GP/Opthalmo In Winter

You know it's true blue winter when you type this with ice cold hands. And no, it's nowhere near midnight yet. Weather forecast says the lowest temperature tomorrow will be 1 degree Celcius. Get this: ONE!!! SATU!!! It's going to be warmer in the fridge then. -_-""

Anyway, just finishing the 1st week of GP + Opthalmo, though haven't done anything of the latter yet. Tomorrow will have another GP session then I'm done for the week! The GP surgery I'm allocated is pretty good. (I dunno why they are called surgeries here, seeing that surgeries only happen in hospital, but that's just me.) They have a team of doctors who have schedules of their own working in the same medical centre, and my partner and I are attached to different ones each session.

And the GPs here are so different from the ones in Malaysia. In Malaysia, you don't need a referral to see a specialist while in Aussie, you do. Therefore, the GPs in Aussie see a wider range of cases.

And mental illness here seems more prevalent. So is it that doctors here are better at diagnosing it (or over-diagnosing it?) or Asians just take it better at emotions? To be honest, our general attitude would be to: suck it up! Therefore, more ppl  are able to pull themselves out of depression and resume normal lives? Seriously, I have been thinking about this for sometime, but I don't have the answer. Anyone do?

I find it quite interesting... but I dunno if I have the patience/discipline to listen to all their lengthy woeful stories and reassure and encourage them appropriately. I think I still have sympathy, but it takes more than that to be constantly kind, firm, understanding yet empathetic to these patients. But poor things, it must be really hard to live with a mental illness.

This reminds me why I don't want to do psychiatry. Listening to patients tell you their heart-breaking story once in a while is okay, but everyday is a little too much for me. Don't think I can handle that. Maybe it's not because I'm not empathetic enough, but rather the opposite - too empathetic? Hmm, food for thought.

But anyway, I'm feeling a bit sleepy. Lucky I get to sleep in tomorrow, can hibernate under the blanket to fight the impending 1 degree. ;)

PS: A random thought last night: In places where it snows (meaning temperature is below 0 degrees), how come the water from the tap/toiletbowl doesn't freeze?

@ Brisbane #1

Finally! Some photos to brighten up this blog.

I'm not going to give a blow by blow account of what happened. Have just chosen some photos that I like. The rest are on my facebook. Enjoy!

Some of the cooler quotes in their student lounge.

Me outside their medical school. :P

Ancient microscope

Me with a random huge ball of wool at the city

Interesting architecture of bridge

At the main campus - reminds me of an aqueduct in roman times.

Beautiful lake at their campus - so serene

City hall which houses the main museum

So many clock towers!

Saw this exhibition at the musuem which was titled "Prejudice & Pride".

It was about LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transexual relationships)

Found it really interesting.

Woah! ;)

See. You can't assume anything these days.

Mid Year Break!

Cliche as it sounds - gosh, how time flies! I felt that the 1st part of this year just flew by and unknowingly, I'm already halfway into 5th year!

And that means: HOLIDAYS! I'm officially on my mid year break of 2 weeks. Just finished paediatrics today and passed up my many reportsss. I'm highly anticipating my Brisbane trip this sunday! We will be going to Gold Coast as well! :D

Nope, I haven't pack my bags yet. Yannie calls that "cool till the end" lol. I promise I'll pack them after this.

Anyhow, I can't believe I've done 2 of the hardest postings this year. Not that GP/Opthalmo and Gen med is easy, but you know what I mean. Both O&G and Paeds is no stroll in the park.

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Oops, wrote that halfway last night, then a friend came over to hang out, so I left that post hanging halfway.

At this point, I have packed most of my stuff. Will add if I think of anything new. I am only bringing 1 carry-on luggage bag though so I only have 7kg. Hope it doesn't go overweight!

I feel so excited! At the prospect of taking a proper holiday. Well, not proper per se, coz I am bringing some notes as well :( but we'll see if I even open them. :P

I can't wait for tomorrow to come!

I think I shall stop crapping here and do some work. So I can rightfully say I earned my holidays. hehe.

Will try to update soon on what's happening in Brissie. :)

Imperfect

I'm so glad it's the super long weekend! We don't get many public holidays here in aussie, ya know. 4 free days is precious.

I was just sitting on my desk, thinking just now. Thinking about what I went through last year. The first year thrown into a foreign country wasn't my idea of fun at all. Being alone and yet surrounded by people who looked foreign, talked strangely, and throw you weird looks.

Sounds like an equation for fun? hurhur.

But come this year, everything seems different. It's not like I've totally blended into their community, but at least I'm not the sore thumb out now (well I hope). You could say I'm like a chaemeleon, changing her colours to suit the environment. But inside, she's still the same ol' person.

And why am I talking about myself in the third person suddenly? blek.

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There seems to be a lot to study for in 5th year. So much that it's quite overwhelming!!

It's sad that they all expect medical students/doctors to be this hyper high-functioning person (superman/woman!) that can go to hospital everyday and be kind to pts and yet still do a proper history/examination and come up with a logical diagnosis and management plan. And go back home to study, cook, exercise and do another 1 million things. Don't forget taking care of their family if they already have one.

Wtf is that??? We are human too, okay! :(

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On a totally unrelated note, I really find it hard to talk to ppl who I can't get along with but still have to due to certain (unrevealable - is that a word?) reasons. I really wanna just throw in the towel and give up.

But I tell myself, Zzzyun, what you need is patience.

Shucks.

Lucky

I'm aware that I haven't posted for a few days! But be assured, I'm alive and well after my scary presentation on monday! lol.

Yeah, I have been quite busy because some of the seniors (who are interns now!) are back from adelaide/sydney for 1 week for their graduation. So we had some fun events so far. We went out for dinner at our fav italian place on saturday night. Yummy food they served at ciao italia! And then we had the bbq lunch on sunday for all of the imu peeps. From the most senior to the most junior. It was definitely a very satisfying lunch, thanks for it, Ken Rhee. :)

Then we came back home and Debs and I started practicing for our case presentation the whole sunday. Luckily, it went relatively well. Practice really does make perfect. Well, maybe not perfect in that sense, but as long as I don't stand in front of everybody and look like a stupid goldfish opening and closing its mouth in shock, that's fine with me. lol.

I was quite nervous when I started, but as I rambled along, it was better. Although I must admit, I couldn't wait to finish it and therefore spoke abit fast. Haha the dr commented that as well :P I think Debs did a pretty good job on her part too! And... soooo we got a pretty good mark!! hehe. We were pretty happy once it was done. major phiew. I think with more practice, hopefully one day I won't be so anxious about public speaking!

Anyway, some of you might have heard, there was a MAJOR freak storm that happened on monday afternoon. There was torrential rain, lots of lightning, strong winds and golf-ball sized hailstones. Omg. You should google and see the pictures. Here's a link so that you can see how bad the damage is.

There was massive flooding, some places had collapsed roofs, holes in the ceiling, some houses were out of power, and cars has massive dents all over plus cracked windscreens and the holes in it caused the rain to soak through the car. oh my.. I didn't know a storm can be so dangerous. And the worst part is that it came out of the blue. It only rained like minimally this summer. Less than 5 times and mostly drizzles. So I guess the clouds couldn't hold it in any longer. blek.

Debs and I are lucky that our house suffered no damage and only my shoes were the worse for wear after I had to wade into 3 inches deep puddles to get to my house. Sigh, they were expensive shoes, I hope they will recover. :/

Anyhow, I was lucky that I was in Fremantle Hospital when it happened so I was quite safe. Most of the damage was higher north. However, one of the pipes must have overflowed and burst through one of the ceilings in the clinic opposite. Can you imagine the sight of water overflowing from above in a clinic??

And if you read more of the news, apparently the ceiling in the ED in Joondalup Hospital collapsed and patients have to be evacuated. And alot of hospitals were flooded as well. Hmm... In conclusion, it was a pretty nasty storm. :O

So guess what we had that night for dinner? KFC lol. No point being in the jam.

For completeness' sake, we also had supper with the seniors at Gelare last night. Waffles with icecream are the best. hehe. And we are getting a bit spoilt coz the seniors are so nice to be belanjaning us with all these food. :D

Okay, that's all the updates for now. I probably shld be doing some catch up with studies instead of just enjoying so much!!

5th Year - Start

Hi again, guys. Been trying to update but the heat's getting to me. You know how when it gets really super hot here, all you just wanna do is lie in bed and not move at all. I'm not kidding. It's worse this year.

Anyway, I'm updating today because the weather is slightly kinder today and I feel better. I hope the weather keeps going down to a reasonable temperature. Or I won't feel like studying much, which is bad.

This gets me to the next thing I was going to talk about. Guess what rotation I am in now? Obstetrics and Gynaecology! O&G for short. We are currently in 3rd day of introduction (tomorrow is the last day) and just received our timetables on monday. And I must say, it's really crazily packed! omg.

There will be times where I'll hvta do night shifts or weekends as well. T____T Haha I expect I might be blogging less when things get hectic. Anyway, O&G seems pretty exciting and interesting so far. Lots of totally new things. Need to study soon aihs.

And maybe 5th year is really different. We are expected to be a more active part of the team. According to some of the teachers, we might be expected to make code blue calls (it's not such an easy task as well!), take histories, cannulate and take blood etc. Ie no more stepping backward to not be in the way but instead, to move forward and ask how we can help. yikes!

It's definitely gonna be a tough year, I foresee. But hey this time around, the unbelonging-ness actually feels familiar. oh yeah.

Lesser

Supposed to be mugging now... but I just can't concentrate! Still haven't gotten into the vroom vroom mood haha.

Anyway, today is a friday but it feels like a saturday for me. Hvta keep reminding myself. Why? Coz I self-declared it as a holiday from hospital today haha! Why not, since I've already handed in everything yesterday. I totally deserved a break!

Did I mention that most of the 6th year imu seniors are going to leave perth next year to other places in australia for their internship? That's coz perth didnt have enough internship places for everybody. :/ They really need to do some serious planning and not leave international students struggle for something as basic as internship places. Coz without that, you are technically not even a doctor!!

I'm definitely going to miss them. :( It's nice to have people to hang out with who knows where you come from and understand your -lahs and -mahs without you having to struggle for words to explain their elusive meaning. It was also nice to talk about memories in imu with them... Heck, it's even nice to have a bunch of people to hang out occasionally.

(sorry lar, nowadays, I'll take whatever kindness that ppl offer me. beggars can't be choosers you know)

Anyway, they are having a farewell bbq/meal for them on sunday. sigh. there goes the already few ppl that I'm good friends with here.

Well, still I wish them all the best in everything. :)

And you know what? Mugging is never fun. But it's even less fun when you gotta do it alone. :(

Full Swing

Things have been going in full swing here and I know I have said this before but I'm soooo busyyy!!!

Anyway, so the gen med part of things have kinda settled to a busy routine which is good coz I prefer routines. I still need to practice my physical examinations but what I sorely lack is clinical correlation! What do you do if the findings you find does not match up with your provisional diagnosis? Or what if you dunno whether what you are finding is a sign or not. Or just some problem with your technique? =/

(sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with my stethoscope/ears or is that just reduced breath sounds/heart sounds??)

Oh well. I guess all that comes with experience.

Haha actually I don't really know what to blog about coz I'm boring like that.. :P but anyway due to energy/time constraints, I've haven't been able to bring dear dear about much. >.<

Hopefully will be able to breathe a sigh of relief once my research and clinical exam are over. yeah guess what, both of them are on my lucky day (my birthday! aihs) -_- Well hope that I'll be lucky in whatever I do that day then.. :)

I'm gonna end this post now coz I dunno what to update for now. Probably shld be studying or writing case reports or whatever. Ta for now!

PS: Recieved a very nice phone call from two old friends last nite :) haha I shall call you guys back again sometime soon. do take care!

A Lot On The Platter

Tada!! I'm back again.. yes I know know, it has been TWO whole weeks since my last post.. First of all, my excuses are that I didnt get my internet till last saturday AND I just started my general medicine posting and is super busy!!

A lot of days when I come home I'm so tired that I just wanna sleep but then the stomach begs for attention then I'll hvta cook. T_T And after that, I'm surely beat. And I will still hvta force myself to prepare whatever that's need to be done for the next day.

So many things to tell that I do not know where to begin.

First of all, I've settled in quite nicely into my new house! yay. Pics will not be up so soon I'm afraid. (busy remember? you're lucky to get this post haha) A lot of mishaps happened while moving which cost a lot of moolah [which opposes the reason of us moving which is to save money] but anyhow that is a one off thing. Long story short, we are lucky to get this place and hopefully will be able to stay for the long term. *cross fingers*

Secondly, general medicine is interesting but super busy. I find myself short of knowledge on countless occasions. Need to buck up! But somehow, this feels like how it's supposed to be. Well, I'm placed on the respiratory team and in the beginning, I was apprehensive of being able to learn other sort of cases but it has been sorted out this week. Which is good. We now have at least 1 signs round, 1 case presentation every week. Then there are twice per week ward rounds. And lots of other tutes, clinics. The only problem would be trying to find patients to clerk and perform physicals on.

Coz apparently we hvta ask students from the other team that the pt is on if we could that, so that they can have a go first (as some pts might tire, which is perfectly reasonable). And some of the pts are so sweet to accomodate us all :)

Anyway, being on the respi team means there is a lot of swine flu going on!!! Even though we don masks, gowns and gloves when we approach pts with possible/confirmed swine flu, I wonder how good these precautions are? I have a feeling I might have even gotten swine flu without knowing? lol. Oh well, even if not yet at the moment, probably a matter of time. >.<

So far, in my quest for pts, I have heard murmurs, crackles, felt one hepatosplenomegaly (which I found on my own ^^). So that's pretty good for 1.5 weeks' worth of work eh. Don't forget the 3 case reports we hvta hand up. Which are supposedly to be freaking long. More than 10 pages. :/ I better start cracking on my 1st one.

Besides that, my research deadline is slowly approaching as well. Need to buck up on that as well. As you can see, I have a lot on my plate at the moment. @.@ And don't forget the end of year exams that are creeping up on us! I dunno how am I going to manage with so many things going on. >.<

Last but definitely not least! I'm up so early on a saturday morning coz I can't seemed to sleep.. Maybe it's because I'm excited that my dear dear is arriving today!! Only 5 more hours plus... yay... *palpitations* lol.

I wonder what will happen after almost 8 months of absence.

It's certainly something to look forward to after a tiring day of stressing my brain out in the hospital. haha.

Okla, I think this should suffice as a good update! A few more months and I will be able to come home! :)

Sunset

The other day, we rushed to the real estate agency to submit a house application straight away after we saw a hse. And since it was quite near to a beach, Joshua suggested we go hang out at the beach nearby.

It was not a well known beach so it was practically empty. But hey, it's winter afterall, and ppl rarely go beaches during winter, right?

And guess what, we were just in time for sunset! I'll let the pictures do the talking :)

Joshua and Debbi - nice right, the sun in background

Debbi and I - see the wind quite strong, blow our hair around haha

the setting sun

two ppl admiring beauty of setting sun :P

which btw set in like 15 mins, which was really fast surprisingly

hehe my first jumping photo, which Debbi kindly obliged to :P

A Sigh Of Relief

Finally, I'm able to breathe a sigh of relief. How nice is it to be not under stress.

The stress of finding a house and getting ready for psych exam really got to me. The former more so. It got really complicated, but anyway long story short - I'm glad to announce, we had finally gotten a house!! Yay! Would like to sign the lease earlier so that I can be at ease (supposed to be today but agent was ill so had to reschedule to monday). But all should be well.

The new house is almost perfect - in terms of location, convenience, degree of niceness, price, and space of bedrooms. Admittedly, I would like a larger sized bedroom but it will do. Beggars can't be choosers eh.

Of coz, it's not as spacious or as nice as the current one, but hey at 3/4 the price, it's really a good price. Sucha pity that I never got around to posting pics of my current house as it's really nice. Oh well, I'm going to miss it too. =( Will probably be moving around end of next week. Lots of logistical stuff to handle coming up.

But it would be good to able to save quite a sizeable amount of money every month. Then I wouldn't need to feel so guilty for using my parents' money. Maybe more money for other stuff as well? :P haha but actually I really don't use much for weekly expenditure. Cooking really is cheap here.

Anyway, those who are moving in with me will be Debbi and Joshua. yeah new person haha.. I hope there will be lots of fun times coming up! (but must remind myself to not be too hopeful ya)

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House stuff aside, I was quite nervous abt the psych exam yesterday.

Because there were just too many unpredictable factors.

What if my patient walked out on me? What if s/he is not a good historian? What if I miss out smtg important? What if I get nervous and just freeze in front of the examiners? What if I can't answer the Qs the examiners ask me? So many what if-s...

But my fears all come to a naught. Of coz it wasn't like I became outstanding overnight but in my own eyes and expectations, I did pretty okay. To others, it might be nothing but it means a lot to me that I'm able to present a history coherently in exam conditions and answer most of the Qs sensibly. Cause I realised since I came here (with the angmohs being relatively excellent communicators or presenters or whatever) I didn't feel I was up to par and lost confidence in speaking publicly.

But now with this behind me, I must tell myself that I can do it, as long as I believe in myself. :)

I haven't been in sucha good mood for a long long time. *contented sigh*

Change Is Certain - Like Death And Taxes :P

Many apologies for the late update as I'm aware that in my last post I said that there will be a post coming soon, but here I am, updating after more than a week has passed. oops.

A lot of things have been happening so that's my excuse :P

Anyway, to give u a gist of what's going on without being circumstantial about it.

All those lamenting in my last few posts was about this problem. The lease for our current house expires in 2 weeks' time and we are still searching for houses. major uh-oh. This house-hunting has been taking up alot of my time/energy. Oh and caused me alot of anxiety as well. I was gonna diagnose myself with an anxiety disorder soon! Yeah I still dislike change, but coping with it better now.

I really hope that this will be able to be settled in the next few days. *please please I can't take it anymore*

I hope that my next post will bring good news! *cross fingers and toes*

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My observed interview was last wednesday. Went okay but seriously could have done much better if I wasn't so nervous (bah) and didn't get thrown off by the presenting complaint. (I never heard of a moving-on order before ma!)

And I managed to present a case in front of a number of ppl on friday and I didn't sound as stupid as usual. yays!! *do victory dance* Hope I will continue to improve on my public speaking/crapping skills! lol.

But then we had a quiz after that and I practically bombed most of the Qs thrown at me. =( sorry, all these other stuff going on and the fact that I'm quite unmotivated for psych does not help.

And yeap, my major psych exam is this coming thursday. Need to clerk a patient (lucky this one is not observed) and then present in front of two examiners. Then will get asked alot of questions. Hope I will be able to do fine!! I just wanna pass.

Okay I hope this update is up to your expectations coz I'm supposed to be studying now. I need a break after this, which is good that campus week is coming up. phooof.

That's all for now. ta!

PS: Debbi's birthday was last tuesday and we managed to pull off a surprise potluck for her! I will update more abt that in a separate post k. Pics not with me also.

A Week of Work + Play

Hey hey, I know I've been a bit slow on the blogging horizon the past few weeks but I really have been busy. yeah yeah busy is an overused word in a medical student's dictionary. That page is probably all ragged and dog-eared now.

Okay before I digress. What did I miss out in my previous post?

Oh ya!! I went to watch Stomp 2 weeks ago! It was pretty good but imho, it was a bit short for 80bucks each. It went for about 1 hour and 45 mins. And I was kinda expecting them to use more of kitchen utensils (the tinkling sort ya know?) but they used more of the big tongs sort of thing. Debbi said she saw a korean version wic used more of kitchen utensils so I might keep that in my list of things to check out when I earn my own moolah. haha.

My favourite bit was when they bring out these sinks with dishes and water in them. And they made music with them. That was lovely. And the funny part was when they let out the water in the sinks into a bucket in front of them and it totally looked like they were peeing!! lol.

But on the overall it was great. :) sry I dont have any photos coz cameras were not allowed.

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And I had a blast last weekend. It was Seng Chye's birthday last friday and we decided to hold a steamboat party at our place. We invited the seniors as well.

everyone having fun. Seng Chye is doubling over with laughter I think.

He brought his guitar as well. his singing is so good!

And tada here's the cake!

chocolate marble cake, yummy!

love how we made the candles form the number 24! cool~

It was a really fun party. After a delicious steamboat (which I miss so much!), we played charades. so funny man. lol.

And then, saturday was just a day of fun! ohmygosh the seniors asked us out for karaoke, dinner and clubbing!! I finally found out that there are some times where karaoke is cheaper! 9 bucks for 3 hours is certainly cheap in my book compared to our 1st time there.

Seniors also let us try some drinks. I quite like Muscato and Baileys. Baileys is like chocolate whee! lol! They also brought us to this club where its mostly asians. haha I feel like I'm back in malaysia there! Music was pretty good too, I know quite alot of the songs. And the best thing abt it is that smoking is not allowed here. yay, nonid to breathe someone else's secondhand smoke!

I think I'm getting old, my knees started to ache after sometime dancing. Well at least that definitely fit my exercise quota that week! :P

We went to grab some Mcd after clubbing coz we were positively starving. And they came to our hse to eat and chill for a while. And somehow we started talking crap and gossiping till morning. Haha I thought that was really fun, I miss talking crap to ppl who could understand me without having to try to watch my language (no lahs, mahs, abothens etc). =(

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shit half of my post disappeared, blogger is apparently having maintenance!! But I tot autosave is on, aihs..

Anyway, I will try to rewrite whatever I wrote just now. *brain, fai fai remember!* See I am so nice!

Ok so for the medical aspect of the week.

Nothing much really happened, pretty mundane stuff really. Oh I got to witness a "code blue aka medical emergency" last week. Pt had a cardiac arrest and they were trying to resuscitate him with CPR. Unfortunately, they couldnt save him. It wasn't my 1st time seeing this though (saw 2 simultaneous ones at sban last yr) so I wasn't too traumatized. but it was kinda sad though.

Well that kinda wraps up the week.

And I just realised, thanks to Deb's tip, that apparently I have exams in 1 month's time. oh my! It's a formative exam for Infectious Diseases, Pathology, Pharmacology. Sigh, looks like I really got to catch up with those lectures ade.. And they aren't exactly my favourite subjects either, especially the way they teach them here. =/ But looks like an even busier next few weeks for me! Got to fit studying those units into everything else.

Okay gotta go! Take care, everybody!

PS: Hello Uncle Lai Shouk! *waves* I didn't know you were reading my blog until I got ur email some months ago. (I keep forgetting to mention it here) Btw, you still haven't reply my email on how you got my blog address in the first place!! I better be careful of what I write here, eh? lol.

Zhe-pers

Today my groupmates and I were discussing the mnemonic for the branches of the facial nerve. And they mentioned the one the surgeon mentioned yesterday during the parotidectomy yesterday.

Branches of Facial Nerve are: Temporal, Zygomatic, Buccal, Mandibular and Cervical.

And they were saying something like: "Three Zheppers Bit My Cat..."

And I asked: "What are zheppers?" My mind was thinking of something vaguely like zippers. *inserts face with a question mark above it*

And guess what it was? You won't believe it. Zebras!!!

Who the hell pronounce zebras not like Zeee-bras but Zhe-pers??

Go figure! hahaha. Am still trying to figure out the aussie tongue :P

A Break And A New Start

The long easter weekend just whooshed past like that. In a flash. Well, fun times always fly. =)

Anyway, here's a summary of what I did in the past 4 days.

Went to the beach on friday morning.

look at the waves! beautiful and strong ^^

Then 4 of us imu peeps went to Caversham Wildlife Park on saturday morning.

Although it was supposedly a "wild life" park but a big part of it was kinda like a zoo. But at least there were some open enclosures that let us get close to the animals!

check out this cute koala bear!

they sleep 20 hrs/day so mostly is just sleep and stone haha..

Then I went to a uni mate's 21st birthday party that night.

Tried this alcohol drink called Mai Tai. Pretty good for something that sounded like some cheap drink back home haha.. Was a cocktail of pineapple and orange juice with some liquor I dunno lar. And damnit, I'm allergic to alcohol again!

And for sunday dinner, we had a cookout at our place. And guess what we cooked up? (pun :P)

msian all time favourite - nasi lemak!! yummy indeed~

And last but not least, I went to meet a primary school friend for dimsum on monday morning. Food wasn't all that great (I definitely had better at a much cheaper price too in msia, I miss good msian food T_T) but the company was great. Lots of jokes and laughter. :)

So! That was how I spent most of my 4 days of break. Pretty packed, huh?

Now it's time to come back to reality. Just started surgery today and looks like it's gonna be a busy busy 8 weeks ahead!

I heard teaching for my team is good though (and quite a lot of things seems to be organized for us!) but I will hvta buck up to meet their higher standards too. o.O

So expect more nerdy times ahead!

PS: For more pics of said events, check out my facebook, thks.

PPS: Oh and we learnt how to scrub in today! Rather fun! Hope we get to observe many interesting cases and assist if possible. ^v^

To Ikea I Went

Today I didn't have classes and at first planned to stay at home to study for my upcoming msk exam this friday.

But in the end I decided to make a quick trip to Ikea (well as quick as I could) to get a new table lamp. Coz the old one was really irritating and impairing my ability to study :P excuses! haha but really, it was kinda dark and the bulb was sticking out of the shade so when I look straight ahead, it was too glaring. make me go @.@

Anyway, so off I went. It was good weather to me. Cloudy and windy.

I had to take the train to a suburb then take another bus to Ikea. And the murals in the train station there were really pretty. So I managed to take some photos to show you guys what I mean. (putting my camera to good use eh ^^)

Enjoy!

corridor to the other side

depicting the perth train - looks pretty real to me


interesting - her facial features are so sharp!

this is what happens when you have long hair in space! lol

giant at bridge?

omg love those fusion of colours there!

animals having recreation time, haha!

So what do you guys think? Really beautiful works of art, huh?

It's amazing how they encourage this sort of creativity here. A lot of imagination must have gone into this, these few pictures aren't really enough to show you the whole big picture!

Anyway, since I was there, decided to have lunch at Ikea. The lunch there is really delicious and cheap too (comparing to other food outside)!

And my absolute favourite there is Swedish Meatballs!

If you thought the ones at Ikea Malaysia are good, you haven't tried these yet!! Seriously, these are really to-die-for-melt-in-your-mouth meatballs!!

Chye reckoned it's because they added pork inside, thats why it's so tasty! hehe

I decided to have dessert too, but instead of the Daim cake which is as yummy as the one I had in Msia, I decided to try the chocolate mousse.

my verdict? too damn sweet even for me. I couldn't finish it, which was a pity =/

Anyway, so that was the part of my day which wasn't spent trying to force myself to concentrate on my lectures notes.

And yes, I'm very satisfied with my new table lamp now. :) Hopefully I will be able to study better!

Okay back to my notes! Wish me luck. kthxbai.

Take A Break

Okay better to update my blog now or else Yannie say will abandon my blog ade T_T haha can't believe I'm updating my blog so little now.

What's the best effective way to kill a blogger's enthusiam? Clinicals years! lol.

Anyway, we went to have a late dinner at this lovely italian restaurant called Ciao Italia which gets the thumbs up from me! The carbonara is to die for, the taste is so.. genuine!! The bosses of the restaurant are italian so this is the real deal hehe.

Then we went to the casino just for fun. The guys won some money and I tried my luck at one of those machines thingamajig. I almost lost all of my 2 dollars (yes I know I bet very small but sorry lar, I tak cukup duit ade) but at the very end, I got a big win and won back my 2 dollars. I declare it a sign from the powers-to-be that they wanted me to stop playing hahaha.. :P

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MSK didn't start out very fun for the first day. Was pretty stressed out coz they bombarded us with so much stuff in a short period of time. @.@

But today's sessions were so much better. Was able to get a better handle of things. I need to chill a bit and don't put so much stress on myself.. yeah. Wish that I can have more 'me' time and study time too..

Okay that's it for now, my hair is dry already so time for me to say hi to my lovely comfy bed. And bye to you guys!

PS: Yannie, is this post satisfactory? :P up to expectations? *raises eyebrow*

PPS: I keep feeling like wanna put "Have a kit kat" after my post title lol

Past Week

Oh noes, I really must force myself to update more. Cannot go on like this. Sei! all my readers run away ade! haha..

Anyway, it's been a busy week, as usual. Busy will be the most overused word in my blog for the next few years I think. aihs.

So, geriatrics is finally done! Can't believe 1 month just whooshed past so fast! Next up will be MSK which means I hvta get used to things again. New teams, new wards. Lucky still at the same hospital though. It's just a 15 min bus ride so it's pretty convenient.

Oh ya, I got a pretty good mark for my case report which is great! The doctor commented that I was motivated and hardworking.. which really made my day. :) I'm happy that my hard work paid off. Not in the sense of studying (coz slack quite often blek) but in the sense of on time for ward rounds and enthusiam I guess.

Must continue to keep the fire burning!!

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We finally had the imu annual gathering today. It was a bbq at Maltida Bay. Food was plentiful and we made brownies too! hehe yeah my famous fudge brownies :P

We met some of the 5th years, 6th years and interns and residents too. Too many that I'm confused about the names and who's who. lol. We probably shld have more gatherings in the future so that we can bond better yeh. *winks*

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Oh ya, we finally went to get the coffee table from Bibiana too. Thanks so much! Now we finally have a place to eat dinner haha..

And I have been dilligently cooking the past week. Trying to save some money coz spent quite a bit while settling in. And ready served food here so damn expensive! haih. But if I cook myself, so much cheaper le. I will post up the photos of some of the food I cooked ya when I get them from Debbi. Probably shld consider getting a camera soon. Saw some reasonably priced ones earlier.

So anticipate the food photos! I have been pretty creative! Online recipes are fun! keke.

PS: yesh sorry for the boring uncreative title. My brain juices are dry ade!

Settling Down

Sorry for the lack of updates! Thing are going really busy at the moment. Anyway, good news! I finally got my internet a few days ago. But was too busy to blog. :P

And the fridge came on the same day too. Luckyness! So yeah, the past few days we have been trying to scourge stuff for our kitchen. Must be cheap but not too lousy quality, difficult-nya!

Anyway, later we will be cooking our first dinner here hehe. I feel we are quite lucky to be staying where we are coz we are near to the weekend market and woolsworth, so we can get everything we want without having to walk too far!

Next week will be my last week in geriatrics. I did learn quite a bit in this rotation and I think I did use my time quite fruitfully. (well I don't have a choice, do I? with sucha full timetable lol) But I really need to brush up on my clinical examinations, especially for msk and neuro where I feel I'm still lacking.

Gonna start Msk rotation after this. Hope it will be a good run with lots of opportunities to learn!

PS: A very happy birthday to Fun Fun by the way! Hope you liked the cute card I sent you :) Sad that I can't be with you to celebrate your birthday..

A Stroke Of Luck, Finally

I am writing this to announce that we signed the agreement today! so yays I finally have a place to stay. =D Got me a bit worried back then.

Debbi and I will be moving in tmr (rush, no?) so that we can save $$, instead of paying both temporary accomdation and the new place. It is hardly ready but no worries, we will try to get it done as soon as possible. Hope we will have our new home ready by this weekend! Is that a safe estimation? lol.

So yeah, won't be updating much till we get internet set up at our place. Hope that will be asap coz everything depends on internet here! Uni announcements, bus timetables etc.

Hmm so far this week has been really fun. Procedural skills workshops are cool!

Did I say that I successfully drew blood from 2 batchmates yesterday? woah adrenaline rush haha. okie more like 1.5 times success coz my first attempt failed halfway lol. The second tube just didnt fill haha. But it's all good :)

My cannulation on the model failed though. =( Need more practice.. not easy! But I dont think I dare do on real patients le.. Injections weren't too bad, seemed ok. Tomorrow will be practicing catheterization (on models of coz, what did you think? haha) and resuscitation on thursday morning. Then there will be 2 nursing attachments and a senior first aid course that we had to do.

Quite a full week eh and we still hvta get our house ready! So much stuff to buy and all. And things to apply for @.@

And next week rotations will start.. Have absolutely no idea how to prepare for it. So just hvta take things one step at a time then!

Things seemed to be really looking up compared to last week. Hope it will only be better! ^v^

PS: I had a good chat with someone yesterday. Cleared up some misunderstandings which is good! Next time we should just discuss things yeh. :)