Now what...

I have no idea ha ha...

Am clueless as to what to write because there's just so much to write...

 

Basically, I got home for 4 days after the horribly long transit in Dubai and slept and slept and slept and slept. I think i've never slept that much in my entire life. I wonder if thats how having african sleeping sickness is. 1 hour after waking up each time, I would start to drift off into a daze.

 

Then elective came calling and I had to pack my bags *sob sob* again. Gosh, I really hate packing...to the core. The national neuroscience institute in Singapore is really something and within a span of a few days, I've managed to see a whole lot of rare brain surgeries and cases. Everyday, I wake up at 630, rush to hospital, try to get updates on the consultant's patients then hurry back to the conference room where all the neurosurgeons from specialist reg to senior consult gather to discuss "difficult" cases. After that, the ward round starts and spans from neuro icu to all over the hospital in other wards that have to accomodate overflow patients.

 

Interestingly even in such an established department, things do get messy and yesterday, my consultant exploded big time. I guess mistakes do happen and medicine and surgery itself are difficult to juggle. When you add management and administrative work onto it, the balance gets even more slippery. Oh well, what to do? Just have to pick yourself up again. Being witness to all this demands some kind of professionalism on my part so am trying to apply all the confidentiality and work ethics i've learnt from liv. Wah seh! Gambate!

 

To all my fellow colleagues scattered about in Iceland, Japan, Malaysia, Isle of Man, Taipei etc... stay safe and remember, YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE! 

Exams are over.

Packing and shifting done (sort of).

Now if only time will pass by double speed now that i've got to wait 5 hours for my connecting flight back to Malaysia. Yes... The big headed prawn bought her air tickets without checking the transit time. Not surprising.

 

By the way although this may not be entirely right because I'm too lazy to walk around dubai airport, I am inclined to think that Dubai airport is definitely not as good as KLIA.

 

1)We landed all the way from Manchester and they put us on a reserve open spaced terminal. The bus ride to my transit terminal was excruciatingly long!

 

2)Its really warm here but this may be because I don't regulate temperature very well. I am typing this under an air conditioning vent. 

 

3)The cafes and restaurants have no power source for laptops and I have to sit on the floor at the side. It's actually pretty funny because everybody using laptops are doing the same and we are sort of lined in a row, like a display of computer geeks for dozens of international travellers to peruse at.

 

4)Not-so-clean toilets

 

If only Hiro Nakamura was with me. However, this will not dampen the fact that I'll be home-sweet-home tom! YATADA!

  

 

I'm in the midst of preparing for exams and writing up the most stressful scientific review ever but seeing this just made my day, probably the entire week :) I'm sure it'll melt your hearts too. By the way, these two are my great great great great ..... grand juniors! Yasmin Ahmad filmed it at my primary school in TTDI ha ha. I'm so proud of them. Does it remind you about your tadika or primary school days? hee hee hee... 

My GP and disability rotation sort of ended last week and so during my lunch time, I decided to explore around Birkenhead a little. Hamilton Square is so gorgeous especially now that it's spring. Anyway, I've been contemplating whether to enter the Wirral Museum or not. It didn't sound that interesting so I've just passed it by without bothering everytime I walked to my GP's surgery. Anyway, I decided to since it was my last day there and it turned out to be a pretty interesting lunch break!

 

The Wirral Museum is basically the centre of Birkenhead's rich heritage which goes back all the way to the days of swashbuckling ship capturing (think a milder version of Pirates of the Carribean). Actually ships for the American Civil War were build in Birkenhead. This was really surprising and they set sail from Liverpool's docks for action. The most famous of this was the CSS Alabama shown in the slideshow. It captured and plundered 65 ships under its mighty Captain Old Beeswax. I nearly keeled over laughing at the Captain's nickname ha ha ha. He looks abit Jack-Sparrowish though ;)

 

1. At what age do you wish to marry?
At the right age lol!

2. What will you do when you feel really emo?
Listen to a particular song over and over again and daydream.

3. What do you have in your mind now?
Alot alot alot

4. Where is the place that you want to go most?
Home to Malaysia

5. What song is playing in your mind right now?
Refuge by City Harvest because I'm supposed to play it on Sunday!

6.Do you believe in seeing the rainbow after the rain?
Always do and always will

7. What are you afraid to lose the most right now?
My direction in life

8. What cheers you up for the rest of the day?
Having a good chat with people I care for, being smiled at, good devotion time, being surprised er... pleasantly.

9.If you meet someone you love, would you confess to him/her?
Technicaly no, because if i meet someone, it would take me time to realise i love that person wouldn't it? maybe the question is phrased wrongly and maybe, i'm too chicken to admit first. That's the guy's joblah!

10. List out four good things of the person who tagged you.

1) A good friend 

2) Dances like there's no tomorrow

3) Bakes like there's no tomorrow
4) Will not bother to tag me again ;)

11. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Someone who loves God as much if not more than me

12.What type of person do you hate the most?
Abusive spouses and parents

13.What would you do if you won a million dollars?
Overcome my shock, give thanks to God, tell my parents, and then.... I don't know. I really don't.

14.What is your ambition?
At the moment, it's still Ben Carson. I've never really admitted it except to my dad. Shylah. 

15.What would you wanna be after you're dead?
I'll still be me. No choicelah. Once a child of God, forever a child of God.

16. If you have a chance, which part of your character would you like to change?
Oversensitivity

17. What is your favourite colour?
Turqoise

18.What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Family

19. If there’s one thing in your life you want to do but yet unable to, what would it be?
Ride a big, full grown palomino stallion alone and fast in a massive plain 

20. What would you do if tomorrow was the last day of the world?
Spend time with family and tell all my loved ones and friends about the Everlasting Hope

Formatives have come and gone and I just want to PRAISE THE LORD for everything. It's amazing that I passed everything and even scored 'competent'in OSCE considering my past (think BP station). Does this mean I can slack? NO because according to my classmates "Summer papers are waaayyy harder than spring papers" so yes, I've got to keep pouring coal into the furnace. Then came my SSM 5(special study module) which I was supposed to have been working on 2 months ago but I didn't and now I have 2 months left. *Please don't panic* Actually it wouldn't have been so bad if I had common sense not to choose something so hard. Now its a frantic harvesting of information and writing up of stem cell transplantation, and cerebral palsy.

 

As for weather, it was really getting lovely with warm sunshine 4 days back and then.... it SNOWED. In SPRING, it actually SNOWED! What is wrong I wonder?? I really wanted to wear my new blue skirt to church on Sunday but instead had to rewrap up with my bubble jacket, jeans, gloves etc... in SPRING! English weather really is one kindla.

 

Within this 1 week post formative, foodwise, I managed to squeeze in Qwarffs with Faz (lovely waffle shop), Tai Pan Dim Sum with the gang and seniors and also cooked Teriyaki Katsu Chicken for Student Fellowship! It was slightly salty but turned out well. Didn't take pics of it though but I'll definitely cook it again!

 

So yes, with formatives done, this leaves 2 more hurdles before "home" run. SSM 5 and Summatives! Gambate!

 

 

Its been ages since I last blogged and the word busy feels so inadequate somehow. The last month has been a whirlwind of rushing here and there, practicing this and that and juggling responsibilities left, right, centre, posterior, anterior... All for Malaysian Night-Jebat the Lost Pages, a major event hosted by Malaysian Soc. It feels like a dream/nightmare that is suddenly over... you know the type where you suddenly jerk awake in your bed.

 

I was one of the dancers in the production and was also in charged of choreographing the Chinese Fan Dance. It's been quite awhile since I last did this dancing thingy and I think this time around, I was much more mellowed down compared to my "slave driver" status during IMU cup. Everything starts out shaky, with people not turning up for practices etc... but in the end, it was amazing... Hsu Pheen, Sing Yee, Noreen and Pei Shan... You all are amazing! Thanks to Faz, I got to replay our near-perfection display of my cut and paste Youtube moves ha ha ha. Thank you, girls :)

 

Then came the Bhangra, my very first and I finally understood why M204 was always itching to dance Bhangra during our lecture breaks. It was pure fun with everybody jiggling our wobbly bits here and there! I also took it as a time to destress from coordinating the chinese dance. There were times when fun overran its course and we were so uncontrollable that our dear, lovely Sam had a breakdown but as always, we pulled together...

 

A prawn will always be a prawn so these are again my top 3 moments in relation to Msian Night.

1) Washing my bhangra costume out of compulsion which resulted in a tie dye result. That didn't stop me from wearing it on the night though.

2) Flinging the flower from my head during the chinese dance

3) Losing my shoe while dancing around in a circle during bhangra. The amazing thing is that the second time I did the circle, I managed to reslip my foot into my "Lost Shoe"

 

What can I end with??? Let's see...

 

The Prawn is proud to be a Malaysian :)

This will be quick as I need to stop distracting myself and study up for OSCE Round 2. This time, i'll be sitting for the year 3 OSCE formative so yes, I need to put my big head prawn incident behind.

 

Anyway, I've been really blessed by the retreat weekend that Student Fellowship organized and being part of this family in Liverpool has helped to ground me. I've come to realise that my life over the next few years is going to involve heck alot of major decisions but you know what, God is so good and I am going to trust in Him. After all, He is my Father and He'll carry me through.

 

"As you come to Him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him-you also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Chrit."

 

Then it was back to an avalanche of lectures, tutorials, talks bla bla bla. Yesterday, I trudged all the way to Cheshire for Child psychiatry and getting wet in this wild winter weather was so worth it because I got to dabble a little into child and adolescence psychiatry. When asked what career options we were considering for our future by Dr. K, I said I wanted to do surgery and he went,"Hmm...You know what we're doing today isn't exactly surgeon material ;)" Then again, I don't think I fit the stereotypical surgeon archetype (think Type A personality, Male gender or Christina Yang) so I volunteered to interview this young boy with him. It went on for 2 hours!!! Praise God we got on along well with the mom and the 13 year old. He was referred for anxiety disorder but he's incredibly normal or at least to me. He was just a shy kid, a little obssessive with Play Station, X Box and Nintendo but WHO isn't at that age?!!? I think we should really be careful before sticking labels on people especially children. Something to think of when I have more time... Psychiatry is really such a grey-prof trelawneyish area.

 

Right before I end, did you know you can get a 3 year diploma in Sand Play Therapy! That really got us thinking about OTHER career options ha ha!

I had my first Sunday Roast on a Sunday! With absolutely no idea what it is, Richard and Ai Wei drove me to Otterspool after cleaning up in church. Actually, we never cleaned up except for Richard. The girls were actually M.I.A.ing in Chung Hwa Supermarket. Good job Richard! ;) Back to the point, Otterspool is gorgeous! The place faces the Mersey river which flows into the Irish sea. Lovely place to go jogging. The pub where we ate had a gorgeous view of the river and although according to Richard, the Sunday Roast could have been better, I was really quite satisfied with my turkey roast. It came with cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, vege and YORKSHIRE PUDDING! I didn't have to wait till SF retreat to eat Yorkshire pudding ha ha. Hmm... both didn't turn out like I expected esp the pudding which I thought was sweet but I like my meal overall and wouldn't mind having Sunday Roast on other days again.

 

*I look up and to my horror, find out that V, a 2nd year student I got to know from Msian Soc was my patient*

          Right, today please show me how you will measure the patients blood pressure.

*So I started off, introducing myself and asking for consent etc. I then start to put on the cuff on V's arm*

 

 

*I have now fixed the cuff and started inflating when I hear CCCCRRRRRAAAAAAAAA and find that the cuff is unravelling*

*V was giving me a funny look but I proceeded to deflate the cuff which stayed stubbornly inflated and repeated the thing from the start*

 

*And again, it went CCCCCRRRRRAAAAAAAAAA*

 

 

*V is giving me a very weird look now but I ignore him*

 

 

*And I pump and it went CCCRRRAAA so pump-CCCRRAAA, pump-CCCRRAAAAAA, pump-CCCRRRAAA. By this time, I was too flustered and decided to proceed even though the cuff looked like a big sausage on V's arm*

 

 

*So there was the two of us listening vainly for V's heart sounds not just once but TWICE*

 

 

*While wondering what the h%$# was wrong with the sphygmomanometer, I proceeded on to the rest of the 13 stations*

 

Welcome to my new blog space! This is still in its early phases as I need to twink it a little here and there and decide whether to shut down my blogspot or not since it holds alot of dear memories, pictures and nonsensical crap i've come up with for 3 years.