winter's still here!!!

Alrighty.

Observed Case was alright. I passed!.. see, such low standards. hah. seriously, crawling and walking 14 mths old babies shouldn't be allowed to be exam specimens. they run around and you have to catch them, pacify them, make them breath so you can listen to their chest.

too much work man!

Got my assessment form signed off today.

"A Keen Student." -- eh, consultant... you sure not? Yah I guess was at times, but mostly I was just trying to NOT look disinterested. Murmurs get boring after listening to 20 similar "long systolic murmur, loudest at Left sternal edge.."

I saw a couple of malnourished babies in heart failure. and they look so tiny, starving almost. you can see the outline of their enlarged liver when they breathe in and out deeply. it's quite heart-wrenching. (pun NOT intended k) And they are in respiratory distress.. and it seems so hard for them to catch their breath.. poor lil things.

Anyhow, I was in the nursery today with the doc for some consults. He was telling me how I should visit the nursery often, "just to get an idea of what NOT to name your future kids." Seriously, the list of weird names is very long.

Some examples (sorry if that's your name or what you wanna call your kid..but i'm pretty traditional when it comes to names)

1. Jamain (variation of germaine? Not toooo bad)
2. Kyetrel (nurse commented mum mixed 3 names up to form this unique name)
3. Jaeda (likened to a jeidi?)
4. Qathy (HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE IT?!)
5. Leilani
6. Fade (?????????)

I'm not sure... but am I the only one who think these names are weird?!

Sigh. What a world we live in.

week 4 blues..

I'm not sure why but I'm feeling really down and unmotivated. Maybe it is a combination of bad dreary winter chills, boring rotation and just plain boredom. It is really difficult to come home everyday after a long (maybe boring or useless) day and do your eating and showering things and just sit down and study. Things just get so pointless sometimes.

When will this all end?

Is there ever a light at the end of this long dark tunnel?

It seems like just as when I am about to finish crossing one hurdle, another one is on its way into my life. I keep stalling and going "wait until XXXX is done and then i can XXXXX".. Maybe I should just care less and do what I want to do RIGHT now. Stop thinking that my life is just mainly about studies and med and passing 5th year exams.

Afterall, my life is proving to be an endless road of sitting for exams, getting drilled by someone more senior and always always having to think of others before myself.

Thinking about all this crap is making me sad.

I shall go and continue revising paediatric ophthalmology (which SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!!!!) I hate eyes. Only very grateful that I can see. that's about it.

Sidetracking now, people get abit appalled and disturbed whenever I say in a very affirmative voice that "I CANNOT STAND PAEDIATRICS." Are people meant to like kids? Are we meant to think paeds is a nice field? Oh gawd. And I hate people who go goo-goo and gaa-gaa at patients during a sort of serious clinical examination in front of a consultant. Goodness me, just GET ON with the exam. You only have 7 minutes to do it and you just spent 30seconds stroking the little baby's little hands. And he/she (hard to tell gender at young age sorry folks) is probably going to scratch the hell out of you because he/she has claws. LONG untrimmed fingernails are the future ammunition in our fight against terrorism. It has been around for age, proven safe, proven very lethal.

Hence, I keep my distance from babies. They are so unpredictable! They smell funny and they can't tell you how they feel. Argh. and they breathe so fast and their heartbeats like it's running on estacy.

Retrospectively, I think I have come to realise why I thought PICU was so great. It was the ICU part of things, not the P part of things. ahhhhhhhhhh.

what a life females have.

It's funny how male doctors are so sought after by the female species..The girls think they are intellectual, rich, funny, professional, caring.. etc etc etc.

Whereas female doctors are thought to be competitive, arrogant and too good and too smart.

Seriously guys.

Les Miserables - Come to Me

[Fantine is lying in a hospital bed, deliriously dreaming of her daughter Cosette]

[FANTINE]
Cosette, it's turned so cold
Cosette, it's past your bedtime
You've played the day away
And soon it will be night.

Come to me, Cosette, the light is fading
Don't you see the evening star appearing?
Come to me, and rest against my shoulder
How fast the minutes fly away and every minute colder.

Hurry near, another day is dying
Don't you hear, the winter wind is crying?
There's a darkness which comes without a warning
But I will sing you lullabies and wake you in the morning.

[Valjean enters]

[VALJEAN]
Oh, Fantine, our time is running out
But Fantine, I swear this on my life

[FANTINE]
Look, M'sieur, where all the children play

[VALJEAN]
Be at peace, be at peace evermore.

[FANTINE]
My Cosette...

[VALJEAN]
Shall live in my protection

[FANTINE]
Take her now

[VALJEAN]
Your child will want for nothing

[FANTINE]
Good M'sieur, you come from God in Heaven.

[VALJEAN]
And none shall ever harm Cosette
As long as I am living.

[FANTINE]
Take my hand. The night grows ever colder.

[VALJEAN]
Then I will keep you warm.

[FANTINE]
Take my child. I give her to your keeping.

[VALJEAN]
Take shelter from the storm

[FANTINE]
For God's sake, please stay till I am sleeping
And tell Cosette I love her
And I'll see her when I wake...

what a crappy week.

1. withdrawal and tiredness from a jammed pack 2 day trip to sydney
2. falling sick with sore throat and.. everything else.
3. paed surgery coming to a hault. doesn't seem to be learning anything new.
4. crappy rainy weather
5. realising studying sucks.
6. realising one is lacking in so much knowledge!

eurgh.

oh. but there was one good thing.
i saw the gp on monday.. and it was not cold sores! it was dermatitis..
so i applied some topical steroid cream for a couple of days.. and voila it's all GONE.

the miracle of steroids.
yippeeee.

i'm really looking forward to london.
but i need to PASS the freaking year before i have wild ideas running through my head.

considering watching les miserables?
the sounds from the musical is relli good.

alrighty world
time for rest.

因为....休息是为了走更长远的路。

miserable

Paediatrics thus far:

1. learning how to pacify and make it things seem a tad 'nicer' for kids.
2. scrubbing in on hernia repairs. and realising the general paediatric surgery list consists of a combination of hernia repairs, penile issues, excision of lump and bumps, testicular issues, removal of foreign body.
3. having a surgeon explain to you in a passionate and sincere manner why he thinks surgery is SO DAMN FANTASTIC. (i'm not entirely convinced yet)
4. playing 20 questions with surgeons. (oh goodness.. the humiliation)

besides that, i have FREAKING COLD SORES. they hurt and sting and make me look like i'm diseased. no one wanna play with me. >< i've been conscientiously applying the acyclovir cream and i'm hoping it will GO AWAY VERY SOON!... sigh.

the holidays progress..

and it's almost the end of the 2nd week of the holidays! how dreadful!

it's been a whirlwind of meeting up with friends, catching up with family and just slacking and being me. my study notes have been sitting in one corner waiting for me to read them. but it's so distracting to be at home.. and not have fun!...

more discipline is required!

and.. is 24 the magic age where people start quizzing you about marriage? Everyone i swear, from my demented and very cute granny to my friends and ..even vic's DAD. oh my goodness. The pressure is on.. the weird thing is, vic and i don't seem to care so much about it as much as everyone else's is. This is bewildering.

i just wanna pass 5th year!..the rest can wait. I seriously cannot wait for this year to be over.

going to be a packed weekend! yippe! plus shopping with mum and lotte.. woo hoo. enough blabbering. off to.. play :)

Saved by an antique!

I bruoght my ACC2 notes home to Singapore to file.. as I left the next day following the end of term. Then, I realised there was to be no puncher left at home as mine's in Adelaide with me whilst my sis' puncher is in hall with her.

I went around the house digging for a puncher and then my mummy remembered that there could be an old one lying around. so I found it in my dad's old school desk. Here's his puncher from his schooling days. It's about at least 30years old i reckon.

Rusty but hey, it still works fine!
Made in the days when Czech Republic was still known as Czechoslovakia! (Enlarge the 2nd pic to see the fine print under the name label)

So yes, my life's saved by an antique.

lazy sunday.

this is so unlike me. 2 posts in the span of less than 24 hours.

i have to report that i had time to sleep in, take a short stroll through the sunday market and have lunch at cibo!! yummy sandwichy stuff with coffee. cibo's coffee is pretty lengendary.

anyhow, we went to the east end cellar shop to pick up a few bottles of red for my mummy. decided on a 2 straight up cab sauv - one from coonawara and one from Margareta river, as well as a blend from barossa.

came back to vic's. and nua-ed in bed with my lappie. whilst the poor boy was hard at work, trying to cram in all the details regarding o&g. poor kiddo. hurhur, well it'll be my turn to suffer next sem so i think i better shuddap right about now.

gonna make fried rice for dinner! woo hoo!... it's seriously one of the best one dish meals to do. the other would be stir fried noodles. followed closely by pasta.

the season finales for house n greys are now over. what am i going to watch until the next season starts - if it starts at all? sigh.

Anyhows... that's all for now. no more blogging! coz i need to do my laundry. eeick.

odds and ends..

with regards to the rehab presentation, all i can say that it was over. basically, it was an exercise to determine how well you could

1. follow instructions
2. recite from paper
3. answer questions.

the consultant who was in charge of grading our presentation..was extremely disinterested. At times, we caught him dozing off etc in the middle of a student's presentation! which i think, is extremely rude. the poor RMO and registrar with him had to take over the question asking and all..

His disinterest led to the cancellation of the afternoon tutorial (on osteoporosis.) rendering us forever FREE from the clutches of rehab/geries.

Next week, we proceed to have a GP week. I hope that will be useful. I'm not exactly keen on general practice.. but I think it'll be a worthwhile experience. ie: MUCH better than rehab/geries.


In other aspects, I have become.. hooked on badminton. OH NOOOOO. we played badminton just now.. and it was really really good! at least i dun suck at it anymore.. and can play a pretty decent game.. especially with the coaching from yvonne and alvin :) hoping to have more baddy sessions in sg.. i forsee drenched t shirts and high rehydration fluids in place... Sg is too hot for anything!

It's that vickaroo's bdae soon... (on monday!) but we are only celebrating on friday coz he has o&g exams to prepare for.. oh wells. but there's an ice cream cake! from baskin!..which we are picking up tmr. hurhur.

That's all for now. not sure if anyone is interested to know but yeaps.

PS: i'm looking forward to the holidays!... for days of blue skies, humid weather and good home cooked food are almost within my reach!....

oooh. that wasn't too difficult.

I thought adding a thing on the side of the blog layout would be too much to comprehend.. it's actually really simple! yay.

anyhow. rehab presentation in less than 2.5 hours.

*runs off to prepare.

such a surreal feeling

rehab writeup is DONE DONE DONE!

*jumps around like crazy person*

all i have to do is to present and talk about my patient for 10 minutes on friday. come on daphne that cannot be too difficult!

i can't wait to go back to sg!!!!

hooked on baddy!

just got home from badminton :)

have been playing it pretty regularly the past year.. it's really cool! and the past few weeks we have been playing with yvonne and alvin, both extremely good players. learnt alot of new strategies and strokes from them. this badminton thing is going really well.

maybe next year i will join the C div girls. heh. but i'm not sure if i want to partner vic in mixed doubles. he keeps scolding me as it is. argh. i can't wait for next year! more time to do stuff i wanna do.. maybe work one or two days a week for extra pocket money to fund my graduation trip..

anyhow back to rehab.

so so depressing :(

You can seriously find ANYTHING on youtube

Look what I found on youtube!

An extremely old theme song from an SBC (later called TCS..and now called mediacorp) drama titled 出人头地 (Which apparently translates to "the finishing line') I'm pretty sure I was barely 6 or 7 years old when it aired on the telly but this stupid song has haunted me from time to time! I always wondered where the heck I heard it now.. Now youtube has provided me with some closure to an almost life long mystery.

Check out how young the actors and actresses were! And check out how fashionable they are. hurhur. I think if you can get past the creepy hairdos and clothes.. you would come to appreciate how meaningful the lyrics are. Oh, plus how handsome and lean Li Nanxing used to be. I remembered my older cousin (who is 7 years older) reading the weekly magazine and cutting out his pictures whenever he was featured.

Ahhh.. such good times.


... I miss home a great deal.

i hate rehab!!!

been stuck in my room trying to finish my stupid rehab writeup.. it's proving to be a futile experience. firstly it's my own fault that i have forgotten quite abit about the patient, despite having made notes.. (so i have to make a trip back to hampstead) and 2ndly.. rehab just sucks.

it's so painful.

anyhow, on a happier note, i had dinner with tiffy + new bf, hans and victor. it was really fun to catch up over yummy greek food and great wine. den we walked over to hans' den and chilled out even more. drank tea, camwhored and laughed!

i wished that everyday is like that.

oh maybe minus all that horrible rain. i hate rain.

it's only less than 2 weeks to home! feel so happy. :)

i'm still alive.

Trust me, I still am :)

Been a crazy few weeks. Presentations, assignments and tutorials. I have no friggin' idea how I am going to be a doctor who works long hours and am still capable of using clinical reasoning.

At the end of a long day, I am nothing near reason.


Anyhow i think i have moved on, risen to some challenges and hopefully become a better human being for all of that. I'm just hoping I would stop ranting to my poor friends..

2 more weeks to singapore!

WOOOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :)

hong & chin: drinks drinks drinks! beach beach beach!.. drowned kitty? :)

Moon River..

Moon river, wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style some day
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way

Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after the same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend, moon river, and me

(moon river, wider than a mile)
(I'm crossin' you in style some day)
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way

Two drifters, off to see the world
There's such a lot of world to see
We're after that same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend
My huckleberry friend, moon river, and me

i feel like bliss and happiness..

Victor surprised me today by doing the grocery shopping at central market.. all by himself! We were supposed to go together after my tutorial (which was from 2-3pm). He even went as far as walking me out of the house.. and then pretending to go to Rundle Street (for god knows what).

Anyhow, the fridge is full of yummy goodies from Central Market, including my favourite baked cheese cake from the little pastry shop.. whose name I can never remember. I have food to last me a week!

So now, instead of having to drag my lazy and tired self to the market (after a whole day of standing on my feet observing the anaesthetist.. plus an hour long of geries) I get to sit down, use the computer and enjoy my yummy cheese cake!

Mmmmm. the perks of being in a relationship :) thanks vickaroooooo!

moleskine

I have one!... whilst other people's moleskines hold great ideas, beautiful sketches and stuff that would be made into moving stories and movies...

Mine's mainly as a paper reminder to my slightly forgetful brain. Hehe.
The first entry would probably reflect what I have to do today, and would go something like:

Things to do:
Summary session for this Friday
Anaesthesia PBL for next week
Invites for party
?Rehab Writeup


Oooo. This is going to be so fun.

things that caught my eyes.. help!

so very geeky.
so very cute!

the molecular structure of caffeine is represented in this cool pendant. the solid metal round are carbon (C) and the hollow metal rounds are oxygen (O). Big orange circles are nitrogen (N) and small orange bits are hydrogen (H).
Perfect for a
caffeine addict! (me)
























This ebony and pearly earrings are just perfect for the dinner out with some great friends! or with a special someone!

Classy without being too overwhelming.



























ahhh. nice spacious summery bag.

good for all the crap that a medical student should be carrying! notebook, stethoscope, hospital ID, stationery, notes, etc etc.

























simple and sweet earrings!
for everyday wear!

and i like the mix of green and teal. plus the teeny flowers... whee!



ok end of my online window shopping.
back to rehab writeup! :(