A Franciscan Gathering..

Started week 2 of Paediatrics with a call to my Ward Assessment (WA) Tutor, following the our rotation to a new ward this week. Was greeted with appalling news that Tracy's and my WA was to be held on Tuesday morning (the next day) at 9am, and that we had to prepare all the patients in our ward. -_-"

So began the mad scramble to see our patients (for the first time since its a new ward) and talk to them, get up to date on their condition, investigations, tests, plans... Well, suffice to say, my Monday was burnt, and I have never stayed so late before unless I was on call. And totally bummed my WA on Tuesday. Sheesh.

Ok nvm. This post isn't titled as above for the disastrous WA on Tuesday.

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Instead, wanted to talk a bit more about Thursday's cell group.. Our weekly BYOB (Bring Your Own Bible) session this week was held this week at the St Damiano Friary at St Mary of the Angels, as we were invited over to join the Franciscan brothers for an evening of prayer and fellowship.

Considering that I had never explored much of the Church except for the main church sanctuary which I go every week for service, I didn't quite know what to expect from this visit to the Friary. Was it gonna be like the movies? o_O You know, erm, rather spartan, totally bare concept of simplicity, maybe looking rather sad and all?

Was pleasantly surprised to be shown into this rather new building (ok, maybe cos St Mary of the Angels underwent a renovation a few years back). Anyway, suffice to say that my narrow-minded impression, was, well, very narrow-minded. It was a totally different experience.

We started off with evening prayer. Me again, feeling rather lost, since its the first time I'm at a Franciscan prayer session, but i'm sure the rest were feeling equally lost. The brothers were really nice, and guided us along the way. The experience was simply surreal. It was totally different.. somethings that can't be put into words here..

And as the prayers were recited, the worries of the undone Paeds interactive homework for Friday morning gradually faded into the recesses of the brain..


* For we, though imperfect as we are Man, continue to offer up our prayers to God, our Heavenly Father.. Just like the ugly imperfect ceramic pot, which continually offers up its incense to the Heavens.. *


Amen.


We were invited to dinner after that, where we mingled and interacted with the brothers, who shared stories about life in the Friary.. Totally changed whatever preconceived notions I had.. (well, considering I didn't have any / much to begin with) Oh, and the girls were all very impressed with their culinary skills =P


Night prayer wrapped up our little prayer session.. And as we departed St Mary of the Angels that night, I'm sure all of us left the place a little wiser, our hearts lighter, and very much enlightened and touched by the evening.

Oops, it's been quite a while since I last posted.. and phew, things have been busy.. My first week in Paediatrics was literally trying to re-find my way back to normal clerking status, after a series of holidays and short postings.. Felt almost surreal to actually see a hospital bed after almost 3 months.. =P

Anyway, last Friday, took the opportunity to catch up with Ruxin, Serine and Huiwen for dinner again! This time, the venue was Raffles City Basement Thai Express. Now i've only been there once with Kelvin before.. Anyway, since we had a tutorial scheduled for that evening, i figured i'd better drive since Chris and I might be running late.. Well, I was right - we were running late, but what I hadn't figured out, was that the traffic would be so horrendous everywhere, and that parking is absolutely impossible in the city in Friday night.. -_-" The queue outside the Raffles City parking lot was like more than 20 cars, and the gate only opened when a car went out..

Sigh. Parked at Marina Square instead. So far. =P


Ok.. Ruxin said my blog has minimal photos.. Well, since I didn't bring a camera that night, she should be finding this photo rather familiar.. Haha!

Wonderful dinner at Thai Express! Wonderful company too! =)

Too bad post-dinner plans to eat dessert at TCC didn't materialise cos it was too crowded.. =P Oh well. Next outing! =P (Note to self: go find where my silly TCC card has run away too. Eep.)

Saturday was busy busy busy.. Oof. Morning well-baby clinic at Bukit Merah Polyclinic.. (been a while since I took public transport to school/work, but found it pleasantly enjoyable for a change =)) Thankfully it ended before 12noon, and I could run some errands..

But STILL ended up late meeting ZY at Clementi NTUC to buy the bbq stuff for our Anat Group BBQ! Part of the reason must go to parking again. URGH. Parking really sucks. Well, trying to find a parking lot, that is. Predictably, I couldn't find a lot at the NTUC carpark there, and had to make a humoungous detour and U-turns to enter the opposite HDB carpark cos the idiotic car behind kept horn-ing me, and I couldn't make a right turn into the carpark across 4 lanes in heavy traffic despite the yellow box. -_-"

Anyway, BBQ prep was a real blast.. =) Eleanor, FQ, Anson, ZY and me.. Carried the stuff to his room and marinated the wings.. Then had to start the fire, and realised no lighter. -_-" Fantabulous.

Anson, FQ and ZK did quite a good job getting the fire started.. And then it kept threatening to rain, but thankfully it never did! =P Even though we were so worried that there wasn't gonna be enough food, hopefully, I tink that everyone ate quite ok.. =P Let's see.. headcount included Zhongyang, me, Toh Han, FuQiang, Jieli, Zhongkai, Anson, Ruxin, Hsienmin, Eleanor, and Shaan who came later! =)

Post dinner games of poker and orientation games wrapped up a totally fantastic night out.. =)

Well, forgot to bring a camera again.. ARGH. Will have to make do with this 3-year old photo of my Anat Group..


Anat Group 13 in M1! =) Let's see who's changed over these 3.5 years.. =P


* Alright, will update more over the next 2 days to bring it up to date with the current date! =P

What a very busy weekend..

Saturday got off on a fast pace with badminton with Randal in the morning.. Headed home and showered off, only to find myself travelling back down to Sentosa to meet up with a couple of the Medicine pple. Got a chance to try on those new berms that I bought the other day.. Heehee.. Anyway, given the tiring morning and the post-shower mood, I was less than inclined towards any physical activity of any sorts, yet in the end, still found myself playing frisbee on the rather damp beaches of Palawan Beach in the mild drizzle.. Somehow, miraculously, I think we won by 1 point, before lack of fitness with combination of post-badminton lethargy, kinda killed the game for me.. =P Sheesh. Don't tell me i need to adopt Frank's motto of needing to exercise more.. Heez.

Post-Sentosa was bak-kut-teh at the Seah Im Food centre.. It was quite good =) Too bad I had to run off early for my next appointment.. Saturday was also my cousin's 21st birthday party! Rushed home before 6pm, to change up into more respectable shirt and jeans, before being driven by my brother (Heh. It's much better to be driven around than driving yourself) to the chalet in Changi. Oh my goodness.. the chalet was, well, quite isolated and in what I would call, a 鸟不生蛋的地方.

I jest.

Anyway, we got there alright with the trusty street directory, and had quite a pleasant evening chatting with my extended family and relatives.. =) Wishing her a happy 21st birthday! =)

Sunday was meant to be a breather.. But found the morning occupied with church, followed by the grocery shopping and errand running with my mom.. Had to wait an hour for my shoes to be repaired by the cobbler.. (yes, i'm a poor medical student, remember?) So i rushed home, only to run out less than half an hour later for lunch appointment with Jan, Jo, Dave, Susan and Chris.. Apparently, Cafe Cartel has a new menu.. While the service could do with an upgrade (they ran out of so many items for Sunday lunch - steak, brownies, lasagne, ribs,.. - it was totally ridiculous. In addition, we had to ask for cutlery for all our food - shouldn't they all appear together with the food??), at least the food was quite decent.. Quite intrigued with my Asian-meets-Western fusion pasta dish with Sambal chilli.. Mmmmm.. =)

So Susan, Dave and I then went to watch the Bourne Ultimatum! Yes! 1 of 2 movies that i've been dying to watch! =P And oh my goodness. GV has a ridiculous number of movie trailers and advertisements, it took up half an hour!! I don't think any other cinema operator screens that long a trailer.. -_-" Another surprise was in stored - for Qingyuan and Aik Yong suddenly appeared, and were actually sitting in front of us.. Lol.. =P

So the movie started, and I thought that Bourne Ultimatum deserved all the 5 stars that Straits Times Life awarded it.. Even though the 2nd movie was so long ago, and this poor failing memory of mine barely remembered much plot from back then, the movie was good enough to stand on its own even if you're not watched any of the past 2 movies. My favourite high-tech machine from the 2nd movie Supremacy, was the lovable toaster that Bourne used to blow up the house.. =P Well, Matt Damon traded in his toaster warranty in this instalment for a standing fan, which he used to distract the attention of the baddies (well, actually good pple working blindly for bad uppers) while in a house in Madrid.

My favourite moment must have been when he called the Madrid cops, and set them on the American FBI/CIA agents on their trail as they were leaving the house.. Priceless. =) Julia Styles was forgettable as the helpful, yet boring Nikki Parsons. Oh, I love the upright Pamela Landy, probably the symbol of justice in the show. Her brilliance simply shone through in the early minutes as she tracked down the leak, who leaked to reporter Simon Ross (who died sadly and ignominously in the train station), by pure logic and deduction.

Anyway, yeah, the movie was rather tight, with not much room in there for draggy soppy dialogue - there was enough dialogue to string the whole movie together, the cast was good, and there were equally impressive action (and funny moments - the blue hooded guy at the bus stop at the start?).. All in all, a rather pleasing entertaining movie =) Too bad it was rather short. (actually falling slightly short of 2 hours, i suppose it was an adequate length, but i suppose that the fact that i found myself wishing for more, meant that it was good.. Haha..)

Of course, if you're looking for something with a bit more brain in there, this is probably not for you.

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So i've started Paediatrics posting Day 1 today.. Think I was rather alarmed by all the stories i've heard about paeds posting, and was a bit down today. But i've decided to not let it get in my way - after all, i've always been looking forward to this posting, and I think i'll go all out to enjoy myself and learn as much as possible.. =)

Here's to a fruitful 8 weeks ahead!


P.S. Ratatouille is coming out on the 30th August!!! Can't wait for that too!

Day of Fireworks~

Today marked the final day of Ophthalmology posting at TTSH.. Test yesterday wasn't as bad as feared, though the case report gave me one huge headache.. -_-"

The tutors in the TTSH Opthalmology department are really nice! From the head who sounds really fierce, he actually teaches quite well in his busy clinic.. To the consultants and registrars who actually do not treat you like part of the wallpaper in the clinic, and allowing and asking you to perform fundoscopy on the patients whenever there are signs present.. To the nice MOs who actually bothered to talk to us, especially Dr Marcus, who despite the ever-building-tower of patient case files, actually took the time to talk to me and showed me signs in the clinic.. Not to mention, those tutors whose OT/Lasik/clinic sessions we crashed out of the blue.. Really grateful for all the willing and nice tutors!

So today was the last day, and we managed to squeeze into the Lasik theatre to catch 2 Lasik procedures. Wah.. even the nice senior staff nurse talked us through what the doctor was doing behind the protective glass window.. =)

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So after that, Chris and I went off to meet Huiwen, who's back from UK, for dinner.. Being rather early, we decided to go and explore the new (ok, not so new now) National Library Building at Bras Basah.. Now, even though it's been sitting pretty in its new spot for almost a year now? I haven't really found the time to drop by the area and walk into the library.. So yeah, i happily walked into the grand new National Library building, exploring all the floors from B1 to the 13th floor by escalators - much to Christopher's chagrin, who kept pointing out that the automated escalators at the higher levels were all in their sleep-mode cos either nobody goes up there, or they take the elevator. =P

So we explored every single floor of the walkable National Library, and caught a nice view of the city through its full length window walls.. Including the Singapore Flyer at Marina! =) (most of the viewing capsules are up already.. Just waiting for testing and launch i suppose? =P) Was quite impressed by the layout of the new library and the sleak design of the building.. Though the experience was a bit marred by the presence of students sitting on the floor with papers strewn around them, and using the reading chairs as mini-tables to mug for their tests / exams.. -_-"

With some time to burn, we sat on the steps outside the library entrance, watching the crowd passing us by, with Chris snapping away like the avid photographer he is.. Saw this guy holding a bouquet of flowers arriving and waiting at a large pillar (obviously for GF).. and waiting.. and waiting.. for almost 1/2 hour, before we had to leave ourselves for fear of being late to meet Huiwen at City Hall MRT.. Hope that guy's GF turned up.. He looked quite a decent guy..

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Anyway, back to the evening highlights.. Huiwen's back for a 1 month holiday from the UK.. Haha.. Almost got a shock when I saw her.. Think its the first time either of us have seen her in that outfit.. =P

It was really nice catching up with each other, as we adjourned to the Hongkong Xing Wang Cafe at Marina Square, where dinner was topped off with their signature mango ice dessert.. Yum yum.. =) Too bad Ruxin and Serine couldn't make it.. Hope your test went well, rx! Of course, we could have sat there till the restaurant closed, catching up on each other's lives, but we chose City Hall for dinner cos there was obviously post-dinner plans..

Tonight is the first of 2 nights of fireworks performance at the Esplanade Marina Bay! *is it for some fireworks competition / performance thing? Not very sure, but saw it on the news and the newspapers..* so we headed off to Esplanade at 8.30pm to try to catch the show starting at 9pm.. And boy, it seemed as if the National Day crowd was back in full force (just for the record, i didn't get the tickets, and i wasn't anywhere near the Esplanade on 9th August..) in the Marina area. The steps and the open areas of Marina Square were filled with picnicking families and friends who sat down on the open grass patches to await the fireworks..

The 3 of us found our way across the mayhem, into the Esplanade waterfront, and fortunately, managed to get a rather decent spot close to the waterfront to catch a glimpse of the fireworks.. We were left guessing at the direction of the fireworks.. Would it be near the floating performance pontoon? Or over the CBD area for a fantabulous backdrop? In front of us, this huge lighted balloon flickered on and off occasionally, mocking the eagerly anticipating crowd..

9pm.. 9.10pm.. 9.15pm.. the crowd was starting to get restless.. Everytime the huge balloon flickered off, everyone cheered as if it heralded the start of the fireworks show.. Then it flickered back on, and everyone was back to square 1.

Finally, the spotlights appeared, together with those motorized kite-flyers thingums that appeared in the NDP parade, over the floating pontoon area.. The crowd cheered as the fireworks show started!

It was quite simply magnificent.

From the orchestration of the fireworks, to the dazzlings designs - from the large exploding fireworks (whose smoke weirdly reminded me of a fundoscopy of proliferative diabetic retinopathy -_-"), to the curvaceous ones that snaked up the horizon, to the heart-shaped and the "planets-exploding" effects, and the multi-coloured fireworks.. it was quite impressive and different from your standard NDP fireworks..

Too bad that stupid big lighted balloon was quite an eyesore at many a times.. they should have switched it off.. and just a pity that the city skyline wasn't used as a backdrop.. But i suppose with the fireworks in the sky, the city backdrop wouldn't really have mattered since it was much lower..

(For those who are intending to catch Saturday's fireworks, it starts at 9pm same place too.. Go early to try to grab a decent spot, or just squeeze and hope for the best.. =P)

The finale was literally quite a bang, as the organisers literally threw every available firework up.. Milled around as the crowd dissipated, enjoying the cool evening breeze by the Singapore River, watching the silent bum-boats crawl by, and just enjoying each other's company.. =)

Mmmmm.. =)

(Photos coming up after Monday when I get them from Chris.. =P)

42 Years of Independence..

Happy Birthday, Singapore! =)

Random Thoughts~

The weekend just flew by again. Darn, i'm starting to miss my weekends. =P

Caught the Simpsons' movie on Saturday, which was rather entertaining, considering I didn't have too much hope for it in the first place. Which reminds me, there are 2 movies that I must watch in August - Bourne Ultimatum and Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee) =)

Went out with LK and Edwin today.. What better way to unwind than to catch up with people who know you best..

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On a side note, the Great Singapore Sale is over (was over 2 weeks ago), and so are the End-Season-Sales.. Speaking of which, I think I'm becoming a follower of G2000 blu's line of clothing - which is less painful on this poor medical student's wallet (only outflow with minimal inflow. Sigh.) Their end-season-sales are fantastic, and thankfully the designs ain't all too bad. (btw, for the uninitiated, G2000 blu is the branch of G2000 that sells casual clothes)

The damage? Work pants $34.50, shirt $19, jacket $59, shorts $19.50. Total = $132.

Sheesh. Need to go on Sirui's 包 diet for the next month.. -_-" ok, maybe not, but i'm certainly cutting back on my expenses after this. Luckily, I don't go shopping all that frequently. Last I recall, that was for my shoes and new jeans before the CNY this year.

Might have to get a new pair of sports shoes and jeans at the end of the year. My old shoes are starting to fall apart. Must be from the badminton sessions. Eep. And i've pretty much given up on finding my jeans from any other shops except for Giordano. It seems that only Giordano sells jeans which are actually long enough for this long-leggy person. Haiz.

Well, guess i started prematurely on my year-end shopping, which actually isn't a bad idea, considering that I have the twin titans of Paediatrics and Obstetrics & Gynecology postings up next after my upcoming 2 week Opthalmology posting. Paeds and O&G certainly promise to suck out most of the time for the remaining half of the year, considering they span all the way up to 24th December.. Gee. Real festive.

Guess I'll be skipping quite a fair bit of this year's carolling sessions too. I'm sure the juniors will hold fort pretty well. (not that they have a choice.. Heh.)

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My mind's a bit less cluttered now.. The articles are edited, the email's sent, and guess i'll do a bit of filing to clear my very-messy-table now. And of course, send off that document via snail mail. Thanks for all the sms-es that came in asking after me, and all the well wishes for my test.. It went quite alright, thanks! =)

Looking forward to an interesting 2 week Opthalmology posting at TTSH come Monday.. Of course, there's also the National Day holiday on Thursday to look forward to.. =P Book me for appointments & movies! Lol.. =)

Been feeling rather down these few days. Let's just say that Wednesday's session wasn't therapeutic at all. To quote words from that 'survey', yes i do feel a bit worried, confused, powerless, less self-confident, and a tad more vulnerable.

Quite a lot of thoughts in my head right now. Too many things going on at the same time. Deadlines are looming up. Will iron them out over the weekend.

First, the Anaesthesia test tomorrow.