a lot. Apart from looking like a panda, I look like a snake too...shedding my skin.

This week's lectures werent too bad because for the most part, we ended at noon. So the rest of the day was free. I played another game of tennis with Sirui on wed and we played a solid 2hrs! haa. He was really good ( he was a school player ) despite not playing for a long time... I was totally exhausted after that.. I slept early that night...

Fri..we celebrated El's birthday. It's her 20th birthday! and I'd like to wish her all the best in her future endeavours and keep smiling always! I hope your birthday wish for this year will come true.. After cutting the cake, we went to Crystal Jade at Holland V for lunch. And we treated El too. I must say the xiao long bao was very good. the soup was totally concentrated and sweet... amazing..! Went back to school for one more lecture. I remember in the lecture theatre, when nobody was around, Sam and I took the opportunity to perfect the art of the sharpshooter. And I'm proud to say....we DID IT!!..haaa...finally..it doesnt feel so tiring like the first time we did it. We also did the Walls of Jericho...which was much easier... haa.. and when siwei pointed out the camera to us.... ohhh shit...didnt see it at all... ah well...i dun think we'll be in any trouble cos it wasnt anything hanky-panky-ish. just a pair of "boys" being "boys"...haaa

that's it! goodnite!!!

2005-09-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Midweek :

Decided to take a breather from studying. My hair is starting to rise...very soon..it'll STAY risen. I just realised most of the students have already formed their CGs ( and the first CAs have not even started) ...and apparently ure gonna get stuck with ur CG for the rest of your clinical years. So gotta choose wisely. Well, I was thinking if I cant find anybody I'd probably go it alone..heh.. hinging on hope that my postings will be good ones with good tutors...i really hope for good tutors....I think tutors are very important because they are gonna give u appraisals, and if they really care for you and look after you, you'll definitely enjoy the clincial years. But in my opinion so far, good tutors are hard to find...haa..but I'm still hoping.....

Today's PBL was very relaxed. It was about HIV and there werent a lot of issues and physical findings and serum levels of this and that to think about. I think our prof seems to be in a good mood of late. Maybe the initial bad mood episode was cos he didnt know us well so he didnt know how to relate to us. But currently, he's becoming better with every session. hmm..very jovial too..and he asked a lotta questions i didnt expect him to ask..like

1.Which school has the highest incidence of sexual activity?
2.On which ear do you put your earring to indicate you are gay?
3.How many gays do you think you have in your medical cohort? (cos he was saying usually it's 2%..haa..and in his time as a medical student he knew of 2)

A considerable part of our session was discussing homosexuality....and somehow, it reminded me of wat happened............

gosh..i feel.............nvm.........haaa

jaynne...pls sort out jenh for me...you should know him best...thanx.... :)

TGIF

2005-09-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

ahh...weekend is here once again. As usual, the entire week has been busy......I'm trying to catch up with work..but it's soo hard cos new things keep piling on and on and on.....

I've been the subject of amusement of late. My friends envisioning me as this psycho medical student, who just cant get enough of studying..haa.. who would camp in the medical library if I was given the chance to do so, who would stock up food and install a lamp in one of the dark "alleys" in the basement of NUH, who would come to school during holidays, who would come to school at 8am on a holiday, who goes on 'hot dates' with viruses and bacteria...the list just goes on and on..... well..if ure totally freak out by now...let me tell you... NOT ALL of it is true...well...about 70% false...and just so you know..the part of the remaining 30% were circumstantial...so you cant fault me for the most part..haa...everything that happens has got a perfectly reasonable explanation behind it......lol...you've just got to listen!!! And Char just happens to know my every single movee!!.. sheesh..haha

I have adopted a new hairstyle....a spiked hairstyle..haaa. well...it's a little spiked. Apparently I cut it too short so now I've got to wait for it to grow longer before I can see the desired effect. BUt I do put enough wax to get it to stand....I think i look different.. sam yang was complementing how much better I look now... ter just laughed cos he is probably amused over how different my hair looks now... jaynee called me "hum" for not putting it straight up ( sheesh that's the 2nd time u called me "hum" haaa).. nat was like..."oh yeaaa ..i guess u can call it a spike"..and ruxin commented it still needed more spike... sigh..yea yea..i guess it's unanimous.. gotta bring it straight up... but I gotta like "condition" the hair first cos it has been combed down all these years.....even after putting the wax, it still succumbs to gravity eventually... give it some time.... :)

Played tennis with a friend and his gf ( think better not reveal names larhh..afterwards he find out abt the blog..he's gonna kill me or sth...but some of u shld know..haa ). I just thought it's so amusing and fun to watch the 2 interact as they play tennis. I played the gracious host, acting like a wall whilst he did most of the teaching. He would always pick 2 balls and pass one to her.... he would hold her hand, together with the racket, and guide her hand to produce that basic tennis swing..he would check on her occasionally..and no matter how bad she hits the ball... he'll take the time to explain something and get back to the game..and I would be on the opposite side of the court...just watching them..hahaa...and smiling to myself (secretly of course).. Actually come to think of it, that's what a coach would typically do to a student...but..i mean...when the coach and student are romantically involved...every innocuous action just seems very much...significant..haaa. I've just never seen him like this before....not during the sji days or nj days...he's totally into her mann..I can almost feel it...i'm happy for u mate... :)

Today for lunch, all of us enjoyed the food at NUH so much we lost track of time.. We were almost comtemplating on a second helping of dessert when somebody realised "IT'S 1:55pm!!" (Tutorial was at 2pm).hhaaa Mann..we really ended that lunch very abruptly....and poor el with her sprained ankle couldnt walk faster than she normally would.. But in the end, we all made it on time for tutorial....still..haa

2005-09-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

yayyy! It's a long long weekend....finally a day-free of lectures..... no stress to be punctual, no stress to read up for the coming lectures..ahhh.. i do feel relieved..:)

And I'm happy cos I managed to recover from a cold I had yesterday, in time for the long weekend. The LT was kindda cold and i started sneezing badly because of it. Mann...my nose was super-clogged and I could almost feel the paranasal sinuses filled with all the mucus. I REALLY felt like detaching my nose, drain the mucous away in the sink and fit it back on..haa.. just too bad life aint that simple. But thanks to Charmaine's "non-standard" issued runny nose tablet, I felt really good after that..and it wasnt the Placebo effect...took like 5-6 hrs to feel the relief. I think drinking lots of water also helped in the recovery.

Today I tried the auditions for the M2 playhouse..bahh.. i dun think I stand a chance in those speaking roles...haa..but I really hope I can be the henchman or something..at least an extra of sorts. Something to do...apart from mugging.... :)

Tried to learn to play guitar from likman. I think my fingers are rather short and fat. I mean, I see Lik Man and Jayne do it so effortlessly..whilst I'm like trying to contort my fingers to get the chord....

Darn...i think i'm disappointed with myself not getting Krispy kreme....it totally slipped my mind man... but the sweets were something new right...I offered something UNEXPECTED...like a surprise kind of thing......
argh.....i'm making a futile attempt redeeming myself...haaa.....ah heck..shoot me if u will.....

For this weekend, I'm gonna take one of the biggests risk of my life..haa... I'm gonna....cut my hair and try to get it spiked... hmm until now I'm still wondering how I'm gonna tell the barber to get it done.."cut it short?", "Cut it in such a way that I can spike it?"...hmmm. I read in "Urban" newspaper that people are going for the "de-trussing"..but u've got to be good-looking and the A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E to carry it off..hmmm... ah well.. I dun really care how I'm gonna look after this...I just pray it goes well...I just want change...I look kindda old-fashioned with the current one anyway..wat's worse than that..hahaa..

Talked a lotta nonsense today before I started my routine mugging..haa....I think tian hong was almost on the verge of beating me up...lol. kindda teased him about his "philosophies". Well, I thought the issue : the religious aspects of the ethics of sex was an interesting subject...but it was funny.....haa..such a sadist.....I think I wanna declare the day before a holiday as talking nonsense day...It kindda frees the mind...lets loose all the cumulative tension that's about to rip me apart as though I'm rubbing myself on a cheese shredder. I think I'm becoming addicted to it.... hehe. I think I better stop this post now.......

btw...chk out the dnd pics below!

OG Group photo

2005-09-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

OG Group photo
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

A nice, chillout get-together admist the hellish mugging atmosphere

me and char

2005-09-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

me and char
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

charmaine in her rocky girl hairstyle..

me and natalie

2005-09-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

me and natalie
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

3 wise sages

2005-09-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

3 wise sages
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

The 3 ORD guys. Yong chin (center) was my bmt platoon mate...darn..he disrupted and I din..

Fuqiang and me

2005-09-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Fuqiang and me
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

thanks ter for lending me the blazer..haaa

Eleanor and me making a "flowery" connection

2005-09-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Eleanor and me making a "flowery" connection
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

Being the joker with an "up yours" attitude

2005-09-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Being the joker with an "up yours" attitude
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

It isnt really a victory sign if u look carefully..hahaah

Jaynnne and me...

2005-09-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

Jaynnne and me...
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

Yilin, my councilee

2005-09-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yilin, my councilee
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

I'm passing on the flame to her in the candle light ceremony or something like that..she's such a bubbly person....

Jen conked out from the alcohol

2005-09-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

Jen conked out from the alcohol
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

ohhh no jen....You cant have any more Jen....ure down and out..

Jen Heng and I....

2005-09-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Jen Heng and I....
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

Jen heng in center and ter on right

2005-09-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Jen heng in center and ter on right
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

fq, siwei, zhongkai and me

2005-09-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

fq, siwei, zhongkai and me
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

Siwei, our boss. All thanks to her for our certificates...haa. Thanks boss!! Dun worry about not getting a cert. Our gain is ALWAYS YOUR gain..... :)

2005-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am in the med PC room..... Decided to take a breather from the long day today. Think I'll stay until around 8pm to avoid the peak hour traffic. Petrol prices are very high now so I think it's best to use whatever measures necessary to conserve fuel.

I Just realised that there's no school on friday because all the lectures on that day have been shifted, apparently to make way for this seminar which I'm not going to ( costs $50!!). So I guess it's a nice holiday. What I would call a long weekend.... hmm..wonder what i shall do on friday.... I could do something a little different..............MUG!!! hahaa.. ( I can almost hear all the voices of disgust ). Come on...i mean what I would usually do is mug AND have lectures. But on Friday, it's JUST MUG....lol...( watever happened to 70%??!! ). Jayne says my og bets I wont go for this black eyed peas concert or sth...hmmmm...wonder how much they are willing to bet...........

Well, I've heard of black eyed peas but not their songs. Heard it's r&b, funky type of group. Well, personally I like nice, slow songs, u know...ballad kind, soft rock..... those songs are usually the melancholic kind, sad...pathetic...haha...but it's pleasing to the ear when it's those slow, easy-going kind. It just is....for me at least...heh. Hardcore Rock with lots of loud drumming gives me heart attack!

Lectures were long today. Some I couldnt understand, some were just boring, some were interesting. I like Salto's patho lectures so far. Very concise, conceptual, straight to the point. I was treated to a Japanese biscuit, which I thought was absoloutely delicious and it kindda kept me going just a little bit more in this "lecture marathon". Tasted buttery, yet creamy...hmmmm.. You know I could never resist Japanese food, esp when I watch Japan Hour. Their diligence and meticulous manner in which they prepare the food certainly makes it look tastier. Man...i should go to those inns they keep talking about......

I finally got all my dnd pics!!! I'm gonna post them up real soon..so stay tuned... :)

Midweek

2005-08-31T00:26:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of the week. Time really flies.... Saturday was a rather relaxing day. Met up with my army guys who came back from the states. Apparently they are really really having a lotta fun there. For the students there, if an assignment is due on monday, friday is the day to party, sat is the day to party, sun NIGHT is the time to get serious....lol. "Last minute work" is the IN thing over there. They were like telling me initially they thought doing work and finishing it on friday was the best cos they could then enjoy over the weekends, but the problem was, by the time they finished, those other American friends were too busy to have fun cos it was time for them to start working on their assignment. S0 naturally, my friends got influenced...... and I look at the situation I'm facing in med fac; perpetual mugging day and night.....and weekends too... :(

Had dnd. I must say everybody were kindda enthusiastic about their dress themes. There was krusty the clown, chewbacca, tarzan and jane, safari, angels....the list just goes on and on and on... The og looked absolutely fabulous.....although we didnt really stick to the theme...heh. only el managed to pull it off i guess, with 2 cards on her vest. The guys gave the girls roses as a way of presenting our gentlemanly manners. We drank merlot...and i think jen got kindda high...think he has low alcohol tolerance..haaa. ZK, likman, qinyong and sam yang gave a band performance, which I thought was well-played.... zk perhaps going a lil low on the notes..haa..but he managed to pull it off still..... I remember we took a lotta pictures too...wacky, funny and formal... darn. i forgot to bring my camera so I had to leech onto other cameras.

Sunday was rest day.. I was so tired..i didnt feel like going anywhere. Just stay at homeee....

Today was a relatiely short day. I finally had the afternoon to myself, catching up with my studies. Fq, sam and I decided to do a step-by-step presentation on performing the sharpshooter. mannn...wasnt easy at all...lol. First of all...his darn legs were kindda heavy...second, his legs were so stiff i had to force him to bend them so I could manouvre my legs between his to get that leg-lock position... thirdly..it really demanded a lotta coordination on HIS part cos I had to roll him onto his belly... i think u need a lotta strength to do the sharpshooter...mann..no wonder those wrestlers ARE wrestlers...haaa...but it was fun i guess....
boys will be boys.......:) After that, back to mugging.....

2005-08-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

Another long long week has passed. So many lectures, so little time for rest. I'm quite relieved it's Friday.....

Last Sat :
I had the earliest official lesson in my life. I had to go SGH for my pbl session at 7am. And the morning did not start off well, when the prof got kindda pissed over one of my fac mate's attire (in bermudas and slippers). He didnt attend the session in the end, which I felt was a little wierd. I mean....going to SGH so early in the morning and then going back????? And he brought the PBL materials for the group too. And the prof called the Dean at around 730 in the morning to ask about attire..heh. Anyway, pbl was quite interesting...i saw diabetic patients with partly amputated feet cos gangrene had set in....

Met my SJI friends for lunch. One of them is already gonna start work as a lawyer in UK, one is gonna do his masters in Canada, and the rest are still in Singapore. I must say It is one great get-together because I havent seen some of them in a very very very very long time. Everybody looked pretty much the same to me, except for a few changed accents here and there. haha.. but the all-boys spirit was somehow very much alive still........I definitely felt like we were classmates all over again.. Chatted about our different lifetyles, our future, money, our experiences.... we sat down and chatted for like 4 hrs.........

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur :

Mug, Mug, Mug, Mug, Mug, Mug, Mug.
yeaa rittee...well at least I tried to. Sam Yang and I did some poser shots with the New England Journal of Medicine in the library. Fuqiang being our professional handphone cameraman. haha...."ure not reading journals" the Dean says.... haah.. well, I guess the photos do show evidence, although I think the word "validity" has a huge question mark behind it...
Been seeing a lotta M1s studying anatomy and physiology in the med library...kindda reminds me of my M1 days, which were not very long ago anyways...
I got so exhausted on Thurs, I fell asleep reading and I only realised that after I woke up.....

Fri :
It's Jayne's 20th birthday. Happy birthday! No longer a teenager...heh..I hope u liked the present..I think ure very lucky this year; cos you can have like post-birthday celebrations in the form of dnd...lol....wat a way to end it yea...and it's not even your 21st birthday.
Tried to do a little mugging but I got kindda restless so I went out of the library to rest among those benches. Fuqiang came along and we started reminiscing about our army dayz....the funny things that happened, the harsh periods of out lives; talked about how lucky those disruptees are and why we could not disrupt..haaa..then larry came along and we started talking about inflammation (very interesting comments he had there..) Then yong chin came along and I realised the school admin intends to reduce the med library size to 20% of the original....darnn.. i think they really crossed the line this time...I thought the med library was already very small.....how could they make it smaller????? No way mannn..... Then meng chon and rx came by for a while.......and we continued.....talking ...the importance of COFM...hahahaha

I think I havent had such a long talking 'cock' session for a long time... but i think it's refreshing...especially on a friday.... I wanted to crash Dean's invitation to his house for dinner for the OT people....but.....ahh heck..lazy to travel...wanna go homeee...comfy homeee :=)

Tom gonna meet up my army friends for lunch, who came back from USA. It's the time of the month when friends are coming back for a get-together. Later, dinner at Waterfront for DnD.... Tom's gonna be a great day...

2005-08-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

I've been having very long days in this seemingly long week. I'm just relieved this week is over. Yet, there's still tom. Gotta go to SGH at 7am for my second PBL lesson. argh. gotta wake up early again.... well. at least by having this second pbl session, it will give me more room to breathe in the coming week, which I think I quite desperately need. So, just one more day of hard work and I shall be finally relieved......:)

It's the time of the month when ex-classmates return from overseas. So, for the following weekends, I'll probably be meeting up with my sji mates and my army mates. It's like an annual thingy now...

hmm..i havent been exercising these past few days..havent had a lotta time cos by the time I return home, I'll be too exhausted to do any physical activity. Anyway, today at least I managed to do a little workout..destress a little, get the muscles going or they'll atrophy, get the energy level up, get the blood circulating..... I feel quite 'pumped' now..haha.. mann..i cant imagine when it's housemanship time..where am I gonna find the time at all....ah well..i guess I'll figure it out somehow....

Guess I wont be going for dnd after all. I thought it was a friday. Turns out it was a Saturday..darn.. must be some last min change of plans cos I'm defintiely sure I heard Fri. Ah well, at least somebody gets to eat meat instead of vegetables...lol...here's my form of charity to you..heh. But on the other hand, think my councilee wont be receiving the candle from me...craps..i feel bad.... maybe somebody could do so on my behalf?

I finally got my broken tennis racket re-stringed...The strings are semi-hard in nature, which I think is different from the previous one... Cant wait to test it out...lol..maybe I'll play better now... :)

There's been a flu bug lingering around of late. Seems like quite a number of people in med are suffering a really bad case of flu ever since sch started. I know lik man had, MC, Shaan, Dave....could be even more.. better take more antioxidants and vit C...

2005-08-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a short yet long week. Short cos first 2 days were mostly like holidays. Long because the rest of the 3 days were pretty filled with lectures, practicals and tutorials. I think I started off pretty well into year 2. People are already starting to mug like crazy; people i dun normally see in the library ARE in the library. I'm sure there are quite a number of in-house muggers too (people who mug like hell at home).....I wouldnt be surprised at all.

And here I am trying to get that 70%. I think all this mugger environment isnt gonna help at all...I may be resolved to go back my old ways again..... Thinking about it, I must definitely admit, even in year 1, I never mugged in such an unrelenting manner, like the world's coming to an end. I mean it's only week. What's gonna happen in like a mth's time? How they gonna last like this? and it's 6 subjects not 3. People get so focused they just wanna get the facts in and be happy about it. I've been there...i think it's meaningless. I must learn to appreciate...and I'm still trying to find ways to do that...appreciate.. I know I love medicine..I know I will love being a doctor..but i wouldnt be able to do so if I cannot appreciate.. I may just end up seeing doctor as another occupation..which is NOT what I want...

This is one crazy world......within which I struggle to retain that sanity in me........

2005-08-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

Went to Chinese Swimming Club today for a self-proclaimed "Sports day". Got my tennis gear, change of clothes and a towel and I was off. Couldnt find the place so my parents dropped me off some Broaderick road so my fren's dad could pick me up.

We spent about an hour playing pool and I was taught some tricks as to how to shoot accurately. It was fun and I improved a little today..hah. coaching tips were really useful. After that, wanted to play basketball but the facilities were in use anyway, so we decided to carry on with our tennis game instead. Mann...we just couldnt play one on one. Eventually some guy came and asked if he could join in. Then when he left...some other guy came and joined in...lol. And I lost 2 balls cos I overhit it... and wat's worse....I broke the strings of my racket...! arggh..

Anyway, it was fun playing tennis...just too bad couldnt play basketball and it was already getting late....hah.. now I gotta find a place to repair my injured racket... :(

2005-08-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Oh boy am I dead beat. First day of M2 was quite relaxed. Had an hr's intro into pathology which I felt was rather light and easy-going. I just realised the prof is my sji friend's Uncle and we did have lunch together..i think while I was preparing for my pros. Anyway, lecture was cool, but I'm sure it's gonna get a lot worse as the months go by. Anyway, PDP is still on! which is just great! lol

Met my friend at Orchard. (gosh when I want to go orchard...nobody is going) Sat down at Starbucks and caught up with the old times. Gave him a rather detailed insight into what army life is going to be like, and a few tips about survival skills..haha. We went to cineleisure after that to play the arcade. Then it was back to the uni for the tennis game he so longed for. Had a great game...I've never played better...i think my strokes are getting better each time I play..somehow I feel very relaxed and everything seems so natural to me. It's very enjoying!..except for my darn serves...argh.!

I felt so tired after that I abandoned the thought of helping out in float...lol....I just walked around, looking around, like some nuisance..hah. while waiting for my ride home.....

School

2005-08-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well....school starts tomorrow. Hmmm...i kindda feel a lil excited actually..lol. New lecture theatre venue, new subjects, new profs, new groupings. But at the same time, judging by how I wake up at 11am everyday for the past few weeks, I really have to idea how I"m gonna pull off a 645am roll call tomorrow.

Will be meeting my long-time friend, who studied in Canada, for lunch. haha..too bad it's his turn to join the army. Ah well...he had his fun anyway; now's the hard part. Anyway, Gonna teach him tennis too..lol. He wants to do volleys.

I cant believe PDP is not in the schedule. I thought PDP was fun...they should have more of it.. maybe they would incorporate it into PBL? I'm holding my breath.......

2005-08-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

It rained very heavily today and it had me worried for a while cos later in the evening there was gonna be another tennis session. Thank god it stopped in time and even made the air cooler too.

But before that, I had met up with my pri schoolmates for lunch. I havent seen Aidan for like..since Pri 6 and I havent seen Steven for a year already. We had lunch at Breeks, Taka. They all pretty much look the same since pri sch! Except that with puberty already achieved and the testosterone levels at optimum, they all look very adult now... We talked a lot about our pri sch days and how the sch has changed over the years...talked abt army daz (there was just so much to talk about as we each led very different army lives) and we were comparing how slack and how torturous our days were. Was great to see them again.....

Tennis at NUS with lik man and chris. Balls were flying all over the place initially until we decided to play mid-court. From then on, rally time was much much longer. Cant imagine spending most of the time picking balls..lol. After tennis, decided to have a little practice session of basketball. Ended up..playing a game of basketball with this group of PRCs. It was quite violent I must say..all the pushing and shoving. And I felt like this extra guy filling in the gap cos they kept passing the balls among themselves...craps.. and to think I did give them some points with the few chances they gave me to make a shot.

After tennis, saw those med people still doing props for the float so I helped around, burning the frays off those cloth, while i waited to be picked up. Feel quite physically exhausted now...but it was a fun day.... 1 more day to start of lectures....

Lik man was telling me how people have already started looking for people and forming up their groups for clinicals...gosh..and yr 2 has not even started. I think I shall adopt a wait-until-it-comes attitude..there's just other things to be concerned about right now....

2005-08-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud and relieved that NJ went up from zero to third position in the biomedical quiz. It's good to know that I'm part of the team that helped coached this batch of NJ students. Today was the "after action review" (sounds so army-ish), where the students would give feedback as to how we can improve and other issues to facilitate a more efficent training environment. After that, the teacher-in-charge took us to a treat of ice-cream, chocalate cake and a cup of coffee for the effort we had put in. I must add Tian Hong deserved a lotta credit for having to plan this whole training pogramme, and the other dedicated coaches like Larry and Barry and Dave...u guyz were amazing. Anyway, we talked a lot about our experiences in NJ, the gossips (Tian Hong is such a gossiper), teachers, etc...hah..was fun getting to know some JC1 students too

Went to school to check out the books thoroughly so I wouldnt have to waste money buying books I eventually wouldnt use if they are unsuitable. Yes yes...i havent really gotten into buying books yet. I only bought mama robbins courtesy of Jen(thanx) and that's about it.... heh. slacker me I suppose...it's all part of the grand plan to reach the 70% target..lol

2005-08-01T01:51:00.000-07:00

Today I went to see Operation Theatre, a play put up by Med fac students. I thought a lotta effort was put into this play. The singing was good definitely. There was life in the play fer sure. I'm pretty impressed, esp with the M4s, considering that they are pretty busy with their clinicals and stuff. I liked that Mr Black. Somehow, eveything about him seemed to suit the role he was playing..... his face, his body language.. his grinning with his sidekicks prancing around him.. It was like he was born to play that role..haha.. watever that implies..hee. But it was worth my 15 bucks for sure... great job guyz *applause*

Gosh my whole body feels like a wreck...aching all over.. it's been 2 days already. I must have overstretched hell lot during that tennis game..Even swinging my arms hurt.. :(

lol...meng chon..my cyberpal...we finally get to meet face to face huh.. hehe..yea...u were hilarious with that ad---mir----a----ble HK accent. U remind me of my Maths C tutor in NJC. He speaks like that too.. good luck with your symphony orchestra performance in Aberdeen! Go get yourself a kilt there.....

last week of hols ahead.....I'm ready!...just bring it on..but do it a litttle at a time pleassssseeeeee... Need to carry out cold-start procedure on my rusty engine..

2005-07-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

so I'm back in Singapore... well... the first thing that hit me was the hot weather and it was night time! But thankfully, it's been drizzling for the past few days so it's got a lil cooler. When I got home, everything else felt so new; the smell of wood seemed more prominent than ever. Looking out through the windows, I still struggle to accept that I'm back here in Singapore. But anyway, recuperation's getting along and I'm back to doing the usual stuff.

Nat says to immerse myself in an air-conditioned room to fight the post aussie blues. Well, somehow that doesnt really work much on me..i mean. the visual input still overwhelms the touch input..ahh well...shall eat the ice-cream then.... :)

Here are the photos that I took in Australia.....click on the image or the title "Waltzing Australia" at the sidebar to access it....enjoy...:)

Where I corresponded on the blog

2005-07-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

I was in the middle of one of the postings here :)

2005-07-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

ah well.. my last night in Sydney and I'll be back home in Singapore (I hesitate to say the word "finally"). It's been a really long, nice retreat for me; visiting new places, eating, playing, taking pictures, watching cable...heh.. wat a blast.. I do feel sad that I've got to leave but I know at some point in time I have to leave and I must get back to doing what i should be doing...which is back to learning to be a doctor. yeaaaaaaaa....but i think i do feel very relieved after this long vacation, reenergised...... reborn..haha...pretty strong word. So I shall stop looking back and start moving forward like I got a purpose.....

Looking back today....(just recalling the events of the day..not reflecting )... I went to The Rocks again to get nice shots of the opera house and the harbour bridge in the day. It's the weekend so the place was teeming with activity. We ate at a place called Waterfront Restaurant and it was by the harbour there so we got the best views of both the bridge and the opera hse together. A little annoyed at the place cos we were duped into eating rock oysters instead of Pacific oysters, which we had requested. And they kept insisting they were pacific....crapps.. ah well... wouldnt be eating there anymore...heh. Hang ard the area for quite a while before walking back to the apartment to watch more cable..haha.

I caught up with a lotta movies I missed. X-men 2, We were Soldiers, Pianist, blah blah. And during the weekdays I get 2 episodes of South Park and 2 episodes of Who's Line Is It Anyway every day..woohoo! So funny...heh. Today the biggest movie that made a lotta impact on me was the movie We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson as lead actor. It's a true story of America's first assault during the Vietnam War. And what hit me deep was the carnage surrounding the battle.. the enemy would keep coming and they would keep shooting point blank range and the bodies just keep piling up. It's grotesque but I'm sure it looked and felt a lot worse when they actually happened. half charred living soldiers...skin hanging off...arghh. I felt sick......

ah well....goodbye australia...hello singapore.......did u miss me Singapore??

Catching up to do......

2005-07-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a hellish of a longish time since I last blogged. Problem was I couldnt get the internet started but finally....it's here. And then when I got the internet up, I fell terribly sick so I wasnt in the "right" state of mind to use it.

Anyway, seems like ages but I'm still overseas in Australia. I'm in Sydney this time. It's been 2 weeks already and I'm ending my 3rd week very soon. I'll be flying back to Singapore this coming Sunday. ahhh...I've been so long in Australia..i feel like a local here already. I'm familiar with my way round the sydney central area. We dont use the bus, monorail or taxi. We just use our legs and walk and walk and walk and walk. It's pretty sufficient to cover most of the sydney central areas, from the opera house all the way down to Chinatown area and then across the Darling Harbour to the Fish Market. Doesnt require money but I kindda like the idea of being able to go to these accessible places without much of a hassle. Just walk and you'll get there. I mean, it's quite tiring but hey...it's good exercise...better than jogging 2.4 cos you wouldnt wear out ur knee jts as much.

I shall backtrack to where I left off...

Last night of Melbourne:
I went to the VMAX theatre to watch War of the Worlds with my sis and her friends. It's a super wide theatre with a super wide screen. I dun think I've seen any comparable with it in Singapore. Anyway, the movie was good and yes...it was quite an abrupt ending but i did understand what was going on with the aliens in the end. Mother Nature and her biological weapons killed them...... I like the effects definitely..
After that, went down to the Crown to see people gamble. A typical gambler : Red-faced from the alcohol, face cringed and tensed, aggressive...heh... so many of them there. You know...i think I'm beggining to understand some of the reasons why when it comes to gambling, people can be so bold as to bet a $1000, or even more on a SINGLE game. It comes down to the chip. I mean a $100 all crammed into a chip. A $1000 all crammed into a chip..it kindda makes the amount look small and insignificant. When we're talking of winning money..it's not winning a $1000, or $10,000. but consciously, it's winning 2 chips or 3 chips....2 or 3 sounding little..but people hardly pay attention to the amount like $1000 on each chip?? So gambling is bad in a way. The chip system does numb our ability to judge how much is actually a lot.

In Sydney,
touched down. And the taxi driver made a long friggin detour around the central area, costing us an extra 7.50 . Wat an idiot!! Bro's place is really awesome. It's right next to Darling Harbour and close to nice restaurants. Pretty much like an apartment around Orchard Road. There's Xbox here, 50 channels on cable tv, gym, warmed-up lap pool and a friggin sauna......woohoo...! My paradise.....

There's the Sydney Fish Market where as the name suggests sells all kinds of fresh seafood..and I stress fresh..haha. You buy them and then you can order them to be cooked however u like it... garlic, lemon, sweet chili, fried. I ate so much from there....... oysters, prawns, lobsters, crabs, salmon, scallops, fish, fish, blah blahh...till it was "bloat...bloat" for me. I reckon the most luxurious part of my trip there is having that huge lobster and when they halved it and you took out the meat in one stretch...it's like eating a big big prawn...haha...beautiful...jus beautiful!! And then we all drank white wine to finish it off......

We did have a day tour to the blue mountains. It was a group of about 25 people. We were the only Singaporeans there. The rest were from USA, Finland, Ireland, Netherland, Philippines and not forgetting Australians. A nice eclectic grp of people. The blue mountains was a great sight. The view just stretched endless, on and on and on, till it was blurred by the clouds. We hiked quite a bit just to get to that strategic viewpoint. But it was worth the effort.
We walked through nature reserves and yikkity yakked along the way. That's how I befriended this elderly American couple and an Irish woman and we told each other about ourselves.. We still keep in touch via email.. anyway.. we also took this really really steep ride upwards. We almost went vertical on the ride...real scary..haha...but that was fun too.

I did go to the maritime museum to look at the submarine and the HMS vampire, which is a cruiser type of warship. I'd never been in a submarine so it was quite exciting. Basically, i reckon if ure claustrophobic, you shouldnt be a submariner. The bunk is so packed, the only wayy to make space for ur bunk area is to lie on ur bed. The control room is filled with all sorts of controls and meters they make u dizzy..wonder how the crew know what to press and what to look at when they press the buttons. The HMS vampire was interesting as the guide would tell stories of their daily routines on the warship. But the guns look so big and majestic up close....just great!

The rest of the days in Sydney was spent feasting and sightseeing. Oh I finally got to see the opera house up close. There's one thing I realised : it's tiled. I always thought it was painted or something because it looked smoooth on the TV. And the view from the opera hse is fantastic....esp at night. You get to see the sea, harbour area, buildings with the lights by the harbour...so beautiful...so complete. and u get to hear the therapeutic, nicely orchestrated sound of the waves rushing up to shore....and everything else is quiet.....ahhhh....I love moments like these...heh.

So my days in Sydney are basically like this...eating, sightseeing, working out, tv....taking pictures.. until I got real sick just recently. Started from my bro and i got infected....boyy it was horrible.,.I coughed till my throat hurt and it felt so hot in my throat. A little fever and my nose was dripping so bad I wished I could unscrews my nose, wash it, dry it and screw it back on...arghh..for 4 days i lay on the bed and slept. But all's well now...hahaha...I'm so relieved....... :)))

Well so here are my updates...hope u enjoyed! if ure sleeping already.......turn the com off and go to bed now!

2005-07-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

sis and mum all asleep...me sitting at the laptop, listening to good 'ol soft rock music.......brrr...it's very cold..brrr.... i'm kindda shaking a little bit right now ( wearing just a T-shirt and shorts now )..but i'm just too lazy to put on long pants and a jacket..heh. Anyway, I dun think I dread the cold weather. I dont think I will complain, knowing that once I return to Singapore, I'll be begging to house myself in the refridgerator.

It's been a wet and foggy day today. It drizzled for almost the whole day and as darkness set in, the fog intensity increased. Couldnt see very well so I had to drive real carefully. Today I went to Glen Waverly to do some window shopping. Quite a number of factory outlets there. Coincidentally, they were having this clearance sale, mega sale, this sale, that sale...haa. so things were pretty cheap. I wanted to get a collared T-shirt. Searched all over the complex and I just couldnt find the right one cos the designs were rather....old-fashioned. like for eg. T-shirt with "bubble" impressions on it?? like wat the....heh...so retro. In the end, I managed to get a "Marcs" T-shirt with no designs but I thought the cutting looked good and the baby blue colour was somewat different from my usual red or black or white coloured shirts. I think we spent like 4 hrs walking around, scrutinising clothes, quilt covers, handbags, shoes....etc etc. Hmm.. Funny...i thought i would 'collapse' after 30 min....which I think I normally would when it comes to the issue of "shopping"..haha..but i DIDNT.

Dinner was at this Western restaurant called Romanaza. I had spaghetti with seafood doused in white wine and garlic..haa.. sounds good doesnt it..yea..indeed it was. I tried the lamb..and it is sooo good! There was the slightest tinge of that "mutton smell", which is good cos too much of it stinks. It tasted a lot like pork, but u knew it was definitely lamb at the same time. I'm not a lamb-eater myself but....mann..this is good! Romanaza is pretty far away..so I duun think I wanna go back there again..haa.. maybe on my next trip to melbourne. The downside of staying in the suburbs is that you definitely need a car to get around cos groceries, shopping centers, restaurants are not a stone's throw away. Sometimes, when we're too lazy to go out to eat, we would buy fresh produce and cook at home...haa....it's just as tasty!! My sis says she hates "outside food". hah.. it definitely is a lot cheaper to buy your own meat and cook it. Anyway, on the other hand, the suburbs is a very easy-going, slow-pace, peaceful place to stay. For me, it's a great getaway from all the stress and worries I encounter in Spore, esp during school time. Spore..is.....madness i tell ya...haha, well...I'm pretty confident that when I get back, I'll be ready for whatever's gonna be thrown at me...just bring it on "mite"!!

Sorry I cant get any pics up. I really took a lotta pictures but u need to download those programs to load it up to ur blog..and it's not my laptop...yea so sorry abt that....but I'll post them when i return... :)

Big Brother is one hellava show! It's basically a voyeurism type of show..too bad Spore doesnt show it. It can be quite XXX with a lotta vulgarities, so it's understandable.

2005-06-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

Sat.
hmm.. I read this email forwarded by the Dean of Medicine. It was a speech made to university undergrads at...Standford Uni I think. Speaker was Mr Steve Jobs. And i felt his speech was rather motivating, especially by his life's experiences. Basically, it was all about being successful, and it all boiled down to 3 impt keypoints :

1. Gotta trust/believe in yourself.
2. Gotta love what you do
3. Gotta live everyday as if it was ur last.

I know..the 3rd one kindda sounds creepy but i think what he realli meant was that we need to have courage, and "stay hungry and foolish" in the things that we love to do. Not to have the mindset that "there's still tomorrow" but "Let's give it a shot and do it now".

Sun.
My sis still goes back to work..lol. mann.. life as a researcher is pretty tough. Well, today for lunch we went to this Chinese restaurant to have dim sum. hmm.. delicious. There were a lotta people queuing up and we thought we werent gonna make it for lunch. But guess what..lol..when we conversed in Cantonese with the guy attending to the queue, asking how long it was gonna take, within 10 min, he let us go in ahead of all the people queuing up. We were quite stunned initially but we just hurried ourselves in before we started to feel guilty.. ahh..but what the heck..it's a dog eat dog world...heh

After lunch, played tennis with my sis and her 2 friends. The weather was textbook perfect. It wasnt too cold, no wind; the sun was up but it wasnt glaringingly bright. There were a lotta other people at the tennis courts too. Apparently, tennis is a big issue in Australia, probably because Australia has many talented tennis players like Hewitt, Philipoussis, Molik..etc. It was a lotta fun...I've never played better and I've never NOT sweat this much..haha. even when I'm still running a hell lot like always..My sis's friends, Justin and Wilson are really good, hard-hitting players...lol.... i never slacked on my strokes a bit..lol..and they said they havent played in a long long time..tsk tsk...natural talent I must admit. I taught my sis how to play and she was on her way after a short while....haha..I thought it was gonna be a long-drawn coaching session...phew!... but now my leg's pretty sore..haha..it's been a week since I last ran this much. And I have blisters on my foot...cos I din wear proper tennis shoes...but i think it'll heal in time for next week for another session..hee hee.

After tennis, I helped my sis with her histology slides back at her workplace. I helped her to identify specific cell types that she wanted that had a particular staining to it. She has to do a poster and needed to capture certain regions of the tissue for her pictures. The slides were terratomas, which are tumours and they have all kinds of cell types you can find in there...keratinocytes, smooth muscle, skeletal, gut epithelium, transitional epithelim...blah blah. But I guess the muscles are just tissues cos there're no neurones anywhere...so it's non-functional. It's like one whole mumbo jumbo in the tumour. Supposedly, if the terratomas were allowed to develop for a very long period of time, you could get skin, teeth, hair and stuff and at a glance, you could mistake this terratoma for a mutated human being......interesting isnt it? hmm i think I may come across this again when i study pathology...

Dinner. I drove to boxhill, which was about 14km from our apartment. It was a long long drive I must say, cos the speed limit was only 60km/h. But it was also relaxing... hah.. i remember a friend telling me how he would go for long drives during his downest periods of his life. haha..i think i can understand why..it feels quite..therapeutic actually. But anyway, I love driving in suburban Australia more than in Singapore. It's less stressful than in Singapore. There are lesser curves to get through...and lesser cars. Mostly straight roads and going up and down hills. And another interesting thing..people here hardly sound a horn..lol... so far I've not heard any..haha...not even for a second..

Still havent been to Crown yet. But I'll definitely go there..my sis has already promised me..heh... There's still Sydney to look forward to. I gotta love this long uni vacation...lol...

The Australian accent is getting into my head. I think I can speak quite fluently after hearing it for a week..hah...even my sis who's been here for many years was convinced I sounded like one.. :) anyway.. gdnite!! yawwnnzz

2005-06-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

oh mann...as I'm typing this, my eyelids are almost on the brink of collapse; Which actually is a good thing..heh cos it shows I'm getting accustomed to the Aussie timing. Today was another relaxing day...not so much happening but a very calm, easy-going, slacking day for me...heh. wat a vacation: taking my time to do things, soaking up the new scenary, breathing in the fresh air, basking myself in the radiance of the sunshine...ahhhh.. i kindda feel retired..haaa.

This morning I was woken up briefly by some noise coming from the apartment just above us. Apparently, the ceiling that separates us from them is so thin and not soundproof, you can actually hear the thumping as they walk and the noise from the television. It's the same between us and the people living just below us..haa.. so sometimes there is a little...well "incident" when the "noise" gets apparently too much to bear. So anyway, the noise above us was that of a guy making what my mum perceives as "animal" noises and that this is followed by screams from a lady going "ahh..ahhh!" She thinks they are in the middle of an argument and abuse or something. Heh..for me, I dunno but my gut feeling tends to think....hmm. well..otherwise if you know what I mean *raising eyebrows*. Nothing beats an early morning "warm-up"...hee. I din tell my mum what I felt though...heh..

Drove to the city area today in Melbourne to have some Japanese food. We ate a lot a lot of sashimi. They were presented on a boat....salmon, tuna, some white fish, cockle, cuttlefish, oysters. They were very fresh...hmm.. It was basically a seafood dinner today. After that, we walked around for a little night sight-seeing and at the same time, it helps to process our consumed meal better. It's definitely even colder in the city, and more colourful too. It's a very cosmopolitan city; they added more shopping centers, more restaurants, there are some street performers, and also some of those going around asking for some small change..heh.( I can still remember the fish n Co incident on the day we celebrated Char's bday ).

After that, we headed off to my sis's lab where she's doing her research. Pretty cool place..lots of diff rooms, each for a specific purpose. And the microscopes are darn expensive cos they are kindda special. I can remember one is for surgery purposes ( surgery on mice for research ). Some can cost as much as $10,000 +++!!. Anyway, I watched her do some preparatory lab work, took some pics and then left.

So it sums up my day today. I spent the rest watching the whole season 1 episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. I gotta love that comedy. It portrays all the every-day-ordinary-family issues very realistically. Something I'm sure everyone including myself can relate to very easily...haha.. the squabbles, the jealousy, the biasness, the love, the togetherness.. the sucking up..hhaa.. It's so funny! I like the character Robert most..always the resentful one trying to seek attention and gaining favour, but most of the time failing cos Raymond always appears to be more doted one..no matter how hard he tries..

Oh well, my sleeping bag calls........ zzzzzzz

2005-06-23T02:16:00.000-07:00

Drove to Springvale to visit the supermarkets. It was a relatively smooth drive, compared with yesterday. Yesterday, I kindda got lost halfway after making a few "instinctive" turns and ended up at Monash Hospital..lol. Boy.. i sure have a natural instinct towards medical stuff huh...haha. I spent like almost half an hour trying to re-orientate myself, driving around. Well, so much for sight-seeing. In the end, the road map saved my day. Tried and tested : as long you have a street directory, you can never get lost even without a compass. Anyway we spent the day touring the supermarkets, scouting for fresh produce like chicken, fish, shellfish...etc. The scallops and oysters are huuggee...i must say, never seen those in Singapore. Anyway, we toured around, checking out the prices, so we would know where the bargains are. Yepp.. we're gonna be cooking for dinner some day ( and yea yea that's right..by "we" it includes me...I'll be doing some of it too ).

Springvale seems like a largely Asian area. Most of the peole there are largely Vietnamese or Cambodian. Apparently, it's not really very safe to go out at night...say after 5. My mum almost got pickpocketed but the guy din realised the pocket was zipped up....well...gotta keep on ur toes..heh...I'll be ready when things crop up...hehe. Yea, so when the sun was about to disappear, my mum was like "quick quick..let's go..." heh...makes me think about witches and werewolves...

It's been much much colder for the past few nights. Every morning, after I wake up, I wouldnt feel really encouraged to get out of my sleeping bag because it's so warm and comfy inside and as I stick my leg out of it...brrrrrrr....feels like........
I cant feel anything at all... Then after that, I would force myself up, grind my teeth to resist the cold and head promptly into the toilet to douse myself in very very very warm water...ahhhh,..haha...niceee.e.

I love the grass in Aus. It's carpet grass and when you see it stretched for miles and miles...it looks sooo...neat. I can almost lie on it and sleep..haha..but I shant do that...cos I dun wanna dirty my clothes. and It's pretty wet cos it's been drizzling for the past few days..

2005-06-21T03:30:00.000-07:00

Me sitting here with the laptop, drinking hot Jasmine tea in a cold cold room. ahh.. natural air-conditioner..saves energy, saves money. hmm..i love it when I can feel the warm tea trickling down my esophagus, warming up my neck, and the warmth gradually spreading to warm up my whole body. It feels kindda therapeutic actually...it's like...getting a mental massage. Anyway, I think I'm still suffering from the time difference between Singapore and Australia. I think right now it's about 1 am plus in Singapore..and I usually sleep later that that.. so. since I couldnt doze off, so I'm here blogging..

Staying in the suburbs off city area in Melbourne is really peaceful and relaxing. The traffic is relatively smooth, the weather is not icy cold, and there's definitely plenty of landscape around. Everything feels so....vast...and endless...peaceful.. I had my dish of fresh oysters in lemon juice...hmmm... it's so fresh I could almost smell the sea in those shells. And I'm definitely looking forward to more oysters, scallops and lobsters. It's really cheap here, unlike in Singapore. Heck about the cholesterol levels..heh. I shall consume more garlic after that...

So far, I spent most of the 2 days helping my sis pack up her apartment. It's pretty messy, the mess accumulated over the "years" because she's so busy with her research she hardly has time to pack after moving in. So, we helped her around to sort out all the boxes, books, utensils, wardrobe, CDs...etc etc. I also arranged some of the furniture to make the room more spacious. It looks very neat and tidy now...heh.. I'm so proud of it...after hours of hard work... :)

I did a bit of driving today so I could familarise myself with the roads. You definitely need a car to move around in the suburbs because there are bus-stops but i hardly see any buses so far. And the supermarket and restaurants are not close by. I guess I had a bit of work trying to get used to the system in Australia. No yellow boxes, no clear-cut right angle turns, and there are always some new lanes popping up here and there so if ure not careful you may end up in the wrong lane suddenly, which could spell a "one-way ticket"...haa.. but there are many U-turn points so if you make a mistake, you can always return to your previous position. My mum was a little anxious as usual, but I think I've earned her trust.. although I wasnt really confident of myself, I still put on a brave, "arrogant" front and told her "No problem at all!!..." hee hee... heyy.. at least I'm more confident now...haa..there's always a first time.... hmm..new experience..driving in Aus. I love new experiences.... :)

The people in Aus are pretty friendly...though mostly not Australians themselves. I noticed quite a number of Asian people; HK, Vietnam, China, Japan...some Singaporeans I suppose.
I think I'm starting to get the hang of the Aussie twang..haha... yea mate..
I hear from my sis there's a HK lesbian couple living downstairs...hee hee.. and they own a yellow mini-cooper...think I'll take a pic of that..heh.

2005-06-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

"Jen the cow" on the rightmost part of the picture and his red milk bottle. likman on left most, followed by an "elderly 20 year old char", lenith and an even elderly me.

2005-06-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Char made to stand

Waltzing Matilda

2005-06-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

Gooddayy mate! Well, I've finally finished packing up for the 1 mth vacation Down Under. Last night, I got back home prettty late so I just took out whatever I needed and laid them on the bed. So, this morning, I packed all those things in...and viola..done in 20 min..haha..easy does it.. I think I havent been on a vacation since like...last year..and it's my first time going away for so long... I'm definitely looking forward to the fresh fresh super fresh seafood, great scenary, not so much shopping, museum, cold weather, and working out in the cold weather..( never done that before really..lol ). I think I'm going to enjoy this, and I better enjoy what's left of my vacation, after which I'll be sobering myself up in preparation for the commencement of Yr 2 NUS medical school ( I still dont use Yong Loo Lin..haha )

Last night was the celebration of Charmaine's 20th birthday. Heh. Welcome to the 20s club. We had dinner at fish n Co and I must say the Caesar salad isnt my taste. It was too awfully sour and salty with the sour cream and the cheese together.. I thought my blood vessels were gonna sprout leaks all over the place...well, at least I felt them that way. But anyway, we got Charmaine a lamp, cake, and i think we paid for her dinner or something like that.. i dunno..but it sure looked like a mess trying to sort out the financial issues of the dinner. We got the performer there to strum the tune of happy birthday whilst we sang and Charmaine stood on the chair. What a blast for her 20th birthday. I'm sure 21st is gonna get even bigger because it's a much more significant age than 20.

After dinner, we went to wallk around Clarke Quay. We witnessed somebody doing the reverse bungee jumping. Then, I had a go at the unicycle. It was definitely difficult trying to balance urself and cycle....much much different from the bicycle. Well, at least i managed to cycle ( with some support ) a few meters..heh...My groin kindda hurt though....*ouch*... We took a lot of pictures, with statues, bridges, with trees, with leaves on walls....come to think about it... basically with anything i guess... It was a nice gathering overall... :)

Well, I think I'm gonna get changed now. Will take a lotta pics in Aussie...and when I have the time I shall blog about the adventures. Till then.... see u around mate!

2005-06-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Finally got an ATM card. heh. At least now I dont have to use the Passbook anymore. But then again, I think I wouldnt carry the card with me at all times just in case I may lose it. Only when I need the money....

Well, now that army is over, by now, I would have completed the army-civilian transformation. Then again, not much to transform in the first place...hahahha. Life's been going on as usual, after I've picked it up where I left it. Been doing a lot of reading of late, watching tv, constantly educating myself, constantly updating myself with what's happening around the world. I watched a documentary entitled "Kamikaze In Colour". Basically, it explains about Japan's most highly feared weapon at that time of WWII : Kamikaze pilots. These pilots were earmarked to die for their country. They would fly in planes filled with tons of explosives and crash them into ships, usually resulting in a sinking of those ships, thereby fulfilling their concept of "one aeroplane, one ship". Even if they made it out alive the first round, they would fly on another mission and crash their planes again, hoping this time they would succeed...heh.. succeed to die.. what chilling phrase..... But from a certain perspective, I admire their courage and loyalty to their country, willing to leave their families, their wives, sons, parents, girlfriends,...willing to sacrifice themselves for their country. I must say, the kamikaze was a truly effective weapon against the allies, and it was probably the Americans, who saw the difficulty in bringing the Japs to surrender, that they resorted to using the atomic bomb. There was really no clear-cut solution to overcome the kamikaze tactic. The Americans relied heavily on patrol squadrons to take them out before they could do harm...and when the Japs managed to slip past, the battleship will just keep firing and firing and firing till the planes exploded in mid-air. Even a plane shot down and crashing posed a serious danger because of the prospect of the explosives crashing into those ships.

Jogged at bishan park today wearing my SJI PE attire.. definitely felt good feeling like a Josephian again. Somehow I always feel stronger and fitter wearing those than other kinds of attire. I like my SJI days alot...at least I like it better than my JC days.... :)

ORD again..lol

2005-06-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well, i think this is gonna be a long post. I havent posted for a very long time, so I shall start from top....

ORD : 10 June
The day I fninished my first ICT. When I returned my NSman pass, it definitely felt like reaching my ORD again. heh. I couldnt stop smiling when I returned the stuff to the admin people. Well, the first ICT was not as bad as I thought it was. Quite a chalet i suppose..ha. I got to meet up with the people I was with during my NSF days, the officers, the sgts, my maintenance team, the drivers, Hokkien "ping". I like the Hokkien "ping" best...heh...i really respect them. I mean, even though they have that attitude thingy, but I kindda feel very assured being with them... They are simple people, simple thoughts, simple expectations... no stress. What I admire about them is they dont care if ure a staff sgt or a warrant officer or even an officer. As long as they feel they have been wronged, they go all the way mannn... and curse in the crueliest manner humanly possible..haha... but somehow, it doesnt feel insulting. Everybody's like laughing every time they start talking.... The atmosphere only seemed all too familiar...haha. I guess some things just dont change. We had a blast, reminiscing those times we spent, doing crazy things, stupid things and laughing it all out. In a way, i dont miss army, but I do miss the people I served with in the army. I spent the free time in the mess, and I was taught how to play snooker ( the big one ) by my buddies. I really liked it when we talked, laughed, fooled around (when nobody was watching)...so carefree, no worries, no nothing, unlike my first year med school days...haha.. when I have to think about exams and trying to get facts in my stubborn brain.. I think overall, I'm very fortunate to meet people with such diverse backgrounds. I learnt alot from them: about values, about attitude towards life, about friendship........ about trust. We shared a lot of our experiences about life after the army, and I was really amused with some of their stories..haha...about career, relationships...heh.. prostitution and massage parlours.... and they kept asking and teasing me about gynaecology stuff.. I gotta tell ya... although I feel like an old man in my faculty, I feel like a kid in the camp. Everybody's all more or less grown up already, a great proportion of them already working full-time, some married, some married and planning to have kids, some with kids already...mannn.. time flies..... I'm definitely looking forward to the next ICT. It's quite a relaxed one, though 14 days. But it's nice to see familiar faces...

Sat 11 June
Met up with my NJC classmates whom I've not met up for almost two years. I must say, they all look pretty much the same to me. Ann Leong looked sunburnt that day though. heh. Apparently, he stood hours under the sun selling for M1....things people do to earn money..heh.. i think i should start earning some too.. Guess wat, One of them is already convocating this year and starting work soon..mannn. and I've only completed year 1. Good luck yingying! Good luck as you slowly embark on this journey, climbing up the corporate ladder. For me, I'm seriously behind time...heh. Peixuan...well, she's gonna finish her final year project and will start working very soon too. Hope you get ur wish to work in a pharmaceutical industry... maybe one day I'll buy drugs from u huh..hahah. For the rest of the guys, well, I guess we dont have to think about the future yet and concentrate on enjoying during our study years. Anyway, we had dinner at this super expensive chinese restaurant at Clarke Quay ( $18 fried rice?????). The total cost for the meal was $200!!!! But I must say, the food was delicious. Then after dinner, we took pictures. I must say, my camera is a real charmer. I asked this Western lady to help me take a pic...and she was like commenting how "lovely it looks"... and then when I got this girl with an American accent to help me take a picture, the group of girls she was in all started commenting how good it looks and one of them asked if she could have it....and I was like....sheesh...can we get this picture taken or not? Of course, I just played along..haha.... whilst the rest of my friends just stood there waiting for me....paiseh. We went to tcc for some coffee and chatted about the courses we were taking, and about uni life in general. Wat a perfect reunion..heh. we just couldnt stop talking......:)

Sun 12 June
Rest day for me..haha.. I started packing up all my army stuff and stored it away..heh. See you in another year's time.. !

Mon 13 June
Feel a little tired. I stayed up very very late watching WWE Judgement Day and at the same time, switched channels between that and F1 racing. I'm so happy Ferrari is finally back to its usual form. They managed to secure 2 podium finishes and Rubens Barrichello had to start from the pit lane, which put him way back....and in the end, he managed a 3rd. i thought it was a amazing effort for him. I kind of like Ferrari, cos I like the scarlet red on their cars...heh.. the rest of the colours kindda seem dull and boring.

My fellow fac mate is a real good poet....mann.. poems with a local Singaporean flavour...haa..carry on the good job el.. maybe when u retire u can switch to writing after that....lol..

SALUTE

2005-06-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

Oh well, after I make this post, I'll be a soldier again.

Tomorrow is the day I go for reservist. I've got all my stuff packed and boy is my duffel bag heavy! Well, i guess I'm looking forward to it in a sense that I can get to see my army buddies again. It would make a nice reunion. On the other hand, there's training, IPPT, and cannot go home, and outfield, and no tv, computer, which is not desirable...haha.. but ah well..what is 5 days when I've been through years of it....heh... no sweat..haha...(rriighhtt) trying to console myself.

I just pray I wont encounter any accidents and get myself injured. It's bloody stupid if anything happens to me now. Looking at my uniform all neatly arranged, ready to be worn, sure brings back those good and bad memories. Having to labour with your "brothers", and yet, in the midst of all the strenuous work, we always seem to find something to laugh about.. ahh..i love those days...heh

Oh well, i guess I better turn in earlier than usual,...so goodbye! and I'll report back to you in say.... 5 days time. Enjoy your hols!!! *SALUTE*

2005-06-04T01:22:00.000-07:00

well, another week has passed.. time flies. I had altogther 3 sessions of tennis this week so I'm kindda feeling sore all over now. heh. But I guess it's a good way to maintain your fitness, a time to regain strength after the period of lull, which I spent indulging in my books. Today was quite a horrid weather to play tennis though. The scorching sun was ever relentless, beating its rays down on me, exhausting me, sucking away my energy ounce by ounce until I had to scream in agony with every shot I made. And the sun never once blinked, It just kept on sucking...on and on and on... I remember having to pour water on my head and body many times just to keep my temperature down. Otherwise, I would have suffered the effects of heat exhaustion... heh. On another note, I think I really look like a panda now, with tanned forearms (only) and tanned leg up to the mid-thigh......

Just watched a documentary on Lusitania, a cruise liner ship carrying innocent passengers, sunk by a German U-boat at a time when WWI had begun. I remember doing a project on it during my secondary school days. Well, it reinforces how war is like hell; no lives are spared, not even children, not even babies. War is a time when empathy is only shared among victims. Empathy is never shared between the "victim-iser" and the victim, and even if it is so, it's a sign of mental weakness, an incapacitator that prevents one from doing "The Job". Such is the hellish nature of war.

2 more days and counting...... I'm already starting to unload all the stuff from the storeroom...

2005-06-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

today was another 2 hr anatomy session with the jc students. As usual, some were sighing away, stoning, yawning, nodding with their eyes closed, basically the "sian-ness" written all over their faces. I dun blame them. They got a common test at the end of June, they must have been going through hell now. Guess wat, after like countless sessions of lecture, I found out that they din know wat "sagittal" and "coronal" was.. like werrttt. These are basic anatomical terms...they should know!! How are they gonna understand the atlas pictures and slides and identify the anatomical parts without understanding how the section is made? sigh..i guess that's what happens when u want to get right into the stuff; you lose track of the basic, fundamental things you should know.

heh.. there was a little confusion over what action the superior/inferior recti muscles do to the eyeball, in comparison with the superior/inferior oblique muscles. I was a little embarrassed actually because it's like I'm telling them recti muscles would move the eyeball medially whilst those oblique muscles would do so laterally. Then, I was told wrong..haha..mannn... embarrassing.. but then afterwards, Larry and I went to check the anatomy book for confirmation..and turns out correct.. phew... so we were like... telling them "medially"...and then a few minutes later "no, laterally" and then after that "medially"...haha... what a scew up there.. well, not like we can remember every anatomy fact...

Yesterday was Sam's bday dinner. Happy belated birthday Sam!! Hope you like your slippers... You're 20 now eh? haha.. finally, a "2" in the tens digit. We had dinner at Kenny Rogers where we ate and talked and laughed...especially at Jayne's...err...never mind..but I still cannot believe you cannot tell the difference between a restaurant, where you can clearly see lots of people, and a STOREROOM??? well...haha...what else is new isnt it?? heh....at least there's something to laugh about. Laughter has medical benefits you know...all thanks to you...even if you never intended it to be a joke in the first place.. Now that's what I call.... "a natural comedian"....the thing is... the joke's on you..hahahaa.... but heyy... dun get cocky yahh... retain your... how shall i put it.... "humbility"???

6 more days to enlistment day..well not exactly that but at least it feels like it all over again....heh..sighhzzzz

2005-05-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

heh...thanks for tagging me... so here goes :)

Choose five occupations from the list below and fill in the blanks. If I tag you, you're supposed to answer in your own weblog. If you don't want to, let me know so I can tag someone else.(haha nvm abt this part... if u dont wanna tag back ..)

If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an inn-keeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be an astronaut...
If I could be a world famous blogger...
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...
If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

If I could be a farmer, I would plant all the herbs, chillies and vegetables in the backyard so I wouldnt have to buy them at the supermarket. And I could just lie down, relax and occasionally pluck some to eat..ahh..being one with nature....heh Being self-sufficient is the best..always.

If I could be an astronaut, I would plunge myself into the eerily unknown depths of the black hole to see what it is like inside. Could be a one-way ticket but..hey.. at least stephen Hawking has his work cut out for him..

If I could be a lawyer, I'll sue as much as I can as a form of revenue for me... :)

If I could be a scientist, I'll construct a time machine to travel to the future and see what numbers come out in 4D and which soccer matches will be won by which team... then.. i'll travel back to the present time and make huge bets....sure win baby!! hahah... $$$ *evil*

If I could be a doctor, I shall treat every patient with utmost respect and not think that people malinger ALL the time...even when they are RECRUITS.. If they malinger, evidence will be presented by itself...... Also, I shall try my best to treat and cure every single patient to the best of my abilities and even if there is no other way, he/she will pass away in the most painless of manners, it would seem as though they are just travelling to another world....... :)

oh well i shall tag RX, EL, TER, FQ, SW...dunno if all will read it though..mann..i love these short-form names..haha

2005-05-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

ahh... weekends are here all over again. You know, yesterday i thought today was saturday but it's actually friday! I almost went to nj cos of that. Good thing my mum kindda reminded me when i told her i needed to go to nj. argh..I think i'm losing track of time..haha.. too much play I suppose instead of too much mugging.

Weather's been pretty good lately. I've been doing some exercise, priming myself for the action I'll be going through in about a weeks' time. Although I hope I wouldnt have to...hah..i guess it's a good way of motivating yourself to stay fit and healthy, and not follow the tradition of being "fair, flat flabby" after all the years in med school. I certainly hope I wont become part of the statistic..

Great Singapore Sale is coming...although i dun think I would buy stuff, cos i dun think i have a lotta money in the first place. Nevertheless, I do kindda like the atmosphere of seeing people getting euphoric over shopping: the madness, the hunger, the desperation.. hehe.. it's amusing.

2005-05-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today was kindda like a heart-stopper in the morning. Somehow my computer wasnt working well. It kept hanging after the main page was loaded so i couldnt access any programs at all. I just kept restarting, reset, restarting, hoping to get a break. I must have done so like 20 or more times. Then finally, it worked well. I removed the icq, deleted some other obsolete programs and everything went well after that..phew..I was starting to worry cos a lotta stuff are inside the computer. sighz. Technology... it's so important in our everyday lives, to the point it makes us vulnerable. Sometimes, I feel there's nothing better than having information on papers. It's safer that way.

Ahh...today i managed to scrap off 15s from my previous 2.4km timing yesterday. Looks like if i keep this up, $200 is a piece of cake just waiting for me to eat it....haha. I wouldnt settle for $400 though..i dun think I'm that good... $200 is good enough.

And did u know, the size of our testicles is midway, bigger than the gorilla but smaller than the chimpanzee. The reason being, the female gorilla is a relatively more faithful species, so there's really no need to produce a lot of sperm to increase the chances of the female bearing a male gorilla's child. On the other hand, the female chimpanzees are kindda an adulterous lot. So, a male chimpanzee would have to produce a lot a lot of sperm, so there's a higher probability of success for the male. So for humans, it's somewhere inbetween because the behaviour of female is in comparison somewhere in between ....wonders of evolution..heh

Come to think about it, kindda sucks comparing your fidelity to that of a chimpanzee and a gorilla..LOL. and from a philosophically ideal point of view, we're worse off than gorillas..hahaha..

PHS screening

2005-05-23T01:18:00.000-07:00

Today was a really really long day for me. It was Public Health Screening day at Toa Payoh HDB hub. I was among the many assistants there helping people fill out their questionaires, get their BMI taken, and distributing goodie bags to those people who had finished their screening. Well, there are definitely more people today than yesterday. Our target number of people to attract is 1000. On sat, we could only reach 590++ but today it is 950++ which is really not bad..that's the closest we got to our target.

I think I enjoyed helping people fill out their questionaires most. I think it's pretty useful, cos I learnt getting over the language barrier, trying to understand them and them understand me. Sometimes, what they say may seem really understandable but upon further probing, you find that they are not answering to the question at all, then you have to rewind and rephrase your question to get a coherent answer. And I feel very happy helping people get by their difficulties, it gives me a lot of satisfaction just to see them smile in appreciation after I've helped them with their questionaires; kids, adults, elderly alike...very fun..i think I'm gonna like my doctor job..helping people... :)

Oh and surprise surprise..i saw the NJC librarian. Apparently, the last time I saw her was when I was in JC2. And after like 3 years later, she still recognises me and called out to me first..lol.. amazing... and noo.. jayne..I wasnt a regular customer at the library...only during exams...which is very very normal k.... she recognises me cos I'm a recognisable person..not anything else...heh

I played with the BMI machine and then after standing for like almost a day, I decided to slack around and sat down distributing goodie bags. It kindda got boring..and everybody was dying to go home.. Ter had a splitting headache.., rx was pacing up and down, char and jayne just sitting there and helped out to distribute those bags. We wanted to pack a "winner" goodie bag with lots of apples and water bottles and tissue paper..BUT when one lady saw her bag with a huge stash of tissue while her other friends did not, one of those other friends came over and started asking... so since it was kindda getting embarrassing to distribute the goodies unevenly, we scraped the idea.

Overall, it was an enjoyable though tiring experience. I kindda liked the idea of doing something with our OGLs ( shaofeng, derek, greg, cristelle, michelle )...like some reunion or sth... we ended the day with dinner at mos burger ( fq, me, rx, ter, jayne ), and after that, we all parted our ways..and everyone was totally exhausted by then... :)

What a day...!

2005-05-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Oh well, finally i can really really begin to enjoy my holidays now. The PDCP examination is over! I think i wrote a lotta crap, sometimes not even knowing what I am writing about. I suppose as long as you write something from the notes, you are gonna get some credit for that... heh. i hope. But i felt as though I was writing GP essays all over again; talking about personality and social self...blah blah.. all those philosophies.. why do they even bother to come up with such questions. After all, like what the notes had said "practice and actual experience is far more effective than pure theories". I wonder why we must write down all those theories...borrriinngg...

After that, I went with my anat grp for our first luch together. I stress "first"...lol after one whole year, we finally got together. It definitely felt awkward, that we see each other most of the time and yet, we dont really socialise much...ahh.. i must say i'm pretty proud that i initiated it..haa..well somebody had to do something about it! We ate at Scotts, talked a lot and then got a present for Prof Gopal, our dear head and neck tutor. We got him an assorted range of chocolate biscuits and signed our names next to each biscuit picture. But since there werent enough variety of biscuits to cater to all 16 of us, some had to be part of the ingredients list, and some under the weight of the package.

Then, things started to fall apart for me. My counsellor had asked me to help him deliver some goods to Toa Payoh HDB hub. Initially I din want to cos...u know...lazzy..haha..but since he was my counsellor and he DID help me alot in my studies, I guess I owed him. So i went to Toa Payoh mrt and waited like 2 hrs for them to come...argh....while waiting, i went to Popular, read all kinds of books, even flipped through primary and secondary school assessment books and attempted those science questions..Went to the food court..sat down,...got bored so I started reading my PDCP notes...(see what I was reduced to)... but then it got kindda complicated and I lost concentration and decided to walk about to look at clothes...which i dun normally do..so u can imagine how freaky i became... when they finally came after 2 hrs...i only did like 10min worth of work...weerrttt... and I was the only M1 there! mann..wat a sucker..lol... ah well... i guess i did it for my counsellor since he asked me to..

Then I wanted to go back to nus to settle and confirm my sunday list of volunteers for PHS. and boy was it dragging... had to help them buy tissue boxes, then wasted time finding them... before i could hitch a ride back to nus. But then again, I hit another brick wall...they went to some hardware store to get some tape and here I was...feeling so out of place...thinking to myself "for God's sakes!! Get me back to nus! ". When they wanted to go have dinner outside nus...that's it mann... i told the guy..i wanted to get back to nus!!! But luckily, they all din feel like eating outside..so I managed to get back to nus without causing much of a stir.

When I went back to nus med soc...I felt so relieved that I could get back to finish off making all those phone calls.....just as i finished one phone call..... I received a literally "mind-breaking" news... my dear fq said he did them all already..including the sun one........arrgghhh!!... sighz... haha...well he did offer to give me some money cos he tot i took a taxi and I was tempted to take the money...haha...but..no...i cannot...i din pay a single cent getting to nus..so it's not rightt..nevertheless,..i felt like another sucker yet again ( someone get me a pacifier!) ah well, i guess it's just my luck... i guess i can seek solace over the fact I did whatever I was supposed to do and finished it...heh....at least i din let anybody down today..that's more important..

Mann, I wonder why there are so many fund-raising activities. It's like there's a competition to be compassionate... :

today when I was getting out of the escalator, this girl stepped right up to me, even intruding into my personal space and this is how she asks for charity....
girl :"Sir, can u give me 5 minutes?"
me :"err... i'm in a bit of a....." (was about to say 'rush')
girl :*interrupting* "NO! LISTEN TO ME!!" (i was taken aback)
me :"err...oh ok.."
girl :"Can u donate to *******, it's just $5"
me :"Sorry i dun have enough money"
girl :"But it's jusss..."
me :"sorry"...( and i walked away )

Man...she looked so frustrated asking for donation, all that desperation sure contradicts how we should usually ask for donations ( be happy and carefree ). I would have given her some money if she hadnt been so rude in the first place..... tsk tsk....

2005-05-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, the PDCP sessions are over!! argh..i found it quite boring. I rather have more interactive activities for boring subjects like these. Too much sitting down and listening to the lecturer talk.. i almost went crazy.. Some people decided to pon tutorials today..heh.. shows how bad it is. Me, i guess i survived by drawing nonsense and modifying my name into some kind of a series of pictures. ..well now that lessons are over, there's gonna be a test on fri..sianz...essay writing too...soo gonna start reading all those notes all over again..

Man, i got kindda frustrated over email addresses yesterday. I was supposed to send a file to a long list of people. Problem 1 was : the email add were all in an excel file, so i couldnt copy all the addresses at once and paste them. Had to do them individually. Problem 2 was : somebody's email add was invalid, and I had to slowly sift out the invalid one by sending the same email to the people a little at a time... mann.. that was so tedious. At least I managed to get the job done..hee

Just saw an email by Dickson and he was trying to explain what a lot of people deemed as unfair in the selection of ogls..heh..man...if everybody could go in and there were no interviews...wouldnt be such a problem right??

Back in School

2005-05-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

I went back to school today for my PDCP session, which is generally about managment/communication skills, developing the EQ blah blah blah... I found it quite boring; i mean how do you teach such things?? It's something which has to be learnt when ure at a young age, and to be learnt continuously, not now through powerpt presentations..and you can only learn better through experience. Theories in these matters mean nothing. I mean whatever they had mentioned could even be wrong because we are faced with so many different kinds of situations, that each one requires a unique approach. We have to be kind at times, empathise at times, be compassionate; yet we must also learn to be strong-headed, be fierce, be uncompromising, be an idiot everybody hates...etc etc. The point is, we must be able to switch to different "modes" according to the situation that is presented to us, so that we can get the job done. It's all about getting the job done and if you can pull this off, no matter what an idiot you are, people will still respect you. After all, we can never please everybody... ..

Nevertheless, it was good to see my fac mates after quite some time. El has dyed hair now, ter appears to go retro and the rest are pretty much the same....

Thanks guyz....

2005-05-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

I was very surprised today when Ruxin, on behalf of the OG, presented me with a very belated bday present. LOL. I thought I was gonna get Wiggley's chewing gum from JB...but i got more than I expected.. I got a nice-fitting Spiderman (oohhh yeeaa) T-shirt, which I'm wearing right now as I'm typing this. And the more significant part..I got a mug (apparently its significance is derived from the word "mugger", which I'm known to be ) and inside the mug, very cleverly written, is a poem. I enjoyed it very much...and I couldnt stop smiling reading it over and over and over again....lol.. I really want to thank the people who contributed to this: namely Jayne, Siwei, Ter, El, Fq and ruxin. Thank you very much people.... :) ...I seriously never expected you to think up of something like this..haha..

I like spiderman...he's agile, fast, smart, good-looking, yet humble...something which I can relate to very very easily....haha..yea yea...jeer all u want.. A man needs to feel good about himself too you know...:) .

haha...well looking at the poem...there are definitely things i need to change about myself... being the mugger i suppose is one of the more critical things I need to work on. I know for this Year 1..i've worked really hard, but somehow, i realise I've overdone it...too much for too little. But i guess i did feel a little paranoid after staving off studies for like 2.5 years and thinking that my mind wasnt as good as it used to be, but i know now..that I havent lost it...yet. People have been telling me wat a mugger I am...i know...hey..nobody's perfect...takes a while to realise that..heh. I think what's important is balance..there's a time to play...there's a time to work..takes a lot of discipline to achieve that balance. So, I shant be a 100% mugger no more..
i'm targeting...70%?? hopefully..but u guyz....dun play me out k...say play....then yr2 all become study freaks...heh..either that, or I'm changing at the wrong time...

And I'm a worldly person alright...just not in that aspect...heh..but I'm worldly in other aspects...
besides...lucky draw has some association AT LEAST to a potluck..hee

Uchenna and Joyce

2005-05-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Uchenna and Joyce for winning the US$1 million in the Amazing Race! I'm so proud of them because despite all the difficulties they faced, they overcame them eventually.

They started the final league of the race with no money and had to go around begging. Instead of going straight to the onion shack, they made a detour to the airport to beg for money, putting themselves very much behind time from the other 2 teams. What i admired about the couple is their optimism and perseverance NO MATTER WHAT. and the fact that they made sure the cab driver got paid before they entered the premises where the last pit-stop was. I think Rob Amber couldnt be bothered if they were in the same situation...lol.

I think Uchenna and Joyce deserve to win and I'm so happy that their dreams of having a child will soon become reality. They can afford IVF and even if it doesnt work, they can always adopt. I think the lesson I learnt from this couple is that in whatever u do, you must always persevere no matter how hard it seems to be...never say die...never ever ever say die.....just like what Winston Churchill ("never give up, never ever give up") had said to his nation when Germany occupied the whole of Western Europe and Britain was left on its own to face the German forces. Eventually, Germany gave up trying to invade Britain. So perseverance is an important attribute to be successful....in any aspect of life. It has been tried and tested many many times....and it works... heh.

2005-05-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today i woke up, and the dark and cloudy sky brought a smile.... ahhh.. finally it's morning and it doesnt feel hot. As I opened the windows and felt the cool breeze glide its hand gently across my face, I closed my eyes and savoured every moment of it...ahhh... so nice..heh. At last, the weather is starting to change for the better.

I went back to my former Khatib camp today to make purchases for new sets of uniforms because my current ones have all been faded ( you can almost see the whites already ). bah...if it wasnt for reservist, I couldnt be bothered..lol.. too bad. And as I trudged my way to the guard room,

"Good morning Sir"
"I need to go to the emart"
"Sure, please fill this up Sir"

lol... "sir"....somehow i dun get used to people calling me that. If i were still NSF, he'd treat me like shit... darn RPs..ahha...well too bad...I've "graduated"..haha.. inn urrrr ffaccee...sucker!! (giving them my pink IC)... Then as I walked past the a second guard, I looked at him..and I couldnt help but smile at him...haha... saddd... everyday that's their life.. standing and guarding...

As i was driving back, I passed by a convoy of artillery guns making their way to some place for exercise probably. I saw their camouflaged, exhausted faces...dirty, wet....exhausted.. haha...brings back those memories when I was sitting in those trucks experiencing the same thing... I couldnt help but laugh...and laugh... and laugh.and crying...."ORD LOH !!!! bye bye!!!.." and sped off.........
hahahaha...i'm mean...but hey...every man goes through this ..haha..

Trip Down Memory Lane

2005-05-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I went back to my primary school, St Michael's Primary, together with a primary school classmate. It was a refreshing experience. Although the school has changed a lot, I felt happy that there were still remnants of the school that still remained where I had left it. It brought back fond memories of my adolescent days. The St Michael's statue still stood there proudly; the football pitch was still as barren as before; the basketball posts were now rusty and stashed away in some remote corner; and somehow, i felt the desks in the classrooms were rather low.. But most importantly, and surprisingly, some teachers who were around in my time were still around. LOL. after 8 years not going back to visit, the teachers can still remember me, although not all! But that's good enough for me..heh..i was expecting none. Some recognised the face but not the name..

I spent the most amount of time with my P5/P6 form tutor, who in my time just started out her career. Now she is a HOD. woaa..talk about progress.. she must be doing really well. She is still happily married to a fellow teacher..hah..i'm really happy for them. She should really start considering to have children...think she's around 35 already.. But i can remember that when I was P5/P6, there were certainly alot of evidence of the two courting each other..haha...i never believed combined class lessons were useful...there had to be some motive..haha. Anyway, she was like telling me how kids these days are not like in our time;they are now much bolder, naughtier...and she's thinking of quitting teaching after 11 years... because of them.. sigh.. darn kids.. But anyway, it felt great when she told me how proud she was of our class: we have 3 doctors in all so far. heh..i promise I wont let her down, esp when she told me she sortta got a hunch that I was gonna study medicine in future.... lol... i feel very inspired now..haha.

One thing is funny, the school seemed to have a lot of pregnant teachers. Everywhere i go i see big tummies. One of the teachers was joking I should be a gynaecologist so I could do free consultation for all of them...yeea riigghhtt.. and at what age would u be by then? hah. All the teachers definitely look older, some spotting grey hair, some looking quite haggard already, some with lesser hair...haha..the stress of teaching... and it can only get worse..lol.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience taking this trip down memory lane. Kindda feels funny treating ur ex-teachers as your friends now. Somehow, they all behave differently when ure all grown-up... to me some appear kindda kiddy-type ( must be the influence from the kids).. very carefree...very normal people i guess... feels odd when they start to tell you they need money lah... very stress lah..need to take classses... maybe cos to me, i still see them as my teachers...my role models. People who have everything...and who have everything to give. Such nobility in the teaching profession.............It commands respect.. *bow*

Saw the funeral procession of the late Dr Wee Kim Wee. He was such a people's president, a true man for others. I will miss his presence surely...

Loser Me Today (II)

2005-05-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Argh!! it never ends...hehe. Today I was supposed to be at ZK's house to play tennis ( the tennis courts are darn brand new ). But so mercilessly, Mother Nature had to make it rain. Actually, I wouldnt mind if it rained all the way, but she had to make it start, stop, start again...giving me false hopes. Here's a chronology of bad luck events :

1. Started to rain. Tennis put on hold. I'm keeping fingers crossed. Very nervous now.
2. Rain subsided. Called ZK, who said rain had stopped for quite a while. Very happy now.
3. On the way there, in the mrt, the rain starts again. Very shitty now.
4. I thought i could stop short of Bukit Batok, by dropping off at Bukit Gombak. The plan was to walk across this Bukit Batok town park, which to me, on the map seemed like any ordinary park with pavements ( like East Coast Park ). Little did I know, I was confonted by this wilderness, the so-called "park" that I had planned to walk across to get to ZK place. The only way I could cross it is if i had some ropes, parang, cabarina, and a backpack with a huge camping light.... yea.. so much for the "park". On with plan B then.
5. On reaching Bukit Batok, it seemed as though it wasnt raining. Glimmer of hope here.
6. As i boarded the bus, it started raining, and i heard thunder. Very shitty now.
7. I stopped short of ZK condo. And as i walked, i suddenly found myself back at the interchange (wweerttt!). And i was walking in the rain, using my "triple-threat" tennis racket cover as shelter for my head. And the more i walked, the rain kept getting heavier and heavier. Very very shitty now.
8. Boarded the same bus at the same interchange ( talk abt deja vu..heh ) ..and this time i ended up dropping off at the right point. Some moment of accomplishment...heh
9. Raising my tennis racket cover over my head, under the rain, I climbed the slope that eventually led to ZK's condo...ahh..wat a relief...i was quite drenched after that..

Walking past the empty and wet tennis court, it stood there silently, as though watching my every move, I could almost imagine it saying..." LOL...LOOSSEERR!!" bah...i took a glimpse at it, and then retreated, defeated, glump, into the lift...

Heh...oh well...shit happens..hehe.. What wouldnt kill me can only make me stronger..haha.. i just learnt that phrase. At least fq was there, and zk had his PS2. We played wrestling on the PS2 and had fun making those wrestling moves. We finally got to see the sharpshooter!!! haha.. and the crossface.. i think Rey mysterio's 619 is the best animation seen on the video game...aha.
Showed ZK my racket, who seemed rather impressed with it, although i think he wanted to see what a $400 racket was like. Hey..it's a very good racket..heh..then i sortta briefed him on the basics of tennis strokes, before i left together with fq...heh..was fun i guess admist the disaster..hah

I'll be back.....I'll be back.....dun think i'm finished with u yet Mr tennis court...I'll make sure i'll hit the paint out of ur tarmac..haha..wait and see. ...

Loser Me today (I)

2005-05-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Man, i totally feel like a loser. I signed up for a part-time job, hoping to earn some petty cash. I had come across this ad requiring door to door surveying at Sembawang. Turns out, the surveying isnt filling in the questionaire type. U gotta go to every household to ask them if they are thinking of selling the flat and if they do, take down their particulars. There's a min wage of $5/hr ( wat!! for a night job? mann..that's exploitation ) and if you get enough contacts, max around $7.50/hr ( wat!!!!!! i can get that same amt or maybe higher doing a day job ). And u know what else, u cant get ur pay until u've done it 8 days..that sux.. i thought it was a one-off thing. Anyway, they didnt give me the full details on the phone, so i only found out when i got there. In the end, i chose not to do it and went back home, empty-handed....ah well...sembawang anyway, it was pretty close to where i lived.

Think i was kindda mean to the girl..heh..i kept telling her i wasnt happy with the way they were witholding information. and she kept saying company policy...bahh..i dun take that crap...heh.. I think i feel kindda bad now..lol...she was kindda pleasant-looking..hehe.. but nevertheless, when it comes to talking business...no goddess can distract me..haha. Anyway, think i shall just stick to relief-teaching.

I feel like a court jester taking a pic from here

2005-05-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

I feel like a court jester taking a pic from here
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

hmmmmmmmmm....

2005-05-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmmmm....
Originally uploaded by JRetical.

it's chocolate cake with cream at the bottom. And then there's a thick layer of chocolate at the top. With i think almonds over it.

Sunday night

2005-05-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

The highlight for Sunday was me attending my army friend, Ridwan's wedding. It was held at Fort Canning and I must say the setting was pretty grand, as though a Sultan was getting married or something. I'm proud to say, he's the first friend I have who's getting married, and in addition to that, my first Malay wedding. Heh. So much for cultural exchange.

Took some pictures, though I feel kindda frustrated because the photographer ( photographer eh!!) took a lousy picture of the group of us...and it was the only picture...sigh...wat a waste. I cant believe he would use one hand to hold the camera. Of course it'll shake!!...duh!.. Well, at least i tried editing to sharpen the edges. I would also like to bring your attention to the cake...yum yum...haha...man..it was literally overflowing with cho -co -lat-e. Anyway, the setting was a mixed Western and Malay type, but the food was Halal. There were also fireworks ( specially indented from Denmark ) and I was totally caught by surprise. I thought they were rehearsals for National Day. heh. But all in all, I enjoyed myself, cos I got to meet up with my army buddies, who are now busy doing their own things; some working, some in the spirit of ORD, some thinking of studying, planning for the future. Apart from their longer hair, everything else about them seemed perfectly familiar. haha...back to the good ol' days. It was nice talking to them, and we were recounting our experiences through those difficult and also..well, playful times...heh. Oh and I heard something darn scandalous haha..but i think i shouldnt say it here...not riightt..

Anyway, it was fun. And I wish my friend Ridwan all the best for the future. May he have a happy family life, and go easy on having children k, cos u gotta wait for me to graduate first...hahaha!... I can still remember the MC commenting, "Today u get married on labour day, so 1 year later, u can celebrate ur anniversary in labour". I like weddings...heh..but that doesnt mean I want to experience that multiple times myself...cos i think it would be..quite traumatic both emotionally...and.......on a more practical aspect.....economically...hahaha

2005-04-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

Today i stood for 2 hrs in front of 20 or so NJC students, explaining to them the anatomy of the thorax. Come to think of it, it didnt feel like 2 hrs. I was quite surprised time seemed to pass really fast. But I bet to them, it was their worst nightmare. heh. But my mouth and throat became completely dry after that, and I only started to feel the aching in my legs when i sat down. sigh... i couldnt finish everything that was needed to know about thorax, but at least I went through what i considered important things to remember, not like they're gonna remember everything first time, in the first place. I think teaching is quite fun, especially when you have a quiet class listening attentively ( or are they REALLY listening?? ). All you have to do is explain the concepts, and when you see one or two students widen their eyes in amazement or mouth out the word "Oh"..haha..feels great..Gives you hope your efforts are not all to waste.

But nonethless, most of the students were a bit messed up after my session i think... They were very quiet, which scares me because either they know, or they're just stoning. And funny thing is, they got no questions to ask; so either they know, or they dunno wat to ask..hehe. I think I'm beginning to understand the problems that our profs face when they're teaching us and we're so quiet and dun ask questions. I think I shall be more forthcoming with "feedback" to the profs...hee. ZK and Chris were there also. ZK was there to see how I did my presentation cos he's gonna present part of head n neck. Chris...well...i think he's here to look at gals...haha..kidding.... Me?? well..i'm here to teach and impart knowledge...haha... Such is the "humility of wisdom"....heh.. yeah go ahead..jeer all u want... i Dun realli care...heh

Had jap food for dinner. I just cant get enough of soba noodles. They're very healthy (buckwheat) and very tasty. I think Jap food is very healthy compared with Chinese food. I wouldnt mind eating Jap food every meal really. I know my brother does in Australia.

Wheee... M2 here we come. Finally I passed the first pros. You know.. at night i couldnt help but sing my SJI school song in my head. I think the tune is very appealing to me, in a sense it raises my morale to do better and better every single time. I love my SJI days..hee

Judgement Day

2005-04-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Judgement Day. The day I shall know my Year 1 results. The day i meet my mentor ( luckily isnt the Dean.. ) who will inevitably ask "How're your results?" (argh). The day of reckoning. The day which will probably reinstate my confidence in becoming a very successful doctor; the day which will determine how much I should mug ( more or less ) for year 2. sigh...even as i type, just thinking about it, my hands are feeling clammy; my heart beating so fast and hard, I can almost feel it dancing around..plls dont punish me this way.. I promise i wouldnt be such a Study Freak...heh.

Speaking of Judgement Day, I watched this incredulously what i perceive as controversial documentary on Discovery Channel. It's about how an archeologist and a reporter discover that certain aspects of the Old Testament may not be true. The findings center on Ramses and Moses. Apparently, they had uncovered a pit with skeletons, one of which may be the first born son of Ramses the Great. As we all know from the Old Testament, Ramses' first born was killed by the 10th (plague? was it called that), where the angel of death would come and take away the soul of all the first born. But forensic evidence points out that the supposed Ramses' first born may have survived to adulthood (30s maybe) and not to childhood. And there is evidence to suggest a blow to the head killed him.

They also came out with theories to explain the 10 plagues. Like how the water turning red was not blood but actually red ethiopian soil that washed into the nile due to torrential rains in Ethiopia. That poisoned the fish. Then you had frogs swarming the city because they had to escape the poisoned water. So as a result, flies could breed. And where there are water logged areas, anthrax could breed ( esp the skin type of anthrax ). The locusts and drought came about cos it so happened to be in the season at the time of all the plagues occurring, wat seems to be like a curse. But science still cannot explain the angel of death.

Know what's fascinating?? That Moses may not be Hebrew but an Egyptian prince who rebelled. Of course all these are just theories. But i find it interesting how such long-held beliefs as told in the Bible, could have been met with such conflicting statements. Amazing....i watched it twice (there was a repeat telecast) so I could understand how they reached such conclusions. hah...feels refreshing learning something that's different ( apart from medicine)..haha.

sigh..my army daz are coming back. I can almost hear the words go "Left right Left right" and "I dunno..i dunno...i really dunno"..haha. Looking at my helmet, sure brings back those crappy days, my uniform soaked in perspiration mixed with diesel fuel and brake fluids..eessh...smelt horrible i tell ya.... and not washing them for a few days...my god..that's like a good tool to use in chemical warfare...heh

Wrestlemania 21

2005-04-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Today was "wrestlemania 21" day. Went to el's house to watch it on her superbig TV screen. Thanks a lot..heh....i think u should do an entrance fee or sth. The girls didnt appear really interested in it, but the guys enjoyed every moment of it... haha..talk abt men from mars and women from venus. There was especially the part when Shawn Michaels was subjected to the ankle lock and he was in sheer pain ( acting only btw...) we all got kindda emotional and were urging him not to tap out. haha..i thought that was kindda funny. But seriously, how can u not resist when it all seems so real right? In the end, sadly, he tapped out. :(

I think wrestling is really not a bad show. Sure it has violence and gore..but..call me sadistic if u want to, i think sometimes they can be quite comical in terms of their behaviour and reactions. I tend to think of them as acrobatic circus performers; they perform dangerous stunts but it's all in the name of entertainment. and believe me, they pay very particular attention to safety..haha.. the irony of it all.

Guys were kindda disappointed also cos the sharpshooter was not demonstrated. haha..ended up we tried to do it ourselves. ZK did on me..haha.but it wasnt pain at all.. probably cos he din put his weight on my already contorted legs. The girls also wanted to know what the sharpshooter looked like cos Sam has been mentioning abt it during lectures so many times. Had fun in el's house today in all. Such a good time to interact and enjoy, cos i know when sch starts, hell unleashes again!!!..ahha

2005-04-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

my...doesnt time fly. Another week has passed.. seems as though the world is spinning faster and faster. Man..it's been pretty hot and humid these days. I normally do not sleep with the air-conditioner ( skin gets dry and itchy )...but now, i think it has forced me to do so. The weather's terrible, especially in the afternoon, like in a sauna...and the worse part is...it doesnt get any better even after it rains. ..sigh.

Well, I've been watching a lot of tv. I think I'm most amazed with this programme called "Interpol investigates" It's basically about true FBI-like cases. It involves criminals who try to "travel" all over the world to evade capture, only to find that their attempts will eventually fail because of this Interpol organisation. They can really track you down...no matter where u go and even if u have like a month headstart. Goes to show...crime does not pay..heh

And did you know..that pies were originally created as a means of preserving food?? so that u can take them with you on long journeys? So by right, u dun eat the crust of the pie...u open up the pie..and eat the contents inside. LIke a lunchbox..

AHhhhhhh...finallly!

2005-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Whooohoo...it's up! Ahh..looks pretty amateurish eh...haa.. well at least I've accomplished something new. Learning html, css..boy i could never have imagined looking up all those crappy code words and formats. Drives me nuts. I think studying medicine somehow seems a lot easier.... or maybe cos I've been looking at body parts for like 1 year now, compared to 3 days of mugging html formats. hee. Nevertheless, a pat on my back *clap clap*.

I suppose from this day on, I will be blogging all my life experiences, from the good to the bad to the ugly(maybe). At the same time, probably make some modifications to the blog as time goes by. I got my inspiration after reading el's blog (Japanese bow...hiaaakkk...it is an "honour" heh)..and everybody else seems to be into it...so might as well join in. I think I'm pretty impressed with the marquee thingy, courtesy of ruxin. Thanks for the little tip.

Well, currently waiting for results. Feel a little tensed but at the same time, somehow...i just dun care about the results. Perhaps i've been waiting for so long, the nervousness dies out a little day by day. It's a good thing come to think of it. Tom gotta go nj. I'm helping them out in anatomy for the biomed quiz. Man.. and i havent even started with preparing my presentations. hehe..but i got a week more to complete it so...heck..