Jun 19, 2007
Jun 13, 2007
I've Bought A Car!!!
I've bought a car! 2002 Honda FIT (known as Jazz in M'sia) Sport! 1.5cc Vtec, mileage 38,000km, 2nd hand, imported from Japan! No more boring weekends! Yay~
May 31, 2007
A Quick Summary of My Academic Life Thus Far
Alright it's time to update about my academic life here.
My 4th year starts off with 2 weeks of campus learning, i.e. lectures and labs discussions. I have to admit that I'm not used to the lecture time of 8 to 5 really, after having only 2 hours of lectures back in IMU daily. I'm still having difficulties communicating with my caucasian batchmates, compared to the asian counterparts. The weird accent and the figure of speech they used are sometimes just too different for me to comprehend.
1st run after the lecture weeks was 2 weeks of Anaesthetic in Middlemore. A really relaxing and enjoyable run on retrospect. Since the anaesthetist have plenty of free time to teach during surgery, I get to learn a lot from them as well as watch plenty of different surgeries. Unfortunately this run requires a lot of knowledge on pharmacology though, one of my weakest subject. But I'm glad I started off with this, as I have refreshed most of my pharmaco knowledge by the time of my next run.
4 weeks of Locomotor (Orthopaedics and Rheumatology) in Auckland comes next. Well, it was a BAAAAAAAADDDDD run for me. The consultants and registrars were much too busy to bother teaching anything to me, and most of what I learn during this period was self-directed. Ward rounds were so boring and useless I skipped it after suffering for 1 and a half week. But I did learn something in both orthopaedic and rheumatology clinics though. By the end of the run, joints examinations weren't as difficult as I thought it to be after all.
Next comes 4 weeks of General Practise posting: 2 weeks urban practise with Dr John Tseung in Epsom, 2 weeks rural practise at Dargaville. This was definitely the best run I have so far. Seen plenty of different cases and even learn a bit of simple suturing techniques. It was also fascinating to observe how closely primary care is linked to secondary & tertiary care in NZ. All healthcare records are keyed into a system that can be accessible by all of the patient's healthcare provider, making patient's medical background easily obtained. It's also interesting to experience how much more warm & friendlier rural practise are in comparison to Auckland.
2 weeks in the Emergency Department at Auckland came finally before my holiday. Being the field I'm currently most interested in, I have lots of anticipation in this run. Well it turns out that the ED in Auckland is much more quieter than I thought. In the 6 days I was attached there, I only get to see 3 potentially life-threatening admission. Others mostly concerns of fractures, sudden collapse & a long list of silly GP cases. I do like the work environment though, as the doctors here mostly work independently unless there's a real emergency, and when in doubt you can always consult the consultant in duty. Otherwise you don't have to tolerate any form of bossing around by your superiors as you work mostly on your own.
Holidays came next, and 14 of us IMU ppl (+ one outside boyfriend lol) went to Rotorua. But that's another post for another time! XD
My 4th year starts off with 2 weeks of campus learning, i.e. lectures and labs discussions. I have to admit that I'm not used to the lecture time of 8 to 5 really, after having only 2 hours of lectures back in IMU daily. I'm still having difficulties communicating with my caucasian batchmates, compared to the asian counterparts. The weird accent and the figure of speech they used are sometimes just too different for me to comprehend.
1st run after the lecture weeks was 2 weeks of Anaesthetic in Middlemore. A really relaxing and enjoyable run on retrospect. Since the anaesthetist have plenty of free time to teach during surgery, I get to learn a lot from them as well as watch plenty of different surgeries. Unfortunately this run requires a lot of knowledge on pharmacology though, one of my weakest subject. But I'm glad I started off with this, as I have refreshed most of my pharmaco knowledge by the time of my next run.
4 weeks of Locomotor (Orthopaedics and Rheumatology) in Auckland comes next. Well, it was a BAAAAAAAADDDDD run for me. The consultants and registrars were much too busy to bother teaching anything to me, and most of what I learn during this period was self-directed. Ward rounds were so boring and useless I skipped it after suffering for 1 and a half week. But I did learn something in both orthopaedic and rheumatology clinics though. By the end of the run, joints examinations weren't as difficult as I thought it to be after all.
Next comes 4 weeks of General Practise posting: 2 weeks urban practise with Dr John Tseung in Epsom, 2 weeks rural practise at Dargaville. This was definitely the best run I have so far. Seen plenty of different cases and even learn a bit of simple suturing techniques. It was also fascinating to observe how closely primary care is linked to secondary & tertiary care in NZ. All healthcare records are keyed into a system that can be accessible by all of the patient's healthcare provider, making patient's medical background easily obtained. It's also interesting to experience how much more warm & friendlier rural practise are in comparison to Auckland.
2 weeks in the Emergency Department at Auckland came finally before my holiday. Being the field I'm currently most interested in, I have lots of anticipation in this run. Well it turns out that the ED in Auckland is much more quieter than I thought. In the 6 days I was attached there, I only get to see 3 potentially life-threatening admission. Others mostly concerns of fractures, sudden collapse & a long list of silly GP cases. I do like the work environment though, as the doctors here mostly work independently unless there's a real emergency, and when in doubt you can always consult the consultant in duty. Otherwise you don't have to tolerate any form of bossing around by your superiors as you work mostly on your own.
Holidays came next, and 14 of us IMU ppl (+ one outside boyfriend lol) went to Rotorua. But that's another post for another time! XD
May 17, 2007
The Secret Garden
I was walking back to my flats during my rural general practice posting in Dargaville when I encounter this unbelievably beautiful view. I snapped like a dozen shots of it, and this is my favourite among the series. I call it "The Secret Garden".
May 16, 2007
Like hearing the voice of God...
Probably the most moving description of Mozart's music ever. The following scene is taken from the 1984 movie Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman, where Mozart's jealous rival Salieri described the piece in a flashback scene. The piece is Serenade For Winds K. 361: 3rd Movement (Gran Partita).
And yes, that single oboe note near the beginning of the piece is probably the most rapturous note I've ever heard in my life.
And yes, that single oboe note near the beginning of the piece is probably the most rapturous note I've ever heard in my life.
May 11, 2007
Apr 20, 2007
Ismail Ax
I've been haunted by the news of the Virginia Tech Massacre for the past couple of days. A korean teen murderer, 30 people dead and 32 wounded, shot in random. While most people would express outrage and disgust towards Cho Seung-hui/ Ismail Ax, the perpetrator of the massacre, I can't help but feel drawn towards wondering WHY he did it. In a way, I sympathize him more than the 60+ people who were shot by him. Does that make me a sick person, I wonder...
He considered himself a martyr, and I wonder, a martyr for what cause? It's a burning question to me, but as far as I know, there's no answers from the media just yet. I can't help it. While I totally oppose what he has committed, I'm fascinated with what motivates Ismail Ax (the name on his tattoo, I'm assuming it's his alter ego) that resulted in such an epic tragedy.
I'll be watching out for any news concerning this events these coming days.
He considered himself a martyr, and I wonder, a martyr for what cause? It's a burning question to me, but as far as I know, there's no answers from the media just yet. I can't help it. While I totally oppose what he has committed, I'm fascinated with what motivates Ismail Ax (the name on his tattoo, I'm assuming it's his alter ego) that resulted in such an epic tragedy.
I'll be watching out for any news concerning this events these coming days.
Mar 22, 2007
Watching the Kiwis
Ok, time to report some of my findings on New Zealanders:-
Observations:
1. The accent - Well NZ accent is very subtle in general, I don't have much problem understanding them, and neither do they have much trouble understanding me (big contrast with my last Sydney/Gold Coast trip in Australia). The one funny thing bout the accent is the way they pronouce 'e' the way we pronouce 'i'. Therefore, 'head & neck' sounds like 'hiad & nick', 'desk' becomes 'disk', 'tension' -> 'tinsion', and 'medicine', 'midcine'.
Example: (for bist effict, rid this aloud)
sex - one liss than sivven
It was kinda amusing (and sometime hilarious) when I first hear them, but I'm getting used to them now. Oh they also love to use 'aye' a lot by the way, not unlike the 'la' we Malaysians have the habit to use at the end of our sentences. Well in general, I'm surprised by how gentle the accent sounds, since I was expecting something harsher, like the Australian accent. But they do have the habit to mumble once in awhile though, which is when I can hardly understand anything lol.
2. The opening hours - Yes I DID expect shops to close down early in the Australasia region, but imagine this: Most shopping malls are closed around 4.30-5pm on a Sunday!!! I mean, what the hell?! How am I supposed to spend my weekend nights then? The only things you can do to entertain yourself at night is drinking here really. Which brings me to my next point... (Before that, I juz wanna confess that I REALLY miss Malaysian night life...) <=(
3. The drinking orgy - Alright I've overexaggerated there. But it's true to a certain extent: people here engage in binge drinking more often than not. It's as if their sole purpose of visiting a bar or having a drinking party is to get drunk. Then you'll see the most well-behaved people saying all kinds of incomprehensible rubbish, while some of us even received some racist remarks and all (someone thrown an egg at one of us while we were walking back along a road at night). And god when they drink, the stink of beer stays at the place for hours. And they get pretty rowdy when they're high too, which is rather annoying for someone who enjoys the quiet and peaceful enviroment of NZ.
4. The diet - Strange enough, the diet here in Auckland (read: Auckland, not NZ. I have no idea how things are outside Auckland) is filled with all sorts of Asian delights. Rice is a common staple food, Japanese/Chinese/Korean restaurants can be found everywhere, they have a nice selection of indian dhal, and best of all, the satay here actually taste better than the ones in Malaysia! The lamb here is delicious, but the pork here juz turns me off. It has the weird, unpleasent aroma with it. Quite a pity actually, since it's refreshing to see pork everywhere here compared with Malaysia.
Oh and they have really light lunches here. The people here often have sandwich for lunch. Which is REALLY bad for me, since lunch is usually my heaviest meal of the day back home. And of cuz, supper is almost non-existent here. Thank god they do have a wide selection of instant noodles here, again, due to the high Asian influence in their diet. Indomee, maggi mee, hokkien mee, singapore fried noodle, vietnamese nice noodle, korean kimchi noodle, japanese udon... All these you can get easily in the instant noodle section of the supermarkets/asian grocery shops here.
5. The multiracial community - One of the reason I feel quite at home in Auckland is due to the fact that there's quite a multiracial community here. There are more than 15% of Asians here (18.9% according to the 2006 census), 25% are Maoris or Polynesians while the rest are causcasians. Even the caucasians are from all over the world: UK, Europe, North America, South Africa (quite a number of them. funny accent)... A very colourful community indeed. I've been with chinese, middle-eastern, maori, and american doctors in my hospital attachments so far, and it's been quite an interesting experience learning from them. It's a relief that I'm not a minor minority here really lol.
Well that's all I can think of for now. Well update more if I recall any further observations! ;)
Observations:
1. The accent - Well NZ accent is very subtle in general, I don't have much problem understanding them, and neither do they have much trouble understanding me (big contrast with my last Sydney/Gold Coast trip in Australia). The one funny thing bout the accent is the way they pronouce 'e' the way we pronouce 'i'. Therefore, 'head & neck' sounds like 'hiad & nick', 'desk' becomes 'disk', 'tension' -> 'tinsion', and 'medicine', 'midcine'.
Example: (for bist effict, rid this aloud)
sex - one liss than sivven
It was kinda amusing (and sometime hilarious) when I first hear them, but I'm getting used to them now. Oh they also love to use 'aye' a lot by the way, not unlike the 'la' we Malaysians have the habit to use at the end of our sentences. Well in general, I'm surprised by how gentle the accent sounds, since I was expecting something harsher, like the Australian accent. But they do have the habit to mumble once in awhile though, which is when I can hardly understand anything lol.
2. The opening hours - Yes I DID expect shops to close down early in the Australasia region, but imagine this: Most shopping malls are closed around 4.30-5pm on a Sunday!!! I mean, what the hell?! How am I supposed to spend my weekend nights then? The only things you can do to entertain yourself at night is drinking here really. Which brings me to my next point... (Before that, I juz wanna confess that I REALLY miss Malaysian night life...) <=(
3. The drinking orgy - Alright I've overexaggerated there. But it's true to a certain extent: people here engage in binge drinking more often than not. It's as if their sole purpose of visiting a bar or having a drinking party is to get drunk. Then you'll see the most well-behaved people saying all kinds of incomprehensible rubbish, while some of us even received some racist remarks and all (someone thrown an egg at one of us while we were walking back along a road at night). And god when they drink, the stink of beer stays at the place for hours. And they get pretty rowdy when they're high too, which is rather annoying for someone who enjoys the quiet and peaceful enviroment of NZ.
4. The diet - Strange enough, the diet here in Auckland (read: Auckland, not NZ. I have no idea how things are outside Auckland) is filled with all sorts of Asian delights. Rice is a common staple food, Japanese/Chinese/Korean restaurants can be found everywhere, they have a nice selection of indian dhal, and best of all, the satay here actually taste better than the ones in Malaysia! The lamb here is delicious, but the pork here juz turns me off. It has the weird, unpleasent aroma with it. Quite a pity actually, since it's refreshing to see pork everywhere here compared with Malaysia.
Oh and they have really light lunches here. The people here often have sandwich for lunch. Which is REALLY bad for me, since lunch is usually my heaviest meal of the day back home. And of cuz, supper is almost non-existent here. Thank god they do have a wide selection of instant noodles here, again, due to the high Asian influence in their diet. Indomee, maggi mee, hokkien mee, singapore fried noodle, vietnamese nice noodle, korean kimchi noodle, japanese udon... All these you can get easily in the instant noodle section of the supermarkets/asian grocery shops here.
5. The multiracial community - One of the reason I feel quite at home in Auckland is due to the fact that there's quite a multiracial community here. There are more than 15% of Asians here (18.9% according to the 2006 census), 25% are Maoris or Polynesians while the rest are causcasians. Even the caucasians are from all over the world: UK, Europe, North America, South Africa (quite a number of them. funny accent)... A very colourful community indeed. I've been with chinese, middle-eastern, maori, and american doctors in my hospital attachments so far, and it's been quite an interesting experience learning from them. It's a relief that I'm not a minor minority here really lol.
Well that's all I can think of for now. Well update more if I recall any further observations! ;)
Mar 17, 2007
Random Pics
Auckland City Central, as seen from a ferry. Well it does look pretty, doesn't it? The tall tower over there is Sky Tower, tallest tower in the south hemisphere... Still much shorter than KL Tower though, not to mention the Petronas Twin Towers.
Auckland Domain at dusk. This picture don't do any justice to the beauty of the domain, as I took it with my lousy handphone VGA camera. It looks like some sort of sacred ground really. And man it's HUGE!
Everybody getting ready for the start of the Starlight Symphony, an annual event of live classical music performances and fireworks!
I've bought a bottle of dessert wine just to enjoy it along with the show! Hehe...
Keat caught in the act! Haha...
Cheers to Khang Hee's soon-to-be-born baby!
Fireworks coordinated with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (remember the song from V For Vendetta when the whole parliament building went kaboom?) It's one helluva impressive display! There's even canon shots and all in the domain! 
Lion dance at Sky City (The atrium of Sky Tower). Reminds me of CNY celebrations back home...
One Tree Hill, the highest peak in Auckland. Used to have a lone tree sitting on top of the hill, but have since been chopped off. There's a long and amusing history behind this hill, you can check it out in Wikipedia if you're interested. 
The obelisk on top of One Tree Hill. The figure over there is a statue of a Maori warrior.
Pride of Auckland sailing tour. The uni sponsored half of the ticket costs for us, which is why most of us can't resist giving it a try.
All of us have a chance to steer the sail for the Pride of Auckland tour! And don't let the jacket fooled you: it's hot as hell then! Lol. The weather here can be very unpredictable.
Downtown Britomart, the central bus station of Auckland.
Flowers!!! Colourful!!! Hehe...
The Auckland Wartime Museum at Auckland Domain. Beautiful architecture, but very singular though. You won't find many such classical buildings in Auckland.
The marae visit. A marae is a place of meeting for the Maori people, which is held to be a sacred ground by them since... forever. We have 2 days of lectures here inside the building, and spent a night sleeping inside the building.
The interior of the marae. Yes I know, the place looks bigger from the inside doesn't it? The chairs are all aligned for the (exceptionally boring) lectures.
Laying the mattresses down to sleep for the night in the marae! I looked quite stoned there don't I? Lol.
Dusk at the fields close to the marae. The variety of colours in the pics reminded me of the paintings of my favourite artist, Van Gogh. Rangitoto Island, a volcanic island that emerged from the sea about 5 decades ago, rests in a dormant state mysteriously at the background of the pic.Mar 9, 2007
Brilliant Phony Trailers
Sorry guys with the lack of updates. I'm definitely gonna upload some pictures this weekend. Been busy with my anaesthetic postings and all this past 2 weeks.
In the mean time, check out these phony movie trailers! I have never posted youtube movies on my blog before, but these are just so impressive I just can't resist sharing with you guys!
In the mean time, check out these phony movie trailers! I have never posted youtube movies on my blog before, but these are just so impressive I just can't resist sharing with you guys!
Alritey! 1st off, we have Brokeback to the Future, which is probably the best-known of all the 3 that I'm posting here. It's hilarious and brilliant and the same time, with all the clever manipulation of scenes and dialogues that are originally from the Back to the Future trilogy.
Next we have some old classics with a modern spin! Gosh that's a gross understatement. Just imagine how the story of Moses and the exodus would be like with an R&B soundtrack! Lol. The 'principal firebush' scene at the end is just freaking hilarious! Thank God for Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L Jackson!
And finally, who would have thought that Mary Poppins could be a figure of such disturbing horror?! Whatever trace of the sweet nanny who sing such happy tunes like "Just A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down" is totally lost in the demonic rendition of Scary Mary... This clip never ceased to give me goosebumps everytime I watched it alone at night! By far my favourite among the 3.
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