Hi there 2015

Hello 2015!
Still sounds a bit of an alien to the ears. But the coming year is no doubt going to be an interesting one. It's the year of another transition into trainee to registered Dr. :P

Its been a year plus settling in Sibu, found my comfort zone, built up great friendship, support and in my 4th posting of hoship now. Sibu is a great place. :) Great foochow food (cant doubt the foochow blood running in my veins anymore hehe). Seriously loads of good food here. Nothing beats mum's cooking thats for sure, but the hawker food here is great. It's not easy to stay slim in HOship anymore now. haha.

Malas to look retrospectively into 2014, so a retrospect of the past few weeks shall suffice. grins.
Awesome days catching The Hobbit (yes i am a die hard fan), Night at the museum (laughed my head off), Penguins (love the randomness). ok penguins was a bit more far back. hehe. any more upcoming good blockbusters?? (i should stop spending and start saving groans)

Had a awesome trip to Tioman this year with the debaters. And joined a camp with some orang asli folks in Selangor. was truly an eye opening experience.

I guess this year was a year of independence, getting accustomed and maturing as a working adult, financial control?? haha, and being awed by God's work in my life time and again.

Truly grateful for the awesome friends and colleagues I have met over the year. And grateful to the friends who still keep in touch, unwavered by distance separation.

Looking forward to greater things in the coming year.

Let's see if I get to
- Join the Miri jazz festival
- Hop on a trip to Melbourne
- Sit for an exam
- Catch the next Mission Impossible (or rather, any movie with Tom Cruise in it)
- Watch another Ben Stiller movie
- Catch any musical in KL or Spore

hmm that's all of the fun things i can think of atm.

Happy 2015 :)

Walter mitty wha.. what? There's more to it.

Two things inspired the start of my 2014. 1) The secret life of walter mitty. 2) Wong fu profuction's short clip ONE ft Wang Lee Hom

Live life how you want it to be.

Don't hesitate, just do it, take chances.

Take all that comes in your way with a stride of positivity.

Also inspired me to save more $ for travel. 

Iceland

I love Ben Stiller. fan girl scream. :P

uhmazing blue eyes and cool rollerblading

Uhmazing landscape plus ben stiller rollerblading plus inspirational words on a sunburst photo #stating the obvious but can't help it

Entertaining hilarious parts of the movie: fighting over Stretching hercules, the dolphin shark confusion, and yes mountain blessing xD totally made my day. go watch it ! :P

The piano, the cello and a few guys on a cliff

It's always great to be inspired, even better if it were to happen at the start of the day. :P

Listened to an interview with the founders of ThePianoGuys this afternoon. These guys produce really great music (videos). Beautiful compositions that criss cross between classical and modern music genres played on the piano and cello, sometimes the violin. with the grand piano and cello planted and being played on ice, in the middle of the dessert, a cliff, beside a waterfall and even on a moving train. Wow. now who can Not be inspired by that?? ok no my next dream isnt to plant an organ on a cliff :P church organ i mean. pun unintended. xP but when u see ppl doing things they love so much WHile blessing the community with whatever they're doing, it makes you wana get up and do the same. wow i do wish i can play the piano upside down and as brilliantly as John Schmidt... * faraway look.....

one of the key things they shared was that music was something inborn and deeply indented into them. it was stg they loved doing. all 5 of them initially had their own jobs but later on decided to work full time on ThePianoGuys when they realised there was potential in developing it into stg much bigger.

awed...

*snap

so.... err hmmm heheh... what do I love doing in my free time?

tough question. that question that gets the cliché answer at introductory sessions, icebreaking activities etc. the guy who's really good at drawing will say drawing. the girl with the amazing voice will say singing. the girl who bakes awesome cakes will say baking. the avid reader will say reading. and I..... am not actually totally brilliant in any extra curricular areas.... hmmm..... (oh no)

that said since I cant bake/make music/draw/dance/sing amazingly, I cant actually quit medical school and pursue a totally different area of interest. xD

but anw getting back to moderation, to enjoy doing things we love dont necessarily mean we have to be excellent at them i guess. there's a reason the piano guys are so unique. it's bcz not ev1 can do what they're doing. but I guess we can still bless the community or ppl around us with the abilities we have, however limited they may be. :)

I do love to sit at the piano once in a while to play some simple songs, sing a long to whatever i'm playing, strum the guitar at my own pace, playing chords that i'm comfortable with, bake a cake following a random recipe off the internet, read a particular interesting mystery novel, read the jokes off the reader's digest, glue bits and pieces together in a handmade card, blog once in a while when certain thoughts come to mind and photoshop random photos following the step by step manual on websites. definitely not close to being a pro in any of them as u can see. :P

that said, it occurred to me that we can still bless those ard us with the little things we are capable of doing. I've had a fair share of blessings from lovely ppl ard me throughout the past -many- :P years: beautiful handmade cards, drawings, handwritten messages n posts, ppl sharing their experiences, free guitar lessons etc. thank you! xP

Cheers to living life to the max -as much as we possibly can in the circumstances we're in.. :P, doing things we love, enjoying every bit of it and blessing those ard us with them. :D optimistic mode on. ahaha.

somehow this post evolved into stg different from what i initially intended to write on. heheh.

still wish my fingers can glide across piano keys as effortlessly as John Schmidt... sigh..... :))

Had dinner at this place called Quan Ice Cream and Coffee House at Pandan Indah, Ampang for a friend's farewell. They have good ice cream coffee! :)
There's also this coconut ice blended coffee that's pretty good. nice ambience, good pricing- food's about rm7 onwards. coffee's about rm5-7. google them up n u'll easily find them. :)

A Toy Snake Grabbed My Attention

Day 1 of Life in the primary clinics.

Look what I found in one of the rooms :P Ikea product!

Basically experienced the helter skelter of a clinic trying to finish 100+ cases within a morning with patients constantly coming into the room asking if their turns were coming. fooh.... talk about pressure.... (reminds me of the Spine and ophthal Clinic in hukm. tho that was 100+ per day divided among 4 Drs. In the klinik kesihatan it's 100+ per doctor)
As much as I imagined primary healthcare to be a place where patients come to u for anything, any problem, like for anything at all, where they rant out their problems, physical, psycho social issues unlimited, bcz u're the first person in line to meet them before they get filtered out to specialized fields in bigger hospitals if they require more advanced management, it is a far far cry from that.
Basically the doctor tries as fast as she can to diagnose the patient, prescribe and off u go. Next patient. Next. and the next. and the next. U get the idea. In that process, the stack of files of patients waiting in line to see the dr forms a steadily rising mount on the doctor's table.

aaaaanyhow..... lots to read lots to read @.@

Kumar and Clark came over to UKM to promote their latest edition last week. :P

Leaving behind memories from Obgyn with the lovely Dr. Nirmala and Dr. Yuli.
we didnt manage to get a picture with Prof Norzi. Quote: You'll get a photo with me After u pass the professional exams...! Dr. Ng who was there taking a snap with his students declared after she left: Ah... I know all my students will pass.. Ahh.. evilness.. >.<

Ah oops ok study study study lalalalala.....
As we were relatively early (n since we passed by a kopitiam), secretly grabbed breakfast before getting to the clinic today. :D happiness!

On a random note, these cookies are simply supercalifragilisticexpididadocious yums! sheets of honey coated almond flakes. discovered them when I was oncall and one of the nurses offered them to me. Immediately fell in love with them. am I crazy of what xP

And experienced the best of reconciliations yesterday. Felt a huge rock being lifted off my shoulders the moment I said sorry, shed tears of relief and came to good terms again with someone I had wronged. Thank you Lord :)

Weekend Off

It's the end of the week! it's a convocation weekend. was running around getting flowers yesterday for the ppl who have helped me pull through the last 4 years of med school. very happy feeling to see seniors graduate. 1 year ago it was seeing the 2 years of seniors graduate, and thinking about how scary it would be being in final year. but here i am already in it. time flies. at the current moment, would say, it's kinda nice being in final year. not that blur, more trustworthy, able to make sound decisions. all that with still being a student where there're still holidays to kick off the shoes and just chillax in the room or go out shopping or for a movie once in a while :)

my cousin in taiwan got married over this weekend as well. wish i was able to fly to Sibu to witness the ceremony. but flights to Sibu were pricey.. :( this dear cousin is very special to me. very awesome guy with a huge heart. the last time i went to taiwan for my elective posting, it was like my 1st time meeting him n getting to know him. he was so crazily hospitable! n in the midst of his oncalls, being a busy peadiatric registrar, lack of sleep n all, he insisted on driving us around on 3 hour long journeys to tour taipei, jiufen etc. n didnt let us pay for anything. wows. n when my parents went over to taiwan for a week long tour few months back, he used up a day of his leave to bring them around. n we found out that dr.s in taiwan only get like TWO days of leave in a year. WOaw. wow to his hospitality and wow to the crazy working life of drs in taiwan. why do kids in taiwan still wana be drs??? haha ok same question i ask myself now. xP

went to this place called Citrus in Bangsar Village II to celebrate kevin's bday. n mine as well. hehe. show stealer. i'd recommend it. :P it's got a fusion between western n local. i ordered Chicken Tikka R--- apologies. cant rmb the last word. it's got the minty Indian sauce -again apologies for inaccurate description xD with mango salsa with grilled chicken. yums. not oily, great blend of flavours. :D

Mooncake fest was over few weeks back. ok to be more accurate, many many weeks back. Crazy lots of flavours in the market now. :P got to try some nice ones.

Convocation! that time of the year. My senior buddy ee see, now a Dr. Chen. :D beams.

 The buddy line of 2nd year to the graduated senior. :)

Life saving LG with dear siaw khing @ Dr. Sia :)

n now, on to Family Medicine posting. clinics clinics clinics! :)

n i owe myself a shopping escapade. hehe.

Awesome Talent

An Awfully talented dude who's a songwriter/producer/singer and a great sense of humour. David Choi <3

He writes about friendship, love, life - all things that are meaningful and that you can relate to in your daily encounters. different from most songs you hear on the radio nowadays that's centred on crazy stuff.
His music also covers different genres, there's sentimental, upbeat, a bit of pop, rap, etc. and bcz he self produces all the songs, he plays any instrument you can think off. piano, violin, guitar-electric, classical, banjo, ukelele (i'm fazed already). I found out about him from the WongFuProductions videos cz he produces most of their video background music.

Check out his Youtube channel! (if u're not in the midst of exams. addiction forewarned) :P

youtubing

my current craze via youtube:
WongFuProductions
http://www.youtube.com/user/WongFuProductions?feature=watch

they have a store areyouaniceguy.com
and this is simply just so adorableeeeeeee!!!! *squeeeeeeee!!*

-pic taken frm their website

exam in 2 weeks. so not ready. tralalalalala lalalala... sigh..

anw check them out. pretty interesting stuffs :)

This is my roll, how about yours?

2011 came and went. i wouldnt say it passed in a snap of fingers. it did feel like a long way. :) but looking down memory lane was fun. ending 3rd year in mid 2011 and reaching mid of 4th year at the end of 2011 makes it a wee bit harder to start 2012 with much new resolutions. but thr're much I am thankful for. :D

working with my best buddies, people in amsa and great family medicine dr.s and presenting our papers in eamsc, fmsc and the public health conf.

experiencing new culture and practices in a 3 week elective posting in Taiwan.

exploring new places with great buddies. from tanjung karang for public health posting, teluk intan, bangkok, the universal studios, spore to jb and segamat, taiwan, kuantan, seremban, borneo highlands and penang. each one an adventure of its own with great memories.

growing spiritually as i try out and take up more responsibilities in the church and life group. experiencing more of God in my ups and downs, trusting in His plans and in Him to deliver me. 

meeting new friends, relatives and acquaintances through amsa, elective posting, conferences and in church.

being exposed to new medical postings and gaining more perspective on medical issues. 

it was fun, maturing and enriching. :) every journey is a learning path.

2012's gonna involve getting through final year - which kinda scares me, but feels pretty enticing as well,

i havent decided what to do in my next 2 month break if i pass peads n ortho, maybe a small trip and volunteering in an NGO. :P 

Year 2012 is the Year of the Holy spirit. 

God is moving churches towards the prophesying movement. and we need to be still and to be sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. the new year goes into reading more christian books to increase my understanding of the work of God. when one is able to discern the work of the Holy Spirit and put their trust in God to do as He has prompted us, things work out more effectively and bear fruits. :) I want to grow in this area.

Happy 2012!

The World Celebrates

This is just a way to shout out that:

Yes i watched the whole 6 hours of the wedding's live telecast on tv.

Yes i am in love with the whole fairy tale image thing

Yes i think Will is good looking and Kate is really beautiful and stunning

Yes the world needs something good to celebrate about in unity in the midst of the reality of poverty, war, political distress in many countries.

Yes i'm all in with the Britons declaring that i love this royal couple.

Will and Kate forever!

its a hype but a really lovely one.

who's up for roller coasters?

the adrenaline rush when u strap urself to the seat,

the increasing wild palpitation in ur chest as the train snails up slowly up the slope..... to a halt.

POUND POUND POUND

u brace urself

then

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ur internal organs feel non existent

the plunge is never ending

u feel like u'll fall off the seat anytime

when it kinda slows down a little, suddenly u're twisted sharply to ur right

and to ur left

a camera flashes (great. ugly photo >8S)

another plunge down the never ending slope of terror

up down left right twist loop de loop small plunges that make ur stomach lurch

suddenly it slows down

and its all over.

u come down with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

GRINS.

i dont have much of an experience to make a good comparison of roller coasters. but i enjoy riding on them. :)

have so far rode on

1. Berjaya Times Square's indoor theme park's

2. Genting Highlands cyclone and another-i-4got-the-name

3. Spore Universal Studio's Mummy Train Ride (i think it has a cooler name but i 4got), Human and Cylon

and Cylon wins hands down as most thrilling, exciting and full of surprises.

its an inverted roller coaster where the seats attach to the rail on the top rather than run on tracks. so it leaves ur legs dangling from ur seat.

has i think 2 loop de loops (360 degree turns) and gas effects along the way.

its the blue 1 in this picture. the red 1 is Human which runs on tracks and has plunges so steep i didnt have the nerve to go on it another time.

those were the highlights of the universal studios trip. which burnt a hole in my pocket. but was definitely worth it!

some pictures of my trip down south right after the grueling exams. Grueling not bcz it was really stressful. but bcz it stretched over 1.5 wks. which i guess is nothing compared to the other health science students who's exam stretches over 3 whole weeks :S

paper-paper-celebration-break -- paper-celebration-break -- paper-paper-celebration :D

i guess having 3 after exam celebrations for an exam lasting just 1.5 weeks is kinda.. overrated? that probably isnt an accurate description but u get what i mean. :P

Chocolate Souffle at the Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar at the Esplanade Mall. S$16. we all shared. u'd want to cz its extremely rich -no kidding- and pretty pricey. if u're a huge chocolate fan, its worth the try. the little mug on the right is a Hug Mug, called so cz of the shape. u can cup ur hands ard it for some chocolate warmth. :P

the New York theme of Universal Studios.

Egypt

Jurassic Park. This baby Triceratops is adorable. it can even lick ur hands. or bite?

with the hot Egyptian guy and girl.

Donkey from Shrek

night view while sitting by the lake waiting for the fireworks display.

awesome fireworks display. this 1's my favourite. the 5 balls of fire were just there rotating round and round with little sparks flying out.

stayed at the Footprints Backpacker's Hostel in Little India. i highly recommend this place :P cz its clean, has a nice atmosphere and interior designing and most importantly cheap. RM30 per pax per night.

met Carmen who's studying in NTU. thx for the awesome shopping expedition in Bugis! :D none of the girls left Bugis empty handed. hehe.

and the trip cont journeying up to JB. stayed at Tune Hotels. comfortable and cheap. also recommended. :) met Christine and Zara!

and went further up to Segamat bunking in at Shalisha's place. Her mum cooks really well.

chappati for breakfast!

met up with lovely qi wen who also stays in Segamat. thx for the treat!

laughed ourselves silly playing carrom at Sha's place. above is the sequence to who managed to flick a piece into the net. we look so happy here bcz the game was getting depressing cz either our targets were never accurate, the pieces were either jumping across the board or we were scoring for our opponent :S

oops sorry for the extreme deviation from roller coasters to my post exam trip. :P was an experience of tests, horror, thrills and fun altogether.

having 2 weeks of hols back home now :D Kuching oh Kuching.

and will be heading to taiwan for elective posting for 3 wks. any1 searching for elective posting options can consider the tzu chi hospital in hualien, tw. relatively cheap as its subsidized and a hospital that has very established palliative care and traditional medicine departments.

definitely high time for me to brush up on my Mandarin. hehe.

of awesome-ness-es

its an awesome day today!!!

even tho i had 5 hours of sleep.

n dozed off a gazillion times in between the 2 lectures this morn.

n STill felt sleepy after that...


BUT

had an awesome clinical class today!


AND>>> checked my email AND>>>>


zoom in.


H1N1 negative!!!!!!!!!! waahhahahahha.....

altho it doesnt reli matter whether i was or wasn't positive for H1N1, it stil feels totally cool receiving a private email from the CDC of Taiwan telling u u're H1N1 negative in chinese. :D :D

-even tho the only word i can read in that mail is, 'H1N1' and 'negative'. and a few random words here n thr..

:D :D :D