My first week back in Edinburgh....

Wow. 3rd year Medical Student.

Has a nice ring to it.

Only, I have lectures from 9-5 this whole week. That's C-R-A-Z-Y. What happened to the 1 lecture per day in 2nd year???

Lots of new faces. New people. Heard that about 10 transfered from Cambridge, 5 from Oxford, about 15 from St Andrews and 10 from IMU, Malaysia. Students who did a Bsc the year before. Our class has grown.

Today we had a patient come in and he was interviewed by our lecturer. Q & A session followed. Poor ol' fella.... a great heart attack candidate. Born with low birth weight, typical Scottish diet, smokes like a chimney, both dad and bro died of heart attacks, mom waiting for a triple bypass surgery.... Things like this are real, mind you. Well, yeah, the only snag was that our so-called 'patient' was actually a professional actor. He was totally convincing and took us all in. Well, technically, that's our lecturer's fault since he arranged it. But, yup, medical students gets professional actors to act as their patients in exams. And they cry when we break bad news to them, they get angry if you say something wrong. This all happens during the exam itself. Look what medical students have to go through.

Hm.

Went traditional Scottish ceilidh dancing last Sunday. Twisted my knee and its been hurting since. Went for a free Taekwondo class today and my knee is like, yeah... gone.

Someone needs to develop knee transplants.

Worse thing to happen this week was that I am literally being forced to go down to London. By bloody AMSA. And I have an exam d day after I get back. And I'm going down on my birthday. How sucky is that?

My 21st...

showed me that I had many friends. Friends who bothered to come, friends who gave up other stuff to be there; that includes taking a whole day off work to get ready*wink wink*. But, I discovered that the best kind of friends were those that gave an immediate YES! on d spot, when i invited them and didn't change their minds afterwards. That gave me a warm feeling deep down, a feeling that gave me a sense of belonging in all their busy lives.

made me realise that some people actually care. Yes, I had a friend come all the way from Malacca. I had a friend who went to Australia and couldn't make it but expressed her deepest regret and still remembered to text me on that day to wish me a fun filled night.

showed in true perception that friendship is valuable and warm, but friendship is also very frail.

gave me my first experience of clubbing in KL. Not that I've not done it before. Just that this time it was legal.. and we opened bottles. I've never tried that before in KL. We went to Loft and I had plenty to drink. This ultimately proves that drinking and dancing is better than just dancing alone. And, drinking from a bottle beats drinking from a cup anyday. Too bad they don't hand out bottles so freely in Edinburgh. Maybe I should start a trend.

but...

my 21st also

showed me that some friendships are cheap. As in literally. As in 30-40 ringgit cheap. dirt cheap. I suppose I'm considered lucky that I realised it with a few mere bucks. It didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

told me that there are actually those who don't care. It is true that it is the thought that counts, but what's the point of the 'thought' when you don't even THINK in the first place?

singled out those that thinks its a chore to come. Those that think they are coming just because I asked them to. Just to give me 'face'. Their lives are alot more important. Well, of course they are! But Come On! If you really can't make it, cos of some bullcrap reason of being busy, tiredness, broken heart, eaten by the dog and what not, I'll accept it if you told me in advance! For heaven sake, don't come if you don't want to. Don't start telling me your sob story and making it like its a terribly big deal to come. It was a big deal to me before but once you start to think that way, it is not anymore.

showed that I can't please everyone. Its hard to be a host.

At the end of the day, I realised and truly value those whom I know really treasure me as their friend. I had a superb night, and I know who were those who really enjoyed themselves and my company and those who actually did not. Like I said, I can't please everyone. I'd like to grow up and tell my grandchildren in future what my grandad tells me - "I graduated from the Community Social University. I know everything about people to people relationships." And my grandad is a great man. Really.

Mummy's 50th

5 0. My lovely mother has reached the ripe age of 50 years. Half a century. According to my very hong kong father, it is a MUST to celebrate your 50th. I mean, these kind of things don't just go by without being recognised. It's a time to celebrate!
So mummy dearest pulled her birthday all the way to August just so that my bro and I can be around to celebrate it with her. We went a back to her hometown, Sitiawan in Perak for the dinner as most of her family were there. My sister came all the way from penang, my 3 cousins studying and working in KL also made the 3 hour travel back to Sitiawan! In other words, I was looking forward to a massive family reunion.

The day before the dinner was spent stuffing ourselves full with all the local specialities. Mmmm... red wine noodles, oysters with egg(ou jian), peanut bun, loh meen(special Sitiawan style. NOT the type in KL), gong pian...
It was an eating fest. Dinner came... and it was a 12 course dinner. Despite the food we already had, dinner was another makan affair, with home cooked red wine noodles by my grandma as an extra dish. A MUST too for Sitiawan celebrations. Hmmm... with all these beliefs and what not, I wonder why the chinese aren't the majority of obese people.

Well, basically, it was a huge, fantastic family reunion. We should definitely do it more often! Still, I guess I've got to wait for another milestone birthday...but first, I've got to brainwash them the hong kong way....

Asian Medical Students Conference, Hong Kong 2006

Day 1 - Arrived and were shown to our rooms. At the registration counter, my name was listed under 'key to room lost'. What the.... Met all the UK delegates for the first time ever.

Went to have a dinner and met my group members. Chose the name 'ketchup' for our group. I know, we were obviously on a food high. Found out that my room mate is Jammy from Korea! Explained my key dilemma to her and ta-da! she produced an extra key for me... Hrm..now, that's how my key got lost..

Day 2 - Went for the opening ceremony and had lectures where we enjoyed a few hours of sleep
Your average medical student.

Day 3 - Ah, Paper and Booth Presentation Competition! Proudly, I stuck UK's 3 posters up on d wall. What fantastic work! Look at the fusion of colours! I looked around and -------------> O K. everyone's booth had some sort of decoration, pamphlets, pin tags, key chains etc etc to hand out. Laptops were everywhere.... and i turn and look at my 3 posters. suddenly they don't look fantastic anymore. Kinda bare against the white backboard that was provided. Hey, why didn't any1 tell me i was allowed to bring the whole jim gang from UK to decorate my poster booth??? heck,I don't even have the word UK written on d board. In the end, we managed - with a scrap piece of paper and marker pens.

Paper presentation was kinda great. and sweet. til they told us what they were looking for was some kind of anti smoking campaign

carried out in our respective countries. And UK reported on the smoking trends in the UK. O K. Way, way way off topic.

But i think we're unique and do stand a chance to win right?!
Yeah right.

Day 4 - had hospital visits where we interviewed ex smokers. One of them had lung cancer. Due to the fact that most of us did not understand cantonese, the interview was kinda one sided. And this was when I found my new idol. He knew hell a lot about medicine. Tho his english was limited, he could give us a clear picture on what was going on. His immediate diagnosis and conclusions were mama-mia! He was just fab. Ah, K-guys are just great. Shan't go any further...

Day 5 - (am) Went for the cultural bazaar. I was assigned to learn 'butterfly writing' and 'lion dance'. It was rather fun - learning how to write my name in colours and adding pictures in. Lion dance was crazy as well; i can officially beat the drums to the lion dance. and i've mastered the cymbals too.

(pm)Did social services. A stage was set up in some complex in TST and we were given leaflets to hand out to d crowd. Prowling the TST's Avenue of Stars, we had to literally beg people to take the leaflets. It's common understanding that HongKongers DON'T take leaflets. Still, it's our er... responsibility i guess. Part of community service and all that. After a first round of using cantonese to persuade the people, we decided to switch to english. Hey! They actually bother to listen when we speak english! And to the extent of taking the leaflets! It wasn't enough, we still had loads. Oh well. The easiest preys were children. They clamour to get one. The next was probably young teenagers and well, walking with my rather hot korean mate did work towards some guys. In the end, we just stood at the escalator entrance into TST's MTR. and forced leaflets into each person that entered or left the MTR station.

Day 6 - Last day! Closing ceremony was once again boring but i had to go up and give a 1 minute speech on how i found d conference. =) Mumbled a few words thru d mic and waved to d crowd as they gave me a standing ovation. muahahhaa...

That night was themed 'cultural night'. UK had been practising every night since the first night(well, a night off here and there) and we were all geared for our oh-so-british performance. Generally, we are d last to perform again(they go by alphabetical order). Other countries had high powered music and fantastic dances. Taiwan even belted out 'Kiss Goodbye' by Leehom in a really really enthu way. Japan's dance was the one i enjoyed most as the dancers actually looked that they were having loads and loads fun!(and then maybe i had only eyes for er.. certain people. or person) Had a role play in Thailand's performance- i was invited to be their host! - shucks,tho i bit the guy and slapped him a little too hard - had to apologise profusely afterwards -

Now...
It was UK's time of glory..... and we discovered that the Phantom of the opera music did not work. All our hard practise!!! All our hours of slogging!!! DAMNIT. So we performed without it. Not that good, but at least we managed to pull of the rest of the show and also the song 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' was performed very well, to my standards, save for the bit where we all went off tune and totally messed up. The crowd enthusiastically yelled 'Encore!!!' afterwards (tho of course, we had told them b4hand to do it no matter how bad we were) and we performed that last song again.(together with its off key part)

Day 7 - So totally overslept my check out time as the night b4 was filled with drinking (beer and a shot of vodka mixed) with the koreans and playing all their drinking games and drinking songs. Kinda mental but i loved it.

Oh well, all in all it was an experience to remember, met loads of ppl, had lots of friends... and i have to say, i'm Impressed. Very Impressed by HKU's lecture hall and Medical Library. Much, way , a 100 times better than Edinburgh's.

What have I got to say...
i'm Proud to be a medical student. ( at least that library IS a medical library)

DisneyWorld, Florida

March 2006 : Been there. Done that

Templer's Park Waterfall No.3

Ok, so...Neo insists that there is this fantastic waterfall awaiting us somewhere deep into Templer's Park. It is d 3rd waterfall says he. Hmm.....

This time, I was told to be well prepared. 'wear tracks/long trousers!' was Boon's dire warning. 'Leeches...'
Ok dokes. I'm scared! My dad even more than I as he is worried about cases of robbery in Templer's and its lengendary 'dirty' surroundings. Nvm, back to d problem at hand. I left all my tracks/sweat pants back in UK! Who would have thought that I will go jungle trekking when i came back? I figured that I'm actually too old for this stuff! My bones creak n groan, my lungs burn for air and my heart cannot take this stress.

Yeah Right. I'm just plain lazy to carry them back when I return in September.

So I searched and found a white pair of trousers that I'm sure I can wreck without it being missed from the cupboard. Long trousers, Shirt, extra change of clothes, 2 bottles of water and a towel into my one and only backpack that i thankfully brought back with me. If not, I believe I'll have to succumb to using plastic bags.

Another 2 hour ride to Templer's Park and we're off! Spreading liberal amount of insect repellant was a must! I don't want no pesky mosquitoes biting me!
Anyway.
We passed d first waterfall which led directly into this humoungous swimming pool that was for the public. It was under renovation but the so called 'waterfall' was really from a pipe. !!?!?!?! a PIPE! wat the.......

Upstream. Neo and Adrian kinda guessed their way and we hiked pass high-til-it-makes-u-dizzy cliffs and deep, dark gorges that really posted some kind of mortal peril. Wat rubbish! LOL
What actually happened was we walked on a well trodden path towards our destination and passed d 2nd waterfall which was 'unswimable' cos it went through really large rocks and had shallow water at its base.
The trees provided shelter from the sweltering heat and there were funny zig zag bridges built at certain points of the river. I loved it!

We hit Templer's Park Waterfall No.3 an hour from our start point. Rubbish littered the place,(naturally, its Malaysia!) but not beyond the waterline. The 3 guys popped off down the trail and turned their backs for Liwan and I to change to shorts.
A toe dip into the water confirmed that it was icy cold! And it GLITTERS. Really. Kind of like the time when we did Chemistry testing on er.. wats that... but it produces glittery golden stuff in d test tube? That's exactly how the water was. We had a splashing fun time and later had a ghost story telling time from Neo who had a rather 'horrorful' time there with the DJ scouts. Scouts have d best ghost stories ever!
And the best thing is, it was actually scary. We were d only people around and d forest seemed to beckon to us. Stories of orang bunian, langsuyurs and how some girl guide died ages ago and came back to haunt ppl made d jungle seem all d bigger. Sprinkled with personal stories from everyone magnified the atmosphere. All my bulu roma seriuosly naik, even in d cold water.

Lunch time atop a huge flat rock in d middle of the river and we saw this one guy taking a bath below us. NOT naked. =P
another splashtastic time and we prepare to go back down. This time, the 3 guys just turned their backs and 'took photos of the scenery' - giving us a chance to 'change'. And we did just that for them too. Maybe saw more than we bargained for.. ER..well, its a free for all world. grinz

We finished the day with having dessert - red bean ice! at Prince Cafe in SS2 where Neo sums it up - a lovely 'watery' time at Templer's!

This time, long live my crazy, adventurous friends.

Pagan Lalang

What's ur first impression of that name? No.... ain't weeds watsoever. It's a beach, off the coast of Selangor, a distance from Morib - a beach with fine sand, splashing waves, ten upon thousands of crabs leaving their footprints behind. And we journeyed there, 2 hours + in the car, passing kampungs, durian plantations, pig farms, dragon fruit farms.

We went to see the sunset. And to bbq. Alex and Evelyn brought their curry-powder-marinated chicken, lamb, sausages, marshmellows, honey, butter, drinks and to top it off a bottle of red wine. Boon Hock brought bricks, wire mesh, fire starters and basically all d equipment needed to bbq. Neo brought his football, while Paul supplied transport. I brought myself and my appetite. That's a huge contribution to the party of 5. I made d 6th!

So bbq we did and stuffed our faces full. After that, we had a game of football, yes, girls included AND we played is wat is possibly the best game ever, that Neo himself admits that it is THE one game he cannot play. We played ice and fire. Yes, that's right, the game we used to play as kids, where 'IT' chased after ppl and touch them, hence they are 'iced'. a free player will then have to come and 'fire' them; that is to melt them. IT wins once everyone is 'iced'.

A lot of scuffling in the sand, tonnes of laughter and yelling.
Tired and sweaty, we toasted with the wine to er... good health? and walked down the beach before changing the toilet of a nearby restaurant.

What can i say?? It was great and mental!

i still have those darned sand mosquitoe bites around both my ankles to remind me of it. What a waste of insect repellant which obviously didn't work. Still, the trip was worth them all. Long live ice and fire!

My past ways..

I used to say that I'll nvr blog. Cos i don't want ppl reading what i do in life. cos i don't want ppl knowing all about me. but i have decided that my experiences in life are exceptional, beautiful and too much for me to remember it in detail. so, if i can pen down my thoughts, be it good or bad, when i read it again, i'll have a good laugh - at any rate.