Two most excellent movies!

Had Wednesday arvo off courtesy of my fantastic reg! Unfortunately could not go home early cos had given a lift to medical student friend doing a term at Bankstown Women's Clinic and she didn't finish till 5pm. So to kill time, decided to watch a movie. Wanted to watch Inside Man or V for Vendetta but Inside Man was the only one with an afternoon session and it was at Liverpool. So drove 10 mins west and found Westfield quite easily. Had fish and chips for lunch at the food court and then moved my car before making it just in time for the 2pm Inside Man session. I was one of about 5 patrons at that session, which had no trailers or adverts so that we were all sitting staring at a black screen for around 20mins! Movie itself was pretty good, very clever but not altogether unpredictable. Afterwards had a few minutes to spare before my 3 hrs of free parking time ran out so decided to check out the Sanity there to see if I could use up a $30 gift voucher I had. Ended up getting first season of Gilmore Girls, which was $59.99 so I only paid half hehehe =P

Yesterday night saw V for Vendetta with Jon at Randwick Ritz. Couldn't believe there was still a huge line to see it despite it being out for so long! What a totally awesome movie!!! Right from V's first words I was captivated by this mysterious crusader:
"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." -- V's introduction to Evey

Never knew there were so many words starting with V! Having being to London and knowing something about Guy Fawkes (they still celebrate Nov 5th with commemorative bon fires all over England!), this movie really captured my interest! The whole big brother theme was really interesting as well - to think how easily a government could subdue and control the lives of its citizens through fear and propaganda and that it's been done so many times before! Didn't entirely understand some parts of the movie...will have to watch it again for sure! Wachowski brothers - take a bow!

Metrogaine 2006!

What is Metrogaine 2006 you ask??? It's an Amazing Race style event run by Christian Chinese Church, Milson's Point and I took part in it for the first time this year! In my team of 4 were Paul, Lok and Kenneth! We adorned our red and yellow ninja headband/tie team colours and soon the race started with a mintie search around the church grounds to get our first clue!

Our first checkpoint was Bondi Junction where I drew on knowledge from local resident Carmen to find the Darrell Lea there! Got our next clue/task and from there went to Waverly St Mall to do a Weetbix challenge! We got there first and Paul took up the challenge to down 2 weetbix without water! Soon we were on our way to Edgecliff Station and Rushcutters bay where another array of tasks awaited us including team tug-o-war, golf, and pingpong ball chopstick challenges! At this stage we were roughly in 3rd place!

The next stop was the War Memorial in Hyde Park in the city. Tasks there included taking funny photos with strangers and doing various poses! Next we headed to the nearby Botanical Gardens in search of the names of various trees we were given pictures of. The next checkpoint is where we lost time as Paul, Lok and Kenneth headed off in search of it, whilst I finished off the tree spotting task. I found it pretty quickly but they practically ran all around the gardens before finally meeting me at the correct place! Tasks here included soccer and a 'cyclone relay', which I shall never forget! It involved us running around a soccer ball 30 times, the end of which we each in turn felt nauseous and couldn't stop falling over! Moreover, I soon developed intractable cramps in both calves from dehydration and muscle strain from the cyclone so again our team was slowed down as my team mates searched for a store selling Powerade/Gatorade!

Limped all the way to the next stop, Circular Quay, from which we were directed to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. Finally the finish line was opposite CCC and we checked in in 13th place. Not bad all things considered!!! After all the pts were added up from the puzzles and tasks, we ended up in 9th place (out of about 30 teams!) Was good to sit down and enjoy sausage sizzle after running all over Sydney all day!

So the verdict: awesome race - will do it again next year and will remember to bring Powerade/Gatorade! My legs are so sore!!! (>-<) Looks like I'll be limping around hospital for the next couple of days...!

Bludgy week...yet again!!! =P

Had a relaxing family oriented Easter this year! Spent Good Friday hanging out at Queenie's place! Brought my N64 over to play her favourite game Bomberman but ended up playing Dysnasty Warriors 4 on PS2 all arvo!!! A really fun 2 player coop game where you basically go around slashing and hacking bad guys up with special combos and super moves! Really easy to play and you do awesome combos just by hitting the same button! I think I wanna get a PS2 now just for that game!!!

Spent Saturday at home mostly and took Aunty from Malaysia and cousin out to dinner in Kensington. Sunday...hmm woke up late, can't really remember what I did till church at 5pm...then when over to cousin Joe and his newly wed Isabel's place in Victoria Park, Zetland. Really nice apartment and really nice food! Isabel is Korean so she whipped up this awesome spicy squid dish that we all couldn't get enough of!!!

Monday went with parents and Aunty to visit Taiwanese family friends. Went out for Yum Cha in Burwood - not bad! Then spent most of the afternoon at Taiwanese family friend's place where I was subjected to 3 hours of listening to grown ups chatting in Mandarin and not understanding much of it! Seemed rude to fall asleep on the couch so had to seem like I was vaguely understanding the conversation when most of the time I was day dreaming! Man - really need to learn another language!!!

This week was just as bludgy as last week!!! And because my reg was around, he told me to leave early on Wednesday and today! Still, don't know why this 4 day week kinda seemed longer than it should have...maybe cause I didn't have much to do and time was passing slower each day...??? Anyway shouldn't complain cos had two half days off practically!

Ah I love respiratory med - minimum workload/stress, maximum time off!!! Now what about that PS2...?!

Paid to relax!

What a relaxing week!!! Despite having worked last Sunday, cos we weren't on take last weekend, for most of the week I only had between 4 to 6 patients to look after! For the first time in my 12 weeks of work so far, I found myself wondering what on earth to do with my 8 hours at work each day. My reg was off sick Mon - Wed so I was "reg-less" but it also meant that all I had to do was keep the patients alive until my reg or consultants came back/around. This effectively meant plenty of time in the RMO room reading newspapers, surfing the net, and doing sudoku (which I recently discovered during a week of nights!). Unlike some places, we aren't fortunate enough to have an x-box or other luxuries... Managed to take some naps though and when I wasn't sleeping, I was giving viva tutes to my first medical student!

Today my reg was back and I got an early mark for the first time, leaving at 3pm! Yay! It was nice getting home before dark and not feeling so wasted! Went out for dessert with Themis, James, and Kenny at Asian dessert place in Kingsford. Had nice sago dessert there! Mmmm =P

No plans as of yet for long weekend...but one thing's for sure...will get plenty of precious sweet refreshing no-need-to-get-up-quickly sleep!!!
(^-^) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sunday - just another day...?

La di da di da...Find myself here once AGAIN at hospital on a Sunday - second weekend in a row... =( When you work 6 days a week, not only does the week seem super long, but you kinda lose track of what day it is! Been here an hour and a half and since my pager went off 2 mins after I got it from the night MO, it hasn't gone off again since...*fingers crossed*!

Oh oh oh - got my Word store order in the mail on Friday - Switchfoot the early years 3 CD set comprising their first 3 albums, and the EMU live 2 CD, recorded at last year's TWIST Music Conference I was at! More music to listen to on the way to work...!

Had a really relaxing Saturday! Met up with Themis, Mary and Sus in the city and had lunch at the Malay Chinese Restaurant on Castlereigh St opposite the MLC centre. Had the usual curry laksa - mmm mmm sooooooooo good! Still undoubtedbly the best in Sydney! Then went for coffee/milkshake at a cafe in the Strand Arcade. So full after all that milk! Spent the rest of the arvo window shopping in the city. Didn't realise how much there actually is in the city! All those underground walkways are lined with shops...no wonder people like shopping in the city!

Got a lift home with Themis and caught up on last week's tv watching Lost, Prisonbreak, and ER with Jon. Then played a bit of C&C Generals before hitting the sack in anticipation of today's hopefully-not-too-hectic-shift! So here I am again on a Sunday...just another day at work!

Sooooooooooooooo Tired!!!!!

Have had a looooonnnnng week so far!!! Seems like the weekend won't come fast enough! Last Sunday's shift was alright...not as busy as my first weekend Saturday shift last term but still, 16 hours is 16 hours!!! Felt totally buggered by Monday arvo when I had worked 24 hrs out of the last 32 hrs - just wanted to sleep forever!

At least my new respiratory term is heaps less busy than my last aged care term! Only have about 10 patients on the list, which is already below my all time low of 11 patients in aged care and today my reg told me to go home after lunch!!! Couldn't though cos had to give a friend a lift home after 5pm... maybe another day though!

Working this Sunday again... =( gonna be another looooonnnnng week! But hey...easter's just round the corner - then I'll be able to eat, sleep, eat sleep... =)

End of Term 1 as an intern!

Finished my Aged Care term this week!!! Sadly I'm also doing my last overtime of the term today =( but so far pager hasn't gone off so have time to type this!!!

Yeah it was kinda sad finishing up on Friday with Aged Care, but also kind of a relief! Our patient load I think was about to sky rocket and I think I bailed at just the right time! Sad though cos I had a super nice reg and two really really supportive consultants who were super super nice! I really think it's the people you work with that makes all the difference to whether or not you enjoy the term, rather than what the actual term is itself. I had a good team and hence a good term! Really feel I've come a long way from orientation week when I was feeling nauseous half the time and wondering how on earth I was gonna cope!

Friday night we went out to our end of term RMO dinner at Golden Century Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown!!! Carpooled with Jaz and got there surprisingly on time at 8pm after we scored a super duper park at central! We were like the 5th and 6th people there. The others already there were residents. Soon more people came and coincidentally my reg for next term and his wife sat next to me! He seems really cool and over the course of the night we seemed to have plenty to talk about and common interests! Looks like it's gonna be another good term! After dinner went to Havana on Oxford st and crashed the combined party of Liverpool, Concord, POW, and St George I think! Stayed till around 12.30am by which time I think I was half deaf and seriously losing my voice!

Yesterday went out to Flemington Markets with family and then to Temasek, a Malaysian restaurant at Parramatta for lunch. Really really yummy food!!!!! Came back mid arvo and bummed around at home until dinner, which was at Angewa's place. She cooked up another Iron-Chef-Angewa extravaganza (by our standards anyway!!!) and it was great catching up with med friends from other hospitals! Got home late again and thank goodness for day light saving ending meaning I got an extra hour of sleep!

Okey dokey...let's see what this day brings...!