coffee and me - an unwanted affair

I accidently ate coffee today.. (note: ate) it was hidden within this irresistable donut from my friend, nat.. i thought the filling should be melted chocolates.. it's relatively hard to avoid coffee... otherwise, the donut was good ^^... been coping well with the coffee-quitting campaign... except, it has been difficult to stay up and concentrate on studies.. been trying other alternatives like tea, milo, music.. still trying.. ^^



my mum suggested this, some ginseng essence... and it tasted terrible! yuck!!

My mood today....

conserving energy, fuel, and $$$

In response to Primus's 6 things i hate about the bloody oil price... here's some tips on how to conserve fuel, save $$$

1.Don't signal – ever
Not that Malaysians use their indicators anyway but it is an even more compelling reason to not waste energy on that blinking light

2.Don't park in multi-storey car parks (eg: terminal 1, Seremban)
Going up and down ramps burns fuel. Better to just leave the car outside on a single yellow line. Besides, the spins give you a headache!

3.Don't brake for bumps
Braking burns fuel so just keep accelerating over speed bumps.

4.Commute off-peak
Avoid the rush hour traffic by going into work at 10am and coming home at 3pm.

5. Delay switching on headlights
Wait until it gets really dark or until someone flashes you before switching on headlights.

6. Sing
Radio music is lousy anyway. Sing to entertain yourself instead of letting your Blaupunkt burn more fuel.

7. Carpool
Cram as many people as possible into your Kancil. Besides, the added weight helps with braking. You’ll have someone to chat on the journey. No more flipping stations finding the right junk to listen to.

8. Use the emergency lane
Why sit idle in traffic when you can gain ground efficiently on the extra lane?

9. Coast downhill
Turn off the engine and free up the gear when going down a slope. Let gravity do the work, not petrol.

10. Invest in body kits
Making the car more aero-dynamic with sporty skirting and spoilers reduces drag and fuel consumption.

11.Use 18-inch rims
Big rims mean less tyre material, i.e. rubber. Therefore less rubber is burnt while driving and less resistance/ friction.

12. Drive on the line
Align the middle of the car on the line that divides two lanes on a dual carriageway. This reduces the need to make sharp turns as you are effectively using the racing line.

13. Go through red lights
If you are in front at a traffic light, go straight on. Braking hard for a yellow or red light burns fuel.

14. Use high gears
If using a manual car, try to go from first straight to fourth. Keep the revs to below 1,000rpm.

15.Take MCs
Utilise your entitlement to the max. Every day that you don't go to work is RM saved on fuel, toll, parking, etc.

16. Know your roads…
Decide the best route to take and make sure you know the roads... getting lost in KL makes you take a super long route, thus more fuel consumption.

17. Plan your journeys
If you have 7 things to do, plan it out, make a checklist and do it in one journey instead of 7.

18. Fill your tank early in the morning
Fill your tank early in the morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground, the denser the fuel.When it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening.... your litre is not exactly a litre.

19. Fill in slow, save in more
WHEN YOU'RE FILLING UP, DO NOT SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER OF THE NOZZLE TO A FAST MODE. note that the pump had (3) stages: low, middle, and high. When you pump in low mode, the vapours that are created are minimized. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank vapurized. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

20. Do not wait until your yellow petrol sign shows at your dashboard
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TIPS IS TO FILL UP WHEN YOUR TANK IS HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Less space, thus less evaporation.

Ok, so I've got 20 points down already. When I have more, I'll put them up. If you've got an idea for me, it's time for a shout-out! ^^

p/s: calculate your extra expenditure on fuel here: http://boxstr.com/files/2299275_wqfom/?token=f01ca28e818007472c20a69f693bfc77

the cactus

shinLoo and wei jian gave me this cactus plant, as a souvenier from cameron highlands... which was very cute at first, it even had a smiley face, you see... i was worried it might die under my hands, but on second thought, it was after all just a cactus,with strong adaptation mechanism and survival skills... 'should be okay'.. i reassured myself... but little did i know, THE CACTUS is now growing out of proportion that i do not know what to do.... it had extra hands and the hands were getting longer each day... i thought of trimming them off, but the thorns were so pricky, i dare not touch it... so HOW??? what should i do??

really, i don't know how to handle living creatures, whether plants or animals.. NEVER entrust me with any of that sorts in the future...

i am losing so much hair, it is actually scary!!

(The pictures were taken after i brush my hair)

My hair is falling, so much so, it is actually scary... especially when i think of the differentials :
SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), Hypothyroidism, hypopituitarism, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, tuberculoid leprosy, lepromatous leprosy, vasculitis, iron deficiency, zinc deficiency, vitamin A deficiency,(hell lots of deficiencies) drugs (COCP, heparin ,amiodarone, valproic acid, selenium, vincristine, other chemotherapy drugs), Chagas’ disease, secondary syphilis (wtf!)....etc..... blah, blah, blah...

thinking positive, my provisional diagnosis is mechanical traction alopecia and stress....
Managemant :
- do not tie hair unless at ward rounds (it's really gross to have your hair brushing against the patient's tummy when you are listening to the fetal heart rate with a pineal statoscope)
- reduce stress : go out and have fun!!

p/s: med students have problems with long hair too.... not only it is inconvenient when examining patients, it can also be hazardous during psychiatry rotations... =P

fingers skating on keys..

i wanted to see how my fingers looked on the keys... after so many years, now only i realised how short and fat my fingers were.. siGhhh.. and i noticed i liked to curve my last finger, subconsciously.. so ya, this is my first song on video, nothing much, some mistakes, but i was too lazy to re-record it.. =P and if you notice close enough, there were some background noise from the construction work near my house...

Here In My Home..

oh yes, here are the lyrics and the chords for you to sing and play along ^_^





HERE IN MY HOME

Verse 1
Hold on brother hold on
The road is long.
We’re on stony ground
But I’m strong. You ain’t heavy

Verse 2
Oh there’s a misspoken truth that lies
Colors don’t bind, oh no.
What do they know? They speak falsely.

Chorus
Here in my home
I’ll tell you what its all about
There’s just one hope here in my heart
One love undivided
That’s what it’s all about
Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

Verse 3
Push back sister won’t you push back?
Love won’t wait. Just keep pushing on.
Yes I’m strong. You ain’t heavy.

Verse 4
Oh don’t you worry about that…
What we have shadows can’t deny
Don’t you know it’s now or never?

Rap
[Bahasa Malaysia] Bertubi asakan berkurun lamanya
Hati ke depan mencari yang sayang
(translation: Years of fears and years of tribulation The heart keeps searching for that endless devotion)

[Mandarin] 手牵手大家一起走，我代表华人开口未来就没有丢走
(phonetics: shou qian shou da jia yi qi zou wo dai biao hua ren kai kou wei lai jiu mei you diu zou)
(translation: Hand in hand we’ll march like blood brothers I speak for my people we’ll find peace forever)

[Tamil] இந்த பயணம் பயணம்.. என் வெற்றி தாகம், அந்த கனா காலம்.. நம் வெற்றி ராகம், நண்பா.. நண்பா..
(phonetics: inthe payanam payanamm yen vettri thaagam anthee kaana kaalam naam vetri raagam...nanba nanba)
(translation: May the road ahead quench my thirst for success May the road behind echo a song of the blessed)

[English] Yes I feel it in my bones and I will let it be known No matter where I roam this is home sweet home Sing!

- Words & Music by Pete Teo featuring rap by KLG Sqwad & Altimet -
Reprinted by permission. © 2008 Redbag Music. All Rights Reserved.

COA MALAYSIAN MS - Here In My Home

dear all, i would like to share something very Malaysian today.

i remembered the time, i went overseas for a vacation or for conferences, ohhh.. how i missed MALAYSIA... the people, the food, even the weather!! when you are frezzing cold, wrapped up in rolls of clothing till you're round, degrees -5... how you'll miss the sun in Malaysia... and when you have had enough Kim Chi to last you a life time,.. all i could think of was satay, roti canai and nasi lemak!! my friends from abroad was very impressed that we could speak many languages and dialects fluently... my Hong Kong friend was commenting : They can speak cantonese to me, speak hokkien (similar to Tai Yu) to the Taiwanese, speak Mandarin to the China people, speak English at presentation, and suddenly speak Malay to the Indonesian, and they all sound TOTALLY different!! haha!

and yeah, i am glad to be a Malaysian, this is after all, home~

Here's a songtrack sung my Malaysian Artistes for Unity... it's a very nice song~ great job to Pete Teo and the crew! gee, i love this song!!



check out the making of this video clip at :

COAMS #44 - Final Year Syndrome

I felt like a final year student today, as I am now back in HUKM, sharing the same wards and clinics with juniors… Being a final year student suddenly made me feel smart today, as most of the things in OBGYN (obstetric and gynaecology) was rather familiar to us.. more like a revision... I remembered how I once thought seniors are really damn smart and capable… still do,… little did my juniors know, we had actually forgotten most of what we learnt in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, even 4th year!! we have poor memory capacity.. we really do, well, at least I do…


I really can’t believe the juniors had already attended 4 weeks of clinic and they had not clerk even a single antenatal booking case in the past 4 weeks!!siGh… it was only after i presented 2 cases and our registra (doctor) asked them to clerk new case to ease the clinic flow, that they started to do so... do you really need this kind of spoon feeding? what happened to enthusiasm? this is so not UKM... and for God's sake, do write in the case notes ler... kind of sad to see them like that.. i remembered, during my first clinic days in OBGYN,… the bunch of us were so eager to clerk new case that there weren’t enough case to go around.. things have changed, haven’t they?


And I really do not understand what they were doing in the clinics,whispering among themselves… they don’t even know what is a longitudinal lie!! (after 4 weeks!),.. let alone examine the abdomen…

then it struck my mind, I suddenly remembered the juniors had a new medical system, a new curiculum,.... these students have just entered their clinical years,… it is really unfair for them to go through OBGYN first.. they don't have any medical basic!! students MUST go through medicine rotations before OBGYN... this is really no good for them... when I was in 3rd year, I had a minor peadiatric posting first, and I was just as clueless... luckily, i had medicine and surgery rotations after that...


I’ve handed in my case write ups and partograms to Prof Adeeb today,… I know she will fail them anyway, like how she failed all her previous students, she just had to, it’s in her genes… she was superbly strict at ward rounds today, but I liked her… I mean, not her scary attitude, but I liked the way she thinks… the questions she asked were very relevant and important aspects of the patients that make you think… she made me realize that, many of us clerk patients blindly, following a certain format or script…. We lacked the curiosity, enthusiasm and care… Gee… I have so much more to learn…

Fullstops...

when you refused to start a new sentence after the fullstop,
you add a few dots following it,
each dot painfully making a hole,
leaving a scar,
only deeper each time,
the people around you turn the pages,
at 140kmph,
the world spins around,
and there you stood,
you wonder whether will anyone come back for you,
as you wait at the first stanza,
before you realized,
the poem has ended,
the book has been published,
and there you were,
still standing before the fullstop...

COAMS #43 - shinyin’s 3 weeks at Teluk Intan, Perak…

DAY 1 (tue)
Droved 3 hours ++ to Teluk Intan, broke the [shinyin’s longest distance ever drove non-stop book of record]… Discovered 7 things in Teluk Intan:
1. My room is SUPER HOT
2. My new housemates are weird.
3. No washing machine
4. The toilet lamp is spoilt!!
5. Worse, NO INTERNET!!
6. yeah, and no chinese food stalls or sundry shops within 5km away from our hostel.. Nat and I searched like nearly an hour for a sundry shop..
7. WHAT?? There is no cinema or shopping malls in Teluk Intan??? The nearest is in Ipoh, 1 and a half hours away… OMG…. How do the young people survive here???
I wonder whether I could survive 3 days, let alone 3 weeks.. sigh.. I missed home already…. I missed HUKM…

DAY 2 (wed)
The hospital’s architectural is a little ‘different’. Most of the buildings, eg the clinics, are single floor… too much space wastage, I thought… and the labour room and the clinics were like more than 10minutes walk apart… what would happened if there was an emergency?? There were no scan machine in the wards, patient had to walk (yes, walk) all the way to the labour room for a scan.. I could go on and on about ‘when I build a hospital, I would do this, and that…’ but of course, I would never build a hospital, unless of course if I were either suddenly super rich, or if they have The Sims Hospital or something like that….
p/s: I want to online
oh yes, important to note, Dr Lim YH belanja us lunch today!! Walau, we had lunch with our doctor; she was friendly but super demotivating,… shared with us how she regretting taking medicine as a profession, it’s a lifetime sacrifice, she said.. sigh.. I was motivation-deprived

DAY 3 (thu)
Dr H compliment my case presentation today, funny, it did not send a gush of euphoric energy all over me…. I was indifferent… I think I left my passion for medicine (if any) in HUKM…. Note: if any..
First on-call day: conducted only one delivery today. The patients are very few today, but midwives here were super nice. A doctor today, let’s call her dr H, said: priority to conduct deliveries is given to HOs (house officers).. I need to train my staff, she said…. sigh.. now we have to compete with the HO… endless deliveries in Hospital Teluk Intan?-my seniors tipu me =(

DAY 4 (fri)
Post-called syndrome…. After sleep deprivation for over 30hours, totally a zombie at class…
Later figure out that Dr H is the specialist here. She’s super cool and super nice… and she wears only black and white…. I wished all lecturers are as nice as her, no offence…
I did my laundry today!! Yeay! First time to hand wash ever since 1st year orientation week…. Which was like, ermmm… 4 years ago….

DAY 5(sat)
It’s the end of the week already… time flies, and I can’t believe that I am actually still surviving without an internet and without a washing machine… I discovered 6 new things :
1. My new housemates are pretty cool…in fact, they have a great sense of humour and they are super hilarious!! We could actually crap like ALL NIGHT,.. wow!
2. Overally, I adapted well with no internet and no washing machine.
3. I learnt to bathe in the dark
4. The infamous Teluk Intan Chee Chong Fun is superb!! But u must buy from the original manufacturer, which is a small house, and you need to line up to get your freshly made Chee Chong Fun!! RM 3 for 2 Chee Chong Fun!! but, it was worth it, totally!!
5. There were no young people in Teluk Intan.. only extreme ages of children and really old folks,.. which explains the lack of entertainment… even the kareokes and clubs were so ‘uncle’… Got stars somemore, on the signboards…

DAY 6 (sun)
Spent the whole day in Labour Room today only to have ZERO conducts…. There were NO patients today, sigh… except for a twin pregnancy, which we get to witness… but not conduct, of course,… only the MOs(Medical Officer) or specialist were allowed to conduct twin deliveries here…. But the case is rather interesting with one baby in cephalic presentation, and the second in transverse lie. Dichorionic, Diamniotic, good prognosis.
p/s: Hui Teng’s mum bought lunch for us today, all the way from Pantai Remis!! Yummie!!

DAY 7(mon)
Monday blues.. I want to online..

DAY 8(tue)
On-call again, I’m starting to hate on-calls,.. my enthusiasms level has dropped to zero.. I hate seeing the HOs, as they reminds me of me, being in their shoes next year,.. to oncall every alternate days (3-4times per week, do your calculation), and still be in the topmost condition,… this is 2 years… a houseman complaint that she has no life… I only replied: if it’ll make you feel better, my housemanship is 2 years, which is a year longer that yours… sigh..

DAY 9 (wed)
Now my housemates are commenting on
1. my chemotherapy hair falling
2. the way I walk
3. my socks
4. my skirts
5.everything!!
Sigh…

P/s: I am bored, I want to online…

DAY 10(thu)
I am so bored… so bored to the extend that if any guy asked me out today, I would say yes…

DAY 11(fri)
On-Call again??? on calls never ends huh?? Who made the timetable?? How come so many shifts???

DAY 12(sat)
I played computer games all day till 5am… that’s over 12hours of pc games! it’s crazy!! It’s either PMS (pre-menstrual-syndrome) or internet-withdrawal syndrome.. totally no mood today!! I don’t even wanna blog… i need any form of survival pills, any thing to boost my endorphins level, I need to get out of this place…..

DAY 13(sun)
I went to Pantai Remis today and ate seafood ALL DAY!! Yeay!!! Took 4 tablet of desloratidine (the MOST potent anti-histamine to prevent allergies) and I was symptom-free!! Hurray!!! Hui Teng belanja somemore, hehe… then we went to Lumut to buy satay fish…. Discovered that Shavyn loves to sing and is pretty out-going, and Poh Sin is the woodest wood-head on Earth!! What a perfect couple! Haha!!
New batch of friends arrived from HUKM, things would be much merrier…

DAY 14(mon)
Another on-call day?? Will this ever end??? Dr H wore a blue shirt to work today, I can’t help noticing, it was, for the first time, not black or white… I did my partogram homework today.. Happily completed my 3 pages write up only to find that Prof Adeeb demands a detailed report of over 10pages long!! OMG!! Kill me de.. why other groups don’t have to do partograph homework??

Something new for a change: my housemates were discussing foreplay today… my housemate, our sex expert shared her knowledge on the 7 most sensitive parts in a human anatomy…

DAY 15(tues)
I wanna go home~~~ *sob* *sob*


DAY 16(wed)
Savouring the last day at teluk intan,.. I wonder whether I’ll miss this place…..
p/s: petrol station packed with cars today…. sigh..

DAY 17(thu)
BACK!!! YIPPIE!!! (((( I know it’s only Thursday, but at this point, who cares??)))
Teluk Intan is not too bad.. but I wouldn’t want to spend my life there,… this place seriously have no life… then again, HO-ship has no life either, oh well….

Related Links:
My Diary at Teluk Intan

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken (by Robert Frost, 1916)

Two road diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both,

And be one traveler, long I stood,

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.


And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I keep the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads onto way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence;

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that had made all the difference.

Robert Frost, 1916


-One of my favourite poem is The Road Not Taken... Perhaps being a libran made me indecisive... there are so many decisions to be made in life.. in fact, everyday, we are making choices... that's life... and very often we look back and wonder -hell, why did i made that decision in the first place?-... then we ponder upon the endless list of -WHAT IFs-... then again, ways leads to ways...

perhaps i'm not as bold and strong as Robert Frost... more often or so, one tend to follow the currant,.. going with the flow... sometimes, one chose to deny... sometimes, one tries to surppress... sometimes, one take the easier way out... sometimes one choose the 'shoulds' rather than the 'wants'...

(what am i crapping about?) anyway...

if only we could live life with no regrets... if only life is more simple... perhaps life IS simple... and it's just a matter of perception...