Just Human

One month into being a doctor, all I can say is - it's not easy.

I suppose the fact that I'm only writing about this now shows how busy I am. One month had just passed in a flash and now the reality that I'm a doctor had sunk in. There are a lot of things that makes being a doctor far different from being a medical student. 

You are expected to answer your pager (which you feel like smashing into a million pieces after the cool first time it rings), you are expected to know every detail of your patient's life (from the fact whether they opened their bowels yesterday or do they have 2 dogs and one of them is a poodle), you are expected to know the dosage/brand name of every drug on earth, you are expected to write notes while balancing the obs/med/fluid balance chart while keeping the patient propped up while the consultant has a quick listen to their chest, you are expected to keep an eye on your patients' bloods and have them ready at hand if the consultant wants to know every minuscule detail, you can't avoid that mean patient that verbally abuses you, you are expected to handle all the nurses' questions, you are expected to do all the ward work plus discharge summaries and the best part is: you are expected to perform all of this efficiently on an empty stomach, a full bladder and a mind that is going crazy inside.

That probably sums up my life in a neat little paragraph now. I love my job, I really do, I'm not complaining.

But sometimes things get hard - I love my patients, I do my best, but sometimes it's hard when you get patients who scold you even though you mean your best. I try not to take it personally, but sometimes it's hard.

So sometimes when you wonder why the doctor hasn't come to see you yet, or had forgotten a little thing - please be patient with them - we do our best but we are still just human.

I AM BACK!!

HELLO! Probably no one is reading this. But I can't believe that I have not blogged for almost TWO freaking MONTHS plus!! That is like totally insane for me.

But I do have some excuses lined up. First up was that I had been away at rural without internet (except that on my mobile) for a month so that was that. Btw did I tell you I have a really amazing time during my rural GP? There were some down parts of coz like missing my good friends, but otherwise I saw and did a lot of different stuff. There were some physical stuff that I never thought I would be able to do too! It was an awesome experience!

Anyhow, I came back and started with my last rotation in med school which was the Emergency Department! Guess what? I loved it too. I am considering it as a career choice now. :P But I haven't decided if I am able to handle those grossly deformed multitrauma cases yet as I had yet to meet one in the face, so to speak. But I love the variety and the investigative approach to finding out what's the acute problem of the patient. I think it suits my personality too. :)

Okay, I apologize for not posting for so long, coz I have been busy with many things. I am moving house at the end of this month too so have been looking for a place to live. Not my favourite activity but what's gotta be done gotta be done. Am currently applying for a place so cross your fingers that we can get it. I'm moving in with someone new as my current housemates are going elsewhere. Let's hope it will all go smoothly from here, as there were a few hitches along the way. But I am really looking forward to have a nice little place of our own now, instead of a messy student place.

I better stop rambling. As usual, one of the little motivation I'm writing this now is because I'm procrastinating again. I have an ED exam tomorrow. And my end of year exams in less than 2 weeks so I probably should be cracking out the whip. But seriously I have never felt so amotivated. Probably because there is just so much to read about that you kinda give up and decide to hang your luck on whatever knowledge you have with you now. (which by the way, always escapes by osmosis everyday!)

Okay I better focus on the exam tomorrow first. STUDY STARDEEEE!!

Despite Everything

Oops, been neglecting my blog again. Things are getting busy, so whenever I wanna blog, I tell myself, "oh I better do that thing first, it's due tomorrow."

Now I have 3 weeks' worth of laundry waiting to be ironed (I probably should get down to it soon, or will run out of clothes to wear soon - I know, I don't have that many clothes. Or work-suitable clothes anyway. Sponsor me? :P)

Anyway, as I said, things on the to-do-list are piling higher and higher up. And I see no hope of it dimishing soon. Or even plateau-ing. :(

This rotation is not slack at all. Who said so it was?? *stressed*

And the worst thing is I dunno what happened to my 'confidence'. I can't fake it that well anymore. I am so going to need it for the end of year exams this year. We need to be calm and confident when counselling patients.

Arggh. I hate the instances when I do kinda know my stuff but all my thoughts come out all tangled up and stuttering. HATE IT. Stupid.

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Okay rants aside. I must tell you this interesting event that happened to me a few days back.

I have been trying to contact a patient for a home visit for a case report. Kept calling about 3 times/day for the past 4 days or so.

Everytime when someone answered, I said: "Hi, can I speak to Mr. X please?" And everytime, the phone is left on hold for ages and nobody comes to the phone even though I kept waiting.

The last straw was when he said: "No" harshly before I could say anything and left the phone on (meaning I could hear the background noise of the tv for eg). When I called back again, the phone was engaged. I was quite frustrated by then and just left him a message detailing what I was calling for.

He called me back not long after, apologizing. Apparently, he has been hanging up on my calls because he thought I was one of the telemarketers.

"Because of your accent."

Why thank you. Isn't that nice? NOT.

Well, he did apologized many times so I know he didn't mean it. But I do dislike being discriminated against because of my accent, my looks etc. I will have you know that there are many aussie telemarketers too! And no, I do not even have a typical asian accent. I speak clearly, okay?? I don't mumble, I don't slur my speech, I don't simply give abbreviations to words and expect ppl to naturally understand them. AHHH!!

Anyhow, I did the home visit today. It was alright, I practiced doing a little patient education, which was good, despite the fact that at one part the cigarette smoke was blowing my way. Oh and I think I can't use him as my case report patient afterall. Coz he doesn't really have a new presenting complaint at this point in time. Really EPIC FAIL of me. after all that.

But I was still glad I did the visit though. He seemed a little lonely and appeared happy with my (albeit temporary) presence.

If I could have make someone's day a little happier, I guess it was worth it. Certainly an experience. :)

Now to figure out how to bluff my way when I am on the telephone so people don't hang up on me ;P

@ 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.

Rocky

Here I am, writing this post in Brisbane, Day 2 is currently winding to an end.

I must say, I have had a rocky start due to certain reasons. But hey, adversity builds character.

Shall update more next time. Time for some girl talk. ;)

The Reverse

I didn't realise I haven't blogged for so long. okay 1 week isn't that long but still... It's weird, days seem to be swooshing past nowadays. I feel that all I am doing is trying to get from one thing to the next.

In less than 3 weeks' time, it will be time for my long-awaited mid year break! Can't wait for that. Will be going to Brisbane to visit my two best friends and other good friends as well! :D

Anyway, my presentation is over and done with. I thought it went pretty okay on my part, I must be improving on public speaking. I shall not go into a long grandmother's story but suffice to say, it was a tricky and complicated situation. Some of the personal comments made after the presentation didn't sit very well with me, I must admit. Hence the rants on Facebook, which gathered quite a bit of attention actually. I'm lucky to have friends that care about me. :) Don't worry, I am careful to make vague Facebook statuses. Don't want to get thrown out of med school because of something insignificant like that. lol.

However, I just received a message from a friend. Looks like it's gonna be a more drawn out affair due to the fact that someone made an official complaint. Not about me, thank goodness. It's too difficult to explain here without going into specifics. Just that it's interesting to note, the people being complained about are not the ones that upset me.

So now. I'm doing my last 3 weeks of Paediatrics, which is community-based. Nothing too heavy really. Which is a good end to a relatively busy term. All I need to do is attend my rostered clinics and attend the tutes and lectures scheduled - which are not that much now that's nearing the end of term. Oh and yes, the most important thing, finish up on my 3 reports left for Paeds. Hope to get them done relatively soon so I can relax.

I wonder how this week is going to turn out. Can't wait for the weekend. Have 2 dinners lined up this weekend. Time to catch up with friends. :)

Fight, Flight Or Fright?

I just realised where the thought of using an umbrella for self-defense (against zombies) in the dream came from.

About a week ago, two friends and I were walking home from a dinner in Fremantle. Just as we were approaching our house, 2 large big black guard dogs and a small dog stood menacingly barking for all their worth outside our neighbour's house. We were a bit wary and approached slowly.

Suddenly, without any provocation whatsoever, one of the big guard dogs rushed straight over barking furiously. We were all frightened out of our wits - torn between running and standing our place. We have all been told that you should never run while a dog runs at you, as that will provoke it into running after you madly. I wonder if it's true.

Anyway, I knew my heart was thumping madly, as though it would twist into an arrhythmia. Palpitations. I could feel the adrenaline abruptly rush into me - I really felt I was ready to fight or run for my life. Although in this case, it would be more apt to say it was a fight, flight or fright mechanism!

The dog ran dangerously near us. I was afraid it was gonna take a big chunk of flesh out of me. I took a few steps backwards and was already pulling on my friend who was in front of me, wanting to urge her to run. Lucky, it stopped near us, still barking ferociously.

In the end, to get back to our house, we had to make a huge round the other way. And mind you, they were still barking at us when we approached from the other end.

And the idea of the umbrella for self-defense came when one of my friends took it out, just in case.

How funny though I have managed to imagine the dogs into zombies in my dream. -_-"

Anyhow, I still think the owner of the dogs should have been a bit more vigilant and not let those dangerous dogs simply out into the neighbourhood.

What if it had bitten us? That would definitely be not fun, at all, thank you very much.

First Taste

First clinical week of paediatrics has just passed. Pretty full on since I am attached to a general paediatric team.

Seen quite a few patients but still a bit tentative when it comes to history taking and examination of sick kids though. Not sure how to handle them confidently yet. But hopefully that will come with time. :)

I was pleasantly surprised to see the clown doctors that came to the wards this afternoon. I think they are real doctors who dress up as clowns and try to bring some smiles to the poor kids. And omg, they are good. The kid in my team who apparently didn't like clowns according to his parents, LAUGH out loud at the silly antics of the clown doctors. Amazing stuff.

And I really quite like how they try to make the hospital as kid-friendly as possible. Colourful walls with murals/cartoons etc. And they have someone call a play coordinator. And they are in charge of bringing different sort of toys for the kids of different ages. Love the stuff they have. Apparently can even ask for x-boxs or laptops. Seriously awed.

And did I say how cute the babies are?? Omg. I think I've been influenced by the baby-loving bf!! lol. But it's so nice when the babies smile at you. Or the feeling you get when kids accept you when they were a bit wary initially. I hope I will be able to develop more of these skills of how to talk to kids of different ages.

But there's always a flip side to everything. It makes me really sad to see kids who are really sick and hvta be in and out of hospital all the time. Or who have multiple congenital abnormalities and are suffering. sigh.

Balance the good with the bad. Moderation is the mantra of life.

And I want to try to make life a bit better for those who are suffering; and I hope I will not forget or lose myself along the way, in the years to come.

Self Advice

More individualism and less soft-heartedness, my dear.

Stay out of things that do not involve you. (people will not thank you for it) It's true that less attachments lead to lesser disappointments and sadness.

Why not do things that you should be doing instead? For instance, studying?

[Enlightened]

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!!

Two Nights

One night of beautiful fireworks. almost as if they were falling on us. dancing. music. drinks. friends. :)

One night of pseudo-sleeping. coffee to keep awake. pins and needles from awkward positions. nobody going into labour. waste of time. :(

Comparison? Cannot fight larrr.

Exercise

Guess what? I had been very diligently going jogging once a week for 5 weeks already! I must say, I'm quite proud of myself. As I used to be quite a typical sedentary medical student hahaha..

Of coz, my stamina is not excellent, that's why I hvta slow down and rest between intervals. But I can slowly feel some gradual tiny improvement so that's good. :)

Why am I doing this? Well besides the obvious reasons of health (I need more exercise!!), I was hoping I would be able to keep the fat at bay too lol. I feel perpetually hungry here (not sure whether izzit becoz of the cold) but I scared of getting fat lah!! Cannot be like imu times, just eat and let it grow fat haha.

(omg I miss maggi goreng so much... ajimal's maggi goreng the best!! T_T)

If I would to give one more reason, it would be I'm kinda lonely bored here so I'm treating this like a project. Gives me something to concentrate on. A goal of sorts. So I don't think about other things too much..

Oh and do you know that actually you feel more alert after exercise? Not more tired as most people would think. I hope that would help me in my studies somehow. haha.

Might add in some other exercises as well... to tone up all this flabby fats. =/ Hope I would be able to see through this project of mine.

I think this is one of the stages in my life that I'm having sucha healthy lifestyle. Lots of vege, fruit, less meat and some exercise! wow. *amazed with myself lol*

Going Well

Heylo! I'm back again. I know, it's been slightly more than a week since I last blogged but I was really busy.

Last week was just a flurry of activity that I don't really rmb. But lucky we have this journal that we hvta write down what we did each day so I'll just review them now eh?

Well, I'll just write down the highlights of the week okay.

And guess what? I cannulated my 1st patient! omgwtfbbq. It was almost a success, as in there was flushback (means got blood flowing into the tube) but somehow it couldn't advance so must have hit a valve or smtg, which couldn't be avoided b4hand. But I really need to do more for practice though!

Surgeries I'd seen: Creation of AV fistula, part of kidney transplant and... exploration of gunshot wound! (yeah he was shot by the police - he even had a few police escorting him the 2 days he was in hospital)

Hmm and I finally got a case for my case study. Nice lengchai irish guy that had appendicitis. :P Good simple case really. hehe. And dont forget the many tutorials!! But the teaching is really good for my team so it's all good. :)

Anyway, now it's week 4 and there are 5 medical students in my team, so we hvta take turns each day (till week 8 I reckon) to present the later ward round to the consultant as the "junior doctor". And today was my turn.

I think I did okay, as in I did know mostly what was happening to the patients - its just that the way I presented to the consultant could have been better. Need to get my communication skills a bit up! And more practice! :)

Haha okay, that's all for now I think. We just received a 100-paged notes abt liver surgery o.O and we are supposed to read it up for the tute this thursday. Huh?? Dont think I can make it even if I breathe it 24/7 for the next few days. lol.

So cya guys next time! Miss u all dearly!

First Week In Surgery

Hi guys, I'm back after what I can only describe as an intense week. I was having mixed feelings when I started surgery.

But now after one week, I'm enjoying myself. The hours are long, the work tough but I'm learning. My consultants have organized quite a lot of teaching sessions for us and we are probably gonna work through the whole "Lecture Notes for General Surgery" book in the 8 weeks we are here. Which is gonna be amazing coz this will probably be the first time I read an entire textbook. lol.

We are expected to be around for quite an amount of hours. Ward rounds (can be twice a day), on calls, meetings etc.

Can you believe it, in the 2nd day of our posting, I already got to scrub in and assist the surgeon for an exploratory inguinal canal operation? Nah, didn't do much coz I know practically nil abt surgery, only held the opening open with retractors and cut sutures for the surgeon. *Note to self: must rmb to leave some suture left when cutting it. Not the time to be neat haha*

And!! I also got to do a catheter on another patient pre-op. so funny la the surgeon ask me whether I wanna do a catheter onot and I said "Errr.." coz felt abit hesitant as never did on real patient before yet. Then he said: "that means yes!" lol.

But it was great. :D I finally got over my fear of doing a catheter. I made some silly mistakes (they are very big on being aseptic here! my gosh) but hey, I'm sure next time I'll do better. Can't wait to practice more! Next hurdle to cross would be a cannula. woah, tat would be scary. o.O

Luckily, this time my group mates seem to be really nice ppl. So I'm happy. And the girl stays very close to me so she gives me lifts home when its late and there are no more buses. thank you! :)

Well, that would be about all for now. I sense a difficult week ahead so its good I'm all rested this weekend hehe.

I'll try update more on my experiences coz I'm sure my frenz like to read abt them. Let's hope Time is kind to me. Oh ya, and I have the mental and physical capacity left to blog. :P

PS: Btw some of the messages you guys gave are hilarious! I really LOL at some of them.. loving it :)

Post MSK

Msk exam is over!! Whee...

It wasn't easy but it wasn't totally difficult either. Do-able would be a good description. But I realised there were quite a few of red herrings included inside.

For eg. patient comes in with blah blah typical features of osteoarthritis. Then suddenly mention that patient got erythematous rash on face. Haha want to trick ppl to definitely say she has SLE lar!

Anyway, some of the pictures included inside are very blur!! Even though enlarged ade cannot see clearly lah. These sort of pics especially xrays, must print wan, cannot photocopy!

Weirdly, the examiner told us that the exam was not timed. Which means we can take as long as we like. So funny right? And the most zha dou thing was about 10 ppl received questions papers with the even pages missing. -_- And I was one of the 'lucky' ppl. haha. We had to wait for the examiner to go photocopy more.. And she just left us alone like that, trusting us to be honest.

A few ppl started discussing the questions.. until a girl couldn't tahan anymore and directly just shoot them by saying "it's not very fair, you know, discussing the answers. yes you three there!" *points at them* o.O wah.. that's very blunt. No worries, I didnt cheat at all. I believe one's pride is really important, especially when one is kinda like representing one's country in a way.

Anyway, my point in saying all this is that I feel that this exam has lost part of its worth somehow. The fact that it's not being timed and no supervision. I shouldn't have stress out so much abt it. lol.

Oh well, talk so much, I'm also not sure how my results will be too haha. wish me luck k.

Now, I need a bath, some rest before dinner. Finally gonna have a karaoke session later! I miss it!! woots.

Fun In A Foreign Land

I shall stop with the grandmother stories (for eg pls refer to my last post :P) so just briefly, will ya?

Anyway, we decided to have a barbeque saturday afternoon - yes omg in the very hot summer weather, its nuts I tell you - as the aussies love their barbie so much :P [barbie is their slang for BBQ]

Although the walk to the nearest supermarket (wic is like 30 mins away) and back and then another 30 mins to King's Park where we are having our bbq was super tiring, it was fun. The park was beautiful. They have bbq pits available in the park and they run on electricity, not charcoal!

Ok must stop being long winded... *slaps self*

On sunday morning, we went to visit Scarborough Beach. It was beautiful, like those in postcards. The weather was burning hot, but once you step into the water, it was so cold.. weird. lol. Ren told us that a few weeks back there was a shark that appeared near to shore and attacked someone. And he told us this after we got out of the water! o.O Luckily, they have cars and helicopters patrolling the area for sharks. Cool eh?

That night we decided to have a 'reunion dinner' with some frenz. And guess what we ate? Pizza. lol. But it tasted pretty good though. We had red wine too, but I don't fancy much the taste. Then after circling around the town for some sort of event with random landmarks provided yet finding nothing in the end, we gave up.

In the end, we went to a fren's fren's fren's house to hang out. yeah I know, funny. It was abit like crashing ppl's party. -_- The guys gambled while we girls played mahjong. After that, they started playing drinking games. Lucky didn't kena many times so just got a bit tipsy. Eh their liquor damn strong wan leh. 40%!! Chivas and Red Label =/ haha so proud of myself that I didn't puke :P Anyway, dont think will be doing this again very soon. Aint my style. Plus *cough* must prevent alcoholic liver disease. haha..

On monday, it was Australia Day. Yes so ngam also first day of CNY. We went to watch fireworks at Swan River. Wow there were so many ppl. Imagine this, all spaces along the shore were crammed full of people. Anyway the fireworks were beautiful and lasted for around 40 mins I think.

And today! we had introduction to preparation for clinicals classes. It felt really weird joining another class. It felt like we were infiltrators trying to blend our way into the crowd. haha.. The phlebotomy lecture was not bad. We had the afternoon free and spent it frantically trying to find more possible choices of houses.

Yeah bad news. We didn't get our dream house. It was apparently taken. And they didnt even inform us even though we made sucha big effort to fill in that ridiculously long form. gah! Now feeling kinda worried abt accomodation.. They don't seem to trust students sadly. why?? Hope we can find a house and settle down soon. That gnawing worry is eating me up inside.. =(

Anyway, I guess that's all for now. The past few days have been really fun. But now classes are officially starting so I better be on my toes. Gotta read up a bit ade. So cya next time! Wish me luck with house-hunting! ^^

PS: Oh ya, almost forgot, wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year! although there isn't much cny spirit here..

PPS: All photos are/will be loaded up at facebook. Am too busy to put them here la haha.. so check out those okie.

PPPS: And can you believe it? I've been in Perth for more than one week! The fun days passed fast certainly, but there were days where the going got tougher, and those days seemed drawn out. I can't wait till things smooth themselves out..

For The Past Few Days

I'm typing this in Microsoft word first and when you see this on my blog, (yes you are reading it now) it means that I've managed to get proper internet to post this on my blog.

DAY 1 (sunday)

And yes, all the hundred possible worrying scenarios did NOT happen, thank god. Everything went smoothly, from the flight, the customs, airport pick up and settling down temporarily in Currie Hall – well everything except one, Debbi and I couldn't use the internet provided here because the telephone cable head here is smaller than the one they use in msia. =/ I guess we'll try to see if we can get an adapter or whatever it’s called.

Unfortunately, there were no seniors to help us around as most are them are still not back from summer break. =( sigh, feel kinda lost around here.

But with some luck, we got to know this coincidentally also msian guy staying next door to Deb. His name is Ren and he's from UNSW but doing his internship here temporarily in Perth. He really helped us a lot, showing us around Currie Hall and showed us a place for dinner too as most of the shops are closed for summer break. It wasn't really near (well to someone lazy like me haha) and it's a Chinese restaurant! Guess what is my first dinner there? Char Kuew Teow! Which costed a freaking AUD10!! =( The portions are really huge and we couldn't finish so just tapau back to reheat later la haha.. Looks like Deb and I should have shared a plate instead.

Oh ya, I haven't talked abt my first impression of the place eh. Well, it looks like a really nice place so far and omg I love the abundant greenery here. Very beautiful!! The trees of different shapes and sizes, the exploding colour of the flowers, the different types of shrubs... The population here is pretty diverse too.

DAY 2 (monday)

Well we had to open a bank account and get a cellphone line so off to the city we went! We had no idea how to go or even get back, just that we are supposed to take the 102/107 bus... Did many silly mistakes, met some nice people and a nasty one as well bah!

The city is really nice. The streets are organized and well connected for pedestrians.. A lot of ppl walk around here… I walk till my legs sakit ade.. =/

The coins here are confusing and have interesting shapes. The 50 cent coin is a large hexagon! The 2 dollar coin here is much smaller than the 1 dollar coin! Weird.

Tried to call home with the calling card, heard they say it's much cheaper.. but weirdly Optus seems to be charging me a bomb for trying to access their Perth number. (you need to call a perth number before you key in the number you wanna call) sigh, so until I sort this out, won't be able to call much. My emotion was mainly ='( this when I found out the cost of that 10 min call.

DAY 3 (tuesday)

Mainly all we did today was registration. So many things to do and papers to read. I still haven't sort that out lol. My face looks very round in my student card – and hah! I tot I lost weight! :P I got my Smart Rider card too, so will be able to take the bus with the student concession price. Yays. International students have a 40% discount.

Erm what else did we do? Oh ya, we started looking for houses online. Wrote down a few possible options. Three of us will be sharing a house – Deb, Xin Nee and I.

DAY 4 (wednesday)

Finally, a free day! And we finally got our full internet access activated at the uni. Tell you what, the procedures are really complicated. o.O So will be able to access blogs and facebook whatsoever. But we are allocated a limited internet quota per day, 10MB. I guess that's ok for normal browsing. Felt so nice to be able to surf the net again. This is what happens when you get addicted to the net and it is your only source of communication to the outside world.

We also went to see 2 houses today. The first one in the morning wasn't really nice. While the second one in the evening was gorgeous. It was more expensive naturally but I think it is our dream house... They have walk-in closets here! wow! Now to find out how to apply for it..

DAY 5 (thursday)

Today was mainly orientation - and no, it wasn't like those dirty grimy orientation week we had in imu - though I half-wished it was! Serious! Anyway, this was the first time we saw the medical faculty which was isolated from the rest of the campus but nearer to one of the main teaching hospitals. It was a pretty nice place I guess.

Anyway, we had to do lots of high tech computer stuff and listened to a few pretty confusing explanations about the classes/units we will have in the year ahead. @.@ And omg, again a ton of stuff to read. I haven't started on any of that yet. haha.. will leave that for the weekend.

Classes officially start next tuesday (monday is Australia Day btw) and then it will be about 2 weeks of preparations sort of classes before official rotations kick off! My rotations are in the following order: Medicine Specialities (Geriatrics, MSK), Surgery, Psychiatry and lastly Medicine. Hmm am not sure whether I like this order yet but can't do anything abt it as we are not allowed to switch. Oh and most of us are alone in our group too, as in not with the other imu students. Hope I will be able to manage!!

DAY 6 (friday)

Which is today. Finally managed to send in our application for the lease of the house. It's an online application with ton of things to fill in.. omigosh it's so difficult and complicated to get things done around here. Even need points for identification eg. pictures of drivers license or passport. what!

And you know what, this doesn't even guarantee you will get the house!! NO! I think the main point of ppl who are interested are asked to send in their applications is that the house owner will get to pick who they want to lease their house to. Good for them of course, but very complicated for newbies like us. =/

Sigh I wonder why I never get to know abt the stuff that is done differently in australia... well gotta experience it myself then!

Oh ya, you must be wondering how come I can post this now. Deb and I finally just bought a cable thingy that lets us use the hostel internet. Finally!! after so many days...

I guess that's all for now. The day hasn't ended! We will be going to explore the city at night later... yeap the shops in the city are open till 9pm on fridays. I wonder what new things we will see!

Okay this is getting pretty long-winded so I will write more in the next post.. Till then, take care!

PS: For my friends who are concerned abt me, thank you so much. :) I haven't been coping well the past few days but things seem to be looking up! I hope the rest of the days will only be better!

IMU Ball: A Sensational Symphony

Yet again this is old news but I am slowly churning out the drafts fermenting in my blogger dashboard haha.

Yup just some ramdom pics from the IMU Ball!! Already photoshopped them so it'd be a pity to let them go to waste right? hehe.

Kee Ping, Alicia, Kee and I were in charge of general decor and backdrop.

So this is what we did for each table.

cute yet romantic at the same time right!

the 3 balloon blobs are balloons filled with water then twisted into that apple shape.

we put glitter and a floating transparency with the words Imu Ball: A Sensational Symphony (hoho painstakingly written by me :P) into those balloons!

dont you love how the light from the candle illuminate the balloons!

I only have pics from here and there coz I don't have a camera la yeah. Cant wait to get one of my own.

This is the corsage my dear dear got for me. <3

It's so sweet of him but 3 roses bundled together to place on my wrist is a bit too bulky la haha.

And omg I love my hair! Li Shan, that hairdresser's curling power is too geng ade!

the curls super duper nice right?

come on admit it! :P

I wonder if I should get a permanent curl or just buy a curler to do it myself, oh well probably no time to "pan leng" also la hmm =(

Anyway, here's the extra body art they did for each of us.

on the side of my right calf, nice ka?

I should have asked for one on my shoulder instead - more striking that way

Well I certainly had a nice time at the ball, but I think the ballroom was too packed and everything was a bit disorganized. Too much photo-taking when people shld be sitting down to a nice dinner together. =/ And I wished the dance floor was larger too, didn't get to dance at all sigh.

But on the overall, it was a wonderful night. Thank you to those who made it possible. :) Especially to De Jun, Ball president! Congrats on a great job done!

To end this post, here's the IMU Ball Video that made many of us almost teared.. T_T haha maybe they wanted to sabo the girls' makeup kua :P

Sry for the blurry quality - but it is a great video, especially the front part, very touching.

it is difficult to say goodbye to all the lovely memories

I noticed I am in quite a lot of the pics wo! haha

Anyway, thank you for all the great memories, my friends. :) I am going to miss all of you.

Old-School Games

Finally got the influx of pics. Will slowly photoshop them before putting them up here k?

Anyway, in this post I wanna share with you guys some of the popular games I played during my childhood days. I'm refering to video games coz I grew up in an urban sort of environment so only had minimal experience of playing those traditional games (eh but I did play 'Iceman' wo? smtg like 'Fire & Ice' I think. and also jumping boxes drawn on the ground wan, what do you call it ah?)

Well, I'm sure those born in the 1980's (Generation Y!!) would probably have at least seen some of these before. It was the era of game consoles before the PlayStation started taking over the market.

And now, comparing them with the current ones, one can clearly see the difference in the advancement of technology. And start reminizing/laughing at how noob the old ones were, but dont play play le, in those days, they were the forefront of technology le!! And provided us kids with hours of endless fun =)

So do you remember this?

lol the way the penguins wobbled abt is so cute!

and this is not easy to play le, the floor alwix very slippery wan =/

How about this?

Road Fighters! omg I rmb getting hooked on this during primary 6

coz someone sneakily installed it in the comp labs :P

this is where I learn my driving skills from (no wonder they are almost nil lol)

Eh this next one not bad too! Needs good hand-eye-brain-coordination!

goal of the game is to manoveur the cat to avoid the mice while picking up the items!

I like bouncing the cat on the trampoline boink boink :P but be careful coz it'll break!

Okay the next one is a favourite of my sis. yah dont be surprised, even Generation Z kids might find these games interesting, even tho they have more high tech ones available now! haha..

I tried playing it too with her insistence, not bad woh.

very funny when u upgrade ur level from normal boxing gloves to a tank!

And this one I clearly rmb playing during my childhood, I quite like it somehow hehe..

Must bomb open all doors with a skull on it to get the keys or rescue a miniature fren.

of coz must avoid the rats and the fat gun-shooting uncles haha!

Okay I think the next one is funny. Still remember it?

first level you are supposed to tame a lion to jump thru all the fire hoops safely.

I think the next level you are supposed to walk on a tight rope and jump over chimps! >.<

For the next one, I don't think I played it before last time but my frenz did. and it was a shame, coz this one is really fun!!

I later only realised apparently can take things to throw at the stupid robot dogs!!

my sis loves this too, before that it was just a hassle having to try to avoid everything! now can throw ade lol

Next one is Battle City! I love the theme song in front!

needs a bit of decisive planning and quick action!

I remember playing this alot during the good ol' days~

And last but not least, the most classic of all old-school games. You at least shld be able to remember this!

one of my favs! Despite how it looks, it is not easy to play also haha..

you guys loved this too, right? Mao Xian Dao rawrs!!

oh no I think I used too many exclamation marks in this post!!! sry must be too excited ade :P

Guess where I got these cool games from? Yup, Zherlin was the one who gave it to me when I was in Seremban, he got it from his cousin, which got from someone else no doubt haha.

Many thanks to the original person who compiled the whole huge list of old games, some also I never see before le..

So now, I will have something to occupy my time during clinicals when I get fed up of studying! ^v^

PS: Anyone who wants it can ask from me, it's a small file only, so shld be quite easy to send to you guys =)

First Blood

I was given the opportunity to draw blood today!! *so excited omgwtfbbq*

Guess who was my first "victim"? It was my nice kind dad that let me do it on him... =) coz he usually does a blood test every year and I've been pleading with him to let me try do injections or what-nots.

Since he is afraid I might injure his patients (and they might not let me do it too, can't blame them coz I'm still noob!) so he let me do it on him la... so nice right?

Hehe and yup I got it on the first try!! ^v^ so happy. But then his veins are very prominent, very easy to see and feel. I hope I didn't cause him any unnecessary pain but his face did show signs of pain la. Err he said it was psychological wo when I asked him..

So who wants me to take their blood next? :P I need the practice!