20120131
i would never know what date it was if i didn't have to write in patient's charts and update lists and fill in path slips every day.
kept missing rebecca's calls today. :\ and finally went to theatre.. finished all the discharge summaries. went to see a patient who has otitis externa. so weird.. hospitalized for otitis externa? but then i think she has psych issues. her last admission was for a drug overdose.
left on time again. :)
the kittens are really possessive over their raw meat. am glad they seem to like beef now.. otherwise it would just go to waste.
finally emailed wealthmed. yay, salary packaging put into motion.
i think i'm not going to have any money left at the end of this year leh. can't wait for my next paycheck already. -.- i have no more money!
it's either scorching hot or raining torrentially here. why is there nothing in between?
6:54 pm
20120129
really have to overcome this inertia.
have to work again tomorrow! sian. haha i wonder how long it'll take me to get used to this. ;p surg 1 tomorrow. i don't like having to switch teams..
the weather was mad today. started off really gloomy and rainy, then got scorching hot in the afternoon, and then rained like mad again in the evening. -.-
becker likes to talk. but his meow is very squeaky. if i squat down and call them they come running. ;p they still like my pillow more than the one i got them for their basket. but at least i managed to get them to stay in their bed until 2.30am, ha. after that i was too tired to get up and move them. bailey likes to lie on my bed and use my leg as a pillow. ;p
they like to watch me cook. but bailey scares me cos he likes to jump up onto the kitchen counter and stove... nearly got another heart attack when he jumped onto the stove just now.. good thing i was using the oven instead. :|
and one of them has been pooping in my bathtub! D: don't know which one. but i'm glad none of their toileting mishaps have extended outside the bathroom. most other areas are carpeted.
apparently megan had a ceremony for mousey! haha so funny. ;p graham uploaded a photo of her grave..
ivy wants me to bring bailey and becker to melb to visit.. haha. i actually considered it.. ;p but flying with animals is complicated. and where would they stay? so probably not.. plus the flight times are really not favourable for just a weekend so i'll probably wait till i'm doing ED and have more days off at once. :) ED's the next rotation anyway. though i meant to go to perth too hmm.
:)
so tempted to offer but how could i ever.
8:54 pm
20120128
woke up at... 5.30am. snoozed a bit, whatsapped, then proceeded to sweep and mop the floor haha. at like 6+ in the morning, sigh.
went furniture hunting again, at all the op shops (there are 7 in this area). i like a couple of dining tables and chairs (that look pretty much the same), and they're both still there. but the tables are round and a bit too big. ended up getting a rocking chair haha. ;p the cats seem to like it.
finally met the manager of the car rental place. she seems nice. everyone seems nice, actually. i'm pretty sure the encounters my mother/ other people had with them was because they didn't ask first. zz.
also finally got my fridge! :D it's so nice to have cold things again! like milk and juice! and to be able to store meat and stuff. :) bought beef for the first time in my life haha. not for me of course.. for the cats. they don't seem to like it very much though. :\
and they escaped to the balcony just now and nearly gave me a heart attack. think they tried to go into the neighbour's unit haha. it probably would have been fine if it was just a balcony.. but the neighbour's side has stairs down to the ground floor.
bailey is working on his meow. and i think becker knows his name.. should hurry up and get them collars with bells so i can hear them.
returned my fridge to kmart too. the joyce mayne people helped me carry it down to my car. :) so i suddenly had $169.. and ended up shopping. ;p hahaha. ran into tara at sunshine plaza. we both need new work clothes.
oh and mousey died heh. finally..?
10:28 pm
20120127
yay first week of work done and dusted! ;p
managed to be heard while presenting at the MDT meeting. :) when i am anxious i survive on adrenaline. didn't have lunch. couldn't have lunch.
people keep paging me by accident. or paging me about patients who aren't mine. otherwise a rather uneventful day.
was glad to see the river had gone down by like two feet from yesterday. but it keeps raining..
my qld rego sticker has arrived. i think it arrived earlier but i never got home enough to ask the car rental people haha. but one of them offered the info when i got back today. :) nice of her.
decided to clip the cats' claws cos they were super long. and painful when they climb on me. just had to get them all doped up on purrs and they were quite good about it. :) yay to less pain. i'd like to cut them even shorter but i'm not sure how far i can go heh.
couldn't get them to sleep in their bed last night. they had to sleep like on me. plus the stupid car rental alarm kept going off every ten minutes until 3am. -.- woke up feeling like i'd hardly slept at all last night. :( and hence really felt like doing nothing at work.
half admitted a patient who wasn't even under my team. the nurse told me wrongly... like all the wrong pages. -.- some more the guy had lost his hearing aid in DEM (ED) and so i had to shout everything. sigh. but then thankfully elissa took over (he was meant to be under her team). ;p and i got to leave relatively on time again. :)
when i got home the cats were both sleeping on the ironing board haha. fed them raw chicken. their foster mum said they like roo haha. i am contemplating giving them some maybe once or twice a week.
hope the weather is better tomorrow. and i finally get a fridge! :D
8:48 pm
20120126
australia day! lots of flags on cars today.
woke up at 5.30 as usual and continued reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. it really is quite interesting reading it from a psych perspective. schizophrenia and ECT and all that.
went to the hospital because i'd forgotten to print/ forward myself a very important document for the MDT tomorrow. it has nearly all the info i need heh.
anthea emailed me the correct number and i called kerry and she said she would be home all day so i could go meet the kittens at any time. so i rushed around getting cat stuff like litter boxes, a pet carrier, food and water bowls, that sort of thing.
drove 1.5 hours to birkdale (east of brisbane) to meet them! kerry has so many foster kittens/ cats. like at least 25 i reckon. :O bailey and becker seemed the most friendly out of the lot of 7 in the air conditioned room in the front. they both climbed onto my lap! ;p so cute.
they were also really good on the drive back... just slept most of the way, until we had to drive through a patch of heavy rain. need to buy some ping pong balls for them. favourite toy, apparently.
i hope they don't fall out the windows. bailey is a lot better at climbing up to the table from my lap. becker is a lot more clawy. i think it's just cos he's smaller.
so i spent a lot of my first paycheck on the cats. i have no more money!
one more day of work and then it's the weekend! :)
9:46 pm
20120125
enough blue sky to make pants for a sailor
yay holiday tomorrow! :D though i need to get my MDT stuff sorted heh.
woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of pouring rain. the river was so full this morning. and so many roads were flooded (they announced over the radio). the road i usually take to the hospital was closed so i had to take a different route.. so instead of driving past cows, i drove past horses. ;p but i still prefer the old route. the road is better.
still only 4 patients today. found out that i'm covering surg 1 next week, which is a pain... david, who's on surg 1, has gotten home at 7pm every day. :| plus the stack of charts needing discharge summaries is depressing. i was relatively free again today so i did a bunch of surg emerg ones for tara.
my low BP patient's BP came back up yay. the others are pretty much watching and waiting. one is going to theatre on friday but i don't even want to go in to watch, his ankles are too disgusting. :|
got our first pay checks whee! ;p all of us went to check our bank accounts once we received the email haha. ;p finally i don't have literally $0 in my bank account. ;p it was only one week's pay though.. for last week (when we hardly did any work at all). free money! ;p
emily was so nice. she asked me if i was alright with the MDT stuff! then she proceeded to tell me what i needed to say heh. good thing i only have 2 patients this week (david has 6).
new contenders!
niko's cattery has a cold going around so it's closed at the moment. and i've sort of decided i don't want a kitten kitten (like <5 months old).. even though some of them look so adorable haha.
penfold (i think i like grey cats)
misty (she has green eyes!)
toscha (i don't really like him that much)
diego reminds me of manja for some reason. probably his markings? can't remember.
i need some furniture.
rain rain go away
7:20 pm
20120124
so i survived day 2! hopefully all my patients did too. :|
started the day with 5 patients but one of the new ones got discharged almost immediately. the reg was here today! yay! trooped around seeing eve's patients and then mine. there was actually nothing much.. except that one patient kept dropping her BP to 80+... :\
booked a patient for a leg graft. his shins were... disgusting. D: red and raw. i was so glad when the vac dressing went back on! D:
found out that i have to present two patients at the MDT (multidisciplinary) meeting on friday. which is fine, because it's very informal.. the problem is that i've never met the patients before, and they've both been discharged, and there is so little clinical info in the notes. and i can't read the consultant's handwriting! D: and then qool was down too. shall have to find time to do it tomorrow.
forgot to check if there were new patients too hmm. arrived at the ward at 7.05am this morning and everyone was already there! a full half hour before we start work... what enthusiastic young doctors we are.
i know i said this yesterday but it really is very nice that we share wards and everyone is always around. was attempting to read my MDT patient's chart in the RMO room while deanna did discharge summaries. she is hilarious because she's so expressive.. haha. "urology wee list! nobody made a wee list so i'm making one!" and "awww i was sure australia day was tomorrow!"
today went by a lot quicker than yesterday did. probably because i had more stuff to do.
seeing charm's macaron photos makes me want to make some! although i know i will be sorely disappointed eating those i make myself (the last ones i had were laduree's). saturday maybe? i still haven't gotten a baking tray. and i've forgotten the measurements.
one more day of work before a holiday. ;p the stretch where i have to work 12 days straight will be so difficult! :(
6:43 pm
20120123
so... survived the first day of work! :D although i can't really call it surviving.. haha. i didn't really have much to do at all. :3
since i'm the surg 2b intern, i'm relieving whoever's doing surg emerg.. this week it's tara (surg 3), so i'm covering surg 3.. which only had 3 patients. ;p well, there were 2 more who were in theatre today, so they'll go on the list tomorrow (which means i have to go early to chope a computer to do that). and the 3 patients i had today have been in hospital for a long time.. just waiting for their pressure ulcers to heal up etc.
oh yes. was glad it was an easy day cos the reg who was covering surg 3 went off to operate at caloundra. and my consultant was in theatre all day (except when he popped out to see one patient). so i was all alone! D:
did all the discharge summaries. wrote up all the bloods. attempted to make friends with other staff in the ward haha. i wonder how many packets of those crackers i can eat in a week. heh. hopefully i won't be needed in opd tomorrow.
so wary of picking up calls from callers who are blocked. :\ like.. IT COULD BE GG. D: thankfully today it was just AAMI.
anyway.. my landlord approved my "application" to have a cat! ;p "application" because all i did was email the agent saying i wanted to have a cat, what should i do, and she replied saying yes. :) yay! so exciting! ;p
so if anyone still reads my blog and has too much time/ nothing better to do/ just wants to help me, please look at these kittens/ cats and vote! ;p it would be like a roadtrip though haha. they're (nearly) all so far away..
1.
misty
2.
spinny
3.
soccer
4.
jacky khan (ikr)
5.
nameless kitten
6.
russian black
7.
niko
glad my internet decided to be fast again. ;p
was supposed to go up to mapleton after work to collect a letter that got sent up there. but when i called heather, she said it was terribly foggy and that i shouldn't go up. so she'll meet me around the hospital tomorrow when she goes down to visit her mother somewhere around there. oh well, can't see jess and chloe haha.
who would have known that it was chinese new year....
6:31 pm
20120121
yay my internet is back up. turns out i had just exceeded my limit hahaha. ;p so i upgraded. yay i have a lot of shows to watch again. ;p
sort of settled the fridge problem. though it means i'll have to go without one for another week. i will survive! at least it means that by next saturday it'll all be settled.
went shopping but had to.. practise self-control. :3 cos technically, i have no money. yet. so just bought some necessities..
avoided meeting certain people i really didn't want to have to spend time with. they said they wouldn't disturb me, so why are they disturbing me! :|
finally found teds cameras, which develops film! super ex, but heh. everything here is more ex than melbourne. :|
"do you develop film?"
"yeah, you mean like, actual film?"
what else could i have meant..? -.-
i really haven't been taking photos since i got up here though. :\ because i haven't really been doing anything...
bought a shelf. one i could actually carry up to the apartment on my own.. it's a bookshelf but i'm using it for clothes. but my screwdriver is lousy and i can't be bothered to drive out again today so i'll do it tomorrow.
so tempted to bake. but i have no (working) fridge.
just randomly, while my friend was writing a new script for a patient... on the first sheet, in the adverse reactions box, there was "shell fish" among other things. on the next sheet, it was written as "selfish." hahaha. ;p
shall walk to the beach tomorrow... :) i don't think it's very far. people actually walk around in bikinis and all here.. haha.
it's so much easier to talk to people when you can see them...
4:28 pm
20120120
it's just past 8pm but i'm so tired. my internet is crap, so there isn't much to do either.
the glass people came and left some shards on my floor. D:
finally remembered to call the agent to ask about the mail box. apparently there isn't one, so my mail gets delivered to the car rental place downstairs. met some nicer people there today. so anyway i have my new iphone case. :) at least it won't hurt so much when i drop it.
started off the day hearing about a patient dying last night. he'd been hypo-ing and one of our jobs on weds ward call was to write up genta for him. apparently he had a big PE (though he was sat-ing at 98%?) and died in the V/Q scanner. :\ i told dave in a really bad way (he was the one who saw this patient on weds). "did you hear about your hypo patient? he died." which of course made him think that he had died right after he wrote up his whatever. oops.
the intern i followed today was nicer than the other intern. went on a quick ward round with the PHO (principal house officer), wrote notes and weekend summaries, ordered bloods for our patients for the weekend, and did discharge scripts and discharge summaries. went for the breast MDT meeting... it had free food, but the wrap made me taste grass for the rest of the day.
was glad to have other new interns around though. :) like dave, tara, eve.. at least there are still people to bounce ideas off! making clinical decisions on your own is scary.
it was slightly annoying that they made us do discharge summaries.. cos we'll get to do a ton of them in just a few days (interns do 100% of all discharge summaries), and also because it's a requirement to finish all your discharge summaries in order to pass your rotation. plus the not nice intern was covering surg 3 and was complaining about how she had nothing to do... while i was doing all her discharge summaries. -.-
forgot to call the senior pathologist back. :/
was let off early after finishing the discharge script and summary for a grumpy old lady who had a SBO from eating mango after a sigmoid colectomy. happily went off to the car mechanic, who gladly helped me put on the front car plate. :) he was so nice. so now Skype is nearly officially a Queenslander. still waiting for the rego label.
went back to queensland transport to hand in my plates. :( such a sad feeling! when i left i saw a family switching their vic plates and i felt so sad for them too. :( but the lady was very nice again. though there wasn't enough time to change my licence.. at least i have 3 months to get that done (as opposed to 14 days for the car rego). she said she'll call me to let me know when i can go back in. people here are quite nice, really. ;p
finally worked up the courage to ask him. ;p haha. i just really dislike asking people for help. he agreed anyway, but looks like the timing doesn't work... so i might go to joyce mayne tomorrow and see if there are nice people there. ;p
reading sylvia plath and going to bed. :) it's such a nice feeling to not have to go to work tomorrow! ;p though i'll probably still wake up at 5.30. should find some blackout curtains for my bedroom window.. otherwise the only way i'll get enough sleep is if i go to bed at 9. :/
8:31 pm
20120118
interesting day. and the sun finally came out again! :) the downside to that is that it's quite hot now..
lectures in the morning. left home late and was nearly late. which is bad when you're "working"... the bundy and hervey bay people left after lunch. i wonder why it's pronounced "harvey" bay?
anyway wealthmed sounds good.. salary packaging, taxes etc. for $275 for the whole year. need to email them soon. especially since i'm doing surg and it looks like i'll be doing lots of overtime.
ward shadowing and ward call shadowing in the arvo. started ward shadowing an hour late cos the intern was swamped. :x hurried out to qld transport but i really don't see how i'll manage to ever register my car. the queues are so long! D: just picked up the relevant forms and went back to the hospital. dropped my (new) phone AND my pager. :( sigh.
ward shadowing was.. information overload. D: so many things to do! and ward rounds are (apparently) so fast that you can't write in the notes.. so you have to come back and write in them later, on top of all the other ward jobs, clinics, theatre etc. -.-
ward call shadowing wasn't what we expected i think. we thought we'd just be following emily around, watching her do stuff (which is what was meant to happen). but because emily was covering surg emerg (which sounds terrifying), we ended up doing some of the ward jobs for her haha. that in itself was terrifying enough! writing up drugs (mainly gentamicin and warfarin) and fluids... and signing them! even before officially starting work. ;p haha. so the time went by quite fast..
we were meant to finish at 6.30 but emily had a trauma call so we went down to DEM with her. the lady was found by the roadside, probably a high speed runover. D: GCS 6? she ended up going for an emergency laparotomy. then we were all scared to drive home. :\
met a black cat while walking to the car.. :) she was so friendly, i really wanted to catnap her. her features were so pretty too. sigh.. when i drove past later there was another cat there too. i nearly turned the car around to go meet that one haha.
but i didn't because i haven't read my ACLS stuff for tomorrow. :( i hate hate hate that kind of thing. :( so terrifying. and stressful. and i never know what to do. :( glad it's just one day, i thought it was two initially. friday is all-day ward shadowing. glad that i have elissa to split surg emerg with.
so tempted to either watch another show, or sleep. :| stupid ACLS. plus there's an exam! rawr.
oh i got my payroll number! :) but am still waiting for my prescriber/ provider numbers. and auslab password. and the basepage one too.
signed up for mips (again) to get a free pen torch. haha. i think i keep double signing up for things..
the stupid fridge still refuses to work. instead of being cold, it was hot. -.-
and i forgot to mention this yesterday... kees knows craig hassed! he bought one of craig's books and his wife stopped smoking after reading it haha. so i had to talk to him about mindfulness and the train and all that stuff. the UQ people didn't have to learn that...
i guess when you have so much to do the day just goes by. hopefully it'll be like that (but not so fast that there isn't time to get everything done of course)..
i hope nothing bad happens to the patients i wrote up gent/ warfarin/ fluids for. :x
9:28 pm
20120117
i want to watch a show and sleep haha. but i shall still blog. ;p
it rained and rained and rained today. :( the river is nearly bursting its banks. when i drive to hospital (i take the longer, more scenic route because i don't dare to drive at 100km/h in the rain with these tyres) it's like driving right next to the water.
lectures, iv cannulation, self-guided hospital tour, electronic discharge summaries, glitter bug. i wonder if it's me, or if people say different things here. i had never heard of "bug bear" before nambour.
went to the boatshed restaurant for our welcome dinner. sat with tyng and adibah and kees (the director of clinical teaching at bundy). kees had lots of interesting stories haha. his daughter had two cats called chick and duck. ;p and duck had a hip fracture. and he used to show duck's hip x-ray in lectures haha.
the rain finally stopped while we were having dinner. :) would have taken a photo of the view from the boatshed but everything was all wet and the railing was round. :|
will hopefully be able to get my car safety cert this week. it's so annoying that the queensland transport offices only open from like 9-4 and i work from 7.30-4. -.- actually i wouldn't be so annoyed by that.. it's quite reasonable (i don't work most weekends too). it's just that they require the car to be re-registered within 14 days. if you have a job where you cannot take leave, how are you supposed to get that done? -.- how ridiculous.
plus my fridge is spoilt. nearly threw up when i opened it just now. -.- shall have to ask ethan if he can help me carry it down to my car...
okay that's all. ward shadowing and ward call shadowing tomorrow. it's going to be a long day. i should bring a can of V i think. ;p
10:46 pm
20120116
yay! talking to people who understand! (and hence make me feel better.. though i think we scare each other as well haha.) for example, i keep going: "so scaryyy i dont want to do it alreadyyyyyy" and "ONLY ONE OMG OMG SO SCARY" and "i didnt want to beeeeee, i still dont want to beeeee"
we're (okay, i'm) attempting to drag everyone up here to meet me haha. when i'm doing med in bundy and wanjie's having her holiday. charmaine can choose when to take her leave.. and tae, well, it depends on what he's doing then i guess. but tae isn't the kind to do this sort of thing. though he really should, you can't do that anymore when you start work!
jean (hui jean) went to rockhampton! what a surprise. if she comes down a bit i can go up a bit and meet her haha. or if she goes for some conference in brissy, since she loves that kind of thing... i can meet her then. ;p although bundy is nearly halfway in between.
need to iron clothes later. hopefully eventually everything will be ironed and i won't have to keep ironing the night before haha.
9:03 pm
4 days left of being a pseudo-intern! well, 6 if you count the weekend. and maybe more if i don't get my visa by friday... D:
long day of lectures. got our ID badges and pagers! so exciting to own a pager haha. though i already hate the sound it makes. and i can't figure out how to lower the volume either.. haha.
ward covers sound so terrifying. D: no, SO TERRIFYING. D:D:D: at least mine is only after week 5... :\ and then i'm on remote cover too. i will be praying that i don't get called. :|
it's raining like mad. apparently the area may flood. -.- then i'd have to go back up the hill and stay in mapleton again.
oh yes i met the singaporean guy haha. he's alright... met a couple of bruneians too.. and the rest were ang moh. local/ canadian/ from don't know where else.
hank and heather brought my fridge over today. :) hank carried it all the way up by himself too. :\
and i decided to do something out of character and go for the welcome dinner tomorrow. it's only a ten-minute walk from my place anyway... and it's free. haha.
just checked immi. :) i've got my visa! :D the date says 16/01/2012 so i think they'll pay me for today. ;p yay!
the internet is considerably slower today... don't tell me i've reached the download limit already? :(
7:06 pm
20120115
anywayyy. visited suncoast church this morning with moth and heather. met some nice people... and one other asian haha. shall go for the younger service next week i reckon.
dodged a lunch appointment with gg (the terrorising old man), thank goodness. went on a tour of buderim and went to see heather's mother's cottage. her mother is 105 years old. :O
went back to mapleton to get our stuff and say bye. bye jess and chloe! the two 8yo weimaraners. hank removed the stitches on chloe's neck and asked me to check haha. as if i know anything...
moved our stuff in and set up the table and clothes racks and stuff. the fan is broken so we have to exchange it. but it doesn't really matter cos it's quite cool tonight.. rain and all.
oh and there was a tiny tiny tiny field mouse in the kitchen this morning. one of the dogs did something to it i think.. cos by the time i saw it, it was dead. :( they said it was alive when they found it, but barely.
i can't print wirelessly without a wireless router and i don't have the cable... technology can be so annoying at times. shall just print all my stuff in the hospital haha. or maybe get a cable.. sometime.
at least the mobile broadband is fast. really fast, actually. i already downloaded all the shows i've been missing.. ;p
the shelf in my living room has:
- my lg inspire photo collage thing
- ling ling's end of year gift
- may's felt bird
- ling ling's paper bouquet (for grad)
- wan jie's mouse and cheese door stopper
- an old family photo
- kevin's doorknob flower (i have no doorknobs here)
:) that shelf makes me happy haha. mang mang your gift is on the shelf in my bedroom. ;p and so is the stuffed monkey nine gave me years and years ago.
while unpacking i found some things i was surprised i still had... looks like a lot has changed, hmm. okay maybe not a lot. but some significant things, anyway.
i think my ear piercing is infected, rawr. :(
must transfer Skype's rego. and get a qld licence myself. all the forms i need to fill in.... :(
starting orientation tomorrow! please please please grant me my visa...
8:59 pm
20120114
so i've partially moved in. will hopefully fully move in tomorrow.. :) still need more furniture though haha. and we have to figure out how to get the fridge from my car to the apartment. ;p
it was an interesting day. went to the montville market in the morning with heather and my mother. it was a typical once a month village market sort of thing.. so cute haha.
then we were picked up by this singaporean couple (both doctors) to go for lunch. i probably can't write much about it here, him being somewhat well-known and all. -.- but he was seriously the most overbearing person i have ever met. D: he even said to me, "tell your mother, who knows if you're still a virgin or not?" not even kidding. D:
his wife is really nice though. and i'm glad she's the one working in the hospital cos she's so much nicer than he is. though he is actually a nice person and he really does mean well. i just really really dislike him, that's all. it's one thing to have all these standards, but you can't impose them on everyone else you meet. seriously.
anyway we went to a chinese restaurant for lunch. the owner was really grumpy. the lunch opening hours were 12-2 and he said we had to come at 1 cos he wanted to close early. ha.
went to sunshine plaza and got things like a fridge and microwave. and other random house things. it's rather annoying that i can't drive my car in after hours cos it's a car rental carpark. wonder where they'll put my lot, really. there isn't much space. but i guess it's only really inconvenient when i'm moving in or out and have bulky things to move..
also got my mobile broadband but haven't bothered with it yet since i still have wifi here in mapleton.
had dinner at a thai place in nambour. the food was quite good.. what i really wished for though, was the tom yum soup at krua thai! must ask tae to bring us there again when we all reunite for our giant havis-red bull singlet outing. ;p though i think they should all come up here since it's warmer. ;p
expectations are risingggg haha. eeks. i quite dislike this feeling. it's like a buildup before disappointment. :( how irrational, really.
anyway if i can find people to do things with i have decided that i shall attempt to surf again (at least the water's warmer here!). and also to go see the great barrier reef when i go up to bundy for my rural rotation in july. :)
going to church tomorrow.... will see what it's like. at least i don't have to drive - it's really quite difficult to drive when there's a fridge blocking your rear view.
11:38 pm
20120113
friday the 13th!
my apartment application was approved. :) collecting the keys tomorrow.
furniture hunting... i need to control myself if not i'll end up with lots of old furniture i'll love but not know what to do with at the end of the year. :|
got my iphone 4s today. :) the lady at the telstra shop was lovely but the system was so slowww. kind of made me have doubts about telstra, heh. haven't signed up for the mobile broadband yet though..
going to meet two doctors tomorrow morning.. they sound weird. or at least, the husband does... the wife is the head of pathology at nambour. going to clean the apartment after that.. and hopefully the mattress will be delivered sometime in the afternoon.
still waiting for my visa... sigh. :( i want to be paid for orientation! :(
11:48 pm
20120112
hello from the sunshine coast! :D staying in mapleton at the moment.. lydia's friend tim's parents' house. i don't even know any of those people heh.
we started driving up at 5.30am on the 10th, stayed in moree that night, and arrived in nambour at 2pm the next day. :) quite fast hor. ;p i'm so proud of Skype! ;p he managed to hold all my junk some more haha.
found an apartment yesterday and sneaked up to try to have a look inside.. met the neighbour, who happily let us into her house to have a look. really really (x10) liked the wooden floorboards! went to see the other unit today and sent in an application haha.
the floor is mostly carpeted but there's still part of it that has wooden floorboards. everything looks super old... but useable. needs some work... but i think the owner is the kind who doesn't care if you paint or do random things haha. oh and the toilet is outside. which is a bit weird but i don't really mind because it's so quaint and reminds me of the brighton beach bath houses haha.
going to switch my mobile plan to telstra. and going to get the iphone 4s as well. :) haven't decided on the internet yet though... don't think i can survive on the usb thing but the other thing is so expensive, especially without anyone to share it with heh.
bengal kitten..?
11:11 pm
20120109
hello. :) it has been such a rush. really wish i could've seen more people!
anyway today i:
- sent my ielts results to ahpra
- sent my medical report to the immigration office
- attempted to get my vaccination history
- set up a new bank account
- found out my tax file number after being put on hold for half an hour
- loaded most of my stuff into Skype
i never fail to be amazed at how much Skype can hold though he's so tiny. ;p please survive the journey!
intended to be in bed by 10 but well.. that never happens, does it? my mother is driving first anyway... so i can hopefully get some more rest tomorrow morning.
bye rusden! i'll miss you.
11:43 pm
20120108
"penne carbonara!"
"yes!!"
"how she guess one!"
"cos she eats."
was looking for AE-1s on ebay for charm but now i feel like buying one also. -.- don't even know what for, since i have one that works perfectly well! haven't even had to change the battery haha.
went to chui huay lin for lunch today... the cold crab wasn't that great, but at least i got to have cold crab after years and years. maybe it's lost a bit of its appeal after all the prawns i've been eating haha. so glad i'm not allergic to them anymore. :)
napped and packed. tuna accompanied me for a while. i don't really know why i feel so tired... :(
talked to charm some more and she gave me lots of advice on all the stupid admin stuff. going to have to rush around tomorrow to get everything done! D: i feel SO TIRED thinking about it. and then the drive the next two days ugh. and then work omg. i need a break. :(
going to have dinner and then go to the airport. bye singapore! see you sometime at the end of the year. :)
6:22 pm
20120107
i really shouldn't think about these things, especially not now... it's far too exhausting and i have so many other more important things to think about! :( so stressed. :(
dragged myself out of bed to go to town with my mother and sister... for breakfast at macs. -.- walked around a bit but didn't do much. came home and napped.
amazingly i woke up without a headache. and tuna was lying at the foot of my bed, after going on his long-awaited adventure outside. so my bed is dirty now, but it doesn't really matter cos i only have one more night here anyway.
had chicken! yeay. :) then started packing.
went to shaw for uncle whye quine's birthday dinner. food was alright.. had cereal prawns! :)
shall go buy my black flats tomorrow. and also hunt for my dior blue jeans nail polish, which i haven't seen anywhere except sephora in paris. should have gotten it there, sigh. and we might also go to miu miu to check out the price of my wallet haha.
perryn wants me to buy rekorderlig back for him haha. ;p he has post-rekorderlig syndrome...
was just thinking that i should set some goals for the year... ;p
10:53 pm
my head is throbbing like it's going to explode. :( hence i am going to sleep soon.
went to pick isaac up from tuition. he took ten thousand years to come out. then i drove to tanah merah but the traffic was terrible so it took another ten thousand years. so not used to driving for so long anymore..
had dinner with zhilin's family and zepeng. ;p david kang arrived halfway..
watched tv and started playing some bean card game... then james arrived from work. played cranium (the card version) and ate some more. since there were so few of us, zhini, yisi, and yixian joined us. :)
sent james home after. then got lost trying to drive home from woodlands... really dislike driving in sg. -.- but i eventually managed to find my way back. yay.
finally, sleep. the only cure for these ridiculous headaches.
chocolate, a car, and scuba diving. just saying.
1:52 am
20120106
suddenly feeling intensely tired, sad, and terrified, all at once.
2011 was, in many ways, a difficult year. on all fronts, really. i can only think of one significant upside. well, two, if you count the job.
2012 poses different challenges. ones i don't think i'm ready to face on top of the ones from 2011. with no one physically around, no less. sometimes i don't know why i accepted the offer.
but if there's one thing i learnt last year, it's that people are always stronger than they think, stronger than they know. you think it's going to kill you, but one day you wake up and realise that you are still here. and it is okay.
it's just really tiring, that's all.
you know the world tried to take me
and though it did not break me
i'm certainly not who i was
10:15 am
insomnia will do that to you.
12:47 am
20120105
yay back in singapore! :) was so glad we transited. a 12-hour flight would have killed me. :|
chop chop. touched down at 2.30ish in the afternoon. went to pick the brother up from school, then dropped by btp to collect my film and drop off two more rolls. :)
then went to bukit batok to cut my hair. don't know why it suddenly became so expensive. :\ she increased the price for cny but still shouldn't be $22 what! anyway, chopped my curls off haha. my hair damaged to the point that it kept getting tangled and being impossible to untangle.
then to queensway to make my new specs! haha. didn't need to do it secretly. ;p can collect my photos and specs tomorrow. :) yeay.
we spent 109 euros on macarons. D: not even kidding. we were just not going to tell our mother how much they cost... but then she said she didn't want to know also haha.
anyway, according to this
website, monash is ranked 33 while nus is ranked 41 (for medicine). just saying.... ucl is ranked 7! haha.
three days in singapore and then it's back to aussie. my long holiday has completely emptied my mind of anything remotely medicine-related. i don't know how to be a doctor! ahhh! D: how terrifying. plus the 22-hour drive. going to buy lots of red bull and drink it like it's water.
and we all got giant havaianas floats! :D just something to have in common while we're spread out around australia. :) i'm really very sad that none of my doctor friends are in sunshine coast with me. :( how to survive! :( :( :(
now to figure out how to drive to tanah merah...
9:01 pm
20120103
sometimes i wonder if it ever occurs to you...
wanted to buy a postcard and some stamps today from a shop near our apartment. it turned out that the guy had run out of overseas stamps, and he claimed that he didn't have change for 10 euros. so he gave me the postcard for free! ;p "it's a gift."
went to see the catacombes today! 6 million people buried there... with the long bones and skulls stacked up against the walls. assumed that the other bones were hidden behind.
then we went to the luxembourg gardens to see the palais but it didn't look like a palace at all... walked to the pantheon to take some photos. then ended up having lunch at some restaurant around the area. it was alright... had escargot and my sister kept making disgusted faces at them. the waiter was very nice though. we tipped him.
took the metro to the opera and went shopping at galeries lafayette. :) queued up to go into longchamp. couldn't find anything to buy from tiffany. got a miu miu wallet though. :)
found massimo dutti but was disappointed cos the top was so ex. :( should have gotten it on christmas eve in barcelona. :( bought a similar top from zara.
then we were too tired to walk anymore so we sat down in the shopping mall. bought pierre herme macarons! yay. :) went to sephora and then came back to have dilute laksa.
abrupt ending.
10:41 am
a really long and busy day. okay not really...
we gave up on the water heater last night and decided to give it till the morning. tested it again this morning and the water was hot! yeay.:)
went to les puces (a flea market) this morning but it wasn't much. sort of like victoria market. ended up just having crepes.
took the metro to st michel and found our way to the famous shakespeare & co bookshop. :D we each bought a book there. :) then we had lunch (an omelette) and berthillon sorbet! people have claimed that berthillon's is the best in the world... i only tried banane ans chocolat noir today, but the banane was really good. the chocolat noir was too chocolatey...
oh and i found a macaron baking sheet! with little circles with raised edges. bought one. ;p quite ex though..
walked around the towers of notre dame, then hopped on the hop on hop off les cars rouges bus. open-topped in the chilly paris air.. went past the musee de orsay, opera, and arc de triomphe. hopped off at the grand palais, but only for a while... hopped back on and went to trocadero to take photos of the eiffel tower. so many people.
hopped on the bus again and went past the eiffel tower, champ de mars, and alighted at the louvre. we only had about an hour before it closed... and it's apparently the largest museum in the world, so we really didn't get to see much of it. saw the mona lisa and a lot of other leonardo da vinci paintings. and an ancient egyptian exhibit with a mummy and all.
left the louvre at 6 and spent more than an hour on the bus. the angsty bus driver stopped and screamed at us for no apparent reason. :| ended up catching a train to the eiffel tower from trocadero and nearly running in order to get there by 8 for our booking.
finally felt like i was in paris when i saw the eiffel tower at night. ;p went up to the second floor and took photos.. ordered a croque monsieur but ended up with a baguette instead. and the hot chocolate tasted like the ones from the machines in southern health haha. went down and walked back to trocadero to take more photos.
then took the train back. spent a lot of moneyyy. :( food and transport so expensive. and tomorrow i'm going to spend a lot a lot a lot. :| but it's okay, i'll earn it back. ;p
catacombes, luxembourg, pantheon, and galeries lafayette tomorrow. :)
12:35 am
20120101
hello from paris! :) finally in an apartment with free wifi so indecided to blog... since it's been such a long time. and the heater is taking ten thousand years to heat the water up so we're just waiting...
barcelona was rather disappointing. no christmas sales and the shops were all closed on christmas day and boxing day. no semblance of boxing day sales at all! got to visit a few of gaudi's famous works of art though.. like the church that's been in construction for more than a hundred years.
met fath and isaac in bristol and we stayed at uncle hui king and aunty ai seok's friend's place for a night. as usual they fed us with a lot (a lot a lot) of food.. and we went to cabot circus in the morning. :) yay boxing day shopping! :D
then we collected our rental car and drove to holsworthy. spent a few nights there doing pracically nothing except watching topgear and driving wars on dave. also went to exeter, oxford, plymouth, and some little towns and managed to get some shopping done. ;p spending money like it drops from the sky.
stayed at reading last night.. watched more dave. loved the sweet potato fries at the lounge though. :)
they dropped sit and i off at the luton airport and we waited for hours. bought Heart of the Matter by emily giffin to occupy myself. flew... we were both disappointed that they didn't stamp our passports. :( haha.
checked in at the apartment and went to dabao sushi for dinner haha. we'd just been craving it for a while.
apparently the water is still cold.... fail. :(
anyway happy new year! :) my time zones are all messed up, but i'm sure i must be living in the past now..
10:41 am