A Lil' Advice

It's hard to describe life here without going into specifics. Dirty laundry rule, rmb?

But really, it's no big wonder why I prefer to be elsewhere. I miss the carefree relaxed feeling of freedom. Without having to deal with unreasonable circumstances. But no worries, it ain't too far away now.

Seriously, with antics like his/hers, who needs enemies anyway?

Age is no measure of maturity.

After what I'd observed all these while, I've given up hope of affecting change. Now, it's up to yourself to change when you head out to face the realities of the outside world.

Don't gimme that crap about not needing friends. When you hvta do everything yourself, only you will know how important true friends are when your family is not around you.

It gets lonely outside if you are on your own.

And remember something, your friends don't owe you anything.

So what sort of ppl you choose to associate with and how you treat them in the long term will be what you get in return. If you treat ppl with cold suspicion and keep them at arm's length, don't be so surprised if they turn on you in the future. Coz what you reap is what you sow.

People who always think they are right are the hardest sort of people to change. Broaden your perspectives a little and start to think - maybe it's partially due to my own fault too? - instead of putting all the blame on others and walking off smugly.

With all that said, it is all up to you now. And since I can't do anything else, I rest my case.

PS: Please don't use your own experience to measure up with mine. It's always differs with individuals' circumstances... you'll never know unless you've been in the person's shoes. Or at least know what shoe size the person is wearing, so to speak.

Get Prepared

Clickety click.

Yup, that's how I spent most of today. (actually most of other days too :P) But at least I can claim that all my clicking today is 'fruitful research' in the name of preparation for life in aussie.

Anyway, thanks to Debbi's recommendation, finally there is a site where I can get answers to some of the burning questions that needed to be answered. I am sure some of my batchmates heading to oz will find this useful too.

Here's the link to the forum where malaysians that are in australia currently give tips to those who are going to study there in the future.

Granted, there is quite alot of crap talking in between the pages, but hey, you always gotta sieve through dirt to hit gold haha. That's like about 90+ pages of sieving and still counting btw. I am @.@ like this now lol.

They have quite some useful information there like phone services, internet service providers, how to approach things financially there (apparently bank drafts are the way to go!), airlines etc.

Though I've yet to see anything abt shipping services. Anyone have any suggestions on which shipping service to go for? I've tried searching those so-called reliable services' websites. And I've no idea how their sites work at all!! How user-unfriendly can it get? bah.

And there's this site that tells me for my parents to send me a 25kg package (my medical books VERY heavy lar!! need to save the luggage space for clothes and others ma) cost rm10000 plus? Wth? It can't be true right, there must be some error on my part while entering the info. I hope. *gulps* Le sigh.

Oh ya, if you guys have any info on studying/living in perth (any info at all!), please share it with me okie? ^v^ That would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

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Besides trawling about in the cyberworld, when I get bored of looking at lines and lines of words, guess what? I started watching cooking videos on YouTube. Well, no harm in being more prepared right?

I'd learnt a few dishes during life in vista, but after reaching aussie, will need to cook almost everyday - so yeah, better to learn more of those simple chinese dishes - so that we can save time/money, have more variety and especially when we start missing the food at home :P

I love cooking. It's just that preparation and washing up really take up a lot of time. aikz.

Anyway, here's one of the videos that's quite nice. Straight to the point, easy and looks yummy. the guy is good.

how to make steamed pork and chinese cabbage

Rest And Relax

Yeap I'm back again in penang. Just got back from Kelantan yesterday.

The family trip was not too bad, it was as much fun as you could have in a place like Kota Bahru. To do it justice tho, I must say, the place was more developed than I imagined. The last time I was there was like 5 or 6 years ago, so a lot of development must have happened in the past few years.

Wei, the place now also have traffic jams le!! dont play play haha.. sry too jakun ade >.<

Uncle Chew and his whole family are a very friendly bunch, easy to talk to. Thank you for belanja-ing us all the nice food there! ^^ And for bringing us around for sightseeing.

I'll blog abt the food/places of interest when I get the pics from my bro. (I seemed to be saying that alot eh? How come I dont get the pics wan..?)

Some of you might be wondering what am I up to now? Hmm let's see. Back to the old holiday lifestyle. Chill and relax, man.

I shall get the rest I need these few days. Seremban has deprived me of some proper rest! Which in all foresight, shall be the case when I start clinicals. If only I could store lots of sleep now then use it later when I'm desperately needing it..!! lol.

But after experiencing life in seremban (especially the exhaustion omg!!) and seeing how the others study so, I really must start mentally and physically prepare myself for life in clinicals.

Am not sure abt the physical part - do push-ups and force myself to tahan heat so I don't get any vasovagal attacks? - okay maybe that is pushing it a bit lol. Mentally, wow I must say, quite a bit of the knowledge that should be there is already gone from me brain, luckily I acquired some new bits and pieces while in Sban, haha.

Well, I probably shld start gaining some momentum in studying again once I had rested enough. Hopefully the procastinator in me won't win again!

Okay time for more beauty sleep! :P nites!

Goodbye Again

As you read these words, I'm already back in penang.

Would have like to do a scheduled post but just couldn't find the time to squeeze it in yesterday. With the clock ticking away, every minute was precious.

Anyway, the realisation that the month-long trip was over hit me hard yesterday morning. I think before that, I was in denial - I chose to focus on what the remaining few days ahead had to offer instead of mulling over the remaning hours.

But yesterday morning, when I forced myself to awaken from slumber (omg hospital hours are so early), I suddenly realised: "I am going home tomorrow."

The thought shook me up. That entire day was tinged with sadness.

Anyway, I just wanna say a big thanks to all the lovely people who made my visit here a wonderful memorable one. It was great to see all of you again. =) And Dear, I feel happy that we created many more memories together. Simple but fun. thank you.

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I realised I am not getting any better at goodbyes. In fact, come to think of it, I think I'm getting suckier at it.

It was so so difficult to say goodbye to my close friends and my dear dear especially. I think the one thing I hate about this trip is that I have to say goodbye all over again. I know there's another one coming up next year when I leave for australia. I wonder if I'll be able to take it then.

But for now - come what may, I must take it in my stride.

My friends tell me to be strong and spend my last holidays with my family fruitfully. I must try not to miss them too much, coz one day I'll be able to see them again.

When there is a will, there is a way, right? =)

For now, let me slowly acclimatized myself to life back home. without friends around me. I know I can do it, coz I did it before - slowly but surely.

G'nite.

PS: Will be on a family trip to kelantan for the next 3 days. Expect more regular updates after that coz I'll be back to my very free holiday state. Cya then.

Recharged

Had finally recharged! It's certainly been a hectic few days.

Let's see. The bf and I went out on a nice date on saturday and guess where we went? Shogun!! Thank you for belanja-ing me, dear =D

We went to try the one in Sunway. Our verdict is that it's not bad. The sushi there were wrapped so beautifully, tempting me to try them! haha.. I tried a little of almost everything. But regret that I didn't eat more tempura. Was sidetracked by other food lol.

Oh ya, the varieties are slightly different that the one in 1-U but then the first and last time I went there was almost 2 years ago, so maybe many things have changed. Don't have the cod fish cheese fusion I was looking forward to!! =(

Luckily they have this soft-shelled cheese mayo soft crab. But only managed to finish 1 coz I need to save more stomach space for others haha!

It was good that this time we didn't overeat. Health is more important! Cannot be too kiamsiap/kiasu anymore :P

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Supposed to meet up with Liyann and Puifun at 1-U on sunday but in the end, only Funfun turned up. Poor Liyann couldnt make it last minute. (I shall not divulge more here - unless she wants to tell more herself? :P)

Anyway, we went to this nice place to have lunch. It was called Cafe 1920 and lemme tell you, their cheesy foods are heavenly!

We shared this chicken lasagna called Tambollini or something like that lol and omg, it's really sinfully delicious! I said sinfully coz there's a lot of oil and cheese in it haha. Imagine soft pieces of chicken in between thin pieces of pancakes, topped with baked cheese. Yum yum.

And their little slices of cakes are really nice too! Different from those by secret recipe, certainly worth a try!

Okay better stop talking abt food. My stomach is grumbling now. haha..

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Yesterday I literally spent the whole day in hospital + library. Clerked some patients again in the morning (wah a lot of cancer cases le..) and then pseudo-studied in the library in the afternoon. I said pseudo study coz it was more like sleeping very uncomfortably (lots of compressed nerves!!) on the hard tables. I didn't want to but I was just so tired..

Then went on-call in the A&E at night. Saw an emergency scope done and omg, the poor lady had massive UGIT bleed! so much that it formed a huge clot..

And a poor premature baby that had vomittus blocking its nose, causing apnea. It looked so tiny and fragile, that my heart couldn't help going out to it. sigh.

And that was it for the whole night - the more interesting cases. I guess ti was an untypically quiet night eh.

I was already feeling like a zombie during the shift. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation setting in. =/ My brain was chugging at a very slow rate.

How do doctors here do 36 hours of work straight??? It's really unhealthy and would you want to get treated by a doctor that has been working for godknowshowmanyhours and probably cant think straight? Something really needs to be done abt this.

I wonder, is the workload in Aus medical schools as heavy as the ones in Msia? If so, I better prepare myself to get addicted to coffee! And acclimatized myself to less sleep and more energy! oh noes..

Sometimes, I wonder what did I get myself into.

But then when you see the patients smilling at you - happy that you spent some time talking to them - all the tiredness just melt away, and you feel happy that you've made their lives a bit better. Just a bit, because I'm a lousy medical student who knows nothing (it's a relative thing actually, not that I really know nothing), but a bit is better than nothing.

And sometimes what medical students can offer are the most precious of all - their time, sympathy and sincere care - things that sometimes doctors can't help but lack in giving.

I'm not blaming them, they are really overworked. When you are at the verge of dying of exhaustion yourself, you find that it gets more difficult and difficult to really care. If you don't believe it, you haven't try it yourself.

Anyway, I still have 3 years to go, since I can't do anything but advance ahead, then I must just do my best to get that degree. But I must not forget why I am doing this while in pursuit of the goal.

This quote summarizes it nicely. Why are we in the healthcare?

To cure sometimes, to relief often, to comfort always.

And yeah, I know, what a lot of hard work, sweat and tears just to get that extra 2 letters in front of your name.

In The Midst

After the previous negative post, let's get back on track. I just noticed that my hits have been suffering dreadfully due to a lack of (interesting) posts in the recent weeks.

What to do, I foresee less time to recollect my thoughts here when I start clinicals in 2 months' time. omg, that's not much time left actually!

When I get back to penang, I must start the arduous process of agonizing over what stuff to pack and what not to. Only 25kg baggage allowed. =( But yay, starting clinicals also means I get to buy some new formal clothes!

Yes coz before this, sadly I only have a handful (yes you actually can count using fingers) of clothes that are deemed passably 'formal'. I wanna buy some of those nice comfy clothes that looked so professional on some of my frenz here!! Yeah can't hide under that white coat anymore coz apparently we are not needed to wear one there!

Oh ya, I probably need to hunt for a pair of super comfy almost flat shoes that are really "meant for walking" haha. And I think I'll probably still get aching feet from all that standing/walking. Really salute to those few who can still wear 3 inch heels to the wards. I saw a few rare specimens, ya know. :P

After much thought, finally bought the Oxford handbook of Clinical Specialities, many thanks to Suewen's mum for getting it for me from Kamal. =) Now still pondering on whether should I buy the Churchill's pocketbook of Surgery. Coz I saw my frenz using it, and borrowed it for some browsing and it seemed pretty useful and best of all, straight to the point. Price is reasonable too.

I think buying the medical books here plus the shipping cost is still cheaper than buying it straight in Aus right?

Okay, enough rambling for now. The library's aircon is certainly a god-sent in this hot weather! lol.

PS: Clerked some patients with my frenz today. Felt kinda sad to see some of the patients' conditions. sigh.

Egoistic Hypocrite

In case you were wondering what happened to me, I am back here again!

Have been really busy for the past few days and didn't go near the computer at all. serious! haha.

So the gathering came and gone. in a flash. I barely was able to catch my breath.

If you ask me how was it, I'd say I'm happy that some of us managed to make it for the gathering and it's nice to able to sit together and enjoy a yummy dinner together... but (it sounded like there was a 'but' coming right?) I must say, I am a tad disappointed with what happened to the post-dinner entertainment slot. I've been looking forward so much to it, and although it looks easy, I really took quite some effort to plan the gathering.

Oh well, I've no one to blame but myself. Who asked me to be soft-hearted. I shall not say more.

Okay maybe just this. I hate negative limelight hoggers who thinks the world revolves around their freaking damn huge egos. And fail to see that the very weaknesses they frequently expound in others are freakingly obvious in their ownselves. Damn hypocrite.

I have always thought my opinion of him/her was a bit biased and tried being nice to him/her, but most of the time, my efforts were met with rude baseless retorts.

What?! I am too lowly for your attention now issit???

After this time, I am not gonna revise my opinion of you anymore. you can keep on living in your own tiny world filled with self-worshiped godly images of yourself. Someone else can have the honour of pricking your bubble. See if I care, hah, so there.

I can go on and on. With vulgarities even. But I think that shall suffice. so glad to keep it off my chest.

And you know what, I don't even CARE if the person in question reads this. (but I can bet he/she wont, coz hey, they can't see past anything besides themselves right?)

Wow, can't believe this turned into a whole-hearted rant. Well, since this is sucha negative post so I shall leave it at that. The whole weekend round-up will be in a separate post and when I get the pictures!

PS: If you still can't guess, yeah I am well again. Of coz lar, can still rant abt people summore woh. What you think? But really thanks to those who wished me well. :)

Self Clerking

I know I haven't been blogging much lately due to a lack of interesting topics. But but! I have a valid reason for the past few days.

I have been sick since monday. =(

The past 3 days were spent mostly in bed. Yes literally. I started with abdominal discomfort (and a bit of nausea) on monday, which was still bearable.

Then I had a really uncomfortable sleep that night due to the emergence of generalized body ache. And it lasted the whole of tuesday, only becoming worse. And don't forget the headache and slight fever that had to add into the fray then. The aches/fever were relieved by panadol but came back after the drug effect wore off. sigh.

And I tot I was slightly better yesterday morning, manatau both the abdominal discomfort AND the body aches came to say hi again yesterday afternoon. And my abdomen felt like super bloated. arggh.

Now it's thursday. Am feeling much better. But am keeping my fingers crossed. Still don't feel like eating much as there's still some residual nausea.

Am desperately hoping that I'll be at 100% full health by tomorrow evening! Coz the gang is coming down to seremban! Have been looking forward to this since like.. forever?

Speaking of the gathering, well I feel kinda sad that quite a few couldn't make it!! Oh no, it doesn't really feel like a reunion now, does it? sigh sigh.

Anyway, hope that does who can make it will enjoy themselves to the max then. =)

PS: yah I know this post isn't up to my usual standard. the wording is incredibly harried and whatever. Spare me pls, this is one ill blogger here.

First Week Of Visit

Today is Day 8 but I'm not in seremban. Followed the bf to his real home in Kepong for the weekend. Will be going back to that hot place later tho. =/

They had finally finished their family med posting and will be starting surgical next week. Which means no more extra lessons for me, except the weekly ones =( I want to learn more...

And talking abt learning, have not been doing much self-studying the past week. Must buck up during the next few weeks! But I really can't study in hot weather!

Anyway, I finally test-tried making the Fudge Brownie on friday. Turned out really nice for my first try! yay! I got the recipe from Michelle's blog here. We enhanced it a bit by adding choc chips hehe. I will be making them again next week for the gathering so that time only I'll post the photos of the awesome yummy food we'll be cooking! :D

Yup you got it right. Most of the gang will be coming down to seremban during the coming weekend for a party of sorts. woots! Can't wait to see everyone again! ^v^

Yesterday, I went to meet up with Li Yann (supposed to include the girls too but they cudnt make it, sigh) at 1-U. Had an awesome time! Pictures are with her so will post them up later. Loved the 4 pasta choices promotion they had at Italiannies. We are gonna try making the one called Apple Coronation pasta at the party coz it's just too yummy for words!!

Okay, that's all for now. First week of my visit has passed (wow so fast!) and nope I don't feel bored yet. Happy, that's the word. =)