no time.. so im doing this on blogger
today marks the end of the first week of school - a week that quickly removed notions that I was still on holiday. we've more or less completed renal physio - in less than a week! Ching Hui says that if we go this fast for all physio topics, we could prob take the exams in like the first term of school. (just that we would all fail though)
today was also the date of the highly anticipated biking event with SAVH (singapore assoc for visually handicapped) it was an interesting concept, pairing ppl up with the visually impaired on bikes! sad to say, though it was supposed to be a cip event, my exposure to the latter was minimal. (due to me being HAMCHI as keyi called it) it could be a lack of confidence in my biking skills that led me to take up simply a solo rider position. although i reached home rather late (11+) it was a worthwhile event - being able to help ppl and have fun at the same time!
completely unrelated to this: i have no new year resolutions this year. but i hope i can reduce the amt of mugging, pick up new hobbies, w/o making too much of an adverse impact on my grades. my aim this year is prob just do the best i can. (i do have a academic target.. haha but this may change during the course of this year)
meanwhile i shall try to have some fun/really learn malay until i can carry out a proper conversation in it b4 the frantic rush for mugging begins in full force again in a few weeks time. meanwhile just be consistent and i will do just fine :)

Operation Theatre 2 – just great!

The staging of OT2 at the end of the holidays provided a chance for the OG to meet up for the only outing it had for the entire holidays. A bit sad leh. Fortunately for us the show was really quite good (much better than expected for me) and supporting the few friends (raymond, woon li, hanyang and Sheila) that were performing in it really made the ticket price worth it. (Though the 2 dollar booklet on the musical wasn’t) To be honest, I really didn’t know that so many of my classmates were performing or I would have been much more enthusiastic about the musical.

Kudos to Julia for organising the dinner! I think most of us would have been too lazy to plan a meeting if not for her… Finding NYDC was difficult - I went almost an entire round around holland v before I spotted it, with 3 ppl waving from inside at me. LOL. Julia, christina and TW were having dessert apparently. Till now the health freak in me still doesn’t understand how they accept dessert for dinner!

As I sat there a bit awkwardly for a while, we chatted a bit about hols and stuff. People kept arriving and our group to a size of 9 ppl. (yinghui, yueyen, glen, elizabeth and charlene arrived later) I suddenly realised how long I haven’t seen everyone alr! Most people seemed to have rather exciting holidays, going overseas and meeting loads of friends. In comparison after sydney I sort of was cooped at home for quite a bit, except the occasional gatherings (flutes outing, CODA, ttsh), the frequent ventures to borders and the library, and family outings. Really quite sian lehz. Must start planning what to do for the 4 month hols, or I’ll die of no life!!!
I digress. So after paying rather exhorbitant prices for dinner, flowers were bought at the friendly holland v florist (who gave us a discount  - sorry im quite a miser). Rushed to catch the 95, reached UCC just in time for the performance! Whoops, but the performance started 20 mins late, so we were in effect early haha.

Basically here’s the plot as I saw it (warning – spoilers! Not that you can watch it after today though) It starts with 4 new medical students being welcomed to their brand new life in medicine by their school dean. They are introduced to William Osler, Harvey Cushing, Joe Average and Florence Nightingale, (presumably deceased), and the musical brings us back in time to tell their story. Osler is the guy whose future is already laid out brightly in front of him as his dad was a medical superstar. Cushing is this jittery guy who provides lots of laughs as the resident nerd. He is ostracised at first, but eventually plays a pivotal role at the end of the play. Joe Average is the son of a Bak Kwa Seller who aspires to be the greatest doctor of all time. Florence Nightingale is the kindly nurse, girlfriend of Joe Average and best friend of Claire, a patient of the hospital who is victim to multiple sclerosis. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s play their roles to great comic effect. (guess everyone has their weaknesses)

Part one is basically about the troubles the fledging students face in school and in the wards, and in the lecture halls. William, frustrated by the lack of patient interaction even at year 3, is the sole figure fighting bureaucracy and red tape (unsuccessfully of course). His comments to the lecturer and the bureaucrats go unnoticed. William and Joe, originally the best of friends, fall out as opposing views emerge about how to pursue their futures. William wants to change the system (by appealing to the school); Joe wants to beat the system. While William is convinced that more ward work is necessary for them to become better doctors, Joe is apathetic about his patients, and focuses more on treating the disease without curing the patient. I think Sheila made appearances here and there, but her heavy makeup prevented me from recognising her here! Woon li was great here playing the middle aged lady who loses her left leg to diabetes.

In part two a mysterious disease (that had been affecting neighbouring nations for ages) finally hits Singapore. Raymond (acting as a medical student) dies of it halfway through class to dramatic effect! Medical students are enlisted to help in the hospitals. Joe Average breaks the rules, skipping a hand hygiene lesson to contact patients directly to gain advantage over his classmates. But his ambition proves his downfall as he contracts the contagious disease himself. William Osler finds it difficult to visit his ex-best friend, but eventually finds the courage to. A cure to the mysterious disease is found, but limited supply means that Joe must choose between himself, and a fellow patient (a single mother who has to raise 3 children by herself). Interestingly, the audience is made to decide for themselves “Joe’s Choice”.

And the play ends, to rousing applause. I don’t think I could have found a better way to spend the evening (:

I’ve made it a habit to type my posts on microsoft word first to facilitate editing.

The life of a househusband/maid/home helper – first hand!!

Past 2 weeks have been a blur. Nothing significant happened, just spent lots of family time with my parents (and sis) doing HOUSEWORK. With the maid on leave for Christmas and the new year, I had quite a bit of adjustment to do regarding my roles and responsibilities in the house. Haha. Like washing the dishes for example. Cleaning up after my dog. And generally maintaining household cleanliness. Though I HAD done area cleaning before in NS, I was a bit surprised to discover the amount of work that had to be done daily (which I remained oblivious to normally). Some days were spent entirely at home, sometimes alone when my parents and sis were both out, but most of the time they were around and there were family bonding sessions of sorts when we prepared dinner for example. Tried and tested recipes included beef steak (with mushroom sauce) which was my dad’s specialty (though the last time he tried cooking it was TEN YEARS ago) and microwave potatoes (which was my specialty, and a disaster). Mainly I was in charge of microwaving stuff, and though most of the things turned out okay (like reheating meat for Christmas dinner), stuff like reheating baguette and yes, potatoes, remains a mystery to this day.

[Just how bad? I had second thoughts about giving my dog GORDON the microwaved bread because I was afraid it would break his teeth. ]

Haha. Luckily the bread didn’t cost much, and I think we’ll just stick to unmicrowaved, but softer bread for the time being.

My maid’s still not home, but looking back, I thought the cooking bit was quite interesting and fun for the whole family.

New’s Year’s Eve (31 Dec 07)

Went to watch National Treasure with my sis. Nice movie with cool action sequences and impossible plot twists. Makes me wonder how much of it is even TRUE (which I suspect is almost nothing.) But enjoyable nontheless.

I dunno why, but I rather enjoyed the quiet evening at home on new year’s eve. Dad repeated his beef steak dinner (which was rather good, I’d say, though my standards aren’t very high) and the night was whiled away watching tv and listening to music. (CCTV broadcasted a surprisingly good new year’s concert featuring a stellar group of soloists performing with the national chinese orchestra. Sadly, the sound system was rather bad, and funny noises kept marring the music)

As I went to bed, I kept wondering what happened to my new year’s resolutions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!