its so cold!

the weather's turned all wonky on me.

its mostly cold... plus i have been getting my headaches.
so annoying.

just been lying in bed all day.
feel crippled.

a new rotation awaits me on monday!
the hospital is nearer (yay) and the teaching and all is supposed to be good (yay)
i just hope i get attached to a good team with friendly doctors and all.

weirdly,
i think i might even miss surg at lyell mac.

3 days to friday

having a test on friday.

end of surgery test.

how can a 50mcq test be so stressful to study for??

argh.

i wanna get out of the house and run.
but there are 5 books opened, waiting to be read.

argh

weekend.. be here !!!

moooooore!

more pixxxxxxxx :)

just for the sake of my nosy sg frens:
quinnie + jess = my housemates
jo + klara + david + ian + veni + von + mus + aishah + adrian = med classmates
david + june = engaged
alfred = happy chef!

what have i been up to?

brioche toast with smoked salmon and salmon moouse

candles and rose petals

chicken ciabatta sandwich!

potato stacks topped with anchovies and some herb thing

pan fried scallops with red sauce and pistachio paste

adrian, ian, yvonne

edward in a cocktail making frenzy

da girls! venita, me, june, jess, quinnie, joanne

card games time.

alvin and venita - drunk

it was such a wonderful party!
a combined alfred-quinnie-me bdae party.
we turned the house upside down preparing for this.
moulding potato mash into shape... slicing duck... shredding everything in sight..
moving furniture around. putting out candles.
playing nice soft music in the background.
people holding wine glasses, walking around, engaging in small talk.

everything worked out in the end.
lots of yummy food -which took forever to prepare but tasted so yummilicious!
enough alcohol to keep people happy and chatty (and trigger happy)
and everyone dressed up so prettily. *touched*

*beams* thanks guys, for giving me a night to remember :)

even the cleaning up was worth it!

of pet names

people always call their other halves by weird pet names.

they mostly revolve around dear, darling, honey, sweetie....the usuals.

i was kinda amused when vic started calling me chewbacca. well, it sounded quite cute. in a cute furry tame dog.. here kitty kitty kinda way. so i left it at that.

at least it's more original than many other names.

UNTIL he decided to show me how the real 'chewbacca' looks like.

this freak-until-i-poop-in-my-pants creature from star wars, is, my ladies and gentlemen, chewbacca.

100% original chewbacca.

IN WHAT WAY DO I RESEMBLE CHEWBACCA!!?

post birthday blues

shit. when i run on the treadmill tmr, i will have to input my age as 23. i wonder how that would affect my running performance. haha.

everyone seemed to want to know what i did for my birthday.

nothing much really, considering it was a school day.
went to sosta for dinner. it's an argentinian place, famous for its charcoal grilled meats. i got the veal ribs and vic got the beef fillet. both were very nicely done. all tender, juicy and flavourful.

not forgetting to mention the sheer size of the portions.

it's blardy huge.

*shakes head* not good for normal human consumption.

we figured if we go there again, we'll have to share the mains in order to prevent stomach perforation. (as if)

besides that... got alot of hugs, smses and well wishes from friends. which is all good. esp from old friends, warm fuzzy feeling all over. :)

birthday blues

i will be 23 in a couple of days time.

O.O

Anyway, just for my own sake. I'm going to construct a wishlist.

1. CDs
- Gary Jules By Gary Jules (I blame Grey's for this)
- Taking a Long Way By Dixie Chicks (Blame Australia)
- 9 By Damien Rice

2. Vouchers from the following places
- Country Road
- FCUK
- Witchery

3. Unlimited copious amounts of best wishes and hugs from my loved ones.

happy things

things that made me smile this past week

1. cny gathering on saturday.

it was a massive laugh-till-ur-head-drop session. factor in the truckload of yummy food that everyone brought along with them, add in a few ang moh friends who were game enough to stuff themselves silly with us, mix in singlish and stupid jokes!...was a great night. and all achieved without alcohol. the angmohs were so bewildered.

"you guys sound like you are bloody high on drugs or sth"

the cleaning up was horrendous though

2. cny card from an old friend

huiqi.. my fellow crescent classmate and NCC friend, sent me a cny card all the way from sg! she'd asked me for my address a long way back and i totally forgot about my little conversation with her in december. it's just so heart warming to know that people remember about you and puts in the effort to find out how you are and stuff. and sec 1.. was a damn long time ago. like 10 yrs ago. like in 1997. like when my crescent blouse was bright yellow and starched up and the peacock blue skirt was covering my knees. like when all i cared about was school and NCC.

3. an unplanned valentine's day dinner

with flowers!! i think this is like the 3rd time i've gotten flowers from vic. we went for yakitori on melbourne street. as yummy as ever! :) but yeah, the flowers were a big surprise.

4. results from last semester

nothing to say, except it was WAY better than expected :) and the fact that it made my mummy happy and reassured that i wasn't just partying my life away in adelaide. she thinks im a awful daughter who squanders money and sleep too much. (can't say that is false..lol)

it's a quiet friday night

..because everyone else is out. it's just me and the rabbits.

i also don't know why i decided to stay in. guess it's just too warm outside to enjoy myself. those ang mohs are mad. weather so hot, they like to eat around and drink jugs of beer, sweating and mingling with one another.

i miss home! it would have been so nice to sit around having steamboat.. lots of delicious food. plus my favourite orh nee! and all those cheng teng type desserts. it's weird to miss chinese new year. yes i know.. when you are in singapore.. you don't think much of the whole notion of it. eat.. ok loh. get angbao..thank you hor.. and simultaneously getting irritated by your kaypoh relatives who demand to know why you've grown over the past yr, which school you are at, what your grades are.. and.. everything else in your life really.

missing chinese new year really sucks.
hope you guys enjoy yourselves okie?
have a happy cny! :)

NB: the rabbits are not mine. they belong to my housemates.

canto night

i am truly a computer idiot.

saw "jessica's jukebox" appearing in the left column of my itunes player.
i was bewildered. like.. what the heck is that??? turns out my housemate said yes to sharing her library of songs... and it just appears on my itunes.

so now i am swimming in lots of canto songs. it really is quite cool, this sharing music thing.

this week's been pretty interesting.

finally became proficient at taking blood. the less i care about causing pain to the patient, the easier i get the tube to fill with oozy deep red venous blood. heh heh.

saw a distal pancreadectomy and splenectomy. (removing pancreas and spleen) which i still dun really get my head around why they took them out since the cancer has already spread. apparently my consultant says its for pain relief...

what happened to filling patients up to the brim with morphine?

and then there was a distal gastrectomy. the surgeons took out all their big toys and happily stapled and glued the guy's small intestines to the whatever's left of the stomach. so cool i tell you. all these new gadgets.

and this stomach removal procedure was done on this 89 yr old man. right after the op, he was all quiet and in pain. and i was so worried he wouldn't make it. but the very next day, he was ordering nurses around and scolding doctors. oh! i was so relieved he was back with us. i was happy being scolded by him when i screwed up the angle of his bed.

sorry to go on and on abt the medical talk.
i am eating drinking and living med these days.

and we are going to have a cny gathering next saturday!
since there's no family here with us.. i guess we all have to keep one another company.
going to be a potluck. i think MJ and gambling's on too. ho ho ho.
our ang moh neighbours ain't going to be able to sleep on saturday.

but still.. no angbaos. no visiting relatives. no abalone to eat.

NO PINEAPPLE TARTS! *burst into tears*

BY the way, stitch prime is still with us. no one called for him. -.-"

my mental age is 22

[x] I know how to make a pot of coffee
[x] I do my own laundry
[x] I can cook for myself
[ ] I think politics are exciting
[ ] My parents and grandparents have
better things to say than my friends
Total: 3

[ ] I show up for school/college/work
every day early
[ ] I always carry a pen in my
pocket/purse.
[ ] I've never gotten a detention
[x] I've watched talk shows
[x] I know what credibility means
without looking it up
[x] I drink coffee at least once a week
Total: 3

[x] I know how to run the dish washer
and or do the dishes.
[ ] I can count to 10 in Spanish.
[x] When I say I'm going to do
something I do it.
[x] My parents trust me.
[x] I can mow the lawn.
[x] I can make adults laugh without
being stupid.
[ ] I remember to water my plants.
[x] I study when I have to.
[x] I pay attention at school/college
[ ] I remembered to feed my pets.
Total: 7

[x] I can spell experience without
looking it up
[x] I clean up my own mess.
[x] The first thing I do when I wake up
is get caffeine.
[x] I can go to the store without
getting something I don't need.
[x] I understand jokes the first time
they are said
[x] I can type fast
Total: 6

[x] I have realized that the weather
forecast changes every hour.
[x] I have realized that no one will
take you seriously unless you are over
the age of 25 and have a job.
[x] I can read a book and actually
finish it
Total: 3

Now add up your totals and that's your
mental age!!!

my mental age is 22!

LOST A STITCH?

the weirdest shit happened to me this morning.
i left vic's apartment and was heading for the market with him.
we walked out of the lift and walked towards the exit, as per normal.

next to the exit, someone placed a STITCH TOY on the ledge, as though that is the normal thing to do.

daph: OOOOO! stitch! so cute! *picks up toy and hugs it tightly*

vic: omg, it might be a bomb or it might be coated with anthrax. don't touch it!

daph: *snaps back to reality* DID YOU PUT MY STITCH HERE?!?!?! IS THIS MY STITCH BECAUSE IT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE I HAVE? IS THIS MINE!?

vic: *shocked* NO IT WASNT ME! I SWEAR

daph: then you can jolly well tell me who in the right mind would leave such a BIG cute toy abandoned here like that

vic: *pleadingly* it really wasnt me!

daph: ok, im going back upstairs. if my stitch is missing im going to kill you.

and true enough. my good old stitch was all well..and now i have a 2nd stitch.
i pasted a note where i found the 2nd stitch

LOST A STITCH?
CONTACT ME AT XXXXXXX

thus far, no one has called my 'retrieve a stitch' hotline.

i don't know what to do with the new stitch.
-.-

surely surgery!

it's been 2 days worth of feeling lost.

haven't been up to much, since the scrub tute by the nurses are held tmr morning. so i guess after that we can start roaming around and checking more things out. apparently we don't even have to ask anyone if we can scrub in. just appear and be ready 10mins before the scheduled time and say hi to the surgeon.

Haha, i could get used to this. that's the good bit about small and faraway hospitals. everyone is so friendly and accommodating towards the students.

registrar handover was today, so the surgical teams were in a mess, no one knows for sure who is staying on their team and stuff. so they sent us home. at 11.30AM! tomorrow, they promised, we will have reg and consultants for you. ok we said. and home we headed.

but it's been tiring. i tell you its the waking up at 5.45 for 7ish ward rounds.

and they sent us off to read weird stuff like varicocele and hernias. shouldn't we start with sth more 'normal' like.. i dunno.

we are going to work very hard tmr! 6 of us promised one another. interview patients! go for outpatients! and scrub in on surgeries! do takes! (yah right)...

meanwhile... back to weird readings.

PS: i catch lifts from my friend, Kerri-Anne. She's so nice to drive via the city to pick Cynthia and I up in the mornings and deliver me back to the city in the afternoons. So no buses yet :) I am so so thankful!

rantings

for the people who are not interested in my crappy life... just move on to the next entry. it has pretty pics.

i just feel as though the MLTU, for one reason or another, actually knows who i dislike working with in med or something. every single freaking rotation i get this year, i have someone i have major issues with in the same group as me.

ok except acute and chronic care coz i have hams. and psych coz i have ian wu.

going to start my first rotation at lyell mac. for the non-adelaideans.. it's a hosp that is light years away from the city. i fear for myself if i have to stay late in the hosp or do takes. argh. ok im exaggerating. its about 1.5 hours by bus. but adelaide isn't the safest place on earth at night. so there.

den there's the issue of dinners (who's cooking? who will have time to buy groceries?) and the issue of meeting up and making time for vic. not a pretty sight ahead folks.

the only thing i can sorta take comfort in is the fact that for surgical home i only have like 6 people in total in my group. i guess the consultant or whoever will be able to reach out to everyone more easily? i dunno. im just making stuff up to comfort myself.

9 weeks! argh. if i ever survive and pass the freaking 9 weeks! i am so dreading school.
9 weeks is like.. 5X9 = 45 days. minus one public hol.... 44 mornings!

and i only see my other friends once a week during common program. boo hoo!

more london for the interested

tower of london where they keep the crown jewels :)

windsor palace? princess diana used to stay here.

gold plated gate

some royal something. shit im bad with names

us! in the parks.

mutant fat geese running loose

nut-loving squirrel enjoying our treat

on a walk around the city. tower bridge in the background

condolences

some london pics for you guys to see. it's actually a very random selection.. which i intend to enlarge when the blogger allows me to load more pics. it's behaving strangely tonight.

anyway. i met up with hong and ian today for dinner. was the usual talk and laughing, casual without being too superficial sort of chatting that you just cant ever get tired of.

time really does wait for no man.

we have all moved on in vastly different directions in life. some of us are still studying, some of us are going to start working soon, some of us got married, some of us still don't know what to do with our lives. we will no longer be the immature, fun-loving kids who were happy sitting in class and idle our time away with laughter and jokes.

and i just want to say that i've been deeply saddened by the news that our bio tutor in njc, Mrs Che, passed away a while ago. I only heard of the news a week back but it's just so scary. she was a wonderful tutor who was passionate about the subject and devoted to teaching. she was motherly, nice and very patient. she was always full of smiles and twinkly eyes.

the world has suffered a great loss, and may she rest in peace.

london thru my eyes

us outside the ice skating place at tower of london

london eye (on a gloomy day)

tower of london at sunset

tower bridge at sunset

say hi to the queen! outside st paul's cathedral

the painted hall. at the royal something museum.

the ceiling in detail

view from the royal observatory

buskers at covent garden

helping each other

happy us!

life in the gastro ward

top 5 qns patients get asked by nosy but caring doctors in Gastro.
1. Any vomiting? (amount, relation to food, contents - food, bile, blah blah, any blood present)
2. Any problems with ur stools? (colour, any blood, amount, consistency, frequency)
3. Any abdominal pain? (where, when, how, ...)
4. Any weight loss/tiredness/fatigue experienced recently?
5. Ate anything in particular or travelled out of singapore? (top of the list: clams in cha kway teow, 'lamak' food, trips to bangkok etc)

top 3 coolest groups in Gastro
1. Patients who exhibit an inability to maintain intrinsic muscle tone, ie the hepatic flappers
2. Patients with distended bellies ie: the ascites troop
3. The gallstones gang - they keep coming back to remove more stones.

it's been too long!

i realised hardly anyone updates their blogs regularly these days.

i've been away from the blogsphere for a tad too long. not sure how or where to start writing. london? fidel's wedding? thing at sgh? my personal view of the world?

A brand new year

Well, that's not exactly the image i see outside Fidel's apartment but it's close. :)

Just wanted to wish my dear friends all the very best for the new year ahead.

2006 has been pretty challenging for me. I am absolutely thankful to be in 4th year, have a bf who is willing to accommodate me in every single way, a wonderful family that love me so much.. and friends (not many) who has proven to be there for me time and time again.

All i hope is for 2007 to be the same, or better.

Happy New Year guys!