Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.

Goodbye Grandpa!

2008-04-20T13:06:00.001+08:00

20.04.2008 - 8.48am

Received an sms from my sister that goes "gor, Ah gong just passed away abt an hr ago. Mum asks if u can come back earlier. Else it's ok."

That woke me up from my 4 hrs of sleep after coming back from Taichung late into the night and brought reality to my worst fear during my trip to Taiwan.I've nothing more to say at this juncture, except tracing my grandpa now in my memories and sobbing/crying alone here in Taipei on a Sunday morning.

My grandpa is a scrawny old man who's 1 head shorter than me. He loves to wear his wafer thin white undershirt n blue pyjamus pants at home. My memories of him could be traced back to 1990 when I first stayed in his place for my entire Primary 1 year.

He took really good care of his 2nd grandson - that's me - and drove me back and forth to my school in his old toyota corolla even though my school was only 200m away. He taught me my first Hokkien dialect words and served as translator to my grandma. I only knew Chinese then while my grandma only knew Hokkien. It's hilarious come to think of it how grandson and grandparents communicated back then. He loved chucking drumsticks into my bowl and made sure I always had more than enough to eat. Never was I hungry.

He brought me to his tailor shop then in old Hougang and tried teaching me how to sell clothes and make some clothes/curtains. I never learnt cos I hated it. I tried to hitch a ride on his red motorcycle whenever he went to work. I never once managed to get my ride cos he felt it was too dangerous. Nonetheless, I had my best freedom then cos he allowed me to do whatever I wanted - gg to longkangs to fish guppies, cycle on the road outside and sneaking to the mama shop behind to buy nutella snacks.

After Pri 1, I moved out to my own house and contact became less frequent. Still, he was there whenever I lost my house keys and whenever I was hungry in school. He always made sure I'm alright and seeing him and grandma always brought a sense of comfort.

*pause, tears are starting to swell and there I go crying again...where's my tissue papers?*

Ok, back. Contact with grandpa dwindled and it was only in the aunual CNY visits that I saw him. Teenage years then. Neither could I be bothered then about the need to visit my grandpa.

It was only till 3 years back when I started noticing something wrong with grandpa. His hands were started to tremor involuntarily, his attention span shortened and his gaze was more fixated. Yup, I was the first to notice he had Parkinson's and indeed he was diagnosed a few months later. His condition deteriorated over the years. I was frequently called by my mother to use my free expertise to check upon his condition by my mum, hearing his heart and lungs, cleaning his sacral pressure sores, changing nappies, forcing a nasogastric tube into his nose and nearly a urinary catheter as well. I hated it back then but took to the tasks since no one else could do it.

There's many regrets now that I'm tracing this mini memory log. But there's nothing I can do now too. Worse, I'm stuck in Taipei w/o being able to help my mum out with funeral stuff. "Am I an unfilial grandson?" I keep pondering that qn today. My mum told me to stay and continue with my electives here cos changing the air tickets will waste more $. Sigh, how I wish I can do something to help but I can't.

I am glad though my grandpa died a seemingly peaceful death, in the bedroom of his beloved house and on the bed he has slept for countless decades. He died w/o his hated nasogastric tube because he yanked it out a few days ago and he died w/o any struggles because it was in his sleep that he passed away. A couple of major worries he left behind but I don't think anything mattered for now.

Grandpa, u'll be sorely missed cos u're the only grandpa I ever had! Please do forgive me that I can't be with you in ur last journey. *sob sob* Please do take care of grandma from above cos u've always been been her pillar of support throughout times and I've no idea what would happen to her now that she is w/o you. And if you do hear me, have a peaceful journey in Heaven and protect all of us here who miss you lots!

Goodbye GRANDPA!

2008-03-19T00:33:00.002+08:00

My Taroko National Park weekend pictures are finally up!!

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2008-03-19T00:30:00.000+08:00

BURP! Just back from dinner from Ximending...AGAIN! This time, all 6 of us went to 天外天麻辣火锅 (Ma La Hotpot) for a hot and chilly all-u-can-eat buffet for NTD$350 (S$16) to celebrate Mark's belated birthday. It wasn't as hot as we thought and most of us ate till our stomachs gave way. Not to mention the unlimited Meiji ice-cream and fruits delighted our evening.

Today's a lousy day and weather here sucked for the 1st time as it kept pouring and drizzling whole day long. Went for the morning meeting at 7.30am. It's always a tense environment as the HOD (who is nonetheless very knowledgable) always reviews the case presentations sternly and shoots multiple arrows aka questions in all directions from students all the way to senior consultants. He even recalled back 3 young consultants back from their morning sleep to the meeting and scolded them in front of everyone for being careless and not being punctual. But it's also very funny as an overseas student to see how the whole department always stammer in front of the boss. Nobody ever dares to speak up against him... How sad... If you have watched the Japanese and Taiwanese version of "The White Towers", this is exactly how it is like for General Surgery here. Y? Because the story is written after the General Surgery Department here!! Really!! Otherwise, morning has been ok because my tutorial and lunch lecture were cancelled.

My afternoon was spent with a lecture on how laparoscopic surgery works and the principles behind some basic laparoscopic surgeries. Pratical came after the lecture and it was fun to the max. I've never gotten the chance to play with laparoscopic instruments and I must say it is never as easy as it looks on the screen. The 2D pictures on the tv screen always gave a false impression on where the instruments were and we all could not grasp the targets all the time. It's really difficult and I really admire surgeons now who can finish their laparoscopic surgeries chop chop...

By the way, DPP presidential and vice-presidential candidates were giving a talk in the hospital's premises as we were playing around with laparoscopy. What a strange place to give a rally! I hate the DPP anyway... Ma Ying Jeou, u must win!!

Off to rest my stomach and watch some Taiwanese TV programmes... Haven had this childhood pleasure for such a long time!

2008-03-19T00:27:00.000+08:00

The fun and exciting weekend is over and it's time for serious work again. Attended a morning of clinics where I saw a variety of patients from paronychia or embedded nails to gastric cancer follow up cases. Amongst them, 1 of the patient's family touched me the most. The mid 20s guy had multiple seeding of an appendix cancer all over his peritoneum of body cavity. His prognosis did not seem very good and while the guy was trying to be ignorant about his condition, his mother was crying, pleading and begging my consultant to do his best to increase his life expectancy. It suddenly got me thinking about how parents would do anything for their children and how short life is and how we must treasure every moment of our lives.

Afternoon was damn slack. I went into the operating theatre with only 1 thing in mind - the free operation room lunch. The weekend broke my budget and I was trying to save as much $$ as I can. The opertion was pretty scary at the start. The patient was given spinal anesthesia to reduce complications. But, the anesthetic drugs did not take effect and the man cringed in pain when my surgeon made his cut. OUCH! As the anesthetist increased the drug dosage, the patient cringed for a 2nd time when my surgeon, who got the go-ahead from the anesthetist, continue to exten his cut. OUCH OUCH! The local anesthesia operation had to be converted to a general anesthesia operation for patient's safety. Ooo... After 1 operation, my day was over and we were discussing where to eat for dinner to celebrate mark's belated birthday when we realised anson could not make it because he had to attend a 8 hr liver transplant operation!!

So we went to ximending again for dinner. Bought 1 bowl of tang yuan-like stuff, 1 bowl of peanut beancurd, 1 cup of bubble tea, 1 bowl of Ah Chung Mee Sua and 2 Dunkin donuts. So much for saving $$ ah. But the above costs only NTD$200 or S$9 plus. Shucks, I'm still feeling effects of the food churning in my stomach as I write this note.

Had a sudden thought about my stay in Taipei as I took the Metro today. It just dawned upon me that I am living like a rat in Taipei. Why? It seems that I only know how to get around Taipei by underground Metro only. It's my only form of transport I'm confident of getting around by. The minute you put me up on the surface, I'm totally lost with a disoriented sense of navigation and direction! How sad!

Tomorrow's laparoscopy day and I wonder what awaits me on the operating table. Am I finally going to cut up some stuff on my own? Whoo hoo!

Initial days in Taipei....

2008-03-12T00:54:00.000+08:00

I feel very sad now! Just when I’m about to save my blog entry, EVERYTHING DISAPPEARED!! ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!!! Anyway, I shall try to re-write now before I forget everything, AGAIN!

Finally, I see the sunshine peeking out from the clouds today! Yay, it’s a refreshing and happy feeling, considering it has been overcast skies and chilly drizzles ever since touchdown in Taipei. Looks great for a sunny beach party, but too bad, I’ve lessons in the hospital. Damn!

I am now in National Taiwan University Hospital (台北大学医院 or NTUH) in central Taipei for overseas electives for 2 months. I am currently doing General Surgery for 4 weeks from 10 Mar – 4 Apr before commencing General Medicine from 6 Apr – 2 May. In the 1st month, I have the company of Anson, Meng Chon, Weisheng, Mark Sim and Zhongyang but in the 2nd month, I’ll be alone out here! Hopefully I can find enough local friends here before loneliness creeps in then…

It has been 2 days so far since stepping into hospital grounds but gosh, I felt I’ve learnt way more than my surgery posting in Changi General Hospital (CGH), which was 2 months by the way! Right from the word go, I’ve been given tutorials and seen the operations of liver & renal transplant, breast masectomy and herniotomies (or herniorraphy as they call it here). Their etiquette in Operating Rooms (ORs) here is also way different from Singapore. They leave their OR doors for everyone to walk in and out and I’ve seen more than 10 people in 1 OR! In Singapore, we’ll be screwed upside down for doing so and students will be chased out like flies! Also, the way they scrub up, handle and clean their patients would get a big fat F from Singapore!! I’ll be very afraid as a patient for fear of getting bacterial contamination/infection, although I’ve yet to seen any post-op infection cases (because I’ve yet been in the wards… Haha).

Over here, the people give a lot of respect to doctors and likewise, junior doctors show lots of respect to their senior doctors. So far, I’ve yet to seen patients and relatives complain a single word to the doctors and they wait patiently for the doctors to talk to them. How rare it is to find a sight like this in Singapore! We’ll be sued if we let relatives wait for more than 1 min!!! Over here, I’m known as 陈奕勤医师. How cool is that! They are super pro-teaching here, friendly and would go their way out to solve students’ queries. Thus, the students like to ask questions here, unlike in Singapore when tutors don’t give a damn about us. My tutor’s name is 陈炯年医师. He specialises in gastric cancer and is a super friendly man with very straight and combed hair and big specs. So cute…! I also have a chief resident (senior registrar) by the name of 黄医师, who helps to give us plenty of tutorials. He looks pretty funny too but he is damn brainy! He always give us practical questions to think about and supplies answers whenever we have doubts. Thumbs up to him!

Over here, I admire the students for their quest to learn. They just simply are abl to absorb everything that comes along their way. However, they’re less clinically trained and are less willing to examine their patients. Still, I find it difficult to comprehend how they need to talk to their patients in Hokkien, type and write down notes in English and present in both Chinese and English. Haha, their English is damn cui here. However, as they want to keep up with clinical research and skills with the rest of western world, they’re forcing themselves, even the 80 year old professor, to converse in English for their morning meetings and morbidity & mortality rounds. Still, all of us Singaporeans find it hard to comprehend what they are even mumbling and their deciphering of difficult words keep us laughing all the time!!

Ok, it’s getting late. 12.53am and counting. I shall blog next time about the happening things that we do in Taipei. Shall go and dry my clothes now… Yawnz….

2007-02-19T22:23:00.000+08:00

2007-02-18T22:03:00.000+08:00

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR TO ALL!! 新年快乐, 万事如意!!

i finally got the terror question which I hate to be asked over the new year. 'so how come you have no girlfriend? so when are you getting one?' 臭叉烧包... grr ... grr ... as though finding a girlfriend is as easy as finding clothes... damn... i din even bother answering the question when all in my mind now is how to tackle the Pros in 17 days time. yuckz to both!

huffed and puffed for 5km today. my 1st run after 2 weeks. damn, i am super unfit now. i think i shall run more frequently now so i'll die from lack of oxegenation to the brain for the upcoming Pros. omg, that's a terrible thought!

2007-01-17T07:40:00.000+08:00

Go Nadal! Kill Federer for me!! Don't let him win!

2007-01-16T23:46:00.000+08:00

running a kk flu bug now. gosh. hate that place cos it makes me sneeze all the time for no reason.

anyway, i'm back in kk hospital for cofm project to survey and collect saliva from house officers. yup. yucks! but actually, i think there's nothing wrong with collecting saliva. it's the only natural thing to collect from humans other than shit and blood right? hey, it's all natural so what's there to be so jittery about in the 1st place?

i always hated surveys because i hate being scolded and cast aside by people for no good reason, even if the reason for survey is for personal gains. but heck, gg back to kk was reminising my days back in paeds posting and as usual, the HOs were generally nice to me, except when it comes to collecting saliva. but that aside, i managed to get to talk to some of them and they were telling me about what they did for their cofm projects and how this used to be their 'holiday' period. haha.

cool, i found my RJ bio teacher, miss wee, during lunch in kk today. wow, the world is really small. together with kok wei, adilah and kenneth, we reminised the old days back in RJ and how mr nah was fondly known as mr 'kenny' nah. haha. those were the days when miss wee gave us nothing but good tips for exams and how we easily passed tests because of her.

went to watch 'the devil wears prada' in kok wei's place after collection time today. his house is great and the dvd's good. so it was a wonderful afternoon doing nothing but slacking. GREAT!

anyway, life is pretty good for now doing nothing. but i think i better start studying real soon or i'll be thrown into deep shit.

2007-01-14T12:37:00.000+08:00

please support the 58th NUS Medical Society's
"heART for ART" charity run and do take a
look at www.heartforart.blogspot.com for
more information!

2007-01-14T06:00:00.000+08:00

just returned from a movie and clubbing outing with jiayang, daniel (dentistry society president) and ann (one of prof arthur lim's secretaries). we went to watch "blood diamond" at vivocity and my, the movie brought me a new insight to the human greed for diamonds and the vicous cycle of poverty and civil wars in africa. i was deeply moved by how innocent children were robbed by "revolution armies" to become heartless child soldiers and how easily africans are manipulated and enslaved by forces of the world. it is really sad that western civilisations are pretending to fight for the rights and freedom of people of africa yet using underhand means to serve the wealth of their own nations. suckz! how can such "blood diamond"operations still be going on in our world? gals, stop your quests for diamonds immediately and guys, insist on your rights that diamonds are detrimental to the progress of african nations! haha, right, good excuse to keep guys' money in their own pockets.

next up was clubbing at gotham penthouse at clarke quay. as ann was severely underaged, we were forced out of MOS to GP. yuckz, i have never ever drank and danced with so many indians in my life! worse, the dance music was indian too! that aside, i had great fun actually watching soccer in the club and avoiding the many alcohol that was coming my way, tks to jiayang and daniel. i am not really an alcohol fan and had to shuffle my way out of intoxication. phew, in the end, i had jiayang's car key's to drive myself home cos he was dead tired from the night! whee! see, when i don't drink much, i can drive!

it has been drinking with jiayang for nearly 4 straight nights, minus friday to give my liver a good break. tango's, wala-wala and gothan penthouse. my my, my liver's starting to break down thanks to jiayang's crush for beer, beer and more beer! i think he is a great buddy to chill out with and he is so nice to offer treats and car rides. through these 4 days, we had gotten to know many of each other's secrets but too bad, i am not going to reveal it here so that i can continue my free treats! it is a little sad and disappointing to understand what he is going through at this phase in his life but i hope he gets through it real soon because a happy jiayang is much better than a sulken jiayang. jiayang, u hear me??

i love hanging out with people to cafe and coffee around because human nature is just so unpredictable and talking to people everyday gives me new insights to things around me. but oh well, i think i should stop hanging out for the meantime to really concentrate on my cofm project and start studying for pros. it is a little worrysome that pros is coming in less than 2 months' time. oh no...! for now, i'll read the newspaper before i sleep and wake up to a fresh new day... minus the beer of course!

here's blood diamond for you (recommended by me! 4 of 5 stars!):

2007-01-14T05:56:00.000+08:00

blood diamond poster

2007-01-09T00:02:00.000+08:00

today rockz! i'm starting to understand my shitty cofm project can bind groups of pple together now. today was a good example of how murphy's law was applied to my grp, but we managed to turn things round that favoured us instead. whoo hoo!

we were supposed to conduct a focus group meeting today at 6.30pm with a group of 6-8 house officers from nuh. but guess what - all the HOs went for a briefing at sgh and could not turn up! damn! we were tasked to finish it today so that our questionaire for the survey could be formulated by wednesday and to move on to interview the house officers by thursday or friday. as the clock was ticking and just when we were on the brink of desperation, someone suggested chiong-ing all the way down to grab the HOs after the briefing instead. brilliant! i was lucky to catch hold of a HO on the phone to help me stall some other HOs while we rushed down from nus to sgh in 10 mins. ~bingo~ we managed to interview 10 HOs out of the blue, and at last, for us to complete our focus grp discussion. phew! i'm so proud that we managed to turn a 'field work error' as termed by our tutor in charge to a great discussion with HOs.

yay! we did it. i'm so happy for the night now because it means............... tomorrow i can slack at home! Y-E-S!!!

2007-01-06T13:30:00.000+08:00

today feels good. finally gotten my 10 hrs of sleep! a cool refreshing break from the past hectic week. gosh, what a havoc week it had been.

had a lovely new year eve celebration of a different sort for the 1st time in my life. yeah, i went drinking in kerly's place and my, what a booze party it was with et, sel, yingci, boon, kerly and dehan aka 'me-man'. those little angels from heaven tried to drown and knock me out with shots by playing 4 kings and scissors-paper-stone (SPS). my motor mental skills decided to take a back seat that night and i kept losing in 4 kings. yucks, it feels damn shitty to flush after 3 shots and feel the world spinning by the end of 4 kings. things were made worse by boon when he thrashed me 8-1 in SPS to make me drink 8 consecutive shots. *puke* yes, that was the next thing that happened to me. i rather throw out those alcohol than keep it over for the new year. goodbye toxins. haha. it was a memorable night with lots of fun. thanks kerly! u r the wo-man!

next up was meeting my badminton guys, eugene and kwok ming, on new year after the booze party. finally those guys are back from their studies around the world to serve the army for good. old army boys indeed. i was stunned throughout the conversation when they mentioned how some of our classmates are gonna get married real soon or how eugene is gonna buy a car and condo on his own in the next month with his nice army pay. argh! i dun even have a gf, am slogging out with studies for the next 3 years and have no $$! kaoz, they make me feel like a kid who is so ignorant about the realities of life and one who is so unprepared for the real world.

school started for us on 3rd jan whilst the rest of unis start on 8th jan... how unfair. but heck, when was the last time medicine was kind to me? hmm... can't rem. and so it's gonna be cofm for the next 5 weeks. what does that mean for me? more free time? i have no idea what is installed ahead, but i'm looking forward to interviewing the HOs (some of whom are good friends) for my project and catching up with meddies and possibly late night suppers if any.... sounds good! but i think i might not have any rest time either thanks to the charity run, which is a med soc project that i am overseeing. it's killing a lot of my sleep time and i realised dealing with lower Ms is not as easy as it looks. hopefully everything will be fine from here on. *pray pray*

for now, it's time to catch up with anime and drama shows again. YES!!

2007-01-06T13:28:00.000+08:00

smiles!

2007-01-06T13:27:00.000+08:00

bailey's with whipped cream! nice!

2007-01-06T13:26:00.000+08:00

ee...the self-created shots that accompanied us through the night

2007-01-06T13:25:00.000+08:00

on our way to 'high'ness

2007-01-06T13:23:00.000+08:00

me, yingci, sel and hb - when we still 'look' sober

2007-01-06T13:17:00.000+08:00

Some photos of 2006 that I've flipped...

2007-01-06T13:10:00.000+08:00

rjcldcs pple

2007-01-06T13:05:00.000+08:00

finishing my 2nd marathon... whoo hoo!

2007-01-06T13:02:00.000+08:00

muddies @ xmas party

2007-01-06T13:00:00.000+08:00

kungfu fighting

2007-01-06T12:59:00.000+08:00

karate kid

2007-01-06T12:44:00.000+08:00

the 3 pirates

2007-01-06T12:43:00.001+08:00

the almighty M3 playhouse cast and crew! amazing stuff!

2006-12-26T21:50:00.000+08:00

alright! i'm finally out of my hiatus! it has been a super duper long time since i last saw my blog. grr... it looks wierd. anyway, the reason i've not been blogging is that i was really caught up with my previous posting called paediatrics. yup, i was playing happily (and with permission from all doctors!) with infants, babies, children, adolescents and even adults for 7 entire weeks. it was an eye-opener posting because diseases in these age groups are totally different from adults and it's also the 1st time i feel for my patients' sufferings, all of whom are too young to be going through this cruel stages in their lives! i thoroughly enjoy this posting as well because my tutors were great and the teachings, though very in depth and sometimes, out of this world to me, has finally come alive to me! come to think of it, i really do miss the days when i can clown in front of my young patients and do silly things just to bring a smile or 2 to their faces. my only fear, however, comes from the end of posting tests, which i really do worry that i can't pass... *sadness*

this holidays have been a much needed one after the paediatrics posting. i was literally drained and drowned under the tonnes of knowledge. so what have i been doing? nothing much i guess. i've so far been involved heavily in my time to medix, a medical society project that was suppose to encompass a run, movie and concert to raise funds for charity. time and again, i was peeved off by the dean's office to alter my ICs' proposals to 'tailor' to their needs so that the best dean's office image could be projected through the above events. HELLO! this is a medical society project, NOT a dean's office project. we raised the project up and sent it to you only because we lack funds and needed your help but you wanted to swallow the project wholesale and make it become yours! disgusting! okie, sorry for the ranting but i really am not seeing eye-to-eye with dean's office after they decided to postpone 2 of the events, after 1 month of bullshitting and after 1 month of hard work by the M1s andM2s in terms of planning for the events.

ok, it's the end of the year now and it's the merry making season. i had my share of fun with my karate friends with a chalet in costa sands resort not too long ago, shouting merry christmas to the whole of the resort at the top of my lungs and exchanging presents and playing twisters while 1/2 drunk. i also did follow jirong and his cell to a service and understood what a warm and merry christmas means to all christians around. hmm... this holidays have not been too wasted afterall, except for a looming cofm project which i need to finish up very very soon or i'm dead!

yaya, 1 post done. i shall be back to my anime. need to finish up bleach and death note in time before the new year comes!

BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY BOXING DAY to all of you!

2006-10-01T22:03:00.000+08:00

goodness me... this is pretty funny...
no wonder hossan leong is the funny man of singapore...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWmLAui6OOw

2006-09-27T23:25:00.000+08:00

and so... i have lost...
am i unhappy?
nah, i'm kinda relieved
feels kinda good being a commoner...finally...

2006-09-09T23:35:00.000+08:00

09/09/06 is a shitty day. i hate it!

2006-09-09T00:30:00.000+08:00

a stupid administrator from cgh spoilt my day. damn u woman! these kind of women are so dangerous only because they do nothing, nag and complain whole day long and get everyone else but themselves into trouble. damn u women! it's precisely because of them that government organisations are unable to be efficient. bitch.

yes, stupid isaac wanted to experiment some 'houdini' stuff today and got me all bandaged up with tapes and strings. he's mad in thinking that i'm hulk the muscle man and that i can snap all the tapes and strings with a flex of muscles. yah right, as though i can! haha, i played cheat and untied the tapes and strings with my hands instead. haha

2006-09-09T00:18:00.000+08:00

bondage time

2006-09-09T00:16:00.000+08:00

isaac experimenting more than plain tape on me now

2006-09-09T00:15:00.001+08:00

dun rape me pls!

2006-09-09T00:15:00.000+08:00

my final 'houdini' look...pathetic!

2006-09-06T22:20:00.000+08:00

my prof decided on a bypass surgery instead of resection for a pancretic tumour patient today

patient and family were still so hopeful before the surgery. he does not drink or smoke, has been a great husband and father and even had a card from his daughter to join him in fishing in finland

now he only has 6 mths to live

y do good guys suffer and die early and bastards live so long? life's so sad!

i lost my stethoscope after watching the sad operation

y do good guys lose their stuff and bastards steal their stuff? life's so sad!

boo hoo hoo

2006-09-02T02:36:00.000+08:00

tired
more tired
even more tired

i hate 7.30am!

2006-08-15T00:18:00.000+08:00

had the most wonderful weekend in recent times last weekend. 1st it was rag day on fri night/sat morn. went superbly well this yr without much disputes. met some beautiful pple along the way too. and yeah, the medicine float performance was awesome this yr. no wonder we swept the best float performance with so much ease this yr. well done to the M1 & M2 meddies! next up was shopping. could not believe i manage to get 3 long sleeves, 2 boardshorts and 1 pants for abt $100. this post-great singapore sale is so much better than the great singapore sale itself! wow whee! singapore should have some more post post post great singapore sale to make its people happier. saw melody chen and daniel ong while shopping too. they were hosting some converse shoes event in J8. damn happy to see melody chen. my teenage TV crush still looks pretty good after all these years. haha. yeah, and the cruncher has got to be liverpool crushing chelsea 2-1 on sunday to snatch the 1st trophy of the english soccer season. liverpool rockz my sockz with its brand new team!

on hindsight, i watched the oprah winfrey show this morning accidentally and watched 3 women presenting their lives to the american audience. i'm amazed by this woman called carolyn thomas who had half her face blown away by her bf with a pistol. the reason being that the bf was too possessive and was angry she did not obey his commands. my goodness. worse was this bf actually killed her mum in the same shooting accident. to hell with the bf! i'm very heartened by carolyn, who dared to face the television cameras to stand up for herself after the incident and to put herself forward to remind all other american women who are in the same situation to face their fears and step bravely out of their situations too. this woman has all my salutes!

2006-08-15T00:00:00.000+08:00

medicine float static display

2006-08-14T23:59:00.000+08:00

all hail the queen

2006-08-14T23:58:00.000+08:00

the mummies look funny here

2006-08-14T23:57:00.000+08:00

medicine float performance

2006-08-14T23:49:00.000+08:00

chio melody chen with daniel ong during my shopping trip in J8

2006-08-14T23:48:00.000+08:00

another picture of them

2006-08-14T23:47:00.000+08:00

nice converse shoes in the footwear design competition

2006-08-14T23:46:00.000+08:00

an uncle i took dozzing off on his beer while everyone were enthusiatically watching the liverpool-chelsea match. how in the world did he manage to sleep??

2006-08-14T23:44:00.000+08:00

carolyn thomas before she went for plastic surgery

2006-08-14T23:42:00.000+08:00

carolyn after a few sessions of plastic surgery. notice the tracheostomy being closed at the throat so that she could talk. ouch.

2006-08-14T23:41:00.000+08:00

Another shot of Carolyn

2006-08-10T23:25:00.000+08:00

whee...! went for my 1st fireworks at esplanade since new year's eve. love each and every single fireworks cos all are very nice to watch. i love colours glittering up the plain dark sky! yeah, managed to persuade kwok meng the introvert to go watch this lameless performance that lasted only for 10 mins @9pm. but...pig, it took us 2.5 hrs afterwards to get back from there! says much abt our efficient single bus transport! oh well, nothing much i can do too. got a rude shock from nuh today.

me: hello, are there any cases in ward ** with respiratory signs?
nurse: yah, bed **
me: ok (and ran off to take a look at the patient)
...5 seconds later...
me: eh, what happened to the previous patient of bed **?
nurse: he died
me: huh?!?!?! but he was well and alive just 2 days ago when i examined him?!?!?!
nurse: yah, he died

gosh, i was super traumatised... a few minutes later...

me: eh, what happened to the patient of bed **?
nurse: he is now in critical care unit
me: huh?!?!?! but he was well and alive just 2 days ago when i examined him?!?!?!
nurse: yah, he's fighing for his life down there now

double whammy in a day... am i their jinx? and to think i said happy national day to them... how happy this is man...

2006-08-10T23:24:00.000+08:00

bored at esplanade before the fireworks... cute esplanade lamp and the moon

2006-08-10T23:23:00.000+08:00

kwok meng my buddy n me...

2006-08-10T23:21:00.000+08:00

Boom boom boom! Fireworks to the max! I think the fireworks were better than those on National Day!

2006-08-02T21:33:00.000+08:00

i'm so tired and i dun have enuf time to sleep. now i know why people enjoy the pleasure of sleeping. can someone spin out more time for me so that i can take a long pleasureable ride into zzz-land?

2006-07-30T22:48:00.000+08:00

just did a crazy thing this afternoon - that is to sign up for the singapore marathon yet again, after some coaxing by jianbang. haha, now i'm psycho-ing my buddy wong yi, to run with me for companionship. kao, 42.195km, i wonder how i'm gg to reach the finishing line this time round without much training, tks to the 'joyous' hours in hospital wards. die, think i'll dehydrate and den be hyperkalaemic before dying from some arrythemias halfway thru the run. oops, what a horrible way to die. yuckz!

have been setting up tonnes of IV plugs and drawing tonnes of blood from patients these days. taking over as much work from the nurses, HOs and even the M5 students on student internship programmes around to try to gain as much experience before leaving this posting. got into so much fun that i even stayed back to do 2 more night calls till 5.30am in the morning! i think i'm totally crazy about medicine already. 2 more weeks left before end-of-posting tests and i'm so not looking forward to it. pui. and there's still the presentations and writeups to do... kao, y must they toture students, or am i just grumbling too much? oh well, i dun care, i just wanna rattle my ass off here! i have my rights too... haha! yeah, school's starting soon for everyone. how wonderful that is because finally everyone can start their tortures together with us med students. yeah, i'm an evil kid! bleah!

2006-07-25T23:38:00.000+08:00

范逸臣 - Love Story

爱的故事有很多
你一定听过
她们说
最美的爱情像湖泊
美的忍不住停留
而任性的风
吹过了
却飘下一片片叶落
放开手往北方走
留下伤心的树独自忍受
你离开我连一句话都不说
只默默看着今晚天空星光闪烁

看今夜的流星
划过了天际
笑我的心
我无法再冷静
请你要倾听
你是我的唯一
我不愿去相信
我们之间
隔着海洋的距离
我的爱
已融化在空气里

2006-07-22T01:29:00.000+08:00

in the med soc lounge after my 2nd night call in nuh. gonna sleep here too after this post. pretty eventful night considering that i finally managed my 1st IV plug on an old man. otherwise, there was nothing much to consider because there wasn't many patients being admitted either. sianz... tot i could poke n see blood many more times tonight. oh well, things been pretty busy ard in nuh. busy finding and talking to patients, busy having tutorials and presentations, busy with union camp, busy getting to people's 21st bday parties and busy with trying to figure out what's going on in my life actually too. grr.. it's going at too fast a pace for me and omg, end of posting test is in 3 weeks' time. shit! i need more time for myself and for my books.

2006-07-08T00:20:00.000+08:00

i need sleep. totally in need of it. been clocking 3 hrs/night this week and next week will be worse when i join the nus union camp as a counsellor after hospital everyday. die die die. and talking abt death, a patient whom my cg clerked together died this morn, a cardiac patient for my cofm case study had cardiac arrest twice and my asthma uncle whom i clerked 3 days ago got warded yesterday, on the very same day that he was discharged, for breathing complications again and says he wanna die soon. die, so many deaths. sigh. oh, and i'm now having some H5N1 bird flu strain vaccine in my body after being jabbed today for $100 as part of prof tambyah's research for a bird flu vaccine worldwide. cool, if the vaccine works, i'm part of the pioneer for the vaccine!! what a sacrifice i made!! haha. on hindsight, i've made friends with 2 new female HOs (who keep giving me cases!), 2 new nurses and 2 nursing students! cool x 2! haha, hopefully i can turn nuh wards into a friendlier place than when we came in! yah rite! my next mission: to make prof kueh let her hair down from her bun (only pple who've seen her before knows why). if i can do that, i think i'm a legendary god liao! haha!

2006-07-04T22:45:00.000+08:00

shack, 1st week of clinicals and i'm almost dead. my 1st ever night call till 1am in NUH (with super chio HO eve! haha!), munus games + entertaining the UM med students, hunting patients for COFM project, for specialty teaching, for tutorials, for personal history taking and examinations and worse of them all, the world cup that's disturbing my sleep! gosh, who says NUH med is bad when tutorials and lectures are so eventful? but argh!! there's too little patients with signs that are impt for us to see and so many of us are clerking the same few lot of patients available in the hospital. sianzz X 2. i'm gg to die from fatigue, v e r y v e r y s o o n . . . .

2006-06-21T15:38:00.000+08:00

i got cheated, 2 times in a row in 2 consecutive days

my body clock and mum's bday cake got totally screwed up at the end of day

i don't like this feeling at all

i am damn pissed and damn sad now... :(

2006-06-19T18:54:00.000+08:00

world cup - the once in 4 years soccer tournament that never fails to get my body clock all screwed up. this year, it's of no exception and matters are complicated by the fact that i have no cable tv. so what do i do to curb this prob? hmm.. creative tak went to coffeshop, inhaled much cigarette smoke n drank couintless cups of coffee to sustain his stay. he went to huren's house for the 1st few days and disturbed his family. he stayed on in queensway macs with zhongyang and mark sim and again, inhaled much cigarette smoke (y the hell do pple love smoking so much??? pui!!!). finally, he found the 'da vinci code' of watching world cup live by downloading an online tv programme that he can watch all matches for free!! whee... isn't that great?

stupid world cup, now i feel too tired to run in the morning cos i can't wake up in time and i'm too lazy to run around in the evening, like now. heck it, looks like marathon running training gotta be put on hold till after world cup... boo, i hate world cup... haha...

i'm starting to hate 绿光森林 (green forest, my home) grr, the plot's so draggy and the drama could have been wrapped up in 2 episodes lah!! still, i'm watching only becoz of the female 2nd lead, who somehow looks terribly similar to the girl in 光良's MTV '童话'.

happy 21st to char and daniel! hope u guyz had a great time @ your parties!

school's starting in 1 week's time... how?? how???

2006-06-18T04:06:00.000+08:00

med peeps @ char's bday party - very nice durian puffs that i'm holding

2006-06-18T04:05:00.000+08:00

me and the bday gal, char~

2006-06-18T04:04:00.000+08:00

me, zhongyang and mark sim at queensway macs watching world cup

2006-06-18T04:03:00.000+08:00

someone feeding the turtles in queensway macs during the game...

2006-06-18T04:02:00.000+08:00

a floating DHL balloon descending when i was studying in the National Library in Beach Rd

2006-06-12T01:01:00.000+08:00

what have i been doing for the 1st week of holidays?? basically nothing except but play play and more play. went to sentosa on wednesday, got myself fried pretty badly on the only day of the week with scorching sun and ended up my with skin peeling now. been trying to camp out at home too, trying to finish my james patterson series of book but only got to finish 1 book so far - honeymoon. and for the highlight of the week, it has to go to the Aviva Singapore Badminton Open Championships. i was there on friday for the quarters and sunday for the finals. my my my. i simply love the superb atmosphere (though i went ALONE!! *sadness*) and the high level of playing skills. and of course, the thrill of seeing my favourite players in person! whee! peter gade, ronald susilo, mohd hashim, jonas rasmussen, peter steffensen and many more. amongst them, my fav is the indonesian doubles pairing of budiarto sigit and limpele flandy. they only partnered twice in their life and consist of 1/2 my all time fav pair of budiarto sigit (the master of wrist tricks!)and chandra wijaya (the smasher!). yup, flandy replaced chandra after the latter retired from injury?? hm...no idea... anyway, the new sytem of 3 sets of 21 points is more exciting because each bloody point counts, even service mistakes, and forces the players to concentrate and attack more. bleah, but i dun like the system too because it favours the faster and bigger europeans and force my fav lazy-styled indonesian players out. still, it's an exciting event to be at and i'm glad i was part of it all.

below are some pics (mostly lousy quality tks to my shitty cam) i took at the event:

2006-06-12T01:00:00.000+08:00

quarter finals pictures...non-stop action from 4 courts from 3-9pm...

2006-06-12T00:59:00.000+08:00

ronald susilo vs peter gade in the quarters...

2006-06-12T00:58:00.000+08:00

the most shiok n explosive game: men's doubles between my all time fav indonesia (in black) vs the talles from denmark (in red)

2006-06-12T00:57:00.000+08:00

the all-chinese women's doubles finals...yawnz...

2006-06-12T00:56:00.000+08:00

the women's singles between France's Pi Hongyan (Chinese import) and Netherland's Mia Audina (Indonesian import)

2006-06-12T00:54:00.000+08:00

the all-danish men's singles finals between my fav guy peter gade (in white) and kenneth jonasson (in black shirt)

2006-06-12T00:52:00.000+08:00

other shots (in clockwise direction): everyone cheering at the start of the finals, 3 malay guyz hitting drums to get the crowd cheering, clown photographer, the line of tv cameras filmming the court

2006-06-04T14:43:00.000+08:00

and so, the curtain to CSFC has drawn to a close. the tests + OSCE over the past week has been a nightmare. just when i've thought i'm capable of taking gd history and physical signs n symptoms from patients, i was proven totally wrong. yuckz.

for medicine tests, i forgot to check for spider naevi n virchow's nodule in a liver mets case and got my patho for liver probs all wrong when probed by the tutor. worse, i diagnosed another patient as having asthma when he had partial lung collapse, all because i din hear my stetho properly (my stetho is really for show only sia!!) and din test for vocal resonance. sigh, for surg test, i did check for vichow's gland correctly in another abdo exam but forgot to ascultate for sounds, din notice hyperpigmentation on left thorax from radiotherapy and din see a super obvious tube that ran from his left axilla because i was inspecting from the right. grr... and as for OSCE, i totally flung it because i've no idea what it was asking. sigh x 3

still, i did enjoy these 6 weeks in SGH because the tutors were very competent and cases that u needed to see were everywhere. also, i had khai wei as my buddy who guided me much along the way as well. i would miss the weekly-almost-turned-daily sessions in the SGH OTs, my 1st stitch on during a hernia operation, the friday 7am M&M sessions when surgeons bicker, my coolio surgeon hiang khoon, the daily coffee session plus the occasional goreng pisangs in the HO canteen, my med tutors dr felicia and william, ward 63 where i terrorized the patients, nurses and HOs, all the patients in SGH, my cg 10, and of course the liero game in medical student centre. oh man, y must i live that place?

next up is the hols before gg to NUH for med den CGH for surg. this is a nightmare come true and i can't elaborate much on why it is so here. help... so before that happens, i'll try to enjoy this last holidays. let the holidays begin... ...

2006-06-04T14:38:00.000+08:00

CG 10 of SGH plus a missing terence tan (who's always hiding at home)

2006-06-04T14:36:00.000+08:00

The Cat Empire (from Australia) @ Esplanade Verdict: Great!

2006-06-04T14:35:00.000+08:00

The 2 Beatboxers @ Esplanade - Peter Huang (right) and Zul (left) Verdict: Superb!

2006-05-21T13:12:00.000+08:00

think i'm getting lazier and lazier to blog. took lots of drive n motivation just to get this entry going...haha...what an excuse. anyway, it's 4 weeks into CSFC (clinical skills foundation course) and hospital posting has been a great insight into what's coming up in the future years. my SGH tutors have been great and they've been giving great tutorials, albeit only a few though. in here in SGH, at least for me, a lot of things have to be managed by oneself and depending on the tutors is like asking for the death penalty, cos most of them can't be bothered with us, the puny little fries aka medical students. everyday, khai wei and i wld be hunting down nurses in the morn for blood-taking to learn our venepuncture skills (how blood thirsty ah?). and it's unfair, how come he always gets managed to draw patients' blood (their veins r really prominent) while i always have to struggle and wriggle patients' veins only to draw nothing (my patients' veins r really diff, even the nurses and docs can't draw anything either!! in fact i did better than some by managing to draw 2 pathetic ml of blood). after that, we wld coffe ard in the housemen canteen before roaming ard wards 53/54/55/56/57/58, 73/74/77, 63/64 and some wards in block 4 just to find nice patients to take history and do examination on them. cool! some of these patients r really nice while others have really pitiful histories, eg. an SLE patient for 20 yrs or another patient with ESRF for 20 yrs and have no family to depend on. gosh! they make me feel lucky at times. on a more notable hindsight, i love surgery and i think i've told many pple abt it. i love the rush and adrenaline of surgical work (though i've no idea whether i'm up to it nor even capable of it in the 1st place). i love changing up into the comfy OT clothes and watching the operations gg on. it's just so cool and surgeons r the pple who r directly responsible whether a patient survives. and in SGH, every last day of the week aka friday, there is a M&M session where major surgeries over the past week are brought up for discussion to the whole surgery dept. it's very interesting to see op pictures, hearing surgeries done on pple with ecchinococcus infection, cancer and hepatic problems and how surgeries could have been better operated. but it's damn shack to wake up at 5+am in the morn just for this 7am sessions. bish... but for now, all i hope is that my history taking and examination be gd enough to pass my CSFC in 2 weeks time... HELP!

2006-05-21T12:47:00.000+08:00

back to good old days in RJ with RJCLDCS teachers n seniors

2006-05-21T12:45:00.000+08:00

future surgeons - me n khai wei...

2006-05-21T12:44:00.000+08:00

cool...blood filled gauzes during an onco op...shit...will i be sued for this?

2006-05-21T12:41:00.000+08:00

early morning sky before going to SGH

2006-05-21T12:40:00.000+08:00

erm...if this is of any decorations...the most elaborated that i did

2006-05-21T12:34:00.000+08:00

2006-04-24T00:23:00.000+08:00

touchdown! yippie! we're finally in A-U-S-T-R-A-L-I-A!!!

2006-04-24T00:22:00.000+08:00

farm stay pics of our 1st day in brisbane, australia...wonderful!

2006-04-24T00:21:00.000+08:00

our lovely 4 star hotel room in gold coast!

2006-04-24T00:20:00.000+08:00

Movie World!

2006-04-24T00:19:00.000+08:00

actor making fun of audience before the show - oh boy, how he loves to torture asians...

2006-04-24T00:18:00.000+08:00

the finale of police academy show... the explosion of its helicopter

2006-04-24T00:15:00.000+08:00

the ultimate roller coaster ride in gold coast - superman escape

2006-04-24T00:14:00.000+08:00

monster crabs...wasted it din land up on my plate for breakfast or any of my meals for that matter

2006-04-24T00:13:00.003+08:00

sea world's greatest guests alive!

2006-04-24T00:13:00.002+08:00

Sea World! A cool collection of marine animals!

2006-04-24T00:13:00.001+08:00

a surf board history to australian surfing in the shop

2006-04-24T00:13:00.000+08:00

a shopping trip to quicksilver before leaving for melbourne

2006-04-24T00:11:00.000+08:00

melbourne finally!

2006-04-24T00:10:00.000+08:00

trotting along the yarra river