Busy Weekend

This weekend sure flew by in a hurry.

Saturday saw the morning at my mom's hospital family event; with WM! (Wonderfully Made!) at Nativity Church of the BVM in the afternoon, with dinner in the evening at Kovan's XingWang Cafe. Mmmm.. their signature dessert (some mango condensed milk mountain thingum) was quite nice.. =P

Sunday morning saw me ploughing the tennis courts with Randal. Now, there has to be a valid reason why I don't play tennis at all, and I was reminded of this today. Let's see, the last time I played with Linken & Co, I spent half the time picking up the balls. -_-" Oh yes, which reminds me, I still have someone's tennis racket with me. Gee. Don't ask me why it's still with me. Guess I never gotten down to returning to you. =P well, anyway you can't use it while in the US now rite? =P

Yah, so after 2 hours of predominantly tennis ball picking, I've decided that i'm better off sticking to badminton (or squash, if i can find a racket). At least i'm sufficiently proficient at badminton not to suck so badly. Hey. If you really suck at tennis, it's REALLY obvious. -_-

Rushed back home to bathe before heading down to Dhoby Ghaut to meet my junior! =P Getting back my book from him.. Gosh, hope he made it in time for his afternoon church service.. O_O

Afternoon saw an enjoyable lunch outing with Edwin & Linken.. Hhmmm.. Sandwiches and desserts at Coffee Club Express.. My my. Today seemed revolve around a certain someone indeed. =P It was HIS tennis racket that re-surfaced today.. If my memory serves me correct, HE brought us to this particuar Coffee Club joint.

Oh, and the clincher.

That, that someone had started drinking like a fish over in the states. Gee. So much for high pedestal of moral virtues. Guess the tables started turning with our previous trip.. Need I remind you of the fiasco over Absolut at the duty-free? Hhmmm. Gee, guess now you've progressed on to shots and more hard liquor over there? Ok loh. Go on, buy the high-class wines that you wanted..

Ah... 1 weekend completely gone. And not a single bit of studying done. Tink i'm gonna need to engage higher gears real soon.

Ortho Night Call

Ortho's been pretty enjoyable so far, somewhat like surgery.. =)

Joined my HO on 2 active calls this week on Monday & Friday respectively. Monday's call was quite crazy, with TTSH being filled to the brim once again as patients were waiting at the ED for beds upstairs. As a result, we hopped down to the ED to review a couple of new cases. It's been a long time since I set any IV plug / drawn blood, and am kinda relieved and glad that I could still do so, despite feeling rather nervous that the patient was going "Don't put the needle wrongly hah! The last time my mother came, her hand swollen!"

Hhmmm. Fractures, falls, DM feet, bursitis. Wow. What a day. 2 bursitis in a day.

On the flip side, today's call was totally the opposite. I can't belief that I was so free during the afternoon and evening. Sheesh. Talk about luck (good luck for the on-call team anyway). Had quite an enjoyable time talking to my HO during the "not-so-busy" times.. Luckily for me, things picked up pace post-dinner.. But otherwise, all in all a quiet night..

Had a great day out today going shopping with my family for some new household furniture, especially since the old one died quite abruptly. Had a nice long drive into town to Millenia Walk's Harvey Norman, before traipsing halfway around the island back to Tampines Ikea.

Think we made quite a few good buys.. =) Especially liked the part where you head to the "warehouse" section and drag your choices off those huge shelves (well, its my first time buying real furniture off Ikea, and not just going there for the meatballs).

Anyway, we dropped by Giant supermart across the road after that to grab some groceries. Was walking past the fresh fruits section, when i came across this booth-like-thingy selling longans from Thailand. The staff was there helping to separate the longans from the branches (i mean, it was sold by weight, so branches are a no-no), and there, I saw the ever-ugly Singaporean.

The display of longans was hemmed in by 4 plastic panels, with a "moat" like structure around it. And you know what? The moat was filled with empty longan-skins and seeds. 2 small kids about Primary 1-3 were just standing at the side, eating away at the longans, as if they were free. Before I knew it, there was this middle-aged uncle, who walked past the display, and as if thinking that he had on some invisible cloak, snaked out a hand and grabbed a fistful of longans before walking away quickly and devouring his "prized longans" which were going for 22 cents per 100g. Oh, did I mention that he came around again after that with his same trick, rather oblivious to the signboard with the price on it?

Oh please. I can tolerate the Singaporean mentality of "trying before buying" where you, yes, maybe eat one or even two, then if you're satisfied with it, buy a bag home for yourself. But since when have we become so cheapo as to walk past the longan display and repeated grab free "samples" AND not buy anything? Wait. Samples are even the correct word. Should it be stealing?

As if things weren't bad enough, the longan seeds and skins were dropping all over the floor around the display and giving the cleaners one heck of a cleaning job.

Sheesh.

1 week into Orthopaedics posting at TTSH, and so far, its been quite an enjoyable posting.

Ortho posting has similarities to Surg posting at SGH.. Surgical approach always seem, more direct? And I think I have nice tutors.. =) hope I can keep up this momentum and build on it for the next 3 weeks at TTSH, then 4 weeks at NUH! =)

Fam Med's over! Hellooo, orthopaedics!