exam fever

hanging in there... and it's just a bit more than a week before i get back to the land of hawker food.. and family of cos :)

i wonder if they have already planned my meals for me haha! *hint to jiayun*

can't wait for holidays and all the opportunities that holidays bring!

meanwhile, yay for naps, comfort food and energy.

we are all miracles.

today was the first time i saw babies who weren't the usual 7 pounds.

and all the effort that goes into saving their lives - utmost respect for the doctors. do i have what it takes to be one?

oh instant paste.

<-- portuguese chilli steam fish :) i have been having cravings for a good piece of steam fish and since 'market price' on the menu in restaurants are usually quite exhorbitant, hence we decided to try this out. yummy steamed fish in 20mins? yum!!! it was really hot though. and those are parsley leaves from a pot that i bought from ikea =x and erm, it's sort of struggling to survive now.









<-- MEE REBUS. ahh. beauty of prima paste. bought this yesterday (cos it was on sale!) and it totally satisfied my asian noodle craving. had a small bowl some more.. i think i didn't add enough water for the gravy BUT ahhh. yummyy!! :)

happy and contented as i can be :)

hello baby!

being able to welcome someone into this world - is amazing.

but i still do not like dealing with the process of it.

just.. call me when the baby's just coming out. yup.

ie. not the hours leading up to it.

mooncakes

(frozen) durians.
mooncakes.
yum!

and tang yuan of course :)
was just hilarious how half the people migrated to the couch when we started on the durian!

and note eelin's barney lantern. yups.

spring?

and this marks the end of my paediatric rotation at the Northern hospital. I would love to have a mid-semester break like the rest of the students, but that privilege will only come during melbourne cup season in november - where we get granted public holiday instead.

it's with a slight tinge of reluctance on friday when we left CAHU. where the tutorial room, pantry, outpatients, nurses, receptionist, doctors all become what we're used to seeing around - and the screaming kids and infants wrapped up in the cot. it's been a good 7 weeks there and i've thoroughly enjoyed my time. paeds as a specialty? shall see where the road ahead leads.

watched the AFL grand final for the first time in 5 years. i remembered how sydney won when i was there in 1st year. then i lost touch with it (being in IH and not being exposed much haha) and then getting into clinicals - with patients and seemingly the whole of melbourne talking about it. seems like it took me a long while to get used to all the hype there is about 2 teams of men running after a football. with hospital cafes decked in the teams colours, and listening to tales of how the children in geelong hospital get cats pjs, dummies that has "born a cat" written on them.. ahha. it's amazing how much attention the whole of melbourne pays to this game. we watched it at pat's place this afternoon - and it was an intensive match to watch. i was rooting for the underdogs - st kilda - and they played as well as they could..with the rainy conditions (while we were all warm and dry in front of the tv). it was sad to see the losing team so devastated. and i guess it makes the win much sweeter. and driving back, seeing the fans in red and black hanging their heads low.. and seeing people in blue and white strips drunk and shouting away...

this is melbourne. :)

now. back to green tea to help digest all the meat we had from the bbq today. :)

ah. not looking forward to the birthing video on monday ><

adolescence

we get taught that adolescence is a period of time where there are hormones raging, rebellious behaviour, finding of self, interest in opposite gender etc.

we get taught that adolescents need to spend some time with the doctor by themselves even if they were brought in by their parent.. just so that some issues can be discussed further in confidentiality.

that admist the angst, can't-be-bothered-attitude, the constant frown, shrugging of shoulders....

we as 'doctors', when dealing with them, need to get past all these barriers that teenagers put up in front of others.. including their parents and all.

yes it's stereotyping, something which i abhor but sometimes use.

but is this all age-related or is it something deeper?

a feast for all

Graduation is part and parcel of university life. it is only natural that one graduates and either continue with his/her life at where she currently is, or head back to where he/she comes from - esp so for interstate or international students.

For some of us, it's about dealing with friends going away year by year, and sometimes losing track of who u have befriended and have lost contact :(

This evening we had the privilege of indulging in our dearest friend's cooking- the one senior who came into our midst in 1st year, and introduced us to fine home-cooked chinese meals, which was a semesterly event during our pre-clinical years. and ever since we all started our research year or clinical years, as the host became too busy, we finally at one supposedly final dinner at his place.

offered to help (and hopefully learn) to prepare the food and all - i'm just amazed at his ability to know which condiments to mix together to get the taste right! a trip down to boxhill market on a saturday was an eye-opener. spending time in a chinese medicine shop getting herbs for the soup and finding the right mock meat at a taiwanese run grocery shop was all very new to me. battling the crowd at the market too. admist the hasty shopping i managed to find a butcher there that sells pig innards!!!! got a little bit excited just that i dont know how todeal with them =x but. FINALLY. after 5 years in melbourne. =x heee hee hee!

anyways, got back and started preparing. eels and i were there to help prep and all, and that honestly took up the whole day. ah! thought i could sneak in a while to sit down and read a book... but time just flew by and before long it was a mad rush to finish all the dishes while everyone else were sitting around a pretty empty dinner table!

but. voila! :D

none made from preservatives - well except the mock meat. there was the lovely 四神汤 as well. finally got my wonton wrapping started again after 3 years. we had sweet and sour 'pork' that was pretty much green capsicum + chinese mushroom + radish stuffed in dough stick. then coated in batter to fry and then stir fried with pineapple and capsicum + sauce --> sweet and sour 'pork'!

another personal fav - at the bottom left hand corner of the collage - fried date-filled taro! it was like making pineapple tarts just that the tart = taro and pineapple = mashed red date.

everyone brought dessert as well. so there was a fruit mix, red bean soup, passionfruit cheesecake, neek's brownie, ice cream...

awww.

gained back the 1kg i lost over the week. =x

but the laughter around the table. priceless.

breakfast at...

Cumulus Inc! :)

We (eels and i) have been there for a quick dinner, and have heard how xing talks about breakfast there.. so one saturday morning, we decided to head down there for a .. luxurious breakfast. though i must say that we did do our best to save up! so for $18 each.. we had

yummy flat white :)


turkish baked eggs with spinach, yogurt etc.. don't know the name of those ingredient


corn bread with lemon spread

and the HIGHLIGHT of that morning: madelines filled with lemon custard.


my sis is right, whenever i talk to her, it's always about food. well, it's something happy to talk about and i DO love eating (explains my inability to maintain my weight for the past 5 years while in melbourne)

so.. this is one place to bring my beloved family when they come over next year :) i love the atmosphere at this cafe/restaurant. i love the cosiness. i don't like the fact that we can't book! but gosh! so many places to bring them!!! :)

4 more weeks of paediatrics ONLY! :(
then off to learning how to deliver babies! :) ah, the breath of a new life. :)

parenting course

As I head into my 4th week of my children's rotation, I can't help but feel that we (medical students) have an advanced parenting course. Part of the logbook that we need to have signed off - other than taking vital signs of a child/infant, we need to have bottle-fed an infant, changed an infant's nappy .. among other things.

So as I'm one who likes having things done well in advance, I headed up to the special care nursery today. With the excellent help of a nurse there, I was told to come back an hour later to change and feed a 1 week old infant.

So I walk back in an hour later, to be greeted by the nurse- "oh good! she's just started stir.. let's go prepare the feed".. and off I went into the prep room, where she was already pouring some formula milk into a bottle and she made up 80ml of it. then she started telling me the different types of milk - fortified or not, whether it's for premies or full term.. etc. O_o and then i went to the infant.

and she was just sleeping there, almost soundly. with the nursery's lights dimmed, it was almost magical. "okay, you know how to take obs? good! then after you are done, change her nappy and then you can feed her. just call me if you are struggling!"

so here i am, 24yo, a 5th yr medical student, with ZERO babies under my care before, having to deal with it. just like that! so i fumbled a bit with the nappy change - yay no poo! but it was heavy and slighly wet. quickly strapped on a new one. then... i took a look at her serene face and .. "ok... now what?"

well, so remembering the instructions about how to pick the baby up, i did fumble a bit. rested her head on my elbow, and i picked up the bottle.. and she started drinking away.

O_o she took a long while. there are so many rules!

1. you only feed for 20-30mins otherwise they get too tired.
2. the teat of the bottle has got to touch the roof of the mouth- so angle the bottle at a correct angle
3. you got to stop halfway - burp the baby every now and then
4. you got to remind the baby that they have to keep drinking!
5. their lips are to be pouted, not drawn inwards by the sucking motion
6. you can actually help the sucking motion by doing a mini chin lift every now and then.

so.. halfway through, after a bit of burping she started to hiccup! as cute as it was, i was containing my kancheongness. then the nurse came to my rescue and told me not to worry, just continue to feed. hee.But by 25mins, she still had 10ml to go! i could sense a bit of urgency so i passed it back to the nurse.

and yay she completed her feed in time. she was completely exhausted at the end :( i felt so bad :(

THEN i got shown how to wrap the baby up.

ahhhhhhh. it is really an advanced parenting course for all of us. would love to see my male group mates complete those tasks!! :)

cough. cough. whimpers.

and that sums up my ed and triage nurse shadowing at the children's..

i love it. :)

what more with a surgeon who was inspiring enough to deal with more logistical issues than giving surgical advice.

but. i've become one of them already. i mean the kids. *cough* and i mean getting a cold.

crab. chocolate. children's.

i've been back for the 2nd week now! seems such a long time already.. and for the 'outdated' photos that i needed to upload.. home has been GREAT while i was back, which wasn't for a long while. was really happy to be able to meet up with some friends, was tricky meeting up with some due to work or me being jetlagged :(

and so the 24th birthday passed by without any big fancy celebrations.. as i like it :) i was never a party person, and i never really saved indulgence till my own special day or anything like that. though it was a special occasion in a way :) and since i don't get to eat crab in melbourne (lazy to buy and learn to cook it), i wanted to have that taste before i get to taste it in (haha) 5 months' time!

anddd so the smart daddy thought of a place where i can get my crab and he can get the aircon :) fish & co it was.. with what i think is a mix of peri peri sauce and crab.. it was a real mess though (so paisehh), and of cos we all had jaundiced hands after. but it was a pretty good attempt to recreate a local dish with interesting ingredients i feel. :)

and since it was a rush to finish dinner, get home, shower, cut cake and leave for the airport... i had fun trying to do all those in 30mins :)
thanks to daddy who took the time to bring me to lunch (and satisfy my kuay chap craving! at old airport hawker centre :) :) ) and then drove down to get a cake for my birthday, while forgeting that his daughter is younger than he thinks she is... haha! soo here's me with the ever tasty chocolate cake from awfully chocolate. we haven't had a cake from this cake shop for a long time.. ever since i left for melbourne i think! but the quality never really changed, the chocolate is just right. you won't feel like u've had a lot to eat!

and so here's to the two people who helped me celebrate my birthday haha. and not to forget my mum and the sister who were in london yumchaing for me then! andd yingyi who offered to buy me a slice of cake but i requested for curry puff from old chang kee instead. :)

thank you all!! :)

and.. i really like working with children. i do hope it's not just a motherly instinct that most females have. it's amazing how i haven't met any males in the course who cringe at the sight of a child though. that's a comforting thought. but really, to work in a children's hospital where you get laughter (and crying and wailing) in the waiting room, along the corridor, in the lifts.. and the smile you see on a child's face when they feel better.

priceless.

another last night in sg

this feeling will always be present almost every half a year.

paris was fun w e family. have forgotten most of my french, but e sister came to e rescue :) am missing e cool wind that accompanies e warm air..

and.. I haven't been this jetlagged before.. hopefully all these gets better before starting paeds on monday..

:) sweet dreams everyone!

THE graduation of the year

:)

can't wait for mine.

singapore in a week

so i've been back for a week +++

and i've also put on ++ weight ;)

the pictures explains whyyy.. other than the usual hawker fare (which i, surprisingly, do not miss all that much), i had the privilege of eating out a fair bit at places i haven't been at before. the wonders of blogs and word of mouth etc. feel so bad to not be able to provide for myself yet (cos i'm not working yet) and still being able to enjoy the joys of eating good food. eeks.

dinner at rakuichi was decided only because i wanted to check out dempsey (yes very suaku) and he likes jap. other than the above average but not mouth watering yummy food, you do pay for the service u get there. :)

then there's the 'paper wrap chicken'. i actually expected a proper chicken or like drumlets or wings at least and not random pieces of badly massacred chicken bits wrapped so tightly in oil stained baking paper. it smelt really really good but sadly all the fragrance was only for the olfactory sense. :( wasn't as spectacular as i thought it would be.

then it was the 6-course lunch at tao's with the yy.. mm, excellent idea but not superb fusion. =x but of cos, the company was worth more than lunch itself ;)

one of the best food adventures so far, is the one with mum- where i decided to follow a recommendation and head down to jalan pinang - will definitely head back again and try other stuff on the menu. i loved the lazziza! the beer feel without the alcohol. fantastic!

and now, it's time to go on an adventure in the uk :) and of cos, most importantly, THE graduation of the year. :)

just 1.5 yrs to go!

cumulus inc. our housemate celebratory dinner for getting through semester 8 and 9

and my home-cooked lamb shanks ;) :) :) :) very pleased.. first attempt! i should have a think about switching careers if the need arise! ;)

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Cor 15:55)

and when such things happen, thoughts about being overseas and not being around just hits you. and definitely thoughts about what life is, where we all go.

wouldn't it be lovely if everyone believes in a heavenly kingdom? and death will only be a victory, a cause for celebration and not of mourning.

but whereever you are now grandma, be at peace.

hee hee hee

:) char kway teow!

and eels can cook!

note the 'my mum's' satchet. ;)

and voilaaaaaaaa........... awww YUM! missing cockles and chinese sausage :)
can't wait to have it proper in 2 weeks' time!!

slurps.

it's as if exams are over... check out the revision sessions we had at our place ;) it's like we needed more brain space - explains the blue and yellow outgrowth of their heads...

we (eels and i) decided to venture out for 'lunch' this morning... she wanted to bring me to somewhere along ferrars st around albert park but we both were lost.. so we ended up settling down at south melbourne market :) not fantastic as u can see above - i've tasted better breakfast (like at APTE) .. the boiled spinach were too salty but the sausage is juicy and not oily.. the hollandaise sauce was pretty standard - and i felt guilty gulping down 2 eggs at one serving.

hee.

then we walked around and decided to buy lamb shanks to cook for the coming week - but then keeping in mind that from wed onwards we'll be heading out to have 'big' meals =x HAha. so the lamb shanks are now packed with rosemary and garlic and pepper sitting nicely in the freezer.. shall roast them on monday/ tuesday :)

and so eddie was in town (again!) it feels good to see him again - to think that we have known each other for .. 4.5 years?! and now he knows my sis too - brought him and zhuan to squires loft at st kilda - much bigger place - less squeezy as compared to the one at south yarra. and then we decided to head to lygon for dessert after. which explains the distended abdomen i have now.

i shudder whenever i see pictures of myself when i first came to melbourne. O_o

one down! honestly - it's a paper that was a measure of pretty specific clinical experiences and i'm glad that i knew a few of them. sadly no amount of studying would have compensated i think!

everyone came out bleary eyed and a few of us refused to discuss answers but i came back and googled them all. better to learn and know how to manage a patient next time then to discuss and not learn what's the right answer! :)

time to rest for more exams!