stolen colours

Hello all. I’m glad it’s the weekend at last.

Tan Tock Seng’s a beautiful hospital, all air-conditioned and newly renovated, with a good food court, decent eateries, and shops that I actually want to buy from. There’s Kirei Kirei, with pretty Japanese goods and snacks!

My clinical group ended the day at 4pm, so Penance and I went to Starbucks to “do nothing”. Friday afternoons at Starbucks are happy times ‘cos it’s the end of the week and throngs of medical students, young nurses, and the younger doctors crowd around little round tables. I met half my Medicamp seniors there. Prof Lau walked past at one point and proceeded to wave at every medical student in Starbucks (including me and Penance), then walked into the food court with a group of M4s.

Some of the doctors teaching us for Surgery posting were at the two tables behind us, laughing and joking as loudly as the M4 students in front of us. I love that strong sense of camaderie they exuded; I’m sure you wouldn’t get that as a sole doctor in private practice. The second tutor we had today told us that being a physician pays peanuts (as opposed to being a surgeon or a eye specialist), but it makes you an all-rounded doctor. I wonder what paths I’ll take as a doctor, and whether practicality or ability will triumph over interest and passion.

The rest of this post is laden with clinical details, so they’re hidden in the extended link. I just wanted the non-medfac readers of this blog to read the above paragraphs.
(more…)

Today’s a restful day at NUS/NUH where we just need to attempt to communicate. I went with some CG mates to the South Buona Vista duck rice stall (best braised duck in Singapore!) and was rather shocked and amused to find a valet parking system in place because that eatery is so crowded during lunch.

Oh yes, I am blogging from the med library because the long lunch break isn’t over yet. One thing about the COFM department, they are really just too kind. Prof Goh (aka Koizumi-lookalike) is a wonderful tutor, he puts you at ease immediately.

I foresee comparatively more ego-bashing in the three years to come, but as Sensei said, rid yourself of all ego, and learn. Being positive is really a matter of choice, though it takes quite a bit of effort at first.

plhu: I’m scared.
masque: So channel that fear into something. There’s no way you can live with that oppressive feeling gripping your heart all the way.

Well, I have come to realise that a significant part of the clinical years depends very much on your initiative. (And which hospital you’re posted to, I suppose, but to a lesser extent.) Gambatte.

I was lucky; my CG was scheduled to observe doctors in clinics, and not thrown into the wards and expected to question patients. There is so much paperwork! Each doctor has an assistant to help with that, but both people are still so swamped with it that their pens never stop moving.
(more…)

First day of eclinics: rather boring day of lectures from 7.45am to 5pm.

The performance at the Hilton was quite an interesting one. (After pulling my hair out over what to wear and borrowing shoes and clothes from people, I eventually ended up in my own dragon top and black pants.) Since it was the Hilton, the refreshments were beautiful, looking more like handicrafts than pieces of fruit, pastry and meat. *drool* but I digress.
(more…)

I bought shoes for clinicals today *waves flags* I made Mother accompany me to OG because she has a discerning eye for comfortable shoes and she agrees that paying more for quality is a sensible thing to do when it comes to comfort. At OG there’re quite a number of brands that you don’t find in Robinson’s or Metro. I’m so glad I didn’t buy the Hush Puppies pair a few days ago, because this Japanese brand had better shoes. BUT. I didn’t buy those either.

After walking around the entire shoe collection for 10 minutes, I saw Ecco, hidden against the wall behind an eye-catching display of some Paris brand. I tried on one and found, to my astonishment, that it had ARCH SUPPORT and SHOCK ABSORBER! YES! THERE ARE SHOES WITH ARCH SUPPORT THAT AREN’T SPORT SHOES! The guy there said that “This brand is recommended by doctors”, and the catchphrase of the poster went “comfortable shoes that look good”. Oh, they’re made of leather.

I spent 20 minutes trying on various models in various sizes before I finally made up my mind. I’ll be spending at least 10 hours a day standing and walking in those shoes, so I really didn’t want to make a choice I’d regret. The price tag read $139; $145 for some models. But well worth it. After all, a pair of sports shoes would cost a 3-digit sum.

P.S. The Raffles Ringers will perform in the Hilton on Monday at some conference. I am delighted.

I went to Settler’s Cafe with some of my anat group mates today; we played Settlers, Zombies and Munchkins. I’d love to try Citadels next time. Philemon and Julian were playing another card game ‘cos they came after we had started the first game, but theirs looked quite fun. I reaped abundant card harvests during Settlers since I remembered those dice probability questions from A levels and placed my cities in strategic locations. Zombies is rather tedious and boring, don’t touch it. Munchkins is good fun; parma wants to buy it so we can play during clinics!

I’ve finally started reading the Origin of Wolverine comics I downloaded off Bittorrent. (yes, I am pirate queen) I’ve only read the first 3 issues, but it is marvellous, and the art is simply gorgeous.

I watched the first episode of Speed Grapher, another GONZO effort. It’s all about urban conspiracy and decadence, but the protagonist is quite likeable. The episode ends on a cliffhanger @*$&%^@#

I’m now waiting for the Gundam SEED Destiny OST 2 to appear on bittorrent XD

p.s. there is a vesicle on my lower lip! How on earth did it get there!?! Please maintain spitting distance from me to avoid transmission.

Today I had my hair cut at Chapter 2. I love having a shampoo because of the head massage. There was a bit of miscommunication, so I ended up with a shorter hairstyle than I’d wanted, but it’s still nice. After that I had time to kill, so I headed for the Heeren to see if there was anything I liked. I concluded that the clothes in the Heeren are rather pretty, but too pretty and unorthodox for clinicals. I like the shop Mu, though their stuff is rather pricey. It was drizzling rather heavily on the way back to the MRT station, so there I was using my hands to shield my head from the rain at the junction. At which point two guys taking shelter in one of the public phone booths tapped on my bag, and motioned for me to go inside the booth while they came out. It wasn’t raining that heavily, but it was a sweet, unexpected gesture that had me smiling all the way to the MRT.

I met SteJuste, Ivory, Kaoru C and Doll at Suntec Marche. What followed was almost 3 hours of gift-giving, insane chatter and mandatory bitching over food and dessert (I love the crepes!). Oh, I haven’t laughed so much in a very long while. And yes, I learnt the meaning of the word “squirty”.

I just watched Gundam SEED Destiny 26. I like the new EP, the graphics are all so happy, and the song itself is very pleasant, though the lyrics are sadder than the melody.

I went to St John’s Island today for fun. Remember that field trip that Mrs Chua took us on in Sec Three six years ago? I fell in love with the beautiful, lonely little island and decided to go back again some day. So I have, six years later.I’d meant to go earlier but kept putting it off. I even took photos again as if I had to do a geography presentation. Today it was really hot, not like that field trip when it poured.
(more…)

Should I just give up and wait for next time? Too many murky options, none of which jump out and say “I’M THE MOST FEASIBLE!” I want to go to Eastern Europe with Jolin and Addie. Next time. Aiyah. So the former said “don’t go anywhere now and save money for next year.” But it’s a bloody 3 week break! The likes of which I will never see again!
(more…)