Awkward...

As I arrived late for a neurology clinical meeting, I spotted an empty space in the corner of the room between 2 consultants, stumbled past the other consultants and rested in that spot.
One of the consultants on my right shuffled in his seat to make room large enough for a hamster, looked at me and patted that part of the seat, offering me that miniscule amount of space to sit on..
With only a few seconds to respond, a long train of thought rushed through my head " Aww.. thats nice of him..should I sit? but the space is so small.. would it be impolite to refuse? but it would be weird..."
Without finishing my thought process, I thanked him and sat down.. He said to me " just don't get up in a hurry, I might topple over ^_^" teeheehee

Only after I sat down did I realise.... that I am sharing a chair with a consultant -_- back to back... my legs were tired having to support my weight.. the next few minutes I was distracted and couldnt concentrate on the case presentation as I tried to decide if I should continue to uncomfortably share the seat with the consultant or stand back up..
Alas, I turned to him and told him " I'm gonna stand up now"...and gave him back his seat..
It was the smartest thing I did that day, because a few minutes later, he voiced out his opinion about the case and I realised all heads turned to look at him.. imagine what it would be like if I was sharing his seat at that time...

Awkward.

Crossing Mount Doom

In the spirit of being in New Zealand, the setting of many LOTR scenes, Chee Mei and I sat through LOTR 1,2, and 3 in 3 days before our adventure in the weekend..

We had a rocky start.. Went to the Jucy car rentals to get our car and discovered we were not going to be rented a car if the driving license is not translated (Grrr) So off we went with our backpacks, with directions to the translator. the road was hilly, and we sweated and grumbled our way through.
With that done, we went back to the car rentals and discovered there were no more gps available!! just rely on maps instead.. Adventure!

Our first target: The Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Distance: 19.4 km(follow the red line)
Something I know i am totally unfit and unprepared for, but it was voted one of the most beautiful, must-do walks in nz.. or the world?I huffed and puffed my way up.. the diagram above depicts the changes in my mood and energy as I go the distance.. notice how the dying faces are at very steep gradients... but the view at the end uplifts my spirits and gave me strength to go on.. afterall, there was no point turning back...
Cant imagine the happiness I felt when I reached the end of the trek :D Relief.
Mount Ngauruhoe.. the supposed mount Doom in LOTR......
Surreal. (or as we malaysians say: Waaa.. Dam fake laaaa)We did not only trek through loose rocks and sandy terrain, but also through snow!
Still cant believe I managed to trek for 8 hours @_@.. How did a tofu like me do it??

White Water rafting: Kaituna River

Kaituna river basically has 3 waterfalls: at 2m, 1m and 7 m respectfully.. 7m!! I have rafted before in Sabah.. but never have I gone down vertically from a 7m waterfall.
Before we started our adventure our guide gave us a few pointers about safety issues. "There are 3 possibilities that could happen when we go down the fall," he said.
"1. The raft falls and lands beautifully, we hold our paddles up and celebrate!
2. The raft overturns and lands upsidedown.. just hold on to the rope and swim out of the overturned raft..
3. The raft falls and lands beautifully, and when we hold out our paddles, we notice one is missing. If you fall out of the raft down the 7m drop, curl into a ball, count to 5 and go to your happy place."

Only when he mentioned the 3rd possibility did i get nervous.

eek.. but we survived and it was amazing fun!!! Some pictures to give you an idea..
Survived and conquered Kaituna! Weee..

Awesome weekend in Rotorua/ Tongariro

In a nutshell, here was what I did in 4 days:
walked/climbed/dragged myself 19.4 km across the Tongariro Crossing, dropped by Lake Taupo, rode the vertical 7 m drop when white water rafting on the Kaituna river, saw and smelled the geothermal area Rotorua is so famous for, learned the culture of the Maori people and ate their food, hot spring bath in the Polynesian spa overlooking Lake Rotorua, Zorbed down the hill like a hamster in a hamsterball (plus water), and felt like hobbit when I visited the Hobbiton shire...
Productive. :)
More, when I get my photos up ;)

Fear me, i have a weapon.

A new weapon have been acquired to extinguish the enemies in my room..
Its the Amazing flygun! kills flies, but does not squish!
even comes with some handy info about the enemy...

Armed and ready to face the enemy...Approaching target....

Target acquired, and locked in:

B A N G !

hello

I get a day off my anaesthesia posting and here I am lying in bed doing nothing.. bliss :) and safe from the horrible scottish weather..
i would like to say i'm wiping off the dust of my long forgotten blog today, but I'm afraid of committing to constantly updating my blog to boring details of my life.. and how do I find the time to blog about uninteresting stuff when i'm in the hospital everyday 8-5 and have to study.. yaya.. whine whine whine..
oh well, its my blog.. I can write anything whenever I want..
Forming sentences kinda give me a false impression that i'm actually doing something with my intellect.. definitely more of a mind work that staring at the screen watching tv dramas

Currently, I am typing this post with background buzzing from the wings of flies hitting against my room window.. they.. yes, they (more than 1 :'( ) mysteriously appear despite my windows and door tightly shut.. nope, there is no sign of rotting flesh/food in my room, although I am afraid of looking into the corners of my room to find a bunch of crawling mag- >_<

I want my holidays back! no use dwelling in the past.. now to look forward to home in october and electives in auckland and melbourne in nov-jan.. have to get past surgery and paeds first..

Goal: get motivated to get back into the wards and study, once I get rid of these flies! (feel so far away from that stage )

Wassaaabi!

Learn Chinese in 5 minutes

Why some do not eat prawns...

"Wh-whats going on?? where am I?? Papa.. where are you?? I'm scared... :("

"I....I... don't wanna get eaten... I'm too young to die!!! Pleaseee.."

"Baby... papa is here.. don't be scared...I'm begging you... please let him go.. he's just a little prawn.."

"I beg of you....!!"

" Please Please Please let me go"

"Noo... don't come any nearer"

"No no no... please have mercy on me..."
"Please.... :'( "

*Slurp*

Blindside

I've been looking for movies to watch.. being away from the movie/cinema world so long, and not seeing movie trailers, its hard to know wats good and whats not. heard about this movie from my aunt..

If there is an inspiring uplifting feel good movie to watch- it has to be 'The Blind side'
Not wanting to spoil this movie, I 'borrowed' a better written synopsis from fandango.com..

A homeless black teenager, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) has drifted in and out of the school system for years. Then Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband, Sean (Tim McGraw), take him in, transforming Michael's life and theirs. With help from his new-found family, tutors and coaches, he realizes his potential as a student and football player.

Kept me glued to the tv, got me wondering in awe about the kindness and generosity humans are capable of and how an act like that can change a life. Watch it ;)

Food diaries 1

I'm writing from Penang, where it is so much hotter than kl *sweating as i am typing this*
Its only the first day here and we've eaten as if we've not eaten in days..
we had lunch in New World Park which my auntie referred to as * waste of space in our stomachs *
Even then, we were full and everyone retired to rattan chairs and beds for a nap...
To compensate for that, my aunt and uncle wanted to take us to amazing assam laksa.. so.. woke my bro up from the rattan chair, and off we went for 2nd round.. it was around 4 pm..
This is in Farlim... It used to be in a stall beside a shell station, hence the name...
y is it so special?
its run by kakak-kakak dari indon! of course, under the supervision of The BoSS... thru CCTV! (notice the round camera on top)
the queues were long.. we had to wait almost 45 mins for the famous assam laksa... boy, was the wait worth it... *drooool*... Can fight with the kek lok si temple wan..
We left for home, feeling drowsy and sleepy.. when we reached home after a detour and an ice cream in Tesco, it was almost 7... Bro couldnt help taking a nap.. so have to wake him up again at 8 for dinner.. I need not tell u how not-hungry we were...

Dinner is at another place worth telling about.. Air Itam...mainly serving seafood.. imagine 6 of us, 8 huge dishes.. that was how much we ate..its amazing how much our stomachs can distend..

My aunt and uncle also told us a story of the almost mystical Anson Road Char Koay Teow Apek who only appears whenever he wants to selling Legendary Char Koay Teow.. If u manage to find his stall set up, u should be soo lucky.. how good is it?
Example 1- My aunt had just finished an 8 course dinner and my uncle had eaten rm 19 worth of bak kut teh (supposed to be for 2).. They were driving by and there was the apek... even though they were full to the brim, they shared a packet.. and had no regrets..

Example 2- My doctor aunt drove by and saw the apek and tapau-ed 10 packets >_<... to be frozen and microwaved whenever she wanted, and claimed that despite that tastes as good....

And here it is.. a CNY surprise... my aunt found him right before he disappeared for his CNY break... tadaaaa.. the famous Anson road apek char koay teow...

But is it really as good as they say it is....? Let my bro find out... Hmm... and the verdict......... Hehe.. need i say more.. (its not a look of horror :P)

YESSSSSS

yeesssssssss.... No more psychiatry!!! from now on its "You are crazee, refer to the psychiatrist". Muaahaha..
Soo looking forward to coming home to hot sweaty malaysia, and leaving behind the most horrible MCQ paper I've ever sat for. ever. Its like i never studied and have to guess, tembak, tikam my way through the paper.

there were 200 questions mcq and T/F to be completed in 1 and half hour..No time to think, just shoot and leave those questions behind..During the paper I was like:
- "Hmmm.. That doesn't sound very right.. I think its B.. or is it C..
maybe i'll go with A *please let it be A, please let it be A*
- "what the....."
- "How many people get prescribed antidepressants in UK..erm.." tikam
- "Oh great.. another psychology question with big words i dun understand" ..shoot
- "mosaicism, translocations, dysjunctions blabla *reads it over 5 times*??" tembak
- "How many increase in percent of risk of schizo if parent is schizophrenic.. erm.. i onli know its increased la.." stab
I was sighing throughout the whole paper, nearly pulling my hair out with frustration with every question i come to..
I looked up to the examination hall.. not the only one.. could see the stress/confusion/frustration filling the room..
Came out of the exam hall stunned..Everyone had the *Wth was that* expression on their face..
Couldnt remember most questions asked and couldnt remember what answers I put cos i was guessing (A or C? A or C? aaaaa.. dunnoooo..A la.. maybe C better... aaaaaaaaa --> like that how to remember wat answer i put?)
sigh. Wish i was a lucky person and got all my tikam-ed answers right.. but no.. I have to be the unlucky one.. even when it comes down to 2 answers to choose i have to choose the wrong one.. sigh.
Viva was better tho, and the end of exams cheered me up alot..
Faster Saturday 4pm! then can fly home!

:P

For your viewing pleasures (when u got some time to waste, which u probably have since u are here reading this :S)

leekophobia

leekophobia: definition- fear of leeks

I've acquired leekophobic recently. I thought it was a good idea to try it out for the first time.. only 69p for 7 stalks.. What a bargain!.. Boy, was I wrong..

Day 1: excited about trying a new vegeStir-fried leek, carrot and mushroom with salmon

Day 2: Still not too bad
Stir-fried leek, carrots and mushrooms with salmon.. Nope, this not a repetetive error, I did eat this 2 days in a row to finish the salmon..

Day 3: Ok, excitement dying down a bit
A boring leek-chicken-mushroom soup and rice.. laziness took over..

Day 4: Hmm.. leek again?Roast drumsticks and (surprise, surprise) leek, carrot, mushroom.. As u have probably guessed already, it was mainly an effort to finish the leek, carrot and mushrooms in my fridge.. this was quite good tho :P

Day 5: No more leek pleeease!Fried spaghetti with chicken, mushrooms, and l e e k.. (i had finished my carrots! yay!)

Day 6: I said no more! >(
Instant korean noodles with l e e k . . ..

Day 7: ENOUGH!!
Last stalk of leek goes into the bin...

Thinking back, it was a bleek leek for me til i finished the weeks.. I mean bleak week for me til I finised the leeks..
No. more. leek.

Ok.. this will be the last few posts (or last, depending how i feel:P) before the dust-collecting begins..

Snow!!!

While everyone is rambling and complaining away about the horrible weather, I nodded in agreement bout how terrible snow (car troubles, traffic jams) is but deeeeep down, I still love it ( I don't have a car, and i don't drive)!

Fort St. Patrick :P at the door of my flat. The snowman was appointed guardian of 27 St. Patrick Square



Wee... I love snow...

This will be the last post before i go home for cny!! weee.. with another 3 weeks before exams and coooold weather, I shall allow another period of dust collecting for my poor blog..