The one where the "paparazzi" had a field day..

This must definitely be the one where the Medicine "paparazzi" had a field day.. -_-"

Woke up this morning, only to find that the sky looked brighter than normal.. Eh? ARGH. It's 7.30am?!@?!@?!@?!@ Lecture's at 8am!!!!!

Stupid alarm function in Nokia handphones. I've gotten to immune to my phone already. Crap.

Leaping out of bed, I packed my stuff in record time, and gulped down a cup of tea before changing up and running out of the house.. -_-"

Cab cab... -_-"""

Crap. Why did they have to shift today's lecture from 9am to 8am??? And it had to be in a place I've never gone before - some ulu-ated Dentistry Fac Auditorium.. Anyway, spent almost 10 futile minutes trying to hail a cab at morning rush hour. -_-" Finally snared a cab, and wah - the taxi driver nearly made me vomit blood. Ask him to go NUH, he asked me how to go. -_-""" Isn't NUH an essential emergency place?!?! How do you not know how to go NUH?!?! -_-"" Anyway, too flustered to think of anything else, I directed him via CTE & AYE to NUH..

Surprisingly, the CTE was relatively fuss-free. Instead, it was the silly AYE traffic that had me hyperventilating in the cab. -_-"" Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on the AYE close to the Buona Vista exit, while poor me sat in the back of the cab, watching the meter ticking away like a ticer-tape timer.. -_-" Things did not help with the $2 peak surcharge and the $1.50 ERP. Sigh. *forgot to see if they raised the boarding fare*

Anyway, nobody could give me satisfactory directions to the auditorium, so of cos ask a dentistry student lah! Haha.. sms-ed Sin Tong in the middle of his lecture.. yay.. Thanks for your excellent directions! =) Would have been even later if I had gotten lost trying to find the silly auditorium..

So, after half an hour spent hyperventilating in the cab, I was 25 minutes late, and $15.70 poorer. Sigh. Thankfully there were other pple equally late, and EVEN later than me. =P *warped consolation. =p*

Sigh. I need a new alarm clock.

I have been tagged

1. Do the following WITHOUT complaints.
*Sorry arh. This one a bit hard to follow. COMPLAINS!!! =)*
2. Start your post with "I have been tagged!"

I have been tagged. -_-"""

Favourites
Favourite colour: yellow! =)
Favourite food: erm, home cooking? I have a penchant for chinese desserts though..
Favourite song: nope. zero. used to be S.H.E's rainforest though..
Favourite movie: LOTR 2 & 3 - yay. how can u not love the scenery!
Favourite sport: badminton
Favourite day of the week: Friday! =)
Favourite season: summer please. I need for insulation for the other seasons.. -_-"
Favourite ice-cream: sticky chewy chocolate from Swenson's! otherwise, there's some ferrero-roche like flavour from venetia gelato @ Taka B2..

Currents
Current mood: neutral.
Current taste: huh?
Current clothes: G2000 clothes. How can u not love your workwear for the rest of yourlife?!!?
Current deskstop: Cable-ski photo!
Current time: 1900hrs
Current surroundings: bedroom? o_O
Current annoyances: irritaing pple.
Current thoughts: nah. not worth a penny.

Firsts
First best friend: Chen Jiayang.
First crush: too much information. -_-"
First movie: Either Beauty and the Beast or Batman.
First lie: o_O
First music: O_O

Lasts
Last cigarette: dun ask questions that you already have the answer to.
Last alcoholic drink: First and last? Europe, Vienna.
Last car ride: erm, Amanda's ride to the MRT?
Last crush: too much information. -_-"
Last movie: horrible show - the omen.
Last phone call: mom?
Last CD played: nope.

Have you ever
Have you ever dated your best friend: somehow, my best friends are guys. But the good news is, I'm straight!
Have you ever broken the law: nah.
Have you ever been arrested: -_-"
Have you ever skinny-dipped: -_-""
Have you ever been on TV: -_-"""
Have you ever kissed someone you don't know: -_-""""

5 things you are wearing: white shirt. grey pants. black belt. beige tie. white lab coat. of cos clinic wear lah!
4 things you did today: wake up (late). Run for the cab. Lose $15.70 to the cab driver. Get lost trying to find the stupid auditorium.
3 things you can hear right now: my cuckoo clock. TV. Some stupid car outside.
1 thing you do when you are bored: watch TV. *where's my Amazing Race??!!*

Hah. I shall be nice and not tag anyone. =P

SGH - A Surgery Posting

And so my SGH Surgery posting ended on Friday, not exactly on a happy note, but it did bring me back to earth in more ways than one..

8 weeks.

1 hospital.

23 people to look out for.

It's been a trying & tiring 8 weeks. Somewhere along the way, the thought of giving up my responsibilities did cross my mind. It was just so difficult to coordinate the various lectures & tutorials, while trying to juggle the various egos that be. Certainly, many thanks to the people who helped me out and gave me encouraging advice and words along the way..

Ms Zainab - for actually handling one of the toughest tutorials to schedule, and for fielding my multiple phonecalls for room bookings.. =P

Sirui & Maaz - for offering good advice when i can't find rooms?!?!?! And for being really helpful reps in informing their own groups..

Jenica & Amanda - for tolerating & putting up with my idiosyncrasies & mood swings when the schedule doesn't pan out as expected.. For all your encouragment, thanks!

and the others! =) Thanks for all your encouragment! =)

Phew. Along these 8 weeks. I pulled out almost every trick I had in my hat to tie down tutorials and respective attendances for them. From arrowing people to present cases, to carrying "black pots" and presenting cases for fiercer tutors, to trying to "quell rebellions" =P on the final day when someone wanted a tutorial at 4.30pm on the last day. -_-"

SGH has certainly been 1 memorable experience.. I'm leaving SGH for TTSH with bittersweet memories.. All the screwings by the various professors.. The grief of administrative red tape..

My wonderful Surg Team 6 - all the doctors were so helpful and willing to talk to us! =)

Mr Tan, for actually bothering to teach us and talk to us when he first saw us;

Mr Cheow for trying to teach us too, even though it was apparent that he was a person of few words and highly shy..

MO Dr Chew for his humour and liveliness during ward rounds, and explaining all our queries, and showing us around all the good cases..

MO Dr Lin, almost like Mr Cheow! =)

The various HOs who walked into and out of our lives during these 8 weeks.. BH, Ced, PY, Kelly, ZW, Geraldine.. All have been really nice to us! =) helping us find cases, giving us impromptu tips and hints and helping hands along the way..

And of course, my wonderful tutor Dr Goh! You rock! =) You believed in us.. Giving us exposure in OTs with suturing & other procedures, for the excellent tutorials on the key topics,.. Even if we dun remember the information per se that we learn 6 months from now, as you said, the important thing is in the framework and the concepts, and the 3 of us are really grateful for your guidance and teaching!!

And of course, all the other HOs, MOs, Regs, Profs around, whose clinics we crashed, whose night calls we tagged along, whom we asked for extra tutorials.. Really thankful! =)

SGH is definitely a good place to learn.. Guess I will miss the familiar SGH grounds. I know I was griping about getting lost, but after 8 weeks, it's almost become 2nd nature.. Monday X-ray conferences, Friday M&Ms.. Flying to the nurses quarters to look for Prof C.. Kopitiam & HO Canteen.. The familiar cashier aunty at Cafe 155 who would ask where the 3 of us disappeared to when we din sit there to mug fo 3 days.. =P The 7-Eleven cashiers who recognise all 3 of us from our regular patronage of the food & drinks portions.. =P The surgical library where we had multiple tutorials & lectures..

Running out to the hawker centre next to Outram MRT for tang yuan & lime juice! =).. Hiding in the call rooms to grab a few hr's of sleep on night calls.. Slacking in the students centre and playing liero o_O .. The familiar wards 57 & 58 and all the short-cuts via the hidden stairwells.. =P.. And all the nice patients who were oh so patient with our irritating questions and physical examinations.. Thank you for the wonderful time & memories! =)

8 weeks is too short..

And now.. It's time for Medicine @ TTSH.. =) Prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best!

NUS Float '06

Everytime I mentioned float to someone, they would go, "Aren't you getting a little too old for this?"

Well, it ain't no crime to be young, that's for sure. So that's why on the sunny morning of 12th August 2006, I found myself traipsing around on the NUS track..

This year's theme *something vaguely on the present and the future* saw a whole plethora of floats with associated modern dance performances, which were pretty mild by my standard, having seen all the action-packed ones during the past 2 years. Anyway yeah. Medicine's float this year bore the Egyptian theme, with a cool obelisk & pyramid, which could be rotated to show a futuristic-glass pyramid, much like the Fish & Co Glasshouse.. Heehee.. =)

Well, the M1s & M2s worked really hard on it, and we actually won for our dance presentation.. =)

Such a bitter-sweet victory.

It brings into focus this age-old "battle" between the "float-builders" and the "dancers". The people behind the scenes, and the glamourous ones. I'm sorry if I'm opening up a can of worms here, but hey. This is my blog. But seriously, if you think that this is way off tangent, feel free to tell me to remove this post.

I have no doubt that the dancers put in a lot of work into their rehearsals - definitely, all the stunts performed required lots of hardwork and coordination and practice, and I admire the dancers for their resilience and hard work. On float day, they are the representatives of Medicine - all out to win glamour for us.

Versus the people who actually build the darned thing called a float. Somehow, things never seem as easy as they look. You may say - 1 pyramid, 1 obelisk & 1 globe - how hard can it be? What these people do not see, is the hard work that went behind the scenes - trying various materials to get the final product right. Scrambling around the island to get the correct materials through trial and error, sometimes even having to dig out cans from the recycling bins and wash all the maggots and decomposed glucose juice from them. Not exactly a glamourous job, is it? Coupled with the late nights patching up the structures.

You know, when you watch other people using the structures for the rehearsals, then they happily go home at 9pm after the rehearsals, whilst you have to get back down to START finishing up your work on the structures, which you could NOT do while it was being used for rehearsals. And the rest have the cheek to come up and ask you, "How come you all take so long to do this one hah?" Well, I say bullshit to them.

*I'm sorry, but this is like 2 years of frustration vented out in 1 single post*

Anyway, to compound it all, the float builders have to contend with the whims of the costume demands - "Oh, this stitch is showing", "Oh, this shirt is too tight." It never ends. Actually, we're actually pretty happy to help you guys repair such stuff, sews gloves, make masks, whatever. Just don't be such idiots then to complain about the "slow-ness" with which we do our jobs, and then compare quality. We are NOT paid professional seamstresses. You have GUYS helping out in the sewing. You wanna complain? You do the repairs yourself. Still have the cheek to comment how come we have no time to finish up the float itself.

Coming back from all the bitching - it was quite a disappointment that we didn't win anything for the past 2 years - be it dance presentation or float construction. The stars were not aligned correctly, even though lots of effort was poured in on both fronts. I mean, please lah. If we can actually go OUT to public to perform, don't we (the float builders & dancers) sort of deserve some recognition for that? Bah.

I've reconciled to that fact (which I tink is a truth) that the prize is not in the winning, but in the process. I definitely recall the wonderful and hilarious memories that I've garnered through these past 2 years of float. The times spent with good friends; the afternoons spent scouring NUS for dirty cans, and hiding in the toilets & washing them; the late nights spent sticking coloured paper on the backdrops; the day-night-day overnight stays on the day before float with continuous sewing and patching; the late night bitching & gossiping sessions - definitely something I wouldn't trade for anything. Thanks for the memories, people!

Coming back to the present, congrats to the dance people this year for their excellent performance! Even I was won over by the performance - their hardwork was seen in the wonderful choreography and seemless transitions and movements.. To the float builders who slaved on your loving works of art, I salute you for your time and effort put in.. We M3s were so worried last year that float was going down this year, cos you lot didn't particularly look fired up about it. But thankfully we were proven wrong. Anyway, dun be disappointed that you did not win - somehow, the tide's always against Medicine, who have obviously tighter budgets for materials, and smaller manpower for the float, since we are so busy and with a smaller faculty. Anyway, you should be proud of yourselves that you've finished the float! Treasure the memories of the times spent with your friends, cos they will be the ones who will be there for you when you need them. =)

Remember, the prize is in the process. =)

This one's for you.. =)

We first really met when we went on our Jap immersion trip in Sec 2.. Those were memorable times when we stayed back to practise our "traditional dances" amidst the goggle-eye stares of all the other pple, at the MOELC open area.. Remember the crazy, balding dance instructor? =P And those dramatic theatrics of ours as we went through the motions of our Malay dance steps in our baju kurongs & songkoks..

Things moved on from there when we actually got into the same class in Sec 3, and the rest, is well, history. The crazy antics in class amongst the 7 of us - from correction fluid booby-traps and handphone chargers secretly hidden under the table, to feeding the chicken in our very own backyard and pandora's boxes - those were the days..

From RI to RJ, with crazy LT exchanges during the lectures.. What with 8 Days & i-zhou kan magazines and pocky sticks being passed up and down, we could almost open a stationery cum food store between our 2 class rows! Coupled with the ever-memorable OBS night, when it rained buckets and we were shivering in the tents under the non-existent stars..


Indeed, those were the days.. =)

Even after JC.. our paths started to move apart as we pursued our own paths in life.. but we always made an effort to meet up regularly, and continued where we left off..

Actually, you've made quite an impact on my life.. Thank you for introducing me back to the world of Chinese pop - now, whenever I listen to Wang LeeHom & Jay Chou songs on my ipod, I can't help but think of you.. Haha.. When I walk by a Lan shop, i'm similarly reminded of the times we spent in the bubble-tea shop with the sultry young lady at the counter, and all of Linken's antics.. When my bus passes by Settler's cafe in Selegie, I think of the good times spent there.. And when I pass by Dhoby Ghaut, or just enter Orchard, I think of the numerous restaurants & fast-food chains that have enjoyed our patronage (actually, more of our $$$ -_-") over these numerous years.. =P

Thanks for sticking with me throughout these times - it's always hard to be "the moral one"? =P Always there for good advice.. for bouncing ideas off.. for being a good sounding board and a reflector.. for listening..

Thank you..

Hah. It's not the end though.. =) It's not even the end of the beginning! As you leave for greener pastures in Cornell, I wish you the very best! I'm sure you'll definitely find good friends and company over there, and similarly, excel in whatever you do! I know you'll settle in quickly, back into the pace of studying & school life.. And don't you dare forget about us! We'll go for the jugular in December if you do that.. =P

Till December..

*Of course, there's msn & skype till then.. =)




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Am watching Singapore Idol as I type this 2nd part edition to this post.. Joakim Gomez just sang Friends' "I'll be there for you".. Remember that song? We sang it as one of our songs during our Jap exchange to Hamamatsu! =) *so nostalgic* lolz.. well, he just thrashed that song.. but we sure did it good.. =)