20121129
back from taiwan and.. sleepy.
we're supposed to have dinner tomorrow night but i don't know if it's happening and i'm lazy to ask. i suppose sebas will call or something after his paper and if all else fails we will just meet ourselves haha.
haven't driven for 17 days and it feels really strange. i haven't not driven for more than a few days at a time.. in a long time. in the sunny coast it feels weird if i don't drive even for one day. anyway the small car isn't home. -.- as always, the brother has it.
my whatsapp is being weird.
i feel so tired like i need to sleep for a week before going back to work. :|
time to look for a new home again.
11:35 pm
yay going back to singapore tomorrow! :)
need to find another dress to wear to joab's wedding because my red hair clashes with pink haha. hmm. and preferably ones that match my dark purple shoes that i brought back haha. otherwise i have my ivory ones somewhere in the rusden store room but it'll take forever to find. :\ but i really like those shoes haha.
bought a lot of things i hardly use, eg. make up, face masks.. went around watsons with my sister educating me about different types of make up and their uses because i only wear make up to weddings and balls haha. anyway we have spent pretty much all our money. ;p the rest will be spent on milk tea and getting our hair washed tomorrow before flying. ;p
the day started with no water. -.- the hotel was cleaning their water tank and didn't inform us. -.- and the water only came back on at 10+ zzz.
took the maokong gondola, it's kind of like the hk one that goes up to the giant buddha. had lunch up there, then it started to rain so we came back. a bunch of us went to the hot springs at bei tou after that. stole one of the metro tokens for my brother (by accident).
30 nov - ?dinner with nine
1 dec - tea with cheryl and lois/ tata's birthday dinner
2 dec - dinner with the doctors
3 dec - dinner with huiru and xieai
4 dec - dinner with melbournians
5 dec - ?brunch
12:28 am
20121128
hello from taiwan! day 4 and i am tired. 2 more days and i'll be back in singapore.. 9 more days and i'll be back in melb. :D
too lazy to blog about taiwan. a lot of walking, looking at clothes, having our hair washed at salons because we're too lazy to do it ourselves, eating lu dan etc.
my ipad mini has shipped! :D my case has also shipped, but i'm not sure if it'll arrive in time. :\ the ipad mini should be there by the time i'm home though. ;p
pimples popping up everywhere. D:
i think that while on my holiday i'm more tired than when i was working, ha. and i miss my cats!! :( :( :( 18 days till i see them again, which also means 18 days till work resumes. :\ though i might only pick them up on monday night.
hmm perming my hair vs hot springs..
12:49 am
20121123
day 4. :) less bored. ;p
dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die. ;p my favourite guy is the one who sold both his kidneys. ;p my sister can do his dance hahaha.
went to town to get my accessories, wandered around ion without getting lost! well, kind of. also need to note that despite being in town and taking buses and mrts today, i did not have to use my cardigan at all. weird eh.
met zhilin at group therapy cafe. :) yay! had the poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise on thick toast. i don't know what is up with the thick toast. how is thick toast nice?
anyway... caught up on gossip from melb hahaha. interesting. ;p then we went to marina barrage (because she couldn't believe i hadn't been there before) and gardens by the bay. didn't go into the domes or up the skywalk or anything, just walked around. even without direct sunlight, singapore's heat is stifling.
sat in zhilin's car, ah memories. ;p ..same driving style.. haha.
went to swissotel for sam's wedding dinner! melb friends and old chs friends haha. quite interesting.
spending money like waterrrrrr. :( i really like the bunting necklace though, oh well. as if i will wear it often. -.-
looking forward to going to melb and not having to ration my 3g and survive on wifi at home. -.-
shuwei is going to melb to study next year! so i'm meeting her before the fairsian dinner to share my "expertise" haha. realised that i have to leave for the airport at like 10+ so it will be very brief. :\
mostly packed. i hope it doesn't get too cold, because i will freeze.
okay so tired goodnight.
2:10 am
20121121
day 3 and yes.. bored.
am glad to be back from bangkok though. did some shopping, had some good street food (red curry, tom yum, mango with sticky rice, fried chicken skin.. ;p), visited the floating market. the crepes aren't as good as they used to be.
and my mother booked our tickets back for 20 sept instead of 20 nov. the man at the counter must have thought we were a bunch of weirdos, trying to check in 2 months late, then claiming to know the general manager of scoot (which is actually true, he's my aunty's brother), then sitting around playing bearadise until the last minute haha. quite hilarious, really. in the end he couldn't help us though, so we bought new tickets (like $600+ each) = most expensive budget flight ever.
anyway. had lunch at ippudo today. :D yay happy food. :) :) then my mother and sister went to do their mani and i wandered around myself. feel like i spent money non-stop today. D: then again.. it's pay day today. ;p and pay days are the happiest when you're on annual leave. ;p yay!
saw madam kwan on the mrt hahaha. she was with her daughter i think. didn't say hi and didn't take a photo.. i tried, but i thought i looked too conspicuous so i stopped. ;p
was stopped to do a prudential survey. the guy said i looked very young and got a shock when i said i was a doctor hahaha. (note: my hair 尾巴 has now faded to a dull red) after asking a few more questions about my work, he concluded that "you really 离家出走 hor." i think i am now more willing to stop and do these things but at the same time i am becoming more useless to the surveyors haha. most of the things are about local things and i can't really contribute anything useful.
it started pouring on the way home, but it slowed a bit so i went to btp to develop my film and buy some stuff (apple chips!). i don't know why the guy said 后天. :\ how come it takes so long? i think they are becoming lazier lor. or there are fewer people developing film. :\ got drenched on the way back, sigh.
oh, and i lost the hamster today. took it out to play with it but it literally ran out of my hands and landed on the floor. then it proceeded to run under furniture and then disappeared. really quick, this hamster. anyway, isaac and i tried to find it but to no avail. tried to get the cats to help also but tuna doesn't want to eat robo-hammie, so his disinterest was expected. coach, on the other hand, has been eyeing the hamster since it arrived (she killed the last hamster), but she was too stupid (not even kidding), so both of them were of no use. anyway, i found robo-hammie when i came home and managed to catch it, yay. no harm done. ;p
why so cheena today?
need to go and find some accessories for tomorrow. :| should have when i was out today but i wasn't really thinking about that. oh well, shall go after brunch i guess. will be interesting seeing some old friends again..
hello rong, i blogged. ;p
6:27 pm
20121116
day 2, and still bored.
went to fmsp for their thanksgiving service this morning because i was so bored. saw mrs lim but didn't get to say hi, oh well. there's something about that many little kids singing "thank You Lord" at the tops of their voices..
had chee cheong fun at the canteen while talking to the principal and vice principal, who would have ever thought. some of the canteen aunties are still the same. ;p
my mother is making me sell fairfield carnival tickets, so beware fairsians, i will be asking you. ;p but you can say no. ;p
went to tott after for lunch. the food wasn't great though. i have hardly had any reasonable food since coming back. i just want to go to ippudo.
going to bkk tomorrow = need to pack again. at least there will be massages and manicures. am actually looking forward to taiwan now.. at least it won't be so hot.
i suppose different things take precedence at different stages of life. and now, things that used to hold people together are no longer enough. and to be honest i really don't mind too much, i guess i see it as more of a natural progression rather than a loss. the problem is that with fewer close friends (and friends who are always busy) and depressing november rains, i am perpetually bored to tears.
strange, because i don't really do much in the sunny coast either, and i am never this bored. probably because of work and the cats. the cats here are a lot more boring. and they don't love me as much. ;p
need to get back to those baby steps. baby steps and self control.
6:47 pm
20121115
so.. i am back in singapore. only day 1 and i am bored. o.O sigh.
16.5 hours of traveling on monday = fear of DVTs going into overdrive. a bit of musculoskeletal leg pain = freak out i have a DVT. but no, i don't. i was very careful to move my legs every so often haha.
visited the grandparents in KL. my grandfather has raybans that look almost exactly like mine. ;p except that his are black. had red mee sua and chicken soup, as usual. :) went shopping at mid valley and 1 utama, and also managed to meet calvin, jason, and jin tat and his gf on tuesday night. :) :)
had breakfast while reading the paper and talking to my grandmother this morning, then went to holland to meet sebas at breko. gave medical advice haha. i realise that at this point in my internship, i don't feel so clueless. ;p
rong joined us for a while and we exchanged shoes haha. yay heels for the wedding, thank you! :)
went to do my hair. my sister did her treatment as well.. the guy was quite funny i have to say. but it turned out magenta. :\ oh well, he says if i wash it enough times it will fade quickly.
my sister wants to dye the cat hahaha.
ordered my ipad mini case. super ex, but oh well. i am getting paid to do nothing for five weeks after all.
i miss my cats! hope they're settling into tara's place well enough.
6:21 pm
20121111
one direction will forever remind me of ortho now haha. last day nostalgia, aww.
am glad it's over though. and i am officially on holiday. :D relinquishing my pager and stethoscope and endless lists. :) it's a nice feeling haha.
am really tired. looking forward to sleeping on the plane! need to finish packing and sleep soon otherwise i'm going to die while driving to gold coast at 4am. the upside is that i will be driving at dawn, my favourite driving hour. :)
drove up to mapleton to drop the cats off at tara's. they did not pee in the car. :D achievement unlocked hahaha. and they settled pretty quickly too, although becks still did his loud meowing thing. then he came and sat in my lap. ;p miss them already! :( but tara will take good care of them i'm sure. i hope they remember me when i come back. :|
this is just making me more tired. people keep telling me i am so brave to move up here to work on my own, i am so brave to drive back to melb on my own. don't you know that there are so many other things that require so much more courage?
9:08 pm
"I keep fighting for what I want until I can't fight anymore, until giving up is the only option left."
so excited about going to a supper that i invited myself to. ;p hahaha. was going to meet calvin in kl anyway to get my negatives, and he said yus was going to be there too, and jason was organising supper on mon. so tadaa, self invited. ;p i have never met friends in kl before. ;p
i am pretty sure those are amoxy capsules and not antidepressants.
left my leather sandals out on the balcony to sun the mould away but forgot to take them in before it started raining today. :( now they won't dry in time to be brought back to sg! D: oh well, who am i kidding. as my sister would say, i wear havis everywhere anyway.
am mostly packed. :) my luggage currently weighs 21.4kg. i used to be able to gauge ~22kg but since i've been flying with minimal luggage this year, i've lost that skill. and 21.4kg feels like a ton. i don't know how i'm going to carry it downstairs and load it into the car.. but that is a problem for tonight.
hopefully i will finish earlier today. musn't let myself get caught up with the slightly manic oldies who talk non-stop.
still cannot decide if i should do my hair. apparently it may not be possible for it to be bleached white? :|
going to walk to avis soon to pick my first ever rental car. eeks. so scary driving a rental. going to just drive it to work to save time.
hope my patients are all fine and there are no new ones and all i have to do is just say hi and bye forever.
7:44 am
20121110
only one day to go! :p patients, please stay alive till then!
it was a rather relaxed saturday at work. i didn't bother being stressed so i just went at my own pace haha. the boss saw the new one, and two other sickies with me. in CAMU, he even took bloods and gave a gent push for me. i was amazed. i have never seen a medical consultant take bloods.
forgot to tell him that i would be in late tomorrow, so i gave him a call before i left today at 2.15pm. he was all "what, you haven't left yet? go home!" haha. am glad to have a nice boss for my last weekend! :) :)
so..
16th ?dinner with nine
23rd ?dinner with the fairsian bloggers
3rd dinner with huiru and xiex
i am too lazy to organise things anymore so i told rong i would just stay at home unless someone asked me out haha. so she started organising, aww. ;p i really want to just swim but i am doubtful as to whether the weather will allow it.
showered the cats. it really would be much easier with a showerhead, oh well. tara's agent said the cats are allowed, which is a relief. need to remember to steal blueys from the hospital tomorrow.
it's raining and i don't want to go out. :( but i need to do my laundry at some point before i fly. :| maybe it'll be brighter tomorrow.
finally my bank account looks more reasonable. looking forward to being paid to do nothing for 5 weeks. :D
5:38 pm
20121108
3 days to go! :)
today was a rather easy thursday. the boss came to do his full rounds. wen saw the other boss' post op patient with me before going to clinic, and i only had to see one patient on my own (and she wasn't her usual grumpy self either). :) had finished all my jobs by 11 (except for making a referral to the anaesthetic reg because she was in the middle of a met call) and sat at the nurse's station drinking milo. ;p hahaha.
requested some old charts to fill in the summary sheets because i wanted them to be as up to date as possible.. because we're doing our end of term assessments tomorrow afternoon. :3
was telling my reg about how i wanted to bring some brownies home and give some to tara. she gave me the evil eye and exclaimed, "then how many pieces will i get to have?!" ;p hahahaha. i was really looking forward to eating brownies tonight but i am so full now i don't even feel like baking! :|
am actually really going to miss everyone in 1E! okay not
everyone, but most of them. so sad to leave! and to have to move on to the part i dislike the most... starting in a new ward and working with new strangers.
it makes my breath catch in my throat to think about the things i would be giving up. but i think it's one of the instances where i would be happy to make the decision and deal with the consequences after. maybe i'm just crazy.
off to bake brownies now.
10:39 pm
9.40pm and i was ready to sleep. so tired. D: i am wondering if this fatigue is normal, and i've just gotten used to it, or if it's related to this suspicious lymph node in my neck. scary things are happening. D:
the brownies have been baked, i figure they cost about $9 for the tray? +electricity? we were talking about how much i could make from selling them haha. my reg's ambition is to set up a roadside stall selling nasi lemak. ;p hahaha.
bought havis, paid for next year's insurance for Skype, paid for insurance for the flinders apartment, paid my cba credit card bill (i am secretly using my parents' account to pay for my health insurance), cut the brownies up and packed them. finished my list of jobs for tonight.
tara wants to have dinner on sunday night. and i would love to, except that i just realised i have to set off from home at 4am in order to drop my rental car off at 6.30am, to be at the airport by 7.15am for a 9.15am flight. D: i wonder if i can bring knitting needles on board the plane.
okay i can sleep now yay goodnight.
10:30 pm
20121107
happy wednesday. ;p
i keep sighing at work these days haha. 4 days to go, i am so over it! but yay last mdt presentation. :)
no new nofs today. :) and all our patients were relatively alright. transferred one to rehab. will hopefully get rid of a few more before the weekend and not inherit too many new ones.
talking to the ortho guys and my reg about pink hair-
(because the dye arrived today and i brought it to work haha)
wen: dye one strand first.
matt: you should do it! you would look badass.
tom: you know what you should do? try it on your eyebrows first.
it was tom's last day today! he was upset that he wouldn't get to have the brownies on friday haha. but i gave him the recipe. ;p he's going to melb! so i recommended places to go to eat. :D
we're having a pizza party on friday. ;p must check who's slaving the weekend together with me. it will be everyone else's last day.
ilkley - coffs harbour - sydney - shepparton? just that pet-friendly accommodation is ridiculously expensive around sydney. i reckon it's going to be an expensive trip.
got my rotations for next year. :D O&G (double term), paeds, and geriatrics! :D yay no psych!!! ;p hahaha. and i really don't mind geriatrics after doing orthogeris now, some of the oldies are really cute. just that they are all so crumbly because they have millions of medical problems.
contingency plans.
also have to put in the request for my annual leave. i suppose it will have to be in nov/dec again eh. i really wonder what would happen to the family holidays after....
6:07 pm
20121106
this is getting annoying. -.-
started the day off with not one, not two, but three met calls. practically all of our patients had low bp/ were tachycardic etc. nic said it was because she was team leading.
got rid of three patients but got two new ones. one of them isn't even a nof. -.-
anyway, it is melbourne cup day today. everyone was betting on horses. my reg bet $10 and won $8+ haha. she bought me kfc. :D
the ortho guys were saying they should have daily sweeps - tomorrow's will be: what will patient x's neutrophil count be? (that patient has febrile neutropenia) the ortho ward is actually a really nice place to work in.. it's just that 100% of the sick patients belong to us. :|
zoe came to visit! :D she's in 1C now. but yay so nice to see her again. :) :) we said we'd drop by 1C to see her sometime haha. but wen says the new pharmacist is nice too (ie. s/he supplies us with ceftriaxone despite us not having ID approval).
dee is planning to drive down to melb too! on her own as well. she's leaving erik and calypso here. for a while, anyway.
first time having to buy my own travel insurance. sigh, woes of growing up. but just from experience with some of my patients who are visiting interstate/ internationally and have broken hips, travel insurance does pay off. they even get private rehab.
so sian of working with my boss that i still haven't arranged a time to do my assessment. :| sigh.
looking at the ilkley - shepparton route on google maps. wondering if i should make a trip out of it and stop by nice places (eg. sydney to get adriano zumbo's lemon tart!!).
7:43 pm
20121105
bought my melb-bne ticket. ended up getting jetstar, though it was more expensive than tiger. that means i have another 2 hours in melb. and also, lily missed her flight back from sydney because tiger refused to let her check in although she was already queueing by the time the checkout was supposed to close.
also booked the airport transfer back to sunshine plaza.
slightly worried about the other grandparents seeing the bird and heart. they're more traditional than opi and tata. i figure i will wear clothes with sleeves and just hope they don't notice the heart. though my grandfather did have eye surgery, hmm.
bringing an upngo for my reg since she gave me a breaka the other day. :) oh, and zoe did not come back. :( the new pharmacist is a guy called ben, sigh.
have been thinking about baking brownies for friday, so much so that i really want to eat some haha. so okay, i will probably bake them thursday night. and then freeze some and bring them back to sg. ;p
i'm really glad that someone helped me take the trash out. sure, i could have done it myself, but it's a job i hate. so thank you, kind stranger (most likely someone who works at the car rental place)!
6 days to go. this time next week, i'll be in kl.
10:30 pm
it's monday and i am exhausted.
had a slice of banana bread for lunch while walking between places. matt saw me and said i was nibbling like a squirrel. but there was no time, between grand rounds and geri teaching and all. plus my boss spent like 10 mins trying to quiz me about pulmonary fibrosis in front of a patient (thankfully she was demented and would not comprehend that i was a stupid doctor). the whole time i was just willing him to stop and finish the round so i could do my endless jobs.
our new nof for the day is a doctor. makes it kind of easier, eh.
reg: "hi, my name is wen, i'm the orthogeri reg. do you know why you're in hospital?"
patient: "okay let's just cut to the chase, i am dr g."
reg: "oh okay, so i'm the orthogeri reg, you'll be seen by ortho and anaesthetics later."
there's no need to explain and simplify things. 81 years old and still practising. i am impressed.
going to split a kfc bucket with the reg tomorrow. $9.95 for 9 pieces = worth it. haven't had kfc in a couple of weeks now, surprisingly. no cravings. or rather, different cravings (i just bought 1 kg of prawns). oh and she is buying. :D hehe. level 7 paying for the level 1, i think it's appropriate. ;p
she suggested that i go and pick up the car before going to work. good idea eh. at least i won't have to drive back and forth an extra time. also checked my paeds roster so i can book my melb-bne ticket now. good thing i realised that i forgot to book that ticket..
6 days to go.
i just feel deflated today. it's not that it is any less important, it's just that i'm too tired.
6:03 pm
20121104
if you go down to the woods today
you're sure of a big surprise
if you go down to the woods today
you'd better go in disguise
for every bear that ever there was
will gather there for certain because
today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic
this is stuck in my head after watching pll. supposed to be a cute children's song but pll has turned it into something creepy. pll is actually a really creepy show. imagined if it happened in real life.
in limbo-
vacuumed, yeay. the outside carpet still looks a bit grey in some spots from the cat hair, oh well.
had a craving for bkt but the only bkt seasoning i could find does not taste like bkt! :( plus it has chives or star anise in it. i can't remember which, but i hate it.
my reg just whatsapped me that she admitted one patient today. and apparently there was one yesterday also. she says at this rate i must go to work at 5am on sunday to get out by 11.15am. D: i think i might actually settle the sicker patients, go and collect the car, and then go back to the hospital to finish up. sigh, last day woes. it is not fun to be working the weekend on your last week.
oh, and her main point for whatsapping me was to tell me that orthogeri has TWO INTERNS next rotation. D:D:D: i am outraged.
i hope zoe comes back tomorrow.
it's not very nice to borrow people's car to drive 400+km right? :| i probably should just rent one eh. haemorrhaging money. sam very kindly offered to accommodate me if i needed it. :)
8:13 pm
spring cleaning indeed.
packed and cleaned and washed intermittently all day. the plan for tomorrow is to bring stuff down to lifeline, vacuum the carpets, and do my laundry.
finished my second big square and started the third. although i really don't think the yarn is going to be enough. and then i will need to go to lincraft again..
this is becoming a long, drawn out affair and i really don't know if i am getting anywhere.
12:16 am
20121102
tgif! :) 7 days to go, and 9 days till my annual leave. :D :D
am glad i'm not working this weekend, on wednesday i just felt completely over it. i've had enough of orthogeri! time for a break.
matt and i agreed that today's pad thai wasn't up to standard. :( oh well. either way, i still feel full now.
wen renamed our orthogeri folder "oh oh oh oh..stayin' alive, stayin' alive." ;p hahaha. very apt, given the number of death certificates we've been having to do lately. when we first started, it was called "orthogeri - are you getting e- nof?" but we think the boss changed it to boring old "Hip Fracture Data."
other interesting team folder names:
stroke me gently
3FW is 2 far away
small burger and big mac (the consultant is called smalberger)
renal filtrate your referrals
my new modem arrived haha. but since i found the old one, i don't know what to do with this one.
and it's time to renew my car insurance again. :( $300+! sigh.
anyway, i decided to just put it out there. because i figured i would do it sooner or later.. although i know it makes no sense.
finders keepers is having their spring/summer markets this weekend. SHOULD I GO. D:
i just want to sleep...
5:42 pm
20121101
hello movember;
my body clock has been pushed forward by an hour the last few days. i've been getting tired earlier, so i sleep at about 10 (instead of 11), and then i wake up at 5.30 (instead of 6.30). -.- shall attempt to right this wrong tonight.
am getting more and more annoyed with my boss every day. this morning he again hinted about the stupid summary sheets he wants me to do.
"this is another time when it would be useful to have the summary sheets in front of every chart."
so you want me to come in early to collect every chart and update every sheet (for all 13-20 patients) separately rather than updating my own patient list? but that's still not the most unreasonable.. the more unreasonable thing was that he was talking about a
new patient! please, i still have to see the other consultant's patients
by myself, where do i have time to update these stupid unnecessary lists? now i like my other boss more!
thank God i only have to work with him for another 6 days. though i have 8 days to go. wen has offered to help me out if i can't finish my ward work on sunday in time to leave to collect my car, but then i realised that i can actually go in early haha. which i will probably end up doing. i think i am a pretty reasonable person. ;p UNLIKE MY BOSS.
went out for indian with the asians after work, it was sort of a farewell for lily because she's going to hervey bay soon. i'm not a huge fan of indian food (mainly because i don't know how to order it) but i thought it was pretty good.
my mother is still being passively aggressive to me because i said she was annoying me with all her
"what, minimal salary increase? your job sucks."
"what, no bonus? your job sucks."
"what, no overtime? your job sucks."
she wanted me to buy moscato back but today she told me she bought it already, for $19.95. so, whatever. i missed the dan murphy offer anyway, now it's like $13.
okay going to knit haha.
i think it was just a holiday high, sigh.
9:35 am