Peekaben (^-^)

Snowy Mountains Getaway!!!

2008-01-02T19:51:00.012+11:00

G'day everyone! Sorry for not writing for a while! The end of last year was pretty hectic with work in ED, carols and Christmas services at church and so forth! It was a nice break then to go away over the New Year period to the Snowy Mountains!

On 29th December, we set off on our roadtrip leaving from Josh's 1st birthday party! Our troupe included Yoke, Sel, Andrew, Di and I! We left mid afternoon and headed down the M5 towards Canberra. It was weird driving past Campbelltown and not making that Narellan Rd turnoff...and yet SUCH a good feeling! We were on another adventure!!!

We reached Canberra in the late afternoon and checked into our Formule 1 hotel on the outskirts of the nation's capital! That evening we had dinner in Dickson at a local Thai place. Then we checked out Parliament House by night! The following morning we went back to Dickson to stock up on groceries for our trip from Woolies and the local chinese supermarket yeah!

Our drive that day took us south of Canberra to Cooma where we had a lunch break. Bought my inflatable camping mat there and after a picnic lunch, we headed on to Jindabyne! The lake was inviting with its shades of blue and green and the heat was sweltering! After checking out the information centre we entered Kosciuszko National Park and checked in at Kosciuszko Mountain Retreat camping/caravan park! We found our plot of land and pitched our tents! It was my first camping experience in a long long time and I was rather excited about it!

That afternoon we went on a 5km walk from the campsite towards the river where we had left one car. The walk provided nice views of the valley! That night we had yummy Mee Goreng with dumplings for dinner before calling it a night!

On New Year's Eve, we woke up early and drove to Charlotte's Pass to the start of the Main Range Track walk, a 22km circuit walk! It was hot and there were quite a few other people doing the track. It started with a nice descent towards a creek but soon we were climbing the other side of the valley and the heat and flies were already getting to us! That's when I remembered that I had an umbrella in my back pack and out it came baby - mobile shade! What a relief! I stopped whinging and whining and began to enjoy the walk somewhat!

After walking about 5km, we reached Blue Lake, a lake formed by glacial movements! It was weird to see ice in places despite it being so hot!!! We walked down towards the lake and had our packed lunches near a stream flowing from the lake.

After lunch we plugged on and climbed peaks and descended into valleys and enjoyed the spectacular views of the Great Dividing Range! We battled flies which seemed to follow us in a perpetual cloud and with weary legs we pushed on! Every drink stop was a welcome relief but soon we were running out of water and had to ration it! That's when Di and Andrew thought it'd be a good idea to fill up their water bottles with some ice from one of those ice patches! They filtered out the dirt and bugs and hey presto - it tasted kinda good!

Refreshed, we pushed on and soon were climbing the pinnacle to Mt Kosciuszko itself! At the top of Australia, we enjoyed 360 degree views and the satisfaction of knowing that it was only downhill from there!

However, soon dark storm clouds began rolling in and we decided it'd be wise to start heading back as we still had a good 7km from that point to the car! As we descended the hillside it started to hail!!! Out came my trusty umbrella again and we kept walking towards the sanctuary of a half built block of toilets nearby as pebble sized hailstones pelted down!

Thankfully the storm abated rather quickly and with the sun setting, we made quick work of the easy downhill firetrail back to the car. We reached the car around 7pm and boy was it nice to sit down and rest those weary legs! That night we celebrated NYE with a Tom Yum steamboat and some wine! We were so tired that we decided not to stay up to see the new year in but instead played with some sparklers to celebrate!

The next morning we packed up and checked out to begin our drive back home. It was a leisurely drive back but an unforgettable experience! Can't wait till our next trip!!!

"How come you have so much holidays?!!!"

2007-12-07T20:41:00.000+11:00

This is a question I have been asked countless times this year. The same thought runs through my head each time I get asked it - "I don't know, but thankyou Bankstown Hospital!!!"

Have just finished another 2 weeks of annual leave and this is how I've spent it:

Nov 24th - BBQ at Di's parents' place - my family came along.

Nov 26th - Dropped Jon to airport, parked my car in Mascot, caught a bus back to the airport to see him off - no money for you Macquarie Bank - Yeah! Di was 'sick' so I took her for a therapeutic drive to the Shire to do a spot of remedial shopping at Miranda Westfield and show her where I grew up!

Nov 27th - Went to fish markets with my cous and her friend from Melb. Did admin stuff.

Nov 28th - Went to Blue Mountains for a day trip with cous, her friend and Paul. Played tour guide taking them to Wentworth Falls, Three Sisters and Leura. Made it back to Sydney in time for BS social at Andrew's place - nice and intimate with just Andrew, Hsiang, Sus, Di and I!

Nov 29th - Had lunch with Jimbo and his sister at BJ Westfield! Met a very cute girl! That evening had a BBQ at the townhouse. Di's cous came over.

Nov 30th - Dec 2nd - Evening church houseparty at Galston Gorge! Got a ride up with Andrew after helping him load all the sound and music gear into his filthy tarago! Drive was nice and we were amongst the first ones there. Can't believe it's been a whole year since last HP! We had a devotion led by Simon on 'hope' on Friday night. On Saturday we had 2 talks on understanding our times, a bible study and free time! Weather was lousy this year so spent it indoors playing b'ball and soccer. After dinner it was time for compulsory fun! Wilson's group did a cool iron chef competition type thing! I was in a group with Andrew, Amy, Joe, Susanna, Carl, and Colleen - we won!!!

Dec 3rd - Dec 7th - Mostly spent at home during the day preparing for carols and doing other random admin/wedding stuff plus watching Foxtel (dad got it for the free 1 month trial!) and dvds! Had 2 music rehearsals on Tues and Thurs nights for carols. Had breakky with Carmen and Jimbo on Thursday at Brighton Le Sands and Ricky Ponting walked in for breakky! Watched The Heartbreak Kid today - dodgy movie man! - almost lost my wallet and got drenched in a storm!

All in all a busy but relaxing holiday! Soooooooooo not looking forward to going back to work but hey, only 3 weeks till my next week off...! hehehe =P

Busy November!

2007-11-18T11:58:00.000+11:00

Hey hey!

Ok haven't been blogging for a while now and I don't quite know why that is... Let's work out why!

Work - have been doing heaps of stupid shiftwork. Finished paeds at Bankstown at the end of October and have started ED at Campbelltown. Campbelltown is alright...just far! Takes on average an hour each way but one time it took me 1hr 45mins to get home after a night shift!!! Good thing is, I have no more rostered night shifts...ever!!! C'mon!!!!!!!!!!!! Campbelltown ED is actually ok - better staffed than Bankstown and I feel more supported.

Wedding - ok...preps have been coming along slowly but surely. Church, reception, photographers, honeymoon airfares, bridal gown and bridesmaids dresses have been sorted! Things pressing at the moment include invites, my suit and beginning work on the order of service etc.

Church - evening church houseparty and carols by candlelight coming up!!! Organising music for both so busy busy busy!!!

Play - man I need more of this!!! Thankfully have 2 weeks of holidays coming up after this coming week! Yay!!!

From the River to the Sea...

2007-10-05T16:48:00.000+10:00

Just had the last week off and boy has it been relaxing!

Got off night shifts on Monday morning and set off on another adventure with some friends from church! We headed down south to Stanwell Tops and the scenic cliff drive for a Labour Day day away! The sun was shining and although half asleep for most of it, it was so nice to be outside enjoying the great weather for once! We found a nice small beach near Austinmer and I enjoyed a nap on the sand in the shade whilst the boys went for a dip. Afterwards, we headed to Thirroul for lunch and another nap on a nice patch of grass! Alas the day couldn't last forever and we headed back to Sydney, longing for the next public holiday!

Spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing some admin stuff, some laundry (have to fend for myself with mum and dad gone overseas!), and other random errands. Had dinner with Di and 2 of her workmates on Tuesday night and on Wednesday night saw Miss Saigon with Di's brother and sister in law at Star City's Lyric Theatre! It was awesome! Hadn't seen it before and never heard the music but it was quite moving!

On Thursday, spent the day with Teng! We ventured out of the eastern suburbs up north this time to Thornleigh for some Malaysian cuisine and yummy cendol at Makan @ Alice's! Then drove up to Brooklyn and hired a tin boat out on the Hawkesbury for 2 hours! It was awesome cruising around the river and we found a nice little spot to drop anchor and kick back to enjoy the water view and a ginger beer! After returning our boat for the arvo, we stopped off at Chatswood on the way home and did a spot of shopping. Also grabbed some dinner at the foodcourt - my favourite atm, fish burger! - before heading home to watch Notting Hill on dvd!

Today mum and dad returned from Malaysia! Brought back all sorts of goodies! Alas, I have to work tomorrow but man, it's been a great week!!!

Sweet September!

2007-09-24T14:14:00.000+10:00

Another month goes by and I haven't blogged in ages!

Highlights of September for me was my trip to Albury to visit Jon, followed by the APEC weekend trip to Port Stephens with some mates from church!

Visited Jon in the first week of September when he was studying for his paeds and O&G exam. Flew down on a Monday and got picked up by Jon at the airport. Spent much of that day resting whilst Jon attended a tute as I was still recovering from my week of night shifts! The following 2 days, we studied together, saw some kids together at hospital, and played tennis for free! And all too soon Thursday came about and it was time to head home!

That Thursday, I travelled from Albury all the way to Mt Kurringgai by plane, car, bus and train! After returning to Sydney, I had a quick stopover to check out our new townhouse cos we finally got the keys! Then headed by bus and train up north to visit Di who was in hermit mode studying for her CA exam at her parents' place. The next day, a bunch of mates from church picked me up from Mt Kurringgai and we were off to Port Stephens for the APEC weekend!

Chris and Pete drove and immediately we got lost, joining the freeway in the direction headed back to Sydney! Half an hour later we were back on track on the F3 towards Newcastle! The drive was nice and we reached Port Stephens around 1:30pm or so! The sun was shining as we headed to Nelson's Bay to grab some lunch - fish and chips of course!

After lunch we picked up the keys to the house we were renting and went to check it out! It was located not too far from Nelson's Bay in Salamander Bay and near by the water! We unpacked our gear only to find the real estate agent had given us the wrong keys! Half an hour later, we had collected the right keys and we entered to find ourselves in a huge 5 bedroom place with pool, fireplace, and all the amenities necessary for a great weekend!

We spent the arvo going for a walk along the bay and enjoyed watching the sunset near a Peppers Retreat resort! Then we returned to the house and cooked up a storm!

The next day we got up around 10am and headed to the sand dunes! The weather wasn't great but the sun came out! Initially we were going to sand board but the sand was still wet from rain the night before so we came up with our own entertainment instead! This consisted of rolling ourselves down the sand dunes in all manner of combinations including a 4 person sideways roll down a steep sand dune!

A highlight of the day was one friend jumping off a small dune, landing on her feet halfway down the dune and then being carried forward by her momentum to end up with her face planted in the sand! Unfortunately didn't get this on video but there were 9 witnesses!

After being worn out at the dunes, we headed home and got changed for the Snow Patrol concert! 4 of us headed to Newcastle for the concert at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre! After a 45 min drive, we found the place and had a dinner of kebabs nearby! The concert started at 7:30pm and we got in early to get near the front! The support acts were pretty good but Snow Patrol were awesome! They played most of their songs from the Eyes Open CD as well as a few from the Final Straw album. A highlight was Yoke catching the pick from the bassist who she insists was aiming his throw at her!

Sunday came around too quickly and we checked out in the morning and headed to Newcastle for lunch. We went for a stroll along a pier/wavebreaker type thing and enjoyed making silly videos along the way! For lunch we found a cafe nearby and then headed back to Sydney and church!

What an awesome trip! Can't wait till the next one!

Totally Twisted August!

2007-08-26T21:01:00.000+10:00

Man haven't blogged for over a month now!!! What's going on?!

Ok, contrary to popular beliefs, I AM actually working this year!

Over the last 5 weeks I've done 2 weeks of orthopaedic surgery, 2 weeks of upper gastrointestinal surgery and 1 week of general surgery. Whilst it's been a good experience getting some final exposure to surgery before heading off to GP land, the past 5 weeks have only reinforced my conviction that surgery is not for me! In addition to working longer days doing surgery (7am-5pm) I've also had to work all my overtime shifts this term cos the guys I usually give them away to couldn't or wouldn't take them this term!

This has left me for the most part drained, fed up with the hospital system and longing for another holiday!

Luckily for me, that isn't too far away! I'm starting my paeds term tomorrow with a week of nights (eek!). That's followed by a week off (APEC week) during which I'll be visiting Jon in Albury in the first half and then going off with some friends to Port Stephens over the long weekend to see Snow Patrol in Newcastle! Man I can't wait!

Haven't been doing too much besides work although this weekend I went to the TWIST Music Conference with 7 other people from church. This was my second TWIST and it was great (despite being all the way out in North Parramatta meaning no sleep ins for me this weekend!)! We heard 3 challenging talks from Mike Raiter about why and how we do music in church. The workshops I attended this year were Bass, Music Director 1 and Hymns in the 21st century. All proved to be useful and I shall take what I've learnt back to St Mark's to improve the way we do music there to God's glory! Also managed to catch up with some friends I haven't seen in a while!

Skiing Falls Creek!!!

2007-07-21T20:26:00.000+10:00

Just came back from an amazing week away skiing!!!

Drove down with Jon on Tuesday all the way to Albury! We left at around 6:30am and arrived in Albury around 12:30pm! We grabbed some Hungry Jacks and then went to Safeways (country equivalent of Woolies) to stock up for our self-catered trip to the snow!!!

Around 1:30pm we headed across the border into Victoria and drove an hour or so to Mount Beauty, at the foot of the Victorian alps! It was raining pretty hard but we were hoping that this meant it was snowing up in the mountains.

At Mt Beauty we hopped on a coach that took us up to Falls creek! Along the way up it was amazing seeing the landscape gradually becoming more and more white! It was almost surreal as it started snowing and it felt like we had entered another world like Narnia or something! About halfway up, we encountered a roadblock as a truck had skidded off the road! Good thing we didn't drive up ourselves!

Eventually we reached Falls Creek! We caught the oversnow taxi to our accommodation at Alpha Lodge! Maureen the manager checked us in and gave us a tour of the cosy lodge! We unpacked and enjoyed some of mum's prepacked curry lamb for dinner!

We got up early on Wednesday for our first day of skiing!!! The sun was streaming down and the conditions looked awesome! We trudged through fantastic powdery white snow a few doors down to Viking Ski Hire and picked up our pre-booked skis, poles and boots! Then we hopped on the village shuttle to the main ski lifts where we bought our beginners lift pass!

There were heaps of people there despite the NSW and Vic school holidays being over. We later found out that it was SA's school holidays and alot of people were from Adelaide.

At the top of the ski lift - Cloud 9 - we found our way to the first timers meeting point and met our instructor Lynnea, an American girl. We joined a group of about 10 other first timers and off we went for our first lesson in skiing 101! We learnt the basics of putting on skis and posture before learning how to stop using a snowplough!

After our lesson, we were left to our own devices and feeling confident, we had a go at a scenic beginner's run called Wombat's Ramble! It was rather interesting snowploughing all the way down!!! I'm pretty sure we fell over a couple of times but we made it to the bottom!

We returned to our lodge by the free shuttle and after lunch, went down Wombat's Ramble around 4 times! By the end of the day, we felt pretty good about picking up skiing so quickly!

We got up a little later on Thursday to discover it was snowing quite heavily! We decided not to wait for the shuttle and try and ski down to the chair lifts. Boy was that a mistake! The slopes down to the lifts were somewhat steeper and narrower than Wombat's Ramble and we found our snowploughs didn't really cut it! Not only that, but we took a wrong turn and ended up at the oversnow terminal rather than the chairlifts!

Eventually we made it to the lifts and this time got on with our skis on rather than carrying our skis like the day before. As we ascended the mountain, it gradually became clear that that day was going to be anything but clear!!! We reached the top to find ourselves in not so much as a winter wonderland as a wintry hell!!! There was a strong blizzard and we had to fight the wind just to get off the lift! At one point I thought Jon was going to get blown off the mountain!!! The wind cut through our clothing like a knife and chilled us to the very bone! We eventually sought refuge behind a big sign before deciding to skip that morning's lesson and go for a coffee in the Cloud 9 cafe!

Inside it was so nice and warm! And we definitely weren't the only ones there! We grabbed mochas to thaw ourselves whilst waiting for the horrendous weather outside to settle.

It didn't!

We ended up skiing down Wombat's and heading to the Village Bowl to try another part of the mountain. There the conditions were somewhat better. There was a rather tame looking intermediate slope there that we thought we could handle so off we went on Final Muster! Man that was mistake!!! Halfway down we found ourselves facing a steep narrow section and both of us ended up falling on our sides whilst other people skiied by! To add insult to injury, the chairlift ran overhead pretty much and I'm sure I could hear people laughing at us!!! =P

Some nice people eventually came along and guided us down that section and we got to the bottom with sheepish grins on our faces! We weren't going to attempt that one again anytime soon!

Feeling out of our depth once more, we grabbed lunch at Max's Cafe before heading back up to Cloud 9 for an afternoon lesson. We skipped to a level 3 lesson and met another American instructor called Terry! He was an awesome tutor! We started by going down Wombat's Ramble together and we started learning basic Christie turns and how to ski parallel. Then we had a go down Drover's Dream, another green run. After the lesson we had 2 more gos down Drover's dream and 2 down Wombat's Ramble to practise our new skills! It was nice to return to the lodge that evening though and we enjoyed lasagna for dinner and then a game of Starcraft!

Friday was our last day there and we had to check out before hitting the slopes. It was another perfect day like Wednesday and we had another level 3 lesson in the morning. After lunch at Wombat's Cafe, we had a few goes at Drover's Dream before attempting some blue runs called Highway 83 and Main Street! Jon was more thrill seeking than me and attempted some other blue runs! By the end of our last day there, we felt pretty confident skiing parallel and I came away with no injuries!!!

We boarded the 5pm bus back to Mt Beauty and then drove back to Albury relishing the amazing time we had! It was a great time of just hanging out with Jon and we're looking forward to our next adventure on the ski slopes!

Engagement Day!

2007-07-09T21:33:00.000+10:00

When I woke up on Saturday 7th July 2007, after I had shaken off the last remnants of sleep, I lay in bed with a smile on my face. That day, I thought to myself, was the day I was getting engaged!

Got up around 8:30am and put on heaps of warm clothes. Then set out to Di's place to pick her up at 9am...except that it was already 9:05am when I left home! Ten minutes and a couple of apologies later, Di was in the car and we were heading off for my 'not-so-surprise' engagement day!

We headed to the Sydney Fish Markets at Pyrmont as our first stop! Picked up some fresh sashimi for lunch later on and then parked at Di's workplace. Yes...not the most romantic of places to go on the day she was getting engaged but how could I say no to free convenient parking in the city all day!!!

Anyhow, we walked down to Circular Quay on that nice sunny day and caught a Matilda ferry from Pier 6 to Shark Island in Sydney Harbour! On the way we admired our amazing city and even caught a glimpse of the USS Kittyhawk docked at Garden Island. It was funny cos we were on a ferry with a whole bunch of tourists and there was even touristy commentary on board! I'm sure other people thought we were the tourists!

We reached Shark Island around 11am and hopped off the ferry with just a few other people. That was nice cos the island was big enough that we felt as if we had it all to ourselves! We went on a walk around the island, admiring God's handiwork and beauty of the harbour views. After doing a round, we found a nice spot in the sun facing the harbour and laid out a picnic rug I had brought along. Then out came the food! I brought along some of Di's favourite snacks including Peppermint Chocolate and Coke for her Coke-o-clock later on! We enjoyed the views for a while but then had to find a new spot on the other side of the island cos the wind picked up and chilled us to the core! We found a spot shielded from the wind and had our sashimi lunch. We also spent some time praying and just enjoying each other's company! Finally, we spent the last 15 mins or so taking some photos using a tripod I brought along before bolting for the 1:10pm return ferry!

We headed back to Circular Quay via Watsons Bay and enjoyed interesting commentary from the captain who Di swore was the guy who did the voice for the talking dog statue at QVB! We got off outside the Museum of Contemporary Arts and then headed towards the weekend Rocks Market! After a brief perusal, it was time to head on to our next destination!

I led Di on a meandering walk through the historic streets of the Rocks. On the way she guessed that our final destination was indeed Bridgeclimb! She had mentioned that she wanted to do it a few months back and I thought what better place to propose than on top of the most beautiful city in the world!

We checked in and after waiving our rights and signing our lives away, we were soon gearing up with a jumpsuit, overpants, harness, gloves, radio headsets and headtorches. We were in a group of 12 climbers all together and the other 10 were total randoms who we had to introduce ourselves to since we'd be spending the next 3 1/2 hours with! We then met our tour guide Graham, an eccentric fellow who had been doing Bridgeclimb for yonks! After climbing up a test ladder/platform and feeling confident, Graham led us to the commence the real climb!

We were led to a stairwell underneath the bridge from which we clipped ourselves to a safety rope and began our climb upwards! Along the way Graham provided commentary and we managed to spot several married couples taking wedding photographs around the rocks! The hardest part of the climb was climbing about 4 sets of steep narrow ladders with tiny little rungs! After that we reached the upper eastern arch of the bridge and it was an easy climb from there! Along the way Graham took some photos and at the top we had our group photograph! We enjoyed sweeping views of the harbour and Shark Island where we had been mere hours before!

As the sun began to set, we crossed high above the traffic to the western arch of the bridge to admire the sun setting over the Blue Mountains! There was a nice scatter of clouds to create an amazing effect! After a sunset photo, Di and I walked ahead of the group whilst they got their individual/couple photographs taken. That's when I began my 'spiel' as she later called it!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly nervous! I had thought about what to say roughly but hadn't rote learnt it or anything. I gripped both her hands so tightly that she had to tell me to loosen her grip! Then in a nutshell I told her how great the last 6 months had been and how fortunate I considered myself that God had brought us together. I told her that I loved her just the way she was and that I didn't expect to change any aspect of her during marriage. I told her that I was certain we'd face challenges and have 'issues' but that we'd work through them together in a godly manner. Then, just as I was about to pop the question and get down on one knee, we heard an 'Oi!' and Graham telling us to come back and join the group cos we'd gone too far ahead! With wry smiles, we walked back to join the group.

Fortunately, there was one more photo opportunity and I indicated to Graham that I was going to propose. So with his camera ready, I got down on one knee and proposed with the other 10 bridgeclimbers as an audience! Can't really remember much of the climb downwards! I was so happy! Another tour guide leader helping out congratulated us and gave me some advice that he thought would save me alot of angst during my marriage: "If she tells you to do something, just do it!"

We descended through nightfall and after taking off all our gear, it was time to sort through the photos! We picked a couple and even got a certificate to say we got engaged on Bridgeclimb!

So there you have it! We're engaged!

East to West, North to South!

2007-06-24T11:18:00.000+10:00

Ahh...what a relaxing third week of annual leave!

Spent Monday and Tuesday sleeping in and seriously catching up on my tv watching! Finally up to date with Desperate Housewives, Heroes, Prison Break and 24! Still behind on Grey's Anatomy and haven't started watching the current season of Lost. So much tv, so little time...*sigh*

On Wednesday, Di and I spent the day over at her brother's place out west. We enjoyed Janani's Indian for lunch at their Wentworthville shop and then went back to her bro's place to play Settlers of Catan! Di's sister in law is quite into board games! That night we had a combined bible study social at Jimmy's place! The guys cooked up a storm on the barbie and it was great just hanging out!

On Thursday, Di and I headed south for a daytrip to the southern highlands! We arrived in Mittagong around 11:30am and checked out some nice lookouts. Then we enjoyed a hearty meal at the Bowral RSL club before heading to Fitzroy Falls. Unfortunately heavy rain and even hail stopped us from doing the walk to the falls but we enjoyed vivid rainbows on the scenic drive. We reached the small charming country town of Berrima late arvo and checked out the Little Hand stirred Jam shop there! We bought a couple of nice sauces and then found a cafe nearby for some coffee! As night fell, we decided to head back towards Sydney, taking advantage of late night shopping at Liverpool Westfield! Fully sick day mate! =P

On Friday we were going to visit Sydney aquarium but Di's free tickets to Taronga Zoo arrived in the mail so we decided to go there instead. We had lunch at Ginger and Spice, a Malaysian/Singaporean place in Neutral Bay before heading on down to the zoo to talk and walk with the animals! We really enjoyed the seal and bird shows with Sydney Harbour as a picture postcard backdrop! Then we had a chat with all manner of creatures including lazy kodiak bears, playful chimpanzees, sleepy lions, towering giraffes, and my favourite - lumbering giant tortoises! That evening I saw Fantastic 4 with some med friends - definitely better than the first one! Spent Friday night over at Di's parents' place in Mt Kuringgai and yum cha at Hornsby the following day to celebrate Di's sister in law's birthday.

And there ended a wonderful week off!

Hong Kong 2007!!!

2007-06-19T19:07:00.000+10:00

Wow - this is my 100th post!!!

Just came back from 5 nights, 6 days in HK with Jimbo and Carmen, two med friends! Here's what we got up to!

Monday 11th June: Arrived in HK at 5:30am local time after an ok overnight flight on Cathay Pacific CX138. Watched Bridge to Terabithia and Music and Lyrics on the plane and was still humming "Pop goes my heart" and "Way back into love" when we had landed! Carmen called a taxi and we drove to our hotel, The Charterhouse, on Wan Chai Rd in Wan Chai, HK Island. First impressions of HK: hot and humid like Malaysia, dense urban environment with a forest of apartment blocks and skyscrapers! After reaching the hotel, we checked in and were pleasantly surprised to find it clean and with all the amenities we needed! Far better than the crumby 2.5 star hotel rating some ppl had given it! We decided to have a 3 hour nap before heading out onto the streets for some sightseeing and food! Around 11am, we went headed to Times Square, and then Lee Theatre Building to have Yum Cha at The Graces Restaurant! Not bad not bad. After lunch, we did some window shopping at Times Square before having some Tofu Fa dessert nearby! Next we caught a tram to central and visited the Exchange and took the Mid levels escalators to Lan Kwai Fong and Soho areas! These are the trendy cosmopolitan areas of HK! We had dinner at a fusion Thai/Viet place in Soho and one of Carmen's friends May joined us! Then we headed back to Happy Valley for Sai Mai Lo dessert at Lotus Restaurant! Yum!

Tuesday 12th June: Woke up at 9:30am and headed to Wan Chai MTR station, grabbing Chee Cheong Fan on the way! Caught the MTR to Central and walked to the Central Piers to catch a First Ferry to Mui Wo on Lantau Island! The ferry trip took about 1hour and we reached Lantau around 11:30am. we took a bus to Ngong Ping and visited the big Buddha there and the exhibition hall inside it. Then we headed back down for a Vegetarian lunch at the Monastery. After lunch we had a look around the monastery before walking along the Wisdom Path! This walk afforded nice views of the mountains and took us to this man made lot of wooden pillars in the shape of an infinity or 8 sign! Very cool! After this we took the bus to Tung Chung and then the MTR back to Central. (The Skyrail was closed cos the day before one of the cable cars fell off!) From central we walked to the Peak Tram lower terminal and took the tram up to Victoria peak! It reminded me of the tram at Penang Hill! At the peak we headed to the observation terrace for views of HK but the rain came down hard so we decided to visit Madame Tussards while we waited for the rain to abate. Madame Tussards was cool! We took photos with Hugh Grant, Eddie Murphy, Johnny Howard and Asian pop stars just to name a few! After this we had dinner at one of the restaurants up there. I had chicken Laksa...all I'll say is that it couldn't compare to Malaysia or even Sydney! After dinner we returned to the Observation terrace for night views this time of HK! Rain soon resumed so we headed back to our hotel to play Bohnanza!!!

Wednesday 13th June: Woke up late at 10am. Thomas came over to our hotel to meet Jimbo and I whilst Carmen sorted some stuff out. Went out with Thomas for breaky at a honky cafe. We had Wonton Mein and Congee - not bad. We then checked out Times Square shopping centre for a bit before Carmen met up with us. Then we went for lunch at a noodle place Carmen knew, famous for its soup noodles and cuttlefish balls! After lunch we headed for the pier to catch the star ferry across the harbour to Kowloon. The trip was short but scenic! At Kowloon, we visited the Hong Kong Space Museum and then the Hong Kong Museum of History, Wednesday being free museum day in HK! Afterwards, Carmen went off to meet her friends for dinner whilst Thomas, Jimbo and I did some shoe shopping. We then grabbed a quick dinner (I'm ashamed to say) at Maccas before watching Symphony of Lights laser show at the Avenue of the Stars. Very cool! Afterwards, some fireworks drew our attention to a Star Carnival show at the Museum of Art nearby. I think it was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of HK under Chinese rule. Pouring rain soon halted the show though so we met up with Carmen again and visited the Mong kok Ladies Market! It was kinda late and pouring rain so the only thing we bought was 3 umbrellas before heading back to our hotel to play more Bohnanza, this time 4 players!

Thursday 14th June: Got up at 10:30am and had breaky at a fusion HK cafe! We had the Honky equivalent of Teh Tarik, eggs, bacon, sausages, and this weird macaroni in abalone soup thing! After breaky, we returned to the hotel to wait for Thomas whilst Carmen was spending the day with family and friends. Thomas came over about midday and we caught the MTR to Sheung Wan before boarding a ferry to Macau! Only thing being, Thomas didn't make it onto the ferry! He had some problems with his temporary IC and had to go back home to get his passport! So Jimbo and I set off for Macau first. The trip took just over an hour and soon we pulled into Macau harbour, its many casinos quickly evident! After passing through immigration, we were desperate for food and so walked to a nearby shopping centre and its food court. We were disappointed not to find Oportos or a Nandos or even Ogalos there and had to settle for some Jap fast food. After lunch, we headed for Macau's most famous attraction, the ruins of St Pauls, once a Catholic cathedral. We also visited St Anthony's church and a protestant chapel and cemetary before waiting for Thomas to arrive! He finally arrived around 4:30pm and met us outside St Paul's Ruins. After checking out the ruins (in the pouring rain I might add!), we headed next door to an old Portugese Fort. After that we grabbed some Portugese Tarts and then wandered the streets of Macau looking for portugese food for dinner. Unfortunately, we had no idea where the portugese food was so we ended up at Grand Lisboa Casino and a chinese restaurant there called "The 8". Now this place was FANCY! We passed through 2 sets of double doors and an atrium with water flowing down both walls to reach the restaurant! Since it was still early, we were but one of three tables and had 3 waitresses, one for each of us! Their names were Pink, Sandy and Yumiko! We splurged on suckling pig, fried chicken and fried rice with crab roe, as well as a bottle of the second least expensive wine on their fat wine list! All up cost us about 600 HK! We caught the 8:30pm ferry back to HK and met up with Carmen and her friends Eric, Lorraine, and May (whose birthday it was) for drinks in Causeway Bay. Then returned to hotel to play more Bohnanza into the early hours of the morning!

Friday 15th June: Woke up late and headed to Stanley Markets after having breaky at Congee Wonderland. We caught a green public bus there and enjoyed scenic views along the way! At the markets I got a pair of jeans and Jimbo got this stampy thing of his name in Chinese. We had lunch at a honky cafe there and had noodles. After lunch we checked out some more markets before heading back to Causeway Bay. Carmen had to meet up with some friends so Thomas became our supplementary tour guide once more and we went to Times Square to shop for electronic goods! I bought a camera and Jimbo got a video camera cheap cheap! After this we headed up Times Square to a restaurant there called Hakka Hut and enjoyed some traditional but not entirely authentic hakka food. Still quite nice! Then we headed to the KFC nearby for dessert cause Jimbo was dying to try some KFC! It was ok, but not as good as KFC back home! Then we headed back to our hotel for, you guessed it, more Bohnanza!

Saturday 16th June: Last day in HK! We got up around 9:30am and checked out at 10am, leaving our bags at the hotel. Then we head out to sort out Jimbo's international warranty for his video camera whilst waiting for Carmen to wake up and pack. I then went on a shopping spree buying 14 work type shirts at Sogo and G2000! Then met up with Carmen and her mum for lunch at a nice yum cha place at Times Square. Carmen's aunty Grace also joined us. After lunch we checked in our luggage at Hong Kong MTR station before doing some last minute shopping! I got some sandals and a present for Di whilst Jimbo picked up some much wanted asian pop CDs at HMV! And finally it was time to catch the airport express to the airport and say bye to HK!

Ben's Final Impressions: Great holiday! Really enjoyed the sightseeing! Shopping was much like Malaysia and food was alright but no where near as good as Malaysia. Desserts were nice though! Weather was lousy all week except for the final two days when the sun finally came out! Will definitely return! Thanks heaps to Carmen and Thomas for showing us around!!!

G'day from the Gold Coast!

2007-06-06T21:46:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone!

First time I've been on the net since being up here in Surfers Paradise for the last 5 days!

Here's what I've been up to!

Saturday: Arrived at 1:30pm or so. Caught taxi from airport to Surfers and checked in at our hostel right in the heart of the action and only 2 mins walk to the beach! After checking in, went for a walk around the mall and grabbed a snack. Then it was time to hit the beach baby! Enjoyed the warm sunshine and the powdery white sand! In the arvo went for a walk up north towards Seaworld - we must've walked about 8km return! Later that night it was time for some Shrek on tv!

Sunday: Woke up nice and late, had a hearty all you can eat breakky before heading for the beach again! Ah how nice to just sleep on the soft sand, and read, and sleep some more! Soon it was time for our afternoon walk again. We took the same route but this time made it all the way to Seaworld where we enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the mountains to the west! After dinner it was time to tune in for Shrek 2!

Monday: Finally some clear blue sky and plenty of sunshine!!! Couldn't miss going to the beach so spent the morning hanging out there again! Went for another walk in the arvo, this time south towards Broadbeach. Made it as far as Pacific Fair, the largest shopping centre on the Gold Coast, and Jupiters Casino. Then headed back for dinner and some ten pin bowling afterwards!

Tuesday: Gave the beach a miss due to threatening weather and headed to Pacific Fair shopping centre instead! Boy this place was large! Bought a backpack finally, a game from EB and a couple of cheap books from Dymocks. Then we watched a movie - Breach - a spy type thriller. Came back to Surfers for some dinner at Hogs Breath!

Wednesday: That's today! Woke up to pouring rain at midday but that didn't stop us from going out! After our brunch, the rain had lightened and we went for a walk up north, this time past Seaworld. We sought refuge from the constant drizzle in another shopping centre called Australia Fair, and you guessed it, we watched another movie called Because I said so - a chick flick starring Mandy Moore although we didn't really know it was so when we decided to watch it! Oh well, it was alright! Walked back in the dark and had a nice Thai dinner and here we are!

These couple of days have gone by quick but have been soooo relaxing! Nice to just get out of Sydney and not have to worry about anything! Seeya all soon!

Blue Mountain, Grand Canyon!

2007-05-20T23:55:00.000+10:00

Haven't blogged for a while...guess I've just been busy with day to day stuff - work, church, going out with friends etc...

Yesterday I went with Yoke, Di, and Teng to the Blue Mountains! It was the 2nd time in 2 months for me and the 2nd time in 2 weeks for Teng visiting the Blue Mountains!

We left Sydney around 9am and grabbed Maccas for breaky at Greenacre before stopping 30 mins later at Eastern Creek Maccas to grab Deli Choice rolls to eat on our walk for lunch!

We reached Blackheath and the Govett's Leap Information Centre around midday and after a quick toilet break, began our journey along the Grand Canyon - Neates Glen walk! After a short walk, we reached Evan's Lookout which had amazing views of the valley! Then we headed into the canyon itself! After some fairly steep decents we found ourselves in an almost rainforest type environment! Man it was cold! We walked along cliff faces and enjoyed discovering secluded waterfalls and waterholes!

All in all the walk took around 3 hours! We headed to Wentworth Falls township and visited the same cafe Teng and I visited last time. We got our mochas as well as some scones and chips - yum! Just the thing to warm us up on a chilly day!

We headed back to Sydney and after showers, met up again for dinner at the Regent! Yummy cheap steaks there! Then we went to Di's place to play Settlers into the early hours of the morning - what an awesome day!!!

Sean & Eva's Wedding!

2007-05-06T21:28:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was Sean and Eva's wedding! Picked up Jen jeje (cos Tim had to be there early as official videographer) and found a nice park at CCC! Luckily we got there early cos there were so many people!!! Met Fi fi outside and we went in together. We ended up sitting in the choir pews! Di caught the train over the bridge after parking at work and met us not long after. She forgot to bring the cute card she had bought ages ago so she had to buy another one. That made me wonder whether I had remembered to bring the present or not in the rush out the door...!

It was good seeing some of the old SOTE gang! Brought back a lot of fond memories about my time there! I also realised how many new ppl there are at CCC too though!

Eva arrived late but looked radiant! Sean was absolutely beaming, as were his parents whom I hadn't seen in a while.

The pastor gave a great evangelistic talk before the wedding vows. Then there was the signing of the registry before we were introduced to Mr and Mrs Sean Lee! (Always sounds funny introducing a new couple and only using the guy's Christian name!).

Turns out I forgot to bring the present so we had to head home to get it! Funny how Di forgot the card and I forgot the present!

The reception was at Watersedge at the Rocks, funnily enough right by the water! We missed the intro of the wedding couple but more importantly, were just in time for the entree! Hehehe!

Food was great and between the courses there were speeches from the fathers of the couple and best man and maid of honour, as well as slide shows and videos!

All in all a really nice wedding that was a real testament to God's love for us in giving us human relationships but more importantly, giving up his son Jesus for our sins so that we might be able to enter a relationship with Him again!

Sean and Eva, we await and invitation to your new place! =P

Anzac Day Away!

2007-04-27T21:21:00.000+10:00

Headed up to Port Stephens with some church friends on Tuesday night to get away for Anzac Day! We left Sydney around 8pm and after dinner at Maccas, reached our YHA accommodation around 11pm! It was pouring rain all the way which is probably why it took so long. Man it was heavy!

After sitting in the hostel carpark waiting for the rain to die down, we realised that it wasn't going to and made a run for it!

Our accommodation was small but cosy and comfortable and we were all quite tired after driving seemingly so far in difficult conditions. That didn't stop us from playing Big 2/Emperor's scum however into the early hours of the morning!

On Anzac Day the rain kept on coming! We soon realised that we wouldn't be able to go sandboarding as originally planned and resigned ourselves to thinking of fun indoor activities we could do! After initially entertaining the thought of a movie marathon at the local cinema, we decided instead to go to the nearby Hunter Valley to go wine tasting!

We grabbed a quick brunch at a local cafe and said farewell to Port Stephens which we didn't even see and drove 45 mins to Cessnock and the Hunter Valley. We visited 4 or 5 vineyards and each bought a couple of bottles of wine, mainly desserts and reds. Tempus Two had a fantastic Moscato which I regret not buying!

We left the Hunter Valley around 4pm and headed back to Sydney in still more rain to Bevo Hills to drop Col home. Then we grabbed dinner at a local noodle place run by this old Aussie lady. It was edible but not quite authentic! Oh well!

And so ended our Anzac Day away...it felt more like a day trip than an overnight trip but I guess the company made it fun and it was a welcome day off in the middle of a busy week at work!

First week of leave!

2007-04-16T21:20:00.000+10:00

Monday - Shaun's 21st Paintball Party! Headed out nice and early to Heartbreak Ridge in Blacktown! Having played paintball once before, I knew what to expect...I just couldn't remember exactly how much it hurt to get hit! 6 games, 400 paintballs and a couple of bruises later, I remembered! All in all a fun day. The final score: St Mark's 3, Optom 3!

Tuesday - Spent the day with Teng. Headed up to Thornleigh to try the Malaysian place there called Makan @ Alices! I tried the laksa and Teng had the Wat Ton Hor Fun noodles. Both were not bad. The piece de resistance however was their awesome Cendol!!! Teng even said it was comparable to that found in Malaysia! After lunch we spent the arvo at Featherdale Wildlife Park where Teng enjoyed patting koalas and kangaroos. In the evening we headed back to the eastern suburbs to watch TMNT at the Ritz!

Wednesday - Woke up late and went with Teng and Jon to the Royal National Park for a bit of canoeing! Since there were 3 of us, we got one 2 person canoe and a 1 person kayak. The day was nice and warm and the river at Audley had more water than last time I was there. We enjoyed a nice water fight with me in the kayak and Teng and Jon in the canoe! At one point they were chasing me down the river trying to splash me and I swear I had never paddled so hard in my life!

Thursday - Headed out to the Royal Easter Show at Olympic Park with Jon and Teng. We met up with 2 of Jon's friends there and enjoyed the Aqua dive show, the food hall and bazaar halls and a sheepdog rounding exhibit. In the arvo we headed over to the carnival area where Jon's friends went on some super psycho ride! Teng was also excited by the prospect of an adrenaline rush and dragged Jon first onto a Tower type ride and then myself onto a Pirate ship type ride! Sucker for punishment man! The whole time I had my eyes closed and I felt nauseous all the way home!

Friday - Had lunch with Jimbo at Sinma Laksa house and then headed back to his place to watch some Chasers.

Saturday - Joe koko and Isabel + Teng came over for a nice family dinner.

Sunday - dropped Jon off at his friend's place whom he would be heading down to Albury with.. Then Teng and I headed to Bondi Junction to enjoy an easy way tea and some window shopping. Then it was off to church in the arvo!

And so ended my first week of leave this year - man it was hard waking up today!!!

To Whoop Whoop and back...!

2007-04-09T17:30:00.000+10:00

Spent the easter long weekend going down to Albury to rescue Jonny boy from the evil clutches of the rural clinical training scheme!

Left early on Friday morning and with just one major stopover at Maccas, we reached Albury around 1pm. Jon had the townhouse to himself as his flatmate had gone home for the weekend. We made ourselves at home, we being Teng, the folks, and some Taiwanese family friends who came down with us.

After resting a bit, we visited the nearby Hume Dam, at 2% capacity apparently! We walked along the top of the dam to the other side and enjoyed jumping across state boundaries from NSW to Vic back and forth! Afterwards headed to a nice park near the Murray to enjoy a stroll and the autumn scenery.

Spent Saturday visiting Corowa, a small town 45 mins from Albury and supposedly the birthplace of federation. That day the Australian National Billy Cart Championships were being held there so that was something different!

The afternoon was spent visiting some wineries across the border in Victoria. We bought some dessert wines and even strawberry wine! Enjoyed some gourmet pies in the small town of Rutherglen before heading back to Albury! Dinner was at the local pub followed by a round of poker back at Jon's townhouse (no money involved!).

On Sunday we slept in and left Albury around midday. On the way home we made a slight detour via Batlow to buy some fresh apples from the orchards there! Got home around 10pm rather buggered. Jon was sure glad to be home!

And then there was light!

2007-03-28T20:04:00.000+10:00

Took another NDO on Monday and took a spontaneous trip with Teng to the blue mountains!

She had already been there a few years back so we decided to skip all the tourist attractions and try and do some walks that the mountains are famous for!

We arrived in Leura around 1.30pm and decided to grab lunch. Cravings for fish and chips and a hamburger led us to the local takeaway shop!

After lunch we headed for Govett's Leap Lookout. We had hoped to do the Govett's Leap walking track to the bottom of a waterfall and back but to our dismay we found out that most of the tracks were closed due to recent bushfires. The only 2 left open were a 40min easy walk and a 3-4hr moderately difficult one.

We chose the easy one!

We enjoyed the fresh air and awesome views over untouched valleys! Although dark clouds threatened rain, the most we ever got were patches of light drizzle.

Later in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds casting awesome patches of sunlight and shadow upon the valley!

Before heading home we enjoyed a mocha at a cozy cafe near Wentworth Falls.

All in all a nice day away!

St Mark's Combined HP 2007!

2007-03-25T21:39:00.000+10:00

We had our annual combined congregation houseparty this weekend! It was at Rathane in the Royal National Park and it was jammed pack full of fun and fellowship!

It went from Friday night till Sunday lunchtime and included following:

4 talks by Mark Charleston on Mark's gospel! Key messages - Turn, Trust and Travel with Jesus!, 'Is my future radical enough for the Lord Jesus Christ?'

2 bible studies - I was in Jimmy and Siew Kee's group - had really challenging discussions!

1 seminar - on evangelism by Andrew.

1 free time - went canoeing with about 10 others from both AM and PM services! Had a cool water fight and got totally soaked!

1 evening of compulsory fun - participants were broken up into 3 teams for a mini olympics type night! I was in the group with all the kids - lotsa fun!

2 DMCs - 1 with a bunch of married couples, 1 with the guys until 2.30am in the morning after we had turned back the clocks!

So if you couldn't make it this year, that's just a small part of what you missed out on! But don't worry! Evening church houseparty is just around the corner...!

Schindler's Lift

2007-03-18T13:20:00.000+11:00

I attended a beautiful wedding reception last night at Marigold Restaurant!

It was really encouraging to see the couple getting married, we were in good company and the food was great! We had this really social honky waiter, also called Ben!

Left around 11:30pm. Got into the lift with 7 other friends from church.

One of them says, "Hey, why don't we do that thing where we all jump just as the lift is reaching the ground floor?"

So we did it - twice!

Apparently this didn't agree with the lift cos it decided to stop!

At first we thought we were at ground floor and the door was just taking a while to open. Then we pressed the Door Open button.

Nothing happened.

We pressed the other buttons - 1st floor, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th!

Nothing happened - "Uh oh..." someone says.

Ya... right!

We rang the alarm bell and got connected to an operator. I was somewhat surprised that someone would tbe there at this late hour to assist us...I wonder if people get stuck in lifts so often that they have staff available 24hrs to help them get out!

We explained our situation (neglecting to mention the part about jumping up and down in the lift!). She said she'd send a mechanic and that it'd take about 30mins.

30 mins!!!

Man! It wasn't too cramp but it wasn't comfortable either! There was little ventilation and the lift down-lights were hot!

We tried pulling open the lift door and succeeded in opening it about half way. We found that we were actually between the ground and first floors. A small crack in the outside lift door allowed some air in.

To pass the time we listened to songs on my phone, sang along to a hymn, and started imagining all kinds of ways to get out of the lift... or what would happen if we didn't...!

One of the guys was more concerned about his umbrella he'd left behind at the restaurant!

Eventually the mechanic arrived (obviously not from the German Schindler manufacturer of the lift cos he was asian!). It still took him a good 15-20 minutes but eventually he managed to open the exterior door and we were freed!

We had to jump down to ground level a metre or so, but we didn't care! We were free! Ah...how good it was to feel fresh air blowing against my face!

And so we managed to escape Schindler's Lift...

Mmm...rock!

2007-03-11T22:12:00.000+11:00

Picked up Di, Yokes and Sarah from the airport today after they returned from a 10 day trip to the south island of NZ.

Went for brekky at a nice Indian place in Strathfield near Sarah's place. Whilst waiting for our meals, Di offered me a 'lolly' from NZ!

I had a look at them, wondering whether to have one before brekky or after. Di was like, "Just try one now! But make sure you suck it cos they're kinda hard."

They looked awfully like rocks and I commented as much...

They tasted like rocks...

They were rocks!!!

Mmm...rocks! =P

Ki-ama!

2007-03-07T21:57:00.000+11:00

Had a NDO (ninja day off!) on Monday, having worked on Sunday so decided to do something with my cuz Teng.

Initially we wanted to try out a Malaysian restaurant in Thornleigh but it was closed of course on the only day we both had off! So instead we just decided to go for a drive, despite the grey clouds and threatening weather! I definitely didn't want to spend the whole day in front of the tv!

We headed down south, taking a nice meandering drive along the coast. We did the scenic route starting at Stanwell Park and enjoyed amazing views from lookouts! We passed through a number of small seaside towns before spotting a fish and chips store! Can't remember the name of the town it was in but we were hungry and we wanted fish and chips so we got it!

Having satisfied our craving, we continued our drive down the coast, bypassing Wollongong and heading towards Kiama (or 'Kee-a-ma' as my cuz pronounced it!).

We arrived shortly and followed signs to the towns most famous tourist attraction, the blowhole!

Unfortunately the weather was awful and rain was peltering down but that wasn't going to stop us, having come all that way! Without any warm clothing, we huddled together under an umbrella and made our wet way toward the blowhole! There a few other silly dodos trying to admire the blowhole in that atrocious weather.

We didn't stay long! Took a couple of photos before running back to the sanctuary of the car!!

Afterwards, we found a nice cafe to have a mocha and warm up! Also found a nice ice cream place (never too cold for icecream!!!)!

The drive back was fraught with danger as we drove through dense fog!!! All the cars had their hazard lights on and they only had to go maybe 5-10 metres ahead of us and they'd disappear!!! Scary! But we made it back ok.

How's that for spontaneity! =P

St Mark's Amazing Race!!!

2007-03-06T21:51:00.000+11:00

Last Saturday, 16 enthusistic ppl took up the challenge that was the inaugural St Mark's Amazing Race!

After plenty of promos at church it was a reasonable turnout and we had 4 teams of 4 ppl!

Teams arrived at St Mark's Anglican Church, Malabar for a mandatory rest period at 13:00! There, teams had the opportunity to rest and mingle before setting out on the next leg of this race around the world!

At 14:30, teams took up positions at the starting line! After a countdown, teams set off! There was a brief bottleneck at the stairs in front of the church, courtesy of Thomas but soon teams were racing off on an adventure that would take them all over the eastern suburbs!

I spent the afternoon with Col, one of the other coordinators! Being a hot day, we decided to stake out at one of the race zones at Eastgardens to watch various teams racing by! It didn't take long to spot team members!

After enjoying a Gloria Jeans Ice Mocha there, we head over to Coogee Beach where we enjoyed a nice walk and again spotted teams running around! Or in the case of some, walking over to the Maccas there to grab refreshments in the sweltering heat!

Around 18:00, we head back to the finish line at church to prepare for the teams' arrivals. Teams did well to get back on time with only one team arriving slightly late!

The points were tallied and the winners were team 'East Meets West' by a mere 10 points over team 'JJAS'! Congrats all!

Yesterday prizes were presented at church!

If you couldn't make it this year, you missed out on an awesome day of fun and fellowship!

Stay tuned for the next amazing episode of The Amazing Race...!!!

Fortnight of festivities and fun!

2007-02-28T21:27:00.000+11:00

Highlights from the last fortnight!

17th Feb - Went over to Di's parents' place for a CNY lunch! Her whole family was there pretty much but I had met most of them already. They were all really easy going and we had a great time hanging out and eating popiah! Played with Peekay and Di's 2 yr old nephew Ethan!

21st Feb - Jon flew back from Albury! We played a good game of night tennis at UNSW.

24th Feb - Went with Di to St George Aquarium to buy her Mexican Walking Fish! We got 2 gold ones, one fat and lazy, and the other skinny and active! I called them Slow Poke and Speedy! Afterwards went to the city with Jon for lunch - his favourite sizzling steak! Later in the afternoon, Jon met up with one of his friends and I met up with Carmen to go shopping! Then we head off to Jimbo and Kenny's b'day dinner at Kingsley's Steakhouse on King St. I had a New York Cut with pepper sauce and fries - yum!

26th Feb - My cuz Teng arrived back in Sydney! Picked her up from the airport and hung out at her place watching some Scrubs!

Coming up - St Mark's Amazing Race this Saturday!!!

Meet the Parents!

2007-02-14T17:55:00.000+11:00

Met Di's parents last Sunday night after church! We drove 45 mins through the heaviest downpour I can remember in a long time to get to Terrey Hills, where a quaint Austrian restaurant and a dinner date with her folks awaited us!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit nervous! When Di had told her parents we were going out, her dad had said I'm silly for asking her out! The occasion was actually her dad's b'day, and I felt kinda weird going without a present! Not that I didn't think of it beforehand, but Di told me her dad hates presents and I guess it would've been weird, not to mention difficult, buying something for someone you've never met before!

We arrived just 5 mins late thanks to Di's hoon driving! I have to say I'd never been to that part of Sydney before!!! It was all bushy and for all I knew, I could've been in some small country European town that you see on tv! The restaurant's decor only served to reinforce this, not to mention the genuinely authentic Austrian waiters who greeted us and seated us! They were dressed up in their pants and suspenders and all! Whilst we browsed the menu of authentic Austrian cuisine, a huge boar head grinned down at us from its mount on the wall!

Her parents and brother and sister-in-law were already there and had even started on the garlic bread! I had met the brother and sister-in-law already but her parents seemed friendly enough and greeted me warmly!

I sat down prepping myself for a 'Meet the Parents' style interrogation, which was not helped by Di saying 'C'mon dad! Start grilling Ben!'. Actually they were really nice and just asked the usual get to know you questions. After a while, the conversation had turned to all his favourite topics - golf, home renovations, and Peekay! I loved their Malaysian accents and her dad actually has a good sense of humour! Her mum is actually alot like mine, both being nurses and it seems, having a similar habit of analysing restaurant foods so they can attempt to cook it and better it at home!

The food itself was nice and well presented - Di's main came in a wheelbarrow!!! They were such massive portions noone could finish their mains! I had my leftovers put in a doggy bag!

So all in all an enjoyable night and not the ordeal my wild imagination thought it could've been! I think I'm really going to enjoy getting to know her parents better and I think I'm actually excited about going over to their place this Sat for a CNY lunch!

Now I just gotta find out what they really thought of me...!

Three friendship hours, Two engagement parties, and a yum cha at Market City!

2007-02-07T20:06:00.000+11:00

The past 10 days have flown by and I can't really recall when I've had a spare moment to myself until tonight!

O&G has been really cruisy so far and I've enjoyed leaving at 4:30pm each day and at lunchtime last Friday and Monday! Over the last week I've spent almost every spare moment hanging out with friends!

Thursday - Played Laser Challenge with church ppl in the Anzac Pd median strip near church! Go 'The Friendship Hours'!!! If you missed out, you gotta come next time!

Friday - Went to Big Dave's stopping-by-Sydney-to-visit dinner at Chinta Ria followed by drinks at the Orbit bar!

Saturday - Attended not one but TWO engagement parties! The first was a good friend of Di's whom I happen to know from mission. The second was of another of Di's friends, whom I had never met! So yeah...pretty much a weekend of meeting heaps of Di's friends (she knows ALOT of ppl!) and despite being nervous about it all, they were all pretty cool and I even knew some of them already. Met up with a high school mate in the evening and enjoyed a game of night tennis before dinner at In-Chan Thai! Really good catching up and soooooo excited that he's getting married soon! Congrats!

Sunday - Woke up late for yum cha lunch with med friends at the Market City restaurant that used to be Kam Fook. Have to say it was pretty ordinary and I've had better but it was good catching up nonetheless! Then joined some church friends at Maroubra beach before seeking refuge from the hot sun at Eastgardens for a drink. After church, went over to Di's place to meet her bro and sis-in-law! Have to say I was nervous bout that too but they were really cool and down to earth!

Monday - Started shopping for bikes! If anyone knows anything about bikes then give me hints as to what I should look for in a bike besides two tyres, a handlebar, and seat!

Tuesday - Went for a bike ride with Di to South Coogee!

And that brings us to today! Just been catching up on some tv and about to check out the second episodes of Heroes and Prisonbreak Season 2!

The Phuong Effect!

2007-01-29T21:42:00.000+11:00

Today was my first day on the job as an Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) resident, having done a week of nights last week to kick off my residency. The nights themselves weren't too bad courtesy of a ward reallocation amongst the night JMOs which meant a fairer distribution of workload. Managed to get on average 3-4 hours sleep each night but the hot days made it tough to sleep and thus I felt perpetually zonked out!

Anyhow, it was nice to go back to a normal daytime job today and I rocked up to labour ward at 8am utterly terrified of what awaited me! For some reason, pregnant women who are considered the only 'healthy' patients in hospitals suddenly seemed like strange alien like creatures from another world that I had never dealt with before. And actually, if you've ever witnessed a live birth, newborn babies do kinda look like aliens all covered in goo!

However, despite my apprehensions, the day turned out to be pleasantly bludgy! It started off with what seemed like an incomplete ward round seeing mainly the gynae patients, followed by doing a few discharges and ordering a few tests. I was done by 9.30am and had coffee with my O&G colleagues! All along I was wondering whether there was something I was meant to be doing that I didn't know I should be doing... Then I thought to myself maybe I'm displaying 'the Phuong Effect!'.

Now let me explain. Phuong is a fellow resident at my hospital who somehow managed to get through pretty much most of her internship doing next to nothing work! She had bludgy terms, bludgy overtime shifts and basically if you were looking for her, there was only one place you'd find her - the doctor's lounge! I labelled this 'The Phuong Effect' - the ability of a doctor to repel work thus allowing the doctor to bludge! There's also 'the anti-Phuong effect' - doctors who have this effect possess the remarkable ability to attract non-stop paging by Tom, Dick and Harry, a list of jobs that only seems to grow bigger, and the unenviable privilege of staying back after 5pm to finish the aforementioned list of jobs!

Today was certainly a bludgy day and for the most part I didn't really know what to do with the time! I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow holds in store as I attend my first antenatal clinic...will 'the Phuong Effect' have worn off??!

Definitely a dog person...!

2007-01-20T19:56:00.000+11:00

Spent the last two weeks of my relief term doing orthopaedics which was surprisingly pretty bludgy! I was paired with a resident who had been doing it for the whole term so she was with it and I saw my role more as one of just helping her out wherever she needed me. Without elective surgery over the holiday period, we averaged just 15 patients between us. So last week, our reg just told us to take turns going home early!

Monday - Left early and walked Di's dog Peekay at Centennial Park. He's a Maltese Shitsu and sooooooooooo cute!!! Nice small dog, really fluffy and never barks at you! I wanna take him home!!! We met up with church ppl for dinner at Happy Chef in Maroubra. After dinner they crashed my place as the folks were down helping Jon move to Albury, which I thought was as good an excuse as any to have ppl over!

Tuesday - Had to pick up parents from airport after they flew back from Albury.

Wednesday - Went out with Di to Leichhardt to an Italian cafe place recommended by one of her colleagues. Had nice pasta and gelato!

Thursday - Picked up new phone from seller on eBay. We met under pretty dodgy circumstances - late at night at a train station...probably not the smartest idea... Anyhow did the deal and loving my new Sony Ericsson w810i after carrying my old Nokia for the past 5 years!

Friday - Went over to Pete dog's new place all the way out in whoop whoop for dinner. Good to catch up with ppl I hadn't seen in a while...!

Today - Had lunch at Di's place before taking Peekay for a walk to Centennial Park again. Enjoyed lying on the grass staring at the sky and playing with Peekay!

Tonight - beginning a week of night shifts =( having just done one over Christmas! Oh well...at least I get it out of the way for a while...

And so my internship comes to an end officially on Monday morning when I walk out of the hospital an intern and return later that night as a resident... =P

A Formule 1 hotel, a carpark, and a garbage bin...

2007-01-12T21:58:00.000+11:00

Exactly 10 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes ago, I was lying on the top bed of a Melbourne Formule 1 hotel bunkbed staring at the ceiling having just woken up. Checking the clock on my phone, I found the time to be 5.30am in the morning - I had at least another two and a half hours until I had to wake up for our trip to the Great Ocean Road. Ordinarily, for me that would be plenty of time to go back to sleep. And yet, lying there staring at the ceiling with thoughts buzzing around my head, I knew I wouldn't be able to...

I was thinking about a girl. A girl from church who I'd only gotten to know better over the last 6 weeks or so. We'd been chatting heaps on MSN and had gone on a couple of late night bike rides together that I've previously written about. And yet I still didn't know the answer to the question that bugged me - did she like me??? You might think a girl who agrees to go bike riding at night with you would most likely be interested in you too but I was really finding it difficult to get any vibes from her! She's normally pretty outgoing and spontaneous and well maybe she just does these kinds of things with all her friends!

And so I lay there in bed wondering as I had been alot over the last few weeks or so, should I ask her out?? Is now a right time?? What if she says no?? How will I ask her out?? Will our friendship be ruined if she says no or things don't work out down the track??

And then, a most wonderful realisation dawned on me! One that would liberate me from the what ifs and all those heart aching deliberations I had had! I remembered that God has a plan for each and every one of us. And all I had to do was to trust His plan! That's it! It was so simple! I had known it all along but had got caught up with the silly ways of worldly dating. All I had to do was ask her out and leave the outcome to God's plan for her and myself! I was so excited and thrilled and relieved I was pumping my fists in the air as I lay in bed! When I fully trusted God in that moment I knew I would be able to happily accept whatever answer she gave me. I knew then, that day would be the day I asked her out...

About 3 hours later, I was standing in the carpark of that Formule 1 hotel, packing bags into the car, which happened to be parked next to a huge garbage bin. I couldn't help smiling! I wanted to leap in the air and do the Toyota ad star jump! As God would have it, Di just happened to be with me at the same time packing the car. And that's when I shared my realisation with her and asked her out!

And her answer - "How can I say no!"

Melbourne Roadtrip '06/'07!

2007-01-04T22:33:00.000+11:00

Happy happy new year!!! And what a start to the new year I had!

Just got back from 5 nights and 6 days in Melbourne over the new year period! Here's a quick summary of the highlights from the trip:

Sat 30th Dec - Drove down with Wilson and Cheungster! Met up with Jono and Wendy for dinner at Lygon St where we got rorted by a persuasive restaurant manager! Met up with Yoke and Di and headed over to Crown for supper and the hourly fire show!

Sun 31st Dec - Spent the day in Melb CBD. Went bike riding around the Yarra and after dinner at a Jap restaurant, headed over to Docklands to watch the 9pm fireworks. Turned out we weren't in the best vantage point but even so, we weren't overly impressed so headed back to Wilson's apartment to make sangria and watch the midnight fireworks on tv!

Mon 1st Jan - Cheungster and I headed down to Phillip Island for the day as the others had weddings and other things to do. Wasn't the best day weatherwise but we enjoyed amazing scenary and caught sight of all kinds of unexpected wildlife! Caught up with the others for supper at Crowns again before heading over to a Formule 1 Hotel in Fawkner to spend the night.

Tues 2nd Jan - Met up with Mike, Lulu and Charms at Wilson's place and headed off together to the Great Ocean Rd! It was a perfect day and the views were breathtaking! Stopped in Lorne for lunch and then Apollo Bay for a swim! Then headed on to the Twelve Apostles and I was completely blown away by the scenery!!! I was totally awestruck and spent all my time there lapping up the views and contemplating how awesome God is! We watched the sun set upon the apostles and then headed to Port Campbell for a pizza dinner before heading to a small village called Princetown to spend the night.

Wed 3rd Jan - Went for an early morning walk by the river near where we stayed. Then we headed back to the Twelve Apostles and decended Gibson's steps to the beach by the first two apostles. Next headed over to Loch Ard Gorge and after admiring the spectacular rock formations there, enjoyed a refreshing swim and explored this really cool beach side cave!

Thurs 4th Jan - Headed back to Sydney!

So all in all an awesome trip! Really enjoyed every second of it and just can't get over how amazing God's creation is! Really enjoyed getting to know ppl from church better and strengthening relationships, including one special one that deserves a blog of its own...!

Christmas, silent nights, and roadtrip!

2006-12-29T13:57:00.000+11:00

Hope you all had a merry Christmas spent with family and friends! This past week I've been working night shifts starting last Saturday night so at the moment I'm kinda disoriented as to what day it is and whether I should be awake or sleeping...not unlike some of the patients on the wards!

Christmas Eve we had a special carols service at church. We sang 10 carols with bible readings and lessons in between each one and a short message at the end. I'm really really happy with how the music team did with the 10 carols considering we had our first and final rehearsal that same afternoon! Good job team - thanks to God for your gifts!

Didn't make it to Christmas Day service cos was too zonked out (that's a cool word!), but all in all it's been a good week of nights. With only 2 wards to cover during this time of year, I've averaged 4-5 hours of good uninterrupted sleep each night! How's that - literally paid to sleep! But if I had it my way, I'd rather pay NOT to have worked over this past week...but what to do?!

Anyhow, the offset is that my super nice medical admin person gave me next week off as compensation and so I'm heading down to Melbourne early tomorrow morning at 6am (yup - knocking off work a bit early courtesy of the cool resident who will cover me!)! Going down with some church friends to meet up with some other church friends already there. So we'll spend NYE down there and then head off to do the Great Ocean Rd! Should be exciting!

...and maybe for more reasons than one... =P

And that's a wrap for 2006 - seeya all in the new year!

Random collection of...stuff!

2006-12-22T22:52:00.000+11:00

A random collection of stuff I've done in the last 10 days or so:

Hanging out with church friends! Has been awesome staying back at church for dinner, and seeing Casino Royale last Tues. Great to meet some newcomers too! Have really enjoyed getting to know ppl better!

Bike riding in the rain with a friend! Went for a ride to Port Botany hoping to do a bit of plane watching. Instead, I stacked it on the way there, the rain got quite heavy so we had to hide under a bridge from where we couldn't see any planes, and my friend punctured both her bike tyres! Maybe that wasn't the best day to go, but it was fun anyway!

Have been quite busy with music at church. Songlead at church for the first time last Sunday since I really can't remember when...quite enjoyed it actually! This Sunday's Christmas Eve service is going to be HUGE for the music team as we'll be singing 10 Christmas carols with short sermons/lessons interspersed between them. If you like carols, come along to St Mark's this Sunday 5pm!

Discovered Jimmy Eats World, another cool band Jon discovered a while ago that I found in his CD collection! Awesome songs include: For Me This is Heaven, Futures, Work, and Night Drive.

On a Gilmore Girls watching spree! Powered through the 2nd season on DVD and just started the 3rd season! Despite what you may think from the title, this isn't a series just for chicks! The witty dialogue and relationships are refreshing and keep me coming back for more! Makes me wonder if I'd ever wanna live in a small country town...

Still reading Dan Brown's Deception Point - highly recommended! Trying to stick to my read-thru-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan but slightly behind. Have just read Titus - lotsa pearls in there!

Lastly, work - did a week of evenings last week - not too bad! Loved having the daytime free and sleeping in! This week did geris! I actually really enjoyed it despite it being a busy week! I think I really love the multidisciplinary aspect of it! Next week doing a week of surgical nights 11pm-8.30am from Sat night till Sat morning.

So overall an amazing past fortnight really! I think in the last month or so I've really felt like work has stopped being all consuming energy sapping part of my life and that things have turned around! Whether I've felt tired or not I've thrown myself into doing different things, going out, doing crazy things! And I've loved every second! Bring it on!

'This could be the very minute I'm aware I'm alive...'

2006-12-11T15:33:00.000+11:00

If it's one thing I love, it has to be spontaneity! And what could be more spontaneous than deciding to go bike riding with a friend at 1am in the morning after Carols last Saturday night!

Maybe it was the caffeine... maybe it was because I was still glowing after an awesome Carols event... maybe it was because I thought 'what the heck, why not?!'

So off we went, stopping by the Mobil first to pump some air in our tyres. I was a bit wobbly still, having not ridden a bike since I can't really remember when. The air pump hose wasn't attached to the pump so we had to ask the kwik-e-mart guy for the hose. At first he refused, perhaps thinking what? That we were gonna run off with his hose??! Eventually some pleading and begging melted his resolve and soon we were on our way with pumped up tyres!

It was a nice ride under a full moon in warm weather and a cool breeze streaming in our faces. We reached the Centennial Park gates to find the main gates locked but we were able to slip in through the pedestrian gates. Don't know why, but it kinda felt like we weren't supposed to be in there. I mean, who goes bike riding at 1am in the morning in Centennial park?!

Without street lights and with the trees obscuring the moonlight, we had to rely on our makeshift bike headlamp - a camping style headlight strapped to the front of my bike - to guide us.

Then it was without warning that my friend suddenly said "Look! Lights! Ranger's coming! Let's get off the road!" Sure enough a jeep was approaching with flashing siren lights. So we kinda tried to go stealth, switching off our lights and heading over to the pedestrian walkway and the cover of some trees.

It was too late.

We were spotted!

The ranger called us over and we thought we had had it! We were gonna get kicked out of the park. Or maybe even fined!

Actually, the ranger was really nice and just wanted to make sure we were ok. He had spotted a group of 4 youths lingering around near one of the gates and just wanted to warn us to stay away from them.

Somewhat relieved but slightly alarmed as well, we thanked him and headed on our way.

We cycled uphill towards the Woollahra gates and turned right to follow a road towards where they have the moonlight cinema. Then we enjoyed a long downhill run back down to the main circuit! Ah...hadn't done that in a while! And certainly not at what was now 2am in the morning!!!

What can I say...it felt good to be alive! So good, I was ready to do it all over again the very next night... =P

Carols by Candlelight 2006!

2006-12-10T12:40:00.000+11:00

Wow! What an awesome week of annual leave and to top it off, an awesome weekend!!! Spent the rest of last week hanging out with my cuz mostly, playing golf, watching Open Season, and of course heaps of DVDs!

Then our church put on its second ever Carols by Candlelight on Sat night! Having missed last year's one cos of Gradball and having only seen photos of it, I wasn't quite sure what to expect but what a night it was!

We arrived just after lunch to help set up and to do a last minute run through rehearsal. Randwick Council had kindly provided a bigger stage and a marquee this year so we didn't have to fry in the hot arvo sun!

After sound checks and what not, we ran through the program. The drama team were running through their first and last rehearsal for the skit, which was rather frantic but it came together and the props were outstanding!!! Go the dual function outback dunny/ATM machine and the rusty holden ute!!!

Jon and I did a squishy run to 7/11 to recharge before the evening's program got underway! Around 5pm people stated rocking up and we had the BBQ, jumping castle, and kids games going! At 7pm some kids from Malabar Public did a few musical items as well as some dancing girls from some private dancing school. Then it was time for the carols and skits!

The program was much the same as last year but bigger and better! This year we had the NTE team on stage for a Hi-5 style kids song! We had santa who preached the gospel! It was all happening man and if you missed out this year you'll have to come back next year!!!

I think I spotted some angels!

There were apparently more people than last year and a real feel of community spirit! From what I hear there were great gospel conversations and God was really working in Malabar! Bring on Carols 2007!!!

A world away from Sydney...

2006-12-04T23:19:00.000+11:00

...and yet still in Sydney! The place I'm talking about is the Northern beaches, where my cousin and I took a spontaneous leisurely day trip today, the start of my 3rd week of annual leave!

Having just been up at Collaroy for houseparty, I thought it'd be nice to wander further up north and discover some of Sydney's hidden pearls! We hopped in the car and after listening to Snow Patrol's Eyes Open album once through, we had reached Collaroy!

We got out and stretched our legs before taking a walk to the hill at the southern end. This is the view we saw!

Next we headed up to Palm Beach, the hideaway of the rich and famous! By now the sun had come out and it was a glorious day to be outside! We grabbed some fish and chips from this cool general store that had heaps of Coca-cola memorabilia (Dr J you would've loved it!) and sat near the beach enjoying the sun! After we'd had way too much to eat, we fed the rest to the local ducks who showed their gratitude by doing their business almost on our slippers! Thanks alot!

After lunch we headed to Barronjoey lighthouse, only accessible by a short stroll on the beach and then a steep rugged walking track to the summit of Barronjoey headland. The walk was tough but soooooo worth it cos this is the view we had from the top!

Headed back down and stopped at Avalon beach for icecream before heading home! Felt like we had spent the day in some central coast beach side town but how lucky we are to have such wonders on our doorstep...

Evening church HP!

2006-12-03T22:41:00.000+11:00

Had an awesome weekend away at our annual evening church houseparty! We went to Collaroy Conference Centre up on the northern beaches on Friday night. I went with my pastor to lug all the music gear along.

We were the second people to arrive! Go figure! Set up all the gear and before we knew it, most people had come and we had our first talk from Dave, the speaker for the weekend. He spoke on Romans 8 and what it means to live as someone set free from sin to live for Christ. Afterwards we stayed up late playing Jenga, Take 2, and card games!

Saturday I woke up early and went for walk with Di and Sus to beach. It wasn't the best weather but it was so refreshing to be up early and enjoying the sight, smell and sounds of the beach. We made it back in time for brekky and just before the gathering clouds poured rain. After brekky we had bible study, talk, then free time. Despite thinking that we'd be stuck indoors, God swept away the clouds and provided with sun even for the 3 hours we had off!!! We went outside and played tennis, basketball, and baseball! And no sooner had we gone back indoors, it started raining again!!! Sat night was compulsory fun with a trivia/awards night and some funny games (guess what the game was in the photo!) This was followed by more fun playing Articulate, five hundred and other games into the early hours of the morning!

Sunday we had bible study and talk before packing up and heading back for 5pm church.

All in all a relaxing fun weekend and according to Andrew - the best houseparty ever!

I am...

2006-11-27T21:22:00.000+11:00

...listening to: Snow Patrol - Eyes Open! Totally awesome album - my bro introduced me to them a while ago but they're only really hitting the charts in Aus now, esp after that cool Grey's Anat music video of Chasing Cars!

...watching on TV: O.C. Season 4, Tripping Over, Survivor Cook Islands, The Apprentice.

...watching on DVD: GG Season 2, Scrubs Season 2.

...reading: Deception Point by Dan Brown, 1 Corinthians.

...playing on XBox: Dynasty Warriors 5, Battlefield 2:Modern Combat

...shopping for: new phone maybe??, keyboard/synth

So much to do...so little time...

You could be happy...

2006-11-23T21:29:00.000+11:00

Doing a week of evening shifts from 5-11pm this week has been great! It's meant I've had the daytime off and the shorter shifts have been easy to deal with. It's almost been like a semi-holiday...!

Monday - Picnic lunch at Bronte beach with med friends.

Tuesday - Watched The Prestige at Bondi followed by a yummy Jap lunch and shopping for pressies at Westfield with same med friends! Thanks guys for the unexpected pressie - not even my birthday!

Wednesday - Sleep in day + catchup on this week's compulsory TV viewing!

Today - Early start to drop cousin to airport before going back to bed. Woke up late to go to high school friend's place to watch the start of the Ashes! Had an awesome bbq and met one of his Unibuds friends, a Ukrainian fellow, studying psychology at UNSW. Had really interesting conversations with him about med (cos he's considering switching to med) and about life in general. Really refreshing to chat with someone with different perspectives on things and made me reflect on my own values, beliefs and motivations in life.

So after such a nice week so far, I've realised - hey - life isn't too bad! Life doesn't have to revolve around work. We work to live, not live to work! So how do I feel?

I feel revived...

I feel rejuvenated...

I feel content...

...I feel happy!

Sea by the Sculptures...

2006-11-18T21:13:00.000+11:00

The sky was a perfect blue today and as the rays of golden sunshine streamed in my bedroom window, I knew it was one day I wouldn't under any circumstances allow myself to stay indoors! I allowed myself the luxury of waking up slowly in bed, despite my bedside clock reading 11:05am, and even enjoyed reading the prologue to the next book I'm starting - Dan Brown's Deception Point.

After finally getting up, I decided that the perfect thing to do on such a nice day would be to finally see Sculptures by the Sea, something that I've been wanting to do for a while, but have never really gotten around to it in previous years...

Did a quick sms around and met up with some friends at Tamarama beach! Wow! So many people!!! And what a nice day to be outside! Already I started to admire some cool works of art and at the same time, begin to critique some which I thought "hmm...I think I could do that myself anyday!".

We grabbed a quick hot dog lunch before walking towards Bondi Beach enjoying the warm sun, the cool sea breeze, and of course the sculptures. I have to say there were some really cool ones! Had my camera along and my finger was going trigger happy! Since pictures speak a thousand words and I'm no expert on commenting on art, I'll let the ones I've posted here speak for themselves!

Got a very nice surprise when a friend I haven't seen in ages tapped me on the shoulder as we were walking past each other! Good to seeya again man!

All in all a very enjoyable day. Ended up with a nice red nose from thinking I am immune to sunshine and never get sunburnt! At least I got some Vitamin D!

Oh yeah - did I mention how many cups of FREE Lipton Ice Tea I had from the promotional store they were running?!

Some cool photos I took in Cairns!

2006-11-12T16:46:00.000+11:00

Nothing exciting lately...

2006-10-31T13:02:00.000+11:00

Just realised I haven't blogged for ages! A friend from church asked me recently what I had done over the past 2 weeks that was exciting and I had really struggled to come up with anything!

So, she convinced me to go out with a group of friends from church after dinner on Sunday night. We went to the Shangri-La Hotel for Sugar hit, a dessert promotion as part of October's Good Food Month. Had this chocolate layered mousse thing with raspberry something or other in a shot glass. Was really nice! But rather sweet...duh!?! Had a glass of red dessert wine, which was really nice and sweet. Had to fight the urge to scull the whole glass in one go!

Got home around 11:30pm and man it was hard getting up Monday morning at 6am! But worth it I have to say...

I really shouldn't use being tired as an excuse not to go out I've realised. To do so is the path to the old and boring side...

My diagnosis...the travel bug!

2006-10-23T16:10:00.000+10:00

It's been almost a month since returning from Cairns and I've diagnosed myself with the travel bug:

Name:
travellococcus buggis

Epidemiology:
Young people generally, no matter how cash strapped. Especially prevalent in those who have recently returned from travelling.

Pathology:
Lodges itself in patient's subconsciousness and multiplies, creating continuous yearning for travelling.

Clinical features:
Patient spends countless hours pouring over travel magazines, travel guides, browsing online travel websites, visiting travel agencies...etc. Exaggerated features in Asian patients who have tendencies to accept nothing but the CHEAPEST deal!

Management:
Book patient's airfares, arrange accommodation, car hire and activities, and transfer them urgently to the nearest airport. Organise annual leave +/- ADOs for patient.

Someone please cure me!!!

Too busy to pee...

2006-10-15T21:16:00.000+10:00

Wow!!! Can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I got back from Cairns and since my last blog! Time flies but I haven't really been having much fun...

Surgery at Campbelltown has been super-duper-not-even-time-to-pee busy since coming back! Out of the three surgical teams, I've been averaging a patient load of double the amount of the other two teams put together! Hit a peak of 27 patients mid week which is reminiscent of my days doing aged care at Bankstown where that was almost the norm. Had surgery every single day last week which equals heaps of new patients, less time to do ward work, and leaving work late =( On top of that I had to work yesterday, thus cutting my precious weekend by half! Not to mention I had to assist in surgery until 11pm last night...

I guess I can't complain. The surgical registrars at Campbelltown have to work 36 hr shifts 1 in 4 days. That's crazy man!!! Now why on earth would anyone wanna do surgery?!?!

Oh well...GP land here I come hehehe =)

Cairns was AWESOME!

2006-10-01T23:00:00.000+10:00

Just got back from a 1 week holiday in Cairns with family and a cousin! Had an awesome time over the 8 days and 7 nights we spent there! Here's a quick summary:

Day 1 - Arrived in Cairns, picked up rental car and checked in at 2 bedroom apartment. Then went for scenic walk called the "Red Arrow Walk" near Cairns Botanical Gardens during which we enjoyed views of Cairns city, Double Island off Palm Cove and the inviting aquamarine waters of the Coral Sea. Then headed to the Esplanade for a walk before going grocery shopping at the local Coles to stock up on snacks!

Day 2 - Took a scenic cable car ride up to the village of Kuranda on the Atherton Tablelands. Enjoyed 2 stops along the way up and walks along rainforest boardwalks, one offering views of the spectacular Barron Falls. Reached Kuranda and visited the local markets there, the Koala Sanctuary and enjoyed some local made icecream! Then took the scenic railway back down to Cairns.

Day 3 - Went on a day cruise to the outer Great Barrier Reef. Wasn't the best of days to visit the reef as it was overcast threatening rain and rather windy, meaning choppy waters and a bumpy catamaran ride! That in turn resulted in myself, my bro and cousin puking for the most part of the day unfortunately limiting our enjoyment of one of the modern wonders of the world! Did manage to go snorkelling though and once I got the hang of it - how to breathe in and out of the tube through my mouth (sounds easier than it is...!) - I was able to enjoy spotting various fish out of Finding Nemo and other reef marine life! Also tried scuba diving but got down to a measly 1 metre below the surface when panic gripped me and I gave the thumbs up to my diving instructor signalling I wanted to surface! So yeah...maybe scuba diving isn't for me!

Day 4 - Went on a self-drive around the Atherton Tablelands. Visited towns like Mareeba (the coffee capital of Australia), Atherton (once populated by Chinese goldminers!), and scenic waterfalls along the Millaa Millaa waterfall circuit. Alot of driving but all in all a nice day!

Day 5 - Went on another cruise (hehehe - you think once would've been enough eh!) to Green Island on what was a much better day. The catamaran we went on this time was also bigger and the water alot calmer so trip was thankfully puke free! Enjoyed the resort facilities at Green Island and the warm clear blue/green waters! Went on a glass-bottom boat ride and an eco tour around the Island.

Day 6 - Went on a self-drive up to Port Douglas (the retreat for many celebrities), the spectacular Mossman Gorge, and across the Daintree River to visit the Daintree Rainforest! Again a lot of driving but very scenic for most of the way along the coastal road up from Cairns!

Day 7 - Visited Rusty's Markets in Cairns before heading up to Wangetti (halfway between Port Douglas and Cairns) to Hartley's Creek Crocodile Adventure Park. Really enjoyed the afternoon program on offer including the crocodile farming talk, snake show, boat cruise, crocodile attack show, cassowary feeding and koala feeding. Took some awesome photos and videos of crocs - crikey!

Day 8 - Visited the Outback Opal Mine centre and then the scenic Palm Cove where we found some beach chairs along the beach owned by one of the resorts and relaxed on them enjoying the cool breeze and spectacular views! Then spent the afternoon hunting for a nice place to have mud crabs, found one that looked decent but then were disappointed that they weren't actually as good as the ones we get back in Sydney. Oh well...! Caught the last flight home and got back to Sydney around 10pm!

And that's about it!

The whole week went quick but at the same time my whole 2 weeks annual leave felt like a long relaxing break!

I think I can now face the 8 or so weeks until my next week of leave...!

Young hearts run free...

2006-09-22T17:31:00.000+10:00

Got this off Queenie's blog...

Guess it proves what I've known all along - that I'm still immature and young and heart! Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing...??! I'm apparently 18 at heart...I think I feel that young! And just about every other patient and staff member at work does comment daily on how young I look and how amazing it is that I'm already a doctor! I guess I should take it as a compliment but I think some people find it difficult to take you seriously when you look so young...

Anyhow, give it a go for yourself!

You Are 18 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Glorious Day!!!

2006-09-19T14:09:00.000+10:00

What can I say?! Today is like the perfect day! The sun is shining. Birds chirp happily. There's a slight cool breeze to complement the warm rays of sunshine. I wish every day was like this...!

So what am I doing at home then?! Enjoying my first week of annual leave for the year! Have been busy planning our itinerary for Cairns. Figure if I do the hard work now, won't have to wonder what to do each day cos it'll all be figured out already! Think I will go for a run to Coogee beach later this afternoon when it's not so hot. Maybe grab an icecream and lie on the beach or grass and day dream about stuff...!

24 hours and counting...!!!

2006-09-14T21:20:00.000+10:00

Won't bore you with what's been going on at work because well...it's been pretty boring!

Am excited though by the prospect of taking annual leave for the first time this year in little over 24 hours!!! Will be taking 2 weeks off. I'm basically spending the first week bumming around and sleeping in (my favourite pastime!). Then will be taking off with family and cousin to Cairns for 8 days!!!

Very very exciting cos having lived in Australia all my life, I realise that I have actually seen very very little of its natural wonders! In fact, I think I can count the places in Australia that I've been with my fingers!

Been spending the last couple of days working out what there is to do in Cairns and its surroundings and which cruise to take to the Great Barrier Reef! Also whether to try scuba diving or just snorkel!

Really hoping to see some turtles!

Happy to be in scrubs...!

2006-09-07T21:02:00.000+10:00

It's week 2 of my surgical term at Campbelltown and all in all, things have been good! Despite the early starts and long drives to and fro each day, I think I'm actually beginning to enjoy my surgical term!

Realised today how comfortable it is to wear scrubs around hospital all day!!! It's like wearing your pyjamas - soooo comfy - maybe even more so!!! Don't think I'd wear them at home though... =P

Things that lift my spirit today at work:
1. chatting with lovely 72 year old lady who's been in hospital for way too long recovering from a left hemicolectomy,

2. getting to assist in surgery,

3. draining 2 litres from a nice Scottish fellow's HUGE bladder after inserting an indwelling catheter - somehow soooo satisfying!

4. kicking out 2 of my patients and surprisingly a third at the end of the day, when one patient actually asked if he could go home since he felt so well - I had no objections to that!

5. patient list back to single digit figure!

I didn't even mind staying back 40 mins...!

God does answer prayers! =)

After hours antics!

2006-08-31T20:41:00.000+10:00

Was on rostered overtime at Campbelltown last night with Jaz. We were both run off our feet despite thinking it'd be cruisy since there's only 3 wards to cover between the 2 of us there.

Finally cleared the boards on the medical and surgical wards around 10pm when we decided to head over to the psych unit to review a patient. They had called us earlier that evening to see this guy who had apparently decided to start banging his head against a concrete wall repeatedly and who now had headache, vomiting and blurred vision. We had been kinda delaying seeing him because:

1. who wants to see a crazy psych patient right before ending a shift?
2. didn't fancy the guy getting agro or something towards us...
3. going to the psych unit actually involves leaving the main hospital complex and trudging a hundred or so metres in the cold and dark...

Anyhow, since we could no longer give any excuses as to why we still hadn't reviewed the patient, we decided the 2 of us should be able to handle this psych patient.

Turns out the guy hadn't banged his head against a wall, but had just punched himself in the forehead with his fists. Ok...so maybe not so crazy but still crazy! He said that he had been hearing voices and wanted them to stop. Fair enough I guess... We did the most rudimentary neuro exam and decided that he was "medically stable". Said goodnight to the psych staff and thought that our busy shift had finally come to an end.

That was until we got back to the entrance to the hospital to find it locked.

The sign on the door said "After hours please ring bell <----" Except that there was no bell to ring! Jaz and I searched around the doorway looking for a swipey card access thingy or something to let ourselves in but to no avail...

Ended up calling switch and explaining our predicament. We could hear switch explaining our situation to someone else and probably thinking "Those silly interns...!!" For some reason or other, security had something better to do than come and let us in so they told us to find the tunnel leading from the psych unit to the main hospital block.

Jaz and I looked at each other blankly and laughed!

Somehow they expected us to find what sounded like some obscure secret passageway leading from the psych unit to the main hospital block in the dark!

We trudged back over to the psych unit and actually found the tunnel straight away. We followed it to its end to find a door. Another locked door!

By this time we were thinking about just walking all the way around the hospital to the main entrance at the front. But amidst our aimless wandering, we spotted 2 doors with swipey card access thingies next to them! Tried the first door and but the stupid reader denied us access. Tried the second door and hey presto! It opened without even having to swipe a card! So much for security!

Thence ended a long and tiring day. To top things off, I spent the night in a freezer that is Campbelltown Hospital's overnight accommodation for its medical officers. The bed only had one blanket a sheet and by golly I was shivering all throughout the night...! There was a fan heater there but when I turned it on, the fan wasn't working and the element began to light up real bright and I seriously thought the heater would blow up so I quickly turned it off...

The 1.5 hrs of driving each day are definitely worth it...

Campbelltown Hospital!

2006-08-29T20:51:00.000+10:00

I'm actually at home at the moment! And boy is it good to be home!

Today was my second day at Campbelltown, my first on the wards after a day of orientation yesterday. Have decided not to stay in the accommodation there but to drive every day instead cos it only takes 45 mins door to door! But I must say, the long drive really does feel long even though it's only an extra 20 mins from Bankstown. Anyhow, I think it's worth the drive to and fro each day to be able to sleep in my own bed and have the comforts of home!

I'm doing general surgery down there but today was a non-surgical day so I basically bludged most of the day! Finished the ward round with my reg by 8.30am and then did a few tasks before heading for the RMO lounge to hang. Man I have absolutely no problems with doing that for the next 10 weeks! But I guess I should bring a book to read or something cos it does get boring just watching the clock to tick down to 5pm.

Tomorrow I've got an evening shift so will have to camp overnight in Campbelltown...

The emergency's over!

2006-08-27T12:10:00.000+10:00

Yay yay yay yay yay!!! My emergency term's over! No more nights for a while. No more weird shift work. No more having to deal with a particular staff specialist. No more having to deal with patients I have no idea how to deal with!

Ah...all I can say is what a relief! But to be fair, ED wasn't too bad. In the end I felt a lot more comfortable and like I kinda knew what I was doing. In the end, the night shifts were actually the ones I enjoyed the most because of less pressure, less people to deal with in terms of trying to admit a patient, and cos there's this really cool CMO who's on at night most of the time. So yeah, in retrospect, it wasn't all as bad as I might have made it out to be.

Now have to look forward to next term...general surgery at Campbelltown Hospital. Man I feel so insecure with my knowledge of surgery...I hope I don't look like a total dumbass! Like seriously, I can't even remember how to scrub properly and perhaps my greatest fear is stuffing up in some way in the operating theatre, eg by contaminating a sterile field, or dropping an instrument or something! But in all likelihood, I'll just be holding a retractor most of the time so how hard can that be right?! But I'm just getting over a cold at the moment so I hope I don't cough up gunk into a patient's open stomach or sneeze into my consultant's face or something! But I've heard that the surgeon I'm attached to is really cool and even a Christian! So I hope that might make things easier...

Anyhow, gotta have lunch now... I'll probably stay out at Campbelltown most of the week and come back home on weekends so hope to see you then!

Mission accomplished!

2006-08-18T22:27:00.000+10:00

Well the letter arrived in the post today. Unannounced. Unexpected. Nervously I tore open the envelope, not sure whether to do it slowly, dreading the unthinkable, or whether to just rip it open and get it over and done with...

I got an offer of a GP training position with SIGPET!!! And what's even better is two good buddies got in as well to the same training provider! What people said was soooooooo difficult to accomplish has been accomplished! And all I can say is: what a relief! 29/33 was always good odds but man you just have to imagine yourself being one the four who missed out and your heart just sinks! Ah well...I'm just glad I got in to the one I wanted so I hopefully don't have to do my training too far away from home.

I guess all that hard work of bribing referees (hehehe) and whatever mumbo jumbo came out of my mouth in the interview was enough...

People of Sydney...watch out!!!

On another happy note, I did my last day shift in emergency today! It was great cos I had two super nice specialists on. It sucked cos a patient (not mine) came in with Meningococcal meningitis, initially looked well, but soon became a resus pt and despite all our efforts (mine involved running to Pathology/Blood bank to collect Cryo and FFP), the 18 year old pt died.

Understandably, there were tears in the department...

Time flies when you're having fun?!

2006-08-16T19:54:00.000+10:00

Man I've been lazy with this blog! What've I been up to since I last wrote 9 days ago...???

Work's been busy. Have been slowly counting down my shifts in the emergency department - just 2 day shifts and 4 night shifts to go!!! What can I say? Some days are really really busy and I have no idea what I'm doing.... Some days are actually quite interesting and pleasant when there aren't patients pouring through the door, the patients are actually sick and should be at hospital, and the staff specialists and CMOs are nice enough to help me out (= tell me what on earth's wrong with my patient and what to do next!). But all in all, I think I'll just have a huge sense of relief when it's all over! I miss brainless ward work!

When I haven't been at work, I've been busy applying for jobs for next year and trying to get a training position with a General Practice training provider. I've applied for RMO jobs at POW and Bankstown - finally finished all necessary documents and uploaded them on Monday. Had an interview with SIGPET training provider on Monday morning in Balmain. Interview went alright...I was kinda um-ming and ah-ring my way through the interview but hopefully what I said sounded good enough for the interviewers! I guess a 29/33 shot isn't too bad odds! I find out if I've got a training position next week!!!

Other than that, I've been busy with church stuff as well! Chaired my first church meeting on Sunday! Was kinda nervous and spoke really fast as I tend to do sometimes but I got some positive feedback so that was encouraging! I guess there's a first time for everything and you only get better with practice! Then I've got my Preliminary Theological Certificate (PTC) exam on the book of Romans coming up on Monday and I've only covered half the course so far!!! Looks like I'll be in for some cramming on the weekend!!!

So yeah...not sure if I've been having fun but time has certainly been flying by...!

Busy busy busy!

2006-08-07T17:02:00.000+10:00

Well another week goes by and it's been a great one! Had 3 and a half days off last week and mostly spent it with my aunty and cousins from Malaysia.

On Wednesday we had a nice fish and chips lunch at La Perouse followed by a full round of golf at Randwick Golf Course since my aunty's a golf fanatic! She loved the scenery at the course, even if it wasn't that well maintained.

On Thursday went to the city for lunch at a really nice Japanese place called Musashi next to Capitol Theatre with my godmother and aunty. Was kinda weird going out with 2 aunties but I love playing the host! We walked all around the city visiting Hyde Park and the memorial there and doing a bit of window shopping before having coffee at Myers.

On Friday went for a drive with aunty and cousin to Miranda Westfield. Had lunch in the food court there before walking around doing more window shopping!

So yeah - busy 3 days or so but really really enjoyed them and much better than sitting at home doing nothing like I probably would've done otherwise! Just finished 3 night shifts in a row. They weren't actually too bad and I'm really starting to like them actually even though I have always dreaded them.

Got a busy 2 weeks or so coming up. I got a interview with SIGPET, one of the Sydney GP training providers!!! That gives me a 29/32 chance of getting a place and I have an interview next Monday morning! Also have to apply for my Resident Medical Officer job for next year as applications to all hospitals close on 18th August so reminder to myself - get cracking! Will apply for Prince of Wales Hospital and Bankstown and don't really mind if I get offers to either.

In the midst of all that, busy with church things as well. Just finished preparing my last 2 bible studies on 2 Corinthians and will be chairing church for the first time this Sunday plus I'm on music this week. So busy busy busy!

Do you ever just wanna SCREAM?!

2006-07-30T19:10:00.000+10:00

Haven't written for a while...does that mean the time has flown by or that I've just been too lazy to write? Probably a bit of both...

Last week did a week of nights. Wasn't too bad. Some nights were really quiet. One in particular was a total nightmare. Got to do some suturing finally and my crowning achievement had to be cannulating a 2 year old baby!

Today the emergency department was once again a total madhouse. It was as if everyone in Sydney woke up and decided they'd pay a visit to Bankstown Hospital ED! And by gosh there was no shortage of stooooooooopid presentations! I won't give examples...starting to get worked up just thinking about them...

On a happier note, got to spend time with my cousin and aunty from Malaysia yesterday. Took them to Bankstown to have Vietnamese noodles my aunty was craving and then we went for a drive down south to Wollongong to visit the Nan Tien Buddhist temple. Really really pretty and serene! Took heaps of photos until my battery ran out! Then on the way back met my bro and other cousin for dinner in Hurstville where we had yummy seafood for dinner! So all in all a nice day!

One more day in the madhouse tomorrow and then I have 3.5 days off... yay!

Long time no blog...

2006-07-22T13:14:00.000+10:00

Wow haven't blogged for like 10 days...so what have I been up to?

Not much really...just worked 6 out of the last 8 days so I guess alot of work. Nice to finally have some quality time to rest and relax. During the week it's usually just so hectic at work that I come home totally wasted and since I'm working 10 hr shifts now, that doesn't leave much time for anything else. Basically get home, have dinner, veg for a bit in front of tv and then hey it's time to sleep already! And so the same routine occurs day after day...how depressing...

On a slightly happier note, my GP application appears to be going well. I've applied for SIGPET first and IGPE second (acronyms for 2 of the 3 GP training organisations in Sydney) and based on the reports of my 3 referees I was ranked in the top 10-20% of candidates ie band 2. That gives me a fair shot of getting an intervew with SIGPET or IGPE so fingers crossed...! Funny though...cos I'm not even sure that I wanna be a GP yet, but I guess we'll see...

Have an aunty and cousin sister over from Malaysia at the moment. My cousin is coming to study at UTS as part of a twinning program for 2 years here. They've been here before so will have to think of new places to take them...anyone got any suggestions?!

Good to be a kid again...

2006-07-13T15:32:00.000+10:00

This week I had 4 awesome days off from Monday to Thursday! Despite thinking initially that I'd have nothing to do for 4 whole days, I realised that this week our church was running Kid's Club 2006, a school holiday program for kids!

After spending Monday at home watching TV all day in the form of the World Cup final and some compulsory viewing leftover from last week, I was all ready to get outside and help out at Kid's Club!

The program started on Tuesday and we had around 20 kids. This year the Club theme was 'Around the World', each day being focussed on the culture of a different country. We started with Australia since it IS the best country on earth! The gospel theme for the day was that God created the world and we had stories, puppet shows, singing, games, memory verses, and craft that were used to teach the kids. It was great that by the end of the day, most of the kids seemed to have remembered this main point!

On Wednesday, the theme country was Mexico and myself and Thomas dressed up as Mexican amigoes enjoying an afternoon siesta (which is what I feel like having just about now!). The gospel theme was how all mankind has sinned and that God's punishment for sin is death. Although it was a pretty serious topic, the kids seemed to grasp the main point and the seriousness of it. Other fun things we did included doing a Mexican hat dance, and making a traditional Mexican toy!

Today was the last day that I could attend even though the program finishes tomorrow. The theme country today was Japan and a number of leaders were sporting ninja headbands, karate outfits and traditional kimonos! The gospel topic was that Jesus died to save us and this was well taught via Liz's storyboard. We went down to the park as well to play parachute and stuck in the mud and by the end of the day we were all exhausted!

The last few days have been just such a lift for me. In a time when work has been challenging and I haven't always been in the brightest of spirits, helping out at Kid's Club really helped me remember what's important and valuable in life and gave me so much encouragement both from the kids and the other leaders. It reminded me how much I love working with kids and perhaps that's what I want to spend the rest of my life doing...

Any ordinary day?

2006-07-08T23:59:00.000+10:00

Twas my birthday today...though by the end of it, it more or less felt like any ordinary day... Got up late having watched the tennis the night before. My bro and mum ran into my room to wish me happy birthday and give me presents - what a nice start to the day!

We then went out for lunch in Hurstville before I had to head off to work for an afternoon ED shift. And whilst I was in the car I started wondering...'Man I wish I had today off! Why didn't I try harder to swap shifts and get it off?'. Then I started wondering about why birthdays are special and I concluded that I wasn't really sure...

What makes birthdays something to be celebrated? What makes it our special day, where everyone congratulates you and you suddenly seemingly become the centre of the universe? I suppose there's the significance of having reached another milestone in your life...another year to add to the tally...or to some people, another year closer towards getting older and older and older...perhaps without having accomplished too much, or not having accomplished what one would have liked or expected...?

Well today at work it was like any other day. I definitely did NOT want people at work to know it was my birthday...perhaps cos I didn't want them to sing to me (which by the way I find kinda uncomfortable about each year...whether it's just my family or a whole bunch of people...)? But at the same time, thanks to my family who made the few hours before and after work special, and the people who called and sent messages. Special thanks to Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem from England who called whilst I was at work but I wasn't home to talk to.

Work turned out to be one of my cruisiest shifts ever! Got home just before midnight to cut the cake my mum had baked for me and to enjoy the women's final of Wimbledon. And just like that my birthday was over...was it just another ordinary day...?

Days off are good! =)

2006-07-04T23:01:00.000+10:00

Ah...how nice it was to wake up today without having to worry about jumping out of bed to rush out the door to work! I love being able to take my time waking up...sometimes even picking up one of the many books piled beside my bed to read if I can keep at least one eye open without too much effort...

After much thought, I think that's just about the only thing I like about this emergency term so far... Working four 10-hr days per week rather than five 8-hr days means more days off and that can only be a good thing! ...which makes me wonder...if I'm so happy not to be at work, does that mean I don't like work???

Hmm...maybe it's just this ED term...the unpredictability of each shift...not knowing what will walk in the door next... Yes I know, I say 'what' when referring to patients coming in the door...is that a bad sign too??? Sometimes it's just so frustrating dealing with some patients...actually most of the patients I've seen so far...that one can't help but label them by what postulated disease they may have just out of spite - to the CMO..."uh Dr so and so, I have absolutely no idea what to do with my left-upper-quadrant-abdo-pain-guy-who-says-he-hasn't-peeed-for-2-days-guy...could you sort him out for me? Pretty please??!" On the other hand I have met some really nice people and man the kids and babies I've seen - SOOOOOOOO cute!!! Kinda scary not knowing what to do with them too but I kinda wanna take them home with me!

Man I feel so dumb and inadequate this term! Whereas I was confidently prowling the wards last term, doing ward rounds on my own, pretty sure of my stuff, now I find myself without much idea for most of the patients coming in ED and looking like a complete idiot and dumbass when I present dodgy cases to the CMO or staff specialist! Luckily most of them are really nice and don't expect me to know too much...still...

Makes me wonder about how I'll survive in GP land...if that's what I really want to do...

The Perfect Guy/Girl?!

2006-06-30T12:02:00.000+10:00

My cousin sis sent me this pic a while back...actually the original e-mail had 4 pictures above this one of 4 'perfect guys' doing chores, giving their wives massages etc etc. You can imagine that this pic following those 4 would've had a bit more impact than this one on it's own...

So what is a guy's perspective on all this???

Well I guess just like most girls, most guys probably fantasise about their 'perfect gal'. And whilst girls may fantasise about perfect guys who will be attentive to their every need and do all the housework etc, I think it'd be fair to say that most guys fantasise about probably just one thing...

Now sure you may argue that guys' and girls' fantasies are different and girls' fantasies are generally more innocent, whilst guys' fantasies are generally lustful... I think the point is though, that fantasies are nothing more than self-indulgences. If I were a girl, I'd be abhorred to imagine every guy I walked past fantasising about me. Being a guy, I'm abhorred to think that girls could ever expect their perfect guy to be just that...perfect!

I guess it's not really realistic to go around with a checklist of pre-requisites and criteria that define your perfect guy/gal. Looking for a partner isn't like shopping for a car or house! I've always thought that when you do find the right partner, all those criteria and pre-requisites (bar some) would go out the window anyhow.

But on the other hand I think you do need to assess a person's character, attitudes and personality to decide if he/she is appropriate to pursue a relationship with. This I think is different to ticking boxes off a checklist of pre-requisites. It's spending time with the person to see if they share similar goals and attitudes with you, and if they are, dare I say for lack of a better word, "compatible". And being a guy, I'm ashamed of it, but I can be the first to admit that I do struggle with giving a girl's character/attitudes/personality a higher priority than her looks.

At the end of the day, surely searching for a partner isn't about what you get out of it yourself but how you can serve and care for the other person? And I think that is the core problem when we go about looking for Mr/Miss Right. We go about looking for who's best for ME, rather than what I can offer and how I can serve the other person. We think about how it'd be nice to have someone to snuggle with ME, someone to comfort ME when I feel all alone... That person should actually be called Mr/Miss Right-for-ME...

But sure, as I go to more and more weddings, see my friends all with partners, and keep on hearing my parents ask me "So have you met any nice girls lately?", I do wonder impatiently...when will my turn come to meet the girl God has planned for me? But then I think about it and remember that yes, God does have a plan for me and I have to trust that plan. In the meantime, my job is to work on my character, attitudes and bad habits and to look for ways to serve my sisters in Christ. It is no small thing to ask a girl to accompany me through life. I pray that one day God will grant me the responsibility and privilege of caring for and serving a girl for the rest of my life...

We were robbed I tell you...ROBBED!!!

2006-06-27T17:27:00.000+10:00

What a tragedy! What a cruel way to exit the World Cup! After what was a super performance by Australia in the group round, once again the FIFA referees have robbed us of the chance to make it to the next round! Can they not get anything right? The refereeing of the Australia vs Croatia match was an absolute disgrace! We should've easily won that match if ref Graham Poll had had his eyes checked before the match so that he would've seen the clear foul on Viduka in the penalty box and later the obvious hand ball by a Croatian defender in their box! Then last night - oh my gosh! It was the dying seconds of the match and this time the ref was a mere couple of metres away and he STILL got it wrong!!! Lucas Neill was clearly on the ground having missed his tackle and that Italian guy obviously tripped purposely over Neill hoping to be awarded the penalty! And the ref obliged... Australia, I don't think I have to tell you that a great injustice was done... I guess at the end of the day, you win some and you lose some...

But credit has to be given where it is due and the Socceroos really did exceed all expectations after being given a lousy draw in the first place having to play Brazil and then Italy in the round of 16! All I can say is that they put all their heart and soul and effort into each of their performances and are true Aussie champions! We can now be recognised as a force to be reckoned with and this World Cup has done wonders to lift the status of soccer in Australia!

Watch out! South Africa 2010 - here we come...

New Term, New Instrument!

2006-06-22T16:02:00.000+10:00

"Why are there so many guitars in the house?!!!" yells my mum, complaining that they are cluttering up the house...

My bass guitar arrived yesterday!!! Bought it off Ebay from a guy in Brisbane and it arrived here nicely packaged and in one piece yesterday arvo whilst I was at work. It's a really nice Fender (Japan) Vintage '62 P-bass in a 3 tone Sunburst colour! That description probably means nothing most people so in plain english, it's a medium of the range, pretty nice sounding bass guitar!

So why did I suddenly decide I wanted to learn bass and buy a guitar? Well it all started out with a friend who wanted to learn and I thought, well hey maybe I want to learn too! Then a few weeks at church I was asked to play bass last minute...even though I didn't know how...and somehow with my limited skills in acoustic guitar, managed to figure out the notes on the bass and bumble my way through one of the songs! And I thought...hey this isn't too hard!!! So there you go...I have a bass!

Now just gotta learn how to play it... =P

On a less exciting note, have done 2 shifts of ED so far and have surprisingly settled in really quick into my new role. Everyone's been really nice so far and really helpful in getting me orientated as to how things are done in the hectic ED! Saw about 4 patients on my first shift, and 6 yesterday so, so far, so good!

Next set of shifts is days this Sat-Mon...

A side, B side, Seaside

2006-06-18T14:30:00.000+10:00

YAY!!! My week of nights is finally OVER!!! So glad to get back to normal routine and eating patterns. I have to say though, this time round the week of nights seemed to go quicker and was more bearable than my first lot. Don't know whether it was because I took a different approach to my sleeping pattern, or because I did a proper ward round at the start of my shift meaning that I didn't get paged as much, or simply cause the World Cup was on and I had something to watch all through the night! I really think the latter was a major factor now that I think about it...something I won't be able to enjoy next time around. 9 hrs is a long time to kill and this time around I didn't want to sleep during my shift cause last time I found it to be not really refreshing and meant I couldn't sleep properly during the day. So anyhow...just really glad second lot is over!

Went out yesterday with Jimbo, Carmen and her friend Frankie to see a Honkie movie at George St called 'A side, B side, Seaside'! It was one of two sessions of that movie being played as part of the 53rd Sydney Film Festival. It was not your typical honkie movie and was rather thoughtfully produced. Many of the scenes felt familiar even to one who hadn't grown up in Hong Kong and there were several memorably funny scenes! Cause I can't be bothered to write a spiel about what the film's all about, I'll just copy paste the one from the Sydney Film Festival website:

"The story of two girls' farewell to their 17 years of youth. In two parts, just like two sides of a movie disk, the film tells the separate but intertwined stories of Chen Tian and Ah Mel. Chen Tian is a schoolgirl about to leave for Beijing for college, who decides to spend an unforgettable trip with her best friends in the fishing village of Cheung Chau, where she discovers love for the first time. Ah Mei, a girl who's had a tough time in the big city, returns to the village to revisit her past. She finds herself reuniting with two boys from her childhood. The fresh performances from the young actors, combined with Ah Chiu's deft direction, perfectly capture the fun, enthusiasm and romance in this enjoyable coming of age movie."

So there you have it! If you wanna check it out, the second screening is on this Wednesday at 6:40pm George St Cinemas. Go see it!

Socceroos - Australia salutes you!!!!!

2006-06-13T10:45:00.000+10:00

Got to work excited and on time for the first time out of all my night shifts ever! The reason - to see the Socceroos take on Japan!!! Forget about handover. Forget about the wards. Ignore the pager. Nothing was gonna stop me watching this game to the very end. And how glad I am that I watched right to the end!

After that dodgy goal by Japan in the 26th minute when they blatantly fouled our goalie Schwarzer, I thought I'd be happy if they could just draw. What happened in the 83rd, 89th and 92nd minutes were beyond belief and had myself, the night med reg, and the night surg reg jumping off the couches and hugging each other dancing wildly around the common room! Amazing how many feelings a 90min game of soccer can evoke and I could almost feel the nation celebrating as one after each goal! Man I was even crying tears of joy by the end...such was my disbelief at the almost magical ending!

Some people may laugh and wonder what all the fuss is about and how others can get so emotionally involved in what is just a sport, just a game. But what happened tonight was not just a game...it was a defining moment in Australian history. A moment when we burst onto the world soccer scene as a nation and announced in typical gutsy Australian fashion to the rest of the world "BRING IT ON!!!"

Came home this morning and watched my taped replay of the match and the goals at least 10 times! The first goal may have been a fluke but Timmy Cahill's second and Aloisi's third were quality! Pure quality! And who can forget our mate and honorary Australian, Guus! He may have buggered up the first half but his tactics and substitions in the second half were pure genius! Guus mate - you're a legend!

Next stop, world champions Brazil. No worries! We can DO IT!

Socceroos - I salute you!

Empty corridors...

2006-06-11T21:55:00.000+10:00

Sitting at home watching the clock tick away...40 mins till I have to leave home for my second night of nights!

Last night was really busy - took me 3 hrs just to do one round of all 8 wards before I finally got to have a few hours rest. In amongst the chest pains, febrile patients, and absconders in the middle of the night, I actually got to watch some of the World Cup! Didn't feel too sleepy at all, courtesy of a 4 hr sleep yesterday afternoon. Gonna try staying awake after each shift and sleeping between 1pm and 9pm or something like that. Will then try staying awake throughout most of my shift rather than trying to scrap together a few hrs of sleep here and there which won't be effective and refreshing anyway. Somehow I have a feeling this approach to this second set of nights will mean I don't find it as bad as my first ever set of nights.

I wonder what tonight holds install for me besides empty corridors...

The end is here...sigh...

2006-06-09T16:02:00.000+10:00

The day is here...the moment I've dreaded...the end of my Respiratory Medicine term...

10 weeks of mostly less than a handful of patients literally, and most of the day to surf the net, sleep in the library, and basically getting paid to bludge...alas my honeymoon is about to end!

I suppose it's about time too. I was kinda getting bored by finding things to do for 5-6 hrs a day! However, there's no way I'd want to be as busy as I was during my Aged Care term.

Got a week of nights coming up...I can honestly say the only good thing about it being next week is that it coincides with the start of the World Cup and that means I'll have something I actually want to watch in the early hours of the morning! I think I'm gonna try a new tactic this time round to minimise getting called every 15mins! Think I'll do a thorough ward round as soon as I start my shift and then one before finishing off in the morning. I figure that way, I can justifiably ask that I not be paged (except for emergencies) between say 2am and 6am. Perhaps I might be able to get some decent sleep each night or catch up on some soccer! Also thinking about maybe not going to sleep straight after going home each morning but perhaps staying up a while and sleeping from 1pm till 9 pm or so and going to work fresh each night. I guess we'll see how we go!

After that dreaded week of nights, I'll be starting my Emergency term which I can only imagine will be hell on earth! *sigh*...why'd I ever become a doctor...???

I wish...

2006-06-05T12:01:00.000+10:00

It's midday and my stomach is rumbling...again...I wish it'd stop...

Pouring down rain today - nice to be in bed, not so nice to be outside...I wish I was in bed...

Only have 2 patients on my list today...I wish I had more...

Finished e-mailing already...I wish I had something to do for the next 5 hrs...

Working rostered overtime this evening...I wish I didn't have to...

*Sigh*...I wish...

Fully sick on my ADO!

2006-06-03T19:17:00.000+10:00

Had an ADO yesterday but got gastro from my family!!! First mum got it, then Jon, then dad and finally myself! Had been nauseous all night and finally let it all out in the morning when I could take it no longer. Vomiting is one of those symptoms you feel equivocal about...on the one hand you want to vomit cos you know it'll make you feel better after, but on the other hand, you really don't want to cos you know it's gross and tastes disgusting! When it finally came up, it actually really hurt and I thought 'this must be what it feels like to rupture your oesophagus!' but the pain subsided so it was ok. Afterwards felt a bit better, although not 100 percent. Got up and went downstairs to lie on couch with heater on cos bed for some reason felt cold. I think I had chills and probably a fever as well. Felt really really weak and lethargic like all my energy had been sucked out of me. Pretty much spent all day sleeping on couch taking Buscopan for stomach rumbling. Come evening, had some congee for dinner and kinda felt better, less weak and lethargic.

Overnight felt slightly better and woke up this morning late with a craving for Oportos! Went to Eastgardens with Jon to have lunch. There were so many people there!!! It's like people seriously have nothing better to do on a weekend than indulge themselves on fast food and shopping! I suppose the weather was awful today and yesterday so what other place to be indoors besides home than in a shopping centre! Bought a Giordano jacket for bargain price $40 and then headed over to EB games to check out their sale. Got Halo and Star Wars KOTR 1 for bargain price of 12.50 each! Bumped into Shaun from church there and a second later spotted Siew outside the store waiting for her brother to buy a game! That was a nice surprise considering I haven't seen her since...well since last year I suppose!

Stomach's been rumbling a bit still but I think I'm almost back to normal...got an overtime shift on Monday so hope I'll be right for that...or I could take a sickie...?!

Introducing Dr Moleman...

2006-06-01T14:18:00.000+10:00

I'd like to introduce Dr Moleman, my new reg for the next two weeks relieving my old respiratory reg. He's probably around 60 yrs old and has been a career medical officer all his life! He's asian, short with a hunchback, and has this funny asian accent. He spits all over the place when he speaks and boy does he like to speak!!! Our ward rounds this week have been nothing short of 2 hours (normally 30mins with old reg!) and on Monday it took 4 hours to see just 13 patients! Over the course of the week, I have learnt to steer Dr Moleman away from one patient to the next and sometimes I feel like a parent urging his child to follow him saying "C'mon Dr Moleman. Come along now!" When I fail, I inevitably lend myself to hearing Dr Moleman enthusiastically rehash each patient's entire history that I already know, whilst I stand there tapping my feet, trying to avoid the spit flying in my face! But aside from all that, he's a really nice guy and cos he's been around so long, absolutely everybody at Bankstown Hospital knows him on a first name basis!

I think I'll try and take an ADO tomorrow...and maybe next Friday to escape the Moleman!

Fun Weekend!

2006-05-28T22:30:00.000+10:00

Had a fun weekend! Got a nice wake up call yesterday at 11am or so to meet Themis, Kenny, Khoung and Mary for lunch at Maroubra's chinese restaurant called Golden Phoenix! Spent almost 2 hrs there enjoying what was brunch for pretty much all of us! Afterwards, drove to Randwick for coffee at Coffee n Things. I had a really nice Hazelnut milkshake, which you don't see often!

We adjourned after coffee for afternoon naps, before meeting again for dinner at the Spot. Spoilt for choice, we couldn't decide and ended up eating at Ambrosia, the fast food outlet there! Then watched the 8.45pm session of X-men III! Have to say that it was below expectations on this occasion...I was hoping to see sentinels from the cartoons and heaps of cool new X-men like Gambit etc etc but alas they practically killed everyone off!!! (Sorry if you haven't seen it yet!) Perhaps they'll redeem themselves with a better 4th movie but it'd have a lot of ground to catch up on!

Today, I had a nice sleep in again! Ah every day I get to sleep in is pure bliss! Went to church early cos Alex wanted to make a recording of some of the songs he'd written. He got all this sound gear and had it set up like a makeshift studio! Very exciting =) We only recorded 3 songs but had to play each one alot of times to try and get it right! In the end there probably was no perfect rendition of any song but I guess it was ok for our first recording!

Back to the real world tomorrow...only 2 more weeks of respiratory left and a week of nights before emergency...

Tribute to JBT!

2006-05-22T19:39:00.000+10:00

Had a really relaxing ADO today after my 16 hr Sunday shift yesterday! Woke up at a leisurely 10am or so and enjoyed reading the Sunday paper on the couch. Soon it was time for lunch and enjoyed some glutinous rice whilst watching last week's episode of E.R.

Spent the afternoon playing piano, which I haven't found time to do since I really can't remember when... Also thought I'd start learning this really cool instrumental song on the guitar by the John Butler Trio called 'Ocean'. T'was introduced to me by Jon and I've been listening to it in the car to and fro work for the last couple of weeks, often putting the CD player on single song repeat so I can listen to it again and again - it's that cool! Kinda like gypsy/irish folk/dance music played on the guitar but there's something really moving about it...like it's telling a story or something and the song just builds up and up to this fully psycho strumming at the end! So yeah trying to learn it on the guitar but it's sooooooo hard!!! Jon, who's miles ahead of me in ability on guitar, is only just starting to get the hang of the song and he's been practising it often into the early hours of the morning! Looks like I've got a long way to go! But yeah, a fully sick song if I can find the discipline to keep at it and learn it...!

All aboard the thought train...

2006-05-18T21:41:00.000+10:00

Ever find yourself buggered as anything lying in bed about to fall asleep but then you realise you can't cos there's like a million things running through your head? That's what I found myself doing just the other night...and it's not an uncommon occurrence either... As I lay in bed tucked warmly under my doona staring at the ceiling, it was bizarre actually thinking about the thoughts flying around my head! I found myself almost on a journey...a thought train if you like...thinking about my day at work...putting in my first chest drain (!)...what I'd like to do in the future...where I see myself in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years...10 years...when I'd get married...how many kids I'd have...where we'd live...where I'd like to go travelling...what it'd be like if *blah* were to happen...

And suddenly I realised...most of the things I think about, excluding the weird and bizarre thoughts I sometimes have, are focussed on the future... Maybe I'm subconsciously feeling that it's time to get a move on with my life...that things are moving too...slowly...? But having started work finally after umpteen years of study...one would have thought that that was enough of a big life change, a big life event for now... I guess I see friends, relatives and colleagues all around me getting married and I panic and think 'hey I'm 23 already and don't even have a gf! How on earth am I gonna get married by the time I'm *blah* years old like so and so!'

And then I think...hang on...life isn't a race! Starting work, getting married, having kids...these aren't checkpoints we somehow have to make it to first! But then again I think about other friends and family who remain single well into their 30s and I think 'I don't wanna end up like them!'. Not that singleness is a bad thing but God created us for relationships...relationships with Him and with one another and the worse thing for a human being is to be alone, hence solitary confinement as a severe punishment...

Time for bed...time to stare at the ceiling...time to board the thought train...

ADO - At last a Day Off!

2006-05-10T15:37:00.000+10:00

Finally took my first Allocated Day Off (ADO) on Monday! Was sooooo good going to bed on Sunday night without that dreaded feeling of having to wake up early the next day! Spent my day off sleeping in (always good!), and then went shopping for home loans with Themis in Randwick. Now neither of us had any clue about home loans, how they work, what types there are etc. so I guess it was an educational exercise more than because we were seriously considering buying a place anytime soon! And I have to say we both found it rather overwhelming and depressing to think that we might be tied down to paying off a property for the next 30 years!!! With Sydney property prices spiralling out of reach, it almost makes one wonder if it's realistic to settle down here. But then I've grown up here, lived here all my life, have friends, family and church here, and the thought of having to leave it...well...it becomes almost unimaginable! Having said that, I have to say I've considered living overseas for a little while...maybe a year or two or three and then coming back...that'd be pretty cool I think!

But then I remember how one of the bank teller ladies showed us this chart with all one's major life events plotted on it and I thought...is this my life mapped out for me already?! Am I on a conveyor belt leading towards my first car, first home, getting married, changing jobs, getting a promotion, having kids etc etc etc just like everyone else??? Not that those things are necessarily bad things to be working towards but...makes you wonder...in Stacie Oraco's words "there's gotta be more to life..."... I think many people will say that happiness in life is the meaning of life and that largely happiness is tied up with all those things - having a nice car, nice house, nice wife, nice kids, nice job etc... I think in that light, it's difficult as Christians to look beyond the fleeting pleasures and values of this world and to look forward to true peace and happiness found in a relationship with our creator God and eternal salvation one day in heaven...

Looks like I'll need another day off to ponder where I am currently finding peace and happiness, where I'm placing my hopes and dreams, and all other issues pertinent to the meaning of life...

XBox - How Xciting!

2006-05-04T21:46:00.000+10:00

Jon won the bid for an Xbox original on eBay on Monday so we picked it up on Wednesday! Cost us just $162.50 for a basic unit still in good condition! Went to EB games and picked up some games at bargain prices of 3 for $49.95, 2 for $40 etc so atm our library of games includes Kung Fu Chaos (really fun party kung fu game!), Mechassault (always been a Mechwarrior fan!), Ninja Gaiden (played the original - this new version is awesome!), Top Spin (have to have a tennis game!), Metal Gear Solid 2 (played the first one on PS - awesome game too!), and X-men Legends (4 player scroll type bash em up game - used to love playing this at the arcade!). Most if not all of them are pre-owned games so that's why they're so cheap. Been having a few problems with scratches and some discs not working though so have to take em back to EB for a free swap/exchange/refund - they have a good deal there!

So yeah spent pretty much all my overtime pay from the weekend already this week...it's your fault Queenie hehehe! Shouldn't have played that Dynasty Warriors game (which Jon bought off eBay and is on the way in the post right now!) all arvo that Good Friday!!! Oh well...all work and no play makes Ben Ben tired and grumpy!

Two most excellent movies!

2006-04-29T17:01:00.000+10:00

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!

2006-04-25T22:52:00.000+10:00

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

2006-04-21T23:38:00.000+10:00

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!

2006-04-13T21:52:00.000+10:00

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...?

2006-04-09T09:35:00.000+10:00

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!!!!!

2006-04-05T22:09:00.000+10:00

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!

2006-04-02T08:42:00.000+10:00

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...!

Houston, we have a Maton!

2006-03-25T20:17:00.000+11:00

Thoroughly enjoyed my sleep-in today!!! Woke up at 11am and had a slice of sponge cake for breakky before heading off to Miranda with Jon jon! Went to the Westfield (aka temple of materialism) there and had lunch, before going to EB games to check out Command & Conquer Generals and its expansion pack - $19.95 each! When we got our first computer in 1995 (Pentium 100 - we had it for 10 years!), we bought our first computer game Command & Conquer - the revolutionary strategy game of its time! A decade later, it's only got better and I've yet to play it but looks good!!! After this, picked up John Farnham's "The Voice" double CD for the bargain price of $9.99 at HMV cos I really like one of his songs called No Ordinary World.

Then hopped across the road to the Shire Music Centre for the second time this month to check out the Maton Miranda guitar and see if Jon wanted it as his belated 21st present. A really nice guy called Todd helped us out and even though he didn't play the guitar or know much about guitars, it was pleasant dealing with him. Turns out he's a Christian himself and produced 2 of Nathan Tasker's albums - Come See the Morning and A Look Inside! Had a couple of strums and umm'd and ahh'd about various Maton models before we settled on the Miranda model:

"This is our own design Maton Miranda, available only from Shire Music! Based around the 225 series this guitar has been seriously upgraded with an AP5 Pickup in place of the standard AP4. We have also added Herringbone binding, keyhole headstock with facing and a light honey stain to the body. The Miranda looks like a guitar costing twice the price! Of course solid spruce top, quality fittings etc are all as per what you'd expect from the Maton products!"

Another salesman looked at it in admiration and said it all: "It's beautiful!". Also got their guitar extras pack which includes hard case, 2 sets of strings, strap, lead, guitar stand, maintenance package, 1 yr extra warranty and $99 worth of SMC vouchers! Very happy about that!

So yay - Houston, we have a Maton!

Bowl and Grill!

2006-03-24T23:55:00.000+11:00

Went out tonight to Darling Harbour for dinner with Themis, Chuck, Kenny, Khoung, Jaz and Jenny! Picked up Jaz and found an awesome parking spot on Kent St in this work zone so didn't have to pay yeah yeah! Only thing was, whilst I was parking and aligning my car to the kerb, a fire truck pulled up behind me and wanted to kinda take my parking spot (since it was the end of the row of cars). Everytime I inched forward a bit to adjust my parking, the stoopid fire truck inched closer to my behind (not wanting to poke its backside into the intersection behind I suppose...) !!! Annoyed, I just waited to see what the fire truck would do. It wasn't as if there were any obvious fire/cat stuck in a tree etc emergency around the area so what on earth was this fire truck ramming up my behind for??! Was waiting waiting with Jaz in the car a while and turned my head around to notice there was a Subway on the other side of the road. Mmmm... Subway...my stomach wondered (aka Homer Simpson)...until lo and behold I noticed a uniformed fireman inside the Subway buying dinner!!! Mannnnnnnnnn it was sooooo annoying!!! Here I was stuck in my car, which I still had to properly park, but couldn't because a fire truck was practically kissing my car because a fireman wanted to buy Subway for dinner!!!!! I mean, being a fire truck, it could've legitamately parked just about anywhere...it could've stopped in the middle of the road and no one would say anything but of all places it had to stop right behind me!!! And boy that guy must've bought all the Subway rolls in that shop cause he was taking ages and ages and all the while my stomach was grumbling louder and louder!!! Eventually his order was complete and I could park properly. Have to say though, since it was free, it was worth the wait!

Bowl and Grill is situated in the old Sega Megaworld complex next to Gloria Jeans and where that Sports Bar previously was. Dinner was nice and it was good catching up with the gang! Had a nice chicken and bacon burger with fries and salad at a very reasonable price! Portions were so huge I couldn't finish!!! Queenie dropped by surprisingly on the way to dinner with her friends. We didn't actually bowl for some reason...I guess it wasn't exactly cheap although it's only $5 extra to bowl if you dine on Mon-Wed.

After dinner, we headed back to the east to Charles' place to watch a dvd! We hired out Team America on the way back. Very very funny although it could've done without some bits...! Had this part in it where a very cute puppet North Korean president (the bad guy) sings this soliloquy called "I'm so ronery" (ronery = lonely!!!). Very very cute even though he was the bad guy! Kinda fell asleep towards the end, not because of the movie but because I was just buggered...!

St Mark's Houseparty 2006!!!

2006-03-21T12:24:00.000+11:00

Wow! We had our inaugural St Mark's Combined Houseparty last weekend at Stanwell Tops Conference Centre! It went from Friday night to Sunday arvo and was packed with inspiring talks, challenging bible studies, and heaps of compulsory FUN!!!

The venue itself was awesome! I'd even go so far as to say it was the best camp site so far that I've been to! Rooms all with ensuites, nice new facilities, tennis courts, nature trails...and most importantly...it was cheap!!!

Derrick Powell, the archdeacon of our diocese, was the speaker for the weekend. He spoke about what church is, the history behind it and how we can improve things in our church!

Fun time included a brutally competitive soccer match (during which Jenny got a black eye!) and an awesome game of capture the flag at night between the guys and the girls, which ended in a draw with both teams claiming each other's flags at the same time! Definitely has to become a houseparty tradition!

Okey dokey, lunch break over! Back to work...!

A Sporty Weekend!

2006-03-14T19:14:00.000+11:00

Had a sporty weekend!!! Played golf with Jon at Randwick Golf Club (expensive on weekends!!!) but fun nonetheless! Really starting to get the hang of golf...I think...! My tee offs are better than my fairway shots (when I actually get the ball onto the fairway!) and my putting still leaves little to be desired...! There were heaps and heaps of people there...young and old, those that looked like pros and actually were pros, and those that looked like pros but were actually were amateurs! One snobby couple behind us rudely told us to hurry up just after the 1st hole! They told us to get off the green to write down our scores on our scorecards...as if that takes sooooo long! So Jon and I deliberately took our time for the rest of the 10 holes or so we played!

Played tennis on Sunday with Jon, Dad and Carl at Matraville Sports Centre. Was really really hot as we played mid morning to midday! Teamed up with Carl against Jon and Dad but we lost in a closely fought match 7-5! Carl and I put it down to me not having my own racquet (it's being restrung at the moment!) and me having sustained a blister injury on my hand! So now patiently waiting for this stupid blister to heal so we can have a rematch at church houseparty this coming weekend...!

I love POTO!

2006-03-10T23:13:00.000+11:00

Bought the recording of the original Phantom of the Opera performance for 10.95 from Revolution CDs in Bondi last Sunday and have been listening to it everyday in my car on the way to work! Saw the live performance when I was in year 9 I think at the theatre on King St in the city and I just remember being blown away by the performance and my first theatre experience! Then the movie came out 2 years ago and I enjoyed that as well...obviously not as good as the live performance but good nonetheless! I think I'll have to buy the sheet music!!! Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, I take my hat off to you sir!

Just finishing an evening surgical overtime and looking forward to another weekend of sleeping in etc etc!!! Yay!

Dreaded Monday is upon us!!!

2006-03-05T20:32:00.000+11:00

Okey - so I've been kinda slack writing posts for my blog this past week...maybe it's been that I've had stuff on a couple of my weeknights, or maybe it's been that I'm just too lazy...anyhow, sorry if you've been checking my blog and have found nothing new on it for a while...promise I'll make up for it!!!

The last two weekends have been awesome! I just luvvvvv being able to wake up at my leisure and just lie in bed listening to the radio as I slowly arouse over the course of half an hour or sometimes even an hour! Sometimes I'll think it's a weekday and think "oh my gosh oh my gosh I'm late I'm late!!!" and have that rush of adrenaline as I jump out of bed and hurry to get ready for work. Then I'll look at my watch and realise that it's a weekend day and with my heart still pounding I'll breathe a sigh of relief and collapse back in bed to continue waking up!

Last weekend went out for yum cha with some med friends in Hurstville. We went to Forest Court, that huge Chinese restaurant along Forest Rd (no points for restaurant name creativity there!). It was alright for yum cha I guess and not too expensive...although that could be just cos we didn't seem to eat much as many of us were full. Afterwards, we went to see a Chilean movie called Manchuca, as part of the Sydney Latino Film Festival. It was a once off screening at the Tom Mann Theatre on Chalmers St in Surry Hills opposite Central. Film was really really good but also sad. It portrayed the divisions in Chilean society between the rich and poor, and the Socialists and Nationalists, as viewed through the eyes of a young innocent Chilean boy. Really really good movie! Afterwards met some other med friends for dinner and to celebrate Kenny's birthday at an Indian restaurant in Darlinghurst near St Vinnies. The restaurant was really popular and buffet style. The restaurant actually ahd a movie theatre of sorts above it and they had this deal where you could have dinner and see a set movie. We just had dinner but must go back one time and do the whole dinner/movie thing! Food was quite good, considering it was vegetarian! I didn't realise it was all vegetarian until I bit into what I thought was a piece of shepherd's pie to realise the brown looking stuff wasn't meat but lentils or beans of some sort!!! Yuk! But the rest of it was quite nice!

This weekend began with a nice brunch with Pauli boy at Coogee Beach. Had a nice big breakfast at once of the sidewalk cafes near Maccas! Then went shopping for guitars with Carmen and Susanna (who tagged along!)! Carmen's interested in buying a bass and I'm looking for a Maton acoustic for my brother's 21st (which was last year!) present and maybe a bass myself as well! We went to the Shire Music Centre in Miranda and had a look there. The guy was really really friendly and for once it was nice not to feel pressured into buying something. He told us all about the different guitars and his personal recommendations and yeah I must say I felt really comfortable dealing with him, as opposed to some other stores...! Afterwards we went to Hurstville hoping to visit another guitar shop but it was closed by the time we parked and finally found the store! So we grabbed an Easyway bubble tea and decided we'd watch a movie and have dinner in Hurstville. Wanted to watch Matchpoint cos someone said it was good but they weren't showing it there so we headed back to the east (the only place to be!!!) and watched it at the Ritz with Themis and Khoung as well! Good movie!!! Interesting plot and made the audience think about the difference between love and lust. After the movie we went to Sin Ma Laksa House for dinner cos we hadn't had time to have it before the movie. This is the place my brother worked at for a while whilst I was overseas in the UK. It wasn't too bad I must say after all my preconceived notions that it was awful! After dinner we had to drop Sus back to Kogarah so we stopped at the Signature Cafe overlooking Botany Bay, which was really trendy and nice! So yeah had a really fun relaxing Saturday!!!

Today at church we sang a new song from the new Emu Live CD recorded at last year's TWIST conference. It was called Hallelujah to the King of Kings and it starts with a cool riff almost exactly the same as one of the riffs from a Coldplay song! But yeah was really encouraging to hear everyone singing praises to God so joyfully and I'm glad that God could use us (the music team) to encourage the congregation!

Well that was my weekend and it's back to work tomorrow and another (hopefully not too) hectic week!!! Dreaded Monday is upon us!!!

TGIF!!!

2006-02-25T00:23:00.000+11:00

Thank Goodness It's Friday!!! Another week gone by and we're back to the weekend again! Last weekend was fun! Meant to write about it sooner but never got round to doing it this week...suppose I was a bit lazy! Or perhaps it was all that stuff on tv to watch...! Last Saturday went out to dinner with Themis, Jaz and Khoung. We went to a Thai restaurant at Coogee Beach called Rice. Very nice! Then went to see a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, also at Coogee Beach at the park on the southern end. I can't remember a thing about any of the Shakespearean plays so thank goodness the others could vaguely remember the story and explain some of it to me beforehand or else I would've been totally lost as to the plot! Was quite funny the performances! Don't know if it was the way Shakespeare would have envisaged it performed but it was entertaining nonetheless! Unfortunately it rained on us during interval so the second half of the show was cancelled. So we went to watch Casanova at the Ritz instead! Now all I know about Casanova is that it's some supposedly super super super famous film that's super super super old! But I think I better understand now the term casanova and it's usage in today's language!

This week seemed to go by pretty quickly! I think it was because my consultants didn't round that often so that meant they didn't generate as much work for me to do! So pretty bludgy week! Twas really really nice to get back to day shifts after my week of nights. Nice to just have people around and my own reg to save me when I have no idea what I'm doing! This week we even had time to sit around and have coffee (my reg shouted me twice!!! - she's sooo nice!!! - love my reg!!!).

Tonight went out to dinner with Jimbo (he's back from Lismore this weekend!!!), Jaz, Sus and Fester (surprise surprise!!!). Was really really nice catching up with people again! I'm beginning to notice how much I miss seeing everyone each day at hospital and uni...especially after that lonely week of nights! Tonight we went to Mamma Teresa's - quite nice! Then we hopped across the road to our beloved Tea Inn!!! Ahhh just like the good old days! Was interesting sharing experiences from our first 5 weeks of internship - amazing how similar they've been!

Oh btw - if anyone wants to print cheap digital photos, Harvey Norman plus Domayne are offering up to 200 prints per visit for 15c each! Bargain! I've printed over 600 photos this week - mainly from elective and last Malaysia trip! Now just have to find time to put them in an album this weekend...!

I was just about to tell you...that I love TV! I do!

2006-02-17T07:43:00.000+11:00

Okey dokey here we go - a post dedicated to tv! Here are the details of my love affair with the box...without the dots!

Monday - Desperate Housewives
Tuesday - The O.C.
Wednesday - Prisonbreak + E.R.
Thursday - Lost + (coming soon - The Amazing Race!)
Friday - shock horror nothing!!!
Saturday - Gilmore Girls (although the season just finished)
Sunday - more shock horror nothing!!!

In addition to free to air tv, I now have box sets of tv series to watch on those shock-horror-there's-nothing-to-watch-on-tv nights! So far in my collection are: The O.C. Seasons 1 & 2, Scrubs Seasons 1 & 2, Astroboy 1980s Series, Transformers Boxsets 1-3! If you ever wanna borrow any...just ask!

So...do I watch too much tv??!

T'was the night before Valentine's Day...

2006-02-14T05:13:00.000+11:00

...and there was not a stir in Bankstown Hospital! So here I am on my 3rd night of my week of nights and it's 5.15am in the morning! So far the shift today has been rather quiet...although I probably shouldn't speak too soon! But yeah so far only have had to take a couple of bloods (APTTs), put in just one IVC, and do a couple of med charts/fluid orders. Oh - also learnt something new tonight - that patients need to be reviewed after receiving pack cell transfusions for fluid overload. So have had to review a couple of those patients. Yeah I really can't remember why they have to be reviewed...what's the difference between the patient receiving blood and the patient receiving IVFs...? But it does seem vaguely familiar that reviewing a patient's fluid status is important after a blood transfusion...just can't think why atm...can anyone enlighten me cos my brain is too dead to think right now! So yeah when the nurse asked me to review the patient I was like "what for?!" and I must've looked pretty dumb! Oh well...I'm happy to learn from nurses!

So yeah a vast difference tonight compared to the previous two nights. I think it's due to the fact that yesterday the normal teams were there during the day to manage the patients whereas on the weekend, the patients hadn't been seen during the day properly and so the MOs have to deal with every little problem. But yeah on the weekend had to put in 2 IDCs in the same man who went into retention twice cos the IDC blocked, had to attend a MET call where the patient died despite CPR, had to certify another patient, and then more of the same IVCs, bloods and the random assortment of patients to review! Ok enough med talk!

So Valentine's day is tomorrow (or should I say today!) - anyone actually know the story behind Valentine's day? Cos I don't! And yet it seems to be quite a big deal in Western society...I don't think I really noticed it that much until this year. But just look at the ads on tv or in the newspaper and you'll see the most ridiculous ads aiming to take advantage of one more special day of the calender. Basically the ads are trying to say, "if you love your Valentine, buy them such and such for Valentine's day!" So you'll see a Bunning's ad or something advertising power drills that are on sale and the ad is suggesting that a power drill would make a fantastic Valentine's day gift!?!?! (Btw I don't know a single guy who'd want a power drill or any kind of tool as a gift for whatever occasion...myself included!!! I don't know why there's that stereotype that guys love tools!) Anyhow I think what this occasion and many others seem to demonstrate is the thinking in today's society that love can be bought. "Don't worry if you've been a lousy husband and haven't spent time with your wife...if you buy her a blender for Valentine's day, that'll fix her up!" And so the ads will have us believe that the only way to express your love for someone is to buy them something. And the more expensive that something is, the greater the love you have for them!

Now I'm probably sounding pretty cynical about the whole concept of Valentine's day and worldly love but in actual fact, I am somewhat of a romantic at heart. It's just that I think if all two people have for one another is worldly love, the kind that is self-centred, only seeking what is good for themselves in the relationship, if their feelings are lustful and only in the passion of the moment...then I think those two people are resting their relationship on rather weak foundations. Such love is vastly different from the love that God shows us...the self sacrificial love displayed when he gave his only Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we might be restored into loving relationship with Him. The kind of love that is patient, kind, putting the interests of the other person before your own. This is love!

So what does that mean for our relationships today and myself? I guess it means that as I go about searching as it were for my Valentine, I wanna be looking at myself honestly and assessing whether I love that person the way God loves us. And then whether that person loves others in the same way. Are they the type of person who would be really disappointed if they didn't get a dozen roses on Valentine's day? Or do they share that greater understanding of true self-sacrificial and other person centred love?

So now that I'm getting on in years (apparently!)...the pressure seems to be mounting to find a girl, get married, and settle down. I attended 5 weddings at the end of last year, friends who aren't too much older than myself. Not unoften is my mum asking me "so have you met any nice girls lately???" Or perhaps she'll hint not too unsubtlely, "You know, one of my colleagues at work has a 30 year old son and he's still not married. Can you believe that?!" Even when I went to Malaysia my grandma who's 86 told me she wanted me to hurry up and find a girlfriend so I could take her back to Malaysia to meet her...although I must say she did wisely tell me to pick carefully... She almost made it sound like all you have to do is go shopping for one as it were and simply pick one off the shelf after shopping around a bit! No...it takes a bit more effort than that I think! And being so busy with work this year...I guess it'll be even harder! If only there were an easier way...

...so who'll be my Valentine???!

Sleeping on the job...(^-^)zzz

2006-02-12T02:34:00.000+11:00

Here I am at hospital doing my very first week of night shifts (Sat-Fri 11.30pm-8.30am)! It's 2.45am in the morning and I've just done a ward round of sorts so I'm kinda hoping I won't get called for a while! It's weird being here by myself so late at night...I mean there are other people around but walking down the empty corriders in a hospital in the middle of the night is...well...kinda eerie!

Well the Davis cup is on tv at the moment. Aussies are playing the Swiss in Switzerland. Wondering whether I should watch it or try and squeeze in a power nap...??? Atm not too sleepy maybe cos I woke up at 10.30am today and slept for a few hours after dinner before coming to work. But haven't really figured out what's gonna work for me in terms of switching around my sleeping patterns for this week...

Ok I think I'll take Garfield's advice and try and sleep before my alarm clock (pager) goes off randomly...!

Who wants to be an Intern???!

2006-02-09T22:12:00.000+11:00

Wow - exciting news today! ...ok maybe not that exciting but anyhow... My patient load hit an all time record low of 12 patients!!! I couldn't believe it!!! We started out the day with 17 patients, sent home 5 and hey presto, we broke the previous record of 14 patients to reach the new record low of 12! Ok so maybe it's not as low as some people I know who only have four patients but hey for me it's a HUGE deal considering I started out the term with 27! I have to say there's nothing more satisfying at the moment than crossing a patient off my list. But I have to say, I've been wondering about this and what it reflects about my attitudes, conscious or subconscious, about work...

Does the satisfaction I get reveal that:
A. I'm actually a lazy bugger who wants to do as little work as possible - less patients = less work.

B. After my baptism of fire in having to manage 27 patients, now I think I've become super efficient...no...a super intern and our huge list of patients has been cut down cos of my super effort.

C. I've reached the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, from wanting to cry when I had to manage 27 patients to sheer joy and relief in now only having to look after 12 patients.

D. I'm happier cos my patients are getting cured and (after often lengthy stays in hospital) are being sent home happy, my reg and consultants seem happy with me, and hey things are on the up.

E. I really waste too much time thinking about these things and should get out more...

You've unfortunately run out of lifelines and Eddie Mcguire's running out the door to become CEO of channel 9...so...what's it gonna be??? What are you gonna lock in??! Huh huh huh?!

Show me the money! ($-$)

2006-02-03T23:04:00.000+11:00

Got my first ever paycheck yesterday!!! After 19 years of study and hard work, some would say I've finally "made it!" I've managed to enter the workforce doing one of the top 5 asian parents' ideal professions for their kids (med, law, commerce, dentistry, and ???). And when people hear that Jon and myself are both doing med, it's not uncommon to hear "wah...your parents must be soooo proud!" And yeah I guess they are proud. But it does make me think...what is it about med that makes it so admirable to others, especially the asian community???

I think in the old days, med was equated with status in society and wealth, with knowledge and wisdom and I guess many of our parents still think that today. As to whether that perception is true or not, I'm not so sure... As my anatomy lecturer said in our first med lecture on our first day "If you're here to do med for the money, you'd better leave now cos I've been a practising physician for donkey's years and I'm still driving a Mazda!" Now I wonder why he said that! I think it's because people's perceptions of doctors is that they're wealthy. Perhaps also the fact that half our year was asian!!! The funny thing is though, I think my lecturer was correct in saying that cos it seems that alot of professions pay alot better than what we get in our first year out! Apparently teachers earn stacks nowaday and my mum who's a nurse is earning more per hour than I am!!!
But the more I think about it the more I wonder..."why am I actually doing med???" Is it cos my parents wanted me to do it? Is it cos I myself fancied being called "doctor" and because of the social standing the job seemingly portrays? Is it because of the money doctors have the potential to earn? Or is it just cos there was nothing else I pictured myself doing and med was the only thing left?

If I think honestly about it, I think all of the above things had some influence in me deciding to become a doctor. I'd like to think that it was for noble reasons, that I was being truly altruistic in wanting to help others all my life and that it was my calling...but I know I'd be kidding myself. As much as I'd like to think that I was doing med for all the "right" reasons, I know in my heart that I probably wasn't. But...are there really any "right" or "wrong" reasons for doing med? Some of my colleagues reckon that hey there's nothing wrong with doing med for the money. I mean in other professions it's ok to unashamedly be doing them for the money so why not med? Isn't being a doctor just a job like any other job? And isn't the point of any job to earn money to provide for yourself and your family? So if you're not doing your job for the money then what are you doing it for??? And yet there seems to be a social stigma in western society that doctors aren't supposed to be doing med for the money. Doctors are supposed to have their patient's interests at heart first and foremost and the suggestion that doctors may have percuniary interests that may conflict with their patient's best interests is abhorrent to us! Yet one of the very reasons asian parents are so keen for their children to do med is that it supposedly pays well! And so here I find myself, an asian born in western society brought up with these conflicting perceptions of doctors and money...

But at the end of the day I ask myself - what really matters in life? Is it money? NO! Is it relationships? YES! And so I quickly remind myself that although I'm now in the workforce earning money, money should never become the sole focus of my pursuit in life. Relationships are worth far more than any amount of money could ever buy...although try telling Homer Simpson that:

Homer: "Bart, with $10,000, we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like...love!"

Of first and foremost importance is my life-saving relationship with God, then with my family, and then with friends and colleagues! What is all the money in the world if you have no one to share it with! And when I think more about it, doctors do earn alot of money! And so do most of our wealthy society! The thing with money is, we're always comparing how much we have to how much some richer guy has! And so we're always gonna think we don't have enough! But as they say, the majority of Australians are just about millionaires! We are a very wealthy country and anyone living here is richer than the vast majority of the 6 billion people living on this planet! As a Christian, I believe that since God created the world, everything is His and everything we have therefore comes from him, including money. And so I would do well to remind myself of this and learn to trust and depend on God for my daily bread as it were, and not my own efforts in earning money.

I still think though that being a doctor isn't just a job. I hold to the view that being a doctor is a privelege and not in the sense that I lord it over everyone that "hey I'm a doctor! Aren't I great!", cos to be honest, I cringe when I tell people I'm a doctor and they're suddenly so impressed...but yeah I'd like to think that if I were a patient, that my doctor would genuinely care about me, that he wouldn't be concerned with making money by doing unnecessary investigations and tests etc. And I'm sure the majority of doctors are really genuine and caring. But yeah, in a world where you need money to survive, they'll always be people who value it over anything and anyone else. In these first 2 weeks on the job even, I've found it challenging sometimes to be genuinely caring and concerned about some demented and even aggressive patients I've had to look after, or the ones who complain alot and want your attention all the time when you're super busy. If I've learnt anything in these last 2 weeks, it's been that patients are people not diseases, and all they want is some respect and dignity, and to know that they are amongst people who really care for them when they may have no one else in life who does. And this is the kind of doctor I want to be I guess. People talk about what specialty they want to do and people are forever asking me whether I want to be a hot shot surgeon. But hey, I think what ever I do, if I can remember to treat patients as the people they are, to genuinely care for them and love them as fellow human beings, and to just show them the love that God has shown me, then I'll be satisfied being the doctor I am.

So now that I have my first paycheck, who wants a treat?!

It's gonna be a dog of a year!

2006-01-30T22:16:00.000+11:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!!! Happy Chinese New Year of the Dog! With myself being a dog, I suppose this is supposed to be a special year for me! And according to this horoscope, things are looking good in all departments! Work is gonna get better - geez I think considering the start I've had, it really only can get better! I'm gonna have money flowing my way without even trying - geez don't know about that but I suppose at the moment work is somewhat of a novelty to me and doesn't really seem like work so when I actually get my first paycheck it'll kinda feel as though I didn't really try much... Health - yeah I'd better watch my diet alright!!! Been so busy at hospital that haven't always managed to eat lunch at lunchtime and lunch kinda becomes afternoon tea! And these free lunches we get at hospital sometimes...they're always the same sandwiches!!! Man you'd think they'd look after us better - where are the drug reps??? Love - "Married couples will enjoy a loving relationship. Singles too!" ??!! I sure hope they don't mean singles are gonna be enjoying loving relationships with one of the couples! But yeah with work this year I'm gonna have to work doubly hard this year in this department!

This chinese new year eve I was sadly doing my first overtime weekend shift. It was insane man - 8.30am till 12 midnight!!!!! Almost 16 hours man and I was pretty much busy the whole time running around putting in drips, charting meds, and attending to patients with anything ranging from chest pain to confusion and delirium! I have to say that 16 hours is tough man and I sooooooo felt robbed of a weekend! Thank God (literally!) that nothing serious happened that I couldn't handle and despite being somewhat zoned out by the end of the shift, I somehow made it home in one piece! So yeah I slept in on Sunday till 11am or something like that and went out with family for lunch. Came back and enjoyed resting and not having to worry about anything. Sadly couldn't go to church this week cos family arranged last minute dinner with my cousin and his newly wed Korean wife and her family so I thought it'd be more important to attend that. Dinner was nice though. We had it at this Indian restaurant on Cleveland St in Surry Hills and it was good catching up with my cousin, my "biu-so" (cousin's wife in Chinese apparently), and her family. My cousin's a surgical SRMO at POW this year whilst his wife is a Radiation Oncology registrar at POW too. So yeah anyone working or who is thinking of checking into POW this year - watch out! Dr Lau (s) are on the loose!

Oh oh oh I'm hoping to start collecting those stamps and coins that Australia Post puts out each year as CNY memorabilia! Just the dog ones of course cos why would I want any other ones?! That'll mean just buying them once every twelve years or so...not an expensive collection I'd think...! Just have to find time to pop into a post office...=P

So there you have it - the year of the dog is upon us and it looks like it's gonna be a dog of a year!

We love our lamb...apparently!

2006-01-26T22:08:00.000+11:00

Aussie aussie aussie - oi oi oi!!! Happy Australia Day everybody!!! Geez I don't even know if that's what you're supposed to say to each other on Australia Day but oh well! Has anyone seen that ad on tv advertising lamb on Australia Day??? It's pretty funny!!! This guy comes on and tells us that eating lamb cutlets is basically the solution to everything and he argues that to not eat lamb is to be "un-Australian"...whatever that is...! I guess that's a term that's been cropping up in the media and everyday language more and more of late. The Cronulla riots were described as "un-Australian", a guy who was on trial in court for beating up some guy was described by the judge as having done something very "un-Australian", and now we're being told that to not eat lamb is "un-Australian!!! So what on earth does it actually mean to be "Australian" as opposed to "un-Australian"??? I suppose other terms come to mind like "fair-dinkum", "true-blue", just being a "good bloke"...but it seems to me that we're not too clear exactly what what those terms mean either! We seem to be able to call things "un-Australian" when we as a society disapprove of something like the Cronulla riots, but if you asked the random bloke on the street what it meant to be Australian, I'd think he wouldn't have a clue! So are we in the middle of an identity crisis as we become more and more of a multicultural society??? I think just how multicultural we are was brought to light by the riots but sadly it gave the world the impression that Australians are racist and a bunch of red necks...at least that's what my relatives in Malaysia were wondering. I had to do my best to reassure them that the riots were basically due to a minority group of gangsters and juvenile delinquents on from each side clashing and picking fights, and that they (hopefully) didn't represent the attitudes and views of the majority. But I have to say, nothing makes me feel prouder to be an Aussie than when I see a bunch of people from so many different ethnic backgrounds having their faces painted with the Aussie flag or flying Aussie flags from their cars on the way to the cricket or tennis. When we have something to unite around, whether it be a sporting event, raising money for overseas aid, or celebrating an occasion like New Year's, I think one of our greatest attributes is that we share that sense of patriotism and I think that's just marvellous!

My Australia Day was a welcome day off from the chaotic first week of work I've had! Went over to Colleen's place for a super duper awesome BBQ put on by her fully-sick-mate-iron-chef-bro Chris and his assistant chefs! It was funny though, cos I don't think those lamb ads worked on us Aussie Asians cos we didn't have any lamb! Was nice catching up with friends from church outside of church context and I reckon it's something we should do more often! After the BBQ, I headed over to uni to play tennis with Jon, having being inspired by watching the Aussie Open! It was still hot at 5.30pm or so and we kinda languished as we played on. The court behind the baseline on one side was actually flooded cos of a pipe leak or something so everytime Jon missed the ball down that end (or I hit a really bad shot to him that flew way out), he'd have to fish it out of the pool of water! We settled the game in a tie breaker which I won for once 7-5! We went home for a nice dinner and enjoyed watching the Aussies beat Sri-Lanka in the cricket with only a couple of balls to spare! Advance Australia Fair!!!

A time to be born and a time to die...

2006-01-24T19:59:00.000+11:00

Got to hospital today and had just put my stuff in my locker and gone downstairs to the ward when my pager beeped. "A MET call has been called for one of your patients" the message read. (MET = Medical Emergency Team and they are called pretty much when a patient is about to kark it) I ran over to this patient's ward and met my registrar who was already there. I helped out where I could and the patient managed to be stabilised somewhat. In the middle of managing this patient, my pager beeped again. I answered the page and a nurse told me that another patient under our care had had a MET call called for. I couldn't believe it - welcome to Day 2 at Bankstown Hospital!!!

Today was a chaotic day. We had even more patients today - 27 - and with those two MET calls to start the day, we were playing catch up from the beginning. In fact, there's still stuff leftover to be done for tomorrow. Ran around all day desperately trying to keep up with the growing list of tasks to do, never quite getting on top of things. Missed lunch today and had to settle for a 3pm bite when my registrar insisted that we had to take a 10 min break! Later in the day, the first patient that we saw today, the one with the first MET call, passed away and I had the sad task of certifying the death of my first patient =(. It was rather.. 'unsettling' being in that room with the deceased patient. I can't exactly describe the feeling. I think as doctors, the way we often deal with the emotional side of the job is to become desensitised to what we do. We inadvertently try to compartmentalise our feelings and start viewing patients as diseases that have to be cured, not unlike how a mechanic views cars that have to be fixed, so as to separate the emotion from the job. I've always tried to keep it in the back of my mind that patients are real people, fellow human beings, with real feelings and emotions, not just "the urinary tract infection lady in bed 5" or another name I can cross off the list when they die. It's difficult though when you're on the run all day and there's hardly time to pee, let alone time to relate to patients...

So I guess all this got me thinking about the many limitations of doctors. We like to think that we can save the whole world or if not that, then at least the patients under our care. But the fact is that we're not miracle workers and whilst we may be able to delay death, in the end we are beaten by the fact of life that everyone dies and nothing we do can prevent that. I supposed being on the aged care team, I really shouldn't be surprised if there are many more patients that will die on my watch. It's a sad fact, but perhaps eased somewhat if I know that a person is Christian. We as Christians believe that there is life after death and that this eternal life with God in heaven is granted to us by God in His awesome grace if we accept that Jesus, God's Son, died on the cross to atone for the sins we've done. I guess as a Christian, I don't fear death in that respect because I know that when I die and meet God my creator to be judged, I trust that Jesus will have paid the penalty for my sins granting me eternal salvation in heaven. That's a comforting thought amongst all the pain and suffering in this world. I pray that all of you who don't know Jesus would talk to me about Christianity or to another Christian you know. We never know when it'll be our turn, even though we're young and free. For everyone there's a time to be born and a time to die...

"Hi, this is Ben the Aged Care Intern..."

2006-01-23T20:44:00.000+11:00

And so began my first day as a real doctor!!! Yup! Today I was the intern on my team - not a student, not a tag along - the intern! And guess what - I loved it!!! Ok so maybe I had 25 patients (that's alot!!!) to deal with, maybe I didn't have a clue what was wrong with them all, maybe the nurses kept paging me every 5 minutes, and maybe I didn't leave hospital till 7pm on my first day - I still loved it!!! (Maybe I'm just a little delirious right now!) I don't know how I made it through the day but I made it. Everyone at hospital was really really friendly and understanding that it was my first day - right from the nurses to my registrar to my consultants to the patients - that really made a huge difference! I managed to do just about everything in an intern's job description today - from going on a ward round with my consultants, to taking blood and putting in IV drips, to writing discharge summaries, to delivering all kinds of forms to different departments, to attending an intern education lecture, to attending patients who were quite sick! In all that running around, I forgot about eating, I forgot about drinking, and I didn't even think about taking a pee! Lunch was during the intern education lecture and I have to say now that I understand why doctors hate medical students eating their lunch - cos well...they're eating our lunch!!! Got to my lecture late and there were pretty much only scraps left from the platter of sandwiches. And who did I see nearby munching them up but a whole bunch of 4th year medical students - some of them my brother Jon's friends who shall remain anonymous...! So from now on - gotta make it to lectures on time to eat!

But all things considering, I still really really enjoyed my first day on the job. It was busy and hectic but the time really flew by and as the old saying goes - time flies when you're having fun! It felt great having something to do all the time and having some real responsibilities, it felt great feeling like I was making a difference, it felt great working together as a team with other staff, and it felt great relating to patients and their families. I guess I'm only now remembering some of the reasons I wanted to do medicine so many years ago! I guess my job is not just a job to me, it's not just something I do cos I'm being paid to do it. I guess I see it more of a privilege and something that has been entrusted to me to perform with the utmost care, diligence and effort. I thank God that He has put me in that position and I really hope that He will give me opportunities to really make a difference not just to the physical health of my patients but more importantly to the spiritual health of the patients and staff I work with.

Time to sleep before another big day! (^-^)zzzzzzzzzzzz

Six Degrees of Separation

2006-01-22T21:57:00.000+11:00

"Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries." The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called Chains. It's amazing how often you meet people who are indeed connected to you by the most extraordinary of acquaintances!!! Today at church, met a lovely couple from Parkes who were in Sydney for the week and just visiting our church. Turned out that the lady I met was the music teacher of one of my med colleagues from Parkes! Perhaps not so surprising if one considers that in small country towns everybody kinda knows everybody, but nonetheless, it made me think that the six degrees of separation theory really might be true!

I remember once upon a time, one of the Sydney radio stations was playing a six degree of separation game show on the radio. What they did was to have the person calling up to play try and discover if they were connected by six degrees or less to some random name they pulled out of the phone directory. So I guess it would have involved them ringing up pretty much everyone they knew to see if they knew this person and if not, to get them to ring up everyone they knew to see if they knew this person! Are you confused yet?! Maybe we should try it one day!!!

Anyhow, tonight the eve of my first real day of work!!! I really can't believe that after 19 years of education leading up to this moment, I'm finally here!!! Oh did I tell you about our RMO Association dinner? It was really really nice! And classy too! It was at the Malaya Restaurant at King St Wharf. The dinner was a great opportunity to meet some of the outgoing 2005 interns, many of whom will be staying at Bankstown as RMOs (ooops - for the non-medically inclined, RMO stands for Resident Medical Officer which is what you become after your year of internship). They were super super friendly and even said that they'd set up a buddy system and have a list of them we can contact if we run into any trouble whatsoever! I can't tell you how comforting it is to know that! There's probably going to be heaps of stuff I don't know how to do, and heaps of stuff I don't even know I should be doing! It's nice knowing that there are friendly people willing to go out of their way to help us get settled and find our feet!

Well I should probably go to bed now! Wouldn't want to be suffering from fatigue on my first day of work! Signing out, Dr Ben! (so going to have to get used to that!!! =P)

Be patient with your doctor - he could be making his debut!

2006-01-20T18:45:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone!

Here we are on the 20th Jan and we've reached the end of my week of orientation!!! Today was our ward orientation and we joined our respective teams. I met my aged care team and was introduced to a really nice outgoing intern, registrar and one of my 2 consultants - the bosses I'll be working under! My outgoing intern had his own RMO orientation to attend in the morning so he handed me his pager and hey presto - I was suddenly the intern for the morning!!! The feeling was somewhat exhilirating, whilst at the same time as if I was carrying a ticking time bomb! But actually, I soon realised after a couple of pages that nothing too demanding was being demanded of me (well at least thus far *fingers crossed*!) and with the help of my registrar (who assumed I knew absolutely nothing!) I managed to make it through the morning till my intern returned!

Now about to go out for our RMO association end of term/welcome new interns dinner at the Malaya restaurant at King St Wharf! While I'm out you can read this article Jimbo sent out! It's from today's online Sydney Morning Herald!

Be patient with your doctor - he could be making his debut

By Anonymous
January 20, 2006

HAVE an apple today. Whatever you do, don't get sick. Please.
Sound advice at the best of times, but particularly prudent right at this moment. Next week, there will be an influx of shiny new doctors into the NSW health system. I'll be one of them and you could be my very first patient. Like most of my fellow interns, I'm terrified.
More than 200 interns will start their first day of work on the wards on Monday. There are a few true geniuses out there who appeared to simply breeze through medical school and will surely excel from day one. But the majority are just praying, "Not on my shift, please, not on my shift."
It's an oft-quoted fact that "complications" increase in January, aided by the influx of nervous junior doctors who have yet to find out just how their new hospital works and where everything is. We've been through medical school and passed our exams, we've been floating around various hospitals for the past few years of our lives; but come Monday, we'll be unleashed on an unsuspecting public.
And it will all be new again. Despite our education and training, there is little preparation for the bowel-clenching sleep-menacing terror of new responsibility for an ill person's life and wellbeing.
No longer can we hide using the "I'm just a medical student and can't legally sign for anything" ploy. Now we're going to be responsible for dosing and choosing the morphine, the heart drugs, the anticoagulants, the antibiotics and all the 1001 other pills, capsules, injections, fluids, ointments, creams, suppositories and enemas than no human being can memorise.
Waiting for the phone call: "Mrs Nguyen's blood results have risen off the scale, Mr Ahmed's got chest pains, Miss Jones complains she's not feeling 100 per cent - what are you going to do about it, doctor?"
The perks of being called "doctor" will grow stale very quickly. It's not the glamorous verging-on-mythical portrayal of television and film. We're not ER-like walking encyclopedias, willing to risk careers to chase down wandering patients outside the hospital for radical treatment.
If anything, my peers advocate Scrubs as being the most realistic and representative hospital show: the absurdities, the sad and depressing hopeless cases, the terror and the unbalanced power interactions between patients, nurses, and the medical hierarchy.
You can spot us on the wards. Neatly dressed in appropriate hospital attire, stethoscope dangling, an armful of paperwork and a shiny-faced idealistic desire to help mixed with the sleep-deprived stare of a rabbit caught in the headlights. When you see us, please be patient and understanding - we want to do our best for you, but it may have to wait for countless reasons. "What are you going to do about it, doctor? Doctor?"

Ben's Anatomy =P

2006-01-16T19:45:00.000+11:00

Wow wow wow!!! Today was my very very first day at work!!! Not that I did anything significant cos this first week is only an orientation week, but nonetheless!!! For those who don't know (or have forgotten) I'm working at Bankstown/Lidcombe Hospital - ya huh - I've become a westy (albeit, an inner westy! But hey I'm an easty and proud of it so anything west of Anzac Pd...!). The trek out there only took 25-30mins so not too bad la! This place will be the place I work in and breathe in for the next 40 (+ overtime)hrs/week for the next 52 weeks!

If you're thinking intern life is as glorious as Grey's Anatomy, ER, or any other of the dozens of medical shows on tv, the short of it is that it isn't! First day of orientation involved getting welcomed about 10 times (which was really nice!) and going through a mixture of admin matters as well as some practical workshops in suturing, taking blood etc etc to make sure we're half competent doctors in one weeks time (when we start for real!). Got another ID badge to add to my collection and discovered what a nice new hospital Bankstown is, not unlike the renovated Sutherland or St Vincent's hospitals! So all in all, quite happy so far with getting Bankstown despite my first preference being Prince of Wales.

Did I say how very happy I am to back home?! I must say it's been good sleeping in my own bed again, having a western toilet to do my business in rather than a squatting toilet (although I must say my leg muscles have probably strengthened somewhat!), and just having all the comforts of home! I really do appreciate home all that much more every time I come back from overseas! Also been really great catching up with friends again, especially church friends whom I missed heaps whilst overseas! Did manage to go to church in Malaysia and that was an amazing experience but you really do miss church back home when you've gone away for even just 3 weeks!

Ok time to catch up on what's been on tv! Stupid tape recorder didn't work when I was away cos my paranoid (or should i just say Asian!) dad turned off every electrical appliance so missed out on the Apprentice final (if anyone has it can I please please borrow?!?!) and a couple of episodes of GGs! I think tennis is on so go the Aussies - c'mon!!!

Malaysia 2005-2006!!!

2006-01-14T21:09:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone!!! I'm back in Sydney after my 3 weeks away in Malaysia and it's really really good to be home! Sorry to those who've been checking my blog for new posts but found none cos I had really limited internet access over there and limited time really to update my blog from overseas. So I'm making up for it now!

Went back to Malaysia mainly for my cousin Joe's wedding to Isabel! It was on boxing day and as is Chinese custom over there, there were 4 wedding functions. First up was a prewedding dinner/open house put on by Joe's parents (my Uncle and Aunty) at their place. They had a nice marquee set up in front of the house and invited lotsa people! Second was a Chinese Tea Ceremony on the day of the wedding itself in the morning. Joe and Isabel had to offer tea to all their elders in return for red packets, whilst all those relatives younger than them (myself included) had to offer tea to Joe and Isabel (also in return for red packets hehehe!) The third function was the registration ceremony. This took place at the reception venue at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, KL. The ceremony was essentially an athiestic one, the type used in western weddings not held in churches, and this one was rather short! Finally the main function was the reception. The venue was decorated really superbly and all the cousins had roles to perform. Jon and I were part of the ushering team so we had to help people find their allocaed tables. The reception itself was fun as we enjoyed seeing photos and videos of Joe and Isabel, and heard speeches from relatives and friends. The food was the typical ginormous chinese wedding banquet and by the end of it none of us on our table could finish it off! So yeah congrats to Joe and Isabel on your wedding and thanks that we could be a part of it!

The rest of our trip in Malaysia involved a combination of sightseeing, visiting relatives, and of course eating the local delicacies (including my favourite Char Kway Teow) and shopping! We visited the cool Genting and Cameron Highlands, historical cities like Taiping, and bigger cities like Ipoh and Penang. Saw some amazing scenery and was reminded of what a beautiful place Malaysia really is! It was also great hanging out with relos and it was especially great hanging out more with cousins on my mum's side, 2 families of which are Christian! Going to church in Penang was an experience!

We spent 3 nights and 4 days in Singapore including New Year's Eve! Our days there were packed with activities including shopping at the famous Orchard Rd, visiting the Jurong Bird Park & Chinatown, and visiting Sentosa Island! We sang in the New Year at Clarke Quay, Singapore's trendy nightlife area, similar to our Darling Harbour.

So yeah that's a very very brief summary of my 3 weeks abroad! I have a 200 page or so travel diary that I was writing along the way with more detail in it! As much as I enjoyed my trip back to Malaysia, there really is no place in the world like Sydney and every time I fly back home, I get that shiver of excitement going up my spine! Also with all my friends here, how could I live anywhere else! But for now, it's back to the real world, and on Monday it'll be the start of working life for me - I'm excited!!! =)